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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/14524-0.txt b/14524-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1589b2f --- /dev/null +++ b/14524-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7264 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14524 *** + +LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE +OF +POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. + +OLD SERIES, VOL. XXXVI.--NEW SERIES, VOL. X. + +PHILADELPHIA: J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. +1885. + + +Entered according to Act of Congress, +in the year 1885, by J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, +in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. + +LIPPINCOTT'S PRESS, _Philadelphia_. + + * * * * * + +CONTENTS. + +[Note: The sign * denotes the letters or pages which are missing on the +original manuscript.] + +Art of Reading, The, _Grace R. Peirce_ +Aurora, _Mary Agnes Tincker_ +Backwoods Romance, A, _Susan Hartley Swett_ +Birds of a Texan Winter, _Edward G. Bruce_ +Brown, Anthony Calvert, _P. Deming_ +Chapter of Mystery, A, _Charles Morris_ +Cookham Dean, _Margaret Bertha Wright_ +Dieu Dispose, _Nathan Clifford Brown_ +Drama in the Nursery, The, _Norman Pearson_ +Eye of a Needle, The, _Sophie Swett_ +Ferryman's Fee, The, _Margaret Vandegrift_ +Fishing in Elk River, _Tobe Hodge_ +Forest Beauty, A, _Maurice Thompson_ +Friend George Randall, My, _Frank Parke_ +Grant, General, at Frankfort, _Alfred E. Lee_ +Hoosier Idyl, A, _Louise Coffin Jones_ +In a Suppressed Tuscan Monastery, _Kate Johnston Matson_ +Lady Lawyer's First Client, The, _Thomas Wharton_ , +Letters and Reminiscences of Charles Reade ,_Kinahan Cornwallis_ +"Mees", _Charles Dunning_ +Mickley, Joseph J., _J. Bunting_ +Muster-Day in New England, _Frederick G. Mather_ +New York Libraries, _Charles Burr Todd_ +Next Vacation, The, _Alice Wellington Rollins_ +North-River Ferry, A, _F.N. Zabriskie_ +Nos Pensions +On this Side, _F.C. Baylor_ +Parisian *, The, _Theodore Child_ +P* of Archaeology, The, _Ernest Ingersoll_ * +* the Short-Story, The, _Brander Matthews_ * +* Southwest, The; _Edmund Kirke_ * +*t, A, _Margaret Vandegrift_ * +*ple, The, _M.H. Catherwood_ * +* or Free Classic Architecture, _George C. Mason, Jr._ * +*t, A, _C.W. Wilmerding_ * +*ning, _W.W. Crane_ * +* Yesterday and To-Day, _Alice King Hamilton_ * +Roughing it in Palestine, _Charles Wood_ +Salt-Mine, In a, _Margery Deane_ +Scenes of Charlotte Bronté's Life in Brussels, _Theo. Wolfe, M.D._ +Scottish Crofters, The, _David Bennett King_ +Second Rank, The, _Felix L. Oswald_ +Story of an Italian Workwoman's Life, The, _Marie L. Thompson_ +Story of a Story, The, _Horace E. Scudder_ +Substitute, The, _James Payn_ +Temple Pilgrimage, A, _Henry Frederick Reddall_ +Texas Sheep-Ranch, On a, _E.C. Reynolds_ +Tobacco-Plantation, A, _Philip A. Bruce_ +Truth about Dogs, The, _F.N. Zabriskie_ +Turtling on the Outer Reef, _C.F. Holder_ +Van, _Charles King, U.S.A._ +Ville, Our, _Margaret Bertha Wright_ +White-Whalers, The _C.F. Holder_ + + + + +LITERATURE OF THE DAY, comprising Reviews of the following Works: + + +Across the Chasm +Agassiz, Louis: His Life and Correspondence. Edited by Elizabeth Gary +Agassiz +Allen, Willis Boyd--Pine-Cones +At the Red Glove +Bates, Arlo--A Wheel of Fire +Beers, Henry A.--Nathaniel Parker Willis +Behler, W.H., Lieutenant, U.S.N.--The Cruise of the Brooklyn +Bompas, George O.--Life of Frank Buckland +Byron, Lord--Childe Harold's Pilgrimage +Carey, Rose Nouchette--Barbara Heathcote's Trial +Carey, Eose Nouchette--For Lilias +Carryl, Charles E.--Davy the Goblin; or, What Followed Reading "Alice's +Adventures in Wonderland" +Cleveland, Rose Elizabeth--George Eliot's Poetry, +and Other Studies +Craddock, Charles Egbert--Down the Ravine +Dunning, Charlotte--Upon a Cast +Eugène Delacroix, par lui-même +Forbes, F.R.G.S., Henry O.--A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern +Archipelago. +A Narrative of Travel and Exploration from to +Hamilton, Alice King--One of the Duanes +Harrison, Mrs. Burton--Bric-à _Brac Stories +Harte, Bret--By Shore and Sedge +Hawthorne, Julian--Love--or a Name +Holmes, Oliver Wendell--The Last Leaf +Hornaday, William T.--Two Years in the Jungle +Howard, Blanche Willis--Aulnay Tower +Howells, William D.--The Rise of Silas Lapham +Jewett, Sarah Orne--A Marsh Island +Luska, Sidney--As it was Written: A Jewish Musician's Story +Married for Fun +Noble, Edmund--The Russian Revolt: its Causes, Condition, and +Prospects +Pennell, Joseph and Elizabeth Robbins--A Canterbury Pilgrimage +Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart--An Old Maid's Paradise +Pyle, Howard--Pepper and Salt; or, Seasoning for Young Folks +Pyle, Howard--Within the Capes +Roosevelt, Blanche--Life and Reminiscences of Gustave Doré +Rosseau, Jean--Hans Holbein +Searing, E.A.P.--A Social Experiment +Sermon on the Mount, The +Stanley, Henry M.--The Congo, and the Founding of its Free State: +A Story of Work and Exploration +Stockton, Frank R.--Rudder Grange +Tales from Many Sources +The Bar Sinister +Thompson, Maurice--At Love's Extremes +Torrey, Bradford--Birds in the Bush +Warner, Beverley Ellison--Troubled Waters +Wendell, Barrett--The Duchess Emilia +Whittier, John Greenleaf--Poems of Nature +*rs. A.L.--The Lady with the Rubies +*cles--J.F. Millet + + + + +OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP, comprising the following Articles: + + +* The, "Additional Hair" Supply, The, +Art of Modern +Novel-Writing, The, * +Daniel Webster's "Moods," +Dothegirls Hall, +Etymology of "Babe," The, +Feuds and Lynch-Law in the Southwest, +Future for Women, A, +Ice-Saints, The, +Man who Laughs, The, +Mystifications of Authoresses, +Old Songs and Sweet Singers, +Reminiscence of Harriet Martineau, A, +Svenska Maid, A, +Tourgéneff's Idea of Bazaroff, +Virginia Lady of the Old School, A, +Why we Forget Names, + + + + +POETRY: + + +Carcanet, A, _John B. Tabb_ +Elusive, _Sarah D. Hobart_ +Epitaph written in the Sand on a Butterfly Drowned in the Sea, +_Helen Gray Cone_ +Into Thy Hands, _Stuart Sterne_ +Mithra, _Charles L. Hildreth_ +Morning, _Florence Earle Coates_ +On a Noble Character marred by littleness, _Charlotte Fiske Bates_ +Probation, _Florence Earle Coates_ +Rose Romance, _Ada Nichols_ +Shadows All, _Paul Hamilton Hayne_ +Song, _Robertson Trowbridge_ +"What do I Wish for You?" ,_Carlotta Perry_ +Wood-Thrush at Sunset,_Mary C. Peckham_ + + * * * * * + + +LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE + +_JULY, 1885_. + + + + +ON THIS SIDE. + +VII. + + +It has not been concealed that, with all his fine qualities, Mr. Ketchum +was an obstinate man, and so, in spite of his wife's remonstrances, he +came down-stairs next morning--Sunday morning--in a dress that she had +assured him was "only fit for one's bedroom,"--namely, a very gorgeous +Oriental dressing-gown (Mabel's gift the preceding Christmas), with a fez +on his head, and on his feet a pair of slippers of amazing workmanship and +soundlessness, the joy of his feet, if not of his heart. Thus accoutred, +he prowled about on the lower floor, looking after various things, and, +going into the pantry for something, he chanced to look through the small +window used for the transmission of dishes from the next room, and saw +Parsons holding a pile of letters one by one over a steaming kettle. +Unconscious of his proximity, the respectable Parsons dexterously and +neatly opened several envelopes with a practised hand, and then +transferred the letters to her pocket, to be enjoyed at her leisure, after +which she laid hold of the kettle and retired into the kitchen beyond. + +"Well, upon my word, if that isn't the coolest thing I ever saw!" +exclaimed Mr. Ketchum mentally, and, feeling that he had made a great +discovery, was at first for sharing it immediately with Parsons's mistress; +but on reflection he thought differently. "It is her funeral: I guess I +had better not meddle: there would be a great scene," he thought. "At any +rate, I'll wait until they are leaving before putting her on her guard." +He went back to the dining-room to his newspaper, and sat there until the +others came down. + +Miss Noel was not long in the room before an idea struck her. "Did you not +say that your post-bag containing the night's mail would be sent over this +morning?" she asked. + +"I did. It came about an hour ago," said Mr. Ketchum. + +"How very nice! I hope there may be something for me. It is so very trying +to get no news from England," said Miss Noel. + +"Why, Mabel had twenty-three letters laid aside for you until you should +come. Didn't she give them to you?" asked Mr. Ketchum. "Were none of those +from England?" + +"Oh, yes. But that was three days since, and I've heard nothing for a +fortnight. If Parsons has _quite_ finished with the letters, I suppose I +may as well have them. And she must be, by this. Would you kindly ring and +send for them?" said Miss Noel. + +"What! you know that she reads your letters?" exclaimed Mr. Ketchum, +surprised. + +"Oh, dear, yes. They all do. It is very tiresome, but they will do it. +Parsons is generally good enough to let me have them quite promptly; but +she reads them, of course,--all but my cousin Blanche Best's letters. +Blanche has always been my most intimate friend, and can't bear the idea: +so she blocked the game by a most ingenious device. She writes one +sentence in French, the next in Italian, the third in English,--at least +she did until a happier plan suggested itself: now she writes English in +German text. It answers perfectly; but it is having a great effect on +Parsons, quite undermining her constitution, I fear, especially when +important things are happening at 'The Court,' where I often go. I +sometimes wickedly slip one of Blanche's letters under the pin-cushion, as +if with the intention of concealing it, and I have so enjoyed seeing +Parsons whip it under her apron when she got the chance, knowing that she +could not make out a single word. She really looked quite green afterward +for a week: pure chagrin." + +"I am sure I have done everything that I could think of to keep my letters +from my man," said Sir Robert, "but quite without success. I think he +finds my correspondence a little dull sometimes, as compared with that of +a former place. He came to me from the greatest scamp in England; and I +can fancy that the letters there were very various and diverting. My own +must be altogether too ponderous and respectable for a taste formed on +sensational models." + +"Well, all I have got to say is that if I caught a servant of mine at that +little game I'd make my letters uncommonly interesting reading to him; and +if the style suited him, I'd see that he got a little leisure in the +penitentiary to copy them and impress them on his mind. Do you mean to say +that you don't even discharge them for it?" said Mr. Ketchum, "I never +heard anything like it!" + +"One could discharge the culprit easily enough; the trouble is that his +successor or successors would do exactly the same thing," replied Sir +Robert. "When the Barons rose, they neglected to provide a remedy for an +unforeseen nuisance, and I suppose this literary partnership of Master & +Servant, Limited, will always exist. I wrote a note once to Beazely (my +man), addressed to myself, and told him that if he disapproved of the +Conservative tone of my correspondence, as was likely, seeing that he was +a Radical, I would make an effort to get at Dilke or Bright, with a view +to an _occasional_ note at least. The envelope had been resealed, I saw +when it reached me, but Beazely had no more expression in his face than +the Sphinx. My letters, however, were not tampered with for about a week." + +Mrs. Ketchum senior became fluent in her amazement: "How perfectly +dreadful! Good gracious! What did you do about your husband's letters? The +idea of sharing his letters with a servant!" + +She was addressing Mrs. Sykes, who said very cheerfully in reply, "Oh, +there was never anything in his letters, except warnings to put the +servants at board-wages before I went away, and look to expenditures, and +not ask him for any more money soon. I didn't mind much. I was rather +ashamed of the spelling,--that was all. Poor dear Guy never could spell, +and I never read anything so dull as his letters,--the same thing over and +over again, till it hardly seemed worth while to open them, only for +knowing what he was up to, or when he was coming. How my poor sisters did +laugh one Christmas when I got a letter from him in Italy, saying, 'The +cole here is intense; but I have got a projick in my head, which is to get +back to England as fast as rale and steme can possibly carry me'! It +wasn't often that bad; but there was always something wrong. I can't think +how it is, for he had no end of tutors and masters, except that he +certainly was a very thick-headed fellow." She laughed merrily over the +epistolary deficiencies of her late lord as she spoke, and every one +joined her except Mrs. Ketchum, who was too shocked to countenance her. + +"I saw Parsons in the very act of opening your letters this morning as I +was roaming around in my Jesuit creepers, and thought you would be +horrified; but it seems to be all right," said Mr. Ketchum, glancing down +at his slippers. "Suppose, now, we have some breakfast: it is late. We +haven't nearly as much time as the patriarchs, anyway, and so much more +use for it." + +"I have been thinking it would never be ready," said Mrs. Sykes. + +"And I am quite ready for it. Isn't that a nice new-laid egg for me?" +asked Miss Noel, taking her place with the others. + +"Mabel, eggs for Miss Noel every morning, if she likes them, and don't you +forget it," said Mr. Ketchum. "'Trouble'? Not the least that ever was. I +have them for myself always. An egg for me must be like Caesar's wife, +--above suspicion. I have provided myself with a conscientious High-Church +hen that lays one every day of the year; though how she can think it worth +her while, when they are selling for ten cents a dozen, I can't +imagine.--What's the matter, Heathcote?" + +The matter was the "Jesuit creepers" and the hen combined, which had sent +all the party into a little fit of laughter, from which Mr. Heathcote +could not recover. + +"I don't see anything to double you up like a jack-knife," said Mr. +Ketchum, in allusion to his guest's way of stooping over and having the +laughs, as it were, shaken out of him by a superior force, while he got +out at intervals,-- + +"Jest--creep--High--such a fellow!" in staccato jerks that made every one +else laugh from sympathy. + +"I call 'em that because Mother Schmidt made them for me so that I could +steal a march on my mother-in-law, and she's a Catholic and knew how to do +it. Talking of Catholics and what Washington calls the 'Peskypalians,' who +is going to church to-day?" + +"I am going to walk over to Dale with Bijou Brown and her father," said +Ethel. + +"That isn't as nice a church as ours. We will take the others into Kalsing, +eh, husband?" said Mabel; "that is, if they will come." + +"I will go to the scaffold with Mrs. Ketchum," protested Sir Robert +gallantly. "What do you youngsters say?" + +"Ramsay and I thought we would walk over to that little village on the +crest of a hill that one can see from my window," said Mr. Heathcote. + +"You had much better go to church, --much better. But of course your soul +is your own," said Sir Robert. + +"You won't have much body left when you get back: it is a good twenty +miles," remarked Mr. Ketchum. + +"Oh, that is nothing." replied Mr. Ramsay. + +"Forty miles there and back! Are they crazy?" Mrs. Ketchum asked of Mabel +_sotto voce_; to which a smile and shake of the head came in answer.--"The +day is very damp, Job. I am almost afraid to go out; but it is my duty, +and I will." + +"That's right, ma. Do your duty. It is a good earthly as well as heavenly +investment," replied Mr. Ketchum. + +"But I wish, son, that you would live in Kalsing, next to the church, or +in New York, which would be better. I saw a beautiful house advertised in +the neighborhood of Trinity Church the other day, and wrote to ask about +it," said Mrs. Ketchum, who was always in spirit moving the family away +from Fairfield. + +"You are too speculative, ma, entirely," said he. "You are like my partner, +Richardson, who would write to ask the Czar what he would take for the +Winter Palace, if I'd let him, when if steamships were a dollar a dozen he +couldn't put up enough to buy a gang-plank. I can't move next to a church, +because all you womenites belong to different ones; but I can take a room +for you in the steeple and have an elevator put in that will make close +connection with the services, if you like." + +"Don't be irreverent, my son," said Mrs. Ketchum, who, like some other +Protestants, believed in an infallible steeple, if not an infallible Pope. +"I don't expect _my_ wishes to be considered in anything." + +"Oh, come, now, ma; that isn't fair. Except that I married to suit myself, +which is about the only foolish thing that I have done, I have been +tolerably obedient, I think," said Mr. Ketchum, aware that he was on +dangerous ground. + +"Do tell us about it. You wanted him to marry some one else,--some one +with a fortune, didn't you?" said Mrs. Sykes. "Quite natural, I am sure." + +"She wanted me to marry the ugliest woman east of the Rockies," said Mr. +Ketchum. "But I couldn't stand that face behind my cups and saucers three +hundred and sixty-five days in the year, and I bolted to England, where my +wife picked me up." + +"She wasn't so ugly at all, Job, except that her nose was a little +aquiline," protested Mrs. Ketchum. + +"Aquiline as a camel's back," asserted her son, in an aside. + +"And her hair _was_ rather auburn," Mrs. Ketchum went on, in reluctant +concession. + +"Call it pink, as the English do their hunting-coats," suggested he, +smiling. + +"But such a dear, _good_ girl, you quite forgot that she wasn't exactly +handsome" ("No, not precisely," interjected he) "when you came to know +her." + +"That I _never_ did. It might as a speculation have done to get a cast of +her face for andirons to keep the American child from falling into the +fire; but _marry her_! Good Lord! When I eat anything now that disagrees +with me, I dream of Emily's mouth," affirmed Mr. Ketchum, with the most +laughing mirth in his eyes, his mobile features expressing volumes. + +"Her mouth _was_ large, and her teeth _a little_ prominent. But you shall +not abuse Emily any more. You would have been very happy with her, I can +tell you," asserted Mrs. Ketchum. "You would have got over her mouth." + +"I might in time have got _around_ it, and I could easily have got _into_ +it, but I should never have got _over_ it in the world," affirmed Mr. +Ketchum, with decision. "I would rather be married to that Puseyite there, +unhappy as I am." + +This closed the little duel between the mother and son, and another laugh +drowned Mabel's remark to Miss Noel, which was, "Husband is in one of his +joking moods, and does not mean that he is _really_ unhappy at all. He +should not say such things, they are so very misleading." + +When quiet was restored, a discussion followed about the parties in the +English Church, and, the question being raised as to who was the head of +the Low Church party, Mr. Ketchum had just said, "Why, _Lucifer_, of +course," when, amid general merriment, Miss Brown walked in, saying, "I +never heard of such an uproarious Sunday party. Are you ready, Ethel? We +ought to be off,"--which practically ended the meal, for first Mr. Ramsay +and then the others left the table, he to talk to Bijou, they to get ready +for church. Job's eyes followed Mr. Ramsay, and he said to Sir Robert, +"What a charming girl Mrs. De Witt was in the old Cheltenham days! +Heathcote didn't make the landing there, and I'm sorry." + +"So am I. She is an immense favorite of mine," said Sir Robert. "As +charming as ever! It was a more serious thing than I thought it would be. +I doubt whether he ever marries." + +"She was a born enchantress, Jenny was," he replied. "Some women are like +poison oak,--once get them in your system, and they will break out on you +every spring for fifty years, if you live that long, fresh and painful as +ever. But as for his marrying, some one of our girls will enter for the +Consolation stakes, very likely, and he will be married before he knows +what has hurt him." + +"A consummation devoutly to be wished," said Sir Robert. "He is my heir, +you know." + +In a few minutes Ethel joined Bijou, who looked at her rather hard, as she +felt. Ethel wore a simple serge dress, heavy boots, a stout frieze jacket, +and a hat of a shape unknown in America, that seemed to be all cocks' +plumes. Her eyes being weak, she had put on her smoked glasses. The day +being damp, and her chest delicate, she had added her respirator. "I am +nicely protected, am I not?" she said contentedly. "I had a severe cold +last winter, from which I am not quite recovered, and auntie thinks I had +best be prudent. Are you ready?" + +"Not quite," said Bijou. "I want to see Mrs. Ketchum a moment." She ran +off, accordingly, into the library in search of the old lady, whom she +found there looking out the lessons, it being her practice to verify every +word the clergyman read, and no small satisfaction to catch him tripping. +"Do, Mrs. Ketchum, speak to Ethel and get her to take off those machines +and put on something stylish," said Bijou. "I am really ashamed to take +her into our pew; people will stare so. She is a perfect fright. The idea +of a girl making herself look like that!" + +Mrs. Ketchum, however, declined to interfere, and when Bijou got back to +the drawing-room Ethel was missing. Taking advantage of Bijou's absence, +she had gone up-stairs, and, during the library interview, was saying to +her aunt, "You never saw anything got up as she is,--silk, and satin, and +lace, and bracelets, and feathers, and what not. And for church, too! I +wonder she should turn out like that: she should have better taste. I +really don't quite like going with her, she looks so conspicuous,--just as +if she were going to a garden-party or flower-show, for all the world." +When they met again, both girls looked a little conscious, and Ethel said, +"How very smart you are!" + +"Why, this is an old dress that I put on for fear it might rain," said +Bijou. "Don't you hate having to wear goggles and cages and things? It +must be perfectly horrid." + +"I don't mind. Of course one isn't looking one's best; but that is of no +consequence. Health is the first consideration," said Ethel. "Ah! there +comes your father." + +Of the walk it need only be said that it was very pleasant going, and +rained a little coming back; that Ethel produced her "goloshes," put up +her umbrella, and walked home as serenely as her concern for Bijou would +admit. That young lady had on paper-soled boots that got soaking wet, a +fine summer parasol that she seemed to think fulfilled every office that +was desirable in shielding her bonnet, a dress ill fitted to resist chill +or dampness. She persisted that she was "all right," while her pretty +teeth chattered; but she caught a violent cold, and was in bed a week, +while Ethel came down to dinner as rosy as Baby Ketchum, and ate as +heartily as Mr. Ramsay and Mr. Heathcote, who certainly showed themselves +good trenchermen. Mrs. Ketchum persisted in regarding the two young men +very much as though they had been returned Arctic travellers, and amused +them not a little by suggesting that they should lie down all the evening. + +"Why, we haven't turned a hair. We are as fit as a fiddle," they exclaimed, +and looked anything but unstrung. + +Ethel had made one speech that astonished Bijou considerably. "Do you know, +I have been watching you ever since I have known you," she said, "to see +if it was true? That is, that the American ladies _spat_ on all occasions, +as I have read. Don't think me rude to mention it." + +"We don't quarrel any more than any one else," said Bijou, quite +misunderstanding. + +"I don't mean that, you know: _expectorate_. And I see it was not true at +all. I have not seen it once," explained Ethel. + +"I should think not! Well, I do think! How could you believe such +ridiculous nonsense?" asked Bijou indignantly. + +"Don't be vexed, Bijou dear. I did not mean to make unkind reflections. It +was only that I had read a stupid book about America," said Ethel; and +peace was restored. + +As for the other members of the party, they had gone to a handsome church +in Kalsing, which boasted the best stained glass in the country and was +thoroughly churchly and attractive. Here they not only heard good music, +but one of the most eloquent preachers in "the American branch of the +English establishment," as Sir Robert called the Episcopalian communion. + +It amused Mr. Ketchum not a little to see the way in which the baronet +conducted his devotions,--his preliminary prayer in his silk hat, from +which streamed a halo of side-whiskers, the heartiness with which he +joined in the service, especially the way in which, avoiding all the +compromises the male American practises in prayer-time (such as bending +forward a little, or leaning back pensively with the hand shading the +face), he plumped squarely down on his knees, turned up a pair of shoes +half as long as his very respectable, tightly-rolled umbrella, and made +his responses in a clear, audible voice, like an honest gentleman and a +miserable sinner. + +It did not escape Mr. Ketchum's keen eyes, either, that although Sir +Robert contributed a five-dollar bill to the offertory, he first rolled it +up into a tiny, unrecognizable wad before dropping it into the alms-basin. +The service over, Sir Robert and the eminent divine were made acquainted. +The latter said he would call as soon as he could snatch a moment, and Sir +Robert, his hands folded behind his back, holding his hat and gloves, made +the rounds of the church, inspecting every bit of carving, frescoing, +glass, and brass, and making the most intelligent criticisms upon what he +saw to Miss Noel in a whisper. Mrs. Sykes sat still in the pew, fuming at +being "let in for a charity sermon," for some inexplicable reason, seeing +she had given nothing to the charity. Miss Noel was stopped at the door by +no less a person than Captain Kendall, who had suddenly discovered that he +had a great-aunt living in Kalsing, whom he must see, and now stood there +saying, "Where is Miss Ethel? How is it that you are here without her? I +hope she is quite well." + +"My niece, Miss Heathcote, is quite well, thanks, and has gone to church +elsewhere," said Miss Noel, with dignity, intending to mildly repress a +young gentleman whom she thought a little too free with his "Miss Ethels." + +"Then I will have the pleasure of calling upon you to-morrow," said +Captain Kendall, unabashed and joyous, as he walked away. + +So active an intelligence as Sir Robert's requires plenty of food, and +when Mrs. Ketchum senior issued from her room about ten the next morning, +whom should she meet in the hall but the baronet in a state of the most +overflowing energy and brilliant good humor, dressed in a suit of striped +red-and-white "pajamas," having on his head a paper cap, under his arm a +roll of designs, and in his mind the delightful intention of painting the +ceiling of Mabel's boudoir! + +"Good-morning, madam. Here we are," he said, shaking his box of paints and +stencils at her. "I have improvised a scaffolding, and am now going to +work on my outlines. I planned the whole thing in bed last night, and, +unless I am much mistaken, we are going to have the prettiest boudoir in +this part of the country. I shall do a panel or two to get the effect, and +any workman can finish it." + +"But can you do it?" asked Mrs. Ketchum, amazed, but interested. + +"You shall see. I frescoed the chapel on my place at home, and I may say +there have been worse pieces of work," replied Sir Robert, descending the +stairs as he spoke, eager to get to work. + +"Is he _raving crazy_, Mabel? What on earth has he got on? He isn't +_respectable_. I declare to goodness, he has set my heart beating so I +shan't get over it all day," said the startled lady to her daughter-in-law, +who joined her just then. + +"Oh, for shame, ma, to give yourself away like that! Fashionable men wear +those costumes altogether now," said Mr. Ketchum, coming up. "You see, +Daisy, that if I shocked him beyond expression yesterday morning, as you +said I should, he has horrified me to death to-day: so I guess we are +quits. Come along: let's go down to see the trapeze-performance." + +Down they went, and, meeting Mr. Ramsay, who was coming up, Job stopped a +moment to tell him to take out any of the horses that he fancied. "Take +the piebalds," said he, "if you'd like to have a drive, and take some nice +girl--Miss Ethel or Bijou Brown--for a two-forty shine." + +"Thanks awfully," said Mr. Ramsay. "But I think I had better--that is, I +had rather ask Heathcote." + +"You are horribly welcome, but I don't think much of your taste," replied +Mr. Ketchum, not understanding what a proposition he had made. + +In the lower hall they found the eminent divine, irreproachably clerical +and dignified, and Captain Kendall, just arrived. Sir Robert, hearing +voices, came out, brush in hand, to welcome them, producing quite as great +an impression on them as on Mrs. Ketchum. "I belong to the working-classes +now. Just you come here and see how the fine arts are prospering in the +State of Michigan," said he, and led them into the boudoir, where he +nimbly ran up a step-ladder, laid himself out on the scaffolding, and, +with a bold, free touch, went on sketching a procession of Cupids which +was to go around the base of the small dome, talking all the while with +the utmost animation to the guests below. "As soon as I get in this fellow +riding a dolphin, I shall be entirely at your service," said he. "No +considerations of respect and attachment to the Church or fear of the Army +can influence me just now." + +The two gentlemen begged that he would go on; the ladies came in, and +together they passed an agreeable morning, Sir Robert declaring that on +the scaffold he was entitled to benefit of clergy, and begging the eminent +divine when he left to let him have his ghostly counsel every day for at +least a week. In spite of his eminence, this gentleman had no very great +breadth of view. To sit about on boxes and window-seats, picnicking in an +empty room, while the stranger upon whom he had come to call lay above him +in red pajamas, painting Cupids on the ceiling, was to his mind +monstrously indecorous. It was amusing to see the dignified way in which +he took the pleasantries of the party; and he made no response to Sir +Robert's farewell overture except a bow. "Your guest is a very +entertaining man," he said to Mr. Ketchum, who accompanied him to the +hat-rack, "but is he quite--quite--you understand?" + +"Perfectly so," said Job, with a laugh. "Head and heart both of the best, +as you will find out when you know him better. You are coming back to +dinner, ain't you, to help us out with the fatted calf?" + +The dinner was a very elegant affair of twenty-five covers, given to the +guests, the first of a series of entertainments planned in their honor. +All the notable people of the neighborhood were represented at it. The +scandalized divine returned to partake of it, and, seeing Sir Robert in a +dress-suit, dignified, polished, of preternatural respectability, not to +say distinction, looking the pillar of Church and State that he was, and +talking with due gravity of the tariff, free trade, and the like ponderous +subjects, concluded to overlook the mad behavior of the morning, and, +joining him, gave him a long account of the Indian Missions of the Church. +Unconscious of having done anything that might be regarded as eccentric, +Sir Robert was all affability, soon grew interested, asked a number of +questions as to the death-rate among the tribes, the prevalence of +smallpox and cholera among them, the spread of civilization, confirmed +nomadism, traces of Jewish rites, and so on, thanked him for a "very +profitable half-hour," and said he should send a little check to be +applied in any way he might see fit, obliterating thereby the last trace +of the previous prejudice. This, indeed, was replaced by something very +like enthusiasm when there came next day a slip of paper representing five +hundred dollars, also a note from the donor, saying that he should be glad +to know that some portion of the sum enclosed had gone to an industrial +school, if any such existed, where the young Indian women could learn to +boil a potato properly, and the use of brooms and pails and +scrubbing-brushes. "You must first clean them and then convert them: get +them into the bath-tub, and you can take them anywhere," said Sir Robert, +with great truth and perspicacity. + +"One doesn't get such a dinner, except at a few great houses, outside of +London or Paris," Mrs. Sykes was pleased to say when it was over. "I have +found out that almost everything was ordered from New York; and a pretty +penny it must have cost. Not that this man cares. I dare say he is only +too glad to have the chance of entertaining me,--that is, us. I was sent +in with a waspish little man that turned suddenly crusty on my hands and +was an owl for the rest of the time; but I was rather glad to be able to +devote myself to my dinner for once." + +Mrs. Sykes's escort had "turned crusty" because that lady, following her +instinct of ingratiation, had said to him, "All the gentry of this country +are in the South, aren't they? They don't live about here, do they?"--not +from a prejudice in favor of Southerners at all, as was proved when she +went to New Orleans later and promptly asked the first acquaintance she +made whether all the education was not at the North. + +The week that followed was a very gay one, the Ketchums' friends in the +neighborhood and in Kalsing being most intent on hospitable thoughts and +providing something agreeable in the shape of an entertainment for every +night. Every moment of the day, too, of every day was filled up. It seemed +to Mrs. Ketchum that "those English people," as she called them, were +never idle, and had discovered the secret of perpetual motion. + +Sir Robert had the boudoir, to which he devoted exactly two hours after +breakfast. He had a geological chart of America, with what he felt to be +melancholy blanks for the chalk and oolite beds of his own country, and +appropriate fossils indicated by an index-finger in red ink. He had the +Poor-Law and electoral systems to master, as well as the prison systems of +the different States. He had to prove that the Mound-Builders and the race +that built the buried cities of Central America were one and the same. He +had innumerable questions, political, social, agricultural, pressing upon +him, from the history of spiritualism, the purity of the ballot, and the +McCormack reaper, down to certain expressions that immensely struck and +pleased him, which had to be entered in the diary as "unconscious poetry +of the Westerners,"--such phrases as "the fall" (of the leaf), +"morning-glories," "dancing like a breeze," "Daphnes" (instead of laurels), +and many more, which he hoped would be "permanently engrafted on the +mother-tongue." There were other entries to be made,--"customs of the +Westerners," their "descent," "taxation," "climate" (as affected by the +Great Lakes), "population in 1900," and so on. There were books, books, +books, to be read, referred to, ordered. There was even a little taxidermy +to be done, and the "native birds" to be first sought, then bought, then +prepared, and packed to be sent back to England. The others, if not quite +so busy, were anything but idle. Miss Noel walked her five miles a day. +She was out sketching for hours under her umbrella, no matter what the +weather was, and only said, "Thank you for your kind concern, but I am +quite equal to it," when Mrs. Ketchum, astonished to see a woman of her +own age enduring such fatigue and running such risks, undertook to +remonstrate with her. "One must get one's constitutional, you know, and +one must not mind a drop or two. There has been no really bad weather yet, +--nothing to keep one in-doors, at least." If she stayed in-doors, she and +Mrs. Sykes (when the latter was not scouring the country on foot or +horse-back) interested themselves in their plants, minerals, seeds, +drawings, the herbarium, the Wardian case, the diaries and letters and +fancy-work, the beautiful collection of sea-weed sent by Miss Marlow from +New England, and a dozen things besides. Mr. Heathcote, meanwhile, was +walking, and riding, and visiting, and, above all, photographing. He got a +small covered cart, into which he would put his photographic apparatus and +go the rounds of the country-side alone, getting his luncheon as he could, +and coming back late in the evening, flushed with heat and victory, +bringing amusing accounts of his experiences, a bouquet as of an +apothecary-shop, and "proofs" of "a lane,--quite an English-looking lane," +"a dog on the chain," "rear view of an American public" (house), "Saint +Lieuk's Church" (five different aspects), "what the natives call an +'ash-hopper,'--came out beautifully," "children among the hay-cocks,--very +indistinct," "squatter's hut on the edge of a common," "Western American +farm-house," "negro dust-man," "village beauty," and many others. He was +much complimented upon them all by Mr. Ketchum, who enjoyed the whole +collection and made comments and suggestions of the most delightful kind. +Mr. Heathcote looked infinitely pleased and flattered when told by him +that they had "a cold, professional air," and asked for copies of some of +them, after which he was eclipsed behind his black cloth and instrument +for two days, had his room darkened to a Cimmerian pitch, worked very +diligently, and presented the fruits of his labors to his host with the +modest depreciation but secret delight of the artist, smiling indulgently +at Mr. Ramsay, with his "I say, old chappy, what an out-and-out swell you +are at it, to be sure! You must do the horses." Thus encouraged, Mr. +Heathcote did the horses, the house, the family grouped inside and outside, +Master Jared Ponsonby, Hannibal Hamlin, Master Bobo and Miss Blanche, the +poultry, and (aided by mirrors) himself in almost every dress and attitude +which it is possible for a man to assume. He must have spent a small +fortune in chemicals alone, and all his talk was of light and shadow, +background, draperies, foreground, plates, and proofs; every table was +strewn with photographs, finished and not finished, mounted or curled up +like paper crumpets. + +Mr. Ramsay, too, had his little diversions, not precisely scientific, but +amusing. He was in and out of the stables all day long, and was loved by +every animal on the place. Such long-suffering and good nature Master +Ketchum had never seen, except in Fräulein Schmidt; and then the strength, +the resources, the conversation of his new friend enchanted the child, who +followed him about, perched on his shoulder, played games with him, and +had to be carried away from him struggling by his nurse. Mr. Ramsay had +other occupations: he rode, he fished, he cleaned his guns, he got over +leagues and leagues of ground, he killed several snakes and captured +scores of insects. He caught dozens of tree-frogs, for one thing, and shut +them all up together in the drawing-room coal-scuttle, where he peeped at +them from time to time, well satisfied. He played little tunes on his chin, +asked conundrums, showed Job a great many tricks at cards, and two French +puzzles (saying, "Those French beggars are awfully sharp at that kind of +thing, you know"); he played "God Save the Queen" with one finger on the +piano, held skeins of wool for the ladies, shut doors, got shawls, and +really need have done none of these arduous duties, for in looking so +handsome and so jolly from Monday morning until Saturday night he +contributed his quota toward the carrying on of society, and all beside +were works of supererogation. When these palled upon him a little, as was +shown by his picking up a book, he looked very unhappy for ten minutes, +and then, making a pass at his face with one of has beautiful hands, he +cried out, "No fellow can read badgered like this. There's a regular brute +of a fly that has been lighting on my nose every half-second since I sat +down," closed the book, smiled, and said, "I may as well call upon Mr. +Brown while I have time," and took himself off. This happened on the ninth +day after his arrival, and with it began a new era in his existence. He +not only went to Mr. Brown's that day, but the next, and the day after +that. In short, he had found an amusement best expressed in the French +equivalent _distraction_. He rode with Bijou, and reported to Mr. +Heathcote that she was "a clinker at her fences, and went at them as +straight as an English girl." He taught her a good deal about the +management of her reins and animal, and admitted that she was "a plucky +one." If she had only consented to get an English saddle (which she +declined to do, with one of her customary exaggerations, saying that she +"didn't want a thousand pommels"), to rise in that saddle, and to have the +tail of her horse cropped properly, he would have been quite happy. As it +was, he acknowledged that in her own fashion she was a most graceful and +fearless horsewoman, and approved of her accordingly. It soon struck him +that she did other things well. Used to the reserved and rather +constrained manner of most English girls, he found a great charm in her +bright gayety, her frank cordiality, the good-humored comradeship and +absence of stiffness, untainted by vulgarity. For, although Bijou was not +high-bred, distinguished, or clever, she was a girl of real refinement, +and he had the wit to see it. Her merry tongue and generous and +affectionate heart, neither chilled nor hardened yet by contact with the +world, were very attractive, and it is just possible that he felt the +influence of her piquantly-pretty face. At any rate, he had found a great +number of imperative reasons for going to Brown's, when one morning, as he +was opening the little wicket-gate that admitted him to their +croquet-field, he saw something that gave him an unpleasant shock. It was +a buggy in front of the door, in which sat Bijou, charmingly arrayed, +smiling upon a gentleman who had just helped her in and was only deterred +from taking the seat waiting for him by her calling out, "Stop, till I fix +my skirts and put up my parasol," the gentleman being his cousin, Mr. +Edward Plummer, _alias_ Drummond. The sight of Mr. Plummer enraged him. +Bijou's cheerful air did not improve matters, and for the first time he +felt irritated at her American speech and accent. "'Fix my skirts,'" he +quoted discontentedly, as he watched them drive off, and then, after a +moment's indecision, he stalked angrily up to the front door, pulled the +bell fiercely, and asked to see Mr. Brown. He was almost immediately +ushered into the library, where Mr. Brown was sitting. + +"Good-morning, sir. I am glad to see you. I am sorry to say that Bijou is +out. She has gone driving with our guest: an English guest, by the way, +--Mr. Drummond. He came on with us from New York, and has been here ever +since, except the last two weeks, which he has spent in Chicago," said Mr. +Brown. + +"That's what I've come about," blurted out Mr. Ramsay, the moment there +was a pause. "His name isn't Drummond at all: it is Plummer. And he isn't +fit to be a guest in any decent house, and I've come to tell you so and +have you give him the sack and put him to the door at once. Excuse me +meddling, but you have been very kind to me and received me most +hospitably, and I am not going to see you taken in by a rascal and a +blackguard." + +Mr. Brown was shocked, but did not show it. He prided himself on being +very logical and dispassionate and judicial, and was privately convinced +that he would have greatly adorned the legal profession if Fate had been +kinder. Besides, Mr. Drummond was his guest and there by his invitation, +which to his mind was strong presumptive proof that Mr. Ramsay's charges +were without foundation. "Grave accusations these, Mr. Ramsay,--very grave +accusations. I trust you are making them upon some better grounds than +mere personal prejudice or idle rumor, if you expect me to believe them. +Not that I mean any discourtesy to you, sir, in saying this," he said, in +his roundest, most impressive tones. + +"What do you mean? The fellow was sent to Coventry by his regiment and +forced to resign, his father has cut him off with a shillin', he can't +show his face in London, and he has been kicked out of his club for +keepin' too many aces up his sleeve. I should think that was grounds +enough for an accusation. Do you suppose I go about inventin' lies to take +away other people's characters?" said Mr. Ramsay excitedly. + +"Do not exaggerate. Be calm; be reasonable," said Mr. Brown. "Observe, I +do not accuse you of wilful misrepresentation, but of misapprehension, +perhaps of prejudice. There is a difference. Note it, and do not take +offence, my young friend, too readily." + +"I am not offended, but what I say is true, and I hope you will act upon +it, so that Miss Brown shall not go out ridin' round the country with +that--" began Mr. Ramsay, only to be interrupted by-- + +"No violence; no excitement. Let us look at the thing rationally," from +Mr. Brown. "Mr. Drummond is my guest,--my guest, remember; introduced to +me by one of the first men in New York; received everywhere. You are both +strangers to me. This is a matter of purely individual testimony," Mr. +Brown went on, feeling that he was growing exquisitely subtile, and +clothing himself in imaginary ermine as he spoke. "He may tell me that +_you_ are a rascal. In that event, how am I to know who is the honest man +and who the villain? Shall I believe you, or shall I believe him, in the +absence of documentary evidence and disinterested statement? As my guest, +he has, if anything, the prior claim to consideration; though I am far +from saying that whatever views you may advance will not have equal weight +with me,--as _views_, mark you." + +"You can believe who you please and what you please," said Mr. Ramsay; +"but remember that I have given you warnin'. He may be your guest, but he +is my cousin, and I should think that I ought to know what I am talkin' +about. There is no necessity for me stayin' any longer." + +He rose to go, but Mr. Brown stopped him by a gesture. "A cousin!" he +exclaimed. "Do not excite yourself; be calm. On the face of it, that would +seem conclusive; but appearances are notoriously deceitful. Will you +assure me on your honor that there is no motive, no family feud, at the +bottom of this? Cousins do not go about the world denouncing each +other--_as a rule_. Family pride, affection, a thousand things, prevent +them from making such things public; but still it is not impossible. I do +not say that it is _impossible_; only _improbable_,--very improbable. Give +me your word, though, that there is _no motive_.--we must always look for +a motive in these cases,--and I will promise to give the matter full and +impartial investigation." + +"I'll do nothing of the sort. I will bid you good-morning," exclaimed +Mr. Ramsay, reaching out impetuously for his hat. + +"You have meant well, perhaps. I am obliged to you, if such be the case. I +will bear what you have said in mind, and let you know my decision," said +Mr. Brown, delivering a verdict from the bench. + +"Just as you please," replied Mr. Ramsay haughtily; and so they parted. + +Left to himself, however, Mr. Brown ceased to be judicial, and became +practical. He recalled, as he sat there, a number of circumstances that +had not impressed him favorably in connection with his guest. Mr. Drummond +had borrowed a considerable sum of him, on the ground of delayed +remittances. Mr. Drummond had filled his pockets with his host's Havanas +in the most scandalous fashion, yet never had a cigar. Mr. Drummond had +done a number of ill-bred things that he had not liked,--such as ordering +the carriage to be got ready on his own responsibility, lending valuable +books without so much as asking permission, and the like. The longer Mr. +Brown thought of the late interview, the more uneasy he felt. The paper +had dropped from his hand, and he was still deep in his uncomfortable +meditations, when the door opened, and his daughter ran to him and threw +herself into his arms, crying hysterically, "Oh, popper, popper! Oh! oh! +oh!" + +We will extricate the story of what had happened from the sobs and +interruptions to which Mr. Brown had to submit, and preface it with some +account of the relations between Bijou and Mr. Drummond-Plummer or +Plummer-Drummond. + +They had met in New York the previous winter, where Mr. Drummond had +suddenly appeared, put up at a fashionable hotel, and, with no other +credentials than his handsome person, good manners, and bold assertions +that he was related to certain great people in England, had been accepted +in society with that beautiful faith and charity that believeth all things +an Englishman of supposed position may choose to say of himself, in spite +of much disastrous experience of foreign adventurers both painful and +ludicrous. Attracted by Bijou, he promptly satisfied himself of the +stability and reality of her father's fortune, and began to lay siege to +her hand: about her heart he gave himself small concern. Now, Bijou was a +Western belle, and was in the habit of receiving any amount of attention. +At seventeen a famous racer and a steam-boat had already been named for +her. The local newspapers chronicled her toilets and triumphs. Her little +sitting-room was a sentimental hall of Eblis, full of shapes with hearts +that were one burning coal, bright with the sacred flame. She had a large +album which she called her "him-book," because it contained nothing but +the photographs of her admirers. She had hats, and bats, and caps, and +whips, and cravats, and oars, and canes disposed about it tastefully, +souvenirs of various persons, times, and places, and talked of the +original owners in a way that made Ethel's blue eyes open their widest +when she came to be admitted there, that decorous young person not being +used, as she frankly said, to hearing "a person of the opposite sex" +called "a perfectly lovely fellow," and his nose pronounced "a dream," +though not in the sense of its being broken or disjointed. + +"Why, you wouldn't have me call _you_ a lovely fellow, would you?" said +Bijou laughingly, as she tripped about doing the honors of her den, +--showing locks of hair (of which she had almost enough to stuff a +sofa-cushion), dried bouquets of vast dimensions, little gifts she had +received, verses and valentines that she thought "perfectly splendid" or +"too utterly killing for anything," and bundle after bundle of letters, +--the adorers' letters, all of them, written from all parts of the country, +in every style. She read Ethel choice passages from them with great glee, +and gave spirited sketches of her correspondents; how she had met them at +Saratoga, Mt. Desert, "and pretty much every place;" how she had danced, +flirted, walked, driven, sailed, "crabbed," read, sung, talked with them, +apparently without either fear or reproach; and of their appearance, dress, +character, position, prospects,--a full, if not perfectly complete, +history of her relations with them that almost made Ethel's lower jaw drop +as she listened. There was no mention of mother, aunt, governess, or maid +throughout. Bijou had gone away from home with friends who had let her +amuse herself in her own fashion; and at home she was what De Tocqueville +has pronounced "the freest thing in the world,--an American girl in her +father's house." Yet it was a liberty that was worlds removed from +license. Undisciplined she was, impulsive, indulged beyond all European +conceptions, but, in spite of a good deal of innocent coquetry and vanity, +effervescing in some foolish ways very pardonable in a motherless girl, +and of which a great deal too much has been made in discussing American +girls, there was never one of any nation more pure-hearted and womanly. +Her worst deviations from rigidly conventional standards were better than +the best behavior of some very nice people, as Swift defines them,--"Nice +people: people who are always thinking of and looking out for nasty +things." Different training would have improved her, just as a hot-house +rose is more perfect than the wild one; but she, too, was pink-petalled, +had a heart of gold, and was full of lovely, fragrant qualities, like the +English variety near her. + +"You correspond with twelve men! Good heavens!" exclaimed Ethel, when +these open secrets had been revealed to her. "Don't tell auntie of it, I +beg. She will--will misunderstand, I fear, and think it dreadful, and +perhaps prevent me being here so much. It is not at all in accord with +English ideas, you know, dear; and auntie is rather stricter than most, +even there." + +"Not tell! Why not?" asked Bijou. "What is there to shock her? She must be +easily shocked. I have got nothing to be ashamed of; and I shall tell the +old dear to-morrow." + +"Does your father know it?" said Ethel. + +"Why, _of course_ he does," replied Bijou impatiently. "I generally read +him the letters, and he laughs fit to kill himself over some of them. +Popper don't care one bit. He says I am old enough to paddle my own canoe; +and so I am. And he knows I don't care a pin about any of them. It's great +fun until you get tired of it. I am tired of it now, rather. I used to +write to twenty; but it has dwindled down to twelve, and I'm going to drop +two of those, because they are in the army and are both stationed at the +same post. You see, it is too much trouble to write different letters to +each one, so I get up one bright, smart one that suits all around, and +copy it for them all, with some changes." + +This speech almost stunned Ethel for a while. "But doesn't it vex them +very much to get such letters? What if they should find it out? And if you +don't at all care for them, why do it at all?" + +"Why, for the _fun_ of the thing, goosie. Angry? No. They do the same +thing themselves. Will Piper sent Kate Price and me letters that were +exactly the same, word for word: we compared them. That is where I got the +idea. Splendid one, isn't it? I am just bent and determined on having +stacks of fun before I am married, because after that, you know, I shall +be laid on the shelf completely," said Bijou. + +"But why should you be 'laid on the shelf'? I can't make it out. Your life +will be just beginning," said Ethel. + +"Well, because what is so is _so_," replied Bijou, showing her some +patterns for slippers, watch-pockets, tobacco-pouches, and so on, that she +meant to work up for birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, "philopoenas," +and other festive occasions, as presents for the adorers. + +It is perhaps clearer now why Bijou laid no stress whatever on Mr. +Drummond's attentions, while she seemed to him to be receiving them with +marked favor. When, on their leaving New York, Mr. Brown had asked him to +go home with them and spend a month, he looked upon the prize as won. +Before going to Chicago he had shown this so plainly that Bijou had +snubbed him roundly,--a course so foreign to her amiable nature and +hospitable creed that on his return she had received him with a kindness +that had revived all his hopes,--or rather designs. He utterly +misunderstood it, and easily persuaded himself that he was practically +irresistible. The drive of that afternoon had been planned by him that he +might ask the fateful question. He had asked it, and, presumptuously +taking her answer for granted, had slipped an arm about her waist, when, +to his great surprise, he had found himself half ordered, half pushed out +of the buggy immediately, after which Bijou, transported by fury, had laid +the whip once smartly across his shoulders and driven away at a gallop, +leaving him standing in the middle of the road, an angry man. + +She went home, as we have seen, and told her father, who was distinctly +excited on hearing it, ordered Mr. Drummond's effects to be packed and +sent to the hotel in Kalsing at once, forbade her ever taking another +drive with a stranger "the longest day she lived," and would certainly +have caned the offender with unparliamentary fervor, instead of being +"reasonable" and letting the affair drop, had he known where to find him. + +What Mr. Drummond did was to walk into Kalsing and put up at a +boarding-house there, where he spent the evening glowering into vacancy +blackly enough, and showed his high breeding and respect for the other +boarders by taking off his shoes in the parlor and sitting with his +stockinged feet propped up on a chair in front of him while he gave +himself up to his reflections,--bitter thoughts of the past in which he +had been an English gentleman, desperate plans for his future as a +_chevalier d'industrie,_ fierce abuse of Americans in general and the +Browns in particular, culminating in a fixed resolve to leave "this +beastly hole" next day; which was happily carried out. + +Mr. Ramsay, offended, held aloof for a little while; but, getting a note +from Mr. Brown couched in few words, and those to the effect that his +warning had been acted on and Mr. Drummond dismissed, he called next day +at the house, assured Mr. Brown with earnestness that his cousin was "a +precious rascal," gave some particulars of his shady career, and took up +the threads of his intimacy again, unvexed by any such ideas as that he +was at all responsible for or could be affected by his kinsman's +disreputable behavior. Mr. Brown concealed from him that he had lost some +money by Mr. Drummond. Bijou imagined that he must be "feeling dreadfully +about it," and took great pains not to say anything that could wound his +imaginary susceptibilities as the relative of a _mauvais sujet._ But the +simple truth was that, once assured that respectable people were not being +deluded or cheated by his cousin, Mr. Ramsay had no further sensitiveness +on the subject. The Browns kept what he had told them even from the +Ketchums, only to hear him announce in all assemblies that a cousin of his +was "goin' about over here,--an awful swindler and 'leg,'--and that the +best thing people could do would be to give him the widest sort of berth +until he got himself into the penitentiary, as he certainly would,--at +least it was quite on the cards," smiling in cheerful enjoyment of the +possibility. Entertainments were going on all the while in the +neighborhood, and he had ample opportunities of advertising the fact, all +of which he improved, while a puzzled audience knew not what to make of so +novel a situation, and were sorely put to it for suitable replies as they +stared at an Adonis in Poole-cut clothes who sat and looked alternately at +them and his patent-leather court pumps and gay silk socks while he +affably denounced his father's nephew and "hoped the blackguard was goin' +to New Orleans and would get the yellow fever there, which was beginnin' +to be had over from the Havana." + +This last speech was made at a dinner-party which Mr. Ketchum's partner +Mr. Richardson had felt called upon to give in honor of the English guests, +and was almost the only amusing feature of the evening to Job. The +Richardsons' house was one of those in which everything is provided on +such occasions except amusement. When their invitation came, Job said to +his wife, "I wish we could get out of going; but we can't. I don't know +what is the matter with that house. It is one of the handsomest in the +city, elegantly furnished; they always have a crowd of people at their +entertainments, some of them delightful people to meet anywhere else, but +somehow there seems a kind of pall draped above the front door that drops +down behind you when you enter and never lifts till you leave. Mrs. +Richardson puts on all her war-paint and feathers and goes around all the +evening anxiously trying to make the thing go off, and it gets worse and +worse every moment, so dull and stupid that you can hardly keep awake, and +not quite quiet enough for a good nap. Richardson buys everything that is +to be had, and then sits around and looks as though he had a note to meet +in bank and no money to do it with. Altogether, it is about as lively as a +water-tank on the Pacific Railroad after the train has gone. But it won't +do to hurt their feelings: we have got to go." + +So they did, and it was stiff and formal beyond even his expectation. The +dinner was interminably long, over-elaborate, and slowly served. They +were all sent in with the wrong people. The conversation all but died +again and again. Sir Robert was afflicted by a deaf man, who shrieked, +"Ha-ow?" and "What say?" at him with brief intervals all during the meal. +Mabel shrank into herself, and only ventured on a few trite remarks. Mr. +Ketchum's liveliness utterly evaporated after the first ten minutes. It +was quite ghastly, and the move back to the drawing-room was a most +blessed relief. Mrs. Sykes had made no effort to lighten the tedium of the +dinner, and no sooner found it at an end than she lolled back +indifferently on the sofa, and, picking up a book, coolly read it for more +than an hour, though twice interrupted by Mrs. Richardson, who vainly +tried to substitute polite conversation the first time, and offered a cup +of tea the second. + +"English breakfast?" asked Mrs. Sykes loftily, raising her eyes for a +moment. "No; I am afraid not. It is green tea, I think." + +"But do take some," replied Mrs. Richardson, "It is very nice indeed." + +"No, thank you," said Mrs. Sykes very shortly, her eyes on her book. + +"Just one cup. Let me make it for you?" suggested Mrs. Richardson. + +"Not for a five-pound note would I drink the poisonous stuff. Say no more +about it," replied Mrs. Sykes, with delicate consideration, and turned +over a page. + +"Do take some coffee, then, or chocolate," insisted Mrs. Richardson. + +"Nothing of any sort or kind whatever," snapped Mrs. Sykes, turning away +decidedly, to get a better light on her book, apparently, but really to +get rid of her hostess. + +Mr. Ketchum, fearing to show indecent exultation when the carriages were +announced, repressed the satisfaction that would have expressed itself in +gay speeches of farewell. A decorous exit was made; and as they rolled +away he gave a great sigh of relief, and exclaimed, "I haven't had as much +fun since I had the measles. Mussiful Powers! what an evening! I feel like +the boy whose mother gave him a good beating for his own sake. But all the +same I shall have a word to say to Mrs. Sykes tomorrow; and of course I +shall have to apologize for her behavior to Richardson." + +"Most insolent, unpardonable conduct, I call it," said Sir Robert. "She's +an innately vulgar woman." + +"Puts on an awful lot of side. I can't stand her. She gives me the jumps. +And she can tell a buster, too, when she likes: I have found that out," +put in Mr. Ramsay. + +"Well, I don't exactly hanker to be cast away on a desert island with her, +even supposing I was one of the royal dukes and had taken the precaution +of being introduced while we were tying on the life preservers, in case of +accidents," said Mr. Ketchum. + +What he said to Mrs. Sykes next morning no one ever knew but the discreet +Mabel. Not much, probably, but that little was so much to the point that +it had a decided effect,--two of them, indeed, one interior, the other +external. It increased her respect for him, and it made her perfectly +civil to all his friends, as far as constitution and habit would allow. + +"I cut her comb for her, and handled her without gloves," was his report +of the interview to his wife, who was amazed at his nerve. + +When Sir Robert got a note addressed to "Lord Heathcote, Baronet," +beginning "Dear Sir," and signed "Very respectfully your obedient servant, +" and read it aloud at the breakfast-table as "a most extraordinary +production," Mrs. Sykes had absolutely no comments to make. And when Ethel +opened her letters and found among them an invitation to take a +buggy-drive, commencing "Dear Miss," Mrs. Sykes still held her peace,--a +fact that was full of significance. + +It was Miss Noel who said, "Really, Ettie dear, I can't have you driving +about furiously in a gig without a groom. But pray thank Mr.--what is the +name?--Price for being so kind as to propose it, meaning to give you +pleasure. He has been so obliging, too, as to procure tickets for us to +the play, and has kindly offered to escort us: I have a letter from him as +well. A most lovely day, this. There seems no end, really, to the fine +weather. Remind me to look at the thermometer after breakfast, before the +sun catches it, love. It must have been _quite_ two degrees hotter +yesterday than the day before; but I neglected to make the entry in my +journal, and so cannot be quite positive. Only fancy! Is it not annoying? +I am getting sadly forgetful about everything. And I so dislike guess-work +and conjecture in a record of the kind. I should like to see the +rose-trees at home this morning: the garden must be gay with flowers by +this,--though the last time I went pottering about it in my pattens there +was nothing out but the blackthorn." + +Other entertainments followed closely upon the dinner, of which Mrs. Sykes +complained to Miss Noel, saying, "Why will they ask me out? Why can't they +leave me alone? Really, I shall not let any one know that I am here, if +anything ever brings me back to America,--which is most unlikely." + +"There is nothing to prevent you staying at home if you do not wish to go +out," replied Miss Noel. "But do you not like it? I enjoy going to the +Browns'. Mr. Brown is a man of cultivated mind and Christian courtesy; I +like him very much; and the people one meets there are generally of +superior station and refined education. Why should you object to meeting +them?" + +"American society may be nice some day,--that is, if it ever grows up. +There doesn't seem to be anybody in it now over twenty," grumbled Mrs. +Sykes. + +One result of the parties was that Mr. Ketchum, going over to Mr. Brown's +one morning, found all the young people assembled there practising steps, +the "two-and-a-half," the "polka-glide," and other cheerful evolutions. +After watching Mr. Ramsay's efforts to do as Bijou did, for a moment, he +called out to her to know what she was doing to a British subject under +his protection, and, being shown by Bijou (skirts held up a little, the +prettiest feet imaginable, daintily shod, and the gliding, swaying, +pirouetting, galopading, graceful beyond expression), cried out, "Teaching +him to dance, are you? I thought he was practising heading off a calf in a +lane." This so exactly expressed the awkward desperate plunges to the +right and left which Mr. Ramsay was executing at the moment, that Mr. +Heathcote had another of his acute attacks of appreciation, and became +almost a subject for sal volatile and burnt feathers, Mr. Ramsay saying +good-naturedly, "What a fellow you are for chaffin', Ketchum! Just you +hook it out of this, will you, and let us get on with this? One and two +and a kick, you say, Miss Brown? I am such a duffer I can't get the kick." + +"You do the one and two make one, and leave the kick to Miss Bijou," said +Mr. Ketchum suggestively. "Why aren't you gambolling like the playful +antelope, Heathcote?" + +"I don't often gamble. I leave that to Ramsay, who is an all-fired +jewhillikens scratch at it, as you say over here," replied Mr. +Heathcote. + +"You gamble a little differently, that is all. You have dropped a good +deal on loo first and last, for all your wisdom," retorted Mr. Ramsay +between his steps. + +"Get out your 'Hand-Book of American Slang,' my boy,--two dollars a volume, +--and you will retrieve all your losses, I'll engage," said Mr. Ketchum +laughingly, as he walked away. + +The dancing had been interrupted, however, and Bijou and Mr. Ramsay +retired to the bow-window to talk. "Odd that I can't get it, isn't it?" +said he. "I never was much of a dancin' man; and I ought to be, you know. +I am not a readin' man; and a man that is not a readin' man is nearly +always a dancin' man. The governor is a readin' man, and took a +double-first; but I am like my poor mother, who was dull." Thus launched, +he gave her a full account of his relatives and home with all his own +frankness, and she, listening with her heart as well as her ears, did not +know whether to smile or sigh: the phraseology of the recital and its +completeness amused her, but she also divined the loneliness of such a +boyhood. To her great embarrassment, the tears rose in her eyes in quick +sympathy when she came to hear of the way he was treated in his childish +maladies. + +"Poor little fellow!" she said softly, and, as she was obliged to drop the +white, thickly-fringed lids and fall to pleating her handkerchief +industriously, she felt rather than saw that he was looking at her +narrowly. + +There was a moment's silence, and then Mr. Ramsay began talking again. +"You are very happy here, aren't you? You wouldn't like to leave it and go +away to India, or Egypt, or--or--England, or anywhere?" said this +particularly deep young man, and, without waiting for any answer, except +such as was afforded by her rosy silence, went on: "American girls do have +lots of fun, I see that. I am afraid they are too fond of flirting, +though. English girls don't get much of a chance at that, as girls. They +don't amount to much until they are married and get their own way." + +"Why, they don't flirt after they are _married_, do they?" said Bijou, in +a horrified tone, her ideal of post-matrimonial conduct being the exact +opposite of the ante-matrimonial. + +"Oh, don't they, just!" said Mr. Ramsay cheerfully. "You see, as girls +they are heavily handicapped. They can't do anything they like, or go +anywhere; it's awfully slow for them, poor things. And so they naturally +look forward to the time when they will get their liberty as well as a +husband. But the competition must be something awful. A fellow that has +got a fine property or money is regularly hunted down; and even a poor +devil like me has to be monstrous careful. Cowrie, of the Carbineers, who +has got sixty thousand a year, says that he can't go to certain houses, +for fear they may have a clergyman secreted about the place and will get +him spliced to the ugliest daughter before he can escape. Awfully clever +chap, Cowrie,--a match for any mamma in England, I can tell you. He is not +going to marry any woman but the one he wishes to marry. No more am I. +That's why I can't marry. I've got no money. The governor picked out a +young woman from Liverpool for me last year,--a brewer's daughter, with +pots of it,--and wanted me to make up to her." + +"Oh, he did! What did you do about it?" asked Bijou, in a low voice. + +"Well, you see, just then I was most awfully hard up, and couldn't afford +to break with the governor; and so--" + +"I'd be ashamed to say any more about it. Addressing a girl just for her +money!" interjected Bijou warmly, disappointed that he had not scorned the +proposition utterly. + +"It didn't go that far. I thought it might be a good thing, you know. And +so I tried it,--spooning, you know," said he placidly. + +"Oh, indeed!" commented Bijou sarcastically. "Very honorable of you, I am +sure, and delightful for the girl to have such a disinterested admirer. +How did it end?" + +"How you do pick,a fellow up!" remonstrated Mr. Ramsay amiably. "It sounds +awfully conceited to say so, of course, but I think I could have carried +off the cup if I had liked. At least every one said she was hard hit. And +she wasn't long in the tooth, or very ugly, or vulgar, or anything; but +somehow I couldn't stand it. I got to hate her. She breathed so hard when +she danced, for one thing. Regular grampus. Upon my word, she almost blew +my gibus away from under my arm sometimes. Regular snorts. And then she +was always smilin'. And she talked an awful lot about Goethe and Schiller, +and those chaps. Altogether, I cried off, and told the governor I would +try the Colonies. And he told me that if I was such a consummate ass as to +let a good thing like that slip, I could take my little pittance and go to +the deuce as soon as ever I liked; and here I am. Some may think I acted +foolishly, but one's relatives are not always the best judges of what is +good for one, you know, though they may think they are actin' for one's +good; and what one wants to do is to do one's best in whatever position +one finds one's self in, you know, no matter what one--Hang it all! I know +what I want to say, but I can't say it. You understand, I fancy, without +me tryin' to explain." + +Having tied himself up in this conversational bow-knot, Mr. Ramsay waited +to be extricated. His idea had been to convey in the most delicate and +roundabout way to Bijou that he was not the man to marry any woman for her +money, and that if he had seemed to like a certain person a good deal it +was not because she was the daughter of a rich man. To her, however, he +seemed to be posing as a conqueror of heiresses, indifferent to the pain +he might inflict upon any girl silly enough to be captivated by his good +looks and good manners,--a breaker of tacit engagements, and a wicked +worldling. So she rose very stiffly, and said that she neither knew nor +cared to know what he meant, and was obliged to leave him, and so went +away, and left him extremely puzzled and disconcerted by the behavior of +his charmer. + +After this, the summer of Mr. Ramsay's discontent set in. There was +nothing that he could actually complain of in Bijou's treatment of him, +but it was plain that she had changed. She was vastly more polite than +before, but much less kind. Their intimacy seemed a thing of the past +century. It was Mr. Heathcote now who, partly from idleness, partly from a +desire to tease his friend, went constantly to the Browns', and showed +Bijou various attentions, which she accepted with very pronounced +satisfaction. It was with Miss Price now that Mr. Ramsay rode and walked +and talked,--Miss Price, whose free-and-easiness, vapid chatter, +artificiality, and sentimentalism contrasted unpleasantly with Bijou's +frankness and sincerity. By this course each confirmed the other in the +impression of untrustworthiness and flirtatiousness both had received, and +they ought to have been perfectly satisfied with this result. But, +considering how perfectly happy she was in Mr. Heathcote's society, it was +odd that Bijou grew paler and thinner every day. And if Miss Price was so +perfectly delightful, why did she send Mr. Ramsay home always as gloomy +and morose as any young man very well could be? With blundering honesty, +Mr. Ramsay once taxed Bijou with a preference for Mr. Heathcote, not +knowing that when a jealous lover accuses a girl of being fond of some +other man she never fails to encourage the idea, unless it is really true, +when she denies it with the utmost vehemence. Bijou, with much feminine +circumlocution, insinuated that he was devotedly attached to Miss Price, +to which he truthfully replied that he did not care "one rap" about her. +Women are born incredulous in such affairs. When sure of themselves, they +doubt the lover; when sure of the lover, they invariably doubt themselves. +And so the misunderstanding grew, and continued in mutual mistake and +suspicion, and no two people were ever more thoroughly and foolishly +miserable. Mr. Ketchum, when enlightened by his wife, could see that his +guest was in a bad way; and one day it chanced that they were left alone +in the library, where Job was most unromantically engaged in looking up +plans for a model pig-stye, while he incidentally refreshed himself with +his favorite confection, molasses candy. + +"Man alive!" said he, after directing a keen glance at Mr. Ramsay's face, +"what is the matter? Take some of the Dentist's Friend, won't you?" +(pushing a plate toward him.) "I like it better than all the French stuff +that was ever made, and Mabel keeps me liberally supplied. You look +awfully down in the mouth, Ramsay, as though you'd enjoy howling like the +lone wolf on far Alaska's shore, if you were sure nobody was looking. +Suppose you tell me what has impaled you. Is it love, money, or +indigestion, old fellow?" + +The words were light, but the tone hearty and kind; and, thus encouraged, +Mr. Ramsay laid bare his woes, Mr. Ketchum listening attentively, and +saying, when he had finished, "I know; I know. When I thought I had lost +Mabel once, I carried the universe around on a sore back all day, and then +my heart would get up on its hind legs and yelp half the night; and there +have been other times when I got caught in the machinery, and I know how +it hurts, I think of those times often. They grind a man down to the quick, +and send the chaff flying: they teach him valuable lessons. I remember I +started out in life with two violent prejudices,--one against Jews, and +the other against Roman Catholics. Well, in the greatest strait I have +ever known, the Christian that came to my relief was a Jew in a town of +seven thousand people; and when I had the smallpox a Sister of Charity +took me to the hospital and nursed me, when every one had deserted me and +left me to die or live without any meddling from them to bias me in my +decision. After that I said to myself, 'Job Ketchum, if the Lord can make +and stand as great a fool as you have been, he can make plenty of good +Jews and Roman Catholics, and if they have got his hall-mark they can do +without your valuable endorsement; and when smelting-day comes I reckon +you'll find that the Protestant quartz won't pan out _all_ the silver that +has been put in the earth's veins. You needn't go around blushing for +David and Thomas ?Kempis any longer, my son. Take a holiday.' My advice to +you, Ramsay, is to keep a stiff upper lip. Perhaps the buzz-saw has only +got your clothes, and you will be all right when you cut loose; but if it +has got _you_, all you can do is to stand and take it, and if you can +remember who set it going it will be better for you." + +The last phrase Mr. Ketchum got out in a shamefaced way, as if very much +ashamed of it, as indeed he was; but Mr. Ramsay was the better for the +talk, and, though not "a readin' man," had easily understood the +illuminated characters in this page of human experience. He brightened +perceptibly from this date, and was able to take a healthy interest in +certain match-games of base-ball and la-crosse in neighboring cities, +which he attended with Mr. Ketchum and Sir Robert, who, besides these +diversions, had to visit the prisons and all the public schools, and to +gather a mass of information in regard to these two subjects, with +criminal and educational statistics, systems, theories, that had to be +examined, sifted, recorded in the diary with the pains, study, and +reverence for facts that characterized every entry made in it. Meanwhile, +quite an intimacy had sprung up between the ladies of the Ketchum and +Brown households, or rather the existing one soon embraced the +Englishwomen. Mrs. Sykes and Miss Noel were struck by a number of things +in the latter establishment. + +"Do you suppose that _all_ American households are organized in this +extraordinary, miscellaneous way, so as to include, besides the head of +the house, his wife and children, all sorts of relatives, outsiders, and +strangers?" said Mrs. Sykes to Miss Noel. "Mrs. De Witt told me, quite as +a matter of course, that the sister of her husband's first wife lived with +them, though she was away when we were there. And look at the Ketchums and +the Browns. It is most remarkable. Why do they do it, I wonder? I must +really ask about it, how it ever came about. And on such an extraordinary +basis, too! Only fancy, that poor, thread-paper creature, Mr. Brown's +daughter, has married badly and come back to her father with a troop of +children; and she married in opposition to his wishes, and she hasn't a +farthing of her own; and yet she seems to have no proper sense of her +position whatever. She does nothing to make herself useful and get her +living, but sits up in her bedroom, rocking and sewing, all the day long. +She bids her father buy this and that for the children, just as though +they were not actually beggars, dependent upon him for shelter and every +mouthful. She meddles in household matters to any extent, giving the +servants orders, having fires made, and even the dinner-hour changed to +suit her convenience; and one would think she was mistress there. I wonder +she dares do it. Yet, so far from being sat upon or put in her place, I +heard Mr. Brown tell Bijou the other day, when some little disagreement +took place between them, that she must let her "poor sister" have +everything to suit herself, and do her best to make her happy and +contented and help her to forget all the trouble she had known, as far as +possible. Just as if spoiling her like that, and giving her false ideas of +her importance, could be a good plan. Not that it will last. She is a +pauper, and will be made to see that she is one, sooner or later. She has +nothing but what he gives her, I know, for I have asked her; but she would +not tell me why she separated from her husband. Americans are so absurdly +secretive and sensitive! Do you know, she was vexed by the inquiry? A +great mistake, as I told her, to get rid of him, unless he was a dangerous +brute: men are so useful, and 'grass-widows,' as they say here, are always +looked down upon. Did you ever know anything so idle as those Brown women? +The men here are very active and 'go-ahead,' as they call it, but the +women seem to do one of two things,--either they hold their hands +altogether and are a thousand times more idle than any queen or duchess, +or they work themselves to death, and are cooks, sempstresses, maids, +housemaids, nurses, governesses, ladies, and a dozen other things rolled +into one,--poor things! Thank heaven I am not an American lady." + +"I see what you mean," said Miss Noel. "That dear, sweet girl Bijou has +had no practical training whatever. She was amazed that I should make +Ethel dye her white kid slippers (when they were soiled) for morning use; +and when she saw me getting up some dainty bits of old point that I do not +trust to Parsons, she asked me why I bothered with the old stuff and +didn't buy new. She has absolutely no idea of the value of money or of +household management. On the other hand, that little Mrs. Grey, their +friend, told me that she did all the sewing for her twelve children; and +Mrs. Grey has not taken a holiday of even a few weeks for twenty years. I +can't think how it is they don't break down altogether." + +But it was the children of the Brown household that awakened the liveliest +surprise in the minds of these ladies,--an astonishment wholly free from +admiration or approval, for they were children of a type with which +Americans are sadly familiar, but which had never come under their notice +before. The little Graysons were utterly undisciplined, and got their own +way in everything. Their grandfather, aunt, mother, and nurses combined +were powerless to control them, and would give them anything but what they +most needed. They pervaded the whole house, and were the hub of it; they +ate at all hours, and of whatever they fancied. They had no regular hour +for going to bed, but fell asleep everywhere, and were removed with the +utmost precaution. Mrs. Sykes, going there, would find them jumping up and +down with muddy feet on the drawing-room sofas or playing on the new grand +piano with the poker. Miss Noel one day found Mr. Brown in a great state +of perturbation, calling out, "Helen! Jane! Bijou! Come here, quick! The +baby is bumping his head on the floor!" (The baby being three years old.) +"Don't get angry, darling. If you won't bump your head, grandpa will bring +you a wax doll from Kalsing to-morrow." Another day, baby's sister in +banging on the window-pane struck through the glass and cut her fist. +"Poor little dear! Poor childie! Let me bind it up quickly. Harry, love, +bid nurse fetch the arnica at once," exclaimed Miss Noel; but the patient +stamped and shrieked, and would not have her hand examined or doctored by +anybody, whereupon her admiring mother said, "Jenny has always been that +way. She has a great deal of character, Miss Noel." + +"A very undisciplined one, I fear," replied that lady emphatically. She +could scarcely believe that she heard aright when, on asking this model +parent what her plans were for the summer, she said,-- + +"I am going to try Saratoga again. We were there last year, and I went +prepared to stay until the 1st of October. I liked it very much; it was +very gay and pleasant; but Harry got tired of it, and wouldn't stay after +the second week, so I packed up and went to Long Branch, which he has +always liked." + +"Your brother, or uncle?" inquired Miss Noel, in perfect good faith. + +"No, my little Harry," replied the placid mother. + +The very appearance of the children, fragile, delicate-looking, nervous, +was in striking contrast to the solid, rosy, somewhat stolid English +children to whom she was accustomed. They were pretty, quite abnormally +intelligent she thought, and as attractive as such rearing would permit +them to become; but their habits and manners positively afflicted her. She +pined to put them to bed at seven o'clock, keep them four or five hours of +every day in the open air, give them simple, nourishing food,--in short, +inaugurate the wholesome nursery system of her own country. To see them +sitting down to table without saying their grace or putting on their +pinafores, and order of the servant soups full of condiments, veal, any or +all of eight vegetables, pickles, tarts, pudding, jelly, custard, +fruit-cake, bon-bons, strong coffee, cheese, almonds, raisins, figs, more +custard, raisins again, and more fruit-cake, all despatched in great haste, +with no attention to the proper use of napkin, knife, fork, or spoon, was +acutely disagreeable to her; and it was amusing to see her efforts to +insinuate, as it were, better things into their daily life. "Nice, clever +children," she would say,--"so delicate-featured, and so refined in +appearance, but, heavens! what a monstrous system of education!" She had +taken a fancy to Bijou from the first, and she soon noticed in her a great +many little evidences of weariness, discontent, unhappiness; also that she +was alternately very pale and depressed or flushed and animated. She took +the girl therefore under her motherly wing, lectured her a little in her +gentle way about some things, praised her in others, and was very kind to +her. + +"My dear," she would say, "do you not eat entirely too many sweets, +bon-bons, and what not, and then go without proper food at the regular +meals?" Or it would be, "How do you occupy yourself, as a rule, dear +child? Do you district-visit, botanize, sketch, learn a language? What do +you do? You would enjoy a course of belles-lettres, and should take that. +And that head in crayons that you did at school was pleasantly executed: +why not study from life constantly?" Bijou had to confess that she did +nothing, and not even that industriously. "But, my dear, you are not an +Asiatic. You surely don't wish to be a doll, a plaything, self-indulgent, +helpless, leading a life of mere luxurious indulgence and artificiality?" + +No, Bijou had no such wish; but what was the use of learning or doing +anything now as a girl? If she married, it would be different; but then +she would never, never marry. But Miss Noel insisted that an idle woman +was a miserable woman, married or single, and was brisk and cheerful and +kind, and devised a number of small employments for Bijou, whom she kept +with her a great deal, and so befriended her as effectually as Mr. Ketchum +had done Mr. Ramsay. Mrs. Sykes found fault with her once or twice, but +did not find her all meekness. + +"Why do you talk of 'an elegant breeze'?" she said to her one day. + +"For the same reason that you spoke of 'a beautiful roast' yesterday," +retorted the young lady, who might be broken-hearted, but was certainly +not broken-spirited. "I know better, and I suppose you do, but we are both +careless." + +Matters drifted along in this way until a certain morning spent by Mr. +Ramsay at the Browns',--eventful because a little thing happened which +convinced him that Bijou cared for him. He came home with a new pang +substituted for those he had been enduring for a lover's age. After dinner +he tramped off for a long walk alone, in the course of which it may fairly +be presumed that he decided what course to take, for early on the +following day he called especially, for the second time, upon Mr. Brown. + +"I have come to tell you that I can't come here any more," he said, +holding his hat with his accustomed grace, and going in his +straightforward fashion immediately to the subject in his mind. "And I +wish to thank you for bein' so kind to me and receivin' me as you have +done, and to tell you why I am actin' in this way." + +"Why, what's the matter? Going away? Isn't this rather sudden?" asked +Brown _p?_, all unsuspicious of what was to come. + +"Oh, it isn't _that_! Though of course I shall be goin'. It is that I +can't marry. That is what it is. You should have been told of it before, +by rights, only I kept puttin' it off. You have a perfect right to blame +me for not sayin' so long ago, when you were good enough to admit me here +on an intimate footin'. It was a shabby, dishonorable thing of me, and I +hope you'll forgive it, rememberin' that it was not my intention to +deceive you," said Mr. Ramsay. "It wasn't, now, really." + +"But, my dear fellow, of what are you accusing yourself? There must be +some mistake. What has that got to do with your visits here?" asked Mr. +Brown. + +"Why, don't you see?--don't you object to me bein' thrown so much with +Miss Brown, under the circumstances?" stammered out Mr. Ramsay. + +"Not the least in the world,--not the least in the world, I assure you. +Delighted to see you, I am sure, whenever you like to come," said Mr. +Brown, with hospitable warmth. "Why should I? There is no necessity for +your marrying anybody, that I can see. What put such a foolish idea in +your head?" + +"But I thought you would think--she would think I thought--that is--as you +might say--" + +A hearty laugh from Mr. Brown interrupted him: "Why, you seem to have +thought a good deal on the subject. The most extraordinary idea! Excuse my +saying so. This house is always full of young men dancing attendance on +Bijou, who is as popular a girl as there is; but I don't trouble _my_ head +about them, I can assure you. No, indeed. Half of them don't want to marry +Bijou, and she don't want to marry any of them that I know of. And I guess +I shall be told when the affair comes off, so that I can order the +wedding-cake. Why, they are just all young people together. It don't mean +anything. They just naturally like each other's society. They are amusing +themselves,--that's all; and quite right, too." + +Mr. Ramsay had never conceived of such a philosophical parent or agreeable +state of affairs. He was very much embarrassed, and caught at a familiar +idea in his confusion. "That's what I thought you would think,--that I was +amusin' myself. And I wanted to tell you that I am not, you know. I have +far too much respect for Miss Brown to dream of doin' such a thing," he +said very eagerly. + +"Oh, you mean at her expense? I understand now. Well, now, let me make +your mind perfectly easy on that score. Bijou can take care of herself as +well as any girl in America, and I never thought of such a thing. If you +are thinking of _her_, that's all right. If you are thinking of yourself, +of course that is another thing. She isn't thinking of marrying _you_. She +doesn't care anything about you in that way, I am certain. I should have +noticed it if she had been," said Mr. Brown, who labored under the usual +parental delusion as to his daughter's heart having a glass window through +which he could see all that went on there. + +"I am tryin' to do what is best for both of us," said Mr. Ramsay honestly, +blushing profusely. "And I came to say good-by. And here is a little note +I have written Miss Brown. I have left it open, in case you wished to see +it." + +"Not at all,--not at all. Bijou would blow me up sky-high if she caught me +reading it, I can tell you. I'll give it to her, certainly. I think you +are giving yourself unnecessary concern; but your scruples, though novel, +do you honor. If you think it best to give us up, you are, as far as you +are personally concerned, the best judge. Good-by. Send us a line to say +how you like the West. Good-by," said Mr. Brown, and smilingly accompanied +him to the front door. + +Papa Brown gave his daughter the note, which ran as follows: + +"MY DEAR MISS BROWN,--I am going away, and you have been so awfully kind +to me that I know you will excuse me writing to say how awfully grateful I +am to your family for receiving a stranger as they have done." + +Here "I shall often think of you" was carefully scratched out, and "I +shall always remember it and the pleasant hours I have spent with them" +substituted. + +"And now I have got to say a disagreeable word, which is good-by. I hope +you will have a fine hot summer and will think of me sometimes when you +are spooning tremendously at croquet,--as you know you do, though it isn't +fair. With best regards to all the members of your household, I am + +"Faithfully yours, + +"ARTHUR RAMSAY. + +"P.S.--If I should drop into a good thing you will hear of it." + +Mr. Ramsay had taken four hours to compose something that should not be +actionable or compromising, and yet that should convey some idea of the +state of his mind and feelings, and had turned out this masterpiece, which +Bijou read in bitterness of soul over and over again. + +"Excuse me writing," "fine hot summer," "croquet," she quoted mentally. +"After all that has passed between us! If he had really cared for me, and +anything had separated us, he would have had the common honesty and +manliness to say so. No; he thinks me another Liverpool girl, 'hard hit.' +He is running away from _me_." At this cruel idea, so abhorrent to her +vanity, pride, affection, and general womanhood, the poor girl sank down +on her bed overwhelmed, and did not leave her room for three days,--or +rather eternities,--at the end of which time she met Mr. Ramsay by +accident on the high-road and cut him dead. + +"I must pull myself together and get away out of this," said Mr. Ramsay to +Mr. Ketchum that evening. "I have bought of Albert Brown his ranch in +Colorado, near Taylorsville, and I leave in the morning." + +"WHAT!" cried Mr. Ketchum. "Has he sold you that tumble-down claim on a +burnt prairie, miles from any wood or water? I know the place." + +"I haven't examined the property; but he assures me it is a fine one. And, +anyway, it is settled, I am going. A thousand thanks for all your kindness, +Ketchum. An Englishman that I met in New York wants me to go huntin' with +him, and I shall join him at St. Louis and go on out from there." + +"Why, I thought you had all promised to go to Niagara as my guests in a +few days. Do change your mind and stay, won't you?" urged Mr. Ketchum. + +But Mr. Ramsay was obdurate, and took himself and a car-load of property +off in the direction of the setting sun by the mid-day train next morning. + +"Ramsay, I want you to promise me one thing. If, owing to that skunk Brown, +you are disappointed out there, or don't get on, write or telegraph me, +and I'll stand by you to the tune of ten thousand or so. Good-by, old +fellow. Remember, I'm your _friend_," said generous Job, at the station. +And as he went home he stopped and presented Mr. Albert Brown with a piece +of his mind that any other man would only have taken in exchange for a +flogging, delivered. + +"How very nice and kind of the dear duke to give Mr. Ramsay an invite to +join him!" said Mrs. Sykes, with emotion, at dinner that day. + +F.C. BAYLOR. + +[TO BE CONTINUED.] + + * * * * * + + + + +A TEMPLE PILGRIMAGE + + +Sauntering down the southerly side of Fleet Street, toward the historic +spot where once stood Temple Bar, crested with its ghastly array of +pike-pierced traitors' heads, the curious itinerant comes to an arched +gate-way of Elizabethan architecture. The narrow lane which it guards is +known as Inner Temple Street, and cleaves the Temple enclosure into +unequal parts, ending at the river. Standing in the shady archway, with +the roar and rattle, the glare and glitter, of Fleet Street at our backs, +we instinctively feel that we are about to enter a new and strange +locality, the quiet atmosphere and the cloister-like walks of which seem +redolent of books and the pursuits of bookish men. + +We are on the threshold of the Temple,--a spot than which none in all this +historic metropolis is more replete with memories of the storied past. Nor +does its interest consist solely in its associations with the men and +manners of a by-gone epoch. Despite its antique architecture and its +quaint observances, the Temple still maintains its reputation for +scholarship and legal acumen. Its virility is fitly symbolized in the +venerable and vigorous trees whose branching boughs wave above its walls: +sound to the core, it sends forth new scions with perennial freshness. + +The gray gate-way under which we have halted is one of the two chief +entrances to the Temple. It was built in the reign of James I., being +consequently nearly three centuries old. White-aproned porters, with +numbered pewter badge on lapel, stand on either side, ready--for a +consideration--to direct our transatlantic ignorance into veritable "paths +of pleasantness and peace." Access to the Middle Temple from Fleet Street +is had by way of another gate-house, built by Sir Christopher Wren in 1684, +soon after the Great Fire. It is in the style of Inigo Jones, of reddish +brick, with stone pointing. There are several other entrances,--many of +them known only to the initiated,--through intricate courts and passages +debouching on Fleet Street and the surrounding thoroughfares, and one from +the river at Temple Pier; but, chiefly because of their proximity to the +New Courts of Law, these two gate-ways are most frequented. + +The boundaries of this famous abode of British wit and intellect may be +roughly sketched as follows: on the north, Fleet Street; on the south, the +Thames and the Victoria Embankment; on the east, Serjeants' Inn and the +Whitefriars region; on the west, Essex Street, Strand. These boundaries +remain substantially as they were six or seven centuries ago. The Middle +Temple lies nearest the river; the Inner Temple is nearer to Fleet Street, +and "inside"--that is, on the "city" side--of Temple Bar. Essex House and +its purlieus, once the abode of the powerful earls of that name, were +formerly a part of the Temple. It was called the Outer Temple, because +"outside" of Temple Bar. + +In the reign of Henry II., about the year 1185, the ground now included in +the Temple area became the head-quarters in London of the crusading +Knights Templar. Removing from humbler quarters in Holborn, the order, +having become wealthy and ambitious, bought a tract of land extending from +the walls of Essex House to Whitefriars, and from the river to Fleet +Street. They erected a church, a priory, and other buildings clustered +around in the mediaeval fashion, and in imitation of the Temple near the +Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. + +Under the first Richard and the third Henry the Templars increased in pelf, +power, and pride. After a career commenced in zeal and purity, +culminating in valor and fanaticism, and closing in corruption and +indolence, in the year 1312, when the second Edward sat on the throne of +England, the now useless order was formally abolished by Clement V., the +reigning Pontiff. The Temple domain, by grant of the crown, then passed to +Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, who conveyed it to the Earl of +Lancaster, a cousin of Edward II. It was then rented to the professors and +students of the common law, who had recently become an incorporate body, +In 1333 the Temple had apparently reverted to the crown, for we find +Edward III. farming out the rents for twenty-five pounds a year. + +The Knights Hospitallers of St. John, meantime, affected to be much +scandalized at what they deemed a desecration of holy ground, and claimed +the custody of the place. In 1340, in consideration of a hundred golden +guineas contributed toward the armament against France, the king made over +the Temple to the Hospitallers. They handsomely endowed the church with +lands, and gave "a thousand fagots yearly from Lillerton Wood to nourish +the church fires." + +The records of the Temple date back no further than the reign of Henry +VII., so that the history of the previous period; is more or less obscure +and traditional: the precise manner in which the Temple passed from the +control of the sword to that of the wig and gown is not certain. The +Hospitallers of St. John, who already possessed a priory at Clerkenwell, +in the north of London, after having vindicated the sanctity of the church +and cloisters, are believed to have leased the buildings and the demesne +to the lawyers for the rent of ten pounds, payable yearly. Another account +says that the latter purchased the property outright. However this may +have been, in the reign of Richard II. we find the legal fraternity of the +metropolis securely domiciled in the locality they have ever since +tenaciously clung to. + +Even so early as the time of Henry VI. the brotherhood of lawyers had +attained to an unwieldy growth, and it separated into two halls, the +original two halls of the Knights Templar forming the nuclei around which +the frequenters of each grouped themselves. Thus arose the Middle and +Inner Temple. Under the eighth Henry the two societies became direct +tenants of the crown once more. In 1609 James I. granted "letters patent +to the mansion of the Inner Temple," at a yearly rent of ten sovereigns; +and a like sum was exacted for the Middle Temple. The societies have not +been disturbed in their holdings since that time. + +The Temple to-day comprises two of the four great Inns of Court, +--Lincoln's Inn, Gray's Inn, Inner Temple, Middle Temple,--which, taken +collectively, constitute the backbone of the legal polity of England. Ben +Jonson described them as "the noblest nurseries of humanity and liberty in +the kingdom." They are all of great age and the recipients of rich +revenues. The income of the Middle Temple alone (not the richest of the +four) from the single item of rents is about thirteen thousand pounds +yearly; but the affairs of the Inns are so shrouded in administrative +secrecy that exact information on this topic is not easily obtained. + +Until recently there was a fifth,--Serjeants' Inn, the members of which +were lawyers who had risen to the rank of serjeant, or to the bench +itself. Formerly such promotions terminated membership in the original Inn; +but since the abolishment of the rank of sergeant at the English bar +Serjeants' Inn has ceased to exist,--the name surviving only in the +locality,--and the four Inns have readmitted those of their members on +whom judicial honors were bestowed. + +Each Inn possesses certain smaller or subordinate Inns, which formerly +served as preparatory schools, but which are now mere collections of +chambers. There are thus attached to the Inner Temple Clement's Inn, +Clifford's Inn, and Lyon's Inn; to the Middle Temple, New Inn. + +All the Inns of Court are unincorporated voluntary societies. In our +modern nomenclature the name "inn" may seem a strange one for an +institution of learning; but the term is a literal rendering of the +ancient title _hospitia_ applied to them in the Latin records, as +distinguished from public lodging-houses (_diversoria_). + +Each Inn consists of a hall, a chapel, a law-library, a set of rooms for +the benchers, and a large number of houses, divided into small suites +known as "chambers," and occupied chiefly by barristers, solicitors, and +students, though tenancy is not restricted to these classes. The quiet, +the studious environment, and the freedom from certain social obligations +unavoidable in more fashionable quarters, have at all times rendered +residence in the several Inns peculiarly attractive to that large class in +England which consists in the main of young men of good family, moderate +fortune, and no particular occupation. + +The Inns possess the exclusive right of "calling students to the bar,"[A] +also of "disbarring" a barrister for questionable practices,--a right +exercised by Gray's Inn in 1864 in the case of the late erratic but +brilliant Dr. Kenealy, counsel for the notorious Tichborne "claimant." +From their decision no court, as such, can give relief. The disbarred one +has only the right of appeal to and review by certain of the judges. The +Inns neither govern nor license attorneys, who are admitted to practice by +the courts. + +[Footnote A: The origin of this term dates from the venerable custom of +calling students to the bar that divided the benchers' dais from the body +of the hall to bear their part in the "meetings" or discussions on knotty +legal topics. We are informed by Lord Campbell that Sir Edward Coke "first +evinced his forensic powers when deputed by the students to make a +representation to the benchers of the Inner Temple at one of the 'moots' +respecting the poor quality of the commons served in the hall. He argued +with so much quickness of penetration and solidity of judgment that he +gave entire satisfaction to the students and was much admired by the +benchers."] + +The Middle Temple affiliates with the Universities of London and Durham. A +residence of three years and the keeping of twelve "commons" entitle a +gentleman to be called to its bar, after certain qualifying examinations, +if he be above twenty-three years of age. In the Inner Temple (by far the +richest and most popular of the two societies) the candidate for admission +must have taken his B.A. or passed an examination at the Universities of +Oxford, Cambridge, or London. No one in holy orders can be called, and +none are admitted without the consent of the benchers. The candidate must +also furnish a statement in writing, outlining his rank, age, and +residence, accompanied by a voucher as to his respectability signed by a +bencher or two barristers. In short, the Inns of Court may be described as +universities "with power to grant degrees in the municipal law of England, +which constitute indispensable qualifications for practice in the superior +courts of law." To secure these ends they have from time immemorial +enjoyed the protection of the crown. + +In former times the curriculum was comprehensive and the discipline +severe. The fare provided was frugal, and the chambers were sparsely +furnished. Luxury was tabooed, and the rules were rigidly enforced. From +early morning till the hour of five in the evening, when supper was served, +not an hour was wasted. Fortescue, writing in the time of Henry VI., +gives a graphic account of these law-schools as they were in his day. +"Students resort hither in great numbers to be taught as in common +schools. Here they learn to sing and to exercise themselves in all kinds +of harmony. On the working days they study law, and on the holy days +Scripture, and their demeanor is like the behavior of such as are coupled +together in perfect amity. There is no place where are found so many +students past childhood as here." But in these degenerate days, when the +_jeunesse dorée_ decorate their "dens" with Queen Anne furniture, Turkish +rugs, and choice bric-à -brac, it has been jocosely said that "dining in +hall is the only legal study of Temple students." Of late years, however, +"the best professional sentiment" has strongly and successfully tended in +favor of keeping up the standard of these institutions as true seminaries +of learning. Ample courses of lectures have been introduced, also +subsequent searching examinations. + +A glance at a map of the Temple shows conclusively that it has no +connected plan. Its growth has been the outcome of the needs of many +generations during the last half-dozen centuries, and it is at present a +picturesque conglomeration of buildings of all sizes and shapes and styles, +erected with no regard for architectural beauty or symmetry, and with no +very great adaptability to their past or present use. Aside from the halls +and libraries of the two societies, the Church of St. Mary, and one or two +blocks of chambers, like Paper Buildings, there is no salient feature to +impress the eye. Yet the uniform ugliness of some of the buildings +constitutes not the least of their attractions. A hard grayish stone +frequently appears, though there are a number of brick houses so mellowed +by age that it would be difficult to name their original hue. + +The chambers are frequently massed around four sides of a stone-paved +court, from which direct entrance is had to the main staircases. In some +of these flagged spaces a fountain tinkles; in others, sturdy elm- or +plane-trees tower far above the red chimney-stacks; in the centre of +another is the famous Temple pump. The several courts have distinguishing +names, such as Garden Court, Pump Court, and Brick Court, and they connect +with each other sometimes by an arched passage under the houses, at two +sides of the square, or again by narrow alleys. Nor is the same level +always preserved. Small flights of time-worn steps continually surprise us +in our pilgrimage. The aggregate--barren courts, narrow passages, and +winding lanes--forms a perfect labyrinth, very trying to a stranger or to +one possessing a poor memory for localities. + +The nomenclature of certain of these Temple courts possesses a breezy, +countrified sound, utterly unsuggestive of musty tomes and special +pleadings. Thus, we have Elm-Tree Court, Vine Court, Fig-Tree Court, and +Fountain Court. The reader will recall to mind the fact that it was in the +last-named locality, with its sprightly, sparkling, upward-springing +stream, that Ruth Pinch--"gentle, loving Ruth"--held tryst with her lover, +manly John Westlock. Letitia Elizabeth Landon, too, has embalmed this "pet +and plaything of the Temple" in some pleasant stanzas: + + The fountain's low singing is heard on the wind, + Like a melody bringing sweet fancies to mind,-- + Some to grieve, some to gladden: around them they cast + The hopes of the morrow, the dreams of the past. + Away in the distance is heard the vast sound + From the streets of the city that compass it round, + Like the echo of fountains, or the ocean's deep call; + Yet that fountain's low singing is heard over all. + +Entering the houses, we find them mostly of a stereotyped pattern. A +wainscoted, dark, and generally uncarpeted staircase gives access to +landings on which abut the outer doors of the "sets," or chambers. These +consist of two, three, or at most four rooms, in the style peculiar to the +domestic architecture of the earlier years of the present century. High +corniced ceilings, wainscoted walls, and shoulder-high chimney-pieces +abound. Here and there, however, some opulent tenant has modernized his +rooms; but the structures, inside and out, remain for the most part not +materially changed from the later Georgian era of their erection,--a time +when every gentleman sported a small-sword and ladies wore hoops and +patches. The famous garden forms one of the chief charms of the Temple +enclosure, and its beauty and atmosphere of quiet repose are justly +celebrated. Here Shakespeare is believed to have sat and thought out some +of his most masterly creations; here many of the great legal luminaries of +the last few centuries walked and talked; and here the infantile footsteps +of the subsequently famous "Elia" chased butterflies across the velvety +sward. "The Temple Garden," says Mr. Walter Thornbury, "has probably been +a garden from the time the white-robed Templars first came from Holborn +and settled by the river-side." It covers an expanse of three acres, and +its gay flower-beds, umbrageous trees, and emerald turf make it a +veritable oasis to the inhabitants, and especially to the children, of +that corner of the great metropolis. A pillar sundial in the centre of the +grass bears the date 1770, and the iron gate, surmounted by a winged horse, +which guards the entrance from the terrace, was erected in 1730. East of +the sundial is a hoary old sycamore, sole survivor of three sisters, +carefully protected by railings, under whose grateful shade, says local +tradition, Johnson and Goldsmith were wont to chat. In the Middle Temple +Garden stands a venerable catalpa-tree, planted by Sir Matthew Hale, "one +of the most eminent of lawyers and excellent of men." The scene in "King +Henry the Sixth,"[A] where the partisans of the rival houses of Lancaster +and York assume the distinctive badges of the white and red rose, is laid +in the Temple Garden. "Toward evening," says Dr. Dibdin, "it was the +fashion for the leading counsel to promenade during the summer months in +the Temple Gardens. Cocked hats and ruffles, with satin small-clothes, at +that time constituted the usual evening dress." Anciently, the "moots" +were held on the terrace of the Garden at five of the clock in the long +summer evenings. + +[Footnote A: Part I., act 2, scene 4.] + +The great hall of the Middle Temple is one of the finest Elizabethan +structures in the metropolis. It was commenced in 1562, when the old hall +was converted into chambers, consumed a decade in building, and is of +grand proportions. It is a hundred feet long, and the massive beauty of +the glossy oaken roof, almost black with age, is alone worth an Atlantic +voyage to see. The walls and windows are decorated with the arms of +various members of the Inn, and the paintings are numerous and of great +historical interest. Over the dais is a portrait of Charles I. on +horse-back, by Vandyke, one of the three original paintings of the unhappy +monarch by that great master. Another of the trio is at Windsor, while the +third adorns Warwick Castle. There are also copies of portraits of Charles +II., James II., William III., Queen Anne, and George II., and marble busts, +by Behnes, of "Doubting" Lord Eldon and Lord Stowell, the great Admiralty +judge. The screen and the music-gallery are marvels of the wood-carver's +art. Tradition says the screen was made of oak from the timbers of the +wrecked Invincible Armada; but this cannot be, inasmuch as it was set up a +dozen years before the doomed squadron sailed out of Lisbon harbor. + +The Middle Temple Library, a handsome building of recent erection, +situated on the river side of the Inn, at the southwest corner of the +Temple Gardens, was opened by the Prince of Wales, October 31, 1861. While +it is of nobler proportions than the library of the Inner Temple, it does +not seem to be so well suited for the purposes of the student. Its +location, however, is far more pleasant, on the margin of the +flower-mantled garden, and within sight of the busy Victoria Embankment +and of the panoramic river scenery. From the great oriel window a noble +vista is unrolled. In the distance, the twin-towered Houses of Parliament +are outlined against the sky, while the massive proportions of the "water +front" of Somerset House, the motley groupings of the structures that +crowd the intervening water-side, and the flashing river hound by +many-arched bridges, fill the middle distance. + +Aside from the lustre shed around its history by many eminent lawyers and +jurists, the Middle Temple has numbered among its students several great +poets and dramatists, notably John Ford, William Congreve, Nicholas Rowe, +Thomas Shadwell, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and Thomas Moore. But, as +their literary remains prove, few or none of them prosecuted their legal +studies with that sedulous devotion which the law, proverbially a jealous +mistress, demands. Sir William Blackstone, who immortalized his name by +his "Commentaries on the Laws of England," was educated in the Middle +Temple, where he was entered as a student, November 20, 1741, and by which +he was called to the bar, April 26, 1750. In his Temple chambers, ere he +finally consecrated his massive intellect to the legal profession, +Blackstone wrote the famous "Farewell to the Muses:" + + Lull'd by the lapse of gliding floods, + Cheer'd by the warbling of the woods, + How blest my days, my thoughts how free, + In sweet society with thee! + Then all was joyous, all was young, + And years, unheeded, roll'd along; + But now the pleasing dream is o'er,-- + These scenes must charm me now no more. + Lost to the field and torn from you, + Farewell! a long, a last adieu. + +Edmund Burke was entered at the Middle Temple in 1747, and kept his terms +in 1750. But the great tribune was never called to the bar. Had he been, +what a powerful advocate, what a pitiless adversary, he would have made! +Porson, the brilliant but bibulous classicist, has left behind him many +sad stories of his pranks during his residence in Essex Court, where he +had chambers immediately above those occupied by the future Baron Gurney, +whom, in one of his debauches, he came near burning in his bed. Chaucer is +believed to have entered as a student of the Middle Temple, where he is +supposed to have formed a friendship with the "moral Gower." Sir Walter +Raleigh, Sir Thomas Overbury, Sir Edward Bramston, Lord-Keeper Guildford, +Edmund Plowden,--perhaps the greatest lawyer of the Elizabethan epoch, +--"Ugly" Dunning, who afterward became Lord Ashburton, and Lord Eldon, are +among the ornaments of the British bench and bar who sprung from the +Middle Temple. + +Now, however, the glories of the Middle Temple rest chiefly in the past. +It has decreased in wealth and in numbers. There is an old proverb which +says, "The Inner Temple for the rich, the Middle Temple for the poor;" and +a famous wit emphasized this saying by a happy _mot_. After one of its far +from _recherché_ dinners, he compared a gritty salad, of which he had been +unlucky enough to partake, to "eating a gravel walk and meeting an +occasional weed." + +The hall of the Inner Temple is a modern building, and was opened by the +Princess Louise on May 4, 1870. More spacious than the one it replaced, it +contains a number of cosy offices and ante-rooms. There is also attached a +lunch-room for the use of members, much frequented in term-time, when at +the mid-day hour one may meet many of the great practitioners at the +English bar. Passable portraits of William and Mary, Queen Anne, Lord +Chief-Justice Coke, and Sir Thomas Littleton look upon the visitor, and +the arms of the successive treasurers of the Inn are blazoned on the walls. + +The Inner Temple Library is the most attractive, quiet, and convenient of +any in the four Inns. Its plan comprises a series of book-lined apartments +leading one into another. Besides a valuable and voluminous collection of +authorities on legal topics, it possesses a unique array of works on +general subjects. It stands on the terrace, and commands a view of the +river. The noble hammer-beam roof is a fine specimen of its kind, spanning +a chamber forty-two feet wide and ninety-six feet long. One of the +stained-glass windows is emblazoned with the Templars' escutcheon. The +debating-hall is in the Tudor style, and cost not far from seventy-five +thousand dollars. + +Several great jurists and a number of men equally eminent in other walks +of life were connected with the Inner Temple, pre-eminent among whom stand +Sir Christopher Hatton, Lord-Chancellor of England in 1587, and nicknamed +the "Dancing Chancellor," Lord Tenterden, "one of the greatest Englishmen +who ever sat in the seat of Gamaliel," who was admitted in 1795, and John +Selden, who took up residence in Paper Buildings in 1604. The latter were +consumed in the great fire of 1666. Audley, chancellor to the eighth Henry, +Nicholas Hare, privy councillor to the latter monarch and Master of the +Rolls under Mary, who resided in the court which now bears his name, the +eminent lawyer Littleton and his no less famous commentator Coke, Lord +Buckburst, Beaumont the poet, Sir William Follett, and Judge Jeffries of +infamous memory, were all students within the Temple precincts. + +Charles Lamb, whose father, John Lamb, was clerk to Mr. Salt, a bencher of +the Inner Temple, was born in Crown Office Row. In 1809 he took chambers +at No. 4, Inner Temple Lane, where some of the delightful "Elia" essays +were penned. In one of these he says, "I was born and passed the first +seven years of my life in the Temple. Its church, its halls, its gardens, +its fountains, its river, I had almost said,--for in those young years +what was the king of rivers to me but a stream that watered our pleasant +places?--these are of my oldest recollections. I repeat to this day no +verses more frequently or with kindlier emotion than those of Spenser +where he speaks of this spot. Indeed, it is the most elegant spot in the +metropolis. What a transition for a countryman visiting London for the +first time,--the passing from the crowded Strand or Fleet Street by +unexpected avenues into its magnificent ample squares, its classic green +recesses! What a cheerful, liberal look hath that portion of it which, +from three sides, overlooks the greater garden, that goodly pile + + Of buildings strong, albeit of paper hight,[A] + +confronting with massy contrast the lighter, older, more fantastically +shrouded one named of Harcourt, with the cheerful Crown Office Row (place +of my kindly engendure), right opposite the stately stream which washes +the garden foot with her yet scarcely trade-polluted waters and seems but +just weaned from Twickenham Na?es! A man would give something to have been +born in such places. What a collegiate aspect has that fine Elizabethan +hall where the fountain plays which I have made to rise and fall how many +times, to the astonishment of the young urchins my contemporaries, who, +not being able to guess at its recondite machinery, were tempted to hail +the wondrous work as magic." Though its courts may have been "magnificent" +and "ample" to the contemplation of the kindly Lamb, they would scarce be +so accounted now. + +[Footnote A: Paper Buildings.] + +The "great Cham of Literature," Dr. Samuel Johnson, resided for some time +at No. 1, Inner Temple Lane. Indeed, it was while the doctor was living in +the Temple that the world-famous "Literary Club" was founded. The faithful +and receptive Boswell, too, as might be expected, lived within easy +distance of the object of his veneration, at the foot of Inner Temple +Lane. It was in 1763 that Boswell first made the acquaintance of the +"Great Bear" and called on him in his Temple chambers. + +Cowper the poet, as the reader doubtless remembers, at first embraced the +law as his profession. He was duly articled to a solicitor of some +eminence; but with how little ardor he devoted himself to the study may be +inferred from the following candid confession: "I did actually live three +years with Mr. Chapman, a solicitor,--that is to say, I slept three years +in his house, but I lived, I spent my days, in Southampton Row. Here was I +and the future Lord Chancellor [Thurlow] constantly employed from morning +till night in giggling and making giggle instead of studying law." It is +not surprising, as one of his biographers remarks, that when, at the age +of twenty-one, he proudly became the occupant of a set of chambers in the +Middle Temple, "he neither sought business nor business sought him." + +While domiciled here, the hideous malady which darkened his manhood began +to cast its gloomy pall on his mind. In the year 1759 he removed from the +Middle Temple to better quarters in the Inner Temple. For a time the +change seemed beneficial, but in 1763 what had hitherto been mere morbid +melancholy became something very near the dreaded insanity. "I was struck, +" he says, "not long after my settlement in the Temple, with such +dejection of spirits as none but they who have felt the same can have the +least conception of. Day and night I was upon the rack, lying down in +horror and rising up in despair." His residence at the Temple extended in +all through eleven years. The year above mentioned, the last of that term, +found the poet in straitened circumstances. The twin offices of +reading-clerk and clerk of committees in the House of Lords became vacant +at this juncture, and both were at the disposal of a cousin of Cowper's. +They were duly conferred on the poet. But the duties of these positions +necessitated frequent attendance before the Peers, and to one who suffered +from a morbid nervousness this prospect was most distasteful. Hence, +almost immediately after having accepted them, Cowper resigned these posts +and took instead that of clerk of the journals. Now another difficulty +intervened. It was necessary, in order to qualify for this place, that he +should undergo an examination at the bar of the House of Peers; and thus +"the evil from which he seemed to have escaped again met him." + +"A thunderbolt," he writes, "would have been as welcome to me as this +intelligence. To require my attendance at the bar of the House, that I +might there publicly entitle myself to the office, was in effect to +exclude me from it. In the mean time, the interest of my friend, the honor +of his choice, my own reputation and circumstances, all urged me forward, +all urged me to undertake what I saw to be impracticable." The mental +agony he suffered was wellnigh unbearable. He even contemplated with some +calmness the coming of mental derangement, that thereby he might have good +reason for throwing up the appointment. He made many attempts to destroy +himself. "He purchased laudanum, but threw it away. He went down to the +Custom-House Quay to throw himself into the river. He tried to stab +himself." Finally, the most desperate attempt of all to extinguish the +lamp of life took place in his Temple chambers. Thrice he essayed to hang +himself by his garter,--first on his high canopy bedstead, and then on the +door. + +The public way which, starting at Fleet Street, runs between the Temple +Church and Goldsmith Buildings, is a curious thoroughfare,--street it +cannot be called. It inclines somewhat toward the river, with a very +narrow foot-walk, scarcely wide enough for two to pass abreast. On one +side is the hoary sanctuary, and on the other a row of gloomy, +flat-fronted houses, whose dirty windows blink drowsily on the flagged way +beneath. + +The pavement of a part of this thoroughfare is unique. It consists of old +tombstones. In 1842, the entire available space in the churchyard being +covered with graves, the benchers decided to permit no more interments +there, and ordered it to be paved over. A path now runs directly across +the old cemetery, where rest the bones of the Knights Templar and their +dependants, and many of the sculptured stones have become paving-flags. +Worn and polished by the passage of many feet, the epitaphs are entirely +defaced. Here and there a few letters of antique cut may with difficulty +be deciphered; but soon no sign will survive to tell of this painful +desecration. + +A little outside the roadway the ground is slightly elevated, and near to, +but outside of, the gilt-tipped railings which enclose the Temple Church +lies a very unpretending slab of marble. Rising but a few inches above the +level, one corner sunken and green with earth-mould, it is but a single +remove from the general decay around it. No fence protects it, children +play and fight their mimic battles thereon, and when last we saw it a +group of workmen employed near by were discussing their noontide bread and +cheese and beer in various lounging attitudes upon it. The slab is sadly +chipped, yet it is not nearly so old as the years of the century. Surely +the man whose death it commemorates departed this life + + Unwept, unhonored, and unsung. + +Not so. Let us scrape aside the accumulated dirt, and trace with +finger-tip the fast-vanishing inscription. It says, "Here lies Oliver +Goldsmith." This, then, is the way the world reveres its great ones. Of +what avail a monument to the poet in Westminster Abbey, dignified by the +celebrated epitaph of Dr. Johnson, when his tomb is thus relegated to the +domain of neglect and oblivion? Even the site at present indicated is +"entirely conjectural:" the precise position of the poet's grave has been +long forgotten. + +Goldsmith Buildings, of course, take their name from the erratic poet and +playwright. In one of them he lived and died, just above the rooms +tenanted by the learned Blackstone, who, at that time engaged in penning +the fourth volume of his "Commentaries," was often grievously annoyed by +the dancing- and drinking-parties, the games of blind-man's-buff, and the +noisy singing of "poor Noll" and his boon companions. Goldsmith took up +residence in the Temple in the spring of the year 1764, in a very shabby +set of rooms, which he shared with Jeffs, the butler of the society. Here +Dr. Johnson visited him, says Mr. Forster, "and on prying and peering +about in them after his short-sighted fashion, flattening his face against +every object be looked at, Goldsmith's uneasy sense of their deficiencies +broke out. 'I shall soon be in better chambers, sir, than these,' he said. +'Nay, sir,' answered Johnson, 'never mind that: _nil te quaesiveris +extra_.'" + +In 1765, his purse having become somewhat more plethoric, he removed to +Garden Court, then, as now, one of the choice spots in the Temple Area. +Here he sported a man-servant, and ran head over ears in debt to his +trades-people. Three years later, in 1768, we find the happy-go-lucky +spendthrift squandering four hundred of the five hundred pounds which the +partial success of "The Good-Natured Man" netted him in the purchase of a +set of chambers in No. 2 Brick Court, much to the sorrow of the studious +Blackstone, whose fellow-tenant he thus became. The nocturnal revelries of +Goldy and his intimates are happily described in Mr. Forster's biography. +Supper-parties were frequent, "preceded by blind-man's-buff, forfeits, or +games of cards, when Goldsmith, festively entertaining them all, would +make frugal supper for himself off boiled milk." He would "sing all kinds +of Irish songs," and with special enjoyment "gave them the Scotch ballad +of 'Johnny Armstrong' (his old nurse's favorite);" with great cheerfulness +"he would put the front of his wig behind, or contribute in any other way +to the general amusement;" and to an "accompaniment of uncontrolled +laughter he once danced a minuet with Mrs. Seguin," the wife of an Irish +merchant. + +A volume would not contain the thrilling story of the trials and triumphs, +the struggles and successes, of the dead-and-gone generations whose feet +have polished the cool gray flags of the purlieus of the Temple. Comedy +and tragedy have been enacted within its walls; penury and prodigality +have dwelt beneath the same rafters; the versatile genius and the plodding +dullard have taken their maiden flights toward fame in its halls. Soldiers +and statesmen, poets and playwrights, courtiers, wits, and adventurers, +have herein acted their various parts. Yet, despite the checkered lives +that have run their course within its pale, and notwithstanding the lustre +shed upon its history by the many great jurists nurtured there, the Temple +gains its greatest renown from the residence therein of that famous trio, +Johnson, Goldsmith, and Lamb. + +The immortal pump, so often alluded to in the Temple annals, stands in the +centre of Hare Court,--not in Pump Court, as might not unreasonably be +expected. It yields a copious supply of the coolest spring-water, and the +office-lads of the surrounding chambers make many pilgrimages hither, +stone pitcher in hand, during the sultry summertime. Charles Lamb, in an +epistle to Coleridge, in his happiest vein, says, "I have been turned out +of my chambers in the Temple by a landlord who wanted them for himself; +but I have got others at No. 4, Inner Temple Lane, far more commodious and +roomy.... The rooms are delicious, and the best look backwards into Hare +Court, where there is a pump always going; just now it is dry. Hare +Court's trees come in at the window,--so that it's like living in a +garden." Again, writing from the Temple in 1810 to his friend Manning, who +is in China, Lamb says, "The household gods are slow to come, but here I +mean to live and die. Come, and bring any of your friends the mandarins +with you. My best room commands a court in which are trees and a pump, the +water of which is excellent cold--with brandy, and not very insipid +without." At about the same time we find Mary Lamb recording that her +genial brother had suddenly taken to living like an anchorite. He tabooed +all alcoholic drinks, and confined himself to cold water and cold tea. But +the beverage drawn from Hare Court did not agree with his internal +economy: he suffered in consequence from cramps and rheumatism, and his +abstention from generous fluids was, we are forced to infer, exceedingly +brief. + +The poet Garth, who exposed the apothecaries of London to reprobation and +ridicule in his satirical poem "The Dispensary," also humorously alludes +to Hare Court's pump: + + And dare the college insolently aim + To equal our fraternity in fame? + Then let crabs' eyes with pearls for virtue try, + Or Highgate Hill with lofty Pindus vie; + So glowworms may compare with Titan's beams, + And Hare Court pump with Aganippe's streams. + +The one structure in the Temple area that overshadows all others in point +of interest is the famous round church, consecrated to St. Mary by +Heraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, in the year 1185. This prelate's +presence in England was on an errand to invoke the assistance of Henry II. +against Saladin, who had recently inflicted several disastrous defeats on +the Templars in the Holy Land. + +The church was finished about 1240. It is one of the four round churches +still remaining in England. Its plan is that of a central round tower, +supported by six beautiful clustered columns, crossed by a nave and +transepts. Notwithstanding the lapse of ages, and although its beauties +were for centuries hidden beneath a variety of hideous excrescences, it +remains to-day one of the best specimens of early Gothic architecture +extant. In 1682, 1695, 1706, 1737, and 1811 extensive repairs were made. +In 1828 the exterior was thoroughly restored and recased with stone, and +several unsightly structures that impeded the view of the church were +removed. All of these so-called restorations were, however, but partial in +extent. Many outrageous additions and much meretricious ornamentation, +added at various epochs, were allowed to remain. + +Finally, in 1845, steps were taken looking to a thorough renovation and +restoration of the venerable pile. The purity of the marble columns had +been sullied by several coats of paint and whitewash, while many of the +foliated capitals of the columns supporting the "Round" bore traces of +gilding. These latter were scraped and cleaned; an eight-feet-high oak +wainscot was removed; light, movable seats were substituted for the heavy +pews of Charles II.'s time that encumbered the Round; the pavement was +lowered to its original level, thus revealing the bases of the columns; +the organ (built by the famous Father Smith in the reign of Charles II.) +was removed to its present position in the choir, and the whole interior, +by means of these and other extensive changes, was exhibited in its +pristine purity. + +It is difficult to understand the crass stupidity which blocked up +exquisite Norman windows, covered carved capitals with a thick coat of +cement, closed many of the arches with wooden partitions, planted a +cumbrous pulpit and reading-desk immediately under the dome, and hid the +noble groined ceiling behind a shell of flat, whitewashed boarding. In the +course of these repairs much of the marble-work was found to require +renewal, for replacing which some old quarries in the Isle of Purbeck, +unworked for generations, were reopened. + +On the pavement, immediately under the Round, are several marble effigies +of mail-clad knights,--"Associates of the Temple." Those that have been +identified represent Geoffry de Magnaville, Earl of Essex, one of the +barons who fought against King Stephen; another, having clean-cut features +and clad in chain-armor, commemorates William Marshall, who was Protector +during the reign of Henry III,; and by his side rests his son, a leader of +the Barons in their memorable struggle against King John. The effigy of +Gilbert Marshall, third son of the Protector, reposes near the western +door-way, and hard by is the figure of a warrior in the act of prayer, +supposed to be intended for Robert, Lord of Ros. Five or six other figures, +some of remarkable beauty, and all in good preservation, two of heroic +stature, are unidentified. + +Service is held daily in the Temple Church, and admission is practically +free. On Sunday mornings, however, the introduction of a bencher is +requisite to secure admittance. The music is of the best of its kind, and +the organ, though of great age, is renowned as one of the purest-and +sweetest-toned instruments in London. + +No account of the Temple would be complete without some mention of its +many curious sundials. Each garden possesses a plain pillar-dial. There is +one in Temple Lane with the motto, "_Pereunt et imputantur_," and +"_Vestigia nulla retrorsum_" appears on another in Essex Court. In Pump +Court, high up on the front of a house is a large, rectangular dial, with +gilt figures and stile, bearing the inscription, "Shadows we are and like +shadows depart." Over the dial is the traditional Temple lamb bearing a +cross.[A] In Brick Court there is a dial with the apt legend, "Time and +tide tarry for no man." In the year 1828 an ancient building on Inner +Temple Terrace was demolished, and with it a sundial bearing the strange +but not inappropriate inscription, "Begone about your business." The story +runs that, many years before, a crusty old bencher had promised the +dial-maker to provide a motto for the then new dial. The messenger, +however, arrived at an inopportune time, received the above curt dismissal +in answer to his request, and conveyed it to his master as the legend to +be engraved. + +[Footnote A: The devices of the Middle and Inner Temple are a lamb and a +horse respectively, and they may be frequently seen blazoned on window and +wall. An irreverent wit once scrawled these lines on the Temple gate: + + As by the Templars' hold you go, + The horse and lamb displayed + In emblematic figures show + The merits of their trade. + + The clients may infer from thence + How just is their profession: + The lamb sets forth their innocence, + The horse their expedition. + + O happy Britons, happy isle, + Let foreign nations say, + Where you get justice without guile, + And law without delay! + +In answer and in ridicule of which, a second scribbler penned the +following stanzas beneath: + + Deluded men, these holds forego, + Nor trust such cunning elves: + These artful emblems tend to show + Their _clients_, not _themselves_. + + 'Tis all a trick; these are all shams + By which they mean to cheat you: + But have a care,--for you're the lambs, + And they the wolves that eat you. + + Nor let the thought of "no delay" + To these their courts misguide you: + 'Tis you're the showy horse, and they + The jockeys that will ride you.] + +The din and devastation of civil strife and the smoke and flame of +conflagration have more than once surged high and furious in and around +the Temple. In Wat Tyler's rebellion many of the houses were razed by the +rioters, books and parchments were carried away and fed to bonfires, and +it was the intention of the rebels to destroy the precinct and the lawyers +together, for thus, they said, they would obliterate both unjust laws and +corrupt law-makers. The "No-Popery" rioters in 1780 marched to attack the +Temple, but were awed into flight by the apparently determined front +presented by the lawyers and students, who were really in desperate fear +themselves. Street-fights with the lawless Alsatians of the adjoining +Whitefriars region were at one time frequent.[B] In 1553, and again in +1669, the mayor of the city essayed to "pass through the cloisters with +drawn sword." The Temple claimed immunity from civic control, and on both +occasions the mayor's weapon was beaten down and a bloody affray resulted. +An appeal growing out of this event was made to Charles II. by Heneage +Finch in behalf of the Temple, but the question is still unsettled. Hence +the modern Templars close their gates at ten o'clock every night, and when +the "charity children" of the adjacent parishes "beat the bounds" on +Ascension Day, redouble their vigilance. The rich rental of the property +pays no local taxes, though repeated efforts have been made to assess it. + +[Footnote B: Salisbury Court, Whitefriars, enjoyed for centuries the +privilege of a sanctuary--at first for criminals, but finally for debtors +only--until 1697, when it was abolished by royal warrant. It was nicknamed +"Alsatia," in imitation of the frontier province of the same name, which +was long a cause of contention and familiarly known to English soldiers in +the long Continental wars. As Cunningham observes, "In the Temple students +were trying to keep the law, and in Alsatia, adjoining, debtors to avoid +and violate it. The Alsatians were troublesome neighbors to the Templars, +and the Templars as troublesome neighbors to the Alsatians."] + +In 1666 the Great Fire of London burnt its way westward as far as the +Temple. After consuming several sets of chambers and a quantity of +title-deeds to many valuable estates, the course of the flames was stayed +just east of the Temple Church. But in 1678-79, in the mouth of January, a +large area was burned over. The fire lasted from midnight till noon of the +ensuing day. Pump Court, Vine Court, part of Brick Court, Elm-Tree Court, +Hare Court, part of Middle Temple Hall, a portion of Inner Temple Hall, +and the old cloisters, were swept away. The season was remarkable for its +severity: the Thames was frozen over, and the supply of water entirely +inadequate. So great hogsheads of ale were hoisted up from the cellars and +the liquor fed to the clumsy hand-engines of the period. When the ale gave +out, recourse was had to gunpowder,--buildings in the track of the flames +being blown up; but in this dangerous work the Temple library was +demolished. In the end, however, the Temple was the gainer by this fire: +much better structures took the place of the old rookeries, and the entire +precinct was purified. + +Around the hoary walls of the Temple cluster memories of many a strange +custom or quaint observance. The revels at Yule-tide, St. Stephen's Day, +New Year's Day, and Twelfth Night were not surpassed anywhere in "merrie +England." Feasts, masques, and play-acting at various times greatly +scandalized the more sober and staid among the benchers. Stowe tells us +that the readers of his day "for upwards of three weeks kept a splendid +table, feasting the nobility, judges, bishops, principal officers of state, +and sometimes the king himself, insomuch that it has cost a reader above +one thousand pounds,"--a mint of money in those frugal days. Revelries +grew in frequency and attractiveness as the business of instruction +declined, so much so that we are compelled to believe that at one period +the qualifications for admission were merely nominal. A banquet given by +Sir Heneage Finch the year following the restoration of Charles II. lasted +from the 4th to the 17th of August, and all London was invited and made +welcome. + +In one point the Templars of to-day are not a whit behind their +predecessors: they give good dinners. For centuries the benchers of the +two societies have dined in each other's company once a year in the great +hall; and to Mr. Thornbury we are indebted for the following description +of a Temple dinner of to-day: + +"An Inner Temple banquet is a very grand thing. At five or half-past five +the barristers and students in their gowns follow the benchers in +procession to the dais; the steward strikes the table solemnly a mystic +three times; grace is said by the treasurer or senior bencher present, and +the men of law fall to. In former times it was the custom to blow a horn +in every court to announce the meal. The benchers observe somewhat more +style at their table than the other members do at theirs. The general +repast is a tureen of soup, a joint of meat, a tart, and cheese to each +mess, consisting of four persons, and each mess is allowed a bottle of +port wine. Dinner is served daily to the members of the Inn during +term-time,--the masters of the bench dining on the dais, and the +barristers and students at long tables extending down the hall. On grand +days the judges are present, who dine in succession with each of the four +Inns of Court. To the parliament chamber, adjoining the hall, the benchers +repair after dinner. The 'loving-cups' used on certain grand occasions are +huge silver goblets, which are passed down the table filled with a +delicious composition, immemorially termed 'sack,' consisting of sweetened +and exquisitely flavored white wine. The butler attends the progress of +the cup to replenish it, and each student is by rule restricted to a sip; +yet it is recorded that once, though the number present fell short of +seventy, thirty-six quarts of the liquid were sipped away. At the Inner +Temple, on May 29, a gold cup of sack is handed to each member, who drinks +to the happy restoration of Charles II." + +The Temple has been for generations a favorite abode with men of letters +and others having no leaning toward or connection with the bar. It is a +vast bachelors' hall. Fleet Street and its immediate vicinity is the +centre of the publishing interest of London. Here many of the great +dailies are edited and printed, and "Brain Street," as George Augustus +Sala fitly nicknamed it, is midway between the "city" and the "West End, +"--the "down town" and the "up town" of London, if such a simile is +permissible as applied to a brick-and-mortar polypus whose members radiate +toward every point of the compass. No part of the Temple is more than five +minutes' walk from this centre of intellectual industry, and yet, once +within its walls, the silence and seclusion are complete. The roar and +rattle of Fleet Street and the Strand might be a thousand miles away, for +scarce a murmur penetrates beyond the Temple gates. The quiet, stone-paved +courts, the grassy nooks gemmed with a few choice blossoms, the +soft-plashing fountains, overshadowed by sturdy elm-, plane-, or fig-trees, +the cool stone archways leading from one court to another, the park-like +expanse of the Temple Garden, bounded by the bustling Embankment and the +swift-flowing river, are surroundings favorable alike to the labors of a +busy journalist, to the novelist's weavings of fiction, to the poet's +subtile creations, to the purposeful studies of the patient scholar, or to +the objectless dreamings of the mere "man about town." + +HENRY FREDERIC REDDALL. + + * * * * * + + + + +"MEES." + + +Red-armed Annette gave a final glance at the table, and as the clock was +striking eight summoned Frau Pastorin Raben's boarders to supper. Promptly +came the two Von Ente girls, high-born and high-posed damsels, forced to +make themselves teachers. It had been a sad blow to their pride. The elder +was somewhat consoled by a huge carbuncle brooch given to her by Kaiser +Wilhelm himself. The younger was named for a very great lady; and when a +letter came from the very great lady the recipient lifted her head and +remembered that, whatever happened, she was a Von Ente. + +Following them close, there entered the dining-room a woman who painted +pictures and sold them. Hedwig Vogel was about fifty, tall, angular, +hard-featured. She was reported to be very rich and very mean. Moreover, +she was an undoubted democrat; for when Elsa von Ente's lady patron came +to the house, everybody kissed the august dame's hand except Hedwig Vogel +and "the Mees." Of course "the Mees," poor thing! knew no better; but +Fräulein Vogel!--a woman guilty of such a misdemeanor was capable of +putting dynamite in Bismarck's night-cap. She responded curtly to the +greeting given to her by the Von Entes, and then asked where the Frau +Pastorin might be. + +"Here," answered a soft voice, and the plump, smiling, suave mistress of +the house entered and seated herself at the table. As she bowed her head +to invoke a blessing on the smoked herring, the raw ham, the salad, the +three kinds of bread, a tardy boarder opened the dining-room door. She +stood on the threshold for a minute, then moved swiftly to her place. + +"Good-evening, Mees," said the Frau Pastorin, and "Good-evening, Mees," +echoed the Von Entes. Fräulein Vogel contented herself with a nod, and +attacked bread and ham in hungry silence. + +"Your walk has given you a fine color," the Frau Pastorin continued +blandly. Then, turning to the artist, "You should paint the Mees, +Fräulein. 'A Study of America.' That would sound well, would it not?" + +The Study of America smiled a little disdainfully, and refused the raw ham +and the herring offered to her by Elsa von Ente. She had refused raw ham +and smoked herring at least a hundred times, but yet the Frau Pastorin +protested. + +"I am sad there is nothing for you," she murmured in English,--a language +she fondly fancied she spoke. + +"Oh, there is bread galore," said the Mees. + +This set the hostess to thinking. Bread she understood; but what was bread +galore? + +"I should like to learn some American dishes," she said. "Buckwhit cakes, +--so, is it right?--I have read of them. How you would relish them +to-night, would you not?" + +"No," said Mees ungraciously. + +"Not?" said the Von Entes, who talked together habitually. "But what then?" + +"Beef--mutton--chickens," said Mees. + +"We have them here," murmured the Frau Pastorin sweetly. + +"Do you?" said Mees, quite as sweetly. And Hedwig Vogel burst out +laughing. The Frau Pastorin bit her lip, the Von Ente girls looked blank, +and Annette scuttled away, smelling danger from afar, for she knew full +well that she often received a vicarious reproof. + +Supper over, the table was cleared and a big Bible laid before the Frau +Pastorin, who, as a clergyman's widow, felt that it was her duty to set a +good example to the sojourners beneath her roof. Hedwig Vogel, however, +did not stay to the reading: she went up to her bare, lonely rooms. They +were totally lacking in character, for neither the woman nor the artist +was betrayed in their appointments. Everything was scrupulously clean and +painfully neat about them. German-fashion, the square table was pushed +close to the sofa, and held a lamp and four never-opened books. Here +Fräulein Vogel seated herself, turned up the lamp-wick, and then crossed +her long, lean, sinewy hands in her lap. The tall white porcelain stove +made the room so warm that she presently rose and set a window open a +little way. She was indeed a dangerous, unconventional creature, a +Prussian who cared neither for great ladies nor draughts. She stood there, +feeling the damp air of early spring blow in her face. From the beer-hall +near by came the sound of music; over the pavement rattled a cart drawn by +two weary dogs and followed by a yet wearier peasant-woman; with a brave +clink-clank of spurs and sword strode by a brave lieutenant. Above all +these sounds Fräulein Vogel's quick ear caught a light foot-fall on the +bare stairs without. She crossed the parlor and flung open the door. + +"Mees." + +"Yes, most gracious lady." + +"Ridiculous,--'gracious lady'! Come in." + +Mees obeyed, and took the place of honor on the sofa beside the painter. + +"I have a favor to ask," she said, with a deprecatory smile, "Don't call +me Mees, please. It does not mean anything." + +"Shall I say Mees Varing?" asked the painter, with a struggle to pronounce +the name properly. + +"Unless you like Kitty better," said Mees. + +"Kitty--Kitty." Fräulein Vogel repeated it gravely. "Kitty." She smiled. +"Kitty Varing, of New York. Now I have it all." + +"No," said Kitty, "not quite. Of Withlacootchie, New York." + +They both laughed, the Indian name was so unmanageable. Kitty finally +wrote it down, and the painter pronounced it over and over again. At last +she straightened up, and said sternly, + +"But where is the picture, Mees--Kitty?" + +"Ah, you don't want to see it," Kitty exclaimed; "and I don't want to show +it to you. I tell you I have no talent. I suppose, though, patience must +tell in the end," she added, half to herself. + +"Yes, it will tell," said the painter grimly. "It will tell--something. +Go get your picture now." + +Kitty crossed the corridor to her own little room. There was the picture, +--a sketch in oils of the best-known model in DÃ¥sseldorf, this time rigged +out as a Roman peasant. The girl looked at the picture with a frown; she +seized it as though she would dash it on the floor in scorn, but, checking +the impulse, she carried it to Fräulein Vogel. + +The successful painter looked at the sketch in silence for a full minute, +holding it off at arm's length. Finally, she laid it down on the table, +murmuring, "And after three years' hard work!" + +"Only a year's real work," Kitty broke in eagerly. "I have only been here +a year, you know; and those two years at home I ought not to count, for I +did not work then as I do now." + +"Why not?" asked Fräulein Vogel sharply. And Kitty changed color. + +"Ah, one must not ask questions," Fräulein Vogel remarked; "but one can +have plenty of suspicions. I dare say you were in love, and, as love +failed, you have taken to art. So it goes with women. Everything but +marriage is a _pis-aller_." + +Kitty half rose: the stray arrow had sped home, and it rankled in a new +wound. + +"I am a woman myself," added Fräulein Vogel, with a droll smile that +melted the girl's anger in an instant. + +Kitty dropped down on the sofa. "Well," she said gayly, "I grant that I +was in love once on a time; but that is all past. Now I want to be a +painter. Listen: I have not much money, I have no friends,--that is, +friends such as we read about,--and I must learn to make some money. When +I am thirty I shall begin to make money; otherwise--" + +"You are spending your capital," said Fräulein Vogel. + +"If I spent only my income I should either wear shoes and no clothes, or +clothes and no shoes," answered Kitty, laughing, with a little air of +recklessness that sat well on her. "Besides," she added sagely, "it is +well to burn one's ships. Sink or swim." + +"But you are quite sure of swimming?" said Fräulein Vogel, taking up the +picture again and looking at it closely. + +"It is very bad," Kitty said. + +"Abominable," said the painter. She drew a long breath and shook her head. +"Abominable," she repeated, almost as though such an abominable piece of +work demanded respect. "_Ach_! You leave old Zweifarbe's studio," she +exclaimed. "Send your easel over to me. You want to make some money? Good. +There are many artists here in DÃ¥sseldorf who say I cannot paint; there is +not one who will say I have not made money. Perhaps I can teach you." And +Fräulein Vogel burst out laughing, while Kitty stared at her in blank +surprise. + +"But you have never taken pupils," she stammered. + +"I have never died; but I suppose I shall," was the response. + +And so old Zweifarbe lost a pupil,--for Kitty's easel was straightway +borne on the back of a sturdy _dienstmann_ to Fräulein Vogel's studio. +What a chatter, what a commotion, it caused in the nest of painters! They +chirped and gossiped and pecked each other like a flock of sparrows. The +Frau Pastorin expressed the popular sentiment when she discussed Hedwig +Vogel's eccentricities. + +"How much a lesson?" she said, half closing one shrewd gray eye. "How much +a lesson? Ah, she would not take pupils,--no, no, not while she was Hedwig +Vogel; and _der liebe Gott_ knows she will never be Hedwig anything else. +But she will make an exception for our deer Mees Varing; oh, yes, an +exception! Wait till Mees Varing's rich American friends come along and +buy some of the great Vogel's pictures. You will see." + +"But has the Mees any rich friends?" asked her crony the Frau Doctorin. + +And then the parson's widow laughed in a worldly way. + +"So pretty a girl," she said, "so fine a complexion, such little feet! And +those winning ways!" + +From which it will be seen that the Frau Pastorin could admire and +appreciate a woman who was young and beautiful. So could the painters; but +that is easier to believe. And so could the tight-booted lieutenants; but +that is perfectly understood. When Kitty Waring crossed the Hof Garten, +even that old woman who years and years ago sold little Heinrich Heine +plums would point out the girl to her contemporary the venerable +under-gardener. + +"_HÃ¥bsch_" the old woman would growl. + +"_Aber leichtsinnig--leichtsinnig_," the old man would add,--for he was a +misogynist. + +But Kitty was not quite _leichtsinnig_, although she did stroll through +the garden sometimes with Fritz Goebel, sometimes with Otho Weiss, +sometimes with her fellow-countryman Joe Buckley. They were all young, all +painters, all poor. Who cared what they did? What if they sat on a beach +under a linden-tree and played cat's-cradle like children? What if they +made little excursions to Zons or to Xanten? What if there was a supper in +Joe Buckley's studio, and Kitty Waring and Anna van der Meer--a sedate +creature from Rotterdam was she--were taught how to make a true, good +_bowl_? Who cared? In fact, all DÃ¥sseldorf cared. + +One day the Frau Pastorin called Kitty into her parlor. "Dear child," she +began, "if your good mother--" + +"She has been dead fifteen years," said Kitty. + +"If your father--" continued the Frau Pastorin. + +"He? Oh, I can't remember him at all," said Kitty. + +"Have you no family?" was the question that the Frau Pastorin put squarely. + +"An uncle or two somewhere in Iowa," Kitty answered. "An aunt brought me +up, and then died, poor thing!" A smile flitted across Kitty's face, and +tears sprang to her eyes; but her questioner saw only the smile. The world +is full of such purblind folk. + +"Where were you last night so late?" she said acridly. + +Kitty turned on the plump little woman and looked down at her. + +"When Miss Smythe told me that I should find a pleasant home here, she +made a sad mistake," was the irrelevant answer that Mees gave. It puzzled +the Frau Pastorin for full a week. Then Hedwig Vogel and Mees paid their +honest debts and took up quarters with Frau Tisch, in the Rosenstrasse. + +"It is much pleasanter here," cried; Kitty, as she moved about the parlor, +transforming the commonplace aspect of the room. "And it is cheap, too. I +thought Frau Tisch would ask more than Frau Raben." + +"It is less because we club together," said Fräulein Vogel. + +Kitty might have suspected something if her new friend had not had the +name of being so close-fisted. Who would dream that Hedwig Vogel could be +free-handed?--she who would beat a _gemÃ¥se-frau_ out of two cents; she who +refused to subscribe to the fund for painters' widows, declaring that it +was as likely she would leave a widow as be left one. She was not +susceptible, she cared naught for sweet smiles and gentle ways. That she, +a gaunt, grim, brusque woman of fifty, could suddenly feel all the stifled +mother-love within her spring up,--that was preposterous, the vain +imagining of a romancer. + +They worked together, these two, in Hedwig Vogel's studio, and Kitty +strove to make up for her lack of talent by her abundance of patience. + +"Why did you decide to be a painter?" Fräulein Vogel asked her one day. + +"Because I had a start in that line," Kitty answered. "If I had had a +start in music I should have tried to play or sing. I wonder if I could +sing? They say everybody has a voice. People are just like fields: plough +'em up, plant cabbages, plant potatoes, you can raise some sort of a crop. +How do you happen to be a painter?" + +Hedwig Vogel paused, palette in one hand, brush in the other. "Because I +would rather paint than eat," she answered. + +"That is genius," said Kitty solemnly. "I would rather eat. That is lack +of genius. But because I want to eat I paint. That is--what would you call +that?" + +"You have a daub of ochre on your nose," said Fräulein Vogel. + +"Anyway," Kitty remarked after a while, "if worse came to worst I could +teach. There is German. Now, I really speak German well, don't I? I could +teach that." + +"Oh, you have the gift o' gab!" said the painter. "But you will be married, +sure." + +A long silence followed. "I am twenty-four," said Kitty. + +"There is no safety for you this side of the grave," said Fräulein Vogel. + +"I may be married, but I doubt it," Kitty continued. "I--" And then she +dropped her brushes, flung herself prone on the floor, and burst into +passionate tears. Hedwig Vogel did not try to comfort her, but she knelt +beside her and put her strong right arm about the girl's quivering +shoulders. At last Kitty sat up and brushed back her tangled hair. + +"Every day I think of him," she said. "Every day I hope, I pray he will +come. I watch for the postman,--I have watched for him so long. He never +brings me a letter, but my heart stops beating when he draws near the +house. When he rings the bell, when the servant comes up the stairs, I +shut my eyes. I can almost believe I have the letter in my hand. I almost +see the words. But there is never a letter,--there never can be. Oh, I--" +She rose and walked to and fro. "I am to blame," she added, laying her +hand on Fraulein Vogel's shoulder. "I wronged him by my suspicion, my +petty jealousy; then I ran away from him, and expected him to roam over +Europe trying to find me. I hid myself from him, and I am eating my heart +out because he does not come." + +"Suppose," said Fräulein Vogel, "that he is seeking for you now?" + +Kitty's wet eyes shone for a moment. "I am not worth that," she said. + +"But if he loves you?" + +"Oh, he loves me, I know!" she exclaimed. "And I doubted him. I thought +all manner of base thoughts, and I told him of them to his face,--to him, +the noblest, dearest,--and he never reproached me. Do you wonder I am +ashamed to write to him? Do you wonder I dare not ask his pardon?" + +"If he loves you he would forgive anything," said Fräulein Vogel. + +The room had grown dark, and they mechanically washed their brushes, +cleaned their palettes, and made ready to go home. As they crossed the Hof +Garten, two or three young painters joined them, and the talk ran on +gayly. Fräulein Vogel had heard Kitty's laugh ring out many a time before, +but never until now did she hear the sad note that dimmed the sweetness of +it. The young men turned away at last. + +"To-morrow, then, at eight," sang out Otho Weiss. + +"Until to-morrow," cried the others. + +"Until to-morrow," Kitty echoed. "Always to-morrow," she added softly to +herself. + +"I do not understand," said Fräulein Vogel, going back to the talk in the +studio. + +"I was jealous," Kitty answered simply. "He was above me in station--" + +"I thought there was no rank in America," said Fräulein Vogel. + +"Then you cannot understand how a big tradesman scorns a little one," +Kitty rejoined. "My aunt kept a shop, but she would never let me help her +sell pins and needles and tape. No, I must go to school with girls whose +fathers sold pins by the ton instead of by the paper,--or by the pound, as +you do here. His father sold them by the ton,--a mere matter of big and +little. The family was reconciled to me after a while. You see, the family +had to be reconciled, for Frank did not care what they said to him." + +"He loved you," said Fräulein Vogel. + +"Yes, but they wanted him to love somebody else. Perhaps he would have +done so if I had not come in his way. Perhaps he would have married the +right girl,--a limp, languid creature, with money enough to build a +cathedral like the one at Cologne. She made the trouble. They said he was +tired of me, that he repented his impetuosity; and I heard it all, and I +grew jealous,--jealous of nothing. I reproached him, told him that he +wanted her and her money. Then came the crash. My aunt died. I had a +chance to come to Europe with some people, and I did not even bid him +good-by. Now I expect him to write to me--to find me." + +She laughed a little as she said this. "Some day," said Fräulein Vogel. +"If he loves you," she added. + +"I doubted him," Kitty said, "and I deserve all this. Ah, if you knew him, +if you saw him, you would know what a fool I was!" + +They had reached the house by this time, and, as Kitty opened the door, +she added, "I must write soon. I must hear something about him. What may +not have happened in a year? Perhaps he is dead." + +She did not mention her lover again to Fräulein Vogel, but she showed her +his portrait; and the sharp-eyed painter looked at the frank, manly face a +long time. + +"Write to him, you foolish woman," she said. + +"Not yet. I will wait a little longer," Kitty rejoined. + +The summer wore away. In August they went for a fortnight to a little +place near Remagen,--Bad Neunahr it is called,--and here Kitty's eyes were +opened, and she suddenly awoke to the fact that her new friend was no +ordinary friend. + +"You need not worry about money," said Fräulein Vogel. "If you don't learn +how to make it, you know how to spend it. I could never learn that myself." + +But in the autumn Kitty only worked the harder, believing with all her +heart that patience would make a respectable, picture-selling painter out +of a Chinese mandarin. When the gray dawn stole in at the window she +sprang out of bed, dressed, and was off to the studio for an hour before +breakfast. She begrudged the time spent for dinner, she bemoaned a dark +day, and she laid her brushes down reluctantly in the twilight. In the +evening she wanted to go to the theatre, to a concert, to a supper. Such +as she find plenty of companions, and from time to time DÃ¥sseldorf raised +its hands over her doings. Fräulein Vogel watched and waited in a sort of +patient agony, but at last, not without deep reflection, she wrote a +letter to Kitty's sweetheart. She read his name on the back of a +photograph, she knew well how to spell the name of the town, she knew the +town was near New York, she knew New York was in North America, and she +had to buy an extra big envelope to hold the whole address. But the letter +was a terrible thing, and a happy thought came to her. She made a little +picture of Kitty,--a perfect little picture,--and beneath it she wrote +name and address. That was better than a thousand letters. Carefully she +did it up, placing tissue-paper above and beneath the cardboard, and +laying it tenderly in a white box. Surely it could not go astray, unless +all the post-office men were blind; but, to make sure, she would register +it, if that were possible. All must be done without Kitty's knowledge, and +the touch of mystery made the romance the sweeter. One fine day she +sallied forth to send the little portrait on its way. She entered the Hof +Garten, sauntered down the Linden Allée thinking all the while how +delightfully the comedy would end. Her own part, as good fairy of the play, +pleased her, too, and she smiled to herself as she strayed off from the +Allée and, seating herself on a bench that was well screened from prying +eyes, she gave herself up to revery. Of course the lover would come, of +course he would carry Kitty off; but Fräulein Vogel did not mean to be +left far behind. She would look after Kitty, for the foolish, impetuous +creature would need at least two people to keep her out of mischief. + +"Frank." + +Some one uttered the name, and Fräulein Vogel peered through the leaves. +Sitting near was a pale, sweet-faced woman, drawing figures in the gravel +with the tip of her parasol. + +"Frank," she repeated, "shall we go home?" + +"Do you mean Withlacootchie or the hotel?" was the answer. + +The man had his back to Fräulein Vogel, but now he turned, and she +recognized him. The portrait had lied a little, as portraits will lie, and +yet he was a handsome man enough, after all. + +"Home or the hotel, dear?" His voice was very gentle, and his smile +tender. "Are you tired of wandering?" he added. + +"Oh, no!" she said, "but whither shall we wander?" + +"Up-stairs, down-stairs, in my ladies' chamber," he rejoined. "Last summer, +the Tyrol; last winter, Italy; this summer, Switzerland; now,--where? We +are making a long honeymoon of it." + +"And are you tired?" she asked. + +He gave a rapid glance up and down the Allée then stooped and kissed her. + +Fräulein Vogel had not understood all the words, the caress she saw. She +rose and went slowly homeward. In the tiny DÃ¥ssel the swans were floating +majestically, and, standing there on the bank, she tore the box and the +picture into scraps and flung them in the water. The swans hastened after +the bits of white paper; they fought and screamed over them, and the +victor proudly bore away a fragment from his envious mates, only to +discover that it was worthless. + +CHARLES DUNNING. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE NEXT VACATION. + + +If it finds you with fifty dollars and a fortnight at your command, you +cannot do better than spend both on the Great Lakes. + +You don't care for water? But the Great Lakes are not water. You follow +closely the most interesting and wonderful shore, and seven different +times stop for several hours at places on the coast. + +Or perhaps you do care for water, and would not like hugging the shore? +One day, at least, on Lake Huron, you would be out of sight of land; and +if you should have a lake storm, you would have all the ocean "fun" you +would care for. + +Or you were thinking of the Thousand Isles? There are a thousand isles in +the northern part of Lake Huron, just before you turn into the little +winding river that leads to the "Soo." + +Or you had planned to see Lake George this year? You will see a beautiful +copy of Lake George as you leave the little town of Hancock and pass from +the narrow river into a broad expanse dotted with islands, just before +entering the canal that leads to the upper part of Lake Superior. + +But you had rather go West, among the mines? What mines can you find, more +interesting than the great copper-mines of Calumet and Hecla and +Quincy?--the only place in the United States, indeed, where you can see +the curious man-engine, with its arrangement of changing-platforms for +carrying the miners up and down. + +Well, you meant to go "canoeing." Some very choice canoeing and shooting +of rapids you can have during the hours at the Sault Ste. Marie, popularly +known as the "Soo," and during the two days that the steamer waits at +Duluth before the return-trip Lake Superior will prove not an unattractive +spot to paddle about in. + +Add to this the interest of the magnificent new locks at the "Soo," the +historical and romantic associations with Marquette and Mackinac (for you +will not forget that Miss Woolson's "Anne" lived on the Great Lakes), and +the creature comforts of big state-rooms, with large, comfortable beds, +and running water in the basins, on admirable steamers that set an +excellent hotel-table, and you will wonder, as we did, that so few +tourists seem to know about, or care for, one of the most enjoyable +excursions in the country,--I am quite sure I can say the most enjoyable +for the little money it costs. + +We took it ourselves quite by accident,--willing to go out of our way a +little on the journey to Colorado in the heat of summer for the sake of a +little trip by water to compensate for the sea-shore cottage we were +leaving behind us for the season. We did not, indeed, begin the trip, as +the steamers do, at Buffalo; for, although time and tide wait for no man +at the East, at the West there are no tides, and time was willing to make +an appointment for us to overtake the steamer at Detroit. We were glad of +an excuse for lingering at the House Beautiful in Buffalo, where we would +rather spend Sunday any time than on any lake in the world. Fortunately, +we had "been to the Falls" many times before, and had seen Niagara in +winter splendor and summer loveliness: so we were at liberty to idle away +the fleeting hours in the shades of Delaware Avenue, on charming piazzas, +till the time came when we must start on the flying trip through Canada if +we would overtake the steamer Japan. + +She was just gliding into her dock at Detroit as we stepped from the cars, +and we still had three or four hours' leisure before she would start again +in which to drive about the pretty city and call on friends. Just before +midnight we embarked, and our first experience of the Great Lakes was a +night of peaceful and serene slumber. + +Peaceful and serene, too, was the following day,--a patient waiting for +the scenery to begin, sitting with novels on what was facetiously known as +"the back piazza" of the Japan, out of sight of land, but gliding over a +sea so smooth that the hanging flower-baskets on the deck scarcely +stirred. If you scorn such tame delights when apparently at sea, remember +that it might have been rough as only lakes are rough in a great storm. It +was very warm. The captain's assurance that the next morning we should +want to borrow his overcoat and mittens had no effect in disguising the +fact that it was warm. The ladies dressed for dinner, many of them in +white; and the only excitement of the afternoon was the "sighting" of the +Michigan, United States man-of-war, cruising in lake-waters. A little knot +of officers on deck waved their handkerchiefs; a little knot of pretty +girls on the Japan were responding eagerly, when a severe and elderly +voice was heard to say, with distinctness, "The officers' wives are on +board the Japan. They are waving to _them_." + +And in fact, as we glided past, a little child was seen at a port-hole of +the Michigan, waving a handkerchief to mamma on the Japan. It had been +seriously ill, and the mother, forbidden by the United States government +to remain with her sick child on the Michigan, preferred to leave him +there with his father, where he could have the care of the special surgeon +who understood the case, while she followed as closely as she could in one +of the lake-steamers. Ah, how interested we all were! It is recorded in +history that certain enemies of the Egyptians used to go into battle with +them with each man holding a cat in his arms. Suppose in our next war we +try the effect upon our enemies of letting each of our soldiers carry a +white-robed baby? One thing is certain, the Michigan captured the Japan +with all on board that day simply by exhibiting that little white figure +at its port-hole. The next day at the "Soo" not a murmur of dissent was +heard when the good-natured captain, who had no European mails on board, +said he would wait an extra hour for the Michigan to come up, that the +anxious mother might have twenty-four hours' later news. + +On the second morning there was an entire change of weather and landscape. +The sun still shone gloriously (the thermometer that day in Chicago stood +at 94), but rugs, seal-skins, and hoods were in demand. We were no longer +out of sight of land, but were threading our way in and out among a +thousand isles, with hills that seemed almost mountains threatening to bar +our course before long if we did not turn back the way we came. No one, +the captain said, had ever been known to guess the channel correctly; but +before long we had made a sharp turn to the left at the only spot that +offered an outlet, and found the Great Lakes narrowed suddenly to a +beautiful winding river which led us in the course of another hour or two +to the "Soo." Here the steamer would wait three hours, and we could +explore the queer little town,--quite a popular resort in summer,--or +inspect the splendid locks of the great canal, or shoot the rapids. To me +it was a genuine pleasure to find at last some rapids that were visible to +the naked eye. The famous rapids of the St. Lawrence had been a severe +disappointment, but here were rapids worthy of the name. Lake Superior was +visibly above us, Lake Huron visibly below, and between ran the turbulent +little stream which of course must be flowing into Lake Huron, though we +could not have told merely by looking at it which way the current ran. + +"Would we go up the rapids?" We had heard of going down the rapids, but in +reality the most wonderful part of the performance is going up. Not only +is the current fearfully swift, even close to the shore as it is necessary +to keep, but the water seems to be only a few inches deep, and the rocks +are as thick as plums in a Christmas pudding. Yet two Indians, standing +erect, one in the bow and one in the stern of the canoe, pole you up the +stream against these terrible odds as easily and surely as a Harvard +oarsman might row you across Seneca Lake. Then they pause for a moment. + +"How will you have it going down? Rough?" they ask. + +"Rough," we answer, wondering what in the world they can mean by speaking +as if they were the autocrats of wind and current. + +But it seems there are two channels,--one near shore for the timid, and +one in mid-stream. We were not to be betrayed into any exhibition of +timidity after that first hesitating question, "Do you know the rapids +well? How many times have you taken people down?" To which the quiet reply +had been, "Three times a day, lady, for twenty years." Twenty thousand +times, by rough calculation! + +So we went over in mid-stream, and were not sorry,--receiving as we +stepped ashore what is probably a part of every programme, the compliment +of being "the bravest lady that ever went over the falls." + +Many a pleasant day, or week, one might undoubtedly spend at the Sault +Ste. Marie, or at Mackinac; but if you have only turned through the +straits and gone southward again to Chicago through Lake Michigan, do not +think of saying that you have taken the trip on the Great Lakes. To me the +Great Lakes will always mean Lake Superior. It is something unique in the +geography of the world, and you have the consciousness of your actual +height above the level of the sea as you rarely have on any elevated land +that is not actually a mountain. Ruskin says that for him the flowers lose +their light, the river its music, when he tries to divest any given +landscape of its associations with human struggle and endeavor. Our New +World scenery, of course, has little of that wonderful charm of +association; but there is something singularly impressive in the mere +silence and vastness of our great Northern solitudes. + +We entered Lake Superior late in the afternoon, and the only event of the +evening was a magnificent aurora. Toward midnight the gorgeous tints +changed to a thin wedge of perfectly white light, against which in a +duskier white the sails of passing vessels were distinctly outlined, +though no hulls were visible. + +At Marquette, in the morning, a party of Finnish emigrants on board left +the ship. Half a dozen Americanized Finns, who had evidently been the +inspiring cause of this influx of new citizens, had come to the wharf to +greet the new arrivals. They had the same short stature, the same stolid +features, as their relatives on board; but there was a difference. The +white shirt, the clean collar, the smart straw hat and vivid necktie, with +a vigorous step, alert manner, decisive tones, and a certain tendency to +help the women with their heavy boxes, distinctly individualized those who +had been awhile under American influence. + +All day we basked in the sunshine on the captain's bridge. Think of being +glad to bask in the sunshine on a 4th of August! Between Marquette and +Portage River we passed but one house,--one solitary, lonely house, set on +the very edge of the "unsalted sea;" before it a vast expanse of limitless +waters, behind it an unbroken, limitless forest; no fields, no crops, no +roads, only space enough cleared for the tiny cabin and tinier shed. What +had lured people there? What kept them alive? No neighbors, no mail, no +farm, no apparent object in life, and only one small rowboat to get away +in. + +Yet they had put a curtain up at the window! No human being could by any +possibility look in at that window. Even the curtain could only be +detected with an opera-glass from the steamer that passed twice a week. +But the sweet instinct of privacy and home had had its way, and every +night the little curtain that never shut out anything but the incurious +moonlight or the innocent stars was drawn as regularly as the shades of a +Fifth Avenue mansion. Later we learned that it was the Life-Saving Station +of Lake Superior. + +"No nap this afternoon, ladies," said the captain as he left the +luncheon-table. "You must be on the lookout for Portage River." + +All the afternoon we watched for the little river, eked out by a canal, +that enables us to cut off one hundred and twenty miles of what would be +the course around Keweena Point, besides giving what is perhaps the most +interesting part of the whole trip. So narrow is the opening of the river +that no trace of it is to be seen till we are close upon it; yet swift as +the dove from far Palmyra flying, unerring as an arrow from the bow, the +great ship sweeps across the lake to exactly the right spot. The river is +hardly the width of a canal, yet curves as no canal would ever curve, so +that the captain in giving orders has to watch both ends of the vessel to +see that neither runs aground. It would be impossible for two steamers to +pass each other in the river, and the contingency of their meeting is +guarded against by the fact that returning steamers have to go round the +Point, being too heavily laden with flour from Duluth. As it was, there +were but thirteen feet of water in the river, and the Japan drew twelve. + +Once in the river, we experienced a most extraordinary transformation. +Every one knows what it is to pass in a day or two from northern snow to +southern roses, or in a few hours from valley roses to mountain snow; but +here, _in five minutes_, and remaining on precisely the same level, we +passed from October to July. The cold lake-breeze died away, and on the +little inland river the sun was actually oppressive. Seal-skins were cast +aside, and we sent hastily below for sun-umbrellas. The speed of the +steamer was slackened to four miles an hour. You heard no click of +machinery or swash of water against the sides: we were gliding on through +a green and lovely marsh, with water-lilies all about us and wild roses in +the distance. Cattle stood knee-deep in pleasant brooks, locusts hummed +and buzzed in the warm air, all sweet summer sounds and scents encompassed +us. There was even a little settlement of scattered houses; but the +expected steamer had evidently created no excitement in the inmates. It +would not stop; it brought them neither mail nor summer boarder: why +should they care just to see it pass? One man, painting the window-sashes +of his house with his back to the steamer, never even turned or paused +from his work, though we were so near that he might have heard what was +said about him on the deck. It is not the dweller in the wilderness, but +the denizen of cities, that longs for something to happen. + +At Hancock the steamer waits several hours, giving an opportunity to visit +the wonderful copper-mines. We chanced to be there just at the hour to see +one of the unique sights of America,--the working of the man-engine that +brings the miners up from their work. Even by machinery it takes them half +an hour to reach daylight. The mine is worked to the depth of fifteen +hundred feet, and for five hundred we could gaze down into the dark and +awful shaft, lit for us by the candles burning in the miners' caps. Two +long beams, to which are attached at right angles little platforms at +intervals of eight feet, each platform holding one man, work up and down. +As each man reaches the level of the platform above on the opposite beam +the engine stops just long enough for him to step from one to the other. +The long, silent, spectral procession, moving with such shadowy precision +and constant motion, with the glimmering lights changing, not fitfully, +but with the regularity of well-trained will-o'-the-wisps, made a panorama +not easily forgotten. Every minute or two, as the engine paused, the miner +whose platform had reached the top sprang suddenly, like a jack-in-the-box, +out of the opening into which we were gazing, touched his hat, and +disappeared into the town. Long as we waited, the procession was not yet +ended when we had to go back to the Japan. + +It is just beyond Hancock that the river broadens into the beautiful +expanse so like Lake George. As we glided away from the wharf in the light +of a splendid sunset, it was curious to look back at the simple little +town, so remote from luxury, even from civilization, so humble in its own +wants and pleasures, yet pouring such vast sources of supply into the +great world of which it knew nothing and asked nothing, save the privilege +of enriching it. + +At twilight we entered the canal. I have been up the Saguenay, I have been +over the Marshall Pass and through the Royal Gorge of the Arkansas, and I +have seen many noble scenes in Europe, but no scenery has ever impressed +me with such solemnity as the landscape on that canal in the twilight of +an August afternoon. Nor was it merely a personal impression. There were +two hundred souls on board, with the usual proportion of giddy young girls +and talkative youths; the negro waiters as we entered the canal were +singing and playing their violins; but in an instant, as the speed of the +steamer was again checked to four miles an hour, every sound was hushed on +board. During the hour that was occupied in going through the canal, it is +a literal fact that not a sound was heard on the great steamer but the low +impressive orders of the captain and--if you chanced to be on the +captain's bridge--_the ticking of the clock in the wheel-house._ People +spoke in whispers, if they spoke at all, quite unconscious of it till they +remembered it afterward. What made it so impressive? I am sure I do not +know. Certainly there was nothing awful in the scenery, and we never were +in less danger in our lives. We were moving peacefully through a long, +narrow sheet of perfectly calm water, stretching straight as a die from +the river to the upper lake. If anything had happened, we could have +jumped ashore on either side, and another steamer from Buffalo would have +come through in a day or two and picked us up. The only thing possible to +fear was that we might ground in the shallow water, an emergency from +which we could only be relieved, as there are no tides in the lakes, by +the tedious process of lightening the cargo. It was a perfectly clear +evening after a most beautiful day. But on either side of us, far as the +eye could reach, stretched an apparently unbroken forest. Through the +narrow vista cleared for our silvery pathway a slow and stately twilight +came solemnly to fold us in its embrace, as we advanced solemnly and +slowly from vast and awful solitudes to solitudes more vast and awful +still. As we drew near the lake again, a little light-house gleamed, and, +as we swept past it out into the broad expanse of limitless waters, the +cheerful throb of the machinery quickened again upon the sea, the pleasant +swish of the water against the ship greeted us once more, life, movement, +and gayety sprang out again on board, and in an instant the entire steamer +had burst into laughter and chat and song. We were really in far more +danger, from storm or collision or fire, out on the great lake; but the +sense of awe had been lifted from us. + +We were due at Duluth at four o'clock of the following afternoon. What +would she be like, this "zenith city of the unsalted seas," with such a +stately avenue of approach? At three o'clock we began to see in the +distance what seemed to be her cloud-capped towers and domes and palaces; +at half-past three a beautiful little humming-bird, blown from the shore, +lit on my scarlet necktie and pecked at this strange flower from the East; +at four we were at the wharf. + +"I think," said my companion slowly, gazing sorrowfully at the shanties +that had made such splendid domes in the distance, "I think I should have +called it Delusion, instead of Duluth. It looks like a town in Dickens's +'American Notes' illustrated by Dor? + +Surely never was there a more forlorn little town, trying to scramble up a +hillside covered with the tall trunks of dead trees and blackened stumps, +shut out from one world by the waste of waters before it, shut in from +another by dreary, verdureless hills. Surely nobody _lived_ there; those +could not be _homes,_ those desolate frame houses where people were +"staying" awhile. It seemed as if the whole town, like "Poor Joe," would +soon be told by a vigilant policeman to "move on." + +And we, who were looking forward to Colorado, needed no policeman to urge +us to "move on" by the earliest train to St. Paul. + +ALICE WELLINGTON ROLLINS. + + * * * * * + + + + +AURORA. + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +ROSE AND GOLD. + + +Aurora wrote to the address given her by the Duke of Sassovivo, and +received an immediate reply. The tone of her letter might be described as +dutiful. She could assume no other. That pale face and weary voice were +ever before her. She wrote much as she might have written to Fra Antonio, +though with less ease; and the reply was not calculated to change this new +position in which the two stood to each other. D'Rubiera wrote freely of +his movements and plans, and of his son, but made no reference to his +feelings, and did not mention the past, or any future beyond his travels. + +"I trust that you will not leave me in ignorance of any contemplated +change in your mode of life," he concluded, "and that you will come to no +decision on any subject of importance without giving me the privilege of +offering my advice, even if you should think best not to follow it." + +The letter included a note to Mrs. Lindsay, which she answered; and her +answer called forth a letter addressed to herself. There seemed to be no +reason why Aurora should write again, and, by the tacit consent of all, +the correspondence fell into Mrs. Lindsay's hands. Sometimes Aurora did +not see these letters, or saw but a part of them,--though her friend +always told her the duke's movements and plans and read her out some +message from him to herself. + +Possibly the reason of this reserve lay in the fact that Mrs. Lindsay made +Aurora the principal theme of her letters. Her triumphs, her beauty, her +goodness, her admirers, her acts, her sayings, even her little whims, were +all recounted. + +The lady was a good letter-writer. She wrote in a simple, self-colored way +a clear narrative of their life in Venice, ignoring sentiment and +reflections; yet the many little incidents and phrases which she set down +were like so many touches with a full brush, and gave life to what she +told. + +The duke remained in England but a short time. Robertino was perfectly +contented, he wrote, and better without him. He crossed the ocean, and +threw himself into the life of the New World, going east, west, north, and +south, glancing at the agriculture, commerce, and manufactures of that +prodigious country, which astonished him. The magnificent strength and +vitality of it all braced him, waked him up, and dispelled his miasmas. +Back to England; and, before they knew that he was there, off to Spain; +and when they thought of him as in Spain, he had returned to England. + +And here at length he took a brief repose. He began to go into society, +and wrote Mrs. Lindsay the names of persons he met and whom she might +know. Among those whom he saw constantly was Lady Maud Churchill, whom he +pronounced exquisitely beautiful. + +Mr. Edward Churchill was with them when the letters were brought, and +Mrs. Lindsay read out this compliment to him. + +"Lady Maud is my cousin," he said. "She is a woman carved in alabaster." + +Mrs. Lindsay gave Aurora the letter to read when she went to her room, and +she sat there by her window after having read it, the open sheet in her +lap. + +"Exquisitely beautiful," she repeated, looking down at the words. "He will +marry her. I am glad that he is going to marry an Englishwoman. She must +be good, if she is like her cousin." + +She looked out at the bright April sunlight dreamily, and for a long time +without stirring. She was considering if she had not better accept Mrs. +Lindsay's invitation to accompany them to America in June. She would like +to see that wonderful golden land where nobody is ragged and nobody poor, +--to see its prairies and forests, its cities sprung up since yesterday, +its wide, clean streets with trees in them, its people, unresting, +truth-telling, generous and courageous, if not always polite. + +"Fancy a country where the people drink water!" exclaimed a Frenchman, on +seeing water sold in the streets of Seville. + +"Fancy a nation where the people are for the most part truthful!" thought +this Italian, sitting in the window of a Venetian palace and looking out +into the Canal Grande. + +"I had better go," she said. "I shall never again have so good an +opportunity. And I really do not know what else to do. There is nothing to +keep me here." + +And then, with the thought that she might indeed go to the ends of the +earth and never come back, for any tie that held her, came the bitter +remembrance of her losses. + +"Oh, mamma!" she whispered, and began to cry,--not with the passion of her +first sorrow, but piteously and low, with a sense of desolation. + +The next day Mrs. Lindsay wrote the duke, "A name you mention in your +letter opens the way to a story I have to tell you. Lady Maud Churchill +has a cousin in Venice who is a frequent visitor of ours, and more than an +admirer of Aurora's. It has been on my mind, to write you of this +gentleman, but I always put off doing so with the expectation of having +something of importance to communicate concerning him the next time. Last +evening he confided to me that he offered himself to Aurora a month ago, +and was refused, but so kindly that he could not give up all hope. She +told him that she was free, and had a sincere regard for him, but that she +did not mean to marry any one. + +"Of course no man would believe his case hopeless with such a reply; and +Mr. Churchill seems to think that Aurora is softening toward him. It +really seems so to me also. Last evening she sat apart and talked with +him nearly two hours; and this morning, as we sat alone, she suddenly +exclaimed, 'I wish that Mr. Churchill would come in!' + +"It is true that, having refused him once, she may feel free to show that +she likes him as a friend. However it may turn out, I hope that she may be +as happy as she deserves. For my part, I could not wish her a more +honorable and devoted lover. He is a man calculated to win affection and +esteem." + +This letter was brought to the duke just as he was going out to a ball. He +went back to his room to read it; and, having read it, he flung it angrily +into the lighted grate. + +"What does the woman mean! I'll shoot the fellow if he dares to wring a +promise out of Aurora. And this stuff about Lady Maud. What did I write? +Do they fancy that I care for her? I like her as I like Wenham ice. Aurora +'softening' toward this impudent Englishman! She would soften toward a cat +if it cried. Mr. Edward Churchill her devoted lover! _Arcidiavolo!_" + +With this growl of rage, rolling and deep-drawn, the Italian went to his +_escritori_, and wrote, "Aurora should not think of marrying an +Englishman. Sooner or later he is sure to return to England; and what +would she do here? I do not at all approve of the match; and I hope that +you will do all that you can to prevent it. Above all, do not let anything +be concluded in haste." + +An event of importance in Mrs. Lindsay's family prevented her replying to +this note. Shortly after its reception her first child was laid in her +arms. Nor did she show the note to Aurora, though she requested her to +write a line to the duke, informing him that a young lady of the most +tender age but obstinate will had placed a veto on her writing at present. + +It would be impossible to say whether father or mother was more happy and +proud over the advent of this little girl, but there could be no doubt +that the mother was the more peremptory and authoritative concerning it. +If Mrs. Lindsay had been queen of the household before, she was empress +now, and that in her own right. + +"You are only prince consort, John," she remarked to her husband, when he +suggested that the child might be baptized in the house by the resident +Protestant minister. "I am regnant. My daughter may be baptized by a +Protestant minister, and welcome, if--but she is going to be baptized in +San Marco, and Aurora Coronari is to be her godmother and Prince P---- her +godfather. If you can reconcile that with your minister, do so." + +The prince consort bowed his head meekly. "I have no particular objection +that a priest should baptize her," he said. "I am very much pleased to +have the prince and Aurora stand sponsors for her. Of course it doesn't +make any difference what they promise for her now. She will be sure to do +as she pleases when she grows up,--if she should turn out to be like her +mother." + +The baptism took place on the first day of May, in the morning; and the +company invited to assist were to return to Palazzo Pesaro to breakfast in +honor of the event. + +Mrs. Lindsay had her gondola--the baby's gondola _pro tem._.--decorated +for the occasion. An immense white umbrella, lined with gold-colored silk, +was fixed to cover the seats, and the whole gondola was lined and carpeted +with white and pale blue. A blue fringe fell over the edge almost to the +water, and bouquets of flowers were bespoken. + +Not only this: she had made a pact with Aurora, who declared that a girl +baptized in the month of May should have Mary for one of her names. Mrs. +Lindsay would include the name if Aurora would attend the ceremony dressed +like the Madonna of an ancient picture of hers, she herself to furnish the +dress; and Aurora consented. + +This Madonna on a sparkling gold ground had a long veil of dim blue +falling over her head and shoulders, and wore a dress of dull-red wool +with faint golden reflection. It was a Raphael dress, and had a band of +fine gold embroidery across the neck and round the wrists. + +The dress came home the evening before, and was tried on and displayed to +the family, with whom was Mr. Edward Churchill. + +"There! wasn't I right?" exclaimed Mrs. Lindsay in triumph. + +"Suppose we should scrape out the Madonna and have Aurora painted in her +place," Mr. Lindsay proposed, with perfect seriousness. + +"The Madonna is an antiquity," his wife said, with dignity. + +"But her eyes are turned like a Chinese's," the gentleman persisted. +"And her expression is cross." + +"I wouldn't do it for the world," Aurora declared. "I feel almost wicked +in assuming her dress." + +"Well," Mr. Lindsay sighed. "Only don't assume her squint, and I think you +will be forgiven the clothes." + +Every night when Aurora went to her room she extinguished her candle and +sat awhile by the open window. The custom had at first been a poetical one, +it was now a sign of trouble. She had seen that evening but too clearly +that one refusal was not enough for Mr. Edward Churchill. + +"It is another reason for going away," she thought. "I must take myself +out of his sight. And yet I like him so! Why cannot he be friendly and +nothing more?" + +The canal was almost deserted, though the Lagoon below was alive with +boats. The water was a dark mirror below. She could see the stars in it, +and the sound of its liquid touch to step and mooring-post was almost +inaudible. + +As she sat there, a gondola slid along inside the posts and stopped under +her window. A moment after, a chord was struck on the strings of a +mandolin. + +Ah! a serenade! It was not her first one by far, and she leaned forward +with pleasure to hear it. The scene was well set for music. But as the +first words fell on her ear she shrank back again. It was Edward +Churchill's mellow voice, and he sang a serenade of Mrs. Norton's, in +English: + + Soft o'er the fountain, + Lingering, shines the southern moon; + Far o'er the mountain + Breaks the day,--too soon. + In thy dark eyes' splendor, + Where the warm light loves to dwell, + Weary looks, yet tender, + Speak their fond farewell. + Nita, Juanita, ask thy soul if we should part! + Nita, Juanita, lean thou on my heart! + + When, in thy dreaming, + Hours li'ke these shall shine again, + And morning beaming + Prove thy dream is vain, + Wilt thou not, relenting, + For thine absent lover sigh, + In thy heart consenting + To a prayer gone by? + Nita, Juanita, let me linger by thy side! + Nita, Juanita, be my own dear bride! + +Silence fell, continued, and pressed. There was no note of music from +below, no response from above. Then there was a stroke of oars lightly +falling, then ceasing, and again silence. Not a sign of response. Slowly +the gondola glided away and disappeared in the night. + +"I am so sorry for him!" Aurora murmured, and softly closed her window. +"So sorry!" + +She recollected what Mrs. Lindsay had said of the fascination of this +serenade: "If the woman who hears this sung to her--well sung--on a +beautiful night does not at once accept the singer, it is because she is +in love with some one else." + +"I am in love with freedom and with poetry," Aurora exclaimed, and hastily +put the subject away. + +The cortège that accompanied the babe to church the next morning was a +picturesque one. A dozen gondolas brought their loads to the palace steps, +and the company entered and paid their respects to the mother while +waiting for the procession from the nursery. + +Mrs. Lindsay, on this her first appearance, received in one of the front +_salons_,--a room lined with gold-colored satin, with sofas and chairs +covered with maroon velvet flowers on a gold satin ground. She wore a +marvellous toilet, which looked like sea-foam, so covered was it with +laces. + +"The difficulty with these rooms is that they extinguish almost anything +that you can wear," she said. "Nothing looks well against these draperies +but old point-lace. That asserts itself anywhere." + +She certainly contrived to make herself a very lovely and interesting +object seen against those rich cushions. No color reflected upon her but +light, in her slight languor and pallor of convalescence, her cheeks +delicately thinned, she was like a white rose drooping in the heat of +noonday. + +The nursery sent down its treasure. First came Aurora in her Madonna dress, +and was received with acclamations. Then came a footman, then two +wondrously-dressed nurses, with their heads a halo of silver filigree pins, +one of the nurses bearing the lace-wrapped infant in a white embroidered +mantle that fell almost to the floor. Two maids followed. + +This little company filled the babe's gondola, that swept out, the others +following and surrounding it as they glided down to San Marco. The place +of honor was the infant's, and Aurora sat at her left hand, and bent to +talk to her and keep her in good humor. + +"She looks at you, Donna Aurora," the nurse said. "And, see! she smiles." + +In fact, it had been found that Aurora had the right magic "Coo-coo!" and +the cunning hand and soothing cheek which babies require. + +At starting, she had observed a covered gondola at rest opposite the house, +and saw that some one was watching them from its curtained window. It was +not surprising, for their little pageant was pretty. But she was surprised +when the gondola slipped forward beside her own and became almost +entangled with their followers. For a moment she thought that it might be +Mr. Churchill, but a swift, stolen glance showed her that the arm which +rested by the window wore a military sleeve. + +"Some officer who knows the family," she concluded. They knew a good many +officers. + +The entanglement was but momentary, and might have been accidental, the +person inside having evidently given orders to let them pass. Leaning on +his oar against the out-flowing tide, the gondolier took his hat off and +bowed lowly, smiling at the babe. + +"_E riverita, Madama Innocenza_!" he said. + +Aurora gave him a kind glance. "But you will be more innocent still in a +few minutes," she said to the infant. + +They reached the landing, and walked across the piazza to Saint Mark's, +and entered the baptistery. A good many people gathered about the door +during the ceremony, and among them Aurora was aware of a military officer +who stood leaning against the grating. She did not look at him, or she +would have known that his eyes were fixed on her alone. + +When, after holding the infant at the font, and giving it a string of +names as long as a rosary, she turned to restore it to its nurse, and bent +to kiss its rosy face as she released it, the officer smiled, gazing +earnestly at her downcast eyes. He saw her lips move in a whisper. + +She was repeating the gondolier's salutation: "_E riverita, Madama +Innocenza!_" + +As they went out, her veil brushed the gold-banded sleeve, and she heard a +faint sigh from the wearer. It required a force not to look at him, not to +show that she was conscious of his presence and pleased by it. Any one who +wore a soldier's dress touched her heart, from general down to orderly. + +Home through the sunshine, in through the shaded court, up the stair with +its painted lords and ladies looking down upon them from the painted +arcade. + +Mrs. Lindsay came out to the stair to receive them, and to embrace her +infant before dismissing it to the nursery. + +Mr. Churchill had joined them at Saint Mark's, and returned with them, +sitting beside Aurora at breakfast. Both ignored the serenade as if it had +never been. + +"My cousin Edith and Mrs. Graham arrived last evening," he said. "They +will stop here a week or two before returning to England." + +"Oh, I should like to see them!" Aurora said cordially. "Tell me where +they are, and I will leave a card today. I am sure, too, that Mrs. Lindsay +will wish to make their acquaintance." + +The breakfast ended with coffee in the beautiful garden the dining-room +windows looked into; then one by one the company departed. Mr. Churchill +lingered a few minutes after the others, then went, seeing no hope of an +interview with Aurora. + +As soon as he had left the room, Mr. Lindsay accompanying him, Mrs. +Lindsay turned with an almost impatient vivacity to Aurora. "At last I can +tell you!" she exclaimed. "Do you know who is in Venice, who sent me a +note while you were at church, and who will dine with us this evening?" + +She looked triumphant and joyful. + +Aurora was silent a moment. "I can guess," she said. "And yet--" + +"D'Rubiera has come!" Madama announced. "What other coming could be so +joyful to us? He has left the boy in England, has himself been to Rome on +a flying visit for business purposes, and is come back to see us. Is it +not delightful? That was all I needed to make this the loveliest day of my +life." + +"Did you see him?" Aurora asked. + +"Why, no! His note was left immediately after you started. I sent a reply +instantly to his hotel, asking him to dine with us. His acceptance was +handed me while we were taking coffee. Did you not see Febiano present the +note? It was a comedy. That man cannot resign the idea that we are +official people, I and John both, and he never lets a note wait, whoever +may be with me. He comes with a solemn, gliding discretion, a sort of +secret-stairway manner, and half presents, half slides the note to me, as +if it were a call to a council of inquisitors in the ducal palace." + +"I hope that the duke is not so unhappy as he was when last I saw him," +Aurora said gravely. + +"What should he be unhappy about?" demanded Madama, who seemed indeed to +be in the highest of spirits. "He has youth, health, wealth, rank, a +character worthy all these blessings, and a beautiful boy. Do you imagine +that he is going to mourn forever for a woman whom he never really loved, +and who disgraced and tormented him? Poor thing! let her rest. It is +almost a year since she died, and he has paid sufficient respect to her +memory. I take it for granted that the duke is as full of life and spirit +and joy as a man can be." + +"Madama Teresa mia," said Aurora, "whom are you scolding? Allow me to +remind you that I expressed a wish that the duke would _not_ prove to be +unhappy." + +"And the wish implied a doubt," her friend retorted. "And your reference +to the past was a shadow. And I will have no shadows to-day. Now I am +going to have my repose, and I advise you to do the same. And you will +wear the same dress at dinner, will you not? It is so pretty. Besides, you +are looking rather pale, and it gives you a glow." + +She went; and Aurora, instead of following her advice to go to rest, took +refuge in the ball-room, which was her in-door promenade. She was never +interrupted there. When she was in the ball-room, and they heard her light +step going to and fro, it was taken for granted that she was composing, +and the room became a sanctuary. No profane foot must cross the threshold. + +She was very far from composing verses on this May afternoon. She was +trying to tranquillize her mind, which Mrs. Lindsay's news had disturbed. +She would be glad to see the duke, surely, dear kind friend that he was! +Yet what meant the shrinking which accompanied that pleasant anticipation? +She felt that she should tremble at his approach, and that her voice would +falter. It would be a strange folly; and yet she feared that it would be +impossible to control herself. + +"It is because of all that happened before I left Sassovivo," she murmured +to herself. "I have got him tangled up in my mind with those miserable +affairs. I am certainly growing nervous, and it will never do. Away with +all that has passed since he became Duke of Sassovivo! _Su_, Rubiera, whom +I knew a soldier years ago, who bade me sing, and laid your drawn sword +across the keys of my piano-forte for a motive, --Rubiera, who came across +a chasm to me as I stood clinging to the broken wall, and smiled courage +into my sinking heart. _Su_, Rubiera, who divided the olive-twig with me, +promising to challenge me when we met again with _Fuori il verde!_ It was +I who showed the green and gave the challenge when we met, and I have the +three leaves yet." She drew a locket from her breast, and opened it to +look at the memento, and at her mother's miniature enclosed with it. + +She was smiling now. That bright past had thrust aside all painful +recollections, and the old cordial, loving confidence was coming up again. + +The sun, declining to the palace roofs opposite, flooded the room with +light. It made Aurora's red dress brilliant, and played and sparkled on +the gold she wore. Twenty little golden chains of Venice hung around her +neck, slender thread after thread from throat to girdle, invisible now +with fineness, and now showing a misty flash in the sun. There was a gold +filigree rose in her hair, which at certain movements changed to a red +rose, and then to a pallid flame, and in the shadow it had all the +softness of a yellow rose just blown. + +Aurora walked to and fro in the light, a brilliant figure, counting over +the treasures of her memory. + +"I wonder what I sang that night!" she murmured. "I never copied it. It +was something about my country. When I ended they crossed their swords +above my head, D'Rubiera and General Pampara. What did I sing? I wish I +could remember." + +She was so absorbed that a step crossing the next room failed to attract +her attention. She did not even hear the light tap at the door. But when +it opened, and some one entered, closing the door behind him, she turned +abruptly and faced the intruder, fully conscious now. + +He was an officer, who tossed his cap away at sight of her, and he had the +face she had been thinking of,--the same face, full of life, and more full +of joyous excitement than she had ever seen it. + +They stood so for a moment, the length of the room between them, gazing at +each other, with some sense of floating in all that light, as if they were +far up in the sky, they two alone, on their way to heaven. + +Then the soldier held up some tiny object in his hand, and came rapidly +forward. + +"_Fuori il verde!_!" he cried out. + +As in a dream, as though they were indeed being sucked up through the blue +unsteady air, Aurora tried to pull the locket from her bosom, and desisted, +for, throwing aside the faded leaf, D'Rubiera extended his arms with an +"Aurora!" which held all pleading and all command, all passion and all +delight, that love can give to the human voice. + +Light as a gazelle she rushed into his embrace, pressing her cheek to his. + +"Oh, my soldier! my soldier!" she murmured. "My soldier and my Love!" + +"What a circuit I have made to reach you!" D'Rubiera said at length, +holding her back at arm's length to look at her. "Are you glad to have me +back, signora duchessa? Are you happy, my red rose?" + +"And to think that you have entered the army again!" she said, drawing a +caressing finger-tip along the gold-work on his sleeve. + +"I did it to please you," he declared. + +The sudden tide of joy and surprise made speech and thought almost +impossible. + +"I do not believe it all," Aurora said. "It is a dream I have been +conjuring up." She withdrew from him. "Stay here, vision of a soldier. Do +not stir. I am going to get my reason back." She turned, and walked slowly +away the length of the room. "He is not here: it was a dream," she said, +then turned again, uttered a sweet cry of joy, and, holding her arms out, +met him half-way, and dropped against his breast again. + +"I feel the motions of the earth as it flies around the sun and turns on +itself," she said,--"two dizzinesses in one. As at first, so now, and so +forever, without you I fall, D'Rubiera." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +A FOUNTAIN. + + +That evening Mr. Churchill dined with his cousin and Mrs. Graham at their +hotel, and afterward sat with his cousin in their balcony. + +He found Edith wonderfully improved. She was either prettier, or her +educated taste made her look so. She knew how to dress now, and her manner +was better. She was cheerful, and she carried her head higher. The hair he +once had thought red he knew now was the color the Venetian painters loved, +and he looked admiringly at the rich coils that crowned her graceful head. + +Besides, there was no sign of that too evident love which had driven him +from her. She looked at him calmly, and spoke with a familiarity which had +an undefined coolness in it. + +While they sat there alone, talking pleasantly, a servant brought a note +for Mr. Churchill. It had been taken to his house and forwarded to him. +Excusing himself, he went into the room to read it by the shaded lamp. + +His cousin turned her head, and watched him unseen. She saw his face grow +crimson as he read, the veins standing out on his forehead, then grow pale +again. She had thought while they sat at dinner that he was looking pale. + +He stood bent down, with his eyes fixed on the page, and, without turning +the leaf, gazing at what he had read as if he did not understand it. + +"My dear friend," Mrs. Lindsay had written, "after a certain conversation +which we had some time ago, I think I ought to tell you my news without +delay. The Duke of Sassovivo is with us, and this evening he has presented +Aurora to us as his future wife." + +He stood so long gazing at the words that his cousin went to him. + +"Excuse me, Edith, I must go out," he said, in a stifled voice. + +"Good-night, Edward," she said, and asked no questions, but held out her +hand. + +The hand that took hers was cold, and her good-night received not a word +of response. + +He went out and called a gondola. + +"Where to?" the gondolier asked. + +"Anywhere!" + +They went up and down, and across to the Giudecca, and down again, and +turned the point of the Public Garden, and the gondolier was about +returning, when for the first time his passenger spoke: + +"Go round by San Pietro and inside by San Daniele. Go where it is dark." + +"He is disappointed in love, or jealous," the man thought as they threaded +the inner ways of the city, now by a lighted piazza, now under shadowing +bridges, or along the gloomy, silent walls of palaces that shut them in. + +"Where shall I go now?" he ventured to ask, when they had gone the whole +length of the city. "We are in the Cannareggio." + +The passenger raised himself. He had sat all the time with his head bowed +down. "Let her drop down the canal," he said, his voice grown gentler. +"Keep well to the left." + +They went out into the canal and downward. Passing under the Rialto, there +rose a deep sigh from the gondola, and the echoing arch whispered back a +sigh. + +The passenger was alert now, looking at all the palaces at the left, as +though he had never seen them before. As they passed Palazzo Pesaro a +gondola touched its steps, and a lady and gentleman got out and walked up +to the portone. The moonlight sparkled on, the uniform of one and on the +gilded fan of the other. They had been out together, and alone, drawing +sweetness from the same air where he had breathed in bitterness. + +"Well, it is fitting," he sighed. "Her head was made to wear a coronet. +God bless her!--and him." + +He looked at them standing in the archway of the palace saying good-night +till distance hid them from him. He was in front of his cousin's hotel, +and, looking up, he saw her still sitting in the balcony where he had left +her. + +Late as it was, he landed and went up to her again. She recognized him +when he stepped out of the gondola, and was not too much surprised when he +appeared. He seated himself beside her, and looked out over the water +without saying a word. + +"Are you not well?" she asked at length, timidly. + +He started. "Why do you ask?" + +"You look pale," she answered. + +For a moment he did not speak. Then he said, "I have had a disappointment, +Edith." + +She leaned toward him with a sigh and a hand half extended, compassion in +all her attitude. + +He took the hand, and rose. "Let me tell you all, dear," he said. "I need +comfort. Come and let me tell you,--if it will not be a bore," + +She went at once, pain and delight struggling together in her heart. He +led her to the sofa, and sank down to the cushion at her feet, bowing his +head to her knees. And there he poured out his whole story, sparing her +nothing. + +Perhaps an instinct of justice and mercy ran through his passion. Perhaps, +guessing in the soft, tremulous, soothing hands that touched his hair and +forehead the love that he had believed to be dead, and with an unconscious +feeling that she was to be the consoler and companion of his future life, +he felt also that all the pain she was to suffer for this love of his must +be gone through with now. + +He could not understand that her only pain was for him, and that for +herself she was blest. For she had his confidence, and she could console +him. + +From that night he became her constant escort and companion. He wrote a +brief note in answer to Mrs. Lindsay's, and then he seemed to forget that +he knew any one in Palazzo Pesaro. + +"For the present I am _de trop_" he wrote, "but I will see you before you +go away. All happiness to Aurora and her chosen husband." + +Impossibility is a wonderful extinguisher of desire; and what suffering +was left to him was not so much a sickness as the languor of +convalescence. He saw Aurora but seldom, and always at a distance; but he +knew that Venetian society was rejoicing over the engagement, and that the +duke was a devoted lover. + +Once, in passing by, he glanced involuntarily at the windows, and saw a +group inside, the sight of which gave him a momentary pang. D'Rubiera +seemed to be placing something on Aurora's head, and Mrs. Lindsay clapped +her hands. + +The duke was, in fact, trying a coronet on his future wife. He had sent +for the family jewels, and was to have them reset, and Mrs. Lindsay +clapped her hands at seeing the diamonds on Aurora's hair. + +D'Rubiera was an impatient and peremptory wooer, and he won the day. They +were to be married in June; and the Lindsays would stay in Venice a month +longer to witness the ceremony. + +Fra Antonio came from Sassovivo and joined their hands in Saint Mark's, +gold and rank smoothing away all obstacles. Then they went to England for +the boy, and came back in time for a week at Bellmar. After Bellmar, they +went to Sassovivo, unannounced, to break open the walled-up gate and carry +jubilee into the castle, the duke said. + +In fact, they spent a whole day long in the castle, tranquilly watching +from its windows the visitors who went to the villa in vain to +_ossequiare_ the master and his new duchess. It was the last time that +they would enter the castle as master and mistress; for the Signora Paula +and Martina were coming to live there,--forever, if they pleased. + +The Signora Paula had found herself _de trop_ in her brother's house. The +Count Clemente had offered himself to the younger of his two first lodgers, +the girl of fifty, and been beamingly accepted; and, though months must +elapse before all the necessary preparations could be made for their +marriage, the Sposa was now mistress of the house. She smiled as before, +but she had her way. The sacred dirt of centuries was being cleaned out, +and immemorial grime was growing pale before the soap and sand of a +civilization to which the Signora Paula was a stranger. Where duchesses +had swept their silks in uncomplaining tranquillity, the smiling Americana +walked on tiptoe with her skirts upheld, and pointed out her orders to the +wondering scrubbers with the toe of her slipper, both hands being employed. + +In all these innovations every care was taken that the count should not be +disturbed. But he had his cross, and an unexpected one. When it became +time to talk of settlements, and it had to be owned that the gentleman had +nothing to settle on his wife but the shadow of a coronet, of which she +would have to buy the substance if she ever wore it, the lady announced +blandly that she would pay all their living-expenses and give her husband +five hundred dollars a year spending-money if he would pay the rent to the +duke,--this arrangement to hold as long as they should live together. + +"But we shall always live together," said the count, with a contortion +meant for a smile. + +"If we should live," the lady said. "But life is uncertain." + +"Oh, in case of death, one makes different arrangements," the count said, +somewhat impatiently. "That is another question." + +"But I want it so," persisted the lady coquettishly; "and I must have my +way. I have always had my way." + +And, ever smiling, never appearing to dream that he was in earnest or to +suspect the rage that was gnawing his heart, she had her way. She smiled +at his coarse and open grasping, smiled at his scarcely hidden anger, and +smiled at the half-insulting consent he flung at her, as if it were all a +jest. And he believed her the simpleton she seemed, and did not know that +he had found a mistress who would rule him with a rod of iron. + +On the second day of their stay in Sassovivo the duke and duchess drove +down early in the morning to the campagna, and left another brewing of +_ossequii_ to fizz itself out in unresponsive air. + +Aurora was going to erect a memorial fountain to her mother in the midst +of the long, hot, dusty road to the station. A wild spring of delicious +water lay back in a rocky pasture. This was to be brought forward and run +into marble basins for man and beast. Above should be a carved relief of +Christ and the Samaritan woman at the well, with, underneath, "And the +woman said, Lord, give me of this water to drink, that I may never thirst +again." + +An artist had come out from Rome to see the place and make suggestions; +and they walked over the green grass, and visited the spring in its own +home, and drank of its sparkling tide. + +"Would you like to be a missionary, little spring?" Aurora asked, bending +toward it. "Many will call you blessed, and the image of your Master will +forever look down upon you." + +The artist looked at her in surprise and smiling admiration. He had found +her a very dignified lady, and this unexpected turn reminded him that she +was a poetess as well as a duchess. + +"What does it say?" D'Rubiera asked. + +She took his arm, smiled into his face, but made no answer. + +They went back to the carriage, took leave of their artist, and drove +slowly to the town. + +"I hope that mamma likes the idea of the fountain," the duchess said +thoughtfully. + +MARY AGNES TINCKER. + +[THE END.] + + * * * * * + + + + +EPITAPH WRITTEN IN THE SAND ON A BUTTERFLY DROWNED IN THE SEA. + + + Poor Psyche, to a Power supernal wed, + How strong a fate on this thy frailness fell! + What strange ironic word shall here be read? + Dead sign of immortality, farewell! + + I sigh not that the summer fields have lost + One flying flower: who counts the butterflies? + I sigh not that thy sunny hour was crossed: + The self-same Shadow surely waits mine eyes, + + Thy piteous terror of the appointed end, + For this I sigh! The billow, poised above, + Fell on thee like a beast that leaps to rend: + Thou couldst not know thy bridegroom Death was Love! + + How otherwise thy sister, yea, the Soul, + Bent brooding o'er these broken wings of thine! + Through all her house of mystery once she stole + To the inmost room, and found a Face benign. + + Now whirl her where ye must, ye waves of Law,-- + Ay, tear her vans, her painted hopes, apart! + She cannot fear, remembering what she saw: + Dark bridegroom Death, she knows thee who thou art! + +HELEN GRAY CONE. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE PIONEERS OF THE SOUTHWEST. + +TWO PAPERS.--I. + + +It is related of Daniel Boone that when (in 1764) he climbed to the summit +of the Alleghanies and looked down upon the vast herds of deer and buffalo +that were grazing at his feet, he said to his companion Callaway, "I am +richer than the man in Scripture who owned the cattle on a thousand hills: +I own the wild beasts in a thousand valleys." + +It may be questioned if Boone had an adequate conception of the stupendous +possessions of the "man in Scripture," but he was certainly justified in +boasting of the wide magnificence of this domain which, by right of +discovery, he claimed as his own. An Indian might have told him that it +would require "three moons, two paddles, and two stout braves" to skirt +its southern and western boundaries and reach its northern limit on the +Ohio; but no phraseology known to the Red Man could have expressed the +boundless wealth, animate and inanimate, that lay hidden in its unexplored +recesses. By the leaves on the trees, or the stars in a cloudless night, +he might have indicated the countless herds of wild animals that roamed +upon it; but how would he picture the leafy magnificence of its forests, +or the grassy luxuriance of the many "openings" that everywhere dotted its +surface? + +It was a tract of country larger than the combined kingdoms of England and +Scotland, and, from the exceeding richness of its soil, it was capable of +sustaining a far denser population than now inhabits the British Islands. +And yet throughout its entire extent there was at this period not a single +human habitation, not the solitary hut of a white settler nor the smoky +wigwam of a roving Indian. It was the hunting-ground and battle-field of +the Indians, claimed by hostile tribes, but occupied by none, and hence +the more inviting as a field for civilized settlement. + +It is difficult for us to conceive of the enthusiasm which this new +country awoke in the mind of the primitive explorer. To him it was a new +world, more genial in climate, more beautiful in scenery, and more +magnificent in extent than any he had ever beheld; and it is not +surprising that the glowing accounts he gave of it on his return were +received with wondering incredulity by the simple farmers on the sterile +banks of the Yadkin. Accustomed to a sandy soil a few inches in thickness +and covered with a scanty growth of slender pines, how could they believe +in a yellow loam four feet or more in depth, and supporting dense forests +of oak and poplar ten feet in diameter and towering aloft a hundred feet +before they broke into branches? The tale was incredible, and it was years +before the wonderful story was believed among the rural population of +North Carolina, and then not until it was confirmed by the report of one +of their number,--a young farmer, selected by themselves to accompany +Boone on his third exploration, in 1769. + +This young man was James Robertson, of Wake County, North Carolina, and, +as he was to become a principal agent in the settlement of the Southwest, +he requires here a few words of description. He was at this time about +twenty-seven years of age, a little above the medium height, and of a +well-knit, robust, manly frame. He had prominent features, and thick dark +hair falling loosely over a square, full forehead which rose in the +coronal region into an almost abnormal development. His eyes were large, +of a light blue, and shaded by heavy dark eyebrows; and they had an +habitual look of introspection, showing a mind of more than common +thoughtfulness. He was grave, earnest, self-contained, with the quiet +consciousness of power which is natural to a born leader of men. And yet +there was in his manner no self-assumption or arrogance. On the contrary, +he was courteous and conciliatory, and had that rare blending of +self-respect and deference for others which, while it repelled undue +familiarity, put the rudest at his ease, and extracted from an old +Cherokee chieftain, who all his life had been the enemy of the white race, +the unwilling praise, "He has winning ways, and he makes no fuss." + +Though clad in homespun, and too much absorbed in things of greater moment +to be over-careful of his personal appearance, he was a man of so marked a +character that he would have attracted attention in almost any assemblage. +Cautious, careful of consequences, and watchful of danger, he was at the +same time bold, fearless, and ever ready to undertake enterprises which +would stagger men of fewer mental resources. So exactly was he fitted to +the time and the circumstances in which he was placed, that the conclusion +is irresistible that he was a providential man, especially appointed to +his work by a Higher Power. + +This was his own conviction, but he came to it at a later time, when +experience had shown that he bore a charmed life, and he had realized what +his single arm and brain might accomplish. But now, in his own eyes, as in +those of others, he was a simple countryman, able to "read, write, and +cipher" and to do small jobs of surveying, but with little knowledge of +any book except the Bible, though in that so deeply versed that it moulded +his speech and regulated his every action. His nature was deeply religious, +but he had, as yet, no higher aim in life than to make a home for himself, +his wife and child in some new region, where he might acquire a competence, +and rise, perhaps, to a station of some little influence and consideration. + +And now, merely stating that he was born in Brunswick County, Virginia, of +Scotch-Irish parentage, on the 28th of June, 1742, and that at the age of +twenty-five he had married Charlotte B. Reeves, a woman nine years younger +than himself, but everyway worthy to be his wife, I will go on with him +and Boone in his first journey over the Alleghanies. + +His equipment was a horse, a blanket, a hatchet, and a hunting-knife. Over +his shoulder were slung a long Deckard rifle, a powder-horn, and a bag of +bullets; and on the horse behind him were balanced a sack well filled with +parched corn, a package of salt, and a tin cup for drinking purposes. This +was his entire outfit. On the parched corn and the game to be procured by +his rifle he was to subsist on his journey. + +There were half a dozen in the party, and they followed the trail hitherto +taken by Boone, for there was no road, nor even a bridle-path. After +leaving the settlements their way lay through an almost unbroken forest; +but there was no difficulty in keeping the trail, for it had been +carefully blazed by Boone on his previous journeys. At night they encamped +under some spreading tree, and, tethering their horses among the timbers, +lighted a fire with the extra flint which each one carried in his +bullet-pouch. Their mode of lighting a fire is peculiar to the +backwoodsman. A handful of dry grass or leaves is gathered, then twisted +into a nest, in which is placed a piece of ignited punk; then the grass is +closed over the punk, and the ball is waved, in the air till it breaks +into a blaze, when it readily ignites the bundle of dry sticks with which +the fire is kindled. Then the limbs of dead trees are heaped upon the +blaze, and one of the travellers sets about preparing supper for the whole +party. It is probably of venison, for there are plenty of deer in that +region. As soon as the burning logs have deposited a good bed of ashes, a +hole is scooped in them, and in it is deposited the haunch or other +portion. When sufficiently done, it is taken out, the ashes are knocked +away, and then--no civilized man, whose appetite has never been sharpened +by open-air exposure in the woods, can understand the keen avidity with +which the delicious viand is consumed. + +Supper over, each traveller lights his pipe of fragrant "Honey-Dew," or +still more fragrant "Kinnikinnick"; and the evening is most likely whiled +away in pleasant talk and narrative of "moving accidents" by field and +forest. Boone was a good narrator, and, though but five years the senior +of Robertson, had already a large experience of thrilling adventure. At +last, heaping fresh logs upon the fire, to keep up the blaze till morning +and scare away the wolves and panthers that might be attracted by the +scent of the venison, the travellers would spread their blankets upon the +ground, turn their feet to the fire, and sink into slumber. + +Thus they encamped by night and journeyed by day, till they reached the +summit of the Stone Mountains, the northerly portion of the long range +which is now the boundary between Tennessee and North Carolina. And here a +view broke upon them such as Robertson, accustomed as he was to the +comparatively tame scenery of Wake County, had never beheld. Spread out at +their feet was a beautiful valley, some thirty miles in length by twenty +in width, and covered by a luxuriant forest, broken here and there by +grassy openings, one of which, larger than the rest, was the "Watauga Old +Fields" of the Pioneers. Some twenty miles away, two small rivers united +their currents and flowed together to the west through a gap in the +encircling mountains. Tracing their courses up among the hills, the +explorers would catch glimpses of numerous smaller streams, which feed the +larger ones and water the whole of this enchanting region. + +The valley, which is itself two thousand feet above the sea, is hemmed in +by huge mountain-ranges,--the Holston on the north and west, and the Iron +and Stone Mountains on the south and east,--which break into peaks--the +White-Top, the Bald, and the Roan--the lowest of which towers more than a +mile into the air. These mountains protect the valley from the chill winds +of winter, and temper the summer breezes to a delicious coolness, making +the atmosphere the most delightful that can be imagined. The bottoms along +the rivers are wide and productive, bearing then a thick crop of tall +grass, on which multitudes of deer, elk, and buffalo were browsing. The +soil of the bottoms is a deep, dark loam, capable of yielding immense +crops of wheat and Indian corn, while the higher and less fertile land +along the base of the mountain will produce fruits of the most delicate +flavor and in astonishing abundance. + +Altogether, the scene is picturesque beyond description,--a charming +valley, threaded by limpid streams, and dotted with dense forests of oak, +pine, poplar, cherry, and walnut, the whole encircled by huge sandstone +ridges, their loftier peaks capped by the clouds, and standing there grim, +silent, and sublime, like giant sentinels guarding the gates of an earthly +paradise. Years afterward, speaking of the scene as it then broke upon him, +Robertson said, "It seemed to me the Promised Land." + +As the explorers prepared to descend into the valley, they noticed a few +miles away, at the north, a slight smoke curling up from among the trees +near the banks of what is now known as Boone's Creek, a small tributary of +the Watauga. Was it from the encampment of some Indian hunter, or the +cabin of a white man who had settled there since the visit of Boone, five +years before? With the caution of old hunters they descended the mountain +and approached the spot whence the smoke issued. It was a log hut, newly +built, and around it, in the stacked corn and the cattle browsing near, +were evidences of a white inhabitant. He was a former comrade of Boone, +his companion during his visit here in 1760, and he had returned during +the previous summer and built a home for his family. His name was William +Bean, and he was the first white settler west of the Alleghanies. + +The explorers were hospitably entertained by Bean and his wife, but, after +a few days spent in piloting Robertson about the valley, Boone set out on +his first long tramp through Kentucky. Robertson remained behind, and was +not long in deciding that he had happened upon the right spot for a +settlement. This decided on, he set about making preparations for the +incoming settlers. Selecting a spot of fertile soil, he broke it up and +planted a crop of corn,--enough to carry the expected colonists through +another season,--meanwhile making his home with Bean, the hospitable first +settler. + +It was autumn before his corn was gathered, and the rainy season had set +in when he started to return to North Carolina. He had carefully husbanded +his small stock of powder and lead, and with what remained, and enough +parched corn and jerked venison to last, with what game he might kill, for +ten or more days, he set out on his solitary journey homeward. There soon +came on a heavy rain, which drenched him completely, and, worse than this, +wet through and through every ounce of his powder. Wrapping his blanket +closely about him, he tried to dry the powder with the warmth of his naked +flesh; but all his efforts were unavailing: the precious grains had +totally lost the power of ignition. Reduced now to his prepared food, he +determined to push on with all speed, and, before his supply should be +exhausted, reach the settlements on the other side of the mountains. + +On the westerly part of the route the explorers had neglected to blaze the +way, and now, day after day, the sun was hidden by thick clouds. Robertson +had no difficulty so long as he could take his bearings by the course of +the Watauga, but when he had passed the sources of that stream he was all +at sea, with neither sun nor star nor compass to guide him. He scanned the +heavens with anxious eye, but they disclosed no glimpse of the blessed +sun: all was mist and rain by day, and by night the blackest of darkness. +Tired, drenched, bewildered, he wandered aimlessly on, lost, completely +lost, in an almost interminable forest. His food, too, was fast running +low, and the scant herbage still left among the trees would no longer +sustain his jaded animal. Then he turned the trusty beast adrift, to find +its own way out of starvation. + +He had eked out his scanty provisions with the nuts of the beech and +chestnut, but now this resource was exhausted; the last handful of corn +was consumed, and he was in a region of rocks and precipices (probably +near the western base of the mountain), where nothing grew that would +sustain life. Exhausted nature could hold out no longer. His strength was +gone, he could not articulate above a whisper, and, sinking down at the +foot of a cliff, he resigned himself to the inevitable. + +How long he lay there he never told, and perhaps never knew; but at last, +when his senses were nearly gone, he heard voices, and then approaching +footsteps. They were two hunters, probably the only two human beings +within a radius of a hundred miles. They came directly to the spot where +he was lying, but did not see him till actually upon him. Dismounting from +their horses, they lifted him in their arms, revived him with some spirits, +and then, sparingly at first, ministered to him of the food in their +knapsacks. Slowly his strength returned, but they stayed by him, and, when +he was able to mount, seated him on one of their horses, and then guided +him out of the mountain and for more than fifty miles on his way to the +settlements. Then the good Samaritans went as they came, into the wide +forest, leaving not even their names to a wondering tradition. + +His friends and neighbors were enraptured with the description Robertson +gave of the country he had discovered. To them the sterile plains and +rocky uplands of Wake County lost their attractions when compared with the +fertile valley which he pictured, and sixteen families prepared to go with +him in the following spring to a new home west of the mountains. + +When the April rains were over, they set out, about eighty souls, men, +women, and children. They journeyed slowly, the men mostly on foot, the +women on pack-horses, with the younger children in their arms or strapped +upon the horses behind them, and the older ones trudging along by the side +of their fathers, or aiding to drive the neat cattle, a score or more of +which were the advance-guard of the cavalcade. The outfit of the party was +simple. The men carried the usual equipment of the hunter, the women some +light articles of clothing; and loaded on several led horses were such +bedding and kitchen-utensils as would be needed at the end of the journey. +They followed the route taken by the explorers, sleeping at night on the +ground, beneath the open air, or sheltered by an improvised tent made of +two forked poles thrust into the ground and supporting a longer pole, over +which was stretched a heavy blanket. Should it rain, these tents were +quickly pitched and all the travellers were soon under shelter. At the +halting-place for the night a fire was built, the cows were milked, the +journey-boards unpacked, and the delicious journey-cake (misnamed +"Johnny-cake") was set before the fire or baked in the ashes. To this was +added the deer or wild turkey shot by the men during the day, and they had +a repast "fit to set before a king." The same was done before setting out +in the morning; but at noon only a short halt was made for a cold lunch +from the remains of the breakfast. + +Thus they journeyed for about ten days, until they reached the base of +Stone Mountain. Here they struck into a cove which breaks into the +mountainside, and climbed by a winding route, but by easy stages, to the +summit. Robertson rode by the side of his wife, and in front of her, +astride of the pommel of the saddle, was their child, now a bright little +fellow of two or three years. Later on he will appear again in our pages, +and then disappear forever from human history. + +As they wearily climbed the toilsome way, and paused to rest, as they +probably did, at the summit, did not that young wife and mother look back, +to gaze again upon the scenes she was leaving behind her? What girlhood +associations she had I do not know, but she was leaving them all, and the +old roof-tree beneath which she had spent her young days: all were about +to pass out of her life forever. As she glanced forward into the tangled +wilderness, would she not have turned back had a vision come to her of the +hardships and dangers and death that lay before her?--her life at first +buried amid the solitudes and dangers of Watauga, and then consigned to a +frail boat which was to bear her a thousand miles, through untold perils, +to a still more distant wilderness, where her home would be encircled with +savage fire and the babe at her breast would be laid scalped and dying at +her feet! + +As they began the descent of the western slope of the mountain, an +unexpected scene met the eyes of Robertson. When he left it in the +previous autumn, the valley was an almost unbroken solitude; now the smoke +was rising from a score of cabins, about which were many evidences of +civilization. Nearly a hundred settlers were there, and the place was +already a busy community. + +There was not house-room for the large influx of strangers, but the spring +weather was mild and genial, and they could encamp under the spreading +trees until half-faced cabins were erected for their temporary shelter. +These cabins were built of split saplings, one end resting on the ground, +the other supported by a frame of forked poles about high enough for a man +to enter standing upright. They were open at the front, but the sides and +rear were covered with thick blankets, so as to afford shelter and +privacy. Of no recognized order of civilized architecture, they would +still serve to keep out the wind and the rain, and under them, on blankets, +or now and then on the precious feather bed, spread on the ground, the +tired immigrants might sleep as soundly as the renowned Sancho Panza of +sleepy memory. + +Their food was supplied from the corn planted and harvested by Robertson +on his previous visit, and from the deer, buffalo, or wild turkey brought +down by the unerring riflemen among them. On deer and wild turkey they had +regaled before, but buffalo-meat was a delicacy with which they were not +acquainted, and, its rich, juicy, tender steak once tasted, all other meat +lost its flavor. None of them had ever even seen the animal, and we may +imagine the wonder with which they first beheld the vast herds that almost +darkened the valley. Lolling in the shade of the trees, or cropping +leisurely the thick grass of the "openings," their coal-black beards +sweeping the ground, and their long tails lashing their sleek dun sides, +the noble beasts would gaze unconcernedly on the intruder, totally +unconscious that this slender biped, with the slim smoke-breathing tube he +bore in his hand, was ere long to wellnigh exterminate the lordly race and +drive its scanty remnant far west of the Rocky Mountains. They were an +easy prey to the early hunter, and thus the rude larders of the first +settlers were filled to abundance. + +Their wives and children provided with temporary shelter, the immigrants +looked about for locations for more permanent dwellings, Virginia offered +to every actual settler who should erect a log cabin and cultivate a small +patch of ground four hundred acres so located as to include his +improvements, together with the right to buy a thousand acres adjoining, +at a price scarcely more than enough to cover the cost of surveying. The +immigrants knew they were near the North Carolina boundary, but they +supposed they were north of the line which starts "at a white stake on the +Atlantic Ocean, at north 39° 20', and runs thence west to the South Seas," +and thus were within the limits of Virginia and entitled to avail +themselves of its cheap munificence,--cheap, because the whole territory +had been bought by King George from the Six Nations for a few trinkets the +total value of which did not exceed the cost of the wedding-outfit of a +modern lady of fashion. + +This line, "west to the South Seas," had not then been run farther west +than the "Steep Rock," near the White-Top Mountain. When it was +subsequently extended, the settlers found themselves within the limits of +North Carolina and not entitled to the benefit of the Virginia law. But of +this more hereafter. Now they were unconscious of encroaching on any +rights of white man or red, and went on with their improvements, confident +that they were acquiring an indefeasible title to their new possessions. + +Nearly all the settlers whom Robertson found at Watauga were from Fairfax +County, Virginia, and they had been attracted to the country by the report +given of it by Dr. Thomas Walker, who with other gentlemen had made a +hunting and exploring-tour through it as early as 1748. They were mostly +from the farming population, somewhat uncouth in manner, and not much +acquainted with books, but not illiterate, for in a document subscribed +soon afterward by upward of a hundred of them only two names are signed +with a cross. They had but little wealth; but they had what in a new +community is far better,--frugal and industrious habits, enterprise, firm +self-reliance, and the cool intrepidity which is fostered by frequent +exposure to danger. No better material could have been selected to subdue +the wilderness to the purposes of agriculture. + +Among them, however, were some who had received the best education then +afforded by the colonies. Prominent among these were the Seviers,--a +father and four sons, who some time before had emigrated from Shenandoah +County, Virginia, and settled about thirty miles farther north, near what +is now Bristol, in Tennessee. There they were neighbors to the Shelbys, +--another father and four sons,--who also have left an heroic record in +the history of the Revolution. + +Some of the younger Seviers, coming upon this valley on a +hunting-expedition, had induced their father to remove to it; and here, +"higher up the river, on its north side, and near the closing in of a +ridge," he had built a roomy log mansion, a portion of which was still +standing in 1844. The sons had erected dwellings lower down the river, and +nearer the "Watauga Old Fields." + +The Seviers were of French descent. The family name in France was Xavier, +and they originally came from Xavier, a town at the foot of the Pyrenees, +in Navarre, which was the birthplace of the famous ecclesiastic and +missionary St. Francis Xavier. After the death of the saint the family +became Huguenots, and on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 the +direct ancestor of the Seviers of whom I am writing fled from France and +settled in London, where he is said to have engaged in trade and +prospered. The grandson of this man, Valentine Sevier, emigrated to +Shenandoah County, Virginia, shortly prior to 1740; and this is the +gentleman who, with his four sons, had now settled in the valley of the +Watauga. + +Each of these young men displayed qualities in after-life that would have +rendered him worthy of notice in the annals of any community; but the +oldest, John, born in 1744, is the one whose life and exploits will demand +much the larger space in the following pages. Though so young, he had +already acquired some distinction in his native State, for he had been +appointed a captain in the "Virginia line" by the Earl of Dunmore, the +last royalist governor of Virginia. In that capacity he had come in +contact with Washington, who was a colonel in the same service; and it was +doubtless owing to their early association that twenty years afterward, +when Sevier was under the ban of outlawry by North Carolina, Washington +appointed him to the military command of East Tennessee. + +This young man was destined to become one of the most unique characters in +American history. I know of no other of whom it can be said that he was +loved by both his friends and his enemies. Indian mothers were wont to +hush their children to sleep with the terror of his name, but Indian +chieftains were known to plead when in distress, "Send us John Sevier. He +is a good man, and he will do us right." In the times that "tried men's +souls" to the uttermost he was to stand firm when most men faltered. He +was to be "the rear-guard of the Revolution," and in its darkest days was +to throw his sword into the trembling scale and turn it to final victory +at King's Mountain. + +At this time he was about twenty-six years of age, nearly six feet in +height, and of a slender but wiry and athletic figure. His carriage was +erect, his movements quick and energetic, and his bearing commanding. He +had light hair, a fair skin, and a ruddy complexion, and his large +dark-blue eyes were singularly expressive of vivacity, good feeling, and +fearlessness. He had handsome features, a lofty forehead, a prominent nose, +and a mouth and chin of absolute perfection. His manners were exceedingly +winning, and he had about him a sort of magnetic force that would convert +into a friend the most stubborn of enemies. However, it is doubtful if, +with but one exception, he ever had an enemy. His individuality was so +marked that, if told John Sevier was present, any stranger could have +pointed him out in the most crowded assemblage. His career will read more +like romance than history, but it was entirely in keeping with the man, +who was altogether great, unselfish, heroic, one of those choice spirits +who are now and then sent into the world to show us of what our human +nature is capable. Next to the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, the +coming together of those two bodies of emigrants on the Watauga was the +most important event which up to that time had occurred in American +history; but it was no more important than the meeting there of John +Sevier and James Robertson, for, humanly speaking, had those two men not +met, and acted thereafter in harmony together, the civilization there +planted could never have survived the struggle it was destined to +encounter with savage foes and fratricidal enemies. + +There were now between thirty and forty men in the settlement, and, the +location of the new-comers being decided on, they all set about the +erection of their dwellings. Trees were felled, cut into logs, hewn into +joists, split into flooring, and rived into shingles, and in an incredibly +short time the various families were domiciled in their new abodes. These +were generally one and a half stories high, about twenty feet square, and +built of rough logs, chamfered at the ends, so as to fit closely together. +They had a solid plank door, hung on wooden hinges, and two or three small +windows, formed by sawing through one or two of the outer logs. The +windows were entirely open, or closed only with a stout blind, and glazed +with thick paper saturated with bear's grease to render it transparent; +but the larger number of the cabins, if destitute of glazing, were +furnished with blinds, which were necessary as a protection against +intruders. The roof was covered with large split shingles, held down by +long weight-poles, and the floors were of puncheons,--wide pieces of oak +or poplar, two or three inches thick, split and hewn with an axe, and laid +upon sleepers. If the hewing is well done, such floors are as level and +smooth as if fashioned of machine-made material. The chimney was of sticks +or stones, laid up in clay, and it went up on the outside in a pyramidal +form, and of a size totally disproportioned to the dwelling, for these +people were fond of a wide roaring fire in winter, and in summer the huge +flue was the best of all ventilators. If it is added that the roof of some +of these cabins was extended in front so as to cover a wide veranda, that +the bark and moss were left clinging to the logs, which by another season +would be covered with honeysuckles and the Virginia creeper, we shall see +that they must have presented no unpicturesque appearance. + +The interiors need only a brief description. There were generally but two +rooms, one below, the other above, approached by a ladder in a corner. The +lower floor was parlor, kitchen, and often bedroom. The fireplace was deep +and wide, surmounted, perhaps, by a broad mantel of unpainted oak, on +which were a few trinkets and the violin so precious to the backwoodsman. +In one corner was a spinning-jenny, in another an uncushioned settle, and +opposite the fireplace a bureau or chest of drawers of native wood and +home manufacture. These, with a small table, a few chairs with rustic +frames and deerskin coverings, also of home manufacture, and a couple of +forked sticks nailed to one of the logs and supporting the trusty rifle, +would probably complete the furniture of the apartment. + +This is a description of the smaller houses. Others, adapted to larger +families, were what were termed "double-barrelled" cabins, having two +rooms on the ground-floor, separated by an open passage-way, and a +"lean-to" in the rear to serve as a kitchen. Still others, it may be, were +like the mansion of the elder Sevier,--half a dozen single cabins tacked +one upon the other and covering space enough to serve for the foundation +of a cathedral. + +From these details we can easily form for ourselves a picture of the first +civilized settlement beyond the Alleghanies. A score or more of these +cabins were scattered here and there in the very heart of the forest, the +great trees crowding so closely around them as often to overhang their +very roofs. Near them horses and cattle were grazing on the thick native +grass that grows among the trees, or housed in rude sheds at the rear of +the dwellings, while farther away, along the margin of the many streams, +deer and elk and buffalo were browsing. Glimpses of foot-paths leading +from one widely-separated dwelling to another might be here and there seen; +but there were no roads, for no wheeled vehicle had yet invaded the +sylvan solitude. + +Their families being properly housed, the settlers began to think of a +school for the instruction of their children. Books were scarce among them, +especially such as were suited to the instruction of the young. Paper, +ink, slates, and pencils, also, were not easily procured. Even years later +important letters and despatches were often written with ink made of +gunpowder and on a blank leaf torn from a family Bible. But books and +writing-implements were now imported from Virginia, and, a teacher being +selected from among the better educated of the settlers, a school was +opened, and the young ideas were taught to shoot in the right direction. + +The people now numbered, all told, about two hundred souls, not more than +forty of whom were able to bear arms. On the east a mountain barrier shut +them off from all civilized aid and succor, and on every other side they +were exposed to savage tribes, at least a hundred thousand strong, of whom +not less than fifteen thousand were warriors. Three thousand of these, and +those nearest the settlement, were Cherokees, a fierce, warlike race, by +instinct and tradition the foe of the white man. How this handful of +pioneers came to venture upon such dangerous ground, or, being there, +escaped total extermination, may well excite our wonder. They understood +their exposed situation, but they went peacefully about their daily +pursuits, tilling the soil, planting and harvesting, and "gathering into +barns," or, more correctly, into ricks,--for as yet there were no barns +among them,--unmolested by the Indians, and in harmony with one another, +for two full years of genuine prosperity. They send accounts of their +prosperity to the friends they have left beyond the mountains, and new +immigrants come to the settlement, some of them men of means, who aid +materially in its development. However, they are an abnormal community. +Two colonies claim jurisdiction over them, but the claim is never enforced, +and never extends beyond a discussion in State papers; so they are +without law or anything to assert its majesty. There is no power to +enforce a right or punish a wrong, and not a solitary lawyer in the +settlement. Every man is a law unto himself, but, strange to say, not a +single crime is committed among them. + +The new-comers spread, in search of choice locations, west as far as the +Chimney-Top Mountain, and south to the fertile valley of the Nolachucky. +The more remote settlers were therefore in a very exposed position, +--almost alone, and beyond them a wide wilderness,--but they had no fear +from the Indians. The few who came to the settlements were friendly, and, +after smoking and eating with the settler, they would go away, grasping +his hand and assuring him that the red man was his brother. Those were +halcyon days; but Satan entered into Paradise, and one of his legitimate +children,--a Scotchman named Cameron,--in the early spring of 1772, +invaded this Eden on the Watauga. + +He was the British agent residing among the Cherokees; and he came with +several of the chieftains to warn the settlers that they had encroached +upon the Indian lands, and must move off, or be removed by the British +soldiery. However, he whispered into the ear of Sevier and Robertson that +for a reasonable consideration paid to him--the representative of the +British government--the settlers would be permitted to remain undisturbed +in their possessions. + +Unfortunately, the Indian agent was right. Virginia had left her exposed +citizens to the tender mercy of the Cherokees by admitting that they had +settled upon Indian territory. By a treaty made with the tribe only a +short time before, the State had acknowledged the Cherokee title to the +entire region lying south of a line running due west from the White-Top +Mountain. It was idle for the white settlers to say that the Six Nations, +who had been the original owners of the soil, had in 1768 transferred it +to the government by treaty, and that the Cherokees had never before +claimed any right to it but as a hunting-ground. The parent colony had +acknowledged in the Cherokees a right to the soil, and hence, as the +settlers were south of the treaty-line, had made them trespassers upon the +Cherokee territory. It was an unfortunate and dangerous position; but +Robertson and Sevier were not disposed to purchase security by bribery. +They spurned the overtures of the British agent, and decided to negotiate +directly with the Indians. + +Some of the visiting Indians expressed a desire that the order of the +British agent should not be enforced; others were willing that the +settlers should remain, provided they made no further encroachments. But +Robertson and Sevier were not willing to occupy their homes by any title +so precarious as the word of a few Indian warriors. They determined, while +they ignored the British agent, to recognize the Indian title, but to +treat for their lands with the whole Cherokee nation. Accordingly, they +requested the visiting chiefs to call together the head-men of the tribe +in a friendly council at the "Watauga Old Fields." + +They came at the appointed time,--six hundred half-naked red men, clad in +buckskin leggings and hunting--shirts and head-dress of turkey-feathers, +and all the male settlers, now nearly a hundred, together with all the +women and children in the near-by plantations, assembled to receive them. +Robertson, from his "winning ways," had been appointed master of +ceremonies, and he resorted to every device to placate and amuse the +savage gentlemen. Dances, ball-plays, and foot-races were improvised, in +which the young men of both races joined in good-natured rivalry; but, +while attending to the festivities, Robertson did not forget the real +object of the gathering. For the consideration of five thousand dollars, +to be paid in powder, lead, muskets, and other goods of value to the +Indians, he obtained from them a ten years' lease of all the lands on the +Watauga and tributary streams. This lease was executed by the head-king, +Oconostota, and other leading men of the tribe, and it was supposed that +it would remove for a long time to come all difficulty with the Cherokees. +But this dream was only the next day rudely dispelled by a most +unfortunate occurrence. + +It was the last day of the convocation, and it had been arranged that a +great foot-race should take place on the open ground near the river, +between the younger braves and the young men of the settlement. The race +was in full progress, and among the younger men all was mirth, hilarity, +and good-natured emulation, while even the older chiefs, catching the +spirit of the occasion, had relaxed from their habitual gravity and were +cheering on the contestants, when suddenly a musket-shot echoed over the +grounds, and one of the young Indians--a near kinsman of a chief--fell in +his tracks lifeless. The smoke came from the woods near the race-ground, +and pursuit failed to discover the assassin, but he was evidently a white +man. + +It was as if the shot had been fired into a magazine of gunpowder. The +Indians had come without arms, or there might have followed a bloody +tragedy. As it was, they gathered their blankets about them, and, with +threatening gestures and faces presaging a terrible revenge, silently +stole away into the forest. + +It was afterward learned that the murderer was a man named Crabtree, from +the Wolf Hills, now Abingdon, in Virginia. A brother of his had been +killed by the Shawnees a short time before while exploring with Boone in +Kentucky, and, lurking in the woods near by, he had taken this inopportune +time to wreak a bloody revenge. + +The Indians had left hastily, giving no time for explanation or parley. +Revenge--blood for blood--was the cardinal doctrine of their theology, and, +unless something were done to avert it, war, bloody and exterminating, +would soon be upon the white settlers. + +But what could be done? To flee the country was only to invite pursuit; to +remain would be to invite a conflict with three thousand infuriated +savages. Hastily they gathered in council; and then it was that Robertson +volunteered, like Curtius, to ride into the breach,--at the peril of his +life to visit and endeavor to pacify the Indians. It was a journey of a +hundred and fifty miles through an unbroken forest, and death might lurk +behind every bush and tree on the way; but what was one life perilled to +save perhaps five hundred? Thus Robertson reasoned with his friends and +neighbors, and then, mounting his horse and giving a parting kiss to his +wife and child, he rode off into the wilderness. + +EDMUND KIRKE. + + * * * * * + + + + +DIEU DISPOSE. + + +Edward Lindsay and his wife were unmistakably favorites of Fortune. They +were happily married, their love for each other being firmly established +on a basis of sympathy and respect; they were young and blessed with sound +health; they were very popular among their friends, of whom they had many; +they were clever, Edward in a literary, his wife in an artistic way; they +were prosperous, far beyond the expectations they had formed when, shortly +before their marriage, Edward left his position in the Crescent Bank and +went into real estate on his own account. It is hardly to be wondered at +that they were regarded with envy by more than a few of their +acquaintances in the comfortable city of St. Louis. + +But there was, after all, a cloud that cast a shadow upon the happiness of +the Lindsays,--a cloud of which they rarely spoke, but about which each of +them thought a great deal: they were childless. In the early months of +their married life they had been wont to talk of their prospective +children, and to say what they would do and what they would not do when +_they_ had a child; but when the months lengthened into years, and still +there was neither son nor daughter to carry out their plans, they +gradually left off alluding to these things, though they never ceased to +hope that they might some day have a child. + +At first the cloud was very small, so that they refused to recognize its +presence; but every day it lengthened and broadened, until at last it +darkened the brightest moments of their life. For each knew that the +thoughts of the other ran much upon this one thing, and each was troubled +that the other should brood upon it. And then, in course of time, they +grew to be a little morbid. It seemed to them as if by their friends who +had children they were regarded with an ill-concealed, patronizing pity. +They felt an unreasonable antipathy toward young parents who loved to +discourse of the ailments and accomplishments of their babies, and they +even avoided the houses of many acquaintances wherein, they knew from +experience, the conversation must be principally devoted to some young +hopeful. + +But after three winters had come and gone since their marriage, Edward +began to reflect more and more seriously upon a scheme of which he had +often thought as a relief from this unsatisfactory state of things, and +one April morning he broached it at the breakfast-table. + +"Ellen," he asked abruptly, "how would you like to adopt a child?" + +His wife arrested the coffee-pot over a half-filled cup and gazed at him +with sparkling eyes. + +"Oh, Edward!" she exclaimed, as if a reply were quite unnecessary. "Why +have we never thought of that before?" + +"I can't imagine," he rejoined shamelessly. "But I happened to think +yesterday of the unlimited possibilities before such a child as we should +adopt. You see, we could make sure of a vigorous constitution, of sturdy +and respectable parents, of physical beauty, of any combination of good +qualities, if we only exercised proper care in our selection. And then, +with the training and education we should give a child of ours--" + +"Of course we should always consider it our own child," said Ellen. + +"Of course," assented her husband. "Perhaps," he added, "it would be +better that he should never know the facts of the case." + +"Oh, no! I should never be happy myself if I felt I was deceiving the +child," she protested. + +"Well, it would be rather a difficult thing to manage, anyway, his--" + +"Or her," interrupted Ellen. + +"Whichever you may prefer," Edward returned, with prompt liberality. "I +was thinking of a boy, simply because I realize that a boy's chances of +reaching distinction are much greater than a girl's." + +His wife sent him a glance of obviously feigned reproach, and thereupon +confessed that she should be as happy with one as with the other. But +Edward felt that he ought to represent the matter in its proper light, and +affirmed that every girl anxious to work goes into life handicapped, and +that nine times out of ten when a girl marries she reaches the goal of her +ambition. In adopting a girl, therefore, while they might contribute much +to their own happiness, they could not reasonably hope to enrich the world +greatly. On the other hand, from a boy properly selected, carefully reared, +and soundly educated, they might with good reason expect the very highest +results. Ellen took some mental exceptions to this argument, on behalf of +her sex, but she deemed it unnecessary to express them. | She entered +enthusiastically into his project, and they speedily agreed that Dr. +Kreiss, their titular family physician,--they had never yet had occasion +to consult him,--should be requested to look about for a suitable boy. + +Edward hailed the doctor on Fourth Street the next day, and presented his +case. + +"I see exactly what you want, said the doctor. "Must be 'young, sound, and +kind,' I reckon we can fill the bill. You would rather have an orphan, I +suppose?" + +"Oh, by all means! There might be some unpleasant results otherwise." + +"Likely enough," replied the doctor. "But it will not be so easy to lay +our hands on a first-class orphan _baby_. I could get you plenty of boys +four or five years old." + +But Edward explained that infancy was a _sine qua non_. They especially +wished that the child should be too young to have acquired tastes or +habits of any kind, whether good or the reverse. They did not seek to +gratify a mere whim of the moment,--simply to provide themselves with a +plaything,--but hoped to aid in shaping a life of more than ordinary +usefulness and worth. The doctor made answer that he would gladly do his +best to find such a child as they wished, that he had no doubt of ultimate +success, but that they must be prepared to wait. + +This interview having been reported to Ellen, the life of the Lindsays at +once assumed a brighter character. Edward went to his business with +greater zest, and in his wife's eyes was a light he had not seen there for +many a day. They now revived their old-time theories of education and +physical training. They dispassionately reviewed the respective advantages +of European and American universities. They spent a good deal of time in +discussing the eligibility of the professions as well as of the sciences +and arts. Edward argued that business of any kind was practically out of +the question, because, with real estate in its present favorable condition, +a few more years would render mere money-getting wholly unnecessary for a +child of theirs. They speculated, of course, upon the personal appearance +of their expected heir, but they wisely deferred any expression of +preference in this respect to the time of his arrival. Names were debated +upon daily, until, after many discussions, they made choice of "John," a +title which had done honorable service in Ellen's family, and which, +Edward said, commended itself as being simple and strong. Meanwhile, +though a month passed away without word from the doctor, they waited in +confidence. They had no wish, they told each other, that he should act +hastily: it was merely a question of time; they could afford to be +patient. And at last the doctor sent them a laconic note,--"Come and see +me." + +Dr. Kreiss had a deservedly large practice, and when the Lindsays +presented themselves at his office they were obliged to wait until the +numerous company of invalids that preceded them could be attended to. A +dead silence prevailed in the room, and both Edward and his wife began to +feel uncomfortable after a few minutes had elapsed. They endeavored to +amuse themselves by studying the faces of the doctor's patients and +guessing at their complaints; but this was not enlivening, and Edward at +last essayed conversation. He whispered several things which he thought +quite bright and appropriate, but Ellen took them all very seriously and +vouchsafed only monosyllables in reply. It being evident that she was not +in a mood for pleasantry, he relapsed into silence. But he went on to +think of sundry occasions upon which he had waited in a certain dark +little anteroom at Primary No.--until the principal might find leisure to +flog him. Having exhausted this subject, he looked about for something to +read, and descried some books on a table at the farther end of the room. +He shrank, however, from the idea of walking over to them and back again +in a pair of shoes which he knew very well would squeak. After vainly +searching his pockets for a newspaper, he resigned himself to the +inevitable, and occupied himself with his watch-chain and in tracing +figures on the carpet with his cane. + +Finally the doctor got through with the patients who were before them, and +the Lindsays were ushered into his presence. + +"I've got you a splendid boy," he said, with enthusiasm; whereat they +glanced furtively about the room. "Oh, he isn't here," he laughed, "but +ready for delivery whenever you say the final word. I only wish to make +sure that you are satisfied with the prospect. It's a short story. The +mother died at the child's birth, about a year and a half ago. Less than a +week ago the father, who was a fine, broad shouldered young fellow engaged +in some sort of a shipping business, got an ugly fall on one of the +steamers and used himself up pretty thoroughly. I was called to attend the +case, and did my best for the poor fellow; but it was no use. He died +yesterday morning." + +The doctor paused, as if for a leading question. Ellen was mute, and +Edward felt constrained to say something: so he asked, "Did you know the +mother?" + +"Very well," answered the doctor, "She was one of the sweetest girls I +ever met anywhere. She was a teacher in one of the public schools before +she married, but she was capable of better work than school-teaching, and +if she had lived she would have proved it. She had some very bright ideas, +I assure you. She was uncommonly pretty, too, with a lot of dark-brown +hair, fine eyes, and rather classical features. You'll see it all in the +boy. He's his mother from head to heels." + +"How does it happen that his relatives are willing to part with him?" +Edward asked. + +"Because his father was an orphan himself, and his mother's family is so +poor that the child would be a serious burden to them. For all that, I had +to make use of some eloquence to get possession of the baby, and only +succeeded after representing the many excellencies of the young people who +wish to adopt him." + +The doctor bowed gracefully. Ellen then found words to say that he had +been more than kind, and that if he was satisfied of the child's good +health there was no reason for hesitation. Edward, who wished to terminate +these preliminaries as speedily as possible, added, "Most certainly not." + +"Very well, then," said the doctor: "we will consider the thing settled. +The boy is as sound as a dollar, has a splendid digestion, sleeps like a +top, and cuts his teeth as if he enjoyed it. Now, if you will call with a +carriage to-morrow about this time, I will go with you--for that will be +necessary--to get the little fellow." + +But Ellen would not take Edward from his business again the next day, +and--to his relief, it must be admitted--declared that she could attend to +further arrangements without his assistance. This she did, and Edward +found her in an ecstatic state when he came home to his dinner in the +evening. + +"We can never thank the doctor enough," she exclaimed _imprimis_, meeting +her husband at the door. "I have never seen such a beautiful baby. _Such_ +a sweet little face, and such dear little ways! You must come up into the +nursery immediately. I should have brought him down to welcome you, but it +is just his supper-time, and Mrs. Doly thought he'd better not wait." + +And Edward was forthwith hurried up-stairs into the room which his wife +composedly designated as "the nursery," where, in the arms of a +middle-aged, motherly-looking woman, reposed the little waif chance had +intrusted to his care. He was certainly a very handsome boy, and his fine +head, big blue eyes, and clear, rosy complexion justified enthusiasm. As +Edward appeared in the door-way, the child regarded him intently for a +moment, and then, whether by accident or by some working of intelligence, +with a little jump of emphasis ejaculated, "Da-da," which everybody knows +to be early English for "papa." Of course Edward capitulated on the spot, +and, like a child with a new toy, he could scarcely be torn away at the +sound of the dinner-bell. + +"Little John," as they came to call him,--because his grave and dignified +manners seemed to render inappropriate both "Johnny" and "Jack,"--had +securely established himself in the affections of his foster-parents +before the end of a week. He was a mine of entertainment. Literature and +art languished in the house, while the Lindsays amused themselves in +playing with their baby or in discussing his good qualities and in +planning for his future. And now when they went about among their married +friends they not only felt themselves _en rapport_, but considered that +they occupied a position of decided superiority, for everybody conceded +that there was no more lovely and winning child in St. Louis than little +John Lindsay; and when people spoke only of other children than their own, +they frankly admitted that they never had seen such a wonderful boy. It +was one of his characteristics that he never cried in good, sober earnest. +Upon rare occasions he would sob a little over a delayed repast, a bumped +nose, or some other tribulation incident to his age, but he was extremely +susceptible to argument, and could always be restored to his normal +tranquillity by a proper explanation of the case. To be sure, he was a +picture of health, and seldom had occasion for tears on the score of +ailments; but it should be remembered, as Mrs, Doly, the nurse, proudly +claimed, that babies are very apt to cry when there is nothing the matter +with them. + +"Oh, Mrs. Doly," Ellen exclaimed one morning, when by some means or other +Little John had specially excited her admiration, "what a lovely woman his +mother must have been! How I wish I might have known her before she died! +Sometimes I feel as if it cannot be right for me to have this dear little +baby without her consent." + +Not long after this it suddenly occurred to her that some legal steps +ought probably to be taken in order that Little John might be secure +against all demands. She went to Edward in alarm, and felt no peace again +until he reported compliance with every necessary formality. + +When hot weather arrived, Edward decided to allow himself a short vacation, +--an indulgence which the exactions of business had hitherto prohibited +every year since his marriage. As to where the precious time should be +spent there was but one opinion in the Lindsay household: they would go +East and rent a little cottage on the sea-shore at Marant, where they had +passed several summers as children, and where the salt air would do much +for Little John's development, as it had done for their own not so very +many years ago. Edward wrote to one of his correspondents at Boston, +requesting him to secure suitable quarters; and, when June was a fortnight +old, they moved into a comfortable cottage at Marant, after a flying trip +without incident from St. Louis. + +Little John fell in love with the sea at first sight, and his constancy +never wavered so long as he remained at Marant. He was at his happiest +when his perambulator was pushed to the edge of the water so that the +waves flowed about the wheels. In such a position he would remain +perfectly content for hours, usually in silence, but at times softly +soliloquizing or addressing the waves in earnest but incomprehensible +baby-language. In the mean time, Mrs. Doly, seated in a camp-chair behind, +could devote an almost uninterrupted attention to her knitting, rising +only at intervals to see that the carriage occupied a proper position with +respect to the movements of the tide, while Ellen reclined in idleness +upon the sand. To so great an extent was her office a sinecure that once, +when the water was very calm, Mrs. Doly fell asleep in the warm sun, +during Ellen's temporary absence, and awoke as the water wetted her toes +to find Little John completely surrounded and pretty nearly in his element +literally. Far from being alarmed, however, he was in a state of exalted +bliss, and emphatically protested against being removed to a more secure +position. But when the tide was going out he was not so content to remain +_in statu quo_, and, partly rising to his feet, would indicate by most +forcible remarks and gesticulations that he wished to be moved farther +down the beach. He manifested an ardent desire to accompany Edward on his +rowing expeditions, whenever he witnessed the start; but Ellen would not +consent to this, and Little John was never initiated into the charms of +boating. + +It was not long before Ellen's fears were aroused that her boy might grow +up with nautical tastes. + +"Ought we to permit him to become so infatuated?" she asked Edward. + +"Why, what can we do?" he returned. + +"We can give up Marant and spend the rest of your vacation at the +mountains." + +"That would be useless, dear, granting that Little John has been born with +a taste for the sea. You can't eradicate an inborn proclivity." + +"But, Edward, you surely do not wish--would not permit Little John to go +to sea?" + +"I should never attempt to prevent him from doing so if he wished to. A +born sailor can't make a good lawyer, or a doctor, or anything else,--at +least until he has satiated himself with the sea. All the evidence of +history shows that, you know. Of course we both hope that Little John will +not develop a sailor's taste, and I don't think there is any reason to +fear that he will: all babies are fond of the sea." + +"Yes, Edward; but," tremulously, "you know Dr. Kreiss said his father was +in a shipping business." + +"Very true: some sort of a broker or agent, probably. They never go to sea; +and it isn't to be expected that the child inherits any taste for it from +_him._ Still, we mustn't forget, Ellen, that none of our wishes are +perfectly sure to be realized. We will do our best to further them, but, +after all, you know, _Dieu dispose_" + +Ellen had never brought herself fully to realize the application of this +trite saying to the case of Little John, but she now went away to her room +and thought the whole question through. She saw all at once the long +series of temptations to which he must be subjected before he became a +man. Yes, it was possible that this sweet child might grow up to +disappoint her bitterly, to be far worse than an honest sailor,--a useless +idler, or even a criminal. She shuddered at the very thought of the last, +and with a great leaping of the heart she resolved that, if God should see +fit to spare the child, her own life should be devoted to shaping his. She +would forget herself entirely; her little ambitious projects should be +wholly thrown aside, that no effort might be spared for the accomplishment +of her one great duty. Tenderness and sympathy and example should do their +utmost, but she would not spoil her boy: there should be sternness if it +were needed; and she felt that this would try her devotion most of all. + +Life at Marant thoroughly agreed with Little John. Every day left upon him +its mark of development and improvement. Other babies in the neighborhood +suffered more or less from "prickly heat," whooping-cough, and cholera +morbus, and ailed upon the advent of teeth. Not so Little John. He seemed +proof against everything. One day Ellen was called from the beach to +attend to some detail of housekeeping, and upon her return was horrified +to find the child playing with some poison ivy, which Mrs. Doly, in +metropolitan ignorance of its qualities, had gathered from the adjacent +bluff. He had rubbed it all over his face and crushed it between his hands, +and was in the act of stuffing some of it down the back of his neck. With +her gloved hands Ellen snatched the leaves away, upbraided poor Mrs. Doly, +subjected Little John to violent ablution, and then sat down to await +disaster. But it never came. The only inconvenience Little John ever +experienced from the incident was the loss of a certain degree of liberty; +for thence-forth Ellen would not suffer him to be separated from her for +an instant. Mrs. Doly, however, did not escape so easily. The noxious +_Rhus_ produced its most evil effects upon her face and hands, and for a +week she led a life of physical torture enhanced by humiliation of spirit. +Upon another occasion a neighbor's child dropped a small marble in front +of Little John, who unhesitatingly picked it up, put it into his mouth, +and swallowed it before anybody could interfere. Again was Ellen aroused +to the highest degree of alarm; but this time, expecting nothing less than +speedy death for the unfortunate baby, she despatched the entire household +in search of a physician. None was to be found at Marant, the sole local +practitioner having gone to Boston for the day. With great presence of +mind, Ellen then instituted a course of treatment herself, up to the +successful termination of which Little John maintained his usual excellent +spirits. + +He was backward both in walking and in talking. Twenty months had passed +over his curly head before he could fairly stand alone; and then his +vocabulary was much more limited than is usual with children of that age. +But Edward construed this into a favorable sign. "Your precocious children +rarely amount to anything," he said. "They wear themselves out before they +come to the real work of life. I should really feel disappointed if Little +John should grow up a model school-boy. He would be sure to develop into a +pedagogue, or a book-worm, or something of the sort. Thanks to Providence, +he promises better." + +His foster-parents rarely thought of him as an adopted child, so +effectually had he possessed himself of their love. From time to time, +however, in some moment of enthusiasm, Edward would declare that the more +he thought about it the more he was led to believe that it was better to +have found Little John than to have had a child of their own. "You see, +Ellen," he would say, "we both have an active, nervous temperament. A +child would be very apt to inherit this in an exaggerated degree, and +consequently to lead a life unhappy in itself, besides causing us a great +deal of sorrow and disappointment. But what a wonderful reserve of +nerve-force Little John has! Whether he turns out a judge, an artist, or a +sailor, it will count for more than his _physique_, and _that_ is +priceless." And then Ellen would smile contentedly. In those days the +Lindsays were very happy indeed. + +The charms of Marant are well known, and it is not surprising that the +Lindsays should have protracted their stay to the utmost, and that autumn +should have arrived before they turned their faces westward. Doubtless +Little John would have strongly protested against quitting the sea-side, +had he been aware that he was about to do so. For several days after +returning to St. Louis he was certainly almost inconsolable. He begged +constantly, in his peculiar, abbreviated language, for the beach and the +ocean, with especial earnestness whenever he was taken for a promenade in +his perambulator. But in time, of course, the grand impression faded from +his memory,--to the secret delight of Ellen, who had never become quite +reconciled to his adoration of the sea. + +As the child acquired words and accomplishments, he lost nothing of his +sweetness and strangely mature dignity. When the tan disappeared from his +cheeks, he looked a little less robust; but this was to have been +expected. Such confidence had the Lindsays in the invulnerability of his +constitution that they were not alarmed when he experienced his inevitable +first indisposition of a serious character. Mrs. Doly and Ellen agreed +that it was a natural consequence of the change in his diet and mode of +life since they had come back to the city, and Dr. Kreiss, who was at once +summoned, substantiated the theory. But the next day Little John was no +better, and at night so decidedly worse that Edward sent for the doctor +again. The man of medicine looked grave this time. He stayed with the +little sufferer for several hours. Before midnight he came once more; and +when he went away Little John was dead. + +The blow fell upon the Lindsays with the more crushing force from its +terrible suddenness. Among all the contingencies to which they had looked +forward they had never seriously considered the possibility of this. They +had prepared themselves for disappointment, but not for bereavement. For +the first time they realized how thoroughly their adopted child had become +a part of their life. Hours that had been the brightest in the day now +dragged along wearisomely, and they often sat in silence together, because +they knew that if they spoke at all It must be of Little John. After a +time they saw, as many young parents have seen after their first great +loss, that the world could never be quite the old world to them again. But +they felt their love for each other to be all the stronger, and they tried +hard to lighten each other's sorrow by being cheerful and brave. It was +saddest, of course, for Ellen. All day she was alone in the house, and, +though she might busy her hands over a watercolor or an etching, her +thoughts would often stray away and send the tears to her eyes. +Occasionally she yielded to impulse and paid furtive visits to the nursery, +where, with a little dress or some other memento of her lost child laid +upon her knees, she would sit in long revery. By and by Edward noticed +that her face had taken upon itself a constant expression of sadness, +which even her smiles could not disguise. He began to think about a +European tour. From girlhood Ellen had looked forward to spending a year +in study abroad, and it seemed to him that no time could be better than +the present. It would be hard to leave his business; he could not do so +before spring anyway; but everything should be sacrificed to Ellen's +happiness, and, with her assent, he resolved, they should go at that +season. Just now his business was unusually exacting. He became every day +more alive to the fact that, unless he chose to lose a valuable portion of +his _client?_, he must spend a few weeks in the Southwest. Many St. Louis +capitalists were anxious to buy land in Texas at this unparalleled period +of her prosperity, and many commissions as well as opportunities for +private investment in the State demanded his attention at once. But could +he and ought he to leave Ellen now? He could not decide. When he was at +home he refused to consider the question at all; but at his office it +constantly forced itself upon his attention. Finally, after a great deal +of exasperatingly unsatisfactory correspondence with agents in Austin and +Galveston, he went to Ellen. + +"I will give the whole thing up, if you say so," he declared. + +"But you think it very necessary for you to go?" she asked. + +"From a business point of view, absolutely necessary. It is a question of +improving or failing to improve a chance to make a good many thousand +dollars. There is no middle course: I can't send anybody who could do the +business for me. Still, if you are as unwilling to have me go as I am to +leave you, I shall stay at home." + +This was hardly fair, and Ellen was sorely tempted; but she was too brave +and too true to yield to what she believed a selfish impulse. She wound +her arms about her husband's neck and effectively testified her reluctance +to permit the separation. She declared, however, that she would not +countenance his staying at home,--that it was plainly his duty to go. She +begged only that he would return at the earliest moment he could do so +conscientiously. He earnestly assured her that she need have no doubt of +that, and that a word from her would bring him home at any time. + +"But if I am to go," he continued, "you must have somebody to stay with +you while I am away. Why not ask Bertha Terry? You used to be always out +sketching together, and I know she would be delighted to come." + +"Bertha is a lovely girl, but--I--" + +She paused, with trembling lips. + +"But what, Ellen? Of course I wish you to have whomever you may prefer." + +To his surprise and concern, his wife burst into a flood of tears. + +"Ellen," he said very tenderly, "I am afraid you are not well. If this is +so, I certainly cannot leave you." + +"Oh, no! oh, no!" she cried between her sobs. "It is only because I shall +miss you so,--and because I have tried not to cry for so long that I +_must_ now,--and because--because I have a terrible feeling that I may +never see you again." + +Edward permitted her tears to exhaust themselves to some extent before he +spoke. Then with gentleness and tact he introduced the subject of the +European tour, upon which, he said, they might start very soon if the trip +to Texas should be brought to a successful close. He alluded to the +priceless art-treasures which they would examine together, and which she +would reproduce. He dwelt upon the glories of the Alps, the charms of +Italy, the wonders of Paris, with such good effect that Ellen presently +dried her eyes and found her smiles again. + +A few days later, on a raw October evening, Edward yielded to the urgent +demands of his business and set out for the South. It was at the time when +the "boom" in the grazing-lands and real estate generally of Texas was at +its height. Railways were pushing out in all directions, opening new and +profitable fields for investment, and immigrants were pouring into the +State in unexampled numbers. It was a period rich in opportunities that +could never come again. Edward set to work to make the most of them. In +the first place, he carefully attended to his commissions, resolutely +repelling the swarm of speculators who hovered about every man supposed to +possess a little capital, but all the time watchful and reflecting. Then +he began to make investments for himself. He bought, sold, and bought +again, until his funds were exhausted, and after that he wrote to St. +Louis and borrowed money. He was constantly on the move, much of the time +in camp, making and saving many a dollar by acting as his own agent. The +only respite he allowed himself was the time devoted to correspondence +with his wife. He sent her minute accounts of his work, and received long +and loving letters in return. But time passed, like the Northers +themselves. Four, five, six weeks were gone almost before he had counted +them, extending his absence decidedly beyond the date he had originally +set for his return, and still there was much to be done. He had not borne +the separation from his wife without pain, and he looked forward to +prolonging it with much more than reluctance; but he felt that to leave +now would be to spurn the hand of Providence, the more so because, though +Ellen had many times anxiously inquired for the date of his return, she +had never failed, whenever she wrote, to assure him of her own content so +long as he was successful and happy. He therefore sent her an elaborate +statement of the situation, reiterated his readiness to return if she +desired it, and begged her to decide for him whether he should remain +longer or not. Why could she not come down and spend a few weeks at Waco? +he asked. She would find pleasant people there, and he could then see her +at least once in a while. He would go back to St. Louis to bring her down. +In any event, he said, he would run up and spend a day or two with her if +his stay were to be prolonged. She wrote in reply that she dreaded to +experience the wild life he had so graphically described, and that she +could not persuade herself to go down into that primitive country unless +she might be with him always. This she knew to be impossible; and she was +convinced also that her presence at any time would prove a hinderance to +him in his business. But if he could come home for a short visit it would +make her very happy. She hoped that he might come very soon indeed. Still, +she added, with her old bravery, he must make no sacrifice to gratify her +wishes. She trusted him implicitly; she knew that he was as impatient to +return as she was that he should do so. He must stay as long as he deemed +it best; and even his proposed visit must be given up, if need be. + +And so Edward stayed. The visit to St. Louis was postponed once or twice, +and then put off indefinitely. New commissions were intrusted to him, new +opportunities disclosed themselves, new schemes were projected. He +extended his field of work into remote sections of the State, and once +made his way as far as the valley of the Rio Grande. Even in his busiest +moments Ellen was never wholly absent from his thoughts, and he never +ended a day without the reflection that his return was so much the nearer. +But week followed week into the past, the holidays slipped by, and spring +itself overtook him before he could see any definite prospect of getting +away. At last, one morning early in March, he wrote to Ellen from Denison +that he should be at home before the end of a week. The letter had hardly +been mailed when he received one from his wife evincing a depression she +had never permitted herself to acknowledge before. She wrote briefly, and, +with vague allusions to her health and an avowal of what she called her +"lack of firmness," besought him to return. + +The indefiniteness of this letter troubled Edward. He was disposed to +think that it meant much more than it expressed. He knew his wife's +excellent constitution so well, and reposed so much trust in her frankness, +that he did not believe she was seriously ill; but he did fear that his +prolonged absence had tried her cruelly, for he realized that she must +have gone through with many a struggle before she could have brought +herself to recall him. While he was debating, still under the spell of +business, whether to start for home at once or first to settle some +important matters at Denison, a telegraph-boy entered the office of the +hotel where he was sitting, and handed a despatch to the clerk. + +"For the gentleman at the window," said the young man. + +Edward opened the missive with the calmness of an honest and solvent man, +but with a pang of fear for Ellen. He read as follows: + +"We think you had better return at once. +BERTHA TERRY." + +For an instant he sat with his brain in a whirl. Then a curse upon +Providence rose to his lips; he repressed it, and began to load himself +with reproaches. A moment before, he had been in the satisfied mood of a +man who has his own approbation for work well done. He now looked upon his +course during the past winter with both abhorrence and wonder. He told +himself that it was heartless to have left Ellen at all; to have stayed +away for so many months was simply inhuman. It was all plain enough now; +and that he should have been so blind to the truth he could not conceive. +Suddenly he bethought himself that there was yet time to catch the Austin +Express for St. Louis, and that if he did not succeed in doing this a +whole day would be lost. He quickly wrote and forwarded a despatch to +Bertha, requesting her to telegraph to him at Vinita without reserve, and +then, regardless of his unfulfilled engagements, hurried to the station. +He was just in season: as he stepped upon the platform he heard the +whistle of the approaching train. Once on board, he experienced a +momentary sensation of relief: he was rapidly moving homeward, and at +Vinita he would at least be freed from suspense. He tried to convince +himself that the case could not be a serious one. But if it was? A +terrible fear took possession of him. He attempted in vain to put it +aside. It rendered it impossible for him to sit down alone with his +thoughts for a moment, and he passed away the day in wandering back and +forth through the cars, making an effort now and then to get up a +conversation with some fellow-passenger, counting the hours before the +train would reach Vinita, and constantly execrating himself. + +But, Vinita reached, there was no telegram. The operator thought it must +have gone to Vineton, a town far to the southeast, on the Iron Mountain +Railway. He could telegraph for it, of course, he said, and send it on to +any given point, but he believed that Edward would get word more quickly +by forwarding another message to St. Louis. He suggested that the reply be +sent to Sedalia, where it would undoubtedly be delivered, even at the late +hour at which the train would arrive. + +Edward listened to these remarks in dull despair. It was true that he +might receive news from Ellen at Sedalia, but Sedalia would not be reached +before the small hours of the following morning, when his journey would be +practically ended. Nor was there any nearer town, large enough to support +a night telegraph-office, where he could expect a message to be received +in season to reach him. He thanked the operator for his suggestions, and +returned sorrowfully to the train, to pass a night of suffering, from +which his short snatches of sleep gave him little relief. Poor fellow! His +sadness and remorse were cruelly enhanced by the suspense he was called +upon to endure. He vowed many times to himself that, if Ellen were spared +until his return, no pressure of the world should ever separate him from +her again. When the sun began to make known its coming in the east, he +breathed a prayer of thanks that his agony of waiting was almost over. + +Toward the middle of the forenoon the train rolled into the Union Dépôt at +St. Louis. Edward stood upon the platform of the foremost car. Long before +it came to a stop, he leaped from the steps and ran along toward the +hackmen's stand. A babel of voices greeted him. Quickly selecting a man +whose face was familiar, he pressed a _douceur_ into his hand, and, in a +voice that broke in spite of his efforts to control it, asked to be driven +home immediately and as fast as possible. The hackman looked upon Edward's +haggard face with silent sympathy, divining, perhaps, something of the +truth, and hastily led the way to his vehicle. + +The train was hardly at a stand-still when the carriage rattled away from +the station. The driver plied his whip freely, and soon left the business +section of the city behind. As they sped along Washington Avenue, Edward +endeavored to prepare himself for the worst, but he was incapable of +calmness and reflection: his whole being rebelled against the supposition +that he might be too late. + +There was a carriage, which he recognized as Dr. Kreiss's, drawn up before +his house. Fairly unmanned by emotion, he sprang up the steps, threw open +the door, and met the doctor face to face. + +The physician maintained a professional composure. + +"Good-morning, Mr. Lindsay," he said. "I regret to say that you have not +arrived quite soon enough." + +"Great God, doctor! Is it possible?" faltered Edward, whilst the tears +sprang to his eyes. + +The doctor looked at him curiously. + +"Go up-stairs and see your wife and baby," he said, with considerate +brevity. He added to himself, as Edward vanished up the stairway, "A case +of special providence that it's a boy." + +NATHAN CLIFFORD BROWN. + + * * * * * + + + + +JOSEPH J. MICKLEY. + + +Not many years ago there were several substantial old houses standing on +the north side of Market Street, east of Tenth, in the city of +Philadelphia. These structures, which then wore an air of respectable old +age, have been in recent years either totally destroyed or so extensively +altered that the serene atmosphere of antiquated gentility no longer +lingers about their busy exteriors. + +On a morning in April, 1869, the present writer had occasion to call at +one of these buildings,--No. 927. Several broad and weather-stained marble +steps led up to an old-fashioned doorway, where the modern bell-pull and +the antique brass knocker contended for recognition. Alike rusty as these +were, it became a problem as to which would best secure communication with +the interior. While the matter still seemed indefinite, it was set at rest +by the advice of an obliging street-urchin, who volunteered his +information with appropriate brevity and directness: + +"Try the door. If it's loose, Daddy Mickley's home, sure. If it's locked, +'taint no use of knockin', for he's out." + +Thus instructed, I tried the door. It happened to be "loose," and ushered +me into a long dark entry, at the farther end of which a wide flight of +heavy oak stairs led to the upper rooms in the rear of the building. Among +these rooms, one of the first to be reached was evidently a workshop; and +here was encountered the only living being as yet visible in the spacious +old mansion. Upon entering, I was met by a dignified and placid old +gentleman, whose appearance was very much in keeping with the house in +which he dwelt. He was quite evidently of the old school, and his pleasant +voice gave me an old-school welcome. A fine broad forehead rested above a +pair of the most kindly eyes that can be imagined, and belonged to a +splendidly-shaped head, which was totally bald, save for a slight fringe +of white hairs about either temple. The mouth was, in its expression, even +more prepossessing than the eyes, and the whole bearing of the old +gentleman--who had evidently reached his three-score and ten, but who, as +was equally apparent, carried the warmth and vigor of youth still with +him--was calculated to please and impress the least observant visitor. + +The late Joseph J. Mickley comprised qualities at once more attractive and +more unusual than are often met with in one person. He was distinguished +throughout the world, during more than a generation, for the diligence and +success of his numismatic researches, and his collection of rare coins was +for a long time the most valuable in this country. As a collector of +scarce books and autographs he was hardly less noted or less successful. +But in Philadelphia he was most of all admired for his delightful social +qualities and his extensive information on a surprising variety of topics. +During forty years his house was a rendezvous for a numerous group of +specialists,--not alone in his own favorite pursuits, which, indeed, were +both many and diverse, but in any and every department of art or learning. +Coin-hunters, autograph-dealers, historical students, philosophers, +musical-instrument-makers, noted performers, and performers of less note, +all the way down to "scratch-clubs," were his constant visitors for years. +It is probable that no private house in Philadelphia has entertained a +greater number of intellectually distinguished people than the old mansion +just referred to, where Mickley resided from 1842 to 1869. Musical +celebrities from every country hastened to make his acquaintance, and such +was the magnetism of his personality that acquaintances thus formed seem +never to have been lost sight of by either host or guest. During his +European tour, which lasted from 1869 to 1872, the then venerable +traveller was continually meeting friends among persons who had called +upon him at various times, dating back in one case as long before as 1820. +They always appeared to have known beforehand of his coming, and he always +remembered them and the circumstances under which he had first met them. + +The social reunions at Mickley's were informal to the last degree, and the +accommodations correspondingly primitive. They usually took place in his +workshop. Crazy stools or empty piano-boxes generally served for seats. +The surrounding furniture comprised barrels, cases, and chests, filled to +overflowing with the host's ever-increasing antiquarian treasures. If a +quartette were assembled,--and many times the musical party was enlarged +to a quintette or a septette,--an adjournment was necessary to a room less +crowded, but equally sparse of conventional furniture. + +Mr. Mickley was always happy to join in these impromptu musical assemblies, +when occasion offered, although performing music was one of the few +things which he never succeeded in doing well. He invariably played the +viola on these occasions,--perhaps, as Schindler hints about Beethoven, +because indifferent playing on the viola is not so noticeable as on other +instruments. As was to have been expected from so pronounced an +antiquarian, he had small sympathy for modern music. He even rebelled +against the gentle innovations of Mendelssohn, contending, not without an +approach to accurate judgment, that Haydn and Mozart had completely +covered the field of chamber-music. While in the midst of numerous and +always congenial pursuits during his long life, quartette-playing remained +a favorite pastime of very many days in very many years. + +Mr. Mickley's intellect was so many-sided and so evenly balanced that it +is difficult to name his predominant bias. It is very nearly safe, however, +to say that this was his historic faculty. In the writings, still chiefly +unprinted, which were left behind him, he was at once the most minute and +the most compact of historians. Emerson never condensed his rare thoughts +into smaller compass, not even in his "English Traits," than Mr, Mickley +has condensed his facts and observations. There is a small pamphlet extant, +the manuscript of which was read by him in 1863 on the occasion of the +centennial anniversary of a noted Indian massacre in Northampton County, +Pennsylvania, where several of his ancestors perished. It contains +historic material enough for a volume. To indicate his early passion for +amassing reliable data, the same sketch shows that a portion of its facts +had been obtained, while he was still a boy, from then aged eye-witnesses +of the affair, nearly fifty years before its story was thus put into +permanent shape. + +He mastered the Swedish language, after having passed his seventieth year, +chiefly that he might write a correct history of the first settlement of +Swedes on the Delaware River below Philadelphia. At the age of seventy-two +he spent several months in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, and while +there placed himself in communication with every prominent librarian of +the country, besides scholars in Denmark, Holland, and Germany. He +personally inspected a great mass of documents and ancient volumes. Yet +the result of all this is contained in a manuscript of less than thirty +large folio pages, literally crowded with invaluable data. This was read +before the Historical Society of the State of Delaware in 1874. It has +never been put in type, and is almost wholly made up of material which has +no existence elsewhere in the English language. + +A single instance will serve to show the minuteness and persistence of his +investigations. In one of the public libraries of Stockholm Mickley +discovered an ancient Dutch manuscript signed by Peter Minuit. No scholar +within reach could master its contents. The private secretary of the +ambassador from Holland, who was appealed to, asserted beforehand that he +"could read anything that ever was written in Dutch." Yet, after a long +inspection, he frankly owned his inability to decipher a single word of +it. Mr. Mickley was determined to ascertain the contents. As the document +could not be bought at any price, and could not even be removed over-night +from its place of keeping, he caused photographs to be taken of it. One +such copy was sent to a very learned acquaintance in Amsterdam, and +another to a noted scholar at Leipsic. In the course of subsequent travels +he found accurate translations awaiting him from both sources. The +importance of the manuscript in this connection will be the more +appreciated when it is remembered that Peter Minuit commanded the first +expedition ever sent to the shores of the Delaware River. + +Being thus by nature an historian, it is but natural that Mr. Mickley +should have left behind him ample materials for telling the story of his +own life. From these we learn that the family name was originally +Michelet. It dates back to the French Huguenots who, after the revocation +of the Edict of Nantes, settled in Zweibrcken, a Grerman province. The +first foothold of the family in this country was established in that +portion of Pennsylvania which has for more than a century been thickly +peopled by that enlightened and art-fostering sect, the Moravians. It was +from the Moravian influence that Joseph J. Mickley first experienced a +fondness for music and its appropriate artistic surroundings. He was born +March 24, 1799, at South Whitehall, a township then in Lehigh County, but +originally comprised in Northampton. At the age of seventeen he went to +Philadelphia as apprentice to a piano-maker. At that time the method of +building a piano-forte was as different from the advanced art of these +days as was the instrument itself. The piano-maker had then to work from +the legs upward. His necessary duties demanded knowledge which is now +distributed among several entirely distinct sets of artificers. That young +Mickley satisfactorily completed his apprenticeship may be inferred from +two facts: he started in business for himself in August, 1822, and in +October, 1831, the Franklin Institute awarded him a prize for skill in the +manufacture of pianos. + +From this time on, his business life, though of long duration, was +uneventful, and may be summed up in very few words. From his original +starting-place at No. 67 North Third Street, he removed, four years later, +to a store on the site now occupied by a portion of the publishing house +of J.B. Lippincott Company. Here he remained until 1842, and then +established himself in the building mentioned at the beginning of this +article, where he continued to live until the final closing up of his +business in 1869. + +It does not appear that Mr. Mickley was ever actively engaged in the +manufacture of piano-fortes. He continued, however, to tune pianos to the +end of his life; and it is reported that he could never be induced to +alter his terms from the original fee of one dollar which was customary +forty years ago. He also became noted far and wide as a repairer of +violins and other stringed instruments. At one time, a violin which had +belonged to George Washington was sent to him for this purpose. Ole Bull, +who happened to be in town at the time, hearing of the circumstance, +hastened to the shop for the purpose of examining and playing upon the +historic instrument. Mickley also became an authority in regard to the +value and authenticity of these instruments, although he never indulged in +the passion of making collections in this field. His minuteness of +observation was frequently manifested. While stopping at Venice in 1870 he +notes down in his diary, "A man came to the hotel with some violins for +sale. Among them was a Hieronymus Amati. It was a good one, but the head +and neck were not genuine." At another time, a violin was sent to his +place from a distant locality for repairs. The instrument was preceded by +a lengthy letter beseeching his special care for its welfare, and setting +forth in extravagant terms its great intrinsic value and its peculiarly +interesting "belongings." Anticipating a treasure, Mr. Mickley sent for +some violin-connoisseurs to enjoy with him a first sight of the precious +instrument. On opening the express-package a very worthless "fiddle" was +revealed. After the laugh had gone round, he said dryly, "I think the +value of this must be in its 'belongings.'" + +In the old house on Market Street Mr. Mickley was not alone popular among +prominent people from afar. He was equally loved by his neighbors on all +sides. Many of the more unconventional of these knew him best by the +familiar title of "Daddy." To the better-educated class of young musicians +he was almost as much a father as a friend. Nor were his close friendships +confined to the young. Among his most steadfast admirers was an +old-bachelor German musician by the name of Plich. Herr Plich was a +piano-teacher, and it was under his tuition that the afterward favorite +prima-donna Caroline Richings made her first public appearance as a +pianist in 1847. This old teacher induced Mickley to take him as a boarder, +and he lived for a number of years in one of the upper back rooms of No. +927. One night a fire broke out in a building directly contiguous with the +rear of the Mickley mansion. There was great consternation, of course, and +busy efforts on the owner's part to gather together the manifold contents +of his treasure-house. When all had been at length secured in a place of +safety, he bethought himself of Herr Plich. Hastening to the upper room, +he discovered the old man in a state of semi-insanity, marching up and +down the apartment, and carrying in his hands only a valuable viola. So +confused was he with fright that main force was required to get him out of +the room. After seeing him safely out of the front door, Mickley went back +and secured a considerable sum of paper money which had been totally +overlooked for the sake of the beloved viola. Plich at his death +bequeathed the viola to Mickley, and it was the only instrument which the +latter always refused to part with during his lifetime. The entire savings +of Plich were also left in trust to Mickley, to be distributed for such +charitable objects as he should consider most worthy, and for about +twenty-seven years Mr. Mickley carefully administered this trust. + +Mr. Mickley's most remarkable success in life was obtained as a +numismatist. His habit of collecting coins began almost in childhood. It +has been stated that at the age of seventeen he first became interested in +coin-hunting, owing to his difficulty in finding a copper cent coined in +1799, the year of his birth. Every student of numismatism knows that this +piece is exceedingly rare. The one sold in Mr. Mickley's collection after +his decease brought no less than forty dollars. The taste thus formed +continued a prevailing one for sixty years. It is surprising to find how +speedily he became a leading and recognized authority. Although as +guileless as a child and the easy victim of numerous thefts throughout his +life, he was scarcely ever deceived in the value of a coin, token, or +medal. Once, at Stockholm, in 1871, he visited a museum where rare coins +were exhibited. "The collection," says his diary, "is very, very rich in +Greek and Roman, but particularly in Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon. There +are not many United States coins, but among them I was astonished to find +a very fine half-eagle of 1815." The known rarity of this coin thus on +exhibition in a far country very naturally attracted the keen eyes of the +aged collector. + +These researches, continuing year after year, grew to be more and more +valuable, until they became widely celebrated. By the time he had reached +middle age he was as well known among the guild of antiquarians as a +Quaker is known by his costume. Before his death he had been elected a +member of all the prominent societies in numismatics, history, and +archaeology throughout the world. The last honor of this kind, which +reached him in his eightieth year, was a notice of his election to +membership in the Société Française de Numismatique et d'Archéologie. His +great collections in this department of knowledge were not confined to +coins, but extended also to the literature of the subject. This was +splendidly illustrated in his famous library, which comprised many works +of the utmost value and scarcity. + +A taste thus developed in early youth naturally became in the course of +years a habit, a sentiment, a leading passion of Mickley's nature. By the +year 1867 his coin-collection had become the most extensive in this +country. By this time also the entertainment of curious visitors absorbed +a good share of the collector's daily duties. He was naturally proud of +his treasures, and took a great delight in showing them to all who came. +Utterly devoid of suspicion, he was a ready victim to designing persons. +The following memorandum, which was found among his later papers, will +show how he suffered from this source: + +"I have become rather indifferent about numismatics, or, at least, about +collecting coins. It was a great source of amusement for a period of over +fifty years. But, having been so unfortunate at different times with my +coins, it is, as it were, a warning to desist from collecting any more. In +the year 1827 the United States dollars from 1794 to 1803, all good +specimens, together with some foreign coins, were stolen. In 1848 about +twenty half-dollars were taken. In 1854, after showing my collection to +three Southern gentlemen (as they called themselves) I missed three very +scarce half-eagles. The great robbery was in 1867. In Jaffa, Palestine, a +small lot, worth about one thousand francs, with a collection of Egyptian +curiosities, was stolen at the hotel; and, finally, last winter, at +Seville, Spain, some old Spanish coins were missing while I was showing +them to some persons." + +The "great robbery" above alluded to occurred on the evening of April 13, +1867. It was of such magnitude as to cause a wide sensation at the time, +and enlisted the sympathies of his coin-hunting brethren the world over. +Mr. Mickley's chief precautions, notwithstanding his previous warnings of +danger from another source, had been against fire. In a third-story room +was his cabinet. This had been long since filled, chiefly with an unbroken +and historic list of American coins. The additional accumulations of years, +nearly all foreign, and many of great rarity, had been stored in an old +piano-case in his bedroom, where, as he said, in the event of fire they +would be close at hand. On the evening in question Mickley was alone in +his workshop, engaged in repairing a musical instrument. He had then been +living entirely alone for a number of years. A single servant, who +provided his meals, had gone home. About nine o'clock the loud barking of +his dog in the yard below called him to the window. It was afterward found +that a pair of old shoes thrown from an upper room by the burglars had +thus called away the attention both of dog and master from what was going +on inside. An hour later a caller discovered several pieces of money lying +in the hall. An investigation disclosed the startling loss which he had +sustained. The entire contents of the piano-box had been carried off. A +private desk had also been broken open and despoiled of a few medals, +although its chief contents were intact. A gold pencil, the gift of Ole +Bull, and other keepsakes, remained undisturbed. But the larger portion of +a collection of foreign coins, one of the most complete in the world, and +the product of a lifetime's intelligent research, was gone! + +It was a heavy calamity, and one from which the old collector never fully +recovered. Sir Isaac Newton's historic Fido did not do nearly the amount +of irremediable damage when he overturned the lamp upon his master's +papers. The actual pecuniary loss, reckoning at cost prices, was in the +neighborhood of nineteen thousand dollars. The market value of such a +collection was of course vastly greater, and increasing all the time at a +good deal faster rate than compound interest. It was somewhat of a +coincidence that Mr. Mickley had received and refused what he records as a +"tempting offer", for the entire collection only a short time before the +robbery. + +The ardent passion of a lifetime was now chilled, and his one desire +seemed to be to get rid of his remaining coins and of the responsibility +which keeping them entailed. Such, however, was the completeness of +Mickley's literary methods of condensing, that an entry of three or four +lines made in his diary on the night of the robbery is all that he had to +write about the appalling loss. A week or two afterward he records in the +same volume the disposal of all the remaining coins, with an air of great +relief, as he adds, "I do not doubt I should be robbed again if I kept +them." A large box full of the most valuable had been taken, for +safe-keeping, to the Mint just after the robbery; but these were sold with +the rest. It is understood that this remnant of the original lot was +disposed of for about sixteen thousand dollars, the largest purchaser +being Mr, Woodward, of Roxbury, Massachusetts. The dollar of 1804 went to +a New York collector for the enormous sum of seven hundred and fifty +dollars. + +Efforts to restore the lost treasure were not wanting. It might be +supposed that the possession of such rare tokens of value would have +speedily led to the discovery of their whereabouts. Mr. Mickley himself +intimated that he suspected the quarter from which the depredation had +come. Yet from that day until the present the secret has been as securely +kept as that of the rifling of Lord Byron's letter from a vase at +Abbotsford, or of the Duchess of Devonshire's portrait from the London +Art-Gallery. In fact, the same mild generosity which had always +characterized Mr. Mickley still came uppermost in the face of this trying +disaster. He frequently sought to overlook the misdoings of petty thieves. +A London pickpocket who had successfully practised upon him Oliver Twist's +little game was only prosecuted because his testimony was insisted upon by +the authorities. At the foot of the Pyramids he deplored the chastisement +inflicted by an Arab sheik upon one of his native servants who had +committed a similar depredation. His life-long friend the late William E. +Dubois, of the United States Mint, has stated that "eight or nine years +after the robbery a few very fine gold pieces of English coinage were +offered for sale at the Mint cabinet-rooms. I was so well convinced that +the labels were in his handwriting that I sent for him to come and see +them. He could not deny the likeness, but seemed reluctant to entertain +the subject at all." + +During these years of study and research Mr. Mickley must not be thought +of as a strict specialist. Side by side with his fascinating collection of +coins there was an ever-growing library, the extent and value of which +were never appreciated until his death. This accumulation was in itself an +example of his cosmopolitan tastes. It was copious in local history, in +biography, in music, in general literature, in costly and well-preserved +black-letter editions, in illuminated missals dating back to the +thirteenth century, and, above all else, in autographs. Of the latter, +space cannot be spared here for anything approaching a full description. +As some indication of their value, it may be mentioned that a letter of +George Washington (the last he was known to write), dated six days before +his death, was bought by George W. Childs, Esq., for one hundred and +fifteen dollars. A letter of Abraham Lincoln to General McClellan fetched +nearly one hundred dollars. There were also signed autograph letters of +all the governors of Pennsylvania, of all the Presidents, and of all the +signers of the Declaration of Independence. The latter group is rarely met +with complete; and three of the scarcest names alone sold for as much as +all the others put together. There were signatures also of about forty +generals of the Revolutionary war, of both the British and American armies, +and including Lafayette and Kosciusko. Both Napoleon and Josephine were +represented; and the lovers of poetic justice will be glad to know that +the latter name brought double that of the great emperor. In autographs of +literary and musical celebrities the collection was extraordinarily rich, +those of Goethe and Schiller, Beethoven and Mozart, being conspicuous. But +the chief rarity was a large album formerly owned by Babet von Ployer. +This contained, among other treasures, a manuscript of Haydn, believed to +be the only one ever offered for sale in this country. It also contained +an India-ink sketch of Mozart, drawn by his wife Constance. At the sale in +1878 this album was knocked down for one hundred and twenty-six dollars, +although three hundred dollars had been previously refused for it. The +Mozart letter, a particularly interesting specimen, was sold for fifty-two +dollars to M.H. Cross, Esq. + +Turning from the autographs to the books, we find still greater value and +variety. The historical portion, especially where it referred to local +subjects, was almost phenomenal. One precious lot comprised a complete set +of the first daily newspaper of the United States, beginning with the +"Pennsylvania Packet" in 1771, and continuing unbroken, through several +changes of title and proprietorship, for one hundred and seven years. An +amusing incident is related in connection with Mr. Mickley's purchase of +the larger portion of this series,--"Poulson's Advertiser" from 1800 to +1840. When the wagon was driven to his door, loaded with the purchase, the +housekeeper exclaimed, "What ever is to be done with all this truck?" Yet +this "truck," a mine of wealth to the future historian, was sold after +Mickley's death for eight hundred dollars. There were city directories of +several editions for ninety-three years. The black-letter list was quite +large, and there were more than thirty editions of the Bible, some of +great rarity, and nearly all in a fine state of preservation. + +From the time of the coin-robbery the older acquaintances of Mr. Mickley +noticed a decided change in him. On the subject of coins, once so voluble, +he grew very reticent. His business, which had for many years appeared +rather a pastime than a task to him, grew irksome. After a period of +uncertainty, he finally decided to close up his affairs and spend some +years in foreign travel. In spite of advanced age, he was both physically +and mentally well equipped for such a journey. His health had always been +good. His temper seemed never to be ruffled. Of the French and German +languages he was a master, and he had some knowledge of the Spanish, +Italian, and Swedish. His previous extensive acquaintance with men of many +nations and habits was kept fresh in mind by a remarkable memory. With all +these advantages, the period of his travels was the most interesting of +his life. + +Mr. Mickley set sail on the 5th of June, 1869, being at that time a few +months past his seventieth year. He remained abroad for three years, +visiting every country in Europe, ascending the Nile to the first cataract, +passing through the Suez Canal, and across a portion of Asia Minor and +Palestine. He made two trips to Northern Sweden to behold the spectacle of +the midnight sun. Being a week too late on the first season, he tried it +again the following year. Passing through the entire length of the Gulf of +Bothnia, and ascending the Tornea River, he entered Lapland, crossing the +Arctic circle and penetrating the Arctic zone in a sledge-journey of +seventy miles. The indomitable old traveller pushed on until he reached a +small lumber-village named Pajala. On the night of June 23, 1871, crossing +the river with a small party of Swedes and Finns, he ascended Mount +Avasaxa, in Finland. At this altitude, he says, "the sky happened to be +clear in the direction of the sun, and he shone in all his glory as the +clock struck twelve." + +During this prolonged absence he visited almost every considerable town in +Germany, Holland, Italy, and England. The instant that he arrived at a +town, he seemed to know the shortest cut to its museum. If there was an +antiquarian in the place, he knew of it beforehand, and hastened either to +make or renew an acquaintance. In the larger cities he was surrounded by +these people, and he expressed unaffected surprise and pleasure at their +attentions. He made visits of inspection to nearly every mint in Europe, +having been commissioned by the Philadelphia Mint to make purchases of +rare coins for its cabinet. Here the old passion appears to have blazed up +again for a little while. It was an entire surprise to his family to +discover among his possessions at his death the nucleus of a new +collection, which was sold for about two thousand dollars. + +Mr. Mickley made at this period some valued acquaintances. Among these was +the Italian composer Mercadante. At the time of Mickley's visit, in April, +1870, the composer, who was also president of the Conservatoire in Naples, +had been blind for eight years. "The old gentleman," says Mickley (who, by +the way, was only two years his junior), "held out his hand and bade me +welcome. I told him it would be a lasting pleasure to have shaken hands +with so highly distinguished a man, whose name had long since been +favorably known in America. At this his face brightened; he arose from the +sofa, shook my hand cordially, wishing me health, happiness, and a safe +voyage." Later, at Brussels, he called on M. Fétiss, the famous French +musical critic and biographer. At that time, in his eighty-eighth year, +Fétis was a fugitive from Paris, owing to the troubles of the +Franco-Prussian war. Mr. Mickley's picture of the veteran _littérateur_ +and critic is an engaging one. He says, "Considering his great age, Mr. +Fetis is very active. He climbed up the stepladder to get books and to +show me such as he considered the most rare and interesting. He is not +only active in body, but he retains all the faculties of his mind. He +appears to have a very happy disposition. While I was with him a continual +smile was on his face, and it seemed to give him great pleasure to show me +his books. He has been engaged in collecting them for over fifty years, +and they have cost him a sum equal to three hundred thousand dollars, +exclusive of a great many presents. The first book on music was printed in +1480." At Trieste he spent some time with the United States consul there, +Mr. Thayer, of Boston, best known to musical and literary people as the +author of an exhaustive Life of Beethoven, which has been under way for +nearly thirty years and is not yet finished. Mr. Thayer showed his visitor +all the historic data and personal relics which he had collected for the +book, of which at that date only one volume had been published. Since then +Mercadante and F?s have been gathered to their fathers. Their genial guest +is also gone. The industrious Mr. Thayer lives, with three volumes of the +Life completed, and every American, either literary or musical, will wish +him well on to the conclusion of his _magnum opus_. + +Mr. Mickley's plain personal habits remained almost unchanged by the many +unforeseen exigencies of foreign travel. Once, at Rouen, six months after +leaving home, he says, "Tasted wine for the first time in Europe, as the +water here did not agree with me." A little later, at Munich, he remarks, +"Drank beer for the first time." His pockets remained as accessible as +heretofore to the nimble-fingered gentry. Upon his first visit to Naples, +he records very naïvely, "Three silk handkerchiefs have been stolen from +me here,--which is one more than in London." At Jaffa, on his way from +Egypt to Palestine, besides the robbery of coins alluded to some time back, +he lost a choice autograph manuscript of Mozart which had cost him two +hundred and fifty francs at Salzburg. If careless in these particulars, he +was very watchful and jealous of opportunities to uphold America's +position in the world. He took special pains to inform the mint-masters at +various points concerning the superior appliances and machinery of the +Philadelphia Mint. On the way back from Lapland, while steaming southward +along the upper waters of the Gulf of Bothnia, he writes, under date of +July 4, 1871, "This being our national holiday, I put up my flag on the +door of my berth, but was obliged to explain the meaning of the holiday to +nearly all the passengers." While in England, he met at Manchester a +barrister who had formerly been his guest in Philadelphia. This gentleman +proposed to introduce him to an American lawyer then practising there. "I +asked the name. He said it was Judah P. Benjamin. I declined the +invitation." + +Wherever Mr. Mickley journeyed, so long as any fresh acquisition of +knowledge was to be gained the old traveller appeared insensible to +fatigue. When halfway up the Great Pyramid an English group who were in +his company stopped and insisted upon going no farther. He resolutely +continued, and they, unwilling to see so aged a man out-distance them, +followed reluctantly, until all reached the summit and congratulated each +other on the famous view. In St. Petersburg, Moscow, and other Russian +cities, which he visited in the winter season, he was equally untiring and +undaunted. As a specimen of his accuracy of observation, he writes during +his first journey in Italy, "I counted forty-six tunnels between Pisa and +Bologna." Several severe accidents fell to his lot. In Rome, while +exploring a dark, arched passage, he fell into "Cicero's Well," receiving +severe bruises. In a street in Constantinople, where there are no +sidewalks, he was knocked down by a runaway horse and taken up for dead, +remaining insensible for several hours. The former of these mishaps +occupies three lines in his diary; the latter, twelve lines. On his third +visit to Leipsic he was confined in his room for several weeks with an +attack of smallpox. But in regard to none of these accidents, although an +aged man, thousands of miles from home, and entirely alone, does he betray +any symptoms of apprehension. He merely adds, on the date of his recovery +from the attack at Leipsic, "This sickness has detained me much longer +than I had expected to stay." + +In one of Mickley's trips he made a not unimportant contribution to +musical history. Almost every student of instrumental music is acquainted +with the name of Jacob Steiner or Stainer, the most successful of +violin-makers outside of the Cremonese school of workmen. Of Steiner's +life but little is known, and no biography of him extant in either French, +German, or English contains either the date or place of his death. The +account commonly given is that he separated from his wife and died in a +convent. Mr. Mickley, with his accustomed perseverance, started out to see +if this matter might not be cleared up. At Innspruck he inquired in vain +for information. As Fétis and Forster both fixed his birthplace at Absom, +a small village some twelve miles from Innspruck, Mickley repaired +thither. For some time his errand was fruitless. He stopped in at a little +shop where an old woman sold photographs, etc. "I asked her, 'Did you +never hear of Jacob Steiner, the violin-maker?' She replied, 'There is no +Steiner nor violin-maker living in this town.' I then said that a +celebrated violin-maker of that name, of whom I desired some information, +had lived there two hundred years before. She replied, quite seriously, 'I +am not two hundred years old.'" A few minutes later, in the course of his +walk, his eye fell upon an old church, the outer wall of which contained a +number of stone tablets with inscriptions. A search of five minutes +revealed the desired information. On a plain tablet Steiner's name was +found, together with the information, given in very old-fashioned German, +that he had died there in 1683, "at the rising of the sun." + +The closing field of Mr. Mickley's travels covered Southern France and +Spain, Lisbon, where he passed the winter of 1871-72, and Madrid. The +weather being very severe, he was detained two months at Lisbon, where he +engaged a teacher and took daily lessons in Portuguese. He had done the +same at Stockholm the previous winter with the Swedish language, which he +mastered pretty thoroughly. At Madrid he examined what he emphatically +pronounced the finest collection of coins in the world, numbering one +hundred and fifty thousand specimens. He adds, "This is the only place in +Europe where the subject is properly understood. Alfonzo V., King of +Aragon, in the fifteenth century, was the first person known to have +collected coins for study or amusement, and Augustin, Archbishop of +Tarragona, was the first writer on the subject. The science of numismatics +is, therefore, of Spanish origin." + +Mr, Mickley left Madrid in March, crossing the Pyrenees and arriving in +Paris on the 24th of that month, his seventy-third birthday. He "made the +tour of three hundred and sixty-three miles in twelve hours, without being +in the least fatigued." After a few weeks passed in Paris and in +revisiting friends in England, he sailed for home, arriving in +Philadelphia June 5, 1872, exactly three years from the date of his +departure. + +It was surprising to his friends how little change the lapse of years and +the somewhat rugged incidents of travel had made in Mr. Mickley. He +quickly settled down, and, as nearly as possible, resumed his old habits. +He bought himself a residence, but followed the Paris custom of taking his +meals elsewhere. In the house he was entirely alone, even without a +servant. After a time he showed some disposition to concede to "luxuries" +which he had previously ignored. Carpets he had never used in his life, +but he now admitted that they were very pleasant and comfortable, and +ordered his house to be carpeted throughout. The arrangement of his +library in the new quarters was a great pleasure, and took some time. Mr. +Mickley was in no sense of the word a politician, but he voted pretty +regularly. An incident connected with his last visit to the polls was +amusing. Having been three years absent, a patriotic Hibernian, who kept +the window-book and knew nothing of him, demanded to see his tax-receipt. +The old gentleman went quietly home and brought back the desired document. +He was next asked if he could read and write, which question, however, was +not pressed. The last scene in Mr. Mickley's life was as quiet and +peaceful as its whole tenor had been. On the afternoon of February 15, +1878, Mr. Carl Plagemann, the well-known musician and a friend of many +years' standing, called at his house. While he waited, Mr. Mickley wrapped +for him some violin-strings, the last work of his hands. He requested Mr. +Plagemann to go with him that evening to visit another old friend,--Oliver +Hopkinson, Esq., at whose house there were to be some quartettes. "I have +a letter," he said, "from the Russian ambassador, a part of which I am +unable to translate. A Russian lady is to play the piano there this +evening, and I shall ask her to help me out." Mr. Plagemann could not go, +and, as so often before, Mr. Mickley started out alone. Just before +reaching the house of Mr. Hopkinson he was taken suddenly ill, and, +chancing to be close by the residence of his physician, Dr. Meigs, he +stopped there and rang the bell. As the door opened, he said in husky +tones, "I am suffocating." He walked in and ascended the stairs without +assistance. Then he said, "Take me to a window." As this was being done, +he fell back insensible into the arms of the attendants, and, a few +minutes later, breathed his last. + +Thus, on the very western edge of fourscore years, ended this long and +industrious, this peaceful and beautiful life. In our land of busy and +constant action there have been few like it,--surely none happier. Serene +at the close as it was placid in its course, its lot had been cast ever +between quiet shores, which it enriched on either hand with its +accumulated gifts of knowledge and of taste. And at the close of it all +there could be no happier eulogy than the one modestly yet comprehensively +delivered by his old and congenial friend William E. Dubois, himself since +summoned to take the same mysterious journey. "In fine," says he, "Mr. +Mickley seemed superior to any meanness; free from vulgar passions and +habits, from pride and vanity, from evil speaking and harsh judging. He +was eminently sincere, affable, kind, and gentle: in the best sense of the +word he was a gentleman." + +J. BUNTING. + + * * * * * + + + + +ROSE ROMANCE. + + +Two roses, freshly sweet and rare, + Bloomed in the dewy morning +On neighboring bushes green and fair, + One garden-bed adorning. +"Ah!" sighed the pair, "what joy, what pride. + If on one branch together +We two were growing side by side + Through all this golden weather!" + +There came a youth who roughly tore + The roses from their bowers, +And to his sweetheart proudly bore + The two fair, fragrant flowers. +Upon her bosom with delight + They bloomed,--but not forever: +They faded--ah! but, rapture bright, + They faded there together. + +ADA NICHOLS. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE WHITE WHATERS. + + +"Down with her! Hard!" came hoarsely through the mist. + +An oil-skinned figure threw himself heavily upon the oar; the little craft +rounded tremblingly up into the wind, hurling clouds of spray and foam +aloft that were borne far away by the whistling breeze. For a moment the +sail beat furiously, as if in protest at this infringement upon its +privileges, then a second oil-skin--the cause of all this +commotion--raised his arms, a steel spear flashed, a willowy pole trembled +in the air, a quick movement, a roar of rushing waters, a shower of spray +that drenched the craft, a sound of escaping steam or hissing rope, and a +white whale had been struck by Captain Sol Gillis, of Bic. + +Captain Gillis, as might be assumed, was not a native of the province of +Quebec, but merely a carpet-bagger, who moved north in the summer and +returned in early autumn about the time the wild geese went south, and all +for reasons known only to himself. He hailed from down East, and voted in +a small town not many miles from the historic shell-heaps and the ancient +city of Pemaquid. + +Our meeting with the down-East skipper was entirely one of accident. +Wandering along the beach at Bic, we had come upon a boat, half dory, half +nondescript, which from the possession of certain peculiarities was +claimed by one of the party to be of Maine origin, and, to settle the +dispute, a little house a few hundred yards higher up was visited. + +It was like many others along shore,--single-storied, painted white, with +green blinds, with a small garden in the rear, in which grew old-fashioned +flowers and an abundance of "yarbs" that bespoke a mistress of Thompsonian +leanings. A stack of oars, seine-sticks, and harpoon-handles leaned +against the roof; gill-nets festooned the little piazza, while a great +iron caldron, that had evidently done service on a New Bedford whaler, had +been utilized by the good housewife to capture the rain-water from the +shingled roof. + +"Mornin' to ye, gentlemen. Been lookin' at the bot?" queried a tall, thin, +red-faced man, with an unusually jolly expression, stepping out from a +shed. + +"Yes. We thought she was of Maine build," replied the disputant. + +"Wall, so she is," said the mariner,--"so she is; and there ain't none +like her within forty mile of Bic. I'm of Maine build myself," he added. +"But I ain't owner. I'm sorter second mate to Sol Grillis; sailed with him +forty year come Christmas. Don't ye know him? What! don't know Sol +Gillis!" And a look of incredulity crept into the old man's eye. "Why, I +thought Sol was knowed from Bic to Boothbay all along shore. But come in, +do. I know ye're parched," continued the friend of the skipper, dropping +his palm and needle and motioning the visitors toward the little +sitting-room. "Mother," he called, "here's some folks from daown aour way." + +As the old man spoke, a large-framed woman appeared in the door-way, +holding on to the sides for support, and bade us welcome. Her eyes were +turned upward, and had a far-away look, as if from long habit of gazing +out to sea, but, as we drew nearer, we saw that she was blind. + +Leading the way into the kitchen, which was resplendent with shining pans +and a glistening stove, all the work of the thrifty but blind housewife, +she began to entertain us in her simple manner, and described a model of a +full-rigged ship that rested on a table, though she had never seen it, +with an exactness that would have done credit to many a sailor: even the +ropes and rigging were pointed out, and all their uses dwelt upon with a +tenderness strangely foreign to the subject. + +"And Captain Sam built it?" we asked. + +"No, no," replied the old lady, turning her head to hide a tear that stole +from the sightless eyes. "It's all we've got to remember aour boy John. He +built her and rigged her. He was his mother's boy, but--" + +"He went down on the Grand Banks in the gale of '75," broke in her husband +hoarsely. + +"Yes," continued the wife, "me and Sam's all alone. It's all we've got, +and Sam brings it up every summer as sorter company like. Ye're friends of +Captain Sol, I guess," she said, brightening up after a moment. "No?" and +she looked in the direction of the captain, as if for a solution of the +mystery. "Naow, ye don't tell me that ye ain't acquainted with Captain Sol, +and ye're from aour way, too? Why," she continued earnestly, "Sol's been +hog-reeve in aour taown ten years runnin'; and as for selec'-man, he'll +die in office. Positions of trust come jest as nat'ral to him as reefin' +in a gale of wind. Him and my man tuck to one another from the first." + +"Then you were not townsmen always," we suggested. + +"No, we wa'n't," was the reply. + +"My man and Sol met under kinder unusual circumstances. Tell 'em haow it +was, Sam." + +The old sailor was sitting on the wood-box, shaping a row-lock from a +piece of white pine, and, when thus addressed, looked up with a blank +expression, as if he had been on a long search for ideas and had returned +without them. + +"He gits wanderin' in his ideas when he sets his mind on the '75 gale," +whispered the old lady. "Tell 'em abaout yer meetin' Captain Sol, Sam," +she repeated. + +"Me and Sol met kinder cur'us," began the captain. "That year I was first +mate of the Marthy Dutton, of Kennebec; and on this identical v'yage we +was baound daown along with a load of coal. In them days three was a +full-handed crew for a fore-an'-after, and that's all we had,--captain, +mate, and cook, and a dog and cat. One evenin',--I reckon we was ten miles +to the south'ard of Boon Island,--it was my trick at the wheel, and all +hands had turned in. It was blowin' fresh from the east'ard, and I had +everything on her I could git. I reckon it was nigh on ter two o'clock, +and as clear as it is to-day, when the fust thing I knowed the schooner +was on her beam ends. She gave a kind of groan like, pitched for'ard, and +down she went, takin' everything with her; and, afore I knowed what was +the matter, I found myself floatin' ten miles from shore. I see it was no +use, but I thought I'd make a break for it: so I got off my boots and +ile-skins in the water, and struck aout for shore, that I could see every +once in a while on a rise. + +"Wall, to make a long story short, I reckon I was in the water a matter o' +four hours, when I see the lights of a schooner comin' daown on me. I +hailed, and she heard me, ran up in the wind, put aout a bot, and Sol +Gillis, the skipper, yanked me in. I couldn't have held aout ten minutes +longer. So Sol and me has been tol'able thick ever since." + +"Here he comes naow," said the matron, whose quick ear had caught the +sound of approaching footsteps. "Sam, set aout my pennyroyal, will ye? Ye +see," she added apologetically, "Sol is literary, and when he comes raound +he gives us all the news, and there is sech goin's on in the papers +nowadays that it jest upsots my nerves to hear him and Sam talkin' 'em +over. Sech murders, riots, wrackin', and killin' of folks! If it wa'n't +for a dish of tea I 'low I couldn't hear to it." And the good woman held +out her hand to a burly fisherman in a full suit of oil-skins, and +presented him to the visitors as Sam's friend, Captain Sol Gillis. + +"I'm a white-whaler at present, gentlemen," said the captain, with a +hearty laugh that was so contagious that all hands joined in, scarcely +knowing why. + +He was a tall, robust specimen of a down-Easter, his open face reddened by +long battling with wind and weather, and shaved close except beneath the +chin, from which depended an enormous beard that served as a scarf in +winter and even now was tucked into his jacket. + +"It's a curious thing, naow, for the captain and mate of a coaster to be +in furrin parts a-whalin'; but we find it pays,--eh, Sam?" And Captain Sol +closed one eye and looked wisely for a second at his friend, upon which +the two broke into hearty laughter that had a ring of smuggled brandy and +kerosene in it, though perhaps it was only a ring, after all. + +"Kin yaou go whalin'?" said the captain in reply to a question of one of +the visitors. "Why, sartin. White-whalin's gittin' fashionable. There's +heaps o' chaps come daown here from Montreal and Quebec and want to go +aout: so I take 'em. Some shoots, and some harpoons, and abaout the only +thing I've seen 'em ketch yet is a bad cold; but there's excitement in it, +--heaps of it: ain't there, Sam?" + +"I ain't denyin' of it," replied the latter. "What's sport for some is +hard work for others. Work I calls it." + +"Wall, as I say," continued the skipper, "white-whalin' is gittin' +fashionable, so in course there ain't no hard work abaout it; and if yaou +will go, why, I'm goin' aout now, me and Sam. The only thing, it's dampish +like; but perhaps mother here kin rig yaou aout." + +Half an hour later the two landsmen were metamorphosed into very +respectable whalers, and, with the two captains, were running the +whale-boat down the sands of Bic into the dark waters of the St. Lawrence. +The light sail was set, and soon we were bounding away in the direction of +Mille Vaches, Captain Sam at the oar that constituted the helm, and +Captain Sol in the bow, with harpoon at hand, ready for the appearance of +game. + +The white whale, or Beluga, is extremely common at the mouth of the St. +Lawrence, and is found a considerable distance up the river beyond +Tadousac. The oil is in constant demand for delicate machinery, and Beluga +leather, made from the tanned hide, is manufactured into a great variety +of articles of necessity and luxury. + +In appearance these whales are the most attractive of all the cetaceans. +They are rarely over twenty feet in length, more commonly fifteen, of a +pure creamy color, sometimes shaded with a blue tint, but in the dark +water they appear perfectly white, perhaps by contrast, and seem the very +ghosts of whales, darting about, or rising suddenly, showing only the +rounded, dome-shaped head. + +The Beluga is a toothed whale, in contradistinction to those that are +supplied with the whalebone-like arrangement that characterizes the right +whales: consequently its food consists of fish and perhaps squid. To +enable it to capture such prey it must be endowed with remarkable powers +of speed. The motor is the great horizontal tail, powerful strokes of +which force the animal; through the water and enable it to leap high into +the air in its gambols. The pectoral fins are small and of little use in +swimming. The head is the most remarkable feature. It is the only instance +in this group of animals where this organ appears at all distinct from the +body. By viewing the creature in profile, a suggestion of neck may be seen, +and it is claimed that there is more or less lateral motion,--that the +head can be moved from side to side to a limited extent. The outlines of +the face are shapely, the forehead rising in a dome-like projection and +rounding off in graceful lines, so that the head resembles to some extent +that of our common _Balaena Cisarctica_. + +In their movements the Belugas are remarkably active, and are very playful, +--leaping into the air in their love-antics, rolling over and over, +chasing each other, and displaying in many ways their wonderful agility. +They often follow vessels in schools of forty and fifty, and old whalers +claim that they utter a whistling sound that can be heard distinctly above +the water. The young, sometimes two, but generally one, are at first brown +in color, later assuming a leaden hue, then becoming mottled, and finally +attaining the cream-white tint of the adult. The calves are frequently +seen nursing,--the mother lying upon the surface and rolling gently. + +The Beluga has a wide geographical range, being found upon our northern +and northwestern shores in great numbers. Their southern limit seems to be +the St. Lawrence, and in search of food they venture up this river beyond +the mouth of the Saguenay, and often in water but little over their own +depth. On the western coast they also enter the great rivers, and have +been captured up the Yukon seven hundred miles from its mouth. In their +columnar movements they somewhat resemble the porpoise,--long processions +being frequently seen, composed of three in a row, perhaps led by a single +whale. + +Among the Samoyeds, at Chabanova, on the Siberian coast, the white-whale +fisheries amount to fifteen hundred or two thousand pood of train-oil a +year. On the coasts of Nova Zembla and Spitzbergen they are captured by +enormous nets made of very stout material; and the Tromsoe vessels alone +have taken in a single season over two thousand one hundred and +sixty-seven white whales, valued at about thirty thousand dollars. +Magdalen a Bay is a favorite place for them, and often three hundred are +taken at a single haul in the powerful nets. Here and in most of the +northern localities the entire body is utilized,--the carcass being used +in the manufacture of guano. So perfectly are the bodies preserved by the +cold of these northern regions that if they cannot be removed at the time +of capture they are secured in the ensuing season. + +As the boat reached mid-stream, where the wind was blowing against the +current, great rollers were met with, that tossed the light craft about +like a ball. But this was evidently the play-ground of the Beluga, and +dead ahead the white forms were seen darting about in the inky water with +startling distinctness, while faint puffs were occasionally borne down on +the wind. + +Gradually we neared them, and suddenly a white dome appeared on the +weather bow. Then came the command and ensuing scene chronicled at the +commencement of this paper. + +We were perfectly familiar with whaling-terms, and as the game was struck +we construed Captain Sam's impressive "git aft" to mean "starn all," and +even in that moment of stumbling and drenching felt a sense of +disappointment in the suppression of a time-honored term. To omit "There +she blows!" was enough; but to substitute "git aft" for "starn all" was a +libel on the chroniclers of the "Whaler's Own Book." + +There was little time, however, for regrets. Our combined weight had +raised the bow a trifle, yet not enough to prevent the sea from coming in; +and, as the skipper, who was laboring with the steering-oar, said, the +small whaler was "hoopin' along, takin' everything as it came, and askin' +no questions." Now by the slight slacking of the line we were high on a +wave, the crest of which was dashed in our faces in the mad race; now down +in a hollow, taking the next sea bodily and plunging through it, causing +the oars and harpoons to rattle as if they were the very bones of the boat +shaking in fear and terror. + +In a short time she was a third full of water, and the amateur whalers +were invited to man the pumps--namely, two tin basins--and bale the St. +Lawrence out as fast as it came in. The maddened animal soon carried us +beyond the area of heavy seas, and preparations were made for taking in +the slack. The boat was still rushing along at an eight-knot rate; and, as +the whale showed no signs of weakening, it was Captain Sam's opinion that +nothing short of the lance would stop him. + +"Jest lay holt of the line, will ye?" sung out Captain Sol, passing the +slack aft, and four pairs of arms hauled the boat nearer the game, that +was far ahead. At first this only spurred the creature to further +endeavors; but the steady pull soon told, and, after an amount of labor +that can only be compared to sawing a cord of wood with a dull implement, +the white head of the Beluga came in sight. + +"Steady, now!" shouted Captain Sol, releasing his hold and picking up the +lance. "Now, then, work her ahead." + +A final haul, and the boat was fairly alongside of the fleeing animal, +careening violently under its rapid rushes; and, in response to the order +"Git to wind'ard," we sprang to the weather rail. A moment of suspense, a +quick motion of the lance, and the great white body of the whale rose from +the water and fell heavily back, beating it into foam in its convulsive +struggles. + +"She dies hard," said Captain Sol, shaking the water from the creases of +his oil-skin as the boat rounded to at a safe distance from the dying +whale. "But," he continued, lighting a match by biting the sulphur and +puffing violently at a short, black pipe, "that ain't nothing to what they +do sometimes: is it, Sam?" + +"I ain't denyin' of it," was the reply of that individual, who was now +sculling the boat about the whale in a great circle. + +"I've seen," continued the skipper, "a white whale smash a bot so clean +that ye'd thought it had been through a mill; and it was a caution haow we +didn't go with it. That was a curious year," he added. "Something happened +to drive the whales up here so thick that the hull river was alive with +'em, and of course we was for reapin' the harvest. When we struck the +rip-rap--as they call the tide agin' the wind--it was jest alive with 'em, +puffin' and snortin' on all sides. I had three harpoons aboard, besides a +rifle, and in a minute I had two foul, with buoys after 'em, and as one +big feller came up alongside to blow I let him have it with the rifle. + +"Naow," he went on, "whether they heard it or not I can't say, but I heard +a yell from Sam jest in time to look and see a whale rise I'll 'low twenty +foot clean out of the water. Then there was a kind of a rush, and Sam and +me went down, and when we riz it was gone. The critter had hopped clean +over that bot as slick as nothing. That kinder tuck the peartness aout of +us, so to speak; but later in the day I got aout the gun ag'in, havin' +broke the lance, and in killin' the critter she jumped on the bot, +and--wall, Sam and me we lit aout, and was picked up after a spell; but +that bot, there wasn't enough of her to make kindlin'-wood of. + +"They ain't vicious like," continued the skipper, "but clumsy, and if yaou +git in the way ye're bound to git hurted. Round the bend at Bic Island one +came ashore one time and got left every tide, so she was aout of water an +hour or so every day. Heaps of city folks went to see her, and one chap +came along and let on haow she couldn't be alive aout of water, and poked +her like with a stick. Wall, it ain't for me to say haow many feet she +knocked him, but when she fetched him with her flukes it was a Tuesday, +and I guess he thought he'd reached the turnin'-p'int of Friday when he +hauled himself aout of the mud. + +"No, they won't exactly live aout of water, but they'll stand it a like of +three weeks if yaou splash 'em every hour or so. They sent one to England +that way. They ain't fish. Whales' milk's good, if cream is. + +"But the best bit of whalin'," continued the communicative Captain Sol, +"that I ever see in these 'ere parts was done by that identical old chap +in the starn there." + +"When Sol ain't talkin', gentlemen," retorted the person thus alluded to, +"ye'll know he's sick," + +"Wall," said Captain Sol, laughing, "I'll spin the yarn, and yaou kin go +back on it if yaou kin. As I was sayin', we was aout one day I think a +couple o' miles below Barnaby Island. I was a-mummin' for'ard, kinder +sleep-in' on and by, and Sam at the helm, when we see a bot a-slidin' into +the ripple right ahead of us, and in a minute a couple of white heads was +dodgin' up a little to the wind'ard. Sam trimmed the sheet and hauled the +Howlin' Mary--that's what we called the bot---on the wind, and the other +bot did the same, both of us makin' for the same spot. I see it was nip +and tuck; and, knowin' that Sam was a master-hand, I says. ' Sam, yaou +take the iron.' So we shifted. + +"The other bot had a trifle the weather-gage of us, but both of us, mind +ye, makin' for where we thought the critter was comin' up to blow, and in +a minute, sure enough, up it come. This 'ere other bot shot right across +aour bows; but, Lord bless ye, it would take a proper good Injun to beat +Sam, for he up, hauls back, and let fly the harpoon clean over the other +hot, takin' the critter right alongside the blow-hole so neat that the +line fell across the other bot.--Naow, deny it if yaou kin," said Captain +Sol, turning to his friend. + +"Ye're a master-hand at talkin'," retorted Captain Sam. "I ain't denyin' +of it; but it was luck, good luck, that's all." + +By this time the white whale had succumbed, and lay upon the surface +motionless and dead; and upon the boat being hauled alongside the huge +creature was taken in tow and soon stranded upon the beach, where the +valuable parts were secured,--the liver and blubber for the oil, and the +thick, white skin that was to be tanned and made into leather or used in +the manufacture of various articles. + +The evening following, upon invitation, we visited the cabin of Captain +Sol, who was a widower and kept bachelor's hall, so to speak. We found him +seated on a keg, by the side of an enormous caldron that might have +contained the witches' compound, judging from the strange forms of steam +that arose from it, while the lurid flames beneath, fed by the oily +drippings, lent a still greater weirdness to the scene. + +"Good-evenin', gentlemen," said the captain, rising quickly as we entered. +"I was settin' here in a sog like, and didn't hear ye. It's a master-night, +and we're goin' to have good weather to-morrow. If yaou want to try it +ag'in, ye're welcome. + +"Sam? Sartin; he's goin'. Him and me's jest like the figger ten: if yaou +haul off the one we ain't good for nothin'. If yaou want to see a faithful +friend, jest clap yer eyes on Sam Whittlefield. And that ain't all," +continued the skipper, looking around and speaking low. "Ye might not +think it, for he's master-modest, but Sam's got larn-in' that there ain't +many in aonr taown kin grapple with. Yaou oughter see his lib'ry. A full +set o' the records of Congress from 1847 up to 1861; and he'd have had 'em +all, only he jined the navy and couldn't keep 'em up. Then there's a +history by Mister Parley, and a hull secretaryfull of books of all kinds. +Oh, Sam's literary; there ain't no gittin' raound that. + +"Yaou might hear him speak of their son John? Wall, he was a chip o' the +old block. He was as wild a yonker as they make 'em; but Sam never laid +the whip on him; he argued with him and eddicated him on a literary +principle. When John did anything reckless like, the old lady'd fetch aout +a sartin book, called 'The Terrible Suffering of Sary Perbeck,'--like +enough ye've heard on it,--and I tell ye that tuck the conceit aout of +him. She belonged to old Quaker stock of Paris, Maine, and she kept it up +till John was a man grown and she lost her eyesight. She made a good boy +of him; but the poor feller went down with the rest in the gale of 1875, +on the Grand Banks. John had hard luck. The first v'yage he made, the +schooner was struck by a sea on the Banks, capsized, and rolled completely +under, comin' up the other side, so't the men below dropped out of their +bunks on ter the ceilin', and then back ag'in as she righted.[A] The +hatches were battened down, and they found John lashed to the wheel, half +drowned. The next trip all hands foundered. They reckoned she went down at +the anchorage. + +[Footnote A: The schooner Daniel A. Burnam had a similar experience in +1877. She rolled completely over and righted herself without the loss of a +man.] + +"Have some beans, won't ye?" asked the skipper abruptly, as if he had been +deluded by some trick into a gloomy frame of mind and was determined to +shake it off then and there. "Them is the real New England beans," he +continued, taking a black bean-pot with a wooden spoon from the ashes. +"There's the bone and sinner of New England's sons right here. I'm +master-fond of 'em; never sails withaout a pot or so. Every time I see a +pot it makes me think of old Joe Muggridge, a deacon of aour taown. He +beat me once years ago in 'lection for hog-reeve; but I don't bear no ill +feelin'. He was deacon of the First Baptist, and captain of one of the +biggest coasters in aour parts, and that fond of beans that folks believed +he'd 'a' died if he couldn't have had 'em. Wall, it so happened one fall +that there came on a powerful gale on the Georges, and a power of hands +was lost. A good many bots got carried away from the schooners, and one +dory with two men from Boothbay was picked up by one of these +ocean-steamers bound in for New York, and that's the way the yarn got +told. They'd been withaout food and water for three days, and were abaout +givin' up; but the steamer-folks tuck 'em in and steamed for port. + +"The next mornin' it was blowin' fresh and lively, and the lookout sighted +a schooner lyin' to a couple of miles to the lew'ard, reefed daown close, +and a flag flyin', union down,--signal of distress. Thinkin' they were +sinkin', the captain of the steamer put towards her, and rounded to half a +mile off and called for volunteers to git aout the bot. Half a dozen brave +fellers sprang to the davits, and among 'em aour Boothbay boys. They'd +been in a fix, ye see, and was eager to help the rest of sufferin' +humanity. She was rollin' so that it tuck 'em nigh an hour to git the bot +over, and then two men fell overboard; but finally they got off toward the +schooner, all hands givin' 'em three cheers. + +"It was a hard pull, and a nasty sea, but they kept at it, and in half an +hour was within hailin'-distance. Then the third officer of the steamer +stood up and sung aout, 'Schooner ahoy!' 'Ay, ay!' says a man in the +schooner's fore-riggin', and the men see naow that she was ridin' like a +duck and as dry as a sojer. 'Are ye in distress?' sung aout the officer. +'Yas,' came from the man in the riggin'. 'Flounderin'?' shouted the +officer ag'in. 'No,' sung out old man Muggridge, for it was him: 'next +thing to it. We're aout o' beans. Kin ye spare a pot?' + +"Wall," continued Captain Sol, reddening with the roar of laughter that +accompanied the recollection, "it ain't for me, bein' a perfesser of +religion, to let on what the men in the bot said, but it had a +master-effect on the deacon, for afore them rescuers got back to the +steamer he'd shook aout his reefs and was haulin' to the east'ard. + +"Wall," said the old skipper, banking the fire with a shovelful of sand, +as his visitors rose to go, "to-morrow, then, at early flood, sharp." + +The early flood was that dismal time when the phantom mists of night still +cling to the earth, and low-lying clouds of fog cover the river, only to +be dispersed by the coming day. Cold and cheerless as it was, it found us +again launching the whale-boat, and, when the sail was trimmed aft and +pipes lighted, we rushed into the fog and headed down the river to meet +the rising sun. + +The mist was so dense that only the glimmer of Captain Sol's pipe could be +seen for'ard, appearing like an intermittent eye gleaming through the fog +that settled upon our oil-skins in crystal drops and ran in tiny rivulets +down the creases into the boat. For a mile we scudded along before the +west wind through the gloom, and then a wondrous change commenced. Soft +gleams of light shot from the horizon upward, the dark-blue heavens +assumed a lighter tint, the pencilled rays growing broader and fusing +together, producing a strange and rapidly-spreading nebulous light. The +cloud of low-lying mist now became a brassy hue, seemingly heated to +ignition, and then from its very substance appeared to rise a fiery, +glowing mass that flooded the river with a golden radiance. + +"It's a master-sight," quoth Captain Sol between the puffs, as the change +went on and the fog began to break before the rising sun. "I ain't no +likin' for fogs. Ye see----" But here the skipper stopped, as a peculiar +sound and then another, the puffing of the white whale, was heard. + +The boat was hauled on the wind, the mast unshipped, and, harpoon in hand, +Captain Sol stood braced for the affray. The ripple seemed alive with the +ghostly creatures, their white forms darting here and there, while the +puffing came fast and furious. + +"Stand by to git aft!" whispered the harpooner, and that moment, instead +of a white head, the entire body of a Beluga rose in front of the boat, +clearing the water in a graceful leap. + +Quick as thought the skipper hurled his weapon. It struck with a sounding +thud, a wing shot, and the great creature fell heavily, impaled in mid-air, +to rush away, bearing boat and white-whalers far down the river toward +the sea. + +C.F. HOLDER. + + * * * * * + + + + +OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP. + +A Virginia Lady of the Old School. + + +Among the many beautiful and fascinating women who adorned Richmond +society at the beginning of the present century there were few more +remarkable and interesting than Mrs. Mayo, the wife of Colonel John Mayo, +founder of the bridge at Richmond that bears his name. She was the +daughter of John De Hart, of New Jersey, an eminent lawyer and a member of +the first Continental Congress. Bellville, the home of Colonel and Mrs. +Mayo, in the suburbs of Richmond, was the seat of elegant and boundless +hospitality. No person of distinction ever came to Richmond without +calling at Bellville, the _entrée_ to which was an unquestioned passport +to the best society of the city. + +Mrs. Mayo's eldest daughter, Maria, was the most celebrated Virginia belle +of her day. She never gave a decided answer to any of her numerous suitors, +and the story goes that one evening three gentlemen met at her house, and +after a very pleasant visit they returned to Richmond together. One of +them asked the others why they went there, as he was engaged to Miss Mayo +and expected shortly to marry her. The other gentlemen also said they had +hopes of winning the fair lady. The first gentleman determined to have the +matter settled, and accordingly went to her house the following day and +sought an interview with Mrs. Mayo. He told her he had her daughter's +consent, and asked hers. Mrs. Mayo replied she was sorry she could not +give her consent, and the gentleman then understood that the mother and +daughter were in perfect accord in the matter of the young lady's +love-affairs. In this way Miss Mayo kept on hand a regiment of admirers, +who formed a sort of reserve-corps. When John Howard Payne, the author of +"Home, Sweet Home," visited Richmond, he was a frequent guest at the Mayo +mansion. He wrote a poem, in which he described himself as falling asleep +in a grove and all the months of the year appearing to him. The month of +June was the first, and he finally winds up with May, which he described +in very glowing language, ending with the line,-- + + Sweet May, oh, I could love thee ever. + +Maria Mayo is said to have refused more than a hundred suitors before she +accepted General Winfield Scott, who courted her when he was a member of +the Richmond bar as Mr. Scott. After entering the army he continued his +addresses, and was refused successively as Captain Scott and Colonel Scott, +and it was only as General Scott, the victorious hero of Lundy's Lane, +that he at last won the hand of the much-admired belle. + +Mr. William Henry Haxall, a very agreeable gentleman of Richmond, relates +that on one occasion he visited Mrs. Scott soon after one of her trips to +Europe. He went in the evening at nine o'clock, and after some time, when +he thought he had paid a call sufficiently long, he slyly looked at his +watch, and, to his amazement, found it was one o'clock. On his apologizing +for the length of his visit, Mrs. Scott assured him she never retired +before one or two o'clock, but that she had no idea it was so late, Mr. +Haxall being one of the most agreeable gentlemen she had ever met, when in +fact he had not spoken a dozen words, but was a charmed listener to her +interesting description of her travels abroad. + +In 1828, Mrs. Mayo, in the sixty-eighth year of her age, undertook a +voyage to Europe in a sailing-vessel. After her arrival, she passed most +of her time in Paris, where she was the recipient of very flattering +attentions and the intimate friend and guest of some of the best families +of the nobility, especially those of General La Fayette and his son George +Washington, of the Count de Ségur, and of M. de Neuville, minister of +marine, of whom Mrs. Mayo wrote, January 10, 1829, "He lives in one of the +palaces in grand style, and we see there all the people of the court as +often as it suits us." She renewed also her friendship with many French +families whom she had known in Richmond as refugees during the French +Revolution, and their attentions and evident pleasure at the reunion seem +to have been peculiarly gratifying to her. She returned to Richmond in +1829, and lived at Bellville until that elegant mansion was destroyed by +fire in 1842. After her return, she confined her entertainments almost +exclusively to handsome dinner-parties, at which she presided with +exceeding grace and elegance, and where it was said that, though the wines +were fine, the flavor and brilliancy of the conversation were far +superior. She never retired without a candle and writing-materials at her +bedside, and if during the night any new idea or bright thought arose, she +would immediately strike a light and jot it down. She retained her mental +vigor and personal attractions until her death in 1843, in the +eighty-second year of her age. + +The following instances will serve to illustrate Mrs. Mayo's great nerve +and self-possession. She was accustomed to drive daily to the bridge to +collect the toll of the preceding day, consisting generally of silver of +various denominations, which she put in a bag and deposited in the bank. +Her driver Moses was a favorite negro, who had a weakness for drink: he +had several times tried her fortitude and temper severely by upsetting her +into a gully by the roadside leading to Bellville, fortunately with no +serious consequences to her, unfortunately with none to himself. On one +occasion, Mrs. Mayo, being too late for the bank, and intending to pass +the night at the residence of her daughter Mrs. Cabell, took the bag of +silver and placed it in a closet in her room, which was at the back of the +house and opening on a porch. During the night she was awakened by a noise, +and perceived the figure of a man in her room. Pretending sleep, she +quietly watched his movements until she saw him enter the closet, when she +arose quickly, and, rushing rapidly across the room, shut and locked the +closet door in an instant, and called loudly for her son-in-law Dr. Cabell, +who was in the adjoining room. On his hurried entrance, she informed him +that she had a man in the closet, and that he must go for a policeman, +--which was done, and the door opened, when, to their astonishment, there +stood the trusted Moses. Mrs. Mayo, horrified, exclaimed, "Oh, Moses, how +could you try to rob me!" Moses, hanging his head, dropped on his knees, +and, in beseeching tones, replied, "Misses, it warn't Moses: it was the +debbil;" and the old lady forgave him. + +At a time when the whole State was in consternation from an apprehended +insurrection of the slaves, when families far and near were flocking to +the cities for protection, and patrols were scouring the country day and +night, Mrs. Mayo was entirely alone at Bellville, with no white person in +the neighborhood. Her friends in vain besought her to go to Richmond. At +length matters became so threatening that some gentlemen, discussing the +subject one night, concluded that it was too unsafe for Mrs. Mayo, and +determined to ride out and insist upon her returning with them to the +city. They reached Bellville about midnight, and, as they rode up, a +window was raised, showing that the brave proprietress was on the _qui +vive_. She demanded, in a quiet, fearless voice, "Who is there?" They +explained the object of their visit, but pleaded and remonstrated +ineffectually. She refused to accompany them, saying she had no fear, and +could protect herself; which she did boldly and safely until the danger +and alarm had passed away. + +E.L.D. + + + + +Mystifications of Authoresses. + + +"Don't you think," wrote the author of "Evelina" to her sister, "there +must be some wager depending among the little curled imps who hover over +us mortals, of how much flummery goes to turn the head of an authoress?" +For at that time little Fanny Burney, twenty-six years of age, was +enjoying such an ovation as had never before come within the experience of +woman. She had written a book which all London was reading, quoting, and +discussing admiringly without the least idea of the author's identity; and +Fanny could not meet an acquaintance, could not receive a letter, could +not attend a party of friends, without being asked, "Have you read +'Evelina'? Is it not charming?" Anonymity was in this case the cleverest +_ruse_ for an absolute enjoyment of the results of her work. One after +another her family and outside friends, from the great Dr. Johnson down, +were admitted to a share of the delightful secret. All who knew that +"Little Burney" was at the bottom of this fascinating mystery were as +eager as she herself for nattering comments and conjectures, and there +were nudgings of elbows, "nods and becks and wreathed smiles," when +"Evelina" was mentioned. It would have been no wonder if the little girl's +head had been turned as she hugged her surprise and happiness to her +swelling little heart. When the murder was out, and she was _fêted_ and +honored, called to court and compelled to courtesy thankfully at the +ponderous compliments of great personages, she must have felt that the +bloom of the peach was rubbed off and the bubble of the champagne departed. + +In most cases strangers may not intermeddle with the joy of authorship. +Spoken praise carries off the rose and puts a thorn in its place. One of +our famous novelists, whom we will call Brown, happened to catch sight in +a strange city of the sign, "Autographs of distinguished authors for +sale," He thought to himself he would test his own market value, and +accordingly entered the shop. + +"Have you the autograph of Mr. Brown?" he inquired. + +"Oh, yes." + +"What is the price?" he asked. + +"One for two cents, or two for three cents," was the reply. + +He was in the habit of declaring afterward that he could have borne the +one for two cents, but that the two for three cents stung him bitterly. +Such is fame; and no wonder that young authoresses often begrudge a +complete surrender of their identity to the Juggernaut car of public +curiosity and criticism, and begin either anonymously or with a +pseudonyme. A masculine _nom de plume_ has of late been a favorite device +with the fair sex, partly for the reason that it is supposed to confer an +ampler ease, and partly from an idea that male writers command a readier +hearing and higher prices than female. We see a great many Henris, Georges, +and the like on the title-pages of books which are a flimsy veil to +conceal the pretty feminine figure behind. + +After Miss Burney had set the fashion, women pressed boldly forward into +literary ranks, although the author of "Waverley" absorbed in a great +degree the curiosity of the reading public. Miss Austen, whose work is +destined, in the opinion of good judges, to survive with the language, +made her first venture, like the author of "Evelina," anonymously; but it +created no such furore. This was "Sense and Sensibility," published in +1811; but she had already written "Northanger Abbey" and "Pride and +Prejudice," although they were not published until years afterward. No one +supposed her to be more than an every-day bright and observant young lady. +Like other English girls of her class, it was her habit to sit in the +drawing-room with the ladies of the family after eleven o'clock each day, +ready to receive visitors. Instead of having needle-work in her hand, Jane +had a pen, which was often dropped just in the midst of one of her clear, +incisive pictures of the Woodhouses, Knightleys, and Bennets, as neighbors +who might have served for the originals of those characters were +announced. Feminine tact instantly obliterated every sign of literary +occupation: the quill was thrown aside, and her sister's canvases and +embroidery were strewn over the writing-table to cover every scrap of +paper. + +The famous pseudonyme of George Sand, which seems so characteristic of the +writer, was a matter of accident. When Madame Dudevant, tired of her +domestic _rôle_, went to Paris to take up a literary career, her +mother-in-law, Baroness Dudevant, said to her, with incredulous horror,-- + +"Is it true that it is your intention _to print books_?" + +"Yes, madame." + +"Well, I call that an odd notion." + +"Yes, madame." + +"That is all very good and very fine; but I hope you are not going to put +the name that I bear on the _covers of printed books_." + +"Oh, certainly not, madame: there is no danger." + +When the publisher wanted a signature for "Indiana" which should show that +it was by one of the authors of "Rose et Blanche," which she had written +in collaboration with Sandeau under the name of Jules Sand, the author +retained the Sand and prefixed George to it as a simple and rustic title. + +The Brontés when about to publish their poems took the names "Currer, +Ellis, and Acton Bell," each keeping her initials. This choice, wrote +Charlotte, was "dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple at assuming +names positively masculine, while we did not like to declare ourselves +women, because, without at the time suspecting that our mode of writing +and thinking was not what is called 'feminine,' we had a vague impression +that authoresses were likely to be looked on with prejudice." The London +"Athenaeum," which was one of the few papers that noticed the little book, +spoke of the work of the three "brothers." Even after "Jane Eyre," +"Wuthering Heights," and "Agnes Grey" were printed, the secret of the +triple identity was jealously kept, until a vexatious tangle of their +names, and a claim from certain publishers that the three authors of the +three books were one person and that all the novels were by the author of +"Jane Eyre," roused Charlotte and Anne Bronte to the point of setting off +for London to show Smith and Elder that they were honest and fair. Up to +this time the publishers had not known whether they were women or men. "On +reaching Mr. Smith's," writes Mrs. Gaskell, "Charlotte put his own letter +into his hands,--the same letter which had excited so much disturbance at +Haworth Parsonage only twenty-four hours before. 'Where did you get this?' +said he, as if he could not believe that the two young ladies dressed in +black, of slight figures, looking pleased yet agitated, could be the +embodied Currer and Acton Bell for whom curiosity had been hunting so +eagerly in vain." The secret, however, was not disclosed, except to the +publishers. Until "Shirley" was published, opinion was much divided as to +the probable sex of Currer Bell, but "Shirley" was declared to be written +by a woman; and, this suggestion once started, questions of identity soon +settled themselves. Charlotte went to London again, and this time was +introduced to all the literary people in the town. It was not until her +third visit, however, that she attended a lecture of Thackeray's, and at +the close found that the audience, instead of withdrawing, had formed +themselves into two lines and drawn back to see the famous authoress as +she passed out. "During this passage through the 'cream of society,' Miss +Bronté's hand trembled to such a degree that her companion feared lest she +should turn faint and be unable to proceed." Ellis and Acton Bell were in +their early graves, and all the splendor of her fame could hardly lighten +by a breath the weight of that lonely sorrow of Charlotte. + +The story of George Eliot's pseudonyme has been too recently told to +require allusion, except to point out its practical value to herself, +shielding as it did her susceptibilities,--in fact, guarding like a +chrysalis the first strivings, the flutter into full life, of that +immortal winged thing it concealed. + +Several of our own female writers have chosen a masculine _nom de plume_, +and guarded it consistently, like Saxe Holm, etc. Miss Murfree is, we +believe, the first whose disguise editors as well as the general public +failed to pierce. Now that the critical faculty begins to play more surely +upon the works of Charles Egbert Craddock, it may be said that a woman's +love of romance and picturesqueness shades off into haze and unreality +some of the pictures of life which a man's experience and surer knowledge +would have made vivid by fewer and more vigorous strokes. However, as long +as she chose, Miss Murfree held her secret beyond the reach of discovery, +because nobody questioned it; her disclosure was piquant, and the state of +surprise into which she threw her admirers was so utter that the full +story of it ought to be told, although we are not empowered to tell it +here. + +L.W. + + + + +The Abuse of Adjectives. + + +It is a great pity that the fairy willow whistle which blew everything +into its proper place should have burst with its first note, for there +would be such ample opportunity nowadays for the display of its peculiar +functions. Why, for instance, should modern novel-writers turn the patient +adjective into an overworked little drudge, and compel it to do thrice the +labor that it can effectually perform? Fifty years ago it led a life of +respected ease, and was only called on when it could be of some real use +to the author; now it knows no respite from its ever-increasing tasks, and +too often bears upon its weak shoulders the real burden of the book. +Formerly we were told that Tilburina had golden hair and blue eyes, or +raven hair and black eyes, as the case might be; and, that matter being +settled, we heard little more upon the subject. Now the hair and eyes +appear anew on every page, and are apparently considered the most +important element in the story. + +Who has not been struck with the slighting manner in which Sir Walter +describes his heroines' charms? Edith Bellenden, we are asked to believe, +was fair without insipidity; Julia Mannering, who is to Waverley what +Rosalind is to Shakespeare, is hardly credited with being beautiful at all; + while when it comes to his heroes Sir Walter is even more strikingly +ineloquent. "A slender young man," or "a young man of genteel appearance," +is sometimes all that is vouchsafed to us, the rest being happily left to +our imagination. Among modern writers, Trollope alone manifests this +curious indifference to the hair, eyes, noses, and mouths of his _dramatis +personae_. What was the color of Grace Crawley's hair, or of Lily Dale's +eyes? What did Archdeacon Grantby look like, or who shall venture to +describe the immortal Mrs. Proudie? George Eliot, on the contrary, +inclines, especially in her later books, to a lavish use of adjectives; +and the aspiring authoress of to-day may cite Gwendolen's "long brown +glance" as being quite as strained as any effort of her own. But then we +can no more approach George Eliot by copying a few of her mannerisms than +we can become Napoleons by wearing an old coat, or William the Thirds by +cultivating an inordinate taste for green peas. + +To all, however, who wish to behold this tendency in its fullest and +freest development, we would recommend the perusal of a novel by Rhoda +Broughton, called "Second Thoughts,"--a bright, vivacious, almost witty +little book, marred only by its ineradicable defects of style. The heroine, +Gillian Latimer, is described over and over again, with as much emphasis +on every feature as if she were one of Madame Tussaud's pet creations and +had nothing but her outward appearance to suggest the real woman she +aspires to be. On her eyes alone more adjectives are brought to bear than +would have sufficed Scott for all the orbs in Waverley. They are "gray +eyes," "great gray eyes," "angry gray eyes," "steel-gray eyes," and +"displeased gray eyes;" also "grave eyes," "sparkling eyes," "clear eyes," +"blazing eyes," "proud eyes," "great eyes," "aching eyes," "large bright +eyes," "drooped eyes," "eager young eyes," "angry eyes," "steel-colored +eyes." "sad, leave-taking eyes," "flashing eyes," and "proud, dewy eyes." +Upon one occasion she "lifts the fair stars of her gray eyes" into her +lover's face; on another, she scorches him badly with "gray eyes like +furious fires." The hero himself, a most quiet, commonplace young doctor, +is not above a little eye-work on his own account. He has alternately +"serious eyes," "cross eyes," "quiet, shrewd eyes," "coldly just, bright +eyes," "steady eyes," "calm eyes," "fiery eyes," "town-tired eyes,"--which +is quite a novelty in the list,--and "eyes of burning choler," to say +nothing of eyes that "burn like fire," while he "grows pale as ashes," +which must have given him the effect of a conflagration, especially as he +stands once "all beflamed with sunset." + +Next to the supreme question of eyes we hear most about Gillian's "blonde +head," and her "flaxen head," her "flax head," her "bowed flax head," her +"tossed head," her "wilful head," her "fair head," and her "well-poised +head," while to match these maidenly attributes she has a "fair Sphinx +face," a "tragic pale face," a "serious face," a "humiliated white face," +a "flaming face," a "hotly-flushed face," a "sweetly apologetic face," and +a "flower-textured face." Moreover, being a very remarkable girl, she is +endowed with a "severe young figure," and a "gracious figure," whatever +that may mean, while her "lily-fair" and "delicate-cold" hands have +"satiny backs," and are "small and capable" as well. She is never merely +pretty like other women, but she has "ripe June beauty." and a "robust yet +delicate beauty." If she loses her temper, which happens rather often in +the course of the story, she manifests the same by the "red scorn of her +look," or by her "beautiful vexed eyes," which resemble a "sudden angry +gray arrow,"--imagine an angry gray arrow,--or by "flaming out into +crimson anger," or "with wreathed neck and flaming cheek," or "with +enkindled eye and vermeil cheek," both of which expressions we would +recommend to lovers of simplicity. + +If she is sad, however, she "lifts the drowned stars of her impatient, +suffering eyes," or lowers them with a "moist look;" or she strays in +"confused red misery," or in a "passionate scarlet hurry," which is as +extraordinary in its way as an angry gray arrow. When her father dies, she +stands "long and craped," with a "black elbow" resting on the +chimney-place; while her various methods of blushing take up half the +volume. Never, indeed, was there a heroine who blushed so much about so +little. Sometimes it is merely a matter of "flaming cheeks," or of the +"young roses of her cheeks," or of the "mortified carmine of her cheeks," +or of her "hot bloom," or of her "beautiful hot red roses." Sometimes it +is the "deep color of mingled shame and joy;" while on more especial +occasions we are assured that her face is "made all of poppies," that it +"changes from poppy-color to milk, and back from milk to poppy-color," +that it "keeps shifting from frightened white to mortified red, and back +again," and, better than all, that "cheek and chin and pearl-fair throat +grow all one rose-red flame," with which triumph of compound adjectives we +will close our quotations, only remarking that Gillian's blushing chin +rivals the achievement of Ursula in "John Halifax," who, we are gravely +told, colored over her throat, neck, and arms. + +All honor to the lady Olivia, who has taught us how to make a rational +inventory of a woman's charms! "Item, two lips indifferent red; item, two +gray eyes with lids to them; item, one neck, one chin, and so forth." To +these let us add, item, one blush indifferent rosy, and then have done +with the subject forever. + +A.R. + + * * * * * + + + + +LITERATURE OF THE DAY. + + +"Nathaniel Parker Willis." By Henry A.Beers. +"Edgar Allan Poe." By George E. Woodbury. +(American Men of Letters Series.) +Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. + + +The American Men of Letters Series is giving us some excellent biographies, +well written, the facts well assimilated and grouped, and the whole +treatment so accurate and graphic as to be full not only of instruction +but of entertainment. Formerly American biography was so deficient in just +those qualities which endear English biographical literature to us, that +we were inclined to believe that the fault was inherent in Americans and +American life, that our days and works lacked picturesqueness and color +and left no salient points for the chronicler to seize. We now see that +the meagre harvests of former biographers were due to their hasty and +superficial generalizations. For at least three of the volumes in this +series--the life of James Fenimore Cooper and the two now before us--may +be favorably compared with the best work in the English Men of Letters +Series, which is indeed high praise. Unusual and striking as were the +incidents in the life of Cooper, they had completely dropped out of sight +of the present generation. The biographers of Willis and Poe had no such +advantage. Willis is still remembered, not only as a _litt?teur_ and +journalist, but as a man about town, while legend has never ceased to be +busy with the memory of Poe, so that the traditions of his strange career +are curiously linked to and incorporated with his best-known works. + +The present estimate of Willis as a literary man is so slight that it +seems almost like impaling a butterfly to apply critical tests to his +writings. Professor Beers has nevertheless made it a profitable and +interesting study to follow him through his career, which was, upon the +whole, singularly fortunate. Few authors have possessed so happy a knack +of making the present moment both enjoyable and profitable. His personal +endowments were all in his favor, and no sooner was he launched in Europe +than he gained a great social success. England, in particular, opened some +of its pleasantest circles to him. Not only did Lady Blessington take him +up, but he became a favorite with many of the most lofty and exclusive +members of the aristocracy. Never was opportunity more auspicious, for +Willis was a born worshipper of refinements and luxuries. He had starved +in America for beauty and color, and dear to him were all these adjuncts +of a highly-civilized life. It was his mission to reproduce for Americans +lively impressions in letters to newspapers at home, and in stories and +sketches, in which he drew freely not only upon his own experiences, but +upon all the hints and suggestions he could pick up. His industry and +ingenious expedients were well rewarded: in fact, one is a little +surprised to find that in 1842 he was writing four articles monthly for +four magazines, and receiving one hundred dollars for each, which makes a +sum total of almost five thousand a year. He was, besides, handsomely paid +for his books both in England and at home, and had generally on hand some +writing for illustrated volumes of travel, so that for many years he may +easily be said to have made seven or eight thousand a year. + +No greater contrast to Willis--the man of the world, who knew how to turn +every habit, talent, and instinct to account--could be found than poor Poe, +all whose opportunities were wasted, spoiled, or flung away. It is the +most difficult thing in the world to arrive at anything like a complete +idea of the identity of so fantastic a man as the author of the "Raven." +The faults, inconsistencies, and contradictions of his character perplex +and dismay one the more closely one looks into his letters and the minor +incidents of his career. Mr. Woodbury has, however, acquitted himself well +in this difficult task, and has in many cases separated truth from +long-accepted fiction and given us a clear picture of what has hitherto +been blurred and distorted by unfaithful friends and foes. The story is a +most hopeless and pitiful one, its gloom brightened and its bitterness +sweetened by but few of the consolations which belong to average human +lives. The causes of this are apparent enough: they were constituents of +Poe's brain and heart; but for him to have been otherwise organized would +have been for his unique work to have had no existence. + + + + +Recent Fiction. + + +"Troubled Waters: A Problem of To-Day." By Beverley Ellison Warner. +Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company. + +"A Marsh Island," By Sarah Orne Jewett. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. + +"The Duchess Emilia." By Barrett Wendell. Boston: James R. Osgood & Co. + +"Across the Chasm." "Within the Capes." New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. + +"One of the Duanes." By Alice King Hamilton. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott +Company. + +"Tales from Many Sources." Vols. I. and II. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. + +There is a generous use of good material in Mr. Warner's novel, the scene +of which is laid in a New England manufacturing town, with all the sharp +and diversified social contrasts, the eager strifes and competitions, that +belong to such a community, clearly portrayed. The author calls his story +"A Problem of To-Day," and it is his study to press home to the +consciousness of the reader the series of dull and wearing miseries, the +bitter discouragements and pathetic misfortunes, which pursue the +working-man whose most faithful labor insures him no secure hold upon +future comfort and prosperity. It is both the strength and the weakness of +the book that its most prominent figure, Richard Wilton, is a wealthy +mill-owner who has risen to his position in a way which makes him an +unfair representative of the class of capitalists. A man without intellect +or humanity, without faith, without law, a robber of the dead, a despoiler +of the widow and orphan, a successful impostor, a remorseless brute who +takes pleasure in outraging and crushing his subordinates, would naturally +be a bad master and make his work-people miserable by heaped-up tyrannies. +His faults are not the inevitable outgrowth of a position of power and the +conflict between capital and labor, but are the result of his own +individual depravity. But this man's personality is a powerful one, and +his personality is the motive of most of the dramatic events which crowd +the pages. The history of the "strike" which follows the reduction of +wages at Trade Lawn Mills is faithfully and vigorously given. Mr. Warner +evidently knows the temper of workingmen, their patience and impatience, +their trials, temptations, and weaknesses. He gauges with pitiful fidelity +the faults of character and purpose which make almost every "strike" +contain within itself the germs of collapse and failure. The plot is +cleverly conceived and successfully carried out. That the bubble which has +for a time floated Richard Wilton's frauds and crimes bursts at last, and +that the villain is brought to well-merited disgrace, is a matter of +course. Trade Lawn Mills pass into the hands of their rightful owners, and +certain co-operative ideas which are an essential ingredient of the story +and its applied moral are carried out. The author attaches high importance +to co-operative schemes, and finds in them the clear solution of the +vexing questions concerning the future of the workingman. As an offset to +the somewhat dark and troubled pictures of life which the story presents, +there are sunny and pleasant passages in which a High-Church clergyman and +a young lady by the name of Sydney Worthington figure. The whole book is, +in fact, inspired by a spirit of hopefulness and a sure belief that divine +order overrules the efforts, successes, and failures of the humblest human +being and that a way of deliverance is sure to come. + +If "A Marsh Island" shows no distinct advance upon Miss Jewett's earlier +work, it is yet a pretty, artistic product which delicately emphasizes the +author's best points and gives us her distinct charm without any waste of +effects. Her feeling for rural life and her clear comprehension of rural +people were never better displayed than in this little story. A generous +play of late-summer and autumn radiance lights up its every nook and +corner; it is mellow with warm color and odorous of late fruits and +flowers. We cannot help finding the artist visitor, that product of the +bloom of Boston civilization, a little hackneyed and time-worn. He has +surely done his part in literature, and may retire to the heaven of the +dilettante. But all the inhabitants of Marsh Island are human and +attractive, and the untiring industries of the well-ordered household +soothe one like the rhythm of a song. The bizarre, incongruous, but, upon +the whole, satisfactory specimen of New England "help" which Miss Jewett +generally introduces finds an excellent example here in the person of +Temperance Kipp. Squire Owen is a genial man, so overflowing with generous +nature that he can afford to fill out the more meagre humanities of his +wife, who has susceptibilities, tempers, and moods. "They used to tell a +story," he one day remarks to Mrs. Owen, with great satisfaction, when she +has a distinct grievance about clothes,--"I do' know but you've heard it, +--about old Sergeant Copp an' his wife, that was always quarrellin'. +Somebody heard her goin' on one day. Says she, 'I do wish somebody'd give +me a lift as fur as Westmarket. I do feel's if I ought to buy me a cap. I +ain't got a decent cap to my back: if I was to die to-morrow, I ain't got +no cap that's fit to lay me out in.' 'Blast ye,' says he, 'why didn't ye +die when ye had a cap?'" The more impassioned side of life does not suit +Miss Jewett so well as the humorous and pastoral; but each detail about +her heroine is attractive, and nothing in recent fiction, is more true, +touching, and womanly than Doris's journey to Westmarket in the autumnal +dawn to keep her lover at home from the fishing-banks. + +"The Duchess Emilia" is one of those stories which ought to be withdrawn +from the province of criticism by the fact of their being the delight of +the reader, thrilling him with their weirdness and firing his imagination +by their splendid audacity. If the attention is so feebly grasped as to +permit one to reason about an impossible situation, it becomes at once +extravagant and absurd. One would require to be considerably carried away +by illusion to be moved by Mr. Wendell's story. The hero is a +New-Englander, born of mad parents (they met while both were patients in +an insane asylum); and this inherited curse would seem to be enough for +any hero to totter under. It becomes unimportant, however, when we +discover that he has furthermore been taken possession of at birth by the +spirit of a wicked and fascinating Italian duchess, who wishes to expiate +her crimes before leaving this mundane sphere. One might readily expect +some startling effects from the development of a plot thus removed from +the haven of probabilities and set afloat in a sea of the wildest romance. +The Duchess Emilia's repentance, however, seems to have ended the interest +of her career, and her good deeds are appallingly dull; in fact, her whole +personality thins away into insignificance. + +"Across the Chasm" opens with fair promise, and our introduction to +Virginia life and a talkative old negro "somewhar up in de nineties" is +one which we should be glad to follow up by further acquaintance. This +serves, however, merely as preamble, and in the next chapter we are +transported to a city called Washington, although for characteristic +flavor it might as well be any other place, and we enter upon the events +attending a young lady's entrance into society. This might all be very +pretty and pleasant, except for the deadly seriousness of the author. It +is entirely frivolous and unimportant, but frivolity may be made charming +and full of suggestion. Points of etiquette and behavior engage the minds, +hearts, and passions of the personages of the story. It is a sort of +animated illustration of the little book called "Don't." For example, +"_Don't_ leave your overcoat and rubbers in the hall when you go to make a +call on a lady for the first time," receives practical exemplification +when Major King, a high-toned Southerner, with unbuttoned frock-coat and +baggy trousers, pays a visit to the heroine. He not only takes off his +overcoat and rubbers, but tilts his chair, stays till midnight, and in +every way calls down the wrath of that accomplished prig Mr. Louis Gaston, +who is a high-toned Northerner. This yawning gulf between the generous +faults of the South and the fastidious Phariseeism of the North is the +problem of the book. The story is slight, wholly conventional, and rather +commonplace, but it is gracefully told, and the conversations are not +without interest. + +Mr. Howard Pyle's "Within the Capes" belongs to a widely different +category from the pretty feminine Southern sketch, and is quite equal to +the most insatiable requirements, containing half a dozen successful kinds +of fiction in itself. As a love-story, it is charming; as a sea- and +shipwreck- and treasure-finding-story, it offers a fair challenge not only +to Russell, but to Stevenson himself; while as a detective-story it is as +good as most. The adventures are related by the hero, one Captain Tom +Granger, who toward the end of his long life feels a desire to have his +strange history live in his own version, and not in the fables of the +gossips. A characteristic quaintness of expression gives validity to the +narrative, with plenty of homely enforcement of Tom Granger's wit and +wisdom. + +"One of the Duanes" offers a vivid picture of the life which goes on among +the officers and officers' wives and daughters who make up a little world +within a world at our army and naval stations. Mrs. Hamilton has depicted +the interests and excitements, the gossip and the scandals, in a way which +impresses the reader as being faithful and without exaggeration. The story +is interesting, and the book is thoroughly readable and enjoyable. + +Two or three little volumes containing the best short stories that have +been published ought to be a desirable addition to any library-table, to +be picked up by a chance caller or read aloud on a rainy evening. And +"Tales from all Sources" fairly well answer one's requirements of what +such collections should contain, being grave and gay, bizarre and +frivolous, to suit the various tastes. We should be glad to see Bulwer's +"The Haunted and the Haunters" (called in some editions "The House and the +Brain") reproduced in such a collection. The fault of this series, if it +be a fault, is that most of the stories are well within the recollection +of any one who has read the English magazines for the past few years, +--"The Black Poodle," for example, and "The Pavilion on the Links," being +matters of yesterday. However, both are sufficiently good to command a +second reading. + +END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular +Literature And Science, Old Series, Vol. 36--New Series, Vol. 10, July 1885, by Various + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14524 *** 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..28e0c21 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #14524 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14524) diff --git a/old/14524-8.txt b/old/14524-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7e04dfb --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14524-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7654 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular Literature +And Science, Old Series, Vol. 36--New Series, Vol. 10, July 1885, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, Old Series, Vol. 36--New Series, Vol. 10, July 1885 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: December 30, 2004 [EBook #14524] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mireille Harmelin and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + +LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE +OF +POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. + +OLD SERIES, VOL. XXXVI.--NEW SERIES, VOL. X. + +PHILADELPHIA: J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. +1885. + + +Entered according to Act of Congress, +in the year 1885, by J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, +in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. + +LIPPINCOTT'S PRESS, _Philadelphia_. + + * * * * * + +CONTENTS. + +[Note: The sign * denotes the letters or pages which are missing on the +original manuscript.] + +Art of Reading, The, _Grace R. Peirce_ +Aurora, _Mary Agnes Tincker_ +Backwoods Romance, A, _Susan Hartley Swett_ +Birds of a Texan Winter, _Edward G. Bruce_ +Brown, Anthony Calvert, _P. Deming_ +Chapter of Mystery, A, _Charles Morris_ +Cookham Dean, _Margaret Bertha Wright_ +Dieu Dispose, _Nathan Clifford Brown_ +Drama in the Nursery, The, _Norman Pearson_ +Eye of a Needle, The, _Sophie Swett_ +Ferryman's Fee, The, _Margaret Vandegrift_ +Fishing in Elk River, _Tobe Hodge_ +Forest Beauty, A, _Maurice Thompson_ +Friend George Randall, My, _Frank Parke_ +Grant, General, at Frankfort, _Alfred E. Lee_ +Hoosier Idyl, A, _Louise Coffin Jones_ +In a Suppressed Tuscan Monastery, _Kate Johnston Matson_ +Lady Lawyer's First Client, The, _Thomas Wharton_ , +Letters and Reminiscences of Charles Reade ,_Kinahan Cornwallis_ +"Mees", _Charles Dunning_ +Mickley, Joseph J., _J. Bunting_ +Muster-Day in New England, _Frederick G. Mather_ +New York Libraries, _Charles Burr Todd_ +Next Vacation, The, _Alice Wellington Rollins_ +North-River Ferry, A, _F.N. Zabriskie_ +Nos Pensions +On this Side, _F.C. Baylor_ +Parisian *, The, _Theodore Child_ +P* of Archaeology, The, _Ernest Ingersoll_ * +* the Short-Story, The, _Brander Matthews_ * +* Southwest, The; _Edmund Kirke_ * +*t, A, _Margaret Vandegrift_ * +*ple, The, _M.H. Catherwood_ * +* or Free Classic Architecture, _George C. Mason, Jr._ * +*t, A, _C.W. Wilmerding_ * +*ning, _W.W. Crane_ * +* Yesterday and To-Day, _Alice King Hamilton_ * +Roughing it in Palestine, _Charles Wood_ +Salt-Mine, In a, _Margery Deane_ +Scenes of Charlotte Bronté's Life in Brussels, _Theo. Wolfe, M.D._ +Scottish Crofters, The, _David Bennett King_ +Second Rank, The, _Felix L. Oswald_ +Story of an Italian Workwoman's Life, The, _Marie L. Thompson_ +Story of a Story, The, _Horace E. Scudder_ +Substitute, The, _James Payn_ +Temple Pilgrimage, A, _Henry Frederick Reddall_ +Texas Sheep-Ranch, On a, _E.C. Reynolds_ +Tobacco-Plantation, A, _Philip A. Bruce_ +Truth about Dogs, The, _F.N. Zabriskie_ +Turtling on the Outer Reef, _C.F. Holder_ +Van, _Charles King, U.S.A._ +Ville, Our, _Margaret Bertha Wright_ +White-Whalers, The _C.F. Holder_ + + + + +LITERATURE OF THE DAY, comprising Reviews of the following Works: + + +Across the Chasm +Agassiz, Louis: His Life and Correspondence. Edited by Elizabeth Gary +Agassiz +Allen, Willis Boyd--Pine-Cones +At the Red Glove +Bates, Arlo--A Wheel of Fire +Beers, Henry A.--Nathaniel Parker Willis +Behler, W.H., Lieutenant, U.S.N.--The Cruise of the Brooklyn +Bompas, George O.--Life of Frank Buckland +Byron, Lord--Childe Harold's Pilgrimage +Carey, Rose Nouchette--Barbara Heathcote's Trial +Carey, Eose Nouchette--For Lilias +Carryl, Charles E.--Davy the Goblin; or, What Followed Reading "Alice's +Adventures in Wonderland" +Cleveland, Rose Elizabeth--George Eliot's Poetry, +and Other Studies +Craddock, Charles Egbert--Down the Ravine +Dunning, Charlotte--Upon a Cast +Eugène Delacroix, par lui-même +Forbes, F.R.G.S., Henry O.--A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern +Archipelago. +A Narrative of Travel and Exploration from to +Hamilton, Alice King--One of the Duanes +Harrison, Mrs. Burton--Bric-à_Brac Stories +Harte, Bret--By Shore and Sedge +Hawthorne, Julian--Love--or a Name +Holmes, Oliver Wendell--The Last Leaf +Hornaday, William T.--Two Years in the Jungle +Howard, Blanche Willis--Aulnay Tower +Howells, William D.--The Rise of Silas Lapham +Jewett, Sarah Orne--A Marsh Island +Luska, Sidney--As it was Written: A Jewish Musician's Story +Married for Fun +Noble, Edmund--The Russian Revolt: its Causes, Condition, and +Prospects +Pennell, Joseph and Elizabeth Robbins--A Canterbury Pilgrimage +Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart--An Old Maid's Paradise +Pyle, Howard--Pepper and Salt; or, Seasoning for Young Folks +Pyle, Howard--Within the Capes +Roosevelt, Blanche--Life and Reminiscences of Gustave Doré +Rosseau, Jean--Hans Holbein +Searing, E.A.P.--A Social Experiment +Sermon on the Mount, The +Stanley, Henry M.--The Congo, and the Founding of its Free State: +A Story of Work and Exploration +Stockton, Frank R.--Rudder Grange +Tales from Many Sources +The Bar Sinister +Thompson, Maurice--At Love's Extremes +Torrey, Bradford--Birds in the Bush +Warner, Beverley Ellison--Troubled Waters +Wendell, Barrett--The Duchess Emilia +Whittier, John Greenleaf--Poems of Nature +*rs. A.L.--The Lady with the Rubies +*cles--J.F. Millet + + + + +OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP, comprising the following Articles: + + +* The, "Additional Hair" Supply, The, +Art of Modern +Novel-Writing, The, * +Daniel Webster's "Moods," +Dothegirls Hall, +Etymology of "Babe," The, +Feuds and Lynch-Law in the Southwest, +Future for Women, A, +Ice-Saints, The, +Man who Laughs, The, +Mystifications of Authoresses, +Old Songs and Sweet Singers, +Reminiscence of Harriet Martineau, A, +Svenska Maid, A, +Tourgéneff's Idea of Bazaroff, +Virginia Lady of the Old School, A, +Why we Forget Names, + + + + +POETRY: + + +Carcanet, A, _John B. Tabb_ +Elusive, _Sarah D. Hobart_ +Epitaph written in the Sand on a Butterfly Drowned in the Sea, +_Helen Gray Cone_ +Into Thy Hands, _Stuart Sterne_ +Mithra, _Charles L. Hildreth_ +Morning, _Florence Earle Coates_ +On a Noble Character marred by littleness, _Charlotte Fiske Bates_ +Probation, _Florence Earle Coates_ +Rose Romance, _Ada Nichols_ +Shadows All, _Paul Hamilton Hayne_ +Song, _Robertson Trowbridge_ +"What do I Wish for You?" ,_Carlotta Perry_ +Wood-Thrush at Sunset,_Mary C. Peckham_ + + * * * * * + + +LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE + +_JULY, 1885_. + + + + +ON THIS SIDE. + +VII. + + +It has not been concealed that, with all his fine qualities, Mr. Ketchum +was an obstinate man, and so, in spite of his wife's remonstrances, he +came down-stairs next morning--Sunday morning--in a dress that she had +assured him was "only fit for one's bedroom,"--namely, a very gorgeous +Oriental dressing-gown (Mabel's gift the preceding Christmas), with a fez +on his head, and on his feet a pair of slippers of amazing workmanship and +soundlessness, the joy of his feet, if not of his heart. Thus accoutred, +he prowled about on the lower floor, looking after various things, and, +going into the pantry for something, he chanced to look through the small +window used for the transmission of dishes from the next room, and saw +Parsons holding a pile of letters one by one over a steaming kettle. +Unconscious of his proximity, the respectable Parsons dexterously and +neatly opened several envelopes with a practised hand, and then +transferred the letters to her pocket, to be enjoyed at her leisure, after +which she laid hold of the kettle and retired into the kitchen beyond. + +"Well, upon my word, if that isn't the coolest thing I ever saw!" +exclaimed Mr. Ketchum mentally, and, feeling that he had made a great +discovery, was at first for sharing it immediately with Parsons's mistress; +but on reflection he thought differently. "It is her funeral: I guess I +had better not meddle: there would be a great scene," he thought. "At any +rate, I'll wait until they are leaving before putting her on her guard." +He went back to the dining-room to his newspaper, and sat there until the +others came down. + +Miss Noel was not long in the room before an idea struck her. "Did you not +say that your post-bag containing the night's mail would be sent over this +morning?" she asked. + +"I did. It came about an hour ago," said Mr. Ketchum. + +"How very nice! I hope there may be something for me. It is so very trying +to get no news from England," said Miss Noel. + +"Why, Mabel had twenty-three letters laid aside for you until you should +come. Didn't she give them to you?" asked Mr. Ketchum. "Were none of those +from England?" + +"Oh, yes. But that was three days since, and I've heard nothing for a +fortnight. If Parsons has _quite_ finished with the letters, I suppose I +may as well have them. And she must be, by this. Would you kindly ring and +send for them?" said Miss Noel. + +"What! you know that she reads your letters?" exclaimed Mr. Ketchum, +surprised. + +"Oh, dear, yes. They all do. It is very tiresome, but they will do it. +Parsons is generally good enough to let me have them quite promptly; but +she reads them, of course,--all but my cousin Blanche Best's letters. +Blanche has always been my most intimate friend, and can't bear the idea: +so she blocked the game by a most ingenious device. She writes one +sentence in French, the next in Italian, the third in English,--at least +she did until a happier plan suggested itself: now she writes English in +German text. It answers perfectly; but it is having a great effect on +Parsons, quite undermining her constitution, I fear, especially when +important things are happening at 'The Court,' where I often go. I +sometimes wickedly slip one of Blanche's letters under the pin-cushion, as +if with the intention of concealing it, and I have so enjoyed seeing +Parsons whip it under her apron when she got the chance, knowing that she +could not make out a single word. She really looked quite green afterward +for a week: pure chagrin." + +"I am sure I have done everything that I could think of to keep my letters +from my man," said Sir Robert, "but quite without success. I think he +finds my correspondence a little dull sometimes, as compared with that of +a former place. He came to me from the greatest scamp in England; and I +can fancy that the letters there were very various and diverting. My own +must be altogether too ponderous and respectable for a taste formed on +sensational models." + +"Well, all I have got to say is that if I caught a servant of mine at that +little game I'd make my letters uncommonly interesting reading to him; and +if the style suited him, I'd see that he got a little leisure in the +penitentiary to copy them and impress them on his mind. Do you mean to say +that you don't even discharge them for it?" said Mr. Ketchum, "I never +heard anything like it!" + +"One could discharge the culprit easily enough; the trouble is that his +successor or successors would do exactly the same thing," replied Sir +Robert. "When the Barons rose, they neglected to provide a remedy for an +unforeseen nuisance, and I suppose this literary partnership of Master & +Servant, Limited, will always exist. I wrote a note once to Beazely (my +man), addressed to myself, and told him that if he disapproved of the +Conservative tone of my correspondence, as was likely, seeing that he was +a Radical, I would make an effort to get at Dilke or Bright, with a view +to an _occasional_ note at least. The envelope had been resealed, I saw +when it reached me, but Beazely had no more expression in his face than +the Sphinx. My letters, however, were not tampered with for about a week." + +Mrs. Ketchum senior became fluent in her amazement: "How perfectly +dreadful! Good gracious! What did you do about your husband's letters? The +idea of sharing his letters with a servant!" + +She was addressing Mrs. Sykes, who said very cheerfully in reply, "Oh, +there was never anything in his letters, except warnings to put the +servants at board-wages before I went away, and look to expenditures, and +not ask him for any more money soon. I didn't mind much. I was rather +ashamed of the spelling,--that was all. Poor dear Guy never could spell, +and I never read anything so dull as his letters,--the same thing over and +over again, till it hardly seemed worth while to open them, only for +knowing what he was up to, or when he was coming. How my poor sisters did +laugh one Christmas when I got a letter from him in Italy, saying, 'The +cole here is intense; but I have got a projick in my head, which is to get +back to England as fast as rale and steme can possibly carry me'! It +wasn't often that bad; but there was always something wrong. I can't think +how it is, for he had no end of tutors and masters, except that he +certainly was a very thick-headed fellow." She laughed merrily over the +epistolary deficiencies of her late lord as she spoke, and every one +joined her except Mrs. Ketchum, who was too shocked to countenance her. + +"I saw Parsons in the very act of opening your letters this morning as I +was roaming around in my Jesuit creepers, and thought you would be +horrified; but it seems to be all right," said Mr. Ketchum, glancing down +at his slippers. "Suppose, now, we have some breakfast: it is late. We +haven't nearly as much time as the patriarchs, anyway, and so much more +use for it." + +"I have been thinking it would never be ready," said Mrs. Sykes. + +"And I am quite ready for it. Isn't that a nice new-laid egg for me?" +asked Miss Noel, taking her place with the others. + +"Mabel, eggs for Miss Noel every morning, if she likes them, and don't you +forget it," said Mr. Ketchum. "'Trouble'? Not the least that ever was. I +have them for myself always. An egg for me must be like Caesar's wife, +--above suspicion. I have provided myself with a conscientious High-Church +hen that lays one every day of the year; though how she can think it worth +her while, when they are selling for ten cents a dozen, I can't +imagine.--What's the matter, Heathcote?" + +The matter was the "Jesuit creepers" and the hen combined, which had sent +all the party into a little fit of laughter, from which Mr. Heathcote +could not recover. + +"I don't see anything to double you up like a jack-knife," said Mr. +Ketchum, in allusion to his guest's way of stooping over and having the +laughs, as it were, shaken out of him by a superior force, while he got +out at intervals,-- + +"Jest--creep--High--such a fellow!" in staccato jerks that made every one +else laugh from sympathy. + +"I call 'em that because Mother Schmidt made them for me so that I could +steal a march on my mother-in-law, and she's a Catholic and knew how to do +it. Talking of Catholics and what Washington calls the 'Peskypalians,' who +is going to church to-day?" + +"I am going to walk over to Dale with Bijou Brown and her father," said +Ethel. + +"That isn't as nice a church as ours. We will take the others into Kalsing, +eh, husband?" said Mabel; "that is, if they will come." + +"I will go to the scaffold with Mrs. Ketchum," protested Sir Robert +gallantly. "What do you youngsters say?" + +"Ramsay and I thought we would walk over to that little village on the +crest of a hill that one can see from my window," said Mr. Heathcote. + +"You had much better go to church, --much better. But of course your soul +is your own," said Sir Robert. + +"You won't have much body left when you get back: it is a good twenty +miles," remarked Mr. Ketchum. + +"Oh, that is nothing." replied Mr. Ramsay. + +"Forty miles there and back! Are they crazy?" Mrs. Ketchum asked of Mabel +_sotto voce_; to which a smile and shake of the head came in answer.--"The +day is very damp, Job. I am almost afraid to go out; but it is my duty, +and I will." + +"That's right, ma. Do your duty. It is a good earthly as well as heavenly +investment," replied Mr. Ketchum. + +"But I wish, son, that you would live in Kalsing, next to the church, or +in New York, which would be better. I saw a beautiful house advertised in +the neighborhood of Trinity Church the other day, and wrote to ask about +it," said Mrs. Ketchum, who was always in spirit moving the family away +from Fairfield. + +"You are too speculative, ma, entirely," said he. "You are like my partner, +Richardson, who would write to ask the Czar what he would take for the +Winter Palace, if I'd let him, when if steamships were a dollar a dozen he +couldn't put up enough to buy a gang-plank. I can't move next to a church, +because all you womenites belong to different ones; but I can take a room +for you in the steeple and have an elevator put in that will make close +connection with the services, if you like." + +"Don't be irreverent, my son," said Mrs. Ketchum, who, like some other +Protestants, believed in an infallible steeple, if not an infallible Pope. +"I don't expect _my_ wishes to be considered in anything." + +"Oh, come, now, ma; that isn't fair. Except that I married to suit myself, +which is about the only foolish thing that I have done, I have been +tolerably obedient, I think," said Mr. Ketchum, aware that he was on +dangerous ground. + +"Do tell us about it. You wanted him to marry some one else,--some one +with a fortune, didn't you?" said Mrs. Sykes. "Quite natural, I am sure." + +"She wanted me to marry the ugliest woman east of the Rockies," said Mr. +Ketchum. "But I couldn't stand that face behind my cups and saucers three +hundred and sixty-five days in the year, and I bolted to England, where my +wife picked me up." + +"She wasn't so ugly at all, Job, except that her nose was a little +aquiline," protested Mrs. Ketchum. + +"Aquiline as a camel's back," asserted her son, in an aside. + +"And her hair _was_ rather auburn," Mrs. Ketchum went on, in reluctant +concession. + +"Call it pink, as the English do their hunting-coats," suggested he, +smiling. + +"But such a dear, _good_ girl, you quite forgot that she wasn't exactly +handsome" ("No, not precisely," interjected he) "when you came to know +her." + +"That I _never_ did. It might as a speculation have done to get a cast of +her face for andirons to keep the American child from falling into the +fire; but _marry her_! Good Lord! When I eat anything now that disagrees +with me, I dream of Emily's mouth," affirmed Mr. Ketchum, with the most +laughing mirth in his eyes, his mobile features expressing volumes. + +"Her mouth _was_ large, and her teeth _a little_ prominent. But you shall +not abuse Emily any more. You would have been very happy with her, I can +tell you," asserted Mrs. Ketchum. "You would have got over her mouth." + +"I might in time have got _around_ it, and I could easily have got _into_ +it, but I should never have got _over_ it in the world," affirmed Mr. +Ketchum, with decision. "I would rather be married to that Puseyite there, +unhappy as I am." + +This closed the little duel between the mother and son, and another laugh +drowned Mabel's remark to Miss Noel, which was, "Husband is in one of his +joking moods, and does not mean that he is _really_ unhappy at all. He +should not say such things, they are so very misleading." + +When quiet was restored, a discussion followed about the parties in the +English Church, and, the question being raised as to who was the head of +the Low Church party, Mr. Ketchum had just said, "Why, _Lucifer_, of +course," when, amid general merriment, Miss Brown walked in, saying, "I +never heard of such an uproarious Sunday party. Are you ready, Ethel? We +ought to be off,"--which practically ended the meal, for first Mr. Ramsay +and then the others left the table, he to talk to Bijou, they to get ready +for church. Job's eyes followed Mr. Ramsay, and he said to Sir Robert, +"What a charming girl Mrs. De Witt was in the old Cheltenham days! +Heathcote didn't make the landing there, and I'm sorry." + +"So am I. She is an immense favorite of mine," said Sir Robert. "As +charming as ever! It was a more serious thing than I thought it would be. +I doubt whether he ever marries." + +"She was a born enchantress, Jenny was," he replied. "Some women are like +poison oak,--once get them in your system, and they will break out on you +every spring for fifty years, if you live that long, fresh and painful as +ever. But as for his marrying, some one of our girls will enter for the +Consolation stakes, very likely, and he will be married before he knows +what has hurt him." + +"A consummation devoutly to be wished," said Sir Robert. "He is my heir, +you know." + +In a few minutes Ethel joined Bijou, who looked at her rather hard, as she +felt. Ethel wore a simple serge dress, heavy boots, a stout frieze jacket, +and a hat of a shape unknown in America, that seemed to be all cocks' +plumes. Her eyes being weak, she had put on her smoked glasses. The day +being damp, and her chest delicate, she had added her respirator. "I am +nicely protected, am I not?" she said contentedly. "I had a severe cold +last winter, from which I am not quite recovered, and auntie thinks I had +best be prudent. Are you ready?" + +"Not quite," said Bijou. "I want to see Mrs. Ketchum a moment." She ran +off, accordingly, into the library in search of the old lady, whom she +found there looking out the lessons, it being her practice to verify every +word the clergyman read, and no small satisfaction to catch him tripping. +"Do, Mrs. Ketchum, speak to Ethel and get her to take off those machines +and put on something stylish," said Bijou. "I am really ashamed to take +her into our pew; people will stare so. She is a perfect fright. The idea +of a girl making herself look like that!" + +Mrs. Ketchum, however, declined to interfere, and when Bijou got back to +the drawing-room Ethel was missing. Taking advantage of Bijou's absence, +she had gone up-stairs, and, during the library interview, was saying to +her aunt, "You never saw anything got up as she is,--silk, and satin, and +lace, and bracelets, and feathers, and what not. And for church, too! I +wonder she should turn out like that: she should have better taste. I +really don't quite like going with her, she looks so conspicuous,--just as +if she were going to a garden-party or flower-show, for all the world." +When they met again, both girls looked a little conscious, and Ethel said, +"How very smart you are!" + +"Why, this is an old dress that I put on for fear it might rain," said +Bijou. "Don't you hate having to wear goggles and cages and things? It +must be perfectly horrid." + +"I don't mind. Of course one isn't looking one's best; but that is of no +consequence. Health is the first consideration," said Ethel. "Ah! there +comes your father." + +Of the walk it need only be said that it was very pleasant going, and +rained a little coming back; that Ethel produced her "goloshes," put up +her umbrella, and walked home as serenely as her concern for Bijou would +admit. That young lady had on paper-soled boots that got soaking wet, a +fine summer parasol that she seemed to think fulfilled every office that +was desirable in shielding her bonnet, a dress ill fitted to resist chill +or dampness. She persisted that she was "all right," while her pretty +teeth chattered; but she caught a violent cold, and was in bed a week, +while Ethel came down to dinner as rosy as Baby Ketchum, and ate as +heartily as Mr. Ramsay and Mr. Heathcote, who certainly showed themselves +good trenchermen. Mrs. Ketchum persisted in regarding the two young men +very much as though they had been returned Arctic travellers, and amused +them not a little by suggesting that they should lie down all the evening. + +"Why, we haven't turned a hair. We are as fit as a fiddle," they exclaimed, +and looked anything but unstrung. + +Ethel had made one speech that astonished Bijou considerably. "Do you know, +I have been watching you ever since I have known you," she said, "to see +if it was true? That is, that the American ladies _spat_ on all occasions, +as I have read. Don't think me rude to mention it." + +"We don't quarrel any more than any one else," said Bijou, quite +misunderstanding. + +"I don't mean that, you know: _expectorate_. And I see it was not true at +all. I have not seen it once," explained Ethel. + +"I should think not! Well, I do think! How could you believe such +ridiculous nonsense?" asked Bijou indignantly. + +"Don't be vexed, Bijou dear. I did not mean to make unkind reflections. It +was only that I had read a stupid book about America," said Ethel; and +peace was restored. + +As for the other members of the party, they had gone to a handsome church +in Kalsing, which boasted the best stained glass in the country and was +thoroughly churchly and attractive. Here they not only heard good music, +but one of the most eloquent preachers in "the American branch of the +English establishment," as Sir Robert called the Episcopalian communion. + +It amused Mr. Ketchum not a little to see the way in which the baronet +conducted his devotions,--his preliminary prayer in his silk hat, from +which streamed a halo of side-whiskers, the heartiness with which he +joined in the service, especially the way in which, avoiding all the +compromises the male American practises in prayer-time (such as bending +forward a little, or leaning back pensively with the hand shading the +face), he plumped squarely down on his knees, turned up a pair of shoes +half as long as his very respectable, tightly-rolled umbrella, and made +his responses in a clear, audible voice, like an honest gentleman and a +miserable sinner. + +It did not escape Mr. Ketchum's keen eyes, either, that although Sir +Robert contributed a five-dollar bill to the offertory, he first rolled it +up into a tiny, unrecognizable wad before dropping it into the alms-basin. +The service over, Sir Robert and the eminent divine were made acquainted. +The latter said he would call as soon as he could snatch a moment, and Sir +Robert, his hands folded behind his back, holding his hat and gloves, made +the rounds of the church, inspecting every bit of carving, frescoing, +glass, and brass, and making the most intelligent criticisms upon what he +saw to Miss Noel in a whisper. Mrs. Sykes sat still in the pew, fuming at +being "let in for a charity sermon," for some inexplicable reason, seeing +she had given nothing to the charity. Miss Noel was stopped at the door by +no less a person than Captain Kendall, who had suddenly discovered that he +had a great-aunt living in Kalsing, whom he must see, and now stood there +saying, "Where is Miss Ethel? How is it that you are here without her? I +hope she is quite well." + +"My niece, Miss Heathcote, is quite well, thanks, and has gone to church +elsewhere," said Miss Noel, with dignity, intending to mildly repress a +young gentleman whom she thought a little too free with his "Miss Ethels." + +"Then I will have the pleasure of calling upon you to-morrow," said +Captain Kendall, unabashed and joyous, as he walked away. + +So active an intelligence as Sir Robert's requires plenty of food, and +when Mrs. Ketchum senior issued from her room about ten the next morning, +whom should she meet in the hall but the baronet in a state of the most +overflowing energy and brilliant good humor, dressed in a suit of striped +red-and-white "pajamas," having on his head a paper cap, under his arm a +roll of designs, and in his mind the delightful intention of painting the +ceiling of Mabel's boudoir! + +"Good-morning, madam. Here we are," he said, shaking his box of paints and +stencils at her. "I have improvised a scaffolding, and am now going to +work on my outlines. I planned the whole thing in bed last night, and, +unless I am much mistaken, we are going to have the prettiest boudoir in +this part of the country. I shall do a panel or two to get the effect, and +any workman can finish it." + +"But can you do it?" asked Mrs. Ketchum, amazed, but interested. + +"You shall see. I frescoed the chapel on my place at home, and I may say +there have been worse pieces of work," replied Sir Robert, descending the +stairs as he spoke, eager to get to work. + +"Is he _raving crazy_, Mabel? What on earth has he got on? He isn't +_respectable_. I declare to goodness, he has set my heart beating so I +shan't get over it all day," said the startled lady to her daughter-in-law, +who joined her just then. + +"Oh, for shame, ma, to give yourself away like that! Fashionable men wear +those costumes altogether now," said Mr. Ketchum, coming up. "You see, +Daisy, that if I shocked him beyond expression yesterday morning, as you +said I should, he has horrified me to death to-day: so I guess we are +quits. Come along: let's go down to see the trapeze-performance." + +Down they went, and, meeting Mr. Ramsay, who was coming up, Job stopped a +moment to tell him to take out any of the horses that he fancied. "Take +the piebalds," said he, "if you'd like to have a drive, and take some nice +girl--Miss Ethel or Bijou Brown--for a two-forty shine." + +"Thanks awfully," said Mr. Ramsay. "But I think I had better--that is, I +had rather ask Heathcote." + +"You are horribly welcome, but I don't think much of your taste," replied +Mr. Ketchum, not understanding what a proposition he had made. + +In the lower hall they found the eminent divine, irreproachably clerical +and dignified, and Captain Kendall, just arrived. Sir Robert, hearing +voices, came out, brush in hand, to welcome them, producing quite as great +an impression on them as on Mrs. Ketchum. "I belong to the working-classes +now. Just you come here and see how the fine arts are prospering in the +State of Michigan," said he, and led them into the boudoir, where he +nimbly ran up a step-ladder, laid himself out on the scaffolding, and, +with a bold, free touch, went on sketching a procession of Cupids which +was to go around the base of the small dome, talking all the while with +the utmost animation to the guests below. "As soon as I get in this fellow +riding a dolphin, I shall be entirely at your service," said he. "No +considerations of respect and attachment to the Church or fear of the Army +can influence me just now." + +The two gentlemen begged that he would go on; the ladies came in, and +together they passed an agreeable morning, Sir Robert declaring that on +the scaffold he was entitled to benefit of clergy, and begging the eminent +divine when he left to let him have his ghostly counsel every day for at +least a week. In spite of his eminence, this gentleman had no very great +breadth of view. To sit about on boxes and window-seats, picnicking in an +empty room, while the stranger upon whom he had come to call lay above him +in red pajamas, painting Cupids on the ceiling, was to his mind +monstrously indecorous. It was amusing to see the dignified way in which +he took the pleasantries of the party; and he made no response to Sir +Robert's farewell overture except a bow. "Your guest is a very +entertaining man," he said to Mr. Ketchum, who accompanied him to the +hat-rack, "but is he quite--quite--you understand?" + +"Perfectly so," said Job, with a laugh. "Head and heart both of the best, +as you will find out when you know him better. You are coming back to +dinner, ain't you, to help us out with the fatted calf?" + +The dinner was a very elegant affair of twenty-five covers, given to the +guests, the first of a series of entertainments planned in their honor. +All the notable people of the neighborhood were represented at it. The +scandalized divine returned to partake of it, and, seeing Sir Robert in a +dress-suit, dignified, polished, of preternatural respectability, not to +say distinction, looking the pillar of Church and State that he was, and +talking with due gravity of the tariff, free trade, and the like ponderous +subjects, concluded to overlook the mad behavior of the morning, and, +joining him, gave him a long account of the Indian Missions of the Church. +Unconscious of having done anything that might be regarded as eccentric, +Sir Robert was all affability, soon grew interested, asked a number of +questions as to the death-rate among the tribes, the prevalence of +smallpox and cholera among them, the spread of civilization, confirmed +nomadism, traces of Jewish rites, and so on, thanked him for a "very +profitable half-hour," and said he should send a little check to be +applied in any way he might see fit, obliterating thereby the last trace +of the previous prejudice. This, indeed, was replaced by something very +like enthusiasm when there came next day a slip of paper representing five +hundred dollars, also a note from the donor, saying that he should be glad +to know that some portion of the sum enclosed had gone to an industrial +school, if any such existed, where the young Indian women could learn to +boil a potato properly, and the use of brooms and pails and +scrubbing-brushes. "You must first clean them and then convert them: get +them into the bath-tub, and you can take them anywhere," said Sir Robert, +with great truth and perspicacity. + +"One doesn't get such a dinner, except at a few great houses, outside of +London or Paris," Mrs. Sykes was pleased to say when it was over. "I have +found out that almost everything was ordered from New York; and a pretty +penny it must have cost. Not that this man cares. I dare say he is only +too glad to have the chance of entertaining me,--that is, us. I was sent +in with a waspish little man that turned suddenly crusty on my hands and +was an owl for the rest of the time; but I was rather glad to be able to +devote myself to my dinner for once." + +Mrs. Sykes's escort had "turned crusty" because that lady, following her +instinct of ingratiation, had said to him, "All the gentry of this country +are in the South, aren't they? They don't live about here, do they?"--not +from a prejudice in favor of Southerners at all, as was proved when she +went to New Orleans later and promptly asked the first acquaintance she +made whether all the education was not at the North. + +The week that followed was a very gay one, the Ketchums' friends in the +neighborhood and in Kalsing being most intent on hospitable thoughts and +providing something agreeable in the shape of an entertainment for every +night. Every moment of the day, too, of every day was filled up. It seemed +to Mrs. Ketchum that "those English people," as she called them, were +never idle, and had discovered the secret of perpetual motion. + +Sir Robert had the boudoir, to which he devoted exactly two hours after +breakfast. He had a geological chart of America, with what he felt to be +melancholy blanks for the chalk and oolite beds of his own country, and +appropriate fossils indicated by an index-finger in red ink. He had the +Poor-Law and electoral systems to master, as well as the prison systems of +the different States. He had to prove that the Mound-Builders and the race +that built the buried cities of Central America were one and the same. He +had innumerable questions, political, social, agricultural, pressing upon +him, from the history of spiritualism, the purity of the ballot, and the +McCormack reaper, down to certain expressions that immensely struck and +pleased him, which had to be entered in the diary as "unconscious poetry +of the Westerners,"--such phrases as "the fall" (of the leaf), +"morning-glories," "dancing like a breeze," "Daphnes" (instead of laurels), +and many more, which he hoped would be "permanently engrafted on the +mother-tongue." There were other entries to be made,--"customs of the +Westerners," their "descent," "taxation," "climate" (as affected by the +Great Lakes), "population in 1900," and so on. There were books, books, +books, to be read, referred to, ordered. There was even a little taxidermy +to be done, and the "native birds" to be first sought, then bought, then +prepared, and packed to be sent back to England. The others, if not quite +so busy, were anything but idle. Miss Noel walked her five miles a day. +She was out sketching for hours under her umbrella, no matter what the +weather was, and only said, "Thank you for your kind concern, but I am +quite equal to it," when Mrs. Ketchum, astonished to see a woman of her +own age enduring such fatigue and running such risks, undertook to +remonstrate with her. "One must get one's constitutional, you know, and +one must not mind a drop or two. There has been no really bad weather yet, +--nothing to keep one in-doors, at least." If she stayed in-doors, she and +Mrs. Sykes (when the latter was not scouring the country on foot or +horse-back) interested themselves in their plants, minerals, seeds, +drawings, the herbarium, the Wardian case, the diaries and letters and +fancy-work, the beautiful collection of sea-weed sent by Miss Marlow from +New England, and a dozen things besides. Mr. Heathcote, meanwhile, was +walking, and riding, and visiting, and, above all, photographing. He got a +small covered cart, into which he would put his photographic apparatus and +go the rounds of the country-side alone, getting his luncheon as he could, +and coming back late in the evening, flushed with heat and victory, +bringing amusing accounts of his experiences, a bouquet as of an +apothecary-shop, and "proofs" of "a lane,--quite an English-looking lane," +"a dog on the chain," "rear view of an American public" (house), "Saint +Lieuk's Church" (five different aspects), "what the natives call an +'ash-hopper,'--came out beautifully," "children among the hay-cocks,--very +indistinct," "squatter's hut on the edge of a common," "Western American +farm-house," "negro dust-man," "village beauty," and many others. He was +much complimented upon them all by Mr. Ketchum, who enjoyed the whole +collection and made comments and suggestions of the most delightful kind. +Mr. Heathcote looked infinitely pleased and flattered when told by him +that they had "a cold, professional air," and asked for copies of some of +them, after which he was eclipsed behind his black cloth and instrument +for two days, had his room darkened to a Cimmerian pitch, worked very +diligently, and presented the fruits of his labors to his host with the +modest depreciation but secret delight of the artist, smiling indulgently +at Mr. Ramsay, with his "I say, old chappy, what an out-and-out swell you +are at it, to be sure! You must do the horses." Thus encouraged, Mr. +Heathcote did the horses, the house, the family grouped inside and outside, +Master Jared Ponsonby, Hannibal Hamlin, Master Bobo and Miss Blanche, the +poultry, and (aided by mirrors) himself in almost every dress and attitude +which it is possible for a man to assume. He must have spent a small +fortune in chemicals alone, and all his talk was of light and shadow, +background, draperies, foreground, plates, and proofs; every table was +strewn with photographs, finished and not finished, mounted or curled up +like paper crumpets. + +Mr. Ramsay, too, had his little diversions, not precisely scientific, but +amusing. He was in and out of the stables all day long, and was loved by +every animal on the place. Such long-suffering and good nature Master +Ketchum had never seen, except in Fräulein Schmidt; and then the strength, +the resources, the conversation of his new friend enchanted the child, who +followed him about, perched on his shoulder, played games with him, and +had to be carried away from him struggling by his nurse. Mr. Ramsay had +other occupations: he rode, he fished, he cleaned his guns, he got over +leagues and leagues of ground, he killed several snakes and captured +scores of insects. He caught dozens of tree-frogs, for one thing, and shut +them all up together in the drawing-room coal-scuttle, where he peeped at +them from time to time, well satisfied. He played little tunes on his chin, +asked conundrums, showed Job a great many tricks at cards, and two French +puzzles (saying, "Those French beggars are awfully sharp at that kind of +thing, you know"); he played "God Save the Queen" with one finger on the +piano, held skeins of wool for the ladies, shut doors, got shawls, and +really need have done none of these arduous duties, for in looking so +handsome and so jolly from Monday morning until Saturday night he +contributed his quota toward the carrying on of society, and all beside +were works of supererogation. When these palled upon him a little, as was +shown by his picking up a book, he looked very unhappy for ten minutes, +and then, making a pass at his face with one of has beautiful hands, he +cried out, "No fellow can read badgered like this. There's a regular brute +of a fly that has been lighting on my nose every half-second since I sat +down," closed the book, smiled, and said, "I may as well call upon Mr. +Brown while I have time," and took himself off. This happened on the ninth +day after his arrival, and with it began a new era in his existence. He +not only went to Mr. Brown's that day, but the next, and the day after +that. In short, he had found an amusement best expressed in the French +equivalent _distraction_. He rode with Bijou, and reported to Mr. +Heathcote that she was "a clinker at her fences, and went at them as +straight as an English girl." He taught her a good deal about the +management of her reins and animal, and admitted that she was "a plucky +one." If she had only consented to get an English saddle (which she +declined to do, with one of her customary exaggerations, saying that she +"didn't want a thousand pommels"), to rise in that saddle, and to have the +tail of her horse cropped properly, he would have been quite happy. As it +was, he acknowledged that in her own fashion she was a most graceful and +fearless horsewoman, and approved of her accordingly. It soon struck him +that she did other things well. Used to the reserved and rather +constrained manner of most English girls, he found a great charm in her +bright gayety, her frank cordiality, the good-humored comradeship and +absence of stiffness, untainted by vulgarity. For, although Bijou was not +high-bred, distinguished, or clever, she was a girl of real refinement, +and he had the wit to see it. Her merry tongue and generous and +affectionate heart, neither chilled nor hardened yet by contact with the +world, were very attractive, and it is just possible that he felt the +influence of her piquantly-pretty face. At any rate, he had found a great +number of imperative reasons for going to Brown's, when one morning, as he +was opening the little wicket-gate that admitted him to their +croquet-field, he saw something that gave him an unpleasant shock. It was +a buggy in front of the door, in which sat Bijou, charmingly arrayed, +smiling upon a gentleman who had just helped her in and was only deterred +from taking the seat waiting for him by her calling out, "Stop, till I fix +my skirts and put up my parasol," the gentleman being his cousin, Mr. +Edward Plummer, _alias_ Drummond. The sight of Mr. Plummer enraged him. +Bijou's cheerful air did not improve matters, and for the first time he +felt irritated at her American speech and accent. "'Fix my skirts,'" he +quoted discontentedly, as he watched them drive off, and then, after a +moment's indecision, he stalked angrily up to the front door, pulled the +bell fiercely, and asked to see Mr. Brown. He was almost immediately +ushered into the library, where Mr. Brown was sitting. + +"Good-morning, sir. I am glad to see you. I am sorry to say that Bijou is +out. She has gone driving with our guest: an English guest, by the way, +--Mr. Drummond. He came on with us from New York, and has been here ever +since, except the last two weeks, which he has spent in Chicago," said Mr. +Brown. + +"That's what I've come about," blurted out Mr. Ramsay, the moment there +was a pause. "His name isn't Drummond at all: it is Plummer. And he isn't +fit to be a guest in any decent house, and I've come to tell you so and +have you give him the sack and put him to the door at once. Excuse me +meddling, but you have been very kind to me and received me most +hospitably, and I am not going to see you taken in by a rascal and a +blackguard." + +Mr. Brown was shocked, but did not show it. He prided himself on being +very logical and dispassionate and judicial, and was privately convinced +that he would have greatly adorned the legal profession if Fate had been +kinder. Besides, Mr. Drummond was his guest and there by his invitation, +which to his mind was strong presumptive proof that Mr. Ramsay's charges +were without foundation. "Grave accusations these, Mr. Ramsay,--very grave +accusations. I trust you are making them upon some better grounds than +mere personal prejudice or idle rumor, if you expect me to believe them. +Not that I mean any discourtesy to you, sir, in saying this," he said, in +his roundest, most impressive tones. + +"What do you mean? The fellow was sent to Coventry by his regiment and +forced to resign, his father has cut him off with a shillin', he can't +show his face in London, and he has been kicked out of his club for +keepin' too many aces up his sleeve. I should think that was grounds +enough for an accusation. Do you suppose I go about inventin' lies to take +away other people's characters?" said Mr. Ramsay excitedly. + +"Do not exaggerate. Be calm; be reasonable," said Mr. Brown. "Observe, I +do not accuse you of wilful misrepresentation, but of misapprehension, +perhaps of prejudice. There is a difference. Note it, and do not take +offence, my young friend, too readily." + +"I am not offended, but what I say is true, and I hope you will act upon +it, so that Miss Brown shall not go out ridin' round the country with +that--" began Mr. Ramsay, only to be interrupted by-- + +"No violence; no excitement. Let us look at the thing rationally," from +Mr. Brown. "Mr. Drummond is my guest,--my guest, remember; introduced to +me by one of the first men in New York; received everywhere. You are both +strangers to me. This is a matter of purely individual testimony," Mr. +Brown went on, feeling that he was growing exquisitely subtile, and +clothing himself in imaginary ermine as he spoke. "He may tell me that +_you_ are a rascal. In that event, how am I to know who is the honest man +and who the villain? Shall I believe you, or shall I believe him, in the +absence of documentary evidence and disinterested statement? As my guest, +he has, if anything, the prior claim to consideration; though I am far +from saying that whatever views you may advance will not have equal weight +with me,--as _views_, mark you." + +"You can believe who you please and what you please," said Mr. Ramsay; +"but remember that I have given you warnin'. He may be your guest, but he +is my cousin, and I should think that I ought to know what I am talkin' +about. There is no necessity for me stayin' any longer." + +He rose to go, but Mr. Brown stopped him by a gesture. "A cousin!" he +exclaimed. "Do not excite yourself; be calm. On the face of it, that would +seem conclusive; but appearances are notoriously deceitful. Will you +assure me on your honor that there is no motive, no family feud, at the +bottom of this? Cousins do not go about the world denouncing each +other--_as a rule_. Family pride, affection, a thousand things, prevent +them from making such things public; but still it is not impossible. I do +not say that it is _impossible_; only _improbable_,--very improbable. Give +me your word, though, that there is _no motive_.--we must always look for +a motive in these cases,--and I will promise to give the matter full and +impartial investigation." + +"I'll do nothing of the sort. I will bid you good-morning," exclaimed +Mr. Ramsay, reaching out impetuously for his hat. + +"You have meant well, perhaps. I am obliged to you, if such be the case. I +will bear what you have said in mind, and let you know my decision," said +Mr. Brown, delivering a verdict from the bench. + +"Just as you please," replied Mr. Ramsay haughtily; and so they parted. + +Left to himself, however, Mr. Brown ceased to be judicial, and became +practical. He recalled, as he sat there, a number of circumstances that +had not impressed him favorably in connection with his guest. Mr. Drummond +had borrowed a considerable sum of him, on the ground of delayed +remittances. Mr. Drummond had filled his pockets with his host's Havanas +in the most scandalous fashion, yet never had a cigar. Mr. Drummond had +done a number of ill-bred things that he had not liked,--such as ordering +the carriage to be got ready on his own responsibility, lending valuable +books without so much as asking permission, and the like. The longer Mr. +Brown thought of the late interview, the more uneasy he felt. The paper +had dropped from his hand, and he was still deep in his uncomfortable +meditations, when the door opened, and his daughter ran to him and threw +herself into his arms, crying hysterically, "Oh, popper, popper! Oh! oh! +oh!" + +We will extricate the story of what had happened from the sobs and +interruptions to which Mr. Brown had to submit, and preface it with some +account of the relations between Bijou and Mr. Drummond-Plummer or +Plummer-Drummond. + +They had met in New York the previous winter, where Mr. Drummond had +suddenly appeared, put up at a fashionable hotel, and, with no other +credentials than his handsome person, good manners, and bold assertions +that he was related to certain great people in England, had been accepted +in society with that beautiful faith and charity that believeth all things +an Englishman of supposed position may choose to say of himself, in spite +of much disastrous experience of foreign adventurers both painful and +ludicrous. Attracted by Bijou, he promptly satisfied himself of the +stability and reality of her father's fortune, and began to lay siege to +her hand: about her heart he gave himself small concern. Now, Bijou was a +Western belle, and was in the habit of receiving any amount of attention. +At seventeen a famous racer and a steam-boat had already been named for +her. The local newspapers chronicled her toilets and triumphs. Her little +sitting-room was a sentimental hall of Eblis, full of shapes with hearts +that were one burning coal, bright with the sacred flame. She had a large +album which she called her "him-book," because it contained nothing but +the photographs of her admirers. She had hats, and bats, and caps, and +whips, and cravats, and oars, and canes disposed about it tastefully, +souvenirs of various persons, times, and places, and talked of the +original owners in a way that made Ethel's blue eyes open their widest +when she came to be admitted there, that decorous young person not being +used, as she frankly said, to hearing "a person of the opposite sex" +called "a perfectly lovely fellow," and his nose pronounced "a dream," +though not in the sense of its being broken or disjointed. + +"Why, you wouldn't have me call _you_ a lovely fellow, would you?" said +Bijou laughingly, as she tripped about doing the honors of her den, +--showing locks of hair (of which she had almost enough to stuff a +sofa-cushion), dried bouquets of vast dimensions, little gifts she had +received, verses and valentines that she thought "perfectly splendid" or +"too utterly killing for anything," and bundle after bundle of letters, +--the adorers' letters, all of them, written from all parts of the country, +in every style. She read Ethel choice passages from them with great glee, +and gave spirited sketches of her correspondents; how she had met them at +Saratoga, Mt. Desert, "and pretty much every place;" how she had danced, +flirted, walked, driven, sailed, "crabbed," read, sung, talked with them, +apparently without either fear or reproach; and of their appearance, dress, +character, position, prospects,--a full, if not perfectly complete, +history of her relations with them that almost made Ethel's lower jaw drop +as she listened. There was no mention of mother, aunt, governess, or maid +throughout. Bijou had gone away from home with friends who had let her +amuse herself in her own fashion; and at home she was what De Tocqueville +has pronounced "the freest thing in the world,--an American girl in her +father's house." Yet it was a liberty that was worlds removed from +license. Undisciplined she was, impulsive, indulged beyond all European +conceptions, but, in spite of a good deal of innocent coquetry and vanity, +effervescing in some foolish ways very pardonable in a motherless girl, +and of which a great deal too much has been made in discussing American +girls, there was never one of any nation more pure-hearted and womanly. +Her worst deviations from rigidly conventional standards were better than +the best behavior of some very nice people, as Swift defines them,--"Nice +people: people who are always thinking of and looking out for nasty +things." Different training would have improved her, just as a hot-house +rose is more perfect than the wild one; but she, too, was pink-petalled, +had a heart of gold, and was full of lovely, fragrant qualities, like the +English variety near her. + +"You correspond with twelve men! Good heavens!" exclaimed Ethel, when +these open secrets had been revealed to her. "Don't tell auntie of it, I +beg. She will--will misunderstand, I fear, and think it dreadful, and +perhaps prevent me being here so much. It is not at all in accord with +English ideas, you know, dear; and auntie is rather stricter than most, +even there." + +"Not tell! Why not?" asked Bijou. "What is there to shock her? She must be +easily shocked. I have got nothing to be ashamed of; and I shall tell the +old dear to-morrow." + +"Does your father know it?" said Ethel. + +"Why, _of course_ he does," replied Bijou impatiently. "I generally read +him the letters, and he laughs fit to kill himself over some of them. +Popper don't care one bit. He says I am old enough to paddle my own canoe; +and so I am. And he knows I don't care a pin about any of them. It's great +fun until you get tired of it. I am tired of it now, rather. I used to +write to twenty; but it has dwindled down to twelve, and I'm going to drop +two of those, because they are in the army and are both stationed at the +same post. You see, it is too much trouble to write different letters to +each one, so I get up one bright, smart one that suits all around, and +copy it for them all, with some changes." + +This speech almost stunned Ethel for a while. "But doesn't it vex them +very much to get such letters? What if they should find it out? And if you +don't at all care for them, why do it at all?" + +"Why, for the _fun_ of the thing, goosie. Angry? No. They do the same +thing themselves. Will Piper sent Kate Price and me letters that were +exactly the same, word for word: we compared them. That is where I got the +idea. Splendid one, isn't it? I am just bent and determined on having +stacks of fun before I am married, because after that, you know, I shall +be laid on the shelf completely," said Bijou. + +"But why should you be 'laid on the shelf'? I can't make it out. Your life +will be just beginning," said Ethel. + +"Well, because what is so is _so_," replied Bijou, showing her some +patterns for slippers, watch-pockets, tobacco-pouches, and so on, that she +meant to work up for birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, "philopoenas," +and other festive occasions, as presents for the adorers. + +It is perhaps clearer now why Bijou laid no stress whatever on Mr. +Drummond's attentions, while she seemed to him to be receiving them with +marked favor. When, on their leaving New York, Mr. Brown had asked him to +go home with them and spend a month, he looked upon the prize as won. +Before going to Chicago he had shown this so plainly that Bijou had +snubbed him roundly,--a course so foreign to her amiable nature and +hospitable creed that on his return she had received him with a kindness +that had revived all his hopes,--or rather designs. He utterly +misunderstood it, and easily persuaded himself that he was practically +irresistible. The drive of that afternoon had been planned by him that he +might ask the fateful question. He had asked it, and, presumptuously +taking her answer for granted, had slipped an arm about her waist, when, +to his great surprise, he had found himself half ordered, half pushed out +of the buggy immediately, after which Bijou, transported by fury, had laid +the whip once smartly across his shoulders and driven away at a gallop, +leaving him standing in the middle of the road, an angry man. + +She went home, as we have seen, and told her father, who was distinctly +excited on hearing it, ordered Mr. Drummond's effects to be packed and +sent to the hotel in Kalsing at once, forbade her ever taking another +drive with a stranger "the longest day she lived," and would certainly +have caned the offender with unparliamentary fervor, instead of being +"reasonable" and letting the affair drop, had he known where to find him. + +What Mr. Drummond did was to walk into Kalsing and put up at a +boarding-house there, where he spent the evening glowering into vacancy +blackly enough, and showed his high breeding and respect for the other +boarders by taking off his shoes in the parlor and sitting with his +stockinged feet propped up on a chair in front of him while he gave +himself up to his reflections,--bitter thoughts of the past in which he +had been an English gentleman, desperate plans for his future as a +_chevalier d'industrie,_ fierce abuse of Americans in general and the +Browns in particular, culminating in a fixed resolve to leave "this +beastly hole" next day; which was happily carried out. + +Mr. Ramsay, offended, held aloof for a little while; but, getting a note +from Mr. Brown couched in few words, and those to the effect that his +warning had been acted on and Mr. Drummond dismissed, he called next day +at the house, assured Mr. Brown with earnestness that his cousin was "a +precious rascal," gave some particulars of his shady career, and took up +the threads of his intimacy again, unvexed by any such ideas as that he +was at all responsible for or could be affected by his kinsman's +disreputable behavior. Mr. Brown concealed from him that he had lost some +money by Mr. Drummond. Bijou imagined that he must be "feeling dreadfully +about it," and took great pains not to say anything that could wound his +imaginary susceptibilities as the relative of a _mauvais sujet._ But the +simple truth was that, once assured that respectable people were not being +deluded or cheated by his cousin, Mr. Ramsay had no further sensitiveness +on the subject. The Browns kept what he had told them even from the +Ketchums, only to hear him announce in all assemblies that a cousin of his +was "goin' about over here,--an awful swindler and 'leg,'--and that the +best thing people could do would be to give him the widest sort of berth +until he got himself into the penitentiary, as he certainly would,--at +least it was quite on the cards," smiling in cheerful enjoyment of the +possibility. Entertainments were going on all the while in the +neighborhood, and he had ample opportunities of advertising the fact, all +of which he improved, while a puzzled audience knew not what to make of so +novel a situation, and were sorely put to it for suitable replies as they +stared at an Adonis in Poole-cut clothes who sat and looked alternately at +them and his patent-leather court pumps and gay silk socks while he +affably denounced his father's nephew and "hoped the blackguard was goin' +to New Orleans and would get the yellow fever there, which was beginnin' +to be had over from the Havana." + +This last speech was made at a dinner-party which Mr. Ketchum's partner +Mr. Richardson had felt called upon to give in honor of the English guests, +and was almost the only amusing feature of the evening to Job. The +Richardsons' house was one of those in which everything is provided on +such occasions except amusement. When their invitation came, Job said to +his wife, "I wish we could get out of going; but we can't. I don't know +what is the matter with that house. It is one of the handsomest in the +city, elegantly furnished; they always have a crowd of people at their +entertainments, some of them delightful people to meet anywhere else, but +somehow there seems a kind of pall draped above the front door that drops +down behind you when you enter and never lifts till you leave. Mrs. +Richardson puts on all her war-paint and feathers and goes around all the +evening anxiously trying to make the thing go off, and it gets worse and +worse every moment, so dull and stupid that you can hardly keep awake, and +not quite quiet enough for a good nap. Richardson buys everything that is +to be had, and then sits around and looks as though he had a note to meet +in bank and no money to do it with. Altogether, it is about as lively as a +water-tank on the Pacific Railroad after the train has gone. But it won't +do to hurt their feelings: we have got to go." + +So they did, and it was stiff and formal beyond even his expectation. The +dinner was interminably long, over-elaborate, and slowly served. They +were all sent in with the wrong people. The conversation all but died +again and again. Sir Robert was afflicted by a deaf man, who shrieked, +"Ha-ow?" and "What say?" at him with brief intervals all during the meal. +Mabel shrank into herself, and only ventured on a few trite remarks. Mr. +Ketchum's liveliness utterly evaporated after the first ten minutes. It +was quite ghastly, and the move back to the drawing-room was a most +blessed relief. Mrs. Sykes had made no effort to lighten the tedium of the +dinner, and no sooner found it at an end than she lolled back +indifferently on the sofa, and, picking up a book, coolly read it for more +than an hour, though twice interrupted by Mrs. Richardson, who vainly +tried to substitute polite conversation the first time, and offered a cup +of tea the second. + +"English breakfast?" asked Mrs. Sykes loftily, raising her eyes for a +moment. "No; I am afraid not. It is green tea, I think." + +"But do take some," replied Mrs. Richardson, "It is very nice indeed." + +"No, thank you," said Mrs. Sykes very shortly, her eyes on her book. + +"Just one cup. Let me make it for you?" suggested Mrs. Richardson. + +"Not for a five-pound note would I drink the poisonous stuff. Say no more +about it," replied Mrs. Sykes, with delicate consideration, and turned +over a page. + +"Do take some coffee, then, or chocolate," insisted Mrs. Richardson. + +"Nothing of any sort or kind whatever," snapped Mrs. Sykes, turning away +decidedly, to get a better light on her book, apparently, but really to +get rid of her hostess. + +Mr. Ketchum, fearing to show indecent exultation when the carriages were +announced, repressed the satisfaction that would have expressed itself in +gay speeches of farewell. A decorous exit was made; and as they rolled +away he gave a great sigh of relief, and exclaimed, "I haven't had as much +fun since I had the measles. Mussiful Powers! what an evening! I feel like +the boy whose mother gave him a good beating for his own sake. But all the +same I shall have a word to say to Mrs. Sykes tomorrow; and of course I +shall have to apologize for her behavior to Richardson." + +"Most insolent, unpardonable conduct, I call it," said Sir Robert. "She's +an innately vulgar woman." + +"Puts on an awful lot of side. I can't stand her. She gives me the jumps. +And she can tell a buster, too, when she likes: I have found that out," +put in Mr. Ramsay. + +"Well, I don't exactly hanker to be cast away on a desert island with her, +even supposing I was one of the royal dukes and had taken the precaution +of being introduced while we were tying on the life preservers, in case of +accidents," said Mr. Ketchum. + +What he said to Mrs. Sykes next morning no one ever knew but the discreet +Mabel. Not much, probably, but that little was so much to the point that +it had a decided effect,--two of them, indeed, one interior, the other +external. It increased her respect for him, and it made her perfectly +civil to all his friends, as far as constitution and habit would allow. + +"I cut her comb for her, and handled her without gloves," was his report +of the interview to his wife, who was amazed at his nerve. + +When Sir Robert got a note addressed to "Lord Heathcote, Baronet," +beginning "Dear Sir," and signed "Very respectfully your obedient servant, +" and read it aloud at the breakfast-table as "a most extraordinary +production," Mrs. Sykes had absolutely no comments to make. And when Ethel +opened her letters and found among them an invitation to take a +buggy-drive, commencing "Dear Miss," Mrs. Sykes still held her peace,--a +fact that was full of significance. + +It was Miss Noel who said, "Really, Ettie dear, I can't have you driving +about furiously in a gig without a groom. But pray thank Mr.--what is the +name?--Price for being so kind as to propose it, meaning to give you +pleasure. He has been so obliging, too, as to procure tickets for us to +the play, and has kindly offered to escort us: I have a letter from him as +well. A most lovely day, this. There seems no end, really, to the fine +weather. Remind me to look at the thermometer after breakfast, before the +sun catches it, love. It must have been _quite_ two degrees hotter +yesterday than the day before; but I neglected to make the entry in my +journal, and so cannot be quite positive. Only fancy! Is it not annoying? +I am getting sadly forgetful about everything. And I so dislike guess-work +and conjecture in a record of the kind. I should like to see the +rose-trees at home this morning: the garden must be gay with flowers by +this,--though the last time I went pottering about it in my pattens there +was nothing out but the blackthorn." + +Other entertainments followed closely upon the dinner, of which Mrs. Sykes +complained to Miss Noel, saying, "Why will they ask me out? Why can't they +leave me alone? Really, I shall not let any one know that I am here, if +anything ever brings me back to America,--which is most unlikely." + +"There is nothing to prevent you staying at home if you do not wish to go +out," replied Miss Noel. "But do you not like it? I enjoy going to the +Browns'. Mr. Brown is a man of cultivated mind and Christian courtesy; I +like him very much; and the people one meets there are generally of +superior station and refined education. Why should you object to meeting +them?" + +"American society may be nice some day,--that is, if it ever grows up. +There doesn't seem to be anybody in it now over twenty," grumbled Mrs. +Sykes. + +One result of the parties was that Mr. Ketchum, going over to Mr. Brown's +one morning, found all the young people assembled there practising steps, +the "two-and-a-half," the "polka-glide," and other cheerful evolutions. +After watching Mr. Ramsay's efforts to do as Bijou did, for a moment, he +called out to her to know what she was doing to a British subject under +his protection, and, being shown by Bijou (skirts held up a little, the +prettiest feet imaginable, daintily shod, and the gliding, swaying, +pirouetting, galopading, graceful beyond expression), cried out, "Teaching +him to dance, are you? I thought he was practising heading off a calf in a +lane." This so exactly expressed the awkward desperate plunges to the +right and left which Mr. Ramsay was executing at the moment, that Mr. +Heathcote had another of his acute attacks of appreciation, and became +almost a subject for sal volatile and burnt feathers, Mr. Ramsay saying +good-naturedly, "What a fellow you are for chaffin', Ketchum! Just you +hook it out of this, will you, and let us get on with this? One and two +and a kick, you say, Miss Brown? I am such a duffer I can't get the kick." + +"You do the one and two make one, and leave the kick to Miss Bijou," said +Mr. Ketchum suggestively. "Why aren't you gambolling like the playful +antelope, Heathcote?" + +"I don't often gamble. I leave that to Ramsay, who is an all-fired +jewhillikens scratch at it, as you say over here," replied Mr. +Heathcote. + +"You gamble a little differently, that is all. You have dropped a good +deal on loo first and last, for all your wisdom," retorted Mr. Ramsay +between his steps. + +"Get out your 'Hand-Book of American Slang,' my boy,--two dollars a volume, +--and you will retrieve all your losses, I'll engage," said Mr. Ketchum +laughingly, as he walked away. + +The dancing had been interrupted, however, and Bijou and Mr. Ramsay +retired to the bow-window to talk. "Odd that I can't get it, isn't it?" +said he. "I never was much of a dancin' man; and I ought to be, you know. +I am not a readin' man; and a man that is not a readin' man is nearly +always a dancin' man. The governor is a readin' man, and took a +double-first; but I am like my poor mother, who was dull." Thus launched, +he gave her a full account of his relatives and home with all his own +frankness, and she, listening with her heart as well as her ears, did not +know whether to smile or sigh: the phraseology of the recital and its +completeness amused her, but she also divined the loneliness of such a +boyhood. To her great embarrassment, the tears rose in her eyes in quick +sympathy when she came to hear of the way he was treated in his childish +maladies. + +"Poor little fellow!" she said softly, and, as she was obliged to drop the +white, thickly-fringed lids and fall to pleating her handkerchief +industriously, she felt rather than saw that he was looking at her +narrowly. + +There was a moment's silence, and then Mr. Ramsay began talking again. +"You are very happy here, aren't you? You wouldn't like to leave it and go +away to India, or Egypt, or--or--England, or anywhere?" said this +particularly deep young man, and, without waiting for any answer, except +such as was afforded by her rosy silence, went on: "American girls do have +lots of fun, I see that. I am afraid they are too fond of flirting, +though. English girls don't get much of a chance at that, as girls. They +don't amount to much until they are married and get their own way." + +"Why, they don't flirt after they are _married_, do they?" said Bijou, in +a horrified tone, her ideal of post-matrimonial conduct being the exact +opposite of the ante-matrimonial. + +"Oh, don't they, just!" said Mr. Ramsay cheerfully. "You see, as girls +they are heavily handicapped. They can't do anything they like, or go +anywhere; it's awfully slow for them, poor things. And so they naturally +look forward to the time when they will get their liberty as well as a +husband. But the competition must be something awful. A fellow that has +got a fine property or money is regularly hunted down; and even a poor +devil like me has to be monstrous careful. Cowrie, of the Carbineers, who +has got sixty thousand a year, says that he can't go to certain houses, +for fear they may have a clergyman secreted about the place and will get +him spliced to the ugliest daughter before he can escape. Awfully clever +chap, Cowrie,--a match for any mamma in England, I can tell you. He is not +going to marry any woman but the one he wishes to marry. No more am I. +That's why I can't marry. I've got no money. The governor picked out a +young woman from Liverpool for me last year,--a brewer's daughter, with +pots of it,--and wanted me to make up to her." + +"Oh, he did! What did you do about it?" asked Bijou, in a low voice. + +"Well, you see, just then I was most awfully hard up, and couldn't afford +to break with the governor; and so--" + +"I'd be ashamed to say any more about it. Addressing a girl just for her +money!" interjected Bijou warmly, disappointed that he had not scorned the +proposition utterly. + +"It didn't go that far. I thought it might be a good thing, you know. And +so I tried it,--spooning, you know," said he placidly. + +"Oh, indeed!" commented Bijou sarcastically. "Very honorable of you, I am +sure, and delightful for the girl to have such a disinterested admirer. +How did it end?" + +"How you do pick,a fellow up!" remonstrated Mr. Ramsay amiably. "It sounds +awfully conceited to say so, of course, but I think I could have carried +off the cup if I had liked. At least every one said she was hard hit. And +she wasn't long in the tooth, or very ugly, or vulgar, or anything; but +somehow I couldn't stand it. I got to hate her. She breathed so hard when +she danced, for one thing. Regular grampus. Upon my word, she almost blew +my gibus away from under my arm sometimes. Regular snorts. And then she +was always smilin'. And she talked an awful lot about Goethe and Schiller, +and those chaps. Altogether, I cried off, and told the governor I would +try the Colonies. And he told me that if I was such a consummate ass as to +let a good thing like that slip, I could take my little pittance and go to +the deuce as soon as ever I liked; and here I am. Some may think I acted +foolishly, but one's relatives are not always the best judges of what is +good for one, you know, though they may think they are actin' for one's +good; and what one wants to do is to do one's best in whatever position +one finds one's self in, you know, no matter what one--Hang it all! I know +what I want to say, but I can't say it. You understand, I fancy, without +me tryin' to explain." + +Having tied himself up in this conversational bow-knot, Mr. Ramsay waited +to be extricated. His idea had been to convey in the most delicate and +roundabout way to Bijou that he was not the man to marry any woman for her +money, and that if he had seemed to like a certain person a good deal it +was not because she was the daughter of a rich man. To her, however, he +seemed to be posing as a conqueror of heiresses, indifferent to the pain +he might inflict upon any girl silly enough to be captivated by his good +looks and good manners,--a breaker of tacit engagements, and a wicked +worldling. So she rose very stiffly, and said that she neither knew nor +cared to know what he meant, and was obliged to leave him, and so went +away, and left him extremely puzzled and disconcerted by the behavior of +his charmer. + +After this, the summer of Mr. Ramsay's discontent set in. There was +nothing that he could actually complain of in Bijou's treatment of him, +but it was plain that she had changed. She was vastly more polite than +before, but much less kind. Their intimacy seemed a thing of the past +century. It was Mr. Heathcote now who, partly from idleness, partly from a +desire to tease his friend, went constantly to the Browns', and showed +Bijou various attentions, which she accepted with very pronounced +satisfaction. It was with Miss Price now that Mr. Ramsay rode and walked +and talked,--Miss Price, whose free-and-easiness, vapid chatter, +artificiality, and sentimentalism contrasted unpleasantly with Bijou's +frankness and sincerity. By this course each confirmed the other in the +impression of untrustworthiness and flirtatiousness both had received, and +they ought to have been perfectly satisfied with this result. But, +considering how perfectly happy she was in Mr. Heathcote's society, it was +odd that Bijou grew paler and thinner every day. And if Miss Price was so +perfectly delightful, why did she send Mr. Ramsay home always as gloomy +and morose as any young man very well could be? With blundering honesty, +Mr. Ramsay once taxed Bijou with a preference for Mr. Heathcote, not +knowing that when a jealous lover accuses a girl of being fond of some +other man she never fails to encourage the idea, unless it is really true, +when she denies it with the utmost vehemence. Bijou, with much feminine +circumlocution, insinuated that he was devotedly attached to Miss Price, +to which he truthfully replied that he did not care "one rap" about her. +Women are born incredulous in such affairs. When sure of themselves, they +doubt the lover; when sure of the lover, they invariably doubt themselves. +And so the misunderstanding grew, and continued in mutual mistake and +suspicion, and no two people were ever more thoroughly and foolishly +miserable. Mr. Ketchum, when enlightened by his wife, could see that his +guest was in a bad way; and one day it chanced that they were left alone +in the library, where Job was most unromantically engaged in looking up +plans for a model pig-stye, while he incidentally refreshed himself with +his favorite confection, molasses candy. + +"Man alive!" said he, after directing a keen glance at Mr. Ramsay's face, +"what is the matter? Take some of the Dentist's Friend, won't you?" +(pushing a plate toward him.) "I like it better than all the French stuff +that was ever made, and Mabel keeps me liberally supplied. You look +awfully down in the mouth, Ramsay, as though you'd enjoy howling like the +lone wolf on far Alaska's shore, if you were sure nobody was looking. +Suppose you tell me what has impaled you. Is it love, money, or +indigestion, old fellow?" + +The words were light, but the tone hearty and kind; and, thus encouraged, +Mr. Ramsay laid bare his woes, Mr. Ketchum listening attentively, and +saying, when he had finished, "I know; I know. When I thought I had lost +Mabel once, I carried the universe around on a sore back all day, and then +my heart would get up on its hind legs and yelp half the night; and there +have been other times when I got caught in the machinery, and I know how +it hurts, I think of those times often. They grind a man down to the quick, +and send the chaff flying: they teach him valuable lessons. I remember I +started out in life with two violent prejudices,--one against Jews, and +the other against Roman Catholics. Well, in the greatest strait I have +ever known, the Christian that came to my relief was a Jew in a town of +seven thousand people; and when I had the smallpox a Sister of Charity +took me to the hospital and nursed me, when every one had deserted me and +left me to die or live without any meddling from them to bias me in my +decision. After that I said to myself, 'Job Ketchum, if the Lord can make +and stand as great a fool as you have been, he can make plenty of good +Jews and Roman Catholics, and if they have got his hall-mark they can do +without your valuable endorsement; and when smelting-day comes I reckon +you'll find that the Protestant quartz won't pan out _all_ the silver that +has been put in the earth's veins. You needn't go around blushing for +David and Thomas ?Kempis any longer, my son. Take a holiday.' My advice to +you, Ramsay, is to keep a stiff upper lip. Perhaps the buzz-saw has only +got your clothes, and you will be all right when you cut loose; but if it +has got _you_, all you can do is to stand and take it, and if you can +remember who set it going it will be better for you." + +The last phrase Mr. Ketchum got out in a shamefaced way, as if very much +ashamed of it, as indeed he was; but Mr. Ramsay was the better for the +talk, and, though not "a readin' man," had easily understood the +illuminated characters in this page of human experience. He brightened +perceptibly from this date, and was able to take a healthy interest in +certain match-games of base-ball and la-crosse in neighboring cities, +which he attended with Mr. Ketchum and Sir Robert, who, besides these +diversions, had to visit the prisons and all the public schools, and to +gather a mass of information in regard to these two subjects, with +criminal and educational statistics, systems, theories, that had to be +examined, sifted, recorded in the diary with the pains, study, and +reverence for facts that characterized every entry made in it. Meanwhile, +quite an intimacy had sprung up between the ladies of the Ketchum and +Brown households, or rather the existing one soon embraced the +Englishwomen. Mrs. Sykes and Miss Noel were struck by a number of things +in the latter establishment. + +"Do you suppose that _all_ American households are organized in this +extraordinary, miscellaneous way, so as to include, besides the head of +the house, his wife and children, all sorts of relatives, outsiders, and +strangers?" said Mrs. Sykes to Miss Noel. "Mrs. De Witt told me, quite as +a matter of course, that the sister of her husband's first wife lived with +them, though she was away when we were there. And look at the Ketchums and +the Browns. It is most remarkable. Why do they do it, I wonder? I must +really ask about it, how it ever came about. And on such an extraordinary +basis, too! Only fancy, that poor, thread-paper creature, Mr. Brown's +daughter, has married badly and come back to her father with a troop of +children; and she married in opposition to his wishes, and she hasn't a +farthing of her own; and yet she seems to have no proper sense of her +position whatever. She does nothing to make herself useful and get her +living, but sits up in her bedroom, rocking and sewing, all the day long. +She bids her father buy this and that for the children, just as though +they were not actually beggars, dependent upon him for shelter and every +mouthful. She meddles in household matters to any extent, giving the +servants orders, having fires made, and even the dinner-hour changed to +suit her convenience; and one would think she was mistress there. I wonder +she dares do it. Yet, so far from being sat upon or put in her place, I +heard Mr. Brown tell Bijou the other day, when some little disagreement +took place between them, that she must let her "poor sister" have +everything to suit herself, and do her best to make her happy and +contented and help her to forget all the trouble she had known, as far as +possible. Just as if spoiling her like that, and giving her false ideas of +her importance, could be a good plan. Not that it will last. She is a +pauper, and will be made to see that she is one, sooner or later. She has +nothing but what he gives her, I know, for I have asked her; but she would +not tell me why she separated from her husband. Americans are so absurdly +secretive and sensitive! Do you know, she was vexed by the inquiry? A +great mistake, as I told her, to get rid of him, unless he was a dangerous +brute: men are so useful, and 'grass-widows,' as they say here, are always +looked down upon. Did you ever know anything so idle as those Brown women? +The men here are very active and 'go-ahead,' as they call it, but the +women seem to do one of two things,--either they hold their hands +altogether and are a thousand times more idle than any queen or duchess, +or they work themselves to death, and are cooks, sempstresses, maids, +housemaids, nurses, governesses, ladies, and a dozen other things rolled +into one,--poor things! Thank heaven I am not an American lady." + +"I see what you mean," said Miss Noel. "That dear, sweet girl Bijou has +had no practical training whatever. She was amazed that I should make +Ethel dye her white kid slippers (when they were soiled) for morning use; +and when she saw me getting up some dainty bits of old point that I do not +trust to Parsons, she asked me why I bothered with the old stuff and +didn't buy new. She has absolutely no idea of the value of money or of +household management. On the other hand, that little Mrs. Grey, their +friend, told me that she did all the sewing for her twelve children; and +Mrs. Grey has not taken a holiday of even a few weeks for twenty years. I +can't think how it is they don't break down altogether." + +But it was the children of the Brown household that awakened the liveliest +surprise in the minds of these ladies,--an astonishment wholly free from +admiration or approval, for they were children of a type with which +Americans are sadly familiar, but which had never come under their notice +before. The little Graysons were utterly undisciplined, and got their own +way in everything. Their grandfather, aunt, mother, and nurses combined +were powerless to control them, and would give them anything but what they +most needed. They pervaded the whole house, and were the hub of it; they +ate at all hours, and of whatever they fancied. They had no regular hour +for going to bed, but fell asleep everywhere, and were removed with the +utmost precaution. Mrs. Sykes, going there, would find them jumping up and +down with muddy feet on the drawing-room sofas or playing on the new grand +piano with the poker. Miss Noel one day found Mr. Brown in a great state +of perturbation, calling out, "Helen! Jane! Bijou! Come here, quick! The +baby is bumping his head on the floor!" (The baby being three years old.) +"Don't get angry, darling. If you won't bump your head, grandpa will bring +you a wax doll from Kalsing to-morrow." Another day, baby's sister in +banging on the window-pane struck through the glass and cut her fist. +"Poor little dear! Poor childie! Let me bind it up quickly. Harry, love, +bid nurse fetch the arnica at once," exclaimed Miss Noel; but the patient +stamped and shrieked, and would not have her hand examined or doctored by +anybody, whereupon her admiring mother said, "Jenny has always been that +way. She has a great deal of character, Miss Noel." + +"A very undisciplined one, I fear," replied that lady emphatically. She +could scarcely believe that she heard aright when, on asking this model +parent what her plans were for the summer, she said,-- + +"I am going to try Saratoga again. We were there last year, and I went +prepared to stay until the 1st of October. I liked it very much; it was +very gay and pleasant; but Harry got tired of it, and wouldn't stay after +the second week, so I packed up and went to Long Branch, which he has +always liked." + +"Your brother, or uncle?" inquired Miss Noel, in perfect good faith. + +"No, my little Harry," replied the placid mother. + +The very appearance of the children, fragile, delicate-looking, nervous, +was in striking contrast to the solid, rosy, somewhat stolid English +children to whom she was accustomed. They were pretty, quite abnormally +intelligent she thought, and as attractive as such rearing would permit +them to become; but their habits and manners positively afflicted her. She +pined to put them to bed at seven o'clock, keep them four or five hours of +every day in the open air, give them simple, nourishing food,--in short, +inaugurate the wholesome nursery system of her own country. To see them +sitting down to table without saying their grace or putting on their +pinafores, and order of the servant soups full of condiments, veal, any or +all of eight vegetables, pickles, tarts, pudding, jelly, custard, +fruit-cake, bon-bons, strong coffee, cheese, almonds, raisins, figs, more +custard, raisins again, and more fruit-cake, all despatched in great haste, +with no attention to the proper use of napkin, knife, fork, or spoon, was +acutely disagreeable to her; and it was amusing to see her efforts to +insinuate, as it were, better things into their daily life. "Nice, clever +children," she would say,--"so delicate-featured, and so refined in +appearance, but, heavens! what a monstrous system of education!" She had +taken a fancy to Bijou from the first, and she soon noticed in her a great +many little evidences of weariness, discontent, unhappiness; also that she +was alternately very pale and depressed or flushed and animated. She took +the girl therefore under her motherly wing, lectured her a little in her +gentle way about some things, praised her in others, and was very kind to +her. + +"My dear," she would say, "do you not eat entirely too many sweets, +bon-bons, and what not, and then go without proper food at the regular +meals?" Or it would be, "How do you occupy yourself, as a rule, dear +child? Do you district-visit, botanize, sketch, learn a language? What do +you do? You would enjoy a course of belles-lettres, and should take that. +And that head in crayons that you did at school was pleasantly executed: +why not study from life constantly?" Bijou had to confess that she did +nothing, and not even that industriously. "But, my dear, you are not an +Asiatic. You surely don't wish to be a doll, a plaything, self-indulgent, +helpless, leading a life of mere luxurious indulgence and artificiality?" + +No, Bijou had no such wish; but what was the use of learning or doing +anything now as a girl? If she married, it would be different; but then +she would never, never marry. But Miss Noel insisted that an idle woman +was a miserable woman, married or single, and was brisk and cheerful and +kind, and devised a number of small employments for Bijou, whom she kept +with her a great deal, and so befriended her as effectually as Mr. Ketchum +had done Mr. Ramsay. Mrs. Sykes found fault with her once or twice, but +did not find her all meekness. + +"Why do you talk of 'an elegant breeze'?" she said to her one day. + +"For the same reason that you spoke of 'a beautiful roast' yesterday," +retorted the young lady, who might be broken-hearted, but was certainly +not broken-spirited. "I know better, and I suppose you do, but we are both +careless." + +Matters drifted along in this way until a certain morning spent by Mr. +Ramsay at the Browns',--eventful because a little thing happened which +convinced him that Bijou cared for him. He came home with a new pang +substituted for those he had been enduring for a lover's age. After dinner +he tramped off for a long walk alone, in the course of which it may fairly +be presumed that he decided what course to take, for early on the +following day he called especially, for the second time, upon Mr. Brown. + +"I have come to tell you that I can't come here any more," he said, +holding his hat with his accustomed grace, and going in his +straightforward fashion immediately to the subject in his mind. "And I +wish to thank you for bein' so kind to me and receivin' me as you have +done, and to tell you why I am actin' in this way." + +"Why, what's the matter? Going away? Isn't this rather sudden?" asked +Brown _p?_, all unsuspicious of what was to come. + +"Oh, it isn't _that_! Though of course I shall be goin'. It is that I +can't marry. That is what it is. You should have been told of it before, +by rights, only I kept puttin' it off. You have a perfect right to blame +me for not sayin' so long ago, when you were good enough to admit me here +on an intimate footin'. It was a shabby, dishonorable thing of me, and I +hope you'll forgive it, rememberin' that it was not my intention to +deceive you," said Mr. Ramsay. "It wasn't, now, really." + +"But, my dear fellow, of what are you accusing yourself? There must be +some mistake. What has that got to do with your visits here?" asked Mr. +Brown. + +"Why, don't you see?--don't you object to me bein' thrown so much with +Miss Brown, under the circumstances?" stammered out Mr. Ramsay. + +"Not the least in the world,--not the least in the world, I assure you. +Delighted to see you, I am sure, whenever you like to come," said Mr. +Brown, with hospitable warmth. "Why should I? There is no necessity for +your marrying anybody, that I can see. What put such a foolish idea in +your head?" + +"But I thought you would think--she would think I thought--that is--as you +might say--" + +A hearty laugh from Mr. Brown interrupted him: "Why, you seem to have +thought a good deal on the subject. The most extraordinary idea! Excuse my +saying so. This house is always full of young men dancing attendance on +Bijou, who is as popular a girl as there is; but I don't trouble _my_ head +about them, I can assure you. No, indeed. Half of them don't want to marry +Bijou, and she don't want to marry any of them that I know of. And I guess +I shall be told when the affair comes off, so that I can order the +wedding-cake. Why, they are just all young people together. It don't mean +anything. They just naturally like each other's society. They are amusing +themselves,--that's all; and quite right, too." + +Mr. Ramsay had never conceived of such a philosophical parent or agreeable +state of affairs. He was very much embarrassed, and caught at a familiar +idea in his confusion. "That's what I thought you would think,--that I was +amusin' myself. And I wanted to tell you that I am not, you know. I have +far too much respect for Miss Brown to dream of doin' such a thing," he +said very eagerly. + +"Oh, you mean at her expense? I understand now. Well, now, let me make +your mind perfectly easy on that score. Bijou can take care of herself as +well as any girl in America, and I never thought of such a thing. If you +are thinking of _her_, that's all right. If you are thinking of yourself, +of course that is another thing. She isn't thinking of marrying _you_. She +doesn't care anything about you in that way, I am certain. I should have +noticed it if she had been," said Mr. Brown, who labored under the usual +parental delusion as to his daughter's heart having a glass window through +which he could see all that went on there. + +"I am tryin' to do what is best for both of us," said Mr. Ramsay honestly, +blushing profusely. "And I came to say good-by. And here is a little note +I have written Miss Brown. I have left it open, in case you wished to see +it." + +"Not at all,--not at all. Bijou would blow me up sky-high if she caught me +reading it, I can tell you. I'll give it to her, certainly. I think you +are giving yourself unnecessary concern; but your scruples, though novel, +do you honor. If you think it best to give us up, you are, as far as you +are personally concerned, the best judge. Good-by. Send us a line to say +how you like the West. Good-by," said Mr. Brown, and smilingly accompanied +him to the front door. + +Papa Brown gave his daughter the note, which ran as follows: + +"MY DEAR MISS BROWN,--I am going away, and you have been so awfully kind +to me that I know you will excuse me writing to say how awfully grateful I +am to your family for receiving a stranger as they have done." + +Here "I shall often think of you" was carefully scratched out, and "I +shall always remember it and the pleasant hours I have spent with them" +substituted. + +"And now I have got to say a disagreeable word, which is good-by. I hope +you will have a fine hot summer and will think of me sometimes when you +are spooning tremendously at croquet,--as you know you do, though it isn't +fair. With best regards to all the members of your household, I am + +"Faithfully yours, + +"ARTHUR RAMSAY. + +"P.S.--If I should drop into a good thing you will hear of it." + +Mr. Ramsay had taken four hours to compose something that should not be +actionable or compromising, and yet that should convey some idea of the +state of his mind and feelings, and had turned out this masterpiece, which +Bijou read in bitterness of soul over and over again. + +"Excuse me writing," "fine hot summer," "croquet," she quoted mentally. +"After all that has passed between us! If he had really cared for me, and +anything had separated us, he would have had the common honesty and +manliness to say so. No; he thinks me another Liverpool girl, 'hard hit.' +He is running away from _me_." At this cruel idea, so abhorrent to her +vanity, pride, affection, and general womanhood, the poor girl sank down +on her bed overwhelmed, and did not leave her room for three days,--or +rather eternities,--at the end of which time she met Mr. Ramsay by +accident on the high-road and cut him dead. + +"I must pull myself together and get away out of this," said Mr. Ramsay to +Mr. Ketchum that evening. "I have bought of Albert Brown his ranch in +Colorado, near Taylorsville, and I leave in the morning." + +"WHAT!" cried Mr. Ketchum. "Has he sold you that tumble-down claim on a +burnt prairie, miles from any wood or water? I know the place." + +"I haven't examined the property; but he assures me it is a fine one. And, +anyway, it is settled, I am going. A thousand thanks for all your kindness, +Ketchum. An Englishman that I met in New York wants me to go huntin' with +him, and I shall join him at St. Louis and go on out from there." + +"Why, I thought you had all promised to go to Niagara as my guests in a +few days. Do change your mind and stay, won't you?" urged Mr. Ketchum. + +But Mr. Ramsay was obdurate, and took himself and a car-load of property +off in the direction of the setting sun by the mid-day train next morning. + +"Ramsay, I want you to promise me one thing. If, owing to that skunk Brown, +you are disappointed out there, or don't get on, write or telegraph me, +and I'll stand by you to the tune of ten thousand or so. Good-by, old +fellow. Remember, I'm your _friend_," said generous Job, at the station. +And as he went home he stopped and presented Mr. Albert Brown with a piece +of his mind that any other man would only have taken in exchange for a +flogging, delivered. + +"How very nice and kind of the dear duke to give Mr. Ramsay an invite to +join him!" said Mrs. Sykes, with emotion, at dinner that day. + +F.C. BAYLOR. + +[TO BE CONTINUED.] + + * * * * * + + + + +A TEMPLE PILGRIMAGE + + +Sauntering down the southerly side of Fleet Street, toward the historic +spot where once stood Temple Bar, crested with its ghastly array of +pike-pierced traitors' heads, the curious itinerant comes to an arched +gate-way of Elizabethan architecture. The narrow lane which it guards is +known as Inner Temple Street, and cleaves the Temple enclosure into +unequal parts, ending at the river. Standing in the shady archway, with +the roar and rattle, the glare and glitter, of Fleet Street at our backs, +we instinctively feel that we are about to enter a new and strange +locality, the quiet atmosphere and the cloister-like walks of which seem +redolent of books and the pursuits of bookish men. + +We are on the threshold of the Temple,--a spot than which none in all this +historic metropolis is more replete with memories of the storied past. Nor +does its interest consist solely in its associations with the men and +manners of a by-gone epoch. Despite its antique architecture and its +quaint observances, the Temple still maintains its reputation for +scholarship and legal acumen. Its virility is fitly symbolized in the +venerable and vigorous trees whose branching boughs wave above its walls: +sound to the core, it sends forth new scions with perennial freshness. + +The gray gate-way under which we have halted is one of the two chief +entrances to the Temple. It was built in the reign of James I., being +consequently nearly three centuries old. White-aproned porters, with +numbered pewter badge on lapel, stand on either side, ready--for a +consideration--to direct our transatlantic ignorance into veritable "paths +of pleasantness and peace." Access to the Middle Temple from Fleet Street +is had by way of another gate-house, built by Sir Christopher Wren in 1684, +soon after the Great Fire. It is in the style of Inigo Jones, of reddish +brick, with stone pointing. There are several other entrances,--many of +them known only to the initiated,--through intricate courts and passages +debouching on Fleet Street and the surrounding thoroughfares, and one from +the river at Temple Pier; but, chiefly because of their proximity to the +New Courts of Law, these two gate-ways are most frequented. + +The boundaries of this famous abode of British wit and intellect may be +roughly sketched as follows: on the north, Fleet Street; on the south, the +Thames and the Victoria Embankment; on the east, Serjeants' Inn and the +Whitefriars region; on the west, Essex Street, Strand. These boundaries +remain substantially as they were six or seven centuries ago. The Middle +Temple lies nearest the river; the Inner Temple is nearer to Fleet Street, +and "inside"--that is, on the "city" side--of Temple Bar. Essex House and +its purlieus, once the abode of the powerful earls of that name, were +formerly a part of the Temple. It was called the Outer Temple, because +"outside" of Temple Bar. + +In the reign of Henry II., about the year 1185, the ground now included in +the Temple area became the head-quarters in London of the crusading +Knights Templar. Removing from humbler quarters in Holborn, the order, +having become wealthy and ambitious, bought a tract of land extending from +the walls of Essex House to Whitefriars, and from the river to Fleet +Street. They erected a church, a priory, and other buildings clustered +around in the mediaeval fashion, and in imitation of the Temple near the +Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. + +Under the first Richard and the third Henry the Templars increased in pelf, +power, and pride. After a career commenced in zeal and purity, +culminating in valor and fanaticism, and closing in corruption and +indolence, in the year 1312, when the second Edward sat on the throne of +England, the now useless order was formally abolished by Clement V., the +reigning Pontiff. The Temple domain, by grant of the crown, then passed to +Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, who conveyed it to the Earl of +Lancaster, a cousin of Edward II. It was then rented to the professors and +students of the common law, who had recently become an incorporate body, +In 1333 the Temple had apparently reverted to the crown, for we find +Edward III. farming out the rents for twenty-five pounds a year. + +The Knights Hospitallers of St. John, meantime, affected to be much +scandalized at what they deemed a desecration of holy ground, and claimed +the custody of the place. In 1340, in consideration of a hundred golden +guineas contributed toward the armament against France, the king made over +the Temple to the Hospitallers. They handsomely endowed the church with +lands, and gave "a thousand fagots yearly from Lillerton Wood to nourish +the church fires." + +The records of the Temple date back no further than the reign of Henry +VII., so that the history of the previous period; is more or less obscure +and traditional: the precise manner in which the Temple passed from the +control of the sword to that of the wig and gown is not certain. The +Hospitallers of St. John, who already possessed a priory at Clerkenwell, +in the north of London, after having vindicated the sanctity of the church +and cloisters, are believed to have leased the buildings and the demesne +to the lawyers for the rent of ten pounds, payable yearly. Another account +says that the latter purchased the property outright. However this may +have been, in the reign of Richard II. we find the legal fraternity of the +metropolis securely domiciled in the locality they have ever since +tenaciously clung to. + +Even so early as the time of Henry VI. the brotherhood of lawyers had +attained to an unwieldy growth, and it separated into two halls, the +original two halls of the Knights Templar forming the nuclei around which +the frequenters of each grouped themselves. Thus arose the Middle and +Inner Temple. Under the eighth Henry the two societies became direct +tenants of the crown once more. In 1609 James I. granted "letters patent +to the mansion of the Inner Temple," at a yearly rent of ten sovereigns; +and a like sum was exacted for the Middle Temple. The societies have not +been disturbed in their holdings since that time. + +The Temple to-day comprises two of the four great Inns of Court, +--Lincoln's Inn, Gray's Inn, Inner Temple, Middle Temple,--which, taken +collectively, constitute the backbone of the legal polity of England. Ben +Jonson described them as "the noblest nurseries of humanity and liberty in +the kingdom." They are all of great age and the recipients of rich +revenues. The income of the Middle Temple alone (not the richest of the +four) from the single item of rents is about thirteen thousand pounds +yearly; but the affairs of the Inns are so shrouded in administrative +secrecy that exact information on this topic is not easily obtained. + +Until recently there was a fifth,--Serjeants' Inn, the members of which +were lawyers who had risen to the rank of serjeant, or to the bench +itself. Formerly such promotions terminated membership in the original Inn; +but since the abolishment of the rank of sergeant at the English bar +Serjeants' Inn has ceased to exist,--the name surviving only in the +locality,--and the four Inns have readmitted those of their members on +whom judicial honors were bestowed. + +Each Inn possesses certain smaller or subordinate Inns, which formerly +served as preparatory schools, but which are now mere collections of +chambers. There are thus attached to the Inner Temple Clement's Inn, +Clifford's Inn, and Lyon's Inn; to the Middle Temple, New Inn. + +All the Inns of Court are unincorporated voluntary societies. In our +modern nomenclature the name "inn" may seem a strange one for an +institution of learning; but the term is a literal rendering of the +ancient title _hospitia_ applied to them in the Latin records, as +distinguished from public lodging-houses (_diversoria_). + +Each Inn consists of a hall, a chapel, a law-library, a set of rooms for +the benchers, and a large number of houses, divided into small suites +known as "chambers," and occupied chiefly by barristers, solicitors, and +students, though tenancy is not restricted to these classes. The quiet, +the studious environment, and the freedom from certain social obligations +unavoidable in more fashionable quarters, have at all times rendered +residence in the several Inns peculiarly attractive to that large class in +England which consists in the main of young men of good family, moderate +fortune, and no particular occupation. + +The Inns possess the exclusive right of "calling students to the bar,"[A] +also of "disbarring" a barrister for questionable practices,--a right +exercised by Gray's Inn in 1864 in the case of the late erratic but +brilliant Dr. Kenealy, counsel for the notorious Tichborne "claimant." +From their decision no court, as such, can give relief. The disbarred one +has only the right of appeal to and review by certain of the judges. The +Inns neither govern nor license attorneys, who are admitted to practice by +the courts. + +[Footnote A: The origin of this term dates from the venerable custom of +calling students to the bar that divided the benchers' dais from the body +of the hall to bear their part in the "meetings" or discussions on knotty +legal topics. We are informed by Lord Campbell that Sir Edward Coke "first +evinced his forensic powers when deputed by the students to make a +representation to the benchers of the Inner Temple at one of the 'moots' +respecting the poor quality of the commons served in the hall. He argued +with so much quickness of penetration and solidity of judgment that he +gave entire satisfaction to the students and was much admired by the +benchers."] + +The Middle Temple affiliates with the Universities of London and Durham. A +residence of three years and the keeping of twelve "commons" entitle a +gentleman to be called to its bar, after certain qualifying examinations, +if he be above twenty-three years of age. In the Inner Temple (by far the +richest and most popular of the two societies) the candidate for admission +must have taken his B.A. or passed an examination at the Universities of +Oxford, Cambridge, or London. No one in holy orders can be called, and +none are admitted without the consent of the benchers. The candidate must +also furnish a statement in writing, outlining his rank, age, and +residence, accompanied by a voucher as to his respectability signed by a +bencher or two barristers. In short, the Inns of Court may be described as +universities "with power to grant degrees in the municipal law of England, +which constitute indispensable qualifications for practice in the superior +courts of law." To secure these ends they have from time immemorial +enjoyed the protection of the crown. + +In former times the curriculum was comprehensive and the discipline +severe. The fare provided was frugal, and the chambers were sparsely +furnished. Luxury was tabooed, and the rules were rigidly enforced. From +early morning till the hour of five in the evening, when supper was served, +not an hour was wasted. Fortescue, writing in the time of Henry VI., +gives a graphic account of these law-schools as they were in his day. +"Students resort hither in great numbers to be taught as in common +schools. Here they learn to sing and to exercise themselves in all kinds +of harmony. On the working days they study law, and on the holy days +Scripture, and their demeanor is like the behavior of such as are coupled +together in perfect amity. There is no place where are found so many +students past childhood as here." But in these degenerate days, when the +_jeunesse dorée_ decorate their "dens" with Queen Anne furniture, Turkish +rugs, and choice bric-à -brac, it has been jocosely said that "dining in +hall is the only legal study of Temple students." Of late years, however, +"the best professional sentiment" has strongly and successfully tended in +favor of keeping up the standard of these institutions as true seminaries +of learning. Ample courses of lectures have been introduced, also +subsequent searching examinations. + +A glance at a map of the Temple shows conclusively that it has no +connected plan. Its growth has been the outcome of the needs of many +generations during the last half-dozen centuries, and it is at present a +picturesque conglomeration of buildings of all sizes and shapes and styles, +erected with no regard for architectural beauty or symmetry, and with no +very great adaptability to their past or present use. Aside from the halls +and libraries of the two societies, the Church of St. Mary, and one or two +blocks of chambers, like Paper Buildings, there is no salient feature to +impress the eye. Yet the uniform ugliness of some of the buildings +constitutes not the least of their attractions. A hard grayish stone +frequently appears, though there are a number of brick houses so mellowed +by age that it would be difficult to name their original hue. + +The chambers are frequently massed around four sides of a stone-paved +court, from which direct entrance is had to the main staircases. In some +of these flagged spaces a fountain tinkles; in others, sturdy elm- or +plane-trees tower far above the red chimney-stacks; in the centre of +another is the famous Temple pump. The several courts have distinguishing +names, such as Garden Court, Pump Court, and Brick Court, and they connect +with each other sometimes by an arched passage under the houses, at two +sides of the square, or again by narrow alleys. Nor is the same level +always preserved. Small flights of time-worn steps continually surprise us +in our pilgrimage. The aggregate--barren courts, narrow passages, and +winding lanes--forms a perfect labyrinth, very trying to a stranger or to +one possessing a poor memory for localities. + +The nomenclature of certain of these Temple courts possesses a breezy, +countrified sound, utterly unsuggestive of musty tomes and special +pleadings. Thus, we have Elm-Tree Court, Vine Court, Fig-Tree Court, and +Fountain Court. The reader will recall to mind the fact that it was in the +last-named locality, with its sprightly, sparkling, upward-springing +stream, that Ruth Pinch--"gentle, loving Ruth"--held tryst with her lover, +manly John Westlock. Letitia Elizabeth Landon, too, has embalmed this "pet +and plaything of the Temple" in some pleasant stanzas: + + The fountain's low singing is heard on the wind, + Like a melody bringing sweet fancies to mind,-- + Some to grieve, some to gladden: around them they cast + The hopes of the morrow, the dreams of the past. + Away in the distance is heard the vast sound + From the streets of the city that compass it round, + Like the echo of fountains, or the ocean's deep call; + Yet that fountain's low singing is heard over all. + +Entering the houses, we find them mostly of a stereotyped pattern. A +wainscoted, dark, and generally uncarpeted staircase gives access to +landings on which abut the outer doors of the "sets," or chambers. These +consist of two, three, or at most four rooms, in the style peculiar to the +domestic architecture of the earlier years of the present century. High +corniced ceilings, wainscoted walls, and shoulder-high chimney-pieces +abound. Here and there, however, some opulent tenant has modernized his +rooms; but the structures, inside and out, remain for the most part not +materially changed from the later Georgian era of their erection,--a time +when every gentleman sported a small-sword and ladies wore hoops and +patches. The famous garden forms one of the chief charms of the Temple +enclosure, and its beauty and atmosphere of quiet repose are justly +celebrated. Here Shakespeare is believed to have sat and thought out some +of his most masterly creations; here many of the great legal luminaries of +the last few centuries walked and talked; and here the infantile footsteps +of the subsequently famous "Elia" chased butterflies across the velvety +sward. "The Temple Garden," says Mr. Walter Thornbury, "has probably been +a garden from the time the white-robed Templars first came from Holborn +and settled by the river-side." It covers an expanse of three acres, and +its gay flower-beds, umbrageous trees, and emerald turf make it a +veritable oasis to the inhabitants, and especially to the children, of +that corner of the great metropolis. A pillar sundial in the centre of the +grass bears the date 1770, and the iron gate, surmounted by a winged horse, +which guards the entrance from the terrace, was erected in 1730. East of +the sundial is a hoary old sycamore, sole survivor of three sisters, +carefully protected by railings, under whose grateful shade, says local +tradition, Johnson and Goldsmith were wont to chat. In the Middle Temple +Garden stands a venerable catalpa-tree, planted by Sir Matthew Hale, "one +of the most eminent of lawyers and excellent of men." The scene in "King +Henry the Sixth,"[A] where the partisans of the rival houses of Lancaster +and York assume the distinctive badges of the white and red rose, is laid +in the Temple Garden. "Toward evening," says Dr. Dibdin, "it was the +fashion for the leading counsel to promenade during the summer months in +the Temple Gardens. Cocked hats and ruffles, with satin small-clothes, at +that time constituted the usual evening dress." Anciently, the "moots" +were held on the terrace of the Garden at five of the clock in the long +summer evenings. + +[Footnote A: Part I., act 2, scene 4.] + +The great hall of the Middle Temple is one of the finest Elizabethan +structures in the metropolis. It was commenced in 1562, when the old hall +was converted into chambers, consumed a decade in building, and is of +grand proportions. It is a hundred feet long, and the massive beauty of +the glossy oaken roof, almost black with age, is alone worth an Atlantic +voyage to see. The walls and windows are decorated with the arms of +various members of the Inn, and the paintings are numerous and of great +historical interest. Over the dais is a portrait of Charles I. on +horse-back, by Vandyke, one of the three original paintings of the unhappy +monarch by that great master. Another of the trio is at Windsor, while the +third adorns Warwick Castle. There are also copies of portraits of Charles +II., James II., William III., Queen Anne, and George II., and marble busts, +by Behnes, of "Doubting" Lord Eldon and Lord Stowell, the great Admiralty +judge. The screen and the music-gallery are marvels of the wood-carver's +art. Tradition says the screen was made of oak from the timbers of the +wrecked Invincible Armada; but this cannot be, inasmuch as it was set up a +dozen years before the doomed squadron sailed out of Lisbon harbor. + +The Middle Temple Library, a handsome building of recent erection, +situated on the river side of the Inn, at the southwest corner of the +Temple Gardens, was opened by the Prince of Wales, October 31, 1861. While +it is of nobler proportions than the library of the Inner Temple, it does +not seem to be so well suited for the purposes of the student. Its +location, however, is far more pleasant, on the margin of the +flower-mantled garden, and within sight of the busy Victoria Embankment +and of the panoramic river scenery. From the great oriel window a noble +vista is unrolled. In the distance, the twin-towered Houses of Parliament +are outlined against the sky, while the massive proportions of the "water +front" of Somerset House, the motley groupings of the structures that +crowd the intervening water-side, and the flashing river hound by +many-arched bridges, fill the middle distance. + +Aside from the lustre shed around its history by many eminent lawyers and +jurists, the Middle Temple has numbered among its students several great +poets and dramatists, notably John Ford, William Congreve, Nicholas Rowe, +Thomas Shadwell, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and Thomas Moore. But, as +their literary remains prove, few or none of them prosecuted their legal +studies with that sedulous devotion which the law, proverbially a jealous +mistress, demands. Sir William Blackstone, who immortalized his name by +his "Commentaries on the Laws of England," was educated in the Middle +Temple, where he was entered as a student, November 20, 1741, and by which +he was called to the bar, April 26, 1750. In his Temple chambers, ere he +finally consecrated his massive intellect to the legal profession, +Blackstone wrote the famous "Farewell to the Muses:" + + Lull'd by the lapse of gliding floods, + Cheer'd by the warbling of the woods, + How blest my days, my thoughts how free, + In sweet society with thee! + Then all was joyous, all was young, + And years, unheeded, roll'd along; + But now the pleasing dream is o'er,-- + These scenes must charm me now no more. + Lost to the field and torn from you, + Farewell! a long, a last adieu. + +Edmund Burke was entered at the Middle Temple in 1747, and kept his terms +in 1750. But the great tribune was never called to the bar. Had he been, +what a powerful advocate, what a pitiless adversary, he would have made! +Porson, the brilliant but bibulous classicist, has left behind him many +sad stories of his pranks during his residence in Essex Court, where he +had chambers immediately above those occupied by the future Baron Gurney, +whom, in one of his debauches, he came near burning in his bed. Chaucer is +believed to have entered as a student of the Middle Temple, where he is +supposed to have formed a friendship with the "moral Gower." Sir Walter +Raleigh, Sir Thomas Overbury, Sir Edward Bramston, Lord-Keeper Guildford, +Edmund Plowden,--perhaps the greatest lawyer of the Elizabethan epoch, +--"Ugly" Dunning, who afterward became Lord Ashburton, and Lord Eldon, are +among the ornaments of the British bench and bar who sprung from the +Middle Temple. + +Now, however, the glories of the Middle Temple rest chiefly in the past. +It has decreased in wealth and in numbers. There is an old proverb which +says, "The Inner Temple for the rich, the Middle Temple for the poor;" and +a famous wit emphasized this saying by a happy _mot_. After one of its far +from _recherché_ dinners, he compared a gritty salad, of which he had been +unlucky enough to partake, to "eating a gravel walk and meeting an +occasional weed." + +The hall of the Inner Temple is a modern building, and was opened by the +Princess Louise on May 4, 1870. More spacious than the one it replaced, it +contains a number of cosy offices and ante-rooms. There is also attached a +lunch-room for the use of members, much frequented in term-time, when at +the mid-day hour one may meet many of the great practitioners at the +English bar. Passable portraits of William and Mary, Queen Anne, Lord +Chief-Justice Coke, and Sir Thomas Littleton look upon the visitor, and +the arms of the successive treasurers of the Inn are blazoned on the walls. + +The Inner Temple Library is the most attractive, quiet, and convenient of +any in the four Inns. Its plan comprises a series of book-lined apartments +leading one into another. Besides a valuable and voluminous collection of +authorities on legal topics, it possesses a unique array of works on +general subjects. It stands on the terrace, and commands a view of the +river. The noble hammer-beam roof is a fine specimen of its kind, spanning +a chamber forty-two feet wide and ninety-six feet long. One of the +stained-glass windows is emblazoned with the Templars' escutcheon. The +debating-hall is in the Tudor style, and cost not far from seventy-five +thousand dollars. + +Several great jurists and a number of men equally eminent in other walks +of life were connected with the Inner Temple, pre-eminent among whom stand +Sir Christopher Hatton, Lord-Chancellor of England in 1587, and nicknamed +the "Dancing Chancellor," Lord Tenterden, "one of the greatest Englishmen +who ever sat in the seat of Gamaliel," who was admitted in 1795, and John +Selden, who took up residence in Paper Buildings in 1604. The latter were +consumed in the great fire of 1666. Audley, chancellor to the eighth Henry, +Nicholas Hare, privy councillor to the latter monarch and Master of the +Rolls under Mary, who resided in the court which now bears his name, the +eminent lawyer Littleton and his no less famous commentator Coke, Lord +Buckburst, Beaumont the poet, Sir William Follett, and Judge Jeffries of +infamous memory, were all students within the Temple precincts. + +Charles Lamb, whose father, John Lamb, was clerk to Mr. Salt, a bencher of +the Inner Temple, was born in Crown Office Row. In 1809 he took chambers +at No. 4, Inner Temple Lane, where some of the delightful "Elia" essays +were penned. In one of these he says, "I was born and passed the first +seven years of my life in the Temple. Its church, its halls, its gardens, +its fountains, its river, I had almost said,--for in those young years +what was the king of rivers to me but a stream that watered our pleasant +places?--these are of my oldest recollections. I repeat to this day no +verses more frequently or with kindlier emotion than those of Spenser +where he speaks of this spot. Indeed, it is the most elegant spot in the +metropolis. What a transition for a countryman visiting London for the +first time,--the passing from the crowded Strand or Fleet Street by +unexpected avenues into its magnificent ample squares, its classic green +recesses! What a cheerful, liberal look hath that portion of it which, +from three sides, overlooks the greater garden, that goodly pile + + Of buildings strong, albeit of paper hight,[A] + +confronting with massy contrast the lighter, older, more fantastically +shrouded one named of Harcourt, with the cheerful Crown Office Row (place +of my kindly engendure), right opposite the stately stream which washes +the garden foot with her yet scarcely trade-polluted waters and seems but +just weaned from Twickenham Na?es! A man would give something to have been +born in such places. What a collegiate aspect has that fine Elizabethan +hall where the fountain plays which I have made to rise and fall how many +times, to the astonishment of the young urchins my contemporaries, who, +not being able to guess at its recondite machinery, were tempted to hail +the wondrous work as magic." Though its courts may have been "magnificent" +and "ample" to the contemplation of the kindly Lamb, they would scarce be +so accounted now. + +[Footnote A: Paper Buildings.] + +The "great Cham of Literature," Dr. Samuel Johnson, resided for some time +at No. 1, Inner Temple Lane. Indeed, it was while the doctor was living in +the Temple that the world-famous "Literary Club" was founded. The faithful +and receptive Boswell, too, as might be expected, lived within easy +distance of the object of his veneration, at the foot of Inner Temple +Lane. It was in 1763 that Boswell first made the acquaintance of the +"Great Bear" and called on him in his Temple chambers. + +Cowper the poet, as the reader doubtless remembers, at first embraced the +law as his profession. He was duly articled to a solicitor of some +eminence; but with how little ardor he devoted himself to the study may be +inferred from the following candid confession: "I did actually live three +years with Mr. Chapman, a solicitor,--that is to say, I slept three years +in his house, but I lived, I spent my days, in Southampton Row. Here was I +and the future Lord Chancellor [Thurlow] constantly employed from morning +till night in giggling and making giggle instead of studying law." It is +not surprising, as one of his biographers remarks, that when, at the age +of twenty-one, he proudly became the occupant of a set of chambers in the +Middle Temple, "he neither sought business nor business sought him." + +While domiciled here, the hideous malady which darkened his manhood began +to cast its gloomy pall on his mind. In the year 1759 he removed from the +Middle Temple to better quarters in the Inner Temple. For a time the +change seemed beneficial, but in 1763 what had hitherto been mere morbid +melancholy became something very near the dreaded insanity. "I was struck, +" he says, "not long after my settlement in the Temple, with such +dejection of spirits as none but they who have felt the same can have the +least conception of. Day and night I was upon the rack, lying down in +horror and rising up in despair." His residence at the Temple extended in +all through eleven years. The year above mentioned, the last of that term, +found the poet in straitened circumstances. The twin offices of +reading-clerk and clerk of committees in the House of Lords became vacant +at this juncture, and both were at the disposal of a cousin of Cowper's. +They were duly conferred on the poet. But the duties of these positions +necessitated frequent attendance before the Peers, and to one who suffered +from a morbid nervousness this prospect was most distasteful. Hence, +almost immediately after having accepted them, Cowper resigned these posts +and took instead that of clerk of the journals. Now another difficulty +intervened. It was necessary, in order to qualify for this place, that he +should undergo an examination at the bar of the House of Peers; and thus +"the evil from which he seemed to have escaped again met him." + +"A thunderbolt," he writes, "would have been as welcome to me as this +intelligence. To require my attendance at the bar of the House, that I +might there publicly entitle myself to the office, was in effect to +exclude me from it. In the mean time, the interest of my friend, the honor +of his choice, my own reputation and circumstances, all urged me forward, +all urged me to undertake what I saw to be impracticable." The mental +agony he suffered was wellnigh unbearable. He even contemplated with some +calmness the coming of mental derangement, that thereby he might have good +reason for throwing up the appointment. He made many attempts to destroy +himself. "He purchased laudanum, but threw it away. He went down to the +Custom-House Quay to throw himself into the river. He tried to stab +himself." Finally, the most desperate attempt of all to extinguish the +lamp of life took place in his Temple chambers. Thrice he essayed to hang +himself by his garter,--first on his high canopy bedstead, and then on the +door. + +The public way which, starting at Fleet Street, runs between the Temple +Church and Goldsmith Buildings, is a curious thoroughfare,--street it +cannot be called. It inclines somewhat toward the river, with a very +narrow foot-walk, scarcely wide enough for two to pass abreast. On one +side is the hoary sanctuary, and on the other a row of gloomy, +flat-fronted houses, whose dirty windows blink drowsily on the flagged way +beneath. + +The pavement of a part of this thoroughfare is unique. It consists of old +tombstones. In 1842, the entire available space in the churchyard being +covered with graves, the benchers decided to permit no more interments +there, and ordered it to be paved over. A path now runs directly across +the old cemetery, where rest the bones of the Knights Templar and their +dependants, and many of the sculptured stones have become paving-flags. +Worn and polished by the passage of many feet, the epitaphs are entirely +defaced. Here and there a few letters of antique cut may with difficulty +be deciphered; but soon no sign will survive to tell of this painful +desecration. + +A little outside the roadway the ground is slightly elevated, and near to, +but outside of, the gilt-tipped railings which enclose the Temple Church +lies a very unpretending slab of marble. Rising but a few inches above the +level, one corner sunken and green with earth-mould, it is but a single +remove from the general decay around it. No fence protects it, children +play and fight their mimic battles thereon, and when last we saw it a +group of workmen employed near by were discussing their noontide bread and +cheese and beer in various lounging attitudes upon it. The slab is sadly +chipped, yet it is not nearly so old as the years of the century. Surely +the man whose death it commemorates departed this life + + Unwept, unhonored, and unsung. + +Not so. Let us scrape aside the accumulated dirt, and trace with +finger-tip the fast-vanishing inscription. It says, "Here lies Oliver +Goldsmith." This, then, is the way the world reveres its great ones. Of +what avail a monument to the poet in Westminster Abbey, dignified by the +celebrated epitaph of Dr. Johnson, when his tomb is thus relegated to the +domain of neglect and oblivion? Even the site at present indicated is +"entirely conjectural:" the precise position of the poet's grave has been +long forgotten. + +Goldsmith Buildings, of course, take their name from the erratic poet and +playwright. In one of them he lived and died, just above the rooms +tenanted by the learned Blackstone, who, at that time engaged in penning +the fourth volume of his "Commentaries," was often grievously annoyed by +the dancing- and drinking-parties, the games of blind-man's-buff, and the +noisy singing of "poor Noll" and his boon companions. Goldsmith took up +residence in the Temple in the spring of the year 1764, in a very shabby +set of rooms, which he shared with Jeffs, the butler of the society. Here +Dr. Johnson visited him, says Mr. Forster, "and on prying and peering +about in them after his short-sighted fashion, flattening his face against +every object be looked at, Goldsmith's uneasy sense of their deficiencies +broke out. 'I shall soon be in better chambers, sir, than these,' he said. +'Nay, sir,' answered Johnson, 'never mind that: _nil te quaesiveris +extra_.'" + +In 1765, his purse having become somewhat more plethoric, he removed to +Garden Court, then, as now, one of the choice spots in the Temple Area. +Here he sported a man-servant, and ran head over ears in debt to his +trades-people. Three years later, in 1768, we find the happy-go-lucky +spendthrift squandering four hundred of the five hundred pounds which the +partial success of "The Good-Natured Man" netted him in the purchase of a +set of chambers in No. 2 Brick Court, much to the sorrow of the studious +Blackstone, whose fellow-tenant he thus became. The nocturnal revelries of +Goldy and his intimates are happily described in Mr. Forster's biography. +Supper-parties were frequent, "preceded by blind-man's-buff, forfeits, or +games of cards, when Goldsmith, festively entertaining them all, would +make frugal supper for himself off boiled milk." He would "sing all kinds +of Irish songs," and with special enjoyment "gave them the Scotch ballad +of 'Johnny Armstrong' (his old nurse's favorite);" with great cheerfulness +"he would put the front of his wig behind, or contribute in any other way +to the general amusement;" and to an "accompaniment of uncontrolled +laughter he once danced a minuet with Mrs. Seguin," the wife of an Irish +merchant. + +A volume would not contain the thrilling story of the trials and triumphs, +the struggles and successes, of the dead-and-gone generations whose feet +have polished the cool gray flags of the purlieus of the Temple. Comedy +and tragedy have been enacted within its walls; penury and prodigality +have dwelt beneath the same rafters; the versatile genius and the plodding +dullard have taken their maiden flights toward fame in its halls. Soldiers +and statesmen, poets and playwrights, courtiers, wits, and adventurers, +have herein acted their various parts. Yet, despite the checkered lives +that have run their course within its pale, and notwithstanding the lustre +shed upon its history by the many great jurists nurtured there, the Temple +gains its greatest renown from the residence therein of that famous trio, +Johnson, Goldsmith, and Lamb. + +The immortal pump, so often alluded to in the Temple annals, stands in the +centre of Hare Court,--not in Pump Court, as might not unreasonably be +expected. It yields a copious supply of the coolest spring-water, and the +office-lads of the surrounding chambers make many pilgrimages hither, +stone pitcher in hand, during the sultry summertime. Charles Lamb, in an +epistle to Coleridge, in his happiest vein, says, "I have been turned out +of my chambers in the Temple by a landlord who wanted them for himself; +but I have got others at No. 4, Inner Temple Lane, far more commodious and +roomy.... The rooms are delicious, and the best look backwards into Hare +Court, where there is a pump always going; just now it is dry. Hare +Court's trees come in at the window,--so that it's like living in a +garden." Again, writing from the Temple in 1810 to his friend Manning, who +is in China, Lamb says, "The household gods are slow to come, but here I +mean to live and die. Come, and bring any of your friends the mandarins +with you. My best room commands a court in which are trees and a pump, the +water of which is excellent cold--with brandy, and not very insipid +without." At about the same time we find Mary Lamb recording that her +genial brother had suddenly taken to living like an anchorite. He tabooed +all alcoholic drinks, and confined himself to cold water and cold tea. But +the beverage drawn from Hare Court did not agree with his internal +economy: he suffered in consequence from cramps and rheumatism, and his +abstention from generous fluids was, we are forced to infer, exceedingly +brief. + +The poet Garth, who exposed the apothecaries of London to reprobation and +ridicule in his satirical poem "The Dispensary," also humorously alludes +to Hare Court's pump: + + And dare the college insolently aim + To equal our fraternity in fame? + Then let crabs' eyes with pearls for virtue try, + Or Highgate Hill with lofty Pindus vie; + So glowworms may compare with Titan's beams, + And Hare Court pump with Aganippe's streams. + +The one structure in the Temple area that overshadows all others in point +of interest is the famous round church, consecrated to St. Mary by +Heraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, in the year 1185. This prelate's +presence in England was on an errand to invoke the assistance of Henry II. +against Saladin, who had recently inflicted several disastrous defeats on +the Templars in the Holy Land. + +The church was finished about 1240. It is one of the four round churches +still remaining in England. Its plan is that of a central round tower, +supported by six beautiful clustered columns, crossed by a nave and +transepts. Notwithstanding the lapse of ages, and although its beauties +were for centuries hidden beneath a variety of hideous excrescences, it +remains to-day one of the best specimens of early Gothic architecture +extant. In 1682, 1695, 1706, 1737, and 1811 extensive repairs were made. +In 1828 the exterior was thoroughly restored and recased with stone, and +several unsightly structures that impeded the view of the church were +removed. All of these so-called restorations were, however, but partial in +extent. Many outrageous additions and much meretricious ornamentation, +added at various epochs, were allowed to remain. + +Finally, in 1845, steps were taken looking to a thorough renovation and +restoration of the venerable pile. The purity of the marble columns had +been sullied by several coats of paint and whitewash, while many of the +foliated capitals of the columns supporting the "Round" bore traces of +gilding. These latter were scraped and cleaned; an eight-feet-high oak +wainscot was removed; light, movable seats were substituted for the heavy +pews of Charles II.'s time that encumbered the Round; the pavement was +lowered to its original level, thus revealing the bases of the columns; +the organ (built by the famous Father Smith in the reign of Charles II.) +was removed to its present position in the choir, and the whole interior, +by means of these and other extensive changes, was exhibited in its +pristine purity. + +It is difficult to understand the crass stupidity which blocked up +exquisite Norman windows, covered carved capitals with a thick coat of +cement, closed many of the arches with wooden partitions, planted a +cumbrous pulpit and reading-desk immediately under the dome, and hid the +noble groined ceiling behind a shell of flat, whitewashed boarding. In the +course of these repairs much of the marble-work was found to require +renewal, for replacing which some old quarries in the Isle of Purbeck, +unworked for generations, were reopened. + +On the pavement, immediately under the Round, are several marble effigies +of mail-clad knights,--"Associates of the Temple." Those that have been +identified represent Geoffry de Magnaville, Earl of Essex, one of the +barons who fought against King Stephen; another, having clean-cut features +and clad in chain-armor, commemorates William Marshall, who was Protector +during the reign of Henry III,; and by his side rests his son, a leader of +the Barons in their memorable struggle against King John. The effigy of +Gilbert Marshall, third son of the Protector, reposes near the western +door-way, and hard by is the figure of a warrior in the act of prayer, +supposed to be intended for Robert, Lord of Ros. Five or six other figures, +some of remarkable beauty, and all in good preservation, two of heroic +stature, are unidentified. + +Service is held daily in the Temple Church, and admission is practically +free. On Sunday mornings, however, the introduction of a bencher is +requisite to secure admittance. The music is of the best of its kind, and +the organ, though of great age, is renowned as one of the purest-and +sweetest-toned instruments in London. + +No account of the Temple would be complete without some mention of its +many curious sundials. Each garden possesses a plain pillar-dial. There is +one in Temple Lane with the motto, "_Pereunt et imputantur_," and +"_Vestigia nulla retrorsum_" appears on another in Essex Court. In Pump +Court, high up on the front of a house is a large, rectangular dial, with +gilt figures and stile, bearing the inscription, "Shadows we are and like +shadows depart." Over the dial is the traditional Temple lamb bearing a +cross.[A] In Brick Court there is a dial with the apt legend, "Time and +tide tarry for no man." In the year 1828 an ancient building on Inner +Temple Terrace was demolished, and with it a sundial bearing the strange +but not inappropriate inscription, "Begone about your business." The story +runs that, many years before, a crusty old bencher had promised the +dial-maker to provide a motto for the then new dial. The messenger, +however, arrived at an inopportune time, received the above curt dismissal +in answer to his request, and conveyed it to his master as the legend to +be engraved. + +[Footnote A: The devices of the Middle and Inner Temple are a lamb and a +horse respectively, and they may be frequently seen blazoned on window and +wall. An irreverent wit once scrawled these lines on the Temple gate: + + As by the Templars' hold you go, + The horse and lamb displayed + In emblematic figures show + The merits of their trade. + + The clients may infer from thence + How just is their profession: + The lamb sets forth their innocence, + The horse their expedition. + + O happy Britons, happy isle, + Let foreign nations say, + Where you get justice without guile, + And law without delay! + +In answer and in ridicule of which, a second scribbler penned the +following stanzas beneath: + + Deluded men, these holds forego, + Nor trust such cunning elves: + These artful emblems tend to show + Their _clients_, not _themselves_. + + 'Tis all a trick; these are all shams + By which they mean to cheat you: + But have a care,--for you're the lambs, + And they the wolves that eat you. + + Nor let the thought of "no delay" + To these their courts misguide you: + 'Tis you're the showy horse, and they + The jockeys that will ride you.] + +The din and devastation of civil strife and the smoke and flame of +conflagration have more than once surged high and furious in and around +the Temple. In Wat Tyler's rebellion many of the houses were razed by the +rioters, books and parchments were carried away and fed to bonfires, and +it was the intention of the rebels to destroy the precinct and the lawyers +together, for thus, they said, they would obliterate both unjust laws and +corrupt law-makers. The "No-Popery" rioters in 1780 marched to attack the +Temple, but were awed into flight by the apparently determined front +presented by the lawyers and students, who were really in desperate fear +themselves. Street-fights with the lawless Alsatians of the adjoining +Whitefriars region were at one time frequent.[B] In 1553, and again in +1669, the mayor of the city essayed to "pass through the cloisters with +drawn sword." The Temple claimed immunity from civic control, and on both +occasions the mayor's weapon was beaten down and a bloody affray resulted. +An appeal growing out of this event was made to Charles II. by Heneage +Finch in behalf of the Temple, but the question is still unsettled. Hence +the modern Templars close their gates at ten o'clock every night, and when +the "charity children" of the adjacent parishes "beat the bounds" on +Ascension Day, redouble their vigilance. The rich rental of the property +pays no local taxes, though repeated efforts have been made to assess it. + +[Footnote B: Salisbury Court, Whitefriars, enjoyed for centuries the +privilege of a sanctuary--at first for criminals, but finally for debtors +only--until 1697, when it was abolished by royal warrant. It was nicknamed +"Alsatia," in imitation of the frontier province of the same name, which +was long a cause of contention and familiarly known to English soldiers in +the long Continental wars. As Cunningham observes, "In the Temple students +were trying to keep the law, and in Alsatia, adjoining, debtors to avoid +and violate it. The Alsatians were troublesome neighbors to the Templars, +and the Templars as troublesome neighbors to the Alsatians."] + +In 1666 the Great Fire of London burnt its way westward as far as the +Temple. After consuming several sets of chambers and a quantity of +title-deeds to many valuable estates, the course of the flames was stayed +just east of the Temple Church. But in 1678-79, in the mouth of January, a +large area was burned over. The fire lasted from midnight till noon of the +ensuing day. Pump Court, Vine Court, part of Brick Court, Elm-Tree Court, +Hare Court, part of Middle Temple Hall, a portion of Inner Temple Hall, +and the old cloisters, were swept away. The season was remarkable for its +severity: the Thames was frozen over, and the supply of water entirely +inadequate. So great hogsheads of ale were hoisted up from the cellars and +the liquor fed to the clumsy hand-engines of the period. When the ale gave +out, recourse was had to gunpowder,--buildings in the track of the flames +being blown up; but in this dangerous work the Temple library was +demolished. In the end, however, the Temple was the gainer by this fire: +much better structures took the place of the old rookeries, and the entire +precinct was purified. + +Around the hoary walls of the Temple cluster memories of many a strange +custom or quaint observance. The revels at Yule-tide, St. Stephen's Day, +New Year's Day, and Twelfth Night were not surpassed anywhere in "merrie +England." Feasts, masques, and play-acting at various times greatly +scandalized the more sober and staid among the benchers. Stowe tells us +that the readers of his day "for upwards of three weeks kept a splendid +table, feasting the nobility, judges, bishops, principal officers of state, +and sometimes the king himself, insomuch that it has cost a reader above +one thousand pounds,"--a mint of money in those frugal days. Revelries +grew in frequency and attractiveness as the business of instruction +declined, so much so that we are compelled to believe that at one period +the qualifications for admission were merely nominal. A banquet given by +Sir Heneage Finch the year following the restoration of Charles II. lasted +from the 4th to the 17th of August, and all London was invited and made +welcome. + +In one point the Templars of to-day are not a whit behind their +predecessors: they give good dinners. For centuries the benchers of the +two societies have dined in each other's company once a year in the great +hall; and to Mr. Thornbury we are indebted for the following description +of a Temple dinner of to-day: + +"An Inner Temple banquet is a very grand thing. At five or half-past five +the barristers and students in their gowns follow the benchers in +procession to the dais; the steward strikes the table solemnly a mystic +three times; grace is said by the treasurer or senior bencher present, and +the men of law fall to. In former times it was the custom to blow a horn +in every court to announce the meal. The benchers observe somewhat more +style at their table than the other members do at theirs. The general +repast is a tureen of soup, a joint of meat, a tart, and cheese to each +mess, consisting of four persons, and each mess is allowed a bottle of +port wine. Dinner is served daily to the members of the Inn during +term-time,--the masters of the bench dining on the dais, and the +barristers and students at long tables extending down the hall. On grand +days the judges are present, who dine in succession with each of the four +Inns of Court. To the parliament chamber, adjoining the hall, the benchers +repair after dinner. The 'loving-cups' used on certain grand occasions are +huge silver goblets, which are passed down the table filled with a +delicious composition, immemorially termed 'sack,' consisting of sweetened +and exquisitely flavored white wine. The butler attends the progress of +the cup to replenish it, and each student is by rule restricted to a sip; +yet it is recorded that once, though the number present fell short of +seventy, thirty-six quarts of the liquid were sipped away. At the Inner +Temple, on May 29, a gold cup of sack is handed to each member, who drinks +to the happy restoration of Charles II." + +The Temple has been for generations a favorite abode with men of letters +and others having no leaning toward or connection with the bar. It is a +vast bachelors' hall. Fleet Street and its immediate vicinity is the +centre of the publishing interest of London. Here many of the great +dailies are edited and printed, and "Brain Street," as George Augustus +Sala fitly nicknamed it, is midway between the "city" and the "West End, +"--the "down town" and the "up town" of London, if such a simile is +permissible as applied to a brick-and-mortar polypus whose members radiate +toward every point of the compass. No part of the Temple is more than five +minutes' walk from this centre of intellectual industry, and yet, once +within its walls, the silence and seclusion are complete. The roar and +rattle of Fleet Street and the Strand might be a thousand miles away, for +scarce a murmur penetrates beyond the Temple gates. The quiet, stone-paved +courts, the grassy nooks gemmed with a few choice blossoms, the +soft-plashing fountains, overshadowed by sturdy elm-, plane-, or fig-trees, +the cool stone archways leading from one court to another, the park-like +expanse of the Temple Garden, bounded by the bustling Embankment and the +swift-flowing river, are surroundings favorable alike to the labors of a +busy journalist, to the novelist's weavings of fiction, to the poet's +subtile creations, to the purposeful studies of the patient scholar, or to +the objectless dreamings of the mere "man about town." + +HENRY FREDERIC REDDALL. + + * * * * * + + + + +"MEES." + + +Red-armed Annette gave a final glance at the table, and as the clock was +striking eight summoned Frau Pastorin Raben's boarders to supper. Promptly +came the two Von Ente girls, high-born and high-posed damsels, forced to +make themselves teachers. It had been a sad blow to their pride. The elder +was somewhat consoled by a huge carbuncle brooch given to her by Kaiser +Wilhelm himself. The younger was named for a very great lady; and when a +letter came from the very great lady the recipient lifted her head and +remembered that, whatever happened, she was a Von Ente. + +Following them close, there entered the dining-room a woman who painted +pictures and sold them. Hedwig Vogel was about fifty, tall, angular, +hard-featured. She was reported to be very rich and very mean. Moreover, +she was an undoubted democrat; for when Elsa von Ente's lady patron came +to the house, everybody kissed the august dame's hand except Hedwig Vogel +and "the Mees." Of course "the Mees," poor thing! knew no better; but +Fräulein Vogel!--a woman guilty of such a misdemeanor was capable of +putting dynamite in Bismarck's night-cap. She responded curtly to the +greeting given to her by the Von Entes, and then asked where the Frau +Pastorin might be. + +"Here," answered a soft voice, and the plump, smiling, suave mistress of +the house entered and seated herself at the table. As she bowed her head +to invoke a blessing on the smoked herring, the raw ham, the salad, the +three kinds of bread, a tardy boarder opened the dining-room door. She +stood on the threshold for a minute, then moved swiftly to her place. + +"Good-evening, Mees," said the Frau Pastorin, and "Good-evening, Mees," +echoed the Von Entes. Fräulein Vogel contented herself with a nod, and +attacked bread and ham in hungry silence. + +"Your walk has given you a fine color," the Frau Pastorin continued +blandly. Then, turning to the artist, "You should paint the Mees, +Fräulein. 'A Study of America.' That would sound well, would it not?" + +The Study of America smiled a little disdainfully, and refused the raw ham +and the herring offered to her by Elsa von Ente. She had refused raw ham +and smoked herring at least a hundred times, but yet the Frau Pastorin +protested. + +"I am sad there is nothing for you," she murmured in English,--a language +she fondly fancied she spoke. + +"Oh, there is bread galore," said the Mees. + +This set the hostess to thinking. Bread she understood; but what was bread +galore? + +"I should like to learn some American dishes," she said. "Buckwhit cakes, +--so, is it right?--I have read of them. How you would relish them +to-night, would you not?" + +"No," said Mees ungraciously. + +"Not?" said the Von Entes, who talked together habitually. "But what then?" + +"Beef--mutton--chickens," said Mees. + +"We have them here," murmured the Frau Pastorin sweetly. + +"Do you?" said Mees, quite as sweetly. And Hedwig Vogel burst out +laughing. The Frau Pastorin bit her lip, the Von Ente girls looked blank, +and Annette scuttled away, smelling danger from afar, for she knew full +well that she often received a vicarious reproof. + +Supper over, the table was cleared and a big Bible laid before the Frau +Pastorin, who, as a clergyman's widow, felt that it was her duty to set a +good example to the sojourners beneath her roof. Hedwig Vogel, however, +did not stay to the reading: she went up to her bare, lonely rooms. They +were totally lacking in character, for neither the woman nor the artist +was betrayed in their appointments. Everything was scrupulously clean and +painfully neat about them. German-fashion, the square table was pushed +close to the sofa, and held a lamp and four never-opened books. Here +Fräulein Vogel seated herself, turned up the lamp-wick, and then crossed +her long, lean, sinewy hands in her lap. The tall white porcelain stove +made the room so warm that she presently rose and set a window open a +little way. She was indeed a dangerous, unconventional creature, a +Prussian who cared neither for great ladies nor draughts. She stood there, +feeling the damp air of early spring blow in her face. From the beer-hall +near by came the sound of music; over the pavement rattled a cart drawn by +two weary dogs and followed by a yet wearier peasant-woman; with a brave +clink-clank of spurs and sword strode by a brave lieutenant. Above all +these sounds Fräulein Vogel's quick ear caught a light foot-fall on the +bare stairs without. She crossed the parlor and flung open the door. + +"Mees." + +"Yes, most gracious lady." + +"Ridiculous,--'gracious lady'! Come in." + +Mees obeyed, and took the place of honor on the sofa beside the painter. + +"I have a favor to ask," she said, with a deprecatory smile, "Don't call +me Mees, please. It does not mean anything." + +"Shall I say Mees Varing?" asked the painter, with a struggle to pronounce +the name properly. + +"Unless you like Kitty better," said Mees. + +"Kitty--Kitty." Fräulein Vogel repeated it gravely. "Kitty." She smiled. +"Kitty Varing, of New York. Now I have it all." + +"No," said Kitty, "not quite. Of Withlacootchie, New York." + +They both laughed, the Indian name was so unmanageable. Kitty finally +wrote it down, and the painter pronounced it over and over again. At last +she straightened up, and said sternly, + +"But where is the picture, Mees--Kitty?" + +"Ah, you don't want to see it," Kitty exclaimed; "and I don't want to show +it to you. I tell you I have no talent. I suppose, though, patience must +tell in the end," she added, half to herself. + +"Yes, it will tell," said the painter grimly. "It will tell--something. +Go get your picture now." + +Kitty crossed the corridor to her own little room. There was the picture, +--a sketch in oils of the best-known model in DÃ¥sseldorf, this time rigged +out as a Roman peasant. The girl looked at the picture with a frown; she +seized it as though she would dash it on the floor in scorn, but, checking +the impulse, she carried it to Fräulein Vogel. + +The successful painter looked at the sketch in silence for a full minute, +holding it off at arm's length. Finally, she laid it down on the table, +murmuring, "And after three years' hard work!" + +"Only a year's real work," Kitty broke in eagerly. "I have only been here +a year, you know; and those two years at home I ought not to count, for I +did not work then as I do now." + +"Why not?" asked Fräulein Vogel sharply. And Kitty changed color. + +"Ah, one must not ask questions," Fräulein Vogel remarked; "but one can +have plenty of suspicions. I dare say you were in love, and, as love +failed, you have taken to art. So it goes with women. Everything but +marriage is a _pis-aller_." + +Kitty half rose: the stray arrow had sped home, and it rankled in a new +wound. + +"I am a woman myself," added Fräulein Vogel, with a droll smile that +melted the girl's anger in an instant. + +Kitty dropped down on the sofa. "Well," she said gayly, "I grant that I +was in love once on a time; but that is all past. Now I want to be a +painter. Listen: I have not much money, I have no friends,--that is, +friends such as we read about,--and I must learn to make some money. When +I am thirty I shall begin to make money; otherwise--" + +"You are spending your capital," said Fräulein Vogel. + +"If I spent only my income I should either wear shoes and no clothes, or +clothes and no shoes," answered Kitty, laughing, with a little air of +recklessness that sat well on her. "Besides," she added sagely, "it is +well to burn one's ships. Sink or swim." + +"But you are quite sure of swimming?" said Fräulein Vogel, taking up the +picture again and looking at it closely. + +"It is very bad," Kitty said. + +"Abominable," said the painter. She drew a long breath and shook her head. +"Abominable," she repeated, almost as though such an abominable piece of +work demanded respect. "_Ach_! You leave old Zweifarbe's studio," she +exclaimed. "Send your easel over to me. You want to make some money? Good. +There are many artists here in DÃ¥sseldorf who say I cannot paint; there is +not one who will say I have not made money. Perhaps I can teach you." And +Fräulein Vogel burst out laughing, while Kitty stared at her in blank +surprise. + +"But you have never taken pupils," she stammered. + +"I have never died; but I suppose I shall," was the response. + +And so old Zweifarbe lost a pupil,--for Kitty's easel was straightway +borne on the back of a sturdy _dienstmann_ to Fräulein Vogel's studio. +What a chatter, what a commotion, it caused in the nest of painters! They +chirped and gossiped and pecked each other like a flock of sparrows. The +Frau Pastorin expressed the popular sentiment when she discussed Hedwig +Vogel's eccentricities. + +"How much a lesson?" she said, half closing one shrewd gray eye. "How much +a lesson? Ah, she would not take pupils,--no, no, not while she was Hedwig +Vogel; and _der liebe Gott_ knows she will never be Hedwig anything else. +But she will make an exception for our deer Mees Varing; oh, yes, an +exception! Wait till Mees Varing's rich American friends come along and +buy some of the great Vogel's pictures. You will see." + +"But has the Mees any rich friends?" asked her crony the Frau Doctorin. + +And then the parson's widow laughed in a worldly way. + +"So pretty a girl," she said, "so fine a complexion, such little feet! And +those winning ways!" + +From which it will be seen that the Frau Pastorin could admire and +appreciate a woman who was young and beautiful. So could the painters; but +that is easier to believe. And so could the tight-booted lieutenants; but +that is perfectly understood. When Kitty Waring crossed the Hof Garten, +even that old woman who years and years ago sold little Heinrich Heine +plums would point out the girl to her contemporary the venerable +under-gardener. + +"_HÃ¥bsch_" the old woman would growl. + +"_Aber leichtsinnig--leichtsinnig_," the old man would add,--for he was a +misogynist. + +But Kitty was not quite _leichtsinnig_, although she did stroll through +the garden sometimes with Fritz Goebel, sometimes with Otho Weiss, +sometimes with her fellow-countryman Joe Buckley. They were all young, all +painters, all poor. Who cared what they did? What if they sat on a beach +under a linden-tree and played cat's-cradle like children? What if they +made little excursions to Zons or to Xanten? What if there was a supper in +Joe Buckley's studio, and Kitty Waring and Anna van der Meer--a sedate +creature from Rotterdam was she--were taught how to make a true, good +_bowl_? Who cared? In fact, all DÃ¥sseldorf cared. + +One day the Frau Pastorin called Kitty into her parlor. "Dear child," she +began, "if your good mother--" + +"She has been dead fifteen years," said Kitty. + +"If your father--" continued the Frau Pastorin. + +"He? Oh, I can't remember him at all," said Kitty. + +"Have you no family?" was the question that the Frau Pastorin put squarely. + +"An uncle or two somewhere in Iowa," Kitty answered. "An aunt brought me +up, and then died, poor thing!" A smile flitted across Kitty's face, and +tears sprang to her eyes; but her questioner saw only the smile. The world +is full of such purblind folk. + +"Where were you last night so late?" she said acridly. + +Kitty turned on the plump little woman and looked down at her. + +"When Miss Smythe told me that I should find a pleasant home here, she +made a sad mistake," was the irrelevant answer that Mees gave. It puzzled +the Frau Pastorin for full a week. Then Hedwig Vogel and Mees paid their +honest debts and took up quarters with Frau Tisch, in the Rosenstrasse. + +"It is much pleasanter here," cried; Kitty, as she moved about the parlor, +transforming the commonplace aspect of the room. "And it is cheap, too. I +thought Frau Tisch would ask more than Frau Raben." + +"It is less because we club together," said Fräulein Vogel. + +Kitty might have suspected something if her new friend had not had the +name of being so close-fisted. Who would dream that Hedwig Vogel could be +free-handed?--she who would beat a _gemÃ¥se-frau_ out of two cents; she who +refused to subscribe to the fund for painters' widows, declaring that it +was as likely she would leave a widow as be left one. She was not +susceptible, she cared naught for sweet smiles and gentle ways. That she, +a gaunt, grim, brusque woman of fifty, could suddenly feel all the stifled +mother-love within her spring up,--that was preposterous, the vain +imagining of a romancer. + +They worked together, these two, in Hedwig Vogel's studio, and Kitty +strove to make up for her lack of talent by her abundance of patience. + +"Why did you decide to be a painter?" Fräulein Vogel asked her one day. + +"Because I had a start in that line," Kitty answered. "If I had had a +start in music I should have tried to play or sing. I wonder if I could +sing? They say everybody has a voice. People are just like fields: plough +'em up, plant cabbages, plant potatoes, you can raise some sort of a crop. +How do you happen to be a painter?" + +Hedwig Vogel paused, palette in one hand, brush in the other. "Because I +would rather paint than eat," she answered. + +"That is genius," said Kitty solemnly. "I would rather eat. That is lack +of genius. But because I want to eat I paint. That is--what would you call +that?" + +"You have a daub of ochre on your nose," said Fräulein Vogel. + +"Anyway," Kitty remarked after a while, "if worse came to worst I could +teach. There is German. Now, I really speak German well, don't I? I could +teach that." + +"Oh, you have the gift o' gab!" said the painter. "But you will be married, +sure." + +A long silence followed. "I am twenty-four," said Kitty. + +"There is no safety for you this side of the grave," said Fräulein Vogel. + +"I may be married, but I doubt it," Kitty continued. "I--" And then she +dropped her brushes, flung herself prone on the floor, and burst into +passionate tears. Hedwig Vogel did not try to comfort her, but she knelt +beside her and put her strong right arm about the girl's quivering +shoulders. At last Kitty sat up and brushed back her tangled hair. + +"Every day I think of him," she said. "Every day I hope, I pray he will +come. I watch for the postman,--I have watched for him so long. He never +brings me a letter, but my heart stops beating when he draws near the +house. When he rings the bell, when the servant comes up the stairs, I +shut my eyes. I can almost believe I have the letter in my hand. I almost +see the words. But there is never a letter,--there never can be. Oh, I--" +She rose and walked to and fro. "I am to blame," she added, laying her +hand on Fraulein Vogel's shoulder. "I wronged him by my suspicion, my +petty jealousy; then I ran away from him, and expected him to roam over +Europe trying to find me. I hid myself from him, and I am eating my heart +out because he does not come." + +"Suppose," said Fräulein Vogel, "that he is seeking for you now?" + +Kitty's wet eyes shone for a moment. "I am not worth that," she said. + +"But if he loves you?" + +"Oh, he loves me, I know!" she exclaimed. "And I doubted him. I thought +all manner of base thoughts, and I told him of them to his face,--to him, +the noblest, dearest,--and he never reproached me. Do you wonder I am +ashamed to write to him? Do you wonder I dare not ask his pardon?" + +"If he loves you he would forgive anything," said Fräulein Vogel. + +The room had grown dark, and they mechanically washed their brushes, +cleaned their palettes, and made ready to go home. As they crossed the Hof +Garten, two or three young painters joined them, and the talk ran on +gayly. Fräulein Vogel had heard Kitty's laugh ring out many a time before, +but never until now did she hear the sad note that dimmed the sweetness of +it. The young men turned away at last. + +"To-morrow, then, at eight," sang out Otho Weiss. + +"Until to-morrow," cried the others. + +"Until to-morrow," Kitty echoed. "Always to-morrow," she added softly to +herself. + +"I do not understand," said Fräulein Vogel, going back to the talk in the +studio. + +"I was jealous," Kitty answered simply. "He was above me in station--" + +"I thought there was no rank in America," said Fräulein Vogel. + +"Then you cannot understand how a big tradesman scorns a little one," +Kitty rejoined. "My aunt kept a shop, but she would never let me help her +sell pins and needles and tape. No, I must go to school with girls whose +fathers sold pins by the ton instead of by the paper,--or by the pound, as +you do here. His father sold them by the ton,--a mere matter of big and +little. The family was reconciled to me after a while. You see, the family +had to be reconciled, for Frank did not care what they said to him." + +"He loved you," said Fräulein Vogel. + +"Yes, but they wanted him to love somebody else. Perhaps he would have +done so if I had not come in his way. Perhaps he would have married the +right girl,--a limp, languid creature, with money enough to build a +cathedral like the one at Cologne. She made the trouble. They said he was +tired of me, that he repented his impetuosity; and I heard it all, and I +grew jealous,--jealous of nothing. I reproached him, told him that he +wanted her and her money. Then came the crash. My aunt died. I had a +chance to come to Europe with some people, and I did not even bid him +good-by. Now I expect him to write to me--to find me." + +She laughed a little as she said this. "Some day," said Fräulein Vogel. +"If he loves you," she added. + +"I doubted him," Kitty said, "and I deserve all this. Ah, if you knew him, +if you saw him, you would know what a fool I was!" + +They had reached the house by this time, and, as Kitty opened the door, +she added, "I must write soon. I must hear something about him. What may +not have happened in a year? Perhaps he is dead." + +She did not mention her lover again to Fräulein Vogel, but she showed her +his portrait; and the sharp-eyed painter looked at the frank, manly face a +long time. + +"Write to him, you foolish woman," she said. + +"Not yet. I will wait a little longer," Kitty rejoined. + +The summer wore away. In August they went for a fortnight to a little +place near Remagen,--Bad Neunahr it is called,--and here Kitty's eyes were +opened, and she suddenly awoke to the fact that her new friend was no +ordinary friend. + +"You need not worry about money," said Fräulein Vogel. "If you don't learn +how to make it, you know how to spend it. I could never learn that myself." + +But in the autumn Kitty only worked the harder, believing with all her +heart that patience would make a respectable, picture-selling painter out +of a Chinese mandarin. When the gray dawn stole in at the window she +sprang out of bed, dressed, and was off to the studio for an hour before +breakfast. She begrudged the time spent for dinner, she bemoaned a dark +day, and she laid her brushes down reluctantly in the twilight. In the +evening she wanted to go to the theatre, to a concert, to a supper. Such +as she find plenty of companions, and from time to time DÃ¥sseldorf raised +its hands over her doings. Fräulein Vogel watched and waited in a sort of +patient agony, but at last, not without deep reflection, she wrote a +letter to Kitty's sweetheart. She read his name on the back of a +photograph, she knew well how to spell the name of the town, she knew the +town was near New York, she knew New York was in North America, and she +had to buy an extra big envelope to hold the whole address. But the letter +was a terrible thing, and a happy thought came to her. She made a little +picture of Kitty,--a perfect little picture,--and beneath it she wrote +name and address. That was better than a thousand letters. Carefully she +did it up, placing tissue-paper above and beneath the cardboard, and +laying it tenderly in a white box. Surely it could not go astray, unless +all the post-office men were blind; but, to make sure, she would register +it, if that were possible. All must be done without Kitty's knowledge, and +the touch of mystery made the romance the sweeter. One fine day she +sallied forth to send the little portrait on its way. She entered the Hof +Garten, sauntered down the Linden Allée thinking all the while how +delightfully the comedy would end. Her own part, as good fairy of the play, +pleased her, too, and she smiled to herself as she strayed off from the +Allée and, seating herself on a bench that was well screened from prying +eyes, she gave herself up to revery. Of course the lover would come, of +course he would carry Kitty off; but Fräulein Vogel did not mean to be +left far behind. She would look after Kitty, for the foolish, impetuous +creature would need at least two people to keep her out of mischief. + +"Frank." + +Some one uttered the name, and Fräulein Vogel peered through the leaves. +Sitting near was a pale, sweet-faced woman, drawing figures in the gravel +with the tip of her parasol. + +"Frank," she repeated, "shall we go home?" + +"Do you mean Withlacootchie or the hotel?" was the answer. + +The man had his back to Fräulein Vogel, but now he turned, and she +recognized him. The portrait had lied a little, as portraits will lie, and +yet he was a handsome man enough, after all. + +"Home or the hotel, dear?" His voice was very gentle, and his smile +tender. "Are you tired of wandering?" he added. + +"Oh, no!" she said, "but whither shall we wander?" + +"Up-stairs, down-stairs, in my ladies' chamber," he rejoined. "Last summer, +the Tyrol; last winter, Italy; this summer, Switzerland; now,--where? We +are making a long honeymoon of it." + +"And are you tired?" she asked. + +He gave a rapid glance up and down the Allée then stooped and kissed her. + +Fräulein Vogel had not understood all the words, the caress she saw. She +rose and went slowly homeward. In the tiny DÃ¥ssel the swans were floating +majestically, and, standing there on the bank, she tore the box and the +picture into scraps and flung them in the water. The swans hastened after +the bits of white paper; they fought and screamed over them, and the +victor proudly bore away a fragment from his envious mates, only to +discover that it was worthless. + +CHARLES DUNNING. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE NEXT VACATION. + + +If it finds you with fifty dollars and a fortnight at your command, you +cannot do better than spend both on the Great Lakes. + +You don't care for water? But the Great Lakes are not water. You follow +closely the most interesting and wonderful shore, and seven different +times stop for several hours at places on the coast. + +Or perhaps you do care for water, and would not like hugging the shore? +One day, at least, on Lake Huron, you would be out of sight of land; and +if you should have a lake storm, you would have all the ocean "fun" you +would care for. + +Or you were thinking of the Thousand Isles? There are a thousand isles in +the northern part of Lake Huron, just before you turn into the little +winding river that leads to the "Soo." + +Or you had planned to see Lake George this year? You will see a beautiful +copy of Lake George as you leave the little town of Hancock and pass from +the narrow river into a broad expanse dotted with islands, just before +entering the canal that leads to the upper part of Lake Superior. + +But you had rather go West, among the mines? What mines can you find, more +interesting than the great copper-mines of Calumet and Hecla and +Quincy?--the only place in the United States, indeed, where you can see +the curious man-engine, with its arrangement of changing-platforms for +carrying the miners up and down. + +Well, you meant to go "canoeing." Some very choice canoeing and shooting +of rapids you can have during the hours at the Sault Ste. Marie, popularly +known as the "Soo," and during the two days that the steamer waits at +Duluth before the return-trip Lake Superior will prove not an unattractive +spot to paddle about in. + +Add to this the interest of the magnificent new locks at the "Soo," the +historical and romantic associations with Marquette and Mackinac (for you +will not forget that Miss Woolson's "Anne" lived on the Great Lakes), and +the creature comforts of big state-rooms, with large, comfortable beds, +and running water in the basins, on admirable steamers that set an +excellent hotel-table, and you will wonder, as we did, that so few +tourists seem to know about, or care for, one of the most enjoyable +excursions in the country,--I am quite sure I can say the most enjoyable +for the little money it costs. + +We took it ourselves quite by accident,--willing to go out of our way a +little on the journey to Colorado in the heat of summer for the sake of a +little trip by water to compensate for the sea-shore cottage we were +leaving behind us for the season. We did not, indeed, begin the trip, as +the steamers do, at Buffalo; for, although time and tide wait for no man +at the East, at the West there are no tides, and time was willing to make +an appointment for us to overtake the steamer at Detroit. We were glad of +an excuse for lingering at the House Beautiful in Buffalo, where we would +rather spend Sunday any time than on any lake in the world. Fortunately, +we had "been to the Falls" many times before, and had seen Niagara in +winter splendor and summer loveliness: so we were at liberty to idle away +the fleeting hours in the shades of Delaware Avenue, on charming piazzas, +till the time came when we must start on the flying trip through Canada if +we would overtake the steamer Japan. + +She was just gliding into her dock at Detroit as we stepped from the cars, +and we still had three or four hours' leisure before she would start again +in which to drive about the pretty city and call on friends. Just before +midnight we embarked, and our first experience of the Great Lakes was a +night of peaceful and serene slumber. + +Peaceful and serene, too, was the following day,--a patient waiting for +the scenery to begin, sitting with novels on what was facetiously known as +"the back piazza" of the Japan, out of sight of land, but gliding over a +sea so smooth that the hanging flower-baskets on the deck scarcely +stirred. If you scorn such tame delights when apparently at sea, remember +that it might have been rough as only lakes are rough in a great storm. It +was very warm. The captain's assurance that the next morning we should +want to borrow his overcoat and mittens had no effect in disguising the +fact that it was warm. The ladies dressed for dinner, many of them in +white; and the only excitement of the afternoon was the "sighting" of the +Michigan, United States man-of-war, cruising in lake-waters. A little knot +of officers on deck waved their handkerchiefs; a little knot of pretty +girls on the Japan were responding eagerly, when a severe and elderly +voice was heard to say, with distinctness, "The officers' wives are on +board the Japan. They are waving to _them_." + +And in fact, as we glided past, a little child was seen at a port-hole of +the Michigan, waving a handkerchief to mamma on the Japan. It had been +seriously ill, and the mother, forbidden by the United States government +to remain with her sick child on the Michigan, preferred to leave him +there with his father, where he could have the care of the special surgeon +who understood the case, while she followed as closely as she could in one +of the lake-steamers. Ah, how interested we all were! It is recorded in +history that certain enemies of the Egyptians used to go into battle with +them with each man holding a cat in his arms. Suppose in our next war we +try the effect upon our enemies of letting each of our soldiers carry a +white-robed baby? One thing is certain, the Michigan captured the Japan +with all on board that day simply by exhibiting that little white figure +at its port-hole. The next day at the "Soo" not a murmur of dissent was +heard when the good-natured captain, who had no European mails on board, +said he would wait an extra hour for the Michigan to come up, that the +anxious mother might have twenty-four hours' later news. + +On the second morning there was an entire change of weather and landscape. +The sun still shone gloriously (the thermometer that day in Chicago stood +at 94), but rugs, seal-skins, and hoods were in demand. We were no longer +out of sight of land, but were threading our way in and out among a +thousand isles, with hills that seemed almost mountains threatening to bar +our course before long if we did not turn back the way we came. No one, +the captain said, had ever been known to guess the channel correctly; but +before long we had made a sharp turn to the left at the only spot that +offered an outlet, and found the Great Lakes narrowed suddenly to a +beautiful winding river which led us in the course of another hour or two +to the "Soo." Here the steamer would wait three hours, and we could +explore the queer little town,--quite a popular resort in summer,--or +inspect the splendid locks of the great canal, or shoot the rapids. To me +it was a genuine pleasure to find at last some rapids that were visible to +the naked eye. The famous rapids of the St. Lawrence had been a severe +disappointment, but here were rapids worthy of the name. Lake Superior was +visibly above us, Lake Huron visibly below, and between ran the turbulent +little stream which of course must be flowing into Lake Huron, though we +could not have told merely by looking at it which way the current ran. + +"Would we go up the rapids?" We had heard of going down the rapids, but in +reality the most wonderful part of the performance is going up. Not only +is the current fearfully swift, even close to the shore as it is necessary +to keep, but the water seems to be only a few inches deep, and the rocks +are as thick as plums in a Christmas pudding. Yet two Indians, standing +erect, one in the bow and one in the stern of the canoe, pole you up the +stream against these terrible odds as easily and surely as a Harvard +oarsman might row you across Seneca Lake. Then they pause for a moment. + +"How will you have it going down? Rough?" they ask. + +"Rough," we answer, wondering what in the world they can mean by speaking +as if they were the autocrats of wind and current. + +But it seems there are two channels,--one near shore for the timid, and +one in mid-stream. We were not to be betrayed into any exhibition of +timidity after that first hesitating question, "Do you know the rapids +well? How many times have you taken people down?" To which the quiet reply +had been, "Three times a day, lady, for twenty years." Twenty thousand +times, by rough calculation! + +So we went over in mid-stream, and were not sorry,--receiving as we +stepped ashore what is probably a part of every programme, the compliment +of being "the bravest lady that ever went over the falls." + +Many a pleasant day, or week, one might undoubtedly spend at the Sault +Ste. Marie, or at Mackinac; but if you have only turned through the +straits and gone southward again to Chicago through Lake Michigan, do not +think of saying that you have taken the trip on the Great Lakes. To me the +Great Lakes will always mean Lake Superior. It is something unique in the +geography of the world, and you have the consciousness of your actual +height above the level of the sea as you rarely have on any elevated land +that is not actually a mountain. Ruskin says that for him the flowers lose +their light, the river its music, when he tries to divest any given +landscape of its associations with human struggle and endeavor. Our New +World scenery, of course, has little of that wonderful charm of +association; but there is something singularly impressive in the mere +silence and vastness of our great Northern solitudes. + +We entered Lake Superior late in the afternoon, and the only event of the +evening was a magnificent aurora. Toward midnight the gorgeous tints +changed to a thin wedge of perfectly white light, against which in a +duskier white the sails of passing vessels were distinctly outlined, +though no hulls were visible. + +At Marquette, in the morning, a party of Finnish emigrants on board left +the ship. Half a dozen Americanized Finns, who had evidently been the +inspiring cause of this influx of new citizens, had come to the wharf to +greet the new arrivals. They had the same short stature, the same stolid +features, as their relatives on board; but there was a difference. The +white shirt, the clean collar, the smart straw hat and vivid necktie, with +a vigorous step, alert manner, decisive tones, and a certain tendency to +help the women with their heavy boxes, distinctly individualized those who +had been awhile under American influence. + +All day we basked in the sunshine on the captain's bridge. Think of being +glad to bask in the sunshine on a 4th of August! Between Marquette and +Portage River we passed but one house,--one solitary, lonely house, set on +the very edge of the "unsalted sea;" before it a vast expanse of limitless +waters, behind it an unbroken, limitless forest; no fields, no crops, no +roads, only space enough cleared for the tiny cabin and tinier shed. What +had lured people there? What kept them alive? No neighbors, no mail, no +farm, no apparent object in life, and only one small rowboat to get away +in. + +Yet they had put a curtain up at the window! No human being could by any +possibility look in at that window. Even the curtain could only be +detected with an opera-glass from the steamer that passed twice a week. +But the sweet instinct of privacy and home had had its way, and every +night the little curtain that never shut out anything but the incurious +moonlight or the innocent stars was drawn as regularly as the shades of a +Fifth Avenue mansion. Later we learned that it was the Life-Saving Station +of Lake Superior. + +"No nap this afternoon, ladies," said the captain as he left the +luncheon-table. "You must be on the lookout for Portage River." + +All the afternoon we watched for the little river, eked out by a canal, +that enables us to cut off one hundred and twenty miles of what would be +the course around Keweena Point, besides giving what is perhaps the most +interesting part of the whole trip. So narrow is the opening of the river +that no trace of it is to be seen till we are close upon it; yet swift as +the dove from far Palmyra flying, unerring as an arrow from the bow, the +great ship sweeps across the lake to exactly the right spot. The river is +hardly the width of a canal, yet curves as no canal would ever curve, so +that the captain in giving orders has to watch both ends of the vessel to +see that neither runs aground. It would be impossible for two steamers to +pass each other in the river, and the contingency of their meeting is +guarded against by the fact that returning steamers have to go round the +Point, being too heavily laden with flour from Duluth. As it was, there +were but thirteen feet of water in the river, and the Japan drew twelve. + +Once in the river, we experienced a most extraordinary transformation. +Every one knows what it is to pass in a day or two from northern snow to +southern roses, or in a few hours from valley roses to mountain snow; but +here, _in five minutes_, and remaining on precisely the same level, we +passed from October to July. The cold lake-breeze died away, and on the +little inland river the sun was actually oppressive. Seal-skins were cast +aside, and we sent hastily below for sun-umbrellas. The speed of the +steamer was slackened to four miles an hour. You heard no click of +machinery or swash of water against the sides: we were gliding on through +a green and lovely marsh, with water-lilies all about us and wild roses in +the distance. Cattle stood knee-deep in pleasant brooks, locusts hummed +and buzzed in the warm air, all sweet summer sounds and scents encompassed +us. There was even a little settlement of scattered houses; but the +expected steamer had evidently created no excitement in the inmates. It +would not stop; it brought them neither mail nor summer boarder: why +should they care just to see it pass? One man, painting the window-sashes +of his house with his back to the steamer, never even turned or paused +from his work, though we were so near that he might have heard what was +said about him on the deck. It is not the dweller in the wilderness, but +the denizen of cities, that longs for something to happen. + +At Hancock the steamer waits several hours, giving an opportunity to visit +the wonderful copper-mines. We chanced to be there just at the hour to see +one of the unique sights of America,--the working of the man-engine that +brings the miners up from their work. Even by machinery it takes them half +an hour to reach daylight. The mine is worked to the depth of fifteen +hundred feet, and for five hundred we could gaze down into the dark and +awful shaft, lit for us by the candles burning in the miners' caps. Two +long beams, to which are attached at right angles little platforms at +intervals of eight feet, each platform holding one man, work up and down. +As each man reaches the level of the platform above on the opposite beam +the engine stops just long enough for him to step from one to the other. +The long, silent, spectral procession, moving with such shadowy precision +and constant motion, with the glimmering lights changing, not fitfully, +but with the regularity of well-trained will-o'-the-wisps, made a panorama +not easily forgotten. Every minute or two, as the engine paused, the miner +whose platform had reached the top sprang suddenly, like a jack-in-the-box, +out of the opening into which we were gazing, touched his hat, and +disappeared into the town. Long as we waited, the procession was not yet +ended when we had to go back to the Japan. + +It is just beyond Hancock that the river broadens into the beautiful +expanse so like Lake George. As we glided away from the wharf in the light +of a splendid sunset, it was curious to look back at the simple little +town, so remote from luxury, even from civilization, so humble in its own +wants and pleasures, yet pouring such vast sources of supply into the +great world of which it knew nothing and asked nothing, save the privilege +of enriching it. + +At twilight we entered the canal. I have been up the Saguenay, I have been +over the Marshall Pass and through the Royal Gorge of the Arkansas, and I +have seen many noble scenes in Europe, but no scenery has ever impressed +me with such solemnity as the landscape on that canal in the twilight of +an August afternoon. Nor was it merely a personal impression. There were +two hundred souls on board, with the usual proportion of giddy young girls +and talkative youths; the negro waiters as we entered the canal were +singing and playing their violins; but in an instant, as the speed of the +steamer was again checked to four miles an hour, every sound was hushed on +board. During the hour that was occupied in going through the canal, it is +a literal fact that not a sound was heard on the great steamer but the low +impressive orders of the captain and--if you chanced to be on the +captain's bridge--_the ticking of the clock in the wheel-house._ People +spoke in whispers, if they spoke at all, quite unconscious of it till they +remembered it afterward. What made it so impressive? I am sure I do not +know. Certainly there was nothing awful in the scenery, and we never were +in less danger in our lives. We were moving peacefully through a long, +narrow sheet of perfectly calm water, stretching straight as a die from +the river to the upper lake. If anything had happened, we could have +jumped ashore on either side, and another steamer from Buffalo would have +come through in a day or two and picked us up. The only thing possible to +fear was that we might ground in the shallow water, an emergency from +which we could only be relieved, as there are no tides in the lakes, by +the tedious process of lightening the cargo. It was a perfectly clear +evening after a most beautiful day. But on either side of us, far as the +eye could reach, stretched an apparently unbroken forest. Through the +narrow vista cleared for our silvery pathway a slow and stately twilight +came solemnly to fold us in its embrace, as we advanced solemnly and +slowly from vast and awful solitudes to solitudes more vast and awful +still. As we drew near the lake again, a little light-house gleamed, and, +as we swept past it out into the broad expanse of limitless waters, the +cheerful throb of the machinery quickened again upon the sea, the pleasant +swish of the water against the ship greeted us once more, life, movement, +and gayety sprang out again on board, and in an instant the entire steamer +had burst into laughter and chat and song. We were really in far more +danger, from storm or collision or fire, out on the great lake; but the +sense of awe had been lifted from us. + +We were due at Duluth at four o'clock of the following afternoon. What +would she be like, this "zenith city of the unsalted seas," with such a +stately avenue of approach? At three o'clock we began to see in the +distance what seemed to be her cloud-capped towers and domes and palaces; +at half-past three a beautiful little humming-bird, blown from the shore, +lit on my scarlet necktie and pecked at this strange flower from the East; +at four we were at the wharf. + +"I think," said my companion slowly, gazing sorrowfully at the shanties +that had made such splendid domes in the distance, "I think I should have +called it Delusion, instead of Duluth. It looks like a town in Dickens's +'American Notes' illustrated by Dor? + +Surely never was there a more forlorn little town, trying to scramble up a +hillside covered with the tall trunks of dead trees and blackened stumps, +shut out from one world by the waste of waters before it, shut in from +another by dreary, verdureless hills. Surely nobody _lived_ there; those +could not be _homes,_ those desolate frame houses where people were +"staying" awhile. It seemed as if the whole town, like "Poor Joe," would +soon be told by a vigilant policeman to "move on." + +And we, who were looking forward to Colorado, needed no policeman to urge +us to "move on" by the earliest train to St. Paul. + +ALICE WELLINGTON ROLLINS. + + * * * * * + + + + +AURORA. + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +ROSE AND GOLD. + + +Aurora wrote to the address given her by the Duke of Sassovivo, and +received an immediate reply. The tone of her letter might be described as +dutiful. She could assume no other. That pale face and weary voice were +ever before her. She wrote much as she might have written to Fra Antonio, +though with less ease; and the reply was not calculated to change this new +position in which the two stood to each other. D'Rubiera wrote freely of +his movements and plans, and of his son, but made no reference to his +feelings, and did not mention the past, or any future beyond his travels. + +"I trust that you will not leave me in ignorance of any contemplated +change in your mode of life," he concluded, "and that you will come to no +decision on any subject of importance without giving me the privilege of +offering my advice, even if you should think best not to follow it." + +The letter included a note to Mrs. Lindsay, which she answered; and her +answer called forth a letter addressed to herself. There seemed to be no +reason why Aurora should write again, and, by the tacit consent of all, +the correspondence fell into Mrs. Lindsay's hands. Sometimes Aurora did +not see these letters, or saw but a part of them,--though her friend +always told her the duke's movements and plans and read her out some +message from him to herself. + +Possibly the reason of this reserve lay in the fact that Mrs. Lindsay made +Aurora the principal theme of her letters. Her triumphs, her beauty, her +goodness, her admirers, her acts, her sayings, even her little whims, were +all recounted. + +The lady was a good letter-writer. She wrote in a simple, self-colored way +a clear narrative of their life in Venice, ignoring sentiment and +reflections; yet the many little incidents and phrases which she set down +were like so many touches with a full brush, and gave life to what she +told. + +The duke remained in England but a short time. Robertino was perfectly +contented, he wrote, and better without him. He crossed the ocean, and +threw himself into the life of the New World, going east, west, north, and +south, glancing at the agriculture, commerce, and manufactures of that +prodigious country, which astonished him. The magnificent strength and +vitality of it all braced him, waked him up, and dispelled his miasmas. +Back to England; and, before they knew that he was there, off to Spain; +and when they thought of him as in Spain, he had returned to England. + +And here at length he took a brief repose. He began to go into society, +and wrote Mrs. Lindsay the names of persons he met and whom she might +know. Among those whom he saw constantly was Lady Maud Churchill, whom he +pronounced exquisitely beautiful. + +Mr. Edward Churchill was with them when the letters were brought, and +Mrs. Lindsay read out this compliment to him. + +"Lady Maud is my cousin," he said. "She is a woman carved in alabaster." + +Mrs. Lindsay gave Aurora the letter to read when she went to her room, and +she sat there by her window after having read it, the open sheet in her +lap. + +"Exquisitely beautiful," she repeated, looking down at the words. "He will +marry her. I am glad that he is going to marry an Englishwoman. She must +be good, if she is like her cousin." + +She looked out at the bright April sunlight dreamily, and for a long time +without stirring. She was considering if she had not better accept Mrs. +Lindsay's invitation to accompany them to America in June. She would like +to see that wonderful golden land where nobody is ragged and nobody poor, +--to see its prairies and forests, its cities sprung up since yesterday, +its wide, clean streets with trees in them, its people, unresting, +truth-telling, generous and courageous, if not always polite. + +"Fancy a country where the people drink water!" exclaimed a Frenchman, on +seeing water sold in the streets of Seville. + +"Fancy a nation where the people are for the most part truthful!" thought +this Italian, sitting in the window of a Venetian palace and looking out +into the Canal Grande. + +"I had better go," she said. "I shall never again have so good an +opportunity. And I really do not know what else to do. There is nothing to +keep me here." + +And then, with the thought that she might indeed go to the ends of the +earth and never come back, for any tie that held her, came the bitter +remembrance of her losses. + +"Oh, mamma!" she whispered, and began to cry,--not with the passion of her +first sorrow, but piteously and low, with a sense of desolation. + +The next day Mrs. Lindsay wrote the duke, "A name you mention in your +letter opens the way to a story I have to tell you. Lady Maud Churchill +has a cousin in Venice who is a frequent visitor of ours, and more than an +admirer of Aurora's. It has been on my mind, to write you of this +gentleman, but I always put off doing so with the expectation of having +something of importance to communicate concerning him the next time. Last +evening he confided to me that he offered himself to Aurora a month ago, +and was refused, but so kindly that he could not give up all hope. She +told him that she was free, and had a sincere regard for him, but that she +did not mean to marry any one. + +"Of course no man would believe his case hopeless with such a reply; and +Mr. Churchill seems to think that Aurora is softening toward him. It +really seems so to me also. Last evening she sat apart and talked with +him nearly two hours; and this morning, as we sat alone, she suddenly +exclaimed, 'I wish that Mr. Churchill would come in!' + +"It is true that, having refused him once, she may feel free to show that +she likes him as a friend. However it may turn out, I hope that she may be +as happy as she deserves. For my part, I could not wish her a more +honorable and devoted lover. He is a man calculated to win affection and +esteem." + +This letter was brought to the duke just as he was going out to a ball. He +went back to his room to read it; and, having read it, he flung it angrily +into the lighted grate. + +"What does the woman mean! I'll shoot the fellow if he dares to wring a +promise out of Aurora. And this stuff about Lady Maud. What did I write? +Do they fancy that I care for her? I like her as I like Wenham ice. Aurora +'softening' toward this impudent Englishman! She would soften toward a cat +if it cried. Mr. Edward Churchill her devoted lover! _Arcidiavolo!_" + +With this growl of rage, rolling and deep-drawn, the Italian went to his +_escritori_, and wrote, "Aurora should not think of marrying an +Englishman. Sooner or later he is sure to return to England; and what +would she do here? I do not at all approve of the match; and I hope that +you will do all that you can to prevent it. Above all, do not let anything +be concluded in haste." + +An event of importance in Mrs. Lindsay's family prevented her replying to +this note. Shortly after its reception her first child was laid in her +arms. Nor did she show the note to Aurora, though she requested her to +write a line to the duke, informing him that a young lady of the most +tender age but obstinate will had placed a veto on her writing at present. + +It would be impossible to say whether father or mother was more happy and +proud over the advent of this little girl, but there could be no doubt +that the mother was the more peremptory and authoritative concerning it. +If Mrs. Lindsay had been queen of the household before, she was empress +now, and that in her own right. + +"You are only prince consort, John," she remarked to her husband, when he +suggested that the child might be baptized in the house by the resident +Protestant minister. "I am regnant. My daughter may be baptized by a +Protestant minister, and welcome, if--but she is going to be baptized in +San Marco, and Aurora Coronari is to be her godmother and Prince P---- her +godfather. If you can reconcile that with your minister, do so." + +The prince consort bowed his head meekly. "I have no particular objection +that a priest should baptize her," he said. "I am very much pleased to +have the prince and Aurora stand sponsors for her. Of course it doesn't +make any difference what they promise for her now. She will be sure to do +as she pleases when she grows up,--if she should turn out to be like her +mother." + +The baptism took place on the first day of May, in the morning; and the +company invited to assist were to return to Palazzo Pesaro to breakfast in +honor of the event. + +Mrs. Lindsay had her gondola--the baby's gondola _pro tem._.--decorated +for the occasion. An immense white umbrella, lined with gold-colored silk, +was fixed to cover the seats, and the whole gondola was lined and carpeted +with white and pale blue. A blue fringe fell over the edge almost to the +water, and bouquets of flowers were bespoken. + +Not only this: she had made a pact with Aurora, who declared that a girl +baptized in the month of May should have Mary for one of her names. Mrs. +Lindsay would include the name if Aurora would attend the ceremony dressed +like the Madonna of an ancient picture of hers, she herself to furnish the +dress; and Aurora consented. + +This Madonna on a sparkling gold ground had a long veil of dim blue +falling over her head and shoulders, and wore a dress of dull-red wool +with faint golden reflection. It was a Raphael dress, and had a band of +fine gold embroidery across the neck and round the wrists. + +The dress came home the evening before, and was tried on and displayed to +the family, with whom was Mr. Edward Churchill. + +"There! wasn't I right?" exclaimed Mrs. Lindsay in triumph. + +"Suppose we should scrape out the Madonna and have Aurora painted in her +place," Mr. Lindsay proposed, with perfect seriousness. + +"The Madonna is an antiquity," his wife said, with dignity. + +"But her eyes are turned like a Chinese's," the gentleman persisted. +"And her expression is cross." + +"I wouldn't do it for the world," Aurora declared. "I feel almost wicked +in assuming her dress." + +"Well," Mr. Lindsay sighed. "Only don't assume her squint, and I think you +will be forgiven the clothes." + +Every night when Aurora went to her room she extinguished her candle and +sat awhile by the open window. The custom had at first been a poetical one, +it was now a sign of trouble. She had seen that evening but too clearly +that one refusal was not enough for Mr. Edward Churchill. + +"It is another reason for going away," she thought. "I must take myself +out of his sight. And yet I like him so! Why cannot he be friendly and +nothing more?" + +The canal was almost deserted, though the Lagoon below was alive with +boats. The water was a dark mirror below. She could see the stars in it, +and the sound of its liquid touch to step and mooring-post was almost +inaudible. + +As she sat there, a gondola slid along inside the posts and stopped under +her window. A moment after, a chord was struck on the strings of a +mandolin. + +Ah! a serenade! It was not her first one by far, and she leaned forward +with pleasure to hear it. The scene was well set for music. But as the +first words fell on her ear she shrank back again. It was Edward +Churchill's mellow voice, and he sang a serenade of Mrs. Norton's, in +English: + + Soft o'er the fountain, + Lingering, shines the southern moon; + Far o'er the mountain + Breaks the day,--too soon. + In thy dark eyes' splendor, + Where the warm light loves to dwell, + Weary looks, yet tender, + Speak their fond farewell. + Nita, Juanita, ask thy soul if we should part! + Nita, Juanita, lean thou on my heart! + + When, in thy dreaming, + Hours li'ke these shall shine again, + And morning beaming + Prove thy dream is vain, + Wilt thou not, relenting, + For thine absent lover sigh, + In thy heart consenting + To a prayer gone by? + Nita, Juanita, let me linger by thy side! + Nita, Juanita, be my own dear bride! + +Silence fell, continued, and pressed. There was no note of music from +below, no response from above. Then there was a stroke of oars lightly +falling, then ceasing, and again silence. Not a sign of response. Slowly +the gondola glided away and disappeared in the night. + +"I am so sorry for him!" Aurora murmured, and softly closed her window. +"So sorry!" + +She recollected what Mrs. Lindsay had said of the fascination of this +serenade: "If the woman who hears this sung to her--well sung--on a +beautiful night does not at once accept the singer, it is because she is +in love with some one else." + +"I am in love with freedom and with poetry," Aurora exclaimed, and hastily +put the subject away. + +The cortège that accompanied the babe to church the next morning was a +picturesque one. A dozen gondolas brought their loads to the palace steps, +and the company entered and paid their respects to the mother while +waiting for the procession from the nursery. + +Mrs. Lindsay, on this her first appearance, received in one of the front +_salons_,--a room lined with gold-colored satin, with sofas and chairs +covered with maroon velvet flowers on a gold satin ground. She wore a +marvellous toilet, which looked like sea-foam, so covered was it with +laces. + +"The difficulty with these rooms is that they extinguish almost anything +that you can wear," she said. "Nothing looks well against these draperies +but old point-lace. That asserts itself anywhere." + +She certainly contrived to make herself a very lovely and interesting +object seen against those rich cushions. No color reflected upon her but +light, in her slight languor and pallor of convalescence, her cheeks +delicately thinned, she was like a white rose drooping in the heat of +noonday. + +The nursery sent down its treasure. First came Aurora in her Madonna dress, +and was received with acclamations. Then came a footman, then two +wondrously-dressed nurses, with their heads a halo of silver filigree pins, +one of the nurses bearing the lace-wrapped infant in a white embroidered +mantle that fell almost to the floor. Two maids followed. + +This little company filled the babe's gondola, that swept out, the others +following and surrounding it as they glided down to San Marco. The place +of honor was the infant's, and Aurora sat at her left hand, and bent to +talk to her and keep her in good humor. + +"She looks at you, Donna Aurora," the nurse said. "And, see! she smiles." + +In fact, it had been found that Aurora had the right magic "Coo-coo!" and +the cunning hand and soothing cheek which babies require. + +At starting, she had observed a covered gondola at rest opposite the house, +and saw that some one was watching them from its curtained window. It was +not surprising, for their little pageant was pretty. But she was surprised +when the gondola slipped forward beside her own and became almost +entangled with their followers. For a moment she thought that it might be +Mr. Churchill, but a swift, stolen glance showed her that the arm which +rested by the window wore a military sleeve. + +"Some officer who knows the family," she concluded. They knew a good many +officers. + +The entanglement was but momentary, and might have been accidental, the +person inside having evidently given orders to let them pass. Leaning on +his oar against the out-flowing tide, the gondolier took his hat off and +bowed lowly, smiling at the babe. + +"_E riverita, Madama Innocenza_!" he said. + +Aurora gave him a kind glance. "But you will be more innocent still in a +few minutes," she said to the infant. + +They reached the landing, and walked across the piazza to Saint Mark's, +and entered the baptistery. A good many people gathered about the door +during the ceremony, and among them Aurora was aware of a military officer +who stood leaning against the grating. She did not look at him, or she +would have known that his eyes were fixed on her alone. + +When, after holding the infant at the font, and giving it a string of +names as long as a rosary, she turned to restore it to its nurse, and bent +to kiss its rosy face as she released it, the officer smiled, gazing +earnestly at her downcast eyes. He saw her lips move in a whisper. + +She was repeating the gondolier's salutation: "_E riverita, Madama +Innocenza!_" + +As they went out, her veil brushed the gold-banded sleeve, and she heard a +faint sigh from the wearer. It required a force not to look at him, not to +show that she was conscious of his presence and pleased by it. Any one who +wore a soldier's dress touched her heart, from general down to orderly. + +Home through the sunshine, in through the shaded court, up the stair with +its painted lords and ladies looking down upon them from the painted +arcade. + +Mrs. Lindsay came out to the stair to receive them, and to embrace her +infant before dismissing it to the nursery. + +Mr. Churchill had joined them at Saint Mark's, and returned with them, +sitting beside Aurora at breakfast. Both ignored the serenade as if it had +never been. + +"My cousin Edith and Mrs. Graham arrived last evening," he said. "They +will stop here a week or two before returning to England." + +"Oh, I should like to see them!" Aurora said cordially. "Tell me where +they are, and I will leave a card today. I am sure, too, that Mrs. Lindsay +will wish to make their acquaintance." + +The breakfast ended with coffee in the beautiful garden the dining-room +windows looked into; then one by one the company departed. Mr. Churchill +lingered a few minutes after the others, then went, seeing no hope of an +interview with Aurora. + +As soon as he had left the room, Mr. Lindsay accompanying him, Mrs. +Lindsay turned with an almost impatient vivacity to Aurora. "At last I can +tell you!" she exclaimed. "Do you know who is in Venice, who sent me a +note while you were at church, and who will dine with us this evening?" + +She looked triumphant and joyful. + +Aurora was silent a moment. "I can guess," she said. "And yet--" + +"D'Rubiera has come!" Madama announced. "What other coming could be so +joyful to us? He has left the boy in England, has himself been to Rome on +a flying visit for business purposes, and is come back to see us. Is it +not delightful? That was all I needed to make this the loveliest day of my +life." + +"Did you see him?" Aurora asked. + +"Why, no! His note was left immediately after you started. I sent a reply +instantly to his hotel, asking him to dine with us. His acceptance was +handed me while we were taking coffee. Did you not see Febiano present the +note? It was a comedy. That man cannot resign the idea that we are +official people, I and John both, and he never lets a note wait, whoever +may be with me. He comes with a solemn, gliding discretion, a sort of +secret-stairway manner, and half presents, half slides the note to me, as +if it were a call to a council of inquisitors in the ducal palace." + +"I hope that the duke is not so unhappy as he was when last I saw him," +Aurora said gravely. + +"What should he be unhappy about?" demanded Madama, who seemed indeed to +be in the highest of spirits. "He has youth, health, wealth, rank, a +character worthy all these blessings, and a beautiful boy. Do you imagine +that he is going to mourn forever for a woman whom he never really loved, +and who disgraced and tormented him? Poor thing! let her rest. It is +almost a year since she died, and he has paid sufficient respect to her +memory. I take it for granted that the duke is as full of life and spirit +and joy as a man can be." + +"Madama Teresa mia," said Aurora, "whom are you scolding? Allow me to +remind you that I expressed a wish that the duke would _not_ prove to be +unhappy." + +"And the wish implied a doubt," her friend retorted. "And your reference +to the past was a shadow. And I will have no shadows to-day. Now I am +going to have my repose, and I advise you to do the same. And you will +wear the same dress at dinner, will you not? It is so pretty. Besides, you +are looking rather pale, and it gives you a glow." + +She went; and Aurora, instead of following her advice to go to rest, took +refuge in the ball-room, which was her in-door promenade. She was never +interrupted there. When she was in the ball-room, and they heard her light +step going to and fro, it was taken for granted that she was composing, +and the room became a sanctuary. No profane foot must cross the threshold. + +She was very far from composing verses on this May afternoon. She was +trying to tranquillize her mind, which Mrs. Lindsay's news had disturbed. +She would be glad to see the duke, surely, dear kind friend that he was! +Yet what meant the shrinking which accompanied that pleasant anticipation? +She felt that she should tremble at his approach, and that her voice would +falter. It would be a strange folly; and yet she feared that it would be +impossible to control herself. + +"It is because of all that happened before I left Sassovivo," she murmured +to herself. "I have got him tangled up in my mind with those miserable +affairs. I am certainly growing nervous, and it will never do. Away with +all that has passed since he became Duke of Sassovivo! _Su_, Rubiera, whom +I knew a soldier years ago, who bade me sing, and laid your drawn sword +across the keys of my piano-forte for a motive, --Rubiera, who came across +a chasm to me as I stood clinging to the broken wall, and smiled courage +into my sinking heart. _Su_, Rubiera, who divided the olive-twig with me, +promising to challenge me when we met again with _Fuori il verde!_ It was +I who showed the green and gave the challenge when we met, and I have the +three leaves yet." She drew a locket from her breast, and opened it to +look at the memento, and at her mother's miniature enclosed with it. + +She was smiling now. That bright past had thrust aside all painful +recollections, and the old cordial, loving confidence was coming up again. + +The sun, declining to the palace roofs opposite, flooded the room with +light. It made Aurora's red dress brilliant, and played and sparkled on +the gold she wore. Twenty little golden chains of Venice hung around her +neck, slender thread after thread from throat to girdle, invisible now +with fineness, and now showing a misty flash in the sun. There was a gold +filigree rose in her hair, which at certain movements changed to a red +rose, and then to a pallid flame, and in the shadow it had all the +softness of a yellow rose just blown. + +Aurora walked to and fro in the light, a brilliant figure, counting over +the treasures of her memory. + +"I wonder what I sang that night!" she murmured. "I never copied it. It +was something about my country. When I ended they crossed their swords +above my head, D'Rubiera and General Pampara. What did I sing? I wish I +could remember." + +She was so absorbed that a step crossing the next room failed to attract +her attention. She did not even hear the light tap at the door. But when +it opened, and some one entered, closing the door behind him, she turned +abruptly and faced the intruder, fully conscious now. + +He was an officer, who tossed his cap away at sight of her, and he had the +face she had been thinking of,--the same face, full of life, and more full +of joyous excitement than she had ever seen it. + +They stood so for a moment, the length of the room between them, gazing at +each other, with some sense of floating in all that light, as if they were +far up in the sky, they two alone, on their way to heaven. + +Then the soldier held up some tiny object in his hand, and came rapidly +forward. + +"_Fuori il verde!_!" he cried out. + +As in a dream, as though they were indeed being sucked up through the blue +unsteady air, Aurora tried to pull the locket from her bosom, and desisted, +for, throwing aside the faded leaf, D'Rubiera extended his arms with an +"Aurora!" which held all pleading and all command, all passion and all +delight, that love can give to the human voice. + +Light as a gazelle she rushed into his embrace, pressing her cheek to his. + +"Oh, my soldier! my soldier!" she murmured. "My soldier and my Love!" + +"What a circuit I have made to reach you!" D'Rubiera said at length, +holding her back at arm's length to look at her. "Are you glad to have me +back, signora duchessa? Are you happy, my red rose?" + +"And to think that you have entered the army again!" she said, drawing a +caressing finger-tip along the gold-work on his sleeve. + +"I did it to please you," he declared. + +The sudden tide of joy and surprise made speech and thought almost +impossible. + +"I do not believe it all," Aurora said. "It is a dream I have been +conjuring up." She withdrew from him. "Stay here, vision of a soldier. Do +not stir. I am going to get my reason back." She turned, and walked slowly +away the length of the room. "He is not here: it was a dream," she said, +then turned again, uttered a sweet cry of joy, and, holding her arms out, +met him half-way, and dropped against his breast again. + +"I feel the motions of the earth as it flies around the sun and turns on +itself," she said,--"two dizzinesses in one. As at first, so now, and so +forever, without you I fall, D'Rubiera." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +A FOUNTAIN. + + +That evening Mr. Churchill dined with his cousin and Mrs. Graham at their +hotel, and afterward sat with his cousin in their balcony. + +He found Edith wonderfully improved. She was either prettier, or her +educated taste made her look so. She knew how to dress now, and her manner +was better. She was cheerful, and she carried her head higher. The hair he +once had thought red he knew now was the color the Venetian painters loved, +and he looked admiringly at the rich coils that crowned her graceful head. + +Besides, there was no sign of that too evident love which had driven him +from her. She looked at him calmly, and spoke with a familiarity which had +an undefined coolness in it. + +While they sat there alone, talking pleasantly, a servant brought a note +for Mr. Churchill. It had been taken to his house and forwarded to him. +Excusing himself, he went into the room to read it by the shaded lamp. + +His cousin turned her head, and watched him unseen. She saw his face grow +crimson as he read, the veins standing out on his forehead, then grow pale +again. She had thought while they sat at dinner that he was looking pale. + +He stood bent down, with his eyes fixed on the page, and, without turning +the leaf, gazing at what he had read as if he did not understand it. + +"My dear friend," Mrs. Lindsay had written, "after a certain conversation +which we had some time ago, I think I ought to tell you my news without +delay. The Duke of Sassovivo is with us, and this evening he has presented +Aurora to us as his future wife." + +He stood so long gazing at the words that his cousin went to him. + +"Excuse me, Edith, I must go out," he said, in a stifled voice. + +"Good-night, Edward," she said, and asked no questions, but held out her +hand. + +The hand that took hers was cold, and her good-night received not a word +of response. + +He went out and called a gondola. + +"Where to?" the gondolier asked. + +"Anywhere!" + +They went up and down, and across to the Giudecca, and down again, and +turned the point of the Public Garden, and the gondolier was about +returning, when for the first time his passenger spoke: + +"Go round by San Pietro and inside by San Daniele. Go where it is dark." + +"He is disappointed in love, or jealous," the man thought as they threaded +the inner ways of the city, now by a lighted piazza, now under shadowing +bridges, or along the gloomy, silent walls of palaces that shut them in. + +"Where shall I go now?" he ventured to ask, when they had gone the whole +length of the city. "We are in the Cannareggio." + +The passenger raised himself. He had sat all the time with his head bowed +down. "Let her drop down the canal," he said, his voice grown gentler. +"Keep well to the left." + +They went out into the canal and downward. Passing under the Rialto, there +rose a deep sigh from the gondola, and the echoing arch whispered back a +sigh. + +The passenger was alert now, looking at all the palaces at the left, as +though he had never seen them before. As they passed Palazzo Pesaro a +gondola touched its steps, and a lady and gentleman got out and walked up +to the portone. The moonlight sparkled on, the uniform of one and on the +gilded fan of the other. They had been out together, and alone, drawing +sweetness from the same air where he had breathed in bitterness. + +"Well, it is fitting," he sighed. "Her head was made to wear a coronet. +God bless her!--and him." + +He looked at them standing in the archway of the palace saying good-night +till distance hid them from him. He was in front of his cousin's hotel, +and, looking up, he saw her still sitting in the balcony where he had left +her. + +Late as it was, he landed and went up to her again. She recognized him +when he stepped out of the gondola, and was not too much surprised when he +appeared. He seated himself beside her, and looked out over the water +without saying a word. + +"Are you not well?" she asked at length, timidly. + +He started. "Why do you ask?" + +"You look pale," she answered. + +For a moment he did not speak. Then he said, "I have had a disappointment, +Edith." + +She leaned toward him with a sigh and a hand half extended, compassion in +all her attitude. + +He took the hand, and rose. "Let me tell you all, dear," he said. "I need +comfort. Come and let me tell you,--if it will not be a bore," + +She went at once, pain and delight struggling together in her heart. He +led her to the sofa, and sank down to the cushion at her feet, bowing his +head to her knees. And there he poured out his whole story, sparing her +nothing. + +Perhaps an instinct of justice and mercy ran through his passion. Perhaps, +guessing in the soft, tremulous, soothing hands that touched his hair and +forehead the love that he had believed to be dead, and with an unconscious +feeling that she was to be the consoler and companion of his future life, +he felt also that all the pain she was to suffer for this love of his must +be gone through with now. + +He could not understand that her only pain was for him, and that for +herself she was blest. For she had his confidence, and she could console +him. + +From that night he became her constant escort and companion. He wrote a +brief note in answer to Mrs. Lindsay's, and then he seemed to forget that +he knew any one in Palazzo Pesaro. + +"For the present I am _de trop_" he wrote, "but I will see you before you +go away. All happiness to Aurora and her chosen husband." + +Impossibility is a wonderful extinguisher of desire; and what suffering +was left to him was not so much a sickness as the languor of +convalescence. He saw Aurora but seldom, and always at a distance; but he +knew that Venetian society was rejoicing over the engagement, and that the +duke was a devoted lover. + +Once, in passing by, he glanced involuntarily at the windows, and saw a +group inside, the sight of which gave him a momentary pang. D'Rubiera +seemed to be placing something on Aurora's head, and Mrs. Lindsay clapped +her hands. + +The duke was, in fact, trying a coronet on his future wife. He had sent +for the family jewels, and was to have them reset, and Mrs. Lindsay +clapped her hands at seeing the diamonds on Aurora's hair. + +D'Rubiera was an impatient and peremptory wooer, and he won the day. They +were to be married in June; and the Lindsays would stay in Venice a month +longer to witness the ceremony. + +Fra Antonio came from Sassovivo and joined their hands in Saint Mark's, +gold and rank smoothing away all obstacles. Then they went to England for +the boy, and came back in time for a week at Bellmar. After Bellmar, they +went to Sassovivo, unannounced, to break open the walled-up gate and carry +jubilee into the castle, the duke said. + +In fact, they spent a whole day long in the castle, tranquilly watching +from its windows the visitors who went to the villa in vain to +_ossequiare_ the master and his new duchess. It was the last time that +they would enter the castle as master and mistress; for the Signora Paula +and Martina were coming to live there,--forever, if they pleased. + +The Signora Paula had found herself _de trop_ in her brother's house. The +Count Clemente had offered himself to the younger of his two first lodgers, +the girl of fifty, and been beamingly accepted; and, though months must +elapse before all the necessary preparations could be made for their +marriage, the Sposa was now mistress of the house. She smiled as before, +but she had her way. The sacred dirt of centuries was being cleaned out, +and immemorial grime was growing pale before the soap and sand of a +civilization to which the Signora Paula was a stranger. Where duchesses +had swept their silks in uncomplaining tranquillity, the smiling Americana +walked on tiptoe with her skirts upheld, and pointed out her orders to the +wondering scrubbers with the toe of her slipper, both hands being employed. + +In all these innovations every care was taken that the count should not be +disturbed. But he had his cross, and an unexpected one. When it became +time to talk of settlements, and it had to be owned that the gentleman had +nothing to settle on his wife but the shadow of a coronet, of which she +would have to buy the substance if she ever wore it, the lady announced +blandly that she would pay all their living-expenses and give her husband +five hundred dollars a year spending-money if he would pay the rent to the +duke,--this arrangement to hold as long as they should live together. + +"But we shall always live together," said the count, with a contortion +meant for a smile. + +"If we should live," the lady said. "But life is uncertain." + +"Oh, in case of death, one makes different arrangements," the count said, +somewhat impatiently. "That is another question." + +"But I want it so," persisted the lady coquettishly; "and I must have my +way. I have always had my way." + +And, ever smiling, never appearing to dream that he was in earnest or to +suspect the rage that was gnawing his heart, she had her way. She smiled +at his coarse and open grasping, smiled at his scarcely hidden anger, and +smiled at the half-insulting consent he flung at her, as if it were all a +jest. And he believed her the simpleton she seemed, and did not know that +he had found a mistress who would rule him with a rod of iron. + +On the second day of their stay in Sassovivo the duke and duchess drove +down early in the morning to the campagna, and left another brewing of +_ossequii_ to fizz itself out in unresponsive air. + +Aurora was going to erect a memorial fountain to her mother in the midst +of the long, hot, dusty road to the station. A wild spring of delicious +water lay back in a rocky pasture. This was to be brought forward and run +into marble basins for man and beast. Above should be a carved relief of +Christ and the Samaritan woman at the well, with, underneath, "And the +woman said, Lord, give me of this water to drink, that I may never thirst +again." + +An artist had come out from Rome to see the place and make suggestions; +and they walked over the green grass, and visited the spring in its own +home, and drank of its sparkling tide. + +"Would you like to be a missionary, little spring?" Aurora asked, bending +toward it. "Many will call you blessed, and the image of your Master will +forever look down upon you." + +The artist looked at her in surprise and smiling admiration. He had found +her a very dignified lady, and this unexpected turn reminded him that she +was a poetess as well as a duchess. + +"What does it say?" D'Rubiera asked. + +She took his arm, smiled into his face, but made no answer. + +They went back to the carriage, took leave of their artist, and drove +slowly to the town. + +"I hope that mamma likes the idea of the fountain," the duchess said +thoughtfully. + +MARY AGNES TINCKER. + +[THE END.] + + * * * * * + + + + +EPITAPH WRITTEN IN THE SAND ON A BUTTERFLY DROWNED IN THE SEA. + + + Poor Psyche, to a Power supernal wed, + How strong a fate on this thy frailness fell! + What strange ironic word shall here be read? + Dead sign of immortality, farewell! + + I sigh not that the summer fields have lost + One flying flower: who counts the butterflies? + I sigh not that thy sunny hour was crossed: + The self-same Shadow surely waits mine eyes, + + Thy piteous terror of the appointed end, + For this I sigh! The billow, poised above, + Fell on thee like a beast that leaps to rend: + Thou couldst not know thy bridegroom Death was Love! + + How otherwise thy sister, yea, the Soul, + Bent brooding o'er these broken wings of thine! + Through all her house of mystery once she stole + To the inmost room, and found a Face benign. + + Now whirl her where ye must, ye waves of Law,-- + Ay, tear her vans, her painted hopes, apart! + She cannot fear, remembering what she saw: + Dark bridegroom Death, she knows thee who thou art! + +HELEN GRAY CONE. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE PIONEERS OF THE SOUTHWEST. + +TWO PAPERS.--I. + + +It is related of Daniel Boone that when (in 1764) he climbed to the summit +of the Alleghanies and looked down upon the vast herds of deer and buffalo +that were grazing at his feet, he said to his companion Callaway, "I am +richer than the man in Scripture who owned the cattle on a thousand hills: +I own the wild beasts in a thousand valleys." + +It may be questioned if Boone had an adequate conception of the stupendous +possessions of the "man in Scripture," but he was certainly justified in +boasting of the wide magnificence of this domain which, by right of +discovery, he claimed as his own. An Indian might have told him that it +would require "three moons, two paddles, and two stout braves" to skirt +its southern and western boundaries and reach its northern limit on the +Ohio; but no phraseology known to the Red Man could have expressed the +boundless wealth, animate and inanimate, that lay hidden in its unexplored +recesses. By the leaves on the trees, or the stars in a cloudless night, +he might have indicated the countless herds of wild animals that roamed +upon it; but how would he picture the leafy magnificence of its forests, +or the grassy luxuriance of the many "openings" that everywhere dotted its +surface? + +It was a tract of country larger than the combined kingdoms of England and +Scotland, and, from the exceeding richness of its soil, it was capable of +sustaining a far denser population than now inhabits the British Islands. +And yet throughout its entire extent there was at this period not a single +human habitation, not the solitary hut of a white settler nor the smoky +wigwam of a roving Indian. It was the hunting-ground and battle-field of +the Indians, claimed by hostile tribes, but occupied by none, and hence +the more inviting as a field for civilized settlement. + +It is difficult for us to conceive of the enthusiasm which this new +country awoke in the mind of the primitive explorer. To him it was a new +world, more genial in climate, more beautiful in scenery, and more +magnificent in extent than any he had ever beheld; and it is not +surprising that the glowing accounts he gave of it on his return were +received with wondering incredulity by the simple farmers on the sterile +banks of the Yadkin. Accustomed to a sandy soil a few inches in thickness +and covered with a scanty growth of slender pines, how could they believe +in a yellow loam four feet or more in depth, and supporting dense forests +of oak and poplar ten feet in diameter and towering aloft a hundred feet +before they broke into branches? The tale was incredible, and it was years +before the wonderful story was believed among the rural population of +North Carolina, and then not until it was confirmed by the report of one +of their number,--a young farmer, selected by themselves to accompany +Boone on his third exploration, in 1769. + +This young man was James Robertson, of Wake County, North Carolina, and, +as he was to become a principal agent in the settlement of the Southwest, +he requires here a few words of description. He was at this time about +twenty-seven years of age, a little above the medium height, and of a +well-knit, robust, manly frame. He had prominent features, and thick dark +hair falling loosely over a square, full forehead which rose in the +coronal region into an almost abnormal development. His eyes were large, +of a light blue, and shaded by heavy dark eyebrows; and they had an +habitual look of introspection, showing a mind of more than common +thoughtfulness. He was grave, earnest, self-contained, with the quiet +consciousness of power which is natural to a born leader of men. And yet +there was in his manner no self-assumption or arrogance. On the contrary, +he was courteous and conciliatory, and had that rare blending of +self-respect and deference for others which, while it repelled undue +familiarity, put the rudest at his ease, and extracted from an old +Cherokee chieftain, who all his life had been the enemy of the white race, +the unwilling praise, "He has winning ways, and he makes no fuss." + +Though clad in homespun, and too much absorbed in things of greater moment +to be over-careful of his personal appearance, he was a man of so marked a +character that he would have attracted attention in almost any assemblage. +Cautious, careful of consequences, and watchful of danger, he was at the +same time bold, fearless, and ever ready to undertake enterprises which +would stagger men of fewer mental resources. So exactly was he fitted to +the time and the circumstances in which he was placed, that the conclusion +is irresistible that he was a providential man, especially appointed to +his work by a Higher Power. + +This was his own conviction, but he came to it at a later time, when +experience had shown that he bore a charmed life, and he had realized what +his single arm and brain might accomplish. But now, in his own eyes, as in +those of others, he was a simple countryman, able to "read, write, and +cipher" and to do small jobs of surveying, but with little knowledge of +any book except the Bible, though in that so deeply versed that it moulded +his speech and regulated his every action. His nature was deeply religious, +but he had, as yet, no higher aim in life than to make a home for himself, +his wife and child in some new region, where he might acquire a competence, +and rise, perhaps, to a station of some little influence and consideration. + +And now, merely stating that he was born in Brunswick County, Virginia, of +Scotch-Irish parentage, on the 28th of June, 1742, and that at the age of +twenty-five he had married Charlotte B. Reeves, a woman nine years younger +than himself, but everyway worthy to be his wife, I will go on with him +and Boone in his first journey over the Alleghanies. + +His equipment was a horse, a blanket, a hatchet, and a hunting-knife. Over +his shoulder were slung a long Deckard rifle, a powder-horn, and a bag of +bullets; and on the horse behind him were balanced a sack well filled with +parched corn, a package of salt, and a tin cup for drinking purposes. This +was his entire outfit. On the parched corn and the game to be procured by +his rifle he was to subsist on his journey. + +There were half a dozen in the party, and they followed the trail hitherto +taken by Boone, for there was no road, nor even a bridle-path. After +leaving the settlements their way lay through an almost unbroken forest; +but there was no difficulty in keeping the trail, for it had been +carefully blazed by Boone on his previous journeys. At night they encamped +under some spreading tree, and, tethering their horses among the timbers, +lighted a fire with the extra flint which each one carried in his +bullet-pouch. Their mode of lighting a fire is peculiar to the +backwoodsman. A handful of dry grass or leaves is gathered, then twisted +into a nest, in which is placed a piece of ignited punk; then the grass is +closed over the punk, and the ball is waved, in the air till it breaks +into a blaze, when it readily ignites the bundle of dry sticks with which +the fire is kindled. Then the limbs of dead trees are heaped upon the +blaze, and one of the travellers sets about preparing supper for the whole +party. It is probably of venison, for there are plenty of deer in that +region. As soon as the burning logs have deposited a good bed of ashes, a +hole is scooped in them, and in it is deposited the haunch or other +portion. When sufficiently done, it is taken out, the ashes are knocked +away, and then--no civilized man, whose appetite has never been sharpened +by open-air exposure in the woods, can understand the keen avidity with +which the delicious viand is consumed. + +Supper over, each traveller lights his pipe of fragrant "Honey-Dew," or +still more fragrant "Kinnikinnick"; and the evening is most likely whiled +away in pleasant talk and narrative of "moving accidents" by field and +forest. Boone was a good narrator, and, though but five years the senior +of Robertson, had already a large experience of thrilling adventure. At +last, heaping fresh logs upon the fire, to keep up the blaze till morning +and scare away the wolves and panthers that might be attracted by the +scent of the venison, the travellers would spread their blankets upon the +ground, turn their feet to the fire, and sink into slumber. + +Thus they encamped by night and journeyed by day, till they reached the +summit of the Stone Mountains, the northerly portion of the long range +which is now the boundary between Tennessee and North Carolina. And here a +view broke upon them such as Robertson, accustomed as he was to the +comparatively tame scenery of Wake County, had never beheld. Spread out at +their feet was a beautiful valley, some thirty miles in length by twenty +in width, and covered by a luxuriant forest, broken here and there by +grassy openings, one of which, larger than the rest, was the "Watauga Old +Fields" of the Pioneers. Some twenty miles away, two small rivers united +their currents and flowed together to the west through a gap in the +encircling mountains. Tracing their courses up among the hills, the +explorers would catch glimpses of numerous smaller streams, which feed the +larger ones and water the whole of this enchanting region. + +The valley, which is itself two thousand feet above the sea, is hemmed in +by huge mountain-ranges,--the Holston on the north and west, and the Iron +and Stone Mountains on the south and east,--which break into peaks--the +White-Top, the Bald, and the Roan--the lowest of which towers more than a +mile into the air. These mountains protect the valley from the chill winds +of winter, and temper the summer breezes to a delicious coolness, making +the atmosphere the most delightful that can be imagined. The bottoms along +the rivers are wide and productive, bearing then a thick crop of tall +grass, on which multitudes of deer, elk, and buffalo were browsing. The +soil of the bottoms is a deep, dark loam, capable of yielding immense +crops of wheat and Indian corn, while the higher and less fertile land +along the base of the mountain will produce fruits of the most delicate +flavor and in astonishing abundance. + +Altogether, the scene is picturesque beyond description,--a charming +valley, threaded by limpid streams, and dotted with dense forests of oak, +pine, poplar, cherry, and walnut, the whole encircled by huge sandstone +ridges, their loftier peaks capped by the clouds, and standing there grim, +silent, and sublime, like giant sentinels guarding the gates of an earthly +paradise. Years afterward, speaking of the scene as it then broke upon him, +Robertson said, "It seemed to me the Promised Land." + +As the explorers prepared to descend into the valley, they noticed a few +miles away, at the north, a slight smoke curling up from among the trees +near the banks of what is now known as Boone's Creek, a small tributary of +the Watauga. Was it from the encampment of some Indian hunter, or the +cabin of a white man who had settled there since the visit of Boone, five +years before? With the caution of old hunters they descended the mountain +and approached the spot whence the smoke issued. It was a log hut, newly +built, and around it, in the stacked corn and the cattle browsing near, +were evidences of a white inhabitant. He was a former comrade of Boone, +his companion during his visit here in 1760, and he had returned during +the previous summer and built a home for his family. His name was William +Bean, and he was the first white settler west of the Alleghanies. + +The explorers were hospitably entertained by Bean and his wife, but, after +a few days spent in piloting Robertson about the valley, Boone set out on +his first long tramp through Kentucky. Robertson remained behind, and was +not long in deciding that he had happened upon the right spot for a +settlement. This decided on, he set about making preparations for the +incoming settlers. Selecting a spot of fertile soil, he broke it up and +planted a crop of corn,--enough to carry the expected colonists through +another season,--meanwhile making his home with Bean, the hospitable first +settler. + +It was autumn before his corn was gathered, and the rainy season had set +in when he started to return to North Carolina. He had carefully husbanded +his small stock of powder and lead, and with what remained, and enough +parched corn and jerked venison to last, with what game he might kill, for +ten or more days, he set out on his solitary journey homeward. There soon +came on a heavy rain, which drenched him completely, and, worse than this, +wet through and through every ounce of his powder. Wrapping his blanket +closely about him, he tried to dry the powder with the warmth of his naked +flesh; but all his efforts were unavailing: the precious grains had +totally lost the power of ignition. Reduced now to his prepared food, he +determined to push on with all speed, and, before his supply should be +exhausted, reach the settlements on the other side of the mountains. + +On the westerly part of the route the explorers had neglected to blaze the +way, and now, day after day, the sun was hidden by thick clouds. Robertson +had no difficulty so long as he could take his bearings by the course of +the Watauga, but when he had passed the sources of that stream he was all +at sea, with neither sun nor star nor compass to guide him. He scanned the +heavens with anxious eye, but they disclosed no glimpse of the blessed +sun: all was mist and rain by day, and by night the blackest of darkness. +Tired, drenched, bewildered, he wandered aimlessly on, lost, completely +lost, in an almost interminable forest. His food, too, was fast running +low, and the scant herbage still left among the trees would no longer +sustain his jaded animal. Then he turned the trusty beast adrift, to find +its own way out of starvation. + +He had eked out his scanty provisions with the nuts of the beech and +chestnut, but now this resource was exhausted; the last handful of corn +was consumed, and he was in a region of rocks and precipices (probably +near the western base of the mountain), where nothing grew that would +sustain life. Exhausted nature could hold out no longer. His strength was +gone, he could not articulate above a whisper, and, sinking down at the +foot of a cliff, he resigned himself to the inevitable. + +How long he lay there he never told, and perhaps never knew; but at last, +when his senses were nearly gone, he heard voices, and then approaching +footsteps. They were two hunters, probably the only two human beings +within a radius of a hundred miles. They came directly to the spot where +he was lying, but did not see him till actually upon him. Dismounting from +their horses, they lifted him in their arms, revived him with some spirits, +and then, sparingly at first, ministered to him of the food in their +knapsacks. Slowly his strength returned, but they stayed by him, and, when +he was able to mount, seated him on one of their horses, and then guided +him out of the mountain and for more than fifty miles on his way to the +settlements. Then the good Samaritans went as they came, into the wide +forest, leaving not even their names to a wondering tradition. + +His friends and neighbors were enraptured with the description Robertson +gave of the country he had discovered. To them the sterile plains and +rocky uplands of Wake County lost their attractions when compared with the +fertile valley which he pictured, and sixteen families prepared to go with +him in the following spring to a new home west of the mountains. + +When the April rains were over, they set out, about eighty souls, men, +women, and children. They journeyed slowly, the men mostly on foot, the +women on pack-horses, with the younger children in their arms or strapped +upon the horses behind them, and the older ones trudging along by the side +of their fathers, or aiding to drive the neat cattle, a score or more of +which were the advance-guard of the cavalcade. The outfit of the party was +simple. The men carried the usual equipment of the hunter, the women some +light articles of clothing; and loaded on several led horses were such +bedding and kitchen-utensils as would be needed at the end of the journey. +They followed the route taken by the explorers, sleeping at night on the +ground, beneath the open air, or sheltered by an improvised tent made of +two forked poles thrust into the ground and supporting a longer pole, over +which was stretched a heavy blanket. Should it rain, these tents were +quickly pitched and all the travellers were soon under shelter. At the +halting-place for the night a fire was built, the cows were milked, the +journey-boards unpacked, and the delicious journey-cake (misnamed +"Johnny-cake") was set before the fire or baked in the ashes. To this was +added the deer or wild turkey shot by the men during the day, and they had +a repast "fit to set before a king." The same was done before setting out +in the morning; but at noon only a short halt was made for a cold lunch +from the remains of the breakfast. + +Thus they journeyed for about ten days, until they reached the base of +Stone Mountain. Here they struck into a cove which breaks into the +mountainside, and climbed by a winding route, but by easy stages, to the +summit. Robertson rode by the side of his wife, and in front of her, +astride of the pommel of the saddle, was their child, now a bright little +fellow of two or three years. Later on he will appear again in our pages, +and then disappear forever from human history. + +As they wearily climbed the toilsome way, and paused to rest, as they +probably did, at the summit, did not that young wife and mother look back, +to gaze again upon the scenes she was leaving behind her? What girlhood +associations she had I do not know, but she was leaving them all, and the +old roof-tree beneath which she had spent her young days: all were about +to pass out of her life forever. As she glanced forward into the tangled +wilderness, would she not have turned back had a vision come to her of the +hardships and dangers and death that lay before her?--her life at first +buried amid the solitudes and dangers of Watauga, and then consigned to a +frail boat which was to bear her a thousand miles, through untold perils, +to a still more distant wilderness, where her home would be encircled with +savage fire and the babe at her breast would be laid scalped and dying at +her feet! + +As they began the descent of the western slope of the mountain, an +unexpected scene met the eyes of Robertson. When he left it in the +previous autumn, the valley was an almost unbroken solitude; now the smoke +was rising from a score of cabins, about which were many evidences of +civilization. Nearly a hundred settlers were there, and the place was +already a busy community. + +There was not house-room for the large influx of strangers, but the spring +weather was mild and genial, and they could encamp under the spreading +trees until half-faced cabins were erected for their temporary shelter. +These cabins were built of split saplings, one end resting on the ground, +the other supported by a frame of forked poles about high enough for a man +to enter standing upright. They were open at the front, but the sides and +rear were covered with thick blankets, so as to afford shelter and +privacy. Of no recognized order of civilized architecture, they would +still serve to keep out the wind and the rain, and under them, on blankets, +or now and then on the precious feather bed, spread on the ground, the +tired immigrants might sleep as soundly as the renowned Sancho Panza of +sleepy memory. + +Their food was supplied from the corn planted and harvested by Robertson +on his previous visit, and from the deer, buffalo, or wild turkey brought +down by the unerring riflemen among them. On deer and wild turkey they had +regaled before, but buffalo-meat was a delicacy with which they were not +acquainted, and, its rich, juicy, tender steak once tasted, all other meat +lost its flavor. None of them had ever even seen the animal, and we may +imagine the wonder with which they first beheld the vast herds that almost +darkened the valley. Lolling in the shade of the trees, or cropping +leisurely the thick grass of the "openings," their coal-black beards +sweeping the ground, and their long tails lashing their sleek dun sides, +the noble beasts would gaze unconcernedly on the intruder, totally +unconscious that this slender biped, with the slim smoke-breathing tube he +bore in his hand, was ere long to wellnigh exterminate the lordly race and +drive its scanty remnant far west of the Rocky Mountains. They were an +easy prey to the early hunter, and thus the rude larders of the first +settlers were filled to abundance. + +Their wives and children provided with temporary shelter, the immigrants +looked about for locations for more permanent dwellings, Virginia offered +to every actual settler who should erect a log cabin and cultivate a small +patch of ground four hundred acres so located as to include his +improvements, together with the right to buy a thousand acres adjoining, +at a price scarcely more than enough to cover the cost of surveying. The +immigrants knew they were near the North Carolina boundary, but they +supposed they were north of the line which starts "at a white stake on the +Atlantic Ocean, at north 39° 20', and runs thence west to the South Seas," +and thus were within the limits of Virginia and entitled to avail +themselves of its cheap munificence,--cheap, because the whole territory +had been bought by King George from the Six Nations for a few trinkets the +total value of which did not exceed the cost of the wedding-outfit of a +modern lady of fashion. + +This line, "west to the South Seas," had not then been run farther west +than the "Steep Rock," near the White-Top Mountain. When it was +subsequently extended, the settlers found themselves within the limits of +North Carolina and not entitled to the benefit of the Virginia law. But of +this more hereafter. Now they were unconscious of encroaching on any +rights of white man or red, and went on with their improvements, confident +that they were acquiring an indefeasible title to their new possessions. + +Nearly all the settlers whom Robertson found at Watauga were from Fairfax +County, Virginia, and they had been attracted to the country by the report +given of it by Dr. Thomas Walker, who with other gentlemen had made a +hunting and exploring-tour through it as early as 1748. They were mostly +from the farming population, somewhat uncouth in manner, and not much +acquainted with books, but not illiterate, for in a document subscribed +soon afterward by upward of a hundred of them only two names are signed +with a cross. They had but little wealth; but they had what in a new +community is far better,--frugal and industrious habits, enterprise, firm +self-reliance, and the cool intrepidity which is fostered by frequent +exposure to danger. No better material could have been selected to subdue +the wilderness to the purposes of agriculture. + +Among them, however, were some who had received the best education then +afforded by the colonies. Prominent among these were the Seviers,--a +father and four sons, who some time before had emigrated from Shenandoah +County, Virginia, and settled about thirty miles farther north, near what +is now Bristol, in Tennessee. There they were neighbors to the Shelbys, +--another father and four sons,--who also have left an heroic record in +the history of the Revolution. + +Some of the younger Seviers, coming upon this valley on a +hunting-expedition, had induced their father to remove to it; and here, +"higher up the river, on its north side, and near the closing in of a +ridge," he had built a roomy log mansion, a portion of which was still +standing in 1844. The sons had erected dwellings lower down the river, and +nearer the "Watauga Old Fields." + +The Seviers were of French descent. The family name in France was Xavier, +and they originally came from Xavier, a town at the foot of the Pyrenees, +in Navarre, which was the birthplace of the famous ecclesiastic and +missionary St. Francis Xavier. After the death of the saint the family +became Huguenots, and on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 the +direct ancestor of the Seviers of whom I am writing fled from France and +settled in London, where he is said to have engaged in trade and +prospered. The grandson of this man, Valentine Sevier, emigrated to +Shenandoah County, Virginia, shortly prior to 1740; and this is the +gentleman who, with his four sons, had now settled in the valley of the +Watauga. + +Each of these young men displayed qualities in after-life that would have +rendered him worthy of notice in the annals of any community; but the +oldest, John, born in 1744, is the one whose life and exploits will demand +much the larger space in the following pages. Though so young, he had +already acquired some distinction in his native State, for he had been +appointed a captain in the "Virginia line" by the Earl of Dunmore, the +last royalist governor of Virginia. In that capacity he had come in +contact with Washington, who was a colonel in the same service; and it was +doubtless owing to their early association that twenty years afterward, +when Sevier was under the ban of outlawry by North Carolina, Washington +appointed him to the military command of East Tennessee. + +This young man was destined to become one of the most unique characters in +American history. I know of no other of whom it can be said that he was +loved by both his friends and his enemies. Indian mothers were wont to +hush their children to sleep with the terror of his name, but Indian +chieftains were known to plead when in distress, "Send us John Sevier. He +is a good man, and he will do us right." In the times that "tried men's +souls" to the uttermost he was to stand firm when most men faltered. He +was to be "the rear-guard of the Revolution," and in its darkest days was +to throw his sword into the trembling scale and turn it to final victory +at King's Mountain. + +At this time he was about twenty-six years of age, nearly six feet in +height, and of a slender but wiry and athletic figure. His carriage was +erect, his movements quick and energetic, and his bearing commanding. He +had light hair, a fair skin, and a ruddy complexion, and his large +dark-blue eyes were singularly expressive of vivacity, good feeling, and +fearlessness. He had handsome features, a lofty forehead, a prominent nose, +and a mouth and chin of absolute perfection. His manners were exceedingly +winning, and he had about him a sort of magnetic force that would convert +into a friend the most stubborn of enemies. However, it is doubtful if, +with but one exception, he ever had an enemy. His individuality was so +marked that, if told John Sevier was present, any stranger could have +pointed him out in the most crowded assemblage. His career will read more +like romance than history, but it was entirely in keeping with the man, +who was altogether great, unselfish, heroic, one of those choice spirits +who are now and then sent into the world to show us of what our human +nature is capable. Next to the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, the +coming together of those two bodies of emigrants on the Watauga was the +most important event which up to that time had occurred in American +history; but it was no more important than the meeting there of John +Sevier and James Robertson, for, humanly speaking, had those two men not +met, and acted thereafter in harmony together, the civilization there +planted could never have survived the struggle it was destined to +encounter with savage foes and fratricidal enemies. + +There were now between thirty and forty men in the settlement, and, the +location of the new-comers being decided on, they all set about the +erection of their dwellings. Trees were felled, cut into logs, hewn into +joists, split into flooring, and rived into shingles, and in an incredibly +short time the various families were domiciled in their new abodes. These +were generally one and a half stories high, about twenty feet square, and +built of rough logs, chamfered at the ends, so as to fit closely together. +They had a solid plank door, hung on wooden hinges, and two or three small +windows, formed by sawing through one or two of the outer logs. The +windows were entirely open, or closed only with a stout blind, and glazed +with thick paper saturated with bear's grease to render it transparent; +but the larger number of the cabins, if destitute of glazing, were +furnished with blinds, which were necessary as a protection against +intruders. The roof was covered with large split shingles, held down by +long weight-poles, and the floors were of puncheons,--wide pieces of oak +or poplar, two or three inches thick, split and hewn with an axe, and laid +upon sleepers. If the hewing is well done, such floors are as level and +smooth as if fashioned of machine-made material. The chimney was of sticks +or stones, laid up in clay, and it went up on the outside in a pyramidal +form, and of a size totally disproportioned to the dwelling, for these +people were fond of a wide roaring fire in winter, and in summer the huge +flue was the best of all ventilators. If it is added that the roof of some +of these cabins was extended in front so as to cover a wide veranda, that +the bark and moss were left clinging to the logs, which by another season +would be covered with honeysuckles and the Virginia creeper, we shall see +that they must have presented no unpicturesque appearance. + +The interiors need only a brief description. There were generally but two +rooms, one below, the other above, approached by a ladder in a corner. The +lower floor was parlor, kitchen, and often bedroom. The fireplace was deep +and wide, surmounted, perhaps, by a broad mantel of unpainted oak, on +which were a few trinkets and the violin so precious to the backwoodsman. +In one corner was a spinning-jenny, in another an uncushioned settle, and +opposite the fireplace a bureau or chest of drawers of native wood and +home manufacture. These, with a small table, a few chairs with rustic +frames and deerskin coverings, also of home manufacture, and a couple of +forked sticks nailed to one of the logs and supporting the trusty rifle, +would probably complete the furniture of the apartment. + +This is a description of the smaller houses. Others, adapted to larger +families, were what were termed "double-barrelled" cabins, having two +rooms on the ground-floor, separated by an open passage-way, and a +"lean-to" in the rear to serve as a kitchen. Still others, it may be, were +like the mansion of the elder Sevier,--half a dozen single cabins tacked +one upon the other and covering space enough to serve for the foundation +of a cathedral. + +From these details we can easily form for ourselves a picture of the first +civilized settlement beyond the Alleghanies. A score or more of these +cabins were scattered here and there in the very heart of the forest, the +great trees crowding so closely around them as often to overhang their +very roofs. Near them horses and cattle were grazing on the thick native +grass that grows among the trees, or housed in rude sheds at the rear of +the dwellings, while farther away, along the margin of the many streams, +deer and elk and buffalo were browsing. Glimpses of foot-paths leading +from one widely-separated dwelling to another might be here and there seen; +but there were no roads, for no wheeled vehicle had yet invaded the +sylvan solitude. + +Their families being properly housed, the settlers began to think of a +school for the instruction of their children. Books were scarce among them, +especially such as were suited to the instruction of the young. Paper, +ink, slates, and pencils, also, were not easily procured. Even years later +important letters and despatches were often written with ink made of +gunpowder and on a blank leaf torn from a family Bible. But books and +writing-implements were now imported from Virginia, and, a teacher being +selected from among the better educated of the settlers, a school was +opened, and the young ideas were taught to shoot in the right direction. + +The people now numbered, all told, about two hundred souls, not more than +forty of whom were able to bear arms. On the east a mountain barrier shut +them off from all civilized aid and succor, and on every other side they +were exposed to savage tribes, at least a hundred thousand strong, of whom +not less than fifteen thousand were warriors. Three thousand of these, and +those nearest the settlement, were Cherokees, a fierce, warlike race, by +instinct and tradition the foe of the white man. How this handful of +pioneers came to venture upon such dangerous ground, or, being there, +escaped total extermination, may well excite our wonder. They understood +their exposed situation, but they went peacefully about their daily +pursuits, tilling the soil, planting and harvesting, and "gathering into +barns," or, more correctly, into ricks,--for as yet there were no barns +among them,--unmolested by the Indians, and in harmony with one another, +for two full years of genuine prosperity. They send accounts of their +prosperity to the friends they have left beyond the mountains, and new +immigrants come to the settlement, some of them men of means, who aid +materially in its development. However, they are an abnormal community. +Two colonies claim jurisdiction over them, but the claim is never enforced, +and never extends beyond a discussion in State papers; so they are +without law or anything to assert its majesty. There is no power to +enforce a right or punish a wrong, and not a solitary lawyer in the +settlement. Every man is a law unto himself, but, strange to say, not a +single crime is committed among them. + +The new-comers spread, in search of choice locations, west as far as the +Chimney-Top Mountain, and south to the fertile valley of the Nolachucky. +The more remote settlers were therefore in a very exposed position, +--almost alone, and beyond them a wide wilderness,--but they had no fear +from the Indians. The few who came to the settlements were friendly, and, +after smoking and eating with the settler, they would go away, grasping +his hand and assuring him that the red man was his brother. Those were +halcyon days; but Satan entered into Paradise, and one of his legitimate +children,--a Scotchman named Cameron,--in the early spring of 1772, +invaded this Eden on the Watauga. + +He was the British agent residing among the Cherokees; and he came with +several of the chieftains to warn the settlers that they had encroached +upon the Indian lands, and must move off, or be removed by the British +soldiery. However, he whispered into the ear of Sevier and Robertson that +for a reasonable consideration paid to him--the representative of the +British government--the settlers would be permitted to remain undisturbed +in their possessions. + +Unfortunately, the Indian agent was right. Virginia had left her exposed +citizens to the tender mercy of the Cherokees by admitting that they had +settled upon Indian territory. By a treaty made with the tribe only a +short time before, the State had acknowledged the Cherokee title to the +entire region lying south of a line running due west from the White-Top +Mountain. It was idle for the white settlers to say that the Six Nations, +who had been the original owners of the soil, had in 1768 transferred it +to the government by treaty, and that the Cherokees had never before +claimed any right to it but as a hunting-ground. The parent colony had +acknowledged in the Cherokees a right to the soil, and hence, as the +settlers were south of the treaty-line, had made them trespassers upon the +Cherokee territory. It was an unfortunate and dangerous position; but +Robertson and Sevier were not disposed to purchase security by bribery. +They spurned the overtures of the British agent, and decided to negotiate +directly with the Indians. + +Some of the visiting Indians expressed a desire that the order of the +British agent should not be enforced; others were willing that the +settlers should remain, provided they made no further encroachments. But +Robertson and Sevier were not willing to occupy their homes by any title +so precarious as the word of a few Indian warriors. They determined, while +they ignored the British agent, to recognize the Indian title, but to +treat for their lands with the whole Cherokee nation. Accordingly, they +requested the visiting chiefs to call together the head-men of the tribe +in a friendly council at the "Watauga Old Fields." + +They came at the appointed time,--six hundred half-naked red men, clad in +buckskin leggings and hunting--shirts and head-dress of turkey-feathers, +and all the male settlers, now nearly a hundred, together with all the +women and children in the near-by plantations, assembled to receive them. +Robertson, from his "winning ways," had been appointed master of +ceremonies, and he resorted to every device to placate and amuse the +savage gentlemen. Dances, ball-plays, and foot-races were improvised, in +which the young men of both races joined in good-natured rivalry; but, +while attending to the festivities, Robertson did not forget the real +object of the gathering. For the consideration of five thousand dollars, +to be paid in powder, lead, muskets, and other goods of value to the +Indians, he obtained from them a ten years' lease of all the lands on the +Watauga and tributary streams. This lease was executed by the head-king, +Oconostota, and other leading men of the tribe, and it was supposed that +it would remove for a long time to come all difficulty with the Cherokees. +But this dream was only the next day rudely dispelled by a most +unfortunate occurrence. + +It was the last day of the convocation, and it had been arranged that a +great foot-race should take place on the open ground near the river, +between the younger braves and the young men of the settlement. The race +was in full progress, and among the younger men all was mirth, hilarity, +and good-natured emulation, while even the older chiefs, catching the +spirit of the occasion, had relaxed from their habitual gravity and were +cheering on the contestants, when suddenly a musket-shot echoed over the +grounds, and one of the young Indians--a near kinsman of a chief--fell in +his tracks lifeless. The smoke came from the woods near the race-ground, +and pursuit failed to discover the assassin, but he was evidently a white +man. + +It was as if the shot had been fired into a magazine of gunpowder. The +Indians had come without arms, or there might have followed a bloody +tragedy. As it was, they gathered their blankets about them, and, with +threatening gestures and faces presaging a terrible revenge, silently +stole away into the forest. + +It was afterward learned that the murderer was a man named Crabtree, from +the Wolf Hills, now Abingdon, in Virginia. A brother of his had been +killed by the Shawnees a short time before while exploring with Boone in +Kentucky, and, lurking in the woods near by, he had taken this inopportune +time to wreak a bloody revenge. + +The Indians had left hastily, giving no time for explanation or parley. +Revenge--blood for blood--was the cardinal doctrine of their theology, and, +unless something were done to avert it, war, bloody and exterminating, +would soon be upon the white settlers. + +But what could be done? To flee the country was only to invite pursuit; to +remain would be to invite a conflict with three thousand infuriated +savages. Hastily they gathered in council; and then it was that Robertson +volunteered, like Curtius, to ride into the breach,--at the peril of his +life to visit and endeavor to pacify the Indians. It was a journey of a +hundred and fifty miles through an unbroken forest, and death might lurk +behind every bush and tree on the way; but what was one life perilled to +save perhaps five hundred? Thus Robertson reasoned with his friends and +neighbors, and then, mounting his horse and giving a parting kiss to his +wife and child, he rode off into the wilderness. + +EDMUND KIRKE. + + * * * * * + + + + +DIEU DISPOSE. + + +Edward Lindsay and his wife were unmistakably favorites of Fortune. They +were happily married, their love for each other being firmly established +on a basis of sympathy and respect; they were young and blessed with sound +health; they were very popular among their friends, of whom they had many; +they were clever, Edward in a literary, his wife in an artistic way; they +were prosperous, far beyond the expectations they had formed when, shortly +before their marriage, Edward left his position in the Crescent Bank and +went into real estate on his own account. It is hardly to be wondered at +that they were regarded with envy by more than a few of their +acquaintances in the comfortable city of St. Louis. + +But there was, after all, a cloud that cast a shadow upon the happiness of +the Lindsays,--a cloud of which they rarely spoke, but about which each of +them thought a great deal: they were childless. In the early months of +their married life they had been wont to talk of their prospective +children, and to say what they would do and what they would not do when +_they_ had a child; but when the months lengthened into years, and still +there was neither son nor daughter to carry out their plans, they +gradually left off alluding to these things, though they never ceased to +hope that they might some day have a child. + +At first the cloud was very small, so that they refused to recognize its +presence; but every day it lengthened and broadened, until at last it +darkened the brightest moments of their life. For each knew that the +thoughts of the other ran much upon this one thing, and each was troubled +that the other should brood upon it. And then, in course of time, they +grew to be a little morbid. It seemed to them as if by their friends who +had children they were regarded with an ill-concealed, patronizing pity. +They felt an unreasonable antipathy toward young parents who loved to +discourse of the ailments and accomplishments of their babies, and they +even avoided the houses of many acquaintances wherein, they knew from +experience, the conversation must be principally devoted to some young +hopeful. + +But after three winters had come and gone since their marriage, Edward +began to reflect more and more seriously upon a scheme of which he had +often thought as a relief from this unsatisfactory state of things, and +one April morning he broached it at the breakfast-table. + +"Ellen," he asked abruptly, "how would you like to adopt a child?" + +His wife arrested the coffee-pot over a half-filled cup and gazed at him +with sparkling eyes. + +"Oh, Edward!" she exclaimed, as if a reply were quite unnecessary. "Why +have we never thought of that before?" + +"I can't imagine," he rejoined shamelessly. "But I happened to think +yesterday of the unlimited possibilities before such a child as we should +adopt. You see, we could make sure of a vigorous constitution, of sturdy +and respectable parents, of physical beauty, of any combination of good +qualities, if we only exercised proper care in our selection. And then, +with the training and education we should give a child of ours--" + +"Of course we should always consider it our own child," said Ellen. + +"Of course," assented her husband. "Perhaps," he added, "it would be +better that he should never know the facts of the case." + +"Oh, no! I should never be happy myself if I felt I was deceiving the +child," she protested. + +"Well, it would be rather a difficult thing to manage, anyway, his--" + +"Or her," interrupted Ellen. + +"Whichever you may prefer," Edward returned, with prompt liberality. "I +was thinking of a boy, simply because I realize that a boy's chances of +reaching distinction are much greater than a girl's." + +His wife sent him a glance of obviously feigned reproach, and thereupon +confessed that she should be as happy with one as with the other. But +Edward felt that he ought to represent the matter in its proper light, and +affirmed that every girl anxious to work goes into life handicapped, and +that nine times out of ten when a girl marries she reaches the goal of her +ambition. In adopting a girl, therefore, while they might contribute much +to their own happiness, they could not reasonably hope to enrich the world +greatly. On the other hand, from a boy properly selected, carefully reared, +and soundly educated, they might with good reason expect the very highest +results. Ellen took some mental exceptions to this argument, on behalf of +her sex, but she deemed it unnecessary to express them. | She entered +enthusiastically into his project, and they speedily agreed that Dr. +Kreiss, their titular family physician,--they had never yet had occasion +to consult him,--should be requested to look about for a suitable boy. + +Edward hailed the doctor on Fourth Street the next day, and presented his +case. + +"I see exactly what you want, said the doctor. "Must be 'young, sound, and +kind,' I reckon we can fill the bill. You would rather have an orphan, I +suppose?" + +"Oh, by all means! There might be some unpleasant results otherwise." + +"Likely enough," replied the doctor. "But it will not be so easy to lay +our hands on a first-class orphan _baby_. I could get you plenty of boys +four or five years old." + +But Edward explained that infancy was a _sine qua non_. They especially +wished that the child should be too young to have acquired tastes or +habits of any kind, whether good or the reverse. They did not seek to +gratify a mere whim of the moment,--simply to provide themselves with a +plaything,--but hoped to aid in shaping a life of more than ordinary +usefulness and worth. The doctor made answer that he would gladly do his +best to find such a child as they wished, that he had no doubt of ultimate +success, but that they must be prepared to wait. + +This interview having been reported to Ellen, the life of the Lindsays at +once assumed a brighter character. Edward went to his business with +greater zest, and in his wife's eyes was a light he had not seen there for +many a day. They now revived their old-time theories of education and +physical training. They dispassionately reviewed the respective advantages +of European and American universities. They spent a good deal of time in +discussing the eligibility of the professions as well as of the sciences +and arts. Edward argued that business of any kind was practically out of +the question, because, with real estate in its present favorable condition, +a few more years would render mere money-getting wholly unnecessary for a +child of theirs. They speculated, of course, upon the personal appearance +of their expected heir, but they wisely deferred any expression of +preference in this respect to the time of his arrival. Names were debated +upon daily, until, after many discussions, they made choice of "John," a +title which had done honorable service in Ellen's family, and which, +Edward said, commended itself as being simple and strong. Meanwhile, +though a month passed away without word from the doctor, they waited in +confidence. They had no wish, they told each other, that he should act +hastily: it was merely a question of time; they could afford to be +patient. And at last the doctor sent them a laconic note,--"Come and see +me." + +Dr. Kreiss had a deservedly large practice, and when the Lindsays +presented themselves at his office they were obliged to wait until the +numerous company of invalids that preceded them could be attended to. A +dead silence prevailed in the room, and both Edward and his wife began to +feel uncomfortable after a few minutes had elapsed. They endeavored to +amuse themselves by studying the faces of the doctor's patients and +guessing at their complaints; but this was not enlivening, and Edward at +last essayed conversation. He whispered several things which he thought +quite bright and appropriate, but Ellen took them all very seriously and +vouchsafed only monosyllables in reply. It being evident that she was not +in a mood for pleasantry, he relapsed into silence. But he went on to +think of sundry occasions upon which he had waited in a certain dark +little anteroom at Primary No.--until the principal might find leisure to +flog him. Having exhausted this subject, he looked about for something to +read, and descried some books on a table at the farther end of the room. +He shrank, however, from the idea of walking over to them and back again +in a pair of shoes which he knew very well would squeak. After vainly +searching his pockets for a newspaper, he resigned himself to the +inevitable, and occupied himself with his watch-chain and in tracing +figures on the carpet with his cane. + +Finally the doctor got through with the patients who were before them, and +the Lindsays were ushered into his presence. + +"I've got you a splendid boy," he said, with enthusiasm; whereat they +glanced furtively about the room. "Oh, he isn't here," he laughed, "but +ready for delivery whenever you say the final word. I only wish to make +sure that you are satisfied with the prospect. It's a short story. The +mother died at the child's birth, about a year and a half ago. Less than a +week ago the father, who was a fine, broad shouldered young fellow engaged +in some sort of a shipping business, got an ugly fall on one of the +steamers and used himself up pretty thoroughly. I was called to attend the +case, and did my best for the poor fellow; but it was no use. He died +yesterday morning." + +The doctor paused, as if for a leading question. Ellen was mute, and +Edward felt constrained to say something: so he asked, "Did you know the +mother?" + +"Very well," answered the doctor, "She was one of the sweetest girls I +ever met anywhere. She was a teacher in one of the public schools before +she married, but she was capable of better work than school-teaching, and +if she had lived she would have proved it. She had some very bright ideas, +I assure you. She was uncommonly pretty, too, with a lot of dark-brown +hair, fine eyes, and rather classical features. You'll see it all in the +boy. He's his mother from head to heels." + +"How does it happen that his relatives are willing to part with him?" +Edward asked. + +"Because his father was an orphan himself, and his mother's family is so +poor that the child would be a serious burden to them. For all that, I had +to make use of some eloquence to get possession of the baby, and only +succeeded after representing the many excellencies of the young people who +wish to adopt him." + +The doctor bowed gracefully. Ellen then found words to say that he had +been more than kind, and that if he was satisfied of the child's good +health there was no reason for hesitation. Edward, who wished to terminate +these preliminaries as speedily as possible, added, "Most certainly not." + +"Very well, then," said the doctor: "we will consider the thing settled. +The boy is as sound as a dollar, has a splendid digestion, sleeps like a +top, and cuts his teeth as if he enjoyed it. Now, if you will call with a +carriage to-morrow about this time, I will go with you--for that will be +necessary--to get the little fellow." + +But Ellen would not take Edward from his business again the next day, +and--to his relief, it must be admitted--declared that she could attend to +further arrangements without his assistance. This she did, and Edward +found her in an ecstatic state when he came home to his dinner in the +evening. + +"We can never thank the doctor enough," she exclaimed _imprimis_, meeting +her husband at the door. "I have never seen such a beautiful baby. _Such_ +a sweet little face, and such dear little ways! You must come up into the +nursery immediately. I should have brought him down to welcome you, but it +is just his supper-time, and Mrs. Doly thought he'd better not wait." + +And Edward was forthwith hurried up-stairs into the room which his wife +composedly designated as "the nursery," where, in the arms of a +middle-aged, motherly-looking woman, reposed the little waif chance had +intrusted to his care. He was certainly a very handsome boy, and his fine +head, big blue eyes, and clear, rosy complexion justified enthusiasm. As +Edward appeared in the door-way, the child regarded him intently for a +moment, and then, whether by accident or by some working of intelligence, +with a little jump of emphasis ejaculated, "Da-da," which everybody knows +to be early English for "papa." Of course Edward capitulated on the spot, +and, like a child with a new toy, he could scarcely be torn away at the +sound of the dinner-bell. + +"Little John," as they came to call him,--because his grave and dignified +manners seemed to render inappropriate both "Johnny" and "Jack,"--had +securely established himself in the affections of his foster-parents +before the end of a week. He was a mine of entertainment. Literature and +art languished in the house, while the Lindsays amused themselves in +playing with their baby or in discussing his good qualities and in +planning for his future. And now when they went about among their married +friends they not only felt themselves _en rapport_, but considered that +they occupied a position of decided superiority, for everybody conceded +that there was no more lovely and winning child in St. Louis than little +John Lindsay; and when people spoke only of other children than their own, +they frankly admitted that they never had seen such a wonderful boy. It +was one of his characteristics that he never cried in good, sober earnest. +Upon rare occasions he would sob a little over a delayed repast, a bumped +nose, or some other tribulation incident to his age, but he was extremely +susceptible to argument, and could always be restored to his normal +tranquillity by a proper explanation of the case. To be sure, he was a +picture of health, and seldom had occasion for tears on the score of +ailments; but it should be remembered, as Mrs, Doly, the nurse, proudly +claimed, that babies are very apt to cry when there is nothing the matter +with them. + +"Oh, Mrs. Doly," Ellen exclaimed one morning, when by some means or other +Little John had specially excited her admiration, "what a lovely woman his +mother must have been! How I wish I might have known her before she died! +Sometimes I feel as if it cannot be right for me to have this dear little +baby without her consent." + +Not long after this it suddenly occurred to her that some legal steps +ought probably to be taken in order that Little John might be secure +against all demands. She went to Edward in alarm, and felt no peace again +until he reported compliance with every necessary formality. + +When hot weather arrived, Edward decided to allow himself a short vacation, +--an indulgence which the exactions of business had hitherto prohibited +every year since his marriage. As to where the precious time should be +spent there was but one opinion in the Lindsay household: they would go +East and rent a little cottage on the sea-shore at Marant, where they had +passed several summers as children, and where the salt air would do much +for Little John's development, as it had done for their own not so very +many years ago. Edward wrote to one of his correspondents at Boston, +requesting him to secure suitable quarters; and, when June was a fortnight +old, they moved into a comfortable cottage at Marant, after a flying trip +without incident from St. Louis. + +Little John fell in love with the sea at first sight, and his constancy +never wavered so long as he remained at Marant. He was at his happiest +when his perambulator was pushed to the edge of the water so that the +waves flowed about the wheels. In such a position he would remain +perfectly content for hours, usually in silence, but at times softly +soliloquizing or addressing the waves in earnest but incomprehensible +baby-language. In the mean time, Mrs. Doly, seated in a camp-chair behind, +could devote an almost uninterrupted attention to her knitting, rising +only at intervals to see that the carriage occupied a proper position with +respect to the movements of the tide, while Ellen reclined in idleness +upon the sand. To so great an extent was her office a sinecure that once, +when the water was very calm, Mrs. Doly fell asleep in the warm sun, +during Ellen's temporary absence, and awoke as the water wetted her toes +to find Little John completely surrounded and pretty nearly in his element +literally. Far from being alarmed, however, he was in a state of exalted +bliss, and emphatically protested against being removed to a more secure +position. But when the tide was going out he was not so content to remain +_in statu quo_, and, partly rising to his feet, would indicate by most +forcible remarks and gesticulations that he wished to be moved farther +down the beach. He manifested an ardent desire to accompany Edward on his +rowing expeditions, whenever he witnessed the start; but Ellen would not +consent to this, and Little John was never initiated into the charms of +boating. + +It was not long before Ellen's fears were aroused that her boy might grow +up with nautical tastes. + +"Ought we to permit him to become so infatuated?" she asked Edward. + +"Why, what can we do?" he returned. + +"We can give up Marant and spend the rest of your vacation at the +mountains." + +"That would be useless, dear, granting that Little John has been born with +a taste for the sea. You can't eradicate an inborn proclivity." + +"But, Edward, you surely do not wish--would not permit Little John to go +to sea?" + +"I should never attempt to prevent him from doing so if he wished to. A +born sailor can't make a good lawyer, or a doctor, or anything else,--at +least until he has satiated himself with the sea. All the evidence of +history shows that, you know. Of course we both hope that Little John will +not develop a sailor's taste, and I don't think there is any reason to +fear that he will: all babies are fond of the sea." + +"Yes, Edward; but," tremulously, "you know Dr. Kreiss said his father was +in a shipping business." + +"Very true: some sort of a broker or agent, probably. They never go to sea; +and it isn't to be expected that the child inherits any taste for it from +_him._ Still, we mustn't forget, Ellen, that none of our wishes are +perfectly sure to be realized. We will do our best to further them, but, +after all, you know, _Dieu dispose_" + +Ellen had never brought herself fully to realize the application of this +trite saying to the case of Little John, but she now went away to her room +and thought the whole question through. She saw all at once the long +series of temptations to which he must be subjected before he became a +man. Yes, it was possible that this sweet child might grow up to +disappoint her bitterly, to be far worse than an honest sailor,--a useless +idler, or even a criminal. She shuddered at the very thought of the last, +and with a great leaping of the heart she resolved that, if God should see +fit to spare the child, her own life should be devoted to shaping his. She +would forget herself entirely; her little ambitious projects should be +wholly thrown aside, that no effort might be spared for the accomplishment +of her one great duty. Tenderness and sympathy and example should do their +utmost, but she would not spoil her boy: there should be sternness if it +were needed; and she felt that this would try her devotion most of all. + +Life at Marant thoroughly agreed with Little John. Every day left upon him +its mark of development and improvement. Other babies in the neighborhood +suffered more or less from "prickly heat," whooping-cough, and cholera +morbus, and ailed upon the advent of teeth. Not so Little John. He seemed +proof against everything. One day Ellen was called from the beach to +attend to some detail of housekeeping, and upon her return was horrified +to find the child playing with some poison ivy, which Mrs. Doly, in +metropolitan ignorance of its qualities, had gathered from the adjacent +bluff. He had rubbed it all over his face and crushed it between his hands, +and was in the act of stuffing some of it down the back of his neck. With +her gloved hands Ellen snatched the leaves away, upbraided poor Mrs. Doly, +subjected Little John to violent ablution, and then sat down to await +disaster. But it never came. The only inconvenience Little John ever +experienced from the incident was the loss of a certain degree of liberty; +for thence-forth Ellen would not suffer him to be separated from her for +an instant. Mrs. Doly, however, did not escape so easily. The noxious +_Rhus_ produced its most evil effects upon her face and hands, and for a +week she led a life of physical torture enhanced by humiliation of spirit. +Upon another occasion a neighbor's child dropped a small marble in front +of Little John, who unhesitatingly picked it up, put it into his mouth, +and swallowed it before anybody could interfere. Again was Ellen aroused +to the highest degree of alarm; but this time, expecting nothing less than +speedy death for the unfortunate baby, she despatched the entire household +in search of a physician. None was to be found at Marant, the sole local +practitioner having gone to Boston for the day. With great presence of +mind, Ellen then instituted a course of treatment herself, up to the +successful termination of which Little John maintained his usual excellent +spirits. + +He was backward both in walking and in talking. Twenty months had passed +over his curly head before he could fairly stand alone; and then his +vocabulary was much more limited than is usual with children of that age. +But Edward construed this into a favorable sign. "Your precocious children +rarely amount to anything," he said. "They wear themselves out before they +come to the real work of life. I should really feel disappointed if Little +John should grow up a model school-boy. He would be sure to develop into a +pedagogue, or a book-worm, or something of the sort. Thanks to Providence, +he promises better." + +His foster-parents rarely thought of him as an adopted child, so +effectually had he possessed himself of their love. From time to time, +however, in some moment of enthusiasm, Edward would declare that the more +he thought about it the more he was led to believe that it was better to +have found Little John than to have had a child of their own. "You see, +Ellen," he would say, "we both have an active, nervous temperament. A +child would be very apt to inherit this in an exaggerated degree, and +consequently to lead a life unhappy in itself, besides causing us a great +deal of sorrow and disappointment. But what a wonderful reserve of +nerve-force Little John has! Whether he turns out a judge, an artist, or a +sailor, it will count for more than his _physique_, and _that_ is +priceless." And then Ellen would smile contentedly. In those days the +Lindsays were very happy indeed. + +The charms of Marant are well known, and it is not surprising that the +Lindsays should have protracted their stay to the utmost, and that autumn +should have arrived before they turned their faces westward. Doubtless +Little John would have strongly protested against quitting the sea-side, +had he been aware that he was about to do so. For several days after +returning to St. Louis he was certainly almost inconsolable. He begged +constantly, in his peculiar, abbreviated language, for the beach and the +ocean, with especial earnestness whenever he was taken for a promenade in +his perambulator. But in time, of course, the grand impression faded from +his memory,--to the secret delight of Ellen, who had never become quite +reconciled to his adoration of the sea. + +As the child acquired words and accomplishments, he lost nothing of his +sweetness and strangely mature dignity. When the tan disappeared from his +cheeks, he looked a little less robust; but this was to have been +expected. Such confidence had the Lindsays in the invulnerability of his +constitution that they were not alarmed when he experienced his inevitable +first indisposition of a serious character. Mrs. Doly and Ellen agreed +that it was a natural consequence of the change in his diet and mode of +life since they had come back to the city, and Dr. Kreiss, who was at once +summoned, substantiated the theory. But the next day Little John was no +better, and at night so decidedly worse that Edward sent for the doctor +again. The man of medicine looked grave this time. He stayed with the +little sufferer for several hours. Before midnight he came once more; and +when he went away Little John was dead. + +The blow fell upon the Lindsays with the more crushing force from its +terrible suddenness. Among all the contingencies to which they had looked +forward they had never seriously considered the possibility of this. They +had prepared themselves for disappointment, but not for bereavement. For +the first time they realized how thoroughly their adopted child had become +a part of their life. Hours that had been the brightest in the day now +dragged along wearisomely, and they often sat in silence together, because +they knew that if they spoke at all It must be of Little John. After a +time they saw, as many young parents have seen after their first great +loss, that the world could never be quite the old world to them again. But +they felt their love for each other to be all the stronger, and they tried +hard to lighten each other's sorrow by being cheerful and brave. It was +saddest, of course, for Ellen. All day she was alone in the house, and, +though she might busy her hands over a watercolor or an etching, her +thoughts would often stray away and send the tears to her eyes. +Occasionally she yielded to impulse and paid furtive visits to the nursery, +where, with a little dress or some other memento of her lost child laid +upon her knees, she would sit in long revery. By and by Edward noticed +that her face had taken upon itself a constant expression of sadness, +which even her smiles could not disguise. He began to think about a +European tour. From girlhood Ellen had looked forward to spending a year +in study abroad, and it seemed to him that no time could be better than +the present. It would be hard to leave his business; he could not do so +before spring anyway; but everything should be sacrificed to Ellen's +happiness, and, with her assent, he resolved, they should go at that +season. Just now his business was unusually exacting. He became every day +more alive to the fact that, unless he chose to lose a valuable portion of +his _client?_, he must spend a few weeks in the Southwest. Many St. Louis +capitalists were anxious to buy land in Texas at this unparalleled period +of her prosperity, and many commissions as well as opportunities for +private investment in the State demanded his attention at once. But could +he and ought he to leave Ellen now? He could not decide. When he was at +home he refused to consider the question at all; but at his office it +constantly forced itself upon his attention. Finally, after a great deal +of exasperatingly unsatisfactory correspondence with agents in Austin and +Galveston, he went to Ellen. + +"I will give the whole thing up, if you say so," he declared. + +"But you think it very necessary for you to go?" she asked. + +"From a business point of view, absolutely necessary. It is a question of +improving or failing to improve a chance to make a good many thousand +dollars. There is no middle course: I can't send anybody who could do the +business for me. Still, if you are as unwilling to have me go as I am to +leave you, I shall stay at home." + +This was hardly fair, and Ellen was sorely tempted; but she was too brave +and too true to yield to what she believed a selfish impulse. She wound +her arms about her husband's neck and effectively testified her reluctance +to permit the separation. She declared, however, that she would not +countenance his staying at home,--that it was plainly his duty to go. She +begged only that he would return at the earliest moment he could do so +conscientiously. He earnestly assured her that she need have no doubt of +that, and that a word from her would bring him home at any time. + +"But if I am to go," he continued, "you must have somebody to stay with +you while I am away. Why not ask Bertha Terry? You used to be always out +sketching together, and I know she would be delighted to come." + +"Bertha is a lovely girl, but--I--" + +She paused, with trembling lips. + +"But what, Ellen? Of course I wish you to have whomever you may prefer." + +To his surprise and concern, his wife burst into a flood of tears. + +"Ellen," he said very tenderly, "I am afraid you are not well. If this is +so, I certainly cannot leave you." + +"Oh, no! oh, no!" she cried between her sobs. "It is only because I shall +miss you so,--and because I have tried not to cry for so long that I +_must_ now,--and because--because I have a terrible feeling that I may +never see you again." + +Edward permitted her tears to exhaust themselves to some extent before he +spoke. Then with gentleness and tact he introduced the subject of the +European tour, upon which, he said, they might start very soon if the trip +to Texas should be brought to a successful close. He alluded to the +priceless art-treasures which they would examine together, and which she +would reproduce. He dwelt upon the glories of the Alps, the charms of +Italy, the wonders of Paris, with such good effect that Ellen presently +dried her eyes and found her smiles again. + +A few days later, on a raw October evening, Edward yielded to the urgent +demands of his business and set out for the South. It was at the time when +the "boom" in the grazing-lands and real estate generally of Texas was at +its height. Railways were pushing out in all directions, opening new and +profitable fields for investment, and immigrants were pouring into the +State in unexampled numbers. It was a period rich in opportunities that +could never come again. Edward set to work to make the most of them. In +the first place, he carefully attended to his commissions, resolutely +repelling the swarm of speculators who hovered about every man supposed to +possess a little capital, but all the time watchful and reflecting. Then +he began to make investments for himself. He bought, sold, and bought +again, until his funds were exhausted, and after that he wrote to St. +Louis and borrowed money. He was constantly on the move, much of the time +in camp, making and saving many a dollar by acting as his own agent. The +only respite he allowed himself was the time devoted to correspondence +with his wife. He sent her minute accounts of his work, and received long +and loving letters in return. But time passed, like the Northers +themselves. Four, five, six weeks were gone almost before he had counted +them, extending his absence decidedly beyond the date he had originally +set for his return, and still there was much to be done. He had not borne +the separation from his wife without pain, and he looked forward to +prolonging it with much more than reluctance; but he felt that to leave +now would be to spurn the hand of Providence, the more so because, though +Ellen had many times anxiously inquired for the date of his return, she +had never failed, whenever she wrote, to assure him of her own content so +long as he was successful and happy. He therefore sent her an elaborate +statement of the situation, reiterated his readiness to return if she +desired it, and begged her to decide for him whether he should remain +longer or not. Why could she not come down and spend a few weeks at Waco? +he asked. She would find pleasant people there, and he could then see her +at least once in a while. He would go back to St. Louis to bring her down. +In any event, he said, he would run up and spend a day or two with her if +his stay were to be prolonged. She wrote in reply that she dreaded to +experience the wild life he had so graphically described, and that she +could not persuade herself to go down into that primitive country unless +she might be with him always. This she knew to be impossible; and she was +convinced also that her presence at any time would prove a hinderance to +him in his business. But if he could come home for a short visit it would +make her very happy. She hoped that he might come very soon indeed. Still, +she added, with her old bravery, he must make no sacrifice to gratify her +wishes. She trusted him implicitly; she knew that he was as impatient to +return as she was that he should do so. He must stay as long as he deemed +it best; and even his proposed visit must be given up, if need be. + +And so Edward stayed. The visit to St. Louis was postponed once or twice, +and then put off indefinitely. New commissions were intrusted to him, new +opportunities disclosed themselves, new schemes were projected. He +extended his field of work into remote sections of the State, and once +made his way as far as the valley of the Rio Grande. Even in his busiest +moments Ellen was never wholly absent from his thoughts, and he never +ended a day without the reflection that his return was so much the nearer. +But week followed week into the past, the holidays slipped by, and spring +itself overtook him before he could see any definite prospect of getting +away. At last, one morning early in March, he wrote to Ellen from Denison +that he should be at home before the end of a week. The letter had hardly +been mailed when he received one from his wife evincing a depression she +had never permitted herself to acknowledge before. She wrote briefly, and, +with vague allusions to her health and an avowal of what she called her +"lack of firmness," besought him to return. + +The indefiniteness of this letter troubled Edward. He was disposed to +think that it meant much more than it expressed. He knew his wife's +excellent constitution so well, and reposed so much trust in her frankness, +that he did not believe she was seriously ill; but he did fear that his +prolonged absence had tried her cruelly, for he realized that she must +have gone through with many a struggle before she could have brought +herself to recall him. While he was debating, still under the spell of +business, whether to start for home at once or first to settle some +important matters at Denison, a telegraph-boy entered the office of the +hotel where he was sitting, and handed a despatch to the clerk. + +"For the gentleman at the window," said the young man. + +Edward opened the missive with the calmness of an honest and solvent man, +but with a pang of fear for Ellen. He read as follows: + +"We think you had better return at once. +BERTHA TERRY." + +For an instant he sat with his brain in a whirl. Then a curse upon +Providence rose to his lips; he repressed it, and began to load himself +with reproaches. A moment before, he had been in the satisfied mood of a +man who has his own approbation for work well done. He now looked upon his +course during the past winter with both abhorrence and wonder. He told +himself that it was heartless to have left Ellen at all; to have stayed +away for so many months was simply inhuman. It was all plain enough now; +and that he should have been so blind to the truth he could not conceive. +Suddenly he bethought himself that there was yet time to catch the Austin +Express for St. Louis, and that if he did not succeed in doing this a +whole day would be lost. He quickly wrote and forwarded a despatch to +Bertha, requesting her to telegraph to him at Vinita without reserve, and +then, regardless of his unfulfilled engagements, hurried to the station. +He was just in season: as he stepped upon the platform he heard the +whistle of the approaching train. Once on board, he experienced a +momentary sensation of relief: he was rapidly moving homeward, and at +Vinita he would at least be freed from suspense. He tried to convince +himself that the case could not be a serious one. But if it was? A +terrible fear took possession of him. He attempted in vain to put it +aside. It rendered it impossible for him to sit down alone with his +thoughts for a moment, and he passed away the day in wandering back and +forth through the cars, making an effort now and then to get up a +conversation with some fellow-passenger, counting the hours before the +train would reach Vinita, and constantly execrating himself. + +But, Vinita reached, there was no telegram. The operator thought it must +have gone to Vineton, a town far to the southeast, on the Iron Mountain +Railway. He could telegraph for it, of course, he said, and send it on to +any given point, but he believed that Edward would get word more quickly +by forwarding another message to St. Louis. He suggested that the reply be +sent to Sedalia, where it would undoubtedly be delivered, even at the late +hour at which the train would arrive. + +Edward listened to these remarks in dull despair. It was true that he +might receive news from Ellen at Sedalia, but Sedalia would not be reached +before the small hours of the following morning, when his journey would be +practically ended. Nor was there any nearer town, large enough to support +a night telegraph-office, where he could expect a message to be received +in season to reach him. He thanked the operator for his suggestions, and +returned sorrowfully to the train, to pass a night of suffering, from +which his short snatches of sleep gave him little relief. Poor fellow! His +sadness and remorse were cruelly enhanced by the suspense he was called +upon to endure. He vowed many times to himself that, if Ellen were spared +until his return, no pressure of the world should ever separate him from +her again. When the sun began to make known its coming in the east, he +breathed a prayer of thanks that his agony of waiting was almost over. + +Toward the middle of the forenoon the train rolled into the Union Dépôt at +St. Louis. Edward stood upon the platform of the foremost car. Long before +it came to a stop, he leaped from the steps and ran along toward the +hackmen's stand. A babel of voices greeted him. Quickly selecting a man +whose face was familiar, he pressed a _douceur_ into his hand, and, in a +voice that broke in spite of his efforts to control it, asked to be driven +home immediately and as fast as possible. The hackman looked upon Edward's +haggard face with silent sympathy, divining, perhaps, something of the +truth, and hastily led the way to his vehicle. + +The train was hardly at a stand-still when the carriage rattled away from +the station. The driver plied his whip freely, and soon left the business +section of the city behind. As they sped along Washington Avenue, Edward +endeavored to prepare himself for the worst, but he was incapable of +calmness and reflection: his whole being rebelled against the supposition +that he might be too late. + +There was a carriage, which he recognized as Dr. Kreiss's, drawn up before +his house. Fairly unmanned by emotion, he sprang up the steps, threw open +the door, and met the doctor face to face. + +The physician maintained a professional composure. + +"Good-morning, Mr. Lindsay," he said. "I regret to say that you have not +arrived quite soon enough." + +"Great God, doctor! Is it possible?" faltered Edward, whilst the tears +sprang to his eyes. + +The doctor looked at him curiously. + +"Go up-stairs and see your wife and baby," he said, with considerate +brevity. He added to himself, as Edward vanished up the stairway, "A case +of special providence that it's a boy." + +NATHAN CLIFFORD BROWN. + + * * * * * + + + + +JOSEPH J. MICKLEY. + + +Not many years ago there were several substantial old houses standing on +the north side of Market Street, east of Tenth, in the city of +Philadelphia. These structures, which then wore an air of respectable old +age, have been in recent years either totally destroyed or so extensively +altered that the serene atmosphere of antiquated gentility no longer +lingers about their busy exteriors. + +On a morning in April, 1869, the present writer had occasion to call at +one of these buildings,--No. 927. Several broad and weather-stained marble +steps led up to an old-fashioned doorway, where the modern bell-pull and +the antique brass knocker contended for recognition. Alike rusty as these +were, it became a problem as to which would best secure communication with +the interior. While the matter still seemed indefinite, it was set at rest +by the advice of an obliging street-urchin, who volunteered his +information with appropriate brevity and directness: + +"Try the door. If it's loose, Daddy Mickley's home, sure. If it's locked, +'taint no use of knockin', for he's out." + +Thus instructed, I tried the door. It happened to be "loose," and ushered +me into a long dark entry, at the farther end of which a wide flight of +heavy oak stairs led to the upper rooms in the rear of the building. Among +these rooms, one of the first to be reached was evidently a workshop; and +here was encountered the only living being as yet visible in the spacious +old mansion. Upon entering, I was met by a dignified and placid old +gentleman, whose appearance was very much in keeping with the house in +which he dwelt. He was quite evidently of the old school, and his pleasant +voice gave me an old-school welcome. A fine broad forehead rested above a +pair of the most kindly eyes that can be imagined, and belonged to a +splendidly-shaped head, which was totally bald, save for a slight fringe +of white hairs about either temple. The mouth was, in its expression, even +more prepossessing than the eyes, and the whole bearing of the old +gentleman--who had evidently reached his three-score and ten, but who, as +was equally apparent, carried the warmth and vigor of youth still with +him--was calculated to please and impress the least observant visitor. + +The late Joseph J. Mickley comprised qualities at once more attractive and +more unusual than are often met with in one person. He was distinguished +throughout the world, during more than a generation, for the diligence and +success of his numismatic researches, and his collection of rare coins was +for a long time the most valuable in this country. As a collector of +scarce books and autographs he was hardly less noted or less successful. +But in Philadelphia he was most of all admired for his delightful social +qualities and his extensive information on a surprising variety of topics. +During forty years his house was a rendezvous for a numerous group of +specialists,--not alone in his own favorite pursuits, which, indeed, were +both many and diverse, but in any and every department of art or learning. +Coin-hunters, autograph-dealers, historical students, philosophers, +musical-instrument-makers, noted performers, and performers of less note, +all the way down to "scratch-clubs," were his constant visitors for years. +It is probable that no private house in Philadelphia has entertained a +greater number of intellectually distinguished people than the old mansion +just referred to, where Mickley resided from 1842 to 1869. Musical +celebrities from every country hastened to make his acquaintance, and such +was the magnetism of his personality that acquaintances thus formed seem +never to have been lost sight of by either host or guest. During his +European tour, which lasted from 1869 to 1872, the then venerable +traveller was continually meeting friends among persons who had called +upon him at various times, dating back in one case as long before as 1820. +They always appeared to have known beforehand of his coming, and he always +remembered them and the circumstances under which he had first met them. + +The social reunions at Mickley's were informal to the last degree, and the +accommodations correspondingly primitive. They usually took place in his +workshop. Crazy stools or empty piano-boxes generally served for seats. +The surrounding furniture comprised barrels, cases, and chests, filled to +overflowing with the host's ever-increasing antiquarian treasures. If a +quartette were assembled,--and many times the musical party was enlarged +to a quintette or a septette,--an adjournment was necessary to a room less +crowded, but equally sparse of conventional furniture. + +Mr. Mickley was always happy to join in these impromptu musical assemblies, +when occasion offered, although performing music was one of the few +things which he never succeeded in doing well. He invariably played the +viola on these occasions,--perhaps, as Schindler hints about Beethoven, +because indifferent playing on the viola is not so noticeable as on other +instruments. As was to have been expected from so pronounced an +antiquarian, he had small sympathy for modern music. He even rebelled +against the gentle innovations of Mendelssohn, contending, not without an +approach to accurate judgment, that Haydn and Mozart had completely +covered the field of chamber-music. While in the midst of numerous and +always congenial pursuits during his long life, quartette-playing remained +a favorite pastime of very many days in very many years. + +Mr. Mickley's intellect was so many-sided and so evenly balanced that it +is difficult to name his predominant bias. It is very nearly safe, however, +to say that this was his historic faculty. In the writings, still chiefly +unprinted, which were left behind him, he was at once the most minute and +the most compact of historians. Emerson never condensed his rare thoughts +into smaller compass, not even in his "English Traits," than Mr, Mickley +has condensed his facts and observations. There is a small pamphlet extant, +the manuscript of which was read by him in 1863 on the occasion of the +centennial anniversary of a noted Indian massacre in Northampton County, +Pennsylvania, where several of his ancestors perished. It contains +historic material enough for a volume. To indicate his early passion for +amassing reliable data, the same sketch shows that a portion of its facts +had been obtained, while he was still a boy, from then aged eye-witnesses +of the affair, nearly fifty years before its story was thus put into +permanent shape. + +He mastered the Swedish language, after having passed his seventieth year, +chiefly that he might write a correct history of the first settlement of +Swedes on the Delaware River below Philadelphia. At the age of seventy-two +he spent several months in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, and while +there placed himself in communication with every prominent librarian of +the country, besides scholars in Denmark, Holland, and Germany. He +personally inspected a great mass of documents and ancient volumes. Yet +the result of all this is contained in a manuscript of less than thirty +large folio pages, literally crowded with invaluable data. This was read +before the Historical Society of the State of Delaware in 1874. It has +never been put in type, and is almost wholly made up of material which has +no existence elsewhere in the English language. + +A single instance will serve to show the minuteness and persistence of his +investigations. In one of the public libraries of Stockholm Mickley +discovered an ancient Dutch manuscript signed by Peter Minuit. No scholar +within reach could master its contents. The private secretary of the +ambassador from Holland, who was appealed to, asserted beforehand that he +"could read anything that ever was written in Dutch." Yet, after a long +inspection, he frankly owned his inability to decipher a single word of +it. Mr. Mickley was determined to ascertain the contents. As the document +could not be bought at any price, and could not even be removed over-night +from its place of keeping, he caused photographs to be taken of it. One +such copy was sent to a very learned acquaintance in Amsterdam, and +another to a noted scholar at Leipsic. In the course of subsequent travels +he found accurate translations awaiting him from both sources. The +importance of the manuscript in this connection will be the more +appreciated when it is remembered that Peter Minuit commanded the first +expedition ever sent to the shores of the Delaware River. + +Being thus by nature an historian, it is but natural that Mr. Mickley +should have left behind him ample materials for telling the story of his +own life. From these we learn that the family name was originally +Michelet. It dates back to the French Huguenots who, after the revocation +of the Edict of Nantes, settled in Zweibrcken, a Grerman province. The +first foothold of the family in this country was established in that +portion of Pennsylvania which has for more than a century been thickly +peopled by that enlightened and art-fostering sect, the Moravians. It was +from the Moravian influence that Joseph J. Mickley first experienced a +fondness for music and its appropriate artistic surroundings. He was born +March 24, 1799, at South Whitehall, a township then in Lehigh County, but +originally comprised in Northampton. At the age of seventeen he went to +Philadelphia as apprentice to a piano-maker. At that time the method of +building a piano-forte was as different from the advanced art of these +days as was the instrument itself. The piano-maker had then to work from +the legs upward. His necessary duties demanded knowledge which is now +distributed among several entirely distinct sets of artificers. That young +Mickley satisfactorily completed his apprenticeship may be inferred from +two facts: he started in business for himself in August, 1822, and in +October, 1831, the Franklin Institute awarded him a prize for skill in the +manufacture of pianos. + +From this time on, his business life, though of long duration, was +uneventful, and may be summed up in very few words. From his original +starting-place at No. 67 North Third Street, he removed, four years later, +to a store on the site now occupied by a portion of the publishing house +of J.B. Lippincott Company. Here he remained until 1842, and then +established himself in the building mentioned at the beginning of this +article, where he continued to live until the final closing up of his +business in 1869. + +It does not appear that Mr. Mickley was ever actively engaged in the +manufacture of piano-fortes. He continued, however, to tune pianos to the +end of his life; and it is reported that he could never be induced to +alter his terms from the original fee of one dollar which was customary +forty years ago. He also became noted far and wide as a repairer of +violins and other stringed instruments. At one time, a violin which had +belonged to George Washington was sent to him for this purpose. Ole Bull, +who happened to be in town at the time, hearing of the circumstance, +hastened to the shop for the purpose of examining and playing upon the +historic instrument. Mickley also became an authority in regard to the +value and authenticity of these instruments, although he never indulged in +the passion of making collections in this field. His minuteness of +observation was frequently manifested. While stopping at Venice in 1870 he +notes down in his diary, "A man came to the hotel with some violins for +sale. Among them was a Hieronymus Amati. It was a good one, but the head +and neck were not genuine." At another time, a violin was sent to his +place from a distant locality for repairs. The instrument was preceded by +a lengthy letter beseeching his special care for its welfare, and setting +forth in extravagant terms its great intrinsic value and its peculiarly +interesting "belongings." Anticipating a treasure, Mr. Mickley sent for +some violin-connoisseurs to enjoy with him a first sight of the precious +instrument. On opening the express-package a very worthless "fiddle" was +revealed. After the laugh had gone round, he said dryly, "I think the +value of this must be in its 'belongings.'" + +In the old house on Market Street Mr. Mickley was not alone popular among +prominent people from afar. He was equally loved by his neighbors on all +sides. Many of the more unconventional of these knew him best by the +familiar title of "Daddy." To the better-educated class of young musicians +he was almost as much a father as a friend. Nor were his close friendships +confined to the young. Among his most steadfast admirers was an +old-bachelor German musician by the name of Plich. Herr Plich was a +piano-teacher, and it was under his tuition that the afterward favorite +prima-donna Caroline Richings made her first public appearance as a +pianist in 1847. This old teacher induced Mickley to take him as a boarder, +and he lived for a number of years in one of the upper back rooms of No. +927. One night a fire broke out in a building directly contiguous with the +rear of the Mickley mansion. There was great consternation, of course, and +busy efforts on the owner's part to gather together the manifold contents +of his treasure-house. When all had been at length secured in a place of +safety, he bethought himself of Herr Plich. Hastening to the upper room, +he discovered the old man in a state of semi-insanity, marching up and +down the apartment, and carrying in his hands only a valuable viola. So +confused was he with fright that main force was required to get him out of +the room. After seeing him safely out of the front door, Mickley went back +and secured a considerable sum of paper money which had been totally +overlooked for the sake of the beloved viola. Plich at his death +bequeathed the viola to Mickley, and it was the only instrument which the +latter always refused to part with during his lifetime. The entire savings +of Plich were also left in trust to Mickley, to be distributed for such +charitable objects as he should consider most worthy, and for about +twenty-seven years Mr. Mickley carefully administered this trust. + +Mr. Mickley's most remarkable success in life was obtained as a +numismatist. His habit of collecting coins began almost in childhood. It +has been stated that at the age of seventeen he first became interested in +coin-hunting, owing to his difficulty in finding a copper cent coined in +1799, the year of his birth. Every student of numismatism knows that this +piece is exceedingly rare. The one sold in Mr. Mickley's collection after +his decease brought no less than forty dollars. The taste thus formed +continued a prevailing one for sixty years. It is surprising to find how +speedily he became a leading and recognized authority. Although as +guileless as a child and the easy victim of numerous thefts throughout his +life, he was scarcely ever deceived in the value of a coin, token, or +medal. Once, at Stockholm, in 1871, he visited a museum where rare coins +were exhibited. "The collection," says his diary, "is very, very rich in +Greek and Roman, but particularly in Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon. There +are not many United States coins, but among them I was astonished to find +a very fine half-eagle of 1815." The known rarity of this coin thus on +exhibition in a far country very naturally attracted the keen eyes of the +aged collector. + +These researches, continuing year after year, grew to be more and more +valuable, until they became widely celebrated. By the time he had reached +middle age he was as well known among the guild of antiquarians as a +Quaker is known by his costume. Before his death he had been elected a +member of all the prominent societies in numismatics, history, and +archaeology throughout the world. The last honor of this kind, which +reached him in his eightieth year, was a notice of his election to +membership in the Société Française de Numismatique et d'Archéologie. His +great collections in this department of knowledge were not confined to +coins, but extended also to the literature of the subject. This was +splendidly illustrated in his famous library, which comprised many works +of the utmost value and scarcity. + +A taste thus developed in early youth naturally became in the course of +years a habit, a sentiment, a leading passion of Mickley's nature. By the +year 1867 his coin-collection had become the most extensive in this +country. By this time also the entertainment of curious visitors absorbed +a good share of the collector's daily duties. He was naturally proud of +his treasures, and took a great delight in showing them to all who came. +Utterly devoid of suspicion, he was a ready victim to designing persons. +The following memorandum, which was found among his later papers, will +show how he suffered from this source: + +"I have become rather indifferent about numismatics, or, at least, about +collecting coins. It was a great source of amusement for a period of over +fifty years. But, having been so unfortunate at different times with my +coins, it is, as it were, a warning to desist from collecting any more. In +the year 1827 the United States dollars from 1794 to 1803, all good +specimens, together with some foreign coins, were stolen. In 1848 about +twenty half-dollars were taken. In 1854, after showing my collection to +three Southern gentlemen (as they called themselves) I missed three very +scarce half-eagles. The great robbery was in 1867. In Jaffa, Palestine, a +small lot, worth about one thousand francs, with a collection of Egyptian +curiosities, was stolen at the hotel; and, finally, last winter, at +Seville, Spain, some old Spanish coins were missing while I was showing +them to some persons." + +The "great robbery" above alluded to occurred on the evening of April 13, +1867. It was of such magnitude as to cause a wide sensation at the time, +and enlisted the sympathies of his coin-hunting brethren the world over. +Mr. Mickley's chief precautions, notwithstanding his previous warnings of +danger from another source, had been against fire. In a third-story room +was his cabinet. This had been long since filled, chiefly with an unbroken +and historic list of American coins. The additional accumulations of years, +nearly all foreign, and many of great rarity, had been stored in an old +piano-case in his bedroom, where, as he said, in the event of fire they +would be close at hand. On the evening in question Mickley was alone in +his workshop, engaged in repairing a musical instrument. He had then been +living entirely alone for a number of years. A single servant, who +provided his meals, had gone home. About nine o'clock the loud barking of +his dog in the yard below called him to the window. It was afterward found +that a pair of old shoes thrown from an upper room by the burglars had +thus called away the attention both of dog and master from what was going +on inside. An hour later a caller discovered several pieces of money lying +in the hall. An investigation disclosed the startling loss which he had +sustained. The entire contents of the piano-box had been carried off. A +private desk had also been broken open and despoiled of a few medals, +although its chief contents were intact. A gold pencil, the gift of Ole +Bull, and other keepsakes, remained undisturbed. But the larger portion of +a collection of foreign coins, one of the most complete in the world, and +the product of a lifetime's intelligent research, was gone! + +It was a heavy calamity, and one from which the old collector never fully +recovered. Sir Isaac Newton's historic Fido did not do nearly the amount +of irremediable damage when he overturned the lamp upon his master's +papers. The actual pecuniary loss, reckoning at cost prices, was in the +neighborhood of nineteen thousand dollars. The market value of such a +collection was of course vastly greater, and increasing all the time at a +good deal faster rate than compound interest. It was somewhat of a +coincidence that Mr. Mickley had received and refused what he records as a +"tempting offer", for the entire collection only a short time before the +robbery. + +The ardent passion of a lifetime was now chilled, and his one desire +seemed to be to get rid of his remaining coins and of the responsibility +which keeping them entailed. Such, however, was the completeness of +Mickley's literary methods of condensing, that an entry of three or four +lines made in his diary on the night of the robbery is all that he had to +write about the appalling loss. A week or two afterward he records in the +same volume the disposal of all the remaining coins, with an air of great +relief, as he adds, "I do not doubt I should be robbed again if I kept +them." A large box full of the most valuable had been taken, for +safe-keeping, to the Mint just after the robbery; but these were sold with +the rest. It is understood that this remnant of the original lot was +disposed of for about sixteen thousand dollars, the largest purchaser +being Mr, Woodward, of Roxbury, Massachusetts. The dollar of 1804 went to +a New York collector for the enormous sum of seven hundred and fifty +dollars. + +Efforts to restore the lost treasure were not wanting. It might be +supposed that the possession of such rare tokens of value would have +speedily led to the discovery of their whereabouts. Mr. Mickley himself +intimated that he suspected the quarter from which the depredation had +come. Yet from that day until the present the secret has been as securely +kept as that of the rifling of Lord Byron's letter from a vase at +Abbotsford, or of the Duchess of Devonshire's portrait from the London +Art-Gallery. In fact, the same mild generosity which had always +characterized Mr. Mickley still came uppermost in the face of this trying +disaster. He frequently sought to overlook the misdoings of petty thieves. +A London pickpocket who had successfully practised upon him Oliver Twist's +little game was only prosecuted because his testimony was insisted upon by +the authorities. At the foot of the Pyramids he deplored the chastisement +inflicted by an Arab sheik upon one of his native servants who had +committed a similar depredation. His life-long friend the late William E. +Dubois, of the United States Mint, has stated that "eight or nine years +after the robbery a few very fine gold pieces of English coinage were +offered for sale at the Mint cabinet-rooms. I was so well convinced that +the labels were in his handwriting that I sent for him to come and see +them. He could not deny the likeness, but seemed reluctant to entertain +the subject at all." + +During these years of study and research Mr. Mickley must not be thought +of as a strict specialist. Side by side with his fascinating collection of +coins there was an ever-growing library, the extent and value of which +were never appreciated until his death. This accumulation was in itself an +example of his cosmopolitan tastes. It was copious in local history, in +biography, in music, in general literature, in costly and well-preserved +black-letter editions, in illuminated missals dating back to the +thirteenth century, and, above all else, in autographs. Of the latter, +space cannot be spared here for anything approaching a full description. +As some indication of their value, it may be mentioned that a letter of +George Washington (the last he was known to write), dated six days before +his death, was bought by George W. Childs, Esq., for one hundred and +fifteen dollars. A letter of Abraham Lincoln to General McClellan fetched +nearly one hundred dollars. There were also signed autograph letters of +all the governors of Pennsylvania, of all the Presidents, and of all the +signers of the Declaration of Independence. The latter group is rarely met +with complete; and three of the scarcest names alone sold for as much as +all the others put together. There were signatures also of about forty +generals of the Revolutionary war, of both the British and American armies, +and including Lafayette and Kosciusko. Both Napoleon and Josephine were +represented; and the lovers of poetic justice will be glad to know that +the latter name brought double that of the great emperor. In autographs of +literary and musical celebrities the collection was extraordinarily rich, +those of Goethe and Schiller, Beethoven and Mozart, being conspicuous. But +the chief rarity was a large album formerly owned by Babet von Ployer. +This contained, among other treasures, a manuscript of Haydn, believed to +be the only one ever offered for sale in this country. It also contained +an India-ink sketch of Mozart, drawn by his wife Constance. At the sale in +1878 this album was knocked down for one hundred and twenty-six dollars, +although three hundred dollars had been previously refused for it. The +Mozart letter, a particularly interesting specimen, was sold for fifty-two +dollars to M.H. Cross, Esq. + +Turning from the autographs to the books, we find still greater value and +variety. The historical portion, especially where it referred to local +subjects, was almost phenomenal. One precious lot comprised a complete set +of the first daily newspaper of the United States, beginning with the +"Pennsylvania Packet" in 1771, and continuing unbroken, through several +changes of title and proprietorship, for one hundred and seven years. An +amusing incident is related in connection with Mr. Mickley's purchase of +the larger portion of this series,--"Poulson's Advertiser" from 1800 to +1840. When the wagon was driven to his door, loaded with the purchase, the +housekeeper exclaimed, "What ever is to be done with all this truck?" Yet +this "truck," a mine of wealth to the future historian, was sold after +Mickley's death for eight hundred dollars. There were city directories of +several editions for ninety-three years. The black-letter list was quite +large, and there were more than thirty editions of the Bible, some of +great rarity, and nearly all in a fine state of preservation. + +From the time of the coin-robbery the older acquaintances of Mr. Mickley +noticed a decided change in him. On the subject of coins, once so voluble, +he grew very reticent. His business, which had for many years appeared +rather a pastime than a task to him, grew irksome. After a period of +uncertainty, he finally decided to close up his affairs and spend some +years in foreign travel. In spite of advanced age, he was both physically +and mentally well equipped for such a journey. His health had always been +good. His temper seemed never to be ruffled. Of the French and German +languages he was a master, and he had some knowledge of the Spanish, +Italian, and Swedish. His previous extensive acquaintance with men of many +nations and habits was kept fresh in mind by a remarkable memory. With all +these advantages, the period of his travels was the most interesting of +his life. + +Mr. Mickley set sail on the 5th of June, 1869, being at that time a few +months past his seventieth year. He remained abroad for three years, +visiting every country in Europe, ascending the Nile to the first cataract, +passing through the Suez Canal, and across a portion of Asia Minor and +Palestine. He made two trips to Northern Sweden to behold the spectacle of +the midnight sun. Being a week too late on the first season, he tried it +again the following year. Passing through the entire length of the Gulf of +Bothnia, and ascending the Tornea River, he entered Lapland, crossing the +Arctic circle and penetrating the Arctic zone in a sledge-journey of +seventy miles. The indomitable old traveller pushed on until he reached a +small lumber-village named Pajala. On the night of June 23, 1871, crossing +the river with a small party of Swedes and Finns, he ascended Mount +Avasaxa, in Finland. At this altitude, he says, "the sky happened to be +clear in the direction of the sun, and he shone in all his glory as the +clock struck twelve." + +During this prolonged absence he visited almost every considerable town in +Germany, Holland, Italy, and England. The instant that he arrived at a +town, he seemed to know the shortest cut to its museum. If there was an +antiquarian in the place, he knew of it beforehand, and hastened either to +make or renew an acquaintance. In the larger cities he was surrounded by +these people, and he expressed unaffected surprise and pleasure at their +attentions. He made visits of inspection to nearly every mint in Europe, +having been commissioned by the Philadelphia Mint to make purchases of +rare coins for its cabinet. Here the old passion appears to have blazed up +again for a little while. It was an entire surprise to his family to +discover among his possessions at his death the nucleus of a new +collection, which was sold for about two thousand dollars. + +Mr. Mickley made at this period some valued acquaintances. Among these was +the Italian composer Mercadante. At the time of Mickley's visit, in April, +1870, the composer, who was also president of the Conservatoire in Naples, +had been blind for eight years. "The old gentleman," says Mickley (who, by +the way, was only two years his junior), "held out his hand and bade me +welcome. I told him it would be a lasting pleasure to have shaken hands +with so highly distinguished a man, whose name had long since been +favorably known in America. At this his face brightened; he arose from the +sofa, shook my hand cordially, wishing me health, happiness, and a safe +voyage." Later, at Brussels, he called on M. Fétiss, the famous French +musical critic and biographer. At that time, in his eighty-eighth year, +Fétis was a fugitive from Paris, owing to the troubles of the +Franco-Prussian war. Mr. Mickley's picture of the veteran _littérateur_ +and critic is an engaging one. He says, "Considering his great age, Mr. +Fetis is very active. He climbed up the stepladder to get books and to +show me such as he considered the most rare and interesting. He is not +only active in body, but he retains all the faculties of his mind. He +appears to have a very happy disposition. While I was with him a continual +smile was on his face, and it seemed to give him great pleasure to show me +his books. He has been engaged in collecting them for over fifty years, +and they have cost him a sum equal to three hundred thousand dollars, +exclusive of a great many presents. The first book on music was printed in +1480." At Trieste he spent some time with the United States consul there, +Mr. Thayer, of Boston, best known to musical and literary people as the +author of an exhaustive Life of Beethoven, which has been under way for +nearly thirty years and is not yet finished. Mr. Thayer showed his visitor +all the historic data and personal relics which he had collected for the +book, of which at that date only one volume had been published. Since then +Mercadante and F?s have been gathered to their fathers. Their genial guest +is also gone. The industrious Mr. Thayer lives, with three volumes of the +Life completed, and every American, either literary or musical, will wish +him well on to the conclusion of his _magnum opus_. + +Mr. Mickley's plain personal habits remained almost unchanged by the many +unforeseen exigencies of foreign travel. Once, at Rouen, six months after +leaving home, he says, "Tasted wine for the first time in Europe, as the +water here did not agree with me." A little later, at Munich, he remarks, +"Drank beer for the first time." His pockets remained as accessible as +heretofore to the nimble-fingered gentry. Upon his first visit to Naples, +he records very naïvely, "Three silk handkerchiefs have been stolen from +me here,--which is one more than in London." At Jaffa, on his way from +Egypt to Palestine, besides the robbery of coins alluded to some time back, +he lost a choice autograph manuscript of Mozart which had cost him two +hundred and fifty francs at Salzburg. If careless in these particulars, he +was very watchful and jealous of opportunities to uphold America's +position in the world. He took special pains to inform the mint-masters at +various points concerning the superior appliances and machinery of the +Philadelphia Mint. On the way back from Lapland, while steaming southward +along the upper waters of the Gulf of Bothnia, he writes, under date of +July 4, 1871, "This being our national holiday, I put up my flag on the +door of my berth, but was obliged to explain the meaning of the holiday to +nearly all the passengers." While in England, he met at Manchester a +barrister who had formerly been his guest in Philadelphia. This gentleman +proposed to introduce him to an American lawyer then practising there. "I +asked the name. He said it was Judah P. Benjamin. I declined the +invitation." + +Wherever Mr. Mickley journeyed, so long as any fresh acquisition of +knowledge was to be gained the old traveller appeared insensible to +fatigue. When halfway up the Great Pyramid an English group who were in +his company stopped and insisted upon going no farther. He resolutely +continued, and they, unwilling to see so aged a man out-distance them, +followed reluctantly, until all reached the summit and congratulated each +other on the famous view. In St. Petersburg, Moscow, and other Russian +cities, which he visited in the winter season, he was equally untiring and +undaunted. As a specimen of his accuracy of observation, he writes during +his first journey in Italy, "I counted forty-six tunnels between Pisa and +Bologna." Several severe accidents fell to his lot. In Rome, while +exploring a dark, arched passage, he fell into "Cicero's Well," receiving +severe bruises. In a street in Constantinople, where there are no +sidewalks, he was knocked down by a runaway horse and taken up for dead, +remaining insensible for several hours. The former of these mishaps +occupies three lines in his diary; the latter, twelve lines. On his third +visit to Leipsic he was confined in his room for several weeks with an +attack of smallpox. But in regard to none of these accidents, although an +aged man, thousands of miles from home, and entirely alone, does he betray +any symptoms of apprehension. He merely adds, on the date of his recovery +from the attack at Leipsic, "This sickness has detained me much longer +than I had expected to stay." + +In one of Mickley's trips he made a not unimportant contribution to +musical history. Almost every student of instrumental music is acquainted +with the name of Jacob Steiner or Stainer, the most successful of +violin-makers outside of the Cremonese school of workmen. Of Steiner's +life but little is known, and no biography of him extant in either French, +German, or English contains either the date or place of his death. The +account commonly given is that he separated from his wife and died in a +convent. Mr. Mickley, with his accustomed perseverance, started out to see +if this matter might not be cleared up. At Innspruck he inquired in vain +for information. As Fétis and Forster both fixed his birthplace at Absom, +a small village some twelve miles from Innspruck, Mickley repaired +thither. For some time his errand was fruitless. He stopped in at a little +shop where an old woman sold photographs, etc. "I asked her, 'Did you +never hear of Jacob Steiner, the violin-maker?' She replied, 'There is no +Steiner nor violin-maker living in this town.' I then said that a +celebrated violin-maker of that name, of whom I desired some information, +had lived there two hundred years before. She replied, quite seriously, 'I +am not two hundred years old.'" A few minutes later, in the course of his +walk, his eye fell upon an old church, the outer wall of which contained a +number of stone tablets with inscriptions. A search of five minutes +revealed the desired information. On a plain tablet Steiner's name was +found, together with the information, given in very old-fashioned German, +that he had died there in 1683, "at the rising of the sun." + +The closing field of Mr. Mickley's travels covered Southern France and +Spain, Lisbon, where he passed the winter of 1871-72, and Madrid. The +weather being very severe, he was detained two months at Lisbon, where he +engaged a teacher and took daily lessons in Portuguese. He had done the +same at Stockholm the previous winter with the Swedish language, which he +mastered pretty thoroughly. At Madrid he examined what he emphatically +pronounced the finest collection of coins in the world, numbering one +hundred and fifty thousand specimens. He adds, "This is the only place in +Europe where the subject is properly understood. Alfonzo V., King of +Aragon, in the fifteenth century, was the first person known to have +collected coins for study or amusement, and Augustin, Archbishop of +Tarragona, was the first writer on the subject. The science of numismatics +is, therefore, of Spanish origin." + +Mr, Mickley left Madrid in March, crossing the Pyrenees and arriving in +Paris on the 24th of that month, his seventy-third birthday. He "made the +tour of three hundred and sixty-three miles in twelve hours, without being +in the least fatigued." After a few weeks passed in Paris and in +revisiting friends in England, he sailed for home, arriving in +Philadelphia June 5, 1872, exactly three years from the date of his +departure. + +It was surprising to his friends how little change the lapse of years and +the somewhat rugged incidents of travel had made in Mr. Mickley. He +quickly settled down, and, as nearly as possible, resumed his old habits. +He bought himself a residence, but followed the Paris custom of taking his +meals elsewhere. In the house he was entirely alone, even without a +servant. After a time he showed some disposition to concede to "luxuries" +which he had previously ignored. Carpets he had never used in his life, +but he now admitted that they were very pleasant and comfortable, and +ordered his house to be carpeted throughout. The arrangement of his +library in the new quarters was a great pleasure, and took some time. Mr. +Mickley was in no sense of the word a politician, but he voted pretty +regularly. An incident connected with his last visit to the polls was +amusing. Having been three years absent, a patriotic Hibernian, who kept +the window-book and knew nothing of him, demanded to see his tax-receipt. +The old gentleman went quietly home and brought back the desired document. +He was next asked if he could read and write, which question, however, was +not pressed. The last scene in Mr. Mickley's life was as quiet and +peaceful as its whole tenor had been. On the afternoon of February 15, +1878, Mr. Carl Plagemann, the well-known musician and a friend of many +years' standing, called at his house. While he waited, Mr. Mickley wrapped +for him some violin-strings, the last work of his hands. He requested Mr. +Plagemann to go with him that evening to visit another old friend,--Oliver +Hopkinson, Esq., at whose house there were to be some quartettes. "I have +a letter," he said, "from the Russian ambassador, a part of which I am +unable to translate. A Russian lady is to play the piano there this +evening, and I shall ask her to help me out." Mr. Plagemann could not go, +and, as so often before, Mr. Mickley started out alone. Just before +reaching the house of Mr. Hopkinson he was taken suddenly ill, and, +chancing to be close by the residence of his physician, Dr. Meigs, he +stopped there and rang the bell. As the door opened, he said in husky +tones, "I am suffocating." He walked in and ascended the stairs without +assistance. Then he said, "Take me to a window." As this was being done, +he fell back insensible into the arms of the attendants, and, a few +minutes later, breathed his last. + +Thus, on the very western edge of fourscore years, ended this long and +industrious, this peaceful and beautiful life. In our land of busy and +constant action there have been few like it,--surely none happier. Serene +at the close as it was placid in its course, its lot had been cast ever +between quiet shores, which it enriched on either hand with its +accumulated gifts of knowledge and of taste. And at the close of it all +there could be no happier eulogy than the one modestly yet comprehensively +delivered by his old and congenial friend William E. Dubois, himself since +summoned to take the same mysterious journey. "In fine," says he, "Mr. +Mickley seemed superior to any meanness; free from vulgar passions and +habits, from pride and vanity, from evil speaking and harsh judging. He +was eminently sincere, affable, kind, and gentle: in the best sense of the +word he was a gentleman." + +J. BUNTING. + + * * * * * + + + + +ROSE ROMANCE. + + +Two roses, freshly sweet and rare, + Bloomed in the dewy morning +On neighboring bushes green and fair, + One garden-bed adorning. +"Ah!" sighed the pair, "what joy, what pride. + If on one branch together +We two were growing side by side + Through all this golden weather!" + +There came a youth who roughly tore + The roses from their bowers, +And to his sweetheart proudly bore + The two fair, fragrant flowers. +Upon her bosom with delight + They bloomed,--but not forever: +They faded--ah! but, rapture bright, + They faded there together. + +ADA NICHOLS. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE WHITE WHATERS. + + +"Down with her! Hard!" came hoarsely through the mist. + +An oil-skinned figure threw himself heavily upon the oar; the little craft +rounded tremblingly up into the wind, hurling clouds of spray and foam +aloft that were borne far away by the whistling breeze. For a moment the +sail beat furiously, as if in protest at this infringement upon its +privileges, then a second oil-skin--the cause of all this +commotion--raised his arms, a steel spear flashed, a willowy pole trembled +in the air, a quick movement, a roar of rushing waters, a shower of spray +that drenched the craft, a sound of escaping steam or hissing rope, and a +white whale had been struck by Captain Sol Gillis, of Bic. + +Captain Gillis, as might be assumed, was not a native of the province of +Quebec, but merely a carpet-bagger, who moved north in the summer and +returned in early autumn about the time the wild geese went south, and all +for reasons known only to himself. He hailed from down East, and voted in +a small town not many miles from the historic shell-heaps and the ancient +city of Pemaquid. + +Our meeting with the down-East skipper was entirely one of accident. +Wandering along the beach at Bic, we had come upon a boat, half dory, half +nondescript, which from the possession of certain peculiarities was +claimed by one of the party to be of Maine origin, and, to settle the +dispute, a little house a few hundred yards higher up was visited. + +It was like many others along shore,--single-storied, painted white, with +green blinds, with a small garden in the rear, in which grew old-fashioned +flowers and an abundance of "yarbs" that bespoke a mistress of Thompsonian +leanings. A stack of oars, seine-sticks, and harpoon-handles leaned +against the roof; gill-nets festooned the little piazza, while a great +iron caldron, that had evidently done service on a New Bedford whaler, had +been utilized by the good housewife to capture the rain-water from the +shingled roof. + +"Mornin' to ye, gentlemen. Been lookin' at the bot?" queried a tall, thin, +red-faced man, with an unusually jolly expression, stepping out from a +shed. + +"Yes. We thought she was of Maine build," replied the disputant. + +"Wall, so she is," said the mariner,--"so she is; and there ain't none +like her within forty mile of Bic. I'm of Maine build myself," he added. +"But I ain't owner. I'm sorter second mate to Sol Grillis; sailed with him +forty year come Christmas. Don't ye know him? What! don't know Sol +Gillis!" And a look of incredulity crept into the old man's eye. "Why, I +thought Sol was knowed from Bic to Boothbay all along shore. But come in, +do. I know ye're parched," continued the friend of the skipper, dropping +his palm and needle and motioning the visitors toward the little +sitting-room. "Mother," he called, "here's some folks from daown aour way." + +As the old man spoke, a large-framed woman appeared in the door-way, +holding on to the sides for support, and bade us welcome. Her eyes were +turned upward, and had a far-away look, as if from long habit of gazing +out to sea, but, as we drew nearer, we saw that she was blind. + +Leading the way into the kitchen, which was resplendent with shining pans +and a glistening stove, all the work of the thrifty but blind housewife, +she began to entertain us in her simple manner, and described a model of a +full-rigged ship that rested on a table, though she had never seen it, +with an exactness that would have done credit to many a sailor: even the +ropes and rigging were pointed out, and all their uses dwelt upon with a +tenderness strangely foreign to the subject. + +"And Captain Sam built it?" we asked. + +"No, no," replied the old lady, turning her head to hide a tear that stole +from the sightless eyes. "It's all we've got to remember aour boy John. He +built her and rigged her. He was his mother's boy, but--" + +"He went down on the Grand Banks in the gale of '75," broke in her husband +hoarsely. + +"Yes," continued the wife, "me and Sam's all alone. It's all we've got, +and Sam brings it up every summer as sorter company like. Ye're friends of +Captain Sol, I guess," she said, brightening up after a moment. "No?" and +she looked in the direction of the captain, as if for a solution of the +mystery. "Naow, ye don't tell me that ye ain't acquainted with Captain Sol, +and ye're from aour way, too? Why," she continued earnestly, "Sol's been +hog-reeve in aour taown ten years runnin'; and as for selec'-man, he'll +die in office. Positions of trust come jest as nat'ral to him as reefin' +in a gale of wind. Him and my man tuck to one another from the first." + +"Then you were not townsmen always," we suggested. + +"No, we wa'n't," was the reply. + +"My man and Sol met under kinder unusual circumstances. Tell 'em haow it +was, Sam." + +The old sailor was sitting on the wood-box, shaping a row-lock from a +piece of white pine, and, when thus addressed, looked up with a blank +expression, as if he had been on a long search for ideas and had returned +without them. + +"He gits wanderin' in his ideas when he sets his mind on the '75 gale," +whispered the old lady. "Tell 'em abaout yer meetin' Captain Sol, Sam," +she repeated. + +"Me and Sol met kinder cur'us," began the captain. "That year I was first +mate of the Marthy Dutton, of Kennebec; and on this identical v'yage we +was baound daown along with a load of coal. In them days three was a +full-handed crew for a fore-an'-after, and that's all we had,--captain, +mate, and cook, and a dog and cat. One evenin',--I reckon we was ten miles +to the south'ard of Boon Island,--it was my trick at the wheel, and all +hands had turned in. It was blowin' fresh from the east'ard, and I had +everything on her I could git. I reckon it was nigh on ter two o'clock, +and as clear as it is to-day, when the fust thing I knowed the schooner +was on her beam ends. She gave a kind of groan like, pitched for'ard, and +down she went, takin' everything with her; and, afore I knowed what was +the matter, I found myself floatin' ten miles from shore. I see it was no +use, but I thought I'd make a break for it: so I got off my boots and +ile-skins in the water, and struck aout for shore, that I could see every +once in a while on a rise. + +"Wall, to make a long story short, I reckon I was in the water a matter o' +four hours, when I see the lights of a schooner comin' daown on me. I +hailed, and she heard me, ran up in the wind, put aout a bot, and Sol +Gillis, the skipper, yanked me in. I couldn't have held aout ten minutes +longer. So Sol and me has been tol'able thick ever since." + +"Here he comes naow," said the matron, whose quick ear had caught the +sound of approaching footsteps. "Sam, set aout my pennyroyal, will ye? Ye +see," she added apologetically, "Sol is literary, and when he comes raound +he gives us all the news, and there is sech goin's on in the papers +nowadays that it jest upsots my nerves to hear him and Sam talkin' 'em +over. Sech murders, riots, wrackin', and killin' of folks! If it wa'n't +for a dish of tea I 'low I couldn't hear to it." And the good woman held +out her hand to a burly fisherman in a full suit of oil-skins, and +presented him to the visitors as Sam's friend, Captain Sol Gillis. + +"I'm a white-whaler at present, gentlemen," said the captain, with a +hearty laugh that was so contagious that all hands joined in, scarcely +knowing why. + +He was a tall, robust specimen of a down-Easter, his open face reddened by +long battling with wind and weather, and shaved close except beneath the +chin, from which depended an enormous beard that served as a scarf in +winter and even now was tucked into his jacket. + +"It's a curious thing, naow, for the captain and mate of a coaster to be +in furrin parts a-whalin'; but we find it pays,--eh, Sam?" And Captain Sol +closed one eye and looked wisely for a second at his friend, upon which +the two broke into hearty laughter that had a ring of smuggled brandy and +kerosene in it, though perhaps it was only a ring, after all. + +"Kin yaou go whalin'?" said the captain in reply to a question of one of +the visitors. "Why, sartin. White-whalin's gittin' fashionable. There's +heaps o' chaps come daown here from Montreal and Quebec and want to go +aout: so I take 'em. Some shoots, and some harpoons, and abaout the only +thing I've seen 'em ketch yet is a bad cold; but there's excitement in it, +--heaps of it: ain't there, Sam?" + +"I ain't denyin' of it," replied the latter. "What's sport for some is +hard work for others. Work I calls it." + +"Wall, as I say," continued the skipper, "white-whalin' is gittin' +fashionable, so in course there ain't no hard work abaout it; and if yaou +will go, why, I'm goin' aout now, me and Sam. The only thing, it's dampish +like; but perhaps mother here kin rig yaou aout." + +Half an hour later the two landsmen were metamorphosed into very +respectable whalers, and, with the two captains, were running the +whale-boat down the sands of Bic into the dark waters of the St. Lawrence. +The light sail was set, and soon we were bounding away in the direction of +Mille Vaches, Captain Sam at the oar that constituted the helm, and +Captain Sol in the bow, with harpoon at hand, ready for the appearance of +game. + +The white whale, or Beluga, is extremely common at the mouth of the St. +Lawrence, and is found a considerable distance up the river beyond +Tadousac. The oil is in constant demand for delicate machinery, and Beluga +leather, made from the tanned hide, is manufactured into a great variety +of articles of necessity and luxury. + +In appearance these whales are the most attractive of all the cetaceans. +They are rarely over twenty feet in length, more commonly fifteen, of a +pure creamy color, sometimes shaded with a blue tint, but in the dark +water they appear perfectly white, perhaps by contrast, and seem the very +ghosts of whales, darting about, or rising suddenly, showing only the +rounded, dome-shaped head. + +The Beluga is a toothed whale, in contradistinction to those that are +supplied with the whalebone-like arrangement that characterizes the right +whales: consequently its food consists of fish and perhaps squid. To +enable it to capture such prey it must be endowed with remarkable powers +of speed. The motor is the great horizontal tail, powerful strokes of +which force the animal; through the water and enable it to leap high into +the air in its gambols. The pectoral fins are small and of little use in +swimming. The head is the most remarkable feature. It is the only instance +in this group of animals where this organ appears at all distinct from the +body. By viewing the creature in profile, a suggestion of neck may be seen, +and it is claimed that there is more or less lateral motion,--that the +head can be moved from side to side to a limited extent. The outlines of +the face are shapely, the forehead rising in a dome-like projection and +rounding off in graceful lines, so that the head resembles to some extent +that of our common _Balaena Cisarctica_. + +In their movements the Belugas are remarkably active, and are very playful, +--leaping into the air in their love-antics, rolling over and over, +chasing each other, and displaying in many ways their wonderful agility. +They often follow vessels in schools of forty and fifty, and old whalers +claim that they utter a whistling sound that can be heard distinctly above +the water. The young, sometimes two, but generally one, are at first brown +in color, later assuming a leaden hue, then becoming mottled, and finally +attaining the cream-white tint of the adult. The calves are frequently +seen nursing,--the mother lying upon the surface and rolling gently. + +The Beluga has a wide geographical range, being found upon our northern +and northwestern shores in great numbers. Their southern limit seems to be +the St. Lawrence, and in search of food they venture up this river beyond +the mouth of the Saguenay, and often in water but little over their own +depth. On the western coast they also enter the great rivers, and have +been captured up the Yukon seven hundred miles from its mouth. In their +columnar movements they somewhat resemble the porpoise,--long processions +being frequently seen, composed of three in a row, perhaps led by a single +whale. + +Among the Samoyeds, at Chabanova, on the Siberian coast, the white-whale +fisheries amount to fifteen hundred or two thousand pood of train-oil a +year. On the coasts of Nova Zembla and Spitzbergen they are captured by +enormous nets made of very stout material; and the Tromsoe vessels alone +have taken in a single season over two thousand one hundred and +sixty-seven white whales, valued at about thirty thousand dollars. +Magdalen a Bay is a favorite place for them, and often three hundred are +taken at a single haul in the powerful nets. Here and in most of the +northern localities the entire body is utilized,--the carcass being used +in the manufacture of guano. So perfectly are the bodies preserved by the +cold of these northern regions that if they cannot be removed at the time +of capture they are secured in the ensuing season. + +As the boat reached mid-stream, where the wind was blowing against the +current, great rollers were met with, that tossed the light craft about +like a ball. But this was evidently the play-ground of the Beluga, and +dead ahead the white forms were seen darting about in the inky water with +startling distinctness, while faint puffs were occasionally borne down on +the wind. + +Gradually we neared them, and suddenly a white dome appeared on the +weather bow. Then came the command and ensuing scene chronicled at the +commencement of this paper. + +We were perfectly familiar with whaling-terms, and as the game was struck +we construed Captain Sam's impressive "git aft" to mean "starn all," and +even in that moment of stumbling and drenching felt a sense of +disappointment in the suppression of a time-honored term. To omit "There +she blows!" was enough; but to substitute "git aft" for "starn all" was a +libel on the chroniclers of the "Whaler's Own Book." + +There was little time, however, for regrets. Our combined weight had +raised the bow a trifle, yet not enough to prevent the sea from coming in; +and, as the skipper, who was laboring with the steering-oar, said, the +small whaler was "hoopin' along, takin' everything as it came, and askin' +no questions." Now by the slight slacking of the line we were high on a +wave, the crest of which was dashed in our faces in the mad race; now down +in a hollow, taking the next sea bodily and plunging through it, causing +the oars and harpoons to rattle as if they were the very bones of the boat +shaking in fear and terror. + +In a short time she was a third full of water, and the amateur whalers +were invited to man the pumps--namely, two tin basins--and bale the St. +Lawrence out as fast as it came in. The maddened animal soon carried us +beyond the area of heavy seas, and preparations were made for taking in +the slack. The boat was still rushing along at an eight-knot rate; and, as +the whale showed no signs of weakening, it was Captain Sam's opinion that +nothing short of the lance would stop him. + +"Jest lay holt of the line, will ye?" sung out Captain Sol, passing the +slack aft, and four pairs of arms hauled the boat nearer the game, that +was far ahead. At first this only spurred the creature to further +endeavors; but the steady pull soon told, and, after an amount of labor +that can only be compared to sawing a cord of wood with a dull implement, +the white head of the Beluga came in sight. + +"Steady, now!" shouted Captain Sol, releasing his hold and picking up the +lance. "Now, then, work her ahead." + +A final haul, and the boat was fairly alongside of the fleeing animal, +careening violently under its rapid rushes; and, in response to the order +"Git to wind'ard," we sprang to the weather rail. A moment of suspense, a +quick motion of the lance, and the great white body of the whale rose from +the water and fell heavily back, beating it into foam in its convulsive +struggles. + +"She dies hard," said Captain Sol, shaking the water from the creases of +his oil-skin as the boat rounded to at a safe distance from the dying +whale. "But," he continued, lighting a match by biting the sulphur and +puffing violently at a short, black pipe, "that ain't nothing to what they +do sometimes: is it, Sam?" + +"I ain't denyin' of it," was the reply of that individual, who was now +sculling the boat about the whale in a great circle. + +"I've seen," continued the skipper, "a white whale smash a bot so clean +that ye'd thought it had been through a mill; and it was a caution haow we +didn't go with it. That was a curious year," he added. "Something happened +to drive the whales up here so thick that the hull river was alive with +'em, and of course we was for reapin' the harvest. When we struck the +rip-rap--as they call the tide agin' the wind--it was jest alive with 'em, +puffin' and snortin' on all sides. I had three harpoons aboard, besides a +rifle, and in a minute I had two foul, with buoys after 'em, and as one +big feller came up alongside to blow I let him have it with the rifle. + +"Naow," he went on, "whether they heard it or not I can't say, but I heard +a yell from Sam jest in time to look and see a whale rise I'll 'low twenty +foot clean out of the water. Then there was a kind of a rush, and Sam and +me went down, and when we riz it was gone. The critter had hopped clean +over that bot as slick as nothing. That kinder tuck the peartness aout of +us, so to speak; but later in the day I got aout the gun ag'in, havin' +broke the lance, and in killin' the critter she jumped on the bot, +and--wall, Sam and me we lit aout, and was picked up after a spell; but +that bot, there wasn't enough of her to make kindlin'-wood of. + +"They ain't vicious like," continued the skipper, "but clumsy, and if yaou +git in the way ye're bound to git hurted. Round the bend at Bic Island one +came ashore one time and got left every tide, so she was aout of water an +hour or so every day. Heaps of city folks went to see her, and one chap +came along and let on haow she couldn't be alive aout of water, and poked +her like with a stick. Wall, it ain't for me to say haow many feet she +knocked him, but when she fetched him with her flukes it was a Tuesday, +and I guess he thought he'd reached the turnin'-p'int of Friday when he +hauled himself aout of the mud. + +"No, they won't exactly live aout of water, but they'll stand it a like of +three weeks if yaou splash 'em every hour or so. They sent one to England +that way. They ain't fish. Whales' milk's good, if cream is. + +"But the best bit of whalin'," continued the communicative Captain Sol, +"that I ever see in these 'ere parts was done by that identical old chap +in the starn there." + +"When Sol ain't talkin', gentlemen," retorted the person thus alluded to, +"ye'll know he's sick," + +"Wall," said Captain Sol, laughing, "I'll spin the yarn, and yaou kin go +back on it if yaou kin. As I was sayin', we was aout one day I think a +couple o' miles below Barnaby Island. I was a-mummin' for'ard, kinder +sleep-in' on and by, and Sam at the helm, when we see a bot a-slidin' into +the ripple right ahead of us, and in a minute a couple of white heads was +dodgin' up a little to the wind'ard. Sam trimmed the sheet and hauled the +Howlin' Mary--that's what we called the bot---on the wind, and the other +bot did the same, both of us makin' for the same spot. I see it was nip +and tuck; and, knowin' that Sam was a master-hand, I says. ' Sam, yaou +take the iron.' So we shifted. + +"The other bot had a trifle the weather-gage of us, but both of us, mind +ye, makin' for where we thought the critter was comin' up to blow, and in +a minute, sure enough, up it come. This 'ere other bot shot right across +aour bows; but, Lord bless ye, it would take a proper good Injun to beat +Sam, for he up, hauls back, and let fly the harpoon clean over the other +hot, takin' the critter right alongside the blow-hole so neat that the +line fell across the other bot.--Naow, deny it if yaou kin," said Captain +Sol, turning to his friend. + +"Ye're a master-hand at talkin'," retorted Captain Sam. "I ain't denyin' +of it; but it was luck, good luck, that's all." + +By this time the white whale had succumbed, and lay upon the surface +motionless and dead; and upon the boat being hauled alongside the huge +creature was taken in tow and soon stranded upon the beach, where the +valuable parts were secured,--the liver and blubber for the oil, and the +thick, white skin that was to be tanned and made into leather or used in +the manufacture of various articles. + +The evening following, upon invitation, we visited the cabin of Captain +Sol, who was a widower and kept bachelor's hall, so to speak. We found him +seated on a keg, by the side of an enormous caldron that might have +contained the witches' compound, judging from the strange forms of steam +that arose from it, while the lurid flames beneath, fed by the oily +drippings, lent a still greater weirdness to the scene. + +"Good-evenin', gentlemen," said the captain, rising quickly as we entered. +"I was settin' here in a sog like, and didn't hear ye. It's a master-night, +and we're goin' to have good weather to-morrow. If yaou want to try it +ag'in, ye're welcome. + +"Sam? Sartin; he's goin'. Him and me's jest like the figger ten: if yaou +haul off the one we ain't good for nothin'. If yaou want to see a faithful +friend, jest clap yer eyes on Sam Whittlefield. And that ain't all," +continued the skipper, looking around and speaking low. "Ye might not +think it, for he's master-modest, but Sam's got larn-in' that there ain't +many in aonr taown kin grapple with. Yaou oughter see his lib'ry. A full +set o' the records of Congress from 1847 up to 1861; and he'd have had 'em +all, only he jined the navy and couldn't keep 'em up. Then there's a +history by Mister Parley, and a hull secretaryfull of books of all kinds. +Oh, Sam's literary; there ain't no gittin' raound that. + +"Yaou might hear him speak of their son John? Wall, he was a chip o' the +old block. He was as wild a yonker as they make 'em; but Sam never laid +the whip on him; he argued with him and eddicated him on a literary +principle. When John did anything reckless like, the old lady'd fetch aout +a sartin book, called 'The Terrible Suffering of Sary Perbeck,'--like +enough ye've heard on it,--and I tell ye that tuck the conceit aout of +him. She belonged to old Quaker stock of Paris, Maine, and she kept it up +till John was a man grown and she lost her eyesight. She made a good boy +of him; but the poor feller went down with the rest in the gale of 1875, +on the Grand Banks. John had hard luck. The first v'yage he made, the +schooner was struck by a sea on the Banks, capsized, and rolled completely +under, comin' up the other side, so't the men below dropped out of their +bunks on ter the ceilin', and then back ag'in as she righted.[A] The +hatches were battened down, and they found John lashed to the wheel, half +drowned. The next trip all hands foundered. They reckoned she went down at +the anchorage. + +[Footnote A: The schooner Daniel A. Burnam had a similar experience in +1877. She rolled completely over and righted herself without the loss of a +man.] + +"Have some beans, won't ye?" asked the skipper abruptly, as if he had been +deluded by some trick into a gloomy frame of mind and was determined to +shake it off then and there. "Them is the real New England beans," he +continued, taking a black bean-pot with a wooden spoon from the ashes. +"There's the bone and sinner of New England's sons right here. I'm +master-fond of 'em; never sails withaout a pot or so. Every time I see a +pot it makes me think of old Joe Muggridge, a deacon of aour taown. He +beat me once years ago in 'lection for hog-reeve; but I don't bear no ill +feelin'. He was deacon of the First Baptist, and captain of one of the +biggest coasters in aour parts, and that fond of beans that folks believed +he'd 'a' died if he couldn't have had 'em. Wall, it so happened one fall +that there came on a powerful gale on the Georges, and a power of hands +was lost. A good many bots got carried away from the schooners, and one +dory with two men from Boothbay was picked up by one of these +ocean-steamers bound in for New York, and that's the way the yarn got +told. They'd been withaout food and water for three days, and were abaout +givin' up; but the steamer-folks tuck 'em in and steamed for port. + +"The next mornin' it was blowin' fresh and lively, and the lookout sighted +a schooner lyin' to a couple of miles to the lew'ard, reefed daown close, +and a flag flyin', union down,--signal of distress. Thinkin' they were +sinkin', the captain of the steamer put towards her, and rounded to half a +mile off and called for volunteers to git aout the bot. Half a dozen brave +fellers sprang to the davits, and among 'em aour Boothbay boys. They'd +been in a fix, ye see, and was eager to help the rest of sufferin' +humanity. She was rollin' so that it tuck 'em nigh an hour to git the bot +over, and then two men fell overboard; but finally they got off toward the +schooner, all hands givin' 'em three cheers. + +"It was a hard pull, and a nasty sea, but they kept at it, and in half an +hour was within hailin'-distance. Then the third officer of the steamer +stood up and sung aout, 'Schooner ahoy!' 'Ay, ay!' says a man in the +schooner's fore-riggin', and the men see naow that she was ridin' like a +duck and as dry as a sojer. 'Are ye in distress?' sung aout the officer. +'Yas,' came from the man in the riggin'. 'Flounderin'?' shouted the +officer ag'in. 'No,' sung out old man Muggridge, for it was him: 'next +thing to it. We're aout o' beans. Kin ye spare a pot?' + +"Wall," continued Captain Sol, reddening with the roar of laughter that +accompanied the recollection, "it ain't for me, bein' a perfesser of +religion, to let on what the men in the bot said, but it had a +master-effect on the deacon, for afore them rescuers got back to the +steamer he'd shook aout his reefs and was haulin' to the east'ard. + +"Wall," said the old skipper, banking the fire with a shovelful of sand, +as his visitors rose to go, "to-morrow, then, at early flood, sharp." + +The early flood was that dismal time when the phantom mists of night still +cling to the earth, and low-lying clouds of fog cover the river, only to +be dispersed by the coming day. Cold and cheerless as it was, it found us +again launching the whale-boat, and, when the sail was trimmed aft and +pipes lighted, we rushed into the fog and headed down the river to meet +the rising sun. + +The mist was so dense that only the glimmer of Captain Sol's pipe could be +seen for'ard, appearing like an intermittent eye gleaming through the fog +that settled upon our oil-skins in crystal drops and ran in tiny rivulets +down the creases into the boat. For a mile we scudded along before the +west wind through the gloom, and then a wondrous change commenced. Soft +gleams of light shot from the horizon upward, the dark-blue heavens +assumed a lighter tint, the pencilled rays growing broader and fusing +together, producing a strange and rapidly-spreading nebulous light. The +cloud of low-lying mist now became a brassy hue, seemingly heated to +ignition, and then from its very substance appeared to rise a fiery, +glowing mass that flooded the river with a golden radiance. + +"It's a master-sight," quoth Captain Sol between the puffs, as the change +went on and the fog began to break before the rising sun. "I ain't no +likin' for fogs. Ye see----" But here the skipper stopped, as a peculiar +sound and then another, the puffing of the white whale, was heard. + +The boat was hauled on the wind, the mast unshipped, and, harpoon in hand, +Captain Sol stood braced for the affray. The ripple seemed alive with the +ghostly creatures, their white forms darting here and there, while the +puffing came fast and furious. + +"Stand by to git aft!" whispered the harpooner, and that moment, instead +of a white head, the entire body of a Beluga rose in front of the boat, +clearing the water in a graceful leap. + +Quick as thought the skipper hurled his weapon. It struck with a sounding +thud, a wing shot, and the great creature fell heavily, impaled in mid-air, +to rush away, bearing boat and white-whalers far down the river toward +the sea. + +C.F. HOLDER. + + * * * * * + + + + +OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP. + +A Virginia Lady of the Old School. + + +Among the many beautiful and fascinating women who adorned Richmond +society at the beginning of the present century there were few more +remarkable and interesting than Mrs. Mayo, the wife of Colonel John Mayo, +founder of the bridge at Richmond that bears his name. She was the +daughter of John De Hart, of New Jersey, an eminent lawyer and a member of +the first Continental Congress. Bellville, the home of Colonel and Mrs. +Mayo, in the suburbs of Richmond, was the seat of elegant and boundless +hospitality. No person of distinction ever came to Richmond without +calling at Bellville, the _entrée_ to which was an unquestioned passport +to the best society of the city. + +Mrs. Mayo's eldest daughter, Maria, was the most celebrated Virginia belle +of her day. She never gave a decided answer to any of her numerous suitors, +and the story goes that one evening three gentlemen met at her house, and +after a very pleasant visit they returned to Richmond together. One of +them asked the others why they went there, as he was engaged to Miss Mayo +and expected shortly to marry her. The other gentlemen also said they had +hopes of winning the fair lady. The first gentleman determined to have the +matter settled, and accordingly went to her house the following day and +sought an interview with Mrs. Mayo. He told her he had her daughter's +consent, and asked hers. Mrs. Mayo replied she was sorry she could not +give her consent, and the gentleman then understood that the mother and +daughter were in perfect accord in the matter of the young lady's +love-affairs. In this way Miss Mayo kept on hand a regiment of admirers, +who formed a sort of reserve-corps. When John Howard Payne, the author of +"Home, Sweet Home," visited Richmond, he was a frequent guest at the Mayo +mansion. He wrote a poem, in which he described himself as falling asleep +in a grove and all the months of the year appearing to him. The month of +June was the first, and he finally winds up with May, which he described +in very glowing language, ending with the line,-- + + Sweet May, oh, I could love thee ever. + +Maria Mayo is said to have refused more than a hundred suitors before she +accepted General Winfield Scott, who courted her when he was a member of +the Richmond bar as Mr. Scott. After entering the army he continued his +addresses, and was refused successively as Captain Scott and Colonel Scott, +and it was only as General Scott, the victorious hero of Lundy's Lane, +that he at last won the hand of the much-admired belle. + +Mr. William Henry Haxall, a very agreeable gentleman of Richmond, relates +that on one occasion he visited Mrs. Scott soon after one of her trips to +Europe. He went in the evening at nine o'clock, and after some time, when +he thought he had paid a call sufficiently long, he slyly looked at his +watch, and, to his amazement, found it was one o'clock. On his apologizing +for the length of his visit, Mrs. Scott assured him she never retired +before one or two o'clock, but that she had no idea it was so late, Mr. +Haxall being one of the most agreeable gentlemen she had ever met, when in +fact he had not spoken a dozen words, but was a charmed listener to her +interesting description of her travels abroad. + +In 1828, Mrs. Mayo, in the sixty-eighth year of her age, undertook a +voyage to Europe in a sailing-vessel. After her arrival, she passed most +of her time in Paris, where she was the recipient of very flattering +attentions and the intimate friend and guest of some of the best families +of the nobility, especially those of General La Fayette and his son George +Washington, of the Count de Ségur, and of M. de Neuville, minister of +marine, of whom Mrs. Mayo wrote, January 10, 1829, "He lives in one of the +palaces in grand style, and we see there all the people of the court as +often as it suits us." She renewed also her friendship with many French +families whom she had known in Richmond as refugees during the French +Revolution, and their attentions and evident pleasure at the reunion seem +to have been peculiarly gratifying to her. She returned to Richmond in +1829, and lived at Bellville until that elegant mansion was destroyed by +fire in 1842. After her return, she confined her entertainments almost +exclusively to handsome dinner-parties, at which she presided with +exceeding grace and elegance, and where it was said that, though the wines +were fine, the flavor and brilliancy of the conversation were far +superior. She never retired without a candle and writing-materials at her +bedside, and if during the night any new idea or bright thought arose, she +would immediately strike a light and jot it down. She retained her mental +vigor and personal attractions until her death in 1843, in the +eighty-second year of her age. + +The following instances will serve to illustrate Mrs. Mayo's great nerve +and self-possession. She was accustomed to drive daily to the bridge to +collect the toll of the preceding day, consisting generally of silver of +various denominations, which she put in a bag and deposited in the bank. +Her driver Moses was a favorite negro, who had a weakness for drink: he +had several times tried her fortitude and temper severely by upsetting her +into a gully by the roadside leading to Bellville, fortunately with no +serious consequences to her, unfortunately with none to himself. On one +occasion, Mrs. Mayo, being too late for the bank, and intending to pass +the night at the residence of her daughter Mrs. Cabell, took the bag of +silver and placed it in a closet in her room, which was at the back of the +house and opening on a porch. During the night she was awakened by a noise, +and perceived the figure of a man in her room. Pretending sleep, she +quietly watched his movements until she saw him enter the closet, when she +arose quickly, and, rushing rapidly across the room, shut and locked the +closet door in an instant, and called loudly for her son-in-law Dr. Cabell, +who was in the adjoining room. On his hurried entrance, she informed him +that she had a man in the closet, and that he must go for a policeman, +--which was done, and the door opened, when, to their astonishment, there +stood the trusted Moses. Mrs. Mayo, horrified, exclaimed, "Oh, Moses, how +could you try to rob me!" Moses, hanging his head, dropped on his knees, +and, in beseeching tones, replied, "Misses, it warn't Moses: it was the +debbil;" and the old lady forgave him. + +At a time when the whole State was in consternation from an apprehended +insurrection of the slaves, when families far and near were flocking to +the cities for protection, and patrols were scouring the country day and +night, Mrs. Mayo was entirely alone at Bellville, with no white person in +the neighborhood. Her friends in vain besought her to go to Richmond. At +length matters became so threatening that some gentlemen, discussing the +subject one night, concluded that it was too unsafe for Mrs. Mayo, and +determined to ride out and insist upon her returning with them to the +city. They reached Bellville about midnight, and, as they rode up, a +window was raised, showing that the brave proprietress was on the _qui +vive_. She demanded, in a quiet, fearless voice, "Who is there?" They +explained the object of their visit, but pleaded and remonstrated +ineffectually. She refused to accompany them, saying she had no fear, and +could protect herself; which she did boldly and safely until the danger +and alarm had passed away. + +E.L.D. + + + + +Mystifications of Authoresses. + + +"Don't you think," wrote the author of "Evelina" to her sister, "there +must be some wager depending among the little curled imps who hover over +us mortals, of how much flummery goes to turn the head of an authoress?" +For at that time little Fanny Burney, twenty-six years of age, was +enjoying such an ovation as had never before come within the experience of +woman. She had written a book which all London was reading, quoting, and +discussing admiringly without the least idea of the author's identity; and +Fanny could not meet an acquaintance, could not receive a letter, could +not attend a party of friends, without being asked, "Have you read +'Evelina'? Is it not charming?" Anonymity was in this case the cleverest +_ruse_ for an absolute enjoyment of the results of her work. One after +another her family and outside friends, from the great Dr. Johnson down, +were admitted to a share of the delightful secret. All who knew that +"Little Burney" was at the bottom of this fascinating mystery were as +eager as she herself for nattering comments and conjectures, and there +were nudgings of elbows, "nods and becks and wreathed smiles," when +"Evelina" was mentioned. It would have been no wonder if the little girl's +head had been turned as she hugged her surprise and happiness to her +swelling little heart. When the murder was out, and she was _fêted_ and +honored, called to court and compelled to courtesy thankfully at the +ponderous compliments of great personages, she must have felt that the +bloom of the peach was rubbed off and the bubble of the champagne departed. + +In most cases strangers may not intermeddle with the joy of authorship. +Spoken praise carries off the rose and puts a thorn in its place. One of +our famous novelists, whom we will call Brown, happened to catch sight in +a strange city of the sign, "Autographs of distinguished authors for +sale," He thought to himself he would test his own market value, and +accordingly entered the shop. + +"Have you the autograph of Mr. Brown?" he inquired. + +"Oh, yes." + +"What is the price?" he asked. + +"One for two cents, or two for three cents," was the reply. + +He was in the habit of declaring afterward that he could have borne the +one for two cents, but that the two for three cents stung him bitterly. +Such is fame; and no wonder that young authoresses often begrudge a +complete surrender of their identity to the Juggernaut car of public +curiosity and criticism, and begin either anonymously or with a +pseudonyme. A masculine _nom de plume_ has of late been a favorite device +with the fair sex, partly for the reason that it is supposed to confer an +ampler ease, and partly from an idea that male writers command a readier +hearing and higher prices than female. We see a great many Henris, Georges, +and the like on the title-pages of books which are a flimsy veil to +conceal the pretty feminine figure behind. + +After Miss Burney had set the fashion, women pressed boldly forward into +literary ranks, although the author of "Waverley" absorbed in a great +degree the curiosity of the reading public. Miss Austen, whose work is +destined, in the opinion of good judges, to survive with the language, +made her first venture, like the author of "Evelina," anonymously; but it +created no such furore. This was "Sense and Sensibility," published in +1811; but she had already written "Northanger Abbey" and "Pride and +Prejudice," although they were not published until years afterward. No one +supposed her to be more than an every-day bright and observant young lady. +Like other English girls of her class, it was her habit to sit in the +drawing-room with the ladies of the family after eleven o'clock each day, +ready to receive visitors. Instead of having needle-work in her hand, Jane +had a pen, which was often dropped just in the midst of one of her clear, +incisive pictures of the Woodhouses, Knightleys, and Bennets, as neighbors +who might have served for the originals of those characters were +announced. Feminine tact instantly obliterated every sign of literary +occupation: the quill was thrown aside, and her sister's canvases and +embroidery were strewn over the writing-table to cover every scrap of +paper. + +The famous pseudonyme of George Sand, which seems so characteristic of the +writer, was a matter of accident. When Madame Dudevant, tired of her +domestic _rôle_, went to Paris to take up a literary career, her +mother-in-law, Baroness Dudevant, said to her, with incredulous horror,-- + +"Is it true that it is your intention _to print books_?" + +"Yes, madame." + +"Well, I call that an odd notion." + +"Yes, madame." + +"That is all very good and very fine; but I hope you are not going to put +the name that I bear on the _covers of printed books_." + +"Oh, certainly not, madame: there is no danger." + +When the publisher wanted a signature for "Indiana" which should show that +it was by one of the authors of "Rose et Blanche," which she had written +in collaboration with Sandeau under the name of Jules Sand, the author +retained the Sand and prefixed George to it as a simple and rustic title. + +The Brontés when about to publish their poems took the names "Currer, +Ellis, and Acton Bell," each keeping her initials. This choice, wrote +Charlotte, was "dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple at assuming +names positively masculine, while we did not like to declare ourselves +women, because, without at the time suspecting that our mode of writing +and thinking was not what is called 'feminine,' we had a vague impression +that authoresses were likely to be looked on with prejudice." The London +"Athenaeum," which was one of the few papers that noticed the little book, +spoke of the work of the three "brothers." Even after "Jane Eyre," +"Wuthering Heights," and "Agnes Grey" were printed, the secret of the +triple identity was jealously kept, until a vexatious tangle of their +names, and a claim from certain publishers that the three authors of the +three books were one person and that all the novels were by the author of +"Jane Eyre," roused Charlotte and Anne Bronte to the point of setting off +for London to show Smith and Elder that they were honest and fair. Up to +this time the publishers had not known whether they were women or men. "On +reaching Mr. Smith's," writes Mrs. Gaskell, "Charlotte put his own letter +into his hands,--the same letter which had excited so much disturbance at +Haworth Parsonage only twenty-four hours before. 'Where did you get this?' +said he, as if he could not believe that the two young ladies dressed in +black, of slight figures, looking pleased yet agitated, could be the +embodied Currer and Acton Bell for whom curiosity had been hunting so +eagerly in vain." The secret, however, was not disclosed, except to the +publishers. Until "Shirley" was published, opinion was much divided as to +the probable sex of Currer Bell, but "Shirley" was declared to be written +by a woman; and, this suggestion once started, questions of identity soon +settled themselves. Charlotte went to London again, and this time was +introduced to all the literary people in the town. It was not until her +third visit, however, that she attended a lecture of Thackeray's, and at +the close found that the audience, instead of withdrawing, had formed +themselves into two lines and drawn back to see the famous authoress as +she passed out. "During this passage through the 'cream of society,' Miss +Bronté's hand trembled to such a degree that her companion feared lest she +should turn faint and be unable to proceed." Ellis and Acton Bell were in +their early graves, and all the splendor of her fame could hardly lighten +by a breath the weight of that lonely sorrow of Charlotte. + +The story of George Eliot's pseudonyme has been too recently told to +require allusion, except to point out its practical value to herself, +shielding as it did her susceptibilities,--in fact, guarding like a +chrysalis the first strivings, the flutter into full life, of that +immortal winged thing it concealed. + +Several of our own female writers have chosen a masculine _nom de plume_, +and guarded it consistently, like Saxe Holm, etc. Miss Murfree is, we +believe, the first whose disguise editors as well as the general public +failed to pierce. Now that the critical faculty begins to play more surely +upon the works of Charles Egbert Craddock, it may be said that a woman's +love of romance and picturesqueness shades off into haze and unreality +some of the pictures of life which a man's experience and surer knowledge +would have made vivid by fewer and more vigorous strokes. However, as long +as she chose, Miss Murfree held her secret beyond the reach of discovery, +because nobody questioned it; her disclosure was piquant, and the state of +surprise into which she threw her admirers was so utter that the full +story of it ought to be told, although we are not empowered to tell it +here. + +L.W. + + + + +The Abuse of Adjectives. + + +It is a great pity that the fairy willow whistle which blew everything +into its proper place should have burst with its first note, for there +would be such ample opportunity nowadays for the display of its peculiar +functions. Why, for instance, should modern novel-writers turn the patient +adjective into an overworked little drudge, and compel it to do thrice the +labor that it can effectually perform? Fifty years ago it led a life of +respected ease, and was only called on when it could be of some real use +to the author; now it knows no respite from its ever-increasing tasks, and +too often bears upon its weak shoulders the real burden of the book. +Formerly we were told that Tilburina had golden hair and blue eyes, or +raven hair and black eyes, as the case might be; and, that matter being +settled, we heard little more upon the subject. Now the hair and eyes +appear anew on every page, and are apparently considered the most +important element in the story. + +Who has not been struck with the slighting manner in which Sir Walter +describes his heroines' charms? Edith Bellenden, we are asked to believe, +was fair without insipidity; Julia Mannering, who is to Waverley what +Rosalind is to Shakespeare, is hardly credited with being beautiful at all; + while when it comes to his heroes Sir Walter is even more strikingly +ineloquent. "A slender young man," or "a young man of genteel appearance," +is sometimes all that is vouchsafed to us, the rest being happily left to +our imagination. Among modern writers, Trollope alone manifests this +curious indifference to the hair, eyes, noses, and mouths of his _dramatis +personae_. What was the color of Grace Crawley's hair, or of Lily Dale's +eyes? What did Archdeacon Grantby look like, or who shall venture to +describe the immortal Mrs. Proudie? George Eliot, on the contrary, +inclines, especially in her later books, to a lavish use of adjectives; +and the aspiring authoress of to-day may cite Gwendolen's "long brown +glance" as being quite as strained as any effort of her own. But then we +can no more approach George Eliot by copying a few of her mannerisms than +we can become Napoleons by wearing an old coat, or William the Thirds by +cultivating an inordinate taste for green peas. + +To all, however, who wish to behold this tendency in its fullest and +freest development, we would recommend the perusal of a novel by Rhoda +Broughton, called "Second Thoughts,"--a bright, vivacious, almost witty +little book, marred only by its ineradicable defects of style. The heroine, +Gillian Latimer, is described over and over again, with as much emphasis +on every feature as if she were one of Madame Tussaud's pet creations and +had nothing but her outward appearance to suggest the real woman she +aspires to be. On her eyes alone more adjectives are brought to bear than +would have sufficed Scott for all the orbs in Waverley. They are "gray +eyes," "great gray eyes," "angry gray eyes," "steel-gray eyes," and +"displeased gray eyes;" also "grave eyes," "sparkling eyes," "clear eyes," +"blazing eyes," "proud eyes," "great eyes," "aching eyes," "large bright +eyes," "drooped eyes," "eager young eyes," "angry eyes," "steel-colored +eyes." "sad, leave-taking eyes," "flashing eyes," and "proud, dewy eyes." +Upon one occasion she "lifts the fair stars of her gray eyes" into her +lover's face; on another, she scorches him badly with "gray eyes like +furious fires." The hero himself, a most quiet, commonplace young doctor, +is not above a little eye-work on his own account. He has alternately +"serious eyes," "cross eyes," "quiet, shrewd eyes," "coldly just, bright +eyes," "steady eyes," "calm eyes," "fiery eyes," "town-tired eyes,"--which +is quite a novelty in the list,--and "eyes of burning choler," to say +nothing of eyes that "burn like fire," while he "grows pale as ashes," +which must have given him the effect of a conflagration, especially as he +stands once "all beflamed with sunset." + +Next to the supreme question of eyes we hear most about Gillian's "blonde +head," and her "flaxen head," her "flax head," her "bowed flax head," her +"tossed head," her "wilful head," her "fair head," and her "well-poised +head," while to match these maidenly attributes she has a "fair Sphinx +face," a "tragic pale face," a "serious face," a "humiliated white face," +a "flaming face," a "hotly-flushed face," a "sweetly apologetic face," and +a "flower-textured face." Moreover, being a very remarkable girl, she is +endowed with a "severe young figure," and a "gracious figure," whatever +that may mean, while her "lily-fair" and "delicate-cold" hands have +"satiny backs," and are "small and capable" as well. She is never merely +pretty like other women, but she has "ripe June beauty." and a "robust yet +delicate beauty." If she loses her temper, which happens rather often in +the course of the story, she manifests the same by the "red scorn of her +look," or by her "beautiful vexed eyes," which resemble a "sudden angry +gray arrow,"--imagine an angry gray arrow,--or by "flaming out into +crimson anger," or "with wreathed neck and flaming cheek," or "with +enkindled eye and vermeil cheek," both of which expressions we would +recommend to lovers of simplicity. + +If she is sad, however, she "lifts the drowned stars of her impatient, +suffering eyes," or lowers them with a "moist look;" or she strays in +"confused red misery," or in a "passionate scarlet hurry," which is as +extraordinary in its way as an angry gray arrow. When her father dies, she +stands "long and craped," with a "black elbow" resting on the +chimney-place; while her various methods of blushing take up half the +volume. Never, indeed, was there a heroine who blushed so much about so +little. Sometimes it is merely a matter of "flaming cheeks," or of the +"young roses of her cheeks," or of the "mortified carmine of her cheeks," +or of her "hot bloom," or of her "beautiful hot red roses." Sometimes it +is the "deep color of mingled shame and joy;" while on more especial +occasions we are assured that her face is "made all of poppies," that it +"changes from poppy-color to milk, and back from milk to poppy-color," +that it "keeps shifting from frightened white to mortified red, and back +again," and, better than all, that "cheek and chin and pearl-fair throat +grow all one rose-red flame," with which triumph of compound adjectives we +will close our quotations, only remarking that Gillian's blushing chin +rivals the achievement of Ursula in "John Halifax," who, we are gravely +told, colored over her throat, neck, and arms. + +All honor to the lady Olivia, who has taught us how to make a rational +inventory of a woman's charms! "Item, two lips indifferent red; item, two +gray eyes with lids to them; item, one neck, one chin, and so forth." To +these let us add, item, one blush indifferent rosy, and then have done +with the subject forever. + +A.R. + + * * * * * + + + + +LITERATURE OF THE DAY. + + +"Nathaniel Parker Willis." By Henry A.Beers. +"Edgar Allan Poe." By George E. Woodbury. +(American Men of Letters Series.) +Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. + + +The American Men of Letters Series is giving us some excellent biographies, +well written, the facts well assimilated and grouped, and the whole +treatment so accurate and graphic as to be full not only of instruction +but of entertainment. Formerly American biography was so deficient in just +those qualities which endear English biographical literature to us, that +we were inclined to believe that the fault was inherent in Americans and +American life, that our days and works lacked picturesqueness and color +and left no salient points for the chronicler to seize. We now see that +the meagre harvests of former biographers were due to their hasty and +superficial generalizations. For at least three of the volumes in this +series--the life of James Fenimore Cooper and the two now before us--may +be favorably compared with the best work in the English Men of Letters +Series, which is indeed high praise. Unusual and striking as were the +incidents in the life of Cooper, they had completely dropped out of sight +of the present generation. The biographers of Willis and Poe had no such +advantage. Willis is still remembered, not only as a _litt?teur_ and +journalist, but as a man about town, while legend has never ceased to be +busy with the memory of Poe, so that the traditions of his strange career +are curiously linked to and incorporated with his best-known works. + +The present estimate of Willis as a literary man is so slight that it +seems almost like impaling a butterfly to apply critical tests to his +writings. Professor Beers has nevertheless made it a profitable and +interesting study to follow him through his career, which was, upon the +whole, singularly fortunate. Few authors have possessed so happy a knack +of making the present moment both enjoyable and profitable. His personal +endowments were all in his favor, and no sooner was he launched in Europe +than he gained a great social success. England, in particular, opened some +of its pleasantest circles to him. Not only did Lady Blessington take him +up, but he became a favorite with many of the most lofty and exclusive +members of the aristocracy. Never was opportunity more auspicious, for +Willis was a born worshipper of refinements and luxuries. He had starved +in America for beauty and color, and dear to him were all these adjuncts +of a highly-civilized life. It was his mission to reproduce for Americans +lively impressions in letters to newspapers at home, and in stories and +sketches, in which he drew freely not only upon his own experiences, but +upon all the hints and suggestions he could pick up. His industry and +ingenious expedients were well rewarded: in fact, one is a little +surprised to find that in 1842 he was writing four articles monthly for +four magazines, and receiving one hundred dollars for each, which makes a +sum total of almost five thousand a year. He was, besides, handsomely paid +for his books both in England and at home, and had generally on hand some +writing for illustrated volumes of travel, so that for many years he may +easily be said to have made seven or eight thousand a year. + +No greater contrast to Willis--the man of the world, who knew how to turn +every habit, talent, and instinct to account--could be found than poor Poe, +all whose opportunities were wasted, spoiled, or flung away. It is the +most difficult thing in the world to arrive at anything like a complete +idea of the identity of so fantastic a man as the author of the "Raven." +The faults, inconsistencies, and contradictions of his character perplex +and dismay one the more closely one looks into his letters and the minor +incidents of his career. Mr. Woodbury has, however, acquitted himself well +in this difficult task, and has in many cases separated truth from +long-accepted fiction and given us a clear picture of what has hitherto +been blurred and distorted by unfaithful friends and foes. The story is a +most hopeless and pitiful one, its gloom brightened and its bitterness +sweetened by but few of the consolations which belong to average human +lives. The causes of this are apparent enough: they were constituents of +Poe's brain and heart; but for him to have been otherwise organized would +have been for his unique work to have had no existence. + + + + +Recent Fiction. + + +"Troubled Waters: A Problem of To-Day." By Beverley Ellison Warner. +Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company. + +"A Marsh Island," By Sarah Orne Jewett. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. + +"The Duchess Emilia." By Barrett Wendell. Boston: James R. Osgood & Co. + +"Across the Chasm." "Within the Capes." New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. + +"One of the Duanes." By Alice King Hamilton. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott +Company. + +"Tales from Many Sources." Vols. I. and II. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. + +There is a generous use of good material in Mr. Warner's novel, the scene +of which is laid in a New England manufacturing town, with all the sharp +and diversified social contrasts, the eager strifes and competitions, that +belong to such a community, clearly portrayed. The author calls his story +"A Problem of To-Day," and it is his study to press home to the +consciousness of the reader the series of dull and wearing miseries, the +bitter discouragements and pathetic misfortunes, which pursue the +working-man whose most faithful labor insures him no secure hold upon +future comfort and prosperity. It is both the strength and the weakness of +the book that its most prominent figure, Richard Wilton, is a wealthy +mill-owner who has risen to his position in a way which makes him an +unfair representative of the class of capitalists. A man without intellect +or humanity, without faith, without law, a robber of the dead, a despoiler +of the widow and orphan, a successful impostor, a remorseless brute who +takes pleasure in outraging and crushing his subordinates, would naturally +be a bad master and make his work-people miserable by heaped-up tyrannies. +His faults are not the inevitable outgrowth of a position of power and the +conflict between capital and labor, but are the result of his own +individual depravity. But this man's personality is a powerful one, and +his personality is the motive of most of the dramatic events which crowd +the pages. The history of the "strike" which follows the reduction of +wages at Trade Lawn Mills is faithfully and vigorously given. Mr. Warner +evidently knows the temper of workingmen, their patience and impatience, +their trials, temptations, and weaknesses. He gauges with pitiful fidelity +the faults of character and purpose which make almost every "strike" +contain within itself the germs of collapse and failure. The plot is +cleverly conceived and successfully carried out. That the bubble which has +for a time floated Richard Wilton's frauds and crimes bursts at last, and +that the villain is brought to well-merited disgrace, is a matter of +course. Trade Lawn Mills pass into the hands of their rightful owners, and +certain co-operative ideas which are an essential ingredient of the story +and its applied moral are carried out. The author attaches high importance +to co-operative schemes, and finds in them the clear solution of the +vexing questions concerning the future of the workingman. As an offset to +the somewhat dark and troubled pictures of life which the story presents, +there are sunny and pleasant passages in which a High-Church clergyman and +a young lady by the name of Sydney Worthington figure. The whole book is, +in fact, inspired by a spirit of hopefulness and a sure belief that divine +order overrules the efforts, successes, and failures of the humblest human +being and that a way of deliverance is sure to come. + +If "A Marsh Island" shows no distinct advance upon Miss Jewett's earlier +work, it is yet a pretty, artistic product which delicately emphasizes the +author's best points and gives us her distinct charm without any waste of +effects. Her feeling for rural life and her clear comprehension of rural +people were never better displayed than in this little story. A generous +play of late-summer and autumn radiance lights up its every nook and +corner; it is mellow with warm color and odorous of late fruits and +flowers. We cannot help finding the artist visitor, that product of the +bloom of Boston civilization, a little hackneyed and time-worn. He has +surely done his part in literature, and may retire to the heaven of the +dilettante. But all the inhabitants of Marsh Island are human and +attractive, and the untiring industries of the well-ordered household +soothe one like the rhythm of a song. The bizarre, incongruous, but, upon +the whole, satisfactory specimen of New England "help" which Miss Jewett +generally introduces finds an excellent example here in the person of +Temperance Kipp. Squire Owen is a genial man, so overflowing with generous +nature that he can afford to fill out the more meagre humanities of his +wife, who has susceptibilities, tempers, and moods. "They used to tell a +story," he one day remarks to Mrs. Owen, with great satisfaction, when she +has a distinct grievance about clothes,--"I do' know but you've heard it, +--about old Sergeant Copp an' his wife, that was always quarrellin'. +Somebody heard her goin' on one day. Says she, 'I do wish somebody'd give +me a lift as fur as Westmarket. I do feel's if I ought to buy me a cap. I +ain't got a decent cap to my back: if I was to die to-morrow, I ain't got +no cap that's fit to lay me out in.' 'Blast ye,' says he, 'why didn't ye +die when ye had a cap?'" The more impassioned side of life does not suit +Miss Jewett so well as the humorous and pastoral; but each detail about +her heroine is attractive, and nothing in recent fiction, is more true, +touching, and womanly than Doris's journey to Westmarket in the autumnal +dawn to keep her lover at home from the fishing-banks. + +"The Duchess Emilia" is one of those stories which ought to be withdrawn +from the province of criticism by the fact of their being the delight of +the reader, thrilling him with their weirdness and firing his imagination +by their splendid audacity. If the attention is so feebly grasped as to +permit one to reason about an impossible situation, it becomes at once +extravagant and absurd. One would require to be considerably carried away +by illusion to be moved by Mr. Wendell's story. The hero is a +New-Englander, born of mad parents (they met while both were patients in +an insane asylum); and this inherited curse would seem to be enough for +any hero to totter under. It becomes unimportant, however, when we +discover that he has furthermore been taken possession of at birth by the +spirit of a wicked and fascinating Italian duchess, who wishes to expiate +her crimes before leaving this mundane sphere. One might readily expect +some startling effects from the development of a plot thus removed from +the haven of probabilities and set afloat in a sea of the wildest romance. +The Duchess Emilia's repentance, however, seems to have ended the interest +of her career, and her good deeds are appallingly dull; in fact, her whole +personality thins away into insignificance. + +"Across the Chasm" opens with fair promise, and our introduction to +Virginia life and a talkative old negro "somewhar up in de nineties" is +one which we should be glad to follow up by further acquaintance. This +serves, however, merely as preamble, and in the next chapter we are +transported to a city called Washington, although for characteristic +flavor it might as well be any other place, and we enter upon the events +attending a young lady's entrance into society. This might all be very +pretty and pleasant, except for the deadly seriousness of the author. It +is entirely frivolous and unimportant, but frivolity may be made charming +and full of suggestion. Points of etiquette and behavior engage the minds, +hearts, and passions of the personages of the story. It is a sort of +animated illustration of the little book called "Don't." For example, +"_Don't_ leave your overcoat and rubbers in the hall when you go to make a +call on a lady for the first time," receives practical exemplification +when Major King, a high-toned Southerner, with unbuttoned frock-coat and +baggy trousers, pays a visit to the heroine. He not only takes off his +overcoat and rubbers, but tilts his chair, stays till midnight, and in +every way calls down the wrath of that accomplished prig Mr. Louis Gaston, +who is a high-toned Northerner. This yawning gulf between the generous +faults of the South and the fastidious Phariseeism of the North is the +problem of the book. The story is slight, wholly conventional, and rather +commonplace, but it is gracefully told, and the conversations are not +without interest. + +Mr. Howard Pyle's "Within the Capes" belongs to a widely different +category from the pretty feminine Southern sketch, and is quite equal to +the most insatiable requirements, containing half a dozen successful kinds +of fiction in itself. As a love-story, it is charming; as a sea- and +shipwreck- and treasure-finding-story, it offers a fair challenge not only +to Russell, but to Stevenson himself; while as a detective-story it is as +good as most. The adventures are related by the hero, one Captain Tom +Granger, who toward the end of his long life feels a desire to have his +strange history live in his own version, and not in the fables of the +gossips. A characteristic quaintness of expression gives validity to the +narrative, with plenty of homely enforcement of Tom Granger's wit and +wisdom. + +"One of the Duanes" offers a vivid picture of the life which goes on among +the officers and officers' wives and daughters who make up a little world +within a world at our army and naval stations. Mrs. Hamilton has depicted +the interests and excitements, the gossip and the scandals, in a way which +impresses the reader as being faithful and without exaggeration. The story +is interesting, and the book is thoroughly readable and enjoyable. + +Two or three little volumes containing the best short stories that have +been published ought to be a desirable addition to any library-table, to +be picked up by a chance caller or read aloud on a rainy evening. And +"Tales from all Sources" fairly well answer one's requirements of what +such collections should contain, being grave and gay, bizarre and +frivolous, to suit the various tastes. We should be glad to see Bulwer's +"The Haunted and the Haunters" (called in some editions "The House and the +Brain") reproduced in such a collection. The fault of this series, if it +be a fault, is that most of the stories are well within the recollection +of any one who has read the English magazines for the past few years, +--"The Black Poodle," for example, and "The Pavilion on the Links," being +matters of yesterday. However, both are sufficiently good to command a +second reading. + +END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular +Literature And Science, Old Series, Vol. 36--New Series, Vol. 10, July 1885, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE *** + +***** This file should be named 14524-8.txt or 14524-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/5/2/14524/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mireille Harmelin and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + +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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Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/14524-8.zip b/old/14524-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ab68475 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14524-8.zip diff --git a/old/14524.txt b/old/14524.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9a3443e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14524.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7654 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular Literature +And Science, Old Series, Vol. 36--New Series, Vol. 10, July 1885, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, Old Series, Vol. 36--New Series, Vol. 10, July 1885 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: December 30, 2004 [EBook #14524] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mireille Harmelin and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + +LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE +OF +POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. + +OLD SERIES, VOL. XXXVI.--NEW SERIES, VOL. X. + +PHILADELPHIA: J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. +1885. + + +Entered according to Act of Congress, +in the year 1885, by J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, +in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. + +LIPPINCOTT'S PRESS, _Philadelphia_. + + * * * * * + +CONTENTS. + +[Note: The sign * denotes the letters or pages which are missing on the +original manuscript.] + +Art of Reading, The, _Grace R. Peirce_ +Aurora, _Mary Agnes Tincker_ +Backwoods Romance, A, _Susan Hartley Swett_ +Birds of a Texan Winter, _Edward G. Bruce_ +Brown, Anthony Calvert, _P. Deming_ +Chapter of Mystery, A, _Charles Morris_ +Cookham Dean, _Margaret Bertha Wright_ +Dieu Dispose, _Nathan Clifford Brown_ +Drama in the Nursery, The, _Norman Pearson_ +Eye of a Needle, The, _Sophie Swett_ +Ferryman's Fee, The, _Margaret Vandegrift_ +Fishing in Elk River, _Tobe Hodge_ +Forest Beauty, A, _Maurice Thompson_ +Friend George Randall, My, _Frank Parke_ +Grant, General, at Frankfort, _Alfred E. Lee_ +Hoosier Idyl, A, _Louise Coffin Jones_ +In a Suppressed Tuscan Monastery, _Kate Johnston Matson_ +Lady Lawyer's First Client, The, _Thomas Wharton_ , +Letters and Reminiscences of Charles Reade ,_Kinahan Cornwallis_ +"Mees", _Charles Dunning_ +Mickley, Joseph J., _J. Bunting_ +Muster-Day in New England, _Frederick G. Mather_ +New York Libraries, _Charles Burr Todd_ +Next Vacation, The, _Alice Wellington Rollins_ +North-River Ferry, A, _F.N. Zabriskie_ +Nos Pensions +On this Side, _F.C. Baylor_ +Parisian *, The, _Theodore Child_ +P* of Archaeology, The, _Ernest Ingersoll_ * +* the Short-Story, The, _Brander Matthews_ * +* Southwest, The; _Edmund Kirke_ * +*t, A, _Margaret Vandegrift_ * +*ple, The, _M.H. Catherwood_ * +* or Free Classic Architecture, _George C. Mason, Jr._ * +*t, A, _C.W. Wilmerding_ * +*ning, _W.W. Crane_ * +* Yesterday and To-Day, _Alice King Hamilton_ * +Roughing it in Palestine, _Charles Wood_ +Salt-Mine, In a, _Margery Deane_ +Scenes of Charlotte Bronte's Life in Brussels, _Theo. Wolfe, M.D._ +Scottish Crofters, The, _David Bennett King_ +Second Rank, The, _Felix L. Oswald_ +Story of an Italian Workwoman's Life, The, _Marie L. Thompson_ +Story of a Story, The, _Horace E. Scudder_ +Substitute, The, _James Payn_ +Temple Pilgrimage, A, _Henry Frederick Reddall_ +Texas Sheep-Ranch, On a, _E.C. Reynolds_ +Tobacco-Plantation, A, _Philip A. Bruce_ +Truth about Dogs, The, _F.N. Zabriskie_ +Turtling on the Outer Reef, _C.F. Holder_ +Van, _Charles King, U.S.A._ +Ville, Our, _Margaret Bertha Wright_ +White-Whalers, The _C.F. Holder_ + + + + +LITERATURE OF THE DAY, comprising Reviews of the following Works: + + +Across the Chasm +Agassiz, Louis: His Life and Correspondence. Edited by Elizabeth Gary +Agassiz +Allen, Willis Boyd--Pine-Cones +At the Red Glove +Bates, Arlo--A Wheel of Fire +Beers, Henry A.--Nathaniel Parker Willis +Behler, W.H., Lieutenant, U.S.N.--The Cruise of the Brooklyn +Bompas, George O.--Life of Frank Buckland +Byron, Lord--Childe Harold's Pilgrimage +Carey, Rose Nouchette--Barbara Heathcote's Trial +Carey, Eose Nouchette--For Lilias +Carryl, Charles E.--Davy the Goblin; or, What Followed Reading "Alice's +Adventures in Wonderland" +Cleveland, Rose Elizabeth--George Eliot's Poetry, +and Other Studies +Craddock, Charles Egbert--Down the Ravine +Dunning, Charlotte--Upon a Cast +Eugene Delacroix, par lui-meme +Forbes, F.R.G.S., Henry O.--A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern +Archipelago. +A Narrative of Travel and Exploration from to +Hamilton, Alice King--One of the Duanes +Harrison, Mrs. Burton--Bric-a_Brac Stories +Harte, Bret--By Shore and Sedge +Hawthorne, Julian--Love--or a Name +Holmes, Oliver Wendell--The Last Leaf +Hornaday, William T.--Two Years in the Jungle +Howard, Blanche Willis--Aulnay Tower +Howells, William D.--The Rise of Silas Lapham +Jewett, Sarah Orne--A Marsh Island +Luska, Sidney--As it was Written: A Jewish Musician's Story +Married for Fun +Noble, Edmund--The Russian Revolt: its Causes, Condition, and +Prospects +Pennell, Joseph and Elizabeth Robbins--A Canterbury Pilgrimage +Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart--An Old Maid's Paradise +Pyle, Howard--Pepper and Salt; or, Seasoning for Young Folks +Pyle, Howard--Within the Capes +Roosevelt, Blanche--Life and Reminiscences of Gustave Dore +Rosseau, Jean--Hans Holbein +Searing, E.A.P.--A Social Experiment +Sermon on the Mount, The +Stanley, Henry M.--The Congo, and the Founding of its Free State: +A Story of Work and Exploration +Stockton, Frank R.--Rudder Grange +Tales from Many Sources +The Bar Sinister +Thompson, Maurice--At Love's Extremes +Torrey, Bradford--Birds in the Bush +Warner, Beverley Ellison--Troubled Waters +Wendell, Barrett--The Duchess Emilia +Whittier, John Greenleaf--Poems of Nature +*rs. A.L.--The Lady with the Rubies +*cles--J.F. Millet + + + + +OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP, comprising the following Articles: + + +* The, "Additional Hair" Supply, The, +Art of Modern +Novel-Writing, The, * +Daniel Webster's "Moods," +Dothegirls Hall, +Etymology of "Babe," The, +Feuds and Lynch-Law in the Southwest, +Future for Women, A, +Ice-Saints, The, +Man who Laughs, The, +Mystifications of Authoresses, +Old Songs and Sweet Singers, +Reminiscence of Harriet Martineau, A, +Svenska Maid, A, +Tourgeneff's Idea of Bazaroff, +Virginia Lady of the Old School, A, +Why we Forget Names, + + + + +POETRY: + + +Carcanet, A, _John B. Tabb_ +Elusive, _Sarah D. Hobart_ +Epitaph written in the Sand on a Butterfly Drowned in the Sea, +_Helen Gray Cone_ +Into Thy Hands, _Stuart Sterne_ +Mithra, _Charles L. Hildreth_ +Morning, _Florence Earle Coates_ +On a Noble Character marred by littleness, _Charlotte Fiske Bates_ +Probation, _Florence Earle Coates_ +Rose Romance, _Ada Nichols_ +Shadows All, _Paul Hamilton Hayne_ +Song, _Robertson Trowbridge_ +"What do I Wish for You?" ,_Carlotta Perry_ +Wood-Thrush at Sunset,_Mary C. Peckham_ + + * * * * * + + +LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE + +_JULY, 1885_. + + + + +ON THIS SIDE. + +VII. + + +It has not been concealed that, with all his fine qualities, Mr. Ketchum +was an obstinate man, and so, in spite of his wife's remonstrances, he +came down-stairs next morning--Sunday morning--in a dress that she had +assured him was "only fit for one's bedroom,"--namely, a very gorgeous +Oriental dressing-gown (Mabel's gift the preceding Christmas), with a fez +on his head, and on his feet a pair of slippers of amazing workmanship and +soundlessness, the joy of his feet, if not of his heart. Thus accoutred, +he prowled about on the lower floor, looking after various things, and, +going into the pantry for something, he chanced to look through the small +window used for the transmission of dishes from the next room, and saw +Parsons holding a pile of letters one by one over a steaming kettle. +Unconscious of his proximity, the respectable Parsons dexterously and +neatly opened several envelopes with a practised hand, and then +transferred the letters to her pocket, to be enjoyed at her leisure, after +which she laid hold of the kettle and retired into the kitchen beyond. + +"Well, upon my word, if that isn't the coolest thing I ever saw!" +exclaimed Mr. Ketchum mentally, and, feeling that he had made a great +discovery, was at first for sharing it immediately with Parsons's mistress; +but on reflection he thought differently. "It is her funeral: I guess I +had better not meddle: there would be a great scene," he thought. "At any +rate, I'll wait until they are leaving before putting her on her guard." +He went back to the dining-room to his newspaper, and sat there until the +others came down. + +Miss Noel was not long in the room before an idea struck her. "Did you not +say that your post-bag containing the night's mail would be sent over this +morning?" she asked. + +"I did. It came about an hour ago," said Mr. Ketchum. + +"How very nice! I hope there may be something for me. It is so very trying +to get no news from England," said Miss Noel. + +"Why, Mabel had twenty-three letters laid aside for you until you should +come. Didn't she give them to you?" asked Mr. Ketchum. "Were none of those +from England?" + +"Oh, yes. But that was three days since, and I've heard nothing for a +fortnight. If Parsons has _quite_ finished with the letters, I suppose I +may as well have them. And she must be, by this. Would you kindly ring and +send for them?" said Miss Noel. + +"What! you know that she reads your letters?" exclaimed Mr. Ketchum, +surprised. + +"Oh, dear, yes. They all do. It is very tiresome, but they will do it. +Parsons is generally good enough to let me have them quite promptly; but +she reads them, of course,--all but my cousin Blanche Best's letters. +Blanche has always been my most intimate friend, and can't bear the idea: +so she blocked the game by a most ingenious device. She writes one +sentence in French, the next in Italian, the third in English,--at least +she did until a happier plan suggested itself: now she writes English in +German text. It answers perfectly; but it is having a great effect on +Parsons, quite undermining her constitution, I fear, especially when +important things are happening at 'The Court,' where I often go. I +sometimes wickedly slip one of Blanche's letters under the pin-cushion, as +if with the intention of concealing it, and I have so enjoyed seeing +Parsons whip it under her apron when she got the chance, knowing that she +could not make out a single word. She really looked quite green afterward +for a week: pure chagrin." + +"I am sure I have done everything that I could think of to keep my letters +from my man," said Sir Robert, "but quite without success. I think he +finds my correspondence a little dull sometimes, as compared with that of +a former place. He came to me from the greatest scamp in England; and I +can fancy that the letters there were very various and diverting. My own +must be altogether too ponderous and respectable for a taste formed on +sensational models." + +"Well, all I have got to say is that if I caught a servant of mine at that +little game I'd make my letters uncommonly interesting reading to him; and +if the style suited him, I'd see that he got a little leisure in the +penitentiary to copy them and impress them on his mind. Do you mean to say +that you don't even discharge them for it?" said Mr. Ketchum, "I never +heard anything like it!" + +"One could discharge the culprit easily enough; the trouble is that his +successor or successors would do exactly the same thing," replied Sir +Robert. "When the Barons rose, they neglected to provide a remedy for an +unforeseen nuisance, and I suppose this literary partnership of Master & +Servant, Limited, will always exist. I wrote a note once to Beazely (my +man), addressed to myself, and told him that if he disapproved of the +Conservative tone of my correspondence, as was likely, seeing that he was +a Radical, I would make an effort to get at Dilke or Bright, with a view +to an _occasional_ note at least. The envelope had been resealed, I saw +when it reached me, but Beazely had no more expression in his face than +the Sphinx. My letters, however, were not tampered with for about a week." + +Mrs. Ketchum senior became fluent in her amazement: "How perfectly +dreadful! Good gracious! What did you do about your husband's letters? The +idea of sharing his letters with a servant!" + +She was addressing Mrs. Sykes, who said very cheerfully in reply, "Oh, +there was never anything in his letters, except warnings to put the +servants at board-wages before I went away, and look to expenditures, and +not ask him for any more money soon. I didn't mind much. I was rather +ashamed of the spelling,--that was all. Poor dear Guy never could spell, +and I never read anything so dull as his letters,--the same thing over and +over again, till it hardly seemed worth while to open them, only for +knowing what he was up to, or when he was coming. How my poor sisters did +laugh one Christmas when I got a letter from him in Italy, saying, 'The +cole here is intense; but I have got a projick in my head, which is to get +back to England as fast as rale and steme can possibly carry me'! It +wasn't often that bad; but there was always something wrong. I can't think +how it is, for he had no end of tutors and masters, except that he +certainly was a very thick-headed fellow." She laughed merrily over the +epistolary deficiencies of her late lord as she spoke, and every one +joined her except Mrs. Ketchum, who was too shocked to countenance her. + +"I saw Parsons in the very act of opening your letters this morning as I +was roaming around in my Jesuit creepers, and thought you would be +horrified; but it seems to be all right," said Mr. Ketchum, glancing down +at his slippers. "Suppose, now, we have some breakfast: it is late. We +haven't nearly as much time as the patriarchs, anyway, and so much more +use for it." + +"I have been thinking it would never be ready," said Mrs. Sykes. + +"And I am quite ready for it. Isn't that a nice new-laid egg for me?" +asked Miss Noel, taking her place with the others. + +"Mabel, eggs for Miss Noel every morning, if she likes them, and don't you +forget it," said Mr. Ketchum. "'Trouble'? Not the least that ever was. I +have them for myself always. An egg for me must be like Caesar's wife, +--above suspicion. I have provided myself with a conscientious High-Church +hen that lays one every day of the year; though how she can think it worth +her while, when they are selling for ten cents a dozen, I can't +imagine.--What's the matter, Heathcote?" + +The matter was the "Jesuit creepers" and the hen combined, which had sent +all the party into a little fit of laughter, from which Mr. Heathcote +could not recover. + +"I don't see anything to double you up like a jack-knife," said Mr. +Ketchum, in allusion to his guest's way of stooping over and having the +laughs, as it were, shaken out of him by a superior force, while he got +out at intervals,-- + +"Jest--creep--High--such a fellow!" in staccato jerks that made every one +else laugh from sympathy. + +"I call 'em that because Mother Schmidt made them for me so that I could +steal a march on my mother-in-law, and she's a Catholic and knew how to do +it. Talking of Catholics and what Washington calls the 'Peskypalians,' who +is going to church to-day?" + +"I am going to walk over to Dale with Bijou Brown and her father," said +Ethel. + +"That isn't as nice a church as ours. We will take the others into Kalsing, +eh, husband?" said Mabel; "that is, if they will come." + +"I will go to the scaffold with Mrs. Ketchum," protested Sir Robert +gallantly. "What do you youngsters say?" + +"Ramsay and I thought we would walk over to that little village on the +crest of a hill that one can see from my window," said Mr. Heathcote. + +"You had much better go to church, --much better. But of course your soul +is your own," said Sir Robert. + +"You won't have much body left when you get back: it is a good twenty +miles," remarked Mr. Ketchum. + +"Oh, that is nothing." replied Mr. Ramsay. + +"Forty miles there and back! Are they crazy?" Mrs. Ketchum asked of Mabel +_sotto voce_; to which a smile and shake of the head came in answer.--"The +day is very damp, Job. I am almost afraid to go out; but it is my duty, +and I will." + +"That's right, ma. Do your duty. It is a good earthly as well as heavenly +investment," replied Mr. Ketchum. + +"But I wish, son, that you would live in Kalsing, next to the church, or +in New York, which would be better. I saw a beautiful house advertised in +the neighborhood of Trinity Church the other day, and wrote to ask about +it," said Mrs. Ketchum, who was always in spirit moving the family away +from Fairfield. + +"You are too speculative, ma, entirely," said he. "You are like my partner, +Richardson, who would write to ask the Czar what he would take for the +Winter Palace, if I'd let him, when if steamships were a dollar a dozen he +couldn't put up enough to buy a gang-plank. I can't move next to a church, +because all you womenites belong to different ones; but I can take a room +for you in the steeple and have an elevator put in that will make close +connection with the services, if you like." + +"Don't be irreverent, my son," said Mrs. Ketchum, who, like some other +Protestants, believed in an infallible steeple, if not an infallible Pope. +"I don't expect _my_ wishes to be considered in anything." + +"Oh, come, now, ma; that isn't fair. Except that I married to suit myself, +which is about the only foolish thing that I have done, I have been +tolerably obedient, I think," said Mr. Ketchum, aware that he was on +dangerous ground. + +"Do tell us about it. You wanted him to marry some one else,--some one +with a fortune, didn't you?" said Mrs. Sykes. "Quite natural, I am sure." + +"She wanted me to marry the ugliest woman east of the Rockies," said Mr. +Ketchum. "But I couldn't stand that face behind my cups and saucers three +hundred and sixty-five days in the year, and I bolted to England, where my +wife picked me up." + +"She wasn't so ugly at all, Job, except that her nose was a little +aquiline," protested Mrs. Ketchum. + +"Aquiline as a camel's back," asserted her son, in an aside. + +"And her hair _was_ rather auburn," Mrs. Ketchum went on, in reluctant +concession. + +"Call it pink, as the English do their hunting-coats," suggested he, +smiling. + +"But such a dear, _good_ girl, you quite forgot that she wasn't exactly +handsome" ("No, not precisely," interjected he) "when you came to know +her." + +"That I _never_ did. It might as a speculation have done to get a cast of +her face for andirons to keep the American child from falling into the +fire; but _marry her_! Good Lord! When I eat anything now that disagrees +with me, I dream of Emily's mouth," affirmed Mr. Ketchum, with the most +laughing mirth in his eyes, his mobile features expressing volumes. + +"Her mouth _was_ large, and her teeth _a little_ prominent. But you shall +not abuse Emily any more. You would have been very happy with her, I can +tell you," asserted Mrs. Ketchum. "You would have got over her mouth." + +"I might in time have got _around_ it, and I could easily have got _into_ +it, but I should never have got _over_ it in the world," affirmed Mr. +Ketchum, with decision. "I would rather be married to that Puseyite there, +unhappy as I am." + +This closed the little duel between the mother and son, and another laugh +drowned Mabel's remark to Miss Noel, which was, "Husband is in one of his +joking moods, and does not mean that he is _really_ unhappy at all. He +should not say such things, they are so very misleading." + +When quiet was restored, a discussion followed about the parties in the +English Church, and, the question being raised as to who was the head of +the Low Church party, Mr. Ketchum had just said, "Why, _Lucifer_, of +course," when, amid general merriment, Miss Brown walked in, saying, "I +never heard of such an uproarious Sunday party. Are you ready, Ethel? We +ought to be off,"--which practically ended the meal, for first Mr. Ramsay +and then the others left the table, he to talk to Bijou, they to get ready +for church. Job's eyes followed Mr. Ramsay, and he said to Sir Robert, +"What a charming girl Mrs. De Witt was in the old Cheltenham days! +Heathcote didn't make the landing there, and I'm sorry." + +"So am I. She is an immense favorite of mine," said Sir Robert. "As +charming as ever! It was a more serious thing than I thought it would be. +I doubt whether he ever marries." + +"She was a born enchantress, Jenny was," he replied. "Some women are like +poison oak,--once get them in your system, and they will break out on you +every spring for fifty years, if you live that long, fresh and painful as +ever. But as for his marrying, some one of our girls will enter for the +Consolation stakes, very likely, and he will be married before he knows +what has hurt him." + +"A consummation devoutly to be wished," said Sir Robert. "He is my heir, +you know." + +In a few minutes Ethel joined Bijou, who looked at her rather hard, as she +felt. Ethel wore a simple serge dress, heavy boots, a stout frieze jacket, +and a hat of a shape unknown in America, that seemed to be all cocks' +plumes. Her eyes being weak, she had put on her smoked glasses. The day +being damp, and her chest delicate, she had added her respirator. "I am +nicely protected, am I not?" she said contentedly. "I had a severe cold +last winter, from which I am not quite recovered, and auntie thinks I had +best be prudent. Are you ready?" + +"Not quite," said Bijou. "I want to see Mrs. Ketchum a moment." She ran +off, accordingly, into the library in search of the old lady, whom she +found there looking out the lessons, it being her practice to verify every +word the clergyman read, and no small satisfaction to catch him tripping. +"Do, Mrs. Ketchum, speak to Ethel and get her to take off those machines +and put on something stylish," said Bijou. "I am really ashamed to take +her into our pew; people will stare so. She is a perfect fright. The idea +of a girl making herself look like that!" + +Mrs. Ketchum, however, declined to interfere, and when Bijou got back to +the drawing-room Ethel was missing. Taking advantage of Bijou's absence, +she had gone up-stairs, and, during the library interview, was saying to +her aunt, "You never saw anything got up as she is,--silk, and satin, and +lace, and bracelets, and feathers, and what not. And for church, too! I +wonder she should turn out like that: she should have better taste. I +really don't quite like going with her, she looks so conspicuous,--just as +if she were going to a garden-party or flower-show, for all the world." +When they met again, both girls looked a little conscious, and Ethel said, +"How very smart you are!" + +"Why, this is an old dress that I put on for fear it might rain," said +Bijou. "Don't you hate having to wear goggles and cages and things? It +must be perfectly horrid." + +"I don't mind. Of course one isn't looking one's best; but that is of no +consequence. Health is the first consideration," said Ethel. "Ah! there +comes your father." + +Of the walk it need only be said that it was very pleasant going, and +rained a little coming back; that Ethel produced her "goloshes," put up +her umbrella, and walked home as serenely as her concern for Bijou would +admit. That young lady had on paper-soled boots that got soaking wet, a +fine summer parasol that she seemed to think fulfilled every office that +was desirable in shielding her bonnet, a dress ill fitted to resist chill +or dampness. She persisted that she was "all right," while her pretty +teeth chattered; but she caught a violent cold, and was in bed a week, +while Ethel came down to dinner as rosy as Baby Ketchum, and ate as +heartily as Mr. Ramsay and Mr. Heathcote, who certainly showed themselves +good trenchermen. Mrs. Ketchum persisted in regarding the two young men +very much as though they had been returned Arctic travellers, and amused +them not a little by suggesting that they should lie down all the evening. + +"Why, we haven't turned a hair. We are as fit as a fiddle," they exclaimed, +and looked anything but unstrung. + +Ethel had made one speech that astonished Bijou considerably. "Do you know, +I have been watching you ever since I have known you," she said, "to see +if it was true? That is, that the American ladies _spat_ on all occasions, +as I have read. Don't think me rude to mention it." + +"We don't quarrel any more than any one else," said Bijou, quite +misunderstanding. + +"I don't mean that, you know: _expectorate_. And I see it was not true at +all. I have not seen it once," explained Ethel. + +"I should think not! Well, I do think! How could you believe such +ridiculous nonsense?" asked Bijou indignantly. + +"Don't be vexed, Bijou dear. I did not mean to make unkind reflections. It +was only that I had read a stupid book about America," said Ethel; and +peace was restored. + +As for the other members of the party, they had gone to a handsome church +in Kalsing, which boasted the best stained glass in the country and was +thoroughly churchly and attractive. Here they not only heard good music, +but one of the most eloquent preachers in "the American branch of the +English establishment," as Sir Robert called the Episcopalian communion. + +It amused Mr. Ketchum not a little to see the way in which the baronet +conducted his devotions,--his preliminary prayer in his silk hat, from +which streamed a halo of side-whiskers, the heartiness with which he +joined in the service, especially the way in which, avoiding all the +compromises the male American practises in prayer-time (such as bending +forward a little, or leaning back pensively with the hand shading the +face), he plumped squarely down on his knees, turned up a pair of shoes +half as long as his very respectable, tightly-rolled umbrella, and made +his responses in a clear, audible voice, like an honest gentleman and a +miserable sinner. + +It did not escape Mr. Ketchum's keen eyes, either, that although Sir +Robert contributed a five-dollar bill to the offertory, he first rolled it +up into a tiny, unrecognizable wad before dropping it into the alms-basin. +The service over, Sir Robert and the eminent divine were made acquainted. +The latter said he would call as soon as he could snatch a moment, and Sir +Robert, his hands folded behind his back, holding his hat and gloves, made +the rounds of the church, inspecting every bit of carving, frescoing, +glass, and brass, and making the most intelligent criticisms upon what he +saw to Miss Noel in a whisper. Mrs. Sykes sat still in the pew, fuming at +being "let in for a charity sermon," for some inexplicable reason, seeing +she had given nothing to the charity. Miss Noel was stopped at the door by +no less a person than Captain Kendall, who had suddenly discovered that he +had a great-aunt living in Kalsing, whom he must see, and now stood there +saying, "Where is Miss Ethel? How is it that you are here without her? I +hope she is quite well." + +"My niece, Miss Heathcote, is quite well, thanks, and has gone to church +elsewhere," said Miss Noel, with dignity, intending to mildly repress a +young gentleman whom she thought a little too free with his "Miss Ethels." + +"Then I will have the pleasure of calling upon you to-morrow," said +Captain Kendall, unabashed and joyous, as he walked away. + +So active an intelligence as Sir Robert's requires plenty of food, and +when Mrs. Ketchum senior issued from her room about ten the next morning, +whom should she meet in the hall but the baronet in a state of the most +overflowing energy and brilliant good humor, dressed in a suit of striped +red-and-white "pajamas," having on his head a paper cap, under his arm a +roll of designs, and in his mind the delightful intention of painting the +ceiling of Mabel's boudoir! + +"Good-morning, madam. Here we are," he said, shaking his box of paints and +stencils at her. "I have improvised a scaffolding, and am now going to +work on my outlines. I planned the whole thing in bed last night, and, +unless I am much mistaken, we are going to have the prettiest boudoir in +this part of the country. I shall do a panel or two to get the effect, and +any workman can finish it." + +"But can you do it?" asked Mrs. Ketchum, amazed, but interested. + +"You shall see. I frescoed the chapel on my place at home, and I may say +there have been worse pieces of work," replied Sir Robert, descending the +stairs as he spoke, eager to get to work. + +"Is he _raving crazy_, Mabel? What on earth has he got on? He isn't +_respectable_. I declare to goodness, he has set my heart beating so I +shan't get over it all day," said the startled lady to her daughter-in-law, +who joined her just then. + +"Oh, for shame, ma, to give yourself away like that! Fashionable men wear +those costumes altogether now," said Mr. Ketchum, coming up. "You see, +Daisy, that if I shocked him beyond expression yesterday morning, as you +said I should, he has horrified me to death to-day: so I guess we are +quits. Come along: let's go down to see the trapeze-performance." + +Down they went, and, meeting Mr. Ramsay, who was coming up, Job stopped a +moment to tell him to take out any of the horses that he fancied. "Take +the piebalds," said he, "if you'd like to have a drive, and take some nice +girl--Miss Ethel or Bijou Brown--for a two-forty shine." + +"Thanks awfully," said Mr. Ramsay. "But I think I had better--that is, I +had rather ask Heathcote." + +"You are horribly welcome, but I don't think much of your taste," replied +Mr. Ketchum, not understanding what a proposition he had made. + +In the lower hall they found the eminent divine, irreproachably clerical +and dignified, and Captain Kendall, just arrived. Sir Robert, hearing +voices, came out, brush in hand, to welcome them, producing quite as great +an impression on them as on Mrs. Ketchum. "I belong to the working-classes +now. Just you come here and see how the fine arts are prospering in the +State of Michigan," said he, and led them into the boudoir, where he +nimbly ran up a step-ladder, laid himself out on the scaffolding, and, +with a bold, free touch, went on sketching a procession of Cupids which +was to go around the base of the small dome, talking all the while with +the utmost animation to the guests below. "As soon as I get in this fellow +riding a dolphin, I shall be entirely at your service," said he. "No +considerations of respect and attachment to the Church or fear of the Army +can influence me just now." + +The two gentlemen begged that he would go on; the ladies came in, and +together they passed an agreeable morning, Sir Robert declaring that on +the scaffold he was entitled to benefit of clergy, and begging the eminent +divine when he left to let him have his ghostly counsel every day for at +least a week. In spite of his eminence, this gentleman had no very great +breadth of view. To sit about on boxes and window-seats, picnicking in an +empty room, while the stranger upon whom he had come to call lay above him +in red pajamas, painting Cupids on the ceiling, was to his mind +monstrously indecorous. It was amusing to see the dignified way in which +he took the pleasantries of the party; and he made no response to Sir +Robert's farewell overture except a bow. "Your guest is a very +entertaining man," he said to Mr. Ketchum, who accompanied him to the +hat-rack, "but is he quite--quite--you understand?" + +"Perfectly so," said Job, with a laugh. "Head and heart both of the best, +as you will find out when you know him better. You are coming back to +dinner, ain't you, to help us out with the fatted calf?" + +The dinner was a very elegant affair of twenty-five covers, given to the +guests, the first of a series of entertainments planned in their honor. +All the notable people of the neighborhood were represented at it. The +scandalized divine returned to partake of it, and, seeing Sir Robert in a +dress-suit, dignified, polished, of preternatural respectability, not to +say distinction, looking the pillar of Church and State that he was, and +talking with due gravity of the tariff, free trade, and the like ponderous +subjects, concluded to overlook the mad behavior of the morning, and, +joining him, gave him a long account of the Indian Missions of the Church. +Unconscious of having done anything that might be regarded as eccentric, +Sir Robert was all affability, soon grew interested, asked a number of +questions as to the death-rate among the tribes, the prevalence of +smallpox and cholera among them, the spread of civilization, confirmed +nomadism, traces of Jewish rites, and so on, thanked him for a "very +profitable half-hour," and said he should send a little check to be +applied in any way he might see fit, obliterating thereby the last trace +of the previous prejudice. This, indeed, was replaced by something very +like enthusiasm when there came next day a slip of paper representing five +hundred dollars, also a note from the donor, saying that he should be glad +to know that some portion of the sum enclosed had gone to an industrial +school, if any such existed, where the young Indian women could learn to +boil a potato properly, and the use of brooms and pails and +scrubbing-brushes. "You must first clean them and then convert them: get +them into the bath-tub, and you can take them anywhere," said Sir Robert, +with great truth and perspicacity. + +"One doesn't get such a dinner, except at a few great houses, outside of +London or Paris," Mrs. Sykes was pleased to say when it was over. "I have +found out that almost everything was ordered from New York; and a pretty +penny it must have cost. Not that this man cares. I dare say he is only +too glad to have the chance of entertaining me,--that is, us. I was sent +in with a waspish little man that turned suddenly crusty on my hands and +was an owl for the rest of the time; but I was rather glad to be able to +devote myself to my dinner for once." + +Mrs. Sykes's escort had "turned crusty" because that lady, following her +instinct of ingratiation, had said to him, "All the gentry of this country +are in the South, aren't they? They don't live about here, do they?"--not +from a prejudice in favor of Southerners at all, as was proved when she +went to New Orleans later and promptly asked the first acquaintance she +made whether all the education was not at the North. + +The week that followed was a very gay one, the Ketchums' friends in the +neighborhood and in Kalsing being most intent on hospitable thoughts and +providing something agreeable in the shape of an entertainment for every +night. Every moment of the day, too, of every day was filled up. It seemed +to Mrs. Ketchum that "those English people," as she called them, were +never idle, and had discovered the secret of perpetual motion. + +Sir Robert had the boudoir, to which he devoted exactly two hours after +breakfast. He had a geological chart of America, with what he felt to be +melancholy blanks for the chalk and oolite beds of his own country, and +appropriate fossils indicated by an index-finger in red ink. He had the +Poor-Law and electoral systems to master, as well as the prison systems of +the different States. He had to prove that the Mound-Builders and the race +that built the buried cities of Central America were one and the same. He +had innumerable questions, political, social, agricultural, pressing upon +him, from the history of spiritualism, the purity of the ballot, and the +McCormack reaper, down to certain expressions that immensely struck and +pleased him, which had to be entered in the diary as "unconscious poetry +of the Westerners,"--such phrases as "the fall" (of the leaf), +"morning-glories," "dancing like a breeze," "Daphnes" (instead of laurels), +and many more, which he hoped would be "permanently engrafted on the +mother-tongue." There were other entries to be made,--"customs of the +Westerners," their "descent," "taxation," "climate" (as affected by the +Great Lakes), "population in 1900," and so on. There were books, books, +books, to be read, referred to, ordered. There was even a little taxidermy +to be done, and the "native birds" to be first sought, then bought, then +prepared, and packed to be sent back to England. The others, if not quite +so busy, were anything but idle. Miss Noel walked her five miles a day. +She was out sketching for hours under her umbrella, no matter what the +weather was, and only said, "Thank you for your kind concern, but I am +quite equal to it," when Mrs. Ketchum, astonished to see a woman of her +own age enduring such fatigue and running such risks, undertook to +remonstrate with her. "One must get one's constitutional, you know, and +one must not mind a drop or two. There has been no really bad weather yet, +--nothing to keep one in-doors, at least." If she stayed in-doors, she and +Mrs. Sykes (when the latter was not scouring the country on foot or +horse-back) interested themselves in their plants, minerals, seeds, +drawings, the herbarium, the Wardian case, the diaries and letters and +fancy-work, the beautiful collection of sea-weed sent by Miss Marlow from +New England, and a dozen things besides. Mr. Heathcote, meanwhile, was +walking, and riding, and visiting, and, above all, photographing. He got a +small covered cart, into which he would put his photographic apparatus and +go the rounds of the country-side alone, getting his luncheon as he could, +and coming back late in the evening, flushed with heat and victory, +bringing amusing accounts of his experiences, a bouquet as of an +apothecary-shop, and "proofs" of "a lane,--quite an English-looking lane," +"a dog on the chain," "rear view of an American public" (house), "Saint +Lieuk's Church" (five different aspects), "what the natives call an +'ash-hopper,'--came out beautifully," "children among the hay-cocks,--very +indistinct," "squatter's hut on the edge of a common," "Western American +farm-house," "negro dust-man," "village beauty," and many others. He was +much complimented upon them all by Mr. Ketchum, who enjoyed the whole +collection and made comments and suggestions of the most delightful kind. +Mr. Heathcote looked infinitely pleased and flattered when told by him +that they had "a cold, professional air," and asked for copies of some of +them, after which he was eclipsed behind his black cloth and instrument +for two days, had his room darkened to a Cimmerian pitch, worked very +diligently, and presented the fruits of his labors to his host with the +modest depreciation but secret delight of the artist, smiling indulgently +at Mr. Ramsay, with his "I say, old chappy, what an out-and-out swell you +are at it, to be sure! You must do the horses." Thus encouraged, Mr. +Heathcote did the horses, the house, the family grouped inside and outside, +Master Jared Ponsonby, Hannibal Hamlin, Master Bobo and Miss Blanche, the +poultry, and (aided by mirrors) himself in almost every dress and attitude +which it is possible for a man to assume. He must have spent a small +fortune in chemicals alone, and all his talk was of light and shadow, +background, draperies, foreground, plates, and proofs; every table was +strewn with photographs, finished and not finished, mounted or curled up +like paper crumpets. + +Mr. Ramsay, too, had his little diversions, not precisely scientific, but +amusing. He was in and out of the stables all day long, and was loved by +every animal on the place. Such long-suffering and good nature Master +Ketchum had never seen, except in Fraeulein Schmidt; and then the strength, +the resources, the conversation of his new friend enchanted the child, who +followed him about, perched on his shoulder, played games with him, and +had to be carried away from him struggling by his nurse. Mr. Ramsay had +other occupations: he rode, he fished, he cleaned his guns, he got over +leagues and leagues of ground, he killed several snakes and captured +scores of insects. He caught dozens of tree-frogs, for one thing, and shut +them all up together in the drawing-room coal-scuttle, where he peeped at +them from time to time, well satisfied. He played little tunes on his chin, +asked conundrums, showed Job a great many tricks at cards, and two French +puzzles (saying, "Those French beggars are awfully sharp at that kind of +thing, you know"); he played "God Save the Queen" with one finger on the +piano, held skeins of wool for the ladies, shut doors, got shawls, and +really need have done none of these arduous duties, for in looking so +handsome and so jolly from Monday morning until Saturday night he +contributed his quota toward the carrying on of society, and all beside +were works of supererogation. When these palled upon him a little, as was +shown by his picking up a book, he looked very unhappy for ten minutes, +and then, making a pass at his face with one of has beautiful hands, he +cried out, "No fellow can read badgered like this. There's a regular brute +of a fly that has been lighting on my nose every half-second since I sat +down," closed the book, smiled, and said, "I may as well call upon Mr. +Brown while I have time," and took himself off. This happened on the ninth +day after his arrival, and with it began a new era in his existence. He +not only went to Mr. Brown's that day, but the next, and the day after +that. In short, he had found an amusement best expressed in the French +equivalent _distraction_. He rode with Bijou, and reported to Mr. +Heathcote that she was "a clinker at her fences, and went at them as +straight as an English girl." He taught her a good deal about the +management of her reins and animal, and admitted that she was "a plucky +one." If she had only consented to get an English saddle (which she +declined to do, with one of her customary exaggerations, saying that she +"didn't want a thousand pommels"), to rise in that saddle, and to have the +tail of her horse cropped properly, he would have been quite happy. As it +was, he acknowledged that in her own fashion she was a most graceful and +fearless horsewoman, and approved of her accordingly. It soon struck him +that she did other things well. Used to the reserved and rather +constrained manner of most English girls, he found a great charm in her +bright gayety, her frank cordiality, the good-humored comradeship and +absence of stiffness, untainted by vulgarity. For, although Bijou was not +high-bred, distinguished, or clever, she was a girl of real refinement, +and he had the wit to see it. Her merry tongue and generous and +affectionate heart, neither chilled nor hardened yet by contact with the +world, were very attractive, and it is just possible that he felt the +influence of her piquantly-pretty face. At any rate, he had found a great +number of imperative reasons for going to Brown's, when one morning, as he +was opening the little wicket-gate that admitted him to their +croquet-field, he saw something that gave him an unpleasant shock. It was +a buggy in front of the door, in which sat Bijou, charmingly arrayed, +smiling upon a gentleman who had just helped her in and was only deterred +from taking the seat waiting for him by her calling out, "Stop, till I fix +my skirts and put up my parasol," the gentleman being his cousin, Mr. +Edward Plummer, _alias_ Drummond. The sight of Mr. Plummer enraged him. +Bijou's cheerful air did not improve matters, and for the first time he +felt irritated at her American speech and accent. "'Fix my skirts,'" he +quoted discontentedly, as he watched them drive off, and then, after a +moment's indecision, he stalked angrily up to the front door, pulled the +bell fiercely, and asked to see Mr. Brown. He was almost immediately +ushered into the library, where Mr. Brown was sitting. + +"Good-morning, sir. I am glad to see you. I am sorry to say that Bijou is +out. She has gone driving with our guest: an English guest, by the way, +--Mr. Drummond. He came on with us from New York, and has been here ever +since, except the last two weeks, which he has spent in Chicago," said Mr. +Brown. + +"That's what I've come about," blurted out Mr. Ramsay, the moment there +was a pause. "His name isn't Drummond at all: it is Plummer. And he isn't +fit to be a guest in any decent house, and I've come to tell you so and +have you give him the sack and put him to the door at once. Excuse me +meddling, but you have been very kind to me and received me most +hospitably, and I am not going to see you taken in by a rascal and a +blackguard." + +Mr. Brown was shocked, but did not show it. He prided himself on being +very logical and dispassionate and judicial, and was privately convinced +that he would have greatly adorned the legal profession if Fate had been +kinder. Besides, Mr. Drummond was his guest and there by his invitation, +which to his mind was strong presumptive proof that Mr. Ramsay's charges +were without foundation. "Grave accusations these, Mr. Ramsay,--very grave +accusations. I trust you are making them upon some better grounds than +mere personal prejudice or idle rumor, if you expect me to believe them. +Not that I mean any discourtesy to you, sir, in saying this," he said, in +his roundest, most impressive tones. + +"What do you mean? The fellow was sent to Coventry by his regiment and +forced to resign, his father has cut him off with a shillin', he can't +show his face in London, and he has been kicked out of his club for +keepin' too many aces up his sleeve. I should think that was grounds +enough for an accusation. Do you suppose I go about inventin' lies to take +away other people's characters?" said Mr. Ramsay excitedly. + +"Do not exaggerate. Be calm; be reasonable," said Mr. Brown. "Observe, I +do not accuse you of wilful misrepresentation, but of misapprehension, +perhaps of prejudice. There is a difference. Note it, and do not take +offence, my young friend, too readily." + +"I am not offended, but what I say is true, and I hope you will act upon +it, so that Miss Brown shall not go out ridin' round the country with +that--" began Mr. Ramsay, only to be interrupted by-- + +"No violence; no excitement. Let us look at the thing rationally," from +Mr. Brown. "Mr. Drummond is my guest,--my guest, remember; introduced to +me by one of the first men in New York; received everywhere. You are both +strangers to me. This is a matter of purely individual testimony," Mr. +Brown went on, feeling that he was growing exquisitely subtile, and +clothing himself in imaginary ermine as he spoke. "He may tell me that +_you_ are a rascal. In that event, how am I to know who is the honest man +and who the villain? Shall I believe you, or shall I believe him, in the +absence of documentary evidence and disinterested statement? As my guest, +he has, if anything, the prior claim to consideration; though I am far +from saying that whatever views you may advance will not have equal weight +with me,--as _views_, mark you." + +"You can believe who you please and what you please," said Mr. Ramsay; +"but remember that I have given you warnin'. He may be your guest, but he +is my cousin, and I should think that I ought to know what I am talkin' +about. There is no necessity for me stayin' any longer." + +He rose to go, but Mr. Brown stopped him by a gesture. "A cousin!" he +exclaimed. "Do not excite yourself; be calm. On the face of it, that would +seem conclusive; but appearances are notoriously deceitful. Will you +assure me on your honor that there is no motive, no family feud, at the +bottom of this? Cousins do not go about the world denouncing each +other--_as a rule_. Family pride, affection, a thousand things, prevent +them from making such things public; but still it is not impossible. I do +not say that it is _impossible_; only _improbable_,--very improbable. Give +me your word, though, that there is _no motive_.--we must always look for +a motive in these cases,--and I will promise to give the matter full and +impartial investigation." + +"I'll do nothing of the sort. I will bid you good-morning," exclaimed +Mr. Ramsay, reaching out impetuously for his hat. + +"You have meant well, perhaps. I am obliged to you, if such be the case. I +will bear what you have said in mind, and let you know my decision," said +Mr. Brown, delivering a verdict from the bench. + +"Just as you please," replied Mr. Ramsay haughtily; and so they parted. + +Left to himself, however, Mr. Brown ceased to be judicial, and became +practical. He recalled, as he sat there, a number of circumstances that +had not impressed him favorably in connection with his guest. Mr. Drummond +had borrowed a considerable sum of him, on the ground of delayed +remittances. Mr. Drummond had filled his pockets with his host's Havanas +in the most scandalous fashion, yet never had a cigar. Mr. Drummond had +done a number of ill-bred things that he had not liked,--such as ordering +the carriage to be got ready on his own responsibility, lending valuable +books without so much as asking permission, and the like. The longer Mr. +Brown thought of the late interview, the more uneasy he felt. The paper +had dropped from his hand, and he was still deep in his uncomfortable +meditations, when the door opened, and his daughter ran to him and threw +herself into his arms, crying hysterically, "Oh, popper, popper! Oh! oh! +oh!" + +We will extricate the story of what had happened from the sobs and +interruptions to which Mr. Brown had to submit, and preface it with some +account of the relations between Bijou and Mr. Drummond-Plummer or +Plummer-Drummond. + +They had met in New York the previous winter, where Mr. Drummond had +suddenly appeared, put up at a fashionable hotel, and, with no other +credentials than his handsome person, good manners, and bold assertions +that he was related to certain great people in England, had been accepted +in society with that beautiful faith and charity that believeth all things +an Englishman of supposed position may choose to say of himself, in spite +of much disastrous experience of foreign adventurers both painful and +ludicrous. Attracted by Bijou, he promptly satisfied himself of the +stability and reality of her father's fortune, and began to lay siege to +her hand: about her heart he gave himself small concern. Now, Bijou was a +Western belle, and was in the habit of receiving any amount of attention. +At seventeen a famous racer and a steam-boat had already been named for +her. The local newspapers chronicled her toilets and triumphs. Her little +sitting-room was a sentimental hall of Eblis, full of shapes with hearts +that were one burning coal, bright with the sacred flame. She had a large +album which she called her "him-book," because it contained nothing but +the photographs of her admirers. She had hats, and bats, and caps, and +whips, and cravats, and oars, and canes disposed about it tastefully, +souvenirs of various persons, times, and places, and talked of the +original owners in a way that made Ethel's blue eyes open their widest +when she came to be admitted there, that decorous young person not being +used, as she frankly said, to hearing "a person of the opposite sex" +called "a perfectly lovely fellow," and his nose pronounced "a dream," +though not in the sense of its being broken or disjointed. + +"Why, you wouldn't have me call _you_ a lovely fellow, would you?" said +Bijou laughingly, as she tripped about doing the honors of her den, +--showing locks of hair (of which she had almost enough to stuff a +sofa-cushion), dried bouquets of vast dimensions, little gifts she had +received, verses and valentines that she thought "perfectly splendid" or +"too utterly killing for anything," and bundle after bundle of letters, +--the adorers' letters, all of them, written from all parts of the country, +in every style. She read Ethel choice passages from them with great glee, +and gave spirited sketches of her correspondents; how she had met them at +Saratoga, Mt. Desert, "and pretty much every place;" how she had danced, +flirted, walked, driven, sailed, "crabbed," read, sung, talked with them, +apparently without either fear or reproach; and of their appearance, dress, +character, position, prospects,--a full, if not perfectly complete, +history of her relations with them that almost made Ethel's lower jaw drop +as she listened. There was no mention of mother, aunt, governess, or maid +throughout. Bijou had gone away from home with friends who had let her +amuse herself in her own fashion; and at home she was what De Tocqueville +has pronounced "the freest thing in the world,--an American girl in her +father's house." Yet it was a liberty that was worlds removed from +license. Undisciplined she was, impulsive, indulged beyond all European +conceptions, but, in spite of a good deal of innocent coquetry and vanity, +effervescing in some foolish ways very pardonable in a motherless girl, +and of which a great deal too much has been made in discussing American +girls, there was never one of any nation more pure-hearted and womanly. +Her worst deviations from rigidly conventional standards were better than +the best behavior of some very nice people, as Swift defines them,--"Nice +people: people who are always thinking of and looking out for nasty +things." Different training would have improved her, just as a hot-house +rose is more perfect than the wild one; but she, too, was pink-petalled, +had a heart of gold, and was full of lovely, fragrant qualities, like the +English variety near her. + +"You correspond with twelve men! Good heavens!" exclaimed Ethel, when +these open secrets had been revealed to her. "Don't tell auntie of it, I +beg. She will--will misunderstand, I fear, and think it dreadful, and +perhaps prevent me being here so much. It is not at all in accord with +English ideas, you know, dear; and auntie is rather stricter than most, +even there." + +"Not tell! Why not?" asked Bijou. "What is there to shock her? She must be +easily shocked. I have got nothing to be ashamed of; and I shall tell the +old dear to-morrow." + +"Does your father know it?" said Ethel. + +"Why, _of course_ he does," replied Bijou impatiently. "I generally read +him the letters, and he laughs fit to kill himself over some of them. +Popper don't care one bit. He says I am old enough to paddle my own canoe; +and so I am. And he knows I don't care a pin about any of them. It's great +fun until you get tired of it. I am tired of it now, rather. I used to +write to twenty; but it has dwindled down to twelve, and I'm going to drop +two of those, because they are in the army and are both stationed at the +same post. You see, it is too much trouble to write different letters to +each one, so I get up one bright, smart one that suits all around, and +copy it for them all, with some changes." + +This speech almost stunned Ethel for a while. "But doesn't it vex them +very much to get such letters? What if they should find it out? And if you +don't at all care for them, why do it at all?" + +"Why, for the _fun_ of the thing, goosie. Angry? No. They do the same +thing themselves. Will Piper sent Kate Price and me letters that were +exactly the same, word for word: we compared them. That is where I got the +idea. Splendid one, isn't it? I am just bent and determined on having +stacks of fun before I am married, because after that, you know, I shall +be laid on the shelf completely," said Bijou. + +"But why should you be 'laid on the shelf'? I can't make it out. Your life +will be just beginning," said Ethel. + +"Well, because what is so is _so_," replied Bijou, showing her some +patterns for slippers, watch-pockets, tobacco-pouches, and so on, that she +meant to work up for birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, "philopoenas," +and other festive occasions, as presents for the adorers. + +It is perhaps clearer now why Bijou laid no stress whatever on Mr. +Drummond's attentions, while she seemed to him to be receiving them with +marked favor. When, on their leaving New York, Mr. Brown had asked him to +go home with them and spend a month, he looked upon the prize as won. +Before going to Chicago he had shown this so plainly that Bijou had +snubbed him roundly,--a course so foreign to her amiable nature and +hospitable creed that on his return she had received him with a kindness +that had revived all his hopes,--or rather designs. He utterly +misunderstood it, and easily persuaded himself that he was practically +irresistible. The drive of that afternoon had been planned by him that he +might ask the fateful question. He had asked it, and, presumptuously +taking her answer for granted, had slipped an arm about her waist, when, +to his great surprise, he had found himself half ordered, half pushed out +of the buggy immediately, after which Bijou, transported by fury, had laid +the whip once smartly across his shoulders and driven away at a gallop, +leaving him standing in the middle of the road, an angry man. + +She went home, as we have seen, and told her father, who was distinctly +excited on hearing it, ordered Mr. Drummond's effects to be packed and +sent to the hotel in Kalsing at once, forbade her ever taking another +drive with a stranger "the longest day she lived," and would certainly +have caned the offender with unparliamentary fervor, instead of being +"reasonable" and letting the affair drop, had he known where to find him. + +What Mr. Drummond did was to walk into Kalsing and put up at a +boarding-house there, where he spent the evening glowering into vacancy +blackly enough, and showed his high breeding and respect for the other +boarders by taking off his shoes in the parlor and sitting with his +stockinged feet propped up on a chair in front of him while he gave +himself up to his reflections,--bitter thoughts of the past in which he +had been an English gentleman, desperate plans for his future as a +_chevalier d'industrie,_ fierce abuse of Americans in general and the +Browns in particular, culminating in a fixed resolve to leave "this +beastly hole" next day; which was happily carried out. + +Mr. Ramsay, offended, held aloof for a little while; but, getting a note +from Mr. Brown couched in few words, and those to the effect that his +warning had been acted on and Mr. Drummond dismissed, he called next day +at the house, assured Mr. Brown with earnestness that his cousin was "a +precious rascal," gave some particulars of his shady career, and took up +the threads of his intimacy again, unvexed by any such ideas as that he +was at all responsible for or could be affected by his kinsman's +disreputable behavior. Mr. Brown concealed from him that he had lost some +money by Mr. Drummond. Bijou imagined that he must be "feeling dreadfully +about it," and took great pains not to say anything that could wound his +imaginary susceptibilities as the relative of a _mauvais sujet._ But the +simple truth was that, once assured that respectable people were not being +deluded or cheated by his cousin, Mr. Ramsay had no further sensitiveness +on the subject. The Browns kept what he had told them even from the +Ketchums, only to hear him announce in all assemblies that a cousin of his +was "goin' about over here,--an awful swindler and 'leg,'--and that the +best thing people could do would be to give him the widest sort of berth +until he got himself into the penitentiary, as he certainly would,--at +least it was quite on the cards," smiling in cheerful enjoyment of the +possibility. Entertainments were going on all the while in the +neighborhood, and he had ample opportunities of advertising the fact, all +of which he improved, while a puzzled audience knew not what to make of so +novel a situation, and were sorely put to it for suitable replies as they +stared at an Adonis in Poole-cut clothes who sat and looked alternately at +them and his patent-leather court pumps and gay silk socks while he +affably denounced his father's nephew and "hoped the blackguard was goin' +to New Orleans and would get the yellow fever there, which was beginnin' +to be had over from the Havana." + +This last speech was made at a dinner-party which Mr. Ketchum's partner +Mr. Richardson had felt called upon to give in honor of the English guests, +and was almost the only amusing feature of the evening to Job. The +Richardsons' house was one of those in which everything is provided on +such occasions except amusement. When their invitation came, Job said to +his wife, "I wish we could get out of going; but we can't. I don't know +what is the matter with that house. It is one of the handsomest in the +city, elegantly furnished; they always have a crowd of people at their +entertainments, some of them delightful people to meet anywhere else, but +somehow there seems a kind of pall draped above the front door that drops +down behind you when you enter and never lifts till you leave. Mrs. +Richardson puts on all her war-paint and feathers and goes around all the +evening anxiously trying to make the thing go off, and it gets worse and +worse every moment, so dull and stupid that you can hardly keep awake, and +not quite quiet enough for a good nap. Richardson buys everything that is +to be had, and then sits around and looks as though he had a note to meet +in bank and no money to do it with. Altogether, it is about as lively as a +water-tank on the Pacific Railroad after the train has gone. But it won't +do to hurt their feelings: we have got to go." + +So they did, and it was stiff and formal beyond even his expectation. The +dinner was interminably long, over-elaborate, and slowly served. They +were all sent in with the wrong people. The conversation all but died +again and again. Sir Robert was afflicted by a deaf man, who shrieked, +"Ha-ow?" and "What say?" at him with brief intervals all during the meal. +Mabel shrank into herself, and only ventured on a few trite remarks. Mr. +Ketchum's liveliness utterly evaporated after the first ten minutes. It +was quite ghastly, and the move back to the drawing-room was a most +blessed relief. Mrs. Sykes had made no effort to lighten the tedium of the +dinner, and no sooner found it at an end than she lolled back +indifferently on the sofa, and, picking up a book, coolly read it for more +than an hour, though twice interrupted by Mrs. Richardson, who vainly +tried to substitute polite conversation the first time, and offered a cup +of tea the second. + +"English breakfast?" asked Mrs. Sykes loftily, raising her eyes for a +moment. "No; I am afraid not. It is green tea, I think." + +"But do take some," replied Mrs. Richardson, "It is very nice indeed." + +"No, thank you," said Mrs. Sykes very shortly, her eyes on her book. + +"Just one cup. Let me make it for you?" suggested Mrs. Richardson. + +"Not for a five-pound note would I drink the poisonous stuff. Say no more +about it," replied Mrs. Sykes, with delicate consideration, and turned +over a page. + +"Do take some coffee, then, or chocolate," insisted Mrs. Richardson. + +"Nothing of any sort or kind whatever," snapped Mrs. Sykes, turning away +decidedly, to get a better light on her book, apparently, but really to +get rid of her hostess. + +Mr. Ketchum, fearing to show indecent exultation when the carriages were +announced, repressed the satisfaction that would have expressed itself in +gay speeches of farewell. A decorous exit was made; and as they rolled +away he gave a great sigh of relief, and exclaimed, "I haven't had as much +fun since I had the measles. Mussiful Powers! what an evening! I feel like +the boy whose mother gave him a good beating for his own sake. But all the +same I shall have a word to say to Mrs. Sykes tomorrow; and of course I +shall have to apologize for her behavior to Richardson." + +"Most insolent, unpardonable conduct, I call it," said Sir Robert. "She's +an innately vulgar woman." + +"Puts on an awful lot of side. I can't stand her. She gives me the jumps. +And she can tell a buster, too, when she likes: I have found that out," +put in Mr. Ramsay. + +"Well, I don't exactly hanker to be cast away on a desert island with her, +even supposing I was one of the royal dukes and had taken the precaution +of being introduced while we were tying on the life preservers, in case of +accidents," said Mr. Ketchum. + +What he said to Mrs. Sykes next morning no one ever knew but the discreet +Mabel. Not much, probably, but that little was so much to the point that +it had a decided effect,--two of them, indeed, one interior, the other +external. It increased her respect for him, and it made her perfectly +civil to all his friends, as far as constitution and habit would allow. + +"I cut her comb for her, and handled her without gloves," was his report +of the interview to his wife, who was amazed at his nerve. + +When Sir Robert got a note addressed to "Lord Heathcote, Baronet," +beginning "Dear Sir," and signed "Very respectfully your obedient servant, +" and read it aloud at the breakfast-table as "a most extraordinary +production," Mrs. Sykes had absolutely no comments to make. And when Ethel +opened her letters and found among them an invitation to take a +buggy-drive, commencing "Dear Miss," Mrs. Sykes still held her peace,--a +fact that was full of significance. + +It was Miss Noel who said, "Really, Ettie dear, I can't have you driving +about furiously in a gig without a groom. But pray thank Mr.--what is the +name?--Price for being so kind as to propose it, meaning to give you +pleasure. He has been so obliging, too, as to procure tickets for us to +the play, and has kindly offered to escort us: I have a letter from him as +well. A most lovely day, this. There seems no end, really, to the fine +weather. Remind me to look at the thermometer after breakfast, before the +sun catches it, love. It must have been _quite_ two degrees hotter +yesterday than the day before; but I neglected to make the entry in my +journal, and so cannot be quite positive. Only fancy! Is it not annoying? +I am getting sadly forgetful about everything. And I so dislike guess-work +and conjecture in a record of the kind. I should like to see the +rose-trees at home this morning: the garden must be gay with flowers by +this,--though the last time I went pottering about it in my pattens there +was nothing out but the blackthorn." + +Other entertainments followed closely upon the dinner, of which Mrs. Sykes +complained to Miss Noel, saying, "Why will they ask me out? Why can't they +leave me alone? Really, I shall not let any one know that I am here, if +anything ever brings me back to America,--which is most unlikely." + +"There is nothing to prevent you staying at home if you do not wish to go +out," replied Miss Noel. "But do you not like it? I enjoy going to the +Browns'. Mr. Brown is a man of cultivated mind and Christian courtesy; I +like him very much; and the people one meets there are generally of +superior station and refined education. Why should you object to meeting +them?" + +"American society may be nice some day,--that is, if it ever grows up. +There doesn't seem to be anybody in it now over twenty," grumbled Mrs. +Sykes. + +One result of the parties was that Mr. Ketchum, going over to Mr. Brown's +one morning, found all the young people assembled there practising steps, +the "two-and-a-half," the "polka-glide," and other cheerful evolutions. +After watching Mr. Ramsay's efforts to do as Bijou did, for a moment, he +called out to her to know what she was doing to a British subject under +his protection, and, being shown by Bijou (skirts held up a little, the +prettiest feet imaginable, daintily shod, and the gliding, swaying, +pirouetting, galopading, graceful beyond expression), cried out, "Teaching +him to dance, are you? I thought he was practising heading off a calf in a +lane." This so exactly expressed the awkward desperate plunges to the +right and left which Mr. Ramsay was executing at the moment, that Mr. +Heathcote had another of his acute attacks of appreciation, and became +almost a subject for sal volatile and burnt feathers, Mr. Ramsay saying +good-naturedly, "What a fellow you are for chaffin', Ketchum! Just you +hook it out of this, will you, and let us get on with this? One and two +and a kick, you say, Miss Brown? I am such a duffer I can't get the kick." + +"You do the one and two make one, and leave the kick to Miss Bijou," said +Mr. Ketchum suggestively. "Why aren't you gambolling like the playful +antelope, Heathcote?" + +"I don't often gamble. I leave that to Ramsay, who is an all-fired +jewhillikens scratch at it, as you say over here," replied Mr. +Heathcote. + +"You gamble a little differently, that is all. You have dropped a good +deal on loo first and last, for all your wisdom," retorted Mr. Ramsay +between his steps. + +"Get out your 'Hand-Book of American Slang,' my boy,--two dollars a volume, +--and you will retrieve all your losses, I'll engage," said Mr. Ketchum +laughingly, as he walked away. + +The dancing had been interrupted, however, and Bijou and Mr. Ramsay +retired to the bow-window to talk. "Odd that I can't get it, isn't it?" +said he. "I never was much of a dancin' man; and I ought to be, you know. +I am not a readin' man; and a man that is not a readin' man is nearly +always a dancin' man. The governor is a readin' man, and took a +double-first; but I am like my poor mother, who was dull." Thus launched, +he gave her a full account of his relatives and home with all his own +frankness, and she, listening with her heart as well as her ears, did not +know whether to smile or sigh: the phraseology of the recital and its +completeness amused her, but she also divined the loneliness of such a +boyhood. To her great embarrassment, the tears rose in her eyes in quick +sympathy when she came to hear of the way he was treated in his childish +maladies. + +"Poor little fellow!" she said softly, and, as she was obliged to drop the +white, thickly-fringed lids and fall to pleating her handkerchief +industriously, she felt rather than saw that he was looking at her +narrowly. + +There was a moment's silence, and then Mr. Ramsay began talking again. +"You are very happy here, aren't you? You wouldn't like to leave it and go +away to India, or Egypt, or--or--England, or anywhere?" said this +particularly deep young man, and, without waiting for any answer, except +such as was afforded by her rosy silence, went on: "American girls do have +lots of fun, I see that. I am afraid they are too fond of flirting, +though. English girls don't get much of a chance at that, as girls. They +don't amount to much until they are married and get their own way." + +"Why, they don't flirt after they are _married_, do they?" said Bijou, in +a horrified tone, her ideal of post-matrimonial conduct being the exact +opposite of the ante-matrimonial. + +"Oh, don't they, just!" said Mr. Ramsay cheerfully. "You see, as girls +they are heavily handicapped. They can't do anything they like, or go +anywhere; it's awfully slow for them, poor things. And so they naturally +look forward to the time when they will get their liberty as well as a +husband. But the competition must be something awful. A fellow that has +got a fine property or money is regularly hunted down; and even a poor +devil like me has to be monstrous careful. Cowrie, of the Carbineers, who +has got sixty thousand a year, says that he can't go to certain houses, +for fear they may have a clergyman secreted about the place and will get +him spliced to the ugliest daughter before he can escape. Awfully clever +chap, Cowrie,--a match for any mamma in England, I can tell you. He is not +going to marry any woman but the one he wishes to marry. No more am I. +That's why I can't marry. I've got no money. The governor picked out a +young woman from Liverpool for me last year,--a brewer's daughter, with +pots of it,--and wanted me to make up to her." + +"Oh, he did! What did you do about it?" asked Bijou, in a low voice. + +"Well, you see, just then I was most awfully hard up, and couldn't afford +to break with the governor; and so--" + +"I'd be ashamed to say any more about it. Addressing a girl just for her +money!" interjected Bijou warmly, disappointed that he had not scorned the +proposition utterly. + +"It didn't go that far. I thought it might be a good thing, you know. And +so I tried it,--spooning, you know," said he placidly. + +"Oh, indeed!" commented Bijou sarcastically. "Very honorable of you, I am +sure, and delightful for the girl to have such a disinterested admirer. +How did it end?" + +"How you do pick,a fellow up!" remonstrated Mr. Ramsay amiably. "It sounds +awfully conceited to say so, of course, but I think I could have carried +off the cup if I had liked. At least every one said she was hard hit. And +she wasn't long in the tooth, or very ugly, or vulgar, or anything; but +somehow I couldn't stand it. I got to hate her. She breathed so hard when +she danced, for one thing. Regular grampus. Upon my word, she almost blew +my gibus away from under my arm sometimes. Regular snorts. And then she +was always smilin'. And she talked an awful lot about Goethe and Schiller, +and those chaps. Altogether, I cried off, and told the governor I would +try the Colonies. And he told me that if I was such a consummate ass as to +let a good thing like that slip, I could take my little pittance and go to +the deuce as soon as ever I liked; and here I am. Some may think I acted +foolishly, but one's relatives are not always the best judges of what is +good for one, you know, though they may think they are actin' for one's +good; and what one wants to do is to do one's best in whatever position +one finds one's self in, you know, no matter what one--Hang it all! I know +what I want to say, but I can't say it. You understand, I fancy, without +me tryin' to explain." + +Having tied himself up in this conversational bow-knot, Mr. Ramsay waited +to be extricated. His idea had been to convey in the most delicate and +roundabout way to Bijou that he was not the man to marry any woman for her +money, and that if he had seemed to like a certain person a good deal it +was not because she was the daughter of a rich man. To her, however, he +seemed to be posing as a conqueror of heiresses, indifferent to the pain +he might inflict upon any girl silly enough to be captivated by his good +looks and good manners,--a breaker of tacit engagements, and a wicked +worldling. So she rose very stiffly, and said that she neither knew nor +cared to know what he meant, and was obliged to leave him, and so went +away, and left him extremely puzzled and disconcerted by the behavior of +his charmer. + +After this, the summer of Mr. Ramsay's discontent set in. There was +nothing that he could actually complain of in Bijou's treatment of him, +but it was plain that she had changed. She was vastly more polite than +before, but much less kind. Their intimacy seemed a thing of the past +century. It was Mr. Heathcote now who, partly from idleness, partly from a +desire to tease his friend, went constantly to the Browns', and showed +Bijou various attentions, which she accepted with very pronounced +satisfaction. It was with Miss Price now that Mr. Ramsay rode and walked +and talked,--Miss Price, whose free-and-easiness, vapid chatter, +artificiality, and sentimentalism contrasted unpleasantly with Bijou's +frankness and sincerity. By this course each confirmed the other in the +impression of untrustworthiness and flirtatiousness both had received, and +they ought to have been perfectly satisfied with this result. But, +considering how perfectly happy she was in Mr. Heathcote's society, it was +odd that Bijou grew paler and thinner every day. And if Miss Price was so +perfectly delightful, why did she send Mr. Ramsay home always as gloomy +and morose as any young man very well could be? With blundering honesty, +Mr. Ramsay once taxed Bijou with a preference for Mr. Heathcote, not +knowing that when a jealous lover accuses a girl of being fond of some +other man she never fails to encourage the idea, unless it is really true, +when she denies it with the utmost vehemence. Bijou, with much feminine +circumlocution, insinuated that he was devotedly attached to Miss Price, +to which he truthfully replied that he did not care "one rap" about her. +Women are born incredulous in such affairs. When sure of themselves, they +doubt the lover; when sure of the lover, they invariably doubt themselves. +And so the misunderstanding grew, and continued in mutual mistake and +suspicion, and no two people were ever more thoroughly and foolishly +miserable. Mr. Ketchum, when enlightened by his wife, could see that his +guest was in a bad way; and one day it chanced that they were left alone +in the library, where Job was most unromantically engaged in looking up +plans for a model pig-stye, while he incidentally refreshed himself with +his favorite confection, molasses candy. + +"Man alive!" said he, after directing a keen glance at Mr. Ramsay's face, +"what is the matter? Take some of the Dentist's Friend, won't you?" +(pushing a plate toward him.) "I like it better than all the French stuff +that was ever made, and Mabel keeps me liberally supplied. You look +awfully down in the mouth, Ramsay, as though you'd enjoy howling like the +lone wolf on far Alaska's shore, if you were sure nobody was looking. +Suppose you tell me what has impaled you. Is it love, money, or +indigestion, old fellow?" + +The words were light, but the tone hearty and kind; and, thus encouraged, +Mr. Ramsay laid bare his woes, Mr. Ketchum listening attentively, and +saying, when he had finished, "I know; I know. When I thought I had lost +Mabel once, I carried the universe around on a sore back all day, and then +my heart would get up on its hind legs and yelp half the night; and there +have been other times when I got caught in the machinery, and I know how +it hurts, I think of those times often. They grind a man down to the quick, +and send the chaff flying: they teach him valuable lessons. I remember I +started out in life with two violent prejudices,--one against Jews, and +the other against Roman Catholics. Well, in the greatest strait I have +ever known, the Christian that came to my relief was a Jew in a town of +seven thousand people; and when I had the smallpox a Sister of Charity +took me to the hospital and nursed me, when every one had deserted me and +left me to die or live without any meddling from them to bias me in my +decision. After that I said to myself, 'Job Ketchum, if the Lord can make +and stand as great a fool as you have been, he can make plenty of good +Jews and Roman Catholics, and if they have got his hall-mark they can do +without your valuable endorsement; and when smelting-day comes I reckon +you'll find that the Protestant quartz won't pan out _all_ the silver that +has been put in the earth's veins. You needn't go around blushing for +David and Thomas ?Kempis any longer, my son. Take a holiday.' My advice to +you, Ramsay, is to keep a stiff upper lip. Perhaps the buzz-saw has only +got your clothes, and you will be all right when you cut loose; but if it +has got _you_, all you can do is to stand and take it, and if you can +remember who set it going it will be better for you." + +The last phrase Mr. Ketchum got out in a shamefaced way, as if very much +ashamed of it, as indeed he was; but Mr. Ramsay was the better for the +talk, and, though not "a readin' man," had easily understood the +illuminated characters in this page of human experience. He brightened +perceptibly from this date, and was able to take a healthy interest in +certain match-games of base-ball and la-crosse in neighboring cities, +which he attended with Mr. Ketchum and Sir Robert, who, besides these +diversions, had to visit the prisons and all the public schools, and to +gather a mass of information in regard to these two subjects, with +criminal and educational statistics, systems, theories, that had to be +examined, sifted, recorded in the diary with the pains, study, and +reverence for facts that characterized every entry made in it. Meanwhile, +quite an intimacy had sprung up between the ladies of the Ketchum and +Brown households, or rather the existing one soon embraced the +Englishwomen. Mrs. Sykes and Miss Noel were struck by a number of things +in the latter establishment. + +"Do you suppose that _all_ American households are organized in this +extraordinary, miscellaneous way, so as to include, besides the head of +the house, his wife and children, all sorts of relatives, outsiders, and +strangers?" said Mrs. Sykes to Miss Noel. "Mrs. De Witt told me, quite as +a matter of course, that the sister of her husband's first wife lived with +them, though she was away when we were there. And look at the Ketchums and +the Browns. It is most remarkable. Why do they do it, I wonder? I must +really ask about it, how it ever came about. And on such an extraordinary +basis, too! Only fancy, that poor, thread-paper creature, Mr. Brown's +daughter, has married badly and come back to her father with a troop of +children; and she married in opposition to his wishes, and she hasn't a +farthing of her own; and yet she seems to have no proper sense of her +position whatever. She does nothing to make herself useful and get her +living, but sits up in her bedroom, rocking and sewing, all the day long. +She bids her father buy this and that for the children, just as though +they were not actually beggars, dependent upon him for shelter and every +mouthful. She meddles in household matters to any extent, giving the +servants orders, having fires made, and even the dinner-hour changed to +suit her convenience; and one would think she was mistress there. I wonder +she dares do it. Yet, so far from being sat upon or put in her place, I +heard Mr. Brown tell Bijou the other day, when some little disagreement +took place between them, that she must let her "poor sister" have +everything to suit herself, and do her best to make her happy and +contented and help her to forget all the trouble she had known, as far as +possible. Just as if spoiling her like that, and giving her false ideas of +her importance, could be a good plan. Not that it will last. She is a +pauper, and will be made to see that she is one, sooner or later. She has +nothing but what he gives her, I know, for I have asked her; but she would +not tell me why she separated from her husband. Americans are so absurdly +secretive and sensitive! Do you know, she was vexed by the inquiry? A +great mistake, as I told her, to get rid of him, unless he was a dangerous +brute: men are so useful, and 'grass-widows,' as they say here, are always +looked down upon. Did you ever know anything so idle as those Brown women? +The men here are very active and 'go-ahead,' as they call it, but the +women seem to do one of two things,--either they hold their hands +altogether and are a thousand times more idle than any queen or duchess, +or they work themselves to death, and are cooks, sempstresses, maids, +housemaids, nurses, governesses, ladies, and a dozen other things rolled +into one,--poor things! Thank heaven I am not an American lady." + +"I see what you mean," said Miss Noel. "That dear, sweet girl Bijou has +had no practical training whatever. She was amazed that I should make +Ethel dye her white kid slippers (when they were soiled) for morning use; +and when she saw me getting up some dainty bits of old point that I do not +trust to Parsons, she asked me why I bothered with the old stuff and +didn't buy new. She has absolutely no idea of the value of money or of +household management. On the other hand, that little Mrs. Grey, their +friend, told me that she did all the sewing for her twelve children; and +Mrs. Grey has not taken a holiday of even a few weeks for twenty years. I +can't think how it is they don't break down altogether." + +But it was the children of the Brown household that awakened the liveliest +surprise in the minds of these ladies,--an astonishment wholly free from +admiration or approval, for they were children of a type with which +Americans are sadly familiar, but which had never come under their notice +before. The little Graysons were utterly undisciplined, and got their own +way in everything. Their grandfather, aunt, mother, and nurses combined +were powerless to control them, and would give them anything but what they +most needed. They pervaded the whole house, and were the hub of it; they +ate at all hours, and of whatever they fancied. They had no regular hour +for going to bed, but fell asleep everywhere, and were removed with the +utmost precaution. Mrs. Sykes, going there, would find them jumping up and +down with muddy feet on the drawing-room sofas or playing on the new grand +piano with the poker. Miss Noel one day found Mr. Brown in a great state +of perturbation, calling out, "Helen! Jane! Bijou! Come here, quick! The +baby is bumping his head on the floor!" (The baby being three years old.) +"Don't get angry, darling. If you won't bump your head, grandpa will bring +you a wax doll from Kalsing to-morrow." Another day, baby's sister in +banging on the window-pane struck through the glass and cut her fist. +"Poor little dear! Poor childie! Let me bind it up quickly. Harry, love, +bid nurse fetch the arnica at once," exclaimed Miss Noel; but the patient +stamped and shrieked, and would not have her hand examined or doctored by +anybody, whereupon her admiring mother said, "Jenny has always been that +way. She has a great deal of character, Miss Noel." + +"A very undisciplined one, I fear," replied that lady emphatically. She +could scarcely believe that she heard aright when, on asking this model +parent what her plans were for the summer, she said,-- + +"I am going to try Saratoga again. We were there last year, and I went +prepared to stay until the 1st of October. I liked it very much; it was +very gay and pleasant; but Harry got tired of it, and wouldn't stay after +the second week, so I packed up and went to Long Branch, which he has +always liked." + +"Your brother, or uncle?" inquired Miss Noel, in perfect good faith. + +"No, my little Harry," replied the placid mother. + +The very appearance of the children, fragile, delicate-looking, nervous, +was in striking contrast to the solid, rosy, somewhat stolid English +children to whom she was accustomed. They were pretty, quite abnormally +intelligent she thought, and as attractive as such rearing would permit +them to become; but their habits and manners positively afflicted her. She +pined to put them to bed at seven o'clock, keep them four or five hours of +every day in the open air, give them simple, nourishing food,--in short, +inaugurate the wholesome nursery system of her own country. To see them +sitting down to table without saying their grace or putting on their +pinafores, and order of the servant soups full of condiments, veal, any or +all of eight vegetables, pickles, tarts, pudding, jelly, custard, +fruit-cake, bon-bons, strong coffee, cheese, almonds, raisins, figs, more +custard, raisins again, and more fruit-cake, all despatched in great haste, +with no attention to the proper use of napkin, knife, fork, or spoon, was +acutely disagreeable to her; and it was amusing to see her efforts to +insinuate, as it were, better things into their daily life. "Nice, clever +children," she would say,--"so delicate-featured, and so refined in +appearance, but, heavens! what a monstrous system of education!" She had +taken a fancy to Bijou from the first, and she soon noticed in her a great +many little evidences of weariness, discontent, unhappiness; also that she +was alternately very pale and depressed or flushed and animated. She took +the girl therefore under her motherly wing, lectured her a little in her +gentle way about some things, praised her in others, and was very kind to +her. + +"My dear," she would say, "do you not eat entirely too many sweets, +bon-bons, and what not, and then go without proper food at the regular +meals?" Or it would be, "How do you occupy yourself, as a rule, dear +child? Do you district-visit, botanize, sketch, learn a language? What do +you do? You would enjoy a course of belles-lettres, and should take that. +And that head in crayons that you did at school was pleasantly executed: +why not study from life constantly?" Bijou had to confess that she did +nothing, and not even that industriously. "But, my dear, you are not an +Asiatic. You surely don't wish to be a doll, a plaything, self-indulgent, +helpless, leading a life of mere luxurious indulgence and artificiality?" + +No, Bijou had no such wish; but what was the use of learning or doing +anything now as a girl? If she married, it would be different; but then +she would never, never marry. But Miss Noel insisted that an idle woman +was a miserable woman, married or single, and was brisk and cheerful and +kind, and devised a number of small employments for Bijou, whom she kept +with her a great deal, and so befriended her as effectually as Mr. Ketchum +had done Mr. Ramsay. Mrs. Sykes found fault with her once or twice, but +did not find her all meekness. + +"Why do you talk of 'an elegant breeze'?" she said to her one day. + +"For the same reason that you spoke of 'a beautiful roast' yesterday," +retorted the young lady, who might be broken-hearted, but was certainly +not broken-spirited. "I know better, and I suppose you do, but we are both +careless." + +Matters drifted along in this way until a certain morning spent by Mr. +Ramsay at the Browns',--eventful because a little thing happened which +convinced him that Bijou cared for him. He came home with a new pang +substituted for those he had been enduring for a lover's age. After dinner +he tramped off for a long walk alone, in the course of which it may fairly +be presumed that he decided what course to take, for early on the +following day he called especially, for the second time, upon Mr. Brown. + +"I have come to tell you that I can't come here any more," he said, +holding his hat with his accustomed grace, and going in his +straightforward fashion immediately to the subject in his mind. "And I +wish to thank you for bein' so kind to me and receivin' me as you have +done, and to tell you why I am actin' in this way." + +"Why, what's the matter? Going away? Isn't this rather sudden?" asked +Brown _p?_, all unsuspicious of what was to come. + +"Oh, it isn't _that_! Though of course I shall be goin'. It is that I +can't marry. That is what it is. You should have been told of it before, +by rights, only I kept puttin' it off. You have a perfect right to blame +me for not sayin' so long ago, when you were good enough to admit me here +on an intimate footin'. It was a shabby, dishonorable thing of me, and I +hope you'll forgive it, rememberin' that it was not my intention to +deceive you," said Mr. Ramsay. "It wasn't, now, really." + +"But, my dear fellow, of what are you accusing yourself? There must be +some mistake. What has that got to do with your visits here?" asked Mr. +Brown. + +"Why, don't you see?--don't you object to me bein' thrown so much with +Miss Brown, under the circumstances?" stammered out Mr. Ramsay. + +"Not the least in the world,--not the least in the world, I assure you. +Delighted to see you, I am sure, whenever you like to come," said Mr. +Brown, with hospitable warmth. "Why should I? There is no necessity for +your marrying anybody, that I can see. What put such a foolish idea in +your head?" + +"But I thought you would think--she would think I thought--that is--as you +might say--" + +A hearty laugh from Mr. Brown interrupted him: "Why, you seem to have +thought a good deal on the subject. The most extraordinary idea! Excuse my +saying so. This house is always full of young men dancing attendance on +Bijou, who is as popular a girl as there is; but I don't trouble _my_ head +about them, I can assure you. No, indeed. Half of them don't want to marry +Bijou, and she don't want to marry any of them that I know of. And I guess +I shall be told when the affair comes off, so that I can order the +wedding-cake. Why, they are just all young people together. It don't mean +anything. They just naturally like each other's society. They are amusing +themselves,--that's all; and quite right, too." + +Mr. Ramsay had never conceived of such a philosophical parent or agreeable +state of affairs. He was very much embarrassed, and caught at a familiar +idea in his confusion. "That's what I thought you would think,--that I was +amusin' myself. And I wanted to tell you that I am not, you know. I have +far too much respect for Miss Brown to dream of doin' such a thing," he +said very eagerly. + +"Oh, you mean at her expense? I understand now. Well, now, let me make +your mind perfectly easy on that score. Bijou can take care of herself as +well as any girl in America, and I never thought of such a thing. If you +are thinking of _her_, that's all right. If you are thinking of yourself, +of course that is another thing. She isn't thinking of marrying _you_. She +doesn't care anything about you in that way, I am certain. I should have +noticed it if she had been," said Mr. Brown, who labored under the usual +parental delusion as to his daughter's heart having a glass window through +which he could see all that went on there. + +"I am tryin' to do what is best for both of us," said Mr. Ramsay honestly, +blushing profusely. "And I came to say good-by. And here is a little note +I have written Miss Brown. I have left it open, in case you wished to see +it." + +"Not at all,--not at all. Bijou would blow me up sky-high if she caught me +reading it, I can tell you. I'll give it to her, certainly. I think you +are giving yourself unnecessary concern; but your scruples, though novel, +do you honor. If you think it best to give us up, you are, as far as you +are personally concerned, the best judge. Good-by. Send us a line to say +how you like the West. Good-by," said Mr. Brown, and smilingly accompanied +him to the front door. + +Papa Brown gave his daughter the note, which ran as follows: + +"MY DEAR MISS BROWN,--I am going away, and you have been so awfully kind +to me that I know you will excuse me writing to say how awfully grateful I +am to your family for receiving a stranger as they have done." + +Here "I shall often think of you" was carefully scratched out, and "I +shall always remember it and the pleasant hours I have spent with them" +substituted. + +"And now I have got to say a disagreeable word, which is good-by. I hope +you will have a fine hot summer and will think of me sometimes when you +are spooning tremendously at croquet,--as you know you do, though it isn't +fair. With best regards to all the members of your household, I am + +"Faithfully yours, + +"ARTHUR RAMSAY. + +"P.S.--If I should drop into a good thing you will hear of it." + +Mr. Ramsay had taken four hours to compose something that should not be +actionable or compromising, and yet that should convey some idea of the +state of his mind and feelings, and had turned out this masterpiece, which +Bijou read in bitterness of soul over and over again. + +"Excuse me writing," "fine hot summer," "croquet," she quoted mentally. +"After all that has passed between us! If he had really cared for me, and +anything had separated us, he would have had the common honesty and +manliness to say so. No; he thinks me another Liverpool girl, 'hard hit.' +He is running away from _me_." At this cruel idea, so abhorrent to her +vanity, pride, affection, and general womanhood, the poor girl sank down +on her bed overwhelmed, and did not leave her room for three days,--or +rather eternities,--at the end of which time she met Mr. Ramsay by +accident on the high-road and cut him dead. + +"I must pull myself together and get away out of this," said Mr. Ramsay to +Mr. Ketchum that evening. "I have bought of Albert Brown his ranch in +Colorado, near Taylorsville, and I leave in the morning." + +"WHAT!" cried Mr. Ketchum. "Has he sold you that tumble-down claim on a +burnt prairie, miles from any wood or water? I know the place." + +"I haven't examined the property; but he assures me it is a fine one. And, +anyway, it is settled, I am going. A thousand thanks for all your kindness, +Ketchum. An Englishman that I met in New York wants me to go huntin' with +him, and I shall join him at St. Louis and go on out from there." + +"Why, I thought you had all promised to go to Niagara as my guests in a +few days. Do change your mind and stay, won't you?" urged Mr. Ketchum. + +But Mr. Ramsay was obdurate, and took himself and a car-load of property +off in the direction of the setting sun by the mid-day train next morning. + +"Ramsay, I want you to promise me one thing. If, owing to that skunk Brown, +you are disappointed out there, or don't get on, write or telegraph me, +and I'll stand by you to the tune of ten thousand or so. Good-by, old +fellow. Remember, I'm your _friend_," said generous Job, at the station. +And as he went home he stopped and presented Mr. Albert Brown with a piece +of his mind that any other man would only have taken in exchange for a +flogging, delivered. + +"How very nice and kind of the dear duke to give Mr. Ramsay an invite to +join him!" said Mrs. Sykes, with emotion, at dinner that day. + +F.C. BAYLOR. + +[TO BE CONTINUED.] + + * * * * * + + + + +A TEMPLE PILGRIMAGE + + +Sauntering down the southerly side of Fleet Street, toward the historic +spot where once stood Temple Bar, crested with its ghastly array of +pike-pierced traitors' heads, the curious itinerant comes to an arched +gate-way of Elizabethan architecture. The narrow lane which it guards is +known as Inner Temple Street, and cleaves the Temple enclosure into +unequal parts, ending at the river. Standing in the shady archway, with +the roar and rattle, the glare and glitter, of Fleet Street at our backs, +we instinctively feel that we are about to enter a new and strange +locality, the quiet atmosphere and the cloister-like walks of which seem +redolent of books and the pursuits of bookish men. + +We are on the threshold of the Temple,--a spot than which none in all this +historic metropolis is more replete with memories of the storied past. Nor +does its interest consist solely in its associations with the men and +manners of a by-gone epoch. Despite its antique architecture and its +quaint observances, the Temple still maintains its reputation for +scholarship and legal acumen. Its virility is fitly symbolized in the +venerable and vigorous trees whose branching boughs wave above its walls: +sound to the core, it sends forth new scions with perennial freshness. + +The gray gate-way under which we have halted is one of the two chief +entrances to the Temple. It was built in the reign of James I., being +consequently nearly three centuries old. White-aproned porters, with +numbered pewter badge on lapel, stand on either side, ready--for a +consideration--to direct our transatlantic ignorance into veritable "paths +of pleasantness and peace." Access to the Middle Temple from Fleet Street +is had by way of another gate-house, built by Sir Christopher Wren in 1684, +soon after the Great Fire. It is in the style of Inigo Jones, of reddish +brick, with stone pointing. There are several other entrances,--many of +them known only to the initiated,--through intricate courts and passages +debouching on Fleet Street and the surrounding thoroughfares, and one from +the river at Temple Pier; but, chiefly because of their proximity to the +New Courts of Law, these two gate-ways are most frequented. + +The boundaries of this famous abode of British wit and intellect may be +roughly sketched as follows: on the north, Fleet Street; on the south, the +Thames and the Victoria Embankment; on the east, Serjeants' Inn and the +Whitefriars region; on the west, Essex Street, Strand. These boundaries +remain substantially as they were six or seven centuries ago. The Middle +Temple lies nearest the river; the Inner Temple is nearer to Fleet Street, +and "inside"--that is, on the "city" side--of Temple Bar. Essex House and +its purlieus, once the abode of the powerful earls of that name, were +formerly a part of the Temple. It was called the Outer Temple, because +"outside" of Temple Bar. + +In the reign of Henry II., about the year 1185, the ground now included in +the Temple area became the head-quarters in London of the crusading +Knights Templar. Removing from humbler quarters in Holborn, the order, +having become wealthy and ambitious, bought a tract of land extending from +the walls of Essex House to Whitefriars, and from the river to Fleet +Street. They erected a church, a priory, and other buildings clustered +around in the mediaeval fashion, and in imitation of the Temple near the +Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. + +Under the first Richard and the third Henry the Templars increased in pelf, +power, and pride. After a career commenced in zeal and purity, +culminating in valor and fanaticism, and closing in corruption and +indolence, in the year 1312, when the second Edward sat on the throne of +England, the now useless order was formally abolished by Clement V., the +reigning Pontiff. The Temple domain, by grant of the crown, then passed to +Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, who conveyed it to the Earl of +Lancaster, a cousin of Edward II. It was then rented to the professors and +students of the common law, who had recently become an incorporate body, +In 1333 the Temple had apparently reverted to the crown, for we find +Edward III. farming out the rents for twenty-five pounds a year. + +The Knights Hospitallers of St. John, meantime, affected to be much +scandalized at what they deemed a desecration of holy ground, and claimed +the custody of the place. In 1340, in consideration of a hundred golden +guineas contributed toward the armament against France, the king made over +the Temple to the Hospitallers. They handsomely endowed the church with +lands, and gave "a thousand fagots yearly from Lillerton Wood to nourish +the church fires." + +The records of the Temple date back no further than the reign of Henry +VII., so that the history of the previous period; is more or less obscure +and traditional: the precise manner in which the Temple passed from the +control of the sword to that of the wig and gown is not certain. The +Hospitallers of St. John, who already possessed a priory at Clerkenwell, +in the north of London, after having vindicated the sanctity of the church +and cloisters, are believed to have leased the buildings and the demesne +to the lawyers for the rent of ten pounds, payable yearly. Another account +says that the latter purchased the property outright. However this may +have been, in the reign of Richard II. we find the legal fraternity of the +metropolis securely domiciled in the locality they have ever since +tenaciously clung to. + +Even so early as the time of Henry VI. the brotherhood of lawyers had +attained to an unwieldy growth, and it separated into two halls, the +original two halls of the Knights Templar forming the nuclei around which +the frequenters of each grouped themselves. Thus arose the Middle and +Inner Temple. Under the eighth Henry the two societies became direct +tenants of the crown once more. In 1609 James I. granted "letters patent +to the mansion of the Inner Temple," at a yearly rent of ten sovereigns; +and a like sum was exacted for the Middle Temple. The societies have not +been disturbed in their holdings since that time. + +The Temple to-day comprises two of the four great Inns of Court, +--Lincoln's Inn, Gray's Inn, Inner Temple, Middle Temple,--which, taken +collectively, constitute the backbone of the legal polity of England. Ben +Jonson described them as "the noblest nurseries of humanity and liberty in +the kingdom." They are all of great age and the recipients of rich +revenues. The income of the Middle Temple alone (not the richest of the +four) from the single item of rents is about thirteen thousand pounds +yearly; but the affairs of the Inns are so shrouded in administrative +secrecy that exact information on this topic is not easily obtained. + +Until recently there was a fifth,--Serjeants' Inn, the members of which +were lawyers who had risen to the rank of serjeant, or to the bench +itself. Formerly such promotions terminated membership in the original Inn; +but since the abolishment of the rank of sergeant at the English bar +Serjeants' Inn has ceased to exist,--the name surviving only in the +locality,--and the four Inns have readmitted those of their members on +whom judicial honors were bestowed. + +Each Inn possesses certain smaller or subordinate Inns, which formerly +served as preparatory schools, but which are now mere collections of +chambers. There are thus attached to the Inner Temple Clement's Inn, +Clifford's Inn, and Lyon's Inn; to the Middle Temple, New Inn. + +All the Inns of Court are unincorporated voluntary societies. In our +modern nomenclature the name "inn" may seem a strange one for an +institution of learning; but the term is a literal rendering of the +ancient title _hospitia_ applied to them in the Latin records, as +distinguished from public lodging-houses (_diversoria_). + +Each Inn consists of a hall, a chapel, a law-library, a set of rooms for +the benchers, and a large number of houses, divided into small suites +known as "chambers," and occupied chiefly by barristers, solicitors, and +students, though tenancy is not restricted to these classes. The quiet, +the studious environment, and the freedom from certain social obligations +unavoidable in more fashionable quarters, have at all times rendered +residence in the several Inns peculiarly attractive to that large class in +England which consists in the main of young men of good family, moderate +fortune, and no particular occupation. + +The Inns possess the exclusive right of "calling students to the bar,"[A] +also of "disbarring" a barrister for questionable practices,--a right +exercised by Gray's Inn in 1864 in the case of the late erratic but +brilliant Dr. Kenealy, counsel for the notorious Tichborne "claimant." +From their decision no court, as such, can give relief. The disbarred one +has only the right of appeal to and review by certain of the judges. The +Inns neither govern nor license attorneys, who are admitted to practice by +the courts. + +[Footnote A: The origin of this term dates from the venerable custom of +calling students to the bar that divided the benchers' dais from the body +of the hall to bear their part in the "meetings" or discussions on knotty +legal topics. We are informed by Lord Campbell that Sir Edward Coke "first +evinced his forensic powers when deputed by the students to make a +representation to the benchers of the Inner Temple at one of the 'moots' +respecting the poor quality of the commons served in the hall. He argued +with so much quickness of penetration and solidity of judgment that he +gave entire satisfaction to the students and was much admired by the +benchers."] + +The Middle Temple affiliates with the Universities of London and Durham. A +residence of three years and the keeping of twelve "commons" entitle a +gentleman to be called to its bar, after certain qualifying examinations, +if he be above twenty-three years of age. In the Inner Temple (by far the +richest and most popular of the two societies) the candidate for admission +must have taken his B.A. or passed an examination at the Universities of +Oxford, Cambridge, or London. No one in holy orders can be called, and +none are admitted without the consent of the benchers. The candidate must +also furnish a statement in writing, outlining his rank, age, and +residence, accompanied by a voucher as to his respectability signed by a +bencher or two barristers. In short, the Inns of Court may be described as +universities "with power to grant degrees in the municipal law of England, +which constitute indispensable qualifications for practice in the superior +courts of law." To secure these ends they have from time immemorial +enjoyed the protection of the crown. + +In former times the curriculum was comprehensive and the discipline +severe. The fare provided was frugal, and the chambers were sparsely +furnished. Luxury was tabooed, and the rules were rigidly enforced. From +early morning till the hour of five in the evening, when supper was served, +not an hour was wasted. Fortescue, writing in the time of Henry VI., +gives a graphic account of these law-schools as they were in his day. +"Students resort hither in great numbers to be taught as in common +schools. Here they learn to sing and to exercise themselves in all kinds +of harmony. On the working days they study law, and on the holy days +Scripture, and their demeanor is like the behavior of such as are coupled +together in perfect amity. There is no place where are found so many +students past childhood as here." But in these degenerate days, when the +_jeunesse dorA(C)e_ decorate their "dens" with Queen Anne furniture, Turkish +rugs, and choice bric-A -brac, it has been jocosely said that "dining in +hall is the only legal study of Temple students." Of late years, however, +"the best professional sentiment" has strongly and successfully tended in +favor of keeping up the standard of these institutions as true seminaries +of learning. Ample courses of lectures have been introduced, also +subsequent searching examinations. + +A glance at a map of the Temple shows conclusively that it has no +connected plan. Its growth has been the outcome of the needs of many +generations during the last half-dozen centuries, and it is at present a +picturesque conglomeration of buildings of all sizes and shapes and styles, +erected with no regard for architectural beauty or symmetry, and with no +very great adaptability to their past or present use. Aside from the halls +and libraries of the two societies, the Church of St. Mary, and one or two +blocks of chambers, like Paper Buildings, there is no salient feature to +impress the eye. Yet the uniform ugliness of some of the buildings +constitutes not the least of their attractions. A hard grayish stone +frequently appears, though there are a number of brick houses so mellowed +by age that it would be difficult to name their original hue. + +The chambers are frequently massed around four sides of a stone-paved +court, from which direct entrance is had to the main staircases. In some +of these flagged spaces a fountain tinkles; in others, sturdy elm- or +plane-trees tower far above the red chimney-stacks; in the centre of +another is the famous Temple pump. The several courts have distinguishing +names, such as Garden Court, Pump Court, and Brick Court, and they connect +with each other sometimes by an arched passage under the houses, at two +sides of the square, or again by narrow alleys. Nor is the same level +always preserved. Small flights of time-worn steps continually surprise us +in our pilgrimage. The aggregate--barren courts, narrow passages, and +winding lanes--forms a perfect labyrinth, very trying to a stranger or to +one possessing a poor memory for localities. + +The nomenclature of certain of these Temple courts possesses a breezy, +countrified sound, utterly unsuggestive of musty tomes and special +pleadings. Thus, we have Elm-Tree Court, Vine Court, Fig-Tree Court, and +Fountain Court. The reader will recall to mind the fact that it was in the +last-named locality, with its sprightly, sparkling, upward-springing +stream, that Ruth Pinch--"gentle, loving Ruth"--held tryst with her lover, +manly John Westlock. Letitia Elizabeth Landon, too, has embalmed this "pet +and plaything of the Temple" in some pleasant stanzas: + + The fountain's low singing is heard on the wind, + Like a melody bringing sweet fancies to mind,-- + Some to grieve, some to gladden: around them they cast + The hopes of the morrow, the dreams of the past. + Away in the distance is heard the vast sound + From the streets of the city that compass it round, + Like the echo of fountains, or the ocean's deep call; + Yet that fountain's low singing is heard over all. + +Entering the houses, we find them mostly of a stereotyped pattern. A +wainscoted, dark, and generally uncarpeted staircase gives access to +landings on which abut the outer doors of the "sets," or chambers. These +consist of two, three, or at most four rooms, in the style peculiar to the +domestic architecture of the earlier years of the present century. High +corniced ceilings, wainscoted walls, and shoulder-high chimney-pieces +abound. Here and there, however, some opulent tenant has modernized his +rooms; but the structures, inside and out, remain for the most part not +materially changed from the later Georgian era of their erection,--a time +when every gentleman sported a small-sword and ladies wore hoops and +patches. The famous garden forms one of the chief charms of the Temple +enclosure, and its beauty and atmosphere of quiet repose are justly +celebrated. Here Shakespeare is believed to have sat and thought out some +of his most masterly creations; here many of the great legal luminaries of +the last few centuries walked and talked; and here the infantile footsteps +of the subsequently famous "Elia" chased butterflies across the velvety +sward. "The Temple Garden," says Mr. Walter Thornbury, "has probably been +a garden from the time the white-robed Templars first came from Holborn +and settled by the river-side." It covers an expanse of three acres, and +its gay flower-beds, umbrageous trees, and emerald turf make it a +veritable oasis to the inhabitants, and especially to the children, of +that corner of the great metropolis. A pillar sundial in the centre of the +grass bears the date 1770, and the iron gate, surmounted by a winged horse, +which guards the entrance from the terrace, was erected in 1730. East of +the sundial is a hoary old sycamore, sole survivor of three sisters, +carefully protected by railings, under whose grateful shade, says local +tradition, Johnson and Goldsmith were wont to chat. In the Middle Temple +Garden stands a venerable catalpa-tree, planted by Sir Matthew Hale, "one +of the most eminent of lawyers and excellent of men." The scene in "King +Henry the Sixth,"[A] where the partisans of the rival houses of Lancaster +and York assume the distinctive badges of the white and red rose, is laid +in the Temple Garden. "Toward evening," says Dr. Dibdin, "it was the +fashion for the leading counsel to promenade during the summer months in +the Temple Gardens. Cocked hats and ruffles, with satin small-clothes, at +that time constituted the usual evening dress." Anciently, the "moots" +were held on the terrace of the Garden at five of the clock in the long +summer evenings. + +[Footnote A: Part I., act 2, scene 4.] + +The great hall of the Middle Temple is one of the finest Elizabethan +structures in the metropolis. It was commenced in 1562, when the old hall +was converted into chambers, consumed a decade in building, and is of +grand proportions. It is a hundred feet long, and the massive beauty of +the glossy oaken roof, almost black with age, is alone worth an Atlantic +voyage to see. The walls and windows are decorated with the arms of +various members of the Inn, and the paintings are numerous and of great +historical interest. Over the dais is a portrait of Charles I. on +horse-back, by Vandyke, one of the three original paintings of the unhappy +monarch by that great master. Another of the trio is at Windsor, while the +third adorns Warwick Castle. There are also copies of portraits of Charles +II., James II., William III., Queen Anne, and George II., and marble busts, +by Behnes, of "Doubting" Lord Eldon and Lord Stowell, the great Admiralty +judge. The screen and the music-gallery are marvels of the wood-carver's +art. Tradition says the screen was made of oak from the timbers of the +wrecked Invincible Armada; but this cannot be, inasmuch as it was set up a +dozen years before the doomed squadron sailed out of Lisbon harbor. + +The Middle Temple Library, a handsome building of recent erection, +situated on the river side of the Inn, at the southwest corner of the +Temple Gardens, was opened by the Prince of Wales, October 31, 1861. While +it is of nobler proportions than the library of the Inner Temple, it does +not seem to be so well suited for the purposes of the student. Its +location, however, is far more pleasant, on the margin of the +flower-mantled garden, and within sight of the busy Victoria Embankment +and of the panoramic river scenery. From the great oriel window a noble +vista is unrolled. In the distance, the twin-towered Houses of Parliament +are outlined against the sky, while the massive proportions of the "water +front" of Somerset House, the motley groupings of the structures that +crowd the intervening water-side, and the flashing river hound by +many-arched bridges, fill the middle distance. + +Aside from the lustre shed around its history by many eminent lawyers and +jurists, the Middle Temple has numbered among its students several great +poets and dramatists, notably John Ford, William Congreve, Nicholas Rowe, +Thomas Shadwell, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and Thomas Moore. But, as +their literary remains prove, few or none of them prosecuted their legal +studies with that sedulous devotion which the law, proverbially a jealous +mistress, demands. Sir William Blackstone, who immortalized his name by +his "Commentaries on the Laws of England," was educated in the Middle +Temple, where he was entered as a student, November 20, 1741, and by which +he was called to the bar, April 26, 1750. In his Temple chambers, ere he +finally consecrated his massive intellect to the legal profession, +Blackstone wrote the famous "Farewell to the Muses:" + + Lull'd by the lapse of gliding floods, + Cheer'd by the warbling of the woods, + How blest my days, my thoughts how free, + In sweet society with thee! + Then all was joyous, all was young, + And years, unheeded, roll'd along; + But now the pleasing dream is o'er,-- + These scenes must charm me now no more. + Lost to the field and torn from you, + Farewell! a long, a last adieu. + +Edmund Burke was entered at the Middle Temple in 1747, and kept his terms +in 1750. But the great tribune was never called to the bar. Had he been, +what a powerful advocate, what a pitiless adversary, he would have made! +Porson, the brilliant but bibulous classicist, has left behind him many +sad stories of his pranks during his residence in Essex Court, where he +had chambers immediately above those occupied by the future Baron Gurney, +whom, in one of his debauches, he came near burning in his bed. Chaucer is +believed to have entered as a student of the Middle Temple, where he is +supposed to have formed a friendship with the "moral Gower." Sir Walter +Raleigh, Sir Thomas Overbury, Sir Edward Bramston, Lord-Keeper Guildford, +Edmund Plowden,--perhaps the greatest lawyer of the Elizabethan epoch, +--"Ugly" Dunning, who afterward became Lord Ashburton, and Lord Eldon, are +among the ornaments of the British bench and bar who sprung from the +Middle Temple. + +Now, however, the glories of the Middle Temple rest chiefly in the past. +It has decreased in wealth and in numbers. There is an old proverb which +says, "The Inner Temple for the rich, the Middle Temple for the poor;" and +a famous wit emphasized this saying by a happy _mot_. After one of its far +from _recherchA(C)_ dinners, he compared a gritty salad, of which he had been +unlucky enough to partake, to "eating a gravel walk and meeting an +occasional weed." + +The hall of the Inner Temple is a modern building, and was opened by the +Princess Louise on May 4, 1870. More spacious than the one it replaced, it +contains a number of cosy offices and ante-rooms. There is also attached a +lunch-room for the use of members, much frequented in term-time, when at +the mid-day hour one may meet many of the great practitioners at the +English bar. Passable portraits of William and Mary, Queen Anne, Lord +Chief-Justice Coke, and Sir Thomas Littleton look upon the visitor, and +the arms of the successive treasurers of the Inn are blazoned on the walls. + +The Inner Temple Library is the most attractive, quiet, and convenient of +any in the four Inns. Its plan comprises a series of book-lined apartments +leading one into another. Besides a valuable and voluminous collection of +authorities on legal topics, it possesses a unique array of works on +general subjects. It stands on the terrace, and commands a view of the +river. The noble hammer-beam roof is a fine specimen of its kind, spanning +a chamber forty-two feet wide and ninety-six feet long. One of the +stained-glass windows is emblazoned with the Templars' escutcheon. The +debating-hall is in the Tudor style, and cost not far from seventy-five +thousand dollars. + +Several great jurists and a number of men equally eminent in other walks +of life were connected with the Inner Temple, pre-eminent among whom stand +Sir Christopher Hatton, Lord-Chancellor of England in 1587, and nicknamed +the "Dancing Chancellor," Lord Tenterden, "one of the greatest Englishmen +who ever sat in the seat of Gamaliel," who was admitted in 1795, and John +Selden, who took up residence in Paper Buildings in 1604. The latter were +consumed in the great fire of 1666. Audley, chancellor to the eighth Henry, +Nicholas Hare, privy councillor to the latter monarch and Master of the +Rolls under Mary, who resided in the court which now bears his name, the +eminent lawyer Littleton and his no less famous commentator Coke, Lord +Buckburst, Beaumont the poet, Sir William Follett, and Judge Jeffries of +infamous memory, were all students within the Temple precincts. + +Charles Lamb, whose father, John Lamb, was clerk to Mr. Salt, a bencher of +the Inner Temple, was born in Crown Office Row. In 1809 he took chambers +at No. 4, Inner Temple Lane, where some of the delightful "Elia" essays +were penned. In one of these he says, "I was born and passed the first +seven years of my life in the Temple. Its church, its halls, its gardens, +its fountains, its river, I had almost said,--for in those young years +what was the king of rivers to me but a stream that watered our pleasant +places?--these are of my oldest recollections. I repeat to this day no +verses more frequently or with kindlier emotion than those of Spenser +where he speaks of this spot. Indeed, it is the most elegant spot in the +metropolis. What a transition for a countryman visiting London for the +first time,--the passing from the crowded Strand or Fleet Street by +unexpected avenues into its magnificent ample squares, its classic green +recesses! What a cheerful, liberal look hath that portion of it which, +from three sides, overlooks the greater garden, that goodly pile + + Of buildings strong, albeit of paper hight,[A] + +confronting with massy contrast the lighter, older, more fantastically +shrouded one named of Harcourt, with the cheerful Crown Office Row (place +of my kindly engendure), right opposite the stately stream which washes +the garden foot with her yet scarcely trade-polluted waters and seems but +just weaned from Twickenham Na?es! A man would give something to have been +born in such places. What a collegiate aspect has that fine Elizabethan +hall where the fountain plays which I have made to rise and fall how many +times, to the astonishment of the young urchins my contemporaries, who, +not being able to guess at its recondite machinery, were tempted to hail +the wondrous work as magic." Though its courts may have been "magnificent" +and "ample" to the contemplation of the kindly Lamb, they would scarce be +so accounted now. + +[Footnote A: Paper Buildings.] + +The "great Cham of Literature," Dr. Samuel Johnson, resided for some time +at No. 1, Inner Temple Lane. Indeed, it was while the doctor was living in +the Temple that the world-famous "Literary Club" was founded. The faithful +and receptive Boswell, too, as might be expected, lived within easy +distance of the object of his veneration, at the foot of Inner Temple +Lane. It was in 1763 that Boswell first made the acquaintance of the +"Great Bear" and called on him in his Temple chambers. + +Cowper the poet, as the reader doubtless remembers, at first embraced the +law as his profession. He was duly articled to a solicitor of some +eminence; but with how little ardor he devoted himself to the study may be +inferred from the following candid confession: "I did actually live three +years with Mr. Chapman, a solicitor,--that is to say, I slept three years +in his house, but I lived, I spent my days, in Southampton Row. Here was I +and the future Lord Chancellor [Thurlow] constantly employed from morning +till night in giggling and making giggle instead of studying law." It is +not surprising, as one of his biographers remarks, that when, at the age +of twenty-one, he proudly became the occupant of a set of chambers in the +Middle Temple, "he neither sought business nor business sought him." + +While domiciled here, the hideous malady which darkened his manhood began +to cast its gloomy pall on his mind. In the year 1759 he removed from the +Middle Temple to better quarters in the Inner Temple. For a time the +change seemed beneficial, but in 1763 what had hitherto been mere morbid +melancholy became something very near the dreaded insanity. "I was struck, +" he says, "not long after my settlement in the Temple, with such +dejection of spirits as none but they who have felt the same can have the +least conception of. Day and night I was upon the rack, lying down in +horror and rising up in despair." His residence at the Temple extended in +all through eleven years. The year above mentioned, the last of that term, +found the poet in straitened circumstances. The twin offices of +reading-clerk and clerk of committees in the House of Lords became vacant +at this juncture, and both were at the disposal of a cousin of Cowper's. +They were duly conferred on the poet. But the duties of these positions +necessitated frequent attendance before the Peers, and to one who suffered +from a morbid nervousness this prospect was most distasteful. Hence, +almost immediately after having accepted them, Cowper resigned these posts +and took instead that of clerk of the journals. Now another difficulty +intervened. It was necessary, in order to qualify for this place, that he +should undergo an examination at the bar of the House of Peers; and thus +"the evil from which he seemed to have escaped again met him." + +"A thunderbolt," he writes, "would have been as welcome to me as this +intelligence. To require my attendance at the bar of the House, that I +might there publicly entitle myself to the office, was in effect to +exclude me from it. In the mean time, the interest of my friend, the honor +of his choice, my own reputation and circumstances, all urged me forward, +all urged me to undertake what I saw to be impracticable." The mental +agony he suffered was wellnigh unbearable. He even contemplated with some +calmness the coming of mental derangement, that thereby he might have good +reason for throwing up the appointment. He made many attempts to destroy +himself. "He purchased laudanum, but threw it away. He went down to the +Custom-House Quay to throw himself into the river. He tried to stab +himself." Finally, the most desperate attempt of all to extinguish the +lamp of life took place in his Temple chambers. Thrice he essayed to hang +himself by his garter,--first on his high canopy bedstead, and then on the +door. + +The public way which, starting at Fleet Street, runs between the Temple +Church and Goldsmith Buildings, is a curious thoroughfare,--street it +cannot be called. It inclines somewhat toward the river, with a very +narrow foot-walk, scarcely wide enough for two to pass abreast. On one +side is the hoary sanctuary, and on the other a row of gloomy, +flat-fronted houses, whose dirty windows blink drowsily on the flagged way +beneath. + +The pavement of a part of this thoroughfare is unique. It consists of old +tombstones. In 1842, the entire available space in the churchyard being +covered with graves, the benchers decided to permit no more interments +there, and ordered it to be paved over. A path now runs directly across +the old cemetery, where rest the bones of the Knights Templar and their +dependants, and many of the sculptured stones have become paving-flags. +Worn and polished by the passage of many feet, the epitaphs are entirely +defaced. Here and there a few letters of antique cut may with difficulty +be deciphered; but soon no sign will survive to tell of this painful +desecration. + +A little outside the roadway the ground is slightly elevated, and near to, +but outside of, the gilt-tipped railings which enclose the Temple Church +lies a very unpretending slab of marble. Rising but a few inches above the +level, one corner sunken and green with earth-mould, it is but a single +remove from the general decay around it. No fence protects it, children +play and fight their mimic battles thereon, and when last we saw it a +group of workmen employed near by were discussing their noontide bread and +cheese and beer in various lounging attitudes upon it. The slab is sadly +chipped, yet it is not nearly so old as the years of the century. Surely +the man whose death it commemorates departed this life + + Unwept, unhonored, and unsung. + +Not so. Let us scrape aside the accumulated dirt, and trace with +finger-tip the fast-vanishing inscription. It says, "Here lies Oliver +Goldsmith." This, then, is the way the world reveres its great ones. Of +what avail a monument to the poet in Westminster Abbey, dignified by the +celebrated epitaph of Dr. Johnson, when his tomb is thus relegated to the +domain of neglect and oblivion? Even the site at present indicated is +"entirely conjectural:" the precise position of the poet's grave has been +long forgotten. + +Goldsmith Buildings, of course, take their name from the erratic poet and +playwright. In one of them he lived and died, just above the rooms +tenanted by the learned Blackstone, who, at that time engaged in penning +the fourth volume of his "Commentaries," was often grievously annoyed by +the dancing- and drinking-parties, the games of blind-man's-buff, and the +noisy singing of "poor Noll" and his boon companions. Goldsmith took up +residence in the Temple in the spring of the year 1764, in a very shabby +set of rooms, which he shared with Jeffs, the butler of the society. Here +Dr. Johnson visited him, says Mr. Forster, "and on prying and peering +about in them after his short-sighted fashion, flattening his face against +every object be looked at, Goldsmith's uneasy sense of their deficiencies +broke out. 'I shall soon be in better chambers, sir, than these,' he said. +'Nay, sir,' answered Johnson, 'never mind that: _nil te quaesiveris +extra_.'" + +In 1765, his purse having become somewhat more plethoric, he removed to +Garden Court, then, as now, one of the choice spots in the Temple Area. +Here he sported a man-servant, and ran head over ears in debt to his +trades-people. Three years later, in 1768, we find the happy-go-lucky +spendthrift squandering four hundred of the five hundred pounds which the +partial success of "The Good-Natured Man" netted him in the purchase of a +set of chambers in No. 2 Brick Court, much to the sorrow of the studious +Blackstone, whose fellow-tenant he thus became. The nocturnal revelries of +Goldy and his intimates are happily described in Mr. Forster's biography. +Supper-parties were frequent, "preceded by blind-man's-buff, forfeits, or +games of cards, when Goldsmith, festively entertaining them all, would +make frugal supper for himself off boiled milk." He would "sing all kinds +of Irish songs," and with special enjoyment "gave them the Scotch ballad +of 'Johnny Armstrong' (his old nurse's favorite);" with great cheerfulness +"he would put the front of his wig behind, or contribute in any other way +to the general amusement;" and to an "accompaniment of uncontrolled +laughter he once danced a minuet with Mrs. Seguin," the wife of an Irish +merchant. + +A volume would not contain the thrilling story of the trials and triumphs, +the struggles and successes, of the dead-and-gone generations whose feet +have polished the cool gray flags of the purlieus of the Temple. Comedy +and tragedy have been enacted within its walls; penury and prodigality +have dwelt beneath the same rafters; the versatile genius and the plodding +dullard have taken their maiden flights toward fame in its halls. Soldiers +and statesmen, poets and playwrights, courtiers, wits, and adventurers, +have herein acted their various parts. Yet, despite the checkered lives +that have run their course within its pale, and notwithstanding the lustre +shed upon its history by the many great jurists nurtured there, the Temple +gains its greatest renown from the residence therein of that famous trio, +Johnson, Goldsmith, and Lamb. + +The immortal pump, so often alluded to in the Temple annals, stands in the +centre of Hare Court,--not in Pump Court, as might not unreasonably be +expected. It yields a copious supply of the coolest spring-water, and the +office-lads of the surrounding chambers make many pilgrimages hither, +stone pitcher in hand, during the sultry summertime. Charles Lamb, in an +epistle to Coleridge, in his happiest vein, says, "I have been turned out +of my chambers in the Temple by a landlord who wanted them for himself; +but I have got others at No. 4, Inner Temple Lane, far more commodious and +roomy.... The rooms are delicious, and the best look backwards into Hare +Court, where there is a pump always going; just now it is dry. Hare +Court's trees come in at the window,--so that it's like living in a +garden." Again, writing from the Temple in 1810 to his friend Manning, who +is in China, Lamb says, "The household gods are slow to come, but here I +mean to live and die. Come, and bring any of your friends the mandarins +with you. My best room commands a court in which are trees and a pump, the +water of which is excellent cold--with brandy, and not very insipid +without." At about the same time we find Mary Lamb recording that her +genial brother had suddenly taken to living like an anchorite. He tabooed +all alcoholic drinks, and confined himself to cold water and cold tea. But +the beverage drawn from Hare Court did not agree with his internal +economy: he suffered in consequence from cramps and rheumatism, and his +abstention from generous fluids was, we are forced to infer, exceedingly +brief. + +The poet Garth, who exposed the apothecaries of London to reprobation and +ridicule in his satirical poem "The Dispensary," also humorously alludes +to Hare Court's pump: + + And dare the college insolently aim + To equal our fraternity in fame? + Then let crabs' eyes with pearls for virtue try, + Or Highgate Hill with lofty Pindus vie; + So glowworms may compare with Titan's beams, + And Hare Court pump with Aganippe's streams. + +The one structure in the Temple area that overshadows all others in point +of interest is the famous round church, consecrated to St. Mary by +Heraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, in the year 1185. This prelate's +presence in England was on an errand to invoke the assistance of Henry II. +against Saladin, who had recently inflicted several disastrous defeats on +the Templars in the Holy Land. + +The church was finished about 1240. It is one of the four round churches +still remaining in England. Its plan is that of a central round tower, +supported by six beautiful clustered columns, crossed by a nave and +transepts. Notwithstanding the lapse of ages, and although its beauties +were for centuries hidden beneath a variety of hideous excrescences, it +remains to-day one of the best specimens of early Gothic architecture +extant. In 1682, 1695, 1706, 1737, and 1811 extensive repairs were made. +In 1828 the exterior was thoroughly restored and recased with stone, and +several unsightly structures that impeded the view of the church were +removed. All of these so-called restorations were, however, but partial in +extent. Many outrageous additions and much meretricious ornamentation, +added at various epochs, were allowed to remain. + +Finally, in 1845, steps were taken looking to a thorough renovation and +restoration of the venerable pile. The purity of the marble columns had +been sullied by several coats of paint and whitewash, while many of the +foliated capitals of the columns supporting the "Round" bore traces of +gilding. These latter were scraped and cleaned; an eight-feet-high oak +wainscot was removed; light, movable seats were substituted for the heavy +pews of Charles II.'s time that encumbered the Round; the pavement was +lowered to its original level, thus revealing the bases of the columns; +the organ (built by the famous Father Smith in the reign of Charles II.) +was removed to its present position in the choir, and the whole interior, +by means of these and other extensive changes, was exhibited in its +pristine purity. + +It is difficult to understand the crass stupidity which blocked up +exquisite Norman windows, covered carved capitals with a thick coat of +cement, closed many of the arches with wooden partitions, planted a +cumbrous pulpit and reading-desk immediately under the dome, and hid the +noble groined ceiling behind a shell of flat, whitewashed boarding. In the +course of these repairs much of the marble-work was found to require +renewal, for replacing which some old quarries in the Isle of Purbeck, +unworked for generations, were reopened. + +On the pavement, immediately under the Round, are several marble effigies +of mail-clad knights,--"Associates of the Temple." Those that have been +identified represent Geoffry de Magnaville, Earl of Essex, one of the +barons who fought against King Stephen; another, having clean-cut features +and clad in chain-armor, commemorates William Marshall, who was Protector +during the reign of Henry III,; and by his side rests his son, a leader of +the Barons in their memorable struggle against King John. The effigy of +Gilbert Marshall, third son of the Protector, reposes near the western +door-way, and hard by is the figure of a warrior in the act of prayer, +supposed to be intended for Robert, Lord of Ros. Five or six other figures, +some of remarkable beauty, and all in good preservation, two of heroic +stature, are unidentified. + +Service is held daily in the Temple Church, and admission is practically +free. On Sunday mornings, however, the introduction of a bencher is +requisite to secure admittance. The music is of the best of its kind, and +the organ, though of great age, is renowned as one of the purest-and +sweetest-toned instruments in London. + +No account of the Temple would be complete without some mention of its +many curious sundials. Each garden possesses a plain pillar-dial. There is +one in Temple Lane with the motto, "_Pereunt et imputantur_," and +"_Vestigia nulla retrorsum_" appears on another in Essex Court. In Pump +Court, high up on the front of a house is a large, rectangular dial, with +gilt figures and stile, bearing the inscription, "Shadows we are and like +shadows depart." Over the dial is the traditional Temple lamb bearing a +cross.[A] In Brick Court there is a dial with the apt legend, "Time and +tide tarry for no man." In the year 1828 an ancient building on Inner +Temple Terrace was demolished, and with it a sundial bearing the strange +but not inappropriate inscription, "Begone about your business." The story +runs that, many years before, a crusty old bencher had promised the +dial-maker to provide a motto for the then new dial. The messenger, +however, arrived at an inopportune time, received the above curt dismissal +in answer to his request, and conveyed it to his master as the legend to +be engraved. + +[Footnote A: The devices of the Middle and Inner Temple are a lamb and a +horse respectively, and they may be frequently seen blazoned on window and +wall. An irreverent wit once scrawled these lines on the Temple gate: + + As by the Templars' hold you go, + The horse and lamb displayed + In emblematic figures show + The merits of their trade. + + The clients may infer from thence + How just is their profession: + The lamb sets forth their innocence, + The horse their expedition. + + O happy Britons, happy isle, + Let foreign nations say, + Where you get justice without guile, + And law without delay! + +In answer and in ridicule of which, a second scribbler penned the +following stanzas beneath: + + Deluded men, these holds forego, + Nor trust such cunning elves: + These artful emblems tend to show + Their _clients_, not _themselves_. + + 'Tis all a trick; these are all shams + By which they mean to cheat you: + But have a care,--for you're the lambs, + And they the wolves that eat you. + + Nor let the thought of "no delay" + To these their courts misguide you: + 'Tis you're the showy horse, and they + The jockeys that will ride you.] + +The din and devastation of civil strife and the smoke and flame of +conflagration have more than once surged high and furious in and around +the Temple. In Wat Tyler's rebellion many of the houses were razed by the +rioters, books and parchments were carried away and fed to bonfires, and +it was the intention of the rebels to destroy the precinct and the lawyers +together, for thus, they said, they would obliterate both unjust laws and +corrupt law-makers. The "No-Popery" rioters in 1780 marched to attack the +Temple, but were awed into flight by the apparently determined front +presented by the lawyers and students, who were really in desperate fear +themselves. Street-fights with the lawless Alsatians of the adjoining +Whitefriars region were at one time frequent.[B] In 1553, and again in +1669, the mayor of the city essayed to "pass through the cloisters with +drawn sword." The Temple claimed immunity from civic control, and on both +occasions the mayor's weapon was beaten down and a bloody affray resulted. +An appeal growing out of this event was made to Charles II. by Heneage +Finch in behalf of the Temple, but the question is still unsettled. Hence +the modern Templars close their gates at ten o'clock every night, and when +the "charity children" of the adjacent parishes "beat the bounds" on +Ascension Day, redouble their vigilance. The rich rental of the property +pays no local taxes, though repeated efforts have been made to assess it. + +[Footnote B: Salisbury Court, Whitefriars, enjoyed for centuries the +privilege of a sanctuary--at first for criminals, but finally for debtors +only--until 1697, when it was abolished by royal warrant. It was nicknamed +"Alsatia," in imitation of the frontier province of the same name, which +was long a cause of contention and familiarly known to English soldiers in +the long Continental wars. As Cunningham observes, "In the Temple students +were trying to keep the law, and in Alsatia, adjoining, debtors to avoid +and violate it. The Alsatians were troublesome neighbors to the Templars, +and the Templars as troublesome neighbors to the Alsatians."] + +In 1666 the Great Fire of London burnt its way westward as far as the +Temple. After consuming several sets of chambers and a quantity of +title-deeds to many valuable estates, the course of the flames was stayed +just east of the Temple Church. But in 1678-79, in the mouth of January, a +large area was burned over. The fire lasted from midnight till noon of the +ensuing day. Pump Court, Vine Court, part of Brick Court, Elm-Tree Court, +Hare Court, part of Middle Temple Hall, a portion of Inner Temple Hall, +and the old cloisters, were swept away. The season was remarkable for its +severity: the Thames was frozen over, and the supply of water entirely +inadequate. So great hogsheads of ale were hoisted up from the cellars and +the liquor fed to the clumsy hand-engines of the period. When the ale gave +out, recourse was had to gunpowder,--buildings in the track of the flames +being blown up; but in this dangerous work the Temple library was +demolished. In the end, however, the Temple was the gainer by this fire: +much better structures took the place of the old rookeries, and the entire +precinct was purified. + +Around the hoary walls of the Temple cluster memories of many a strange +custom or quaint observance. The revels at Yule-tide, St. Stephen's Day, +New Year's Day, and Twelfth Night were not surpassed anywhere in "merrie +England." Feasts, masques, and play-acting at various times greatly +scandalized the more sober and staid among the benchers. Stowe tells us +that the readers of his day "for upwards of three weeks kept a splendid +table, feasting the nobility, judges, bishops, principal officers of state, +and sometimes the king himself, insomuch that it has cost a reader above +one thousand pounds,"--a mint of money in those frugal days. Revelries +grew in frequency and attractiveness as the business of instruction +declined, so much so that we are compelled to believe that at one period +the qualifications for admission were merely nominal. A banquet given by +Sir Heneage Finch the year following the restoration of Charles II. lasted +from the 4th to the 17th of August, and all London was invited and made +welcome. + +In one point the Templars of to-day are not a whit behind their +predecessors: they give good dinners. For centuries the benchers of the +two societies have dined in each other's company once a year in the great +hall; and to Mr. Thornbury we are indebted for the following description +of a Temple dinner of to-day: + +"An Inner Temple banquet is a very grand thing. At five or half-past five +the barristers and students in their gowns follow the benchers in +procession to the dais; the steward strikes the table solemnly a mystic +three times; grace is said by the treasurer or senior bencher present, and +the men of law fall to. In former times it was the custom to blow a horn +in every court to announce the meal. The benchers observe somewhat more +style at their table than the other members do at theirs. The general +repast is a tureen of soup, a joint of meat, a tart, and cheese to each +mess, consisting of four persons, and each mess is allowed a bottle of +port wine. Dinner is served daily to the members of the Inn during +term-time,--the masters of the bench dining on the dais, and the +barristers and students at long tables extending down the hall. On grand +days the judges are present, who dine in succession with each of the four +Inns of Court. To the parliament chamber, adjoining the hall, the benchers +repair after dinner. The 'loving-cups' used on certain grand occasions are +huge silver goblets, which are passed down the table filled with a +delicious composition, immemorially termed 'sack,' consisting of sweetened +and exquisitely flavored white wine. The butler attends the progress of +the cup to replenish it, and each student is by rule restricted to a sip; +yet it is recorded that once, though the number present fell short of +seventy, thirty-six quarts of the liquid were sipped away. At the Inner +Temple, on May 29, a gold cup of sack is handed to each member, who drinks +to the happy restoration of Charles II." + +The Temple has been for generations a favorite abode with men of letters +and others having no leaning toward or connection with the bar. It is a +vast bachelors' hall. Fleet Street and its immediate vicinity is the +centre of the publishing interest of London. Here many of the great +dailies are edited and printed, and "Brain Street," as George Augustus +Sala fitly nicknamed it, is midway between the "city" and the "West End, +"--the "down town" and the "up town" of London, if such a simile is +permissible as applied to a brick-and-mortar polypus whose members radiate +toward every point of the compass. No part of the Temple is more than five +minutes' walk from this centre of intellectual industry, and yet, once +within its walls, the silence and seclusion are complete. The roar and +rattle of Fleet Street and the Strand might be a thousand miles away, for +scarce a murmur penetrates beyond the Temple gates. The quiet, stone-paved +courts, the grassy nooks gemmed with a few choice blossoms, the +soft-plashing fountains, overshadowed by sturdy elm-, plane-, or fig-trees, +the cool stone archways leading from one court to another, the park-like +expanse of the Temple Garden, bounded by the bustling Embankment and the +swift-flowing river, are surroundings favorable alike to the labors of a +busy journalist, to the novelist's weavings of fiction, to the poet's +subtile creations, to the purposeful studies of the patient scholar, or to +the objectless dreamings of the mere "man about town." + +HENRY FREDERIC REDDALL. + + * * * * * + + + + +"MEES." + + +Red-armed Annette gave a final glance at the table, and as the clock was +striking eight summoned Frau Pastorin Raben's boarders to supper. Promptly +came the two Von Ente girls, high-born and high-posed damsels, forced to +make themselves teachers. It had been a sad blow to their pride. The elder +was somewhat consoled by a huge carbuncle brooch given to her by Kaiser +Wilhelm himself. The younger was named for a very great lady; and when a +letter came from the very great lady the recipient lifted her head and +remembered that, whatever happened, she was a Von Ente. + +Following them close, there entered the dining-room a woman who painted +pictures and sold them. Hedwig Vogel was about fifty, tall, angular, +hard-featured. She was reported to be very rich and very mean. Moreover, +she was an undoubted democrat; for when Elsa von Ente's lady patron came +to the house, everybody kissed the august dame's hand except Hedwig Vogel +and "the Mees." Of course "the Mees," poor thing! knew no better; but +FrA¤ulein Vogel!--a woman guilty of such a misdemeanor was capable of +putting dynamite in Bismarck's night-cap. She responded curtly to the +greeting given to her by the Von Entes, and then asked where the Frau +Pastorin might be. + +"Here," answered a soft voice, and the plump, smiling, suave mistress of +the house entered and seated herself at the table. As she bowed her head +to invoke a blessing on the smoked herring, the raw ham, the salad, the +three kinds of bread, a tardy boarder opened the dining-room door. She +stood on the threshold for a minute, then moved swiftly to her place. + +"Good-evening, Mees," said the Frau Pastorin, and "Good-evening, Mees," +echoed the Von Entes. FrA¤ulein Vogel contented herself with a nod, and +attacked bread and ham in hungry silence. + +"Your walk has given you a fine color," the Frau Pastorin continued +blandly. Then, turning to the artist, "You should paint the Mees, +FrA¤ulein. 'A Study of America.' That would sound well, would it not?" + +The Study of America smiled a little disdainfully, and refused the raw ham +and the herring offered to her by Elsa von Ente. She had refused raw ham +and smoked herring at least a hundred times, but yet the Frau Pastorin +protested. + +"I am sad there is nothing for you," she murmured in English,--a language +she fondly fancied she spoke. + +"Oh, there is bread galore," said the Mees. + +This set the hostess to thinking. Bread she understood; but what was bread +galore? + +"I should like to learn some American dishes," she said. "Buckwhit cakes, +--so, is it right?--I have read of them. How you would relish them +to-night, would you not?" + +"No," said Mees ungraciously. + +"Not?" said the Von Entes, who talked together habitually. "But what then?" + +"Beef--mutton--chickens," said Mees. + +"We have them here," murmured the Frau Pastorin sweetly. + +"Do you?" said Mees, quite as sweetly. And Hedwig Vogel burst out +laughing. The Frau Pastorin bit her lip, the Von Ente girls looked blank, +and Annette scuttled away, smelling danger from afar, for she knew full +well that she often received a vicarious reproof. + +Supper over, the table was cleared and a big Bible laid before the Frau +Pastorin, who, as a clergyman's widow, felt that it was her duty to set a +good example to the sojourners beneath her roof. Hedwig Vogel, however, +did not stay to the reading: she went up to her bare, lonely rooms. They +were totally lacking in character, for neither the woman nor the artist +was betrayed in their appointments. Everything was scrupulously clean and +painfully neat about them. German-fashion, the square table was pushed +close to the sofa, and held a lamp and four never-opened books. Here +FrA¤ulein Vogel seated herself, turned up the lamp-wick, and then crossed +her long, lean, sinewy hands in her lap. The tall white porcelain stove +made the room so warm that she presently rose and set a window open a +little way. She was indeed a dangerous, unconventional creature, a +Prussian who cared neither for great ladies nor draughts. She stood there, +feeling the damp air of early spring blow in her face. From the beer-hall +near by came the sound of music; over the pavement rattled a cart drawn by +two weary dogs and followed by a yet wearier peasant-woman; with a brave +clink-clank of spurs and sword strode by a brave lieutenant. Above all +these sounds FrA¤ulein Vogel's quick ear caught a light foot-fall on the +bare stairs without. She crossed the parlor and flung open the door. + +"Mees." + +"Yes, most gracious lady." + +"Ridiculous,--'gracious lady'! Come in." + +Mees obeyed, and took the place of honor on the sofa beside the painter. + +"I have a favor to ask," she said, with a deprecatory smile, "Don't call +me Mees, please. It does not mean anything." + +"Shall I say Mees Varing?" asked the painter, with a struggle to pronounce +the name properly. + +"Unless you like Kitty better," said Mees. + +"Kitty--Kitty." FrA¤ulein Vogel repeated it gravely. "Kitty." She smiled. +"Kitty Varing, of New York. Now I have it all." + +"No," said Kitty, "not quite. Of Withlacootchie, New York." + +They both laughed, the Indian name was so unmanageable. Kitty finally +wrote it down, and the painter pronounced it over and over again. At last +she straightened up, and said sternly, + +"But where is the picture, Mees--Kitty?" + +"Ah, you don't want to see it," Kitty exclaimed; "and I don't want to show +it to you. I tell you I have no talent. I suppose, though, patience must +tell in the end," she added, half to herself. + +"Yes, it will tell," said the painter grimly. "It will tell--something. +Go get your picture now." + +Kitty crossed the corridor to her own little room. There was the picture, +--a sketch in oils of the best-known model in DAYsseldorf, this time rigged +out as a Roman peasant. The girl looked at the picture with a frown; she +seized it as though she would dash it on the floor in scorn, but, checking +the impulse, she carried it to FrA¤ulein Vogel. + +The successful painter looked at the sketch in silence for a full minute, +holding it off at arm's length. Finally, she laid it down on the table, +murmuring, "And after three years' hard work!" + +"Only a year's real work," Kitty broke in eagerly. "I have only been here +a year, you know; and those two years at home I ought not to count, for I +did not work then as I do now." + +"Why not?" asked FrA¤ulein Vogel sharply. And Kitty changed color. + +"Ah, one must not ask questions," FrA¤ulein Vogel remarked; "but one can +have plenty of suspicions. I dare say you were in love, and, as love +failed, you have taken to art. So it goes with women. Everything but +marriage is a _pis-aller_." + +Kitty half rose: the stray arrow had sped home, and it rankled in a new +wound. + +"I am a woman myself," added FrA¤ulein Vogel, with a droll smile that +melted the girl's anger in an instant. + +Kitty dropped down on the sofa. "Well," she said gayly, "I grant that I +was in love once on a time; but that is all past. Now I want to be a +painter. Listen: I have not much money, I have no friends,--that is, +friends such as we read about,--and I must learn to make some money. When +I am thirty I shall begin to make money; otherwise--" + +"You are spending your capital," said FrA¤ulein Vogel. + +"If I spent only my income I should either wear shoes and no clothes, or +clothes and no shoes," answered Kitty, laughing, with a little air of +recklessness that sat well on her. "Besides," she added sagely, "it is +well to burn one's ships. Sink or swim." + +"But you are quite sure of swimming?" said FrA¤ulein Vogel, taking up the +picture again and looking at it closely. + +"It is very bad," Kitty said. + +"Abominable," said the painter. She drew a long breath and shook her head. +"Abominable," she repeated, almost as though such an abominable piece of +work demanded respect. "_Ach_! You leave old Zweifarbe's studio," she +exclaimed. "Send your easel over to me. You want to make some money? Good. +There are many artists here in DAYsseldorf who say I cannot paint; there is +not one who will say I have not made money. Perhaps I can teach you." And +FrA¤ulein Vogel burst out laughing, while Kitty stared at her in blank +surprise. + +"But you have never taken pupils," she stammered. + +"I have never died; but I suppose I shall," was the response. + +And so old Zweifarbe lost a pupil,--for Kitty's easel was straightway +borne on the back of a sturdy _dienstmann_ to FrA¤ulein Vogel's studio. +What a chatter, what a commotion, it caused in the nest of painters! They +chirped and gossiped and pecked each other like a flock of sparrows. The +Frau Pastorin expressed the popular sentiment when she discussed Hedwig +Vogel's eccentricities. + +"How much a lesson?" she said, half closing one shrewd gray eye. "How much +a lesson? Ah, she would not take pupils,--no, no, not while she was Hedwig +Vogel; and _der liebe Gott_ knows she will never be Hedwig anything else. +But she will make an exception for our deer Mees Varing; oh, yes, an +exception! Wait till Mees Varing's rich American friends come along and +buy some of the great Vogel's pictures. You will see." + +"But has the Mees any rich friends?" asked her crony the Frau Doctorin. + +And then the parson's widow laughed in a worldly way. + +"So pretty a girl," she said, "so fine a complexion, such little feet! And +those winning ways!" + +From which it will be seen that the Frau Pastorin could admire and +appreciate a woman who was young and beautiful. So could the painters; but +that is easier to believe. And so could the tight-booted lieutenants; but +that is perfectly understood. When Kitty Waring crossed the Hof Garten, +even that old woman who years and years ago sold little Heinrich Heine +plums would point out the girl to her contemporary the venerable +under-gardener. + +"_HAYbsch_" the old woman would growl. + +"_Aber leichtsinnig--leichtsinnig_," the old man would add,--for he was a +misogynist. + +But Kitty was not quite _leichtsinnig_, although she did stroll through +the garden sometimes with Fritz Goebel, sometimes with Otho Weiss, +sometimes with her fellow-countryman Joe Buckley. They were all young, all +painters, all poor. Who cared what they did? What if they sat on a beach +under a linden-tree and played cat's-cradle like children? What if they +made little excursions to Zons or to Xanten? What if there was a supper in +Joe Buckley's studio, and Kitty Waring and Anna van der Meer--a sedate +creature from Rotterdam was she--were taught how to make a true, good +_bowl_? Who cared? In fact, all DAYsseldorf cared. + +One day the Frau Pastorin called Kitty into her parlor. "Dear child," she +began, "if your good mother--" + +"She has been dead fifteen years," said Kitty. + +"If your father--" continued the Frau Pastorin. + +"He? Oh, I can't remember him at all," said Kitty. + +"Have you no family?" was the question that the Frau Pastorin put squarely. + +"An uncle or two somewhere in Iowa," Kitty answered. "An aunt brought me +up, and then died, poor thing!" A smile flitted across Kitty's face, and +tears sprang to her eyes; but her questioner saw only the smile. The world +is full of such purblind folk. + +"Where were you last night so late?" she said acridly. + +Kitty turned on the plump little woman and looked down at her. + +"When Miss Smythe told me that I should find a pleasant home here, she +made a sad mistake," was the irrelevant answer that Mees gave. It puzzled +the Frau Pastorin for full a week. Then Hedwig Vogel and Mees paid their +honest debts and took up quarters with Frau Tisch, in the Rosenstrasse. + +"It is much pleasanter here," cried; Kitty, as she moved about the parlor, +transforming the commonplace aspect of the room. "And it is cheap, too. I +thought Frau Tisch would ask more than Frau Raben." + +"It is less because we club together," said FrA¤ulein Vogel. + +Kitty might have suspected something if her new friend had not had the +name of being so close-fisted. Who would dream that Hedwig Vogel could be +free-handed?--she who would beat a _gemAYse-frau_ out of two cents; she who +refused to subscribe to the fund for painters' widows, declaring that it +was as likely she would leave a widow as be left one. She was not +susceptible, she cared naught for sweet smiles and gentle ways. That she, +a gaunt, grim, brusque woman of fifty, could suddenly feel all the stifled +mother-love within her spring up,--that was preposterous, the vain +imagining of a romancer. + +They worked together, these two, in Hedwig Vogel's studio, and Kitty +strove to make up for her lack of talent by her abundance of patience. + +"Why did you decide to be a painter?" FrA¤ulein Vogel asked her one day. + +"Because I had a start in that line," Kitty answered. "If I had had a +start in music I should have tried to play or sing. I wonder if I could +sing? They say everybody has a voice. People are just like fields: plough +'em up, plant cabbages, plant potatoes, you can raise some sort of a crop. +How do you happen to be a painter?" + +Hedwig Vogel paused, palette in one hand, brush in the other. "Because I +would rather paint than eat," she answered. + +"That is genius," said Kitty solemnly. "I would rather eat. That is lack +of genius. But because I want to eat I paint. That is--what would you call +that?" + +"You have a daub of ochre on your nose," said FrA¤ulein Vogel. + +"Anyway," Kitty remarked after a while, "if worse came to worst I could +teach. There is German. Now, I really speak German well, don't I? I could +teach that." + +"Oh, you have the gift o' gab!" said the painter. "But you will be married, +sure." + +A long silence followed. "I am twenty-four," said Kitty. + +"There is no safety for you this side of the grave," said FrA¤ulein Vogel. + +"I may be married, but I doubt it," Kitty continued. "I--" And then she +dropped her brushes, flung herself prone on the floor, and burst into +passionate tears. Hedwig Vogel did not try to comfort her, but she knelt +beside her and put her strong right arm about the girl's quivering +shoulders. At last Kitty sat up and brushed back her tangled hair. + +"Every day I think of him," she said. "Every day I hope, I pray he will +come. I watch for the postman,--I have watched for him so long. He never +brings me a letter, but my heart stops beating when he draws near the +house. When he rings the bell, when the servant comes up the stairs, I +shut my eyes. I can almost believe I have the letter in my hand. I almost +see the words. But there is never a letter,--there never can be. Oh, I--" +She rose and walked to and fro. "I am to blame," she added, laying her +hand on Fraulein Vogel's shoulder. "I wronged him by my suspicion, my +petty jealousy; then I ran away from him, and expected him to roam over +Europe trying to find me. I hid myself from him, and I am eating my heart +out because he does not come." + +"Suppose," said FrA¤ulein Vogel, "that he is seeking for you now?" + +Kitty's wet eyes shone for a moment. "I am not worth that," she said. + +"But if he loves you?" + +"Oh, he loves me, I know!" she exclaimed. "And I doubted him. I thought +all manner of base thoughts, and I told him of them to his face,--to him, +the noblest, dearest,--and he never reproached me. Do you wonder I am +ashamed to write to him? Do you wonder I dare not ask his pardon?" + +"If he loves you he would forgive anything," said FrA¤ulein Vogel. + +The room had grown dark, and they mechanically washed their brushes, +cleaned their palettes, and made ready to go home. As they crossed the Hof +Garten, two or three young painters joined them, and the talk ran on +gayly. FrA¤ulein Vogel had heard Kitty's laugh ring out many a time before, +but never until now did she hear the sad note that dimmed the sweetness of +it. The young men turned away at last. + +"To-morrow, then, at eight," sang out Otho Weiss. + +"Until to-morrow," cried the others. + +"Until to-morrow," Kitty echoed. "Always to-morrow," she added softly to +herself. + +"I do not understand," said FrA¤ulein Vogel, going back to the talk in the +studio. + +"I was jealous," Kitty answered simply. "He was above me in station--" + +"I thought there was no rank in America," said FrA¤ulein Vogel. + +"Then you cannot understand how a big tradesman scorns a little one," +Kitty rejoined. "My aunt kept a shop, but she would never let me help her +sell pins and needles and tape. No, I must go to school with girls whose +fathers sold pins by the ton instead of by the paper,--or by the pound, as +you do here. His father sold them by the ton,--a mere matter of big and +little. The family was reconciled to me after a while. You see, the family +had to be reconciled, for Frank did not care what they said to him." + +"He loved you," said FrA¤ulein Vogel. + +"Yes, but they wanted him to love somebody else. Perhaps he would have +done so if I had not come in his way. Perhaps he would have married the +right girl,--a limp, languid creature, with money enough to build a +cathedral like the one at Cologne. She made the trouble. They said he was +tired of me, that he repented his impetuosity; and I heard it all, and I +grew jealous,--jealous of nothing. I reproached him, told him that he +wanted her and her money. Then came the crash. My aunt died. I had a +chance to come to Europe with some people, and I did not even bid him +good-by. Now I expect him to write to me--to find me." + +She laughed a little as she said this. "Some day," said FrA¤ulein Vogel. +"If he loves you," she added. + +"I doubted him," Kitty said, "and I deserve all this. Ah, if you knew him, +if you saw him, you would know what a fool I was!" + +They had reached the house by this time, and, as Kitty opened the door, +she added, "I must write soon. I must hear something about him. What may +not have happened in a year? Perhaps he is dead." + +She did not mention her lover again to FrA¤ulein Vogel, but she showed her +his portrait; and the sharp-eyed painter looked at the frank, manly face a +long time. + +"Write to him, you foolish woman," she said. + +"Not yet. I will wait a little longer," Kitty rejoined. + +The summer wore away. In August they went for a fortnight to a little +place near Remagen,--Bad Neunahr it is called,--and here Kitty's eyes were +opened, and she suddenly awoke to the fact that her new friend was no +ordinary friend. + +"You need not worry about money," said FrA¤ulein Vogel. "If you don't learn +how to make it, you know how to spend it. I could never learn that myself." + +But in the autumn Kitty only worked the harder, believing with all her +heart that patience would make a respectable, picture-selling painter out +of a Chinese mandarin. When the gray dawn stole in at the window she +sprang out of bed, dressed, and was off to the studio for an hour before +breakfast. She begrudged the time spent for dinner, she bemoaned a dark +day, and she laid her brushes down reluctantly in the twilight. In the +evening she wanted to go to the theatre, to a concert, to a supper. Such +as she find plenty of companions, and from time to time DAYsseldorf raised +its hands over her doings. FrA¤ulein Vogel watched and waited in a sort of +patient agony, but at last, not without deep reflection, she wrote a +letter to Kitty's sweetheart. She read his name on the back of a +photograph, she knew well how to spell the name of the town, she knew the +town was near New York, she knew New York was in North America, and she +had to buy an extra big envelope to hold the whole address. But the letter +was a terrible thing, and a happy thought came to her. She made a little +picture of Kitty,--a perfect little picture,--and beneath it she wrote +name and address. That was better than a thousand letters. Carefully she +did it up, placing tissue-paper above and beneath the cardboard, and +laying it tenderly in a white box. Surely it could not go astray, unless +all the post-office men were blind; but, to make sure, she would register +it, if that were possible. All must be done without Kitty's knowledge, and +the touch of mystery made the romance the sweeter. One fine day she +sallied forth to send the little portrait on its way. She entered the Hof +Garten, sauntered down the Linden AllA(C)e thinking all the while how +delightfully the comedy would end. Her own part, as good fairy of the play, +pleased her, too, and she smiled to herself as she strayed off from the +AllA(C)e and, seating herself on a bench that was well screened from prying +eyes, she gave herself up to revery. Of course the lover would come, of +course he would carry Kitty off; but FrA¤ulein Vogel did not mean to be +left far behind. She would look after Kitty, for the foolish, impetuous +creature would need at least two people to keep her out of mischief. + +"Frank." + +Some one uttered the name, and FrA¤ulein Vogel peered through the leaves. +Sitting near was a pale, sweet-faced woman, drawing figures in the gravel +with the tip of her parasol. + +"Frank," she repeated, "shall we go home?" + +"Do you mean Withlacootchie or the hotel?" was the answer. + +The man had his back to FrA¤ulein Vogel, but now he turned, and she +recognized him. The portrait had lied a little, as portraits will lie, and +yet he was a handsome man enough, after all. + +"Home or the hotel, dear?" His voice was very gentle, and his smile +tender. "Are you tired of wandering?" he added. + +"Oh, no!" she said, "but whither shall we wander?" + +"Up-stairs, down-stairs, in my ladies' chamber," he rejoined. "Last summer, +the Tyrol; last winter, Italy; this summer, Switzerland; now,--where? We +are making a long honeymoon of it." + +"And are you tired?" she asked. + +He gave a rapid glance up and down the AllA(C)e then stooped and kissed her. + +FrA¤ulein Vogel had not understood all the words, the caress she saw. She +rose and went slowly homeward. In the tiny DAYssel the swans were floating +majestically, and, standing there on the bank, she tore the box and the +picture into scraps and flung them in the water. The swans hastened after +the bits of white paper; they fought and screamed over them, and the +victor proudly bore away a fragment from his envious mates, only to +discover that it was worthless. + +CHARLES DUNNING. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE NEXT VACATION. + + +If it finds you with fifty dollars and a fortnight at your command, you +cannot do better than spend both on the Great Lakes. + +You don't care for water? But the Great Lakes are not water. You follow +closely the most interesting and wonderful shore, and seven different +times stop for several hours at places on the coast. + +Or perhaps you do care for water, and would not like hugging the shore? +One day, at least, on Lake Huron, you would be out of sight of land; and +if you should have a lake storm, you would have all the ocean "fun" you +would care for. + +Or you were thinking of the Thousand Isles? There are a thousand isles in +the northern part of Lake Huron, just before you turn into the little +winding river that leads to the "Soo." + +Or you had planned to see Lake George this year? You will see a beautiful +copy of Lake George as you leave the little town of Hancock and pass from +the narrow river into a broad expanse dotted with islands, just before +entering the canal that leads to the upper part of Lake Superior. + +But you had rather go West, among the mines? What mines can you find, more +interesting than the great copper-mines of Calumet and Hecla and +Quincy?--the only place in the United States, indeed, where you can see +the curious man-engine, with its arrangement of changing-platforms for +carrying the miners up and down. + +Well, you meant to go "canoeing." Some very choice canoeing and shooting +of rapids you can have during the hours at the Sault Ste. Marie, popularly +known as the "Soo," and during the two days that the steamer waits at +Duluth before the return-trip Lake Superior will prove not an unattractive +spot to paddle about in. + +Add to this the interest of the magnificent new locks at the "Soo," the +historical and romantic associations with Marquette and Mackinac (for you +will not forget that Miss Woolson's "Anne" lived on the Great Lakes), and +the creature comforts of big state-rooms, with large, comfortable beds, +and running water in the basins, on admirable steamers that set an +excellent hotel-table, and you will wonder, as we did, that so few +tourists seem to know about, or care for, one of the most enjoyable +excursions in the country,--I am quite sure I can say the most enjoyable +for the little money it costs. + +We took it ourselves quite by accident,--willing to go out of our way a +little on the journey to Colorado in the heat of summer for the sake of a +little trip by water to compensate for the sea-shore cottage we were +leaving behind us for the season. We did not, indeed, begin the trip, as +the steamers do, at Buffalo; for, although time and tide wait for no man +at the East, at the West there are no tides, and time was willing to make +an appointment for us to overtake the steamer at Detroit. We were glad of +an excuse for lingering at the House Beautiful in Buffalo, where we would +rather spend Sunday any time than on any lake in the world. Fortunately, +we had "been to the Falls" many times before, and had seen Niagara in +winter splendor and summer loveliness: so we were at liberty to idle away +the fleeting hours in the shades of Delaware Avenue, on charming piazzas, +till the time came when we must start on the flying trip through Canada if +we would overtake the steamer Japan. + +She was just gliding into her dock at Detroit as we stepped from the cars, +and we still had three or four hours' leisure before she would start again +in which to drive about the pretty city and call on friends. Just before +midnight we embarked, and our first experience of the Great Lakes was a +night of peaceful and serene slumber. + +Peaceful and serene, too, was the following day,--a patient waiting for +the scenery to begin, sitting with novels on what was facetiously known as +"the back piazza" of the Japan, out of sight of land, but gliding over a +sea so smooth that the hanging flower-baskets on the deck scarcely +stirred. If you scorn such tame delights when apparently at sea, remember +that it might have been rough as only lakes are rough in a great storm. It +was very warm. The captain's assurance that the next morning we should +want to borrow his overcoat and mittens had no effect in disguising the +fact that it was warm. The ladies dressed for dinner, many of them in +white; and the only excitement of the afternoon was the "sighting" of the +Michigan, United States man-of-war, cruising in lake-waters. A little knot +of officers on deck waved their handkerchiefs; a little knot of pretty +girls on the Japan were responding eagerly, when a severe and elderly +voice was heard to say, with distinctness, "The officers' wives are on +board the Japan. They are waving to _them_." + +And in fact, as we glided past, a little child was seen at a port-hole of +the Michigan, waving a handkerchief to mamma on the Japan. It had been +seriously ill, and the mother, forbidden by the United States government +to remain with her sick child on the Michigan, preferred to leave him +there with his father, where he could have the care of the special surgeon +who understood the case, while she followed as closely as she could in one +of the lake-steamers. Ah, how interested we all were! It is recorded in +history that certain enemies of the Egyptians used to go into battle with +them with each man holding a cat in his arms. Suppose in our next war we +try the effect upon our enemies of letting each of our soldiers carry a +white-robed baby? One thing is certain, the Michigan captured the Japan +with all on board that day simply by exhibiting that little white figure +at its port-hole. The next day at the "Soo" not a murmur of dissent was +heard when the good-natured captain, who had no European mails on board, +said he would wait an extra hour for the Michigan to come up, that the +anxious mother might have twenty-four hours' later news. + +On the second morning there was an entire change of weather and landscape. +The sun still shone gloriously (the thermometer that day in Chicago stood +at 94), but rugs, seal-skins, and hoods were in demand. We were no longer +out of sight of land, but were threading our way in and out among a +thousand isles, with hills that seemed almost mountains threatening to bar +our course before long if we did not turn back the way we came. No one, +the captain said, had ever been known to guess the channel correctly; but +before long we had made a sharp turn to the left at the only spot that +offered an outlet, and found the Great Lakes narrowed suddenly to a +beautiful winding river which led us in the course of another hour or two +to the "Soo." Here the steamer would wait three hours, and we could +explore the queer little town,--quite a popular resort in summer,--or +inspect the splendid locks of the great canal, or shoot the rapids. To me +it was a genuine pleasure to find at last some rapids that were visible to +the naked eye. The famous rapids of the St. Lawrence had been a severe +disappointment, but here were rapids worthy of the name. Lake Superior was +visibly above us, Lake Huron visibly below, and between ran the turbulent +little stream which of course must be flowing into Lake Huron, though we +could not have told merely by looking at it which way the current ran. + +"Would we go up the rapids?" We had heard of going down the rapids, but in +reality the most wonderful part of the performance is going up. Not only +is the current fearfully swift, even close to the shore as it is necessary +to keep, but the water seems to be only a few inches deep, and the rocks +are as thick as plums in a Christmas pudding. Yet two Indians, standing +erect, one in the bow and one in the stern of the canoe, pole you up the +stream against these terrible odds as easily and surely as a Harvard +oarsman might row you across Seneca Lake. Then they pause for a moment. + +"How will you have it going down? Rough?" they ask. + +"Rough," we answer, wondering what in the world they can mean by speaking +as if they were the autocrats of wind and current. + +But it seems there are two channels,--one near shore for the timid, and +one in mid-stream. We were not to be betrayed into any exhibition of +timidity after that first hesitating question, "Do you know the rapids +well? How many times have you taken people down?" To which the quiet reply +had been, "Three times a day, lady, for twenty years." Twenty thousand +times, by rough calculation! + +So we went over in mid-stream, and were not sorry,--receiving as we +stepped ashore what is probably a part of every programme, the compliment +of being "the bravest lady that ever went over the falls." + +Many a pleasant day, or week, one might undoubtedly spend at the Sault +Ste. Marie, or at Mackinac; but if you have only turned through the +straits and gone southward again to Chicago through Lake Michigan, do not +think of saying that you have taken the trip on the Great Lakes. To me the +Great Lakes will always mean Lake Superior. It is something unique in the +geography of the world, and you have the consciousness of your actual +height above the level of the sea as you rarely have on any elevated land +that is not actually a mountain. Ruskin says that for him the flowers lose +their light, the river its music, when he tries to divest any given +landscape of its associations with human struggle and endeavor. Our New +World scenery, of course, has little of that wonderful charm of +association; but there is something singularly impressive in the mere +silence and vastness of our great Northern solitudes. + +We entered Lake Superior late in the afternoon, and the only event of the +evening was a magnificent aurora. Toward midnight the gorgeous tints +changed to a thin wedge of perfectly white light, against which in a +duskier white the sails of passing vessels were distinctly outlined, +though no hulls were visible. + +At Marquette, in the morning, a party of Finnish emigrants on board left +the ship. Half a dozen Americanized Finns, who had evidently been the +inspiring cause of this influx of new citizens, had come to the wharf to +greet the new arrivals. They had the same short stature, the same stolid +features, as their relatives on board; but there was a difference. The +white shirt, the clean collar, the smart straw hat and vivid necktie, with +a vigorous step, alert manner, decisive tones, and a certain tendency to +help the women with their heavy boxes, distinctly individualized those who +had been awhile under American influence. + +All day we basked in the sunshine on the captain's bridge. Think of being +glad to bask in the sunshine on a 4th of August! Between Marquette and +Portage River we passed but one house,--one solitary, lonely house, set on +the very edge of the "unsalted sea;" before it a vast expanse of limitless +waters, behind it an unbroken, limitless forest; no fields, no crops, no +roads, only space enough cleared for the tiny cabin and tinier shed. What +had lured people there? What kept them alive? No neighbors, no mail, no +farm, no apparent object in life, and only one small rowboat to get away +in. + +Yet they had put a curtain up at the window! No human being could by any +possibility look in at that window. Even the curtain could only be +detected with an opera-glass from the steamer that passed twice a week. +But the sweet instinct of privacy and home had had its way, and every +night the little curtain that never shut out anything but the incurious +moonlight or the innocent stars was drawn as regularly as the shades of a +Fifth Avenue mansion. Later we learned that it was the Life-Saving Station +of Lake Superior. + +"No nap this afternoon, ladies," said the captain as he left the +luncheon-table. "You must be on the lookout for Portage River." + +All the afternoon we watched for the little river, eked out by a canal, +that enables us to cut off one hundred and twenty miles of what would be +the course around Keweena Point, besides giving what is perhaps the most +interesting part of the whole trip. So narrow is the opening of the river +that no trace of it is to be seen till we are close upon it; yet swift as +the dove from far Palmyra flying, unerring as an arrow from the bow, the +great ship sweeps across the lake to exactly the right spot. The river is +hardly the width of a canal, yet curves as no canal would ever curve, so +that the captain in giving orders has to watch both ends of the vessel to +see that neither runs aground. It would be impossible for two steamers to +pass each other in the river, and the contingency of their meeting is +guarded against by the fact that returning steamers have to go round the +Point, being too heavily laden with flour from Duluth. As it was, there +were but thirteen feet of water in the river, and the Japan drew twelve. + +Once in the river, we experienced a most extraordinary transformation. +Every one knows what it is to pass in a day or two from northern snow to +southern roses, or in a few hours from valley roses to mountain snow; but +here, _in five minutes_, and remaining on precisely the same level, we +passed from October to July. The cold lake-breeze died away, and on the +little inland river the sun was actually oppressive. Seal-skins were cast +aside, and we sent hastily below for sun-umbrellas. The speed of the +steamer was slackened to four miles an hour. You heard no click of +machinery or swash of water against the sides: we were gliding on through +a green and lovely marsh, with water-lilies all about us and wild roses in +the distance. Cattle stood knee-deep in pleasant brooks, locusts hummed +and buzzed in the warm air, all sweet summer sounds and scents encompassed +us. There was even a little settlement of scattered houses; but the +expected steamer had evidently created no excitement in the inmates. It +would not stop; it brought them neither mail nor summer boarder: why +should they care just to see it pass? One man, painting the window-sashes +of his house with his back to the steamer, never even turned or paused +from his work, though we were so near that he might have heard what was +said about him on the deck. It is not the dweller in the wilderness, but +the denizen of cities, that longs for something to happen. + +At Hancock the steamer waits several hours, giving an opportunity to visit +the wonderful copper-mines. We chanced to be there just at the hour to see +one of the unique sights of America,--the working of the man-engine that +brings the miners up from their work. Even by machinery it takes them half +an hour to reach daylight. The mine is worked to the depth of fifteen +hundred feet, and for five hundred we could gaze down into the dark and +awful shaft, lit for us by the candles burning in the miners' caps. Two +long beams, to which are attached at right angles little platforms at +intervals of eight feet, each platform holding one man, work up and down. +As each man reaches the level of the platform above on the opposite beam +the engine stops just long enough for him to step from one to the other. +The long, silent, spectral procession, moving with such shadowy precision +and constant motion, with the glimmering lights changing, not fitfully, +but with the regularity of well-trained will-o'-the-wisps, made a panorama +not easily forgotten. Every minute or two, as the engine paused, the miner +whose platform had reached the top sprang suddenly, like a jack-in-the-box, +out of the opening into which we were gazing, touched his hat, and +disappeared into the town. Long as we waited, the procession was not yet +ended when we had to go back to the Japan. + +It is just beyond Hancock that the river broadens into the beautiful +expanse so like Lake George. As we glided away from the wharf in the light +of a splendid sunset, it was curious to look back at the simple little +town, so remote from luxury, even from civilization, so humble in its own +wants and pleasures, yet pouring such vast sources of supply into the +great world of which it knew nothing and asked nothing, save the privilege +of enriching it. + +At twilight we entered the canal. I have been up the Saguenay, I have been +over the Marshall Pass and through the Royal Gorge of the Arkansas, and I +have seen many noble scenes in Europe, but no scenery has ever impressed +me with such solemnity as the landscape on that canal in the twilight of +an August afternoon. Nor was it merely a personal impression. There were +two hundred souls on board, with the usual proportion of giddy young girls +and talkative youths; the negro waiters as we entered the canal were +singing and playing their violins; but in an instant, as the speed of the +steamer was again checked to four miles an hour, every sound was hushed on +board. During the hour that was occupied in going through the canal, it is +a literal fact that not a sound was heard on the great steamer but the low +impressive orders of the captain and--if you chanced to be on the +captain's bridge--_the ticking of the clock in the wheel-house._ People +spoke in whispers, if they spoke at all, quite unconscious of it till they +remembered it afterward. What made it so impressive? I am sure I do not +know. Certainly there was nothing awful in the scenery, and we never were +in less danger in our lives. We were moving peacefully through a long, +narrow sheet of perfectly calm water, stretching straight as a die from +the river to the upper lake. If anything had happened, we could have +jumped ashore on either side, and another steamer from Buffalo would have +come through in a day or two and picked us up. The only thing possible to +fear was that we might ground in the shallow water, an emergency from +which we could only be relieved, as there are no tides in the lakes, by +the tedious process of lightening the cargo. It was a perfectly clear +evening after a most beautiful day. But on either side of us, far as the +eye could reach, stretched an apparently unbroken forest. Through the +narrow vista cleared for our silvery pathway a slow and stately twilight +came solemnly to fold us in its embrace, as we advanced solemnly and +slowly from vast and awful solitudes to solitudes more vast and awful +still. As we drew near the lake again, a little light-house gleamed, and, +as we swept past it out into the broad expanse of limitless waters, the +cheerful throb of the machinery quickened again upon the sea, the pleasant +swish of the water against the ship greeted us once more, life, movement, +and gayety sprang out again on board, and in an instant the entire steamer +had burst into laughter and chat and song. We were really in far more +danger, from storm or collision or fire, out on the great lake; but the +sense of awe had been lifted from us. + +We were due at Duluth at four o'clock of the following afternoon. What +would she be like, this "zenith city of the unsalted seas," with such a +stately avenue of approach? At three o'clock we began to see in the +distance what seemed to be her cloud-capped towers and domes and palaces; +at half-past three a beautiful little humming-bird, blown from the shore, +lit on my scarlet necktie and pecked at this strange flower from the East; +at four we were at the wharf. + +"I think," said my companion slowly, gazing sorrowfully at the shanties +that had made such splendid domes in the distance, "I think I should have +called it Delusion, instead of Duluth. It looks like a town in Dickens's +'American Notes' illustrated by Dor? + +Surely never was there a more forlorn little town, trying to scramble up a +hillside covered with the tall trunks of dead trees and blackened stumps, +shut out from one world by the waste of waters before it, shut in from +another by dreary, verdureless hills. Surely nobody _lived_ there; those +could not be _homes,_ those desolate frame houses where people were +"staying" awhile. It seemed as if the whole town, like "Poor Joe," would +soon be told by a vigilant policeman to "move on." + +And we, who were looking forward to Colorado, needed no policeman to urge +us to "move on" by the earliest train to St. Paul. + +ALICE WELLINGTON ROLLINS. + + * * * * * + + + + +AURORA. + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +ROSE AND GOLD. + + +Aurora wrote to the address given her by the Duke of Sassovivo, and +received an immediate reply. The tone of her letter might be described as +dutiful. She could assume no other. That pale face and weary voice were +ever before her. She wrote much as she might have written to Fra Antonio, +though with less ease; and the reply was not calculated to change this new +position in which the two stood to each other. D'Rubiera wrote freely of +his movements and plans, and of his son, but made no reference to his +feelings, and did not mention the past, or any future beyond his travels. + +"I trust that you will not leave me in ignorance of any contemplated +change in your mode of life," he concluded, "and that you will come to no +decision on any subject of importance without giving me the privilege of +offering my advice, even if you should think best not to follow it." + +The letter included a note to Mrs. Lindsay, which she answered; and her +answer called forth a letter addressed to herself. There seemed to be no +reason why Aurora should write again, and, by the tacit consent of all, +the correspondence fell into Mrs. Lindsay's hands. Sometimes Aurora did +not see these letters, or saw but a part of them,--though her friend +always told her the duke's movements and plans and read her out some +message from him to herself. + +Possibly the reason of this reserve lay in the fact that Mrs. Lindsay made +Aurora the principal theme of her letters. Her triumphs, her beauty, her +goodness, her admirers, her acts, her sayings, even her little whims, were +all recounted. + +The lady was a good letter-writer. She wrote in a simple, self-colored way +a clear narrative of their life in Venice, ignoring sentiment and +reflections; yet the many little incidents and phrases which she set down +were like so many touches with a full brush, and gave life to what she +told. + +The duke remained in England but a short time. Robertino was perfectly +contented, he wrote, and better without him. He crossed the ocean, and +threw himself into the life of the New World, going east, west, north, and +south, glancing at the agriculture, commerce, and manufactures of that +prodigious country, which astonished him. The magnificent strength and +vitality of it all braced him, waked him up, and dispelled his miasmas. +Back to England; and, before they knew that he was there, off to Spain; +and when they thought of him as in Spain, he had returned to England. + +And here at length he took a brief repose. He began to go into society, +and wrote Mrs. Lindsay the names of persons he met and whom she might +know. Among those whom he saw constantly was Lady Maud Churchill, whom he +pronounced exquisitely beautiful. + +Mr. Edward Churchill was with them when the letters were brought, and +Mrs. Lindsay read out this compliment to him. + +"Lady Maud is my cousin," he said. "She is a woman carved in alabaster." + +Mrs. Lindsay gave Aurora the letter to read when she went to her room, and +she sat there by her window after having read it, the open sheet in her +lap. + +"Exquisitely beautiful," she repeated, looking down at the words. "He will +marry her. I am glad that he is going to marry an Englishwoman. She must +be good, if she is like her cousin." + +She looked out at the bright April sunlight dreamily, and for a long time +without stirring. She was considering if she had not better accept Mrs. +Lindsay's invitation to accompany them to America in June. She would like +to see that wonderful golden land where nobody is ragged and nobody poor, +--to see its prairies and forests, its cities sprung up since yesterday, +its wide, clean streets with trees in them, its people, unresting, +truth-telling, generous and courageous, if not always polite. + +"Fancy a country where the people drink water!" exclaimed a Frenchman, on +seeing water sold in the streets of Seville. + +"Fancy a nation where the people are for the most part truthful!" thought +this Italian, sitting in the window of a Venetian palace and looking out +into the Canal Grande. + +"I had better go," she said. "I shall never again have so good an +opportunity. And I really do not know what else to do. There is nothing to +keep me here." + +And then, with the thought that she might indeed go to the ends of the +earth and never come back, for any tie that held her, came the bitter +remembrance of her losses. + +"Oh, mamma!" she whispered, and began to cry,--not with the passion of her +first sorrow, but piteously and low, with a sense of desolation. + +The next day Mrs. Lindsay wrote the duke, "A name you mention in your +letter opens the way to a story I have to tell you. Lady Maud Churchill +has a cousin in Venice who is a frequent visitor of ours, and more than an +admirer of Aurora's. It has been on my mind, to write you of this +gentleman, but I always put off doing so with the expectation of having +something of importance to communicate concerning him the next time. Last +evening he confided to me that he offered himself to Aurora a month ago, +and was refused, but so kindly that he could not give up all hope. She +told him that she was free, and had a sincere regard for him, but that she +did not mean to marry any one. + +"Of course no man would believe his case hopeless with such a reply; and +Mr. Churchill seems to think that Aurora is softening toward him. It +really seems so to me also. Last evening she sat apart and talked with +him nearly two hours; and this morning, as we sat alone, she suddenly +exclaimed, 'I wish that Mr. Churchill would come in!' + +"It is true that, having refused him once, she may feel free to show that +she likes him as a friend. However it may turn out, I hope that she may be +as happy as she deserves. For my part, I could not wish her a more +honorable and devoted lover. He is a man calculated to win affection and +esteem." + +This letter was brought to the duke just as he was going out to a ball. He +went back to his room to read it; and, having read it, he flung it angrily +into the lighted grate. + +"What does the woman mean! I'll shoot the fellow if he dares to wring a +promise out of Aurora. And this stuff about Lady Maud. What did I write? +Do they fancy that I care for her? I like her as I like Wenham ice. Aurora +'softening' toward this impudent Englishman! She would soften toward a cat +if it cried. Mr. Edward Churchill her devoted lover! _Arcidiavolo!_" + +With this growl of rage, rolling and deep-drawn, the Italian went to his +_escritori_, and wrote, "Aurora should not think of marrying an +Englishman. Sooner or later he is sure to return to England; and what +would she do here? I do not at all approve of the match; and I hope that +you will do all that you can to prevent it. Above all, do not let anything +be concluded in haste." + +An event of importance in Mrs. Lindsay's family prevented her replying to +this note. Shortly after its reception her first child was laid in her +arms. Nor did she show the note to Aurora, though she requested her to +write a line to the duke, informing him that a young lady of the most +tender age but obstinate will had placed a veto on her writing at present. + +It would be impossible to say whether father or mother was more happy and +proud over the advent of this little girl, but there could be no doubt +that the mother was the more peremptory and authoritative concerning it. +If Mrs. Lindsay had been queen of the household before, she was empress +now, and that in her own right. + +"You are only prince consort, John," she remarked to her husband, when he +suggested that the child might be baptized in the house by the resident +Protestant minister. "I am regnant. My daughter may be baptized by a +Protestant minister, and welcome, if--but she is going to be baptized in +San Marco, and Aurora Coronari is to be her godmother and Prince P---- her +godfather. If you can reconcile that with your minister, do so." + +The prince consort bowed his head meekly. "I have no particular objection +that a priest should baptize her," he said. "I am very much pleased to +have the prince and Aurora stand sponsors for her. Of course it doesn't +make any difference what they promise for her now. She will be sure to do +as she pleases when she grows up,--if she should turn out to be like her +mother." + +The baptism took place on the first day of May, in the morning; and the +company invited to assist were to return to Palazzo Pesaro to breakfast in +honor of the event. + +Mrs. Lindsay had her gondola--the baby's gondola _pro tem._.--decorated +for the occasion. An immense white umbrella, lined with gold-colored silk, +was fixed to cover the seats, and the whole gondola was lined and carpeted +with white and pale blue. A blue fringe fell over the edge almost to the +water, and bouquets of flowers were bespoken. + +Not only this: she had made a pact with Aurora, who declared that a girl +baptized in the month of May should have Mary for one of her names. Mrs. +Lindsay would include the name if Aurora would attend the ceremony dressed +like the Madonna of an ancient picture of hers, she herself to furnish the +dress; and Aurora consented. + +This Madonna on a sparkling gold ground had a long veil of dim blue +falling over her head and shoulders, and wore a dress of dull-red wool +with faint golden reflection. It was a Raphael dress, and had a band of +fine gold embroidery across the neck and round the wrists. + +The dress came home the evening before, and was tried on and displayed to +the family, with whom was Mr. Edward Churchill. + +"There! wasn't I right?" exclaimed Mrs. Lindsay in triumph. + +"Suppose we should scrape out the Madonna and have Aurora painted in her +place," Mr. Lindsay proposed, with perfect seriousness. + +"The Madonna is an antiquity," his wife said, with dignity. + +"But her eyes are turned like a Chinese's," the gentleman persisted. +"And her expression is cross." + +"I wouldn't do it for the world," Aurora declared. "I feel almost wicked +in assuming her dress." + +"Well," Mr. Lindsay sighed. "Only don't assume her squint, and I think you +will be forgiven the clothes." + +Every night when Aurora went to her room she extinguished her candle and +sat awhile by the open window. The custom had at first been a poetical one, +it was now a sign of trouble. She had seen that evening but too clearly +that one refusal was not enough for Mr. Edward Churchill. + +"It is another reason for going away," she thought. "I must take myself +out of his sight. And yet I like him so! Why cannot he be friendly and +nothing more?" + +The canal was almost deserted, though the Lagoon below was alive with +boats. The water was a dark mirror below. She could see the stars in it, +and the sound of its liquid touch to step and mooring-post was almost +inaudible. + +As she sat there, a gondola slid along inside the posts and stopped under +her window. A moment after, a chord was struck on the strings of a +mandolin. + +Ah! a serenade! It was not her first one by far, and she leaned forward +with pleasure to hear it. The scene was well set for music. But as the +first words fell on her ear she shrank back again. It was Edward +Churchill's mellow voice, and he sang a serenade of Mrs. Norton's, in +English: + + Soft o'er the fountain, + Lingering, shines the southern moon; + Far o'er the mountain + Breaks the day,--too soon. + In thy dark eyes' splendor, + Where the warm light loves to dwell, + Weary looks, yet tender, + Speak their fond farewell. + Nita, Juanita, ask thy soul if we should part! + Nita, Juanita, lean thou on my heart! + + When, in thy dreaming, + Hours li'ke these shall shine again, + And morning beaming + Prove thy dream is vain, + Wilt thou not, relenting, + For thine absent lover sigh, + In thy heart consenting + To a prayer gone by? + Nita, Juanita, let me linger by thy side! + Nita, Juanita, be my own dear bride! + +Silence fell, continued, and pressed. There was no note of music from +below, no response from above. Then there was a stroke of oars lightly +falling, then ceasing, and again silence. Not a sign of response. Slowly +the gondola glided away and disappeared in the night. + +"I am so sorry for him!" Aurora murmured, and softly closed her window. +"So sorry!" + +She recollected what Mrs. Lindsay had said of the fascination of this +serenade: "If the woman who hears this sung to her--well sung--on a +beautiful night does not at once accept the singer, it is because she is +in love with some one else." + +"I am in love with freedom and with poetry," Aurora exclaimed, and hastily +put the subject away. + +The cortege that accompanied the babe to church the next morning was a +picturesque one. A dozen gondolas brought their loads to the palace steps, +and the company entered and paid their respects to the mother while +waiting for the procession from the nursery. + +Mrs. Lindsay, on this her first appearance, received in one of the front +_salons_,--a room lined with gold-colored satin, with sofas and chairs +covered with maroon velvet flowers on a gold satin ground. She wore a +marvellous toilet, which looked like sea-foam, so covered was it with +laces. + +"The difficulty with these rooms is that they extinguish almost anything +that you can wear," she said. "Nothing looks well against these draperies +but old point-lace. That asserts itself anywhere." + +She certainly contrived to make herself a very lovely and interesting +object seen against those rich cushions. No color reflected upon her but +light, in her slight languor and pallor of convalescence, her cheeks +delicately thinned, she was like a white rose drooping in the heat of +noonday. + +The nursery sent down its treasure. First came Aurora in her Madonna dress, +and was received with acclamations. Then came a footman, then two +wondrously-dressed nurses, with their heads a halo of silver filigree pins, +one of the nurses bearing the lace-wrapped infant in a white embroidered +mantle that fell almost to the floor. Two maids followed. + +This little company filled the babe's gondola, that swept out, the others +following and surrounding it as they glided down to San Marco. The place +of honor was the infant's, and Aurora sat at her left hand, and bent to +talk to her and keep her in good humor. + +"She looks at you, Donna Aurora," the nurse said. "And, see! she smiles." + +In fact, it had been found that Aurora had the right magic "Coo-coo!" and +the cunning hand and soothing cheek which babies require. + +At starting, she had observed a covered gondola at rest opposite the house, +and saw that some one was watching them from its curtained window. It was +not surprising, for their little pageant was pretty. But she was surprised +when the gondola slipped forward beside her own and became almost +entangled with their followers. For a moment she thought that it might be +Mr. Churchill, but a swift, stolen glance showed her that the arm which +rested by the window wore a military sleeve. + +"Some officer who knows the family," she concluded. They knew a good many +officers. + +The entanglement was but momentary, and might have been accidental, the +person inside having evidently given orders to let them pass. Leaning on +his oar against the out-flowing tide, the gondolier took his hat off and +bowed lowly, smiling at the babe. + +"_E riverita, Madama Innocenza_!" he said. + +Aurora gave him a kind glance. "But you will be more innocent still in a +few minutes," she said to the infant. + +They reached the landing, and walked across the piazza to Saint Mark's, +and entered the baptistery. A good many people gathered about the door +during the ceremony, and among them Aurora was aware of a military officer +who stood leaning against the grating. She did not look at him, or she +would have known that his eyes were fixed on her alone. + +When, after holding the infant at the font, and giving it a string of +names as long as a rosary, she turned to restore it to its nurse, and bent +to kiss its rosy face as she released it, the officer smiled, gazing +earnestly at her downcast eyes. He saw her lips move in a whisper. + +She was repeating the gondolier's salutation: "_E riverita, Madama +Innocenza!_" + +As they went out, her veil brushed the gold-banded sleeve, and she heard a +faint sigh from the wearer. It required a force not to look at him, not to +show that she was conscious of his presence and pleased by it. Any one who +wore a soldier's dress touched her heart, from general down to orderly. + +Home through the sunshine, in through the shaded court, up the stair with +its painted lords and ladies looking down upon them from the painted +arcade. + +Mrs. Lindsay came out to the stair to receive them, and to embrace her +infant before dismissing it to the nursery. + +Mr. Churchill had joined them at Saint Mark's, and returned with them, +sitting beside Aurora at breakfast. Both ignored the serenade as if it had +never been. + +"My cousin Edith and Mrs. Graham arrived last evening," he said. "They +will stop here a week or two before returning to England." + +"Oh, I should like to see them!" Aurora said cordially. "Tell me where +they are, and I will leave a card today. I am sure, too, that Mrs. Lindsay +will wish to make their acquaintance." + +The breakfast ended with coffee in the beautiful garden the dining-room +windows looked into; then one by one the company departed. Mr. Churchill +lingered a few minutes after the others, then went, seeing no hope of an +interview with Aurora. + +As soon as he had left the room, Mr. Lindsay accompanying him, Mrs. +Lindsay turned with an almost impatient vivacity to Aurora. "At last I can +tell you!" she exclaimed. "Do you know who is in Venice, who sent me a +note while you were at church, and who will dine with us this evening?" + +She looked triumphant and joyful. + +Aurora was silent a moment. "I can guess," she said. "And yet--" + +"D'Rubiera has come!" Madama announced. "What other coming could be so +joyful to us? He has left the boy in England, has himself been to Rome on +a flying visit for business purposes, and is come back to see us. Is it +not delightful? That was all I needed to make this the loveliest day of my +life." + +"Did you see him?" Aurora asked. + +"Why, no! His note was left immediately after you started. I sent a reply +instantly to his hotel, asking him to dine with us. His acceptance was +handed me while we were taking coffee. Did you not see Febiano present the +note? It was a comedy. That man cannot resign the idea that we are +official people, I and John both, and he never lets a note wait, whoever +may be with me. He comes with a solemn, gliding discretion, a sort of +secret-stairway manner, and half presents, half slides the note to me, as +if it were a call to a council of inquisitors in the ducal palace." + +"I hope that the duke is not so unhappy as he was when last I saw him," +Aurora said gravely. + +"What should he be unhappy about?" demanded Madama, who seemed indeed to +be in the highest of spirits. "He has youth, health, wealth, rank, a +character worthy all these blessings, and a beautiful boy. Do you imagine +that he is going to mourn forever for a woman whom he never really loved, +and who disgraced and tormented him? Poor thing! let her rest. It is +almost a year since she died, and he has paid sufficient respect to her +memory. I take it for granted that the duke is as full of life and spirit +and joy as a man can be." + +"Madama Teresa mia," said Aurora, "whom are you scolding? Allow me to +remind you that I expressed a wish that the duke would _not_ prove to be +unhappy." + +"And the wish implied a doubt," her friend retorted. "And your reference +to the past was a shadow. And I will have no shadows to-day. Now I am +going to have my repose, and I advise you to do the same. And you will +wear the same dress at dinner, will you not? It is so pretty. Besides, you +are looking rather pale, and it gives you a glow." + +She went; and Aurora, instead of following her advice to go to rest, took +refuge in the ball-room, which was her in-door promenade. She was never +interrupted there. When she was in the ball-room, and they heard her light +step going to and fro, it was taken for granted that she was composing, +and the room became a sanctuary. No profane foot must cross the threshold. + +She was very far from composing verses on this May afternoon. She was +trying to tranquillize her mind, which Mrs. Lindsay's news had disturbed. +She would be glad to see the duke, surely, dear kind friend that he was! +Yet what meant the shrinking which accompanied that pleasant anticipation? +She felt that she should tremble at his approach, and that her voice would +falter. It would be a strange folly; and yet she feared that it would be +impossible to control herself. + +"It is because of all that happened before I left Sassovivo," she murmured +to herself. "I have got him tangled up in my mind with those miserable +affairs. I am certainly growing nervous, and it will never do. Away with +all that has passed since he became Duke of Sassovivo! _Su_, Rubiera, whom +I knew a soldier years ago, who bade me sing, and laid your drawn sword +across the keys of my piano-forte for a motive, --Rubiera, who came across +a chasm to me as I stood clinging to the broken wall, and smiled courage +into my sinking heart. _Su_, Rubiera, who divided the olive-twig with me, +promising to challenge me when we met again with _Fuori il verde!_ It was +I who showed the green and gave the challenge when we met, and I have the +three leaves yet." She drew a locket from her breast, and opened it to +look at the memento, and at her mother's miniature enclosed with it. + +She was smiling now. That bright past had thrust aside all painful +recollections, and the old cordial, loving confidence was coming up again. + +The sun, declining to the palace roofs opposite, flooded the room with +light. It made Aurora's red dress brilliant, and played and sparkled on +the gold she wore. Twenty little golden chains of Venice hung around her +neck, slender thread after thread from throat to girdle, invisible now +with fineness, and now showing a misty flash in the sun. There was a gold +filigree rose in her hair, which at certain movements changed to a red +rose, and then to a pallid flame, and in the shadow it had all the +softness of a yellow rose just blown. + +Aurora walked to and fro in the light, a brilliant figure, counting over +the treasures of her memory. + +"I wonder what I sang that night!" she murmured. "I never copied it. It +was something about my country. When I ended they crossed their swords +above my head, D'Rubiera and General Pampara. What did I sing? I wish I +could remember." + +She was so absorbed that a step crossing the next room failed to attract +her attention. She did not even hear the light tap at the door. But when +it opened, and some one entered, closing the door behind him, she turned +abruptly and faced the intruder, fully conscious now. + +He was an officer, who tossed his cap away at sight of her, and he had the +face she had been thinking of,--the same face, full of life, and more full +of joyous excitement than she had ever seen it. + +They stood so for a moment, the length of the room between them, gazing at +each other, with some sense of floating in all that light, as if they were +far up in the sky, they two alone, on their way to heaven. + +Then the soldier held up some tiny object in his hand, and came rapidly +forward. + +"_Fuori il verde!_!" he cried out. + +As in a dream, as though they were indeed being sucked up through the blue +unsteady air, Aurora tried to pull the locket from her bosom, and desisted, +for, throwing aside the faded leaf, D'Rubiera extended his arms with an +"Aurora!" which held all pleading and all command, all passion and all +delight, that love can give to the human voice. + +Light as a gazelle she rushed into his embrace, pressing her cheek to his. + +"Oh, my soldier! my soldier!" she murmured. "My soldier and my Love!" + +"What a circuit I have made to reach you!" D'Rubiera said at length, +holding her back at arm's length to look at her. "Are you glad to have me +back, signora duchessa? Are you happy, my red rose?" + +"And to think that you have entered the army again!" she said, drawing a +caressing finger-tip along the gold-work on his sleeve. + +"I did it to please you," he declared. + +The sudden tide of joy and surprise made speech and thought almost +impossible. + +"I do not believe it all," Aurora said. "It is a dream I have been +conjuring up." She withdrew from him. "Stay here, vision of a soldier. Do +not stir. I am going to get my reason back." She turned, and walked slowly +away the length of the room. "He is not here: it was a dream," she said, +then turned again, uttered a sweet cry of joy, and, holding her arms out, +met him half-way, and dropped against his breast again. + +"I feel the motions of the earth as it flies around the sun and turns on +itself," she said,--"two dizzinesses in one. As at first, so now, and so +forever, without you I fall, D'Rubiera." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +A FOUNTAIN. + + +That evening Mr. Churchill dined with his cousin and Mrs. Graham at their +hotel, and afterward sat with his cousin in their balcony. + +He found Edith wonderfully improved. She was either prettier, or her +educated taste made her look so. She knew how to dress now, and her manner +was better. She was cheerful, and she carried her head higher. The hair he +once had thought red he knew now was the color the Venetian painters loved, +and he looked admiringly at the rich coils that crowned her graceful head. + +Besides, there was no sign of that too evident love which had driven him +from her. She looked at him calmly, and spoke with a familiarity which had +an undefined coolness in it. + +While they sat there alone, talking pleasantly, a servant brought a note +for Mr. Churchill. It had been taken to his house and forwarded to him. +Excusing himself, he went into the room to read it by the shaded lamp. + +His cousin turned her head, and watched him unseen. She saw his face grow +crimson as he read, the veins standing out on his forehead, then grow pale +again. She had thought while they sat at dinner that he was looking pale. + +He stood bent down, with his eyes fixed on the page, and, without turning +the leaf, gazing at what he had read as if he did not understand it. + +"My dear friend," Mrs. Lindsay had written, "after a certain conversation +which we had some time ago, I think I ought to tell you my news without +delay. The Duke of Sassovivo is with us, and this evening he has presented +Aurora to us as his future wife." + +He stood so long gazing at the words that his cousin went to him. + +"Excuse me, Edith, I must go out," he said, in a stifled voice. + +"Good-night, Edward," she said, and asked no questions, but held out her +hand. + +The hand that took hers was cold, and her good-night received not a word +of response. + +He went out and called a gondola. + +"Where to?" the gondolier asked. + +"Anywhere!" + +They went up and down, and across to the Giudecca, and down again, and +turned the point of the Public Garden, and the gondolier was about +returning, when for the first time his passenger spoke: + +"Go round by San Pietro and inside by San Daniele. Go where it is dark." + +"He is disappointed in love, or jealous," the man thought as they threaded +the inner ways of the city, now by a lighted piazza, now under shadowing +bridges, or along the gloomy, silent walls of palaces that shut them in. + +"Where shall I go now?" he ventured to ask, when they had gone the whole +length of the city. "We are in the Cannareggio." + +The passenger raised himself. He had sat all the time with his head bowed +down. "Let her drop down the canal," he said, his voice grown gentler. +"Keep well to the left." + +They went out into the canal and downward. Passing under the Rialto, there +rose a deep sigh from the gondola, and the echoing arch whispered back a +sigh. + +The passenger was alert now, looking at all the palaces at the left, as +though he had never seen them before. As they passed Palazzo Pesaro a +gondola touched its steps, and a lady and gentleman got out and walked up +to the portone. The moonlight sparkled on, the uniform of one and on the +gilded fan of the other. They had been out together, and alone, drawing +sweetness from the same air where he had breathed in bitterness. + +"Well, it is fitting," he sighed. "Her head was made to wear a coronet. +God bless her!--and him." + +He looked at them standing in the archway of the palace saying good-night +till distance hid them from him. He was in front of his cousin's hotel, +and, looking up, he saw her still sitting in the balcony where he had left +her. + +Late as it was, he landed and went up to her again. She recognized him +when he stepped out of the gondola, and was not too much surprised when he +appeared. He seated himself beside her, and looked out over the water +without saying a word. + +"Are you not well?" she asked at length, timidly. + +He started. "Why do you ask?" + +"You look pale," she answered. + +For a moment he did not speak. Then he said, "I have had a disappointment, +Edith." + +She leaned toward him with a sigh and a hand half extended, compassion in +all her attitude. + +He took the hand, and rose. "Let me tell you all, dear," he said. "I need +comfort. Come and let me tell you,--if it will not be a bore," + +She went at once, pain and delight struggling together in her heart. He +led her to the sofa, and sank down to the cushion at her feet, bowing his +head to her knees. And there he poured out his whole story, sparing her +nothing. + +Perhaps an instinct of justice and mercy ran through his passion. Perhaps, +guessing in the soft, tremulous, soothing hands that touched his hair and +forehead the love that he had believed to be dead, and with an unconscious +feeling that she was to be the consoler and companion of his future life, +he felt also that all the pain she was to suffer for this love of his must +be gone through with now. + +He could not understand that her only pain was for him, and that for +herself she was blest. For she had his confidence, and she could console +him. + +From that night he became her constant escort and companion. He wrote a +brief note in answer to Mrs. Lindsay's, and then he seemed to forget that +he knew any one in Palazzo Pesaro. + +"For the present I am _de trop_" he wrote, "but I will see you before you +go away. All happiness to Aurora and her chosen husband." + +Impossibility is a wonderful extinguisher of desire; and what suffering +was left to him was not so much a sickness as the languor of +convalescence. He saw Aurora but seldom, and always at a distance; but he +knew that Venetian society was rejoicing over the engagement, and that the +duke was a devoted lover. + +Once, in passing by, he glanced involuntarily at the windows, and saw a +group inside, the sight of which gave him a momentary pang. D'Rubiera +seemed to be placing something on Aurora's head, and Mrs. Lindsay clapped +her hands. + +The duke was, in fact, trying a coronet on his future wife. He had sent +for the family jewels, and was to have them reset, and Mrs. Lindsay +clapped her hands at seeing the diamonds on Aurora's hair. + +D'Rubiera was an impatient and peremptory wooer, and he won the day. They +were to be married in June; and the Lindsays would stay in Venice a month +longer to witness the ceremony. + +Fra Antonio came from Sassovivo and joined their hands in Saint Mark's, +gold and rank smoothing away all obstacles. Then they went to England for +the boy, and came back in time for a week at Bellmar. After Bellmar, they +went to Sassovivo, unannounced, to break open the walled-up gate and carry +jubilee into the castle, the duke said. + +In fact, they spent a whole day long in the castle, tranquilly watching +from its windows the visitors who went to the villa in vain to +_ossequiare_ the master and his new duchess. It was the last time that +they would enter the castle as master and mistress; for the Signora Paula +and Martina were coming to live there,--forever, if they pleased. + +The Signora Paula had found herself _de trop_ in her brother's house. The +Count Clemente had offered himself to the younger of his two first lodgers, +the girl of fifty, and been beamingly accepted; and, though months must +elapse before all the necessary preparations could be made for their +marriage, the Sposa was now mistress of the house. She smiled as before, +but she had her way. The sacred dirt of centuries was being cleaned out, +and immemorial grime was growing pale before the soap and sand of a +civilization to which the Signora Paula was a stranger. Where duchesses +had swept their silks in uncomplaining tranquillity, the smiling Americana +walked on tiptoe with her skirts upheld, and pointed out her orders to the +wondering scrubbers with the toe of her slipper, both hands being employed. + +In all these innovations every care was taken that the count should not be +disturbed. But he had his cross, and an unexpected one. When it became +time to talk of settlements, and it had to be owned that the gentleman had +nothing to settle on his wife but the shadow of a coronet, of which she +would have to buy the substance if she ever wore it, the lady announced +blandly that she would pay all their living-expenses and give her husband +five hundred dollars a year spending-money if he would pay the rent to the +duke,--this arrangement to hold as long as they should live together. + +"But we shall always live together," said the count, with a contortion +meant for a smile. + +"If we should live," the lady said. "But life is uncertain." + +"Oh, in case of death, one makes different arrangements," the count said, +somewhat impatiently. "That is another question." + +"But I want it so," persisted the lady coquettishly; "and I must have my +way. I have always had my way." + +And, ever smiling, never appearing to dream that he was in earnest or to +suspect the rage that was gnawing his heart, she had her way. She smiled +at his coarse and open grasping, smiled at his scarcely hidden anger, and +smiled at the half-insulting consent he flung at her, as if it were all a +jest. And he believed her the simpleton she seemed, and did not know that +he had found a mistress who would rule him with a rod of iron. + +On the second day of their stay in Sassovivo the duke and duchess drove +down early in the morning to the campagna, and left another brewing of +_ossequii_ to fizz itself out in unresponsive air. + +Aurora was going to erect a memorial fountain to her mother in the midst +of the long, hot, dusty road to the station. A wild spring of delicious +water lay back in a rocky pasture. This was to be brought forward and run +into marble basins for man and beast. Above should be a carved relief of +Christ and the Samaritan woman at the well, with, underneath, "And the +woman said, Lord, give me of this water to drink, that I may never thirst +again." + +An artist had come out from Rome to see the place and make suggestions; +and they walked over the green grass, and visited the spring in its own +home, and drank of its sparkling tide. + +"Would you like to be a missionary, little spring?" Aurora asked, bending +toward it. "Many will call you blessed, and the image of your Master will +forever look down upon you." + +The artist looked at her in surprise and smiling admiration. He had found +her a very dignified lady, and this unexpected turn reminded him that she +was a poetess as well as a duchess. + +"What does it say?" D'Rubiera asked. + +She took his arm, smiled into his face, but made no answer. + +They went back to the carriage, took leave of their artist, and drove +slowly to the town. + +"I hope that mamma likes the idea of the fountain," the duchess said +thoughtfully. + +MARY AGNES TINCKER. + +[THE END.] + + * * * * * + + + + +EPITAPH WRITTEN IN THE SAND ON A BUTTERFLY DROWNED IN THE SEA. + + + Poor Psyche, to a Power supernal wed, + How strong a fate on this thy frailness fell! + What strange ironic word shall here be read? + Dead sign of immortality, farewell! + + I sigh not that the summer fields have lost + One flying flower: who counts the butterflies? + I sigh not that thy sunny hour was crossed: + The self-same Shadow surely waits mine eyes, + + Thy piteous terror of the appointed end, + For this I sigh! The billow, poised above, + Fell on thee like a beast that leaps to rend: + Thou couldst not know thy bridegroom Death was Love! + + How otherwise thy sister, yea, the Soul, + Bent brooding o'er these broken wings of thine! + Through all her house of mystery once she stole + To the inmost room, and found a Face benign. + + Now whirl her where ye must, ye waves of Law,-- + Ay, tear her vans, her painted hopes, apart! + She cannot fear, remembering what she saw: + Dark bridegroom Death, she knows thee who thou art! + +HELEN GRAY CONE. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE PIONEERS OF THE SOUTHWEST. + +TWO PAPERS.--I. + + +It is related of Daniel Boone that when (in 1764) he climbed to the summit +of the Alleghanies and looked down upon the vast herds of deer and buffalo +that were grazing at his feet, he said to his companion Callaway, "I am +richer than the man in Scripture who owned the cattle on a thousand hills: +I own the wild beasts in a thousand valleys." + +It may be questioned if Boone had an adequate conception of the stupendous +possessions of the "man in Scripture," but he was certainly justified in +boasting of the wide magnificence of this domain which, by right of +discovery, he claimed as his own. An Indian might have told him that it +would require "three moons, two paddles, and two stout braves" to skirt +its southern and western boundaries and reach its northern limit on the +Ohio; but no phraseology known to the Red Man could have expressed the +boundless wealth, animate and inanimate, that lay hidden in its unexplored +recesses. By the leaves on the trees, or the stars in a cloudless night, +he might have indicated the countless herds of wild animals that roamed +upon it; but how would he picture the leafy magnificence of its forests, +or the grassy luxuriance of the many "openings" that everywhere dotted its +surface? + +It was a tract of country larger than the combined kingdoms of England and +Scotland, and, from the exceeding richness of its soil, it was capable of +sustaining a far denser population than now inhabits the British Islands. +And yet throughout its entire extent there was at this period not a single +human habitation, not the solitary hut of a white settler nor the smoky +wigwam of a roving Indian. It was the hunting-ground and battle-field of +the Indians, claimed by hostile tribes, but occupied by none, and hence +the more inviting as a field for civilized settlement. + +It is difficult for us to conceive of the enthusiasm which this new +country awoke in the mind of the primitive explorer. To him it was a new +world, more genial in climate, more beautiful in scenery, and more +magnificent in extent than any he had ever beheld; and it is not +surprising that the glowing accounts he gave of it on his return were +received with wondering incredulity by the simple farmers on the sterile +banks of the Yadkin. Accustomed to a sandy soil a few inches in thickness +and covered with a scanty growth of slender pines, how could they believe +in a yellow loam four feet or more in depth, and supporting dense forests +of oak and poplar ten feet in diameter and towering aloft a hundred feet +before they broke into branches? The tale was incredible, and it was years +before the wonderful story was believed among the rural population of +North Carolina, and then not until it was confirmed by the report of one +of their number,--a young farmer, selected by themselves to accompany +Boone on his third exploration, in 1769. + +This young man was James Robertson, of Wake County, North Carolina, and, +as he was to become a principal agent in the settlement of the Southwest, +he requires here a few words of description. He was at this time about +twenty-seven years of age, a little above the medium height, and of a +well-knit, robust, manly frame. He had prominent features, and thick dark +hair falling loosely over a square, full forehead which rose in the +coronal region into an almost abnormal development. His eyes were large, +of a light blue, and shaded by heavy dark eyebrows; and they had an +habitual look of introspection, showing a mind of more than common +thoughtfulness. He was grave, earnest, self-contained, with the quiet +consciousness of power which is natural to a born leader of men. And yet +there was in his manner no self-assumption or arrogance. On the contrary, +he was courteous and conciliatory, and had that rare blending of +self-respect and deference for others which, while it repelled undue +familiarity, put the rudest at his ease, and extracted from an old +Cherokee chieftain, who all his life had been the enemy of the white race, +the unwilling praise, "He has winning ways, and he makes no fuss." + +Though clad in homespun, and too much absorbed in things of greater moment +to be over-careful of his personal appearance, he was a man of so marked a +character that he would have attracted attention in almost any assemblage. +Cautious, careful of consequences, and watchful of danger, he was at the +same time bold, fearless, and ever ready to undertake enterprises which +would stagger men of fewer mental resources. So exactly was he fitted to +the time and the circumstances in which he was placed, that the conclusion +is irresistible that he was a providential man, especially appointed to +his work by a Higher Power. + +This was his own conviction, but he came to it at a later time, when +experience had shown that he bore a charmed life, and he had realized what +his single arm and brain might accomplish. But now, in his own eyes, as in +those of others, he was a simple countryman, able to "read, write, and +cipher" and to do small jobs of surveying, but with little knowledge of +any book except the Bible, though in that so deeply versed that it moulded +his speech and regulated his every action. His nature was deeply religious, +but he had, as yet, no higher aim in life than to make a home for himself, +his wife and child in some new region, where he might acquire a competence, +and rise, perhaps, to a station of some little influence and consideration. + +And now, merely stating that he was born in Brunswick County, Virginia, of +Scotch-Irish parentage, on the 28th of June, 1742, and that at the age of +twenty-five he had married Charlotte B. Reeves, a woman nine years younger +than himself, but everyway worthy to be his wife, I will go on with him +and Boone in his first journey over the Alleghanies. + +His equipment was a horse, a blanket, a hatchet, and a hunting-knife. Over +his shoulder were slung a long Deckard rifle, a powder-horn, and a bag of +bullets; and on the horse behind him were balanced a sack well filled with +parched corn, a package of salt, and a tin cup for drinking purposes. This +was his entire outfit. On the parched corn and the game to be procured by +his rifle he was to subsist on his journey. + +There were half a dozen in the party, and they followed the trail hitherto +taken by Boone, for there was no road, nor even a bridle-path. After +leaving the settlements their way lay through an almost unbroken forest; +but there was no difficulty in keeping the trail, for it had been +carefully blazed by Boone on his previous journeys. At night they encamped +under some spreading tree, and, tethering their horses among the timbers, +lighted a fire with the extra flint which each one carried in his +bullet-pouch. Their mode of lighting a fire is peculiar to the +backwoodsman. A handful of dry grass or leaves is gathered, then twisted +into a nest, in which is placed a piece of ignited punk; then the grass is +closed over the punk, and the ball is waved, in the air till it breaks +into a blaze, when it readily ignites the bundle of dry sticks with which +the fire is kindled. Then the limbs of dead trees are heaped upon the +blaze, and one of the travellers sets about preparing supper for the whole +party. It is probably of venison, for there are plenty of deer in that +region. As soon as the burning logs have deposited a good bed of ashes, a +hole is scooped in them, and in it is deposited the haunch or other +portion. When sufficiently done, it is taken out, the ashes are knocked +away, and then--no civilized man, whose appetite has never been sharpened +by open-air exposure in the woods, can understand the keen avidity with +which the delicious viand is consumed. + +Supper over, each traveller lights his pipe of fragrant "Honey-Dew," or +still more fragrant "Kinnikinnick"; and the evening is most likely whiled +away in pleasant talk and narrative of "moving accidents" by field and +forest. Boone was a good narrator, and, though but five years the senior +of Robertson, had already a large experience of thrilling adventure. At +last, heaping fresh logs upon the fire, to keep up the blaze till morning +and scare away the wolves and panthers that might be attracted by the +scent of the venison, the travellers would spread their blankets upon the +ground, turn their feet to the fire, and sink into slumber. + +Thus they encamped by night and journeyed by day, till they reached the +summit of the Stone Mountains, the northerly portion of the long range +which is now the boundary between Tennessee and North Carolina. And here a +view broke upon them such as Robertson, accustomed as he was to the +comparatively tame scenery of Wake County, had never beheld. Spread out at +their feet was a beautiful valley, some thirty miles in length by twenty +in width, and covered by a luxuriant forest, broken here and there by +grassy openings, one of which, larger than the rest, was the "Watauga Old +Fields" of the Pioneers. Some twenty miles away, two small rivers united +their currents and flowed together to the west through a gap in the +encircling mountains. Tracing their courses up among the hills, the +explorers would catch glimpses of numerous smaller streams, which feed the +larger ones and water the whole of this enchanting region. + +The valley, which is itself two thousand feet above the sea, is hemmed in +by huge mountain-ranges,--the Holston on the north and west, and the Iron +and Stone Mountains on the south and east,--which break into peaks--the +White-Top, the Bald, and the Roan--the lowest of which towers more than a +mile into the air. These mountains protect the valley from the chill winds +of winter, and temper the summer breezes to a delicious coolness, making +the atmosphere the most delightful that can be imagined. The bottoms along +the rivers are wide and productive, bearing then a thick crop of tall +grass, on which multitudes of deer, elk, and buffalo were browsing. The +soil of the bottoms is a deep, dark loam, capable of yielding immense +crops of wheat and Indian corn, while the higher and less fertile land +along the base of the mountain will produce fruits of the most delicate +flavor and in astonishing abundance. + +Altogether, the scene is picturesque beyond description,--a charming +valley, threaded by limpid streams, and dotted with dense forests of oak, +pine, poplar, cherry, and walnut, the whole encircled by huge sandstone +ridges, their loftier peaks capped by the clouds, and standing there grim, +silent, and sublime, like giant sentinels guarding the gates of an earthly +paradise. Years afterward, speaking of the scene as it then broke upon him, +Robertson said, "It seemed to me the Promised Land." + +As the explorers prepared to descend into the valley, they noticed a few +miles away, at the north, a slight smoke curling up from among the trees +near the banks of what is now known as Boone's Creek, a small tributary of +the Watauga. Was it from the encampment of some Indian hunter, or the +cabin of a white man who had settled there since the visit of Boone, five +years before? With the caution of old hunters they descended the mountain +and approached the spot whence the smoke issued. It was a log hut, newly +built, and around it, in the stacked corn and the cattle browsing near, +were evidences of a white inhabitant. He was a former comrade of Boone, +his companion during his visit here in 1760, and he had returned during +the previous summer and built a home for his family. His name was William +Bean, and he was the first white settler west of the Alleghanies. + +The explorers were hospitably entertained by Bean and his wife, but, after +a few days spent in piloting Robertson about the valley, Boone set out on +his first long tramp through Kentucky. Robertson remained behind, and was +not long in deciding that he had happened upon the right spot for a +settlement. This decided on, he set about making preparations for the +incoming settlers. Selecting a spot of fertile soil, he broke it up and +planted a crop of corn,--enough to carry the expected colonists through +another season,--meanwhile making his home with Bean, the hospitable first +settler. + +It was autumn before his corn was gathered, and the rainy season had set +in when he started to return to North Carolina. He had carefully husbanded +his small stock of powder and lead, and with what remained, and enough +parched corn and jerked venison to last, with what game he might kill, for +ten or more days, he set out on his solitary journey homeward. There soon +came on a heavy rain, which drenched him completely, and, worse than this, +wet through and through every ounce of his powder. Wrapping his blanket +closely about him, he tried to dry the powder with the warmth of his naked +flesh; but all his efforts were unavailing: the precious grains had +totally lost the power of ignition. Reduced now to his prepared food, he +determined to push on with all speed, and, before his supply should be +exhausted, reach the settlements on the other side of the mountains. + +On the westerly part of the route the explorers had neglected to blaze the +way, and now, day after day, the sun was hidden by thick clouds. Robertson +had no difficulty so long as he could take his bearings by the course of +the Watauga, but when he had passed the sources of that stream he was all +at sea, with neither sun nor star nor compass to guide him. He scanned the +heavens with anxious eye, but they disclosed no glimpse of the blessed +sun: all was mist and rain by day, and by night the blackest of darkness. +Tired, drenched, bewildered, he wandered aimlessly on, lost, completely +lost, in an almost interminable forest. His food, too, was fast running +low, and the scant herbage still left among the trees would no longer +sustain his jaded animal. Then he turned the trusty beast adrift, to find +its own way out of starvation. + +He had eked out his scanty provisions with the nuts of the beech and +chestnut, but now this resource was exhausted; the last handful of corn +was consumed, and he was in a region of rocks and precipices (probably +near the western base of the mountain), where nothing grew that would +sustain life. Exhausted nature could hold out no longer. His strength was +gone, he could not articulate above a whisper, and, sinking down at the +foot of a cliff, he resigned himself to the inevitable. + +How long he lay there he never told, and perhaps never knew; but at last, +when his senses were nearly gone, he heard voices, and then approaching +footsteps. They were two hunters, probably the only two human beings +within a radius of a hundred miles. They came directly to the spot where +he was lying, but did not see him till actually upon him. Dismounting from +their horses, they lifted him in their arms, revived him with some spirits, +and then, sparingly at first, ministered to him of the food in their +knapsacks. Slowly his strength returned, but they stayed by him, and, when +he was able to mount, seated him on one of their horses, and then guided +him out of the mountain and for more than fifty miles on his way to the +settlements. Then the good Samaritans went as they came, into the wide +forest, leaving not even their names to a wondering tradition. + +His friends and neighbors were enraptured with the description Robertson +gave of the country he had discovered. To them the sterile plains and +rocky uplands of Wake County lost their attractions when compared with the +fertile valley which he pictured, and sixteen families prepared to go with +him in the following spring to a new home west of the mountains. + +When the April rains were over, they set out, about eighty souls, men, +women, and children. They journeyed slowly, the men mostly on foot, the +women on pack-horses, with the younger children in their arms or strapped +upon the horses behind them, and the older ones trudging along by the side +of their fathers, or aiding to drive the neat cattle, a score or more of +which were the advance-guard of the cavalcade. The outfit of the party was +simple. The men carried the usual equipment of the hunter, the women some +light articles of clothing; and loaded on several led horses were such +bedding and kitchen-utensils as would be needed at the end of the journey. +They followed the route taken by the explorers, sleeping at night on the +ground, beneath the open air, or sheltered by an improvised tent made of +two forked poles thrust into the ground and supporting a longer pole, over +which was stretched a heavy blanket. Should it rain, these tents were +quickly pitched and all the travellers were soon under shelter. At the +halting-place for the night a fire was built, the cows were milked, the +journey-boards unpacked, and the delicious journey-cake (misnamed +"Johnny-cake") was set before the fire or baked in the ashes. To this was +added the deer or wild turkey shot by the men during the day, and they had +a repast "fit to set before a king." The same was done before setting out +in the morning; but at noon only a short halt was made for a cold lunch +from the remains of the breakfast. + +Thus they journeyed for about ten days, until they reached the base of +Stone Mountain. Here they struck into a cove which breaks into the +mountainside, and climbed by a winding route, but by easy stages, to the +summit. Robertson rode by the side of his wife, and in front of her, +astride of the pommel of the saddle, was their child, now a bright little +fellow of two or three years. Later on he will appear again in our pages, +and then disappear forever from human history. + +As they wearily climbed the toilsome way, and paused to rest, as they +probably did, at the summit, did not that young wife and mother look back, +to gaze again upon the scenes she was leaving behind her? What girlhood +associations she had I do not know, but she was leaving them all, and the +old roof-tree beneath which she had spent her young days: all were about +to pass out of her life forever. As she glanced forward into the tangled +wilderness, would she not have turned back had a vision come to her of the +hardships and dangers and death that lay before her?--her life at first +buried amid the solitudes and dangers of Watauga, and then consigned to a +frail boat which was to bear her a thousand miles, through untold perils, +to a still more distant wilderness, where her home would be encircled with +savage fire and the babe at her breast would be laid scalped and dying at +her feet! + +As they began the descent of the western slope of the mountain, an +unexpected scene met the eyes of Robertson. When he left it in the +previous autumn, the valley was an almost unbroken solitude; now the smoke +was rising from a score of cabins, about which were many evidences of +civilization. Nearly a hundred settlers were there, and the place was +already a busy community. + +There was not house-room for the large influx of strangers, but the spring +weather was mild and genial, and they could encamp under the spreading +trees until half-faced cabins were erected for their temporary shelter. +These cabins were built of split saplings, one end resting on the ground, +the other supported by a frame of forked poles about high enough for a man +to enter standing upright. They were open at the front, but the sides and +rear were covered with thick blankets, so as to afford shelter and +privacy. Of no recognized order of civilized architecture, they would +still serve to keep out the wind and the rain, and under them, on blankets, +or now and then on the precious feather bed, spread on the ground, the +tired immigrants might sleep as soundly as the renowned Sancho Panza of +sleepy memory. + +Their food was supplied from the corn planted and harvested by Robertson +on his previous visit, and from the deer, buffalo, or wild turkey brought +down by the unerring riflemen among them. On deer and wild turkey they had +regaled before, but buffalo-meat was a delicacy with which they were not +acquainted, and, its rich, juicy, tender steak once tasted, all other meat +lost its flavor. None of them had ever even seen the animal, and we may +imagine the wonder with which they first beheld the vast herds that almost +darkened the valley. Lolling in the shade of the trees, or cropping +leisurely the thick grass of the "openings," their coal-black beards +sweeping the ground, and their long tails lashing their sleek dun sides, +the noble beasts would gaze unconcernedly on the intruder, totally +unconscious that this slender biped, with the slim smoke-breathing tube he +bore in his hand, was ere long to wellnigh exterminate the lordly race and +drive its scanty remnant far west of the Rocky Mountains. They were an +easy prey to the early hunter, and thus the rude larders of the first +settlers were filled to abundance. + +Their wives and children provided with temporary shelter, the immigrants +looked about for locations for more permanent dwellings, Virginia offered +to every actual settler who should erect a log cabin and cultivate a small +patch of ground four hundred acres so located as to include his +improvements, together with the right to buy a thousand acres adjoining, +at a price scarcely more than enough to cover the cost of surveying. The +immigrants knew they were near the North Carolina boundary, but they +supposed they were north of the line which starts "at a white stake on the +Atlantic Ocean, at north 39 deg. 20', and runs thence west to the South Seas," +and thus were within the limits of Virginia and entitled to avail +themselves of its cheap munificence,--cheap, because the whole territory +had been bought by King George from the Six Nations for a few trinkets the +total value of which did not exceed the cost of the wedding-outfit of a +modern lady of fashion. + +This line, "west to the South Seas," had not then been run farther west +than the "Steep Rock," near the White-Top Mountain. When it was +subsequently extended, the settlers found themselves within the limits of +North Carolina and not entitled to the benefit of the Virginia law. But of +this more hereafter. Now they were unconscious of encroaching on any +rights of white man or red, and went on with their improvements, confident +that they were acquiring an indefeasible title to their new possessions. + +Nearly all the settlers whom Robertson found at Watauga were from Fairfax +County, Virginia, and they had been attracted to the country by the report +given of it by Dr. Thomas Walker, who with other gentlemen had made a +hunting and exploring-tour through it as early as 1748. They were mostly +from the farming population, somewhat uncouth in manner, and not much +acquainted with books, but not illiterate, for in a document subscribed +soon afterward by upward of a hundred of them only two names are signed +with a cross. They had but little wealth; but they had what in a new +community is far better,--frugal and industrious habits, enterprise, firm +self-reliance, and the cool intrepidity which is fostered by frequent +exposure to danger. No better material could have been selected to subdue +the wilderness to the purposes of agriculture. + +Among them, however, were some who had received the best education then +afforded by the colonies. Prominent among these were the Seviers,--a +father and four sons, who some time before had emigrated from Shenandoah +County, Virginia, and settled about thirty miles farther north, near what +is now Bristol, in Tennessee. There they were neighbors to the Shelbys, +--another father and four sons,--who also have left an heroic record in +the history of the Revolution. + +Some of the younger Seviers, coming upon this valley on a +hunting-expedition, had induced their father to remove to it; and here, +"higher up the river, on its north side, and near the closing in of a +ridge," he had built a roomy log mansion, a portion of which was still +standing in 1844. The sons had erected dwellings lower down the river, and +nearer the "Watauga Old Fields." + +The Seviers were of French descent. The family name in France was Xavier, +and they originally came from Xavier, a town at the foot of the Pyrenees, +in Navarre, which was the birthplace of the famous ecclesiastic and +missionary St. Francis Xavier. After the death of the saint the family +became Huguenots, and on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 the +direct ancestor of the Seviers of whom I am writing fled from France and +settled in London, where he is said to have engaged in trade and +prospered. The grandson of this man, Valentine Sevier, emigrated to +Shenandoah County, Virginia, shortly prior to 1740; and this is the +gentleman who, with his four sons, had now settled in the valley of the +Watauga. + +Each of these young men displayed qualities in after-life that would have +rendered him worthy of notice in the annals of any community; but the +oldest, John, born in 1744, is the one whose life and exploits will demand +much the larger space in the following pages. Though so young, he had +already acquired some distinction in his native State, for he had been +appointed a captain in the "Virginia line" by the Earl of Dunmore, the +last royalist governor of Virginia. In that capacity he had come in +contact with Washington, who was a colonel in the same service; and it was +doubtless owing to their early association that twenty years afterward, +when Sevier was under the ban of outlawry by North Carolina, Washington +appointed him to the military command of East Tennessee. + +This young man was destined to become one of the most unique characters in +American history. I know of no other of whom it can be said that he was +loved by both his friends and his enemies. Indian mothers were wont to +hush their children to sleep with the terror of his name, but Indian +chieftains were known to plead when in distress, "Send us John Sevier. He +is a good man, and he will do us right." In the times that "tried men's +souls" to the uttermost he was to stand firm when most men faltered. He +was to be "the rear-guard of the Revolution," and in its darkest days was +to throw his sword into the trembling scale and turn it to final victory +at King's Mountain. + +At this time he was about twenty-six years of age, nearly six feet in +height, and of a slender but wiry and athletic figure. His carriage was +erect, his movements quick and energetic, and his bearing commanding. He +had light hair, a fair skin, and a ruddy complexion, and his large +dark-blue eyes were singularly expressive of vivacity, good feeling, and +fearlessness. He had handsome features, a lofty forehead, a prominent nose, +and a mouth and chin of absolute perfection. His manners were exceedingly +winning, and he had about him a sort of magnetic force that would convert +into a friend the most stubborn of enemies. However, it is doubtful if, +with but one exception, he ever had an enemy. His individuality was so +marked that, if told John Sevier was present, any stranger could have +pointed him out in the most crowded assemblage. His career will read more +like romance than history, but it was entirely in keeping with the man, +who was altogether great, unselfish, heroic, one of those choice spirits +who are now and then sent into the world to show us of what our human +nature is capable. Next to the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, the +coming together of those two bodies of emigrants on the Watauga was the +most important event which up to that time had occurred in American +history; but it was no more important than the meeting there of John +Sevier and James Robertson, for, humanly speaking, had those two men not +met, and acted thereafter in harmony together, the civilization there +planted could never have survived the struggle it was destined to +encounter with savage foes and fratricidal enemies. + +There were now between thirty and forty men in the settlement, and, the +location of the new-comers being decided on, they all set about the +erection of their dwellings. Trees were felled, cut into logs, hewn into +joists, split into flooring, and rived into shingles, and in an incredibly +short time the various families were domiciled in their new abodes. These +were generally one and a half stories high, about twenty feet square, and +built of rough logs, chamfered at the ends, so as to fit closely together. +They had a solid plank door, hung on wooden hinges, and two or three small +windows, formed by sawing through one or two of the outer logs. The +windows were entirely open, or closed only with a stout blind, and glazed +with thick paper saturated with bear's grease to render it transparent; +but the larger number of the cabins, if destitute of glazing, were +furnished with blinds, which were necessary as a protection against +intruders. The roof was covered with large split shingles, held down by +long weight-poles, and the floors were of puncheons,--wide pieces of oak +or poplar, two or three inches thick, split and hewn with an axe, and laid +upon sleepers. If the hewing is well done, such floors are as level and +smooth as if fashioned of machine-made material. The chimney was of sticks +or stones, laid up in clay, and it went up on the outside in a pyramidal +form, and of a size totally disproportioned to the dwelling, for these +people were fond of a wide roaring fire in winter, and in summer the huge +flue was the best of all ventilators. If it is added that the roof of some +of these cabins was extended in front so as to cover a wide veranda, that +the bark and moss were left clinging to the logs, which by another season +would be covered with honeysuckles and the Virginia creeper, we shall see +that they must have presented no unpicturesque appearance. + +The interiors need only a brief description. There were generally but two +rooms, one below, the other above, approached by a ladder in a corner. The +lower floor was parlor, kitchen, and often bedroom. The fireplace was deep +and wide, surmounted, perhaps, by a broad mantel of unpainted oak, on +which were a few trinkets and the violin so precious to the backwoodsman. +In one corner was a spinning-jenny, in another an uncushioned settle, and +opposite the fireplace a bureau or chest of drawers of native wood and +home manufacture. These, with a small table, a few chairs with rustic +frames and deerskin coverings, also of home manufacture, and a couple of +forked sticks nailed to one of the logs and supporting the trusty rifle, +would probably complete the furniture of the apartment. + +This is a description of the smaller houses. Others, adapted to larger +families, were what were termed "double-barrelled" cabins, having two +rooms on the ground-floor, separated by an open passage-way, and a +"lean-to" in the rear to serve as a kitchen. Still others, it may be, were +like the mansion of the elder Sevier,--half a dozen single cabins tacked +one upon the other and covering space enough to serve for the foundation +of a cathedral. + +From these details we can easily form for ourselves a picture of the first +civilized settlement beyond the Alleghanies. A score or more of these +cabins were scattered here and there in the very heart of the forest, the +great trees crowding so closely around them as often to overhang their +very roofs. Near them horses and cattle were grazing on the thick native +grass that grows among the trees, or housed in rude sheds at the rear of +the dwellings, while farther away, along the margin of the many streams, +deer and elk and buffalo were browsing. Glimpses of foot-paths leading +from one widely-separated dwelling to another might be here and there seen; +but there were no roads, for no wheeled vehicle had yet invaded the +sylvan solitude. + +Their families being properly housed, the settlers began to think of a +school for the instruction of their children. Books were scarce among them, +especially such as were suited to the instruction of the young. Paper, +ink, slates, and pencils, also, were not easily procured. Even years later +important letters and despatches were often written with ink made of +gunpowder and on a blank leaf torn from a family Bible. But books and +writing-implements were now imported from Virginia, and, a teacher being +selected from among the better educated of the settlers, a school was +opened, and the young ideas were taught to shoot in the right direction. + +The people now numbered, all told, about two hundred souls, not more than +forty of whom were able to bear arms. On the east a mountain barrier shut +them off from all civilized aid and succor, and on every other side they +were exposed to savage tribes, at least a hundred thousand strong, of whom +not less than fifteen thousand were warriors. Three thousand of these, and +those nearest the settlement, were Cherokees, a fierce, warlike race, by +instinct and tradition the foe of the white man. How this handful of +pioneers came to venture upon such dangerous ground, or, being there, +escaped total extermination, may well excite our wonder. They understood +their exposed situation, but they went peacefully about their daily +pursuits, tilling the soil, planting and harvesting, and "gathering into +barns," or, more correctly, into ricks,--for as yet there were no barns +among them,--unmolested by the Indians, and in harmony with one another, +for two full years of genuine prosperity. They send accounts of their +prosperity to the friends they have left beyond the mountains, and new +immigrants come to the settlement, some of them men of means, who aid +materially in its development. However, they are an abnormal community. +Two colonies claim jurisdiction over them, but the claim is never enforced, +and never extends beyond a discussion in State papers; so they are +without law or anything to assert its majesty. There is no power to +enforce a right or punish a wrong, and not a solitary lawyer in the +settlement. Every man is a law unto himself, but, strange to say, not a +single crime is committed among them. + +The new-comers spread, in search of choice locations, west as far as the +Chimney-Top Mountain, and south to the fertile valley of the Nolachucky. +The more remote settlers were therefore in a very exposed position, +--almost alone, and beyond them a wide wilderness,--but they had no fear +from the Indians. The few who came to the settlements were friendly, and, +after smoking and eating with the settler, they would go away, grasping +his hand and assuring him that the red man was his brother. Those were +halcyon days; but Satan entered into Paradise, and one of his legitimate +children,--a Scotchman named Cameron,--in the early spring of 1772, +invaded this Eden on the Watauga. + +He was the British agent residing among the Cherokees; and he came with +several of the chieftains to warn the settlers that they had encroached +upon the Indian lands, and must move off, or be removed by the British +soldiery. However, he whispered into the ear of Sevier and Robertson that +for a reasonable consideration paid to him--the representative of the +British government--the settlers would be permitted to remain undisturbed +in their possessions. + +Unfortunately, the Indian agent was right. Virginia had left her exposed +citizens to the tender mercy of the Cherokees by admitting that they had +settled upon Indian territory. By a treaty made with the tribe only a +short time before, the State had acknowledged the Cherokee title to the +entire region lying south of a line running due west from the White-Top +Mountain. It was idle for the white settlers to say that the Six Nations, +who had been the original owners of the soil, had in 1768 transferred it +to the government by treaty, and that the Cherokees had never before +claimed any right to it but as a hunting-ground. The parent colony had +acknowledged in the Cherokees a right to the soil, and hence, as the +settlers were south of the treaty-line, had made them trespassers upon the +Cherokee territory. It was an unfortunate and dangerous position; but +Robertson and Sevier were not disposed to purchase security by bribery. +They spurned the overtures of the British agent, and decided to negotiate +directly with the Indians. + +Some of the visiting Indians expressed a desire that the order of the +British agent should not be enforced; others were willing that the +settlers should remain, provided they made no further encroachments. But +Robertson and Sevier were not willing to occupy their homes by any title +so precarious as the word of a few Indian warriors. They determined, while +they ignored the British agent, to recognize the Indian title, but to +treat for their lands with the whole Cherokee nation. Accordingly, they +requested the visiting chiefs to call together the head-men of the tribe +in a friendly council at the "Watauga Old Fields." + +They came at the appointed time,--six hundred half-naked red men, clad in +buckskin leggings and hunting--shirts and head-dress of turkey-feathers, +and all the male settlers, now nearly a hundred, together with all the +women and children in the near-by plantations, assembled to receive them. +Robertson, from his "winning ways," had been appointed master of +ceremonies, and he resorted to every device to placate and amuse the +savage gentlemen. Dances, ball-plays, and foot-races were improvised, in +which the young men of both races joined in good-natured rivalry; but, +while attending to the festivities, Robertson did not forget the real +object of the gathering. For the consideration of five thousand dollars, +to be paid in powder, lead, muskets, and other goods of value to the +Indians, he obtained from them a ten years' lease of all the lands on the +Watauga and tributary streams. This lease was executed by the head-king, +Oconostota, and other leading men of the tribe, and it was supposed that +it would remove for a long time to come all difficulty with the Cherokees. +But this dream was only the next day rudely dispelled by a most +unfortunate occurrence. + +It was the last day of the convocation, and it had been arranged that a +great foot-race should take place on the open ground near the river, +between the younger braves and the young men of the settlement. The race +was in full progress, and among the younger men all was mirth, hilarity, +and good-natured emulation, while even the older chiefs, catching the +spirit of the occasion, had relaxed from their habitual gravity and were +cheering on the contestants, when suddenly a musket-shot echoed over the +grounds, and one of the young Indians--a near kinsman of a chief--fell in +his tracks lifeless. The smoke came from the woods near the race-ground, +and pursuit failed to discover the assassin, but he was evidently a white +man. + +It was as if the shot had been fired into a magazine of gunpowder. The +Indians had come without arms, or there might have followed a bloody +tragedy. As it was, they gathered their blankets about them, and, with +threatening gestures and faces presaging a terrible revenge, silently +stole away into the forest. + +It was afterward learned that the murderer was a man named Crabtree, from +the Wolf Hills, now Abingdon, in Virginia. A brother of his had been +killed by the Shawnees a short time before while exploring with Boone in +Kentucky, and, lurking in the woods near by, he had taken this inopportune +time to wreak a bloody revenge. + +The Indians had left hastily, giving no time for explanation or parley. +Revenge--blood for blood--was the cardinal doctrine of their theology, and, +unless something were done to avert it, war, bloody and exterminating, +would soon be upon the white settlers. + +But what could be done? To flee the country was only to invite pursuit; to +remain would be to invite a conflict with three thousand infuriated +savages. Hastily they gathered in council; and then it was that Robertson +volunteered, like Curtius, to ride into the breach,--at the peril of his +life to visit and endeavor to pacify the Indians. It was a journey of a +hundred and fifty miles through an unbroken forest, and death might lurk +behind every bush and tree on the way; but what was one life perilled to +save perhaps five hundred? Thus Robertson reasoned with his friends and +neighbors, and then, mounting his horse and giving a parting kiss to his +wife and child, he rode off into the wilderness. + +EDMUND KIRKE. + + * * * * * + + + + +DIEU DISPOSE. + + +Edward Lindsay and his wife were unmistakably favorites of Fortune. They +were happily married, their love for each other being firmly established +on a basis of sympathy and respect; they were young and blessed with sound +health; they were very popular among their friends, of whom they had many; +they were clever, Edward in a literary, his wife in an artistic way; they +were prosperous, far beyond the expectations they had formed when, shortly +before their marriage, Edward left his position in the Crescent Bank and +went into real estate on his own account. It is hardly to be wondered at +that they were regarded with envy by more than a few of their +acquaintances in the comfortable city of St. Louis. + +But there was, after all, a cloud that cast a shadow upon the happiness of +the Lindsays,--a cloud of which they rarely spoke, but about which each of +them thought a great deal: they were childless. In the early months of +their married life they had been wont to talk of their prospective +children, and to say what they would do and what they would not do when +_they_ had a child; but when the months lengthened into years, and still +there was neither son nor daughter to carry out their plans, they +gradually left off alluding to these things, though they never ceased to +hope that they might some day have a child. + +At first the cloud was very small, so that they refused to recognize its +presence; but every day it lengthened and broadened, until at last it +darkened the brightest moments of their life. For each knew that the +thoughts of the other ran much upon this one thing, and each was troubled +that the other should brood upon it. And then, in course of time, they +grew to be a little morbid. It seemed to them as if by their friends who +had children they were regarded with an ill-concealed, patronizing pity. +They felt an unreasonable antipathy toward young parents who loved to +discourse of the ailments and accomplishments of their babies, and they +even avoided the houses of many acquaintances wherein, they knew from +experience, the conversation must be principally devoted to some young +hopeful. + +But after three winters had come and gone since their marriage, Edward +began to reflect more and more seriously upon a scheme of which he had +often thought as a relief from this unsatisfactory state of things, and +one April morning he broached it at the breakfast-table. + +"Ellen," he asked abruptly, "how would you like to adopt a child?" + +His wife arrested the coffee-pot over a half-filled cup and gazed at him +with sparkling eyes. + +"Oh, Edward!" she exclaimed, as if a reply were quite unnecessary. "Why +have we never thought of that before?" + +"I can't imagine," he rejoined shamelessly. "But I happened to think +yesterday of the unlimited possibilities before such a child as we should +adopt. You see, we could make sure of a vigorous constitution, of sturdy +and respectable parents, of physical beauty, of any combination of good +qualities, if we only exercised proper care in our selection. And then, +with the training and education we should give a child of ours--" + +"Of course we should always consider it our own child," said Ellen. + +"Of course," assented her husband. "Perhaps," he added, "it would be +better that he should never know the facts of the case." + +"Oh, no! I should never be happy myself if I felt I was deceiving the +child," she protested. + +"Well, it would be rather a difficult thing to manage, anyway, his--" + +"Or her," interrupted Ellen. + +"Whichever you may prefer," Edward returned, with prompt liberality. "I +was thinking of a boy, simply because I realize that a boy's chances of +reaching distinction are much greater than a girl's." + +His wife sent him a glance of obviously feigned reproach, and thereupon +confessed that she should be as happy with one as with the other. But +Edward felt that he ought to represent the matter in its proper light, and +affirmed that every girl anxious to work goes into life handicapped, and +that nine times out of ten when a girl marries she reaches the goal of her +ambition. In adopting a girl, therefore, while they might contribute much +to their own happiness, they could not reasonably hope to enrich the world +greatly. On the other hand, from a boy properly selected, carefully reared, +and soundly educated, they might with good reason expect the very highest +results. Ellen took some mental exceptions to this argument, on behalf of +her sex, but she deemed it unnecessary to express them. | She entered +enthusiastically into his project, and they speedily agreed that Dr. +Kreiss, their titular family physician,--they had never yet had occasion +to consult him,--should be requested to look about for a suitable boy. + +Edward hailed the doctor on Fourth Street the next day, and presented his +case. + +"I see exactly what you want, said the doctor. "Must be 'young, sound, and +kind,' I reckon we can fill the bill. You would rather have an orphan, I +suppose?" + +"Oh, by all means! There might be some unpleasant results otherwise." + +"Likely enough," replied the doctor. "But it will not be so easy to lay +our hands on a first-class orphan _baby_. I could get you plenty of boys +four or five years old." + +But Edward explained that infancy was a _sine qua non_. They especially +wished that the child should be too young to have acquired tastes or +habits of any kind, whether good or the reverse. They did not seek to +gratify a mere whim of the moment,--simply to provide themselves with a +plaything,--but hoped to aid in shaping a life of more than ordinary +usefulness and worth. The doctor made answer that he would gladly do his +best to find such a child as they wished, that he had no doubt of ultimate +success, but that they must be prepared to wait. + +This interview having been reported to Ellen, the life of the Lindsays at +once assumed a brighter character. Edward went to his business with +greater zest, and in his wife's eyes was a light he had not seen there for +many a day. They now revived their old-time theories of education and +physical training. They dispassionately reviewed the respective advantages +of European and American universities. They spent a good deal of time in +discussing the eligibility of the professions as well as of the sciences +and arts. Edward argued that business of any kind was practically out of +the question, because, with real estate in its present favorable condition, +a few more years would render mere money-getting wholly unnecessary for a +child of theirs. They speculated, of course, upon the personal appearance +of their expected heir, but they wisely deferred any expression of +preference in this respect to the time of his arrival. Names were debated +upon daily, until, after many discussions, they made choice of "John," a +title which had done honorable service in Ellen's family, and which, +Edward said, commended itself as being simple and strong. Meanwhile, +though a month passed away without word from the doctor, they waited in +confidence. They had no wish, they told each other, that he should act +hastily: it was merely a question of time; they could afford to be +patient. And at last the doctor sent them a laconic note,--"Come and see +me." + +Dr. Kreiss had a deservedly large practice, and when the Lindsays +presented themselves at his office they were obliged to wait until the +numerous company of invalids that preceded them could be attended to. A +dead silence prevailed in the room, and both Edward and his wife began to +feel uncomfortable after a few minutes had elapsed. They endeavored to +amuse themselves by studying the faces of the doctor's patients and +guessing at their complaints; but this was not enlivening, and Edward at +last essayed conversation. He whispered several things which he thought +quite bright and appropriate, but Ellen took them all very seriously and +vouchsafed only monosyllables in reply. It being evident that she was not +in a mood for pleasantry, he relapsed into silence. But he went on to +think of sundry occasions upon which he had waited in a certain dark +little anteroom at Primary No.--until the principal might find leisure to +flog him. Having exhausted this subject, he looked about for something to +read, and descried some books on a table at the farther end of the room. +He shrank, however, from the idea of walking over to them and back again +in a pair of shoes which he knew very well would squeak. After vainly +searching his pockets for a newspaper, he resigned himself to the +inevitable, and occupied himself with his watch-chain and in tracing +figures on the carpet with his cane. + +Finally the doctor got through with the patients who were before them, and +the Lindsays were ushered into his presence. + +"I've got you a splendid boy," he said, with enthusiasm; whereat they +glanced furtively about the room. "Oh, he isn't here," he laughed, "but +ready for delivery whenever you say the final word. I only wish to make +sure that you are satisfied with the prospect. It's a short story. The +mother died at the child's birth, about a year and a half ago. Less than a +week ago the father, who was a fine, broad shouldered young fellow engaged +in some sort of a shipping business, got an ugly fall on one of the +steamers and used himself up pretty thoroughly. I was called to attend the +case, and did my best for the poor fellow; but it was no use. He died +yesterday morning." + +The doctor paused, as if for a leading question. Ellen was mute, and +Edward felt constrained to say something: so he asked, "Did you know the +mother?" + +"Very well," answered the doctor, "She was one of the sweetest girls I +ever met anywhere. She was a teacher in one of the public schools before +she married, but she was capable of better work than school-teaching, and +if she had lived she would have proved it. She had some very bright ideas, +I assure you. She was uncommonly pretty, too, with a lot of dark-brown +hair, fine eyes, and rather classical features. You'll see it all in the +boy. He's his mother from head to heels." + +"How does it happen that his relatives are willing to part with him?" +Edward asked. + +"Because his father was an orphan himself, and his mother's family is so +poor that the child would be a serious burden to them. For all that, I had +to make use of some eloquence to get possession of the baby, and only +succeeded after representing the many excellencies of the young people who +wish to adopt him." + +The doctor bowed gracefully. Ellen then found words to say that he had +been more than kind, and that if he was satisfied of the child's good +health there was no reason for hesitation. Edward, who wished to terminate +these preliminaries as speedily as possible, added, "Most certainly not." + +"Very well, then," said the doctor: "we will consider the thing settled. +The boy is as sound as a dollar, has a splendid digestion, sleeps like a +top, and cuts his teeth as if he enjoyed it. Now, if you will call with a +carriage to-morrow about this time, I will go with you--for that will be +necessary--to get the little fellow." + +But Ellen would not take Edward from his business again the next day, +and--to his relief, it must be admitted--declared that she could attend to +further arrangements without his assistance. This she did, and Edward +found her in an ecstatic state when he came home to his dinner in the +evening. + +"We can never thank the doctor enough," she exclaimed _imprimis_, meeting +her husband at the door. "I have never seen such a beautiful baby. _Such_ +a sweet little face, and such dear little ways! You must come up into the +nursery immediately. I should have brought him down to welcome you, but it +is just his supper-time, and Mrs. Doly thought he'd better not wait." + +And Edward was forthwith hurried up-stairs into the room which his wife +composedly designated as "the nursery," where, in the arms of a +middle-aged, motherly-looking woman, reposed the little waif chance had +intrusted to his care. He was certainly a very handsome boy, and his fine +head, big blue eyes, and clear, rosy complexion justified enthusiasm. As +Edward appeared in the door-way, the child regarded him intently for a +moment, and then, whether by accident or by some working of intelligence, +with a little jump of emphasis ejaculated, "Da-da," which everybody knows +to be early English for "papa." Of course Edward capitulated on the spot, +and, like a child with a new toy, he could scarcely be torn away at the +sound of the dinner-bell. + +"Little John," as they came to call him,--because his grave and dignified +manners seemed to render inappropriate both "Johnny" and "Jack,"--had +securely established himself in the affections of his foster-parents +before the end of a week. He was a mine of entertainment. Literature and +art languished in the house, while the Lindsays amused themselves in +playing with their baby or in discussing his good qualities and in +planning for his future. And now when they went about among their married +friends they not only felt themselves _en rapport_, but considered that +they occupied a position of decided superiority, for everybody conceded +that there was no more lovely and winning child in St. Louis than little +John Lindsay; and when people spoke only of other children than their own, +they frankly admitted that they never had seen such a wonderful boy. It +was one of his characteristics that he never cried in good, sober earnest. +Upon rare occasions he would sob a little over a delayed repast, a bumped +nose, or some other tribulation incident to his age, but he was extremely +susceptible to argument, and could always be restored to his normal +tranquillity by a proper explanation of the case. To be sure, he was a +picture of health, and seldom had occasion for tears on the score of +ailments; but it should be remembered, as Mrs, Doly, the nurse, proudly +claimed, that babies are very apt to cry when there is nothing the matter +with them. + +"Oh, Mrs. Doly," Ellen exclaimed one morning, when by some means or other +Little John had specially excited her admiration, "what a lovely woman his +mother must have been! How I wish I might have known her before she died! +Sometimes I feel as if it cannot be right for me to have this dear little +baby without her consent." + +Not long after this it suddenly occurred to her that some legal steps +ought probably to be taken in order that Little John might be secure +against all demands. She went to Edward in alarm, and felt no peace again +until he reported compliance with every necessary formality. + +When hot weather arrived, Edward decided to allow himself a short vacation, +--an indulgence which the exactions of business had hitherto prohibited +every year since his marriage. As to where the precious time should be +spent there was but one opinion in the Lindsay household: they would go +East and rent a little cottage on the sea-shore at Marant, where they had +passed several summers as children, and where the salt air would do much +for Little John's development, as it had done for their own not so very +many years ago. Edward wrote to one of his correspondents at Boston, +requesting him to secure suitable quarters; and, when June was a fortnight +old, they moved into a comfortable cottage at Marant, after a flying trip +without incident from St. Louis. + +Little John fell in love with the sea at first sight, and his constancy +never wavered so long as he remained at Marant. He was at his happiest +when his perambulator was pushed to the edge of the water so that the +waves flowed about the wheels. In such a position he would remain +perfectly content for hours, usually in silence, but at times softly +soliloquizing or addressing the waves in earnest but incomprehensible +baby-language. In the mean time, Mrs. Doly, seated in a camp-chair behind, +could devote an almost uninterrupted attention to her knitting, rising +only at intervals to see that the carriage occupied a proper position with +respect to the movements of the tide, while Ellen reclined in idleness +upon the sand. To so great an extent was her office a sinecure that once, +when the water was very calm, Mrs. Doly fell asleep in the warm sun, +during Ellen's temporary absence, and awoke as the water wetted her toes +to find Little John completely surrounded and pretty nearly in his element +literally. Far from being alarmed, however, he was in a state of exalted +bliss, and emphatically protested against being removed to a more secure +position. But when the tide was going out he was not so content to remain +_in statu quo_, and, partly rising to his feet, would indicate by most +forcible remarks and gesticulations that he wished to be moved farther +down the beach. He manifested an ardent desire to accompany Edward on his +rowing expeditions, whenever he witnessed the start; but Ellen would not +consent to this, and Little John was never initiated into the charms of +boating. + +It was not long before Ellen's fears were aroused that her boy might grow +up with nautical tastes. + +"Ought we to permit him to become so infatuated?" she asked Edward. + +"Why, what can we do?" he returned. + +"We can give up Marant and spend the rest of your vacation at the +mountains." + +"That would be useless, dear, granting that Little John has been born with +a taste for the sea. You can't eradicate an inborn proclivity." + +"But, Edward, you surely do not wish--would not permit Little John to go +to sea?" + +"I should never attempt to prevent him from doing so if he wished to. A +born sailor can't make a good lawyer, or a doctor, or anything else,--at +least until he has satiated himself with the sea. All the evidence of +history shows that, you know. Of course we both hope that Little John will +not develop a sailor's taste, and I don't think there is any reason to +fear that he will: all babies are fond of the sea." + +"Yes, Edward; but," tremulously, "you know Dr. Kreiss said his father was +in a shipping business." + +"Very true: some sort of a broker or agent, probably. They never go to sea; +and it isn't to be expected that the child inherits any taste for it from +_him._ Still, we mustn't forget, Ellen, that none of our wishes are +perfectly sure to be realized. We will do our best to further them, but, +after all, you know, _Dieu dispose_" + +Ellen had never brought herself fully to realize the application of this +trite saying to the case of Little John, but she now went away to her room +and thought the whole question through. She saw all at once the long +series of temptations to which he must be subjected before he became a +man. Yes, it was possible that this sweet child might grow up to +disappoint her bitterly, to be far worse than an honest sailor,--a useless +idler, or even a criminal. She shuddered at the very thought of the last, +and with a great leaping of the heart she resolved that, if God should see +fit to spare the child, her own life should be devoted to shaping his. She +would forget herself entirely; her little ambitious projects should be +wholly thrown aside, that no effort might be spared for the accomplishment +of her one great duty. Tenderness and sympathy and example should do their +utmost, but she would not spoil her boy: there should be sternness if it +were needed; and she felt that this would try her devotion most of all. + +Life at Marant thoroughly agreed with Little John. Every day left upon him +its mark of development and improvement. Other babies in the neighborhood +suffered more or less from "prickly heat," whooping-cough, and cholera +morbus, and ailed upon the advent of teeth. Not so Little John. He seemed +proof against everything. One day Ellen was called from the beach to +attend to some detail of housekeeping, and upon her return was horrified +to find the child playing with some poison ivy, which Mrs. Doly, in +metropolitan ignorance of its qualities, had gathered from the adjacent +bluff. He had rubbed it all over his face and crushed it between his hands, +and was in the act of stuffing some of it down the back of his neck. With +her gloved hands Ellen snatched the leaves away, upbraided poor Mrs. Doly, +subjected Little John to violent ablution, and then sat down to await +disaster. But it never came. The only inconvenience Little John ever +experienced from the incident was the loss of a certain degree of liberty; +for thence-forth Ellen would not suffer him to be separated from her for +an instant. Mrs. Doly, however, did not escape so easily. The noxious +_Rhus_ produced its most evil effects upon her face and hands, and for a +week she led a life of physical torture enhanced by humiliation of spirit. +Upon another occasion a neighbor's child dropped a small marble in front +of Little John, who unhesitatingly picked it up, put it into his mouth, +and swallowed it before anybody could interfere. Again was Ellen aroused +to the highest degree of alarm; but this time, expecting nothing less than +speedy death for the unfortunate baby, she despatched the entire household +in search of a physician. None was to be found at Marant, the sole local +practitioner having gone to Boston for the day. With great presence of +mind, Ellen then instituted a course of treatment herself, up to the +successful termination of which Little John maintained his usual excellent +spirits. + +He was backward both in walking and in talking. Twenty months had passed +over his curly head before he could fairly stand alone; and then his +vocabulary was much more limited than is usual with children of that age. +But Edward construed this into a favorable sign. "Your precocious children +rarely amount to anything," he said. "They wear themselves out before they +come to the real work of life. I should really feel disappointed if Little +John should grow up a model school-boy. He would be sure to develop into a +pedagogue, or a book-worm, or something of the sort. Thanks to Providence, +he promises better." + +His foster-parents rarely thought of him as an adopted child, so +effectually had he possessed himself of their love. From time to time, +however, in some moment of enthusiasm, Edward would declare that the more +he thought about it the more he was led to believe that it was better to +have found Little John than to have had a child of their own. "You see, +Ellen," he would say, "we both have an active, nervous temperament. A +child would be very apt to inherit this in an exaggerated degree, and +consequently to lead a life unhappy in itself, besides causing us a great +deal of sorrow and disappointment. But what a wonderful reserve of +nerve-force Little John has! Whether he turns out a judge, an artist, or a +sailor, it will count for more than his _physique_, and _that_ is +priceless." And then Ellen would smile contentedly. In those days the +Lindsays were very happy indeed. + +The charms of Marant are well known, and it is not surprising that the +Lindsays should have protracted their stay to the utmost, and that autumn +should have arrived before they turned their faces westward. Doubtless +Little John would have strongly protested against quitting the sea-side, +had he been aware that he was about to do so. For several days after +returning to St. Louis he was certainly almost inconsolable. He begged +constantly, in his peculiar, abbreviated language, for the beach and the +ocean, with especial earnestness whenever he was taken for a promenade in +his perambulator. But in time, of course, the grand impression faded from +his memory,--to the secret delight of Ellen, who had never become quite +reconciled to his adoration of the sea. + +As the child acquired words and accomplishments, he lost nothing of his +sweetness and strangely mature dignity. When the tan disappeared from his +cheeks, he looked a little less robust; but this was to have been +expected. Such confidence had the Lindsays in the invulnerability of his +constitution that they were not alarmed when he experienced his inevitable +first indisposition of a serious character. Mrs. Doly and Ellen agreed +that it was a natural consequence of the change in his diet and mode of +life since they had come back to the city, and Dr. Kreiss, who was at once +summoned, substantiated the theory. But the next day Little John was no +better, and at night so decidedly worse that Edward sent for the doctor +again. The man of medicine looked grave this time. He stayed with the +little sufferer for several hours. Before midnight he came once more; and +when he went away Little John was dead. + +The blow fell upon the Lindsays with the more crushing force from its +terrible suddenness. Among all the contingencies to which they had looked +forward they had never seriously considered the possibility of this. They +had prepared themselves for disappointment, but not for bereavement. For +the first time they realized how thoroughly their adopted child had become +a part of their life. Hours that had been the brightest in the day now +dragged along wearisomely, and they often sat in silence together, because +they knew that if they spoke at all It must be of Little John. After a +time they saw, as many young parents have seen after their first great +loss, that the world could never be quite the old world to them again. But +they felt their love for each other to be all the stronger, and they tried +hard to lighten each other's sorrow by being cheerful and brave. It was +saddest, of course, for Ellen. All day she was alone in the house, and, +though she might busy her hands over a watercolor or an etching, her +thoughts would often stray away and send the tears to her eyes. +Occasionally she yielded to impulse and paid furtive visits to the nursery, +where, with a little dress or some other memento of her lost child laid +upon her knees, she would sit in long revery. By and by Edward noticed +that her face had taken upon itself a constant expression of sadness, +which even her smiles could not disguise. He began to think about a +European tour. From girlhood Ellen had looked forward to spending a year +in study abroad, and it seemed to him that no time could be better than +the present. It would be hard to leave his business; he could not do so +before spring anyway; but everything should be sacrificed to Ellen's +happiness, and, with her assent, he resolved, they should go at that +season. Just now his business was unusually exacting. He became every day +more alive to the fact that, unless he chose to lose a valuable portion of +his _client?_, he must spend a few weeks in the Southwest. Many St. Louis +capitalists were anxious to buy land in Texas at this unparalleled period +of her prosperity, and many commissions as well as opportunities for +private investment in the State demanded his attention at once. But could +he and ought he to leave Ellen now? He could not decide. When he was at +home he refused to consider the question at all; but at his office it +constantly forced itself upon his attention. Finally, after a great deal +of exasperatingly unsatisfactory correspondence with agents in Austin and +Galveston, he went to Ellen. + +"I will give the whole thing up, if you say so," he declared. + +"But you think it very necessary for you to go?" she asked. + +"From a business point of view, absolutely necessary. It is a question of +improving or failing to improve a chance to make a good many thousand +dollars. There is no middle course: I can't send anybody who could do the +business for me. Still, if you are as unwilling to have me go as I am to +leave you, I shall stay at home." + +This was hardly fair, and Ellen was sorely tempted; but she was too brave +and too true to yield to what she believed a selfish impulse. She wound +her arms about her husband's neck and effectively testified her reluctance +to permit the separation. She declared, however, that she would not +countenance his staying at home,--that it was plainly his duty to go. She +begged only that he would return at the earliest moment he could do so +conscientiously. He earnestly assured her that she need have no doubt of +that, and that a word from her would bring him home at any time. + +"But if I am to go," he continued, "you must have somebody to stay with +you while I am away. Why not ask Bertha Terry? You used to be always out +sketching together, and I know she would be delighted to come." + +"Bertha is a lovely girl, but--I--" + +She paused, with trembling lips. + +"But what, Ellen? Of course I wish you to have whomever you may prefer." + +To his surprise and concern, his wife burst into a flood of tears. + +"Ellen," he said very tenderly, "I am afraid you are not well. If this is +so, I certainly cannot leave you." + +"Oh, no! oh, no!" she cried between her sobs. "It is only because I shall +miss you so,--and because I have tried not to cry for so long that I +_must_ now,--and because--because I have a terrible feeling that I may +never see you again." + +Edward permitted her tears to exhaust themselves to some extent before he +spoke. Then with gentleness and tact he introduced the subject of the +European tour, upon which, he said, they might start very soon if the trip +to Texas should be brought to a successful close. He alluded to the +priceless art-treasures which they would examine together, and which she +would reproduce. He dwelt upon the glories of the Alps, the charms of +Italy, the wonders of Paris, with such good effect that Ellen presently +dried her eyes and found her smiles again. + +A few days later, on a raw October evening, Edward yielded to the urgent +demands of his business and set out for the South. It was at the time when +the "boom" in the grazing-lands and real estate generally of Texas was at +its height. Railways were pushing out in all directions, opening new and +profitable fields for investment, and immigrants were pouring into the +State in unexampled numbers. It was a period rich in opportunities that +could never come again. Edward set to work to make the most of them. In +the first place, he carefully attended to his commissions, resolutely +repelling the swarm of speculators who hovered about every man supposed to +possess a little capital, but all the time watchful and reflecting. Then +he began to make investments for himself. He bought, sold, and bought +again, until his funds were exhausted, and after that he wrote to St. +Louis and borrowed money. He was constantly on the move, much of the time +in camp, making and saving many a dollar by acting as his own agent. The +only respite he allowed himself was the time devoted to correspondence +with his wife. He sent her minute accounts of his work, and received long +and loving letters in return. But time passed, like the Northers +themselves. Four, five, six weeks were gone almost before he had counted +them, extending his absence decidedly beyond the date he had originally +set for his return, and still there was much to be done. He had not borne +the separation from his wife without pain, and he looked forward to +prolonging it with much more than reluctance; but he felt that to leave +now would be to spurn the hand of Providence, the more so because, though +Ellen had many times anxiously inquired for the date of his return, she +had never failed, whenever she wrote, to assure him of her own content so +long as he was successful and happy. He therefore sent her an elaborate +statement of the situation, reiterated his readiness to return if she +desired it, and begged her to decide for him whether he should remain +longer or not. Why could she not come down and spend a few weeks at Waco? +he asked. She would find pleasant people there, and he could then see her +at least once in a while. He would go back to St. Louis to bring her down. +In any event, he said, he would run up and spend a day or two with her if +his stay were to be prolonged. She wrote in reply that she dreaded to +experience the wild life he had so graphically described, and that she +could not persuade herself to go down into that primitive country unless +she might be with him always. This she knew to be impossible; and she was +convinced also that her presence at any time would prove a hinderance to +him in his business. But if he could come home for a short visit it would +make her very happy. She hoped that he might come very soon indeed. Still, +she added, with her old bravery, he must make no sacrifice to gratify her +wishes. She trusted him implicitly; she knew that he was as impatient to +return as she was that he should do so. He must stay as long as he deemed +it best; and even his proposed visit must be given up, if need be. + +And so Edward stayed. The visit to St. Louis was postponed once or twice, +and then put off indefinitely. New commissions were intrusted to him, new +opportunities disclosed themselves, new schemes were projected. He +extended his field of work into remote sections of the State, and once +made his way as far as the valley of the Rio Grande. Even in his busiest +moments Ellen was never wholly absent from his thoughts, and he never +ended a day without the reflection that his return was so much the nearer. +But week followed week into the past, the holidays slipped by, and spring +itself overtook him before he could see any definite prospect of getting +away. At last, one morning early in March, he wrote to Ellen from Denison +that he should be at home before the end of a week. The letter had hardly +been mailed when he received one from his wife evincing a depression she +had never permitted herself to acknowledge before. She wrote briefly, and, +with vague allusions to her health and an avowal of what she called her +"lack of firmness," besought him to return. + +The indefiniteness of this letter troubled Edward. He was disposed to +think that it meant much more than it expressed. He knew his wife's +excellent constitution so well, and reposed so much trust in her frankness, +that he did not believe she was seriously ill; but he did fear that his +prolonged absence had tried her cruelly, for he realized that she must +have gone through with many a struggle before she could have brought +herself to recall him. While he was debating, still under the spell of +business, whether to start for home at once or first to settle some +important matters at Denison, a telegraph-boy entered the office of the +hotel where he was sitting, and handed a despatch to the clerk. + +"For the gentleman at the window," said the young man. + +Edward opened the missive with the calmness of an honest and solvent man, +but with a pang of fear for Ellen. He read as follows: + +"We think you had better return at once. +BERTHA TERRY." + +For an instant he sat with his brain in a whirl. Then a curse upon +Providence rose to his lips; he repressed it, and began to load himself +with reproaches. A moment before, he had been in the satisfied mood of a +man who has his own approbation for work well done. He now looked upon his +course during the past winter with both abhorrence and wonder. He told +himself that it was heartless to have left Ellen at all; to have stayed +away for so many months was simply inhuman. It was all plain enough now; +and that he should have been so blind to the truth he could not conceive. +Suddenly he bethought himself that there was yet time to catch the Austin +Express for St. Louis, and that if he did not succeed in doing this a +whole day would be lost. He quickly wrote and forwarded a despatch to +Bertha, requesting her to telegraph to him at Vinita without reserve, and +then, regardless of his unfulfilled engagements, hurried to the station. +He was just in season: as he stepped upon the platform he heard the +whistle of the approaching train. Once on board, he experienced a +momentary sensation of relief: he was rapidly moving homeward, and at +Vinita he would at least be freed from suspense. He tried to convince +himself that the case could not be a serious one. But if it was? A +terrible fear took possession of him. He attempted in vain to put it +aside. It rendered it impossible for him to sit down alone with his +thoughts for a moment, and he passed away the day in wandering back and +forth through the cars, making an effort now and then to get up a +conversation with some fellow-passenger, counting the hours before the +train would reach Vinita, and constantly execrating himself. + +But, Vinita reached, there was no telegram. The operator thought it must +have gone to Vineton, a town far to the southeast, on the Iron Mountain +Railway. He could telegraph for it, of course, he said, and send it on to +any given point, but he believed that Edward would get word more quickly +by forwarding another message to St. Louis. He suggested that the reply be +sent to Sedalia, where it would undoubtedly be delivered, even at the late +hour at which the train would arrive. + +Edward listened to these remarks in dull despair. It was true that he +might receive news from Ellen at Sedalia, but Sedalia would not be reached +before the small hours of the following morning, when his journey would be +practically ended. Nor was there any nearer town, large enough to support +a night telegraph-office, where he could expect a message to be received +in season to reach him. He thanked the operator for his suggestions, and +returned sorrowfully to the train, to pass a night of suffering, from +which his short snatches of sleep gave him little relief. Poor fellow! His +sadness and remorse were cruelly enhanced by the suspense he was called +upon to endure. He vowed many times to himself that, if Ellen were spared +until his return, no pressure of the world should ever separate him from +her again. When the sun began to make known its coming in the east, he +breathed a prayer of thanks that his agony of waiting was almost over. + +Toward the middle of the forenoon the train rolled into the Union Depot at +St. Louis. Edward stood upon the platform of the foremost car. Long before +it came to a stop, he leaped from the steps and ran along toward the +hackmen's stand. A babel of voices greeted him. Quickly selecting a man +whose face was familiar, he pressed a _douceur_ into his hand, and, in a +voice that broke in spite of his efforts to control it, asked to be driven +home immediately and as fast as possible. The hackman looked upon Edward's +haggard face with silent sympathy, divining, perhaps, something of the +truth, and hastily led the way to his vehicle. + +The train was hardly at a stand-still when the carriage rattled away from +the station. The driver plied his whip freely, and soon left the business +section of the city behind. As they sped along Washington Avenue, Edward +endeavored to prepare himself for the worst, but he was incapable of +calmness and reflection: his whole being rebelled against the supposition +that he might be too late. + +There was a carriage, which he recognized as Dr. Kreiss's, drawn up before +his house. Fairly unmanned by emotion, he sprang up the steps, threw open +the door, and met the doctor face to face. + +The physician maintained a professional composure. + +"Good-morning, Mr. Lindsay," he said. "I regret to say that you have not +arrived quite soon enough." + +"Great God, doctor! Is it possible?" faltered Edward, whilst the tears +sprang to his eyes. + +The doctor looked at him curiously. + +"Go up-stairs and see your wife and baby," he said, with considerate +brevity. He added to himself, as Edward vanished up the stairway, "A case +of special providence that it's a boy." + +NATHAN CLIFFORD BROWN. + + * * * * * + + + + +JOSEPH J. MICKLEY. + + +Not many years ago there were several substantial old houses standing on +the north side of Market Street, east of Tenth, in the city of +Philadelphia. These structures, which then wore an air of respectable old +age, have been in recent years either totally destroyed or so extensively +altered that the serene atmosphere of antiquated gentility no longer +lingers about their busy exteriors. + +On a morning in April, 1869, the present writer had occasion to call at +one of these buildings,--No. 927. Several broad and weather-stained marble +steps led up to an old-fashioned doorway, where the modern bell-pull and +the antique brass knocker contended for recognition. Alike rusty as these +were, it became a problem as to which would best secure communication with +the interior. While the matter still seemed indefinite, it was set at rest +by the advice of an obliging street-urchin, who volunteered his +information with appropriate brevity and directness: + +"Try the door. If it's loose, Daddy Mickley's home, sure. If it's locked, +'taint no use of knockin', for he's out." + +Thus instructed, I tried the door. It happened to be "loose," and ushered +me into a long dark entry, at the farther end of which a wide flight of +heavy oak stairs led to the upper rooms in the rear of the building. Among +these rooms, one of the first to be reached was evidently a workshop; and +here was encountered the only living being as yet visible in the spacious +old mansion. Upon entering, I was met by a dignified and placid old +gentleman, whose appearance was very much in keeping with the house in +which he dwelt. He was quite evidently of the old school, and his pleasant +voice gave me an old-school welcome. A fine broad forehead rested above a +pair of the most kindly eyes that can be imagined, and belonged to a +splendidly-shaped head, which was totally bald, save for a slight fringe +of white hairs about either temple. The mouth was, in its expression, even +more prepossessing than the eyes, and the whole bearing of the old +gentleman--who had evidently reached his three-score and ten, but who, as +was equally apparent, carried the warmth and vigor of youth still with +him--was calculated to please and impress the least observant visitor. + +The late Joseph J. Mickley comprised qualities at once more attractive and +more unusual than are often met with in one person. He was distinguished +throughout the world, during more than a generation, for the diligence and +success of his numismatic researches, and his collection of rare coins was +for a long time the most valuable in this country. As a collector of +scarce books and autographs he was hardly less noted or less successful. +But in Philadelphia he was most of all admired for his delightful social +qualities and his extensive information on a surprising variety of topics. +During forty years his house was a rendezvous for a numerous group of +specialists,--not alone in his own favorite pursuits, which, indeed, were +both many and diverse, but in any and every department of art or learning. +Coin-hunters, autograph-dealers, historical students, philosophers, +musical-instrument-makers, noted performers, and performers of less note, +all the way down to "scratch-clubs," were his constant visitors for years. +It is probable that no private house in Philadelphia has entertained a +greater number of intellectually distinguished people than the old mansion +just referred to, where Mickley resided from 1842 to 1869. Musical +celebrities from every country hastened to make his acquaintance, and such +was the magnetism of his personality that acquaintances thus formed seem +never to have been lost sight of by either host or guest. During his +European tour, which lasted from 1869 to 1872, the then venerable +traveller was continually meeting friends among persons who had called +upon him at various times, dating back in one case as long before as 1820. +They always appeared to have known beforehand of his coming, and he always +remembered them and the circumstances under which he had first met them. + +The social reunions at Mickley's were informal to the last degree, and the +accommodations correspondingly primitive. They usually took place in his +workshop. Crazy stools or empty piano-boxes generally served for seats. +The surrounding furniture comprised barrels, cases, and chests, filled to +overflowing with the host's ever-increasing antiquarian treasures. If a +quartette were assembled,--and many times the musical party was enlarged +to a quintette or a septette,--an adjournment was necessary to a room less +crowded, but equally sparse of conventional furniture. + +Mr. Mickley was always happy to join in these impromptu musical assemblies, +when occasion offered, although performing music was one of the few +things which he never succeeded in doing well. He invariably played the +viola on these occasions,--perhaps, as Schindler hints about Beethoven, +because indifferent playing on the viola is not so noticeable as on other +instruments. As was to have been expected from so pronounced an +antiquarian, he had small sympathy for modern music. He even rebelled +against the gentle innovations of Mendelssohn, contending, not without an +approach to accurate judgment, that Haydn and Mozart had completely +covered the field of chamber-music. While in the midst of numerous and +always congenial pursuits during his long life, quartette-playing remained +a favorite pastime of very many days in very many years. + +Mr. Mickley's intellect was so many-sided and so evenly balanced that it +is difficult to name his predominant bias. It is very nearly safe, however, +to say that this was his historic faculty. In the writings, still chiefly +unprinted, which were left behind him, he was at once the most minute and +the most compact of historians. Emerson never condensed his rare thoughts +into smaller compass, not even in his "English Traits," than Mr, Mickley +has condensed his facts and observations. There is a small pamphlet extant, +the manuscript of which was read by him in 1863 on the occasion of the +centennial anniversary of a noted Indian massacre in Northampton County, +Pennsylvania, where several of his ancestors perished. It contains +historic material enough for a volume. To indicate his early passion for +amassing reliable data, the same sketch shows that a portion of its facts +had been obtained, while he was still a boy, from then aged eye-witnesses +of the affair, nearly fifty years before its story was thus put into +permanent shape. + +He mastered the Swedish language, after having passed his seventieth year, +chiefly that he might write a correct history of the first settlement of +Swedes on the Delaware River below Philadelphia. At the age of seventy-two +he spent several months in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, and while +there placed himself in communication with every prominent librarian of +the country, besides scholars in Denmark, Holland, and Germany. He +personally inspected a great mass of documents and ancient volumes. Yet +the result of all this is contained in a manuscript of less than thirty +large folio pages, literally crowded with invaluable data. This was read +before the Historical Society of the State of Delaware in 1874. It has +never been put in type, and is almost wholly made up of material which has +no existence elsewhere in the English language. + +A single instance will serve to show the minuteness and persistence of his +investigations. In one of the public libraries of Stockholm Mickley +discovered an ancient Dutch manuscript signed by Peter Minuit. No scholar +within reach could master its contents. The private secretary of the +ambassador from Holland, who was appealed to, asserted beforehand that he +"could read anything that ever was written in Dutch." Yet, after a long +inspection, he frankly owned his inability to decipher a single word of +it. Mr. Mickley was determined to ascertain the contents. As the document +could not be bought at any price, and could not even be removed over-night +from its place of keeping, he caused photographs to be taken of it. One +such copy was sent to a very learned acquaintance in Amsterdam, and +another to a noted scholar at Leipsic. In the course of subsequent travels +he found accurate translations awaiting him from both sources. The +importance of the manuscript in this connection will be the more +appreciated when it is remembered that Peter Minuit commanded the first +expedition ever sent to the shores of the Delaware River. + +Being thus by nature an historian, it is but natural that Mr. Mickley +should have left behind him ample materials for telling the story of his +own life. From these we learn that the family name was originally +Michelet. It dates back to the French Huguenots who, after the revocation +of the Edict of Nantes, settled in Zweibrcken, a Grerman province. The +first foothold of the family in this country was established in that +portion of Pennsylvania which has for more than a century been thickly +peopled by that enlightened and art-fostering sect, the Moravians. It was +from the Moravian influence that Joseph J. Mickley first experienced a +fondness for music and its appropriate artistic surroundings. He was born +March 24, 1799, at South Whitehall, a township then in Lehigh County, but +originally comprised in Northampton. At the age of seventeen he went to +Philadelphia as apprentice to a piano-maker. At that time the method of +building a piano-forte was as different from the advanced art of these +days as was the instrument itself. The piano-maker had then to work from +the legs upward. His necessary duties demanded knowledge which is now +distributed among several entirely distinct sets of artificers. That young +Mickley satisfactorily completed his apprenticeship may be inferred from +two facts: he started in business for himself in August, 1822, and in +October, 1831, the Franklin Institute awarded him a prize for skill in the +manufacture of pianos. + +From this time on, his business life, though of long duration, was +uneventful, and may be summed up in very few words. From his original +starting-place at No. 67 North Third Street, he removed, four years later, +to a store on the site now occupied by a portion of the publishing house +of J.B. Lippincott Company. Here he remained until 1842, and then +established himself in the building mentioned at the beginning of this +article, where he continued to live until the final closing up of his +business in 1869. + +It does not appear that Mr. Mickley was ever actively engaged in the +manufacture of piano-fortes. He continued, however, to tune pianos to the +end of his life; and it is reported that he could never be induced to +alter his terms from the original fee of one dollar which was customary +forty years ago. He also became noted far and wide as a repairer of +violins and other stringed instruments. At one time, a violin which had +belonged to George Washington was sent to him for this purpose. Ole Bull, +who happened to be in town at the time, hearing of the circumstance, +hastened to the shop for the purpose of examining and playing upon the +historic instrument. Mickley also became an authority in regard to the +value and authenticity of these instruments, although he never indulged in +the passion of making collections in this field. His minuteness of +observation was frequently manifested. While stopping at Venice in 1870 he +notes down in his diary, "A man came to the hotel with some violins for +sale. Among them was a Hieronymus Amati. It was a good one, but the head +and neck were not genuine." At another time, a violin was sent to his +place from a distant locality for repairs. The instrument was preceded by +a lengthy letter beseeching his special care for its welfare, and setting +forth in extravagant terms its great intrinsic value and its peculiarly +interesting "belongings." Anticipating a treasure, Mr. Mickley sent for +some violin-connoisseurs to enjoy with him a first sight of the precious +instrument. On opening the express-package a very worthless "fiddle" was +revealed. After the laugh had gone round, he said dryly, "I think the +value of this must be in its 'belongings.'" + +In the old house on Market Street Mr. Mickley was not alone popular among +prominent people from afar. He was equally loved by his neighbors on all +sides. Many of the more unconventional of these knew him best by the +familiar title of "Daddy." To the better-educated class of young musicians +he was almost as much a father as a friend. Nor were his close friendships +confined to the young. Among his most steadfast admirers was an +old-bachelor German musician by the name of Plich. Herr Plich was a +piano-teacher, and it was under his tuition that the afterward favorite +prima-donna Caroline Richings made her first public appearance as a +pianist in 1847. This old teacher induced Mickley to take him as a boarder, +and he lived for a number of years in one of the upper back rooms of No. +927. One night a fire broke out in a building directly contiguous with the +rear of the Mickley mansion. There was great consternation, of course, and +busy efforts on the owner's part to gather together the manifold contents +of his treasure-house. When all had been at length secured in a place of +safety, he bethought himself of Herr Plich. Hastening to the upper room, +he discovered the old man in a state of semi-insanity, marching up and +down the apartment, and carrying in his hands only a valuable viola. So +confused was he with fright that main force was required to get him out of +the room. After seeing him safely out of the front door, Mickley went back +and secured a considerable sum of paper money which had been totally +overlooked for the sake of the beloved viola. Plich at his death +bequeathed the viola to Mickley, and it was the only instrument which the +latter always refused to part with during his lifetime. The entire savings +of Plich were also left in trust to Mickley, to be distributed for such +charitable objects as he should consider most worthy, and for about +twenty-seven years Mr. Mickley carefully administered this trust. + +Mr. Mickley's most remarkable success in life was obtained as a +numismatist. His habit of collecting coins began almost in childhood. It +has been stated that at the age of seventeen he first became interested in +coin-hunting, owing to his difficulty in finding a copper cent coined in +1799, the year of his birth. Every student of numismatism knows that this +piece is exceedingly rare. The one sold in Mr. Mickley's collection after +his decease brought no less than forty dollars. The taste thus formed +continued a prevailing one for sixty years. It is surprising to find how +speedily he became a leading and recognized authority. Although as +guileless as a child and the easy victim of numerous thefts throughout his +life, he was scarcely ever deceived in the value of a coin, token, or +medal. Once, at Stockholm, in 1871, he visited a museum where rare coins +were exhibited. "The collection," says his diary, "is very, very rich in +Greek and Roman, but particularly in Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon. There +are not many United States coins, but among them I was astonished to find +a very fine half-eagle of 1815." The known rarity of this coin thus on +exhibition in a far country very naturally attracted the keen eyes of the +aged collector. + +These researches, continuing year after year, grew to be more and more +valuable, until they became widely celebrated. By the time he had reached +middle age he was as well known among the guild of antiquarians as a +Quaker is known by his costume. Before his death he had been elected a +member of all the prominent societies in numismatics, history, and +archaeology throughout the world. The last honor of this kind, which +reached him in his eightieth year, was a notice of his election to +membership in the Societe Francaise de Numismatique et d'Archeologie. His +great collections in this department of knowledge were not confined to +coins, but extended also to the literature of the subject. This was +splendidly illustrated in his famous library, which comprised many works +of the utmost value and scarcity. + +A taste thus developed in early youth naturally became in the course of +years a habit, a sentiment, a leading passion of Mickley's nature. By the +year 1867 his coin-collection had become the most extensive in this +country. By this time also the entertainment of curious visitors absorbed +a good share of the collector's daily duties. He was naturally proud of +his treasures, and took a great delight in showing them to all who came. +Utterly devoid of suspicion, he was a ready victim to designing persons. +The following memorandum, which was found among his later papers, will +show how he suffered from this source: + +"I have become rather indifferent about numismatics, or, at least, about +collecting coins. It was a great source of amusement for a period of over +fifty years. But, having been so unfortunate at different times with my +coins, it is, as it were, a warning to desist from collecting any more. In +the year 1827 the United States dollars from 1794 to 1803, all good +specimens, together with some foreign coins, were stolen. In 1848 about +twenty half-dollars were taken. In 1854, after showing my collection to +three Southern gentlemen (as they called themselves) I missed three very +scarce half-eagles. The great robbery was in 1867. In Jaffa, Palestine, a +small lot, worth about one thousand francs, with a collection of Egyptian +curiosities, was stolen at the hotel; and, finally, last winter, at +Seville, Spain, some old Spanish coins were missing while I was showing +them to some persons." + +The "great robbery" above alluded to occurred on the evening of April 13, +1867. It was of such magnitude as to cause a wide sensation at the time, +and enlisted the sympathies of his coin-hunting brethren the world over. +Mr. Mickley's chief precautions, notwithstanding his previous warnings of +danger from another source, had been against fire. In a third-story room +was his cabinet. This had been long since filled, chiefly with an unbroken +and historic list of American coins. The additional accumulations of years, +nearly all foreign, and many of great rarity, had been stored in an old +piano-case in his bedroom, where, as he said, in the event of fire they +would be close at hand. On the evening in question Mickley was alone in +his workshop, engaged in repairing a musical instrument. He had then been +living entirely alone for a number of years. A single servant, who +provided his meals, had gone home. About nine o'clock the loud barking of +his dog in the yard below called him to the window. It was afterward found +that a pair of old shoes thrown from an upper room by the burglars had +thus called away the attention both of dog and master from what was going +on inside. An hour later a caller discovered several pieces of money lying +in the hall. An investigation disclosed the startling loss which he had +sustained. The entire contents of the piano-box had been carried off. A +private desk had also been broken open and despoiled of a few medals, +although its chief contents were intact. A gold pencil, the gift of Ole +Bull, and other keepsakes, remained undisturbed. But the larger portion of +a collection of foreign coins, one of the most complete in the world, and +the product of a lifetime's intelligent research, was gone! + +It was a heavy calamity, and one from which the old collector never fully +recovered. Sir Isaac Newton's historic Fido did not do nearly the amount +of irremediable damage when he overturned the lamp upon his master's +papers. The actual pecuniary loss, reckoning at cost prices, was in the +neighborhood of nineteen thousand dollars. The market value of such a +collection was of course vastly greater, and increasing all the time at a +good deal faster rate than compound interest. It was somewhat of a +coincidence that Mr. Mickley had received and refused what he records as a +"tempting offer", for the entire collection only a short time before the +robbery. + +The ardent passion of a lifetime was now chilled, and his one desire +seemed to be to get rid of his remaining coins and of the responsibility +which keeping them entailed. Such, however, was the completeness of +Mickley's literary methods of condensing, that an entry of three or four +lines made in his diary on the night of the robbery is all that he had to +write about the appalling loss. A week or two afterward he records in the +same volume the disposal of all the remaining coins, with an air of great +relief, as he adds, "I do not doubt I should be robbed again if I kept +them." A large box full of the most valuable had been taken, for +safe-keeping, to the Mint just after the robbery; but these were sold with +the rest. It is understood that this remnant of the original lot was +disposed of for about sixteen thousand dollars, the largest purchaser +being Mr, Woodward, of Roxbury, Massachusetts. The dollar of 1804 went to +a New York collector for the enormous sum of seven hundred and fifty +dollars. + +Efforts to restore the lost treasure were not wanting. It might be +supposed that the possession of such rare tokens of value would have +speedily led to the discovery of their whereabouts. Mr. Mickley himself +intimated that he suspected the quarter from which the depredation had +come. Yet from that day until the present the secret has been as securely +kept as that of the rifling of Lord Byron's letter from a vase at +Abbotsford, or of the Duchess of Devonshire's portrait from the London +Art-Gallery. In fact, the same mild generosity which had always +characterized Mr. Mickley still came uppermost in the face of this trying +disaster. He frequently sought to overlook the misdoings of petty thieves. +A London pickpocket who had successfully practised upon him Oliver Twist's +little game was only prosecuted because his testimony was insisted upon by +the authorities. At the foot of the Pyramids he deplored the chastisement +inflicted by an Arab sheik upon one of his native servants who had +committed a similar depredation. His life-long friend the late William E. +Dubois, of the United States Mint, has stated that "eight or nine years +after the robbery a few very fine gold pieces of English coinage were +offered for sale at the Mint cabinet-rooms. I was so well convinced that +the labels were in his handwriting that I sent for him to come and see +them. He could not deny the likeness, but seemed reluctant to entertain +the subject at all." + +During these years of study and research Mr. Mickley must not be thought +of as a strict specialist. Side by side with his fascinating collection of +coins there was an ever-growing library, the extent and value of which +were never appreciated until his death. This accumulation was in itself an +example of his cosmopolitan tastes. It was copious in local history, in +biography, in music, in general literature, in costly and well-preserved +black-letter editions, in illuminated missals dating back to the +thirteenth century, and, above all else, in autographs. Of the latter, +space cannot be spared here for anything approaching a full description. +As some indication of their value, it may be mentioned that a letter of +George Washington (the last he was known to write), dated six days before +his death, was bought by George W. Childs, Esq., for one hundred and +fifteen dollars. A letter of Abraham Lincoln to General McClellan fetched +nearly one hundred dollars. There were also signed autograph letters of +all the governors of Pennsylvania, of all the Presidents, and of all the +signers of the Declaration of Independence. The latter group is rarely met +with complete; and three of the scarcest names alone sold for as much as +all the others put together. There were signatures also of about forty +generals of the Revolutionary war, of both the British and American armies, +and including Lafayette and Kosciusko. Both Napoleon and Josephine were +represented; and the lovers of poetic justice will be glad to know that +the latter name brought double that of the great emperor. In autographs of +literary and musical celebrities the collection was extraordinarily rich, +those of Goethe and Schiller, Beethoven and Mozart, being conspicuous. But +the chief rarity was a large album formerly owned by Babet von Ployer. +This contained, among other treasures, a manuscript of Haydn, believed to +be the only one ever offered for sale in this country. It also contained +an India-ink sketch of Mozart, drawn by his wife Constance. At the sale in +1878 this album was knocked down for one hundred and twenty-six dollars, +although three hundred dollars had been previously refused for it. The +Mozart letter, a particularly interesting specimen, was sold for fifty-two +dollars to M.H. Cross, Esq. + +Turning from the autographs to the books, we find still greater value and +variety. The historical portion, especially where it referred to local +subjects, was almost phenomenal. One precious lot comprised a complete set +of the first daily newspaper of the United States, beginning with the +"Pennsylvania Packet" in 1771, and continuing unbroken, through several +changes of title and proprietorship, for one hundred and seven years. An +amusing incident is related in connection with Mr. Mickley's purchase of +the larger portion of this series,--"Poulson's Advertiser" from 1800 to +1840. When the wagon was driven to his door, loaded with the purchase, the +housekeeper exclaimed, "What ever is to be done with all this truck?" Yet +this "truck," a mine of wealth to the future historian, was sold after +Mickley's death for eight hundred dollars. There were city directories of +several editions for ninety-three years. The black-letter list was quite +large, and there were more than thirty editions of the Bible, some of +great rarity, and nearly all in a fine state of preservation. + +From the time of the coin-robbery the older acquaintances of Mr. Mickley +noticed a decided change in him. On the subject of coins, once so voluble, +he grew very reticent. His business, which had for many years appeared +rather a pastime than a task to him, grew irksome. After a period of +uncertainty, he finally decided to close up his affairs and spend some +years in foreign travel. In spite of advanced age, he was both physically +and mentally well equipped for such a journey. His health had always been +good. His temper seemed never to be ruffled. Of the French and German +languages he was a master, and he had some knowledge of the Spanish, +Italian, and Swedish. His previous extensive acquaintance with men of many +nations and habits was kept fresh in mind by a remarkable memory. With all +these advantages, the period of his travels was the most interesting of +his life. + +Mr. Mickley set sail on the 5th of June, 1869, being at that time a few +months past his seventieth year. He remained abroad for three years, +visiting every country in Europe, ascending the Nile to the first cataract, +passing through the Suez Canal, and across a portion of Asia Minor and +Palestine. He made two trips to Northern Sweden to behold the spectacle of +the midnight sun. Being a week too late on the first season, he tried it +again the following year. Passing through the entire length of the Gulf of +Bothnia, and ascending the Tornea River, he entered Lapland, crossing the +Arctic circle and penetrating the Arctic zone in a sledge-journey of +seventy miles. The indomitable old traveller pushed on until he reached a +small lumber-village named Pajala. On the night of June 23, 1871, crossing +the river with a small party of Swedes and Finns, he ascended Mount +Avasaxa, in Finland. At this altitude, he says, "the sky happened to be +clear in the direction of the sun, and he shone in all his glory as the +clock struck twelve." + +During this prolonged absence he visited almost every considerable town in +Germany, Holland, Italy, and England. The instant that he arrived at a +town, he seemed to know the shortest cut to its museum. If there was an +antiquarian in the place, he knew of it beforehand, and hastened either to +make or renew an acquaintance. In the larger cities he was surrounded by +these people, and he expressed unaffected surprise and pleasure at their +attentions. He made visits of inspection to nearly every mint in Europe, +having been commissioned by the Philadelphia Mint to make purchases of +rare coins for its cabinet. Here the old passion appears to have blazed up +again for a little while. It was an entire surprise to his family to +discover among his possessions at his death the nucleus of a new +collection, which was sold for about two thousand dollars. + +Mr. Mickley made at this period some valued acquaintances. Among these was +the Italian composer Mercadante. At the time of Mickley's visit, in April, +1870, the composer, who was also president of the Conservatoire in Naples, +had been blind for eight years. "The old gentleman," says Mickley (who, by +the way, was only two years his junior), "held out his hand and bade me +welcome. I told him it would be a lasting pleasure to have shaken hands +with so highly distinguished a man, whose name had long since been +favorably known in America. At this his face brightened; he arose from the +sofa, shook my hand cordially, wishing me health, happiness, and a safe +voyage." Later, at Brussels, he called on M. Fetiss, the famous French +musical critic and biographer. At that time, in his eighty-eighth year, +Fetis was a fugitive from Paris, owing to the troubles of the +Franco-Prussian war. Mr. Mickley's picture of the veteran _litterateur_ +and critic is an engaging one. He says, "Considering his great age, Mr. +Fetis is very active. He climbed up the stepladder to get books and to +show me such as he considered the most rare and interesting. He is not +only active in body, but he retains all the faculties of his mind. He +appears to have a very happy disposition. While I was with him a continual +smile was on his face, and it seemed to give him great pleasure to show me +his books. He has been engaged in collecting them for over fifty years, +and they have cost him a sum equal to three hundred thousand dollars, +exclusive of a great many presents. The first book on music was printed in +1480." At Trieste he spent some time with the United States consul there, +Mr. Thayer, of Boston, best known to musical and literary people as the +author of an exhaustive Life of Beethoven, which has been under way for +nearly thirty years and is not yet finished. Mr. Thayer showed his visitor +all the historic data and personal relics which he had collected for the +book, of which at that date only one volume had been published. Since then +Mercadante and F?s have been gathered to their fathers. Their genial guest +is also gone. The industrious Mr. Thayer lives, with three volumes of the +Life completed, and every American, either literary or musical, will wish +him well on to the conclusion of his _magnum opus_. + +Mr. Mickley's plain personal habits remained almost unchanged by the many +unforeseen exigencies of foreign travel. Once, at Rouen, six months after +leaving home, he says, "Tasted wine for the first time in Europe, as the +water here did not agree with me." A little later, at Munich, he remarks, +"Drank beer for the first time." His pockets remained as accessible as +heretofore to the nimble-fingered gentry. Upon his first visit to Naples, +he records very naively, "Three silk handkerchiefs have been stolen from +me here,--which is one more than in London." At Jaffa, on his way from +Egypt to Palestine, besides the robbery of coins alluded to some time back, +he lost a choice autograph manuscript of Mozart which had cost him two +hundred and fifty francs at Salzburg. If careless in these particulars, he +was very watchful and jealous of opportunities to uphold America's +position in the world. He took special pains to inform the mint-masters at +various points concerning the superior appliances and machinery of the +Philadelphia Mint. On the way back from Lapland, while steaming southward +along the upper waters of the Gulf of Bothnia, he writes, under date of +July 4, 1871, "This being our national holiday, I put up my flag on the +door of my berth, but was obliged to explain the meaning of the holiday to +nearly all the passengers." While in England, he met at Manchester a +barrister who had formerly been his guest in Philadelphia. This gentleman +proposed to introduce him to an American lawyer then practising there. "I +asked the name. He said it was Judah P. Benjamin. I declined the +invitation." + +Wherever Mr. Mickley journeyed, so long as any fresh acquisition of +knowledge was to be gained the old traveller appeared insensible to +fatigue. When halfway up the Great Pyramid an English group who were in +his company stopped and insisted upon going no farther. He resolutely +continued, and they, unwilling to see so aged a man out-distance them, +followed reluctantly, until all reached the summit and congratulated each +other on the famous view. In St. Petersburg, Moscow, and other Russian +cities, which he visited in the winter season, he was equally untiring and +undaunted. As a specimen of his accuracy of observation, he writes during +his first journey in Italy, "I counted forty-six tunnels between Pisa and +Bologna." Several severe accidents fell to his lot. In Rome, while +exploring a dark, arched passage, he fell into "Cicero's Well," receiving +severe bruises. In a street in Constantinople, where there are no +sidewalks, he was knocked down by a runaway horse and taken up for dead, +remaining insensible for several hours. The former of these mishaps +occupies three lines in his diary; the latter, twelve lines. On his third +visit to Leipsic he was confined in his room for several weeks with an +attack of smallpox. But in regard to none of these accidents, although an +aged man, thousands of miles from home, and entirely alone, does he betray +any symptoms of apprehension. He merely adds, on the date of his recovery +from the attack at Leipsic, "This sickness has detained me much longer +than I had expected to stay." + +In one of Mickley's trips he made a not unimportant contribution to +musical history. Almost every student of instrumental music is acquainted +with the name of Jacob Steiner or Stainer, the most successful of +violin-makers outside of the Cremonese school of workmen. Of Steiner's +life but little is known, and no biography of him extant in either French, +German, or English contains either the date or place of his death. The +account commonly given is that he separated from his wife and died in a +convent. Mr. Mickley, with his accustomed perseverance, started out to see +if this matter might not be cleared up. At Innspruck he inquired in vain +for information. As Fetis and Forster both fixed his birthplace at Absom, +a small village some twelve miles from Innspruck, Mickley repaired +thither. For some time his errand was fruitless. He stopped in at a little +shop where an old woman sold photographs, etc. "I asked her, 'Did you +never hear of Jacob Steiner, the violin-maker?' She replied, 'There is no +Steiner nor violin-maker living in this town.' I then said that a +celebrated violin-maker of that name, of whom I desired some information, +had lived there two hundred years before. She replied, quite seriously, 'I +am not two hundred years old.'" A few minutes later, in the course of his +walk, his eye fell upon an old church, the outer wall of which contained a +number of stone tablets with inscriptions. A search of five minutes +revealed the desired information. On a plain tablet Steiner's name was +found, together with the information, given in very old-fashioned German, +that he had died there in 1683, "at the rising of the sun." + +The closing field of Mr. Mickley's travels covered Southern France and +Spain, Lisbon, where he passed the winter of 1871-72, and Madrid. The +weather being very severe, he was detained two months at Lisbon, where he +engaged a teacher and took daily lessons in Portuguese. He had done the +same at Stockholm the previous winter with the Swedish language, which he +mastered pretty thoroughly. At Madrid he examined what he emphatically +pronounced the finest collection of coins in the world, numbering one +hundred and fifty thousand specimens. He adds, "This is the only place in +Europe where the subject is properly understood. Alfonzo V., King of +Aragon, in the fifteenth century, was the first person known to have +collected coins for study or amusement, and Augustin, Archbishop of +Tarragona, was the first writer on the subject. The science of numismatics +is, therefore, of Spanish origin." + +Mr, Mickley left Madrid in March, crossing the Pyrenees and arriving in +Paris on the 24th of that month, his seventy-third birthday. He "made the +tour of three hundred and sixty-three miles in twelve hours, without being +in the least fatigued." After a few weeks passed in Paris and in +revisiting friends in England, he sailed for home, arriving in +Philadelphia June 5, 1872, exactly three years from the date of his +departure. + +It was surprising to his friends how little change the lapse of years and +the somewhat rugged incidents of travel had made in Mr. Mickley. He +quickly settled down, and, as nearly as possible, resumed his old habits. +He bought himself a residence, but followed the Paris custom of taking his +meals elsewhere. In the house he was entirely alone, even without a +servant. After a time he showed some disposition to concede to "luxuries" +which he had previously ignored. Carpets he had never used in his life, +but he now admitted that they were very pleasant and comfortable, and +ordered his house to be carpeted throughout. The arrangement of his +library in the new quarters was a great pleasure, and took some time. Mr. +Mickley was in no sense of the word a politician, but he voted pretty +regularly. An incident connected with his last visit to the polls was +amusing. Having been three years absent, a patriotic Hibernian, who kept +the window-book and knew nothing of him, demanded to see his tax-receipt. +The old gentleman went quietly home and brought back the desired document. +He was next asked if he could read and write, which question, however, was +not pressed. The last scene in Mr. Mickley's life was as quiet and +peaceful as its whole tenor had been. On the afternoon of February 15, +1878, Mr. Carl Plagemann, the well-known musician and a friend of many +years' standing, called at his house. While he waited, Mr. Mickley wrapped +for him some violin-strings, the last work of his hands. He requested Mr. +Plagemann to go with him that evening to visit another old friend,--Oliver +Hopkinson, Esq., at whose house there were to be some quartettes. "I have +a letter," he said, "from the Russian ambassador, a part of which I am +unable to translate. A Russian lady is to play the piano there this +evening, and I shall ask her to help me out." Mr. Plagemann could not go, +and, as so often before, Mr. Mickley started out alone. Just before +reaching the house of Mr. Hopkinson he was taken suddenly ill, and, +chancing to be close by the residence of his physician, Dr. Meigs, he +stopped there and rang the bell. As the door opened, he said in husky +tones, "I am suffocating." He walked in and ascended the stairs without +assistance. Then he said, "Take me to a window." As this was being done, +he fell back insensible into the arms of the attendants, and, a few +minutes later, breathed his last. + +Thus, on the very western edge of fourscore years, ended this long and +industrious, this peaceful and beautiful life. In our land of busy and +constant action there have been few like it,--surely none happier. Serene +at the close as it was placid in its course, its lot had been cast ever +between quiet shores, which it enriched on either hand with its +accumulated gifts of knowledge and of taste. And at the close of it all +there could be no happier eulogy than the one modestly yet comprehensively +delivered by his old and congenial friend William E. Dubois, himself since +summoned to take the same mysterious journey. "In fine," says he, "Mr. +Mickley seemed superior to any meanness; free from vulgar passions and +habits, from pride and vanity, from evil speaking and harsh judging. He +was eminently sincere, affable, kind, and gentle: in the best sense of the +word he was a gentleman." + +J. BUNTING. + + * * * * * + + + + +ROSE ROMANCE. + + +Two roses, freshly sweet and rare, + Bloomed in the dewy morning +On neighboring bushes green and fair, + One garden-bed adorning. +"Ah!" sighed the pair, "what joy, what pride. + If on one branch together +We two were growing side by side + Through all this golden weather!" + +There came a youth who roughly tore + The roses from their bowers, +And to his sweetheart proudly bore + The two fair, fragrant flowers. +Upon her bosom with delight + They bloomed,--but not forever: +They faded--ah! but, rapture bright, + They faded there together. + +ADA NICHOLS. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE WHITE WHATERS. + + +"Down with her! Hard!" came hoarsely through the mist. + +An oil-skinned figure threw himself heavily upon the oar; the little craft +rounded tremblingly up into the wind, hurling clouds of spray and foam +aloft that were borne far away by the whistling breeze. For a moment the +sail beat furiously, as if in protest at this infringement upon its +privileges, then a second oil-skin--the cause of all this +commotion--raised his arms, a steel spear flashed, a willowy pole trembled +in the air, a quick movement, a roar of rushing waters, a shower of spray +that drenched the craft, a sound of escaping steam or hissing rope, and a +white whale had been struck by Captain Sol Gillis, of Bic. + +Captain Gillis, as might be assumed, was not a native of the province of +Quebec, but merely a carpet-bagger, who moved north in the summer and +returned in early autumn about the time the wild geese went south, and all +for reasons known only to himself. He hailed from down East, and voted in +a small town not many miles from the historic shell-heaps and the ancient +city of Pemaquid. + +Our meeting with the down-East skipper was entirely one of accident. +Wandering along the beach at Bic, we had come upon a boat, half dory, half +nondescript, which from the possession of certain peculiarities was +claimed by one of the party to be of Maine origin, and, to settle the +dispute, a little house a few hundred yards higher up was visited. + +It was like many others along shore,--single-storied, painted white, with +green blinds, with a small garden in the rear, in which grew old-fashioned +flowers and an abundance of "yarbs" that bespoke a mistress of Thompsonian +leanings. A stack of oars, seine-sticks, and harpoon-handles leaned +against the roof; gill-nets festooned the little piazza, while a great +iron caldron, that had evidently done service on a New Bedford whaler, had +been utilized by the good housewife to capture the rain-water from the +shingled roof. + +"Mornin' to ye, gentlemen. Been lookin' at the bot?" queried a tall, thin, +red-faced man, with an unusually jolly expression, stepping out from a +shed. + +"Yes. We thought she was of Maine build," replied the disputant. + +"Wall, so she is," said the mariner,--"so she is; and there ain't none +like her within forty mile of Bic. I'm of Maine build myself," he added. +"But I ain't owner. I'm sorter second mate to Sol Grillis; sailed with him +forty year come Christmas. Don't ye know him? What! don't know Sol +Gillis!" And a look of incredulity crept into the old man's eye. "Why, I +thought Sol was knowed from Bic to Boothbay all along shore. But come in, +do. I know ye're parched," continued the friend of the skipper, dropping +his palm and needle and motioning the visitors toward the little +sitting-room. "Mother," he called, "here's some folks from daown aour way." + +As the old man spoke, a large-framed woman appeared in the door-way, +holding on to the sides for support, and bade us welcome. Her eyes were +turned upward, and had a far-away look, as if from long habit of gazing +out to sea, but, as we drew nearer, we saw that she was blind. + +Leading the way into the kitchen, which was resplendent with shining pans +and a glistening stove, all the work of the thrifty but blind housewife, +she began to entertain us in her simple manner, and described a model of a +full-rigged ship that rested on a table, though she had never seen it, +with an exactness that would have done credit to many a sailor: even the +ropes and rigging were pointed out, and all their uses dwelt upon with a +tenderness strangely foreign to the subject. + +"And Captain Sam built it?" we asked. + +"No, no," replied the old lady, turning her head to hide a tear that stole +from the sightless eyes. "It's all we've got to remember aour boy John. He +built her and rigged her. He was his mother's boy, but--" + +"He went down on the Grand Banks in the gale of '75," broke in her husband +hoarsely. + +"Yes," continued the wife, "me and Sam's all alone. It's all we've got, +and Sam brings it up every summer as sorter company like. Ye're friends of +Captain Sol, I guess," she said, brightening up after a moment. "No?" and +she looked in the direction of the captain, as if for a solution of the +mystery. "Naow, ye don't tell me that ye ain't acquainted with Captain Sol, +and ye're from aour way, too? Why," she continued earnestly, "Sol's been +hog-reeve in aour taown ten years runnin'; and as for selec'-man, he'll +die in office. Positions of trust come jest as nat'ral to him as reefin' +in a gale of wind. Him and my man tuck to one another from the first." + +"Then you were not townsmen always," we suggested. + +"No, we wa'n't," was the reply. + +"My man and Sol met under kinder unusual circumstances. Tell 'em haow it +was, Sam." + +The old sailor was sitting on the wood-box, shaping a row-lock from a +piece of white pine, and, when thus addressed, looked up with a blank +expression, as if he had been on a long search for ideas and had returned +without them. + +"He gits wanderin' in his ideas when he sets his mind on the '75 gale," +whispered the old lady. "Tell 'em abaout yer meetin' Captain Sol, Sam," +she repeated. + +"Me and Sol met kinder cur'us," began the captain. "That year I was first +mate of the Marthy Dutton, of Kennebec; and on this identical v'yage we +was baound daown along with a load of coal. In them days three was a +full-handed crew for a fore-an'-after, and that's all we had,--captain, +mate, and cook, and a dog and cat. One evenin',--I reckon we was ten miles +to the south'ard of Boon Island,--it was my trick at the wheel, and all +hands had turned in. It was blowin' fresh from the east'ard, and I had +everything on her I could git. I reckon it was nigh on ter two o'clock, +and as clear as it is to-day, when the fust thing I knowed the schooner +was on her beam ends. She gave a kind of groan like, pitched for'ard, and +down she went, takin' everything with her; and, afore I knowed what was +the matter, I found myself floatin' ten miles from shore. I see it was no +use, but I thought I'd make a break for it: so I got off my boots and +ile-skins in the water, and struck aout for shore, that I could see every +once in a while on a rise. + +"Wall, to make a long story short, I reckon I was in the water a matter o' +four hours, when I see the lights of a schooner comin' daown on me. I +hailed, and she heard me, ran up in the wind, put aout a bot, and Sol +Gillis, the skipper, yanked me in. I couldn't have held aout ten minutes +longer. So Sol and me has been tol'able thick ever since." + +"Here he comes naow," said the matron, whose quick ear had caught the +sound of approaching footsteps. "Sam, set aout my pennyroyal, will ye? Ye +see," she added apologetically, "Sol is literary, and when he comes raound +he gives us all the news, and there is sech goin's on in the papers +nowadays that it jest upsots my nerves to hear him and Sam talkin' 'em +over. Sech murders, riots, wrackin', and killin' of folks! If it wa'n't +for a dish of tea I 'low I couldn't hear to it." And the good woman held +out her hand to a burly fisherman in a full suit of oil-skins, and +presented him to the visitors as Sam's friend, Captain Sol Gillis. + +"I'm a white-whaler at present, gentlemen," said the captain, with a +hearty laugh that was so contagious that all hands joined in, scarcely +knowing why. + +He was a tall, robust specimen of a down-Easter, his open face reddened by +long battling with wind and weather, and shaved close except beneath the +chin, from which depended an enormous beard that served as a scarf in +winter and even now was tucked into his jacket. + +"It's a curious thing, naow, for the captain and mate of a coaster to be +in furrin parts a-whalin'; but we find it pays,--eh, Sam?" And Captain Sol +closed one eye and looked wisely for a second at his friend, upon which +the two broke into hearty laughter that had a ring of smuggled brandy and +kerosene in it, though perhaps it was only a ring, after all. + +"Kin yaou go whalin'?" said the captain in reply to a question of one of +the visitors. "Why, sartin. White-whalin's gittin' fashionable. There's +heaps o' chaps come daown here from Montreal and Quebec and want to go +aout: so I take 'em. Some shoots, and some harpoons, and abaout the only +thing I've seen 'em ketch yet is a bad cold; but there's excitement in it, +--heaps of it: ain't there, Sam?" + +"I ain't denyin' of it," replied the latter. "What's sport for some is +hard work for others. Work I calls it." + +"Wall, as I say," continued the skipper, "white-whalin' is gittin' +fashionable, so in course there ain't no hard work abaout it; and if yaou +will go, why, I'm goin' aout now, me and Sam. The only thing, it's dampish +like; but perhaps mother here kin rig yaou aout." + +Half an hour later the two landsmen were metamorphosed into very +respectable whalers, and, with the two captains, were running the +whale-boat down the sands of Bic into the dark waters of the St. Lawrence. +The light sail was set, and soon we were bounding away in the direction of +Mille Vaches, Captain Sam at the oar that constituted the helm, and +Captain Sol in the bow, with harpoon at hand, ready for the appearance of +game. + +The white whale, or Beluga, is extremely common at the mouth of the St. +Lawrence, and is found a considerable distance up the river beyond +Tadousac. The oil is in constant demand for delicate machinery, and Beluga +leather, made from the tanned hide, is manufactured into a great variety +of articles of necessity and luxury. + +In appearance these whales are the most attractive of all the cetaceans. +They are rarely over twenty feet in length, more commonly fifteen, of a +pure creamy color, sometimes shaded with a blue tint, but in the dark +water they appear perfectly white, perhaps by contrast, and seem the very +ghosts of whales, darting about, or rising suddenly, showing only the +rounded, dome-shaped head. + +The Beluga is a toothed whale, in contradistinction to those that are +supplied with the whalebone-like arrangement that characterizes the right +whales: consequently its food consists of fish and perhaps squid. To +enable it to capture such prey it must be endowed with remarkable powers +of speed. The motor is the great horizontal tail, powerful strokes of +which force the animal; through the water and enable it to leap high into +the air in its gambols. The pectoral fins are small and of little use in +swimming. The head is the most remarkable feature. It is the only instance +in this group of animals where this organ appears at all distinct from the +body. By viewing the creature in profile, a suggestion of neck may be seen, +and it is claimed that there is more or less lateral motion,--that the +head can be moved from side to side to a limited extent. The outlines of +the face are shapely, the forehead rising in a dome-like projection and +rounding off in graceful lines, so that the head resembles to some extent +that of our common _Balaena Cisarctica_. + +In their movements the Belugas are remarkably active, and are very playful, +--leaping into the air in their love-antics, rolling over and over, +chasing each other, and displaying in many ways their wonderful agility. +They often follow vessels in schools of forty and fifty, and old whalers +claim that they utter a whistling sound that can be heard distinctly above +the water. The young, sometimes two, but generally one, are at first brown +in color, later assuming a leaden hue, then becoming mottled, and finally +attaining the cream-white tint of the adult. The calves are frequently +seen nursing,--the mother lying upon the surface and rolling gently. + +The Beluga has a wide geographical range, being found upon our northern +and northwestern shores in great numbers. Their southern limit seems to be +the St. Lawrence, and in search of food they venture up this river beyond +the mouth of the Saguenay, and often in water but little over their own +depth. On the western coast they also enter the great rivers, and have +been captured up the Yukon seven hundred miles from its mouth. In their +columnar movements they somewhat resemble the porpoise,--long processions +being frequently seen, composed of three in a row, perhaps led by a single +whale. + +Among the Samoyeds, at Chabanova, on the Siberian coast, the white-whale +fisheries amount to fifteen hundred or two thousand pood of train-oil a +year. On the coasts of Nova Zembla and Spitzbergen they are captured by +enormous nets made of very stout material; and the Tromsoe vessels alone +have taken in a single season over two thousand one hundred and +sixty-seven white whales, valued at about thirty thousand dollars. +Magdalen a Bay is a favorite place for them, and often three hundred are +taken at a single haul in the powerful nets. Here and in most of the +northern localities the entire body is utilized,--the carcass being used +in the manufacture of guano. So perfectly are the bodies preserved by the +cold of these northern regions that if they cannot be removed at the time +of capture they are secured in the ensuing season. + +As the boat reached mid-stream, where the wind was blowing against the +current, great rollers were met with, that tossed the light craft about +like a ball. But this was evidently the play-ground of the Beluga, and +dead ahead the white forms were seen darting about in the inky water with +startling distinctness, while faint puffs were occasionally borne down on +the wind. + +Gradually we neared them, and suddenly a white dome appeared on the +weather bow. Then came the command and ensuing scene chronicled at the +commencement of this paper. + +We were perfectly familiar with whaling-terms, and as the game was struck +we construed Captain Sam's impressive "git aft" to mean "starn all," and +even in that moment of stumbling and drenching felt a sense of +disappointment in the suppression of a time-honored term. To omit "There +she blows!" was enough; but to substitute "git aft" for "starn all" was a +libel on the chroniclers of the "Whaler's Own Book." + +There was little time, however, for regrets. Our combined weight had +raised the bow a trifle, yet not enough to prevent the sea from coming in; +and, as the skipper, who was laboring with the steering-oar, said, the +small whaler was "hoopin' along, takin' everything as it came, and askin' +no questions." Now by the slight slacking of the line we were high on a +wave, the crest of which was dashed in our faces in the mad race; now down +in a hollow, taking the next sea bodily and plunging through it, causing +the oars and harpoons to rattle as if they were the very bones of the boat +shaking in fear and terror. + +In a short time she was a third full of water, and the amateur whalers +were invited to man the pumps--namely, two tin basins--and bale the St. +Lawrence out as fast as it came in. The maddened animal soon carried us +beyond the area of heavy seas, and preparations were made for taking in +the slack. The boat was still rushing along at an eight-knot rate; and, as +the whale showed no signs of weakening, it was Captain Sam's opinion that +nothing short of the lance would stop him. + +"Jest lay holt of the line, will ye?" sung out Captain Sol, passing the +slack aft, and four pairs of arms hauled the boat nearer the game, that +was far ahead. At first this only spurred the creature to further +endeavors; but the steady pull soon told, and, after an amount of labor +that can only be compared to sawing a cord of wood with a dull implement, +the white head of the Beluga came in sight. + +"Steady, now!" shouted Captain Sol, releasing his hold and picking up the +lance. "Now, then, work her ahead." + +A final haul, and the boat was fairly alongside of the fleeing animal, +careening violently under its rapid rushes; and, in response to the order +"Git to wind'ard," we sprang to the weather rail. A moment of suspense, a +quick motion of the lance, and the great white body of the whale rose from +the water and fell heavily back, beating it into foam in its convulsive +struggles. + +"She dies hard," said Captain Sol, shaking the water from the creases of +his oil-skin as the boat rounded to at a safe distance from the dying +whale. "But," he continued, lighting a match by biting the sulphur and +puffing violently at a short, black pipe, "that ain't nothing to what they +do sometimes: is it, Sam?" + +"I ain't denyin' of it," was the reply of that individual, who was now +sculling the boat about the whale in a great circle. + +"I've seen," continued the skipper, "a white whale smash a bot so clean +that ye'd thought it had been through a mill; and it was a caution haow we +didn't go with it. That was a curious year," he added. "Something happened +to drive the whales up here so thick that the hull river was alive with +'em, and of course we was for reapin' the harvest. When we struck the +rip-rap--as they call the tide agin' the wind--it was jest alive with 'em, +puffin' and snortin' on all sides. I had three harpoons aboard, besides a +rifle, and in a minute I had two foul, with buoys after 'em, and as one +big feller came up alongside to blow I let him have it with the rifle. + +"Naow," he went on, "whether they heard it or not I can't say, but I heard +a yell from Sam jest in time to look and see a whale rise I'll 'low twenty +foot clean out of the water. Then there was a kind of a rush, and Sam and +me went down, and when we riz it was gone. The critter had hopped clean +over that bot as slick as nothing. That kinder tuck the peartness aout of +us, so to speak; but later in the day I got aout the gun ag'in, havin' +broke the lance, and in killin' the critter she jumped on the bot, +and--wall, Sam and me we lit aout, and was picked up after a spell; but +that bot, there wasn't enough of her to make kindlin'-wood of. + +"They ain't vicious like," continued the skipper, "but clumsy, and if yaou +git in the way ye're bound to git hurted. Round the bend at Bic Island one +came ashore one time and got left every tide, so she was aout of water an +hour or so every day. Heaps of city folks went to see her, and one chap +came along and let on haow she couldn't be alive aout of water, and poked +her like with a stick. Wall, it ain't for me to say haow many feet she +knocked him, but when she fetched him with her flukes it was a Tuesday, +and I guess he thought he'd reached the turnin'-p'int of Friday when he +hauled himself aout of the mud. + +"No, they won't exactly live aout of water, but they'll stand it a like of +three weeks if yaou splash 'em every hour or so. They sent one to England +that way. They ain't fish. Whales' milk's good, if cream is. + +"But the best bit of whalin'," continued the communicative Captain Sol, +"that I ever see in these 'ere parts was done by that identical old chap +in the starn there." + +"When Sol ain't talkin', gentlemen," retorted the person thus alluded to, +"ye'll know he's sick," + +"Wall," said Captain Sol, laughing, "I'll spin the yarn, and yaou kin go +back on it if yaou kin. As I was sayin', we was aout one day I think a +couple o' miles below Barnaby Island. I was a-mummin' for'ard, kinder +sleep-in' on and by, and Sam at the helm, when we see a bot a-slidin' into +the ripple right ahead of us, and in a minute a couple of white heads was +dodgin' up a little to the wind'ard. Sam trimmed the sheet and hauled the +Howlin' Mary--that's what we called the bot---on the wind, and the other +bot did the same, both of us makin' for the same spot. I see it was nip +and tuck; and, knowin' that Sam was a master-hand, I says. ' Sam, yaou +take the iron.' So we shifted. + +"The other bot had a trifle the weather-gage of us, but both of us, mind +ye, makin' for where we thought the critter was comin' up to blow, and in +a minute, sure enough, up it come. This 'ere other bot shot right across +aour bows; but, Lord bless ye, it would take a proper good Injun to beat +Sam, for he up, hauls back, and let fly the harpoon clean over the other +hot, takin' the critter right alongside the blow-hole so neat that the +line fell across the other bot.--Naow, deny it if yaou kin," said Captain +Sol, turning to his friend. + +"Ye're a master-hand at talkin'," retorted Captain Sam. "I ain't denyin' +of it; but it was luck, good luck, that's all." + +By this time the white whale had succumbed, and lay upon the surface +motionless and dead; and upon the boat being hauled alongside the huge +creature was taken in tow and soon stranded upon the beach, where the +valuable parts were secured,--the liver and blubber for the oil, and the +thick, white skin that was to be tanned and made into leather or used in +the manufacture of various articles. + +The evening following, upon invitation, we visited the cabin of Captain +Sol, who was a widower and kept bachelor's hall, so to speak. We found him +seated on a keg, by the side of an enormous caldron that might have +contained the witches' compound, judging from the strange forms of steam +that arose from it, while the lurid flames beneath, fed by the oily +drippings, lent a still greater weirdness to the scene. + +"Good-evenin', gentlemen," said the captain, rising quickly as we entered. +"I was settin' here in a sog like, and didn't hear ye. It's a master-night, +and we're goin' to have good weather to-morrow. If yaou want to try it +ag'in, ye're welcome. + +"Sam? Sartin; he's goin'. Him and me's jest like the figger ten: if yaou +haul off the one we ain't good for nothin'. If yaou want to see a faithful +friend, jest clap yer eyes on Sam Whittlefield. And that ain't all," +continued the skipper, looking around and speaking low. "Ye might not +think it, for he's master-modest, but Sam's got larn-in' that there ain't +many in aonr taown kin grapple with. Yaou oughter see his lib'ry. A full +set o' the records of Congress from 1847 up to 1861; and he'd have had 'em +all, only he jined the navy and couldn't keep 'em up. Then there's a +history by Mister Parley, and a hull secretaryfull of books of all kinds. +Oh, Sam's literary; there ain't no gittin' raound that. + +"Yaou might hear him speak of their son John? Wall, he was a chip o' the +old block. He was as wild a yonker as they make 'em; but Sam never laid +the whip on him; he argued with him and eddicated him on a literary +principle. When John did anything reckless like, the old lady'd fetch aout +a sartin book, called 'The Terrible Suffering of Sary Perbeck,'--like +enough ye've heard on it,--and I tell ye that tuck the conceit aout of +him. She belonged to old Quaker stock of Paris, Maine, and she kept it up +till John was a man grown and she lost her eyesight. She made a good boy +of him; but the poor feller went down with the rest in the gale of 1875, +on the Grand Banks. John had hard luck. The first v'yage he made, the +schooner was struck by a sea on the Banks, capsized, and rolled completely +under, comin' up the other side, so't the men below dropped out of their +bunks on ter the ceilin', and then back ag'in as she righted.[A] The +hatches were battened down, and they found John lashed to the wheel, half +drowned. The next trip all hands foundered. They reckoned she went down at +the anchorage. + +[Footnote A: The schooner Daniel A. Burnam had a similar experience in +1877. She rolled completely over and righted herself without the loss of a +man.] + +"Have some beans, won't ye?" asked the skipper abruptly, as if he had been +deluded by some trick into a gloomy frame of mind and was determined to +shake it off then and there. "Them is the real New England beans," he +continued, taking a black bean-pot with a wooden spoon from the ashes. +"There's the bone and sinner of New England's sons right here. I'm +master-fond of 'em; never sails withaout a pot or so. Every time I see a +pot it makes me think of old Joe Muggridge, a deacon of aour taown. He +beat me once years ago in 'lection for hog-reeve; but I don't bear no ill +feelin'. He was deacon of the First Baptist, and captain of one of the +biggest coasters in aour parts, and that fond of beans that folks believed +he'd 'a' died if he couldn't have had 'em. Wall, it so happened one fall +that there came on a powerful gale on the Georges, and a power of hands +was lost. A good many bots got carried away from the schooners, and one +dory with two men from Boothbay was picked up by one of these +ocean-steamers bound in for New York, and that's the way the yarn got +told. They'd been withaout food and water for three days, and were abaout +givin' up; but the steamer-folks tuck 'em in and steamed for port. + +"The next mornin' it was blowin' fresh and lively, and the lookout sighted +a schooner lyin' to a couple of miles to the lew'ard, reefed daown close, +and a flag flyin', union down,--signal of distress. Thinkin' they were +sinkin', the captain of the steamer put towards her, and rounded to half a +mile off and called for volunteers to git aout the bot. Half a dozen brave +fellers sprang to the davits, and among 'em aour Boothbay boys. They'd +been in a fix, ye see, and was eager to help the rest of sufferin' +humanity. She was rollin' so that it tuck 'em nigh an hour to git the bot +over, and then two men fell overboard; but finally they got off toward the +schooner, all hands givin' 'em three cheers. + +"It was a hard pull, and a nasty sea, but they kept at it, and in half an +hour was within hailin'-distance. Then the third officer of the steamer +stood up and sung aout, 'Schooner ahoy!' 'Ay, ay!' says a man in the +schooner's fore-riggin', and the men see naow that she was ridin' like a +duck and as dry as a sojer. 'Are ye in distress?' sung aout the officer. +'Yas,' came from the man in the riggin'. 'Flounderin'?' shouted the +officer ag'in. 'No,' sung out old man Muggridge, for it was him: 'next +thing to it. We're aout o' beans. Kin ye spare a pot?' + +"Wall," continued Captain Sol, reddening with the roar of laughter that +accompanied the recollection, "it ain't for me, bein' a perfesser of +religion, to let on what the men in the bot said, but it had a +master-effect on the deacon, for afore them rescuers got back to the +steamer he'd shook aout his reefs and was haulin' to the east'ard. + +"Wall," said the old skipper, banking the fire with a shovelful of sand, +as his visitors rose to go, "to-morrow, then, at early flood, sharp." + +The early flood was that dismal time when the phantom mists of night still +cling to the earth, and low-lying clouds of fog cover the river, only to +be dispersed by the coming day. Cold and cheerless as it was, it found us +again launching the whale-boat, and, when the sail was trimmed aft and +pipes lighted, we rushed into the fog and headed down the river to meet +the rising sun. + +The mist was so dense that only the glimmer of Captain Sol's pipe could be +seen for'ard, appearing like an intermittent eye gleaming through the fog +that settled upon our oil-skins in crystal drops and ran in tiny rivulets +down the creases into the boat. For a mile we scudded along before the +west wind through the gloom, and then a wondrous change commenced. Soft +gleams of light shot from the horizon upward, the dark-blue heavens +assumed a lighter tint, the pencilled rays growing broader and fusing +together, producing a strange and rapidly-spreading nebulous light. The +cloud of low-lying mist now became a brassy hue, seemingly heated to +ignition, and then from its very substance appeared to rise a fiery, +glowing mass that flooded the river with a golden radiance. + +"It's a master-sight," quoth Captain Sol between the puffs, as the change +went on and the fog began to break before the rising sun. "I ain't no +likin' for fogs. Ye see----" But here the skipper stopped, as a peculiar +sound and then another, the puffing of the white whale, was heard. + +The boat was hauled on the wind, the mast unshipped, and, harpoon in hand, +Captain Sol stood braced for the affray. The ripple seemed alive with the +ghostly creatures, their white forms darting here and there, while the +puffing came fast and furious. + +"Stand by to git aft!" whispered the harpooner, and that moment, instead +of a white head, the entire body of a Beluga rose in front of the boat, +clearing the water in a graceful leap. + +Quick as thought the skipper hurled his weapon. It struck with a sounding +thud, a wing shot, and the great creature fell heavily, impaled in mid-air, +to rush away, bearing boat and white-whalers far down the river toward +the sea. + +C.F. HOLDER. + + * * * * * + + + + +OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP. + +A Virginia Lady of the Old School. + + +Among the many beautiful and fascinating women who adorned Richmond +society at the beginning of the present century there were few more +remarkable and interesting than Mrs. Mayo, the wife of Colonel John Mayo, +founder of the bridge at Richmond that bears his name. She was the +daughter of John De Hart, of New Jersey, an eminent lawyer and a member of +the first Continental Congress. Bellville, the home of Colonel and Mrs. +Mayo, in the suburbs of Richmond, was the seat of elegant and boundless +hospitality. No person of distinction ever came to Richmond without +calling at Bellville, the _entree_ to which was an unquestioned passport +to the best society of the city. + +Mrs. Mayo's eldest daughter, Maria, was the most celebrated Virginia belle +of her day. She never gave a decided answer to any of her numerous suitors, +and the story goes that one evening three gentlemen met at her house, and +after a very pleasant visit they returned to Richmond together. One of +them asked the others why they went there, as he was engaged to Miss Mayo +and expected shortly to marry her. The other gentlemen also said they had +hopes of winning the fair lady. The first gentleman determined to have the +matter settled, and accordingly went to her house the following day and +sought an interview with Mrs. Mayo. He told her he had her daughter's +consent, and asked hers. Mrs. Mayo replied she was sorry she could not +give her consent, and the gentleman then understood that the mother and +daughter were in perfect accord in the matter of the young lady's +love-affairs. In this way Miss Mayo kept on hand a regiment of admirers, +who formed a sort of reserve-corps. When John Howard Payne, the author of +"Home, Sweet Home," visited Richmond, he was a frequent guest at the Mayo +mansion. He wrote a poem, in which he described himself as falling asleep +in a grove and all the months of the year appearing to him. The month of +June was the first, and he finally winds up with May, which he described +in very glowing language, ending with the line,-- + + Sweet May, oh, I could love thee ever. + +Maria Mayo is said to have refused more than a hundred suitors before she +accepted General Winfield Scott, who courted her when he was a member of +the Richmond bar as Mr. Scott. After entering the army he continued his +addresses, and was refused successively as Captain Scott and Colonel Scott, +and it was only as General Scott, the victorious hero of Lundy's Lane, +that he at last won the hand of the much-admired belle. + +Mr. William Henry Haxall, a very agreeable gentleman of Richmond, relates +that on one occasion he visited Mrs. Scott soon after one of her trips to +Europe. He went in the evening at nine o'clock, and after some time, when +he thought he had paid a call sufficiently long, he slyly looked at his +watch, and, to his amazement, found it was one o'clock. On his apologizing +for the length of his visit, Mrs. Scott assured him she never retired +before one or two o'clock, but that she had no idea it was so late, Mr. +Haxall being one of the most agreeable gentlemen she had ever met, when in +fact he had not spoken a dozen words, but was a charmed listener to her +interesting description of her travels abroad. + +In 1828, Mrs. Mayo, in the sixty-eighth year of her age, undertook a +voyage to Europe in a sailing-vessel. After her arrival, she passed most +of her time in Paris, where she was the recipient of very flattering +attentions and the intimate friend and guest of some of the best families +of the nobility, especially those of General La Fayette and his son George +Washington, of the Count de Segur, and of M. de Neuville, minister of +marine, of whom Mrs. Mayo wrote, January 10, 1829, "He lives in one of the +palaces in grand style, and we see there all the people of the court as +often as it suits us." She renewed also her friendship with many French +families whom she had known in Richmond as refugees during the French +Revolution, and their attentions and evident pleasure at the reunion seem +to have been peculiarly gratifying to her. She returned to Richmond in +1829, and lived at Bellville until that elegant mansion was destroyed by +fire in 1842. After her return, she confined her entertainments almost +exclusively to handsome dinner-parties, at which she presided with +exceeding grace and elegance, and where it was said that, though the wines +were fine, the flavor and brilliancy of the conversation were far +superior. She never retired without a candle and writing-materials at her +bedside, and if during the night any new idea or bright thought arose, she +would immediately strike a light and jot it down. She retained her mental +vigor and personal attractions until her death in 1843, in the +eighty-second year of her age. + +The following instances will serve to illustrate Mrs. Mayo's great nerve +and self-possession. She was accustomed to drive daily to the bridge to +collect the toll of the preceding day, consisting generally of silver of +various denominations, which she put in a bag and deposited in the bank. +Her driver Moses was a favorite negro, who had a weakness for drink: he +had several times tried her fortitude and temper severely by upsetting her +into a gully by the roadside leading to Bellville, fortunately with no +serious consequences to her, unfortunately with none to himself. On one +occasion, Mrs. Mayo, being too late for the bank, and intending to pass +the night at the residence of her daughter Mrs. Cabell, took the bag of +silver and placed it in a closet in her room, which was at the back of the +house and opening on a porch. During the night she was awakened by a noise, +and perceived the figure of a man in her room. Pretending sleep, she +quietly watched his movements until she saw him enter the closet, when she +arose quickly, and, rushing rapidly across the room, shut and locked the +closet door in an instant, and called loudly for her son-in-law Dr. Cabell, +who was in the adjoining room. On his hurried entrance, she informed him +that she had a man in the closet, and that he must go for a policeman, +--which was done, and the door opened, when, to their astonishment, there +stood the trusted Moses. Mrs. Mayo, horrified, exclaimed, "Oh, Moses, how +could you try to rob me!" Moses, hanging his head, dropped on his knees, +and, in beseeching tones, replied, "Misses, it warn't Moses: it was the +debbil;" and the old lady forgave him. + +At a time when the whole State was in consternation from an apprehended +insurrection of the slaves, when families far and near were flocking to +the cities for protection, and patrols were scouring the country day and +night, Mrs. Mayo was entirely alone at Bellville, with no white person in +the neighborhood. Her friends in vain besought her to go to Richmond. At +length matters became so threatening that some gentlemen, discussing the +subject one night, concluded that it was too unsafe for Mrs. Mayo, and +determined to ride out and insist upon her returning with them to the +city. They reached Bellville about midnight, and, as they rode up, a +window was raised, showing that the brave proprietress was on the _qui +vive_. She demanded, in a quiet, fearless voice, "Who is there?" They +explained the object of their visit, but pleaded and remonstrated +ineffectually. She refused to accompany them, saying she had no fear, and +could protect herself; which she did boldly and safely until the danger +and alarm had passed away. + +E.L.D. + + + + +Mystifications of Authoresses. + + +"Don't you think," wrote the author of "Evelina" to her sister, "there +must be some wager depending among the little curled imps who hover over +us mortals, of how much flummery goes to turn the head of an authoress?" +For at that time little Fanny Burney, twenty-six years of age, was +enjoying such an ovation as had never before come within the experience of +woman. She had written a book which all London was reading, quoting, and +discussing admiringly without the least idea of the author's identity; and +Fanny could not meet an acquaintance, could not receive a letter, could +not attend a party of friends, without being asked, "Have you read +'Evelina'? Is it not charming?" Anonymity was in this case the cleverest +_ruse_ for an absolute enjoyment of the results of her work. One after +another her family and outside friends, from the great Dr. Johnson down, +were admitted to a share of the delightful secret. All who knew that +"Little Burney" was at the bottom of this fascinating mystery were as +eager as she herself for nattering comments and conjectures, and there +were nudgings of elbows, "nods and becks and wreathed smiles," when +"Evelina" was mentioned. It would have been no wonder if the little girl's +head had been turned as she hugged her surprise and happiness to her +swelling little heart. When the murder was out, and she was _feted_ and +honored, called to court and compelled to courtesy thankfully at the +ponderous compliments of great personages, she must have felt that the +bloom of the peach was rubbed off and the bubble of the champagne departed. + +In most cases strangers may not intermeddle with the joy of authorship. +Spoken praise carries off the rose and puts a thorn in its place. One of +our famous novelists, whom we will call Brown, happened to catch sight in +a strange city of the sign, "Autographs of distinguished authors for +sale," He thought to himself he would test his own market value, and +accordingly entered the shop. + +"Have you the autograph of Mr. Brown?" he inquired. + +"Oh, yes." + +"What is the price?" he asked. + +"One for two cents, or two for three cents," was the reply. + +He was in the habit of declaring afterward that he could have borne the +one for two cents, but that the two for three cents stung him bitterly. +Such is fame; and no wonder that young authoresses often begrudge a +complete surrender of their identity to the Juggernaut car of public +curiosity and criticism, and begin either anonymously or with a +pseudonyme. A masculine _nom de plume_ has of late been a favorite device +with the fair sex, partly for the reason that it is supposed to confer an +ampler ease, and partly from an idea that male writers command a readier +hearing and higher prices than female. We see a great many Henris, Georges, +and the like on the title-pages of books which are a flimsy veil to +conceal the pretty feminine figure behind. + +After Miss Burney had set the fashion, women pressed boldly forward into +literary ranks, although the author of "Waverley" absorbed in a great +degree the curiosity of the reading public. Miss Austen, whose work is +destined, in the opinion of good judges, to survive with the language, +made her first venture, like the author of "Evelina," anonymously; but it +created no such furore. This was "Sense and Sensibility," published in +1811; but she had already written "Northanger Abbey" and "Pride and +Prejudice," although they were not published until years afterward. No one +supposed her to be more than an every-day bright and observant young lady. +Like other English girls of her class, it was her habit to sit in the +drawing-room with the ladies of the family after eleven o'clock each day, +ready to receive visitors. Instead of having needle-work in her hand, Jane +had a pen, which was often dropped just in the midst of one of her clear, +incisive pictures of the Woodhouses, Knightleys, and Bennets, as neighbors +who might have served for the originals of those characters were +announced. Feminine tact instantly obliterated every sign of literary +occupation: the quill was thrown aside, and her sister's canvases and +embroidery were strewn over the writing-table to cover every scrap of +paper. + +The famous pseudonyme of George Sand, which seems so characteristic of the +writer, was a matter of accident. When Madame Dudevant, tired of her +domestic _role_, went to Paris to take up a literary career, her +mother-in-law, Baroness Dudevant, said to her, with incredulous horror,-- + +"Is it true that it is your intention _to print books_?" + +"Yes, madame." + +"Well, I call that an odd notion." + +"Yes, madame." + +"That is all very good and very fine; but I hope you are not going to put +the name that I bear on the _covers of printed books_." + +"Oh, certainly not, madame: there is no danger." + +When the publisher wanted a signature for "Indiana" which should show that +it was by one of the authors of "Rose et Blanche," which she had written +in collaboration with Sandeau under the name of Jules Sand, the author +retained the Sand and prefixed George to it as a simple and rustic title. + +The Brontes when about to publish their poems took the names "Currer, +Ellis, and Acton Bell," each keeping her initials. This choice, wrote +Charlotte, was "dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple at assuming +names positively masculine, while we did not like to declare ourselves +women, because, without at the time suspecting that our mode of writing +and thinking was not what is called 'feminine,' we had a vague impression +that authoresses were likely to be looked on with prejudice." The London +"Athenaeum," which was one of the few papers that noticed the little book, +spoke of the work of the three "brothers." Even after "Jane Eyre," +"Wuthering Heights," and "Agnes Grey" were printed, the secret of the +triple identity was jealously kept, until a vexatious tangle of their +names, and a claim from certain publishers that the three authors of the +three books were one person and that all the novels were by the author of +"Jane Eyre," roused Charlotte and Anne Bronte to the point of setting off +for London to show Smith and Elder that they were honest and fair. Up to +this time the publishers had not known whether they were women or men. "On +reaching Mr. Smith's," writes Mrs. Gaskell, "Charlotte put his own letter +into his hands,--the same letter which had excited so much disturbance at +Haworth Parsonage only twenty-four hours before. 'Where did you get this?' +said he, as if he could not believe that the two young ladies dressed in +black, of slight figures, looking pleased yet agitated, could be the +embodied Currer and Acton Bell for whom curiosity had been hunting so +eagerly in vain." The secret, however, was not disclosed, except to the +publishers. Until "Shirley" was published, opinion was much divided as to +the probable sex of Currer Bell, but "Shirley" was declared to be written +by a woman; and, this suggestion once started, questions of identity soon +settled themselves. Charlotte went to London again, and this time was +introduced to all the literary people in the town. It was not until her +third visit, however, that she attended a lecture of Thackeray's, and at +the close found that the audience, instead of withdrawing, had formed +themselves into two lines and drawn back to see the famous authoress as +she passed out. "During this passage through the 'cream of society,' Miss +Bronte's hand trembled to such a degree that her companion feared lest she +should turn faint and be unable to proceed." Ellis and Acton Bell were in +their early graves, and all the splendor of her fame could hardly lighten +by a breath the weight of that lonely sorrow of Charlotte. + +The story of George Eliot's pseudonyme has been too recently told to +require allusion, except to point out its practical value to herself, +shielding as it did her susceptibilities,--in fact, guarding like a +chrysalis the first strivings, the flutter into full life, of that +immortal winged thing it concealed. + +Several of our own female writers have chosen a masculine _nom de plume_, +and guarded it consistently, like Saxe Holm, etc. Miss Murfree is, we +believe, the first whose disguise editors as well as the general public +failed to pierce. Now that the critical faculty begins to play more surely +upon the works of Charles Egbert Craddock, it may be said that a woman's +love of romance and picturesqueness shades off into haze and unreality +some of the pictures of life which a man's experience and surer knowledge +would have made vivid by fewer and more vigorous strokes. However, as long +as she chose, Miss Murfree held her secret beyond the reach of discovery, +because nobody questioned it; her disclosure was piquant, and the state of +surprise into which she threw her admirers was so utter that the full +story of it ought to be told, although we are not empowered to tell it +here. + +L.W. + + + + +The Abuse of Adjectives. + + +It is a great pity that the fairy willow whistle which blew everything +into its proper place should have burst with its first note, for there +would be such ample opportunity nowadays for the display of its peculiar +functions. Why, for instance, should modern novel-writers turn the patient +adjective into an overworked little drudge, and compel it to do thrice the +labor that it can effectually perform? Fifty years ago it led a life of +respected ease, and was only called on when it could be of some real use +to the author; now it knows no respite from its ever-increasing tasks, and +too often bears upon its weak shoulders the real burden of the book. +Formerly we were told that Tilburina had golden hair and blue eyes, or +raven hair and black eyes, as the case might be; and, that matter being +settled, we heard little more upon the subject. Now the hair and eyes +appear anew on every page, and are apparently considered the most +important element in the story. + +Who has not been struck with the slighting manner in which Sir Walter +describes his heroines' charms? Edith Bellenden, we are asked to believe, +was fair without insipidity; Julia Mannering, who is to Waverley what +Rosalind is to Shakespeare, is hardly credited with being beautiful at all; + while when it comes to his heroes Sir Walter is even more strikingly +ineloquent. "A slender young man," or "a young man of genteel appearance," +is sometimes all that is vouchsafed to us, the rest being happily left to +our imagination. Among modern writers, Trollope alone manifests this +curious indifference to the hair, eyes, noses, and mouths of his _dramatis +personae_. What was the color of Grace Crawley's hair, or of Lily Dale's +eyes? What did Archdeacon Grantby look like, or who shall venture to +describe the immortal Mrs. Proudie? George Eliot, on the contrary, +inclines, especially in her later books, to a lavish use of adjectives; +and the aspiring authoress of to-day may cite Gwendolen's "long brown +glance" as being quite as strained as any effort of her own. But then we +can no more approach George Eliot by copying a few of her mannerisms than +we can become Napoleons by wearing an old coat, or William the Thirds by +cultivating an inordinate taste for green peas. + +To all, however, who wish to behold this tendency in its fullest and +freest development, we would recommend the perusal of a novel by Rhoda +Broughton, called "Second Thoughts,"--a bright, vivacious, almost witty +little book, marred only by its ineradicable defects of style. The heroine, +Gillian Latimer, is described over and over again, with as much emphasis +on every feature as if she were one of Madame Tussaud's pet creations and +had nothing but her outward appearance to suggest the real woman she +aspires to be. On her eyes alone more adjectives are brought to bear than +would have sufficed Scott for all the orbs in Waverley. They are "gray +eyes," "great gray eyes," "angry gray eyes," "steel-gray eyes," and +"displeased gray eyes;" also "grave eyes," "sparkling eyes," "clear eyes," +"blazing eyes," "proud eyes," "great eyes," "aching eyes," "large bright +eyes," "drooped eyes," "eager young eyes," "angry eyes," "steel-colored +eyes." "sad, leave-taking eyes," "flashing eyes," and "proud, dewy eyes." +Upon one occasion she "lifts the fair stars of her gray eyes" into her +lover's face; on another, she scorches him badly with "gray eyes like +furious fires." The hero himself, a most quiet, commonplace young doctor, +is not above a little eye-work on his own account. He has alternately +"serious eyes," "cross eyes," "quiet, shrewd eyes," "coldly just, bright +eyes," "steady eyes," "calm eyes," "fiery eyes," "town-tired eyes,"--which +is quite a novelty in the list,--and "eyes of burning choler," to say +nothing of eyes that "burn like fire," while he "grows pale as ashes," +which must have given him the effect of a conflagration, especially as he +stands once "all beflamed with sunset." + +Next to the supreme question of eyes we hear most about Gillian's "blonde +head," and her "flaxen head," her "flax head," her "bowed flax head," her +"tossed head," her "wilful head," her "fair head," and her "well-poised +head," while to match these maidenly attributes she has a "fair Sphinx +face," a "tragic pale face," a "serious face," a "humiliated white face," +a "flaming face," a "hotly-flushed face," a "sweetly apologetic face," and +a "flower-textured face." Moreover, being a very remarkable girl, she is +endowed with a "severe young figure," and a "gracious figure," whatever +that may mean, while her "lily-fair" and "delicate-cold" hands have +"satiny backs," and are "small and capable" as well. She is never merely +pretty like other women, but she has "ripe June beauty." and a "robust yet +delicate beauty." If she loses her temper, which happens rather often in +the course of the story, she manifests the same by the "red scorn of her +look," or by her "beautiful vexed eyes," which resemble a "sudden angry +gray arrow,"--imagine an angry gray arrow,--or by "flaming out into +crimson anger," or "with wreathed neck and flaming cheek," or "with +enkindled eye and vermeil cheek," both of which expressions we would +recommend to lovers of simplicity. + +If she is sad, however, she "lifts the drowned stars of her impatient, +suffering eyes," or lowers them with a "moist look;" or she strays in +"confused red misery," or in a "passionate scarlet hurry," which is as +extraordinary in its way as an angry gray arrow. When her father dies, she +stands "long and craped," with a "black elbow" resting on the +chimney-place; while her various methods of blushing take up half the +volume. Never, indeed, was there a heroine who blushed so much about so +little. Sometimes it is merely a matter of "flaming cheeks," or of the +"young roses of her cheeks," or of the "mortified carmine of her cheeks," +or of her "hot bloom," or of her "beautiful hot red roses." Sometimes it +is the "deep color of mingled shame and joy;" while on more especial +occasions we are assured that her face is "made all of poppies," that it +"changes from poppy-color to milk, and back from milk to poppy-color," +that it "keeps shifting from frightened white to mortified red, and back +again," and, better than all, that "cheek and chin and pearl-fair throat +grow all one rose-red flame," with which triumph of compound adjectives we +will close our quotations, only remarking that Gillian's blushing chin +rivals the achievement of Ursula in "John Halifax," who, we are gravely +told, colored over her throat, neck, and arms. + +All honor to the lady Olivia, who has taught us how to make a rational +inventory of a woman's charms! "Item, two lips indifferent red; item, two +gray eyes with lids to them; item, one neck, one chin, and so forth." To +these let us add, item, one blush indifferent rosy, and then have done +with the subject forever. + +A.R. + + * * * * * + + + + +LITERATURE OF THE DAY. + + +"Nathaniel Parker Willis." By Henry A.Beers. +"Edgar Allan Poe." By George E. Woodbury. +(American Men of Letters Series.) +Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. + + +The American Men of Letters Series is giving us some excellent biographies, +well written, the facts well assimilated and grouped, and the whole +treatment so accurate and graphic as to be full not only of instruction +but of entertainment. Formerly American biography was so deficient in just +those qualities which endear English biographical literature to us, that +we were inclined to believe that the fault was inherent in Americans and +American life, that our days and works lacked picturesqueness and color +and left no salient points for the chronicler to seize. We now see that +the meagre harvests of former biographers were due to their hasty and +superficial generalizations. For at least three of the volumes in this +series--the life of James Fenimore Cooper and the two now before us--may +be favorably compared with the best work in the English Men of Letters +Series, which is indeed high praise. Unusual and striking as were the +incidents in the life of Cooper, they had completely dropped out of sight +of the present generation. The biographers of Willis and Poe had no such +advantage. Willis is still remembered, not only as a _litt?teur_ and +journalist, but as a man about town, while legend has never ceased to be +busy with the memory of Poe, so that the traditions of his strange career +are curiously linked to and incorporated with his best-known works. + +The present estimate of Willis as a literary man is so slight that it +seems almost like impaling a butterfly to apply critical tests to his +writings. Professor Beers has nevertheless made it a profitable and +interesting study to follow him through his career, which was, upon the +whole, singularly fortunate. Few authors have possessed so happy a knack +of making the present moment both enjoyable and profitable. His personal +endowments were all in his favor, and no sooner was he launched in Europe +than he gained a great social success. England, in particular, opened some +of its pleasantest circles to him. Not only did Lady Blessington take him +up, but he became a favorite with many of the most lofty and exclusive +members of the aristocracy. Never was opportunity more auspicious, for +Willis was a born worshipper of refinements and luxuries. He had starved +in America for beauty and color, and dear to him were all these adjuncts +of a highly-civilized life. It was his mission to reproduce for Americans +lively impressions in letters to newspapers at home, and in stories and +sketches, in which he drew freely not only upon his own experiences, but +upon all the hints and suggestions he could pick up. His industry and +ingenious expedients were well rewarded: in fact, one is a little +surprised to find that in 1842 he was writing four articles monthly for +four magazines, and receiving one hundred dollars for each, which makes a +sum total of almost five thousand a year. He was, besides, handsomely paid +for his books both in England and at home, and had generally on hand some +writing for illustrated volumes of travel, so that for many years he may +easily be said to have made seven or eight thousand a year. + +No greater contrast to Willis--the man of the world, who knew how to turn +every habit, talent, and instinct to account--could be found than poor Poe, +all whose opportunities were wasted, spoiled, or flung away. It is the +most difficult thing in the world to arrive at anything like a complete +idea of the identity of so fantastic a man as the author of the "Raven." +The faults, inconsistencies, and contradictions of his character perplex +and dismay one the more closely one looks into his letters and the minor +incidents of his career. Mr. Woodbury has, however, acquitted himself well +in this difficult task, and has in many cases separated truth from +long-accepted fiction and given us a clear picture of what has hitherto +been blurred and distorted by unfaithful friends and foes. The story is a +most hopeless and pitiful one, its gloom brightened and its bitterness +sweetened by but few of the consolations which belong to average human +lives. The causes of this are apparent enough: they were constituents of +Poe's brain and heart; but for him to have been otherwise organized would +have been for his unique work to have had no existence. + + + + +Recent Fiction. + + +"Troubled Waters: A Problem of To-Day." By Beverley Ellison Warner. +Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company. + +"A Marsh Island," By Sarah Orne Jewett. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. + +"The Duchess Emilia." By Barrett Wendell. Boston: James R. Osgood & Co. + +"Across the Chasm." "Within the Capes." New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. + +"One of the Duanes." By Alice King Hamilton. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott +Company. + +"Tales from Many Sources." Vols. I. and II. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. + +There is a generous use of good material in Mr. Warner's novel, the scene +of which is laid in a New England manufacturing town, with all the sharp +and diversified social contrasts, the eager strifes and competitions, that +belong to such a community, clearly portrayed. The author calls his story +"A Problem of To-Day," and it is his study to press home to the +consciousness of the reader the series of dull and wearing miseries, the +bitter discouragements and pathetic misfortunes, which pursue the +working-man whose most faithful labor insures him no secure hold upon +future comfort and prosperity. It is both the strength and the weakness of +the book that its most prominent figure, Richard Wilton, is a wealthy +mill-owner who has risen to his position in a way which makes him an +unfair representative of the class of capitalists. A man without intellect +or humanity, without faith, without law, a robber of the dead, a despoiler +of the widow and orphan, a successful impostor, a remorseless brute who +takes pleasure in outraging and crushing his subordinates, would naturally +be a bad master and make his work-people miserable by heaped-up tyrannies. +His faults are not the inevitable outgrowth of a position of power and the +conflict between capital and labor, but are the result of his own +individual depravity. But this man's personality is a powerful one, and +his personality is the motive of most of the dramatic events which crowd +the pages. The history of the "strike" which follows the reduction of +wages at Trade Lawn Mills is faithfully and vigorously given. Mr. Warner +evidently knows the temper of workingmen, their patience and impatience, +their trials, temptations, and weaknesses. He gauges with pitiful fidelity +the faults of character and purpose which make almost every "strike" +contain within itself the germs of collapse and failure. The plot is +cleverly conceived and successfully carried out. That the bubble which has +for a time floated Richard Wilton's frauds and crimes bursts at last, and +that the villain is brought to well-merited disgrace, is a matter of +course. Trade Lawn Mills pass into the hands of their rightful owners, and +certain co-operative ideas which are an essential ingredient of the story +and its applied moral are carried out. The author attaches high importance +to co-operative schemes, and finds in them the clear solution of the +vexing questions concerning the future of the workingman. As an offset to +the somewhat dark and troubled pictures of life which the story presents, +there are sunny and pleasant passages in which a High-Church clergyman and +a young lady by the name of Sydney Worthington figure. The whole book is, +in fact, inspired by a spirit of hopefulness and a sure belief that divine +order overrules the efforts, successes, and failures of the humblest human +being and that a way of deliverance is sure to come. + +If "A Marsh Island" shows no distinct advance upon Miss Jewett's earlier +work, it is yet a pretty, artistic product which delicately emphasizes the +author's best points and gives us her distinct charm without any waste of +effects. Her feeling for rural life and her clear comprehension of rural +people were never better displayed than in this little story. A generous +play of late-summer and autumn radiance lights up its every nook and +corner; it is mellow with warm color and odorous of late fruits and +flowers. We cannot help finding the artist visitor, that product of the +bloom of Boston civilization, a little hackneyed and time-worn. He has +surely done his part in literature, and may retire to the heaven of the +dilettante. But all the inhabitants of Marsh Island are human and +attractive, and the untiring industries of the well-ordered household +soothe one like the rhythm of a song. The bizarre, incongruous, but, upon +the whole, satisfactory specimen of New England "help" which Miss Jewett +generally introduces finds an excellent example here in the person of +Temperance Kipp. Squire Owen is a genial man, so overflowing with generous +nature that he can afford to fill out the more meagre humanities of his +wife, who has susceptibilities, tempers, and moods. "They used to tell a +story," he one day remarks to Mrs. Owen, with great satisfaction, when she +has a distinct grievance about clothes,--"I do' know but you've heard it, +--about old Sergeant Copp an' his wife, that was always quarrellin'. +Somebody heard her goin' on one day. Says she, 'I do wish somebody'd give +me a lift as fur as Westmarket. I do feel's if I ought to buy me a cap. I +ain't got a decent cap to my back: if I was to die to-morrow, I ain't got +no cap that's fit to lay me out in.' 'Blast ye,' says he, 'why didn't ye +die when ye had a cap?'" The more impassioned side of life does not suit +Miss Jewett so well as the humorous and pastoral; but each detail about +her heroine is attractive, and nothing in recent fiction, is more true, +touching, and womanly than Doris's journey to Westmarket in the autumnal +dawn to keep her lover at home from the fishing-banks. + +"The Duchess Emilia" is one of those stories which ought to be withdrawn +from the province of criticism by the fact of their being the delight of +the reader, thrilling him with their weirdness and firing his imagination +by their splendid audacity. If the attention is so feebly grasped as to +permit one to reason about an impossible situation, it becomes at once +extravagant and absurd. One would require to be considerably carried away +by illusion to be moved by Mr. Wendell's story. The hero is a +New-Englander, born of mad parents (they met while both were patients in +an insane asylum); and this inherited curse would seem to be enough for +any hero to totter under. It becomes unimportant, however, when we +discover that he has furthermore been taken possession of at birth by the +spirit of a wicked and fascinating Italian duchess, who wishes to expiate +her crimes before leaving this mundane sphere. One might readily expect +some startling effects from the development of a plot thus removed from +the haven of probabilities and set afloat in a sea of the wildest romance. +The Duchess Emilia's repentance, however, seems to have ended the interest +of her career, and her good deeds are appallingly dull; in fact, her whole +personality thins away into insignificance. + +"Across the Chasm" opens with fair promise, and our introduction to +Virginia life and a talkative old negro "somewhar up in de nineties" is +one which we should be glad to follow up by further acquaintance. This +serves, however, merely as preamble, and in the next chapter we are +transported to a city called Washington, although for characteristic +flavor it might as well be any other place, and we enter upon the events +attending a young lady's entrance into society. This might all be very +pretty and pleasant, except for the deadly seriousness of the author. It +is entirely frivolous and unimportant, but frivolity may be made charming +and full of suggestion. Points of etiquette and behavior engage the minds, +hearts, and passions of the personages of the story. It is a sort of +animated illustration of the little book called "Don't." For example, +"_Don't_ leave your overcoat and rubbers in the hall when you go to make a +call on a lady for the first time," receives practical exemplification +when Major King, a high-toned Southerner, with unbuttoned frock-coat and +baggy trousers, pays a visit to the heroine. He not only takes off his +overcoat and rubbers, but tilts his chair, stays till midnight, and in +every way calls down the wrath of that accomplished prig Mr. Louis Gaston, +who is a high-toned Northerner. This yawning gulf between the generous +faults of the South and the fastidious Phariseeism of the North is the +problem of the book. The story is slight, wholly conventional, and rather +commonplace, but it is gracefully told, and the conversations are not +without interest. + +Mr. Howard Pyle's "Within the Capes" belongs to a widely different +category from the pretty feminine Southern sketch, and is quite equal to +the most insatiable requirements, containing half a dozen successful kinds +of fiction in itself. As a love-story, it is charming; as a sea- and +shipwreck- and treasure-finding-story, it offers a fair challenge not only +to Russell, but to Stevenson himself; while as a detective-story it is as +good as most. The adventures are related by the hero, one Captain Tom +Granger, who toward the end of his long life feels a desire to have his +strange history live in his own version, and not in the fables of the +gossips. A characteristic quaintness of expression gives validity to the +narrative, with plenty of homely enforcement of Tom Granger's wit and +wisdom. + +"One of the Duanes" offers a vivid picture of the life which goes on among +the officers and officers' wives and daughters who make up a little world +within a world at our army and naval stations. Mrs. Hamilton has depicted +the interests and excitements, the gossip and the scandals, in a way which +impresses the reader as being faithful and without exaggeration. The story +is interesting, and the book is thoroughly readable and enjoyable. + +Two or three little volumes containing the best short stories that have +been published ought to be a desirable addition to any library-table, to +be picked up by a chance caller or read aloud on a rainy evening. And +"Tales from all Sources" fairly well answer one's requirements of what +such collections should contain, being grave and gay, bizarre and +frivolous, to suit the various tastes. We should be glad to see Bulwer's +"The Haunted and the Haunters" (called in some editions "The House and the +Brain") reproduced in such a collection. The fault of this series, if it +be a fault, is that most of the stories are well within the recollection +of any one who has read the English magazines for the past few years, +--"The Black Poodle," for example, and "The Pavilion on the Links," being +matters of yesterday. However, both are sufficiently good to command a +second reading. + +END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular +Literature And Science, Old Series, Vol. 36--New Series, Vol. 10, July 1885, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE *** + +***** This file should be named 14524.txt or 14524.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/5/2/14524/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mireille Harmelin and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + +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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