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diff --git a/23095.txt b/23095.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f4d21e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/23095.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7609 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine, Volume 11, No. 26, +May, 1873, 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, Volume 11, No. 26, May, 1873 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: October 20, 2007 [EBook #23095] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE + +OF + +_POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE._ + +MAY, 1873. + +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by J. B. +LIPPENCOTT & Co., in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at +Washington. + +Transcriber's Note: Minor typos have been corrected and footnotes moved +to the end of the article. + + + + +THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. + +THIRD PAPER. + + +[Illustration: THE AMIN OF KALAA.] + +Emerging from these gloomy _caflons_, and passing the Beni-Mansour, the +village of Thasaerth (where razors and guns are made), Arzou (full of +blacksmiths), and some other towns, we enter the Beni-Aidel, where +numerous white villages, wreathed with ash trees, lie crouched like +nests of eggs on the summits of the primary mountains, with the +magnificent peaks of Atlas cut in sapphire upon the sky above them. At +the back part of an amphitheatre of rocky summits, Hamet, the guide, +points out a little city perched on a precipice, which is certainly the +most remarkable site, outside of opera-scenery, that we have ever seen. +It is Kalaa, a town of three thousand inhabitants, divided into four +quarters, which contrive, in that confined situation, to be perpetually +disputing with each other, although a battle would disperse the whole of +the tax-payers over the edges. Although apparently inaccessible but by +balloon, Kalaa may be approached in passing by Bogni. It is hard to give +an idea of the difficulties in climbing up from Bogni to the city, where +the hardiest traveler feels vertigo in picking his way over a path often +but a yard wide, with perpendiculars on either hand. Finally, after many +strange feelings in your head and along your spinal marrow, you thank +Heaven that you are safe in Kalaa. + +[Illustration: COURTYARD IN KALAA.] + +[Illustration: KALAA.] + +[Illustration: OURIDA, THE LITTLE ROSE.] + +The inhabitants of Kalaa pass for rich, the women promenade without +veils and covered with jewels, and the city is clean, which is rare in +Kabylia. There are four amins (or sheikhs) in Kalaa, to one of whom we +bear a letter of introduction. The _anaya_ never fails, and we are +received with cordiality, mixed with stateliness, by an imposing old man +in a white bornouse. "_Enta amin?_" asks the Roumi. He answers by a +sign of the head, and reads our missive with care. Immediately we are +made at home, but conversation languishes. He knows nothing but the pure +Kabyle tongue, and cannot speak the mixed language of the coasts, called +Sabir, which is the pigeon-French of Algiers and Philippeville. + +"_Enta sabir el arbi?_"--"Knowest thou Arabic?" asks our host. + +"_Makach_"--"No," we reply. "_Enta sabir el Ingles?_"--"Canst thou speak +English?" + +"_Makach_"--"Nay," answers the beautiful old sage, after which +conversation naturally languishes. + +But the next morning, after the richest and most assiduous +entertainment, we see the little daughter of the amin playing in the +court, attended by a negress. The child-language is much the same in all +nations, and in five minutes, in this land of the Barbarians, on this +terrible rock, we are pleasing the infant with wiles learnt to please +little English-speaking rogues across the Atlantic. + +The amin's daughter, a child of six years, forms with her slave a +perfect contrast. She is rosy and white, her mouth is laughing, her +peeping eyes are laughing too. What strikes us particularly is the +European air that she has, with her square chin, broad forehead, robust +neck and sturdy body. A glance at her father by daylight reveals the +same familiar type. Take away his Arab vestments, and he would almost +pass for a brother of Heinrich Heine. His child might play among the +towers of the Rhine or on the banks of the Moselle, and not seem to be +outside her native country. We have here, in a strong presentment, the +types which seem to connect some particular tribes of the Kabyles with +the Vandal invaders, who, becoming too much enervated in a tropical +climate to preserve their warlike fame or to care for retiring, +amalgamated with the natives. The inhabitants on the slopes of the +Djordjora, reasonably supposed to have descended from the warriors of +Genseric, build houses which amaze the traveler by their utter +unlikeness to Moorish edifices and their resemblance to European +structures. They make bornouses which sell all over Algeria, Morocco, +Tunis and Tripoli, and have factories like those of the Pisans in the +Middle Ages. + +[Illustration: KABYLE SHOWING GERMANIC ORIGIN.] + +Contrast the square and stolid Kabyle head shown in the engraving on +this page with the type of the Algerian Arab on page 494. The more we +study them, or even rigidly compare our Arab with the amin of Kalaa, the +more distinction we shall see between the Bedouin and either of his +Kabyle compatriots. The amin, although rigged out as a perfect Arab, +reveals the square jaw, the firm and large-cut mouth, the breadth about +the temples, of the Germanic tribes: it is a head of much distinction, +but it shows a large remnant of the purely animal force which entered +into the strength of the Vandals and distinguished the Germans of +Caesar's day. As for the Kabyle of more vulgar position, take away his +haik and his bornouse, trim the points of his beard, and we have a +perfect German head. Beside these we set a representative Arab head, +sketched in the streets of Algiers. See the feline characteristics, the +pointed, drooping moustache and chin-tuft, the extreme retrocession of +the nostrils, the thin, weak and cruel mouth, the retreating forehead, +the filmed eye, the ennui, the terrestrial detachment, of the Arab. He +is a dandy, a creature of alternate flash and dejection, a wearer of +ornaments, a man proud of his striped hood and ornamental agraffes. The +Kabyle, of sturdier stuff, hands his ragged garment to his son like a +tattered flag, bidding him cherish and be proud of the rents made by +Roumi bayonets. + +[Illustration: TYPE OF ALGERIAN ARAB.] + +It must be admitted that the Kabyles, with a thousand faults, are far +from the fatalism, the abuse of force and that merging of individualism +which are found with the Islamite wherever he appears. Whence, then, +have come these more humane tendencies, charitable customs and movements +of compassion? There are respectable authorities who consider them, with +emotion, as feeble gleams of the great Christian light which formerly, +at its purest period, illuminated Northern Africa. + +It is the opinion of some who have long been conversant with the Kabyles +that the deeper you dive into their social mysteries the more traces you +find of their having once been a Christian people. They observe, for +instance, a set of statutes derived from their ancestors, and which, on +points like suppression of thefts and murders, do not agree with the +Koran. We have spoken of their name for the law--_kanoun_: evidently the +resemblance of this to [Greek: _chanon_] must be more than accidental. +Another sign is the mark of the cross, tattooed on the women of many of +the tribes. These fleshly inscriptions are an incarnate evidence of the +Christian past of some of the Kabyles, particularly such as are probably +of Vandal origin. They are found especially among the tribes of the +Gouraya, are probably a result of the Vandal invasion, and consist in +the mark or sign of the cross, half an inch in dimension, on their +forehead, cheeks and the palms of their hands. It appears that all the +natives who were found to be Christians were freed from certain taxes by +their Aryan conquerors; and it was arranged that they should profess +their faith by making the cross on their persons, which practice was +thus universalized. The tattooing is of a beautiful blue color, and is +more ornamental than the patches worn by our grandmothers. + +Our final inference, then, is, that the Kabyles preserve strong traces +of certain primitive customs, which in certain cases are attributable to +a Christian origin. + +A true city of romance, a Venice isolated by waves of mountains, and +built upon piles whose beams are of living crystal, Kalaa, all but +inaccessible, attracts the tourist as the roc's egg attracted Aladdin's +wife. For ages it has been a city of refuge, a sanctuary for person and +property in a land of anarchy. Nowhere else are the proud Kabyles so +skillful and industrious--nowhere else are their women so much like +Western women in beauty and freedom. + +[Illustration: KABYLE WOMEN] + +The Kabyle woman preserves the liberty which the female of the Orient +possessed in the old times, before the jealousy of Mohammed made her a +bird in a cage, or, as the Arab poet says, "an attar which must not be +given to the winds." In Kabylia the women talk and gossip with the men: +their villages present pretty spectacles at sunset, when groups of +workers and gossipers mingled are seen laughing, chatting and singing to +the accompaniment of the drum. Some of these women are really handsome, +and are freely decorated, even in public, with the singular enamels +which are their peculiar manufacture, and with threads of gold in their +graceful _cheloukas_ or tunics. + +But Kalaa, like the picturesque "Peasant's Nest" described by Cowper in +his _Task_, pays one natural penalty for the rare beauty of its site. It +pants on a rock whose gorges of lime are the seat of a perpetual thirst. +In vain have the suffering natives sunk seven basins in one alley of the +town, the cleft separating the quarter of the Son of David from that of +the children of Jesus (_Aissa_). The water only trickles by drops, and, +though plentiful in winter, deserts them altogether in the season when +their air-hung gardens, planted in earth brought up from the plains, +need it the most. As the mellowing of the season brings with it its +plague of aridity, recourse is had to the river at the bottom of the +ravine, the Oued-Hamadouch. Then from morning to night perpendicular +chains of diminutive, shrewd donkeys are seen descending and ascending +the precipice with great jars slung in network. + +[Illustration: KABYLE GROUP.] + +But the Hamadouch itself in the sultry season is but a thread of water, +easily exhausted by the needs of a population counting three thousand +mouths. Then the folks of Kalaa would die of thirst were it not for the +foresight of a marabout of celebrity, whom chance or miracle caused to +discover a hidden spring at the bottom of the rock. By the aid of +subscriptions among the rich he built a fountain over the sources of the +spring. + +It is a small Moorish structure, with two stone pilasters supporting a +pointed arch. In the centre is an inscription forbidding to the pious +admirers of the marabout the use of the fountain while a drop remains in +the Hamadouch. To assist their fidelity, the spring is effectually +closed except when all other sources have peremptorily failed, in the +united opinion of three amins (Kabyle sheikhs). When the amins give +permission the chains which restrain the mechanism are taken off, and +the conduits are opened by means of iron handles operating on small +valves of the same metal. In the great droughts the fountain of Marabout +Yusef-ben-Khouia may be seen surrounded with a throng of astute, +white-nosed asses, waiting in philosophic calm amid the excitement and +struggle of the attendant water-bearers. + +[Illustration: YUSEF'S FOUNTAIN.] + +Seen hence, from the base of the precipice, where abrupt pathways trace +their zigzags of white lightning down the rock, and where no vegetation +relieves the harsh stone, the town of Kalaa seems some accursed city in +a Dantean _Inferno_. Seen from the peaks of Bogni, on the contrary, the +nest of white houses covered with red tiles, surmounted by a glittering +minaret and by the poplars which decorate the porch of the great mosque, +has an aspect as graceful as unique. In a vapory distance floats off +from the eye the arid and thankless country of the Beni-Abbes. On every +level spot, on every plateau, is detected a clinging white town, +encircled with a natural wreath of trees and hedges. They are all +visible one from the other, and perk up their heads apparently to signal +each other in case of sudden appeal: it is by a telegraphic system from +distance to distance that the Kabyles are collected for their +incorrigible revolutions. Two ruined towers are pointed out, called by +the Kabyles the Bull's Horns, which in 1847 poured down from their +battlements a cataract of fire on Bugeaud's _chasseurs d'Orleans_, who +climbed to take them, singing their favorite army-catch as well as they +could for want of breath: + + As-tu vu la casquette, la casquette, + As-tu vu la casquette du Pere Bugeaud? + +Far away, at the foot of the Azrou-n'hour, an immense peak lifting its +breadth of snow-capped red into the pure azure, the populous town of +Azrou is spread out over a platform almost inaccessible. + +[Illustration: THE LATEST IMPROVED REAPER.] + +What a strange landscape! And what a race, brooding over its nests in +the eagles' crags! Where on earth can be found so peculiar a people, +guarding their individuality from the hoariest antiquity, and snatching +the arts into the clefts of the mountains, to cover the languid races of +the plains with luxuries borrowed from the clouds! The jewelry and the +tissues, the bornouses and haiks, the blacksmith-work and ammunition, +which fill the markets of Morocco, Tunis and the countries toward the +desert, are scattered from off these crags, which Nature has forbidden +to man by her very strongest prohibitions. + +We are now in the midst of what is known as Grand Kabylia. The coast +from Algiers eastward toward Philippeville, and the relations of some of +the towns through which we have passed, may be understood from the +following sketch: + +[Illustration] + +The scale of distances may be imagined from the fact that it is +eighty-seven and a half miles by sea from Algiers to Bougie. The country +known as Grand Kabylia, or Kabylia _par excellence_, is that part of +Algeria forming the great square whose corners are Dellys, Aumale, Setif +and Bougie. Though these are fictitious and not geographical limits, +they are the nearest approach that can be made to fixing the nation on a +map. Besides their Grand Kabylia, the ramifications of the tribe are +rooted in all the habitable parts of the Atlas Mountains between Morocco +and Tunis, controlling an irregular portion of Africa which it is +impossible to define. It will be seen that the country of the tribe is +not deprived of seaboard nor completely mountainous. The two ports of +Dellys and Bougie were their sea-cities, and gave the French infinite +trouble: the plain between the two is the great wheat-growing country, +where the Kabyle farmer reaps a painful crop with his saw-edged sickle. + +In this trapezoid the fire of rebellion never sleeps long. As we write +comes the report of seven hundred French troops surrounded by ten +thousand natives in the southernmost or Atlas region of Algeria. The +bloody lessons of last year have not taught the Kabyle submission. It +seems that his nature is quite untamable. He can die, but he is in his +very marrow a republican. + +[TO BE CONTINUED.] + + + + +OUR HOME IN THE TYROL + + +CHAPTER I + +"Do not go to the Tyrol," said some of our friends in Rome. "You will be +starved. It is a beautiful country, but with the most wretched +accommodation and the worst living in the world." + +"Come to Perugia, where it is always cool in summer," said a painter. +"You can study Perugino's exquisite 'Annunciation' and other gems of the +Umbrian school, and thus blend Art with the relaxation of Nature." + +"Come rather to Zemetz in the Engadine, where good Leonhard Wohlvend of +the Lion will help us to bag bears one day and glaciers the next," +exclaimed a sporting friend, the possessor of the most exuberant +spirits. + +[Illustration: SHRINE AT ADELSHEIM.] + +"But," remarked the fourth adviser, a lady, "I recommend, after all, the +Tyrol. I went weak and ill last year to the Pusterthal, and returned to +Rome as fresh and strong as a pony. I found the inns very clean and the +prices low; and if you can live on soup, delicious trout and char, +fowls, veal, puddings and fruit, you will fare famously at an outside +average of five francs a day." + +As this advice exactly coincided with our own inclinations, we naturally +considered it the wisest of all, especially as the invitation to +bear-hunts and glacier-scrambles was not particularly tempting to our +party. The kind reader will perceive this for himself when he learns +that it consisted of an English writer, who, still hale and hearty in +spite of his threescore years and ten, regarded botany as the best rural +sport; his wife, his faithful companion through many years of sunshine +and shadow, who had grown old so naturally that whilst anticipating a +joyful Hereafter she still clothed this present life with the poetic +hues of her girlhood; their daughter, the present narrator; and their +joint friend, another Margaret, who, whilst loyal to her native country, +America, had created for herself, through her talent, her love of true +work and her self-dependence, a bright social and artistic life in +Italy. As for Perugia, our happy quartette had plenty of opportunities +for studying the old masters in the winter months. Now we were anxious +to exchange the oppressive, leaden air of the Italian summer for the +invigorating breezes of the Alps. + +Yet how fresh and graceful Italy still looked as we traveled northward +in the second week of June! The affluent and at the same time gentle +sunshine streamed through the broad green leaves of the vines, which +were flung in elegant festoons from tree to tree. It intensified the +bright scarlet of the myriad poppies, which glowed amongst the brilliant +green corn. It lighted up the golden water-lilies lying on the surface +of the slowly-gliding streams, and brought into still greater contrast +the tall amber-colored campanile or the black cypress grove cut in sharp +outline against the diaphanous blue sky. We knew, however, that fever +could lurk in this very luxury of beauty, while health was awaiting us +in the more sombre scenes of gray mountain and green sloping pasture. We +traveled on, therefore, by the quickest and easiest route, and alighting +from the express-train to Munich at the Brixen station on the Brenner +Pass, were shortly deposited, bag and baggage, at that comfortable and +thoroughly German inn, the renowned Elephant. + +We prided ourselves on being experienced travelers, and consequently +immediately secured four places in the Eilwagen, which was to start from +the inn at six o'clock the next morning for our destination, Bruneck. We +handed over our luggage to the authorities, partook of supper and then +retired contentedly to rest--in the case of the two Margarets to the +soundest of slumbers--until in the morning we were suddenly awoke, not +by the expected knock of the chambermaid, but by a hurrying to and fro +of feet, and the sound of several eager voices resounding through the +echoing corridors. Fortunately, it was not only perfectly light, but +exhausted Nature had enjoyed its allotted spell of sleep; for we found, +to our astonishment, that it was past five o'clock. The storm continued +outside no whit abated, and in the midst of the human hubbub the +father's voice sounded clear and distinct. + +"The British lion is roaring," exclaimed Margaret: then, snatching at my +attire, I was in the midst of the disturbance in a very few minutes. + +My father stood at his door and held in his upraised hand a pair of +villainous boots, old and "clouted," fit for the Gibeonites, very +different from the substantial English aids to the understanding which +he had placed in all good faith outside his door the previous night. A +meagre-faced chambermaid was wringing her hands beside him. Two waiters +vociferated, whilst a third, whose eyes were still heavy with sleep, was +blindly groping at the other doors. + +"My excellent London boots, made on a special last, have disappeared," +said my father, trying to moderate his indignation, "and this vile +rubbish has been substituted in their stead.--Where is your master?" he +demanded of the sobbing woman. "Fetch either your master or my boots." + +"Herr Je! Herr Je! I've hunted high and low, up stairs and down," +murmured the weeping maid, "and the gracious gentleman's boots are +nowhere." + +"Sir," said a little round-headed man, who seemed to have his wits about +him, "I know very well that these are not your boots. I cleaned your +grace's boots, and placed them at your door at four o'clock. It is some +beggarly Welschers who have crept up stairs and exchanged for them, +unawares, their old leather hulks." + +"Ah yes," said the wailing woman: "three Welschers, who came for the +fair, slept in the barn, and had some bread and cheese before they left, +an hour ago." + +In the midst of this explanation the door of No. 2 was slightly opened, +and an arm in a shirt sleeve appeared and drew in a pair of boots. +Hardly, however, was the door closed when the bell of No. 2 began to +ring violently. + +"Heavens! another pair gone!" exclaimed a waiter. Then with one accord +the whole bevy of distracted servants rushed to No. 2, declaring their +innocence. + +"My good people, I cannot understand one word you say," replied a mild +English voice. "I request you to be gone, and let one of you bring me my +own proper boots." + +The British lion--who, it must be owned, had reason to roar--became +calmed at the evident innocence of the servants and the gentle sounds of +this British lamb. He therefore went to the rescue, and explained the +matter to No. 2, who in his turn meekly expostulated: "Very vexatious! +Dear me! My capital boots made expressly for Alpine climbing! But we +must make the best of it, my dear sir." + +Maids and men still remained in an excited group, when at this juncture +the head-waiter appeared, bringing with him the landlord, a respectable +middle-aged man, who, bowing repeatedly, assured the gentlemen of his +extreme annoyance at the whole affair, especially as it compromised the +fame of his noted house. Indeed, he would gladly refund the loss were +the two pairs of boots not forthcoming. + +Forthcoming! How could they be forthcoming when at this moment the clock +was striking six, and the Eilwagen (Margaret termed it the _oil-wagon_) +was to start at once, and we with it, though minus breakfast? The +British lamb departed hurriedly, but we were detained to be told of +another complication. Not only were the boots gone, but the royal +imperial post-direction of Austria, after duly weighing and measuring +our luggage, had adjudged it too heavy and bulky for the roof of its +mail-coach. It would, however, restore our money, and even suggest +another mode of conveyance, but take us by its Eilwagen it would not. + +"The delay is indeed advantageous, mein Herr," said the landlord, +addressing my father, who walked about in slippers, "as time will +thereby be gained for a thorough investigation of the boot question." + +One trouble always modifies another. The disappearance of the boots made +us bear the departure of the Eilwagen philosophically. Nay, at the +conclusion of a substantial breakfast of hot coffee, ham and eggs we +began greatly to enjoy ourselves. Rejected by the post-direction for the +Eilwagen, we felt at liberty to choose our time of departure. For the +present, therefore, acting as our own masters, we leisurely sauntered +out of doors, admired the clean, attractive exterior of the roomy inn, +and smiled at the fresco of the huge elephant, which, possessed of +gigantic tusks and diminutive tail, carried a man, spear in hand, on his +back. A giant bearing a halbert, accompanied by two youths in tunics, +completed the group. An inscription informed us that this was the first +elephant which had ever visited Teutschland, and that the inn derived +its name from the fact of the august quadruped sleeping there on its +journey, which took place in the sixteenth century. The worthy landlord +had also ordered a fresco to be painted on his inn to the honor of the +Virgin. She was depicted standing upon the crescent moon, and her aid +was invoked by the good man in rhyme to protect the house "from +lightning's rod, O thou Mother of God! From rain and fire, and sickness +dire;"--but, alas! there was no mention of thieves. + +We were deploring the fact when the worthy Wirth appeared in person, +attended by a slim youth in blue-and-silver uniform, whom he introduced +to us with considerable emphasis as representing the police. The officer +of justice stepped forward and with a low bow took the length and +breadth of the Welschers' offending, and promised that the Austrian +government would do its best to see the distinguished, very noble +Herrschaft righted. We cannot be quite certain that he promised that the +emperor would seek the boots in person, but something was said about +that mighty potentate. At the assurance of governmental interference how +could the British lion fail of being pacified? He declared that the +landlord had acted as a gentleman, shook hands with him, and returning +to the house exchanged his slippers for his second pair of boots--very +inferior in make and comfort to the missing treasures--and then +conferred with the landlord as to the best method for the continuance of +our journey. + +The Herr Wirth, with whom and the whole household we had now become +excellent friends, declared that with our unusual amount of luggage the +only plan was a "separat Eilfahrt," which means a separate +express-journey to Bruneck. It had, however, its advantages: we should +travel quickly and with the greatest ease. As we were willing to accede +to his proposition, he handed us over to his clerks in the royal +imperial post-bureau, who, having received a round sum of florins, +filled in and sanded an important document, which being delivered to us +conveyed the satisfactory information that we four individuals, whose +ages, personal appearance and social position the head-official had +magnanimously passed over with a compassionate flourish, were, on this +fourteenth day of June, 1871, to be conveyed to the town of Bruneck in +the caleche No. 1990; which said vehicle would be duly furnished with +cloth or leather cushions, one foot-carpet, two lamps, main-braces, +axletree, etc., including one portion of grease. So far, well and good, +but on our inquiring when the said No. 1990 would be ready to start, the +head-official merely looked over his spectacles at his subordinate, who +in his turn, leaning back in his tall chair and stroking his beard, +called out, "Klaus! Klaus!"--a call which was answered by a tall, +stolid-looking man, also in livery, who seemed to occupy the post of +official hostler. + +"Klaus," demanded the second chef, "the Herrschaft ask when the vehicle +will be ready." + +Klaus gave an astonished stare, and articulated some rapid sounds in a +dialect quite unintelligible to us. + +"Precisely," returned the subordinate. "The horses are sent for, and +when they arrive the Herrschaft will be expedited forthwith." + +Whereupon the clerks of the post-direction became suddenly immersed in +the duties of their office. We took the hint and good-naturedly retired. + +It certainly looked like business when outside we perceived Klaus +dragging forth with all his might and main, from a dark and dusty +coach-house, a still dustier old coach. Darker it was not, for the color +was that of canary, emblazoned with the black double-headed Austrian +eagle. This, then, was the caleche No. 1990. It had the air of a veteran +officer in the imperial army who had not seen active service for many a +long day. + +Klaus was too busy to pay much attention to us. He pulled the piece of +antiquity into the street, and with an uneasy expression, as if he knew +before-hand what he had to expect, he tried and tugged at one of the +door-handles. "Sacrament!" he muttered as he at last let go and began +hunting in the boot of the coach, under the driver's cushion and in +secret nooks and corners, which proved, at the best, mere receptacles +for fag-ends of whipcord and cobwebs. + +"It is gone, sure enough, the key of the right-hand door." I am afraid +it had disappeared three years before, at least, to the fellow's +knowledge, for he added in an apologetic but hopeful tone, "It matters +not the least, for, see you, all the inns are on the left-hand side." + +A glimpse into the coach-house had convinced us of the fact of this +vehicle alone being at our disposal; so we determined to manage as best +we might, and bore even philosophically the smell of the musty, +dust-filled cushions, which Klaus triumphantly pulled out of the open +door and beat, as it were, within an inch of their lives. + +Briefly, to make two long hours short after several tedious quarters of +expectation, a square-set, rosy-faced and middle-aged postilion appeared +round the far corner of the village street, resplendent in silver lace +and yellow livery, leading three gaunt but sturdy horses. In ten minutes +my father was seated on the box and we ladies inside, receiving the good +wishes of Klaus, of the landlord, the men and the maids, now all smiles +and curtsies, and with the postilion blowing triumphantly his horn we +dashed out of the quaint, dreamy little cathedral town of Brixen. + +The road speedily began to ascend, and we looked down from a +considerable height on the vast Augustine monastery of Neustift, with +its large church, its picturesque cluster of wings, refectories and +separate residences of every stage of architecture, lying snugly amongst +vineyards, Spanish chestnuts and fig trees. Ever upward, by but above +the waters of the rapid Brienz, until at the fortress of Muehlbach we +entered the Pusterthal proper. + +This old fort commands the valley and spans the road. Our driver, who, +according to Austrian regulation, went on foot wherever the ascent was +particularly steep, could not enter into our admiration of its romantic +position. Hans--for such was his name--could not perceive any grace or +beauty in a scene which had often disturbed his imagination and awakened +his fear. "Ah," said he, "it is a God-forsaken spot. It is here that +many slaughtered Bavarians wander about at night with candles, seeking +for their bodies or their souls--I know not which. Look you! My +grandmother came from Schliers in Bavaria, and the two countries speak +the same language. However, in my father's day, in 1809, Emperor Franz +drove the Bavarians and French out of this part of the Tyrol. It was in +April, when the Austrian Schatleh came marching through the Pusterthal +with his soldiers, and drove the Bavarians before him. Though these were +only a handful, they would not make truce, but broke down all the +bridges in their retreat. They wanted to burn the bridge at Lorenzen, +only the country-folks with blunderbusses, cudgels and pitchforks +protected it, and made them run; so they marched on, pursued by the +Landsturm, to this fortress, where they fought like devils until many +were killed, and the others, at their wits' end, managed to push on to +Innsbruck. Yes, glorious days, and long may the Tyrolese cry God, +Emperor and Fatherland! But those wandering spirits make my flesh +creep. Ugh!" + +The road now allowed of the horses being put to a lively trot, +interrupting further conversation. We drove steadily on, stopping at +comfortable inns in large well-to-do villages, where even the poorest +appeared to enjoy in their houses unlimited space. The landlords +politely demanded our journey-certificate, solemnly inserted the hour of +our arrival and departure, and confirmed the important fact of our +remaining exactly the same number of travelers as at the beginning of +our journey. We exchange Hans for a youthful Jacobi, and Jacobi for an +aged Seppl, who all agreed in their livery if not in their ages; each +stage also being at a slightly higher elevation, so that by degrees we +had changed the Italian vegetation, which had lingered as far as the +neighborhood of Brixen, for the more northern crops of young oats and +flax. Yet one prominent reminder of comparatively adjacent Italy +accompanied us the greater portion of the three hours' drive. Hundreds +of agile, swarthy figures were busily boring, blasting, shoveling and +digging for the new railway, which is to convey next season shoals of +passengers and civilization, rightly or wrongly so called, into this +great yet primitive artery of Southern Tyrol, the Pusterthal already +forming, by means of the Ampezzo, a highway between Venice and the +Brenner Pass. As the morning advanced the busy sounds of labor ceased, +and we saw groups of dark-eyed men reclining in the shade of the rocks, +partaking of their frugal dinners of orange-colored polenta--_plenten_, +as our Seppl called it. + +So onward by soft slopes bordered by mountain-ridges, all scarped and +twisted, having dark green draperies of pine trees cast round their +strong limbs, with bees humming in the aromatic yet invigorating breeze +fresh from the snow-fields, and swallows wheeling in the clear blue air, +until we reached a fertile amphitheatre. A confusion of flourishing +villages was scattered over its verdant meadows, and here and there on a +jutting rock or mountain-spur a solitary mediaeval tower or imposing +castle stood forth, the most conspicuous of all being a fortress +situated on a natural bulwark of rock. Half around its base a little +town, which appeared stunted in its growth by the course of the river, +confidingly rested. A hill covered with wood screened the other side of +the castle, whilst exactly opposite a broad valley ran northward, hemmed +in by lofty snow-fields and glaciers that sparkled in the noonday sun. +Natural hummocks or knolls covered with wood broke the uniformity of +this upland plain, which still ascended eastward to the higher, bleaker +Upper Pusterthal. This valley continues to mount to yet more sterile +regions, until, reaching the great watershed of the Toblacher Plain, +which sends part of its streams to the Adriatic, the others to the more +distant Black Sea, it gradually dips down again to the fruitful +wine-regions of Lienz. + +[Illustration: BRUNECK.] + +We have now, however, to do with Bruneck, where our venerable 1990 had +safely deposited us at the modern inn, the Post. We might almost style +it the fashionable inn, for it was kept by a gentleman of noble birth +and the representative of the province, who, having a large family of +growing children, had wisely let his gentility take care of itself and +permitted his guests to be entertained at their own rather than at his +expense. As the noble landlady was suffering from headache, the dapper +waitress took charge of us, provided us with rooms, and then installed +us at the early _table-d'hote_, where a number of the officers of the +garrison, with some other regular diners, whom we learnt to recognize in +time as the town bailiff, the apothecary and the advocate, were +despatching, in the midst of great clatter and bustle, the inevitable +_kalbsfleisch_ and _mehlspeis_. + +The lady who had recommended us to go to the Pusterthal had likewise +assured us that the Post at Bruneck would satisfy all our requirements. +In this she was mistaken. It is true that tastes differ, especially +amongst tourists, who may be divided into two classes--those who merely +care for the country, let them disguise it as they will, when they can +endue it with the features of their town-life; and those who love the +country for the sake of Nature, and thus endeavor to carry trails of +freshness back with them to town. Now, it was all artificial dust and +din that we desired to get rid of. We had traveled in search of verdant +meadows, brawling streams and sweet-scented woods. We could not find +solace and relaxation in sitting at the windows of our respectable inn +to watch every passer-by on the dusty boulevard below, in spending half +the day indoors, let it be ever so comfortably, or in merely turning out +in the evening to shop in the puny town, whilst we bemoaned the want of +a circulating library and a brass band. It was even more intolerable, as +the Post had been built perversely with its back to the fine view of the +glaciers. Moreover, the whole establishment was in the hands of +bricklayers, painters and glaziers, who were enlarging and repairing it +for the comfort and convenience of future but certainly not of present +visitors. + +As trade was evidently flourishing, we had not the slightest hesitation +in ringing for Maria, the _kellnerin_, and consulting with her about the +mode of our procuring country lodgings as soon as possible. Maria was a +good-natured girl and willing to serve us, but our ideas could not be so +easily carried out as we had anticipated. One of us had the folly to +suggest vacant rooms being to let in the castle. + +"Gracious!" replied Maria, casting her eyes up to the sky. "In the +castle! Why, that's crown property, and filled with the military. +Really, I don't know how I can help you, since the gentlemen officers +have engaged for themselves every apartment inside or outside the town." + +We spoke of the many neighboring villages, which were filled with grand +old houses. + +Maria declared they were better outside than inside, and that the Bauers +who dwelt in them could scarcely find bedding for their cattle, much +less for Christian gentlefolks. "There is the Herr Apotheker's house at +Unterhofen, but he will not let that. There is the Hof at Adelsheim: +it's out of the question. There is also Frau Sieger's in the same +village, but that is let to the Herr Major for the season. Look you! you +had better go to Frau Sieger. Stay, I will send Lina with you." + +Lina proved to be one of the blossoms of the noble family tree. She led +my mother and me to Frau Sieger, but what came of our afternoon's +expedition deserves to be told in a fresh chapter. + + +CHAPTER II. + +Now, this house-hunting was a piece of business to be got through as +soon as possible. Nevertheless, three hours elapsed before we returned +to the hotel. We found the father and Margaret leaning their heads out +of a corridor window, and when we asked them what they were about, she +replied, "We have been wishing that the grand old mansion in yonder +village were only a _pension_, where we could obtain rooms. But have you +met with any success?" + +"A _pension_! That sounds like Meran or Switzerland, instead of this +primitive Pusterthal. Only let us have tea, and we will tell you what we +have done." + +"Very good! We will be patient; but you do not look dissatisfied with +your afternoon," said my father. + +Nor in truth were we. Sipping our mild tea, we related our adventures. +The little girl Lina had taken us into the town, which consisted of one +narrow street in the shape of a half-moon, where houses of all ages and +ranks squeezed against each other and peeped into each other's windows +with the greatest familiarity. In one of the largest of these Frau +Sieger lived. Her husband was the royal imperial tobacco agent, and the +house was crammed full of chests of the noxious and obnoxious weed, the +passages and landing being pervaded with a sweet, sickly smell of +decomposing tobacco. In the parlor, however, where Frau Sieger sat +drinking coffee with her lady friends, the aromatic odor of the beverage +acted as a disinfectant. The hostess drew us aside, listened +complacently to our message, and then graciously volunteered to let us +rooms under her very roof. + +We should have chosen chemical works in preference! There was, then, +nothing to be done but to take leave with thanks. Accompanied by the +little Lina, we passed under the town-gate, and whilst sorely perplexed +perceived a pleasant village, at the distance of about a mile, lying on +the hillside in a wealth of orchards and great barns. The way thither +led across fields of waving green corn, the point where the path +diverged from the high-road being marked by a quaint mediaeval shrine, +one of the many shrines which, sown broadcast over the Tyrol, are +intended to act as heavenly milestones to earth-weary pilgrims. + +[Illustration: ADELSHEIM--OUR HOME IN THE TYROL.] + +That was the village of Adelsheim, Lina said, where their own +country-house was situated, and Freieck, belonging to Frau Sieger; and +there, at the farther extremity of the village, was Schoenburg, where old +Baron Flinkenhorn lived. The biggest house of all on the hill was the +Hof, and that below, with the gables and turrets, the carpenter's. + +The bare possibility of finding a resting-place in that little Arcadia +made us determine to go thither. We would try the inn, and then the +carpenter's. + +The inn proved a little beer-shop, perfectly impracticable. A woman with +a bright scarlet kerchief bound round her head, who was washing outside +the carpenter's, told us in Italian that she and her husband, an +overseer on the new railway, occupied with their family every vacant +room, which was further confirmed by the carpenter popping his head out +of an upper window, and in answer to Lina's question giving utterance to +an emphatic "_Na, na, I hab koan_" ("No, no, I have none"). + +Lina was so sure that the Hofbauer would not let rooms, for he was a +wealthy man and owned land for miles around, that she stayed at a +respectful distance whilst we approached nearer to at least admire the +grand old mansion, even if it were closed against us as a residence. The +village was full of marvelous old houses rich in frescoes, oriel +windows, gables and turrets, but this dwelling, standing in a dignified +situation on an eminence, was a prince amongst its compeers. The +architecture, which was Renaissance, might belong to a bad style, but +the long slopes of roof, the jutting balconies, the rich iron-work on +the oblong facade, the painted sun-dial and the coats-of-arms now fading +away into oblivion, the grotesque gargoyle which in the form of a +dragon's head frowned upon the world,--each detail, that had once been +carefully studied, helped to form a complete whole which it was a +pleasure to look upon. The grand entrance, no longer used, was guarded +by a group of magnificent trees, the kings of the region. Traces of an +old pleasure-garden and the dried-up basin of a fountain were visible +within. + +At this point in the narrative Margaret exclaimed, "None other than my +would-be _pension_! I have known it from the first, so pray do not keep +me on tenterhooks. Were you or were you not successful? Yet all hope has +died within me already, for such a treasure-trove we never could get." + +"Well, listen," said the mother. "As we were admiring the house, a +handsome, fair-haired young man, one's perfect ideal of a peasant, came +along the road, bowed to us, and when we expressed our interest in the +mansion said that he was the son of the house, and that we might see the +rooms if we liked. Grand old rooms they are, with a great lack of +furniture, but nevertheless perfectly charming. The young man, who is +named Anton, thought his father would probably have no objection to let +us rooms. At all events, we could all go over and see the Hofbauer at +ten o'clock to-morrow morning, when he would be in: he was in his fields +this afternoon. The whole, in fact, was a pastoral poem." + +The next day we were as punctual as clock-work. A pleasant, comely young +peasant woman, who looked as if she had lived on fresh air all her life, +met us in the great stone entrance-hall. She told us that her father +would soon be at liberty, and that, with our permission, she would again +show us the rooms if we wished to see them. This promised well. Fetching +a huge bunch of handsome iron-wrought keys, she conducted us into the +great hall of the first floor, hung with large unframed pictures of the +Holy Sacrament. Then unlocking a handsome door which had once been green +and gold, we entered the vast reception-room, almost bereft of +furniture, but possessing a pine floor of milky whiteness and a +remarkably fine stove of faience eight feet high. My father measured the +length of the apartment: it was forty feet, and could have seated a +hundred guests. The casements were filled with old lozenge-shaped glass +set in lead, and the fine old iron trellis-work on the outside of the +windows gave a wonderfully mediaeval look to the apartment. There was, +moreover, a magnificent bay window, which formed a little room of +itself, besides a second room much less, which, with carved wood +wainscot and ceiling, could have served as an oratory. + +Margaret's delight was unbounded. The father smiled quietly, and we the +pioneers could scarcely refrain our pride and pleasure. But there was +more to be seen. Crossing the great hall once more, we entered a large +and beautiful room overlooking the main entrance. This had other +furniture besides its handsome porcelain stove and inlaid floor of dark +wood. There was not only a comfortable modern bed, but chairs, sofa and +table; a chest of drawers too, which was covered with innumerable +religious knickknacks--little sacred pictures in glass frames, miniature +saints, and artificial flowers in small china pots. Having dipped her +finger in a holy-water shell hanging on the wall, our guide drew back a +long chintz curtain which covered the end of the room, and showed us a +large and handsome chapel below. A fald-stool ran along the front of the +window which, with an additional lattice of gilt and carved wood, +separated the room from the church. This had evidently been in old times +the apartment of the lord and his lady, and here they had knelt and +listened to the holy office without mingling with their dependants +below. This room, if we had the good fortune to obtain lodgings in the +mansion, was to belong to the poetess, for it was full of inspiration +and old-world memories. + +Then out again into the hall and up another flight of stone stairs, +through a second great lobby into a corridor, which communicated on +either side with two charming rooms, spotlessly clean and perfectly +empty, if I except the stoves; but still, if we chose, these two rooms +could be Margaret's and mine, and the corridor as well, with a beautiful +balcony which commanded an enchanting view of the rich Pusterthal up and +down, right and left, with a row of jagged, contorted dolomite mountains +thrown into the bargain. All this was to be ours if only the Hofbauer +would have us. So down we went, casting longing looks around us--down +into the entrance-hall, where a crowd of poor people were streaming out +of the _stube_, the parlor of the family, such as in the midland +counties of England would be called the house-place, and so into the +grassy court in front, where we awaited with anxious hearts the fiat of +the Hofbauer. + +We were not long kept waiting. In another minute the master of the house +stood before us, a tall, thin, elderly man, dressed in the full costume +of the district--an embroidered cloth jacket, black leather breeches, +which displayed a broad band of naked knee, green ribbed stockings, +shoes and buckles, with a silver cord and tassel on his broad beaver +hat. Saluting us with the grace and ease of a courtier, he apologized +for keeping us waiting, but he had been entertaining the poor of the +parish at dinner, according to an old custom of his. These simple +Tyrolese dined, then, at ten o'clock in the morning! + +An elderly woman, also tall and spare, now appeared in a bright blue +linen apron, that half hid her thickly-plaited black woolen petticoat, +which was short enough to give full effect to scarlet knit stockings and +low, boat-shaped shoes. She carried in her hand a plate of large hot fat +cakes, which she pressed upon us; then pitied the smallness of our +appetites, and urged two apiece at least. Two mouthfuls, however, were +sufficient, as the cakes were not only extremely greasy, but filled with +white curds, aniseed and chives. Having received in good part this +intended hospitality, we were rejoiced to hear the Hofbauer express his +perfect willingness that we should take up our abode at the mansion. We +need merely pay him a trifle, but we must furnish ourselves the extra +bedsteads. Moidel, his daughter, could cook for us, for she understood +making dishes for bettermost people, having been sent by him to Brixen +for a year to learn cooking; for what was a moidel (maiden) good for +that could not cook? He should not make any charge for her services. +Also, if we saw any bits of furniture about the house that suited us we +might take them; and lastly, we could stay until Jacobi, the 25th of +July, but on that day the best bedroom must be given up, as it belonged +to his son, the student, who would return from Innsbruck about that day. +All this was charming. We promised to procure beds and bedding in +Bruneck, and arranged to take possession of our new quarters on the +following morning. + +I will not enter into the rashness of our promise respecting the +bedsteads, merely hinting at the difficulties and complications which +beset us. Some of these can be imagined when it is known that, firstly, +there proved not to be an upholsterer, nor even a seller of old +furniture, at Bruneck; and that, secondly, the officers and soldiers of +the garrison now quartered there occupied by night every available spare +bed in the township. So it seemed until in our embarrassment the +landlady of the Post arose from her bed to help us to procure some. The +interview ended again with the prudent advice, "Go to Frau Sieger." We +went, and that incomparable lady, who bore us no malice for refusing her +rooms, generously provided for a small sum three bedsteads and an +amazing, and what appeared to us superfluous, amount of bolsters, +pillows, feather beds, winter counterpanes; but she would hear no nay, +declaring, "It often turned very chilly in the Pusterthal, and at such +times a warm bed was a godsend." + +We now began to dream of beds of roses, but we were mistaken: we were +crying before we were out of the wood. We arrived at the Hof the +following afternoon with our bag and baggage, and found Moidel, +otherwise Maria, busily preparing the newly-erected bed in the +state-room. She received us cordially, until my mother, laying her shawl +on the bedstead belonging to the house, remarked that she wished that +for herself. + +Maria seemed suddenly thunderstruck. She turned a deep red, and with a +gesture of astonishment let drop a pillow, exclaiming, "Heavens alive! +that is the Herr Student's bed!" + +She fled from the chamber, bringing back her aunt to the rescue. The +latter looked stern and aggrieved. "Never, never! no one must lay his +head on that pillow but the student," she cried. Had my mother asked to +repose on the altar of the chapel they could not have been more +dumbfoundered. + +As Frau Sieger's beds were truly spare, and as she could merely provide +three, this second complication ended in the family giving up a bed of +their own--one which was adorned at the head and foot with a cross, a +bleeding heart and sacred monogram--one, in fact, which bore more marks +of sanctity about it than the sacred bed of the student. It was obvious +that this mysterious individual was consecrated to the Church, and that +even before his ordination all that he touched was holy. + +The storm had again given place to sunshine, and the two quiet women +passed gently to and fro with coarse but sweet-scented linen, which they +fetched from an old chest adorned with red tulips, a crown of thorns and +the legend "K. M., 1820," on a bright blue ground. Good old Kaetana! +That chest had once been crammed full to overflowing with linen which, +like other young women, she had spun for her own dowry, but when the +Hofbauerin died Kathi became the housekeeper and mother to the little +children. Thus the contents of the chest had gradually decreased, until +the maiden aunt drew forth the four last pair of new sheets for these +passing strangers. She felt it no sacrifice. It would have grieved her +more to touch the piles of fine new linen which she and Moidel had spun +through many a long winter evening, and which were now safely hidden +away in the great mahogany wardrobe, which the Hofbauer, in harmony with +the more luxurious ideas of the age, had given to his daughter. It +occupied the place of honor in the great saloon, having three companion +chests of drawers of lesser dimensions, which the father at the same +time had presented to each of his sons. That of the eldest, Anton, was +emptied by the owner and placed by him at our disposal; that of the +second, the student, was carefully guarded from the sun by a covering +formed of newspapers; the third, belonging to Jacobi, the youngest, +appeared to us filled with books. Jacob was shy, and some days elapsed +before we became acquainted. Anton, however, appeared modestly ready to +attend to our least beck and call. The first evening, perceiving that we +had no candlesticks, we conferred with Anton. + +"Freilich," he said. "We have none of our own, but I am sure that, as +you will take care of them, there can be no great harm in lending you +some of the Virgin's." We demurred at first, but with a smile on his +open, ingenuous face he added, "The Herrschaft may be quite sure that I +would not sin against my conscience." He then brought half a dozen +plated candlesticks from the little sacristy, which he committed to our +care. + +The reader must not suppose that this was a disused chapel: far from it. +In the dusk of the summer evening a murmuring chant like the musical hum +of bees pervaded the vast old mansion, which was otherwise hushed in +perfect silence. It was the Rosenkranz (or rosary) repeated by the +household in the chapel. The Hofbauer knelt on one side near the altar, +and led the service, his two sons, the four men-servants, the aunt and +Moidel, with the three maid-servants, reciting the responses on their +respective sides. The even-song over, the household quietly retired to +rest. + +Chance had graciously brought us to the Hof in the midst of preparations +for the festival of the Holy Father. On Sunday, June 18, the whole +Catholic world was to celebrate the astounding fact of Pio Nono having +exceeded the days of Saint Peter. We, who had come from Rome, where +thirty upstart papers were denouncing time-honored usages and formulas, +where many of the people had begun to sneer at the Papacy and to take +gloomy views of the Church, were not prepared for the religious fervor +and devotion to the Papal See which greeted us in the Tyrol, especially +at Bruneck, where from time immemorial a race of the staunchest +adherents to Rome had flourished. The mere fact that we came from the +Eternal City clothed us with brilliant but false colors. Endless were +the questions put to us about the health and looks of the Holy Father, +whom they believed to be kept in a dungeon and fed on bread and water--a +diet, however, turned into heavenly food by the angels. Perhaps the most +perplexing question of all was, whether the Herr Baron Flinkenhorn, who +had been born in exactly the same year as the Holy Father, bore the +faintest resemblance to that saintly martyr. We could but shake our +heads as the old nobleman was pointed out to us on the morning of the +festival. Decrepit and bent with age, he shuffled along by the side of +his old tottering sister, an antiquated couple dressed in the French +fashions of 1810. They hardly perceived, so blind and old were they, the +bows and greetings which they received. They knew, however, that it was +Pio's festival, and they made great offerings to the Church and to the +poor. + +Deafness even has its compensations. Thus this old couple had not been +kept awake all night by the ringing of bells and the firing of small +cannon, which had continued incessantly since the setting of the sun had +ushered in the festival on the previous evening. The firing lasted all +day--a popular but very startling and disturbing mode of expressing joy +and satisfaction. Bruneck wreathed and flagged its houses: there were +processions, the prettiest being considered that of the female pupils of +the convent of the Sacred Heart, who walked in white, bearing lilies. At +night the good Sisters made a grand display of sacred transparencies in +their convent windows--rhymes about the age of Saint Peter and the Pope; +the Virgin rescuing the sinking vessel of the Church; Saint Peter seated +on his emblematic rock, with his present successor at his side; and so +forth--all wondered, gaped at and admired by the people, until the great +spectacle of the evening commenced. As soon as night had fairly set in a +hundred fires blazed upon the mountains--far as the eye could reach, for +miles and many miles, one dazzling gigantic illumination. Papal +monograms, crosses, tiaras shone forth in startling proportions. High +up, far from any human habitation, on the verge of the snow, in +clearings of the mountain forests, on Alpine pastures, these fiery +letters had been patiently traced by toiling men and lads. Anton and +Jacobi were not behind-hand, and by means of two hundred little bonfires +had devised the papal initials on the upland common behind the house. +The illumination, however, had not begun to reach its full splendor when +one quick flash of lightning succeeded another, followed by a rolling +artillery of thunder, the precursors of heavy down-pouring rain. In five +minutes the storm had extinguished every bright emblem, and plunged the +illuminated mountains into impenetrable blackness. The weather, grimly +triumphant, drove lads and lasses drenched to their homes. So ended the +festival, but in the morning, in dry clothes, every one had the pleasure +of imagining how beautiful the spectacle would have been but for the +rain. + +MARGARET HOWITT. + +[TO BE CONTINUED.] + + + + +WILMINGTON AND ITS INDUSTRIES. + +CONCLUDING PAPER. + + +[Illustration: OLD SWEDES' CHURCH.] + +We have pointed out the metropolis of Delaware as being a distinctly +Northern city, planted in the distinct South. Among other things, this +complication has led to some singularities in its settlement. As a +community regulated by the most liberal traditions of Penn, but placed +under the legal conditions of a slave State, it has held a position +perfectly anomalous. No other spot could be indicated where the +contrasts of North and South came to so sharp an edge; and there are few +where a skilled pen could set down so many curiosities of folk-lore and +confusions of race. The Dutch, the Swedes and the English Quakers formed +the substratum, upon which were poured the _emigres_ of the French +Revolution and the fugitives from Santo Domingo. The latter sometimes +brought slaves who had continued faithful, and who retained their +serfdom under the laws of Delaware. The French _bonnes_ stood on +washing-benches in the Brandywine, and taught the amazed Quaker wives +that laundry-work could be done in cold water. The names of grand old +French families, prefaced by the proprietarial forms of _le_ and _du_, +became mixed by marriage with such Swedish names as Svensson and such +Dutch names as Staelkappe. (The first Staelkappe was a ship's cook, +nicknamed from his oily and glossy bonnet.) As for the refugees from +Santo Domingo, they absolutely invaded Wilmington, so that the price of +butter and eggs was just doubled in 1791, and house-rents rose in +proportion. They found themselves with rapture where the hills were rosy +with peach-blossoms, and where every summer was simply an extract from +Paradise. + +We cannot linger, as we fain would do, over the quaint and amusing +_Paris en Amerique_ which reigned here for a period following the events +of '93. At Sixth and French streets lived a marchioness in a cot, which +she adorned with the manners of Versailles, the temper of the Faubourg +St. Germain and the pride of Lucifer. This Marquise de Sourci was +maintained by her son, who made pretty boxes of gourds, and afterward +boats, in one of which he was subsequently wrecked on the Delaware, +before the young marquis was of age to claim his title. In a farm-house, +whose rooms he lined with painted canvas, lived Colonel de Tousard. On +Long Hook Farm resided, in honor and comfort, Major Pierre Jaquette, son +of a Huguenot refugee who married a Swedish girl, and became a Methodist +after one of Whitefield's orations: as for the son, he served in +thirty-two pitched battles during our Revolution. Good Joseph Isambrie, +the blacksmith, used to tell in provincial French the story of his +service with Bonaparte in Egypt, while his wife blew the forge-bellows. +_Le Docteur_ Bayard, a rich physician, cured his compatriots for +nothing, and Doctor Capelle, one of Louis XVI.'s army-surgeons, set +their poor homesick old bones for them when necessary. Monsieur +Bergerac, afterward professor in St. Mary's College, Baltimore, was a +teacher: another preceptor, M. Michel Martel, an _emigre_ of 1780, was +proficient in fifteen languages, five of which he had imparted to the +lovely and talented Theodosia Burr. Aaron Burr happened to visit +Wilmington when the man who had trained his daughter's intellect was +lying in the almshouse, wrecked and paralytic, with the memory of all +his many tongues gone, except the French. Some benevolent Wilmingtonians +approached Burr in his behalf, showing the colonel's own letter which +had introduced him to the town. + +[Illustration: GRACE CHURCH.] + +"I wrote that letter when I _knew_ him," said the diplomatic Colonel +Burr, "but I know him no more." + +The day quickly came when Burr's speech of denial was reflected upon +himself, and those who then honored him "knew him no more." + +Another French teacher, by the by, was not of Gallic race, but that of +Albion _le perfide_: this was none other than William Cobbett, with his +reputation all before him, known only to the Wilmington millers for the +French lessons he gave their daughters and the French grammar he had +published. He lived on "Quaker Hill" from 1794 to 1796. He then went to +Philadelphia, and began to publish _Peter Porcupine's Gazette_. "I mean +to shoot my quills," said Cobbett, "wherever I can catch game." With the +sinews of Wilmington money he soon made his way back to England, became +a philosopher, and sat in the House of Commons. Another British exile +was Archibald Hamilton Rowan, an Irish patriot, and one of the "United +Irishmen" of 1797. Escaping from a Dublin jail in woman's clothes, he +found his way to Wilmington after adventures like those of Boucicault's +heroes; lived here several years in garrets and cottages, carrying +fascination and laughter wherever he went among his staid neighbors; and +after some years flew back to Ireland, glorious as a phoenix, resuming +the habits proper to his income of thirty thousand pounds a year. + +[Illustration: WEST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.] + +A familiar figure on the wharves of Wilmington was the gigantic one of +Captain Paul Cuffee, looking like a character in a masquerade. His +athletic limbs forced into the narrow garments of the Quakers, and a +brim of superior development shading his dark negro face, he talked +sea-lingo among the trading captains, mixed with phrases from Robert +Barclay and gutturals picked up on the coast of Sierra Leone. Captain +Cuffee owned several vessels, manned by sailors as black as shoemaker's +wax, and he conducted one of his ships habitually to the African ports. +Coming back rich from Africa, this figure of darkness has often led its +crew of shadows into port at the Brandywine mouth, passing modestly +amongst the whalers and wheat-shallops, dim as the Flying Dutchman and +mum as Friends' meeting. It is possible that from some visit of his +arose the legend that Blackbeard, the terrible pirate, who always hid +his booty on the margins of streams, had used the Brandywine for this +purpose. At any rate, some clairvoyants, in their dreams, saw in 1812 +the glittering pots of Blackbeard's gold lying beneath the rocks of +Harvey's waste-land, next to Vincent Gilpin's mill. They paid forty +thousand dollars for a small tract, and searched and found nothing; but +Job Harvey hugged his purchase money. + +[Illustration: ST. JOHN'S PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH.] + +Latrobe the architect lived here in the first quarter of the century, +midway between Philadelphia (where he was building waterworks and banks) +and Washington (where he was seating a young nation in legislative halls +worthy of its greatness); using Wilmington meanwhile as a pleasant +retirement, where he could wear his thinking-cap, educate his beautiful +young daughter, and mix with the French and other cultured society of +the place. Here, too, about fifty years ago, a pretty French girl used +to play and eat peaches, maintained by funds mysteriously supplied from +Louisiana, and ignorant of all connections except a peculating guardian. +It was little Myra Clark (now Mrs. Gaines), who woke up one day to find +herself the heroine of the greatest of modern lawsuits, and the credited +possessor of a large part of New Orleans--the same who has recently +gained a million, while she expects to gain a million more, and to be +richer than Lady Burdett-Coutts. + +Thus has the pretty city ever played its part as a storing-house where +things and people and ideas might be set by to ripen. It is not +wonderful that it now and then found itself, quite unintentionally, a +museum, where the far-brought rarities were living souls. In a heavenly +climate, just where the winged songsters of the South held tryst with +those of the North, and where the plants of both latitudes embowered the +gardens together, Nature arranged a new garden wherein were brought +together almost all the races that had diverged from Babel. + +The antiquities we have been examining, however, yield in age to the +venerable walls which were built to shelter a worship no longer +promulgated among us. The Swedes' churches of Philadelphia and +Wilmington are among the oldest civilized fabrics to be found in this +new country of ours. That of Wilmington was built in 1698, and that at +Wicaco in Philadelphia in 1700. Rudman, a missionary from Sweden, +preached the first sermon to the Wilmingtonians in May, 1699; and after +him a succession of Swedish apostles arrived, trembling at their own +courage, and feeling as our preachers would do if assigned to posts in +Nova Zembla or Patagonia. The salary offered was a hundred rixdollars, +with house and glebe, and the creed was the Lutheran doctrines according +to "the Augsburg Confession of Faith, free from all human superstition +and tradition." Dutch ministers alternated peaceably with the Swedish +ones, who bore such Latinized names as Torkillus, Lokenius, Fabricius, +Hesselius, Acrelius. The last wrote in his own language an excellent +history of the Swedish settlements on the Delaware, only a part of which +has been rendered into English by the New York Historical Society. +William Penn proved his tolerance by giving the little church a folio +Bible and a shelf of pious books, together with a bill of fifty pounds +sterling. The building was planted half a mile away from the then city, +in the village of Christinaham. Its site was on the banks of the +Christine, and its congregation, in the comparative absence of roads, +came in boats or sleighs, according to the season. The church was well +built of hard gray stone, with fir pews and a cedar roof: iron letters +fixed in the walls spelled out such holy mottoes as "LUX L. I. TENEBR. +ORIENS EX ALTO," and "SI DE. PRO NOBIS QUIS CONTRA NOS," and +commemorated side by side the names of William III., king of England, +William Penn, proprietary, and Charles XI. of Sweden. Swedish services +were continued up to about the epoch of the Revolution, when, the +language being no longer intelligible in the colony, they were merged +into English ones: the last Swedish commissary, Girelius, returned by +order of the archbishop in 1786, and the intercourse between the +American Swedish churches and the ecclesiastical see in the fatherland +ceased for ever. The oldest headstone in the churchyard is that of +William Vandevere, who died in 1719. Service was long celebrated by +means of the chalice and plate sent over by the Swedish copper-miners to +Biorch, the first missionary at Cranehook, and the Bible given by Queen +Anne in 1712. The sexes sat separately. In our grandfathers' day the old +sanctuary used to be dressed for Christmas by the sexton, Peter Davis: +he was a Hessian deserter, with a powder-marked face and murderous +habits toward the English language. Descending from their sledges and +jumpers, the congregation would crowd toward the bed of coals raked out +in the middle of the brick floor from the old cannon stove: to do this +they must brush by the cedars which "Old Powderproof" had covered with +flour, in imitation of snow; and then Dutch Peter, as they complimented +him on his efforts, would whisper the astonishing invocation, "God be +tankful for all dish plessins and tings!" + +[Illustration: CAR-BUILDING WORKS.] + +[Illustration: RESIDENCE OF JOB JACKSON, ESQ.] + +Modern improvement has a particular spite against the landmarks of +antiquity. The railroad to Baltimore slices off a part of the Swedish +graveyard--an institution much more ancient than the church which stands +on it. And the rock by old Fort Christina, upon which Governor +Stuyvesant--Irving's Stuyvesant--stood on his silver leg and took the +surrender of the Swedish governor-general, is now quarried out and +reconstructed into Delaware Breakwater. + +Doubtless we dwell too fondly on the old memories, but it appears that +the souvenirs of this region are somewhat remarkable for their contrast +of nationalities. Perhaps the colonization of other spots would yield +better romances than any we have to offer; yet we cannot help feeling +that a better pen than ours would find brilliant matter for literary +effects in the paradise revealed to good Elizabeth Shipley by her +dream-guide. + +Delawarean Wilmington is perhaps hardly known to the general public +except through two of its products. Everybody buys Wilmington matches, +and everybody knows that Du Pont's powder is made in the vicinity. +Ignoring the foundries and shipyards, the popular imagination recognizes +but these two commodities--the powder which could blow up the +obstructions to all the American harbors, and the match which could +touch off the train. A million dollars' worth of gunpowder and three +hundred thousand dollars' worth of matches are the annual product. + +[Illustration: CAR-WHEEL CASTING WORKS.] + +Eleuthere Irenee Du Pont, a French gentleman of honorable family, +appeared in Wilmington in 1802. The town had at that time hardly three +thousand inhabitants. He amazed all the quidnuncs by buying, for fifty +thousand dollars, Rumford Dawes' old tract of rocks on the Brandywine, +which everybody knew was perfectly useless. The stranger was pitied as +he began to blast away the stone. Out of a single rock, separated into +fragments, he built a cottage: it was a lonely spot, and the snakes from +the fissures were in the habit of sharing the contents of his +well-bucket. Such was the beginning of the Eleuthere Powder-works. M. Du +Pont, who died some forty years ago, was much beloved for his +benevolence and probity. In 1825, La Fayette, during his celebrated +visit of reminiscence, was the guest of the brave old Frenchman for +several days, during which he examined the battle-ground of Brandywine. +He here received the ball with which he got his wound in that battle, +from the hands of Bell McClosky, a kind of camp-follower and nurse, who +had extracted the bullet with her scissors and preserved it. The +general wrote in the album of Mademoiselle Du Pont the following +graceful sentiment: + + "After having seen, nearly half a century ago, the bank of the + Brandywine a scene of bloody fighting, I am happy now to find + it the seat of industry, beauty and mutual friendship. + + "LA FAYETTE. + + "JULY 25, 1825." + +While on a Revolutionary topic we may mention that among a great many +relics of '76 preserved in the town is the sword of General Wayne--"Mad +Anthony"--a straight, light blade in leather scabbard, possessed by Mr. +W. H. Naff. + +[Illustration: JESSUP & MOORE'S PAPER-MILLS.] + +The citizens of this pleasant town have ever been orderly and pious, +just as they have ever been loyal. Their religious institutions have +grown and flourished. Godfearing and unspeculative, they have attached +themselves to such creeds as appealed most powerfully to the heart with +the least possible admixture of form. "The words _Fear God_" says +Joubert, "have made many men pious: proofs of the existence of God have +made many men atheists." Since the day when Whitefield poured out his +eloquence among the Brandywine valleys and touched the hearts of the +French exiles, Methodism, with its almost entire absence of dogma, has +had great success in the community. This success is now indicated by a +rich congregation, and a church-building that would be called noble in +any city. Grace Church, on Ninth and West streets, is a large Gothic +temple, seating nearly eight hundred persons--warmed, frescoed and +heavily carpeted inside, and walled externally with brownstone mixed +with the delicate pea-green serpentine of Chadd's Ford. The architect +was a native Wilmingtonian--Thomas Dixon--now of Baltimore. The windows, +including a very brilliant oriel, are finely stained: the font is a +delicate piece of carving, the organ is grand, and the accommodations +for Sunday-schools and lectures are of singular perfection. Few shrines +in this country show better the modern movement of Methodism toward +luxury and elegance, as compared with the repellant humiliations of +Wesley's day. + +It is to be hoped that this advance in attractiveness does not indicate +any lapse in the more solid qualities of spiritual earnestness. +"Whenever this altar," well said Bishop Simpson in dedicating +the building on the centenary anniversary of the rise of +Methodism--"whenever this altar shall be too fine for the poorest +penitent sinner to kneel here, the Spirit of God will depart, and that +of Ichabod will come in." + +We have indicated the Swedish Lutheran missionaries exhorting under the +roof of their antique church in a language which their congregations +were beginning to forget, and afterward in a broken English hardly more +intelligible. Their place is largely taken now by predicators of the +faith of John Knox, with a plentiful following of pious believers. Among +the family of Presbyterian kirks in Wilmington the youngest is a large +brick edifice built in 1871, for sixty-one thousand dollars, on Eighth +and Washington streets, able to seat nearly a thousand persons, most +comfortably and invitingly furnished, and supplied with lecture-, +infant- and Sunday-school-rooms, together with a huge kitchen, +suggesting the _agapae_ or love-feasts of the primitive Christians. +Meantime, Anglicanism does not lack supporters. The descendants of +Monsieur Du Pont, cultured and influential, have done much to advance +the creed, and about fifteen years ago Mr. Alexis I. Du Pont, pulling +down a low tavern in the suburbs, prepared to erect a church upon the +site, to be built mainly through his own liberality. Unhappily, Mr. Du +Pont died from the effects of an explosion at the powder-works ten weeks +after the laying of the corner-stone; but the building was soon +completed through the pious munificence of his widow, and the Bible of +St. John's Protestant Episcopal Church now rests on its lectern upon the +site of the old liquor-bar, and the gambling-den of former days is +replaced by its pews. The rector is Mr. T. Gardiner Littell, a man of +eminent goodness and intelligence. St. John's has a beautiful open roof, +stained windows and a fine organ: it can offer seats to seven hundred +worshipers. + +[Illustration: "AT THE SIGN OF SHAKESPEARE."] + +These few specimen churches--and especially the last, which blots out a +grogshop--are good instances, with the large congregations they +accommodate, of the way in which a sane, flourishing manufacturing +community provides for the spiritual needs of its members. The tone and +moral well-being which Boz found, or thought he found, among the +operatives at Lowell are largely realized here. But our picture of +Wilmington as a hive of industry is not yet complete, and before we +enter upon the highly-interesting problem of its dealings with its +working family, we should enter a few more of its sample manufactories. + +[Illustration: OFFICE OF THE DAILY COMMERCIAL.] + +Take car-building, for an example, in which the reputation of this town +is known to the initiated of all the States and many foreign countries. +Travelers are at this moment spinning in Wilmington-made +railway-carriages over the extremest parts of North and South America, +admiring, through Wilmington-made windows, every possible variety of +winter and tropical scenery, on which they comment in English, German, +French, Spanish and all civilized languages. Such a migratory product as +a rail-car is an active messenger of fame for the place of its +fabrication. We examine, as a fair type, the Jackson and Sharp Company's +works, claimed to be the largest in the New World, and only exceeded by +a few British and Continental establishments. The buildings have +frontage upon the Brandywine and Christine streams, as well as on the +principal railroad. Here are a congeries of two-story buildings, which +are together fifteen hundred feet in length by a width of seventy feet. +Five miles of heating-pipes warm the rooms for a thousand workmen. There +is something logical and consecutive in the arrangement here, which +makes it the best spot on the face of the earth for an enthusiast who +should wish to demonstrate, what all loyal Americans believe in, the +vast superiority of our form of railway-carriage. The cars proceed, in +perfectly regular order, from raw material to completion with the +progressive march of a quadratic equation in algebra. They seem to be +arranged to demonstrate a theory. First the visitor sees lumber in +stock, a million feet of it; then, across one end of a long room, the +mere sketch or transparent diagram of a car; then, a car broadly filled +in; and so on, up to the last glorious result, upholstered with velvet +and smelling of varnish. The cars are on rails, upon which they move, +side on, as if by a principle of growth, the undeveloped ones +perpetually pushing up their more forward predecessors, until the last +perfect carriage is ejected from the fifteen-hundredth foot of the +building's length. Each one, gathering material and ornament as it rolls +steadily along in its crablike side-fashion, becomes at last a vehicle +of perfect luxury; and then, with one final plunge into the open air, it +leaves its diversely-destined neighbors, and changes for ever its +sidelong motion for the forward roll which will carry it through a long +existence. A very large proportion of this company's work is on "palace" +cars of the Pullman type, those extravagances of luxury of which Europe +is just now applying to Wilmington to learn the lesson. Narrow-gauge +cars for the West, in supplying which they are the pioneers, gaudy cars +for South America, and sturdy, solid ones for Canada, are all gently +riding forward, side to side, in this inexorable chain of destiny, and +diverging at the front door on their widely-different errands. Besides +the manufacture of cars, the company builds every sort of coasters and +steamers. The class of workmen it employs is often of a particularly +high grade. German painters quote Kotzebue and sing the songs of Uhland +as they weave their graceful harmonies of line and color over the +panels; and the sculptors who carve antique heads over the doorways of +palace cars make the place merry with studio jokes from the Berlin +Academy. It is evident that a community of artists like this, furnishing +the aesthetic department to an immense manufactory, will also elevate the +tone of the industrial society outside, if they can but be kept free +from vice and supplied with means of culture; more of which anon. +Meantime, as a kind of standard of what the manufacturers themselves +arrive at in prosecuting the amenities of life, we will quote the fine +residence of Mr. Job Jackson, a magnate of the company. + +The wheel on which the car is mounted is of course another specialty, +turned off in another manufactory. We leave the rooms where the work +goes on with easy smoothness like a demonstration in a lecture-hall, and +come to raging, roaring, deafening furnaces and hammers. The +hollow-chested artists give way to cyclops. Here we are in the Lobdell +Car-wheel Company's premises. Negligently leaning up against each other, +like wafers in the tray of an ink-stand, are wheels that will presently +whiz over the landscapes of Russia, of Mexico, of England; wheels that +will behave rashly and heat their axles; wheels that will lie turned up +in the air at the bottoms of viaducts; and wheels that in various ways +will see astonishing adventures, because in railway-transit there are +telescopings and wheels within wheels. The English and the foreign trade +of the Lobdell Company is due to its manufacture of wheels in the +material or process lately known as chilled iron. This manufacture has +not yet penetrated the British intellect. Take the foreman of an English +car-manufactory, tell him that you will supply him a wheel about as +durable as a wheel with a steel tire at less than half the cost, and he +will laugh at you for an impudent idiot. But they _use_ our wheels. The +"chilling" of iron, when poured into a mould partly iron-faced, is very +singular: as the melted metal hardens against the metallic boundary, its +granulation changes to a certain depth, and the outside becomes +excessively strong: species of crystals seem to form, presenting their +ends to the surface, and meeting the wear and tear there to be +experienced. The use of this fact secures, in many manufactures, a +hardness approaching that of steel, without increase of cost. This +company employs the process both for car-wheels and for the large +cylinders (or "rolls") used in paper-mills. It is not to be supposed +that the work is all rude and rough, like ordinary iron casting. The +polishing of the large cylinders almost suggests diamond-cutting, it is +so fine. So true is the finish that a pair of these broad rolls, perhaps +five feet across, may be approached so near each other that the light +showing between them is decomposed: a blade of blue or violet light, +inexpressibly thin and of the width of the cylinders, passes through the +entire distance. As for the "chilling" of iron, it was applied first to +wheels in Baltimore, in 1833, by Mr. Ross Winans; and then, during the +same year, Mr. Bonney and his nephew, George G. Lobdell, established the +business we see, which has gradually grown to its present capacity of +three hundred wheels per day. + +[Illustration: FOUNTAIN.] + +[Illustration: "IN MEMORY OF THE SOLDIERS AND SAILORS OF DELAWARE WHO +FELL IN THE STRUGGLE FOR THE UNION."] + +The use of such cylinders as we have just seen under the difficult +process of polishing is only understood when we explore some large +paper-mill, where they take the place of the old-fashioned frame of wire +gauze which produced the hand-made paper. We may select the splendid +works of Messrs. Jessup & Moore on the Brandywine. Our welcome is sure +to be a cordial one, for among the largest customers of the firm are the +publishers of _Lippincott's Magazine_. The process of paper-making by +the Fourdrinier machine was so fully explained in our Number for last +November that it is useless now to repeat the details. But it would +never do to leave the Brandywine without a glance at least at one of its +principal manufactures. The mill of Jessup & Moore uses the strength of +the torrent as an auxiliary to its steam-power of seven hundred and +fifty horses. The machinery is made by Pusey, Jones & Co., whose iron +ships and machine-shops we have already examined: the rolls of admirable +accuracy are from the shops of J. Morton Poole & Co. The paper-making +process--the vast revolving boiler of twelve feet by twenty-six; the +countless sacks of filthy rags, that have clothed peasants of the Black +Forest, beggars on the steps of St. Peter's and Egyptian fellahs; their +reduction to purity, and hardening from pulp to snowy continuities of +endless, marginless paper,--all this is of rare interest in the +watching, but has been told until the public is satiated. We leave the +banks of the Brandywine and the wharves of Christine, and try to lose +ourselves in the thickly-built heart of the city. + +Even here the implacable business spirit exhibits itself at every turn. +In place of the placid millers and quaint refugees of the last century +at their doors, we see the shops, the storehouses of manufacturers' +supplies, the hotel and the theatre; and, pervading all, the vast throng +of artisans, providing such problems of local government and education +as the last century never dreamed of. + +[Illustration: HIGH-SCHOOL.] + +In almost all the industries of the city you are struck by the ancestral +aspect of the trades, the continuance of a business from father to son, +or the gradual change of firms by the absorption of partners. Boughman, +Thomas & Co., established in a handsome, modern-looking bookstore, +represent a business as old as 1793, uninterrupted since the time when +the founder, James Wilson, hung the sign of Shakespeare at his door. The +young girl of the period, who goes to their place from one of the model +seminaries of which Wilmington is so full to buy a little paper for +confidential notes or perhaps a delicate valentine, sees the old brown +advertisement framed against the wall, and behind it, in sign-painting +of her great-grandfather's time, the head of him who wrote _Romeo and +Juliet_. + +While in this literary vein we would say a word of the newspapers. +These, the true finger-posts of thought in a community, are apt in +manufacturing cities to be conservative and timid, as trade is timid. +The very special attitude of Wilmington, however--a Yankee town in +perpetual protest with a Bourbon State--has inspired its press with +peculiar political energy. No more vehement Republican organ can be +found in the land, for instance, than the Wilmington _Commercial_: it is +not in its columns that you will see ingenious defences of the +whipping-post at Newcastle or of the crushing taxes levied at Dover, +whereby a lazy State feeds greedily upon a hard-working metropolis. The +_Commercial_ (Jenkins & Atkinson) is a staunch Administration sheet, +sound on the subject of industrial protection, and highly appreciated by +the manufacturers. Founded in 1866, it was, we believe, the sole daily +until eighteen months ago, when some of the sober-sided weeklies began +to understand that they must bestir themselves and put forth a diurnal +appearance. The _Gazette_ (C. P. Johnson), a paper nearly one hundred +years old, now appears daily, and expresses the opinions of the State +Assembly, where the Senate has but a single Republican member, and the +House of Representatives stands fourteen Democrats to seven Republicans. +Here the conservative thought of Kent and Sussex counties is kneaded up +into the requisite coherency and eloquence. _Every Evening_ (Croasdale & +Cameron), a smart paper without political bias, flies around the city as +the shadows begin to lengthen, selling at one cent a sheet, and liked by +everybody. + +[Illustration: HOUSE OF COLONEL HENRY McCOMB.] + +To be candid, however, we do not suspect that this unique old city +thinks through its newspapers. The circumstances here are so peculiar, +the neighborhood so close, activity so concentrated, and the +circumjacent neighborhood so little congenial, that an order of things +has been established unusual in modern times. Mind acts on mind by +personal contact; the strong men meet and support each other; the Board +of Trade assembles daily in beautiful rooms, and discusses every +interest as quickly as it arises. It is like the order of things of old, +ere the press and telegraph undertook to express our views before we had +formed them ourselves. We are reminded of the guilds of labor in ancient +Flanders or the _fondachi_ of Venice. The State of Delaware, meanwhile, +comes up and looks in at the windows, only half satisfied with the rapid +fortunes making by the civic trades. What the Delaware yeomen know is, +that they have broad acres of sunny land, on which they are perpetually +wanting advances of money. They therefore instruct their legislators to +fix a legal rate of interest, and to fix it low. The abuse which +naturally follows on this blind policy is, that the wealth created by +the splendid industries of Wilmington is constantly leaving the State to +seek investment where usury is not kept down by old-fashioned +legislation. Richard Burton, the Anatomist of Melancholy, saw a somewhat +similar state of things among the unproductive and ale-tippling scholars +with whom he lived at Oxford, but he was keen enough to feel an envy of +the livelier marts of commerce. "How many goodly cities could I reckon +up," says Burton, "that thrive wholly by trade, where thousands of +inhabitants live singular well by their fingers' ends! As Florence in +Italy by making cloth of gold; great Milan by silk and all curious +works; Arras in Artois by those fair hangings; many cities in Spain, +many in France, Germany, have none other maintenance, especially those +within the land.... In most of _our_ cities" (continues the mortified +Englishman), "some few excepted, we live wholly by tippling-inns and +ale-houses." + +[Illustration: CLAYTON HOUSE.] + +The average Delawarean of 1873 is the average Oxford gossip of 1620, +with the scholarship left out. But he has the unfortunate advantage for +mischief that he is in a position to enact laws over the producers of +"all curious works." These anomalies, however, must soon pass away with +the march of the age, leaving Wilmington less individual perhaps, but +more free. + +[Illustration: OPERA-HOUSE AND MASONIC HALL.] + +How deftly, by the by, Burton picks up the distinction between an inland +city, living by handicraft, and a port city, handling weighty materials +and feeding freely on commerce! His livers by their finger-ends are +especially "those within the land." Just so the great capital of France, +arbitrarily concentred amongst her provinces, and deprived of a port, +can only thrive by her exceptional genius in fine and easily-moved +_articles de Paris_. The site now under our consideration, however, +means to have no such one-sided success. If her horoscope be not cast +amiss, this American Glasgow will both make whatever human ingenuity can +make, and she will also distribute. One of the first things she intends +to do is to tap the stream of food, fuel and lumber destined for the +South, and now laid up in the winter in Philadelphia by the closing of +the Delaware, and send it to the Southern consumer by her cheap +water-transport. Connected with this enterprise will be the +multiplication of her steam colliers, ultimately scattering the crop of +breadstuffs to the South Atlantic and Gulf States (if not the Eastern), +and coming home with ballast of the varied iron ores those States abound +in. When Delaware Bay begins to be whitened with the sails of returning +coal-vessels, or lashed with the wheels of steam carriers, bringing in +the oxides and magnetite ores of North Carolina and the hematite and +other varieties of the extreme South, to mix with the rail-brought ores +of interior localities, then Wilmington proposes to be the chosen centre +of industry in cast iron. This production, it is now well understood, is +no longer carried on most advantageously in the neighborhood of any one +great natural deposit of ore. The important thing is to be at a meeting +of all varieties of the metal: chemistry then selects the proportions +for mixture, and the best stock is produced with scarcely any greater +expense than the lowest grade. The situation at the head of Delaware Bay +is one where every choice of the ores can be easily swept together by +rail or water. It also controls fuel, by both means of carriage, from +either of the great anthracite regions--a matter of special importance +in this time of "strikes," as the operatives of both districts rarely +throw up work at the same time. Wilmington thus proposes to obtain its +iron at three dollars per ton less than Pittsburg. + +[Illustration: PARLOR-MATCH FACTORY.] + +To properly digest these advantages, the city needs a large furnace, +centrally located, to work for all the foundries and forges of the +place. This construction is now being earnestly advocated, and will +doubtless soon take form. + +Thus we see the northernmost of the slave-State cities leaping up to +catch first the advantages of perfect commercial union under the new +regime. Affiliated with the South, inspired by the North, we should +watch her as a standard and a type. + +Meantime, her labor problem, as a city crammed with proletarians, she +meets with consummate tranquillity. The paternal relations between the +good old Brandywine millers and their journeymen are continued through +the immense operations of the present day. A singular harmony has thus +far subsisted between employers and employed: the prosperity and calm +which travelers used to praise among the operatives of New England mills +are perhaps now best seen here. To this result both Nature and man +contribute. The country round about is so bounteous, is such a garden, +that the pay of the workman represents a far higher grade of social life +than anywhere else in manufacturing regions. Rents so far are low, but a +beneficent system is in active operation amongst the working-classes +which helps a man to own his own house, and avoid the teasing periodical +drain of rent. + +This is the associative system, here in faultless operation, by which +the fragments of a large piece of ground are paid for by degrees and +cleared of all incumbrance in eight or nine years by the profit on the +contributed moneys. This plan is assisted by the best men in the town, +who participate in the associations, receive themselves a reasonable +profit, and supply the credit and advantages necessary for the safety +of wholesale enterprises. They have thus far worked with their workmen +for the latter's profit, with perfect honor and without a stain of +scandal. The great advantage, after all, is to themselves; for a workman +owning his own home, accumulating comforts and a family, is indissolubly +tied to the city and its peaceful order. + +Various plans for the improvement of the workmen are afoot, including a +"Holly-Tree Inn" for the supply of harmless refreshment and evening +relaxation, the ground for which is bought and a stock-company forming. +A public park, for which a beautiful stretch of the Brandywine, on Adams +street and north of Levering Avenue, is recommended, is already engaging +the attention of the citizens as a necessary provision. A "fountain +society" is in active operation, offering cool, wholesome drink to the +thirsty workman and the tired beast: the principal of its +fountain-structures forms a memorial monument to a young gentleman who +had distinguished himself by his liberality in preparing scientific +lectures for the free entertainment of the working public. Shut up in +the public hall among the materials of his lecture, he was found dead +from the result of some solitary experiment--slain by his own kindness. +A rich monument to the soldiers and sailors slain in the civil war was +unveiled in 1871: it is formed of a pillar from the old United States +Bank, surmounted by an eagle cast from captured cannon. + +But the best thing a manufacturing town can do for her workman is to +educate his children. During the old aristocratic days of Wilmington she +was satisfied with the reputation of her private tutors and of her young +ladies' seminaries, where "sweet girl-graduates in their golden hair" +cultivated cheeks like the surrounding peaches, while they learned +Shakespeare, musical glasses and the use of the globes. It was not until +1852 that the Delaware Legislature chartered a board of education for +the town. In these twenty years fifteen schools have been put up, with +five thousand attenders. Schoolhouse No. 1, shown in the illustration, +accommodates four hundred and thirty-six pupils, and furnishes an +education, in the words of the late Bishop Potter, "good enough for the +richest and cheap enough for the poorest." + +The choice streets of the city are filling up with tasteful residences. +As a specimen we present the house of Colonel McComb, an old favorite of +Wilmington, where his familiar appellation of "Harry McComb" is as often +uttered day by day as it was at Washington during the exposure by its +owner of Congressional honesty and piety--or magpiety. + +A hotel of the first class has been erected, and baptized with the +commemorative name of the Clayton House. It has one hundred and five +chambers and every improvement. A very characteristic fact, showing the +spirit of integrity and goodness which here travels hand in hand with +modern enterprise, is that the owners sacrificed full _three-quarters_ +of the rent they could have obtained, in order to keep it pledged as a +temperance house. Another elegant building has been put up by the +Masonic fraternity for their own purposes and those of the Board of +Trade, etc., including a handsome opera-house on the ground floor. The +auditorium is praised for its acoustic properties by Parepa-Rosa, +Wallack, Davenport and other performers, seats about fifteen hundred, +and is furnished with the inevitable drop-curtain by Russell Smith. +Faced with iron painted white, and very rich in mouldings and ornaments, +the building presents as cheery a front to enter as any similar place of +attraction known to the American tourist. The Masonic rooms above, and +those of the Board of Trade, Historical Society, etc., are provided with +every beauty and comfort. + +Here are the indications of a prospering, laboring, thinking, virtuous +city of the New World. We have tried to sketch it both as a city with a +past and a city with a future. Could we have selected one for +illustration that would be a better or sharper concentration of all that +is good in American life? + + + + +MARIE FAMETTE AND HER LOVERS. + + +I. + +Marie Famette is the prettiest girl in the market-place of Aubette. Her +eyes are of such a sweet, soft blue, deeply shaded by long black lashes: +her eyebrows are not black, but they are of a much darker tint than her +hair, which (so much of it as can be seen under her full white +cap-border) is a golden yellow. But it is not her eyes and her hair that +make Marie so attractive: she has charmed young and old alike ever since +she came, a toddling damsel of two years, and took her place beside her +mother in the market-place of Aubette. + +Madame Famette's was the best fruit-stall of the market. No one else +could show such baskets of peaches and hampers of pears; and as to the +citrouilles and potirons, their reputation was so established that by +ten o'clock there was little to be seen of them among the glowing +vegetables which decked the stall. Such radishes were not to be seen +elsewhere--white and purple, as thick as carrots; and the carrots +themselves like lumps of red gold, lying nestling beneath their +feathered tops or setting off the creamy whiteness of the cauliflowers +ranged in a formal row in front of them. + +But Marie had always eclipsed all other beauty in the stall, and now +that she had grown too big to be patted on the cheek and kissed by +grown-up admirers, she had a host of victims in the sturdy young +countrymen who came in to Aubette--either to bring mothers and sisters +with their produce or to purchase for themselves. + +Madame Famette has weak health, and lately Marie comes often to the +market by herself, and is able to flirt to her heart's content, +unchecked by her mother's presence. She is so bright, so arch, so ready +with a sparkling answer, that it is no wonder her stall is always +thronged and that her fruit and her vegetables disappear so rapidly. + +There is an extra buzz in the market to-day. It is September, the epoch +of the Mascaret, for the dreaded flood-tide seldom visits the Seine more +than twice a year, and always draws dwellers in the neighboring towns to +see its autumn fury. There is an influx of strange faces in the little +place beneath the richly-sculptured spire of Notre Dame--the cathedral +of Aubette, as strangers call it, although it is only the parish church +of the quaint little town--and a certain extra excitement is +communicated to the settlers under the canvas-covered booths and to the +humbler sellers of wares in baskets. Mademoiselle Lesage, a short, plump +young woman dressed in black, flits in and out of the chattering crowd +more busily than usual. Mademoiselle holds herself of a rank above the +country-folk who bring in their poultry and garden produce to Aubette. +In token of this she wears a round black mushroom-shaped hat, and a +holland apron with two deep pockets in virtue of her office; for +Mademoiselle Lesage has an enterprising spirit. She found herself at +thirty years old left alone in the world with an ugly face and with an +insufficient "dot." Mademoiselle Lesage is ambitious: she does not care +to marry a very poor man, and she has managed to give the town council +of Aubette such security that it allows her to farm the market yearly +for some hundreds of francs. Watch her collecting her dues. She goes +rapidly from stall to stall, jingling her pockets, laughing and chatting +with the farmers' wives, all the time keeping a hawk's eye on the +basket-carriers, not one of whom may presume to sell so much as an onion +without the weekly toll of one sou. She darts in and out among them, and +her pockets swell out in front as if they were stuffed with apples. + +She has left Marie Famette's stall till the last. She crosses over to it +now as quickly as she can go, but there is no means of darting in and +out here, as there was just now among the basket-women. Old Floris +Marceau has covered a good-sized space with his heap of green and yellow +melons, and he stands behind these marchandeing, gesticulating, +brandishing the knife with which he slices his citrouilles and +inveighing against the folly of his customers. "Will mam'selle believe," +he says, addressing her as she approaches, and wiping his knife on his +often-patched blouse, "they come to buy fruit of a respectable +vegetable-seller and they don't know the price of a melon? Ten sous for +a cantaloupe like that!" His blue eyes gleamed furiously under his +frowning gray eyebrows. "Ten sous! I told them to be off and buy +chickens." He broke into a laugh, and pointed to a tall, bent old +gentleman, who seemed covered with confusion at this public rebuke, and +sidled his way out of the throng without attempting an answer. + +"Buy a turkey, m'sieur?" A smiling, dark-eyed woman in a close-setting +white cap went on with the joke and pointed to her basket, but the old +gentleman had had enough: he hurried away with a rueful glance at the +basket in which, divided only by the handle, sat two fat turkey poults +and two chickens. One of the turkeys stirred and got a wing free, but it +was remorselessly tucked in again and reduced to passive endurance, with +"Keep quiet then, ne soyez pas bete." + +Mademoiselle Lesage approaches Marie's stall at a leisurely pace: she +wishes to see her ground before she speaks. By the extra sweetness of +her smile one might suppose that mademoiselle loved the gay little +beauty: "Bonjour, Marie. Madame Famette trusts you alone again, I see?" + +Marie does exactly that which Mademoiselle Lesage intended to make her +do: she starts violently and she looks annoyed. + +Elise Lesage glances quickly from Marie to the two young men who stand +beside her. One of these, tall, well-dressed, with a Jewish face, and a +sparkling pin in his brilliant blue scarf, is Alphonse Poiseau, the son +of Monsieur Poiseau of the large clockmaker's and jeweler's shop at the +corner of the place next the church: the other is Nicolas Marais, a +handsome, gypsy-looking fellow with no decided occupation. He is +sometimes at work on his uncle's farm at Vatteville, and when he falls +out with his uncle and tires of Vatteville he comes across the Seine and +gets employed by Leon Roussel, the chief timber-merchant of Aubette. + +People say that old Marais, the miser of Vatteville, means to make +Nicolas his heir; but Nicolas takes no pains to please the old man: he +goes here and there at his pleasure, a favorite wherever he shows his +handsome dark eyes and his saucy smile. The men like him as much as the +women do, he has such a ready, amusing tongue, and he never says a +spiteful word; so that more than one of the keen, observant +poultry-sellers standing beside their baskets near Marie's stall have +commented on the scowl with which for full five minutes Leon Roussel has +regarded Nicolas. Leon Roussel is a middle-sized, in no way +remarkable-looking person, with honest brown eyes and a square, sensible +face. His father, the wealthy timber-merchant on the Yvetot road, died +when he was a boy, and Leon is one of the most prosperous citizens of +Aubette, and well thought of by all. Leon is ostensibly in consultation +with Monsieur Houlard, tailor and town councillor, but as he stands at +the worthy's shop-door he is raised above the level of the place, and is +exactly opposite the stall of Marie Famette. + +"Nicolas is out of favor with Monsieur Roussel: he has worked badly in +the lumber-yard," says La Mere Robillard. + +"Chut! chut!" says her gossip, Madelaine Manget, and she gives at the +same time a pat to a refractory chicken. "Nicolas looks too hard at +Marie Famette. Ma foi! there are men in the manger as well as dogs. If +Monsieur Leon wants Marie to be for his eyes only, why does he not ask +for her and marry her, the proud simpleton?" + +"Ah, but look you, Madelaine, Leon is not proud: he never turns a poor +man from his door without a morsel to quiet hunger, and he must be +clever or his business would not prosper." + +La Mere Manget shrugs her shoulders. "Will you then not buy turkeys at +eleven francs the couple, ma belle dame?" she cries shrilly to a +passer-by. + +While Marie Famette recovers herself, Nicolas answers Mam'selle Lesage. +"Pardon, Mam'selle Lesage, but Mam'selle Marie is not alone," he says, +raising his hat with exquisite politeness--Alphonse Poiseau tries to +follow suit, but his bow is stiff and pompous--"the whole market is her +body-guard, and she permits Monsieur Poiseau and myself to act as +sentinels." He throws an insinuating glance at Marie, which deepens the +gloom on Leon Roussel's face. + +Elise Lesage has taken in the whole situation, and she knows exactly +where to look for the timber-merchant. An uneasy consciousness makes +Marie follow her glance: she looks red and confused when she sees Leon's +stern, disapproving face. His eyes are fixed on her as she looks across, +but he withdraws them instantly and turns to Monsieur Houlard. + +Marie bites her pretty red under-lip: she can hardly keep from crying: +"If we were alone and he scolded me, I would not mind; but he has no +right to frown at me before the whole town. It is enough to compromise +me. It will be said presently that I am a bold girl, while I only amuse +myself, and never move a step from my stall to speak to any one. It is +too bad!" + +She gulps down a lump in her throat, and gives Nicolas Marais a smile +that makes the clockmaker long to knock his rival's head against the +gray buttress of the old church. + +"Sentinels!" Elise Lesage laughs. "Is Marie afraid, then, that some one +will steal her?" + +"Marie is afraid of nothing, Mademoiselle Lesage." The little beauty is +glad to be able to vent her vexation on some one. "What right has she to +call me Marie?" she says to Nicolas in a very audible under-tone. + +Mademoiselle's black eyes close till they look like lines: Marie does +not see her face, but Nicolas Marais shivers, he hardly knows why. + +A restraint has come over the merry trio, and Nicolas abhors restraint. +"Tiens!" he says carelessly, "there is a fresh bevy of basket-women, +Mam'selle Lesage." + +Elise darts off like a greyhound, and Marie forgets her vexation and +laughs out merrily at Nicolas's ruse: "She is such a busybody!" The girl +glances across to see what has become of Leon: he is talking to +Mademoiselle Lesage. + +Alphonse Poiseau has kept silence, but he has observed. "I should not +like to offend mam'selle," he says, "her eyes are so like a snake's." + + +II. + +Market has come and gone again. Marie Famette was not happy as she went +home last Saturday, but to-day her heart aches sorely as she goes along +the dusty road to St. Gertrude. Last Saturday was the first market-day +this year that Leon Roussel has not helped her into her cart and taken a +friendly leave of her; but he disappeared before market was over, and +to-day he was not there at all. + +"And he might have walked home with me!" Tears are in poor little +Marie's eyes. Leon Roussel has seemed her own special property, and he +has not been to her mother's house for a fortnight. "And if he had been +at market to-day, he would have been content with me: poor Nicolas must +be ill indeed to stay away from market. Ma foi! I have been dull alone. +Elise Lesage was civil, for a wonder: I hope she will give old Marais's +note safely to his nephew. I wonder why she goes to see Nicolas?" + +As she says the word a strange foreboding seizes Marie: she cannot tell +what causes it, but her old dislike to Elise rises up, mingled with a +kind of fear. "I ought to have given Nicolas the note myself; and yet--" + +The road is very long and very dusty to-day: it is never an interesting +way out of Aubette, except that being cut on the hillside it is raised +high, the little river meandering through the osier meadows on the left, +and also commands a fine view of the beautiful old church. But Marie +does not turn back to look at the church: her heart is too heavy to take +interest in anything out of herself. She has left the cart behind to +bring out crockery and some new chairs which she has purchased for her +mother, and she wishes she had stayed in Aubette till her cargo was +packed. All at once a new thought comes, and her eyes brighten. A wood +clothes the hilly side of the road, but on the left there is a steep +descent into the valley, and the road is bordered either by scattered +cottages or by an irregular hawthorn hedge. A little way on there is a +gap in this hedge, and looking down there is a long steep flight of +steps with wooden edges. At the foot stands a good-sized house divided +now into several cottages. The walls are half-timbered with wood set +crosswise in the plaster between two straight rows. Ladders, iron hoops +and a bird-cage hang against the wall, and over the door is a wooden +shelf with scarlet geraniums. There is a desolate garden divided into +three by a criss-cross fence and a hedge, and over the last a huge +orange citrouille has clambered and lies perched on the top. + +Marie knows that Nicolas Marais sometimes lodges in one of the cottages, +but she knows too that the property belongs to Leon Roussel, and that he +lives close by. A blush comes to the girl's cheeks: she may see Leon +there. She stops and looks down: Elise Lesage is coming out of the +doorway, but she is talking over her shoulder to some one behind her. +Marie sees her put her fingers into one of the brown holland pockets, +pull out a note and give it to her companion. + +Marie draws a deep breath: "How I wronged her! Ever since I gave her +that note I have felt anxious and troubled. She seems so spiteful to me +that I feared she might somehow get me into trouble with it, and yet I +don't know how." + +There were footsteps coming along the road, but Marie did not look +round: in the quick revulsion of feeling toward Elise she was eager to +make atonement. She leaned on the hand-rail that went down the steps, +waiting for Mademoiselle Lesage: if she had listened she would have +noticed that the footsteps had come nearer and had suddenly ceased. + +Nicolas Marais came forward out of the cottage, and then Elise looked up +and saw Marie. She smiled and nodded. "I am coming," she called up in +her rasping voice; and she did seem in high haste to get to Marie +Famette, but Marie saw that she looked beyond her at some one or +something else. The girl looked over her shoulder, and there was Leon +Roussel, but he did not care to look at her. His eyes were fixed sternly +on Nicolas Marais, but Nicolas did not seem to care for his employer's +anger: he was smiling rapturously up at Marie, and as she now looked at +him he first kissed his hand and then put the note to his lips and +kissed it twice. + +Marie grew crimson. Elise, who had just reached the top of the steps, +laughed, and Leon Roussel stood an instant pale and defiant, and then +turned back toward Aubette. + +"Stay, stay, Monsieur Leon!" Elise darted after him; then, stopping +suddenly, she nodded back at Marie: "Stop and talk to Nicolas, mon +enfant: I will make it all right for you with Monsieur Roussel;" and she +hurried on in pursuit. + +But Marie was too angry with Nicolas to give him even a moment: "How +dare he kiss his hand to me? And oh, Leon will think that I wrote that +note to him, and how can I ever tell him the truth? Will Elise Lesage +tell him?" + +She had just a faint hope; and then she reproached herself. Why should +not Mademoiselle Lesage tell the truth? She was cross and spiteful, but +then, poor thing! she was old and ugly. "And it may be," Marie thought, +"that one is not half thankful enough for one's gifts, and that it is +very irritating to be plain. It is Alphonse Poiseau who has made me +think evil of Elise, and one should not cherish evil thoughts." + +Marie went home happier and lighter-hearted: that little glimpse of +Leon had quieted the sore longing at her heart, and at first the joy of +having seen him made her dwell less on his stern looks and his avoidance +of herself. + +She came to the broad grassed turning that leads off the main road to +St. Gertrude. A saddled donkey was grazing on one side, and on the other +an old woman sat on a stone post. She jumped up when she saw Marie. She +had looked tall as she sat: she was as broad as she was long now she +stood erect in her dark striped gown and black jacket, and white cap +with its plain border and lappets pinned together over her forehead. + +"Well, well, well!" She spoke in a short bustling voice--a voice that +would have been cheering if it had been less restless. "Hast thou then +seen Leon Roussel, Marie? Hast thou learned the reason of his absence?" + +Marie's tender, sweet look vanished: she tossed her pretty head and +pouted: "Leon was not at the market, but I saw him as I came home; only +he was not close to me, so we did not speak." + +"Didst thou see that vaurien Nicolas?" + +"Yes, I saw him." + +Marie blushed, and her mother burst out into angry words: "Foolish, +trifling child that thou art! thou lovest that black-eyed gypsy boy; and +for him, the idle vagabond, thou hast flung away the best _parti_ in +Aubette. Ciel! what do I say? In Bolbec itself there is no one with +better prospects than Leon Roussel." Madame Famette always failed in +managing her daughter. + +Marie smiled and kept down her indignation. "I hardly know that," she +said: "old Marais will make Nicolas his heir, and there is no saying how +rich a miser is." She crossed the road, caught the donkey by the bridle, +and held him ready for her mother to mount. + +Madame Famette went on grumbling, but Mouton the donkey soon drew her +anger on himself; and by the time the three reached the triangle of +gray, half-timbered cottages which surround the old church of St. +Gertrude, the easy, sieve-like nature of the woman had recovered from +its vexation. + +"Hola, Jeanne, Jeanne! run there and take Mouton from Mam'selle Marie, +who is tired with the market. Come, thou, mon cher, and tell me the +news." Madame Famette rolled off her donkey, and then rolled on into the +house. + + +III. + +Marie Famette was ill--much too ill to go to market. + +"I will go. Do not vex thyself, my child, and I will see our good doctor +and bring thee back a tisane." The bustling woman, with her blue eyes +and light eyelashes, bent down and kissed Marie's forehead, and then +departed. + +"A tisane!" The bright blue eyes were so dull and languid now, half +closed by the heavy white eyelids. "I wonder if even Doctor Gueroult is +wise enough to cure the heart when it aches like mine? Ah, Leon, I did +not think you could be so hard, so cruel; and how could he know, how +could he see into my heart, while I stood laughing so foolishly with +Nicolas and Monsieur Poiseau? If Elise Lesage had not teased me about +Leon, it might have been different, but I could not let her think I +cared for him after what she said." She leaned back her head and cried +bitterly. + +Madame Famette was more serious than usual on her way to the market. +Matters were getting tangled, she thought. Leon Roussel had begun to be +a regular Sunday visitor at the cottage, and now three weeks and more +had gone by and he had not come; and a gossip who had walked home from +church with her overnight had told Madame Famette that Mam'selle Lesage +was going to marry a Monsieur Roussel: whether it was Leon or a Monsieur +Roussel of some other place than Aubette her gossip could not affirm; +and in this uncertainty the mother's heart was troubled. She was very +proud of Marie's beauty and graceful ways, and she had thought it a just +tribute when the young timber-merchant had asked her permission to call +at the cottage; and now, just when she had been expecting that his aunt, +La Mere Therese, the superior of the Convent du Sacre Coeur in Aubette, +would send for her in order that the demand for her daughter's hand and +the preliminaries of the marriage might be settled, had come first Leon +Roussel's strange absence and the visits of Nicolas Marais, and now the +gossip about Elise Lesage. + +"I will know the right of it to-day," Madame Famette thinks, and she +lashes out at Mouton in an unusual fashion. + +The first customer at her stall is Madame Houlard, the wife of the +tailor and town councillor. "How is Marie?" she says: "the market does +not seem itself without Marie Famette." + +Madame Famette smiles, but she sighs too: "My poor little girl is ill;" +and then her eyes rove round the market, and fix on Mademoiselle Lesage +bustling in and out among her clients. "Have you then heard that Elise +Lesage is to be married?" she says in a low, cautious voice. + +Madame Houlard's flat, good-tempered face grows troubled: "Ah yes, I +have heard some talk; and listen to that noisy fellow;" then she points +to Floris Marceau, who is gesticulating and vehement as usual. + +She is surprised to find her arm tightly grasped by the large hand of +the fruit-seller: "Madame Houlard, tell me the truth: who is to marry +with Elise Lesage?" + +Madame Houlard leads a very tranquil life: her husband is the most +placid man in Aubette, and she has never had any children to disturb the +calm of existence. She is ruffled and shocked by Madame Famette's +vehemence. She bridles and releases her plump arm: "Ma foi, my friend! +what will you? Gossip comes, and gossip goes. I believe all I hear--that +is but convenable--but then, look you, I am quite as willing to believe +in the contradiction which so frequently follows. One should never +excite one's self about anything: be sure of this, my friend, it is bad +for the nerves. What is salsify a bundle to-day?" + +Madame Famette, as has been said, has a sieve-like nature with regard to +the passing away of wrath, but still her anger is easily roused. "It +would be simpler to tell me what you have heard," she says in a very +snappish accent. "When I want a lecture I can get it from monsieur le +cure." + +Madame Houlard had felt unwilling to tell her news, but this aggravating +sentence goaded it out of her mouth: "It is to Monsieur Roussel, the +timber-merchant, that Elise Lesage is to be married: see, he is talking +to her now." There is a slight tone of satisfaction in Madame Houlard's +smooth voice, and yet in her heart she is sorry for her friend's +disappointment. All the market-place of Aubette had given Leon Roussel +to the charming Marie. + +"Leon Roussel! Why, she is as old as he is--older; and, ma foi! how +ugly! and her parents--no one knows where they came from; and she--she +is nothing but a money-grubber." + +The day was tedious to Madame Famette. She tried to speak to Leon, but +he avoided her with a distant bow. There was not even Alphonse Poiseau +to help her: only little Pierre Trotin came and carried her baskets to +the donkey-cart. She called at the doctor's house, but she could not see +him. Madame Famette's heart had not been so heavy since her husband +died. "It is that serpent"--she wiped her eyes on a huge blue-and-yellow +pocket handkerchief--"who has done it all; and my poor unsuspecting +child has flirted with Nicolas, and made the way easy. Ciel! what do I +know? It is possible that Marie loves Nicolas, and is willing to throw +herself away on a vaurien with a pair of dark eyes; and the news will +not grieve her as it has grieved me." + +She met her servant Jeanne at the entrance of the road, and gave up the +donkey-cart to her care. Then she went on sorrowfully and silently to +find Marie. The door stood ajar, just as she had left it. She went in +more quietly than usual, but Marie heard her. The girl sat just where +her mother had left her: the loaf of bread lay untouched. It was plain +that Marie had gone without breakfast. Her face was very pale, and her +eyes fixed strainingly on her mother, but she did not speak. + +Madame Famette's vexation had made her cross, and Marie's pale face +increased her trouble: "How naughty thou art then, Marie! I set thee a +knife and a plate: thou hadst but to stretch out thy hand. Ciel! but the +market tires!" She cut a slice of bread for her daughter, and then she +seated herself. + +"Mother"--Marie bent forward and shaded her eyes with her hand--"didst +thou see Leon Roussel?" + +Madame's shoulders went up to her ears in a heave of disgust: "Thou +mayest as well know it, Marie: Leon Roussel is promised to Elise Lesage, +and they were together in the market. See what thy folly has caused!" + +But Marie scarcely heard her mother's reproaches. The blood flew up to +her face, and then it left her paler than before. She bent lower--lower +yet, until she overbalanced and fell like a crushed lily at her mother's +feet. + + +IV. + +"How is Marie Famette?" Monsieur Houlard the tailor asks of Monsieur +Gueroult the doctor of Aubette, as he meets him hurrying through the Rue +de la Boucherie. + +"She is better, the poor child! but she must be careful this winter." +Then, seeing Houlard look anxious, the good doctor says, "But she is so +far better that I have discontinued my visits: I have given Marie leave +to come to Aubette." + +"That is good news," says Houlard as the doctor shoots past him, and the +tailor tells the next person he meets that Marie Famette is as well as +ever, and is coming to market as usual. + +It is Leon Roussel to whom he tells this, and Monsieur Houlard is pained +at the young man's want of interest. + +"One would have thought," he says to his wife when he reaches his shop, +"that Roussel was displeased with Marie for recovering her health." + +"Perhaps he thinks she will make a fool of herself, now she is well +again, by marrying Nicolas Marais: I hear they are lovers." + +"It is a pity," says the dutiful husband. "Girls should not choose for +themselves. You did not, my dear, and that is why our life has gone so +easily." + +But Marie is not really as strong as the doctor pronounces her to be: +her cheeks are hollow, and the color on them is feverish and uncertain. +If she could get away from home she would have more chance of mending. +Madame Famette's sorrow at her daughter's changed looks expands itself +in querulous remonstrance on the folly of flirting and on the +good-for-nothing qualities of Nicolas Marais. Nicolas has come to +inquire for Marie, but Madame Famette has received him so uncourteously +that the poor fellow contents himself with hovering about on the chance +of meeting Marie alone. But he never sees her, although the rumor grows +strong in St. Gertrude, and is wafted on to Aubette, that Nicolas and +Marie will be married as soon as she gets well enough to see about +wedding-clothes. + +It is the beginning of October, a bright clear morning. The red and +yellow leaves come swiftly to the ground with a sudden snap from the +twigs that held them: the rabbits move about briskly, and a couple of +field-mice in search of winter stores run across the road nearly under +Marie's feet. Marie's cheeks are rosy with the fresh, crisp air, but she +does not look gay or happy. Life seems to have got into a hard knot +which the poor little girl finds no power to untie. Market-day used to +be a fete to Marie, but to-day she considers it a penance to be sent in +to Aubette. She is not going to hold her stall--ah no, she is not nearly +strong enough for such a task--but Madame Famette has a severe attack of +rheumatism, and Jeanne cannot be trusted to buy the weekly provision of +groceries. Marie shrinks as she goes along at the thought of meeting +Leon Roussel. There is another thought, which she will not face--that it +is possible Leon and Elise Lesage will be together in the market-place. +"I need not go into the Grande Place at all," the poor child says. "I +can get all I want in the Rue des Bons Enfants;" and she goes there when +she reaches Aubette. + +But Marie has miscalculated her strength. She grows suddenly so white +that Monsieur le Blanc, the epicier of the Rue des Bons Enfants, takes +her into his daughter's room and makes her lie down on the little sofa. +Marie lies there with widely-opened eyes, wondering how she shall get +back to St. Gertrude. + +"You are to lie still till Therese comes back from market," the old man +says, "and then she will arrange about your going home." + +Marie lies gazing dreamily at the blue-papered ceiling. "I used to think +Therese le Blanc a cross old maid," she ponders: "shall I be a cross old +maid too?" And then the pale, stricken girl holds up her thin hand and +sighs: "I shall not be old: I shall die soon. Poor mother! she will +forgive Nicolas when I am gone away." + +There is a bustle in the shop, but Marie does not heed it. She smiles +when Therese comes in, but she is too weak to talk--too weak to make any +objection when she hears that a farmer who lives some miles beyond St. +Gertrude has undertaken to convey her in his huge green-hooded wagon as +far as the cross-road. + +Therese stands over her while she eats a piece of bread and drinks a +glass of wine, and then the farmer, a stout old Norman in a gray blouse, +helps her into the back of the wagon, and makes a resting-place for her +on some of the hay still left unsold, under the lofty arched roof. + + +V. + +"Get up my friend, get up: you will reach Yvetot sooner if I give you a +lift than if you wait. The diligence does not leave Aubette till six +o'clock, remember, and my old horses get over the ground surely if not +quickly." + +Marie rouses from a sort of doze, but she cannot see the farmer or the +wayfarer to whom he speaks: a pile of new fruit-baskets fills up the +middle of the huge vehicle, and makes a wall between Marie and the +driving-seat. + +"Well, mon gars, it is a long time since I saw you, and the town-gossip +of Aubette tells me more of your affairs than you ever condescend to +inform your cousin of. Your mother was different, Leon. Dame! I could +never pass her door after your father died but she would stop my wagon +and ask me for just five minutes' counsel. But you young ones are all +alike: the world has got a new pivot, it seems, for this generation, and +it will move round more easily when we graybeards are all kicked out." + +"I don't think so, for one." Marie had known she must hear Leon +Roussel's voice, and yet her heart throbbed at his first words. "But, my +cousin, what is the news that thou hast learned about me in Aubette?" + +"Well, the news varies: sometimes I hear thee coupled with one girl, and +then again with another, till I do not know what to think, Leon. I am +afraid thou art fickle." + +There was a pause. Marie raised herself on one elbow and listened +breathlessly: it never came to her mind that she was listening to talk +not intended for her ears. + +"Well, man"--the farmer seemed nettled--"why not speak out and say thou +art promised to old Lesage's daughter?" + +"Because I am not promised to her." + +Marie stifled a sob. It seemed as if her heart could not much longer +hold in its agitation, she longed so intensely for the farmer's next +question and for Leon's answer. + +"Art thou promised to the beauty of the market, the little Marie?" + +There was no pause this time. Leon's words came out rapidly with bitter +emphasis: "Marie Famette is going to marry Marais of Vatteville." + +"Marry! Ma foi! I hear the girl is very ill. I forget--there is a sick +girl in the wagon now." + +It seemed to the listener that Leon spoke heedless of the farmer's last +words: "Once again the town-gossip has deceived you, Michel. I heard a +week ago, and Houlard had just learned it from the Doctor Gueroult, that +Marie Famette is as well and gay as ever. I believe she has come back to +the market." + +No reply. The silence that followed oppressed Marie: a sense of +guilt stole over her. It was not likely that old Michel Roussel knew who +she was when he helped her into the wagon: she remembered now that Leon +had told her of his rich cousin at Yvetot; she knew she must get out +soon, and then Leon would see her and know that she had heard him. She +felt sick with shame. Would it not have been more honest to have +betrayed her presence? It was too late now. "And I could not--I have not +the courage." Marie crouched closer under the wall of baskets. + +Suddenly, Leon spoke. "Well, Michel, I will get out here," he said. + +The wagon stopped. Marie heard farewells exchanged, and then on they +jogged again to St. Gertrude. + +Marie's heart was suddenly stilled: its painful throbbing and fluttering +had subsided--it sank like lead. Leon was gone, and she had flung away +her only chance of telling him that Nicolas Marais never had been--never +could be--more to her than a friend. + +"Oh what a fool I am! I may often see him, but how can I say this? And +just now the way was open!" + +When Farmer Roussel stopped the wagon again, and came round to the back +to help Marie out, he found her sobbing bitterly. + +"Here we are at St. Gertrude, but--Ma foi! but this is childish, ma +belle," he said kindly, "to go spoiling your pretty eyes because you +feel ill. Courage! you will soon be well if you eat and drink and keep a +light heart." He helped her down tenderly, and shook both her hands in +his before he let her go. "Well," he said as he rolled up on to the +seat, "I wonder I had not asked for a kiss. She is rarely pretty, poor +child!" + +Marie stood still just where she had found her mother seated on that +evening which it seemed to the girl had begun all her misery; but till +now through all there had been hope--the hope given by disbelief in +Leon's engagement to Elise Lesage. Now there was the sad, terrible +certainty that Leon believed her false. Marie knew that though she had +never pledged faith, still her eyes had shown Leon feelings which no +other man had seen in them. For a moment she felt nerved to a kind of +desperation: she would go and seek Leon, and tell him the truth that +some one had set on foot this false report of her promise to Nicolas +Marais. She turned again toward the high-road, and then her heart sank. +How could she seek Leon? He did not love her, and if she made this +confession would it not be a tacit owning of love for himself? The +weight at her heart seemed to burden her limbs: she dragged on toward +home wearily and slowly. + +The road turns suddenly into St. Gertrude, and takes a breathing-space +at a sharp angle with a breadth of grass, bordered by a clump of nut +trees. Before Marie reached the nut trees she saw Leon Roussel standing +beside them. She stopped, but he had been waiting for her coming: he +came forward to meet her. + +When he saw her face he looked grieved, but he spoke very coldly: "I +have been to your cottage to inquire for you"--he raised his hat, but he +made no effort to take her hand--"and then I heard you were expected +home from Aubette. I did not know how ill you had been till to-day, +Marie: I had been told you were quite recovered." + +His cold, hard manner wounded her: "Oh, I am better, thank you;" but as +she spoke her sight grew dizzy: she would have fallen if Leon had not +caught her in his arms. She felt that he clasped her closely for an +instant, and then he loosed his hold. + +"Thank you!" She freed herself. "I am better. I will go home now, +Monsieur Roussel." + +He took off his hat mechanically, and Marie turned toward St. Gertrude. + +But she did not move: she had no power to go forward. An impulse +stronger than her will was holding her. She looked round: Leon had not +moved--he stood with his eyes fixed on the ground. + +"I must tell you something," she said. Leon started: he had never heard +Marie speak in such a humble tone. "I was in the wagon just now, and I +listened to your talk with Monsieur Michel." Her cheeks grew crimson. +"But, Monsieur Roussel, you are in error about me. Nicolas Marais is my +friend"--Leon's face grew so stern that her eyes drooped and her voice +faltered--"but he will never be more to me. He has always been my +friend." + +Leon came close to her and took her hand: "Marie"--his voice was so +harsh and severe that she shrunk from him--"you must tell the truth, and +you must not be angry if I doubt you. My child, did I not see Nicolas +kiss the letter you sent him, and look at you as he kissed it?" + +"Did Elise Lesage tell you I wrote that letter?" But Marie's fear had +left her. She smiled up at her lover, once more his own arch, bright +Marie: "How dared you believe her, Leon? I have a great mind not to tell +you the truth." + +But Leon Roussel was satisfied, for while she spoke his arm had folded +round her again, and he was much too happy to trouble himself about +Nicolas Marais. + + * * * * * + +Leon and Marie are to be married in November, and Mam'selle Lesage has +been so indisposed that for two consecutive Saturdays she has sent a +deputy to collect sous in the market of Aubette. + +KATHARINE S. MACQUOID. + + + + +SALMON FISHING IN CANADA. + + +Fifty years ago, when the manners and habits of the Americans were very +different from what they now are, there lived in Boston two gentlemen so +far in advance of their age as to devote much time to shooting and +fishing. These pursuits were denounced by the Puritans and their +descendants as a sinful waste of time, and there is a letter extant from +one of the early Massachusetts governors, in which he reproaches himself +for indulging in "fowling," the rather because, as he confesses, he +failed to get any game. These two bold Bostonians were wont to go to +Scotland for salmon-fishing, having a belief that the salmon of the +American rivers were too uncultivated in their taste to rise at a fly. +However this may have been in 1820, the salmon of the Dominion are +to-day as open to the attractions of a well-tied combination of feathers +and pig's-wool, as those of the rivers of Norway or Scotland; and as, +under the protection which the Canadian rivers now enjoy, the fish are +becoming plentiful, sport is offered in the numerous streams which flow +into the St. Lawrence, the Bays of Chaleur and Miramichi, and the Gulf +of St. Lawrence, probably superior to any now to be found elsewhere. + +Having last year paid a visit to one of these beautiful rivers, I +propose to give an account of my introduction to the art and mystery of +salmon-fishing, to the end that other anglers, whose exploits have +hitherto been confined to the capture of a pound trout or a four-pound +pickerel, may know the joy of feeling the rush of a twenty-pound salmon +fresh run from the sea--the most brilliant, active and vigorous of the +finny tribes, the king of the river, using the term in its original +sense--the strongest, the ablest, the most cunning. A late writer on +English field-sports says: "I assert that there is no single moment with +horse or gun into which is concentrated such a thrill of hope, fear, +expectation and exultation as that of the rise and successful striking +of a heavy salmon." + +And first, let me say something of the system of protection to these +fisheries adopted by the Canadian government, which renders this sport +possible. Finding that under the constant slaughter of salmon and trout, +by the Indians with spears and by the whites with nets, the fish were +becoming not only scarce, but in danger of extinction, the government +interfered, and a few years ago passed laws the effects of which are +already apparent. Certainly, a paternal government is sometimes a good +thing. On our side the line a ring of wealthy men, with a large capital +in nets, seines, pounds, etc., will, as has been seen in Rhode Island, +depopulate a coast in a few years of its food-fishes, leaving nothing +for increase; and when the poor fishermen, whose living depends on these +free gifts of God, ask for protection from the legislature, the ring is +too powerful, one of its members being perhaps governor of the State. + +In the year 1858 the colonial government resumed possession of all the +salmon and sea-trout fisheries in Lower Canada, and after the enactment +of a protective law offered them for lease by public tender. A list is +given of sixty-seven salmon rivers which flow into the St. Lawrence and +the Saguenay, and of nine which flow into the Bay of Chaleur. There are +also tributaries of these, making over one hundred rivers which by this +time contain salmon, and many of them in great abundance. Licenses are +granted by the government for rod-fishing in these rivers on payment of +sums ranging from one hundred to five hundred dollars the season for a +river, according to its size, accessibility, etc. These rivers are +generally taken by parties of anglers, but of late I learn that licenses +for single rods have been granted, so that all may be accommodated. +Applications for a river or part of one can be made to Mr. William F. +Whitcher of Ottawa, who is at the head of the Fisheries Department. Our +party of four persons had obtained, through the courtesy of Messrs. +Brydges and Fleming of the Intercolonial Railway of Canada, the upper +part of the Restigouche, a river flowing into the Bay of Chaleur, and +one of the best in the Dominion. Three of us had never killed a salmon, +though we were familiar with other kinds of fishing. We had, however, +for teacher one who for fifty years had been a salmon-fisher--first as a +boy in Ireland, and since that for many years in Canada, in most of +whose rivers he had killed salmon. As an angler he was a thorough +artist, as a woodsman he was an expert, and as a companion he was most +agreeable. Among the Indians, who have the habit of naming every person +from some personal trait, he was known as "the Kingfisher," and by that +name I shall call him. The second of our party, who procured the right +of fishing the Restigouche, and made up the party, I shall call Rodman, +which suits him both as fisherman and in his professional character of +engineer. The third, being a tall man of rather military aspect, we knew +as "the Colonel;" and the fourth, who writes this narrative, shall be +called "the Scribe." + +Behold us, then, at Quebec in the last week of June, making our +preparations--laying in stores for camping out, and buying +fishing-tackle, which for this kind of sport is best procured in Canada. +On the 25th of June our thirty-one packages were on board the steamer +Miramichi, piled on the upper deck, with many more of the same +appearance--tents, buffalo robes, camp-chests, salmon-rods and +gaff-handles--belonging to other parties bound on the same errand as +ourselves. Three were British officers going to the Upsalquitch, men of +the long-whiskered, Dundreary type, who soon let us know with many +haw-haws that they had fished in Norway, and had killed salmon on the +estate of my Lord Knowswho in Scotland, while guests of that nobleman. +There were two Londoners in full suits of tweed, with Glengarry bonnets, +who were bound to the Cascapediac: they tried to imitate the bearing of +the military men; and why not? As Thackeray says, "Am I not a snob and a +brother?" There was a party of Americans on their way to a Gaspe +river--veteran anglers, who had frequented these rivers for some years. +The rest of the company was made up of Canadians from Montreal and +Quebec, many of them pleasure-seekers--stout elderly men, with equally +full-fed, comfortable-looking wives, and rosy-faced daughters with +straight, slender figures, by and by to emulate the rounded proportions +of their mammas. The young men were mostly equipped with white canvas +shoes and veils twisted round their hats--for what purpose I have not +been able to discover, but it seems to be the correct thing for the +Canadian tourist. + +Four hundred and fifty miles from Quebec we reach the entrance of Gaspe +Bay, at the head of which fine sheet of water, in a landlocked harbor, +stands the town of Gaspe, distinguished as the place where Jacques +Cartier landed in 1534. It is now a great fishing-station, employing +thousands of men along the coast in the cod-fishery. Here are fine +scenery, clear bracing air, good sea-bathing, excellent salmon- and +trout-fishing and a comfortable hotel. What more can a well-regulated +mind desire? Into Gaspe Bay flow the Dartmouth, the York and the St. +John--good salmon-rivers, while both they and the smaller streams abound +with sea-trout and brook-trout. Thirty miles south of Gaspe is the +little town of Perce, also a fishing-station. Near this stands a rock of +red sandstone, five hundred feet long and three hundred high, with an +open arch leading through it, under which a boat can pass. It stands a +mile from the shore in deep water, and its top affords a secure +breeding-place for hundreds of sea-fowl. + +South of Gaspe Bay we pass the mouths of the Bonaventure and the Grand +and Little Cascapediac--rivers well stocked with salmon--and reach +Dalhousie on the Bay of Chaleur about midnight on the 28th. We land in a +small boat in the darkness, and soon find ourselves at the comfortable +tavern of William Murphy, where we breakfast the next morning on +salmon-trout and wild strawberries. The town contains about six hundred +inhabitants, and has a pleasant seat along the bay. Its principal +industry seems to be lumber, or deals, which mean three-inch plank, in +which shape most of the pine and spruce exported from the Dominion find +their way to England. Here they also put up salmon and lobsters for the +American market--America meaning the United States. Two steamers touch +here weekly, and there is a daily mail and telegraphic communication +with the outside world. A few tourists, mostly from Montreal and Quebec, +fill two or three small boarding-houses. + +The next morning we started in wagons for Matapedia, thirty miles up the +river, where we expected to secure canoes and Indians for our trip to +the upper waters of the Restigouche. Our road was good, following a +terrace about fifty feet above the river, which here is about a mile in +width, and flows placidly through a wide valley, with high hills on both +sides covered with a growth of spruce and cedar. Fifteen miles above +Dalhousie, at the head of navigation for large vessels, lies the village +of Campbellton. Here the character of the river changes: it becomes more +narrow and rapid, the hills come down closer to the shore, and it +assumes the features of a true salmon-river. It was formerly one of the +most famous in the provinces, and the late Robert Christie, for many +years member for Gaspe, used to take two thousand tierces of salmon +annually from the Restigouche. + +Here we fall in with the Intercolonial Railway, which has its western +terminus at Riviere du Loup, below Quebec, and its eastern at Halifax. +The line is to cross the river at Matapedia on an iron bridge, and +follow down the valley. About 1 P. M. we crossed the ferry in a +row-boat, just below Fraser's hotel. The river is deep, swift and very +clear, with a rocky bank, from which they are getting out stone for the +abutments of the bridge. This bridge, and another similar one where the +line crosses the Miramichi, are building at Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, +and we saw at Campbellton a large bark discharging her cargo, consisting +of the bridge-work ready to set up. + +We arrived at Fraser's in time to partake of a fine boiled salmon, and +we observe a constant improvement in this fish. Those in Montreal were +better than those in the States; those in Quebec still better; those we +ate on board the Gulf steamer a shade finer still. At Dalbousie we +thought that salmon had reached perfection, but were undeceived by those +upon Fraser's table, which far surpassed all that we had yet tasted in +succulence and flavor. + +We had hoped to go up the river on the morrow, Saturday, but found it +was a great festival of the Catholic Church, and the Indians would not +start till Monday. Great was the indignation of the British officers who +were preparing to go up the other river. To be delayed by the religious +scruples of an Indian was too absurd. But even the "superior race" had +to submit. So the next day we all went down the river trout-fishing. + +I went about two miles to the "flat lands," and fished some pretty pools +and rapids: the day was very bright and hot, so that I thought the trout +would not rise to a fly, and I put on a small spoon, which I dropped +into the rapids at the end of a long rod. After catching three or four +they grew suspicious, and I changed my lure for an artificial minnow, +and with it I had better success, though I have often tried it in +Western trout-streams ineffectually. I got about a dozen, from four +ounces to a pound weight: they were sea-trout, _Salmo Canadensis_, and +the first of that species that I ever saw. They are handsome and active +fish, lighter in color than the brook-trout, with silvery sides and +belly. The flesh is red like a salmon, and is of higher flavor, I think, +than that of _Salmo fontinalis_. My companions, Rodman and Kingfisher, +both used the fly, and got, I think, more fish than I did. + +The next day, June 30th, was Sunday, and the law of the Dominion +prohibits fishing on that day. The weather was intensely hot, and we +stayed in the house and enjoyed the fine scenery all about us. At night +a heavy thunder-storm cooled the air for our next day's journey. + +_July 1._ Our canoes and Indians arrived this morning about ten o'clock, +and instead of being shepherds of the forest, with their blankets tied +with yellow strings, they had no blankets at all, but wore coats and +trowsers--yea, even boots, which I had always been told had no business +in a canoe. There were four bark canoes and eight Mic-macs--one boat for +each of us--and as we had a large amount of baggage and provisions, it +was thought best to send off the canoes with these, while we went in +wagons across a great bend of the river to the house of Mr. John Mowatt, +the river overseer. We crossed the Matapediac in a dug-out: this is a +tributary of the Restigouche, which comes in at Fraser's. On the other +side we found wagons which took us to Mowatt's, seven miles over the +hills, arriving at 4 P. M. The canoes arrived about sunset, having come +twelve miles since noon against a strong current. + +_July 2._ Starting in the morning at sunrise, the canoes took us six +miles by seven o'clock, when we stopped in the woods for breakfast. The +river has a very strong current, and from two to three miles an hour is +all that can be done against it with setting-poles when there is a heavy +load in the canoe. In places the water was too shallow even for a bark, +and the men stepped over-board and lifted her along. The Restigouche is +a beautiful river, with few islands or obstructions of any kind: the +water is perfectly transparent, and very cold--the chosen haunt of the +salmon. We see few houses or farms: rounded hills, from three to nine +hundred feet high, border the stream, leaving only a narrow strip of +beach, which is free from bushes or fallen trees. These are probably all +swept away by the ice in the spring freshets. The hills somewhat +resemble those on the Upper Mississippi, except that here there are none +of those cliffs of yellow limestone which are remarkable on the great +river of the West. About eight miles farther on we stopped for dinner +near a cold brook, from which I took half a dozen trout. In the +afternoon we proceeded five or six miles, and then camped for the night +upon a rocky beach, and, though somewhat annoyed by the sand-flies, we +slept well upon our beds of spruce boughs. + +_July 3._ Broke camp at 5 A. M., and went up six miles to a place +called Tom's Brook, where we breakfasted. Here I killed a dozen trout +with the spoon. Six miles from Tom's Brook we came to the first +salmon-pool, of which there were six in the portion of the river +assigned to us--viz.: First, Big Cross Pool; second, Lower Indian-house +Pool; third, Upper Indian-house Pool; fourth, Patapediac Pool, called by +the Indians Paddypajaw; fifth, Red Bank Pool; sixth, Little Cross Pool. +These pools are the places where the salmon rest in their journey from +the sea to the headwaters of the river. They are usually in spots where +there is a strong but not violent current, perhaps six or eight feet +deep, running off to shoal water on one side of the river. The pools +have been found by the Indians, who search for them by night with +torches, which show the fish as they lie near the bottom, and they do +not differ materially in appearance from other parts of the river where +no salmon are to be found. + +The salmon is what is called _anadromous_--that is, though an inhabitant +of the ocean for most of the year, it ascends the fresh-water rivers in +summer to spawn. In this function it is guided by curious instincts. The +female deposits her eggs in swift shallow water at the heads of streams, +in trenches dug by herself and the male fish in the gravelly bottom; but +it must not be fresh gravel: it must have been exposed to the action of +water for at least two years, or they will have none of it; and if a +freshet should bring new gravel from the banks, they will abandon the +place and seek for new spawning-grounds. It is only when the salmon are +resting in these pools that they will take a fly. + +The first pool was at a point where the river made a short turn around a +large rock: the current was swift, with a hole at the foot of the rapid +perhaps twenty feet deep, with a rock bottom. Here our leader, +Kingfisher, rigged his salmon-rod, put on two flies and began to cast. I +trolled in the swift water as we proceeded, and with my spoon took a few +small trout. A salmon rose to the fly of Kingfisher, but was not +hooked; this was the first fish that we saw. (The term "fish" is always +applied to the salmon by anglers: other inhabitants of the water are +spoken of as "trout" or "bass;" a salmon is a "fish.") Although we had +seen none before, our keen-eyed Indians had seen many as we came up the +river. + +We then went on to the Lower Indian-house Pool, two miles farther, and +Kingfisher made a few casts; but raising no fish, we went up a mile +farther to our camping-ground, an island between the two pools, having +plenty of wood upon it, with a cold spring brook close by--an old and +famous camping-place for salmon-fishers--and here we intended to make +our permanent quarters. We had four tents--one to sleep in, fitted with +mosquito-bars; one for an eating-tent, with canvas top and sides of +netting: in it was a rough table and two benches, hewed out with an axe +by one of our men. There was also a tent for storing provisions and for +the cook, for we had brought with us a man for this important office. A +fourth tent for the Indians, and a cooking-stove with camp-chests and +equipage, completed our outfit, which all belonged to Kingfisher, and +represented the results of many years' experience in camping out. The +cooking-stove is made of sheet iron and packs in a box, and is one of +the most valuable utensils in the woods. + +It took the rest of the day to make the camp, and in the evening +Kingfisher and the Colonel went in their canoe to the lower pool, and +the former killed two salmon, weighing eighteen and twenty-two pounds. +These, our first fish, were objects of much interest to us new hands. +The Colonel took his first lesson in salmon-fishing, and thought he +could do it himself. + +_July 4._ We proposed to celebrate this day by each of us killing a +salmon, but I thought it would be prudent first to go out with +Kingfisher and see how he did it, before attempting it myself. So I got +into his canoe, and the Indians paddled us to Upper Pool, within sight +of our camp but for a bend in the river. Kingfisher had the canoe +anchored within casting distance of the channel, and there, as he sat +in the bottom of the boat, he made his casts with a nineteen-foot rod, +first about twenty-five feet, and rapidly letting out more line he +increased the length of his casts to sixty feet perhaps, the big +salmon-flies falling lightly on the water, first across the channel to +the right; then letting the current take the flies down to the end of +the line, he drew them round to the left in a circle; then raising them +slowly from the water, he repeated the process, thus fishing over all +the water within his reach. Now the Indians raise the anchor and let the +canoe drop down a few feet. At the first cast after this change of +ground a bulge in the water showed where a salmon had risen at the fly +and missed it. "We will rest him for five minutes," said Kingfisher, and +lighted his pipe for a smoke. Then he changed his fly for a larger and +more brilliant one, and at the first cast a big fish rolled over at the +fly and went off with a rush, making the reel whiz. + +"I've got him," said Kingfisher, calmly putting up his pipe and bringing +his rod to a nearly perpendicular position, which threw a great strain +on the mouth of the salmon from the spring of the rod. He ran about +twenty-five yards, and then leaped six feet into the air. Kingfisher +dropped the point of his rod as the fish leaped, and then raised it as +the salmon went away with twenty yards more of line. + +"Up anchor, Hughey: we must follow him." So they plied their paddles +after the salmon, who was making down stream, Kingfisher reeling up his +line as fast as possible. Up went the salmon again, striking at the line +with his tail as he came down; but this trick failed, and he then +sulked, by diving into the depths of the river and remaining there +motionless for half an hour. Suddenly he rose and made for the heavy +current, from which Kingfisher tried to steer him into the still water +near the shore, where it was about three feet deep, and where he could +be played with more safety. After about forty minutes' play the fish was +coaxed alongside the canoe, evidently tired out and having lost his +force and fury, when Hughey struck the gaff into him near the tail, and +lifted him into the canoe, where he struggled very little, so nearly +beaten was he. + +"About nineteen pounds, I think," said Kingfisher, who from long +experience could name the weight of a fish very correctly. + +Returning to the spot where he had hooked the fish, Kingfisher after a +few casts rose and hooked another, which he killed in twenty-five +minutes--a fish of twelve pounds. After seeing the method of this artist +I was presumptuous enough to suppose that I could do it also, and I +determined to open the campaign the next day. + +_July 5._ Bent on salmon-killing, I was off this morning at five, hoping +to bring home a fish for breakfast. The Upper Indian-house Pool is for +Rodman and me to-day, the others going to Patapedia, three miles above. +Kingfisher fitted me out with a Castle Connell rod, quite light and +pliable, with which he has killed many a fish; a click reel, which +obliges the fish to use some force in getting out the line: of this I +have one hundred yards of oiled silk, with a twelve-feet gut +casting-line, to the end of which is looped a brilliant creature almost +as large as a humming-bird--certainly the likeness of nothing inhabiting +earth, air or water. Mike and Peter, my Indians, took me to the pool, +and I began casting at the place where Kingfisher got his salmon +yesterday, while Rodman took the upper end of the pool, which was three +or four hundred yards in length. I had fished for trout in a bark canoe, +and knew how crank a vessel it is; so I did not attempt to stand up and +cast, but seated myself upon the middle cross-bar with my face turned +down stream, and began to imitate the casting of Kingfisher as well as I +could. I had fished but a few yards of water when the quick-eyed Peter +cried, "Lameau!" which is Mic-mac for salmon. He had seen the rise of +the fish, which I had not. And here I may observe that good eyes are +necessary to make a salmon-fisher, and a near-sighted person like the +Scribe can never greatly excel in this pursuit. All the salmon which I +hooked fastened themselves: I had only this part in it, that I was the +fool at one end of the rod. I waited five minutes, according to rule, +and cast again. "Habet!" There can be no mistake this time: my eyes were +good enough to see the savage rush with which he seized my fly and +plunged with it down to the depths. + +"Hold up your rod!" cries Peter, who saw that, taken by surprise, I was +dropping the point of it. I raised it nearly upright, and this, with the +friction of the reel, caused the fish, which had started to run after he +felt the prick of the hook, to stop when he had gone half across the +river, and make his leap or somersault. + +"A twenty-pounder," said Mike. + +When he leaped I ought to have dropped my point, so that he should not +fall on the line, but I did nothing of the sort. I felt much as I once +did in the woods of Wisconsin when a dozen deer suddenly jumped up from +the long grass all about me, and I forgot that I had a gun in my hands. +I had so much line out that, as it happened, no bad consequences +followed, and the fish started for another run, at the end of which he +made his leap, and coming down he struck my line with his tail, and was +gone! Slowly and sadly I wound up my line, and found the gut broken +close to the hook, and my beautiful "Fairy" vanished. + +Then I looped on another insect phenomenon, and went on casting. Rodman, +I perceived, was engaged with a salmon on the other bank. Presently I +raise and hook another, but he directly shakes out the hook. + +I move slowly down the pool, casting on each side--which I find is hard +work for the back and shoulders--when, just opposite the big rock where +Kingfisher raised his second fish yesterday, I feel a pluck at my fly +and see a boil in the water. The robber runs away twenty yards and +leaps, then turns short round and comes at me, as if to run down the +canoe and drown us all. I wind up my line as fast as possible, but, +alas! it comes in, yard after yard, so easily that I perceive all +connection between the fish and me is at an end. + +"He got slack line on you," said Peter. + +By this time it was seven o'clock, and I returned home to breakfast with +what appetite I had, a sadder if not a wiser man. Rodman brought in a +nine-pound fish, and Kingfisher had three--thirteen, ten and twenty-one +pounds. The Colonel had made a successful _debut_ with a fifteen-pound +fish. + +As we sat at breakfast Rodman asked, "How many salmon did you ever kill +in a day, Kingfisher?" + +_Kingfisher._ "I once killed thirty-three in one day: that was in the +Mingan, a North Shore river, where the fish are very numerous, but +small--not over ten pounds on an average. I knew a man once to kill +forty-two in a day there, but he had extra strong tackle, with double +and treble gut, and being a big strong fellow he used to drag them out +by main force." + +_The Colonel._ "If he had played his fish as you do here, there would +not have been time in the longest day to kill forty-two. You average +half an hour to a salmon, which would have taken twenty-one hours for +his day's work." + +_Kingfisher._ "True enough, but those little fellows in the Mingan can +be killed in ten or fifteen minutes." + +_Rodman._ "And what was the longest time you ever spent in killing a +salmon?" + +_Kingfisher._ "Once fishing in the Moisie, where the fish are very +large, I hooked a salmon at five in the morning and lost him at six in +the evening: he was on for thirteen hours, but he sulked at the bottom +most of the time, and I never saw him at all." + +_Scribe._ "Perhaps it was no fish at all." + +_Kingfisher._ "It might have been a seal, but Sir Edmund Head, who was +with me, and I myself, thought it was a very large salmon and hooked +foul, so that I could not drown him. I think from his play that it was a +salmon: he ran many times round the pool, but swam deep, as heavy fish +are apt to do. How do you like the cooking of this salmon?" + +_Scribe._ "I think it is perfect. The salmon have been growing better +ever since we entered the Dominion, but we have reached perfection now. +Is this the Tweedside method?" + +_Kingfisher._ "It is. Put your fish in boiling water, well salted, boil +a minute to a pound, and when done serve it with some of the water it +was boiled in for sauce. You can't improve a fresh-caught salmon with +Worcestershire or Harvey." + +The day proving very hot, we stayed in camp till evening, when +Kingfisher and the others went to the nearest pool for salmon, and I +went trout-fishing to the little rapids and took a dozen of moderate +size. Kingfisher brought in four fish--seven, ten, seventeen and +eighteen pounds; Rodman got two--twelve and sixteen pounds; the Colonel +failed to secure one which he had hooked. + +_July 6._ To-day Kingfisher and the Colonel take the Upper Indian-house +Pool, and Rodman and I go to the Patapedia. We start at 4 A. M., so as +to get the early fishing, always the best. It takes an hour to pole up +the three miles, the current being very strong, and when we arrive the +pool is yet white with the morning mist. It is a long smooth rapid, with +a channel on one side running close to the high gravelly bank, evidently +cut away by spring freshets. On the other side comes in a rushing brook +or small river called the Patapedia. Rodman took the head of the pool, +and I the middle ground. I fished down some fifty yards without moving +anything, when, as I was bringing home my fly after a cast, it was taken +by a good fish. Away he went with a wicked rush full forty yards, in +spite of all I could do, then made a somersault, showing us his huge +proportions. A second and a third time he leaped, and then darted away, +I urging my men to follow with the canoe, which they did, but not +quickly enough. This was a terribly strong fish: though I was giving him +all the spring of the rod, I could not check him. When he stopped +running he began to shake his head, or, as the English fishing-books +say, "to jigger." In two minutes he jiggered out the hook and departed. + +I had changed rods and lines to-day, having borrowed one from Rodman--a +Montreal rod, larger and stiffer than the other: although heavier, I +could cast better with it than with the Irish rod. Unluckily, there were +only about seventy yards of line on the reel, and the next fish I hooked +proved to be the most furious of all, for he first ran out forty yards +of line, and before I could get much of it wound up again, he made +another and a longer run, taking out all my line to the end, where it +was tied to the reel: of course he broke loose, taking away my fly and +two feet of casting-line. By this time the sun was high in the heavens, +and we returned to camp--Rodman with a salmon of seventeen pounds and a +grilse of five pounds. + +A salmon has properly four stages of existence. The first is as a +"parr," a small bright-looking fish, four or five inches long, with +dark-colored bars across the sides and a row of red spots. It is always +found in the fresh water, looks something like a trout, and will take a +fly or bait eagerly. The second stage is when it puts on the silvery +coat previous to going to sea for the first time: it is then called a +"smolt," and is from six to eight inches long, still living in the river +where it was hatched. In the third stage, after its return from the sea +to its native river, it is called a "grilse," and weighs from three to +six pounds. It can be distinguished from a salmon, even of the same +size, by its forked tail (that of the salmon being square) and the +slight adhesion of the scales. The grilse is wonderfully active and +spirited, and will often give as much play as a salmon of three times +his size. After the second visit of the fish to the sea he returns a +salmon, mature, brilliant and vigorous, and increases in weight every +time he revisits the ocean, where most of his food is found, consisting +of small fish and crustacea. + +As we dropped down the stream toward the camp we saw a squirrel swimming +across the river. Paddling toward him, Peter reached out his pole, and +the squirrel took refuge upon it and was lifted on board--a pretty +little creature, gray and red, about half the size of the common gray +squirrel of the States. He ran about the canoe so fearlessly that I +think he must have been unacquainted with mankind. He skipped over us as +if we had been logs, with his bead-like eyes almost starting from his +head with astonishment, and then mounting the prow of the canoe, + + On the bows, with tail erected, + Sat the squirrel, Adjidaumo. + +Presently we paddled toward the shore, and he jumped off and disappeared +in the bushes, with a fine story to tell to his friends of having been +ferried across by strange and friendly monsters. Kingfisher got eleven +salmon to-day, and the Colonel one. + +_July 7_ was Sunday, and the pools were rested, as well as ourselves, +from the fatigues of the week. Kingfisher brought out his materials and +tied a few flies, such as he thought would suit the river. This he does +very neatly, and I think he belongs to the old school of anglers, who +believe in a great variety of flies. + +It may not perhaps be generally known that there are two schools among +fly-fishers. The "formalists" or entomologists hold that the natural +flies actually on the water should be studied and imitated by the +fly-maker, down to the most minute particulars. This is the old theory, +and whole libraries have been written to prove and illustrate it, from +the _Boke of St. Albans_, written by the Dame Juliana Berners in 1486, +down to the present day. The number of insects which we are directed to +imitate is legion, and the materials necessary for their manufacture are +of immense variety and difficult to procure. These teachers are the +conservatives, who adhere to old tradition. On the other side are the +"colorists," who think color everything, and form nothing: they are but +a section, though an increasing one, of the fly-fishing community. Their +theory is, that all that a fish can distinguish through the watery +medium is the size and color of the fly. These are the radicals, and +they go so far as to discard the thousand different flies described in +the books, and confine themselves to half a dozen typical varieties, +both in salmon- and trout-fishing. Where learned doctors disagree, I, +for one, do not venture to decide; but when I remember that on some days +no fly in my book would tempt the trout, and that at other times they +would rise at any or all flies, it seems to me that the principal +question is, Are the trout feeding or not? If they are, they will take +almost anything; if not, the most skillful hand may fail of tempting +them to rise. As to salmon, I think no one will pretend that the +salmon-flies commonly used are like anything in Nature, and it is +difficult to understand what the keen-eyed salmon takes them for. Until, +then, we can put ourselves in the place of the salmon and see with his +eyes, we must continue to evolve our flies from our own consciousness. +My small experience seems to show me that in a salmon-fly color is the +main thing to be studied. + +But to return to Kingfisher, who has been all this time softening some +silk-worm gut in his mouth, and now says in a thick voice, "Do you know, +colonel, I lost my chance of a wife once in this way?" + +_Colonel._ "How was that? Did you steal some of the lady's feathers?" + +_Kingfisher._ "No, it was in this way: I was a lad of about seventeen, +but I had a sweetheart. I was at college, and had but little time for +fishing, of which I was as fond as I am now. One evening I was hastening +toward the river with my rod, with my mouth full of flies and gut, which +I was softening as I am now. Turning the corner of a narrow lane, I met +my beloved and her mother, both of whom were precise persons who could +not take a joke. Of course I had to stop and speak to them, but my mouth +was full of hooks and gut, and the hooks stuck in my tongue, and I only +mumbled. They looked astonished. Perhaps they thought I was drunk: +anyway, the young lady asked what was the matter. 'My m--m--mouth is +full of guts,' was all that I could say; and the girl would never speak +to me afterward." + +_Rodman._ "That was lucky, for you got a wife better able to bear with +your little foibles." + +_Kingfisher._ "I did, sir." + +_July 8._ Rodman and I were to take the Upper Indian-house Pool to-day, +the others going to the Patapedia. Kingfisher and I exchanged Indians: +he, having a man who was a better fisherman than either of mine, kindly +lent him to me, that I might have a better chance of killing a salmon, I +being the only one of the party who had not succeeded in doing so. I +found in my book a casting-line of double gut: it was only two yards +long, but I thought I had better trust to it than the single gut which +the fish had been breaking for me the last two days. I also found in my +book a few large showy salmon-flies tied on double gut: with these I +started, determined to do or die. I was on the pool at 5 A. M., and had +raised two salmon, and caught two large trout, which often took our +flies when we were casting for bigger fish. At 6.30 I raised and hooked +a big fish, which ran out twenty yards of line, and then stopped. I +determined to try the waiting method this time, and not to lose my fish +by too much haste; so I let him have his own way, only holding him with +a tight hand. Joe, I soon saw, understood his part of the business: he +kept the canoe close behind the fish, so that I should always have a +reserve of line upon my reel. My salmon made two runs without showing +himself: he pulled hard, and was evidently a strong fish. He now tried +to work himself across the river into the heavy current. I resisted +this, but to no purpose: I could not hold him, and I thought he was +going down the little rapid, where I could not have followed, when he +steered down through the still and deep water, and went to the bottom +near the camp. There he stayed, sulking, for more than an hour, and I +could not start him. The cook came down from his fire to see the +conflict; Joe lighted his pipe and smoked it out; old Captain Merrill, +who lived on the opposite bank, came out and hailed me, "Reckon you've +got a big one this time, judge;" and still my line pointed to the bottom +of the river, and my hands grew numb with holding the rod. + + They have tied me to the stake: I cannot fly, + But, bear-like, I must fight the course. + +Suddenly, up from the depths came the salmon, and made off at full speed +down the river, making his first leap as he went, which showed him to be +a twenty-pounder at least. We followed with the canoe. On the west side +of the island ran the main channel, wide and deep, gradually increasing +in swiftness till it became a boiling torrent. Into this my fish +plunged, in spite of all my resistance, and all we could do was to +follow. But I soon lost track of him and control of him: sometimes he +was ahead, and I could feel him; sometimes he was alongside, and the +line was slack and dragging on the water, most dangerous of positions; +sometimes the canoe went fastest, and the salmon was behind me. My men +handled the canoe admirably, and brought me through safe, fish and all; +for when we emerged into the still pool below, and I was able to reel +up, I felt him still on the hook, but unsubdued, for he made another run +of thirty yards, and leaped twice. + +"That's good," said Joe: "that will tire him." + +For the first two hours of the struggle the fish had been quiet, and so +had saved his strength, but now he began to race up and down the pool, +trying for slack line. But Joe followed him up sharply and kept him well +in hand. Now the fish began to jigger, and shook his head so hard and so +long that I thought something must give way--either my line or his +spinal column. After about an hour of this kind of work I called to +Rodman, who was fishing not far off, and asked him to come alongside and +play my fish for a few minutes, so that I might rest my hands, which +were cramped with holding the rod so long; which he did, and gave me +fifteen minutes' rest, when I resumed the rod. The fish now seemed +somewhat spent, for he came to the surface and flounced about, so that +we could see his large proportions. Still, I could not get him +alongside, and I told Joe to try to paddle up to him, but he immediately +darted away from us and headed up stream, keeping a parallel course +about fifty feet off, so that we could see him perfectly through the +clear water. After many efforts, however, he grew more tame, and Louis +paddled the canoe very carefully up to him, while Joe stood watching his +chance with the gaff, which he put deep in the water. At last I got the +fish over it, when with a sudden pull the gaff was driven into him just +behind the dorsal fin; but he was so strong that I thought he would have +taken the man out of the canoe. The water flew in showers, and the big +salmon lay in the bottom of the boat! + +I could hardly believe my eyes. That tremendous creature caught with a +line no thicker than a lady's hair-pin! I looked at my watch: it was +eleven o'clock, just four hours and a half. "Well, I have done enough +for to-day, Joe: let us go home to breakfast." Arrived at the camp, we +weighed the salmon and measured him--twenty-four pounds, and forty +inches long--a male fish, fresh run from the sea, the strongest and most +active of his kind. It had been my luck to hook these big ones: I wished +that my first encounters should be with fish of ten or twelve pounds. +Rodman came in with two--fourteen and sixteen pounds. + +That evening I went again to the same pool, and soon hooked another good +fish with the same fly; but though he was nearly as large as the first, +weighing twenty-two pounds, I killed him in thirty minutes. He fought +hard from the very first, running and vaulting by turns without any +stop, so that he soon tired himself out. Rodman got another this +evening, and Kingfisher brought seven from the Patapedia, and the +Colonel one. Thirteen is our score to-day. + +_July 9._ Rodman and I went this morning to the Patapedia, but raised no +salmon. Either some one had been netting the pool that night, or +Kingfisher had killed all the fish yesterday. I got a grilse of four +pounds, which made a smart fight for fifteen minutes, and Rodman hooked +another, but lost him. That evening we went again to the pool, and I +killed a small but very active salmon of nine pounds, which fought me +nearly an hour: Rodman got a grilse of five pounds. Strange to say, +neither Kingfisher nor the Colonel killed a fish to-day, so that I was +for once "high line." + +Having killed four salmon, I concluded to retire. I found the work too +hard, and determined to go to Dalhousie and try the sea-trout fishing in +that vicinity. So, after an hour's fly-fishing at the mouth of the brook +opposite our camp, in which I got a couple of dozen, hooking two at a +cast twice, and twice three at a cast, I started at seven o'clock on the +10th, and ran down with the current and paddles forty miles to Fraser's +in seven hours--the same distance which it took us two days and a half +to make going up stream. + +Of all modes of traveling, to float down a swift river in a bark canoe +is the most agreeable; and when paddled by Indians the canoe is the +perfection of a vessel for smooth-water navigation. Where there are +three inches of water she can go--where there is none, a man can carry +her round the portage on his back. Her buoyancy enables her to carry a +heavy load, and, though frail, the elasticity of her material admits of +many a blow and pinch which would seriously damage a heavier vessel. The +rifle and axe of the backwoodsman, the canoe and the weapons of the +Indian, are the result of long years of experiment, and perfectly meet +their necessities. + +The rest of the party remained and fished five days more, making ten +days in all, and the score was eighty-five salmon and five grilse, the +united weight of which was fourteen hundred and twenty-three pounds. The +salmon averaged sixteen and a half pounds each: the three largest +weighed thirty, thirty, and thirty-three pounds. Nearly two-thirds of +the whole were taken by Kingfisher, and our average for three rods was +three fish per day each. + +It is asserted by Norris in the _American Angler's Book_ that the salmon +of the American rivers are smaller than those of Europe, that in the +Scottish rivers many are still taken of twenty and twenty-five pounds +weight, and that on this side of the Atlantic it is as rare to take them +with the rod over fifteen pounds. If this statement was correct when +Norris wrote, ten years ago, then the Canadian rivers have improved +under the system of protection, for, as above stated, our catch in the +Restigouche averaged over sixteen pounds, and nearly one-third of our +fish were of twenty pounds or over. + +Yarrel, in his work on British fishes, says that in 1835 he saw 10 +salmon in the London market weighing from 38 to 40 pounds each. Sir +Humphry Davy is said to have killed a salmon in the Tweed that weighed +42 pounds: this was about 1825. The largest salmon ever seen in London +was sold there in 1821: it weighed 83 pounds. But with diminished +numbers the size of the salmon in Scottish waters has also diminished. +In the _Field_ newspaper for August and September, 1872, I find the +following report of the fishing in some of those rivers: The +Severn--average size of catch (considered very large) is 16 pounds; fish +of 30, 40 and 50 pounds have been taken. The Tay--one rod, one day in +August, 7 fish; average weight, 18 pounds. The Tweed--two rods, one +day's fishing, 12 fish; average, 20 pounds. The Eaine--fish run from 12 +to 20 pounds. + +In Lloyd's book on the _Sports of Norway_ we find the following reports +of the salmon-fishing in that country, where the fish are supposed to be +very large: In the river Namsen, Sir Hyde Parker in 1836 killed in one +day 10 salmon weighing from 30 to 60 pounds. This is considered the best +of the Norwegian rivers, both for number and size of fish. The +Alten--Mr. Brettle in 1838 killed in fifteen days 194 fish; average, 15 +pounds; largest fish, 40 pounds. Sir Charles Blois, the most successful +angler, in the season of 1843 killed in the Alten 368 fish; average, 15 +pounds: largest fish, 50 pounds. The Steenkjaw--one rod killed in +twenty days 80 salmon; average, 14 pounds. The Mandall--one rod killed +35 fish in one day. The Nid--two rods killed in one day 19 fish; largest +fish, 38 pounds. + +The following records are from Canadian rivers prior to 1871: +Moisie--two rods in twenty-five days, 318 fish; average 15-1/7 pounds; +three largest, 29, 29 and 32 pounds. Godbout--three rods in forty days, +194 fish; average, 11-1/8 pounds; three largest, 18, 19 and 20 pounds. +St. John--two rods in twenty-two days, 199 fish; average, 10 pounds. +Nipisiquit--two rods, 76 fish; average, 9-1/2 pounds. Mingan--three rods +in thirty-two days, 218 fish; average, 10-1/5 pounds. Restigouche, +1872--three rods in ten days, 85 fish; average, 16-1/2 pounds; three +largest, 30, 30 and 33 pounds. + +The greatest kill of salmon ever recorded was that of Allan Gilmour, +Esq., of Ottawa, who killed in the Godbout in 1867, in one day, 46 +salmon, averaging 11-1/2 pounds, or one fish about every fifteen +minutes. + +The largest salmon taken with the fly in an American river have been out +of the Grand Cascapediac, on the north shore of the Bay of Chaleur. In +1871, by the government report, there were 44 salmon killed with the +fly--two of 40 pounds, one of 38, and four others of over 30 pounds; +average weight, 23 pounds. In the same river in 1872, Mr. John Medden of +Toronto, with three other rods, killed 2 fish of 45 pounds, 4 of between +40 and 45, 5 of between 35 and 40 pounds, 7 of between 30 and 35 pounds, +15 of between 25 and 30 pounds, 16 of between 20 and 25, besides smaller +ones not enumerated. + +From these data it would seem that the average size of the Canadian +salmon is as great as those of Norway, and very nearly equal to those of +the Scottish rivers; while the number of fish taken in a day in the +Canadian rivers, particularly in those on the north shore of the St. +Lawrence, surpasses the best catch of either the Scottish or Norwegian +rivers. + +S. C. CLARKE. + + + + +A PRINCESS OF THULE. + +BY WILLIAM BLACK. + + +CHAPTER VI. + +AT BARVAS BRIDGE. + +Very soon, indeed, Ingram began to see that his friend had spoken to him +quite frankly, and that he was really bent on asking Sheila to become +his wife. Ingram contemplated this prospect with some dismay, and with +some vague consciousness that he was himself responsible for what he +could not help regarding as a disaster. He had half expected that Frank +Lavender would, in his ordinary fashion, fall in love with Sheila--for +about a fortnight. He had joked him about it even before they came +within sight of Sheila's home. He had listened with a grim humor to +Lavender's outbursts of admiration, and only asked himself how many +times he had heard the same phrases before. But now things were looking +more serious, for the young man had thrown himself into the prosecution +of his new project with all the generous poetic enthusiasm of a highly +impulsive nature. Ingram saw that everything a young man could do to win +the heart of a young girl Lavender would do; and Nature had dowered him +richly with various means of fascination. Most dangerous of all of these +was a gift of sincerity that deceived himself. He could assume an +opinion or express an emotion at will, with such a genuine fervor that +he himself forgot how recently he had acquired it, and was able to +convince his companion for the moment that it was a revelation of his +inmost soul. It was this charm of impetuous sincerity which had +fascinated Ingram himself years before, and made him cultivate the +acquaintance of a young man whom he at first regarded as a somewhat +facile, talkative and histrionic person. Ingram perceived, for example, +that young Lavender had so little regard for public affairs that he +would have been quite content to see our Indian empire go for the sake +of eliciting a sarcasm from Lord Westbury; but at the same time, if you +had appealed to his nobler instincts, and placed before him the +condition of a certain populace suffering from starvation, he would have +done all in his power to aid them: he would have written letters to the +newspapers, would have headed subscriptions, and would have ended by +believing that he had been the constant friend of the people of India +throughout his life, and was bound to stick to them to the end of it. + +As often as not he borrowed his fancies and opinions from Edward Ingram +himself, who was amused and gratified at the same time to find his +humdrum notions receive a dozen new lights and colors when transferred +to the warmer atmosphere of his friend's imagination. Ingram would even +consent to receive from his younger companion advice, impetuously urged +and richly illustrated, which he had himself offered in simpler terms +months before. At this very moment he could see that much of Lavender's +romantic conceptions of Sheila's character was only an exaggeration of +some passing hints he, Ingram, had dropped as the Clansman was steaming +into Stornoway. But then they were ever so much more beautiful. Ingram +held to his conviction that he himself was a distinctly commonplace +person. He had grown reconciled to the ordinary grooves of life. But +young Lavender was not commonplace: he fancied he could see in him an +occasional flash of something that looked like genius; and many and many +a time, in regarding the brilliant and facile powers, the generous +impulses and the occasional ambitions of his companion, he wondered +whether these would ever lead to anything in the way of production, or +even of consolidation of character, or whether would merely remain the +passing sensations of an indifferent idler. Sometimes, indeed, he +devoutly wished that Lavender had been born a stonemason. + +But all these pleasant and graceful qualities, which had made the young +man an agreeable companion, were a serious danger now; for was it not +but too probable that Sheila, accustomed to the rude and homely ways of +the islanders, would be attracted and pleased and fascinated by one who +had about him so much of a soft and southern brightness with which she +was wholly unfamiliar? This open-hearted frankness of his placed all his +best qualities in the sunshine, as it were: she could not fail to see +the singular modesty and courtesy of his bearing toward women, his +gentle manners, his light-heartedness, his passionate admiration of the +self-sacrifice of others, and his sympathy with their sufferings. Ingram +would not have minded much if Lavender alone had been concerned in the +dilemma now growing imminent: he would have left him to flounder out of +it as he had got out of previous ones. But he had been surprised and +pained, and even frightened, to detect in Sheila's manner some faint +indications--so faint that he was doubtful what construction to put on +them--of a special interest in the young stranger whom he had brought +with him to Borva. + +What could he do in the matter, supposing his suspicions were correct? +Caution Sheila?--it would be an insult. Warn Mackenzie?--the King of +Borva would fly into a passion with everybody concerned, and bring +endless humiliation on his daughter, who had probably never dreamed of +regarding Lavender except as a chance acquaintance. Insist upon Lavender +going south at once?--that would merely goad the young man into +obstinacy. Ingram found himself in a grievous difficulty, afraid to say +how much of it was of his own creation. He had no selfish sentiments of +his own to consult: if it were to become evident that the happiness of +Sheila and of his friend depended on their marrying each other, he was +ready to forward such a project with all the influence at his command. +But there were a hundred reasons why he should dread such a marriage. He +had already mentioned several of them to Lavender in trying to dissuade +the young man from his purpose. A few days had passed since then, and it +was clear that Lavender had abandoned all notion of fulfilling those +resolutions he had vaguely formed. But the more Ingram thought over the +matter, and the further he recalled all the ancient proverbs and stories +about the fate of intermeddlers, the more evident it became to him that +he could take no immediate action in the affair. He would trust to the +chapter of accidents to save Sheila from what he considered a disastrous +fate. Perhaps Lavender would repent. Perhaps Mackenzie, continually on +the watch for small secrets, would discover something, and bid his +daughter stay in Borva while his guests proceeded on their tour through +Lewis. In any case, it was not at all certain that Lavender would be +successful in his suit. Was the heart of a proud-spirited, intelligent +and busily-occupied girl to be won in a matter of three weeks or a +month? Lavender would go south, and no more would be heard of it. + +This tour round the island of Lewis, however, was not likely to favor +much any such easy escape from the difficulty. On a certain morning the +larger of Mr. Mackenzie's boats carried the holiday party away from +Borva; and even at this early stage, as they sat at the stern of the +heavy craft, Lavender had arrogated to himself the exclusive right of +waiting upon Sheila. He had constituted himself her companion in all +their excursions about Borva which they had undertaken, and now, on this +longer journey, they were to be once more thrown together. It did seem a +little hard that Ingram should be relegated to Mackenzie and his +theories of government; but did he not profess to prefer that? Like most +men who have got beyond five-and-thirty, he was rather proud of +considering himself an observer of life. He stood aside as a spectator, +and let other people, engaged in all manner of eager pursuits, pass +before him for review. Toward young folks, indeed, he assumed a +good-naturedly paternal air, as if they were but as shy-faced children +to be humored. Were not their love-affairs a pretty spectacle? As for +himself, he was far beyond all that. The illusions of love-making, the +devotion and ambition and dreams of courtship, were no longer possible +to him, but did they not constitute on the whole a beautiful and +charming study, that had about it at times some little touches of +pathos? At odd moments, when he saw Sheila and Lavender walking together +in the evening, he was himself half inclined to wish that something +might come of the young man's determination. It would be so pleasant to +play the part of a friendly counselor, to humor the follies of the young +folks, to make jokes at their expense, and then, in the midst of their +embarrassment and resentment, to go forward and pet them a little, and +assure them of a real and earnest sympathy. + +"Your time is to come," Lavender said to him suddenly after he had been +exhibiting some of his paternal forbearance and consideration: "you will +get a dreadful twist some day, my boy. You have been doing nothing but +dreaming about women, but some day or other you will wake up to find +yourself captured and fascinated beyond anything you have ever seen in +other people, and then you will discover what a desperately real thing +it is." + +Ingram had a misty impression that he had heard something like this +before. Had he not given Lavender some warning of the same kind? But he +was so much accustomed to hear those vague repetitions of his own +remarks, and was, on the whole, so well pleased to think that his +commonplace notions should take root and flourish in this goodly soil, +that he never thought of asking Lavender to quote his authority for +those profound observations on men and things. + +"Now, Miss Mackenzie," said the young man as the big boat was drawing +near to Callernish, "what is to be our first sketch in Lewis?" + +"The Callernish Stones, of course," said Mackenzie himself: "it iss +more than one hass come to the Lewis to see the Callernish Stones." + +Lavender had promised to the King of Borva a series of water-color +drawings of Lewis, and Sheila was to choose the subjects from day to +day. Mackenzie was gratified by this proposal, and accepted it with much +magnanimity; but Sheila knew that before the offer was made Lavender had +come to her and asked her if she cared about sketches, and whether he +might be allowed to take a few on this journey and present them to her. +She was very grateful, but suggested that it might please her papa if +they were given to him. Would she superintend them, then, and choose the +topics for illustration? Yes, she would do that; and so the young man +was furnished with a roving commission. + +He brought her a little sepia sketch of Borvabost, its huts, its bay, +and its upturned boats on the beach. Sheila's expressions of praise, the +admiration and pleasure that shone in her eyes, would have turned any +young man's head. But her papa looked at the picture with a critical +eye, and remarked, "Oh yes, it is ferry good, but it is not the color of +Loch Roag at all. It is the color of a river when there is a flood of +rain. I have neffer at all seen Loch Roag a brown color--neffer at all." + +It was clear, then, that the subsequent sketches could not be taken in +sepia, and so Lavender proposed to make a series of pencil-drawings, +which could be washed in with color afterward. There was one subject, +indeed, which since his arrival in Lewis he had tried to fix on paper by +every conceivable means in his power, and that was Sheila herself. He +had spoiled innumerable sheets of paper in trying to get some likeness +of her which would satisfy himself, but all his usual skill seemed +somehow to have gone from him. He could not understand it. In ordinary +circumstances he could have traced in a dozen lines a portrait that +would at least have shown a superficial likeness: he could have +multiplied portraits by the dozen of old Mackenzie or Ingram or Duncan, +but here he seemed to fail utterly. He invited no criticism, certainly. +These efforts were made in his own room, and he asked no one's opinion +as to the likeness. He could, indeed, certify to himself that the +drawing of the features was correct enough. There was the sweet and +placid forehead with its low masses of dark hair; there the short upper +lip, the finely-carved mouth, the beautifully-rounded chin and throat; +and there the frank, clear, proud eyes, with their long lashes and +highly-curved eyebrows. Sometimes, too, a touch of color added warmth +to the complexion, put a glimmer of the blue sea beneath the long black +eyelashes, and drew a thread of scarlet round the white neck. But was +this Sheila? Could he take this sheet of paper to his friends in London +and say, Here is the magical princess whom I hope to bring to you from +the North, with all the glamour of the sea around her? He felt +instinctively that there would be an awkward pause. The people would +praise the handsome, frank, courageous head, and look upon the bit of +red ribbon round the neck as an effective artistic touch. They would +hand him back the paper with a compliment, and he would find himself in +an agony of unrest because they had misunderstood the portrait, and seen +nothing of the wonder that encompassed this Highland girl as if with a +garment of mystery and dreams. + +So he tore up portrait after portrait--more than one of which would have +startled Ingram by its truth--and then, to prove to himself that he was +not growing mad, he resolved to try a portrait of some other person. He +drew a head of old Mackenzie in chalk, and was amazed at the rapidity +and facility with which he executed the task. Then there could be no +doubt as to the success of the likeness nor as to the effect of the +picture. The King of Borva, with his heavy eyebrows, his aquiline nose, +his keen gray eyes and flowing beard, offered a fine subject; and there +was something really royal and massive and noble in the head that +Lavender, well satisfied with his work, took down stairs one evening. +Sheila was alone in the drawing-room, turning over some music. + +"Miss Mackenzie," he said rather kindly, "would you look at this?" + +Sheila turned round, and the sudden light of pleasure that leapt to her +face was all the praise and all the assurance he wanted. But he had more +than that. The girl was grateful to him beyond all the words she could +utter; and when he asked her if she would accept the picture, she +thanked him by taking his hand for a moment, and then she left the room +to call in Ingram and her father. All the evening there was a singular +look of happiness on her face. When she met Lavender's eyes with hers +there was a frank and friendly look of gratitude ready to reward him. +When had he earned so much before by a simple sketch? Many and many a +portrait, carefully executed and elaborately framed, had he presented to +his lady friends in London, to receive from them a pretty note and a few +words of thanks when next he called. Here with a rough chalk sketch he +had awakened an amount of gratitude that almost surprised him in the +most beautiful and tender soul in the world; and had not this princess +among women taken his hand for a moment as a childlike way of expressing +her thanks, while her eyes spoke more than her lips? And the more he +looked at those eyes, the more he grew to despair of ever being able to +put down the magic of them in lines and colors. + +At length Duncan got the boat into the small creek at Callernish, and +the party got out on the shore. As they were going up the steep path +leading to the plain above a young girl met them, who looked at them in +rather a strange way. She had a fair, pretty, wondering face, with +singularly high eyebrows and clear, light-blue eyes. + +"How are you, Eily?" said Mackenzie as he passed on with Ingram. + +But Sheila, on making the same inquiry, shook hands with the girl, who +smiled in a confidential way, and, coming quite close, nodded and +pointed down to the water's edge. + +"Have you seen them to-day, Eily?" said Sheila, still holding the girl +by the hands, and looking at the fair, pretty, strange face. + +"It wass sa day before yesterday," she answered in a whisper, while a +pleased smile appeared on her face, "and sey will be here sa night." + +"Good-bye, Eily: take care you don't stay out at night and catch cold, +you know," said Sheila; and then, with another little nod and a smile, +the young girl went down the path. + +"It is Eily-of-the-Ghosts, as they call her," said Sheila to Lavender as +they went on: "the poor thing fancies she sees little people about the +rocks, and watches for them. But she is very good and quiet, and she is +not afraid of them, and she does no harm to any one. She does not belong +to the Lewis--I think she is from Islay--but she sometimes comes to pay +us a visit at Borva, and my papa is very kind to her." + +"Mr. Ingram does not appear to know her: I thought he was acquainted +with every one in the island," said Lavender. + +"She was not here when he has been in the Lewis before," said Sheila; +"but Eily does not like to speak to strangers, and I do not think you +could get her to speak to you if you tried." + +Lavender had paid but little attention to the "false men" of Callernish +when first he saw them, but now he approached the long lines of big +stones up on this lonely plateau with a new interest; for Sheila had +talked to him about them many a time in Borva, and had asked his opinion +about their origin and their age. Was the central circle of stones an +altar, with the other series marking the approaches to it? Or was it the +grave of some great chieftain, with the remaining stones indicating the +graves of his relations and friends? Or was it the commemoration of some +battle in olden times, or the record of astronomical or geometrical +discoveries, or a temple once devoted to serpent-worship, or what? +Lavender, who knew absolutely nothing at all about the matter, was +probably as well qualified as anybody else to answer these questions, +but he forbore. The interest, however, that Sheila showed in such +things he very rapidly acquired. When he came to see the rows of stones +a second time he was much impressed by their position on this bit of +hill overlooking the sea. He sat down on his camp-stool with the +determination that, although he could not satisfy Sheila's wistful +questions, he would present her with some little sketch of these +monuments and their surroundings which might catch up something of the +mysterious loneliness of the scene. + +He would not, of course, have the picture as it then presented itself. +The sun was glowing on the grass around him, and lighting up the tall +gray pillars of stone with a cheerful radiance. Over there the waters of +Loch Roag were bright and blue, and beyond the lake the undulations of +moorland were green and beautiful, and the mountains in the south grown +pale as silver in the heat. Here was a pretty young lady, in a rough +blue traveling-dress and a hat and feather, who was engaged in picking +up wild-flowers from the warm heath. There was a gentleman from the +office of the Board of Trade, who was sitting on the grass, nursing his +knees and whistling. From time to time the chief figure in the +foreground was an elderly gentleman, who evidently expected that he was +going to be put into the picture, and who was occasionally dropping a +cautious hint that he did not always wear this rough-and-ready sailor's +costume. Mackenzie was also most anxious to point out to the artist the +names of the hills and districts lying to the south of Loch Roag, +apparently with the hope that the sketch would have a certain +topographical interest for future visitors. + +No: Lavender was content at that moment to take down the outlines of the +great stones and the configuration of lake and hill beyond, but by and +by he would give another sort of atmosphere to this wild scene. He would +have rain and darkness spread over the island, with the low hills in the +south grown desolate and remote, and the waters of the sea covered with +gloom. No human figure should be visible on this remote plain, where +these strange memorials had stood for centuries, exposed to western +gales and the stillness of the winter nights and the awful silence of +the stars. Would not Sheila, at least, understand the bleakness and +desolation of the picture? Of course her father would like to have +everything blue and green. He seemed a little disappointed when it was +clear that no distant glimpse of Borva could be introduced into the +sketch. But Sheila's imagination would be captured by this sombre +picture, and perhaps by and by in some other land, amid fairer scenes +and in a more generous climate, she might be less inclined to hunger for +the dark and melancholy North when she looked on this record of its +gloom and its sadness. + +"Iss he going to put any people in the pictures?" said Mackenzie in a +confidential whisper to Ingram. + +Ingram got up from the grass, and said with a yawn, "I don't know. If he +does, it will be afterward. Suppose we go along to the wagonette and see +if Duncan has brought everything up from the boat?" + +The old man seemed rather unwilling to be cut out of this particular +sketch, but he went nevertheless; and Sheila, seeing the young man left +alone, and thinking that not quite fair, went over to him and asked if +she might be permitted to see as much as he had done. + +Lavender shut up the book. + +"No," he said with a laugh, "you shall see it to-night. I have +sufficient memoranda to work something out of by and by. Shall we have +another look at the circle up there?" + +He folded up and shouldered his camp-stool, and they walked up to the +point at which the lines of the "mourners" converged. Perhaps he was +moved by a great antiquarian curiosity: at all events, he showed a +singular interest in the monuments, and talked to his companion about +all the possible theories connected with such stones in a fashion that +charmed her greatly. She was easily persuaded that the Callernish +"Fir-Bhreige" were the most interesting relics in the world. He had seen +Stonehenge, but Stonehenge was too scattered to be impressive. There +was more mystery about the means by which the inhabitants of a small +island could have hewn and carved and erected these blocks: there was, +moreover, the mystery about the vanished population itself. Yes, he had +been to Carnac also. He had driven down from Auray in a rumbling old +trap, his coachman being unable to talk French. He had seen the +half-cultivated plain on which there were rows and rows of small stones, +scarcely to be distinguished from the stone walls of the adjoining +farms. What was there impressive about such a sight when you went into a +house and paid a franc to be shown the gold ornaments picked up about +the place? Here, however, was a perfect series of those strange +memorials, with the long lanes leading up to a circle, and the tallest +of all the stones placed on the western side of the circle, perhaps as +the headstone of the buried chief. Look at the position, too--the silent +hill, the waters of the sea-loch around it, and beyond that the +desolation of miles of untenanted moorland. Sheila looked pleased that +her companion, after coming so far, should have found something worth +looking at in the Lewis. + +"Does it not seem strange," he said suddenly, "to think of young folks +of the present day picking up wild-flowers from among these old stones?" +He was looking at a tiny bouquet which she had gathered. + +"Will you take them?" she said, quite simply and naturally offering him +the flowers. "They may remind you some time of Callernish." + +He took the flowers, and regarded them for a moment in silence, and then +he said gently, "I do not think I shall want these to remind me of +Callernish. I shall never forget our being here." + +At this moment, perhaps fortunately, Duncan appeared, and came along +toward the young people with a basket in his hand. + +"It wass Mr. Mackenzie will ask if ye will tek a glass o' whisky, sir, +and a bit o' bread and cheese. And he wass sayin' there wass no hurry at +all, and he will wait for you for two hours or half an hour whatever." + +"All right, Duncan: go back and tell him I have finished, and we shall +be there directly. No, thank you, don't take out the whisky--unless, +Miss Mackenzie," added the young man with a smile, "Duncan can persuade +you." + +Duncan looked with amazement at the man who dared to joke about Miss +Sheila taking whisky, and without waiting for any further commands +indignantly shut the lid of the basket and walked off. + +"I wonder, Miss Mackenzie," said Lavender as they went along the path +and down the hill--"I wonder what you would say if I happened to call +you Sheila by mistake?" + +"I should be glad if you did that. Every one calls me Sheila," said the +girl quietly enough. + +"You would not be vexed?" he said, regarding her with a little surprise. + +"No: why should I be vexed?" she answered; and she happened to look up, +and he saw what a clear light of sincerity there was shining in her +eyes. + +"May I then call you Sheila?" + +"Yes." + +"But--but--" he said, with a timidity and embarrassment of which she +showed no trace whatever--"but people might think it strange, you know; +and yet I should greatly like to call you Sheila; only, not before other +people perhaps." + +"But why not?" she said with her eyebrows just raised a little. "Why +should you wish to call me Sheila at one time and not at the other? It +is no difference whatever, and every one calls me Sheila." + +Lavender was a little disappointed. He had hoped, when she consented in +so friendly a manner to his calling her by any name he chose, that he +could have established this little arrangement, which would have had +about it something of the nature of a personal confidence. Sheila would +evidently have none of that. Was it that she was really so simple and +frank in her ways that she did not understand why there should be such a +difference, and what it might imply, or was she well aware of +everything he had been wishing, and able to assume this air of +simplicity and ignorance with a perfect grace? Ingram, he reflected, +would have said at once that to suspect Sheila of such duplicity was to +insult her; but then Ingram was perhaps himself a trifle too easily +imposed on, and he had notions about women, despite all his +philosophical reading and such like, that a little more mingling in +society might have caused him to alter. Frank Lavender confessed to +himself that Sheila was either a miracle of ingenuousness or a thorough +mistress of the art of assuming it. On the one hand, he considered it +almost impossible for a woman to be so disingenuous; on the other hand, +how could this girl have taught herself, in the solitude of a savage +island, a species of histrionicism which women in London circles strove +for years to acquire, and rarely acquired in any perfection? At all +events, he said to himself, while he reserved his opinion on this point, +he was not going to call Sheila Sheila before folks who would know what +that meant. Mr. Mackenzie was evidently a most irascible old gentleman. +Goodness only knew what sort of law prevailed in these wild parts; and +to be seized at midnight by a couple of brawny fishermen, to be carried +down to a projecting ledge of rock--! Had not Ingram already hinted that +Mackenzie would straightway throw into Loch Roag the man who should +offer to carry away Sheila from him? + +But how could these doubts of Sheila's sincerity last? He sat opposite +her in the wagonette, and the perfect truth of her face, of her frank +eyes and of her ready smile met him at every moment, whether he talked +to her or to Ingram, or listened to old Mackenzie, who turned from time +to time from the driving of the horses to inform the stranger of what he +saw around him. It was the most brilliant of mornings. The sun burned on +the white road, on the green moorland, on the gray-lichened rocks with +their crimson patches of heather. As they drove by the curious +convolutions of this rugged coast, the sea that lay beyond these +recurring bays and points was of a windy green, with here and there a +streak of white, and the fresh breeze blowing across to them tempered +the fierce heat of the sun. How cool, too, were those little fresh-water +lakes they passed, the clear blue and white of them stirred into +wavelets that moved the reeds and left air-bubbles about the +half-submerged stones! Were not those wild-geese over there, flapping in +the water with their huge wings and taking no notice of the passing +strangers? Lavender had never seen this lonely coast in times of gloom, +with those little lakes become sombre pools, and the outline of the +rocks beyond lost in the driving mist of the sea and the rain. It was +altogether a bright and beautiful world he had got into, and there was +in it but one woman, beautiful beyond his dreams. To doubt her was to +doubt all women. When he looked at her he forgot the caution and +distrust and sardonic self-complacency his southern training had given +him. He believed, and the world seemed to be filled with a new light. + +"That is Loch-na-Muirne," Mackenzie was saying, "and it iss the Loch of +the Mill; and over there that is Loch-a-Bhaile, and that iss the Loch of +the Town; but where iss the loch and the town now? It wass many hundreds +of years before there will be numbers of people in this place; and you +will come to Dun Charlobhaidh, which is a great castle, by and by. And +what wass it will drive away the people, and leave the land to the moss, +but that there wass no one to look after them? 'When the natives will +leave Islay, farewell to the peace of Scotland.' That iss a good +proverb. And if they have no one to mind them, they will go away +altogether. And there is no people more obedient than the people of the +Highlands--not anywhere; for you know that we say, 'Is it the truth, as +if you were speaking before kings?' And now there is the castle, and +there wass many people living here when they could build that." + +It was, in truth, one of those circular forts the date of which has +given rise to endless conjecture and discussion. Perched up on a hill, +it overlooked a number of deep and narrow valleys that ran landward, +while the other side of the hill sloped down to the sea-shore. It was a +striking object, this tumbling mass of dark stones standing high over +the green hollows and over the light plain of the sea. Was there not +here material for another sketch for Sheila? While Lavender had gone +away over the heights and hollows to choose his point of view a rough +and ready luncheon had been spread out in the wagonette, and when he +returned, perspiring and considerably blown, he found old Mackenzie +measuring out equal portions of peat-water and whisky, Duncan flicking +the enormous "clegs" from off the horses' necks, Ingram trying to +persuade Sheila to have some sherry out of a flask he carried, and +everybody in very good spirits over such an exciting event as a roadside +luncheon on a summer forenoon. + +The King of Borva had by this time become excellent friends with the +young stranger who had ventured into his dominions. When the old +gentleman had sufficiently impressed on everybody that he had observed +all necessary precaution in studying the character and inquiring into +the antecedents of Lavender, he could not help confessing to a sense of +lightness and vivacity that the young man seemed to bring with him and +shed around him. Nor was this matter of the sketches the only thing that +had particularly recommended Lavender to the old man. Mackenzie had a +most distinct dislike to Gaelic songs. He could not bear the monotonous +melancholy of them. When Sheila, sitting by herself, would sing these +strange old ballads of an evening, he would suddenly enter the room, +probably find her eyes filled with tears, and then he would in his +inmost heart devote the whole of Gaelic minstrelsy and all its authors +to the infernal gods. Why should people be for ever saddening themselves +with the stories of other folks' misfortunes? It was bad enough for +those poor people, but they had borne their sorrows and died, and were +at peace. Surely it was better that we should have songs about +ourselves--drinking or fighting, if you like--to keep up the spirits, to +lighten the serious cares of life, and drown for a while the +responsibility of looking after a whole population of poor, +half-ignorant, unphilosophical creatures. + +"Look, now," he would say, speaking of his own tongue, "look at this +teffle of a language! It has no present tense to its verbs: the people +they are always looking forward to a melancholy future or looking back +to a melancholy past. In the name of Kott, hef we not got ourselves to +live? This day we live in is better than any day that wass before or iss +to come, bekass it is here and we are alive. And I will hef no more of +these songs about crying, and crying, and crying!" + +Now Sheila and Lavender, in their mutual musical confidences, had at an +early period discovered that each of them knew something of the older +English duets, and forthwith they tried a few of them, to Mackenzie's +extreme delight. Here, at last, was a sort of music he could +understand--none of your moanings of widows and cries of luckless girls +to the sea, but good common-sense songs, in which the lads kissed the +lasses with a will, and had a good drink afterward, and a dance on the +green on their homeward way. There was fun in those happy Mayfields, and +good health and briskness in the ale-house choruses, and throughout them +all a prevailing cheerfulness and contentment with the conditions of +life certain to recommend itself to the contemplative mind. Mackenzie +never tired of hearing those simple ditties. He grew confidential with +the young man, and told him that those fine, common-sense songs recalled +pleasant scenes to him. He himself knew something of English village +life. When he had been up to see the Great Exhibition he had gone to +visit a friend living in Brighton, and he had surveyed the country with +an observant eye. He had remarked several village-greens, with the +May-poles standing here and there in front of the cottages, emblazoned +with beautiful banners. He had, it is true, fancied that the May-pole +should be in the centre of the green; but the manner in which the waves +of population swept here and there, swallowing up open spaces and so +forth, would account to a philosophical person for the fact that the +May-poles were now close to the village-shops. + +"Drink to me only with thine eyes," hummed the King of Borva to himself +as he sent the two little horses along the coast-road on this warm +summer day. He had heard the song for the first time on the previous +evening. He had no voice to speak of; he had missed the air, and these +were all the words he remembered; but it was a notable compliment all +the same to the young man who had brought these pleasant tunes to the +island. And so they drove on through the keen salt air, with the sea +shining beside them and the sky shining over them; and in the afternoon +they arrived at the small, remote and solitary inn of Barvas, placed +near the confluence of several rivers that flow through Loch Barvas (or +Barabhas) to the sea. Here they proposed to stop the night, so that +Lavender, when his room had been assigned to him, begged to be left +alone for an hour or two, that he might throw a little color into his +sketch of Callernish. What was there to see at Barvas? Why, nothing but +the channels of the brown streams, some pasture-land and a few huts, +then the unfrequented lake, and beyond that some ridges of white sand +standing over the shingly beach of the sea. He would join them at +dinner. Mackenzie protested in a mild way: he really wanted to see how +the island was to be illustrated by the stranger. There was a greater +protest, mingled with compassion and regret, in Sheila's eyes; but the +young man was firm. So they let him have his way, and gave him full +possession of the common sitting-room, while they set off to visit the +school and the Free-Church manse and what not in the neighborhood. + +Mackenzie had ordered dinner at eight, to show that he was familiar with +the ways of civilized life; and when they returned at that hour +Lavender had two sketches finished. + +"Yes, they are very good," said Ingram, who was seldom enthusiastic +about his friend's work. + +But old Mackenzie was so vastly pleased with the picture, which +represented his native place in the brightest of sunshine and colors, +that he forgot to assume a critical air. He said nothing against the +rainy and desolate version of the scene that had been given to Sheila: +it was good enough to please the child. But here was something +brilliant, effective, cheerful; and he alarmed Lavender not a little by +proposing to get one of the natives to carry this treasure, then and +there, back to Borvabost. Both sketches were ultimately returned to his +book, and then Sheila helped him to remove his artistic apparatus from +the table on which their plain and homely meal was to be placed. As she +was about to follow her father and Ingram, who had left the room, she +paused for a moment and said to Lavender, with a look of frank gratitude +in her eyes, "It is very good of you to have pleased my papa so much. I +know when he is pleased, though he does not speak of it; and it is not +often he will be so much pleased." + +"And you, Sheila?" said the young man, unconscious of the familiarity he +was using, and only remembering that she had scarcely thanked him for +the other sketch. + +"Well, there is nothing that will please me so much as to see him +pleased," she said with a smile. + +He was about to open the door for her, but he kept his hand on the +handle, and said, earnestly enough, "But that is such a small matter--an +hour's work. If you only knew how gladly I would live all my life here +if only I could do you some greater service--" + +She looked a little surprised, and then for one brief second reflected. +English was not wholly familiar to her: perhaps she had failed to catch +what he really meant. But at all events she said gravely and simply, +"You would soon tire of living here: it is not always a holiday." And +then, without lifting her eyes to his face, she turned to the door, and +he opened it for her and she was gone. + +It was about ten o'clock when they went outside for their evening +stroll, and all the world had grown enchanted since they had seen it in +the colors of the sunset. There was no night, but a strange clearness +over the sky and the earth, and down in the south the moon was rising +over the Barvas hills. In the dark green meadows the cattle were still +grazing. Voices of children could be heard in the far distance, with the +rumble of a cart coming through the silence, and the murmur of the +streams flowing down to the loch. The loch itself lay like a line of +dusky yellow in a darkened hollow near the sea, having caught on its +surface the pale glow of the northern heavens, where the sun had gone +down hours before. The air was warm and yet fresh with the odors of the +Atlantic, and there was a scent of Dutch clover coming across from the +sandy pastures nearer the coast. The huts of the small hamlet could but +faintly be made out beyond the dark and low-lying pastures, but a long, +pale line of blue smoke lay in the motionless air, and the voices of the +children told of open doors. Night after night this same picture, with +slight variations of position, had been placed before the stranger who +had come to view these solitudes, and night after night it seemed to him +to grow more beautiful. He could put down on paper the outlines of an +every-day landscape, and give them a dash of brilliant color to look +well on a wall; but how to carry away, except in the memory, any +impression of the strange lambent darkness, the tender hues, the +loneliness and the pathos of those northern twilights? + +They walked down by the side of one of the streams toward the sea. But +Sheila was not his companion on this occasion. Her father had laid hold +of him, and was expounding to him the rights of capitalists and various +other matters. But by and by Lavender drew his companion on to talk of +Sheila's mother; and here, at least, Mackenzie was neither tedious nor +ridiculous nor unnecessarily garrulous. It was with a strange interest +the young man heard the elderly man talk of his courtship, his marriage, +the character of his wife, and her goodness and beauty. Was it not like +looking at a former Sheila? and would not this Sheila now walking before +him go through the same tender experiences, and be admired and loved and +petted by everybody as this other girl had been, who brought with her +the charm of winning ways and a gentle nature into these rude wilds? It +was the first time he had heard Mackenzie speak of his wife, and it +turned out to be the last; but from that moment the older man had +something of dignity in the eyes of this younger man, who had merely +judged of him by his little foibles and eccentricities, and would have +been ready to dismiss him contemptuously as a buffoon. There was +something, then, behind that powerful face, with its deep-cut lines, its +heavy eyebrows and piercing and sometimes sad eyes, besides a mere +liking for tricks of childish diplomacy. Lavender began to have some +respect for Sheila's father, and made a resolution to guard against the +impertinence of humoring him too ostentatiously. + +Was it not hard, though, that Ingram, who was so cold and +unimpressionable, who smiled at the notion of marrying, and who was +probably enjoying his pipe quite as much as Sheila's familiar talk, +should have the girl all to himself on this witching night? They reached +the shores of the Atlantic. There was not a breath of wind coming in +from the sea, but the air seemed even sweeter and cooler as they sat +down on the great bank of shingle. Here and there birds were calling, +and Sheila could distinguish each one of them. As the moon rose a faint +golden light began to tremble here and there on the waves, as if some +subterranean caverns were lit up and sending to the surface faint and +fitful rays of their splendor. Farther along the coast the tall banks of +white sand grew white in the twilight, and the outlines of the dark +pasture-land behind grew more distinct. + +But when they rose to go back to Barvas the moonlight had grown full and +clear, and the long and narrow loch had a pathway of gold across, +stretching from the reeds and sedges of the one side to the reeds and +sedges of the other. And now Ingram had gone on to join Mackenzie, and +Sheila walked behind with Lavender, and her face was pale and beautiful +in the moonlight. + +"I shall be very sorry when I have to leave Lewis," he said as they +walked along the path leading through the sand and the clover; and there +could be no doubt that he felt the regret expressed in the words. + +"But it is no use to speak of leaving us yet," said Sheila cheerfully: +"it is a long time before you will go away from the Lewis." + +"And I fancy I shall always think of the island just as it is now--with +the moonlight over there, and a loch near, and you walking through the +stillness. We have had so many evening walks like this." + +"You will make us very vain of our island," said the girl with a smile, +"if you will speak like that always to us. Is there no moonlight in +England? I have pictures of English scenery that will be far more +beautiful than any we have here; and if there is the moon here, it will +be there too. Think of the pictures of the river Thames that my papa +showed you last night--" + +"Oh, but there is nothing like this in the South," said the young man +impetuously. "I do not believe there is in the world anything so +beautiful as this. Sheila, what would you say if I resolved to come and +live here always?" + +"I should like that very much--more than you would like it, perhaps," +she said with a bright laugh. + +"That would please you better than for you to go always and live in +England, would it not?" + +"But that is impossible," she said. "My papa would never think of living +in England." + +For some time after he was silent. The two figures in front of them +walked steadily on, an occasional roar of laughter from the deep chest +of Mackenzie startling the night air, and telling of Ingram's being in a +communicative mood. At last Lavender said, "It seems to me so great a +pity that you should live in this remote place, and have so little +amusement, and see so few people of tastes and education like your own. +Your papa is so much occupied--he is so much older than you, too--that +you must be left to yourself so much; whereas if you had a companion of +your own age, who could have the right to talk frankly to you, and go +about with you, and take care of you--" + +By this time they had reached the little wooden bridge crossing the +stream, and Mackenzie and Ingram had got to the inn, where they stood in +front of the door in the moonlight. Before ascending the steps of the +bridge, Lavender, without pausing in his speech, took Sheila's hand and +said suddenly, "Now don't let me alarm you, Sheila, but suppose at some +distant day--as far away as you please--I came and asked you to let me +be your companion then and always, wouldn't you try?" + +She looked up with a startled glance of fear in her eyes, and withdrew +her hand from him. + +"No, don't be frightened," he said quite gently. "I don't ask you for +any promise. Sheila, you must know I love you--you must have seen it. +Will you not let me come to you at some future time--a long way +off--that you may tell me then? Won't you try to do that?" + +There was more in the tone of his voice than in his words. The girl +stood irresolute for a second or two, regarding him with a strange, +wistful, earnest look; and then a great gentleness came into her eyes, +and she put out her hand to him and said in a low voice, "Perhaps." + +But there was something so grave and simple about her manner at this +moment that he dared not somehow receive it as a lover receives the +first admission of love from the lips of a maiden. There had been +something of a strange inquiry in her face as she regarded him for a +second or two; and now that her eyes were bent on the ground it seemed +to him that she was trying to realize the full effect of the concession +she had made. He would not let her think. He took her hand and raised it +respectfully to his lips, and then he led her forward to the bridge. Not +a word was spoken between them while they crossed the shining space of +moonlight to the shadow of the house; and as they went indoors he caught +but one glimpse of her eyes, and they were friendly and kind toward him, +but evidently troubled. He saw her no more that night. + +So he had asked Sheila to be his wife, and she had given him some timid +encouragement as to the future. Many a time within these last few days +had he sketched out an imaginative picture of the scene. He was familiar +with the passionate rapture of lovers on the stage, in books and in +pictures; and he had described himself (to himself) as intoxicated with +joy, anxious to let the whole world know of his good fortune, and above +all to confide the tidings of his happiness to his constant friend and +companion. But now, as he sat in one corner of the room, he almost +feared to be spoken to by the two men who sat at the table with steaming +glasses before them. He dared not tell Ingram: he had no wish to tell +him, even if he had got him alone. And as he sat there and recalled the +incident that had just occurred by the side of the little bridge, he +could not wholly understand its meaning. There had been none of the +eagerness, the coyness, the tumult of joy he had expected: all he could +remember clearly was the long look that the large, earnest, troubled +eyes had fixed upon him, while the girl's face, grown pale in the +moonlight, seemed somehow ghost-like and strange. + + +CHAPTER VII. + +AN INTERMEDDLER. + +But in the morning all these idle fancies fled with the life and color +and freshness of a new day. Loch Barvas was ruffled into a dark blue by +the westerly wind, and doubtless the sea out there was rushing in, +green and cold, to the shore. The sunlight was warm about the house. The +trout were leaping in the shallow brown streams, and here and there a +white butterfly fluttered across the damp meadows. Was not that Duncan +down by the river, accompanied by Ingram? There was a glimmer of a rod +in the sunshine: the two poachers were after trout for Sheila's +breakfast. + +Lavender dressed, went outside and looked about for the nearest way down +to the stream. He wished to have a chance of saying a word to his friend +before Sheila or her father should appear. And at last he thought he +could do no better than go across to the bridge, and so make his way +down the banks of the river. + +What a fresh morning it was, with all sorts of sweet scents in the air! +And here, sure enough, was a pretty picture in the early light--a young +girl coming over the bridge carrying a load of green grass on her back. +What would she say if he asked her to stop for a moment that he might +sketch her pretty costume? Her head-dress was a scarlet handkerchief, +tied behind: she wore a tight-fitting bodice of cream-white flannel and +petticoats of gray flannel, while she had a waistbelt and pouch of +brilliant blue. Did she know of these harmonies of color or of the +picturesqueness of her appearance as she came across the bridge in the +sunlight? As she drew near she stared at the stranger with the big, dumb +eyes of a wild animal. There was no fear, only a sort of surprised +observation in them. And as she passed she uttered, without a smile, +some brief and laconic salutation in Gaelic, which of course the young +man could not understand. He raised his cap, however, and said +"Good-morning!" and went on, with a fixed resolve to learn all the +Gaelic that Duncan could teach him. + +Surely the tall keeper was in excellent spirits this morning. Long +before he drew near, Lavender could hear, in the stillness of the +morning, that he was telling stories about John the Piper, and of his +adventures in such distant parts as Portree and Oban, and even in +Glasgow. + +"And it wass Allan M'Gillivray of Styornoway," Duncan was saying as he +industriously whipped the shallow runs of the stream, "will go to +Glasgow with John; and they went through ta Crinan Canal. Wass you +through ta Crinan Canal, sir?" + +"Many a time." + +"Ay, jist that. And I hef been told it iss like a river with ta sides o' +a house to it; and what would Allan care for a thing like that, when he +hass been to America more than twice or four times? And it wass when he +fell into the canal, he was ferry nearly trooned for all that; and when +they pulled him to ta shore he wass a ferry angry man. And this iss what +John says that Allan will say when he wass on the side of the canal: +'Kott,' says he, 'if I wass trooned here, I would show my face in +Styornoway no more!' But perhaps it iss not true, for he will tell many +lies, does John the Piper, to hef a laugh at a man." + +"The Crinan Canal is not to be despised, Duncan," said Ingram, who was +sitting on the red sand of the bank, "when you are in it." + +"And do you know what John says that Allan will say to him the first +time they went ashore at Glasgow?" + +"I am sure I don't." + +"It wass many years ago, before that Allan will be going many times to +America, and he will neffer hef seen such fine shops and ta big houses +and hundreds and hundreds of people, every one with shoes on their feet. +And he will say to John, 'John, ef I had known in time I should hef been +born here.' But no one will believe it iss true, he is such a teffle of +a liar, that John; and he will hef some stories about Mr. Mackenzie +himself, as I hef been told, that he will tell when he goes to +Styornoway. But John is a ferry cunning fellow, and will not tell any +such stories in Borva." + +"I suppose if he did, Duncan, you would dip him in Loch Roag?" + +"Oh, there iss more than one," said Duncan with a grim twinkle in his +eye--"there iss more than one that would hef a joke with him if he was +to tell stories about Mr. Mackenzie." + +Lavender had been standing listening, unknown to both. He now went +forward and bade them good-morning, and then, having had a look at the +trout that Duncan had caught, pulled Ingram up from the bank, put his +arm in his and walked away with him. + +"Ingram," he said suddenly, with a laugh and a shrug, "you know I always +come to you when I'm in a fix." + +"I suppose you do," said the other, "and you are always welcome to +whatever help I can give you. But sometimes it seems to me you rush into +fixes, with the sort of notion that I am responsible for getting you +out." + +"I can assure you nothing of the kind is the case. I could not be so +ungrateful. However, in the mean time--that is--the fact is, I asked +Sheila last night if she would marry me." + +"The devil you did!" + +Ingram dropped his companion's arm and stood looking at him. + +"Well, I knew you would be angry," said the younger man in a tone of +apology. "And I know I have been too precipitate, but I thought of the +short time we should be remaining here, and of the difficulty of getting +an explanation made at another time; and it was really only to give her +a hint as to my own feelings that I spoke. I could not bear to wait any +longer." + +"Never mind about yourself," said Ingram somewhat curtly: "what did +Sheila say?" + +"Well, nothing definite. What could you expect a girl to say after so +short an acquaintance? But this I can tell you, that the proposal is not +altogether distasteful to her, and that I have her permission to speak +of it at some future time, when we have known each other longer." + +"You have?" + +"Yes." + +"You are quite sure?" + +"Certain." + +"There is no mistake about her silence, for example, that might have led +you into misinterpreting her wishes altogether?" + +"Nothing of the kind is possible. Of course I could not ask the girl for +any promise, or anything of that sort. All I asked was, whether she +would allow me at some future time to ask her more definitely; and I am +so well satisfied with the reply that I am convinced I shall marry her." + +"And is this the fix you wish me to help you out of?" said Ingram rather +coldly. + +"Now, Ingram," said the younger man in penitential tones, "don't cut up +rough about it. You know what I mean. Perhaps I have been hasty and +inconsiderate about it; but of one thing you may be sure, that Sheila +will never have to complain of me if she marries me. You say I don't +know her yet, but there will be plenty of time before we are married. I +don't propose to carry her off to-morrow morning. Now, Ingram, you know +what I mean about helping me in the fix--helping me with her father, you +know, and with herself, for the matter of that. You can do anything with +her, she has such a belief in you. You should hear how she talks of +you--you never heard anything like it." + +It was an innocent bit of flattery, and Ingram smiled good-naturedly at +the boy's ingenuousness. After all, was he not more lovable and more +sincere in this little bit of simple craft, used in the piteousness of +his appeal, then when he was giving himself the airs of a +man-about-town, and talking of women in a fashion which, to do him +justice, expressed nothing of his real sentiments? + +Ingram walked on, and said in his slow and deliberate way, "You know I +opposed this project of yours from the first. I don't think you have +acted fairly by Sheila or her father, or myself who brought you here. +But if Sheila has been drawn into it, why, then, the whole affair is +altered, and we've got to make the best of a bad business." + +"I was sure you would say that," exclaimed the younger man with a +brighter light appearing on his face. "You may call me all the hard +names you like: I deserve them all, and more. But then, as you say, +since Sheila is in it, you'll do your best, won't you?" + +Frank Lavender could not make out why the taciturn and sallow-faced man +walking beside him seemed to be greatly amused by this speech, but he +was in no humor to take offence. He knew that once Ingram had promised +him his help he would not lack all the advocacy, the advice, and even +the money--should that become necessary--that a warm-hearted and +disinterested friend could offer. Many and many a time Ingram had helped +him, and now he was to come to his assistance in the most serious crisis +of his life. Ingram would remove Sheila's doubts. Ingram would persuade +old Mackenzie that girls had to get married some time or other, and that +Sheila ought to live in London. Ingram would be commissioned to break +the news to Mrs. Lavender--But here, when the young man thought of the +interview with his aunt which he would have to encounter, a cold shiver +passed through his frame. He would not think of it. He would enjoy the +present hour. Difficulties only grew the bigger the more they were +looked at: when they were left to themselves they frequently +disappeared. It was another proof of Ingram's kindliness that he had not +even mentioned the old lady down in Kensington who was likely to have +something to say about this marriage. + +"There are a great many difficulties in the way," said Ingram +thoughtfully. + +"Yes," said Lavender with much eagerness, "but then, look! You may be +sure that if we get over these, Sheila will know well who managed it, +and she will not be ungrateful to you, I think. If we ever should be +married, I am certain she will always look on you as her greatest +friend." + +"It is a big bribe," said the elder man, perhaps a trifle sadly; and +Lavender looked at him with some vague return of a suspicion that some +time or other Ingram must himself have been in love with Sheila. + +They returned to the inn, where they found Mackenzie busy with a heap of +letters and newspapers that had been sent across to him from Stornoway. +The whole of the breakfast-table was littered with wrappers and big blue +envelopes: where was Sheila, who usually waited on her father at such +times to keep his affairs in order? + +Sheila was outside, and Lavender saw her through the open window. Was +she not waiting for him, that she should pace up and down by herself, +with her face turned away from the house? He immediately went out and +went over to her, and she turned to him as he approached. He fancied she +looked a trifle pale, and far less bright and joyous than the ordinary +Sheila. + +"Mr. Lavender," she said, walking away from the house, "I wish very much +to speak to you for a moment. Last night it was all a misfortune that I +did not understand; and I wish you to forget that a word was ever spoken +about that." + +Her head was bent down, and her speech was low and broken: what she +failed to explain in words her manner explained for her. But her +companion said to her, with alarm and surprise in his tone, "Why, +Sheila! You cannot be so cruel! Surely you need not fear any +embarrassment through so slight a promise. It pledges you to nothing--it +leaves you quite free; and some day, if I come and ask you then a +question I have not asked you yet, that will be time enough to give me +an answer." + +"Oh no, no!" said the girl, obviously in great distress, "I cannot do +that. It is unjust to you to let you think of it and hope about it. It +was last night everything was strange to me--I did not understand +then--but I have thought about it all the night through, and now I +know." + +"Sheila!" called her father from the inside of the inn, and she turned +to go. + +"But you do not ask that, do you?" he said. "You are only frightened a +little bit just now, but that will go away. There is nothing to be +frightened about. You have been thinking over it, and imagining +impossible things: you have been thinking of leaving Borva altogether--" + +"Oh, that I can never do!" she said with a pathetic earnestness. + +"But why think of such a thing?" he said. "You need not look at all the +possible troubles of life when you take such a simple step as this. +Sheila, don't be hasty in any such resolve: you may be sure all the +gloomy things you have been thinking of will disappear when we get close +to them. And this is such a simple thing. I don't ask you to say you +will be my wife--I have no right to ask you yet--but I have only asked +permission of you to let me think of it; and even Mr. Ingram sees no +great harm in that." + +"Does _he_ know?" she said with a start of surprise and fear. + +"Yes," said Lavender, wishing he had bitten his tongue in two before he +had uttered the word. "You know we have no secrets from each other; and +to whom could I go for advice but to your oldest friend?" + +"And what did he say?" she asked with a strange look in her eyes. + +"Well, he sees a great many difficulties, but he thinks they will easily +be got over." + +"Then," she said, with her eyes again cast down and a certain sadness in +her tone, "I must explain to him too, and tell him I had no +understanding of what I said last night." + +"Sheila, you won't do that!" urged the young man. "It means nothing--it +pledges you to nothing." + +"Sheila! Sheila!" cried her father cheerily from the window, "come in +and let us hef our breakfast." + +"Yes, papa," said the girl, and she went into the house, followed by her +companion. + +But how could she find an opportunity of making this explanation? +Shortly after breakfast the wagonette was at the door of the little +Barvas inn, and Sheila came out of the house and took her place in it +with an unusual quietness of manner and hopelessness of look. Ingram, +sitting opposite to her, and knowing nothing of what had taken place, +fancied that this was but an expression of girlish timidity, and that it +was his business to interest her and amuse her until she should forget +the strangeness and newness of her position. Nay, as he had resolved to +make the best of matters as they stood, and as he believed that Sheila +had half confessed to a special liking for his friend from the South, +what more fitting thing could he do than endeavor to place Lavender in +the most favorable light in her eyes? He began to talk of all the +brilliant and successful things the young man had done as fully as he +could before himself. He contrived to introduce pretty anecdotes of +Lavender's generosity; and there were plenty of these, for the young +fellow had never a thought of consequences if he was touched by a tale +of distress, and if he could help the sufferer either with his own or +any one else's money. Ingram talked of all their excursions together, in +Devonshire, in Brittany and elsewhere, to impress on Sheila how well he +knew his friend and how long their intimacy had lasted. At first the +girl was singularly reserved and silent, but somehow, as pleasant +recollections were multiplied, and as Lavender seemed to have been +always the associate and companion of this old friend of hers, some +brighter expression came into her face and she grew more interested. +Lavender, not knowing whether or not to take her decision of that +morning as final, and not wholly perceiving the aim of this kindly chat +on the part of his friend, began to see at least that Sheila was pleased +to hear the two men help out each other's stories about their pedestrian +excursions, and that she at last grew bold enough to look up and meet +his eyes in a timid fashion when she asked him a question. + +So they drove along by the side of the sea, the level and well-made road +leading them through miles and miles of rough moorland, with here and +there a few huts or a sheepfold to break the monotony of the undulating +sky-line. Here and there, too, there were great cuttings of the +peat-moss, with a thin line of water in the foot of the deep black +trenches. Sometimes, again, they would escape altogether from any traces +of human habitation, and Duncan would grow excited in pointing out to +Miss Sheila the young grouse that had run off the road into the heather, +where they stood and eyed the passing carriage with anything but a +frightened air. And while Mackenzie hummed something resembling, but +very vaguely resembling, "Love in thine eyes sits beaming," and while +Ingram, in his quiet, desultory, and often sardonic fashion, amused the +young girl with stories of her lover's bravery and kindness and +dare-devil escapades, the merry trot of the horses beat time to the +bells on their necks, the fresh west wind blew a cloud of white dust +away over the moorland behind them, there was a blue sky shining all +around them, and the blue Atlantic basking in the light. + +They stopped for a few minutes at both the hamlets of Suainabost and +Tabost to allow Sheila to pay a hurried visit to one or two of the huts, +while Mackenzie, laying hold of some of the fishermen he knew, got them +to show Lavender the curing-houses, in which the young gentleman +professed himself profoundly interested. They also visited the +school-house, and Lavender found himself beginning to look upon a +two-storied building with windows as something imposing and a decided +triumph of human skill and enterprise. But what was the school-house of +Tabost to the grand building at the Butt? They had driven away from the +high-road by a path leading through long and sweet-smelling pastures of +Dutch clover; they had got up from these sandy swathes to a table-land +of rock; and here and there they caught glimpses of fearful precipices +leading sheer down to the boiling and dashing sea. The curious +contortions of the rocks, the sharp needles of them springing in +isolated pillars from out of the water, the roar of the eddying currents +that swept through the chasms and dashed against the iron-bound shore, +the wild sea-birds that flew about and screamed over the rushing waves +and the surge, naturally enough drew the attention of the strangers +altogether away from the land; and it was with a start of surprise they +found themselves before an immense mass of yellow stone-work--walls, +house and tower--that shone in the sunlight. And here were the +light-house-keeper and his wife, delighted to see strange faces and most +hospitably inclined; insomuch that Lavender, who cared little for +luncheon at any time, was constrained to take as much bread and cheese +and butter and whisky as would have made a ploughman's dinner. It was a +strange sort of meal this, away out at the end of the world, as it were. +The snug little room might have been in the Marylebone road: there were +photographs about, a gay label on the whisky-bottle, and other signs of +an advanced civilization; but outside nothing but the wild precipices of +the coast, a surging sea that seemed almost to surround the place, the +wild screaming of the sea-birds, and a single ship appearing like a mere +speck on the northern horizon. + +They had not noticed the wind much as they drove along; but now, when +they went out on to the high table-land of rock, it seemed to be blowing +half a gale across the sea. The sunlight sparkled on the glass of the +lighthouse, and the great yellow shaft of stone stretched away upward +into a perfect blue. As clear a blue lay far beneath them when the sea +came rushing in among the lofty crags and sharp pinnacles of rock, +bursting into foam at their feet, and sending long jets of white spray +up into the air. In front of the great wall of rock the sea-birds +wheeled and screamed, and on the points of some of the islands stood +several scarts, motionless figures of jet black on the soft brown and +green of the rock. And what was this island they looked down upon from +over one of the bays? Surely a mighty reproduction by Nature herself of +the Sphynx of the Egyptian plains. Could anything have been more +striking and unexpected and impressive than the sudden discovery of this +great mass of rock resting in the wild sea, its hooded head turned away +toward the north and hidden from the spectator on land, its gigantic +bulk surrounded by a foam of breakers? Lavender, with his teeth set hard +against the wind, must needs take down the outlines of this strange +scene upon paper, while Sheila crouched at her father's side for +shelter, and Ingram was chiefly engaged in holding on to his cap. + +"It blows here a bit," said Lavender amid the roar of the waves. "I +suppose in the winter-time the sea will sometimes break across this +place?" + +"Ay, and over the top of the lighthouse too," said Mackenzie with a +laugh, as though he was rather proud of the way his native seas behaved. + +"Sheila," said Ingram, "I never saw _you_ take refuge from the wind +before." + +"It is because we will be standing still," said the girl with a smile +which was scarcely visible, because she had half hidden her face in her +father's great gray beard. "But when Mr. Lavender is finished we will go +down to the great hole in the rocks that you will have seen before, and +perhaps he will make a picture of that too." + +"You don't mean to say you would go down there, Sheila?" said Ingram, +"and in this wind?" + +"I have been down many times before." + +"Indeed, you will do nothing of the kind, Sheila," said her father: "you +will go back to the lighthouse if you like--yes, you may do that--and I +will go down the rocks with Mr. Lavender; but it iss not for a young +lady to go about among the rocks, like a fisherman's lad that wants the +birds' eggs, or such nonsense." + +It was quite evident that Mackenzie had very little fear of his daughter +not being able to accomplish the descent of the rocks safely enough: it +was a matter of dignity. And so Sheila was at length persuaded to go +across the plain to a sheltered place, to wait there until the others +should clamber down to the great and naturally-formed tunnel through the +rocks that the artist was to sketch. + +Lavender was ill at ease. He followed his guide mechanically as they +made their way, in zigzag fashion, down the precipitous slopes and over +slippery plateaus; and when at last he came in sight of the mighty arch, +the long cavern, and the glimmer of sea and shore that could be seen +through it, he began to put down the outlines of the picture as rapidly +as possible, but with little interest in the matter. Ingram was sitting +on the bare rocks beside him, Mackenzie was some distance off: should he +tell his friend of what Sheila had said in the morning? Strict honesty, +perhaps, demanded as much, but the temptation to say nothing was great. +For it was evident that Ingram was now well inclined to the project, and +would do his best to help it on; whereas, if once he knew that Sheila +had resolved against it, he too might take some sudden step--such as +insisting on their immediate return to the mainland--which would settle +the matter for ever. Sheila had said she would herself make the +necessary explanation to Ingram, but she had not done so: perhaps she +might lack the courage or an opportunity to do so, and in the mean time +was not the interval altogether favorable to his chances? Doubtless she +was a little frightened at first. She would soon get less timid, and +would relent and revoke her decision of the morning. He would not, at +present at any rate, say anything to Ingram. + +But when they had got up again to the summit of the rocks, an incident +occurred that considerably startled him out of these vague and anxious +speculations. He walked straight over to the sheltered spot in which +Sheila was waiting. The rushing of the wind doubtless drowned the sound +of his footsteps, so that he came on her unawares; and on seeing him she +rose suddenly from the rock on which she had been sitting, with some +effort to hide her face away from him. But he had caught a glimpse of +something in her eyes that filled him with remorse. + +"Sheila," he said, going forward to her, "what is the matter? What are +you unhappy about?" + +She could not answer; she held her face turned from him and cast down; +and then, seeing her father and Ingram in the distance, she set out to +follow them to the lighthouse, Lavender walking by her side, and +wondering how he could deal with the distress that was only too clearly +written on her face. + +"I know it is I who have grieved you," he said in a low voice, "and I +am very sorry. But if you will tell me what I can do to remove this +unhappiness, I will do it now. Shall I consider our talking together of +last night as if it had not taken place at all?" + +"Yes," she said in as low a voice, but clear and sad and determined in +its tone. + +"And I shall speak no more to you about this affair until I go away +altogether?" + +And again she signified her assent, gravely and firmly. + +"And then," he said, "you will soon forget all about it; for of course I +shall never come back to Lewis again." + +"Never?" + +The word had escaped her unwillingly, and it was accompanied by a quick +upturning of the face and a frightened look in the beautiful eyes. + +"Do you wish me to come back?" he said. + +"I should not wish you to go away from the Lewis through any fault of +mine, and say that we should never see you again," said the girl in +measured tones, as if she were nerving herself to make the admission, +and yet fearful of saying too much. + +By this time Mackenzie and Ingram had gone round the big wall of the +lighthouse: there were no human beings on this lonely bit of heath but +themselves. Lavender stopped her and took her hand, and said, "Don't you +see, Sheila, how I must never come back to Lewis if all this is to be +forgotten? And all I want you to say is, that I may come some day to see +if you can make up your mind to be my wife. I don't ask that yet: it is +out of the question, seeing how short a time you have known anything +about me, and I cannot wish you to trust me as I can trust you. It is a +very little thing I ask--only to give me a chance at some future time, +and then, if you don't care for me sufficiently to marry me, or if +anything stands in the way, all you need do is to send me a single word, +and that will suffice. This is no terrible thing that I beg from you, +Sheila. You needn't be afraid of it." + +But she was afraid: there was nothing but fear and doubt and grief in +her eyes as she gazed into the unknown world laid open before her. + +"Can't you ask some one to tell you that it is nothing dreadful--Mr. +Ingram, for example?" + +"I could not." + +"Your papa, then," he said, driven to this desperate resource by his +anxiety to save her from pain. + +"Not yet--not just yet," she said almost wildly, "for how could I +explain to him? He would ask me what my wishes were: what could I say? I +do not know. I cannot tell myself; and--and--I have no mother to ask." +And here all the strain of self-control gave way, and the girl burst +into tears. + +"Sheila, dear Sheila," he said, "why won't you trust your own heart, and +let that be your guide? Won't you say this one word _Yes_, and tell me +that I am to come back to Lewis some day, and ask to see you, and get a +message from one look of your eyes? Sheila, may not I come back?" + +If there was a reply it was so low that he scarcely heard it; but +somehow--whether from the small hand that lay in his, or from the eyes +that sent one brief message of trust and hope through their tears--his +question was answered; and from that moment he felt no more misgivings, +but let his love for Sheila spread out and blossom in whatever light of +fancy and imagination he could bring to bear on it, careless of any +future. + +How the young fellow laughed and joked as the party drove away again +from the Butt, down the long coast-road to Barvas! He was tenderly +respectful and a little moderate in tone when he addressed Sheila, but +with the others he gave way to a wild exuberance of spirits that +delighted Mackenzie beyond measure. He told stories of the odd old +gentlemen of his club, of their opinions, their ways, their dress. He +sang the song of the Arethusa, and the wilds of Lewis echoed with a +chorus which was not just as harmonious as it might have been. He sang +the "Jug of Punch," and Mackenzie said that was a teffle of a good +song. He gave imitations of some of Ingram's companions at the Board of +Trade, and showed Sheila what the inside of a government office was +like. He paid Mackenzie the compliment of asking him for a drop of +something out of his flask, and in return he insisted on the King +smoking a cigar which, in point of age and sweetness and fragrance, was +really the sort of cigar you would naturally give to the man whose only +daughter you wanted to marry. + +Ingram understood all this, and, was pleased to see the happy look that +Sheila wore. He talked to her with even a greater assumption than usual +of fatherly fondness; and if she was a little shy, was it not because +she was conscious of so great a secret? He was even unusually +complaisant to Lavender, and lost no opportunity of paying him indirect +compliments that Sheila could overhear. + +"You poor young things!" he seemed to be saying to himself, "you've got +all your troubles before you; but in the mean time you may make +yourselves as happy as you can." + +Was the weather at last about to break? As the afternoon wore on the +heavens became overcast, for the wind had gone back from the course of +the sun, and had brought up great masses of cloud from the rainy +south-west. + +"Are we going to have a storm?" said Lavender, looking along the +southern sky, where the Barvas hills were momentarily growing blacker +under the gathering darkness overhead. + +"A storm?" said Mackenzie, whose notions on what constituted a storm +were probably different from those of his guest. "No, there will be no +storm. But it is no bad thing if we get back to Barvas very soon." + +Duncan sent the horses on, and Ingram looked out Sheila's waterproof and +the rugs. The southern sky certainly looked ominous. There was a strange +intensity of color in the dark landscape, from the deep purple of the +Barvas hills, coming forward to the deep green of the pasture-land +around them, and the rich reds and browns of the heath and the +peat-cuttings. At one point of the clouded and hurrying sky, however, +there was a soft and vaporous line of yellow in the gray; and under +that, miles away in the west, a great dash of silver light struck upon +the sea, and glowed there so that the eye could scarcely bear it. Was it +the damp that brought the perfumes of the moorland so distinctly toward +them--the bog-myrtle, the water-mint and wild thyme? There were no birds +to be heard. The crimson masses of heather on the gray rocks seemed to +have grown richer and deeper in color, and the Barvas hills had become +large and weird in the gloom. + +"Are you afraid of thunder?" said Lavender to Sheila. + +"No," said the girl, looking frankly toward him with her glad eyes, as +though he had pleased her by asking that not very striking question. And +then she looked round at the sea and the sky in the south, and said +quietly, "But there will be no thunder: it is too much wind." + +Ingram, with a smile which he could scarcely conceal, hereupon remarked, +"You're sorry, Lavender, I know. Wouldn't you like to shelter somebody +in danger or attempt a rescue, or do something heroic?" + +"And Mr. Lavender would do that if there was any need," said the girl +bravely, "and then it would be nothing to laugh at." + +"Sheila, you bad girl! how dare you talk like that to me?" said Ingram; +and he put his arm within hers and said he would tell her a story. + +But this race to escape the storm was needless, for they were just +getting within sight of Barvas when a surprising change came over the +dark and thunderous afternoon. The hurrying masses of cloud in the west +parted for a little space, and there was a sudden and fitful glimmer of +a stormy blue sky. Then a strange soft yellow and vaporous light shot +across to the Barvas hills, and touched up palely the great slopes, +rendering them distant, ethereal and cloud-like. Then a shaft or two of +wild light flashed down upon the landscape beside them. The cattle shone +red in the brilliant green pastures. The gray rocks glowed in their +setting of moss. The stream going by Barvas Inn was a streak of gold in +its sandy bed. And then the sky above them broke into great billows of +cloud--tempestuous and rounded masses of golden vapor that burned with +the wild glare of the sunset. The clear spaces in the sky widened, and +from time to time the wind sent ragged bits of yellow cloud across the +shining blue. All the world seemed to be on fire, and the very smoke of +it, the majestic masses of vapor that rolled by overhead, burned with a +bewildering glare. Then, as the wind still blew hard, and kept veering +round again to the north-west, the fiercely-lit clouds were driven over +one by one, leaving a pale and serene sky to look down on the sinking +sun and the sea. The Atlantic caught the yellow glow on its tumbling +waves, and a deeper color stole across the slopes and peaks of the +Barvas hills. Whither had gone the storm? There were still some banks of +clouds away up in the north-east, and in the clear green of the evening +sky they had their distant grays and purples faintly tinged with rose. + +"And so you are anxious and frightened, and a little pleased?" said +Ingram to Sheila that evening, after he had frankly told her what he +knew, and invited her further confidence. "That is all I can gather from +you, but it is enough. Now you can leave the rest to me." + +"To you?" said the girl with a blush of pleasure and surprise. + +"Yes. I like new experiences. I am going to become an intermeddler now. +I am going to arrange this affair, and become the negotiator between all +the parties; and then, when I have secured the happiness of the whole of +you, you will all set upon me and beat me with sticks, and thrust me out +of your houses." + +"I do not think," said Sheila, looking down, "that you have much fear of +that, Mr. Ingram." + +"Is the world going to alter because of me?" + +"I would rather not have you try to do anything that is likely to get +you into unhappiness," she said. + +"Oh, but that is absurd. You timid young folks can't act for yourselves. +You want agents and instruments that have got hardened by use. Fancy the +condition of our ancestors, you know, before they had the sense to +invent steel claws to tear their food in pieces--what could they do with +their fingers? I am going to be your knife and fork, Sheila, and you'll +see what I shall carve out for you. All you've got to do is to keep your +spirits up, and believe that nothing dreadful is going to take place +merely because some day you will be asked to marry. You let things take +their ordinary course. Keep your spirits up--don't neglect your music or +your dinner or your poor people down in Borvabost--and you'll see it +will all come right enough. In a year or two, or less than that, you +will marry contentedly and happily, and your papa will drink a good +glass of whisky at the wedding and make jokes about it, and everything +will be as right as the mail. That's my advice: see you attend to it." + +"You are very kind to me," said the girl in a low voice. + +"But if you begin to cry, Sheila, then I throw up my duties. Do you +hear? Now look: there goes Mr. Lavender down to the boat with a bundle +of rugs, and I suppose you mean me to imperil my precious life by +sailing about these rocky channels in the moonlight? Come along down to +the shore; and mind you please your papa by singing 'Love in thine eyes' +with Mr. Lavender. And if you would add to that 'The Minute Gun at Sea,' +why, you know, I may as well have my little rewards for intermeddling +now, as I shall have to suffer afterward." + +"Not through me," said Sheila in rather an uncertain voice; and then +they went down to the Maighdean-mhara. + +[TO BE CONTINUED.] + + + + +AT ODDS. + + + The snow had lain upon the ground + From gray November into March, + And lingering April hardly saw + The tardy tassels of the larch, + When sudden, like sweet eyes apart, + Looked down the soft skies of the spring, + And, guided by alluring signs, + Came late birds on impatient wing. + + And when I found a shy white flower-- + The first love of the amorous sun, + That from the cold clasp of the earth + The passion of his looks had won-- + I said unto my brooding heart, + Which I had humored in its way, + "Give sorrow to the winds that blow: + Let's out and have a holiday!" + + My heart made answer unto me: + "Where are the faint white chestnut-blooms? + Where are the thickets of wild rose-- + Dim paths that lead to odorous glooms?" + "They are not yet. But listen, Heart! + I hear a red-breast robin call: + I see a golden glint of light + Where lately-loosened waters fall." + + I waited long, but no reply + Came from my strangely silent heart: + I left the open, sunlit mead, + And walked a little way apart, + Where gloomy pines their shadows cast, + And brown pine-needles made below + A sober covering for the place, + Where scarce another thing could grow. + + And then I said unto my heart, + "Now, we are in the dark, I pray + What is it I must do for thee + That thou mayst make a holiday? + Was ever fresher blue above? + Was ever blither calm around? + The purple promise of the spring + Is writ in violets on the ground. + + "Comes, blown across my face, the breath + Of apple-blossoms far away: + Hast thou no memories, my heart, + As sweet and beautiful as they?" + And while I spoke I stood beside + A low mound fashioned like a grave, + And covered thick with last year's leaves, + Set in the forest's spacious nave. + + And there I heard a little sound, + The flutter of a feeble wing, + And saw upon the grave-like mound + A bird that never more would sing. + I took it up, and first I laid + The quivering plumage to my cheek, + Then tenderly upon my breast, + And sorrowed, seeing it so weak. + + Up spoke my sore reproachful heart: + "And now how happens it, I pray, + Thou dost not press the wounded bird + To sing and make a holiday?" + I made no answer then, but went + Into the dark wood's darkest deep, + And on my breast the bird lay dead, + And all around was still as sleep. + + "There be that walk among the graves," + At length, "repining heart," I said-- + "Who carry slain loves in their breasts, + Yet smile like angels o'er their dead. + And thou! Why wilt thou shame me thus, + Saying, for ever, Nay and Nay?" + Then said my heart, "To conquer pain + Is not to make a holiday. + + "And they who walk upon the heights, + Not hurtled by the passing storm, + Have carried long in lower lands + The grievous burdens that deform + The small of faith, the weak of heart, + The narrow-minded and untrue, + Who doubt if any heaven is left + When clouds are blown across its blue. + + "And they are not of those who seek + To put unsolved things away, + Too early saying to their hearts, + 'Come out, for it is holiday!' + And often 'tis the shallowest soul + That makes unseemly laughter ring, + That dares not bide amid its ghosts, + And, lest it weep, must try to sing. + + "Wait till the tooth of pain is dulled; + Wait till the wound is overgrown: + Not in a day the moss hath made + So fair this once unsightly stone." + Then was I silent, but less wroth, + Content my heart should have its way. + Believing that in God's fit time + We yet should keep our holiday. + +HOWARD GLYNDON. + + + + +PHILADELPHIA ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. + + +Zoological gardens for Philadelphia have been a dream for many years, +and spasmodic efforts have been made from time to time to produce the +reality, but as yet nothing tangible has resulted. The idea has been too +inchoate to develop much enthusiasm, and year after year our citizens +have returned from enjoying the delights of foreign gardens, and mildly +wondered, in the true Philadelphia style, why we should not have them. +Nor is this marvelous when we consider the present condition of the +proposed Centennial Exhibition, which, it is mortifying to confess, +languishes for want of proper support. It cannot be denied that in this +undertaking an opportunity is presented that would be eagerly seized, +with all its attendant labor and expense, by any one of the States, and +that it was with great difficulty, and only because of the self-evident +incongruity of holding it elsewhere, that we were permitted by the +national authorities to celebrate the anniversary in Philadelphia. It is +in connection with this, and as a part thereof, that the Zoological +Gardens deserve immediate attention, as an additional, and next to the +grand exhibition itself the principal, attraction to the hundreds of +thousands who will visit the City of Brotherly Love on the Fourth of +July, 1876. The plan on the next page shows the ground which has been +granted by the Commissioners of the Fairmount Park to the Philadelphia +Zoological Society. The gentlemen who have taken the matter in hand are +well known for their energy and breadth of view, and if sustained in +their endeavors will carry out the scheme in a manner worthy of this +great and growing city. + +In undertaking this work the managers have the advantage of the +experience and counsel of similar societies in the Old World, and +particularly of the magnificent London Zoological Gardens, the officers +of which are extremely interested in the success of the enterprise here, +and are prepared to aid, by advice and contributions, the Philadelphia +Garden. A description of the English society may be useful in forming an +opinion of the feasibility and advantages of the proposed scheme. The +London Zoological Society was organized in 1826, under the auspices of +Sir Humphry Davy, Sir Stamford Raffles and other eminent men, for the +advancement of zoology and animal physiology, and for the introduction +and acclimatization of subjects of the animal kingdom. By the charter, +granted March 27, 1829, Henry, marquis of Lansdowne, George, Lord +Auckland, Charles Baring Wall, Joseph Sabine and Nicholas Aylward +Vigors, Esqs., were created the first fellows. These gentlemen were +empowered to admit such other persons to be fellows, honorary members, +foreign members and corresponding members as they might think fit, and +to appoint twenty-one of the fellows to be the council, which should +manage the entire affairs of the society and elect members thereof until +the 29th of May following; at which time and annually thereafter the +society should hold a meeting, and by ballot remove five of this +council, and elect five others in their place, being fellows of the +society, who, with those remaining, should constitute the council for +the ensuing year. It will thus be seen that every year five of the +council are voted out, and five others elected in their stead, thus +retaining a large proportion of managers acquainted with the workings of +the organization. + +[Illustration: PLAN OF THE PROPOSED ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.] + +By the by-laws fellows are required to pay twenty-five dollars +initiation fee and fifteen dollars per annum, or one hundred and fifty +dollars at once in lieu of such dues. Annual subscribers pay the same +amount yearly, but no initiation fee, and they are not permitted to vote +at elections. Ladies are admitted as fellows upon the same terms and +with the same privileges; with the addition, however, that they are +allowed to vote by proxy. + +Fellows have personal admission to the Gardens, with two companions, +daily, and receive orders, to be signed by them, admitting two persons +on each Saturday and Sunday in the year. They are also entitled to +twenty free tickets of admission. Sundays are set apart specially for +fellows and their friends, the general public not being admitted. + +The society has business and scientific meetings--the latter +monthly--and these are very largely attended and of the most interesting +character. New and remarkable subjects of zoology are exhibited, papers +and communications on animal physiology and zoology are read, and +animated discussions carried on. An abstract of the proceedings is +regularly forwarded to the scientific journals and newspapers. The +society also publishes a large variety of zoological matter, which is +furnished to fellows at one-fourth less than the price to strangers. +Every addition to the collection of the society has its picture taken +upon its entrance, and very handsome colored plates of those which are +rare or curious are inserted in these publications. The sales from this +source realized last year over thirty-seven hundred dollars. + +In 1871 the income of the society was $123,101, of which $69,000 were +from admissions to the Gardens, $9507 from Garden sales and rent of +refreshment-rooms, $3750 from the society's publications, and $39,415 +from dues of fellows and annual subscribers. The expenses for the same +year were $106,840, the principal items being--salaries, wages and +pensions, $21,790; cost and carriage of animals, $10,560; provisions, +$20,430; menagerie expenses, $10,480; Garden expenses, $3465. The annual +income has so much exceeded the expenses during the last ten years that +the society has been able to devote over two hundred and thirty thousand +dollars of such surplus to the permanent embellishment of its Gardens, +and still retain some fifty thousand dollars as a reserve fund. + +In the collection of the society are 590 quadrupeds, 1227 birds and 255 +reptiles--altogether 2072. The quantity and various kinds of food--the +knowledge of the tastes and necessities of the animals--the temperature, +ventilation, habitations and so on of such a large assortment of +different species--necessitate the employment of trained and skillful +servants and scientific officers. It has been seen that the provisions +and menagerie expenses alone exceed $30,000, and it must be remembered +that the most difficult part, the brain-work, the knowledge--without +which the whole would be a failure--is furnished the society by its +council entirely free. + +The collection of living animals is the finest in existence, and is +daily increasing. Scattered everywhere are its corresponding members, +keeping it advised of every opportunity to augment its stores: its +agents have penetrated and are still exploring the desert and the +jungle, braving the heats of the equator, and the terrible winters of +the ice-bound regions of the globe, to furnish every possible link in +the grand procession of organized life. + +A large proportion of the most wonderful and valuable part of the +collection has been presented by crowned heads and governors of +different countries, British consuls, other zoological societies, +British naval and military officers stationed in foreign ports and +posts, Englishmen of wealth and travelers. The donations to the society +for the year 1871 would alone be sufficient to establish a Garden at +Fairmount Park which would be the finest in America. They amounted to +over five hundred in number, and include almost every description of +animal, from a tiger to a monkey, and from an imperial eagle to a +humming-bird. With our present connection by rail and steamer with the +East and West Indies, and other distant regions, let it only be +generally known that such a Garden as is now proposed exists in +Philadelphia, and it will receive contributions from all parts of the +world. The Philadelphia society has already had numerous offers of +animals, birds and reptiles, and the promise of any number for the mere +cost of transportation. The officers of the Smithsonian Institution at +Washington have expressed their willingness and desire to hand over to +any proper association the many curious animals constantly offered it. +The societies of Europe, many of whose managers have been in +communication with the one started here, are extremely anxious that a +collection of American animals, birds, reptiles and fishes shall be +made. It will be wholly unique, and will attract zoologists from every +part of the world, permitting them, for the first time, to study the +habits of many new species. This continent has a wealth of subjects of +the animal kingdom as yet almost unexplored. The birds are absolutely +innumerable, and the immense rivers produce fishes of the most marvelous +character and but little known. In the Berlin Garden, rapidly becoming a +rival to the one in London, one of the greatest attractions, if not the +chief, is the American beaver: an assemblage of a number of these on the +banks of the Schuylkill, giving an opportunity of witnessing their +astonishing sagacity, would of itself be an attractive exhibition. + +The Zoological Society of Philadelphia was incorporated by act of the +Legislature of Pennsylvania, approved March 21, 1859. The site selected +at that time, and approved by City Councils, was five acres of the +extreme south-eastern corner of the then Park, consisting of Sedgeley +and Lemon Hill, and containing about two hundred acres. A meeting of +certain prominent and influential citizens interested in the subject was +held, and the matter carefully discussed. At subsequent meetings a +constitution and by-laws were adopted, officers elected and plans +proposed for raising the necessary funds. The officers of the society at +that time were as follows: President, Dr. William Camac; +Vice-Presidents, William R. Lejee and James C. Hand; Recording +Secretary, Fairman Rogers; Corresponding Secretary, Dr. John L. LeConte; +Treasurer, P. Pemberton Morris; Managers, Frederick Graeff, Thomas +Dunlap, Charles E. Smith, John Cassin, William S. Vaux, J. Dickinson +Sergeant, Dr. Wilson C. Swann, W. Parke Foulke, Francis R. Cope and +Samuel Powel; Trustees of the Permanent Fund, Evans Rogers, Charles +Macalester and James Dundas.[A] + +Soon after this the rebellion broke out, and in the clash of arms, the +terrible anxieties of the times, and the fevered pursuit of wealth that +followed the inflation of the currency, the subject of zoological +gardens entirely disappeared. Many of those whose names appear as +officially connected with the association, and whose purses and +influence would now be warmly exerted in its favor, have passed away, to +the irreparable loss of the society. Those who remain have revived the +project with sanguine hopes of its accomplishment. The increased wealth +since the inception of the idea in 1859, the enlarged size of the Park, +the growth of the city and the prospect of the Centennial, have widened +the views of the society, and it is confidently anticipated that a +Garden will be established, with a collection and all the necessary +appurtenances, that will equal in a few years the superb one of London. +The strangers that will flock here in 1876 will one and all visit the +Zoological Gardens if in any sort of condition for display at that time. +In 1851, the year of the great Exhibition of London, the number of +visitors to the Zoological Gardens increased from 360,402 in the year +before to 667,243; and in 1862, the time of the second and +International Exhibition, it leaped from 381,337 in 1861 to 682,205. The +number of visitors to the London Garden has been steadily on the +increase since its foundation. In 1863 the largest number up to that +time, except the Exhibition years, was 468,700, and by regular +progression annually it reached in 1871 the large amount of 595,917 +persons. + +The situation of our proposed Gardens is most admirable in every way. +Stretching along the west bank of the Schuylkill for nearly a third of a +mile; opposite the principal entrance to the Park on one side, and the +West Philadelphia approach by Thirty-fifth street on the other; directly +on the route to the Centennial Exhibition; contiguous to the great +railroad artery of the United States, the Pennsylvania Central, a +sideling from which will enter the receiving-house of the society +(marked D on the plan), and thus enable animals and curiosities from all +parts of the United States to be carried without change of cars directly +to the Gardens, or from the East Indies, China, Japan, South America and +the Pacific islands with but one trans-shipment, while the canal +alongside enables freights of all kinds and from any part of the world +to be deposited at the very entrance-gates; the ground rolling and +fertile, rising in the centre, and sufficiently elevated to be away from +the floods of the river; larger by some acres than the Zoological Garden +of London; interspersed with handsome trees, many of them of noble size, +planted by John Penn, whose family mansion, "Solitude," still stands +(35) within the proposed enclosure, and with slight alterations will +make a handsome museum for the society; the old West Philadelphia +Waterworks (20) only needing an engine to force the water into the lake, +around which will be the abodes of the aquatic animals, and from whence +the natural slope of the land will permit the irrigation of the whole +tract; the great sewer for the use of the western portion of the city, +now in process of construction, passing through the southern end of the +Garden, and running along the bank of the river to empty below the dam; +convenient to all parts of the city by means of the city railways and +the Reading Railroad;--these and many other advantages, which an +examination of the illustration of the grounds will naturally suggest, +produce a combination unsurpassed and unsurpassable anywhere. Is it +exaggeration to say that the Philadelphia Zoological Gardens, once +properly established, would not only be regarded with pride and +affection by the citizens, but very materially benefit the whole city? +Imagine the grounds handsomely laid out in walks and drives, bordered +with grass and flowers, terraced from the river; tables and chairs +scattered about on the green sward under the trees; a band of music; the +cool breezes from the Schuylkill; opposite, the beautiful Lemon Hill +Park, with its broad drive alongside the bank: could anything be more +attractive and wholesome to the hundreds of thousands who through the +hot months of this uncommonly hot city are obliged to remain within its +limits? + +Assuming, then, the advantages of a Zoological Garden in Philadelphia, +what is necessary for success and what business inducements (to consider +it in that light) can the society hold out to obtain sufficient money to +procure its collection of living animals, and provide for their suitable +accommodation and increase? The number of members is now two hundred, +who pay five dollars initiation and the same amount annually, which +gives them continual admission to the proposed Garden. Fifty dollars +secures a life-membership free from any further subscription. The sum +now in the treasury is two thousand dollars, and although at the last +meeting twenty-one new names were proposed, and many more persons have +announced their intention of joining, it is apparent that by this means +the society will never accomplish its object. Begging subscriptions, +without offering a pecuniary return therefor, is repugnant to the +officers, and the following plan has been adopted for procuring the +necessary funds. Certificates of stock are to be issued of not less than +fifty dollars each. All receipts derived from the Gardens and +collections of the society are to be applied annually--first, to the +maintenance of the establishment; second, to the payment of six per +cent. on the stock; and third, any balance remaining to go to the +gradual extension of the collections of the society and the improvement +of its grounds. + +It will be observed that stockholders can never receive a larger +dividend than six per cent. per annum, and this only in case the +receipts exceed the expenditures. There are therefore two points to be +considered by those willing to invest--first, the character of the +managers, and second, the prospect of the pecuniary success of the +enterprise. The first is a matter of acquaintance and reputation: the +second can be demonstrated in favor of the society, if honestly and +efficiently managed, with almost mathematical accuracy. + +The main entrance to our Gardens will be directly opposite the Lansdowne +drive, at the west end of Girard Avenue Bridge. The Park Commissioners' +Report for 1872 gives the recorded number of pleasure carriages and +sleighs entering the Park at this point and at the Green street gate, +during the year, as 363,138, of equestrians 26,255, and of pedestrians +385,832. These, in the words of the report (p. 60), "allowing three +persons for each vehicle, will make a total of one million five hundred +and one thousand four hundred and ten visitors passing these two +entrances; and supposing the number of persons coming by the other ten +entrances to be not more than those recorded at these two, we shall have +three millions as the approximate number of visitors." + +It will hardly be asserted that there is any prospect of this number +diminishing, nor will it be denied that it is most probable it will +steadily increase, and during the year of the Centennial be more than +quadrupled. It is reasonable to believe that few would resist the +pleasure of driving, riding or walking through the Zoological Gardens, +so invitingly at hand. Saturdays should be cheap days, say at half +price, and the money that would be received at the admission-gates upon +that one day alone would dissolve any fears of their six per cent, in +the minds of stockholders. + +Relieved of the expense of securing the ground, a sum of three or four +hundred thousand dollars would enable the society to secure a solid +basis, and to open the Gardens upon a scale that would make them the +great feature of Philadelphia. In a very few years it could buy up all +its certificates of stock and own its collections free. The handsome +surplus, before alluded to, accruing annually to the London society +shows that this is not chimerical. The city railways are interested in +this movement, and should subscribe liberally. It is proposed in the +Legislature to charter a railroad running north and south in West +Philadelphia, and if this be done it will render the Garden still more +accessible. + +The Commissioners of the Park warmly advocate its establishment, and do +not hesitate to say it will be a most magnificent addition and the most +entertaining resort at Fairmount. City Councils have already endorsed +it, and devoted space for its location. There remains nothing but the +assistance of the moneyed and public-spirited men of Philadelphia to +accomplish the undertaking. The stock books of the society are now open +for subscriptions, and to prevent the loss of another year ground must +be broken in the coming spring. It is most desirable that upon June 1st +the society may be in a condition to throw open to the public the +nucleus of a collection. Once actually begun, public interest will be +aroused, and, the people convinced that there is a prospect of success, +it will not be permitted to fail. Certain it is that too much time has +already been wasted in such a needed improvement, and that the +Zoological Gardens of Philadelphia will be permanently established now +or never. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[A] Since this article was written the vacancies in the board of +managers have been filled by the election of Messrs. George W. Childs, +Anthony J. Drexel, Henry C. Gibson, J. Vaughan Merrick, Clarence H. +Clark and Theodore L. Harrison. + + + + +BERRYTOWN. + + +CHAPTER VI. + +Mrs. Guinness up stairs in her closet gave thanks every day to Heaven +for the blessed result: down stairs she nagged and scolded Kitty from +morning until night. Peter supposed it was in order to maintain her +authority, but it appeared there were other reasons. + +"The girl disappoints me, now that one looks at her as a woman," she +said to her husband at breakfast one day, while Kitty sat opposite +placidly eating a liberal supply of steak and cakes. She looked up +inquiringly. "Yes," vehemently, "at your age I could not have eaten a +meal a week after I was engaged. Whenever I heard your father's step I +was in a tremor from head to toe. You receive Mr. Muller as though you +had been married for years. Not a blush! As cool as any woman of the +world!" + +"But I don't feel any tremor," helping her father to butter. + +"It's immodest!" + +Kitty blushed now, but whether from anger or shame no one could tell; +for she remained silent. She laid down her knife and fork the next +moment, however, and rose. + +"What I fear is this," said her mother, raising her voice--"Mr. Muller's +disappointment. He looks for a womanly, loving wife--" + +"And I'm not one?" Poor Kitty stood in the doorway swinging her +sun-bonnet. She was just then certainly not a morbid, despairing woman, +who had made a terrible mistake: nothing but a scared child whom anybody +would have hurried to comfort and humor. "I want to do what's right, I'm +sure;" and her red under lip began to tremble and the water to gather in +her eyes. She sat down to hear the rest of the lecture, but her mother +stopped short. Presently, when the chickens came clucking, she went to +mix their meal as usual, very pale and dolorous. + +In an hour she put her head in at the shop-window, her eyes sparkling: +"There's two new chicks in the corn-bin nest, and they're full-blooded +bantams, I'm sure, father." + +"She's not fit to be married!" cried Mrs. Guinness excitedly. "She is +both silly and unfeeling. God only knows how I came to be the mother of +such a child! The great work before her she cares nothing about; and as +for Mr. Muller, she doesn't value him as much as a bantam hen. It's her +narrow intellect. Her brain is small, as Bluhm said." + +It was his wife's conscience twitting her, Peter knew. "I would not be +uneasy," he said with a cynical smile. "You can't bring love out of her +by that sort of friction." But he was himself uneasy. If Catharine had +been gloomy, or even thoughtful, at the prospect of her marriage, he +would have cared less. But she came in that very day in glee at the +sour, critical looks with which some envious young women of the church +had followed her; and when her mother called her up stairs to look at a +trunkful of embroidered under-clothing which she had kept for this +crisis, he could hear Kitty's delighted chatter and giggle for an hour. +Evidently her cup of pleasure was full for that day. Was his little girl +vulgar, feeble in both heart and mind, as her mother said? + +Kitty was on trial that day. Miss Muller called and swept her off to the +Water-cure in the afternoon. She meant to interest her in the +Reformatory school for William's sake. She began by explaining the +books, and the system of keeping them. "It is my brother's wish you +should keep the accounts," she said. + +"Accounts! oh yes, of course." + +The tone was too emphatic. Miss Muller looked up from the long lines of +figures and found Kitty holding her eyes open by force. Evidently she +had just had a comfortable nap. + +Whereupon Maria began to patiently dilate on the individual cases of +the boys to be reformed; and terrible instances they were of guilt and +misery. + +"She whimpered a little," she said afterward to her brother. "I'll do +her justice: she did, a little. But they ought to have brought tears +from a log; and the next minute, seeing those wonderful eyes of hers +fixed on me with a peculiar thoughtfulness, I asked her what was she +thinking of, and found she was studying 'how I did that lovely French +twist in my back hair.' No. There's nothing in her--nothing. Not an +idea; but that I did not expect. But not even a feeling or principle to +take hold of. Take my word, William. You are going to marry fine eyes +and pink cheeks. Nothing more." + +Mr. Muller cared for nothing more. If there had been an answering hint +of fire in eyes or cheeks to the rush of emotion he felt at the sight of +them, he would have been content. But Catharine's face was very like a +doll's just now--the eyes as bright and unmeaning, the pink as +unchanging. In vain he brought her flowers; in vain, grown wiser by +love, led her out in the moonlight to walk, or, flushed and quaking +himself, read in a shrill, uncertain voice absurd fond little sonnets he +had composed to her. Kitty was always attentive, polite and indifferent. +She never went to her old seat during the whole summer, never opened one +of the old books over which she and Peter used to pore. He showed her a +new edition of the _Pilgrim's Progress_ one day, with illustrations: +"See what Bell and Daldy have done for our old friend, Catharine." + +"This allegory all seems much ado about nothing," she said presently, +filliping over the leaves. "Really, I can't see that there is any +wilderness in the world, or devils to fight in or out of pits. At least +for me." + +Speculations on life from Kitty! A month ago she would have gone no +farther than the pictures. "There's nothing worse for me than nice +dresses and a wedding, and three hundred children to bring up for the +Lord, with a smell of beef-and-cabbage over it all. Good gracious! +Don't you know I'm joking, father?" seeing his face. She laughed and +hugged him, and hugged him again. "As for the children, I love them of +course, poor little wretches!" + +Peter scowled over her back as she hung on him. Was it sheer silliness? +Or had certain doors in her nature never been opened, even enough for +her to know all that lay behind them? He pushed her off, holding her by +both wrists: "Are you quite willing to marry Mr. Muller? Do you love +him? Think what it is to marry without love. For God's sake tell me, +Catharine!" + +"Yes, I love him. Certainly. Why," kindling into animation, "I've worn +his ring for a month. Haven't you seen it?" turning her hand about and +looking at the blue turquoise against the white dimples with a delighted +chuckle. + +There was a storm that evening: the thunder was deafening; the rain +dashed heavily against the little square windows of the Book-house. +Catharine was alone. As soon as she made sure of that, Peter having gone +to the city and her mother to a meeting, she put on her waterproof cloak +and overshoes, and sallied out. Not by any means as heroines do who rush +out into the tempest to assuage fiercer storms of rage or despair +within. But there was something at this time in Kitty's blood which, +though it would not warm her cheeks at Mr. Muller's approach, was on +fire for adventure. To go out alone in the rain was to the +chicken-hearted little simpleton what a whaling-voyage would be to a +runaway boy. She came in after an hour drenched to the skin, went up +stairs to change her clothes, and ran down presently to cuddle before +the fire. Now was the time to think rationally, she thought, her elbow +on a chair, her chin pillowed in her soft palm. Here was her marriage +just at hand. She had looked forward to marriage all her life. Five +minutes she gave to the long-vexed question of whether her wedding-veil +should cover her face or not, "It would shade my nose, and in frosty +weather my nose always will be red." What queer little hooked noses the +Mullers all had! and that reflection swung her mind round to her lover +and his love-making, where it rested, until suddenly the fire grew a +hazy red blotch and her head began to bob. + +"I did not use to be so thick-headed," rousing herself, and staring +sleepily at the rain-washed window and the crackling fire. She sang a +little hymn to herself, that simplest of all old ditties: + + I think, when I hear that sweet story of old. + +It made her tender and tearful, and brought her feet close to her +Saviour, as those other children upon whose head He laid his hands. "I +ought to be thankful that I have work for Him," she thought. "How I +envied Mary McKean when she sailed to India as a missionary! And here +are the heathen ready-made for me," proceeding very earnestly to think +over the state of the wretched three hundred. But her head began to nod +again, and the fire was suddenly dashed out in blackness. She started up +yawning. It was all so dreary! Life--Then and there our wholesome Kitty +would have made her first step toward becoming the yearning, misplaced +Woman of the Time, but for a knock which came at the door. + +There had been an occasional roll of thunder, and the rain beat steadily +upon the roof. The first knock failed to rouse her. At the second a man +burst in, and stopped as suddenly in the dark end of the shop, shading +his eyes from the glare: then he came tiptoeing forward. Even in this +abrupt breaking in out of the storm there was something apologetic and +deprecating about the man. As he came up, still sheltering his eyes, as +though from the surprise of Kitty's loveliness, and not the fire, he had +the bearing of a modest actor called before the curtain for bouquets. + +"I had not expected--_this_" with a stage wave of the hand toward +Catharine. + +Now Kitty's pink ears, as we know, were always pricked for a compliment, +and her politeness was apt to carry her over the verge of lying; but she +was hardly civil now: she drew coldly back, wishing with all her heart +that her lover, fat, simple, pure-minded little Muller, were here to +protect her. Yet Mrs. Guinness, no doubt, would have said this man was +made of finer clay than the clergyman. Both figure and face were small +and delicate: his dress was finical and dainty, from the fur-topped +overshoes to the antique seal and the trimming of his gray moustache. He +drew off his gloves, holding a white, wrinkled hand to the fire, but +Catharine felt the colorless eyes passing over her again and again. + +"Your business," she said, "is probably with my father?" + +"Your father is Peter Guinness? No. My business hardly deserves the +name, in fact," leisurely stopping to smooth and fold the yellow gloves +between his palms, in order to prolong his sentences. "It was merely to +leave a message for his son, for Hugh Guinness." + +"Hugh Guinness is dead." + +"Dead!" For an instant the patting of the gloves ceased, and he looked +at her steadily; then, with a nod of comprehension, he went on: "Oh, it +is not convenient for Hugh to be alive just now? We are old comrades, +you see: I know his ways. I know he was in Delaware a year ago. But I +have no time now to go to Delaware. The message will no doubt reach him +if left with you." He had made the gloves into a square package by this +time, and, flattening it with a neat pat or two, put it in his pocket, +turning to her with a significant smile. + +"Hugh Guinness is dead," said Catharine. "He died in Nicaragua five +years ago. Your business with him ended then." + +"And yet--" coming a step nearer, "yet if Guinness were in his grave +now, I fancy he would think my business of more importance to him than +life itself would be." He was talking against time, she saw--talking +while he inspected her to see whether she were willfully lying or +believed what she said. He was a man who by rule believed the worst: the +disagreeable, incredulous smile came back. "These are the days when +ghosts walk, as you know." After a moment's pause: "And Hugh may come +to rap and write with the rest. So, even admitting that he is dead, it +would be safer for you to receive the message. It matters much to him." + +"What is it?" she said curiously. "There is no use in wasting so many +words about the matter." + +"Tell him--" lowering his voice. "No," with a sudden suspicious glance +at her. "No need of wasting words, true enough. Give him this. There's +an address inside. Tell him the person who sent it waits for him there." +He took out of his pocket a small morocco case, apparently containing a +photograph, and laid it down on the table. + +"Take it back. Hugh Guinness has been dead for years. I will not take +charge of it." + +"No, he's not dead," coolly buttoning his coat again. "I suppose you +believe what you say. But he was in Delaware, I tell you, last October. +If he asks about me, tell him I only acted as a messenger in the matter. +I've no objection to doing him that good turn." + +He nodded familiarly, put on his hat, and went out as suddenly as he had +come. When he was gone she heard the rain drenching the walnuts outside, +dripping, dripping; the thunder rolled down the valley; the fire +crackled and flashed. There, on the table, in the dirty morocco case, +lay a Mystery, a tremendous Life-secret, no doubt, of which she, Kitty, +held the clue. It was like Pepita when she found the little gold key +that unlocked the enchanted rooms. Hugh Guinness living? To be restored +to his father? She was in a fever of delight and excitement. When she +opened the case she found a beautiful woman's face--a blonde who seemed +sixteen to Kitty, but who might be sixty. The Mystery enlarged: it quite +filled Kitty's horizon. When she put the case in her pocket, and sat +down, with red cheeks and bright eyes, on the rug again, I am sure she +did not remember there was a Reform school or a Muller in the world. + +At last Peter was heard in the porch, stamping and shaking: "Oh, I'm +dry as a toast, Jane, what with the oil-skin and leggings. Yes, take +them. Miss Vogdes wants tea in the shop, eh? All right! Why child," +turning up her face, "your cheeks burn like a coal. Mr. Muller been +here?" + +"Oh dear, no!" pushing him into a chair. "Is there nothing to think of +but Mullers and marrying?" + +She poured out the tea, made room for the plates of cold chicken and +toast among the books, and turned the supper into a picnic, as she had +done hundreds of times, gossiping steadily all the while. But Mr. +Guinness saw that there was something coming. + +When the tea was gone she sat down on the wooden bench beside him, +leaning forward on his knee: "Father, you promised once to show me +before I went away all that you had belonging to--your other child." + +Guinness did not speak at once, but sat smoking his cigar. It went out +in his mouth. He made a motion to rise once or twice, and sat down +again. "To-night, Kitty?" + +"Yes, to-night. We are alone." + +He got up at last slowly, going to a drawer in the oak cases which she +had never seen opened. Unlocking it, he took out one or two Latin +school-books, a broken fishing-rod, a gun and an old cap, and placed +them before her. It was a hard task she had set him, she saw. He lifted +the cap and pointed to a long red hair which had caught in the button, +but did not touch it: "Do you see that? That is Hugh's. I found it there +long after he was gone. It had caught there some day when the boy jerked +the cap off. He was a careless dog! Always jerking and tearing!" + +Catharine was silent until he began putting the things back in the +drawer: "Father, there's no chance, is there? You could not be mistaken +in that report from Nicaragua? You never thought it possible that your +son might yet be alive?" + +"Hugh's dead--dead," quietly. But his fingers lingered over the book and +gun, as though he had been smoothing the grave-clothes about his boy. + +"The proof was complete, then?" ventured Kitty. + +He turned on her: "Why do you talk to me of Hugh, Catharine? I can tell +you nothing of him. He's dead: isn't that enough? Christian folks would +say he was a man for whom his friends ought to think death a safe +ending. They have told me so more than once. But he was not altogether +bad, to my mind." He bent over the drawer now. Kitty saw that he took +hold of the red hair, and drew it slowly through his fingers: his face +had grown in these few minutes aged and haggard. + +"'Behold, how he loved him!'" she thought. He had been the old man's +only son. Other men could make mourning for their dead children, talk of +them all their lives; but she knew her mother would not allow Peter to +even utter his boy's name. + +"I'm sure," she said vehemently from where she stood by the fire, "he +was not a bad man. _I_ remember Hugh very well, and I remember nothing +that was not lovable and good about him;" the truth of which was that +she had a vague recollection of a freckle-faced boy, who had tormented +her and her kittens day and night, and who had suddenly disappeared out +of her life. But she meant to comfort her father, and she did it. + +"You've a good, warm heart, Kitty. I did not know that anybody but me +remembered the lad." + +She snuggled down on the floor beside him, drawing his hand over her +hair. Usually there is great comfort in the very touch of a woman like +Kitty. But Peter's hand rested passively on her head: her cooing and +patting could not touch his trouble to-day. + +"Your mother will need you, my dear," he said at last, as soon as that +lady's soft steady step was heard in the hall. Kitty understood and left +him alone. + +"Mother," she said, coming into the chamber where Mrs. Guinness, her +pink cheeks pinker from the rain, lay back in her easy-chair, her +slippered feet on the fender--"mother, there is a question I wish to ask +you." + +"Well, Catharine?" + +"When did Hugh die? How do you know that he is dead?" + +Mrs. Guinness sat erect and looked at her in absolute silence. +Astonishment and anger Kitty had expected from her at her mention of the +name, but there was a certain terror in her face which was +unaccountable. + +"What do you know of Hugh Guinness? I never wished that his name should +cross your lips, Catharine." + +"I know very little. But I have a reason for wishing to know when and +how he died. It is for father's sake," she added, startled at the +increasing agitation which her mother could not conceal. + +Still, Mrs. Guinness did not reply. She was not a superstitious woman: +she felt no remorse about her treatment of her stepson. There had been +evil tongues, even in the church, to lay his ruined life at her door, +and to say that bigotry and sternness had driven him to debauchery and a +drunkard's death. She knew she had done her duty: she liked best to +think of herself as a mother in Israel. Yet there had always been a +dull, mysterious terror which linked Hugh Guinness and Catharine +together. It was there he would revenge himself. Some day he would put +out his dead hand from the grave to work the child's destruction. She +had reasoned and laughed at her own folly in the matter for years. But +the belief was there. Now it was taking shape. + +She would meet it face to face. She stood up as though she had been +going to throttle some visible foe for ever: "I shall tell you the +truth, Catharine. Your father has never known it. He believes his son +died in Nicaragua fighting for a cause which he thought good. I let him +believe it. There was some comfort in that." + +"It was not true, then?" + +"No." She rearranged the vases on the mantel-shelf, turned over the +illuminated texts hanging on the wall, until she came to the one for the +day. She was trying to convince herself that Hugh Guinness mattered +nothing to her. + +"He died," she said at last, "in New York, a reprobate, as he lived." + +"But where? how?" + +"What can that matter to you?" sharply. "But I will tell you where and +how. Two winters ago a poor, bloated, penniless wretch took up his +lodging in a cheap hotel in New York. He left it only to visit the +gambling-houses near. An old friend of mine recognized Hugh, and warned +me of his whereabouts. I went up to the city at once, but when I reached +it he had disappeared. He had lost his last penny at dice." + +"Then he _is_ still alive?" + +"God forbid! No," correcting herself. "A week later the body of a +suicide was recovered off Coney Island and placed in the Morgue. It was +horribly mutilated. But I knew Hugh Guinness. I think I see him yet, +lying on that marble slab and his eyes staring up at me. It was no doing +of mine that he lay there." + +"No, mother, I am sure that it was not," gently. "If your conscience +reproaches you, I wish he were here that you could try and bring him +into the right path at last." + +"My conscience does not trouble me. As for Hugh--Heaven forbid that I +should judge any man!--but if ever there was a son of wrath predestined +to perdition, it was he. I always felt his day of grace must have passed +while he was still a child." + +Kitty had no answer to this. She went off to bed speedily, and to sleep. +An hour or two later her mother crept softly to her bedside and stood +looking at her. The woman had been crying. + +"Lord, not on her, not on her!" she cried silently. "Let not my sin be +laid up against her!" But her grief was short-lived. Hugh was dead. As +for his harming Kitty, that was all folly. Meanwhile, Mr. Muller and the +wedding-clothes were facts. She stooped over Kitty and kissed +her--turned down the sheet to look at her soft blue-veined shoulder and +moist white foot. Such a little while since she was a baby asleep in +this very bed! Some of the baby lines were in her face still. It was +hard to believe that now she was a woman--to be in a few days a wife. + +She covered her gently, and stole away nodding and smiling. The ghost +was laid. + +As for Kitty, she had gone to bed not at all convinced that Hugh +Guinness was dead. It was a more absorbing Mystery, that was all. But it +did not keep her awake. She did not spin any romantic fancies about him +or his dark history. If he were alive, he was very likely as +disagreeable and freckle-faced a man as he had been a boy. But the +secret was her own--a discovery; a very different affair from this +marriage, which had been made and fitted on her by outsiders. + + +CHAPTER VII. + +"Gone! You don't mean that your mother and Mr. Guinness have gone to +leave you for a month!" Mr. Muller was quite vehement with annoyance and +surprise. + +"At least a month," said Catharine calmly. "Mrs. Guinness always goes +with my father on his summer journey for books, and this year she +has--well, things to buy for me." + +It was the wedding-dress she meant, he knew. He leaned eagerly in at the +window, where he stood hoping for a blush. But none came. "Purl two and +knit one," said Kitty to her crochet. + +"I certainly do not consider it safe or proper for you to be left +alone," he blustered mildly after a while. + +"There is Jane," glancing back at the black figure waddling from the +kitchen to the pump. + +"Jane! I shall send Maria up to stay with you, Catharine." + +"You are very kind! It is so pleasant to be cared for!" with a little +gush of politeness and enthusiasm. "But dear Maria finds the house damp. +I will not be selfish. You must allow me to be alone." + +He looked at her furtively. Was there, after all, an obstinate, +unbendable back-bone under the soft feathers of this his nestling dove? +He was discomfited at every turn this evening. He had hoped that Kitty +would notice that his little imperial had been retrimmed; and he +had bought a set of sleeve-buttons, antique coins, at a ruinous price, +in hopes they would please her. She looked at neither the one nor the +other. Yet she had a keen eye for dress--too keen an eye indeed. Only +last night she had spent an hour anxiously cutting old Peter's hair and +beard, and Mr. Muller could not but remember that he was a handsome +young fellow, and do what she would with Peter, he was old and beaked +like a parrot. "Besides, he is only her stepfather," he reasoned, "and I +am to be her husband: she loves me." + +_Did_ she love him? The question always brought a pain under his plump +chest and neat waistcoat which he could not explain; he thrust it +hastily away. But he loitered about the room, thinking how sweet it +would be if this childish creature would praise or find fault with +buttons or whiskers in her childish way. Kitty, however, crocheted on +calmly, and saw neither. The sun was near its setting. The clover-fields +stretched out dry and brown in its warm light, to where the melancholy +shadows gathered about the wooded creeks. + +Mr. Muller looked wistfully out of the window, and then at her. "Suppose +you come and walk with me?" he said presently. + +Kitty glanced out, and settled herself more comfortably in her +rocking-chair. "It is very pleasant here," smiling. + +He thought he would go home: in fact, he did not know what else to do. +The room was very quiet, they were quite alone. The evening light fell +on Catharine; her hands had fallen on her lap; she was thinking so +intently of her Mystery that she had forgotten he was there. How white +her bent neck was, with the rings of brown hair lying on it! There was a +deeper pink than usual on her face, too, as though her thoughts were +pleasant. He came closer, bent over her chair, touched her hair with one +chubby finger, and started back red and breathless. + +"Did you speak?" said Kitty, looking up. + +"I'm going home. I only wanted to say good bye." + +"So soon? Good-bye. I shall see you to-morrow, I suppose?" taking up her +work. + +"Yes, Kitty--" + +"Well?" + +"I have never bidden you good-bye except by shaking hands. Could I kiss +you? I have thought about that every day since you promised to marry +me." + +The pleasant rose-tinge was gone now: even the soft lips, which were +dangerously close, were colorless: "You can kiss me if you want to. I +suppose it's right." + +The little man drew back gravely. "Never mind; it's no matter. I had +made up my mind never to ask for it until you seemed to be able to give +me real wifely love." + +She started up. "I can do no more than I have done," vehemently. "And +I'm tired of hearing of myself as a wife. I'd as soon consider myself as +a grandmother." + +Mr. Muller waited a moment, too shocked and indignant to speak: then he +took up his hat and went to the door. "Good-night, my child," he said +kindly, "To-morrow you will be your better self." + +Kitty knew nothing of better selves: she only felt keenly that two +months ago such rudeness would have been impossible to her. Why was she +growing vulgar and weak? + +The air stirred the leaves of the old Walnuts outside: the black-coated, +dapper figure had not yet passed from under them. He was so gentle and +pious and good! Should she run after him? She dropped instead into her +chair and cried comfortably till a noise in the shop stopped her, and +looking through the dusky books she saw a man waiting. She got up and +went in hastily, looking keenly at his face to find how long he had been +there, and how much he had seen. It wore, however, an inscrutable +gravity. + +Most of Peter's old customers sold to themselves during his absence, but +this was a stranger. He stood looking curiously at the heaped books and +the worn sheepskin-covered chair, until she was close to him: then he +looked curiously at her. + +"I have had some correspondence with Mr. Guinness about a copy of +Quadd's _Scientific Catalogues_." + +"Mr. Guinness is not at home, but he left the book," said Kitty, alertly +climbing the steps. Bringing the book, she recognized him as Doctor +McCall, who had once before been at the shop when her father was gone. +He was a young man, largely built, with a frank, attentive face, red +hair and beard, and cordial voice. It was Kitty's nature to meet anybody +halfway who carried summer weather about him. "My father hoped you would +not come for the book until his return," she said civilly. "Your letters +made him wish to see you. You were familiar, he told me, with some old +pamphlets of which few customers know anything." + +"Probably. I could not come at any other time," curtly, engrossed in +turning over the pages of his book. Presently he said, "I will look over +the stock if you will allow me. But I need not detain you," glancing at +her work in the inner room. Kitty felt herself politely dismissed. Nor, +although Doctor McCall stayed for half an hour examining Peter's +favorite volumes as he sat on his high office-stool and leaned on his +desk, did he once turn his eyes on the dimpling face making a +picturesque vignette in the frame of the open window. When he had +finished he came to the door. "I will call for the books I have chosen +in an hour;" and then bowed distantly and was gone. + +He had scarcely closed the gate when the back door creaked, and Miss +Muller came in smiling, magnetic from head to foot, as her disciples in +Berrytown were used to allege. + +"And what is our little dove afraid of in her nest?" pinching Kitty's +cheek as though she had been a dove very lately fledged indeed. She had +always in fact the feeling when with Kitty that through her she suffered +to live and patted on the back the whole ignoble, effete race of +domestic women. Catharine caught sight of her satchel, which portended a +visit of several days. + +"Pray give me your hat and stay with me for tea," she said sweetly. + +Miss Muller saw through her stratagem and laughed: "Now, that is just +the kind of finesse in which such women delight!" she thought +good-humoredly, going into the shop to lay off her hat and cape. The +next moment she returned. Her face was bloodless. The muscles of the +chin twitched. + +"Who has been here?" she cried, sitting down and rubbing her hands +violently on her wrists. "Oh, Catharine, who has been here?" + +Now Kitty, a hearty eater with a slow brain, and nerves laid quite out +of reach under the thick healthy flesh, knew nothing of the hysterical +clairvoyant moods and trances familiar to so many lean, bilious American +women. She ran for camphor, carbonate of soda and arnica, bathed Miss +Muller's head, bent over her, fussing, terrified, anxious. + +"Is it a pain? Is it in your stomach? Did you eat anything that +disagreed with you?" she cried. + +"Eat! I believe in my soul you think of nothing but eating!" trying +resolutely to still the trembling of her limbs and chattering of her +teeth. "I was only conscious of a presence when I entered that room. +Some one who long ago passed out of my life, stood by me again." The +tears ran weakly over her white cheeks. + +"Somebody in the shop!" Kitty went to it on tiptoe, quaking at the +thought of burglars. "There's nobody in the shop. Not even the cat," +turning back reassured. "How did you feel the Presence, Maria? See it, +or hear it, or smell it?" + +"There are other senses than those, you know," pacing slowly up and down +the room with the action of the leading lady in a melodrama; but her +pain or vision, whatever it was, had been real enough. The cold drops +stood on her forehead, her lips quivered, the brown eyes turned from +side to side asking for help. "When _he_ is near shall I not know it?" +she said with dry lips. + +Kitty stole up to her and touched her hand. "I'm so glad if you are in +love!" she whispered. "I thought you would think it foolish to care for +love or--or babies. I used to care for them both a great deal." + +"Pshaw! Now listen to me, child," her step growing steadier. "Oh dear! +Haven't you any belladonna? Or coffea? That would set me right at once. +As for a husband and children, they are obstructions to a woman--nothing +more. If my head was clear I could make you understand. I am a free +soul. I have my work to do. Marriage is an accident: so is +child-bearing. In nine cases out of ten they hinder a woman's work. But +when I meet a kindred soul, higher, purer than mine, I give allegiance +to it. My feeling becomes a part of my actual life; it is a spiritual +action: it hears and sees by spiritual senses. And then--Ah, there is +something terrible in being alone--_alone_! She called this out loudly, +wringing her hands. Kitty gave a queer smile. It was incredible to her +that a woman could thus dissect herself for the benefit of another. + +"But she's talking for her own benefit," watching her shrewdly. "If +there's any acting about it, she's playing Ophelia and Hamlet and the +audience all at once.--Was it Doctor McCall you fancied was in the +shop?" she asked quietly. + +Miss Muller turned, a natural blush dyeing her face and neck: "He has +been here then?--Oh, there! there he is!" as the young man came in at +the gate. She passed her hands over her front hair nervously, shook down +her lace sleeves and went out to meet him. Kitty saw his start of +surprise. He stooped, for she was a little woman, and held out both his +hands. + +"Yes, John, it is I!" she said with a half sob. + +"Are you really so glad to see me again, Maria?" She caught his arm for +her sole answer, and walked on, nestling close to his side. + +"It may be spiritual affinity, but it looks very like love," thought +Kitty. It was a different love from any she had known. They turned and +walked through the gate down into the shadow of the wooded creeks, the +broad strong figure leaning over the weaker one. Kitty fancied the +passion in his eyes, the words he would speak. She thought how she had +noticed at first sight that there was unusual strength and tenderness in +the man's face. + +"There will be no talk there of new dresses or reformatory schools, I'm +sure of that," she said, preparing to go to bed. She felt somehow +wronged and slighted to-night, and wished for old Peter's knee to rest +on. She had no friend like old Peter, and never would have. + +REBECCA HARDING DAVIS. + +[TO BE CONTINUED.] + + + + +OVERDUE. + + + The beads from the wine have all vanished, + Which bubbled in brightness so late; + The lights from the windows are banished, + Close shut is the gate + Which yesterday swung wide in joyance, + And beckoned to fate. + + The goblet stands idle, untasted, + Or, tasted, is tasteless to-night; + The breath of the roses is wasted; + In sackcloth bedight, + The soul, in the dusk of her palace, + Sits waiting the light. + + Ah! why do the ships waft no token + Of grace to this sorrowful realm? + Must suns shine in vain, while their broken + Rays clouds overwhelm? + Tender Breeze, if some sail bear a message, + Rule thou at the helm! + + But if haply the ruler be coming, + Drug the sea-sirens each with a kiss: + Stroke the waves into calmest of humming + Over ocean's abyss: + Speed him soft from the shore of the stranger + To the haven of this. + + And the soul-bells in joyous revival + Shall peal all the carols of spring; + The roses and ruby wine rival + Each other to bring, + In the crimson and fragrance of welcome, + Delight to the king. + +MARY B. DODGE. + + + + +QUEEN VICTORIA AS A MILLIONAIRE. + + +Queen Victoria either is or ought to be a very wealthy woman. Her income +was at the beginning of her reign fixed at L385,000 a year. This sum, it +was understood, would, with the exception of L96,000 a year, be divided +between the lord steward, the lord chamberlain and the master of the +horse, the three great functionaries of the royal household. Of the +residue L60,000 were to be paid over to the queen for her personal +expenses, and the remaining L36,000 were for "contingencies." It is +probable, however, that the above arrangements have been much modified, +as time has worked changes. + +The prince-consort had an allowance of L30,000 a year. The queen +originally wished him to have L100,000, and Lord Melbourne, then prime +minister, who had immense influence over her, had much difficulty in +persuading her that this sum was out of the question, and gaining her +consent to the government's proposing L50,000 a year to the House of +Commons, which, to Her Majesty's infinite chagrin, cut the sum down +nearly one-half. + +During the happy days of her married life the expenditure of the court +was very much greater than it has been since the prince's death. +Emperors and kings were entertained with utmost splendor at Windsor. +During the emperor of Russia's visit, for instance, and that of Louis +Philippe, one or two hundred extra mouths were in one way or another fed +at Her Majesty's expense. The stables, too, were formerly filled with +horses--and very fine ones they were--whereas now the number is greatly +reduced, and many of those in the royal mews are "jobbed"--_i.e._ hired +by the week or month, as occasion requires, from livery stables. This +poverty of the master of the horse's department excited much angry +comment on the occasion of the princess Alexandra's state entry into +London. + +But besides the previously-mentioned L60,000 a year, and what residue +may be unspent from the rest of the "civil list," as the L385,000 is +called, Queen Victoria has two other sources of considerable income. She +is in her own right duchess of Lancaster. The property which goes with +the duchy of Lancaster belonged originally to Saxon noblemen who rose +against the Norman Conqueror. Their estates were confiscated, and in +1265 were in the possession of Robert Ferrers, earl of Derby. This +nobleman took part with Simon de Montfort in his rebellion, and was +deprived of all his estates in 1265 by Henry III., who bestowed them on +his youngest son, Edmund, commonly called Edmund Crouchback, whom he +created earl of Lancaster. From him dates the immediate connection +between royalty and the duchy. In 1310, Thomas, second earl of +Lancaster, son of Edmund Crouchback, married a great heiress, the only +child of De Lacy, earl of Lincoln. By this alliance he became the +wealthiest and most powerful subject of the Crown, possessing in right +of himself and his wife six earldoms, with all the jurisdiction which +under feudal tenure was annexed to such honors. In 1311 he became +involved in the combination formed by several nobles to induce the king +to part with Piers de Gaveston. The result of this conspiracy was that +the unhappy favorite was lynched in Warwick Castle. The king, Edward +II., was at first highly incensed, but ultimately pardoned the +conspirators, including the earl of Lancaster; but that very imprudent +personage, subsequently taking up arms against his sovereign, was +beheaded. + +In 1326 an act was passed for reversing the attainder of Earl Thomas in +favor of his brother Henry, earl of Lancaster. Earl Henry left a son and +six daughters. The son was surnamed "Grismond," from the place of his +birth. He greatly distinguished himself in the French wars under Edward +III., and was the second knight companion of the Order of the Garter, +Edward "the Black Prince" being the first. Ultimately, to reward his +many services, Edward III. created him, about 1348, duke of Lancaster, +and the county of Lancaster was formed into a palatinate or +principality. This great and good nobleman who seems to have been the +soul of munificence and piety, died in 1361, leaving two daughters to +inherit his vast possessions, but on the death of the elder without +issue the whole devolved on the second, Blanche, who married John of +Gaunt (so called because born at Ghent in Flanders, in March, 1340), son +of Edward III. He was created duke of Lancaster, played a prominent part +in history, and died in 1399, leaving a son by Blanche--Henry +Plantagenet, surnamed Bolingbroke, from Bullingbrook Castle in +Lincolnshire, the scene of his birth. He became King Henry IV., and thus +the duchy merged in the Crown, and is enjoyed to-day by Queen Victoria +as duchess of Lancaster. + +Her revenue from this source has been steadily increasing. Thus in 1865 +it was L26,000; in 1867, L29,000; in 1869, L31,000; in 1872 L40,000. The +largest of these figures does not probably represent a fifth of the +receipts of John of Gaunt, but the duchy of Lancaster, like that of +Cornwall, suffered far a long time from the fraud and rapacity of those +who were supposed to be its custodians. Managed as it now is, it will +probably have doubled its present revenue before the close of the +century.[B] + +The other source is still more strictly personal income. On the 30th of +August, 1852, there died a gentleman, aged seventy-two, of the name of +John Camden Neild. He was son of a Mr. James Neild, who acquired a large +fortune as a gold- and silversmith. Mr. James Neild was born at Sir +Henry Holland's birthplace, Knutsford, a market-town in Cheshire, in +1744. He came to London, when a boy, in 1760, the first year of George +III.'s reign, and was placed with one of the king's jewelers, Mr. +Hemming. Gradually working his way up, he started on his own account in +St. James's street, a very fashionable thoroughfare, and made a large +fortune. In 1792 he retired. He appears to have been a man of rare +benevolence and some literary ability. He devoted himself to remedying +the condition of prisons, more especially those in which persons were +confined for debt: indeed, his efforts in this direction would seem to +have rivaled those of Howard, for in the course of forty years Mr. Neild +visited most of the prisons in Great Britain, and was for many years +treasurer, as well as one of the founders, of the society for the relief +of persons imprisoned for small debts. He described his prison +experiences in a series of papers in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, which +were subsequently republished, and highly praised by the _Edinburgh +Review_. Mr. Neild had three children, but only one, John Camden Neild, +survived him. This gentleman succeeded to his father's very large +property in 1814. + +Mr. James Neild had acquired considerable landed estate, and was sheriff +of Buckinghamshire in 1804. His son received every advantage in the way +of education, graduated M.A. at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was +subsequently called to the bar. He proved, however, the very reverse of +his benevolent father. He was a miser born, and hid all his talents in a +napkin, making no use of his wealth beyond allowing it to accumulate. +From the date of the death of his father, who left him L250,000, besides +real estate, he had spent but a small portion of his income, and allowed +himself scarcely the necessaries of life. He usually dressed in a blue +coat with metal buttons. This he did not allow to be brushed, inasmuch +as that process would have worn the nap. He was never known to wear an +overcoat. He gladly accepted invitations from his tenantry, and would +remain on long visits, because he thus saved board. There is a story of +how a benevolent gentleman once proffered assistance, through a chemist +in the Strand, in whose shop he saw what he supposed to be a broken-down +old gentleman, and received for reply, "God bless your soul, sir! that's +Mr. Coutts the banker, who could buy up you and me fifty times over." So +with Mr. Neild: his appearance often made him an object of charity and +commiseration, nor would it appear that he was at all averse to being so +regarded. Just before railway traveling began he had been on a visit to +some of his estates, and was returning to London. The coach having +stopped to allow of the passengers getting refreshment, all entered the +hotel except old Neild. Observing the absence of the pinched, +poverty-stricken-looking old gentleman, some good-natured passenger sent +him out a bumper of brandy and water, which the old niggard eagerly +accepted. + +A few days before his death he told one of his executors that he had +made a most singular will, but that he had a right to do what he liked +with his own. When the document was opened it was found that, with the +exception of a few small legacies, he had left all "to Her Most Gracious +Majesty Queen Victoria, begging Her Majesty's most gracious acceptance +of the same, for her sole use and benefit, and that of her heirs." +Probably vanity dictated this bequest. To a poor old housekeeper, who +had served him twenty-six years, he left nothing; to each of his +executors, L100. But the queen made a handsome provision for the former, +and presented L1000 to each of the latter; and she further raised a +memorial to the miser's memory. + +The property bequeathed to her amounted to upward of L500,000; so that, +supposing Her Majesty to have spent every penny of her public and duchy +of Lancaster incomes, and to have only laid by this legacy and the +interest on it, she would from this source alone now be worth at least +L1,000,000. Be this as it may, even that portion of the public which +survives her will probably never know the amount of her wealth, for the +wills of kings and queens are not proved; so that there will be no +enlightenment on this head in the pages of the _Illustrated London +News_. + +Both Osborne House in the Isle of Wight, and Balmoral, were bought prior +to Mr. Neild's bequest. These palaces are the personal property of Her +Majesty, and very valuable: probably the two may, with their contents, +be valued at L500,000 at the lowest. The building and repairs at these +palaces are paid for by the queen herself, but those of all the palaces +of the Crown are at the expense of the country, and about a million has +been expended on Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle during the present +reign. + +The claims made on the queen for charity are exceedingly numerous. They +are all most carefully examined by the keeper of her privy purse, and +help is invariably extended to proper objects. But whilst duly +recognizing such calls upon her, the queen has never been regarded as +open-handed. Her munificence, for example, has not been on the scale of +that of the late queen Adelaide, the widow of William IV. It is to be +remembered that her father suffered all his life from straitened +circumstances, and indeed it was by means of money supplied by friends +that the duchess of Kent was enabled to reach England and give birth to +its future sovereign on British soil. Although the duke died when his +daughter was too young to have heard from him of these pecuniary +troubles, she was no doubt cautioned by her mother to avoid all chance +of incurring them; and a circumstance in itself likely to impress their +inconvenience on her memory was that one of the first acts of her reign +was to pay off, principal and interest, the whole of her father's +remaining liabilities. + +A good deal of sympathy is felt in England for the prince of Wales in +reference to his money-matters. His mother's withdrawal from +representative functions throws perforce a great deal of extra expense +upon him, which he is very ill able to bear. He is expected to subscribe +liberally to every conceivable charity, to bestow splendid presents +(here his mother has always been wanting), and in every way to vie with, +if not surpass, the nobility; and all this with L110,000 a year, whilst +the dukes of Devonshire, Cleveland, Buccleuch, Lords Westminster, Bute, +Lonsdale and a hundred more noblemen and gentlemen, have fortunes double +or treble, no lords and grooms in waiting to pay, and can subscribe or +decline to subscribe to the Distressed Muffin-makers' and Cab-men's +Widows' Associations, according to their pleasure, without a murmur on +the part of the public. + +About five years ago the press generally took this view of the subject, +and a rumor ran that the government fully intended to ask for an +addition to the prince's income; but nothing was done. We have reason to +believe that the hesitation of the government arose from the +well-grounded apprehension that it would bring on an inquiry as to the +queen's income and what became of it. Opinion ran high among both Whigs +and Tories that if Her Majesty did not please to expend in +representative pomp the revenues granted to her for that specific +purpose, she should appropriate a handsome sum annually to her son. It +may be urged, "Perhaps she does so," and in reply it can only be said +that in such case the secret is singularly well kept, and that those +whose position should enable them to give a pretty shrewd guess at the +state of the case persist in averring the contrary. However, it will no +doubt be all the better for the royal family in the end. The queen is a +sagacious woman. She no doubt fully recognizes the fact that the British +public will each year become more and more impatient of being required +to vote away handsome annuities for a succession of princelings, whilst +at the same time it may look with toleration, if not affection, upon a +number of gentlemen and ladies who ask for nothing more than the cheap +privilege of writing "Royal Highness" before their names. If, then, +Queen Victoria be by her retirement and frugality accumulating a fortune +which will make the royal family almost independent of a parliamentary +grant in excess of the income which the Crown revenues represent, she is +no doubt acting with that deep good sense and prudence which are a part +of her character. And here we may just explain that the Crown revenues +are derived from the property which has always been the appanage of the +English sovereign from the Norman Conquest. For a long time past the +custom has been to give this up to the country, with the understanding +that it cannot be alienated, and to accept, in lieu thereof, a +parliamentary grant of income. This Crown property is of immense value. +It includes a large strip of the best part of London. All the clubs in +Pall Mall, for instance, the Carlton, United Service, Travelers', +Reform; Marlborough House, The Guards Club, Stafford House, Carlton +House Terrace, Carlton Gardens--which pay the highest rents in +London--stand on Crown land; as do Montague House, the duke of +Buccleuch's, Dover House, etc. But this property suffers very much from +the fact of its being inalienable. It can only be leased. The whole of +the New Forest is Crown land, and it is estimated that if sold it would +fetch millions, whereas it is now nearly valueless. If the royal family +could use their Crown lands, just as those noblemen who have received +grants from sovereigns use theirs, it would be the wealthiest in +England, and would have no need to come to Parliament for funds. + +Half of the people who howl about the expense of royalty know nothing +about these Crown lands, which really belong to royalty at least as much +as the property of those holding estates originally granted by kings +belongs to such proprietors, and if exception were taken to such tenures +scarcely any title in England would be safe. + +Taking her, then, for all in all, Queen Victoria is not only the best, +but probably the cheapest, sovereign England ever had; and her people, +although inclined, as is their wont, to grumble that she doesn't spend a +little more money, feel that she has so few faults that they can well +afford to overlook this. Deeply loved by them, she is yet more +respected. + +REGINALD WYNFORD. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[B] How the revenues of the duchy of Cornwall have grown under the +admirable management instituted by the late prince-consort, who +discovered that peculation and negligence were combining to dissipate +his eldest son's splendid heritage, the following will show. In 1824 the +gross revenue had fallen to L22,000: in 1872 it was nearly L70,000! Loud +were the howls of the peculators against "that beastly German" when His +Royal Highness took it in hand. But "he knew he was right," and had his +reward. When the prince of Wales came of age, instead of having from +L13,000 to L14,000, net, a year from his duchy, as the last prince of +Wales had, there was a revenue of L50,000 a year clear, and cash enough +to buy Sandringham. The income is now increasing at the rate of about +L3000 a year, on the average. By net revenue is meant the clear sum +which goes into the prince's pocket. Of course his father's prudence and +energy saved the country a large sum, which it would otherwise have been +compelled to vote for maintaining the prince's establishment. + +George IV. had on his marriage, when prince of Wales, L125,000 a year, +besides his duchy revenues, L28,000 for jewelry and plate, and L26,000 +for furnishing Carlton House. The present prince of Wales has nothing +from the country but L40,000 a year, and his wife has L10,000 a year. No +application has ever been made for money to pay his debts or to assist +him in any way. + + + + +CRICKET IN AMERICA + + +Cricket is the "national game" of England, where the sport has a +venerable antiquity. Occasional references to the game are found in old +books, which would place its origin some centuries back. The most +ancient mention of the game is found in the _Constitution Book of +Guildford_, by which it appears that in some legal proceedings in 1598 a +witness, then aged fifty-nine, gave evidence that "when he was a scholar +in the free schoole at Guldeford he and several of his fellowes did +runne and plaie there at _crickett_ and other plaies." The author of +_Echoes from Old Cricket Fields_ cites the biography of Bishop Ken to +show that he played cricket at Winchester College in 1650, one of his +scores, cut on the chapel-cloister wall, being still extant; and the +same writer reproduces as a frontispiece to his "opusculum" an old +engraving bearing date 1743, in which the wicket appears as a skeleton +hurdle about two feet wide by one foot high, while the bat is the Saxon +_crec_ or crooked stick, with which the game was originally played, and +from which the name cricket was doubtless derived. + +In England the game is universally played: all classes take equal +interest in it, and it is a curious fact that on the cricket-ground the +lord and the laborer meet on equal terms, the zest of the game +outweighing the prejudice of caste. The government encourages it as a +physical discipline for the troops, and provides all barracks with +cricket-grounds. Every regiment has its club, and, what is odd, the navy +furnishes many crack players. It is the favorite _par excellence_ at all +schools, colleges and universities; every county, every town and every +village has its local club; while the I Zingari and its host of rivals +serve to focus the ubiquitous talent of All England. The public enjoy +it, merely as spectators, to such a degree that a grand match-day at +Lord's is only second in point of enthusiasm to the Derby Day. Special +trains carry thousands, and the field presents a gay picture framed in a +quadrangle of equipages. It is sometimes difficult, even by charging +large admission-fees, to keep the number of spectators within convenient +limits. Notwithstanding the motley assemblage which a match always +attracts, so unobjectionable are the associations of the cricket-field +that clergymen do not feel it unbecoming to participate in the +diversion, either as players, umpires or spectators. + +In this country, while cricket is known in a few localities, it has +never been generally adopted. In New York a few English residents have +for years formed the nucleus of a somewhat numerous fraternity, and the +announcement that an _American Cricketer's Manual_ will be published in +that city during the present season indicates that home interest in the +sport is on the increase. But the chief thriving-place of native +American cricket is conceded to be Philadelphia, and it will be +interesting, perhaps, to take a retrospect of the progress of the game +in this city. + +Tradition carries us back as far as the year 1831 or 1832, when cricket +was first played on the ground of George Ticknor, Esq., west of the old +bridge below Fairmount, by a few Englishmen, who shortly afterward +organized themselves under the name of the Union Club. Some of our older +native cricketers remember taking their first lessons from the three +brothers, George, Prior and John Ticknor, who, with Joseph Nicholls, +William Richardson, John M. Fisher, John Herrod, George Parker, Samuel +Dingworth, Jonathan Ainsworth, John Kenworthy and George Daffin, met on +Saturday afternoons and holidays. In subsequent years a few enthusiastic +spirits practiced with home-made bats on the Camden common, and thence +we trace the feeble but growing interest in the game, until in 1854 the +Philadelphia Cricket Club was organized, with J. Dickinson Sergeant +(who still fills the office) as president, William Rotch Wister as +secretary, and Hartman Kuhn (third), James B. England, Morton P. Henry, +Thomas Hall, Thomas Facon, Dr. Samuel Lewis, William M. Bradshaw, Henry +M. Barlow, R. Darrell Stewart, S. Weir Mitchell and (last, but not +least) Tom Senior among its founders. Then came the Germantown Club, of +native American boys, organized in 1855, whose highest ambition, for +many years, was to play the Philadelphia Club, "barring Tom Senior," +then the only fast round-arm bowler in the country. Next came the +Olympian, the Delphian, the Keystone Cricket Clubs, and a host of lesser +lights, whose head-quarters were at West Philadelphia; and soon after +the now famous Young America Cricket Club was formed by the lamented +Walter S. Newhall, partly as a training-club for the Germantown. Well +did it fulfill its purpose until the breaking out of the war, when the +members of the Germantown Club changed the bat for the sabre almost in a +body, and the club went out of existence. + +With calmer times the old love of cricket came back, and through the +energy of Mr. Charles E. Cadwalader the Germantown Club was reorganized, +and the _esprit de corps_ was such that before the club had taken the +field the roll showed more than twice its former numbers. Through the +spirit of its patrons, and especially by the kindness of H. Pratt +McKean, Esq. (part of whose country-seat was tendered for a +cricket-ground), the new life of the Germantown Cricket Club was +successfully inaugurated on the 17th of October, 1866, by a victory in +its opening match with the St. George Club of New York. That was a +red-letter day, when Major-General Meade, on behalf of the ladies of +Germantown, and amid the huzzas of thousands of its friends, presented +to the club a handsome set of colors, and, hoisting them to the breeze, +alluded in his own graceful style to the memories of the past, and the +achievements which he predicted the future would witness on this +magnificent cricket-field. + +But what is cricket? Descriptions of lively things are apt to be dull, +and it is indeed no easy task to render a detailed description of +cricket intelligible, much less entertaining, to the uninitiated. The +veriest enthusiast never thought the forty-seven "laws of cricket" light +reading, and, resembling as they do certain other statutes whose only +apparent design is to perplex the inquiring layman, they would, if cited +here, be "caviare to the general." + +But come with us, in imagination, on a bright May-day to a great +match--say on the Germantown cricket-ground. You will find a glorious +stretch of velvet turf, seven acres of living carpet, level and green as +a huge billard-table, skirted on the one hand by a rolling landscape, +and hedged on the other by a row of primeval oaks. Flags flaunt from the +flag-staffs, and the play-ground is guarded by guidons. The pavilion is +appropriated to the players, and perchance the band: the grand stand is +already filling with spectators. Old men and children, young men and +maidens, are there--the latter "fair to see," and each predicting +victory for her favorite club. For it must be known that on the +Germantown ground party spirit always runs high among the belles, many +of whom are good theoretical cricketers, and a few of whom always come +prepared with blanks on which to keep the neatest of private scores. +During the delay which seems inseparable from the commencement of a +cricket-match some of the players, ready costumed in cricket apparel, +"take care," if they do not "beware," of the aforesaid maidens; others, +impatient for the call of "time," like jockeys cantering before the +race, disport themselves over the field, practicing bowling, batting, +and, in ball-players' parlance, "catching flies." The whole picture is +one of beauty and animation, and that spirit must indeed be dull which +does not yield to the exhilarating influences of such a scene. + +Cricket is usually played by eleven players on each side, the tactics of +each party being directed by a captain. Two umpires are appointed, whose +decrees, if sometimes inscrutable, are always irreversible, and whose +first duty it is to "pitch the wickets." Having selected the ground, +they proceed to measure accurately a distance of twenty-two yards, and +to erect a wicket at either extremity. Each "wicket" consists of three +wooden "stumps," twenty-eight inches long, sharpened at the bottom, +whereby they may be stuck perpendicularly in the ground, and grooved at +the top, in order to receive two short sticks or "bails," which rest +lightly across their tops. When pitched, the wickets face each other, +and each presents a parallelogram twenty-seven inches high by eight +inches broad, erect and firm-looking, while in fact the lightest touch +of the ball or any other object would knock off the bails and reduce it +to its elements. Each of these wickets is to be the _locus in quo_ not +only of a party rivalry, but also of an exciting individual contest +between the bowler and the batsman, the former attacking the fortress +with scientific pertinacity, and the "life" of the latter depending on +its successful defence. The "popping-crease" and the "bowling-crease" +having been white-washed on the turf--the one marking the batsman's +safety-ground, and the other the bowler's limits--all is now ready for +play. The captains toss a copper for choice of innings, and the winner +may elect to send his men to the bat. He selects _two_ representatives +of his side, who, having accoutred themselves with hand-protecting +gloves and with leg-guards, take position, bat in hand, in front of each +wicket. All the eleven players on the _out_ side are now marshaled by +their captain in their proper positions as fielders, one being deputed +to open the bowling. For a few moments the new match ball--than which, +in a cricketer's estimation, + + A carbuncle entire, as big as thou art, + Were not a richer jewel-- + +is passed round among the fielders, just to get their hands in; which +ball, we may mention, is nine inches in circumference, weighs five and a +half ounces, is in color not unlike a carbuncle, and nearly as hard. The +umpires take their respective position, and at the word "Play!" the +whole party, like a pack of pointers, strike attitudes of attention, +more or less graceful, and the game begins. + +The _bowler_, stepping briskly up to his crease, delivers the ball, and, +whether it be a "fast round-arm" or a "slow under-hand," his endeavor is +so to bowl it that the ball shall elude the batsman's defence and strike +the wicket. The _batsman_ endeavors, first and foremost, to protect his +wicket, and, secondly, if possible, to hit the ball away, so that he may +make a run or runs. This is accomplished when he and his partner at the +other wicket succeed in changing places before the ball is returned to +the wicket by the fielders. + +The several ways in which a batsman may be put out are these: 1. "Bowled +out," if the bowler succeeds in bowling a ball which evades the +batsman's defence and strikes the wicket. 2. "Hit wicket," if the +batsman, in playing at the ball, hits his wicket accidentally with his +bat or person. 3. "Stumped out," if the batsman, in playing at a ball, +steps out of his ground, but misses the ball, which is caught by the +wicket-keeper, who with it puts down the wicket before the batsman +returns his bat or his body within the popping-crease. 4. "Caught out," +if any fielder catches the ball direct from the striker's bat or hand +before it touches the ground. 5. "Run out," if the batsman, in +attempting to make a run, fails to reach his safety-ground before the +wicket to which he is running is put down with the ball. 6. "Leg before +wicket," if the batsman stops with his leg or other part of his body a +bowled ball, whose course in the opinion of the umpire was in a line +with the wickets, and which if not so stopped would have taken the +wicket. + +At every ball bowled, therefore, the batsman must guard against all +these dangers: he must, without leaving his ground, and avoiding "leg +before wicket," play the ball so that it will not strike the wicket and +cannot be caught. Having hit it away, he can make a run or runs only if +he and his partner can reach their opposite wickets before the ball is +returned by the fielders and a wicket put down. All the fielders are in +active league against the batsman, whose single-handed resistance will +be of little avail unless he exceeds mere defence and adds his quota of +runs to the score of his side. To excel in this requires, in addition to +a scientific knowledge of the game, cool presence of mind, a quick eye, +a supple wrist, a strong arm, a swift foot and a healthy pair of lungs. +Thus the nobler attributes of the man, mental and physical, are brought +into play. As the Master in _Tom Brown's School-days_ remarks: "The +discipline and reliance on one another which cricket teaches are so +valuable it ought to be an unselfish game. It merges the individual in +the eleven: he does not play that he may win, but that his side may." + +Four balls, sometimes six, are said to constitute an "over," and at the +completion of each over the bowler is relieved by an alternate, who +bowls from the opposite wicket, the fielders meantime crossing over or +changing places, so as to preserve their relative positions toward the +active batsman for the time being. Any over during which no runs are +earned from the bat is said to be a "maiden" over, and is scored to the +credit of the bowler as an evidence of good bowling. In addition to the +runs earned on hits there are certain "extras," which, though scored as +runs in favor of the _in_ side, are not strictly runs, but are imposed +rather as penalties for bad play by the outs than as the result of good +play by the ins. Thus, should the bowler bowl a ball which, in the +opinion of the umpire, is outside the batsman's reach, it is called a +"wide," and counts one (without running) to the batsman's side; should +the bowler in delivering a ball step beyond the bowling-crease, or if he +jerks it or throws it, it is a "no ball," and counts one (without +running) to the batsman's side; but if the batsman hits a no ball he +cannot be put out otherwise than by being "run out." If he makes one or +more runs on such a hit, the no ball is condoned, and the runs so made +are credited as hits to him and his side. The umpire must take especial +care to call "no ball" instantly upon delivery--"wide ball" as soon as +it shall have passed the batsman, and not, as a confused umpire once +called, "No ball--wide--out." Again, should a ball which the batsman has +not touched pass the fielders behind the wicket, the batsmen may make a +run or runs, which count to their side as "byes:" should the ball, +however, missing his bat, glance from the batsman's leg or other part of +his body, and then pass the fielders, the batsmen may make a run or +runs, which count to their side as "leg-byes." + +The game thus proceeds until each batsman of the _in_ side is in turn +put out, except the eleventh or last, who, having no partner to assume +the other wicket, "carries out his bat," and the innings for the side is +closed. The other side now has its innings, and, _mutatis mutandis_, the +game proceeds as before. Usually two innings on each side are played, +unless one side makes more runs in one innings than the other makes in +both, or unless it is agreed in advance to play a "one-innings match." + +So much for the matter-of-fact details of the game of cricket. To enter +into the more interesting but less tangible combination of science, +chance and skill to which cricket owes not a little of its fascination, +would extend this article far beyond its assigned limits. The science of +"length-balls" and "twisting lobs," the skill in "forward play" or "back +play," the chances of "shooters" and "bailers," are balanced in a happy +proportion, and to a cricketer form a tempting theme. But we must +content ourselves by referring those disposed to pursue the subject to +such books as _The Cricket Field_, _The Theory and Practice of Cricket_, +_Felix on the Bat_, _Cricket Songs and Poems_, and to other similar English +publications on the game, which are so numerous that if collected they +would make quite a cricket library. + +Nor can we here refer to the incidental pleasures which a cricket-match +affords independently of participation in the game itself. These are +depicted, from a lady's point of view, by Miss Mitford in _Our +Village_; where a pretty bit of romance is interwoven with a description +of a country cricket-match, the very recollection of which draws from +the graceful authoress this admission: "Though tolerably eager and +enthusiastic at all times, I never remember being in a more delicious +state of excitation than on the occasion of that cricket-match. Who +would think that a little bit of leather and two pieces of wood had such +a delightful and delighting power?" + +And this sentiment is echoed by scores of the fair spectators at our +home matches. When, for example, during the last international match at +Germantown, one of the English Gentlemen Eleven said to a lady, "We were +told we should have a fine game at Philadelphia, but, really, I had no +idea we should be honored by the presence of so many ladies," her reply +expressed the sentiments of a numerous class: "Oh, I used to come to a +match occasionally _pour passer le temps_. At first the cricket seemed +to me more like a solemn ceremonial than real fun, but now that I +understand the points I like the game for its own sake; and as for a +match like this, I think it is perfectly lovely!" Another of the English +Eleven--a handsome but modest youth--on being escorted to the grand +stand and introduced to a party of ladies, became so abashed by +unexpectedly finding himself in the midst of such a galaxy of beauties +(and, as a matter of course, the conscious cynosure of all eyes) that, +blushing to suffusion, and forgetting to lift his hat, he could only +manage to stammer out, "Aw, aw--I beg pardon; but--aw--aw--I fancy +there's another wicket down, and I must put on my guards, you know;" +whereupon he beat a hasty retreat.[C] + +A game which has for centuries in England afforded healthful recreation +to all classes must needs possess some value beyond that of mere +physical exercise. Not that we would undervalue the latter advantage. +Improvement in health usually keeps pace with improvement in cricket. +Mr. Grace, the "champion cricketer of the world," is hardly less a +champion of muscular physique: he sought in vain for a companion to walk +to town, late at night, from the country-seat of the late Mr. Joshua +Francis Fisher, where the cricketers, after a long day's play, had been +entertained at dinner--a distance of more than ten miles. We heartily +concur in the favorite advice of a physician, renowned alike for his +social wit and professional wisdom, who prescribed "a rush of blood to +the boots" to all professional patients and head-workers--men who, +happening to possess brains, are prone to forget that they have bodies. +In no way can this inverse apoplexy be more healthfully or pleasantly +induced than by a jolly game of cricket. That the sport is adapted to +American tastes and needs we are convinced, and that it may find a +_habitat_ throughout the length and breadth of our land is an end toward +which we launch this humble plea in its interest. + +Now we hardly expect all the readers of _Lippincott's Magazine_ +forthwith to become cricketers, but we venture to suggest, by way of +moral, that some of them may take a hint from Mr. Winkle, who, when +asked by Mr. Wardle, "Are you a cricketer?" modestly replied, "No, I +don't play, _but I subscribe to the club here_." + +ALBERT A. OUTERBRIDGE. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[C] The following extract from the diary of Mr. Fitzgerald, captain of +the English Gentlemen Eleven of 1872, has been published in England, and +will be read with interest: + +"_Sept 21, 1872._ Philadelphia, seventh match. Lost the toss. Ground +fair to the eye, and immense attendance. The bowling and fielding on +both sides quite a treat to the spectators. Total for the English Twelve +(first innings), 105. Not considered enough, but a good score against +such bowling and fielding--quite first-class. + +"_Sept. 24._ Second innings. With but 33 to get, the Twelve looked sure +of victory, but a harder fight was never yet seen. Bowling and fielding +splendid; excitement increasing. Fall of Hadow--ringing cheers. Advent +of Appleby--fracture of Francis. Seven down for 29. Frantic state of +Young America. The English captain still cheerful, but puffing rather +quickly at his pipe. Six 'maidens' at each end. The spell broken by +splendid hit of 'the tormentor.' + +"This was the best and most closely-contested match of the campaign, and +the scene presented at the finish would lose nothing in excitement and +interest by comparison with 'Lord's' on a grand match-day." + +A book of _Transatlantic Cricket Notes_ has been announced in England as +in preparation by Mr. Fitzgerald. + + + + +OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP. + + +IRISH AGENTS. + +The Irish papers mentioned a few months ago the death of Mr. Stuart +Trench, whose _Realities of Irish Life_ excited so much attention three +years ago. Mr. Trench was the most eminent of a class of men peculiar to +Ireland, and growing out of the unfortunate condition of that country. +He was an agent, which means overlooker and manager of the estates of +absentee landlords. + +In England, except on very extensive properties, landlords do not employ +an agent of this sort, and even where they do his duties are of a very +different character. There the landlords, being nearly always in the +country, if not on their estates, look after their business themselves, +and have merely an overlooker, who does not occupy the position of a +gentleman, to superintend and report to them what may be needful, whilst +the rents are collected by a solicitor. This is the case in Scotland +also. + +But in Ireland this would never do. Even where the landlord is resident +he almost always has an agent, to save himself the great trouble which +would otherwise be entailed on him, while to the non-resident an agent +is imperatively necessary. + +Most Irish property is still subdivided into very small farms, and this +is in itself a source of constant trouble. The tenants get into arrear +or become hopelessly insolvent: they very often refuse to quit their +holdings nevertheless, and have to be coaxed, bought or turned out, as +the case may be; which several processes have to be accomplished by the +agent. Then he is compelled to see in many cases that they don't exhaust +the land by a repetition of the same crops, and in fact to superintend, +either by himself or his sub-agents, in a hundred ways which would never +be necessary in England, where the farms are large and their holders of +a different class. + +He also represents the landlord socially, and is frequently the great +man of the district, duly invested with magisterial and other county +offices. The office of agent has therefore in Ireland had a high social +standing, and agencies are eagerly sought by the younger sons of +gentlemen, and even noblemen. + +There are three or four estates whose agencies are regarded as special +prizes, and of these Mr. Trench held one, the marquis of Lansdowne's. +That nobleman--who is descended from the ancient Fitzmaurices, earls of +Kerry, and the celebrated _savant_ Mr. William Petty, who first surveyed +Ireland, and took the opportunity of helping himself pretty freely to +some very nice "tit-bits" as "refreshers" by the way--has a very +extensive property in Queens county and the wild maritime county of +Kerry, in which his ancestors were in bygone days a sort of kings. + +Probably Lord Lansdowne's agency was worth to Mr. Trench quite $5000 a +year, equal in Kerry, where living is still very cheap, to $15,000 in +New York City; and he had two or three other agencies in addition. + +On the smaller properties the agent is usually paid five per cent., on +the large by fixed salary. The best agency of all is that of Lord +Pembroke, who owns the most valuable portion of Dublin and a great deal +of adjoining land. + +When the duties and risks of an agent are considered, he can by no means +be regarded as highly paid. Very many agents have lost their lives, and +others are exposed to continual danger. They are sometimes harsh, +tyrannical and overbearing, but far less so now, when railroad, press +and telegraph let light in upon all parts of the country, than formerly, +when they were left to themselves, and as long as the rents were duly +paid no heed was taken of their operations. + +To do an agent's work well great firmness and knowledge of the Irish +character is required, and in some districts in the West a knowledge of +the Irish language is very desirable and absolutely requisite. + +When an agency becomes vacant a proprietor receives innumerable +applications for the vacant office, often from persons ludicrously +ignorant of its duties. Thus, some time ago a seeker of such an office +accompanied his application--he was a retired army officer--by a sketch +of a sort of watch-tower whence he proposed to watch the tenantry, and +fire upon them as occasion required! With few exceptions the agents on +large estates are gentlemen bred to the business, whose fathers have +been agents, and have thus early become initiated into the mysteries of +the office. + +Many Irish landlords are, and still more used to be, very much in the +hands of their agents, of whom they have borrowed money, and further +depend on for support in elections. Instances are by no means wanting of +men now holding high rank as country gentlemen whose fathers and +grandfathers grew rich out of estates confided to them to manage by +negligent, reckless landlords, who gradually fell completely into the +meshes of their managers. + + +RANDOM BIOGRAPHIES. + +JULIUS CAESAR. An ancient Roman of celebrity. He advertised to the effect +that he had rather be first at Rome than second in a small village. He +was a man of great muscular strength. Upon one occasion he threw an +entire army across the Rubicon. A general named Pompey met him in what +was called the "tented field," but Pompey couldn't hold a Roman candle +to Julius. We are assured upon the authority of Patrick Henry that +"Caesar had his Brutus." The unbiased reader of history, however, will +conclude that, on the contrary, Brutus rather _had_ Caesar. This Brutus +never struck me as an unpleasant man to meet, but he did Caesar. After +addressing a few oral remarks to Brutus in the Latin language, Caesar +expired. His subsequent career ceases to be interesting. + +JOHN PAUL JONES. An American naval commander who sailed the seas during +the Revolution, with indistinct notions about gold lace or what he +should fly at the main. He was fond of fighting. He would frequently +break off in the middle of a dinner to go on deck and whip a British +frigate. Perhaps he didn't care much about his meals. If so, he must +have been a good _boarder_. + +LUCREZIA BORGIA. Daughter of old Mr. Borgia, a wealthy Italian +gentleman. Lucrezia was one of the first ladies of her time. Beautiful +beyond description, of brilliant and fascinating manners, she created an +unmistakable sensation. It was a burning sensation. Society doted upon +her. Afterward it anti-doted. + +BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. A philosopher and statesman. When a boy he associated +himself with the development of the tallow-chandlery interest, and +invented the Boston dip. He was lightning on some things, also a +printer. He won distinction as the original _Poor Richard_, though he +could not have been by any means so poor a Richard as McKean Buchanan +used to be. Although born in Boston and living in Philadelphia, he yet +managed to surmount both obstacles, and to achieve considerable note in +his day. They show you the note in Independence Hall. + +MARK TWAIN. A humorous writer of the nineteenth century. As yet, I have +not had the honor of his acquaintance, but when I do meet him I shall +say something jocose. I know I shall. I have it. My plan will be to +inveigle him into going over a ferry to "see a man." As we pass up the +slip on the other side, I shall draw out my flask, impromptu-like, with +the invitation, "Mark, my dear fellow, won't you take something?" He +will decline, of course, or else he isn't the humorist I take him for. I +shall then consider it my duty to urge him. Fixing my eye steadily upon +him, so he can understand that I am terribly in earnest, I shall proceed +to apostrophize that genial victim as follows: + + "Take, I give it willingly, + For invisibly to thee, + Spirits, Twain, have crossed with me." + +Then I presume we shall go and "see a man." + +CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. The man who discovered America two points off the +port-bow. One day, in his garden, he observed an apple falling from its +tree, whereupon a conviction flashed suddenly through his mind that the +earth was round. By breaking the bottom of an egg and making it stand on +end at the dinner-table, he demonstrated that he could sail due west and +in course of time arrive at another hemisphere. He started a line of +emigrant packets from Palos, Spain, and landed at Philadelphia, where he +walked up Market street with a loaf of bread under each arm. The +simple-hearted natives took him out to see their new Park. On his second +voyage Columbus was barbarously murdered at the Sandwich Islands, or +rather he would have been but for the intervention of Pocahontas, a +lovely maiden romantically fond of distressed travelers. After this +little incident he went West, where his intrepidity and masterly +financial talent displayed itself in the success with which he acquired +land and tobacco without paying for them. As the savages had no railroad +of which they could make him president, they ostracized him--sent him to +the island of St. Helena. But the spirit of discovery refused to be +quenched, and the next year we find him landing at Plymouth Rock in a +blinding snow-storm. It was here that he shot an apple from his son's +head. To this universal genius are we indebted also for the exploration +of the sources of the Nile, and for an unintelligible but +correspondingly valuable scientific report of a visit to the valley of +the Yellowstone. He took no side in our late unhappy war; but during the +Revolution he penetrated with a handful of the _garde mobile_ into the +mountain-fastnesses of Minnesota, where he won that splendid series of +victories which, beginning with Guilford Court-house, terminated in the +glorious storming of Chapultepec. Ferdinand and Isabella rewarded him +with chains. Genoa, his native city, gave him a statue, and Boston has +named in his honor one of her proudest avenues. One day he rushed naked +from the bath, exclaiming, "Eureka!" and the presumption is that he was +right. He afterward explained himself by saying that he cared not who +made the laws of a people, so long as he furnished their ballots. +Columbus was cruelly put to death by order of Richard III. of England, +and as he walked to the scaffold he exclaimed to the throng that stood +around him, "The world moves." The drums struck up to drown his words. +Smiling at this little by-play, he adjusted his crimson mantle about him +and laid his head upon the block. He then drank off the cup of hemlock +with philosophic composure. This great man's life (which, by the way, +was not insured) teaches the beautiful moral lesson that an excess of +virtue is apt to be followed by a redundancy of happiness, and that he +who would secure the felicity of to-day must disdain alike the +evanescent shadows of yesterday and the intangible adumbrations of the +morrow. + +S. Y. + + +THE CRIES OF THE MARCHANDS. + +The other morning I was lying quietly in bed, waiting for the bonne to +fetch my cafe noir, when a most extraordinary sound caught my ear. The +cries of Paris marchands early in the morning are curious enough +usually, but this one exceeded in quaintness all that I had heard since +my arrival. Between the words "Chante, chante, Adrienne!" a horrible +braying broke forth, resounding through our quiet faubourg in a manner +which brought many a _bonnet de nuit_ to the windows. I got up to see +what was the matter. + +"Chante, chante, Adrienne!" re-echoed again over the smooth asphalte. + +By this time a crowd of gamins--the gamins are always up, no matter how +early--had gathered in the middle of the street around the object of the +disturbance. It was a marchand of vegetables in a greasy blouse, leading +an ass. There was a huge pannier on the ass's back full of kitchen +vegetables, which the marchand was crying and praising to our sleepy +faubourg. With an economy worthy of Silhouette, the scamp had taught +Adrienne--for that was the beast's name--to bray every time he said +"Pommes de terre, de terre--terre!" As often as he said this, or +"Chante, Adrienne, chante!" Adrienne would switch her tail and _chante_ +lugubriously, setting the whole neighborhood in commotion. So adroitly +had he trained the creature--with her thigh-bones sticking in peaks +through her hide, and a visage of preternatural solemnity--that when her +master but lifted his finger Adrienne would go through her part with +admirable gravity, thus helping her lord to get his daily bread. I +laughed till the bonne came with my coffee, and was glad to see the +pannier gradually emptying as the grotesque procession defiled through +our street, with a rear-guard of exhilarated urchins poking at poor meek +Adrienne in a manner the most _mechant_. And so on they went till the +peasant and his invaluable assistant were quite out of hearing. + +There is no end to the originality of the Parisians. If you but go to a +kiosque to get a _Figaro_, the white-capped marchande has something +clever to say. The rain, the air, the clouds, the sun are full of +_esprit_ for her--are to her banques de France, upon which she has an +unlimited credit--_credit fonder_, if you will, _credit mobilier_, or +what not. The _conducteur_ who stands behind his omnibus and obligingly +helps you in, says _Merci_! with an accent so exquisite that it is like +wit or poetry or music, utterly throwing you into despair after your +months and months of travail and dozens and dozens of louis lavished on +incompetent professors. + +"Pronounce that for me, please," said I one day to a gentleman who had +just spoken some word whose secret of pronunciation I had been trying to +filch for weeks--some delicate little jewel of a word, faint as a +perfume, expressive as only a tiny Parisian word can be--and he did so +in the politest manner in the world, adding some little witticism which +I do not recall. Whereupon I went home and instantly dismissed my +"professor." + +But to return to our theme, the cries of the marchands. It would take a +pen like Balzac's, as curiously versatile, as observant, as full of +individual ink, to catch all the shades of these odd utterances. You may +recollect as you lay in your sweet English bed in London, just as the +fog was lifting over the great city early in the morning, the distinct +individuality of the voices which, although you did not see their +owners, told each its story of sunrise thrift and industry as it cried +to you the early peas or the wood or the melons of the season. You may +remember, too, how perplexing, how fantastic, many of those cries were, +making it impossible for you to understand what they meant, or why a +wood-huckster, for example, should give vent to such lachrymose +sentimentality in vending his fagots. But quite different is the Paris +marchand. With a physiognomy of voice--if the expression be +pardoned--quite as marked as the cockney's, what he says is yet +perfectly clear, often shrewd, gay, cynical, sometimes even spiced with +jocularity, as if it were pure fun to get a living, and the world were +all a holiday. + +Some years ago a marchand was in the habit of visiting our neighborhood +whose specialty it was to vend _baguettes_, or small rods for beating +carpets, tapestry and padded furniture. His cry was--"Voila des +baguettes! Battez vos meubles, battez vos tapis, battez vos _femmes_ +pour UN sou!" + +It is said that as this gay chiffonnier went one morning by the +fish-markets uttering this jocose cry, a squad of those formidable +_poissardes_, the fishwomen of Paris, got after him, and administered a +sound thrashing with his own baguettes. Such is the vengeance of the +French-woman! + +But there is a curious pathos in many of these cries--queer searching +tones which go to the heart and set one thinking; tones that come again +in times of revolution, and gather into the terrible roar of the +Commune. I sometimes wonder if they ever sell anything, those strange +sad voices of the early morning struggling up from the street. They are +the voices of Humanity on its mighty errand of bread and meat. Some +dozen or so traverse our quarter through the day--some of feeble old +women, full of sharp complaint; some of strong, quick-stepping men; some +of little children with faint modest voices, as if unused to the cruel +work of getting a living. It is these poor people who walk from +Montmartre to Passy in the morning, and in the evening fish for drowned +dogs or pick up corks along the canal of the Porte St. Martin. For a dog +it is said they get a franc or two, and corks go at a few sous a +hundred. + +Such is an inkling of the life-histories wafted through our summer +windows by the voices of the street. Well, the sun is brilliant, the +Champs are crowded with the world, the jewelers of the Palais Royal are +driving a thriving trade, the great boulevards are margined by long +lines of absinthe drinkers. Who cares? Only it is a little disagreeable +in the early morning to have one's sleep broken by the pathos of life. +Let us sleep well on our wine, and dine to-morrow at the Grand Hotel. We +shall forget the misery of these patient voices which visit us with +their prayer for subsistence every day. + +G. F. + + +THE ANGEL HUSSAR. + +I think some of the best talks I have had in my life have been with +chance companions on whom I have happened in the course of a roving +life--sometimes in a restaurant, sometimes in the railroad-car or +steamboat, and not unfrequently in the smoking-room of a hotel. + +If you have ever been in Dublin, you know Dawson street, and in Dawson +street the Hibernian Hotel. I am not prepared to endorse all the +arrangements of that hostelry, nor indeed of any other in that part of +the United Kingdom called Ireland: I have suffered too much in them. +Still, I will say that the Hibernian is to be praised for a really +comfortable and handsome smoking-room, containing easy-chairs deservedly +so called, and a capital collection of standard novels. One raw +evening in the spring of 1871 I sauntered in, and found some +gentlemanlike-looking fellows there, who proved pleasant company, and +presently a remarkably _distingue_-looking young man, with an +unmistakably military cut, came in and sat down near me. We fell to +talking. He was quartered at the Curragh, and was up in Dublin _en +route_ for the Newmarket spring meeting. He told me that he made some +L700 a year by the turf. "I've a cousin, you see, who is a great +sporting man, and thus I'm 'in with a stable,' and get put up to tips," +he said. "But for this the turf would be a very poor thing to dabble +in." And this led to a talk about officers' lives and their +money-affairs. "Oh," he said, "you've no notion of the number who go to +utter grief. Why now, I'll tell you what happened to me last season in +London. I was asked to go down and dine with some fellows at Richmond; +and being awfully late, I rushed out of the club and hailed the first +hansom I could see with a likely horse in Pall Mall. I scarcely looked +at the man, but said, 'Now I want to get down to the Star and Garter by +eight: go a good pace and I'll pay you for it.' Well, he had a stunning +good horse, and we rattled away at a fine rate; and when I got out I was +putting the money into his hand, when he said, 'Don't you know me, +B----?' I looked up in amazement, and in another moment recognized a man +whom I had known in India as the greatest swell in the ---- Hussars, the +smartest cavalry corps in the service, and who, on account of his +splendid face and figure, went by the sobriquet of 'the Angel Hussar.' + +"Well, it gave me quite a shock. 'Good Heavens, H----!' I said, 'what in +the world does this mean?' 'Mean, old fellow? It means that I'd not a +farthing in the world, and didn't want to starve. It's all my own cursed +folly. I've made my bed, and must lie on it.' I pressed a couple of +sovereigns into his hand, and made him promise to call on me next day. +He came and gave me the details of his descent, the old story of +course--wine and its alliterative concomitant, conjoined with utter +recklessness." "Well, and could you help him?" "I'm glad to say I could. +I got him the place of stud-groom to a nobleman in the south of +Ireland: he's turned over a new leaf, is perfectly steady, and doing as +well as possible." + + * * * * * + +NOTES. + +There is an old story that Augustus, being once asked by a veteran +soldier for his aid in a lawsuit, told the petitioner to go to a certain +advocate. "Ah," replied the soldier, "it was not by proxy that I served +you at Actium!" So struck, continues the tradition, was Augustus with +this response, that he personally took charge of the soldier's cause, +and gained it for him. Possibly it may be on the theory that his +subjects "do not serve him by proxy" when he needs their services that +the Austrian kaiser even to this day holds personal audiences with his +people regarding their private desires or grievances. Evidently +traditional, this custom is so singular as to merit a more general +notice than it habitually receives: indeed, its existence might be +doubted by the foreign reader, did not a Hungarian journal, _Der Osten_, +furnish a detailed description of it. The only prerequisite to an +audience would seem to be the lodging of the subject's name and rank +with one of the emperor's secretaries, who thereupon appoints the day +and hour for his appearance at the palace. If the emperor has been long +absent from Vienna, his next audience-day is always a trying one, as the +waiting-room is then crowded with hundreds of both sexes, and all ranks +and ages. They are in ordinary dress, too, so that the imperial +ante-chamber presents a motley and picturesque scene--the gold-broidered +coat of the minister of state and the brilliant uniform of the army +mingling with the citizen's plain frock, with the Tyrolean or Styrian +hunter's jacket, with the _bunda_ of the Hungarian, with the long, fur +lined linen overcoat of the Polish peasant; while the rustling silks of +the elegant city lady are side by side with the plain woolen skirt of +the farmer's wife. Each of these in regular turn, as written on the list +from which he calls them, a staff-officer ushers into the emperor's +study. There the petitioner states his case. The emperor listens +without interruption, then receives the written statements and +documents, sometimes asks a question, but generally dismisses the +visitor with a simple formula of assurance that a decision will be duly +rendered. There is evidently much form in the matter, as if it were but +the empty perpetuation of some ancient ceremony designed to show that +the monarch is the father of all his people, and hence is personally +interested in their individual troubles. But yet it appears that the +emperor _does_ listen to the harangues, for he is occasionally known to +affix his initials to some documents; which act is always interpreted as +a good sign, it being equivalent to a special recommendation to the +secretaries, indicating that _prima facie_ the cause has seemed to the +sovereign to be just. However, the precaution of a written statement is +always taken, because it would be impossible for him to remember all the +oral explanations. Only a few weeks after each of these audiences the +suitors are individually notified of the result. The emperor's sense of +etiquette does not allow him to give any sign of impatience during the +interview, though some of the visitors are as long-winded and +importunate as Mark Twain pretends to have been at one of President +Grant's receptions. The emperor answers the German, Hungarian, Tzech, +Croat or Italian each in the suitor's own tongue. It is quite possible +that in the preliminary registry of the names and condition of suitors +care is taken that the emperor shall not be subjected to too great +annoyance from any abuse of this curious and interesting privilege. + +Among the canonizations of the past few months a notable place must be +assigned to that of the beatified Benoit Labre. That he was faithful in +doctrine needs hardly be said, but it was his manner of life which +procured him this posthumous honor, in order that those who read of his +career may rank him among those saints who, as in Tickell's line, have +both "taught and led the way to heaven," and may seek to imitate his +example. The decree of canonization, in reciting his characteristic +virtues, says that though of very honorable birth, yet, scorning earthly +things as dross, he clothed himself in rags, and ate and drank only what +chanty gave him. His shelter was the Coliseum or the doorways or desert +places of Rome. He washed not, neither did he yield to the effeminacy of +the comb; his hair and nails grew to what length Nature wished: in short +(for some of the additional details are better fancied than described), +he so utterly neglected his person that he became an object of avoidance +to many or all. But his neglected body was after death placed under a +glass shrine in the church of the Madonna del Monti. The decree calls +upon others to follow the example of the blessed Benoit, or at least as +far as the measure of spiritual strength in each will allow; but we +apprehend that many will modestly confess that the peculiar virtues of +the saint are inimitable. + + + + +LITERATURE OF THE DAY. + + +Little Hodge. By the author of "Ginx's Baby." New York: Dodd & Mead. + +The pamphlet has changed since the days of Swift and Dr. Johnson, and +the modern method, which seeks to influence opinion by means of a short, +pointed story, is certainly a gain in persuasiveness and pictorial +vigor. It is hard to say what the dean of Saint Patrick's would have +thought of _The Battle of Dorking_, or _Ginx's Baby_, or _Lord Bantam_, +or _Little Hodge_, by the author of the last two of these. The dean's +ferocity of expression no modern writer can allow himself; and the +engine of a tremendous intellect is by no means apparent, as it was in +his work, behind the efforts of our modern pamphleteers. But the nerves +of pity, when exquisitely touched, are as apt to influence action as the +feelings of hate or scorn, and Swift's proposal, from the depths of his +bleeding heart, to fat and eat the Irish children, was no more adapted +to produce reformed legislation than is the picture in _Little Hodge_ of +the ten deserted children starving under the thatch, the eldest girl +frozen and pallid, the father shot by a gamekeeper, after having failed +to support his motherless brood. Swift would have put in some matchless +touches, but the picture seems adapted to our day of average, mechanical +commonplace. It has a nerve of tenderness in it which will work upon the +gentler souls of our communities. The father of _Little Hodge_ is +represented as an honest field-laborer, working for Farmer Jolly at nine +shillings a week. The birth of his manikin baby and the accompanying +death of his wife increase his cares past bearing. He thereupon commits +three crimes in succession: he applies to Jolly for an increase of pay, +he joins the agrarian movement of a year ago, and he attempts to run +away and find work elsewhere. He is inexorably, minutely and witheringly +punished for these several acts, and at last gets his only chance of +comfort in a violent death, leaving his poor problems unsolved and his +children naked and starving. Such a picture, if drawn by a foreigner, +would arouse English indignation from shore to shore; but it is +home-drawn. The only foreign delineation is in the author's Jehoiachin +Settle, a stage Yankee, whose avocation is planting English children in +Canada after the manner of Miss Rye. Settle is a preposterous failure, +but every other limb of the writer's argument is strong and operative. + + +At His Gates. By Mrs. Oliphant. New York: Scribner, Armstrong & Co. + +The author of _Miss Marjoribanks_, who is said to keep writing first a +good novel and then a poor novel in careful alternation, will leave her +friends in some doubt as to which category she means her last story to +be placed in, for it is impossible to call it poor, and +conscience-rending to call it good. It is long, and depicts many +persons, of whom only one, Mr. Burton's cynical wife, is at all +original. Mr. Burton aforesaid, a pompous business-man, places "at his +gates," just outside his villa walls, the widow of a man whom he has +used as a catspaw. The catspaw was a guileless artist, whom Burton has +tempted to take a directorship in his bank when the latter was about to +break, he himself retiring in time. The poor painter, in despair, jumps +into the water, and his wife, who is proud and aristocratic, is +condemned to be the pensioner and neighbor of a vulgar villain, every +favor from whom is a conscious insult. Presently the tables are turned. +Whether the asphyxiated artist really comes undrowned again, and returns +rich from America, nothing could persuade us to tell, as we disapprove +of the premature revelation of plots. But the tiresome Burton, at any +rate, is bound to come to grief, and his headstrong young daughter to +run off with his partner in atrocity, a man as old as her father, and +his wife to adapt her cold philosophy to a tiny house in the best part +of London. There is one scene, worth all the rest of the book, where +this lady tries to bargain with her son, whom she is really fond of, for +a manifestation of his love: she is about to yield to his opinion that +she should give up her own private settlement to the creditors of her +ruined husband, and then, just as she is consenting to this sacrifice, +not disinterestedly but maternally, the boy blurts out his passion for a +_parvenu_ girl, the lost painter's daughter in fact--a rival whom he +introduces to her in the moment of her supreme tenderness. She simply +observes, "You have acted according to your nature, Ned--like the rest." +If there were ten such chapters in the book as the one containing this +scene, the novel would be something immortal, instead of what it +is--railway reading of exceptional merit. It forms the first of a +"Library of Choice Fiction" projected by Messrs. Scribner, Armstrong & +Co., of which it forms a very encouraging standard of interest. + + +Memoirs of Madame Desbordes-Valmore. By Sainte-Beuve. With a Selection +from her Poems. Translated by Harriet W. Preston. Boston: Roberts +Brothers. + +Sainte-Beuve, with whom the art of female biography seems to have died, +and who has given us so many softly touched and profoundly understood +portraits, is here engaged with one of his own personal friends and +contemporaries. This is no study of a heroine long dead, and draped in +the obsolete and winning costume of the Empire or the Revolution, but of +an anxious woman concerned with the hardship and grime of our own day, +"amid the dust and defilement of the city, on the highway, always in +quest of lodgings, climbing to the fifth story, wounded on every angle." +Only sympathy and a poetic touchstone could bring out the essence and +sweetness of a nature so unhappily disguised; but Sainte-Beuve, +discarding with a single gesture her penitential mask and hood, finds +Madame Desbordes-Valmore "polished, gracious, and even hospitable, +investing everything with a certain attractive and artistic air, hiding +her griefs under a natural grace, lighted even by gleams of merriment." +The poor details of her life he contrives to lose under a purposed +artlessness of narrative and a caressing superfluity of loyal eulogy. We +learn, however, that Mademoiselle Desbordes was born at Douai in 1786, +and died in Paris in 1859. Daughter of a heraldic painter, the +necessities of her family obliged her to make a voyage, as a child, to +Guadeloupe, in the hope of receiving aid from a rich relative, and a +little later to go upon the stage. In the provinces, and occasionally at +Paris, she played in the role of _ingenue_ with an exquisite address, +succeeding because such a part was really a natural expression of +herself: she thus won the abiding friendship of the great Mars, who +turned to the young comedienne a little-suspected and tender side of her +own character. Mademoiselle Desbordes' artistic charm was infinite, and +she controlled with innocent ease the fountain of tears, whitening the +whole parterre with pocket-handkerchiefs when she appeared as the +Eveline, Claudine and Eulalie of French sentimental drama. But she felt +keenly the social ostracism which was still strong toward the stage of +1800, and bewailed in her poetry the "honors divine by night allowed, by +day anathematized." In 1817 she married an actor, M. Valmore, who +subsequently disappeared into obscure official life, accepting with joy +a position as catalogue-maker in the National Library. Her relatives, +and even her eldest daughter, received small government favors, while +her own little pension, when it came, was so distasteful that for a +long time she could not bring herself to apply for the payments. She was +a confirmed patriot, shrank from the favors of the throne, was ill for +six weeks after Waterloo, and hailed with delight the revolution of '48, +which for some time stopped her pension and impoverished her. After +twenty years of the stage she retired into the greater privacy of +literature, and published various collections of verse which struck a +note of pure transparent sentiment rare in the epoch of Louis Philippe. +She had, in an uncommon degree, the gift of intelligent admiration: her +addresses to the great men of her time appear to be as far as possible +from a spirit of calculation or self-interest, but they secured her an +answering sympathy all the more valuable as it was never bargained for. +Michelet said, "My heart is full of her;" Balzac wrote a drama at her +solicitation; Lamartine, taking to himself a published compliment which +she had intended for another, replied with twenty beautiful stanzas; +Victor Hugo wrote to her, "You are poetry itself;" Mademoiselle Mars, +when past the age of public favor, took from her the plain counsel to +retire with kindness and actual thanks; Dumas wrote a preface for her; +Madame Recamier obtained her pension; the brilliant Sophie Gay, now +Madame Emile de Girardin, wrote of her poetry, "How could one depict +better the luxury of grief?" M. Raspail, the austere republican, called +her the tenth muse, the muse of virtue; and Sainte-Beuve himself, +thinking less of her literary life than of her family life and manifold +compassions, terms her the "Mater Dolorosa of poetry." His memoir, +however, is valuable for its own grace as much as for the modest +sweetness of its subject: without his friendly eloquence the name of +Madame Desbordes-Valmore would not have got beyond a kind of personal +circle of native admirers, nor the present translator have rendered for +foreign ears the whispering story of her pure deeds and the plaintive +numbers of her verse. + + +Memoir of a Brother. By Thomas Hughes, Author of "Tom Brown's +School-days." London: Macmillan & Co. + +Here is a book that was never meant to be dissected and analyzed by +critics and reviewers. It is not hard to imagine the "discomfort and +annoyance" which the writer has (he tells us) felt in consenting to +give to the public a memoir compiled for a private family circle. Still, +on the whole, it is altogether well, and there is good reason to call +attention to it, for there is much benefit in the book for many readers. +It is the loving record of a life that, from first to last, never +challenged the world's attention--that was connected with no great +movement or event, political, theological or social; but a life, all the +same, that was lived with a truth, an earnestness and a straightness +that won the affection and respect of all who came within its influence, +and will, or we are much mistaken, glow warmly in the hearts and +memories of just all whose eyes now light upon this story of it. + +How many boys--ay, and grown men and women too--got up from _Tom Brown's +School-days_ consciously the better from the reading of it! But there +was withal a vague feeling of incompleteness, an unsatisfied longing. +The story left off too soon. One wanted to know more of Tom after his +school-days. And then, it was, after all, a novel, a fiction. One would +have liked to come across that Tom, and perhaps felt half afraid that he +might not readily be found outside the cover of the volume. It is true +that that longing to know something of the hero's after-life which is +one accompaniment of the perusal of a thoroughly good work of fiction +was, in the case of Tom Brown, partially gratified. Everybody had the +chance of seeing _Tom Brown at Oxford_, and watching their old +favorite's course through undergraduate days to that haven and final +goal of fiction-writers, marriage. But there he is lost to view for good +and all, and one is left to the amiable hypothesis that he lived happy +all his days, without being either shown how he managed to do so, or +taught how we might manage to do likewise. + +Now this _Memoir of a Brother_ may be said just to supply the want that +we have here endeavored to indicate. It is the whole life--the child +life, the school-boy life, the college life and the adult, responsible +life in the world and as a family head--of a real flesh-and-blood, +actualized Tom Brown; and it stands out depicted with an intense +naturalness of coloring that charms one more than the laborious effects +of imaginative biography. + +George Hughes, the subject of the memoir before us, was the eldest son +of a Berkshire squire, and little more than a year older than his +brother and biographer. Very pleasant is the glimpse of child life in an +English county forty years ago that is given in the story of his first +years. From the first he showed the calm fearlessness, the practicality +and the helpfulness which seem to have been among his most prominent +characteristics. These qualities, and with them a rigorous +conscientiousness, a sensitive unselfishness, and--no trifling advantage +in these or any other days--a splendid _physique_, he took with him, and +preserved alike unaltered, through Rugby, Oxford and after years. Little +wonder that the possessor of such gifts became a Sixth-form boy and +football captain at his public school, and achieved boating and +cricketing successes, an honorable degree, and the repute of being the +most popular man of his day at the university. Most people who take an +interest in boat-racing, and many who do not, have heard of that famous +race upon the Thames at Henley, in which a crew of _seven_ Oxford +oarsmen snatched victory from a (not _the_) Cambridge "eight;" but not +everybody knows--for the feat was done now thirty years ago, and names +are lost while the memory of a fact survives--that George Hughes pulled +the stroke-oar of that plucky seven-oared boat. + +Oxford days over, and after a three-years' spell of private tutoring--a +not uncommon temporary resort of English graduates while they are making +up their minds as to what profession or business to take up for life--we +find George Hughes settled in London, reading law in Doctors' Commons. +By this time his biographer, who has been close by his side, and +following his lead in work and play, through all the years of school and +college life, is at work in London too, and the two brothers are again +together under one roof. The similarity, one may almost say +identicality, of the circumstances of their bringing up might, but that +such things, luckily, don't always go by rule, have led one to expect to +find in them, now full-grown and thoughtful men, something like a +coincidence of sympathies and opinions. Nothing of the sort. George is +by temperament and conviction a Tory of the kindly, old-fashioned +school: his younger brother has become an advanced Liberal, an +enthusiastic promoter of workingmen's associations, and a leading +spirit among the so-called Christian Socialists. Needless to add that, +though never for one moment sundered one from the other in heart or +affection by differences of opinion, the two could not work together in +this field. Downright, practical George has his objections, and states +them. Listen: "'You don't want to divide other people's property?' 'No.' +'Then why call yourselves Socialists?' 'But we couldn't help ourselves: +other people called us so first.' 'Yes, but you needn't have accepted +the name. Why acknowledge that the cap fitted?' 'Well, it would have +been cowardly to back out. We borrow the ideas of these Frenchmen, of +association as opposed to competition, as the true law of industry and +of organizing labor--of securing the laborer's position by organizing +production and consumption--and it would be cowardly to shirk the name. +It is only fools who know nothing about the matter, or people interested +in the competitive system of trade, who believe or say that a desire to +divide other people's property is of the essence of Socialism.' 'That +may be very true, but nine-tenths of mankind, or, at any rate, of +Englishmen, come under one or the other of these categories. If you are +called Socialists, you will never persuade the British public that this +is not your object. There was no need to take the name. You have weight +enough to carry already, without putting that on your shoulders.... The +long and short of it is, I hate upsetting things, which seems to be your +main object. You say that you like to see people discontented with +society as it is, and are ready to help to make them so, because it is +full of injustice and abuses of all kinds, and will never be better till +men are thoroughly discontented. I don't see these evils so strongly as +you do, don't believe in heroic remedies, and would sooner see people +contented, and making the best of society as they find it. In fact, I +was bred and born a Tory, and I can't help it.'" However, our biographer +tells us, "he (George) continued to pay his subscription, and to get his +clothes at our tailors' association till it failed, which was more than +some of our number did, for the cut was so bad as to put the sternest +principles to a severe test. But I could see that this was done out of +kindness to me, and not from sympathy with what we were doing." + +After a few years of law-work in the ecclesiastical courts, the call of +a domestic duty took George Hughes--not, one may well imagine, without a +severe struggle--from the active practice of his profession, and bade +him be content thenceforward with home life. Idle or inactive of course +a man of prime mental and bodily vigor could not be. The violoncello, +farming, volunteering, magistrate's work, getting up laborers' +reading-rooms and organizing Sunday evening classes for the big boys in +his village, gave outlets enough for his superfluous energies. And +meanwhile he was now become a pater-familias, and had boys of his own to +send to Rugby, and to encourage and advise in their school-life by +letters which--and it is paying them a high compliment to say so--are +almost as good as those which his father had, thirty years before, +addressed to him at the same place. It is impossible to overestimate the +advantage to a school-boy of having a father who can appreciate and +sympathize with boyish thoughts and aims, and knows how to use his +natural mentorship wisely. We shall be much surprised if readers do not +find the letters from George's father to him, and his to his own boys, +among the most attractive parts of this book. Like most men who care +heartily for anything, George Hughes always continued to feel a strong +interest in public affairs, though circumstances had "counted him out of +that crowd" who do the outside working of them. He had a considerable +gift of rhyming, and that incident of the ex-prince imperial's "baptism +of fire" with which the late Franco-Prussian war opened drew from him +some vigorously indignant lines. Here are a few of them: + + By! baby Bunting, + Daddy's gone a-hunting, + Bath of human blood to win, + To float his baby Bunting in, + By, baby Bunting, + + What means this hunting? + Listen, baby Bunting-- + Wounds--that you may sleep at ease, + Death--that you may reign in peace, + Sweet baby Bunting. + + Yes, baby Bunting! + Jolly fun is hunting. + Jacques in front shall bleed and toil, + You in safety gorge the spoil, + Sweet baby Bunting. + + Perpend, my small friend, + After all this hunting, + When the train at last moves on, + Daddy's gingerbread _salon_ + May get a shunting. + +It is not our place here to do more than record how that suddenly, in +the early summer of last year, the true strong man was struck down by +inflammation of the lungs and passed away. What the loss must be to all +whom his influence touched the pages before us sufficiently attest. It +is perhaps well, though, that no life can be faithfully lived in the +world without leaving such sore legacies of loss behind it. + + * * * * * + +_Books Received._ + +The Relation of the Government to the Telegraph; or, a Review of the Two +Propositions now Pending before Congress for Changing the Telegraphic +Service of the Country. By David A. Wells. With Appendices. New York. + +The Country Physician. An Address upon the Life and Character of the +late Dr. Frederick Dorsey. By John Thomson Mason. Second edition. +Baltimore: William K. Boyle. + +Addresses delivered on Laying the Cornerstone of an edifice for the +Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, October 30, 1872. +Philadelphia: Collins. + +Mysteries of the Voice and Ear. By Prof. O. N. Rood, Columbia College, +New York. With Illustrations. New Haven: C. C. Chatfield & Co. + +The Poems of Henry Timrod. Edited, with a Sketch of the Poet's Life, by +Paul H. Hayne. New York: E. J. Hale & Son. + +Modern Leaders: Being a Series of Biographical Sketches. By Justin +McCarthy. New York: Sheldon & Co. + +The Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier. Household +edition. Boston: J. R. Osgood & Co. + +The Earth a Great Magnet. By Alfred Marshal Mayer, Ph. D. New Haven: +C. C. Chatfield & Co. + +The Two Ysondes, and Other Verses. By Edward Ellis. London: Basil +Montagu Pickering. + +Jesus, the Lamb of God. By Rev. E. Payson Hammond. Boston: Henry Hoyt. + +Social Charades and Parlor Operas. By M. T. Calder. Boston: Lee & +Shepard. + +The Yale Naught-ical Almanac for 1873. New Haven: C. C. Chatfield & Co. + +Julia Reid: Listening and Led By Pansy. Boston: Henry Hoyt. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine, Volume 11, No. +26, May, 1873, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE *** + +***** This file should be named 23095.txt or 23095.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/0/9/23095/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +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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