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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Miss Mehetabel's Son, by Thomas Bailey Aldrich
+
+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: Miss Mehetabel's Son
+
+Author: Thomas Bailey Aldrich
+
+Release Date: November 6, 2007 [EBook #23357]
+Last Updated: March 3, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISS MEHETABEL'S SON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MISS MEHETABEL'S SON.
+
+By Thomas Bailey Aldrich
+
+Boston And New York Houghton Mifflin Company
+
+Copyright, 1873, 1885, and 1901
+
+
+
+
+I. THE OLD TAVERN AT BAYLEY'S FOUR CORNERS.
+
+You will not find Greenton, or Bayley's Four-Corners, as it is more
+usually designated, on any map of New England that I know of. It is
+not a town; it is not even a village; it is merely an absurd hotel. The
+almost indescribable place called Greenton is at the intersection of
+four roads, in the heart of New Hampshire, twenty miles from the nearest
+settlement of note, and ten miles from any railway station. A good
+location for a hotel, you will say. Precisely; but there has always
+been a hotel there, and for the last dozen years it has been pretty well
+patronized--by one boarder. Not to trifle with an intelligent public, I
+will state at once that, in the early part of this century, Greenton was
+a point at which the mail-coach on the Great Northern Route stopped to
+change horses and allow the passengers to dine. People in the county,
+wishing to take the early mail Portsmouth-ward, put up overnight at the
+old tavern, famous for its irreproachable larder and soft feather-beds.
+The tavern at that time was kept by Jonathan Bayley, who rivalled his
+wallet in growing corpulent, and in due time passed away. At his death
+the establishment, which included a farm, fell into the hands of a
+son-in-law. Now, though Bayley left his son-in-law a hotel--which sounds
+handsome--he left him no guests; for at about the period of the old
+man's death the old stage-coach died also. Apoplexy carried off one, and
+steam the other. Thus, by a sudden swerve in the tide of progress,
+the tavern at the Corners found itself high and dry, like a wreck on a
+sand-bank. Shortly after this event, or maybe contemporaneously, there
+was some attempt to build a town at Green-ton; but it apparently failed,
+if eleven cellars choked up with _débris_ and overgrown with burdocks
+are any indication of failure. The farm, however, was a good farm, as
+things go in New Hampshire, and Tobias Sewell, the son-in-law, could
+afford to snap his fingers at the travelling public if they came near
+enough--which they never did.
+
+The hotel remains to-day pretty much the same as when Jonathan Bayley
+handed in his accounts in 1840, except that Sewell hasfrom time to time
+sold the furniture of some of the upper chambers to bridal couples
+in the neighborhood. The bar is still open, and the parlor door says
+Parlour in tall black letters. Now and then a passing drover looks in at
+that lonely bar-room, where a high-shouldered bottle of Santa Cruz rum
+ogles with a peculiarly knowing air a shrivelled lemon on a shelf; now
+and then a farmer rides across country to talk crops and stock and take
+a friendly glass with Tobias; and now and then a circus caravan with
+speckled ponies, or a menagerie with a soggy elephant, halts under the
+swinging sign, on which there is a dim mail-coach with four phantomish
+horses driven by a portly gentleman whose head has been washed off
+by the rain. Other customers there are none, except that one regular
+boarder whom have mentioned.
+
+If misery makes a man acquainted with strange bed-fellows, it is equally
+certain that the profession of surveyor and civil engineer often takes
+one into undreamed-of localities. I had never heard of Greenton until
+my duties sent me there, and kept me there two weeks in the dreariest
+season of the year. I do not think I would, of my own volition, have
+selected Greenton for a fortnight's sojourn at any time; but now the
+business is over, I shall never regret the circumstances that made me
+the guest of Tobias Sewell, and brought me into intimate relations with
+Miss Mehetabel's Son.
+
+It was a black October night in the year of grace 1872, that discovered
+me standing in front of the old tavern at the Corners.
+
+Though the ten miles' ride from K------ had been depressing, especially
+the last five miles, on account of the cold autumnal rain that had set
+in, I felt a pang of regret on hearing the rickety open wagon turn round
+in the road and roll off in the darkness. There were no lights visible
+anywhere, and only for the big, shapeless mass of something in front of
+me, which the driver had said was the hotel, I should have fancied that
+I had been set down by the roadside. I was wet to the skin and in no
+amiable humor; and not being able to find bell-pull or knocker, or even
+a door, I belabored the side of the house with my heavy walking-stick.
+In a minute or two I saw a light flickering somewhere aloft, then I
+heard the sound of a window opening, followed by an exclamation of
+disgust as a blast of wind extinguished the candle which had given me
+an instantaneous picture _en silhouette_ of a man leaning out of a
+casement.
+
+“I say, what do you want, down there?” inquired an unprepossessing
+voice.
+
+“I want to come in; I want a supper, and a bed, and numberless things.”
+
+“This is n't no time of night to go rousing honest folks out of their
+sleep. Who are you, anyway?”
+
+The question, superficially considered, was a very simple one, and I, of
+all people in the world, ought to have been able to answer it off-hand;
+but it staggered me. Strangely enough, there came drifting across my
+memory the lettering on the back of a metaphysical work which I had
+seen years before on a shelf in the Astor Library. Owing to an
+unpremeditatedly funny collocation of title and author, the lettering
+read as follows: “Who am I? Jones.” Evidently it had puzzled Jones to
+know who he was, or he would n't have written a book about it, and come
+to so lame and impotent a conclusion. It certainly puzzled me at that
+instant to define my identity. “Thirty years ago,” I reflected, “I was
+nothing; fifty years hence I shall be nothing again, humanly speaking.
+In the mean time, who am I, sure-enough?” It had never before occurred
+to me what an indefinite article I was. I wish it had not occurred to
+me then. Standing there in the rain and darkness, I wrestled vainly with
+the problem, and was constrained to fall back upon a Yankee expedient.
+
+“Isn't this a hotel?” I asked finally,
+
+“Well, it is a sort of hotel,” said the voice, doubtfully. My hesitation
+and prevarication had apparently not inspired my interlocutor with
+confidence in me.
+
+“Then let me in. I have just driven over from K------ in this infernal
+rain. I am wet through and through.”
+
+“But what do you want here, at the Corners? What's your business? People
+don't come here, leastways in the middle of the night.”
+
+“It is n't in the middle of the night,” I returned, incensed. “I come
+on business connected with the new road. I 'm the superintendent of the
+works.”
+
+“Oh!”
+
+“And if you don't open the door at once, I'll raise the whole
+neighborhood--and then go to the other hotel.”
+
+When I said that, I supposed Greenton was a village with a population of
+at least three or four thousand and was wondering vaguely at the absence
+of lights and other signs of human habitation. Surely, I thought, all
+the people cannot be abed and asleep at half past ten o'clock: perhaps I
+am in the business section of the town, among the shops.
+
+“You jest wait,” said the voice above.
+
+This request was not devoid of a certain accent of menace, and I braced
+myself for a sortie on the part of the besieged, if he had any such
+hostile intent. Presently a door opened at the very place where I least
+expected a door, at the farther end of the building, in fact, and a man
+in his shirtsleeves, shielding a candle with his left hand, appeared on
+the threshold. I passed quickly into the house, with Mr. Tobias Sewell
+(for this was Mr. Sewell) at my heels, and found myself in a long,
+low-studded bar-room.
+
+There were two chairs drawn up before the hearth, on which a huge
+hemlock backlog was still smouldering, and on the un-painted deal
+counter contiguous stood two cloudy glasses with bits of lemon-peel in
+the bottom, hinting at recent libations. Against the discolored wall
+over the bar hung a yellowed handbill, in a warped frame, announcing
+that “the Next Annual N. H. Agricultural Fair” would take place on the
+10th of September, 1841. There was no other furniture or decoration in
+this dismal apartment, except the cobwebs which festooned the ceiling,
+hanging down here and there like stalactites.
+
+Mr. Sewell set the candlestick on the mantel-shelf, and threw some
+pine-knots on the fire, which immediately broke into a blaze, and
+showed him to be a lank, narrow-chested man, past sixty, with sparse,
+steel-gray hair, and small, deep-set eyes, perfectly round, like a
+fish's, and of no particular color. His chief personal characteristics
+seemed to be too much feet and not enough teeth. His sharply cut,
+but rather simple face, as he turned it towards me, wore a look
+of interrogation. I replied to his mute inquiry by taking out my
+pocket-book and handing him my business-card, which he held up to the
+candle and perused with great deliberation.
+
+“You 're a civil engineer, are you?” he said, displaying his gums, which
+gave his countenance an expression of almost infantile innocence.
+He made no further audible remark, but mumbled between his thin lips
+something which an imaginative person might have construed into “If you
+'re at civil engineer, I 'll be blessed if I would n't like to see an
+uncivil one!”
+
+Mr. Sewell's growl, however, was worse than his bite--owing to his
+lack of teeth probably--for he very good-naturedly set himself to work
+preparing supper for me. After a slice of cold ham, and a warm punch,
+to which my chilled condition gave a grateful flavor, I went to bed in a
+distant chamber in a most amiable mood, feeling satisfied that Jones was
+a donkey to bother himself about his identity.
+
+When I awoke, the sun was several hours high. My bed faced a window, and
+by raising myself on one elbow I could look out on what I expected would
+be the main street. To my astonishment I beheld a lonely country
+road winding up a sterile hill and disappearing over the ridge. In
+a cornfield at the right of the road was a small private graveyard,
+enclosed by a crumbling stonewall with a red gate. The only thing
+suggestive of life was this little corner lot occupied by death. I got
+out of bed and went to the other window. There I had an uninterrupted
+view of twelve miles of open landscape, with Mount Agamenticus in the
+purple distance. Not a house or a spire in sight. “Well,” I exclaimed,
+“Greenton does n't appear to be a very closely packed metropolis!” That
+rival hotel with which I had threatened Mr. Sewell overnight was not a
+deadly weapon, looking at it by daylight. “By Jove!” I reflected, “maybe
+I 'm in the wrong place.” But there, tacked against a panel of the
+bedroom door, was a faded time-table dated Greenton, August 1, 1839.
+
+I smiled all the time I was dressing, and went smiling down stairs,
+where I found Mr. Sewell, assisted by one of the fair sex in the
+first bloom of her eightieth year, serving breakfast for me on a small
+table--in the bar-room!
+
+“I overslept myself this morning,” I remarked apologetically, “and I see
+that I am putting you to some trouble. In future, if you will have me
+called, I will take my meals at the usual _table de hôte_.”
+
+“At the what?” said Mr. Sewell.
+
+“I mean with the other boarders.”
+
+Mr. Sewell paused in the act of lifting a chop from the fire, and,
+resting the point of his fork against the woodwork of the mantelpiece,
+grinned from ear to ear.
+
+“Bless you! there is n't any other boarders. There has n't been anybody
+put up here sence--let me see--sence father-in-law died, and that was in
+the fall of '40. To be sure, there 's Silas; _he_'s a regular boarder;
+but I don't count him.”
+
+Mr. Sewell then explained how the tavern had lost its custom when the
+old stage line was broken up by the railroad. The introduction of steam
+was, in Mr. Sewell's estimation, a fatal error. “Jest killed local
+business. Carried it off, I 'm darned if I know where. The whole country
+has been sort o' retrograding ever sence steam was invented.”
+
+“You spoke of having one boarder,” I said.
+
+“Silas? Yes; he come here the summer 'Tilda died--she that was 'Tilda
+Bayley--and he 's here yet, going on thirteen year. He could n't live
+any longer with the old man. Between you and I, old Clem Jaffrey,
+Silas's father, was a hard nut. Yes,” said Mr. Sewell, crooking his
+elbow in inimitable pantomime, “altogether too often. Found dead in the
+road hugging a three-gallon demijohn. _Habeas corpus_ in the barn,”
+ added Mr. Sewell, intending, I presume, to intimate that a _post-mortem_
+examination had been deemed necessary. “Silas,” he resumed, in that
+respectful tone which one should always adopt when speaking of capital,
+“is a man of considerable property; lives on his interest, and keeps a
+hoss and shay. He 's a great scholar, too, Silas; takes all the
+pe-ri-odicals and the Police Gazette regular.”
+
+Mr. Sewell was turning over a third chop, when the door opened and a
+stoutish, middle-aged little gentleman, clad in deep black, stepped into
+the room.
+
+“Silas Jaffrey,” said Mr. Sewell, with a comprehensive sweep of his
+arm, picking up me and the new-comer on one fork, so to speak. “Be
+acquainted!”
+
+Mr. Jaffrey advanced briskly, and gave me his hand with unlooked-for
+cordiality. He was a dapper little man, with a head as round and nearly
+as bald as an orange, and not unlike an orange in complexion, either;
+he had twinkling gray eyes and a pronounced Roman nose, the numerous
+freckles upon which were deepened by his funereal dress-coat and
+trousers. He reminded me of Alfred de Musset's blackbird, which, with
+its yellow beak and sombre plumage, looked like an undertaker eating an
+omelet.
+
+“Silas will take care of you,” said Mr. Sewell, taking down his hat from
+a peg behind the door. “I 've got the cattle to look after. Tell him, if
+you want anything.”
+
+While I ate my breakfast, Mr. Jaffrey hopped up and down the narrow
+bar-room and chirped away as blithely as a bird on a cherry-bough,
+occasionally ruffling with his fingers a slight fringe of auburn hair
+which stood up pertly round his head and seemed to possess a luminous
+quality of its own.
+
+“Don't I find it a little slow up here at the Corners? Not at all, my
+dear sir. I am in the thick of life up here. So many interesting things
+going on all over the world--inventions, discoveries, spirits, railroad
+disasters, mysterious homicides. Poets, murderers, musicians, statesmen,
+distinguished travellers, prodigies of all kinds turning up everywhere.
+Very few events or persons escape me. I take six daily city papers,
+thirteen weekly journals, all the monthly magazines, and two
+quarterlies. I could not get along with less. I could n't if you asked
+me. I never feel lonely. How can I, being on intimate terms, as it were,
+with thousands and thousands of people? There's that young woman out
+West. What an entertaining creature _she_ is!--now in Missouri, now
+in Indiana, and now in Minnesota, always on the go, and all the time
+shedding needles from various parts of her body as if she really enjoyed
+it! Then there 's that versatile patriarch who walks hundreds of miles
+and saws thousands of feet of wood, before breakfast, and shows no signs
+of giving out. Then there's that remarkable, one may say that historical
+colored woman who knew Benjamin Franklin, and fought at the battle of
+Bunk--no, it is the old negro man who fought at Bunker Hill, a mere
+infant, of course, at that period. Really, now, it is quite curious
+to observe how that venerable female slave--formerly an African
+princess--is repeatedly dying in her hundred and eleventh year, and
+coming to life again punctually every six months in the small-type
+paragraphs. Are you aware, sir, that within the last twelve years no
+fewer than two hundred and eighty-seven of General Washington's colored
+coachmen have died?”
+
+For the soul of me I could not tell whether this quaint little gentleman
+was chaffing me or not. I laid down my knife and fork, and stared at
+him.
+
+“Then there are the mathematicians!” he cried vivaciously, without
+waiting for a reply. “I take great interest in them. Hear this!” and Mr.
+Jaffrey drew a newspaper from a pocket in the tail of his coat, and read
+as follows: “_It has been estimated that if all the candles manufactured
+by this eminent firm (Stearine & Co.) were placed end to end, they
+would reach 2 and 7/8 times around the globe_. Of course,” continued Mr.
+Jaffrey, folding up the journal reflectively, “abstruse calculations of
+this kind are not, perhaps, of vital importance, but they indicate the
+intellectual activity of the age. Seriously, now,” he said, halting in
+front of the table, “what with books and papers and drives about the
+country, I do not find the days too long, though I seldom see any one,
+except when I go over to K------ for my mail. Existence may be very full
+to a man who stands a little aside from the tumult and watches it with
+philosophic eye. Possibly he may see more of the battle than those who
+are in the midst of the action. Once I was struggling with the crowd, as
+eager and undaunted as the best; perhaps I should have been struggling
+still. Indeed, I know my life would have been very different now if I
+had married Mehetabel--if I had married Mehetabel.”
+
+His vivacity was gone, a sudden cloud had come over his bright face, his
+figure seemed to have collapsed, the light seemed to have faded out
+of his hair. With a shuffling step, the very antithesis of his brisk,
+elastic tread, he turned to the door and passed into the road.
+
+“Well,” I said to myself, “if Greenton had forty thousand inhabitants,
+it could n't turn out a more astonishing old party than that!”
+
+
+
+
+II. THE CASE OF SILAS JAFFREY.
+
+A man with a passion for _bric-à-brac_ is always stumbling over antique
+bronzes, intaglios, mosaics, and daggers of the time of Benvenuto
+Cellini; the bibliophile finds creamy vellum folios and rare Alduses and
+Elzevirs waiting for him at unsuspected bookstalls; the numismatist has
+but to stretch forth his palm to have priceless coins drop into it. My
+own weakness is odd people, and I am constantly encountering them.
+It was plain that I had unearthed a couple of very queer specimens at
+Bayley's Four-Corners. I saw that a fortnight afforded me too brief an
+opportunity to develop the richness of both, and I resolved to devote
+my spare time to Mr. Jaffrey alone, instinctively recognizing in him
+an unfamiliar species. My professional work in the vicinity of Greenton
+left my evenings and occasionally an afternoon unoccupied; these
+intervals I purposed to employ in studying and classifying my
+fellow-boarder. It was necessary, as a preliminary step, to learn
+something of his previous history, and to this end I addressed myself to
+Mr. Sewell that same night.
+
+“I do not want to seem inquisitive,” I said to the landlord, as he was
+fastening up the bar, which, by the way, was the _salle à manger_ and
+general sitting-room--“I do not want to seem inquisitive, but
+your friend Mr. Jaffrey dropped a remark this morning at breakfast
+which--which was not altogether clear to me.”
+
+“About Mehetabel?” asked Mr. Sewell, uneasily.
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Well, I wish he would n't!”
+
+“He was friendly enough in the course of conversation to hint to me that
+he had not married the young woman, and seemed to regret it.”
+
+“No, he did n't marry Mehetabel.”
+
+“May I inquire _why_ he did n't marry Mehetabel?”
+
+“Never asked her. Might have married the girl forty times. Old Elkins's
+daughter, over at K------. She 'd have had him quick enough. Seven
+years, off and on, he kept company with Mehetabel, and then she died.”
+
+“And he never asked her?”
+
+“He shilly-shallied. Perhaps he did n't think of it. When she was dead
+and gone, then Silas was struck all of a heap--and that's all about it.”
+
+Obviously Mr. Sewell did not intend to tell me anything more, and
+obviously there was more to tell. The topic was plainly disagreeable to
+him for some reason or other, and that unknown reason of course piqued
+my curiosity.
+
+As I was absent from dinner and supper that day, I did not meet Mr.
+Jaffrey again until the following morning at breakfast. He had recovered
+his bird-like manner, and was full of a mysterious assassination that
+had just taken place in New York, all the thrilling details of which
+were at his fingers' ends. It was at once comical and sad to see this
+harmless old gentleman with his naïve, benevolent countenance, and his
+thin hair flaming up in a semicircle, like the footlights at a theatre,
+revelling in the intricacies of the unmentionable deed.
+
+“You come up to my room to-night,” he cried, with horrid glee, “and I
+'ll give you my theory of the murder. I 'll make it as clear as day to
+you that it was the detective himself who fired the three pistol-shots.”
+
+It was not so much the desire to have this point elucidated as to make
+a closer study of Mr. Jaffrey that led me to accept his invitation.
+Mr. Jaffrey's bedroom was in an L of the building, and was in no way
+noticeable except for the numerous files of newspapers neatly arranged
+against the blank spaces of the walls, and a huge pile of old magazines
+which stood in one corner, reaching nearly up to the ceiling, and
+threatening to topple over each instant, like the Leaning Tower at Pisa.
+There were green paper shades at the windows, some faded chintz valances
+about the bed, and two or three easy-chairs covered with chintz. On
+a black-walnut shelf between the windows lay a choice collection of
+meerschaum and brier-wood pipes.
+
+Filling one of the chocolate-colored bowls for me and another for
+himself, Mr. Jaffrey began prattling; but not about the murder, which
+appeared to have flown out of his mind. In fact, I do not remember that
+the topic was even touched upon, either then or afterwards.
+
+“Cosey nest this,” said Mr. Jaffrey, glancing complacently over the
+apartment. “What is more cheerful, now, in the fall of the year, than an
+open wood-fire? Do you hear those little chirps and twitters coming
+out of that piece of apple-wood? Those are the ghosts of the robins and
+bluebirds that sang upon the bough when it was in blossom last spring.
+In summer whole flocks of them come fluttering about the fruit-trees
+under the window: so I have singing birds all the year round. I take
+it very easy here, I can tell you, summer and winter. Not much society.
+Tobias is not, perhaps, what one would term a great intellectual force,
+but he means well. He 's a realist--believes in coming down to what he
+calls 'the hard pan;' but his heart is in the right place, and he 's
+very kind to me. The wisest thing I ever did in my life was to sell out
+my grain business over at K------, thirteen years ago, and settle down
+at the Corners. When a man has made a competency, what does he want
+more? Besides, at that time an event occurred which destroyed any
+ambition I may have had. Mehetabel died.” “The lady you were engaged
+to?” “N-o, not precisely engaged. I think it was quite understood
+between us, though nothing had been said on the subject. Typhoid,” added
+Mr. Jaffrey, in a low voice.
+
+For several minutes he smoked in silence, a vague, troubled look playing
+over his countenance. Presently this passed away, and he fixed his gray
+eyes speculatively upon my face.
+
+“If I had married Mehetabel,” said Mr. Jaffrey, slowly, and then he
+hesitated. I blew a ring of smoke into the air, and, resting my pipe
+on my knee, dropped into an attitude of attention. “If I had married
+Mehetabel, you know, we should have had--ahem!--a family.”
+
+“Very likely,” I assented, vastly amused at this unexpected turn.
+
+“A Boy!” exclaimed Mr. Jaffrey, explosively.
+
+“By all means, certainly, a son.”
+
+“Great trouble about naming the boy. Mehetabel's family want him named
+Elkanah Elkins, after her grandfather; I want him named Andrew Jackson.
+We compromise by christening him Elkanah Elkins Andrew Jackson Jaffrey.
+Rather a long name for such a short little fellow,” said Mr. Jaffrey,
+musingly.
+
+“Andy is n't a bad nickname,” I suggested.
+
+“Not at all. We call him Andy, in the family. Somewhat fractious at
+first--colic and things. I suppose it is right, or it would n't be so;
+but the usefulness of measles, mumps, croup, whooping-cough, scarlatina,
+and fits is not clear to the parental eye. I wish Andy would be a model
+infant, and dodge the whole lot.”
+
+This supposititious child, born within the last few minutes, was plainly
+assuming the proportions of a reality to Mr. Jaffrey. I began to feel a
+little uncomfortable. I am, as I have said, a civil engineer, and it is
+not strictly in my line to assist at the births of infants, imaginary or
+otherwise. I pulled away vigorously at the pipe, and said nothing.
+
+“What large blue eyes he has,” resumed Mr. Jaffrey, after a pause;
+“just like Hetty's; and the fair hair, too, like hers. How oddly certain
+distinctive features are handed down in families! Sometimes a mouth,
+sometimes a turn of the eyebrow. Wicked little boys over at K------ have
+now and then derisively advised me to follow my nose. It would be an
+interesting thing to do. I should find my nose flying about the world,
+turning up unexpectedly here and there, dodging this branch of the
+family and re-appearing in that, now jumping over one greatgrandchild to
+fasten itself upon another, and never losing its individuality. Look
+at Andy. There 's Elkanah Elkins's chin to the life. Andy's chin is
+probably older than the Pyramids. Poor little thing,” he cried, with
+sudden indescribable tenderness, “to lose his mother so early!” And Mr.
+Jaf-frey's head sunk upon his breast, and his shoulders slanted forward,
+as if he were actually bending over the cradle of the child. The whole
+gesture and attitude was so natural that it startled me. The pipe
+slipped from my fingers and fell to the floor.
+
+“Hush!” whispered Mr. Jaffrey, with a deprecating motion of his hand.
+“Andy's asleep!”
+
+He rose softly from the chair and, walking across the room on tiptoe,
+drew down the shade at the window through which the moonlight was
+streaming. Then he returned to his seat, and remained gazing with
+half-closed eyes into the dropping embers.
+
+I refilled my pipe and smoked in profound silence, wondering what would
+come next.
+
+But nothing came next. Mr. Jaffrey had fallen into so brown a study
+that, a quarter of an hour afterwards, when I wished him good-night and
+withdrew, I do not think he noticed my departure.
+
+I am not what is called a man of imagination; it is my habit to exclude
+most things not capable of mathematical demonstration; but I am not
+without a certain psychological insight, and I think I understood Mr.
+Jaffrey's case. I could easily understand how a man with an unhealthy,
+sensitive nature, overwhelmed by sudden calamity, might take refuge in
+some forlorn place like this old tavern, and dream his life away. To
+such a man--brooding forever on what might have been and dwelling wholly
+in the realm of his fancies--the actual world might indeed become as a
+dream, and nothing seem real but his illusions. I dare say that thirteen
+years of Bayley's Four-Corners would have its effect upon me; though
+instead of conjuring up golden-haired children of the Madonna, I should
+probably see gnomes and kobolds, and goblins engaged in hoisting false
+signals and misplacing switches for midnight express trains.
+
+“No doubt,” I said to myself that night, as I lay in bed, thinking over
+the matter, “this once possible but now impossible child is a great
+comfort to the old gentleman--a greater comfort, perhaps, than a real
+son would be. Maybe Andy will vanish with the shades and mists of night,
+he's such an unsubstantial infant; but if he does n't, and Mr. Jaffrey
+finds pleasure in talking to me about his son, I shall humor the old
+fellow. It would n't be a Christian act to knock over his harmless
+fancy.”
+
+I was very impatient to see if Mr. Jaffrey's illusion would stand the
+test of daylight. It did. Elkanah Elkins Andrew Jackson Jaffrey was, so
+to speak, alive and kicking the next morning. On taking his seat at
+the breakfast-table, Mr. Jaffrey whispered to me that Andy had had a
+comfortable night.
+
+“Silas!” said Mr. Sewell, sharply, “what are you whispering about?”
+
+Mr. Sewell was in an ill-humor; perhaps he was jealous because I had
+passed the evening in Mr. Jaffrey's room; but surely Mr. Sewell could
+not expect his boarders to go to bed at eight o'clock every night, as he
+did. From time to time during the meal Mr. Sewell regarded me unkindly
+out of the corner of his eye, and in helping me to the parsnips he
+poniarded them with quite a suggestive air. All this, however, did not
+prevent me from repairing to the door of Mr. Jaffrey's snuggery when
+night came.
+
+“Well, Mr. Jaffrey, how 's Andy this evening?”
+
+“Got a tooth!” cried Mr. Jaffrey, vivaciously.
+
+“No!”
+
+“Yes, he has! Just through. Gave the nurse a silver dollar. Standing
+reward for first tooth.”
+
+It was on the tip of my tongue to express surprise that an infant a day
+old should cut a tooth, when I suddenly recollected that Richard III.
+was born with teeth. Feeling myself to be on unfamiliar ground, I
+suppressed my criticism. It was well I did so, for in the next breath I
+was advised that half a year had elapsed since the previous evening.
+
+“Andy 's had a hard six months of it,” said Mr. Jaffrey, with the
+well-known narrative air of fathers. “We 've brought him up by hand. His
+grandfather, by the way, was brought up by the bottle”--and brought down
+by it, too, I added mentally, recalling Mr. Sewell's account of the old
+gentleman's tragic end.
+
+Mr. Jaffrey then went on to give me a history of Andy's first six
+months, omitting no detail however insignificant or irrelevant. This
+history I would in turn inflict upon the reader, if I were only certain
+that he is one of those dreadful parents who, under the aegis of
+friendship, bore you at a streets corner with that remarkable thing
+which Freddy said the other day, and insist on singing to you, at an
+evening parly, the Iliad of Tommy's woes.
+
+But to inflict this _enfantillage_ upon the unmarried reader would be
+an act of wanton cruelty. So I pass over that part of Andy's biography,
+and, for the same reason, make no record of the next four or five
+interviews I had with Mr. Jaffrey. It will be sufficient to state
+that Andy glided from extreme infancy to early youth with astonishing
+celerity--at the rate of one year per night, if I remember correctly;
+and--must I confess it?--before the week came to an end, this invisible
+hobgoblin of a boy was only little less of a reality to me than to Mr.
+Jaffrey.
+
+At first I had lent myself to the old dreamer's whim with a keen
+perception of the humor of the thing; but by and by I found that I
+was talking and thinking of Miss Mehetabel's son as though he were a
+veritable personage. Mr. Jafifrey spoke of the child with such an air of
+conviction!--as if Andy were playing among his toys in the next room, or
+making mud-pies down in the yard. In these conversations, it should be
+observed, the child was never supposed to be present, except on that
+single occasion when Mr. Jafifrey leaned over the cradle. After one of
+our _séances_ I would lie awake until the small hours, thinking of the
+boy, and then fall asleep only to have indigestible dreams about him.
+Through the day, and sometimes in the midst of complicated calculations,
+I would catch myself wondering what Andy was up to now! There was no
+shaking him off; he became an inseparable nightmare to me; and I felt
+that if I remained much longer at Bayley's Four-Corners I should
+turn into just such another bald-headed, mild-eyed visionary as Silas
+Jaffrey.
+
+Then the tavern was a grewsome old shell any way, full of unaccountable
+noises after dark--rustlings of garments along unfrequented passages,
+and stealthy footfalls in unoccupied chambers overhead. I never knew of
+an old house without these mysterious noises. Next to my bedroom was a
+musty, dismantled apartment, in one corner of which, leaning against the
+wainscot, was a crippled mangle, with its iron crank tilted in the air
+like the elbow of the late Mr. Clem Jaffrey. Sometimes,
+
+     “In the dead vast and middle of the night,”
+
+I used to hear sounds as if some one were turning that rusty crank on
+the sly. This occurred only on particularly cold nights, and I conceived
+the uncomfortable idea that it was the thin family ghosts, from the
+neglected graveyard in the cornfield, keeping themselves warm by running
+each other through the mangle. There was a haunted air about the whole
+place that made it easy for me to believe in the existence of a phantasm
+like Miss Mehetabel's son, who, after all, was less unearthly than Mr.
+Jaffrey himself, and seemed more properly an inhabitant of this globe
+than the toothless ogre who kept the inn, not to mention the silent
+Witch of Endor that cooked our meals for us over the bar-room fire.
+
+In spite of the scowls and winks bestowed upon me by Mr. Sewell, who let
+slip no opportunity to testify his disapprobation of the intimacy,
+Mr. Jaffrey and I spent all our evenings together--those long autumnal
+evenings, through the length of which he talked about the boy, laying
+out his path in life and hedging the path with roses. He should be sent
+to the High School at Portsmouth, and then to college; he should be
+educated like a gentleman, Andy.
+
+“When the old man dies,” remarked Mr. Jaffrey one night, rubbing his
+hands gleefully, as if it were a great joke, “Andy will find that the
+old man has left him a pretty plum.”
+
+“What do you think of having Andy enter West Point, when he 's old
+enough?” said Mr. Jaffrey on another occasion. “He need n't necessarily
+go into the army when he graduates; he can become a civil engineer.”
+
+This was a stroke of flattery so delicate and indirect that I could
+accept it without immodesty.
+
+There had lately sprung up on the corner of Mr. Jaffrey's bureau a small
+tin house, Gothic in architecture and pink in color, with a slit in the
+roof, and the word _Bank_ painted on one façade. Several times in the
+course of an evening Mr. Jaffrey would rise from his chair without
+interrupting the conversation, and gravely drop a nickel into the
+scuttle of the bank. It was pleasant to observe the solemnity of his
+countenance as he approached the edifice, and the air of triumph with
+which he resumed his seat by the fireplace. One night I missed the tin
+bank. It had disappeared, deposits and all, like a real bank. Evidently
+there had been a defalcation on rather a large scale. I strongly
+suspected that Mr. Sewell was at the bottom of it, but my suspicion
+was not shared by Mr. Jaffrey, who, remarking my glance at the bureau,
+became suddenly depressed. “I 'm afraid,” he said, “that I have failed
+to instil into Andrew those principles of integrity which--which”--and
+the old gentleman quite broke down.
+
+Andy was now eight or nine years old, and for some time past, if the
+truth must be told, had given Mr. Jaffrey no inconsiderable trouble;
+what with his impishness and his illnesses, the boy led the pair of us
+a lively dance. I shall not soon forget the anxiety of Mr. Jaffrey the
+night Andy had the scarlet-fever--an anxiety which so infected me that
+I actually returned to the tavern the following afternoon earlier than
+usual, dreading to hear that the little spectre was dead, and greatly
+relieved on meeting Mr. Jaffrey at the door-step with his face wreathed
+in smiles. When I spoke to him of Andy, I was made aware that I was
+inquiring into a case of scarlet-fever that had occurred the year
+before!
+
+It was at this time, towards the end of my second week at Greenton,
+that I noticed what was probably not a new trait--Mr. Jaffrey's curious
+sensitiveness to atmospherical changes. He was as sensitive as a
+barometer. The approach of a storm sent his mercury down instantly. When
+the weather was fair he was hopeful and sunny, and Andy's prospects
+were brilliant. When the weather was overcast and threatening he grew
+restless and despondent, and was afraid that the boy was not going to
+turn out well.
+
+On the Saturday previous to my departure, which had been fixed for
+Monday, it rained heavily all the afternoon, and that night Mr. Jaffrey
+was in an unusually excitable and unhappy frame of mind. His mercury was
+very low indeed.
+
+“That boy is going to the dogs just as fast as he can go,” said Mr.
+Jaffrey, with a woful face. “I can't do anything with him.”
+
+“He'll come out all right, Mr. Jaffrey. Boys will be boys. I would not
+give a snap for a lad without animal spirits.”
+
+“But animal spirits,” said Mr. Jaffrey sententiously, “should n't saw
+off the legs of the piano in Tobias's best parlor. I don't know what
+Tobias will say when he finds it out.”
+
+“What! has Andy sawed off the legs of the old spinet?” I returned,
+laughing. “Worse than that.” “Played upon it, then!” “No, sir. He has
+lied to me!” “I can't believe that of Andy.” “Lied to me, sir,” repeated
+Mr. Jaffrey, severely. “He pledged me his word of honor that he would
+give over his climbing. The way that boy climbs sends a chill down my
+spine. This morning, notwithstanding his solemn promise, he shinned
+up the lightning-rod attached to the extension, and sat astride the
+ridge-pole. I saw him, and he denied it! When a boy you have caressed
+and indulged and lavished pocket-money on lies to you and _will_ climb,
+then there's nothing more to be said. He's a lost child.” “You take too
+dark a view of it, Mr. Jaffrey. Training and education are bound to tell
+in the end, and he has been well brought up.”
+
+“But I did n't bring him up on a lightning-rod, did I? If he is ever
+going to know how to behave, he ought to know now. To-morrow he will be
+eleven years old.”
+
+The reflection came to me that if Andy had not been brought up by the
+rod, he had certainly been brought up by the lightning. He was eleven
+years old in two weeks!
+
+I essayed, with that perspicacious wisdom which seems to be the peculiar
+property of bachelors and elderly maiden ladies, to tranquillize Mr.
+Jaffrey's mind, and to give him some practical hints on the management
+of youth.
+
+“Spank him,” I suggested at last.
+
+“I will!” said the old gentleman.
+
+“And you 'd better do it at once!” I added, as it flashed upon me that
+in six months Andy would be a hundred and forty-three years old!--an age
+at which parental discipline would have to be relaxed.
+
+The next morning. Sunday, the rain came down as if determined to drive
+the quicksilver entirely out of my poor friend. Mr. Jaffrey sat bolt
+upright at the breakfast-table, looking as woe-begone as a bust of
+Dante, and retired to his chamber the moment the meal was finished. As
+the day advanced, the wind veered round to the northeast, and settled
+itself down to work. It was not pleasant to think, and I tried not to
+think, what Mr. Jaffrey's condition would be if the weather did not mend
+its manners by noon; but so far from clearing off at noon, the storm
+increased in violence, and as night set in the wind whistled in a
+spiteful falsetto key, and the rain lashed the old tavern as if it
+were a balky horse that refused to move on. The windows rattled in the
+worm-eaten frames, and the doors of remote rooms, where nobody ever
+went, slammed to in the maddest way. Now and then the tornado, sweeping
+down the side of Mount Agamenticus, bowled across the open country, and
+struck the ancient hostelry point-blank.
+
+Mr. Jaffrey did not appear at supper. I knew that he was expecting me to
+come to his room as usual, and I turned over in my mind a dozen plans
+to evade seeing him that night. The landlord sat at the opposite side
+of the chimney-place, with his eye upon me. I fancy he was aware of the
+effect of this storm on his other boarder, for at intervals, as the wind
+hurled itself against the exposed gable, threatening to burst in the
+windows, Mr. Sewell tipped me an atrocious wink, and displayed his gums
+in a way he had not done since the morning after my arrival at Greenton.
+I wondered if he suspected anything about Andy. There had been odd times
+during the past week when I felt convinced that the existence of Miss
+Mehetabel's son was no secret to Mr. Sewell.
+
+In deference to the gale, the landlord sat up half an hour later than
+was his custom. At half-past eight he went to bed, remarking that he
+thought the old pile would stand till morning.
+
+He had been absent only a few minutes when I heard a rustling at the
+door. I looked up, and beheld Mr. Jaffrey standing on the threshold,
+with his dress in disorder, his scant hair flying, and the wildest
+expression on his face.
+
+“He's gone!” cried Mr. Jaffrey.
+
+“Who? Sewell? Yes, he just went to bed.”
+
+“No, not Tobias--the boy!”
+
+“What, run away?”
+
+“No--he is dead! He has fallen from a step-ladder in the red chamber and
+broken his neck!”
+
+Mr. Jaffrey threw up his hands with a gesture of despair, and
+disappeared. I followed him through the hall, saw him go into his own
+apartment, and heard the bolt of the door drawn to. Then I returned to
+the bar-room, and sat for an hour or two in the ruddy glow of the fire,
+brooding over the strange experience of the last fortnight.
+
+On my way to bed I paused at Mr. Jaf-frey's door, and, in a lull of the
+storm, the measured respiration within told me that the old gentleman
+was sleeping peacefully.
+
+Slumber was coy with me that night. I lay listening to the soughing of
+the wind, and thinking of Mr. Jaffrey's illusion. It had amused me at
+first with its grotesqueness; but now the poor little phantom was dead,
+I was conscious that there had been something pathetic in it all along.
+Shortly after midnight the wind sunk down, coming and going fainter and
+fainter, floating around the eaves of the tavern with an undulating,
+murmurous sound, as if it were turning itself into soft wings to bear
+away the spirit of a little child.
+
+Perhaps nothing that happened during my stay at Bayley's Four-Corners
+took me so completely by surprise as Mr. Jaffrey's radiant countenance
+the next morning. The morning itself was not fresher or sunnier. His
+round face literally shone with geniality and happiness. His eyes
+twinkled like diamonds, and the magnetic light of his hair was turned
+on full. He came into my room while I was packing my valise. He chirped,
+and prattled, and carolled, and was sorry I was going away--but never a
+word about Andy. However, the boy had probably been dead several years
+then!
+
+The open wagon that was to carry me to the station stood at the door;
+Mr. Sewell was placing my case of instruments under the seat, and Mr.
+Jaffrey had gone up to his room to get me a certain newspaper containing
+an account of a remarkable shipwreck on the Auckland Islands. I took the
+opportunity to thank Mr. Sewell for his courtesies to me, and to express
+my regret at leaving him and Mr. Jaffrey.
+
+“I have become very much attached to Mr. Jaffrey,” I said; “he is a most
+interesting person; but that hypothetical boy of his, that son of Miss
+Mehetabel's”--
+
+“Yes, I know!” interrupted Mr. Sewell, testily. “Fell off a step-ladder
+and broke his dratted neck. Eleven year old, was n't he? Always does,
+jest at that point. Next week Silas will begin the whole thing over
+again, if he can get anybody to listen to him.”
+
+“I see. Our amiable friend is a little queer on that subject.”
+
+Mr. Sewell glanced cautiously over his shoulder, and, tapping himself
+significantly on the forehead, said in a low voice,
+
+“Room To Let--Unfurnished!”
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Miss Mehetabel's Son, by Thomas Bailey Aldrich
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Miss Mehetabel's Son, by Thomas Bailey Aldrich
+
+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: Miss Mehetabel's Son
+
+Author: Thomas Bailey Aldrich
+
+Release Date: November 6, 2007 [EBook #23357]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISS MEHETABEL'S SON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MISS MEHETABEL'S SON.
+
+By Thomas Bailey Aldrich
+
+Boston And New York Houghton Mifflin Company
+
+Copyright, 1873, 1885, and 1901
+
+
+
+
+I. THE OLD TAVERN AT BAYLEY'S FOUR CORNERS.
+
+You will not find Greenton, or Bayley's Four-Corners, as it is more
+usually designated, on any map of New England that I know of. It is
+not a town; it is not even a village; it is merely an absurd hotel. The
+almost indescribable place called Greenton is at the intersection of
+four roads, in the heart of New Hampshire, twenty miles from the nearest
+settlement of note, and ten miles from any railway station. A good
+location for a hotel, you will say. Precisely; but there has always
+been a hotel there, and for the last dozen years it has been pretty well
+patronized--by one boarder. Not to trifle with an intelligent public, I
+will state at once that, in the early part of this century, Greenton was
+a point at which the mail-coach on the Great Northern Route stopped to
+change horses and allow the passengers to dine. People in the county,
+wishing to take the early mail Portsmouth-ward, put up overnight at the
+old tavern, famous for its irreproachable larder and soft feather-beds.
+The tavern at that time was kept by Jonathan Bayley, who rivalled his
+wallet in growing corpulent, and in due time passed away. At his death
+the establishment, which included a farm, fell into the hands of a
+son-in-law. Now, though Bayley left his son-in-law a hotel--which sounds
+handsome--he left him no guests; for at about the period of the old
+man's death the old stage-coach died also. Apoplexy carried off one, and
+steam the other. Thus, by a sudden swerve in the tide of progress,
+the tavern at the Corners found itself high and dry, like a wreck on a
+sand-bank. Shortly after this event, or maybe contemporaneously, there
+was some attempt to build a town at Green-ton; but it apparently failed,
+if eleven cellars choked up with _d�bris_ and overgrown with burdocks
+are any indication of failure. The farm, however, was a good farm, as
+things go in New Hampshire, and Tobias Sewell, the son-in-law, could
+afford to snap his fingers at the travelling public if they came near
+enough--which they never did.
+
+The hotel remains to-day pretty much the same as when Jonathan Bayley
+handed in his accounts in 1840, except that Sewell hasfrom time to time
+sold the furniture of some of the upper chambers to bridal couples
+in the neighborhood. The bar is still open, and the parlor door says
+Parlour in tall black letters. Now and then a passing drover looks in at
+that lonely bar-room, where a high-shouldered bottle of Santa Cruz rum
+ogles with a peculiarly knowing air a shrivelled lemon on a shelf; now
+and then a farmer rides across country to talk crops and stock and take
+a friendly glass with Tobias; and now and then a circus caravan with
+speckled ponies, or a menagerie with a soggy elephant, halts under the
+swinging sign, on which there is a dim mail-coach with four phantomish
+horses driven by a portly gentleman whose head has been washed off
+by the rain. Other customers there are none, except that one regular
+boarder whom have mentioned.
+
+If misery makes a man acquainted with strange bed-fellows, it is equally
+certain that the profession of surveyor and civil engineer often takes
+one into undreamed-of localities. I had never heard of Greenton until
+my duties sent me there, and kept me there two weeks in the dreariest
+season of the year. I do not think I would, of my own volition, have
+selected Greenton for a fortnight's sojourn at any time; but now the
+business is over, I shall never regret the circumstances that made me
+the guest of Tobias Sewell, and brought me into intimate relations with
+Miss Mehetabel's Son.
+
+It was a black October night in the year of grace 1872, that discovered
+me standing in front of the old tavern at the Corners.
+
+Though the ten miles' ride from K------ had been depressing, especially
+the last five miles, on account of the cold autumnal rain that had set
+in, I felt a pang of regret on hearing the rickety open wagon turn round
+in the road and roll off in the darkness. There were no lights visible
+anywhere, and only for the big, shapeless mass of something in front of
+me, which the driver had said was the hotel, I should have fancied that
+I had been set down by the roadside. I was wet to the skin and in no
+amiable humor; and not being able to find bell-pull or knocker, or even
+a door, I belabored the side of the house with my heavy walking-stick.
+In a minute or two I saw a light flickering somewhere aloft, then I
+heard the sound of a window opening, followed by an exclamation of
+disgust as a blast of wind extinguished the candle which had given me
+an instantaneous picture _en silhouette_ of a man leaning out of a
+casement.
+
+"I say, what do you want, down there?" inquired an unprepossessing
+voice.
+
+"I want to come in; I want a supper, and a bed, and numberless things."
+
+"This is n't no time of night to go rousing honest folks out of their
+sleep. Who are you, anyway?"
+
+The question, superficially considered, was a very simple one, and I, of
+all people in the world, ought to have been able to answer it off-hand;
+but it staggered me. Strangely enough, there came drifting across my
+memory the lettering on the back of a metaphysical work which I had
+seen years before on a shelf in the Astor Library. Owing to an
+unpremeditatedly funny collocation of title and author, the lettering
+read as follows: "Who am I? Jones." Evidently it had puzzled Jones to
+know who he was, or he would n't have written a book about it, and come
+to so lame and impotent a conclusion. It certainly puzzled me at that
+instant to define my identity. "Thirty years ago," I reflected, "I was
+nothing; fifty years hence I shall be nothing again, humanly speaking.
+In the mean time, who am I, sure-enough?" It had never before occurred
+to me what an indefinite article I was. I wish it had not occurred to
+me then. Standing there in the rain and darkness, I wrestled vainly with
+the problem, and was constrained to fall back upon a Yankee expedient.
+
+"Isn't this a hotel?" I asked finally,
+
+"Well, it is a sort of hotel," said the voice, doubtfully. My hesitation
+and prevarication had apparently not inspired my interlocutor with
+confidence in me.
+
+"Then let me in. I have just driven over from K------ in this infernal
+rain. I am wet through and through."
+
+"But what do you want here, at the Corners? What's your business? People
+don't come here, leastways in the middle of the night."
+
+"It is n't in the middle of the night," I returned, incensed. "I come
+on business connected with the new road. I 'm the superintendent of the
+works."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"And if you don't open the door at once, I'll raise the whole
+neighborhood--and then go to the other hotel."
+
+When I said that, I supposed Greenton was a village with a population of
+at least three or four thousand and was wondering vaguely at the absence
+of lights and other signs of human habitation. Surely, I thought, all
+the people cannot be abed and asleep at half past ten o'clock: perhaps I
+am in the business section of the town, among the shops.
+
+"You jest wait," said the voice above.
+
+This request was not devoid of a certain accent of menace, and I braced
+myself for a sortie on the part of the besieged, if he had any such
+hostile intent. Presently a door opened at the very place where I least
+expected a door, at the farther end of the building, in fact, and a man
+in his shirtsleeves, shielding a candle with his left hand, appeared on
+the threshold. I passed quickly into the house, with Mr. Tobias Sewell
+(for this was Mr. Sewell) at my heels, and found myself in a long,
+low-studded bar-room.
+
+There were two chairs drawn up before the hearth, on which a huge
+hemlock backlog was still smouldering, and on the un-painted deal
+counter contiguous stood two cloudy glasses with bits of lemon-peel in
+the bottom, hinting at recent libations. Against the discolored wall
+over the bar hung a yellowed handbill, in a warped frame, announcing
+that "the Next Annual N. H. Agricultural Fair" would take place on the
+10th of September, 1841. There was no other furniture or decoration in
+this dismal apartment, except the cobwebs which festooned the ceiling,
+hanging down here and there like stalactites.
+
+Mr. Sewell set the candlestick on the mantel-shelf, and threw some
+pine-knots on the fire, which immediately broke into a blaze, and
+showed him to be a lank, narrow-chested man, past sixty, with sparse,
+steel-gray hair, and small, deep-set eyes, perfectly round, like a
+fish's, and of no particular color. His chief personal characteristics
+seemed to be too much feet and not enough teeth. His sharply cut,
+but rather simple face, as he turned it towards me, wore a look
+of interrogation. I replied to his mute inquiry by taking out my
+pocket-book and handing him my business-card, which he held up to the
+candle and perused with great deliberation.
+
+"You 're a civil engineer, are you?" he said, displaying his gums, which
+gave his countenance an expression of almost infantile innocence.
+He made no further audible remark, but mumbled between his thin lips
+something which an imaginative person might have construed into "If you
+'re at civil engineer, I 'll be blessed if I would n't like to see an
+uncivil one!"
+
+Mr. Sewell's growl, however, was worse than his bite--owing to his
+lack of teeth probably--for he very good-naturedly set himself to work
+preparing supper for me. After a slice of cold ham, and a warm punch,
+to which my chilled condition gave a grateful flavor, I went to bed in a
+distant chamber in a most amiable mood, feeling satisfied that Jones was
+a donkey to bother himself about his identity.
+
+When I awoke, the sun was several hours high. My bed faced a window, and
+by raising myself on one elbow I could look out on what I expected would
+be the main street. To my astonishment I beheld a lonely country
+road winding up a sterile hill and disappearing over the ridge. In
+a cornfield at the right of the road was a small private graveyard,
+enclosed by a crumbling stonewall with a red gate. The only thing
+suggestive of life was this little corner lot occupied by death. I got
+out of bed and went to the other window. There I had an uninterrupted
+view of twelve miles of open landscape, with Mount Agamenticus in the
+purple distance. Not a house or a spire in sight. "Well," I exclaimed,
+"Greenton does n't appear to be a very closely packed metropolis!" That
+rival hotel with which I had threatened Mr. Sewell overnight was not a
+deadly weapon, looking at it by daylight. "By Jove!" I reflected, "maybe
+I 'm in the wrong place." But there, tacked against a panel of the
+bedroom door, was a faded time-table dated Greenton, August 1, 1839.
+
+I smiled all the time I was dressing, and went smiling down stairs,
+where I found Mr. Sewell, assisted by one of the fair sex in the
+first bloom of her eightieth year, serving breakfast for me on a small
+table--in the bar-room!
+
+"I overslept myself this morning," I remarked apologetically, "and I see
+that I am putting you to some trouble. In future, if you will have me
+called, I will take my meals at the usual _table de h�te_."
+
+"At the what?" said Mr. Sewell.
+
+"I mean with the other boarders."
+
+Mr. Sewell paused in the act of lifting a chop from the fire, and,
+resting the point of his fork against the woodwork of the mantelpiece,
+grinned from ear to ear.
+
+"Bless you! there is n't any other boarders. There has n't been anybody
+put up here sence--let me see--sence father-in-law died, and that was in
+the fall of '40. To be sure, there 's Silas; _he_'s a regular boarder;
+but I don't count him."
+
+Mr. Sewell then explained how the tavern had lost its custom when the
+old stage line was broken up by the railroad. The introduction of steam
+was, in Mr. Sewell's estimation, a fatal error. "Jest killed local
+business. Carried it off, I 'm darned if I know where. The whole country
+has been sort o' retrograding ever sence steam was invented."
+
+"You spoke of having one boarder," I said.
+
+"Silas? Yes; he come here the summer 'Tilda died--she that was 'Tilda
+Bayley--and he 's here yet, going on thirteen year. He could n't live
+any longer with the old man. Between you and I, old Clem Jaffrey,
+Silas's father, was a hard nut. Yes," said Mr. Sewell, crooking his
+elbow in inimitable pantomime, "altogether too often. Found dead in the
+road hugging a three-gallon demijohn. _Habeas corpus_ in the barn,"
+added Mr. Sewell, intending, I presume, to intimate that a _post-mortem_
+examination had been deemed necessary. "Silas," he resumed, in that
+respectful tone which one should always adopt when speaking of capital,
+"is a man of considerable property; lives on his interest, and keeps a
+hoss and shay. He 's a great scholar, too, Silas; takes all the
+pe-ri-odicals and the Police Gazette regular."
+
+Mr. Sewell was turning over a third chop, when the door opened and a
+stoutish, middle-aged little gentleman, clad in deep black, stepped into
+the room.
+
+"Silas Jaffrey," said Mr. Sewell, with a comprehensive sweep of his
+arm, picking up me and the new-comer on one fork, so to speak. "Be
+acquainted!"
+
+Mr. Jaffrey advanced briskly, and gave me his hand with unlooked-for
+cordiality. He was a dapper little man, with a head as round and nearly
+as bald as an orange, and not unlike an orange in complexion, either;
+he had twinkling gray eyes and a pronounced Roman nose, the numerous
+freckles upon which were deepened by his funereal dress-coat and
+trousers. He reminded me of Alfred de Musset's blackbird, which, with
+its yellow beak and sombre plumage, looked like an undertaker eating an
+omelet.
+
+"Silas will take care of you," said Mr. Sewell, taking down his hat from
+a peg behind the door. "I 've got the cattle to look after. Tell him, if
+you want anything."
+
+While I ate my breakfast, Mr. Jaffrey hopped up and down the narrow
+bar-room and chirped away as blithely as a bird on a cherry-bough,
+occasionally ruffling with his fingers a slight fringe of auburn hair
+which stood up pertly round his head and seemed to possess a luminous
+quality of its own.
+
+"Don't I find it a little slow up here at the Corners? Not at all, my
+dear sir. I am in the thick of life up here. So many interesting things
+going on all over the world--inventions, discoveries, spirits, railroad
+disasters, mysterious homicides. Poets, murderers, musicians, statesmen,
+distinguished travellers, prodigies of all kinds turning up everywhere.
+Very few events or persons escape me. I take six daily city papers,
+thirteen weekly journals, all the monthly magazines, and two
+quarterlies. I could not get along with less. I could n't if you asked
+me. I never feel lonely. How can I, being on intimate terms, as it were,
+with thousands and thousands of people? There's that young woman out
+West. What an entertaining creature _she_ is!--now in Missouri, now
+in Indiana, and now in Minnesota, always on the go, and all the time
+shedding needles from various parts of her body as if she really enjoyed
+it! Then there 's that versatile patriarch who walks hundreds of miles
+and saws thousands of feet of wood, before breakfast, and shows no signs
+of giving out. Then there's that remarkable, one may say that historical
+colored woman who knew Benjamin Franklin, and fought at the battle of
+Bunk--no, it is the old negro man who fought at Bunker Hill, a mere
+infant, of course, at that period. Really, now, it is quite curious
+to observe how that venerable female slave--formerly an African
+princess--is repeatedly dying in her hundred and eleventh year, and
+coming to life again punctually every six months in the small-type
+paragraphs. Are you aware, sir, that within the last twelve years no
+fewer than two hundred and eighty-seven of General Washington's colored
+coachmen have died?"
+
+For the soul of me I could not tell whether this quaint little gentleman
+was chaffing me or not. I laid down my knife and fork, and stared at
+him.
+
+"Then there are the mathematicians!" he cried vivaciously, without
+waiting for a reply. "I take great interest in them. Hear this!" and Mr.
+Jaffrey drew a newspaper from a pocket in the tail of his coat, and read
+as follows: "_It has been estimated that if all the candles manufactured
+by this eminent firm (Stearine & Co.) were placed end to end, they
+would reach 2 and 7/8 times around the globe_. Of course," continued Mr.
+Jaffrey, folding up the journal reflectively, "abstruse calculations of
+this kind are not, perhaps, of vital importance, but they indicate the
+intellectual activity of the age. Seriously, now," he said, halting in
+front of the table, "what with books and papers and drives about the
+country, I do not find the days too long, though I seldom see any one,
+except when I go over to K------ for my mail. Existence may be very full
+to a man who stands a little aside from the tumult and watches it with
+philosophic eye. Possibly he may see more of the battle than those who
+are in the midst of the action. Once I was struggling with the crowd, as
+eager and undaunted as the best; perhaps I should have been struggling
+still. Indeed, I know my life would have been very different now if I
+had married Mehetabel--if I had married Mehetabel."
+
+His vivacity was gone, a sudden cloud had come over his bright face, his
+figure seemed to have collapsed, the light seemed to have faded out
+of his hair. With a shuffling step, the very antithesis of his brisk,
+elastic tread, he turned to the door and passed into the road.
+
+"Well," I said to myself, "if Greenton had forty thousand inhabitants,
+it could n't turn out a more astonishing old party than that!"
+
+
+
+
+II. THE CASE OF SILAS JAFFREY.
+
+A man with a passion for _bric-�-brac_ is always stumbling over antique
+bronzes, intaglios, mosaics, and daggers of the time of Benvenuto
+Cellini; the bibliophile finds creamy vellum folios and rare Alduses and
+Elzevirs waiting for him at unsuspected bookstalls; the numismatist has
+but to stretch forth his palm to have priceless coins drop into it. My
+own weakness is odd people, and I am constantly encountering them.
+It was plain that I had unearthed a couple of very queer specimens at
+Bayley's Four-Corners. I saw that a fortnight afforded me too brief an
+opportunity to develop the richness of both, and I resolved to devote
+my spare time to Mr. Jaffrey alone, instinctively recognizing in him
+an unfamiliar species. My professional work in the vicinity of Greenton
+left my evenings and occasionally an afternoon unoccupied; these
+intervals I purposed to employ in studying and classifying my
+fellow-boarder. It was necessary, as a preliminary step, to learn
+something of his previous history, and to this end I addressed myself to
+Mr. Sewell that same night.
+
+"I do not want to seem inquisitive," I said to the landlord, as he was
+fastening up the bar, which, by the way, was the _salle � manger_ and
+general sitting-room--"I do not want to seem inquisitive, but
+your friend Mr. Jaffrey dropped a remark this morning at breakfast
+which--which was not altogether clear to me."
+
+"About Mehetabel?" asked Mr. Sewell, uneasily.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, I wish he would n't!"
+
+"He was friendly enough in the course of conversation to hint to me that
+he had not married the young woman, and seemed to regret it."
+
+"No, he did n't marry Mehetabel."
+
+"May I inquire _why_ he did n't marry Mehetabel?"
+
+"Never asked her. Might have married the girl forty times. Old Elkins's
+daughter, over at K------. She 'd have had him quick enough. Seven
+years, off and on, he kept company with Mehetabel, and then she died."
+
+"And he never asked her?"
+
+"He shilly-shallied. Perhaps he did n't think of it. When she was dead
+and gone, then Silas was struck all of a heap--and that's all about it."
+
+Obviously Mr. Sewell did not intend to tell me anything more, and
+obviously there was more to tell. The topic was plainly disagreeable to
+him for some reason or other, and that unknown reason of course piqued
+my curiosity.
+
+As I was absent from dinner and supper that day, I did not meet Mr.
+Jaffrey again until the following morning at breakfast. He had recovered
+his bird-like manner, and was full of a mysterious assassination that
+had just taken place in New York, all the thrilling details of which
+were at his fingers' ends. It was at once comical and sad to see this
+harmless old gentleman with his na�ve, benevolent countenance, and his
+thin hair flaming up in a semicircle, like the footlights at a theatre,
+revelling in the intricacies of the unmentionable deed.
+
+"You come up to my room to-night," he cried, with horrid glee, "and I
+'ll give you my theory of the murder. I 'll make it as clear as day to
+you that it was the detective himself who fired the three pistol-shots."
+
+It was not so much the desire to have this point elucidated as to make
+a closer study of Mr. Jaffrey that led me to accept his invitation.
+Mr. Jaffrey's bedroom was in an L of the building, and was in no way
+noticeable except for the numerous files of newspapers neatly arranged
+against the blank spaces of the walls, and a huge pile of old magazines
+which stood in one corner, reaching nearly up to the ceiling, and
+threatening to topple over each instant, like the Leaning Tower at Pisa.
+There were green paper shades at the windows, some faded chintz valances
+about the bed, and two or three easy-chairs covered with chintz. On
+a black-walnut shelf between the windows lay a choice collection of
+meerschaum and brier-wood pipes.
+
+Filling one of the chocolate-colored bowls for me and another for
+himself, Mr. Jaffrey began prattling; but not about the murder, which
+appeared to have flown out of his mind. In fact, I do not remember that
+the topic was even touched upon, either then or afterwards.
+
+"Cosey nest this," said Mr. Jaffrey, glancing complacently over the
+apartment. "What is more cheerful, now, in the fall of the year, than an
+open wood-fire? Do you hear those little chirps and twitters coming
+out of that piece of apple-wood? Those are the ghosts of the robins and
+bluebirds that sang upon the bough when it was in blossom last spring.
+In summer whole flocks of them come fluttering about the fruit-trees
+under the window: so I have singing birds all the year round. I take
+it very easy here, I can tell you, summer and winter. Not much society.
+Tobias is not, perhaps, what one would term a great intellectual force,
+but he means well. He 's a realist--believes in coming down to what he
+calls 'the hard pan;' but his heart is in the right place, and he 's
+very kind to me. The wisest thing I ever did in my life was to sell out
+my grain business over at K------, thirteen years ago, and settle down
+at the Corners. When a man has made a competency, what does he want
+more? Besides, at that time an event occurred which destroyed any
+ambition I may have had. Mehetabel died." "The lady you were engaged
+to?" "N-o, not precisely engaged. I think it was quite understood
+between us, though nothing had been said on the subject. Typhoid," added
+Mr. Jaffrey, in a low voice.
+
+For several minutes he smoked in silence, a vague, troubled look playing
+over his countenance. Presently this passed away, and he fixed his gray
+eyes speculatively upon my face.
+
+"If I had married Mehetabel," said Mr. Jaffrey, slowly, and then he
+hesitated. I blew a ring of smoke into the air, and, resting my pipe
+on my knee, dropped into an attitude of attention. "If I had married
+Mehetabel, you know, we should have had--ahem!--a family."
+
+"Very likely," I assented, vastly amused at this unexpected turn.
+
+"A Boy!" exclaimed Mr. Jaffrey, explosively.
+
+"By all means, certainly, a son."
+
+"Great trouble about naming the boy. Mehetabel's family want him named
+Elkanah Elkins, after her grandfather; I want him named Andrew Jackson.
+We compromise by christening him Elkanah Elkins Andrew Jackson Jaffrey.
+Rather a long name for such a short little fellow," said Mr. Jaffrey,
+musingly.
+
+"Andy is n't a bad nickname," I suggested.
+
+"Not at all. We call him Andy, in the family. Somewhat fractious at
+first--colic and things. I suppose it is right, or it would n't be so;
+but the usefulness of measles, mumps, croup, whooping-cough, scarlatina,
+and fits is not clear to the parental eye. I wish Andy would be a model
+infant, and dodge the whole lot."
+
+This supposititious child, born within the last few minutes, was plainly
+assuming the proportions of a reality to Mr. Jaffrey. I began to feel a
+little uncomfortable. I am, as I have said, a civil engineer, and it is
+not strictly in my line to assist at the births of infants, imaginary or
+otherwise. I pulled away vigorously at the pipe, and said nothing.
+
+"What large blue eyes he has," resumed Mr. Jaffrey, after a pause;
+"just like Hetty's; and the fair hair, too, like hers. How oddly certain
+distinctive features are handed down in families! Sometimes a mouth,
+sometimes a turn of the eyebrow. Wicked little boys over at K------ have
+now and then derisively advised me to follow my nose. It would be an
+interesting thing to do. I should find my nose flying about the world,
+turning up unexpectedly here and there, dodging this branch of the
+family and re-appearing in that, now jumping over one greatgrandchild to
+fasten itself upon another, and never losing its individuality. Look
+at Andy. There 's Elkanah Elkins's chin to the life. Andy's chin is
+probably older than the Pyramids. Poor little thing," he cried, with
+sudden indescribable tenderness, "to lose his mother so early!" And Mr.
+Jaf-frey's head sunk upon his breast, and his shoulders slanted forward,
+as if he were actually bending over the cradle of the child. The whole
+gesture and attitude was so natural that it startled me. The pipe
+slipped from my fingers and fell to the floor.
+
+"Hush!" whispered Mr. Jaffrey, with a deprecating motion of his hand.
+"Andy's asleep!"
+
+He rose softly from the chair and, walking across the room on tiptoe,
+drew down the shade at the window through which the moonlight was
+streaming. Then he returned to his seat, and remained gazing with
+half-closed eyes into the dropping embers.
+
+I refilled my pipe and smoked in profound silence, wondering what would
+come next.
+
+But nothing came next. Mr. Jaffrey had fallen into so brown a study
+that, a quarter of an hour afterwards, when I wished him good-night and
+withdrew, I do not think he noticed my departure.
+
+I am not what is called a man of imagination; it is my habit to exclude
+most things not capable of mathematical demonstration; but I am not
+without a certain psychological insight, and I think I understood Mr.
+Jaffrey's case. I could easily understand how a man with an unhealthy,
+sensitive nature, overwhelmed by sudden calamity, might take refuge in
+some forlorn place like this old tavern, and dream his life away. To
+such a man--brooding forever on what might have been and dwelling wholly
+in the realm of his fancies--the actual world might indeed become as a
+dream, and nothing seem real but his illusions. I dare say that thirteen
+years of Bayley's Four-Corners would have its effect upon me; though
+instead of conjuring up golden-haired children of the Madonna, I should
+probably see gnomes and kobolds, and goblins engaged in hoisting false
+signals and misplacing switches for midnight express trains.
+
+"No doubt," I said to myself that night, as I lay in bed, thinking over
+the matter, "this once possible but now impossible child is a great
+comfort to the old gentleman--a greater comfort, perhaps, than a real
+son would be. Maybe Andy will vanish with the shades and mists of night,
+he's such an unsubstantial infant; but if he does n't, and Mr. Jaffrey
+finds pleasure in talking to me about his son, I shall humor the old
+fellow. It would n't be a Christian act to knock over his harmless
+fancy."
+
+I was very impatient to see if Mr. Jaffrey's illusion would stand the
+test of daylight. It did. Elkanah Elkins Andrew Jackson Jaffrey was, so
+to speak, alive and kicking the next morning. On taking his seat at
+the breakfast-table, Mr. Jaffrey whispered to me that Andy had had a
+comfortable night.
+
+"Silas!" said Mr. Sewell, sharply, "what are you whispering about?"
+
+Mr. Sewell was in an ill-humor; perhaps he was jealous because I had
+passed the evening in Mr. Jaffrey's room; but surely Mr. Sewell could
+not expect his boarders to go to bed at eight o'clock every night, as he
+did. From time to time during the meal Mr. Sewell regarded me unkindly
+out of the corner of his eye, and in helping me to the parsnips he
+poniarded them with quite a suggestive air. All this, however, did not
+prevent me from repairing to the door of Mr. Jaffrey's snuggery when
+night came.
+
+"Well, Mr. Jaffrey, how 's Andy this evening?"
+
+"Got a tooth!" cried Mr. Jaffrey, vivaciously.
+
+"No!"
+
+"Yes, he has! Just through. Gave the nurse a silver dollar. Standing
+reward for first tooth."
+
+It was on the tip of my tongue to express surprise that an infant a day
+old should cut a tooth, when I suddenly recollected that Richard III.
+was born with teeth. Feeling myself to be on unfamiliar ground, I
+suppressed my criticism. It was well I did so, for in the next breath I
+was advised that half a year had elapsed since the previous evening.
+
+"Andy 's had a hard six months of it," said Mr. Jaffrey, with the
+well-known narrative air of fathers. "We 've brought him up by hand. His
+grandfather, by the way, was brought up by the bottle"--and brought down
+by it, too, I added mentally, recalling Mr. Sewell's account of the old
+gentleman's tragic end.
+
+Mr. Jaffrey then went on to give me a history of Andy's first six
+months, omitting no detail however insignificant or irrelevant. This
+history I would in turn inflict upon the reader, if I were only certain
+that he is one of those dreadful parents who, under the aegis of
+friendship, bore you at a streets corner with that remarkable thing
+which Freddy said the other day, and insist on singing to you, at an
+evening parly, the Iliad of Tommy's woes.
+
+But to inflict this _enfantillage_ upon the unmarried reader would be
+an act of wanton cruelty. So I pass over that part of Andy's biography,
+and, for the same reason, make no record of the next four or five
+interviews I had with Mr. Jaffrey. It will be sufficient to state
+that Andy glided from extreme infancy to early youth with astonishing
+celerity--at the rate of one year per night, if I remember correctly;
+and--must I confess it?--before the week came to an end, this invisible
+hobgoblin of a boy was only little less of a reality to me than to Mr.
+Jaffrey.
+
+At first I had lent myself to the old dreamer's whim with a keen
+perception of the humor of the thing; but by and by I found that I
+was talking and thinking of Miss Mehetabel's son as though he were a
+veritable personage. Mr. Jafifrey spoke of the child with such an air of
+conviction!--as if Andy were playing among his toys in the next room, or
+making mud-pies down in the yard. In these conversations, it should be
+observed, the child was never supposed to be present, except on that
+single occasion when Mr. Jafifrey leaned over the cradle. After one of
+our _s�ances_ I would lie awake until the small hours, thinking of the
+boy, and then fall asleep only to have indigestible dreams about him.
+Through the day, and sometimes in the midst of complicated calculations,
+I would catch myself wondering what Andy was up to now! There was no
+shaking him off; he became an inseparable nightmare to me; and I felt
+that if I remained much longer at Bayley's Four-Corners I should
+turn into just such another bald-headed, mild-eyed visionary as Silas
+Jaffrey.
+
+Then the tavern was a grewsome old shell any way, full of unaccountable
+noises after dark--rustlings of garments along unfrequented passages,
+and stealthy footfalls in unoccupied chambers overhead. I never knew of
+an old house without these mysterious noises. Next to my bedroom was a
+musty, dismantled apartment, in one corner of which, leaning against the
+wainscot, was a crippled mangle, with its iron crank tilted in the air
+like the elbow of the late Mr. Clem Jaffrey. Sometimes,
+
+     "In the dead vast and middle of the night,"
+
+I used to hear sounds as if some one were turning that rusty crank on
+the sly. This occurred only on particularly cold nights, and I conceived
+the uncomfortable idea that it was the thin family ghosts, from the
+neglected graveyard in the cornfield, keeping themselves warm by running
+each other through the mangle. There was a haunted air about the whole
+place that made it easy for me to believe in the existence of a phantasm
+like Miss Mehetabel's son, who, after all, was less unearthly than Mr.
+Jaffrey himself, and seemed more properly an inhabitant of this globe
+than the toothless ogre who kept the inn, not to mention the silent
+Witch of Endor that cooked our meals for us over the bar-room fire.
+
+In spite of the scowls and winks bestowed upon me by Mr. Sewell, who let
+slip no opportunity to testify his disapprobation of the intimacy,
+Mr. Jaffrey and I spent all our evenings together--those long autumnal
+evenings, through the length of which he talked about the boy, laying
+out his path in life and hedging the path with roses. He should be sent
+to the High School at Portsmouth, and then to college; he should be
+educated like a gentleman, Andy.
+
+"When the old man dies," remarked Mr. Jaffrey one night, rubbing his
+hands gleefully, as if it were a great joke, "Andy will find that the
+old man has left him a pretty plum."
+
+"What do you think of having Andy enter West Point, when he 's old
+enough?" said Mr. Jaffrey on another occasion. "He need n't necessarily
+go into the army when he graduates; he can become a civil engineer."
+
+This was a stroke of flattery so delicate and indirect that I could
+accept it without immodesty.
+
+There had lately sprung up on the corner of Mr. Jaffrey's bureau a small
+tin house, Gothic in architecture and pink in color, with a slit in the
+roof, and the word _Bank_ painted on one fa�ade. Several times in the
+course of an evening Mr. Jaffrey would rise from his chair without
+interrupting the conversation, and gravely drop a nickel into the
+scuttle of the bank. It was pleasant to observe the solemnity of his
+countenance as he approached the edifice, and the air of triumph with
+which he resumed his seat by the fireplace. One night I missed the tin
+bank. It had disappeared, deposits and all, like a real bank. Evidently
+there had been a defalcation on rather a large scale. I strongly
+suspected that Mr. Sewell was at the bottom of it, but my suspicion
+was not shared by Mr. Jaffrey, who, remarking my glance at the bureau,
+became suddenly depressed. "I 'm afraid," he said, "that I have failed
+to instil into Andrew those principles of integrity which--which"--and
+the old gentleman quite broke down.
+
+Andy was now eight or nine years old, and for some time past, if the
+truth must be told, had given Mr. Jaffrey no inconsiderable trouble;
+what with his impishness and his illnesses, the boy led the pair of us
+a lively dance. I shall not soon forget the anxiety of Mr. Jaffrey the
+night Andy had the scarlet-fever--an anxiety which so infected me that
+I actually returned to the tavern the following afternoon earlier than
+usual, dreading to hear that the little spectre was dead, and greatly
+relieved on meeting Mr. Jaffrey at the door-step with his face wreathed
+in smiles. When I spoke to him of Andy, I was made aware that I was
+inquiring into a case of scarlet-fever that had occurred the year
+before!
+
+It was at this time, towards the end of my second week at Greenton,
+that I noticed what was probably not a new trait--Mr. Jaffrey's curious
+sensitiveness to atmospherical changes. He was as sensitive as a
+barometer. The approach of a storm sent his mercury down instantly. When
+the weather was fair he was hopeful and sunny, and Andy's prospects
+were brilliant. When the weather was overcast and threatening he grew
+restless and despondent, and was afraid that the boy was not going to
+turn out well.
+
+On the Saturday previous to my departure, which had been fixed for
+Monday, it rained heavily all the afternoon, and that night Mr. Jaffrey
+was in an unusually excitable and unhappy frame of mind. His mercury was
+very low indeed.
+
+"That boy is going to the dogs just as fast as he can go," said Mr.
+Jaffrey, with a woful face. "I can't do anything with him."
+
+"He'll come out all right, Mr. Jaffrey. Boys will be boys. I would not
+give a snap for a lad without animal spirits."
+
+"But animal spirits," said Mr. Jaffrey sententiously, "should n't saw
+off the legs of the piano in Tobias's best parlor. I don't know what
+Tobias will say when he finds it out."
+
+"What! has Andy sawed off the legs of the old spinet?" I returned,
+laughing. "Worse than that." "Played upon it, then!" "No, sir. He has
+lied to me!" "I can't believe that of Andy." "Lied to me, sir," repeated
+Mr. Jaffrey, severely. "He pledged me his word of honor that he would
+give over his climbing. The way that boy climbs sends a chill down my
+spine. This morning, notwithstanding his solemn promise, he shinned
+up the lightning-rod attached to the extension, and sat astride the
+ridge-pole. I saw him, and he denied it! When a boy you have caressed
+and indulged and lavished pocket-money on lies to you and _will_ climb,
+then there's nothing more to be said. He's a lost child." "You take too
+dark a view of it, Mr. Jaffrey. Training and education are bound to tell
+in the end, and he has been well brought up."
+
+"But I did n't bring him up on a lightning-rod, did I? If he is ever
+going to know how to behave, he ought to know now. To-morrow he will be
+eleven years old."
+
+The reflection came to me that if Andy had not been brought up by the
+rod, he had certainly been brought up by the lightning. He was eleven
+years old in two weeks!
+
+I essayed, with that perspicacious wisdom which seems to be the peculiar
+property of bachelors and elderly maiden ladies, to tranquillize Mr.
+Jaffrey's mind, and to give him some practical hints on the management
+of youth.
+
+"Spank him," I suggested at last.
+
+"I will!" said the old gentleman.
+
+"And you 'd better do it at once!" I added, as it flashed upon me that
+in six months Andy would be a hundred and forty-three years old!--an age
+at which parental discipline would have to be relaxed.
+
+The next morning. Sunday, the rain came down as if determined to drive
+the quicksilver entirely out of my poor friend. Mr. Jaffrey sat bolt
+upright at the breakfast-table, looking as woe-begone as a bust of
+Dante, and retired to his chamber the moment the meal was finished. As
+the day advanced, the wind veered round to the northeast, and settled
+itself down to work. It was not pleasant to think, and I tried not to
+think, what Mr. Jaffrey's condition would be if the weather did not mend
+its manners by noon; but so far from clearing off at noon, the storm
+increased in violence, and as night set in the wind whistled in a
+spiteful falsetto key, and the rain lashed the old tavern as if it
+were a balky horse that refused to move on. The windows rattled in the
+worm-eaten frames, and the doors of remote rooms, where nobody ever
+went, slammed to in the maddest way. Now and then the tornado, sweeping
+down the side of Mount Agamenticus, bowled across the open country, and
+struck the ancient hostelry point-blank.
+
+Mr. Jaffrey did not appear at supper. I knew that he was expecting me to
+come to his room as usual, and I turned over in my mind a dozen plans
+to evade seeing him that night. The landlord sat at the opposite side
+of the chimney-place, with his eye upon me. I fancy he was aware of the
+effect of this storm on his other boarder, for at intervals, as the wind
+hurled itself against the exposed gable, threatening to burst in the
+windows, Mr. Sewell tipped me an atrocious wink, and displayed his gums
+in a way he had not done since the morning after my arrival at Greenton.
+I wondered if he suspected anything about Andy. There had been odd times
+during the past week when I felt convinced that the existence of Miss
+Mehetabel's son was no secret to Mr. Sewell.
+
+In deference to the gale, the landlord sat up half an hour later than
+was his custom. At half-past eight he went to bed, remarking that he
+thought the old pile would stand till morning.
+
+He had been absent only a few minutes when I heard a rustling at the
+door. I looked up, and beheld Mr. Jaffrey standing on the threshold,
+with his dress in disorder, his scant hair flying, and the wildest
+expression on his face.
+
+"He's gone!" cried Mr. Jaffrey.
+
+"Who? Sewell? Yes, he just went to bed."
+
+"No, not Tobias--the boy!"
+
+"What, run away?"
+
+"No--he is dead! He has fallen from a step-ladder in the red chamber and
+broken his neck!"
+
+Mr. Jaffrey threw up his hands with a gesture of despair, and
+disappeared. I followed him through the hall, saw him go into his own
+apartment, and heard the bolt of the door drawn to. Then I returned to
+the bar-room, and sat for an hour or two in the ruddy glow of the fire,
+brooding over the strange experience of the last fortnight.
+
+On my way to bed I paused at Mr. Jaf-frey's door, and, in a lull of the
+storm, the measured respiration within told me that the old gentleman
+was sleeping peacefully.
+
+Slumber was coy with me that night. I lay listening to the soughing of
+the wind, and thinking of Mr. Jaffrey's illusion. It had amused me at
+first with its grotesqueness; but now the poor little phantom was dead,
+I was conscious that there had been something pathetic in it all along.
+Shortly after midnight the wind sunk down, coming and going fainter and
+fainter, floating around the eaves of the tavern with an undulating,
+murmurous sound, as if it were turning itself into soft wings to bear
+away the spirit of a little child.
+
+Perhaps nothing that happened during my stay at Bayley's Four-Corners
+took me so completely by surprise as Mr. Jaffrey's radiant countenance
+the next morning. The morning itself was not fresher or sunnier. His
+round face literally shone with geniality and happiness. His eyes
+twinkled like diamonds, and the magnetic light of his hair was turned
+on full. He came into my room while I was packing my valise. He chirped,
+and prattled, and carolled, and was sorry I was going away--but never a
+word about Andy. However, the boy had probably been dead several years
+then!
+
+The open wagon that was to carry me to the station stood at the door;
+Mr. Sewell was placing my case of instruments under the seat, and Mr.
+Jaffrey had gone up to his room to get me a certain newspaper containing
+an account of a remarkable shipwreck on the Auckland Islands. I took the
+opportunity to thank Mr. Sewell for his courtesies to me, and to express
+my regret at leaving him and Mr. Jaffrey.
+
+"I have become very much attached to Mr. Jaffrey," I said; "he is a most
+interesting person; but that hypothetical boy of his, that son of Miss
+Mehetabel's"--
+
+"Yes, I know!" interrupted Mr. Sewell, testily. "Fell off a step-ladder
+and broke his dratted neck. Eleven year old, was n't he? Always does,
+jest at that point. Next week Silas will begin the whole thing over
+again, if he can get anybody to listen to him."
+
+"I see. Our amiable friend is a little queer on that subject."
+
+Mr. Sewell glanced cautiously over his shoulder, and, tapping himself
+significantly on the forehead, said in a low voice,
+
+"Room To Let--Unfurnished!"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Miss Mehetabel's Son, by Thomas Bailey Aldrich
+
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+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+
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+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" />
+    <title>
+      Miss Mehetabel's Son, by Thomas Bailey Aldrich
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
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+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
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+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
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+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Miss Mehetabel's Son, by Thomas Bailey Aldrich
+
+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: Miss Mehetabel's Son
+
+Author: Thomas Bailey Aldrich
+
+Release Date: November 6, 2007 [EBook #23357]
+Last Updated: March 3, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISS MEHETABEL'S SON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <div style="height: 8em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      MISS MEHETABEL'S SON.
+    </h1>
+    <h2>
+      By Thomas Bailey Aldrich
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      Boston And New York Houghton Mifflin Company
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      Copyright, 1873, 1885, and 1901
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Contents
+    </h2>
+    <table summary="">
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> I. THE OLD TAVERN AT BAYLEY'S FOUR
+            CORNERS. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> II. THE CASE OF SILAS JAFFREY. </a>
+          </p>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      I. THE OLD TAVERN AT BAYLEY'S FOUR CORNERS.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      You will not find Greenton, or Bayley's Four-Corners, as it is more
+      usually designated, on any map of New England that I know of. It is not a
+      town; it is not even a village; it is merely an absurd hotel. The almost
+      indescribable place called Greenton is at the intersection of four roads,
+      in the heart of New Hampshire, twenty miles from the nearest settlement of
+      note, and ten miles from any railway station. A good location for a hotel,
+      you will say. Precisely; but there has always been a hotel there, and for
+      the last dozen years it has been pretty well patronized&mdash;by one
+      boarder. Not to trifle with an intelligent public, I will state at once
+      that, in the early part of this century, Greenton was a point at which the
+      mail-coach on the Great Northern Route stopped to change horses and allow
+      the passengers to dine. People in the county, wishing to take the early
+      mail Portsmouth-ward, put up overnight at the old tavern, famous for its
+      irreproachable larder and soft feather-beds. The tavern at that time was
+      kept by Jonathan Bayley, who rivalled his wallet in growing corpulent, and
+      in due time passed away. At his death the establishment, which included a
+      farm, fell into the hands of a son-in-law. Now, though Bayley left his
+      son-in-law a hotel&mdash;which sounds handsome&mdash;he left him no
+      guests; for at about the period of the old man's death the old stage-coach
+      died also. Apoplexy carried off one, and steam the other. Thus, by a
+      sudden swerve in the tide of progress, the tavern at the Corners found
+      itself high and dry, like a wreck on a sand-bank. Shortly after this
+      event, or maybe contemporaneously, there was some attempt to build a town
+      at Green-ton; but it apparently failed, if eleven cellars choked up with
+      <i>débris</i> and overgrown with burdocks are any indication of failure.
+      The farm, however, was a good farm, as things go in New Hampshire, and
+      Tobias Sewell, the son-in-law, could afford to snap his fingers at the
+      travelling public if they came near enough&mdash;which they never did.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hotel remains to-day pretty much the same as when Jonathan Bayley
+      handed in his accounts in 1840, except that Sewell hasfrom time to time
+      sold the furniture of some of the upper chambers to bridal couples in the
+      neighborhood. The bar is still open, and the parlor door says Parlour in
+      tall black letters. Now and then a passing drover looks in at that lonely
+      bar-room, where a high-shouldered bottle of Santa Cruz rum ogles with a
+      peculiarly knowing air a shrivelled lemon on a shelf; now and then a
+      farmer rides across country to talk crops and stock and take a friendly
+      glass with Tobias; and now and then a circus caravan with speckled ponies,
+      or a menagerie with a soggy elephant, halts under the swinging sign, on
+      which there is a dim mail-coach with four phantomish horses driven by a
+      portly gentleman whose head has been washed off by the rain. Other
+      customers there are none, except that one regular boarder whom have
+      mentioned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If misery makes a man acquainted with strange bed-fellows, it is equally
+      certain that the profession of surveyor and civil engineer often takes one
+      into undreamed-of localities. I had never heard of Greenton until my
+      duties sent me there, and kept me there two weeks in the dreariest season
+      of the year. I do not think I would, of my own volition, have selected
+      Greenton for a fortnight's sojourn at any time; but now the business is
+      over, I shall never regret the circumstances that made me the guest of
+      Tobias Sewell, and brought me into intimate relations with Miss
+      Mehetabel's Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a black October night in the year of grace 1872, that discovered me
+      standing in front of the old tavern at the Corners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Though the ten miles' ride from K&mdash;&mdash;&mdash; had been
+      depressing, especially the last five miles, on account of the cold
+      autumnal rain that had set in, I felt a pang of regret on hearing the
+      rickety open wagon turn round in the road and roll off in the darkness.
+      There were no lights visible anywhere, and only for the big, shapeless
+      mass of something in front of me, which the driver had said was the hotel,
+      I should have fancied that I had been set down by the roadside. I was wet
+      to the skin and in no amiable humor; and not being able to find bell-pull
+      or knocker, or even a door, I belabored the side of the house with my
+      heavy walking-stick. In a minute or two I saw a light flickering somewhere
+      aloft, then I heard the sound of a window opening, followed by an
+      exclamation of disgust as a blast of wind extinguished the candle which
+      had given me an instantaneous picture <i>en silhouette</i> of a man
+      leaning out of a casement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I say, what do you want, down there?&rdquo; inquired an unprepossessing voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want to come in; I want a supper, and a bed, and numberless things.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is n't no time of night to go rousing honest folks out of their
+      sleep. Who are you, anyway?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The question, superficially considered, was a very simple one, and I, of
+      all people in the world, ought to have been able to answer it off-hand;
+      but it staggered me. Strangely enough, there came drifting across my
+      memory the lettering on the back of a metaphysical work which I had seen
+      years before on a shelf in the Astor Library. Owing to an unpremeditatedly
+      funny collocation of title and author, the lettering read as follows: &ldquo;Who
+      am I? Jones.&rdquo; Evidently it had puzzled Jones to know who he was, or he
+      would n't have written a book about it, and come to so lame and impotent a
+      conclusion. It certainly puzzled me at that instant to define my identity.
+      &ldquo;Thirty years ago,&rdquo; I reflected, &ldquo;I was nothing; fifty years hence I shall
+      be nothing again, humanly speaking. In the mean time, who am I,
+      sure-enough?&rdquo; It had never before occurred to me what an indefinite
+      article I was. I wish it had not occurred to me then. Standing there in
+      the rain and darkness, I wrestled vainly with the problem, and was
+      constrained to fall back upon a Yankee expedient.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isn't this a hotel?&rdquo; I asked finally,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, it is a sort of hotel,&rdquo; said the voice, doubtfully. My hesitation
+      and prevarication had apparently not inspired my interlocutor with
+      confidence in me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then let me in. I have just driven over from K&mdash;&mdash;&mdash; in
+      this infernal rain. I am wet through and through.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what do you want here, at the Corners? What's your business? People
+      don't come here, leastways in the middle of the night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is n't in the middle of the night,&rdquo; I returned, incensed. &ldquo;I come on
+      business connected with the new road. I 'm the superintendent of the
+      works.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And if you don't open the door at once, I'll raise the whole neighborhood&mdash;and
+      then go to the other hotel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When I said that, I supposed Greenton was a village with a population of
+      at least three or four thousand and was wondering vaguely at the absence
+      of lights and other signs of human habitation. Surely, I thought, all the
+      people cannot be abed and asleep at half past ten o'clock: perhaps I am in
+      the business section of the town, among the shops.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You jest wait,&rdquo; said the voice above.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This request was not devoid of a certain accent of menace, and I braced
+      myself for a sortie on the part of the besieged, if he had any such
+      hostile intent. Presently a door opened at the very place where I least
+      expected a door, at the farther end of the building, in fact, and a man in
+      his shirtsleeves, shielding a candle with his left hand, appeared on the
+      threshold. I passed quickly into the house, with Mr. Tobias Sewell (for
+      this was Mr. Sewell) at my heels, and found myself in a long, low-studded
+      bar-room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were two chairs drawn up before the hearth, on which a huge hemlock
+      backlog was still smouldering, and on the un-painted deal counter
+      contiguous stood two cloudy glasses with bits of lemon-peel in the bottom,
+      hinting at recent libations. Against the discolored wall over the bar hung
+      a yellowed handbill, in a warped frame, announcing that &ldquo;the Next Annual
+      N. H. Agricultural Fair&rdquo; would take place on the 10th of September, 1841.
+      There was no other furniture or decoration in this dismal apartment,
+      except the cobwebs which festooned the ceiling, hanging down here and
+      there like stalactites.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Sewell set the candlestick on the mantel-shelf, and threw some
+      pine-knots on the fire, which immediately broke into a blaze, and showed
+      him to be a lank, narrow-chested man, past sixty, with sparse, steel-gray
+      hair, and small, deep-set eyes, perfectly round, like a fish's, and of no
+      particular color. His chief personal characteristics seemed to be too much
+      feet and not enough teeth. His sharply cut, but rather simple face, as he
+      turned it towards me, wore a look of interrogation. I replied to his mute
+      inquiry by taking out my pocket-book and handing him my business-card,
+      which he held up to the candle and perused with great deliberation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You 're a civil engineer, are you?&rdquo; he said, displaying his gums, which
+      gave his countenance an expression of almost infantile innocence. He made
+      no further audible remark, but mumbled between his thin lips something
+      which an imaginative person might have construed into &ldquo;If you 're at civil
+      engineer, I 'll be blessed if I would n't like to see an uncivil one!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Sewell's growl, however, was worse than his bite&mdash;owing to his
+      lack of teeth probably&mdash;for he very good-naturedly set himself to
+      work preparing supper for me. After a slice of cold ham, and a warm punch,
+      to which my chilled condition gave a grateful flavor, I went to bed in a
+      distant chamber in a most amiable mood, feeling satisfied that Jones was a
+      donkey to bother himself about his identity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I awoke, the sun was several hours high. My bed faced a window, and
+      by raising myself on one elbow I could look out on what I expected would
+      be the main street. To my astonishment I beheld a lonely country road
+      winding up a sterile hill and disappearing over the ridge. In a cornfield
+      at the right of the road was a small private graveyard, enclosed by a
+      crumbling stonewall with a red gate. The only thing suggestive of life was
+      this little corner lot occupied by death. I got out of bed and went to the
+      other window. There I had an uninterrupted view of twelve miles of open
+      landscape, with Mount Agamenticus in the purple distance. Not a house or a
+      spire in sight. &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; I exclaimed, &ldquo;Greenton does n't appear to be a
+      very closely packed metropolis!&rdquo; That rival hotel with which I had
+      threatened Mr. Sewell overnight was not a deadly weapon, looking at it by
+      daylight. &ldquo;By Jove!&rdquo; I reflected, &ldquo;maybe I 'm in the wrong place.&rdquo; But
+      there, tacked against a panel of the bedroom door, was a faded time-table
+      dated Greenton, August 1, 1839.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I smiled all the time I was dressing, and went smiling down stairs, where
+      I found Mr. Sewell, assisted by one of the fair sex in the first bloom of
+      her eightieth year, serving breakfast for me on a small table&mdash;in the
+      bar-room!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I overslept myself this morning,&rdquo; I remarked apologetically, &ldquo;and I see
+      that I am putting you to some trouble. In future, if you will have me
+      called, I will take my meals at the usual <i>table de hôte</i>.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At the what?&rdquo; said Mr. Sewell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mean with the other boarders.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Sewell paused in the act of lifting a chop from the fire, and, resting
+      the point of his fork against the woodwork of the mantelpiece, grinned
+      from ear to ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bless you! there is n't any other boarders. There has n't been anybody
+      put up here sence&mdash;let me see&mdash;sence father-in-law died, and
+      that was in the fall of '40. To be sure, there 's Silas; <i>he</i>'s a
+      regular boarder; but I don't count him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Sewell then explained how the tavern had lost its custom when the old
+      stage line was broken up by the railroad. The introduction of steam was,
+      in Mr. Sewell's estimation, a fatal error. &ldquo;Jest killed local business.
+      Carried it off, I 'm darned if I know where. The whole country has been
+      sort o' retrograding ever sence steam was invented.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You spoke of having one boarder,&rdquo; I said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Silas? Yes; he come here the summer 'Tilda died&mdash;she that was 'Tilda
+      Bayley&mdash;and he 's here yet, going on thirteen year. He could n't live
+      any longer with the old man. Between you and I, old Clem Jaffrey, Silas's
+      father, was a hard nut. Yes,&rdquo; said Mr. Sewell, crooking his elbow in
+      inimitable pantomime, &ldquo;altogether too often. Found dead in the road
+      hugging a three-gallon demijohn. <i>Habeas corpus</i> in the barn,&rdquo; added
+      Mr. Sewell, intending, I presume, to intimate that a <i>post-mortem</i>
+      examination had been deemed necessary. &ldquo;Silas,&rdquo; he resumed, in that
+      respectful tone which one should always adopt when speaking of capital,
+      &ldquo;is a man of considerable property; lives on his interest, and keeps a
+      hoss and shay. He 's a great scholar, too, Silas; takes all the
+      pe-ri-odicals and the Police Gazette regular.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Sewell was turning over a third chop, when the door opened and a
+      stoutish, middle-aged little gentleman, clad in deep black, stepped into
+      the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Silas Jaffrey,&rdquo; said Mr. Sewell, with a comprehensive sweep of his arm,
+      picking up me and the new-comer on one fork, so to speak. &ldquo;Be acquainted!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Jaffrey advanced briskly, and gave me his hand with unlooked-for
+      cordiality. He was a dapper little man, with a head as round and nearly as
+      bald as an orange, and not unlike an orange in complexion, either; he had
+      twinkling gray eyes and a pronounced Roman nose, the numerous freckles
+      upon which were deepened by his funereal dress-coat and trousers. He
+      reminded me of Alfred de Musset's blackbird, which, with its yellow beak
+      and sombre plumage, looked like an undertaker eating an omelet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Silas will take care of you,&rdquo; said Mr. Sewell, taking down his hat from a
+      peg behind the door. &ldquo;I 've got the cattle to look after. Tell him, if you
+      want anything.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While I ate my breakfast, Mr. Jaffrey hopped up and down the narrow
+      bar-room and chirped away as blithely as a bird on a cherry-bough,
+      occasionally ruffling with his fingers a slight fringe of auburn hair
+      which stood up pertly round his head and seemed to possess a luminous
+      quality of its own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't I find it a little slow up here at the Corners? Not at all, my dear
+      sir. I am in the thick of life up here. So many interesting things going
+      on all over the world&mdash;inventions, discoveries, spirits, railroad
+      disasters, mysterious homicides. Poets, murderers, musicians, statesmen,
+      distinguished travellers, prodigies of all kinds turning up everywhere.
+      Very few events or persons escape me. I take six daily city papers,
+      thirteen weekly journals, all the monthly magazines, and two quarterlies.
+      I could not get along with less. I could n't if you asked me. I never feel
+      lonely. How can I, being on intimate terms, as it were, with thousands and
+      thousands of people? There's that young woman out West. What an
+      entertaining creature <i>she</i> is!&mdash;now in Missouri, now in
+      Indiana, and now in Minnesota, always on the go, and all the time shedding
+      needles from various parts of her body as if she really enjoyed it! Then
+      there 's that versatile patriarch who walks hundreds of miles and saws
+      thousands of feet of wood, before breakfast, and shows no signs of giving
+      out. Then there's that remarkable, one may say that historical colored
+      woman who knew Benjamin Franklin, and fought at the battle of Bunk&mdash;no,
+      it is the old negro man who fought at Bunker Hill, a mere infant, of
+      course, at that period. Really, now, it is quite curious to observe how
+      that venerable female slave&mdash;formerly an African princess&mdash;is
+      repeatedly dying in her hundred and eleventh year, and coming to life
+      again punctually every six months in the small-type paragraphs. Are you
+      aware, sir, that within the last twelve years no fewer than two hundred
+      and eighty-seven of General Washington's colored coachmen have died?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For the soul of me I could not tell whether this quaint little gentleman
+      was chaffing me or not. I laid down my knife and fork, and stared at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then there are the mathematicians!&rdquo; he cried vivaciously, without waiting
+      for a reply. &ldquo;I take great interest in them. Hear this!&rdquo; and Mr. Jaffrey
+      drew a newspaper from a pocket in the tail of his coat, and read as
+      follows: &ldquo;<i>It has been estimated that if all the candles manufactured by
+      this eminent firm (Stearine &amp; Co.) were placed end to end, they would
+      reach 2 and 7/8 times around the globe</i>. Of course,&rdquo; continued Mr.
+      Jaffrey, folding up the journal reflectively, &ldquo;abstruse calculations of
+      this kind are not, perhaps, of vital importance, but they indicate the
+      intellectual activity of the age. Seriously, now,&rdquo; he said, halting in
+      front of the table, &ldquo;what with books and papers and drives about the
+      country, I do not find the days too long, though I seldom see any one,
+      except when I go over to K&mdash;&mdash;&mdash; for my mail. Existence may
+      be very full to a man who stands a little aside from the tumult and
+      watches it with philosophic eye. Possibly he may see more of the battle
+      than those who are in the midst of the action. Once I was struggling with
+      the crowd, as eager and undaunted as the best; perhaps I should have been
+      struggling still. Indeed, I know my life would have been very different
+      now if I had married Mehetabel&mdash;if I had married Mehetabel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His vivacity was gone, a sudden cloud had come over his bright face, his
+      figure seemed to have collapsed, the light seemed to have faded out of his
+      hair. With a shuffling step, the very antithesis of his brisk, elastic
+      tread, he turned to the door and passed into the road.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; I said to myself, &ldquo;if Greenton had forty thousand inhabitants, it
+      could n't turn out a more astonishing old party than that!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      II. THE CASE OF SILAS JAFFREY.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      A man with a passion for <i>bric-à-brac</i> is always stumbling over
+      antique bronzes, intaglios, mosaics, and daggers of the time of Benvenuto
+      Cellini; the bibliophile finds creamy vellum folios and rare Alduses and
+      Elzevirs waiting for him at unsuspected bookstalls; the numismatist has
+      but to stretch forth his palm to have priceless coins drop into it. My own
+      weakness is odd people, and I am constantly encountering them. It was
+      plain that I had unearthed a couple of very queer specimens at Bayley's
+      Four-Corners. I saw that a fortnight afforded me too brief an opportunity
+      to develop the richness of both, and I resolved to devote my spare time to
+      Mr. Jaffrey alone, instinctively recognizing in him an unfamiliar species.
+      My professional work in the vicinity of Greenton left my evenings and
+      occasionally an afternoon unoccupied; these intervals I purposed to employ
+      in studying and classifying my fellow-boarder. It was necessary, as a
+      preliminary step, to learn something of his previous history, and to this
+      end I addressed myself to Mr. Sewell that same night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not want to seem inquisitive,&rdquo; I said to the landlord, as he was
+      fastening up the bar, which, by the way, was the <i>salle à manger</i> and
+      general sitting-room&mdash;&ldquo;I do not want to seem inquisitive, but your
+      friend Mr. Jaffrey dropped a remark this morning at breakfast which&mdash;which
+      was not altogether clear to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;About Mehetabel?&rdquo; asked Mr. Sewell, uneasily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I wish he would n't!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was friendly enough in the course of conversation to hint to me that
+      he had not married the young woman, and seemed to regret it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, he did n't marry Mehetabel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I inquire <i>why</i> he did n't marry Mehetabel?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never asked her. Might have married the girl forty times. Old Elkins's
+      daughter, over at K&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;. She 'd have had him quick
+      enough. Seven years, off and on, he kept company with Mehetabel, and then
+      she died.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And he never asked her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He shilly-shallied. Perhaps he did n't think of it. When she was dead and
+      gone, then Silas was struck all of a heap&mdash;and that's all about it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Obviously Mr. Sewell did not intend to tell me anything more, and
+      obviously there was more to tell. The topic was plainly disagreeable to
+      him for some reason or other, and that unknown reason of course piqued my
+      curiosity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As I was absent from dinner and supper that day, I did not meet Mr.
+      Jaffrey again until the following morning at breakfast. He had recovered
+      his bird-like manner, and was full of a mysterious assassination that had
+      just taken place in New York, all the thrilling details of which were at
+      his fingers' ends. It was at once comical and sad to see this harmless old
+      gentleman with his naïve, benevolent countenance, and his thin hair
+      flaming up in a semicircle, like the footlights at a theatre, revelling in
+      the intricacies of the unmentionable deed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You come up to my room to-night,&rdquo; he cried, with horrid glee, &ldquo;and I 'll
+      give you my theory of the murder. I 'll make it as clear as day to you
+      that it was the detective himself who fired the three pistol-shots.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not so much the desire to have this point elucidated as to make a
+      closer study of Mr. Jaffrey that led me to accept his invitation. Mr.
+      Jaffrey's bedroom was in an L of the building, and was in no way
+      noticeable except for the numerous files of newspapers neatly arranged
+      against the blank spaces of the walls, and a huge pile of old magazines
+      which stood in one corner, reaching nearly up to the ceiling, and
+      threatening to topple over each instant, like the Leaning Tower at Pisa.
+      There were green paper shades at the windows, some faded chintz valances
+      about the bed, and two or three easy-chairs covered with chintz. On a
+      black-walnut shelf between the windows lay a choice collection of
+      meerschaum and brier-wood pipes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Filling one of the chocolate-colored bowls for me and another for himself,
+      Mr. Jaffrey began prattling; but not about the murder, which appeared to
+      have flown out of his mind. In fact, I do not remember that the topic was
+      even touched upon, either then or afterwards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cosey nest this,&rdquo; said Mr. Jaffrey, glancing complacently over the
+      apartment. &ldquo;What is more cheerful, now, in the fall of the year, than an
+      open wood-fire? Do you hear those little chirps and twitters coming out of
+      that piece of apple-wood? Those are the ghosts of the robins and bluebirds
+      that sang upon the bough when it was in blossom last spring. In summer
+      whole flocks of them come fluttering about the fruit-trees under the
+      window: so I have singing birds all the year round. I take it very easy
+      here, I can tell you, summer and winter. Not much society. Tobias is not,
+      perhaps, what one would term a great intellectual force, but he means
+      well. He 's a realist&mdash;believes in coming down to what he calls 'the
+      hard pan;' but his heart is in the right place, and he 's very kind to me.
+      The wisest thing I ever did in my life was to sell out my grain business
+      over at K&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;, thirteen years ago, and settle down at the
+      Corners. When a man has made a competency, what does he want more?
+      Besides, at that time an event occurred which destroyed any ambition I may
+      have had. Mehetabel died.&rdquo; &ldquo;The lady you were engaged to?&rdquo; &ldquo;N-o, not
+      precisely engaged. I think it was quite understood between us, though
+      nothing had been said on the subject. Typhoid,&rdquo; added Mr. Jaffrey, in a
+      low voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For several minutes he smoked in silence, a vague, troubled look playing
+      over his countenance. Presently this passed away, and he fixed his gray
+      eyes speculatively upon my face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I had married Mehetabel,&rdquo; said Mr. Jaffrey, slowly, and then he
+      hesitated. I blew a ring of smoke into the air, and, resting my pipe on my
+      knee, dropped into an attitude of attention. &ldquo;If I had married Mehetabel,
+      you know, we should have had&mdash;ahem!&mdash;a family.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very likely,&rdquo; I assented, vastly amused at this unexpected turn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A Boy!&rdquo; exclaimed Mr. Jaffrey, explosively.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By all means, certainly, a son.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Great trouble about naming the boy. Mehetabel's family want him named
+      Elkanah Elkins, after her grandfather; I want him named Andrew Jackson. We
+      compromise by christening him Elkanah Elkins Andrew Jackson Jaffrey.
+      Rather a long name for such a short little fellow,&rdquo; said Mr. Jaffrey,
+      musingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Andy is n't a bad nickname,&rdquo; I suggested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not at all. We call him Andy, in the family. Somewhat fractious at first&mdash;colic
+      and things. I suppose it is right, or it would n't be so; but the
+      usefulness of measles, mumps, croup, whooping-cough, scarlatina, and fits
+      is not clear to the parental eye. I wish Andy would be a model infant, and
+      dodge the whole lot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This supposititious child, born within the last few minutes, was plainly
+      assuming the proportions of a reality to Mr. Jaffrey. I began to feel a
+      little uncomfortable. I am, as I have said, a civil engineer, and it is
+      not strictly in my line to assist at the births of infants, imaginary or
+      otherwise. I pulled away vigorously at the pipe, and said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What large blue eyes he has,&rdquo; resumed Mr. Jaffrey, after a pause; &ldquo;just
+      like Hetty's; and the fair hair, too, like hers. How oddly certain
+      distinctive features are handed down in families! Sometimes a mouth,
+      sometimes a turn of the eyebrow. Wicked little boys over at K&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;
+      have now and then derisively advised me to follow my nose. It would be an
+      interesting thing to do. I should find my nose flying about the world,
+      turning up unexpectedly here and there, dodging this branch of the family
+      and re-appearing in that, now jumping over one greatgrandchild to fasten
+      itself upon another, and never losing its individuality. Look at Andy.
+      There 's Elkanah Elkins's chin to the life. Andy's chin is probably older
+      than the Pyramids. Poor little thing,&rdquo; he cried, with sudden indescribable
+      tenderness, &ldquo;to lose his mother so early!&rdquo; And Mr. Jaf-frey's head sunk
+      upon his breast, and his shoulders slanted forward, as if he were actually
+      bending over the cradle of the child. The whole gesture and attitude was
+      so natural that it startled me. The pipe slipped from my fingers and fell
+      to the floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush!&rdquo; whispered Mr. Jaffrey, with a deprecating motion of his hand.
+      &ldquo;Andy's asleep!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He rose softly from the chair and, walking across the room on tiptoe, drew
+      down the shade at the window through which the moonlight was streaming.
+      Then he returned to his seat, and remained gazing with half-closed eyes
+      into the dropping embers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I refilled my pipe and smoked in profound silence, wondering what would
+      come next.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But nothing came next. Mr. Jaffrey had fallen into so brown a study that,
+      a quarter of an hour afterwards, when I wished him good-night and
+      withdrew, I do not think he noticed my departure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am not what is called a man of imagination; it is my habit to exclude
+      most things not capable of mathematical demonstration; but I am not
+      without a certain psychological insight, and I think I understood Mr.
+      Jaffrey's case. I could easily understand how a man with an unhealthy,
+      sensitive nature, overwhelmed by sudden calamity, might take refuge in
+      some forlorn place like this old tavern, and dream his life away. To such
+      a man&mdash;brooding forever on what might have been and dwelling wholly
+      in the realm of his fancies&mdash;the actual world might indeed become as
+      a dream, and nothing seem real but his illusions. I dare say that thirteen
+      years of Bayley's Four-Corners would have its effect upon me; though
+      instead of conjuring up golden-haired children of the Madonna, I should
+      probably see gnomes and kobolds, and goblins engaged in hoisting false
+      signals and misplacing switches for midnight express trains.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No doubt,&rdquo; I said to myself that night, as I lay in bed, thinking over
+      the matter, &ldquo;this once possible but now impossible child is a great
+      comfort to the old gentleman&mdash;a greater comfort, perhaps, than a real
+      son would be. Maybe Andy will vanish with the shades and mists of night,
+      he's such an unsubstantial infant; but if he does n't, and Mr. Jaffrey
+      finds pleasure in talking to me about his son, I shall humor the old
+      fellow. It would n't be a Christian act to knock over his harmless fancy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I was very impatient to see if Mr. Jaffrey's illusion would stand the test
+      of daylight. It did. Elkanah Elkins Andrew Jackson Jaffrey was, so to
+      speak, alive and kicking the next morning. On taking his seat at the
+      breakfast-table, Mr. Jaffrey whispered to me that Andy had had a
+      comfortable night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Silas!&rdquo; said Mr. Sewell, sharply, &ldquo;what are you whispering about?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Sewell was in an ill-humor; perhaps he was jealous because I had
+      passed the evening in Mr. Jaffrey's room; but surely Mr. Sewell could not
+      expect his boarders to go to bed at eight o'clock every night, as he did.
+      From time to time during the meal Mr. Sewell regarded me unkindly out of
+      the corner of his eye, and in helping me to the parsnips he poniarded them
+      with quite a suggestive air. All this, however, did not prevent me from
+      repairing to the door of Mr. Jaffrey's snuggery when night came.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Mr. Jaffrey, how 's Andy this evening?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Got a tooth!&rdquo; cried Mr. Jaffrey, vivaciously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, he has! Just through. Gave the nurse a silver dollar. Standing
+      reward for first tooth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was on the tip of my tongue to express surprise that an infant a day
+      old should cut a tooth, when I suddenly recollected that Richard III. was
+      born with teeth. Feeling myself to be on unfamiliar ground, I suppressed
+      my criticism. It was well I did so, for in the next breath I was advised
+      that half a year had elapsed since the previous evening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Andy 's had a hard six months of it,&rdquo; said Mr. Jaffrey, with the
+      well-known narrative air of fathers. &ldquo;We 've brought him up by hand. His
+      grandfather, by the way, was brought up by the bottle&rdquo;&mdash;and brought
+      down by it, too, I added mentally, recalling Mr. Sewell's account of the
+      old gentleman's tragic end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Jaffrey then went on to give me a history of Andy's first six months,
+      omitting no detail however insignificant or irrelevant. This history I
+      would in turn inflict upon the reader, if I were only certain that he is
+      one of those dreadful parents who, under the aegis of friendship, bore you
+      at a streets corner with that remarkable thing which Freddy said the other
+      day, and insist on singing to you, at an evening parly, the Iliad of
+      Tommy's woes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But to inflict this <i>enfantillage</i> upon the unmarried reader would be
+      an act of wanton cruelty. So I pass over that part of Andy's biography,
+      and, for the same reason, make no record of the next four or five
+      interviews I had with Mr. Jaffrey. It will be sufficient to state that
+      Andy glided from extreme infancy to early youth with astonishing celerity&mdash;at
+      the rate of one year per night, if I remember correctly; and&mdash;must I
+      confess it?&mdash;before the week came to an end, this invisible hobgoblin
+      of a boy was only little less of a reality to me than to Mr. Jaffrey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first I had lent myself to the old dreamer's whim with a keen
+      perception of the humor of the thing; but by and by I found that I was
+      talking and thinking of Miss Mehetabel's son as though he were a veritable
+      personage. Mr. Jafifrey spoke of the child with such an air of conviction!&mdash;as
+      if Andy were playing among his toys in the next room, or making mud-pies
+      down in the yard. In these conversations, it should be observed, the child
+      was never supposed to be present, except on that single occasion when Mr.
+      Jafifrey leaned over the cradle. After one of our <i>séances</i> I would
+      lie awake until the small hours, thinking of the boy, and then fall asleep
+      only to have indigestible dreams about him. Through the day, and sometimes
+      in the midst of complicated calculations, I would catch myself wondering
+      what Andy was up to now! There was no shaking him off; he became an
+      inseparable nightmare to me; and I felt that if I remained much longer at
+      Bayley's Four-Corners I should turn into just such another bald-headed,
+      mild-eyed visionary as Silas Jaffrey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the tavern was a grewsome old shell any way, full of unaccountable
+      noises after dark&mdash;rustlings of garments along unfrequented passages,
+      and stealthy footfalls in unoccupied chambers overhead. I never knew of an
+      old house without these mysterious noises. Next to my bedroom was a musty,
+      dismantled apartment, in one corner of which, leaning against the
+      wainscot, was a crippled mangle, with its iron crank tilted in the air
+      like the elbow of the late Mr. Clem Jaffrey. Sometimes,
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;In the dead vast and middle of the night,&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      I used to hear sounds as if some one were turning that rusty crank on the
+      sly. This occurred only on particularly cold nights, and I conceived the
+      uncomfortable idea that it was the thin family ghosts, from the neglected
+      graveyard in the cornfield, keeping themselves warm by running each other
+      through the mangle. There was a haunted air about the whole place that
+      made it easy for me to believe in the existence of a phantasm like Miss
+      Mehetabel's son, who, after all, was less unearthly than Mr. Jaffrey
+      himself, and seemed more properly an inhabitant of this globe than the
+      toothless ogre who kept the inn, not to mention the silent Witch of Endor
+      that cooked our meals for us over the bar-room fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In spite of the scowls and winks bestowed upon me by Mr. Sewell, who let
+      slip no opportunity to testify his disapprobation of the intimacy, Mr.
+      Jaffrey and I spent all our evenings together&mdash;those long autumnal
+      evenings, through the length of which he talked about the boy, laying out
+      his path in life and hedging the path with roses. He should be sent to the
+      High School at Portsmouth, and then to college; he should be educated like
+      a gentleman, Andy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When the old man dies,&rdquo; remarked Mr. Jaffrey one night, rubbing his hands
+      gleefully, as if it were a great joke, &ldquo;Andy will find that the old man
+      has left him a pretty plum.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you think of having Andy enter West Point, when he 's old
+      enough?&rdquo; said Mr. Jaffrey on another occasion. &ldquo;He need n't necessarily go
+      into the army when he graduates; he can become a civil engineer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was a stroke of flattery so delicate and indirect that I could accept
+      it without immodesty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There had lately sprung up on the corner of Mr. Jaffrey's bureau a small
+      tin house, Gothic in architecture and pink in color, with a slit in the
+      roof, and the word <i>Bank</i> painted on one façade. Several times in the
+      course of an evening Mr. Jaffrey would rise from his chair without
+      interrupting the conversation, and gravely drop a nickel into the scuttle
+      of the bank. It was pleasant to observe the solemnity of his countenance
+      as he approached the edifice, and the air of triumph with which he resumed
+      his seat by the fireplace. One night I missed the tin bank. It had
+      disappeared, deposits and all, like a real bank. Evidently there had been
+      a defalcation on rather a large scale. I strongly suspected that Mr.
+      Sewell was at the bottom of it, but my suspicion was not shared by Mr.
+      Jaffrey, who, remarking my glance at the bureau, became suddenly
+      depressed. &ldquo;I 'm afraid,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that I have failed to instil into
+      Andrew those principles of integrity which&mdash;which&rdquo;&mdash;and the old
+      gentleman quite broke down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Andy was now eight or nine years old, and for some time past, if the truth
+      must be told, had given Mr. Jaffrey no inconsiderable trouble; what with
+      his impishness and his illnesses, the boy led the pair of us a lively
+      dance. I shall not soon forget the anxiety of Mr. Jaffrey the night Andy
+      had the scarlet-fever&mdash;an anxiety which so infected me that I
+      actually returned to the tavern the following afternoon earlier than
+      usual, dreading to hear that the little spectre was dead, and greatly
+      relieved on meeting Mr. Jaffrey at the door-step with his face wreathed in
+      smiles. When I spoke to him of Andy, I was made aware that I was inquiring
+      into a case of scarlet-fever that had occurred the year before!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was at this time, towards the end of my second week at Greenton, that I
+      noticed what was probably not a new trait&mdash;Mr. Jaffrey's curious
+      sensitiveness to atmospherical changes. He was as sensitive as a
+      barometer. The approach of a storm sent his mercury down instantly. When
+      the weather was fair he was hopeful and sunny, and Andy's prospects were
+      brilliant. When the weather was overcast and threatening he grew restless
+      and despondent, and was afraid that the boy was not going to turn out
+      well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the Saturday previous to my departure, which had been fixed for Monday,
+      it rained heavily all the afternoon, and that night Mr. Jaffrey was in an
+      unusually excitable and unhappy frame of mind. His mercury was very low
+      indeed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That boy is going to the dogs just as fast as he can go,&rdquo; said Mr.
+      Jaffrey, with a woful face. &ldquo;I can't do anything with him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He'll come out all right, Mr. Jaffrey. Boys will be boys. I would not
+      give a snap for a lad without animal spirits.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But animal spirits,&rdquo; said Mr. Jaffrey sententiously, &ldquo;should n't saw off
+      the legs of the piano in Tobias's best parlor. I don't know what Tobias
+      will say when he finds it out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What! has Andy sawed off the legs of the old spinet?&rdquo; I returned,
+      laughing. &ldquo;Worse than that.&rdquo; &ldquo;Played upon it, then!&rdquo; &ldquo;No, sir. He has lied
+      to me!&rdquo; &ldquo;I can't believe that of Andy.&rdquo; &ldquo;Lied to me, sir,&rdquo; repeated Mr.
+      Jaffrey, severely. &ldquo;He pledged me his word of honor that he would give
+      over his climbing. The way that boy climbs sends a chill down my spine.
+      This morning, notwithstanding his solemn promise, he shinned up the
+      lightning-rod attached to the extension, and sat astride the ridge-pole. I
+      saw him, and he denied it! When a boy you have caressed and indulged and
+      lavished pocket-money on lies to you and <i>will</i> climb, then there's
+      nothing more to be said. He's a lost child.&rdquo; &ldquo;You take too dark a view of
+      it, Mr. Jaffrey. Training and education are bound to tell in the end, and
+      he has been well brought up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I did n't bring him up on a lightning-rod, did I? If he is ever going
+      to know how to behave, he ought to know now. To-morrow he will be eleven
+      years old.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The reflection came to me that if Andy had not been brought up by the rod,
+      he had certainly been brought up by the lightning. He was eleven years old
+      in two weeks!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I essayed, with that perspicacious wisdom which seems to be the peculiar
+      property of bachelors and elderly maiden ladies, to tranquillize Mr.
+      Jaffrey's mind, and to give him some practical hints on the management of
+      youth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spank him,&rdquo; I suggested at last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will!&rdquo; said the old gentleman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you 'd better do it at once!&rdquo; I added, as it flashed upon me that in
+      six months Andy would be a hundred and forty-three years old!&mdash;an age
+      at which parental discipline would have to be relaxed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning. Sunday, the rain came down as if determined to drive the
+      quicksilver entirely out of my poor friend. Mr. Jaffrey sat bolt upright
+      at the breakfast-table, looking as woe-begone as a bust of Dante, and
+      retired to his chamber the moment the meal was finished. As the day
+      advanced, the wind veered round to the northeast, and settled itself down
+      to work. It was not pleasant to think, and I tried not to think, what Mr.
+      Jaffrey's condition would be if the weather did not mend its manners by
+      noon; but so far from clearing off at noon, the storm increased in
+      violence, and as night set in the wind whistled in a spiteful falsetto
+      key, and the rain lashed the old tavern as if it were a balky horse that
+      refused to move on. The windows rattled in the worm-eaten frames, and the
+      doors of remote rooms, where nobody ever went, slammed to in the maddest
+      way. Now and then the tornado, sweeping down the side of Mount
+      Agamenticus, bowled across the open country, and struck the ancient
+      hostelry point-blank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Jaffrey did not appear at supper. I knew that he was expecting me to
+      come to his room as usual, and I turned over in my mind a dozen plans to
+      evade seeing him that night. The landlord sat at the opposite side of the
+      chimney-place, with his eye upon me. I fancy he was aware of the effect of
+      this storm on his other boarder, for at intervals, as the wind hurled
+      itself against the exposed gable, threatening to burst in the windows, Mr.
+      Sewell tipped me an atrocious wink, and displayed his gums in a way he had
+      not done since the morning after my arrival at Greenton. I wondered if he
+      suspected anything about Andy. There had been odd times during the past
+      week when I felt convinced that the existence of Miss Mehetabel's son was
+      no secret to Mr. Sewell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In deference to the gale, the landlord sat up half an hour later than was
+      his custom. At half-past eight he went to bed, remarking that he thought
+      the old pile would stand till morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had been absent only a few minutes when I heard a rustling at the door.
+      I looked up, and beheld Mr. Jaffrey standing on the threshold, with his
+      dress in disorder, his scant hair flying, and the wildest expression on
+      his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's gone!&rdquo; cried Mr. Jaffrey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who? Sewell? Yes, he just went to bed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, not Tobias&mdash;the boy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, run away?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No&mdash;he is dead! He has fallen from a step-ladder in the red chamber
+      and broken his neck!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Jaffrey threw up his hands with a gesture of despair, and disappeared.
+      I followed him through the hall, saw him go into his own apartment, and
+      heard the bolt of the door drawn to. Then I returned to the bar-room, and
+      sat for an hour or two in the ruddy glow of the fire, brooding over the
+      strange experience of the last fortnight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On my way to bed I paused at Mr. Jaf-frey's door, and, in a lull of the
+      storm, the measured respiration within told me that the old gentleman was
+      sleeping peacefully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Slumber was coy with me that night. I lay listening to the soughing of the
+      wind, and thinking of Mr. Jaffrey's illusion. It had amused me at first
+      with its grotesqueness; but now the poor little phantom was dead, I was
+      conscious that there had been something pathetic in it all along. Shortly
+      after midnight the wind sunk down, coming and going fainter and fainter,
+      floating around the eaves of the tavern with an undulating, murmurous
+      sound, as if it were turning itself into soft wings to bear away the
+      spirit of a little child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps nothing that happened during my stay at Bayley's Four-Corners took
+      me so completely by surprise as Mr. Jaffrey's radiant countenance the next
+      morning. The morning itself was not fresher or sunnier. His round face
+      literally shone with geniality and happiness. His eyes twinkled like
+      diamonds, and the magnetic light of his hair was turned on full. He came
+      into my room while I was packing my valise. He chirped, and prattled, and
+      carolled, and was sorry I was going away&mdash;but never a word about
+      Andy. However, the boy had probably been dead several years then!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The open wagon that was to carry me to the station stood at the door; Mr.
+      Sewell was placing my case of instruments under the seat, and Mr. Jaffrey
+      had gone up to his room to get me a certain newspaper containing an
+      account of a remarkable shipwreck on the Auckland Islands. I took the
+      opportunity to thank Mr. Sewell for his courtesies to me, and to express
+      my regret at leaving him and Mr. Jaffrey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have become very much attached to Mr. Jaffrey,&rdquo; I said; &ldquo;he is a most
+      interesting person; but that hypothetical boy of his, that son of Miss
+      Mehetabel's&rdquo;&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I know!&rdquo; interrupted Mr. Sewell, testily. &ldquo;Fell off a step-ladder
+      and broke his dratted neck. Eleven year old, was n't he? Always does, jest
+      at that point. Next week Silas will begin the whole thing over again, if
+      he can get anybody to listen to him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see. Our amiable friend is a little queer on that subject.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Sewell glanced cautiously over his shoulder, and, tapping himself
+      significantly on the forehead, said in a low voice,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Room To Let&mdash;Unfurnished!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <div style="height: 6em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
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+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Miss Mehetabel's Son, by Thomas Bailey Aldrich
+
+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: Miss Mehetabel's Son
+
+Author: Thomas Bailey Aldrich
+
+Release Date: November 6, 2007 [EBook #23357]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISS MEHETABEL'S SON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MISS MEHETABEL'S SON.
+
+By Thomas Bailey Aldrich
+
+Boston And New York Houghton Mifflin Company
+
+Copyright, 1873, 1885, and 1901
+
+
+
+
+I. THE OLD TAVERN AT BAYLEY'S FOUR CORNERS.
+
+You will not find Greenton, or Bayley's Four-Corners, as it is more
+usually designated, on any map of New England that I know of. It is
+not a town; it is not even a village; it is merely an absurd hotel. The
+almost indescribable place called Greenton is at the intersection of
+four roads, in the heart of New Hampshire, twenty miles from the nearest
+settlement of note, and ten miles from any railway station. A good
+location for a hotel, you will say. Precisely; but there has always
+been a hotel there, and for the last dozen years it has been pretty well
+patronized--by one boarder. Not to trifle with an intelligent public, I
+will state at once that, in the early part of this century, Greenton was
+a point at which the mail-coach on the Great Northern Route stopped to
+change horses and allow the passengers to dine. People in the county,
+wishing to take the early mail Portsmouth-ward, put up overnight at the
+old tavern, famous for its irreproachable larder and soft feather-beds.
+The tavern at that time was kept by Jonathan Bayley, who rivalled his
+wallet in growing corpulent, and in due time passed away. At his death
+the establishment, which included a farm, fell into the hands of a
+son-in-law. Now, though Bayley left his son-in-law a hotel--which sounds
+handsome--he left him no guests; for at about the period of the old
+man's death the old stage-coach died also. Apoplexy carried off one, and
+steam the other. Thus, by a sudden swerve in the tide of progress,
+the tavern at the Corners found itself high and dry, like a wreck on a
+sand-bank. Shortly after this event, or maybe contemporaneously, there
+was some attempt to build a town at Green-ton; but it apparently failed,
+if eleven cellars choked up with _debris_ and overgrown with burdocks
+are any indication of failure. The farm, however, was a good farm, as
+things go in New Hampshire, and Tobias Sewell, the son-in-law, could
+afford to snap his fingers at the travelling public if they came near
+enough--which they never did.
+
+The hotel remains to-day pretty much the same as when Jonathan Bayley
+handed in his accounts in 1840, except that Sewell hasfrom time to time
+sold the furniture of some of the upper chambers to bridal couples
+in the neighborhood. The bar is still open, and the parlor door says
+Parlour in tall black letters. Now and then a passing drover looks in at
+that lonely bar-room, where a high-shouldered bottle of Santa Cruz rum
+ogles with a peculiarly knowing air a shrivelled lemon on a shelf; now
+and then a farmer rides across country to talk crops and stock and take
+a friendly glass with Tobias; and now and then a circus caravan with
+speckled ponies, or a menagerie with a soggy elephant, halts under the
+swinging sign, on which there is a dim mail-coach with four phantomish
+horses driven by a portly gentleman whose head has been washed off
+by the rain. Other customers there are none, except that one regular
+boarder whom have mentioned.
+
+If misery makes a man acquainted with strange bed-fellows, it is equally
+certain that the profession of surveyor and civil engineer often takes
+one into undreamed-of localities. I had never heard of Greenton until
+my duties sent me there, and kept me there two weeks in the dreariest
+season of the year. I do not think I would, of my own volition, have
+selected Greenton for a fortnight's sojourn at any time; but now the
+business is over, I shall never regret the circumstances that made me
+the guest of Tobias Sewell, and brought me into intimate relations with
+Miss Mehetabel's Son.
+
+It was a black October night in the year of grace 1872, that discovered
+me standing in front of the old tavern at the Corners.
+
+Though the ten miles' ride from K------ had been depressing, especially
+the last five miles, on account of the cold autumnal rain that had set
+in, I felt a pang of regret on hearing the rickety open wagon turn round
+in the road and roll off in the darkness. There were no lights visible
+anywhere, and only for the big, shapeless mass of something in front of
+me, which the driver had said was the hotel, I should have fancied that
+I had been set down by the roadside. I was wet to the skin and in no
+amiable humor; and not being able to find bell-pull or knocker, or even
+a door, I belabored the side of the house with my heavy walking-stick.
+In a minute or two I saw a light flickering somewhere aloft, then I
+heard the sound of a window opening, followed by an exclamation of
+disgust as a blast of wind extinguished the candle which had given me
+an instantaneous picture _en silhouette_ of a man leaning out of a
+casement.
+
+"I say, what do you want, down there?" inquired an unprepossessing
+voice.
+
+"I want to come in; I want a supper, and a bed, and numberless things."
+
+"This is n't no time of night to go rousing honest folks out of their
+sleep. Who are you, anyway?"
+
+The question, superficially considered, was a very simple one, and I, of
+all people in the world, ought to have been able to answer it off-hand;
+but it staggered me. Strangely enough, there came drifting across my
+memory the lettering on the back of a metaphysical work which I had
+seen years before on a shelf in the Astor Library. Owing to an
+unpremeditatedly funny collocation of title and author, the lettering
+read as follows: "Who am I? Jones." Evidently it had puzzled Jones to
+know who he was, or he would n't have written a book about it, and come
+to so lame and impotent a conclusion. It certainly puzzled me at that
+instant to define my identity. "Thirty years ago," I reflected, "I was
+nothing; fifty years hence I shall be nothing again, humanly speaking.
+In the mean time, who am I, sure-enough?" It had never before occurred
+to me what an indefinite article I was. I wish it had not occurred to
+me then. Standing there in the rain and darkness, I wrestled vainly with
+the problem, and was constrained to fall back upon a Yankee expedient.
+
+"Isn't this a hotel?" I asked finally,
+
+"Well, it is a sort of hotel," said the voice, doubtfully. My hesitation
+and prevarication had apparently not inspired my interlocutor with
+confidence in me.
+
+"Then let me in. I have just driven over from K------ in this infernal
+rain. I am wet through and through."
+
+"But what do you want here, at the Corners? What's your business? People
+don't come here, leastways in the middle of the night."
+
+"It is n't in the middle of the night," I returned, incensed. "I come
+on business connected with the new road. I 'm the superintendent of the
+works."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"And if you don't open the door at once, I'll raise the whole
+neighborhood--and then go to the other hotel."
+
+When I said that, I supposed Greenton was a village with a population of
+at least three or four thousand and was wondering vaguely at the absence
+of lights and other signs of human habitation. Surely, I thought, all
+the people cannot be abed and asleep at half past ten o'clock: perhaps I
+am in the business section of the town, among the shops.
+
+"You jest wait," said the voice above.
+
+This request was not devoid of a certain accent of menace, and I braced
+myself for a sortie on the part of the besieged, if he had any such
+hostile intent. Presently a door opened at the very place where I least
+expected a door, at the farther end of the building, in fact, and a man
+in his shirtsleeves, shielding a candle with his left hand, appeared on
+the threshold. I passed quickly into the house, with Mr. Tobias Sewell
+(for this was Mr. Sewell) at my heels, and found myself in a long,
+low-studded bar-room.
+
+There were two chairs drawn up before the hearth, on which a huge
+hemlock backlog was still smouldering, and on the un-painted deal
+counter contiguous stood two cloudy glasses with bits of lemon-peel in
+the bottom, hinting at recent libations. Against the discolored wall
+over the bar hung a yellowed handbill, in a warped frame, announcing
+that "the Next Annual N. H. Agricultural Fair" would take place on the
+10th of September, 1841. There was no other furniture or decoration in
+this dismal apartment, except the cobwebs which festooned the ceiling,
+hanging down here and there like stalactites.
+
+Mr. Sewell set the candlestick on the mantel-shelf, and threw some
+pine-knots on the fire, which immediately broke into a blaze, and
+showed him to be a lank, narrow-chested man, past sixty, with sparse,
+steel-gray hair, and small, deep-set eyes, perfectly round, like a
+fish's, and of no particular color. His chief personal characteristics
+seemed to be too much feet and not enough teeth. His sharply cut,
+but rather simple face, as he turned it towards me, wore a look
+of interrogation. I replied to his mute inquiry by taking out my
+pocket-book and handing him my business-card, which he held up to the
+candle and perused with great deliberation.
+
+"You 're a civil engineer, are you?" he said, displaying his gums, which
+gave his countenance an expression of almost infantile innocence.
+He made no further audible remark, but mumbled between his thin lips
+something which an imaginative person might have construed into "If you
+'re at civil engineer, I 'll be blessed if I would n't like to see an
+uncivil one!"
+
+Mr. Sewell's growl, however, was worse than his bite--owing to his
+lack of teeth probably--for he very good-naturedly set himself to work
+preparing supper for me. After a slice of cold ham, and a warm punch,
+to which my chilled condition gave a grateful flavor, I went to bed in a
+distant chamber in a most amiable mood, feeling satisfied that Jones was
+a donkey to bother himself about his identity.
+
+When I awoke, the sun was several hours high. My bed faced a window, and
+by raising myself on one elbow I could look out on what I expected would
+be the main street. To my astonishment I beheld a lonely country
+road winding up a sterile hill and disappearing over the ridge. In
+a cornfield at the right of the road was a small private graveyard,
+enclosed by a crumbling stonewall with a red gate. The only thing
+suggestive of life was this little corner lot occupied by death. I got
+out of bed and went to the other window. There I had an uninterrupted
+view of twelve miles of open landscape, with Mount Agamenticus in the
+purple distance. Not a house or a spire in sight. "Well," I exclaimed,
+"Greenton does n't appear to be a very closely packed metropolis!" That
+rival hotel with which I had threatened Mr. Sewell overnight was not a
+deadly weapon, looking at it by daylight. "By Jove!" I reflected, "maybe
+I 'm in the wrong place." But there, tacked against a panel of the
+bedroom door, was a faded time-table dated Greenton, August 1, 1839.
+
+I smiled all the time I was dressing, and went smiling down stairs,
+where I found Mr. Sewell, assisted by one of the fair sex in the
+first bloom of her eightieth year, serving breakfast for me on a small
+table--in the bar-room!
+
+"I overslept myself this morning," I remarked apologetically, "and I see
+that I am putting you to some trouble. In future, if you will have me
+called, I will take my meals at the usual _table de hote_."
+
+"At the what?" said Mr. Sewell.
+
+"I mean with the other boarders."
+
+Mr. Sewell paused in the act of lifting a chop from the fire, and,
+resting the point of his fork against the woodwork of the mantelpiece,
+grinned from ear to ear.
+
+"Bless you! there is n't any other boarders. There has n't been anybody
+put up here sence--let me see--sence father-in-law died, and that was in
+the fall of '40. To be sure, there 's Silas; _he_'s a regular boarder;
+but I don't count him."
+
+Mr. Sewell then explained how the tavern had lost its custom when the
+old stage line was broken up by the railroad. The introduction of steam
+was, in Mr. Sewell's estimation, a fatal error. "Jest killed local
+business. Carried it off, I 'm darned if I know where. The whole country
+has been sort o' retrograding ever sence steam was invented."
+
+"You spoke of having one boarder," I said.
+
+"Silas? Yes; he come here the summer 'Tilda died--she that was 'Tilda
+Bayley--and he 's here yet, going on thirteen year. He could n't live
+any longer with the old man. Between you and I, old Clem Jaffrey,
+Silas's father, was a hard nut. Yes," said Mr. Sewell, crooking his
+elbow in inimitable pantomime, "altogether too often. Found dead in the
+road hugging a three-gallon demijohn. _Habeas corpus_ in the barn,"
+added Mr. Sewell, intending, I presume, to intimate that a _post-mortem_
+examination had been deemed necessary. "Silas," he resumed, in that
+respectful tone which one should always adopt when speaking of capital,
+"is a man of considerable property; lives on his interest, and keeps a
+hoss and shay. He 's a great scholar, too, Silas; takes all the
+pe-ri-odicals and the Police Gazette regular."
+
+Mr. Sewell was turning over a third chop, when the door opened and a
+stoutish, middle-aged little gentleman, clad in deep black, stepped into
+the room.
+
+"Silas Jaffrey," said Mr. Sewell, with a comprehensive sweep of his
+arm, picking up me and the new-comer on one fork, so to speak. "Be
+acquainted!"
+
+Mr. Jaffrey advanced briskly, and gave me his hand with unlooked-for
+cordiality. He was a dapper little man, with a head as round and nearly
+as bald as an orange, and not unlike an orange in complexion, either;
+he had twinkling gray eyes and a pronounced Roman nose, the numerous
+freckles upon which were deepened by his funereal dress-coat and
+trousers. He reminded me of Alfred de Musset's blackbird, which, with
+its yellow beak and sombre plumage, looked like an undertaker eating an
+omelet.
+
+"Silas will take care of you," said Mr. Sewell, taking down his hat from
+a peg behind the door. "I 've got the cattle to look after. Tell him, if
+you want anything."
+
+While I ate my breakfast, Mr. Jaffrey hopped up and down the narrow
+bar-room and chirped away as blithely as a bird on a cherry-bough,
+occasionally ruffling with his fingers a slight fringe of auburn hair
+which stood up pertly round his head and seemed to possess a luminous
+quality of its own.
+
+"Don't I find it a little slow up here at the Corners? Not at all, my
+dear sir. I am in the thick of life up here. So many interesting things
+going on all over the world--inventions, discoveries, spirits, railroad
+disasters, mysterious homicides. Poets, murderers, musicians, statesmen,
+distinguished travellers, prodigies of all kinds turning up everywhere.
+Very few events or persons escape me. I take six daily city papers,
+thirteen weekly journals, all the monthly magazines, and two
+quarterlies. I could not get along with less. I could n't if you asked
+me. I never feel lonely. How can I, being on intimate terms, as it were,
+with thousands and thousands of people? There's that young woman out
+West. What an entertaining creature _she_ is!--now in Missouri, now
+in Indiana, and now in Minnesota, always on the go, and all the time
+shedding needles from various parts of her body as if she really enjoyed
+it! Then there 's that versatile patriarch who walks hundreds of miles
+and saws thousands of feet of wood, before breakfast, and shows no signs
+of giving out. Then there's that remarkable, one may say that historical
+colored woman who knew Benjamin Franklin, and fought at the battle of
+Bunk--no, it is the old negro man who fought at Bunker Hill, a mere
+infant, of course, at that period. Really, now, it is quite curious
+to observe how that venerable female slave--formerly an African
+princess--is repeatedly dying in her hundred and eleventh year, and
+coming to life again punctually every six months in the small-type
+paragraphs. Are you aware, sir, that within the last twelve years no
+fewer than two hundred and eighty-seven of General Washington's colored
+coachmen have died?"
+
+For the soul of me I could not tell whether this quaint little gentleman
+was chaffing me or not. I laid down my knife and fork, and stared at
+him.
+
+"Then there are the mathematicians!" he cried vivaciously, without
+waiting for a reply. "I take great interest in them. Hear this!" and Mr.
+Jaffrey drew a newspaper from a pocket in the tail of his coat, and read
+as follows: "_It has been estimated that if all the candles manufactured
+by this eminent firm (Stearine & Co.) were placed end to end, they
+would reach 2 and 7/8 times around the globe_. Of course," continued Mr.
+Jaffrey, folding up the journal reflectively, "abstruse calculations of
+this kind are not, perhaps, of vital importance, but they indicate the
+intellectual activity of the age. Seriously, now," he said, halting in
+front of the table, "what with books and papers and drives about the
+country, I do not find the days too long, though I seldom see any one,
+except when I go over to K------ for my mail. Existence may be very full
+to a man who stands a little aside from the tumult and watches it with
+philosophic eye. Possibly he may see more of the battle than those who
+are in the midst of the action. Once I was struggling with the crowd, as
+eager and undaunted as the best; perhaps I should have been struggling
+still. Indeed, I know my life would have been very different now if I
+had married Mehetabel--if I had married Mehetabel."
+
+His vivacity was gone, a sudden cloud had come over his bright face, his
+figure seemed to have collapsed, the light seemed to have faded out
+of his hair. With a shuffling step, the very antithesis of his brisk,
+elastic tread, he turned to the door and passed into the road.
+
+"Well," I said to myself, "if Greenton had forty thousand inhabitants,
+it could n't turn out a more astonishing old party than that!"
+
+
+
+
+II. THE CASE OF SILAS JAFFREY.
+
+A man with a passion for _bric-a-brac_ is always stumbling over antique
+bronzes, intaglios, mosaics, and daggers of the time of Benvenuto
+Cellini; the bibliophile finds creamy vellum folios and rare Alduses and
+Elzevirs waiting for him at unsuspected bookstalls; the numismatist has
+but to stretch forth his palm to have priceless coins drop into it. My
+own weakness is odd people, and I am constantly encountering them.
+It was plain that I had unearthed a couple of very queer specimens at
+Bayley's Four-Corners. I saw that a fortnight afforded me too brief an
+opportunity to develop the richness of both, and I resolved to devote
+my spare time to Mr. Jaffrey alone, instinctively recognizing in him
+an unfamiliar species. My professional work in the vicinity of Greenton
+left my evenings and occasionally an afternoon unoccupied; these
+intervals I purposed to employ in studying and classifying my
+fellow-boarder. It was necessary, as a preliminary step, to learn
+something of his previous history, and to this end I addressed myself to
+Mr. Sewell that same night.
+
+"I do not want to seem inquisitive," I said to the landlord, as he was
+fastening up the bar, which, by the way, was the _salle a manger_ and
+general sitting-room--"I do not want to seem inquisitive, but
+your friend Mr. Jaffrey dropped a remark this morning at breakfast
+which--which was not altogether clear to me."
+
+"About Mehetabel?" asked Mr. Sewell, uneasily.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, I wish he would n't!"
+
+"He was friendly enough in the course of conversation to hint to me that
+he had not married the young woman, and seemed to regret it."
+
+"No, he did n't marry Mehetabel."
+
+"May I inquire _why_ he did n't marry Mehetabel?"
+
+"Never asked her. Might have married the girl forty times. Old Elkins's
+daughter, over at K------. She 'd have had him quick enough. Seven
+years, off and on, he kept company with Mehetabel, and then she died."
+
+"And he never asked her?"
+
+"He shilly-shallied. Perhaps he did n't think of it. When she was dead
+and gone, then Silas was struck all of a heap--and that's all about it."
+
+Obviously Mr. Sewell did not intend to tell me anything more, and
+obviously there was more to tell. The topic was plainly disagreeable to
+him for some reason or other, and that unknown reason of course piqued
+my curiosity.
+
+As I was absent from dinner and supper that day, I did not meet Mr.
+Jaffrey again until the following morning at breakfast. He had recovered
+his bird-like manner, and was full of a mysterious assassination that
+had just taken place in New York, all the thrilling details of which
+were at his fingers' ends. It was at once comical and sad to see this
+harmless old gentleman with his naive, benevolent countenance, and his
+thin hair flaming up in a semicircle, like the footlights at a theatre,
+revelling in the intricacies of the unmentionable deed.
+
+"You come up to my room to-night," he cried, with horrid glee, "and I
+'ll give you my theory of the murder. I 'll make it as clear as day to
+you that it was the detective himself who fired the three pistol-shots."
+
+It was not so much the desire to have this point elucidated as to make
+a closer study of Mr. Jaffrey that led me to accept his invitation.
+Mr. Jaffrey's bedroom was in an L of the building, and was in no way
+noticeable except for the numerous files of newspapers neatly arranged
+against the blank spaces of the walls, and a huge pile of old magazines
+which stood in one corner, reaching nearly up to the ceiling, and
+threatening to topple over each instant, like the Leaning Tower at Pisa.
+There were green paper shades at the windows, some faded chintz valances
+about the bed, and two or three easy-chairs covered with chintz. On
+a black-walnut shelf between the windows lay a choice collection of
+meerschaum and brier-wood pipes.
+
+Filling one of the chocolate-colored bowls for me and another for
+himself, Mr. Jaffrey began prattling; but not about the murder, which
+appeared to have flown out of his mind. In fact, I do not remember that
+the topic was even touched upon, either then or afterwards.
+
+"Cosey nest this," said Mr. Jaffrey, glancing complacently over the
+apartment. "What is more cheerful, now, in the fall of the year, than an
+open wood-fire? Do you hear those little chirps and twitters coming
+out of that piece of apple-wood? Those are the ghosts of the robins and
+bluebirds that sang upon the bough when it was in blossom last spring.
+In summer whole flocks of them come fluttering about the fruit-trees
+under the window: so I have singing birds all the year round. I take
+it very easy here, I can tell you, summer and winter. Not much society.
+Tobias is not, perhaps, what one would term a great intellectual force,
+but he means well. He 's a realist--believes in coming down to what he
+calls 'the hard pan;' but his heart is in the right place, and he 's
+very kind to me. The wisest thing I ever did in my life was to sell out
+my grain business over at K------, thirteen years ago, and settle down
+at the Corners. When a man has made a competency, what does he want
+more? Besides, at that time an event occurred which destroyed any
+ambition I may have had. Mehetabel died." "The lady you were engaged
+to?" "N-o, not precisely engaged. I think it was quite understood
+between us, though nothing had been said on the subject. Typhoid," added
+Mr. Jaffrey, in a low voice.
+
+For several minutes he smoked in silence, a vague, troubled look playing
+over his countenance. Presently this passed away, and he fixed his gray
+eyes speculatively upon my face.
+
+"If I had married Mehetabel," said Mr. Jaffrey, slowly, and then he
+hesitated. I blew a ring of smoke into the air, and, resting my pipe
+on my knee, dropped into an attitude of attention. "If I had married
+Mehetabel, you know, we should have had--ahem!--a family."
+
+"Very likely," I assented, vastly amused at this unexpected turn.
+
+"A Boy!" exclaimed Mr. Jaffrey, explosively.
+
+"By all means, certainly, a son."
+
+"Great trouble about naming the boy. Mehetabel's family want him named
+Elkanah Elkins, after her grandfather; I want him named Andrew Jackson.
+We compromise by christening him Elkanah Elkins Andrew Jackson Jaffrey.
+Rather a long name for such a short little fellow," said Mr. Jaffrey,
+musingly.
+
+"Andy is n't a bad nickname," I suggested.
+
+"Not at all. We call him Andy, in the family. Somewhat fractious at
+first--colic and things. I suppose it is right, or it would n't be so;
+but the usefulness of measles, mumps, croup, whooping-cough, scarlatina,
+and fits is not clear to the parental eye. I wish Andy would be a model
+infant, and dodge the whole lot."
+
+This supposititious child, born within the last few minutes, was plainly
+assuming the proportions of a reality to Mr. Jaffrey. I began to feel a
+little uncomfortable. I am, as I have said, a civil engineer, and it is
+not strictly in my line to assist at the births of infants, imaginary or
+otherwise. I pulled away vigorously at the pipe, and said nothing.
+
+"What large blue eyes he has," resumed Mr. Jaffrey, after a pause;
+"just like Hetty's; and the fair hair, too, like hers. How oddly certain
+distinctive features are handed down in families! Sometimes a mouth,
+sometimes a turn of the eyebrow. Wicked little boys over at K------ have
+now and then derisively advised me to follow my nose. It would be an
+interesting thing to do. I should find my nose flying about the world,
+turning up unexpectedly here and there, dodging this branch of the
+family and re-appearing in that, now jumping over one greatgrandchild to
+fasten itself upon another, and never losing its individuality. Look
+at Andy. There 's Elkanah Elkins's chin to the life. Andy's chin is
+probably older than the Pyramids. Poor little thing," he cried, with
+sudden indescribable tenderness, "to lose his mother so early!" And Mr.
+Jaf-frey's head sunk upon his breast, and his shoulders slanted forward,
+as if he were actually bending over the cradle of the child. The whole
+gesture and attitude was so natural that it startled me. The pipe
+slipped from my fingers and fell to the floor.
+
+"Hush!" whispered Mr. Jaffrey, with a deprecating motion of his hand.
+"Andy's asleep!"
+
+He rose softly from the chair and, walking across the room on tiptoe,
+drew down the shade at the window through which the moonlight was
+streaming. Then he returned to his seat, and remained gazing with
+half-closed eyes into the dropping embers.
+
+I refilled my pipe and smoked in profound silence, wondering what would
+come next.
+
+But nothing came next. Mr. Jaffrey had fallen into so brown a study
+that, a quarter of an hour afterwards, when I wished him good-night and
+withdrew, I do not think he noticed my departure.
+
+I am not what is called a man of imagination; it is my habit to exclude
+most things not capable of mathematical demonstration; but I am not
+without a certain psychological insight, and I think I understood Mr.
+Jaffrey's case. I could easily understand how a man with an unhealthy,
+sensitive nature, overwhelmed by sudden calamity, might take refuge in
+some forlorn place like this old tavern, and dream his life away. To
+such a man--brooding forever on what might have been and dwelling wholly
+in the realm of his fancies--the actual world might indeed become as a
+dream, and nothing seem real but his illusions. I dare say that thirteen
+years of Bayley's Four-Corners would have its effect upon me; though
+instead of conjuring up golden-haired children of the Madonna, I should
+probably see gnomes and kobolds, and goblins engaged in hoisting false
+signals and misplacing switches for midnight express trains.
+
+"No doubt," I said to myself that night, as I lay in bed, thinking over
+the matter, "this once possible but now impossible child is a great
+comfort to the old gentleman--a greater comfort, perhaps, than a real
+son would be. Maybe Andy will vanish with the shades and mists of night,
+he's such an unsubstantial infant; but if he does n't, and Mr. Jaffrey
+finds pleasure in talking to me about his son, I shall humor the old
+fellow. It would n't be a Christian act to knock over his harmless
+fancy."
+
+I was very impatient to see if Mr. Jaffrey's illusion would stand the
+test of daylight. It did. Elkanah Elkins Andrew Jackson Jaffrey was, so
+to speak, alive and kicking the next morning. On taking his seat at
+the breakfast-table, Mr. Jaffrey whispered to me that Andy had had a
+comfortable night.
+
+"Silas!" said Mr. Sewell, sharply, "what are you whispering about?"
+
+Mr. Sewell was in an ill-humor; perhaps he was jealous because I had
+passed the evening in Mr. Jaffrey's room; but surely Mr. Sewell could
+not expect his boarders to go to bed at eight o'clock every night, as he
+did. From time to time during the meal Mr. Sewell regarded me unkindly
+out of the corner of his eye, and in helping me to the parsnips he
+poniarded them with quite a suggestive air. All this, however, did not
+prevent me from repairing to the door of Mr. Jaffrey's snuggery when
+night came.
+
+"Well, Mr. Jaffrey, how 's Andy this evening?"
+
+"Got a tooth!" cried Mr. Jaffrey, vivaciously.
+
+"No!"
+
+"Yes, he has! Just through. Gave the nurse a silver dollar. Standing
+reward for first tooth."
+
+It was on the tip of my tongue to express surprise that an infant a day
+old should cut a tooth, when I suddenly recollected that Richard III.
+was born with teeth. Feeling myself to be on unfamiliar ground, I
+suppressed my criticism. It was well I did so, for in the next breath I
+was advised that half a year had elapsed since the previous evening.
+
+"Andy 's had a hard six months of it," said Mr. Jaffrey, with the
+well-known narrative air of fathers. "We 've brought him up by hand. His
+grandfather, by the way, was brought up by the bottle"--and brought down
+by it, too, I added mentally, recalling Mr. Sewell's account of the old
+gentleman's tragic end.
+
+Mr. Jaffrey then went on to give me a history of Andy's first six
+months, omitting no detail however insignificant or irrelevant. This
+history I would in turn inflict upon the reader, if I were only certain
+that he is one of those dreadful parents who, under the aegis of
+friendship, bore you at a streets corner with that remarkable thing
+which Freddy said the other day, and insist on singing to you, at an
+evening parly, the Iliad of Tommy's woes.
+
+But to inflict this _enfantillage_ upon the unmarried reader would be
+an act of wanton cruelty. So I pass over that part of Andy's biography,
+and, for the same reason, make no record of the next four or five
+interviews I had with Mr. Jaffrey. It will be sufficient to state
+that Andy glided from extreme infancy to early youth with astonishing
+celerity--at the rate of one year per night, if I remember correctly;
+and--must I confess it?--before the week came to an end, this invisible
+hobgoblin of a boy was only little less of a reality to me than to Mr.
+Jaffrey.
+
+At first I had lent myself to the old dreamer's whim with a keen
+perception of the humor of the thing; but by and by I found that I
+was talking and thinking of Miss Mehetabel's son as though he were a
+veritable personage. Mr. Jafifrey spoke of the child with such an air of
+conviction!--as if Andy were playing among his toys in the next room, or
+making mud-pies down in the yard. In these conversations, it should be
+observed, the child was never supposed to be present, except on that
+single occasion when Mr. Jafifrey leaned over the cradle. After one of
+our _seances_ I would lie awake until the small hours, thinking of the
+boy, and then fall asleep only to have indigestible dreams about him.
+Through the day, and sometimes in the midst of complicated calculations,
+I would catch myself wondering what Andy was up to now! There was no
+shaking him off; he became an inseparable nightmare to me; and I felt
+that if I remained much longer at Bayley's Four-Corners I should
+turn into just such another bald-headed, mild-eyed visionary as Silas
+Jaffrey.
+
+Then the tavern was a grewsome old shell any way, full of unaccountable
+noises after dark--rustlings of garments along unfrequented passages,
+and stealthy footfalls in unoccupied chambers overhead. I never knew of
+an old house without these mysterious noises. Next to my bedroom was a
+musty, dismantled apartment, in one corner of which, leaning against the
+wainscot, was a crippled mangle, with its iron crank tilted in the air
+like the elbow of the late Mr. Clem Jaffrey. Sometimes,
+
+     "In the dead vast and middle of the night,"
+
+I used to hear sounds as if some one were turning that rusty crank on
+the sly. This occurred only on particularly cold nights, and I conceived
+the uncomfortable idea that it was the thin family ghosts, from the
+neglected graveyard in the cornfield, keeping themselves warm by running
+each other through the mangle. There was a haunted air about the whole
+place that made it easy for me to believe in the existence of a phantasm
+like Miss Mehetabel's son, who, after all, was less unearthly than Mr.
+Jaffrey himself, and seemed more properly an inhabitant of this globe
+than the toothless ogre who kept the inn, not to mention the silent
+Witch of Endor that cooked our meals for us over the bar-room fire.
+
+In spite of the scowls and winks bestowed upon me by Mr. Sewell, who let
+slip no opportunity to testify his disapprobation of the intimacy,
+Mr. Jaffrey and I spent all our evenings together--those long autumnal
+evenings, through the length of which he talked about the boy, laying
+out his path in life and hedging the path with roses. He should be sent
+to the High School at Portsmouth, and then to college; he should be
+educated like a gentleman, Andy.
+
+"When the old man dies," remarked Mr. Jaffrey one night, rubbing his
+hands gleefully, as if it were a great joke, "Andy will find that the
+old man has left him a pretty plum."
+
+"What do you think of having Andy enter West Point, when he 's old
+enough?" said Mr. Jaffrey on another occasion. "He need n't necessarily
+go into the army when he graduates; he can become a civil engineer."
+
+This was a stroke of flattery so delicate and indirect that I could
+accept it without immodesty.
+
+There had lately sprung up on the corner of Mr. Jaffrey's bureau a small
+tin house, Gothic in architecture and pink in color, with a slit in the
+roof, and the word _Bank_ painted on one facade. Several times in the
+course of an evening Mr. Jaffrey would rise from his chair without
+interrupting the conversation, and gravely drop a nickel into the
+scuttle of the bank. It was pleasant to observe the solemnity of his
+countenance as he approached the edifice, and the air of triumph with
+which he resumed his seat by the fireplace. One night I missed the tin
+bank. It had disappeared, deposits and all, like a real bank. Evidently
+there had been a defalcation on rather a large scale. I strongly
+suspected that Mr. Sewell was at the bottom of it, but my suspicion
+was not shared by Mr. Jaffrey, who, remarking my glance at the bureau,
+became suddenly depressed. "I 'm afraid," he said, "that I have failed
+to instil into Andrew those principles of integrity which--which"--and
+the old gentleman quite broke down.
+
+Andy was now eight or nine years old, and for some time past, if the
+truth must be told, had given Mr. Jaffrey no inconsiderable trouble;
+what with his impishness and his illnesses, the boy led the pair of us
+a lively dance. I shall not soon forget the anxiety of Mr. Jaffrey the
+night Andy had the scarlet-fever--an anxiety which so infected me that
+I actually returned to the tavern the following afternoon earlier than
+usual, dreading to hear that the little spectre was dead, and greatly
+relieved on meeting Mr. Jaffrey at the door-step with his face wreathed
+in smiles. When I spoke to him of Andy, I was made aware that I was
+inquiring into a case of scarlet-fever that had occurred the year
+before!
+
+It was at this time, towards the end of my second week at Greenton,
+that I noticed what was probably not a new trait--Mr. Jaffrey's curious
+sensitiveness to atmospherical changes. He was as sensitive as a
+barometer. The approach of a storm sent his mercury down instantly. When
+the weather was fair he was hopeful and sunny, and Andy's prospects
+were brilliant. When the weather was overcast and threatening he grew
+restless and despondent, and was afraid that the boy was not going to
+turn out well.
+
+On the Saturday previous to my departure, which had been fixed for
+Monday, it rained heavily all the afternoon, and that night Mr. Jaffrey
+was in an unusually excitable and unhappy frame of mind. His mercury was
+very low indeed.
+
+"That boy is going to the dogs just as fast as he can go," said Mr.
+Jaffrey, with a woful face. "I can't do anything with him."
+
+"He'll come out all right, Mr. Jaffrey. Boys will be boys. I would not
+give a snap for a lad without animal spirits."
+
+"But animal spirits," said Mr. Jaffrey sententiously, "should n't saw
+off the legs of the piano in Tobias's best parlor. I don't know what
+Tobias will say when he finds it out."
+
+"What! has Andy sawed off the legs of the old spinet?" I returned,
+laughing. "Worse than that." "Played upon it, then!" "No, sir. He has
+lied to me!" "I can't believe that of Andy." "Lied to me, sir," repeated
+Mr. Jaffrey, severely. "He pledged me his word of honor that he would
+give over his climbing. The way that boy climbs sends a chill down my
+spine. This morning, notwithstanding his solemn promise, he shinned
+up the lightning-rod attached to the extension, and sat astride the
+ridge-pole. I saw him, and he denied it! When a boy you have caressed
+and indulged and lavished pocket-money on lies to you and _will_ climb,
+then there's nothing more to be said. He's a lost child." "You take too
+dark a view of it, Mr. Jaffrey. Training and education are bound to tell
+in the end, and he has been well brought up."
+
+"But I did n't bring him up on a lightning-rod, did I? If he is ever
+going to know how to behave, he ought to know now. To-morrow he will be
+eleven years old."
+
+The reflection came to me that if Andy had not been brought up by the
+rod, he had certainly been brought up by the lightning. He was eleven
+years old in two weeks!
+
+I essayed, with that perspicacious wisdom which seems to be the peculiar
+property of bachelors and elderly maiden ladies, to tranquillize Mr.
+Jaffrey's mind, and to give him some practical hints on the management
+of youth.
+
+"Spank him," I suggested at last.
+
+"I will!" said the old gentleman.
+
+"And you 'd better do it at once!" I added, as it flashed upon me that
+in six months Andy would be a hundred and forty-three years old!--an age
+at which parental discipline would have to be relaxed.
+
+The next morning. Sunday, the rain came down as if determined to drive
+the quicksilver entirely out of my poor friend. Mr. Jaffrey sat bolt
+upright at the breakfast-table, looking as woe-begone as a bust of
+Dante, and retired to his chamber the moment the meal was finished. As
+the day advanced, the wind veered round to the northeast, and settled
+itself down to work. It was not pleasant to think, and I tried not to
+think, what Mr. Jaffrey's condition would be if the weather did not mend
+its manners by noon; but so far from clearing off at noon, the storm
+increased in violence, and as night set in the wind whistled in a
+spiteful falsetto key, and the rain lashed the old tavern as if it
+were a balky horse that refused to move on. The windows rattled in the
+worm-eaten frames, and the doors of remote rooms, where nobody ever
+went, slammed to in the maddest way. Now and then the tornado, sweeping
+down the side of Mount Agamenticus, bowled across the open country, and
+struck the ancient hostelry point-blank.
+
+Mr. Jaffrey did not appear at supper. I knew that he was expecting me to
+come to his room as usual, and I turned over in my mind a dozen plans
+to evade seeing him that night. The landlord sat at the opposite side
+of the chimney-place, with his eye upon me. I fancy he was aware of the
+effect of this storm on his other boarder, for at intervals, as the wind
+hurled itself against the exposed gable, threatening to burst in the
+windows, Mr. Sewell tipped me an atrocious wink, and displayed his gums
+in a way he had not done since the morning after my arrival at Greenton.
+I wondered if he suspected anything about Andy. There had been odd times
+during the past week when I felt convinced that the existence of Miss
+Mehetabel's son was no secret to Mr. Sewell.
+
+In deference to the gale, the landlord sat up half an hour later than
+was his custom. At half-past eight he went to bed, remarking that he
+thought the old pile would stand till morning.
+
+He had been absent only a few minutes when I heard a rustling at the
+door. I looked up, and beheld Mr. Jaffrey standing on the threshold,
+with his dress in disorder, his scant hair flying, and the wildest
+expression on his face.
+
+"He's gone!" cried Mr. Jaffrey.
+
+"Who? Sewell? Yes, he just went to bed."
+
+"No, not Tobias--the boy!"
+
+"What, run away?"
+
+"No--he is dead! He has fallen from a step-ladder in the red chamber and
+broken his neck!"
+
+Mr. Jaffrey threw up his hands with a gesture of despair, and
+disappeared. I followed him through the hall, saw him go into his own
+apartment, and heard the bolt of the door drawn to. Then I returned to
+the bar-room, and sat for an hour or two in the ruddy glow of the fire,
+brooding over the strange experience of the last fortnight.
+
+On my way to bed I paused at Mr. Jaf-frey's door, and, in a lull of the
+storm, the measured respiration within told me that the old gentleman
+was sleeping peacefully.
+
+Slumber was coy with me that night. I lay listening to the soughing of
+the wind, and thinking of Mr. Jaffrey's illusion. It had amused me at
+first with its grotesqueness; but now the poor little phantom was dead,
+I was conscious that there had been something pathetic in it all along.
+Shortly after midnight the wind sunk down, coming and going fainter and
+fainter, floating around the eaves of the tavern with an undulating,
+murmurous sound, as if it were turning itself into soft wings to bear
+away the spirit of a little child.
+
+Perhaps nothing that happened during my stay at Bayley's Four-Corners
+took me so completely by surprise as Mr. Jaffrey's radiant countenance
+the next morning. The morning itself was not fresher or sunnier. His
+round face literally shone with geniality and happiness. His eyes
+twinkled like diamonds, and the magnetic light of his hair was turned
+on full. He came into my room while I was packing my valise. He chirped,
+and prattled, and carolled, and was sorry I was going away--but never a
+word about Andy. However, the boy had probably been dead several years
+then!
+
+The open wagon that was to carry me to the station stood at the door;
+Mr. Sewell was placing my case of instruments under the seat, and Mr.
+Jaffrey had gone up to his room to get me a certain newspaper containing
+an account of a remarkable shipwreck on the Auckland Islands. I took the
+opportunity to thank Mr. Sewell for his courtesies to me, and to express
+my regret at leaving him and Mr. Jaffrey.
+
+"I have become very much attached to Mr. Jaffrey," I said; "he is a most
+interesting person; but that hypothetical boy of his, that son of Miss
+Mehetabel's"--
+
+"Yes, I know!" interrupted Mr. Sewell, testily. "Fell off a step-ladder
+and broke his dratted neck. Eleven year old, was n't he? Always does,
+jest at that point. Next week Silas will begin the whole thing over
+again, if he can get anybody to listen to him."
+
+"I see. Our amiable friend is a little queer on that subject."
+
+Mr. Sewell glanced cautiously over his shoulder, and, tapping himself
+significantly on the forehead, said in a low voice,
+
+"Room To Let--Unfurnished!"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Miss Mehetabel's Son, by Thomas Bailey Aldrich
+
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diff --git a/23357.zip b/23357.zip
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+eBook #23357 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23357)
diff --git a/old/23357-h.htm.2021-01-25 b/old/23357-h.htm.2021-01-25
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+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
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+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      Miss Mehetabel's Son, by Thomas Bailey Aldrich
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
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+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Miss Mehetabel's Son, by Thomas Bailey Aldrich
+
+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: Miss Mehetabel's Son
+
+Author: Thomas Bailey Aldrich
+
+Release Date: November 6, 2007 [EBook #23357]
+Last Updated: March 3, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISS MEHETABEL'S SON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <div style="height: 8em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      MISS MEHETABEL'S SON.
+    </h1>
+    <h2>
+      By Thomas Bailey Aldrich
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      Boston And New York Houghton Mifflin Company
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      Copyright, 1873, 1885, and 1901
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Contents
+    </h2>
+    <table summary="">
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> I. THE OLD TAVERN AT BAYLEY'S FOUR
+            CORNERS. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> II. THE CASE OF SILAS JAFFREY. </a>
+          </p>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      I. THE OLD TAVERN AT BAYLEY'S FOUR CORNERS.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      You will not find Greenton, or Bayley's Four-Corners, as it is more
+      usually designated, on any map of New England that I know of. It is not a
+      town; it is not even a village; it is merely an absurd hotel. The almost
+      indescribable place called Greenton is at the intersection of four roads,
+      in the heart of New Hampshire, twenty miles from the nearest settlement of
+      note, and ten miles from any railway station. A good location for a hotel,
+      you will say. Precisely; but there has always been a hotel there, and for
+      the last dozen years it has been pretty well patronized&mdash;by one
+      boarder. Not to trifle with an intelligent public, I will state at once
+      that, in the early part of this century, Greenton was a point at which the
+      mail-coach on the Great Northern Route stopped to change horses and allow
+      the passengers to dine. People in the county, wishing to take the early
+      mail Portsmouth-ward, put up overnight at the old tavern, famous for its
+      irreproachable larder and soft feather-beds. The tavern at that time was
+      kept by Jonathan Bayley, who rivalled his wallet in growing corpulent, and
+      in due time passed away. At his death the establishment, which included a
+      farm, fell into the hands of a son-in-law. Now, though Bayley left his
+      son-in-law a hotel&mdash;which sounds handsome&mdash;he left him no
+      guests; for at about the period of the old man's death the old stage-coach
+      died also. Apoplexy carried off one, and steam the other. Thus, by a
+      sudden swerve in the tide of progress, the tavern at the Corners found
+      itself high and dry, like a wreck on a sand-bank. Shortly after this
+      event, or maybe contemporaneously, there was some attempt to build a town
+      at Green-ton; but it apparently failed, if eleven cellars choked up with
+      <i>débris</i> and overgrown with burdocks are any indication of failure.
+      The farm, however, was a good farm, as things go in New Hampshire, and
+      Tobias Sewell, the son-in-law, could afford to snap his fingers at the
+      travelling public if they came near enough&mdash;which they never did.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hotel remains to-day pretty much the same as when Jonathan Bayley
+      handed in his accounts in 1840, except that Sewell hasfrom time to time
+      sold the furniture of some of the upper chambers to bridal couples in the
+      neighborhood. The bar is still open, and the parlor door says Parlour in
+      tall black letters. Now and then a passing drover looks in at that lonely
+      bar-room, where a high-shouldered bottle of Santa Cruz rum ogles with a
+      peculiarly knowing air a shrivelled lemon on a shelf; now and then a
+      farmer rides across country to talk crops and stock and take a friendly
+      glass with Tobias; and now and then a circus caravan with speckled ponies,
+      or a menagerie with a soggy elephant, halts under the swinging sign, on
+      which there is a dim mail-coach with four phantomish horses driven by a
+      portly gentleman whose head has been washed off by the rain. Other
+      customers there are none, except that one regular boarder whom have
+      mentioned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If misery makes a man acquainted with strange bed-fellows, it is equally
+      certain that the profession of surveyor and civil engineer often takes one
+      into undreamed-of localities. I had never heard of Greenton until my
+      duties sent me there, and kept me there two weeks in the dreariest season
+      of the year. I do not think I would, of my own volition, have selected
+      Greenton for a fortnight's sojourn at any time; but now the business is
+      over, I shall never regret the circumstances that made me the guest of
+      Tobias Sewell, and brought me into intimate relations with Miss
+      Mehetabel's Son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a black October night in the year of grace 1872, that discovered me
+      standing in front of the old tavern at the Corners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Though the ten miles' ride from K&mdash;&mdash;&mdash; had been
+      depressing, especially the last five miles, on account of the cold
+      autumnal rain that had set in, I felt a pang of regret on hearing the
+      rickety open wagon turn round in the road and roll off in the darkness.
+      There were no lights visible anywhere, and only for the big, shapeless
+      mass of something in front of me, which the driver had said was the hotel,
+      I should have fancied that I had been set down by the roadside. I was wet
+      to the skin and in no amiable humor; and not being able to find bell-pull
+      or knocker, or even a door, I belabored the side of the house with my
+      heavy walking-stick. In a minute or two I saw a light flickering somewhere
+      aloft, then I heard the sound of a window opening, followed by an
+      exclamation of disgust as a blast of wind extinguished the candle which
+      had given me an instantaneous picture <i>en silhouette</i> of a man
+      leaning out of a casement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I say, what do you want, down there?&rdquo; inquired an unprepossessing voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want to come in; I want a supper, and a bed, and numberless things.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is n't no time of night to go rousing honest folks out of their
+      sleep. Who are you, anyway?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The question, superficially considered, was a very simple one, and I, of
+      all people in the world, ought to have been able to answer it off-hand;
+      but it staggered me. Strangely enough, there came drifting across my
+      memory the lettering on the back of a metaphysical work which I had seen
+      years before on a shelf in the Astor Library. Owing to an unpremeditatedly
+      funny collocation of title and author, the lettering read as follows: &ldquo;Who
+      am I? Jones.&rdquo; Evidently it had puzzled Jones to know who he was, or he
+      would n't have written a book about it, and come to so lame and impotent a
+      conclusion. It certainly puzzled me at that instant to define my identity.
+      &ldquo;Thirty years ago,&rdquo; I reflected, &ldquo;I was nothing; fifty years hence I shall
+      be nothing again, humanly speaking. In the mean time, who am I,
+      sure-enough?&rdquo; It had never before occurred to me what an indefinite
+      article I was. I wish it had not occurred to me then. Standing there in
+      the rain and darkness, I wrestled vainly with the problem, and was
+      constrained to fall back upon a Yankee expedient.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isn't this a hotel?&rdquo; I asked finally,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, it is a sort of hotel,&rdquo; said the voice, doubtfully. My hesitation
+      and prevarication had apparently not inspired my interlocutor with
+      confidence in me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then let me in. I have just driven over from K&mdash;&mdash;&mdash; in
+      this infernal rain. I am wet through and through.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what do you want here, at the Corners? What's your business? People
+      don't come here, leastways in the middle of the night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is n't in the middle of the night,&rdquo; I returned, incensed. &ldquo;I come on
+      business connected with the new road. I 'm the superintendent of the
+      works.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And if you don't open the door at once, I'll raise the whole neighborhood&mdash;and
+      then go to the other hotel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When I said that, I supposed Greenton was a village with a population of
+      at least three or four thousand and was wondering vaguely at the absence
+      of lights and other signs of human habitation. Surely, I thought, all the
+      people cannot be abed and asleep at half past ten o'clock: perhaps I am in
+      the business section of the town, among the shops.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You jest wait,&rdquo; said the voice above.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This request was not devoid of a certain accent of menace, and I braced
+      myself for a sortie on the part of the besieged, if he had any such
+      hostile intent. Presently a door opened at the very place where I least
+      expected a door, at the farther end of the building, in fact, and a man in
+      his shirtsleeves, shielding a candle with his left hand, appeared on the
+      threshold. I passed quickly into the house, with Mr. Tobias Sewell (for
+      this was Mr. Sewell) at my heels, and found myself in a long, low-studded
+      bar-room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were two chairs drawn up before the hearth, on which a huge hemlock
+      backlog was still smouldering, and on the un-painted deal counter
+      contiguous stood two cloudy glasses with bits of lemon-peel in the bottom,
+      hinting at recent libations. Against the discolored wall over the bar hung
+      a yellowed handbill, in a warped frame, announcing that &ldquo;the Next Annual
+      N. H. Agricultural Fair&rdquo; would take place on the 10th of September, 1841.
+      There was no other furniture or decoration in this dismal apartment,
+      except the cobwebs which festooned the ceiling, hanging down here and
+      there like stalactites.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Sewell set the candlestick on the mantel-shelf, and threw some
+      pine-knots on the fire, which immediately broke into a blaze, and showed
+      him to be a lank, narrow-chested man, past sixty, with sparse, steel-gray
+      hair, and small, deep-set eyes, perfectly round, like a fish's, and of no
+      particular color. His chief personal characteristics seemed to be too much
+      feet and not enough teeth. His sharply cut, but rather simple face, as he
+      turned it towards me, wore a look of interrogation. I replied to his mute
+      inquiry by taking out my pocket-book and handing him my business-card,
+      which he held up to the candle and perused with great deliberation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You 're a civil engineer, are you?&rdquo; he said, displaying his gums, which
+      gave his countenance an expression of almost infantile innocence. He made
+      no further audible remark, but mumbled between his thin lips something
+      which an imaginative person might have construed into &ldquo;If you 're at civil
+      engineer, I 'll be blessed if I would n't like to see an uncivil one!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Sewell's growl, however, was worse than his bite&mdash;owing to his
+      lack of teeth probably&mdash;for he very good-naturedly set himself to
+      work preparing supper for me. After a slice of cold ham, and a warm punch,
+      to which my chilled condition gave a grateful flavor, I went to bed in a
+      distant chamber in a most amiable mood, feeling satisfied that Jones was a
+      donkey to bother himself about his identity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I awoke, the sun was several hours high. My bed faced a window, and
+      by raising myself on one elbow I could look out on what I expected would
+      be the main street. To my astonishment I beheld a lonely country road
+      winding up a sterile hill and disappearing over the ridge. In a cornfield
+      at the right of the road was a small private graveyard, enclosed by a
+      crumbling stonewall with a red gate. The only thing suggestive of life was
+      this little corner lot occupied by death. I got out of bed and went to the
+      other window. There I had an uninterrupted view of twelve miles of open
+      landscape, with Mount Agamenticus in the purple distance. Not a house or a
+      spire in sight. &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; I exclaimed, &ldquo;Greenton does n't appear to be a
+      very closely packed metropolis!&rdquo; That rival hotel with which I had
+      threatened Mr. Sewell overnight was not a deadly weapon, looking at it by
+      daylight. &ldquo;By Jove!&rdquo; I reflected, &ldquo;maybe I 'm in the wrong place.&rdquo; But
+      there, tacked against a panel of the bedroom door, was a faded time-table
+      dated Greenton, August 1, 1839.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I smiled all the time I was dressing, and went smiling down stairs, where
+      I found Mr. Sewell, assisted by one of the fair sex in the first bloom of
+      her eightieth year, serving breakfast for me on a small table&mdash;in the
+      bar-room!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I overslept myself this morning,&rdquo; I remarked apologetically, &ldquo;and I see
+      that I am putting you to some trouble. In future, if you will have me
+      called, I will take my meals at the usual <i>table de hôte</i>.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At the what?&rdquo; said Mr. Sewell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mean with the other boarders.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Sewell paused in the act of lifting a chop from the fire, and, resting
+      the point of his fork against the woodwork of the mantelpiece, grinned
+      from ear to ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bless you! there is n't any other boarders. There has n't been anybody
+      put up here sence&mdash;let me see&mdash;sence father-in-law died, and
+      that was in the fall of '40. To be sure, there 's Silas; <i>he</i>'s a
+      regular boarder; but I don't count him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Sewell then explained how the tavern had lost its custom when the old
+      stage line was broken up by the railroad. The introduction of steam was,
+      in Mr. Sewell's estimation, a fatal error. &ldquo;Jest killed local business.
+      Carried it off, I 'm darned if I know where. The whole country has been
+      sort o' retrograding ever sence steam was invented.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You spoke of having one boarder,&rdquo; I said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Silas? Yes; he come here the summer 'Tilda died&mdash;she that was 'Tilda
+      Bayley&mdash;and he 's here yet, going on thirteen year. He could n't live
+      any longer with the old man. Between you and I, old Clem Jaffrey, Silas's
+      father, was a hard nut. Yes,&rdquo; said Mr. Sewell, crooking his elbow in
+      inimitable pantomime, &ldquo;altogether too often. Found dead in the road
+      hugging a three-gallon demijohn. <i>Habeas corpus</i> in the barn,&rdquo; added
+      Mr. Sewell, intending, I presume, to intimate that a <i>post-mortem</i>
+      examination had been deemed necessary. &ldquo;Silas,&rdquo; he resumed, in that
+      respectful tone which one should always adopt when speaking of capital,
+      &ldquo;is a man of considerable property; lives on his interest, and keeps a
+      hoss and shay. He 's a great scholar, too, Silas; takes all the
+      pe-ri-odicals and the Police Gazette regular.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Sewell was turning over a third chop, when the door opened and a
+      stoutish, middle-aged little gentleman, clad in deep black, stepped into
+      the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Silas Jaffrey,&rdquo; said Mr. Sewell, with a comprehensive sweep of his arm,
+      picking up me and the new-comer on one fork, so to speak. &ldquo;Be acquainted!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Jaffrey advanced briskly, and gave me his hand with unlooked-for
+      cordiality. He was a dapper little man, with a head as round and nearly as
+      bald as an orange, and not unlike an orange in complexion, either; he had
+      twinkling gray eyes and a pronounced Roman nose, the numerous freckles
+      upon which were deepened by his funereal dress-coat and trousers. He
+      reminded me of Alfred de Musset's blackbird, which, with its yellow beak
+      and sombre plumage, looked like an undertaker eating an omelet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Silas will take care of you,&rdquo; said Mr. Sewell, taking down his hat from a
+      peg behind the door. &ldquo;I 've got the cattle to look after. Tell him, if you
+      want anything.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While I ate my breakfast, Mr. Jaffrey hopped up and down the narrow
+      bar-room and chirped away as blithely as a bird on a cherry-bough,
+      occasionally ruffling with his fingers a slight fringe of auburn hair
+      which stood up pertly round his head and seemed to possess a luminous
+      quality of its own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't I find it a little slow up here at the Corners? Not at all, my dear
+      sir. I am in the thick of life up here. So many interesting things going
+      on all over the world&mdash;inventions, discoveries, spirits, railroad
+      disasters, mysterious homicides. Poets, murderers, musicians, statesmen,
+      distinguished travellers, prodigies of all kinds turning up everywhere.
+      Very few events or persons escape me. I take six daily city papers,
+      thirteen weekly journals, all the monthly magazines, and two quarterlies.
+      I could not get along with less. I could n't if you asked me. I never feel
+      lonely. How can I, being on intimate terms, as it were, with thousands and
+      thousands of people? There's that young woman out West. What an
+      entertaining creature <i>she</i> is!&mdash;now in Missouri, now in
+      Indiana, and now in Minnesota, always on the go, and all the time shedding
+      needles from various parts of her body as if she really enjoyed it! Then
+      there 's that versatile patriarch who walks hundreds of miles and saws
+      thousands of feet of wood, before breakfast, and shows no signs of giving
+      out. Then there's that remarkable, one may say that historical colored
+      woman who knew Benjamin Franklin, and fought at the battle of Bunk&mdash;no,
+      it is the old negro man who fought at Bunker Hill, a mere infant, of
+      course, at that period. Really, now, it is quite curious to observe how
+      that venerable female slave&mdash;formerly an African princess&mdash;is
+      repeatedly dying in her hundred and eleventh year, and coming to life
+      again punctually every six months in the small-type paragraphs. Are you
+      aware, sir, that within the last twelve years no fewer than two hundred
+      and eighty-seven of General Washington's colored coachmen have died?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For the soul of me I could not tell whether this quaint little gentleman
+      was chaffing me or not. I laid down my knife and fork, and stared at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then there are the mathematicians!&rdquo; he cried vivaciously, without waiting
+      for a reply. &ldquo;I take great interest in them. Hear this!&rdquo; and Mr. Jaffrey
+      drew a newspaper from a pocket in the tail of his coat, and read as
+      follows: &ldquo;<i>It has been estimated that if all the candles manufactured by
+      this eminent firm (Stearine &amp; Co.) were placed end to end, they would
+      reach 2 and 7/8 times around the globe</i>. Of course,&rdquo; continued Mr.
+      Jaffrey, folding up the journal reflectively, &ldquo;abstruse calculations of
+      this kind are not, perhaps, of vital importance, but they indicate the
+      intellectual activity of the age. Seriously, now,&rdquo; he said, halting in
+      front of the table, &ldquo;what with books and papers and drives about the
+      country, I do not find the days too long, though I seldom see any one,
+      except when I go over to K&mdash;&mdash;&mdash; for my mail. Existence may
+      be very full to a man who stands a little aside from the tumult and
+      watches it with philosophic eye. Possibly he may see more of the battle
+      than those who are in the midst of the action. Once I was struggling with
+      the crowd, as eager and undaunted as the best; perhaps I should have been
+      struggling still. Indeed, I know my life would have been very different
+      now if I had married Mehetabel&mdash;if I had married Mehetabel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His vivacity was gone, a sudden cloud had come over his bright face, his
+      figure seemed to have collapsed, the light seemed to have faded out of his
+      hair. With a shuffling step, the very antithesis of his brisk, elastic
+      tread, he turned to the door and passed into the road.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; I said to myself, &ldquo;if Greenton had forty thousand inhabitants, it
+      could n't turn out a more astonishing old party than that!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      II. THE CASE OF SILAS JAFFREY.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      A man with a passion for <i>bric-à-brac</i> is always stumbling over
+      antique bronzes, intaglios, mosaics, and daggers of the time of Benvenuto
+      Cellini; the bibliophile finds creamy vellum folios and rare Alduses and
+      Elzevirs waiting for him at unsuspected bookstalls; the numismatist has
+      but to stretch forth his palm to have priceless coins drop into it. My own
+      weakness is odd people, and I am constantly encountering them. It was
+      plain that I had unearthed a couple of very queer specimens at Bayley's
+      Four-Corners. I saw that a fortnight afforded me too brief an opportunity
+      to develop the richness of both, and I resolved to devote my spare time to
+      Mr. Jaffrey alone, instinctively recognizing in him an unfamiliar species.
+      My professional work in the vicinity of Greenton left my evenings and
+      occasionally an afternoon unoccupied; these intervals I purposed to employ
+      in studying and classifying my fellow-boarder. It was necessary, as a
+      preliminary step, to learn something of his previous history, and to this
+      end I addressed myself to Mr. Sewell that same night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not want to seem inquisitive,&rdquo; I said to the landlord, as he was
+      fastening up the bar, which, by the way, was the <i>salle à manger</i> and
+      general sitting-room&mdash;&ldquo;I do not want to seem inquisitive, but your
+      friend Mr. Jaffrey dropped a remark this morning at breakfast which&mdash;which
+      was not altogether clear to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;About Mehetabel?&rdquo; asked Mr. Sewell, uneasily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I wish he would n't!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was friendly enough in the course of conversation to hint to me that
+      he had not married the young woman, and seemed to regret it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, he did n't marry Mehetabel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I inquire <i>why</i> he did n't marry Mehetabel?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never asked her. Might have married the girl forty times. Old Elkins's
+      daughter, over at K&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;. She 'd have had him quick
+      enough. Seven years, off and on, he kept company with Mehetabel, and then
+      she died.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And he never asked her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He shilly-shallied. Perhaps he did n't think of it. When she was dead and
+      gone, then Silas was struck all of a heap&mdash;and that's all about it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Obviously Mr. Sewell did not intend to tell me anything more, and
+      obviously there was more to tell. The topic was plainly disagreeable to
+      him for some reason or other, and that unknown reason of course piqued my
+      curiosity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As I was absent from dinner and supper that day, I did not meet Mr.
+      Jaffrey again until the following morning at breakfast. He had recovered
+      his bird-like manner, and was full of a mysterious assassination that had
+      just taken place in New York, all the thrilling details of which were at
+      his fingers' ends. It was at once comical and sad to see this harmless old
+      gentleman with his naïve, benevolent countenance, and his thin hair
+      flaming up in a semicircle, like the footlights at a theatre, revelling in
+      the intricacies of the unmentionable deed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You come up to my room to-night,&rdquo; he cried, with horrid glee, &ldquo;and I 'll
+      give you my theory of the murder. I 'll make it as clear as day to you
+      that it was the detective himself who fired the three pistol-shots.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not so much the desire to have this point elucidated as to make a
+      closer study of Mr. Jaffrey that led me to accept his invitation. Mr.
+      Jaffrey's bedroom was in an L of the building, and was in no way
+      noticeable except for the numerous files of newspapers neatly arranged
+      against the blank spaces of the walls, and a huge pile of old magazines
+      which stood in one corner, reaching nearly up to the ceiling, and
+      threatening to topple over each instant, like the Leaning Tower at Pisa.
+      There were green paper shades at the windows, some faded chintz valances
+      about the bed, and two or three easy-chairs covered with chintz. On a
+      black-walnut shelf between the windows lay a choice collection of
+      meerschaum and brier-wood pipes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Filling one of the chocolate-colored bowls for me and another for himself,
+      Mr. Jaffrey began prattling; but not about the murder, which appeared to
+      have flown out of his mind. In fact, I do not remember that the topic was
+      even touched upon, either then or afterwards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cosey nest this,&rdquo; said Mr. Jaffrey, glancing complacently over the
+      apartment. &ldquo;What is more cheerful, now, in the fall of the year, than an
+      open wood-fire? Do you hear those little chirps and twitters coming out of
+      that piece of apple-wood? Those are the ghosts of the robins and bluebirds
+      that sang upon the bough when it was in blossom last spring. In summer
+      whole flocks of them come fluttering about the fruit-trees under the
+      window: so I have singing birds all the year round. I take it very easy
+      here, I can tell you, summer and winter. Not much society. Tobias is not,
+      perhaps, what one would term a great intellectual force, but he means
+      well. He 's a realist&mdash;believes in coming down to what he calls 'the
+      hard pan;' but his heart is in the right place, and he 's very kind to me.
+      The wisest thing I ever did in my life was to sell out my grain business
+      over at K&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;, thirteen years ago, and settle down at the
+      Corners. When a man has made a competency, what does he want more?
+      Besides, at that time an event occurred which destroyed any ambition I may
+      have had. Mehetabel died.&rdquo; &ldquo;The lady you were engaged to?&rdquo; &ldquo;N-o, not
+      precisely engaged. I think it was quite understood between us, though
+      nothing had been said on the subject. Typhoid,&rdquo; added Mr. Jaffrey, in a
+      low voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For several minutes he smoked in silence, a vague, troubled look playing
+      over his countenance. Presently this passed away, and he fixed his gray
+      eyes speculatively upon my face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I had married Mehetabel,&rdquo; said Mr. Jaffrey, slowly, and then he
+      hesitated. I blew a ring of smoke into the air, and, resting my pipe on my
+      knee, dropped into an attitude of attention. &ldquo;If I had married Mehetabel,
+      you know, we should have had&mdash;ahem!&mdash;a family.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very likely,&rdquo; I assented, vastly amused at this unexpected turn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A Boy!&rdquo; exclaimed Mr. Jaffrey, explosively.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By all means, certainly, a son.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Great trouble about naming the boy. Mehetabel's family want him named
+      Elkanah Elkins, after her grandfather; I want him named Andrew Jackson. We
+      compromise by christening him Elkanah Elkins Andrew Jackson Jaffrey.
+      Rather a long name for such a short little fellow,&rdquo; said Mr. Jaffrey,
+      musingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Andy is n't a bad nickname,&rdquo; I suggested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not at all. We call him Andy, in the family. Somewhat fractious at first&mdash;colic
+      and things. I suppose it is right, or it would n't be so; but the
+      usefulness of measles, mumps, croup, whooping-cough, scarlatina, and fits
+      is not clear to the parental eye. I wish Andy would be a model infant, and
+      dodge the whole lot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This supposititious child, born within the last few minutes, was plainly
+      assuming the proportions of a reality to Mr. Jaffrey. I began to feel a
+      little uncomfortable. I am, as I have said, a civil engineer, and it is
+      not strictly in my line to assist at the births of infants, imaginary or
+      otherwise. I pulled away vigorously at the pipe, and said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What large blue eyes he has,&rdquo; resumed Mr. Jaffrey, after a pause; &ldquo;just
+      like Hetty's; and the fair hair, too, like hers. How oddly certain
+      distinctive features are handed down in families! Sometimes a mouth,
+      sometimes a turn of the eyebrow. Wicked little boys over at K&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;
+      have now and then derisively advised me to follow my nose. It would be an
+      interesting thing to do. I should find my nose flying about the world,
+      turning up unexpectedly here and there, dodging this branch of the family
+      and re-appearing in that, now jumping over one greatgrandchild to fasten
+      itself upon another, and never losing its individuality. Look at Andy.
+      There 's Elkanah Elkins's chin to the life. Andy's chin is probably older
+      than the Pyramids. Poor little thing,&rdquo; he cried, with sudden indescribable
+      tenderness, &ldquo;to lose his mother so early!&rdquo; And Mr. Jaf-frey's head sunk
+      upon his breast, and his shoulders slanted forward, as if he were actually
+      bending over the cradle of the child. The whole gesture and attitude was
+      so natural that it startled me. The pipe slipped from my fingers and fell
+      to the floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush!&rdquo; whispered Mr. Jaffrey, with a deprecating motion of his hand.
+      &ldquo;Andy's asleep!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He rose softly from the chair and, walking across the room on tiptoe, drew
+      down the shade at the window through which the moonlight was streaming.
+      Then he returned to his seat, and remained gazing with half-closed eyes
+      into the dropping embers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I refilled my pipe and smoked in profound silence, wondering what would
+      come next.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But nothing came next. Mr. Jaffrey had fallen into so brown a study that,
+      a quarter of an hour afterwards, when I wished him good-night and
+      withdrew, I do not think he noticed my departure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am not what is called a man of imagination; it is my habit to exclude
+      most things not capable of mathematical demonstration; but I am not
+      without a certain psychological insight, and I think I understood Mr.
+      Jaffrey's case. I could easily understand how a man with an unhealthy,
+      sensitive nature, overwhelmed by sudden calamity, might take refuge in
+      some forlorn place like this old tavern, and dream his life away. To such
+      a man&mdash;brooding forever on what might have been and dwelling wholly
+      in the realm of his fancies&mdash;the actual world might indeed become as
+      a dream, and nothing seem real but his illusions. I dare say that thirteen
+      years of Bayley's Four-Corners would have its effect upon me; though
+      instead of conjuring up golden-haired children of the Madonna, I should
+      probably see gnomes and kobolds, and goblins engaged in hoisting false
+      signals and misplacing switches for midnight express trains.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No doubt,&rdquo; I said to myself that night, as I lay in bed, thinking over
+      the matter, &ldquo;this once possible but now impossible child is a great
+      comfort to the old gentleman&mdash;a greater comfort, perhaps, than a real
+      son would be. Maybe Andy will vanish with the shades and mists of night,
+      he's such an unsubstantial infant; but if he does n't, and Mr. Jaffrey
+      finds pleasure in talking to me about his son, I shall humor the old
+      fellow. It would n't be a Christian act to knock over his harmless fancy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I was very impatient to see if Mr. Jaffrey's illusion would stand the test
+      of daylight. It did. Elkanah Elkins Andrew Jackson Jaffrey was, so to
+      speak, alive and kicking the next morning. On taking his seat at the
+      breakfast-table, Mr. Jaffrey whispered to me that Andy had had a
+      comfortable night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Silas!&rdquo; said Mr. Sewell, sharply, &ldquo;what are you whispering about?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Sewell was in an ill-humor; perhaps he was jealous because I had
+      passed the evening in Mr. Jaffrey's room; but surely Mr. Sewell could not
+      expect his boarders to go to bed at eight o'clock every night, as he did.
+      From time to time during the meal Mr. Sewell regarded me unkindly out of
+      the corner of his eye, and in helping me to the parsnips he poniarded them
+      with quite a suggestive air. All this, however, did not prevent me from
+      repairing to the door of Mr. Jaffrey's snuggery when night came.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Mr. Jaffrey, how 's Andy this evening?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Got a tooth!&rdquo; cried Mr. Jaffrey, vivaciously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, he has! Just through. Gave the nurse a silver dollar. Standing
+      reward for first tooth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was on the tip of my tongue to express surprise that an infant a day
+      old should cut a tooth, when I suddenly recollected that Richard III. was
+      born with teeth. Feeling myself to be on unfamiliar ground, I suppressed
+      my criticism. It was well I did so, for in the next breath I was advised
+      that half a year had elapsed since the previous evening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Andy 's had a hard six months of it,&rdquo; said Mr. Jaffrey, with the
+      well-known narrative air of fathers. &ldquo;We 've brought him up by hand. His
+      grandfather, by the way, was brought up by the bottle&rdquo;&mdash;and brought
+      down by it, too, I added mentally, recalling Mr. Sewell's account of the
+      old gentleman's tragic end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Jaffrey then went on to give me a history of Andy's first six months,
+      omitting no detail however insignificant or irrelevant. This history I
+      would in turn inflict upon the reader, if I were only certain that he is
+      one of those dreadful parents who, under the aegis of friendship, bore you
+      at a streets corner with that remarkable thing which Freddy said the other
+      day, and insist on singing to you, at an evening parly, the Iliad of
+      Tommy's woes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But to inflict this <i>enfantillage</i> upon the unmarried reader would be
+      an act of wanton cruelty. So I pass over that part of Andy's biography,
+      and, for the same reason, make no record of the next four or five
+      interviews I had with Mr. Jaffrey. It will be sufficient to state that
+      Andy glided from extreme infancy to early youth with astonishing celerity&mdash;at
+      the rate of one year per night, if I remember correctly; and&mdash;must I
+      confess it?&mdash;before the week came to an end, this invisible hobgoblin
+      of a boy was only little less of a reality to me than to Mr. Jaffrey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first I had lent myself to the old dreamer's whim with a keen
+      perception of the humor of the thing; but by and by I found that I was
+      talking and thinking of Miss Mehetabel's son as though he were a veritable
+      personage. Mr. Jafifrey spoke of the child with such an air of conviction!&mdash;as
+      if Andy were playing among his toys in the next room, or making mud-pies
+      down in the yard. In these conversations, it should be observed, the child
+      was never supposed to be present, except on that single occasion when Mr.
+      Jafifrey leaned over the cradle. After one of our <i>séances</i> I would
+      lie awake until the small hours, thinking of the boy, and then fall asleep
+      only to have indigestible dreams about him. Through the day, and sometimes
+      in the midst of complicated calculations, I would catch myself wondering
+      what Andy was up to now! There was no shaking him off; he became an
+      inseparable nightmare to me; and I felt that if I remained much longer at
+      Bayley's Four-Corners I should turn into just such another bald-headed,
+      mild-eyed visionary as Silas Jaffrey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the tavern was a grewsome old shell any way, full of unaccountable
+      noises after dark&mdash;rustlings of garments along unfrequented passages,
+      and stealthy footfalls in unoccupied chambers overhead. I never knew of an
+      old house without these mysterious noises. Next to my bedroom was a musty,
+      dismantled apartment, in one corner of which, leaning against the
+      wainscot, was a crippled mangle, with its iron crank tilted in the air
+      like the elbow of the late Mr. Clem Jaffrey. Sometimes,
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;In the dead vast and middle of the night,&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      I used to hear sounds as if some one were turning that rusty crank on the
+      sly. This occurred only on particularly cold nights, and I conceived the
+      uncomfortable idea that it was the thin family ghosts, from the neglected
+      graveyard in the cornfield, keeping themselves warm by running each other
+      through the mangle. There was a haunted air about the whole place that
+      made it easy for me to believe in the existence of a phantasm like Miss
+      Mehetabel's son, who, after all, was less unearthly than Mr. Jaffrey
+      himself, and seemed more properly an inhabitant of this globe than the
+      toothless ogre who kept the inn, not to mention the silent Witch of Endor
+      that cooked our meals for us over the bar-room fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In spite of the scowls and winks bestowed upon me by Mr. Sewell, who let
+      slip no opportunity to testify his disapprobation of the intimacy, Mr.
+      Jaffrey and I spent all our evenings together&mdash;those long autumnal
+      evenings, through the length of which he talked about the boy, laying out
+      his path in life and hedging the path with roses. He should be sent to the
+      High School at Portsmouth, and then to college; he should be educated like
+      a gentleman, Andy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When the old man dies,&rdquo; remarked Mr. Jaffrey one night, rubbing his hands
+      gleefully, as if it were a great joke, &ldquo;Andy will find that the old man
+      has left him a pretty plum.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you think of having Andy enter West Point, when he 's old
+      enough?&rdquo; said Mr. Jaffrey on another occasion. &ldquo;He need n't necessarily go
+      into the army when he graduates; he can become a civil engineer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was a stroke of flattery so delicate and indirect that I could accept
+      it without immodesty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There had lately sprung up on the corner of Mr. Jaffrey's bureau a small
+      tin house, Gothic in architecture and pink in color, with a slit in the
+      roof, and the word <i>Bank</i> painted on one façade. Several times in the
+      course of an evening Mr. Jaffrey would rise from his chair without
+      interrupting the conversation, and gravely drop a nickel into the scuttle
+      of the bank. It was pleasant to observe the solemnity of his countenance
+      as he approached the edifice, and the air of triumph with which he resumed
+      his seat by the fireplace. One night I missed the tin bank. It had
+      disappeared, deposits and all, like a real bank. Evidently there had been
+      a defalcation on rather a large scale. I strongly suspected that Mr.
+      Sewell was at the bottom of it, but my suspicion was not shared by Mr.
+      Jaffrey, who, remarking my glance at the bureau, became suddenly
+      depressed. &ldquo;I 'm afraid,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that I have failed to instil into
+      Andrew those principles of integrity which&mdash;which&rdquo;&mdash;and the old
+      gentleman quite broke down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Andy was now eight or nine years old, and for some time past, if the truth
+      must be told, had given Mr. Jaffrey no inconsiderable trouble; what with
+      his impishness and his illnesses, the boy led the pair of us a lively
+      dance. I shall not soon forget the anxiety of Mr. Jaffrey the night Andy
+      had the scarlet-fever&mdash;an anxiety which so infected me that I
+      actually returned to the tavern the following afternoon earlier than
+      usual, dreading to hear that the little spectre was dead, and greatly
+      relieved on meeting Mr. Jaffrey at the door-step with his face wreathed in
+      smiles. When I spoke to him of Andy, I was made aware that I was inquiring
+      into a case of scarlet-fever that had occurred the year before!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was at this time, towards the end of my second week at Greenton, that I
+      noticed what was probably not a new trait&mdash;Mr. Jaffrey's curious
+      sensitiveness to atmospherical changes. He was as sensitive as a
+      barometer. The approach of a storm sent his mercury down instantly. When
+      the weather was fair he was hopeful and sunny, and Andy's prospects were
+      brilliant. When the weather was overcast and threatening he grew restless
+      and despondent, and was afraid that the boy was not going to turn out
+      well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the Saturday previous to my departure, which had been fixed for Monday,
+      it rained heavily all the afternoon, and that night Mr. Jaffrey was in an
+      unusually excitable and unhappy frame of mind. His mercury was very low
+      indeed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That boy is going to the dogs just as fast as he can go,&rdquo; said Mr.
+      Jaffrey, with a woful face. &ldquo;I can't do anything with him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He'll come out all right, Mr. Jaffrey. Boys will be boys. I would not
+      give a snap for a lad without animal spirits.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But animal spirits,&rdquo; said Mr. Jaffrey sententiously, &ldquo;should n't saw off
+      the legs of the piano in Tobias's best parlor. I don't know what Tobias
+      will say when he finds it out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What! has Andy sawed off the legs of the old spinet?&rdquo; I returned,
+      laughing. &ldquo;Worse than that.&rdquo; &ldquo;Played upon it, then!&rdquo; &ldquo;No, sir. He has lied
+      to me!&rdquo; &ldquo;I can't believe that of Andy.&rdquo; &ldquo;Lied to me, sir,&rdquo; repeated Mr.
+      Jaffrey, severely. &ldquo;He pledged me his word of honor that he would give
+      over his climbing. The way that boy climbs sends a chill down my spine.
+      This morning, notwithstanding his solemn promise, he shinned up the
+      lightning-rod attached to the extension, and sat astride the ridge-pole. I
+      saw him, and he denied it! When a boy you have caressed and indulged and
+      lavished pocket-money on lies to you and <i>will</i> climb, then there's
+      nothing more to be said. He's a lost child.&rdquo; &ldquo;You take too dark a view of
+      it, Mr. Jaffrey. Training and education are bound to tell in the end, and
+      he has been well brought up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I did n't bring him up on a lightning-rod, did I? If he is ever going
+      to know how to behave, he ought to know now. To-morrow he will be eleven
+      years old.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The reflection came to me that if Andy had not been brought up by the rod,
+      he had certainly been brought up by the lightning. He was eleven years old
+      in two weeks!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I essayed, with that perspicacious wisdom which seems to be the peculiar
+      property of bachelors and elderly maiden ladies, to tranquillize Mr.
+      Jaffrey's mind, and to give him some practical hints on the management of
+      youth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spank him,&rdquo; I suggested at last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will!&rdquo; said the old gentleman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you 'd better do it at once!&rdquo; I added, as it flashed upon me that in
+      six months Andy would be a hundred and forty-three years old!&mdash;an age
+      at which parental discipline would have to be relaxed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning. Sunday, the rain came down as if determined to drive the
+      quicksilver entirely out of my poor friend. Mr. Jaffrey sat bolt upright
+      at the breakfast-table, looking as woe-begone as a bust of Dante, and
+      retired to his chamber the moment the meal was finished. As the day
+      advanced, the wind veered round to the northeast, and settled itself down
+      to work. It was not pleasant to think, and I tried not to think, what Mr.
+      Jaffrey's condition would be if the weather did not mend its manners by
+      noon; but so far from clearing off at noon, the storm increased in
+      violence, and as night set in the wind whistled in a spiteful falsetto
+      key, and the rain lashed the old tavern as if it were a balky horse that
+      refused to move on. The windows rattled in the worm-eaten frames, and the
+      doors of remote rooms, where nobody ever went, slammed to in the maddest
+      way. Now and then the tornado, sweeping down the side of Mount
+      Agamenticus, bowled across the open country, and struck the ancient
+      hostelry point-blank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Jaffrey did not appear at supper. I knew that he was expecting me to
+      come to his room as usual, and I turned over in my mind a dozen plans to
+      evade seeing him that night. The landlord sat at the opposite side of the
+      chimney-place, with his eye upon me. I fancy he was aware of the effect of
+      this storm on his other boarder, for at intervals, as the wind hurled
+      itself against the exposed gable, threatening to burst in the windows, Mr.
+      Sewell tipped me an atrocious wink, and displayed his gums in a way he had
+      not done since the morning after my arrival at Greenton. I wondered if he
+      suspected anything about Andy. There had been odd times during the past
+      week when I felt convinced that the existence of Miss Mehetabel's son was
+      no secret to Mr. Sewell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In deference to the gale, the landlord sat up half an hour later than was
+      his custom. At half-past eight he went to bed, remarking that he thought
+      the old pile would stand till morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had been absent only a few minutes when I heard a rustling at the door.
+      I looked up, and beheld Mr. Jaffrey standing on the threshold, with his
+      dress in disorder, his scant hair flying, and the wildest expression on
+      his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's gone!&rdquo; cried Mr. Jaffrey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who? Sewell? Yes, he just went to bed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, not Tobias&mdash;the boy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, run away?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No&mdash;he is dead! He has fallen from a step-ladder in the red chamber
+      and broken his neck!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Jaffrey threw up his hands with a gesture of despair, and disappeared.
+      I followed him through the hall, saw him go into his own apartment, and
+      heard the bolt of the door drawn to. Then I returned to the bar-room, and
+      sat for an hour or two in the ruddy glow of the fire, brooding over the
+      strange experience of the last fortnight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On my way to bed I paused at Mr. Jaf-frey's door, and, in a lull of the
+      storm, the measured respiration within told me that the old gentleman was
+      sleeping peacefully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Slumber was coy with me that night. I lay listening to the soughing of the
+      wind, and thinking of Mr. Jaffrey's illusion. It had amused me at first
+      with its grotesqueness; but now the poor little phantom was dead, I was
+      conscious that there had been something pathetic in it all along. Shortly
+      after midnight the wind sunk down, coming and going fainter and fainter,
+      floating around the eaves of the tavern with an undulating, murmurous
+      sound, as if it were turning itself into soft wings to bear away the
+      spirit of a little child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps nothing that happened during my stay at Bayley's Four-Corners took
+      me so completely by surprise as Mr. Jaffrey's radiant countenance the next
+      morning. The morning itself was not fresher or sunnier. His round face
+      literally shone with geniality and happiness. His eyes twinkled like
+      diamonds, and the magnetic light of his hair was turned on full. He came
+      into my room while I was packing my valise. He chirped, and prattled, and
+      carolled, and was sorry I was going away&mdash;but never a word about
+      Andy. However, the boy had probably been dead several years then!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The open wagon that was to carry me to the station stood at the door; Mr.
+      Sewell was placing my case of instruments under the seat, and Mr. Jaffrey
+      had gone up to his room to get me a certain newspaper containing an
+      account of a remarkable shipwreck on the Auckland Islands. I took the
+      opportunity to thank Mr. Sewell for his courtesies to me, and to express
+      my regret at leaving him and Mr. Jaffrey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have become very much attached to Mr. Jaffrey,&rdquo; I said; &ldquo;he is a most
+      interesting person; but that hypothetical boy of his, that son of Miss
+      Mehetabel's&rdquo;&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I know!&rdquo; interrupted Mr. Sewell, testily. &ldquo;Fell off a step-ladder
+      and broke his dratted neck. Eleven year old, was n't he? Always does, jest
+      at that point. Next week Silas will begin the whole thing over again, if
+      he can get anybody to listen to him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see. Our amiable friend is a little queer on that subject.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Sewell glanced cautiously over his shoulder, and, tapping himself
+      significantly on the forehead, said in a low voice,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Room To Let&mdash;Unfurnished!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <div style="height: 6em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Miss Mehetabel's Son, by Thomas Bailey Aldrich
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+</pre>
+  </body>
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