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diff --git a/23357.txt b/23357.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..38b2494 --- /dev/null +++ b/23357.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1216 @@ +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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISS MEHETABEL'S SON *** + +***** This file should be named 23357.txt or 23357.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/3/5/23357/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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