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+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Chanticleer: A Thanksgiving Story of the Peabody Family, by Cornelius Mathews.
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Chanticleer, by Cornelius Mathews
+
+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: Chanticleer
+       A Thanksgiving Story of the Peabody Family
+
+Author: Cornelius Mathews
+
+Release Date: April 11, 2008 [EBook #25045]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHANTICLEER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Edwards, jkenny and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<h1>CHANTICLEER:</h1>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>A</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2>THANKSGIVING STORY</h2>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>OF</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2>THE PEABODY FAMILY.</h2>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center">SECOND EDITION.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="center">BOSTON: B. B. MUSSEY &amp; CO.<br />
+NEW-YORK: J. S. REDFIELD.<br />
+1850.<br />
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="center"><span class="smcap">Entered</span>, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850.<br />
+BY J. S. REDFIELD,<br />
+in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States,<br />
+for the Southern District of New York.
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE.</h2>
+
+<p>Shall the glorious festival of Thanksgiving, now yearly celebrated all
+over the American Union, (said the author to himself one day,) be
+ushered in with no other trumpet than the proclamations of
+State-Governors? May we not have a little holiday-book of our own, in
+harmony with that cherished Anniversary, which, while it pleases your
+fellow-countrymen, should it have that good fortune, may acquaint
+distant strangers with the observance of that happy custom of our
+country? With the hope that it may be so received, and as a kindly word
+spoken to all classes and sections of his fellow citizens, awakening a
+feeling of union and fraternal friendship at this genial season, the
+writer presents this little volume of home characters and incidents.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">November, 1850.</span></p>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_FIRST">CHAPTER I.</a></h3>
+
+<h4>THE LANDSCAPE OF THE STORY.</h4>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_SECOND">CHAPTER II.</a></h3>
+
+<h4>ARRIVAL OF THE MERCHANT AND HIS PEOPLE.</h4>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_THIRD">CHAPTER III.</a></h3>
+
+<h4>THE FARMER-FOLKS FROM THE WEST.</h4>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_FOURTH">CHAPTER IV.</a></h3>
+
+<h4>THE FORTUNES OF THE FAMILY CONSIDERED.</h4>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_FIFTH">CHAPTER V.</a></h3>
+
+<h4>THE CHILDREN.</h4>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_SIXTH">CHAPTER VI.</a></h3>
+
+<h4>THE FASHIONABLE LADY AND HER SON.</h4>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_SEVENTH">CHAPTER VII.</a></h3>
+
+<h4>THE THANKSGIVING SERMON.</h4>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_EIGHTH">CHAPTER VIII.</a></h3>
+
+<h4>THE DINNER.</h4>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_NINTH">CHAPTER IX.</a></h3>
+
+<h4>THE NEW-COMERS.</h4>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_TENTH">CHAPTER X.</a></h3>
+
+<h4>THE CONCLUSION.</h4>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FIRST" id="CHAPTER_FIRST"></a>CHAPTER FIRST.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE LANDSCAPE OF THE STORY.</h3>
+
+<p>I see old Sylvester Peabody&mdash;the head of the Peabody family&mdash;seated in
+the porch of his country dwelling, like an ancient patriarch, in the
+calm of the morning. His broad-brimmed hat lies on the bench at his
+side, and his venerable white locks flow down his shoulders, which time
+in one hundred seasons of battle and sorrow, of harvest and drouth, of
+toil and death, in all his hardy wrestlings with old Sylvester, has not
+been able to bend. The old man's form is erect and tall, and lifting up
+his head to its height, he looks afar, down the country road which leads
+from his rural door, towards the city. He has kept his gaze in that
+direction for better than an hour, and a mist has gradually crept upon
+his vision;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> objects begin to lose their distinctness; they grow dim or
+soften away like ghosts or spirits; the whole landscape melts gently
+into a pictured dew before him. Is old Sylvester, who has kept it clear
+and bright so long, losing his sight at last, or is our common world,
+already changing under the old patriarch's pure regard, into that
+better, heavenly land?</p>
+
+<p>It seemed indeed, on this very calm morning in November, as if angels
+were busy about the Old Homestead, (which lies on the map, in the heart
+of one of the early states of our dear American Union,) transforming all
+the old familiar things into something better and purer, and touching
+them gently with a music and radiance caught from the very sky itself.
+As in the innocence of beauty, shrouded in sleep, dreams come to the
+eyelids which are the realities of the day, with a strange
+loveliness&mdash;the fair country lay as it were in a delicious dreamy
+slumber. The trees did not stand forth boldly with every branch and
+leaf, but rather seemed gentle pictures of trees; the sheep-bells from
+the hills tinkled softly and as if whispering a secret to the wind; the
+birds sailed slowly to and fro on the air; there was no harshness in the
+low of the herds, no anger in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> heat of the sun, not a sight nor a
+sound, near by nor far off, which did not partake of the holy beauty of
+the morning, nor sing, nor be silent, nor stand still, nor move, with
+any other than a gliding sweetness and repose, or an under-tone which
+might have been the echo here on earth, of a better sphere. There was a
+tender sadness and wonder in the face of old Sylvester, when a voice
+came stealing in upon the silence. It did not in a single tone disturb
+the heavenly harmony of the hour, for it was the voice of the orphan
+dependent of the house, Miriam Haven, whose dark-bright eye and graceful
+form glimmered, as though she were the spirit of all the softened beauty
+of the scene, from amid the broom-corn, where she was busy in one of the
+duties of the season. Well might she sing the song of lament, for her
+people had gone down far away in the sea, and her lover&mdash;where was he?</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Far away&mdash;far away are they,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And I in all the world alone&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Brightly, too brightly, shines the day&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Dark is the land where they are gone!<br /></span>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I have a friend that's far away,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Unknown the clime that bears his tread;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Perchance he walks in light to-day,<br /></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span><span class="i1">He may be dead! he may be dead!</span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Like every other condition of the time, the voice of Miriam too, had a
+change in it.</p>
+
+<p>"What wonder is this?" said old Sylvester, "I neither hear nor see as I
+used&mdash;are all my senses going?"</p>
+
+<p>He turned, as he spoke, to a woman of small stature, in whose features
+dignity and tenderness mingled, as she now regarded him, with reverence
+for the ancient head of the house. She came forward as he addressed her,
+and laying her hand gently on his arm, said&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You forget, father; this is the Indian summer, which is the first
+summer softened and soberer, and often comes at thanksgiving-time. It
+always changes the country, as you see it now."</p>
+
+<p>"Child, child, you are right. I should have known it, for always at this
+season, often as it has come to me, do I think of the absent and the
+dead&mdash;of times and hours, and friends long, long passed away. Of those
+whom I have known," he continued eagerly, "who have fallen in battle, in
+the toil of the field, on the highway, on the waters, in silent
+chambers, by sickness, by swords: I thank God they have all, all of my
+kith and kin and people, died with their names<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> untouched with crime;
+all," he added with energy, planting his feet firmly on the ground and
+rising as he spoke sternly, "all, save one alone, and he&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He turned toward the female at his side, and when he looked in her face
+and saw the mournful expression which came upon it, he dropped back into
+his chair and stayed his speech.</p>
+
+<p>At this moment a little fellow, who, with his flaxen locks and blue
+eyes, was a very cherub in plumpness and the clearness of his brow, came
+toddling out of the door of the house, struggling with a basin of yellow
+corn, which, shifting about in his arms, he just managed to keep
+possession of till he reached old Sylvester's knee. This was little Sam
+Peabody, the youngest of the Peabodys, and as he looked up into his
+grandfather's face you could not fail to see, though they grew so wide
+apart, the same story of passion and character in each. The little
+fellow began throwing the bright grain from the basin to a great
+strutting turkey which went marching and gobbling up and down the
+door-yard, swelling his feathers, spreading his tail, and shaking his
+red neck-tie with a boundless pretence and restlessness; like many a
+hero he was proud of his uniform, although the fatal hour<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> which was to
+lay him low was not far off. It was the thanksgiving turkey, himself, in
+process of fattening under charge of Master Sam Peabody. Busy in the
+act, he was regarded with smiling fondness by his mother, the widow
+Margaret Peabody, and his old grandfather, when he suddenly turned, and
+said&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Grand-pa, where's brother Elbridge?"</p>
+
+<p>The old man changed his countenance and struggled a moment with himself.</p>
+
+<p>"He had better know all," he said, after a pause of thought, in which he
+looked, or seemed to look afar off from the scene about him. "Margaret,
+painful though it be to you and to me, let the truth be spoken. God
+knows I love your son, Elbridge, and would have laid down my life that
+this thing had not chanced, but the child asks of his brother so often,
+and is so often evaded that he will be presently snared in a net of
+falsehoods and deceptions if we speak not more plainly to him."</p>
+
+<p>An inexpressible anguish overspread the countenance of the widowed
+woman, and she turned aside to breathe a brief prayer of trust and hope
+of strength in the hour of trial.</p>
+
+<p>The thanksgiving turkey, full of his banquet of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> corn, strutted away to
+a slope in the sun by the roadside, and little Sam Peabody renewed his
+question.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't I see brother Elbridge, grand-pa?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never again, I fear, my child."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not, grandfather?"</p>
+
+<p>"Answer gently, father," the widow interposed. "Make not the case too
+harsh against my boy."</p>
+
+<p>"Margaret," said the old man, lifting his countenance upon her with
+dignity of look, "I shall speak the truth. I would have the name of my
+race pure of all stains and detractions, as it has been for an hundred
+years, but I would not bear hardly against your son, Margaret. This
+child, innocent and unswayed as he is, shall hear it, and shall be the
+judge."</p>
+
+<p>Rising, old Sylvester with Margaret's help, lifted the boy to the deep
+window-seat; and, standing on either hand, the widow and the old man
+each at his side, Sylvester taking one hand of the child in his, began&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"My child, you are the youngest of this name and household, to you God
+may have entrusted the continuance of our race and name, therefore thus
+early would I have you learn the lesson your brother's errors may
+teach."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That should come last," the widow interposed gently. "The story itself
+should teach it, if the story be true."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps it should, Margaret," old Sylvester rejoined. "I will let the
+story speak for itself. It is, my child, a year ago this day, that an
+excellent man, Mr. Barbary, the preacher of this neighborhood,
+disappeared from among living men. He was blameless in his life, he had
+no enemy on the face of the earth. He was a simple, frugal, worthy
+man&mdash;the last time alive, he was seen in company with your brother
+Elbridge, by the Locust-wood, near the pond where you go to gather
+huckleberries in the summer, and hazels in the autumn. He was seen with
+him and seen no more."</p>
+
+<p>"But no man saw Elbridge, father, lift hand against him, or utter an
+angry word. On the contrary, they were seen entering the wood in close
+companionship, and smiling on each other."</p>
+
+<p>"Even so, Margaret," said Sylvester, looking at the child steadily, and
+waving his hand in silence toward the widow. "But what answer gave the
+young man when questioned of the whereabout of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> his friend? Not a word,
+Margaret&mdash;not a word, my child."</p>
+
+<p>"Is Mr. Barbary dead, grandfather?" the child inquired, leaning forward.</p>
+
+<p>"How else? He is not to be found in pulpit or field. No man seeth his
+steps any more in their ancient haunts. No man hearkens to his voice."</p>
+
+<p>"But the body, father, was never found. He may be still living in some
+other quarter."</p>
+
+<p>"It was near the rock called High Point, you will remember, and one
+plunge might have sent him to the bottom. The under currents of the lake
+are strong, and may have easily swept him away. There is but one belief
+through all this neighborhood. Ethan Barbary fell by the hand&mdash;Almighty
+God, that I should have to say it to you, my own grandson&mdash;of Elbridge
+Peabody."</p>
+
+<p>The child sat for a moment in dumb astonishment, glancing, with
+distended eyes and sweat upon his brow, fearfully from the stern face of
+the old man to the downcast features of the widow, when recovering
+speech he asked:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Why should my brother kill Mr. Barbary, if he was his friend? Was not
+Elbridge always kind, mo<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>ther? I'm sure he was to me, and used to let me
+ride old Sorrel before him to the mill!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ever kind? He was. There was not a day he did not make glad his poor
+mother's heart, with some generous act of devotion to her. No sun set on
+the day which did not cheer her lonely hearth with a new light of
+gladness and peace from his young eyes."</p>
+
+<p>"Margaret, you forget. He was soft of heart, but proud of spirit, and
+haughty beyond his age; you may not remember, even I could not always
+look down his anger, or silence his loudness of speech. Why should he
+kill Mr. Barbary? I will tell you, child: the preacher, too, had
+discerned well your brother's besetting sin, and, being fearless in
+duty, from the Sabbath pulpit he spake of it plainly and with such point
+that it could not fail to come home directly to the bosom of the young
+man. This was on the very Lord's day before Mr. Barbary disappeared from
+amongst us. It rankled in your brother's bosom like poison; his passions
+were wild and ungoverned, and this was cause enough. If he had been
+innocent, why did Elbridge Peabody flee this neighborhood, like a thief
+in the night?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Why did my brother Elbridge leave us, mother?" said the child, bending
+eagerly towards the widow, who wrung her hands and was silent.</p>
+
+<p>"He may come back," said the child, shaking his flaxen locks, and not
+abashed in the least by her silence. "He may come back yet and explain
+all to us."</p>
+
+<p>"Never!"</p>
+
+<p>At that very moment a red rooster, who stood with his burnished wings on
+the garden wall, near enough to have heard all that had passed, lifted
+up his throat, and poured forth a clear cry, which rang through the
+placid air far and wide.</p>
+
+<p>"He will&mdash;I know he will," said little Sam Peabody, leaping down from
+his judgment-seat in the window. "Chanticleer knows he will, or he would
+not speak in that way. He hasn't crowed once before, you know,
+grandfather, since Elbridge went away; we'll hear from brother soon, I
+know we shall&mdash;I know we shall!"</p>
+
+<p>The little fellow, in his glee, clapped his hands and crowed too. The
+grandfather, looking on his gambols, smiled, but was presently sad
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"Would to Heaven he may," he said. "If they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> come who should, to-day, we
+may learn of him&mdash;for to-day my children should come up from all the
+quarters of the land where they are scattered&mdash;the East, the West, the
+North, the South&mdash;to join with me in the Festival of Thanksgiving which
+now draws near. My head is whitened with many winters, and I shall see
+them for the last time." Sylvester continued: "If they come&mdash;in this
+calm season, which, so soft and sweet, seems the gentle dawn of the
+coming world&mdash;we shall have, I feel, our last re-gathering on earth! But
+they come not; my eyes are weary with watching afar off, and I cannot
+yet discern that my children bear me in remembrance, in this grateful
+season of the year. Why do they not come?"</p>
+
+<p>The aged patriarch of the family bowed his head and was silent. From the
+broom-corn the gentle voice stole again:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Why sings the robin in the wood?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For him her music is not shed:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Why blind-brook sparkle through the field?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He may be dead! he may be dead!</span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The murmur of Miriam's musical lamenting had scarcely died away on the
+dreamy air, when there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> came hurrying forward from the garden&mdash;where she
+had been tending the great thanksgiving pumpkin, which was her special
+charge&mdash;the black servant of the household, Mopsey by name, who, with
+her broad-fringed cap flying all abroad, and her great eyes rolling,
+spoke out as she approached&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Do hear dat, massa?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hear nothing, Mopsey."</p>
+
+<p>"Dere, don't you hear't now? Dey're coming!"</p>
+
+<p>With faces of curiosity, and ears erect, they listened. There was a
+peculiar sound in the air, and on closer attention they discerned, in
+the stillness of the morning, the jingling traces of the stage-coach, on
+the cross-road, through the fields.</p>
+
+<p>"They are not coming," said old Sylvester, when the sound had died away
+in the distance; "the stage has taken the other road."</p>
+
+<p>"Dat may be, grandfather," Mopsey spoke up, "but for all dey may come.
+Ugly Davis, when <i>he</i> drive, don't always turn out of his way to come up
+here. Dey may be on de corner."</p>
+
+<p>As Mopsey spoke, two figures appeared on foot on the brow of the road,
+which sloped down toward the Homestead, through a feathery range of
+graceful lo<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>custs. They were too far off to be distinctly made out, but
+it was to be inferred that they were travellers from a distance, for one
+of them held against the light some sort of travelling bag or
+portmanteau; one of them was in female dress, but this was all they
+could as yet distinguish. Various conjectures were ventured as to their
+special character. They were unquestionably making for the Homestead,
+and it was to be reasonably supposed they were Peabodys, for strangers
+were rare upon that road, which was a by-way, off the main thoroughfare.</p>
+
+<p>The family gathered on the extreme out-look of the balcony, and watched
+with eager curiosity their approach, which was slow and somewhat
+irregular&mdash;the man did not aid the woman in her progress, but straggled
+on apart, nor did he seem to address her as they came on.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_SECOND" id="CHAPTER_SECOND"></a>CHAPTER SECOND.</h2>
+
+<h3>ARRIVAL OF THE MERCHANT AND HIS PEOPLE.</h3>
+
+<p>"It is William and Hannah," said the Patriarch, towering above the
+household grouped about him, and gaining an advantage in observation
+from his commanding height, "I am glad the oldest is the first to come!"</p>
+
+<p>When the two comers reached the door-yard gate the man entered in
+without rendering the least assistance or paying the slightest heed to
+his companion, who followed humbly in his track. He was some sixty years
+of age, large-featured and inclining to tallness; his dress was
+oldmanish and plain, consisting of a long-furred beaver hat, a loose
+made coat, and other apparel corresponding, with low cut shoes. He
+smiled as he came upon the balcony, greeting old Sylvester with a shake
+of the hand, but taking no notice whatever either of the widow, little
+Sam, or Mopsey. His wife, on the contrary, spoke to all, but quietly and
+submissively, which was in truth, her whole manner. She was spare and
+withered, with a pinched, colorless face, constrained in a scared<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> and
+apprehensive look as though in constant dread of an impending violence
+or injury. Over one eye she wore a green patch, which greatly heightened
+the pallor and strangeness of her features.</p>
+
+<p>"Where's the Captain and Henrietta?" old Sylvester asked when the
+greetings were over.</p>
+
+<p>"They started from the city in a chay," he was answered by William
+Peabody, "some hours before us,&mdash;the captain,&mdash;seaman&mdash;way of driving
+irreg'lar. Nobody can tell what road he may have got into. Should'nt be
+surprised if did'nt arrive till to-morrow morning. Will always have
+high-actioned horse."</p>
+
+<p>William Peabody had scarcely spoken when there arose in the distance
+down the road, a violent cloud of dust, from which there emerged a
+two-wheeled vehicle at a thundering pace, and which, in less than a
+minute's time, went whirling past the Homestead. It was supposed to
+contain Captain Saltonstall and wife; but what with the speed and dust,
+no eye could have guessed with any accuracy who or what they were. In
+less than a minute more it came sweeping back with the great white
+horse, passing the house again like an apparition, or the ghost of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>
+horse and gig. With another sally down the road and return, with a long
+curve in the road before the Homestead, it at last came to at the gate,
+and disclosed in a high sweat and glowing all over his huge person, the
+jovial Captain, and at his side his pretty little cherry-faced girl of a
+wife, Henrietta Peabody, daughter of William Peabody, who, be it known,
+is old Sylvester's oldest son. There also emerged from the one-horse
+gig, after the captain had made ground, and jumped his little wife to
+the same landing in his arms, a red-faced boy, who must have been
+closely stowed somewhere, for he came out of the vehicle highly colored,
+and looking very much as if he had been sat upon for a couple of hours
+or more. The Captain having freed his horse from the traces, and at old
+Sylvester's suggestion, set him loose in the door-yard to graze at his
+leisure, rushed forward upon the balcony very much in the character of a
+good natured tornado, saluted the widow Margaret with a whirlwind kiss,
+threw little Sam high in the air and caught him as he came within half
+an inch of the ground, shook the old grandfather's readily extended hand
+with a sturdy grasp, and wound up, for a moment, with a great cuff on
+the side of the head with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> a roll of stuff for a new gown for Mopsey,
+saying as he delivered it, "Dere, what d'ye say to dat, Darkey!"</p>
+
+<p>Darkey brightened into a sort of nocturnal illumination, and shuffling
+away, in the loose shoes, to the keeping of which on her feet the better
+half of the best energies of her life were directed, gave out that she
+must be looking after dinner.</p>
+
+<p>It was but for a moment only that the Captain paused, and in less than
+five minutes he had said and done so many good-natured things, had shown
+himself so free of heart withal, and so little considerate of self or
+the figure he cut, that in spite of his great clumsy person, and the
+gash in his face, and the somewhat exorbitant character of his dress,
+his coat being a bob as long and straight in the line across the back,
+as the edge of a table, you could not help regarding him as a decidedly
+well made, well dressed, and quite handsome person; in fact the Captain
+passed with the whole family for a fine-looking man.</p>
+
+<p>"Where's my little girl Miriam?" asked the jovial Captain, after a
+moment's rest in a seat by the side of old Sylvester. "I must see my
+Dolphin, or she'll think I'm growing old."</p>
+
+<p>Being advised that the young lady in question<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> was somewhere within, the
+Captain rushed into the house, pursued by all the family in a body, save
+William Peabody, who remained with old Sylvester, seated and in silence.</p>
+
+<p>"How go matters in the city, William?" he said, removing his hand from
+his brow, where it had rested in contemplation for several minutes.</p>
+
+<p>"After the old fashion, father," William Peabody answered, smiling with
+a fox-like glance at his father; "added three new houses to my property
+since last year."</p>
+
+<p>"Three new houses?"</p>
+
+<p>"Three, all of brick,&mdash;good streets&mdash;built in the latest style. The city
+grows and I grow!"</p>
+
+<p>"Three new houses, and all in the latest style&mdash;and how does Margaret's
+little property pay?"</p>
+
+<p>"Poorly, father, poorly. Elbridge made a bad choice when he bought
+it&mdash;greatly out of repair&mdash;rents come slowly."</p>
+
+<p>"In a word, the old story, the widow gets nothing again from the city. I
+had hopes you would be able to bring her some returns this time, for she
+needs it sadly."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I do the best I can, but money's not to be got out of stone walls."</p>
+
+<p>"And you have three new houses which pay well," old Sylvester continued,
+turning his calm blue eye steadily upon his son.</p>
+
+<p>"Capital&mdash;best in the city! Already worth twice I gave for 'em. The city
+grows and I grow!"</p>
+
+<p>"My son, do you never think of that other house reserved for us all?"</p>
+
+<p>William Peabody was about to answer, it was nonsense for a man only
+sixty and in sound condition of body and mind to think too much of that,
+when his eye, ranging across the fields, espied in shadow as it were,
+through the dim atmosphere, the mist clearing away a little in that
+direction, an old sorrel horse&mdash;a long settler with the family and
+well-known to all its members&mdash;staggering about feebly in a distant
+orchard, and in her wanderings stumbling against the trees.&mdash;"Is old
+Sorrel blind?" he asked, shading his own eyes from the light.</p>
+
+<p>"She is, William," old Sylvester replied; "her sight went from her last
+New-Year's day."</p>
+
+<p>"My birth-day," said the merchant, a sudden pallor coming upon his
+countenance.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you and old Sorrel are birth-mates, my son."</p>
+
+<p>"We are; she was foaled the day I was born," said William Peabody, and
+added, as to himself, musingly, "Old Sorrel is blind! So we pass&mdash;so we
+pass&mdash;young to-day&mdash;to-morrow old&mdash;limbs fail us&mdash;sight is gone."</p>
+
+<p>They sat silently, contemplating the still morning scene before them,
+and meditating, each in his own particular way, on the history of the
+past.</p>
+
+<p>To William, the merchant, it brought chiefly a recollection how in his
+early manhood he had set out from those quiet fields for a hard struggle
+with the world, with a bare dollar in his pocket, and when that was gone
+the whole world seemed to combine in a desperate league against him to
+prevent his achieving another. How at last, on the very edge of
+starvation and despair, he had wrung from it the means of beginning his
+fortunes; and how he had gone on step by step, forgetting all the
+pleasant ties of his youth, all recollections of nature and cheerful
+faces of friends and kinsfolk, adding thousand to thousand, house to
+house; building, unlike Jacob, a ladder, that descended to the lower
+world, up which all harsh and dark spirits perpetually thronged and
+joined to drag<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> him down; and yet he smiled grimly at the thought of the
+power he possessed, and how many of his early companions trembled before
+him because he was grown to be a rich man.</p>
+
+<p>Old Sylvester, on the other hand, in all his memory had no thought of
+himself. His recollection ran back to the old times when his neighbors
+sat down under a king's sceptre in these colonies, how that chain had
+been freed, the gloomy Indian had withdrawn his face from their fields,
+how the darkness of the woods had retired before the cheering sun of
+peace and plenty; and how from a little people, his dear country, for
+whose welfare his sword had been stained, had grown into a great nation.
+Scattered up and down the long line of memory were faces of friends and
+kindred, which had passed long ago from the earth. He called to mind
+many a pleasant fire-side chat; many a funeral scene, and burying in
+sun-light and in the cold rain; the young Elbridge too was in his
+thoughts last of all; could he return to them with a name untainted, the
+old man would cheerfully lie down in his grave and be at peace with all
+the world.</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile, within the house the Captain in high favor was seated
+in a great cushioned arm-chair<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> with little Sam Peabody on his knee, and
+the women of the house gathered about him, looking on as he narrated the
+courses and adventures of his last voyage. The widow listened with a sad
+interest. Mopsey rolled her eyes and was mirthful in the most serious
+and stormiest passages; while little Sam and the Captain's wife rivalled
+each other in regarding the Captain with innocent wonder and
+astonishment, as though he were the most extraordinary man that ever
+sailed the sea, or sat in a chair telling about it, in the whole
+habitable globe. Miriam Haven alone was distant from the scene, gliding
+to and fro past the door, busied in household duties in a neighboring
+apartment, and catching a word here and there as she glanced by.</p>
+
+<p>It was a wonderful story, certainly, the Captain was telling, and it
+seemed beyond all belief that it could be true that one man could have
+seen the whales, the icebergs, the floating islands, the ships in the
+air, the sea-dogs, and grampuses, the flying-fish, the pirates, and the
+thousand other wonders the Captain reported to have crossed his path in
+a single trip across the simple Atlantic and back. He also averred to
+have distinctly seen the sea-serpent, and what was more,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> to have had a
+conversation with a ship in the very middle of the ocean. Was there
+anything wonderful in that? it occurs every day&mdash;but listen to the
+jovial Captain!&mdash;a ship&mdash;and he had news to tell them of one they would
+like to hear about. They pressed close to the Captain and listened
+breathlessly; Miriam Haven pausing in her task, and stopping stone-still
+like a statue, in the door, while her very heart stayed its beating.</p>
+
+<p>Go on&mdash;Captain&mdash;go on&mdash;go on!</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what do you think; we were in latitude&mdash;no matter, you don't care
+about that&mdash;we had just come out of a great gale, which made the sea
+pitch-dark about us; when the first beam of the sun opened the clouds,
+we found ourselves along side a ship with the old stars and stripes
+flying like a bird at the mast-head. There was a sight, my hearties. We
+hailed her, she hailed us, we threw her papers, she threw us, and we
+parted forever."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that all?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not half. One of these was a list of passengers; I run my eye up, and I
+run my eye down, and there, shining out like a star amongst them all, I
+find, whose d'ye think&mdash;Elbridge Peabody&mdash;as large as life."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Miriam Haven staggered against the door-post, the widow fell upon her
+knees, "Thank God, my boy is heard from."</p>
+
+<p>Little Sam Peabody darted from the Captain's knee and rushed upon the
+balcony, crying at the top of his lungs, "Grandfather, brother Elbridge
+is heard from."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe it," said William Peabody; the poor old blind sorrel
+had disappeared from sight into a piece of woods near the orchard, and
+the merchant had quite recovered his usual way of speaking. "Never will
+believe it. You hav'nt heard of that youngster,&mdash;never will. Always knew
+he would run away some day&mdash;never come back again."</p>
+
+<p>The Captain's story was rapidly explained by the different members of
+the family, who had followed little Sam, to repeat it to old Sylvester,
+each in her own way. Miriam and Hannah Peabody, who at sound of the
+commotion had come forth from an inner chamber, whither she had been
+retired by herself, joined the company of lookers on.</p>
+
+<p>"What all amount to," he continued, in his peculiar clipped style of
+speech. "Expect to see him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> again, do you. Mighty fine chance&mdash;where
+going to?"</p>
+
+<p>The Captain could'nt tell.</p>
+
+<p>"One of the Captain's fine stories&mdash;no&mdash;no&mdash;if that boy ever comes back
+again, I'll&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>There was a deep silence to hear what the hard old merchant proposed.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll hand over to him the management of his late father's property, he
+was always hankering after, and thought he could make so much more of
+than his hard-fisted old uncle."</p>
+
+<p>This was a comfortable proposition, and little Sam Peabody, as though it
+were a great pear or red pippin that was spoken of, running to his
+mother, said,</p>
+
+<p>"Mother, I'd take it."</p>
+
+<p>"I do," said the widow, "and call you all to witness."</p>
+
+<p>William Peabody smiled grimly on Margaret; his countenance darkened
+suddenly, and he was, no doubt, on the point of retracting his confident
+offer, when his wife uttered in an under tone, half entreaty, half
+authority, "William," at the same time turning on her husband the side
+of the countenance which wore the green shade. He stifled what he
+intended<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> to utter, and shifting uneasily in his seat, he looked toward
+the city and was silent. Whatever the reason, it was clear that when
+they were seated at the table, partaking of the meal, it was Captain
+Saltonstall that had the best attention from every member of the
+household, (and the best of the dish,) from all save old Sylvester, who
+held himself erect, as usual, and impartial in the matter.</p>
+
+<p>"The ways of Providence are strange," said old Sylvester. "Out of
+darkness he brings marvellous light, and from the frivolous acorn he
+spreads the branches wide in the air, which are a shelter, and a solace,
+and a shadowy play-ground to our youth and old age. We must wait the
+issue, and whatever comes, to Him must we give thanks."</p>
+
+<p>With this sentiment for a benediction, the patriarch dismissed his
+family to their slumbers, which to each one of the household brought its
+peculiar train of speculation; to two, at least, Miriam and the widow
+Margaret, they brought dreams which only the strong light of day could
+disprove to be realities.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_THIRD" id="CHAPTER_THIRD"></a>CHAPTER THIRD.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE FARMER-FOLKS FROM THE WEST.</h3>
+
+<p>With the following day, (which was calm, gentle, and serene as its
+predecessor,) a little after the dispatch of dinner, the attention of
+the household was summoned to the clatter of a hurrying wagon, which,
+unseen, resounded in the distant country. Old Sylvester was the first to
+hear it&mdash;faintly at first, then it rose on the wind far off, died away
+in the woods and the windings of the roads, then again was entirely lost
+for several minutes, and at last growing into a portentous rattle,
+brought to at the door of the homestead, and landed from its ricketty
+and bespattered bosom Mr. Oliver Peabody, of Ohio; Jane his wife, a
+buxom lady of fair complexion, in a Quaker bonnet; and Robert, their
+eldest son, a tall, flat-featured boy, some thirteen years of age.</p>
+
+<p>The countryman in a working shirt, who had the control of the wagon, and
+who had been beguiled by Oliver some five miles out of his road home,
+(to which he was returning from the market town,) under pretence of a
+wish to have his opinion of the crops&mdash;the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> poor fellow being withal a
+hired laborer and never having owned, or entertained the remotest
+speculation of owning, a rood of ground of his own,&mdash;with a commendation
+from Oliver, delivered with a cheerful smile, that "his observations on
+timothy were very much to the purpose," drove clattering away again. Mr.
+Oliver Peabody, farmer, who had come all the way from Ohio to spend
+thanksgiving with his old father&mdash;of a ruddy, youthful and twinkling
+countenance&mdash;who wore his hair at length and unshorn, and the chief
+peculiarity of whose dress was a grey cloth coat, with a row of great
+horn-buttons on either breast, with enormous woollen mittens, brought
+his buxom wife forward under one arm with diligence, drawing his tall
+youth of a son after him by the other hand&mdash;threw himself into the bosom
+of the Peabody family, and was heartily welcomed all round. He didn't
+say a word of half-horses and half-alligators, nor of greased lightning,
+although he was from the West, but he did complain most bitterly of the
+uncommon smoothness of the roads in these parts, the short grass, and
+the 'bominable want of elbow-room all over the neighborhood. It was with
+difficulty he could be kept on the straitened stage of the balcony<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> long
+enough to answer a few plain questions of children and other matters at
+home; and immediately expressed an ardent desire to take a look at the
+garden.</p>
+
+<p>"We got somefin' to show thar, Mas'r Oliver," said Mopsey, who had stood
+by listening, with open mouth and eyes, to the strong statements of the
+western farmer, "we haint to be beat right-away no how!"</p>
+
+<p>Old Sylvester rose with his staff, which he carried more for pleasure
+than necessity, and led the way. As they approached there was visible
+through all the plants, shrubs and other growths of the place, whatever
+they might be&mdash;a great yellow sphere or ball, so disposed, on a little
+slope by itself, as to catch the eye from a distance, shining out in its
+golden hue from the garden, a sort of rival to the sun himself, rolling
+overhead.</p>
+
+<p>"Dere, what d'ye tink of dat, Oliver," Mopsey asked, forgetting in the
+grandeur of the moment all distinctions of class or color, "I guess
+dat's somefin."</p>
+
+<p>"That's a pumpkin," said Mr. Oliver Peabody, calmly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I guess it is&mdash;<i>de tanksgivin punkin</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>She looked into the western farmer's face, no doubt expecting a spasm or
+convulsion, but it was calm&mdash;calm as night. Mopsey condescended not
+another word, but walking or rather shuffling disdainfully away,
+muttered to herself, "Dat is de very meanest man, for a white man, I
+ever did see; he looked at dat 'ere punkin which has cost me so many
+anxious days and sleepless nights&mdash;which I have watched over as though
+it had been my own child&mdash;which I planted wid dis here hand of my own,
+and fought for agin the June bugs and the white frost, and dat mouse
+dat's been tryin to eat it up for dis tree weeks and better&mdash;just as if
+it had been a small green cowcumber. I don't believe dat Oliver Peabody
+knows it is tanksgivin'. He's a great big fool."</p>
+
+<p>"I see you still keep some of the old red breed, father," said Oliver
+when they were left alone in the quiet of the garden, pointing to the
+red rooster, who stood on the wall in the sun.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," old Sylvester answered, "for old times' sake. We have had them
+with us now on the farm for better than a hundred years. I remember the
+day the great grandfather of this bird was brought among<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> us. It was the
+day we got news that good David Brainard, the Indian missionary,
+died&mdash;that was some while before the revolutionary war. He died in the
+arms of the great Jonathan Edwards, at Northampton; their souls are at
+peace."</p>
+
+<p>"I recollect this fellow," Oliver continued, referring to the red
+rooster, "When I was here last he was called Elbridge's bird, that was
+the year before last."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no Elbridge now," said the old grandfather.</p>
+
+<p>"I know all," said Oliver, "I had a letter from Margaret, telling me the
+story and begging me to keep a watch for her boy."</p>
+
+<p>"A wide watch to keep and little to be got by it, I fear," old Sylvester
+added.</p>
+
+<p>"Not altogether idle, perhaps; we have sharp eyes in the West and see
+many strange things. Jane is confident she saw our Elbridge, making
+through Ohio, but two months after he left here; he was riding swiftly,
+and in her surprise and suddenness she could neither call nor send after
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"You did not tell us of that," said the old man.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I waited some further discovery."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Be silent now, you may easily waken hopes to be darkened and dashed to
+the ground. Which way made the boy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Southward."</p>
+
+<p>During this discourse, as though he distinguished the sound of his young
+master's name and knew to what it related, Chanticleer walked slowly,
+and as if by accident or at leisure, up and down the garden-wall,
+keeping as near to the speakers as was at all seemly. When they stopped
+speaking he leaped gently to the ground and softly clapped his wings.</p>
+
+<p>A moment after there came hurrying into the garden, in a wild
+excitement, and all struggling to speak first, little Sam Peabody in the
+lead, Robert, the flat-featured youth of thirteen, and Peabody Junior,
+(who, it should be mentioned, having found his way into a pantry a
+couple of minutes after his arrival with the Captain, and appropriated
+to his own personal use an entire bottle of cherry brandy, had been
+straightway put to bed, from which he had now been released not more
+than a couple of hours), and to announce as clamorously as they
+respectively could, that Brundage's Bull had just got into "our big
+meadow."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Nobody hurt?" asked old Sylvester.</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody hurt, grandfather, but he's ploughing up the meadow at a
+dreadful rate," said little Sam Peabody.</p>
+
+<p>"Like wild," Peabody Junior added.</p>
+
+<p>This statement, strongly as it was made, seemed to have no particular
+effect on old Sylvester. Oliver Peabody, on the other hand, was
+exceedingly indignant, and was for proceeding to extremities
+immediately, the expulsion of the Brundage bull, and the demanding of
+damages for allowing his cattle to cross the boundary line of the two
+farms.</p>
+
+<p>Old Sylvester listened to his violence with a blank countenance; nor did
+he seem to comprehend that any special outrage had been committed, for
+it must be acknowledged that the only indication that the grandfather
+had come to his second childhood was, that, with his advancing years,
+and as he approached the shadow of the other world, he seemed to have
+lost all idea of the customary distinctions of rank and property, and
+that very much like an old apostle, he was disposed to regard all men as
+brethren, and boundary lines as of very little consequence.</p>
+
+<p>He therefore promptly checked his son Oliver in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> his heat, and
+discountenanced any further proceedings in the matter.</p>
+
+<p>"Brundage," he said, "would, if he cared about him, come and take his
+bull away when he was ready; we are all brethren, and have a common
+country, Oliver," he added, "I hope you feel that in the West, as well
+as we do here."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God, we have," Oliver rejoined with emphasis, "and we love it!"</p>
+
+<p>"I thank God for that too," old Sylvester replied, striking his staff
+firmly on the ground, "I remember well, my son, when your great state
+was a wilderness of woods and savage men, and now this common sky&mdash;look
+at it, Oliver&mdash;which shines so clearly above us, is yours as well as
+ours."</p>
+
+<p>"I fear me, father, one day, bright, beautiful, and wide-arched as it
+is, the glorious Union may fall," said Oliver, laying his hand upon an
+aged tree which stood near them, "may fall, and the states drop, one by
+one away, even as the fruit I shake to the ground."</p>
+
+<p>As though he had been a tower standing on an elevation, old Sylvester
+Peabody rose aloft to his full height, as if he would clearly
+contemplate the far past, the distant, and the broad-coming future.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The Union fall!" he cried. "Look above, my son! The Union fall! as long
+as the constellations of evening live together in yonder sky; look down,
+as long as the great rivers of our land flow eastward and westward,
+north and south, the Union shall stand up, and stand majestical and
+bright, beheld by ages, as these shall be, an orb and living stream of
+glory unsurpassable."</p>
+
+<p>The children were gathered about, and watched with eager eyes and
+glowing cheeks, the countenance of the grandfather as he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, my son," he added, "there's many a true heart in brave Ohio, as
+in every state of ours, or they could not be the noble powers they are."</p>
+
+<p>While old Sylvester spoke, Oliver Peabody wrenched with some violence,
+from the tree near which they stood, a stout limb, on the end of which
+he employed himself with a knife in shaping a substantial knob.</p>
+
+<p>"What weapon is that you are busy with, Oliver?" old Sylvester asked.</p>
+
+<p>"It's for that nasty bull," Oliver replied. "I would break every bone in
+his body rather than let him remain for a single minute on my land; the
+furtherance of law and order demands the instant enforcement of one's
+rights."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You are a friend of law and order, my son."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I am," Oliver answered, standing erect and planting his club,
+in the manner of Hercules in the pictures, head down on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you are, Oliver; but I fear you forget the story I used to tell
+of my old friend Bulkley, of Danbury, who, being written to by some
+neighboring Christians who were in sore dissension, for advisement, gave
+them back word:&mdash;Every man to look after his own fence, that it be built
+high and strong, and to have a special care of the old Black Bull;
+meaning thereby no doubt, our own wicked passions;&mdash;that is the true
+Christian way of securing peace and good order."</p>
+
+<p>Oliver threw his great trespass-club upon the ground, and was on the
+point of asking after an old sycamore, the largest growth of all that
+country, which, standing in a remote field had, in the perilous times
+sheltered many of the Peabody family in its bosom&mdash;when he was
+interrupted by the sudden appearance of Mopsey in a flutter of
+cap-strings, shuffling shoes, and a flying color in her looks of at
+least double the usual depth of darkness. It was just discovered that
+the poultry-house had been broken into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> over night, and four of the
+fattest hens taken off by the throat and legs, besides sundry of the
+inferior members of the domicile; as wicked a theft, Mopsey said, as
+ever was, and she hadn't the slightest hesitation in charging it on them
+niggers in the Hills, (a neighboring settlement of colored people, who
+lived from hand to mouth, and seemed to be fed, like the ravens by some
+mystery of providence.)</p>
+
+<p>Oliver Peabody watched closely the countenance of the patriarch, not a
+little curious to learn what effect this announcement would have upon
+his temper.</p>
+
+<p>"This is all our own fault," said old Sylvester, promptly. "We should
+have remembered this was thanksgiving time, and sent them something to
+stay their stomachs. Poor creatures, I always wondered how they got
+along! Send 'em some bread, Mopsey, for they never can do anything with
+fowls without bread!"</p>
+
+<p>"Send 'em some bread!" Mopsey rejoined, growing blacker and more ugly of
+look as she spoke: "Send 'em whips, and an osifer of the law!&mdash;the four
+fattest of the coop."</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind," said old Sylvester.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Six of the ten'drest young'uns!"</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind that," said old Sylvester.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd have them all in the county jail before sundown," urged Mopsey.</p>
+
+<p>"Oliver, we will go in to tea," continued the patriarch. "We have enough
+for tea, Mopsey?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, quite enough, Mas'r."</p>
+
+<p>"Then," cried the old man, striking his staff on the ground with great
+violence, rising to his full height, and glowing like a furnace, upon
+Mopsey, "then, I say, send 'em some bread!"</p>
+
+<p>This speech, delivered in a voice of authority, sent Mopsey, shuffling
+and cowering, away, without a word, and brought the sweat of horror to
+the brow of Oliver, which he proceeded to remove with a great cotton
+pocket-handkerchief, produced from his coat behind, on which was
+displayed in glowing colors, by some cunning artist, the imposing scene
+of the signers of the Declaration of Independence getting ready to affix
+their names. Mr. Oliver Peabody was the politician of the family, and
+always had the immortal Declaration of Independence at his tongue's end,
+or in hand.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FOURTH" id="CHAPTER_FOURTH"></a>CHAPTER FOURTH.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE FORTUNES OF THE FAMILY CONSIDERED.</h3>
+
+<p>When Oliver and old Sylvester entered the house they found all of the
+family gathered within, save the children, who loitered about the doors
+and windows, looking in, anxious-eyed, on the preparations for tea going
+forward under the direction of the widow Margaret, and Mopsey. The other
+women of the household were busy with a discussion of the merits of Mrs.
+Carrack, of Boston, the fashionable lady of the family.</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to see Mrs. Carrack above all things," said the Captain's
+pretty little wife, "she must be a fine woman from all I have heard of
+her."</p>
+
+<p>"Thee will have small chance, I fear, child," said Mrs. Jane Peabody,
+sitting buxomly in an easy arm chair, which she had quietly assumed,
+"she is too fine for the company of us plain folks in every point of
+view."</p>
+
+<p>"It's five years since she was here," the widow<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> suggested as she
+adjusted the chairs around the table, "she said she never would come
+inside the house again, because the best bed-chamber was not given to
+her&mdash;I am sorry to say it."</p>
+
+<p>"She's a heathen and wicked woman," Mopsey said, shuffling at the door,
+and turning back on her way to the kitchen&mdash;"your poor boy was lying low
+of a fever and how could <i>she</i> expect it."</p>
+
+<p>"In one point of view she may come; her husband was living then,"
+continued Mrs. Jane Peabody, "she has become a rich woman since, and may
+honor us with a visit&mdash;to show us how great a person she has got to
+be&mdash;let her come&mdash;it need'nt trouble thee, nor me, I'm sure." Mrs. Jane
+Peabody smoothed her Quaker vandyke, and sat stiffly in her easy chair.</p>
+
+<p>Old Sylvester entering at that moment, laid aside his staff and
+broad-brimmed hat, which little Sam Peabody ran in to take charge of,
+and took his seat at the head of the table; the Captain, who was busy at
+the back-door scouring an old rusty fowling-piece for some enterprise he
+had in view in the morning, was called in by his little wife; the others
+were seated in their places about the board.</p>
+
+<p>"Where's William?" old Sylvester asked.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He was at a window in the front room, where he had sat for several
+hours, with spectacles on his brow, poring over an old faded parchment
+deed, which related to some neighboring land he thought belonged to the
+Peabodys, (although in possession of others,) and which he had always
+made a close study of on his visits to the homestead. There was a dark
+passage, under which he made their title, which had been submitted to
+various men learned in the law; it was too dark and doubtful, in their
+opinion, to build a contest on, and yet William Peabody gave it every
+year a new examination, with the hope, perhaps, that the wisdom of
+advancing age might enable him to fathom and expound it, although it had
+been drawn up by the greatest lawyer of his day in all that country. His
+wife Hannah, grieving in spirit that her husband should be toiling
+forever in the quest of gain, sat near him, pale, calm and disheartened,
+but speaking not a word. He could not look at her with that fearful
+green shade on her face, but kept his eyes always fixed on the old
+parchment. When his aged father had taken his seat, and began his thanks
+to God for the bounties before them, as though the old Patriarch had
+brought a better spirit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> from the calm day without, he thrust the paper
+into his bosom and glided to his place at the table. It would have done
+you good to hear that old man's prayer. He neither solicited forgiveness
+for his enemies nor favors for his friends; for schools, churches,
+presidents or governments; neither for health, wealth, worldly welfare,
+nor for any single other thing; all he said, bowing his white old head,
+was this:</p>
+
+<p>"May we all be Christian people the day we die&mdash;God bless us."</p>
+
+<p>That was all; and his kinsfolk lost no appetite in listening to it&mdash;for
+it was no sooner uttered than they all fell to&mdash;and not a word more was
+spoken for five minutes at least, nor then perhaps, had not little Sam
+Peabody cried out, with breathless animation, and delight of feature,</p>
+
+<p>"The pigeons, grandfather!" at the same time pointing from the door to
+the evening sky, along which they were winging their calm and silent
+flight in a countless train&mdash;streaming on westward as though there was
+no end to them; which put old Sylvester upon recalling the cheerful
+sports of his younger days.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I have taken a couple of hundred in a net on the Hill before breakfast,
+many a time," he said. "You used to help me, William."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I and old Ethan Barbary," said the merchant, "used to spring the
+net; you gave the word."</p>
+
+<p>"Old Ethan has been dead many a day. Ethan," continued old Sylvester, in
+explanation, "was the father of our Mr. Barbary. He was a preacher too,
+and carried a gun in the revolution. I remember he was accounted a
+peculiar man. I never knew why. To be sure he used to spend the time he
+did not employ in prayers, preaching and tending the sick, in working on
+the farms about, for he had no wages for preaching. When there was none
+of that to be had, he took his basket, and sallying through the fields,
+gathered berries, which he bestowed on the needy families of the
+neighborhood. In winter he collected branches in the woods about, as
+fire-wood for the poor."</p>
+
+<p>"That was a capital idea," said Oliver the politician. "It must have
+made him very popular."</p>
+
+<p>"Wasn't he always thought to be a little out of his head?" asked the
+merchant. "He might have sold the wood for a good price in the severe
+winters."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I remember as if it were yesterday," old Sylvester went on in his own
+way, not heeding in the slightest the suggestions of his sons, "he and
+black Burling, who is buried in the woods by the Great Walnut tree, near
+the pond, both fought in the American ranks, and had but one gun between
+them, which they used turn about."</p>
+
+<p>"You saw rough times in those days, grandfather," said the Captain.</p>
+
+<p>"I did, Charley," old Sylvester answered, looking kindly on the Captain,
+who had always been something of a favorite of his from the day he had
+married into the family; "and there are but few left to talk with me of
+them now. I am one of the living survivors of an almost extinguished
+race. The grave will soon be our only habitation. I am one of the few
+stalks that still remain in the field where the tempest passed. I have
+fought against the foreign foe for your sake; they have disappeared from
+the land, and you are free; the strength of my arm delays, and my feet
+fail me in the way; the hand which fought for your liberties is now open
+to bless you. In my youth I bled in battle that you might be
+independent&mdash;let not my heart, in my old age, bleed be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>cause you abandon
+the path I would have you follow."</p>
+
+<p>The old patriarch leaned his head upon his hand, and the company was
+silent as though they had listened to a voice from the grave. He
+presently looked up and smiled&mdash;"Old Ethan, I call to mind now," he
+renewed, "had a quality which our poor Barbary inherited, and for
+which," he added, looking toward his son William, "and for which I
+greatly honor his memory. He counted the money of this world but as
+dross. From his manhood to the very moment of his entering on the
+ministry, he never would touch silver nor gold, partly, I think, because
+it was the true Scripture course, and partly because a dreadful murder
+had once happened in the Barbary family, growing out of a quarrel for
+the possession of a paltry sum of money."</p>
+
+<p>The bread she was raising to her lips fell from the widow's hand, for
+she could not help but think of the history of her absent son; and the
+voice of Miriam, who did not present herself at the table, was heard
+from a distant chamber, not distinctly, but in that tone of chanting
+lament which had become habitual to her whether in house, garden, or
+field. It was an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> inexpressibly mournful cadence, and for the time
+stilled all other sounds. They were only drawn away from it by descrying
+Mopsey, the black servant, at a turn of the road, hurrying with great
+animation towards the homestead, but with a singularity in her progress
+which could not fail to be observed. She rushed along at great speed,
+for several paces, and suddenly came to a halt, during which her head
+disappeared, and then renewed her pace, repeating the peculiar
+man&oelig;uvre once at least in every ten yards. In a word, she was
+shuffling on in her loose shoes, (which were on or off, one or the other
+of them every other minute,) at as rapid a rate as that peculiar species
+of locomotion allowed. Bursting with impatience and the importance of
+her communication, her cap flaunting from her head, she stood in the
+doorway and announced, "We've beat Brundage&mdash;we've beat Brundage!"</p>
+
+<p>"What's this, Mopsey?" old Sylvester inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"I've tried it and I've spanned it. I can't span ours!"</p>
+
+<p>On further questioning it appeared that Mopsey had been on a pilgrimage
+to the next neighbor's, the Brundages, to inspect their thanksgiving
+pumpkin,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> and institute a comparison with the Peabody growth of that
+kind, with a highly satisfactory and complacent result as regarded the
+home production. Nobody was otherwise than pleased at Mopsey's innocent
+rejoicing, and when she had been duly complimented on her success, she
+went away with a broad black guffaw to set a trap in the garden for the
+brown mouse, the sole surviving enemy of the great Peabody thanksgiving
+pumpkin which must be plucked next day for use.</p>
+
+<p>With the dispatch of the evening meal, old Sylvester withdrew to the
+other room, with a little hand lamp, to read a chapter by himself. The
+others remaining seated about the apartment; the Captain and Oliver
+presently fell into a violent discussion on the true sources of national
+wealth, the Captain giving it as his opinion that it solely depended on
+having a great number of ships at sea, as carriers between different
+countries. Oliver was equally clear and resolute that the real wealth of
+a nation lay in its wheat crops. When wheat was at ten shillings the
+bushel, all went well; let it fall a quarter, and you had general
+bankruptcy staring you in the face. Mr. William Peabody was'nt at the
+pains to deliver his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> opinion, but he was satisfied, in his secret soul,
+that it lay in the increase of new houses, or the proper supply of
+calicoes&mdash;he had'nt made up his mind which. Presently Oliver was
+troubled again in reference to the supply of gold in the world&mdash;whether
+there was enough to do business with; he also had some things to say
+(which he had out of a great speech in Congress) about bullion and rates
+of exchange, but nobody understood him.</p>
+
+<p>"By the way," he added, "Mrs. Carrack's son Tiffany is gone to the Gold
+Region. From what he writes to me I think he'll cut a very great figure
+in that country."</p>
+
+<p>"An exceedingly fine, talented young man," said the merchant, who had,
+then, sundry sums on loan from his mother.</p>
+
+<p>"In any point of view, in which you regard it," continued Oliver, "the
+gold country is an important acquisition."</p>
+
+<p>"You hav'nt the letter Tiffany wrote, with you?" interrupted the
+Captain.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I have," was the answer. "I brought it, supposing you might
+like to look at it. Shall I read it?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There was no objection&mdash;the letter was read&mdash;in which Mr. Tiffany
+Carrack professed his weariness of civilized life&mdash;spoke keenly of
+misspent hours&mdash;a determination to rally and do something important,
+intimating that that was a great country for enterprising young men,
+and, in a familiar phrase, closed with a settled resolution to do or
+die.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a letter to the same effect," said the Captain.</p>
+
+<p>"And so have I," said William Peabody, "word for word."</p>
+
+<p>"He means to do something very grand," said the Captain. Something very
+grand&mdash;the women all agreed&mdash;for Mr. Tiffany Carrack was a nice young
+man, and had a prospect of inheriting a hundred thousand dollars, to say
+nothing of the large sums he was to bring from the Gold Regions. It was
+evident to all that he was going into the business with a rush. They, of
+course, would'nt see Mr. Tiffany Carrack at this Thanksgiving
+gathering&mdash;he had better business on hand&mdash;Mr. Tiffany Carrack was
+clearly the promising young man of the family, and was carrying the
+fortunes of the Peabodys into the remotest quarters of the land.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"In a word," said Mr. Oliver Peabody, developing the Declaration of
+Independence on his pocket-handkerchief. "He is going to do wonders in
+every point of view. He'll carry the principles of Free Government
+everywhere!"</p>
+
+<p>The consideration of the extraordinary talents and enterprise of the son
+imparted a new interest to the question of the coming of Mrs. Carrack;
+which was rediscussed in all its bearings; and it was almost unanimously
+concluded&mdash;that, one day now only intervening to Thanksgiving&mdash;it was
+too late to look for her. There had been a general disposition, secretly
+opposed only by Mrs. Jane Peabody, to yield to that fashionable person
+the best bed-chamber, which was always accounted a great prize and
+distinguished honor among the family. But now there was scarcely any
+need of reserving it longer&mdash;and who was to have it? Alas! that is a
+question often raised in rural households, often shakes them to the very
+base, and spreads through whole families a bitterness and strength and
+length of strife, which frequently ends only with life itself.</p>
+
+<p>To bring the matter to an issue, various whispered conversations were
+held in the small room, lying next<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> to the sitting-room, at first
+between Mrs. Margaret Peabody and Mopsey, to which one by one were
+summoned, Mrs. Jane Peabody, the Captain's wife, and Mrs. Hannah
+Peabody. The more it was discussed the farther off seemed any reasonable
+conclusion. When one arrangement was proposed, various faces of the
+group grew dark and sour; when another, other faces blackened and
+elongated; tongues, too, wagged faster every minute, and at length grew
+to such a hubbub as to call old Sylvester away from his Bible and bring
+him to the door to learn what turmoil it was that at this quiet hour
+disturbed the peace of the Peabodys. He was not long in discovering the
+ground of battle, and even as in old pictures Adam is shown walking
+calmly in Eden among the raging beasts of all degrees and kinds, the old
+patriarch came forward among the women of the Peabody family&mdash;"My
+children," he said, "should dwell in peace for the short stay allotted
+them on earth. Why make a difference about so small a matter as a
+lodging-place&mdash;they are all good and healthful rooms. I have seen the
+day when camping on the wet grounds and morasses I would have held any
+one of them to be a palace-chamber. The back chamber, my child,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> he
+continued, addressing the Captain's wife, "looks out on the orchard,
+where you always love to walk; the white room, Hannah, towards your
+father's house; and Jane, you cannot object to the front chamber which
+is large, well-furnished, and has the best of the sunrise. The Son of
+Man, my children, had not where to lay his head, and shall we who are
+but snails and worms, compared with his glory and goodness, presume to
+exalt ourselves, where he was abased."</p>
+
+<p>The old patriarch wished them a good night, and with the departure of
+his white locks gleaming as he walked away, as though it had been the
+gentle radiance of the moon stilling the tumult of the waters, they each
+quietly retired, and without a further murmur, to the chambers assigned
+them.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FIFTH" id="CHAPTER_FIFTH"></a>CHAPTER FIFTH.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CHILDREN.</h3>
+
+<p>There was no question where the children were to lodge, for there had
+been allotted to them from time immemorial, ever since children were
+known in the Peabody family, a great rambling upper chamber, with beds
+in the corners, where they were always bestowed as soon after dark as
+they could be convoyed thither under direction of Mopsey and the
+mistress of the household. This was not always&mdash;in truth it was
+rarely&mdash;easy of achievement, and cost the shuffling black servant at
+least half an hour of diligent search and struggling persuasion to bring
+them in from the various strayings, escapes, and lurking-places, where
+they shirked to gain an extra half-hour of freedom.</p>
+
+<p>To the children, however darker humors might work and sadden among the
+grown people, (for whatever hue rose-favored writers may choose to throw
+over scenes and times of festivity, the passions of character are always
+busy, in holiday and hall, as well as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> in the strifes of the world,) to
+the Peabody children this was thanksgiving time indeed&mdash;it was
+thanksgiving in the house, it was thanksgiving in the orchard, climbing
+trees; it was thanksgiving in the barn, tumbling in the hay, in the
+lane. It was thanksgiving, too, with the jovial Captain, a grown-up boy,
+heading their sports and allowing the country as he did, little rest or
+peace of mind wherever he lead the revel; it was not four-and-twenty
+hours that he had been at the quiet homestead before the mill was set
+a-running, the chestnut-trees shaken, the pigeons fired into, a new bell
+of greater compass put upon the brindle cow, the blacksmith's anvil at
+the corner of the road set a-dinging, fresh weather-cocks clapped upon
+the barn, corn-crib, stable, and out-house, the sheep let out of the
+little barn, all the boats of the neighborhood launched upon the pond.
+With night, darkness closed upon wild frolic; bed-time came, and
+thanksgiving had a pause; a pause only, for Mopsey's dark head, with its
+broad-bordered white cap, was no sooner withdrawn and the door firmly
+shut, than thanksgiving began afresh, as though there had been no such
+thing all day long, and they were now just setting out. For half a
+minute after Mopsey's disap<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>pearance they were all nicely tucked in as
+she had left them&mdash;straight out&mdash;with their heads each square on its
+pillow; then, as if by a silent understanding, all heads popped up like
+so many frisking fish. They darted from bed and commenced in the middle
+of the chamber, a great pillow-fight amicable and hurtless, but
+furiously waged, till the approach of a broad footstep sent them
+scampering back to their couches, mum as mice. Mopsey, well aware of
+these frisks, tarried till they were blown over, in her own chamber hard
+by, a dark room, mysterious to the fancy of the children, with spinning
+wheels, dried gourd-shells hung against the wall, a lady's
+riding-saddle, now out of use this many a day, and all the odds and ends
+of an ancient farm-house stored in heaps and strings about.</p>
+
+<p>It was only at last by going aloft and moving a trap in the ceiling,
+which was connected in tradition with the appearance of a ghost, that
+they were at length fairly sobered down and kept in bed, when Mopsey,
+looking in for the last time, knew that it was safe to go below. They
+had something left even then, and kept up a talk from bed to bed, for a
+good long hour more, at least.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think of the turkey, Bill?" began<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> Master Robert Peabody,
+the flat-featured, rising from his pillow like a homely porpoise.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," Peabody Junior answered, "I don't care for turkeys."</p>
+
+<p>Little Sam Peabody, the master of the turkey, took this very much to
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>"I think he's a very fine one," continued Master Robert, "twice as big
+as last year's."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm very glad to hear you say that, Cousin Robert," said little Sam
+Peabody, turning over toward the quarter whence the voice of
+encouragement came.</p>
+
+<p>"As fine a turkey as I've ever seen," Robert went on. "When do they kill
+him?"</p>
+
+<p>Little Sam struggled a little with himself, and answered feebly,
+"To-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>There was silence for several minutes, broken presently by Peabody
+Junior, fixing his pillow, and saying "Boys, I'm going to sleep."</p>
+
+<p>Allowing some few minutes for this to take effect, Master Robert called
+across the chamber to little Sam, "I wonder why Aunt Hannah wears that
+old green shade on her face?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Pray don't say anything about that," little Sam answered, "Cousin don't
+like to hear about that!"</p>
+
+<p>Master Robert&mdash;rather a blunt young gentleman&mdash;is not to be baffled so
+easily.</p>
+
+<p>"I say, Bill, why does your mother wear that green patch over her eye?"
+he called out.</p>
+
+<p>There was no answer; he called again in a louder key.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" whispered Peabody Junior, who was not asleep, but only thinking
+of it, in a tone of fear, "I don't know."</p>
+
+<p>"Is the eye gone?" Robert asked again, bent on satisfaction of some
+kind.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," was the whispered answer again. "Don't ask me anything
+about it."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid Aunt Hannah's not happy," suggested little Sam, timidly.</p>
+
+<p>"Pr'aps she is'nt, Sam," Peabody Junior answered.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the reason," continued little Sam, "I always liked her."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't know," was all Peabody Junior had to reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you ever see that other eye? Bill," asked the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> blunt young
+gentleman, whose head was still running on the green shade.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, go to sleep, will you, Nosey," cried Peabody Junior. "If you don't
+leave me alone I'll get up and wollop you."</p>
+
+<p>The flat-featured disappeared with his porpoise face under the
+bed-clothes and breathed hard, but kept close; and when he fell asleep
+he dreamed of dragons and green umbrellas all night, at a fearful rate.</p>
+
+<p>"I would'nt be angry, Cousin," said little Sam, when the porpoise gave
+token that he was hardbound in slumber. "He don't mean to hurt your
+feelings, I don't believe."</p>
+
+<p>"Pr'aps he don't," Peabody Junior rejoined. "What could I tell him, if I
+wanted to; all I know is, mother has worn the shade ever since I can
+recollect anything. I think sometimes I can remember she used to have it
+on as far back as when I was at the breast, a very little child, and
+that I used to try and snatch it away&mdash;which always made her very sad."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't she ever take it away?" asked little Sam.</p>
+
+<p>"I never saw it off in all my life; nor can I tell<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> you whether my dear
+mother has one eye or two. I know she never likes to have any one look
+at it. It makes her melancholy at once; nurse used to tell me there was
+a mystery about it&mdash;but she would never tell me any more. It always
+scares father when she turns that side of her face on him, that I've
+noticed; and he always at home sits on the other side of the table from
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"I wouldn't think any more about it to-night, Cousin," said little Sam.
+"I know it makes you unhappy from your voice. Don't you miss some one
+to-night that used to keep us awake with telling pleasant stories?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do," answered Peabody Junior. "I'm thinking of him now. I wish Cousin
+Elbridge was back again."</p>
+
+<p>"You know why he isn't?"</p>
+
+<p>"Father says it's because he's a bad young man."</p>
+
+<p>"And do you believe it, William?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid he is&mdash;for father always says so."</p>
+
+<p>A gentle figure had quietly opened the chamber-door, and stood listening
+with breathless attention to the discourse of the two children.</p>
+
+<p>"You wait and see," continued little Sam firmly, "I'm sure he'll come
+back&mdash;and before long."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What makes you think so?" William asked. "I'm sure I hope he will."</p>
+
+<p>"Because the red rooster," answered little Sam, "crowed yesterday
+morning for the first time since he went away, and the red rooster knows
+more than anybody about this farm except old grandfather."</p>
+
+<p>Thinking how that could be, Peabody Junior fell asleep; and little Sam,
+sure to dream of his absent brother, shortly followed after. The gentle
+figure of Miriam Haven glided into the chamber, to the bed-side of
+little Sam, and watching his calm, innocent features&mdash;which were held to
+greatly resemble those of the absent Elbridge&mdash;with tears in her eyes,
+she breathed a blessing from her very heart on the dear child who had
+faith in the absent one. "A blessing!" such was her humble wish as she
+returned to her chamber and laid her fair head on the pillow, "a
+blessing on such as believe in us when we are in trouble and poverty,
+out of favor with the world, when our good name is doubted, and when the
+current running sharply against, might overwhelm us, were not one or two
+kind hands put forth to save us from utter ruin and abandonment!"</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_SIXTH" id="CHAPTER_SIXTH"></a>CHAPTER SIXTH.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE FASHIONABLE LADY AND HER SON.</h3>
+
+<p>All the next day, being the Wednesday before thanksgiving, was alive and
+busy with the various preparations for the great festival, now held to
+be a sacred holiday throughout this wide-spread union. The lark had no
+sooner called morning in the meadow than Mopsey, who seemed to regard
+herself as having the entire weight of the occasion on her single
+shoulders, slipped from bed, hurried to the garden, and taking a last
+look at the great pumpkin as it lay in all its golden glory, severed the
+vine at a stroke and trundled it with her own arms, (she saw with a
+smile of pity the poor brown mouse skulking off, like a little pirate as
+he was, disappointed of his prize,) in at the back-door. The Peabodys
+were gathering for breakfast, and coming forward, stood at either side
+of the entrance regarding the pumpkin with profound interest. It fairly
+shook the house as it rolled in upon the kitchen floor.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>When little Sam, who had lingered in bed beyond the others, with
+pleasant dreams, came down stairs, he was met by young William Peabody.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think, Sam?" said Peabody Junior, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose Aunt Carrack has come," Sam answered. "It's nothing to me if
+she has."</p>
+
+<p>"No, that isn't it.&mdash;Turkey's dead!"</p>
+
+<p>Little Sam dropped a tear, and went away by himself to walk in the
+garden. Little Sam took no breakfast that morning.</p>
+
+<p>Every window in the house was thrown wide open to begin with; every
+chair walked out of its place; the new broom which Miriam had gathered
+with a song, was used for the first time freely on every floor, in every
+nook and corner; then the new broom was carried away, and locked in a
+closet like a conjuror who had wrought his spell and need not appear
+again till some other magic was to be performed. All the chairs were set
+soberly and steadily against the wall, the windows were closed, and a
+sacred shade thrown over the house against the approaching festival. The
+key was turned in the lock of the old parlor, which was to have no
+company (save the tall old clock talk<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>ing all alone in the corner to
+himself) till to-morrow.</p>
+
+<p>And so the day sailed on, like a dainty boat with silent oar on a
+calm-flowing stream, to evening, when, as though it had been a new-born
+meteor or great will-o'-the-wisp, there appeared on the edge of the
+twilight, along the distant horizon, a silvery glitter, which, drawing
+nearer and nearer, presently disclosed a servant in a shining band
+mounted on a great coach, with horses in burnished harness; with
+champing speed, which it seemed must have borne it far beyond, it came
+to in a moment at the very gate of the homestead, as at the striking of
+a clock. A gentleman in bearded lip, in high polish of hat, chains and
+boots, emerged, (the door being opened by a stripling also in a banded
+hat, who leaped from behind,) followed by a lady in a gown of glossy
+silk and a yellow feather, waving in the partial darkness from her hat.
+Such wonder and astonishment as seized on the Peabodys, who looked on it
+from the balcony, no man can describe.</p>
+
+<p>Angels have descended before now and walked upon the earth&mdash;giants have
+been at some time or other seen strutting about&mdash;ghosts appear
+occasional<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>ly in the neighborhood of old farm-houses, but neither ghost,
+giant, nor angel had such a welcome of uplifted hands and staring eyes
+as encountered Mrs. Carrack and her son Tiffany, when they, in the body
+entered in at the gate of the old Peabody mansion at that time. There
+was but one person in the company, old Sylvester perhaps excepted, who
+seemed to have his wits about him, and that was the red rooster who,
+sitting on the wall near the gate when Mr. Tiffany Carrack pushed it
+open, cocked his eye smartly on him, and darted sharply at his white
+hand, with its glittering jewel as he laid it on the gate.</p>
+
+<p>"Nancy," said old Sylvester, addressing her with extended grasp, and a
+pleasant smile of welcome on his brow, "we had given up looking for
+you."</p>
+
+<p>Was there ever such a rash old man! "Nancy!" as though she had been a
+common person he was speaking to.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Carrack, who was a short woman, stiff and stern, tossing her
+feather, gave the tips of her fingers to the patriarch, and ordering in
+a huge leathern trunk all over brass nails and capital C's, condescended
+to enter into the house. In spite of all resolutions and persuasions to
+the contrary the door of the best<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> parlor unlocked before her grandeur
+of demeanor, and she took possession as though she had not the slightest
+connection with the other members of the Peabody family, nor the
+remotest interest in the common sitting-room without. Mr. Tiffany
+Carrack, with patent shanks to his boots which sprang him into the air
+as he walked, corsets to brace his body in, new-fangled straps to keep
+him down, a patent collar of a peculiar invention, to hold his head
+aloft, moving as it were under the convoy of a company of invisible
+influences, deriving all his motions from the shoe-maker, stay-maker,
+tailor and linen-draper, who originally wound him up and set him
+a-going, for whose sole convenience he lives, having withal, by way of
+paint to his ashy countenance, a couple of little conch-shell tufts,
+tawny-yellow, (that being the latest to be had at the perfumer's,) on
+his upper lip; the representative and embodiment of all the latest new
+improvements, patents, and contrivances in apparel, Mr. Tiffany Carrack
+followed his excellent mother.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Tiffany," said old Sylvester, who notwithstanding the immensity of
+these people, calmly pursued his old course, "we all thought you were in
+California."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The family were gathered around and awaited Mr. Tiffany Carrack's answer
+with a good deal of curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"That was all a delusion, sir," he replied, plucking at his little crop
+of yellow tufts,&mdash;"a horrible delusion. I had some thought of that kind
+in my mind, in fact I had got as far south as New Orleans, when I met a
+seedy fellow who told me that the natives had rebelled and wouldn't work
+any more; so I found if I would get any of the precious, I must dig with
+a shovel with my own dear digits; of course I turned back in disgust,
+and here I am as good as new&mdash;Jehoshaphat!"</p>
+
+<p>It was well that Mr. Tiffany had a fashion of emphasizing his discourse
+with a reference to this ancient person, whom he supposed to have been
+an exquisite of the first water, which happily furnished a cover under
+which the entire Peabody family exploded with laughter at Mr. Carrack's
+announcement of the sudden termination of his grand expedition to the
+Gold Region. Without an exception they all went off in an enormous
+burst, the Captain, little Sam, and Mopsey leading.</p>
+
+<p>"Every word true, 'pon my honor," repeated Mr. Carrack.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The great burst was renewed.</p>
+
+<p>"It was a capital idea, wasn't it?" he said again, supposing he had made
+a great hit.</p>
+
+<p>The explosion for the third time, but softened a little by pity in the
+female section of the chorus.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Carrack had sat stately and aloof, with an inkling in her brain
+that all this mirthful tumult was not entirely in the nature of a
+complimentary tribute to her son.</p>
+
+<p>"I think," she said, with haughty severity of aspect, "my son was
+perfectly right. It was a sinful and a wicked adventure at the best, as
+the Reverend Strawbery Hyson clearly showed from the fourth Revelations,
+in his last annual discourse to the young ladies of the church."</p>
+
+<p>"He did, so he did," said Mr. Tiffany, stroking his chin, "I remember
+perfectly: it was very prettily stated by Hyson."</p>
+
+<p>"The Reverend Strawbery Hyson," said Mrs. Carrack. "Always give that
+excellent man his full title. What would you say, my son, if he should
+appear in the streets without his black coat and white cravat? Would you
+have any confidence in his preaching after that?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Next to myself," answered Mr. Tiffany, "I think our parson's the
+best-dressed man in Boston."</p>
+
+<p>"He should be, as an example," said Mrs. Carrack. "He has a very genteel
+congregation."</p>
+
+<p>Old Sylvester, who had on at that moment an old brown coat and a frayed
+black ribbon for a neck-cloth, ordered Mopsey to send the two best pies
+in the house immediately to the negroes in the Hills. Mrs. Carrack
+smiled loftily, and drew from her pocket an elegant small silver vial of
+the pure otto of rose, and applied it to her nostrils as though
+something disagreeable had just struck upon the air and tainted it.</p>
+
+<p>"By the way," said Mr. Tiffany Carrack, adjusting his shirt collar, "how
+is my little friend Miriam?"</p>
+
+<p>"Melancholy!" was the only answer any one had to make.</p>
+
+<p>"So I thought," pursued Mr. Carrack, rolling his eyes and heaving an
+infant sigh from his bosom. "Poor thing, no wonder, if she thought I was
+gone away so far. She shall be comforted."</p>
+
+<p>Mopsey looking in at this moment, gave the summons to tea, which was
+answered by Mr. Tiffany Carrack's offering his arm, impressively, to his
+excellent mother, and leading the way to the table.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was observed, that in his progress to the tea-table, Mr. Tiffany
+adopted a tottering and uncertain step, indicating a dilapidated old
+age, only kept together by the clothes he wore, which was altogether
+unintelligible to the Peabody family, seeing that Mr. Carrack was in the
+very prime of youth, till Mrs. Carrack remarked, with an affectionate
+smile of motherly pride:</p>
+
+<p>"You remind me more and more every day, Tiff, of that dear delightful
+old Baden-Baden."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish the glorious old fellow would come over to me for a short lark,"
+rejoined Mr. Tiffany. "But he couldn't live here long; there's nothing
+old here."</p>
+
+<p>"Who's Baden Baden?" asked Sylvester.</p>
+
+<p>"Only a prince of my acquaintance on the other side of the water, and a
+devilish clever fellow. But he could'nt stand it here&mdash;I'm
+afraid&mdash;everything's so new."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm rather old," suggested Sylvester, smiling on the young man.</p>
+
+<p>"So you are, by Jove&mdash;But that aint the thing I want exactly; I want an
+old castle or two, and a donjon-keep, and that sort of thing.&mdash;You
+understand."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Something," suggested the grandfather, "in the style of the old
+revolutionary fort on Fort Hill?"</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;no&mdash;you don't take exactly. I mean something more in the
+antique&mdash;something or other, you see"&mdash;here he began twirling his
+forefinger in the air and sketching an amorphous phantom of some sort,
+of an altogether unattainable character, "in a word&mdash;Jehoshaphat!"</p>
+
+<p>The moment the eye of Mrs. Carrack fell upon the blue and white
+crockery, the pewter plates which had been in use time out of mind in
+the family, and the plain knives and forks of steel, she cast on her son
+a significant glance of mingled surprise and contempt. "Thomas," she
+said, standing before the place assigned to her, her son doing the same,
+"the napkins!"</p>
+
+<p>The napkins were brought from a great basket which had accompanied the
+leathern trunk.</p>
+
+<p>"The other things!"</p>
+
+<p>The other things, consisting of china plates, cups and saucers, and
+knives and forks of silver for two, were duly laid&mdash;Mrs. Carrack and her
+son having kept the rest of the family waiting the saying of grace by
+old Sylvester, were good enough to be seated at the old farmer's (Mrs.
+Carrack's father's) board.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>When old Sylvester unclosed his eyes from the delivery of thanks, he
+discovered at the back of Mrs. Carrack and her son's chairs, the two
+city servants in livery, with their short cut hair and embroidered coats
+of the fashion of those worn in English farces on the stage, standing
+erect and without the motion of a muscle. There is not a doubt but that
+old Sylvester Peabody was a good deal astonished, although he gave no
+utterance to his feelings. But when the two young men in livery began to
+dive in here and there about the table, snapping up the dishes in
+exclusive service on Mrs. Carrack and Mr. Tiffany Carrack, he could
+remain silent no longer.</p>
+
+<p>"Boys," he said, addressing himself to the two fine personages in
+question, "you will oblige me by going into the yard and chopping wood
+till we are done supper. We shall need all you can split in an hour to
+bake the pies with."</p>
+
+<p>Thunderstruck, as though a bolt had smitten them individually in the
+head, this direction, delivered in a quiet voice of command not to be
+resisted, sent the two servants forth at the back-door. They were no
+sooner out of view than they addressed each other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> almost at the same
+moment, "My eyes! did you ever see such a queer old fellow as that!"</p>
+
+<p>When Mrs. Carrack and her son turned, and found that the two young
+gentlemen in livery had actually vanished, the lady smiled a delicate
+smile of gentle scorn, and Mr. Tiffany, regarding his aged grandfather
+steadily, merely remarked, in a tone of most friendly and familiar
+condescension, "Baden-Baden wouldn't have done such a thing!"</p>
+
+<p>The overpowering grandeur of the fashionable lady chilled the household,
+and there was little conversation till she addressed the widow Margaret.</p>
+
+<p>"Hadn't you a grown up son, Mrs. Peabody?"</p>
+
+<p>The widow was silent. Presently Mr. Carrack renewed the discourse.</p>
+
+<p>"By the by," he said, "I thought I saw that son of yours&mdash;wasn't his
+name Elbridge, or something of that sort?&mdash;in New Orleans."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you speak to him?" asked the Captain, flushing a little in the
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"I observed he was a good deal out at elbows," Mr. Carrack answered,
+"and it was broad day-light, in one of the fashionable streets."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Is that all you have to tell us of your cousin?" old Sylvester
+inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"He is my cousin&mdash;much obliged for the information. I had almost
+forgotten that! Why ye-es&mdash;I couldn't help seeing that he went into a
+miserable broken-down house in a by-street&mdash;but had to get my moustache
+oiled for a Creole ball that evening, and couldn't be reasonably
+expected to follow him, could I?&mdash;Jehoshaphat!"</p>
+
+<p>If the human countenance, by reason of its clouding up in gusts of
+pitchy blackness acquired the power, like darkening skies, of
+discharging thunderbolts, it would have been, I am sure, a hot and heavy
+one which Mopsey, blackening and blazing, had delivered, as she departed
+to the kitchen, lowering upon Mr. Tiffany Carrack,&mdash;"'<i>He thought he saw
+her son Elbridge!</i>' The vagabone has no more feeling nor de bottom of a
+stone jug."</p>
+
+<p>The meal over, the evening wore on in friendly chat of old Thanksgiving
+times&mdash;of neighbors and early family histories; each one in turn
+launching, so to speak, a little boat upon the current, freighted deep
+with many precious stores of old-time remembrance; Mrs. Carrack sitting
+alone as an iceberg in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> very midst of the waters, melting not once,
+nor contributing a drop or trickle to the friendly flow. And when
+bed-time came again, how clearly was it shown, that there is nothing
+certain in this changeful world. By some sudden and unforeseen
+interruption, nations lose power, communities are shattered, households
+well-constructed fall in pieces at a breath.</p>
+
+<p>Her sudden appearance in their midst, compelled another consultation to
+be taken as to the disposal of the great Mrs. Carrack for the night. It
+would never answer to put that grand person in any secondary lodging; so
+all the old arrangements were of necessity broken up; the best bed-room
+allotted to her; and that her gentle nerves might not be afflicted, the
+old clock, which adjoined her sleeping-chamber, and which had occupied
+his corner and told the time for the Peabodys for better than a hundred
+years from the same spot, was instantly silenced, as impertinent. The
+Captain's high-actioned white horse, which had enjoyed the privilege of
+roaming unmolested about the house, was led away like an unhappy
+convict, and stabled in the barn; and to complete the arrangements, the
+two servants in livery were put on guard near her window, to drive off
+the geese,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> turkeys, and other talkative birds of the night, that she
+might sleep without the slightest disturbance from that noisy old
+creature, Nature.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Tiffany Carrack, while these delicate preparations were in progress,
+was evidently agitated with some extraordinary design, in which Miriam
+Haven was bearing a part; for, although he did not address a word to
+that young maiden, he was as busy as his imitation of the antiquity of
+Baden-Baden would allow him, ogling, grimacing, and plucking his tawny
+beard at her every minute in the most astonishing manner, closely
+watched by Mopsey, the Captain, and old Sylvester, who strongly
+suspected the young man of being affected in his wits.</p>
+
+<p>It was very clear that it was this same Mr. Tiffany Carrack who had
+entered in at the door of the sleeping chamber assigned to that
+gentleman, but who would have ventured to assert that the figure, which,
+somewhere about the middle of the night, emerged from the window of the
+chamber in question, in yellow slippers, red silk cloak trimmed with
+gold, fez cap, and white muslin turban, and, with folded arms, began
+pacing up and down under the casement of Miriam Haven, after the manner
+of singers at the opera, pre<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>paratory to beginning, was the same
+Tiffany? And yet, when he returned again, and holding his face up to the
+moon, which was shining at a convenient angle over the edge of the
+house, the tawny tuft clearly identified it as Tiffany and no one else.
+And yet, as if to further confuse all recognition, what sound is that
+which breaks from his throat, articulating:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Dearest, awake&mdash;you need not fear;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For he&mdash;for he&mdash;your Troubadour is here!"</span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The summons passed for some time unanswered, till Mopsey, from the
+little end-window of her lodgement, presented her head in a flaming red
+and yellow handkerchief, and rolled her eyes about to discover the
+source of the tumult; scowling in the belief that it must be no other
+than "one of dem Brundages come to carry off in de dead of night de
+Peabody punkin."</p>
+
+<p>A gentle conviction was dawning in the brain of Mr. Carrack that this
+was the fair Miriam happily responding to his challenge in the
+appropriate character and costume of a Moorish Princess; when, as he
+began to roar again, still more violent and furious in his chanting, the
+black head opened and demanded, "what you want dere?" followed by an
+extra<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>ordinary shower of gourd-shells, which, crashing upon his sconce,
+with a distinct shatter for each shell, could not, for a moment, be
+mistaken for flowers, signet-rings, or any other ordinarily recognised
+love-tokens.</p>
+
+<p>It immediately occurred to Mr. Carrack, with the suddenness of
+inspiration, that he had better return to his chamber and go to bed; a
+design which was checked, as he proceeded in that direction, by the
+alarming apparition of a great body with a fire-lock thrust out of the
+window of the apartment, next to his own, occupied by the Captain,
+presented directly at his head, with a cry "Avast, there!" and a
+movement on the part of the body, to follow the gun out at the window.
+Fearfully harassed in that quarter, Mr. Carrack wheeled rapidly about,
+encountering as he turned, the two servants in livery, still making the
+circuit of the homestead&mdash;who in alarm of their lives from this singular
+figure in the red cloak, fled into the fields and lurked in an old
+out-house till daylight. As these scampered away before him, Mr.
+Tiffany, to relieve himself of the apparition of the gun, would have
+turned the corner of the house; when Mopsey appeared, wildly
+gesticulating, with a great brush-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>broom reared aloft, and threatening
+instant ruin to his person.</p>
+
+<p>From this double peril, what but the happiest genius could have
+suggested to Mr. Tiffany, an instant and straightforward flight from the
+house; in which he immediately engaged, making up the road&mdash;the Captain
+with his musket, and Mopsey with her hearth-broom, close at his heels.
+If Mr. Tiffany Carrack had promptly employed his undoubted resources of
+youth and activity, his escape from the necessity of disclosure or
+surrender had been perhaps easy; but it so happened that his progress
+was a good deal baffled by the conflict constantly kept up in his brain,
+between the desire to use his legs in the natural manner, and to
+preserve that antique pace of tottering gentility which he had acquired
+from that devilish fine old fellow, the Prince of Baden-Baden, so that
+at one moment he was in the very hands of the enemy, and at the next,
+flying like an antelope in the distance. The gun, constantly following
+him with a loud threat, from the Captain, seemed, in the moonlight, like
+a great finger perpetually pointing at his head; till at last it became
+altogether too dreadful to bear, and making up the road toward
+Brundage's,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> which still further inflamed the pursuit, in sheer
+exhaustion he rushed through an open gate into a neighboring tan-yard,
+and took refuge in the old bark-mill. There was but a moment's rest
+allowed him even here, for Mopsey and the Captain, furiously threatening
+all sorts of death and destruction, presently rushed in at the door, and
+sent him scampering about the ring like a distracted colt, in his first
+day's service; a game of short duration, for the Captain and Mopsey,
+closing in upon him from opposite directions compelled him to retreat
+again into the open air. How much longer the chase might have continued,
+it were hard to tell, for as his pursuers made after him, Mr. Tiffany
+Carrack suddenly disappeared, like a melted snow-flake, from the surface
+of the earth. In his confused state he had tumbled into a vat,
+fortunately without the observation of the inexorable enemy, although as
+he clung to the side the Captain discharged his musket directly over his
+head.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess that's done his business," said the Captain. "We'll come and
+look for the body in the morning."</p>
+
+<p>Now it is strongly suspected that both Mopsey and the Captain knew well
+enough all along that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> this was Mr. Tiffany Carrack they had been
+pursuing, and that as they watched him from the distance emerge from the
+vat, return to the homestead, and skulk, dripping in, like a rat of
+outlandish breed, at his chamber-window, they were amply avenged: the
+Captain, for the freedom with which the city-exquisite had treated the
+Peabody family, especially the good old grandfather, and Mopsey, for the
+slighting manner in which he had referred to absent young Mas'r
+Elbridge.</p>
+
+<p>When all was peace again within the homestead, there was one who still
+watched the night, and ignorant of the nature of this strange tumult,
+trembled as at the approach of a long-wished for happiness. It was
+Miriam, the orphan dependent, who now sat by the midnight casement. Oh,
+who of living men can tell how that young heart yearned at the
+thought&mdash;the hope&mdash;the thrilling momentary belief&mdash;that this was her
+absent lover happily returning?</p>
+
+<p>In the wide darkness of the lonesome night, which was it shone brightest
+and with purest lustre, in view of the all-seeing Mover of the
+Heavens&mdash;the stars glittering far away in space, in all their lofty
+glory, or the timid eyes of that simple maiden, wet with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> dew of
+youth, and bright with the pure hope of honest love! When all was still
+again, and no Elbridge's voice was heard, no form of absent Elbridge
+there to cheer her, oh, who can tell how near to breaking, in its silent
+agony, was that young heart, and with what tremblings of solicitude and
+fear, the patient Miriam waited for the friendly light to open the
+golden-gate of dawn upon another morrow!</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_SEVENTH" id="CHAPTER_SEVENTH"></a>CHAPTER SEVENTH.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE THANKSGIVING SERMON.</h3>
+
+<p>The morning of the day of Thanksgiving came calm, clear and beautiful. A
+stillness, as of heaven and not of earth, ruled the wide landscape. The
+Indian summer, which had been as a gentle mist or veil upon the beauty
+of the time, had gone away a little&mdash;retired, as it were, into the hills
+and back country, to allow the undimmed heaven to shine down upon the
+happy festival of families and nations. The cattle stood still in the
+fields without a low; the trees were quiet as in friendly recognition of
+the spirit of the hour; no reaper's hook or mower's scythe glanced in
+the meadow, no rumbling wain was on the road. The birds alone, as being
+more nearly akin to the feeling of the scene, warbled in the boughs.</p>
+
+<p>But out of the silent gloom of the mist there sprang as by magic, a
+lovely illumination which lit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> the country far and wide, as with a
+thousand varicolored lamps. As a maiden who has tarried in her chamber,
+some hour the least expected appears before us, apparelled in all the
+pomp and hue of brilliant beauty, the fair country, flushed with
+innumerable tints of the changed autumn-trees, glided forth upon the
+Indian summer scene, and taught that when kindly nature seems all
+foregone and spent, she can rise from her couch fresher and more radiant
+than in her very prime.</p>
+
+<p>What wonder if with the peep of dawn the children leaped from bed, eager
+to have on their new clothes reserved for the day, and by times appeared
+before old Sylvester in proud array of little hats, new-brightened shoes
+and shining locks, span new as though they had just come from the mint;
+anxious to have his grandfatherly approval of their comeliness? Shortly
+after, the horses caught in the distant pastures, the Captain and Farmer
+Oliver having charge of them, were brought in and tied under the trees
+in the door-yard.</p>
+
+<p>Then, breakfast being early dispatched, there was a mighty running to
+and fro of the grown people through the house, dresses hurried from old
+clothes-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>presses and closets, a loud demand on every hand for pins, of
+which there seemed to be (as there always is on such occasions) a great
+lack. The horses were put to Mrs. Carrack's coach, the Captain's gig,
+the old house-wagon, with breathless expectation on the part of the
+children; and in brief, after bustling preparation and incessant
+summoning of one member of the family and another from the different
+parts of the house, all being at last ready and in their seats, the
+Peabodys set forth for the Thanksgiving Sermon at the country
+Meeting-house, a couple of miles away.</p>
+
+<p>The Captain took the lead with his wife and Peabody Junior somewhere and
+somehow between them, followed by the wagon with old Sylvester, still
+proud of his dexterity as a driver, Oliver, much pleased with the
+popular character of the conveyance and wife, with young Robert; William
+Peabody and wife; little Sam riding between his grandfather's legs in
+front, and allowed to hold the end of the reins. Slowly and in great
+state, after all rolled Mrs. Carrack's coach with herself and son
+within, and footman and coachman without.</p>
+
+<p>Chanticleer, too, clear of eye and bright of wing, walked the garden
+wall, carried his head up, and act<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>ed as if he had also put on his
+thanksgiving suit and expected to take the road presently, accompany the
+family, and join his voice with theirs at the little meeting-house.</p>
+
+<p>Although the Captain, with his high-actioned white horse kept out of
+eye-shot ahead, it was Mrs. Carrack's fine carriage that had the triumph
+of the road to itself, for as it rolled glittering on, the simple
+country people, belated in their own preparations, or tarrying at home
+to provide the dinner, ran to the windows in wonder and admiration. The
+plain wagons, bent in the same direction, turned out of the path and
+gave the great coach the better half of the way, staring a broadside as
+it passed.</p>
+
+<p>And when the party reached the little meeting-house, what a peace hung
+about it! The air seemed softer, the sunshine brighter, there, as it
+stood in humble silence among the tall trees which waved with a gentle
+murmur before its windows. The people, as they arrived, glided
+noiselessly in, in their neat dresses and looks of decent devotion;
+others as they came made fast their horses under the sheds and trees
+about&mdash;most of them in wagons and plain chaises, brightened into all of
+beauty they were capa<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>ble of, by a severe attention to the harness and
+mountings; others&mdash;these were a few bachelors and striplings&mdash;trotted in
+quietly on horseback. Before service a few of the old farmers lingered
+outside discussing the late crops or inquiring after each other's
+families, who presently went within, summoning from the grassy
+churchyard&mdash;which lay next to the meeting house&mdash;the children who were
+loitering there reading the grave-stones.</p>
+
+<p>When the Captain arrived with his gig, under such extraordinary headway
+that he was near driving across the grave-yard into the next county&mdash;the
+country people scampered aside, like scared fowl; Mrs. Carrack's great
+coach, with its liveried outriders, set them staring as if they did not
+or could not believe their own eyes. With the arrival of old Sylvester
+they re-gathered, and, almost in a body, proffered their aid to hold the
+horses&mdash;to help the old Patriarch to the ground&mdash;in a word, to show
+their regard and affection in every way in their power. He tarried but a
+moment at the door, to speak a word with one or two of the oldest of his
+neighbors, and passed in, followed by all of his family save Mrs.
+Carrack and her son, who under color of hunting up<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> the grave of some
+old relation, delay in order to make their appearance in the
+meeting-house by themselves, and independently of the Peabody
+connection.</p>
+
+<p>Will you pardon me, reader, if I fail to tell you whether this house of
+worship was of the Methodist, Episcopal, or Baptist creed, whether it
+had a chancel or altar, or painted windows? Whether the pews had doors
+to them and were cushioned or not? Whether the minister wore a gown and
+bands, or plain suit of black, or was undistinguished in his dress? Will
+it not suffice if I tell you, as the very belief of my soul, that it was
+a christian house, that there were seats for all, that things were well
+intended and decently ordered, and that with a hymn sung with such
+purity of heart that its praises naturally joined in with the chiming of
+the trees and the carols of the birds without and floated on without a
+stop to Heaven, when a meek man rose up:</p>
+
+<p>"Some two hundred years ago, our ancestors (he said,) finding themselves
+more comfortable in the wilderness of the new world, than they could
+have reasonably looked for, set apart a day of Thanksgiving to Almighty
+God for his manifold mercies. That<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> day, God be praised, has been
+steadily observed throughout this happy land, by cheerful gatherings of
+families, and other festive and devotional observances, down to the
+present time. Our fathers covenanted, in the love of Christ, to cleave
+together, as brethren, however hard the brunt of fortune might be. That
+bond still continues. We may not live (he went on, in the very spirit
+and letter of the first Thanksgiving discourse ever delivered amongst
+us,) as retired hermits, each in our cell apart, nor inquire, like
+David, how liveth such a man? How is he clad? How is he fed? He is my
+brother, we are in league together, we must stand and fall by one
+another. Is his labor harder than mine? Surely I will ease him. Hath he
+no bed to lie on? I have two&mdash;I will lend him one. Hath he no apparel? I
+have two suits&mdash;I will give him one of them. Eats he coarse food, bread
+and water, and have I better? Surely we will part stakes. He is as good
+a man as I, and we are bound each to other; so that his wants must be my
+wants; his sorrows, my sorrows; his sickness my sickness; and his
+welfare my welfare; for I am as he is; such a sweet sympathy were
+excellent, comfort<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>able, nay, heavenly, and is the only maker and
+conserver of churches and commonwealths."</p>
+
+<p>To such as looked upon old Sylvester there seemed a glow and halo about
+his aged brow and whitened locks, for this was the very spirit of his
+life.</p>
+
+<p>As though he knew the very secrets of their souls, and touched their
+very heart-strings with a gentle hand, the preacher glanced from one
+member of the Peabody household to another, as he proceeded, something
+in this manner. (For William Peabody:) do I find on this holy day that I
+love God in all his glorious universe, more than the image even of
+Liberty, which hath ensnared and enslaved the soul of many a man on the
+coin of this world? (For buxom Mrs. Jane, in her vandyke:) Do I stifle
+the vanity of good looks and comfortable circumstances under a plain
+garb? (For the jovial Captain:) Am I not over hasty in pursuit of carnal
+enjoyment? (For Mr. Oliver: who was wiping his brow with the Declaration
+of Independence,) and eager over much for the good opinion of men, when
+I should be quietly serving them without report? (For Mrs. Carrack and
+her son:) And what are pomp and fashion, but the painted signs of good
+living where there is no life? These (he continued,)<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> are all outward,
+mere pretences to put off our duty, and the care of our souls. Yea, we
+may have churches, schools, hospitals abounding&mdash;but these are mere lath
+and mortar, if we have not also within our own hearts, a church where
+the pure worship ever goeth on, a school where the true knowledge is
+taught, a hospital, the door whereof standeth constantly open, into
+which our fellow-creatures are welcomed and where their infirmities are
+first cared for with all kindness and tenderness. If these be our
+inclinings this day, let us be reasonably thankful on this Thanksgiving
+morning. Let such as are in health be thankful for their good case; and
+such as are out of health be thankful that they are no worse. Let such
+as are rich be thankful for their wealth, (if it hath been honestly come
+by;) and let such as are poor be thankful that they have no such charge
+upon their souls. Let old folks be thankful for their wisdom in knowing
+that young folks are fools; and let young ones be thankful that they may
+live to see the time when they may use the same privilege. Let lean
+folks be thankful for their spare ribs, which are not a burthen in the
+harvest-field; fat folks may laugh at lean ones, and grow fatter every
+day. Let<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> married folks be thankful for blessings both little and great;
+let bachelors and old maids be thankful for the privilege of kissing
+other folks' babies, and great good may it do them.</p>
+
+<p>With what a glow of mutual friendship the quaint preacher was warming
+the plain old meeting-house on that thanksgiving day!</p>
+
+<p>Finally, and to conclude, (he went on in the language of a chronicle of
+the time:)&mdash;Let no man look upon a turkey to-day, and say, 'This also is
+vanity.' What is the life of man without creature-comforts, and the
+stomach of the son of man with no aid from the tin kitchen? Despise not
+the day of small things, while there are pullets on the spit, and let
+every fowl have fair play, between the jaws of thy philosophy. Are not
+puddings made to be sliced, and pie-crust to be broken? Go thy ways,
+then, according to good sense, good cheer, good appetite, the Governor's
+proclamation, and every other good thing under the sun;&mdash;render thanks
+for all the good things of this life, and good cookery among the rest;
+eat, drink, and be merry; make not a lean laudation of the bounties of
+Providence, but let a lively gusto follow a long grace. Feast
+thankfully, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> feast hopingly; feast in good will to all mankind,
+Grahamites included; feast in the full and joyous persuasion, that while
+the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, dinner-time, pudding-time,
+and supper-time, are not likely to go out of fashion;&mdash;feast with
+exulting confidence in the continuance of cooks, kitchens, and orthodox
+expounders of Scripture and the constitution in our ancient, blessed,
+and fat-sided commonwealth&mdash;feast, in short, like a good Christian,
+proving all things, relishing all things, hoping all things, expecting
+all things, and enjoying all things. Let a good stomach for dinner go
+hand in hand with a good mind for sound doctrine. Let us all be thankful
+that a gracious Providence hath furnished each and all with a wholesome
+and bountiful dinner this day; and, if there be none so furnished, let
+him now make it known, and we will instantly contribute thereto of our
+separate abundance. There are none who murmur&mdash;we all, therefore, have a
+thanksgiving dinner waiting for us; let us hie home cheerily, and in a
+becoming spirit of mirth and devotion partake thereof.</p>
+
+<p>The windows of the little meeting-house were up to let in the pleasant
+sunshine; and the very horses<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> who were within hearing of his voice,
+seemed by the pricking up of their brown ears to relish and approve of
+his discourse. The Captain's city nag, as wide awake as any, seemed to
+address himself to an acquaintance of a heavy bay plougher, who stood at
+the same post, and laying their heads together for the better part of
+the sermon, they appeared to regard it, as far as they caught its
+meaning, as sound doctrine, particularly acknowledging that this was as
+fine a thanksgiving morning as they (who had been old friends and had
+spent their youth together, being in some way related, in a farm-house
+in that neighborhood) had ever known; and when they had said as much as
+this, they laughed out in very merriness of spirit, with a great winnow,
+as the happy audience came streaming forth at the meeting-house door.
+There were no cold, haughty, or distrustful faces now, as when they had
+entered in an hour ago; the genial air of the little meeting-house had
+melted away all frosts of that kind; and as they mingled under the sober
+autumn-trees, loitering for conversation, inquiring after neighbors, old
+folks whose infirmities kept them at home, the young children; they
+seemed indeed, much more a company of brethren, em<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>barked (as sailors
+say) on a common bottom for happiness and enjoyment. The children were
+the first to set out for home through the fields on foot; Peabody the
+younger, little Sam and Robert being attended by the footman in livery,
+whom Mrs. Carrack relieved from attendance at the rear of the coach.</p>
+
+<p>If the quaint preacher had urged the rational enjoyment of the
+Thanksgiving cheer from the pulpit, Mopsey labored with equal zeal at
+home to have it worthy of enjoyment. At an early hour she had cleared
+decks, and taken possession of the kitchen: kindling, with dawn, a great
+fire in the oven for the pies, and another on the hearth for the turkey.
+But it was from the oven, heaping it to the top with fresh relays of dry
+wood, that she expected the Thanksgiving angel to walk in all his beauty
+and majesty. In performance of her duty, and from a sense only that
+there could be no thanksgiving without a turkey, she planted the tin
+oven on the hearth, spitted the gobbler, and from time to time, merely
+as a matter of absolute necessity, gave it a turn; but about the mouth
+of the great oven she hovered constantly, like a spirit&mdash;had her head in
+and out at the opening every other minute; and, when at last the pies
+were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> slided in upon the warm bottom, she lingered there regarding the
+change they were undergoing with the fond admiration with which a
+connoisseur in sunsets hangs upon the changing colors of the evening
+sky. The leisure this double duty allowed her was employed by Mopsey in
+scaring away the poultry and idle young chickens which rushed in at the
+back entrance of the kitchen in swarms, and hopped with yellow legs
+about the floor with the racket of constant falling showers of corn.
+Upon the half door opening on the front the red rooster had mounted, and
+with his head on one side observed with a knowing eye all that went
+forward; showing perhaps most interest in the turning of the spit, the
+impalement of the turkey thereon having been with him an object of
+special consideration.</p>
+
+<p>The highly colored picture of Warren at Bunker-Hill, writhing in his
+death-agony on one wall of the kitchen, and General Marion feasting from
+a potato, in his tent, on the other, did not in the least attract the
+attention of Mopsey. She saw nothing on the whole horizon of the glowing
+apartment but the pies and the turkey, and even for the moment neglected
+to puzzle herself, as she was accustomed to in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> the pauses of her daily
+labors, with the wonders and mysteries of an ancient dog-eared
+spelling-book which lay upon the smoky mantel.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, in obedience to the spirit of the day, the widow Margaret and
+Miriam, having each diligently disposed of their separate charge in the
+preparations, making a church of the homestead, conducted a worship in
+their own simple way. Opposite to each other in the little sitting-room,
+Miriam opened the old Family Bible, and at the widow Margaret's request
+read from that chapter which gives the story of the prodigal son. It was
+with a clear and pensive voice that she read, but not without a struggle
+with herself. Where the story told that the young man had gone into a
+far country; that he had wasted his substance in riotous living; that he
+was abased to the feeding of swine; that he craved in his hunger the
+very husks; that he lamented the plenty of his father's house&mdash;a cloud
+came upon her countenance, and the simplest eye could have interpreted
+the thoughts that troubled her. And how the fair young face brightened,
+when she read that the young man resolved to arise and return to the
+house of his father; the dear encounter; the rejoicing over his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> return,
+and the glad proclamation, "This, my son, was dead and is alive again;
+he was lost and is found."</p>
+
+<p>"If he would come back even so," said the widow when the book was
+closed, "in sorrow, in poverty, in crime even, I would thank God and be
+grateful."</p>
+
+<p>"He is not guilty, mother," Miriam pleaded, casting her head upon the
+widow's bosom and clinging close about her neck.</p>
+
+<p>"I will not think that he is," Margaret answered, lifting up her head.
+"Guilty or innocent, he is my son&mdash;my son." Clasping the young orphan's
+hand, after a pause of tender silence, she gave utterance to her
+feelings in a Thanksgiving hymn. These were the words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Father! protect the wanderer on his way;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Bright be for him thy stars and calm thy seas&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thanksgiving live upon his lips to-day,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And in his heart the good man's summer ease.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Almighty! Thou canst bring the pilgrim back,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">With a clear brow to this his childish home;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Guide him, dear Father, o'er a blameless track,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">No more to stray from us, no more to roam.</span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>At this moment a tumult of children's voices was heard in the door-yard,
+and as the widow turned, young William Peabody was seen struggling with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>
+Robert and little Sam, who were holding him back with all their force.
+As he dragged them forward, being their elder and superior in strength,
+Peabody Junior stretched his throat and called towards the house&mdash;"I've
+seen him&mdash;I've seen him!"</p>
+
+<p>"Who have you seen?" asked the widow, rising and approaching the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Barbary." When Peabody Junior made this answer the widow advanced
+with a gleam on her countenance, and gently releasing him, said, "Come,
+William, and tell us all about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Aunt Margaret," said Robert, thrusting himself between, "don't listen
+to a word he has to say. I'll tell you all about it. You see we were
+coming home from meeting, and little Sam got tired, and William and I
+made a cradle of our hands and were carrying him along very nice."</p>
+
+<p>"Not so very nice, either," Peabody Junior interrupted, "for I was
+plaguy tired."</p>
+
+<p>"That's what I was going to tell you, Aunt Margaret. Bill did get tired,
+and as we came through the Locust Wood, he made believe to see
+something, and run away to get clear of carrying little Sam any
+further."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I did see him!" said Peabody Junior, firmly.</p>
+
+<p>"Where was he?" the widow asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Behind the hazel-bush, with his head just looking out at the top, all
+turned white as dead folks do."</p>
+
+<p>Mopsey was in immediately with her dark head, crying out, "Don't belief
+a word of it."</p>
+
+<p>"I guess you saw nothing but the hazel-bush, William," said the widow.</p>
+
+<p>"That was it, Aunt; it was the hazel-bush with a great mop of moss on
+it," Robert added.</p>
+
+<p>Miriam sat looking on and listening, pale and trembling.</p>
+
+<p>"If your cousin Elbridge and Mr. Barbary should ever come back," said
+the widow, addressing Peabody Junior, "you would be sorry for what you
+have said, William."</p>
+
+<p>"So he would, Aunt," echoed Robert.</p>
+
+<p>Mopsey was in again from the kitchen; this time she advanced several
+steps from the door-sill into the room, lifted up both her arms and
+addressed the assembled company.</p>
+
+<p>"One ting I know," said Mopsey, "dere's a big pie baking in dat ere
+oven, and if Mas'r Elbridge don't eat that pie it'll haf to sour, dat I
+know."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What is it, Mopsey," asked Margaret, "that gives you such a faith in my
+son?"</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you what it is, Missus," Mopsey answered promptly, "dast
+tanksgivin when I tumbled down on dis ere sef-same floor bringin' in de
+turkey, every body laugh but Mas'r Elbridge, and he come from his place
+and pick me up. He murder any body! I'll eat de whole tanksgivin dinner
+myself if he touch a hair of de old preacher's head to hurt it."
+Suddenly changing her tone, she added, "Dey're comin' from meetin', I
+hear de old wagon."</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_EIGHTH" id="CHAPTER_EIGHTH"></a>CHAPTER EIGHTH.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE DINNER.</h3>
+
+<p>As the Peabodys approached the homestead, the smoke of the kitchen
+chimney was visible, circling upward and winding about in the sunshine
+as though it had been a delicate corkscrew uncorking a great bottle or
+square old flask of a delicious vintage. The Captain averred a quarter
+of a mile away, the moment they had come upon the brow of the hill, that
+he had a distinct savor of the fragrance of the turkey, and that it was
+quite as refreshing as the first odor of the land breeze coming in from
+sea, and he snuffed it up with a zeal and relish which gave the gig an
+eager appetite for dinner. The Captain's conjecture was strongly
+confirmed in the appearance of Mopsey, darting, with a dark face of dewy
+radiance at the wood-pile and shuffling back with bustling speed to the
+kitchen with a handful of delicate splinters. "She's giving him the last
+turn," said the Captain.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The shadow of the little meeting-house was still over the Captain, even
+so far away, for he conducted the procession homeward at a pace much
+less furious than that with which he had advanced in the morning; and
+Mrs. Carrack too, observed now, with a strange pleasure, what she had
+given no heed to before when the fine coach was rolling in triumph along
+the road,&mdash;birds twittering in the sunny air by the wayside, and cattle
+roving like figures in a beautiful picture, upon the slopes of the
+distant hills. Oliver, the politician, more than once had out the great
+cotton pocket-handkerchief, and holding it spread before him
+contemplating the fatherly signers, was evidently acquiring some new
+lights on the subject of independence.</p>
+
+<p>A change, in fine, of some sort or other, had passed over every member
+of the Peabody family save old Sylvester, returning as going, calm,
+plain-spoken, straightforward and patriarchal. When they reached the
+gate of the homestead, William Peabody gave his hand to his wife and
+helped her, with some show of attention, to alight; and then there could
+be no doubt that it was in very truth Thanksgiving day, for the glory of
+the door-yard itself had paled and disap<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>peared in the gorgeous festal
+light. There was no majestic gobbler in the door-yard now, with his
+great outspread tail, which in the proud moments of his life he would
+have expanded as if to shut the very light of the sun from all meaner
+creatures of the mansion.</p>
+
+<p>Within doors there was that bustling preparation, with brief lulls of
+ominous silence which precede and usher a great event. The widow
+Margaret, with noiseless step, glided to and fro, Miriam daintily
+hovering in the suburbs of the sitting-room, which is evidently the
+grand centre of interest, and Mopsey toils like a swart goblin in her
+laboratory of the kitchen in a high glow, scowling fearfully if
+addressed with a word which calls her attention for a moment away from
+her critical labors.</p>
+
+<p>As the family entered the homestead on their return, the combined forces
+were just at the point of pitching their tent on the ground of the
+forthcoming engagement, in the shape of the ancient four-legged and
+wide-leaved table, with a cover of snowy whiteness, ornamented as with
+shields and weapons of quaint device, in the old plates of pewter and
+the horn-handled knives and forks burnished to such a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> polish as to make
+the little room fairly glitter. Dishes streamed in one after the other
+in a long and rapid procession, piles of home-made bread, basins of
+apple-sauce, pickles, potatoes of vast proportion and mealy beauty. When
+the ancient and lordly pitcher of blue and white (whether freighted with
+new cider or old cold water need not be told) crowned the board, the
+first stage of preparation was complete, and another portentous pause
+ensued. The whole Peabody connection arranged in stately silence in the
+front parlor, looked on through the open door in wonder and expectation
+of what was to follow. The children loitered about the door-ways with
+watering eyes and open mouths, like so many innocent little dragons
+lying in wait to rush in at an opportune moment and bear off their prey.</p>
+
+<p>And now, all at once there comes a deeper hush&mdash;a still more portentous
+pause&mdash;all eyes are in the direction of the kitchen; the children are
+hanging forward with their bodies and outstretched necks half way in at
+the door; Miriam and the widow stand breathless and statue-like at
+either side of the room; when, as if rising out of some mysterious cave
+in the very ground, a dark figure is discerned in the dis<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>tance, about
+the centre of the kitchen, (into which Mopsey has made, to secure an
+impressive effect, a grand circuit,) head erect, and bearing before it a
+huge platter; all their eyes tell them, every sense vividly reports what
+it is the platter supports; she advances with slow and solemn step; she
+has crossed the sill; she has entered the sitting-room; and, with a full
+sense of her awful responsibility, Mopsey delivers on the table, in a
+cleared place left for its careful deposit, the Thanksgiving turkey.</p>
+
+<p>There is no need now to sound a gong, or to ring an alarm-bell to make
+known to that household that dinner is ready; the brown turkey speaks a
+summons as with the voice of a thousand living gobblers, and Sylvester
+rising, the whole Peabody family flock in. To every one his place is
+considerately assigned, the Captain in the centre directly opposite the
+turkey, Mrs. Carrack on the other side, the widow at one end, old
+Sylvester at the head. The children too, a special exception being made
+in their favor to-day, are allowed seats with the grown folks, little
+Sam disposing himself in great comfort in his old grandsire's arms.</p>
+
+<p>Another hush&mdash;for everything to-day moves on through these constantly
+shut and opened gates<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> of silence, in which they all sit tranquil and
+speechless, when the old patriarch lifts up his aged hands over the
+board and repeats his customary grace:</p>
+
+<p>"May we all be Christian people the day we die&mdash;God bless us."</p>
+
+<p>The Captain, the great knife and fork in hand, was ready to advance.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop a moment, Charley," old Sylvester spoke up, "give us a moment to
+contemplate the turkey."</p>
+
+<p>"I would there were just such a dish, grandfather," the Captain
+rejoined, "on every table in the land this day, and if I had my way
+there would be."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, Charley," the grandfather answered, "if there should be, there
+would be. There is One who is wiser than you or I."</p>
+
+<p>"It would make the man who would do it," Oliver suggested, "immensely
+popular: he might get to be elected President of the United States."</p>
+
+<p>"It would cost a large sum," remarked William Peabody, the merchant.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us leave off considering imaginary turkeys, and discuss the one
+before us," said old Sylvester, "but I must first put a question, and if
+it's answered with satisfaction, we'll proceed. Now tell me," he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> said,
+addressing himself to Mr. Carrack, who sat in a sort of dream, as if he
+had lost his identity, as he had ever since the night-adventure in the
+fez-cap and red silk cloak: "Now tell me, Tiffany, although you have
+doubtless seen a great many grand things, such as the Alps, and St.
+Peter's church at Rome, has your eye fallen in with anything wherever
+you travelled over the world, grander than that Thanksgiving turkey?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Carrack, either from excessive modesty or total abstraction,
+hesitated, looked about him hastily, and not till the Captain called
+across the table, "Why don't you speak, my boy?" and then, as if
+suddenly coming to, and realizing where he was, answered at last, with
+great deliberation, "It is a fine bird."</p>
+
+<p>"Enough said," spoke up old Sylvester cheerfully; "you were the last
+Peabody I expected to acknowledge the merits of the turkey;" and,
+looking towards the Captain with encouragement, added, "now, knife and
+fork, do your duty."</p>
+
+<p>It was short work the jovial Captain made with the prize turkey; in
+rapid succession plates were forwarded, heaped, sent around; and with a
+keen relish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> of the Thanksgiving dinner, every head was busy. Straight
+on, as people who have an allotted task before them, the Peabodys moved
+through the dinner,&mdash;a powerful, steady-going caravan of cheerful
+travellers, over hill, over dale, up the valleys, along the stream-side,
+cropping their way like a nimble-toothed flock of grazing sheep, keenly
+enjoying herbage and beverage by the way.</p>
+
+<p>What though, while they were at the height of its enjoyment a sudden
+storm, at that changeful season, arose without, and dashed its heavy
+drops against the doors and window-panes; that only, by the contrast of
+security and fire-side comfort, heightened the zest within, while they
+were engaged with the many good dishes at least, but when another pause
+came, did not the pelting shower and the chiding wind talk with them,
+each one in turn, of the absent, and oh! some there will not believe
+it&mdash;the lost? It was no doubt some thought of this kind that prompted
+old Sylvester to speak:</p>
+
+<p>"My children," said the patriarch, glancing with a calm eye around the
+circle of glowing faces at the table "you are bound together with good
+cheer and in comfortable circumstances; and even as you, who are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> here
+from east and west, from the north and the south, by each one yielding a
+little of his individual whim or inclination, can thus sit together
+prosperously and in peace at one board, so can our glorious family of
+friendly States, on this and every other day, join hands, and like happy
+children in the fields, lead a far-lengthening dance of festive peace
+among the mountains and among the vales, from the soft-glimmering east
+far on to the bright and ruddy west. If others still seek to join
+in&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, father," said Oliver, "there is a great danger."</p>
+
+<p>"Even as by making a little way," answered the patriarch, "we could find
+room at this table for one or two or three more, so may another State
+and still another join us, if it will, and even as our natural progeny
+increaseth to the third, fourth, tenth generation, let us trust for
+centuries to come this happy Union still shall live to lead her sons to
+peace, prosperity, and rightful glory."</p>
+
+<p>"But," interposed Oliver, the politician, again, with a double reference
+in his thoughts, it would almost seem, to an erring State or an absent
+child, "one may break away in wilfulness or crime&mdash;what then?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Let us lure it back," was old Sylvester's reply, "with gentle appeals.
+Remember we are all brethren, and that our alliance is one not merely of
+worldly interest, but also of family affection. Let us, on this hallowed
+day," he added, "cherish none but kindly thoughts toward all our
+kindred, and if him we have least esteemed offer the hand, let us take
+it in brotherly regard."</p>
+
+<p>There was a pause of silence once again, which was broken by a knock at
+the door. Old Sylvester, having spoken his mind, had fallen into a
+reverie, and the Peabodys glancing one to the other, the question arose,
+shall the strangers (Mopsey reported them to be two) whoever they may
+be, be admitted?</p>
+
+<p>"This is strictly a family festival," it was suggested, "where no
+strangers can be rightly allowed."</p>
+
+<p>"May be thieves!" the merchant added.</p>
+
+<p>"Vagabonds, perhaps!" Mrs. Carrack suggested.</p>
+
+<p>"Strangers, anyhow!" said Mrs. Jane Peabody.</p>
+
+<p>The widow Margaret and Miriam were silent and gave utterance to no
+opinion.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of the discussion old Sylvester suddenly awakening, and
+rearing his white locks aloft, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> the voice of a trumpet of silver
+sound, cried out:&mdash;"If they be human, let 'em in!"</p>
+
+<p>As he delivered this emphatic order there was a deep moan at the door,
+as of one in great pain, or suffering keenly from anguish of spirit, and
+when it was opened to admit the new-comers, the voice of Chanticleer,
+raised for the second time, broke in, clear and shrilly, from the outer
+darkness.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_NINTH" id="CHAPTER_NINTH"></a>CHAPTER NINTH.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE NEW-COMERS.</h3>
+
+<p>It was old Sylvester himself who opened the door and admitted the
+strangers; one of them, the younger, wore a slouched hat which did not
+allow his features to be distinctly observed, further than that his eyes
+were bright with a strange lustre, and that his face was deadly pale. He
+was partly supported by the elder man, whose person was clad in a long
+coat, reaching nearly to the ground. They were invited to the table, but
+refusing, asked permission to sit at the fire, which being granted, they
+took their station on either side of the hearth; the younger staggered
+feebly to his seat, and kept his gaze closely fixed on the other.</p>
+
+<p>"He had better take something," said old Sylvester, looking toward the
+young man and addressing the other. "Is your young friend ill?"</p>
+
+<p>"With an ailment food cannot relieve, I fear," the elder man answered.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Will you not remove your hats?" old Sylvester asked again.</p>
+
+<p>Turning slowly at this question, the young man answered, "We may not
+prove fit company for such as you, and if so the event shall prove, we
+will pass on and trouble you no further. If every thread were dry as
+summer flax," he added, in a tone of deep feeling, "I for one, am not
+fit to sit among honest people."</p>
+
+<p>"You should not say so, my son," said old Sylvester; "let us hope that
+all men may on a day like this sit together; that, remembering God's
+many mercies to us all, in the preservation of our lives, in his blessed
+change of seasons, in hours of holy meditation allowed to us, every man
+in very gratitude to the Giver of all Good, for this one day in the year
+at least, may suspend all evil thoughts and be at peace with all his
+fellow-creatures."</p>
+
+<p>The young man turned toward the company at the table, but not so far
+that his whole face could be seen.</p>
+
+<p>"Have all who sit about you at that table," he asked, glancing slowly
+around, "performed the duty to which you refer, and purged their bosoms
+of un<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>kindness toward their fellow-men? Is there none who grasps the
+widow's substance? who cherishes scorn and hatred of kindred? Who judges
+harshly of the absent?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a movement in different members of the company, but old
+Sylvester hushed them with a look, and took upon himself the business of
+reply.</p>
+
+<p>"It may be," said old Sylvester, "that some of us are disquieted, for be
+it known to you that one of the children of this household is absent
+from among us for causes which may well disturb our thoughts."</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard the story," the young man continued, "and if I know it
+aright, these are the truths of that history: There were two men,
+friends, once in this neighborhood, Mr. Barbary the preacher, and your
+grandson Elbridge Peabody. Something like a year ago the preacher
+suddenly disappeared from this region, and the report arose and
+constantly spread that he had fallen by the hand of his friend, that
+grandchild of yours. It began in a cloudy whisper, afar off, but swelled
+from day to day, from hour to hour, till it overshadowed this whole
+region, and not the least of the darkness it caused was on this spot,
+where this ancient homestead stands, and where<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> the young man had grown
+and lived from the hour of his birth. He saw coldness and avoidance on
+the highway; he was shrunk from on sabbath-mornings, and by children;
+but this was little and could be borne&mdash;the world was against him: but
+when he saw an aged face averted," he looked at old Sylvester steadily,
+"and a mother's countenance sad and hostile&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Sad&mdash;but not hostile," the widow murmured.</p>
+
+<p>"Sorrowful and troubled, at least," the young man rejoined, "his life,
+for all of happiness, was at an end. He must cease to live or he must
+restore the ancient sunshine which had lighted the windows of the home
+of his boyhood. He knew that his friend had <i>not</i> fallen by his hand;
+that he still lived, but in a far distant place which none but a long
+and weary journey could reach."</p>
+
+<p>"He should have declared as much," interposed the old patriarch.</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir; his word would have been but as the frail leaf blown idly from
+the autumn-bough; nothing but the living presence of his friend could
+silence the voice of the accuser. He rose up and departed, without
+counsel of any, trusting only in God and his own<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> strength; he bore with
+him neither bag nor baggage, scrip nor scrippage&mdash;not even a change of
+raiment; but with a handful of fruit and the humble provision which his
+good mother had furnished for the harvest-field, he set forth; day and
+night he journeyed on the truck he knew his friend had taken to that far
+country, toiling in the fields to secure food and lodging for the night,
+and some scant aids to carry him from place to place. Pushing on fast
+and far through the western country, in hunger and distress, passing by
+the very door of prosperous kinsfolk, but not tarrying a moment to seek
+relief."</p>
+
+<p>At this point Mrs. Jane Peabody glanced at her husband.</p>
+
+<p>"And so by one stage and another, hastening on, he reached that great
+city in the south, the metropolis of New Orleans; often, as he hoped, on
+the very steps of his friend, but never overtaking him, with fortune at
+so low an ebb that there he was well-nigh wasted in strength,
+hunger-stricken, and tattered in dress; driven to live in hovels till
+some chance restored him the little means to advance; so mean of person
+that his dearest friend, his nearest kinsman, even his old playfellow
+there," pointing to Mr. Tif<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>fany Carrack, "who had wrestled with him in
+the hayfield, who had sat with him in childish talk often and many a
+time by summer stream-sides, would have passed him by as one unknown."</p>
+
+<p>The glance which, in speaking this, he directed at Mr. Carrack, kindled
+on that young gentleman's countenance a ruby glow, so intense and fiery
+that it would seem as if it must have burned up the tawny tufts before
+their very eyes, like so much dry stubble. There was a glow of another
+kind in the Captain's broad face, which shone like another sun as he
+contemplated the two young men, glancing from one to the other.</p>
+
+<p>"The young man, bent on that one purpose as on life itself," he
+continued, silencing his companion, who seemed eager to speak, with a
+motion of his finger, "through towns, over waters, upon deserts, still
+pursued his way; and, to be brief in a weary history, there, in the very
+heart of that great region of gold, among diggers and searchers, and men
+distracted in a thousand ways in that perilous hunt, to find his
+simple-hearted friend, the preacher, in an out-of-the-way wilderness
+among the mountains, exhorting the living, comforting the sick,
+consoling the dying&mdash;and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> then, for the first time he learned, what his
+friend had carefully concealed before, the motive of his self-banishment
+to this distant country."</p>
+
+<p>His companion would have spoken, but the young man hurrying on, allowed
+him not a word.</p>
+
+<p>"You who know his history," he continued, addressing the company at the
+table&mdash;"know what calamity had once come upon the household of Mr.
+Barbary, by the unlawful thirst for gold; that he held its love as the
+curse of curses; he thought if he could but once throw himself in its
+midst, where that passion raged the most, he would be doing his Master's
+service most faithfully, more than in this quiet country-place of
+peaceful households, but when he learned the peril and the sore distress
+of his young friend, he tarried not a moment. 'To restore peace to one
+injured mind,' he said; 'to bring back harmony to one household is a
+clear and certain duty which will outweigh the vague chances of the good
+I may do here.' The young man cherished but one wish; through storm and
+trial and distress of every name and hue, if he could but reach home on
+the day of Thanksgiving, and stand up there before his assembled kindred
+a vindicated man, he would be requited fully<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> for all his toil. He took
+ship; in tempest, and with many risks of perishing far away
+unvindicated, in the middle of the wild sea&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The widowed mother could restrain herself no longer, but rushing
+forward, she removed the young man's hat from his brow, parted his
+locks, and casting herself upon his neck, gave utterance to her feelings
+in the affecting language of Scripture, which she had listened to in the
+morning: "My son was dead and is alive again&mdash;he was lost and is found!"</p>
+
+<p>Miriam timidly grasped his offered hand and was silent. The company had
+risen from the table and gathered around.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said William Peabody, "I could believe,&mdash;be glad to believe all
+this, if he had but brought Mr. Barbary with him."</p>
+
+<p>The elder stranger cast back his coat, removed his hat, and standing
+forth, said, "I am here, and testify to the truth, in every word, of all
+my young friend has declared to you."</p>
+
+<p>On this declaration the Peabodys, without an exception, hastened to
+welcome and address the returned Elbridge, and closed upon him in a
+solid group of affectionate acknowledgment. Old Sylvester stood<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> looking
+loftily down over all from the outer edge of the circle, and while they
+were busiest in congratulations and well-wishes, he went forward.</p>
+
+<p>"Stand back!" cried the old man, waving the company aside with outspread
+arms, and advancing with extended hand toward his grandson. "I have an
+atonement to render here, which I call you all to witness."</p>
+
+<p>"I take your hand, grandfather," Elbridge interposed, "but not in
+acknowledgment of any wrong on your part. You have lived an hundred
+blameless years, and I am not the one this day to breathe a reproach for
+the first time on your spotless age."</p>
+
+<p>Tears filled the old patriarch's eyes, and with a gentle hand he led his
+grandson silently to the table, to which the whole company returned,
+there being room for Mr. Barbary as well.</p>
+
+<p>At this crisis of triumphant explanation, Mopsey, who had under one
+pretext and another, evaded the bringing in of the pie to the last
+moment, appeared at the kitchen-door bearing before her, with that air
+of extraordinary importance peculiar to the negro countenance on
+eventful occasions, a huge brown dish with which she advanced to the
+head of the table,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> and with an emphatic bump, answering to the pithy
+speeches of warriors and statesmen at critical moments, deposited the
+great Thanksgiving pumpkin pie. Looking proudly around, she simply said,
+"Dere!"</p>
+
+<p>It was the blossom and crown of Mopsey's life, the setting down and full
+delivery to the family of that, the greatest pumpkin-pie ever baked in
+that house from the greatest pumpkin ever reared among the Peabodys in
+all her long backward recollection of past Thanksgivings, and her manner
+of setting it down, was, in its most defiant form, a clincher and a
+challenge to all makers and bakers of pumpkin-pies, to all cutters and
+carvers, to all diners and eaters, to all friends and enemies of
+pumpkin-pie, in the thirty or forty United States. The Brundages too,
+might come and look at it if they had a mind to!</p>
+
+<p>The Peabody family, familiar with the pie from earliest infancy, were
+struck dumb, and sat silent for the space of a minute, contemplating its
+vastness and beauty. Old Sylvester even, with his hundred years of
+pumpkin-pie experience, was staggered, and little Sam jumped up and
+clapped his hands in his old grandfather's arms, and struggled to
+stretch himself across as if he would appropriate it, by actual
+posses<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>sion, to himself. The joy of the Peabodys was complete, for the
+lost grandson had returned, and the Thanksgiving-pie was a glorious one,
+and if it was the largest share that was allotted to the returned
+Elbridge, will any one complain? And yet at times a cloud came upon the
+young man's brow,&mdash;when dinner was passed with pleasant family talk,
+questionings and experiences, as they sat about the old homestead
+hearth,&mdash;which even the playful gambols of the children who sported
+about him like so many friendly spirits, could not drive away. The heart
+of cousin Elbridge was not in their childish freaks and fancies as it
+had been in other days. The shining solitude looking in at the windows
+seemed to call him without.</p>
+
+<p>As though it had caught something of the genial spirit that glowed
+within the house, the wind was laid without, and the night softened with
+the beauty of the rising moon. With a sadness on his brow which neither
+the old homestead nor the pure heavens cast there, Elbridge went forth
+into the calm night, and sitting for a while by the road beneath an
+ancient locust-tree, where he had often read his book in the
+summer-times of boyhood, he communed with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> himself. He was happy&mdash;what
+mortal man could be happier?&mdash;in all his wishes come to pass; his very
+dreams had taken life and proved to be realities and friends, and yet a
+sadness he could not drive away followed his steps. Why was this? That
+moment, if his voice or any honorable and sinless motion of his hand
+could have ordained it, he would have dismissed himself from life and
+ceased to be a living partaker in the scenes about him. Even then&mdash;for
+happy as he was, he dreaded in prophetic fear, the chances which beset
+our mortal path. The weight of mortality was heavy upon the young man's
+spirit.</p>
+
+<p>Thinking over all the way he had passed, oh, who could answer that he,
+with the thronging company of busy passions and desires, could ever hope
+to reach an old age and never go astray? Oh, blessed is he (he thought)
+who can lie down in death, can close his account with this world, having
+safely escaped the temptations, the crimes, the trials, which make of
+good men even, in moments of weakness and misjudgment, the false
+speaker, the evil-doer, the slanderer, the coward, the hasty assailant,
+and, (oh, dreadful perchance,) the seeming-guilty-murderer himself.
+Strange thoughts for a prosperous lover's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> night, but earth is not
+heaven. With the sweat of anguish on his brow he bowed his head as one
+whose trouble is heavy to be borne. Yet even then the thought of the
+sweet heaven over him, with all its glorious promises, came upon him,
+and as he lifted up his eyes from the earth, the moon sailing forth from
+the clouds, and flooding the region with silver light, disclosed a
+figure so gentle and delicate, and in its features so pure of all our
+common passions, it seemed as if his troubled thoughts had summoned a
+spirit before him from the better world. As he stood regarding it in
+melancholy calmness, it extended towards him a hand.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," he said, declining the gentle salutation and retiring a pace,
+"touch me not, Miriam, I am not worthy of your pure companionship. If
+you knew what passed and is passing in my breast, you would loathe me as
+a leper."</p>
+
+<p>She was silent and dropped her eyes before him.</p>
+
+<p>"Think not, my gentle mistress," he added presently, "my heart is
+changed towards you. The glow is only too bright and warm."</p>
+
+<p>"If you love me not, Elbridge," she interposed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> quickly, "fear not to
+say so, even now. I will bear the pang as best I can."</p>
+
+<p>"You have suffered too much already," he rejoined, touched to the heart.
+"My long silence must have been as death to one so kind and gentle."</p>
+
+<p>"I have suffered," was all she said. "One word from you in your long
+absence would have made me happy."</p>
+
+<p>"It would, I know it would, and yet I could not speak it," Elbridge
+replied. "When, with a blight upon my name I left those halls," pointing
+to the old homestead standing in shadow of the autumn trees, "I vowed to
+know them no more, that my step should never cross their threshold, that
+my voice should never be heard again in those ancient chambers, that no
+being of all that household should have a word from these lips or hands
+till I could come back a vindicated man; that I would perish in distant
+lands, find a silent grave among strangers, far from mother and her I
+loved, or that I would come back with my lost friend, in his living
+form, to avouch and testify my truth and innocence."</p>
+
+<p>"And had you no thought of me in that cruel absence, dear Elbridge?"
+asked Miriam.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Of you!" he echoed, now taking her hand, "of you! When in all these my
+wanderings, in weary nights, in lonely days, on seas and deserts far
+away, sore of foot and sick at heart, making my couch beneath the stars,
+in the tents of savage men, in the shadow of steeples that know not our
+holy faith, was it not my religion and my only solace, that one like you
+thought of me as I of her, and though all the world abandoned and
+distrusted the wanderer, there was one star in the distant horizon which
+yet shone true, and trembled with a hopeful light upon my path."</p>
+
+<p>"Are we not each other's now?" she whispered softly as she lay her
+gentle head upon his bosom; "and if we have erred, and repent but truly,
+will not He forgive us?"</p>
+
+<p>As she lifted up her innocent face to heaven, did not those gentle tears
+which fell unheard by mortal ear, from those fair eyes, drop in hearing
+of Him who hears and acknowledges the faintest sound of true affection,
+through all the boundless universe, musically as the chime of holy
+Sabbath-bells?</p>
+
+<p>"You are my dear wife," he answered, folding her close to his heart,
+"and if you forgive and still cher<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>ish me, happiness may still be ours;
+and although no formal voice has yet called us one, by all that's sacred
+in the stillness of the night, and by every honest beating of this
+heart, dear Miriam, you are mine, to watch, to tend, to love, to
+reverence, in sickness, in sorrow, in care, in joy; by all that belongs
+of gaiety to youth, in manhood and in age, we will have one home, one
+couch, one fireside, one grave, one God, and one hereafter."</p>
+
+<p>An old familiar instrument, swept as he well knew by his mother's
+fingers, sounded at that moment from the homestead, and hand in hand,
+blending their steps, they returned to the Thanksgiving household
+within.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_TENTH" id="CHAPTER_TENTH"></a>CHAPTER TENTH.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CONCLUSION.</h3>
+
+<p>When Elbridge and Miriam re-entered the homestead they found the best
+parlor, which they had left in humble dependence on the light of a
+single home-made wick, now in full glow, and wide awake in every corner,
+with a perfect illumination of lamps and candles; and every thing in the
+room had waked up with them. The old brass andirons stood shining like a
+couple of bald-headed little grandfathers by the hearth; the letters in
+the sampler over the mantel, narrating the ages of the family, had
+renewed their color; the tall old clock, allowed to speak again, stood
+like an overgrown schoolboy with his face newly washed, stretching
+himself up in a corner; the painted robins and partridges on the wall,
+now in full feather, strutting and flying about in all the glory of an
+unfading plumage; and at the rear of all the huge back-log on the hearth
+glowed and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> rolled in his place as happy as an alderman at a city feast.
+The Peabodys too, partook of the new illumination, and were there in
+their best looks, scattered about the room in cheerful groups, while in
+the midst of all the widow Margaret, her face lighted with a smile which
+came there from far-off years, holding in her hand as we see an angel in
+the sunny clouds in old pictures, the ancient harpsichord, which till
+now had been laid away and out of use for many a long day of sadness.</p>
+
+<p>While Elbridge and Miriam stood still in wonder at the sudden change of
+this living pageant, old Sylvester, his white head carried proudly
+aloft, appeared from the sitting-room with Mr. Barbary, a quaint figure,
+freed now of his long coat, and bearing no trace of travel on his neat
+apparel and face of cheerful gravity. Leaving the preacher in the centre
+of the apartment, the patriarch advanced quietly toward the young
+couple, and, addressing himself to Elbridge, said, "My children, I have
+a favor to ask of you."</p>
+
+<p>"Anything, grandfather!" Elbridge answered promptly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You are sure?" Old Sylvester's eyes twinkled as he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"It would be the pleasure and glory of my young days," Elbridge answered
+again, "to crown your noble old age, grandfather, with any worthy wreath
+these hands could fashion, and not call it a favor either."</p>
+
+<p>Old Sylvester, smiling from one to the other, said, "You are to be
+married immediately."</p>
+
+<p>The young couple fell back and dropped each the other's hand, which they
+had been holding. Miriam trembled and shrunk the farthest away.</p>
+
+<p>"You will not deny me?" the grandfather said again. "You are the
+youngest and the last whom I can hope to see joined in that bond which
+is to continue our name and race; it is my last request on earth."</p>
+
+<p>At these simple words, turning, and with a fond regard which spoke all
+their thoughts, Miriam and Elbridge took again each the other's hand,
+and drew close side to side. The company rose, and Mr. Barbary was on
+the point of speaking when there emerged upon the family scene, from an
+inner chamber, as though he had been a foreigner entering a fash<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>ionable
+drawing-room, Mr. Tiffany Carrack, in the very blossom of full dress;
+his hair in glossy curl, with white neckcloth and waistcoat of the
+latest cut and tie, coat and pants of the purest model, pumps and silk
+stockings; bearing in his hand a gossamer pocket-handkerchief, which he
+shook daintily as he advanced, and filled the room with a strange
+fragrance. With mincing step, just dotting the ground, his whole body
+shaking like a delicate structure in danger every moment of tumbling to
+the ground, he advanced to where Miriam and Elbridge stood before Mr.
+Barbary.</p>
+
+<p>"Why really, 'pon my life and honor, Miriam, you are looking quite
+charming this evening!"</p>
+
+<p>"She should look so now if ever, Tiffany," said old Sylvester, "for she
+is just about to be married to your cousin Elbridge."</p>
+
+<p>"Now you don't mean that?" said Mr. Tiffany, touching the tawny tufts
+tenderly with his perfumed pocket-handkerchief, "Oh, woman! woman! what
+is your name?" He hesitated for a reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Perfidy?" suggested Mr. Oliver Peabody.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that's it. Have I lived to look on this," Mr. Tiffany continued;
+"to have my young hopes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> blighted, the rose of my existence cropped, and
+all that. Is it for this," addressing Miriam directly: he had been
+talking before to the air: "Is it for this I went blackberrying with you
+in my tender infancy! Is it for this that in the heyday of youth I
+walked with you to the school-house down the road! Was it for this that
+in the prime of manhood I breathed soft music in your ear at the
+witching time of night!"</p>
+
+<p>As he arrived at this last question, Mopsey, in her new gown of gorgeous
+pattern, and, having laid aside her customary broad-bordered cap, with a
+high crowned turban of red, and yellow cotton handkerchief on her head,
+appeared at the parlor door. Mr. Tiffany paused: he saw the Moorish
+princess before him; rallying, however, he was proceeding to describe
+himself as a friendly troubadour, whose affection had been responded to,
+when the Captain placing his mouth to his ear, as in confidence, uttered
+in a portentous whisper, "THE VAT!"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Tiffany immediately lost all joint and strength, subsided into a
+chair at a distance, and from that moment looked upon the scene like one
+in a trance.</p>
+
+<p>"After all," said Mr. Oliver, glancing at him, "I don't see just now
+that, in any point of view, this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> young gentleman <i>is</i> destined to carry
+the principles of free government&mdash;anywhere."</p>
+
+<p>The family being now all gathered, Mr. Barbary proceeded, employing a
+simple and impressive form in use in that family from its earliest
+history:</p>
+
+<p>"You, the Bridegroom and the Bride, who now present yourselves
+candidates of the covenant of God and of your marriage before him, in
+token of your consenting affections and united hearts, please to give
+your hands to one another.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Bridegroom, the person whom you now take by the hand, you receive
+to be your married wife: you promise to love her, to honor her, to
+support her, and in all things to treat her as you are now, or shall
+hereafter be convinced is by the laws of Christ made your duty,&mdash;a
+tender husband, with unspotted fidelity till death shall separate you.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Bride, the person whom you now hold by the hand you accept to be
+your married husband; you promise to love him, to honor him, to submit
+to him, and in all things to treat him as you are now or shall hereafter
+be convinced, is by the laws of Christ made your duty,&mdash;an affectionate
+wife, with inviolable loyalty till death shall separate you.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"This solemn covenant you make, and in this sacred oath bind your souls
+in the presence of the Great God, and before these witnesses.</p>
+
+<p>"I then declare you to be husband and wife regularly married according
+to the laws of God and the Commonwealth: therefore what God hath thus
+joined together let no man put asunder."</p>
+
+<p>When these words had been solemnly spoken the widow Margaret struck her
+ancient harpsichord in an old familiar tune of plaintive tenderness, and
+the young bridegroom holding Miriam's hand in an affectionate clasp,
+answered the music with a little hymn or carol, often used before among
+the Peabodys on a like occasion:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Entreat me not&mdash;I ne'er will leave thee,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Ne'er loose this hand in bower or hall;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This heart, this heart shall ne'er deceive thee,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">This voice shall answer ever to thy call.</span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>To which Miriam, after a brief pause of hesitation, in that tone of
+chanting lament familiar to her, answered&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Thy God is mine, where'er thou rovest,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Where'er thou dwellest there too will I dwell;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In the same grave shall she thou lovest<br /></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span><span class="i1">Lie down with him she loves so well.</span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Like a cheerful voice answering to these, and wishing, out of the
+mysterious darkness of night, all happiness and prosperity to the young
+couple, the silver call of Chanticleer arose without, renewed and
+renewed again, as if he could never tire of announcing the happy union
+to all the country round.</p>
+
+<p>And now enjoyment was at its height among the Peabodys, helped by
+Plenty, who, with Mopsey for chief assistant, hurried in, with plates of
+shining pippins, baskets of nuts, brown jugs of new cider of home-made
+vintage; Mrs. Carrack, who had selected the simplest garment in her
+wardrobe, moving about in aid of black Mopsey, tendering refreshment to
+her old father first, and Mrs. Jane Peabody insisting on being allowed
+to distribute the walnuts with her own hand.</p>
+
+<p>The children, never at rest for a moment, frisked to and fro, like so
+many merry dolphins, disporting in the unaccustomed candle-light, to
+which they were commonly strangers. They were listened to in all their
+childish prattle kindly, by every one, indulged in all their little
+foolish ways, as if the grown-up Peabodys for this night at least,
+believed that they were indeed little citizens of the kingdom of heaven,
+stray<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>ing about this wicked world on parole. Uncle Oliver, once,
+spreading his great Declaration-of-Independence pocket-handkerchief on
+his knees, attempted to put them to the question as to their learning.
+They all recognised Dr. Franklin, with his spectacles thrown up on his
+brow, among the signers, but denying all knowledge of anything more, ran
+away to the Captain, who was busy building, a dozen at a time, paper
+packet ships, and launching them upon the table for a sea.</p>
+
+<p>In the very midst of the mirthful hubbub old Sylvester called Robert and
+William to his side, and was heard to whisper, "Bring 'em in." William
+and Robert were gone a moment and returned, bearing under heavy
+head-way, tumbling and pitching on one side constantly, two ancient
+spinning wheels, Mopsey following with snowy flocks of wool and spinning
+sticks. Old Sylvester arose, and delivering a stick and flock to Mrs.
+Carrack and Mrs. Jane Peabody, requested them, in a mild voice and as a
+matter of course already settled, "to begin." A spinning-match!</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, anything you choose to-night, father."</p>
+
+<p>Rolling back their sleeves, adjusting their gowns,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> the wheels being
+planted on either side of the fireplace, Mrs. Jane and Mrs. Carrack,
+stick in hand, seized each on her allotment of wool, and sent the wheels
+whirling. It was a cheerful sight to see the two matrons closing in upon
+the wheel, retiring, closing in again&mdash;whose wheel is swiftest, whose
+thread truest? Now Mrs. Jane&mdash;now Mrs. Carrack. If either, Mrs. Carrack
+puts the most heart in her work.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Now</i> she looks like my Nancy," said old Sylvester in a glow, "as when
+she used to spin and sing, in the old upper chamber."</p>
+
+<p>Away they go&mdash;whose wheel is swiftest, whose thread the truest now?</p>
+
+<p>While swift and free the contest wages, the parlor-door standing open,
+and beyond that the door of the sitting-room, look down the long
+perspective! Do you not see in the twilight of the kitchen fire a dark
+head, lighting up, as in flashes, with a glittering row of teeth, with a
+violent agitation of the body, with gusty ha-ha's, and fragments of an
+uproarious chant flying through the door something to this effect<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Oh, de fine ladies, how dey do spin&mdash;spin&mdash;spin,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Like de gals long ago&mdash;long ago!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I bet to'der one don't win&mdash;win&mdash;win,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Kase de diamond-flowers on her fingers grow.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Lay down your white gloves, take up de wool,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Round about de whirly wheel go;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Back'ard and for'ard nimble feet pull,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Like de nice gals long&mdash;long ago!</span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Silence follows, in which nothing is observable from that quarter more
+than a great pair of white eyes rolling about in the partial darkness.
+Who was other than pleased that in spite of Mopsey's decision, old
+Sylvester determined that if either, Mrs. Carrack's work was done a
+little the soonest, and that her thread was a little the truest?</p>
+
+<p>During the contest the old merchant and his wife had conversed closely,
+apart; the green shade had lost its terrors, and he could look on it
+steadily, now; and at the close William Peabody approaching the
+fireplace, drew from his bosom the old parchment deed, which in his
+hunger for money had so often disquieted his visits to the homestead,
+and thrust it into the very heart of the flame, which soon shrivelled it
+up, and, conveying it out at the chimney, before the night was past
+spread it in peaceful ashes over the very grounds which it had so long
+disturbed.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"So much for that!" said the old merchant, as the last flake vanished;
+"and now, nephew," he addressed himself to Elbridge, "fulfilling an
+engagement connected with your return, I resign to you all charge of
+your father's property."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you bring anything with you from the Gold Region?" Mrs. Carrack
+interposed.</p>
+
+<p>"Not one cent, Aunt," Elbridge answered promptly.</p>
+
+<p>"You may add, William," pursued Mrs. Carrack, "the sums of mine you have
+in hand."</p>
+
+<p>William Peabody was pausing on this proposition, the sums in question
+being at that very moment embarked in a most profitable speculation.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the very height of the festivity, when it glowed the brightest and
+was most musical with mirthful voices, there had come to the casement a
+moaning sound as if borne upon the wind from a distance, a wailing of
+anguish, at the same time like and unlike that of human suffering. By
+slow advances it approached nearer and nearer to the homestead, and
+whenever it arose it brought the family enjoyment to a momentary pause.
+It had drawn so near that it sounded now again, as if in mournful
+lamentation, at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> the very door, when Mopsey, her dark face almost white,
+and her brow wrinkled with anxiety, rushed in. "Grandfather," she said,
+addressing old Sylvester, "blind Sorrel's dying in the door-yard."</p>
+
+<p>There was not one in all that company whom the announcement did not
+cause to start; led by old Sylvester, they hastily rose, and conducted
+by Mopsey, followed to the scene. Blind Sorrel was lying by the
+moss-grown horse-trough, at the gate.</p>
+
+<p>"I noticed her through the day," said Oliver, "wandering up the lane as
+if she was seeking the house."</p>
+
+<p>"The death-agony must have been upon her then," said William Peabody,
+shading his eyes with his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"She remembered, perhaps, her young days," old Sylvester added, "when
+she used to crop the door-yard grass."</p>
+
+<p>Mopsey, in her solicitude to have the death-bed of poor blind Sorrel
+properly attended, had brought with her, in the event of the paling or
+obscuration of the moon, a dark lantern, which she held tenderly aside
+as though the poor old creature still possessed her sight; immoveable
+herself as though she had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> been a swarthy image in stone, while, on the
+other side, William Peabody, near her head, stood gazing upon the animal
+with a fixed intensity, breathing hard and watching her dying struggle
+with a rigid steadiness of feature almost painful to behold.</p>
+
+<p>"Has carried me to mill many a day," he said; "some pleasantest hours of
+my life spent upon her back, sauntering along at early day."</p>
+
+<p>"Your mother rode her to meeting," Sylvester addressed his second son,
+"on your wedding-day, Oliver. Sorrel was of a long-lived race."</p>
+
+<p>"She was the gentlest horse-creature you ever owned, father," added Mrs.
+Carrack, turning affectionately toward old Sylvester, "and humored us
+girls when we rode her as though she had been a blood-relation."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not so sure of that," Mr. Tiffany Carrack rejoined, "for she has
+dumped me in a ditch more than once."</p>
+
+<p>"That was your own careless riding, Tiffany," said the Captain, "I don't
+believe she had the least ill-will towards any living creature, man or
+beast."</p>
+
+<p>It was observed that whenever William Peabody spoke, blind Sorrel turned
+her feeble head in that di<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>rection, as if she recognised and singled out
+his voice from all the others.</p>
+
+<p>"She knows your voice, father, even in her darkness," said the Captain,
+"as the sailor tells his old captain's step on deck at night."</p>
+
+<p>"Well she may, Charles," the merchant replied, "for she was foaled the
+same day I was born."</p>
+
+<p>The old creature moaned and heaved her side fainter and fainter.</p>
+
+<p>"Speak to her, William," said the old grandfather.</p>
+
+<p>William Peabody bent down, and in a tremulous voice said, "Sorrel, do
+you know me?"</p>
+
+<p>The poor blind creature lifted up her aged head feebly towards him,
+heaved her weary side, gasped once and was gone. The moon, which had
+been shining with a clear and level light upon the group of faces,
+dipped at that moment behind the orchard-trees, and at the same instant
+the light in the lantern flickering feebly, was extinguished.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean by putting the light out, Mopsey," old Sylvester
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I knew de old lamp would be goin' out, Massa, soon as ever blind Sorrel
+die; I tremble so I do' no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> what I'm saying." It was poor Mopsey's
+agitation which had shaken out the light.</p>
+
+<p>"Never shall we know a more faithful servant, a truer friend, than poor
+blind Sorrel," they all agreed; and bound still closer together by so
+simple a bond as common sympathy in the death of the poor old blind
+family horse, they returned within the homestead.</p>
+
+<p>They were scarcely seated again when William Peabody, turning to Mrs.
+Carrack, said, "Certainly!" referring to the transfer of the money of
+hers in his hands on loan, to Elbridge, "he will need some ready money
+to begin the world with."</p>
+
+<p>All was cheerful friendship now; the family, reconciled in all its
+members, sitting about their aged father's hearth on this glorious
+Thanksgiving night; the gayer mood subsiding, a sudden stillness fell
+upon the whole house, such as precedes some new turn in the discourse.</p>
+
+<p>Old Sylvester Peabody sat in the centre of the family, moving his body
+to and fro gently, and lifting his white head up and down upon his
+breast; his whole look and manner strongly arresting the attention of
+all; of the children not the least. After a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> while the old man paused,
+and looking mildly about, addressed the household.</p>
+
+<p>"This is a happy day, my children," he said, "but the seeds of it were
+sown, you must allow an old man to say, long, long ago. If one good
+Being had not died in a far country and a very distant time, we could
+not have this comfort now."</p>
+
+<p>The children watched the old grandfather more closely.</p>
+
+<p>"I am an old man, and shall be with you, I feel, but for a little while
+yet; as one who stands at the gate of the world to come, looking
+through, and through which he is soon to pass, will you not allow me to
+believe that I thought of the hopes of your immortal spirits in your
+youth?"</p>
+
+<p>As being the eldest, and answering for the rest, William Peabody
+replied, "We will."</p>
+
+<p>"Did I not teach you then, or strive my best to teach, that there was
+but one Holy God?"</p>
+
+<p>"You did, father&mdash;you did!" the widow Margaret answered.</p>
+
+<p>"That his only Son died for us?"</p>
+
+<p>"Often&mdash;often!" said Mrs. Carrack.</p>
+
+<p>"That we must love one another as brethren?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"At morning and night, in winter and summer; by the hearth and in the
+field, you did," Oliver rejoined.</p>
+
+<p>"That there is but one path to happiness and peace here and hereafter,"
+he continued, "through the performance of our duty towards our Maker,
+and our fellow men of every name, and tongue, and clime, and color? to
+love your dear Native Land, as she sits happy among the nations, but to
+remember this, our natural home, is but the ground-nest and cradle from
+which we spread our wings to fly through all the earth with hope and
+kindly wishes for all men. If the air is cheerful here, and the
+sun-light pleasant, let no barrier or wall shut it in, but pray God,
+with reverent hope, it spread hence to the farthest lands and seas, till
+all the people of the earth are lighted up and made glad in the common
+fellowship of our blessed Saviour, who is, was, and will be evermore&mdash;to
+all men guide, protector, and ensample. May He be so to us and ours, to
+our beloved home and happy Fatherland, in all the time to come!"</p>
+
+<p>The old man bowed his head in presence of his reconciled household, and
+fell into a sweet slumber; not one of all that company but echoed the
+old man's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> prayer&mdash;"May he be so to us and ours, to our beloved Home and
+happy Fatherland in all the time to come!"</p>
+
+<p>On this, on every day of Thanksgiving and Praise, be that old man's
+blessed prayer in all quarters, among all classes and kindred,
+everywhere repeated: "May He be so to us and ours, to our beloved Home
+and happy Fatherland in all the time to come!"</p>
+
+<p>And when, like that good old man, we come to bow our heads at the close
+of a long, long life, may we, like him, fall into a gentle sleep,
+conscious that we have done the work of charity, and spread about our
+path, wherever it lead, peace and good-will among men!</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">THE END.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="tnote">
+<p><b>Transcriber's Notes:</b></p>
+
+<p>Author's name is not given in the text but other editions give it as Cornelius Mathews.</p>
+
+<p>Contents Page. In the original text, some chapter titles were wrong; these have been corrected as follows:</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Chapter IV. Title was "The Children." Corrected to "The Fortunes of the Family Considered."</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Chapter V. Title was "The Fashionable Lady and Her Son." Corrected to "The Children."</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Chapter VI. Title was "The Fortunes of the Family Considered." Corrected to "The Fashionable Lady and Her Son."</p>
+
+<p>Inconsistent hyphenation of words in original text has been retained
+(daylight, day-light; fireside, fire-side; headway head-way; and
+neck-cloth, neckcloth).</p>
+
+<p>Inconsistent spelling of contractions in the original text has been
+retained.</p>
+
+<p>Page 27, added missing quote mark. ("Three, all of brick)</p>
+
+<p>Page 33, changed comma to fullstop. (speech. "Expect to see)</p>
+
+<p>Page 35, changed comma to fullstop. (said old Sylvester. "Out of)</p>
+
+<p>Page 36, unusual spelling of "ricketty" retained. (landed from its
+ricketty and bespattered bosom)</p>
+
+<p>Page 39, "thoughtf" has been changed to "though" (watched over as
+though it had been my own)</p>
+
+<p>Page 96, added missing quote mark. ("Some two hundred)</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Chanticleer, by Cornelius Mathews
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+</body>
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@@ -0,0 +1,3652 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Chanticleer, by Cornelius Mathews
+
+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: Chanticleer
+       A Thanksgiving Story of the Peabody Family
+
+Author: Cornelius Mathews
+
+Release Date: April 11, 2008 [EBook #25045]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHANTICLEER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Edwards, jkenny and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+          CHANTICLEER:
+
+
+              A
+
+      THANKSGIVING STORY
+
+              OF
+
+      THE PEABODY FAMILY.
+
+
+
+
+        SECOND EDITION.
+
+
+  BOSTON: B. B. MUSSEY & CO.
+  NEW-YORK: J. S. REDFIELD.
+            1850.
+
+
+  ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850.
+
+        BY J. S. REDFIELD,
+
+  in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States,
+  for the Southern District of New York.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+Shall the glorious festival of Thanksgiving, now yearly celebrated all
+over the American Union, (said the author to himself one day,) be
+ushered in with no other trumpet than the proclamations of
+State-Governors? May we not have a little holiday-book of our own, in
+harmony with that cherished Anniversary, which, while it pleases your
+fellow-countrymen, should it have that good fortune, may acquaint
+distant strangers with the observance of that happy custom of our
+country? With the hope that it may be so received, and as a kindly word
+spoken to all classes and sections of his fellow citizens, awakening a
+feeling of union and fraternal friendship at this genial season, the
+writer presents this little volume of home characters and incidents.
+
+November, 1850.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE LANDSCAPE OF THE STORY.
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+ARRIVAL OF THE MERCHANT AND HIS PEOPLE.
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE FARMER-FOLKS FROM THE WEST.
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE FORTUNES OF THE FAMILY CONSIDERED.
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE CHILDREN.
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE FASHIONABLE LADY AND HER SON.
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE THANKSGIVING SERMON.
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE DINNER.
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE NEW-COMERS.
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE CONCLUSION.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIRST.
+
+THE LANDSCAPE OF THE STORY.
+
+
+I see old Sylvester Peabody--the head of the Peabody family--seated in
+the porch of his country dwelling, like an ancient patriarch, in the
+calm of the morning. His broad-brimmed hat lies on the bench at his
+side, and his venerable white locks flow down his shoulders, which time
+in one hundred seasons of battle and sorrow, of harvest and drouth, of
+toil and death, in all his hardy wrestlings with old Sylvester, has not
+been able to bend. The old man's form is erect and tall, and lifting up
+his head to its height, he looks afar, down the country road which leads
+from his rural door, towards the city. He has kept his gaze in that
+direction for better than an hour, and a mist has gradually crept upon
+his vision; objects begin to lose their distinctness; they grow dim or
+soften away like ghosts or spirits; the whole landscape melts gently
+into a pictured dew before him. Is old Sylvester, who has kept it clear
+and bright so long, losing his sight at last, or is our common world,
+already changing under the old patriarch's pure regard, into that
+better, heavenly land?
+
+It seemed indeed, on this very calm morning in November, as if angels
+were busy about the Old Homestead, (which lies on the map, in the heart
+of one of the early states of our dear American Union,) transforming all
+the old familiar things into something better and purer, and touching
+them gently with a music and radiance caught from the very sky itself.
+As in the innocence of beauty, shrouded in sleep, dreams come to the
+eyelids which are the realities of the day, with a strange
+loveliness--the fair country lay as it were in a delicious dreamy
+slumber. The trees did not stand forth boldly with every branch and
+leaf, but rather seemed gentle pictures of trees; the sheep-bells from
+the hills tinkled softly and as if whispering a secret to the wind; the
+birds sailed slowly to and fro on the air; there was no harshness in the
+low of the herds, no anger in the heat of the sun, not a sight nor a
+sound, near by nor far off, which did not partake of the holy beauty of
+the morning, nor sing, nor be silent, nor stand still, nor move, with
+any other than a gliding sweetness and repose, or an under-tone which
+might have been the echo here on earth, of a better sphere. There was a
+tender sadness and wonder in the face of old Sylvester, when a voice
+came stealing in upon the silence. It did not in a single tone disturb
+the heavenly harmony of the hour, for it was the voice of the orphan
+dependent of the house, Miriam Haven, whose dark-bright eye and graceful
+form glimmered, as though she were the spirit of all the softened beauty
+of the scene, from amid the broom-corn, where she was busy in one of the
+duties of the season. Well might she sing the song of lament, for her
+people had gone down far away in the sea, and her lover--where was he?
+
+    Far away--far away are they,
+      And I in all the world alone--
+    Brightly, too brightly, shines the day--
+      Dark is the land where they are gone!
+
+    I have a friend that's far away,
+      Unknown the clime that bears his tread;
+    Perchance he walks in light to-day,
+      He may be dead! he may be dead!
+
+Like every other condition of the time, the voice of Miriam too, had a
+change in it.
+
+"What wonder is this?" said old Sylvester, "I neither hear nor see as I
+used--are all my senses going?"
+
+He turned, as he spoke, to a woman of small stature, in whose features
+dignity and tenderness mingled, as she now regarded him, with reverence
+for the ancient head of the house. She came forward as he addressed her,
+and laying her hand gently on his arm, said--
+
+"You forget, father; this is the Indian summer, which is the first
+summer softened and soberer, and often comes at thanksgiving-time. It
+always changes the country, as you see it now."
+
+"Child, child, you are right. I should have known it, for always at this
+season, often as it has come to me, do I think of the absent and the
+dead--of times and hours, and friends long, long passed away. Of those
+whom I have known," he continued eagerly, "who have fallen in battle, in
+the toil of the field, on the highway, on the waters, in silent
+chambers, by sickness, by swords: I thank God they have all, all of my
+kith and kin and people, died with their names untouched with crime;
+all," he added with energy, planting his feet firmly on the ground and
+rising as he spoke sternly, "all, save one alone, and he--"
+
+He turned toward the female at his side, and when he looked in her face
+and saw the mournful expression which came upon it, he dropped back into
+his chair and stayed his speech.
+
+At this moment a little fellow, who, with his flaxen locks and blue
+eyes, was a very cherub in plumpness and the clearness of his brow, came
+toddling out of the door of the house, struggling with a basin of yellow
+corn, which, shifting about in his arms, he just managed to keep
+possession of till he reached old Sylvester's knee. This was little Sam
+Peabody, the youngest of the Peabodys, and as he looked up into his
+grandfather's face you could not fail to see, though they grew so wide
+apart, the same story of passion and character in each. The little
+fellow began throwing the bright grain from the basin to a great
+strutting turkey which went marching and gobbling up and down the
+door-yard, swelling his feathers, spreading his tail, and shaking his
+red neck-tie with a boundless pretence and restlessness; like many a
+hero he was proud of his uniform, although the fatal hour which was to
+lay him low was not far off. It was the thanksgiving turkey, himself, in
+process of fattening under charge of Master Sam Peabody. Busy in the
+act, he was regarded with smiling fondness by his mother, the widow
+Margaret Peabody, and his old grandfather, when he suddenly turned, and
+said--
+
+"Grand-pa, where's brother Elbridge?"
+
+The old man changed his countenance and struggled a moment with himself.
+
+"He had better know all," he said, after a pause of thought, in which he
+looked, or seemed to look afar off from the scene about him. "Margaret,
+painful though it be to you and to me, let the truth be spoken. God
+knows I love your son, Elbridge, and would have laid down my life that
+this thing had not chanced, but the child asks of his brother so often,
+and is so often evaded that he will be presently snared in a net of
+falsehoods and deceptions if we speak not more plainly to him."
+
+An inexpressible anguish overspread the countenance of the widowed
+woman, and she turned aside to breathe a brief prayer of trust and hope
+of strength in the hour of trial.
+
+The thanksgiving turkey, full of his banquet of corn, strutted away to
+a slope in the sun by the roadside, and little Sam Peabody renewed his
+question.
+
+"Can't I see brother Elbridge, grand-pa?"
+
+"Never again, I fear, my child."
+
+"Why not, grandfather?"
+
+"Answer gently, father," the widow interposed. "Make not the case too
+harsh against my boy."
+
+"Margaret," said the old man, lifting his countenance upon her with
+dignity of look, "I shall speak the truth. I would have the name of my
+race pure of all stains and detractions, as it has been for an hundred
+years, but I would not bear hardly against your son, Margaret. This
+child, innocent and unswayed as he is, shall hear it, and shall be the
+judge."
+
+Rising, old Sylvester with Margaret's help, lifted the boy to the deep
+window-seat; and, standing on either hand, the widow and the old man
+each at his side, Sylvester taking one hand of the child in his, began--
+
+"My child, you are the youngest of this name and household, to you God
+may have entrusted the continuance of our race and name, therefore thus
+early would I have you learn the lesson your brother's errors may
+teach."
+
+"That should come last," the widow interposed gently. "The story itself
+should teach it, if the story be true."
+
+"Perhaps it should, Margaret," old Sylvester rejoined. "I will let the
+story speak for itself. It is, my child, a year ago this day, that an
+excellent man, Mr. Barbary, the preacher of this neighborhood,
+disappeared from among living men. He was blameless in his life, he had
+no enemy on the face of the earth. He was a simple, frugal, worthy
+man--the last time alive, he was seen in company with your brother
+Elbridge, by the Locust-wood, near the pond where you go to gather
+huckleberries in the summer, and hazels in the autumn. He was seen with
+him and seen no more."
+
+"But no man saw Elbridge, father, lift hand against him, or utter an
+angry word. On the contrary, they were seen entering the wood in close
+companionship, and smiling on each other."
+
+"Even so, Margaret," said Sylvester, looking at the child steadily, and
+waving his hand in silence toward the widow. "But what answer gave the
+young man when questioned of the whereabout of his friend? Not a word,
+Margaret--not a word, my child."
+
+"Is Mr. Barbary dead, grandfather?" the child inquired, leaning forward.
+
+"How else? He is not to be found in pulpit or field. No man seeth his
+steps any more in their ancient haunts. No man hearkens to his voice."
+
+"But the body, father, was never found. He may be still living in some
+other quarter."
+
+"It was near the rock called High Point, you will remember, and one
+plunge might have sent him to the bottom. The under currents of the lake
+are strong, and may have easily swept him away. There is but one belief
+through all this neighborhood. Ethan Barbary fell by the hand--Almighty
+God, that I should have to say it to you, my own grandson--of Elbridge
+Peabody."
+
+The child sat for a moment in dumb astonishment, glancing, with
+distended eyes and sweat upon his brow, fearfully from the stern face of
+the old man to the downcast features of the widow, when recovering
+speech he asked:--
+
+"Why should my brother kill Mr. Barbary, if he was his friend? Was not
+Elbridge always kind, mother? I'm sure he was to me, and used to let me
+ride old Sorrel before him to the mill!"
+
+"Ever kind? He was. There was not a day he did not make glad his poor
+mother's heart, with some generous act of devotion to her. No sun set on
+the day which did not cheer her lonely hearth with a new light of
+gladness and peace from his young eyes."
+
+"Margaret, you forget. He was soft of heart, but proud of spirit, and
+haughty beyond his age; you may not remember, even I could not always
+look down his anger, or silence his loudness of speech. Why should he
+kill Mr. Barbary? I will tell you, child: the preacher, too, had
+discerned well your brother's besetting sin, and, being fearless in
+duty, from the Sabbath pulpit he spake of it plainly and with such point
+that it could not fail to come home directly to the bosom of the young
+man. This was on the very Lord's day before Mr. Barbary disappeared from
+amongst us. It rankled in your brother's bosom like poison; his passions
+were wild and ungoverned, and this was cause enough. If he had been
+innocent, why did Elbridge Peabody flee this neighborhood, like a thief
+in the night?"
+
+"Why did my brother Elbridge leave us, mother?" said the child, bending
+eagerly towards the widow, who wrung her hands and was silent.
+
+"He may come back," said the child, shaking his flaxen locks, and not
+abashed in the least by her silence. "He may come back yet and explain
+all to us."
+
+"Never!"
+
+At that very moment a red rooster, who stood with his burnished wings on
+the garden wall, near enough to have heard all that had passed, lifted
+up his throat, and poured forth a clear cry, which rang through the
+placid air far and wide.
+
+"He will--I know he will," said little Sam Peabody, leaping down from
+his judgment-seat in the window. "Chanticleer knows he will, or he would
+not speak in that way. He hasn't crowed once before, you know,
+grandfather, since Elbridge went away; we'll hear from brother soon, I
+know we shall--I know we shall!"
+
+The little fellow, in his glee, clapped his hands and crowed too. The
+grandfather, looking on his gambols, smiled, but was presently sad
+again.
+
+"Would to Heaven he may," he said. "If they come who should, to-day, we
+may learn of him--for to-day my children should come up from all the
+quarters of the land where they are scattered--the East, the West, the
+North, the South--to join with me in the Festival of Thanksgiving which
+now draws near. My head is whitened with many winters, and I shall see
+them for the last time." Sylvester continued: "If they come--in this
+calm season, which, so soft and sweet, seems the gentle dawn of the
+coming world--we shall have, I feel, our last re-gathering on earth! But
+they come not; my eyes are weary with watching afar off, and I cannot
+yet discern that my children bear me in remembrance, in this grateful
+season of the year. Why do they not come?"
+
+The aged patriarch of the family bowed his head and was silent. From the
+broom-corn the gentle voice stole again:
+
+    Why sings the robin in the wood?
+    For him her music is not shed:
+    Why blind-brook sparkle through the field?
+    He may be dead! he may be dead!
+
+The murmur of Miriam's musical lamenting had scarcely died away on the
+dreamy air, when there came hurrying forward from the garden--where she
+had been tending the great thanksgiving pumpkin, which was her special
+charge--the black servant of the household, Mopsey by name, who, with
+her broad-fringed cap flying all abroad, and her great eyes rolling,
+spoke out as she approached--
+
+"Do hear dat, massa?"
+
+"I hear nothing, Mopsey."
+
+"Dere, don't you hear't now? Dey're coming!"
+
+With faces of curiosity, and ears erect, they listened. There was a
+peculiar sound in the air, and on closer attention they discerned, in
+the stillness of the morning, the jingling traces of the stage-coach, on
+the cross-road, through the fields.
+
+"They are not coming," said old Sylvester, when the sound had died away
+in the distance; "the stage has taken the other road."
+
+"Dat may be, grandfather," Mopsey spoke up, "but for all dey may come.
+Ugly Davis, when _he_ drive, don't always turn out of his way to come up
+here. Dey may be on de corner."
+
+As Mopsey spoke, two figures appeared on foot on the brow of the road,
+which sloped down toward the Homestead, through a feathery range of
+graceful locusts. They were too far off to be distinctly made out, but
+it was to be inferred that they were travellers from a distance, for one
+of them held against the light some sort of travelling bag or
+portmanteau; one of them was in female dress, but this was all they
+could as yet distinguish. Various conjectures were ventured as to their
+special character. They were unquestionably making for the Homestead,
+and it was to be reasonably supposed they were Peabodys, for strangers
+were rare upon that road, which was a by-way, off the main thoroughfare.
+
+The family gathered on the extreme out-look of the balcony, and watched
+with eager curiosity their approach, which was slow and somewhat
+irregular--the man did not aid the woman in her progress, but straggled
+on apart, nor did he seem to address her as they came on.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SECOND.
+
+ARRIVAL OF THE MERCHANT AND HIS PEOPLE.
+
+
+"It is William and Hannah," said the Patriarch, towering above the
+household grouped about him, and gaining an advantage in observation
+from his commanding height, "I am glad the oldest is the first to come!"
+
+When the two comers reached the door-yard gate the man entered in
+without rendering the least assistance or paying the slightest heed to
+his companion, who followed humbly in his track. He was some sixty years
+of age, large-featured and inclining to tallness; his dress was
+oldmanish and plain, consisting of a long-furred beaver hat, a loose
+made coat, and other apparel corresponding, with low cut shoes. He
+smiled as he came upon the balcony, greeting old Sylvester with a shake
+of the hand, but taking no notice whatever either of the widow, little
+Sam, or Mopsey. His wife, on the contrary, spoke to all, but quietly and
+submissively, which was in truth, her whole manner. She was spare and
+withered, with a pinched, colorless face, constrained in a scared and
+apprehensive look as though in constant dread of an impending violence
+or injury. Over one eye she wore a green patch, which greatly heightened
+the pallor and strangeness of her features.
+
+"Where's the Captain and Henrietta?" old Sylvester asked when the
+greetings were over.
+
+"They started from the city in a chay," he was answered by William
+Peabody, "some hours before us,--the captain,--seaman--way of driving
+irreg'lar. Nobody can tell what road he may have got into. Should'nt be
+surprised if did'nt arrive till to-morrow morning. Will always have
+high-actioned horse."
+
+William Peabody had scarcely spoken when there arose in the distance
+down the road, a violent cloud of dust, from which there emerged a
+two-wheeled vehicle at a thundering pace, and which, in less than a
+minute's time, went whirling past the Homestead. It was supposed to
+contain Captain Saltonstall and wife; but what with the speed and dust,
+no eye could have guessed with any accuracy who or what they were. In
+less than a minute more it came sweeping back with the great white
+horse, passing the house again like an apparition, or the ghost of a
+horse and gig. With another sally down the road and return, with a long
+curve in the road before the Homestead, it at last came to at the gate,
+and disclosed in a high sweat and glowing all over his huge person, the
+jovial Captain, and at his side his pretty little cherry-faced girl of a
+wife, Henrietta Peabody, daughter of William Peabody, who, be it known,
+is old Sylvester's oldest son. There also emerged from the one-horse
+gig, after the captain had made ground, and jumped his little wife to
+the same landing in his arms, a red-faced boy, who must have been
+closely stowed somewhere, for he came out of the vehicle highly colored,
+and looking very much as if he had been sat upon for a couple of hours
+or more. The Captain having freed his horse from the traces, and at old
+Sylvester's suggestion, set him loose in the door-yard to graze at his
+leisure, rushed forward upon the balcony very much in the character of a
+good natured tornado, saluted the widow Margaret with a whirlwind kiss,
+threw little Sam high in the air and caught him as he came within half
+an inch of the ground, shook the old grandfather's readily extended hand
+with a sturdy grasp, and wound up, for a moment, with a great cuff on
+the side of the head with a roll of stuff for a new gown for Mopsey,
+saying as he delivered it, "Dere, what d'ye say to dat, Darkey!"
+
+Darkey brightened into a sort of nocturnal illumination, and shuffling
+away, in the loose shoes, to the keeping of which on her feet the better
+half of the best energies of her life were directed, gave out that she
+must be looking after dinner.
+
+It was but for a moment only that the Captain paused, and in less than
+five minutes he had said and done so many good-natured things, had shown
+himself so free of heart withal, and so little considerate of self or
+the figure he cut, that in spite of his great clumsy person, and the
+gash in his face, and the somewhat exorbitant character of his dress,
+his coat being a bob as long and straight in the line across the back,
+as the edge of a table, you could not help regarding him as a decidedly
+well made, well dressed, and quite handsome person; in fact the Captain
+passed with the whole family for a fine-looking man.
+
+"Where's my little girl Miriam?" asked the jovial Captain, after a
+moment's rest in a seat by the side of old Sylvester. "I must see my
+Dolphin, or she'll think I'm growing old."
+
+Being advised that the young lady in question was somewhere within, the
+Captain rushed into the house, pursued by all the family in a body, save
+William Peabody, who remained with old Sylvester, seated and in silence.
+
+"How go matters in the city, William?" he said, removing his hand from
+his brow, where it had rested in contemplation for several minutes.
+
+"After the old fashion, father," William Peabody answered, smiling with
+a fox-like glance at his father; "added three new houses to my property
+since last year."
+
+"Three new houses?"
+
+"Three, all of brick,--good streets--built in the latest style. The city
+grows and I grow!"
+
+"Three new houses, and all in the latest style--and how does Margaret's
+little property pay?"
+
+"Poorly, father, poorly. Elbridge made a bad choice when he bought
+it--greatly out of repair--rents come slowly."
+
+"In a word, the old story, the widow gets nothing again from the city. I
+had hopes you would be able to bring her some returns this time, for she
+needs it sadly."
+
+"I do the best I can, but money's not to be got out of stone walls."
+
+"And you have three new houses which pay well," old Sylvester continued,
+turning his calm blue eye steadily upon his son.
+
+"Capital--best in the city! Already worth twice I gave for 'em. The city
+grows and I grow!"
+
+"My son, do you never think of that other house reserved for us all?"
+
+William Peabody was about to answer, it was nonsense for a man only
+sixty and in sound condition of body and mind to think too much of that,
+when his eye, ranging across the fields, espied in shadow as it were,
+through the dim atmosphere, the mist clearing away a little in that
+direction, an old sorrel horse--a long settler with the family and
+well-known to all its members--staggering about feebly in a distant
+orchard, and in her wanderings stumbling against the trees.--"Is old
+Sorrel blind?" he asked, shading his own eyes from the light.
+
+"She is, William," old Sylvester replied; "her sight went from her last
+New-Year's day."
+
+"My birth-day," said the merchant, a sudden pallor coming upon his
+countenance.
+
+"Yes, you and old Sorrel are birth-mates, my son."
+
+"We are; she was foaled the day I was born," said William Peabody, and
+added, as to himself, musingly, "Old Sorrel is blind! So we pass--so we
+pass--young to-day--to-morrow old--limbs fail us--sight is gone."
+
+They sat silently, contemplating the still morning scene before them,
+and meditating, each in his own particular way, on the history of the
+past.
+
+To William, the merchant, it brought chiefly a recollection how in his
+early manhood he had set out from those quiet fields for a hard struggle
+with the world, with a bare dollar in his pocket, and when that was gone
+the whole world seemed to combine in a desperate league against him to
+prevent his achieving another. How at last, on the very edge of
+starvation and despair, he had wrung from it the means of beginning his
+fortunes; and how he had gone on step by step, forgetting all the
+pleasant ties of his youth, all recollections of nature and cheerful
+faces of friends and kinsfolk, adding thousand to thousand, house to
+house; building, unlike Jacob, a ladder, that descended to the lower
+world, up which all harsh and dark spirits perpetually thronged and
+joined to drag him down; and yet he smiled grimly at the thought of the
+power he possessed, and how many of his early companions trembled before
+him because he was grown to be a rich man.
+
+Old Sylvester, on the other hand, in all his memory had no thought of
+himself. His recollection ran back to the old times when his neighbors
+sat down under a king's sceptre in these colonies, how that chain had
+been freed, the gloomy Indian had withdrawn his face from their fields,
+how the darkness of the woods had retired before the cheering sun of
+peace and plenty; and how from a little people, his dear country, for
+whose welfare his sword had been stained, had grown into a great nation.
+Scattered up and down the long line of memory were faces of friends and
+kindred, which had passed long ago from the earth. He called to mind
+many a pleasant fire-side chat; many a funeral scene, and burying in
+sun-light and in the cold rain; the young Elbridge too was in his
+thoughts last of all; could he return to them with a name untainted, the
+old man would cheerfully lie down in his grave and be at peace with all
+the world.
+
+In the meanwhile, within the house the Captain in high favor was seated
+in a great cushioned arm-chair with little Sam Peabody on his knee, and
+the women of the house gathered about him, looking on as he narrated the
+courses and adventures of his last voyage. The widow listened with a sad
+interest. Mopsey rolled her eyes and was mirthful in the most serious
+and stormiest passages; while little Sam and the Captain's wife rivalled
+each other in regarding the Captain with innocent wonder and
+astonishment, as though he were the most extraordinary man that ever
+sailed the sea, or sat in a chair telling about it, in the whole
+habitable globe. Miriam Haven alone was distant from the scene, gliding
+to and fro past the door, busied in household duties in a neighboring
+apartment, and catching a word here and there as she glanced by.
+
+It was a wonderful story, certainly, the Captain was telling, and it
+seemed beyond all belief that it could be true that one man could have
+seen the whales, the icebergs, the floating islands, the ships in the
+air, the sea-dogs, and grampuses, the flying-fish, the pirates, and the
+thousand other wonders the Captain reported to have crossed his path in
+a single trip across the simple Atlantic and back. He also averred to
+have distinctly seen the sea-serpent, and what was more, to have had a
+conversation with a ship in the very middle of the ocean. Was there
+anything wonderful in that? it occurs every day--but listen to the
+jovial Captain!--a ship--and he had news to tell them of one they would
+like to hear about. They pressed close to the Captain and listened
+breathlessly; Miriam Haven pausing in her task, and stopping stone-still
+like a statue, in the door, while her very heart stayed its beating.
+
+Go on--Captain--go on--go on!
+
+"Well, what do you think; we were in latitude--no matter, you don't care
+about that--we had just come out of a great gale, which made the sea
+pitch-dark about us; when the first beam of the sun opened the clouds,
+we found ourselves along side a ship with the old stars and stripes
+flying like a bird at the mast-head. There was a sight, my hearties. We
+hailed her, she hailed us, we threw her papers, she threw us, and we
+parted forever."
+
+"Is that all?"
+
+"Not half. One of these was a list of passengers; I run my eye up, and I
+run my eye down, and there, shining out like a star amongst them all, I
+find, whose d'ye think--Elbridge Peabody--as large as life."
+
+Miriam Haven staggered against the door-post, the widow fell upon her
+knees, "Thank God, my boy is heard from."
+
+Little Sam Peabody darted from the Captain's knee and rushed upon the
+balcony, crying at the top of his lungs, "Grandfather, brother Elbridge
+is heard from."
+
+"I don't believe it," said William Peabody; the poor old blind sorrel
+had disappeared from sight into a piece of woods near the orchard, and
+the merchant had quite recovered his usual way of speaking. "Never will
+believe it. You hav'nt heard of that youngster,--never will. Always knew
+he would run away some day--never come back again."
+
+The Captain's story was rapidly explained by the different members of
+the family, who had followed little Sam, to repeat it to old Sylvester,
+each in her own way. Miriam and Hannah Peabody, who at sound of the
+commotion had come forth from an inner chamber, whither she had been
+retired by herself, joined the company of lookers on.
+
+"What all amount to," he continued, in his peculiar clipped style of
+speech. "Expect to see him again, do you. Mighty fine chance--where
+going to?"
+
+The Captain could'nt tell.
+
+"One of the Captain's fine stories--no--no--if that boy ever comes back
+again, I'll--"
+
+There was a deep silence to hear what the hard old merchant proposed.
+
+"I'll hand over to him the management of his late father's property, he
+was always hankering after, and thought he could make so much more of
+than his hard-fisted old uncle."
+
+This was a comfortable proposition, and little Sam Peabody, as though it
+were a great pear or red pippin that was spoken of, running to his
+mother, said,
+
+"Mother, I'd take it."
+
+"I do," said the widow, "and call you all to witness."
+
+William Peabody smiled grimly on Margaret; his countenance darkened
+suddenly, and he was, no doubt, on the point of retracting his confident
+offer, when his wife uttered in an under tone, half entreaty, half
+authority, "William," at the same time turning on her husband the side
+of the countenance which wore the green shade. He stifled what he
+intended to utter, and shifting uneasily in his seat, he looked toward
+the city and was silent. Whatever the reason, it was clear that when
+they were seated at the table, partaking of the meal, it was Captain
+Saltonstall that had the best attention from every member of the
+household, (and the best of the dish,) from all save old Sylvester, who
+held himself erect, as usual, and impartial in the matter.
+
+"The ways of Providence are strange," said old Sylvester. "Out of
+darkness he brings marvellous light, and from the frivolous acorn he
+spreads the branches wide in the air, which are a shelter, and a solace,
+and a shadowy play-ground to our youth and old age. We must wait the
+issue, and whatever comes, to Him must we give thanks."
+
+With this sentiment for a benediction, the patriarch dismissed his
+family to their slumbers, which to each one of the household brought its
+peculiar train of speculation; to two, at least, Miriam and the widow
+Margaret, they brought dreams which only the strong light of day could
+disprove to be realities.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRD.
+
+THE FARMER-FOLKS FROM THE WEST.
+
+
+With the following day, (which was calm, gentle, and serene as its
+predecessor,) a little after the dispatch of dinner, the attention of
+the household was summoned to the clatter of a hurrying wagon, which,
+unseen, resounded in the distant country. Old Sylvester was the first to
+hear it--faintly at first, then it rose on the wind far off, died away
+in the woods and the windings of the roads, then again was entirely lost
+for several minutes, and at last growing into a portentous rattle,
+brought to at the door of the homestead, and landed from its ricketty
+and bespattered bosom Mr. Oliver Peabody, of Ohio; Jane his wife, a
+buxom lady of fair complexion, in a Quaker bonnet; and Robert, their
+eldest son, a tall, flat-featured boy, some thirteen years of age.
+
+The countryman in a working shirt, who had the control of the wagon, and
+who had been beguiled by Oliver some five miles out of his road home,
+(to which he was returning from the market town,) under pretence of a
+wish to have his opinion of the crops--the poor fellow being withal a
+hired laborer and never having owned, or entertained the remotest
+speculation of owning, a rood of ground of his own,--with a commendation
+from Oliver, delivered with a cheerful smile, that "his observations on
+timothy were very much to the purpose," drove clattering away again. Mr.
+Oliver Peabody, farmer, who had come all the way from Ohio to spend
+thanksgiving with his old father--of a ruddy, youthful and twinkling
+countenance--who wore his hair at length and unshorn, and the chief
+peculiarity of whose dress was a grey cloth coat, with a row of great
+horn-buttons on either breast, with enormous woollen mittens, brought
+his buxom wife forward under one arm with diligence, drawing his tall
+youth of a son after him by the other hand--threw himself into the bosom
+of the Peabody family, and was heartily welcomed all round. He didn't
+say a word of half-horses and half-alligators, nor of greased lightning,
+although he was from the West, but he did complain most bitterly of the
+uncommon smoothness of the roads in these parts, the short grass, and
+the 'bominable want of elbow-room all over the neighborhood. It was with
+difficulty he could be kept on the straitened stage of the balcony long
+enough to answer a few plain questions of children and other matters at
+home; and immediately expressed an ardent desire to take a look at the
+garden.
+
+"We got somefin' to show thar, Mas'r Oliver," said Mopsey, who had stood
+by listening, with open mouth and eyes, to the strong statements of the
+western farmer, "we haint to be beat right-away no how!"
+
+Old Sylvester rose with his staff, which he carried more for pleasure
+than necessity, and led the way. As they approached there was visible
+through all the plants, shrubs and other growths of the place, whatever
+they might be--a great yellow sphere or ball, so disposed, on a little
+slope by itself, as to catch the eye from a distance, shining out in its
+golden hue from the garden, a sort of rival to the sun himself, rolling
+overhead.
+
+"Dere, what d'ye tink of dat, Oliver," Mopsey asked, forgetting in the
+grandeur of the moment all distinctions of class or color, "I guess
+dat's somefin."
+
+"That's a pumpkin," said Mr. Oliver Peabody, calmly.
+
+"Yes, I guess it is--_de tanksgivin punkin_!"
+
+She looked into the western farmer's face, no doubt expecting a spasm or
+convulsion, but it was calm--calm as night. Mopsey condescended not
+another word, but walking or rather shuffling disdainfully away,
+muttered to herself, "Dat is de very meanest man, for a white man, I
+ever did see; he looked at dat 'ere punkin which has cost me so many
+anxious days and sleepless nights--which I have watched over as though
+it had been my own child--which I planted wid dis here hand of my own,
+and fought for agin the June bugs and the white frost, and dat mouse
+dat's been tryin to eat it up for dis tree weeks and better--just as if
+it had been a small green cowcumber. I don't believe dat Oliver Peabody
+knows it is tanksgivin'. He's a great big fool."
+
+"I see you still keep some of the old red breed, father," said Oliver
+when they were left alone in the quiet of the garden, pointing to the
+red rooster, who stood on the wall in the sun.
+
+"Yes," old Sylvester answered, "for old times' sake. We have had them
+with us now on the farm for better than a hundred years. I remember the
+day the great grandfather of this bird was brought among us. It was the
+day we got news that good David Brainard, the Indian missionary,
+died--that was some while before the revolutionary war. He died in the
+arms of the great Jonathan Edwards, at Northampton; their souls are at
+peace."
+
+"I recollect this fellow," Oliver continued, referring to the red
+rooster, "When I was here last he was called Elbridge's bird, that was
+the year before last."
+
+"There is no Elbridge now," said the old grandfather.
+
+"I know all," said Oliver, "I had a letter from Margaret, telling me the
+story and begging me to keep a watch for her boy."
+
+"A wide watch to keep and little to be got by it, I fear," old Sylvester
+added.
+
+"Not altogether idle, perhaps; we have sharp eyes in the West and see
+many strange things. Jane is confident she saw our Elbridge, making
+through Ohio, but two months after he left here; he was riding swiftly,
+and in her surprise and suddenness she could neither call nor send after
+him."
+
+"You did not tell us of that," said the old man.
+
+"No, I waited some further discovery."
+
+"Be silent now, you may easily waken hopes to be darkened and dashed to
+the ground. Which way made the boy?"
+
+"Southward."
+
+During this discourse, as though he distinguished the sound of his young
+master's name and knew to what it related, Chanticleer walked slowly,
+and as if by accident or at leisure, up and down the garden-wall,
+keeping as near to the speakers as was at all seemly. When they stopped
+speaking he leaped gently to the ground and softly clapped his wings.
+
+A moment after there came hurrying into the garden, in a wild
+excitement, and all struggling to speak first, little Sam Peabody in the
+lead, Robert, the flat-featured youth of thirteen, and Peabody Junior,
+(who, it should be mentioned, having found his way into a pantry a
+couple of minutes after his arrival with the Captain, and appropriated
+to his own personal use an entire bottle of cherry brandy, had been
+straightway put to bed, from which he had now been released not more
+than a couple of hours), and to announce as clamorously as they
+respectively could, that Brundage's Bull had just got into "our big
+meadow."
+
+"Nobody hurt?" asked old Sylvester.
+
+"Nobody hurt, grandfather, but he's ploughing up the meadow at a
+dreadful rate," said little Sam Peabody.
+
+"Like wild," Peabody Junior added.
+
+This statement, strongly as it was made, seemed to have no particular
+effect on old Sylvester. Oliver Peabody, on the other hand, was
+exceedingly indignant, and was for proceeding to extremities
+immediately, the expulsion of the Brundage bull, and the demanding of
+damages for allowing his cattle to cross the boundary line of the two
+farms.
+
+Old Sylvester listened to his violence with a blank countenance; nor did
+he seem to comprehend that any special outrage had been committed, for
+it must be acknowledged that the only indication that the grandfather
+had come to his second childhood was, that, with his advancing years,
+and as he approached the shadow of the other world, he seemed to have
+lost all idea of the customary distinctions of rank and property, and
+that very much like an old apostle, he was disposed to regard all men as
+brethren, and boundary lines as of very little consequence.
+
+He therefore promptly checked his son Oliver in his heat, and
+discountenanced any further proceedings in the matter.
+
+"Brundage," he said, "would, if he cared about him, come and take his
+bull away when he was ready; we are all brethren, and have a common
+country, Oliver," he added, "I hope you feel that in the West, as well
+as we do here."
+
+"Thank God, we have," Oliver rejoined with emphasis, "and we love it!"
+
+"I thank God for that too," old Sylvester replied, striking his staff
+firmly on the ground, "I remember well, my son, when your great state
+was a wilderness of woods and savage men, and now this common sky--look
+at it, Oliver--which shines so clearly above us, is yours as well as
+ours."
+
+"I fear me, father, one day, bright, beautiful, and wide-arched as it
+is, the glorious Union may fall," said Oliver, laying his hand upon an
+aged tree which stood near them, "may fall, and the states drop, one by
+one away, even as the fruit I shake to the ground."
+
+As though he had been a tower standing on an elevation, old Sylvester
+Peabody rose aloft to his full height, as if he would clearly
+contemplate the far past, the distant, and the broad-coming future.
+
+"The Union fall!" he cried. "Look above, my son! The Union fall! as long
+as the constellations of evening live together in yonder sky; look down,
+as long as the great rivers of our land flow eastward and westward,
+north and south, the Union shall stand up, and stand majestical and
+bright, beheld by ages, as these shall be, an orb and living stream of
+glory unsurpassable."
+
+The children were gathered about, and watched with eager eyes and
+glowing cheeks, the countenance of the grandfather as he spoke.
+
+"No, no, my son," he added, "there's many a true heart in brave Ohio, as
+in every state of ours, or they could not be the noble powers they are."
+
+While old Sylvester spoke, Oliver Peabody wrenched with some violence,
+from the tree near which they stood, a stout limb, on the end of which
+he employed himself with a knife in shaping a substantial knob.
+
+"What weapon is that you are busy with, Oliver?" old Sylvester asked.
+
+"It's for that nasty bull," Oliver replied. "I would break every bone in
+his body rather than let him remain for a single minute on my land; the
+furtherance of law and order demands the instant enforcement of one's
+rights."
+
+"You are a friend of law and order, my son."
+
+"I think I am," Oliver answered, standing erect and planting his club,
+in the manner of Hercules in the pictures, head down on the ground.
+
+"I hope you are, Oliver; but I fear you forget the story I used to tell
+of my old friend Bulkley, of Danbury, who, being written to by some
+neighboring Christians who were in sore dissension, for advisement, gave
+them back word:--Every man to look after his own fence, that it be built
+high and strong, and to have a special care of the old Black Bull;
+meaning thereby no doubt, our own wicked passions;--that is the true
+Christian way of securing peace and good order."
+
+Oliver threw his great trespass-club upon the ground, and was on the
+point of asking after an old sycamore, the largest growth of all that
+country, which, standing in a remote field had, in the perilous times
+sheltered many of the Peabody family in its bosom--when he was
+interrupted by the sudden appearance of Mopsey in a flutter of
+cap-strings, shuffling shoes, and a flying color in her looks of at
+least double the usual depth of darkness. It was just discovered that
+the poultry-house had been broken into over night, and four of the
+fattest hens taken off by the throat and legs, besides sundry of the
+inferior members of the domicile; as wicked a theft, Mopsey said, as
+ever was, and she hadn't the slightest hesitation in charging it on them
+niggers in the Hills, (a neighboring settlement of colored people, who
+lived from hand to mouth, and seemed to be fed, like the ravens by some
+mystery of providence.)
+
+Oliver Peabody watched closely the countenance of the patriarch, not a
+little curious to learn what effect this announcement would have upon
+his temper.
+
+"This is all our own fault," said old Sylvester, promptly. "We should
+have remembered this was thanksgiving time, and sent them something to
+stay their stomachs. Poor creatures, I always wondered how they got
+along! Send 'em some bread, Mopsey, for they never can do anything with
+fowls without bread!"
+
+"Send 'em some bread!" Mopsey rejoined, growing blacker and more ugly of
+look as she spoke: "Send 'em whips, and an osifer of the law!--the four
+fattest of the coop."
+
+"Never mind," said old Sylvester.
+
+"Six of the ten'drest young'uns!"
+
+"Never mind that," said old Sylvester.
+
+"I'd have them all in the county jail before sundown," urged Mopsey.
+
+"Oliver, we will go in to tea," continued the patriarch. "We have enough
+for tea, Mopsey?"
+
+"Yes, quite enough, Mas'r."
+
+"Then," cried the old man, striking his staff on the ground with great
+violence, rising to his full height, and glowing like a furnace, upon
+Mopsey, "then, I say, send 'em some bread!"
+
+This speech, delivered in a voice of authority, sent Mopsey, shuffling
+and cowering, away, without a word, and brought the sweat of horror to
+the brow of Oliver, which he proceeded to remove with a great cotton
+pocket-handkerchief, produced from his coat behind, on which was
+displayed in glowing colors, by some cunning artist, the imposing scene
+of the signers of the Declaration of Independence getting ready to affix
+their names. Mr. Oliver Peabody was the politician of the family, and
+always had the immortal Declaration of Independence at his tongue's end,
+or in hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTH.
+
+THE FORTUNES OF THE FAMILY CONSIDERED.
+
+
+When Oliver and old Sylvester entered the house they found all of the
+family gathered within, save the children, who loitered about the doors
+and windows, looking in, anxious-eyed, on the preparations for tea going
+forward under the direction of the widow Margaret, and Mopsey. The other
+women of the household were busy with a discussion of the merits of Mrs.
+Carrack, of Boston, the fashionable lady of the family.
+
+"I should like to see Mrs. Carrack above all things," said the Captain's
+pretty little wife, "she must be a fine woman from all I have heard of
+her."
+
+"Thee will have small chance, I fear, child," said Mrs. Jane Peabody,
+sitting buxomly in an easy arm chair, which she had quietly assumed,
+"she is too fine for the company of us plain folks in every point of
+view."
+
+"It's five years since she was here," the widow suggested as she
+adjusted the chairs around the table, "she said she never would come
+inside the house again, because the best bed-chamber was not given to
+her--I am sorry to say it."
+
+"She's a heathen and wicked woman," Mopsey said, shuffling at the door,
+and turning back on her way to the kitchen--"your poor boy was lying low
+of a fever and how could _she_ expect it."
+
+"In one point of view she may come; her husband was living then,"
+continued Mrs. Jane Peabody, "she has become a rich woman since, and may
+honor us with a visit--to show us how great a person she has got to
+be--let her come--it need'nt trouble thee, nor me, I'm sure." Mrs. Jane
+Peabody smoothed her Quaker vandyke, and sat stiffly in her easy chair.
+
+Old Sylvester entering at that moment, laid aside his staff and
+broad-brimmed hat, which little Sam Peabody ran in to take charge of,
+and took his seat at the head of the table; the Captain, who was busy at
+the back-door scouring an old rusty fowling-piece for some enterprise he
+had in view in the morning, was called in by his little wife; the others
+were seated in their places about the board.
+
+"Where's William?" old Sylvester asked.
+
+He was at a window in the front room, where he had sat for several
+hours, with spectacles on his brow, poring over an old faded parchment
+deed, which related to some neighboring land he thought belonged to the
+Peabodys, (although in possession of others,) and which he had always
+made a close study of on his visits to the homestead. There was a dark
+passage, under which he made their title, which had been submitted to
+various men learned in the law; it was too dark and doubtful, in their
+opinion, to build a contest on, and yet William Peabody gave it every
+year a new examination, with the hope, perhaps, that the wisdom of
+advancing age might enable him to fathom and expound it, although it had
+been drawn up by the greatest lawyer of his day in all that country. His
+wife Hannah, grieving in spirit that her husband should be toiling
+forever in the quest of gain, sat near him, pale, calm and disheartened,
+but speaking not a word. He could not look at her with that fearful
+green shade on her face, but kept his eyes always fixed on the old
+parchment. When his aged father had taken his seat, and began his thanks
+to God for the bounties before them, as though the old Patriarch had
+brought a better spirit from the calm day without, he thrust the paper
+into his bosom and glided to his place at the table. It would have done
+you good to hear that old man's prayer. He neither solicited forgiveness
+for his enemies nor favors for his friends; for schools, churches,
+presidents or governments; neither for health, wealth, worldly welfare,
+nor for any single other thing; all he said, bowing his white old head,
+was this:
+
+"May we all be Christian people the day we die--God bless us."
+
+That was all; and his kinsfolk lost no appetite in listening to it--for
+it was no sooner uttered than they all fell to--and not a word more was
+spoken for five minutes at least, nor then perhaps, had not little Sam
+Peabody cried out, with breathless animation, and delight of feature,
+
+"The pigeons, grandfather!" at the same time pointing from the door to
+the evening sky, along which they were winging their calm and silent
+flight in a countless train--streaming on westward as though there was
+no end to them; which put old Sylvester upon recalling the cheerful
+sports of his younger days.
+
+"I have taken a couple of hundred in a net on the Hill before breakfast,
+many a time," he said. "You used to help me, William."
+
+"Yes, I and old Ethan Barbary," said the merchant, "used to spring the
+net; you gave the word."
+
+"Old Ethan has been dead many a day. Ethan," continued old Sylvester, in
+explanation, "was the father of our Mr. Barbary. He was a preacher too,
+and carried a gun in the revolution. I remember he was accounted a
+peculiar man. I never knew why. To be sure he used to spend the time he
+did not employ in prayers, preaching and tending the sick, in working on
+the farms about, for he had no wages for preaching. When there was none
+of that to be had, he took his basket, and sallying through the fields,
+gathered berries, which he bestowed on the needy families of the
+neighborhood. In winter he collected branches in the woods about, as
+fire-wood for the poor."
+
+"That was a capital idea," said Oliver the politician. "It must have
+made him very popular."
+
+"Wasn't he always thought to be a little out of his head?" asked the
+merchant. "He might have sold the wood for a good price in the severe
+winters."
+
+"I remember as if it were yesterday," old Sylvester went on in his own
+way, not heeding in the slightest the suggestions of his sons, "he and
+black Burling, who is buried in the woods by the Great Walnut tree, near
+the pond, both fought in the American ranks, and had but one gun between
+them, which they used turn about."
+
+"You saw rough times in those days, grandfather," said the Captain.
+
+"I did, Charley," old Sylvester answered, looking kindly on the Captain,
+who had always been something of a favorite of his from the day he had
+married into the family; "and there are but few left to talk with me of
+them now. I am one of the living survivors of an almost extinguished
+race. The grave will soon be our only habitation. I am one of the few
+stalks that still remain in the field where the tempest passed. I have
+fought against the foreign foe for your sake; they have disappeared from
+the land, and you are free; the strength of my arm delays, and my feet
+fail me in the way; the hand which fought for your liberties is now open
+to bless you. In my youth I bled in battle that you might be
+independent--let not my heart, in my old age, bleed because you abandon
+the path I would have you follow."
+
+The old patriarch leaned his head upon his hand, and the company was
+silent as though they had listened to a voice from the grave. He
+presently looked up and smiled--"Old Ethan, I call to mind now," he
+renewed, "had a quality which our poor Barbary inherited, and for
+which," he added, looking toward his son William, "and for which I
+greatly honor his memory. He counted the money of this world but as
+dross. From his manhood to the very moment of his entering on the
+ministry, he never would touch silver nor gold, partly, I think, because
+it was the true Scripture course, and partly because a dreadful murder
+had once happened in the Barbary family, growing out of a quarrel for
+the possession of a paltry sum of money."
+
+The bread she was raising to her lips fell from the widow's hand, for
+she could not help but think of the history of her absent son; and the
+voice of Miriam, who did not present herself at the table, was heard
+from a distant chamber, not distinctly, but in that tone of chanting
+lament which had become habitual to her whether in house, garden, or
+field. It was an inexpressibly mournful cadence, and for the time
+stilled all other sounds. They were only drawn away from it by descrying
+Mopsey, the black servant, at a turn of the road, hurrying with great
+animation towards the homestead, but with a singularity in her progress
+which could not fail to be observed. She rushed along at great speed,
+for several paces, and suddenly came to a halt, during which her head
+disappeared, and then renewed her pace, repeating the peculiar
+manoeuvre once at least in every ten yards. In a word, she was
+shuffling on in her loose shoes, (which were on or off, one or the other
+of them every other minute,) at as rapid a rate as that peculiar species
+of locomotion allowed. Bursting with impatience and the importance of
+her communication, her cap flaunting from her head, she stood in the
+doorway and announced, "We've beat Brundage--we've beat Brundage!"
+
+"What's this, Mopsey?" old Sylvester inquired.
+
+"I've tried it and I've spanned it. I can't span ours!"
+
+On further questioning it appeared that Mopsey had been on a pilgrimage
+to the next neighbor's, the Brundages, to inspect their thanksgiving
+pumpkin, and institute a comparison with the Peabody growth of that
+kind, with a highly satisfactory and complacent result as regarded the
+home production. Nobody was otherwise than pleased at Mopsey's innocent
+rejoicing, and when she had been duly complimented on her success, she
+went away with a broad black guffaw to set a trap in the garden for the
+brown mouse, the sole surviving enemy of the great Peabody thanksgiving
+pumpkin which must be plucked next day for use.
+
+With the dispatch of the evening meal, old Sylvester withdrew to the
+other room, with a little hand lamp, to read a chapter by himself. The
+others remaining seated about the apartment; the Captain and Oliver
+presently fell into a violent discussion on the true sources of national
+wealth, the Captain giving it as his opinion that it solely depended on
+having a great number of ships at sea, as carriers between different
+countries. Oliver was equally clear and resolute that the real wealth of
+a nation lay in its wheat crops. When wheat was at ten shillings the
+bushel, all went well; let it fall a quarter, and you had general
+bankruptcy staring you in the face. Mr. William Peabody was'nt at the
+pains to deliver his opinion, but he was satisfied, in his secret soul,
+that it lay in the increase of new houses, or the proper supply of
+calicoes--he had'nt made up his mind which. Presently Oliver was
+troubled again in reference to the supply of gold in the world--whether
+there was enough to do business with; he also had some things to say
+(which he had out of a great speech in Congress) about bullion and rates
+of exchange, but nobody understood him.
+
+"By the way," he added, "Mrs. Carrack's son Tiffany is gone to the Gold
+Region. From what he writes to me I think he'll cut a very great figure
+in that country."
+
+"An exceedingly fine, talented young man," said the merchant, who had,
+then, sundry sums on loan from his mother.
+
+"In any point of view, in which you regard it," continued Oliver, "the
+gold country is an important acquisition."
+
+"You hav'nt the letter Tiffany wrote, with you?" interrupted the
+Captain.
+
+"I think I have," was the answer. "I brought it, supposing you might
+like to look at it. Shall I read it?"
+
+There was no objection--the letter was read--in which Mr. Tiffany
+Carrack professed his weariness of civilized life--spoke keenly of
+misspent hours--a determination to rally and do something important,
+intimating that that was a great country for enterprising young men,
+and, in a familiar phrase, closed with a settled resolution to do or
+die.
+
+"I have a letter to the same effect," said the Captain.
+
+"And so have I," said William Peabody, "word for word."
+
+"He means to do something very grand," said the Captain. Something very
+grand--the women all agreed--for Mr. Tiffany Carrack was a nice young
+man, and had a prospect of inheriting a hundred thousand dollars, to say
+nothing of the large sums he was to bring from the Gold Regions. It was
+evident to all that he was going into the business with a rush. They, of
+course, would'nt see Mr. Tiffany Carrack at this Thanksgiving
+gathering--he had better business on hand--Mr. Tiffany Carrack was
+clearly the promising young man of the family, and was carrying the
+fortunes of the Peabodys into the remotest quarters of the land.
+
+"In a word," said Mr. Oliver Peabody, developing the Declaration of
+Independence on his pocket-handkerchief. "He is going to do wonders in
+every point of view. He'll carry the principles of Free Government
+everywhere!"
+
+The consideration of the extraordinary talents and enterprise of the son
+imparted a new interest to the question of the coming of Mrs. Carrack;
+which was rediscussed in all its bearings; and it was almost unanimously
+concluded--that, one day now only intervening to Thanksgiving--it was
+too late to look for her. There had been a general disposition, secretly
+opposed only by Mrs. Jane Peabody, to yield to that fashionable person
+the best bed-chamber, which was always accounted a great prize and
+distinguished honor among the family. But now there was scarcely any
+need of reserving it longer--and who was to have it? Alas! that is a
+question often raised in rural households, often shakes them to the very
+base, and spreads through whole families a bitterness and strength and
+length of strife, which frequently ends only with life itself.
+
+To bring the matter to an issue, various whispered conversations were
+held in the small room, lying next to the sitting-room, at first
+between Mrs. Margaret Peabody and Mopsey, to which one by one were
+summoned, Mrs. Jane Peabody, the Captain's wife, and Mrs. Hannah
+Peabody. The more it was discussed the farther off seemed any reasonable
+conclusion. When one arrangement was proposed, various faces of the
+group grew dark and sour; when another, other faces blackened and
+elongated; tongues, too, wagged faster every minute, and at length grew
+to such a hubbub as to call old Sylvester away from his Bible and bring
+him to the door to learn what turmoil it was that at this quiet hour
+disturbed the peace of the Peabodys. He was not long in discovering the
+ground of battle, and even as in old pictures Adam is shown walking
+calmly in Eden among the raging beasts of all degrees and kinds, the old
+patriarch came forward among the women of the Peabody family--"My
+children," he said, "should dwell in peace for the short stay allotted
+them on earth. Why make a difference about so small a matter as a
+lodging-place--they are all good and healthful rooms. I have seen the
+day when camping on the wet grounds and morasses I would have held any
+one of them to be a palace-chamber. The back chamber, my child," he
+continued, addressing the Captain's wife, "looks out on the orchard,
+where you always love to walk; the white room, Hannah, towards your
+father's house; and Jane, you cannot object to the front chamber which
+is large, well-furnished, and has the best of the sunrise. The Son of
+Man, my children, had not where to lay his head, and shall we who are
+but snails and worms, compared with his glory and goodness, presume to
+exalt ourselves, where he was abased."
+
+The old patriarch wished them a good night, and with the departure of
+his white locks gleaming as he walked away, as though it had been the
+gentle radiance of the moon stilling the tumult of the waters, they each
+quietly retired, and without a further murmur, to the chambers assigned
+them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTH.
+
+THE CHILDREN.
+
+
+There was no question where the children were to lodge, for there had
+been allotted to them from time immemorial, ever since children were
+known in the Peabody family, a great rambling upper chamber, with beds
+in the corners, where they were always bestowed as soon after dark as
+they could be convoyed thither under direction of Mopsey and the
+mistress of the household. This was not always--in truth it was
+rarely--easy of achievement, and cost the shuffling black servant at
+least half an hour of diligent search and struggling persuasion to bring
+them in from the various strayings, escapes, and lurking-places, where
+they shirked to gain an extra half-hour of freedom.
+
+To the children, however darker humors might work and sadden among the
+grown people, (for whatever hue rose-favored writers may choose to throw
+over scenes and times of festivity, the passions of character are always
+busy, in holiday and hall, as well as in the strifes of the world,) to
+the Peabody children this was thanksgiving time indeed--it was
+thanksgiving in the house, it was thanksgiving in the orchard, climbing
+trees; it was thanksgiving in the barn, tumbling in the hay, in the
+lane. It was thanksgiving, too, with the jovial Captain, a grown-up boy,
+heading their sports and allowing the country as he did, little rest or
+peace of mind wherever he lead the revel; it was not four-and-twenty
+hours that he had been at the quiet homestead before the mill was set
+a-running, the chestnut-trees shaken, the pigeons fired into, a new bell
+of greater compass put upon the brindle cow, the blacksmith's anvil at
+the corner of the road set a-dinging, fresh weather-cocks clapped upon
+the barn, corn-crib, stable, and out-house, the sheep let out of the
+little barn, all the boats of the neighborhood launched upon the pond.
+With night, darkness closed upon wild frolic; bed-time came, and
+thanksgiving had a pause; a pause only, for Mopsey's dark head, with its
+broad-bordered white cap, was no sooner withdrawn and the door firmly
+shut, than thanksgiving began afresh, as though there had been no such
+thing all day long, and they were now just setting out. For half a
+minute after Mopsey's disappearance they were all nicely tucked in as
+she had left them--straight out--with their heads each square on its
+pillow; then, as if by a silent understanding, all heads popped up like
+so many frisking fish. They darted from bed and commenced in the middle
+of the chamber, a great pillow-fight amicable and hurtless, but
+furiously waged, till the approach of a broad footstep sent them
+scampering back to their couches, mum as mice. Mopsey, well aware of
+these frisks, tarried till they were blown over, in her own chamber hard
+by, a dark room, mysterious to the fancy of the children, with spinning
+wheels, dried gourd-shells hung against the wall, a lady's
+riding-saddle, now out of use this many a day, and all the odds and ends
+of an ancient farm-house stored in heaps and strings about.
+
+It was only at last by going aloft and moving a trap in the ceiling,
+which was connected in tradition with the appearance of a ghost, that
+they were at length fairly sobered down and kept in bed, when Mopsey,
+looking in for the last time, knew that it was safe to go below. They
+had something left even then, and kept up a talk from bed to bed, for a
+good long hour more, at least.
+
+"What do you think of the turkey, Bill?" began Master Robert Peabody,
+the flat-featured, rising from his pillow like a homely porpoise.
+
+"I don't know," Peabody Junior answered, "I don't care for turkeys."
+
+Little Sam Peabody, the master of the turkey, took this very much to
+heart.
+
+"I think he's a very fine one," continued Master Robert, "twice as big
+as last year's."
+
+"I'm very glad to hear you say that, Cousin Robert," said little Sam
+Peabody, turning over toward the quarter whence the voice of
+encouragement came.
+
+"As fine a turkey as I've ever seen," Robert went on. "When do they kill
+him?"
+
+Little Sam struggled a little with himself, and answered feebly,
+"To-morrow."
+
+There was silence for several minutes, broken presently by Peabody
+Junior, fixing his pillow, and saying "Boys, I'm going to sleep."
+
+Allowing some few minutes for this to take effect, Master Robert called
+across the chamber to little Sam, "I wonder why Aunt Hannah wears that
+old green shade on her face?"
+
+"Pray don't say anything about that," little Sam answered, "Cousin don't
+like to hear about that!"
+
+Master Robert--rather a blunt young gentleman--is not to be baffled so
+easily.
+
+"I say, Bill, why does your mother wear that green patch over her eye?"
+he called out.
+
+There was no answer; he called again in a louder key.
+
+"Hush!" whispered Peabody Junior, who was not asleep, but only thinking
+of it, in a tone of fear, "I don't know."
+
+"Is the eye gone?" Robert asked again, bent on satisfaction of some
+kind.
+
+"I don't know," was the whispered answer again. "Don't ask me anything
+about it."
+
+"I'm afraid Aunt Hannah's not happy," suggested little Sam, timidly.
+
+"Pr'aps she is'nt, Sam," Peabody Junior answered.
+
+"What is the reason," continued little Sam, "I always liked her."
+
+"Don't know," was all Peabody Junior had to reply.
+
+"Did you ever see that other eye? Bill," asked the blunt young
+gentleman, whose head was still running on the green shade.
+
+"Oh, go to sleep, will you, Nosey," cried Peabody Junior. "If you don't
+leave me alone I'll get up and wollop you."
+
+The flat-featured disappeared with his porpoise face under the
+bed-clothes and breathed hard, but kept close; and when he fell asleep
+he dreamed of dragons and green umbrellas all night, at a fearful rate.
+
+"I would'nt be angry, Cousin," said little Sam, when the porpoise gave
+token that he was hardbound in slumber. "He don't mean to hurt your
+feelings, I don't believe."
+
+"Pr'aps he don't," Peabody Junior rejoined. "What could I tell him, if I
+wanted to; all I know is, mother has worn the shade ever since I can
+recollect anything. I think sometimes I can remember she used to have it
+on as far back as when I was at the breast, a very little child, and
+that I used to try and snatch it away--which always made her very sad."
+
+"Don't she ever take it away?" asked little Sam.
+
+"I never saw it off in all my life; nor can I tell you whether my dear
+mother has one eye or two. I know she never likes to have any one look
+at it. It makes her melancholy at once; nurse used to tell me there was
+a mystery about it--but she would never tell me any more. It always
+scares father when she turns that side of her face on him, that I've
+noticed; and he always at home sits on the other side of the table from
+it."
+
+"I wouldn't think any more about it to-night, Cousin," said little Sam.
+"I know it makes you unhappy from your voice. Don't you miss some one
+to-night that used to keep us awake with telling pleasant stories?"
+
+"I do," answered Peabody Junior. "I'm thinking of him now. I wish Cousin
+Elbridge was back again."
+
+"You know why he isn't?"
+
+"Father says it's because he's a bad young man."
+
+"And do you believe it, William?"
+
+"I'm afraid he is--for father always says so."
+
+A gentle figure had quietly opened the chamber-door, and stood listening
+with breathless attention to the discourse of the two children.
+
+"You wait and see," continued little Sam firmly, "I'm sure he'll come
+back--and before long."
+
+"What makes you think so?" William asked. "I'm sure I hope he will."
+
+"Because the red rooster," answered little Sam, "crowed yesterday
+morning for the first time since he went away, and the red rooster knows
+more than anybody about this farm except old grandfather."
+
+Thinking how that could be, Peabody Junior fell asleep; and little Sam,
+sure to dream of his absent brother, shortly followed after. The gentle
+figure of Miriam Haven glided into the chamber, to the bed-side of
+little Sam, and watching his calm, innocent features--which were held to
+greatly resemble those of the absent Elbridge--with tears in her eyes,
+she breathed a blessing from her very heart on the dear child who had
+faith in the absent one. "A blessing!" such was her humble wish as she
+returned to her chamber and laid her fair head on the pillow, "a
+blessing on such as believe in us when we are in trouble and poverty,
+out of favor with the world, when our good name is doubted, and when the
+current running sharply against, might overwhelm us, were not one or two
+kind hands put forth to save us from utter ruin and abandonment!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTH.
+
+THE FASHIONABLE LADY AND HER SON.
+
+
+All the next day, being the Wednesday before thanksgiving, was alive and
+busy with the various preparations for the great festival, now held to
+be a sacred holiday throughout this wide-spread union. The lark had no
+sooner called morning in the meadow than Mopsey, who seemed to regard
+herself as having the entire weight of the occasion on her single
+shoulders, slipped from bed, hurried to the garden, and taking a last
+look at the great pumpkin as it lay in all its golden glory, severed the
+vine at a stroke and trundled it with her own arms, (she saw with a
+smile of pity the poor brown mouse skulking off, like a little pirate as
+he was, disappointed of his prize,) in at the back-door. The Peabodys
+were gathering for breakfast, and coming forward, stood at either side
+of the entrance regarding the pumpkin with profound interest. It fairly
+shook the house as it rolled in upon the kitchen floor.
+
+When little Sam, who had lingered in bed beyond the others, with
+pleasant dreams, came down stairs, he was met by young William Peabody.
+
+"What do you think, Sam?" said Peabody Junior, smiling.
+
+"I suppose Aunt Carrack has come," Sam answered. "It's nothing to me if
+she has."
+
+"No, that isn't it.--Turkey's dead!"
+
+Little Sam dropped a tear, and went away by himself to walk in the
+garden. Little Sam took no breakfast that morning.
+
+Every window in the house was thrown wide open to begin with; every
+chair walked out of its place; the new broom which Miriam had gathered
+with a song, was used for the first time freely on every floor, in every
+nook and corner; then the new broom was carried away, and locked in a
+closet like a conjuror who had wrought his spell and need not appear
+again till some other magic was to be performed. All the chairs were set
+soberly and steadily against the wall, the windows were closed, and a
+sacred shade thrown over the house against the approaching festival. The
+key was turned in the lock of the old parlor, which was to have no
+company (save the tall old clock talking all alone in the corner to
+himself) till to-morrow.
+
+And so the day sailed on, like a dainty boat with silent oar on a
+calm-flowing stream, to evening, when, as though it had been a new-born
+meteor or great will-o'-the-wisp, there appeared on the edge of the
+twilight, along the distant horizon, a silvery glitter, which, drawing
+nearer and nearer, presently disclosed a servant in a shining band
+mounted on a great coach, with horses in burnished harness; with
+champing speed, which it seemed must have borne it far beyond, it came
+to in a moment at the very gate of the homestead, as at the striking of
+a clock. A gentleman in bearded lip, in high polish of hat, chains and
+boots, emerged, (the door being opened by a stripling also in a banded
+hat, who leaped from behind,) followed by a lady in a gown of glossy
+silk and a yellow feather, waving in the partial darkness from her hat.
+Such wonder and astonishment as seized on the Peabodys, who looked on it
+from the balcony, no man can describe.
+
+Angels have descended before now and walked upon the earth--giants have
+been at some time or other seen strutting about--ghosts appear
+occasionally in the neighborhood of old farm-houses, but neither ghost,
+giant, nor angel had such a welcome of uplifted hands and staring eyes
+as encountered Mrs. Carrack and her son Tiffany, when they, in the body
+entered in at the gate of the old Peabody mansion at that time. There
+was but one person in the company, old Sylvester perhaps excepted, who
+seemed to have his wits about him, and that was the red rooster who,
+sitting on the wall near the gate when Mr. Tiffany Carrack pushed it
+open, cocked his eye smartly on him, and darted sharply at his white
+hand, with its glittering jewel as he laid it on the gate.
+
+"Nancy," said old Sylvester, addressing her with extended grasp, and a
+pleasant smile of welcome on his brow, "we had given up looking for
+you."
+
+Was there ever such a rash old man! "Nancy!" as though she had been a
+common person he was speaking to.
+
+Mrs. Carrack, who was a short woman, stiff and stern, tossing her
+feather, gave the tips of her fingers to the patriarch, and ordering in
+a huge leathern trunk all over brass nails and capital C's, condescended
+to enter into the house. In spite of all resolutions and persuasions to
+the contrary the door of the best parlor unlocked before her grandeur
+of demeanor, and she took possession as though she had not the slightest
+connection with the other members of the Peabody family, nor the
+remotest interest in the common sitting-room without. Mr. Tiffany
+Carrack, with patent shanks to his boots which sprang him into the air
+as he walked, corsets to brace his body in, new-fangled straps to keep
+him down, a patent collar of a peculiar invention, to hold his head
+aloft, moving as it were under the convoy of a company of invisible
+influences, deriving all his motions from the shoe-maker, stay-maker,
+tailor and linen-draper, who originally wound him up and set him
+a-going, for whose sole convenience he lives, having withal, by way of
+paint to his ashy countenance, a couple of little conch-shell tufts,
+tawny-yellow, (that being the latest to be had at the perfumer's,) on
+his upper lip; the representative and embodiment of all the latest new
+improvements, patents, and contrivances in apparel, Mr. Tiffany Carrack
+followed his excellent mother.
+
+"Why, Tiffany," said old Sylvester, who notwithstanding the immensity of
+these people, calmly pursued his old course, "we all thought you were in
+California."
+
+The family were gathered around and awaited Mr. Tiffany Carrack's answer
+with a good deal of curiosity.
+
+"That was all a delusion, sir," he replied, plucking at his little crop
+of yellow tufts,--"a horrible delusion. I had some thought of that kind
+in my mind, in fact I had got as far south as New Orleans, when I met a
+seedy fellow who told me that the natives had rebelled and wouldn't work
+any more; so I found if I would get any of the precious, I must dig with
+a shovel with my own dear digits; of course I turned back in disgust,
+and here I am as good as new--Jehoshaphat!"
+
+It was well that Mr. Tiffany had a fashion of emphasizing his discourse
+with a reference to this ancient person, whom he supposed to have been
+an exquisite of the first water, which happily furnished a cover under
+which the entire Peabody family exploded with laughter at Mr. Carrack's
+announcement of the sudden termination of his grand expedition to the
+Gold Region. Without an exception they all went off in an enormous
+burst, the Captain, little Sam, and Mopsey leading.
+
+"Every word true, 'pon my honor," repeated Mr. Carrack.
+
+The great burst was renewed.
+
+"It was a capital idea, wasn't it?" he said again, supposing he had made
+a great hit.
+
+The explosion for the third time, but softened a little by pity in the
+female section of the chorus.
+
+Mrs. Carrack had sat stately and aloof, with an inkling in her brain
+that all this mirthful tumult was not entirely in the nature of a
+complimentary tribute to her son.
+
+"I think," she said, with haughty severity of aspect, "my son was
+perfectly right. It was a sinful and a wicked adventure at the best, as
+the Reverend Strawbery Hyson clearly showed from the fourth Revelations,
+in his last annual discourse to the young ladies of the church."
+
+"He did, so he did," said Mr. Tiffany, stroking his chin, "I remember
+perfectly: it was very prettily stated by Hyson."
+
+"The Reverend Strawbery Hyson," said Mrs. Carrack. "Always give that
+excellent man his full title. What would you say, my son, if he should
+appear in the streets without his black coat and white cravat? Would you
+have any confidence in his preaching after that?"
+
+"Next to myself," answered Mr. Tiffany, "I think our parson's the
+best-dressed man in Boston."
+
+"He should be, as an example," said Mrs. Carrack. "He has a very genteel
+congregation."
+
+Old Sylvester, who had on at that moment an old brown coat and a frayed
+black ribbon for a neck-cloth, ordered Mopsey to send the two best pies
+in the house immediately to the negroes in the Hills. Mrs. Carrack
+smiled loftily, and drew from her pocket an elegant small silver vial of
+the pure otto of rose, and applied it to her nostrils as though
+something disagreeable had just struck upon the air and tainted it.
+
+"By the way," said Mr. Tiffany Carrack, adjusting his shirt collar, "how
+is my little friend Miriam?"
+
+"Melancholy!" was the only answer any one had to make.
+
+"So I thought," pursued Mr. Carrack, rolling his eyes and heaving an
+infant sigh from his bosom. "Poor thing, no wonder, if she thought I was
+gone away so far. She shall be comforted."
+
+Mopsey looking in at this moment, gave the summons to tea, which was
+answered by Mr. Tiffany Carrack's offering his arm, impressively, to his
+excellent mother, and leading the way to the table.
+
+It was observed, that in his progress to the tea-table, Mr. Tiffany
+adopted a tottering and uncertain step, indicating a dilapidated old
+age, only kept together by the clothes he wore, which was altogether
+unintelligible to the Peabody family, seeing that Mr. Carrack was in the
+very prime of youth, till Mrs. Carrack remarked, with an affectionate
+smile of motherly pride:
+
+"You remind me more and more every day, Tiff, of that dear delightful
+old Baden-Baden."
+
+"I wish the glorious old fellow would come over to me for a short lark,"
+rejoined Mr. Tiffany. "But he couldn't live here long; there's nothing
+old here."
+
+"Who's Baden Baden?" asked Sylvester.
+
+"Only a prince of my acquaintance on the other side of the water, and a
+devilish clever fellow. But he could'nt stand it here--I'm
+afraid--everything's so new."
+
+"I'm rather old," suggested Sylvester, smiling on the young man.
+
+"So you are, by Jove--But that aint the thing I want exactly; I want an
+old castle or two, and a donjon-keep, and that sort of thing.--You
+understand."
+
+"Something," suggested the grandfather, "in the style of the old
+revolutionary fort on Fort Hill?"
+
+"No--no--you don't take exactly. I mean something more in the
+antique--something or other, you see"--here he began twirling his
+forefinger in the air and sketching an amorphous phantom of some sort,
+of an altogether unattainable character, "in a word--Jehoshaphat!"
+
+The moment the eye of Mrs. Carrack fell upon the blue and white
+crockery, the pewter plates which had been in use time out of mind in
+the family, and the plain knives and forks of steel, she cast on her son
+a significant glance of mingled surprise and contempt. "Thomas," she
+said, standing before the place assigned to her, her son doing the same,
+"the napkins!"
+
+The napkins were brought from a great basket which had accompanied the
+leathern trunk.
+
+"The other things!"
+
+The other things, consisting of china plates, cups and saucers, and
+knives and forks of silver for two, were duly laid--Mrs. Carrack and her
+son having kept the rest of the family waiting the saying of grace by
+old Sylvester, were good enough to be seated at the old farmer's (Mrs.
+Carrack's father's) board.
+
+When old Sylvester unclosed his eyes from the delivery of thanks, he
+discovered at the back of Mrs. Carrack and her son's chairs, the two
+city servants in livery, with their short cut hair and embroidered coats
+of the fashion of those worn in English farces on the stage, standing
+erect and without the motion of a muscle. There is not a doubt but that
+old Sylvester Peabody was a good deal astonished, although he gave no
+utterance to his feelings. But when the two young men in livery began to
+dive in here and there about the table, snapping up the dishes in
+exclusive service on Mrs. Carrack and Mr. Tiffany Carrack, he could
+remain silent no longer.
+
+"Boys," he said, addressing himself to the two fine personages in
+question, "you will oblige me by going into the yard and chopping wood
+till we are done supper. We shall need all you can split in an hour to
+bake the pies with."
+
+Thunderstruck, as though a bolt had smitten them individually in the
+head, this direction, delivered in a quiet voice of command not to be
+resisted, sent the two servants forth at the back-door. They were no
+sooner out of view than they addressed each other almost at the same
+moment, "My eyes! did you ever see such a queer old fellow as that!"
+
+When Mrs. Carrack and her son turned, and found that the two young
+gentlemen in livery had actually vanished, the lady smiled a delicate
+smile of gentle scorn, and Mr. Tiffany, regarding his aged grandfather
+steadily, merely remarked, in a tone of most friendly and familiar
+condescension, "Baden-Baden wouldn't have done such a thing!"
+
+The overpowering grandeur of the fashionable lady chilled the household,
+and there was little conversation till she addressed the widow Margaret.
+
+"Hadn't you a grown up son, Mrs. Peabody?"
+
+The widow was silent. Presently Mr. Carrack renewed the discourse.
+
+"By the by," he said, "I thought I saw that son of yours--wasn't his
+name Elbridge, or something of that sort?--in New Orleans."
+
+"Did you speak to him?" asked the Captain, flushing a little in the
+face.
+
+"I observed he was a good deal out at elbows," Mr. Carrack answered,
+"and it was broad day-light, in one of the fashionable streets."
+
+"Is that all you have to tell us of your cousin?" old Sylvester
+inquired.
+
+"He is my cousin--much obliged for the information. I had almost
+forgotten that! Why ye-es--I couldn't help seeing that he went into a
+miserable broken-down house in a by-street--but had to get my moustache
+oiled for a Creole ball that evening, and couldn't be reasonably
+expected to follow him, could I?--Jehoshaphat!"
+
+If the human countenance, by reason of its clouding up in gusts of
+pitchy blackness acquired the power, like darkening skies, of
+discharging thunderbolts, it would have been, I am sure, a hot and heavy
+one which Mopsey, blackening and blazing, had delivered, as she departed
+to the kitchen, lowering upon Mr. Tiffany Carrack,--"'_He thought he saw
+her son Elbridge!_' The vagabone has no more feeling nor de bottom of a
+stone jug."
+
+The meal over, the evening wore on in friendly chat of old Thanksgiving
+times--of neighbors and early family histories; each one in turn
+launching, so to speak, a little boat upon the current, freighted deep
+with many precious stores of old-time remembrance; Mrs. Carrack sitting
+alone as an iceberg in the very midst of the waters, melting not once,
+nor contributing a drop or trickle to the friendly flow. And when
+bed-time came again, how clearly was it shown, that there is nothing
+certain in this changeful world. By some sudden and unforeseen
+interruption, nations lose power, communities are shattered, households
+well-constructed fall in pieces at a breath.
+
+Her sudden appearance in their midst, compelled another consultation to
+be taken as to the disposal of the great Mrs. Carrack for the night. It
+would never answer to put that grand person in any secondary lodging; so
+all the old arrangements were of necessity broken up; the best bed-room
+allotted to her; and that her gentle nerves might not be afflicted, the
+old clock, which adjoined her sleeping-chamber, and which had occupied
+his corner and told the time for the Peabodys for better than a hundred
+years from the same spot, was instantly silenced, as impertinent. The
+Captain's high-actioned white horse, which had enjoyed the privilege of
+roaming unmolested about the house, was led away like an unhappy
+convict, and stabled in the barn; and to complete the arrangements, the
+two servants in livery were put on guard near her window, to drive off
+the geese, turkeys, and other talkative birds of the night, that she
+might sleep without the slightest disturbance from that noisy old
+creature, Nature.
+
+Mr. Tiffany Carrack, while these delicate preparations were in progress,
+was evidently agitated with some extraordinary design, in which Miriam
+Haven was bearing a part; for, although he did not address a word to
+that young maiden, he was as busy as his imitation of the antiquity of
+Baden-Baden would allow him, ogling, grimacing, and plucking his tawny
+beard at her every minute in the most astonishing manner, closely
+watched by Mopsey, the Captain, and old Sylvester, who strongly
+suspected the young man of being affected in his wits.
+
+It was very clear that it was this same Mr. Tiffany Carrack who had
+entered in at the door of the sleeping chamber assigned to that
+gentleman, but who would have ventured to assert that the figure, which,
+somewhere about the middle of the night, emerged from the window of the
+chamber in question, in yellow slippers, red silk cloak trimmed with
+gold, fez cap, and white muslin turban, and, with folded arms, began
+pacing up and down under the casement of Miriam Haven, after the manner
+of singers at the opera, preparatory to beginning, was the same
+Tiffany? And yet, when he returned again, and holding his face up to the
+moon, which was shining at a convenient angle over the edge of the
+house, the tawny tuft clearly identified it as Tiffany and no one else.
+And yet, as if to further confuse all recognition, what sound is that
+which breaks from his throat, articulating:--
+
+    "Dearest, awake--you need not fear;
+    For he--for he--your Troubadour is here!"
+
+The summons passed for some time unanswered, till Mopsey, from the
+little end-window of her lodgement, presented her head in a flaming red
+and yellow handkerchief, and rolled her eyes about to discover the
+source of the tumult; scowling in the belief that it must be no other
+than "one of dem Brundages come to carry off in de dead of night de
+Peabody punkin."
+
+A gentle conviction was dawning in the brain of Mr. Carrack that this
+was the fair Miriam happily responding to his challenge in the
+appropriate character and costume of a Moorish Princess; when, as he
+began to roar again, still more violent and furious in his chanting, the
+black head opened and demanded, "what you want dere?" followed by an
+extraordinary shower of gourd-shells, which, crashing upon his sconce,
+with a distinct shatter for each shell, could not, for a moment, be
+mistaken for flowers, signet-rings, or any other ordinarily recognised
+love-tokens.
+
+It immediately occurred to Mr. Carrack, with the suddenness of
+inspiration, that he had better return to his chamber and go to bed; a
+design which was checked, as he proceeded in that direction, by the
+alarming apparition of a great body with a fire-lock thrust out of the
+window of the apartment, next to his own, occupied by the Captain,
+presented directly at his head, with a cry "Avast, there!" and a
+movement on the part of the body, to follow the gun out at the window.
+Fearfully harassed in that quarter, Mr. Carrack wheeled rapidly about,
+encountering as he turned, the two servants in livery, still making the
+circuit of the homestead--who in alarm of their lives from this singular
+figure in the red cloak, fled into the fields and lurked in an old
+out-house till daylight. As these scampered away before him, Mr.
+Tiffany, to relieve himself of the apparition of the gun, would have
+turned the corner of the house; when Mopsey appeared, wildly
+gesticulating, with a great brush-broom reared aloft, and threatening
+instant ruin to his person.
+
+From this double peril, what but the happiest genius could have
+suggested to Mr. Tiffany, an instant and straightforward flight from the
+house; in which he immediately engaged, making up the road--the Captain
+with his musket, and Mopsey with her hearth-broom, close at his heels.
+If Mr. Tiffany Carrack had promptly employed his undoubted resources of
+youth and activity, his escape from the necessity of disclosure or
+surrender had been perhaps easy; but it so happened that his progress
+was a good deal baffled by the conflict constantly kept up in his brain,
+between the desire to use his legs in the natural manner, and to
+preserve that antique pace of tottering gentility which he had acquired
+from that devilish fine old fellow, the Prince of Baden-Baden, so that
+at one moment he was in the very hands of the enemy, and at the next,
+flying like an antelope in the distance. The gun, constantly following
+him with a loud threat, from the Captain, seemed, in the moonlight, like
+a great finger perpetually pointing at his head; till at last it became
+altogether too dreadful to bear, and making up the road toward
+Brundage's, which still further inflamed the pursuit, in sheer
+exhaustion he rushed through an open gate into a neighboring tan-yard,
+and took refuge in the old bark-mill. There was but a moment's rest
+allowed him even here, for Mopsey and the Captain, furiously threatening
+all sorts of death and destruction, presently rushed in at the door, and
+sent him scampering about the ring like a distracted colt, in his first
+day's service; a game of short duration, for the Captain and Mopsey,
+closing in upon him from opposite directions compelled him to retreat
+again into the open air. How much longer the chase might have continued,
+it were hard to tell, for as his pursuers made after him, Mr. Tiffany
+Carrack suddenly disappeared, like a melted snow-flake, from the surface
+of the earth. In his confused state he had tumbled into a vat,
+fortunately without the observation of the inexorable enemy, although as
+he clung to the side the Captain discharged his musket directly over his
+head.
+
+"I guess that's done his business," said the Captain. "We'll come and
+look for the body in the morning."
+
+Now it is strongly suspected that both Mopsey and the Captain knew well
+enough all along that this was Mr. Tiffany Carrack they had been
+pursuing, and that as they watched him from the distance emerge from the
+vat, return to the homestead, and skulk, dripping in, like a rat of
+outlandish breed, at his chamber-window, they were amply avenged: the
+Captain, for the freedom with which the city-exquisite had treated the
+Peabody family, especially the good old grandfather, and Mopsey, for the
+slighting manner in which he had referred to absent young Mas'r
+Elbridge.
+
+When all was peace again within the homestead, there was one who still
+watched the night, and ignorant of the nature of this strange tumult,
+trembled as at the approach of a long-wished for happiness. It was
+Miriam, the orphan dependent, who now sat by the midnight casement. Oh,
+who of living men can tell how that young heart yearned at the
+thought--the hope--the thrilling momentary belief--that this was her
+absent lover happily returning?
+
+In the wide darkness of the lonesome night, which was it shone brightest
+and with purest lustre, in view of the all-seeing Mover of the
+Heavens--the stars glittering far away in space, in all their lofty
+glory, or the timid eyes of that simple maiden, wet with the dew of
+youth, and bright with the pure hope of honest love! When all was still
+again, and no Elbridge's voice was heard, no form of absent Elbridge
+there to cheer her, oh, who can tell how near to breaking, in its silent
+agony, was that young heart, and with what tremblings of solicitude and
+fear, the patient Miriam waited for the friendly light to open the
+golden-gate of dawn upon another morrow!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTH.
+
+THE THANKSGIVING SERMON.
+
+
+The morning of the day of Thanksgiving came calm, clear and beautiful. A
+stillness, as of heaven and not of earth, ruled the wide landscape. The
+Indian summer, which had been as a gentle mist or veil upon the beauty
+of the time, had gone away a little--retired, as it were, into the hills
+and back country, to allow the undimmed heaven to shine down upon the
+happy festival of families and nations. The cattle stood still in the
+fields without a low; the trees were quiet as in friendly recognition of
+the spirit of the hour; no reaper's hook or mower's scythe glanced in
+the meadow, no rumbling wain was on the road. The birds alone, as being
+more nearly akin to the feeling of the scene, warbled in the boughs.
+
+But out of the silent gloom of the mist there sprang as by magic, a
+lovely illumination which lit the country far and wide, as with a
+thousand varicolored lamps. As a maiden who has tarried in her chamber,
+some hour the least expected appears before us, apparelled in all the
+pomp and hue of brilliant beauty, the fair country, flushed with
+innumerable tints of the changed autumn-trees, glided forth upon the
+Indian summer scene, and taught that when kindly nature seems all
+foregone and spent, she can rise from her couch fresher and more radiant
+than in her very prime.
+
+What wonder if with the peep of dawn the children leaped from bed, eager
+to have on their new clothes reserved for the day, and by times appeared
+before old Sylvester in proud array of little hats, new-brightened shoes
+and shining locks, span new as though they had just come from the mint;
+anxious to have his grandfatherly approval of their comeliness? Shortly
+after, the horses caught in the distant pastures, the Captain and Farmer
+Oliver having charge of them, were brought in and tied under the trees
+in the door-yard.
+
+Then, breakfast being early dispatched, there was a mighty running to
+and fro of the grown people through the house, dresses hurried from old
+clothes-presses and closets, a loud demand on every hand for pins, of
+which there seemed to be (as there always is on such occasions) a great
+lack. The horses were put to Mrs. Carrack's coach, the Captain's gig,
+the old house-wagon, with breathless expectation on the part of the
+children; and in brief, after bustling preparation and incessant
+summoning of one member of the family and another from the different
+parts of the house, all being at last ready and in their seats, the
+Peabodys set forth for the Thanksgiving Sermon at the country
+Meeting-house, a couple of miles away.
+
+The Captain took the lead with his wife and Peabody Junior somewhere and
+somehow between them, followed by the wagon with old Sylvester, still
+proud of his dexterity as a driver, Oliver, much pleased with the
+popular character of the conveyance and wife, with young Robert; William
+Peabody and wife; little Sam riding between his grandfather's legs in
+front, and allowed to hold the end of the reins. Slowly and in great
+state, after all rolled Mrs. Carrack's coach with herself and son
+within, and footman and coachman without.
+
+Chanticleer, too, clear of eye and bright of wing, walked the garden
+wall, carried his head up, and acted as if he had also put on his
+thanksgiving suit and expected to take the road presently, accompany the
+family, and join his voice with theirs at the little meeting-house.
+
+Although the Captain, with his high-actioned white horse kept out of
+eye-shot ahead, it was Mrs. Carrack's fine carriage that had the triumph
+of the road to itself, for as it rolled glittering on, the simple
+country people, belated in their own preparations, or tarrying at home
+to provide the dinner, ran to the windows in wonder and admiration. The
+plain wagons, bent in the same direction, turned out of the path and
+gave the great coach the better half of the way, staring a broadside as
+it passed.
+
+And when the party reached the little meeting-house, what a peace hung
+about it! The air seemed softer, the sunshine brighter, there, as it
+stood in humble silence among the tall trees which waved with a gentle
+murmur before its windows. The people, as they arrived, glided
+noiselessly in, in their neat dresses and looks of decent devotion;
+others as they came made fast their horses under the sheds and trees
+about--most of them in wagons and plain chaises, brightened into all of
+beauty they were capable of, by a severe attention to the harness and
+mountings; others--these were a few bachelors and striplings--trotted in
+quietly on horseback. Before service a few of the old farmers lingered
+outside discussing the late crops or inquiring after each other's
+families, who presently went within, summoning from the grassy
+churchyard--which lay next to the meeting house--the children who were
+loitering there reading the grave-stones.
+
+When the Captain arrived with his gig, under such extraordinary headway
+that he was near driving across the grave-yard into the next county--the
+country people scampered aside, like scared fowl; Mrs. Carrack's great
+coach, with its liveried outriders, set them staring as if they did not
+or could not believe their own eyes. With the arrival of old Sylvester
+they re-gathered, and, almost in a body, proffered their aid to hold the
+horses--to help the old Patriarch to the ground--in a word, to show
+their regard and affection in every way in their power. He tarried but a
+moment at the door, to speak a word with one or two of the oldest of his
+neighbors, and passed in, followed by all of his family save Mrs.
+Carrack and her son, who under color of hunting up the grave of some
+old relation, delay in order to make their appearance in the
+meeting-house by themselves, and independently of the Peabody
+connection.
+
+Will you pardon me, reader, if I fail to tell you whether this house of
+worship was of the Methodist, Episcopal, or Baptist creed, whether it
+had a chancel or altar, or painted windows? Whether the pews had doors
+to them and were cushioned or not? Whether the minister wore a gown and
+bands, or plain suit of black, or was undistinguished in his dress? Will
+it not suffice if I tell you, as the very belief of my soul, that it was
+a christian house, that there were seats for all, that things were well
+intended and decently ordered, and that with a hymn sung with such
+purity of heart that its praises naturally joined in with the chiming of
+the trees and the carols of the birds without and floated on without a
+stop to Heaven, when a meek man rose up:
+
+"Some two hundred years ago, our ancestors (he said,) finding themselves
+more comfortable in the wilderness of the new world, than they could
+have reasonably looked for, set apart a day of Thanksgiving to Almighty
+God for his manifold mercies. That day, God be praised, has been
+steadily observed throughout this happy land, by cheerful gatherings of
+families, and other festive and devotional observances, down to the
+present time. Our fathers covenanted, in the love of Christ, to cleave
+together, as brethren, however hard the brunt of fortune might be. That
+bond still continues. We may not live (he went on, in the very spirit
+and letter of the first Thanksgiving discourse ever delivered amongst
+us,) as retired hermits, each in our cell apart, nor inquire, like
+David, how liveth such a man? How is he clad? How is he fed? He is my
+brother, we are in league together, we must stand and fall by one
+another. Is his labor harder than mine? Surely I will ease him. Hath he
+no bed to lie on? I have two--I will lend him one. Hath he no apparel? I
+have two suits--I will give him one of them. Eats he coarse food, bread
+and water, and have I better? Surely we will part stakes. He is as good
+a man as I, and we are bound each to other; so that his wants must be my
+wants; his sorrows, my sorrows; his sickness my sickness; and his
+welfare my welfare; for I am as he is; such a sweet sympathy were
+excellent, comfortable, nay, heavenly, and is the only maker and
+conserver of churches and commonwealths."
+
+To such as looked upon old Sylvester there seemed a glow and halo about
+his aged brow and whitened locks, for this was the very spirit of his
+life.
+
+As though he knew the very secrets of their souls, and touched their
+very heart-strings with a gentle hand, the preacher glanced from one
+member of the Peabody household to another, as he proceeded, something
+in this manner. (For William Peabody:) do I find on this holy day that I
+love God in all his glorious universe, more than the image even of
+Liberty, which hath ensnared and enslaved the soul of many a man on the
+coin of this world? (For buxom Mrs. Jane, in her vandyke:) Do I stifle
+the vanity of good looks and comfortable circumstances under a plain
+garb? (For the jovial Captain:) Am I not over hasty in pursuit of carnal
+enjoyment? (For Mr. Oliver: who was wiping his brow with the Declaration
+of Independence,) and eager over much for the good opinion of men, when
+I should be quietly serving them without report? (For Mrs. Carrack and
+her son:) And what are pomp and fashion, but the painted signs of good
+living where there is no life? These (he continued,) are all outward,
+mere pretences to put off our duty, and the care of our souls. Yea, we
+may have churches, schools, hospitals abounding--but these are mere lath
+and mortar, if we have not also within our own hearts, a church where
+the pure worship ever goeth on, a school where the true knowledge is
+taught, a hospital, the door whereof standeth constantly open, into
+which our fellow-creatures are welcomed and where their infirmities are
+first cared for with all kindness and tenderness. If these be our
+inclinings this day, let us be reasonably thankful on this Thanksgiving
+morning. Let such as are in health be thankful for their good case; and
+such as are out of health be thankful that they are no worse. Let such
+as are rich be thankful for their wealth, (if it hath been honestly come
+by;) and let such as are poor be thankful that they have no such charge
+upon their souls. Let old folks be thankful for their wisdom in knowing
+that young folks are fools; and let young ones be thankful that they may
+live to see the time when they may use the same privilege. Let lean
+folks be thankful for their spare ribs, which are not a burthen in the
+harvest-field; fat folks may laugh at lean ones, and grow fatter every
+day. Let married folks be thankful for blessings both little and great;
+let bachelors and old maids be thankful for the privilege of kissing
+other folks' babies, and great good may it do them.
+
+With what a glow of mutual friendship the quaint preacher was warming
+the plain old meeting-house on that thanksgiving day!
+
+Finally, and to conclude, (he went on in the language of a chronicle of
+the time:)--Let no man look upon a turkey to-day, and say, 'This also is
+vanity.' What is the life of man without creature-comforts, and the
+stomach of the son of man with no aid from the tin kitchen? Despise not
+the day of small things, while there are pullets on the spit, and let
+every fowl have fair play, between the jaws of thy philosophy. Are not
+puddings made to be sliced, and pie-crust to be broken? Go thy ways,
+then, according to good sense, good cheer, good appetite, the Governor's
+proclamation, and every other good thing under the sun;--render thanks
+for all the good things of this life, and good cookery among the rest;
+eat, drink, and be merry; make not a lean laudation of the bounties of
+Providence, but let a lively gusto follow a long grace. Feast
+thankfully, and feast hopingly; feast in good will to all mankind,
+Grahamites included; feast in the full and joyous persuasion, that while
+the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, dinner-time, pudding-time,
+and supper-time, are not likely to go out of fashion;--feast with
+exulting confidence in the continuance of cooks, kitchens, and orthodox
+expounders of Scripture and the constitution in our ancient, blessed,
+and fat-sided commonwealth--feast, in short, like a good Christian,
+proving all things, relishing all things, hoping all things, expecting
+all things, and enjoying all things. Let a good stomach for dinner go
+hand in hand with a good mind for sound doctrine. Let us all be thankful
+that a gracious Providence hath furnished each and all with a wholesome
+and bountiful dinner this day; and, if there be none so furnished, let
+him now make it known, and we will instantly contribute thereto of our
+separate abundance. There are none who murmur--we all, therefore, have a
+thanksgiving dinner waiting for us; let us hie home cheerily, and in a
+becoming spirit of mirth and devotion partake thereof.
+
+The windows of the little meeting-house were up to let in the pleasant
+sunshine; and the very horses who were within hearing of his voice,
+seemed by the pricking up of their brown ears to relish and approve of
+his discourse. The Captain's city nag, as wide awake as any, seemed to
+address himself to an acquaintance of a heavy bay plougher, who stood at
+the same post, and laying their heads together for the better part of
+the sermon, they appeared to regard it, as far as they caught its
+meaning, as sound doctrine, particularly acknowledging that this was as
+fine a thanksgiving morning as they (who had been old friends and had
+spent their youth together, being in some way related, in a farm-house
+in that neighborhood) had ever known; and when they had said as much as
+this, they laughed out in very merriness of spirit, with a great winnow,
+as the happy audience came streaming forth at the meeting-house door.
+There were no cold, haughty, or distrustful faces now, as when they had
+entered in an hour ago; the genial air of the little meeting-house had
+melted away all frosts of that kind; and as they mingled under the sober
+autumn-trees, loitering for conversation, inquiring after neighbors, old
+folks whose infirmities kept them at home, the young children; they
+seemed indeed, much more a company of brethren, embarked (as sailors
+say) on a common bottom for happiness and enjoyment. The children were
+the first to set out for home through the fields on foot; Peabody the
+younger, little Sam and Robert being attended by the footman in livery,
+whom Mrs. Carrack relieved from attendance at the rear of the coach.
+
+If the quaint preacher had urged the rational enjoyment of the
+Thanksgiving cheer from the pulpit, Mopsey labored with equal zeal at
+home to have it worthy of enjoyment. At an early hour she had cleared
+decks, and taken possession of the kitchen: kindling, with dawn, a great
+fire in the oven for the pies, and another on the hearth for the turkey.
+But it was from the oven, heaping it to the top with fresh relays of dry
+wood, that she expected the Thanksgiving angel to walk in all his beauty
+and majesty. In performance of her duty, and from a sense only that
+there could be no thanksgiving without a turkey, she planted the tin
+oven on the hearth, spitted the gobbler, and from time to time, merely
+as a matter of absolute necessity, gave it a turn; but about the mouth
+of the great oven she hovered constantly, like a spirit--had her head in
+and out at the opening every other minute; and, when at last the pies
+were slided in upon the warm bottom, she lingered there regarding the
+change they were undergoing with the fond admiration with which a
+connoisseur in sunsets hangs upon the changing colors of the evening
+sky. The leisure this double duty allowed her was employed by Mopsey in
+scaring away the poultry and idle young chickens which rushed in at the
+back entrance of the kitchen in swarms, and hopped with yellow legs
+about the floor with the racket of constant falling showers of corn.
+Upon the half door opening on the front the red rooster had mounted, and
+with his head on one side observed with a knowing eye all that went
+forward; showing perhaps most interest in the turning of the spit, the
+impalement of the turkey thereon having been with him an object of
+special consideration.
+
+The highly colored picture of Warren at Bunker-Hill, writhing in his
+death-agony on one wall of the kitchen, and General Marion feasting from
+a potato, in his tent, on the other, did not in the least attract the
+attention of Mopsey. She saw nothing on the whole horizon of the glowing
+apartment but the pies and the turkey, and even for the moment neglected
+to puzzle herself, as she was accustomed to in the pauses of her daily
+labors, with the wonders and mysteries of an ancient dog-eared
+spelling-book which lay upon the smoky mantel.
+
+Meanwhile, in obedience to the spirit of the day, the widow Margaret and
+Miriam, having each diligently disposed of their separate charge in the
+preparations, making a church of the homestead, conducted a worship in
+their own simple way. Opposite to each other in the little sitting-room,
+Miriam opened the old Family Bible, and at the widow Margaret's request
+read from that chapter which gives the story of the prodigal son. It was
+with a clear and pensive voice that she read, but not without a struggle
+with herself. Where the story told that the young man had gone into a
+far country; that he had wasted his substance in riotous living; that he
+was abased to the feeding of swine; that he craved in his hunger the
+very husks; that he lamented the plenty of his father's house--a cloud
+came upon her countenance, and the simplest eye could have interpreted
+the thoughts that troubled her. And how the fair young face brightened,
+when she read that the young man resolved to arise and return to the
+house of his father; the dear encounter; the rejoicing over his return,
+and the glad proclamation, "This, my son, was dead and is alive again;
+he was lost and is found."
+
+"If he would come back even so," said the widow when the book was
+closed, "in sorrow, in poverty, in crime even, I would thank God and be
+grateful."
+
+"He is not guilty, mother," Miriam pleaded, casting her head upon the
+widow's bosom and clinging close about her neck.
+
+"I will not think that he is," Margaret answered, lifting up her head.
+"Guilty or innocent, he is my son--my son." Clasping the young orphan's
+hand, after a pause of tender silence, she gave utterance to her
+feelings in a Thanksgiving hymn. These were the words:--
+
+    Father! protect the wanderer on his way;
+      Bright be for him thy stars and calm thy seas--
+    Thanksgiving live upon his lips to-day,
+      And in his heart the good man's summer ease.
+
+    Almighty! Thou canst bring the pilgrim back,
+      With a clear brow to this his childish home;
+    Guide him, dear Father, o'er a blameless track,
+      No more to stray from us, no more to roam.
+
+At this moment a tumult of children's voices was heard in the door-yard,
+and as the widow turned, young William Peabody was seen struggling with
+Robert and little Sam, who were holding him back with all their force.
+As he dragged them forward, being their elder and superior in strength,
+Peabody Junior stretched his throat and called towards the house--"I've
+seen him--I've seen him!"
+
+"Who have you seen?" asked the widow, rising and approaching the door.
+
+"Mr. Barbary." When Peabody Junior made this answer the widow advanced
+with a gleam on her countenance, and gently releasing him, said, "Come,
+William, and tell us all about it."
+
+"Aunt Margaret," said Robert, thrusting himself between, "don't listen
+to a word he has to say. I'll tell you all about it. You see we were
+coming home from meeting, and little Sam got tired, and William and I
+made a cradle of our hands and were carrying him along very nice."
+
+"Not so very nice, either," Peabody Junior interrupted, "for I was
+plaguy tired."
+
+"That's what I was going to tell you, Aunt Margaret. Bill did get tired,
+and as we came through the Locust Wood, he made believe to see
+something, and run away to get clear of carrying little Sam any
+further."
+
+"I did see him!" said Peabody Junior, firmly.
+
+"Where was he?" the widow asked.
+
+"Behind the hazel-bush, with his head just looking out at the top, all
+turned white as dead folks do."
+
+Mopsey was in immediately with her dark head, crying out, "Don't belief
+a word of it."
+
+"I guess you saw nothing but the hazel-bush, William," said the widow.
+
+"That was it, Aunt; it was the hazel-bush with a great mop of moss on
+it," Robert added.
+
+Miriam sat looking on and listening, pale and trembling.
+
+"If your cousin Elbridge and Mr. Barbary should ever come back," said
+the widow, addressing Peabody Junior, "you would be sorry for what you
+have said, William."
+
+"So he would, Aunt," echoed Robert.
+
+Mopsey was in again from the kitchen; this time she advanced several
+steps from the door-sill into the room, lifted up both her arms and
+addressed the assembled company.
+
+"One ting I know," said Mopsey, "dere's a big pie baking in dat ere
+oven, and if Mas'r Elbridge don't eat that pie it'll haf to sour, dat I
+know."
+
+"What is it, Mopsey," asked Margaret, "that gives you such a faith in my
+son?"
+
+"I tell you what it is, Missus," Mopsey answered promptly, "dast
+tanksgivin when I tumbled down on dis ere sef-same floor bringin' in de
+turkey, every body laugh but Mas'r Elbridge, and he come from his place
+and pick me up. He murder any body! I'll eat de whole tanksgivin dinner
+myself if he touch a hair of de old preacher's head to hurt it."
+Suddenly changing her tone, she added, "Dey're comin' from meetin', I
+hear de old wagon."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTH.
+
+THE DINNER.
+
+
+As the Peabodys approached the homestead, the smoke of the kitchen
+chimney was visible, circling upward and winding about in the sunshine
+as though it had been a delicate corkscrew uncorking a great bottle or
+square old flask of a delicious vintage. The Captain averred a quarter
+of a mile away, the moment they had come upon the brow of the hill, that
+he had a distinct savor of the fragrance of the turkey, and that it was
+quite as refreshing as the first odor of the land breeze coming in from
+sea, and he snuffed it up with a zeal and relish which gave the gig an
+eager appetite for dinner. The Captain's conjecture was strongly
+confirmed in the appearance of Mopsey, darting, with a dark face of dewy
+radiance at the wood-pile and shuffling back with bustling speed to the
+kitchen with a handful of delicate splinters. "She's giving him the last
+turn," said the Captain.
+
+The shadow of the little meeting-house was still over the Captain, even
+so far away, for he conducted the procession homeward at a pace much
+less furious than that with which he had advanced in the morning; and
+Mrs. Carrack too, observed now, with a strange pleasure, what she had
+given no heed to before when the fine coach was rolling in triumph along
+the road,--birds twittering in the sunny air by the wayside, and cattle
+roving like figures in a beautiful picture, upon the slopes of the
+distant hills. Oliver, the politician, more than once had out the great
+cotton pocket-handkerchief, and holding it spread before him
+contemplating the fatherly signers, was evidently acquiring some new
+lights on the subject of independence.
+
+A change, in fine, of some sort or other, had passed over every member
+of the Peabody family save old Sylvester, returning as going, calm,
+plain-spoken, straightforward and patriarchal. When they reached the
+gate of the homestead, William Peabody gave his hand to his wife and
+helped her, with some show of attention, to alight; and then there could
+be no doubt that it was in very truth Thanksgiving day, for the glory of
+the door-yard itself had paled and disappeared in the gorgeous festal
+light. There was no majestic gobbler in the door-yard now, with his
+great outspread tail, which in the proud moments of his life he would
+have expanded as if to shut the very light of the sun from all meaner
+creatures of the mansion.
+
+Within doors there was that bustling preparation, with brief lulls of
+ominous silence which precede and usher a great event. The widow
+Margaret, with noiseless step, glided to and fro, Miriam daintily
+hovering in the suburbs of the sitting-room, which is evidently the
+grand centre of interest, and Mopsey toils like a swart goblin in her
+laboratory of the kitchen in a high glow, scowling fearfully if
+addressed with a word which calls her attention for a moment away from
+her critical labors.
+
+As the family entered the homestead on their return, the combined forces
+were just at the point of pitching their tent on the ground of the
+forthcoming engagement, in the shape of the ancient four-legged and
+wide-leaved table, with a cover of snowy whiteness, ornamented as with
+shields and weapons of quaint device, in the old plates of pewter and
+the horn-handled knives and forks burnished to such a polish as to make
+the little room fairly glitter. Dishes streamed in one after the other
+in a long and rapid procession, piles of home-made bread, basins of
+apple-sauce, pickles, potatoes of vast proportion and mealy beauty. When
+the ancient and lordly pitcher of blue and white (whether freighted with
+new cider or old cold water need not be told) crowned the board, the
+first stage of preparation was complete, and another portentous pause
+ensued. The whole Peabody connection arranged in stately silence in the
+front parlor, looked on through the open door in wonder and expectation
+of what was to follow. The children loitered about the door-ways with
+watering eyes and open mouths, like so many innocent little dragons
+lying in wait to rush in at an opportune moment and bear off their prey.
+
+And now, all at once there comes a deeper hush--a still more portentous
+pause--all eyes are in the direction of the kitchen; the children are
+hanging forward with their bodies and outstretched necks half way in at
+the door; Miriam and the widow stand breathless and statue-like at
+either side of the room; when, as if rising out of some mysterious cave
+in the very ground, a dark figure is discerned in the distance, about
+the centre of the kitchen, (into which Mopsey has made, to secure an
+impressive effect, a grand circuit,) head erect, and bearing before it a
+huge platter; all their eyes tell them, every sense vividly reports what
+it is the platter supports; she advances with slow and solemn step; she
+has crossed the sill; she has entered the sitting-room; and, with a full
+sense of her awful responsibility, Mopsey delivers on the table, in a
+cleared place left for its careful deposit, the Thanksgiving turkey.
+
+There is no need now to sound a gong, or to ring an alarm-bell to make
+known to that household that dinner is ready; the brown turkey speaks a
+summons as with the voice of a thousand living gobblers, and Sylvester
+rising, the whole Peabody family flock in. To every one his place is
+considerately assigned, the Captain in the centre directly opposite the
+turkey, Mrs. Carrack on the other side, the widow at one end, old
+Sylvester at the head. The children too, a special exception being made
+in their favor to-day, are allowed seats with the grown folks, little
+Sam disposing himself in great comfort in his old grandsire's arms.
+
+Another hush--for everything to-day moves on through these constantly
+shut and opened gates of silence, in which they all sit tranquil and
+speechless, when the old patriarch lifts up his aged hands over the
+board and repeats his customary grace:
+
+"May we all be Christian people the day we die--God bless us."
+
+The Captain, the great knife and fork in hand, was ready to advance.
+
+"Stop a moment, Charley," old Sylvester spoke up, "give us a moment to
+contemplate the turkey."
+
+"I would there were just such a dish, grandfather," the Captain
+rejoined, "on every table in the land this day, and if I had my way
+there would be."
+
+"No, no, Charley," the grandfather answered, "if there should be, there
+would be. There is One who is wiser than you or I."
+
+"It would make the man who would do it," Oliver suggested, "immensely
+popular: he might get to be elected President of the United States."
+
+"It would cost a large sum," remarked William Peabody, the merchant.
+
+"Let us leave off considering imaginary turkeys, and discuss the one
+before us," said old Sylvester, "but I must first put a question, and if
+it's answered with satisfaction, we'll proceed. Now tell me," he said,
+addressing himself to Mr. Carrack, who sat in a sort of dream, as if he
+had lost his identity, as he had ever since the night-adventure in the
+fez-cap and red silk cloak: "Now tell me, Tiffany, although you have
+doubtless seen a great many grand things, such as the Alps, and St.
+Peter's church at Rome, has your eye fallen in with anything wherever
+you travelled over the world, grander than that Thanksgiving turkey?"
+
+Mr. Carrack, either from excessive modesty or total abstraction,
+hesitated, looked about him hastily, and not till the Captain called
+across the table, "Why don't you speak, my boy?" and then, as if
+suddenly coming to, and realizing where he was, answered at last, with
+great deliberation, "It is a fine bird."
+
+"Enough said," spoke up old Sylvester cheerfully; "you were the last
+Peabody I expected to acknowledge the merits of the turkey;" and,
+looking towards the Captain with encouragement, added, "now, knife and
+fork, do your duty."
+
+It was short work the jovial Captain made with the prize turkey; in
+rapid succession plates were forwarded, heaped, sent around; and with a
+keen relish of the Thanksgiving dinner, every head was busy. Straight
+on, as people who have an allotted task before them, the Peabodys moved
+through the dinner,--a powerful, steady-going caravan of cheerful
+travellers, over hill, over dale, up the valleys, along the stream-side,
+cropping their way like a nimble-toothed flock of grazing sheep, keenly
+enjoying herbage and beverage by the way.
+
+What though, while they were at the height of its enjoyment a sudden
+storm, at that changeful season, arose without, and dashed its heavy
+drops against the doors and window-panes; that only, by the contrast of
+security and fire-side comfort, heightened the zest within, while they
+were engaged with the many good dishes at least, but when another pause
+came, did not the pelting shower and the chiding wind talk with them,
+each one in turn, of the absent, and oh! some there will not believe
+it--the lost? It was no doubt some thought of this kind that prompted
+old Sylvester to speak:
+
+"My children," said the patriarch, glancing with a calm eye around the
+circle of glowing faces at the table "you are bound together with good
+cheer and in comfortable circumstances; and even as you, who are here
+from east and west, from the north and the south, by each one yielding a
+little of his individual whim or inclination, can thus sit together
+prosperously and in peace at one board, so can our glorious family of
+friendly States, on this and every other day, join hands, and like happy
+children in the fields, lead a far-lengthening dance of festive peace
+among the mountains and among the vales, from the soft-glimmering east
+far on to the bright and ruddy west. If others still seek to join
+in----"
+
+"Ay, father," said Oliver, "there is a great danger."
+
+"Even as by making a little way," answered the patriarch, "we could find
+room at this table for one or two or three more, so may another State
+and still another join us, if it will, and even as our natural progeny
+increaseth to the third, fourth, tenth generation, let us trust for
+centuries to come this happy Union still shall live to lead her sons to
+peace, prosperity, and rightful glory."
+
+"But," interposed Oliver, the politician, again, with a double reference
+in his thoughts, it would almost seem, to an erring State or an absent
+child, "one may break away in wilfulness or crime--what then?"
+
+"Let us lure it back," was old Sylvester's reply, "with gentle appeals.
+Remember we are all brethren, and that our alliance is one not merely of
+worldly interest, but also of family affection. Let us, on this hallowed
+day," he added, "cherish none but kindly thoughts toward all our
+kindred, and if him we have least esteemed offer the hand, let us take
+it in brotherly regard."
+
+There was a pause of silence once again, which was broken by a knock at
+the door. Old Sylvester, having spoken his mind, had fallen into a
+reverie, and the Peabodys glancing one to the other, the question arose,
+shall the strangers (Mopsey reported them to be two) whoever they may
+be, be admitted?
+
+"This is strictly a family festival," it was suggested, "where no
+strangers can be rightly allowed."
+
+"May be thieves!" the merchant added.
+
+"Vagabonds, perhaps!" Mrs. Carrack suggested.
+
+"Strangers, anyhow!" said Mrs. Jane Peabody.
+
+The widow Margaret and Miriam were silent and gave utterance to no
+opinion.
+
+In the midst of the discussion old Sylvester suddenly awakening, and
+rearing his white locks aloft, in the voice of a trumpet of silver
+sound, cried out:--"If they be human, let 'em in!"
+
+As he delivered this emphatic order there was a deep moan at the door,
+as of one in great pain, or suffering keenly from anguish of spirit, and
+when it was opened to admit the new-comers, the voice of Chanticleer,
+raised for the second time, broke in, clear and shrilly, from the outer
+darkness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINTH.
+
+THE NEW-COMERS.
+
+
+It was old Sylvester himself who opened the door and admitted the
+strangers; one of them, the younger, wore a slouched hat which did not
+allow his features to be distinctly observed, further than that his eyes
+were bright with a strange lustre, and that his face was deadly pale. He
+was partly supported by the elder man, whose person was clad in a long
+coat, reaching nearly to the ground. They were invited to the table, but
+refusing, asked permission to sit at the fire, which being granted, they
+took their station on either side of the hearth; the younger staggered
+feebly to his seat, and kept his gaze closely fixed on the other.
+
+"He had better take something," said old Sylvester, looking toward the
+young man and addressing the other. "Is your young friend ill?"
+
+"With an ailment food cannot relieve, I fear," the elder man answered.
+
+"Will you not remove your hats?" old Sylvester asked again.
+
+Turning slowly at this question, the young man answered, "We may not
+prove fit company for such as you, and if so the event shall prove, we
+will pass on and trouble you no further. If every thread were dry as
+summer flax," he added, in a tone of deep feeling, "I for one, am not
+fit to sit among honest people."
+
+"You should not say so, my son," said old Sylvester; "let us hope that
+all men may on a day like this sit together; that, remembering God's
+many mercies to us all, in the preservation of our lives, in his blessed
+change of seasons, in hours of holy meditation allowed to us, every man
+in very gratitude to the Giver of all Good, for this one day in the year
+at least, may suspend all evil thoughts and be at peace with all his
+fellow-creatures."
+
+The young man turned toward the company at the table, but not so far
+that his whole face could be seen.
+
+"Have all who sit about you at that table," he asked, glancing slowly
+around, "performed the duty to which you refer, and purged their bosoms
+of unkindness toward their fellow-men? Is there none who grasps the
+widow's substance? who cherishes scorn and hatred of kindred? Who judges
+harshly of the absent?"
+
+There was a movement in different members of the company, but old
+Sylvester hushed them with a look, and took upon himself the business of
+reply.
+
+"It may be," said old Sylvester, "that some of us are disquieted, for be
+it known to you that one of the children of this household is absent
+from among us for causes which may well disturb our thoughts."
+
+"I have heard the story," the young man continued, "and if I know it
+aright, these are the truths of that history: There were two men,
+friends, once in this neighborhood, Mr. Barbary the preacher, and your
+grandson Elbridge Peabody. Something like a year ago the preacher
+suddenly disappeared from this region, and the report arose and
+constantly spread that he had fallen by the hand of his friend, that
+grandchild of yours. It began in a cloudy whisper, afar off, but swelled
+from day to day, from hour to hour, till it overshadowed this whole
+region, and not the least of the darkness it caused was on this spot,
+where this ancient homestead stands, and where the young man had grown
+and lived from the hour of his birth. He saw coldness and avoidance on
+the highway; he was shrunk from on sabbath-mornings, and by children;
+but this was little and could be borne--the world was against him: but
+when he saw an aged face averted," he looked at old Sylvester steadily,
+"and a mother's countenance sad and hostile--"
+
+"Sad--but not hostile," the widow murmured.
+
+"Sorrowful and troubled, at least," the young man rejoined, "his life,
+for all of happiness, was at an end. He must cease to live or he must
+restore the ancient sunshine which had lighted the windows of the home
+of his boyhood. He knew that his friend had _not_ fallen by his hand;
+that he still lived, but in a far distant place which none but a long
+and weary journey could reach."
+
+"He should have declared as much," interposed the old patriarch.
+
+"No, sir; his word would have been but as the frail leaf blown idly from
+the autumn-bough; nothing but the living presence of his friend could
+silence the voice of the accuser. He rose up and departed, without
+counsel of any, trusting only in God and his own strength; he bore with
+him neither bag nor baggage, scrip nor scrippage--not even a change of
+raiment; but with a handful of fruit and the humble provision which his
+good mother had furnished for the harvest-field, he set forth; day and
+night he journeyed on the truck he knew his friend had taken to that far
+country, toiling in the fields to secure food and lodging for the night,
+and some scant aids to carry him from place to place. Pushing on fast
+and far through the western country, in hunger and distress, passing by
+the very door of prosperous kinsfolk, but not tarrying a moment to seek
+relief."
+
+At this point Mrs. Jane Peabody glanced at her husband.
+
+"And so by one stage and another, hastening on, he reached that great
+city in the south, the metropolis of New Orleans; often, as he hoped, on
+the very steps of his friend, but never overtaking him, with fortune at
+so low an ebb that there he was well-nigh wasted in strength,
+hunger-stricken, and tattered in dress; driven to live in hovels till
+some chance restored him the little means to advance; so mean of person
+that his dearest friend, his nearest kinsman, even his old playfellow
+there," pointing to Mr. Tiffany Carrack, "who had wrestled with him in
+the hayfield, who had sat with him in childish talk often and many a
+time by summer stream-sides, would have passed him by as one unknown."
+
+The glance which, in speaking this, he directed at Mr. Carrack, kindled
+on that young gentleman's countenance a ruby glow, so intense and fiery
+that it would seem as if it must have burned up the tawny tufts before
+their very eyes, like so much dry stubble. There was a glow of another
+kind in the Captain's broad face, which shone like another sun as he
+contemplated the two young men, glancing from one to the other.
+
+"The young man, bent on that one purpose as on life itself," he
+continued, silencing his companion, who seemed eager to speak, with a
+motion of his finger, "through towns, over waters, upon deserts, still
+pursued his way; and, to be brief in a weary history, there, in the very
+heart of that great region of gold, among diggers and searchers, and men
+distracted in a thousand ways in that perilous hunt, to find his
+simple-hearted friend, the preacher, in an out-of-the-way wilderness
+among the mountains, exhorting the living, comforting the sick,
+consoling the dying--and then, for the first time he learned, what his
+friend had carefully concealed before, the motive of his self-banishment
+to this distant country."
+
+His companion would have spoken, but the young man hurrying on, allowed
+him not a word.
+
+"You who know his history," he continued, addressing the company at the
+table--"know what calamity had once come upon the household of Mr.
+Barbary, by the unlawful thirst for gold; that he held its love as the
+curse of curses; he thought if he could but once throw himself in its
+midst, where that passion raged the most, he would be doing his Master's
+service most faithfully, more than in this quiet country-place of
+peaceful households, but when he learned the peril and the sore distress
+of his young friend, he tarried not a moment. 'To restore peace to one
+injured mind,' he said; 'to bring back harmony to one household is a
+clear and certain duty which will outweigh the vague chances of the good
+I may do here.' The young man cherished but one wish; through storm and
+trial and distress of every name and hue, if he could but reach home on
+the day of Thanksgiving, and stand up there before his assembled kindred
+a vindicated man, he would be requited fully for all his toil. He took
+ship; in tempest, and with many risks of perishing far away
+unvindicated, in the middle of the wild sea--"
+
+The widowed mother could restrain herself no longer, but rushing
+forward, she removed the young man's hat from his brow, parted his
+locks, and casting herself upon his neck, gave utterance to her feelings
+in the affecting language of Scripture, which she had listened to in the
+morning: "My son was dead and is alive again--he was lost and is found!"
+
+Miriam timidly grasped his offered hand and was silent. The company had
+risen from the table and gathered around.
+
+"Now," said William Peabody, "I could believe,--be glad to believe all
+this, if he had but brought Mr. Barbary with him."
+
+The elder stranger cast back his coat, removed his hat, and standing
+forth, said, "I am here, and testify to the truth, in every word, of all
+my young friend has declared to you."
+
+On this declaration the Peabodys, without an exception, hastened to
+welcome and address the returned Elbridge, and closed upon him in a
+solid group of affectionate acknowledgment. Old Sylvester stood looking
+loftily down over all from the outer edge of the circle, and while they
+were busiest in congratulations and well-wishes, he went forward.
+
+"Stand back!" cried the old man, waving the company aside with outspread
+arms, and advancing with extended hand toward his grandson. "I have an
+atonement to render here, which I call you all to witness."
+
+"I take your hand, grandfather," Elbridge interposed, "but not in
+acknowledgment of any wrong on your part. You have lived an hundred
+blameless years, and I am not the one this day to breathe a reproach for
+the first time on your spotless age."
+
+Tears filled the old patriarch's eyes, and with a gentle hand he led his
+grandson silently to the table, to which the whole company returned,
+there being room for Mr. Barbary as well.
+
+At this crisis of triumphant explanation, Mopsey, who had under one
+pretext and another, evaded the bringing in of the pie to the last
+moment, appeared at the kitchen-door bearing before her, with that air
+of extraordinary importance peculiar to the negro countenance on
+eventful occasions, a huge brown dish with which she advanced to the
+head of the table, and with an emphatic bump, answering to the pithy
+speeches of warriors and statesmen at critical moments, deposited the
+great Thanksgiving pumpkin pie. Looking proudly around, she simply said,
+"Dere!"
+
+It was the blossom and crown of Mopsey's life, the setting down and full
+delivery to the family of that, the greatest pumpkin-pie ever baked in
+that house from the greatest pumpkin ever reared among the Peabodys in
+all her long backward recollection of past Thanksgivings, and her manner
+of setting it down, was, in its most defiant form, a clincher and a
+challenge to all makers and bakers of pumpkin-pies, to all cutters and
+carvers, to all diners and eaters, to all friends and enemies of
+pumpkin-pie, in the thirty or forty United States. The Brundages too,
+might come and look at it if they had a mind to!
+
+The Peabody family, familiar with the pie from earliest infancy, were
+struck dumb, and sat silent for the space of a minute, contemplating its
+vastness and beauty. Old Sylvester even, with his hundred years of
+pumpkin-pie experience, was staggered, and little Sam jumped up and
+clapped his hands in his old grandfather's arms, and struggled to
+stretch himself across as if he would appropriate it, by actual
+possession, to himself. The joy of the Peabodys was complete, for the
+lost grandson had returned, and the Thanksgiving-pie was a glorious one,
+and if it was the largest share that was allotted to the returned
+Elbridge, will any one complain? And yet at times a cloud came upon the
+young man's brow,--when dinner was passed with pleasant family talk,
+questionings and experiences, as they sat about the old homestead
+hearth,--which even the playful gambols of the children who sported
+about him like so many friendly spirits, could not drive away. The heart
+of cousin Elbridge was not in their childish freaks and fancies as it
+had been in other days. The shining solitude looking in at the windows
+seemed to call him without.
+
+As though it had caught something of the genial spirit that glowed
+within the house, the wind was laid without, and the night softened with
+the beauty of the rising moon. With a sadness on his brow which neither
+the old homestead nor the pure heavens cast there, Elbridge went forth
+into the calm night, and sitting for a while by the road beneath an
+ancient locust-tree, where he had often read his book in the
+summer-times of boyhood, he communed with himself. He was happy--what
+mortal man could be happier?--in all his wishes come to pass; his very
+dreams had taken life and proved to be realities and friends, and yet a
+sadness he could not drive away followed his steps. Why was this? That
+moment, if his voice or any honorable and sinless motion of his hand
+could have ordained it, he would have dismissed himself from life and
+ceased to be a living partaker in the scenes about him. Even then--for
+happy as he was, he dreaded in prophetic fear, the chances which beset
+our mortal path. The weight of mortality was heavy upon the young man's
+spirit.
+
+Thinking over all the way he had passed, oh, who could answer that he,
+with the thronging company of busy passions and desires, could ever hope
+to reach an old age and never go astray? Oh, blessed is he (he thought)
+who can lie down in death, can close his account with this world, having
+safely escaped the temptations, the crimes, the trials, which make of
+good men even, in moments of weakness and misjudgment, the false
+speaker, the evil-doer, the slanderer, the coward, the hasty assailant,
+and, (oh, dreadful perchance,) the seeming-guilty-murderer himself.
+Strange thoughts for a prosperous lover's night, but earth is not
+heaven. With the sweat of anguish on his brow he bowed his head as one
+whose trouble is heavy to be borne. Yet even then the thought of the
+sweet heaven over him, with all its glorious promises, came upon him,
+and as he lifted up his eyes from the earth, the moon sailing forth from
+the clouds, and flooding the region with silver light, disclosed a
+figure so gentle and delicate, and in its features so pure of all our
+common passions, it seemed as if his troubled thoughts had summoned a
+spirit before him from the better world. As he stood regarding it in
+melancholy calmness, it extended towards him a hand.
+
+"No, no," he said, declining the gentle salutation and retiring a pace,
+"touch me not, Miriam, I am not worthy of your pure companionship. If
+you knew what passed and is passing in my breast, you would loathe me as
+a leper."
+
+She was silent and dropped her eyes before him.
+
+"Think not, my gentle mistress," he added presently, "my heart is
+changed towards you. The glow is only too bright and warm."
+
+"If you love me not, Elbridge," she interposed quickly, "fear not to
+say so, even now. I will bear the pang as best I can."
+
+"You have suffered too much already," he rejoined, touched to the heart.
+"My long silence must have been as death to one so kind and gentle."
+
+"I have suffered," was all she said. "One word from you in your long
+absence would have made me happy."
+
+"It would, I know it would, and yet I could not speak it," Elbridge
+replied. "When, with a blight upon my name I left those halls," pointing
+to the old homestead standing in shadow of the autumn trees, "I vowed to
+know them no more, that my step should never cross their threshold, that
+my voice should never be heard again in those ancient chambers, that no
+being of all that household should have a word from these lips or hands
+till I could come back a vindicated man; that I would perish in distant
+lands, find a silent grave among strangers, far from mother and her I
+loved, or that I would come back with my lost friend, in his living
+form, to avouch and testify my truth and innocence."
+
+"And had you no thought of me in that cruel absence, dear Elbridge?"
+asked Miriam.
+
+"Of you!" he echoed, now taking her hand, "of you! When in all these my
+wanderings, in weary nights, in lonely days, on seas and deserts far
+away, sore of foot and sick at heart, making my couch beneath the stars,
+in the tents of savage men, in the shadow of steeples that know not our
+holy faith, was it not my religion and my only solace, that one like you
+thought of me as I of her, and though all the world abandoned and
+distrusted the wanderer, there was one star in the distant horizon which
+yet shone true, and trembled with a hopeful light upon my path."
+
+"Are we not each other's now?" she whispered softly as she lay her
+gentle head upon his bosom; "and if we have erred, and repent but truly,
+will not He forgive us?"
+
+As she lifted up her innocent face to heaven, did not those gentle tears
+which fell unheard by mortal ear, from those fair eyes, drop in hearing
+of Him who hears and acknowledges the faintest sound of true affection,
+through all the boundless universe, musically as the chime of holy
+Sabbath-bells?
+
+"You are my dear wife," he answered, folding her close to his heart,
+"and if you forgive and still cherish me, happiness may still be ours;
+and although no formal voice has yet called us one, by all that's sacred
+in the stillness of the night, and by every honest beating of this
+heart, dear Miriam, you are mine, to watch, to tend, to love, to
+reverence, in sickness, in sorrow, in care, in joy; by all that belongs
+of gaiety to youth, in manhood and in age, we will have one home, one
+couch, one fireside, one grave, one God, and one hereafter."
+
+An old familiar instrument, swept as he well knew by his mother's
+fingers, sounded at that moment from the homestead, and hand in hand,
+blending their steps, they returned to the Thanksgiving household
+within.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TENTH.
+
+THE CONCLUSION.
+
+
+When Elbridge and Miriam re-entered the homestead they found the best
+parlor, which they had left in humble dependence on the light of a
+single home-made wick, now in full glow, and wide awake in every corner,
+with a perfect illumination of lamps and candles; and every thing in the
+room had waked up with them. The old brass andirons stood shining like a
+couple of bald-headed little grandfathers by the hearth; the letters in
+the sampler over the mantel, narrating the ages of the family, had
+renewed their color; the tall old clock, allowed to speak again, stood
+like an overgrown schoolboy with his face newly washed, stretching
+himself up in a corner; the painted robins and partridges on the wall,
+now in full feather, strutting and flying about in all the glory of an
+unfading plumage; and at the rear of all the huge back-log on the hearth
+glowed and rolled in his place as happy as an alderman at a city feast.
+The Peabodys too, partook of the new illumination, and were there in
+their best looks, scattered about the room in cheerful groups, while in
+the midst of all the widow Margaret, her face lighted with a smile which
+came there from far-off years, holding in her hand as we see an angel in
+the sunny clouds in old pictures, the ancient harpsichord, which till
+now had been laid away and out of use for many a long day of sadness.
+
+While Elbridge and Miriam stood still in wonder at the sudden change of
+this living pageant, old Sylvester, his white head carried proudly
+aloft, appeared from the sitting-room with Mr. Barbary, a quaint figure,
+freed now of his long coat, and bearing no trace of travel on his neat
+apparel and face of cheerful gravity. Leaving the preacher in the centre
+of the apartment, the patriarch advanced quietly toward the young
+couple, and, addressing himself to Elbridge, said, "My children, I have
+a favor to ask of you."
+
+"Anything, grandfather!" Elbridge answered promptly.
+
+"You are sure?" Old Sylvester's eyes twinkled as he spoke.
+
+"It would be the pleasure and glory of my young days," Elbridge answered
+again, "to crown your noble old age, grandfather, with any worthy wreath
+these hands could fashion, and not call it a favor either."
+
+Old Sylvester, smiling from one to the other, said, "You are to be
+married immediately."
+
+The young couple fell back and dropped each the other's hand, which they
+had been holding. Miriam trembled and shrunk the farthest away.
+
+"You will not deny me?" the grandfather said again. "You are the
+youngest and the last whom I can hope to see joined in that bond which
+is to continue our name and race; it is my last request on earth."
+
+At these simple words, turning, and with a fond regard which spoke all
+their thoughts, Miriam and Elbridge took again each the other's hand,
+and drew close side to side. The company rose, and Mr. Barbary was on
+the point of speaking when there emerged upon the family scene, from an
+inner chamber, as though he had been a foreigner entering a fashionable
+drawing-room, Mr. Tiffany Carrack, in the very blossom of full dress;
+his hair in glossy curl, with white neckcloth and waistcoat of the
+latest cut and tie, coat and pants of the purest model, pumps and silk
+stockings; bearing in his hand a gossamer pocket-handkerchief, which he
+shook daintily as he advanced, and filled the room with a strange
+fragrance. With mincing step, just dotting the ground, his whole body
+shaking like a delicate structure in danger every moment of tumbling to
+the ground, he advanced to where Miriam and Elbridge stood before Mr.
+Barbary.
+
+"Why really, 'pon my life and honor, Miriam, you are looking quite
+charming this evening!"
+
+"She should look so now if ever, Tiffany," said old Sylvester, "for she
+is just about to be married to your cousin Elbridge."
+
+"Now you don't mean that?" said Mr. Tiffany, touching the tawny tufts
+tenderly with his perfumed pocket-handkerchief, "Oh, woman! woman! what
+is your name?" He hesitated for a reply.
+
+"Perfidy?" suggested Mr. Oliver Peabody.
+
+"Yes, that's it. Have I lived to look on this," Mr. Tiffany continued;
+"to have my young hopes blighted, the rose of my existence cropped, and
+all that. Is it for this," addressing Miriam directly: he had been
+talking before to the air: "Is it for this I went blackberrying with you
+in my tender infancy! Is it for this that in the heyday of youth I
+walked with you to the school-house down the road! Was it for this that
+in the prime of manhood I breathed soft music in your ear at the
+witching time of night!"
+
+As he arrived at this last question, Mopsey, in her new gown of gorgeous
+pattern, and, having laid aside her customary broad-bordered cap, with a
+high crowned turban of red, and yellow cotton handkerchief on her head,
+appeared at the parlor door. Mr. Tiffany paused: he saw the Moorish
+princess before him; rallying, however, he was proceeding to describe
+himself as a friendly troubadour, whose affection had been responded to,
+when the Captain placing his mouth to his ear, as in confidence, uttered
+in a portentous whisper, "THE VAT!"
+
+Mr. Tiffany immediately lost all joint and strength, subsided into a
+chair at a distance, and from that moment looked upon the scene like one
+in a trance.
+
+"After all," said Mr. Oliver, glancing at him, "I don't see just now
+that, in any point of view, this young gentleman _is_ destined to carry
+the principles of free government--anywhere."
+
+The family being now all gathered, Mr. Barbary proceeded, employing a
+simple and impressive form in use in that family from its earliest
+history:
+
+"You, the Bridegroom and the Bride, who now present yourselves
+candidates of the covenant of God and of your marriage before him, in
+token of your consenting affections and united hearts, please to give
+your hands to one another.
+
+"Mr. Bridegroom, the person whom you now take by the hand, you receive
+to be your married wife: you promise to love her, to honor her, to
+support her, and in all things to treat her as you are now, or shall
+hereafter be convinced is by the laws of Christ made your duty,--a
+tender husband, with unspotted fidelity till death shall separate you.
+
+"Mrs. Bride, the person whom you now hold by the hand you accept to be
+your married husband; you promise to love him, to honor him, to submit
+to him, and in all things to treat him as you are now or shall hereafter
+be convinced, is by the laws of Christ made your duty,--an affectionate
+wife, with inviolable loyalty till death shall separate you.
+
+"This solemn covenant you make, and in this sacred oath bind your souls
+in the presence of the Great God, and before these witnesses.
+
+"I then declare you to be husband and wife regularly married according
+to the laws of God and the Commonwealth: therefore what God hath thus
+joined together let no man put asunder."
+
+When these words had been solemnly spoken the widow Margaret struck her
+ancient harpsichord in an old familiar tune of plaintive tenderness, and
+the young bridegroom holding Miriam's hand in an affectionate clasp,
+answered the music with a little hymn or carol, often used before among
+the Peabodys on a like occasion:
+
+    Entreat me not--I ne'er will leave thee,
+      Ne'er loose this hand in bower or hall;
+    This heart, this heart shall ne'er deceive thee,
+      This voice shall answer ever to thy call.
+
+To which Miriam, after a brief pause of hesitation, in that tone of
+chanting lament familiar to her, answered--
+
+    Thy God is mine, where'er thou rovest,
+      Where'er thou dwellest there too will I dwell;
+    In the same grave shall she thou lovest
+      Lie down with him she loves so well.
+
+Like a cheerful voice answering to these, and wishing, out of the
+mysterious darkness of night, all happiness and prosperity to the young
+couple, the silver call of Chanticleer arose without, renewed and
+renewed again, as if he could never tire of announcing the happy union
+to all the country round.
+
+And now enjoyment was at its height among the Peabodys, helped by
+Plenty, who, with Mopsey for chief assistant, hurried in, with plates of
+shining pippins, baskets of nuts, brown jugs of new cider of home-made
+vintage; Mrs. Carrack, who had selected the simplest garment in her
+wardrobe, moving about in aid of black Mopsey, tendering refreshment to
+her old father first, and Mrs. Jane Peabody insisting on being allowed
+to distribute the walnuts with her own hand.
+
+The children, never at rest for a moment, frisked to and fro, like so
+many merry dolphins, disporting in the unaccustomed candle-light, to
+which they were commonly strangers. They were listened to in all their
+childish prattle kindly, by every one, indulged in all their little
+foolish ways, as if the grown-up Peabodys for this night at least,
+believed that they were indeed little citizens of the kingdom of heaven,
+straying about this wicked world on parole. Uncle Oliver, once,
+spreading his great Declaration-of-Independence pocket-handkerchief on
+his knees, attempted to put them to the question as to their learning.
+They all recognised Dr. Franklin, with his spectacles thrown up on his
+brow, among the signers, but denying all knowledge of anything more, ran
+away to the Captain, who was busy building, a dozen at a time, paper
+packet ships, and launching them upon the table for a sea.
+
+In the very midst of the mirthful hubbub old Sylvester called Robert and
+William to his side, and was heard to whisper, "Bring 'em in." William
+and Robert were gone a moment and returned, bearing under heavy
+head-way, tumbling and pitching on one side constantly, two ancient
+spinning wheels, Mopsey following with snowy flocks of wool and spinning
+sticks. Old Sylvester arose, and delivering a stick and flock to Mrs.
+Carrack and Mrs. Jane Peabody, requested them, in a mild voice and as a
+matter of course already settled, "to begin." A spinning-match!
+
+"Yes, anything you choose to-night, father."
+
+Rolling back their sleeves, adjusting their gowns, the wheels being
+planted on either side of the fireplace, Mrs. Jane and Mrs. Carrack,
+stick in hand, seized each on her allotment of wool, and sent the wheels
+whirling. It was a cheerful sight to see the two matrons closing in upon
+the wheel, retiring, closing in again--whose wheel is swiftest, whose
+thread truest? Now Mrs. Jane--now Mrs. Carrack. If either, Mrs. Carrack
+puts the most heart in her work.
+
+"_Now_ she looks like my Nancy," said old Sylvester in a glow, "as when
+she used to spin and sing, in the old upper chamber."
+
+Away they go--whose wheel is swiftest, whose thread the truest now?
+
+While swift and free the contest wages, the parlor-door standing open,
+and beyond that the door of the sitting-room, look down the long
+perspective! Do you not see in the twilight of the kitchen fire a dark
+head, lighting up, as in flashes, with a glittering row of teeth, with a
+violent agitation of the body, with gusty ha-ha's, and fragments of an
+uproarious chant flying through the door something to this effect--
+
+    Oh, de fine ladies, how dey do spin--spin--spin,
+      Like de gals long ago--long ago!
+    I bet to'der one don't win--win--win,
+      Kase de diamond-flowers on her fingers grow.
+        Lay down your white gloves, take up de wool,
+          Round about de whirly wheel go;
+        Back'ard and for'ard nimble feet pull,
+          Like de nice gals long--long ago!
+
+Silence follows, in which nothing is observable from that quarter more
+than a great pair of white eyes rolling about in the partial darkness.
+Who was other than pleased that in spite of Mopsey's decision, old
+Sylvester determined that if either, Mrs. Carrack's work was done a
+little the soonest, and that her thread was a little the truest?
+
+During the contest the old merchant and his wife had conversed closely,
+apart; the green shade had lost its terrors, and he could look on it
+steadily, now; and at the close William Peabody approaching the
+fireplace, drew from his bosom the old parchment deed, which in his
+hunger for money had so often disquieted his visits to the homestead,
+and thrust it into the very heart of the flame, which soon shrivelled it
+up, and, conveying it out at the chimney, before the night was past
+spread it in peaceful ashes over the very grounds which it had so long
+disturbed.
+
+"So much for that!" said the old merchant, as the last flake vanished;
+"and now, nephew," he addressed himself to Elbridge, "fulfilling an
+engagement connected with your return, I resign to you all charge of
+your father's property."
+
+"Did you bring anything with you from the Gold Region?" Mrs. Carrack
+interposed.
+
+"Not one cent, Aunt," Elbridge answered promptly.
+
+"You may add, William," pursued Mrs. Carrack, "the sums of mine you have
+in hand."
+
+William Peabody was pausing on this proposition, the sums in question
+being at that very moment embarked in a most profitable speculation.
+
+Upon the very height of the festivity, when it glowed the brightest and
+was most musical with mirthful voices, there had come to the casement a
+moaning sound as if borne upon the wind from a distance, a wailing of
+anguish, at the same time like and unlike that of human suffering. By
+slow advances it approached nearer and nearer to the homestead, and
+whenever it arose it brought the family enjoyment to a momentary pause.
+It had drawn so near that it sounded now again, as if in mournful
+lamentation, at the very door, when Mopsey, her dark face almost white,
+and her brow wrinkled with anxiety, rushed in. "Grandfather," she said,
+addressing old Sylvester, "blind Sorrel's dying in the door-yard."
+
+There was not one in all that company whom the announcement did not
+cause to start; led by old Sylvester, they hastily rose, and conducted
+by Mopsey, followed to the scene. Blind Sorrel was lying by the
+moss-grown horse-trough, at the gate.
+
+"I noticed her through the day," said Oliver, "wandering up the lane as
+if she was seeking the house."
+
+"The death-agony must have been upon her then," said William Peabody,
+shading his eyes with his hand.
+
+"She remembered, perhaps, her young days," old Sylvester added, "when
+she used to crop the door-yard grass."
+
+Mopsey, in her solicitude to have the death-bed of poor blind Sorrel
+properly attended, had brought with her, in the event of the paling or
+obscuration of the moon, a dark lantern, which she held tenderly aside
+as though the poor old creature still possessed her sight; immoveable
+herself as though she had been a swarthy image in stone, while, on the
+other side, William Peabody, near her head, stood gazing upon the animal
+with a fixed intensity, breathing hard and watching her dying struggle
+with a rigid steadiness of feature almost painful to behold.
+
+"Has carried me to mill many a day," he said; "some pleasantest hours of
+my life spent upon her back, sauntering along at early day."
+
+"Your mother rode her to meeting," Sylvester addressed his second son,
+"on your wedding-day, Oliver. Sorrel was of a long-lived race."
+
+"She was the gentlest horse-creature you ever owned, father," added Mrs.
+Carrack, turning affectionately toward old Sylvester, "and humored us
+girls when we rode her as though she had been a blood-relation."
+
+"I'm not so sure of that," Mr. Tiffany Carrack rejoined, "for she has
+dumped me in a ditch more than once."
+
+"That was your own careless riding, Tiffany," said the Captain, "I don't
+believe she had the least ill-will towards any living creature, man or
+beast."
+
+It was observed that whenever William Peabody spoke, blind Sorrel turned
+her feeble head in that direction, as if she recognised and singled out
+his voice from all the others.
+
+"She knows your voice, father, even in her darkness," said the Captain,
+"as the sailor tells his old captain's step on deck at night."
+
+"Well she may, Charles," the merchant replied, "for she was foaled the
+same day I was born."
+
+The old creature moaned and heaved her side fainter and fainter.
+
+"Speak to her, William," said the old grandfather.
+
+William Peabody bent down, and in a tremulous voice said, "Sorrel, do
+you know me?"
+
+The poor blind creature lifted up her aged head feebly towards him,
+heaved her weary side, gasped once and was gone. The moon, which had
+been shining with a clear and level light upon the group of faces,
+dipped at that moment behind the orchard-trees, and at the same instant
+the light in the lantern flickering feebly, was extinguished.
+
+"What do you mean by putting the light out, Mopsey," old Sylvester
+asked.
+
+"I knew de old lamp would be goin' out, Massa, soon as ever blind Sorrel
+die; I tremble so I do' no what I'm saying." It was poor Mopsey's
+agitation which had shaken out the light.
+
+"Never shall we know a more faithful servant, a truer friend, than poor
+blind Sorrel," they all agreed; and bound still closer together by so
+simple a bond as common sympathy in the death of the poor old blind
+family horse, they returned within the homestead.
+
+They were scarcely seated again when William Peabody, turning to Mrs.
+Carrack, said, "Certainly!" referring to the transfer of the money of
+hers in his hands on loan, to Elbridge, "he will need some ready money
+to begin the world with."
+
+All was cheerful friendship now; the family, reconciled in all its
+members, sitting about their aged father's hearth on this glorious
+Thanksgiving night; the gayer mood subsiding, a sudden stillness fell
+upon the whole house, such as precedes some new turn in the discourse.
+
+Old Sylvester Peabody sat in the centre of the family, moving his body
+to and fro gently, and lifting his white head up and down upon his
+breast; his whole look and manner strongly arresting the attention of
+all; of the children not the least. After a while the old man paused,
+and looking mildly about, addressed the household.
+
+"This is a happy day, my children," he said, "but the seeds of it were
+sown, you must allow an old man to say, long, long ago. If one good
+Being had not died in a far country and a very distant time, we could
+not have this comfort now."
+
+The children watched the old grandfather more closely.
+
+"I am an old man, and shall be with you, I feel, but for a little while
+yet; as one who stands at the gate of the world to come, looking
+through, and through which he is soon to pass, will you not allow me to
+believe that I thought of the hopes of your immortal spirits in your
+youth?"
+
+As being the eldest, and answering for the rest, William Peabody
+replied, "We will."
+
+"Did I not teach you then, or strive my best to teach, that there was
+but one Holy God?"
+
+"You did, father--you did!" the widow Margaret answered.
+
+"That his only Son died for us?"
+
+"Often--often!" said Mrs. Carrack.
+
+"That we must love one another as brethren?"
+
+"At morning and night, in winter and summer; by the hearth and in the
+field, you did," Oliver rejoined.
+
+"That there is but one path to happiness and peace here and hereafter,"
+he continued, "through the performance of our duty towards our Maker,
+and our fellow men of every name, and tongue, and clime, and color? to
+love your dear Native Land, as she sits happy among the nations, but to
+remember this, our natural home, is but the ground-nest and cradle from
+which we spread our wings to fly through all the earth with hope and
+kindly wishes for all men. If the air is cheerful here, and the
+sun-light pleasant, let no barrier or wall shut it in, but pray God,
+with reverent hope, it spread hence to the farthest lands and seas, till
+all the people of the earth are lighted up and made glad in the common
+fellowship of our blessed Saviour, who is, was, and will be evermore--to
+all men guide, protector, and ensample. May He be so to us and ours, to
+our beloved home and happy Fatherland, in all the time to come!"
+
+The old man bowed his head in presence of his reconciled household, and
+fell into a sweet slumber; not one of all that company but echoed the
+old man's prayer--"May he be so to us and ours, to our beloved Home and
+happy Fatherland in all the time to come!"
+
+On this, on every day of Thanksgiving and Praise, be that old man's
+blessed prayer in all quarters, among all classes and kindred,
+everywhere repeated: "May He be so to us and ours, to our beloved Home
+and happy Fatherland in all the time to come!"
+
+And when, like that good old man, we come to bow our heads at the close
+of a long, long life, may we, like him, fall into a gentle sleep,
+conscious that we have done the work of charity, and spread about our
+path, wherever it lead, peace and good-will among men!
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Author's name is not given in the text but other editions give it as
+Cornelius Mathews.
+
+Contents Page. In the original text, some chapter titles were wrong;
+these have been corrected as follows:
+
+    Chapter IV. Title was "The Children." Corrected to "The Fortunes of
+    the Family Considered."
+
+    Chapter V. Title was "The Fashionable Lady and Her Son." Corrected
+    to "The Children."
+
+    Chapter VI. Title was "The Fortunes of the Family Considered."
+    Corrected to "The Fashionable Lady and Her Son."
+
+Inconsistent hyphenation of words in original text has been retained
+(daylight, day-light; fireside, fire-side; headway head-way; and
+neck-cloth, neckcloth).
+
+Inconsistent spelling of contractions in the original text has been
+retained.
+
+Page 27, added missing quote mark. ("Three, all of brick)
+
+Page 33, changed comma to fullstop. (speech. "Expect to see)
+
+Page 35, changed comma to fullstop. (said old Sylvester. "Out of)
+
+Page 36, unusual spelling of "ricketty" retained. (landed from its
+ricketty and bespattered bosom)
+
+Page 39, "thoughtf" has been changed to "though" (watched over as
+though it had been my own)
+
+Page 96, added missing quote mark. ("Some two hundred)
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Chanticleer, by Cornelius Mathews
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