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diff --git a/25549.txt b/25549.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7dc9da6 --- /dev/null +++ b/25549.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6119 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Chosen Few, by Frank R. Stockton + +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: A Chosen Few + Short Stories + +Author: Frank R. Stockton + +Release Date: May 21, 2008 [EBook #25549] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CHOSEN FEW *** + + + + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Barbara Tozier and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + + A CHOSEN FEW + + SHORT STORIES + + BY + + FRANK R. STOCKTON + + WITH AN ETCHED PORTRAIT BY W. H. W. BICKNELL + + NEW YORK + CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + 1895 + + + + + Copyright, 1895, by + CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + + THE DE VINNE PRESS. + + + + +PREFACE + + +The stories contained in this little volume were chosen, by virtue +of a sort of literary civil-service examination, in order that they +might be grouped together as a representative class of the author's +best-known work in this line. + +Several of these stories have points of peculiar interest to the +author. For instance, "Negative Gravity" was composed in Switzerland +when the author was temporarily confined to the house in full view +of unreachable Alps. + +"His Wife's Deceased Sister" was suggested by an editorial +disposition to compare all the author's work with one previous +production, and to discard everything which did not accord exactly +with the particular story which had been selected as a standard of +merit. + +"The Lady, or the Tiger?" was printed in the hope that the author +might receive the cheerful cooperation of some of his readers in a +satisfactory solution of the problem contained in the little story; +but although he has had much valuable assistance in this direction +he has also been the recipient of a great deal of scolding. + +After reading several stories by Clark Russell, the author's mind +was led to consider the possibility of inventing some sort of +shipwreck which had never yet been made the subject of a story. His +efforts in this line resulted in "The Remarkable Wreck of the +'Thomas Hyke.'" + +"A Piece of Red Calico" is a description, with exaggerated points, +of an actual experience. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + A TALE OF NEGATIVE GRAVITY + From "The Christmas Wreck" + + ASAPH + From "The Watchmaker's Wife" + + "HIS WIFE'S DECEASED SISTER" + From "The Lady, or the Tiger?" + + THE LADY, OR THE TIGER? + + THE REMARKABLE WRECK OF THE "THOMAS HYKE" + From "The Christmas Wreck" + + OLD PIPES AND THE DRYAD + From "The Bee-man of Orn" + + THE TRANSFERRED GHOST + From "The Lady, or the Tiger?" + + "THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELATIVE EXISTENCES" + From "The Watchmaker's Wife" + + A PIECE OF RED CALICO + From "The Lady, or the Tiger?" + + + + +A TALE OF NEGATIVE GRAVITY + + +My wife and I were staying at a small town in northern Italy; and on +a certain pleasant afternoon in spring we had taken a walk of six or +seven miles to see the sun set behind some low mountains to the west +of the town. Most of our walk had been along a hard, smooth highway, +and then we turned into a series of narrower roads, sometimes +bordered by walls, and sometimes by light fences of reed or cane. +Nearing the mountain, to a low spur of which we intended to ascend, +we easily scaled a wall about four feet high, and found ourselves +upon pasture-land, which led, sometimes by gradual ascents, and +sometimes by bits of rough climbing, to the spot we wished to reach. +We were afraid we were a little late, and therefore hurried on, +running up the grassy hills, and bounding briskly over the rough and +rocky places. I carried a knapsack strapped firmly to my shoulders, +and under my wife's arm was a large, soft basket of a kind much used +by tourists. Her arm was passed through the handles and around the +bottom of the basket, which she pressed closely to her side. This +was the way she always carried it. The basket contained two bottles +of wine, one sweet for my wife, and another a little acid for +myself. Sweet wines give me a headache. + +When we reached the grassy bluff, well known thereabouts to lovers +of sunset views, I stepped immediately to the edge to gaze upon the +scene, but my wife sat down to take a sip of wine, for she was very +thirsty; and then, leaving her basket, she came to my side. The +scene was indeed one of great beauty. Beneath us stretched a wide +valley of many shades of green, with a little river running through +it, and red-tiled houses here and there. Beyond rose a range of +mountains, pink, pale green, and purple where their tips caught the +reflection of the setting sun, and of a rich gray-green in shadows. +Beyond all was the blue Italian sky, illumined by an especially fine +sunset. + +My wife and I are Americans, and at the time of this story were +middle-aged people and very fond of seeing in each other's company +whatever there was of interest or beauty around us. We had a son +about twenty-two years old, of whom we were also very fond; but he +was not with us, being at that time a student in Germany. Although +we had good health, we were not very robust people, and, under +ordinary circumstances, not much given to long country tramps. I was +of medium size, without much muscular development, while my wife was +quite stout, and growing stouter. + +The reader may, perhaps, be somewhat surprised that a middle-aged +couple, not very strong, or very good walkers, the lady loaded with +a basket containing two bottles of wine and a metal drinking-cup, +and the gentleman carrying a heavy knapsack, filled with all sorts +of odds and ends, strapped to his shoulders, should set off on a +seven-mile walk, jump over a wall, run up a hillside, and yet feel +in very good trim to enjoy a sunset view. This peculiar state of +things I will proceed to explain. + +I had been a professional man, but some years before had retired +upon a very comfortable income. I had always been very fond of +scientific pursuits, and now made these the occupation and pleasure +of much of my leisure time. Our home was in a small town; and in a +corner of my grounds I built a laboratory, where I carried on my +work and my experiments. I had long been anxious to discover the +means not only of producing, but of retaining and controlling, a +natural force, really the same as centrifugal force, but which I +called negative gravity. This name I adopted because it indicated +better than any other the action of the force in question, as I +produced it. Positive gravity attracts everything toward the centre +of the earth. Negative gravity, therefore, would be that power which +repels everything from the centre of the earth, just as the negative +pole of a magnet repels the needle, while the positive pole attracts +it. My object was, in fact, to store centrifugal force and to render +it constant, controllable, and available for use. The advantages of +such a discovery could scarcely be described. In a word, it would +lighten the burdens of the world. + +I will not touch upon the labors and disappointments of several +years. It is enough to say that at last I discovered a method of +producing, storing, and controlling negative gravity. + +The mechanism of my invention was rather complicated, but the method +of operating it was very simple. A strong metallic case, about eight +inches long, and half as wide, contained the machinery for producing +the force; and this was put into action by means of the pressure of +a screw worked from the outside. As soon as this pressure was +produced, negative gravity began to be evolved and stored, and the +greater the pressure the greater the force. As the screw was moved +outward, and the pressure diminished, the force decreased, and when +the screw was withdrawn to its fullest extent, the action of +negative gravity entirely ceased. Thus this force could be produced +or dissipated at will to such degrees as might be desired, and its +action, so long as the requisite pressure was maintained, was +constant. + +When this little apparatus worked to my satisfaction I called my +wife into my laboratory and explained to her my invention and its +value. She had known that I had been at work with an important +object, but I had never told her what it was. I had said that if I +succeeded I would tell her all, but if I failed she need not be +troubled with the matter at all. Being a very sensible woman, this +satisfied her perfectly. Now I explained everything to her--the +construction of the machine, and the wonderful uses to which this +invention could be applied. I told her that it could diminish, or +entirely dissipate, the weight of objects of any kind. A heavily +loaded wagon, with two of these instruments fastened to its sides, +and each screwed to a proper force, would be so lifted and supported +that it would press upon the ground as lightly as an empty cart, and +a small horse could draw it with ease. A bale of cotton, with one of +these machines attached, could be handled and carried by a boy. A +car, with a number of these machines, could be made to rise in the +air like a balloon. Everything, in fact, that was heavy could be +made light; and as a great part of labor, all over the world, is +caused by the attraction of gravitation, so this repellent force, +wherever applied, would make weight less and work easier. I told her +of many, many ways in which the invention might be used, and would +have told her of many more if she had not suddenly burst into tears. + +"The world has gained something wonderful," she exclaimed, between +her sobs, "but I have lost a husband!" + +"What do you mean by that?" I asked, in surprise. + +"I haven't minded it so far," she said, "because it gave you +something to do, and it pleased you, and it never interfered with +our home pleasures and our home life. But now that is all over. You +will never be your own master again. It will succeed, I am sure, and +you may make a great deal of money, but we don't need money. What we +need is the happiness which we have always had until now. Now there +will be companies, and patents, and lawsuits, and experiments, and +people calling you a humbug, and other people saying they discovered +it long ago, and all sorts of persons coming to see you, and you'll +be obliged to go to all sorts of places, and you will be an altered +man, and we shall never be happy again. Millions of money will not +repay us for the happiness we have lost." + +These words of my wife struck me with much force. Before I had +called her my mind had begun to be filled and perplexed with ideas +of what I ought to do now that the great invention was perfected. +Until now the matter had not troubled me at all. Sometimes I had +gone backward and sometimes forward, but, on the whole, I had always +felt encouraged. I had taken great pleasure in the work, but I had +never allowed myself to be too much absorbed by it. But now +everything was different. I began to feel that it was due to myself +and to my fellow-beings that I should properly put this invention +before the world. And how should I set about it? What steps should I +take? I must make no mistakes. When the matter should become known +hundreds of scientific people might set themselves to work; how +could I tell but that they might discover other methods of producing +the same effect? I must guard myself against a great many things. I +must get patents in all parts of the world. Already, as I have said, +my mind began to be troubled and perplexed with these things. A +turmoil of this sort did not suit my age or disposition. I could not +but agree with my wife that the joys of a quiet and contented life +were now about to be broken into. + +"My dear," said I, "I believe, with you, that the thing will do us +more harm than good. If it were not for depriving the world of the +invention I would throw the whole thing to the winds. And yet," I +added, regretfully, "I had expected a great deal of personal +gratification from the use of this invention." + +"Now listen," said my wife, eagerly; "don't you think it would be +best to do this: use the thing as much as you please for your own +amusement and satisfaction, but let the world wait? It has waited a +long time, and let it wait a little longer. When we are dead let +Herbert have the invention. He will then be old enough to judge for +himself whether it will be better to take advantage of it for his +own profit, or simply to give it to the public for nothing. It would +be cheating him if we were to do the latter, but it would also be +doing him a great wrong if we were, at his age, to load him with +such a heavy responsibility. Besides, if he took it up, you could +not help going into it, too." + +I took my wife's advice. I wrote a careful and complete account of +the invention, and, sealing it up, I gave it to my lawyers to be +handed to my son after my death. If he died first, I would make +other arrangements. Then I determined to get all the good and fun +out of the thing that was possible without telling any one anything +about it. Even Herbert, who was away from home, was not to be told +of the invention. + +The first thing I did was to buy a strong leathern knapsack, and +inside of this I fastened my little machine, with a screw so +arranged that it could be worked from the outside. Strapping this +firmly to my shoulders, my wife gently turned the screw at the back +until the upward tendency of the knapsack began to lift and sustain +me. When I felt myself so gently supported and upheld that I seemed +to weigh about thirty or forty pounds, I would set out for a walk. +The knapsack did not raise me from the ground, but it gave me a very +buoyant step. It was no labor at all to walk; it was a delight, an +ecstasy. With the strength of a man and the weight of a child, I +gayly strode along. The first day I walked half a dozen miles at a +very brisk pace, and came back without feeling in the least degree +tired. These walks now became one of the greatest joys of my life. +When nobody was looking, I would bound over a fence, sometimes just +touching it with one hand, and sometimes not touching it at all. I +delighted in rough places. I sprang over streams. I jumped and I +ran. I felt like Mercury himself. + +I now set about making another machine, so that my wife could +accompany me in my walks; but when it was finished she positively +refused to use it. "I can't wear a knapsack," she said, "and there +is no other good way of fastening it to me. Besides, everybody about +here knows I am no walker, and it would only set them talking." + +I occasionally made use of this second machine, but I will give only +one instance of its application. Some repairs were needed to the +foundation-walls of my barn, and a two-horse wagon, loaded with +building-stone, had been brought into my yard and left there. In the +evening, when the men had gone away, I took my two machines and +fastened them, with strong chains, one on each side of the loaded +wagon. Then, gradually turning the screws, the wagon was so lifted +that its weight became very greatly diminished. We had an old donkey +which used to belong to Herbert, and which was now occasionally used +with a small cart to bring packages from the station. I went into +the barn and put the harness on the little fellow, and, bringing him +out to the wagon, I attached him to it. In this position he looked +very funny with a long pole sticking out in front of him and the +great wagon behind him. When all was ready I touched him up; and, to +my great delight, he moved off with the two-horse load of stone as +easily as if he were drawing his own cart. I led him out into the +public road, along which he proceeded without difficulty. He was an +opinionated little beast, and sometimes stopped, not liking the +peculiar manner in which he was harnessed; but a touch of the switch +made him move on, and I soon turned him and brought the wagon back +into the yard. This determined the success of my invention in one of +its most important uses, and with a satisfied heart I put the donkey +into the stable and went into the house. + +Our trip to Europe was made a few months after this, and was mainly +on our son Herbert's account. He, poor fellow, was in great trouble, +and so, therefore, were we. He had become engaged, with our full +consent, to a young lady in our town, the daughter of a gentleman +whom we esteemed very highly. Herbert was young to be engaged to be +married, but as we felt that he would never find a girl to make him +so good a wife, we were entirely satisfied, especially as it was +agreed on all hands that the marriage was not to take place for some +time. It seemed to us that, in marrying Janet Gilbert, Herbert would +secure for himself, in the very beginning of his career, the most +important element of a happy life. But suddenly, without any reason +that seemed to us justifiable, Mr. Gilbert, the only surviving +parent of Janet, broke off the match; and he and his daughter soon +after left the town for a trip to the West. + +This blow nearly broke poor Herbert's heart. He gave up his +professional studies and came home to us, and for a time we thought +he would be seriously ill. Then we took him to Europe, and after a +Continental tour of a month or two we left him, at his own request, +in Goettingen, where he thought it would do him good to go to work +again. Then we went down to the little town in Italy where my story +first finds us. My wife had suffered much in mind and body on her +son's account, and for this reason I was anxious that she should +take outdoor exercise, and enjoy as much as possible the bracing air +of the country. I had brought with me both my little machines. One +was still in my knapsack, and the other I had fastened to the inside +of an enormous family trunk. As one is obliged to pay for nearly +every pound of his baggage on the Continent, this saved me a great +deal of money. Everything heavy was packed into this great +trunk--books, papers, the bronze, iron, and marble relics we had +picked up, and all the articles that usually weigh down a tourist's +baggage. I screwed up the negative-gravity apparatus until the trunk +could be handled with great ease by an ordinary porter. I could have +made it weigh nothing at all, but this, of course, I did not wish to +do. The lightness of my baggage, however, had occasioned some +comment, and I had overheard remarks which were not altogether +complimentary about people travelling around with empty trunks; but +this only amused me. + +Desirous that my wife should have the advantage of negative gravity +while taking our walks, I had removed the machine from the trunk and +fastened it inside of the basket, which she could carry under her +arm. This assisted her wonderfully. When one arm was tired she put +the basket under the other, and thus, with one hand on my arm, she +could easily keep up with the free and buoyant steps my knapsack +enabled me to take. She did not object to long tramps here, because +nobody knew that she was not a walker, and she always carried some +wine or other refreshment in the basket, not only because it was +pleasant to have it with us, but because it seemed ridiculous to go +about carrying an empty basket. + +There were English-speaking people stopping at the hotel where we +were, but they seemed more fond of driving than walking, and none of +them offered to accompany us on our rambles, for which we were very +glad. There was one man there, however, who was a great walker. He +was an Englishman, a member of an Alpine Club, and generally went +about dressed in a knickerbocker suit, with gray woollen stockings +covering an enormous pair of calves. One evening this gentleman was +talking to me and some others about the ascent of the Matterhorn, +and I took occasion to deliver in pretty strong language my opinion +upon such exploits. I declared them to be useless, foolhardy, and, +if the climber had any one who loved him, wicked. + +"Even if the weather should permit a view," I said, "what is that +compared to the terrible risk to life? Under certain circumstances," +I added (thinking of a kind of waistcoat I had some idea of making, +which, set about with little negative-gravity machines, all +connected with a conveniently handled screw, would enable the wearer +at times to dispense with his weight altogether), "such ascents +might be divested of danger, and be quite admissible; but ordinarily +they should be frowned upon by the intelligent public." + +The Alpine Club man looked at me, especially regarding my somewhat +slight figure and thinnish legs. + +"It's all very well for you to talk that way," he said, "because it +is easy to see that you are not up to that sort of thing." + +"In conversations of this kind," I replied, "I never make personal +allusions; but since you have chosen to do so, I feel inclined to +invite you to walk with me to-morrow to the top of the mountain to +the north of this town." + +"I'll do it," he said, "at any time you choose to name." And as I +left the room soon afterward I heard him laugh. + +The next afternoon, about two o'clock, the Alpine Club man and +myself set out for the mountain. + +"What have you got in your knapsack?" he said. + +"A hammer to use if I come across geological specimens, a +field-glass, a flask of wine, and some other things." + +"I wouldn't carry any weight, if I were you," he said. + +"Oh, I don't mind it," I answered, and off we started. + +The mountain to which we were bound was about two miles from the +town. Its nearest side was steep, and in places almost precipitous, +but it sloped away more gradually toward the north, and up that side +a road led by devious windings to a village near the summit. It was +not a very high mountain, but it would do for an afternoon's climb. + +"I suppose you want to go up by the road," said my companion. + +"Oh no," I answered, "we won't go so far around as that. There is a +path up this side, along which I have seen men driving their goats. +I prefer to take that." + +"All right, if you say so," he answered, with a smile; "but you'll +find it pretty tough." + +After a time he remarked: + +"I wouldn't walk so fast, if I were you." + +"Oh, I like to step along briskly," I said. And briskly on we went. + +My wife had screwed up the machine in the knapsack more than usual, +and walking seemed scarcely any effort at all. I carried a long +alpenstock, and when we reached the mountain and began the ascent, I +found that with the help of this and my knapsack I could go uphill +at a wonderful rate. My companion had taken the lead, so as to show +me how to climb. Making a _detour_ over some rocks, I quickly passed +him and went ahead. After that it was impossible for him to keep up +with me. I ran up steep places, I cut off the windings of the path +by lightly clambering over rocks, and even when I followed the +beaten track my step was as rapid as if I had been walking on level +ground. + +"Look here!" shouted the Alpine Club man from below, "you'll kill +yourself if you go at that rate! That's no way to climb mountains." + +"It's my way!" I cried. And on I skipped. + +Twenty minutes after I arrived at the summit my companion joined me, +puffing, and wiping his red face with his handkerchief. + +"Confound it!" he cried, "I never came up a mountain so fast in my +life." + +"You need not have hurried," I said, coolly. + +"I was afraid something would happen to you," he growled, "and I +wanted to stop you. I never saw a person climb in such an utterly +absurd way." + +"I don't see why you should call it absurd," I said, smiling with an +air of superiority. "I arrived here in a perfectly comfortable +condition, neither heated nor wearied." + +He made no answer, but walked off to a little distance, fanning +himself with his hat and growling words which I did not catch. After +a time I proposed to descend. + +"You must be careful as you go down," he said. "It is much more +dangerous to go down steep places than to climb up." + +"I am always prudent," I answered, and started in advance. I found +the descent of the mountain much more pleasant than the ascent. It +was positively exhilarating. I jumped from rocks and bluffs eight +and ten feet in height, and touched the ground as gently as if I had +stepped down but two feet. I ran down steep paths, and, with the aid +of my alpenstock, stopped myself in an instant. I was careful to +avoid dangerous places, but the runs and jumps I made were such as +no man had ever made before upon that mountain-side. Once only I +heard my companion's voice. + +"You'll break your ---- neck!" he yelled. + +"Never fear!" I called back, and soon left him far above. + +When I reached the bottom I would have waited for him, but my +activity had warmed me up, and as a cool evening breeze was +beginning to blow I thought it better not to stop and take cold. +Half an hour after my arrival at the hotel I came down to the court, +cool, fresh, and dressed for dinner, and just in time to meet the +Alpine man as he entered, hot, dusty, and growling. + +"Excuse me for not waiting for you," I said; but without stopping to +hear my reason, he muttered something about waiting in a place where +no one would care to stay, and passed into the house. + +There was no doubt that what I had done gratified my pique and +tickled my vanity. + +"I think now," I said, when I related the matter to my wife, "that +he will scarcely say that I am not up to that sort of thing." + +"I am not sure," she answered, "that it was exactly fair. He did not +know how you were assisted." + +"It was fair enough," I said. "He is enabled to climb well by the +inherited vigor of his constitution and by his training. He did not +tell me what methods of exercise he used to get those great muscles +upon his legs. I am enabled to climb by the exercise of my +intellect. My method is my business and his method is his business. +It is all perfectly fair." + +Still she persisted: + +"He _thought_ that you climbed with your legs, and not with your +head." + +And now, after this long digression, necessary to explain how a +middle-aged couple of slight pedestrian ability, and loaded with a +heavy knapsack and basket, should have started out on a rough walk +and climb, fourteen miles in all, we will return to ourselves, +standing on the little bluff and gazing out upon the sunset view. +When the sky began to fade a little we turned from it and prepared +to go back to the town. + +"Where is the basket?" I said. + +"I left it right here," answered my wife. "I unscrewed the machine +and it lay perfectly flat." + +"Did you afterward take out the bottles?" I asked, seeing them lying +on the grass. + +"Yes, I believe I did. I had to take out yours in order to get at +mine." + +"Then," said I, after looking all about the grassy patch on which we +stood, "I am afraid you did not entirely unscrew the instrument, and +that when the weight of the bottles was removed the basket gently +rose into the air." + +"It may be so," she said, lugubriously. "The basket was behind me as +I drank my wine." + +"I believe that is just what has happened," I said. "Look up there! +I vow that is our basket!" + +I pulled out my field-glass and directed it at a little speck high +above our heads. It was the basket floating high in the air. I gave +the glass to my wife to look, but she did not want to use it. + +"What shall I do?" she cried. "I can't walk home without that +basket. It's perfectly dreadful!" And she looked as if she was going +to cry. + +"Do not distress yourself," I said, although I was a good deal +disturbed myself. "We shall get home very well. You shall put your +hand on my shoulder, while I put my arm around you. Then you can +screw up my machine a good deal higher, and it will support us both. +In this way I am sure that we shall get on very well." + +We carried out this plan, and managed to walk on with moderate +comfort. To be sure, with the knapsack pulling me upward, and the +weight of my wife pulling me down, the straps hurt me somewhat, +which they had not done before. We did not spring lightly over the +wall into the road, but, still clinging to each other, we clambered +awkwardly over it. The road for the most part declined gently toward +the town, and with moderate ease we made our way along it. But we +walked much more slowly than we had done before, and it was quite +dark when we reached our hotel. If it had not been for the light +inside the court it would have been difficult for us to find it. A +travelling-carriage was standing before the entrance, and against +the light. It was necessary to pass around it, and my wife went +first. I attempted to follow her, but, strange to say, there was +nothing under my feet. I stepped vigorously, but only wagged my legs +in the air. To my horror I found that I was rising in the air! I +soon saw, by the light below me, that I was some fifteen feet from +the ground. The carriage drove away, and in the darkness I was not +noticed. Of course I knew what had happened. The instrument in my +knapsack had been screwed up to such an intensity, in order to +support both myself and my wife, that when her weight was removed +the force of the negative gravity was sufficient to raise me from +the ground. But I was glad to find that when I had risen to the +height I have mentioned I did not go up any higher, but hung in the +air, about on a level with the second tier of windows of the hotel. + +I now began to try to reach the screw in my knapsack in order to +reduce the force of the negative gravity; but, do what I would, I +could not get my hand to it. The machine in the knapsack had been +placed so as to support me in a well-balanced and comfortable way; +and in doing this it had been impossible to set the screw so that I +could reach it. But in a temporary arrangement of the kind this had +not been considered necessary, as my wife always turned the screw +for me until sufficient lifting power had been attained. I had +intended, as I have said before, to construct a negative-gravity +waistcoat, in which the screw should be in front, and entirely under +the wearer's control; but this was a thing of the future. + +When I found that I could not turn the screw I began to be much +alarmed. Here I was, dangling in the air, without any means of +reaching the ground. I could not expect my wife to return to look +for me, as she would naturally suppose I had stopped to speak to +some one. I thought of loosening myself from the knapsack, but this +would not do, for I should fall heavily, and either kill myself or +break some of my bones. I did not dare to call for assistance, for +if any of the simple-minded inhabitants of the town had discovered +me floating in the air they would have taken me for a demon, and +would probably have shot at me. A moderate breeze was blowing, and +it wafted me gently down the street. If it had blown me against a +tree I would have seized it, and have endeavored, so to speak, to +climb down it; but there were no trees. There was a dim street-lamp +here and there, but reflectors above them threw their light upon the +pavement, and none up to me. On many accounts I was glad that the +night was so dark, for, much as I desired to get down, I wanted no +one to see me in my strange position, which, to any one but myself +and wife, would be utterly unaccountable. If I could rise as high as +the roofs I might get on one of them, and, tearing off an armful of +tiles, so load myself that I would be heavy enough to descend. But I +did not rise to the eaves of any of the houses. If there had been a +telegraph-pole, or anything of the kind that I could have clung to, +I would have taken off the knapsack, and would have endeavored to +scramble down as well as I could. But there was nothing I could +cling to. Even the water-spouts, if I could have reached the face of +the houses, were embedded in the walls. At an open window, near +which I was slowly blown, I saw two little boys going to bed by the +light of a dim candle. I was dreadfully afraid that they would see +me and raise an alarm. I actually came so near to the window that I +threw out one foot and pushed against the wall with such force that +I went nearly across the street. I thought I caught sight of a +frightened look on the face of one of the boys; but of this I am not +sure, and I heard no cries. I still floated, dangling, down the +street. What was to be done? Should I call out? In that case, if I +were not shot or stoned, my strange predicament, and the secret of +my invention, would be exposed to the world. If I did not do this, I +must either let myself drop and be killed or mangled, or hang there +and die. When, during the course of the night, the air became more +rarefied, I might rise higher and higher, perhaps to an altitude of +one or two hundred feet. It would then be impossible for the people +to reach me and get me down, even if they were convinced that I was +not a demon. I should then expire, and when the birds of the air had +eaten all of me that they could devour, I should forever hang above +the unlucky town, a dangling skeleton with a knapsack on its back. + +Such thoughts were not reassuring, and I determined that if I could +find no means of getting down without assistance, I would call out +and run all risks; but so long as I could endure the tension of the +straps I would hold out, and hope for a tree or a pole. Perhaps it +might rain, and my wet clothes would then become so heavy that I +would descend as low as the top of a lamp-post. + +As this thought was passing through my mind I saw a spark of light +upon the street approaching me. I rightly imagined that it came from +a tobacco-pipe, and presently I heard a voice. It was that of the +Alpine Club man. Of all people in the world I did not want him to +discover me, and I hung as motionless as possible. The man was +speaking to another person who was walking with him. + +"He is crazy beyond a doubt," said the Alpine man. "Nobody but a +maniac could have gone up and down that mountain as he did! He +hasn't any muscles, and one need only look at him to know that he +couldn't do any climbing in a natural way. It is only the excitement +of insanity that gives him strength." + +The two now stopped almost under me, and the speaker continued: + +"Such things are very common with maniacs. At times they acquire an +unnatural strength which is perfectly wonderful. I have seen a +little fellow struggle and fight so that four strong men could not +hold him." + +Then the other person spoke. + +"I am afraid what you say is too true," he remarked. "Indeed, I have +known it for some time." + +At these words my breath almost stopped. It was the voice of Mr. +Gilbert, my townsman, and the father of Janet. It must have been he +who had arrived in the travelling-carriage. He was acquainted with +the Alpine Club man, and they were talking of me. Proper or +improper, I listened with all my ears. + +"It is a very sad case," Mr. Gilbert continued. "My daughter was +engaged to marry his son, but I broke off the match. I could not +have her marry the son of a lunatic, and there could be no doubt of +his condition. He has been seen--a man of his age, and the head of a +family--to load himself up with a heavy knapsack, which there was no +earthly necessity for him to carry, and go skipping along the road +for miles, vaulting over fences and jumping over rocks and ditches +like a young calf or a colt. I myself saw a most heartrending +instance of how a kindly man's nature can be changed by the +derangement of his intellect. I was at some distance from his house, +but I plainly saw him harness a little donkey which he owns to a +large two-horse wagon loaded with stone, and beat and lash the poor +little beast until it drew the heavy load some distance along the +public road. I would have remonstrated with him on this horrible +cruelty, but he had the wagon back in his yard before I could reach +him." + +"Oh, there can be no doubt of his insanity," said the Alpine Club +man, "and he oughtn't to be allowed to travel about in this way. +Some day he will pitch his wife over a precipice just for the fun of +seeing her shoot through the air." + +"I am sorry he is here," said Mr. Gilbert, "for it would be very +painful to meet him. My daughter and I will retire very soon, and go +away as early to-morrow morning as possible, so as to avoid seeing +him." + +And then they walked back to the hotel. + +For a few moments I hung, utterly forgetful of my condition, and +absorbed in the consideration of these revelations. One idea now +filled my mind. Everything must be explained to Mr. Gilbert, even if +it should be necessary to have him called to me, and for me to speak +to him from the upper air. + +Just then I saw something white approaching me along the road. My +eyes had become accustomed to the darkness, and I perceived that it +was an upturned face. I recognized the hurried gait, the form; it +was my wife. As she came near me, I called her name, and in the same +breath entreated her not to scream. It must have been an effort for +her to restrain herself, but she did it. + +"You must help me to get down," I said, "without anybody seeing us." + +"What shall I do?" she whispered. + +"Try to catch hold of this string." + +Taking a piece of twine from my pocket, I lowered one end to her. +But it was too short; she could not reach it. I then tied my +handkerchief to it, but still it was not long enough. + +"I can get more string, or handkerchiefs," she whispered, hurriedly. + +"No," I said; "you could not get them up to me. But, leaning against +the hotel wall, on this side, in the corner, just inside of the +garden gate, are some fishing-poles. I have seen them there every +day. You can easily find them in the dark. Go, please, and bring me +one of those." + +The hotel was not far away, and in a few minutes my wife returned +with a fishing-pole. She stood on tiptoe, and reached it high in +air; but all she could do was to strike my feet and legs with it. My +most frantic exertions did not enable me to get my hands low enough +to touch it. + +"Wait a minute," she said; and the rod was withdrawn. + +I knew what she was doing. There was a hook and line attached to the +pole, and with womanly dexterity she was fastening the hook to the +extreme end of the rod. Soon she reached up, and gently struck at my +legs. After a few attempts the hook caught in my trousers, a little +below my right knee. Then there was a slight pull, a long scratch +down my leg, and the hook was stopped by the top of my boot. Then +came a steady downward pull, and I felt myself descending. Gently +and firmly the rod was drawn down; carefully the lower end was kept +free from the ground; and in a few moments my ankle was seized with +a vigorous grasp. Then some one seemed to climb up me, my feet +touched the ground, an arm was thrown around my neck, the hand of +another arm was busy at the back of my knapsack, and I soon stood +firmly in the road, entirely divested of negative gravity. + +"Oh that I should have forgotten," sobbed my wife, "and that I +should have dropped your arms and let you go up into the air! At +first I thought that you had stopped below, and it was only a little +while ago that the truth flashed upon me. Then I rushed out and +began looking up for you. I knew that you had wax matches in your +pocket, and hoped that you would keep on striking them, so that you +would be seen." + +"But I did not wish to be seen," I said, as we hurried to the hotel; +"and I can never be sufficiently thankful that it was you who found +me and brought me down. Do you know that it is Mr. Gilbert and his +daughter who have just arrived? I must see him instantly. I will +explain it all to you when I come upstairs." + +I took off my knapsack and gave it to my wife, who carried it to our +room, while I went to look for Mr. Gilbert. Fortunately I found him +just as he was about to go up to his chamber. He took my offered +hand, but looked at me sadly and gravely. + +"Mr. Gilbert," I said, "I must speak to you in private. Let us step +into this room. There is no one here." + +"My friend," said Mr. Gilbert, "it will be much better to avoid +discussing this subject. It is very painful to both of us, and no +good can come from talking of it." + +"You cannot now comprehend what it is I want to say to you," I +replied. "Come in here, and in a few minutes you will be very glad +that you listened to me." + +My manner was so earnest and impressive that Mr. Gilbert was +constrained to follow me, and we went into a small room called the +smoking-room, but in which people seldom smoked, and closed the +door. I immediately began my statement. I told my old friend that I +had discovered, by means that I need not explain at present, that he +had considered me crazy, and that now the most important object of +my life was to set myself right in his eyes. I thereupon gave him +the whole history of my invention, and explained the reason of the +actions that had appeared to him those of a lunatic. I said nothing +about the little incident of that evening. That was a mere accident, +and I did not care now to speak of it. + +Mr. Gilbert listened to me very attentively. + +"Your wife is here?" he asked, when I had finished. + +"Yes," I said; "and she will corroborate my story in every item, and +no one could ever suspect her of being crazy. I will go and bring +her to you." + +In a few minutes my wife was in the room, had shaken hands with Mr. +Gilbert, and had been told of my suspected madness. She turned pale, +but smiled. + +"He did act like a crazy man," she said, "but I never supposed that +anybody would think him one." And tears came into her eyes. + +"And now, my dear," said I, "perhaps you will tell Mr. Gilbert how I +did all this." + +And then she told him the story that I had told. + +Mr. Gilbert looked from the one to the other of us with a troubled +air. + +"Of course I do not doubt either of you, or rather I do not doubt +that you believe what you say. All would be right if I could bring +myself to credit that such a force as that you speak of can possibly +exist." + +"That is a matter," said I, "which I can easily prove to you by +actual demonstration. If you can wait a short time, until my wife +and I have had something to eat--for I am nearly famished, and I am +sure she must be--I will set your mind at rest upon that point." + +"I will wait here," said Mr. Gilbert, "and smoke a cigar. Don't +hurry yourselves. I shall be glad to have some time to think about +what you have told me." + +When we had finished the dinner, which had been set aside for us, I +went upstairs and got my knapsack, and we both joined Mr. Gilbert in +the smoking-room. I showed him the little machine, and explained, +very briefly, the principle of its construction. I did not give any +practical demonstration of its action, because there were people +walking about the corridor who might at any moment come into the +room; but, looking out of the window, I saw that the night was much +clearer. The wind had dissipated the clouds, and the stars were +shining brightly. + +"If you will come up the street with me," said I to Mr. Gilbert, "I +will show you how this thing works." + +"That is just what I want to see," he answered. + +"I will go with you," said my wife, throwing a shawl over her head. +And we started up the street. + +When we were outside the little town I found the starlight was quite +sufficient for my purpose. The white roadway, the low walls, and +objects about us, could easily be distinguished. + +"Now," said I to Mr. Gilbert, "I want to put this knapsack on you, +and let you see how it feels, and how it will help you to walk." To +this he assented with some eagerness, and I strapped it firmly on +him. "I will now turn this screw," said I, "until you shall become +lighter and lighter." + +"Be very careful not to turn it too much," said my wife, earnestly. + +"Oh, you may depend on me for that," said I, turning the screw very +gradually. + +Mr. Gilbert was a stout man, and I was obliged to give the screw a +good many turns. + +"There seems to be considerable hoist in it," he said, directly. And +then I put my arms around him, and found that I could raise him from +the ground. + +"Are you lifting me?" he exclaimed, in surprise. + +"Yes; I did it with ease," I answered. + +"Upon--my--word!" ejaculated Mr. Gilbert. + +I then gave the screw a half-turn more, and told him to walk and +run. He started off, at first slowly, then he made long strides, +then he began to run, and then to skip and jump. It had been many +years since Mr. Gilbert had skipped and jumped. No one was in sight, +and he was free to gambol as much as he pleased. "Could you give it +another turn?" said he, bounding up to me. "I want to try that +wall." I put on a little more negative gravity, and he vaulted over +a five-foot wall with great ease. In an instant he had leaped back +into the road, and in two bounds was at my side. "I came down as +light as a cat," he said. "There was never anything like it." And +away he went up the road, taking steps at least eight feet long, +leaving my wife and me laughing heartily at the preternatural +agility of our stout friend. In a few minutes he was with us again. +"Take it off," he said. "If I wear it any longer I shall want one +myself, and then I shall be taken for a crazy man, and perhaps +clapped into an asylum." + +"Now," said I, as I turned back the screw before unstrapping the +knapsack, "do you understand how I took long walks, and leaped and +jumped; how I ran uphill and downhill, and how the little donkey +drew the loaded wagon?" + +"I understand it all," cried he. "I take back all I ever said or +thought about you, my friend." + +"And Herbert may marry Janet?" cried my wife. + +"_May_ marry her!" cried Mr. Gilbert. "Indeed, he _shall_ marry her, +if I have anything to say about it! My poor girl has been drooping +ever since I told her it could not be." + +My wife rushed at him, but whether she embraced him or only shook +his hands I cannot say; for I had the knapsack in one hand and was +rubbing my eyes with the other. + +"But, my dear fellow," said Mr. Gilbert, directly, "if you still +consider it to your interest to keep your invention a secret, I wish +you had never made it. No one having a machine like that can help +using it, and it is often quite as bad to be considered a maniac as +to be one." + +"My friend," I cried, with some excitement, "I have made up my mind +on this subject. The little machine in this knapsack, which is the +only one I now possess, has been a great pleasure to me. But I now +know it has also been of the greatest injury indirectly to me and +mine, not to mention some direct inconvenience and danger, which I +will speak of another time. The secret lies with us three, and we +will keep it. But the invention itself is too full of temptation and +danger for any of us." + +As I said this I held the knapsack with one hand while I quickly +turned the screw with the other. In a few moments it was high above +my head, while I with difficulty held it down by the straps. "Look!" +I cried. And then I released my hold, and the knapsack shot into the +air and disappeared into the upper gloom. + +I was about to make a remark, but had no chance, for my wife threw +herself upon my bosom, sobbing with joy. + +"Oh, I am so glad--so glad!" she said. "And you will never make +another?" + +"Never another!" I answered. + +"And now let us hurry in and see Janet," said my wife. + +"You don't know how heavy and clumsy I feel," said Mr. Gilbert, +striving to keep up with us as we walked back. "If I had worn that +thing much longer, I should never have been willing to take it off!" + +Janet had retired, but my wife went up to her room. + +"I think she has felt it as much as our boy," she said, when she +rejoined me. "But I tell you, my dear, I left a very happy girl in +that little bedchamber over the garden." + +And there were three very happy elderly people talking together +until quite late that evening. "I shall write to Herbert to-night," +I said, when we separated, "and tell him to meet us all in Geneva. +It will do the young man no harm if we interrupt his studies just +now." + +"You must let me add a postscript to the letter," said Mr. Gilbert, +"and I am sure it will require no knapsack with a screw in the back +to bring him quickly to us." + +And it did not. + +There is a wonderful pleasure in tripping over the earth like a +winged Mercury, and in feeling one's self relieved of much of that +attraction of gravitation which drags us down to earth and gradually +makes the movement of our bodies but weariness and labor. But this +pleasure is not to be compared, I think, to that given by the +buoyancy and lightness of two young and loving hearts, reunited +after a separation which they had supposed would last forever. + +What became of the basket and the knapsack, or whether they ever met +in upper air, I do not know. If they but float away and stay away +from ken of mortal man, I shall be satisfied. + +And whether or not the world will ever know more of the power of +negative gravity depends entirely upon the disposition of my son +Herbert, when--after a good many years, I hope--he shall open the +packet my lawyers have in keeping. + + * * * * * + +[NOTE.--It would be quite useless for any one to interview my wife +on this subject, for she has entirely forgotten how my machine was +made. And as for Mr. Gilbert, he never knew.] + + + + +ASAPH + + +About a hundred feet back from the main street of a village in New +Jersey there stood a very good white house. Half-way between it and +the sidewalk was a large chestnut-tree, which had been the pride of +Mr. Himes, who built the house, and was now the pride of Mrs. Himes, +his widow, who lived there. + +Under the tree was a bench, and on the bench were two elderly men, +both smoking pipes, and each one of them leaning forward with his +elbows on his knees. One of these, Thomas Rooper by name, was a +small man with gray side-whiskers, a rather thin face, and very good +clothes. His pipe was a meerschaum, handsomely colored, with a long +amber tip. He had bought that pipe while on a visit to Philadelphia +during the great Centennial Exposition; and if any one noticed it +and happened to remark what a fine pipe it was, that person would be +likely to receive a detailed account of the circumstances of its +purchase, with an appendix relating to the Main Building, the Art +Building, the Agricultural Building, and many other salient points +of the great Exposition which commemorated the centennial of our +national independence. + +The other man, Asaph Scantle, was of a different type. He was a +little older than his companion, but if his hair were gray, it did +not show very much, as his rather long locks were of a sandy hue and +his full face was clean shaven, at least on Wednesdays and Sundays. +He was tall, round-shouldered, and his clothes were not good, +possessing very evident claims to a position on the retired list. +His pipe consisted of a common clay bowl with a long reed stem. + +For some minutes the two men continued to puff together as if they +were playing a duet upon tobacco-pipes, and then Asaph, removing his +reed from his lips, remarked, "What you ought to do, Thomas, is to +marry money." + +"There's sense in that," replied the other; "but you wasn't the +first to think of it." + +Asaph, who knew very well that Mr. Rooper never allowed any one to +suppose that he received suggestions from without, took no notice of +the last remark, but went on: "Lookin' at the matter in a friendly +way, it seems to me it stands to reason that when the shingles on a +man's house is so rotten that the rain comes through into every room +on the top floor, and when the plaster on the ceilin' is tumblin' +down more or less all the time, and the window-sashes is all loose, +and things generally in a condition that he can't let that house +without spendin' at least a year's rent on it to git it into decent +order, and when a man's got to the time of life--" + +"There's nothin' the matter with the time of life," said Thomas; +"that's all right." + +"What I was goin' to say was," continued Asaph, "that when a man +gits to the time of life when he knows what it is to be comfortable +in his mind as well as his body--and that time comes to sensible +people as soon as they git fairly growed up--he don't want to give +up his good room in the tavern and all the privileges of the house, +and go to live on his own property and have the plaster come down on +his own head and the rain come down on the coverlet of his own bed." + +"No, he don't," said Thomas; "and what is more, he isn't goin' to do +it. But what I git from the rent of that house is what I have to +live on; there's no gittin' around that pint." + +"Well, then," said Asaph, "if you don't marry money, what are you +goin' to do? You can't go back to your old business." + +"I never had but one business," said Thomas. "I lived with my folks +until I was a good deal more than growed up; and when the war broke +out I went as sutler to the rigiment from this place; and all the +money I made I put into my property in the village here. That's what +I've lived on ever since. There's no more war, so there's no more +sutlers, except away out West where I wouldn't go; and there are no +more folks, for they are all dead; and if what Mrs. McJimsey says is +true, there'll be no more tenants in my house after the 1st of next +November. For when the McJimseys go on account of want of general +repairs, it is not to be expected that anybody else will come there. +There's nobody in this place that can stand as much as the McJimseys +can." + +"Consequently," said Asaph, deliberately filling his pipe, "it +stands to reason that there ain't nothin' for you to do but marry +money." + +Thomas Rooper took his pipe from his mouth and sat up straight. +Gazing steadfastly at his companion, he remarked, "If you think that +is such a good thing to do, why don't you do it yourself? There +can't be anybody much harder up than you are." + +"The law's agin' my doin' it," said Asaph. "A man can't marry his +sister." + +"Are you thinkin' of Marietta Himes?" asked Mr. Rooper. + +"That's the one I'm thinkin' of," said Asaph. "If you can think of +anybody better, I'd like you to mention her." + +Mr. Rooper did not immediately speak. He presently asked, "What do +you call money?" + +"Well," said Asaph, with a little hesitation, "considerin' the +circumstances, I should say that in a case like this about fifteen +hundred a year, a first-rate house with not a loose shingle on it +nor a crack anywhere, a good garden and an orchard, two cows, a +piece of meadow-land on the other side of the creek, and all the +clothes a woman need have, is money." + +Thomas shrugged his shoulders. "Clothes!" he said. "If she marries +she'll go out of black, and then she'll have to have new ones, and +lots of 'em. That would make a big hole in her money, Asaph." + +The other smiled. "I always knowed you was a far-seein' feller, +Thomas; but it stands to reason that Marietta's got a lot of clothes +that was on hand before she went into mournin', and she's not the +kind of woman to waste 'em. She'll be twistin' 'em about and makin' +'em over to suit the fashions, and it won't be like her to be buyin' +new colored goods when she's got plenty of 'em already." + +There was now another pause in the conversation, and then Mr. Rooper +remarked, "Mrs. Himes must be gettin' on pretty well in years." + +"She's not a young woman," said Asaph; "but if she was much younger +she wouldn't have you, and if she was much older you wouldn't have +her. So it strikes me she's just about the right pint." + +"How old was John Himes when he died?" asked Thomas. + +"I don't exactly know that; but he was a lot older than Marietta." + +Thomas shook his head. "It strikes me," said he, "that John Himes +had a hearty constitution and hadn't ought to died as soon as he +did. He fell away a good deal in the last years of his life." + +"And considerin' that he died of consumption, he had a right to fall +away," said Asaph. "If what you are drivin' at, Thomas, is that +Marietta isn't a good housekeeper and hasn't the right sort of +notions of feedin', look at me. I've lived with Marietta just about +a year, and in that time I have gained forty-two pounds. Now, of +course, I ain't unreasonable, and don't mean to say that you would +gain forty-two pounds in a year, 'cause you ain't got the frame and +bone to put it on; but it wouldn't surprise me a bit if you was to +gain twenty, or even twenty-five, pounds in eighteen months, anyway; +and more than that you ought not to ask, Thomas, considerin' your +height and general build." + +"Isn't Marietta Himes a good deal of a freethinker?" asked Thomas. + +"A what?" cried Asaph. "You mean an infidel?" + +"No," said Thomas, "I don't charge nobody with nothin' more than +there's reason for; but they do say that she goes sometimes to one +church and sometimes to another, and that if there was a Catholic +church in this village she would go to that. And who's goin' to say +where a woman will turn up when she don't know her own mind better +than that?" + +Asaph colored a little. "The place where Marietta will turn up," +said he, warmly, "is on a front seat in the kingdom of heaven; and +if the people that talk about her will mend their ways, they'll see +that I am right. You need not trouble yourself about that, Thomas. +Marietta Himes is pious to the heel." + +Mr. Rooper now shifted himself a little on the bench and crossed one +leg over the other. "Now look here, Asaph," he said, with a little +more animation than he had yet shown, "supposin' all you say is +true, have you got any reason to think that Mrs. Himes ain't +satisfied with things as they are?" + +"Yes, I have," said Asaph. "And I don't mind tellin' you that the +thing she's least satisfied with is me. She wants a man in the +house; that is nateral. She wouldn't be Marietta Himes if she +didn't. When I come to live with her I thought the whole business +was settled; but it isn't. I don't suit her. I don't say she's +lookin' for another man, but if another man was to come along, and +if he was the right kind of a man, it's my opinion she's ready for +him. I wouldn't say this to everybody, but I say it to you, Thomas +Rooper, 'cause I know what kind of a man you are." + +Mr. Rooper did not return the compliment. "I don't wonder your +sister ain't satisfied with you," he said, "for you go ahead of all +the lazy men I ever saw yet. They was sayin' down at the tavern +yesterday--only yesterday--that you could do less work in more time +than anybody they ever saw before." + +"There's two ways of workin'," said Asaph. "Some people work with +their hands and some with their heads." + +Thomas grimly smiled. "It strikes me," said he, "that the most +head-work you do is with your jaws." + +Asaph was not the man to take offence readily, especially when he +considered it against his interest to do so, and he showed no +resentment at this remark. "'Tain't so much my not makin' myself +more generally useful," he said, "that Marietta objects to; though, +of course, it could not be expected that a man that hasn't got any +interest in property would keep workin' at it like a man that has +got an interest in it, such as Marietta's husband would have; but +it's my general appearance that she don't like. She's told me more +than once she didn't so much mind my bein' lazy as lookin' lazy." + +"I don't wonder she thinks that way," said Thomas. "But look here, +Asaph, do you suppose that if Marietta Himes was to marry a man, he +would really come into her property?" + +"There ain't nobody that knows my sister better than I know her, and +I can say, without any fear of bein' contradicted, that when she +gives herself to a man the good-will and fixtures will be included." + +Thomas Rooper now leaned forward with his elbows on his knees +without smoking, and Asaph Scantle leaned forward with his elbows on +his knees without smoking. And thus they remained, saying nothing to +each other, for the space of some ten minutes. + +Asaph was a man who truly used his head a great deal more than he +used his hands. He had always been a shiftless fellow, but he was no +fool, and this his sister found out soon after she asked him to come +and make his home with her. She had not done this because she wanted +a man in the house, for she had lived two or three years without +that convenience and had not felt the need of it. But she heard that +Asaph was in very uncomfortable circumstances, and she had sent for +him solely for his own good. The arrangement proved to be a very +good one for her brother, but not a good one for her. She had always +known that Asaph's head was his main dependence, but she was just +beginning to discover that he liked to use his head so that other +people's hands should work for him. + +"There ain't nobody comin' to see your sister, is there?" asked +Thomas, suddenly. + +"Not a livin' soul," said Asaph, "except women, married folk, and +children. But it has always surprised me that nobody did come; but +just at this minute the field's clear and the gate's open." + +"Well," said Mr. Rooper, "I'll think about it." + +"That's right," said Asaph, rubbing his knees with his hands. +"That's right. But now tell me, Thomas Rooper, supposin' you get +Marietta, what are you goin' to do for me?" + +"For you?" exclaimed the other. "What have you got to do with it?" + +"A good deal," said Asaph. "If you get Marietta with her fifteen +hundred a year--and it wouldn't surprise me if it was eighteen +hundred--and her house and her garden and her cattle and her field +and her furniture, with not a leg loose nor a scratch, you will get +her because I proposed her to you, and because I backed you up +afterward. And now, then, I want to know what you are goin' to do +for me?" + +"What do you want?" asked Thomas. + +"The first thing I want," said Asaph, "is a suit of clothes. These +clothes is disgraceful." + +"You are right there," said Mr. Rooper. "I wonder your sister lets +you come around in front of the house. But what do you mean by +clothes--winter clothes or summer clothes?" + +"Winter," said Asaph, without hesitation. "I don't count summer +clothes. And when I say a suit of clothes, I mean shoes and hat and +underclothes." + +Mr. Rooper gave a sniff. "I wonder you don't say overcoat," he +remarked. + +"I do say overcoat," replied Asaph. "A suit of winter clothes is a +suit of clothes that you can go out into the weather in without +missin' nothin'." + +Mr. Rooper smiled sarcastically. "Is there anything else you want?" +he asked. + +"Yes," said Asaph, decidedly; "there is. I want a umbrella." + +"Cotton or silk?" + +Asaph hesitated. He had never had a silk umbrella in his hand in his +life. He was afraid to strike too high, and he answered, "I want a +good stout gingham." + +Mr. Rooper nodded his head. "Very good," he said. "And is that all?" + +"No," said Asaph, "it ain't all. There is one more thing I want, and +that is a dictionary." + +The other man rose to his feet. "Upon my word," he exclaimed, "I +never before saw a man that would sell his sister for a dictionary! +And what you want with a dictionary is past my conceivin'." + +"Well, it ain't past mine," said Asaph. "For more than ten years I +have wanted a dictionary. If I had a dictionary I could make use of +my head in a way that I can't now. There is books in this house, but +amongst 'em there is no dictionary. If there had been one I'd been a +different man by this time from what I am now, and like as not +Marietta wouldn't have wanted any other man in the house but me." + +Mr. Rooper stood looking upon the ground; and Asaph, who had also +arisen, waited for him to speak. "You are a graspin' man, Asaph," +said Thomas. "But there is another thing I'd like to know: if I give +you them clothes, you don't want them before she's married?" + +"Yes, I do," said Asaph. "If I come to the weddin', I can't wear +these things. I have got to have them first." + +Mr. Rooper gave his head a little twist. "There's many a slip 'twixt +the cup and the lip," said he. + +"Yes," said Asaph; "and there's different cups and different lips. +But what's more, if I was to be best man--which would be nateral, +considerin' I'm your friend and her brother--you wouldn't want me +standin' up in this rig. And that's puttin' it in your own point of +view, Thomas." + +"It strikes me," said the other, "that I could get a best man that +would furnish his own clothes; but we will see about that. There's +another thing, Asaph," he said, abruptly; "what are Mrs. Himes's +views concernin' pipes?" + +This question startled and frightened Asaph. He knew that his sister +could not abide the smell of tobacco and that Mr. Rooper was an +inveterate smoker. + +"That depends," said he, "on the kind of tobacco. I don't mind +sayin' that Marietta isn't partial to the kind of tobacco I smoke. +But I ain't a moneyed man and I can't afford to buy nothin' but +cheap stuff. But when it comes to a meerschaum pipe and the very +finest Virginia or North Carolina smoking-tobacco, such as a moneyed +man would be likely to use--" + +At this moment there came from the house the sound of a woman's +voice, not loud, but clear and distinct, and it said "Asaph." + +This word sent through Mr. Rooper a gentle thrill such as he did not +remember ever having felt before. There seemed to be in it a +suggestion, a sort of prophecy, of what appeared to him as an +undefined and chaotic bliss. He was not a fanciful man, but he could +not help imagining himself standing alone under that chestnut-tree +and that voice calling "Thomas." + +Upon Asaph the effect was different. The interruption was an +agreeable one in one way, because it cut short his attempted +explanation of the tobacco question; but in another way he knew that +it meant the swinging of an axe, and that was not pleasant. + +Mr. Rooper walked back to the tavern in a cogitative state of mind. +"That Asaph Scantle," he said to himself, "has got a head-piece, +there's no denying it. If it had not been for him I do not believe I +should have thought of his sister; at least not until the McJimseys +had left my house, and then it might have been too late." + +Marietta Himes was a woman with a gentle voice and an appearance and +demeanor indicative of a general softness of disposition; but +beneath this mild exterior there was a great deal of firmness of +purpose. Asaph had not seen very much of his sister since she had +grown up and married; and when he came to live with her he thought +that he was going to have things pretty much his own way. But it was +not long before he entirely changed his mind. + +Mrs. Himes was of moderate height, pleasant countenance, and a +figure inclined to plumpness. Her dark hair, in which there was not +a line of gray, was brushed down smoothly on each side of her face, +and her dress, while plain, was extremely neat. In fact, everything +in the house and on the place was extremely neat, except Asaph. + +She was in the bright little dining-room which looked out on the +flower-garden, preparing the table for supper, placing every plate, +dish, glass, and cup with as much care and exactness as if a civil +engineer had drawn a plan on the table-cloth with places marked for +the position of each article. + +As she finished her work by placing a chair on each side of the +table, a quiet smile, the result of a train of thought in which she +had been indulging for the past half-hour, stole over her face. She +passed through the kitchen, with a glance at the stove to see if the +tea-kettle had begun to boil; and going out of the back door, she +walked over to the shed where her brother was splitting +kindling-wood. + +"Asaph," said Mrs. Himes, "if I were to give you a good suit of +clothes, would you promise me that you would never smoke when +wearing them?" + +Her brother looked at her in amazement. "Clothes!" he repeated. + +"Mr. Himes was about your size," said his sister, "and he left a +good many clothes, which are most of them very good and carefully +packed away, so that I am sure there is not a moth-hole in any one +of them. I have several times thought, Asaph, that I might give you +some of his clothes; but it did seem to me a desecration to have the +clothes of such a man, who was so particular and nice, filled and +saturated with horrible tobacco-smoke, which he detested. But now +you are getting to be so awful shabby, I do not see how I can stand +it any longer. But one thing I will not do--I will not have Mr. +Himes's clothes smelling of tobacco as yours do; and not only your +own tobacco, but Mr. Rooper's." + +"I think," said Asaph, "that you are not exactly right just there. +What you smell about me is my smoke. Thomas Rooper never uses +anything but the finest-scented and delicatest brands. I think that +if you come to get used to his tobacco-smoke you would like it. But +as to my takin' off my clothes and puttin' on a different suit every +time I want to light my pipe, that's pretty hard lines, it seems to +me." + +"It would be a good deal easier to give up the pipe," said his +sister. + +"I will do that," said Asaph, "when you give up tea. But you know as +well as I do that there's no use of either of us a-tryin' to change +our comfortable habits at our time of life." + +"I kept on hoping," said Mrs. Himes, "that you would feel yourself +that you were not fit to be seen by decent people, and that you +would go to work and earn at least enough money to buy yourself some +clothes. But as you don't seem inclined to do that, I thought I +would make you this offer. But you must understand that I will not +have you smoke in Mr. Himes's clothes." + +Asaph stood thinking, the head of his axe resting upon the ground, a +position which suited him. He was in a little perplexity. Marietta's +proposition seemed to interfere somewhat with the one he had made to +Thomas Rooper. Here was a state of affairs which required most +careful consideration. "I've been arrangin' about some clothes," he +said, presently; "for I know very well I need 'em; but I don't know +just yet how it will turn out." + +"I hope, Asaph," said Marietta, quickly, "that you are not thinking +of going into debt for clothing, and I know that you haven't been +working to earn money. What arrangements have you been making?" + +"That's my private affair," said Asaph, "but there's no debt in it. +It is all fair and square--cash down, so to speak; though, of +course, it's not cash, but work. But, as I said before, that isn't +settled." + +"I am afraid, Asaph," said his sister, "that if you have to do the +work first you will never get the clothes, and so you might as well +come back to my offer." + +Asaph came back to it and thought about it very earnestly. If by any +chance he could get two suits of clothes, he would then feel that he +had a head worth having. "What would you say," he said, presently, +"if when I wanted to smoke I was to put on a long duster--I guess +Mr. Himes had dusters--and a nightcap and rubbers? I'd agree to hang +the duster and the cap in the shed here and never smoke without +putting 'em on." There was a deep purpose in this proposition, for, +enveloped in the long duster, he might sit with Thomas Rooper under +the chestnut-tree and smoke and talk and plan as long as he pleased, +and his companion would not know that he did not need a new suit of +clothes. + +"Nonsense," said Mrs. Himes; "you must make up your mind to act +perfectly fairly, Asaph, or else say you will not accept my offer. +But if you don't accept it, I can't see how you can keep on living +with me." + +"What do you mean by clothes, Marietta?" he asked. + +"Well, I mean a complete suit, of course," said she. + +"Winter or summer?" + +"I hadn't thought of that," Mrs. Himes replied; "but that can be as +you choose." + +"Overcoat?" asked Asaph. + +"Yes," said she, "and cane and umbrella, if you like, and +pocket-handkerchiefs, too. I will fit you out completely, and shall +be glad to have you looking like a decent man." + +At the mention of the umbrella another line of perplexity showed +itself upon Asaph's brow. The idea came to him that if she would add +a dictionary he would strike a bargain. Thomas Rooper was certainly +a very undecided and uncertain sort of man. But then there came up +the thought of his pipe, and he was all at sea again. Giving up +smoking was almost the same as giving up eating. "Marietta," said +he, "I will think about this." + +"Very well," she answered; "but it's my opinion, Asaph, that you +ought not to take more than one minute to think about it. However, I +will give you until to-morrow morning, and then if you decide that +you don't care to look like a respectable citizen, I must have some +further talk with you about our future arrangements." + +"Make it to-morrow night," said Asaph. And his sister consented. + +The next day Asaph was unusually brisk and active; and very soon +after breakfast he walked over to the village tavern to see Mr. +Rooper. + +"Hello!" exclaimed that individual, surprised at his visitor's early +appearance at the business centre of the village. "What's started +you out? Have you come after them clothes?" + +A happy thought struck Asaph. He had made this visit with the +intention of feeling his way toward some decision on the important +subject of his sister's proposition, and here a way seemed to be +opened to him. "Thomas," said he, taking his friend aside, "I am in +an awful fix. Marietta can't stand my clothes any longer. If she +can't stand them she can't stand me, and when it comes to that, you +can see for yourself that I can't help you." + +A shade settled upon Mr. Rooper's face. During the past evening he +had been thinking and puffing, and puffing and thinking, until +everybody else in the tavern had gone to bed; and he had finally +made up his mind that, if he could do it, he would marry Marietta +Himes. He had never been very intimate with her or her husband, but +he had been to meals in the house, and he remembered the fragrant +coffee and the light, puffy, well-baked rolls made by Marietta's own +hands; and he thought of the many differences between living in that +very good house with that gentle, pleasant-voiced lady and his +present life in the village tavern. + +And so, having determined that without delay he would, with the +advice and assistance of Asaph, begin his courtship, it was natural +that he should feel a shock of discouragement when he heard Asaph's +announcement that his sister could not endure him in the house any +longer. To attack that house and its owner without the friendly +offices upon which he depended was an undertaking for which he was +not at all prepared. + +"I don't wonder at her," he said, sharply--"not a bit. But this puts +a mighty different face on the thing what we talked about +yesterday." + +"It needn't," said Asaph, quietly. "The clothes you was goin' to +give me wouldn't cost a cent more to-day than they would in a couple +of months, say; and when I've got 'em on Marietta will be glad to +have me around. Everything can go on just as we bargained for." + +Thomas shook his head. "That would be a mighty resky piece of +business," he said. "You would be all right, but that's not sayin' +that I would; for it strikes me that your sister is about as much a +bird in the bush as any flyin' critter." + +Asaph smiled. "If the bush was in the middle of a field," said he, +"and there was only one boy after the bird, it would be a pretty tough +job. But if the bush is in the corner of two high walls, and there's +two boys, and one of 'em's got a fishnet what he can throw clean +over the bush, why, then the chances is a good deal better. But +droppin' figgers, Thomas, and speakin' plain and straightforward, as +I always do--" + +"About things you want to git," interrupted Thomas. + +"--about everything," resumed Asaph. "I'll just tell you this: if I +don't git decent clothes now to-day, or perhaps to-morrow, I have +got to travel out of Marietta's house. I can do it and she knows it. +I can go back to Drummondville and git my board for keepin' books in +the store, and nobody there cares what sort of clothes I wear. But +when that happens, your chance of gittin' Marietta goes up higher +than a kite." + +To the mind of Mr. Rooper this was most conclusive reasoning; but he +would not admit it and he did not like it. "Why don't your sister +give you clothes?" he said. "Old Himes must have left some." + +A thin chill like a needleful of frozen thread ran down Asaph's +back. "Mr. Himes's clothes!" he exclaimed. "What in the world are +you talkin' about, Thomas Rooper? 'Tain't likely he had many, 'cept +what he was buried in; and what's left, if there is any, Marietta +would no more think of givin' away than she would of hangin' up his +funeral wreath for the canary-bird to perch on. There's a room up in +the garret where she keeps his special things--for she's awful +particular--and if there is any of his clothes up there I expect +she's got 'em framed." + +"If she thinks as much of him as that," muttered Mr. Rooper. + +"Now don't git any sech ideas as them into your head, Thomas," said +Asaph, quickly. "Marietta ain't a woman to rake up the past, and you +never need be afraid of her rakin' up Mr. Himes. All of the premises +will be hern and yourn except that room in the garret, and it ain't +likely she'll ever ask you to go in there." + +"The Lord knows I don't want to!" ejaculated Mr. Rooper. + +The two men walked slowly to the end of a line of well-used, or, +rather, badly used, wooden arm-chairs which stood upon the tavern +piazza, and seated themselves. Mr. Rooper's mind was in a highly +perturbed condition. If he accepted Asaph's present proposition he +would have to make a considerable outlay with a very shadowy +prospect of return. + +"If you haven't got the ready money for the clothes," said Asaph, +after having given his companion some minutes for silent +consideration, "there ain't a man in this village what they would +trust sooner at the store for clothes," and then after a pause he +added, "or books, which, of course, they can order from town." + +At this Mr. Rooper simply shrugged his shoulders. The question of +ready money or credit did not trouble him. + +At this moment a man in a low phaeton, drawn by a stout gray horse, +passed the tavern. + +"Who's that?" asked Asaph, who knew everybody in the village. + +"That's Doctor Wicker," said Thomas. "He lives over at Timberley. He +'tended John Himes in his last sickness." + +"He don't practise here, does he?" said Asaph. "I never see him." + +"No; but he was called in to consult." And then the speaker dropped +again into cogitation. + +After a few minutes Asaph rose. He knew that Thomas Rooper had a +slow-working mind, and thought it would be well to leave him to +himself for a while. "I'll go home," said he, "and 'tend to my +chores, and by the time you feel like comin' up and takin' a smoke +with me under the chestnut-tree, I reckon you will have made up your +mind, and we'll settle this thing. Fer if I have got to go back to +Drummondville, I s'pose I'll have to pack up this afternoon." + +"If you'd say pack off instead of pack up," remarked the other, +"you'd come nearer the facts, considerin' the amount of your +personal property. But I'll be up there in an hour or two." + +When Asaph came within sight of his sister's house he was amazed to +see a phaeton and a gray horse standing in front of the gate. From +this it was easy to infer that the doctor was in the house. What on +earth could have happened? Was anything the matter with Marietta? +And if so, why did she send for a physician who lived at a distance, +instead of Doctor McIlvaine, the village doctor? In a very anxious +state of mind Asaph reached the gate, and irresolutely went into the +yard. His impulse was to go to the house and see what had happened; +but he hesitated. He felt that Marietta might object to having a +comparative stranger know that such an exceedingly shabby fellow was +her brother. And, besides, his sister could not have been overtaken +by any sudden illness. She had always appeared perfectly well, and +there would have been no time during his brief absence from the +house to send over to Timberley for a doctor. + +So he sat down under the chestnut-tree to consider this strange +condition of affairs. "Whatever it is," he said to himself, "it's +nothin' suddint, and it's bound to be chronic, and that'll skeer +Thomas. I wish I hadn't asked him to come up here. The best thing +for me to do will be to pretend that I have been sent to git +somethin' at the store, and go straight back and keep him from +comin' up." + +But Asaph was a good deal quicker to think than to move, and he +still sat with brows wrinkled and mind beset by doubts. For a moment +he thought that it might be well to accept Marietta's proposition +and let Thomas go; but then he remembered the conditions, and he +shut his mental eyes at the prospect. + +At that moment the gate opened and in walked Thomas Rooper. He had +made up his mind and had come to say so; but the sight of the +phaeton and gray horse caused him to postpone his intended +announcement. "What's Doctor Wicker doin' here?" he asked, abruptly. + +"Dunno," said Asaph, as carelessly as he could speak. "I don't +meddle with household matters of that kind. I expect it's somethin' +the matter with that gal Betsey, that Marietta hires to help her. +She's always wrong some way or other so that she can't do her own +proper work, which I know, havin' to do a good deal of it myself. I +expect it's rickets, like as not. Gals do have that sort of thing, +don't they?" + +"Never had anything to do with sick gals," said Thomas, "or sick +people of any sort, and don't want to. But it must be somethin' +pretty deep-seated for your sister to send all the way to Timberley +for a doctor." + +Asaph knew very well that Mrs. Himes was too economical a person to +think of doing such a thing as that, and he knew also that Betsey +was as good a specimen of rustic health as could be found in the +county. And therefore his companion's statement that he wanted to +have nothing to do with sick people had for him a saddening import. + +"I settled that business of yourn," said Mr. Rooper, "pretty soon +after you left me. I thought I might as well come straight around +and tell you about it. I'll make you a fair and square offer. I'll +give you them clothes, though it strikes me that winter goods will +be pretty heavy for this time of year; but it will be on this +condition: if I don't get Marietta, you have got to give 'em back." + +Asaph smiled. + +"I know what you are grinnin' at," said Thomas; "but you needn't +think that you are goin' to have the wearin' of them clothes for two +or three months and then give 'em back. I don't go in for any long +courtships. What I do in that line will be short and sharp." + +"How short?" asked Asaph. + +"Well, this is Thursday," replied the other, "and I calculate to ask +her on Monday." + +Asaph looked at his companion in amazement. "By George!" he +exclaimed, "that won't work. Why, it took Marietta more'n five days +to make up her mind whether she would have the chicken-house painted +green or red, and you can't expect her to be quicker than that in +takin' a new husband. She'd say No just as certain as she would now +if you was to go in and ask her right before the doctor and Betsey. +And I'll just tell you plain that it wouldn't pay me to do all the +hustlin' around and talkin' and argyin' and recommendin' that I'd +have to do just for the pleasure of wearin' a suit of warm clothes +for four July days. I tell you what it is, it won't do to spring +that sort of thing on a woman, especially when she's what you might +call a trained widder. You got to give 'em time to think over the +matter and to look up your references. There's no use talkin' about +it; you must give 'em time, especially when the offer comes from a +person that nobody but me has ever thought of as a marryin' man." + +"Humph!" said Thomas. "That's all you know about it." + +"Facts is facts, and you can't git around 'em. There isn't a woman +in this village what wouldn't take at least two weeks to git it into +her head that you was really courtin' her. She would be just as +likely to think that you was tryin' to git a tenant in place of the +McJimseys. But a month of your courtin' and a month of my workin' +would just about make the matter all right with Marietta, and then +you could sail in and settle it." + +"Very good," said Mr. Rooper, rising suddenly. "I will court your +sister for one month; and if, on the 17th day of August, she takes +me, you can go up to the store and git them clothes; but you can't +do it one minute afore. Good-mornin'." + +Asaph, left alone, heaved a sigh. He did not despair; but truly, +fate was heaping a great many obstacles in his path. He thought it +was a very hard thing for a man to get his rights in this world. + +Mrs. Himes sat on one end of a black hair-covered sofa in the +parlor, and Doctor Wicker sat on a black hair-covered chair opposite +to her and not far away. The blinds of the window opening upon the +garden were drawn up; but those on the front window, which commanded +a view of the chestnut-tree, were down. Doctor Wicker had just made +a proposal of marriage to Mrs. Himes, and at that moment they were +both sitting in silence. + +The doctor, a bluff, hearty-looking man of about forty-five, had +been very favorably impressed by Mrs. Himes when he first made her +acquaintance, during her husband's sickness, and since that time he +had seen her occasionally and had thought about her a great deal. +Latterly letters had passed between them, and now he had come to +make his declaration in person. + +It was true, as her brother had said, that Marietta was not quick in +making up her mind. But in this case she was able to act more +promptly than usual, because she had in a great measure settled this +matter before the arrival of the doctor. She knew he was going to +propose, and she was very much inclined to accept him. This it was +which had made her smile when she was setting the table the +afternoon before, and this it was which had prompted her to make her +proposition to her brother in regard to his better personal +appearance. + +But now she was in a condition of nervous trepidation, and made no +answer. The doctor thought this was natural enough under the +circumstances, but he had no idea of the cause of it. The cause of +it was sitting under the chestnut-tree, the bright sunlight, +streaming through a break in the branches above, illuminating and +emphasizing and exaggerating his extreme shabbiness. The doctor had +never seen Asaph, and it would have been a great shock to Marietta's +self-respect to have him see her brother in his present aspect. + +Through a crack in the blind of the front window she had seen Asaph +come in and sit down, and she had seen Mr. Rooper arrive and had +noticed his departure. And now, with an anxiety which made her chin +tremble, she sat and hoped that Asaph would get up and go away. For +she knew that if she should say to the doctor what she was perfectly +willing to say then and there, he would very soon depart, being a +man of practical mind and pressing business; and that, going to the +front door with him, she would be obliged to introduce him to a +prospective brother-in-law whose appearance, she truly believed, +would make him sick. For the doctor was a man, she well knew, who +was quite as nice and particular about dress and personal appearance +as the late Mr. Himes had been. + +Doctor Wicker, aware that the lady's perturbation was increasing +instead of diminishing, thought it wise not to press the matter at +this moment. He felt that he had been, perhaps, a little over-prompt +in making his proposition. "Madam," said he, rising, "I will not ask +you to give me an answer now. I will go away and let you think about +it, and will come again to-morrow." + +Through the crack in the window-blind Marietta saw that Asaph was +still under the tree. What could she do to delay the doctor? She did +not offer to take leave of him, but stood looking upon the floor. It +seemed a shame to make so good a man go all the way back to +Timberley and come again next day, just because that ragged, dirty +Asaph was sitting under the chestnut-tree. + +The doctor moved toward the door, and as she followed him she +glanced once more through the crack in the window-blind, and, to her +intense delight, she saw Asaph jump up from the bench and run around +to the side of the house. He had heard the doctor's footsteps in the +hallway and had not wished to meet him. The unsatisfactory condition +of his outward appearance had been so strongly impressed upon him of +late that he had become a little sensitive in regard to it when +strangers were concerned. But if he had only known that his +exceedingly unattractive garments had prevented his sister from +making a compact which would have totally ruined his plans in regard +to her matrimonial disposition and his own advantage, he would have +felt for those old clothes the respect and gratitude with which a +Roman soldier regarded the shield and sword which had won him a +battle. + +Down the middle of the garden, at the back of the house, there ran a +path, and along this path Asaph walked meditatively, with his hands +in his trousers pockets. It was a discouraging place for him to +walk, for the beds on each side of him were full of weeds, which he +had intended to pull out as soon as he should find time for the +work, but which had now grown so tall and strong that they could not +be rooted up without injuring the plants, which were the legitimate +occupants of the garden. + +Asaph did not know it, but at this moment there was not one person +in the whole world who thought kindly of him. His sister was so +mortified by him that she was in tears in the house. His crony, +Thomas, had gone away almost angry with him, and even Betsey, whom +he had falsely accused of rickets, and who had often shown a pity +for him simply because he looked so forlorn, had steeled her heart +against him that morning when she found he had gone away without +providing her with any fuel for the kitchen fire. + +But he had not made a dozen turns up and down the path before he +became aware of the feeling of Marietta. She looked out of the back +door and then walked rapidly toward him. "Asaph," said she, "I hope +you are considering what I said to you yesterday, for I mean to +stick to my word. If you don't choose to accept my offer, I want you +to go back to Drummondville early to-morrow morning. And I don't +feel in the least as if I were turning you out of the house, for I +have given you a chance to stay here, and have only asked you to act +like a decent Christian. I will not have you here disgracing my +home. When Doctor Wicker came to-day, and I looked out and saw you +with that miserable little coat with the sleeves half-way up to the +elbows and great holes in it which you will not let anybody patch +because you are too proud to wear patches, and those wretched faded +trousers, out at the knees, and which have been turned up and hemmed +at the bottom so often that they are six inches above your shoes, +and your whole scarecrow appearance, I was so ashamed of you that I +could not keep the tears out of my eyes. To tell a respectable +gentleman like Doctor Wicker that you were my brother was more than +I could bear; and I was glad when I saw you get up and sneak out of +the way. I hate to talk to you in this way, Asaph, but you have +brought it on yourself." + +Her brother looked at her a moment. "Do you want me to go away +before breakfast?" he said. + +"No," answered Marietta, "but immediately afterward." And in her +mind she resolved that breakfast should be very early the next +morning. + +If Asaph had any idea of yielding, he did not intend to show it +until the last moment, and so he changed the subject. "What's the +matter with Betsey?" said he. "If she's out of health you'd better +get rid of her." + +"There's nothing the matter with Betsey," answered his sister. +"Doctor Wicker came to see me." + +"Came to see you!" exclaimed her brother. "What in the world did he +do that for? You never told me that you were ailin'. Is it that +sprain in your ankle?" + +"Nonsense," said Marietta. "I had almost recovered from that sprain +when you came here. There's nothing the matter with my ankle; the +trouble is probably with my heart." + +The moment she said this she regretted it, for Asaph had so good a +head, and could catch meanings so quickly. + +"I'm sorry to hear that, Marietta," said Asaph. "That's a good deal +more serious." + +"Yes," said she. And she turned and went back to the house. + +Asaph continued to walk up and down the path. He had not done a +stroke of work that morning, but he did not think of that. His +sister's communication saddened him. He liked Marietta, and it +grieved him to hear that she had anything the matter with her heart. +He knew that that often happened to people who looked perfectly +well, and there was no reason why he should have suspected any +disorder in her. Of course, in this case, there was good reason for +her sending for the very best doctor to be had. It was all plain +enough to him now. + +But as he walked and walked and walked, and looked at the garden, +and looked at the little orchard, and looked at the house and the +top of the big chestnut-tree, which showed itself above the roof, a +thought came into his mind which had never been there before--he was +Marietta's heir. It was a dreadful thing to think of his sister's +possible early departure from this world; but, after all, life is +life, reality is reality, and business is business. He was +Marietta's only legal heir. + +Of course he had known this before, but it had never seemed to be of +any importance. He was a good deal older than she was, and he had +always looked upon her as a marrying woman. When he made his +proposition to Mr. Rooper the thought of his own heirship never came +into his mind. In fact, if any one had offered him ten dollars for +said heirship, he would have asked fifteen, and would have afterward +agreed to split the difference and take twelve and a half. + +But now everything had changed. If Marietta had anything the matter +with her heart there was no knowing when all that he saw might be +his own. No sooner had he walked and thought long enough for his +mind to fully appreciate the altered aspects of his future than he +determined to instantly thrust out Mr. Rooper from all connection +with that future. He would go and tell him so at once. + +To the dismay of Betsey, who had been watching him, expecting that +he would soon stop walking about and go and saw some wood with which +to cook the dinner, he went out of the front gate and strode rapidly +into the village. He had some trouble in finding Mr. Rooper, who had +gone off to take a walk and arrange a conversation with which to +begin his courtship of Mrs. Himes; but he overtook him under a tree +by the side of the creek. "Thomas," said he, "I have changed my mind +about that business between us. You have been very hard on me, and +I'm not goin' to stand it. I can get the clothes and things I need +without makin' myself your slave and workin' myself to death, and, +perhaps, settin' my sister agin me for life by tryin' to make her +believe that black's white, that you are the kind of husband she +ought to have, and that you hate pipes and never touch spirits. It +would be a mean thing for me to do, and I won't do it. I did think +you were a generous-minded man, with the right sort of feeling for +them as wanted to be your friends; but I have found out that I was +mistook, and I'm not goin' to sacrifice my sister to any such +person. Now that's my state of mind plain and square." + +Thomas Rooper shrunk two inches in height. "Asaph Scantle," he said, +in a voice which seemed also to have shrunk, "I don't understand +you. I wasn't hard on you. I only wanted to make a fair bargain. If +I'd got her, I'd paid up cash on delivery. You couldn't expect a man +to do more than that. But I tell you, Asaph, that I am mighty +serious about this. The more I have thought about your sister the +more I want her. And when I tell you that I've been a-thinkin' about +her pretty much all night, you may know that I want her a good deal. +And I was intendin' to go to-morrow and begin to court her." + +"Well, you needn't," said Asaph. "It won't do no good. If you don't +have me to back you up you might as well try to twist that tree as +to move her. You can't do it." + +"But you don't mean to go agin me, do you, Asaph?" asked Thomas, +ruefully. + +"'Tain't necessary," replied the other. "You will go agin yourself." + +For a few moments Mr. Rooper remained silent. He was greatly +discouraged and dismayed by what had been said to him, but he could +not yet give up what had become the great object of his life. +"Asaph," said he, presently, "it cuts me to the in'ards to think +that you have gone back on me; but I tell you what I'll do: if you +will promise not to say anything agin me to Mrs. Himes, and not to +set yourself in any way between me and her, I'll go along with you +to the store now, and you can git that suit of clothes and the +umbrella, and I'll tell 'em to order the dictionary and hand it over +to you as soon as it comes. I'd like you to help me, but if you will +only promise to stand out of the way and not hinder, I'll do the +fair thing by you and pay in advance." + +"Humph!" said Asaph. "I do believe you think you are the only man +that wants Marietta." + +A pang passed through the heart of Mr. Rooper. He had been thinking +a great deal of Mrs. Himes and everything connected with her, and he +had even thought of that visit of Doctor Wicker's. That gentleman +was a widower and a well-to-do and well-appearing man; and it would +have been a long way for him to come just for some trifling rickets +in a servant-girl. Being really in love, his imagination was in a +very capering mood, and he began to fear that the doctor had come to +court Mrs. Himes. "Asaph," he said, quickly, "that's a good offer I +make you. If you take it, in less than an hour you can walk home +looking like a gentleman." + +Asaph had taken his reed pipe from his coat pocket and was filling +it. As he pushed the coarse tobacco into the bowl, he considered. +"Thomas," said he, "that ain't enough. Things have changed, and it +wouldn't pay me. But I won't be hard on you. I'm a good friend of +yourn, and I'll tell you what I'll do. If you will give me now all +the things we spoke of between us--and I forgot to mention a cane +and pocket-handkerchiefs--and give me, besides, that meerschaum pipe +of yourn, I'll promise not to hinder you, but let you go ahead and +git Marietta if you kin. I must say it's a good deal for me to do, +knowin' how much you'll git and how little you'll give, and knowin', +too, the other chances she's got if she wanted 'em; but I'll do it +for the sake of friendship." + +"My meerschaum pipe!" groaned Mr. Rooper. "My Centennial Exhibition +pipe!" His tones were so plaintive that for a moment Asaph felt a +little touch of remorse. But then he reflected that if Thomas really +did get Marietta the pipe would be of no use to him, for she would +not allow him to smoke it. And, besides, realities were realities +and business was business. "That pipe may be very dear to you," he +said, "Thomas, but I want you to remember that Marietta's very dear +to me." + +This touched Mr. Rooper, whose heart was sensitive as it had never +been before. "Come along, Asaph," he said. "You shall have +everything, meerschaum pipe included. If anybody but me is goin' to +smoke that pipe, I'd like it to be my brother-in-law." Thus, with +amber-tipped guile, Mr. Rooper hoped to win over his friend to not +only not hinder, but to help him. + +As the two men walked away, Asaph thought that he was not acting an +unfraternal part toward Marietta, for it would not be necessary for +him to say or do anything to induce her to refuse so unsuitable a +suitor as Thomas Rooper. + +About fifteen minutes before dinner--which had been cooked with bits +of wood which Betsey had picked up here and there--was ready, Asaph +walked into the front yard of his sister's house attired in a +complete suit of new clothes, thick and substantial in texture, +pepper-and-salt in color, and as long in the legs and arms as the +most fastidious could desire. He had on a new shirt and a clean +collar, with a handsome black silk cravat tied in a great bow; and a +new felt hat was on his head. On his left arm he carried an +overcoat, carefully folded, with the lining outside, and in his +right hand an umbrella and a cane. In his pockets were half a dozen +new handkerchiefs and the case containing Mr. Rooper's Centennial +meerschaum. + +Marietta, who was in the hallway when he opened the front door, +scarcely knew him as he approached. + +"Asaph!" she exclaimed. "What has happened to you? Why, you actually +look like a gentleman!" + +Asaph grinned. "Do you want me to go to Drummondville right after +breakfast to-morrow?" he asked. + +"My dear brother," said Marietta, "don't crush me by talking about +that. But if you could have seen yourself as I saw you, and could +have felt as I felt, you would not wonder at me. You must forget all +that. I should be proud now to introduce you as my brother to any +doctor or king or president. But tell me how you got those beautiful +clothes." + +Asaph was sometimes beset by an absurd regard for truth, which much +annoyed him. He could not say that he had worked for the clothes, +and he did not wish his sister to think that he had run in debt for +them. "They're paid for, every thread of 'em," he said. "I got 'em +in trade. These things is mine, and I don't owe no man a cent for +'em; and it seems to me that dinner must be ready." + +"And proud I am," said Marietta, who never before had shown such +enthusiastic affection for her brother, "to sit down to the table +with such a nice-looking fellow as you are." + +The next morning Mr. Rooper came into Mrs. Himes's yard, and there +beheld Asaph, in all the glory of his new clothes, sitting under the +chestnut-tree smoking the Centennial meerschaum pipe. Mr. Rooper +himself was dressed in his very best clothes, but he carried with +him no pipe. + +"Sit down," said Asaph, "and have a smoke." + +"No," replied the other; "I am goin' in the house. I have come to +see your sister." + +"Goin' to begin already?" said Asaph. + +"Yes," said the other; "I told you I was goin' to begin to-day." + +"Very good," said his friend, crossing his pepper-and-salt legs; +"and you will finish the 17th of August. That's a good, reasonable +time." + +But Mr. Rooper had no intention of courting Mrs. Himes for a month. +He intended to propose to her that very morning. He had been turning +over the matter in his mind, and for several reasons had come to +this conclusion. In the first place, he did not believe that he +could trust Asaph, even for a single day, not to oppose him. +Furthermore, his mind was in such a turmoil from the combined effect +of the constantly present thought that Asaph was wearing his +clothes, his hat, and his shoes, and smoking his beloved pipe, and +of the perplexities and agitations consequent upon his sentiments +toward Mrs. Himes, that he did not believe he could bear the mental +strain during another night. + +Five minutes later Marietta Himes was sitting on the horsehair sofa +in the parlor, with Mr. Rooper on the horsehair chair opposite to +her, and not very far away, and he was delivering the address which +he had prepared. + +"Madam," said he, "I am a man that takes things in this world as +they comes, and is content to wait until the time comes for them to +come. I was well acquainted with John Himes. I knowed him in life, +and I helped lay him out. As long as there was reason to suppose +that the late Mr. Himes--I mean that the grass over the grave of Mr. +Himes had remained unwithered, I am not the man to take one step in +the direction of his shoes, nor even to consider the size of 'em in +connection with the measure of my own feet. But time will pass on in +nater as well as in real life; and while I know very well, Mrs. +Himes, that certain feelin's toward them that was is like the leaves +of the oak-tree and can't be blowed off even by the fiercest +tempests of affliction, still them leaves will wither in the fall +and turn brown and curl up at the edges, though they don't depart, +but stick on tight as wax all winter until in the springtime they is +pushed off gently without knowin' it by the green leaves which come +out in real life as well as nater." + +When he had finished this opening Mr. Rooper breathed a little sigh +of relief. He had not forgotten any of it, and it pleased him. + +Marietta sat and looked at him. She had a good sense of humor, and, +while she was naturally surprised at what had been said to her, she +was greatly amused by it, and really wished to hear what else Thomas +Rooper had to say to her. + +"Now, madam," he continued, "I am not the man to thrash a tree with +a pole to knock the leaves off before their time. But when the young +leaves is pushin' and the old leaves is droppin' (not to make any +allusion, of course, to any shrivellin' of proper respect), then I +come forward, madam, not to take the place of anybody else, but jest +as the nateral consequence of the seasons, which everybody ought to +expect; even such as you, madam, which I may liken to a +hemlock-spruce which keeps straight on in the same general line of +appearance without no reference to the fall of the year, nor winter +nor summer. And so, Mrs. Himes, I come here to-day to offer to lead +you agin to the altar. I have never been there myself, and there +ain't no woman in the world that I'd go with but you. I'm a +straightforward person, and when I've got a thing to say I say it, +and now I have said it. And so I set here awaitin' your answer." + +At this moment the shutters of the front window, which had been +closed, were opened, and Asaph put in his head. "Look here, Thomas +Rooper," he said, "these shoes is pegged. I didn't bargain for no +pegged shoes; I wanted 'em sewed; everything was to be first-class." + +Mr. Rooper, who had been leaning forward in his chair, his hands +upon his knees, and his face glistening with his expressed feelings +as brightly as the old-fashioned but shining silk hat which stood on +the floor by his side, turned his head, grew red to the ears, and +then sprang to his feet. "Asaph Scantle," he cried, with extended +fist, "you have broke your word; you hindered." + +"No, I didn't," said Asaph, sulkily; "but pegged shoes is too much +for any man to stand." And he withdrew from the window, closing the +shutters again. + +"What does this mean?" asked Mrs. Himes, who had also risen. + +"It means," said Thomas, speaking with difficulty, his indignation +was so great, "that your brother is a person of tricks and meanders +beyond the reach of common human calculation. I don't like to say +this of a man who is more or less likely to be my brother-in-law, +but I can't help sayin' it, so entirely upset am I at his goin' back +on me at such a minute." + +"Going back on you?" asked Mrs. Himes. "What do you mean? What has +he promised?" + +Thomas hesitated. He did not wish to interrupt his courtship by the +discussion of any new question, especially this question. "If we +could settle what we have been talkin' about, Mrs. Himes," he said, +"and if you would give me my answer, then I could git my mind down +to commoner things. But swingin' on a hook as I am, I don't know +whether my head or my heels is uppermost, or what's revolvin' around +me." + +"Oh, I can give you your answer quickly enough," she said. "It is +impossible for me to marry you, so that's all settled." + +"Impossible is a big word," said Mr. Rooper. "Has anybody else got +afore me?" + +"I am not bound to answer that question," said Marietta, slightly +coloring; "but I cannot accept you, Mr. Rooper." + +"Then there's somebody else, of course," said Thomas, gazing darkly +upon the floor. "And what's more, Asaph knew it; that's just as +clear as daylight. That's what made him come to me yesterday and go +back on his first bargain." + +"Now then," said Mrs. Himes, speaking very decidedly, "I want to +know what you mean by this talk about bargains." + +Mr. Rooper knit his brows. "This is mighty different talk," he said, +"from the kind I expected when I come here. But you have answered my +question, now I'll answer yours. Asaph Scantle, no longer ago than +day before yesterday, after hearin' that things wasn't goin' very +well with me, recommended me to marry you, and agreed that he would +do his level best, by day and by night, to help me git you, if I +would give him a suit of clothes, an umbrella, and a dictionary." + +At this Mrs. Himes gave a little gasp and sat down. + +"Now, I hadn't no thoughts of tradin' for a wife," continued Thomas, +"especially in woollen goods and books; but when I considered and +turned the matter over in my mind, and thought what a woman you was, +and what a life there was afore me if I got you, I agreed to do it. +Then he wanted pay aforehand, and that I wouldn't agree to, not +because I thought you wasn't wuth it, but because I couldn't trust +him if anybody offered him more before I got you. But that ain't the +wust of it; yesterday he come down to see me and went back on his +bargain, and that after I had spent the whole night thinkin' of you +and what I was goin' to say. And he put on such high-cockalorum airs +that I, bein' as soft as mush around the heart, jest wilted and +agreed to give him everything he bargained for if he would promise +not to hinder. But he wasn't satisfied with that and wouldn't come +to no terms until I'd give him my Centennial pipe, what's been like +a child to me this many a year. And when he saw how disgruntled I +was at sich a loss, he said that my pipe might be very dear to me, +but his sister was jest as dear to him. And then, on top of the +whole thing, he pokes his head through the shutters and hinders jest +at the most ticklish moment." + +"A dictionary and a pipe!" ejaculated poor Marietta, her eyes fixed +upon the floor. + +"But I'm goin' to make him give 'em all back," exclaimed Thomas. +"They was the price of not hinderin', and he hindered." + +"He shall give them back," said Marietta, rising, "but you must +understand, Mr. Rooper, that in no way did Asaph interfere with your +marrying me. That was a matter with which he did have and could have +nothing to do. And now I wish you could get away without speaking to +him. I do not want any quarrelling or high words here, and I will +see him and arrange the matter better than you can do it." + +"Oh, I can git away without speakin' to him," said Mr. Rooper, with +reddened face. And so saying, he strode out of the house, through +the front yard, and out of the gate, without turning his head toward +Asaph, still sitting under the tree. + +"Oh, ho!" said the latter to himself; "she's bounced him short and +sharp; and it serves him right, too, after playin' that trick on me. +Pegged shoes, indeed!" + +At this moment the word "Asaph" came from the house in tones +shriller and sharper and higher than any in which he had ever heard +it pronounced before. He sprang to his feet and went to the house. +His sister took him into the parlor and shut the door. Her eyes were +red and her face was pale. "Asaph," said she, "Mr. Rooper has told +me the whole of your infamous conduct. Now I know what you meant +when you said that you were making arrangements to get clothes. You +were going to sell me for them. And when you found out that I was +likely to marry Doctor Wicker, you put up your price and wanted a +dictionary and a pipe." + +"No, Marietta," said Asaph, "the dictionary belonged to the first +bargain. If you knew how I need a dictionary--" + +"Be still!" she cried. "I do not want you to say a word. You have +acted most shamefully toward me, and I want you to go away this very +day. And before you go you must give back to Mr. Rooper everything +that you got from him. I will fit you out with some of Mr. Himes's +clothes and make no conditions at all, only that you shall go away. +Come upstairs with me, and I will get the clothes." + +The room in the garret was opened, and various garments which had +belonged to the late Mr. Himes were brought out. + +"This is pretty hard on me, Marietta," said Asaph, as he held up a +coat, "to give up new all-wool goods for things what has been worn +and is part cotton, if I am a judge." + +Marietta said very little. She gave him what clothes he needed, and +insisted on his putting them on, making a package of the things he +had received from Mr. Rooper, and returning them to that gentleman. +Asaph at first grumbled, but he finally obeyed with a willingness +which might have excited the suspicions of Marietta had she not been +so angry. + +With an enormous package wrapped in brown paper in one hand, and a +cane, an umbrella, and a very small hand-bag in the other, Asaph +approached the tavern. Mr. Rooper was sitting on the piazza alone. +He was smoking a very common-looking clay pipe and gazing intently +into the air in front of him. When his old crony came and stood +before the piazza he did not turn his head nor his eyes. + +"Thomas Rooper," said Asaph, "you have got me into a very bad +scrape. I have been turned out of doors on account of what you said +about me. And where I am goin' I don't know, for I can't walk to +Drummondville. And what's more, I kept my word and you didn't. I +didn't hinder you; for how could I suppose that you was goin' to pop +the question the very minute you got inside the door? And that +dictionary you promised I've not got." + +Thomas Rooper answered not a word, but looked steadily in front of +him. "And there's another thing," said Asaph. "What are you goin' to +allow me for that suit of clothes what I've been wearin', what I +took off in your room and left there?" + +At this Mr. Rooper sprang to his feet with such violence that the +fire danced out of the bowl of his pipe. "What is the fare to +Drummondville?" he cried. + +Asaph reflected a moment. "Three dollars and fifty cents, includin' +supper." + +"I'll give you that for them clothes," said the other, and counted +out the money. + +Asaph took it and sighed. "You've been hard on me, Thomas," said he, +"but I bear you no grudge. Good-by." + +As he walked slowly toward the station Mr. Scantle stopped at the +store. "Has that dictionary come that was ordered for me?" he said; +and when told that it could not be expected for several days he did +not despair, for it was possible that Thomas Rooper might be so +angry that he would forget to countermand the order; in that case he +might yet hope to obtain the coveted book. + +The package containing the Rooper winter suit was heavy, and Asaph +walked slowly. He did not want to go to Drummondville, for he hated +bookkeeping, and his year of leisure and good living had spoiled him +for work and poor fare. In this moody state he was very glad to stop +and have a little chat with Mrs. McJimsey, who was sitting at her +front window. + +This good lady was the principal dressmaker of the village; and by +hard work and attention to business she made a very comfortable +living. She was a widow, small of stature, thin of feature, very +neatly dressed and pleasant to look at. Asaph entered the little +front yard, put his package on the door-step, and stood under the +window to talk to her. Dressed in the clothes of the late Mr. Himes, +her visitor presented such a respectable appearance that Mrs. +McJimsey was not in the least ashamed to have people see him +standing there, which she would have been a few days ago. Indeed, +she felt complimented that he should want to stop. The conversation +soon turned upon her removal from her present abode. + +"I'm awfully sorry to have to go," she said; "for my time is up just +in the middle of my busy season, and that's goin' to throw me back +dreadfully. He hasn't done right by me, that Mr. Rooper, in lettin' +things go to rack and ruin in this way, and me payin' his rent so +regular." + +"That's true," said Asaph. "Thomas Rooper is a hard man--a hard man, +Mrs. McJimsey. I can see how he would be overbearin' with a lone +woman like you, neither your son nor your daughter bein' of age yet +to take your part." + +"Yes, Mr. Scantle, it's very hard." + +Asaph stood for a moment looking at a little bed of zinnias by the +side of the door-step. "What you want, Mrs. McJimsey," said he, "is +a man in the house." + +In an instant Mrs. McJimsey flushed pink. It was such a strange +thing for a gentleman to say to her. + +Asaph saw the flush. He had not expected that result from his +remark, but he was quick to take advantage of it. "Mrs. McJimsey," +said he, "you are a widow, and you are imposed upon, and you need +somebody to take care of you. If you will put that job into my hands +I will do it. I am a man what works with his head, and if you will +let me I'll work for you. To put it square, I ask you to marry me. +My sister's goin' to be married, and I'm on the pint of goin' away; +for I could not abear to stay in her house when strangers come into +it. But if you say the word, I'll stay here and be yours for ever +and ever more." + +Mrs. McJimsey said not a word, but her head drooped and wild +thoughts ran through her brain. Thoughts not wild, but well trained +and broken, ran through Asaph's brain. The idea of going to +Drummondville and spending for the journey thither a dollar and +seventy-five cents of the money he had received from Mr. Rooper now +became absolutely repulsive to him. + +"Mrs. McJimsey," said he, "I will say more. Not only do I ask you to +marry me, but I ask you to do it now. The evenin' sun is settin', +the evenin' birds is singin', and it seems to me, Mrs. McJimsey, +that all nater pints to this softenin' hour as a marryin' moment. +You say your son won't be home from his work until supper-time, and +your daughter has gone out for a walk. Come with me to Mr. Parker's, +the Methodist minister, and let us join hands at the altar there. +The gardener and his wife is always ready to stand up as witnesses. +And when your son and your daughter comes home to supper, they can +find their mother here afore 'em married and settled." + +"But, Mr. Scantle," exclaimed Mrs. McJimsey, "it's so suddint. What +will the neighbors say?" + +"As for bein' suddint, Mrs. McJimsey, I've knowed you for nearly a +year, and now, bein' on the way to leave what's been my happy home, +I couldn't keep the truth from you no longer. And as for the +neighbors, they needn't know that we hain't been engaged for +months." + +"It's so queer, so very queer," said the little dressmaker. And her +face flushed again, and there were tears, not at all sorrowful ones, +in her eyes; and her somewhat needle-pricked left hand accidentally +laid itself upon the window-sill in easy reach of any one outside. + +The next morning Mr. Rooper, being of a practical way of thinking, +turned his thoughts from love and resentment to the subject of his +income. And he soon became convinced that it would be better to keep +the McJimseys in his house, if it could be done without too great an +outlay for repairs. So he walked over to his property. When he +reached the house he was almost stupefied to see Asaph in a chair in +the front yard, dressed in the new suit of clothes which he, Thomas +Rooper, had paid for, and smoking the Centennial pipe. + +"Good-morning, Mr. Rooper," said Asaph, in a loud and cheery voice. +"I suppose you've come to talk to Mrs. McJimsey about the work +you've got to do here to make this house fit to live in. But there +ain't no Mrs. McJimsey. She's Mrs. Scantle now, and I'm your tenant. +You can talk to me." + +Doctor Wicker came to see Mrs. Himes in the afternoon of the day he +had promised to come, and early in the autumn they were married. +Since Asaph Scantle had married and settled he had not seen his +sister nor spoken to her; but he determined that on so joyful an +occasion as this he would show no resentment. So he attended the +wedding in the village church dressed in the suit of clothes which +had belonged to the late Mr. Himes. + + + + +"HIS WIFE'S DECEASED SISTER" + + +It is now five years since an event occurred which so colored my +life, or rather so changed some of its original colors, that I have +thought it well to write an account of it, deeming that its lessons +may be of advantage to persons whose situations in life are similar +to my own. + +When I was quite a young man I adopted literature as a profession; +and having passed through the necessary preparatory grades, I found +myself, after a good many years of hard and often unremunerative +work, in possession of what might be called a fair literary +practice. My articles, grave, gay, practical, or fanciful, had come +to be considered with a favor by the editors of the various +periodicals for which I wrote, on which I found in time I could rely +with a very comfortable certainty. My productions created no +enthusiasm in the reading public; they gave me no great reputation +or very valuable pecuniary return; but they were always accepted, +and my receipts from them, at the time to which I have referred, +were as regular and reliable as a salary, and quite sufficient to +give me more than a comfortable support. + +It was at this time I married. I had been engaged for more than a +year, but had not been willing to assume the support of a wife until +I felt that my pecuniary position was so assured that I could do so +with full satisfaction to my own conscience. There was now no doubt +in regard to this position, either in my mind or in that of my wife. +I worked with great steadiness and regularity; I knew exactly where +to place the productions of my pen, and could calculate, with a fair +degree of accuracy, the sums I should receive for them. We were by +no means rich; but we had enough, and were thoroughly satisfied and +content. + +Those of my readers who are married will have no difficulty in +remembering the peculiar ecstasy of the first weeks of their wedded +life. It is then that the flowers of this world bloom brightest; +that its sun is the most genial; that its clouds are the scarcest; +that its fruit is the most delicious; that the air is the most +balmy; that its cigars are of the highest flavor; that the warmth +and radiance of early matrimonial felicity so rarefies the +intellectual atmosphere that the soul mounts higher, and enjoys a +wider prospect, than ever before. + +These experiences were mine. The plain claret of my mind was changed +to sparkling champagne, and at the very height of its effervescence +I wrote a story. The happy thought that then struck me for a tale +was of a very peculiar character; and it interested me so much that +I went to work at it with great delight and enthusiasm, and finished +it in a comparatively short time. The title of the story was "His +Wife's Deceased Sister"; and when I read it to Hypatia she was +delighted with it, and at times was so affected by its pathos that +her uncontrollable emotion caused a sympathetic dimness in my eyes, +which prevented my seeing the words I had written. When the reading +was ended, and my wife had dried her eyes, she turned to me and +said, "This story will make your fortune. There has been nothing so +pathetic since Lamartine's 'History of a Servant-girl.'" + +As soon as possible the next day I sent my story to the editor of +the periodical for which I wrote most frequently, and in which my +best productions generally appeared. In a few days I had a letter +from the editor, in which he praised my story as he had never before +praised anything from my pen. It had interested and charmed, he +said, not only himself, but all his associates in the office. Even +old Gibson, who never cared to read anything until it was in proof, +and who never praised anything which had not a joke in it, was +induced by the example of the others to read this manuscript, and +shed, as he asserted, the first tears that had come from his eyes +since his final paternal castigation some forty years before. The +story would appear, the editor assured me, as soon as he could +possibly find room for it. + +If anything could make our skies more genial, our flowers brighter, +and the flavor of our fruit and cigars more delicious, it was a +letter like this. And when, in a very short time, the story was +published, we found that the reading public was inclined to receive +it with as much sympathetic interest and favor as had been shown to +it by the editors. My personal friends soon began to express +enthusiastic opinions upon it. It was highly praised in many of the +leading newspapers; and, altogether, it was a great literary +success. I am not inclined to be vain of my writings, and, in +general, my wife tells me, think too little of them; but I did feel +a good deal of pride and satisfaction in the success of "His Wife's +Deceased Sister." If it did not make my fortune, as my wife asserted +that it would, it certainly would help me very much in my literary +career. + +In less than a month from the writing of this story, something very +unusual and unexpected happened to me. A manuscript was returned by +the editor of the periodical in which "His Wife's Deceased Sister" +had appeared. "It is a good story," he wrote, "but not equal to what +you have just done. You have made a great hit; and it would not do +to interfere with the reputation you have gained by publishing +anything inferior to 'His Wife's Deceased Sister,' which has had +such a deserved success." + +I was so unaccustomed to having my work thrown back on my hands that +I think I must have turned a little pale when I read the letter. I +said nothing of the matter to my wife, for it would be foolish to +drop such grains of sand as this into the smoothly oiled machinery +of our domestic felicity; but I immediately sent the story to +another editor. I am not able to express the astonishment I felt +when, in the course of a week, it was sent back to me. The tone of +the note accompanying it indicated a somewhat injured feeling on the +part of the editor. "I am reluctant," he said, "to decline a +manuscript from you; but you know very well that if you sent me +anything like 'His Wife's Deceased Sister' it would be most promptly +accepted." + +I now felt obliged to speak of the affair to my wife, who was quite +as much surprised, though, perhaps, not quite as much shocked, as I +had been. + +"Let us read the story again," she said, "and see what is the matter +with it." When we had finished its perusal, Hypatia remarked, "It is +quite as good as many of the stories you have had printed, and I +think it very interesting; although, of course, it is not equal to +'His Wife's Deceased Sister.'" + +"Of course not," said I; "that was an inspiration that I cannot +expect every day. But there must be something wrong about this last +story which we do not perceive. Perhaps my recent success may have +made me a little careless in writing it." + +"I don't believe that," said Hypatia. + +"At any rate," I continued, "I will lay it aside, and will go to +work on a new one." + +In due course of time I had another manuscript finished, and I sent +it to my favorite periodical. It was retained some weeks, and then +came back to me. "It will never do," the editor wrote, quite warmly, +"for you to go backward. The demand for the number containing 'His +Wife's Deceased Sister' still continues, and we do not intend to let +you disappoint that great body of readers who would be so eager to +see another number containing one of your stories." + +I sent this manuscript to four other periodicals, and from each of +them was it returned with remarks to the effect that, although it +was not a bad story in itself, it was not what they would expect +from the author of "His Wife's Deceased Sister." + +The editor of a Western magazine wrote to me for a story to be +published in a special number which he would issue for the holidays. +I wrote him one of the character and length he asked for, and sent +it to him. By return mail it came back to me. "I had hoped," the +editor wrote, "when I asked for a story from your pen, to receive +something like 'His Wife's Deceased Sister,' and I must own that I +am very much disappointed." + +I was so filled with anger when I read this note that I openly +objurgated "His Wife's Deceased Sister." "You must excuse me," I +said to my astonished wife, "for expressing myself thus in your +presence; but that confounded story will be the ruin of me yet. +Until it is forgotten nobody will ever take anything I write." + +"And you cannot expect it ever to be forgotten," said Hypatia, with +tears in her eyes. + +It is needless for me to detail my literary efforts in the course of +the next few months. The ideas of the editors with whom my principal +business had been done, in regard to my literary ability, had been +so raised by my unfortunate story of "His Wife's Deceased Sister" +that I found it was of no use to send them anything of lesser merit. +And as to the other journals which I tried, they evidently +considered it an insult for me to send them matter inferior to that +by which my reputation had lately risen. The fact was that my +successful story had ruined me. My income was at end, and want +actually stared me in the face; and I must admit that I did not like +the expression of its countenance. It was of no use for me to try to +write another story like "His Wife's Deceased Sister." I could not +get married every time I began a new manuscript, and it was the +exaltation of mind caused by my wedded felicity which produced that +story. + +"It's perfectly dreadful!" said my wife. "If I had had a sister, and +she had died, I would have thought it was my fault." + +"It could not be your fault," I answered, "and I do not think it was +mine. I had no intention of deceiving anybody into the belief that I +could do that sort of thing every time, and it ought not to be +expected of me. Suppose Raphael's patrons had tried to keep him +screwed up to the pitch of the Sistine Madonna, and had refused to +buy anything which was not as good as that. In that case I think he +would have occupied a much earlier and narrower grave than that on +which Mr. Morris Moore hangs his funeral decorations." + +"But, my dear," said Hypatia, who was posted on such subjects, "the +Sistine Madonna was one of his latest paintings." + +"Very true," said I; "but if he had married, as I did, he would have +painted it earlier." + +I was walking homeward one afternoon about this time, when I met +Barbel--a man I had known well in my early literary career. He was +now about fifty years of age, but looked older. His hair and beard +were quite gray; and his clothes, which were of the same general +hue, gave me the idea that they, like his hair, had originally been +black. Age is very hard on a man's external appointments. Barbel had +an air of having been to let for a long time, and quite out of +repair. But there was a kindly gleam in his eye, and he welcomed me +cordially. + +"Why, what is the matter, old fellow?" said he. "I never saw you +look so woebegone." + +I had no reason to conceal anything from Barbel. In my younger days +he had been of great use to me, and he had a right to know the state +of my affairs. I laid the whole case plainly before him. + +"Look here," he said, when I had finished, "come with me to my room: +I have something I would like to say to you there." + +I followed Barbel to his room. It was at the top of a very dirty and +well-worn house which stood in a narrow and lumpy street, into which +few vehicles ever penetrated, except the ash and garbage carts, and +the rickety wagons of the venders of stale vegetables. + +"This is not exactly a fashionable promenade," said Barbel, as we +approached the house; "but in some respects it reminds me of the +streets in Italian towns, where the palaces lean over toward each +other in such a friendly way." + +Barbel's room was, to my mind, rather more doleful than the street. +It was dark, it was dusty, and cobwebs hung from every corner. The +few chairs upon the floor and the books upon a greasy table seemed +to be afflicted with some dorsal epidemic, for their backs were +either gone or broken. A little bedstead in the corner was covered +with a spread made of New York _Heralds_, with their edges pasted +together. + +"There is nothing better," said Barbel, noticing my glance toward +this novel counterpane, "for a bed-covering than newspapers: they +keep you as warm as a blanket, and are much lighter. I used to use +_Tribunes_, but they rattled too much." + +The only part of the room which was well lighted was at one end near +the solitary window. Here, upon a table with a spliced leg, stood a +little grindstone. + +"At the other end of the room," said Barbel, "is my cook-stove, +which you can't see unless I light the candle in the bottle which +stands by it; but if you don't care particularly to examine it, I +won't go to the expense of lighting up. You might pick up a good +many odd pieces of bric-a-brac around here, if you chose to strike a +match and investigate; but I would not advise you to do so. It would +pay better to throw the things out of the window than to carry them +downstairs. The particular piece of indoor decoration to which I +wish to call your attention is this." And he led me to a little +wooden frame which hung against the wall near the window. Behind a +dusty piece of glass it held what appeared to be a leaf from a small +magazine or journal. "There," said he, "you see a page from the +_Grasshopper_, a humorous paper which flourished in this city some +half-dozen years ago. I used to write regularly for that paper, as +you may remember." + +"Oh yes, indeed!" I exclaimed. "And I shall never forget your +'Conundrum of the Anvil' which appeared in it. How often have I +laughed at that most wonderful conceit, and how often have I put it +to my friends!" + +Barbel gazed at me silently for a moment, and then he pointed to the +frame. "That printed page," he said, solemnly, "contains the +'Conundrum of the Anvil.' I hang it there so that I can see it while +I work. That conundrum ruined me. It was the last thing I wrote for +the _Grasshopper_. How I ever came to imagine it I cannot tell. It +is one of those things which occur to a man but once in a lifetime. +After the wild shout of delight with which the public greeted that +conundrum, my subsequent efforts met with hoots of derision. The +_Grasshopper_ turned its hind legs upon me. I sank from bad to +worse--much worse--until at last I found myself reduced to my +present occupation, which is that of grinding points to pins. By +this I procure my bread, coffee, and tobacco, and sometimes potatoes +and meat. One day while I was hard at work an organ-grinder came +into the street below. He played the serenade from "Trovatore"; and +the familiar notes brought back visions of old days and old +delights, when the successful writer wore good clothes and sat at +operas, when he looked into sweet eyes and talked of Italian airs, +when his future appeared all a succession of bright scenery and +joyous acts, without any provision for a drop-curtain. And as my ear +listened, and my mind wandered in this happy retrospect, my every +faculty seemed exalted, and, without any thought upon the matter, I +ground points upon my pins so fine, so regular and smooth, that they +would have pierced with ease the leather of a boot, or slipped +among, without abrasion, the finest threads of rare old lace. When +the organ stopped, and I fell back into my real world of cobwebs and +mustiness, I gazed upon the pins I had just ground, and, without a +moment's hesitation, I threw them into the street, and reported the +lot as spoiled. This cost me a little money, but it saved me my +livelihood." + +After a few moments of silence, Barbel resumed: + +"I have no more to say to you, my young friend. All I want you to do +is to look upon that framed conundrum, then upon this grindstone, +and then to go home and reflect. As for me, I have a gross of pins +to grind before the sun goes down." + +I cannot say that my depression of mind was at all relieved by what +I had seen and heard. I had lost sight of Barbel for some years, and +I had supposed him still floating on the sun-sparkling stream of +prosperity where I had last seen him. It was a great shock to me to +find him in such a condition of poverty and squalor, and to see a +man who had originated the "Conundrum of the Anvil" reduced to the +soul-depressing occupation of grinding pin-points. As I walked and +thought, the dreadful picture of a totally eclipsed future arose +before my mind. The moral of Barbel sank deep into my heart. + +When I reached home I told my wife the story of my friend Barbel. +She listened with a sad and eager interest. + +"I am afraid," she said, "if our fortunes do not quickly mend, that +we shall have to buy two little grindstones. You know I could help +you at that sort of thing." + +For a long time we sat together and talked, and devised many plans +for the future. I did not think it necessary yet for me to look out +for a pin-contract; but I must find some way of making money, or we +should starve to death. Of course the first thing that suggested +itself was the possibility of finding some other business; but, +apart from the difficulty of immediately obtaining remunerative work +in occupations to which I had not been trained, I felt a great and +natural reluctance to give up a profession for which I had carefully +prepared myself, and which I had adopted as my life-work. It would +be very hard for me to lay down my pen forever, and to close the top +of my inkstand upon all the bright and happy fancies which I had +seen mirrored in its tranquil pool. We talked and pondered the rest +of that day and a good deal of the night, but we came to no +conclusion as to what it would be best for us to do. + +The next day I determined to go and call upon the editor of the +journal for which, in happier days, before the blight of "His Wife's +Deceased Sister" rested upon me, I used most frequently to write, +and, having frankly explained my condition to him, to ask his +advice. The editor was a good man, and had always been my friend. He +listened with great attention to what I told him, and evidently +sympathized with me in my trouble. + +"As we have written to you," he said, "the only reason why we did +not accept the manuscripts you sent us was that they would have +disappointed the high hopes that the public had formed in regard to +you. We have had letter after letter asking when we were going to +publish another story like 'His Wife's Deceased Sister.' We felt, +and we still feel, that it would be wrong to allow you to destroy +the fair fabric which yourself has raised. But," he added, with a +kind smile, "I see very plainly that your well-deserved reputation +will be of little advantage to you if you should starve at the +moment that its genial beams are, so to speak, lighting you up." + +"Its beams are not genial," I answered. "They have scorched and +withered me." + +"How would you like," said the editor, after a short reflection, "to +allow us to publish the stories you have recently written under some +other name than your own? That would satisfy us and the public, +would put money in your pocket, and would not interfere with your +reputation." + +Joyfully I seized that noble fellow by the hand, and instantly +accepted his proposition. "Of course," said I, "a reputation is a +very good thing; but no reputation can take the place of food, +clothes, and a house to live in; and I gladly agree to sink my +over-illumined name into oblivion, and to appear before the public +as a new and unknown writer." + +"I hope that need not be for long," he said, "for I feel sure that +you will yet write stories as good as 'His Wife's Deceased Sister.'" + +All the manuscripts I had on hand I now sent to my good friend the +editor, and in due and proper order they appeared in his journal +under the name of John Darmstadt, which I had selected as a +substitute for my own, permanently disabled. I made a similar +arrangement with other editors, and John Darmstadt received the +credit of everything that proceeded from my pen. Our circumstances +now became very comfortable, and occasionally we even allowed +ourselves to indulge in little dreams of prosperity. + +Time passed on very pleasantly; one year, another, and then a little +son was born to us. It is often difficult, I believe, for thoughtful +persons to decide whether the beginning of their conjugal career, or +the earliest weeks in the life of their first-born, be the happiest +and proudest period of their existence. For myself I can only say +that the same exaltation of mind, the same rarefication of idea and +invention, which succeeded upon my wedding-day came upon me now. As +then, my ecstatic emotions crystallized themselves into a motive for +a story, and without delay I set myself to work upon it. My boy was +about six weeks old when the manuscript was finished; and one +evening, as we sat before a comfortable fire in our sitting-room, +with the curtains drawn, and the soft lamp lighted, and the baby +sleeping soundly in the adjoining chamber, I read the story to my +wife. + +When I had finished, my wife arose and threw herself into my arms. +"I was never so proud of you," she said, her glad eyes sparkling, +"as I am at this moment. That is a wonderful story! It is--indeed I +am sure it is--just as good as 'His Wife's Deceased Sister.'" + +As she spoke these words a sudden and chilling sensation crept over +us both. All her warmth and fervor, and the proud and happy glow +engendered within me by this praise and appreciation from one I +loved, vanished in an instant. We stepped apart, and gazed upon each +other with pallid faces. In the same moment the terrible truth had +flashed upon us both. + +This story _was_ as good as "His Wife's Deceased Sister"! + +We stood silent. The exceptional lot of Barbel's superpointed pins +seemed to pierce our very souls. A dreadful vision rose before me of +an impending fall and crash, in which our domestic happiness should +vanish, and our prospects for our boy be wrecked, just as we had +begun to build them up. + +My wife approached me and took my hand in hers, which was as cold as +ice. "Be strong and firm," she said. "A great danger threatens us, +but you must brace yourself against it. Be strong and firm." + +I pressed her hand, and we said no more that night. + +The next day I took the manuscript I had just written, and carefully +infolded it in stout wrapping-paper. Then I went to a neighboring +grocery-store and bought a small, strong tin box, originally +intended for biscuit, with a cover that fitted tightly. In this I +placed my manuscript; and then I took the box to a tinsmith and had +the top fastened on with hard solder. When I went home I ascended +into the garret, and brought down to my study a ship's cash-box, +which had once belonged to one of my family who was a sea-captain. +This box was very heavy, and firmly bound with iron, and was secured +by two massive locks. Calling my wife, I told her of the contents of +the tin case, which I then placed in the box, and, having shut down +the heavy lid, I doubly locked it. + +"This key," said I, putting it in my pocket, "I shall throw into the +river when I go out this afternoon." + +My wife watched me eagerly, with a pallid and firm, set countenance, +but upon which I could see the faint glimmer of returning happiness. + +"Wouldn't it be well," she said, "to secure it still further by +sealing-wax and pieces of tape?" + +"No," said I. "I do not believe that any one will attempt to tamper +with our prosperity. And now, my dear," I continued, in an +impressive voice, "no one but you, and, in the course of time, our +son, shall know that this manuscript exists. When I am dead, those +who survive me may, if they see fit, cause this box to be split open +and the story published. The reputation it may give my name cannot +harm me then." + + + + +THE LADY, OR THE TIGER? + + +In the very olden time there lived a semi-barbaric king, whose +ideas, though somewhat polished and sharpened by the progressiveness +of distant Latin neighbors, were still large, florid, and +untrammelled, as became the half of him which was barbaric. He was a +man of exuberant fancy, and, withal, of an authority so irresistible +that, at his will, he turned his varied fancies into facts. He was +greatly given to self-communing; and when he and himself agreed upon +anything, the thing was done. When every member of his domestic and +political systems moved smoothly in its appointed course, his nature +was bland and genial; but whenever there was a little hitch, and +some of his orbs got out of their orbits, he was blander and more +genial still, for nothing pleased him so much as to make the crooked +straight, and crush down uneven places. + +Among the borrowed notions by which his barbarism had become +semified was that of the public arena, in which, by exhibitions of +manly and beastly valor, the minds of his subjects were refined and +cultured. + +But even here the exuberant and barbaric fancy asserted itself. The +arena of the king was built not to give the people an opportunity of +hearing the rhapsodies of dying gladiators, nor to enable them to +view the inevitable conclusion of a conflict between religious +opinions and hungry jaws, but for purposes far better adapted to +widen and develop the mental energies of the people. This vast +amphitheatre, with its encircling galleries, its mysterious vaults, +and its unseen passages, was an agent of poetic justice, in which +crime was punished, or virtue rewarded, by the decrees of an +impartial and incorruptible chance. + +When a subject was accused of a crime of sufficient importance to +interest the king, public notice was given that on an appointed day +the fate of the accused person would be decided in the king's +arena--a structure which well deserved its name; for, although its +form and plan were borrowed from afar, its purpose emanated solely +from the brain of this man, who, every barleycorn a king, knew no +tradition to which he owed more allegiance than pleased his fancy, +and who ingrafted on every adopted form of human thought and action +the rich growth of his barbaric idealism. + +When all the people had assembled in the galleries, and the king, +surrounded by his court, sat high up on his throne of royal state on +one side of the arena, he gave a signal, a door beneath him opened, +and the accused subject stepped out into the amphitheatre. Directly +opposite him, on the other side of the enclosed space, were two +doors, exactly alike and side by side. It was the duty and the +privilege of the person on trial to walk directly to these doors and +open one of them. He could open either door he pleased: he was +subject to no guidance or influence but that of the afore-mentioned +impartial and incorruptible chance. If he opened the one, there came +out of it a hungry tiger, the fiercest and most cruel that could be +procured, which immediately sprang upon him and tore him to pieces, +as a punishment for his guilt. The moment that the case of the +criminal was thus decided, doleful iron bells were clanged, great +wails went up from the hired mourners posted on the outer rim of the +arena, and the vast audience, with bowed heads and downcast hearts, +wended slowly their homeward way, mourning greatly that one so young +and fair, or so old and respected, should have merited so dire a +fate. + +But if the accused person opened the other door, there came forth +from it a lady, the most suitable to his years and station that his +Majesty could select among his fair subjects; and to this lady he +was immediately married, as a reward of his innocence. It mattered +not that he might already possess a wife and family, or that his +affections might be engaged upon an object of his own selection: the +king allowed no such subordinate arrangements to interfere with his +great scheme of retribution and reward. The exercises, as in the +other instance, took place immediately, and in the arena. Another +door opened beneath the king, and a priest, followed by a band of +choristers, and dancing maidens blowing joyous airs on golden horns +and treading an epithalamic measure, advanced to where the pair +stood side by side; and the wedding was promptly and cheerily +solemnized. Then the gay brass bells rang forth their merry peals, +the people shouted glad hurrahs, and the innocent man, preceded by +children strewing flowers on his path, led his bride to his home. + +This was the king's semibarbaric method of administering justice. +Its perfect fairness is obvious. The criminal could not know out of +which door would come the lady: he opened either he pleased, without +having the slightest idea whether, in the next instant, he was to be +devoured or married. On some occasions the tiger came out of one +door, and on some out of the other. The decisions of this tribunal +were not only fair, they were positively determinate: the accused +person was instantly punished if he found himself guilty; and if +innocent, he was rewarded on the spot, whether he liked it or not. +There was no escape from the judgments of the king's arena. + +The institution was a very popular one. When the people gathered +together on one of the great trial-days, they never knew whether +they were to witness a bloody slaughter or a hilarious wedding. This +element of uncertainty lent an interest to the occasion which it +could not otherwise have attained. Thus the masses were entertained +and pleased, and the thinking part of the community could bring no +charge of unfairness against this plan; for did not the accused +person have the whole matter in his own hands? + +This semibarbaric king had a daughter as blooming as his most florid +fancies, and with a soul as fervent and imperious as his own. As is +usual in such cases, she was the apple of his eye, and was loved by +him above all humanity. Among his courtiers was a young man of that +fineness of blood and lowness of station common to the conventional +heroes of romance who love royal maidens. This royal maiden was well +satisfied with her lover, for he was handsome and brave to a degree +unsurpassed in all this kingdom; and she loved him with an ardor +that had enough of barbarism in it to make it exceedingly warm and +strong. This love-affair moved on happily for many months, until one +day the king happened to discover its existence. He did not hesitate +nor waver in regard to his duty in the premises. The youth was +immediately cast into prison, and a day was appointed for his trial +in the king's arena. This, of course, was an especially important +occasion; and his Majesty, as well as all the people, was greatly +interested in the workings and development of this trial. Never +before had such a case occurred; never before had a subject dared to +love the daughter of a king. In after-years such things became +commonplace enough; but then they were, in no slight degree, novel +and startling. + +The tiger-cages of the kingdom were searched for the most savage and +relentless beasts, from which the fiercest monster might be selected +for the arena; and the ranks of maiden youth and beauty throughout +the land were carefully surveyed by competent judges, in order that +the young man might have a fitting bride in case fate did not +determine for him a different destiny. Of course everybody knew that +the deed with which the accused was charged had been done. He had +loved the princess, and neither he, she, nor any one else thought of +denying the fact; but the king would not think of allowing any fact +of this kind to interfere with the workings of the tribunal, in +which he took such great delight and satisfaction. No matter how the +affair turned out, the youth would be disposed of; and the king +would take an aesthetic pleasure in watching the course of events, +which would determine whether or not the young man had done wrong in +allowing himself to love the princess. + +The appointed day arrived. From far and near the people gathered, +and thronged the great galleries of the arena; and crowds, unable to +gain admittance, massed themselves against its outside walls. The +king and his court were in their places, opposite the twin +doors--those fateful portals, so terrible in their similarity. + +All was ready. The signal was given. A door beneath the royal party +opened, and the lover of the princess walked into the arena. Tall, +beautiful, fair, his appearance was greeted with a low hum of +admiration and anxiety. Half the audience had not known so grand a +youth had lived among them. No wonder the princess loved him! What a +terrible thing for him to be there! + +As the youth advanced into the arena, he turned, as the custom was, +to bow to the king: but he did not think at all of that royal +personage; his eyes were fixed upon the princess, who sat to the +right of her father. Had it not been for the moiety of barbarism in +her nature it is probable that lady would not have been there; but +her intense and fervid soul would not allow her to be absent on an +occasion in which she was so terribly interested. From the moment +that the decree had gone forth that her lover should decide his fate +in the king's arena, she had thought of nothing, night or day, but +this great event and the various subjects connected with it. +Possessed of more power, influence, and force of character than any +one who had ever before been interested in such a case, she had done +what no other person had done--she had possessed herself of the +secret of the doors. She knew in which of the two rooms that lay +behind those doors stood the cage of the tiger, with its open front, +and in which waited the lady. Through these thick doors, heavily +curtained with skins on the inside, it was impossible that any noise +or suggestion should come from within to the person who should +approach to raise the latch of one of them; but gold, and the power +of a woman's will, had brought the secret to the princess. + +And not only did she know in which room stood the lady ready to +emerge, all blushing and radiant, should her door be opened, but she +knew who the lady was. It was one of the fairest and loveliest of +the damsels of the court who had been selected as the reward of the +accused youth, should he be proved innocent of the crime of aspiring +to one so far above him; and the princess hated her. Often had she +seen, or imagined that she had seen, this fair creature throwing +glances of admiration upon the person of her lover, and sometimes +she thought these glances were perceived and even returned. Now and +then she had seen them talking together; it was but for a moment or +two, but much can be said in a brief space; it may have been on most +unimportant topics, but how could she know that? The girl was +lovely, but she had dared to raise her eyes to the loved one of the +princess; and, with all the intensity of the savage blood +transmitted to her through long lines of wholly barbaric ancestors, +she hated the woman who blushed and trembled behind that silent +door. + +When her lover turned and looked at her, and his eye met hers as she +sat there paler and whiter than any one in the vast ocean of anxious +faces about her, he saw, by that power of quick perception which is +given to those whose souls are one, that she knew behind which door +crouched the tiger, and behind which stood the lady. He had expected +her to know it. He understood her nature, and his soul was assured +that she would never rest until she had made plain to herself this +thing, hidden to all other lookers-on, even to the king. The only +hope for the youth in which there was any element of certainty was +based upon the success of the princess in discovering this mystery; +and the moment he looked upon her, he saw she had succeeded, as in +his soul he knew she would succeed. + +Then it was that his quick and anxious glance asked the question, +"Which?" It was as plain to her as if he shouted it from where he +stood. There was not an instant to be lost. The question was asked +in a flash; it must be answered in another. + +Her right arm lay on the cushioned parapet before her. She raised +her hand, and made a slight, quick movement toward the right. No one +but her lover saw her. Every eye but his was fixed on the man in the +arena. + +He turned, and with a firm and rapid step he walked across the empty +space. Every heart stopped beating, every breath was held, every eye +was fixed immovably upon that man. Without the slightest hesitation, +he went to the door on the right, and opened it. + + * * * * * + +Now, the point of the story is this: Did the tiger come out of that +door, or did the lady? + +The more we reflect upon this question the harder it is to answer. +It involves a study of the human heart which leads us through +devious mazes of passion, out of which it is difficult to find our +way. Think of it, fair reader, not as if the decision of the +question depended upon yourself, but upon that hot-blooded, +semibarbaric princess, her soul at a white heat beneath the combined +fires of despair and jealousy. She had lost him, but who should have +him? + +How often, in her waking hours and in her dreams, had she started in +wild horror and covered her face with her hands as she thought of +her lover opening the door on the other side of which waited the +cruel fangs of the tiger! + +But how much oftener had she seen him at the other door! How in her +grievous reveries had she gnashed her teeth and torn her hair when +she saw his start of rapturous delight as he opened the door of the +lady! How her soul had burned in agony when she had seen him rush to +meet that woman, with her flushing cheek and sparkling eye of +triumph; when she had seen him lead her forth, his whole frame +kindled with the joy of recovered life; when she had heard the glad +shouts from the multitude, and the wild ringing of the happy bells; +when she had seen the priest, with his joyous followers, advance to +the couple, and make them man and wife before her very eyes; and +when she had seen them walk away together upon their path of +flowers, followed by the tremendous shouts of the hilarious +multitude, in which her one despairing shriek was lost and drowned! + +Would it not be better for him to die at once, and go to wait for +her in the blessed regions of semibarbaric futurity? + +And yet, that awful tiger, those shrieks, that blood! + +Her decision had been indicated in an instant, but it had been made +after days and nights of anguished deliberation. She had known she +would be asked, she had decided what she would answer, and, without +the slightest hesitation, she had moved her hand to the right. + +The question of her decision is one not to be lightly considered, +and it is not for me to presume to set myself up as the one person +able to answer it. And so I leave it with all of you: Which came out +of the opened door--the lady, or the tiger? + + + + +THE REMARKABLE WRECK OF THE "THOMAS HYKE" + + +It was half-past one by the clock in the office of the Registrar of +Woes. The room was empty, for it was Wednesday, and the Registrar +always went home early on Wednesday afternoons. He had made that +arrangement when he accepted the office. He was willing to serve his +fellow-citizens in any suitable position to which he might be +called, but he had private interests which could not be neglected. +He belonged to his country, but there was a house in the country +which belonged to him; and there were a great many things +appertaining to that house which needed attention, especially in +pleasant summer weather. It is true he was often absent on +afternoons which did not fall on the Wednesday, but the fact of his +having appointed a particular time for the furtherance of his +outside interests so emphasized their importance that his associates +in the office had no difficulty in understanding that affairs of +such moment could not always be attended to in a single afternoon of +the week. + +But although the large room devoted to the especial use of the +Registrar was unoccupied, there were other rooms connected with it +which were not in that condition. With the suite of offices to the +left we have nothing to do, but will confine our attention to a +moderate-sized room to the right of the Registrar's office, and +connected by a door, now closed, with that large and handsomely +furnished chamber. This was the office of the Clerk of Shipwrecks, +and it was at present occupied by five persons. One of these was the +clerk himself, a man of goodly appearance, somewhere between +twenty-five and forty-five years of age, and of a demeanor such as +might be supposed to belong to one who had occupied a high position +in state affairs, but who, by the cabals of his enemies, had been +forced to resign the great operations of statesmanship which he had +been directing, and who now stood, with a quite resigned air, +pointing out to the populace the futile and disastrous efforts of +the incompetent one who was endeavoring to fill his place. The Clerk +of Shipwrecks had never fallen from such a position, having never +occupied one, but he had acquired the demeanor referred to without +going through the preliminary exercises. + +Another occupant was a very young man, the personal clerk of the +Registrar of Woes, who always closed all the doors of the office of +that functionary on Wednesday afternoons, and at other times when +outside interests demanded his principal's absence, after which he +betook himself to the room of his friend the Shipwreck Clerk. + +Then there was a middle-aged man named Mathers, also a friend of the +clerk, and who was one of the eight who had made application for a +subposition in this department, which was now filled by a man who +was expected to resign when a friend of his, a gentleman of +influence in an interior county, should succeed in procuring the +nomination as congressional Representative of his district of an +influential politician, whose election was considered assured in +case certain expected action on the part of the administration +should bring his party into power. The person now occupying the +subposition hoped then to get something better, and Mathers, +consequently, was very willing, while waiting for the place, to +visit the offices of the department and acquaint himself with its +duties. + +A fourth person was J. George Watts, a juryman by profession, who +had brought with him his brother-in-law, a stranger in the city. + +The Shipwreck Clerk had taken off his good coat, which he had worn +to luncheon, and had replaced it by a lighter garment of linen, much +bespattered with ink; and he now produced a cigar-box, containing +six cigars. + +"Gents," said he, "here is the fag end of a box of cigars. It's not +like having the pick of a box, but they are all I have left." + +Mr. Mathers, J. George Watts, and the brother-in-law each took a +cigar with that careless yet deferential manner which always +distinguishes the treatee from the treator; and then the box was +protruded in an offhand way toward Harry Covare, the personal clerk +of the Registrar; but this young man declined, saying that he +preferred cigarettes, a package of which he drew from his pocket. He +had very often seen that cigar-box with a Havana brand, which he +himself had brought from the other room after the Registrar had +emptied it, passed around with six cigars, no more nor less, and he +was wise enough to know that the Shipwreck Clerk did not expect to +supply him with smoking-material. If that gentleman had offered to +the friends who generally dropped in on him on Wednesday afternoon +the paper bag of cigars sold at five cents each when bought singly, +but half a dozen for a quarter of a dollar, they would have been +quite as thankfully received; but it better pleased his deprecative +soul to put them in an empty cigar-box, and thus throw around them +the halo of the presumption that ninety-four of their imported +companions had been smoked. + +The Shipwreck Clerk, having lighted a cigar for himself, sat down in +his revolving chair, turned his back to his desk, and threw himself +into an easy cross-legged attitude, which showed that he was +perfectly at home in that office. Harry Covare mounted a high stool, +while the visitors seated themselves in three wooden arm-chairs. But +few words had been said, and each man had scarcely tossed his first +tobacco-ashes on the floor, when some one wearing heavy boots was +heard opening an outside door and entering the Registrar's room. +Harry Covare jumped down from his stool, laid his half-smoked +cigarette thereon, and bounced into the next room, closing the door +after him. In about a minute he returned, and the Shipwreck Clerk +looked at him inquiringly. + +"An old cock in a pea-jacket," said Mr. Covare, taking up his +cigarette and mounting his stool. "I told him the Registrar would be +here in the morning. He said he had something to report about a +shipwreck, and I told him the Registrar would be here in the +morning. Had to tell him that three times, and then he went." + +"School don't keep Wednesday afternoons," said Mr. J. George Watts, +with a knowing smile. + +"No, sir," said the Shipwreck Clerk, emphatically, changing the +crossing of his legs. "A man can't keep grinding on day in and out +without breaking down. Outsiders may say what they please about it, +but it can't be done. We've got to let up sometimes. People who do +the work need the rest just as much as those who do the looking on." + +"And more too, I should say," observed Mr. Mathers. + +"Our little let-up on Wednesday afternoons," modestly observed Harry +Covare, "is like death--it is sure to come; while the let-ups we get +other days are more like the diseases which prevail in certain +areas--you can't be sure whether you're going to get them or not." + +The Shipwreck Clerk smiled benignantly at this remark, and the rest +laughed. Mr. Mathers had heard it before, but he would not impair +the pleasantness of his relations with a future colleague by hinting +that he remembered it. + +"He gets such ideas from his beastly statistics," said the Shipwreck +Clerk. + +"Which come pretty heavy on him sometimes, I expect," observed Mr. +Mathers. + +"They needn't," said the Shipwreck Clerk, "if things were managed +here as they ought to be. If John J. Laylor"--meaning thereby the +Registrar--"was the right kind of a man you'd see things very +different here from what they are now. There'd be a larger force." + +"That's so," said Mr. Mathers. + +"And not only that, but there'd be better buildings and more +accommodations. Were any of you ever up to Anster? Well, take a run +up there some day, and see what sort of buildings the department has +there. William Q. Green is a very different man from John J. Laylor. +You don't see him sitting in his chair and picking his teeth the +whole winter, while the Representative from his district never says +a word about his department from one end of a session of Congress to +the other. Now if I had charge of things here, I'd make such changes +that you wouldn't know the place. I'd throw two rooms off here, and +a corridor and entrance-door at that end of the building. I'd close +up this door"--pointing toward the Registrar's room--"and if John J. +Laylor wanted to come in here he might go round to the end door like +other people." + +The thought struck Harry Covare that in that case there would be no +John J. Laylor, but he would not interrupt. + +"And what is more," continued the Shipwreck Clerk, "I'd close up +this whole department at twelve o'clock on Saturdays. The way things +are managed now, a man has no time to attend to his own private +business. Suppose I think of buying a piece of land, and want to go +out and look at it, or suppose any one of you gentlemen were here +and thought of buying a piece of land and wanted to go out and look +at it, what are you going to do about it? You don't want to go on +Sunday, and when are you going to go?" + +Not one of the other gentlemen had ever thought of buying a piece of +land, nor had they any reason to suppose that they ever would +purchase an inch of soil unless they bought it in a flower-pot; but +they all agreed that the way things were managed now there was no +time for a man to attend to his own business. + +"But you can't expect John J. Laylor to do anything," said the +Shipwreck Clerk. + +However, there was one thing which that gentleman always expected +John J. Laylor to do. When the clerk was surrounded by a number of +persons in hours of business, and when he had succeeded in +impressing them with the importance of his functions and the +necessity of paying deferential attention to himself if they wished +their business attended to, John J. Laylor would be sure to walk +into the office and address the Shipwreck Clerk in such a manner as +to let the people present know that he was a clerk and nothing else, +and that he, the Registrar, was the head of that department. These +humiliations the Shipwreck Clerk never forgot. + +There was a little pause here, and then Mr. Mathers remarked: + +"I should think you'd be awfully bored with the long stories of +shipwrecks that the people come and tell you." + +He hoped to change the conversation, because, although he wished to +remain on good terms with the subordinate officers, it was not +desirable that he should be led to say much against John J. Laylor. + +"No, sir," said the Shipwreck Clerk, "I am not bored. I did not come +here to be bored, and as long as I have charge of this office I +don't intend to be. The long-winded old salts who come here to +report their wrecks never spin out their prosy yarns to me. The +first thing I do is to let them know just what I want of them; and +not an inch beyond that does a man of them go, at least while I am +managing the business. There are times when John J. Laylor comes in, +and puts in his oar, and wants to hear the whole story; which is +pure stuff and nonsense, for John J. Laylor doesn't know anything +more about a shipwreck than he does about--" + +"The endemies in the Lake George area," suggested Harry Covare. + +"Yes; or any other part of his business," said the Shipwreck Clerk; +"and when he takes it into his head to interfere, all business stops +till some second mate of a coal-schooner has told his whole story +from his sighting land on the morning of one day to his getting +ashore on it on the afternoon of the next. Now I don't put up with +any such nonsense. There's no man living that can tell me anything +about shipwrecks. I've never been to sea myself, but that's not +necessary; and if I had gone, it's not likely I'd been wrecked. But +I've read about every kind of shipwreck that ever happened. When I +first came here I took care to post myself upon these matters, +because I knew it would save trouble. I have read 'Robinson Crusoe,' +'The Wreck of the "Grosvenor,"' 'The Sinking of the "Royal George,"' +and wrecks by water-spouts, tidal waves, and every other thing which +would knock a ship into a cocked hat, and I've classified every sort +of wreck under its proper head; and when I've found out to what +class a wreck belongs, I know all about it. Now, when a man comes +here to report a wreck, the first thing he has to do is just to shut +down on his story, and to stand up square and answer a few questions +that I put to him. In two minutes I know just what kind of shipwreck +he's had; and then, when he gives me the name of his vessel, and one +or two other points, he may go. I know all about that wreck, and I +make a much better report of the business than he could have done if +he'd stood here talking three days and three nights. The amount of +money that's been saved to our taxpayers by the way I've +systematized the business of this office is not to be calculated in +figures." + +The brother-in-law of J. George Watts knocked the ashes from the +remnant of his cigar, looked contemplatively at the coal for a +moment, and then remarked: + +"I think you said there's no kind of shipwreck you don't know +about?" + +"That's what I said," replied the Shipwreck Clerk. + +"I think," said the other, "I could tell you of a shipwreck, in +which I was concerned, that wouldn't go into any of your classes." + +The Shipwreck Clerk threw away the end of his cigar, put both his +hands into his trousers pockets, stretched out his legs, and looked +steadfastly at the man who had made this unwarrantable remark. Then +a pitying smile stole over his countenance, and he said: "Well, sir, +I'd like to hear your account of it; and before you get a quarter +through I can stop you just where you are, and go ahead and tell the +rest of the story myself." + +"That's so," said Harry Covare. "You'll see him do it just as sure +pop as a spread rail bounces the engine." + +"Well, then," said the brother-in-law of J. George Watts, "I'll tell +it." And he began: + + * * * * * + +"It was just two years ago the 1st of this month that I sailed for +South America in the 'Thomas Hyke.'" + +At this point the Shipwreck Clerk turned and opened a large book at +the letter T. + +"That wreck wasn't reported here," said the other, "and you won't +find it in your book." + +"At Anster, perhaps?" said the Shipwreck Clerk, closing the volume +and turning round again. + +"Can't say about that," replied the other. "I've never been to +Anster, and haven't looked over their books." + +"Well, you needn't want to," said the clerk. "They've got good +accommodations at Anster, and the Registrar has some ideas of the +duties of his post, but they have no such system of wreck reports as +we have here." + +"Very like," said the brother-in-law. And he went on with his story. +"The 'Thomas Hyke' was a small iron steamer of six hundred tons, and +she sailed from Ulford for Valparaiso with a cargo principally of +pig-iron." + +"Pig-iron for Valparaiso?" remarked the Shipwreck Clerk. And then he +knitted his brows thoughtfully, and said, "Go on." + +"She was a new vessel," continued the narrator, "and built with +water-tight compartments; rather uncommon for a vessel of her class, +but so she was. I am not a sailor, and don't know anything about +ships. I went as passenger, and there was another one named William +Anderson, and his son Sam, a boy about fifteen years old. We were +all going to Valparaiso on business. I don't remember just how many +days we were out, nor do I know just where we were, but it was +somewhere off the coast of South America, when, one dark night--with +a fog besides, for aught I know, for I was asleep--we ran into a +steamer coming north. How we managed to do this, with room enough on +both sides for all the ships in the world to pass, I don't know; but +so it was. When I got on deck the other vessel had gone on, and we +never saw anything more of her. Whether she sunk or got home is +something I can't tell. But we pretty soon found that the 'Thomas +Hyke' had some of the plates in her bow badly smashed, and she took +in water like a thirsty dog. The captain had the forward water-tight +bulkhead shut tight, and the pumps set to work, but it was no use. +That forward compartment just filled up with water, and the 'Thomas +Hyke' settled down with her bow clean under. Her deck was slanting +forward like the side of a hill, and the propeller was lifted up so +that it wouldn't have worked even if the engine had been kept going. +The captain had the masts cut away, thinking this might bring her up +some, but it didn't help much. There was a pretty heavy sea on, and +the waves came rolling up the slant of the deck like the surf on the +sea-shore. The captain gave orders to have all the hatches battened +down so that water couldn't get in, and the only way by which +anybody could go below was by the cabin door, which was far aft. +This work of stopping up all openings in the deck was a dangerous +business, for the decks sloped right down into the water, and if +anybody had slipped, away he'd have gone into the ocean, with +nothing to stop him; but the men made a line fast to themselves, and +worked away with a good will, and soon got the deck and the house +over the engine as tight as a bottle. The smoke-stack, which was +well forward, had been broken down by a spar when the masts had been +cut, and as the waves washed into the hole that it left, the captain +had this plugged up with old sails, well fastened down. It was a +dreadful thing to see the ship a-lying with her bows clean under +water and her stern sticking up. If it hadn't been for her +water-tight compartments that were left uninjured, she would have +gone down to the bottom as slick as a whistle. On the afternoon of +the day after the collision the wind fell, and the sea soon became +pretty smooth. The captain was quite sure that there would be no +trouble about keeping afloat until some ship came along and took us +off. Our flag was flying, upside down, from a pole in the stern; and +if anybody saw a ship making such a guy of herself as the 'Thomas +Hyke' was then doing, they'd be sure to come to see what was the +matter with her, even if she had no flag of distress flying. We +tried to make ourselves as comfortable as we could, but this wasn't +easy with everything on such a dreadful slant. But that night we +heard a rumbling and grinding noise down in the hold, and the slant +seemed to get worse. Pretty soon the captain roused all hands and +told us that the cargo of pig-iron was shifting and sliding down to +the bow, and that it wouldn't be long before it would break through +all the bulkheads, and then we'd fill and go to the bottom like a +shot. He said we must all take to the boats and get away as quick as +we could. It was an easy matter launching the boats. They didn't +lower them outside from the davits, but they just let 'em down on +deck and slid 'em along forward into the water, and then held 'em +there with a rope till everything was ready to start. They launched +three boats, put plenty of provisions and water in 'em, and then +everybody began to get aboard. But William Anderson and me and his +son Sam couldn't make up our minds to get into those boats and row +out on the dark, wide ocean. They were the biggest boats we had, but +still they were little things enough. The ship seemed to us to be a +good deal safer, and more likely to be seen when day broke, than +those three boats, which might be blown off, if the wind rose, +nobody knew where. It seemed to us that the cargo had done all the +shifting it intended to, for the noise below had stopped; and, +altogether, we agreed that we'd rather stick to the ship than go off +in those boats. The captain he tried to make us go, but we wouldn't +do it; and he told us if we chose to stay behind and be drowned it +was our affair and he couldn't help it; and then he said there was a +small boat aft, and we'd better launch her, and have her ready in +case things should get worse and we should make up our minds to +leave the vessel. He and the rest then rowed off so as not to be +caught in the vortex if the steamer went down, and we three stayed +aboard. We launched the small boat in the way we'd seen the others +launched, being careful to have ropes tied to us while we were doing +it; and we put things aboard that we thought we should want. Then we +went into the cabin and waited for morning. It was a queer kind of a +cabin, with a floor inclined like the roof of a house; but we sat +down in the corners, and were glad to be there. The swinging lamp +was burning, and it was a good deal more cheerful in there than it +was outside. But, about daybreak, the grinding and rumbling down +below began again, and the bow of the 'Thomas Hyke' kept going down +more and more; and it wasn't long before the forward bulkhead of the +cabin, which was what you might call its front wall when everything +was all right, was under our feet, as level as a floor, and the lamp +was lying close against the ceiling that it was hanging from. You +may be sure that we thought it was time to get out of that. There +were benches with arms to them fastened to the floor, and by these +we climbed up to the foot of the cabin stairs, which, being turned +bottom upward, we went down in order to get out. When we reached the +cabin door we saw part of the deck below us, standing up like the +side of a house that is built in the water, as they say the houses +in Venice are. We had made our boat fast to the cabin door by a long +line, and now we saw her floating quietly on the water, which was +very smooth and about twenty feet below us. We drew her up as close +under us as we could, and then we let the boy Sam down by a rope, +and after some kicking and swinging he got into her; and then he +took the oars and kept her right under us while we scrambled down by +the ropes which we had used in getting her ready. As soon as we were +in the boat we cut her rope and pulled away as hard as we could; and +when we got to what we thought was a safe distance we stopped to +look at the 'Thomas Hyke.' You never saw such a ship in all your +born days. Two thirds of the hull was sunk in the water, and she was +standing straight up and down with the stern in the air, her rudder +up as high as the topsail ought to be, and the screw propeller +looking like the wheel on the top of one of these windmills that +they have in the country for pumping up water. Her cargo had shifted +so far forward that it had turned her right upon end, but she +couldn't sink, owing to the air in the compartments that the water +hadn't got into; and on the top of the whole thing was the distress +flag flying from the pole which stuck out over the stern. It was +broad daylight, but not a thing did we see of the other boats. We'd +supposed that they wouldn't row very far, but would lay off at a +safe distance until daylight; but they must have been scared and +rowed farther than they intended. Well, sir, we stayed in that boat +all day and watched the 'Thomas Hyke'; but she just kept as she was +and didn't seem to sink an inch. There was no use of rowing away, +for we had no place to row to; and besides, we thought that passing +ships would be much more likely to see that stern sticking high in +the air than our little boat. We had enough to eat, and at night two +of us slept while the other watched, dividing off the time and +taking turns to this. In the morning there was the 'Thomas Hyke' +standing stern up just as before. There was a long swell on the +ocean now, and she'd rise and lean over a little on each wave, but +she'd come up again just as straight as before. That night passed as +the last one had, and in the morning we found we'd drifted a good +deal farther from the 'Thomas Hyke'; but she was floating just as +she had been, like a big buoy that's moored over a sandbar. We +couldn't see a sign of the boats, and we about gave them up. We had +our breakfast, which was a pretty poor meal, being nothing but +hardtack and what was left of a piece of boiled beef. After we'd sat +for a while doing nothing, but feeling mighty uncomfortable, William +Anderson said, 'Look here, do you know that I think we would be +three fools to keep on shivering all night, and living on hardtack +in the daytime, when there's plenty on that vessel for us to eat and +to keep us warm. If she's floated that way for two days and two +nights, there's no knowing how much longer she'll float, and we +might as well go on board and get the things we want as not.' 'All +right,' said I, for I was tired doing nothing; and Sam was as +willing as anybody. So we rowed up to the steamer, and stopped close +to the deck, which, as I said before, was standing straight up out +of the water like the wall of a house. The cabin door, which was the +only opening into her, was about twenty feet above us, and the ropes +which we had tied to the rails of the stairs inside were still +hanging down. Sam was an active youngster, and he managed to climb +up one of these ropes; but when he got to the door he drew it up and +tied knots in it about a foot apart, and then he let it down to us, +for neither William Anderson nor me could go up a rope hand over +hand without knots or something to hold on to. As it was, we had a +lot of bother getting up, but we did it at last; and then we walked +up the stairs, treading on the front part of each step instead of +the top of it, as we would have done if the stairs had been in their +proper position. When we got to the floor of the cabin, which was +now perpendicular like a wall, we had to clamber down by means of +the furniture, which was screwed fast, until we reached the +bulkhead, which was now the floor of the cabin. Close to this +bulkhead was a small room which was the steward's pantry, and here +we found lots of things to eat, but all jumbled up in a way that +made us laugh. The boxes of biscuits and the tin cans and a lot of +bottles in wicker covers were piled up on one end of the room, and +everything in the lockers and drawers was jumbled together. William +Anderson and me set to work to get out what we thought we'd want, +and we told Sam to climb up into some of the state-rooms--of which +there were four on each side of the cabin--and get some blankets to +keep us warm, as well as a few sheets, which we thought we could rig +up for an awning to the boat; for the days were just as hot as the +nights were cool. When we'd collected what we wanted, William +Anderson and me climbed into our own rooms, thinking we'd each pack +a valise with what we most wanted to save of our clothes and things; +and while we were doing this Sam called out to us that it was +raining. He was sitting at the cabin door looking out. I first +thought to tell him to shut the door so's to keep the rain from +coming in; but when I thought how things really were, I laughed at +the idea. There was a sort of little house built over the entrance +to the cabin, and in one end of it was the door; and in the way the +ship now was the open doorway was underneath the little house, and +of course no rain could come in. Pretty soon we heard the rain +pouring down, beating on the stern of the vessel like hail. We got +to the stairs and looked out. The rain was falling in perfect +sheets, in a way you never see except round about the tropics. 'It's +a good thing we're inside,' said William Anderson, 'for if we'd been +out in this rain we'd been drowned in the boat.' I agreed with him, +and we made up our minds to stay where we were until the rain was +over. Well, it rained about four hours; and when it stopped, and we +looked out, we saw our little boat nearly full of water, and sunk so +deep that if one of us had stepped on her she'd have gone down, +sure. 'Here's a pretty kittle of fish,' said William Anderson; +'there's nothing for us to do now but to stay where we are.' I +believe in his heart he was glad of that, for if ever a man was +tired of a little boat, William Anderson was tired of that one we'd +been in for two days and two nights. At any rate, there was no use +talking about it, and we set to work to make ourselves comfortable. +We got some mattresses and pillows out of the state-rooms, and when +it began to get dark we lighted the lamp--which we had filled with +sweet-oil from a flask in the pantry, not finding any other +kind--and we hung it from the railing of the stairs. We had a good +night's rest, and the only thing that disturbed me was William +Anderson lifting up his head every time he turned over and saying +how much better this was than that blasted little boat. The next +morning we had a good breakfast, even making some tea with a +spirit-lamp we found, using brandy instead of alcohol. William +Anderson and I wanted to get into the captain's room--which was near +the stern and pretty high up--so as to see if there was anything +there that we ought to get ready to save when a vessel should come +along and pick us up; but we were not good at climbing, like Sam, +and we didn't see how we could get up there. Sam said he was sure he +had once seen a ladder in the compartment just forward of the +bulkhead, and as William was very anxious to get up to the captain's +room, we let the boy go and look for it. There was a sliding door in +the bulkhead under our feet, and we opened this far enough to let +Sam get through; and he scrambled down like a monkey into the next +compartment, which was light enough, although the lower half of it, +which was next to the engine-room, was under the water-line. Sam +actually found a ladder with hooks at one end of it, and while he +was handing it up to us--which was very hard to do, for he had to +climb up on all sorts of things--he let it topple over, and the end +with the iron hooks fell against the round glass of one of the +port-holes. The glass was very thick and strong, but the ladder came +down very heavy and shivered it. As bad luck would have it, this +window was below the water-line, and the water came rushing in in a +big spout. We chucked blankets down to Sam for him to stop up the +hole, but 'twas of no use; for it was hard for him to get at the +window, and when he did the water came in with such force that he +couldn't get a blanket into the hole. We were afraid he'd be drowned +down there, and told him to come out as quick as he could. He put up +the ladder again, and hooked it on to the door in the bulkhead, and +we held it while he climbed up. Looking down through the doorway, we +saw, by the way the water was pouring in at the opening, that it +wouldn't be long before that compartment was filled up; so we shoved +the door to and made it all tight, and then said William Anderson, +'The ship'll sink deeper and deeper as that fills up, and the water +may get up to the cabin door, and we must go and make that as tight +as we can.' Sam had pulled the ladder up after him, and this we +found of great use in getting to the foot of the cabin stairs. We +shut the cabin door, and locked and bolted it; and as it fitted +pretty tight, we didn't think it would let in much water if the ship +sunk that far. But over the top of the cabin stairs were a couple of +folding doors, which shut down horizontally when the ship was in its +proper position, and which were only used in very bad, cold weather. +These we pulled to and fastened tight, thus having a double +protection against the water. Well, we didn't get this done any too +soon, for the water did come up to the cabin door, and a little +trickled in from the outside door and through the cracks in the +inner one. But we went to work and stopped these up with strips from +the sheets, which we crammed well in with our pocket-knives. Then we +sat down on the steps and waited to see what would happen next. The +doors of all the state-rooms were open, and we could see through the +thick plate-glass windows in them, which were all shut tight, that +the ship was sinking more and more as the water came in. Sam climbed +up into one of the after state-rooms, and said the outside water was +nearly up to the stern; and pretty soon we looked up to the two +portholes in the stern, and saw that they were covered with water; +and as more and more water could be seen there, and as the light +came through less easily, we knew that we were sinking under the +surface of the ocean. 'It's a mighty good thing,' said William +Anderson, 'that no water can get in here.' William had a hopeful +kind of mind, and always looked on the bright side of things; but I +must say that I was dreadfully scared when I looked through those +stern windows and saw water instead of sky. It began to get duskier +and duskier as we sank lower and lower; but still we could see +pretty well, for it's astonishing how much light comes down through +water. After a little while we noticed that the light remained about +the same; and then William Anderson he sings out, 'Hooray, we've +stopped sinking!' 'What difference does that make?' says I. 'We must +be thirty or forty feet under water, and more yet, for aught I +know.' 'Yes, that may be,' said he; 'but it is clear that all the +water has got into that compartment that can get in, and we have +sunk just as far down as we are going.' 'But that don't help +matters,' said I; 'thirty or forty feet under water is just as bad +as a thousand as to drowning a man.' 'Drowning!' said William; 'how +are you going to be drowned? No water can get in here.' 'Nor no air, +either,' said I; 'and people are drowned for want of air, as I take +it.' 'It would be a queer sort of thing,' said William, 'to be +drowned in the ocean and yet stay as dry as a chip. But it's no use +being worried about air. We've got air enough here to last us for +ever so long. This stern compartment is the biggest in the ship, and +it's got lots of air in it. Just think of that hold! It must be +nearly full of air. The stern compartment of the hold has got +nothing in it but sewing-machines. I saw 'em loading her. The +pig-iron was mostly amidships, or at least forward of this +compartment. Now, there's no kind of a cargo that'll accommodate as +much air as sewing-machines. They're packed in wooden frames, not +boxes, and don't fill up half the room they take. There's air all +through and around 'em. It's a very comforting thing to think the +hold isn't filled up solid with bales of cotton or wheat in bulk.' +It might be comforting, but I couldn't get much good out of it. And +now Sam, who'd been scrambling all over the cabin to see how things +were going on, sung out that the water was leaking in a little again +at the cabin door and around some of the iron frames of the windows. +'It's a lucky thing,' said William Anderson, 'that we didn't sink +any deeper, or the pressure of the water would have burst in those +heavy glasses. And what we've got to do now is to stop up all the +cracks. The more we work the livelier we'll feel.' We tore off more +strips of sheets and went all round, stopping up cracks wherever we +found them. 'It's fortunate,' said William Anderson, 'that Sam found +that ladder, for we would have had hard work getting to the windows +of the stern state-rooms without it; but by resting it on the bottom +step of the stairs, which now happens to be the top one, we can get +to any part of the cabin.' I couldn't help thinking that if Sam +hadn't found the ladder it would have been a good deal better for +us; but I didn't want to damp William's spirits, and I said nothing. + +"And now I beg your pardon, sir," said the narrator, addressing the +Shipwreck Clerk, "but I forgot that you said you'd finish this story +yourself. Perhaps you'd like to take it up just here?" + +The Shipwreck Clerk seemed surprised, and had apparently forgotten +his previous offer. "Oh no," said he, "tell your own story. This is +not a matter of business." + +"Very well, then," said the brother-in-law of J. George Watts, "I'll +go on. We made everything as tight as we could, and then we got our +supper, having forgotten all about dinner, and being very hungry. We +didn't make any tea and we didn't light the lamp, for we knew that +would use up air; but we made a better meal than three people sunk +out of sight in the ocean had a right to expect. 'What troubles me +most,' said William Anderson, as he turned in, 'is the fact that if +we are forty feet under water our flagpole must be covered up. Now, +if the flag was sticking out, upside down, a ship sailing by would +see it and would know there was something wrong.' 'If that's all +that troubles you,' said I, 'I guess you'll sleep easy. And if a +ship was to see the flag, I wonder how they'd know we were down +here, and how they'd get us out if they did!' 'Oh, they'd manage +it,' said William Anderson; 'trust those sea-captains for that.' And +then he went to sleep. The next morning the air began to get mighty +disagreeable in the part of the cabin where we were, and then +William Anderson he says, 'What we've got to do is to climb up into +the stern state-rooms, where the air is purer. We can come down here +to get our meals, and then go up again to breathe comfortable.' 'And +what are we going to do when the air up there gets foul?' says I to +William, who seemed to be making arrangements for spending the +summer in our present quarters. 'Oh, that'll be all right,' said he. +'It don't do to be extravagant with air any more than with anything +else. When we've used up all there is in this cabin, we can bore +holes through the floor into the hold and let in air from there. If +we're economical, there'll be enough to last for dear knows how +long.' We passed the night each in a state-room, sleeping on the end +wall instead of the berth, and it wasn't till the afternoon of the +next day that the air of the cabin got so bad we thought we'd have +some fresh; so we went down on the bulkhead, and with an auger that +we found in the pantry we bored three holes, about a yard apart, in +the cabin floor, which was now one of the walls of the room, just as +the bulkhead was the floor, and the stern end, where the two round +windows were, was the ceiling or roof. We each took a hole, and I +tell you it was pleasant to breathe the air which came in from the +hold. 'Isn't this jolly?' said William Anderson. 'And we ought to be +mighty glad that that hold wasn't loaded with codfish or soap. But +there's nothing that smells better than new sewing-machines that +haven't ever been used, and this air is pleasant enough for +anybody.' By William's advice we made three plugs, by which we +stopped up the holes when we thought we'd had air enough for the +present. 'And now,' says he, 'we needn't climb up into those awkward +state-rooms any more. We can just stay down here and be comfortable, +and let in air when we want it.' 'And how long do you suppose that +air in the hold is going to last?' said I. 'Oh, ever so long,' said +he, 'using it so economically as we do; and when it stops coming out +lively through these little holes, as I suppose it will after a +while, we can saw a big hole in this flooring and go into the hold +and do our breathing, if we want to.' That evening we did saw a hole +about a foot square, so as to have plenty of air while we were +asleep; but we didn't go into the hold, it being pretty well filled +up with machines; though the next day Sam and I sometimes stuck our +heads in for a good sniff of air, though William Anderson was +opposed to this, being of the opinion that we ought to put ourselves +on short rations of breathing so as to make the supply of air hold +out as long as possible. 'But what's the good,' said I to William, +'of trying to make the air hold out if we've got to be suffocated in +this place after all?' 'What's the good?' says he. 'Haven't you +enough biscuits and canned meats and plenty of other things to eat, +and a barrel of water in that room opposite the pantry, not to speak +of wine and brandy if you want to cheer yourself up a bit, and +haven't we good mattresses to sleep on, and why shouldn't we try to +live and be comfortable as long as we can?' 'What I want,' said I, +'is to get out of this box. The idea of being shut up in here down +under the water is more than I can stand. I'd rather take my chances +going up to the surface and swimming about till I found a piece of +the wreck, or something to float on.' 'You needn't think of anything +of that sort,' said William, 'for if we were to open a door or a +window to get out, the water'd rush in and drive us back and fill up +this place in no time; and then the whole concern would go to the +bottom. And what would you do if you did get to the top of the +water? It's not likely you'd find anything there to get on, and if +you did you wouldn't live very long floating about with nothing to +eat. No, sir,' says he, 'what we've got to do is to be content with +the comforts we have around us, and something will turn up to get us +out of this; you see if it don't.' There was no use talking against +William Anderson, and I didn't say any more about getting out. As +for Sam, he spent his time at the windows of the state-rooms +a-looking out. We could see a good way into the water--farther than +you would think--and we sometimes saw fishes, especially porpoises, +swimming about, most likely trying to find out what a ship was doing +hanging bows down under the water. What troubled Sam was that a +swordfish might come along and jab his sword through one of the +windows. In that case it would be all up, or rather down, with us. +Every now and then he'd sing out, 'Here comes one!' And then, just +as I'd give a jump, he'd say, 'No, it isn't; it's a porpoise.' I +thought from the first, and I think now, that it would have been a +great deal better for us if that boy hadn't been along. That night +there was a good deal of motion to the ship, and she swung about and +rose up and down more than she had done since we'd been left in her. +'There must be a big sea running on top,' said William Anderson, +'and if we were up there we'd be tossed about dreadful. Now the +motion down here is just as easy as a cradle; and, what's more, we +can't be sunk very deep, for if we were there wouldn't be any motion +at all.' About noon the next day we felt a sudden tremble and shake +run through the whole ship, and far down under us we heard a +rumbling and grinding that nearly scared me out of my wits. I first +thought we'd struck bottom; but William he said that couldn't be, +for it was just as light in the cabin as it had been, and if we'd +gone down it would have grown much darker, of course. The rumbling +stopped after a little while, and then it seemed to grow lighter +instead of darker; and Sam, who was looking up at the stern windows +over our heads, he sung out, 'Sky!' And, sure enough, we could see +the blue sky, as clear as daylight, through those windows! And then +the ship she turned herself on the slant, pretty much as she had +been when her forward compartment first took in water, and we found +ourselves standing on the cabin floor instead of the bulkhead. I was +near one of the open state-rooms, and as I looked in there was the +sunlight coming through the wet glass in the window, and more +cheerful than anything I ever saw before in this world. William +Anderson he just made one jump, and, unscrewing one of the +state-room windows, he jerked it open. We had thought the air inside +was good enough to last some time longer; but when that window was +open and the fresh air came rushing in, it was a different sort of +thing, I can tell you. William put his head out and looked up and +down and all around. 'She's nearly all out of water,' he shouted, +'and we can open the cabin door!' Then we all three rushed at those +stairs, which were nearly right side up now, and we had the cabin +doors open in no time. When we looked out we saw that the ship was +truly floating pretty much as she had been when the captain and crew +left her, though we all agreed that her deck didn't slant as much +forward as it did then. 'Do you know what's happened?' sung out +William Anderson, after he'd stood still for a minute to look around +and think. 'That bobbing up and down that the vessel got last night +shook up and settled down the pig-iron inside of her, and the iron +plates in the bow, that were smashed and loosened by the collision, +have given way under the weight, and the whole cargo of pig-iron has +burst through and gone to the bottom. Then, of course, up we came. +Didn't I tell you something would happen to make us all right?' + +"Well, I won't make this story any longer than I can help. The next +day after that we were taken off by a sugar-ship bound north, and we +were carried safe back to Ulford, where we found our captain and the +crew, who had been picked up by a ship after they'd been three or +four days in their boats. This ship had sailed our way to find us, +which, of course, she couldn't do, as at that time we were under +water and out of sight. + +"And now, sir," said the brother-in-law of J. George Watts to the +Shipwreck Clerk, "to which of your classes does this wreck of mine +belong?" + +"Gents," said the Shipwreck Clerk, rising from his seat, "it's four +o'clock, and at that hour this office closes." + + + + +OLD PIPES AND THE DRYAD + + +A mountain brook ran through a little village. Over the brook there +was a narrow bridge, and from the bridge a foot-path led out from +the village and up the hillside to the cottage of Old Pipes and his +mother. For many, many years Old Pipes had been employed by the +villagers to pipe the cattle down from the hills. Every afternoon, +an hour before sunset, he would sit on a rock in front of his +cottage and play on his pipes. Then all the flocks and herds that +were grazing on the mountains would hear him, wherever they might +happen to be, and would come down to the village--the cows by the +easiest paths, the sheep by those not quite so easy, and the goats +by the steep and rocky ways that were hardest of all. + +But now, for a year or more, Old Pipes had not piped the cattle +home. It is true that every afternoon he sat upon the rock and +played upon his familiar instrument; but the cattle did not hear +him. He had grown old and his breath was feeble. The echoes of his +cheerful notes, which used to come from the rocky hill on the other +side of the valley, were heard no more; and twenty yards from Old +Pipes one could scarcely tell what tune he was playing. He had +become somewhat deaf, and did not know that the sound of his pipes +was so thin and weak, and that the cattle did not hear him. The +cows, the sheep, and the goats came down every afternoon as before, +but this was because two boys and a girl were sent up after them. +The villagers did not wish the good old man to know that his piping +was no longer of any use, so they paid him his little salary every +month, and said nothing about the two boys and the girl. + +Old Pipes's mother was, of course, a great deal older than he was, +and was as deaf as a gate--posts, latch, hinges, and all--and she +never knew that the sound of her son's pipe did not spread over all +the mountain-side and echo back strong and clear from the opposite +hills. She was very fond of Old Pipes, and proud of his piping; and +as he was so much younger than she was, she never thought of him as +being very old. She cooked for him, and made his bed, and mended his +clothes; and they lived very comfortably on his little salary. + +One afternoon, at the end of the month, when Old Pipes had finished +his piping, he took his stout staff and went down the hill to the +village to receive the money for his month's work. The path seemed a +great deal steeper and more difficult than it used to be; and Old +Pipes thought that it must have been washed by the rains and greatly +damaged. He remembered it as a path that was quite easy to traverse +either up or down. But Old Pipes had been a very active man, and as +his mother was so much older than he was, he never thought of +himself as aged and infirm. + +When the Chief Villager had paid him, and he had talked a little +with some of his friends, Old Pipes started to go home. But when he +had crossed the bridge over the brook and gone a short distance up +the hillside, he became very tired and sat down upon a stone. He had +not been sitting there half a minute when along came two boys and a +girl. + +"Children," said Old Pipes, "I'm very tired to-night, and I don't +believe I can climb up this steep path to my home. I think I shall +have to ask you to help me." + +"We will do that," said the boys and the girl, quite cheerfully; and +one boy took him by the right hand and the other by the left, while +the girl pushed him in the back. In this way he went up the hill +quite easily, and soon reached his cottage door. Old Pipes gave each +of the three children a copper coin, and then they sat down for a +few minutes' rest before starting back to the village. + +"I'm sorry that I tired you so much," said Old Pipes. + +"Oh, that would not have tired us," said one of the boys, "if we had +not been so far to-day after the cows, the sheep, and the goats. +They rambled high up on the mountain, and we never before had such a +time in finding them." + +"Had to go after the cows, the sheep, and the goats!" exclaimed Old +Pipes. "What do you mean by that?" + +The girl, who stood behind the old man, shook her head, put her hand +on her mouth, and made all sorts of signs to the boy to stop talking +on this subject; but he did not notice her and promptly answered Old +Pipes. + +"Why, you see, good sir," said he, "that as the cattle can't hear +your pipes now, somebody has to go after them every evening to drive +them down from the mountain, and the Chief Villager has hired us +three to do it. Generally it is not very hard work, but to-night the +cattle had wandered far." + +"How long have you been doing this?" asked the old man. + +The girl shook her head and clapped her hand on her mouth more +vigorously than before, but the boy went on. + +"I think it is about a year now," he said, "since the people first +felt sure that the cattle could not hear your pipes; and from that +time we've been driving them down. But we are rested now and will go +home. Good-night, sir." + +The three children then went down the hill, the girl scolding the +boy all the way home. Old Pipes stood silent a few moments and then +he went into his cottage. + +"Mother," he shouted, "did you hear what those children said?" + +"Children!" exclaimed the old woman; "I did not hear them. I did not +know there were any children here." + +Then Old Pipes told his mother--shouting very loudly to make her +hear--how the two boys and the girl had helped him up the hill, and +what he had heard about his piping and the cattle. + +"They can't hear you?" cried his mother. "Why, what's the matter +with the cattle?" + +"Ah me!" said Old Pipes, "I don't believe there's anything the +matter with the cattle. It must be with me and my pipes that there +is something the matter. But one thing is certain: if I do not earn +the wages the Chief Villager pays me, I shall not take them. I shall +go straight down to the village and give back the money I received +to-day." + +"Nonsense!" cried his mother. "I'm sure you've piped as well as you +could, and no more can be expected. And what are we to do without +the money?" + +"I don't know," said Old Pipes; "but I'm going down to the village +to pay it back." + +The sun had now set; but the moon was shining very brightly on the +hillside, and Old Pipes could see his way very well. He did not take +the same path by which he had gone before, but followed another, +which led among the trees upon the hillside, and, though longer, was +not so steep. + +When he had gone about half-way the old man sat down to rest, +leaning his back against a great oak-tree. As he did so he heard a +sound like knocking inside the tree, and then a voice distinctly +said: + +"Let me out! let me out!" + +Old Pipes instantly forgot that he was tired, and sprang to his +feet. "This must be a Dryad-tree!" he exclaimed. "If it is, I'll let +her out." + +Old Pipes had never, to his knowledge, seen a Dryad-tree, but he +knew there were such trees on the hillsides and the mountains, and +that Dryads lived in them. He knew, too, that in the summer-time, on +those days when the moon rose before the sun went down, a Dryad +could come out of her tree if any one could find the key which +locked her in, and turn it. Old Pipes closely examined the trunk of +the tree, which stood in the full moonlight. "If I see that key," he +said, "I shall surely turn it." Before long he perceived a piece of +bark standing out from the tree, which appeared to him very much +like the handle of a key. He took hold of it, and found he could +turn it quite around. As he did so a large part of the side of the +tree was pushed open, and a beautiful Dryad stepped quickly out. + +For a moment she stood motionless, gazing on the scene before +her--the tranquil valley, the hills, the forest, and the +mountain-side, all lying in the soft clear light of the moon. "Oh, +lovely! lovely!" she exclaimed. "How long it is since I have seen +anything like this!" And then, turning to Old Pipes, she said, "How +good of you to let me out! I am so happy and so thankful that I must +kiss you, you dear old man!" And she threw her arms around the neck +of Old Pipes and kissed him on both cheeks. "You don't know," she +then went on to say, "how doleful it is to be shut up so long in a +tree. I don't mind it in the winter, for then I am glad to be +sheltered; but in summer it is a rueful thing not to be able to see +all the beauties of the world. And it's ever so long since I've been +let out. People so seldom come this way; and when they do come at +the right time they either don't hear me, or they are frightened and +run away. But you, you dear old man, you were not frightened, and +you looked and looked for the key, and you let me out, and now I +shall not have to go back till winter has come and the air grows +cold. Oh, it is glorious! What can I do for you to show you how +grateful I am?" + +"I am very glad," said Old Pipes, "that I let you out, since I see +that it makes you so happy; but I must admit that I tried to find +the key because I had a great desire to see a Dryad. But if you wish +to do something for me, you can, if you happen to be going down +toward the village." + +"To the village!" exclaimed the Dryad. "I will go anywhere for you, +my kind old benefactor." + +"Well, then," said Old Pipes, "I wish you would take this little bag +of money to the Chief Villager and tell him that Old Pipes cannot +receive pay for the services which he does not perform. It is now +more than a year that I have not been able to make the cattle hear +me when I piped to call them home. I did not know this until +to-night; but now that I know it I cannot keep the money, and so I +send it back." And, handing the little bag to the Dryad, he bade her +good-night and turned toward his cottage. + +"Good-night," said the Dryad. "And I thank you over and over and +over again, you good old man!" + +Old Pipes walked toward his home, very glad to be saved the fatigue +of going all the way down to the village and back again. "To be +sure," he said to himself, "this path does not seem at all steep, +and I can walk along it very easily; but it would have tired me +dreadfully to come up all the way from the village, especially as I +could not have expected those children to help me again." When he +reached home his mother was surprised to see him returning so soon. + +"What!" she exclaimed, "have you already come back? What did the +Chief Villager say? Did he take the money?" + +Old Pipes was just about to tell her that he had sent the money to +the village by a Dryad when he suddenly reflected that his mother +would be sure to disapprove such a proceeding, and so he merely said +he had sent it by a person whom he had met. + +"And how do you know that the person will ever take it to the Chief +Villager?" cried his mother. "You will lose it, and the villagers +will never get it. Oh, Pipes! Pipes! when will you be old enough to +have ordinary common sense?" + +Old Pipes considered that as he was already seventy years of age he +could scarcely expect to grow any wiser, but he made no remark on +this subject; and, saying that he doubted not that the money would +go safely to its destination, he sat down to his supper. His mother +scolded him roundly, but he did not mind it; and after supper he +went out and sat on a rustic chair in front of the cottage to look +at the moon-lit village, and to wonder whether or not the Chief +Villager really received the money. While he was doing these two +things he went fast asleep. + +When Old Pipes left the Dryad, she did not go down to the village +with the little bag of money. She held it in her hand and thought +about what she had heard. "This is a good and honest old man," she +said, "and it is a shame that he should lose this money. He looked +as if he needed it, and I don't believe the people in the village +will take it from one who has served them so long. Often, when in my +tree, have I heard the sweet notes of his pipes. I am going to take +the money back to him." She did not start immediately, because there +were so many beautiful things to look at; but after a while she went +up to the cottage, and, finding Old Pipes asleep in his chair, she +slipped the little bag into his coat pocket and silently sped away. + +The next day Old Pipes told his mother that he would go up the +mountain and cut some wood. He had a right to get wood from the +mountain, but for a long time he had been content to pick up the +dead branches which lay about his cottage. To-day, however, he felt +so strong and vigorous that he thought he would go and cut some fuel +that would be better than this. He worked all the morning, and when +he came back he did not feel at all tired, and he had a very good +appetite for his dinner. + +Now, Old Pipes knew a good deal about Dryads, but there was one +thing which, although he had heard, he had forgotten. This was that +a kiss from a Dryad made a person ten years younger. The people of +the village knew this, and they were very careful not to let any +child of ten years or younger go into the woods where the Dryads +were supposed to be; for if they should chance to be kissed by one +of these tree-nymphs, they would be set back so far that they would +cease to exist. A story was told in the village that a very bad boy +of eleven once ran away into the woods and had an adventure of this +kind; and when his mother found him he was a little baby of one year +old. Taking advantage of her opportunity, she brought him up more +carefully than she had done before; and he grew to be a very good +boy indeed. + +Now, Old Pipes had been kissed twice by the Dryad, once on each +cheek, and he therefore felt as vigorous and active as when he was a +hale man of fifty. His mother noticed how much work he was doing, +and told him that he need not try in that way to make up for the +loss of his piping wages; for he would only tire himself out and get +sick. But her son answered that he had not felt so well for years, +and that he was quite able to work. In the course of the afternoon, +Old Pipes, for the first time that day, put his hand in his coat +pocket, and there, to his amazement, he found the little bag of +money. "Well, well!" he exclaimed, "I am stupid indeed! I really +thought that I had seen a Dryad; but when I sat down by that big +oak-tree I must have gone to sleep and dreamed it all; and then I +came home thinking I had given the money to a Dryad, when it was in +my pocket all the time. But the Chief Villager shall have the money. +I shall not take it to him to-day; but to-morrow I wish to go to the +village to see some of my old friends, and then I shall give up the +money." + +Toward the close of the afternoon, Old Pipes, as had been his custom +for so many years, took his pipes from the shelf on which they lay, +and went out to the rock in front of the cottage. + +"What are you going to do?" cried his mother. "If you will not +consent to be paid, why do you pipe?" + +"I am going to pipe for my own pleasure," said her son. "I am used +to it, and I do not wish to give it up. It does not matter now +whether the cattle hear me or not, and I am sure that my piping will +injure no one." + +When the good man began to play upon his favorite instrument he was +astonished at the sound that came from it. The beautiful notes of +the pipes sounded clear and strong down into the valley, and spread +over the hills and up the sides of the mountain beyond, while, after +a little interval, an echo came back from the rocky hill on the +other side of the valley. + +"Ha! ha!" he cried, "what has happened to my pipes? They must have +been stopped up of late, but now they are as clear and good as +ever." + +Again the merry notes went sounding far and wide. The cattle on the +mountain heard them, and those that were old enough remembered how +these notes had called them from their pastures every evening, and +so they started down the mountain-side, the others following. + +The merry notes were heard in the village below, and the people were +much astonished thereby. "Why, who can be blowing the pipes of Old +Pipes?" they said. But, as they were all very busy, no one went up +to see. One thing, however, was plain enough: the cattle were coming +down the mountain. And so the two boys and the girl did not have to +go after them, and had an hour for play, for which they were very +glad. + +The next morning Old Pipes started down to the village with his +money, and on the way he met the Dryad. "Oh, ho!" he cried, "is that +you? Why, I thought my letting you out of the tree was nothing but a +dream." + +"A dream!" cried the Dryad; "if you only knew how happy you have +made me you would not think it merely a dream. And has it not +benefited you? Do you not feel happier? Yesterday I heard you +playing beautifully on your pipes." + +"Yes, yes," cried he. "I did not understand it before, but I see it +all now. I have really grown younger. I thank you, I thank you, good +Dryad, from the bottom of my heart. It was the finding of the money +in my pocket that made me think it was a dream." + +"Oh, I put it in when you were asleep," she said, laughing, "because +I thought you ought to keep it. Good-by, kind, honest man. May you +live long and be as happy as I am now." + +Old Pipes was greatly delighted when he understood that he was really +a younger man; but that made no difference about the money, and he +kept on his way to the village. As soon as he reached it he was +eagerly questioned as to who had been playing his pipes the evening +before; and when the people heard that it was himself, they were +very much surprised. Thereupon Old Pipes told what had happened to +him, and then there was greater wonder, with hearty congratulations +and hand-shakes; for Old Pipes was liked by every one. The Chief +Villager refused to take his money, and, although Old Pipes said +that he had not earned it, every one present insisted that, as he +would now play on his pipes as before, he should lose nothing +because, for a time, he was unable to perform his duty. + +So Old Pipes was obliged to keep his money, and after an hour or two +spent in conversation with his friends, he returned to his cottage. + +There was one individual, however, who was not at all pleased with +what had happened to Old Pipes. This was an Echo-dwarf, who lived on +the hills on the other side of the valley, and whose duty it was to +echo back the notes of the pipes whenever they could be heard. There +were a great many other Echo-dwarfs on these hills, some of whom +echoed back the songs of maidens, some the shouts of children, and +others the music that was often heard in the village. But there was +only one who could send back the strong notes of the pipes of Old +Pipes, and this had been his sole duty for many years. But when the +old man grew feeble, and the notes of his pipes could not be heard +on the opposite hills, this Echo-dwarf had nothing to do, and he +spent his time in delightful idleness; and he slept so much and grew +so fat that it made his companions laugh to see him walk. + +On the afternoon on which, after so long an interval, the sound of +the pipes was heard on the echo-hills, this dwarf was fast asleep +behind a rock. As soon as the first notes reached them, some of his +companions ran to wake him. Rolling to his feet, he echoed back the +merry tune of Old Pipes. Naturally he was very much annoyed and +indignant at being thus obliged to give up his life of comfortable +leisure, and he hoped very much that this pipe-playing would not +occur again. The next afternoon he was awake and listening, and, +sure enough, at the usual hour, along came the notes of the pipes as +clear and strong as they ever had been; and he was obliged to work +as long as Old Pipes played. The Echo-dwarf was very angry. He had +supposed, of course, that the pipe-playing had ceased forever, and +he felt that he had a right to be indignant at being thus deceived. +He was so much disturbed that he made up his mind to go and try to +find out whether this was to be a temporary matter or not. He had +plenty of time, as the pipes were played but once a day, and he set +off early in the morning for the hill on which Old Pipes lived. It +was hard work for the fat little fellow, and when he had crossed the +valley and had gone some distance into the woods on the hillside, he +stopped to rest, and in a few minutes the Dryad came tripping along. + +"Ho, ho!" exclaimed the dwarf; "what are you doing here? and how did +you get out of your tree?" + +"Doing!" cried the Dryad, "I am being happy; that's what I am doing. +And I was let out of my tree by a good old man who plays the pipes +to call the cattle down from the mountain. And it makes me happier +to think that I have been of service to him. I gave him two kisses +of gratitude, and now he is young enough to play his pipes as well +as ever." + +The Echo-dwarf stepped forward, his face pale with passion. "Am I to +believe," he said, "that you are the cause of this great evil that +has come upon me? and that you are the wicked creature who has again +started this old man upon his career of pipe-playing? What have I +ever done to you that you should have condemned me for years and +years to echo back the notes of those wretched pipes?" + +At this the Dryad laughed loudly. + +"What a funny little fellow you are!" she said. "Any one would think +you had been condemned to toil from morning till night; while what +you really have to do is merely to imitate for half an hour every +day the merry notes of Old Pipes's piping. Fie upon you, Echo-dwarf! +You are lazy and selfish; and that is what is the matter with you. +Instead of grumbling at being obliged to do a little wholesome +work--which is less, I am sure, than that of any other Echo-dwarf +upon the rocky hillside--you should rejoice at the good fortune of +the old man who has regained so much of his strength and vigor. Go +home and learn to be just and generous; and then, perhaps, you may +be happy. Good-by." + +"Insolent creature!" shouted the dwarf, as he shook his fat little +fist at her. "I'll make you suffer for this. You shall find out what +it is to heap injury and insult upon one like me, and to snatch from +him the repose that he has earned by long years of toil." And, +shaking his head savagely, he hurried back to the rocky hillside. + +Every afternoon the merry notes of the pipes of Old Pipes sounded +down into the valley and over the hills and up the mountain-side; +and every afternoon when he had echoed them back, the little dwarf +grew more and more angry with the Dryad. Each day, from early +morning till it was time for him to go back to his duties upon the +rocky hillside, he searched the woods for her. He intended, if he +met her, to pretend to be very sorry for what he had said, and he +thought he might be able to play a trick upon her which would avenge +him well. One day, while thus wandering among the trees, he met Old +Pipes. The Echo-dwarf did not generally care to see or speak to +ordinary people; but now he was so anxious to find the object of his +search that he stopped and asked Old Pipes if he had seen the Dryad. +The piper had not noticed the little fellow, and he looked down on +him with some surprise. + +"No," he said, "I have not seen her, and I have been looking +everywhere for her." + +"You!" cried the dwarf; "what do you wish with her?" + +Old Pipes then sat down on a stone, so that he should be nearer the +ear of his small companion, and he told what the Dryad had done for +him. + +When the Echo-dwarf heard that this was the man whose pipes he was +obliged to echo back every day, he would have slain him on the spot +had he been able; but, as he was not able, he merely ground his +teeth and listened to the rest of the story. + +"I am looking for the Dryad now," Old Pipes continued, "on account +of my aged mother. When I was old myself, I did not notice how very +old my mother was; but now it shocks me to see how feeble and +decrepit her years have caused her to become; and I am looking for +the Dryad to ask her to make my mother younger, as she made me." + +The eyes of the Echo-dwarf glistened. Here was a man who might help +him in his plans. + +"Your idea is a good one," he said to Old Pipes, "and it does you +honor. But you should know that a Dryad can make no person younger +but one who lets her out of her tree. However, you can manage the +affair very easily. All you need do is to find the Dryad, tell her +what you want, and request her to step into her tree and be shut up +for a short time. Then you will go and bring your mother to the +tree; she will open it, and everything will be as you wish. Is not +this a good plan?" + +"Excellent!" cried Old Pipes; "and I will go instantly and search +more diligently for the Dryad." + +"Take me with you," said the Echo-dwarf. "You can easily carry me on +your strong shoulders; and I shall be glad to help you in any way +that I can." + +"Now, then," said the little fellow to himself, as Old Pipes carried +him rapidly along, "if he persuades the Dryad to get into a +tree--and she is quite foolish enough to do it--and then goes away +to bring his mother, I shall take a stone or a club and I will break +off the key of that tree, so that nobody can ever turn it again. +Then Mistress Dryad will see what she has brought upon herself by +her behavior to me." + +Before long they came to the great oak-tree in which the Dryad had +lived, and, at a distance, they saw that beautiful creature herself +coming toward them. + +"How excellently well everything happens!" said the dwarf. "Put me +down, and I will go. Your business with the Dryad is more important +than mine; and you need not say anything about my having suggested +your plan to you. I am willing that you should have all the credit +of it yourself." + +Old Pipes put the Echo-dwarf upon the ground, but the little rogue +did not go away. He concealed himself between some low, mossy rocks, +and he was so much of their color that you would not have noticed +him if you had been looking straight at him. + +When the Dryad came up, Old Pipes lost no time in telling her about +his mother, and what he wished her to do. At first the Dryad +answered nothing, but stood looking very sadly at Old Pipes. + +"Do you really wish me to go into my tree again?" she said. "I +should dreadfully dislike to do it, for I don't know what might +happen. It is not at all necessary, for I could make your mother +younger at any time if she would give me the opportunity. I had +already thought of making you still happier in this way, and several +times I have waited about your cottage, hoping to meet your aged +mother; but she never comes outside, and you know a Dryad cannot +enter a house. I cannot imagine what put this idea into your head. +Did you think of it yourself?" + +"No, I cannot say that I did," answered Old Pipes. "A little dwarf +whom I met in the woods proposed it to me." + +"Oh!" cried the Dryad, "now I see through it all. It is the scheme +of that vile Echo-dwarf--your enemy and mine. Where is he? I should +like to see him." + +"I think he has gone away," said Old Pipes. + +"No, he has not," said the Dryad, whose quick eyes perceived the +Echo-dwarf among the rocks. "There he is. Seize him and drag him +out, I beg of you." + +Old Pipes perceived the dwarf as soon as he was pointed out to him, +and, running to the rocks, he caught the little fellow by the arm +and pulled him out. + +"Now, then," cried the Dryad, who had opened the door of the great +oak, "just stick him in there and we will shut him up. Then I shall +be safe from his mischief for the rest of the time I am free." + +Old Pipes thrust the Echo-dwarf into the tree; the Dryad pushed the +door shut; there was a clicking sound of bark and wood, and no one +would have noticed that the big oak had ever had an opening in it. + +"There!" said the Dryad; "now we need not be afraid of him. And I +assure you, my good piper, that I shall be very glad to make your +mother younger as soon as I can. Will you not ask her to come out +and meet me?" + +"Of course I will," cried Old Pipes; "and I will do it without +delay." + +And then, the Dryad by his side, he hurried to his cottage. But when +he mentioned the matter to his mother, the old woman became very +angry indeed. She did not believe in Dryads; and, if they really did +exist, she knew they must be witches and sorceresses, and she would +have nothing to do with them. If her son had ever allowed himself to +be kissed by one of them, he ought to be ashamed of himself. As to +its doing him the least bit of good, she did not believe a word of +it. He felt better than he used to feel, but that was very common; +she had sometimes felt that way herself. And she forbade him ever to +mention a Dryad to her again. + +That afternoon Old Pipes, feeling very sad that his plan in regard +to his mother had failed, sat down upon the rock and played upon his +pipes. The pleasant sounds went down the valley and up the hills and +mountain, but, to the great surprise of some persons who happened to +notice the fact, the notes were not echoed back from the rocky +hillside, but from the woods on the side of the valley on which Old +Pipes lived. The next day many of the villagers stopped in their +work to listen to the echo of the pipes coming from the woods. The +sound was not as clear and strong as it used to be when it was sent +back from the rocky hillside, but it certainly came from among the +trees. Such a thing as an echo changing its place in this way had +never been heard of before, and nobody was able to explain how it +could have happened. Old Pipes, however, knew very well that the +sound came from the Echo-dwarf shut up in the great oak-tree. The +sides of the tree were thin, and the sound of the pipes could be +heard through them, and the dwarf was obliged by the laws of his +being to echo back those notes whenever they came to him. But Old +Pipes thought he might get the Dryad in trouble if he let any one +know that the Echo-dwarf was shut up in the tree, and so he wisely +said nothing about it. + +One day the two boys and the girl who had helped Old Pipes up the +hill were playing in the woods. Stopping near the great oak-tree, +they heard a sound of knocking within it, and then a voice plainly +said: + +"Let me out! let me out!" + +For a moment the children stood still in astonishment, and then one +of the boys exclaimed: + +"Oh, it is a Dryad, like the one Old Pipes found! Let's let her +out!" + +"What are you thinking of?" cried the girl. "I am the oldest of all, +and I am only thirteen. Do you wish to be turned into crawling +babies? Run! run! run!" + +And the two boys and the girl dashed down into the valley as fast as +their legs could carry them. There was no desire in their youthful +hearts to be made younger than they were. And for fear that their +parents might think it well that they should commence their careers +anew, they never said a word about finding the Dryad-tree. + +As the summer days went on Old Pipes's mother grew feebler and +feebler. One day when her son was away--for he now frequently went +into the woods to hunt or fish, or down into the valley to work--she +arose from her knitting to prepare the simple dinner. But she felt +so weak and tired that she was not able to do the work to which she +had been so long accustomed. "Alas! alas!" she said, "the time has +come when I am too old to work. My son will have to hire some one to +come here and cook his meals, make his bed, and mend his clothes. +Alas! alas! I had hoped that as long as I lived I should be able to +do these things. But it is not so. I have grown utterly worthless, +and some one else must prepare the dinner for my son. I wonder where +he is." And tottering to the door, she went outside to look for him. +She did not feel able to stand, and reaching the rustic chair, she +sank into it, quite exhausted, and soon fell asleep. + +The Dryad, who had often come to the cottage to see if she could +find an opportunity of carrying out Old Pipes's affectionate design, +now happened by; and seeing that the much-desired occasion had come, +she stepped up quietly behind the old woman and gently kissed her on +each cheek, and then as quietly disappeared. + +In a few minutes the mother of Old Pipes awoke, and looking up at +the sun, she exclaimed, "Why, it is almost dinner-time! My son will +be here directly, and I am not ready for him." And rising to her +feet, she hurried into the house, made the fire, set the meat and +vegetables to cook, laid the cloth, and by the time her son arrived +the meal was on the table. + +"How a little sleep does refresh one!" she said to herself, as she +was bustling about. She was a woman of very vigorous constitution, +and at seventy had been a great deal stronger and more active than +her son was at that age. The moment Old Pipes saw his mother, he +knew that the Dryad had been there; but, while he felt as happy as a +king, he was too wise to say anything about her. + +"It is astonishing how well I feel to-day," said his mother; "and +either my hearing has improved or you speak much more plainly than +you have done of late." + +The summer days went on and passed away, the leaves were falling +from the trees, and the air was becoming cold. + +"Nature has ceased to be lovely," said the Dryad, "and the night +winds chill me. It is time for me to go back into my comfortable +quarters in the great oak. But first I must pay another visit to the +cottage of Old Pipes." + +She found the piper and his mother sitting side by side on the rock +in front of the door. The cattle were not to go to the mountain any +more that season, and he was piping them down for the last time. +Loud and merrily sounded the pipes of Old Pipes, and down the +mountain-side came the cattle, the cows by the easiest paths, the +sheep by those not quite so easy, and the goats by the most +difficult ones among the rocks; while from the great oak-tree were +heard the echoes of the cheerful music. + +"How happy they look, sitting there together!" said the Dryad; "and +I don't believe it will do them a bit of harm to be still younger." +And moving quietly up behind them, she first kissed Old Pipes on his +cheek and then his mother. + +Old Pipes, who had stopped playing, knew what it was, but he did not +move, and said nothing. His mother, thinking that her son had kissed +her, turned to him with a smile and kissed him in return. And then +she arose and went into the cottage, a vigorous woman of sixty, +followed by her son, erect and happy, and twenty years younger than +herself. + +The Dryad sped away to the woods, shrugging her shoulders as she +felt the cool evening wind. + +When she reached the great oak, she turned the key and opened the +door. "Come out," she said to the Echo-dwarf, who sat blinking +within. "Winter is coming on, and I want the comfortable shelter of +my tree for myself. The cattle have come down from the mountain for +the last time this year, the pipes will no longer sound, and you can +go to your rocks and have a holiday until next spring." + +Upon hearing these words the dwarf skipped quickly out, and the +Dryad entered the tree and pulled the door shut after her. "Now, +then," she said to herself, "he can break off the key if he likes. +It does not matter to me. Another will grow out next spring. And +although the good piper made me no promise, I know that when the +warm days arrive next year he will come and let me out again." + +The Echo-dwarf did not stop to break the key of the tree. He was too +happy to be released to think of anything else, and he hastened as +fast as he could to his home on the rocky hillside. + + * * * * * + +The Dryad was not mistaken when she trusted in the piper. When the +warm days came again he went to the oak-tree to let her out. But, to +his sorrow and surprise, he found the great tree lying upon the +ground. A winter storm had blown it down, and it lay with its trunk +shattered and split. And what became of the Dryad no one ever knew. + + + + +THE TRANSFERRED GHOST + + +The country residence of Mr. John Hinckman was a delightful place to +me, for many reasons. It was the abode of a genial, though somewhat +impulsive, hospitality. It had broad, smooth-shaven lawns and +towering oaks and elms; there were bosky shades at several points, +and not far from the house there was a little rill spanned by a +rustic bridge with the bark on; there were fruits and flowers, +pleasant people, chess, billiards, rides, walks, and fishing. These +were great attractions; but none of them, nor all of them together, +would have been sufficient to hold me to the place very long. I had +been invited for the trout season, but should probably have finished +my visit early in the summer had it not been that upon fair days, +when the grass was dry, and the sun was not too hot, and there was +but little wind, there strolled beneath the lofty elms, or passed +lightly through the bosky shades, the form of my Madeline. + +This lady was not, in very truth, my Madeline. She had never given +herself to me, nor had I, in any way, acquired possession of her. +But as I considered her possession the only sufficient reason for +the continuance of my existence, I called her, in my reveries, mine. +It may have been that I would not have been obliged to confine the +use of this possessive pronoun to my reveries had I confessed the +state of my feelings to the lady. + +But this was an unusually difficult thing to do. Not only did I +dread, as almost all lovers dread, taking the step which would in an +instant put an end to that delightful season which may be termed the +ante-interrogatory period of love, and which might at the same time +terminate all intercourse or connection with the object of my +passion, but I was also dreadfully afraid of John Hinckman. This +gentleman was a good friend of mine, but it would have required a +bolder man than I was at that time to ask him for the gift of his +niece, who was the head of his household, and, according to his own +frequent statement, the main prop of his declining years. Had +Madeline acquiesced in my general views on the subject, I might have +felt encouraged to open the matter to Mr. Hinckman; but, as I said +before, I had never asked her whether or not she would be mine. I +thought of these things at all hours of the day and night, +particularly the latter. + +I was lying awake one night, in the great bed in my spacious +chamber, when, by the dim light of the new moon, which partially +filled the room, I saw John Hinckman standing by a large chair near +the door. I was very much surprised at this, for two reasons. In the +first place, my host had never before come into my room; and, in the +second place, he had gone from home that morning, and had not +expected to return for several days. It was for this reason that I +had been able that evening to sit much later than usual with +Madeline on the moon-lit porch. The figure was certainly that of +John Hinckman in his ordinary dress, but there was a vagueness and +indistinctness about it which presently assured me that it was a +ghost. Had the good old man been murdered? and had his spirit come +to tell me of the deed, and to confide to me the protection of his +dear--? My heart fluttered at what I was about to think, but at this +instant the figure spoke. + +"Do you know," he said, with a countenance that indicated anxiety, +"if Mr. Hinckman will return to-night?" + +I thought it well to maintain a calm exterior, and I answered: + +"We do not expect him." + +"I am glad of that," said he, sinking into the chair by which he +stood. "During the two years and a half that I have inhabited this +house, that man has never before been away for a single night. You +can't imagine the relief it gives me." + +And as he spoke he stretched out his legs and leaned back in the +chair. His form became less vague, and the colors of his garments +more distinct and evident, while an expression of gratified relief +succeeded to the anxiety of his countenance. + +"Two years and a half!" I exclaimed. "I don't understand you." + +"It is fully that length of time," said the ghost, "since I first +came here. Mine is not an ordinary case. But before I say anything +more about it, let me ask you again if you are sure Mr. Hinckman +will not return to-night?" + +"I am as sure of it as I can be of anything," I answered. "He left +to-day for Bristol, two hundred miles away." + +"Then I will go on," said the ghost, "for I am glad to have the +opportunity of talking to some one who will listen to me; but if +John Hinckman should come in and catch me here I should be +frightened out of my wits." + +"This is all very strange," I said, greatly puzzled by what I had +heard. "Are you the ghost of Mr. Hinckman?" + +This was a bold question, but my mind was so full of other emotions +that there seemed to be no room for that of fear. + +"Yes, I am his ghost," my companion replied, "and yet I have no +right to be. And this is what makes me so uneasy, and so much afraid +of him. It is a strange story, and, I truly believe, without +precedent. Two years and a half ago John Hinckman was dangerously +ill in this very room. At one time he was so far gone that he was +really believed to be dead. It was in consequence of too precipitate +a report in regard to this matter that I was, at that time, +appointed to be his ghost. Imagine my surprise and horror, sir, +when, after I had accepted the position and assumed its +responsibilities, that old man revived, became convalescent, and +eventually regained his usual health. My situation was now one of +extreme delicacy and embarrassment. I had no power to return to my +original unembodiment, and I had no right to be the ghost of a man +who was not dead. I was advised by my friends to quietly maintain my +position, and was assured that, as John Hinckman was an elderly man, +it could not be long before I could rightfully assume the position +for which I had been selected. But I tell you, sir," he continued, +with animation, "the old fellow seems as vigorous as ever, and I +have no idea how much longer this annoying state of things will +continue. I spend my time trying to get out of that old man's way. I +must not leave this house, and he seems to follow me everywhere. I +tell you, sir, he haunts me." + +"That is truly a queer state of things," I remarked. "But why are +you afraid of him? He couldn't hurt you." + +"Of course he couldn't," said the ghost. "But his very presence is a +shock and terror to me. Imagine, sir, how you would feel if my case +were yours." + +I could not imagine such a thing at all. I simply shuddered. + +"And if one must be a wrongful ghost at all," the apparition +continued, "it would be much pleasanter to be the ghost of some man +other than John Hinckman. There is in him an irascibility of temper, +accompanied by a facility of invective, which is seldom met with. +And what would happen if he were to see me, and find out, as I am +sure he would, how long and why I had inhabited his house, I can +scarcely conceive. I have seen him in his bursts of passion; and, +although he did not hurt the people he stormed at any more than he +would hurt me, they seemed to shrink before him." + +All this I knew to be very true. Had it not been for this +peculiarity of Mr. Hinckman I might have been more willing to talk +to him about his niece. + +"I feel sorry for you," I said, for I really began to have a +sympathetic feeling toward this unfortunate apparition. "Your case +is indeed a hard one. It reminds me of those persons who have had +doubles, and I suppose a man would often be very angry indeed when +he found that there was another being who was personating himself." + +"Oh, the cases are not similar at all," said the ghost. "A double or +doppelgaenger lives on the earth with a man, and, being exactly like +him, he makes all sorts of trouble, of course. It is very different +with me. I am not here to live with Mr. Hinckman. I am here to take +his place. Now, it would make John Hinckman very angry if he knew +that. Don't you know it would?" + +I assented promptly. + +"Now that he is away I can be easy for a little while," continued +the ghost; "and I am so glad to have an opportunity of talking to +you. I have frequently come into your room and watched you while you +slept, but did not dare to speak to you for fear that if you talked +with me Mr. Hinckman would hear you and come into the room to know +why you were talking to yourself." + +"But would he not hear you?" I asked. + +"Oh no!" said the other; "there are times when any one may see me, +but no one hears me except the person to whom I address myself." + +"But why did you wish to speak to me?" I asked. + +"Because," replied the ghost, "I like occasionally to talk to +people, and especially to some one like yourself, whose mind is so +troubled and perturbed that you are not likely to be frightened by a +visit from one of us. But I particularly wanted to ask you to do me +a favor. There is every probability, so far as I can see, that John +Hinckman will live a long time, and my situation is becoming +insupportable. My great object at present is to get myself +transferred, and I think that you may, perhaps, be of use to me." + +"Transferred!" I exclaimed. "What do you mean by that?" + +"What I mean," said the other, "is this: now that I have started on +my career I have got to be the ghost of somebody, and I want to be +the ghost of a man who is really dead." + +"I should think that would be easy enough," I said. "Opportunities +must continually occur." + +"Not at all! not at all!" said my companion, quickly. "You have no +idea what a rush and pressure there is for situations of this kind. +Whenever a vacancy occurs, if I may express myself in that way, +there are crowds of applications for the ghostship." + +"I had no idea that such a state of things existed," I said, +becoming quite interested in the matter. "There ought to be some +regular system, or order of precedence, by which you could all take +your turns like customers in a barber's shop." + +"Oh dear, that would never do at all!" said the other. "Some of us +would have to wait forever. There is always a great rush whenever a +good ghostship offers itself--while, as you know, there are some +positions that no one would care for. And it was in consequence of +my being in too great a hurry on an occasion of the kind that I got +myself into my present disagreeable predicament, and I have thought +that it might be possible that you would help me out of it. You +might know of a case where an opportunity for a ghostship was not +generally expected, but which might present itself at any moment. If +you would give me a short notice I know I could arrange for a +transfer." + +"What do you mean?" I exclaimed. "Do you want me to commit suicide? +or to undertake a murder for your benefit?" + +"Oh no, no, no!" said the other, with a vapory smile. "I mean +nothing of that kind. To be sure, there are lovers who are watched +with considerable interest, such persons having been known, in +moments of depression, to offer very desirable ghostships; but I did +not think of anything of that kind in connection with you. You were +the only person I cared to speak to, and I hoped that you might give +me some information that would be of use; and, in return, I shall be +very glad to help you in your love-affair." + +"You seem to know that I have such an affair," I said. + +"Oh yes!" replied the other, with a little yawn. "I could not be +here so much as I have been without knowing all about that." + +There was something horrible in the idea of Madeline and myself +having been watched by a ghost, even, perhaps, when we wandered +together in the most delightful and bosky places. But then this was +quite an exceptional ghost, and I could not have the objections to +him which would ordinarily arise in regard to beings of his class. + +"I must go now," said the ghost, rising, "but I will see you +somewhere to-morrow night. And remember--you help me and I'll help +you." + +I had doubts the next morning as to the propriety of telling +Madeline anything about this interview, and soon convinced myself +that I must keep silent on the subject. If she knew there was a +ghost about the house she would probably leave the place instantly. +I did not mention the matter, and so regulated my demeanor that I am +quite sure Madeline never suspected what had taken place. For some +time I had wished that Mr. Hinckman would absent himself, for a day +at least, from the premises. In such case I thought I might more +easily nerve myself up to the point of speaking to Madeline on the +subject of our future collateral existence; and, now that the +opportunity for such speech had really occurred, I did not feel +ready to avail myself of it. What would become of me if she refused +me? + +I had an idea, however, that the lady thought that, if I were going +to speak at all, this was the time. She must have known that certain +sentiments were afloat within me, and she was not unreasonable in +her wish to see the matter settled one way or the other. But I did +not feel like taking a bold step in the dark. If she wished me to +ask her to give herself to me she ought to offer me some reason to +suppose that she would make the gift. If I saw no probability of +such generosity I would prefer that things should remain as they +were. + + * * * * * + +That evening I was sitting with Madeline in the moon-lit porch. It +was nearly ten o'clock, and ever since supper-time I had been +working myself up to the point of making an avowal of my sentiments. +I had not positively determined to do this, but wished gradually to +reach the proper point, when, if the prospect looked bright, I might +speak. My companion appeared to understand the situation--at least I +imagined that the nearer I came to a proposal the more she seemed to +expect it. It was certainly a very critical and important epoch in +my life. If I spoke I should make myself happy or miserable forever; +and if I did not speak I had every reason to believe that the lady +would not give me another chance to do so. + +Sitting thus with Madeline, talking a little, and thinking very hard +over these momentous matters, I looked up and saw the ghost not a +dozen feet away from us. He was sitting on the railing of the porch, +one leg thrown up before him, the other dangling down as he leaned +against a post. He was behind Madeline, but almost in front of me, +as I sat facing the lady. It was fortunate that Madeline was looking +out over the landscape, for I must have appeared very much startled. +The ghost had told me that he would see me sometime this night, but +I did not think he would make his appearance when I was in the +company of Madeline. If she should see the spirit of her uncle I +could not answer for the consequences. I made no exclamation, but +the ghost evidently saw that I was troubled. + +"Don't be afraid," he said. "I shall not let her see me; and she +cannot hear me speak unless I address myself to her, which I do not +intend to do." + +I suppose I looked grateful. + +"So you need not trouble yourself about that," the ghost continued; +"but it seems to me that you are not getting along very well with +your affair. If I were you I should speak out without waiting any +longer. You will never have a better chance. You are not likely to +be interrupted; and, so far as I can judge, the lady seems disposed +to listen to you favorably; that is, if she ever intends to do so. +There is no knowing when John Hinckman will go away again; certainly +not this summer. If I were in your place I should never dare to make +love to Hinckman's niece if he were anywhere about the place. If he +should catch any one offering himself to Miss Madeline he would then +be a terrible man to encounter." + +I agreed perfectly to all this. + +"I cannot bear to think of him!" I ejaculated aloud. + +"Think of whom?" asked Madeline, turning quickly toward me. + +Here was an awkward situation. The long speech of the ghost, to +which Madeline paid no attention, but which I heard with perfect +distinctness, had made me forget myself. + +It was necessary to explain quickly. Of course it would not do to +admit that it was of her dear uncle that I was speaking; and so I +mentioned hastily the first name I thought of. + +"Mr. Vilars," I said. + +This statement was entirely correct; for I never could bear to think +of Mr. Vilars, who was a gentleman who had at various times paid +much attention to Madeline. + +"It is wrong for you to speak in that way of Mr. Vilars," she said. +"He is a remarkably well-educated and sensible young man, and has +very pleasant manners. He expects to be elected to the legislature +this fall, and I should not be surprised if he made his mark. He +will do well in a legislative body, for whenever Mr. Vilars has +anything to say he knows just how and when to say it." + +This was spoken very quietly and without any show of resentment, +which was all very natural; for if Madeline thought at all favorably +of me she could not feel displeased that I should have disagreeable +emotions in regard to a possible rival. The concluding words +contained a hint which I was not slow to understand. I felt very +sure that if Mr. Vilars were in my present position he would speak +quickly enough. + +"I know it is wrong to have such ideas about a person," I said, "but +I cannot help it." + +The lady did not chide me, and after this she seemed even in a +softer mood. As for me, I felt considerably annoyed, for I had not +wished to admit that any thought of Mr. Vilars had ever occupied my +mind. + +"You should not speak aloud that way," said the ghost, "or you may +get yourself into trouble. I want to see everything go well with +you, because then you may be disposed to help me, especially if I +should chance to be of any assistance to you, which I hope I shall +be." + +I longed to tell him that there was no way in which he could help me +so much as by taking his instant departure. To make love to a young +lady with a ghost sitting on the railing near by, and that ghost the +apparition of a much-dreaded uncle, the very idea of whom in such a +position and at such a time made me tremble, was a difficult, if not +an impossible, thing to do; but I forbore to speak, although I may +have looked, my mind. + +"I suppose," continued the ghost, "that you have not heard anything +that might be of advantage to me. Of course I am very anxious to +hear; but if you have anything to tell me I can wait until you are +alone. I will come to you to-night in your room, or I will stay here +until the lady goes away." + +"You need not wait here," I said; "I have nothing at all to say to +you." + +Madeline sprang to her feet, her face flushed and her eyes ablaze. + +"Wait here!" she cried. "What do you suppose I am waiting for? +Nothing to say to me indeed!--I should think so! What should you +have to say to me?" + +"Madeline," I exclaimed, stepping toward her, "let me explain." + +But she had gone. + +Here was the end of the world for me! I turned fiercely to the +ghost. + +"Wretched existence!" I cried. "You have ruined everything. You have +blackened my whole life. Had it not been for you--" + +But here my voice faltered. I could say no more. + +"You wrong me," said the ghost. "I have not injured you. I have +tried only to encourage and assist you, and it is your own folly +that has done this mischief. But do not despair. Such mistakes as +these can be explained. Keep up a brave heart. Good-by." + +And he vanished from the railing like a bursting soap-bubble. + +I went gloomily to bed, but I saw no apparitions that night except +those of despair and misery which my wretched thoughts called up. +The words I had uttered had sounded to Madeline like the basest +insult. Of course there was only one interpretation she could put +upon them. + +As to explaining my ejaculations, that was impossible. I thought the +matter over and over again as I lay awake that night, and I +determined that I would never tell Madeline the facts of the case. +It would be better for me to suffer all my life than for her to know +that the ghost of her uncle haunted the house. Mr. Hinckman was +away, and if she knew of his ghost she could not be made to believe +that he was not dead. She might not survive the shock! No, my heart +could bleed, but I would never tell her. + +The next day was fine, neither too cool nor too warm; the breezes +were gentle, and Nature smiled. But there were no walks or rides +with Madeline. She seemed to be much engaged during the day, and I +saw but little of her. When we met at meals she was polite, but very +quiet and reserved. She had evidently determined on a course of +conduct, and had resolved to assume that, although I had been very +rude to her, she did not understand the import of my words. It would +be quite proper, of course, for her not to know what I meant by my +expressions of the night before. + +I was downcast and wretched and said but little, and the only bright +streak across the black horizon of my woe was the fact that she did +not appear to be happy, although she affected an air of unconcern. +The moon-lit porch was deserted that evening, but wandering about +the house, I found Madeline in the library alone. She was reading, +but I went in and sat down near her. I felt that, although I could +not do so fully, I must in a measure explain my conduct of the night +before. She listened quietly to a somewhat labored apology I made +for the words I had used. + +"I have not the slightest idea what you meant," she said, "but you +were very rude." + +I earnestly disclaimed any intention of rudeness, and assured her, +with a warmth of speech that must have made some impression upon +her, that rudeness to her would be an action impossible to me. I +said a great deal upon the subject, and implored her to believe that +if it were not for a certain obstacle I could speak to her so +plainly that she would understand everything. + +She was silent for a time, and then she said, rather more kindly, I +thought, than she had spoken before: + +"Is that obstacle in any way connected with my uncle?" + +"Yes," I answered, after a little hesitation, "it is, in a measure, +connected with him." + +She made no answer to this, and sat looking at her book, but not +reading. From the expression of her face I thought she was somewhat +softened toward me. She knew her uncle as well as I did, and she may +have been thinking that, if he were the obstacle that prevented my +speaking (and there were many ways in which he might be that +obstacle), my position would be such a hard one that it would excuse +some wildness of speech and eccentricity of manner. I saw, too, that +the warmth of my partial explanations had had some effect on her, +and I began to believe that it might be a good thing for me to speak +my mind without delay. No matter how she should receive my +proposition, my relations with her could not be worse than they had +been the previous night and day, and there was something in her face +which encouraged me to hope that she might forget my foolish +exclamations of the evening before if I began to tell her my tale of +love. + +I drew my chair a little nearer to her, and as I did so the ghost +burst into the room from the doorway behind her. I say burst, +although no door flew open and he made no noise. He was wildly +excited, and waved his arms above his head. The moment I saw him my +heart fell within me. With the entrance of that impertinent +apparition every hope fled from me. I could not speak while he was +in the room. + +I must have turned pale; and I gazed steadfastly at the ghost, +almost without seeing Madeline, who sat between us. + +"Do you know," he cried, "that John Hinckman is coming up the hill? +He will be here in fifteen minutes; and if you are doing anything in +the way of love-making you had better hurry it up. But this is not +what I came to tell you. I have glorious news! At last I am +transferred! Not forty minutes ago a Russian nobleman was murdered +by the Nihilists. Nobody ever thought of him in connection with an +immediate ghostship. My friends instantly applied for the situation +for me, and obtained my transfer. I am off before that horrid +Hinckman comes up the hill. The moment I reach my new position I +shall put off this hated semblance. Good-by. You can't imagine how +glad I am to be, at last, the real ghost of somebody." + +"Oh!" I cried, rising to my feet, and stretching out my arms in +utter wretchedness, "I would to Heaven you were mine!" + +"I _am_ yours," said Madeline, raising to me her tearful eyes. + + + + +"THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELATIVE EXISTENCES" + + +In a certain summer, not long gone, my friend Bentley and I found +ourselves in a little hamlet which overlooked a placid valley, +through which a river gently moved, winding its way through green +stretches until it turned the end of a line of low hills and was +lost to view. Beyond this river, far away, but visible from the door +of the cottage where we dwelt, there lay a city. Through the mists +which floated over the valley we could see the outlines of steeples +and tall roofs; and buildings of a character which indicated thrift +and business stretched themselves down to the opposite edge of the +river. The more distant parts of the city, evidently a small one, +lost themselves in the hazy summer atmosphere. + +Bentley was young, fair-haired, and a poet; I was a philosopher, or +trying to be one. We were good friends, and had come down into this +peaceful region to work together. Although we had fled from the +bustle and distractions of the town, the appearance in this rural +region of a city, which, so far as we could observe, exerted no +influence on the quiet character of the valley in which it lay, +aroused our interest. No craft plied up and down the river; there +were no bridges from shore to shore; there were none of those +scattered and half-squalid habitations which generally are found on +the outskirts of a city; there came to us no distant sound of bells; +and not the smallest wreath of smoke rose from any of the buildings. + +In answer to our inquiries our landlord told us that the city over +the river had been built by one man, who was a visionary, and who +had a great deal more money than common sense. "It is not as big a +town as you would think, sirs," he said, "because the general +mistiness of things in this valley makes them look larger than they +are. Those hills, for instance, when you get to them are not as high +as they look to be from here. But the town is big enough, and a good +deal too big; for it ruined its builder and owner, who when he came +to die had not money enough left to put up a decent tombstone at the +head of his grave. He had a queer idea that he would like to have +his town all finished before anybody lived in it, and so he kept on +working and spending money year after year and year after year until +the city was done and he had not a cent left. During all the time +that the place was building hundreds of people came to him to buy +houses, or to hire them, but he would not listen to anything of the +kind. No one must live in his town until it was all done. Even his +workmen were obliged to go away at night to lodge. It is a town, +sirs, I am told, in which nobody has slept for even a night. There +are streets there, and places of business, and churches, and public +halls, and everything that a town full of inhabitants could need; +but it is all empty and deserted, and has been so as far back as I +can remember, and I came to this region when I was a little boy." + +"And is there no one to guard the place?" we asked; "no one to +protect it from wandering vagrants who might choose to take +possession of the buildings?" + +"There are not many vagrants in this part of the country," he said, +"and if there were they would not go over to that city. It is +haunted." + +"By what?" we asked. + +"Well, sirs, I scarcely can tell you; queer beings that are not +flesh and blood, and that is all I know about it. A good many people +living hereabouts have visited that place once in their lives, but I +know of no one who has gone there a second time." + +"And travellers," I said, "are they not excited by curiosity to +explore that strange uninhabited city?" + +"Oh yes," our host replied; "almost all visitors to the valley go +over to that queer city--generally in small parties, for it is not a +place in which one wishes to walk about alone. Sometimes they see +things and sometimes they don't. But I never knew any man or woman +to show a fancy for living there, although it is a very good town." + +This was said at supper-time, and, as it was the period of full +moon, Bentley and I decided that we would visit the haunted city +that evening. Our host endeavored to dissuade us, saying that no one +ever went over there at night; but as we were not to be deterred he +told us where we would find his small boat tied to a stake on the +river-bank. We soon crossed the river, and landed at a broad but low +stone pier, at the land end of which a line of tall grasses waved in +the gentle night wind as if they were sentinels warning us from +entering the silent city. We pushed through these, and walked up a +street fairly wide, and so well paved that we noticed none of the +weeds and other growths which generally denote desertion or little +use. By the bright light of the moon we could see that the +architecture was simple, and of a character highly gratifying to the +eye. All the buildings were of stone, and of good size. We were +greatly excited and interested, and proposed to continue our walks +until the moon should set, and to return on the following +morning--"to live here, perhaps," said Bentley. "What could be so +romantic and yet so real? What could conduce better to the marriage +of verse and philosophy?" But as he said this we saw around the +corner of a cross-street some forms as of people hurrying away. + +"The spectres," said my companion, laying his hand on my arm. + +"Vagrants, more likely," I answered, "who have taken advantage of +the superstition of the region to appropriate this comfort and +beauty to themselves." + +"If that be so," said Bentley, "we must have a care for our lives." + +We proceeded cautiously, and soon saw other forms fleeing before us +and disappearing, as we supposed, around corners and into houses. +And now suddenly finding ourselves upon the edge of a wide, open +public square, we saw in the dim light--for a tall steeple obscured +the moon--the forms of vehicles, horses, and men moving here and +there. But before, in our astonishment, we could say a word one to +the other, the moon moved past the steeple, and in its bright light +we could see none of the signs of life and traffic which had just +astonished us. + +Timidly, with hearts beating fast, but with not one thought of +turning back, nor any fear of vagrants--for we were now sure that +what we had seen was not flesh and blood, and therefore harmless--we +crossed the open space and entered a street down which the moon +shone clearly. Here and there we saw dim figures, which quickly +disappeared; but, approaching a low stone balcony in front of one of +the houses, we were surprised to see, sitting thereon and leaning +over a book which lay open upon the top of the carved parapet, the +figure of a woman who did not appear to notice us. + +"That is a real person," whispered Bentley, "and she does not see +us." + +"No," I replied; "it is like the others. Let us go near it." + +We drew near to the balcony and stood before it. At this the figure +raised its head and looked at us. It was beautiful, it was young; +but its substance seemed to be of an ethereal quality which we had +never seen or known of. With its full, soft eyes fixed upon us, it +spoke. + +"Why are you here?" it asked. "I have said to myself that the next +time I saw any of you I would ask you why you come to trouble us. +Cannot you live content in your own realms and spheres, knowing, as +you must know, how timid we are, and how you frighten us and make us +unhappy? In all this city there is, I believe, not one of us except +myself who does not flee and hide from you whenever you cruelly come +here. Even I would do that, had not I declared to myself that I +would see you and speak to you, and endeavor to prevail upon you to +leave us in peace." + +The clear, frank tones of the speaker gave me courage. "We are two +men," I answered, "strangers in this region, and living for the time +in the beautiful country on the other side of the river. Having +heard of this quiet city, we have come to see it for ourselves. We +had supposed it to be uninhabited, but now that we find that this is +not the case, we would assure you from our hearts that we do not +wish to disturb or annoy any one who lives here. We simply came as +honest travellers to view the city." + +The figure now seated herself again, and as her countenance was +nearer to us, we could see that it was filled with pensive thought. +For a moment she looked at us without speaking. "Men!" she said. +"And so I have been right. For a long time I have believed that the +beings who sometimes come here, filling us with dread and awe, are +men." + +"And you," I exclaimed--"who are you, and who are these forms that +we have seen, these strange inhabitants of this city?" + +She gently smiled as she answered, "We are the ghosts of the future. +We are the people who are to live in this city generations hence. +But all of us do not know that, principally because we do not think +about it and study about it enough to know it. And it is generally +believed that the men and women who sometimes come here are ghosts +who haunt the place." + +"And that is why you are terrified and flee from us?" I exclaimed. +"You think we are ghosts from another world?" + +"Yes," she replied; "that is what is thought, and what I used to +think." + +"And you," I asked, "are spirits of human beings yet to be?" + +"Yes," she answered; "but not for a long time. Generations of men--I +know not how many--must pass away before we are men and women." + +"Heavens!" exclaimed Bentley, clasping his hands and raising his +eyes to the sky, "I shall be a spirit before you are a woman." + +"Perhaps," she said again, with a sweet smile upon her face, "you +may live to be very, very old." + +But Bentley shook his head. This did not console him. For some +minutes I stood in contemplation, gazing upon the stone pavement +beneath my feet. "And this," I ejaculated, "is a city inhabited by +the ghosts of the future, who believe men and women to be phantoms +and spectres?" + +She bowed her head. + +"But how is it," I asked, "that you discovered that you are spirits +and we mortal men?" + +"There are so few of us who think of such things," she answered, "so +few who study, ponder, and reflect. I am fond of study, and I love +philosophy; and from the reading of many books I have learned much. +From the book which I have here I have learned most; and from its +teachings I have gradually come to the belief, which you tell me is +the true one, that we are spirits and you men." + +"And what book is that?" I asked. + +"It is 'The Philosophy of Relative Existences,' by Rupert Vance." + +"Ye gods!" I exclaimed, springing upon the balcony, "that is my +book, and I am Rupert Vance." I stepped toward the volume to seize +it, but she raised her hand. + +"You cannot touch it," she said. "It is the ghost of a book. And did +you write it?" + +"Write it? No," I said; "I am writing it. It is not yet finished." + +"But here it is," she said, turning over the last pages. "As a +spirit book it is finished. It is very successful; it is held in +high estimation by intelligent thinkers; it is a standard work." + +I stood trembling with emotion. "High estimation!" I said. "A +standard work!" + +"Oh yes," she replied, with animation; "and it well deserves its +great success, especially in its conclusion. I have read it twice." + +"But let me see these concluding pages," I exclaimed. "Let me look +upon what I am to write." + +She smiled, and shook her head, and closed the book. "I would like +to do that," she said, "but if you are really a man you must not +know what you are going to do." + +"Oh, tell me, tell me," cried Bentley from below, "do you know a +book called 'Stellar Studies,' by Arthur Bentley? It is a book of +poems." + +The figure gazed at him. "No," it said, presently, "I never heard of +it." + +I stood trembling. Had the youthful figure before me been flesh and +blood, had the book been a real one, I would have torn it from her. + +"O wise and lovely being!" I exclaimed, falling on my knees before +her, "be also benign and generous. Let me but see the last page of +my book. If I have been of benefit to your world; more than all, if +I have been of benefit to you, let me see, I implore you--let me see +how it is that I have done it." + +She rose with the book in her hand. "You have only to wait until you +have done it," she said, "and then you will know all that you could +see here." I started to my feet and stood alone upon the balcony. + +"I am sorry," said Bentley, as we walked toward the pier where we +had left our boat, "that we talked only to that ghost girl, and that +the other spirits were all afraid of us. Persons whose souls are +choked up with philosophy are not apt to care much for poetry; and +even if my book is to be widely known, it is easy to see that she +may not have heard of it." + +I walked triumphant. The moon, almost touching the horizon, beamed +like red gold. "My dear friend," said I, "I have always told you +that you should put more philosophy into your poetry. That would +make it live." + +"And I have always told you," said he, "that you should not put so +much poetry into your philosophy. It misleads people." + +"It didn't mislead that ghost girl," said I. + +"How do you know?" said Bentley. "Perhaps she is wrong, and the +other inhabitants of the city are right, and we may be the ghosts +after all. Such things, you know, are only relative. Anyway," he +continued, after a little pause, "I wish I knew that those ghosts +were now reading the poem which I am going to begin to-morrow." + + + + +A PIECE OF RED CALICO + + +I was going into town one morning from my suburban residence, when +my wife handed me a little piece of red calico, and asked me if I +would have time, during the day, to buy her two yards and a half of +calico like that. I assured her that it would be no trouble at all; +and putting the sample in my pocket, I took the train for the city. + +At lunch-time I stopped in at a large dry-goods store to attend to +my wife's commission. I saw a well-dressed man walking the floor +between the counters, where long lines of girls were waiting on much +longer lines of customers, and asked him where I could see some red +calico. + +"This way, sir." And he led me up the store. "Miss Stone," said he +to a young lady, "show this gentleman some red calico." + +"What shade do you want?" asked Miss Stone. + +I showed her the little piece of calico that my wife had given me. +She looked at it and handed it back to me. Then she took down a +great roll of red calico and spread it out on the counter. + +"Why, that isn't the shade!" said I. + +"No, not exactly," said she; "but it is prettier than your sample." + +"That may be," said I; "but, you see, I want to match this piece. +There is something already made of this kind of calico which needs +to be enlarged or mended or something. I want some calico of the +same shade." + +The girl made no answer, but took down another roll. + +"That's the shade," said she. + +"Yes," I replied, "but it's striped." + +"Stripes are more worn than anything else in calicoes," said she. + +"Yes, but this isn't to be worn. It's for furniture, I think. At any +rate, I want perfectly plain stuff, to match something already in +use." + +"Well, I don't think you can find it perfectly plain unless you get +Turkey red." + +"What is Turkey red?" I asked. + +"Turkey red is perfectly plain in calicoes," she answered. + +"Well, let me see some." + +"We haven't any Turkey-red calico left," she said, "but we have some +very nice plain calicoes in other colors." + +"I don't want any other color. I want stuff to match this." + +"It's hard to match cheap calico like that," she said. And so I left +her. + +I next went into a store a few doors farther up the street. When I +entered I approached the "floor-walker," and handing him my sample, +said: + +"Have you any calico like this?" + +"Yes, sir," said he. "Third counter to the right." + +I went to the third counter to the right, and showed my sample to +the salesman in attendance there. He looked at it on both sides. +Then he said: + +"We haven't any of this." + +"I was told you had," said I. + +"We had it, but we're out of it now. You'll get that goods at an +upholsterer's." + +I went across the street to an upholsterer's. + +"Have you any stuff like this?" I asked. + +"No," said the salesman, "we haven't. Is it for furniture?" + +"Yes," I replied. + +"Then Turkey red is what you want." + +"Is Turkey red just like this?" I asked. + +"No," said he; "but it's much better." + +"That makes no difference to me," I replied. "I want something just +like this." + +"But they don't use that for furniture," he said. + +"I should think people could use anything they wanted for +furniture," I remarked, somewhat sharply. + +"They can, but they don't," he said, quite calmly. "They don't use +red like that. They use Turkey red." + +I said no more, but left. The next place I visited was a very large +dry-goods store. Of the first salesman I saw I inquired if they kept +red calico like my sample. + +"You'll find that on the second story," said he. + +I went upstairs. There I asked a man: + +"Where will I find red calico?" + +"In the far room to the left. Over there." And he pointed to a +distant corner. + +I walked through the crowds of purchasers and salespeople, and +around the counters and tables filled with goods, to the far room to +the left. When I got there I asked for red calico. + +"The second counter down this side," said the man. + +I went there and produced my sample. "Calicoes downstairs," said the +man. + +"They told me they were up here," I said. + +"Not these plain goods. You'll find 'em downstairs at the back of +the store, over on that side." + +I went downstairs to the back of the store. + +"Where will I find red calico like this?" I asked. + +"Next counter but one," said the man addressed, walking with me in +the direction pointed out. + +"Dunn, show red calicoes." + +Mr. Dunn took my sample and looked at it. + +"We haven't this shade in that quality of goods," he said. + +"Well, have you it in any quality of goods?" I asked. + +"Yes; we've got it finer." And he took down a piece of calico, and +unrolled a yard or two of it on the counter. + +"That's not this shade," I said. + +"No," said he. "The goods is finer and the color's better." + +"I want it to match this," I said. + +"I thought you weren't particular about the match," said the +salesman. "You said you didn't care for the quality of the goods, +and you know you can't match goods without you take into +consideration quality and color both. If you want that quality of +goods in red, you ought to get Turkey red." + +I did not think it necessary to answer this remark, but said: + +"Then you've got nothing to match this?" + +"No, sir. But perhaps they may have it in the upholstery department, +in the sixth story." + +So I got in the elevator and went up to the top of the house. + +"Have you any red stuff like this?" I said to a young man. + +"Red stuff? Upholstery department--other end of this floor." + +I went to the other end of the floor. + +"I want some red calico," I said to a man. + +"Furniture goods?" he asked. + +"Yes," said I. + +"Fourth counter to the left." + +I went to the fourth counter to the left, and showed my sample to a +salesman. He looked at it, and said: + +"You'll get this down on the first floor--calico department." + +I turned on my heel, descended in the elevator, and went out on the +street. I was thoroughly sick of red calico. But I determined to +make one more trial. My wife had bought her red calico not long +before, and there must be some to be had somewhere. I ought to have +asked her where she obtained it, but I thought a simple little thing +like that could be bought anywhere. + +I went into another large dry-goods store. As I entered the door a +sudden tremor seized me. I could not bear to take out that piece of +red calico. If I had had any other kind of a rag about me--a +pen-wiper or anything of the sort--I think I would have asked them +if they could match that. + +But I stepped up to a young woman and presented my sample, with the +usual question. + +"Back room, counter on the left," she said. + +I went there. + +"Have you any red calico like this?" I asked of the saleswoman +behind the counter. + +"No, sir," she said, "but we have it in Turkey red." + +Turkey red again! I surrendered. + +"All right," I said, "give me Turkey red." + +"How much, sir?" she asked. + +"I don't know--say five yards." + +She looked at me rather strangely, but measured off five yards of +Turkey-red calico. Then she rapped on the counter and called out +"Cash!" A little girl, with yellow hair in two long plaits, came +slowly up. The lady wrote the number of yards, the name of the +goods, her own number, the price, the amount of the bank-note I +handed her, and some other matters, probably the color of my eyes +and the direction and velocity of the wind, on a slip of paper. She +then copied all this into a little book which she kept by her. Then +she handed the slip of paper, the money, and the Turkey red to the +yellow-haired girl. This young person copied the slip into a little +book she carried, and then she went away with the calico, the paper +slip, and the money. + +After a very long time--during which the little girl probably took +the goods, the money, and the slip to some central desk, where the +note was received, its amount and number entered in a book, change +given to the girl, a copy of the slip made and entered, girl's entry +examined and approved, goods wrapped up, girl registered, plaits +counted and entered on a slip of paper and copied by the girl in her +book, girl taken to a hydrant and washed, number of towel entered on +a paper slip and copied by the girl in her book, value of my note +and amount of change branded somewhere on the child, and said +process noted on a slip of paper and copied in her book--the girl +came to me, bringing my change and the package of Turkey-red calico. + +I had time for but very little work at the office that afternoon, +and when I reached home I handed the package of calico to my wife. +She unrolled it and exclaimed: + +"Why, this don't match the piece I gave you!" + +"Match it!" I cried. "Oh no! it don't match it. You didn't want that +matched. You were mistaken. What you wanted was Turkey red--third +counter to the left. I mean, Turkey red is what they use." + +My wife looked at me in amazement, and then I detailed to her my +troubles. + +"Well," said she, "this Turkey red is a great deal prettier than +what I had, and you've got so much of it that I needn't use the +other at all. I wish I had thought of Turkey red before." + +"I wish from the bottom of my heart you had," said I. + + + + +CAMEO EDITION. + + +REVERIES OF A BACHELOR; or, a Book of the Heart. By Donald G. +Mitchell. With an Etching by Percy Moran. + +DREAM LIFE. A Fable of the Seasons. With an Etching by Percy Moran. + +OLD CREOLE DAYS. By George W Cable. With an Etching by Percy Moran. + +IN OLE VIRGINIA. By Thomas Nelson Page. With an Etching by W. L. +Sheppard. + +BITTER-SWEET. A Poem. By J. G. Holland. With an Etching by Otto +Bacher. + +KATHRINA. A Poem. By J. G. Holland. With an Etching by Otto Bacher. + +LETTERS TO DEAD AUTHORS. By Andrew Lang. With an Etched Portrait by +S. J. Ferris. + +"VIRGINIBUS PUERISQUE." By Robert Louis Stevenson With an Etched +Portrait by S. J. Ferris. + +A CHOSEN FEW. Short Stories. By Frank R. Stockton. With an Etched +Portrait by W. H. W. Bicknell. + +A LITTLE BOOK OF PROFITABLE TALES. By Eugene Field. With an Etched +Portrait by W. H. W. Bicknell. + +THE REFLECTIONS OF A MARRIED MAN. By Robert Grant. With an Etching +by W. H. Hyde. + +THE OPINIONS OF A PHILOSOPHER. By Robert Grant. With an Etching by +W. H. Hyde. + + +Each, one volume, 16mo. + +Half Calf, g. t., $2.75; half levant, $3.50; cloth, $1.25 + + + + +Transcriber's Notes + +Four typographic errors have been corrected: + Donald G. Mitchell. With an Etching by Percy Moran.[period inserted] + and then she'll have to have new ones, and lots[was: lot's] + standing on the cabin floor instead[was: intead] of the bulkhead. + him in there and we will shut him up[was: no]. Then I + +Three structural changes have been made: + The half-title text (A CHOSEN FEW) was removed. + The booklist "Cameo Edition" was moved from before the + frontispiece to the end of the book. + The original had the story names alone on a page before the + story, as well as on the page where the story started. These + duplicate titles have been removed. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Chosen Few, by Frank R. Stockton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CHOSEN FEW *** + +***** This file should be named 25549.txt or 25549.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/5/4/25549/ + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Barbara Tozier and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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