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diff --git a/31832.txt b/31832.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c1092e3 --- /dev/null +++ b/31832.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3423 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Travellers, by Catharine Maria Sedgwick + +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: The Travellers + A Tale. Designed for Young People. + +Author: Catharine Maria Sedgwick + +Release Date: March 31, 2010 [EBook #31832] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRAVELLERS *** + + + + +Produced by David Yingling, Alexander Bauer and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +book was produced from scanned images of public domain +material from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + + + + + [ Transcriber's Note: + + Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as + possible. Therefore odd spellings--even in geographical names--were + mostly retained. Obvious errors were corrected though, as well as + some punctuation issues--especially regarding the placement of + quotation marks. However, all changes (corrections of spelling and + punctuation) made to the original text are listed at the end of + this text. + + Text that was _italic_ in the original is marked with _.] + + + + + THE + TRAVELLERS. + + A TALE. + + + _DESIGNED FOR YOUNG PEOPLE._ + + + BY THE + AUTHOR OF REDWOOD. + + + "Then slowly climb the many-winding way, + And frequent turn to linger as you go, + From loftier rocks new loveliness survey." + CHILDE HAROLD. + + + NEW-YORK: + + PUBLISHED BY E. BLISS AND E. WHITE, + + And Sold by + COLLINS AND HANNAY, NEW-YORK, AND CUMMINGS, + HILLIARD, AND CO. BOSTON. + + + 1825. + + + + + _Southern District of New-York, ss._ + + BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the fourth day of April, A.D. 1825, + in the forty-eighth year of the Independence of the United States + of America, E. Bliss and E. White, of the said District, have + deposited in this Office the title of a Book, the right whereof + they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit:-- + + "The Travellers; a Tale Designed for Young People. By the author + of Redwood. + 'Then slowly climb the many-winding way, + And frequent turn to linger as you go, + From loftier rocks new loveliness survey.' + _Childe Harold._" + + In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, + entitled, "An Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing + the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and + proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned." + And also to an Act entitled, "An Act supplementary to an Act + entitled, an Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the + copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors + of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and extending + the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and + etching historical and other prints." + JAMES DILL, + Clerk of the Southern District of New-York. + + + J. Seymour, printer. + + + + + The following pages are inscribed to the youthful + brother and sister, who are associated with every + picture of unfolding virtue, in the mind of their + affectionate friend, + THE AUTHOR. + + + + +THE TRAVELLERS. + + +In the month of June, (the jubilee month of poets and travellers) in the +year eighteen hundred and eighteen, Mr. Sackville, his wife, and their +two children, Edward and Julia, made the grand tour of Niagara, the +lakes, Montreal, Quebec, &c. Both parents and children kept journals, +in which they recorded with fidelity whatever they observed which they +deemed worthy of note. We have been favored with the perusal of them +all, and have been permitted to make a few extracts from them, which we +intend to combine into a brief narrative, that we are sure will amuse +our young readers, provided their delicate essence does not escape our +unskilful hands. + +First, it will be necessary that our readers should know into whose +society they are thus unceremoniously introduced. + +Mr. Sackville, in the prime of life retired from the successful practice +of the law, to a beautiful estate in the country. Various motives were +assigned by his acquaintances for his removal; but as those diligent +inquirers, who so conscientiously investigate their neighbor's affairs, +are apt to pass over simple and obvious motives, those which, in this +instance, governed Mr. Sackville's conduct, escaped their observation. + +The truth was, he had a strong predilection for a country life; he was +wearied with briefs and declarations; he loved above all things, the +society of his accomplished wife, and he ardently desired to participate +with her the happiness of educating their fine children; and besides, he +had many little plans of utility and benevolence, such as are naturally +suggested to an active and philanthropic mind on entering a new sphere +of life. + +Mr. Sackville purchased a fine estate in the town of ----, in the state +of ----. We have left these blanks, which we are well aware are very +provoking to all, and especially to young readers, in order to allow +them to locate the amiable Sackvilles (the name we confess to be +fictitious) wherever they choose, north or south of the Potomac, east +or west of the Alleghanies; for we sincerely believe that such pattern +families are to be found in every section of our favored country. + +Edward was ten, Julia eight years old, when they removed from town. They +felt a very natural reluctance at leaving the city, their companions, +and the only pleasures they had ever known. But the state of their +feelings will best appear by a conversation which occurred between +them and their mother, shortly before their removal, while Edward +was assisting her to pack up some vials, which with their contents, +composed his chemical laboratory. + +"You are very good, dear mother," he said, kissing her, "to take such +pains to pack up these things: you have been in such a panic about +spontaneous combustion ever since the night you found the phosphorus[1] +on fire, that I expected my little cupboard and all its treasures would +be condemned. But," he added, with a sigh, "I suppose you think I shall +want my chemistry more than ever to amuse me in the country." + + [1] Phosphorus is a matter which shines or even burns + spontaneously, and without the application of any sensible + fire. + +"No, my dear boy, not more than ever." + +"Oh, mother! Bob Eaton's father says the country is such a bore--and Bob +thinks so too." + +"And what," asked Mrs. Sackville, "do Bob Eaton's father and Bob Eaton, +mean by a bore?" + +"Why, they mean, certainly"----Edward began in a confident tone, and then +faltered a little: "that is, I suppose they mean, that----that----that----" +Edward found it as difficult to explain their meaning, as the original +utterers of the profound remark would have done if suddenly called on: +and he was glad to be interrupted by a soliloquy of his little sister, +who stood in one corner of the room, wrapping something in half a dozen +envelopes. + +"Farewell!" she exclaimed, as the man says in the play, "'a long farewell' +to my dear dancing shoes--" + +"Pardon me, Miss Julia," said her mother, "for cutting short such a +pretty pathetic parting: but here is another pair of dancing shoes, +which you will please to put with those you already have, and I trust +you will have the pleasure of dancing them both out before you come to +town again." + +"Dancing them out, mother! shall we dance in the country?" exclaimed +both the children in one breath. "I thought," continued Edward, "that +we should have nothing to do in the country but get our lessons; and +all work and no play, you know, mother, makes Jack a dull boy." + +"Oh yes, Ned, I know that favorite proverb of all children. I am sorry +to find that you have such a dread of the country. You know, my dear +children, that your father and I are devoted to your welfare, and that +we should do nothing that would not contribute to your happiness." + +Edward had quick feelings, and he perceived that there was something +reproachful in his mother's manner. "I am sure," he said, "that Julia +and I wish to do every thing that you and papa like." + +"That is not enough, my dear boy, we wish you to _like_ to do what we +like." + +"But surely, mother, you cannot blame us for not wishing to go and live +in the country." + +"No, Edward, I should as soon think of blaming poor blind Billy, because +he cannot see. Unhappily you have been entirely confined to town, and +are ignorant of the pleasures of the country. I only blame you for +thinking that your father and I would voluntarily do any thing to lessen +your innocent pleasures." + +"Oh, mother!" exclaimed Edward, "we did not think any thing about that." + +"Well, my dear, perhaps I am wrong in expecting you to _think_--reflection +is the habit of a riper age than yours. You must trust me for one year, +and at the expiration of that period, you and your sister shall decide +whether we return to town or remain in the country." + +"Oh, mother! how very good you are. One year--well, one year won't be so +very long--only think, Julia, in one year we shall be back again." + +"Not quite so fast, Edward," said his mother; "you are not to decide +till the end of the year." + +"Oh, I know that, mama, but of course we shall decide to come back." + +Mrs. Sackville looked incredulous, and smiled at his childish confidence +in his own constancy. "I see, mother, you don't believe me; but of +course, Julia and I can't wish to live away from every thing that is +amusing." + +"Come, Julia, your brother has taken it upon himself to be spokesman, +but let me hear from you, what are the amusements that you so dread to +leave." + +"Why, in the first place, mother, there is our dancing-school: every +time I go to take my lesson, Mr. Dubois says, 'Pauvre, Miss Julie, point +de cotillon; point de gavots in de country; ah, qu'il est sauvage--de +country.'" + +"Dubois for ever!" exclaimed Edward, as Julia finished her mimicry +of her master's tone and grimace. "Oh, he is the drollest creature--and +Julia is such a mimic--the girls will have nobody to make them laugh +when she is gone." + +Mrs. Sackville secretly rejoiced that Julia was to be removed, in a +great degree, from the temptation to exercise so mischievous a faculty. +She, however, did not turn the drift of the conversation to make any +remarks on it. "Console Mr. Dubois," she said, "my dear, Julia, with the +assurance, that your mother will take care that you do not lose the +benefit of his labors in the service of the graces. Your father tells +me, there is in our neighborhood a very decent musician, who does all +the fiddling for the parish. I have purchased some cotillon music, and +I hope your favorite tunes will soon resound in our new mansion." + +"Oh, that will be delightful, mother, but Edward and I cannot dance a +cotillon alone." + +"No, but we are not going to a desert. There are enough clever children +in the neighborhood, who will form a set with you; and now, Julia, that +I see by your brightened eye, that you think the affliction of leaving +the dancing-school will be alleviated, what is the next subject of your +regret?" + +"The next, mother? what is next, Edward?" + +"I do not know what you will call next, Julia, but I think the theatre +comes next." + +"O! the theatre--yes, the theatre--how could I forget the theatre?" + +"Well, my children, I think you can live without the theatre, as you +go but once, or at most twice in a season; a pleasure that occupies +so small a portion of your time, cannot be very important to your +happiness, or regretted very deeply." + +"A small portion of time, to be sure, mother," replied Edward; "but then +you will own it is delightful: you yourself exclaimed the other night +when the curtain drew up, 'what a beautiful spectacle!'" + +"Yes, my love, but nature has far more beautiful spectacles, and I have +kept you too long from them." + +"But, mother," insisted Edward, "nothing can be so pleasant and +startling, as when the curtain suddenly draws up and discovers a +beautiful scene." + +"It may be more startling, my dear Ned, but it is not half so delightful +as to see the curtain of night withdrawn in a clear summer morning, and +the lovely objects of nature lighting up with the rays of the rising +sun." + +"But, mother, there is the orchestra--" + +"And in the country, my dear, we have bands of voluntary musicians on +every side of us, who set all their wants, and all their pleasures to +music, and pour them forth in the sweetest notes, from morning till +night. These musicians will hover about our house and garden the entire +summer, and ask no reward, but to share with us our cherries and +raspberries; a small pittance from the generous stores of summer. But, +come, my children, what next?" + +"What next, Julia? Let us think--Oh, there is the museum. I am sure, +mother, you cannot say a word against the museum--such a variety of +curiosities, and elegant specimens of every thing, and I have heard you +and papa both say, that it is a very instructive as well as amusing +place to visit." + +"Certainly it is, my dear, a vast collection of natural wonders, and +artificial curiosities; and I am glad you value it sufficiently to +regret it. But, my dear children, nature has her museums every where: +her productions are all curiosities, and the more you study them, the +more you will admire the wisdom and goodness of their Creator. Every +vegetable that springs from the kind bosom of the earth--the earth +itself--the rocks--the pebbles--living creatures, their instincts and +habitudes--are all a study for you. The volume is open and outspread +before you: God grant me grace to train your minds and hearts, that +you may read therein--read with that enlightened understanding and +benevolent spirit, which prompted a christian philosopher to say, 'the +air, the earth, the water, teem with delighted existence. On whichever +side I turn my eyes, myriads of happy beings crowd upon my view.'" + +Any farther record of the conversation would be superfluous, and might +prove tedious. It is our purpose to give some anecdotes of Edward and +Julia, and not their history. + +As might have been expected, our young friends in the country, were like +beings rescued from an artificial mode of existence, and restored to +their native element; and when their mother, at the expiration of the +year, asked them if they were ready to return to town-- + +"Return to town, now, mother!" exclaimed Edward, "it is impossible." + +"Some time or other, mama, perhaps we should like to go back, but not +now," said Julia. "We cannot go now, when we have so much to do. The +frost is just out of the ground, and Ned and I are as busy as bees in +our garden." + +"And, besides," said Edward, "there is my brood of ducks, that the old +hen has just brought off; I am so curious to see her fright when they +take to the water; and there are my bantam pigeons; bantams are so +delicate, that you know, mother, I could not trust them to any body's +care but my own." + +"I think old Caesar might take charge of your bantams, Ned," said Julia; +"but I am sure my pet lamb--" + +"Oh, Julia," interrupted Edward, laughing, "give her the sentimental +french name." + +"Very well, I will, and you may laugh as much you please: Orpheline--I +am sure Orpheline would not relish her food from any hand but mine, she +is so used to me; and my darling little partridges, that I am trying to +bring up to be domestic birds, I would not leave them before I have made +a 'satisfactory experiment,' as papa says; and then, mother, we did not +half fill our herbariums last summer. Oh, we have a world of business on +our hands," continued Julia, with the air of one who duly realized the +importance of her momentous concerns. + +Mrs. Sackville smiled, but made no reply, and Edward said, "I was +thinking, mother, as I sat on the door-step last evening, and listened +to the hum of the happy little creatures that are waking up for the +season, that I had new eyes and new ears given to me, since I came +to live in the country. Even the hoarse croaking of the frogs in our +meadow, sounded pleasantly to me; quite musical." + +"Equal to the music of the orchestra, my dear Ned." + +"Not quite so fine, mother," replied Edward, "but it seemed to have +more meaning in it." + +"You are right, my dear Edward," said Mrs. Sackville; "you have new +senses, or rather, your senses are unlocked to the reception of the +sweet influences of nature. I have more happiness than I can express to +you, my dear children, in finding that you have already imbibed a taste +for those pure pleasures, that will remain the same, whatever change of +condition or circumstances may await you."[2] + + [2] Miss Hannah More, at the age of seventy-five, said to + Professor Griscom, 'the love of the country, and of + flowers, is the only natural pleasure that remains to me + unimpaired.' + +Another year passed to this virtuous family, full of useful and innocent +occupations, and in the month of the already noted June, they left their +home. The parents with rational expectations of pleasure, from visiting +some of the most interesting scenes in our country, and the children +with the anticipation of unbounded delight, so characteristic of +childhood. + +Their travelling party included Mr. Ralph Morris, a bachelor brother +of Mrs. Sackville. Mr. Morris was a man of intelligence and extreme +kindness of disposition, a little irritable, and when the sky was +clouded, and the wind blew from the wrong quarter, somewhat whimsical. + +As we hope that our young readers will conceive a friendship for Edward +and Julia, before they part with them, they may have a natural curiosity +to know whether they were brown or fair, and all the etceteras of +personal appearance. Edward was tall for his age, (twelve) and stout +built, with the rich ruddy complexion and vigorous muscle of an English +boy. His eyes were large and dark, and beaming with the bright and +laughing spirit within: his hair was a mass of fair clustering curls, +which he, from a boyish dread of effeminacy, had in vain tried to subdue +by the discipline of comb and brush. His teeth were fine and white, and +with as little prompting from his mother as could be expected, he kept +them with remarkable neatness. His mouth was distinguished by nothing +but an expression of frankness and good temper. His nose, (a feature +seldom moulded by the graces) his nose, we are sorry to confess, was +rather thick and quite unclassical. His character and manners preserved +all the frankness and purity of childhood, with a little of that +chivalrous spirit which is such a grace to dawning manhood. For the +rest, we will leave him to speak for himself. + +The sister's person was extremely delicate and symmetrical, with too +little of the Hebe beauty for childhood, but full of grace and +_gentillesse_. + +Her complexion was not as rich as her brother's; but it had an +ever-varying hue, which indicated the sensibility that sometimes +suddenly swelled the veins of her clear open brow, lit up her hazel eyes +with electrifying brilliancy, and played in sweet dimples about her +mouth; in short, though she was not beautiful, she had an expression of +purity, truth, and gentleness, far more attractive than mere beauty; an +expression that was once happily described by a French lady, who said to +Mrs. Sackville, "when your daughter smiles, it seems to me, that it is +frankness and virtue that smile." + + * * * * * + +We are well aware that young people do not like to be harangued about +scenery; therefore, though our travellers sailed up the Hudson, we shall +resist every temptation to describe its beautiful features, features as +well known and loved as the familiar face of a friend; neither will we +detain them on the scarcely less beautiful Mohawk, though we are sure +they are not rebels against nature, and that their hearts would dilate +if we had the power to present to their imaginations this lovely stream, +winding through the valley it enriches, as it looked to the eyes of our +young travellers, brimfull from recent rains, reflecting in its living +mirror the verdant banks, the overhanging trees, the richly-wooded +hills, and the clear heaven. + +It would be impossible to record the exclamations of the children. "It +is a perfect picture, mother, all the way," said Julia. + +"I like every thing but these dronish farmers," said Edward. "See, papa," +he continued, (not, perhaps, unwilling to display his agricultural +observation) "see, that groupe of men, black and white, all leaning +on their hoes, and staring at us, and they will stand and look just +so, until the next carriage comes along, while their corn is trying +in vain to shoot above the weeds that choke it. They seem to have no +more soul than the clods they stand upon. I wish some of the farmers +on the cold desolate hills of New-England had this fine soil." + +"My dear Ned," replied Mr. Sackville, "I do not wonder at your +indignation. I have myself been marvelling, that, as a poet says, +'Nature should waste her wonders on such men;' but there is compensation +every where, or, as your mother would say, there 'are divers gifts.' +The man born to the inheritance of cold and sterile hills, is compelled +to be industrious, frugal, vigorous, and resolute to live, and thus the +advantages of his moral condition are more than an equivalent for the +physical advantages of a fine soil or climate, or both." + +"Ah, well, papa," replied Edward, "if I had my choice, I should take +this fine soil on the Mohawk, and cultivate it with the mountain +virtues, industry, resolution, &c. and I might make a paradise here." + +"A paradise, Ned!" exclaimed Mrs. Sackville, "do you remember that +Milton says, + + Now morn her rosy steps in the eastern clime + Advancing, sow'd the earth with orient pearl, + When Adam wak'd? + +If you would be a tiller of the earth, Ned, you must learn to like +early rising and hard work, better than you do now, and not go on living +so like the lilies of the field, that are clothed, though they toil +not." Edward looked a little crest-fallen. + +"Your self-confidence provoked a gentle rebuke," said his father; "but +it is a very common mistake, my dear son, for those much older than you +are, to fancy they should avoid the faults others commit, if placed in +their situation. But, before you permit such a presumption, be sure +that you have resisted all the temptations in your own path, and have +performed all the duties which belong to the sphere Providence has +assigned to you. Here we are at the close of our day's journey, and my +admonition comes in very well, like the moral at the end of a tale; this +I think is one of the prettiest places on the river. If I mistake not, +the village opposite to us is Palatine." + +The party alighted at Mrs. B's inn. The children entreated their mother +to take her port-folio, and stroll with them along the bank of the +river, while the tea was getting in readiness. + +As they came opposite the ferry, they stopped for a moment to look at a +scow approaching the shore. There were several men in it, and among them +a black lad, who, at the moment the boat touched the shore, either by +accident, or by the contrivance of his mischievous companions, fell +overboard. While they gave way to a burst of merriment, the poor blackey +regained a footing on terra firma, and shook the water from his woolly +locks and dripping garments. + +"You an't white yet, Cuffee," said one of his persecutors. "Look if he +has dyed the water," said another. + +"Don't laugh," said Julia to Edward, who, with a boyish love of fun, had +joined in the laugh; "it is too bad to laugh at the poor fellow." + +"You are right, Julia," said Mrs. Sackville. "It is hard to belong to a +degraded _caste_, to be born to the inheritance of jibes and jokes." + +They continued their walk a little farther down the bank, discovering +new beauties at every step, till they came to a spot which Julia +insisted could not be surpassed; and arranging a nice cushion on the +grass with her shawl, she begged her mother to make a sketch there. +"Now, mama," she said, "you must take both sides of the river." + +"You forget, Julia, that I cannot take a panorama view." + +"Then you must leave out the inn, and the beautiful hill behind it, with +its sycamores and locusts, and the road that winds along the bank of the +river." + +"Yes, my dear, here is the boundary of your picture:--this magnificent +elm-tree, that seems to pay its debt to the nourishing waters, by +extending its graceful branches over them." + +"And don't fail, mother," said Edward, "to mark the deep shadow it casts +on that pier of the bridge they are building--and oh, do put in that +little skiff so snugly moored in the shade, and hooked to the tree--and +that taper church spire that stretches above the thick wood on the +left;--oh, if you could but paint it as it looks now, with that bright +gleam from the setting sun on it. And see, mother, just at this instant, +what a golden mist there is in the topmost branches of that tree." + +"Stop your chattering one moment, Ned, till I get in this little brook +on the left, that is creeping so softly into the bosom of the Mohawk. +Oh, my children, it is an easy task to draw these lines so as to convey +a correct idea of forms and distances, but very difficult to imitate the +colouring of nature, the delicate touch of her skilful hand. How shall I +represent the freshness and purity that marks the youth of the year?--like +childhood, Ned, smiling and promising, and as yet unchanged by time." + +"If not changed, not perfected by time, dear mother," said Edward, +kissing his mother. His manner expressed a mixture of admiration and +tenderness that went to her heart. + +"You have spoiled my picture, Ned," she said, "I cannot make another +straight line. Come, Julia, take up the port-folio, and we will return +to the inn." + + * * * * * + +We hope our readers will not complain that we have not kept good faith +with them, if we have been tempted to loiter longer than we promised on +the banks of the Mohawk. To reward them for their patience (if perchance +they have exercised that difficult virtue, without availing themselves +of the skipping right--the readers' inalienable right) we shall make but +one stage of it from Palatine to Oneida, not once halting at any of the +beautiful grounds, waterfalls, or villages, that intervene. + +It was mid-day, and a hot day too, when our travellers entered this +Indian town, which presents a striking aspect, situated as it is in the +heart of a cultivated and civilized country. + +Huts are planted irregularly at some distance from the road, in fields +overgrown with rank grass. Half-naked Indians, yelling and hallooing, +were riding to and fro without saddles or bridles; on horses that looked +as wild as themselves. Some were stretched along the road-side, in a +state of brutal intoxication; others were lying under the shadows of +the noblest patriarchs of their woods, showing their patent right to +indolence as lords of the creation, while their women and girls were +sitting around them, busily making baskets and brooms. On the green +were groupes of men shooting arrows at a mark, playing at jack-straws, +football, and the various games of skill and chance by which the savage +drives away ennui--that demon that persecutes most fiercely at the +extremes of the human condition. + +"One might almost fancy here," said Mr. Sackville, "that the march +of time had been stayed, and the land spell-bound, by some mighty +magician. The log-huts of these poor Indians are as rude structures +as the bark wigwams of their forefathers, and these rich lands are a +complete waste, except where we see here and there a little patch of +corn or potatoes. The savages certainly evince their faith in the +traditionary saying that 'the Great Spirit gave a plough to the white +man, and a bow and arrow to the Indian.'" + +"And there," said Mrs. Sackville, pointing to some women who were +hoeing, "there is an illustration of another of their proverbs--'men +were made for war and hunting, and squaws and hedge-hogs to scratch the +ground.'" + +Edward interrupted the conversation, to beg his father to stop in the +village long enough to allow him time to look into the interior of some +of the huts. While Mr. Sackville hesitated whether to incur the delay +necessary to afford this gratification to his son, the driver announced +that his off-leader had lost his shoe, and asked leave to stop at a +blacksmith's to have it replaced. + +This request was readily granted; and while Mrs. Sackville entered into +some conversation with the blacksmith, who was a white man, Edward +bounded over a fence and across a field, towards a hut which was +scarcely perceptible except by a smoke that rose from it, and curled +through the branches of a lofty oak which stood before it. + +As he drew near the hut, he heard a low voice, broken by sobs; he paused +for a moment, and then cautiously and softly advanced, till he came so +near as to hear distinctly what was said, and to see enough, through a +small aperture where the clay had fallen away from the logs, to prevent +his proceeding farther, and to excite his curiosity to its highest +pitch. An old Indian woman was sitting on the hearth-stone, her arms +folded, and her blanket wrapped close around her. It appeared that she +had seated herself there for the purpose of watching an Indian cake that +was baking on a shovel before the fire; but her attention had been so +abstracted, that the cake was burnt to a cinder. Her face and person +were withered by age; but her eye, as if lit up by an undying spark, +retained a wild brightness, and was steadfastly fixed on two young +persons who stood before her, apparently too much occupied with their +own emotion to notice her observation of them. The one was a young girl, +dressed in a riding habit and Leghorn travelling bonnet. Edward was +not very well situated for accurate observation; but though he was +at the first glance deceived by the brilliancy of the girl's colour, +heightened as it was by the excitement of the moment, his unpracticed +eye soon detected unequivocal marks of the Indian race, accompanied +and softened by traits of fairer blood. A young Indian stood beside +her, who, as Edward fancied, had a certain air of dignity and heroism, +that characterised a warrior chief;--still there was something in his +attitude and motions, that bespoke the habits of civilized life. His +dress, too, was a singular mixture of the European and Indian costumes. +He wore a jacket with long sleeves made of deer skin, and closely fitted +to his arms and breast. He had a mantle of blue broad cloth, lined with +crimson, made long and full, hanging over one shoulder, and confined at +the waist by a wampum belt. On a table beside him was lying a cap, like +the military undress cap of a British officer, with a plume of black +feathers tinged with crimson, and attached to the cap by a silver arrow. + +The conversation between him and the girl was in French, and made up of +ejaculations and vehement protestations, from which Edward could not at +first gather any thing intelligible to him. The girl wept excessively; +the Indian's passion seemed too powerful for such an expression. + +"You promise," he said, "Felice; but our old men say the winds are not +more changing than a woman's mind." + +"Others may change; I cannot, Nahatton; you know I would not leave you +if I could help it." + +"Could help it! can your father's right control nature's law? Oh, +Felice!" he added, smiting his breast, "that which I feel for you is +like the fires from the sun--the hurricane from the south--the tide of +the ocean;--I cannot resist it." + +"Nahatton! Nahatton! you know I will return to you." + +"Let me place this around your neck then," said he, detaching from his +own a chain made of porcupine quills, and curiously woven. "My mother +made it. She said it was a charm, and would keep me true to my own +people. I wore it in France, and I have returned to my tribe." + +"Not about my neck, Nahatton," said Felice, as he raised his hands to +clasp the chain; "it looks too savage--bind it on my arm.----Why do you +hesitate?" she asked, as she stood with her arm extended, and her sleeve +pushed up. + +"It looks too savage! Already ashamed of your mother's blood! Oh, there +is poison in your veins!" and as he said this he broke the chain, threw +it down, and crushed it under his foot. + +"Oh, Nahatton, I did not mean that;--I am not ashamed of my indian +blood--I will make you any promise--I will swear, on my knees I will +swear to return to you." + +"Swear then upon this," said he; and he took from his bosom a silver +crucifix, and offered it to her lips. + +At this moment the old woman, who, as they spoke in French, only +understood as much as she could interpret from their gestures, rose, +and darting towards them, she laid her hand on the crucifix. "No, no, +Felice; swear not!" she said; "the oath will be written there," and she +pointed upward, "when you have broken and forgotten it." + +Edward, in the intensity of his interest in the scene, had forgotten the +necessity of secrecy. He carelessly leaned his arm on some rails that +had been placed against the hut, one of them fell; the party within +started and looked around them, and Edward instinctively retreated. If +he went as swiftly as the wind, and once or twice thought he heard an +arrow whirring through the air behind him, we hope our readers will +impute it to the excited state of his imagination, and not deem him a +coward, 'even upon instinct.' + +"Just in time, Edward, my son," said Mr. Sackville, who was standing by +the carriage in which the rest of the party were already seated; "but +what in the world ails you? you look as wild as if you had met a bear up +in the wood there." + +"Oh, you would look wild too, father, if you had seen and heard what I +have. Oh, mother! Oh, Julia! you never will believe what I have to tell +you." + +"I have something to tell you, too, Mr. Edward," said his mother; "and +as you are out of breath, and out of your wits, I will tell my story +first, which I assure you is quite a romantic little tale to pick up by +the way-side." + +"Well, do be quick, mother, if you please, for what I have to say is so +wonderful." + +"No doubt; each one always thinks his own wonder the most wonderful. But +I will not try your patience any longer. Do you remember our speculating +on an empty carriage, which we saw drawn up under a tree with a man +standing by it, about half a mile back?" + +"Yes, very well--but what of that, mother?" + +"It was an idle inquiry about that carriage of the good-natured +communicative blacksmith that led to the story, which I am going to tell +you. It seems that carriage is to convey a young woman to New-York, +whence she sails for France." + +"Oh, I saw her--I saw her," exclaimed Edward. "It can be none other." + +"Well, Edward," said Mrs. Sackville, "I will give place to you; for I +see you are in such a state of fermentation, that I am afraid your story +will evaporate in exclamations, while I am telling mine." + +Edward thus relieved from restriction, proceeded to recount with the +animation of an eye-witness, all he had seen and heard. His audience +listened to him with the most flattering attention, and at the +conclusion, repaid him with exclamations, that proved they were +adequately impressed with the extraordinary scene he had witnessed. + +Julia wished he had noticed whether the chief (for thus he had chosen +throughout his narrative to designate his hero) wore moccasins or shoes, +and whether his legs below his mantle, were bare, or covered with +leggins. She thought too, he might just have staid to see whether the +girl made the vow or not: and his mother congratulated him that the +Indians had not executed summary justice on him, and shot him flying for +a spy. + +"My story," said Mrs. Sackville, "will serve, Ned, as a sequel to yours, +or rather, an explanation of it. It seems that this young girl, who is a +Miss Bernard, had left the carriage when we saw it, on the pretence of +going to take leave of her mother's sister, who is doubtless the old +woman you saw. You were so fortunate as to discover her real errand. She +is the daughter of a Frenchman--Rodolph Bernard. His family was noble +and rich: they and their fortunes were sacrificed in the convulsions of +the French revolution, and Bernard alone escaped and reached America, +with nothing but his life. It appears from my blacksmith's story, that +young Bernard had a good deal of spirit and enterprise, and more +education than most of the young nobles of that time. I wish you to +observe, my children, that knowledge is a treasure not impaired by a +change of circumstances, but an immutable good in every extreme of +fortune. Bernard remained in New-York for a year or two, and subsisted +by teaching French to some Americans, and mathematics to his own +countrymen. He was then employed by a company of French gentlemen, +to explore the western part of this State, then a wilderness, and +to furnish them such information as should enable them to make an +advantageous purchase of the government. This was not quite thirty years +ago: and then the cultivated country and beautiful villages through +which we have passed, were for the most part a trackless wilderness. + +"At a wigwam in Oneida, where he had been compelled to ask for such +hospitality as it afforded, he was seized with the fever of the country +that usually attacked strangers. For weeks and months he was nursed by +an indian girl, famed among her people for her skill in such remedies as +their native wilds supply. You know, that in the history of the early +periods of all ages, we find the healing art assigned to women. You will +remember, Ned, in your favorite old ballads, many a kill or cure, +performed by cruel or tender leeches. + +"Whether it was the indian maid's skill in medicine, that prevailed over +the disease at last, or her devoted kindness, it might be difficult to +determine; probably, Bernard thought the latter; for though she was, +as my narrator's tradition says, 'an uncouth maiden to look upon,' he +declared his love to her, and asked her hand of her father. The father +consented, but not till after some delay, nor till he had ascertained +that Bernard's rank entitled him to wed the daughter of a distinguished +chief. She was an only child too, and she was heir to enough land within +this Oneida reservation, to make a principality. + +"The Frenchman understood how to manage it. His ties to his own country +were broken. All his affections and interests were concentrated here. He +has been a good husband and father--so indulgent as to permit his wife +on ordinary occasions, to wear her indian dress, to which it seems she +has a bigoted attachment. His children are well educated: and, Ned, our +blacksmith thinks, that your heroine Felice, would be a perfect beauty, +if she had such hair as your sister's, and the olive tinge could be +washed out of her skin. + +"Bernard, since the late reverses in France, has returned there, and +recovered an immense property which had been sequestered by Napoleon. + +"Last year his family received dispatches from him, by your 'chief,' +Ned--who, if not in reality a chief, is the son of a distinguished +sachem of the Seneca tribe, which is located some where on the shores +of Lake Erie. The old Seneca chief was converted to the Romish religion, +by a Catholic missionary, who persuaded him to resign his son into his +hands, to be educated a priest. + +"It appears that neither European intercourse, nor the strict discipline +of a catholic school, have overcome the young man's preference of the +wild and lawless life of his tribe. As I said, on his return from +France, he brought letters from Bernard to his family, and here he +has played successfully the part of Othello the Moor, with this young +Desdemona; and the blacksmith thinks that Bernard will play the enraged +father to the life, as it has been his declared resolution from his +daughter's birth, that she should not wed an indian. + +"For the rest of my story, it is explained by what you have witnessed, +Edward. The Seneca youth has visited his people, and returned here just +as Felice is on the eve of departure for France, in compliance with her +father's requisition. As to the future, whether she will remain constant +to her lover, as we are not seers, we cannot predict--we can only +guess." + +Edward and Julia professed unbounded confidence in Felice's fidelity. +Mr. Morris did not see what the girl could do better. Indian she +undoubtedly was, and he thought it was a clear case for the application +of the Scottish proverb, 'hawks won't pick out hawks' een;' at any rate +it would be a piece of effrontery for her to turn her back upon her +indian lover, and expect to win a white one. + +Mr. and Mrs. Sackville thought it possible that Julia might find +Frenchmen in whose estimation an ample fortune would atone for the +slight dishonour of her maternal ancestry. + +Our travellers proceeded without accident or adventure along the +accustomed route through fine villages, whose rapid growth to maturity +remind one of the construction of a fairy palace by the touch of a +magician's wand. A few years ago this country was unexplored save by +the indian hunter, or perhaps a devoted missionary, or lawless trader. +A wheel had never entered it--a _shodden_ horse was a curiosity; now, +the road is thronged with market-waggons, stage coaches, and carriages +filled with idle, curious, or classic travellers, who go to 'the Falls' +to kill time, to increase their stores of knowledge, or to gratify +taste. + +Mr. Sackville was constantly directing his children's observation to the +prompt enterprise and industry so conspicuous in a new country, and +stimulating their patriotism by pointing out to them the increasing +riches and resources of their native land. "For my own part," he said, +"I prefer the sentiment that is inspired by the peaceful triumphs of man +over nature, to the patriotism that is kindled on battle-grounds--if not +as romantic, it is certainly more innocent." + +"Then I suppose, papa," said Edward, "that you prefer Virgil's georgics +to his epic." + +"Thank you, Ned," replied his father, "for an illustration which proves +that your travels have not quite put your school out of your head. I +certainly do prefer the aspect of our cheerful dwellings, blooming +gardens, and fruitful fields, associated as they are in my mind with +innocent occupation and moral cultivation; to the ivy-mantled towers +and triumphal arches of the old world--they are the records of feudal +grandeur and high heroic deeds, but deeds too often of doubtful virtue, +and of fatal consequences. The melancholy poet may exult in describing +the 'spectres that sit and sigh' amid their ruins; but if I had the +_gifted eye_, my children, I should rather look upon the spirit of +Contentment that hovers over our land, and her sweet sister Hope, who +points with her finger of promise to the smiling prosperity produced by +busy hands and active independent minds." + + * * * * * + +When the travellers reached Black-rock, where they were to cross the +Niagara, they were compelled to await for some time the return of the +ferry-boat, which was then plying towards the Canada shore. While they +were detained, they amused themselves with a company of Irish people--raw +emigrants, who had just entered our territory, and were awaiting the +departure of the Erie steam-boat to convey them to the State of Ohio. +They had spread tents for their temporary accommodation--Edward and +Julia went from one to another, asking questions, and giving cakes and +dried fruit from their travelling stores to the children. + +They were particularly struck with one buxom young girl with laughing +eyes and ruddy cheeks, who seemed to be a favorite with the whole +company, and not to belong to any one; for she went from tent to tent +kneading an oat-meal cake for one woman--dressing a lame arm for +another, and performing sundry miscellaneous offices that always fall +to the lot of those most useful people who have nothing in particular +to do. Julia offered her a piece of cake, by way of introduction, and +then asked her name:--"My name is Biddy Burns, an' please you, miss." + +"And who did you come with, Biddy?" + +"I left home with my cousin; but it pleased the Lord to take her to +himself before we came to Quebec, and she has left such a pretty +complement of children to her husband to take care of, that I must +e'en shift for myself." + +"Do you like our country, Biddy?" asked Edward. + +"Och, my master, I could not miss liking it, ye are all so free and +hospitable." + +"But Biddy," said Julia, "how could you leave your father and mother, +and all your friends?" + +"Sure it is, miss, if it thrives well with me they will all come after." + +"Sure enough," said Mrs. Sackville, "these poor Irish do all come +_after_, sooner or later. Are you a catholic, Biddy?" + +"I come from the north of Ireland, my leddy." + +"You are a protestant, then?" + +"Yes, my leddy; thank God and my mother, that taught me the rasonable +truth." + +"Can you read, my good girl?" + +"Indeed can I, my leddy. Thanks to the Sunday school, I could read in +the bible if I had one, without a blunder." + +"Well, Biddy," said Mrs. Sackville, who thought it a good opportunity to +give a God-speed to the girl's pilgrimage--"here is a bible in my +basket--take it, and may it be the guide of your life." + +Biddy poured forth her thanks in many a God-reward-ye, and then after +hesitating for a moment, she said, "I wish my leddy would condescend to +walk up here a bit, to a poor woman who needs a kind christian word, +poor crater." Mrs. Sackville and the children followed Biddy to a tree +which stood a little above the encampment of the Irish, where a woman +was sitting on a log with a sick child in her arms, and a boy of five +or six beside her. + +She was a middle-aged woman, with a face originally plain, and deeply +seamed with the small-pox; but withal, there was an expression of honesty +and goodness, and of deep sadness, that interested Mrs. Sackville, though +at first it failed to draw the attention of the children from their +good-humored blithe companion. + +"Does this woman belong to your company, Biddy?" + +"Bless you, no, my leddy."--"I thought not," said Mrs. Sackville, who +was struck with the extreme neatness of the woman's appearance, which +presented a striking contrast to all the Irish, even to our friend +Biddy.--Her child's head was covered with a linen handkerchief--coarse +and patched, but white as the driven snow. There was scarcely a thread +of the original cloth in her children's clothes--neither was there a +hole in them--their faces and hands were perfectly clean, and their hair +neatly combed. + +"You seem to find it possible, my friend," said Mrs. Sackville, patting +the little boy's face, "to keep your children clean in the most difficult +circumstances." "I try my best, ma'am," replied the woman. "And a slave, +my leddy," interposed Biddy, "she makes of herself for it. Do you know +that when I offered this morning to stay by the childer while she took +a bit of sleep, that instead of resting her soul and body, she went and +washed her things in the river, and got leave to iron in the house +yonder, and did it all as particular as it might have been done for you, +my leddy." + +The poor woman was wetting the sick child's lips from a cup of water that +stood by her; and she took no notice of Biddy's remark. Mrs. Sackville +inquired into the particulars of the child's sickness, which she thought +would yield to some common restoratives which she had at hand; and just +as she was dispatching Julia for the dressing case which contained them, +a little rugged impish looking boy came towards them, throwing himself +heels over head, with a segar in his mouth, which he continued smoking +while he was making his somersets.--"Come, come, Goody Barton," said he, +without heeding Mrs. Sackville's presence, "come, we must be up and +moving. If we don't get over in this boat, I shall disappoint the +company at Chippewa to-night." + +"Don't speak so loud, Tristy," replied the woman, "but take the pack to +the boat, and I will follow you." + +"That surely is not your child?" said Mrs. Sackville, as the boy walked +off with the bundle singing, at the top of his voice, a very vulgar +song, and affecting to reel like a drunken man. + +"No, thank God," said the woman, "he is a poor heaven-forsaken lad, who +is going into Canada. He has helped me along from Buffalo, and has +offered to carry my bundle to Chippewa." + +It occurred to Mrs. Sackville to caution the woman to be on her guard, +for she thought Tristy looked wicked enough for any mischief; but a +signal from the boat obliged them all to hasten to the shore. Biddy good +naturedly took the eldest boy by the hand and led him to the boat, and +then took leave of all her new friends, pouring forth a shower of +prayers that God would bless them all, rich and poor. + +The woman, whom we shall henceforth call by her name, Mrs. Barton, was +reserved in the expression of her feelings; but the tear of gratitude +she dropped on Biddy's hand at parting, was an equivalent for the girl's +voluble expressions. + +There was, in all the poor woman's manner, an unobtrusiveness and +reserve uncommon in a person of her humble degree, and it interested +Mrs. Sackville more than any solicitation could have done. She +ascertained that Mrs. Barton was on her way to Quebec, where she _hoped_ +to find her husband. + +"And have you the means of getting there?" asked Mrs. Sackville. "It is +a great distance, my friend, and you cannot get across Ontario and down +the St. Lawrence for a trifle." + +"I know that, madam; but I have some money; and if I find my own country +people as kind to me as the people in the States have been, I shall do +very well. Every body feels pitiful to a lone woman with little children. +If it please God to mend my little girl, I shall go on with good courage." + +Mrs. Sackville commended the poor woman's resolution, and busied herself +putting up some medicines for the child, and giving directions about +them, and was so occupied with her benevolent duty, that she gave little +heed to Edward's continued exclamations. "Oh, mother! how beautiful the +colour of the water of the Niagara is!" "Mother, does not it give you +sublime feelings to think you are on the Niagara?" "Mother, does not +Lake Erie look grand from here?" &c. &c. &c. Suddenly his attention was +diverted, and he was attracted to the extremity of the boat, where +Tristy, the little "Flibbertigibbet" we have before mentioned, was +exhibiting various feats for the amusement of the passengers. He was a +little, pale, wizened-face fellow, with a bleared and blood-shot eye, +his hair black, strait, and matted to his head, his mouth defiled with +tobacco, and in short his whole appearance indicating the depravity of +one experienced in vice. He dislocated the joints of his fingers, stood +firmly on his head, and performed some of the difficult exploits of a +tumbler; and when he had done all this, "Come, gentlemen," said he, +"shall I sing you a song, or pray you a prayer? I'll suit your fancy +with either for a sixpence." + +"No, no; none of your prayers, you little son of the old one," said one +of the men; "we shall have your master with the cloven foot after us +before we get to the shore: you may sing us a song, though, only let it +be a decent one." + +"Oh, well gentlemen, suit yourselves--I am a Jack at all trades, you +know--that is to say, at any of the trades my father, that is dead and +gone, followed before me." + +"Trades! your father followed no trade, but the trade of the +light-fingered gentry." + +"I beg your pardon, sir; my dad was a noted man in his day:--a +carpenter, joiner, tooth-drawer, barber, gardener, studying-master, +dancing-master, whipping-master, fiddling-master, school-master, +music-master, play-actor, &c. &c.--all of which I am yours gentlemen +to command. Now for the song:--there is Erie, and my song is Perry's +glorious victory." He then half sung, half recited, a ballad recounting +Perry's gallant exploits on the lake. + +It was impossible for a compassionate being to see the little outcast +without an emotion of pity; or not to be affected by the weak and almost +infantine tones of his voice. + +"How old are you, child?" asked Mr. Sackville, as the boy concluded his +song, and opened his mouth to catch the sixpence that was tossed to him. + +"How old? I do not justly remember; but there is my age set down in our +family Bible, as my father called it, by his own honored hand, on the +day he got through, as I have heard him say, his fourth term of service +at the state-castle." + +Mr. Sackville took from the child's hand a filthy little dream-book, on +the title-page of which was scrawled, and scarcely legible,--"Tristram +McPhelan, born in the Bridewell, city of New-York, on Friday--bad luck +to him--March 1807." + +"You are then but eleven years old." + +"Yes sir; and in that time I have seen more of life than many of my +betters twice my age. I have been in every state in the Union, and +in every city of every state. I have been in six alms-houses, two +workhouses, and ten jails, on my own account, besides the privilege of +visiting my father in two different state prisons. While my father lived +we travelled in company, and now I am obliged (he concluded, bowing to +Mr. Sackville,) to put up with what company chance throws in my way." + +Mr. Sackville took Edward by the hand, and turned away, grieved and +disgusted. His eye fell on his daughter, who was sitting beside +Mrs. Barton, carefully sheltering the sick child from the sun with her +parasol, while she nicely prepared an orange and offered it to her. +The little sufferer seized it eagerly and devoured it, and then fixed +her eyes on Julia and smiled. The first smile of a sick child is +electrifying. + +"Oh! miss," said the mother, "does not she seem to say, 'God bless you,' +though she cannot speak it?" + +Julia was delighted with the revival of the child, and with the mother's +gratitude, which was even more manifest in her brightened countenance +than in her words. + +"My medicine," said Julia, "has worked wonders; if I could but find one +more orange, I should quite cure my little patient;" and she zealously +ransacked the carriage, and turned out every basket and bag in the hope +of finding another, but all in vain. Disappointed, she turned to her +mother,--"Cannot we, mama," she said, "do something more for this poor +woman before we leave her?" + +"I do not see that we can, my dear," replied Mrs. Sackville, "I have +offered to pay her stage fare hence to Newark, but she says she has +money, and declines receiving any thing." + +"Oh, then she is not obliged to go on foot--I could not endure to think +of the child's being exposed to this hot sun." + +"That, I am afraid, cannot be helped; for the mother does go to Newark +on foot. I could not persuade her to ride. She insists that she is very +strong, and that her child is so wasted she scarcely feels the burthen +of it; and besides, she travels but a very short distance in a day." + +Julia paused for a moment. She was very reluctant to give up the point, +and finally, as the last resource of her ingenuity, she proposed that +her mother should take the woman into the carriage. "We can just squeeze +her in for a few miles, mama; she looks so perfectly nice, that even +uncle can't object; and I want so to know if the little girl continues +to get better." + +Mrs. Sackville could scarcely refrain from smiling at Julia's odd +proposition to take in a way-faring woman and two children, but it had +its source in such kind feelings, that she would not ridicule it. "I am +afraid, my dear Julia," she said, "that it is quite impossible to +gratify you. You know your uncle already complains of wanting +elbow-room." + +"Well then, mother, just listen to one more proposal:--take the woman +into the carriage, and let Edward and me walk two or three miles. Three +miles will be quite a lift to her, and Ned will lead the little boy." + +Mrs. Sackville could not resist Julia's eagerness, and after some +consultation with her husband and brother, she consented to the +arrangement, though it involved them in some inconvenience and delay. It +was as much a matter of principle as feeling with her, never to permit +her own personal accommodation to interfere with the claims of humanity. +A child is more impressed with a single example of disinterestedness, +than with a hundred admonitions on the subject. Mrs. Sackville had some +difficulty in overcoming the scruples of Mrs. Barton, who felt a modest +awkwardness at seating herself in the carriage with her superiors; but +when they reached the Canada shore, the necessary arrangements were +made, and she being at last persuaded, on the ground of gratifying the +children, took their place in the carriage, and it drove off and left +Edward and Julia to follow with little Richard Barton, and Tristram with +the wallet. + +Mr. Morris was one of those thrifty people, who can never see any +necessity of poverty, and though he was in the main kind hearted, he was +rather inclined to be severe in his judgment of the wretched. Poverty +was always suspicious in his eyes. No sooner were they seated and well +under way, than he said, "It is a mystery to me, my good woman, why +people who have not any spare cash should always be travelling. +Sometimes they are going up country to see a relation--and sometimes +down country. All their kindred are sure to live at their antipodes." + +Mrs. Barton kept her eyes downcast on her child, and made no reply. +"Now," continued Mr. Morris, "what use or pleasure there can be in +lugging children from Dan to Beersheba, is more than I can imagine." + +"God knows, I do not travel for the pleasure of it," meekly replied the +poor woman. + +"Oh, no, no--I dare say not--I dare say not"--said Mr. Morris, who had +whiffed away his pet with the first breath. "You are of another sort. +But, pray, my friend, what are you travelling for?" + +"To join my husband at Quebec." + +"Your husband at Quebec--and you here! how the deuce came that about?" + +"My child has fallen asleep," replied Mrs. Barton, turning to +Mrs. Sackville; "and if you, ma'am, will condescend to hear the cause +of my being here--there is no reason that I should be loath to tell it; +only you know, ma'am, one does not like to be forward about speaking of +troubles to strangers--and those so kind as you, it seems like begging, +which I am not forward to do." + +Mrs. Sackville assured Mrs. Barton, that she felt great interest in +knowing how she came into her present circumstances. + +"My husband," she said, "was a corporal in the fortieth ----. We were +in Spain through all Wellington's campaigns, and had just crossed the +Pyrennees into France, and were thinking of going home to England +again, when the regiment was ordered to America. This was no great +disappointment to me--I have no known relation in the world but my +husband and child--then I had but the one. My husband is a sober man, +who fears God and serves his king with all his heart: and his pay with +my earnings, (for I did up all the linen of our officers) furnished us +a decent living. When we arrived at Quebec, our regiment was sent into +Upper Canada. + +"Soon after we came to Newark, a detachment from the De Watteville +regiment was ordered to make an attack on Fort Erie. In this detachment +was a corporal, a great friend to us, who once saved my boy from +drowning. At the moment he was ordered off, he had a child seemingly at +the last gasp. The poor man was distracted like, and my husband, who had +that tender heart that he could never bide to look on misery, offered to +go as his substitute, and he went. You've doubtless heard of the sortie +of Erie: that dreadful night my husband was taken prisoner. He got a +letter written to me from Buffalo, to tell me all his ill-fortune. He +had been mistaken by some American soldiers for a deserter from the +American army; and not being with his own regiment when he was taken, or +even among his acquaintance, he could not prove who he was. He had been +ironed, and was to be taken to Greenbush, near Albany. + +"He entreated me to procure from his captain, the necessary papers to +prove that he was a true man, and to forward them to him. Our captain +was a great friend to us; he gave me the writings, and I determined +myself to go to Greenbush. I met with some troubles, and much kindness +by the way. The people in your States, ma'am, are the freest and the +kindest I have ever seen. They seemed to me like God's stewards, always +ready to open their storehouses to the naked and hungry. I had money +enough to pay for my boy's riding the most of the way; for myself I +seldom felt weary, but pressed on beyond my strength; still I did not +feel it till I got to Greenbush, and was told my husband had escaped +from confinement the week before. Whither he had gone, no one knew, but +all told me that if he was not retaken, he had probably reached Canada. + +"I would have come straight home again, but my strength was utterly +gone. I have not much recollection from this time: I remember having a +fear that they would take my boy from me, but all seems as a dream, till +I came to myself two months after in the alms-house in Albany. From that +time I remained in a low wretched state, for four months, when this poor +baby was born into this world of trouble." + +Here the poor woman gave way to a burst of tears, which seemed to be +a relief to her full heart; for afterwards, she proceeded with more +composure. "Many months passed before I was able to do any thing for +myself. It pleased God to hear my prayer for patience; and though I was +often without any hope that times would ever mend with me, I was kept +from fretting. You are very kind to feel for me, but I will not tire +you with all my ups and downs for the last three years. I have sent +many letters into Canada, but have never received any return. My heart +sometimes misgives me, and I think my husband has gone to Europe--or +maybe is dead." + +"But, why," asked Mrs. Sackville, "have you remained so long in the +States?" + +"O, ma'am, I was afraid to undertake the journey with my poor baby, who +has always been but delicate, and I was determined not to leave Albany, +where I had made many kind friends, till I had earned something to help +us on our journey. I know how to turn my hands to almost any kind of +work; and the last year has prospered so well with me, that when I left +Albany I had forty dollars. At Buffalo my poor baby was taken down; and +I have been obliged to spend ten dollars; with the rest I hope to get to +Quebec; and if worst comes to worst, I may there find friends to send +me to Europe." + +The poor woman's story was not one of unparalleled misfortunes, but it +was unusually interesting to her hearers--there was so much resolution +and mildness blended in her countenance, such perfect cleanliness in her +coarse apparel, and such an evident solicitude to avoid any exaggeration, +or even display of her troubles, that could be an appeal to the charity +of her auditors, that when she concluded, they felt convinced of her +merit, and deeply interested in her welfare. They were now arrived at +the inn, where they were to await the children, who arrived in the +course of an hour, heated and dusty--but declaring they had never a +more delightful walk. + +"Lord bless you, Miss," exclaimed Mrs. Barton, "you've heated yourself +to that degree, that the blood seems ready to burst from your cheeks. I +shall never forgive myself if you get sick by it." + +"Oh never fear," replied Julia, "I did not feel the heat at all." + +"But there is such a thick sickly feeling in the air to-day." + +"Sickly feeling," exclaimed Edward, "I am sure I thought the air was +never fresher and sweeter." + +"You can now understand," said Mrs. Sackville, speaking in a low voice +to her children, "the charm of the ring in the Fairy tale, bestowed by +the benevolent Genius; which whenever worn, produced a clear sky, a +smooth path and fragrant air. There is a happiness, my dear children, +in the simplest act of genuine kindness, which is much more than a +compensation for the loss of any gratification of taste. The relief of +this poor woman, and the sweet sleep into which her child has been +lulled by the motion of the carriage, have quite reconciled me to the +delay of the sight of the Falls; for which I confess I began to feel a +little but here comes your uncle, full of concern about something." + +Mr. Morris entered the room in great perturbation. "Here is a pretty +spot of work," said he. "I believe in my soul, Mrs. Barton, that that +scamp Tristy has gone off with your bundle." + +"Gone off with it!--God forbid!" exclaimed the poor woman,--"my money +was all in it." + +"Oh uncle," said Edward, "he has not gone off with it;--he laid himself +down under a tree in the wood just back, and said he would follow on as +soon as he had rested him." + +"Rested him! a mere pretence to get rid of you--you should have had more +discretion than to have trusted him, Ned;--but when was ever discretion +found in a boy?" + +"But what reason, brother, have you to think he has gone off?" asked +Mrs. Sackville. + +Mr. Morris said there had a man just come over the road, of whom he had +inquired if he had seen him:--he had not, but he was certain he should +have observed him if he had been by the road side. Mr. Morris had +despatched a servant on horseback in pursuit of him, and he begged +Mrs. Barton to calm herself till his return. + +The poor woman's agitation could not be allayed as easily as it had +been excited:--she said nothing; but she became as pale as death, and +trembled so excessively, that Mrs. Sackville took her child from her +arms and laid it on a bed. + +Mr. Morris's compassion once excited, was never stinted. "Bless you, +woman," he whispered to Mrs. Barton, "don't tremble so. If the little +imp has really made off, your loss shall be made up to you. Come, cheer +up--I have engaged a place for you and your children in a return +carriage, and you will all be in Newark to-night, safe and snug." + +"God bless you, sir," replied Mrs. Barton. "I am ashamed of myself; but +my courage and strength seem quite spent." + +At this instant, Edward, who had gone out on the first notice of the +boy's delinquency, returned, shouting, "He's coming, he's coming;" and +directly the messenger made his appearance with the wallet unharmed, and +followed by Tristram, who came doggedly on muttering, "that it was a +poor reward for lugging the old woman's bundle to be hunted for a +thief." + +"Stop your clamor, Tristy," said Mr. Morris, "the devil shall have his +due; there is a shilling for you, which is full as much as your +character is worth." + +"I don't know as to that," replied the boy, pocketing the shilling: +"those that have much character can do as they please, but I have so +little, that I set a high price on it." + +The carriage was now ready in which Mrs. Barton was to proceed, and her +friends saw her depart cheered and comforted by their kindness, and +themselves enriched by the opportunity they had improved of imitating +our heavenly Benefactor by 'raising the sinking heart, and strengthening +the knees that were ready to fail.' + +After our travellers were again on their way, Mr. Morris said he did not +at all like Tristram's look, when he said Goody Barton would remember +him the next time she felt the weight of her wallet. "The little rascal +said too, that he had changed his mind, and was going back to the +States--putting that and that together, I am afraid his evil fingers +have been inside the poor woman's bundle." + +Julia was sure he could not be so wicked--she had herself observed the +bundle, and that it was very nicely sewed. + +Mrs. Sackville hoped and believed that there was no harm done to the +poor woman's property; and the concern of the party for their protegee, +gradually gave place to their admiration of the beauties of their ride, +and the animated expectation of seeing the Falls. + +Edward declared that his ears already began to tingle,--and after they +passed Chippewa, Julia resolutely shut her eyes, for fear of having the +first impression weakened by the imperfect glimpses that could be caught +of the cataract from the road. + + * * * * * + +We hope our young readers do not think us so presumptuous as to attempt +to give them a description of the Falls of Niagara; one of the sublimest +spectacles with which this fair earth is embellished. Neither can we +attempt to define the emotions of our travellers. We find in Edward's +and Julia's journals, noted with an accuracy and taste that does them +great credit, all the constituent parts of this great whole--a poet or +a painter might perhaps weave them into a beautiful picture. + +The vehement dashing of the rapids--the sublime falls--the various +hues of the mass of waters--the snowy whiteness, and the deep bright +green--the billowy spray that veils in deep obscurity the depths +below--the verdant island that interposes between the two falls, half +veiled in a misty mantle, and placed there, it would seem, that the eye +and the spirit may repose on it--the little island on the brink of the +American fall, that looks amidst the commotion of the waters like the +sylvan vessel of a woodland nymph gaily sailing onward; or as if the +wish of the Persian girl were realized, and the 'little isle _had_ +wings;'--a thing of life and motion that the spirit of the waters had +inspired. + +The profound caverns with their overarching rocks--the quiet habitations +along the margin of the river--peaceful amid all the uproar, as if the +voice of the Creator had been heard, saying "It is I, be not afraid."--The +green hill, with its graceful projections, that skirts and overlooks +Table-rock--the deep and bright verdure of the foliage--every spear of +grass that penetrates the crevices of the rocks, gemmed by the humid +atmosphere, and sparkling in the sun-beams--the rainbow that rests on +the mighty torrent--a symbol of the smile of God upon his wondrous work. + +"What is it, mother?" asked Edward, as he stood with his friends on +Table-rock, where they had remained gazing on the magnificent scene for +fifteen minutes without uttering a syllable, "what is it, mother, that +makes us all so silent?" + +"It is the spirit of God moving on the face of the waters--it is this +new revelation to our senses of his power and majesty which ushers us, +as it were, into his visible presence, and exalts our affections above +language. + +"What, my dear children, should we be, without the religious sentiment +that is to us as a second sight, by which we see in all this beauty the +hand of the Creator; by which we are permitted to join in this hymn of +nature; by which, I may say, we are permitted to enter into the joy of +our Lord? Without it we should be like those sheep, who are at this +moment grazing on the verge of this sublime precipice, alike unconscious +of all these wonders, and of their divine Original. This religious +sentiment is in truth, Edward, that promethean fire that kindles nature +with a living spirit, infuses life and expression into inert matter, and +invests the mortal with immortality." Mrs. Sackville's eye was upraised, +and her countenance illumined with a glow of devotion that harmonized +with the scene. "It is, my dear children," she continued, "this +religious sentiment, enlightened and directed by reason, that allies +you to external nature, that should govern your affections, direct your +pursuits, exalt and purify your pleasures, and make you feel, by its +celestial influence, that the kingdom is within you; but," she added +smiling, after a momentary pause, "this temple does not need a +preacher." + +"Perhaps not," said Mr. Sackville; "but the language of nature sometimes +needs an interpreter to such young observers as Ned and Julia." + +"That it does, papa," exclaimed Edward, whose exalted feeling was +gradually subsiding to its natural level; "and there are people, too, +older than Julia and I, that I think need an interpreter. That +Yorkshireman, for instance, who lives in the stone house just at the +turn of the road as we came down from Forsyth's, said to me, 'Well, +young master, this is a mighty fine sight to come and see, but you would +be sick enough of it if you lived here. It seems, when I am lying on my +bed at night, like an everlasting thunder-storm, such a roaring from the +Falls and dropping from the trees: and in winter my poor beasts are +covered with icicles. I wish some of the quality that cry the place up, +and come half the world over to see it, would change births with my +wife and me,' and so he went on railing till I ran away from him to +overtake you." + +"Poor fellow!" said Mr. Sackville; "the sentiment, 'Il n'y a rien de +beau que l'utile,'[3] is quite excusable in a laborer. I think, Ned, I +feel more disposed to pity than to blame your Yorkshireman." + + [3] There is nothing but the useful which is beautiful. + +"Well, papa, what do you think of that party of city shop-keepers who +dined at the inn with us to-day? I heard one of the ladies say, 'I have +been so disappointed in my journey.' I dropped my knife and fork, and +exclaimed, 'Disappointed, madam! does not the fall look as high as you +expected?' 'Oh, child,' she replied, laughing, 'I was not speaking of +the fall; but I find it is quite too early in the season to travel in +the country. I have not seen a roast pig or a broiled chicken since I +left the city.' What do you think of that, papa?" + +"Why I think, my dear, she is a vulgar woman, who travels because others +do; and is naturally disappointed in not meeting with the only +circumstances that could give her pleasure." + +"There's Mrs. Hilton, papa, who, I am sure, is not vulgar--at least she +is as rich as Cr[oe]sus--and I heard her say to a gentleman, that if she +could have remained at the Springs, and then could have gone home and +_said_ she had been to the Falls, she should have been glad; for she was +sure no one came here but for the name of it." + +"Mrs. Hilton is of the class of the vulgar rich, among whom vulgarity is +quite as obvious, and much more disgusting, than with the vulgar poor. +But come, dear Ned; the faults and follies of others is a theme scarcely +worthy of this place; and just at the moment that you are enjoying this +festival of nature, you must take care you do not commit the pharisaic +fault, and thank God that you are not as these people, without reflecting +that Providence has arranged the circumstances which have made the +difference." + +"But, papa," said Julia, "it would not be wrong, would it, for Edward +to feel that there is a difference?" + +"Perhaps not, provided the feeling is properly tempered with humility +and gratitude; but it is far safer to be in the habit of comparing +yourselves with your superiors, than your inferiors." + +"It may be safer, papa," said Julia, "but"-- + +"But what, my love?" + +"It is not half so natural." + +"Nor so pleasant," interposed Edward. + +"Well, my children, I hope you will make it habitual, and then it will +be natural. For the present I am satisfied that you speak frankly your +opinions and feelings, without disguise or affectation." + +Thus these vigilant parents extracted some moral good from every object +and every scene; and at that early age, when most children are thoughtless +of the future, theirs were constantly directed to virtue, which they +were taught is immortal in its nature, is man's support and solace +through all the vicissitudes of life, and his crown of glory when the +'terrestrial puts on the celestial.' + +Our travellers remained at the Falls for a week, that they might become +familiar with them, see them by the rising and the setting sun; by +daylight, and moonlight, and starlight, in all the radiance of the +clear, full day, and in mists and storm; and then, after offering a Te +Deum from the temple of their hearts, they left them with beautiful and +imperishable pictures traced on their memories. + +In following the windings of the Niagara to Newark, they passed the +celebrated heights of Queenstown, 'where ceas'd the swift their race, +where fell the strong;' but even then, though then so recent, there were +no traces of the disastrous battle fought there. The children, whose +home was in a hill-country, and who valued a mountain as much as a +New-Englander does a 'water privilege,' rambled over the heights, and +gazed delighted on the green Niagara, which, escaped from its rocky +prison, rejoices in its freedom, sweeps freely and gracefully around the +bluff promontories that indent its course, flows past the headland, +where Fort Niagara guards the American shore, and enters Lake Ontario, +which stretches, sparkling in the distance, + + "To where the sky + Stoops, and shuts in th' exploring eye." + +Edward had, in common with most spirited boys, a natural taste for +military exploits. "I think," he said to his mother, "that a coward +might play the hero on these heights, or at Lundie's-lane. Only think, +mother, of fighting within the sound of the roaring of the Falls: would +it not give you grand feelings?" + +"I think, Edward, if I could hear the Falls at such a moment, they would +seem to me to speak in a voice of rebuke, rather than encouragement." + +"O, mother, you never seem to admire courage; but I suppose it is +because you are a woman." + +"No, my dear: women have been accused of having rather an undue admiration +for what you mean by courage--fighting courage; but I confess that war +seems to me a violation of the law of God, and it appears a profanation +of such beautiful scenes as these, to convert them into fields of +battle." + +When they reached Newark, the party walked up to Fort George; a slight +embankment, surrounded by a palisade, is still dignified by that name. +"This palisade as they call it, Ned," said Mr. Morris, "we should +scarcely think a sufficient defence against the batteries of pigs and +chickens." + +"It has served, though, to keep the yankees at bay," said a soldier, +gruffly, who was cutting up Canada thistles, and who had suspended his +labour for a moment, to regard the strangers. + +"A fair hit, friend," said Mr. Morris; "but all our fighting is over +now, and forgotten I hope. This work you are doing here, cutting off +these thistles, is far better than cutting off heads." + +"It is far aisier, sir," replied the man, with a slight curling of the +lip, which betrayed a professional contempt for Mr. Morris's preference +of the plough-share over the sword; then turning towards the gate he +called to a little boy who was just entering it--"Come, come Dick, what +do you gaze at, boy? bring me the basket." + +The boy, without heeding the command, dropped the basket; and uttering +a cry between joy and surprise, scampered off in the direction of a +cottage, or rather hovel, which stood just without the palisade. + +"That is Richard Barton!--that is certainly Richard Barton!" exclaimed +the children in one breath. + +"Surely is it Richard Barton," said the soldier. + +"Is his mother, here? Has he found his father?" asked Edward impatiently; +while all the party drew nearer the soldier, anxious to learn the fate of +their humble friend. + +"Ay, his mother is in by there, poor cratur; but his father has been +gone since the summer after the war, when the 40th was sent from +Canada--where, God knows--there's none but he that made them can keep +track of a British regiment: one year they are here with the setting +sun, and then off to where he rises--shifting and changing like the +waves of the sea, beating from one world to another; and I should know +it by rason that I myself was fighting, and baiting gentaly under +Wellington on the sunny side of the Pyrennees in one month, and the +next comes an order and whips us off for Canada in the twinkling of an +eye, among the indians and the yankees, who know nothing about fighting," +he concluded, glancing his eye at Mr. Morris, "according to the civil +rules of war." + +"Poor, Mrs. Barton!" said Mrs. Sackville. "I am grieved at her +disappointment, though I expected it." + +"Oh, do let us go in and see her," said Julia. + +"We will wait a moment, my dear," replied her mother; "her little boy +must have told her that we were here, and I think she will come out to +us." + +"She'll not be right free to come before you," said the soldier, "if, as +I now partly suspect, you are the gentlemen and ladies that were so +hospitable like to her." The man now doffed his cap, and stood with it +in his hand, with an expression of respect in his manner far different +from the hostile air he had at first assumed. + +"But, why not, my friend, come before us?" asked Mrs. Sackville. "I +trust she has nothing to be ashamed of." + +"Ashamed! no, thank God--it would be hard indeed if she had to bear the +burthen of shame with her other misfortunes; but though a soldier's +wife, she has an English spirit, and a proud one; and she says, while +she has her health and her hands, she will never be seen asking charity; +and that destitute is her condition, that as she said to-day, to make +her case known to christian people, is asking charity of them." + +"Do, mother, let us go now and see her," again interposed Julia. + +"Stop, a moment, my love," replied Mrs. Sackville; and then turning +again to the soldier--"You say she is utterly destitute; but when she +left us, she said she had a considerable sum of money." + +"And she spake the truth, ma'am--or, what is the same, she thought she +did; but a little limb of the old one, saving your presence, my lady, +had fingered all the poor cratur had been earning in three years, in as +many minutes, and was off to the States with it." + +"Ah," exclaimed Mr. Morris, who had been intently listening--"the son of +Belial--I told you so--I knew the rascal had it." + +"So dame Barton said one of the gentlemen told her; but the bundle was +all tight and snug, for the little devil had sewed it up again, and +she did not examine it till she come to look for the money to pay the +captain of a schooner, who had agreed to take her down the lakes: and +just think, my lady, at that moment what an overcast it was." + +"That mischief was done," said Edward, as soon as he had an opportunity +of speaking, "when you and I, Julia, left that little wretch Tristy in +the wood. I shall always think we were to blame for leaving him." + +"Does the poor woman," asked Mrs. Sackville, "still think of returning +to Quebec?" + +"To Quebec! ah, madam, and to the world's end, but she'll find her +husband if he is above ground. She is that resolute, that neither wind +nor tide can turn her. If she was left on a naked island in mid ocean, +she would contrive to get off from it." + +"Come, children," said Mrs. Sackville, "we will just leave your father +and uncle to finish their survey here, while we look in upon our poor +friend." + +"Well, go on mother," said Edward, "I will overtake you; first I must +run up to the flag-staff and get at least a clover stalk for a memorial +of the gallant Brock who is buried there." + +"And I will overtake you too, mother," said Julia, falling back with +Edward. + +The soldier's eye followed the children: "God bless them--God bless +them!" said he, "that is better than a monument." + +"What is better than a monument, friend?" asked Mrs. Sackville, riveted +to the spot, as most mothers would be, by an honest commendation of her +children. + +"The memory of an innocent heart--and a tear from eyes that never cried +for sin, my lady--we soldiers die, and are turned into the turf--but we +are honored in our officers." + +"Farewell, my friend; I wish you well," said Mrs. Sackville, dropping a +piece of money into the soldier's hand, and then turned from him while +he was still uttering his hearty, "God bless you, my lady." + +Julia hailed Edward as he was bounding off towards the flag-staff, and +begged him to stop for her, as she had something private to say to him. +He laughed at her passion for secrets, said he could not possibly be +detained, and at last good naturedly stopped to listen. "Ned," she said, +"I tell you what I was thinking of--as it was our fault, you know, that +poor Mrs. Barton lost her money--and she is so anxious to get to +Quebec--and that little Dick is such a good good natured little +fellow--I was thinking, Ned--" + +"For mercy's sake think a little faster, Julia." + +"Well, I was thinking, if we could contrive some way to have her go down +in the boat with us." + +"Contrive! it could not take us long to contrive I think: we can only +ask papa, you know, and all the contrivance in the world will do her no +good, if he does not think it best." + +"But, then, Ned, there is one thing I would like to propose to father +and mother, if you are willing to join me." + +"Don't be so round-about, Julia, as if I was the great Mogul. Speak +out." + +"Well then, to speak plain--you know Edward, you and I have each of +us five dollars that papa gave us to buy Canada curiosities with; now +I think if we were to club, we might have enough to get Mrs. Barton +to Quebec, if the captains of the boats are good-natured men, and +reasonable in their charges, and if papa approves the scheme--and +if"---- + +"If--if--if," said Edward, "we shall never move the woman with all +these _ifs_ to clog the way; one _if_ is sure, that if we spend our +money this way, we might have saved ourselves all the trouble of +planning so many times over how we should lay it out." + +Edward continued for a few moments silent and moody, while Julia urged +her cause zealously. The person, young or old, to whom a charity is +suggested, is not often as eager for it as the original projector. +Edward, however, after having walked up to the flag-staff, plucked a +clover-stalk, and retraced a part of the way to the little wicket by +which they entered, said, with the air of a sage, "I did not think it +best, Julia, to say yes, without some consideration; but on the whole I +like the plan, and if father and mother consent, I shall be very glad." +Once agreed, they were impatient for the execution of their scheme, and +they hurried forward to the cottage, at the door of which they were met +by both the children. The little girl now quite recovered, clung to +Julia, while Richard plucked Edward by the sleeve, and expressed his joy +awkwardly, but naturally enough, by laughing in his face. + +"Ah, they are indeed right glad to see ye," said Mrs. Barton, "as I'm +sure I am, as I have reason; but they, poor things--their hearts would +not jump so at sight of their father's face, as indeed how should they, +seeing they can have no recollection of him." + +The children replied to all these kind expressions from mother and +children, and then drawing Mrs. Sackville to the door, they suggested +their plan. She kissed them both, and bade them await her in the +cottage, while she went to consult their father and uncle, whom she saw +approaching. + +As soon as she had communicated the children's wishes, Mr. Morris +laughed at them. "Why," said he, "the poor foolish woman is on a +wild-goose chase, and the sooner she is stopped the better--travelling +over the world after a husband, who I have no doubt she is vastly better +without than with." + +"But she is the best judge of that, brother." + +"Lord bless you, no--a wife is no judge at all about her husband. She is +evidently an ingenious worthy woman, and can get a good living if she is +not footing it over the world after this soldier--a good riddance--a +good riddance, Mrs. Sackville. I am surprised you do not see it is a +good riddance." + +Mrs. Sackville, who did not esteem matrimonial ties so lightly as her +bachelor brother, appealed to her husband, but he joined Mr. Morris in +thinking Mrs. Barton had much better remain where she was; not because +he was sure the father and husband, though a soldier, might not be worth +looking up, but because there was not the slightest chance of finding +him. "What good will it do the woman to get to Quebec?" he asked; "her +husband's regiment has left Canada." + +"She tells me," replied Mrs. Sackville, "that she has many friends in +Quebec from whom she might expect assistance. She has worked for the +governor's lady, and she builds much on her benevolence, and thinks she +will get her a free passage to her husband in a government ship; and +besides," added Mrs. Sackville, "even if her hopes fail utterly, we +shall confer an essential benefit on our children by complying with +their wishes; for if they give this poor woman all their little store of +wealth, it will cost them the sacrifice of sundry personal gratifications +that they have reckoned much on, and thus give them a practical lesson +of self-denial and disinterestedness, better than all our precepts, and +it will associate with the more selfish and transient pleasures of their +journey, the pure and enduring sentiment of benevolence." + +"Well, my dear wife," said Mr. Sackville, "do as you please--you have +arrayed before me irresistible motives." + +Thus sanctioned, Mrs. Sackville returned to the cottage, whispered to +the children their father's acquiescence, and then saying aloud, "I +leave you to make all the arrangements with Mrs. Barton," she left them. + +We shall not attempt to describe the poor woman's gratitude, which +overflowed in words and tears, nor the children's noisy joy when they +heard they were to go down the lake with their friends. Suffice it to +say, that in the course of two hours, and just as the steam-boat +appeared in sight, heavily plying down from Lewistown, Mrs. Barton was +on the wharf with her children, as clean and nice as soap and water and +fresh and well-patched clothes could make them, and looking so grateful +and joyful, that Mr. Morris, who, like the good vicar of Wakefield, +'loved happy human faces,' forgot all his objections to the procedure, +and shaking the good woman's hand heartily, said, he "was glad they were +to be fellow-passengers." + +Our friends, with many others, were now impatiently waiting a conveyance +to the steam-boat, which had stopped near the opposite shore. The wharf +exhibited the usual signs of a small garrisoned town. Half drunken +soldiers were idling about, and sentinels were posting to and fro, +stationed there to prevent the desertion of the soldiers to the opposite +side, a crime which the vicinity and hospitable habits of the State +render very common. Edward accosted one of the sentinels, and asked him +if the captain of the steam-boat sent his small boat ashore. "Fraquently +he does, and fraquently he don't," replied the fellow, rather surlily. +"Does the boat stop at fort Niagara?" + +"Indeed sir, and that is what I cannot tell you." + +"Well," pursued Edward with simplicity, "do you think they will send +ashore to-day?" + +"Indeed master, and it's what I am not thinking about." + +Edward turned away, making a mental comparison between this man and +his own civil countrymen, greatly to the disadvantage of the former, +when his attention was attracted by the approach of a boat which came +skimming over the water like a bird, and as it neared the shore, a +little tight-built sailor leaped on to the wharf, and announced himself +as Jemmy Chapman, the captain's mate. While the baggage was arranging in +the boat, Edward seized the favorable moment to make the best bargain he +could with the mate for his protegee. + +But the mate averred he had no power to transact that business, and +referred him to his captain. "You may safely trust to him, my young +man," said he, "for captain Vaughan is not a man to take advantage of +a ship in distress." + +And so it proved--for the captain, (as every body knows, who ever +crossed the lake in the steam-boat Ontario) was a man of distinguished +humanity; and pleased with the good appearance of Mrs. Barton and her +children, and the zeal of her youthful protectors, he said, that if she +had brought her thread and needles a-board, she might work her passage +to Ogdensburg, for he and some of his men were sadly out at elbows. The +good woman's eyes glistened with delight, at the thought of paying her +way thus far, and she seated herself directly to put new pockets in an +old coat of Jemmy's, when a sudden attack of tooth-ache put a stop to +her progress. + +The children were soon acquainted with her malady, for they were +continually hovering about her, and Julia procured some camphor and +laudanum from an invalid passenger, and gave them to her. She applied +them, but the horrible pangs were not allayed, when Jemmy Chapman was +attracted by the report of her distress. "Stand away, all," said he; +"stand away--fall back, my young man; and you, my little lady, and +give place to me. I am the seventh son of a seventh son, and I can cure +any body's tooth-ache but my own." Mrs. Barton was not free from the +superstition which pervades her class, and she gladly permitted him to +stroke her face, which he did with a gravity that evinced perfect faith +in his own powers; and in the course of fifteen minutes, she declared +herself completely relieved, and cheerfully resumed her labors. Julia +ran to announce the cure to her mother. + +"Is not it strange, mama," she said, "that she could believe it was +Jemmy that cured her?" + +"Strange to us, my dear, who do not believe in any such supernatural +powers; but we will not quarrel with a faith that cures the +tooth-ache." + +As the boat passed Fort Niagara, where the river debouches into the +lake, "There," said Jemmy Chapman to Edward, who stood beside him; +"there, on that point stood a noble stone light-house, that has saved +many a poor fellow from finding a grave in this stormy lake: it was like +the good scripture light which shines equally upon all." + +"And what has become of it?" asked Edward. + +"Oh, it was taken down like Solomon's temple, till there was not one +stone left upon another, by one of our generals--thank the Lord he was +not an American born--he it was, that first set the example of burning +on the frontier, and burnt down this pretty town of Newark here--and cut +down all the orchards." + +"The orchards! what in the world did he do that for?" asked Edward. + +Jemmy paused for a moment, apparently at a loss what motive to assign +for such reckless destruction, and then said, "Out of curiosity I +believe." + + * * * * * + +We fear that we have already protracted our details beyond the patience +of our readers. + +We shall not therefore describe the prosperous passage of the boat over +the beautiful expanse of Lake Ontario: nor the visit of our friends +to the town of Rochester, which five years before was a complete +wilderness; but now had fine houses, shops, and warehouses, and Edward +said, reminded him of Adam, who was born grown up: nor their passage +from the lake into the St. Lawrence, where these mighty waters passing +St. Vincent on one side, and Grand Island on the other, contract their +channel, and assume the form of a river. + +Our friends, wrapped in their cloaks and shawls to defend them from the +chill night air, clustered around Jemmy Chapman, who stood at the helm +guiding the boat through the difficult and shifting channels, amid the +'thousand isles'--now in silence gazing on them, as they were lit up +with the rosy hues of twilight, and then with the mild but insufficient +lustre of the half orbed moon. These verdant islands are of every size +and form. Some lying in clusters like the 'solitary set in families:' +and some like beautiful vestals in single loveliness. Some stretching +for miles in length, and some so small, and without a tree or shrub, +that they look like lawns destined for fairy sporting grounds; while +others are encircled by such an impenetrable growth of trees, that one +might fancy that within this sylvan barrier wood-nymphs held their +courts and revels; in short, might fancy any thing; for there are no +traces of human footsteps to break the spell of imagination, save where +the fisherman's hut, placed on the brink of the element by which he +lives, is disclosed with its dark relief of unbroken woods by the bright +glare of the pine torch, which is his beacon light, and which serves to +show the gleaming path-way of his little canoe. Jemmy recounted to the +children the sad mishaps and disastrous chances that had befallen +unskilful or unfortunate navigators in these dangerous passes, and the +kind captain repeatedly fired his signal gun, which seemed to wake the +spirits of these deep solitudes, to send back the greeting in echo and +re-echo, till their voices died away on the most distant shores. + +"Don't they hollow well?" said Jemmy, after the last report, turning +briskly around to dame Barton who sat near him. + +"Well, I did not hear them," said she, mournfully. + +"Not hear them--why, they spoke as plain as preaching--are you deaf, +good woman?" + +"Deaf! oh, no--but my thoughts were far from here." + +Mrs. Sackville thought there was something in Mrs. Barton's devotedness +to her husband, not common in her class of life. She had been deterred +from putting any questions to her, by the habitual silence and diffidence +of the poor woman. But now they had become so much more acquainted, that +she ventured to say to her, "Come, Mrs. Barton, suppose you favor us +while we sit here, with a little history of your life. My children are +so much interested in you, that they want to know all they can about +you." + +"Oh, you are very good ma'am to say so; but what is there in the history +of the like of me to tell? not that I have any objection to make known +my story--thank God, that's kept me in his fear--but then what happens +to poor plain bodies like me, is not made much count of in the world." + +"But, remember, my good friend," said Mrs. Sackville, "the happiness of +all his creatures, rich and poor, is of equal account in the sight of +our heavenly Father, and as I wish my children continually to bear in +mind that it is this great Being, whom they are commanded by their +Saviour to imitate, I trust that the happiness of their fellow-beings, +whether high or low, will be of equal importance in their view." + +Thus encouraged by the kindness of the mother, and the eager looks of +the children, who stationed themselves close to her, Mrs. Barton began +her simple and brief story. + +"I never knew my parents," she said. "I was, as I have been told, given +by a gipsey woman to a magistrate of the town of Lichfield, in England, +when I was three years old. The woman was sick, and died shortly after. +She declared herself ignorant of my parentage. She believed I had been +stolen in London, by some of her tribe, about a year before; and said +that I had been committed to her charge for some months, I had a +necklace, with a gold clasp with initials, which I had been permitted +to retain; and the worthy magistrate, in the hope that this might lead +to a discovery, advertised me, with a description of the necklace; but +no one appearing to claim me, he finally placed me in the Lichfield +alms-house. + +"When I was seven years old, don't laugh at me, Miss Julia, I was called +a beauty. My skin was as smooth as yours; and my hair hung in curls +about my neck and face. At this time a whimsical gentleman, who had a +fancy to bring up a wife to his own liking, came to the alms-house: he +was pleased with my appearance, and selected me. He taught me himself, +and procured teachers for me, and from morning till night I was poring +over hard tasks: this lasted for three years, and perhaps Mr. Leslie, +for that was the gentleman's name, might have remained constant to his +purpose, but then I took the small-pox; and after lying at the gates of +death for weeks, I recovered, but with my face blotched and seamed as +you see it. For many months my eye-sight and hearing were gone, and when +I could see, my eyes had this cast in them, which looks as if I were +born cross-eyed. + +"No one could blame Mr. Leslie for giving me up. I am sure I never did. +He placed me with a poor widow, and paid my lodging with her till I was +one and twenty, and gave me a draft on him for a hundred pounds, which +was to be paid when I came of age. With Mrs. Gordon I was happier than I +had ever been in my life. My book tasks I never had liked, but I sewed +or spun with Mrs. Gordon, from morning till night, without ever being +weary or discontented. She taught me her own ways, and she was noted +through the whole town, for her industry and neatness. She was a good +christian too, and she brought me up to fear God and to love his +service. She had one child--an only son, two years younger than myself. +He was sometimes wild and wilful, for his mother, though she was resolute +with every thing else, could never deny him. He was sometimes as I said, +wild and wilful--but when he was himself, he was the pleasantest lad in +the village, and the best. Mrs. Gordon was as a mother to me; and you +know it was natural I should love her son Richard; and I thought I but +loved him as a sister should, till one Sunday I saw him come up the +little path-way that led to our cottage, with a blue ribband bow in +his hand, which he kissed again and again, and then thrust it into +his bosom. I knew it was a love token from Sally Wilton the miller's +daughter, for I had seen it that day in her hat, and I felt a pang at +my heart, that told me it was not as a brother I loved Richard. + +"I have skipped over many years, for I would not weary you. I was now +one and twenty, and my draft on Mr. Leslie was due. Mrs. Gordon began +to talk to me of marrying Richard. I only answered her with silence and +tears; but one woman can read another's heart, and she knew what was in +mine; and she, poor woman, thought to make all right by taking it into +her own hands. + +"It so happened one night, that I was in an adjoining room when she +supposed I was absent from the cottage, and she put many questions to +Richard about me, but she could get no satisfaction from him. She then +told him (oh, at the moment I thought I could never forgive her for it) +she was sure I loved him. She said much in my favor, ma'am, that I +cannot repeat, and tried with it all to put a veil over my poor ugly +face, and then concluded with saying, for she was a thrifty woman, and +never lost sight of the main chance, that I should not come empty +handed. At this his spirit rose--he said, he would not be bought by all +the gold in the king's coffers. My heart rose to my lips, but I held +my breath, for his mother grew very angry, and said something from +Solomon's proverbs, about my being the virtuous woman whose price was +far above rubies. Then Richard burst into tears, and said he knew that, +and he would go round the world to serve me, but he could not marry me. +He confessed that he had already plighted his truth to Sally Wilton; and +he declared that he never would marry any body but Sally Wilton. His +mother lost all patience--she said he would make a beggar of himself for +life--that the Wiltons were an idle race, and that none of the name had +ever come to any good. + +"A great deal more she said, but it seemed to me the more she talked, +the firmer Richard was in his own mind. + +"You may be sure ma'am I did not close my eyes that night; my love had +been blasted, and my pride cast down. It was long before I could think +of any one but myself, or compose my mind to any good thoughts; but +when I began to see things in a right light, it seemed to me a pity we +should all be miserable together; and I began to contrive some way to +make Richard happy. He had just served his time with a shoemaker, but he +had no capital to enable him to set up for himself. I knew Sally Wilton +was a gay thoughtless thing; but so were most girls, and I believed that +when she was married, she would do her duty; to me it seemed, that +duty would be all pleasure with such a husband as Richard. I had some +struggles with my own heart, but before the morning light dawned, I had +made up my mind what to do. When I met Richard and his mother in the +morning, I was far the happiest of the three. She was angry, he was +sullen and downcast; but I had that feeling which I need not describe +to you ma'am, who have so often the power and the will to make others +happy. Immediately after our morning meal, I went and presented my draft +to Mr. Leslie's agent, and received my hundred pounds. Half the sum I +returned to him to invest for me, the other half I placed in the hands +of the shoemaker, with whom Richard had served his time, and with whom +he was a great favorite, and I requested him to lay it out in tools and +stock for Richard. The purchase was made--a little shop hired, and every +thing in readiness; and then I told Richard in the presence of his +mother what I had done. At first he said he never could accept so much +from me; but I told him, (and I smothered my feelings, and smiled when +I said it,) that in spite of his mother's fancies, it was as a sister I +loved him, and as a sister and older than himself too, I had a right to +provide for him. He was far more grateful and happy than I expected. His +mother gave her consent to his marriage, though grudgingly, for she was +a set woman, and she had no faith in Sally Wilton. They were married. +Richard was industrious, and we hoped would be prosperous, but as it +proved Mrs. Barton's distrust of Sally was too well founded. She was +idle and extravagant, and such a wife soon ruins a poor man. In five +years Richard was reduced to such straits, that in a fit of desperation +he enlisted. From the sorrowful day he came to take leave of us, for his +regiment was soon after sent to the East-Indies, his mother never had +a well day or a happy hour. After he went away, his wife led a vicious +life; and four years after she came to our door to beg a crust of +bread--a poor, wasted, sick, half-famished creature. We took her in. +To be sure she had been a sad sinner, but she was Richard's wife, and +besides it is always better to pity than condemn, and it is not for +the like of us ma'am you know, who have no hope but because God's +compassions fail not, to turn our backs upon a fellow-creature in sin +and misery. + +"For a whole year she laid in a distressing sickness. Mrs. Barton had +become so old and feeble, that she could do nothing but pray for us, +and I had as you may suppose a toilsome life of it; but I was as I +trusted, doing my duty, and that makes a light heart, and according to +my experience ma'am, no one can be very wretched that has enough to do, +and that tries to do their duty faithfully, be that duty ever so humble. +We never suffered. Sally had some help from the charitable; and when we +had no other resource, I drew on my fifty pounds. + +"It would have been a great comfort to us to have seen Sally take hold +of religion, when every thing else failed; but the poor soul was racked +with pains and coughing, and could only think of her suffering body, and +she was perfectly deaf too, and could hear nothing that the clergyman +said to her, though Mrs. Barton thought it right he should talk to her. +Oh ma'am, I think there is not a more mournful sight on the earth than +to see a young creature thus cut off by her sins. + +"Richard returned to us two days before she died, but she did not know +him, and could not hear his forgiveness, though he spoke it over and +over again." + +Mrs. Barton paused for a few moments, quite overcome by the recollection +of that sad period, and then resumed her story. + +"And now came brighter days. Richard had endured many hardships, and +past through many temptations, but he had not lost his integrity. He +had come home in attendance on an officer who had obtained a furlough. +Not many months passed over before Richard expressed a wish to marry +me, though my little fortune was gone, and ten years had not as you +may suppose improved my beauty. Our mother said, our wedding-day was +the happiest of her life. She did not long survive it. Before my +husband rejoined his regiment she had gone to her rest. From that +time till Richard was taken prisoner by the Americans, we have never +been separated, and he has proved faithful and kind to me, and being, +as he is, all the world to me who have never known other kindred but +my little ones, it cannot seem strange to you, ma'am, that the world +is a lonely place without him; and that I should be willing to take +the help of your blessed children to get on my way to him." + +"Oh no indeed, my good friend," said Mrs. Sackville, "I am delighted +that my children have found one so worthy of their assistance; you may +rest assured that we shall not part from you till we arrive at Quebec. +Come now Edward and Julia to your berths--and dream of the 'thousand +isles,' or Mrs. Barton, or what you will." The children obeyed their +mother, and doubtless had such sweet visions as hover about the pillow +of youth, and health, and innocence. + +Jemmy Chapman had not been an uninterested listener to this simple tale +of patient virtue; and though Mrs. Barton had spoken so low that he had +lost some parts of her narrative, he heard enough to touch his kind +heart. As she rose from the bench near him, "Stop, stop, good woman," +said he, and he jerked some tears from off his cheeks; "it is not much +that such as I can pity you, but a drop is something in a gill-glass, +and (turning his pockets inside out, and collecting a half handful of +small change,) I should not be my mother's son if I did not feel for a +woman in distress, and so will you just take this which may help to +raise a little breeze for you when you are becalmed. Nay, don't haul +off, but take it, and remember the poor sailors in a stormy night. It +is good luck to us to have a friend a-shore to speak a good word for +us when we have no time to speak for ourselves." + +Jemmy's hearty kindness was irresistible, and Mrs. Barton received his +gift, scarcely able to command her voice to utter her thanks. + + * * * * * + +The next morning found the steam-boat at the wharf at Ogdensburg. Edward +undertook to settle with the captain for the passage of his protegees; +but the captain would receive nothing, and persisted in declaring that +he was amply compensated by Mrs. Barton's industry. The travellers +parted from him and from our friend Jemmy with expressions of the esteem +which their virtues even on this short acquaintance had not failed to +produce; and then they proceeded to make arrangements for their passage +down the St. Lawrence by chartering and provisioning a Durham boat. + +While this was getting in readiness, Mrs. Sackville, whose curiosity, +like that of a more celebrated traveller, 'extended to all the works +of art, all the appearances of nature, and all the monuments of past +events,' walked with her children to view a rare curiosity on our +continent--an _American_ antiquity. On a point of land at the junction +of the Oswegatchie with the St. Lawrence, there is a broken stone wall, +the remains of a French fortification. While they stood surveying with +pleased attention this monument of the olden time, they were joined by a +gentleman who appeared like them to have been attracted to the spot by +curiosity. He took off his hat, bowed to Mrs. Sackville, and asked if he +might take the liberty to inquire of her whether she resided at +Ogdensburg. + +When she replied in the negative, he begged her pardon, and said he had +been extremely anxious to authenticate a traditionary story he had +picked up in his journey through Canada, some of the events of which had +been located at this place. He had hoped to find some record of it in +Charlevoix's History, but he had searched in vain. Mrs. Sackville became +in her turn the inquirer. She said she delighted in those traditionary +tales, which, with the aid of a little fancy, reconstructed ruins, and +enclosed within their walls living beings with affections and interests +like our own; and she should hold herself very much obliged to the +gentleman if he would enrich her with some interesting associations with +this place. The stranger seemed highly gratified to have found so ready +a sympathy in his feelings, and he related the following particulars. + +"A commandant of this fort (which was built by the French to protect +their traders against the savages,) married a young Iroquois who was +before or after the marriage converted to the Catholic faith. She was +the daughter of a chieftain of her tribe, and great efforts were made by +her people to induce her to return to them. Her brother lurked in this +neighbourhood, and procured interviews with her, and attempted to win +her back by all the motives of national pride and family affection; but +all in vain. The young Garanga, or, to call her by her baptismal name, +Marguerite, was bound by a threefold cord--her love to her husband, to +her son, and to her religion. Mecumeh, finding persuasion ineffectual, +had recourse to stratagem. The commandant was in the habit of going down +the river often on fishing excursions, and when he returned, he would +fire his signal gun, and Marguerite and her boy would hasten to the +shore to greet him. + +"On one occasion he had been gone longer than usual. Marguerite was +filled with apprehensions natural enough at a time when imminent dangers +and hairbreadth escapes were of every day occurrence. She had sat in the +tower and watched for the returning canoe till the last beam of day had +faded from the waters;--the deepening shadows of twilight played tricks +with her imagination. Once she was startled by the water-fowl, which, as +it skimmed along the surface of the water, imaged to her fancy the light +canoe impelled by her husband's vigorous arm--again she heard the leap +of the heavy muskalongi, and the splashing waters sounded to her fancy +like the first dash of the oar. That passed away, and disappointment and +tears followed. Her boy was beside her; the young Louis, who, though +scarcely twelve years old, already had his imagination filled with +daring deeds. Born and bred in a fort, he was an adept in the use of the +bow and the musket; courage seemed to be his instinct, and danger his +element, and battles and wounds were 'household words' with him. He +laughed at his mother's fears; but, in spite of his boyish ridicule, +they strengthened, till apprehension seemed reality. Suddenly the sound +of the signal gun broke on the stillness of the night. Both mother and +son sprang on their feet with a cry of joy, and were pressing hand in +hand towards the outer gate, when a sentinel stopped them to remind +Marguerite it was her husband's order that no one should venture without +the walls after sunset. She, however, insisted on passing, and telling +the soldier that she would answer to the commandant for his breach of +orders--she passed the outer barrier. Young Louis held up his bow and +arrow before the sentinel, saying gaily, "I am my mother's body-guard +you know." Tradition has preserved these trifling circumstances, as the +events that followed rendered them memorable. + +"The distance," continued the stranger, "from the fort to the place +where the commandant moored his canoe was trifling, and quickly passed. +Marguerite and Louis flew along the narrow foot path, reached the shore, +and were in the arms of ---- Mecumeh and his fierce companions. Entreaties +and resistance were alike vain. Resistance was made, with a manly +spirit, by young Louis, who drew a knife from the girdle of one of the +indians, and attempted to plunge it into the bosom of Mecumeh, who was +roughly binding his wampum belt over Marguerite's mouth, to deaden the +sound of her screams. The uncle wrested the knife from him, and smiled +proudly on him as if he recognised in the brave boy, a scion from his +own stock. + +"The indians had two canoes; Marguerite was conveyed to one, Louis to +the other--and both canoes were rowed into the Oswegatchie, and up the +stream as fast as it was possible to impel them against the current of +the river. + +"Not a word nor cry escaped the boy: he seemed intent on some purpose, +and when the canoe approached near the shore, he took off a military cap +he wore, and threw it so skilfully that it lodged, where he meant it +should, on the branch of a tree which projected over the water. There +was a long white feather in the cap. The indians had observed the boy's +movement--they held up their oars for a moment, and seemed to consult +whether they should return and remove the cap; but after a moment, +they again dashed their oars in the water and proceeded forward. They +continued rowing for a few miles, and then landed; hid their canoes +behind some trees on the river's bank, and plunged into the woods with +their prisoners. It seems to have been their intention to have returned +to their canoes in the morning, and they had not proceeded far from the +shore, when they kindled a fire and prepared some food, and offered +a share of it to Marguerite and Louis. Poor Marguerite, as you may +suppose, had no mind to eat; but Louis, saith tradition, ate as heartily +as if he had been safe within the walls of the fort. After the supper, +the indians stretched themselves before the fire, but not till they had +taken the precaution to bind Marguerite to a tree, and to compel Louis +to lie down in the arms of his uncle Mecumeh. Neither of the prisoners, +as you may imagine, closed their eyes. Louis kept his fixed on his +mother. She sat upright beside an oak tree; the cord was fastened around +her waist, and bound around the tree, which had been blasted by lighting; +the moon poured its beams through the naked branches upon her face +convulsed with the agony of despair and fear. With one hand she held a +crucifix to her lips, the other was on her rosary. The sight of his +mother in such a situation, stirred up daring thoughts in the bosom of +the heroic boy--but he laid powerless in his uncle's naked brawny arms. +He tried to disengage himself, but at the slightest movement, Mecumeh, +though still sleeping, seemed conscious, and strained him closer to him. +At last the strong sleep, that in the depth of the night steeps the +senses in utter forgetfulness, overpowered him--his arms relaxed their +hold, and dropped beside him and left Louis free. + +"He rose cautiously, looked for one instant on the indians, and assured +himself they all slept profoundly. He then possessed himself of Mecumeh's +knife, which lay at his feet, and severed the cord that bound his mother +to the tree. Neither of them spoke a word--but with the least possible +sound they resumed the way by which they had come from the shore. Louis +in the confidence, and Marguerite with the faint hope of reaching it +before they were overtaken. + +"You may imagine how often the poor mother, timid as a fawn, was +startled by the evening breeze stirring the leaves, but the boy bounded +forward as if there were neither fear nor danger in the world. + +"They had nearly attained the margin of the river, where Louis meant to +launch one of the canoes and drop down the current, when the indian yell +resounding through the woods, struck on their ears. They were missed, +pursued, and escape was impossible. Marguerite panic-struck, sunk to the +ground. Nothing could check the career of Louis. "On--on, mother," he +cried, "to the shore--to the shore." She rose and instinctively followed +her boy. The sound of pursuit came nearer and nearer. They reached the +shore, and there beheld three canoes coming swiftly up the river. +Animated with hope, Louis screamed the watch word of the garrison, and +was answered by his father's voice. + +"The possibility of escape, and the certain approach of her husband, +infused new life into Marguerite. "Your father cannot see us," she said, +"as we stand here in the shade of the trees; hide yourself in that +thicket, I will plunge into the water." Louis crouched under the bushes, +and was completely hidden by an overhanging grape-vine, while his mother +advanced a few steps into the water and stood erect, where she could be +distinctly seen. A shout from the canoes apprised her that she was +recognised, and at the same moment, the indians who had now reached the +shore, rent the air with their cries of rage and defiance. They stood +for a moment, as if deliberating what next to do; Mecumeh maintained an +undaunted and resolved air--but with his followers the aspect of armed +men, and a force thrice their number, had its usual effect. They fled. +He looked after them, cried, 'shame!' and then, with a desperate yell, +leaped into the water and stood beside Marguerite. The canoes were now +within a few yards--He put his knife to her bosom--"The daughter of +Tecumseh," he said, "should have died by the judgment of our warriors, +but now by her brother's hand must she perish:" and he drew back his +arm to give vigour to the fatal stroke, when an arrow pierced his own +breast, and he fell insensible at his sister's side. A moment after +Marguerite was in the arms of her husband, and Louis, with his bow +unstrung, bounded from the shore, and was received in his father's +canoe; and the wild shores rung with the acclamations of the soldiers, +while his father's tears of pride and joy were poured like rain upon his +cheek." + +The stranger paused, and Edward breathed one long breath, expressive of +the interest with which he had listened to the tale; and then said, +"You have not told us, sir, how the commandant was so fortunate as to +pursue in the right direction." + +"He returned soon after Marguerite's departure, and of course was at no +loss to determine that she had been taken in the toils of her brother. +He explored the mouth of the Oswegatchie, thinking it possible that the +savages might have left their canoes moored there, and taken to the +land. Louis's cap and feather caught his eye, and furnished him a clue. +You have now my whole story," concluded the stranger; "and though I +cannot vouch for its accuracy, many similar circumstances must have +occurred, while this country was a wilderness, and my tradition is at +least supported by probability." + +"You have not told us, sir," said Julia, "whether Mecumeh was really +killed. I do not see how Marguerite could leave him without finding out, +for after all, he was her brother." + +"Marguerite," replied the stranger, "justified your opinion of sisterly +duty. Mecumeh was conveyed to the fort--the arrow was withdrawn, and +after a tedious illness, he recovered from the wound. There is too a +tradition that the pious sister converted him to the catholic faith; but +about this part of the story there seems to rest some uncertainty." + +"And don't you know, sir," asked Edward, "what became of Louis +afterwards?" + +"I really do not," replied the gentleman, smiling; "but I doubt not that +the man kept the promise of the heroic boy; and I think it extremely +probable that he has led some gallant fellows to those deeds of high +emprise which were achieved by the armies of Louis fourteenth." + +"My dear children," said Mrs. Sackville, "you must really ask no more +questions. You will be good enough to pardon," she added, turning to the +stranger, "the eagerness of their youthful curiosity." + +"Oh, madam," he replied, "the evidence of curiosity is the most grateful +reward to a story-teller, and I feel that my acknowledgements are due to +your children for their patient listening." + +A few more courteous words passed, and the stranger bowed and departed. + +"This was a lucky meeting, mother," said Edward; "this crazed leaning +wall looks quite interesting to me now. I can almost fancy I see +Marguerite and Louis issuing from the gate--Louis holding up the bow +and arrow that was to do such memorable service that night." + +"You have had a good lesson this morning, my children, on the pleasures +of association. When we first saw that ruin, it looked to you like any +other stone wall--mere mason-work: and you, Julia, afraid of being +buried in its shadow, wondered what interest any one could feel in +looking at it; and now, I see you are venturing on the most tottering +part of it for a piece of moss, which I suppose is to be carefully +treasured in your herbal." + +"Yes, mama, as a keep-sake for Marguerite and Louis." + + * * * * * + +We shall not condemn our readers to attend the travellers in their +tedious passage down the St. Lawrence. Sometimes a favoring breeze +filled the single sail of their little boat, and aided by the oars of +the lazy boatmen, wafted them gently forward, till, coming to a more +rapid descent in the river, their light vessel seemed urged on by an +irresistible force to the 'rapids,' where the waves, fretting and +foaming over the invisible rocks, threatened to engulph it. The boatmen +threw themselves prostrate on the bottom of the boat to avoid the +splashing of the waves; their oars lay useless beside them, while the +pilot strained every nerve to guide the boat in safety through the +perilous channel. These passages, like the brilliant events of life, +are rare and brief, and are succeeded by the sleepy lakes of the river, +bordered by shores uniformly low and monotonous, save where the green +mountains of Vermont dimly define the eastern horizon. + +Arrived at Montreal, Mrs. Sackville, from consideration for Mrs. Barton, +determined to avoid delay, and therefore deferred the examination of +this city, so singular and picturesque to an American eye, till their +return from Quebec. There was, however, no boat to sail before the +evening, and a half day of leisure afforded our industrious travellers +an opportunity to visit the churches and convents of Montreal. + +The churches are spacious, and decorated with gaudy tinselled ornaments, +and indifferent pictures. Edward and Julia were dazzled and delighted +with the seeming splendor. A little demure Presbyterian girl, who acted +as their guide, smiled at the animated expressions of their wonder. +"Notre Dame, is," she said, "as my grandmother often says, just fit for +a baby-house for children." + +This remark caused a sudden revulsion in Edward's mind. He had a truly +manly, or rather boyish aversion to be suspected of a juvenile taste, +and averting his eye from his conductor, it fell on a miserable, +half-famished looking old woman, who was kneeling in one of the aisles +absorbed in her devotions. + +"Look there, mother," said he, pointing to the wretched object, "what +a contrast to all this pomp.--It reminds me of an anecdote I have +somewhere read of a pious pilgrim to whom one of the popes was +ostentatiously displaying the decorations of the Vatican. + +"Dites a ces ornemens," said the pilgrim, "de se changer en pain."[4] + + [4] Command these decorations to be changed into bread. + +Quite satisfied with this display of his superiority to the childishness +indirectly ascribed to him by his conductor, though it was entirely lost +on her, Edward left the church, and attended his friends to the Hotel +Dieu, the convent of the black nuns. They were shown the different +apartments by one of the sisterhood, a well-bred Irish lady, whose fine +intelligent dark eyes, benevolent and happy expression of countenance, +and short plump figure, made a delightful impression on Edward and +Julia, who had always fancied a nun must be tall and thin, with a sad +solemn face, condemned to wither under an immoveable veil. She led them +to the hospital where the sick of every nation are received and treated +with equal kindness according to the law of christian benevolence, which +is of universal obligation. + +"Do the rules of your order, (the order of St. Joseph I believe,") +inquired Mr. Sackville of the sister, "impose on you the performance of +severe penances?" + +"No," she replied, "we are exempted from extraordinary penances, on +account of the fatiguing and often loathsome offices that we have to +perform for the sick; these are received as sufficient mortifications. +We open our doors to the sick mendicant and wounded soldiers. We had in +this apartment at one time during the late war seventeen American +soldiers." + +"My countrymen," replied Mr. Sackville, "had abundant reason to be +grateful that they fell into your skilful and benevolent hands,--the +beautiful order and neatness of your hospital prove with what fidelity +your samaritan duties are performed." + +While the nun, courteously bowing her head at this merited compliment, +led the way to an adjoining ante-room appropriated to medicines, +surgical instruments, &c. Mrs. Sackville said in a low voice to Edward, +"Take notice, my dear son, that where the _precepts_ of the christian +religion are strictly applied they produce the same fruits; no matter by +what name the particular faith is called, Catholic or Protestant." + +"Oh look there, mother," exclaimed Julia, pointing to large cases with +glass doors which contained the medicines, "I am sure that in spite of +your laws of association, those vials and gallipots look quite +beautiful." + +"And I suspect they contain nothing very disagreeable," replied her +mother; "these sisters do not appear to deal in the harsh medicines +of our daring doctors, but content themselves with emollients and +palliatives. See those labels, 'eau hysterique'--'eau celeste;' even +you, Julia, would have no objection to medicines that deserve such +pretty appellatives." + +From the Hotel Dieu they went to the chapel and sacristie. Julia pointed +to the altars on which were standing vases filled with white lilies and +carnations. "Every where, mother," she said, "we see these beautiful +flowers, even in the churches." + +"And they are certainly not inappropriate, Julia," replied her mother, +"in His temple whose pencil paints and breath perfumes them." + +After all had been shown that is usually exhibited, the sister invited +her visiters to go to the garden. Mrs. Sackville said that though she +had heard it much extolled, their time would not permit them the pleasure +of seeing it, but she said there was a farther trouble that she must +venture on imposing. She understood the sisters sometimes permitted +their visiters to buy specimens of their work; and she was anxious to +carry some to their friends. + +Their conductor seemed gratified with this hint, and directly left them, +and returned with a large basket filled with embroidered needle-books, +reticules, work-boxes, purses, scissor-cases, &c. &c. + +Edward and Julia eagerly examined the beautiful productions of the taste +and industry of the cloistered sisters. Edward was particularly struck +with a sack or purse, made of birch bark, and wrought with porcupine +quills of the richest dyes. On one side of it was an indian woman, +carrying an infant according to the aboriginal fashion, laced to a board +which was laid on her back; the little creature's head was just visible, +peeping over her shoulder. A boy was standing beside her with a bow and +arrow, on the reverse was a group of indians seated under an oak tree, +smoking the long feathered and beaded pipe, which they call the calumet +of peace, "Oh, mother," said Edward, holding up the sack, "is not this +very valuable?" + +"It is certainly very handsome," replied his mother. + +"But that is not all, mother--it is certainly very valuable, as an +illustration of indian customs.--I wish"----he added and paused. + +"What do you wish, Ned?" asked his mother. + +"Nothing, mama," he replied, sighing, laying down the sack, and turning +away; "I only wish I had not seen it." + +Julia was all this time looking at a very curious work-basket, which she +thought a masterpiece. She turned it from side to side, examined the +roses, carnations, jessamines, and violets, that had been wrought with +such exquisite skill as to represent to the life the peerless flowers +they were made to imitate; and for one moment she too wished that her +five dollars was still at her own disposal. Mrs. Sackville read what +was passing in the minds of her children. She took them aside: "My dear +Ned and Julia," she said, "I fear you may be regretting your hasty +benevolence, when you devoted to a charitable purpose all the money your +father gave you for such gratifications as are now offered to you; you +did it from a sudden impulse of generosity: you have, I believe, as yet +expended but a small portion of your money, and if you now prefer to +appropriate it to the purchase of these very tempting articles, I will +myself assume the expense of getting Mrs. Barton to Quebec." + +Edward and Julia looked at their mother, and at one another without +replying a word. Mrs. Sackville returned to the table to make some +selections for herself. + +"What had we best do, Ned?" whispered Julia. + +"Why do you ask me, Julia? you know as well as I. I should like to have +something to show that I had been in Canada." + +"So should I excessively--but then"-- + +"But what, Julia? I am sure mama says it shall make no difference to +Mrs. Barton." + +"No, that is true--it will make no difference to her; but it will make a +great difference to us." + +The last member of Julia's sentence was quite lost on Edward, for he had +abruptly returned to the table, and to the examination of the coveted +purse. Julia stood for one half instant wavering, and then walked to a +window, and kept her eye steadily fixed on the garden it overlooked. +Mrs. Sackville ventured one glance at her children. 'Ah,' thought she, +'Julia, you will prove faithful, but Ned I fear for you; 'he who +deliberates is lost,'' Her mind was more intent on her children than on +the little traffic she was making, and when she had set aside articles +to a considerable amount, and was about to pay for them, the nun said, +"I think, madam, you might make a better selection--allow me to exchange +this basket for the awkward one you have there. I am a little vain of +this, for I made it myself, and I should have begged your daughter to +accept it when I saw her admiring it, but these articles are devoted to +a specific object, and I have no control over them. I should, however, +be particularly gratified if you would purchase this for Miss Julia, +instead of that you have taken." + +"You are very good," replied Mrs. Sackville, "but I have permitted my +daughter to select for herself. Julia, do you hear what this lady says?" + +"Yes, mama." + +"Will you look at the basket, my love?" + +"No, I thank you, mama." + +This last reply was uttered in a faltering voice, and caught Edward's +attention. He had just taken out his pocket-book to pay for the purse. +He looked towards Julia, and then to his mother. Mrs. Sackville's eyes +were fixed on Julia with an expression of love and approbation which +flashed to Edward's heart; he dropped the purse, put up his pocket-book, +and going up to his sister, whispered a proposal that they should return +to the inn, without waiting for their mother to finish her business. + +They then took a respectful, though rather a hurried leave of the kind +sister, impatient to be out of sight of a temptation, which no one will +deride as inconsiderable, when it is remembered that Edward was twelve, +Julia ten years old. + +"What upon earth ails the children?" asked Mr. Morris, who saw that +something agitated them. Mrs. Sackville explained as far as she could +without making a display of their charity. "They are good children, very +good children," said Mr. Morris, "and I think you have tried them a +little too far, sister; but, dear souls, it shall all be made up to +them. Where is that purse poor Ned was fingering? and that basket for +Julia? I'll buy them both; they shall have them." + +"No, my dear brother, you must not indeed interpose your kindness--you +will spoil all. The result has proved that I did not try them too far, +though I confess I was at one time a little afraid I had done what I +have often seen children do, pulled up the flower in trying to ascertain +whether it had taken root. I have now more confidence that their hearts +have that good soil into which the roots of virtue may strike deeply; +and they now know the full cost of a charitable action which is +performed by the voluntary and deliberate sacrifice of personal +indulgence." + +"You are right, perfectly right my dear," said Mr. Sackville. + +"Yes, I believe you are right," said Mr. Morris, reluctantly replacing +the articles, "but it's deuced hard upon the children." + +"It is more blessed to give than to receive," said the nun, in a sweet +tone of voice, and added, "I assure you madam, I never missed a sale of +our little wares with so much satisfaction." + +The visiters then took leave of the amiable sister, and in the course +of the evening embarked on board the steam-boat. When they arose in the +morning, they had already reached the mouth of the Sorrel. It was one +of the most beautiful of all the bright days of summer. A gentle west +wind tempered the sun's heat, and if, as saith the good book, 'a +cheerful countenance betokeneth the heart in prosperity,' it might be +inferred from the happy faces of our friends, that their minds were +as bright and clear as the cloudless sky. Even Mrs. Barton had lost +her downcast despondent look, and the pleasant light of gratitude and +hope was diffused over her honest countenance. Edward and Julia were +unusually animated, and their mother observed their joyous step as they +bounded over the decks, their sparkling glances, and their gleeful +chatterings which fell like music on her ear: she traced their uncommon +spirits to the little struggle and victory of the preceding day, and +rightly, for it is active goodness that commands the secret spring of +joy--virtue that opens all the sweet fountains of happiness within us. + +It was late in the afternoon when the level and uniform shores of the +river, studded with an unbroken line of white-washed houses, or only +broken where they clustered around a catholic church, as children gather +under the wing of a parent, began to assume more picturesque forms. Bold +promontories stretched into the river, and beautiful hills presented +their verdant and graceful slopes to the clear mirror. There was a band +of musicians on board the boat, who at the command of the captain, (who +understood the laws of international courtesy,) had been playing yankee +doodle. Edward was far enough from home to feel grateful for this +tribute from the English captain, and when the music suddenly changed, +at a signal from him, to a mournful requiem, Edward inquired with a look +of disappointment, the cause of the transition. + +"Look there," he replied, "my young friend, at that pretty grassy point. +It is called Cape Laboniere; just above the point you see a thicket of +tall trees, which extend their shadows now beyond the church. Under +those trees were buried three beautiful girls, the daughters of the +honourable Mrs. Laboniere. The young ladies were called by the villagers, +'Les s[oe]urs de la charite;' and are now, I am told, reckoned as their +guardian saints by these poor catholic peasants. I happened to be there +when the last was buried. You know the catholics have great pomp and +expense at their funerals; but I believe the childless parents had no +heart for this, for though the father is seignior of the place, and +a man of great wealth, he granted the request of the poor villagers +who went in a body to him, to beg permission to bury their beloved +benefactress. I saw the procession--every one in it was a mourner. The +girls strewed the grave with white roses, and all, even the old men and +the little children, shed tears on the turf that covered it; and I could +not but think how much better than their consecrated water were these +tears of gratitude. We call the place the 'Three sisters,' now," +concluded the captain, "and I never pass it without some tribute of +respect." + + * * * * * + +Before nine o'clock the steamboat was gliding along under the heights +of Quebec. Having, as Mr. Morris (who kept strict note of time) remarked, +achieved a sail of 180 miles in 18 hours. Edward stood on the deck +beside his mother, straining his eyes to the proud summit of Cape +Diamond, where the British flag waved in a flood of moonlight. "Oh, +mother," he exclaimed, "what a kind friend the moon has been to us." + +"She has indeed," replied Mrs. Sackville; "and I am very glad that you +notice and enjoy her favors; her pale crescent was reflected in the +waters of Ontario--her beams revealed to us some of the secret places +of the 'thousand isles'--the glittering spires of Montreal sent back her +silver rays, and now she pours a flood of light from her full orb, upon +these fortified heights. But, come, dear Ned, I believe it is time for +us to leave the moon, and attend to our sublunary concerns. Your uncle +has gone to settle our bill, and you had best attend to yours." Julia +poured the contents of her purse into Edward's, and he left them, and +returned in a few moments holding a single shilling between his fingers; +"here is all we have left," he said; "what is to be done now, mother? I +cannot bear to turn poor Mrs. Barton adrift the moment we arrive." + +"No, dear Ned," replied his mother; "she shall be cared for still +further. I had too much respect for good examples," she continued, +smiling, "to spend all my money for fancy articles, and I shall take +Mrs. Barton to the City Hotel with us, till she can make some provisions +for herself. I confess I have not much expectation that the governor +will think proper to do any thing for her, but your father has letters +to him, and he will call at the Chateau to-morrow, and say and do what +he can in her behalf." Mrs. Barton received this additional kindness +with unfeigned gratitude; "But after to-morrow, ma'am," she said, "I +will trouble you no further, for I am sure to find some acquaintance +here, who will help me to shift for myself." + +The next morning passports were procured to visit the fortifications. +Edward, who had a great regard to our own heroes and patriots, had +previously sallied forth in quest of the spot where the gallant +Montgomery fell in our cause; and his father, after awaiting his return +for some time, proceeded without him, leaving a note of directions how +he should follow him. + +Edward obeyed the directions. He reached Cape Diamond without meeting +his friends, and he was biting his lips with vexation, that he should +have come to this celebrated fortification alone, without any one to +explain it to him, and must leave it as ignorant as he had entered; when +he was accosted by a good natured looking soldier, who, doffing his +military cap and making a slight bow, said, "This is a pleasant place, +young gentleman, of a sunny summer's day." + +Edward turned his bright glance on the man, delighted to have found any +one who could answer the questions that were rushing to his lips. "Is +not that," he said, pointing to the island opposite, "the island of +Orleans?" + +"The very same, sir: and the point there, is point Levi, which Wolfe +fortified, and destroyed from it all the lower town of Quebec: but brave +as he was, I think he never would have come within the rampart, if +Montcalme had not been the fool to go out and meet him on the Plains of +Abraham--once there, you know, we beat of course; for, other things +being equal, one Englishman is as good as two Frenchmen any day--and +that's what every English soldier knows." + +"But," replied Edward, with a smile, "what every French soldier does not +admit I suspect." + +"No--no--not exactly--for you know they are a bragging nation." + +"Well," said Edward, "they seem to have something to brag of about you +here in these beautiful villages:" and he pointed towards Beauport and +Charlebourg, whose white houses, green fields, and churches, seem to +promise every thing that poets have dreamed of village simplicity, +peace, and contentment. + +"Yes, sir," said the soldier, "those have a decent genteel appearance +from here, but if you were once to go to them, and see the houses like +painted pigeon-holes--white without, but within full of all manner of +uncleanliness; the bits of gardens with little but onions in them; +whole fields overrun with Canada thistles; and then the little bits of +dowdy images that they worship; and slivers of wood set in frames, that +they call pieces of the true cross, and there are enough of them, as I +have heard said, to build a seventy-four. If you were to see all this, +my young master, you would agree with me, they were but a set of poor +ignorant superstitious deluded creatures, far enough behind us English, +or even the Americans." The soldier then proceeded to point out and name +the most attractive objects from this commanding point of view. The deep +black ravine, through which the Montmorenci, after taking its graceful +and wondrous leap, passes into the St. Lawrence; and the indentation of +the shore beyond the Plains of Abraham, called Wolfe's Cove, where he +landed his forces on the morning of his victory and death. Edward found +it very difficult to tear himself from a spot which has so much natural +beauty, and historic interest, but anxious to follow his friends, he +offered the soldier a few pieces of change, and asked him if he was +willing to show him the fortification, and then guide him to the Plains +of Abraham, whither his father had gone. + +The soldier civilly, and indeed thankfully assented, and they proceeded +together. The man, evidently pleased with the intelligent questions put +to him by Edward, which he answered in a way that indicated a knowledge +of his profession quite unusual in a common soldier. Edward inquired the +design of the Martello towers, of the bastions, scarps and counterscarps, +of this fosse, that glacis, &c. &c. at last, stopping suddenly, while +his dilating form and beaming face expressed the youthful heroism that +glowed in his breast, he said, "It is a strong place, a very strong +place indeed; but I do think _we_ could take it." + +"_We!_" exclaimed the soldier, darting at him a look of eager inquiry; +"who are _we_?" + +"Why, we Americans." + +"Americans!" echoed the soldier, and then starting back and dashing the +silver Edward had given him to the ground. "Have I," he said, "served my +king four and twenty years, to be bribed by an American boy at last? has +it come to this, Richard Barton?" + +"Richard Barton!" echoed Edward in his turn. + +"Yes, my young man, Richard Barton; a poor name, but an honest one, +thank God." + +"Richard Barton!" again repeated Edward. "But it cannot be the Richard +Barton I mean." + +"I don't know who you mean, sir, but I shall take care and report you to +my officer, and clear myself of all blame." + +"Do not be so hasty, my good friend," said Edward, with an expression of +innocence and good nature, that went far to remove the honest soldier's +suspicions; "it is true I have troubled you with a great many questions, +but I had no motive but curiosity; we yankees, you know, are a curious +race. Come, I shall hold you to your agreement; take up the money and go +along with me." + +"No--no--I never will touch the money; but I will go with you, there can +be no harm in that." + +"Well," said Edward, picking up the pieces, "if you won't take it, I +know a Richard Barton that will, and he shall have it too; and now, if I +was not afraid you would take me to the guard-house, I would put some +more questions to you." + +"Oh, put them and welcome, young man; now I know that you are an +American, I can use my discretion in my answers. You do not look as if +you could do wrong yourself, or tempt another: but I have lived long +enough to know that it is not all gold that glitters, though I think +nothing but true metal can bear the stamp that is on your face." + +"We are friends again then, are we? Can you tell me where the 40th +regiment is stationed now?" + +"That I cannot; they have been gone from here three years this July." + +"Had you any acquaintance in that regiment?" + +"Indeed had I. I served with them more than twenty years." + +Edward stopped, jumped at least three feet from the ground, (as the +soldier afterwards averred) clapped his hands, and exclaimed, "It must +be--it must be." + +"Why, what is the matter now?" asked the soldier, amazed at his emotion. + +"Tell me," continued Edward, with all the calmness he could summon, "why +you are here, if your regiment has returned?" + +"I got myself transferred to this regiment, to finish my term of service +in America, in the hope of then finding my wife and little boy, who +followed me to the States when I was a prisoner." + +There was no longer any room in Edward's mind for doubt that his +companion was the husband of Mrs. Barton. His natural and first impulse +was, to make known to the husband the happiness that was in store for +him. He began to speak, half laughing, half crying; then checked +himself, and considered what a beautiful surprise it would be if they +should meet without any preparation: he took the soldier's hand, and +said, "I see my friends; you need go no farther; but come in one hour to +the City Hotel, and my mother will tell you good news of your wife." + +"News of my wife! are you an angel from heaven?" + +"Oh, no," replied Edward, laughing; "nothing but an _American boy_." + +"God bless you, my lad, tell me now--tell me now," said the soldier, +and tears of joy had already gathered in his eyes. + +"No, not another word now," said Edward, bounding away from him; "in one +hour you shall know all." + +The soldier gazed after Edward with an intense curiosity: vague +expectations of some good, and then more defined hopes filled his mind. +'That boy never could have deceived me,' he said, to himself: 'what did +he mean by exclaiming when he first heard my name? what, by saying he +knew another Richard Barton? Is it possible that he has seen my wife +and boy?' The result of all his deliberations was, that he would go +instantly to the Hotel--to wait an hour was impossible--an hour was an +age. In the mean time, Edward joined his party, who were already on the +return, and was chid for his delay; without giving the least heed to the +rebuke, he drew Julia aside, and communicated his discovery to her. They +then laid their heads together, and concerted a fine plan for a +denouement. + +They would first show Barton the little girl; he could not remember her +of course, for she had been born some months after he was separated +from his wife; but then he might find her out from her resemblance to +her mother; Julia remembered many stories she had read of similar +discoveries, and Edward affirmed his belief in natural affection, +though he allowed that his father said, that Dr. Franklin and many +other philosophers laughed at the idea. If the little girl proved +an insufficient clew, Dickey was to be brought into the room, as if +accidentally, and with many cautions by no means to tell his name; +and finally the door was to be thrown open, and good Mrs. Barton, +all unprepared for the sight, was to behold her long-lost husband. +Mrs. Sackville saw in the truth-telling faces of her children, that +something in their view very important was in agitation; but she +seemed to take no notice of their whisperings, and hurried pace, till +Mr. Morris called out, "Fall back children, one would think we were +walking for a wager; remember we carry weight of years." + +"Oh," whispered Julia, "uncle Morris is such a snail; but there is no +use in our hurrying, because you know we should lose half the pleasure +if papa and mama and uncle were not there." Edward assented, and +patience had her perfect work while the children made their feet, which +seemed suddenly to have been furnished with the wings of Mercury, to +keep time with the dignified movements of their parents. + +When they turned into St. John's-street, and came in sight of the hotel, +Edward saw the soldier standing by the step to the front entrance, and +looking eagerly towards him, "there he is!" said he to Julia, and they +both involuntarily changed their pace from a walk to a run, but before +they reached the hotel, the soldier sprung into the door, and disappeared +from their sight. He had caught the sound of his wife's voice, and +their first joyful recognition had passed before the children entered +the door. + + * * * * * + +Our youthful readers have, we trust, been entire strangers to those joys +that are preceded by suffering, and which remind us of some clouds that +send down their showers after the sun has broken through. They would +have been as much surprised as were Edward and Julia, if they had seen, +instead of smiles and ecstasies, the deathlike paleness of Mrs. Barton, +her husband dashing the tear from his eyes that he might gaze upon his +children; Dickey looking timidly at him, and the little girl burying her +face in her mother's gown. Yet this was joy--joy that no words could +express; the joy of kind and faithful hearts--joy with which a stranger +cannot intermeddle; and Mrs. Sackville felt it to be such, for when she +saw the family group, she drew her children into the parlour, and left +their humble friends to themselves. + + * * * * * + +It was our intention to have described the soldier's gratitude--the +contentment and thankfulness of his wife--the neat little cottage in +which she was immediately placed by the officers of the regiment, who +seemed delighted thus to manifest their regard for their corporal +Barton. The emotion of this good family at parting with their +benefactors--little Dickey's resolution, that when he grew to be a man, +he would go and live with Mr. Edward--the hospitable honors rendered +to the Sackville party by the officers of the regiment, who felt their +beneficence to the British soldier's wife as a personal obligation--to +which was to have been added, a particular description of some very +beautiful curiosities presented to Edward and Julia by the governor's +lady; but we fear our young readers will think we have already +protracted a dull tale to an unconscionable length; and we will +therefore take our leave of them, with simply expressing a wish, that +if they should ever travel to Quebec, or indeed in any other direction, +they will remember that after the delightful but evanescent pleasures +of their jaunt had faded, and were almost effaced from the minds of +Edward and Julia, they possessed a treasure that fadeth not away +in the consciousness of having rendered an essential service to a +fellow-creature. A consciousness that strews roses in the path of +youth and age--not 'the perfume and suppliance of a moment,' but +those amaranthine flowers that exhale incense to Heaven. + + FINIS. + + + + + [ Transcriber's Note: + + The following is a list of corrections made to the original. The + first line is the original line, the second the corrected one. + + + "And what," asked Mrs. Sackville, "do Bob Eton's father and Bob Eaton, + "And what," asked Mrs. Sackville, "do Bob Eaton's father and Bob Eaton, + + "Dubois for ever!" exclaimed Edward, as Julia finished her mimickry + "Dubois for ever!" exclaimed Edward, as Julia finished her mimicry + + "Oh, that will be delightful, mother but Edward and I cannot dance a + "Oh, that will be delightful, mother, but Edward and I cannot dance a + + 'The next, mother? what is next, Edward?" + "The next, mother? what is next, Edward?" + + sun. + sun." + + suddenly swelled the veins of her clear open brow, lit up her hazle eyes + suddenly swelled the veins of her clear open brow, lit up her hazel eyes + + "My dear Ned," replied Mrs. Sackville, "I do not wonder at your + "My dear Ned," replied Mr. Sackville, "I do not wonder at your + + "Now, mama," she said, you must take both sides of the river." + "Now, mama," she said, "you must take both sides of the river." + + of the skipping right--the readers inalienable right) we shall make but + of the skipping right--the readers' inalienable right) we shall make but + + "One might almost fancy here," said Mr. Sackville, that the march + "One might almost fancy here," said Mr. Sackville, "that the march + + "At a wigman in Oneida, where he had been compelled to ask for such + "At a wigwam in Oneida, where he had been compelled to ask for such + + the road is thronged with market-waggons, stage coaches, and carriages + the road is thronged with market-waggons, stage coaches; and carriages + + riches and resources of their native land, "For my own part," he said, + riches and resources of their native land. "For my own part," he said, + + eyes and ruddy cheeks, who seeemed to be a favorite with the whole + eyes and ruddy cheeks, who seemed to be a favorite with the whole + + then asked her name:--"My name is Biddy Burns, an' please you, miss." + then asked her name:--"My name is Biddy Burns, an' please you, miss." + + little, pale, wizzened-face fellow, with a bleared and blood-shot eye, + little, pale, wizened-face fellow, with a bleared and blood-shot eye, + + "How old?" I do not justly remember; but there is my age set down in our + "How old? I do not justly remember; but there is my age set down in our + + "I do not see that we can, my dear," replied Mrs. Sackville," I have + "I do not see that we can, my dear," replied Mrs. Sackville, "I have + + "Sickly feeling," exclaimed Edward, I am sure I thought the air was + "Sickly feeling," exclaimed Edward, "I am sure I thought the air was + + to her children, " the charm of the ring in the Fairy tale, bestowed by + to her children, "the charm of the ring in the Fairy tale, bestowed by + + "What, my dear, children, should we be, without the religious sentiment + "What, my dear children, should we be, without the religious sentiment + + festival of nature, you must take care you do not commit the pharasaic + festival of nature, you must take care you do not commit the pharisaic + + of he future, theirs were constantly directed to virtue, which they + of the future, theirs were constantly directed to virtue, which they + + of such beautiful scenes as these, to convert themi n tofields of + of such beautiful scenes as these, to convert them into fields of + + wife, she has an Enlish spirit, and a proud one; and she says, while + wife, she has an English spirit, and a proud one; and she says, while + + he does, and fraquently he dont," replied the fellow, rather surlily. + he does, and fraquently he don't," replied the fellow, rather surlily. + + to see a young creature thus cut off by her sins." + to see a young creature thus cut off by her sins. + + Come now Edward and Julia to your births--and dream of the 'thousand + Come now Edward and Julia to your berths--and dream of the 'thousand + + roughly binding his wampun belt over Marguerite's mouth, to deaden the + roughly binding his wampum belt over Marguerite's mouth, to deaden the + + He rose cautiously, looked for one instant on the indians, and assured + "He rose cautiously, looked for one instant on the indians, and assured + + led the way to an adjoining anti-room appropriated to medicines, + led the way to an adjoining ante-room appropriated to medicines, + + silver Edward had given him to the ground. "Have I," he said, served my + silver Edward had given him to the ground. "Have I," he said, "served my + + and boy? The result of all his deliberations was, that he would go + and boy?' The result of all his deliberations was, that he would go + + something in their viewvery important was in agitation; but she + something in their view very important was in agitation; but she + + instead of smiles and ecstasies, the deathlike paleness of Mrs. Barton + instead of smiles and ecstasies, the deathlike paleness of Mrs. Barton, + ] + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Travellers, by Catharine Maria Sedgwick + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRAVELLERS *** + +***** This file should be named 31832.txt or 31832.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/8/3/31832/ + +Produced by David Yingling, Alexander Bauer and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +book was produced from scanned images of public domain +material from the Google Print project.) + + +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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