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diff --git a/34916.txt b/34916.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..62931cc --- /dev/null +++ b/34916.txt @@ -0,0 +1,36173 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Chainbearer, by J. Fenimore Cooper + +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 Chainbearer + The Littlepage Manuscripts + +Author: J. Fenimore Cooper + +Release Date: January 11, 2011 [EBook #34916] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHAINBEARER *** + + + + +Produced by David Edwards, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + +THE CHAINBEARER + +OR + +THE LITTLEPAGE MANUSCRIPTS + +BY J. FENIMORE COOPER + + + "O bid our vain endeavors cease, + Revive the just designs of Greece; + Return in all thy simple state, + Confirm the tale her sons relate." + + COLLINS + + + NEW YORK + JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY + 150 Worth Street, corner Mission Place + + TROW'S + PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY, + NEW YORK. + + +[Illustration: "She held up the trap, and I descended into the hole that +answered the purpose of a cellar."] + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The plot has thickened in the few short months that have intervened +since the appearance of the first portion of our Manuscripts, and +bloodshed has come to deepen the stain left on the country by the +wide-spread and bold assertion of false principles. This must long since +have been foreseen; and it is perhaps a subject of just felicitation, +that the violence which has occurred was limited to the loss of a single +life, when the chances were, and still are, that it will extend to civil +war. That portions of the community have behaved nobly under this sudden +outbreak of a lawless and unprincipled combination to rob, is +undeniable, and ought to be dwelt on with gratitude and an honest pride; +that the sense of right of much the larger portion of the country has +been deeply wounded, is equally true; that justice has been aroused, and +is at this moment speaking in tones of authority to the offenders, is +beyond contradiction; but, while all this is admitted, and admitted not +altogether without hope, yet are there grounds for fear, so reasonable +and strong, that no writer who is faithful to the real interests of his +country ought, for a single moment, to lose sight of them. + +High authority, in one sense, or that of political power, has pronounced +the tenure of a durable lease to be opposed to the spirit of the +institutions! Yet these tenures existed when the institutions were +formed, and one of the provisions of the institutions themselves +guarantees the observance of the covenants under which the tenures +exist. It would have been far wiser, and much nearer to the truth, had +those who coveted their neighbors' goods been told that, in their +attempts to subvert and destroy the tenures in question, they were +opposing a solemn and fundamental provision of law, and in so much +opposing the institutions. The capital error is becoming prevalent, +which holds the pernicious doctrine that this is a government of men, +instead of one of principles. Whenever this error shall so far come to a +head as to get to be paramount in action, the well-disposed may sit down +and mourn over, not only the liberties of their country, but over its +justice and its morals, even should men be nominally so free as to do +just what they please. + +As the Littlepage Manuscripts advance, we find them becoming more and +more suited to the times in which we live. There is an omission of one +generation, however, owing to the early death of Mr. Malbone Littlepage, +who left an only son to succeed him. This son has felt it to be a duty +to complete the series by an addition from his own pen. Without this +addition, we should never obtain views of Satanstoe, Lilacsbush, +Ravensnest, and Mooseridge, in their present aspect; while with it we +may possibly obtain glimpses that will prove not only amusing but +instructive. + +There is one point on which, as editor of these Manuscripts, we desire +to say a word. It is thought by a portion of our readers, that the first +Mr. Littlepage who has written, Cornelius of that name, has manifested +an undue asperity on the subject of the New England character. Our reply +to this charge is as follows: In the first place, we do not pretend to +be answerable for all the opinions of those whose writings are submitted +to our supervision, any more than we should be answerable for all the +contradictory characters, impulses, and opinions that might be exhibited +in a representation of fictitious characters, purely of our own +creation. That the Littlepages entertained New York notions, and, if the +reader will, New York prejudices, may be true enough; but in pictures of +this sort, even prejudices become facts that ought not to be altogether +kept down. Then, New England has long since anticipated her revenge, +glorifying herself and underrating her neighbors in a way that, in our +opinion, fully justifies those who possess a little Dutch blood in +expressing their sentiments on the subject. Those who give so freely +should know how to take a little in return; and that more especially, +when there is nothing very direct or personal in the hits they receive. +For ourselves, we have not a drop of Dutch or New England blood in our +veins, and only appear as a bottle-holder to one of the parties in this +set-to. If we have recorded what the Dutchman says of the Yankee, we +have also recorded what the Yankee says, and that with no particular +hesitation, of the Dutchman. We know that these feelings are by-gones; +but our Manuscripts, thus far, have referred exclusively to the times in +which they certainly existed, and that, too, in a force quite as great +as they are here represented to be. + +We go a little farther. In our judgment the false principles that are to +be found in a large portion of the educated classes, on the subject of +the relation between landlord and tenant, are to be traced to the +provincial notions of those who have received their impressions from a +state of society in which no such relations exist. The danger from the +anti-rent doctrines is most to be apprehended from these false +principles; the misguided and impotent beings who have taken the field +in the literal sense, not being a fourth part as formidable to the right +as those who have taken it in the moral. There is not a particle more of +reason in the argument which says that there should be no farmers, in +the strict meaning of the term, than there would be in that which said +there should be no journeymen connected with the crafts; though it would +not be easy to find a man to assert the latter doctrine. We dare say, if +there did happen to exist a portion of the country in which the +mechanics were all "bosses," it would strike those who dwelt in such a +state of society, that it would be singularly improper and +anti-republican for any man to undertake journeywork. + +On this subject we shall only add one word. The column of society must +have its capital as well as its base. It is only perfect while each part +is entire, and discharges its proper duty. In New York the great +landholders long have, and do still, in a social sense, occupy the place +of the capital. On the supposition that this capital is broken and +hurled to the ground, of what material will be the capital that must be +pushed into its place! We know of none half so likely to succeed, as the +country extortioner and the country usurer! We would caution those who +now raise the cry of feudality and aristocracy, to have a care of what +they are about. In lieu of King Log, they may be devoured by King Stork. + + + + +THE CHAINBEARER. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + "The steady brain, the sinewy limb, + To leap, to climb, to dive, to swim: + The iron frame, inured to bear + Each dire inclemency of air; + Nor less confirmed to undergo + Fatigue's faint chill, and famine's throe."--_Rockeby._ + + +My father was Cornelius Littlepage, of Satanstoe, in the County of +Westchester, and State of New York; and my mother was Anneke Mordaunt, +of Lilacsbush, a place long known by that name, which still stands near +Kingsbridge, but on the Island of Manhattan, and consequently in one of +the wards of New York, though quite eleven miles from town. I shall +suppose that _my_ readers know the difference between the Island of +Manhattan and Manhattan Island; though I _have_ found _soi-disant_ +Manhattanese, of mature years, but of alien birth, who had to be taught +it. Lilacsbush, I repeat therefore, was on the Island of Manhattan, +eleven miles from town, though in the City of New York, and _not_ on +Manhattan Island. + +Of my progenitors further back, I do not conceive it necessary to say +much. They were partly of English, and partly of Low Dutch extraction, +as is apt to be the case with those who come of New York families of any +standing in the colony. I retain tolerably distinct impressions of both +of my grandfathers, and of one of my grandmothers; my mother's mother +having died long before my own parents were married. + +Of my maternal grandfather, I know very little, however, he having died +while I was quite young, and before I had seen much of him. He paid the +great debt of nature in England, whither he had gone on a visit to a +relative, a Sir Something Bulstrode, who had been in the colonies +himself, and who was a great favorite with Herman Mordaunt, as my +mother's parent was universally called in New York. My father often said +it was perhaps fortunate in one respect that his father-in-law died as +he did, since he had no doubt he would have certainly taken sides with +the crown in the quarrel that soon after occurred, in which case it is +probable his estates, or those which were my mother's, and are now mine, +would have shared the fate of those of the De Lanceys, of the Philipses, +of some of the Van Cortlandts, of the Floyds, of the Joneses, and of +various others of the heavy families, who remained loyal, as it was +called; meaning loyalty to a prince, and not loyalty to the land of +their nativity. It is hard to say which were right, in such a quarrel, +if we look at the opinions and prejudices of the times, though the +Littlepages to a man, which means only my father and grandfather, and +self, took sides with the country. In the way of self-interest, it ought +to be remarked, however, that the wealthy American who opposed the crown +showed much the most disinterestedness, inasmuch as the chances of being +subdued were for a long time very serious, while the certainty of +confiscation, not to say of being hanged, was sufficiently well +established, in the event of failure. But my paternal grandfather was +what was called a whig, of the high caste. He was made a brigadier in +the militia, in 1776, and was actively employed in the great campaign of +the succeeding year--that in which Burgoyne was captured, as indeed was +my father, who held the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the New York line. +There was also a Major Dirck Van Volkenburgh, or Follock, as he was +usually called, in the same regiment with my father, who was a sworn +friend. This Major Follock was an old bachelor, and he lived quite as +much in my father's house as he did in his own; his proper residence +being across the river, in Rockland. My mother had a friend, as well as +my father, in the person of Miss Mary Wallace; a single lady, well +turned of thirty at the commencement of the revolution. Miss Wallace was +quite at ease in her circumstances, but she lived altogether at +Lilacsbush, never having any other home, unless it might be at our house +in town. + +We were very proud of the brigadier, both on account of his rank and on +account of his services. He actually commanded in one expedition against +the Indians during the revolution, a service in which he had some +experience, having been out on it, on various occasions, previously to +the great struggle for independence. It was in one of these early +expeditions of the latter war that he first distinguished himself, being +then under the orders of a Colonel Brom Follock, who was the father of +Major Dirck of the same name, and who was almost as great a friend of my +grandfather as the son was of my own parent. This Colonel Brom loved a +carouse, and I have heard it said that, getting among the High Dutch on +the Mohawk, he kept it up for a week, with little or no intermission, +under circumstances that involved much military negligence. The result +was, that a party of Canada Indians made an inroad on his command, and +the old colonel, who was as bold as a lion, and as drunk as a lord, +though why lords are supposed to be particularly inclined to drink I +never could tell, was both shot down and scalped early one morning as he +was returning from an adjacent tavern to his quarters in the "garrison," +where he was stationed. My grandfather nobly revenged his death, +scattered to the four winds the invading party, and recovered the +mutilated body of his friend, though the scalp was irretrievably lost. + +General Littlepage did not survive the war, though it was not his good +fortune to die on the field, thus identifying his name with the history +of his country. It happens in all wars, and most especially did it often +occur in our own great national struggle, that more soldiers lay down +their lives in the hospitals than on the field of battle, though the +shedding of blood seems an indispensable requisite to glory of this +nature; an ungrateful posterity taking little heed of the thousands who +pass into another state of being, the victims of exposure and camp +diseases, to sound the praises of the hundreds who are slain amid the +din of battle. Yet, it may be questioned if it do not require more true +courage to face death, when he approaches in the invisible form of +disease, than to meet him when openly arrayed under the armed hand. My +grandfather's conduct in remaining in camp, among hundreds of those who +had the small-pox, the loathsome malady of which he died, was +occasionally alluded to, it is true, but never in the manner the death +of an officer of his rank would have been mentioned, had he fallen in +battle. I could see that Major Follock had an honorable pride in the +fate of _his_ father, who was slain and scalped by the enemy in +returning from a drunken carouse, while my worthy parent ever referred +to the death of the brigadier as an event to be deplored, rather than +exulted in. For my own part, I think my grandfather's end was much the +most creditable of the two; but, as such, it will never be viewed by the +historian or the country. As for historians, it requires a man to be +singularly honest to write against a prejudice; and it is so much easier +to celebrate a deed as it is imagined than as it actually occurred, that +I question if we know the truth of a tenth part of the exploits about +which we vapor, and in which we fancy we glory. Well! we are taught to +believe that the time will come when all things are to be seen in their +true colors, and when men and deeds will be known as they actually were, +rather than as they have been recorded in the pages of history. + +I was too young myself to take much part in the war of the revolution, +though accident made me an eye-witness of some of its most important +events, and that at the tender age of fifteen. At twelve--the American +intellect ever was and continues to be singularly precocious--I was sent +to Nassau Hall, Princeton, to be educated, and I remained there until I +finally got a degree, though it was not without several long and rude +interruptions of my studies. Although so early sent to college, I did +not actually graduate until I was nineteen, the troubled times requiring +nearly twice as long a servitude to make a Bachelor of Arts of me as +would have been necessary in the more halcyon days of peace. Thus I made +a fragment of a campaign when only a sophomore, and another the first +year I was junior. I say the _first_ year, because I was obliged to pass +two years in each of the two higher classes of the institution, in order +to make up for lost time. A youth cannot very well be campaigning and +studying Euclid in the academic bowers, at the same moment. Then I was +so young, that a year, more or less, was of no great moment. + +My principal service in the war of the revolution was in 1777, or in the +campaign in which Burgoyne was met and captured. That important service +was performed by a force that was composed partly of regular troops, and +partly of militia. My grandfather commanded a brigade of the last, or +what was called a brigade, some six hundred men at most; while my father +led a regular battalion of one hundred and sixty troops of the New York +line into the German intrenchments, the memorable and bloody day the +last were stormed. How many he brought out I never heard him say. The +way in which I happened to be present in these important scenes is soon +told. + +Lilacsbush being on the Island of Manhattan (not Manhattan Island, be it +always remembered), and our family being whig, we were driven from both +our town and country houses the moment Sir William Howe took possession +of New York. At first my mother was content with merely going to +Satanstoe, which was only a short distance from the enemy's lines; but +the political character of the Littlepages being too well established to +render this a safe residence, my grandmother and mother, always +accompanied by Miss Wallace, went up above the Highlands, where they +established themselves in the village of Fishkill for the remainder of +the war, on a farm that belonged to Miss Wallace in fee. Here it was +thought they were safe, being seventy miles from the capital, and quite +within the American lines. As this removal took place at the close of +the year 1776, and after independence had been declared, it was +understood that our return to our proper homes at all, depended on the +result of the war. At that time I was a sophomore, and at home in the +long vacation. It was in this visit that I made my fragment of a +campaign, accompanying my father through all the closing movements of +his regiment, while Washington and Howe were manoeuvring in +Westchester. My father's battalion happening to be posted in such a +manner as to be in the centre of the battle at White Plains, I had an +opportunity of seeing some pretty serious service on that occasion. Nor +did I quit the army and return to my studies, until after the brilliant +affairs at Trenton and Princeton, in both of which our regiment +participated. + +This was a pretty early commencement with the things of active life for +a boy of fourteen. But in that war, lads of my age often carried +muskets, for the colonies covered a great extent of country, and had but +few people. They who read of the war of the American revolution, and +view its campaigns and battles as they would regard the conflicts of +older and more advanced nations, can form no just notion of the +disadvantages with which our people had to contend, or the great +superiority of the enemy in all the usual elements of military force. +Without experienced officers, with but few and indifferent arms, often +in want of ammunition, the rural and otherwise peaceful population of a +thinly peopled country were brought in conflict with the chosen warriors +of Europe; and this, too, with little or none of that great sinew of +war, money, to sustain them. Nevertheless the Americans, unaided by any +foreign skill or succor, were about as often successful as the reverse. +Bunker Hill, Bennington, Saratoga, Bhemis's Heights, Trenton, Princeton, +Monmouth, were all purely American battles; to say nothing of divers +others that occurred farther south: and though insignificant as to +numbers, compared with the conflicts of these later times, each is +worthy of a place in history, and one or two are almost without +parallels; as is seen when Bunker Hill be named. It sounds very well in +a dispatch, to swell out the list of an enemy's ranks; but admitting the +number itself not to be overrated, as so often occurred, of what avail +are men without arms and ammunition, and frequently without any other +military organization than a muster-roll! + +I have said I made nearly the whole of the campaign in which Burgoyne +was taken. It happened in this wise. The service of the previous year +had a good deal indisposed me to study, and when again at home in the +autumn vacation, my dear mother sent me with clothing and supplies to my +father, who was with the army at the north. I reached the head-quarters +of General Gates a week before the affair of Bhemis's Heights, and was +with my father until the capitulation was completed. Owing to these +circumstances, though still a boy in years, I was an eye-witness, and in +some measure an actor in two or three of the most important events in +the whole war. Being well grown for my years, and of a somewhat manly +appearance, considering how young I really was, I passed very well as a +volunteer, being, I have reason to think, somewhat of a favorite in the +regiment. In the last battle, I had the honor to act as a sort of +_aide-de-camp_ to my grandfather, who sent me with orders and messages +two or three times into the midst of the fire. In this manner I made +myself a little known, and all so much the more from the circumstance of +my being in fact nothing but a college lad, away from his _alma mater_ +during vacation. + +It was but natural that a boy thus situated should attract some little +attention, and I _was_ noticed by officers, who, under other +circumstances, would hardly have felt it necessary to go out of their +way to speak to me. The Littlepages had stood well, I have reason to +think, in the colony, and their position in the new state was not likely +to be at all lowered by the part they were now playing in the +revolution. I am far from certain that General Littlepage was considered +a corner-post in the Temple of Freedom that the army was endeavoring to +rear, but he was quite respectable as a militia officer, while my father +was very generally admitted to be one of the best lieutenants-colonel in +the whole army. + +I well remember to have been much struck with a captain in my father's +regiment, who certainly was a character, in his way. His origin was +Dutch, as was the case with a fair proportion of the officers, and he +bore the name of Andries Coejemans, though he was universally known by +the _sobriquet_ of the "Chainbearer." It was fortunate for him it was +so, else would the Yankees in the camp, who seem to have a mania to +pronounce every word as it is spelled, and having succeeded in this, to +change the spelling of the whole language to accommodate it to certain +sounds of their own inventing, would have given him a most +unpronounceable appellation. Heaven only knows what _they_ would have +called Captain Coejemans, but for this lucky nickname; but it may be as +well to let the uninitiated understand at once, that in New York +parlance, Coejemans is called Queemans. The Chainbearer was of a +respectable Dutch family, one that has even given its queer-looking name +to a place of some little note on the Hudson; but, as was very apt to be +the case with the _cadets_ of such houses, in the good old time of the +colony, his education was no great matter. His means had once been +respectable, but, as he always maintained, he was cheated out of his +substance by a Yankee before he was three-and-twenty, and he had +recourse to surveying for a living from that time. But Andries had no +head for mathematics, and after making one or two notable blunders in +the way of his new profession, he quietly sunk to the station of a +chainbearer, in which capacity he was known to all the leading men of +his craft in the colony. It is said that every man is suited to some +pursuit or other, in which he might acquire credit, would he only enter +on it and persevere. Thus it proved to be with Andries Coejemans. As a +chainbearer he had an unrivalled reputation. Humble as was the +occupation, it admitted of excellence in various particulars, as well as +another. In the first place, it required honesty, a quality in which +this class of men can fail, as well as all the rest of mankind. Neither +colony nor patentee, landlord nor tenant, buyer nor seller, need be +uneasy about being fairly dealt by so long as Andries Coejemans held the +forward end of the chain; a duty on which he was invariably placed by +one party or the other. Then, a practical eye was a great aid to +positive measurement; and while Andries never swerved to the right or to +the left of his course, having acquired a sort of instinct in his +calling, much time and labor were saved. In addition to these +advantages, the "Chainbearer" had acquired great skill in all the +subordinate matters of his calling. He was a capital woodman, generally; +had become a good hunter, and had acquired most of the habits that +pursuits like those in which he was engaged for so many years previously +to entering the army, would be likely to give a man. In the course of +time he took patents to survey, employing men with heads better than his +own to act as principals, while he still carried the chain. + +At the commencement of the revolution, Andries, like most of those who +sympathized with the colonies, took up arms. When the regiment of which +my father was lieutenant-colonel was raised, they who could bring to its +colors so many men received commissions of a rank proportioned to their +services in this respect. Andries had presented himself early with a +considerable squad of chainbearers, hunters, trappers, runners, guides, +etc., numbering in the whole something like five-and-twenty hardy, +resolute sharpshooters. Their leader was made a lieutenant in +consequence, and being the oldest of his rank in the corps, he was +shortly after promoted to a captaincy, the station he was in when I made +his acquaintance, and above which he never rose. + +Revolutions, more especially such as are of a popular character, are not +remarkable for bringing forward those who are highly educated, or +otherwise fitted for their new stations, unless it may be on the score +of zeal. It is true, service generally classes men, bringing out their +qualities, and necessity soon compels the preferment of those who are +the best qualified. Our own great national struggle, however, probably +did less of this than any similar event of modern times, a respectable +mediocrity having accordingly obtained an elevation that, as a rule, it +was enabled to keep to the close of the war. It is a singular fact that +not a solitary instance is to be found in our military annals of a young +soldier's rising to high command, by the force of his talents, in all +that struggle. This may have been, and in a measure probably _was_ owing +to the opinions of the people, and to the circumstance that the service +itself was one that demanded greater prudence and circumspection than +qualities of a more dazzling nature; or the qualifications of age and +experience, rather than those of youth and enterprise. It is probable +Andries Coejemans, on the score of original station, was rather above +than below the level of the social positions of a majority of the +subalterns of the different lines of the more northern colonies, when he +first joined the army. It is true, his education was not equal to his +birth; for, in that day, except in isolated instances and particular +families, the Dutch of New York, even in cases in which money was not +wanting, were any thing but scholars. In this particular, our neighbors +the Yankees had greatly the advantage of us. They sent everybody to +school, and, though their educations were principally those of +smatterers, it is an advantage to be even a smatterer among the very +ignorant. Andries had been no student either, and one may easily imagine +what indifferent cultivation will effect on a naturally thin soil. He +_could_ read and write, it is true, but it was the ciphering under which +he broke down, as a surveyor. I have often heard him say, that "if land +could be measured without figures, he would turn his back on no man in +the calling in all America, unless it might be 'His Excellency,' who, he +made no doubt, was not only the best, but the honestest surveyor mankind +had ever enjoyed." + +The circumstance that Washington had practised the art of a surveyor for +a short time in his early youth, was a source of great exultation with +Andries Coejemans. He felt that it was an honor to be even a subordinate +in a pursuit, in which such a man was a principal. I remember, that long +after we were at Saratoga together, Captain Coejemans, while we were +before Yorktown, pointed to the commander-in-chief one day, as the +latter rode past our encampment, and cried out with emphasis--"T'ere, +Mortaunt, my poy--t'ere goes His Excellency!--It would be t'e happiest +tay of my life, coult I only carry chain while he survey't a pit of a +farm, in this neighborhoot." + +Andries was more or less Dutch in his dialect, as he was more or less +interested. In general, he spoke English pretty well--colony English I +mean, not that of the schools; though he had not a single Yankeeism in +his vocabulary. On this last point he prided himself greatly, feeling an +honest pride, if he did occasionally use vulgarisms, a vicious +pronounciation, or make a mistake in the meaning of a word, a sin he was +a little apt to commit; and that his faults were all honest New York +mistakes and no "New England gipperish." In the course of the various +visits I paid to the camp, Andries and myself became quite intimate, his +peculiarities seizing my fancy; and doubtless, my obvious admiration +awakening his gratitude. In the course of our many conversations, he +gave me his whole history, commencing with the emigration of the +Coejemans from Holland, and ending with our actual situation, in the +camp at Saratoga. Andries had been often engaged, and, before the war +terminated, I could boast of having been at his side in no less than six +affairs myself, viz.. White Plains, Trenton, Princeton, Bhemis's +Heights, Monmouth, and Brandywine; for I had stolen away from college to +be present at the last affair. The circumstance that _our_ regiment was +both with Washington and Gates, was owing to the noble qualities of the +former, who sent off some of his best troops to reinforce his rival, as +things gathered to a head at the North. Then I was present throughout, +at the siege of Yorktown. But it is not my intention to enlarge on my +own military services. + +While at Saratoga, I was much struck with the air, position and +deportment of a gentleman who appeared to command the respect, and to +obtain the ears of all the leaders in the American camp, while he held +no apparent official station. He wore no uniform, though he was +addressed by the title of general, and had much more of the character of +a real soldier than Gates who commanded. He must have been between forty +and fifty at that time, and in the full enjoyment of the vigor of his +mind and body. This was Philip Schuyler, so justly celebrated in our +annals for his wisdom, patriotism, integrity, and public services. His +connection with the great northern campaign is too well known to require +any explanations here. Its success, perhaps, was more owing to _his_ +advice and preparations than to the influence of any one other mind, and +he is beginning already to take a place in history, in connection with +these great events, that has a singular resemblance to that he occupied +during their actual occurrence: in other words, he is to be seen in the +background of the great national picture, unobtrusive and modest, but +directing and controlling all, by the power of his intellect, and the +influence of his experience and character. Gates[1] was but a secondary +personage, in the real events of that memorable period. Schuyler was the +presiding spirit, though forced by popular prejudice to retire from the +apparent command of the army. Our written accounts ascribe the +difficulty that worked this injustice to Schuyler, to a prejudice which +existed among the eastern militia, and which is supposed to have had its +origin in the disasters of St. Clair, or the reverses which attended the +earlier movements of the campaign. My father, who had known General +Schuyler in the war of '56, when he acted as Bradstreet's right-hand +man, attributed the feeling to a different cause. According to his +notion of the alienation, it was owing to the difference in habits and +opinions which existed between Schuyler, as a New York gentleman, and +the yeomen of New England, who came out in 1777, imbued with all the +distinctive notions of their very peculiar state of society. There may +have been prejudices on both sides, but it is easy to see which party +exhibited most magnanimity and self-sacrifice. Possibly, the last was +inseparable from the preponderance of numbers, it not being an easy +thing to persuade masses of men that they _can_ be wrong, and a single +individual right. This is the great error of democracy, which fancies +truth is to be proved by counting noses; while aristocracy commits the +antagonist blunder of believing that excellence is inherited from male +to male, and that too in the order of primogeniture! It is not easy to +say where one is to look for truth in this life. + +[Footnote 1: It may not be amiss to remark, in passing, that Horace +Walpole, in one of his recently published letters, speaks of a Horatio +Gates as his godson. Walpole was born in 1718, and Gates in 1728.] + +As for General Schuyler, I have thought my father was right in ascribing +his unpopularity solely to the prejudices of provinces. The Muse of +History is the most ambitious of the whole sisterhood, and never thinks +she has done her duty unless all she says and records is said and +recorded with an air of profound philosophy; whereas, more than half of +the greatest events which affect human interest, are to be referred to +causes that have little connection with our boasted intelligence, in any +shape. Men feel far more than they reason, and a little feeling is very +apt to upset a great deal of philosophy. + +It has been said that I passed six years at Princeton; nominally, if not +in fact; and that I graduated at nineteen. This happened the year +Cornwallis surrendered, and I actually served at the siege as the +youngest ensign in my father's battalion. I had also the happiness, for +such it was to me, to be attached to the company of Captain Coejeman's, +a circumstance which clinched the friendship I had formed for that +singular old man. I say old, for by this time Andries was every hour of +sixty-seven, though as hale, and hearty, and active, as any officer in +the corps. As for hardships, forty years of training, most of which had +been passed in the woods, placed him quite at our head, in the way of +endurance. + +I loved my predecessors, grandfather and grandmother included, not only +as a matter of course, but with sincere filial attachment; and I loved +Miss Mary Wallace, or aunt Mary, as I had been taught to call her, quite +as much on account of her quiet, gentle, affectionate manner, as from +habit; and I loved Major Dirck Follock as a sort of hereditary friend, +as a distant relative, and a good and careful guardian of my own youth +and inexperience on a thousand occasions; and I loved my father's negro +man, Jaap, as we all love faithful slaves, however unnurtured they may +be; but Andries was the man whom I loved without knowing why. He was +illiterate almost to greatness, having the drollest notions imaginable +of this earth and all it contained; was anything but refined in +deportment, though hearty and frank; had prejudices so crammed into his +moral system that there did not seem to be room for anything else; and +was ever so little addicted, moreover, to that species of Dutch +jollification, which had cost old Colonel Van Valkenburgh his life, and +a love for which was a good deal spread throughout the colony. +Nevertheless, I really loved this man, and when we were all disbanded at +the peace, or in 1783, by which time I had myself risen to the rank of +captain, I actually parted from old Andries with tears in my eyes. My +grandfather, General Littlepage, was then dead, but government giving to +most of us a step, by means of brevet rank, at the final breaking up of +the army, my father, who had been the full colonel of the regiment for +the last year, bore the title of brigadier for the remainder of his +days. It was pretty much all he got for seven years of dangers and +arduous services. But the country was poor, and we had fought more for +principles than for the hope of rewards. It must be admitted that +America ought to be full of philosophy, inasmuch as so much of her +system of rewards and even of punishments, is purely theoretical, and +addressed to the imagination, or to the qualities of the mind. Thus it +is that we contend with all our enemies on very unequal grounds. The +Englishman has his knighthood, his baronetcies, his peerages, his +orders, his higher ranks in the professions, his _batons_, and all the +other venial inducements of our corrupt nature to make him fight, while +the American is goaded on to glory by the abstract considerations of +virtue and patriotism. After all, we flog quite as often as we are +flogged, which is the main interest affected. While on this subject I +will remark that Andries Coejemans never assumed the empty title of +major, which was so graciously bestowed on him by the Congress of 1783, +but left the army a captain in name, without half-pay or anything but +his military lot, to find a niece whom he was bringing up, and to pursue +his old business of a "chainbearer." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + "A trusty villain, sir; that very oft, + When I am dull with care and melancholy, + Lightens my humors with his many jests." + --_Dromio of Syracuse._ + + +It will be seen that, while I got a degree, and what is called an +education, the latter was obtained by studies of a very desultory +character. There is no question that learning of all sorts fell off +sadly among us during the revolution and the twenty years that succeeded +it. While colonies, we possessed many excellent instructors who came +from Europe; but the supply ceased, in a great measure, as soon as the +troubles commenced; nor was it immediately renewed at the peace. I think +it will be admitted that the gentlemen of the country began to be less +well educated about the time I was sent to college, than had been the +case for the previous half-century, and that the defect has not yet been +repaired. What the country may do in the first half of the nineteenth +century remains to be seen.[2] + +[Footnote 2: The reader will recollect that Mr. Mordaunt Littlepage must +have written his account of himself and his times about the close of the +last, or the beginning of this century. Since that time, education has +certainly advanced among us; sophomores, pursuing branches of learning +to-day that were sealed from seniors a few years since. Learning, +however, advances in this country on the great American principle of +imparting a little to a great many, instead of teaching a good deal to a +few.--EDITOR.] + +My connection with the army aided materially in weaning me from home, +though few youths had as many temptations to return to the paternal roof +as myself. There were my beloved mother and my grandmother, in the first +place, both of whom doted on me as on an only son. Then aunt Mary almost +equally shared in my affections. But I had two sisters, one of whom was +older, and the other younger than myself. The eldest, who was called +Anneke, after our dear mother, was even six years my senior, and was +married early in the war to a gentleman of the name of Kettletas. Mr. +Kettletas was a person of very good estate, and made my sister perfectly +happy. They had several children, and resided in Dutchess, which was an +additional reason for my mother's choosing that county for her temporary +residence. I regarded Anneke, or Mrs. Kettletas, much as all youths +regard an elder sister, who is affectionate, feminine and respectable; +but little Katrinke, or Kate, was my pet. She again, was four years +younger than myself; and as I was just two-and-twenty when the army was +disbanded, she of course was only eighteen. This dear sister was a +little, jumping, laughing, never-quiet, merry thing, when I had taken my +leave of her, in 1781, to join the regiment as an ensign, as handsome +and sweet as a rose-bud, and quite as full of promise. I remember that +old Andries and I used to pass much of our time in camp in conversing +about our several pets; he of his niece, and I of my younger sister. Of +course, I never intended to marry, but Kate and I were to live together; +she as my housekeeper and companion, and I as her elder brother and +protector. The one great good of life with us all was peace, with +independence; which obtained, no one, in our regiment at least, was so +little of a patriot as to doubt of the future. It was laughable to see +with how much gusto and simplicity the old Chainbearer entered into all +these boyish schemes. His niece was an orphan, it would seem, the only +child of an only but a half-sister, and was absolutely dependent on him +for the bread she put into her mouth. It is true that this niece fared +somewhat better than such a support would seem to promise, having been +much cared for by a female friend of her mother's, who, being reduced +herself, kept a school, and had thus bestowed on her ward a far better +education than she could ever have got under her uncle's supervision, +had the last possessed the riches of the Van Rensselaers, or of the Van +Cortlandts. As has been substantially stated, old Andries's forte did +not lie in education, and they who do not enjoy the blessings of such a +character, seldom duly appreciate their advantages. It is with the +acquisitions of the mind, as with those of mere deportment and tastes; +we are apt to undervalue them all, until made familiarly acquainted with +their power to elevate and to enlarge. But the niece of Andries had been +particularly fortunate in falling into the hands she had; Mrs. Stratton +having the means and the inclination to do all for her, in the way of +instruction, that was then done for any young woman in New York, as long +as she lived. The death of this kind friend occurring, however, in 1783, +Andries was obliged to resume the care of his niece, who was now thrown +entirely on himself for support. It is true, the girl wished to do +something for herself, but this neither the pride nor the affection of +the old chainbearer would listen to. + +"What _can_ the gal do?" Andries said to me significantly, one day that +he was recounting all these particulars. "She can't carry chain, though +I do believe, Morty, the chilt has head enough, and figures enough to +survey! It would do your heart good to read the account of her l'arnin' +t'at t'e olt woman used to send me; though she wrote so excellent a hant +herself, t'at it commonly took me a week to read one of her letters; +that is, from 'Respected Friend' to 'Humble Sarvent,' as you know them +'ere t'ings go." + +"Excellent hand! Why, I should think, Andries, the better the hand, the +easier one could read a letter." + +"All a mistake. When a man writes a scrawl himself, it's nat'ral he +shoult read scrawls easiest, in his own case. Now, Mrs. Stratton was +home-taught, and would be likely to get into ways t'at a plain man might +find difficult to get along wit'." + +"Do you think, then, of making a surveyor of your niece?" I asked, a +little pointedly. + +"Why, she is hartly strong enough to travel t'rough the woots, and, the +callin' is not suitaple to her sex, t'ough I woult risk her against t'e +oldest calculator in t'e province." + +"We call New York a State, now, Captain Andries, you will recollect." + +"Ay, t'at's true, and I peg the State's pardon. Well, t'ere'll be +scrambling enough for t'e land, as soon as the war is fairly over, and +chainbearing will be a sarviceable callin' once more. Do you know, +Morty, they talk of gifin' all of our line a quantity of land, privates +and officers, which will make me a landholter again, the very character +in which I started in life. You will inherit acres enough, and may not +care so much apout owning a few huntret, more or less, but I own the +idee is agreeaple enough to me." + +"Do you propose to commence anew as a husbandman?" + +"Not I; the pusiness never agreet wit' me, nor I wit' it. Put a man may +survey his own lot, I suppose, and no offence to greater scholars. If I +get t'e grant t'ey speak of, I shall set to work and run it out on my +own account, and t'en we shall see who understants figures, and who +don't! If other people won't trust me, it is no reason I shoult not +trust myself." + +I knew that his having broken down in the more intellectual part of his +calling was a sore point with old Andries, and I avoided dwelling on +this part of the subject. In order to divert his mind to other objects, +indeed, I began to question him a little more closely than I had ever +done before, on the subject of his niece, in consequence of which +expedient I now learned many things that were new to me. + +The name of the chainbearer's niece was Duss Malbone, or so he always +pronounced it. In the end I discovered that Duss was a sort of Dutch +diminutive for Ursula. Ursula Malbone had none of the Coejemans blood in +her, notwithstanding she was Andries's sister's daughter. It seemed that +old Mrs. Coejemans was twice married, her second husband being the +father of Duss's mother. Bob Malbone, as the chainbearer always called +the girl's father, was an eastern man of very good family, but was a +reckless spendthrift, who married Duss the senior, as well as I could +learn, for her property; all of which, as well as that he had inherited +himself, was cleverly gotten rid of within the first ten years of their +union, and a year or two after the girl was born. Both father and mother +died within a few months of each other, and in a very happy moment as +regards worldly means, leaving poor little Duss with no one to care for +her but her half-uncle, who was then living in the forest in his regular +pursuits, and the Mrs. Stratton I have mentioned. There was a +half-brother, Bob Malbone having married twice, but he was in the army, +and had some near female relation to support out of his pay. Between the +chainbearer and Mrs. Stratton, with an occasional offering from the +brother, the means of clothing, nourishing and educating the young woman +had been found until she reached her eighteenth year, when the death of +her female protector threw her nearly altogether on the care of her +uncle. The brother now did his share, Andries admitted; but it was not +much that he could do. A captain himself, his scanty pay barely sufficed +to meet his own wants. + +I could easily see that old Andries loved Duss better than anything else +or any other person. When he was a little mellow, and that was usually +the extent of his debaucheries, he would prate about her to me until the +tears came into his eyes, and once he actually proposed that I should +marry her. + +"You woult just suit each other," the old man added, in a very quaint, +but earnest manner, on that memorable occasion; "and as for property, I +know you care little for money, and will have enough for half-a-tozen. I +swear to you, Captain Littlepage"--for this dialogue took place only a +few months before we were disbanded, and after I had obtained a +company--"I swear to you, Captain Littlepage, t'e girl is laughing from +morning till night, and would make one of the merriest companions for an +olt soldier that ever promiset to 'honor and obey.' Try her once, lad, +and see if I teceive you." + +"That may do well enough, friend Andries, for an _old_ soldier, whereas +you will remember I am but a boy in years----" + +"Ay, in years; but olt as a soldier, Morty--olt as White Plains, or '76; +as I know from hafin seen you unter fire." + +"Well, be it so; but it is the man, and not the soldier, who is to do +the marrying, and I am still a very young man." + +"You might do worse, take my word for it, Mortaunt, my dear poy; for +Duss is fun itself, and I have often spoken of you to her in a way t'at +will make the courtship as easy as carrying a chain on t'e Jarmen +Flats." + +I assured my friend Andries that I did not think of a wife yet, and that +my taste ran for a sentimental and melancholy young woman, rather than +for a laughing girl. The old chainbearer took this repulse +good-humoredly, though he renewed the attack at least a dozen times +before the regiment was disbanded, and we finally separated. I say +finally separated, though it was in reference to our companionship as +soldiers, rather than as to our future lives; for I had determined to +give Andries employment myself, should nothing better offer in his +behalf. + +Nor was I altogether without the means of thus serving a friend, when +the inclination existed. My grandfather, Herman Mordaunt, had left me, +to come into possession at the age of twenty-one, a considerable estate +in what is now Washington County, a portion of our territory that lies +northeast from Albany, and at no great distance from the Hampshire +Grants. This property, of many thousands of acres in extent, had been +partially settled under leases by himself, previously to my birth, and +those leases having mostly expired, the tenants were remaining at will, +waiting for more quiet times to renew their engagements. As yet +Ravensnest, for so the estate was called, had given the family little +besides expense and trouble; but the land being good, and the +improvements considerable, it was time to look for some return for all +our outlays. This estate was now mine in fee, my father having formally +relinquished its possession in my favor the day I attained my majority. +Adjacent to this estate lay that of Mooseridge, which was the joint +property of my father and of his friend Major--or as he was styled in +virtue of the brevet rank granted at the peace--_Colonel_ Follock. +Mooseridge had been originally patented by my grandfather, the first +General Littlepage, and _old_ Colonel Follock, he who had been slain and +scalped early in the war; but on the descent of his moiety of the +tenantry in common to Dirck Follock, my grandfather conveyed his +interest to his own son, who ere long must become its owner, agreeably +to the laws of nature. This property had once been surveyed into large +lots, but owing to some adverse circumstances, and the approach of the +troubles, it had never been settled or surveyed into farms. All that its +owners ever got for it, therefore, was the privilege of paying the crown +its quit-rents; taxes, or reserved payments, of no great amount, it is +true, though far more than the estate had ever yet returned. + +While on the subject of lands and tenements, I may as well finish my +opening explanations. My paternal grandfather was by no means as rich as +my father, though the senior, and of so much higher military rank. His +property, or neck, of Satanstoe, nevertheless, was quite valuable; more +for the quality of the land and its position than for its extent. In +addition to this, he had a few thousand pounds at interest; stocks, +banks, and moneyed corporations of all kinds being then nearly unknown +among us. His means were sufficient for his wants, however, and it was a +joyful day when he found himself enabled to take possession of his own +house again, in consequence of Sir Guy Carleton's calling in all of his +detachments from Westchester. The Morrises, distinguished whigs as they +were, did not get back to Morrisania until after the evacuation, which +took place November 25, 1783; nor did my father return to Lilacsbush +until after that important event. The very year my grandfather saw +Satanstoe, he took the small-pox in camp and died. + +To own the truth, the peace found us all very poor, as was the case with +almost everybody in the country but a few contractors. It was not the +contractors for the American army that were rich; they fared worse than +most people; but the few who furnished supplies to the French _did_ get +silver in return for their advances. As for the army, it was disbanded +without any reward but promises, and payment in a currency that +depreciated so rapidly that men were glad to spend recklessly their +hard-earned stock, lest it should become perfectly valueless in their +hands. I have heard much in later years of the celebrated Newburgh +letters, and of the want of patriotism that could lead to their having +been written. It may not have been wise, considering the absolute want +of the country, to have contemplated the alternative toward which those +letters certainly cast an oblique glance, but there was nothing in +either their execution or their drift which was not perfectly natural +for the circumstances. It was quite right for Washington to act as he +did in that crisis, though it is highly probable that even Washington +would have felt and acted differently had he nothing but the keen sense +of his neglected services, poverty, and forgetfulness before him in the +perspective. As for the young officer who actually wrote the letters, it +is probable that justice will never be done to any part of his conduct, +but that which is connected with the elegance of his diction. It is very +well for those who do not suffer to prate about patriotism; but a +country is bound to be just, before it can lay a high moral claim to +this exclusive devotedness to the interests of the majority. Fine words +cost but little, and I acknowledge no great respect for those who +manifest their integrity principally in phrases. This is said not in the +way of personal apology, for our regiment did not happen to be at +Newburgh at the disbandment; if it had, I think my father's influence +would have kept us from joining the malcontents; but at the same time, I +fancy his and my own patriotism would have been much strengthened by the +knowledge that there were such places as Satanstoe, Lilacsbush, +Mooseridge, and Ravensnest. To return to the account of our property. + +My grandfather Mordaunt, notwithstanding his handsome bequests to me, +left the bulk of his estate to my mother. This would have made the rest +of the family rich, had it not been for the dilapidations produced by +the war. But the houses and stores in town were without tenants who +paid, having been mainly occupied by the enemy; and interest on bonds +was hard to collect from those who lived within the British lines. + +In a word, it is not easy to impress on the mind of one who witnesses +the present state of the country, its actual condition in that day. As +an incident that occurred to myself, after I had regularly joined the +army for duty, will afford a lively picture of the state of things, I +will relate it, and this the more willingly, as it will be the means of +introducing to the reader an old friend of the family, and one who was +intimately associated with divers events of my own life. I have spoken +of Jaaf, a slave of my father's, and one of about his own time of life. +At the time to which I allude, Jaaf was a middle-aged, gray-headed +negro, with most of the faults, and with all the peculiar virtues of the +beings of his condition and race. So much reliance had my mother, in +particular, on his fidelity, that she insisted on his accompanying her +husband to the wars, an order that the black most willingly obeyed; not +only because he loved adventure, but because he especially hated an +Indian, and my father's earliest service was against that portion of our +foes. Although Jaaf acted as a body-servant, he carried a musket, and +even drilled with the men. Luckily, the Littlepage livery was blue +turned up with red, and of a very modest character; a circumstance that +almost put Jaaf in uniform, the fellow obstinately refusing to wear the +colors of any power but that of the family to which he regularly +belonged. In this manner, Jaaf had got to be a queer mixture of the +servant and the soldier, sometimes acting in the one capacity, and +sometimes in the other, having at the same time not a little of the +husbandman about him; for our slaves did all sorts of work. + +My mother had made it a point that Jaaf should accompany me on all +occasions when I was sent to any distance from my father. She naturally +enough supposed I had the most need of the care of a faithful attendant, +and the black had consequently got to be about half transferred to me. +He evidently liked this change, both because it was always accompanied +by change of scene and the chances for new adventures, and because it +gave him an opportunity of relating many of the events of his youth; +events that had got to be worn threadbare, as narratives, with his "ole +masser," but which were still fresh with his "young." + +On the occasion to which there is allusion, Jaaf and I were returning to +camp, from an excursion of some length, on which I had been sent by the +general of division. This was about the time the continental money made +its final fall to nothing, or next to nothing, it having long stood at +about a hundred dollars for one. I had provided myself with a little +silver, and very precious it was, and some thirty or forty thousand +dollars of "continental," to defray my travelling expenses; but my +silver was expended, and the paper reduced to two or three thousand +dollars, when it would require the whole stock of the latter to pay for +Jaaf's and my own dinner; nor were the inn-keepers very willing to give +their time and food for it at any price. This vacuum in my purse took +place when I had still two long days' ride before me, and in a part of +the country where I had no acquaintances whatever. Supper and rest were +needed for ourselves, and provender and stabling for our horses. +Everything of the sort was cheap enough, to be sure, but absolute want +of means rendered the smallest charge impracticable to persons in our +situation. As for appealing to the patriotism of those who lived by the +wayside, it was too late in the war; patriotism being a very evanescent +quality of the human heart, and particularly addicted to sneaking, like +compassion, behind some convenient cover, when it is to be maintained at +any pecuniary cost. It will do for a capital, in a revolution, or a war +for the first six months, perhaps; but gets to be as worthless as +continental money itself, by the end of that period. One militia draft +has exhausted the patriotism of thousands of as disinterested heroes as +ever shouldered muskets. + +"Jaap," I asked of my companion, as we drew near to the hamlet where I +intended to pass the night, and the comforts of a warm supper on a sharp +frosty evening, began to haunt my imagination--"Jaap, how much money may +you have about you?"[3] + +[Footnote 3: This man is indiscriminately called Yaf, or Yop--York Dutch +being far from severe.] + +"I, Masser Mordaunt!--Golly! but dat a berry droll question, sah!" + +"I ask, because my own stock is reduced to just one York shilling, which +goes by the name of only a ninepence in this part of the world." + +"Dat berry little, to tell 'e truit', sah, for two gentleum, and two +large, hungry hosses. Berry little, indeed, sah! I wish he war' more." + +"Yet, I have not a copper more. I gave one thousand two hundred dollars +for the dinner and baiting and oats, at noon." + +"Yes, sah--but dat conternental, sah, I supposes--no great t'ing, a'ter +all." + +"It's a great thing in sound, Jaap, but not much when it comes to the +teeth, as you perceive. Nevertheless, we must eat and drink, and our +nags must eat, too--I suppose _they_ may _drink_, without paying." + +"Yes, sah--dat true 'nough, yah--yah--yah"--how easily that negro +laughed!--"But 'e cider wonnerful good in dis part of 'e country, young +masser; just needer sweet nor sour--den he strong as 'e jackass." + +"Well, Jaap, how are we to get any of this good cider, of which you +speak?" + +"You t'ink, sah, dis part of 'e country been talk too much lately 'bout +Patty Rism and 'e country, sah?" + +"I am afraid Patty has been overdone here, as well as in most other +counties." + +I may observe here, that Jaap always imagined the beautiful creature he +had heard so much extolled and commended for her comeliness and virtue, +was a certain young woman of this name, with whom all Congress was +unaccountably in love at the same time. + +"Well, den, sah, dere no hope but our wits. Let me be masser to-night, +and you mind ole Jaap, if he want good supper. Jest ride ahead, Masser +Mordaunt, and give he order like General Littlepage son, and leave it +all to old Jaap." + +As there was not much to choose, I did ride on, and soon ceased to hear +the hoofs of the negro's horse at my heels. I reached the inn an hour +ere Jaap appeared, and was actually seated at a capital supper before he +rode up, as one belonging only to himself. Jaap had taken off the +Littlepage emblems, and had altogether a most independent air. His horse +was stabled alongside of mine, and I soon found that he himself was at +work on the remnants of my supper, as they retreated toward the kitchen. + +A traveller of my appearance was accommodated with the best parlor, as a +matter of course; and having appeased my appetite, I sat down to read +some documents that were connected with the duty I was on. No one could +have imagined that I had only a York shilling, which is a Pennsylvania +"levy," or a Connecticut "ninepence," in my purse; for my air was that +of one who could pay for all he wanted, the certainty that, in the long +run, my host could not be a loser, giving me a proper degree of +confidence. I had just got through with the documents, and was thinking +how I should employ the hour or two that remained until it would be time +to go to bed, when I heard Jaap tuning his fiddle in the bar-room. Like +most negroes, the fellow had an ear for music, and had been indulged in +his taste, until he played as well as half the country fiddlers that +were to be met. + +The sound of a fiddle in a small hamlet, of a cool October evening, was +certain of its result. In half an hour the smiling landlady came to +invite me to join the company, with the grateful information I should +not want for a partner, the prettiest girl in the place having come in +late, and being still unprovided for. On entering the bar-room, I was +received with plenty of awkward bows and courtesies, but with much +simple and well-meaning hospitality. Jaap's own salutations were very +elaborate, and altogether of a character to prevent the suspicion of our +ever having met before. + +The dancing continued for more than two hours, with spirit, when the +time admonished the village maidens of the necessity of retiring. Seeing +an indication of the approaching separation, Jaap held out his hat to +me, in a respectful manner, when I magnificently dropped my shilling +into it, in a way to attract attention, and passed it around among the +males of the party. One other gave a shilling, two clubbed and +actually produced a quarter, several threw in sixpences, or +fourpence-half-pennies, and coppers made up the balance. By way of +climax, the landlady, who was good-looking and loved dancing, publicly +announced that the fiddler and his horse should go scot-free, until he +left the place. By these ingenious means of Jaap's, I found in my purse +next morning seven-and-sixpence in silver, in addition to my own +shilling, besides coppers enough to keep a negro in cider for a week. + +I have often laughed over Jaap's management, though I would not permit +him to repeat it. Passing the house of a man of better condition than +common, I presented myself to its owner, though an entire stranger to +him, and told him my story. Without asking any other confirmation than +my word, this gentleman lent me five silver dollars, which answered all +my present purposes, and which, I trust, it is scarcely necessary to +say, were duly repaid. + +It was a happy hour to me when I found myself a titular major, but +virtually a freeman, and at liberty to go where I pleased. The war had +offered so little of variety or adventure, since the capture of +Cornwallis and the pendency of the negotiations for peace, that I began +to tire of the army; and now that the country had triumphed, was ready +enough to quit it. The family, that is to say, my grandmother, mother, +aunt Mary and my youngest sister, took possession of Satanstoe in time +to enjoy some of its delicious fruits in the autumn of 1782; and early +in the following season, after the treaty was signed, but while the +British still remained in town, my mother was enabled to return to +Lilacsbush. As consequences of these early movements, my father and +myself, when we joined the two families, found things in a better state +than might otherwise have been the case. The Neck was planted, and had +enjoyed the advantage of a spring's husbandry, while the grounds of +Lilacsbush had been renovated and brought in good condition by the +matured and practised taste of my admirable mother. And she _was_ +admirable, in all the relations of life! A lady in feeling and habits, +whatever she touched or controlled imbibed a portion of her delicacy and +sentiment. Even the inanimate things around her betrayed this feature of +their connection with one of her sex's best qualities. I remember that +Colonel Dirk Follock remarked to me one day that we had been examining +the offices together, something that was very applicable to this trait +in my mother's character, while it was perfectly just. + +"No one can see Mrs. Littlepage's kitchen, even," he said, "alt'ough she +never seems to enter it, without perceiving"--or "perceifing," as he +pronounced the word--"that it is governed by a lady. There are plenty of +kitchens that are as clean, and as large, and as well furnished, but it +is not common to see a kitchen that gives the same ideas of good taste +in the table and about the household." + +If this was true as to the more homely parts of the habitation, how much +truer was it when the distinction was carried into the superior +apartments! There, one saw my mother in person, and surrounded by those +appliances which denote refinement, without, however, any of that +elaborate luxury of which we read in older countries. In America we had +much fine china, and a good deal of massive plate, regular +dinner-services excepted, previously to the revolution, and my mother +had inherited more than was usual of both; but the country knew little +of that degree of domestic indulgence which is fast creeping in among +us, by means of its enormously increased commerce. + +Although the fortunes of the country had undergone so much waste during +seven years of internal warfare, the elasticity of a young and vigorous +nation soon began to repair the evil. It is true that trade did not +fully revive, nor its connecting interests receive their great impulse, +until after the adoption of the Constitution, which brought the States +under a set of common custom-house regulations; nevertheless, one year +brought about a manifest and most beneficent change. There was now some +security in making shipments, and the country immediately felt the +consequences. The year 1784 was a sort of breathing-time for the nation, +though long ere it was past, the bone and sinew of the republic began to +make themselves apparent and felt. Then it was that, as a people, this +community first learned the immense advantage it had obtained by +controlling its own interests, and by treating them as secondary to +those of no other part of the world. This was the great gain of all our +labors. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + "He tells her something, + That makes her blood look out; good sooth, she is + The queen of curds and cream."--_Winter's Tale._ + + +Happy, happy Lilacsbush! Never can I forget the delight with which I +roamed over its heights and glens, and how I rioted in the pleasure of +feeling I was again a sort of master in those scenes which had been the +haunts of my boyhood! It was in the spring of 1784 before I was folded +to the arms of my mother; and this, too, after a separation of near two +years. Kate laughed, and wept, and hugged me, just as she would have +done five years earlier, though she was now a lovely young woman, turned +of nineteen. As for aunt Mary, she shook hands, gave me a kind kiss or +two, and smiled on me affectionately, in her own quiet, gentle manner. +The house was in a tumult, for Jaap returned with me, his wool well +sprinkled with gray, and there were lots of little Satanstoes (for such +was his family name, notwithstanding Mrs. Jaap called herself Miss +Lilacsbush), children and grandchildren, to welcome him. To say the +truth, the house was not decently tranquil for the first twenty-four +hours. + +At the end of that time I ordered my horse, to ride across the country +to Satanstoe, in order to visit my widowed grandmother, who had resisted +all attempts to persuade her to give up the cares of housekeeping, and +to come and live at Lilacsbush. The general, for so everybody now called +my father, did not accompany me, having been at Satanstoe a day or two +before; but my sister did. As the roads had been much neglected in the +war, we went in the saddle, Kate being one of the most spirited +horsewomen of my acquaintance. By this time, Jaap had got to be +privileged, doing just such work as suited his fancy; or, it might be +better to say, was not of much use except in the desultory employments +that had so long been his principal pursuits; and he was sent off an +hour or two before we started ourselves, to let Mrs. Littlepage, or his +"ole--ole missus," as the fellow always called my grandmother, know whom +she was to expect to dinner. + +I have heard it said that there are portions of the world in which +people get to be so sophisticated, that the nearest of kin cannot take +such a liberty as this. The son will not presume to take a plate at the +table of the father without observing the ceremony of asking, or of +being asked! Heaven be praised! we have not yet reached this pass in +America. What parent, or grandparent, to the remotest living generation, +would receive a descendant with anything but a smile, or a welcome, let +him come when and how he will? If there be not room, or preparation, the +deficiencies must be made up in welcomes; or, when absolute +impossibilities interpose, if they are not overcome by means of a quick +invention, as most such "impossibilities" are, the truth is frankly +told, and the pleasure is deferred to a more fortunate moment. It is not +my intention to throw a vulgar and ignorant gibe into the face of an +advanced civilization, as is too apt to be the propensity of ignorance +and provincial habits; for I well know that most of the usages of those +highly improved conditions of society are founded in reason, and have +their justification in a cultivated common sense; but, after all, mother +nature has her rights, and they are not to be invaded too boldly, +without bringing with the acts themselves their merited punishments. + +It was just nine, on a fine May morning, when Kate + +Littlepage and myself rode through the outer gate of Lilacsbush, and +issued upon the old, well-known Kingsbridge road. _Kings_bridge! That +name still remains, as do those of the counties of Kings, and Queens, +and Duchess, to say nothing of quantities of Princes this and that in +other States; and I hope they always may remain, as so many landmarks in +our history. These names are all that now remain among us of the +monarchy; and yet have I heard my father say a hundred times, that when +a young man, his reverence for the British throne was second only to his +reverence for the Church. In how short a time has this feeling been +changed throughout an entire nation; or, if not absolutely changed, for +some still continue to reverence monarchy, how widely and irremediably +has it been impaired! Such are the things of the world, perishable and +temporary in their very natures; and they would do well to remember the +truth, who have much at stake in such changes. + +We stopped at the door of the inn at Kingsbridge to say good morning to +old Mrs. Light, the landlady who had now kept the house half a century, +and who had known us, and our parents before us, from childhood. This +loquacious housewife had her good and bad points, but habit had given +her a sort of claim on our attentions, and I could not pass her door +without drawing the rein, if it were only for a moment. This was no +sooner done, than the landlady in person was on her threshold to greet +us. + +"Ay, I dreamt this, Mr. Mordaunt," the old woman exclaimed, the instant +she saw me--"I dreamt this no later than last week! It is nonsense to +deny it; dreams _do_ often come true!" + +"And what has been your dream this time, Mrs. Light?" I asked, well +knowing it was to come, and the sooner we got it the better. + +"I dreamt the general had come home last fall, and he _had_ come home! +Now the only idee I had to help out that dream was a report that he +_was_ to be home that day; but you know, Mr. Mordaunt, or Major +Littlepage, they tell me I ought now to call you--but you know, Mr. +Mordaunt, how often reports turn out to be nothing. I count a report as +no great help to a dream. So, last week, I dreamed you would certainly +be home this week; and here you are, sure enough!" + +"And all without any lying report to help you, my good landlady?" + +"Why, no great matter; a few flying rumors, perhaps; but as I never +believe _them_ when awake, it's onreasonable to suppose a body would +believe 'em when asleep. Yes, Jaaf stopped a minute to water his horse +this morning, and I foresaw from that moment my dream would come to be +true, though I never exchanged a word with the nigger." + +"That is a little remarkable, Mrs. Light, as I supposed you always +exchanged a few words with your guests." + +"Not with the blacks, major; it's apt to make 'em sassy. Sassiness in a +nigger is a thing I can't abide, and therefore I keep 'em all at a +distance. Well, the times that I have seen, major, since you went off to +the wars! and the changes we have had! Our clergyman don't pray any +longer for the king and queen--no more than if there wasn't sich people +living." + +"Not directly, perhaps, but as a part of the Church of God, I trust. We +all pray for Congress now." + +"Well, I hope good will come out of it! I must say, major, that His +Majesty's officers spent more freely, and paid in better money, than the +continental gentlemen. I've had 'em both here by rijjiments, and that's +the character I _must_ give 'em, in honesty." + +"You will remember they were richer, and had more money than our people. +It is easy for the rich to appear liberal." + +"Yes, I know that, sir, and you ought, and _do_ know it, too. The +Littlepages are rich, and always have been, and they are liberal too. +Lord bless your smiling, pretty faces! I knowed your family long afore +you knowed it yourselves. I know'd old Captain Hugh Roger, your +great-grand'ther, and the _old_ general, your grand'ther, and now I know +the _young_ general, and you! Well, this will not be the last of you, I +dares to say, and there'll be light hearts and happy ones among the +Bayards, I'll answer for it, now the wars are over, and young Major +Littlepage has got back!" + +This terminated the discourse; for by this time I had enough of it; and +making my bow, Kate and I rode on. Still, I could not but be struck with +the last speech of the old woman, and most of all with the manner in +which it was uttered. The name of Bayard was well known among us, +belonging to a family of which there were several branches spread +through the Middle States, as far south as Delaware; but I did not +happen to know a single individual of them all. What, then, could my +return have to do with the smiles or frowns of any of the name of +Bayard? It was natural enough, after ruminating a minute or two on the +subject, that I should utter some of my ideas, on such a subject, to my +companion. + +"What could the old woman mean, Kate," I abruptly commenced, "by saying +there would now be light hearts and happy ones among the Bayards?" + +"Poor Mrs. Light is a great gossip, Mordaunt, and it may be questioned +if she know her own meaning half the time. All the Bayards we know are +the family at the Hickories; and with them, you have doubtless heard, my +mother has long been intimate." + +"I have heard nothing about it, child. All I know is, that there is a +place called the Hickories, up the river a few miles, and that it +belongs to some of the Bayards; but I never heard of any intimacy. On +the contrary, I remember to have heard that there was a lawsuit once, +between my grandfather Mordaunt and some old Bayard or other; and I +thought we were a sort of hereditary strangers." + +"That is quite forgotten, and my mother says it all arose from a +mistake. We are decided friends now." + +"I'm sure I am very glad to hear it; for, since it is peace, let us have +peace; though old enemies are not apt to make very decided friends." + +"But we never were--that is, my grandfather never was an enemy of +anybody; and the whole matter was amicably settled just before he went +to Europe, on his unfortunate visit to Sir Harry Bulstrode. No--no--my +mother will tell you, Mordaunt, that the Littlepages and the Bayards now +regard each other as very decided friends." + +Kate spoke with so much earnestness that I was disposed to take a look +at her. The face of the girl was flushed, and I fancy she had a secret +consciousness of the fact; for she turned it from me as if gazing at +some object in the opposite direction, thereby preventing me from seeing +much of it. + +"I am very glad to learn all this," I answered, a little dryly. "As I am +a Littlepage, it would have been awkward not to have known it, had I +accidentally met with one of these Bayards. Does the peace include all +of the name, or only those of the Hickories?" + +Kate laughed; then she was pleased to tell me that I was to consider +myself the friend of all of the name. + +"And most especially of those of the name who dwell at the Hickories?" + +"How many may there be of this especially peaceful breed? six, a dozen, +or twenty?" + +"Only four; so your task will make no very heavy demand on your +affections. Your heart has room, I trust, for four more friends?" + +"For a thousand, if I can find them, my dear. I can accept as many +friends as you please, but have places for none else. All the other +niches are occupied." + +"Occupied!--I hope that is not true, Mordaunt. _One_ place, at least, is +vacant." + +"True; I had forgotten a place must be reserved for the brother _you_ +will one day give me. Well, name him, as soon as you please; I shall be +ready to love _him_, child." + +"I may never make so heavy a draft on your affections. Anneke has given +you a brother already, and a very excellent one he is, and that ought to +satisfy a reasonable man." + +"Ay, so all you young women say between fifteen and twenty, but you +usually change your mind in the end. The sooner you tell me who the +youth is, therefore, the sooner I shall begin to like him--is _he_ one +of the Bayards?--_un chevalier sans peur et sans reproche?_" + +Kate had a brilliant complexion, in common; but, as I now turned my eyes +toward her inquiringly, more in mischief, however, than with the +expectation of learning anything new, I saw the roses of her cheeks +expand until they covered her temples. The little beaver she wore, and +which became her amazingly, did not suffice to conceal these blushes, +and I now really began to suspect I had hit on a vein that was +sensitive. But my sister was a girl of spirit, and though it was no +difficult thing to make her change color, it was by no means easy to +look her down. + +"I trust your new brother, Mordaunt, should there ever be such a person, +will be a respectable man, if not absolutely without reproach," she +answered. "But, if there be a Tom Bayard, there is also a Pris Bayard, +his sister." + +"So--so--this is all news to me, indeed! As to Mr. Thomas Bayard, I +shall ask no questions, my interest in _him_, if there is to be any, +being altogether _ex officio_, as one may say, and coming as a matter of +course; but you will excuse me if I am a little curious on the subject +of Miss Priscilla Bayard, a lady, you will remember, I never saw." + +My eye was on Kate the whole time, and I fancied she looked gratified, +though she still looked confused. + +"Ask what you will, brother--Priscilla Bayard can bear a very close +examination." + +"In the first place, then, did that old gossip allude to Miss Priscilla, +by saying there would be light hearts and happy ones among the Bayards?" + +"Nay, I cannot answer for poor Mrs. Light's conceits. Put your questions +in some other form." + +"Is there much intimacy between the people of the 'Bush and those of the +Hickories?" + +"Great--_we_ like them exceedingly; and I think they like _us_." + +"Does this intimacy extend to the young folk, or is it confined to the +old?" + +"That is somewhat personal," said Kate, laughing, "as I happen to be the +only 'young folk' at the 'Bush, to maintain the said intimacy. As there +is nothing to be ashamed of, however, but, on the contrary, much of +which one may be proud, I shall answer that it includes 'all ages and +both sexes;' everybody but yourself, in a word." + +"And _you_ like old Mr. Bayard?" + +"Amazingly." + +"And old Mrs. Bayard?" + +"She is a very agreeable person, and an excellent wife and mother." + +"And you love Pris Bayard?" + +"As the apple of mine eye," the girl answered with emphasis. + +"And you like Tom Bayard, her brother?" + +"As much as is decent and proper for one young woman to like the brother +of another young woman, whom she admits that she loves as the apple of +her eye." + +Although it was not easy, at least not easy for _me_, to cause Kate +Littlepage to hold her tongue, it was not easy for her to cause the +tell-tale blood always to remain stationary. She was surprisingly +beautiful in her blushes, and as much like what I had often fancied my +dear mother might have been in her best days as possible, at the very +moment she was making these replies as steadily as if they gave her no +trouble. + +"How is all this then, connected with rejoicings among the people of the +Hickories, at _my_ return? Are you the betrothed of Tom Bayard, and have +you been waiting for my return to give him your hand?" + +"I am _not_ the betrothed of Tom Bayard, and have not been waiting for +your return to give him my hand," answered Kate, steadily. "As for Mrs. +Light's gossipings, you cannot expect _me_ to explain _them_. She gets +her reports from servants, and others of that class, and you know what +such reports are usually worth. But, as for my waiting for your +_return_, brother, in order to announce such an event, you little know +how much I love you, if you suppose I would do any such thing." + +Kate said this with feeling, and I thanked her with my eyes, but could +not have spoken, and did not speak, until we had ridden some distance. +After this pause, I renewed the discourse with some of its original +spirit. + +"On that subject, Katrinke, dear," I said, "I trust we understand each +other. Single or married, you will ever be very dear to me; and I own I +should be hurt to be one of the last to learn your engagement, whenever +that may happen. And now for this Priscilla Bayard--do you expect me to +like her?" + +"Do I! It would be one of the happiest moments of my life, Mordaunt, +when I could hear you acknowledge that you _love_ her!" + +This was uttered with great animation, and in a way to show that my +sister was very much in earnest. I felt some surprise when I put this +feeling in connection with the landlady's remarks, and began to suspect +there might be something behind the curtain worthy of my knowledge. In +order to make discoveries, however, it was necessary to pursue the +discourse. + +"Of what age is Miss Bayard?" I demanded. + +"She is two months my senior--very suitable, is it not?" + +"I do not object to the difference, which will do very well. Is she +accomplished?" + +"Not very. You know few of us girls who have been educated during the +revolution, can boast of much in that way; though Priscilla is better +than common." + +"Than of her class, you mean, of course?" + +"Certainly--better than most young ladies of our best families." + +"Is she amiable?" + +"As Anneke, herself!" + +This was saying a great deal, our eldest sister, as often happens in +families, being its paragon in the way of all the virtues, and Anneke's +temper being really serenity itself. + +"You give her a high character, and one few girls could sustain. Is she +sensible and well-informed?" + +"Enough so as often to make me feel ashamed of myself. She has an +excellent mother, Mordaunt; and I have heard you say, often, that the +mother would have great influence with you in choosing a wife." + +"That must have been when I was very young, child, before I went to the +army, where we look more at the young than at the old women. But, why a +wife? Is it all settled between the old people, that I am to propose to +this Priscilla Bayard, and are you a party to the scheme?" + +Kate laughed with all her heart, but I fancied she looked conscious. + +"You make no answer, young lady, and you must permit me to remind you +that there is an express compact between you and me to treat each other +frankly on all occasions. This is one on which I especially desire to +see the conditions of the treaty rigidly enforced. Does any such project +exist?" + +"Not as a project, discussed and planned--no--certainly not. No, a +thousand times, no. But I shall run the risk of frustrating one of my +most cherished hopes, by saying, honestly, that you could not gratify my +dear mother, aunt Mary, and myself, more than by falling in love with +Pris Bayard. We all love her ourselves, and we wish you to be of the +party, knowing that _your_ love would probably lead to a connection we +should all like, more than I can express. There; you cannot complain of +a want of frankness, for I have heard it said, again and again, that the +wishes of friends, indiscreetly expressed, are very apt to set young men +against the very person it is desired to make them admire." + +"Quite likely to be true as a rule, though in my case no effect, good or +bad, will be produced. But how do the Bayards feel in this matter?" + +"How should I know! Of course, no allusion has ever been made to any of +the family on the subject; and, as none of them know you, it is im--that +is, no allusion--I mean--certainly not to more than _one_ of them. I +believe some vague remarks may have been ventured to one--but----" + +"By yourself, and to your friend Pris?" + +"_Never_"--said Kate, with emphasis. "Such a subject could never be +mentioned between us." + +"Then it must have been between the old ladies--the two mothers, +probably?" + +"I should think not. Mrs. Bayard is a woman of reserve, and mamma has an +extreme sense of propriety, as you know yourself, that would not be +likely to permit such a thing." + +"Would the general think of contracting me, when my back was turned?" + +"Not he--papa troubles himself very little about such things. Ever since +his return home, he has been courting mamma over again, he tells us." + +"Surely, aunt Mary has not found words for such an allusion!" + +"She, indeed! Poor, dear aunt Mary; it is little she meddles with any +one's concerns but her own. Do you know, Mordaunt, that mamma has told +me the whole of her story lately, and the reason why she has refused so +many excellent offers. I dare say, if you ask her, she will tell _you_." + +"I know the whole story already, from the general, child. But, if this +matter has been alluded to, to one of the Bayards, and neither my +father, mother, nor aunt Mary, has made the allusion on our side, and +neither Mr. Bayard, his wife, nor daughter, has been the party to whom +the allusion has been made on the other, there remain only yourself and +Tom to hold the discourse. I beg you to explain this point with your +customary frankness." + +Kate Littlepage's face was scarlet. She was fairly caught, though I +distrusted the truth from the moment she so stammered and hesitated in +correcting her first statement. I will own I enjoyed the girl's +confusion, it made her appear so supremely lovely; and I was almost as +proud of her, as I tenderly loved her. Dear, dear Kate; from my +childhood I had my own amusement with her, though I do not remember +anything like a harsh expression, or an unkind feeling, that has ever +passed, or indeed existed, between us. A finer study than the face of my +sister offered for the next minute, was never presented to the eye of +man; and I enjoyed it so much the more, from a strong conviction that, +while so deeply confused, she was not unhappy. Native ingenuousness, +maiden modesty, her habit of frank dealing with me, and a wish to +continue so to deal, were all struggling together in her fine +countenance, forming altogether one of the most winning pictures of +womanly feelings I had ever witnessed. At length, the love of +fair-dealing, and love of me, prevailed over a factitious shame; the +color settled back to those cheeks whence it had appeared to flash, as +it might be, remaining just enough heightened to be remarked, and Kate +looked toward me in a way that denoted all the sisterly confidence and +regard that she actually felt. + +"I did not intend to be the one to communicate to you a fact, Mordaunt, +in which I know you will feel a deep interest, for I had supposed my +mother would save me the confusion of telling it to you; but, now, there +is no choice between resorting to equivocations that I do not like, and +using our old long-established frankness." + +"The long and short of which, my dear sister, is to say that you are +engaged to Mr. Bayard?" + +"No; not as strong as that, brother. Mr. Bayard has offered, and my +answer is deferred until you have met him. I would not engage myself, +Mordaunt, until you approved of my choice." + +"I feel the compliment, Katrinke, and will be certain to repay it, in +kind. Depend on it, _you_ shall know, in proper season, when it is my +wish to marry, and shall be heard." + +"There is a difference between the claims of an elder and an only +brother, and of a mere girl, who ought to place much dependence on the +advice of friends, in making her own selection." + +"You will not be a 'mere girl' when that time comes, but a married woman +yourself, and competent to give good counsel from your own experience. +To return to Tom, however; he is the member of his family to whom the +allusion was made?" + +"He was, Mordaunt," answered Kate, in a low voice. + +"And you were the person who made it?" + +"Very true--we were talking of you, one day; and I expressed a strong +hope that you would see Priscilla with the eyes with which, I can assure +you, all the rest of your family see her. That was all." + +"And that was quite enough, child, to cause Tom Bayard to hang himself, +if he were a lover of the true temper." + +"Hang himself, brother! I am sure I do not understand why?" + +"Oh! merely at the palpable discouragement such a wish would naturally +convey to the brother of the young lady, since he must have seen you +were willing to connect the two families by means other than giving him +your own hand." + +Kate laughed; but as she did not look much confused, or at all alarmed, +I was induced to believe that more important encouragement than could be +afforded by means of her wish of marrying _me_ to her suitor's sister +had been given Master Tom, and that my disapproval of the gentleman +would cause her more concern than she chose to avow. We rode on, +however, some little distance, without either's offering to renew the +discourse. At length, as became my sex, I spoke. + +"When am I to see this paragon young man and paragon young woman, Kate, +since see both I must?" + +"Not paragon young man, brother; I am certain I have called him by no +such name; Tom Bayard is a _good fellow_; but I do not know that he is +by any means a paragon." + +"He is a good-_looking_ fellow in the bargain, I take it for granted?" + +"Not so much so as you are yourself, if that will gratify your vanity." + +"It ought to, coming from such a quarter; my question is still +unanswered, notwithstanding." + +"To own the truth to you, Mordaunt, I expect we shall find Tom Bayard +and Pris at Satanstoe, to dine with my grandmother. She wrote me word, a +day or two since, that both are asked, and that she hoped both would +accept." + +"The old lady is then in the plot, and intends to marry me, will ye, +nill ye? I had thought this visit altogether a scheme of my own." + +Kate again laughed, and told me I might make my own observations on that +point, and judge for myself. As for the visit, I had only accidentally +favored a project of others. The conversation now changed, and for +several miles we rode along, conversing of the scenes of the war, +without adverting to the Bayards or to marriages. + +We were within half a mile of the gate of the Neck, and within a mile of +the house, when we met Jaap returning to Lilacsbush, and carrying some +fruit to my mother, after having discharged his commission of an +_avant-courier_. From Kate's remark I had discovered we had been invited +by letter to take this excursion, though the ceremony of sending the +negro across with his message had been observed for reasons that were +not very natural under the circumstances. I made no remark, however, +determining to see and judge for myself. + +As a matter of course, we drew our reins, and stopped to exchange a few +words with the black. + +"Well, Jaap, how did the Neck look, after so long an absence?" I +inquired. + +"It look, sah, no means as well as ole Missus, who do look capital, for +such a lady! Dey do won'ers with 'e Neck, sah, if you just believe all +young nigger say. But what you t'ink, Masser Mordy, I hear at 'e tavern, +where I jist stop, sah, to water ole Dick?" + +"And to get a sup of cider for old Jaap"--hereupon the negro laughed +heartily, though he had the impudence neither to own nor to deny the +imputation, his weakness in favor of "wring-jaw" being a +well-established failing--"Well, what did you hear, while taking down +the usual mug?" + +"I on'y get _half_ a mug, dis time, sah; ole, ole Missus nebber +forgettin' to give me jist as much as I want. Well, sah, while old Dick +drink, 'e new landlady, who come from Connetick, you know, sah, she say +to me, 'Where you go, ole color' gentleum?' Dat war' civil, anyhow." + +"To which you answered----" + +"I answer her, sah, and say I go to Satanstoe, whar' I come from, long +time 'go." + +"Whereupon she made some observation or other--well, what was it?--You +keep Miss Littlepage waiting." + +"Lor' bless her, sah--it my business to wait on Miss Katrinke, not her +business to wait on _me_--why you speak so droll, now, Masser Mordy?" + +"Never mind all that, Jaap, what did the new Connecticut lady say, when +you told her you were going to Satanstoe, the place where you had come +from, a long time ago?" + +"What she say, Masser Mordy, sah!--she say great foolishness, and make +me mad. 'What you call by dat awful name?' she say, making face like as +if she see a spook. 'You must mean Dibbleton,' she say--'dat 'e way all +'e people as is genteel call 'e Neck?' Did you ebber hear 'e like, sah?" + +"Oh! yes; I heard the like of it, as soon as I was born; the attempt to +change the name of our old place having existed now, these thirty years. +Why, some people call Hellgate, Hurlgate; after that, one may expect +anything. Do you not know, Jaap, a Yankee is never satisfied, unless he +is effecting changes? One half his time he is altering the pronunciation +of his own names, and the other half he is altering ours. Let him call +the place what he will, you and I will stick to Satanstoe." + +"Dat we _will_, sah--gib 'e debbil his due, sah; dat an ole sayin'. I'm +sure anybody as has eyes, can see where his toe hab turn up 'e sile, and +shape it he own way--no dibble dere, sah." + +Thus saying, Jaap rode on, my sister and myself doing the same, pursuing +the discourse that had thus accidentally arisen among us. + +"Is it not odd, brother, that strangers should have this itching to +alter the name of my grandmother's place?" said Kate, after we had +parted from the black. "It is a homely name, certainly; but it has been +used, now, a good deal more than a century, and time, at least, should +entitle it to be let alone." + +"Ay, my dear; but you are not yet aware of the desires, and longings, +and efforts, and ambition of a 'little learning.' I have seen enough, in +my short career, to know there is a spirit up among us, that calls +itself by the pretending title of the 'spirit of improvement,' which is +likely to overturn more important things than the name of our poor Neck. +It is a spirit that assumes the respectable character of a love of +liberty; and under that mask, it gives play to malice, envy, +covetousness, rapacity, and all the lowest passions of our nature. Among +other things, it takes the provincial pretence of a mock-refinement, and +flatters an elegance of thought that is easiest attained by those who +have no perceptions of anything truly elevated, by substituting +sqeamishness and affectations for the simplicity of nature, and a good +tone of manners." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + _Beat._ "Against my will, I am sent to bid you come in to dinner." + _Bene._ "Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your pains." + _Beat._ "I took no more pains for these thanks, than + You take pains to thank me; if it had been painful, + I would not have come."--_Much Ado About Nothing._ + + +In the porch of the house at Satanstoe stood my dear grandmother and the +notable Tom Bayard, to receive us. The first glance at the latter told +me that he was a "proper man;" and by the second, I got the pleasing +assurance that he had no eye, just then, but for Kate. This was pleasant +to know, as I never could have been happy in consenting to yield that +dear girl to any but a man who appreciated her worth, and fully admired +her beauty. As to my dear "ole, ole" grandmother, who was not so very +old neither, being still under seventy, her reception of us was just +what I had ever found it; warm, affectionate, and gentle. She called my +father, the general, Corny, even when she spoke to him in a room full of +company; though, for that matter, I have heard my mother, who was much +more of a woman of the world, having lived a great deal in society, do +the same thing, when she thought herself alone. I have read some +priggish book or other, written no doubt by one who knew men only +through pages like his own, decry such familiarities; but I have +generally found those the happiest families, and at the bottom, the best +toned, where it was Jack, and Tom, and Bob, and Dick, and Bess, and Di. +As for your Louisa Adelinas, and Robert Augustuses, and all such +elaborate respect, I frankly declare I have a contempt for it. Those are +the sort of people who would call Satanstoe, Dibbleton; Hellgate, +Hurlgate; and themselves accomplished. Thank heaven, we had no such +nonsense at Lilacsbush, or at the Neck. My father was Corny; my mother, +Anneke; Katrinke, Kate; and I was Mordy, or Mord; or, when there was no +hurry, Mordaunt. + +Tom Bayard met my salutations frankly, and with a gentleman-like ease, +though there was a slight color on his cheek which said to me, "I mean +to get your sister." Yet I liked the fellow's manner. There was no +grasping of the hand, and coming forward to rush into an intimacy at the +first moment we met; but he returned my bow graciously and gracefully, +and his smile as he did so seemed to invite farther and better +acquaintance. + +Now I have seen a man cross a whole room to shake hands at an +introduction to an utter stranger, and maintain a countenance the whole +time as sombre as if he were condoling with him on the loss of his wife. +This habit of shaking hands dolefully is growing among us, and is +imported from some of our sister States; for it is certainly not a New +York custom, except among intimates; and it is a bad usage in my +opinion, as it destroys one of the best means of graduating feelings, +and is especially ungraceful at an introduction. But alas! there are so +many such innovations, that one cannot pretend to predict where they are +to stop. I never shook hands at an introduction, unless it were under my +own roof, and when I wished to denote a decidedly hospitable feeling, +until after I was forty. It was thought vulgar in my younger days, and I +am not quite certain it is not thought so now. + +In the little old-fashioned drawing-room, as of late years my good +grandmother had been persuaded to call what was once only the best +parlor, we found Miss Priscilla Bayard, who for some reason that was +unexplained, did not come to the porch to meet her friend. She was in +truth a charming girl, with fine dark eyes, glossy hair, a delicate and +lady-like form, and a grace of manner that denoted perfect familiarity +with the best company of the land. Kate and Pris embraced each other +with a warmth and sincerity that spoke in favor of each, and with +perfect nature. An affected American girl, by the way, is very uncommon; +and nothing strikes me sooner, when I see my own countrywomen placed at +the side of Europeans, than the difference in this respect; the one +seems so natural, while the other is so artificial! + +My own reception by Miss Bayard was gracious, though I fancied it was +not entirely free from the consciousness of having, on some idle +occasion, heard her own name intimately connected with mine. Perhaps +Kate, in their confidential moments, may have said something to this +effect; or I may have been mistaken. + +My grandmother soon announced that the whole party was to pass the night +at Satanstoe. As we were accustomed to such plans, neither Kate nor +myself raised the least objection, while the Bayards submitted to +orders, which I soon discovered even they were not unused to, with +perfect good will and submission. Thus brought together, in the +familiarity of a quiet and small party in a country house, we made great +progress in intimacy; and by the time dinner was over, or by four +o'clock, I felt like an old acquaintance with those who had so lately +been strangers to me, even by name. As for Bayard and my sister, they +were in the best of humors from the start, and I felt satisfied _their_ +affair was a settled thing in their own minds; but Miss Priscilla was a +little under constraint for an hour or two, like a person who felt a +slight embarrassment. This wore off, however, and long before we left +the table she had become entirely herself; and a very charming self it +was, I was forced to admit. I say forced; for spite of all I had said, +and a certain amount of good sense, I hope, it was impossible to get rid +of the distrust which accompanied the notion that I was expected to fall +in love with the young lady. My poor grandmother contributed her share, +too, to keeping this feeling alive. The manner in which she looked from +one to the other, and the satisfied smile that passed over her +countenance whenever she observed Pris and myself conversing freely, +betrayed to me completely that she was in the secret, and had a hand in +what I chose to regard as a sort of plot. + +I had heard that my grandmother had set her heart on the marriage of my +parents a year or two before matters came round, and that she always +fancied she had been very instrumental in forming a connection that had +been as happy as her own. The recollection, or the fancy of this success +most probably encouraged her to take a share in the present scheme; and +I have always supposed that she got us all together on that occasion in +order to help the great project along. + +A walk on the Neck was proposed in the cool of the evening; for +Satanstoe had many a pleasant path, pretty vista, and broad view. Away +we went, then, the four of us, Kate leading the way, as the person most +familiar with the "capabilities." We were soon on the shore of the +Sound, and at a point where a firm, wide beach of sand had been left by +the receding waters, rocks fringing the inner boundary toward the main. +Here one could walk without confinement of any sort, there being room to +go in pairs, or all abreast, as we might choose. Miss Bayard seeming a +little coy, and manifesting a desire to keep near her friend, I +abandoned the intention of walking at her side, but fell behind a +little, and got into discourse with her brother. Nor was I sorry to have +this early opportunity of sounding the party who was likely soon to +become so nearly connected with me. After a few minutes, the +conversation turned on the late revolution, and the manner in which it +was likely to influence the future fortunes of the country. I knew that +a portion of the family of my companion had adhered to the crown, losing +their estates by the act of confiscation; but I also knew that a portion +did not, and I was left to infer that Tom's branch belonged to the +latter division of his name, inasmuch as his father was known to be very +easy in his circumstances, if not absolutely rich. It was not long, +however, before I ascertained that my new friend was a mild tory, and +that he would have been better pleased had the rights we had sought, and +which he was willing enough to admit had been violated, been secured +without a separation of the two countries. As the Littlepages had +actually been in arms against the crown, three generations of them, too, +at the same time, and the fact could be no secret, I was pleased with +the candor with which Tom Bayard expressed his opinions on these points; +for it spoke well of the truth and general sincerity of his character. + +"Does it not strike you as a necessary consequence of the distance +between the two countries," I remarked in the course of the +conversation, "that a separation must, sooner or later, have occurred? +It is impossible that two countries should long have common rulers when +they are divided by an ocean. Admitting that _our_ separation has been a +little premature, a circumstance I should deny in a particular +discussion, it is an evil that every hour has a tendency to lessen." + +"Separations in families are always painful, Major Littlepage; when +accompanied by discussions, doubly so." + +"Quite true; yet they always happen. If not in this generation, in the +next." + +"I _do_ think," said Tom Bayard, looking at me a little imploringly, +"that we might have got along with our difficulties without casting +aside our allegiance to the king." + +"Ay, that has been the stumbling-block with thousands; and yet it is, in +truth, the very weakest part of the transatlantic side of the question. +Of what avail is allegiance to the king, if parliament uses its power in +a way to make American interests subservient to those of England? A +great deal may be said, that is reasonable, in favor of kingly power; +that I am ready enough to allow; but very little that renders one +_people_ subject to _another_. This thing called loyalty blinds men to +facts, and substitutes a fancied for a real power. The question has +been, whether England, by means of a parliament in which we have no +representative, is to make laws for us or not; and not whether George +III. is to be our sovereign, or whether we are to establish the +sovereignty of the people."[4] + +[Footnote 4: [This short dialogue is given in the text, because it is +found in Mr. Mordaunt Littlepage's manuscript, and not because the state +of feeling in this country to-day has any connection with the opinions +expressed. The American nation, as a whole, is now as completely +emancipated from English political influence, as if the latter never had +an existence. The emancipation is too complete, indeed, the effect +having brought with it a reaction that is, on many points, running into +error in a contrary direction; the third of our manuscripts having +something to do with these excesses of opinion. But Mr. Mordaunt +Littlepage appears to have some near glimmerings of the principles which +lay at the root of the American revolution, though the principle itself +does not appear to have been openly recognized anywhere at the time. The +king of England was originally king of America, as he was king of +Ireland, and king of Scotland. It is true, there was no American flag, +the system excluding the colonies from any power on the ocean; then each +colony existed as independent of the others, except through their common +allegiance. The revolution of 1688 slowly brought parliament into the +ascendant; and by the time George III. ascended the throne, that +ascendancy had got to be almost undisputed. Now, America had no proper +connection with parliament, which, in that day, represented England and +Wales only; and this was a state of things which made one _country_ +dependent on the _other_, a subserviency of interests that clearly could +last only so long as the party governed was too weak to take care of +itself.]] + +Bayard bowed, civilly enough, to my remark, and he changed the subject. +Sufficient had been said, however, to satisfy me that there would be +little political sympathy between us, let the family tie be drawn as +close as it might. The girls joined us before we had got altogether into +another vein of discourse, and I was a little chagrined at finding that +Kate entered rather more into her admirer's views of such subjects than +comported with the true feelings, as I fancied, of a Littlepage, after +all that had passed. Still, as I should have liked the woman I loved to +agree with me in opinion as much as possible in everything, I was not +disposed to judge harshly of my sister on that account. On the other +hand, to my surprise, I found Miss Priscilla a zealous, and, to say the +truth, a somewhat blind patriot; condemning England, the king, and the +efforts of parliament with a warmth that was only equal to that with +which she defended everything, act, measure, principle, or policy, that +was purely American. + +I cannot say I had as much tolerance for the patriotism of Miss Bayard +as I had for the petit treason of my sister. It seemed natural enough +that Kate should begin to look at things of this nature with the eyes of +the man she had made up her mind to marry; but it looked far more like +management in her friend, who belonged to a tory family, to volunteer so +freely the sentiments of one she could not yet love, inasmuch as until +that day she had never even seen him. + +"Is it not so, Major Littlepage?" cried this lovely creature, for very +lovely she was, beyond all dispute; and feminine and delicate, and +lady-like, and all I could have wished her, had she only been a little +less of a whig, and a good deal more of a tory; her eyes sparkling and +flashing, at the same time, as if she felt all she was saying from the +very bottom of her heart--"Is it not so, Major Littlepage?--America has +come out of this war with imperishable glory; and her history, a +thousand years hence, will be the wonder and admiration of all who read +it!" + +"That will somewhat depend on what her history may prove to be, between +that day and this. The early history of all _great_ nations fills us +with admiration and interest, while mightier deeds effected by an +insignificant people are usually forgotten." + +"Still, this revolution has been one of which any nation might have been +proud!" + +As it would not have been proper to deny this I bowed, and strayed a +little from the rest of the party, under the pretence of looking for +shells. My sister soon joined me, when the following short conversation +passed between us. + +"You find Pris Bayard a stanch whig, Major Littlepage," commenced my +warm-hearted sister. + +"Very much so; but I had supposed the Bayards excessively neutral, if +not absolutely the other way." + +"Oh! that is true enough of most of them, but not with Pris, who has +long been a decided whig. There is Tom, now, rather moderate in his +opinions, while the father and mother are what you call excessively +neutral; but Pris has been a whig almost as long as I have known her." + +"Almost as long! She was, then, a tory once?" + +"Hardly; though certainly her opinions have undergone a very gradual +change. We are both young, you will remember; and girls at their first +coming out do very little of their own thinking. For the last three +years, certainly, or since she was seventeen, Pris has been getting to +be more and more of a whig, and less and less of a tory. Do you not find +her decidedly handsome, Mordaunt?" + +"Very decidedly so, and very winning in all that belongs to her +sex--gentle, feminine, lady-like, lovely, and withal a whig." + +"I knew you would admire her!" cried Kate, in triumph, "I shall live to +see my dearest wish accomplished!" + +"I make no doubt you will, child; though it will not be by the marriage +of a _Mr._ Littlepage to a _Miss_ Bayard." + +I got a laugh and a blush for this sally, but no sign of submission. On +the contrary, the positive girl shook her head, until her rich curls +were all in motion, and she laughed none the less. We immediately joined +our companions, and by one of those crossings over and figurings in, +that are so familiar to the young of the two sexes, we were soon walking +along the sands again, Tom at Kate's side, and I at that of Priscilla +Bayard's. What the other two talked about I never knew, though I fancy +one might guess; but the young lady with me pursued the subject of the +revolution. + +"You have probably been a little surprised, Major Littlepage," she +commenced, "to hear me express myself so warmly in favor of this +country, as some of the branches of my family have been treated harshly +by the new government." + +"You allude to the confiscations? I never justified them, and wish they +had not been made; for they fall heaviest on those who were quite +inoffensive, while most of our active enemies have escaped. Still it is +no more than is usual in civil wars, and what would surely have befallen +us, had it been our fortune to be the losing party." + +"So I have been told; but, as no loss has fallen on any who are very +near to me, my public virtue has been able to resist private feeling. My +brother, as you may have seen, is less of an American than I am myself." + +"I have supposed he is one of the 'extremely neutral;' and they, I have +thought, always incline a little in favor of the losing party." + +"I hope, however, his political bias, which is very honest, though very +much in error, will not materially affect him in your good opinion. Too +much depends on that, for me not to be anxious on the subject; and being +the only decided whig in the family, I have thought I would venture to +speak in behalf of a very dearly beloved brother." + +"Well," I said to myself, "this is being sufficiently managing; but I am +not quite so unpractised as to be the dupe of an artifice so little +concealed! The deuce is in the girl; yet she seems in earnest, looks at +me with the good faith and simplicity of a sister who feels even more +than she expresses, and is certainly one of the loveliest creatures I +ever laid eyes on! I must not let her see how much I am on my guard, but +must meet management with management. It will be singular, indeed, if I, +who have commanded a company of continentals with some credit, cannot +get along with a girl of twenty, though she were even handsomer, and +looked still more innocent than this Pris Bayard, which would be no easy +matter, by the way." + +The reader will understand this was what I said to myself, and it was +soon uttered, for one talks surprisingly fast to himself; but that which +I said to my fair companion, after a moment's hesitation, was very +different in language and import. + +"I do not understand in what way Mr. Bayard can be affected by my +opinion, let it be for or against him," I answered, with just as much +innocency of expression, according to my notion of the matter, as the +young lady herself had thrown into her own pretty countenance, thereby +doing myself infinite credit, in my own conceit; "though I am far from +judging any man severely, because he happens to differ from me in his +judgment of public things. The question was one of great delicacy, and +the most honest men have differed the widest on its merits." + +"You do not know how glad I am to hear you say this, Mr. Littlepage," +returned my companion, with one of the sweetest smiles woman ever +bestowed on man. "It will make Tom completely happy, for I know he has +been sadly afraid of you, on this very point." + +I did not answer instantly; for I believe I was watching the traces of +that bewitching smile, and speculating against its influence with the +pertinacity of a man who was determined not to be taken in. That smile +haunted me for a week, and it was a long time before I fully +comprehended it. I decided, however, to come to the point at once, as +respects Bayard and my sister, and not be beating the bush with indirect +allusions. + +"In what manner can my opinion influence your brother, Miss Bayard?" I +asked, as soon as I was ready to say anything. "To prevent +misconceptions, let me beg of you to be a little more explicit." + +"You can hardly be ignorant of my meaning, I should think!" answered +Priscilla, with a little surprise. "One has only to look at the couple +before us, to comprehend how your opinion of the gentleman might have an +influence on himself, at least." + +"The same might be said of us, Miss Bayard, so far as my inexperienced +eye can tell. They are a young couple, walking together; the gentleman +appearing to admire the lady, I will confess; and we are a young couple +walking together, the gentleman appearing to admire the lady, or he does +no credit to his taste or sensibility." + +"There," said I to myself again, "that is giving her quite as good as I +received; let me see how you take _that_." + +Pris took it very well; laughing, and blushing just enough to make her +appear the loveliest creature I had ever laid eyes on. She shook her +head very much as my sister had done not long before, and disclaimed the +analogy, first in her manner, and next with her tongue. + +"The cases are very different, sir," she answered. "We are strangers to +each other, while Tom Bayard and Kate Littlepage are acquaintances of +years' standing. _We_ do not love each other in the least; not a bit, +though we are inclined to think very well of each other, on account of +the interest we take in the couple before us, and because I am the +intimate friend of your only sister, and because you are the only +brother of my intimate friend. _There_, however," and she now spoke with +emphasis, "our interest ceases, never to be increased beyond a friendly +regard, that I trust will grow up out of our respective merits and +respective discernment. It is very, _very_ different with the couple +before us;" here, again, the flexible girl spoke with extreme feeling; +every tone and cadence of her voice denoting lively sensibility. "They +have been long attached, not _admirers_ of each other, as you call it, +Major Littlepage, but _attached_; and your opinion of my brother just at +this moment, is of the last importance to him. I hope I have at last +made myself understood?" + +"Perfectly; and I intend to be just as explicit. In the first place I +enter a solemn protest against all that you have said about the 'other +couple,' with the exception of the interest we each feel in the brother +or sister. Next, I proclaim Kate Littlepage to be her own mistress, so +far as her brother Mordaunt is concerned, and lastly, I announce that I +see or know nothing in the character, connections, fortune, person, or +position of her suitor, Thomas Bayard, of the Hickories, Esquire, that +is in the least below her pretensions or merits. I hope that is +sufficiently satisfactory?" + +"Entirely so; and from the bottom of my heart I thank you for it. I will +own I have had some little apprehensions on the subject of Tom's +political opinions; but those removed, nothing else _can_ remain to +create the smallest uneasiness." + +"How is it possible that any of you could consider my notions of so much +importance, when Kate has a father, a mother, and a grandmother living, +all of whom, as I understand things, approve of her choice?" + +"Ah, Mr. Littlepage, you are not conscious of your importance in your +own family, I see. I know it better than you appear to know it yourself. +Father, mother, grandmother, and sister, all think and speak of Mordaunt +alike. To hear the general converse of the war, you would suppose that +_he_ had commanded a company, and Captain Littlepage the regiment. Mr. +Littlepage defers to Mordaunt's taste, and Mordaunt's opinions, and +Mordaunt's judgment, even in housekeeping and hemstitching. Kate is +forever saying, 'my brother says this,' 'my brother writes that,' 'my +brother does t'other;' and as for the old lady here at the 'Toe,' she +would hardly think her peaches and cherries could ripen, unless Mordaunt +Littlepage, the son of _her_ son Corny Littlepage--by no accident does +she ever call him 'general,'--were on the face of the earth to create an +eternal sunshine!" + +Was there ever a girl like this! That speech was made too, in the +quietest, most gentle, lady-like manner possible. That the young lady +had spirit and humor enough, was very apparent; and for a moment I +doubted whether both were not accompanied by the most perfect simplicity +of character, and the most perfect good faith. Subsequent remarks and +occurrences, however, soon revived all my original distrusts. + +"This is a vivid picture of family weaknesses, that you have so +graphically drawn, Miss Bayard," I answered; "and I shall not easily +forget it. What renders it the more lively and pointed, and the more +likely to be relished by the world, is the fact that Mordaunt so little +deserves the extreme partiality of the friends you have mentioned." + +"The last feature forms no part of my picture, Major Littlepage, and I +disown it. As for the world, it will never know anything about it. You +and I are not the world, nor are we at all likely ever to be the world +to each other; I wish you particularly to understand _that_, which is +the reason I am so frank with you on so short an acquaintance. I tell +you your opinion is of the last importance to Tom; as your sister would +not marry him, did she believe you thought in the least ill of him." + +"And she would, did I think well of him?" + +"That is a question a lady must answer for herself. And now we will say +no more on the subject; for my mind is easy since I find you entertain +no political hostility to Tom." + +"Men are much less apt to entertain such feelings, I fancy, after they +have fairly fought out a quarrel, than when they only talk over its +heads. Besides, the winning party is commonly the least rancorous, and +success will make us whigs forgiving. I give you my honor, no objection +will be raised against your brother, by me, on account of his opinions +of the revolution. My dear mother herself has been half a tory the whole +war; and Kate, I find, has imbibed all her charity." + +A singular, and, as I found, a painful smile, crossed the sweet face of +Priscilla Bayard, as I made this remark; but she did not answer it. It +seemed to me she was now desirous of quitting the subject entirely, and +I immediately led the discourse to other things. + +Kate and I remained at Satanstoe several days, and Tom Bayard was a +daily visitor; the distance between the Neck and the Hickories being no +great matter. I saw the young lady twice during the interval; once, by +riding over to her father's residence with that express object; and once +when she came across on horseback to see her friend. I confess I was +never more at a loss to understand a character than I was that of this +young woman. She was either profoundly managing, or as innocent and +simple as a child. It was easy to see that her brother, my sister, my +grandmother, and, as I fancied, the parents of the young lady herself, +were anxious that I should be on as good terms as possible with Pris, as +they all called her; though I could not fathom her own feelings on the +subject. It would have been unnatural not to have loved to gaze on her +exceeding beauty, or not to have admired her extremely graceful and +feminine manner, which was precisely all that one could wish it to be in +the way of ease and self-possession, without being in the least free or +forward; and I did gaze on the one, and admire the other, at the very +moment I was most disposed to distrust her sincerity, and to believe her +nature the very perfection of art. There were times when I was disposed +to fancy this Pris Bayard as profound and skilful an actor as one of her +sex, years, and condition in life could well become, without falling +altogether; and there were moments, too, when she seemed to be instinct +with all the sensitive and best qualities of her sex. + +It is scarcely necessary to say I remained heart-whole, under such +circumstances, notwithstanding the obvious wishes of my friends, and the +young lady's great advantages! A man no more falls blindly in love when +he distrusts anything amiss, than he sees anything amiss when he is +blindly in love. It has often been a matter of surprise to me, how often +and how completely the wisest of the earthly races conspire to deceive +themselves. When suspicions are once excited, testimony is not needed; +condemnation following much as a logical induction, though founded on +nothing better than plausible distrusts; while, on the other hand, where +confidence exists, testimony is only too apt to be disregarded. Women, +in particular, are peculiarly apt to follow the bias of their +affections, rather than of their reasons, in all cases connected with +guilt. They are hard to be convinced of the unworthiness of those who +belong to them through the affections, because the affections are +usually stronger with them than their reasoning powers. How they cling +to their priests, for instance, when the cooler heads and greater +experience of men condemn, and that merely because their imaginations +choose to adorn the offenders with the graces of that religion which +they venerate, and on which they rely? He is a shrewd man who can draw +the line between the real and the false in these matters; but he is +truly a weak one who disregards evidence, when evidence is complete and +clear. That we all have our sins and our failings is true, but there are +certain marks of unworthiness which are infallible, and which ought +never to be disregarded, since they denote the existence of the want of +principle that taints a whole character. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + "He were an excellent man that were made just in the midway + between him and Benedick; the one is too like an image, and + says nothing; and the other, too like my lady's eldest son, + evermore tattling."--_Beatrice._ + + +The very day my sister and I left Satanstoe, there was an interesting +interview between my grandmother and myself, that it may be well to +relate. It took place in the cool of the morning, before breakfast, +indeed, and previously to the appearance of any of the rest of the +party; for Tom Bayard and his sister had again ridden across the country +to pass the night and see us off. My grandmother had requested me to +meet her thus early, in a sort of little piazza, that modern +improvements had annexed to one end of the old buildings, and in which +we both appeared accordingly with the utmost punctuality. I saw by a +certain sort of importance that my good grandmother wore in her +countenance, that she had weighty matters on her mind, and took the +chair she had set for me with some little curiosity to learn what was to +follow. The chairs were placed side by side, or nearly so, but looking +different ways, and so close together that, when seated, we were quite +face to face. My grandmother had on her spectacles, and she gazed +wistfully through them at me, parting the curls on my forehead, as had +been her wont when I was a boy. I saw tears rolling out from behind the +glasses, and felt apprehensive I might have said or done something to +have wounded the spirit of that excellent and indulgent parent. + +"For heaven's sake, grandmother, what can this mean?" I cried. "Have I +done anything amiss?" + +"No, my child, no; but much to the contrary. You are, and ever have +been, a good and dutiful son, not only to your real parents, but to me. +But your name ought to have been Hugh--that I will maintain long as I +live. I told your father as much when you were born; but he was Mordaunt +mad then, as, indeed, he has remained pretty much ever since. Not that +Mordaunt is not a good name and a respectable name, and they say it is a +noble name in England, but it is a family name, and family names are not +for Christian names, at the best. Hugh should have been your name, if I +could have had my way; and, if not Hugh, Corny. Well, it is too late for +that now, as Mordaunt you are, and Mordaunt you must live and die. Did +any one ever tell you, my child, how very, _very_ like you are to your +honored grandfather?" + +"My mother, frequently--I have seen the tears start into her eyes as she +gazed at me, and she has often told me my family name ought to have been +Mordaunt, so much do I resemble her father." + +"_Her_ father!--Well, Anneke _does_ get some of the strangest conceits +into her head! A better woman, or a dearer, does not breathe--I love +your mother, my child, quite as much as if she had been born my own +daughter; but I must say she does get some of the strangest notions into +her head that mortal ever imagined. You like Herman Mordaunt! You are +the very image of your grandfather Littlepage, and no more like Herman +Mordaunt than you are like the king!" + +The revolution was then, and is now, still too recent to prevent these +constant allusions to royalty, notwithstanding my grandfather had been +as warm a whig as there was in the colonies, from the commencement of +the struggle. As for the resemblance spoken of, I have always understood +I was a mingled repetition of the two families, as so often happens, a +circumstance that enables my different relatives to trace such +resemblances as best suit their respective fancies. This was quite +convenient, and may have been a reason, in addition to the fact of my +being an only son, that I was so great a favorite with the females of my +family. My dear old grandmother, who was then in her sixty-ninth year, +was so persuaded of my likeness to her late husband, the "old general," +as he was now called, that she would not proceed in her communications +until she had wiped her eyes, and gratified her affections with another +long and wistful gaze. + +"Oh, _those_ eyes!" she murmured--"and _that_ forehead!--The mouth, too, +and the nose, to say nothing of the smile, which is as much alike as one +pea is like another!" + +This left very little for the Mordaunts, it must be owned; the chin and +ears being pretty much all that were not claimed for the direct line. It +is true my eyes were blue, and the "old general's" had been as black as +coals; my nose was Grecian, and his a most obtrusive Roman; and as for +the mouth, I can only say mine was as like that of my mother's as a +man's could well be like a woman's. The last I had heard my father say a +thousand times. But no matter; age, and affection, and the longings of +the parent, caused my grandmother to see things differently. + +"Well, Mordaunt," the good old lady at length continued, "how do you +like this choice of your sister Kate's? Mr. Bayard is a charming young +man, is he not?" + +"Is it then a choice, grandmother? Has Kate actually made up her mind?" + +"Pshaw!" answered my grandmother, smiling as archly as if she were +sixteen herself--"that was done long ago--and papa approved, and mamma +was anxious, and I consented, and sister Anneke was delighted, and +everything was as smooth as the beach at the end of the Neck, but +waiting for your approbation. 'It would not be right, grandmother, for +me to engage myself while Mordaunt is away, and without his even knowing +the gentleman; so I will not answer until I get his approbation too,' +said Kate. That was very pretty in her, was it not, my child? All your +father's children _have_ a sense of propriety!" + +"Indeed it was, and I shall not forget it soon. But suppose I had +disapproved, what would have followed, grandmother?" + +"You should never ask unpleasant questions, saucy fellow; though I dare +to say Kate would at least have asked Mr. Bayard to wait until you had +changed your mind. Giving him up altogether would be out of the +question, and unreasonable; but she might have waited a few months or +so, until you changed your mind; and I would have advised her so to do. +But all that is unnecessary as matters are; for you have expressed your +approbation, and Kate is perfectly happy. The last letter from +Lilacsbush, which Jaap brought, gives the formal consent of your dear +parents--and what parents you have, my child!--so Kate wrote an +acceptance yesterday, and it was as prettily expressed a note as I have +seen in many a day. Your own mother could not have done better in her +young days; and Anneke Mordaunt worded a note as genteelly as any young +woman I ever knew." + +"I am glad everything has gone right, and am sure no one can wish the +young couple more happiness than I do myself. Kate is a dear, good girl, +and I love her as much as a brother can love a sister." + +"Is she not? and as thorough a Littlepage as ever was born! I _do_ hope +she will be happy. All the marriages in our family have proved so +hitherto, and it would be strange if this should turn out differently. +Well, now, Mordaunt, when Kate is married, you will be the only one +left." + +"That is true, grandmother; and you must be glad to find there will be +one of us left to come and see you, without bringing nurses and children +at his heels." + +"I!--I glad of anything of the sort! No, indeed, my child; I should be +sorry enough did I think for a moment, you would not marry as soon as is +prudent, now that the war is over. As for the children, I dote on them; +and I have ever thought it a misfortune that the Littlepages have had so +few, especially sons. Your grandfather, _my_ general, was an only son; +your father was an only son; and you are an only son; that is, so far as +coming to men's estates are, or were concerned. No, Mordaunt, my child, +it is the warmest wish of my heart to see you properly married, and to +hold the Littlepages of the next generation in my arms. Two of you I +have had there already, and I shall have lived the life of the blessed +to be able to hold the third." + +"My dear, good grandmother!--what am I to understand by all this?" + +"That I wish you to marry, my child, now that the war is ended; that +your father wishes you to marry; that your mother wishes you to marry; +and that your sister wishes you to marry." + +"And all of you wish me to marry the same person? Is it not so?" + +My grandmother smiled, but she fidgeted; fancying, as I suspected, that +she had been pushing matters a little too fast. It was not easy, +however, for one of her truth and simplicity of character to recede +after having gone so far; and she wisely determined to have no reserves +with me on the subject. + +"I believe you are right, Mordaunt," she answered, after a short pause. +"We _do_ all wish you to fall in love as soon as you can; to propose as +soon as you are in love; and to marry Priscilla Bayard, the instant she +will consent to have you." + +"This is honest, and like yourself, my dear grandmother; and now we both +know what is intended, and can speak plainly. In the first place, do you +not think one connection of this sort, between families, quite +sufficient? If Kate marry the brother, may I not be excused for +overlooking the attractions of the sister?" + +"Priscilla Bayard is one of the loveliest girls in York Colony, Mordaunt +Littlepage!" + +"We call this part of the world York _State_, now, dearest grandmother. +I am far from denying the truth of what you say;--Priscilla Bayard _is_ +very lovely." + +"I do not know what more you can wish, than to get such a girl." + +"I shall not say that the time will not come when I may be glad to +obtain the consent of the young lady to become my wife; but that time +has not yet arrived. Then, I question the expediency, when friends +greatly desire any particular match, of saying too much about it." + +My poor grandmother looked quite astounded, like one who felt she had +innocently done mischief; and she sat gazing fondly at me, with the +expression of a penitent child painted in her venerated countenance. + +"Nevertheless, Mordaunt, I had a great share in bringing about the union +between your own dear parents," she at length answered; "and that has +been one of the happiest marriages I have ever known!" + +I had often heard allusions of this nature, and I had several times +observed the quiet smile of my mother, as she listened to them; smiles +that seemed to contradict the opinion to which my grandmother's mistaken +notions of her own influence had given birth. On one occasion (I was +still quite a boy), I remember to have asked my mother how the fact was, +when the answer was, "I married your father through the influence of a +butcher's boy;" a reply that had some reference to a very early passage +in the lives of my parents. But I well know that Cornelius Littlepage, +nor Anneke Mordaunt, was a person to be _coaxed_ into matrimony; and I +resolved on the spot, their only son should manifest an equal +independence. I might have answered my grandmother to this effect, and +in language stronger than was my practice when addressing that reverend +parent, had not the two girls appeared on the piazza at that moment, and +broke up our private conference. + +Sooth to say, Priscilla Bayard came forth upon me, that morning, with +something like the radiance of the rising sun. Both the girls had that +fresh, attractive look, that is apt to belong to the toilets of early +risers of their sex, and which probably renders them handsomer at that +hour, than at any other part of the day. My own sister was a very +charming girl, as any one would allow; but her friend was decidedly +beautiful. I confess I found it a little difficult not to give in on the +spot, and to whisper my anxious grandmother that I would pay proper +attention to the young lady, and make an offer at the suitable time, as +she advanced toward us, exchanging the morning salutations, with just +enough of ease to render her perfectly graceful, and yet with a modesty +and _retenue_ that were infinitely winning. + +"Mordaunt is about to quit me, for the whole summer, Miss Bayard," said +my grandmother, who would be doing while there was a chance; "and I have +had him out here, to converse a little together, before we part. Kate I +shall see often during the pleasant season, I trust; but this is to be +the last of Mordaunt until the cold weather return." + +"Is Mr. Littlepage going to travel?" inquired the young lady, with just +as much interest as good breeding demanded, and not a particle more; +"for Lilacsbush is not so distant, but he might ride over once a week, +at least, to inquire how you do." + +"Oh, he is going a great, great distance, and to a part of the world I +dread to think of!" + +Miss Bayard now looked really startled, and a good deal astonished, +questioning me with her very fine eyes, though she said nothing with her +tongue of Coejemans, who bears this appellation, and who has contracted +to get the necessary surveys made, though he fills the humble post of a +'chainbearer' himself, not being competent to make the calculations. + +"How can a mere chainbearer contract for a full survey?" asked Tom +Bayard, who had joined the party, and had been listening to the +discourse. "The chainbearers, in general, are but common laborers, and +are perfectly irresponsible." + +"That is true, as a rule; but my old friend forms an exception. He set +out for a surveyor, but having no head for sines, and co-sines, and +tangents, he was obliged to lower his pretensions to the humbler duty he +now discharges. Still, he has long contracted for jobs of this nature, +and gets as much as he can do, hiring surveyors himself, the owners of +property having the utmost confidence in his measurements. Let me tell +you, the man who carries chain is not the least important member of a +surveying party in the woods. Old Andries is as honest as noon-day, and +everybody has faith in him." + +"His true name is Coejemans, I think you said, Major Littlepage?" asked +Priscilla, as it struck me _assuming_ an air of indifference. + +"It is, Andries Coejemans; and his family is reputable, if not +absolutely of a high caste. But the old man is so inveterate a woodsman, +that nothing but patriotism, and his whig propensities, could have drawn +him out into the open country. After serving most gallantly through the +whole war, he has gone back to his chains; and many is the joke he has +about remaining still in chains, after fighting so long and so often in +the cause of liberty." + +Priscilla appeared to hesitate--I thought her color increased a +little--then she asked the question that was apparently uppermost in her +thoughts, with surprising steadiness. + +"Did you ever see the 'Chainbearer's niece, Dus Malbone?" + +This question not a little surprised me; for, though I had never seen +Ursula, the uncle had talked so much to me of his ward, that I almost +fancied she was an intimate acquaintance. It often happens that we hear +so much of certain persons, that we think and speak of them as of those +we know; and had Miss Bayard questioned me of one of my late comrades in +the service, I should not have been a whit more startled than I was at +hearing her pronounce the familiar name of Dus Malbone. + +"Where, in the name of all that is curious, did you ever hear of such a +person!" I exclaimed, a little inconsiderately, since the world was +certainly wide enough to admit of two young women's being acquainted, +without my consent; more especially as one of them I had never seen, and +the other I had met, for the first time, only a fortnight before. "Old +Andries was always speaking to me of his niece; but I could not suppose +she was an acquaintance of one of your position in life!" + +"Notwithstanding, we were something more than school-fellows;--for we +were, and I trust _are_ still very, very good friends. I like Dus +exceedingly, though she is quite as singular, in _her_ way, as I have +heard her uncle described to be, in his." + +"This is odd! Will you allow me to ask one question? You will think it +singular, perhaps, after what you have just told me--but curiosity will +get the better of my manners--is Dus Malbone a _lady_--the equal and +companion of such a person as Miss Priscilla Bayard?" + +"That is a question not so easily answered, perhaps; since, in some +respects, she is greatly the superior of any young woman I know. Her +family, I have always heard, was very good on both sides; she is poor, +poor even to poverty, I fear now." Here Pris. paused; there was a tremor +in her voice, even, and I detected tears starting to her eyes. "Poor +Dus!" she continued--"she had much to support, in the way of poverty, +even while at school; where she was, indeed, as a dependent, rather than +as a boarder; but no one among us all, could presume to offer her +favors. I was afraid even to ask her to accept a ribbon, as I should not +hesitate to do to Kate here, or any other young lady with whom I was +intimate. I never knew a nobler-minded girl than Ursula Malbone, though +few persons understand her, I think." + +"This is old Andries over again! He was poor enough, heaven knows; and I +have known him actually suffer, in order to do his duty by this girl, +and to make a proper appearance at the same time, as a captain in the +New York line; yet none of us, not even my father, could ever induce him +to borrow a single dollar. He would give, but he would not receive." + +"I can believe this readily, it is so like Dus! If she has her +peculiarities, she has noble qualities enough to redeem of Coejemans, +who bears this appellation, and who has contracted to get the necessary +surveys made, though he fills the humble post of a 'chainbearer' +himself, not being competent to make the calculations." + +"How can a mere chainbearer contract for a full survey?" asked Tom +Bayard, who had joined the party, and had been listening to the +discourse. "The chainbearers, in general, are but common laborers, and +are perfectly irresponsible." + +"That is true, as a rule; but my old friend forms an exception. He set +out for a surveyor, but having no head for sines, and co-sines, and +tangents, he was obliged to lower his pretensions to the humbler duty he +now discharges. Still, he has long contracted for jobs of this nature, +and gets as much as he can do, hiring surveyors himself, the owners of +property having the utmost confidence in his measurements. Let me tell +you, the man who carries chain is not the least important member of a +surveying party in the woods. Old Andries is as honest as noon-day, and +everybody has faith in him." + +"His true name is Coejemans, I think you said, Major Littlepage?" asked +Priscilla, as it struck me _assuming_ an air of indifference. + +"It is, Andries Coejemans; and his family is reputable, if not +absolutely of a high caste. But the old man is so inveterate a woodsman, +that nothing but patriotism, and his whig propensities, could have drawn +him out into the open country. After serving most gallantly through the +whole war, he has gone back to his chains; and many is the joke he has +about remaining still in chains, after fighting so long and so often in +the cause of liberty." + +Priscilla appeared to hesitate--I thought her color increased a +little--then she asked the question that was apparently uppermost in her +thoughts, with surprising steadiness. + +"Did you ever see the 'Chainbearer's' niece, Dus Malbone?" + +This question not a little surprised me; for, though I had never seen +Ursula, the uncle had talked so much to me of his ward, that I almost +fancied she was an intimate acquaintance. It often happens that we hear +so much of certain persons, that we think and speak of them as of those +we know; and had Miss Bayard questioned me of one of my late comrades in +the service, I should not have been a whit more startled than I was at +hearing her pronounce the familiar name of Dus Malbone. + +"Where, in the name of all that is curious, did you ever hear of such a +person!" I exclaimed, a little inconsiderately, since the world was +certainly wide enough to admit of two young women's being acquainted, +without my consent; more especially as one of them I had never seen, and +the other I had met, for the first time, only a fortnight before. "Old +Andries was always speaking to me of his niece; but I could not suppose +she was an acquaintance of one of your position in life!" + +"Notwithstanding, we were something more than school-fellows;--for we +were, and I trust _are_ still very, very good friends. I like Dus +exceedingly, though she is quite as singular, in _her_ way, as I have +heard her uncle described to be, in his." + +"This is odd! Will you allow me to ask one question? You will think it +singular, perhaps, after what you have just told me--but curiosity will +get the better of my manners--is Dus Malbone a _lady_--the equal and +companion of such a person as Miss Priscilla Bayard?" + +"That is a question not so easily answered, perhaps; since, in some +respects, she is greatly the superior of any young woman I know. Her +family, I have always heard, was very good on both sides; she is poor, +poor even to poverty, I fear now." Here Pris. paused; there was a tremor +in her voice, even, and I detected tears starting to her eyes. "Poor +Dus!" she continued--"she had much to support, in the way of poverty, +even while at school; where she was, indeed, as a dependent, rather than +as a boarder; but no one among us all, could presume to offer her +favors. I was afraid even to ask her to accept a ribbon, as I should not +hesitate to do to Kate here, or any other young lady with whom I was +intimate. I never knew a nobler-minded girl than Ursula Malbone, though +few persons understand her, I think." + +"This is old Andries over again! He was poor enough, heaven knows; and I +have known him actually suffer, in order to do his duty by this girl, +and to make a proper appearance at the same time, as a captain in the +New York line; yet none of us, not even my father, could ever induce him +to borrow a single dollar. He would give, but he would not receive." + +"I can believe this readily, it is so like Dus! If she has her +peculiarities, she has noble qualities enough to redeem a thousand +foibles. Still, I would not have you to think Ursula Malbone is not an +excellent creature in all respects, though she certainly has her +peculiarities." + +"Which, doubtless, she has inherited from the Coejemans, as her uncle, +the Chainbearer, has _his_ peculiarities, too." + +"The Malbones have none of the blood of the Coejemans," answered the +lady, quickly; "though it is respectable, and not to be ashamed of. Dus +Malbone's mother was only half-sister to Captain Coejemans, and they had +different fathers." + +I thought Pris. looked a little confused, and as if she were sorry she +had said so much on the subject at all, the instant she had betrayed so +much intimacy with the Malbone genealogy; for she shrunk back, plucked a +rose, and walked away smelling the flower, like one who was indisposed +to say any more on the subject. A summons to breakfast, however, would +otherwise have interrupted us, and no more _was_ said about the +Chainbearer, and his marvellous niece, Dus Malbone. As soon as the meal +was ended, our horses were brought round, and Kate and I took our leave, +Jaap having preceded us as usual, an hour or more, with our luggage. The +reader is not to suppose that we always moved in the saddle, in that +day; on the contrary, my mother had a very neat chaise, in which she +used to drive about the country, with a mounted postilion; my father had +a phaeton, and in town we actually kept a chariot; for the union of the +Mordaunt and Littlepage properties had made us very comfortable, and +comfortably we lived. But young ladies liked the saddle twenty-five +years ago, more than they do to-day; and Kate, being a capital +horse-woman, like her mother, before her, we were often out together. It +was choice, then, and not necessity, a little aided by bad roads, +perhaps, that induced us to ride across to Satanstoe so often, when we +wished to visit our grandmother. + +I kissed my dear old parent very affectionately at parting, for I was to +see her no more that summer; and I got her blessing in return. As for +Tom Bayard, a warm, brotherly shake of the hand sufficed, inasmuch as it +was pretty certain I should see _him_ at Lilacsbush before I left home. +Approaching his sister, who held out her hand to me, in a friendly +manner, I said as I took it-- + +"I hope this is not the last time I am to see you before I start for the +new countries, Miss Bayard. You owe my sister a visit, I believe, and I +shall trust to that debt for another opportunity of saying the +unpleasant word 'farewell.'" + +"This is not the way to win a lady's heart, Mordaunt," cried Kate, +gayly. "It is only fifteen miles from your father's door to the +Hickories, you ought to know, sir; and you have a standing invitation to +darken its door with your military form." + +"From both my father and brother"--put in Priscilla, a little hastily. +"They will always be happy to see Major Littlepage, most certainly." + +"And why not from yourself, Miss Prude," added Kate, who seemed bent on +causing her friend some confusion. "We are not now such total strangers +to each other as to render that little grace improper." + +"When I am mistress of a house of my own, should that day ever arrive, I +shall take care not to lose my reputation for hospitality," answered +Pris., determined not to be caught, "by neglecting to include all the +Littlepage family in my invitations. Until then, Tom's and papa's +welcomes must suffice." + +The girl looked amazingly lovely all the time, and stood the smiles of +those around her with a self-possession that showed me she knew +perfectly well what she was about. I was never more at a loss how to +understand a young woman, and it is very possible, had I remained near +her for a month longer, the interest such uncertainty is apt to awaken +might have sent me away desperately in love. But Providence had +determined otherwise. + +During our ride toward the 'Bush, my sister, with proper blushes and a +becoming hesitation, let me into the secret of her having accepted Tom +Bayard. They were not to be married until after my return from the +north, an event that was expected to take place in the ensuing autumn. + +"Then I am to lose you, Kate, almost as soon as I find you," I said, a +little despondingly. + +"Not lose me, brother; no, no, not _lose_ me, but _find_ me, more than +ever. I am to be transplanted into a family whither you will soon be +coming to seek a wife yourself." + +"Were I to come, what reason have I for supposing it would be +successful?" + +"That is a question you have no right to ask. Did I even know of any +particular reason for believing your reception would be favorable, you +cannot believe me sufficiently treacherous to betray my friend. Young +ladies are not of the facility of character you seem to suppose, sir; +and no method but the direct one will succeed. I have no other reason +for believing you would succeed than the facts that you are an +agreeable, good-looking youth, however, of unexceptionable family and +fortune, living quite near the Hickories, and of a suitable age, temper, +habits, character, etc., etc., etc. Are not these reasons sufficient to +encourage you to persevere, my brave major?" + +"Perseverance implies commencement, and I have not yet commenced. I +scarcely know what to make of your friend, child; she is either the +perfection of nature and simplicity, or the perfection of art." + +"Art! Pris. Bayard artful! Mordaunt, you never did a human being greater +injustice; a child cannot have greater truth and sincerity than Tom's +sister." + +"Ay, that's just it; Tom's sister is _ex officio_ perfection; but, you +will please to remember that some children are very artful. All I can +say on the subject at present is, that I like Tom, and I like his +parents; but I do not know what to think of your friend." + +Kate was a little offended, so she made me no answer. Her good humor +returned, however, before we had gone far, and the rest of our ride +passed pleasantly enough, no allusions being made to any of the name of +Bayard; though, I dare say, my companion thought a great deal of a +certain Tom, of that name, as I certainly did of his handsome and +inexplicable sister. + +At the Kingsbridge Inn we had another short brush with that untiring +gossip, its landlady. + +"A pleasant time it has been over at the 'Toe, I dares to say," +exclaimed Mrs. Light, the instant she thrust her head out of the door; +"a most agreeable and amusing time both for the young gentleman and for +the young lady. Mr. Thomas Bayard and Miss Pris. Bayard have been with +you, days and days, and old Madam Littlepage is delighted. Oh! the 'Toe +has always been a happy house, and happy faces have I long been used to +see come out of it, and happy faces do I see to-day! Yes, yes; the 'Toe +has always sent happy, contented faces down the road; and a happy roof +it has been, by all accounts, these hundred years." + +I dare say this was all true enough. I have always heard that the old +place contained contented hearts; and contented hearts make happy faces. +Kate's face was happiness itself, as she sat in the saddle listening to +the crone; and my countenance is not one of ill-nature. The "'Toe was +ever a happy house!" It recalls old times, to hear a house thus +familiarly spoken of; for a set is rising up among us which is vastly +too genteel to admit that any one--man, woman, child, or Satan, ever had +a member so homely as a 'Toe. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + "They love their land, because it is their own, + And scorn to give aught other reason why; + Would shake hands with a king upon his throne, + And think it kindness to his majesty; + A stubborn race, fearing and flattering none, + Such are they nurtured, such they live and die; + All but a few apostates, who are meddling + With merchandise, pounds, shillings, pence and peddling." + --Halleck. + + +A day or two after my return to Lilacsbush, was presented one of these +family scenes which are so common in the genial month of June, on the +shores of the glorious old Hudson. I call the river the _old_ Hudson, +for it is quite as old as the Tiber, though the world has not talked of +it as much, or as long. A thousand years hence, this stream will be +known over the whole earth; and men will speak of it as they now speak +of the Danube and the Rhine. As good wine may not be made on its banks +as is made on the acclivities of the latter river; but, even to-day, +better, both as to quality and variety, is actually drunk. On this last +point, all intelligent travellers agree. + +There stands a noble linden on the lawn of Lilacsbush, at no great +distance from the house, and necessarily within a short distance of the +water. The tree had been planted there by my grandmother Mordaunt's +father, to whom the place once belonged; and was admirably placed for +the purposes of an afternoon's lounge. Beneath its shade we often took +our dessert and wine, in the warm months; and thither, since their +return from the army, General Littlepage and Colonel Dirck Follock used +to carry their pipes, and smoke over a campaign, or a bottle, as chance +directed the discourse. For that matter, no battle-field had ever been +so veiled in smoke, as would have been the case with the linden in +question, could there have been a concentration of all the vapor it had +seen. + +The afternoon of the day just mentioned, the whole family were seated +beneath the tree, scattered round, as shade and inclination tempted; +though a small table, holding fruits and wine, showed that the usual +business of the hour had not been neglected. The wines were Madeira and +claret, those common beverages in the country; and the fruits were +strawberries, cherries, oranges and figs; the two last imported, of +course. It was a little too early for us to get pines from the islands, +a fruit which is so common in its season as to be readily purchased in +town at the rate of four of a good size for a dollar. But, the +abundance, and even luxury, of a better sort of the common American +tables, is no news; viands, liquors and fruits appearing on them, that +are only known to the very rich and very luxurious in the countries of +Europe. If the service were only as tasteful, and the cooking as good +with us, as both are in France, for instance, America would be the very +paradise of the epicure, let superficial travellers say what they please +to the contrary. I have been abroad in these later times, and speak of +what I know. + +No one sat _at_ the table, though my father, Colonel + +Dirck, and I were near enough to reach our glasses, at need. My mother +was next to me, and reasonably close; for I did not smoke, while aunt +Mary and Kate had taken post just without the influence of the tobacco. +On the shore was a large skiff, that contained a tolerably sized trunk +or two, and a sort of clothes-bag. In the first were a portion of my +clothes, while those of Jaap filled the bag. The negro himself was +stretched on the grass, about half-way between the tree and the shore, +with two or three of his grandchildren rolling about, at his feet. In +the skiff was his son, seated in readiness to use the sculls, as soon as +ordered. + +All this arrangement denoted my approaching departure for the north. The +wind was at the south, and sloops of various degrees of promise and +speed were appearing round the points, coming on one in the wake of +another, as each had been able to quit the wharves to profit by the +breeze. In that day, the river had not a tenth part of the craft it now +possesses; but still, it had enough to make a little fleet, so near +town, and at a moment when wind and tide both became favorable. At that +time, most of the craft on the Hudson belonged up the river, and they +partook largely of the taste of our Dutch ancestors. Notable travellers +before the gales, they did very little with foul winds, generally +requiring from a week to a fortnight to tide it down from Albany, with +the wind at all from the south. Nevertheless, few persons thought of +making the journey between the two largest towns of the state (York and +Albany), without having recourse to one of these sloops. I was at that +moment in waiting for the appearance of a certain "Eagle, of Albany, +Captain Bogert," which was to run in close to Lilacsbush, and receive me +on board, agreeably to an arrangement previously made in town. I was +induced to take a passage in this vessel from the circumstance that she +had a sort of after-cabin that was screened by an ample green curtain, +an advantage that all the vessels which then plied on the river did not +possess; though great improvements have been making ever since the +period of which I am now writing. + +Of course, the interval thus passed in waiting for the appearance of the +Eagle was filled up, more or less, by discourse. Jaap, who was to +accompany me in my journey to Ravensnest, knew every vessel on the +river, as soon as he could see her, and we depended on him to let us +know when I was to embark, though the movements of the sloop herself +could not fail to give us timely notice of the necessity of taking +leave. + +"I should like exceedingly to pay a visit to old Mrs. Vander Heyden, at +Kinderhook, Mordaunt," said my mother, after one of the frequent pauses +that occurred in the discourse. "She is a relation, and I feel a great +regard for her; so much the more, from the circumstance of her being +associated in my mind with that frightful night on the river, of which +you have heard me speak." + +As my mother ceased speaking, she glanced affectionately toward the +general, who returned the look, as he returned all my mother's looks, +with one filled with manly tenderness. A more united couple than my +parents never existed. They seemed to me ordinarily to have but one mind +between them; and when there did occur any slight difference of opinion, +the question was not which should prevail, but which should yield. Of +the two, my mother may have had the most native intellect, though the +general was a fine, manly, sensible person, and was very universally +respected. + +"It might be well, Anneke," said my father, "if the major were to pay a +visit to poor Guert's grave, and see if the stones are up, and that the +place is kept as it should be. I have not been there since the year '68, +when it looked as if a friendly eye might do some good at no distant +day." + +This was said in a low voice, purposely to prevent aunt Mary from +hearing it; and, as she was a little deaf, it is probable the intention +was successful. Not so, however, with Colonel Dirck, who drew the pipe +from his mouth, and sat attentively listening, in the manner of one who +felt great interest in the subject. Another pause succeeded. + +"T'en t'ere ist my Lort Howe, Corny," observed the colonel, "how is it +wit' his grave?" + +"Oh! the colony took good care of that. They buried him in the main +aisle of St. Peter's, I believe; and no doubt all is right with him. As +for the other, major, it might be well to look at it." + +"Great changes have taken place at Albany, since we were there as young +people!" observed my mother, thoughtfully. "The Cuylers are much broken +up by the revolution, while the Schuylers have grown greater than ever. +Poor aunt Schuyler, she is no longer living to welcome a son of ours!" + +"Time will bring about such changes, my love; and we can only be +thankful that so many of us remain, after so long and bloody a war." + +I saw my mother's lips move, and I knew she was murmuring a thanksgiving +to the power which had preserved her husband and son through the late +struggle. + +"You will write as often as opportunities occur, Mordaunt," said that +dear parent, after a longer pause than usual. "Now there is peace, I can +hope to get your letters with some little regularity." + +"They tell me, cousin Anneke"--for so the colonel always called my +mother when we were alone--"They tell me, cousin Anneke," said Colonel +Dirck, "t'at t'ey actually mean to have a mail t'ree times a week +petween Alpany and York! T'ere ist no knowing, general, what t'is +glorious revolution will not do for us!" + +"If it bring me letters three times a week from those I love," rejoined +my mother, "I am sure my patriotism will be greatly increased. How will +letters get out from Ravensnest to the older parts of the colony--I +should say state, Mordaunt?" + +"I must trust to the settlers for that. Hundreds of Yankees, they tell +me, are out looking for farms this summer. I may use some of them for +messengers." + +"Don't trust 'em too much, or too many"--growled Colonel Dirck, who had +the old Dutch grudge against our eastern brethren. "See how they behav't +to Schuyler." + +"Yes," said my father, replenishing his pipe, "they _might_ have +manifested more justice and less prejudice to wise Philip; but +prejudices will exist, all over the world. Even Washington has had his +share." + +"T'at is a great man!" exclaimed Colonel Dirck, with emphasis, and in +the manner of one who felt certain of his point. "A _ferry_ great man!" + +"No one will dispute with you, colonel, on that subject; but have you no +message to send to our old comrade, Andries Coejemans? He must have been +at Mooseridge, with his party of surveyors, now near a twelvemonth, and +I'll warrant you has thoroughly looked up the old boundaries, so as to +be ready for Mordaunt to start afresh as soon as the boy reaches the +patent." + +"I hope he has not hiret a Yankee surveyor, Corny," put in the colonel, +in some little alarm. "If one of t'em animals gets upon the tract, he +will manage to carry off half of the lant in his compass-box! I hope olt +Andries knows petter." + +"I dare say he'll manage to keep all the land, as well as to survey it. +It is a thousand pities the captain has no head for figures; for his +honesty would have made his fortune. But I have seen him tried, and know +it will not do. He was a week once making up an account of some stores +received from head-quarters, and the nearest he could get to the result +was twenty-five per cent. out of the way." + +"I would sooner trust Andries Coejemans to survey my property, figures +or no figures," cried Colonel Dirck, positively, "than any dominie in +New England." + +"Well, that is as one thinks," returned my father, tasting the Madeira. +"For my part, I shall be satisfied with the surveyor he may happen to +select, even though he should be a Yankee. Andries is shrewd, if he be +no calculator; and I dare to say he has engaged a suitable man. Having +taken the job at a liberal price, he is too honest a fellow not to hire +a proper person to do the head-work. As for all the rest, I would trust +him as soon as I would trust any man in America." + +"T'at is gospel. Mordaunt will haf an eye on matters too, seein' he has +so great an interest in the estate. T'ere is one t'ing, major, you must +not forget. Five hundred goot acres must be surveyed off for sister +Anneke, and five hundred for pretty Kate, here. As soon as t'at is done, +the general and I will give each of the gals a deet." + +"Thank you, Dirck," said my father, with feeling. "I'll not refuse the +land for the girls, who may be glad enough to own it some time or +other." + +"It's no great matter now, Corny; put, as you say, it may be of use one +day. Suppose we make old Andries a present of a farm, in his pargain." + +"With all my heart," cried my father, quickly. "A couple of hundred +acres might make him comfortable for the rest of his days. I thank you +for the hint, Dirck, and we will let Mordaunt choose the lot, and send +us the description, that we may prepare the deed." + +"You forget, general, that the Chainbearer has, or will have his +military lot, as a captain," I ventured to remark. "Besides, land will +be of little use to him, unless it might be to measure it. I doubt if +the old man would not prefer going without his dinner, to hoeing a hill +of potatoes." + +"Andries had three slaves while he was with us; a man, a woman, and +their daughter," returned my father. "He would not sell them, he said, +on any consideration; and I have known him actually suffering for money +when he was too proud to accept it from his friends, and too benevolent +to part with family slaves, in order to raise it. 'They were born +Coejemans,' he always said, 'as much as I was born one myself, and they +shall die Coejemans.' He doubtless has these people with him, at the +Ridge, where you will find them all encamped, near some spring, with +garden-stuff and other small things growing around him, if he can find +open land enough for such a purpose. He has permission to cut and till +at pleasure." + +"This is agreeable news to me, general," I answered, "since it promises +a sort of home. If the Chainbearer has really these blacks with him, and +has hutted judiciously, I dare say we shall have quite as comfortable a +time as many of those we passed together in camp. Then, I shall carry my +flute with me; for Miss Priscilla Bayard has given me reason to expect a +very wonderful creature in Dus, the niece, of which old Andries used to +talk so much. You remember to have heard the Chainbearer speak of such a +person, I dare say, sir; for he was quite fond of mentioning her." + +"Perfectly well; Dus Malbone was a sort of toast among the young men of +the regiment at one time, though no one of them all ever could get a +sight of her, by hook or by crook." + +Happening to turn my head at that moment, I found my dear mother's eyes +turned curiously on me; brought there, I fancy, by the allusion to Tom's +sister. + +"What does Priscilla Bayard know of this Chainbearer's niece?" that +beloved parent asked, as soon as she perceived that her look had +attracted my attention. + +"A great deal, it would seem; since she tells me they are fast friends; +quite as great, I should judge from Miss Bayard's language and manner, +as Kate and herself." + +"That can scarcely be," returned my mother, slightly smiling, "since +there the principal reason must be wanting. Then, this Dus can hardly be +Priscilla Bayard's equal." + +"One never knows such a thing, mother, until he has had an opportunity +of making comparisons; though Miss Bayard herself says Dus is much her +superior in many things. I am sure her uncle is _my_ superior in some +respects; in carrying chain, particularly so." + +"Ay, but scarcely in station, Mordaunt." + +"He was the senior captain of the regiment." + +"True; but revolutions are revolutions. What I mean is, that your +Chainbearer can hardly be a gentleman." + +"That is a point not to be decided in a breath. He is, and he is not. +Old Andries is of a respectable family, though but indifferently +educated. Men vastly his inferiors in birth, in habits, in the general +notions of the caste, in the New England States, are greatly his +superiors in knowledge. Nevertheless, while we must all admit how +necessary a certain amount of education has become, at the present time, +to make a gentleman, I think every gentleman will allow hundreds among +us have degrees in their pockets with small claims to belong to the +class. Three or four centuries ago, I should have answered that old +Andries _was_ a gentleman, though he had to bite the wax with his teeth +and make a cross, for want of a better signature." + +"And he what you call a chainbearer, Mordaunt!" exclaimed my sister. + +"As well as late senior captain in your father's regiment, Miss +Littlepage. But, no matter, Andries and Dus are such as they are, and I +shall be glad to have them for companions this summer. Jaap is making +signals, and I must quit you all. Heigho! It is very pleasant here, +under this linden, and home begins to entwine its fibres around my +heart. Never mind; it will soon be autumn, and I shall see the whole of +you, I trust, as I leave you, well and happy in town." + +My dear, dear mother had tears in her eyes, when she embraced me; so had +Kate, who, though she did love Tom Bayard most, loved me very warmly +too. Aunt Mary kissed me, in her quiet but affectionate way; and I shook +hands with the gentlemen, who accompanied me down to the boat. I could +see that my father was affected. Had the war still continued, he would +have thought nothing of the separation; but in that piping time of peace +it seemed to come unseasonably. + +"Now don't forget the great lots for Anneke and Katrinke," said Colonel +Dirck, as we descended to the shore. "Let Andries pick out some of the +best of the lant, t'at is well watered and timbered, and we'll call the +lots after the gals; that is a goot idea, Corny." + +"Excellent, my friend. Mordaunt, my son, if you come across any places +that look like graves, I wish you would set up marks by which they may +be known. It is true, a quarter of a century or more makes many changes +in the woods; and it is quite likely no such remains will be found." + +"A quarter of a century in the American forests, sir," I answered, "is +somewhat like the same period in the wanderings of a comet; lost, in the +numberless years of its growth. A single tree will sometimes outlast the +generations of an entire nation." + +"You wilt rememper, Mordaunt, that I wilt haf no Yankee tenants on _my_ +estate. Your father may lease 'em one-half of a lot, if he please; but I +will not lease t'other." + +"As you are tenants in common, gentlemen," I answered, smiling, "it will +not be easy to separate the interests in this manner. I believe I +understand you, however; I am to sell the lands of Mooseridge, or +covenant to sell, as your attorney, while I follow out my grandfather +Mordaunt's ideas, and lease those that are not yet leased, on my own +estate. This will at least give the settlers a choice, and those who do +not like one plan of obtaining their farms may adopt the other." + +I now shook hands again with the gentlemen, and stepping into the skiff, +we pulled away from the shore. Jaap had made this movement in good +season, and we were compelled to row a quarter of a mile down the river +to meet the sloop. Although the wind was perfectly fair, it was not so +fresh as to induce Mr. Bogert to round-to; but throwing us a rope, it +was caught, when we were safely transferred, bag and baggage, to the +decks of the Eagle. + +Captain Bogert was smoking at the helm, when he returned my salute. +Removing the pipe, after a puff or two, he pointed with the stem toward +the group on the shore, and inquired if I wished to say "good-by." + +"_Allponny_"--so the Dutch were wont to pronounce the name of their town +in the last century--"is a long way off," he said, "and maype you woult +like to see the frients ag'in." + +This business of waving hats and handkerchiefs is a regular thing on the +Hudson, and I expressed my willingness to comply with the usage, as a +matter of course.[5] In consequence, Mr. Bogert deliberately sheered in +toward the shore, and I saw the whole family collecting on a low rock, +near the water, to take the final look. In the background stood the +Satanstoes, a dark, woolly group, including Mrs. Jaap, and two +generations of descendants. The whites were weeping; that is to say, my +dear mother and Kate; and the blacks were laughing, though the old lady +kept her teeth to herself about as much as she exposed them. A sensation +almost invariably produces laughter with a negro, the only exceptions +being on occasions of singular gravity. + +[Footnote 5: Such were the notions of Mr. Mordaunt Littlepage, at the +commencement of this century, and such his feeling shortly after the +peace of 1783. Nothing of the sort more completely illustrates the +general change that has come over the land, in habits and material +things, than the difference between the movements of that day and those +of our own. Then, the departure of a sloop, or the embarkation of a +passenger along the shore, brought parties to the wharves, and wavings +of handkerchiefs, as if those who were left behind felt a lingering wish +to see the last of their friends. Now, literally thousands come and go +daily, passing about as many hours on the Hudson as their grandfathers +passed days; and the shaking of hands and leave-takings are usually done +at home. It would be a bold woman who would think now of waving a +handkerchief to a Hudson River steamboat!--EDITOR.] + +I believe, if the truth were known, Mr. Bogert greatly exulted in the +stately movement of his sloop, as she brushed along the shore, at no +great distance from the rocks, with her main-boom guyed out to +starboard, and studding-sail boom to port. The flying-topsail, too, was +set; and the Eagle might be said to be moving in all her glory. She went +so near the rocks, too, as if she despised danger! Those were not the +days of close calculations that have succeeded. Then, an Albany skipper +did not mind losing a hundred or two feet of distance in making his run; +whereas, now, it would not be an easy matter to persuade a Liverpool +trader to turn as much aside in order to speak a stranger in the centre +of the Atlantic; unless, indeed, he happened to want to get the other's +longitude. + +As the sloop swept past the rocks, I got bows, waving of hats and +handkerchiefs, and good wishes enough to last the whole voyage. Even +Jaap had his share; and "good-by, Jaap," came to my ears, from even the +sweet voice of Kate. Away we went, in stately Dutch movement, slow _but +sure_. In ten minutes Lilacsbush was behind us, and I was once more +alone in the world, for months to come. + +There was now time to look about me, and to ascertain who were my +companions in this voyage. The skipper and crew were as usual the +masters; and the pilots, both whites, and both of Dutch extraction, an +old wrinkled negro, who had passed his life on the Hudson as a foremast +hand, and two younger blacks, one of whom was what was dignified with +the name of cabin-steward. Then there were numerous passengers; some of +whom appeared to belong to the upper classes. They were of both sexes, +but all were strangers to me. On the main-deck were six or eight sturdy, +decent, quiet, respectable-looking laborers, who were evidently of the +class of husbandmen. Their packs were lying in a pile, near the foot of +the mast, and I did not fail to observe that there were as many axes as +there were packs. + +The American axe! It has made more real and lasting conquests than the +sword of any warlike people that ever lived; but they have been +conquests that have left civilization in their train instead of havoc +and desolation. More than a million of square miles of territory[6] have +been opened up from the shades of the virgin forest, to admit the warmth +of the sun; and culture and abundance have been spread where the beast +of the forest so lately roamed, hunted by the savage. Most of this, too, +has been effected between the day when I went on board the Eagle, and +that on which I am now writing. A brief quarter of a century has seen +these wonderful changes wrought; and at the bottom of them all lies this +beautiful, well-prized, ready and efficient implement, the American axe! + +[Footnote 6: More than two millions at the present day.] + +It would not be easy to give the reader a clear notion of the manner in +which the young men and men of all ages of the older portions of the new +republic poured into the woods to commence the business of felling the +forests, and laying bare the secrets of nature, as soon as the nation +rose from beneath the pressure of war, to enjoy the freedom of peace. +The history of that day in New York, which State led the van in the +righteous strife of improvement, and has ever since so nobly maintained +its vantage-ground, has not yet been written. When it is properly +recorded names will be rescued from oblivion that better deserve statues +and niches in the temple of national glory, than those of many who have +merely got the start of them by means of the greater facility with which +the public mind is led away in the train of brilliant exploits, than it +is made sensible of the merits of those that are humane and useful. + +It was not usual for settlers, as it has become the practice to term +those who first take up and establish themselves on new lands, to make +their journeys from the neighborhood of the sea to the interior, other +than by land; but a few passed out of Connecticut by the way of New +York, and thence up the river in sloops. Of this character were those +found on board the Eagle. In all, we had seven of these men, who got +into discourse with me the first day of our passage, and I was a little +surprised at discovering how much they already knew of me, and of my +movements. Jaap, however, soon suggested himself to my mind, as the +probable means of the intelligence they had gleaned; and, on inquiry, +such I ascertained was the fact. + +The curiosity and the questioning propensities of the people of New +England, have been so generally admitted by writers and commentators on +American character, that I suppose one has a right to assume the truth +of these characteristics. I have heard various ways of accounting for +them; and among others, the circumstances of their disposition to +emigrate, which brings with it the necessity of inquiring after the +welfare of friends at a distance. It appears to me, however, this is +taking a very narrow view of the cause, which I attribute to the general +activity of mind among a people little restrained by the conventional +usages of more sophisticated conditions of society. The practice of +referring so much to the common mind, too, has a great influence on all +the opinions of this peculiar portion of the American population, +seeming to confer the right to inquire into matters that are elsewhere +protected by the sacred feeling of individual privacy. + +Let this be as it might, my axe-men had contrived to get out of Jaap all +he knew about Ravensnest and Mooseridge, as well as my motives in making +the present journey. This information obtained, they were not slow in +introducing themselves to me, and of asking the questions that were +uppermost in their minds. Of course, I made such answers as were called +for by the case, and we established a sort of business acquaintance +between us, the very first day. The voyage lasting several days, by the +time we reached Albany, pretty much all that could be said on such a +subject had been uttered by one side or the other. + +As respected Ravensnest, my own property, my grandfather had requested +in his will that the farms might be leased, having an eye to my +children's profit, rather than to mine. His request was a law to me, and +I had fully determined to offer the unoccupied lands of that estate, or +quite three-fourths of the whole patent, on leases similar in their +conditions to those which had already been granted. On the other hand, +it was the intention to part with the lots of Mooseridge in fee. These +conditions were made known to the axe-men, as my first essay in settling +a new country; and, contrary to what had been my expectation, I soon +discovered that these adventurers inclined more to the leases than to +the deeds. It is true, I expected a small payment down, in the case of +each absolute sale, while I was prepared to grant leases, for three +lives, at very low rents at the best; and in the cases of a large +proportion of the lots, those that were the least eligible by situation, +or through their quality, to grant them leases without any rent at all, +for the first few years of their occupation. These last advantages, and +the opportunity of possessing lands a goodly term of years, for rents +that were put as low as a shilling an acre, were strong inducements, as +I soon discovered, with those who carried all they were worth in their +packs, and who thus reserved the little money they possessed to supply +the wants of their future husbandry. + +We talked these matters over during the week we were on board the sloop; +and by the time we came in sight of the steeples of Albany, my men's +minds were made up to follow me to the Nest. These steeples were then +two in number, viz.: that of the English church, that stood near the +margin of the town, against the hill; and that of the Dutch church, +which occupied an humbler site, on the low land, and could scarcely be +seen rising above the pointed roofs of the adjacent houses; though these +last, themselves were neither particularly high nor particularly +imposing. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + "Who is that graceful female here + With yon red hunter of the deer? + Of gentle mien and shape, she seems + For civil halls design'd; + Yet with the stately savage walks, + As she were of his kind."--Pinckney. + + +I made little stay in Albany, but, giving the direction to the patent to +the axe-men, left it the very day of our arrival. There were very few +public conveyances in that early day, and I was obliged to hire a wagon +to transport Jaap and myself, with our effects, to Ravensnest. A sort of +dull calm had come over the country, after the struggles of the late +war; but one interest in it appearing to be alive and very active. That +interest, fortunately for me, appeared to be the business of +"land-hunting" and "settling." Of this I had sufficient proof in Albany +itself; it being difficult to enter the principal street of that town, +and not find in it more or less of those adventurers, the emblems of +whose pursuit were the pack and the axe. Nine out of ten came from the +Eastern or New England States; then the most peopled, while they were +not very fortunate in either soil or climate. + +We were two days in reaching Ravensnest, a property which I had owned +for several years, but which I now saw for the first time. My +grandfather had left a sort of agent on the spot, a person of the name +of Jason Newcome, who was of my father the general's age, and who had +once been a school-master in the neighborhood of Satanstoe. This agent +had leased extensively himself, and was said to be the occupant of the +only mills of any moment on the property. With him a correspondence had +been maintained; and once or twice during the war my father had managed +to have an interview with this representative of his and my interests. +As for myself, I was now to see him for the first time. We knew each +other by reputation only; and certain passages in the agency had induced +me to give Mr. Newcome notice that it was my intention to make a change +in the management of the property. + +Any one who is familiar with the aspect of things in what is called a +"new country" in America, must be well aware it is not very inviting. +The lovers of the picturesque can have little satisfaction in looking +even on the finest natural scenery at such moments; the labor that has +been effected usually having done so much to mar the beauties of nature, +without having yet had time to supply the deficiencies by those of art. +Piles of charred or half-burned logs: fields covered with stumps, or +ragged with _stubs_; fences of the rudest sorts, and filled with +brambles; buildings of the meanest character; deserted clearings; and +all the other signs of a state of things in which there is a manifest +and constant struggle between immediate necessity and future expediency, +are not calculated to satisfy either the hopes or the tastes. +Occasionally a different state of things, however, under circumstances +peculiarly favorable, does exist; and it may be well to allude to it, +lest the reader form but a single picture of this transition state of +American life. When the commerce of the country is active, and there is +a demand for the products of new lands, a settlement often presents a +scene of activity in which the elements of a thriving prosperity make +themselves apparent amid the smoke of fallows, and the rudeness of +border life. Neither, however, was the case at Ravensnest when I first +visited the place; though the last was, to a certain extent, its +condition two or three years later, or after the great European war +brought its wheat and ashes into active demand. + +I found but few more signs of cultivation, between the point where I +left the great northern road and the bounds of the patent, than had been +found by my father, as he had described them to me in his first visit, +which took place a quarter of a century earlier than this of mine. There +was one log tavern, it is true, in the space mentioned; but it afforded +nothing to drink but rum, and nothing to eat but salted pork and +potatoes, the day I stopped there to dine. But there were times and +seasons when, by means of venison, wild-fowl and fish, a luxurious board +might have been spread. That this was not the opinion of my landlady, +nevertheless, was apparent from the remarks she made while I was at +table. + +"You are lucky, Major Littlepage," she said, "in not having come among +us in one of what I call our 'starving times'--and awful times they be, +if a body may say what she thinks on 'em." + +"Starvation is a serious matter at any time," I answered, "though I did +not know you were ever reduced to such difficulties in a country as rich +and abundant as this." + +"Of what use is riches and abundance if a man will do nothing but fish +and shoot? I've seen the day when there wasn't a mouthful to eat in this +house, but a dozen or two of squabs, a string of brook trout, and maybe +a deer, or a salmon from one of the lakes." + +"A little bread would have been a welcome addition to such a meal." + +"Oh! as for bread, I count that for nothin'. We always have bread and +potatoes enough; but I hold a family to be in a desperate way, when the +mother can see the bottom of the pork barrel. Give me the children +that's raised on good sound pork, afore all the game in the country. +Game's good as a relish, and so's bread; but pork is the staff of life! +To have good pork, a body must have good corn; and good corn needs +hoeing; and a hoe isn't a fish-pole or a gun. No, my children I +calkerlate to bring up on pork, with just as much bread and butter as +they may want!" + +This was American poverty as it existed in 1784. Bread, butter, and +potatoes, _ad libitum_; but little pork, and no tea. Game in abundance +in its season; but the poor man who lived on game was supposed to be +keeping just as poor an establishment as the epicure in town who gives a +dinner to his brethren, and is compelled to apologize for there being no +game in the market. Curious to learn more from this woman, I pursued the +discourse. + +"There are countries, I have read," I continued, "in which the poor do +not taste meat of any sort, not even game, from the beginning of the +year to its end; and sometimes not even bread." + +"Well, I'm no great hand for bread, as I said afore, and should eat no +great matter of it, so long as I could get pork," the woman answered, +evidently interested in what I had said; "but I shouldn't like to be +without it altogether; and the children, especially, do love to have it +with their butter. Living on potatoes alone must be a wild animal sort +of a life." + +"Very tame animals do it, and that from dire necessity." + +"Is there any law ag'in their using bread and meat?" + +"No other law than the one which forbids their using that which is the +property of another." + +"Good land!" This is a very common American expression among the +women--"Good land! Why don't they go to work and get in crops, so they +might live a little?" + +"Simply because they have no land to till. The land belongs to others, +too." + +"I should think they might hire, if they couldn't buy. It's about as +good to hire as it is to buy--some folks (folk) think it's better. Why +don't they take land on shares, and live?" + +"Because land itself is not to be had. With us, land is abundant; we +have more of it than is necessary, or than will be necessary, for ages +to come; perhaps it would be better for our civilization were there less +of it, but, in the countries of which I speak, there are more people +than there is land." + +"Well, land is a good thing, I admit, and it's right there should be an +owner to it; yet there are folks who would rather squat than buy or +hire, any day. Squatting comes nat'ral to 'em." + +"Are there many squatters in this part of the country?" + +The woman looked a little confused, and she did not answer me, until she +had taken time to reflect on what she should say. + +"Some folks call _us_ squatters, I s'pose," was the reluctant answer, +"but _I_ do not. We have bought the betterments of a man who hadn't much +of a title, I think likely; but as _we_ bought his betterments fairly, +Mr. Tinkum"--that was the husband's name--"is of opinion that we live +under title, as it is called. What do you say to it, Major Littlepage?" + +"I can only say that naught will produce naught; nothing, nothing. If +the man of whom you purchased owned nothing, he could sell nothing. The +betterments he called his, were not his; and in purchasing them, you +purchased what he did not own." + +"Well, it's no great shakes, if he hadn't any right, sin' Tinkum only +gi'n an old saddle, that warn't worth two dollars, and part of a set of +single harness, that I'd defy a conjuror to make fit any mule, for the +whull right. One year's rent of this house is worth all put together, +and that twice over, if the truth must be said; and we've been in it, +now seven years. My four youngest were all born under this blessed roof, +such as it is!" + +"In that case, you will not have much reason to complain, when the real +owner of the soil appears to claim it. The betterments came cheap, and +they will go as cheap." + +"That's just it; though I don't call ourselves much of squatters, a'ter +all, seein' we _have_ paid suthin' for the betterments. They say an old +nail, paid in due form, will make a sort of title in the highest court +of the state. I'm sure the laws should be considerate of the poor." + +"Not more so than of the rich. The laws should be equal and just; and +the poor are the last people who ought to wish them otherwise, since +they are certain to be the losers when any other principle governs. Rely +on it, my good woman, the man who is forever preaching the rights of the +poor is at bottom a rogue, and means to make that cry a stalking-horse +for his own benefit; since nothing can serve the poor but severe +justice. No class suffers so much by a departure from the rule, as the +rich have a thousand other means of attaining their ends, when the way +is left clear to them, by setting up any other master than the right." + +"I don't know but it may be so; but I don't call ourselves squatters. +There is dreadful squatters about here, though, and on your lands too, +by the tell." + +"On my lands? I am sorry to hear it, for I shall feel it a duty to get +rid of them. I very well know that the great abundance of land that we +have in the country, its little comparative value, and the distance at +which the owners generally reside from their estates, have united to +render the people careless of the rights of those who possess real +property; and I am prepared to view things as they are among ourselves, +rather than as they exist in older countries; but I shall not tolerate +squatters." + +"Well, by all I hear, I think you'll call old Andries, the Chainbearer, +a squatter of the first class. They tell me the old chap has come back +from the army as fierce as a catamount, and that there is no speaking to +him, as one used to could, in old times." + +"You are, then, an old acquaintance of the Chainbearer?" + +"I should think I was! Tinkum and I have lived about, a good deal, in +our day; and old Andries is a desp'ate hand for the woods. He surveyed +out for us, once, or half-surveyed, another betterment; but he proved to +be a spiteful rogue afore he got through with the business; and we have +not set much store by him ever sin' that time." + +"The Chainbearer a rogue! Andries Coejemans any thing but an honest man! +You are the first person, Mrs. Tinkum, I have ever heard call in +question his sterling integrity." + +"Sterling money doesn't pass now, I conclude, sin' it's revolution +times. We all know which side your family was on in the war, Major +Littlepage; so it's no offence to you. A proper sharp lookout they had +of it here, when you quit college; for some said old Herman Mordaunt had +ordered in his will that you should uphold the king; and then, most of +the tenants concluded _they_ would get the lands altogether. It is a +sweet thing, major, for a tenant to get his farm without paying for it, +as you may judge! Some folks was desp'ate sorry when they heern tell +that the Littlepages went with the colonies." + +"I hope there are few such knaves on the Ravensnest estate as to wish +anything of the sort. But, let me hear an explanation of your charge +against the Chainbearer. I have no great concern for my own rights in +the patent that I claim." + +The woman had the audacity, or the frankness, to draw a long, regretful +sigh, as it might be, in my very face. That sigh expressed her regrets +that I had not taken part with the crown in the last struggle; in which +case, I do suppose, she and Tinkum would have contrived to squat on one +of the farms of Ravensnest. Having sighed, however, the landlady did not +disdain to answer. + +"As for the Chainbearer, the simple truth is this," she said. "Tinkum +hired him to run a line between some betterments we had bought, and some +that had been bought by a neighbor of our'n. This was long afore the +war, and when titles were scarcer than they're gettin' to be now, some +of the landlords living across the water. Well, what do you think the +old fellow did, major? He first asked for our deeds, and we showed them +to him; as good and lawful warrantees as was ever printed and filled up +by a 'squire. He then set to work, all by himself, jobbing the whull +survey, as it might be, and a prettier line was never run, as far as he +went, which was about half-way. I thought it would make etarnel peace +atween us and our neighbor, for it had been etarnel war afore that, for +three whull years; sometimes with clubs, and sometimes with axes, and +once with scythes. But, somehow--I never know'd _how_--but _somehow_, +old Andries found out that the man who deeded to us had no deed to +himself, or no mortal right to the land, any more than that sucking pig +you see at the door there; when he gi'n right up, refusing to carry out +another link, or p'int another needle, he did! Warn't that being +cross-grained and wilful! No, there's no dependence to be put on the +Chainbearer." + +"Wilful in the cause of right, as glorious old Andries always is! I love +and honor him all the better for it." + +"La! Do you love and honor sich a one as him! Well, I should have +expected suthin' else from sich a gentleman as you! I'd no idee Major +Littlepage could honor an old, worn-out chainbearer, and he a man that +couldn't get up in the world, too, when he had hands and feet, all on +'em together on some of the very best rounds of the ladder! Why, I judge +that even Tinkum would have gone ahead, if he had been born with sich a +chance." + +"Andries has been a captain in my own regiment, it is true, and was once +my superior officer; but he served for his country's sake, and not for +his own. Have you seen him lately?" + +"That we have! He passed here about a twelvemonth ago, with his whull +party, on their way to squat on your own land, or I'm mistaken. There +was the Chainbearer himself, two helpers, Dus and young Malbone." + +"Young who?" I asked, with an interest that induced the woman to turn +her keen, sunken, but sharp gray eyes, intently on me. + +"Young Malbone, I said; Dus's brother, and the youngster who does all +old Andries's 'rithmetic. I suppose you know as well as I do, that the +Chainbearer can't calkerlate any more than a wild goose, and not half as +well as a crow. For that matter, I've known crows that, in plantin' +time, would measure a field in half the number of minutes that the state +surveyor would be hours at it." + +"This young Malbone, then, is the Chainbearer's nephew? And he it is who +does the surveying?" + +"He does the 'rithmetic part, and he is a brother of old Andries's +niece. I know'd the Coejemans when I was a gal, and I've known the +Malbones longer than I want to know them." + +"Have you any fault to find with the family, that you speak thus of +them?" + +"Nothin' but their desperate pride, which makes them think themselves so +much better than everybody else; yet, they tell me, Dus and all on 'em +are just as poor as I am myself." + +"Perhaps you mistake their feeling, good woman; a thing I think the more +probable, as you seem to fancy money the source of their pride, at the +very moment you deny their having any. Money is a thing on which few +persons of cultivated minds pride themselves. The purse-proud are, +almost invariably, the vulgar and ignorant." + +No doubt this was a moral thrown away with such an auditor; but I was +provoked; and when a man is provoked, he is not always wise. The answer +showed the effect it had produced. + +"I don't pretend to know how that is; but if it isn't pride, what is it +that makes Dus Malbone so different from my da'ters? She'd no more think +of being like one on 'em, scouring about the lots, riding bare-backed, +and scampering through the neighborhood, than you'd think of cooking my +dinner--that she wouldn't." + +Poor Mrs. Tinkum--or, as she would have been apt to call herself, _Miss_ +Tinkum! She had betrayed one of the commonest weaknesses of human +nature, in thus imputing pride to the Chainbearer's niece because the +latter behaved differently from her and hers. How many persons in this +good republic of ours judge their neighbors on precisely the same +principle; inferring something unsuitable, because it _seems_ to reflect +on their own behavior! But by this time, I had got to hear the name of +Dus with some interest, and I felt disposed to push the subject further. + +"Miss Malbone, then," I said, "does _not_ ride bare-back?" + +"La! major, what in natur' puts it into your head to call the gal _Miss_ +Malbone! There's no Miss Malbone living sin' her own mother died." + +"Well, Dus Malbone, I mean; she is above riding bare-backed?" + +"That she is; even a pillion would be hardly grand enough for her, +allowing her own brother to use the saddle." + +"Her own brother! This young surveyor, then, _is_ Dus's brother?" + +"Sort o', and sort o' not, like. They had the same father, but different +mothers." + +"That explains it; I never heard the Chainbearer speak of any nephew, +and it seems the young man is not related to him at all--he is the +_half_-brother of his niece." + +"Why can't that niece behave like other young women? that's the question +I ask. My girls hasn't as much pride as would be good for 'em, not they! +If a body wants to borrow an article over at the Nest, and that's seven +miles off, the whull way in the woods, just name it to Poll, and she'd +jump on an ox, if there warn't a hoss, and away she'd go a'ter it, with +no more bit of a saddle, and may be nothin' but a halter, like a deer! +Give me Poll, afore all the gals I know, for ar'nds?" + +By this time, disrelish for vulgarity was getting the better of +curiosity; and my dinner of fried pork being done, I was willing to drop +the discourse. I had learned enough of Andries and his party to satisfy +my curiosity, and Jaap was patiently waiting to succeed me at the table. +Throwing down the amount of the bill, I took a fowling-piece, with which +we always travelled in those days, bade Mrs. Tinkum good-day, ordered +the black and the wagoner to follow with the team as soon as ready, and +went on toward my own property on foot. + +In a very few minutes I was quite beyond the Tinkum betterments, and +fairly in the forest again. It happened that the title to a large tract +of land adjoining Ravensnest was in dispute, and no attempt at a serious +settlement had ever been made on it. Some one had "squatted" at this +spot, to enjoy the advantage of selling rum to those who went and came +between my own people and the inner country; and the place had changed +hands half a dozen times, by fraudulent, or at least, by worthless +sales, from one squatter to another. Around the house, by this time a +decaying pile of logs, time had done a part of the work of the settler, +and aided by that powerful servant but fearful master, fire, had given +to the small clearing somewhat of the air of civilized cultivation. The +moment these narrow limits were passed, however, the traveller entered +the virgin forest, with no other sign of man around him than what was +offered in the little worked and little travelled road. The highway was +not much indebted to the labors of man for any facilities it afforded +the traveller. The trees had been cut out of it, it is true, but their +roots had not been extracted, and time had done more toward destroying +them than the axe or the pick. Time _had_ done a good deal, however, and +the inequalities were getting to be smooth under the hoof and wheel. A +tolerably good bridle-path had long been made, and I found no difficulty +in walking in it, since that answered equally well for man and beast. + +The virgin forest of America is usually no place for the ordinary +sportsman. The birds that are called game are but rarely found in it, +one or two excepted; and it is a well-known fact that while the +frontier-man is certain death with a rifle-bullet, knocking the head off +a squirrel or a wild turkey at his sixty or eighty yards, it is +necessary to go into the older parts of the country, and principally +among sportsmen of the better classes, in order to find those who knock +over the woodcock, snipe, quail, grouse, and plover, on the wing. I was +thought a good shot on the "plains," and over the heaths or commons of +the Island of Manhattan, and among the rocks of Westchester; but I saw +nothing to do up there, where I then was, surrounded by trees that had +stood there centuries. It would certainly have been easy enough for me +to kill a blue jay now and then, or a crow, or even a raven, or perhaps +an eagle, had I the proper shot; but as for anything that is ordinarily +thought to adorn a game-bag, not a feather could I see. For the want of +something better to do, then, if a young man of three or four and twenty +ought thus to express himself, I began to ruminate on the charms of Pris +Bayard, and on the singularities of Dus Malbone. In this mood I +proceeded, getting over the grounds at a rapid rate, leaving Miss +Tinkum, the clearing with its betterments, and the wagon, far behind me. + +I had walked an hour alone, when the silence of the woods was suddenly +interrupted by the words of a song that came not from any of the +feathered race, though the nightingale itself could hardly have equalled +the sweetness of the notes, which were those of a female voice. The low +notes struck me as the fullest, richest, and most plaintive I had ever +heard; and I fancied they could not be equalled, until the strain +carried the singer's voice into a higher key, where it seemed equally at +home. I thought I knew the air, but the words were guttural, and in an +unknown tongue. French and Dutch were the only two foreign languages in +which one usually heard any music in our part of the woods at that day; +and even the first was by no means common. But with both these languages +I had a little acquaintance, and I was soon satisfied that the words I +heard belonged to neither. At length it flashed on my mind that the song +was Indian; not the music, but the words. The music was certainly +Scotch, or that altered Italian that time has attributed to the Scotch; +and there was a moment when I fancied some Highland girl was singing +near me one of the Celtic songs of the country of her childhood. But +closer attention satisfied me that the words were really Indian; +probably belonging to the Mohawk, or some other language that I had +often heard spoken. + +The reader may be curious to know whence these sounds proceeded, and why +I did not see the being who gave birth to such delicious harmony. It was +owing to the fact that the song came from out of a thicket of young +pines, that grew on an ancient opening at a little distance from the +road, and which I supposed contained a hut of some sort or other. These +pines, however, completely concealed all within them. So long as the +song lasted, no tree of the forest was more stationary than myself; but +when it ended, I was about to advance toward the thicket, in order to +pry into its mysteries, when I heard a laugh that had scarcely less of +melody in it than the strains of the music itself. It was not a vulgar, +clamorous burst of girlish impulses, nor was it even loud; but it was +light-hearted, mirthful, indicating humor, if a mere laugh _can_ do so +much; and in a sense it was contagious. It arrested my movement, in +order to listen; and before any new impulse led me forward, the branches +of the pines opened, and a man passed out of the thicket into the road. +A single glance sufficed to let me know that the stranger was an Indian. + +Notwithstanding I was apprised of the near vicinity of others, I was a +little startled with this sudden apparition. Not so with him who was +approaching; he could not have known of my being anywhere near him; yet +he manifested no emotion as his cold, undisturbed glance fell on my +form. Steadily advancing, he came to the centre of the road; and, as I +had turned involuntarily to pursue my own way, not sure it was prudent +to remain in that neighborhood alone, the red man fell in, with his +moccasined foot, at my elbow, and I found that we were thus strangely +pursuing our journey, in the same direction, side by side. + +The Indian and myself walked in this manner, within a yard of each +other, in the midst of that forest, for two or three minutes without +speaking. I forbore to say anything, because I had heard that an Indian +respected those most who knew best how to repress their curiosity; which +habit, most probably, had its effect on my companion. At length, the red +man uttered, in the deep, guttural manner of his people, the common +conventional salutation of the frontier-- + +"Sa-a-go?" + +This word, which has belonged to some Indian language once, passes +everywhere for Indian with the white man; and, quite likely for English, +with the Indian. A set of such terms has grown up between the two races, +including such words as "moccasin," "pappoose," "tomahawk," "squaw," and +many others. "Sa-a-go," means "how d'ye do?" + +"Sa-a-go?"--I answered to my neighbor's civil salutation. + +After this we walked along for a few minutes more, neither party +speaking. I took this opportunity to examine my red brother, an +employment that was all the easier from the circumstance that he did not +once look at me; the single glance sufficing to tell him all he wanted +to know. In the first place, I was soon satisfied that my companion did +not drink, a rare merit in a red man who lived near the whites. This was +evident from his countenance, gait, and general bearing, as I thought, +in addition to the fact that he possessed no bottle, or anything else +that would hold liquor. What I liked the least was the circumstance of +his being completely armed; carrying knife, tomahawk, and rifle, and +each seemingly excellent of its kind. He was not painted, however, and +he wore an ordinary calico shirt, as was then the usual garb of his +people in the warm season. The countenance had the stern severity that +is so common to a red warrior; and, as this man was turned of fifty, his +features began to show the usual signs of exposure and service. Still, +he was a vigorous, respectable-looking red man, and one who was +evidently accustomed to live much among civilized men. I had no serious +uneasiness, of course, at meeting such a person, although we were so +completely buried in the forest but, as a soldier, I could not help +reflecting how inferior my fowling-piece would necessarily prove to be +to his rifle should he see fit to turn aside, and pull upon me from +behind a tree, for the sake of plunder. Tradition said such things had +happened; though, on the whole, the red man of America has perhaps +proved to be the most honest of the two, as compared with those who have +supplanted him. + +"How ole chief?" the Indian suddenly asked, without even raising his +eyes from the road. + +"Old chief! Do you mean Washington, my friend?" + +"Not so--mean ole chief, out here, at Nest. Mean fader." + +"My father! Do you know General Littlepage?" + +"Be sure, know him. Your fader--see"--holding up his two +forefingers--"just like--dat him; dis you." + +"This is singular enough! And were you told that I was coming to this +place?" + +"Hear dat, too. Always talk about chief." + +"Is it long since you saw my father?" + +"See him in war-time--nebber hear of ole Sureflint?" + +I had heard the officers of our regiment speak of such an Indian, who +had served a good deal with the corps, and been exceedingly useful, in +the two great northern campaigns especially. He never happened to be +with the regiment after I joined it, though his name and services were a +good deal mixed up with the adventures of 1776 and 1777. + +"Certainly," I answered, shaking the red man cordially by the hand. +"Certainly, have I heard of you, and something that is connected with +times before the war. Did you never meet my father before the war?" + +"Sartain; meet in _ole_ war. Gin'ral young man, den--just like son." + +"By what name were you then known, Oneida?" + +"No Oneida--Onondago--sober tribe. Hab plenty name. Sometime one, +sometime anoder. Pale-face say 'Trackless,' cause he can't find his +trail--warrior call him 'Susquesus.'" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + "With what free growth the elm and plane + Fling their huge arms across my way; + Gray, old, and cumber'd with a train + Of vines, as huge, and old, and gray! + Free stray the lucid streams, and find + No taint in these fresh lawns and shades; + Free spring the flowers that scent the wind, + Where never scythe has swept the glades."--BRYANT. + + +I had heard enough of my father's early adventures to know that the man +mentioned in the last chapter had been a conspicuous actor in them, and +remembered that the latter enjoyed the fullest confidence of the former. +It was news to me, however, that Sureflint and the Trackless were the +same person; though, when I came to reflect on the past, I had some +faint recollection of having once before heard something of the sort. At +any rate, I was now with a friend, and no longer thought it necessary to +be on my guard. This was a great relief, in every point of view, as one +does not like to travel at the side of a stranger, with an impression, +however faint, that the latter may blow his brains out, the first time +he ventures to turn his own head aside. + +Susquesus was drawing near to the decline of life. Had he been a white +man, I might have said he was in a "green old age;" but the term of +"_red_ old age" would suit him much better. His features were still +singularly fine; while the cheeks, without being very full, had that +indurated, solid look, that flesh and muscles get from use and exposure. +His form was as erect as in his best days, a red man's frame rarely +yielding in this way to any pressure but that of exceeding old age, and +that of rum. Susquesus never admitted the enemy into his mouth, and +consequently the citadel of his physical man was secure against every +invader but time. In-toed and yielding in his gait, the old warrior and +runner still passed over the ground with an easy movement; and when I +had occasion to see him increase his speed, as soon after occurred, I +did not fail to perceive that his sinews seemed strung to their utmost +force, and that every movement was free. + +For a time, the Indian and I talked of the late war, and of the scenes +in which each of us had been an actor. If my own modesty was as obvious +as that of Sureflint, I had no reason to be dissatisfied with myself; +for the manner in which he alluded to events in which I knew he had been +somewhat prominent, was simple and entirely free from that boasting in +which the red man is prone to indulge; more especially when he wishes to +provoke his enemies. At length I changed the current of the discourse, +by saying abruptly: + +"You were not alone in that pine thicket, Susquesus; that from which you +came when you joined me?" + +"No--sartain; wasn't alone. Plenty people dere." + +"Is there an encampment of your tribe among those bushes?" + +A shade passed over the dark countenance of my companion, and I saw a +question had been asked that gave him pain. He paused some little time +before he answered; and when he did, it was in a way that seemed sad. + +"Susquesus got tribe no longer. Quit Onondagos t'irty summer, now; don't +like Mohawk." + +"I remember to have heard something of this from my father, who told me +at the same time, that the reason why you left your people was to your +credit. But you had music in the thicket?" + +"Yes; gal sing--gal love sing; warrior like to listen." + +"And the song? In what language were the words?" + +"Onondago," answered the Indian, in a low tone. + +"I had no idea the music of the red people was so sweet. It is many a +day since I have heard a song that went so near to my heart, though I +could not understand what was said." + +"Bird, pretty bird--sing like wren." + +"And is there much of this music in your family, Susquesus? If so, I +shall come often to listen." + +"Why not come? Path got no briar; short path, too. Gal sing, when you +want." + +"Then I shall certainly be your guest, some day, soon. Where do you +live, now? Are you Sureflint, or Trackless, to-day? I see you are armed, +but not painted." + +"Hatchet buried berry deep, dis time. No dig him up, in great many year. +Mohawk make peace; Oneida make peace; Onondago make peace--all bury 'e +hatchet." + +"Well, so much the better for us landholders. I have come to sell and +lease my lands; perhaps you can tell me if many young men are out +hunting for farms this summer?" + +"Wood full. Plenty as pigeons. How you sell land?" + +"That will depend on where it is, and how good it is. Do you wish to +buy, Trackless?" + +"Injin own all land, for what he want now. I make wigwam where I want; +make him, too, when I want." + +"I know very well that you Indians do claim such a right; and, so long +as the country remains in its present wild state, no one will be apt to +refuse it to you. But you cannot plant and gather, as most of your +people do in their own country." + +"Got no squaw--got no papoose--little corn do for Susquesus. No +tribe--no squaw--no pappose!" + +This was said in a low, deliberate voice, and with a species of manly +melancholy that I found very touching. Complaining men create very +little sympathy, and those who whine are apt to lose our respect; but I +know no spectacle more imposing than that of one of stern nature +smothering his sorrows beneath the mantle of manliness and self-command. + +"You have friends, Susquesus," I answered, "if you have no wife nor +children." + +"Fader, good friend; hope son friend, too. Grandfader great friend, +once; but he gone far away, and nebber come back. Know moder, know +fader--all good." + +"Take what land you want, Trackless--till it, sell it--do what you wish +with it." + +The Indian eyed me keenly, and I detected a slight smile of pleasure +stealing over his weather-worn face. It was not easy to throw him off +his habitual guard over his emotions, however; and the gleam of +illumination passed away, like a ray of sunshine in mid-winter. The +sternest white man might have grasped my hand, and something like a sign +of gratitude would probably have escaped him; but, the little trace of +emotion I have mentioned having disappeared, nothing remained on the +dark visage of my companion that in the least resembled an evidence of +yielding to any of the gentler feelings. Nevertheless, he was too +courteous, and had too much of the innate sentiment of a gentleman, not +to make some return for an offer that had so evidently and spontaneously +come from the heart. + +"Good"--he said, after a long pause. "Berry good, dat; good, to come +from young warrior to ole warrior. T'ankee--bird plenty; fish plenty; +message plenty, now; and don't want land. Time come, maybe--s'pose he +must come--come to all old red men, hereabout; so s'pose _must_ come." + +"What time do you mean, Trackless? Let it come when it may, you have a +friend in me. What time do you mean, my brave old Sureflint?" + +The Trackless stopped, dropped the breech of his rifle on the ground, +and stood meditating a minute, motionless, and as grand as some fine +statue. + +"Yes; time come, _do_ s'pose," he continued. "One time, ole warrior live +in wigwam, and tell young warrior of scalp, and council-fire, and hunt, +and war-path; _now_, make _broom_ and _basket_." + +It was not easy to mistake this; and I do not remember ever to have felt +so lively an interest, on so short an acquaintance, as I began to feel +in this Onondago. Priscilla Bayard herself, however lovely, graceful, +winning, and feminine, had not created a feeling so strong and animated, +as that which was awakened within me in behalf of old Sureflint. But I +fully understood that this was to be shown in acts, and not in words. +Contenting myself for the present, after the fashion of the pale-faces, +by grasping and squeezing the sinewy hand of the warrior, we walked on +together, making no farther allusion to a subject that I can truly say +was as painful to me as it was to my companion. + +"I have heard your name mentioned as one of those who were at the Nest +with my father when he was a young man, Susquesus," I resumed, "and when +the Canada Indians attempted to burn the house." + +"Good--Susquesus dere--young Dutch chief kill dat time." + +"Very true--his name was Guert Ten Eyke; and my father and mother, and +your old friend Colonel Follock, who was afterward major of our +regiment, you will remember, they love his memory to this day, as that +of a very dear friend." + +"Dat all, love memory now?" asked the Indian, throwing one of his +keenest glances at me. + +I understood the allusion, which was to aunt Mary, whom I had heard +spoken of as the betrothed, or at least as the beloved of the young +Albanian. + +"Not all; for there is a lady who still mourns his loss, as if she had +been his widow." + +"Good--do' squaw don't mourn fery long time. Sometime not always." + +"Pray, Trueflint, do you happen to know any thing of a man called the +Chainbearer? He was in the regiment, too, and you must have seen him in +the war." + +"Sartain--know Chainbearer--know him on war-path--know him when hatchet +buried. Knew Chainbearer afore ole French war. Live in wood wid him--one +of _us_. Chainbearer _my_ friend." + +"I rejoice to hear this, for he is also mine; and I shall be glad to +come into the compact, as a friend of both." + +"Good--Susquesus and young landlord friend of Chainbearer--good." + +"It is good, and a league that shall not be forgotten easily by me. The +Chainbearer is as honest as light, and as certain as his own compass, +Trueflint--true, as yourself." + +"'Fraid he make broom 'fore great while, too," said the Indian, +expressing the regret I have no doubt he felt, very obviously in his +countenance. + +Poor old Andries! But for the warm and true friends he had in my father, +Colonel Dirck, and myself, there was some danger this might be the case, +indeed. The fact that he had served his country in a revolution would +prove of little avail, that country being too poor to provide for its +old servants, and possibly indisposed, had she the means.[7] I say this +without intending to reflect on either the people or the government; for +it is not easy to make the men of the present day understand the deep +depression, in a pecuniary sense, that rested on the land for a year or +two after peace was made. It recovered, as the child recovers from +indisposition, by the vigor of its constitution and the power of its +vitality; and one of the means by which it recovered, was by turning to +the soil, and wielding the sickle instead of the sword. To continue the +discourse: + +[Footnote 7: This must pass for one of the hits the republic is exposed +to, partly because it deserves them, and partly because it is a +republic. One hears a great deal of this ingratitude of republics, but +few take the trouble of examining into the truth of the charge, or its +reason, if true. I suppose the charge to be true in part, and for the +obvious reason that a government founded on the popular will, is +necessarily impulsive in such matters, and feels no necessity to be +just, in order to be secure. Then, a democracy is always subject to the +influence of the cant of economy, which is next thing to the evil of +being exposed to the waste and cupidity of those who take because they +have the power. As respects the soldiers of the revolution, however, +America, under the impulsive feeling, rather than in obedience to a +calm, deliberate desire to be just, has, since the time of Mr. Mordaunt +Littlepage, made such a liberal provision for pensioning them, +as to include a good many of her enemies, as well as all her +friends.--EDITOR.] + +"The Chainbearer is an honest man, and, like too many of his class, +poor," I answered; "but he has friends; and neither he nor you, +Sureflint, shall be reduced to that woman's work without your own +consent, so long as I have an unoccupied house, or a farm, at +Ravensnest." + +Again the Indian manifested his sense of my friendship for him by that +passing gleam on his dark face; and again all signs of emotion passed +slowly away. + +"How long since see him?" he asked me suddenly. + +"See him--the Chainbearer, do you mean? I have not seen him, now, for +more than a twelvemonth; not since we parted when the regiment was +disbanded." + +"Don't mean Chainbearer--mean _him_," pointing ahead--"house, tree, +farm, land, Nest." + +"Oh! How long is it since I saw the patent? I never saw it, Sureflint; +this is my first visit." + +"Dat queer! How you own land, when nebber see him?" + +"Among the pale-faces we have such laws, that property passes from +parent to child; and I inherit mine in this neighborhood, from my +grandfather, Herman Mordaunt." + +"What dat mean, 'herit? How man haf land, when he don't keep him?" + +"We do keep it, if not by actually remaining on the spot, by means of +our laws and our titles. The pale-faces regulate all these things on +paper, Sureflint." + +"T'ink dat good? Why no let man take land where he want him, _when_ he +want him? Plenty land. Got more land dan got people. 'Nough for +ebberybody." + +"That fact makes our laws just; if there were not land enough for +everybody, these restrictions and divisions might seem to be, and in +fact be, unjust. Now, any man can have a farm, who will pay a very +moderate price for it. The state sells, and landlords sell; and those +who don't choose to buy of one can buy of the other." + +"Dat true 'nough; but don't see need of dat paper. When he want to stay +on land, let him stay; when he want to go somewhere, let 'noder man +come. What good pay for betterment?" + +"So as to have betterments. These are what we call the rights of +property, without which no man would aim at being anything more than +clad and fed. Who would hunt, if anybody that came along had a right to +pick up and skin his game?" + +"See dat well 'nough--nebber do; no, nebber. Don't see why land go like +skin, when skin go wid warrior and hunter, and land stay where he be." + +"That is because the riches of you red men are confined to movable +property, and to your wigwams, so long as you choose to live in them. +Thus far, you respect the rights of property as well as the pale-faces; +but you must see a great difference between your people and mine! +between the red man and the white man?" + +"Be sure, differ; one strong, t'oder weak--one rich, t'oder poor--one +great, t'oder little--one drive 'way, t'oder haf to go--one get all, +t'oder keep nuttin'--one march large army, t'oder go Indian file, fifty +warrior, p'raps--_dat_ reason t'ing so." + +"And why can the pale-faces march in large armies, with cannon, and +horses, and bayonets, and the red man not do the same?" + +"Cause he no got 'em--no got warrior--no got gun--no got baggonet--no +got nuttin'." + +"You have given the effect for the cause, Sureflint, or the consequences +of the reason for the reason itself. I hope I make you understand me. +Listen, and I will explain. You have lived much with the white men, +Susquesus, and can believe what I say. There are good, and there are +bad, among all people. Color makes no difference in this respect. Still, +all people are not alike. The white man is stronger than the red man, +and has taken away his country, because he _knows_ most." + +"He most, too. Count army, den count war-trail; you see." + +"It is true the pale-faces are the most numerous, now; but once they +were not. Do not your traditions tell you how few the Yangeese were, +when they first came across the salt lake?" + +"Come in big canoe--two, t'ree full--no more." + +"Why then did two or three shipfuls of white men become so strong as to +drive back from the sea all the red warriors, and become masters of the +land? Can you give a reason for that?" + +"'Cause he bring fire-water wid him, and red man big fool to drink." + +"Even that fire-water, which doubtless has proved a cruel gift to the +Indians, is one of the fruits of the white man's knowledge. No, +Susquesus; the redskin is as brave as the pale-face; as willing to +defend his rights, and as able-bodied; but he does not know as much. He +had no gunpowder until the white man gave it to him--no rifle--no hoe, +no knife, no tomahawk, but such as he made himself from stones. Now, all +the knowledge, and all the arts of life that the white man enjoys and +turns to his profit, come from the rights of property. No man would +build a wigwam to make rifles in, if he thought he could not keep it as +long as he wished, sell it when he pleased, and leave it to his son when +he went to the land of spirits. It is by encouraging man's love of +himself, in this manner, that he is got to do so much. Thus it is, too, +that the father gives to the son what he has learned, as well as what he +has built or bought; and so, in time, nations get to be powerful, as +they get to be what we called civilized. Without these rights of +property, no people could be civilized; for no people would do their +utmost, unless each man were permitted to be master of what he can +acquire, subject to the great and common laws that are necessary to +regulate such matters. I hope you understand my meaning, Trackless." + +"Sartain--no like Trackless' moccasin--my young friend's tongue leave +trail. But you t'ink Great Spirit say who shall haf land; who no haf +him?" + +"The Great Spirit has created man as he is, and the earth as it is; and +he has left the one to be master of the other. If it were not his +pleasure that man should not do as he has done, it would not be done. +Different laws and different feelings would then bring about different +ends. When the law places all men on a level, as to rights, it does as +much as can be expected of it. Now, this level does not consist in +pulling everything to pieces periodically, but in respecting certain +great principles that are just in themselves; but which, once started, +must be left to follow their own course. When the rights of property are +first established, they must be established fairly, on some admitted +rule; after which they are to remain inviolable--that is to say, +sacred." + +"Understand--no live in clearin' for nuttin'. Mean, haf no head widout +haf farm." + +"That is the meaning, substantially, Sureflint; though I might have +explained it a little differently. I wish to say pale-faces would be +like the red man without civilization; and without civilization if they +had no rights in their land. No one will work for another as he will +work for himself. We see that every day, in the simplest manner, when we +see that the desire to get good wages will not make the common laborer +do as much by the day as he will do by the job." + +"Dat true," answered the Indian, smiling; for he seldom laughed; and +repeating a common saying of the country--"By--de--day--by--de--day--By +de job, job, job! Dat pale-face religion, young chief." + +"I don't know that our religion has much to do with it; but I will own +it is our practice. I fancy it is the same with all races and colors. A +man must work for himself to do his most; and he cannot work for himself +unless he enjoy the fruits of his labor. Thus it is, that he must have a +right of property in land, either bought or hired, in order to make him +cause that land to produce all that nature intended it should produce. +On this necessity is founded the rights of property; the gain being +civilization; the loss ignorance, and poverty, and weakness. It is for +this reason, then, that we buy and sell land, as well as clothes and +arms, and beads." + +"T'ink, understand. Great Spirit, den, say must have farm?" + +"The Great Spirit has said we must have wants and wishes, that can be +met, or gratified only by having farms. To have farms we must have +owners; and owners cannot exist unless their rights in their lands are +protected. As soon as these are gone, the whole building would tumble +down about our ears, Susquesus." + +"Well, s'pose him so. We see, some time. Young chief know where he is?" + +"Not exactly; but I suppose we are drawing near to the lands of +Ravensnest." + +"Well, queer 'nough, too! Own land, but don't know him. See--marked +tree--dat sign your land begin." + +"Thank you, Sureflint--a parent would not know his own child, when he +saw him for the first time. If I am owner here, you will remember that +this is my first visit to the spot." + +While conversing, the Trackless had led me from the highway into a +foot-path, which, as I afterward discovered, made a short-cut across +some hills, and saved us near two miles in the distance. In consequence +of this change in our course, Jaap could not have overtaken me, had he +moved faster than he did; but, owing to the badness of the road, our +gait on foot was somewhat faster than that of the jaded beasts who +dragged the wagon. My guide knew the way perfectly; and, as we ascended +a hill, he pointed out the remains of an old fire, near a spring, as a +spot where he was accustomed to "camp," when he wished to remain near, +but not _in_ the 'Nest. + +"Too much rum in tavern," he said. "No good stay near rum." + +This was extraordinary forbearance for an Indian; but Susquesus, I had +ever understood, was an extraordinary Indian. Even for an Onondago, he +was temperate and self-denying. The reason why he lived away from his +tribe was a secret from most persons; though I subsequently ascertained +it was known to the Chainbearer, as well as my father. Old Andries +always affirmed it was creditable to his friend; but he would never +betray the secret. Indeed, I found that the sympathy which existed +between these two men, each of whom was so singular in his way, was +cemented by some occurrences of their early lives, to which occasional, +but vague allusions were made, but which neither ever revealed to me, or +to any other person, so far as I could ascertain. + +Soon after passing the spring, Sureflint led me out to a cleared spot on +the eminence, which commanded an extensive view of most of that part of +my possessions which was under lease and occupied. Here we halted, +seating ourselves on a fallen tree, for which one could never go amiss +in that region, and at that day; and I examined the view with the +interest which ownership is apt to create in us all. The earth is very +beautiful in itself; but it is most beautiful in the eye of those who +have the largest stake in it, I fear. + +Although the property of Ravensnest had been settled fully thirty years +when I first saw it, none of those signs of rapid and energetic +improvement were visible that we have witnessed in the efforts of +similar undertakings since the Revolution. Previously to that great +event, the country filled up very slowly, and each colony seemed to +regard itself, in some measure, as a distinct country. Thus it was that +we in New York obtained very few immigrants from New England, that great +hive which has so often swarmed since, and the bees of which have +carried their industry and ingenuity over so much of the republic in our +own time. We of New York have our prejudices against the Yankees, and +have long looked upon them with eyes of distrust and disfavor. They have +repaid us in kind, perhaps; but their dislikes have not been strong +enough to prevent them from coming to take possession of our lands. For +my own part, while I certainly see much in the New England character +that I do not like (more in their manners and minor ways, perhaps, than +in essentials), I as certainly see a great deal to command my respect. +If the civilization that they carry with them is not of a very high +order, as is connected with the tastes, sentiments, and nicer feelings, +it is superior to that of any other country I have visited, in its +common-sense provisions, and in its care over the intellectual being, +considered in reference to the foundations of learning. More persons are +dragged from out the mire of profound ignorance under their system, than +under that of any other people; and a greater number of candidates are +brought forward for intellectual advancements. That so few of these +candidates rise very high in the scale of knowledge, is in part owing to +the circumstance that their lives are so purely practical; and, +possibly, in part to the fact that while so much attention has been paid +to the foundations of the social edifice, that little art or care has as +yet been expended on the superstructure. Nevertheless, the millions of +Yankees that are spreading themselves over the land, are producing, and +have already produced, a most salutary influence on its practical +knowledge, on its enterprise, on its improvements, and consequently on +its happiness. If they have not done much for its tastes, its manners, +and its higher principles, it is because no portion of the earth is +perfect. I am fully aware that this is conceding more than my own father +would have conceded in their favor, and twice as much as could have been +extracted from either of my grandfathers. But prejudice is wearing away, +and the Dutchman and the Yankee, in particular, find it possible to live +in proximity and charity. It is possible that my son may be willing to +concede even more. Our immigrant friends should remember one thing, +however, and it would render them much more agreeable as companions and +neighbors, which is this:--he who migrates is bound to respect the +habits and opinions of those whom he joins; it not being sufficient for +the perfection of everything under the canopy of heaven, that it should +come from our own little corner of the earth. Even the pumpkin-pies of +the Middle States are vastly better than those usually found in New +England. To return to Ravensnest. + +The thirty years of the settlement of my patent, then, had not done much +for it, in the way of works of art. Time, it is true, had effected +something, and it was something in a manner that was a little peculiar, +and which might be oftener discovered in the country at the time of +which I am writing, than at the present day. The timber of the 'Nest, +with the exception of some mountain-land, was principally what, in +American parlance, is termed "hard wood." In other words, the trees were +not perennial, but deciduous; and the merest tyro in the woods knows +that the roots of the last decay in a fourth of the time that the roots +of the first endure, after the trunk is severed. As a consequence, the +stumps had nearly all disappeared from the fields; a fact that, of +itself, gave to the place the appearance of an old country, according to +our American notions. It is true, the virgin forest still flourished in +immediate contact with those fields, shorn, tilled, and smoothed as they +were, giving a wild and solemn setting to the rural picture the latter +presented. The contrast was sufficiently bold and striking, but it was +not without its soft and pleasant points. From the height whither the +Indian had led me, I had a foreground of open land, dotted with cottages +and barns, mostly of logs, beautified by flourishing orchards, and +garnished with broad meadows, or enriched by fields, in which the corn +was waving under the currents of a light summer air. Two or three roads +wound along the settlement, turning aside with friendly interest, to +visit every door; and at the southern termination of the open country +there was a hamlet, built of wood framed, which contained one house that +had little taste, but a good deal more of pretension than any of its +neighbors; another, that was an inn; a store, a blacksmith's-shop, a +school-house, and three or four other buildings, besides barns, sheds, +and hog-pens. Near the hamlet, or the "'Nest Village," as the place was +called, were the mills of the region. These were a grist-mill, a +saw-mill, a fulling-mill, and an oil-mill. All were of moderate +dimensions, and, most probably, of moderate receipts. Even the best +house was not painted, though it had some very ambitious attempts at +architecture, and enjoyed the benefits of no less than four exterior +doors, the uses of one of which, as it opened into the air from the +second story, it was not very easy to imagine. Doubtless some great but +unfinished project of the owner lay at the root of this invention. But +living out of doors, as it were, is rather a characteristic of a portion +of our people. + +The background of this picture, to which a certain degree of rural +beauty was not wanting, was the "boundless woods." Woods stretched away, +north, and south, and east, far as eye could reach; woods crowned the +sides and summits of all the mountains in view; and woods rose up, with +their leafy carpeting, from out the ravines and dells. The war had +prevented any very recent attempts at clearing, and all the open ground +wore the same aspect of homely cultivation, while the dark shades of an +interminable forest were spread around, forming a sort of mysterious +void, that lay between this obscure and remote people, and the rest of +their kind. That forest, however, was not entirely savage. There were +other settlements springing up in its bosom; a few roads wound their way +through its depth; and, here and there, the hunter, the squatter, or the +red man, had raised his cabin, and dwelt amid the sullen but not +unpleasant abundance and magnificence of the wilderness. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + "O masters! if I were disposed to stir + Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage, + I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong, + Who, you all know, are honorable men; + I will not do them wrong; I rather choose + To wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you, + Than I will wrong such honorable men."--SHAKSPEARE. + + +"This, then, is Ravensnest!" I exclaimed, after gazing on the scene for +several minutes in silence; "the estate left me by my grandfather, and +where events once occurred that are still spoken of in my family as some +of the most momentous in its history; events, Susquesus, in which you +were an actor." + +The Indian made a low interjection, but it is not probable he fully +understood me. What was there so remarkable in a savage inroad, a house +besieged, men slain and scalps taken, that he should remember such +things for a quarter of a century! + +"I do not see the 'Nest itself, Trueflint," I added; "the house in which +my grandfather once lived." + +The Onondago did not speak, but he pointed with a finger in a +northeasterly direction, making the action distinct and impressive, as +is usual with his people. I knew the place by the descriptions I had +heard, though it was now mouldering, and had gone far into decay. Logs +piled up green, and confined in such a structure, will last some thirty +or forty years, according to the nature of the trees from which they +come, and the manner in which they have been covered. At that distance I +could not well distinguish how far, or how much, time had done its work; +but I fancied I knew enough of such matters to understand I was not to +expect in the 'Nest a very comfortable home. A family dwelt in the old +place, and I had seen some cheeses that had been made on the very fine +farm that was attached to it. There was a large and seemingly a +flourishing orchard, and the fields looked well; but as for the house, +at that distance it appeared sombre, dark, and was barely to be +distinguished by its form and chimneys, from any other pile of logs. + +I was struck with the silent, dreamy, sabbath-like air of the fields, +far and near. With the exception of a few half-naked children who were +visible around the dwellings to which we were the closest, not a human +being could I discover. The fields were tenantless, so far as men were +concerned, though a good many horned cattle were to be seen grazing. + +"My tenants are not without stock, I find, Trueflint," I remarked. +"There are plenty of cattle in the pastures." + +"You see, all young," answered the Onondago. "War do dat. Kill ole one +for soldier." + +"By the way, as this settlement escaped plunder, I should think its +people may have done something by selling supplies to the army. +Provisions of all kinds were very high and scarce, I remember, when we +met Burgoyne." + +"Sartain. Your people sell both side--good trade, den. Feed +Yankees--feed Yengeese." + +"Well, I make no doubt it was so; for the husbandman is not very apt to +hesitate when he can get a good price; and if he were, the conscience of +the drover would stand between him and treason. But where are all the +men of this country? I do not see a single man, far or near." + +"No see him!--dere," answered the Indian, pointing in the direction of +the hamlet. "'Squire light council-fire to-day, s'pose, and make +speech." + +"True enough--there they are, gathered about the school-house. But whom +do you mean by the 'squire, who is so fond of making speeches?" + +"Ole school-master. Come from salt lake--great friend of grandfader." + +"Oh! Mr. Newcome, my agent--true; I might have known that he was king of +the settlement. Well, Trueflint, let us go on; and when we reach the +tavern we shall be able to learn what the 'great council' is about. Say +nothing of my business; for it will be pleasant to look on a little, +before I speak myself." + +The Indian arose, and led the way down the height, following a foot-path +with which he appeared to be familiar. In a few minutes we were in a +highway, and at no great distance from the hamlet. I had laid aside most +of the dress that it was the fashion of gentlemen to wear in 1784, and +put on a hunting-shirt and leggings, as more fitting for the woods; +consequently it would not have been easy for one who was not in the +secret to imagine that he who arrived on foot, in such a garb, carrying +his fowling-piece, and accompanied by an Indian, was the owner of the +estate. I had sent no recent notice of my intended arrival; and as we +went along, I took a fancy to get a faint glimpse of things _incognito_. +In order to do this it might be necessary to say a word more to the +Indian. + +"Susquesus," I added, as we drew near the school-house, which stood +between us and the tavern, "I hope you have understood me--there is no +need of telling any one who I am. If asked, you can answer I am your +friend. That will be true, as you will find as long as you live." + +"Good--young chief got eyes; want to look wid 'em himself. +Good--Susquesus know." + +In another minute we stopped in the crowd, before the door of the +school-house. The Indian was so well known, and so often at the 'Nest, +that _his_ appearance excited no attention. Some important business +appeared on the carpet, for there was much caucusing, much private +conversation, many eager faces, and much putting together of heads. +While the public mind was thus agitated, few were disposed to take any +particular notice of me, though I had not stood long in the outer edge +of the crowd, which may have contained sixty or seventy men, besides +quite as many well-grown lads, before I overheard an interrogatory put +as to who I was, and whether I had "a right to a vote." My curiosity was +a good deal excited, and I was on the point of asking some explanation, +when a man appeared in the door of the school-house, who laid the whole +matter bare, in a speech. This person had a shrivelled, care-worn, but +keen look, and was somewhat better dressed than most around him, though +not particularly elegant, or even very neat, in his _toilette_. He was +gray-headed, of a small, thin figure, and might have been drawing hard +upon sixty. He spoke in a deliberate, self-possessed manner, as if long +accustomed to the sort of business in which he was engaged, but +in a very decided Connecticut accent. I say _Connecticut_, in +contradistinction to that of New England generally; for while the +Eastern States have many common peculiarities in this way, a nice and +practised ear can tell a Rhode-Islander from a Massachusetts man, and a +Connecticut man from either. As the orator opened his mouth to remove a +chew of tobacco previously to opening it to speak, a murmur near me +said--"Hist! there's the squire; now we shall get suthin'." This, then, +was Mr. Jason Newcome, my agent, and the principal resident in the +settlement. + +"Fellow-citizens"--Mr. Newcome commenced--"you are assembled this day on +a most important, and, I may say, trying occasion; an occasion +calculated to exercise all our spirits. Your business is to decide on +the denomination of the church building that you are about to erect; and +the futur' welfare of your souls may, in one sense, be said to be +interested in your decision. Your deliberations have already been opened +by prayer; and now you are about to come to a final vote. Differences of +opinion have, and do exist among you; but differences of opinion exist +everywhere. They belong to liberty, the blessings of which are not to be +enj'yed without full and free differences of opinion. Religious liberty +demands differences of opinion, as a body might say; and without them +there would be no religious liberty. You all know the weighty reason +there is for coming to some conclusion speedily. The owner of the sile +will make his appearance this summer, and his family are all of a +desperate tendency toward an idolatrous church, which is unpleasant to +most of _you_. To prevent any consequences, therefore, from his +interference, we ought to decide at once, and not only have the house +raised, but ruffed in afore he arrives. Among ourselves, however, we +have been somewhat divided, and that is a different matter. On the +former votes it has stood twenty-six for Congregational to twenty-five +Presbytery, fourteen Methodist, nine Baptist, three Universal, and one +Episcopal. Now, nothin' is clearer than that the majority ought to rule, +and that it is the duty of the minority to submit. My first decision, as +moderator, was that the Congregationals have it by a majority of one, +but some being dissatisfied with that opinion, I have been ready to hear +reason, and to take the view that twenty-six is not a majority, but a +plurality, as it is called. As twenty-six, or twenty-five, however, is a +majority over nine, and over three, and over one, taking their numbers +singly or together, your committee report that the Baptists, Universals +and Episcopals ought to be dropped, and that the next vote, now to be +taken, shall be confined to the three highest numbers; that is to say, +to the Congregationals, the Presbyterians, and the Methodists. Everybody +has a right to vote for which he pleases, provided he vote for one of +them three. I suppose I am understood, and shall now put the question, +unless some gentleman has any remarks to make." + +"Mr. Moderator," cried out a burly, hearty-looking yeoman, "is it in +order now to speak?" + +"Quite so, sir--order, gentlemen, order--Major Hosmer is up." + +Up we all were, if standing on one's feet be up; but the word was +parliamentary, and it appeared to be understood. + +"Mr. Moderator, I am of the Baptist order, and I do not think the +decision just; sin' it compels us Baptists to vote for a denomination we +don't like, or not to vote at all." + +"But you will allow that the majority ought to rule?" interrupted the +chair. + +"Sartain--I agree to _that_; for _that_ is a part of my religion, too," +returned the old yeoman heartily, and with an air of perfect good +faith--"the majority ought to rule; but I do not see that a majority is +in favor of the Congregationals any more than it is of the Baptists." + +"We will put it to vote ag'in, major, just for your satisfaction," +returned Mr. Newcome, with an air of great candor and moderation. +"Gentlemen, those of you who are in favor of the Baptists _not_ being +included in the next vote for denomination, will please to hold up your +hands." + +As every man present who was not a Baptist voted "ay," there were +sixty-nine hands shown. The "no's" were then demanded in the same way, +and the Baptists got their nine own votes, as before. Major Hosmer +admitted he was satisfied, though he looked as if there might be +something wrong in the procedure, after all. As the Baptists were the +strongest of the three excluded sects, the other two made a merit of +necessity, and said nothing. It was understood they were in a minority; +and a minority, as it very often happens in America, has very few +rights. + +"It now remains, gentlemen," resumed the moderator, who was a model of +submission to the public voice, "to put the vote, as between the +Congregationals, the Presbyterians, and the Methodists. I shall first +put the Congregationalists. Those who are in favor of that sect, the old +Connecticut standing order, will please to hold up their hands." + +The tone of voice, the coaxing expression of the eye, and the words "old +Connecticut standing order," let me at once into the secret of the +moderator's wishes. At first but thirty-four hands appeared; but the +moderator having counted these, he looked round the crowd, until he +fairly looked up three more; after which he honestly enough announced +the vote to be thirty-seven for the Congregationalists. So eleven of the +thirteen of silenced sects, had most probably voted with the moderator. +The Presbyterians came next, and they got their own people, and two of +the Baptists, making twenty-seven in all, on a trial in their behalf. +The Methodists got only their own fourteen. + +"It evidently appearing, gentleman," said the moderator, "that the +Methodists gain no strength, and being less than half the Congregational +vote, and much lower than the Presbyterian, I put it to their own +well-known Christian humility, whether they ought not to withdraw?" + +"Put it openly to vote, as you did ag'in us," came out a Baptist. + +"Is that your pleasure, gentlemen? Seeing that it is, I will now try the +vote. Those who are in favor of the Methodists withdrawing, will hold up +their hands." + +Sixty-four hands were raised for, and fourteen against the withdrawal. + +"It is impossible for any religion to flourish ag'in such a majority," +said the moderator, with great apparent candor; "and though I regret it, +for I sincerely wish we were strong enough to build meetin'-houses for +every denomination in the world; but as we are not, we must take things +as they are, and so the Methodists must withdraw. Gentlemen, the +question is now narrowed down to the Congregationals and the +Presbyterians. There is not much difference between them, and it is a +thousand pities there should be _any_. Are you ready for the question, +gentlemen? No answer being given, I shall put the vote." + +And the vote was put, the result being thirty-nine to thirty-nine, or a +tie. I could see that the moderator was disappointed, and supposed he +would claim a casting vote, in addition to the one he had already given; +but I did not know my man. Mr. Newcome avoided all appearances of +personal authority; majorities were his cardinal rule, and to majorities +alone he would defer. Whenever he chose to govern, it was by means of +majorities. The exercise of a power as accidentally bestowed as that of +presiding officer, might excite heart-burnings and envy; but he who went +with a majority was certain of having the weight of public sympathies on +his side. No--no--Mr. Newcome never had an opinion, as against numbers. + +I am sorry to say that very mistaken notions of the power of majorities +are beginning to take root among us. + +It is common to hear it asserted, as a political axiom, that the +majority _must_ rule! The axiom may be innocent enough, when its +application is properly made, which is simply to say that in the control +of those interests of which the decision is referred to majorities, +majorities must rule but, God forbid that the majorities should ever +rule in all things, in this republic or anywhere else! Such a state of +things would soon become intolerable, rendering the government that +admitted of its existence the most odious tyranny that has been known in +Christendom in modern times. The government of this country is the sway +of certain great and incontestable _principles_, that are just in +themselves, and which are set forth in the several constitutions, and +under which certain minor questions are periodically referred to local +majorities, or of necessity, out of the frequency of which appeals has +arisen a mistake that is getting to be dangerously general. God forbid, +I repeat, that a mere personal majority should assume the power which +alone belongs to principles. + +Mr. Newcome avoided a decision, as from the chair; but three several +times did he take the vote, and each time was there a tie. I could now +perceive that he was seriously uneasy. Such steadiness denoted that men +had made up their minds, and that they would be apt to adhere to them, +since one side was apparently as strong as the other. The circumstance +called for a display of democratical tactics; and Mr. Newcome being very +expert in such matters, he could have little difficulty in getting along +with the simple people with whom he had to deal. + +"You see how it is, fellow-citizens. The public has taken sides, and +formed itself into two parties. From this moment the affair must be +treated as a _party_ question, and be decided on _party_ principles; +though the majority must rule. Oh! here, neighbor Willis; will you just +step over to my house, and ask Miss Newcome (Anglice, _Mrs._ Newcome) to +hand you the last volume of the State Laws? Perhaps _they_ have a word +to say in the matter." Here neighbor Willis did as desired, and moved +out of the crowd. As I afterward discovered, he was a warm Presbyterian, +who happened, unfortunately for his sect, to stand so directly before +the moderator, as unavoidably to catch his eye. I suspected that Squire +Newcome would now call a vote on the main question. But I did not know +my man. This would have been too palpably a trick, and he carefully +avoided committing the blunder. There was plenty of time, since the +moderator knew his wife could not very readily find a book he had lent +to a magistrate in another settlement twenty miles off; so that he did +not hesitate to have a little private conversation with one or two of +his friends. + +"Not to be losing time, Mr. Moderator," said one of 'Squire Newcome's +confidants, "I will move you that it is the sense of this meeting, that +the government of churches by means of a presbytery is anti-republican, +opposed to our glorious institutions, and at variance with the best +interests of the human family. I submit the question to the public +without debate, being content to know the unbiased sentiments of my +fellow-citizens on the subject." + +The question was duly seconded and put, the result being thirty-nine +for, and thirty-eight against; or a majority of _one_, that Presbyterian +rule was anti-republican. This was a great _coup de maitre_. Having +settled that it was opposed to the institutions to have a presbytery, a +great deal was gained toward establishing another denomination in the +settlement. No religion can maintain itself against political sentiments +in this country, politics coming home daily to men's minds and pockets. + +It is odd enough that, while all sects agree in saying that the +Christian religion comes from God, and that its dogmas are to be +received as the laws of Infinite Wisdom, men should be found +sufficiently illogical, or sufficiently presumptuous, to imagine that +any, the least of its rules, are to be impaired or strengthened by their +dissemblance or their conformity to any provisions of human +institutions. As well might it be admitted at once, that Christianity is +_not_ of divine origin, or the still more extravagant position be +assumed, that the polity which God himself has established can be +amended by any of the narrow and short-sighted devices of man. +Nevertheless, it is not to be concealed, that here, as elsewhere, +churches are fashioned to suit the institutions, and not the +institutions to suit the church. + +Having achieved so much success, the moderator's confidant pushed his +advantage. + +"Mr. Moderator," he continued, "as this question has altogether assumed +a party character, it is manifestly proper that the party which has the +majority should not be encumbered in its proceedings by the movements of +the minority. Presbytery has been denounced by this meeting, and its +friends stand in the light of a defeated party at a state election. They +can have nothin' to do with the government. I move, therefore, that +those who are opposed to presbytery go into caucus, in order to appoint +a committee to recommend to the majority a denomination which will be +acceptable to the people of Ravensnest. I hope the motion will be put +without debate. The subject is a religious one, and it is unwise to +awaken strife on anything at all connected with religion." + +Alas! alas! How much injury has been done to the cause of Christianity, +how much wrong to the laws of God, and even to good morals, by appeals +of this nature, that are intended to smother inquiry, and force down on +the timid, the schemes of the designing and fraudulent! Integrity is +ever simple and frank; while the devil resorts to these plans of +plausible forbearance and seeming concessions, in order to veil his +nefarious devices. + +The thing took, however; for popular bodies, once under control, are as +easily managed as the vessel that obeys her helm; the strength of the +current always giving additional power to that material portion of the +ship. The motion was accordingly seconded and put. As there was no +debate, which had been made to appear anti-religious, the result was +precisely the same as on the last question. In other words, there was +one majority for disfranchising just one-half the meeting, counting the +above man; and this, too, on the principle that the majority ought to +rule. After this the caucus people went into the school-house, where it +was understood a committee of twenty-six was appointed, to recommend a +denomination to the majority. This committee, so respectable in its +character, and of so much influence by its numbers, was not slow in +acting. As became its moral weight, it unanimously reported that the +Congregational polity was the one most acceptable to the people of +Ravensnest. This report was accepted by acclamation, and the caucus +adjourned _sine die_. + +The moderator now called the whole meeting to order again. + +"Mr. Moderator," said the confidant, "it is time that this community +should come to some conclusion in the premises. It has been agitated +long enough, in its religious feelings, and further delay might lead to +unpleasant and lasting divisions. I therefore move that it is the sense +of this meetin' that the people of Ravensnest ardently wish to see the +new meetin'-us, which is about to be raised, devoted and set apart for +the services of the Congregational church, and that a Congregational +church be organized, and a Congregational pastor duly called. I trust +this question, like all the others, will be passed in perfect harmony, +and without debate, as becomes the solemn business we are on." + +The question was taken, and the old majority of _one_ was found to be in +its favor. Just as Mr. Moderator meekly announced the result, his +messenger appeared in the crowd, bawling out, "'Squire, Miss Newcome +says she can't noway find the volum', which she kind o' thinks you've +lent." + +"Bless me! so I have!" exclaimed the surprised magistrate. "It's not in +the settlement, I declare; but it's of no importance now, as a majority +has fairly decided. Fellow-citizens, we have been dealing with the most +important interest that consarns man; his religious state, government, +and well-being. Unanimity is very desirable on such a question; and as +it is to be presumed no one will oppose the pop'lar will, I shall now +put the question to vote for the purpose of obtaining that unanimity. +Those who are in favor of the Congregationals, or who ardently wish that +denomination, will hold up their hands." + +About three-fourths of the hands went up at once. Cries of +"unanimity--unanimity"--followed, until one hand after another went up, +and I counted seventy-three. The remaining voters continued recusant; +but as no question was taken on the other side, the vote may be said to +have been a very decided one, if not positively unanimous. The moderator +and two or three of his friends made short speeches, commending the +liberality of a part of the citizens, and congratulating all, when the +meeting was adjourned. + +Such were the facts attending the establishment of the Congregational +church in the settlement of Ravensnest, on purely republican principles; +the question having been carried unanimously in favor of that +denomination, although fifty-two votes out of seventy-eight were pretty +evidently opposed to it. But republican principles were properly +maintained, and the matter was settled; the people having solemnly +decided that they ardently wished for a church that in truth they did +not desire at all. + +No complaints were made, on the spot at least. The crowd dispersed, and +as Mr. Newcome walked through it, with the air of a beaten, rather than +of a successful man, I came under his observation for the first time. He +examined me keenly, and I saw a certain air of doubt and misgiving in +his manner. Just at that moment, however, and before he had time to put +a question, Jaap drove up in the wagon, and the negro was an old +acquaintance, having often been at the Nest, and knowing the 'squire for +more than a quarter of a century. This explained the whole affair, a +certain mixed resemblance to both father and mother which I am said to +bear probably aiding in making the truth more apparent. + +Mr. Newcome was startled--that was apparent in his countenance--but he +was, nevertheless, self-possessed. Approaching, he saluted me, and at +once let me know he understood who I was. + +"This is Major Littlepage, I s'pose," he said "I can see a good deal of +the gin'ral in you, as I know'd your father when a young man; and +something of Herman Mordaunt, your mother's father. How long is it sin' +your arrival, Major Littlepage?" + +"But a few minutes," I answered, evasively. "You see my wagon and +servant there, and we are fresh from Albany. My arrival has been +opportune, as all my tenants must be collected here at this moment." + +"Why, yes, sir--yes; here are pretty much the whull of them. We have had +a little meetin' to-day, to decide on the natur' of our religion, as one +might say. I s'pose the major didn't get here until matters were coming +to a head?" + +"You are quite right, Mr. Newcome, matters were coming to a head, as you +say, before I got on the ground." + +The 'squire was a good deal relieved at this, for his conscience +doubtless pricked him a little on the subject of the allusion he had +made to me, and my own denomination. As for myself, I was not sorry to +have got so early behind the curtain as to the character of my agent. It +was pretty clear he was playing his own game as to some things, and it +might be necessary for me to see that this propensity did not extend +itself into other concerns. It is true, my mind was made up to change +him, but there were long and intricate accounts to settle. + +"Yes, sir, religion is an interest of the greatest importance to man's +welfare, and it has b'en (Anglice, been) too long neglected among us," +continued the late moderator. "You see yonder the frame of a meetin'-us, +the first that was ever commenced in this settlement, and it is our +intention to put it up this a'ternoon. The bents are all ready. The +pike-poles are placed, and all is waiting for the word to 'heave.' +You'll perceive, 'squire, it was judicious to go to a sartain p'int, +afore we concluded on the denomination. Up to _that_ p'int every man +would nat'rally work as if he was workin' for his own order, and we've +seen the benefit of such policy, as there you can see the clapboards +planed the sash made and glazed, stuff cut for pews, and everything +ready to put together. The very nails and paints are bought and paid +for. In a word, nothing remains to be done, but to put together, and +finish off, and preach." + +"Why did you not erect the edifice, 'and finish off,' as you call it, +before you came to the test-vote, that I perceive you have just taken?" + +"That would have been goin' a le-e-e-tle too far, major--a very +le-e-e-tle. If you give a man too tight a hold, he doesn't like to let +go, sometimes. We talked the matter over among us, and concluded to put +the question before we went any further. All has turned out happily, and +we have unanimously resolved to be Congregational. Unanimity in religion +is a blessed thing!" + +"Do you apprehend no falling off in zeal, in consequence of this work? +no refusing to help pay the carpenters, and painters, and priest?" + +"No much--a little, perhaps; but no great matter, I should judge. Your +own liberal example, major, has had its influence, and I make no doubt +will produce an effect." + +"My example, sir! I do not understand you, Mr. Newcome, never having +heard of the church, until I heard your own allusions to it, as chairman +of this very meeting." + +'Squire Newcome hemmed, cleared his throat, took an extra-sized chew of +tobacco, and then felt himself equal to attempting an answer. + +"I call it _your_ example, sir; though the authority for what I have +done came from your honored father, General Littlepage, as long ago as +before the revolution. Wartimes, you know, major, is no time for +buildin' meetin'-uses; so we concluded to defer the matter until peace. +Peace we have, and our own eends are fast approaching; and I thought if +the work was ever to be done, so that this generation should get the +benefit of it, it should be done now. I was in hopes we should have had +preachin' in the house afore your arrival, and surprised you with the +cheerin' sight of a worshipping people on your lands. Here is your +father's letter, from which I read a paragraph to the people, half an +hour sin'." + +"I trust the people have always been worshippers, though it may not have +been in a house built expressly for the purpose. With your permission, I +will read the letter." + +This document bore the date of 1770, or fourteen years before the time +the building was erected, and five years before the battle of Lexington +was fought. I was a little surprised at this, but read on. Among other +things, I found that my father had given a general consent to credit his +tenants with five hundred dollars to aid in the erection of a place of +worship; reserving to himself, as my guardian, a voice in the choice of +the denomination. I may add, here, that on examining the leases, I found +credits had been given, in 1770, for the full amount; and that the +money, or what passed for money, the proceeds of work produce, cattle, +butter, cheese, &c., had been in Mr. Newcome's hands the whole of the +intervening time, no doubt to his great advantage. Thus, by a tardy +appropriation of my father's bounty, the agent was pretty certain of +being able to finish the job in hand, even admitting that some of the +people should prove restive under the recent decision. + +"And the money thus appropriated has gone to its destination?" I asked, +on returning the letter. + +"Every copper has thus gone, major, or will soon go. When the First +Congregational, of Ravensnest, is up, you can contemplate the house with +the satisfaction of knowing that your own money has largely aided in the +good work of its erection. What a delightful sentiment that must awaken! +It must be a great blessin' to landlords, to be able to remember how +much of their money goes for the good of their fellow-mortals." + +"In my case, it certainly should, as I understand my father, and indeed +have myself seen, by the accounts rendered to me, that not one dollar of +rent has ever yet left the settlement, to go into the pocket of the +owner of the estate--nay, that the direct outlays of my grandfather were +considerable, in addition to the first cost of the patent." + +"I do not deny it, major; I do not deny it. It is quite probable. But, +you will consider what the spirit of Public Improvement demands; and you +gentlemen-proprietors nat'rally look forward to futur' generations for +your reward--yes, sir, to futur' generations. Then will come the time +when these leased lands will turn to account, and you will enj'y the +fruits of your liberality." + +I bowed, but made no answer. By this time the wagon had reached the inn, +and Jaap was getting out the trunk and other luggage. A rumor had gone +forth among the people that their landlord had arrived, and some of the +older tenants, those who had known "Herman Mordaunt," as they all called +my grandfather, crowded around me in a frank, hearty manner, in which +good feeling was blended with respect. They desired to take my hand. I +shook hands with all who came, and can truly say that I took no man's +palm into my own that day, without a sentiment that the relation of +landlord and tenant was one that should induce kind and confidential +feelings. The Ravensnest property was by no means necessary to my +comfortable subsistence; and I was really well enough disposed to look +forward, if not to "future generations," at least to a future day, for +the advantages that were to be reaped from it. I asked the crowd in, +ordered a tub of punch made, for, in that day, liquor was a necessary +accompaniment of every welcome, and endeavored to make myself acceptable +to my new friends. A throng of women, of whom I have not yet spoken, +were also in attendance; and I had to go through the ceremony of being +introduced to many of the wives and daughters of Ravensnest. On the +whole, the meeting was friendly, and my reception warm. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + "Bear, through sorrow, wrong, and ruth, + In thy heart the dew of youth, + On thy lips the smile of truth."--LONGFELLOW. + + +The ceremony of the introduction was not half through, when there was a +noisy summons to the pike-poles. This called away the crowd in a body; a +raising in the country being an incident of too much interest to be +overlooked. I profited by the occasion to issue a few orders that +related to my own comfort, when I went, myself, to the scene of present +toil and future Congregationalism. + +Everybody in America, a few inveterate cockneys excepted, have seen a +"raising." Most people have seen hundreds; and, as for myself, I believe +I should be safe in saying I had, even at that day, seen a thousand. In +this particular instance, there were great felicitations among the +yeomen, because the frame "had come together well." I was congratulated +on this score, the hearty old Rhode Islander, my brother major, assuring +me that "he couldn't get the blade of his knife, and it's no great +matter of a knife either, into a single j'int. And, what is more, +'squire"--as the sturdy yeoman was a major himself, though only in the +militia, _that_ title would not have been honorable enough for his +landlord--"and, what is more, 'squire, they tell me not a piece was ever +tried, until we put the bents together, this a'ternoon, ourselves! Now, +down country, I never see'd sich a thing; but, up here, the carpenters +go by what they call the 'square-rule;' and quick work they make on't!" +This speech contained the substance of one of the contrivances by which +the "new countries" were endeavoring to catch up with the "old," as I +learned on further inquiries. + +It may be well to describe the appearance of the place, when I reached +the site of the new "meetin'-us." The great body of the "people" had +just taken their stands at the first bent, ready for a lift, while +trusty men stood at the feet of the posts, armed with crowbars, +broad-axes, or such other suitable implements as offered, in readiness +to keep those essential uprights in their places; for, on the steadiness +of these persons, depended the limbs and lives of those who raised the +bent. As this structure was larger than common, the danger was +increased, and the necessity of having men that could be relied on was +obviously so much the greater. Of one post, in particular, for some +reason that I do not know, all the trusty men seemed shy; each declaring +that he thought some one else better suited to take charge of it, than +he was himself. The "boss"--that Manhattanese word having travelled up +to Ravensnest--called out for some one to take the delicate station, as +nothing detained the work but the want of a hand there; and one looked +at another, to see who would step forward, when a sudden cry arose of +"the Chainbearer!--the Chainbearer! Here's your man!" + +Sure enough, there came old Andries Coejemans, hale, upright, vigorous, +and firm-treading, though he had actually seen his threescore years and +ten. My ancient comrade had thrown aside nearly every trace of his late +military, profession, though the marchings and drillings of eight years +were not to be worked out of a man's air and manner in a twelvemonth. +The only sign of the soldier, other than in his bearing, I could trace +about my brother captain, was the manner in which his queue was clubbed. +Andries wore his own hair; this his early pursuits in the forest +rendered necessary; but it had long been clubbed in a sort of military +fashion, and to that fashion he now adhered. In other respects he had +transformed himself entirely into a woodsman. He wore a hunting-shirt, +like myself; leggings, moccasons, and a cap of skins that had been +deprived of their furs. So far from lessening in any degree the fine +effect of his green old age, however, this attire served to increase it. +Andries Coejemans stood six feet, at seventy; was still as erect as he +had been at twenty; and so far from betraying the inroads of age on his +frame, the last appeared to be indurated and developed by what it had +borne. His head was as white as snow, while his face had the ruddy, +weather-beaten color of health and exposure. The face had always been +handsome, having a very unusual expression of candor and benevolence +impressed on features that were bold and manly. + +The Chainbearer could not have seen me until he stepped upon the frame. +Then, indeed, there was no mistaking the expression of his countenance, +which denoted pleasure and friendly interest. Striding over the timber, +with the step of a man long accustomed to tread among dangers of all +sorts, he grasped my hand, and gave it such a squeeze as denoted the +good condition of his own muscles and sinews. I saw a tear twinkling in +his eye; for had I been his own son, I do not think he could have loved +me more. + +"Mortaunt, my poy, you're heartily welcome," said my old comrade. "You +haf come upon t'ese people, I fancy, as t'e cat steals upon t'e mice; +but I had titings of your march, and have peen a few miles town t'e roat +to meet you. How, or where you got past me, is more t'an I know, for I +haf seen nuttin' of you or of your wagon." + +"Yet here we both are, my excellent old friend, and most happy am I to +meet you again. If you will go with me to the tavern, we can talk more +at our ease." + +"Enough, enough for t'e present, young comrate. Pusiness is standing +still a little, for t'e want of my hant; step off the frame, lat, and +let us get up t'ese pents, when I am your man for a week or a year." + +Exchanging looks, and renewing the warm and friendly pressure of the +hand, we parted for the moment; I quitting the frame, while the +Chainbearer went at once to the foot of the important post, or to that +station no one else would assume. Then commenced, without further delay, +the serious toil of raising a bent. This work is seldom entirely free +from hazard; and on this particular occasion, when the force in men was +a little disproportioned to the weight of the timber, it was doubly +incumbent on every man to be true and steady. My attention was at once +attracted to the business in hand; and for several minutes I thought of +little else. The females had drawn as near the spot where their +husbands, brothers, and lovers were exerting every muscle and nerve, as +comported with prudence; and a profound and anxious quiet pervaded the +whole of a crowd that was gay with rustic finery, if not very remarkable +for taste or refinement. Still, the cluster of females had little in it +that was coarse or even unfeminine, if it had not much that would be so +apt to meet the eye, in the way of the attractive, in a similar crowd of +the present day. The improvement in the appearance and dress of the +wives and daughters of husbandmen has been very marked among us within +the last five-and-twenty years. Fully one-half of those collected on +this occasion were in short gowns, as they were called, a garb that has +almost entirely disappeared; and the pillions that were to be seen on +the bodies of nearly all the horses that were fastened to the adjacent +fences, showed the manner in which they had reached the ground. The +calicoes of that day were both dear and homely; and it required money to +enable a woman to appear in a dress that would be thought attractive to +the least practised eye. Nevertheless, there were many pretty girls in +that row of anxious faces, with black eyes and blue, light, black, and +brown hair, and of the various forms and hues in which female beauty +appears in the youthful. + +I flatter myself that I was as comely as the generality of young men of +my age and class, and that, on ordinary occasions, I could not have +shown myself before that cluster of girls, without drawing to myself +some of their glances. Such was not the case, however, when I left the +frame, which now attracted all eyes. On that, and on those who +surrounded it, every eye and every anxious face was turned, my own +included. It was a moment of deep interest to all; and most so to those +who could only _feel_, and not act. + +At the word, the men made a simultaneous effort; and they raised the +upper part of the bent from the timber on which it lay. It was easy to +see that the laborers, stout and willing as they were, had as much as +they could lift. Boys stood ready, however, with short pieces of +scantling to place upright beneath the bent; and the men had time to +breathe. I felt a little ashamed of having nothing to do at such a +moment; but, fearful of doing harm instead of good, I kept aloof, and +remained a mere spectator. + +"Now, men," said the boss, who had taken his stand where he could +overlook the work, "we will make ready for another lift. All at once +makes light work--are you ready?--H-e-a-ve." + +Heave, or lift, the stout fellows did; and with so much intelligence and +readiness, that the massive timber was carried up as high as their +heads. There it stopped, supported as before, by short pieces of +scantling. + +The pike-poles next came in play. This is always the heaviest moment of +a lift of that sort, and the men made their dispositions accordingly. +Short poles were first got under the bent, by thrusting the unarmed ends +into the cavity of the foundation; and a few of the stoutest of the men +stood on blocks, prepared to apply their strength directly. + +"Are you ready, men?" called out the boss. "This is our heaviest bent, +and we come to it fresh. Look out well to the foot of each +post--Chainbearer, I count on _you_--your post is the king-post of the +whole frame; if that goes, all goes. Make ready, men; heave +altogether--that's a lift. Heave again, men--h-e-a-ve--altogether +now--he-e-a-ve! Up she goes; he-e-a-ve--more pike-poles--stand to the +frame, boys--get along some studs--he-e-a-ve--in with your props--so, +catch a little breath, men." + +It was time to take breath, of a certainty; for the effort had been +tremendously severe. The bent had risen, however, and now stood, +supported as before by props, at an angle of some fifteen degrees with +the plane of the building, which carried all but the posts beyond the +reach of hands. The pike-pole was to do the rest; and the next ten +degrees to be overcome would probably cause the greatest expenditure of +force. As yet, all had gone well, the only drawback being the certainty +which had been obtained, that the strength present was hardly sufficient +to get up so heavy a bent. Nevertheless there was no remedy, every +person on the ground who could be of use, but myself having his station. +A well-looking, semi-genteel young man, whose dress was two-thirds +forest and one-third town, had come from behind the row of females, +stepped upon the frame, and taken his post at a pike-pole. The +uninitiated reader will understand that those who raise a building +necessarily stand directly under the timber they are lifting; and that a +downfall would bring them beneath a fearful trap. Bents do sometimes +come down on the laborers; and the result is almost certain destruction +to those who are caught beneath the timber. Notwithstanding the danger +and the difficulty in the present case, good-humor prevailed, and a few +jokes were let off at the expense of the Congregationalists and the late +moderator. + +"Agree, 'squire," called out the hearty old Rhode Islander, "to let in +some of the other denominations occasionally, and see how the bent will +go up. Presbytery is holding back desperately!" + +"I hope no one supposes," answered Mr. Moderator, "that religious +liberty doesn't exist in this settlement. Sartainly--sartainly--other +denominations can always use this house, when it isn't wanted by the +right owners." + +Those words "right owners" were unfortunate; the stronger the right, the +less the losing party liking to hear of it. Notwithstanding, there was +no disposition to skulk, or to abandon the work; and two or three of the +dissentients took their revenge on the spot, by hits at the moderator. +Fearful that there might be too much talk, the boss now renewed his call +for attention to the work. + +"Let us all go together, men," he added. "We've got to the pinch, and +must stand to the work like well-broke cattle. If every man at the frame +will do his best for just one minute, the hardest will be over. You see +that upright stud there, with that boy, Tim Trimmer at it; just raise +the bent so that Timmy can get the eend of that stud under it, and all +will be safe. Look to the lower eend of the stud, Tim; is it firm and +well stopped?" + +Tim declared it was; but two or three of the men went and examined it, +and after making a few alterations, they too assured the boss it could +not get away. A short speech was then made, in which every man was +exhorted to do his best; and everybody in particular, was reminded of +the necessity of standing to his work. After that speech, the men raised +the pike-poles, and placed themselves at their stations. Silent +expectation succeeded. + +As yet, not a sign, look, or word, had intimated either wish or +expectation that I was to place myself in the ranks. I will confess to +an impulse to that effect; for who can look on and see their +fellow-creatures straining every muscle, and not submit to human +sympathy? But the recollection of military rank, and private position, +had not only their claims, but their feelings. I did go a step or two +nearer to the frame, but I did not put my foot on it. + +"Get ready, men"--called the boss, "for a last time. Altogether at the +word--now's your time--he-e-a-ve--he-e-e-a-ve--he-e-e-e-ave!" + +The poor fellows did heave, and it was only too evident that they were +staggering under the enormous pressure of the massive timber. I stepped +on the frame at the very centre, or at the most dangerous spot, and +applied all my strength to a pike-pole. + +"Hurrah!" shouted the boss--"there comes the young landlord!--he-e-ave, +every man his best!--he-e-e-e-ave!" + +We did heave our best, and we raised the bent several feet above its +former props, but not near enough to reach the new ones, by an inch or +two. Twenty voices now called on every man to stand to his work; for +everybody felt the importance of even a boy's strength. The boss rushed +forward like a man, to our aid; and then Tim, fancying his stud would +stand without his support, left it and flew to a pike-pole. At this +mistake the stud fell a little on one side, where it could be of no use. +My face was so placed that I saw this dangerous circumstance; and I felt +that the weight I upheld, individually, grew more like lead at each +instant. I knew by this time that our force was tottering under the +downward pressure of the enormous bent. + +"He-e-e-ave, men--for your lives, he-eave!" exclaimed the boss, like one +in the agony. + +The tones of his voice sounded to me like those of despair. Had a single +boy deserted us then, and we had twenty of them on the frame, the whole +mass of timber must have come down upon us. Talk of charging into a +battery? What is there in that to try men's nerves like the situation in +which we were placed? The yielding of a muscle, in all that straining, +lifting body, might have ruined us. A most fearful, frightful, twenty +seconds followed; and just as I had abandoned hope, a young female +darted out of the anxious, pale-faced crowd that was looking on in a +terror and agony that may be better conceived than described, and +seizing the stud, she placed it alongside of the post. But an inch was +wanted to gain its support; but how to obtain that inch! I now raised my +voice, and called on the fainting men to heave. They obeyed; and I saw +that spirited, true-eyed, firm-handed girl place the prop precisely +where it was wanted. All that end of the bent felt the relief instantly, +and man after man cautiously withdrew from under the frame, until none +remained but those who upheld the other side. We flew to the relief of +those, and soon had a number of props in their places, when all drew +back and looked on the danger from which they had escaped, breathless +and silent. For myself, I felt a deep sense of gratitude to God for the +escape. + +This occurrence made a profound impression. Everybody was sensible of +the risk that had been run, and of the ruin that might have befallen the +settlement. I had caught a glimpse of the rare creature whose decision, +intelligence, and presence of mind had done so much for us all; and to +me she seemed to be the loveliest being of her sex my eyes had ever +lighted on! Her form, in particular, was perfection; being just the +medium between feminine delicacy and rude health; or just so much of the +last as could exist without a shade of coarseness; and the little I saw +of a countenance that was nearly concealed by a maze of curls that might +well be termed golden, appeared to me to correspond admirably with that +form. Nor was there anything masculine or unseemly in the deed she had +performed to subtract in any manner from the feminine character of her +appearance. It was decided, useful, and in one sense benevolent; but a +boy might have executed it so far as physical force was concerned. The +act required coolness, intelligence, and courage, rather than any +masculine power of body. + +It is possible that, aware as I was of the jeopardy in which we were all +placed, my imagination may have heightened the effect of the fair +apparition that had come to save us, as it might be, like a messenger +from above. But, even there, where I stood panting from the effect of +exertions that I have never equalled in my own case most certainly, +exhausted, nearly breathless, and almost unable to stand, my mind's-eye +saw nothing but the flexible form, the elastic, ready step, the golden +tresses, the cheek suffused by excitement, the charming lips compressed +with resolution, and the whole air, attitude, and action characterized, +as was each and all, by the devotion, readiness, and loveliness of her +sex. When my pulses beat more regularly, and my heart ceased to throb, I +looked around in quest of that strange vision, but saw no one who could, +in the least, claim to be connected with it. The females had huddled +together, like a covey that was frightened, and were exclaiming, holding +up their hands, and indulging in the signs of alarm that are customary +with their sex and class. The "vision" was certainly not in that group, +but had vanished as suddenly as it had appeared. + +At this juncture, the Chainbearer came forward, and took the command. I +could see he was agitated--affected might be a better word--but he was, +nevertheless, steady and authoritative. He was obeyed, too, in a manner +I was delighted to see. The order of the "boss" had produced no such +impressions as those which old Andries now issued; and I really felt an +impulse to obey them myself, as I would have done eighteen months +before, when he stood on the right of our regiment as its oldest +captain. + +The carpenter yielded his command to the Chainbearer without a murmur. +Even 'Squire Newcome evidently felt that Andries was one who, in a +certain way, could influence the minds of the settlers more than he +could do it himself. In short, everybody listened, everybody seemed +pleased, and everybody obeyed. Nor did my old friend resort to any of +the coaxing that is so common in America, when men are to be controlled +in the country. In the towns, and wherever men are to be commanded in +bodies, authority is as well understood as it is in any other quarter of +the world; but, in the interior, and especially among the people of New +England habits, very few men carry sufficient command with them to say, +"John, do this," or "John, do that;" but it is "Johnny, _why won't you_ +do this?" or "Johnny, _don't you think you'd better_ do that?" The +Chainbearer had none of this mystified nonsense about him. He called +things by their right names; and when he wanted a spade, he did not ask +for a hoe. As a consequence, he was obeyed, command being just as +indispensable to men, on a thousand occasions, as any other quality. + +Everything was soon ready again, with the men stationed a little +differently from what they had previously been. This change was the +Chainbearer's, who understood mechanics practically; better, perhaps, +than if he had been a first-rate mathematician. The word was given to +heave, all of us being at the pike-poles; when up went the bent, as if +borne upon by a force that was irresistible. Such was the effect of old +Andries' habits of command, which not only caused every man to lift with +all his might, but the whole to lift together. A bent that is +perpendicular is easily secured; and then it was announced that the +heaviest of the work was over. The other bents were much lighter; and +one up, there were means of aiding in raising the rest that were at +first wanting. + +"The Congregationals has got the best on't," cried out the old Rhode +Islander, laughing, as soon as the bent was stay-lathed, "by the help of +the Chainbearer and somebody else I wunt name! Well, our turn will come, +some day; for Ravensnest is a place in which the people wont be +satisfied with one religion. A country is badly on't, that has but one +religion in't; priests getting lazy, and professors dull!" + +"You may be sure of t'at," answered the Chainbearer, who was evidently +making preparations to quit the frame. "Ravensnest will get as many +religions, in time, as t'ere are discontented spirits in it; and t'ey +will need many raisings, and more priests." + +"Do you intend to leave us, Chainbearer? There's more posts to hold, and +more bents to lift?" + +"The worst is over, and you've force enough wit'out me, for what remains +to be tone. I haf t'e lantlort to take care of. Go to your work, men; +and, if you can, rememper you haf a peing to worship in t'is house, t'at +is neit'er Congregational, nor Presbyterian, nor anything else of the +nature of your disputes and self-conceit. 'Squire Newcome wilt gif you a +leat in t'e way of l'arning, and t'e carpenter can act boss well enough +for t'e rest of t'e tay." + +I was surprised at the coolness with which my old friend delivered +himself of sentiments that were not very likely to find favor in such a +company, and the deference that he received, while thus ungraciously +employed. But I afterward ascertained Andries commanded respect by means +of his known integrity; and his opinions carried weight because he was a +man who usually said "_come_, boys," and not one who issued his orders +in the words "go, boys." This had been his character in the army, where, +in his own little circle, he was known as one ever ready to lead in +person. Then Andries was a man of sterling truth; and such a man, when +he has the moral courage to act up to his native impulses, mingled with +discretion enough to keep him within the boundaries of common prudence, +insensibly acquires great influence over those with whom he is brought +in contact. Men never fail to respect such qualities, however little +they put them in practice in their own cases. + +"Come Morty, my poy," said the Chainbearer, as soon as we were clear of +the crowd, "I will pe your guite, ant take you to a roof unter which you +will pe master." + +"You surely do not mean the 'Nest?" + +"T'at, and no ot'er. T'e olt place looks, like us olt soltiers, a little +rusty, and t'e worse for sarvice; put it is comfortaple, and I haf had +it put in order for you, poy. Your grantfat'er's furniture is still +t'ere; and Frank Malpone, Dus, and I, haf mate it head-quarters, since +we haf peen in t'is part of t'e country. You know I haf your orters for +t'at." + +"Certainly, and to use anything else that is mine. But I had supposed +you fairly hutted in the woods of Mooseridge!" + +"T'at hast peen tone too; sometimes we are at one place, and sometimes +at anot'er. My niggers are at t'e hut; put Frank and Dus and I haf come +ofer to welcome you to t'e country." + +"I have a wagoner here, and my own black--let me step to the inn, and +order them to get ready for us." + +"Mortaunt, you and I haf peen uset to our feet. The soltier marches, and +countermarches, wit' no wagon to carry him; he leafs t'em to t'e +paggage, and t'e paggage-guart." + +"Come on, old Andries; I will be your comrade, on foot or on horseback. +It can only be some three or four miles, and Jaap can follow with the +trunks at his leisure." + +A word spoken to the negro was all that was necessary; though the +meeting between him and the Chainbearer was that of old friends. Jaap +had gone through the whole war with the regiment, sometimes acting as my +father's servant, sometimes carrying a musket, sometimes driving a team; +and, at the close of his career, as my particular attendant. He +consequently regarded himself as a sort of soldier, and a very good one +had he proved himself to be, on a great many occasions. + +"One word before we start, Chainbearer," I said, as old Andries and Jaap +concluded their greetings; "I fell in with the Indian you used to call +Sureflint, in the woods, and I wish to take him with us." + +"He hast gone aheat, to let your visit pe known," answered my friend. "I +saw him going up t'e roat, at a quick trot, half an hour since. He is at +t'e 'Nest py t'is time." + +No more remained to be said or done, and we went our way, leaving the +people busily engaged in getting up the remainder of the frame. I had +occasion to observe that my arrival produced much less sensation in the +settlement than it might have done had not the "meeting-house" been my +competitor in attracting attention. One was just as much of a novelty as +the other; just as much of a stranger. Although born in a Christian +land, and educated in Christian dogmas, very few of those who dwelt on +the estate of Ravensnest, and who were under the age of five-and-twenty, +had ever seen an edifice that was constructed for the purpose of +Christian worship at all. Such structures were rare indeed, in the year +1784, and in the interior of New York. Albany had but two, I believe; +the capital may have had a dozen; and most of the larger villages +possessed at least one; but with the exception of the old counties, and +here and there one on the Mohawk, the new State could not boast of many +of "those silent fingers pointing to the sky," rising among its trees, +so many monitors of a future world, and of the great end of life. As a +matter of course, all those who had never seen a church felt the +liveliest desire to judge of the form and proportions of this; and as +the Chainbearer and I passed the crowd of females, I heard several +good-looking girls expressing their impatience to see something of the +anticipated steeple, while scarce a glance was bestowed on myself. + +"Well, my old friend, here we are together, again, marching on a public +highway," I remarked, "but with no intention of encamping in front of an +enemy." + +"I hope not," returned Andries, dryly; "t'ough all is not golt t'at +glitters. We have fought a hard battle, Major Littlepage; I hope it will +turn out for a goot end." + +I was a little surprised at this remark; but Andries was never very +sanguine in his anticipations of good. Like a true Dutchman, he +particularly distrusted the immigration from the Eastern States, which I +had heard him often say could bring no happy results. + +"All will come round in the end, Chainbearer," I answered, "and we shall +get the benefits of our toil and dangers. But how do you come on at the +Ridge, and who is this surveyor of yours?" + +"T'ings do well enough at t'e Ridge, Mortaunt; for _t'ere_ t'ere is not +a soul yet to make trouple. We have prought you a map of ten t'ousant +acres, laid off in huntret acre lots, which I will venture to say haf +peen as honestly and carefully measuret as any other ten t'ousant acres +in t'e State. We pegan next to t'is property, and you may pegin to +lease, on your fat'er's lant, just as soon as you please." + +"And the Frank Malbone you have written about did the surveying?" + +"He worket up _my_ measurements, lat, and closely tone t'ey are, I'll +answer for it. T'is Frank Malbone is t'e brot'er of Dus--t'at is to say, +her half-brot'er; peing no nephew of mine. Dus, you know, is only a +half-niece in bloot; but she is a full da'ter in lofe. As for Frank, he +is a goot fellow; and t'ough t'is is his first jop at surfeying, he may +be dependet on wit' as much confitence as any ot'er man going." + +"No matter if a few mistakes are made, Andries; land is not diamonds in +this country; there is plenty for us all, and a great deal to spare. It +would be a different matter if there was a scarcity; but as it is, give +good measure to the tenant, or the purchaser. A first survey can only +produce a little loss or gain; whereas surveys between old farms are +full of trouble." + +"Ant lawsuits"--put in the Chainbearer, nodding his head. "To tell you +my mint, Mortaunt, I would rat'er take a jop in a Dutch settlement, at +half-price, t'an run a line petween two Yankees for twice the money. +Among t'e Dutch, t'e owners light their pipes, and smoke whilst you are +at work; but the Yankees are the whole time trying to cut off a little +here, and to gain a little t'ere; so t'at it is as much as a man's +conscience is wort' to carry a chain fairly petween 'em." + +As I knew his prejudice on this subject formed the weak point in the +Chainbearer, I gave the discourse a new turn, by leading it to political +events, of which I knew him to be fond. We walked on, conversing on +various topics connected with this theme, for near an hour, when I found +myself rather suddenly quite near to my own particular house. Near by, +the building had more of shape and substance than it had seemed to +possess when seen from the height; and I found the orchards and meadows +around it free from stumps and other eyesores, and in good order. Still, +the place on its exterior, had a sort of jail look, there being no +windows, nor any other outlet than the door. On reaching the latter, +which was a gate, rather than an ordinary entrance, we paused a moment +to look about us. While we stood there, gazing at the fields, a form +glided through the opening, and Sureflint stood by my side. He had +hardly got there, when there arose the strains of the same full, rich, +female voice, singing Indian words to a civilized melody, as I had heard +issuing from the thicket of pines, among the second growth of the +forest. From that moment I forgot my fields and orchards, forgot the +Chainbearer and Sureflint, and could think of nothing but the +extraordinary circumstance of a native girl's possessing such a +knowledge of our music. The Indian himself seemed entranced; never +moving until the song or verses were ended. Old Andries smiled, waited +until the last strain was finished, pronounced the word "Dus" with +emphasis, and beckoned for me to follow him into the building. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + "The fault will be in the music, cousin, if you be not woo'd in + good time; if the prince be too important, tell him there is + measure for every thing, and so dance out the + answer."--_Beatrice._ + + +"Dus!" I repeated to myself--"This, then, is Dus, and no Indian girl; +the Chainbearer's 'Dus;' Priscilla Bayard's 'Dus;' and Sureflint's +'wren'!" + +Andries must have overheard me, in part; for he stopped just within the +court on which the gate opened, and said-- + +"Yes, t'at is Dus, my niece. The girl is like a mocking-pird, and +catches the songs of all languages and people. She is goot at Dutch, and +quite melts my heart, Mortaunt, when she opens her throat to sing one of +our melancholy Dutch songs; and she gives the English too, as if she +knowet no ot'er tongue." + +"But that song was Indian--the words, at least, were Mohawk or Oneida." + +"Onondago--t'ere is little or no tifference. Yes, you're right enough; +the worts are Indian, and they tell me t'e music is Scotch. Come from +where it will, it goes straight to the heart, poy." + +"How came Dus--how came Miss Ursula--that is, your niece, to understand +an Indian dialect?" + +"Didn't I tell you she is a perfect mocking-bird, and that she imitates +all she hears? Yes, Dus would make as goot a surveyor as her brot'er, +after a week's trial. You've heart me say how much I livet among the +tripes before t'e war, and Dus was t'en wit' me. In that manner she has +caught the language; and what she has once l'arnet she nefer forget. Dus +is half wilt from living so much in the woots, and you must make +allowances for her; put she is a capital gal, and t'e very prite of my +heart!" + +"Tell me one thing before we enter the house--does any one else sing +Indian about here?--has Sureflint any women with him?" + +"Not he!--t'e creatur' hast not'ing to do wit' squaws. As for any one +else's singing Intian, I can only tell you I never heart of such a +person." + +"But, you told me you were down the road to meet me this morning--were +you alone!" + +"Not at all--we all went; Sureflint, Frank, Dus, and I. I t'ought it due +to a lantlort, Mortaunt, to gif him a hearty welcome; t'ough Dus did +mutiny a little, and sait t'at, lantlort or no lantlort, it was not +proper for a young gal to go forth to meet a young man. I might have +t'ought so too, if it hadn't peen yourself, my poy; but, with you, I +couldn't play stranger, as one woult wit' a straggling Yankee. I wishet +to welcome you wit' the whole family; put I'll not conceal Dus's +unwillingness to be of t'e party." + +"But Dus _was_ of your party! It is very odd we did not meet!" + +"Now, you speak of it, I do pelief it wast all owin' to a scheme of t'at +cunnin' gal! You must know, Mortaunt, a'ter we had got a pit down t'e +roat, she persuatet us to enter a t'icket of pines, in order to eat a +mout'ful; and I do pelief the cunnin' hussy just did it t'at you might +slip past, and she safe her female dignity!" + +"And from those pines Sureflint came, just after Dus, as you call her, +but Miss Ursula Malbone, as I ought to style her, had been singing this +very song?" + +"Wast you near enough to know all t'is, poy, and we miss you! The gal dit +sing t'at ferry song; yes, I rememper it; and a sweet, goot song it is. +Call her Miss Ursula Malbone? Why shouldn't you call her Dus, as well as +Frank and I?" + +"For the simple reason that you are uncle, and Frank her brother, while +I am a total stranger." + +"Poh--poh--Morty; t'is is peing partic'lar. I am only a half-uncle, in +the first place; and Frank is only a half-brot'er; and I dares to say +you wilt pe her _whole_ frient. T'en, you are not a stranger to any of +t'e family, I can tell you, lat; for I have talket enough apout you to +make bot' t'e poy and t'e gal lofe you almost as much as I do myself." + +Poor, simple-hearted, upright old Andries! What an unpleasant feeling +did he give me, by letting me into the secret that I was about to meet +persons who had been listening to his partial accounts for the last +twelve months. It is so difficult to equal expectations thus awakened; +and I will own that I had begun to be a little sensitive on the subject +of this Dus. The song had been ringing in my ears from the moment I +first heard it; and now that it became associated with Priscilla +Bayard's Ursula Malbone, the latter had really become a very formidable +person to my imagination. There was no retreating, however, had I wished +it; and a sign induced the Chainbearer to proceed. Face the young woman +I must, and the sooner it was done the better. + +The 'Nest-house, as my homely residence was termed, had been a sort of +fortress, or "garrison," in its day, having been built around three +sides of a parallelogram, with all its windows and doors opening on the +court. On the fourth side were the remains of pickets, or palisades, but +they were mostly rotted away, being useless as a fence, from the +circumstance that the buildings stood on the verge of a low cliff that, +of itself, formed a complete barrier against the invasions of cattle, +and no insignificant defence against those of man. + +The interior of the 'Nest-house was far more inviting than its exterior. +The windows gave the court an appearance of life and gayety, at once +converting that which was otherwise a pile of logs, thrown together in +the form of a building, into a habitable and inhabited dwelling. One +side of this court, however, was much neater, and had much more the air +of comfort than the other; and toward the first Andries led the way. I +was aware that my grandfather Mordaunt had caused a few rooms in this +building to be furnished for his own particular purposes, and that no +orders had ever been given to remove or to dispose of the articles thus +provided. I was not surprised, therefore, on entering the house, to find +myself in apartments which, while they could not be called in any manner +gayly or richly furnished, were nevertheless quite respectably supplied +with most of the articles that are thought necessary to a certain manner +of living. + +"We shall fint Dus in here, I dare say," observed the Chainbearer, +throwing open a door, and signing for me to precede him. "Go in, and +shake t'e gal's hand, Mortaunt; she knows you well enough, name and +natur', as a poty may say." + +I did go in, and found myself within a few feet of the fair, +golden-haired girl of the raising; she who had saved the frame from +falling on us all, by a decision of mind and readiness of exertion that +partook equally of courage and dexterity. She was in the same dress as +when first seen by me, though the difference in attitude and employment +certainly gave her air and expression a very different character. Ursula +Malbone was now quietly occupied in hemming one of those coarse checked +handkerchiefs that the poverty of her uncle compelled him, or at least +induced him to use, and of which I had seen one in his hands only a +minute before. On my entrance she rose, gravely but not discourteously +answering my bow with a profound courtesy. Neither spoke, though the +salutes were exchanged as between persons who felt no necessity for an +introduction in order to know each other. + +"Well, now," put in Andries, in his strongest Dutch accent, "t'is wilt +never do, ast petween two such olt frients. Come hit'er, Dus, gal, and +gif your hant to Mortaunt Littlepage, who ist a sort of son of my own." + +Dus obeyed, and I had the pleasure of holding her soft velvet-like hand +in mine for one moment. I felt a gratification I cannot describe in +finding the hand _was_ so soft, since the fact gave me the assurance +that necessity had not yet reduced her to any of the toil that is +unsuited to a gentlewoman. I knew that Andries had slaves, his only +possession, indeed, besides his compass, chains and sword, unless a few +arms and some rude articles of the household were excepted; and these +slaves, old and worn out as they must be by this time, were probably the +means of saving the niece from the performance of offices that were +menial. + +Although I got the hand of Ursula Malbone, I could not catch her eye. +She did not avert her face, neither did she affect coldness; but she was +not at her ease. I could readily perceive that she would have been +better pleased had her uncle permitted the salutations to be limited to +the bows and courtesies. As I had never seen this girl before, and could +not have done anything to offend her, I ascribed the whole to _mauvaise +honte_, and the embarrassment that was natural enough to one who found +herself placed in a situation so different from that in which she had so +lately been. I bowed on the hand, possibly gave it a gentle pressure in +order to reassure its owner, and we separated. + +"Well, now, Dus, haf you a cup of tea for the lantlort--to welcome him +to his own house wit'?" demanded Andries, perfectly satisfied with the +seemingly amicable relations he had established between us. "T'e major +hast hat a long march, for peaceable times, and woult be glat to git a +little refreshment." + +"You call me major, Chainbearer, while you refuse to accept the same +title for yourself." + +"Ay, t'ere ist reason enough for t'at. _You_ may lif to be a general; +_wilt_ probably be one before you're t'irty; but I am an olt man, now, +and shall never wear any ot'er uniform than this I have on again. I +pegan t'e worlt in this corps, Morty, and shall end it in the rank in +which I began." + +"I thought you had been a surveyor originally, and that you fell back on +the chain because you had no taste for figures. I think I have heard as +much from yourself." + +"Yes, t'at is t'e fact. Figures and I didn't agree; nor do I like 'em +any petter at seventy t'an I liket 'em at seventeen. Frank Malbone, now, +Dus's brother, t'ere, ist a lat that takes to 'em nat'rally, and he +works t'rough a sum ast your fat'er would carry a battalion t'rough a +ravine. Carrying chain I like; it gives sufficient occupation to t'e +mind; put honesty is the great quality for the chainbearer. They say +figures can't lie, Mortaunt; but 'tis not true wit' chains; sometimes +they do lie, desperately." + +"Where is Mr. Francis Malbone? I should be pleased to make his +acquaintance." + +"Frank remainet pehint to help 'em up with their timber. He is a stout +chap, like yourself, and can lent a hant; while, poor fellow! he has no +lantlort tignity to maintain." + +I heard a gentle sigh from Dus, and involuntarily turned my head; for +she was occupied directly behind my chair. As if ashamed of the +weakness, the spirited girl colored, and for the first time in my life I +heard her voice, the two instances of the Indian songs excepted. I say +heard her voice; for it was an event to record. A pleasant voice, in +either sex, is a most pleasant gift from nature. But the sweet tones of +Ursula Malbone were all that the most fastidious ear could have desired; +being full, rich, melodious, yet on the precise key that best satisfies +the taste, bringing with it assurances of a feminine disposition and +regulated habits. I detest a shrill, high-keyed female voice, more than +that of a bawling man, while one feels a contempt for those who mumble +their words in order to appear to possess a refinement that the very act +itself contradicts. Plain, direct, but regulated utterance, is +indispensable to a man or woman of the world; anything else rendering +him or her mean or affected. + +"I was in hopes," said Dus, "that evil-disposed frame was up and +secured, and that I should see Frank in a minute or two. I was surprised +to see you working so stoutly for the Presbyterians, uncle Chainbearer!" + +"I might return t'e compliment, and say I wast surpriset to see _you_ +doing the same t'ing, Miss Dus! Pesides, the tenomination is +Congregational and not Prespyterian; and one is apout as much to your +taste as t'e ot'er." + +"The little I did was for you, and Frank, and--Mr. Littlepage, with all +the rest who stood under the frame." + +"I am sure, Miss Ursula," I now put in, "we all ought, and I trust we +all _do_ feel truly grateful for your timely aid. Had that timber come +down, many of us must have been killed, and more maimed." + +"It was not a very feminine exploit," answered the girl, smiling, as I +thought, a little bitterly. "But one gets accustomed to being _useful_ +in the woods." + +"Do you dislike living in the forest, then?" I ventured to ask. + +"Certainly not. I like living anywhere that keeps me near uncle +Chainbearer, and Frank. They are all to me, now my excellent protectress +and adviser is no more; and their home is my home, their pleasure my +pleasure, their happiness mine." + +This might have been said in a way to render it suspicious and +sentimental; but it was not. On the contrary, it was impulsive, and came +from the heart. I saw by the gratified look of Andries that he +understood his niece, and was fully aware how much he might rely on the +truthful character of the speaker. As for the girl herself, the moment +she had given utterance to what she felt, she shrunk back, like one +abashed at having laid bare feelings that ought to have been kept in the +privacy of her own bosom. Unwilling to distress her, I turned the +conversation in a way to leave her to herself. + +"Mr. Newcome seems a skilful manager of the multitude," I remarked. "He +contrived very dexterously to give to the twenty-six Congregationalists +he had with him, the air of being a majority of the whole assembly; +while in truth, they were barely a third of those present." + +"Let Jason Newcome alone for t'at?" exclaimed Andries. "He understants +mankint, he says, and sartainly he hast a way of marching and +countermarching just where he pleases wit' t'ese people, makin' 'em +t'ink t'e whole time t'ey are doing just what t'ey want to do. It ist an +art, major--it ist an art!" + +"I should think it must be, and one worth possessing, if, indeed, it can +be exercised with credit." + +"Ay, t'ere's the rub! Exerciset it is; but as for t'e credit, _t'at_ I +will not answer for. It sometimes makes me angry, and sometimes it makes +me laugh, when I look on, and see t'e manner in which Jason makes t'e +people rule t'emselves, and how _he_ wheels 'em apout, and faces 'em, +and t'rows them into line, and out of line, at t'eir own wort of +commant! His Excellency coult hartly do more wit' us, a'fer t'e Baron[8] +had given us his drill." + +[Footnote 8: This allusion is evidently to a German officer, who +introduced the Prussian drill into the American army, Baron Steuben--or +_Stuy_ben, as I think he must have been called in Germany--Steu_ben_, as +he is universally termed in this country.--EDITOR.] + +"There must be some talent necessary, in order to possess so much +influence over one's fellow-creatures." + +"It is a talent you woult be ashamed to exercise, Mortaunt Littlepage, +t'ough you hat it in cart loats. No man can use such talent wit'out +peginning wit' lying and deceifing; and you must be greatly changet, +major, if you are the he't of your class, in such a school." + +"I am sorry to see, Chainbearer, that you have no better opinion of my +agent; I must look into the matter a little, when this is the case." + +"You wilt fint him law-honest enough; for he swears py t'e law, and lifs +py t'e law. No fear for your tollars, poy; t'ey pe all safe, unless, +inteet, t'ey haf all vanishet in t'e law." + +As Andries was getting more and more Dutch, I knew he was growing more +and more warm, and I thought it might be well to defer the necessary +inquiries to a cooler moment. This peculiarity I have often observed in +most of those who speak English imperfectly, or with the accent of some +other tongue. They fall back, as respects language, to that nearest to +nature, at those moments when natural feeling is asserting its power +over them the least equivocally. + +I now began to question the Chainbearer concerning the condition in +which he found the 'Nest-house and farm, over which I had given him full +authority, when he came to the place, by a special letter to the agent. +The people in possession were of very humble pretensions, and had been +content to occupy the kitchen and servants' rooms ever since my +grandfather's death, as indeed, they had done long before that event. It +was owing to this moderation, as well as to their perfect honesty, that +I found nothing embezzled, and most of the articles in good condition. +As for the farm, it had flourished, on the "let alone" principle. The +orchards had grown, as a matter of course; and if the fields had not +been improved by judicious culture, neither had they been exhausted by +covetous croppings. In these particulars, there was nothing of which to +complain. Things might have been better, Andries thought; but he also +thought it was exceedingly fortunate they were no worse. While we were +conversing on this theme, Dus moved about the room silently, but with +collected activity, having arranged the tea-table with her own hands. +When invited to take our seats at it--everybody drew near to a tea-table +in that day, unless when there was too large a party to be +accommodated--I was surprised to find everything so perfectly neat, and +some things rich. The plates, knives, etc., were of good quality, but +the tray was actually garnished with a set of old-fashioned silver, such +as was made when tea was first used, of small size, but very highly +chased. The handle of the spoons represented the stem of the tea-plant, +and there was a crest on each of them; while a full coat of arms was +engraved on the different vessels of the service, which were four in +all. I looked at the crest, in a vague, but surprised expectation of +finding my own. It was entirely new to me. Taking the cream-jug in my +hand, I could recall no arms resembling those that were engraved on it. + +"I was surprised to find this plate here," I observed; "for, though my +grandfather possessed a great deal of it, for one of his means, I did +not think he had enough to be as prodigal of it as leaving it here would +infer. This is family plate, too, but those arms are neither Mordaunt +nor Littlepage. May I ask to whom they do belong?" + +"The Malpones," answered the Chainbearer. "T'e t'ings are t'e property +of Dus." + +"And you may add, uncle Chainbearer, that they are _all_ her +property"--added the girl, quickly. + +"I feel much honored in being permitted to use them, Miss Ursula," I +remarked; "for a very pretty set they make." + +"Necessity, and not vanity, has brought them out to-day. I broke the +only teapot of yours there was in the house this morning, and was in +hopes Frank would have brought up one from the store to supply its +place, before it would be wanted; but he does not come. As for spoons, I +can find none belonging to the house, and we use these constantly. As +the teapot was indispensable, I thought I might as well display all my +wealth at once. But this is the first time the things have been used in +many, many years!" + +There was a plaintive melody in Dus's voice, spite of her desire and +effort to speak with unconcern, that I found exceedingly touching. While +few of us enter into the exultation of successful vulgarity, as it +rejoices in its too often random prosperity, it is in nature to +sympathize with a downward progress, and with the sentiments it leaves, +when it is connected with the fates of the innocent, the virtuous, and +the educated. That set of silver was all that remained to Ursula Malbone +of a physical character, and which marked the former condition of her +family; and doubtless she cherished it with no low feeling of morbid +pride, but as a melancholy monument of a condition to which all her +opinions, tastes, and early habits constantly reminded her she properly +belonged. In this last point of view, the sentiment was as respectable, +and as much entitled to reverence, as in the other case it would have +been unworthy, and meriting contempt. + +There is a great deal of low misconception, as well as a good deal of +cant, beginning to prevail among us, on the subject of the qualities +that mark a gentleman, or a lady. The day has gone by, and I trust +forever, when the mere accidents of birth are to govern such a claim; +though the accidents of birth are very apt to supply the qualities that +may really form the caste. For my own part, I believe in the +exaggerations of neither of the two extremes that so stubbornly maintain +their theories on this subject; or, that a gentleman may not be formed +exclusively by birth on the one hand, and that the severe morality of +the Bible on the other is by no means indispensable to the character. A +man may be a very perfect gentleman, though by no means a perfect man, +or a Christian; and he may be a very good Christian, and very little of +a gentleman. It is true, there is a connection in manners, as a result, +between the Christian and the gentleman; but it is in the result, and +not in the motive. That Christianity has little necessary connection +with the character of a gentleman may be seen in the fact that the +dogmas of the first teach us to turn another cheek to him who smites; +while the promptings of the gentleman are--not to wipe out the indignity +in the blood of the offender, but--to show that rather than submit to it +he is ready to risk his own life.[9] + +[Footnote 9: Mr. Mordaunt Littlepage would seem to have got hold of the +only plausible palliative for a custom that originated in those times +when abuses could only be corrected by the strong arm; and which, in our +own days, is degenerating into the merest system of chicanery and trick. +The duellist who, in his "practice," gets to be "certain death to a +shingle" and then misses his man, instead of illustrating his chivalry, +merely lets the world into the secret that his nerves are not equal to +his drill! There was something as respectable as anything _can_ be in +connection with a custom so silly, in the conduct of the Englishman who +called out to his adversary, a near-sighted man, "that if he wished to +shoot at _him_, he must turn his pistol in another direction."--EDITOR.] + +But, I repeat, there is no _necessary_ connection between the Christian +and the gentleman, though the last who is the first attains the highest +condition of humanity. Christians, under the influence of their +educations and habits, often do things that the code of the gentleman +rejects; while it is certain that gentlemen constantly commit +unequivocal sins. The morality of the gentleman repudiates meannesses +and low vices, rather than it rigidly respects the laws of God; while +the morality of the Christian is unavoidably raised or depressed by the +influence of the received opinions of his social caste. I am not +maintaining that "the ten commandments were not given for the obedience +of people of quality," for their obligations are universal; but, simply, +that the qualities of a gentleman are the best qualities of man unaided +by God, while the graces of the Christian come directly from his mercy. + +Nevertheless, there is that in the true character of a gentleman that is +very much to be respected. In addition to the great indispensables of +tastes, manners, and opinions, based on intelligence and cultivation, +and all those liberal qualities that mark his caste, he cannot and does +not stoop to meannesses of any sort. He is truthful out of self-respect, +and not in obedience to the will of God; free with his money, because +liberality is an essential feature of his habits, and not in imitation +of the self-sacrifice of Christ; superior to scandal and the vices of +the busybody, inasmuch as they are low and impair his pride of +character, rather than because he has been commanded not to bear false +witness against his neighbor. It is a great mistake to confound these +two characters, one of which is a mere human embellishment of the ways +of a wicked world, while the other draws near to the great end of human +existence. The last is a character I revere; while I am willing to +confess that I never meet with the first without feeling how vacant and +repulsive society would become without it; unless, indeed, the vacuum +could be filled by the great substance, of which, after all, the +gentleman is but the shadow. + +Ursula Malbone lost nothing in my respect by betraying the emotion she +did, while thus speaking of this relic of old family plate. I was glad +to find, however, that she _could_ retain it; for, though dressed in no +degree in a style unbecoming her homely position as her uncle's +housekeeper, there were a neatness and taste in her attire that are not +often seen in remote parts of the country. On this subject, the reader +will indulge my weaknesses a little, if I pause to say a word. Ursula +had neither preserved in her dress the style of one of her sex and +condition in the world, nor yet entirely adopted that common to girls of +the class to which she now seemingly belonged. It struck me that some of +those former garments that were the simplest in fashion, and the most +appropriate in material, had been especially arranged for present use; +and sweetly becoming were they, to one of her style of countenance and +perfection of form. In that day, as every one knows, the different +classes of society--and, kingdom or republic, classes _do_ and ever +_will_ exist in this country, as an incident of civilization; a truth +every one can see as respects those _below_, though his vision may be +less perfect as respects those _above_ him--but every one knows that +great distinctions in dress existed, as between classes, all over the +Christian world, at the close of the American war, that are fast +disappearing, or have altogether disappeared. Now Ursula had preserved +just enough of the peculiar attire of her own class, to let one +understand that she, in truth, belonged to it without rendering the +distinction obtrusive. Indeed, the very character of that which she did +preserve, sufficiently told the story of her origin, since it was a +subdued, rather than an exaggerated imitation of that to which she had +been accustomed, as would have been the case with a mere copyist. I can +only add, that the effect was to render her sufficiently charming. + +"Taste t'ese cakes," said old Andries, who, without the slightest +design, did love to exhibit the various merits of his niece--"Dus mate +t'em, and I'll engage Matam Washington herself couldn't make +pleasanter!" + +"If Mrs. Washington was ever thus employed," I answered, "she might turn +pale with envy here. Better cakes of the sort I never ate." + +"'Of the sort' is well added, Mr. Littlepage," the girl quietly +observed; "my protectress and friend made me rather skilful in this way, +but the ingredients are not to be had here as they were in her family." + +"Which, being a boarding-school for young ladies, was doubtless better +supplied than common with the materials and knowledge necessary for good +cakes." + +Dus laughed, and it startled me, so full of a wild but subdued melody +did that laugh seem to be. + +"Young ladies have many foibles imputed to them, of which they are +altogether innocent," was her answer. "Cakes were almost forbidden fruit +in the school, and we were taught to make them in pity to the palates of +the men." + +"Your future huspants, gal," cried the Chainbearer, rising to quit the +room. + +"Our fathers, brothers, and _uncles_," returned his niece, laying an +emphasis on the last word. + +"I believe, Miss Ursula," I resumed, as soon as Andries had left us +alone, "that I have been let behind the curtain as respects your late +school, having an acquaintance of a somewhat particular nature with one +of your old school-fellows." + +My companion did not answer, but she fastened those fascinating blue +eyes of hers on me, in a way that asked a hundred questions in a moment. +I could not but see that they were suffused with tears; allusions to her +school often producing that effect. + +"I mean Miss Priscilla Bayard, who would seem to be, or to have been, a +very good friend of yours," I added, observing that my companion was not +disposed to say anything. + +"Pris Bayard!" Ursula now suffered to escape her, in her surprise--"and +_she_ an acquaintance of a somewhat particular nature!" + +"My language has been incautious; not to say that of a coxcomb. +Certainly, I am not authorized to say more than that our _families_ are +very intimate, and that there are some particular reasons for that +intimacy. I beg you to read only as I have corrected the error." + +"I do not see that the correction changes things much; and you will let +me say I am grieved, sadly grieved, to learn so much." + +This was odd! That Dus really meant what she said was plain enough by a +face that had actually lost nearly all of its color, and which expressed +an emotion that was most extraordinary. Shall I own what a miserably +conceited coxcomb I was for a single moment? The truth must be said, and +I will confess it. The thought that crossed my mind was this: Ursula +Malbone was pained at the idea that the only man whom she had seen for a +year, and who could, by possibility, make any impression on one of her +education and tastes, was betrothed to another! Under ordinary +circumstances, this precocious preference might have caused me to revolt +at its exhibition; but there was far too much of nature in all of Dus's +emotions, acts, and language, to produce any other impression on me than +that of intense interest. I have always dated the powerful hold that +this girl so soon obtained on my heart, to the tumult of feeling +awakened in me at that singular moment. Love at first sight may be +ridiculous, but it is sometimes true. That a passion may be aroused by a +glance, or a smile, or any other of those secret means of conveying +sympathy with which nature has supplied us, I fully believe; though its +duration must depend on qualities of a higher and more permanent +influence. It is the imagination that is first excited; the heart coming +in for its share by later and less perceptible degrees. + +My delusion, however, did not last long. Whether Ursula Malbone was +conscious of the misconstruction to which she was liable, I cannot say; +but I rather think not, as she was much too innocent to dread evil; or +whether she saw some other necessity for explaining herself, remains a +secret with me to this hour; but explain she did. How judiciously this +was done, and with how much of that female tact that taught her to +conceal the secrets of her friend, will appear to those who are +sufficiently interested in the subject to pursue it. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + "Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth-- + Joy, gentle friends! joy, and fresh days of love + Accompany your hearts!"--_Midsummer Night's Dream._ + + +"I ought not to leave you in any doubts as to my meaning, Mr. +Littlepage," resumed Ursula, after a short pause. "Priscilla Bayard is +very dear to me, and is well worthy of all your love and admiration----" + +"Admiration, if you please, and as much as you please, Miss Ursula; but +there is no such feeling as love, as yet certainly, between Miss Bayard +and myself." + +The countenance of Dus brightened sensibly. Truth herself, she gave +immediate credit to what I said; and I could not but see that she was +greatly relieved from some unaccountable apprehension. Still, she smiled +a little archly, and perhaps a little sadly, as she continued-- + +"'As yet, certainly,' is very equivocal on your side, when a young woman +like Priscilla Bayard is concerned. It may at any moment be converted +into '_now_, certainly,' with that certainty the other way." + +"I will not deny it. Miss Bayard is a charming creature--yet, I do not +know how it is--there seems to be a fate in these things. The peculiar +relation to which I alluded, and alluded so awkwardly, is nothing more +than the engagement of my youngest sister to her brother. There is no +secret in that engagement, so I shall not affect to conceal it." + +"And it is just such an engagement as might lead to one between yourself +and Priscilla!" exclaimed Dus, certainly not without alarm. + +"It might, or it might not, as the parties happen to view such things. +With certain temperaments it might prove an inducement; while with +others it would not." + +"_My_ interest in the subject," continued Dus, "proceeds altogether from +the knowledge I have that another has sought Miss Bayard; and I will +own, with my hearty good wishes for his success. You struck me as a most +formidable rival; nor do you seem any the less so, now I know that your +families are to be connected." + +"Have no fears on my account, for I am as heart-whole as the day I first +saw the lady." + +A flash of intelligence--a most meaning flash it was--gleamed on the +handsome face of my companion; and it was followed by a mournful, though +I still thought not an entirely dissatisfied smile. + +"These are matters about which one had better not say much," Dus added, +after a pause. "My sex has its 'peculiar rights,' and no woman should +disregard them. You have been fortunate in finding all your tenants +collected together, Mr. Littlepage, in a way to let you see them at a +single glance." + +"I was fortunate in one sense, and a most delightful introduction I had +to the settlement--such an introduction as I would travel another +hundred miles to have repeated." + +"Are you, then, so fond of raisings? or do you really love excitement to +such a degree as to wish to get under a trap, like one of the poor +rabbits my uncle sometimes takes?" + +"I am not thinking of the raising, or of the frame; although your +courage and presence of mind might well indelibly impress both on my +mind"--Dus looked down and the color mounted to her temple--"but, I was +thinking of a certain song, an Indian song, sung to Scotch music, that I +heard a few miles from the clearings, and which was my real introduction +to the pleasant things one may both hear and see in this retired part of +the world." + +"Which is not so retired after all that flattery cannot penetrate it, I +find. It is pleasant to hear one's songs extolled, even though they may +be Indian; but, it is not half so pleasant as to hear tidings of +Priscilla Bayard. If you wish truly to charm my ear, talk of _her_!" + +"The attachment seems mutual, for I can assure you Miss Bayard +manifested just the same interest in you." + +"In me! Priscilla then remembers a poor creature like me, in her +banishment from the world! Perhaps she remembers me so much the more, +because I _am_ banished. I hope she does not, _can_not think I regret my +condition--_that_ I could hardly forgive her." + +"I rather think she does not; I know she gives you credit for more than +common excellencies." + +"It is strange that Priscilla Bayard should speak of me to you! I have +been a little unguarded myself, Mr. Littlepage, and have said so much, +that I begin to feel the necessity of saying something more. There is +some excuse for my not feeling in your presence as in that of a +stranger, since uncle Chainbearer has your name in his mouth at least +one hundred times each day. Twelve different times in one hour did he +speak of you yesterday." + +"Excellent old Andries! It is the pride of my life that so honest a man +loves me; and now for the explanation I am entitled to receive as his +friend by your own acknowledgment." + +Dus smiled, a little saucily I thought--but saucily or not, that smile +made her look extremely lovely. She reflected a moment, like one who +thinks intensely, even bending her head under the painful mental effort; +then she drew her form to its usual attitude, and spoke. + +"It is always best to be frank," she said, "and it can do no harm, while +it _may_ do good to be explicit with you. You will not forget, Mr. +Littlepage, that I believe myself to be conversing with my uncle's very +best friend?" + +"I am too proud of the distinction to forget it, under any +circumstances; and least of all in _your_ presence." + +"Well, then, I will be frank. Priscilla Bayard was for eight years my +associate and closest friend. Our affection for each other commenced +when we were mere children, and increased with time and knowledge. About +a year before the close of the war, my brother Frank, who is now here as +my uncle's surveyor, found opportunities to quit his regiment, and to +come to visit me quite frequently--indeed, his company was sent to +Albany, where he could see me as often as he desired. To see me, was to +see Priscilla, for we were inseparable; and to see Priscilla was, for +poor Frank at least, to love her. He made me his confidant, and my alarm +was nothing but natural concern lest he might have a rival as formidable +as you." + +A flood of light was let in upon me by this brief explanation, though I +could not but wonder at the simplicity, or strength of character, that +induced so strange a confidence. When I got to know Dus better, the +whole became clear enough; but, at the moment, I was a little surprised. + +"Be at ease on my account, Miss Malbone----" + +"Why not call me Dus at once? You will do it in a week, like everyone +else here; and it is better to begin our acquaintance as I am sure it +will end. Uncle Chainbearer calls me Dus; Frank calls me Dus; most of +your settlers call me Dus, to my very face; and even our blacks call me +Miss Dus. You cannot wish to be singular." + +"I will gladly venture so far as to call you Ursula; but Dus does not +please me." + +"No! I have become so accustomed to be called Dus by all my friends, +that it sounds distant to be called by any other name. Do you not think +Dus a pretty diminutive?" + +"I _did_ not, most certainly; though all these things depend on the +associations. Dus Malbone sounded sweetly enough in Priscilla Bayard's +mouth; but I fear it will not be so pleasant in mine." + +"Do as you please--but do not call me _Miss_ Ursula, or _Miss_ Malbone. +It would have displeased me once, _not_ to have been so addressed by any +man; but it has an air of mockery, now that I know myself to be only the +companion and housekeeper of a poor chainbearer." + +"And yet, the owner of that silver, the lady I see seated at this table, +in this room, is not so very inappropriately addressed as Miss Ursula!" + +"You know the history of the silver, and the table and room are your +own. No--Mr. Littlepage, we are poor--very, _very_ poor--uncle +Chainbearer, Frank, and I--all alike, have nothing." + +This was not said despairingly, but with a sincerity that I found +exceedingly touching. + +"Frank, at least, should have something," I answered. "You tell me he +was in the army?" + +"He was a captain at the last, but what did he receive for that? We do +not complain of the country, any of us; neither my uncle, my brother, +nor myself; for we know it is poor, like ourselves, and that its poverty +even is like our own, that of persons reduced. I was long a charge on my +friends, and there have been debts to pay. Could I have known it, such a +thing should not have happened. Now I can only repay those who have +discharged these obligations by coming into the wilderness with them. It +is a terrible thing for a woman to be in debt." + +"But you have remained in this house; you surely have not been in the +hut, at Mooseridge?" + +"I have gone wherever uncle Chainbearer has gone, and shall go with him, +so long as we both live. Nothing shall ever separate us again. His years +demand this, and gratitude is added to my love. Frank might possibly do +better than work for the little he receives; but _he_ will not quit us. +The poor love each other intensely!" + +"But I have desired your uncle to use this house, and for your sake I +should think he would accept the offer." + +"How could he, and carry chain twenty miles distant? We have been here, +occasionally, a few days at a time; but the work was to be done and it +must be done on the land itself." + +"Of course, you merely gave your friends the pleasure of your company, +and looked a little to their comforts, on their return from a hard day's +work?" + +Dus raised her eyes to mine; smiled; then she looked sad, her under-lip +quivering slightly; after which a smile that was not altogether without +humor succeeded. I watched these signs of varying feeling with an +interest I cannot describe; for the play of virtuous and ingenuous +emotion on a lovely female countenance is one of the rarest sights in +nature. + +"I can carry chain," said the girl, at the close of this exhibition of +feeling. + +"You _can_ carry chain, Ursula--Dus, or whatever I am to call you----" + +"Call me Dus--I love that name best." + +"You _can_ carry chain, I suppose, is true enough--but, you do not mean +that you _have_?" + +The face of Dus flushed; but she looked me full in the eye, as she +nodded her head to express an affirmative; and she smiled as sweetly as +ever woman smiled. + +"For amusement--to say you have done it--in jest!" + +"To help my uncle and brother, who had not the means to hire a second +man." + +"Good God! Miss Malbone--Ursula--Dus----" + +"The last is the most proper name for a chainbear_ess_," rejoined the +girl, smiling; and actually taking my hand by an involuntary movement of +her sympathy in the shock I so evidently felt. "But, why should you look +upon that little toil as so shocking, when it is healthful and honest? +You are thinking of a sister reduced to what strikes you as man's proper +work." + +Dus relinquished my hand almost as soon as she had touched it; and she +did it with a slight start, as if shocked at her own temerity. + +"What _is_ man's work, and man's work, _only_." + +"Yet woman can perform it; and, as uncle Chainbearer will tell you, +perform it _well_. I had no other concern, the month I was at work, than +the fear that my strength would not enable me to do as much as my uncle +and brother, and thus lessen the service they could render you each day. +They kept me on the dry land, so there were no wet feet, and your woods +are as clear of underbrush as an orchard. There is no use in attempting +to conceal the fact, for it is known to many, and would have reached +your ears sooner or later. Then concealment is always painful to me, and +never more so than when I hear you, and see you treating your hired +servant as an equal." + +"Miss Malbone! For God's sake, let me hear no more of this--old Andries +judged rightly of me, in wishing to conceal this; for I should never +have allowed it to go on for a moment." + +"And in what manner could you have prevented it, Major Littlepage? My +uncle has taken the business of you at so much the day, finding surveyor +and laborers--poor, dear Frank! He, at least, does not rank with the +laborers, and as for my uncle, he has long had an honest pride in being +the best chainbearer in the country--why need his niece scruple about +sharing in his well-earned reputation?" + +"But you, Miss Malbone--dearest Dus--who have been so educated, who are +born a lady, who are loved by Priscilla Bayard, the sister of Frank, are +not in your proper sphere, while thus occupied." + +"It is not so easy to say what is the proper sphere of a woman. I admit +it ought to be, in general, in the domestic circle and under the +domestic roof; but circumstances must control that. We hear of wives who +follow their husbands to the camp, and we hear of nuns who come out of +their convents to attend the sick and wounded in hospitals. It does not +strike me, then, as so bad in a girl who offers to aid her parent as I +have aided mine, when the alternative was to suffer by want." + +"Gracious Providence! And Andries has kept me in ignorance of all this; +he knew my purse would have been his, and how could you have been in +want in the midst of the abundance that reigns in this settlement, which +is only fifteen or twenty miles from your hut, as I know from the +chainbearer's letters." + +"Food is plenty, I allow, but we had no money; and when the question was +between beggary or exertion, we merely chose the last. My uncle did try +old Killian, the black, for a day; but you know how hard it is to make +one of those people understand anything that is a little intricate; and +then I offered my services. I am intelligent enough, I trust"--the girl +smiled a little proudly as she said this--"and you can have no notion +how active and strong I am for light work like this, and on my feet, +until you put me to the proof. Remember, carrying chain is neither +chopping wood nor piling logs; nor is it absolutely unfeminine." + +"Nor raising churches"--I answered, smiling; for it was not easy to +resist the contagion of the girl's spirit--"at which business I have +been an eye-witness of your dexterity. However, there will now be an end +of this. It is fortunately in my power to offer such a situation and +such emoluments to Mr. Malbone, as will at once enable him to place his +sister in this house as its mistress, and under a roof that is at least +respectable." + +"Bless you for that!" cried Dus, making a movement toward catching my +hand again; but checking it in time to render the deep blush that +instantly suffused her face, almost unnecessary. "Bless you for that! +Frank is willing to do anything that is honest, and capable of doing +anything that a gentleman should do. I am the great encumbrance on the +poor fellow; for, could he leave me, many situations must be open to him +in the towns. But I cannot quit my uncle, and Frank will not quit me. He +does not understand uncle Chainbearer." + +"Frank must be a noble fellow, and I honor him for his attachment to +such a sister. This makes me only the more anxious to carry out my +intentions." + +"Which are such, I hope, that there is no impropriety in his sister's +knowing them?" + +This was said with such an expression of interest in the sweet, blue +eyes, and with so little of the air of common curiosity, that it +completely charmed me. + +"Certainly there is none," I answered, promptly enough even for a young +man who was acting under the influence of so much ingenuous and strong +native feeling; "and I shall have great pleasure in telling you. We have +long been dissatisfied with our agent on this estate, and I had +determined to offer it to your uncle. The same difficulty would have to +be overcome in this case, as there was in making him a safe +surveyor--the want of skill in figures; now this difficulty will not +exist in the instance of your brother; and the whole family, Chainbearer +as well as the rest, will be benefited by giving the situation to +Frank." + +"You call him Frank!" cried Dus, laughing, and evidently delighted with +what she heard. "That is a good omen; but if you raise me to the station +of an agent's sister, I do not know but I shall insist on being called +Ursula, at least, if not Miss Ursula." + +I scarce knew what to make of this girl; there was so much of gayety, +and even fun, blended with a mine of as deep feeling as I ever saw +throwing up its signs to the human countenance. Her brother's prospects +had made her even gay; though she still looked as if anxious to hear +more. + +"You may claim which you please, for Frank shall have his name put into +the new power of attorney within the hour. Mr. Newcome has had a hint, +by letter, of what is to come, and professes great happiness in getting +rid of a vast deal of unrequited trouble." + +"I am afraid there is little emolument, if _he_ is glad to be rid of the +office." + +"I do not say he is _glad_; I only say he _professes_ to be so. These +are different things with certain persons. As for the emolument, it will +not be much certainly; though it will be enough to prevent Frank's +sister from carrying chain, and leave her to exercise her talents and +industry in their proper sphere. In the first place, every lease on the +estate is to be renewed; and there being a hundred, and the tenant +bearing the expense, it will at once put a considerable sum at your +brother's disposition. I cannot say that the annual commissions will +amount to a very great deal, though they will exceed a hundred a year by +the terms on which the lands will be relet. The use of this house and +farm, however, I did intend to offer to your uncle; and, for the same +reason, I shall offer them to Frank." + +"With this house and farm we shall be rich!" exclaimed Dus, clasping her +hands in delight. "I can gather a school of the better class of girls, +and no one will be useless--no one idle. If I teach your tenants' +daughters some of the ideas of their sex and station, Mr. Littlepage, +_you_ will reap the benefit in the end. That will be some slight return +for all your kindness." + +"I wish all of your sex, and of the proper age, who are connected with +me, no better instructress. Teach them your own warmth of heart, your +own devotedness of feeling, your own truth, and your own frankness, and +I will come and dwell on my own estate, as the spot nearest to +paradise." + +Dus looked a little alarmed, I thought, as if she feared she might have +uttered too much; or, perhaps, that _I_ was uttering too much. She rose, +thanked me hurriedly, but in a very lady-like manner, and set about +removing the breakfast service, with as much diligence as if she had +been a mere menial. + +Such was my very first conversation with Ursula Malbone; her, with whom +I have since held so many, and those that have been very different! When +I rose to seek the Chainbearer, it was with a feeling of interest in my +late companion that was as strong as it was sudden. I shall not deny +that her beauty had its influence--it would be unnatural that it should +not--but it was less her exceeding beauty, and Ursula Malbone would have +passed for one of the fairest of her sex--but it was less her beauty +that attracted me than her directness, truth, and ingenuousness, so +closely blended as all were with the feelings and delicacy of her sex. +She had certainly done things which, had I merely _heard_ of them, would +have struck me unpleasantly, as even bold and forward, and which may now +so strike the reader; but this would be doing Dus injustice. No act, no +word of hers, not even the taking of my hand, seemed to me, at the time, +as in the least forward; the whole movement being so completely +qualified by that intensity of feeling which caused her to think only of +her brother. Nature and circumstances had combined to make her precisely +the character she was; and I will confess I did not wish her to be, in a +single particular, different from what I found her. + +Talk of Pris Bayard in comparison with Ursula Malbone! Both had beauty, +it is true, though the last was far the handsomest; both had delicacy, +and sentiment, and virtue, and all that pertains to a well-educated +young woman, if you will; but Dus had a character of her own, and +principles, and an energy, and a decision, that made her the girl of ten +thousand. I do not think I could be said to be actually in love when I +left that room, for I do not wish to appear so very easy to receive +impressions as all that would come to; but I will own no female had ever +before interested me a tenth part as much, though I had known, and +possibly admired her, a twelvemonth. + +In the court I found Andries measuring his chains. This he did +periodically; and it was as conscientiously as if he were weighing gold. +The old man manifested no consciousness of the length of the +_tete-a-tete_ I had held with his niece; but on the contrary, the first +words he uttered were to an effect that proved he fancied I had been +alone. + +"I peg your parton, lat," he said, holding his measuring rod in his +mouth while he spoke. "I peg your parton, put this is very necessary +work. I do not wish to haf any of your Yankee settlers crying out +hereafter against the Chainpearer's surveys. Let 'em come a huntret or a +t'ousant years hence, if t'ey will, and measure t'e lant; I want olt +Andries' survey to stant." + +"The variation of the compass will make some difference in the two +surveys, my good friend, unless the surveyors are better than one +commonly finds." + +The old man dropped his rod and his chain, and looked despondingly at +me. + +"True," he said, with emphasis. "You haf hit t'e nail on t'e heat, +Mortaunt--t'at fariation is t'e fery teffil to get along wit'! I haf +triet it t'is-a-way, and I haf triet it t'at-away, and never coult I +make heat or tail of it! I can see no goot of a fariation at all." + +"What does your pretty assistant Dus think of it? Dus, the pretty +chainbearer? You will lose your old, hard-earned appellation, which will +be borne off by Miss Malbone." + +"Ten Dus has peen telling you all apout it! A woman never can keep a +secret. No, natur' hast mate 'em talkatif, and t'e parrot will chatter." + +"A woman likes variation, notwithstanding--did you consult Dus on that +difficulty?" + +"No, no, poy; I sait not'ing to Dus, and I am sorry she has said +anyt'ing to you apout t'is little matter of t'e chain. It was sorely +against my will, Mortaunt, t'at t'e gal ever carriet it a rot; and was +it to do over ag'in, she shoult not carry it a rot--yet it woult have +tone your heart goot to see how prettily she did her work; and how quick +she wast, and how true; and how accurate she put down the marker; and +how sartain was her eye. Natur' made t'at fery gal for a chainpearer!" + +"And a chainbearer she has been, and a chainbearer she ever will be, +until she throws her chains on some poor fellow, and binds him down for +life. Andries, you have an angel with you here, and not a woman." + +Most men in the situation of the Chainbearer might have been alarmed at +hearing such language coming from a young man, and under all the +circumstances of the case. But Andries Coejemans never had any distrust +of mortal who possessed his ordinary confidence; and I question if he +ever entertained a doubt about myself on any point, the result of his +own, rather than of my character. Instead of manifesting uneasiness or +displeasure, he turned to me, his whole countenance illuminated with the +affection he felt for his niece, and said-- + +"T'e gal ist an excellent girl, Mortaunt, a capital creature! It woult +haf tone your heart goot, I tell you, to see her carry chain! Your +pocket is none t'e worse for t'e mont' she worked, t'ough I would not +haf you t'ink I charget for her ast a man--no--she is town at only +half-price, woman's work peing only woman's work; and yet I do pelieve, +on my conscience, t'at we went over more grount in t'at mont', t'an we +could haf tone wit' any man t'at wast to pe hiret in t'is part of t'e +worlt--I do, indeet!" + +How strange all this sounded to me! Charged for work done by Ursula +Malbone, and charged at half-price! We are the creatures of convention, +and the slaves of opinions that come we know not whence. I had got the +notions of my caste, obtained in the silent, insinuating manner in which +all our characters are formed; and nothing short of absolute want could +have induced me to accept pecuniary compensation from an individual for +any personal service rendered. I had no profession, and it did not +comport with our usages for a gentleman to receive money for personal +service out of the line of a profession; an arbitrary rule, but one to +which most of us submit with implicit obedience. The idea that Dus had +been paid by myself for positive toil, therefore, was extremely +repugnant to me; and it was only after reflection that I came to view +the whole affair as I ought, and to pass to the credit of the +noble-minded girl, and this without any drawback, an act that did her so +much honor. I wish to represent myself as no better or no wiser, or more +rational than I was; and, I fancy, few young men of my age and habits +would hear with much delight, at first, that the girl he himself felt +impelled to love had been thus employed; while, on the other hand, few +would fail to arrive at the same conclusions, on reflection, as those I +reached myself. + +The discourse with Andries Coejemans was interrupted by the sudden +entrance of Frank Malbone into the court. This was my first meeting with +my young surveyor, and the Chainbearer introduced us to each other in +his usual hearty and frank manner. In a minute we were acquainted; the +old man inquiring as to the success of the settlers in getting up their +"meetin'-us." + +"I staid until they had begun to place the rafters," answered young +Malbone, cheerfully, "and then I left them. The festivities are to end +with a ball, I hear; but I was too anxious to learn how my sister +reached home--I ought to say reached the 'Nest--to remain. We have +little other home now, Mr. Littlepage, than the hut in the woods, and +the roof your hospitality offers." + +"Brother soldiers, sir, and brother soldiers in _such a cause_, ought to +have no more scruples about accepting such hospitalities, as you call +them, than in offering them. I am glad, however, that you have adverted +to the subject, inasmuch as it opens the way to a proposition I have +intended to make; which, if accepted, will make me _your_ guest, and +which may as well be made now as a week later." + +Both Andries and Frank look surprised; but I led them to a bench on the +open side of the court, and invited them to be seated, while I explained +myself. It may be well to say a word of that seat in passing. It stood +on the verge of a low cliff of rocks, on the side of the court which had +been defended by palisades, when the French held the Canadas, and the +remains of which were still to be seen. Here, as I was told before we +left the spot, Dus, _my_ pretty chainbearer, with a woman's instinct for +the graceful and the beautiful, had erected an arbor, principally with +her own hands, planted one of the swift-growing vines of our climate, +and caused a seat to be placed within. The spot commanded a pleasing +view of a wide expanse of meadows, and of a distant hill-side, that +still lay in the virgin forest. Andries told me that his niece had +passed much of her leisure time in that arbor, since the growth of the +plant, with the advance of the season, had brought the seat into the +shade. + +Placing myself between the Chainbearer and Malbone, I communicated the +intention I had formed of making the latter my agent. As an inducement +to accept the situation, I offered the use of the 'Nest house and the +'Nest farm, reserving to myself the room or two that had been my +grandfather's, and that only at the times of my annual visits to the +property. As the farm was large, and of an excellent quality of land, it +would abundantly supply the wants of a family of modest habits, and even +admit of sales to produce the means of purchasing such articles of +foreign growth as might be necessary. In a word, I laid before the +listeners the whole of my plan, which was a good deal enlarged by a +secret wish to render Ursula comfortable, without saying anything about +the motive. + +The reader is not to suppose I was exhibiting any extraordinary +liberality in doing that which I have related. It must not be forgotten +that land was a drug in the State of New York in the year 1784, as it is +to-day on the Miami, Ohio, Mississippi, and other inland streams. The +proprietors thought but little of their possessions as the means of +_present_ support, but rather maintained their settlements than their +settlements maintained them looking forward to another age, and to their +posterity, for the rewards of all their trouble and investments.[10] + +[Footnote 10: The Manor of Rensselaerwick virtually extends forty-eight +miles east and west, and twenty-four north and south. It is situated in +the very heart of New York, with three incorporated cities within its +limits, built, in part, on small, older grants. Albany is a town of +near, if not of quite, 40,000 souls; and Troy must now contain near +28,000. Yet the late patroon, in the last conversation he ever held with +the writer, only a few months before he died, stated that _his_ +grandfather was the first proprietor who ever reaped any material +advantage from the estate, and his father the first who received any +income of considerable amount. The home property, farms and mills, +furnished the income of the family for more than a century.--EDITOR.] + +It is scarcely necessary to say my proposals were gladly accepted. Old +Andries squeezed my hand, and I understood the pressure as fully as if +he had spoken with the eloquence of Patrick Henry. Frank Malbone was +touched; and all parties were perfectly satisfied. The surveyor had his +field-inkstand with him, as a matter of course, and I had the power of +attorney in my pocket ready for the insertion of the Chainbearer's name, +would he accept the office of agent. That of Malbone was written in its +stead; I signed; Andries witnessed; and we left the seat together, Frank +Malbone, in effect, temporarily master of the house in which we were, +and his charming sister, as a necessary consequence, its mistress. It +was a delicious moment to me, when I saw Dus throw herself into her +brother's arms and weep on his bosom, as he communicated to her the +joyful intelligence. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + "A comfortable doctrine, and much may be said of it. Where lies + your text?"--_Twelfth Night; or, What You Will._ + + +A month glided swiftly by. During that interval, Frank Malbone was fully +installed, and Andries consented to suspend operations with his chain +until this necessary work was completed. Work it was; for every lease +granted by my grandfather having run out, the tenants had remained on +their farms by sufferance, or as occupants at will, holding from year to +year under parole agreements made with Mr. Newcome, who had authority to +go that far, but no farther. + +It was seldom that a landlord, in that day, as I have already said, got +any income from his lands during the first few years of their +occupation. The great thing was to induce settlers to come; for, where +there was so much competition, sacrifices had to be made in order to +effect this preliminary object. In compliance with this policy, my +grandfather had let his wild lands for nominal rents in nearly every +instance, with here and there a farm of particular advantages excepted; +and, in most cases, the settler had enjoyed the use of the farm for +several years, for no rent at all. He paid the taxes, which were merely +nominal, and principally to support objects that were useful to the +immediate neighborhood; such as the construction of roads, bridges, +pounds, with other similar works, and the administration of justice. At +the expiration of this period of non-payment of rents, a small sum per +acre was agreed to be paid, rather than actually paid, not a dollar of +which had ever left the settlement. The landlord was expected to head +all subscriptions for everything that was beneficial, or which professed +to be beneficial to the estate; and the few hundreds a year, two or +three at most, that my rent-roll actually exhibited, were consumed among +the farms of the 'Nest. It was matter of record that not one shilling +had the owner of this property, as yet, been able to carry away with him +for his own private purposes. It is true, it had been in his power to +glean a little each year for such a purpose; but it was not considered +politic, and consequently it was not the practice of the country, in +regard to estates so situated and before the revolution; though isolated +cases to the contrary, in which the landlord was particularly +avaricious, or particularly necessitous, may have existed. Our New York +proprietors, in that day, were seldom of the class that needed money. +Extravagance had been little known to the province, and could not yet be +known to the State; consequently, few lost their property from their +expenditures, though some did from mismanagement. The trade of "puss in +the corner," or of shoving a man out of his property, in order to place +one's self in it, was little practised previously to the revolution; and +the community always looked upon the intruder into family property with +a cold eye, unless he came into possession by fair purchase, and for a +sufficient price. Legal speculations were then nearly unknown; and he +who got rich was expected to do so by manly exertions, openly exercised, +and not by the dark machinations of a sinister practice of the law. + +In our case, not a shilling had we, as yet, been benefited by the +property of Ravensnest. All that had ever been received, and more too, +had been expended on the spot; but a time had now arrived when it was +just and reasonable that the farms should make some returns for all our +care and outlays. + +Eleven thousand acres were under lease, divided among somewhat less than +a hundred tenants. Until the first day of the succeeding April, these +persons could hold their lands under the verbal contracts; but, after +that day, new leases became necessary. It is not usual for the American +landlord to be exacting. It is out of his power, indeed, for the simple +reason that land is so much more abundant than men; but, it is not the +practice of the country, a careless indulgence being usually the sin of +the caste; an indulgence that admits of an accumulation of arrears, +which, when pay-day does arrive, is apt to bring with it ill-blood and +discontent. It is an undeniable truth in morals, that, whatever may be +the feeling at the time, men are rarely grateful for a government that +allows their vices to have a free exercise. They invariably endeavor to +throw a portion of the odium of their own misdeeds on the shoulders of +those who should have controlled them. It is the same with debts; for, +however much we may beg for lenity at the time, accumulations of +interest wear a very hostile aspect when they present themselves in a +sum-total, at a moment it is inconvenient to balance the account. If +those who have been thus placed would only remember that there is a last +account that every man must be called on to settle, arrearages and all, +the experience of their worldly affairs might suggest a lesson that +would be infinitely useful. It is fortunate for us, without exception, +that there is a Mediator to aid us in the task. + +The time had come when Ravensnest might be expected to produce +something. Guided by the surveys, and our own local knowledge, and +greatly aided by the Chainbearer's experience, Frank Malbone and I +passed one entire fortnight in classifying the farms; putting the lowest +into the shilling category; others into the eighteen pence; and a dozen +farms or so into the two shillings. The result was, that we placed six +thousand acres at a shilling a year rent; three thousand eight hundred +at eighteen pence the acre; and twelve hundred acres at two shillings. +The whole made a rental of fourteen thousand one hundred shillings, or a +fraction more than seventeen hundred and forty-two dollars per annum. +This sounded pretty well for the year 1784, and it was exclusively of +the 'Nest farm, of Jason Newcome's mills and timber-land, which he had +hitherto enjoyed for nothing, or for a mere nominal rent, and all the +wild lands. + +I will confess I exulted greatly in the result of our calculations. +Previously to that day I placed no dependence on Ravensnest for income, +finding my support in the other property I had inherited from my +grandfather. On paper, my income was more than doubled, for I received +_then_ only some eleven hundred a year (I speak of dollars, not pounds) +from my other property. It is true, the last included a great many +town-lots that were totally unproductive, but which promised to be very +valuable, like Ravensnest itself, at some future day. Most things in +America looked to the future, then as now; though I trust the hour of +fruition is eventually to arrive. My town property has long since become +very valuable, and tolerably productive. + +As soon as our scheme for reletting was matured, Frank summoned the +occupants of the farms, in bodies of ten, to present themselves at the +'Nest, in order to take their new leases. We had ridden round the +estate, and conversed with the tenantry, and had let my intentions be +known previously, so that little remained to be discussed. The farms +were all relet for three lives, and on my own plan, no one objecting to +the rent, which, it was admitted all round, was not only reasonable, but +low. Circumstances were then too recent to admit of the past's being +forgotten; and the day when the last lease was signed was one of general +satisfaction. I did think of giving a landlord's dinner, and of +collecting the whole settlement in a body, for the purpose of jovial and +friendly communion; but old Andries threw cold water on the project. + +"T'at would do, Mortaunt," he said, "if you hat only raal New Yorkers, +or Middle States men to teal wit'; but more t'an half of t'ese people +are from t'e Eastern States, where t'ere are no such t'ings as lantlorts +and tenants, on a large scale you unterstant; and t'ere isn't a man +among 'em all t'at isn't looking forwart to own his farm one tay, by +hook or by crook. T'ey're as jealous of t'eir tignities as if each man +wast a full colonel, and will not t'ank you for a tinner at which t'ey +will seem to play secont fittle." + +Although I knew the Chainbearer had his ancient Dutch prejudices against +our Eastern brethren, I also knew that there was a good deal of truth in +what he said. Frank Malbone, who was Rhode Island born, had the same +notions, I found on inquiry; and I was disposed to defer to his +opinions. Frank Malbone was a gentleman himself, and men of that class +are always superior to low jealousies; but Frank must know better how to +appreciate the feelings of those among whom he had been bred and born +than I could possibly know how to do it myself. The project of the +dinner was accordingly abandoned. + +It remained to make a new arrangement and a final settlement with Mr. +Jason Newcome, who was much the most thriving man at Ravensnest; +appearing to engross in his single person all the business of the +settlement. He was magistrate, supervisor, deacon, according to the +Congregational plan, or whatever he is called, miller, store-keeper, +will-drawer, tavern-keeper by deputy, and adviser-general, for the +entire region. Everything seemed to pass through his hands; or, it would +be better to say, everything entered them, though little indeed came out +again. This man was one of those moneyed gluttons, on a small scale, who +live solely to accumulate; in my view, the most odious character on +earth; the accumulations having none of the legitimate objects of proper +industry and enterprise in view. So long as there was a man near him +whom he supposed to be richer than himself, Mr. Newcome would have been +unhappy; though he did not know what to do with the property he had +already acquired. One does not know whether to detest or to pity such +characters the most; since, while they are and must be repugnant to +every man of right feelings and generous mind, they carry in their own +bosoms the worm that never dies, to devour their own vitals. + +Mr. Newcome had taken his removal from the agency in seeming good part, +affecting a wish to give it up from the moment he had reason to think it +was to be taken from him. On this score, therefore, all was amicable, +not a complaint being made on his side. On the contrary, he met Frank +Malbone with the most seeming cordiality, and we proceeded to business +with as much apparent good-will as had been manifested in any of the +previous bargains. Mr. Newcome did nothing directly; a circuitous path +being the one he had been accustomed to travel from childhood. + +"You took the mill-lot and the use of five hundred acres of woodland +from my grandfather for three lives; or failing these, for a full term +of one-and-twenty years, I find, Mr. Newcome," I remarked, as soon as we +were seated at business, "and for a nominal rent; the mills to be kept +in repair, and to revert to the landlord at the termination of the +lease." + +"Yes, Major Littlepage, that _was_ the bargain I will allow, though a +hard one has it proved to me. The war come on"--this man was what was +called liberally educated, but he habitually used bad grammar--"The war +come on, and with it hard times, and I didn't know but the major would +be willing to consider the circumstances, if we make a new bargain." + +"The war cannot have had much effect to your prejudice, as grain of all +sorts bore a high price; and I should think the fact that large armies +were near by, to consume everything you had to sell, and that at high +prices, more than compensated for any disadvantage it might have +induced. You had the benefits of two wars, Mr. Newcome; that of 1775, +and a part of that of 1756." + +My tenant made no answer to this, finding I had reflected on the +subject, and was prepared to answer him. After a pause, he turned to +more positive things. + +"I suppose the major goes on the principle of supposing a legal right in +an old tenant to enj'y a new lease? I'm told he has admitted this much +in all his dealin's." + +"Then you have been misinformed, sir. I am not weak enough to admit a +right that the lease itself, which, in the nature of things, must and +does form the tenant's only title, contradicts in terms. Your legal +interest in the property ceases altogether in a few days from this +time." + +"Y-a-a-s--y-a-a-s--sir, I conclude it doose," said the 'squire, leaning +back in his chair, until his body was at an angle of some sixty or +seventy degrees with the floor--"I conclude it doose accordin' to the +covenants; but between man and man, there ought to be suthin' more +bindin'." + +"I know of nothing more binding in a lease than its covenants, Mr. +Newcome." + +"Wa-a-l"--how that man would 'wa-a-a-l' when he wished to circumvent a +fellow-creature; and with what a Jesuitical accent did he pronounce the +word! "Wa-a-a-l--that's accordin' to folk's idees. A covenant may be +_hard_; and then, in my judgment, it ought to go for nothin'. I'm ag'in +all hard covenants." + +"Harkee, frient Jason," put in the Chainbearer, who was an old +acquaintance of Mr. Newcome's, and appeared thoroughly to understand his +character--"Harkee, frient Jason; do you gift back unexpected profits, +ven it so happens t'at more are mate on your own pargains t'an were look +for?" + +"It's not of much use to convarse with you, Chainbearer, on such +subjects, for we'll never think alike," answered the 'squire, leaning +still farther back in his chair; "you're what I call a particular man, +in your notions, and we should never agree." + +"Still, there is good sense in the Chainbearer's question," I added. +"Unless prepared to answer 'yes,' I do not see how you can apply your +own principle with any justice. But let this pass as it will, why are +covenants made, if they are not to be regarded?" + +"Wa-a-l, now, accordin' to my notion, a covenant in a lease is pretty +much like a water-course in a map; not a thing to be partic'lar at all +about; but as water-courses look well on a map, so covenants read well +in a lease. Landlords like to have 'em, and tenants a'n't particular." + +"You can hardly be serious in either case, I should hope, Mr. Newcome, +but are pleased to exercise your ingenuity on us for your own amusement. +There is nothing so particular in the covenants of your lease as to +require any case of conscience to decide on its points." + +"There's this in it, major, that you get the whull property back ag'in, +if you choose to claim it." + +"Claim it! the whole property has been mine, or my predecessors', ever +since it was granted to us by the crown. _All_ your rights come from +your _lease_; and when that terminates, your rights terminate." + +"Not accordin' to my judgment, major; not accordin' to my judgment. I +built the mills at my own cost, you'll remember." + +"I certainly know, sir, that you built the mills at what you call your +own cost; that is, you availed yourself of a natural mill-seat, used our +timber and other materials, and constructed the mills, such as they are, +looking for your reward in their use for the term of a quarter of a +century, for a mere nominal rent--having saw-logs at command as you +wanted them, and otherwise enjoying privileges under one of the most +liberal leases that was ever granted." + +"Yes, sir, but that was in _the bargain_ I made with your grand'ther. It +was _agreed_ between us, at the time I took the place, that I was to cut +logs at will, and of course use the materials on the ground for +buildin'. You see, major, your grand'ther wanted the mills built +desperately; and so he gave them conditions accordin'ly. You'll find +every syllable on't in the lease." + +"No doubt, Mr. Newcome; and you will also find a covenant in the same +lease, by which your interest in the property is to cease in a few +days." + +"Wa-a-l, now, I don't understand leases in that way. Surely it was never +intended a man should erect mills, to lose all right in 'em at the end +of five-and-twenty years." + +"That will depend on the bargain made at the time. Some persons erect +mills and houses that have no rights in them at all. They are paid for +their work as they build." + +"Yes, yes--carpenters and millwrights, you mean. But I'm speakin' of no +such persons; I'm speakin' of honest, hard-workin', industrious folks, +that give their labor and time to build up a settlement; and not of your +mechanics who work for hire. Of course, they're to be paid for what they +do, and there's an eend on't." + +"I am not aware that all honest persons are hard-working, any more than +that all hard-working persons are honest. I wish to be understood +_that_, in the first place, Mr. Newcome, phrases will procure no +concession from me. I agree with you, however, perfectly, in saying that +when a man is paid for his work, there will be what you call 'an end of +it.' Now twenty-three days from this moment, you will have been paid for +all you have done on my property according to your own agreement; and by +your own reasoning, there must be an end of your connection with that +property." + +"The major doesn't mean to rob me of all my hard earnin's!" + +"Mr. Newcome, _rob_ is a hard word, and one that I beg may not be again +used between you and me. I have no intention to rob you, or to let you +rob me. The pretence that you are not, and were not acquainted with the +conditions of this lease, comes rather late in the day, after a +possession of a quarter of a century. You know very well that my +grandfather would not sell, and that he would do no more than lease; if +it were your wish to purchase, why did you not go elsewhere, and get +land in fee? There were, and still are, thousands of acres to be sold, +all around you. I have lands to sell, myself, at Mooseridge, as the +agent of my father and Colonel Follock, within twenty miles of you, and +they tell me capital mill-seats in the bargain." + +"Yes, major, but not so much to my notion as this--I kind o' wanted +this!" + +"But, I kind o' want this, too; and, as it is mine, I think, in common +equity, I have the best claim to enjoy it." + +"It's on equity I want to put this very matter, major--I know the law is +ag'in me--that is, some people say it is; but some think not, now we've +had a revolution--but, let the law go as it may, there's such a thing as +what I call _right_ between man and man." + +"Certainly; and law is an invention to enforce it. It is right I should +do exactly what my grandfather agreed to do for me, five-and-twenty +years ago, in relation to these mills; and it is right you should do +what you agreed to do, for yourself." + +"I _have_ done so. I agreed to build the mills, in a sartain form and +mode, and I done it. I'll defy mortal man to say otherwise. The saw-mill +was smashing away at the logs within two months a'ter I got the lease, +and we began to grind in four!" + +"No doubt, sir, you were active and industrious--though, to be frank +with you, I will say that competent judges tell me neither mill is worth +much now." + +"That's on account of the lease"--cried Mr. Newcome, a little too +hastily, possibly, for the credit of his discretion--"how did I know +when it would run out? Your gran'ther granted it for three lives, and +twenty-one years afterward, and I did all a man could to make it last as +long as I should myself; but here I am, in the prime of life, and in +danger of losing my property!" + +I knew all the facts of the case perfectly, and had intended to deal +liberally with Mr. Newcome from the first. In his greediness for gain he +had placed his lives on three infants, although my grandfather had +advised him to place at least one on himself; but, no--Mr. Newcome had +fancied the life of an infant better than that of a man; and in three or +four years after the signature of the lease, his twenty-one years had +begun to run, and were now near expiring. Even under this certainly +unlooked-for state of things, the lease had been a very advantageous one +for the tenant; and, had one of his lives lasted a century, the landlord +would have looked in vain for any concession on that account; landlords +never asking for, or expecting favors of that sort; indeed most +landlords would be ashamed to receive them; nevertheless, I was disposed +to consider the circumstances, to overlook the fact that the mills and +all the other buildings on the property were indifferently built, and to +relet, for an additional term of twenty-one years, woodlands, farms, +buildings, and other privileges, for about one-third of the money that +Mr. Newcome himself would have been apt to ask, had he the letting +instead of myself. Unwilling to prolong a discussion with a man who, by +his very nature, was unequal to seeing more than one side of a subject, +I cut the matter short by telling him my terms without further delay. + +Notwithstanding all his acting and false feeling, the 'squire was so +rejoiced to learn my moderation that he could not but openly express his +feelings; a thing he would not have done did he not possess the moral +certainty I would not depart from my word. I felt it necessary, however, +to explain myself. + +"Before I give you this new lease, Mr. Newcome," I added, holding the +instrument signed in my hand, "I wish to be understood. It is not +granted under the notion that you have any right to ask it, beyond the +allowance that is always made by a liberal landlord to a reasonably +_good_ tenant; which is simply a preference over others on the same +terms. As for the early loss of your lives, it was your own fault. Had +the infants you named, or had one of them, passed the state of +childhood, it might have lived to be eighty, in which case my +timber-land would have been stripped without any return to its true +owner, but your children died, and the lease was brought within +reasonable limits. Now the only inducement I have for offering the terms +I do, is the liberality that is usual with landlords, what is conceded +is conceded as no right, but as an act of liberality." + +This was presenting to my tenant the most incomprehensible of all +reasons for doing anything. A close and sordid calculator himself, he +was not accustomed to give any man credit for generosity; and, from the +doubting, distrustful manner in which he received the paper, I suspected +at the moment that he was afraid there was some project for taking him +in. A rogue is always distrustful, and as often betrays his character to +honest men by that as by any other failing. I was not to regulate my own +conduct, however, by the weaknesses of Jason Newcome, and the lease was +granted. + +I could wish here to make one remark. There ought certainly to be the +same principle of good fellowship existing between the relations of +landlord and tenant that exist in the other relations of life, and which +creates a moral tie between parties that have much connection in their +ordinary interests, and that to a degree to produce preferences and +various privileges of a similar character. This I am far from calling in +question; and, on the whole, I think, of all that class of relations, +the one in question is to be set down as among the most binding and +sacred. Still, the mere moral rights of the tenant must depend on the +rigid maintenance of all the rights of the landlord; the legal and moral +united; and the man who calls in question either of the latter, surely +violates every claim to have his own pretensions allowed, beyond those +which the strict letter of the law will yield to him. _The landlord who +will grant a new lease to the individual who is endeavoring to undermine +his rights, by either direct or indirect means, commits the weakness of +arming an enemy with the knife by which he is himself to be assaulted, +in addition to the error of granting power to a man who, under the +character of a spurious liberty, is endeavoring to unsettle the only +conditions on which civilized society can exist._ If landlords will +exhibit the weakness, they must blame themselves for the consequences. + +I got rid of Mr. Newcome by the grant of the lease, his whole +manoeuvring having been attempted solely to lower the rent; for _he_ +was much too shrewd to believe in the truth of his own doctrines on the +subject of right and wrong. That same day my axe-men appeared at the +'Nest, having passed the intermediate time in looking at various tracts +of land that were in the market, and which they had not found so +eligible, in the way of situation, quality, or terms, as those I +offered. By this time, the surveyed lots of Mooseridge were ready, and I +offered to sell them to these emigrants. The price was only a dollar an +acre, with a credit of ten years; the interest to be paid annually. One +would have thought that the lowness of the price would have induced men +to prefer lands in fee to lands on lease; but these persons, to a man, +found it more to their interests to take farms on three-lives leases, +being rent-free for the first five years, and at nominal rents for the +remainder of the term, than to pay seven dollars a year of interest, and +a hundred dollars in money, at the expiration of the credit.[11] This +fact, of itself, goes to show how closely these men calculated their +means, and the effect their decisions might have on their interests. Nor +were their decisions always wrong. Those who can remember the start the +country took shortly after the peace of '83, the prices that the +settlers on new lands obtained for their wheat, ashes, and pork; three +dollars a bushel often for the first, three hundred dollars a ton for +the second, and eight or ten dollars a hundred for the last, will at +once understand that the occupant of new lands at that period obtained +enormous wages for a laborer by means of the rich unexhausted lands he +was thus permitted to occupy. No doubt he would have been in a better +situation had he owned his farm in fee at the end of his lease; so would +the merchant who builds a ship and clears her cost by her first freight, +have been a richer man had he cleared the cost of two ships instead of +one; but he has done well, notwithstanding; and it is not to be +forgotten that the man who commences life with an axe and a little +household furniture, is in the situation of a mere day-laborer. The +addition to his means of the use of land is the very circumstance that +enables him to rise above his humble position, and to profit by the +cultivation of the soil. At the close of the last century, and at the +commencement of the present, the country was so placed as to render +every stroke of the axe directly profitable, the very labor that was +expended in clearing away the trees meeting with a return so liberal by +the sale of the ashes manufactured, as to induce even speculators to +engage in the occupation. It may one day be a subject of curious inquiry +to ascertain how so much was done as is known to have been done at that +period, toward converting the wilderness into a garden; and I will here +record, for the benefit of posterity, a brief sketch of one of the +processes of getting to be comfortable, if not rich, that was much used +in that day. + +[Footnote 11: The fact here stated by Mr. Littlepage should never be +forgotten; inasmuch as it colors the entire nature of the pretension now +set up as to the exactions of leases. No man in New York need ever have +_leased_ a farm for the want of an opportunity of _purchasing_, there +never having been a time when land for farms in fee has not been openly +on sale within the bounds of the State; and land every way as eligible +as that leased. In few cases have two adjoining estates been leased; and +where such has been the fact, the husbandman might always have found a +farm in fee, at the cost of half a day's travelling. The benefits to the +landlord have usually been so remote on the estate leased, that by far +the greater proportion of the proprietors have preferred selling at +once, to waiting for the tardy operations of time.--EDITOR.] + +It was a season's work for a skilful axe-man to chop, log, burn, clear, +and sow ten acres of forest land. The ashes he manufactured. For the +heavier portions of the work, such as the logging, he called on his +neighbors for aid, rendering similar assistance by way of payment. One +yoke of oxen frequently sufficed for two or three farms, and +"logging-bees" have given rise to a familiar expression among us, that +is known as legislative "log-rolling;" a process by which, as is well +known, one set of members supports the project of another set, on the +principle of reciprocity. + +Now ten acres of land, cropped for the first time, might very well yield +a hundred and fifty bushels of merchantable wheat, which would bring +three hundred dollars in the Albany market. They would also make a ton +of pot-ashes, which would sell for at least two hundred dollars. This is +giving five hundred dollars for a single year's work. Allowing for all +the drawbacks of buildings, tools, chains, transportation, provisions, +etc., and one-half of this money might very fairly be set down as clear +profit; very large returns to one who, before he got his farm, was in +the situation of a mere day-laborer, content to toil for eight or nine +dollars the month. + +That such was the history, in its outlines, of the rise of thousands of +the yeomen who now dwell in New York, is undeniable; and it goes to show +that if the settler in a new country has to encounter toil and +privations, they are not always without their quick rewards. In these +later times, men go on the open prairies, and apply the plough to an +ancient sward; but I question if they would not rather encounter the +virgin forests of 1790, with the prices of that day, than run over the +present park-like fields, in order to raise wheat for 37-1/2 cents per +bushel, have no ashes at any price, and sell their pork at two dollars +the hundred! + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + "Intent to blend her with his lot, + Fate formed her all that he was not; + And, as by mere unlikeness thought, + Associate we see, + Their hearts, from very difference, caught + A perfect sympathy."--PINCKNEY. + + +All this time I saw Ursula Malbone daily, and at all hours of the day. +Inmates of the same dwelling, we met constantly, and many were the +interviews and conversations which took place between us. Had Dus been +the most finished coquette in existence, her practised ingenuity could +not have devised more happy expedients to awaken interest in me than +those which were really put in use by this singular girl, without the +slightest intention of bringing about any such result. Indeed, it was +the nature, the total absence of art, that formed one of the brightest +attractions of her character, and gave so keen a zest to her cleverness +and beauty. In that day, females, while busied in the affairs of their +household, appeared in "short gown and petticoat," as it was termed, a +species of livery that even ladies often assumed of a morning. The +_toilette_ was of far wider range in 1784 than it is now, the +distinctions between morning and evening dress being much broader then +than at present. As soon as she was placed really at the head of her +brother's house, Ursula Malbone set about the duties of her new station +quietly and without the slightest fuss, but actively and with interest. +She seemed to me to possess, in a high degree, that particular merit of +carrying on the details of her office in a silent, unobtrusive manner, +while they were performed most effectually, and entirely to the comfort +of those for whose benefit her care was exercised. I am not one of those +domestic canters who fancy a woman, in order to make a good wife, needs +be a drudge, and possess the knowledge of a cook or a laundress; but it +is certainly of great importance that she have the faculty of presiding +over her family with intelligence, and an attention that is suited to +her means of expenditure. Most of all it is important that she know how +to govern without being seen or heard. + +The wife of an educated man should be an educated woman: one fit to be +his associate, qualified to mingle her tastes with his own, to exchange +ideas, and otherwise to be his companion, in an intellectual sense. +These are the higher requisites; a gentleman accepting the minor +qualifications as so many extra advantages, if kept within their proper +limits; but as positive disadvantages if they interfere with, or in any +manner mar the manners, temper, or mental improvement of the woman whom +he has chosen as his wife, and not as his domestic. Some sacrifices may +be necessary in those cases in which cultivation exists without a +sufficiency of means; but even then, it is seldom indeed that a woman of +the proper qualities may not be prevented from sinking to the level of a +menial. As for the cant of the newspapers on such subjects, it usually +comes from those whose homes are mere places for "board and lodging." + +The address with which Dus discharged all the functions of her new +station, while she avoided those that were unseemly and out of place, +charmed me almost as much as her spirit, character, and beauty. The +negroes removed all necessity for her descending to absolute toil; and +with what pretty, feminine dexterity did she perform the duties that +properly belonged to her station! Always cheerful, frequently singing, +not in a noisy, milkmaid mood, but at those moments when she might fancy +herself unheard, and in sweet, plaintive songs that seemed to recall the +scenes of other days. Always cheerful, however, is saying a little too +much; for occasionally, Dus was sad. I found her in tears three or four +times, but did not dare inquire into their cause. There was scarce, +time, indeed; for the instant I appeared, she dried her eyes, and +received me with smiles. + +It is scarcely necessary to say that to me the time passed pleasantly, +and amazingly fast. Chainbearer remained at the 'Nest by my orders, for +he would not yield to requests; and I do not remember a more delightful +month than that proved to be. I made a very general acquaintance with my +tenants, and found many of them as straightforward, honest, hard-working +yeomen as one could wish to meet. My brother major, in particular, was a +hearty old fellow, and often came to see me, living on the farm that +adjoined my own. He growled a little about the sect that had got +possession of the "meetin'-us," but did it in a way to show there was +not much gall in his own temperament. + +"I don't rightly understand these majority matters," said the old +fellow, one day that we were talking the matter over, "though I very +well know Newcome always manages to get one, let the folks think as they +will. I've known the 'squire contrive to cut a majority out of about a +fourth of all present, and he does it in a way that is desp'ret +ingen'ous, I will allow, though I'm afeard it's neither law nor gospel." + +"He certainly managed, in the affair of the denomination, to make a +plurality of one appear in the end to be a very handsome majority over +all." + +"Ay, there's twists and turns in these things that's beyond my l'arnin', +though I s'pose all's right. It don't matter much in the long run, a'ter +all, where a man worships, provided he worships; or who preaches, so +that he listens." + +I think this liberality--if that be the proper word--in religious +matters, is fast increasing among us; though liberality may be but +another term for indifference. As for us Episcopalians, I wonder there +are any left in the country, though we are largely on the increase. +There we were, a church that insisted on Episcopal ministrations--on +confirmation in particular--left for a century without a bishop, and +unable to conform to practices that it was insisted on were essential, +and this solely because it did not suit the policy of the mother country +to grant us prelates of our own, or to send us, occasionally even, one +of hers! How miserable do human expedients often appear when they are +tried by the tests of common sense! A church of God, insisting on +certain spiritual essentials that it denies to a portion of its people, +in order to conciliate worldly interests! It is not the Church of +England, however, nor the Government of England, that is justly +obnoxious to such an accusation; something equally bad and just as +inconsistent, attaching itself to the ecclesiastical influence of every +other system in Christendom under which the state is tied to religion by +means of human provisions. The mistake is in connecting the things of +the world with the things that are of God. + +Alas! alas! When you sever that pernicious tie, is the matter much +benefited? How is it among ourselves? Are not sects, and shades of +sects, springing up among us on every side, until the struggle between +parsons is getting to be not who shall aid in making most Christians, +but who shall gather into his fold most sectarians? As for the people +themselves, instead of regarding churches, even after they have +established them, and that too very much on their own authority, they +first consider their own tastes, enmities, and predilections, respecting +the priest far more than the altar, and set themselves up as a sort of +religious constituencies, who are to be _represented_ directly in the +government of Christ's followers on earth. Half of a parish will fly off +in a passion to another denomination if they happen to fall into a +minority. Truly, a large portion of our people is beginning to act in +this matter as if they had a sense of "giving their support" to the +Deity, patronizing him in this temple or the other, as may suit the +feeling or the interest of the moment.[12] + +[Footnote 12: If Mr. Littlepage wrote thus, thirty or forty years since, +how would he have written to-day, when we have had loud protestations +flourishing around us in the public journals, that this or that +sectarian polity was most in unison with a republican form of +government? What renders this assumption as absurd as it is presuming, +is the well-known fact that it comes from those who have ever been +loudest in their declamations of a union between church and state!] + +But I am not writing homilies, and will return to the 'Nest and my +friends. A day or two after Mr. Newcome received his new lease, +Chainbearer, Frank, Dus and I were in the little arbor that overlooked +the meadows, when we saw Sureflint, moving at an Indian's pace, along a +path that came out of the forest, and which was known to lead toward +Mooseridge. The Onondago carried his rifle as usual, and bore on his +back a large bunch of something that we supposed to be game, though the +distance prevented our discerning its precise character. In half a +minute he disappeared behind a projection of the cliffs, trotting toward +the buildings. + +"My friend the Trackless has been absent from us now a longer time than +usual," Ursula remarked, as she turned her head from following the +Indian's movements, as long as he remained in sight; "but he reappears +loaded with something for our benefit." + +"He has passed most of his time of late with your uncle, I believe," I +answered, following Dus's fine eyes with my own, the pleasantest pursuit +I could discover in that remote quarter of the world. "I have written +this to my father, who will be glad to hear tidings of his old friend." + +"He is much with my uncle as you say, being greatly attached to him. Ah! +here he comes, with such a load on his shoulders as an Indian does not +love to bear; though even a chief will condescend to carry game." + +As Dus ceased speaking, Sureflint threw a large bunch of pigeons, some +two or three dozen birds, at her feet, turning away quietly, like one +who had done his part of the work, and who left the remainder to be +managed by the squaws. + +"Thank you, Trackless," said the pretty housekeeper--"thank'ee kindly. +Those are beautiful birds, and as fat as butter. We shall have them +cleaned, and cooked in all manner of ways." + +"All squab--just go to fly--take him ebbery one in nest," answered the +Indian. + +"Nests must be plenty, then, and I should like to visit them," I cried, +remembering to have heard strange marvels of the multitudes of pigeons +that were frequently found in their "roosts," as the encampments they +made in the woods were often termed in the parlance of the country. "Can +we not go in a body and visit this roost?" + +"It might pe tone," answered the Chainbearer; "it might pe tone, and it +is time we wast moving in t'eir tirection, if more lant is to pe +surveyet, ant t'ese pirts came from t'e hill I suppose t'ey do. +Mooseridge promiset to have plenty of pigeons t'is season." + +"Just so," answered Sureflint. "Million, t'ousan', hundred--more too. +Nebber see more; nebber see so many. Great Spirit don't forget poor +Injin; sometime give him deer--sometime salmon--sometime pigeon--plenty +for ebberybody; only t'ink so." + +"Ay, Sureflint; only t'ink so, inteet, and t'ere is enough for us all, +and plenty to spare. Got is pountiful to us, put we ton't often know how +to use his pounty," answered Chainbearer, who had been examining the +birds. "Finer squaps arn't often met wit'; and I too shoult like +amazingly to see one more roost pefore I go to roost myself." + +"As for the visit to the roost," cried I, "that is settled for +to-morrow. But a man who has just come out of a war like the last, into +peaceable times, has no occasion to speak of his end, Chainbearer. Your +are old in years, but young in mind, as well as body." + +"Bot' nearly wore out--bot' nearly wore out! It is well to tell an olt +fool t'e contrary, put I know petter. T'ree-score and ten is man's time, +and I haf fillet up t'e numper of my tays. Got knows pest, when it wilt +pe his own pleasure to call me away; put, let it come when it will, I +shall now tie happy, comparet wit' what I shoult haf tone a mont' ago." + +"You surprise me, my dear friend! What has happened to make this +difference in your feelings? It cannot be that you are changed in any +essential." + +"T'e tifference is in Dus's prospects. Now Frank has a goot place, my +gal will not pe forsaken." + +"Forsaken! Dus--Ursula--Miss Malbone forsaken! _That_ could never +happen, Andries, Frank or no Frank." + +"I hope not--I hope not, lat--put t'e gal pegins to weep, and we'll talk +no more apout it. Harkee, Susquesus; my olt frient, can you guite us to +t'is roost?" + +"Why no do it, eh? Path wide--open whole way. Plain as river." + +"Well, t'en, we wilt all pe off for t'e place in t'e morning. My new +assistant is near, and it is high time Frank and I hat gone into t'e +woots ag'in." + +I heard this arrangement made, though my eyes were following Dus, who +had started from her seat, and rushed into the house, endeavoring to +hide emotions that were not to be hushed. A minute later I saw her at +the window of her own room, smiling, though the cloud had not yet +entirely dispersed. + +Next morning early our whole party left the 'Nest for the hut at +Mooseride, and the pigeon-roosts. Dus and the black female servant +travelled on horseback, there being no want of cattle at the 'Nest, +where, as I now learned, my grandfather had left a quarter of a century +before, among a variety of other articles, several side-saddles. The +rest of us proceeded on foot, though we had no less than three sumpter +beasts to carry our food, instruments, clothes, etc. Each man was armed, +almost as a matter of course in that day, though I carried a +double-barrelled fowling-piece, instead of a rifle. Susquesus acted as +our guide. + +We were quite an hour before we reached the limits of the settled farms +on my own property; after which, we entered the virgin forest. In +consequence of the late war, which had brought everything like the +settlement of the country to a dead stand, a new district had then +little of the straggling, suburb-like clearings, which are apt now to +encircle the older portions of a region that is in the state of +transition. On the contrary, the last well-fenced and reasonably +well-cultivated farm passed, we plunged into the boundless woods, and +took a complete leave of nearly every vestige of civilized life, as one +enters the fields on quitting a town in France. There was a path, it is +true, following the line of blazed trees; but it was scarcely beaten, +and was almost as illegible as a bad hand. Still, one accustomed to the +forest had little difficulty in following it; and Susquesus would have +had none in finding his way, had there been no path at all. As for the +Chainbearer, he moved forward too, with the utmost precision and +confidence, the habit of running straight lines amid trees having given +his eye an accuracy that almost equalled the species of instinct that +was manifested by the Trackless himself, on such subjects. + +This was a pleasant little journey, the depths of the forest rendering +the heats of the season as agreeable as was possible. We were four hours +in reaching the foot of the little mountain on which the birds had built +their nests, where we halted to take some refreshments. + +Little time is lost at meals in the forest, and we were soon ready to +ascend the hill. The horses were left with the blacks, Dus accompanying +us on foot. As we left the spring where we had halted, I offered her an +arm to aid in the ascent; but she declined it, apparently much amused +that it should have been offered. + +"What I, a chainbearess!" she cried, laughing--"I, who have fairly +wearied out Frank, and even made my uncle _feel_ tired, though he would +never _own_ it--I accept an arm to help me up a hill! You forget, Major +Littlepage, that the first ten years of my life were passed in a forest, +and that a year's practice has brought back all my old habits, and made +me a girl of the woods again." + +"I scarce know what to make of you, for you seem fitted for any +situation in which you may happen to be thrown." I answered, profiting +by the circumstance that we were out of the hearing of our companions, +who had all moved ahead, to utter more than I otherwise might venture to +say--"at one time I fancy you the daughter of one of my own tenants, at +another, the heiress of some ancient patroon." + +Dus laughed again; then she blushed; and for the remainder of the short +ascent, she remained silent. Short the ascent was, and we were soon on +the summit of the hill. So far from needing my assistance, Dus actually +left me behind, exerting herself in a way that brought her up at the +side of the Trackless, who led our van. Whether this was done in order +to prove how completely she was a forest girl, or whether my words had +aroused those feelings that are apt to render a female impulsive, is +more than I can say even now; though I suspected at the time that the +latter sensations had quite as much to do with this extraordinary +activity as the former. I was not far behind, however, and when our +party came fairly upon the roost, the Trackless, Dus, and myself were +all close together. + +I scarce know how to describe that remarkable scene. As we drew near to +the summit of the hill, pigeons began to be seen fluttering among the +branches over our heads, as individuals are met along the roads that +lead into the suburbs of a large town. We had probably seen a thousand +birds glancing around among the trees, before we came in view of the +roost itself. The numbers increased as we drew nearer, and presently the +forest was alive with them. The fluttering was incessant, and often +startling as we passed ahead, our march producing a movement in the +living crowd that really became confounding. Every tree was literally +covered with nests, many having at least a thousand of these frail +tenements on their branches, and shaded by the leaves. They often +touched each other, a wonderful degree of order prevailing among the +hundreds of thousands of families that were here assembled. The place +had the odor of a fowl-house, and squabs just fledged sufficiently to +trust themselves in short flights, were fluttering around us in all +directions in tens of thousands. To these were to be added the parents +of the young race endeavoring to protect them, and guide them in a way +to escape harm. Although the birds rose as we approached, and the woods +just around us seemed fairly alive with pigeons, our presence produced +no general commotion; every one of the feathered throng appearing to be +so much occupied with its own concerns, as to take little heed of the +visit of a party of strangers, though of a race usually so formidable to +their own. The masses moved before us precisely as a crowd of human +beings yields to a pressure or a danger on any given point; the vacuum +created by its passage filling in its rear, as the water of the ocean +flows into the track of the keel. + +The effect on most of us was confounding, and I can only compare the +sensation produced on myself by the extraordinary tumult to that a man +experiences at finding himself suddenly placed in the midst of an +excited throng of human beings. The unnatural disregard of our persons +manifested by the birds greatly heightened the effect, and caused me to +feel as if some unearthly influence reigned in the place. It was +strange, indeed, to be in a mob of the feathered race that scarce +exhibited a consciousness of one's presence. The pigeons seemed a world +of themselves, and too much occupied with their own concerns to take +heed of matters that lay beyond them. + +Not one of our party spoke for several minutes. Astonishment seemed to +hold us all tongue-tied, and we moved slowly forward into the fluttering +throng, silent, absorbed, and full of admiration of the works of the +Creator. It was not easy to hear each others' voices when we did speak, +the incessant fluttering of wings filling the air. Nor were the birds +silent in other respects. The pigeon is not a noisy creature, but a +million crowded together on the summit of one hill, occupying a space of +less than a mile square, did not leave the forest in its ordinary +impressive stillness. As we advanced, I offered my arm, almost +unconsciously, again to Dus, and she took it with the same abstracted +manner as that in which it had been held forth for her acceptance. In +this relation to each other we continued to follow the grave-looking +Onondago as he moved, still deeper and deeper, into the midst of the +fluttering tumult. + +At this instant there occurred an interruption that, I am ready enough +to confess, caused the blood to rush toward my own heart in a flood. As +for Dus, she clung to me, as woman will cling to man, when he possesses +her confidence, and she feels that she is insufficient for her own +support. Both hands were on my arm, and I felt that, unconsciously, her +form was pressing closer to mine, in a manner she would have carefully +avoided in a moment of perfect self-possession. Nevertheless, I cannot +say that Dus was afraid. Her color was heightened, her charming eyes +were filled with a wonder that was not unmixed with curiosity, but her +air was spirited in spite of a scene that might try the nerves of the +boldest man. Sureflint and Chainbearer were alone totally unmoved; for +they had been at pigeons' roosts before, and knew what to expect. To +them the wonders of the woods were no longer novel. Each stood leaning +on his rifle and smiling at our evident astonishment. I am wrong; the +Indian did not even smile: for that would have been an unusual +indication of feeling for him to manifest; but he _did_ betray a sort of +covert consciousness that the scene must be astounding to us. But I will +endeavor to explain what it was that so largely increased the first +effect of our visit. + +While standing wondering at the extraordinary scene around us, a noise +was heard rising above that of the incessant fluttering, which I can +only liken to that of the trampling of thousands of horses on a beaten +road. This noise at first sounded distant, but it increased rapidly in +proximity and power, until it came rolling in upon us, among the +tree-tops, like a crash of thunder. The air was suddenly darkened, and +the place where we stood as sombre as a dusky twilight. At the same +instant, all the pigeons near us, that had been on their nests, appeared +to fall out of them, and the space immediately above our heads was at +once filled with birds. Chaos itself could hardly have represented +greater confusion, or a greater uproar. As for the birds, they now +seemed to disregard our presence entirely; possibly they could not see +us on account of their own numbers; for they fluttered in between Dus +and myself, hitting us with their wings, and at times appearing as if +about to bury us in avalanches of pigeons. Each of us caught one at +least in our hands, while Chainbearer and the Indian took them in some +numbers, letting one prisoner go as another was taken. In a word, we +seemed to be in a world of pigeons. This part of the scene may have +lasted a minute, when the space around us was suddenly cleared, the +birds glancing upward among the branches of the trees, disappearing +among the foliage. All this was the effect produced by the return of the +female birds, which had been off at a distance, some twenty miles at +least, to feed on beechnuts, and which now assumed the places of the +males on the nests; the latter taking a flight to get their meal in +their turn. + +I have since had the curiosity to make a sort of an estimate of the +number of the birds that must have come in upon the roost, in that, to +us, memorable minute. Such a calculation, as a matter of course, must be +very vague, though one may get certain principles by estimating the size +of a flock by the known rapidity of the flight, and other similar means; +and I remember that Frank Malbone and myself supposed that a million of +birds must have come in on that return, and as many departed! As the +pigeon is a very voracious bird, the question is apt to present itself, +where food is obtained for so many mouths; but, when we remember the +vast extent of the American forests, this difficulty is at once met. +Admitting that the colony we visited contained many millions of birds, +and, counting old and young, I have no doubt it did, there was probably +a fruit-bearing tree for each, within an hour's flight from that very +spot! + +Such is the scale on which nature labors in the wilderness! I have seen +insects fluttering in the air at particular seasons, and at particular +places, until they formed little clouds; a sight every one must have +witnessed on many occasions; and as those insects appear, on their +diminished scale, so did the pigeons appear to us at the roost of +Mooseridge. We passed an hour in the town of birds, finding our tongues +and our other faculties, as we became accustomed to our situation. In a +short time, even Dus grew as composed as at all comported with the +excitement natural to one in such a place; and we studied the habits of +the pretty animals with a zest that I found so much the greater for +studying them in her company. At the end of the hour we left the hill, +our departure producing no more sensation in that countless tribe of +pigeons than our arrival. + +"It is a proof that numbers can change our natures," said Dus, as we +descended the little mountain. "Here have we been almost in contact with +pigeons which would not have suffered us to come within a hundred feet +of them, had they been in ordinary flocks, or as single birds. Is it +that numbers give them courage?" + +"Confidence, rather. It is just so with men; who will exhibit an +indifference in crowds that they rarely possess when alone. The sights, +interruptions, and even dangers that will draw all our attention when +with a few, often seem indifferent to us when in the tumult of a throng +of fellow-creatures." + +"What is meant by a panic in an army, then?" + +"It is following the same law, making man subject to the impulses of +those around him. If the impulse be onward, onward we go; if for +retreat, we run like sheep. If occupied with ourselves as a body, we +disregard trifling interruptions, as these pigeons have just done in our +own case. Large bodies of animals, whether human or not, seem to become +subject to certain general laws that increase the power of the whole +over the acts and feelings of any one or any few of their number." + +"According to that rule, our new republican form of government ought to +be a very strong one; though I have heard many express their fears it +will be no government at all." + +"Unless a miracle be wrought in our behalf, it will be the strongest +government in the world for certain purposes, and the weakest for +others. It professes a principle of self-preservation that is not +enjoyed by other systems, since the people must revolt against +themselves to overturn it; but, on the other hand, it will want the +active living principle of steady, consistent justice, since there will +be no independent power whose duty and whose interest it will be to see +it administered. The wisest man I ever knew has prophesied to me that +this is the point on which our system will break down; rendering the +character, the person, and the property of the citizen insecure, and +consequently the institutions odious to those who once have loved them." + +"I trust there is no danger of that!" said Dus, quickly. + +"There is danger from everything that man controls. We have those among +us who preach the possible perfection of the human race, maintaining the +gross delusion that men are what they are known to be, merely because +they have been ill-governed; and a more dangerous theory, in my poor +judgment, cannot be broached." + +"You think, then, that the theory is false?" + +"Beyond a question; governments are oftener spoiled by men, than men by +governments; though the last certainly have a marked influence on +character. The best government of which we know anything is that of the +universe; and it is so, merely because it proceeds from a single will, +that will being without blemish." + +"Your despotic governments are said to be the very worst in the world." + +"They are good or bad as they happen to be administered. The necessity +of maintaining such governments by force renders them often oppressive; +but a government of numbers may become more despotic than that of an +individual; since the people will, in some mode or other, always sustain +the oppressed as against the despot, but rarely, or never, as against +themselves. You saw that those pigeons lost their instinct, under the +impulse given them by numbers. God forever protect me against the +tyranny of numbers." + +"But everybody says our system is admirable, and the best in the world; +and even a despot's government is the government of a man." + +"It is one of the effects of numbers that men shrink from speaking the +truth, when they find themselves opposed to large majorities. As +respects self-rule, the colonies were ever freer than the mother +country; and we are, as yet, merely pursuing our ancient practices, +substituting allegiance to the confederation for allegiance to the king. +The difference is not sufficiently material to produce early changes. We +are to wait until that which there is of new principles in our present +system shall have time to work radical changes, when we shall begin to +ascertain how much better we really are than our neighbors."[13] + +[Footnote 13: At the time of which Mr. Mordaunt Littlepage is here +speaking, it was far less the fashion to extol the institutions than it +is to-day. Men then openly wrote and spoke against them, while few dare, +at the present time, point out faults that every person of intelligence +knows and feels to be defects. A few years since, when Jackson was +placed in the White House, it was the fashion of Europe to predict that +we had elevated a soldier to power, and that the government of the +bayonet was at hand. This every intelligent American knew to be rank +nonsense. The approach of the government of the bayonet among us, if it +is ever to come, may be foreseen by the magnitude of popular abuses, +against which force is the only remedy. Every well-wisher of the freedom +this country has hitherto enjoyed, should now look upon the popular +tendencies with distrust, as, whenever it is taken away, it will go as +their direct consequence; it being an inherent principle in the corrupt +nature of man to misuse all his privileges; even those connected with +religion itself. If history proves anything, it proves this.--EDITOR.] + +Dus and I continued to converse on this subject until she got again into +the saddle. I was delighted with her good sense and intelligence, which +were made apparent more in the pertinacity of her questions than by any +positive knowledge she had on such subjects, which usually have very few +attractions for young women. Nevertheless, Dus had an activity of mind +and a readiness of perception that supplied many of the deficiencies of +education on these points; and I do not remember to have ever been +engaged in a political discussion from which I derived so much +satisfaction. I must own, however, it is possible that the golden hair +flying about a face that was just as ruddy as comported with the +delicacy of the sex, the rich mouth, the brilliant teeth, and the +spirited and yet tender blue eyes, may have increased a wisdom that I +found so remarkable. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + "Fie, fie, fond love, thou art so full of fear, + As one with treasure laden, hemmed with thieves, + Trifles, unwitnessed with eye or ear, + Thy coward heart with false bethinking grieves." + --_Venus and Adonis._ + + +The hut, or huts of Chainbearer, had far more comfort in and around +them, than I was prepared to find. They were three in number, one having +been erected as a kitchen, and a place to contain the male slaves; +another for the special accommodation of Ursula and the female black; +and the third to receive men. The eating-room was attached to the +kitchen; and all these buildings, which had now stood the entire year, +were constructed of logs, and were covered with bark. They were roughly +made, as usual; but that appropriated to Dus was so much superior to the +others in its arrangements, internal and external, as at once to denote +the presence and the influence of woman. It may have some interest with +the reader briefly to describe the place. + +Quite as a matter of course, a spring had been found, as the first +consideration in "locating," as it is called by that portion of our +people who get upon their conversational stilts. The spring burst out of +the side of a declivity, the land stretching away for more than a mile +from its foot, in an inclined plane that was densely covered with some +of the noblest elms, beeches, maples, and black birches, I have ever +seen. This spot, the Chainbearer early assured me, was the most valuable +of all the lands of Mooseridge. He had selected it because it was +central, and particularly clear from underbrush; besides having no +stagnant water near it. In other respects, it was like any other point +in that vast forest; being dark, shaded, and surrounded by the +magnificence of a bountiful vegetation. + +Here Chainbearer had erected his hut, a low, solid structure of pine +logs, that were picturesque in appearance, and not without their rude +comforts, in their several ways. These buildings were irregularly +placed, though the spring was in their control. The kitchen and +eating-room were nearest the water; at no great distance from these was +the habitation of the men; while the smaller structure, which Frank +Malbone laughingly termed the "harem," stood a little apart, on a slight +spur of land, but within fifty yards of Andries's own lodgings. Boards +had been cut by hand, for the floors and doors of these huts, though no +building but the "harem" had any window that was glazed. This last had +two such windows, and Frank had even taken care to provide for his +sister's dwelling rude but strong window shutters. + +As for defences against an enemy, they were no longer thought of within +the limits of New York. Block-houses, and otherwise fortified dwellings, +had been necessary so long as the French possessed Canada; but after the +capture of that colony, few had deemed any such precautions called for, +until the war of the revolution brought a savage foe once more among the +frontier settlements; frontier, as to civilization, if not as to +territory. With the termination of that war had ceased this, the latest +demand for provisions of that nature; and the Chainbearer had not +thought of using any care to meet the emergencies of violence, in +"making his pitch." + +Nevertheless, each hut would have been a reasonably strong post, on an +emergency; the logs being bullet-proof, and still remaining undecayed +and compact. Palisades were not thought of now, nor was there any +covered means of communicating between one hut and another. In a word, +whatever there might be in the way of security in these structures, was +the result of the solidity of their material, and of the fashion of +building that was then, and is still customary everywhere in the forest. +As against wild beasts there was entire protection, and other enemies +were no longer dreaded. Around the huts there were no enclosures of any +sort, nor any other cleared land, than a spot of about half an acre in +extent, off of which had been cut the small pines that furnished the +logs of which they were built. A few vegetables had been put into the +ground at the most open point; but a fence being unnecessary, none had +been built. As for the huts, they stood completely shaded by the forest, +the pines having been cut on an eminence a hundred yards distant. This +spot, however, small as it was, brought enough of the commoner sort of +plants to furnish a frugal table. + +Such was the spot that was then known in all that region by the name of +the "Chainbearer's Huts." This name has been retained and the huts are +still standing, circumstances having rendered them memorable in my +personal history, and caused me to direct their preservation, at least +as long as I shall live. As the place had been inhabited a considerable +time that spring and summer, it bore some of the other signs of the +presence of man; but on the whole, its character as a residence was that +of deep forest seclusion. In point of fact, it stood buried in the +woods, distant fully fifteen miles from the nearest known habitation, +and in so much removed from the comfort, succor, and outward +communications of civilized life. These isolated abodes, however, are by +no means uncommon in the State, even at the present hour; and it is +probable that some of them will be found during the whole of this +century. It is true, that the western, middle, southern, southwestern, +northwestern and northeastern counties of New York, all of which were +wild, or nearly so, at the time of which I am writing, are already well +settled, or are fast filling up, but there is a high mountainous region, +in middle-northern New York, which will remain virtually a wilderness, I +should think, for quite a century, if not longer. I have travelled +through this district of wilderness very lately, and have found it +picturesque and well suited for the sportsman, abounding in deer, fish +and forest birds, but not so much suited to the commoner wants of man, +as to bring it very soon into demand for the ordinary purposes of the +husbandman. If this quarter of the country do not fall into the hands of +lawless squatters and plunderers of one sort and another, of which there +is always some danger in a country of so great extent, it will become a +very pleasant resort of the sportsman, who is likely soon to lose his +haunts in the other quarters of the State. + +Jaap had brought over some horses of mine from the 'Nest as +sumpter-beasts, and these being sent back for want of provender, the +negro himself remained at the "Huts" as a general assistant, and as a +sort of hunter. A Westchester negro is pretty certain to be a shot, +especially if he happen to belong to the proprietor of a Neck; for there +is no jealousy of trusting arms in the hands of our New York slaves. But +Jaap having served, in a manner, was entitled to burn as much gunpowder +as he pleased. By means of one of his warlike exploits, the old fellow +had become possessed of a very capital fowling-piece, plunder obtained +from some slain English officer, I always supposed; and this arm he +invariably kept near his person, as a trophy of his own success. The +shooting of Westchester, however and that of the forest, were very +different branches of the same art. Jaap belonged to the school of the +former, in which the pointer and the setter were used. The game was "put +up," and "marked down," and the bird was invariably shot on the wing. My +attention was early called to this distinction, by overhearing a +conversation between the negro and the Indian, that took place within a +few minutes after our arrival, and a portion of which I shall now +proceed to relate. + +Jaap and Sureflint were, in point of fact, very old acquaintances, and +fast friends. They had been actors in certain memorable scenes, on those +very lands of Mooseridge, some time before my birth, and had often met +and served as comrades during the last war. The known antipathy between +the races of the red and black man did not exist as between them, though +the negro regarded the Indian with some of that self-sufficiency which +the domestic servant would be apt to entertain for a savage roamer of +the forest; while the Onondago could not but look on my fellow as one of +the freest of the free would naturally feel disposed to look on one who +was content to live in bondage. These feelings were rather mitigated +than extinguished by their friendship, and often made themselves +manifest in the course of their daily communion with each other. + +A bag filled with squabs had been brought from the roost, and Jaap had +emptied it of its contents on the ground near the kitchen, to commence +the necessary operations of picking and cleaning, preparatory to handing +the birds over to the cook. As for the Onondago, he took his seat near +by on a log very coolly, a spectator of his companion's labors, but +disdaining to enter in person on such woman's work, now that he was +neither on a message nor on a war-path. Necessity alone could induce him +to submit to any menial labor, nor do I believe he would have offered to +assist, had he seen the fair hand of Dus herself plucking these pigeons. +To him it would have been perfectly suitable that a "squaw" should do +the work of a "squaw," while a warrior maintained his dignified +idleness. Systematic and intelligent industry are the attendants of +civilization, the wants created by which can only be supplied by the +unremitted care of those who live by their existence. + +"Dere, old Sus," exclaimed the negro, shaking the last of the dead birds +from the bag--"dere, now, Injin; I s'pose you t'inks 'em ere's game!" + +"What _you_ call him, eh?" demanded the Onondago, eyeing the negro +sharply. + +"I doesn't call 'em game a bit, redskin. Dem's not varmint, n'oder; but +den, dem isn't game. Game's game, I s'pose you does know, Sus?" + +"Game, game--good. T'at true--who say no?" + +"Yes, it's easy enough to _say_ a t'ing, but it not so berry easy to +understan'. Can any Injin in York State, now, tell me why pigeon isn't +game?" + +"Pigeon game--good game, too. Eat sweet--many time want more." + +"Now, I do s'pose, Trackless"--Jaap loved to run through the whole +vocabulary of the Onondago's names--"Now, I do s'pose, Trackless, you +t'ink _tame_ pigeon just as good as wild?" + +"Don't know--nebber eat tame--s'pose him good, too." + +"Well, den, you s'poses berry wrong. Tame pigeons poor stuff; but no +pigeon be game. Nuttin' game, Sureflint, dat a dog won't p'int, or set. +Masser Mordaunt h'an't got no dog at de Bush or de Toe, and he keeps +dogs enough at bot', dat would p'int a pigeon." + +"P'int deer, eh?" + +"Well, I doesn't know. P'raps he will, p'raps he won't. Dere isn't no +deer in Westchester for us to try de dogs on, so a body can't tell. You +remem'er 'e day, Sus, when we fit your redskins out here, 'long time +ago, wit' Masser Corny and Masser Ten Eyck, and ole Masser Herman +Mordaunt, and Miss Anneke, and Miss Mary, an' your frin' Jumper? You +remem'er _dat_, ha! Onondago?" + +"Sartain--no forget--Injin nebber forget. Don't forget friend--don't +forget enemy." + +Here Jaap raised one of his shouting negro laughs, in which all the +joyousness of his nature seemed to enter with as much zest as if he were +subjected to a sort of mental tickling; then he let the character of his +merriment be seen by his answer. + +"Sartain 'nough--you remem'er dat feller, Muss, Trackless? He get heself +in a muss by habbing too much mem'ry. Good to hab mem'ry when you told +to do work; but sometime mem'ry bad 'nough. Berry bad to hab so much +mem'ry dat he can't forget small floggin'." + +"No true," answered the Onondago, a little sternly, though a _very_ +little; for, while he and Jaap disputed daily, they never quarrelled. +"No true, so. Flog bad for back." + +"Well, dat because you redskin--a color' man don't mind him as much as +dis squab. Get use to him in little while; den he nuttin' to speak of." + +Sureflint made no answer, but he looked as if he pitied the ignorance, +humility, and condition of his friend. + +"What you t'ink of dis worl', Susquesus?" suddenly demanded the negro, +tossing a squab that he had cleaned into a pail, and taking another. +"How you t'ink white man come?--how you t'ink red man come?--how you +t'ink color' gentl'em come, eh?" + +"Great Spirit say so--t'en all come. Fill Injin full of blood--t'at make +him red--fill nigger wit' ink--t'at make him black--pale-face pale +'cause he live in sun, and color dry out." + +Here Jaap laughed so loud that he drew all three of Chainbearer's blacks +to the door, who joined in the fun out of pure sympathy, though they +could not have known its cause. Those blacks! They may be very miserable +as slaves; but it is certain no other class in America laugh so often, +or so easily, or one-half as heartily. + +"Harkee, Injin," resumed Jaap, as soon as he had laughed as much as he +wished to do at that particular moment--"Harkee, Injin--you t'ink 'arth +round, or 'arth flat?" + +"How do you mean--'arth up and down--no round--no flat." + +"Dat not what I mean. Bot' up and down in one sens', but no up and down +in 'noder. Masser Mordaunt, now, and Masser Corny too, bot' say 'arth +round like an apple, and dat he'd stand one way in day-time, an' 'noder +way in night-time. Now, what you t'ink of dat, Injin?" + +The Trackless listened gravely, but he expressed neither assent or +dissent. I knew he had a respect for both my father and myself; but it +was asking a great deal of him to credit that the world was round; nor +did he understand how one could be turned over in the manner Jaap +pretended. + +"S'pose it so," he remarked, after a pause of reflection--"S'pose it so, +den man stand upside down? Man stand on foot; no stand on head." + +"Worl' turn round, Injin; dat a reason why you stand on he head one +time; on he foot 'noder." + +"Who tell t'at tradition, Jaap? Nebber heard him afore." + +"Masser Corny tell me dat, long time ago; when I war' little boy. Ask +Masser Mordaunt one day, and he tell you a same story. Ebberybody say +_dat_ but Masser Dirck Follock; and he say to me, one time, 'it true, +Jaap, t'e book do say so--and your Masser Corny believe him; but I want +to _see_ t'e worl' turn round, afore I b'lieve it.' Dat what Colonel +Follock say, Trackless; you know he berry honest." + +"Good--honest man, colonel--brave warrior--true friend--b'lieve all he +tell, when he _know_; but don't know ebberyt'ing. Gen'ral know +more--major young, but know more." + +Perhaps my modesty ought to cause me to hesitate about recording that +which the partiality of so good a friend as Susquesus might induce him +to say; but it is my wish to be particular, and to relate all that +passed on this occasion. Jaap could not object to the Indian's +proposition, for he had too much love and attachment for his two masters +not to admit at once that they knew more than Colonel Follock; no very +extravagant assumption, by the way. + +"Yes, he good 'nough," answered the black, "but he don't know half as +much as Masser Corny, or Masser Mordaunt. He say worl' isn't round; now, +I t'ink he look round." + +"What Chainbearer say?" asked the Indian, suddenly, as if he had +determined that his own opinion should be governed by that of a man whom +he so well loved. "Chainbearer nebber lie." + +"Nor do Masser Corny, nor Masser Mordaunt?" exclaimed Jaap, a little +indignantly. "You t'ink, Trackless, e'der of _my_ massers lie!" + +That was an accusation that Susquesus never intended to make; though his +greater intimacy with, and greater reliance on old Andries had, +naturally enough, induced him to ask the question he had put. + +"No say eeder lie," answered the Onondago; "but many forked tongue +about, and maybe hear so, and t'ink so. Chainbearer stop ear; nebber +listen to crooked tongue." + +"Well, here come Chainbearer he self, Sus; so, jist for graterfercashun, +you shall hear what 'e ole man say. It berry true, Chainbearer honest +man, and I like to know he opinion myself, sin' it isn't easy, +Trackless, to understan' how a mortal being _can_ stan' up, head down!" + +"What 'mortal being' mean, eh?" + +"Why, it mean mortality, Injin--you, mortality--I, mortality--Masser +Corny, mortality--Masser Mordaunt, mortality--Miss Anneke, +mortality--ebberybody, mortality; but ebberybody not 'e same sort of +mortality!--Understan' now, Sus?" + +The Indian shook his head, and looked perplexed; but the Chainbearer +coming up at that moment, that branch of the matter in discussion was +pursued no farther. After exchanging a few remarks about the pigeons, +Jaap did not scruple to redeem the pledge he had given his red friend, +by plunging at once into the main subject with the Chainbearer. + +"You know how it be wid Injin, Masser Chainbearer," said Jaap--"'Ey is +always poor missedercated creatur's, and knows nuttin' but what come by +chance--now here be Sureflint, he can no way t'ink dis worl' round; and +dat it _turn_ round, too; and so he want me to ask what you got to say +about _dat_ matter?" + +Chainbearer was no scholar. Whatever may be said of Leyden, and of the +many, very many learned Dutchmen it had sent forth into the world, few +of them ever reached America. Our brethren of the eastern colonies, now +states, had long been remarkable, as a whole, for that "dangerous +thing," a "little learning;" but I cannot say that the Dutch of New +York, also viewed as a whole, incurred any of those risks. To own the +truth, it was not a very easy matter to be more profoundly ignorant, on +all things connected with science, than were the mass of the uneducated +Dutch of New York, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred +and eighty-four. It made little difference as to condition in life, +unless one rose as high as the old colonial aristocracy of that stock, +and an occasional exception in favor of a family that intended to rear, +or had reared in its bosom a minister of the gospel. Such was the +strength of the prejudice among these people, that they distrusted the +English schools, and few permitted their children to enter them; while +those they possessed of their own were ordinarily of a very low +character. These feelings were giving way before the influence of time, +it is true; but it was very slowly; and it was pretty safe to infer that +every man of low Dutch extraction in the colony was virtually +uneducated, with the exception of here and there an individual of the +higher social castes, or one that had been especially favored by +association and circumstances. As for that flippant knowledge, of which +our eastern neighbors possessed so large an amount, the New York Dutch +appeared to view it with peculiar dislike, disdaining to know anything, +if it were not of the very best quality. Still, there were a few to whom +this quality was by no means a stranger. In these isolated cases, the +unwearied application, painstaking industry, cautious appreciation of +facts, and solid judgment of the parties, had produced a few men who +only required a theatre for its exhibition, in order to cause their +information to command the profound respect of the learned, let them +live where they might. What they did acquire was thoroughly got, though +seldom paraded for the purposes of mere show. + +Old Andries, however, was not of the class just named. He belonged to +the rule, and not to its exception. Beyond a question, he had heard all +the more familiar truths of science alluded to in discourse, or had seen +them in the pages of books; but they entered into no part of his real +opinions; for he was not sufficiently familiar with the different +subjects to feel their truths in a way to incorporate them with his +mind. + +"You know t'is sait, Jaap," Chainbearer answered, "t'at bot' are true. +Eferypoty wilt tell you so; and all t'e folks I haf seen holt t'e same +opinions." + +"T'ink him true, Chainbearer?" the Onondago somewhat abruptly demanded. + +"I s'pose I _must_, Sureflint, since all say it. T'e pale-faces, you +know, reat a great many pooks, and get to pe much wiser t'an ret men." + +"How you make man stand on head, eh?" + +Chainbearer now looked over one shoulder, then over the other; and +fancying no one was near but the two in his front, he was probably a +little more communicative than might otherwise have been the case. +Drawing a little nearer, like one who is about to deal with a secret, +the honest old man made his reply. + +"To pe frank wit' you, Sureflint," he answered, "t'at ist a question not +easily answered. Eferypoty says 'tis so, ant, t'erefore, I s'pose it +_must_ pe so; put I have often asked myself if t'is worlt pe truly +turned upsite town at night, how is it, old Chainpearer, t'at you ton't +roll out of pet? T'ere's t'ings in natur' t'at are incomprehensiple, +Trackless; quite incomprehensiple!" + +The Indian listened gravely, and it seemed to satisfy his longings on +the subject, to know that there were things in nature that are +incomprehensible. As for the Chainbearer, I thought that he changed the +discourse a little suddenly on account of these very incomprehensible +things in nature; for it is certain he broke off on another theme, in a +way to alter all the ideas of his companions, let them be on their heads +or their heels. + +"Is it not true, Jaap, t'at you ant t'e Onondago, here, wast pot' +present at t'e Injin massacre t'at took place in t'ese parts, pefore t'e +revolution, in t'e olt French war? I mean t'e time when one Traverse, a +surveyor, ant a fery _goot_ surveyor he was, was kil't, wit'all his +chainpearers ant axe-men?" + +"True as gospel, Masser Andries," returned the negro, looking up +seriously, and shaking his head--"I was here, and so was Sus. Dat was de +fuss time we smell gunpowder togedder. De French Injins was out in +droves, and dey cut off Masser Traverse and all his party, no leaving +half a scalp on a single head. Yes, sah; I remembers _dat_, as if t'was +last night." + +"Ant what was tone wit' t'e poties? You puriet t'e poties, surely?" + +"Sartain--Pete, Masser Ten Eyck's man, was put into a hole, near Masser +Corny's hut, which must be out here, four or five miles off; while +masser surveyor and his men were buried by a spring, somewhere off +yonder. Am I right, Injin?" + +The Onondago shook his head; then he pointed to the true direction to +each spot that had been mentioned, showing that Jaap was very much out +of the way. I had heard of certain adventures in which my father had +been concerned when a young man, and in which, indeed, my mother had +been in a degree an actor, but I did not know enough of the events fully +to comprehend the discourse which succeeded. It seemed that the +Chainbearer knew the occurrences by report only, not having been present +at the scenes connected with them; but he felt a strong desire to visit +the graves of the sufferers. As yet, he had not even visited the hut of +Mr. Traverse, the surveyor who had been killed; for, the work on which +he had been employed being one of detail, or that of subdividing the +great lots laid down before the revolution, into smaller lots, for +present sale, it had not taken him as yet from the central point where +it had commenced. His new assistant chainbearer was not expected to join +us for a day or two; and, after talking the matter over with his two +companions for a few minutes, he announced a determination to go in +quest of all the graves the succeeding morning, with the intention of +having suitable memorials of their existence placed over them. + +The evening of that day was calm and delightful. As the sun was setting +I paid Dus a visit, and found her alone in what she playfully called the +drawing-room of her "harem." Luckily there were no mutes to prevent my +entrance, the usual black guardian, of whom there _was_ one, being still +in her kitchen at work. I was received without embarrassment, and taking +a seat on the threshold of the door, I sat conversing, while the +mistress of the place plied her needle on a low chair within. For a time +we talked of the pigeons and of our little journey in the woods; after +which the conversation insensibly took a direction toward our present +situation, the past, and the future. I had adverted to the Chainbearer's +resolution to search for the graves; and, at this point, I shall begin +to record what was said, _as_ it was said. + +"I have heard allusions to those melancholy events, rather than their +history," I added. "For some cause, neither of my parents like to speak +of them; though I know not the reason." + +"Their history is well known at Ravensnest," answered Dus; "and it is +often related there; at least, as marvels are usually related in country +settlements. I suppose there is a grain of truth mixed up with a pound +of error." + +"I see no reason for misrepresenting in an affair of that sort." + +"There is no other than the universal love of the marvellous, which +causes most people to insist on having it introduced into a story, if it +do not happen to come in legitimately. Your true country gossip is never +satisfied with fact. He (or _she_ would be the better word) insists on +exercising a dull imagination at invention. In this case, however, from +all that I can learn, more fact and less invention has been used than +common." + +We then spoke of the outlines of the story each had heard, and we found +that, in the main, our tales agreed. In making the comparison, however, +I found that I was disposed to dwell most on the horrible features of +the incidents, while Dus, gently and almost insensibly, yet infallibly, +inclined to those that were gentler, and which had more connection with +the affections. + +"Your account is much as mine, and both must be true in the main, as you +got yours from the principal actors," she said; "but _our_ gossips +relate certain points connected with love and marriage, about which you +have been silent." + +"Let me hear them, then," I cried; "for I never was in a better mood to +converse of love and _marriage_," laying a strong emphasis on the last +word, "than at this moment!" + +The girl started, blushed, compressed her lips, and continued silent for +half a minute. I could see that her hand trembled, but she was too much +accustomed to extraordinary situations easily to lose her self-command. +It was nearly dusk, too, and the obscurity in which she sat within the +hut, which was itself beneath the shade of tall trees, most probably +aided her efforts to seem unconscious. Yet, I had spoken warmly, and as +I soon saw, in a manner that demanded explanation, though at the moment +quite without plan, and scarcely with the consciousness of what I was +doing. I decided not to retreat, but to go on, in doing which I should +merely obey an impulse that was getting to be too strong for much +further restraint; that was not the precise moment, nevertheless, in +which I was resolved to speak, but I waited rather for the natural +course of things. In the mean time, after the short silence mentioned, +the discourse continued. + +"All I meant," resumed Dus, "was the tradition which is related among +your tenants, that your parents were united in consequence of the manner +in which your father defended Herman Mordaunt's dwelling, his daughter +included--though Herman Mordaunt himself preferred some English lord for +his son-in-law, and--but I ought to repeat no more of this silly tale." + +"Let me hear it all, though it be the loves of my own parents." + +"I dare say it is not true; for what vulgar report of private feelings +and private acts ever _is_ so? My tradition added that Miss Mordaunt +was, at first, captivated by the brilliant qualities of the young lord, +though she much preferred General Littlepage in the end; and that her +marriage has been most happy." + +"Your tradition, then, has not done my mother justice, but is faulty in +many things. Your young lord was merely a baronet's heir; and I know +from my dear grandmother that my mother's attachment to my father +commenced when she was a mere child, and was the consequence of his +resenting an insult she received at the time from some other boy." + +"I am glad of that!" exclaimed Dus, with an emphasis so marked that I +was surprised at the earnestness of her manner. "Second attachments in +woman to me always seem misplaced. There was another vein to my +tradition, which tells of a lady who lost her betrothed the night the +'Nest was assailed, and who has ever since lived unmarried, true to his +memory. That is a part of the story I have ever loved." + +"Was her name Wallace?" I asked, eagerly. + +"It was; Mary Wallace--and I have honored the name ever since I heard +the circumstances. In my eyes, Mr. Littlepage, there can be no picture +more respectable than that of a female remaining true to her first +attachments, under _all_ circumstances; in _death_ as well as in +_life_." + +"Or in mine, beloved Ursula!" I cried--but I will not make a fool of +myself by attempting to record what I said next. The fact was, that Dus +had been winding herself round my heart for the last few weeks in a way +that would have defied any attempts of mine to extricate it from the net +into which it had fallen, had I the wish to do so. But I had considered +the matter, and saw no reason to desire freedom from the dominion of +Ursula Malbone. To me she appeared all that man could wish, and I saw no +impediment to a union in the circumstance of her poverty. Her family and +education were quite equal to my own; and these very important +considerations admitted, I had fortune enough for both. It was material +that we should have the habits, opinions, prejudices if you will, of the +same social caste; but beyond this, worldly considerations, in my view +of the matter, ought to have no influence. + +Under such notions, therefore, and guided by the strong impulse of a +generous and manly passion, I poured out my whole soul to Dus. I dare +say I spoke a quarter of an hour without once being interrupted. I did +not wish to hear my companion's voice; for I had the humility which is +said to be the inseparable attendant of a true love, and was fearful +that the answer might not be such as I could wish to hear. I could +perceive, spite of the increasing obscurity, that Dus was strongly +agitated; and will confess a lively hope was created within me by this +circumstance. Thus encouraged, it was natural to lose my fears in the +wish to be more assured; and I now pressed for a reply. After a brief +pause, I obtained it in the following words, which were uttered with a +tremor and sensibility that gave them tenfold weight. + +"For this unexpected, and I believe _sincere_ declaration, Mr. +Littlepage, I thank you from the bottom of my heart," the precious +creature commenced. "There are a frankness, an honorable sincerity and a +noble generosity in such a declaration, coming from _you_ to _me_, that +can never be forgotten. But, I am not my own mistress--my faith is +plighted to another--my affections are with my faith; and I cannot +accept offers which, so truly generous, so truly noble, demand the most +explicit reply----" + +I heard no more; for, springing from the floor, and an attitude that was +very nearly that of being on my knees, I rushed from the hut and plunged +into the forest. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + DANS. "Ye boys who pluck the flowers, and spoil the spring, + Beware the secret snake that shoots a sting." + --_Dryden's Eclogues._ + + +For the first half hour after I left Ursula Malbone's hut, I was +literally unconscious of whither I was going, or of what I was about. I +can recollect nothing but having passed quite near to the Onondago, who +appeared desirous of speaking to me, but whom I avoided by a species of +instinct rather than with any design. In fact, fatigue first brought me +fairly to my senses. I had wandered miles and miles, plunging deeper and +deeper into the wilds of the forest, and this without any aim, or any +knowledge of even the direction in which I was going. Night soon came to +cast its shadows on the earth, and my uncertain course was held amid the +gloom of the hour, united to those of the woods. I had wearied myself by +rapid walking over the uneven surface of the forest, and finally threw +myself on the trunk of a fallen tree, willing to take some repose. + +At first, I thought of nothing, felt for nothing but the unwelcome +circumstance that the faith of Dus was plighted to another. Had I fallen +in love with Priscilla Bayard, such an announcement could not have +occasioned the same surprise; for _she_ lived in the world, met with men +of suitable educations, conditions, and opinions, and might be supposed +to have been brought within the influence of the attentions and +sympathies that are wont to awaken tenderness in the female breast. With +Dus, it had been very different; she had gone from the forest to the +school, and returned from the school to the forest. It was true, that +her brother, while a soldier, might have had some friend who admired +Ursula, and whose admiration awakened her youthful sympathies, but this +was only a remote probability, and I was left burdened with a load of +doubt as respected even the character and position of my rival. + +"At any rate, he must be poor," I said to myself, the moment I was +capable of reflecting coolly on the subject, "or he would never have +left Dus in that hut, to pass her youth amid chainbearers and the other +rude beings of a frontier. If I cannot obtain her love, I may at least +contribute to her happiness by using those means which a kind Providence +has bestowed, and enabling her to marry at once." For a little while I +fancied my own misery would be lessened, could I only see Dus married +and happy. This feeling did not last long, however; though I trust the +desire to see her happy remained after I became keenly conscious it +would require much time to enable me to look on such a spectacle with +composure. Nevertheless, the first tranquil moment, the first relieving +sensation I experienced, was from the conviction I felt that Providence +had placed it in my power to cause Ursula and the man of her choice to +be united. This recollection gave me even a positive pleasure for a +little while, and I ruminated on the means of effecting it, literally +for hours. I was still thinking of it, indeed, when I threw myself on +the fallen tree, where weariness caused me to fall into a troubled +sleep, that lasted, with more or less of forgetfulness, several hours. +The place I had chosen on the tree was among its branches, on which the +leaves were still hanging, and it was not without its conveniences. + +When I awoke, it was daylight; or, such a daylight as penetrates the +forest ere the sun has risen. At first I felt stiff and sore from the +hardness of my bed; but, on changing my attitude and sitting up, these +sensations soon wore off, leaving me refreshed and calm. To my great +surprise, however, I found that a small, light blanket, such as woodmen +use in summer, had been thrown over me, to the genial warmth of which I +was probably indebted more than I then knew myself. This circumstance +alarmed me at first, since it was obvious the blanket could not have +come there without hands; though a moment's reflection satisfied me that +the throwing it over me, under the circumstances, must have been the act +of a friend. I arose, however, to my feet, walked along the trunk of the +tree until clear of its branches, and looked about me with a lively +desire to ascertain who this secret friend might be. + +The place was like any other in the solitude of the forest. There was +the usual array of the trunks of stately trees, the leafy canopy, the +dark shadows, the long vistas, the brown and broken surface of the +earth, and the damp coolness of the boundless woods. A fine spring broke +out of a hill-side quite near me, and looking further, with the +intention to approach and use its water, the mystery of the blanket was +at once explained. I saw the form of the Onondago, motionless as one of +the trees which grew around him, leaning on his rifle, and seemingly +gazing at some object that lay at his feet. In a minute I was at his +side, when I discovered that he was standing over a human skeleton! This +was a strange and startling object to meet in the depth of the woods! +Man was of so little account, was so seldom seen in the virgin wilds of +America, that one naturally felt more shocked at finding such a memorial +of his presence in a place like that, than would have been the case had +he stumbled on it amid peopled districts. As for the Indian, he gazed at +the bones so intently that he either did not hear, or he totally +disregarded my approach. I touched him with a finger before he even +looked up. Glad of any excuse to avoid explanation of my own conduct, I +eagerly seized the occasion offered by a sight so unusual, to speak of +other things. + +"This has been a violent death, Sureflint," I said; "else the body would +not have been left unburied. The man has been killed in some quarrel of +the red warriors." + +"_Was_ bury," answered the Indian, without manifesting the least +surprise at my touch, or at the sound of my voice. "Dere, see grave? +'Arth wash away, and bones come out. Nuttin' else. _Know_ he bury, for +help bury, myself." + +"Do you, then, know anything of this unhappy man, and of the cause of +his death?" + +"Sartain; know all 'bout him. Kill in ole French war. Fader here; and +Colonel Follock; Jaap, too. Huron kill 'em all; afterward we flog Huron. +Yes, dat ole story now!" + +"I have heard something of this! This must have been the spot, then, +where one Traverse, a surveyor, was set upon by the enemy, and was +slain, with his chainbearers and axe-men. My father and his friends +_did_ find the bodies and bury them, after a fashion." + +"Sartain; just so; poor bury, d'ough, else he nebber come out of groun'. +Dese bones of surveyor; know 'em well: hab one leg broke, once. Dere; +you see mark." + +"Shall we dig a new grave, Susquesus, and bury the remains again?" + +"Best not, now, Chainbearer mean do dat. Be here by-'m-bye. Got +somet'ing else t'ink of now. You own all land 'bout here, so no need be +in hurry." + +"I suppose that my father and Colonel Follock do. These men were slain +on the estate, while running out its great lots. I think I have heard +they had not near finished their work in this quarter of the patent, +which was abandoned on account of the troubles of that day." + +"Just so; who own mill, here, den?" + +"There is no mill near us, Susquesus; _can_ be no mill, as not an acre +of the Ridge property has ever been sold or leased." + +"May be so--mill d'ough--not far off, needer. Know mill when hear him. +Saw talk loud." + +"You surely do not hear the saw of a mill now, my friend. I can hear +nothing like one." + +"No hear, now; dat true. But hear him in night. Ear good in night--hear +great way off." + +"You are right enough there, Susquesus. And you fancied you heard the +stroke of a saw, from this place, during the quiet and heavy air of the +past night?" + +"Sartain--know well; hear him plain enough. Isn't mile off. Out here; +find him dere." + +This was still more startling than the discovery of the skeleton. I had +a rough, general map of the patent in my pocket; and on examination, I +found a mill-stream _was_ laid down on it, quite near the spot where we +stood. The appearance of the woods, and the formation of the land, +moreover, favored the idea of the proximity of a mill. Pine was plenty, +and the hills were beginning to swell into something resembling +mountains. + +Fasting, and the exercise I had taken, had given me a keen appetite; and +in one sense at least, I was not sorry to believe that human habitations +were near. Did any persons dwell in that forest, they were squatters, +but I did not feel much personal apprehension in encountering such men; +especially when my only present object was to ask for food. The erecting +of a mill denoted a decided demonstration, it is true, and a little +reflection might have told me that its occupants would not be delighted +by a sudden visit from the representative of the owners of the soil. On +the other hand, however, the huts were long miles away, and neither +Sureflint nor I had the smallest article of food about us. Both were +hungry, though the Onondago professed indifference to the feeling, an +unconcern I could not share with him, owing to habits of greater +self-indulgence. Then I had a strong wish to solve this mystery of the +mill, in addition to a feverish desire to awaken within me some new +excitement, as a counterpoise to that I still keenly felt in behalf of +my disappointed love. + +Did I not so well understand the character of my companion, and the +great accuracy of Indian senses, I might have hesitated about going on +what seemed to be a fool's errand. But circumstances, that were then of +recent origin, existed to give some countenance to the conjecture of +Sureflint, if conjecture his precise knowledge could be called. +Originally, New York claimed the Connecticut for a part of its eastern +boundary, but large bodies of settlers had crossed that stream coming +mainly from the adjacent colony of New Hampshire, and these persons had +become formidable by their positions and numbers, some time anterior to +the revolution. During that struggle, these hardy mountaineers had +manifested a spirit favorable to the colonies, in the main, though every +indication of an intention to settle their claims was met by a +disposition to declare themselves neutral. In a word, they were +sufficiently patriotic, if left to do as they pleased in the matter of +their possessions, but not sufficiently so to submit to the regular +administration of the law. About the close of the war, the leaders of +this self-created colony were more than suspected of coquetting with the +English authorities; not that they preferred the government of the +crown, or any other control, to their own, but because the times were +favorable to playing off their neutrality, in this manner, as a means of +securing themselves in the possession of lands to which their titles, in +the ordinary way, admitted of a good deal of dispute, to say the least. +The difficulty was by no means disposed of by the peace of '83; but the +counties that were then equally known by the name of Vermont and that of +the Hampshire Grants, were existing, in one sense, as a people apart, +not yet acknowledging the power of the confederacy; nor did they come +into the Union, under the constitution of 1789, until all around them +had done so, and the last spark of opposition to the new system had been +extinguished. + +It is a principle of moral, as well as of physical nature, that like +should produce like. The right ever vindicates itself, in the process of +events, and the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children, even +to the third and fourth generations, in their melancholy consequences. +It was impossible that an example of such a wrong could be successfully +exhibited on a large scale, without producing its deluded imitators, on +another that was better suited to the rapacity of individual longings. +It is probable Vermont has sent out, among us, two squatters, and +otherwise lawless intruders on our vacant lands, to one of any other of +the adjoining States, counting all in proportion to their whole numbers. +I knew that the county of Charlotte, as Washington was then called, was +peculiarly exposed to inroads of this nature; and did not feel much +surprise at this prospect of meeting with some of the fruits of the seed +that had been so profusely scattered along the sides of the Green +Mountains. Come what would, however, I was determined to ascertain the +facts, as soon as possible, with the double purpose of satisfying both +hunger and curiosity. As for the Indian, he was passive, yielding to my +decision altogether as a matter of course. + +"Since you think there is a mill, out here, west of us, Sureflint," I +observed, after turning the matter over in my mind, "I will go and +search for it, if you will bear me company. You think you can find it, I +trust, knowing the direction in which it stands?" + +"Sartain--find him easy 'nough. Find stream first--den find _mill_. Got +ear--got eye--no hard to find him. Hear saw 'fore great while." + +I acquiesced, and made a sign for my companion to proceed. Susquesus was +a man of action, and not of words; and, in a minute he was leading the +way toward a spot in the woods that looked as if it might contain the +bed of the stream that was known to exist somewhere near by, since it +was laid down on the map. + +The sort of instinct possessed by the Trackless, enabled him soon to +find this little river. It was full of water, and had a gentle current; +a fact that the Indian immediately interpreted into a sign that the mill +must be above us, since the dam would have checked the course of the +water, had we been above _that_. Turning up stream, then, my companion +moved on, with the same silent industry as he would have trotted along +the path that led to his own wigwam, had he been near it. + +We had not been on the banks of the stream five minutes, before the +Trackless came to a dead halt; like one who had met an unexpected +obstacle. I was soon at his side, curious to know the motive of this +delay. + +"Soon see mill, now," Susquesus said, in answer to an inquiry of mine. +"Board plenty--come down stream fast as want him." + +Sure enough, boards _were_ coming down, in the current of the river, +much faster than one who was interested in the property would be apt to +wish; unless, indeed, he felt certain of obtaining his share of the +amount of sales. These boards were neither in rafts, nor in cribs; but +they came singly, or two or three laid together, as if some arrangement +had been made to arrest them below, before they should reach any shoals, +falls, or rapids. All this looked surprisingly like a regular +manufacturer of lumber, with a view to sales in the markets of the towns +on the Hudson. The little stream we were on was a tributary of that +noble river, and, once in the latter, there would be no very material +physical obstacle to conveying the product of our hills over the +habitable globe. + +"This really looks like trade, Sureflint," I said, as soon as certain +that my eyes did not deceive me. "Where there are boards made, men +cannot be far off. Lumber, cut to order, does not _grow_ in the +wilderness, though the material of which it is made, may." + +"Mill make him. Know'd mill, when hear him. Talk plain 'nough. Pale-face +make mill, but red man got ear to hear wit'!" + +This was all true enough; and it remained to ascertain what was to come +of it. I will acknowledge that, when I saw those tell-tale boards come +floating down the winding little river, I felt a thrilling of the +nerves, as if assured the sight would be succeeded by some occurrence of +importance to myself. I knew that these lawless lumbermen bore a bad +name in the land, and that they were generally regarded as a set of +plunderers, who did not hesitate to defend themselves and their habits, +by such acts of violence and fraud as they fancied their circumstances +justified. It is one evil of crime, where it penetrates masses, that +numbers are enabled to give it a gloss, and a seeming merit, that +unsettle principles; rendering the false true, in the eyes of the +ignorant, and generally placing evil before good. This is one of the +modes in which justice vindicates itself, under the providence of God; +the wrongs committed by communities reacting on themselves, in the shape +of a demoralization that soon brings its own merited punishment. + +There was little time for speculation or conjecture, however; for, +resuming our march, the next bend in the river brought into view a reach +of the stream in which half a dozen men and lads were at work in the +water, placing the boards in piles of two or three, and setting them in +the current, at points favorable to their floating downward. Booms, +connected with chains, kept the confused pile in a sort of basin beneath +some low cliffs, on the margin of which stood the expected saw-mill +itself. Here, then, was ocular proof that squatters were systematically +at work, plundering the forests of which I was in charge, of their most +valuable trees, and setting everything like law and right at defiance. +The circumstances called for great decision, united with the utmost +circumspection. I had gone so far, that pride would not suffer me to +retreat, had not a sense of duty to my father and Colonel Follock, come +to increase the determination to go on. + +The reader may feel some desire to know how far Dus mingled with my +thoughts, all this time. She was never absolutely out of them, though +the repulse I had met in my affections gave an impetus to my feelings +that rendered me more than usually disposed to enter on an adventure of +hazard and wildness. If I were naught to Ursula Malbone, it mattered +little what else became of me. This was the sentiment that was +uppermost, and I have thought, ever since, that Susquesus had some +insight into the condition of my feelings, and understood the cause of +the sort of desperation with which I was about to rush on danger. We +were, as yet, quite concealed, ourselves; and the Indian profited by the +circumstance, to hold a council, before we trusted our persons in the +hands of those who might feel it to be their interest to make away with +us, in preference to permitting us ever to see our friends again. In +doing this, however, Sureflint was in no degree influenced by concern +for himself, but solely by a desire to act as became an experienced +warrior, on a very difficult war-path. + +"S'pose you know," said Sureflint. "'Em no good men--Varmount +squatter--_you_ t'ink own land--_dey_ t'ink own land. Carry rifle and do +as please. Best watch him." + +"I believe I understand you, Susquesus, and I shall be on my guard, +accordingly. Did you ever see either of those men before?" + +"T'ink have. Must meet all sort of men, when he go up and down in 'e +wood. Despret squatter, dat ole man, out yonder. Call himself +T'ousandacre--say he alway own t'ousand acre when he have mind to find +him." + +"The gentleman must be well provided with estates! A thousand acres will +make a very pretty homestead for a wanderer, especially when he has the +privilege of carrying it about with him, in his travels. You mean the +man with gray hairs, I suppose--he who is half dressed in buckskin?" + +"Sartain; dat ole T'ousandacre--nebber want land--take him where he find +him. Born over by great salt lake, he say, and been travel toward +setting sun since a boy. Alway help himself--Hampshire Grant man, _dat_. +But, major, why he no got right, well as you?" + +"Because our laws give him no right, while they give to the owner in +fee, a perfect right. It is one of the conditions of the society in +which we live, that men shall respect each other's property, and this is +not his property, but mine--or rather, it is the property of my father +and Colonel Follock." + +"Best not say so, den. No need tell ebberyt'ing. No your land, say no +your land. If he t'ink you spy, p'raps he shoot you, eh? Pale-face shoot +spy; red man t'ink spy good feller!" + +"Spies can be shot only in time of war; but, war or peace, you do not +think these men will push matters to extremities? They will be afraid of +the law." + +"Law! What law to him? Nebber see law--don't go near law; don't know +him." + +"Well, I shall run the risk, for hunger is quite as active just now as +curiosity and interest. There is no necessity, however, for your +exposing yourself, Sureflint; do you stay behind, and wait for the +result. If I am detained, you can carry the news to Chainbearer, who +will know where to seek me. Stay you here, and let me go on +alone--adieu." + +Sureflint was not to be dropped in this manner. He _said_ nothing, but +the moment I began to move, he stepped quietly into his accustomed +place, in advance, and led the way toward the party of squatters. There +were four of these men at work in the river, in addition to two stout +lads and the old leader, who, as I afterward ascertained, was very +generally known by the _sobriquet_ of Thousandacres. The last remained +on dry land, doubtless imagining that his years, and his long services +in the cause of lawlessness and social disorganization, entitled him to +this small advantage. The evil one has his privileges, as well as the +public. + +The first intimation our hosts received of this unexpected visit, came +from the cracking of a dried stick on which I had trodden. The Indian +was not quicker to interpret and observe that well-known sound, than the +old squatter, who turned his head like thought, and at once saw the +Onondago within a rod of the spot where he himself was standing. I was +close on the Indian's heels. At first, neither surprise nor uneasiness +was apparent in the countenance of Thousandacres. He knew the Trackless, +as he called Susquesus, and, though this was the first visit of the +Indian, at that particular "location," they had often met in a similar +manner before, and invariably with as little preliminary notice. So far +from anything unpleasant appearing in the countenance of the squatter, +therefore, Susquesus was greeted with a smile, in which a certain +leering expression of cunning was blended with that of welcome. + +"So its only you, Trackless," exclaimed Thousand Acres, or +Thousandacres, as I shall in future spell the name--"I didn't know but +it might be a sheriff. Sitch critturs do get out into the woods, +sometimes, you know; though they don't always get back ag'in. How come +you to find us out, in this cunning spot, Onondago!" + +"Hear mill, in night. Saw got loud tongue. Hungry; so come get somet'ing +to eat." + +"Waal, you've done wisely, in that partic'lar, for we never have been +better off for vi't'als. Pigeons is as plenty as land, and the law +hasn't got to that pass yet, as to forbid a body from taking pigeons, +even though it be in another man's stubble. I must keep that saw better +greased, nights; though, I s'p'ose, a'ter all, 't was the cut of the +teeth you heard, and not the rubbing of the plate?" + +"Hear him all--saw got loud voice, tell you." + +"Yes, there's natur' in that. Come, we'll take this path, up to the +house, and see what Miss Thousandacres can do for you. Breakfast must be +ready, by this time; and you, and your fri'nd, behind you, there, is +wilcome to what we have, sitch as it is. Now, as we go along," continued +the squatter, leading the way up the path he had mentioned--"now, as we +go along, you can tell me the news, Trackless. This is a desp'rate quiet +spot; and all the tidings we get is brought back by the b'ys, when they +come up stream, from floating boards down into the river. A desp'rate +sight have we got on hand, and I hope to hear that matters be going on +so well, in Albany, that boards will bring suthin', soon. It's high time +honest labor met with its reward." + +"Don't know--nebber sell board," answered the Indian--"nebber buy him. +Don't care for board. Powder cheap, now 'e war-path shut up. Dat good, +s'pose you t'ink." + +"Waal, Trackless, I kear more for boards than for powder, I must own; +though powder's useful, too. Yes, yes; a useful thing is powder, in its +way. Venison and bear's meat are both healthy, cheap, food: and I _have_ +eaten catamount. Powder can be used in many ways. Who is your fri'nd, +Trackless?" + +"_Ole_ young frien'--know his fader. Live in wood now, like us this +summer. Shoot deer like hunter." + +"He's wilcome--he's heartily wilcome! All's wilcome to these parts, but +the landlord. You know me, Trackless--you're well acquainted with old +Thousandacres; and few words is best, among fri'nds of long standing. +But, tell me, Onondago, have you seen anything of the Chainbearer, and +his party of lawless surveyors, in the woods, this summer? The b'ys +brought up an account of his being at work, somewhere near by, this +season, and that he's at his old tricks, ag'in!" + +"Sartain, see him. Ole frien', too, Chainbearer. Live wit' him, afore +old French war--_like_ to live with him, when can. Good man, +Chainbearer, tell you, Thousandacres. What trick he do, eh?" + +The Indian spoke a little sternly, for he loved Andries too well to hear +him disrespectfully named, without feeling some sort of resentment. +These men, however, were too much accustomed to plain dealing in their +ordinary discourse, to take serious offence at trifles; and the amicable +sunshine of the dialogue received no serious interruption from this +passing cloud. + +"What trick does Chainbearer do, Trackless," answered the squatter--"a +mortal sight of tricks, with them plaguy chains of his'n! If there +warn't no chains and chainbearers, there could be no surveyors; and, if +there warn't no surveyors, there could be no boundaries to farms but the +rifle; which is the best law-maker, too, that man ever invented. The +Indians want no surveyors, Trackless?" + +"S'pose he don't. It _be_ bad to measure land, will own," answered the +conscientious Susquesus, who would not deny his own principles, even +while he despised and condemned the man who now asserted them. "Nebber +see anyt'ing good in measurin' land." + +"Ay, I know'd you was of the true Injin kidney!" exclaimed +Thousandacres, exultingly, "and that's it which makes sich fri'nds of us +squatters and you redskins. But Chainbearer is at work hard by, is he, +Trackless?" + +"Sartain. He measure General Littlepage farm out. Who _your_ landlord, +eh?" + +"Waal, I do s'pose it's this same Littlepage, and a desp'rate rogue all +agree in callin' him." + +I started at hearing my honored and honorable father thus alluded to, +and felt a strong disposition to resent the injury; though a glance from +the Indian's eye cautioned me on the subject. I was then young, and had +yet to learn that men were seldom wronged without being calumniated. I +now know that this practice of circulating false reports of landlords, +most especially in relation to their titles, is very general, taking its +rise in the hostile positions that adventurers are constantly assuming +on their estates, in a country as unsettled and migratory as our own, +aided by the common and vulgar passion of envy. Let a man travel through +New York, even at this day, and lend his ear to the language of the +discontented tavern-brawlers, and he would hardly believe there was such +a thing as a good title to an estate of any magnitude within its +borders, or a bad one to the farm of any occupant in possession. There +is among us a set of declaimers, who come from a state of society in +which little distinction exists in either fortunes or social conditions, +and who are incapable of even seeing, much less of appreciating the vast +differences that are created by habits, opinions, and education, but who +reduce all moral discrepancies to dollars and cents. These men +invariably quarrel with all above them, and, with them, to quarrel is to +caluminate. Leaguing with the disaffected, of whom there always must be +some, especially when men are compelled to pay their debts, one of their +first acts is to assail the title of the landlord, when there happens to +be one in their neighborhood, by lying and slandering. There seems to be +no exception to the rule, the practice being resorted to against the +oldest as well as against the most recently granted estates among us. +The lie only varies in particulars; it is equally used against the +titles of the old families of Van Rensselaer, Livingston, Beekman, Van +Cortlandt, De Lancey, Schuyler, and others, as against the hundred new +names that have sprung up in what is called the western counties, since +the revolution. It is the lie of the Father of Lies, who varies it to +suit circumstances and believers. "A desp'rate rogue," all agree in +calling the man who owns land that they desire to possess themselves, +without being put to the unpleasant trouble of purchasing and paying for +it. + +I so far commanded myself, however, as to make no retort for the +injustice done my upright, beloved, and noble-minded father, but left +his defence to the friendly feelings and sterling honesty of Sureflint. + +"Not so," answered the Indian sternly. "Big lie--forked tongue tell +_dat_--know gen'ral--sarve wid him--_know_ him. Good warrior--honest +man--dat _lie_. Tell him so to face." + +"Waal--wa-a-l--I don't know," drawled out Mr. Thousandacres: how those +rascals will "wa-a-l," and "I don't know," when they are cornered in one +of their traducing tales, and are met face to face, as the Indian now +met the squatter! "Wa-a-l, wa-a-l, I don't know, and only repeat what I +have heern say. But here we be at the cabin, Trackless; and I see by the +smoke that old Prudence and her gals has been actyve this morning, and +we shall get suthin' comfortable for the stomach." + +Hereupon, Mr. Thousandacres stopped at a convenient place by the side of +the stream, and commenced washing his face and hands; an operation that +was now performed for the first time that day. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + "He stepped before the monarch's chair, + And stood with rustic plainness there, + And little reverence made; + Nor head, nor body, bowed nor bent, + But on the desk his arm he leant, + And words like these he said."--_Marmion._ + + +While the squatter was thus occupied in arranging his toilet, previously +to taking his morning meal, I had a moment of leisure to look about in. +We had ascended to the level of the mill, where was an open, +half-cleared space, of some sixty acres in extent, that was under a rude +cultivation. Stubs and stumps abounded, and the fences were of logs, +showing that the occupancy was still of recent date. In fact, as I +afterward ascertained, Thousandacres, with his family of hopeful sons +and daughters, numbering in all more than twenty souls, had squatted at +that spot just four years before. The mill-seat was admirable, nature +having done for it nearly all that was required, though the mill itself +was as unartificial and makeshift as such a construction very well could +be. Agriculture evidently occupied very little of the time of the +family, which tilled just enough land "to make a live on't," while +everything in the shape of lumber was "improved" to the utmost. A vast +number of noble pines had been felled, and boards and shingles were to +be seen in profusion on every side. A few of the first were being sent +to market, in order to meet the demands of the moment, in the way of +groceries; but the intention was to wait for the rise of the little +stream, after the fall rains, in order to send the bulk of the property +into the common artery of the Hudson, and to reap the great reward of +the toil of the summer and spring. + +I saw, also, that there must be additions to this family, in the way of +marriage, as they occupied no less than five cabins, all of which were +of logs, freshly erected, and had an air of comfort and stability about +them, that one would not have expected to meet where the title was so +flimsy. All this, as I fancied, indicated a design not to remove very +soon. It was probable that some of the oldest of the sons and daughters +were married, and that the patriarch was already beholding a new +generation of squatters springing up about him. A few of the young men +were visible, lounging about the different cabins, and the mill was +sending forth that peculiar, cutting, grating sound, that had so +distinctly attracted the attention of Susquesus, even in the depth of +the forest. + +"Walk in, Trackless," cried Thousandacres, in a hearty, free manner, +which proved that what came easily went as freely; "walk in, fri'nd; I +don't know your name, but that's no great matter, where there's enough +for all, and a wilcome in the bargain. Here's the old woman, ready and +willing to sarve you, and looking as smiling as a gal of fifteen." + +The last part of the statement, however, was not precisely accurate. +"Miss Thousandacres," as the squatter sometimes magnificently called his +consort, or the dam of his young brood, was far from receiving us with +either smiles or welcomes. A sharp-featured, keen, gray-eyed, old woman, +her thoughts were chiefly bent on the cares of her brood; and her +charities extended little beyond them. She had been the mother of +fourteen children herself, twelve of which survived. All had been born +amid the difficulties, privations and solitudes of stolen abodes in the +wilderness. That woman had endured enough to break down the +constitutions and to destroy the tempers of half a dozen of the ordinary +beings of her sex; yet she survived, the same enduring, hard-working, +self-denying, suffering creature she had been from the day of her bloom +and beauty. These two last words might be supposed to be used in +mockery, could one have seen old Prudence, sallow, attenuated, with +sunken cheeks, hollow, lack-lustre eyes, and broken-mouthed, as I now +saw her; but there were the remains of great beauty, notwithstanding, +about the woman; and I afterward learned that she had once been among +the fairest of the fair, in her native mountains. In all the intercourse +I subsequently had with her family, the manner of this woman was +anxious, distrustful, watchful, and bore a strong resemblance to that of +the dam that is overseeing the welfare of her cubs. As to her welcome at +the board, it was neither hearty nor otherwise; it being so much a +matter of course for the American to share his meal with the stranger, +that little is said or thought of the boon. + +Notwithstanding the size of the family of Thousandacres, the cabin in +which he dwelt was not crowded. The younger children of the settlement, +ranging between the ages of four and twelve, appeared to be distributed +among all the habitations indifferently, putting into the dishes +wherever there was an opening, much as pigs thrust themselves in at any +opening at a trough. The business of eating commenced simultaneously +throughout the whole settlement, Prudence having blown a blast upon a +conch-shell, as the signal. I was too hungry to lose any time in +discourse, and set to, with the most hearty good-will, upon the coarse +fare, the moment there was an opportunity. My example was imitated by +all around our own particular board, it being the refined and +intellectual only, who habitually converse at their meals. The animal +had too great a preponderance among the squatters, to leave them an +exception to the rule. + +At length, the common hunger was appeased, and I could see that those +who sat around began to examine me with a little more curiosity than +they had previously manifested. There was nothing in the fashion of my +attire to excite suspicion, perhaps, though I did feel some little +concern on account of its quality. In that day, the social classes were +broadly distinguished by dress, no man even affecting to assume the +wardrobe of a gentleman, without having certain pretensions to the +character. In the woods, however, it was the custom to throw aside +everything like finery, and I wore the hunting-shirt already mentioned, +as my outer garment. The articles most likely to betray my station in +life were beneath this fortunate covering, and might escape observation. +Then our party was small, consisting, besides the parents and the two +guests, of only one young man, and one young woman, of about the ages of +two-and-twenty and sixteen, whom the mother addressed as Zephaniah and +Lowiny, the latter being one of the very common American corruptions of +some fine name taken from a book--Lavinia, quite likely.[14] These two +young persons deported themselves with great modesty at the table, old +Thousandacres and his wife, spite of their lawless lives, having +maintained a good deal of the ancient Puritan discipline among their +descendants, in relation to things of this nature. Indeed, I was struck +with the singular contrast between the habitual attention that was paid +by all in the settlement to certain appearances of the sort, and that +certainty which every one must have possessed that they were living +daily in the commission of offences opposed not only to the laws of the +land, but to the common, inherent convictions of right. In this +particular, they exhibited what is often found in life, the remains of +ancient habits and principles, existing in the shape of habits, long +after the substance that had produced them had disappeared. + +[Footnote 14: The commoner dialect of New England is as distinct from +the language of the rest of the republic, cases of New England descent +excepted, as those of many of the English counties are from that of +London. One of the peculiarities of the former, is to pronounce the +final of a word like y; calling America, Ameriky; Utica, Utiky; Ithaca, +Ithaky. Thus, Lavinia would be very apt to be pronounced Lavinny, +Lav_y_ny, or Lowiny. As there is a marked ambition for fine names, the +effect of these corruptions on a practised ear is somewhat ludicrous. +The rest of the nation is quite free from the peculiarity. Foreigners +often mistake New Englandisms for Americanisms; the energy, importance, +and prominency of the people of the former portion of the country, +giving them an influence that is disproportioned to their numbers.] + +"Have you asked these folks about Chainbearer?" said Prudence abruptly, +as soon as the knives and forks were laid down, and while we still +continued in our seats at the table. "I feel a consarn of mind, about +that man, that I never feel about any other." + +"Near fear Chainbearer, woman," answered the husband. "He's got his +summer's work afore him, without coming near us. By the last accounts, +this young Littlepage, that the old rogue of a father has sent into the +country, has got him out in his own settlement; where he'll be apt to +keep him, I calcerlate, till cold weather sets in. Let me once get off +all the lumber we've cut, and sell it, and I kear very little about +Chainbearer, or his master." + +"This is bold talk, Aaron; but jist remember how often we've squatted, +and how often we've been driven to move. I s'pose I'm talking afore +fri'nds, in sayin' what I do." + +"No fear of any here, wife. Trackless is an old acquaintance, and has as +little relish for law-titles, as any on us; and _his_ fri'nd is _our_ +fri'nd." I confess, that I felt a little uncomfortable, at this remark; +but the squatter going on with his conversation, there was no +opportunity for saying anything, had I been so disposed. "As for +moving," continued the husband, "I never mov'd, but twice, without +getting pay for my betterments. Now I call that a good business, for a +man who has squatted no less than seventeen times. If the worst comes to +the worst, we're young enough to make an eighteenth pitch. So that I +save the lumber, I keer but little for your Littlepages or Greatpages; +the mill is no great matter, without the gear; and that has travelled +all the way from Varmount, as it is, and is used to moving. It can go +farther." + +"Yes, but the lumber, Aaron! The water's low now, and you can never get +it to market, until the rivers rise, which mayn't be these three months. +Think how many days' labor that lumber has cost you, and all on us, and +what a sight of it there would be to lose!" + +"Yes, but we _wunt_ lose it, woman," answered Thousandacres, compressing +his lips, and clenching his hands, in a way to show how intensely he +felt on the subject of property himself, however dishonestly acquired. +"My sweat and labor be in them boards; and it's as good as sap, anyday. +What a man sweats for, he has a right to." + +This was somewhat loose morality, it is true, since a man might sweat in +bearing away his neighbor's goods; but a portion of the human race is a +good deal disposed to feel and reason on principles but little more +sound than this of old Thousandacres. + +"Wa-a-ll," answered the woman, "I'm sure I don't want to see you and the +b'ys lose the fruits of your labors; not I. You've honestly toiled and +wrought at 'em logs, in a way I never seed human beings outdo; and +'twould be hard," looking particularly at me, "now that they've cut the +trees, hauled 'em to mill, and sawed the boards, to see another man step +in and claim all the property. _That_ could never be right, but is ag'in +all justice, whether Varmount or York. I s'pose there's no great harm in +jist askin' what your name may be, young man?" + +"None in the world," I answered, with a self-command that I could see +delighted the Onondago. "My name is Mordaunt." + +"Mordaunt!" repeated the woman, quickly. "Don't we know suthin' of that +name?--Is that a fri'ndly name, to us Varmounters?--How is it, Aaron? +you ought to know." + +"No, I hadn't ought to, for I never heerd tell of any sich name afore. +So long as 'tisn't Littlepage, I kear nothin' about it." + +I felt relieved at this reply, for I will own, that the idea of falling +into the power of these lawless men was far from pleasant to me. From +Thousandacres, down to the lad of seventeen, they all stood six feet in +their stockings; and a stouter, more broad-shouldered, sinewy race, was +not often seen. The idea of resisting them by force, was out of the +question. I was entirely without arms; though the Indian was better +provided; but no less than four rifles were laid on brackets in this one +cabin; and I made no doubt that every male of the family had his own +particular weapon. The rifle was the first necessary of men of this +stamp, being as serviceable in procuring food as in protecting them from +their enemies. + +It was at this moment that Prudence drew a long sigh, and rose from +table in order to renew her domestic labors. Lowiny followed her motions +in submissive silence, and we men sauntered to the door of the cabin, +where I could get a new view of the nature of those "betterments" that +Thousandacres so highly prized, and of the extent of the depredations +that had been committed on Colonel Follock and my father. The last were +by no means insignificant; and, at a later day, they were estimated, by +competent judges, to amount to fully a thousand dollars in value. Of +course these were a thousand dollars totally lost, inasmuch as redress, +in a pecuniary sense, was entirely out of the question with men of the +stamp of Thousandacres and his sons. This class of persons are fond of +saying, "I'll guarantee," and "I'll bind myself" to do this or that; but +the guarantee and obligation are equally without value. In fact, those +who are the least responsible are usually the freest with such pledges. + +"This is a handsome spot," said Thousandacres, whose real name was Aaron +Timberman. "This is a handsome spot, Mr. Mordaunt, and one it would go +kind o' hard to give it up at the biddin' of a man who never laid eye +on't. Be you any way acquainted with law?" + +"A very little; no more than we all get to be as we move along through +life." + +"You've not travelled far on that journey, young man, as any one can see +by your face. But you've had opportunities, as a body can tell by your +speech, which isn't exactly like our'n, out here in the woods, from +which I had kind o' thought your schoolin' might be more than common. A +body can tell, though his own l'arnin amounts to no great matter." + +This notion of Aaron's, that my modes of speech, pronunciation, accent, +and utterance had come from the schools, was natural enough, perhaps; +though few persons ever acquire accuracy in either, except in the +familiar intercourse of their childhood. As for the "common schools" of +New York, they are perpetuating errors in these respects, rather than +correcting them; and one of the largest steps in their improvement would +be to have a care that he who teaches, teaches accurately as to +_sounds_, as well as to significations. Under the present system, +vicious habits are confirmed by deliberate instruction and example +rather than corrected. + +"My schooling," I answered modestly enough, I trust, "_has_ been a +little better than common, though it has not been good enough, as you +see, to keep me out of the woods." + +"All that may be inclination. Some folks have a nat'ral turn for the +wilderness, and it's workin' agin' the grain, and nearly useless, to try +to make settlement-bodies of 'em. D'ye happen to know what lumber is +likely to bring this fall?" + +"Everything is looking up since the peace, and it is fair to expect +lumber will begin to command a price, as well as other property." + +"Wa-a-l, it's time it should! During the whull war a board has been of +little more account than a strip of bark, unless it happened to be in +the neighborhood of an army. We lumbermen have had an awful time on it +these last eight years, and more than once I've felt tempted to gi'n in, +and go and settle down in some clearin', like quieter folks; but I +thought as the 'arth is to come to an eend, the war must certainly come +to an eend afore it." + +"The calculation was a pretty safe one; the war must have truly made a +dull time to you; nor do I see how you well got along during the period +it lasted." + +"Bad enough; though war-times has their windfalls as well as +peace-times. Once, the inimy seized a sight of continental stores, sich +as pork, and flour, and New England rum, and they pressed all the teams, +far and near, to carry off their plunder, and my sleigh and horses had +to go along with the rest on 'em. Waal, go we _did_; and I got as +handsome a load as ever you seed laid in a lumber-sleigh; what I call an +assortment, and one, too, that was mightily to my own likin', seein' I +loaded it up with my own hands. 'Twas in a woody country, as you may +spose, or I wouldn't have been there; and, as I know'd all the byroads, +I watched my chance, and got out of the line without being seen, and +druv' as straight to my own hum' as if I'd just come from tradin' in the +nearest settlement. That was the most profitablest journey I ever tuck, +and what is more, it was a short one." + +Here old Thousandacres stopped to laugh, which he did in as hearty, +frank a manner as if his conscience had never known care. This story, I +fancy, was a favorite one with him, for I heard no less than three other +allusions to the exploit on which it was based, during the short time +our communication with each other lasted. I observed the first smile I +had seen on the face of Zephaniah, appear at the recital of this +anecdote; though I had not failed to notice that the young man, as fine +a specimen of rustic, rude, manly proportions as one could wish to see, +had kept his eyes on me at every occasion, in a manner that excited some +uneasiness. + +"That was a fortunate service for you," I remarked, as soon as Aaron had +had his laugh; "unless, indeed, you felt the necessity of giving back +the property to the continental officers." + +"Not a bit of it! Congress was poor enough, I'm willin' to own, but it +was richer than I was, or ever will be. When property has changed hands +once, title goes with it; and some say that these very lands, coming +from the king, ought now to go to the people, jist as folks happen to +want 'em. There's reason and right, I'm sartain, in the idee, and I +shouldn't wonder if it held good in law, one day!" + +Alas! alas! for poor human nature again. Seldom does man commit a wrong +but he sets his ingenuity to work to frame excuses for it. When his mind +thus gets to be perverted by the influence of his passions, and more +especially by that of rapacity, he never fails to fancy new principles +to exist to favor his schemes, and manifests a readiness in inventing +them, which, enlisted on the side of goodness, might render him a +blessing instead of a curse to his race. But roguery is so active, while +virtue is so apt to be passive, that in the eternal conflict that is +waged between them, that which is gained by the truth and inherent power +of the last is, half the time, more than neutralized by the unwearied +exertions of the first! This, I fear, may be found to contain the weak +spot of our institutions. So long as law represents the authority of an +individual, individual pride and jealousy may stimulate it to constant +watchfulness; whereas, law representing the community, carries with it a +divided responsibility, that needs the excitement of intolerable abuses +ere it will arouse itself in its own vindication. The result is merely +another proof that, in the management of the ordinary affairs of life, +men are usually found to be stronger than principles. + +"Have you ever had occasion to try one of your titles of possession in a +court of law, against that of a landholder who got his right from a +grant?" I asked, after reflecting a moment on the truth I have just +narrated. + +Thousandacres shook his head, looked down a moment, and pondered a +little in his turn, ere he gave me the following answer: + +"Sartain," he said. "We all like to be on the right side, if we can; and +some of our folks kind o' persuaded me I might make out, once, ag'in a +reg'lar landlord. So I stood trial with him; but he beat me, Mr. +Mordaunt, just the same as if I had been a chicken, and he the hawk that +had me in his talons. You'll never catch me trusting myself in the claws +of the law ag'in, though that happened as long ago as afore the old +French war. I shall never trust to law any more. It may do for them +that's rich, and don't kear whether they win or lose; but law is a +desp'rate bad business for them that hasn't got money to go into it, +right eend foremost." + +"And should Mr. Littlepage discover your being here, and feel disposed +to come to some arrangement with you, what conditions would you be apt +to accept?" + +"Oh! I'm never ag'in trade. Trade's the spirit of life; and seein' that +Gin'ral Littlepage has _some_ right, as I do s'pose is the case, I +shouldn't want to be hard on him. If he would keep things quiet, and not +make a fuss about it, but would leave the matter out to men, and they +men of the right sort, I shouldn't be difficult; for I'm one of that +kind that hates lawsuits, and am always ready to do the right thing; and +so he'd find me as ready to settle as any man he ever had on his lands." + +"But on what terms? You have not told me the terms." + +"As to tarms, I'd not be hard, by any means. No man can say old +Thousandacres ever druv' hard tarms, when he had the best on't. That's +not in my natur', which runs altogether toward reason and what's right. +Now you see, Mordaunt, how matters stand atween this Littlepage and +myself. He's got a paper title, they tell me, and I've got possession, +which is always a squatter's claim; and a good one 'tis, where there's +plenty of pine and a mill-seat with a handy market!" + +Here Thousandacres stopped to laugh again, for he generally indulged in +this way, in so hearty and deep a tone, as to render it difficult to +laugh and talk in the same breath. As soon as through, however, he did +not forget to pursue the discourse. + +"No, no man that understands the woods will gainsay them advantages," +added the squatter; "and of all on 'em am I now in the enj'yment. +Wa-a-l, Gin'ral Littlepage, as they call him about here, has a paper +title; and I've got possession. He has the courts on his side, I'll +allow; but here are my betterments--sixty-three as large acres chopped +over and hauled to mill, as can be found in all Charlotte, or +Washington, as they tell me the county is now called." + +"But General Littlepage may not fancy it an improvement to have his land +stripped of its pine. You know, Thousandacres, as well as I do, that +pine is usually thought to greatly add to the value of lands hereabouts, +the Hudson making it so easy to get it to market." + +"Lord! youngster, do you think I hadn't all that in my mind, when I made +my pitch here? You can't teach old bones where it's best to strike the +first blow with an axe. Now I've got in the creek" (this word is used, +in the parlance of the state, for a small river, nine times in ten); +"now I've got in the creek, on the way to the Hudson, in the booms below +the mill, and in the mill-yard yonder, a hundred and twenty thousand +feet of as handsome stuff as ever was cribbed, or rafted; and there's +logs enough cut and hauled to make more than as much more. I some sort +o' think you know this Littlepage, by your talk; and, as I like fair +dealin's, and what's right atween man and man, I'll just tell you what +I'll do, so that you can tell him, if you ever meet, and the matter +should come up atween you, as sich things sometimes do, in all talk +like, though a body has no real consarn in the affair; and so you can +tell this gin'ral that old Thousandacres is a reasonable man, and is +willing to settle on these tarms; but he won't gi'n a grain more. If the +gin'ral will let me get all the lumber to market peaceably, and take off +the crops the b'ys have put in with their own hands, and carry off all +the mill-gear, and take down the doors and windows of the houses, and +all the iron-work a body can find about, I'm willing to agree to quit +'arly enough in the spring to let any man he chooses come into +possession in good season to get in spring grain, and make garden. There +them's my tarms, and I'll not abate on one on 'em, on no account at all. +But that much I'll do for peace; for I _do_ love peace and quiet, my +woman says, most desp'ately." + +I was about to answer this characteristic communication--perfectly +characteristic as to feelings, one-sided sense of right, principles, and +language--when Zephaniah, the tall son of the squatter, suddenly laid a +hand on his father's arm, and led him aside. This young man had been +examining my person, during the whole of the dialogue at the door of the +cabin, in a way that was a little marked. I was disposed at first to +attribute these attentions to the curiosity natural to youth, at its +first meeting with one who might be supposed to enjoy opportunities of +ascertaining the newest modes of dress and deportment. Rustics, in +America, ever manifest this feeling, and it was not unreasonable to +suppose that this young squatter might have felt its influence. But, as +it soon appeared, I had altogether mistaken my man. Although both he and +his sister, Lowiny, had never turned their eyes from my person, I soon +discovered that they had been governed by totally opposing feelings. + +The first intimation I got of the nature of the mistake into which I had +fallen, was from the manner of Thousandacres, as soon as his son had +spoken to him, apart, for a single minute. I observed that the old +squatter turned suddenly, and began to scrutinize my appearance with a +scowling, but sharp eye. Then he would give all his attention to his +son; after which, I came in for a new turn of examination. Of course, +such a scene could not last a great while, and I soon felt the relief of +being, again, face to face with the man whom I now set down for an +enemy. + +"Harkee, young man," resumed Thousandacres, as soon as he had returned +and placed himself directly before me, "my b'y, Zeph, there, has got a +suspicion consarning you, that must be cleared up, fairly atween us, +afore we part. I like fair dealin's, as I've told you more than once, +already, and despise underhandedness from the bottom of my heart. Zeph +tells me that he has a kind o' suspicion that you're the son of this +very Littlepage, and have been sent among us to spy us out, and to l'arn +how things stood, afore you let on your evil intentions. Is it so, or +not?" + +"What reason has Zeph for such a suspicion?" I answered, with such +coolness as I could assume. "He is a perfect stranger to me, and I fancy +this is the first time we have ever met." + +"He agrees to that, himself; but mankind can sometimes see things that +isn't put directly afore their eyes. My son goes and comes, frequently, +between the Ravensnest settlement and our own, though I don't suppose he +lets on any great deal about his proper hum'. He has worked as much as +two months, at a time, in that part of the country, and I find him +useful in carrying on a little trade, once and awhile, with 'Squire +Newcome." + +"You are acquainted, then, with Mr. Jason Newcome, or 'Squire Newcome, +as you call him?" + +"I call him what's right, I hope!" answered the old man sharply. "He +_is_ a 'squire, and should be called a 'squire. Give the devil his due; +that's my principle. But Zephaniah has been out a considerable spell +this summer to work at Ravensnest. I tell him he has a gal in his eye, +by his hankering so much after the 'Nest folks, but he won't own it; but +out he has been, and he tells me this Littlepage's son was expected to +come into the settlement about the time he last left there." + +"And you are acquainted with 'Squire Newcome?" I said, pursuing the +subject as its points presented themselves to my own mind, rather than +following the thread of the squatter's discursive manner of thinking; +"so well acquainted as to _trade_ with him?" + +"Sartain; _well_ acquainted, I may say. The 'Squire tuck (took) all the +lumber I cut 'arly in the spring, rafting and selling it on his own +account, paying us in groceries, women's cloth, and rum. He made a good +job of it, I hear tell, and is hankerin' round a'ter what is now in the +creek; but I rather think I'll send the b'ys off with that. But what's +that to the purpose? Didn't you tell me, young man, that your name is +Mordaunt?" + +"I did; and in so saying I told no more than the truth." + +"And what may you call your given name? A'ter all, old woman," turning +to the anxious wife and mother, who had drawn near to listen, having +most probably been made acquainted with the nature of her son's +suspicions--"a'ter all the b'y may be mistaken, and this young man as +innocent as any one of your own flesh and blood." + +"Mordaunt is what you call my 'given name,'" I answered, disdaining +deception, "and Littlepage----" The hand of the Indian was suddenly +placed on my mouth, stopping further utterance. + +It was too late, however, for the friendly design of the Onondago, the +squatters readily comprehending all I had intended to say. As for +Prudence, she walked away; and I soon heard her calling all her younger +children by name, to collect them near her person, as the hen gathers +its chickens beneath the wing. Thousandacres took the matter very +differently. His countenance grew dark, and he whispered a word to +Lowiny, who departed on some errand with reluctant steps, as I thought, +and eyes that did not always look in the direction she was walking. + +"I see how it is! I see how it is!" exclaimed the squatter, with as much +of suppressed indignation in his voice and mien as if his cause were +that of offended innocence; "we've got a spy among us, and war-time's +too fresh not to let us know how to deal with sich folks. Young man, +what's your arr'nd down here, in my betterments, and beneath my ruff?" + +"My errand, as you call it, Thousandacres, is to look after the property +that is intrusted to my care. I am the son of General Littlepage, one of +the owners of this spot, and the attorney of both." + +"Oh! an _attorney_, be you?" cried the squatter, mistaking the attorney +in fact for an attorney at law--a sort of being for whom he necessarily +entertained a professional antipathy. "I'll attorney ye! If you or your +gin'ral father thinks that Aaron Thousandacres is a man to have his +territories invaded by the inimy, and keep his hands in his pockets the +whull time, he's mistaken. Send 'em along, Lowiny, send along the b'ys, +and let's see if we can't find lodgin's for this young attorney gin'ral, +as well as board." + +There was no mistaking the aspect of things now. Hostilities had +commenced in a certain sense, and it became incumbent on me for the sake +of safety to be on the alert. I knew that the Indian was armed; and, +determined to defend my person if possible, I was resolved to avail +myself of the use of his weapon should it become necessary. Stretching +out an arm, and turning to the spot where Susquesus had just stood, to +lay hold of his rifle, I discovered that he had disappeared. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + "The lawless herd, with fury blind, + Have done him cruel wrong; + The flowers are gone, but still we find, + The honey on his tongue."--COWPER. + + +There I stood alone and unarmed, in the centre of six athletic men--for +Lowiny had been sent to assemble her brothers, a business in which she +was aided by Prudence's blowing a peculiar sort of blast on her +conch--and as unable to resist as a child would have been in the hands +of its parent. As a fruitless scuffle would have been degrading, as well +as useless, I at once determined to submit, temporarily at least, or so +long as submission did not infer disgrace, and was better than +resistance. There did not seem to be any immediate disposition to lay +violent hands on me, however, and there I stood, a minute or two, after +I had missed Sureflint, surrounded by the whole brood of the squatter, +young and old, male and female; some looking defiance, others troubled, +and all anxious. As for myself, I will frankly own my sensations were +far from pleasant; for I knew I was in the hands of the Philistines, in +the depths of a forest, fully twenty miles from any settlement, and with +no friends nearer than the party of the Chainbearer, who was at least +two leagues distant, and altogether ignorant of my position as well as +of my necessities. A ray of hope, however, gleamed in upon me through +the probable agency of the Onondago. + +Not for an instant did I imagine that long-known and well-tried friend +of my father and the Chainbearer false. His character was too well +established for that; and it soon occurred to me, that, foreseeing his +own probable detention should he remain, he had vanished with a design +to let the strait in which I was placed be known, and to lead a party to +my rescue. A similar idea probably struck Thousandacres almost at the +same instant; for, glancing his eye around him, he suddenly demanded-- + +"What has become of the redskin? The varmint has dodged away, as I'm an +honest man! Nathaniel, Moses, and Daniel, to your rifles and on the +trail. Bring the fellow in, if you can, with a whull skin; but if you +can't, an Injin more or less will never be heeded in the woods." + +I soon had occasion to note that the patriarchal government of +Thousandacres was of a somewhat decided and prompt character. A few +words went a great way in it, as was now apparent; for in less than two +minutes after Aaron had issued his decree, those namesakes of the +prophets and law-givers of old, Nathaniel, and Moses, and Daniel, were +quitting the clearing on diverging lines, each carrying a formidable, +long, American hunting-rifle in his hand. This weapon, so different in +the degree of its power from the short military piece that has become +known to modern warfare, was certainly in dangerous hands; for each of +those young men had been familiar with his rifle from boyhood; gunpowder +and liquor, with a little lead, composing nearly all the articles on +which they lavished money for their amusement. I trembled for Susquesus; +though I knew he must anticipate a pursuit, and was so well skilled in +throwing off a chase as to have obtained the name of the Trackless. +Still, the odds were against him; and experience has shown that the +white man usually surpasses the Indian even in his own peculiar +practices, when there have been opportunities to be taught. I could do +no more, however, than utter a mental prayer for the escape of my +friend. + +"Bring that chap in here," added old Thousandacres, sternly, the moment +he saw that his three sons were off; enough remaining to enforce that or +any other order he might choose to issue. "Bring him into this room, and +let us hold a court on him, sin' he is sich a lover of the law. If law +he likes, law let him have. An attorney, is he? I warnt to know! What +has an attorney to do with me and mine, out here in the woods?" + +While this was in the course of being said, the squatter, and father of +squatters, led the way into his own cabin, where he seated himself with +an air of authority, causing the females and younger males of his brood +to range themselves in a circle behind his chair. Seeing the folly of +resistance, at a hint from Zephaniah I followed, the three young men +occupying the place near the door, as a species of guard. In this manner +we formed a sort of court, in which the old fellow figured as the +investigating magistrate, and I figured as the criminal. + +"An attorney, be you!" muttered Thousandacres, whose ire against me in +my supposed, would seem to be more excited than it was against me in my +real character, "B'ys, silence in the court; we'll give this chap as +much law as he can stagger under, sin' he's of a law natur'. Everything +shall be done accordin' to rule. Tobit," addressing his oldest son, a +colossal figure of about six-and-twenty, "you've been in the law more +than any on us, and can give us the word. What was't they did with you, +first, when they had you up in Hampshire colony; the time when you and +that other young man went across from the Varmount settlements to look +for sheep? A raft of the critturs you did get atween you, though you +_was_ waylaid and robbed of all your hard 'arnin's afore you got back +ag'in in the mountains. They dealt with you accordin' to law, 'twas +said; now, what was the first thing done?" + +"I was tuck [taken] afore the 'squire," answered Tobit Thousandacres, as +he was often called, "who heerd the case, asked me what I had to say for +myself, and then permitted me, as it was tarmed; so I went to jail until +the trial came on, and I s'pose you know what come next, as well as I +do." + +I took it for granted that what "come next" was anything but pleasant in +remembrance, the reason Tobit did not relish it even in description, +inasmuch as sheep-stealers were very apt to get "forty save one" at the +whipping-post, in that day, a species of punishment that was admirably +adapted to the particular offence. We are getting among us a set of +_soi-disant_ philanthropists, who, in their great desire to coddle and +reform rogues, are fast placing the punishment of offences on the honest +portion of the community, for the especial benefit of their _eleves_. +Some of these persons have already succeeded in cutting down all our +whipping-posts, thereby destroying the cheapest and best mode of +punishing a particular class of crimes that was ever intended or +practised. A generation hence our children will feel the consequences of +this mistaken philanthropy. In that day, let those who own fowl-houses, +pig-pens, orchards, smoke-houses, and other similar temptations to small +depredations, look to it, for I am greatly mistaken if the insecurity of +their movables does not give the most unanswerable of all commentaries +on this capital misstep. One whipping-post, discreetly used, will do +more toward reforming a neighborhood than a hundred jails, with their +twenty and thirty days' imprisonment.[15] I have as much disposition to +care for the reformation of criminals as is healthful, if I know myself; +but the great object of all the punishments of society, viz., its own +security, ought never to be sacrificed to this, which is but a secondary +consideration. Render character, person and property as secure as +possible, in the first place, after which, try as many experiments in +philanthropy as you please. + +[Footnote 15: Mr. Mordaunt Littlepage writes here with prophetic +accuracy. Small depredations of this nature _have_ got to be so very +common that few now think of resorting to the law for redress. Instead +of furnishing the prompt and useful punishment that was administered by +our fathers, the law is as much adorned with its cavillings and delays +in the minor as in the more important cases; and it often takes years to +bring a small depredator even to trial, if he can find money to fee a +sagacious lawyer.--EDITOR.] + +I am sorry to see how far the disposition to economize is extending +itself in the administration of American justice generally. Under a +government like that of this country, it is worse than idle, for it is +perfectly futile to attempt to gratify the imagination by a display of +its power through the agency of pomp and representation. Such things, +doubtless, have their uses, and are not to be senselessly condemned +until one has had an opportunity of taking near views of their effects; +though useful, or the reverse, they can never succeed here. But these +communities of ours have it in their power to furnish to the world a far +more illustrious example of human prescience, and benevolent care, by +their prompt, exact, and well-considered administration of +justice--including the cases both in the civil and the criminal courts. +With what pride might not the American retort, when derided for the +simplicity of his executive, and the smallness of the national +expenditure in matters of mere representation, could he only say--"True, +we waste nothing on mere parade; but, turn to the courts, and to the +justice of the country; which, after all, are the great aim of every +good government. Look at the liberality of our expenditures for the +command of the highest talent, in the first place; see with what +generous care we furnish judges in abundance, to prevent them from being +overworked, and to avoid ruinous delays to suitors; then turn to the +criminal courts, and into, first, the entire justice of the laws; next, +the care had in the selection of jurors; the thorough impartiality of +all the proceedings; and, finally, when the right demands it, the +prompt, unerring, and almost terrific majesty of punishment." But to +return to something that is a good deal more like truth:-- + +"Yes, yes," rejoined Thousandacres, "there is no use in riling the +feelin's, by talking of _that_" (meaning Tobit's sufferings, not at the +_stake_, but at the _post_)--"a hint's as good as a description. You was +taken afore a magistrate, was you--and he permitted you to prison--but +he asked what you had to say for yourself, first? That was only fair, +and I mean to act it all out here, accordin' to law. Come, young +attorney, what have _you_ got to say for yourself?" + +It struck me that, alone as I was, in the hands of men who were a +species of outlaws, it might be well to clear myself from every +imputation that, at least, was not merited. + +"In the first place," I answered, "I will explain a mistake into which +you have fallen, Thousandacres; for, let us live as friends or foes, it +is always best to understand facts. I am not an attorney, in the sense +you imagine--I am not a lawyer." + +I could see that the whole brood of squatters, Prudence included, was a +good deal mollified by this declaration. As for Lowiny, her handsome, +ruddy face actually expressed exultation and delight! I thought I heard +that girl half suppress some such exclamation as--"I know'd he +wasn't no lawyer!" As for Tobit, the scowling look, replete with +cat-o'-nine-tails, actually departed, temporarily at least. In short, +this announcement produced a manifest change for the better. + +"No lawyer a'ter all!" exclaimed Thousandacres--"Didn't you say you was +an attorney?" + +"That much is true. I told you that I was the son of General Littlepage, +and that I was _his_ attorney, and that of Colonel Follock, the other +tenant in common of this estate; meaning that I held their _power of +attorney_ to convey lands, and to transact certain other business in +their names." + +This caused me to lose almost as much ground as I had just gained, +though, being the literal truth, I was resolved neither to conceal, nor +to attempt to evade it. + +"Good land!" murmured Lowiny. "Why couldn't the man say nothin' about +all that?" + +A reproving look from Prudence, rebuked the girl, and she remained +silent afterward, for sometime. + +"A _power_ of attorney, is it!" rejoined the squatter. "Wa-a-l, that's +not much better than being a downright lawyer. It's having the power of +an attorney, I s'pose, and without their accursed power it's little I +should kear for any of the breed. Then you're the son of that Gin'ral +Littlepage, which is next thing to being the man himself. I should +expect if Tobit, my oldest b'y, was to fall into the hands of some that +might be named, it would go hard with him, all the same as if t'was +myself. I know that some make a difference atween parents and children, +but other some doesn't. What's that you said about this gin'ral's only +being a common tenant of this land? How dares he to call himself it's +owner, if he's only a common tenant?" + +The reader is not to be surprised at Thousandacre's trifling blunders of +this sort; for, those whose rule of right is present interest, +frequently, in the eagerness of rapacity, fall into this very kind of +error; holding that cheap at one moment, which they affect to deem +sacred at the next. I dare say, if the old squatter had held a lease of +the spot he occupied, he would at once have viewed the character and +rights of a "common tenant," as connected with two of the most important +interests of the country. It happened now, however, that it was "his +bull that was goring our ox." + +"How dares he to call himself the owner of the sile, when he's only a +common tenant, I say?" repeated Thousandacres, with increasing energy, +when he found I did not answer immediately. + +"You have misunderstood my meaning. I did not say that my father was +only a 'common tenant' of this property, but that he and Colonel Follock +own it absolutely in common, each having his right in every acre, and +not one owning one half while the other owns the other; which is what +the law terms being 'tenants in common,' though strictly owners in fee." + +"I shouldn't wonder, Tobit, if he turns out to be an attorney, in our +meaning, a'ter all!" + +"It looks desp'rately like it, father," answered the eldest born, who +might have been well termed the heir at law of all his progenitor's +squatting and fierce propensities. "If he isn't a downright lawyer, he +_looks_ more like one than any man I ever seed out of court, in my whull +life." + +"He'll find his match! Law and I have been at loggerheads ever sin' the +day I first went into Varmount, or them plaguy Hampshire Grants. When +law gets me in its clutches, it's no wonder if it gets the best on't; +but, when I get law in mine, or one of its sarvants, it shall be my +fault if law doesn't come out second best. Wa-a-l, we've heerd the young +man's story, Tobit. I've asked him what he had to say for himself, and +he has g'in us his tell--tell'd us how he's his own father's son, and +that the gin'ral is some sort of a big tenant, instead of being a +landlord, and isn't much better than we are ourselves; and it's high +time I permitted him to custody. _You_ had writin's for what they did to +you, I dares to say, Tobit?" + +"Sartain. The magistrate give the sheriff's deputy a permittimus, and on +the strength of that, they permitted me to jail." + +"Ye-e-es--I know all about their niceties and appearances! I have had +dealin's afore many a magistrate, in my day, and have onsuited many a +chap that thought to get the best on't afore we begun! Onsuiting the man +that brings the suit, is the cleanest way of getting out of the law, as +I knows on; but it takes a desp'rate long head sometimes to do it! Afore +I permit this young man, I'll show writin's, too. Prudence, just onlock +the drawer----" + +"I wish to correct one mistake before you proceed further," interrupted +I. "For the second time, I tell you I am no lawyer, in any sense of the +word. I am a soldier--have commanded a company in General Littlepage's +own regiment, and served with the army when only a boy in years. I saw +both Burgoyne and Cornwallis surrender, and their troops lay down their +arms." + +"Good now! Who'd ha' thought it!" exclaimed the compassionate Lowiny. +"And he so young, that you'd hardly think the wind had ever blown on +him!" + +My announcement of this new character was not without a marked effect. +Fighting was a thing to the whole family's taste, and what they could +appreciate better, perhaps, than any other act or deed. There was +something warlike in Thousandacres' very countenance and air, and I was +not mistaken in supposing he might feel some little sympathy for a +soldier. He eyed me keenly; and whether or not he discovered signs of +the truth of my assertion in my mien, I saw that he once more relented +in purpose. + +"You out ag'in Burg'yne!" the old fellow exclaimed. "Can I believe what +you say? Why, I was out ag'in Burg'yne myself, with Tobit and Moses, and +Nathaniel and Jedediah--with every male crittur' of the family, in +short, that was big enough to load and fire. I count them days as among +my very best, though they did come late, and a'ter old age had made some +head ag'in me. How can you prove you was out ag'in Burg'yne and +Cornwallis?" + +I knew that there was often a strange medley of _soi-disant_ patriotic +feeling mixed up with the most confirmed knavery in ordinary matters, +and saw I had touched a chord that might thrill on the sympathies of +even these rude and supremely selfish beings. The patriotism of such +men, indeed, is nothing but an enlargement of selfishness, since they +prize things because they belong to themselves, or they, in one sense, +belong to the things. They take sides with themselves, but never with +principles. That patriotism alone is pure, which would keep the country +in the paths of truth, honor, and justice; and no man is empowered, in +his zeal for his particular nation, any more than in his zeal, for +himself, to forget the law of right. + +"I cannot prove I was out against Burgoyne, standing here where I am, +certainly," I answered; "but give me an opportunity, and I will show it +to your entire satisfaction." + +"Which rijiment was on the right, Hazen's or Brookes's, in storming the +Jarmans? Tell me _that_, and I will soon let you know whether I believe +you or not." + +"I cannot tell you that fact, for I was with my own battalion, and the +smoke would not permit such a thing to be seen. I do not know that +either of the corps you mention was in that particular part of the field +that day, though I believe both to have been warmly engaged." + +"He warnt there," drawled out Tobit, in his most dissatisfied manner, +almost showing his teeth, like a dog, under the impulse of the hatred he +felt. + +"He _was_ there!" cried Lowiny, positively; "I _know_ he was there!" + +A slap from Prudence taught the girl the merit of silence; but the men +were too much interested to heed an interruption as characteristic and +as bootless as this. + +"I see how it is," added Thousandacres; "I must permit the chap a'ter +all. Seein', however, that there _is_ a chance of his having been out +ag'in Burg'yne, I'll permit him _without_ writin's, and he shan't be +bound. Tobit, take your prisoner away, and shut him up in the store'us'. +When your brothers get back from their hunt a'ter the Injin, we'll +detarmine among us what is to be done with him." + +Thousandacres delivered his orders with dignity, and they were obeyed to +the letter. I made no resistance, since it would only have led to a +scuffle, in which I should have sustained the indignity of defeat, to +say nothing of personal injuries. Tobit, however, did not offer personal +violence, contenting himself with making a sign for me to follow him, +which I did, followed in turn by his two double-jointed brothers. I will +acknowledge that, as we proceeded toward my prison, the thought of +flight crossed my mind; and I might have attempted it, but for the +perfect certainty that, with so many on my heels, I must have been +overtaken, when severe punishment would probably have been my lot. On +the whole, I thought it best to submit for a time, and trust the future +to Providence. As to remonstrance or deprecation, pride forbade my +having recourse to either. I was not yet reduced so low as to solicit +favors from a squatter. + +The jail to which I was "permitted" by Thousandacres was a storehouse, +or, as he pronounced the word, a "store'us," of logs, which had been +made of sufficient strength to resist depredations, let them come from +whom they might, and they were quite as likely to come from some within +as from any without. In consequence of its destination, the building was +not ill-suited to become a jail. The logs, of course, gave a sufficient +security against the attempts of a prisoner without tools or implements +of any sort, the roof being made of the same materials as the sides. +There was no window, abundance of air and light entering through the +fissures of the rough logs, which had open intervals between them; and +the only artificial aperture was the door. This last was made of stout +planks, and was well secured by heavy hinges, and strong bolts and +locks. The building was of some size, too--twenty feet in length at +least--one end of it, though then quite empty, having been intended and +used as a crib for the grain that we Americans call, _par excellence_, +corn. Into this building I entered, after having the large knife that +most woodsmen carry taken from my pocket; and a search was made on my +person for any similar implement that might aid me in an attempt to +escape. + +In that day America had no paper money, from the bay of Hudson to Cape +Horn. Gold and silver formed the currency, and my pockets had a liberal +supply of both, in the shape of joes and half-joes, dollars, halves, and +quarters. Not a piece of coin, of any sort, was molested, however, these +squatters not being robbers, in the ordinary signification of the term, +but merely deluded citizens who appropriated the property of others to +their own use, agreeably to certain great principles of morals that had +grown up under their own peculiar relations to the rest of mankind, +their immediate necessities and their convenience. I make no doubt that +every member of the family of Thousandacres would spurn the idea of his +or her being a vulgar thief, drawing some such distinctions in the +premises as the Drakes, Morgans, Woodes, Rogers, and others of that +school drew between themselves and the vulgar every day sea-robbers of +the seventeenth century, though with far less reason. But robbers these +squatters were not, except in one mode and that mode they almost raised +to the dignity of respectable hostilities, by the scale on which they +transacted business. + +I was no sooner "locked-up" than I began a survey of my prison and the +surrounding objects. There was no difficulty in doing either, the +opening between the logs allowing of a clear reconnoissance on every +side. With a view to keeping its contents in open sight, I fancy, the +"store'us" was placed in the very centre of the settlement, having the +mills, cabins, barns, sheds, and other houses, encircling it in a sort +of hamlet. This circumstance, which would render escape doubly +difficult, was, notwithstanding, greatly in favor of reconnoitring. I +will now describe the results of my observations. As a matter of course, +my appearance, the announcement of my character, and my subsequent +arrest, were circumstances likely to produce a sensation in the family +of the squatter. All the women had gathered around Prudence, near the +door of her cabin, and the younger girls were attracted to that spot, as +the particles of matter are known to obey the laws of affinity. The +males, one boy of eight or ten years excepted, were collected near the +mill, where Thousandacres, apparently, was holding a consultation with +Tobit and the rest of the brotherhood, among whom, I fancy, was no one +entitled to be termed an angel. Everybody seemed to be intently +listening to the different speakers, the females often turning their +eyes toward their male protectors, anxiously and with long protracted +gazes. Indeed, many of them looked in that direction, even while they +gave ear to the wisdom of Prudence herself. + +The excepted boy had laid himself, in a lounging, American sort of an +attitude, on a saw-log near my prison, and in a position that enabled +him to see both sides of it, without changing his ground. By the manner +in which his eyes were fastened on the "store'us" I was soon satisfied +that he was acting in the character of a sentinel. Thus, my jail was +certainly sufficiently secure, as the force of no man, unaided and +without implements, could have broken a passage through the logs. + +Having thus taken a look at the general aspect of things, I had leisure +to reflect on my situation, and the probable consequences of my arrest. +For my life I had no great apprehensions, not as much as I ought to have +had under the circumstances; but it did not strike me that I was in any +great danger on that score. The American character, in general, is not +blood-thirsty, and that of New England less so, perhaps, than that of +the rest of the country. Nevertheless, in a case of property the +tenacity of the men of that quarter of the country was proverbial, and I +came to the conclusion that I should be detained, if possible, until all +the lumber could be got to market and disposed of, as the only means of +reaping the fruit of past labor. The possibility depended on the escape +or the arrest of Sureflint. Should that Indian be taken, Thousandacres +and his family would be as secure as ever in their wilderness; but on +the other hand, should he escape, I might expect to hear from my friends +in the course of the day. By resorting to a requisition on 'Squire +Newcome, who was a magistrate, my tenants might be expected to make an +effort in my behalf, when the only grounds of apprehension would be the +consequences of the struggle. The squatters were sometimes dangerous +under excitement, and when sustaining each other, with arms in their +hands, in what they fancy to be their hard-earned privileges. There is +no end to the delusions of men on such subjects, self-interest seeming +completely to blind their sense of right; and I have often met with +cases in which parties who were trespassers, and in a moral view, +robbers, _ab origine_, have got really to fancy that their subsequent +labors (every new blow of the axe being an additional wrong) gave a sort +of sanctity to possessions, in the defence of which they were willing to +die. It is scarcely necessary to say that such persons look only at +themselves, entirely disregarding the rights of others; but one wonders +where the fruits of all the religious instruction of the country are to +be found, when opinions so loose and acts so flagrant are constantly +occurring among us. The fact is, land is so abundant, and such vast +bodies lie neglected and seemingly forgotten by their owners, that the +needy are apt to think indifference authorizes invasions on such +unoccupied property; and their own labor once applied, they are quick to +imagine that it gives them a moral and legal interest in the soil; +though in the eye of the law, and of unbiased reason, each new step +taken in what is called the improvement of a "betterment" is but a +farther advance in the direction of wrong-doing. + +I was reflecting on things of this sort, when, looking through the +cracks of my prison, to ascertain the state of matters without, I was +surprised by the appearance of a man on horseback, who was entering the +clearing on its eastern side, seemingly quite at home in his course, +though he was travelling without a foot-path to aid him. As this man had +a pair of the common saddle-bags of the day on his horse, I at first +took him for one of those practitioners of the healing art who are +constantly met with in the new settlements, winding their way through +stumps, logs, morasses and forests, the ministers of good or evil, I +shall not pretend to say which. Ordinarily, families like that of +Thousandacres do their own "doctoring"; but a case might occur that +demanded the wisdom of the licensed leech; and I had just decided in my +own mind that this must be one, when, as the stranger drew nearer, to my +surprise I saw that it was no other than my late agent, Mr. Jason +Newcome, and the moral and physical factotum of Ravensnest! + +As the distance between the mill that 'Squire Newcome leased of me, and +that which Thousandacres had set up on the property of Mooseridge, could +not be less than five-and-twenty miles, the arrival of this visitor at +an hour so early was a certain proof that he had left his own house long +before the dawn. It was probably convenient to pass through the farms +and dwellings of Ravensnest on the errand on which he was now bent, at +an hour of the night or morning when darkness would conceal the +movement. By timing his departure with the same judgment, it was obvious +he could reach home under the concealment of the other end of the same +mantle. In a word, this visit was evidently one, in the objects and +incidents of which it was intended that the world at large should have +no share. + +The dialogues between the members of the family of Thousandacres ceased, +the moment 'Squire Newcome came in view; though, as was apparent by the +unmoved manner in which his approach was witnessed, the sudden +appearance of this particular visitor produced neither surprise nor +uneasiness. Although it must have been a thing to be desired by the +squatters, to keep their "location" a secret, more especially since the +peace left landlords at leisure to look after their lands, no one +manifested any concern at discovering this arrival in their clearing of +the nearest magistrate. Any one might see, by the manner of men, women, +and children, that 'Squire Newcome was no stranger, and that his +presence gave them no alarm. Even the early hour of his visit was most +probably that to which they were accustomed, the quick-witted intellects +of the young fry causing them to understand the reason quite as readily +as was the case with their seniors. In a word, the guest was regarded as +a friend rather than as an enemy. + +Newcome was some little time, after he came into view, in reaching the +hamlet, if the cluster of buildings can be so termed; and when he did +alight, it was before the door of a stable, toward which one of the boys +now scampered, to be in readiness to receive his horse. The beast +disposed of, the 'squire advanced to the spot where Thousandacres and +his elder sons still remained to receive him, or that near the mill. The +manner in which all parties shook hands, and the cordiality of the +salutations generally, in which Prudence and her daughters soon shared, +betokened something more than amity, I fancied, for it looked very much +like intimacy. + +Jason Newcome remained in the family group some eight or ten minutes, +and I could almost fancy the prescribed inquiries about the "folks" +(_anglice_, folk), the "general state of health," and the character of +the "times," ere the magistrate and the squatter separated themselves +from the rest of the party, walking aside like men who had matters of +moment to discuss, and that under circumstances which could dispense +with the presence of any listeners. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + "Peculiar both! + Our soil's strong growth + And our bold natives' hardy mind; + Sure heaven bespoke + Our hearts and oak + To give a master to mankind."--YOUNG. + + +Thousandacres and the magistrate held their way directly toward the +storehouse; and the log of the sentinel offering a comfortable seat, +that functionary was dismissed, when the two worthies took his place, +with their backs turned toward my prison. Whether this disposition of +their persons was owing to a deep-laid plan of the squatter's, or not, I +never knew; but, let the cause have been what it might, the effect was +to render me an auditor of nearly all that passed in the dialogue which +succeeded. It will greatly aid the reader in understanding the incidents +about to be recorded, if I spread on the record the language that passed +between my late agent and one who was obviously his confidant in certain +matters, if not in all that touched my interests in that quarter of the +world. As for listening, I have no hesitation in avowing it, inasmuch as +the circumstances would have justified me in taking far greater +liberties with the customary obligations of society in its every-day +aspect, had I seen fit so to do. I was dealing with rogues, who had me +in their power, and there was no obligation to be particularly +scrupulous on the score of mere conventional propriety, at least. + +"As I was tellin' ye, Thousandacres," Newcome continued the discourse by +saying, and that with the familiarity of one who well knew his +companion, "the young man is in this part of the country, and somewhere +quite near you at this moment"--I was much _nearer_ than the 'squire +himself had any notion of at that instant--"yes, he's out in the woods +of this very property, with Chainbearer and his gang; and, for 'tinow +[for aught I know], measuring out farms within a mile or two of this +very spot!" + +"How many men be there?" asked the squatter with interest. "If no more +than the usual set, 'twill be an onlucky day for _them_, should they +stumble on my clearin'!" + +"Perhaps they will, perhaps they wunt; a body never knows. Surveyin' 's +a sort o' work that leads a man here, or it leads him there. One never +knows where a line will carry him, in the woods. That's the reason I've +kept the crittur's out of my own timber-land; for, to speak to you, +Thousandacres, as one neighbor _can_ speak to another without risk, +there's desp'rate large pine-trees on the unleased hills both north and +east of my lot. Sometimes it's handy to have lines about a mill, you +know, sometimes 't isn't." + +"A curse on all lines, in a free country, say I, 'squire," answered +Thousandacres, who looked, as he bestowed this characteristic +benediction, as if he might better be named _Ten_thousandacres; "they're +an invention of the devil. I lived seven whull years in Varmount state, +as it's now called, the old Hampshire Grants, you know, next-door +neighbor to two families, one north and one south on me, and we chopped +away the whull time, just as freely as we pleased, and not a cross word +or an angry look passed atween us." + +"I rather conclude, friend Aaron, you had all sat down under the same +title?" put in the magistrate with a sly look at his companion. "When +_that_ is the case, it would exceed all reason to quarrel." + +"Why, I'll own that our titles were pretty much the same;--possession +and free axes. Then it was ag'in York colony landholders that our time +was running. What's your candid opinion about law, on this p'int, +'Squire Newcome?--I know you're a man of edication, college l'arnt some +say; though, I s'pose, that's no better l'arnin' than any other, when a +body has once got it--but what's your opinion about possession?--Will it +hold good for twenty-one years, without writin's, or not? Some say it +will, and some say it wunt." + +"It wunt. The law is settled; there must be a shadow of title, or +possession's good for nothin'; no better than the scrapin's of a +flour-barrel." + +"I've heer'n say the opposyte of that; and there's reason why possession +should count ag'in everything. By possession, however, I don't mean +hangin' up a pair of saddle-bags on a tree, as is sometimes done, but +goin' honestly and fairly in upon land, and cuttin' down trees, and +buildin' mills, and housen and barns, and cuttin' and slashin', and +sawin' right and left, like all creation. _That's_ what I always doos +myself, and that's what I call sich a possession as ought to stand in +law--ay, and in gospel, too; for I'm not one of them that flies in the +face of religion." + +"In that you're quite right; keep the gospel on your side whatever you +do, neighbor Thousandacres. Our Puritan fathers didn't cross the ocean, +and encounter the horrors of the wilderness, and step on the rock of +Plymouth, and undergo more than man could possibly bear, and that all +for nothin'!" + +"Wa-a-l, to my notion, the 'horrors of the wilderness,' as you call 'em, +is no great matter; though, as for crossin' the ocean, I can easily +imagine that must be suthin' to try a man's patience and endurance. I +never could take to the water. They tell me there isn't a single tree +growin' the whull distance atween Ameriky and England! Floatin' saw-logs +be sometimes met with, I've heer'n say, but not a standin' crittur' of a +tree from Massachusetts Bay to London town!" + +"It's all water, and of course trees be scarce, Thousandacres; but let's +come a little clusser to the p'int. As I was tellin' you, the whelp is +in, and he'll growl as loud as the old bear himself, should he hear of +all them boards you've got in the creek--to say nothin' of the piles up +here that you haven't begun to put into the water." + +"Let him growl," returned the old squatter, glancing surlily toward my +prison; "like a good many other crittur's that I've met with, 'twill +turn out that his bark is worse than his bite." + +"I don't know that, neighbor Thousandacres, I don't by any means know +that. Major Littlepage is a gentleman of spirit and decision, as is to +be seen by his having taken his agency from me, who have held it so +long, and gi'n it to a young chap who has no other claim than bein' a +tolerable surveyor; but who hasn't been in the settlement more than a +twelvemonth." + +"Gi'n it to a surveyer! Is he one of Chainbearer's measurin' devils?" + +"Just so; 'tis the very young fellow Chainbearer has had with him this +year or so, runnin' lines an' measurin' land on this very property." + +"That old fellow, Chainbearer, had best look to himself! He's thwarted +me now three times in the course of his life, and he's gettin' to be +desp'rate old; I'm afeard he won't live long!" + +I could now see that Squire Newcome felt uneasy. Although a colleague of +the squatter's in what is only too apt to be considered a venal roguery +in a new country, or in the stealing of timber, it did not at all +comport with the scale of his rascality to menace a man's life. He would +connive at stealing timber by purchasing the lumber at sufficiently low +prices, so long as the danger of being detected was kept within +reasonable limits, but he did not like to be connected with any +transaction that did not, in the case of necessity, admit of a tolerably +safe retreat from all pains and penalties. Men become very much +what--not their laws--but what the _administration_ of their laws makes +them. In countries in which it is prompt, sure, and sufficiently severe, +crimes are mainly the fruits of temptation and necessity; but a state of +society may exist, in which justice falls into contempt, by her own +impotency, and men are led to offend merely to brave her. Thus we have +long labored under the great disadvantage of living under laws that, in +a great degree, were framed for another set of circumstances. By the +common law, it was only trespass to cut down a tree in England; for +_trees_ were seldom or never stolen, and the law did not wish to annex +the penalties of felony to the simple offence of cutting a twig in a +wood. With us, however, entire new classes of offences have sprung up +under our own novel circumstances; and we probably owe a portion of the +vast amount of timber-stealing that has now long existed among us, quite +as much to the mistaken lenity of the laws, as to the fact that this +particular description of property is so much exposed. Many a man would +commit a trespass of the gravest sort, who would shrink from the +commission of a felony of the lowest. Such was the case with Newcome. He +had a certain sort of law-honesty about him, that enabled him in a +degree to preserve appearances. It is true he connived at the unlawful +cutting of timber by purchasing the sawed lumber, but he took good care, +at the same time, not to have any such direct connection with the +strictly illegal part of the transaction as to involve him in the +penalties of the law. Had timber-stealing been felony, he would have +often been an accessory before the act; but in a case of misdemeanor, +the law knows no such offence. Purchasing the sawed lumber, too, if done +with proper precaution, owing to the glorious subterfuges permitted by +"the perfection of reason," was an affair of no personal hazard in a +criminal point of view, and even admitted of so many expedients as to +leave the question of property a very open one, after the boards were +fully in his own possession. The object of his present visit to the +clearing of Thousandacres, as the reader will most probably have +anticipated, was to profit by my supposed proximity, and to frighten the +squatter into a sale on such terms as should leave larger profits than +common in the hands of the purchaser. Unfortunately for the success of +this upright project, my proximity was so much greater than even Squire +Newcome supposed, as to put it in danger by the very excess of the thing +that was to produce the result desired. Little did the honest magistrate +suppose that I was, the whole time, within twenty feet of him, and that +I heard all that passed. + +"Chainbearer is about seventy," returned Newcome, after musing a moment +on the character of his companion's last remark. "Yes, about seventy, I +should judge from what I've heerd, and what I know of the man. It's a +good old age, but folks often live years and years beyond it. You must +be suthin' like that yourself, Thousandacres?" + +"Seventy-three, every day and hour on't, 'squire; and days and hours +well drawn out, too. If you count by old style, I b'lieve I'm a month or +so older. But I'm not Chainbearer. No man can say of _me_, that I ever +made myself troublesome to a neighborhood. No man can p'int to the time +when I ever disturbed his lines. No man can tell of the day when I ever +went into court to be a witness on such a small matter as the length or +breadth of lots, to breed quarrels atween neighbors. No, 'Squire +Newcome, I set store by my character, which will bear comparison with +that of any other inhabitant of the woods I ever met with. And what I +say of myself I can say of my sons and da'ghters, too--from Tobit down +to Sampson, from Nab to Jeruthy. We're what I call a reasonable and +reconcilable breed, minding our own business, and having a respect for +that of other people. Now, here am I, in my seventy-fourth year, and the +father of twelve living children, and I've made, in my time, many and +many a pitch on't, but _never_ was I known to pitch on land that another +man had in possession;--and I carry my idees of possession farther than +most folks, too, for I call it possession to have said openly, and afore +witnesses, that a man intends to pitch on any partic'lar spot afore next +ploughin' or droppin' time, as the case may be. No, I respect +possession, which ought to be the only lawful title to property, in a +free country. When a man wants a clearin' or wants to _make_ one, my +doctrine is, let him look about him, and make his pitch on calcerlation; +and when he's tired of the spot, and wants a change, let him sell his +betterments, if he lights of a chap, and if he doos'nt, let him leave +'em open, and clear off all incumbrances, for the next comer." + +It is probable that Jason Newcome, Esq.,--magistrates in America are +extremely tenacious of this title, though they have no more right to it +than any one else--but Jason Newcome, Esq.,[16] did not carry his +notions of the rights of squatters, and of the sacred character of +possession, quite as far as did his friend Thousandacres. Newcome was an +exceedingly selfish, but withal, an exceedingly shrewd man. I do not +know that the term clever, in its broadest signification, would fitly +apply to him, for in that sense, I conceive, it means quickness and +intelligence enough to do what is right; but he was fully entitled to +receive it, under that qualification by which we say a man is "a clever +rogue." In a word, Mr. Newcome understood himself, and his relations to +the community in which he lived, too well to fall into very serious +mistakes by a direct dereliction from his duties, though he lived in a +never-ceasing condition of small divergencies that might at any time +lead him into serious difficulties. Nevertheless, it was easy enough to +see he had no relish for Thousandacres' allusions to the termination of +the days of my excellent old friend, Chainbearer; nor can I say that +they gave me any particular concern, for, while I knew how desperate the +squatters sometimes became, I had a notion that this old fellow's bark +would prove worse than his bite, as he had just observed of myself. + +[Footnote 16: In order to understand Mr. Littlepage in what he says of +"esquires," a word of explanation may be necessary. The term "esquire" +is, as every well-informed person knows, a title of honor, standing next +in degree below that of knight. On the continent of Europe the "ecuyer" +properly infers nobility, I believe, as nobility is there considered, +which is little if any more than the condition of the old English +gentry, or of the families having coat-armor. By the English law, +certain persons are born esquires, and others have the rank _ex +officio_. Among the last is a justice of the peace, who is legally an +"esquire" during his official term. Now this rule prevailed in the +colonies, and American magistrates were, perhaps legally, esquires, as +well as the English. But titles of honor were abolished at the +revolution, and it is a singular contradiction, in substance, to hold +that the principle is destroyed while the incident remains. The rank of +esquire can no more legally exist in America, than that of knight. In +one sense, neither is noble, it is true: but in that broad signification +by which all constitutions are, or ought to be interpreted both would +come within the proscribed category, as set forth in art. 7th, sect. +9th, and art. 1st, sect. 10th, Const. U. S. Nevertheless, so much +stronger is custom than positive law, that not only every magistrate, +but every lawyer in the country fancies himself peculiarly an "esquire!" +It is scarcely necessary to add that, by usage, the appellation is given +by courtesy, wherever the English language is spoken, to all who are +supposed to belong to the class of gentlemen. This, after all, is the +only true American use of the word.--EDITOR.] + +It would hardly repay the trouble, were I to attempt recording all that +passed next between our two colloquists; although it was a sufficiently +amusing exhibition of wily management to frighten the squatter to part +with his lumber at a low price, on one side, and of sullen security on +the other. The security proceeded from the fact that Thousandacres had +me, at that very moment, a prisoner in his storehouse. + +A bargain conducted on such terms was not likely soon to come to a happy +termination. After a great deal of chaffering and discussing, the +conference broke up, nothing having been decided, by the magistrate's +saying-- + +"Well, Thousandacres, I hope you'll have no reason to repent; but I kind +o' fear you will." + +"The loss will be mine and the b'ys' if I do," was the squatter's +answer. "I know I can get all the boards into the creek; and, for that +matter, into the river, afore young Littlepage can do me any harm; +though there is one circumstance that may yet turn my mind----" + +Here the squatter came to a pause; and Newcome, who had risen, turned +short round, eagerly, to press the doubt that he saw was working in the +other's mind. + +"I thought you would think better of it," he said; "for, it's out of +doubt, should Major Littlepage l'arn your pitch, that he'd uproot you, +as the winds uproot the fallin' tree." + +"No, 'squire, my mind's made up," Thousandacres coolly rejoined. "I'll +sell, and gladly; but not on the tarms you have named. Two pounds eight +the thousand foot, board measure, and taking it all round, clear stuff +and refuse, without any store-pay, will carry off the lumber." + +"Too much, Thousandacres; altogether too much, when you consider the +risks I run. I'm not sartain that I could hold the lumber, even after I +got it into the river; for a replevy is a formidable thing in law, I can +tell you. One pound sixteen, one-third store-pay, is the utmost farthin' +I can offer." + +In that day all our calculations were in pounds, shillings and pence. + +"Then the bargain's off.--I s'pose, squire, you've the old avarsion to +being seen in my settlement?" + +"Sartain--sartain," answered Newcome, in haste. "There's no danger of +that, I hope. You cannot well have strangers among you?" + +"I wunt answer for that. I see some of the b'ys coming out of the woods, +yonder; and it seems to me there _is_ a fourth man with them. There is, +of a certainty; and it is no other than Susquesus, the Onondago. The +fellow is cluss-mouthed, like most redskins; but you can say best +whether you'd like to be seen by him, or not. I hear he's a great fri'nd +of Chainbearer's." + +It was very evident that the magistrate decided, at once, in the +negative. With a good deal of decent haste he dodged round a pile of +logs, and I saw no more of him until I caught a distant view of his +person in the skirts of the woods, at the point whence he had issued +into the clearing, two hours before, and where he now received his horse +from the hands of the youngest of Thousandacre's sons, who led the +animal to the spot for his especial accommodation. Mr. Newcome was no +sooner in possession of his beast again, than he mounted and rode away +into the depths of the forest. So adroitly was this retreat conducted, +that no person of ordinary observation could possibly have detected it, +unless indeed his attention had been previously drawn to the movement. + +What passed, at parting, between Thousandacres and his visitor, I never +knew; but they must have been altogether alone for a few minutes. When +the former reappeared, he came out from behind the logs, his whole +attention seemingly fastened on the approaching party, composed of his +sons and Susquesus. Those resolute and practised men had, indeed, +overtaken and captured the Onondago, and were now bringing him a +prisoner, unarmed, in their midst, to receive the commands of their +father! Notwithstanding all that I knew of this man, and of his +character, there was something imposing in the manner in which he now +waited for the arrival of his sons and their prisoner. Accustomed to +exercise an almost absolute sway in his own family, the old man had +acquired some of the dignity of authority; and as for his posterity, old +and young, male and female, not excepting Prudence, they had gained very +little in the way of freedom, by throwing aside the trammels of regular +and recognized law, to live under the rule of their patriarch. In this +respect they might be likened to the masses, who, in a blind pursuit of +liberty, impatiently cast away the legal and healthful restraints of +society, to submit to the arbitrary, selfish, and ever unjust dictation +of demagogues. Whatever difference there might be between the two +governments, was in favor of that of the squatter, who possessed the +feelings of nature in behalf of his own flesh and blood, and was +consequently often indulgent. + +It is so difficult to read an Indian's mind in his manner, that I did +not expect to ascertain the state of the Onondago's feelings by the +countenance he wore, on drawing near. In exterior, this man was as calm +and unmoved as if just arrived on a friendly visit. His captors had +bound him, fearful he might elude them, in some of the thickets they had +been compelled to pass; but the thongs seemed to give him neither mental +nor bodily concern. Old Thousandacres was stern in aspect; but he had +too much experience in Indian character--knew too well the unforgiving +nature of the Indians' dispositions, or the enduring memories that +forgot neither favors nor injuries, to wantonly increase the feeling +that must naturally have been awakened between him and his prisoner. + +"Trackless," he said, considerately, "you're an old warrior, and must +know that in troubled times every man must look out for himself. I'm +glad the b'ys warn't driven to do you any harm; but it would never have +done to let you carry the tidings of what has happened here, this +morning, to Chainbearer and his gang. How long I may have to keep you, +is more than I know myself; but your treatment shall be good, and your +wilcome warm, so long as you give no trouble. I know what a redskin's +word is; and maybe, a'ter thinkin' on it a little, I may let you out to +wander about the clearin', provided you'd give your parole not to go +off. I'll think on't, and let you know to-morrow; but to-day I must put +you in the store'us' along with the young chap that you travelled here +with." + +Thousandacres then demanded of his sons an account of the manner in +which they had taken their captive; which it is unnecessary to relate +here, as I shall have occasion to give it directly in the language of +the Indian himself. As soon as satisfied on this head, the door of my +prison was opened, and the Onondago entered it unbound, without +manifesting the smallest shade of regret, or any resistance. Everything +was done in a very lock-up sort of manner; the new prisoner being no +sooner "permitted," than the door was secured, and I was left alone with +Sureflint; one of the younger girls now remaining near the building as a +sentinel. I waited a moment, to make certain we were alone, when I +opened the communications with my friend. + +"I am very sorry for this, Sureflint," I commenced, "for I had hopes +your knowledge of the woods, and practice on trails, would have enabled +you to throw off your pursuers, that you might have carried the news of +my imprisonment to our friends. This is a sore disappointment to me; +having made sure you would let Chainbearer know where I am." + +"W'y t'ink different, now, eh? S'pose, 'cause Injin prisoner, can't help +himself?" + +"You surely do not mean that you are here with your own consent?" + +"Sartain. S'pose no want to come; am no come. You t'ink Thousandacres' +b'ys catch Susquesus in woods, and he don't want to? Be sure, winter +come, and summer come. Be sure, gray hair come a little. Be sure +Trackless get ole, by-'m-bye; but he moccason leave no trail yet!" + +"As I cannot understand why you should first escape, and then wish to +come back, I must beg you to explain yourself. Let me know all that has +passed, Sureflint--how it has passed, and _why_ it has passed. Tell it +in your own way, but tell it fully." + +"Sartain--why no tell? No harm; all good--somet'ing capital! Nebber hab +better luck." + +"You excite my curiosity, Sureflint; tell the whole story at once, +beginning at the time when you slipped off, and carrying it down to the +moment of your arrival here." + +Hereupon, Susquesus turned on me a significant look, drew his pipe from +his belt, filled and lighted it, and began to smoke with a composure +that was not easily disturbed. As soon as assured that his pipe was in a +proper state, however, the Indian quietly began his story. + +"Now listen, you hear," he said. "Run away, 'cause no good to stay here, +and be prisoner--dat _why_." + +"But you _are_ a prisoner, as it is, as well as myself, and, by your +statement, a prisoner with your own consent." + +"Sartain--nebber hab been prisoner, won't be prisoner, if don't want to. +S'pose shot, den can't help him; but in woods, Injin nebber prisoner, +'less lazy or drunk. Rum make great many prisoner." + +"I can believe all this--but tell me the story. Why did you go off at +first?" + +"S'pose don't want Chainbearer know where he be, eh? T'ink T'ousandacre +ebber let you go while board in stream? When board go, he go; not afore. +Stay all summer; want to live in store'us' all summer, eh?" + +"Certainly not--well, you left me, in order to let our friends know +where I was, that they might cast about for the means of getting me +free. All this I understand; what next?" + +"Next, go off in wood. Easy 'nough to slip off when T'ousandacre no +look. Well, went about two mile; leave no trail--bird make as much in +air. What s'pose meet, eh?" + +"I wait for you to tell me." + +"Meet Jaap--yes--meet nigger. Look for young master--ebberybody in +trouble, and won'er where young chief be. Some look here--some look out +yonder--all look somewhere--Jaap look just dere." + +"And you told Jaap the whole story, and sent him back to the huts with +it!" + +"Sartain--just so. Make good guess dat time. Den t'ink what do, next. +Want to come back and help young pale-face frien'; so t'ought get take +prisoner one time. Like to know how he feel to be prisoner one time. No +feel so bad as s'pose. Squatter no hard master for prisoner." + +"But how did all this happen, and in what manner have you misled the +young men?" + +"No hard to do at all. All he want is know how. A'ter Jaap get his +ar'n'd, and go off, made trail plain 'nough for squaw to find. Travel to +a spring--sit down and put rifle away off, so no need shoot, and let him +squatter's boys catch me, by what you call s'prise; yes, 'e pale-faces +s'prise red man dat time! Warrant he brag on't well!" + +Here, then, was the simple explanation of it all! Susquesus had stolen +away, in order to apprise my friends of my situation; he had fallen in +with Jaap, or Jaaf, in search of his lost master; and, communicating all +the circumstances to the negro, had artfully allowed himself to be +recaptured, carefully avoiding a struggle, and had been brought back and +placed by my side. No explanations were necessary to point out the +advantages. By communicating with the negro, who had been familiar for +years with the clipped manner of the Indian's mode of speaking English, +everything would be made known to Chainbearer; by suffering himself to +be taken, the squatters were led by Sureflint to suppose our capture and +their "pitch" remained secrets; while, by rejoining me, I should have +the presence, counsel and assistance of a most tried friend of my +father's and Chainbearer's in the event of necessity. + +This brief summary of his reasoning shows the admirable sagacity of the +Onondago, who had kept in view every requisite of his situation, and +failed in nothing. + +I was delighted with the address of Sureflint, as well as touched by his +fidelity. In the course of our conversation, he gave me to understand +that my disappearance and absence for an entire night had produced great +consternation in the huts, and that everybody was out in quest of me and +himself, at the time when he so opportunely fell in with Jaap. + +"Gal out, too"--added the Onondago, significantly. "S'pose good reason +for dat." + +This startled me a little, for I had a vague suspicion that Susquesus +must have been an unseen observer of my interview with Ursula Malbone; +and noticing my manner on rushing from her cabin, had been induced to +follow me, as has been related. The reader is not to suppose that my +late adventures had driven Dus from my mind. So far from this, I thought +of her incessantly; and the knowledge that she took so much interest in +me as to roam the woods in the search, had no tendency to lessen the +steadiness or intensity of my reflections. Nevertheless, common humanity +might induce one of her energy and activity to do as much as this; and +had I not her own declaration that she was plighted to another! + +After getting his whole story, I consulted the Indian on the subject of +our future proceedings. He was of opinion that we had better wait the +movements of our friends, from whom we must hear in some mode or other, +in the course of the approaching night, or of the succeeding day. What +course Chainbearer might see fit to pursue, neither of us could +conjecture, though both felt assured he never would remain quiet with +two as fast friends as ourselves in durance. My great concern was that +he might resort at once to force, for old Andries had a fiery spirit, +though one that was eminently just; and he had been accustomed to see +gunpowder burned from his youth upward. Should he, on the other hand, +resort to legal means, and apply to Mr. Newcome for warrants to arrest +my captors, as men guilty of illegal personal violence, a course it +struck me Frank Malbone would be very apt to advise, what might I not +expect from the collusion of the magistrate, in the way of frauds, +delays and private machinations? In such a case, there would be time to +send me to some other place of concealment, and the forest must have a +hundred such that were accessible to my new masters, while their friend +Newcome would scarcely fail to let them have timely notice of the +necessity of some such step. Men acting in conformity with the rules of +right, fulfilling the requirements of the law, and practising virtue, +might be so remiss as not to send information of such an impending +danger, for such persons are only too apt to rely on the integrity of +their own characters, and to put their trust on the laws of Providence; +but rogues, certain that they can have no such succor, depend mainly on +themselves, recognizing the well-known principle of Frederick the Great, +who thought it a safe rule to suppose that "Providence was usually on +the side of strong battalions." I felt certain, therefore, that Squire +Newcome would let his friends at the "clearing" know all that was +plotting against them, as soon as he knew it himself. + +The squatters were not unkind to us prisoners in the way of general +treatment. Certainly I had every right to complain of the particular +wrong they did me; but, otherwise, they were sufficiently considerate +and liberal throughout that day. Our fare was their own. We had water +brought in fresh by Lowiny no fewer than five several times; and so +attentive to my supposed wants was this girl, that she actually brought +me every book that was to be found in all the libraries of the family. +These were but three--a fragment of a Bible, Pilgrim's Progress, and an +almanac that was four years old. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + "I mark'd his desultory pace, + His gestures strange, and varying face, + With many a muttered sound; + And ah! too late, aghast, I view'd + The reeking blade, the hand imbru'd: + He fell, and groaning grasp'd in agony the ground." + --WARTON. + + +In this manner passed that long and weary day. I could and did take +exercise, by walking to and fro in my prison; but the Indian seldom +stirred from the moment he entered. As for the squatter himself, he came +no more near the storehouse, though I saw him, two or three times in the +course of the day, in private conference with his elder sons, most +probably consulting on my case. At such moments, their manner was +serious, and there were instants when I fancied it menacing. + +Provision was made for our comfort by throwing a sufficient number of +bundles of straw into the prison, and my fellow-captive and myself had +each a sufficiently comfortable bed. A soldier was not to be frightened +at sleeping on straw, moreover; and as for Susquesus, he asked for no +more than room to stretch himself, though it were even on a rock. An +Indian loves his ease, and takes it when it comes in his way; but it is +really amazing to what an extent his powers of endurance go, when it +becomes necessary for him to exert them. + +In the early part of the night I slept profoundly, as I believe did the +Indian. I must acknowledge that an uncomfortable distrust existed in my +mind, that had some slight effect in keeping me from slumbering, though +fatigue soon overcame the apprehensions such a feeling would be likely +to awaken. I did not know but Thousandacres and his sons might take it +into their heads to make away with the Indian and myself under cover of +the darkness, as the most effectual means of protecting themselves +against the consequences of their past depredations, and of securing the +possession of those that they had projected for the future. We were +completely in their power, and, so far as the squatter knew, the secret +of our visit would die with us, the knowledge of those of his own flesh +and blood possessed on the subject excepted. Notwithstanding these +thoughts crossed my mind, and did give me some little uneasiness, they +were not sufficiently active or sufficiently prominent to prevent me +from slumbering, after I had fairly fallen asleep, without awaking once, +until it was three o'clock, or within an hour of the approach of day. + +I am not certain that any external cause aroused me from my slumbers. +But I well remember that I lay there on my straw, meditating for some +time, half asleep and half awake, until I fancied I heard the musical +voice of Dus, murmuring in my ear my own name. This illusion lasted some +little time; when, as my faculties gradually resumed their powers, I +became slowly convinced that some one was actually calling me, and by +name too, within a foot or two of my ears. I could not be mistaken; the +fact was so, and the call was in a woman's tones. Springing up, I +demanded-- + +"Who is here? In the name of heaven, can this really be Miss +Malbone--Dus!" + +"My name is Lowiny," answered my visitor, "and I'm Thousandacres' +da'ghter. But don't speak so loud, for there is one of the b'ys on the +watch at the other end of the store'us, and you'll wake him up unless +you're careful." + +"Lowiny, is it you, my good girl? Not content to care for us throughout +the day, you still have a thought for us during the night!" + +I thought the girl felt embarrassed, for she must have been conscious of +having a little trespassed on the usages and reserve of her sex. It is +rare, indeed, that any mother, and especially an American mother, ever +falls so low as completely to become unsexed in feelings and character, +and rarer still that she forgets to impart many of the decencies of +woman to her daughter. Old Prudence, notwithstanding the life she led, +and the many causes of corruption and backslidings that existed around +her, was true to her native instincts, and had taught to her girls many +of those little proprieties that become so great charms in woman. + +Lowiny was far from disagreeable in person, and had the advantage of +being youthful in appearance, as well as in fact. In addition to these +marks of her sex, she had manifested an interest in my fate, from the +first, that had not escaped me; and here she was now, doubtless on some +errand of which the object was our good. My remark embarrassed her, +however, and a few moments passed before she got entirely over the +feeling. As soon as she did, she again spoke. + +"I don't think anything of bringing you and _the Injin_ a little water," +she said--laying an emphasis on the words I have put in Italics--"nor +should I had we any beer or sap-cider instead. But all our spruce is +out; and father said he wouldn't have any more of the cider made, seein' +that we want all the sap for sugar. I hope you had a plentiful supply, +Mr. Littlepage; and for fear you hadn't, I've brought you and the +redskin a pitcher of milk and a bowl of hasty-pudding--_he_ can eat +a'ter _you've_ done, you know." + +I thanked my kind-hearted friend, and received her gift through a hole +that she pointed out to me. The food, in the end, proved very +acceptable, as subsequent circumstances caused our regular breakfast to +be forgotten for a time. I was desirous of ascertaining from this girl +what was said or contemplated among her relatives, on the subject of my +future fate; but felt a nearly unconquerable dislike to be prying into +what was a species of family secrets, by putting direct questions to +her. Fortunately, the communicative and friendly disposition of Lowiny +herself soon removed all necessity for any such step; for after +executing her main purpose, she lingered with an evident wish to gossip. + +"I wish father wouldn't be a squatter any longer," the girl said, with +an earnestness that proved she was uttering her real sentiment. "It's +awful to be forever fighting ag'in law!" + +"It would be far better if he would apply to some landowner and get a +farm on lease, or by purchase. Land is so plenty in this country, no man +need go without a legal interest in his hundred acres, provided he be +only sober and industrious." + +"Father never drinks, unless it's on the Fourth of July; and the b'ys be +all pretty sober, too, as young men go, nowadays. I believe, Mr. +Littlepage, if mother has told father once, she has told him a thousand +times, that she _doos_ wish he'd leave off squatting, and take writin's +for some piece of land or other. But father says, 'no--he warn't made +for writin's, nor writin's for him.' He's desp'ately troubled to know +what to do with you, now he's got you." + +"Did Mr. Newcome give no opinion on the subject while he was with you?" + +"'Squire Newcome! Father never let on to him a syllable about ever +having seen you. He knows too much to put himself in 'Squire Newcome's +power, sin' his lumber would go all the cheaper for it. What's your +opinion, Mr. Littlepage, about our right to the boards, when we've cut, +and hauled, and sawed the logs with our own hands. Don' that make some +difference?" + +"What is your opinion of your right to a gown that another girl has made +out of calico she had taken from your drawer, when your back was turned, +and carried away, and cut and stitched, and sewed with her own hands?" + +"She never _would_ have any right to my calico, let her cut it as much +as she might. But lumber is made out of trees." + +"And trees have owners just as much as calico. Hauling, and cutting, and +sawing can of themselves give no man a right to another man's logs." + +"I was afeard it was so--" answered Lowiny, sighing so loud as to be +heard. "There's suthin' in that old Bible I lent you that I read pretty +much in that way; though Tobit, and most of the b'ys say that it don't +mean any sich thing. They say there's nothin' about lumber in the Bible +at all." + +"And what does your mother tell you on this head?" + +"Why, mother don't talk about it. She wants father to lease or buy; but +you know how it is with women, Mr. Littlepage; when their fr'nds act, +it's all the same as a law to them to try to think that they act right. +Mother never says anything to us about the lawfulness of father's +doin's, though she often wishes he would live under writin's. Mother +wants father to try and get writin's of you, now you're here, and in his +hands. Wouldn't you give us writin's, Mr. Littlepage, if we'd promise to +give you suthin' for rent?" + +"If I did they would be good for nothing, unless I were free and among +friends. Deeds and leases got from men who are 'in the hands,' as you +call it, of those who take them, are of no value." + +"I'm sorry for that--" rejoined Lowiny, with another sigh--"not that I +wanted you to be driven into anything, but I thought if you would only +consent to let father have writin's for this clearin', it's so good a +time to do it now, 'twould be a pity to lose it. If it can't be done, +however, it can't, and there's no use in complaining. Father thinks he +can hold you 'till the water rises in the fall, and the b'ys have run +all the lumber down to Albany; a'ter which he'll not be so partic'lar +about keepin' you any longer, and maybe he'll let you go." + +"Hold me until the water rises! Why, that will not take place these +three months!" + +"Well, Mr. Littlepage, three months don't seem to me sich a desp'rate +long time when a body is among fri'nds. We should treat you as well as +we know how, that you may depend on--I'll answer for it, you shall want +for nothin' that we've got to give." + +"I dare say, my excellent girl, but I should be extremely sorry to +trouble your family with so long a visit. As for the boards, I have no +power to waive the rights of the owners of the land to that property; my +power being merely to sell lots to actual settlers." + +"I'm sorry to hear that," answered Lowiny in a gentle tone, that fully +confirmed her words; "for father and the b'ys be really awful about +anything that touches their profits for work done. They say their flesh +and blood's in them boards, and flesh and blood shall go, afore the +boards shall go. It makes my blood run cold to hear the way they do +talk! I'm not a bit skeary; and last winter, when I shot the bear that +was a'ter the store-hogs, mother said I acted as well as she could have +done herself, and she has killed four bears and near upon twenty wolves, +in her time. Yes, mother said I behaved like her own da'ghter, and that +she set twice the store by me that she did before." + +"You are a brave girl, Lowiny, and an excellent one in the main, I make +no question. Whatever become of me, I shall not forget your kindness as +long as I live. It will be a very serious matter, however, to your +friends, to attempt keeping me here three or four months, as mine will +certainly have a search for me, when this clearing would be found. I +need not tell you what would be the consequence." + +"What _can_--what _will_ father and the b'ys do? I can't bear to think +on't--oh! they'll not have the hearts to try to put you out of the way!" + +"I should hope not, for their own sakes, and for the credit of the +American name. We are not a nation addicted to such practices, and I +should really regret to learn that we have made so long a step toward +the crimes of older countries. But there is little danger of anything of +the sort, after all, my good Lowiny." + +"I hope so, too," the girl answered, in a low, tremulous voice; "though +Tobit is a starn bein' sometimes. He makes father worse than he would +be, if let alone, I know. But I must go, now. It's near daylight, and I +hear 'em stirring in Tobit's house. It would cost me dear did any on 'em +know I had been out of my bed, talking to you." + +As this was said, the girl vanished. Before I could find an aperture to +watch her movements, she had disappeared. Susquesus arose a few minutes +later, but he never made any allusion to the secret visit of the girl. +In this respect, he observed the most scrupulous delicacy, never letting +me know by hint, look, or smile, that he had been in the least conscious +of her presence. + +Day came as usual, but it did not find these squatters in their beds. +They appeared with the dawn, and most of them were at work ere the broad +light of the sun was shed on the forest. Most of the men went down into +the river, and busied themselves, as we supposed, for we could not see +them, in the water, with the apples of their eyes, their boards. Old +Thousandacres, however, chose to remain near his habitation, keeping two +or three well-grown lads about him; probably adverting in his mind to +the vast importance it was to all of his race, to make sure of his +prisoners. I could see by the thoughtful manner of the old squatter, as +he lounged around his mill, among his swine, and walked through his +potatoes, that his mind wavered greatly as to the course he ought to +pursue, and that he was sorely troubled. How long this perplexity of +feeling would have continued, and to what it might have led, it is hard +to say, had it not been cut short by an incident of a very unexpected +nature, and one that called for more immediate decision and action. I +shall relate the occurrence a little in detail. + +The day was considerably advanced, and, Thousandacres and the girl who +then watched the storehouse excepted, everybody was occupied. Even +Susquesus had picked up a piece of birch, and with a melancholy +countenance, that I fancied was shadowing forth the future life of a +half-civilized red man, was attempting to make a broom with a part of a +knife that he had found in the building; while I was sketching, on a +leaf of my pocket-book, the mill and a bit of mountain land that served +it for a background. Thousandacres, for the first time that morning, +drew near our prison, and spoke to me. His countenance was severe, yet I +could see he was much troubled. As I afterward ascertained, Tobit had +been urging on him the necessity of putting both myself and the Indian +to death, as the only probable means that offered to save the lumber. + +"Young man," said Thousandacres, "you have stolen on me and mine like a +thief at night, and you ought to expect the fate of one. How in natur' +can you expect men will give up their hard 'arnin's without a struggle +and a fight for 'em? You tempt me more than I can bear!" + +I felt the fearful import of these words; but human nature revolted at +the thought of being cowed into any submission, or terms unworthy of my +character, or late profession. I was on the point of making an answer in +entire consonance with this feeling, when, in looking through the chinks +of my prison to fasten an eye on my old tyrant, I saw Chainbearer +advancing directly toward the storehouse, and already within a hundred +yards of us. The manner in which I gazed at this apparition attracted +the attention of the squatter, who turned and first saw the unexpected +visitor who approached. At the next minute, Andries was at his side. + +"So, T'ousandacres, I fint you here!" exclaimed Chainbearer. "It's a +goot many years since you and I met, and I'm sorry we meet now on such +pisiness as t'is!" + +"The meetin's of your own seekin', Chainbearer. I've neither invited nor +wished for your company." + +"I p'lieve you wit' all my heart. No, no; you wish for no chains and no +chainpearers, no surfeyors and no compasses, no lots and no owners, too, +put a squatter. You and I haf not to make an acquaintance for t'e first +time, T'ousandacres, after knowin' each other for fifty years." + +"Yes, we _do_ know each other for fifty years; and seein' that them +years hav'nt sarved to bring us of a mind on any one thing, we should +have done better to keep apart, than to come together now." + +"I haf come for my poy, squatter--my nople poy, whom you haf illegally +arrested, and mate a prisoner, in the teet' of all law and justice. Gif +me pack Mortaunt Littlepage, and you'll soon be rit of my company!" + +"And how do you know that I've ever seen your 'Mortaunt Littlepage?' +What have I to do with your boy, that you seek him of me? Go your ways, +go your ways, old Chainbearer, and let me and mine alone. The world's +wide enough for us both, I tell you; and why should you be set on your +own ondoin', by runnin' ag'in a breed like that which comes of Aaron and +Prudence Timberman?" + +"I care not for you or your preet," answered old Andries sternly. +"You've dare't to arrest my frient, against law and right, and I come to +demant his liperty, or to warn you of t'e consequences." + +"Don't press me too far, Chainbearer, don't press me too far. There's +desp'rate crittur's in this clearin', and them that is'nt to be driven +from their righteous 'arnin's by any that carry chains or p'int +compasses. Go your way, I tell ye, and leave us to gather the harvest +that comes of the seed of our own sowin' and plantin'." + +"Ye'll gat'er it, ye'll gat'er it all, T'ousantacres--you and yours. +Ye've sown t'e win't, and ye'll reap t'e whirl-wints, as my niece Dus +Malpone has reat to me often, of late. Ye'll gat'er in all your harvest, +tares ant all, ye will; and t'at sooner t'an ye t'ink for." + +"I wish I'd never seen the face of the man! Go away, I tell you, +Chainbearer, and leave me to my hard 'arnin's." + +"Earnin's! Do you call it earnin's to chop and pillage on anot'er's +lants, and to cut his trees into logs, and to saw his logs into poarts, +and to sell his poarts to speculators, and gif no account of your +profits to t'e rightful owner of it all? Call you such t'ievin' +righteous earnin's?" + +"Thief back ag'in, old measurer! Do not the sweat of the brow, long and +hard days of toil, achin' bones, and hungry bellies, give a man a claim +to the fruit of his labors?" + +"T'at always hast peen your failin', T'ousantacres; t'at's t'e very +p'int on which you've proken town, man. You pegin wit' your morals, at +t'e startin' place t'at's most convenient to yourself and your +plunterin' crew, insteat of goin' pack to t'e laws of your Lort and +Master. Reat what t'e Almighty Got of Heaven ant 'art' sait unto Moses, +ant you'll fint t'at you've not turnet over leafs enough of your piple. +You may chop ant you may hew, you may haul ant you may saw, from t'is +day to t'e ent of time, and you'll nefer pe any nearer to t'e right t'an +you are at t'is moment. T'e man t'at starts on his journey wit' his face +in t'e wrong direction, olt T'ousantacres, wilt nefer reach its ent; +t'ough he trafel 'till t'e sweat rolls from his poty like water. You +pegin wrong, olt man, and you must ent wrong." + +I saw the cloud gathering in the countenance of the squatter, and +anticipated the outbreaking of the tempest that followed. Two fiery +tempers had met, and, divided as they were in opinions and practice, by +the vast chasm that separates principles from expediency, right from +wrong, honesty from dishonesty, and a generous sacrifice of self to +support the integrity of a noble spirit, from a homage to self that +confounded and overshadowed all sense of right, it was not possible that +they should separate without a collision. Unable to answer Chainbearer's +reasoning, the squatter resorted to the argument of force. He seized my +old friend by the throat and made a violent effort to hurl him to the +earth. I must do this man of violence and evil the justice to say, that +I do not think it was his wish at that moment to have any assistance; +but the instant the struggle commenced the conch blew, and it was easy +to predict that many minutes would not elapse before the sons of +Thousandacres would be pouring in to the rescue. I would have given a +world to be able to throw down the walls of my prison, and rush to the +aid of my sterling old friend. As for Susquesus, he must have felt a +lively interest in what was going on, but he remained as immovable, and +seemingly as unmoved as a rock. + +Andries Coejemans, old as he was, and it will be remembered he too had +seen his threescore years and ten, was not a man to be taken by the +throat with impunity. Thousandacres met with a similar assault and a +struggle followed that was surprisingly fierce and well contested, +considering that both the combatants had completed the ordinary limits +of the time of man. The squatter gained a slight advantage in the +suddenness and vigor of his assault, but Chainbearer was still a man of +formidable physical power. In his prime few had been his equals; and +Thousandacres soon had reason to know that he had met more than his +match. For a single instant Chainbearer gave ground; then he rallied, +made a desperate effort, and his adversary was hurled to the earth with +a violence that rendered him for a short time insensible; old Andries +himself continuing erect as one of the neighboring pines, red in the +face, frowning, and more severe in aspect than I remembered ever to have +seen him before, even in battle. + +Instead of pushing his advantage, Chainbearer did not stir a foot after +he had thrown off his assailant. There he remained, lofty in bearing, +proud and stern. He had reason to believe no one was a witness of his +prowess, but I could see that the old man had a soldier's feelings at +his victory. At this instant I first let him know my close proximity by +speaking. + +"Fly--for your life take to the woods, Chainbearer," I called to him, +through the clinks. "That conch will bring all the tribe of the +squatters upon you in two or three minutes; the young men are close at +hand, in the stream below the mill, at work on the logs, and have only +the banks to climb." + +"Got be praiset! Mortaunt, my tear poy, you are not injuret, t'en! I +will open t'e toor of your prison, and we will retreat toget'er." + +My remonstrances were vain. Andries came round to the door of the +storehouse, and made an effort to force it open. That was not easy, +however; for, opening outward, it was barred with iron, and secured by a +stout lock. Chainbearer would not listen to my remonstrances, but he +looked around him for some instrument by means of which he could either +break the lock or draw the staple. As the mill was at no great distance, +away he went in that direction, in quest of what he wanted, leaving me +in despair at his persevering friendship. Remonstrance was useless, +however, and I was compelled to await the result in silence. + +Chainbearer was still a very active man. Nature, early training, +sobriety of life in the main, and a good constitution, had done this +much for him. It was but a moment before I saw him in the mill, looking +for the crowbar. This he soon found, and he was on his way to the +storehouse, in order to apply this powerful lever, when Tobit came in +sight, followed by all the brethren, rushing up the bank like a pack of +hounds in close pursuit. I shouted to my friend again to fly, but he +came on steadily toward my prison, bent on the single object of setting +me free. All this time, Thousandacres was senseless, his head having +fallen against a corner of the building. Chainbearer was so intent on +his purpose that, though he must have seen the crowd of young men, no +less than six in number, including well-grown lads, that was swiftly +advancing toward him, he did not bestow the least attention on them. He +was actually busied with endeavoring to force the bar in between the +hasp and the post, when his arms were seized behind, and he was made a +prisoner. + +Chainbearer was no sooner apprised of the uselessness of resistance, +than he ceased to make any. As I afterward learned from himself, he had +determined to become a captive with me, if he could not succeed in +setting me free. Tobit was the first to lay hands on the Chainbearer; +and so rapidly were things conducted, for this man had the key, that the +door was unbarred, opened, and old Andries was thrust into the cage, +almost in the twinkling of an eye. The rapidity of the movement was +doubtless aided by the acquiescent feeling that happened to be uppermost +in the mind of Chainbearer, at that precise moment. + +No sooner was this new prisoner secured, than the sons of Thousandacres +raised their father's body, and bore it to his own residence, which was +but a few yards distant. Old and young, both sexes and all ages, +collected in that building; and there was an hour during which we +appeared to be forgotten. The sentinel, who was a son of Tobit's, +deserted his post; and even Lowiny, who had been hovering in sight of +the storehouse the whole morning, seemed to have lost her interest in +us. I was too much engaged with my old friend, and had too many +questions to ask and to answer, however, to care much for this +desertion; which, moreover, was natural enough for the circumstances. + +"I rejoice you are not in the hands of that pack of wolves, my good +friend!" I exclaimed, after the first salutations had passed between +Andries and myself, and squeezing his hand again and again. "They are +very capable of any act of violence; and I feared the sight of their +father, lying there insensible, might have inflamed them to some deed of +immediate violence. There will now be time for reflection, and +fortunately, I am a witness of all that passed." + +"No fear for olt Thousandacres," said Chainbearer, heartily. "He is +tough, and he is only a little stunnet, pecause he t'ought himself a +petter man t'an he ist. Half an hour will pring him rount, and make him +as good a man ast he ever wast. But Mortaunt, lat, how came you here, +and why wast you wantering apout t'e woods at night, wit' Trackless, +here, who ist a sensiple ret-skin, and ought to haf set you a petter +example?" + +"I was hot and feverish, and could not sleep; and so I took a stroll in +the forest, and got lost. Luckily, Susquesus had an eye on me, and kept +himself at hand the whole time. I was obliged to catch a nap in the top +of a fallen tree, and when I woke in the morning, the Onondago led me +here in quest of something to eat, for I was hungry as a famished wolf." + +"Tid Susquesus, t'en, know of squatters having mate t'eir pitch on t'is +property?" asked Andries, in some surprise, and as I thought, a little +sternly. + +"Not he. He heard the saw of the mill in the stillness of night, and we +followed the direction of that sound, and came unexpectedly out on this +settlement. As soon as Thousandacres ascertained who I was, he shut me +up here and as for Susquesus, Jaap has doubtless told you the story he +was commissioned to relate." + +"All fery true, lat, all fery true; t'ough I don't half understant, yet, +why you shoul't haf left us in t'e manner you tit, and t'at, too, after +hafin' a long talk wit 'Dus. T'e gal is heart-heafy, Mortaunt, as 'tis +plain to pe seen; put I can't get a syllaple from her t'at hast t'e look +of a rational explanation. I shall haf to ask you to tell t'e story, +lat. I was tryin' to get t'e trut' out of Dus, half of t'e way comin' +here; put a gal is as close as----" + +"Dus!" I interrupted--"Half the way coming here? You _do_ not, _cannot_ +mean that Dus is with you." + +"Hist, hist--pe careful. You speak too lout. I coult wish not to let +t'ese scountrels of squatters know t'at t'e gal is so exposet, put here +she ist; or, what is much t'e same, she is in t'e woots out yonter, a +looker-on, and I fear must pe in consarn at seein' t'at I, too, am a +prisoner." + +"Chainbearer, how could you thus expose your niece--thus bring her into +the very grasp of lawless ruffians?" + +"No, Mortaunt, no--t'ere is no fear of her peing insultet, or anyt'ing +of t'at sort. One can reat of such t'ings in pooks, put woman is +respectet and not insultet in America. Not one of T'ousantacres' rascals +woult wount t'e ear of t'e gal wit' an improper wort, hat he a chance, +which not one of 'em hast, seein' nopody knows t'e gal is wit' me, put +ourselves. Come she woult, and t'ere wast no use in saying her nay. Dus +is a goot creature, Mortaunt, and a tutiful gal; put it's as easy to +turn a rifer up stream, as to try to holt her pack when she loves." + +"Is that her character?" I thought. "Then is there little chance, +indeed, of her ever becoming mine, since her affections must have gone +with her troth." Nevertheless, my interest in the noble-hearted girl was +just as strong as if I held her faith, and she was to become mine in a +few weeks. The idea that she was at that moment waiting the return of +her uncle, in the woods, was agony to me; but I had sufficient +self-command to question the Chainbearer, until I got out of him all of +the following facts: + +Jaap had carried the message of Susquesus, with great fidelity, to those +to whom the Indian had sent it. On hearing the news, and the manner of +my arrest, Andries called a council, consisting of himself, Dus and +Frank Malbone. This occurred in the afternoon of the previous day; and +that same night, Malbone proceeded to Ravensnest, with a view of +obtaining warrants for the arrest of Thousandacres and his gang, as well +as of procuring assistance to bring them all in, in expectation of +having the whole party transferred to the gaol at Sandy Hill. As the +warrant could be granted only by Mr. Newcome, I could easily see that +the messenger would be detained a considerable time, since the +magistrate would require a large portion of the present day to enable +him to reach his house. This fact, however, I thought it well enough to +conceal from my friend at the moment. + +Early that morning, Chainbearer, Dus and Jaap had left the huts, taking +the nearest route to the supposed position of the clearing of +Thousandacres, as it had been described by the Indian. Aided by a +compass, as well as by their long familiarity with the woods, this party +had little difficulty in reaching the spot where the Onondago and the +negro had met; after which, the remainder of the journey was through a +_terra incognita_, as respects the adventurers. With some search, +however, a glimpse was got of the light of the clearing, much as one +finds an island in the ocean, when the skirts of the wood were +approached. A favorable spot, one that possessed a good cover, was +selected, whence Chainbearer reconnoitred for near an hour before he +left it. After a time he determined on the course he adopted and carried +out, leaving his niece to watch his movements, with instructions to +rejoin her brother, should he himself be detained by the squatter. I was +a little relieved by the knowledge of the presence of Jaap, for I knew +the fidelity of the fellow too well to suppose he would ever desert Dus; +but my prison became twice as irksome to me after I had heard this +account of the Chainbearer's, as it had been before. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + "Was she not all my fondest wish could frame? + Did ever mind so much of heaven partake? + Did she not love me with the purest flame? + And give up friends and fortune for my sake? + Though mild as evening skies, + With downcast, streaming eyes, + Stood the stern frown of supercilious brows, + Deaf to their brutal threats, and faithful to her vows." + --SHAW. + + +Dus was then near me--in sight of the storehouse, perhaps! But affection +for her uncle, and no interest in me, had brought her there. I could +respect her attachment to her old guardian, however, and admire the +decision and spirit she had manifested in his behalf, at the very moment +the consciousness that I had no influence on her movements was the most +profound. + +"T'e gal woult come, Mortaunt," the Chainbearer continued, after having +gone through his narrative; "ant, if you know Dus, you know when she +loves she wilt not be deniet. Got pless me! what a wife she woult make +for a man who wast desarfin' of her! Oh! here's a pit of a note t'e dear +creature has written to one of T'ousandacres' poys, who hast peen out +among us often, t'ough I never so much as dreamet t'at t'e squatting olt +rascal of a fat'er was on our lant, here. Well, Zepaniah, as t'e lat is +callet, hast passet much time at t'e Nest, working apout in t'e fielts, +and sometimes for us; and, to own the trut' to you, Mortaunt, I do +pelieve t'e young chap hast a hankerin' a'ter Dus, and woult pe glat +enough to get t'e gal for a wife." + +"He! Zephaniah Thousandacres--or whatever his infernal name may be--_he_ +a hankering or an attachment for Ursula Malbone--he think of her for a +wife--he presume to love such a perfect being!" + +"Hoity, toity," cried old Andries, looking round at me in surprise, "why +shouldn't t'e poy haf his feelin's ast well ast anot'er, if he pe a +squatter? Squatters haf feelin's, t'ough t'ey hafn't much honesty to +poast of. Ant, ast for honesty, you see, Mortaunt, it is tifferent +petween T'ousantacres and his poys. T'e lats haf peen prought up to +fancy t'ere ist no great harm in lif'ing on anot'er man's lants, +whereast t'is olt rascal, t'eir fat'er, wast prought up, or _t'inks_ he +wast prought up in t'e very sanctum sanctorum of gotliness among t'e +Puritans, and t'at t'e 'art' hast not t'eir equals in religion, I'll +warrant you. Ask olt Aaron apout his soul, and he'll tell you t'at it's +a petter soul t'an a Dutch soul, and t'at it won't purn at all, it's so +free from eart'. Yes, yes--t'at ist t'e itee wit' 'em all in his part of +t'e worlt. T'eir gotliness ist so pure even sin wilt do it no great +harm." + +I knew the provincial prejudices of Chainbearer too well to permit +myself to fall into a discussion on theology with him, just at that +moment; though I must do the old man the justice to allow that his +opinion of the self-righteousness of the children of the Puritans was +not absolutely without some apology. I never had any means of +ascertaining the fact, but it would have occasioned me no surprise had I +discovered that Thousandacres, and all his brood, looked down on us New +Yorkers as an especially fallen and sinful race, which was on the high +road to perdition, though encouraged and invited to enter on a different +road by the spectacle of a chosen people so near them, following the +straight and narrow path that leads to heaven. This mingling of God and +Mammon is by no means an uncommon thing among us, though the squatters +would probably have admitted themselves that they had fallen a little +away, and were by no means as good as their forefathers had once been. +There is nothing that sticks so close to an individual, or to a +community, as the sense of its own worth. As "coming events cast their +shadows before," this sentiment leaves its shadows behind, long after +the substance which may have produced them has moved onward, or been +resolved into the gases. But I must return to Zephaniah and the note. + +"And you tell me, Chainbearer, that Ursula has actually written a note, +a letter, to this young man?" I asked, as soon as I could muster +resolution enough to put so revolting a question? + +"Sartain; here it ist, ant a very pretty lookin' letter it is, Mortaunt. +Dus does everyt'ing so hantily, ant so like a nice young woman, t'at it +ist a pleasure to carry one of her letters. Ay--t'ere t'e lat ist now, +and I'll just call him, and gif him his own." + +Chainbearer was as good as his word, and Zephaniah soon stood at the +door of the storehouse. + +"Well, you wilt own, Zeph," continued the old man, "we didn't cage you +like a wilt peast, or a rogue t'at hast been mettlin' wit' what tidn't +pelong to him, when you wast out among us. T'ere is t'at difference in +t'e treatment--put no matter! Here ist a letter for you, and much goot +may it do you! It comes from one who vilt gif goot atvice; and you'll be +none the worse if you follow it. I don't know a wort t'at's in it, put +you'll fint it a goot letter, I'll answer for it. Dus writes peautiful +letters, and in a hand almost as plain and hantsome as his excellency's, +t'ough not quite so large. Put her own hant is'nt as large as his +excellency's, t'ough his excellency's hant was'nt particularly pig +neit'er." + +I could scarcely believe my senses! Here was Ursula Malbone confessedly +writing a letter to a son of Thousandacres, the squatter, and that son +admitted to be her admirer! Devoured by jealousy, and a thousand +feelings to which I had hitherto been a stranger, I gazed at the +fortunate being who was so strangely honored by this communication from +Dus, with the bitterest envy. Although, to own the truth, the young +squatter was a well-grown, good-looking fellow, to me he seemed to be +the very personification of coarseness and vulgarity. It will readily be +supposed that Zephaniah was not entirely free from some very just +imputations of the latter character; but on the whole, most girls of his +own class in life would be quite content with him in these respects. But +Ursula Malbone was not at all of his own class in life. However reduced +in fortune, she was a lady, by education as well as by birth; and what +feelings could there possibly be in common between her and her strange +admirer? I had heard it said that women were as often taken by externals +as men; but in this instance the externals were coarse, and nothing +extraordinary. Some females, too, could not exist without admiration; +and I had known Dus but a few weeks, after all, and it was possible I +had not penetrated the secret of her true character. Then her original +education had been in the forest; and we often return to our first +loves, in these particulars, with a zest and devotion for which there is +no accounting. It was possible this strange girl might have portrayed to +her imagination, in the vista of the future, more of happiness and wild +enjoyment among the woods and ravines of stolen clearings, than by +dwelling amid the haunts of men. In short, there was scarce a conceit +that did not crowd on my brain, in that moment of intense jealousy and +profound unhappiness. I was as miserable as a dog. + +As for Zephaniah, the favored youth of Ursula Malbone, he received his +letter, as I fancied, with an awkward surprise, and lounged round the +corner of the building, to have the pleasure, as it might be, of reading +it to himself. This brought him nearer to my position; for I had +withdrawn, in a disgust I could not conquer, from being near the scene +that had just been enacted. + +Opening a letter, though it had been folded by the delicate hands of +Ursula Malbone, and reading it, were two very different operations, as +Zephaniah now discovered. The education of the young man was very +limited, and after an effort or two, he found it impossible to get on. +With the letter open in his hand, he found it as much a sealed book to +him as ever. Zephaniah _could_ read writing, by dint of a considerable +deal of spelling; but it must not be a good hand. As some persons cannot +comprehend pure English, so he found far more difficulty in spelling out +the pretty, even characters before him, than would have been the case +had he been set at work on the pot-hooks and trammels of one of his own +sisters. Glancing his eyes around in quest of aid, they happened to fall +on mine, which were watching his movements with the vigilance of a +feline animal, through the chinks of the logs, and at the distance of +only three feet from his own face. As for the Indian, he, _seemingly_, +took no more note of what was passing, than lovers take of time in a +stolen interview; though I had subsequently reason to believe that +nothing had escaped his observation. Andries was in a distant part of +the prison, reconnoitring the clearing and mills with an interest that +absorbed all his attention for the moment. Of these facts Zephaniah +assured himself by taking a look through the openings of the logs; then, +sidling along nearer to me, he said in a low voice-- + +"I don't know how it is, but to tell you the truth, Major Littlepage, +York larnin' and Varmount larnin' be so different, that I don't find it +quite as easy to read this letter as I could wish." + +On this hint I seized the epistle, and began to read it in a low tone; +for Zephaniah asked this much of me, with a delicacy of feeling that, in +so far, was to his credit. As the reader may have some of the curiosity +I felt myself, to know what Ursula Malbone could possibly have to say in +this form to Zephaniah Thousandacres, I shall give the contents of this +strange epistle in full. It was duly directed to "Mr. Zephaniah +Timberman, Mooseridge," and in that respect would have passed for any +common communication. Within, it read as follows:-- + + "SIR:-- + + "As you have often professed a strong regard for me, I now put + you to the proof of the sincerity of your protestations. My + dear uncle goes to your father, whom I only know by report, to + demand the release of Major Littlepage, who, we hear, is a + prisoner in the hands of your family, against all law and + right. As it is possible the business of uncle Chainbearer will + be disagreeable to Thousandacres, and that warm words may pass + between them, I ask of your friendship some efforts to keep the + peace; and, particularly, should anything happen to prevent my + uncle from returning, that you would come to me in the + woods--for I shall accompany the Chainbearer to the edge of + your clearing--and let me know it. You will find me there, + attended by one of the blacks, and we can easily meet if you + cross the fields in an eastern direction, as I will send the + negro to find you and to bring you to me. + + "In addition to what I have said above, Zephaniah, let me also + earnestly ask your care in behalf of Major Littlepage. Should + any evil befall that gentleman, it would prove the undoing of + your whole family! The law has a long arm, and it will reach + into the wilderness, as well as into a settlement. The person + of a human being is a very different thing from a few acres of + timber, and General Littlepage will think far more of his noble + son than he will think of all the logs that have been cut and + floated away. Again and again, therefore, I earnestly entreat + of you to befriend this gentleman, not only as you hope for my + respect, but as you hope for your own peace of mind. I have had + some connection with the circumstances that threw Mr. + Littlepage into your hands, and shall never know a happy moment + again should anything serious befall him. Remember this, + Zephaniah, and let it influence your own conduct. I owe it to + myself and to you to add, that the answer I gave you at + Ravensnest, the evening of the raising, must remain my answer, + now and forever; but, if you have really the regard for me that + you then professed, you will do all you can to serve Major + Littlepage, who is an old friend of my uncle's and whose + safety, owing to circumstances that you would fully understand + were they told to you, is absolutely necessary to my future + peace of mind. + + "Your friend, + + "URSULA MALBONE." + +What a strange girl was this Dus! I suppose it as unnecessary to say +that I felt profoundly ashamed of my late jealousy, which now seemed +just as absurd and unreasonable as, a moment before, it seemed justified +and plausible. God protect the wretch who is the victim of that +evil-eyed passion! He who is jealous of circumstances, in the ordinary +transactions of life, usually makes a fool of himself, by seeing a +thousand facts that exist in his own brain only; but he whose jealousy +is goaded on by love, must be something more than human, not to let the +devils get a firm grasp of his soul. I can give no better illustration +of the weakness that this last passion induces, however, than the +admission I have just made, that I believed it possible Ursula Malbone +_could_ love Zephaniah Thousandacres, or whatever might be his real +name. I have since pulled at my own hair, in rage at my own folly, as +that moment of weakness has recurred to my mind. + +"She writes a desp'rate letter!" exclaimed the young squatter, +stretching his large frame, like one who had lost command of his +movements through excitement. "I don't believe, major, the like of that +gal is to be found in York, taken as State or colony! I've a dreadful +likin' for her!" + +It was impossible not to smile at this outpouring of attachment; nor, on +the whole, would I have been surprised at the ambition it inferred, had +the youth been but a very little higher in the social scale. Out of the +large towns, and with here and there an exception in favor of an +isolated family, there is not, even to this day, much distinction in +classes among our eastern brethren. The great equality of condition and +education that prevails, as a rule, throughout all the rural population +of New England, while it has done so much for the great body of their +people, has had its inevitable consequences in lowering the standard of +cultivation among the few, both as it is applied to acquirements, and to +the peculiar notions of castes; and nothing is more common in that part +of the world, than to hear of marriages that elsewhere would have been +thought incongruous, for the simple reason of the difference in ordinary +habits and sentiments between the parties. Thus it was, that Zephaniah, +without doing as much violence to his own, as would be done to our +notions of the fitness of things, might aspire to the hand of Ursula +Malbone; unattended, as she certainly was, by any of the outward and +more vulgar signs of her real character. I could not but feel some +respect for the young man's taste, therefore, and this so much the more +readily, because I no longer was haunted by the very silly phantom of +his possible success. + +"Having this regard for Dus," I said, "I hope I may count on your +following her directions." + +"What way can I sarve you, major? I do vow, I've every wish to do as +Ursula asks of me, if I only know'd how." + +"You can undo the fastenings of our prison, here, and let us go at once +into the woods, where we shall be safe enough against a recapture, +depend on it. Do us that favor, and I will give you fifty acres of land, +on which you can settle down and become an honest man. Remember, it will +be something honorable to own fifty acres of good land, in fee." + +Zephaniah pondered on my tempting offer, and I could see that he wavered +in opinion, but the decision was adverse to my wishes. He shook his +head, looked round wistfully at the woods where he supposed Dus then to +be, possibly watching his very movements, but he would not yield. + +"If a father can't trust his own son, who can he trust, in natur'?" +demanded the young squatter. + +"No one should be aided in doing wrong, and your father has no just +right to shut up us three, in this building, as he has done. The deed is +against the law, and to the law, sooner or later, will he be made to +give an account of it." + +"Oh! as for the law, he cares little for _that_. We've been ag'in +law all over lives, and the law is ag'in us. When a body comes to +take the chance of jurors, and witnesses, and lawyers, and poor +attorney-gin'rals, and careless prosecutors, law's no great matter to +stand out ag'in in this country. I s'pose there is countries in which +law counts for suthin'; but hereabouts, and all through Varmount, we +don't kear much for the law, unless it's a matter between man and man, +and t'other side holds out for his rights, bull-dog fashion. Then, I +allow, its suthin' to have the law on your side; but it's no great +matter in a trespass case." + +"This may not end in a trespass case, however. Your father--by the way, +is Thousandacres much hurt?" + +"Not much to speak on," coolly answered the son, still gazing in the +direction of the woods. "A little stunned, but he's gettin' over it +fast, and he's used to sich rubs. Father's desp'rate solid about the +head, and can stand as much sledgehammering there, as any man I ever +seed. Tobit's tough, too, in that part; and he's need of it, for he's +forever getting licks around the forehead and eyes." + +"And, as your father comes to, what seems to be his disposition toward +us?" + +"Nothin' to speak on, in the way of friendship, I can tell you! The old +man's considerable riled; and when that's the case, he'll have his own +way for all the governors and judges in the land!" + +"Do you suppose he meditates any serious harm to his prisoners?" + +"A man doesn't meditate a great deal, I guess, with such a rap on the +skull. He _feels_ a plaguy sight more than he _thinks_; and when the +feelin's is up, it doesn't matter much who's right and who's wrong. The +great difficulty in your matter is how to settle about the lumber that's +in the creek. The water's low; and the most that can be done with it, +afore November, will to be float it down to the next rift, over which it +can never go, with any safety, without more water. It's risky to keep +one like you, and to keep Chainbearer, too, three or four months, in +jail like; and it wunt do to let you go neither, sin' you'd soon have +the law a'ter us. If we keep you, too, there'll be a s'arch made, and a +reward offered. Now a good many of your tenants know of this clearin', +and human natur' can't hold out ag'in a reward. The old man knows that +_well_; and it's what he's most afeared on. We can stand up ag'in almost +anything better than ag'in a good, smart reward." + +I was amused as well as edified with Zephaniah's simplicity and +frankness, and would willingly have pursued the discourse, had not +Lowiny come tripping toward us, summoning her brother away to attend a +meeting of the family; the old squatter having so far recovered as to +call a council of his sons. The brother left me on the instant, but the +girl lingered at my corner of the storehouse, like one who was reluctant +to depart. + +"I hope the hasty-puddin' was sweet and good," said Lowiny, casting a +timid glance in at the chink. + +"It was excellent, my good girl, and I thank you for it with all my +heart. Are you very busy now?--can you remain a moment while I make a +request?" + +"Oh! there's nothin' for me to do just now in the house, seem' that +father has called the b'ys around him. Whenever he does that, even +mother is apt to quit." + +"I am glad of it, as I think you are so kind-hearted and good that I may +trust you in a matter of some importance; may I not, my good Lowiny?" + +"Squatters' da'ghters _may_ be good, then, a'ter all, in the eyes of +grand landholders!" + +"Certainly--_excellent_ even; and I am much disposed to believe that you +are one of that class." Lowiny looked delighted; and I felt less +reluctance at administering this flattery than might otherwise have been +the case, from the circumstance that so much of what I said was really +merited. + +"Indeed, I know you are, and quite unfitted for this sort of life. But I +must tell you my wishes at once, for our time may be very short." + +"Do," said the girl, looking up anxiously, a slight blush suffusing her +face; the truth-telling sign of ingenuous feelings, and the gage of +virtue; "do, for I'm dying to hear it; as I know beforehand I shall do +just what you ask me to do. I don't know how it is, but when father or +mother ask me to do a thing, I sometimes feel as if I couldn't; but I +don't feel so now, at all." + +"My requests do not come often enough to tire you. Promise me, in the +first place, to keep my secret." + +"_That_ I will!" answered Lowiny, promptly, and with emphasis. "Not a +mortal soul shall know anything on't, and I won't so much as talk of it +in my sleep, as I sometimes do, if I can any way help it." + +"Chainbearer has a niece who is very dear to him, and who returns all +his affection. Her name is----" + +"Dus Malbone," interrupted the girl, with a faint laugh. "Zeph has told +me all about her, for Zeph and I be great friends--_he_ tells me +everything, and _I_ tell him everything. It's sich a comfort, you can't +think, to have somebody to tell secrets to;--well, what of Dus?" + +"She is here." + +"Here! I don't see anything on her"--looking round hurriedly, and, as I +fancied, in a little alarm--"Zeph says she's dreadful han'some!" + +"She is thought so, I believe; though, in that respect, she is far from +being alone. There is no want of pretty girls in America. By saying she +was here I did not mean here in the storehouse, but here in the woods. +She accompanied her uncle as far as the edge of the clearing--look +round, more toward the east. Do you see the black stub, in the +cornfield, behind your father's dwelling?" + +"Sartain--that's plain enough to be seen--I wish I could see Albany as +plain." + +"Now look a little to the left of that stub, and you will see a large +chestnut, in the edge of the woods behind it--the chestnut, I mean, that +thrusts its top out of the forest into the clearing, as it might be." + +"Well, I see the chestnut, too, and I know it well. There's a spring of +water cluss to its roots." + +"At the foot of that chestnut Chainbearer left his niece, and doubtless +she is somewhere near it now. Could you venture to stroll as far, +without going directly to the spot, and deliver a message, or a letter?" + +"To be sure I could! Why, we gals stroll about the lots as much as we +please, and it's berryin' time now. I'll run and get a basket, and you +can write your letter while I'm gone. La! Nobody will think anything of +my goin' a berryin'--I have a desp'rate wish to see this Dus! Do you +think she'll have Zeph?" + +"Young women's minds are so uncertain that I should not like to venture +an opinion. If it were one of my own sex, now, and had declared his +wishes, I think I could tell you with some accuracy." + +The girl laughed; then she seemed a little bewildered, and again she +colored. How the acquired--nay, _native_ feeling of the sex, will rise +up in tell-tale ingenuousness to betray a woman! + +"Well," she cried, as she ran away in quest of the basket, "to my +notion, a gal's mind is as true and as much to be depended on as that of +any mortal crittur' living!" + +It was now my business to write a note to Dus. The materials for writing +my pocket-book furnished. I tore out a leaf, and approached Chainbearer, +telling him what I was about to do, and desiring to know if he had any +particular message to send. + +"Gif t'e tear gal my plessin', Mortaunt. Tell her olt Chainpearer prays +Got to pless her--t'at ist all. I leaf you to say t'e rest." + +I did say the rest. In the first place I sent the blessing of the uncle +to the niece. Then I explained, in as few words as possible, our +situation, giving it as promising an aspect as my conscience would +permit. These explanations made, I entreated Ursula to return to her +brother, and not again expose herself so far from his protection. Of the +close of this note I shall not say much. It was brief, but it let Dus +understand that my feelings toward her were as lively as ever; and I +believe it was expressed with the power that passion lends. My note was +ended just as Lowiny appeared to receive it. She brought us a pitcher of +milk, as a sort of excuse for returning to the storehouse, received the +note in exchange, and hurried away toward the fields. As she passed one +of the cabins, I heard her calling out to a sister that she was going +for blackberries to give the prisoners. + +I watched the movements of that active girl with intense interest. +Chainbearer, who had slept little since my disappearance, was making up +for lost time; and as for the Indian, eating and sleeping are very +customary occupations of his race, when not engaged in some hunt, or on +the war-path, or as a runner. + +Lowiny proceeded toward a lot of which the bushes had taken full +possession. Here she soon disappeared, picking berries as she proceeded, +with nimble fingers, as if she felt the necessity of having some of the +fruit to show on her return. I kept my eye fastened on the openings of +the forest, near the chestnut, as soon as the girl was concealed in the +bushes, anxiously waiting for the moment when I might see her form +reappearing at that spot. My attention was renewed by getting a glimpse +of Dus. It was but a glimpse, the fluttering of a female dress gliding +among the trees; but, as it was too soon for the arrival of Lowiny, I +knew it must be Dus. This was cheering, as it left little reason to +doubt that my messenger would find the object of her visit. In the +course of half an hour after Lowiny entered the bushes I saw her, +distinctly, near the foot of the chestnut. Pausing a moment, as if to +reconnoitre, the girl suddenly moved into the forest, when I made no +doubt she and Dus had a meeting. An entire hour passed, and I saw no +more of Lowiny. + +In the meanwhile Zephaniah made his appearance again at the side of the +storehouse. This time he came accompanied by two of his brethren, +holding the key in his hand. At first I supposed the intention was to +arraign me before the high court of Thousandacres, but in this I was in +error. No sooner did the young men reach the door of our prison than +Zephaniah called out to the Onondago to approach it, as he had something +to say to him. + +"It must be dull work to a redskin to be shut up like a hog afore it's +wrung," said the youth, drawing his images from familiar objects; "and I +s'pose you'd be right glad to come out here and walk about, something +like a free and rational crittur.' What do you say, Injin--is sich your +desire?" + +"Sartain," quietly answered Sureflint. "Great deal radder be out dan be +in here." + +"So I nat'rally s'posed. Well, the old man says you can come out on +promises, if you're disposed to make 'em. So you're master of your own +movements, you see." + +"What he want me do? What he want me to say, eh?" + +"No great matter, a'ter all, if a body has only a mind to try to do it. +In the first place, you're to give your parole not to go off; but to +stay about the clearin', and to come in and give yourself up when the +conch blows three short blasts. Will you agree to that, Sus?" + +"Sartain--no go 'way; come back when he call--dat mean stay where he can +hear conch." + +"Well, that's agreed on, and it's a bargain. Next, you're to agree not +to go pryin' round the mill and barn, to see what you can find, but keep +away from all the buildin's but the store'us' and the dwellings, and not +to quit the clearin'. Do you agree?" + +"Good; no hard to do dat." + +"Well, you're to bring no weepons into the settlement, and to pass +nothing but words and food in to the other prisoners. Will you stand to +_that_?" + +"Sartain; willin' 'nough to do dat, too." + +"Then you're in no manner or way to make war on any on us 'till your +parole is up, and you're your own man ag'in. What do you say to that, +Trackless?" + +"All good; 'gree to do him all." + +"Wa-a-l, that's pretty much all the old man stands out for; but mother +has a condition or two that she insists on't I shall ask. Should the +worst come to the worst, and the folks of this settlement get to blows +with the folks out of it, you're to bargain to take no scalps of women +or children, and none from any man that you don't overcome in open +battle. The old woman will grant you the scalps of men killed in battle, +but thinks it ag'in reason to take 'em from sich as be not so overcome." + +"Good; don't want to take scalp at all," answered the Indian, with an +emotion he could not altogether suppress. "Got no tribe--got no young +men; what good scalp do? Nobody care how many scalp Susquesus take +away--how many he leave behind. All dat forgot long time." + +"Wa-a-l, that's _your_ affair, not mine. But, as all the articles is +agreed to, you can come out, and go about your business. Mind, three +short, sharp blasts on the conch is the signal to come in and give +yourself up." + +On this singular cartel Susquesus was set at liberty. I heard the whole +arrangement with astonishment; though, by the manner of the high +contracting parties, it was easy to see there was nothing novel in the +arrangement, so far as _they_ were concerned. I had heard that the faith +of an Indian of any character, in all such cases, was considered sacred, +and could not but ask myself, as Susquesus walked quietly out of prison, +how many potentates and powers there were in Christendom who, under +circumstances similarly involving their most important interests, could +be found to place a similar confidence in their fellows! Curious to know +how my present masters felt on this subject, the opportunity was +improved to question them. + +"You give the Indian his liberty on parole," I said to Zephaniah--"will +you refuse the same privilege to us white men?" + +"An Injin is an Injin. He has his natur', and we've our'n. Suthin' was +said about lettin' you out, too, major; but the old man wouldn't hear to +it. 'He know'd mankind,' he said, 'and he know'd t'would never do.' If +you let a white man loose, he sets his wits at work to find a hole to +creep out on the bargain--goin' back to the creation of the 'arth but +he'll find one. The major will say 'I was put in ag'in' law, and now I'm +out, I'll stay out ag'in promises,' or some sich reasonin', and now we +have him safe, 'twill be best to keep him safe! That's the substance of +the old man's idees, and you can see, major, just as well as any on us, +how likely he'll be to change 'em." + +There was no contending with this logic, which in secret I well knew to +be founded in fact, and I made no further application for my own +release. It appeared, however, that Thousandacres himself was +half-disposed to make a concession in favor of Chainbearer, similar to +that he had granted to the Indian. This struck me as singular, after the +rude collision that had already occurred between the two men--but there +are points of honor that are peculiar to each condition of life, and +which the men of each feel a pride not only in causing to be respected, +but in respecting themselves. + +"Father had some thoughts of taking your parole, too, Chainbearer," +added Zephaniah, "and he concluded he would, hadn't it been that you'd +been living out in the settlements so much of late years, that he's not +quite easy in trusting you. A man that passes so much of his time in +running boundaries, may think himself privileged to step over them." + +"Your fat'er is welcome to his opinion," answered Andries, coolly. +"He'll get no parole of me, nor do I want any favors of him. We are at +swords' p'ints, young man, and let him look out for himself and his +lumper as pest he can." + +"Nay," answered Zephaniah, stretching himself, and answering with +spirit, though he well knew he was speaking to the uncle of Dus, and +thereby endangering his interests with his mistress--"nay, Chainbearer, +if it comes to _that_, 'twill be 'hardes fend off.' We are a strong +party of stout men, and arn't to be frightened by the crier of a court, +or to be druv' off the land by sheep-skin. Catamounts must come ag'in us +in droves, afore we'll give an inch." + +"Go away, go away--foolish young fellow--you're your fat'er's son, and +t'at's as much as neet pe said of you. I want no favors from squatters, +which ist a preed I tetest and tespise." + +I was a little surprised at hearing this answer, and at witnessing this +manifestation of feeling in Chainbearer, who, ordinarily, was a cool, +and uniformly a courteous man. On reflection, however, I saw he was not +so wrong. An exchange of anything like civilities between us and our +captors, might seem to give them some claim on us; whereas, by standing +on the naked right, we had every advantage of them, in a moral sense, at +least. Zephaniah and his brethren left us, on receiving this repulse of +Andries; but Susquesus kept loitering around the storehouse, apparently +little better off now he was on its outside than he had been when in it. +He had nothing to do, and his idleness was that of an Indian--one of a +race of such terrible energies, when energy is required, and so +frequently listless, when not pressed upon by necessity, pleasure, war +or interest. + +Things were in this state, when, some time after the interview just +related, we had another visit from a party headed by Tobit. This man +came to escort Chainbearer and myself to the cabin of Thousandacres, +where all the men of the family were assembled; and where, as it now +appeared, we were to have something like a hearing that might seriously +affect our fates, for good or for evil. I consulted Chainbearer on the +propriety of our lending ourselves to such a measure; but I found +Andries disposed to meet the brood of squatters, face to face, and to +tell them his mind, let it be when and where it might. Finding my friend +in this temper, I made no further objections myself, but left the +storehouse in his company, well guarded by four of the young men, all of +whom were armed, holding our way to the seat of justice, in that wild +and patriarchal government. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + "When Adam delv'd, and Eve span, + Where was then the gentleman?"--_Old Saw._ + + +Thousandacres had not altogether neglected forms, though so much set +against the spirit of the law. We found a sort of court collected before +the door of his dwelling, with himself in the centre, while the +principal room contained no one but Prudence and one or two of her +daughters. Among the latter was Lowiny, to my surprise; for I had not +seen the girl return from the woods, though my eyes had not been long +turned from the direction in which I had hopes of catching a glimpse of +Dus. + +Tobit led us prisoners into the house, placing us near the door, and +facing his father; an arrangement that superseded the necessity of much +watchfulness, as our only means of escape would necessarily be by +rushing through the throng without--a thing virtually impracticable. But +Chainbearer appeared to have no thought of flight. He entered that +circle of athletic young men with perfect indifference; and I remember +that it struck me his air resembled that which I had often seen him +assume when our regiment was on the eve of serious service. At such +moments old Andries could, and often did, appear grand--dignity, +authority and coldness being blended with sterling courage. + +When in the room, Chainbearer and I seated ourselves near the door, +while Thousandacres had a chair on the turf without, surrounded by his +sons, all of whom were standing. As this arrangement was made amid a +grave silence, the effect was not altogether without impressiveness, and +partook of some of the ordinary aspects of justice. I was struck with +the anxious curiosity betrayed in the countenances of the females in +particular; for the decision to which Thousandacres was about to come, +would with them have the authority of a judgment of Solomon. Accustomed +to reason altogether in their own interests, I make no doubt that, in +the main, all of that semi-barbarous breed fancied themselves invested, +in their lawless occupation, by some sort of secret natural right; +ignorant of the fact that, the moment they reduced their claim to this +standard, they put it on the level with that of all the rest of mankind. +Nature gives nothing exclusively to an individual, beyond his +individuality, and that which appertains to his person and personal +qualities; all beyond he is compelled to share, under the law of nature, +with the rest of his race. A title dependent on original possession +forms no exception to this rule; for it is merely human convention that +gives it force and authority, without which it would form no title at +all. But into mysteries like these, none of the family of Thousandacres +ever entered; though the still, small voice of conscience, the +glimmerings of right, were to be traced occasionally, even amid the +confused jumble of social maxims in which their selfishness had taken +refuge. + +We live in an age of what is called progress, and fancy that man is +steadily advancing on the great path of his destiny, to something that +we are apt to imagine is to form perfection. Certainly, I shall not +presume to say what is, or what is not, the divine intention as to the +future destination of our species on earth; but years and experience +must have taught me, or I should have lived in vain, how little there is +among our boasted improvements that is really new; and if we do possess +anything in the way of principles that bear on them the impress of +inviolability, they are those that have become the most venerable, by +having stood the severest tests of time. + +I know not whether the long, silent pause that succeeded our arrival was +the result of an intention to heighten the effect of that scene, or +whether Thousandacres really wished time to collect his thoughts and to +mature his plans. One thing struck me; notwithstanding the violence that +had so recently occurred between Chainbearer and himself, there were no +traces of resentment in the hardened and wrinkled countenance of that +old tenant of the forest; for he was too much accustomed to those sudden +outbreakings of anger, to suffer them long to linger in his +recollection. In all that was said, and in all that passed, in the +course of that (to me) memorable day, I could trace no manifestation of +any feeling in the squatter, in consequence of the rude personal +rencontre that he had so lately had with my friend. They had clenched +and he had been overthrown; and that ended the matter. + +The silence which occurred after we took our seats must have lasted +several minutes. For myself, I saw I was only a secondary person in this +interview; old Andries having completely supplanted me in importance, +not only in acts, but in the estimation of the squatters. To him they +were accustomed, and accustomed, moreover, to regard as a sort of +hostile power; his very pursuit being opposed to the great moving +principle of their every-day lives. The man who measured land, and he +who took it to himself without measurement, were exactly antagonist +forces, in morals as well as in physics; and might be supposed not to +regard each other with the most friendly eyes. Thus it was that the +Chainbearer actually became an object of greater interest to these +squatters, than the son of one of the owners of the soil, and the +attorney in fact of both. As for the old man himself, I could see that +he looked very Dutch, which implied a stubborn resolution bordering on +obstinacy; unmoved adherence to what he conceived to be right; and a +strong dislike to his present neighbors, in addition to other reasons, +on account of their having come from the eastward; a race that he both +distrusted and respected; disliked, yet covertly honored, for many a +quality that was both useful and good. + +To the next generation the feeling that was once so active between the +descendants of Holland among ourselves, and the people of English birth +who came from the Eastern States, will be almost purely a matter of +history. I perceive that my father, in the manuscript he has transmitted +to me, as well as I myself, have made various allusions to the subject. +It is my wish to be understood in this matter. I have introduced it +solely as a _fact_ that is beyond controversy; but, I trust, without any +undue bigotry of opinion. It is possible that both Mr. Cornelius +Littlepage and his son, unconsciously to ourselves, may have been +influenced by the ancient prejudices of the colonies, though I have +endeavored scrupulously to avoid them. At any rate, if either of us has +appeared to be a little too severe, I trust the reader will remember how +much has been uttered to the world in reference to this dislike, by the +Yankee, and how little by the Dutchman during the last century and a +half, and grant to one who is proud of the little blood from Holland +that he happens to possess, the privilege of showing at least one of the +phases of his own side of the story. But it is time to return to our +scene in the hut. + +"Chainbearer," commenced Thousandacres, after the pause already +mentioned had lasted several minutes, and speaking with a dignity that +could only have proceeded from the intensity of his feelings; +"Chainbearer, you've been an inimy to me and mine sin' the day we first +met. You're an inimy by your cruel callin'; yet you've the boldness to +thrust yourself into my very hands!" + +"I'm an enemy to all knaves, T'ousantacres, and I ton't care who knows +it," answered old Andries, sternly; "t'at ist my trate, ast well ast +carryin' chain; ant I wish it to pe known far and near. Ast for pein' +your enemy by callin', I may say as much of yourself; since there coult +pe no surveyin', or carryin' of chain, tit all t'e people help +t'emselves to lant, as you haf tone your whole life, wit'out as much as +sayin' to t'e owners 'py your leaf.'" + +"Things have now got to a head atween us, Chainbearer," returned the +squatter; "but seein' that you're in my hands, I'm ready and willin' to +reason the p'int with you, in hopes that we may yet part fri'nds, and +that this may be the last of all our troubles. You and I be getting to +be oldish men, Chainbearer; and it's fittin' that them that be gettin' +near their eends, should sometimes think on 'em. I come from no Dutch +colony, but from a part of the world where mankind fears God, and has +some thoughts of a futur' state." + +"T'at's neit'er here nor t'ere, T'ousantacres," cried Andries, +impatiently. "Not put what religion is a goot t'ing, and a t'ing to be +venerated, ant honoret, ant worshippet; put t'at it's out of place in a +squatter country, and most of all in a squatter's mout'. Can you telt me +one t'ing, T'ousantacres, and t'at ist, why you Yankees pray so much, +ant call on Got to pless you every o'ter wort, ant turn up your eyes, +ant look so temure of Suntays, ant ten go ant squat yourselfs town on a +Tutchman's lant on a Montay? I'm an olt man, ant haf lifed long ant seen +much, ant hope I unterstant some of t'at which I haf seen ant lifed +amongst, put I do not comprehent t'at! Yankee religion ant Tutch +religion cannot come out of t'e same piple." + +"I should think not, I should think not, Chainbearer and I _hope_ not, +in the bargain. I do not wish to be justified by ways like your'n, or a +religion like your'n. That which is foreordained will come to pass, let +what will happen, and that's my trust. But, leaving religion out of this +matter atween us altogether----" + +"Ay, you'll do well to do t'at," growled Chainbearer, "for religion hast +inteet very little to do wit' it." + +"I say," answered Thousandacres, on a higher key, as if resolute to make +himself heard, "leaving religion for Sabba' days and proper occasions, +I'm ready to talk this matter over on the footin' of reason, and not +only to tell you my say, but to hear your'n, as is right atween man and +man." + +"I confess a strong desire to listen to what Thousandacres has to say in +defence of his conduct, Chainbearer," I now thought it best to put in; +"and I hope you will so far oblige me as to be a patient listener. I am +very willing that you should answer, for I know of no person to whom I +would sooner trust a religious cause than yourself. Proceed, +Thousandacres; my old friend will comply." + +Andries did conform to my wishes, thus distinctly expressed, but it was +not without sundry signs of disquiet, as expressed in his honest +countenance, and a good deal of subdued muttering about "Yankee cunnin' +and holy gotliness, t'at is dresset up in wolf's clot'in';" Chainbearer +meaning to express the native garment of the sheep by the latter +expression, but falling into a confusion of images that is by no means +rare among the men of his caste and people. After a pause the squatter +proceeded. + +"In talkin' this matter over, young man, I propose to begin at the +beginnin' of things," he said; "for I allow, if you grant any value to +titles, and king's grants, and sich sort of things, that my rights here +be no great matter. But, beginnin' at the beginnin', the case is very +different. You'll admit, I s'pose, that the Lord created the heavens and +the 'arth, and that He created man to be master over the last." + +"What of t'at?" eagerly cried Chainbearer. "What of t'at, olt +T'ousantacres? So t'e Lort createt yonter eagle t'at is flyin' so far +apove your heat, put it's no sign you are to kill him, or he ist to kill +you." + +"Hear to reason, Chainbearer, and let me have my say; a'ter which I'm +willing to hear you. I begin at the beginnin', when man was first put in +possession of the 'arth, to till, and to dig, and to cut saw-logs, and +to make lumber, jist as it suited his wants and inclinations. Now Adam +was the father of all, and to him and his posterity was the possession +of the 'arth given, by Him whose title's worth that of all the kings, +and governors, and assemblies in the known world. Adam lived his time, +and left all things to his posterity, and so has it been from father to +son, down to our own day and giniration, accordin' to the law of God, +though not accordin' to the laws of man." + +"Well, admittin' all you say, squatter, how does t'at make your right +here petter t'an t'at of any ot'er man?" demanded Andries, disdainfully. + +"Why, reason tells us where a man's rights begin, you'll see, +Chainbearer. Here is the 'arth, as I told you, given to man, to be used +for his wants. When you and I are born, some parts of the world is in +use, and some parts isn't. We want land, when we are old enough to turn +our hands to labor, and I make my pitch out here in the woods, say where +no man has pitched afore me. Now in my judgment that makes the best of +title, the Lord's title."[17] + +[Footnote 17: Lest the reader should suppose Mr. Mordaunt Littlepage is +here recording uselessly the silly sayings of a selfish, ignorant, and +vulgar robber, it may be well to add, that doctrines of a calibre, +considered in respect of morals and logic, similar to this, though +varying according to circumstances and the points it is desired to +establish, are constantly published in journals devoted to anti-rentism +in the State of New York, and men have acted on these principles even to +the shedding of blood. We purpose, when we come to our third manuscript, +which relates to movements of our immediate time, to distinctly lay +before the reader some of these strange doctrines; entertaining little +doubt that those who originally promulgated them will scarcely admire +their own theories, when they see them introduced into a work that will +contain the old-fashioned notions of honesty and right.--EDITOR.] + +"Well, t'en, you've got your title from t'e Lord," answered Chainbearer, +"and you've got your lant. I s'pose you'll not take all t'e 'art' t'at +is not yet peoplet, and I shoult like to know how you wilt run your +lines petween you ant your next neighpor. Atmittin' you're here in t'e +woots, how much of t'e lant woult you take for your own religious uses, +and how much woult you leaf for t'e next comer?" + +"Each man would take as much as was necessary for his wants, +Chainbearer, and hold as much as he possessed." + +"Put what ist wants, ant what ist possession? Look arount you +T'ousantacres, and tell me how much of t'is fery spot you'd haf a mint +to claim, under your Lort's title?" + +"How much? As much as I have need on--enough to feed me and mine--and +enough for lumber, and to keep the b'ys busy. It would somewhat depend +on sarcumstances: I might want more at one time than at another, as b'ys +grew up, and the family increased in numbers." + +"Enough for lumper how long? and to keep t'e poys pusy how long? For a +tay, or a week, or a life, or a great numper of lifes? You must tell me +t'at, Tousantacres, pefore I gif cretit to your title." + +"Don't be onreasonable--don't be onreasonable in your questions, +Chainbearer; and I'll answer every one on 'em, and in a way to satisfy +you, or any judgmatical man. How long do I want the lumber? As long as +I've use for it. How long do I want to keep the b'ys busy? Till they're +tired of the place, and want to change works. When a man's aweary of his +pitch, let him give it up for another, selling his betterments, of +course, to the best chap he can light on." + +"Oh! you't sell you petterments, woult you! What! sell t'e Lort's title, +olt T'ousantacres? Part wit' Heaven's gift for t'e value of poor +miseraple silver and golt?" + +"You don't comprehend Aaron," put in Prudence, who saw that Chainbearer +was likely to get the best of the argument, and who was always ready to +come to the rescue of any of her tribe, whether it might be necessary +with words, or tooth and nail, or the rifle. "You don't, by no manner of +means, comprehend Aaron, Chainbearer. His idee is, that the Lord has +made the 'arth for his crittur's; that any one that wants land, has a +right to take as much as he wants, and to use it as long as he likes; +and when he has done, to part with his betterments for sich price as may +be agreed on." + +"I stick to that," joined in the squatter, with a loud hem, like a man +who was sensible of relief; "that's my idee, and I'm determined to live +and die by it." + +"You've lifed py it, I know very well, T'ousantacres; ant, now you're +olt, it's quite likely you'll tie py it. As for comprehentin', you don't +comprehent yourself. I'll just ask you, in the first place, how much +lant do you holt on t'is very spot? You're here squattet so completely +ant finally as to haf puilt a mill. Now tell me how much lant you holt, +t'at when I come to squat alongsite of you, our fences may not lap on +one anot'er. I ask a simple question, ant I hope for a plain ant +straight answer. Show me t'e pountaries of your tomain, ant how much of +t'e worlt you claim, ant how much you ton't claim." + +"I've pretty much answered that question already, Chainbearer. My creed +is, that a man has a right to hold all he wants, and to want all he +holds." + +"Got help t'e men, t'en, t'at haf to carry chain petween you and your +neighpors, T'ousandacres; a man's wants to-tay may tiffer from his wants +to-morrow, and to-morrow from t'e next tay, ant so on to t'e ent of +time! On your toctrine, not'in' woult pe settlet, ant all woult pe at +sixes ant sevens." + +"I don't think I'm fully understood, a'ter all that's been said," +returned the squatter. "Here's two men start in life at the same time, +and both want farms. Wa-a-l; there's the wilderness, or maybe it isn't +all wilderness, though it once was. One chooses to buy out betterments, +and he does so; t'other plunges in, out o' sight of humanity, and makes +his pitch. Both them men's in the right, and can hold on to their +possessions, I say, to the eend of time. That is, on the supposition +that right is stronger than might." + +"Well, well," answered Chainbearer, a little dryly; "ant s'pose one of +your men _ton't_ want to puy petterments, put follows t'ot'er, and makes +his pitch in t'e wilterness, also?" + +"Let him do't, I say; t'is his right, and the law of the Lord." + +"Put, s'pose bot' your young men want t'e same pit of wilt lant?" + +"First come, first sarv'd; that's my maxim. Let the spryest chap have +the land. Possession's everything in settling land titles." + +"Well, t'en, to please you, T'ousandacres, we'll let one get aheat of +t'other, and haf his possession first; how much shalt he occupy?" + +"As much as he wants, I've told you already." + +"Ay, put when his slower frient comes along, ant hast his wants too, and +wishes to make _his_ pitch alongsite of his olt neighpor, where is t'e +pountary petween 'em to be fount?" + +"Let 'em agree on't! They must be dreadful poor neighbors, if they can't +agree on so small a matter as that," said Tobit, who was getting weary +of the argument. + +"Tobit is right," added the father; "let 'em agree on their line, and +run it by the eye. Curse on all chains and compasses, say I! They're an +invention of the devil, to make ill blood in a neighborhood, and to keep +strife awake, when our Bibles tell us to live in peace with all mankind. + +"Yes, yes, I understand all t'at," returned Chainbearer, a little +disdainfully. "A Yankee piple ist a fery convenient pook. T'ere's +aut'ority in it for all sort of toctrines ant worshipin', ant prayin', +ant preachin', ant so forth. It's what I call a so-forth piple, +Mortaunt, and wilt reat packwarts as well ast forwarts; put all t'e +chapters into one, if necessary, or all t'e verses into chapters. +Sometimes St. Luke is St. Paul, and St. John ist St. Matt'ew. I've he'rt +your tominies expount, and no two expount alike. Novelties ist t'e +religion of New Englant, ant novelties, in t'e shape of ot'er men's +lants, is t'e creet of her lofely chiltren! Oh! yes, I've seen a Yankee +piple! Put, this toesn't settle out two squatters; bot' of whom wants a +sartain hill for its lumper; now, which is to haf it?" + +"The man that got there first, I've told you, old Chainbearer, and once +tellin' is as good as a thousand. If the first comer looked on that +hill, and said to himself, 'that hill's mine,' 't is his'n." + +"Well, t'at ist making property fast; Wast t'at t'e way, T'ousantacres, +t'at you took up your estate on t'e Mooseridge property?" + +"Sartain--I want no better title. I got here first, and tuck up the +land, and shall continue to tuck it up, as I want it. There's no use in +being mealy-mouthed, for I like to speak out, though the landlord's son +be by!" + +"Oh! you speak out lout enouf, ant plain enouf, and I shoultn't wonter +if you got tucket up yourself, one tay, for your pains. Here ist a +tifficulty, however, t'at I'll just mention, T'ousantacres, for your +consiteration. You take possession of timper-lant, by lookin' at it, you +say--" + +"Even lookin' at isn't necessary," returned the squatter, eager to widen +the grasp of his rights. "It's enough that a man _wants_ the land, and +he comes, or sends to secure it. Possession is everything, and I call it +possession, to crave a spot, and to make some sort of calkerlation, or +works, reasonably near it. That gives a right to cut and clear, and when +a clearin's begun, it's betterments, and everybody allows that +betterments may be both bought and sold." + +"Well, now we understant each o'ter. Put here ist t'e small tifficulty I +woult mention. One General Littlepage and one Colonel Follock took a +fancy to t'is spot long pefore t'e olt French war; ant pesites fancyin' +t'e place, and sentin' messengers to look at it, t'ey pought out t'e +Injin right in t'e first place; t'en t'ey pought of t'e king, who hat +all t'e lant in t'e country, at t'at time, ast hatn't ot'er owners. T'en +t'ey sent surfeyors to run t'e lines, ant t'em very surfeyors passet +along py t'is river, ast I know py t'eir fielt-pooks (field-books): t'en +more surfeyors wast sent out to tivite it into great lots, ant now more +still haf come to tivite it into small lots: ant t'ey've paid quit-rents +for many years, ant tone ot'er t'ings to prove t'ey want t'is place as +much as you want it yourself. T'ey haf hat it more ast a quarter of a +century, ant exerciset ownership over it all t'at time; ant wantet it +very much t'e whole of t'at quarter of a century, ant, if t'e truit' was +sait, want it still." + +A long pause followed this statement, during which the different members +of the family looked at each other, as if in quest of support. The idea +of there being any other side to the question than that they had been +long accustomed to consider so intently, was novel to them, and they +were a little bewildered by the extraordinary circumstance. This is one +of the great difficulties under which the inhabitant of a narrow +district labors, in all that pertains to his personal notions and +tastes, and a good deal in what relates to his principles. This it is +that makes the true provincial, with his narrow views, set notions, +conceit, and unhesitating likes and dislikes. When one looks around him +and sees how very few are qualified, by experience and knowledge of the +world, to utter opinions at all, he is apt to be astonished at finding +how many there are that do it. I make no doubt that the family of +Thousandacres were just as well satisfied with their land-ethics, as +Paley ever could have been with his moral philosophy, or Newton with his +mathematical demonstrations. + +"I don't wonter you're callet T'ousantacres, Aaron Timperman," continued +Chainbearer, pushing his advantage, "for wit' such a title to your +estate, you might as well pe tarmet Ten T'ousantacres at once, ant more, +too! Nay, I wonter, while your eyes was trawin' up title teets, t'at you +shoult haf peen so mot'erate, for it was just as easy to possess a +patent on t'at sort of right, as to possess a single farm." + +But Thousandacres had made up his mind to pursue the subject no further; +and while it was easy to see what fiery passions were burning within +him, he seemed now bent on bringing a conference, from which he +doubtless expected different results, to a sudden close. It was with +difficulty that he suppressed the volcano that was raging within, but he +so far succeeded as to command Tobit to shut up his prisoner again. + +"Take him away, b'ys, take him back to the store'us'," said the old +squatter, rising and moving a little on one side to permit Andries to +pass, as if afraid to trust himself too near; "he was born the sarvent +of the rich, and will die their sarvent. Chains be good enough for him, +and I wish him no greater harm than to carry chains the rest of his +days." + +"Oh! you're a true son of liperty!" called out the Chainbearer, as he +quietly returned to his prison; "a true son of liperty, accordin' to +your own conceit! You want eferyt'ing in your own way, and eferyt'ing in +your own pocket. T'e Lort's law is a law for T'ousantacres, put not a +law to care for Cornelius Littlepage or Tirck Follock!" + +Although my old friend was escorted to his prison, no attempt was made +to remove me. On the contrary, Prudence joined her husband without, +followed by all her young fry, and for a moment I fancied myself +forgotten and deserted. A movement in one corner of the room, however, +drew my attention there, and I saw Lowiny standing on tiptoe, with a +finger on her lips, the sign of silence, while she made eager gestures +with the other hand for me to enter a small passage that communicated, +by means of a ladder, with the loft of the hut. My moccasons were now of +great advantage to me. Without pausing to reflect on consequences, or to +look around, I did as directed, drawing-to the door after me. There was +a small window in the sort of passage in which I now found myself alone +with the girl, and my first impulse was to force my body through it, for +it had neither glass nor sash, but Lowiny caught my arms. + +"Lord ha' massy on us!" whispered the girl--"you'd be seen and taken, or +shot! For your life don't go out there now. Here's a hole for a cellar, +and there's the trap--go down there, and wait 'till you hear news from +me." + +There was no time for deliberation, and the sight of Chainbearer's +escort, as they proceeded toward the storehouse, satisfied me that the +girl was right. She held up the trap, and I descended into the hole that +answered the purposes of a cellar. I heard Lowiny draw a chest over the +trap, and then I fancied I could distinguish the creaking of the rounds +of the ladder, as she went up into the loft, which was the place where +she usually slept. + +All this occurred literally in about one minute of time. Another minute +may have passed, when I heard the heavy tread of Thousandacres' foot on +the floor above me, and the clamor of many voices, all speaking at once. +It was evident that I was missed, and a search had already been +commenced. For half a minute nothing was very intelligible to me; then I +heard the shrill voice of Prudence calling for Lowiny. + +"Lowiny--_you_ Lowiny!" she cried--"where _has_ the gal got to?" + +"I'm here, mother"--answered my friend, from her loft--"you told me to +come up, and look for your new Bible." + +I presume this was true; for Prudence had really despatched the girl on +that errand, and it must have sufficed to lull any suspicions of her +daughter's being connected with my disappearance, if any such had been +awakened. The movement of footsteps was now quick over my head, those of +several men being among them; and in the confusion of voices, I heard +that of Lowiny, who must have descended the ladder and joined in the +search. + +"He mustn't be allowed to get off, on no account," said Thousandacres +aloud, "or we're all ondone. Everything we have will fall into their +hands, and mill, logs, and all, will be utterly lost. We shan't even +have time to get off the gear and the household stuff." + +"He's up-stairs"--cried one--"he must be down cellar," said another. +Steps went up the ladder, and I heard the chest drawn from the trap; and +a stream of light entering the place, notified me that the trap was +raised. The place I was in was a hole twenty feet square, roughly walled +with stones, and nearly empty, though it did contain a meat-barrel or +two, and a few old tubs. In the winter, it would have been filled with +vegetables. There was no place to hide in, and an attempt at concealment +would have led to a discovery. I withdrew to a corner, in a part of the +cellar that was quite dark, but thought myself lost when I saw a pair of +legs descending the ladder. Almost at the same moment, three of the men +and two of the women came into the hole, a fourth female, whom I +afterward ascertained to be Lowiny herself, standing in the trap in such +a way as to double the darkness below. The first man who got down began +to tumble the tubs about, and to look into the corners; and the lucky +thought occurred to me to do the same thing. By keeping as busy as the +rest of them, I actually escaped detection in the dark; and Tobit soon +rushed to the ladder, calling out, "the window--the window--he's not +here--the window!" In half a minute the cellar was empty again; or no +one remained but myself. + +At first I had great difficulty in believing in my good luck; but the +trap fell, and the profound stillness of the place satisfied me that I +had avoided that danger, at least. This escape was so singular and +unexpected, that I could hardly believe in its reality; though real it +was, to all intents and purposes. The absurd often strikes the +imagination in an absurd way; and so it proved with me on this occasion. +I sat down on a tub and laughed heartily, when I felt absolutely certain +all was right, holding my sides lest the sound of my voice might yet +betray me. Lowiny was similarly infected, for I heard peals of girlish +laughter from her, as her brothers tumbled about barrels, and tubs, and +bedsteads, in the upper part of the building, in their fruitless and +hurried search. This merriment did not pass unrebuked, however; Prudence +lending her daughter a box on the side of the head, that, in one sense, +reached even my ears; though it probably aided in saving the girl from +the suspicion of being in my secret, by the very natural character of +her girlish indulgence. Two or three minutes after the trap closed on me +for the second time, the sounds of footsteps and voices overhead ceased, +and the hut seemed deserted. + +My situation now was far from comfortable. Confined in a dark cellar, +with no means of escaping but by the trap, and the almost certainty of +falling into the hands of my captors, should I attempt such a thing, I +now began to regret having entered so readily into Lowiny's scheme. +There would be a certain loss of dignity in a recapture, that was not +pleasant in itself; and I will own, I began to have some doubts of my +eventual safety, should I again come under the control of such spirits +as those of Thousandacres and his eldest son. Buried in that cellar, I +was in a manner placed immediately beneath those whose aim it was to +secure me, rendering escape impossible, and detection nearly +unavoidable. + +Such were my meditations when light again streamed into the cellar. The +trap was raised, and presently I heard my name uttered in a whisper. +Advancing to the ladder, I saw Lowiny holding the door, and beckoning +for me to ascend. I followed her directions blindly, and was soon at her +side. The girl was nearly convulsed between dread of detection and a +desire to laugh; my emerging from the cellar recalling to her +imagination all the ludicrous circumstances of the late search. + +"Warn't it queer that none on 'em know'd you!" she whispered; then +commanding silence by a hasty gesture. "Don't speak; for they're +s'archin' still, cluss by, and some on 'em may follow me here. I wanted +to get you out of the cellar, as some of the young-uns will be rummagin' +there soon for pork for supper; and _their_ eyes are as sharp as +needles. Don't you think you could crawl into the mill? It's stopped now, +and wun't be goin' ag'in till this stir's over." + +"I should be seen, my good girl, if any of your people are looking for +me near at hand." + +"I don't know that. Come to the door, and you'll see there is a way. +Everybody's lookin' on the right side of this house; and by creepin' as +far as them logs, you'd be pretty safe. If you reach the mill safely, +climb up into the loft." + +I took a moment to survey the chances. At the distance of a hundred feet +from the house there commenced a large bed of saw-logs, which were lying +alongside of each other; and the timber being from two to four feet in +diameter, it would be very possible to creep among it, up to the mill +itself, into which even several of the logs had been rolled. The great +difficulty would be in reaching the logs through a perfectly open space. +The house would be a cover, as against most of the family, who were busy +examining everything like a cover on its opposite side; no one supposing +for a moment I could be near the mill, inasmuch as it stood directly in +front of the spot where the crowd was collected at the moment of my +sudden disappearance. But the boys and girls were flying around in all +directions; rendering it uncertain how long they would remain in a +place, or how long their eyes would be turned away from my path. + +It was necessary to do something, and I determined to make an effort. +Throwing myself on the ground, I crawled, rather slowly than fast, +across that terrible space, and got safely among the logs. As there was +no outcry, I knew I had not been seen. It was now comparatively easy to +reach the mill. Another dangerous experiment, however, was to expose my +person by climbing up to the loft. I could not do this without running +the risk of being seen; and I felt the necessity of using great caution. +I first raised my head high enough to survey the state of things +without. Luckily the house was still between me and most of my enemies; +though the small fry constantly came into view and vanished. I looked +around for a spot to ascend, and took a final survey of the scene. There +stood Lowiny in the door of the hut, her hands clasped, and her whole +air expressive of concern. She saw my head, I knew, and I made a gesture +of encouragement, which caused her to start. At the next instant my foot +was on a brace, and my body was rising to the beams above. I do not +think my person was uncovered ten seconds; and no clamor succeeded. I +now felt there were really some chances of my finally effecting an +escape, and glad enough was I to think so. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + "Alone, amid the shades, + Still in harmonious intercourse they liv'd + The rural day, and talked the flowing heart, + Or sigh'd, and looked unutterable things." + --THOMSON. + + +That was a somewhat breathless moment. The intensity with which I had +listened for any sound that might announce my discovery, was really +painful. I almost fancied I heard a shout, but none came. Then I gave +myself up, actually believing that footsteps were rushing toward the +mill, with a view to seize me. It was imagination; the rushing of the +waters below being the only real sound that disturbed the silence of the +place. I had time to breathe and to look about me. + +As might be supposed, the mill was very rudely constructed. I have +spoken of a loft, but there was nothing that really deserved the term. +Some refuse boards were laid about, here and there, on the beams, making +fragments of rough flooring; and my first care was to draw several of +these boards close together, placing them two or three in thickness, so +as to make a place where, by lying down, I could not be seen by any one +who should happen to enter the mill. There lay what the millers call a +bunch of cherry-wood boards at no great distance from the spot where the +roof joined the plate of the building, and within this bunch I arranged +my hiding-place. No ostensible change was necessary to complete it, else +the experiment might have been hazardous among those who were so much +accustomed to note circumstances of that nature. The manner in which the +lumber was arranged when I reached the spot was so little different from +what it was when I had done with it, as scarcely to attract attention. + +No sooner was my hiding-place completed to my mind, than I looked round +to see if there were any means of making observations without. The +building was not shingled, but the rain was kept out by placing slabs up +and down, as is often seen in the ruder rustic frontier architecture of +America. With the aid of my knife I soon had a small hole between two of +these slabs, at a place favorable to such an object; and though it was +no larger than the eye itself, it answered every purpose. Eagerly enough +did I now commence my survey. + +The search was still going on actively. Those experienced bordermen well +knew it was not possible for me to cross the open ground and to reach +the woods in the short interval of time between my disappearance and +their discovery of the fact, and they consequently felt certain that I +was secreted somewhere near the building. Every house had been searched, +though no one thought of entering the mill, because my movement, as all +supposed, was necessarily in an opposite direction. The fences were +examined, and everything like a cover on the proper side of the house +was looked into with care and activity. It would seem that, just as I +took my first look through the hole, my pursuers were at fault. The +search had been made, and of course without effect. Nothing likely to +conceal me remained to be examined. It was necessary to come to a stand, +and to concert measures for a further search. + +The family of squatters were too much accustomed to their situation and +its hazards, not to be familiar with all the expedients necessary to +their circumstances. They placed the younger children on the lookout, at +the points most favorable to my retreat, should I be in a situation to +attempt going off in that quarter of the clearing; and then the father +collected his older sons around him, and the whole cluster of them, +seven in number, came slowly walking toward the mill. The excitement of +the first pursuit had sensibly abated, and these practised woodsmen were +in serious consultation on the measures next to be taken. In this +condition the whole party entered the mill, taking their seats, or +standing directly beneath my post, and within six feet of me. As a +matter of course, I heard all that was said, though completely hid from +view. + +"Here we shall be safe from the long ears of little folks," said the +father, as he placed his own large frame on the log that was next to be +sawed. "This has been a most onaccountable thing, Tobit, and I'd no idee +at all them 'ere city-bred gentry was so expart with their legs. I +sometimes think he can't be a Littlepage, but that he's one of our hill +folks, tossed out and mannered a'ter the towns' folks, to take a body +in. It seems an onpossibility that the man should get off, out of the +midst on us, and we not see or hear anything on him." + +"We may as well give up the lumber and the betterments, at once," +growled Tobit, "as let him get clear. Should he reach Ravensnest, the +first thing he'd do would be to swear out warrants ag'n us all, and +Newcome is not the man to stand by squatters in trouble. He'd no more +dare deny his landlord, than deny his meetin'." + +This expression of Tobit's is worthy of notice. In the estimation of a +certain class of religionists among us, the "meetin'," as the young +squatter called his church, had the highest place in his estimate of +potentates and powers; it is to be feared, often even higher than the +dread Being for whose worship that "meetin'" existed. + +"I don't think as hard of the 'squire as all that," answered +Thousandacres. "He'll never send out a warrant ag'in us, without sendin' +out a messenger to let us hear of it, and that in time to get us all out +of the way." + +"And who's to get the boards in the creek out of the way afore the water +rises? And who's to hide or carry off all them logs? There's more than a +ton weight of my blood and bones in them very logs, in the shape of hard +labor, and I'll fight like a she-bear for her cubs afore I'll be driven +from them without pay." + +It is very surprising that one who set this desperate value on the +property he deemed his, should have so little regard for that which +belonged to other persons. In this respect, however, Tobit's feeling was +no more than submission to the general law of our nature, which reverses +the images before our moral vision, precisely as we change our own +relations to them. + +"It would go hard with _me_ afore I should give up the lumber or the +clearin'," returned Thousandacres, with emphasis. "We've fit King George +for liberty, and why shouldn't we fight for our property? Of what use +_is_ liberty at all, if it won't bear a man harmless out of a job of +this sort? I despise sich liberty, b'ys, and want none on it." + +All the young men muttered their approbation of such a sentiment, and it +was easy enough to understand that the elevated notion of personal +rights entertained by Thousandacres found an answering echo in the bosom +of each of his heroic sons. I dare say the same sympathy would have +existed between them, had they been a gang of pickpockets collected in +council in a room of the Black Horse, St. Catharine's Lane, Wapping, +London. + +"But what can we do with the young chap, father, should we take him +ag'in?" asked Zephaniah; a question, as all will see, of some interest +to myself. "He can't be kept a great while without having a stir made +a'ter him, and that would break us up, sooner or later. We may have a +clear right to the work of our hand; but, on the whull, I rather +conclude the country is ag'in squatters." + +"Who cares for the country?" answered Thousandacres fiercely. "If it +wants young Littlepage, let it come and s'arch for him, as we've been +doin'. If that chap falls into my hands once more, he never quits 'em +alive, unless he gives me a good and sufficient deed to two hundred +acres, includin' the mill, and a receipt in full, on his father's +behalf, for all back claims. On them two principles my mind is set, and +not to be altered." + +A long pause succeeded this bold announcement, and I began to be afraid +that my suppressed breathing might be overheard in the profound +stillness that followed. But Zephaniah spoke in time to relieve me from +this apprehension, and in a way to satisfy me that the party below, all +of whom were concealed from my sight, had been pondering on what had +been said by their leader, and not listening to detect any tell-tale +sounds from me. + +"I've heern say," Zephaniah remarked, "that deeds gi'n in that way won't +stand good in law. 'Squire Newcome was talkin' of sich transactions the +very last time I was out at the Nest." + +"I wish a body could find out what _would_ stand good in law!" growled +Thousandacres. "They make their laws, and lay great account in havin' em +obsarved; and then, when a man comes into court with everything done +accordin' to their own rules, five or six attorneys start up and bawl +out, 'This is ag'in law!' If a deed is to set forth so and so, and is to +have what they call 'hand and seal and date' beside; and sich bein' the +law, I want to know why an instrument so made won't hold good by their +confounded laws? Law is law, all over the world, I s'pose; and though +it's an accursed thing, if men agree to have it they ought to stand by +their own rules. I've thought a good deal of squeezin' writin's out of +this young Littlepage; and just as my mind's made up to do't, if I can +lay hands on him ag'in, you come out and tell me sich writin's be good +for nothin'. Zeph, Zeph--you go too often out into them settlements, and +get your mind perverted by their wickedness and talk." + +"I hope not, father, though I own I do like to go there. I've come to a +time of life when a man thinks of marryin', and there bein' no gal here, +unless it be one of my own sisters, it's nat'ral to look into the next +settlement. I'll own sich has been my object in going to the Nest." + +"And you've found the gal you set store by? Out with the whull truth, +like a man. You know I've always been set ag'in lyin', and have ever +endeavored to make the whull of you speak truth. How is it, Zephaniah? +have you found a gal to your mind, and who is't? Ourn is a family into +which anybody can come by askin', you will remember." + +"Lord, father! Dus Malbone would no more think of askin' me to have her, +than she'd think of marryin' you! I've offered three times, and she's +told me, as plain as a woman could speak, that she couldn't nohow +consent, and that I hadn't ought to think of her any longer." + +"Who is the gal, in this part of the country, that holds her head so +much higher than one of Thousandacres' sons?" demanded the old squatter, +with some such surprise, real or affected, as a Bourbon might be +supposed to feel at having his alliance spurned on the score of blood. +"I'd like to see her, and to convarse with this young woman. What did +you call her name, Zeph?" + +"Dus Malbone, father, and the young woman that lives with Chainbearer. +She's his niece, I b'lieve, or something of that sort." + +"Ha! Chainbearer's niece, d'ye say? His taken da'ghter. Isn't there some +mistake?" + +"Dus Malbone calls old Andries 'Uncle Chainbearer,' and I s'pose from +that she's his niece." + +"And you've offered to marry the gal three times, d'ye tell me, +Zephaniah?" + +"Three times, father; and every time she has given 'no' for her answer." + +"The fourth time, maybe, she'll change her mind. I wonder if we couldn't +lay hands on this gal, and bring her into our settlement? Does she live +with Chainbearer, in his hut out here in the woods?" + +"She doos, father." + +"And doos she set store by her uncle? or is she one of the flaunty sort +that thinks more of herself and gownd than she does of her own flesh and +blood? Can you tell me _that_, Zeph?" + +"In my judgment, father, Dus Malbone loves Chainbearer as much as she +would was he her own father." + +"Ay, some gals haven't half the riverence and love for their own fathers +that they should have. What's to prevint your goin', Zephaniah, to +Chainbearer's pitch, and tell the gal that her uncle's in distress, and +that you don't know what may happen to him, and that she had better come +over and see a'ter him? When we get her here, and she understands the +natur' of the case, and you put on your Sabba'day clothes, and we send +for 'Squire Newcome, you may find yourself a married man sooner than you +thought for, my son, and settle down in life. A'ter that, there'll not +be much danger of Chainbearer's tellin' on us, or of his great fri'nd +here, this Major Littlepage's troublin' the lumber afore the water +rises." + +A murmur of applause followed this notable proposal, and I fancied I +could hear a snigger from the young man, as if he found the project to +his mind, and thought it might be feasible. + +"Father," said Zephaniah, "I wish you'd call Lowiny here, and talk to +her a little about Dus Malbone. There she is, with Tobit's wife and +mother, looking round among the cabbages, as if a man could be hid in +such a place." + +Thousandacres called to his daughter in an authoritative way; and I soon +heard the girl's step, as she came, a little hesitatingly, as I fancied, +into the mill. As it would be very natural to one in Lowiny's situation +to suppose that her connection with my escape occasioned this summons, I +could not but feel for what I presumed was the poor girl's distress at +receiving it. + +"Come here, Lowiny," commenced Thousandacres, in the stern manner with +which it was his wont to speak to his children; "come nearer, gal. Do +you know anything of one Dus Malbone, Chainbearer's niece?" + +"Lord ha' massy! Father, how you _did_ frighten me! I thought you might +have found the gentleman, and s'posed I'd a hand in helpin' to hide +him!" + +Singular as it may seem, this burst of conscience awakened no suspicion +in any of the listeners. When the girl thus betrayed herself, I very +naturally expected that such an examination would follow as would extort +the whole details from her. Not at all, however; neither the father nor +any of the sons understood the indiscreet remarks of the girl, but +imputed them to the excitement that had just existed, and the +circumstance that her mind had, naturally enough, been dwelling on its +cause. It is probable that the very accidental manner of my evasion, +which precluded the attaching of suspicious facts to what had really +occurred, favored Lowiny on this occasion; it being impossible that she +should be suspected of anything of that character. + +"Who's talkin' or thinkin' now of young Littlepage, at all?" returned +Thousandacres, a little angrily. "I ask if you know anything of +Chainbearer's niece--one Dus Malbone, or Malcome?" + +"I _do_ know suthin' of her, father," answered Lowiny, willing enough to +betray one--the lesser--of her secrets, in order to conceal the other, +which, on all accounts, was much the most important; "though I never +laid eyes on her 'till to-day. Zeph has often talked to me of the gal +that carried chain with her uncle for a whull month; and he has a notion +to marry her if he can get her." + +"Never laid eyes on her 'till to-day! Whereabouts have you laid eyes on +her _to-day_, gal? Is all creation comin' in upon my clearin' at once? +Whereabouts have you seen this gal to-day?" + +"She come to the edge of the clearin' with her uncle, and----" + +"Well, what next? Why don't you go on, Lowiny?" + +I could have told Thousandacres why his daughter hesitated; but the girl +got out of the scrape by her own presence of mind and ingenuity, a +little aided, perhaps, by some practice in sins of the sort. + +"Why, I went a berryin' this forenoon, and up ag'in the berry lot, just +in the edge of the woods, I saw a young woman, and that was the Malbone +gal. So we talked together, and she told me all about it. She's waitin' +for her uncle to come back." + +"So, so; this is news indeed, b'ys! Do you know where the gal is now, +Lowiny?" + +"Not just now, for she told me she should go deeper into the woods, lest +she should be seen; but an hour afore sundown she's to come to the foot +of the great chestnut, just ag'in the berry lot; and I promised to meet +her, or to carry her out suthin' for supper, and to make a bed on." + +This was said frankly, and with the feeling and sympathy that females +are apt to manifest in behalf of each other. It was evident Lowiny's +audience believed every word she had said; and the old man, in +particular, determined at once to act. I heard him move from his seat, +and his voice sounded like one who was retiring, as he said: + +"Tobit--b'ys--come with me, and we'll have one more look for this young +chap through the lumber and the housen. It may be that he's stolen in +there while our eyes have been turned another way. Lowiny, you needn't +come with us, for the flutterin' way of you gals don't do no good in +sich a s'arch." + +I waited until the last heavy footstep was inaudible, and then ventured +to move far enough, on my hands, to find a crack that I had purposely +left, with a view to take through it an occasional look below. On the +log which her father had just left, Lowiny had seated herself. Her eye +was roaming over the upper part of the mill, as if in quest of me. At +length she said, in a suppressed voice-- + +"Be you here still? Father and the b'ys can't hear us now, if you speak +low." + +"I am here, good Lowiny, thanks to your friendly kindness, and have +overheard all that passed. You saw Ursula Malbone, and gave her my +note?" + +"As true as you are there, I did; and she read it over so often, I guess +she must know it by heart." + +"But what did she say? Had she no message for her uncle--no answer to +what I had written?" + +"Oh! she'd enough to say--gals love to talk, you know, when they get +with one another, and Dus and I talked together half an hour, or longer. +She'd plenty to say, though it wunt do for me to sit here and tell it to +you, lest somebody wonder I stay so long in the mill." + +"You can tell me if she sent any message or answer to my note?" + +"She never breathed a syllable about what you'd writ. I warrant you +she's close-mouthed enough, when she gets a line from a young man. Do +you think her so desp'rate handsome as Zeph says she is?" + +This boded ill, but it was a question that it was politic to answer, and +to answer with some little discretion. If I lost the services of Lowiny, +my main stay was gone. + +"She is well enough to look at, but I've seen quite as handsome young +women, lately. But, handsome or not, she is one of your own sex, and is +not to be deserted in her trouble." + +"Yes, indeed," answered Lowiny, with an expression of countenance that +told me at once, the better feelings of her sex had all returned again, +"and I'll not desart her, though father drive me out of the settlement. +I am tired of all this squatting, and think folks ought to live as much +in one spot as they can. What's best to be done about Dus +Malbone--perhaps she'd like well enough to marry Zeph?" + +"Did you see or hear anything while with her, to make you think so? I am +anxious to know what she said." + +"La! She said sights of things; but most of her talk was about old +Chainbearer. She never named _your_ name so much as once!" + +"Did she name Zephaniah's? I make no doubt that anxiety on account of +her uncle was her chief care. What are her intentions, and will she +remain near that tree until you come?" + +"She stays under a rock not a great way from the tree, and there she'll +stay till I go to meet her, at the chestnut. We had our talk under that +rock, and it's easy enough to find her there." + +"How do things look around us? Might I descend, slip down into the bed +of the river, and go round to Dus Malbone, so as to give her notice of +the danger she is in?" + +Lowiny did not answer me for near a minute, and I began to fear that I +had put another indiscreet question. The girl seemed thoughtful, but +when she raised her face so high as to allow me to see it, all the +expression of the more generous feminine sympathy was visible. + +"'Twould be hard to make Dus have Zeph, if she don't like him, wouldn't +it!" she said with emphasis. "I don't know but t'would be better to let +her know what's coming so that she can choose for herself." + +"She told me," I answered, with perfect truth, "that she is engaged to +another, and it would be worse than cruel--it would be wicked, to make +her marry one man, while she loves another." + +"She shan't do't!" cried the girl, with an animation that I thought +dangerous. But she gave me no opportunity for remonstrance, as, all her +energies being roused, she went to work in earnest to put me in the way +of doing what I most desired to achieve. + +"D'ye see the lower corner of the mill?" she continued, hurriedly. "That +post goes down to the rock over which the water falls. You can walk to +that corner without any danger of being seen, as the ruff hides you, and +when you get there, you can wait till I tell you to get on the post. 'T +will be easy to slide down that post to the rock, and there'll be not +much of a chance of being seen, as the post will nearly hide you. When +you're on the rock, you'll find a path that leads along the creek till +you come to a foot-bridge. If you cross that log, and take the left-hand +path, 'twill bring you out near the edge of the clearin', up on the hill +again, and then you'll have only to follow the edge of the woods a +little way, afore you come to the chestnut. The rock is right off, ag'in +the chestnut, only about fifty rods." + +I took in these directions eagerly, and was at the post almost as soon +as the girl ceased speaking. In order to do this I had only to walk on +the boards that lay scattered about on the girts of the mill, the roof +completely concealing the movement from any on its outside. I made my +arrangements, and only waited for a signal, or the direction from +Lowiny, to proceed. + +"Not yet," said the girl, looking down and affecting to be occupied with +something near her feet. "Father and Tobit are walkin' this way, and +lookin' right at the mill. Now--get ready--they've turned their heads, +and seem as if they'd turn round themselves next. They've turned ag'in, +wait one moment--now's a good time--don't go away altogether without my +seein' you once more." + +I heard these last words, but it was while sliding down the post. Just +as my head came so low as to be in a line with the objects scattered +about the floor of the mill, I clung to the post to catch one glimpse of +what was going on without. Thousandacres and Tobit were about a hundred +yards distant, walking apart from the group of young men, and apparently +in deep consultation together. It was quite evident no alarm was taken, +and down I slid to the rock. At the next moment, I was in the path, +descending to the foot-bridge, a tree that had been felled across the +stream. Until that tree was crossed, and a slight distance of the ascent +on the other side of the stream, along the left-hand path was overcome, +I was completely exposed to the observation of any one who might be in a +situation to look down into the glen of the river. At almost any other +moment at that particular season, my discovery would have been nearly +certain, as some of the men or boys were always at work in the water; +but the events of that morning called them elsewhere, and I made the +critical passage, a distance of two hundred yards or more, in safety. As +soon as I entered behind a cover, my speed abated, and having risen +again to the level of the dwellings, or even a little above them, I +profited by openings among the small pine-bushes that fringed the path, +to take a survey of the state of things among the squatters. + +There the cluster of heavy, lounging young men was, Thousandacres and +Tobit walking apart, as when last seen. Prudence was at the door of a +distant cabin, surrounded, as usual, by a collection of the young fry, +and conversing herself eagerly, with the wives of two or three of her +married sons. Lowiny had left the mill, and was strolling along the +opposite side of the glen, so near the verge of the rocks as to have +enabled her to see the whole of my passage across the open space. +Perceiving that she was quite alone, I ventured to hem just loud enough +to reach her ear. A hurried, frightened gesture assured me that I had +been heard, and first making a gesture for me to go forward, the girl +turned away, and went skipping off toward the cluster of females who +surrounded her mother. + +As for myself, I now thought only of Dus. What cared I if she did love +another? A girl of her education, manners, sentiments, birth and +character, was not to be sacrificed to one like Zephaniah, let what +might happen; and could I reach her place of concealment in time, she +might still be saved. These thoughts fairly winged my flight, and I soon +came in sight of the chestnut. Three minutes later I laid a hand on the +trunk of the tree itself. As I had been a quarter of an hour at least, +in making the circuit of that side of the clearing, some material change +might have occurred among the squatters, and I determined to advance to +the edge of the bushes, in Lowiny's "berry lot," which completely +screened the spot, and ascertain the facts, before I sought Dus at her +rock. + +The result showed that some measures had been decided on between +Thousandacres and Tobit. Not one of the males, a lad that stood sentinel +at the storehouse, and a few of the smaller boys excepted, was to be +seen. I examined all the visible points with care, but no one was +visible. Even Susquesus, who had been lounging about the whole day, or +since his liberation, had vanished. Prudence and her daughters, too, +were in a great commotion, hurrying from cabin to cabin, and manifesting +all that restlessness which usually denotes excitement among females. I +stopped but a moment to ascertain these leading circumstances, and +turned to seek the rock. While retiring from among the bushes, I heard +the fallen branch of a tree snap under a heavy footstep, and looking +cautiously around, saw Jaaf, or Jaap as we commonly called him, +advancing toward me, carrying a rifle on each shoulder. + +"Heaven's blessings on you, my faithful Jaap!" I cried, holding out an +arm to receive one of the weapons. "You come at a most happy moment, and +can lead me to Miss Malbone." + +"Yes, sah, and glad to do it, too. Miss Dus up here, a bit, in 'e wood, +and can werry soon see her. She keep me down here to look out, and I +carry bot' rifle, Masser Chainbearer's and my own, 'cause Miss Dus no +great hand wid gunpowder. But, where you come from, Masser +Mordaunt?--and why you run away so, in night-time?" + +"Never mind just now, Jaap--in proper time you shall know all about it. +Now we must take care of Miss Ursula. Is she uneasy? has she shown any +fear on her uncle's account?" + +"She cry half 'e time, sah--den she look up bold, and resolute, just +like ole Massar, sah, when he tell he rijjement 'charge baggonet,' and +seem as if she want to go right into T'ousandacres' huts. Lor' bless me, +sah, Masser Mordaunt--if she ask me one question about _you_ to-day, she +ask me a hundred!" + +"About me, Jaap!" But I arrested the impulsive feeling in good time, so +as not to be guilty of pumping my own servant concerning what others had +said of me; a meanness I could not easily have pardoned in myself. But I +increased my speed, and having Jaap for my guide, was soon at the side +of Dus. The negro had no sooner pointed out to me the object of my +search, than he had the discretion to return to the edge of the +clearing, carrying with him both rifles; for I returned to him the one I +had taken, in my eagerness to hurry forward, the instant I beheld Dus. + +I can never forget the look with which that frank, noble-hearted girl +received me! It almost led me to hope that my ears had deceived me, and +that after all, I was an object of the highest interest with her. A few +tears, half-suppressed, but suppressed with difficulty, accompanied that +look; and I had the happiness of holding for some time and of pressing +to my heart, that little hand that was freely--nay, warmly extended to +me. + +"Let us quit this spot at once, dearest Ursula," I cried, the moment I +could speak. "It is not safe to remain near that family of wretches, who +live by depredation and violence." + +"And leave uncle Chainbearer in their hands?" answered Dus, +reproachfully. "You, surely, would not advise me to do that?" + +"If your own safety demands it, yes--a thousand times yes. We must fly, +and there is not a moment to lose. A design exists among those wretches +to seize you, and to make use of your fears to secure the aid of your +uncle in extricating them from the consequences of this discovery of +their robberies. It is not safe, I repeat, for you to remain a minute +longer here." + +The smile that Dus now bestowed on me was very sweet, though I found it +inexplicable; for it had as much of pain and suffering in it, as it had +of that which was winning. + +"Mordaunt Littlepage, have you forgotten the words spoken by me when we +last parted?" she asked, seriously. + +"Forgotten! I can never forget them! They drove me nearly to despair, +and were the cause of bringing us all into this difficulty." + +"I told you that my faith was already plighted--that I could not accept +your noble, frank, generous, manly offer, because another had my troth." + +"You did--you did. Why renew my misery--" + +"It is with a different object that I am now more explicit. That man to +whom I am pledged is in those huts, and I cannot desert him." + +"Can I believe my senses! _Do_ you--_can_ you--is it possible that one +like Ursula Malbone can love Zephaniah Thousandacres--a squatter +himself, and the son of a squatter?" + +The look with which Dus regarded me, said at once that her astonishment +was quite as great as my own. I could have bitten off my hasty and +indiscreet tongue, the instant it had spoken; and I am sure the rush of +tell-tale blood in my face must have proclaimed to my companion that I +felt most thoroughly ashamed of myself. This feeling was deepened nearly +to despair, when I saw the expression of abased mortification that came +over the sweet and usually happy countenance of Dus, and the difficulty +she had in suppressing her tears. + +Neither spoke for a minute, when my companion broke silence by saying +steadily--I might almost add solemnly-- + +"This, indeed, shows how low my fortune has become! But I pardon you, +Mordaunt; for, humble as that fortune is, you have spoken nobly and +frankly in my behalf, and I exonerate you from any feeling that is not +perfectly natural for the circumstances. Perhaps"--and a bright blush +suffused the countenance of Dus as she said it--"Perhaps I may attribute +the great mistake into which you have fallen to a passion that is most +apt to accompany strong love, and insomuch prize it, instead of throwing +it away with contempt. But, between you and me, whatever comes of it, +there must be no more mistakes. The man to whom my faith is plighted, +and to whom my time and services are devoted, so long as one or both of +us live, is uncle Chainbearer, and no other. Had you not rushed from me +in the manner you did, I might have told you this, Mordaunt, the evening +you were showing so much noble frankness yourself." + +"Dus!--Ursula!--beloved Miss Malbone, have I then no preferred rival?" + +"No man has ever spoken to me of love, but this uncouth and rude young +squatter, and yourself." + +"Is your heart then untouched? Are you still mistress of your own +affections?" + +The look I now received from Dus was a little saucy; but that expression +soon changed to one that had more of the deep feeling and generous +sympathy of her precious sex in it. + +"Were I to answer 'yes,' many women would think I was being no more than +true to the rights of a girl who has been so unceremoniously treated; +but----" + +"But what, charming, most beloved Ursula? But what?" + +"I prefer truth to coquetry, and shall not attempt to deny what it would +almost be treason against nature to suppose. How could a girl, educated +as I have been, without any preference to tie her to another, be shut up +in this forest with a man who has treated her with so much kindness and +devotion and manly tenderness, and insensible to his merits? Were we in +the world, Mordaunt, I think I should prefer you to all others; being, +as we are, in this forest, I _know_ I do." + +The reader shall not be let into the sacred confidence that followed; +any further, at least, than to know the main result. A quarter of an +hour passed so swiftly, and so sweetly, indeed, that I could hardly take +it on myself to record one-half that was said. Dus made no longer any +hesitation in declaring her attachment for me; and though she urged her +own poverty as a just obstacle to my wishes, it was faintly, as most +Americans of either sex would do. In this particular, at least, we may +fairly boast of a just superiority over all the countries of the old +world. While it is scarcely possible that either man or woman should not +see how grave a barrier to wedded happiness is interposed by the +opinions and habits of social castes, it is seldom that any one, in his +or her own proper sphere, feels that the want of money is an +insurmountable obstacle to a union--more especially when one of the +parties is provided with the means of maintaining the household gods. +The seniors may, and do often have scruples on this score; but the young +people rarely. Dus and myself were in the complete enjoyment of this +happy simplicity, with my arms around her waist, and her head leaning on +my shoulder, when I was aroused from a state that I fancied Elysium, by +the hoarse, raven-throated cry of-- + +"Here she is! Here she is, father! Here they are _both_!" + +On springing forward to face the intruders, I saw Tobit and Zephaniah +directly before me, with Lowiny standing at no great distance behind +them. The first looked ferocious, the second jealous and angry, the +third abashed and mortified. In another minute we were surrounded by +Thousandacres and all the males of his brood. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + "My love is young--but other loves are young; + And other loves are fair, and so is mine; + An air divine discloses whence he sprung; + He is my love that boasts that air divine."--SHENSTONE. + + +A more rude and violent interruption of a scene in which the more gentle +qualities love to show themselves, never occurred. I, who knew the whole +of the past, saw at once that we had very serious prospects before us; +but Dus at first felt only the consciousness and embarrassment of a +woman who has betrayed her most sacred secret to vulgar eyes. That very +passion, which a month later, and after the exchange of the marriage +vows, it would have been her glory to exhibit in face of the whole +community, on the occurrence of any event of moment to myself, she now +shrunk from revealing; and I do believe that maiden bashfulness gave her +more pain, when thus arrested, than any other cause. As for the +squatters, she probably had no very clear conceptions of their true +characters; and it was one of her liveliest wishes to be able to join +her uncle. But, Thousandacres soon gave us both cause to comprehend how +much he was now in earnest. + +"So, my young major, you're catched in the same nest, be you! You've +your ch'ise to walk peaceably back where you belong, or to be tied and +carried there like a buck that has been killed a little out in the +woods. You never know'd Thousandacres and his race, if you really +thought to slip away from him, and that with twenty miles of woods +around you!" + +I intimated a wish not to be tied, and professed a perfect willingness +to accompany my captors back to their dwellings, for nothing would have +tempted me to desert Dus, under the circumstances. The squatters might +have declared the road open to me, but the needle does not point more +unerringly to the pole than I should have followed my magnet, though at +liberty. + +Little more was said until we had quitted the woods, and had reached the +open fields of the clearing. I was permitted to assist my companion +through the bushes, and in climbing a fence or two; the squatters, who +were armed to a man, forming a circle around us, at a distance that +enabled me to whisper a few words to Dus, in the way of encouragement. +She had great natural intrepidity for a woman, and I believe I ought to +escape the imputation of vanity, if I add that we both felt so happy at +the explanations which had so lately been had, that this new calamity +could not entirely depress us, so long as we were not separated. + +"Be not downhearted, dearest Dus," I whispered, as we approached the +storehouse; "after all, these wretches will not dare to transgress +against the law, very far." + +"I have few fears, with you and uncle Chainbearer so near me, Mordaunt," +was her smiling answer, "It cannot be long before we hear from Frank, +who is gone, as you must have been told, to Ravensnest, for authority +and assistance. He left our huts at the same time we left them to come +here, and must be on his return long before this." + +I squeezed the hand of the dear girl, receiving a gentle pressure in +return, and prepared myself to be separated from her, as I took it for +granted that Prudence and her daughters would hold watch and ward over +the female prisoner. I had hesitated, ever since quitting the woods, +about giving her notice of the trial that probably awaited her; but, as +no attempt to coerce a marriage could be made until the magistrate +arrived, I thought it would be rendering her unnecessarily unhappy. The +trial, if it did come at all, would come soon enough of itself; and I +had no apprehension that one of Dus's spirit and character, and who had +so recently and frankly admitted that her whole heart was mine, could be +frightened into a concession that would give Zephaniah any claim to her. +To own the truth, a mountain had been removed from my own breast, and I +was too happy on this particular account, to be rendered very miserable +on any other, just at that time. I do believe Dus was a little sustained +by some similar sentiment. + +Dus and I parted at the door of the first house, she being transferred +to the keeping of Tobit's wife, a woman who was well bestowed on her +brutal and selfish husband. No violence was used, however, toward the +prisoner, who was permitted to go at large; though I observed that one +or two of the females attached themselves to her person immediately, no +doubt as her keepers. + +In consequence of our having approached the dwelling of the squatters by +a new path, Chainbearer knew nothing of the arrest of his niece, until +the fact was communicated by me. He was not even aware of my being +retaken, until he saw me about to enter the prison again; though he +probably anticipated that such might be my fate. As for Susquesus, he +seldom manifested surprise or emotion of any sort, let what would occur. + +"Well, Mortaunt, my lat, I knowet you had vanishet py hook or py crook, +ant nopoty knowet how; put I t'ought you would find it hart to t'row +t'ese rascally squatters off your trail," cried Andries, giving me a +hearty shake of the hand as I entered the prison. "Here we are, all +t'ree of us, ag'in; and it's lucky we're such goot frients, as our +quarters are none of t'e largest or pest. The Injin fount I was alone, +so he took pack his parole, and ist a close prisoner like t'e rest of +us, put in one sense a free man. You can tig up t'e hatchet ag'in t'ese +squatters whenever you please now; is it not so, Sureflint?" + +"Sartin--truce done--Susquesus prisoner like everybody. Give +T'ousandacres p'role back ag'in--Injin free man, now." + +I understood the Onondago's meaning well enough, though his freedom was +of a somewhat questionable character. He merely wished to say that, +having given himself up to the squatters, he was released from the +conditions of his parole, and was at liberty to make his escape, or to +wage war on his captors in any manner he saw fit. Luckily Jaap had +escaped, for I could see no signs of even his presence being known to +Thousandacres or to his sons. It was something to have so practised a +woodsman and so true a friend still at large, and near us; and the +information he could impart, should he fall in with Frank Malbone, with +the constable and the posse, might be of the utmost service to us. All +these points Chainbearer and I discussed at large, the Indian sitting +by, an attentive but a silent listener. It was our joint opinion that +Malbone could not now be very far distant with succor. What would be the +effect of an attack on the squatters it was not easy to predict, since +the last might make battle; and, small as was their force, it would be +likely to prove very available in a struggle of that nature. The females +of such a family were little less efficient than the males, when posted +behind logs; and there were a hundred things in which their habits, +experience, and boldness might be made to tell, should matters be pushed +to extremities. + +"Got knows--Got only knows, Mortaunt, what will come of it all," +rejoined Chainbearer to one of my remarks, puffing coolly at his pipe at +intervals, in order to secure the fire he had just applied to it. +"Nut'in is more unsartain t'an war, as Sus, here, fery well knows py +long exper'ence, ant as you ought to know yourself, my poy, hafin seen +sarfice, ant warm sarfice, too. Shoult Frank Malbone make a charge on +t'is settlement, as pein' an olt soltier, he will pe fery likely to do, +we must make efery effort to fall in on one of his flanks, in orter to +cover t'e atvance or t'e retreat, as may happen to pe t'e movement at +t'e time." + +"I trust it will be the advance, as Malbone does not strike me as a man +likely to retreat very easily. But, are we certain 'Squire Newcome will +grant the warrant he will ask for, being in such close communion himself +with these squatters?" + +"I haf t'ought of all t'at, too, Mortaunt, ant t'ere is goot sense in +it. I t'ink he will at least sent wort to T'ousantacres, to let him know +what is comin', ant make as many telays as possiple. T'e law is a lazy +sarfant when it wishes to pe slow, ant many is t'e rogue t'at hast +outrun it, when t'e race has peen to safe a pack or a fine. +Nefert'eless, Mortaunt, t'e man who is right fights wit' great otts in +his fafor, ant is fery apt to come out pest in t'e long run. It is a +great advantage to pe always right; a trut' I've known ant felt from +poyhoot, put which hast peen mate more ant more clear to me since t'e +peace, ant I haf come pack to lif wit' Dus. T'at gal has teachet me much +on all such matters; ant it woult do your heart goot to see her alone +wit' an olt ignorant man in t'e woots, of a Sunday, a tryin' to teach +him his piple, and how he ought to lofe ant fear Got!" + +"Does Dus do this for you, my old friend?--Does that admirable creature +really take on herself the solemn office of duty and love! Much as I +admired and esteemed her before, for her reverence and affection for +you, Chainbearer, I now admire and esteem her the more, for this proof +of her most true and deep-seated interest in your welfare." + +"I'll tell you what, poy--Dus is petter ast twenty tominies to call a +stupporn olt fellow, t'at has got a conscience toughenet ant hartenet by +lifin' t'reescore years ant ten in t'e worlt, pack from his wicketness +into t'e ways of gotliness and peace. You're young, Mortaunt, and haf +not yet got out of t'e gristle of sin into t'e pone, ant can hartly know +how strong ist t'e holt t'at hapit and t'e worlt gets of an olt man; put +I hope you may lif long enough to see it all, ant to feel it all." I did +not even smile, for the childlike earnestness, and the sincere +simplicity with which Andries delivered himself of this wish, concealed +its absurdity behind a veil of truth and feeling too respectable to +admit of a single disrespectful impulse. "Ant t'at is t'e worst wish I +can wish you, my tear poy. You know how it hast peen wit' me, Mortaunt; +a chainpearer's callin' is none of t'e pest to teach religion; which +toes not seem to flourish in t'e woots; t'ough why I cannot tell; since, +as Dus has ag'in ant ag'in shown to me. Got is in t'e trees, ant on t'e +mountains, ant along t'e valleys, ant is to pe hearet in t'e prooks ant +t'e rifers, as much if not more t'an he ist to pe hearet ant seen in t'e +clearin's ant t'e towns. Put my life was not a religious life afore t'e +war, ant war is not a pusiness to make a man t'ink of deat' as he ought; +t'ough he hast it tay and night, as it might pe, afore his eyes." + +"And Dus, the excellent, frank, buoyant, sincere, womanly and charming +Dus, adds these admirable qualities to other merits, does she! I knew +she had a profound sentiment on the subject of religion, Chainbearer, +though I did not know she took so very lively an interest in the welfare +of those she loves, in connection with that all-important interest." + +"You may well call t'e gal py all t'em fine worts, Mortaunt, for she +desarfs efery one of t'em, ant more too. No--no--Dus isn't known in a +tay. A poty may lif in t'e same house wit' her, and see her smilin' +face, and hear her merry song, mont's ant mont's, ant not l'arn all t'at +t'ere ist of gotliness, ant meekness, ant virtue, ant love, and piety, +in t'e pottom of her soul. One tay you'll tink well of Dus, Mortaunt +Littlepage." + +"I!--Tell _me_ that I shall think _well_ of Ursula Malbone, the girl +that I almost worship! Think _well_ of her whom I now love with an +intensity that I did not imagine was possible, three months since! Think +well of _her_ who fills all my waking, and not a few of my sleeping +thoughts--of whom I dream--to whom I am betrothed--who has heard my vows +with favor, and has cheerfully promised, all parties that are interested +consenting, to become at some early day my _wife_!" + +Old Andries heard my energetic exclamation with astonishment; and even +the Indian turned his head to look on me with a gratified attention. +Perceiving that I had gone so far, under an impulse I had found +irresistible, I felt the necessity of being still more explicit, and of +communicating all I had to say on the subject. + +"Yes," I added, grasping old Andries by the hand--"Yes, Chainbearer, I +shall comply with your often-expressed wishes. Again and again have you +recommended your lovely niece to me as a wife, and I come now to take +you at your word, and to say that nothing will make me so happy as to be +able to call you uncle." + +To my surprise, Chainbearer expressed no delight at this announcement. I +remarked that he had said nothing to me on his favorite old subject of +my marrying his niece, since my arrival at the Nest; and now, when I was +not only so ready, but so anxious to meet his wishes, I could plainly +see that he drew back from my proposals, and wished they had not been +made. Amazed, I waited for him to speak with a disappointment and +uneasiness I cannot express. + +"Mortaunt! Mortaunt!" at length broke out of the old man's very +heart--"I wish to Heafen you hat nefer sait t'is! I lofe you, poy, +almost as much as I lofe Dus, herself; put it griefs me--it griefs me to +hear you talk of marryin' t'e gal!" + +"You grieve, as much as you astonish me, Chainbearer, by making such a +remark! How often have you, yourself, expressed to me the wish that I +might become acquainted with your niece, and love her, and marry her! +Now, when I have seen her--when I _have_ become acquainted with +her--when I _love_ her to my heart's core, and wish to make her my wife, +you meet my proposals as if they were unworthy of you and yours!" + +"Not so, lat--not so. Nut'in' would make me so happy as to see you t'e +huspant of Dus, supposin' it coult come to pass, ant wrong pe tone to no +one; put it cannot pe so. I tid talk as you say, ant a foolish, selfish, +conceitet olt man I was for my pains. I wast t'en in t'e army, and we +wast captains alike; ant I wast t'e senior captain, and might orter you +apout, ant _tid_ orter you apout; ant I wore an epaulette, like any +ot'er captain, and hat my grandfat'er's swort at my site, ant t'ought we +wast equals, ant t'at it wast an honor to marry my niece; put all t'is +was changet, lat, when I came into t'e woots ag'in, ant took up my +chain, ant pegan to lif, ant to work, ant to feel poor, ant to see +myself as I am. No--no--Mortaunt Littlepage, t'e owner of Ravensnest, +ant t'e heir of Mooseritge, ant of Satanstoe, ant of Lilacsbush, ant of +all t'e fine houses, ant stores, ant farms t'at are in York ant up ant +town t'e country, is not a suitaple match for Dus Malbone!" + +"This is so extraordinary a notion for you to take up, Chainbearer, and +so totally opposed to all I have ever before heard from you on the +subject, that I must be permitted to ask where you got it?" + +"From Dus Malbone, herself--yes, from her own mout', ant in her own +pretty manner of speech." + +"Has, then, the probability of my ever offering to your niece been a +subject of conversation between you?" + +"T'at hast it--t'at hast it, ant time ant ag'in, too. Sit town on t'at +log of woot, ant listen to what I haf to say, ant I will tell you t'e +whole story. Susquesus, you neetn't go off into t'at corner, like a +gentleman as you pe; t'ough it is only an Injin gentleman; for I haf no +secrets from such a frient as yourself. Come pack, t'en, Injin, ant take +your olt place, close at my site, where you haf so often peen when t'e +inemy wast chargin' us poltly in front." Sureflint quietly did as +desired, while Chainbearer turned toward me and continued the discourse. +"You wilt see, Mortaunt, poy, t'ese here are t'e fery facts ant trut' of +t'e case. When I came first from camp, ant I wast full of t'e prite, ant +aut'ority, ant feelin's of a soltier, I pegan to talk to Dus apout you, +as I hat peen accustomed to talk to you apout Dus. Ant I tolt her what a +fine, bolt, hantsome, generous, well-principlet young fellow you +wast"--the reader will overlook my repeating that to which the +partiality of the Chainbearer so readily gave utterance--"ant I tolt her +of your sarfice in t'e wars, ant of your wit, ant how you mate us all +laugh, t'ough we might pe marchin' into pattle, ant what a fat'er you +hat, ant what a grantfat'er, ant all t'at a goot ant a warm frient ought +to say of anot'er, when it wast true, ant when it wast tolt to a +hantsome ant heart-whole young woman t'at he wishet to fall in love wit' +t'at fery same frient. Well, I tolt t'is to Dus, not once, Mortaunt; nor +twice; put twenty times, you may depent on it." + +"Which makes me the more curious to hear what Dus could or did say in +reply." + +"It's t'at reply, lat, t'at makes all t'e present tifficulty petween us. +For a long time Dus sait little or not'in'. Sometimes she woult look +saucy ant laugh--ant you know, lat, t'e gal _can_ do bot' of t'em t'ings +as well as most young women. Sometimes she woult pegin to sing a song, +all about fait'less young men, perhaps, and proken-hearted virgins. +Sometimes she woult look sorrowful, ant I coult fint tears startin' in +her eyes; ant t'en I pecome as soft ant feeple-hearted as a gal, myself, +to see one who smiles so easily mate to shet tears." + +"But how did all this end? What can possibly have occurred, to cause +this great change in your own wishes?" + +"Tis not so much my wishes t'at be changet, Mortaunt, ast my opinion. If +a poty coult haf t'ings just as he wishet, lat, Dus ant you shoult pe +man ant wife, so far as it tepentet on me, pefore t'e week ist out. Put, +we are not our own masters, nor t'e masters of what ist to happen to our +nephews and nieces, any more t'an we are masters of what ist to happen +to ourselves. Put, I wilt tell you just how it happenet. One tay, as I +wast talking to t'e gal in t'e olt way, she listenet to all I hat to say +more seriously t'an ast common, ant when she answeret, it wast much in +t'is manner: 'I t'ank you from t'e pottom of my heart, uncle +Chainpearer,' she sait, 'not only for all t'at you haf tone for me, t'e +orphan da'ghter of your sister, put for all you wish in my pehalf. I +perceive t'at t'is itee of my marryin' your young frient, Mr. Mortaunt +Littlepage, hast a strong holt on your feelin's, ant it ist time to talk +seriously on t'at supject. When you associatet with t'at young +gentleman, uncle Chainpearer, you wast Captain Coejemans, of t'e New +York State line, ant his senior officer, ant it was nat'ral to s'pose +your niece fit to pecome his wife. Put it ist our tuty to look at what +we now are, ant are likely to remain. Major Littlepage hast a fat'er ant +a mot'er, I haf he'rt you say, uncle Chainpearer, ant sisters, too; now +marriage ist a most serious t'ing. It ist to last for life, ant no one +shoult form sich a connection wit'out reflectin' on all its pearin's. It +ist hartly possiple t'at people in t'e prosperity ant happiness of t'ese +Littlepages woult wish to see an only son, ant t'e heir of t'eir name +ant estates, takin' for a wife a gal out of t'e woots; one t'at is not +only a chainpearer's niece, put who hast peen a chainpearer herself, ant +who can pring into t'eir family no one t'ing to compensate 'em for t'e +sacrifice.'" + +"And you had the heart to be quiet, Andries, and let Ursula say all +this?" + +"Ah! lat, how coult I help it? You woult have tone it yourself, +Mortaunt, coult you haf he'rt how prettily she turnet her periots, as I +hef he'rt you call it, and how efery syllaple she sait come from t'e +heart. T'en t'e face of t'e gal wast enough to convince me t'at she wast +right; she looket so 'arnest, ant sat, ant peautiful, Mortaunt! No, no; +when an itee comes into t'e mint, wit' t'e ait of sich worts and looks, +my poy, 'tis not an easy matter to get rit of it." + +"You do not seriously mean to say, Chainbearer, that you will refuse me +Dus?" + +"Dus will do t'at herself, lat; for she ist still a chainpearer's niece, +ant you are still General Littlepage's son ant heir. Try her, ant see +what she wilt say." + +"But I _have_ tried her, as you call it; _have_ told her of my love; +_have_ offered her my hand, and----" + +"Ant what?" + +"Why, she does not answer _me_ as you say she answered _you_." + +"Hast t'e gal sait she woult haf you, Mortaunt? Hast she said yes?" + +"Conditionally she has. If my grandmother cheerfully consent, and my +parents do the same; and my sister Kettletas and her husband, and my +laughing, merry Kate, then Dus will accept me." + +"T'is ist strange! Ah! I see how it is; t'e gal has _seen_ you, and peen +much wit' you, ant talket wit' you, ant sung wit' you, ant laughet wit' +you; ant I s'pose, a'ter all, _t'at_ will make a tifference in her +judgment of you. I'm a patchelor, Mortaunt, ant haf no wife, nor any +sweetheart, put it ist easy enough to comprehent how all t'ese matters +must make a fery great tifference. I'm glat, howsefer, t'at t'e +tifference is not so great as to make t'e gal forget all your frients; +for if efery poty consents, ant is cheerful, why t'en my pein' a +chainbearer, and Dus pein' so poor ant forsaken like, will not pe so +likely to be rememperet hereafter, and bring you pitter t'oughts." + +"Andries Coejemans, I swear to you, I would rather become your nephew at +this moment, than become the son-in-law of Washington himself, had he a +daughter." + +"T'at means you'd rat'er haf Dus, t'an any ot'er gal of your +acquaintance. T'at's nat'ral enough, and may make me look like his +excellency, for a time, in your eyes; put when you come to t'ink and +feel more coolly, my tear poy, t'ere ist t'e tanger t'at you wilt see +some tifference petween t'e captain-general and commanter-in-chief of +all t'e American armies, and a poor chainpearer, who in his pest tays +was nut'in' more t'an a captain in t'e New York line. I know you lofe +me, Mortaunt; put t'ere ist tanger t'at it might not pe exactly an uncle +and nephew's love in t'e long run. I am only a poor Tutchman, when all +is sait, wit'out much etication, ant wit' no money, ant not much more +manners; while you've peen to college, and pe college l'arn't, ant pe as +gay ant gallant a spark as can pe fount in t'e States, as we call t'e +olt colonies now. Wast you a Yankee, Mortaunt, I'd see you marriet, and +unmarriet twenty times, pefore I'd own as much as t'is; put a man may pe +sensible of his ignorance, ant pat etication, and weaknesses, wit'out +wishin' to pe tolt of it to his face, and laughed at apout it, py efery +A B C scholar t'at comes out of New Englant. No, no--I'm a poor +Tutchman, I know; ant a poty may say as much to a frient, when he woult +tie pefore he woult own t'ere wast any t'ing poor apout it to an inimy." + +"I would gladly pursue this discourse, Andries, and bring it to a happy +termination," I answered; "but here come the squatters in a body, and I +suppose some movement or proposal is in the wind. We will defer our +matter, then; you remembering that I agree to none of your opinions or +decisions. Dus is to be mine, if indeed we can protect her against the +grasp of these wretches. I have something to say on that subject, too; +but this is not the moment to utter it." + +Chainbearer seized my hand, and gave it a friendly pressure, which +terminated the discourse. On the subject of the intentions of +Thousandacres toward Dus, I was now not altogether free from uneasiness; +though the tumult of rapturous feeling through which I had just passed +drove it temporarily from my mind. I had no apprehensions that Ursula +Malbone would ever be induced, by ordinary means, to become the wife of +Zephaniah; but I trembled as to what might be the influence of menaces +against her uncle and myself. Nor was I altogether easy on the score of +the carrying out of those menaces. It often happens with crime, as in +the commission of ordinary sins, that men are impelled by circumstances, +which drive them to deeds from which they would have recoiled in horror, +had the consummation been directly presented to their minds, without the +intervention of any mediate causes. But the crisis was evidently +approaching, and I waited with as much calmness as I could assume for +its development. As for Chainbearer, being still ignorant of the +conversation I had overheard in the mill, he had no apprehensions of +evil from the source of my greatest dread. + +The day had advanced, all this time, and the sun had set, and night was +close upon us, as Tobit and his brethren came to the door of our prison, +and called upon Chainbearer and myself to come forth, leaving Susquesus +behind. We obeyed with alacrity; for there was a species of liberty in +being outside of those logs, with my limbs unfettered, though a vigilant +watch was kept over us both. On each side of me walked an armed man, and +Chainbearer was honored with a similar guard. For all this, old Andries +cared but little. He knew and I knew that the time could not be very +distant when we might expect to hear from Frank Malbone; and every +minute that went by added to our confidence in this respect. + +We were about half-way between the storehouse and the dwelling of +Thousandacres, toward which our steps were directed, when Andries +suddenly stopped, and asked leave to say a word to me in private. Tobit +was at a loss how to take this request; but, there being an evident +desire to keep on reasonably good terms with Chainbearer, after a short +pause he consented to form an extended ring with his brothers, leaving +me and my old friend in its centre. + +"I'll tell you what I t'ink atvisaple in t'is matter," commenced +Andries, in a sort of whisper. "It cannot pe long afore Malpone will be +pack wit' t'e posse ant constaples, ant so fort'; now, if we tell t'ese +rapscallions t'at we want taylight to meet our inimies in, ant t'at we +haf no stomach for nightwork, perhaps t'ey'll carry us pack to jail, ant +so gif more time to Frank to get here." + +"It will be much better, Chainbearer, to prolong our interview with +these squatters, so that you and I may be at large, or at least not shut +up in the storehouse, when Malbone makes his appearance. In the +confusion we may even escape and join our friends, which will be a +thousand times better than to be found within four walls." + +Andries nodded his head, in sign of acquiescence, and thenceforth he +seemed to aim at drawing things out, in order to gain time, instead of +bringing them to a speedy conclusion. As soon as our discourse was +ended, the young men closed round us again, and we moved on in a body. + +Darkness being so close upon us, Thousandacres had determined to hold +his court, this time, within the house, having a care to a sufficient +watchfulness about the door. There is little variation in the internal +distribution of the room of what may be called an American cottage. +About two-thirds of the space is given to the principal apartment, which +contains the fireplace,[18] and is used for all the purposes of kitchen +and sitting-room, while the rest of the building is partitioned into +three several subdivisions. One of these subdivisions is commonly a +small bedroom; another is the buttery, and the third holds the stairs, +or ladders, by which to ascend to the loft, or to descend to the cellar. +Such was the arrangement of the dwelling of Thousandacres, and such is +the arrangement in thousands of other similar buildings throughout the +land. The thriving husbandman is seldom long contented, however, with +such narrow and humble accommodations; but the framed house, of two +stories in height, and with five windows in front, usually soon succeeds +this cottage, in his case. It is rare, indeed, that any American private +edifice has more than five windows in front, the few exceptions which do +exist to the rule being residences of mark, and the supernumerary +windows are generally to be found in wings. Some of our old, solid, +substantial, stone country houses occasionally stretch themselves out to +eight or nine apertures of this sort, but they are rare. I cannot gossip +here, however, about country houses and windows, when I have matters so +grave before me to relate. + +[Footnote 18: At the present day, the cooking-stove has nearly +superseded the open fireplace.] + +In the forest, and especially in the newer portions of New York, the +evenings are apt to be cool, even in the warm months. That memorable +night, I well remember, had a sharpness about it that threatened even a +frost, and Prudence had lighted a fire on the yawning hearth of her rude +chimney. By the cheerful blaze of that fire, which was renewed from time +to time by dried brush, the American frontier substitute for the fagot, +were the scenes I am about to mention enacted. + +We found all the males, and several of the females, assembled in the +large apartment of the building I have described, when Chainbearer and +myself entered. The wife of Tobit, with one or two of the sisterhood, +however, were absent; doubtless in attendance on Dus Lowiny, I remarked, +stood quite near the fire, and the countenance of the girl seemed to me +to be saddened and thoughtful. I trust I shall not be accused of being a +coxcomb, if I add that the idea crossed my mind that the appearance and +manners of a youth so much superior to those with whom she was +accustomed to associate had made a slight impression on this girl's--I +will not say heart, for imagination would be the better word--and had +awakened sympathies that manifested themselves in her previous conduct; +while the shade that was now cast across her brow came quite as much +from the scene she had witnessed between myself and Dus, near the rock, +as from seeing me again a prisoner. The friendship of this girl might +still be of importance to me, and still more so to Ursula, and I will +acknowledge that the apprehension of losing it was far from pleasant. I +could only wait for the developments of time however, in order to reach +any certainty on this, as well as on other most interesting topics. + +Thousandacres had the civility to order us chairs, and we took our seats +accordingly. On looking round the grave and attentive circle, I could +trace no new signs of hostility; but, on the contrary, the countenances +of all seemed more pacific than they were when we parted. I considered +this as an omen that I and my friend should receive some propositions +that tended toward peace. In this I was not mistaken; the first words +that were uttered having that character. + +"It's time this matter atween us, Chainbearer," commenced Thousandacres +himself, "should be brought to suthin' like an eend. It keeps the b'ys +from their lumberin', and upsets my whull family. I call myself a +reasonable man; and be as ready to settle a difficulty on as +accommodatin' tarms as any parson you'll find by lookin' up and down the +land. Many _is_ the difficulty that I've settled in my day; and I'm not +too old to settle 'em now. Sometimes I've fit out, when I've fell in +with an obstinate fellow; sometimes I've left it out to men; and +sometimes I've settled matters myself. No man can say he ever know'd me +refuse to hearken to reason, or know'd me to gi'n up a just cause, so +long as there was a morsel of a chance to defend it. When overpowered by +numbers, and look'd down by your accursed law, as you call it, I'll own +that, once or twice in my time, when young and inexper'enced, I did get +the worst of it; and so was obliged to sort o' run away. But use makes +parfect. I've seen so much, by seventy odd, as to have l'arnt to take +time by the forelock, and don't practyse delays in business. I look upon +you, Chainbearer, as a man much like myself, reasonable, exper'enced, +and willin' to accommodate. I see no great difficulty, therefore, in +settlin' this matter on the spot, so as to have no more hard feelin's or +hot words atween us. Sich be my notions; and I should like to hear +your'n." + +"Since you speak to me, T'ousantacres, in so polite and civil a manner, +I'm reaty to hear you, ant to answer in t'e same temper," returned old +Andries, his countenance losing much of the determined and angry +expression with which he had taken his seat in the circle. "T'ere ist +nuttin' t'at more pecomes a man t'an moteration; ant an olt man in +partic'lar. I do not t'ink, however, t'at t'ere ist much resemplance +petween you ant me, T'ousantacres, in any one t'ing, except it pe in olt +age. We're pot' of us pretty well atvancet, ant haf reachet a time of +life when it pehooves a man to examine ant reflect on t'e great trut's +t'at are to pe fount in his piple. T'e piple ist a pook, Aaron, t'at ist +not enough re't in t'e woots; t'ough Almighty Got hast all t'e same +rights to t'e sacrifices ant worship of his creatures in t'e forest, as +to t'e worship and sacrifices of his creatures in t'e settlements. I'm +not a tellin' you t'is, T'ousantacres, py way of showin' off my own +l'arnin'; for all I know on the supject, myself, I haf got from Dus, my +niece, who ist as goot, ant as willin', ant as hanty in explainin' sich +matters, as any tominie I ever talket wit'. I wish you would listen to +her, yourself; you and Prutence; when I t'ink you woult allow t'at her +tiscourse ist fery etifyin' ant improfin'. Now you seem in t'e right +temper, ist a goot time to pe penefitet in t'at way; for t'ey tell me my +niece ist here, ant at hant." + +"She is; and I rej'ice that you have brought her name into the discourse +so 'arly; as it was my design to mention it myself. I see we think alike +about the young woman, Chainbearer, and trust and believe she'll be the +means of reconciling all parties, and of making us good fri'nds. I've +sent for the gal; and she'll soon be coming along, with Tobit's wife, +who sets by her wonderfully already." + +"Well, talkin' of wonterful t'ings, wonters wilt never cease, I do +pelieve!" Chainbearer exclaimed, for he really believed that the family +of the squatter was taken suddenly with a "religious turn," and that +something like a conversion was about to occur. "Yes, yes; it ist so; we +meet wit' wonters when we least expect 'em; and t'at it is t'at makes +wonters so wonterful!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + "Yes, Hastings, these are they + Who challenge to themselves thy country's love; + The true, the constant, who alone can weigh + What glory should demand, or liberty approve!" + + --AKENSIDE. + + +A pause succeeded this little opening, during which the assembly was +waiting for the arrival of Ursula Malbone, and the semi-savage guardian +that "set" so much by her, as not to leave her out of sight for a +moment. All that time Thousandacres was ruminating on his own plans; +while old Andries was probably reflecting on the singular circumstances +that "wonters shoult pe so wonterful!" At length a little bustle and +movement occurred near the door, the crowd collected in it opened, and +Dus walked into the centre of the room, her color heightened by +excitement, but her step firm, and her air full of spirit. At first, the +blazing light affected her sight, and she passed a hand over her eyes. +Then looking around I met her gaze, and was rewarded for all my anxiety +by one of those glances, into which affection knows how to infuse so +much that is meaning and eloquent. I was thus favored for a moment only; +those eyes still turning until they met the fond, answering look of +Chainbearer. The old man had arisen, and he now received his niece in +his arms, as a parent would embrace a beloved child. + +That outpouring of feeling lasted but a little while. It had been +unpremeditated and impulsive, and was almost as suddenly suppressed. It +gave me, however, the happiness of witnessing one of the most pleasant +sights that man can behold; that of youth, and beauty, and delicacy, and +female tenderness, pouring out their feelings on the bosom of age--on +the ruder qualities of one hardened in person by the exposures of a life +passed in the forest. To me the contrast between the fair, golden hair +of Dus, and the few straggling, bleached locks of her uncle; the downy, +peach-like cheek of the girl, and the red, wrinkled, and sun-dried +countenance of Chainbearer, was perfectly delightful. It said how deep +must lie those sympathies of our nature, which could bring together so +closely two so differently constituted in all things, and set at +defiance the apparent tendencies of taste and habit. + +Dus suffered herself to be thus carried away by her feelings for only a +moment. Accustomed in a degree, as she certainly was, to the rough +associations of the woods, this was the first time she had ever been +confronted with such an assembly, and I could see that she drew back +into herself with womanly reserve, as she now gazed around her, and saw +in what a wild and unwonted presence she stood. Still, I had never seen +her look so supremely lovely as she did that evening, for she threw Pris +Bayard and Kate, with all their advantages of dress and freedom from +exposure, far into the shade. Perhaps the life of Ursula Malbone had +given to her beauty the very completeness and fullness, that are most +apt to be wanting to the young American girl, who has been educated in +the over-tender and delicate manner of our ordinary parental indulgence. +Of air and exercise she had already enjoyed enough, and they had +imparted to her bloom and person the richness and development that are +oftener found in the subordinate than in the superior classes of the +country. + +As for Thousandacres, though he watched every movement of Ursula Malbone +with jealous interest, he said nothing to interrupt the current of her +feelings. As soon as she left her uncle's arms, however, Dus drew back +and took the rude seat that I had placed for her close to Chainbearer's +side. I was paid for this little act of attention by a sweet smile from +its subject, and a lowering look from the old squatter, that admonished +me of the necessity of being cautious of manifesting too much of the +interest I felt in the beloved object before me. As is usual in +assemblages composed of the rude and unpractised, a long, awkward pause +succeeded this introduction of Dus to our presence. After a time, +however, Aaron resumed the subject in hand. + +"We've met to settle all our difficulties, as I was sayin'," observed +Thousandacres, in a manner as deliberative and considerate as if he were +engaged in one of the most blameless pursuits of life, the outward +appearances of virtue and vice possessing a surprising resemblance to +each other. "When men get together on sich a purpose, and in a right +spirit, it must be that there's a fault somewhere, if what's right can't +be come at atween 'em. What's right atwixt man and man is _my_ creed, +Chainbearer." + +"What's right petween man ant man is a goot creet, T'ousantacres; ant +it's a goot religion, too," answered Andries, coldly. + +"That it is! that it is! and I now see that you're in a reasonable +temper, Chainbearer, and that there's a prospect of business in you. I +despise a man that's so set in his notions that there's no gettin' him +to give in an inch in a transaction--don't you hold to that, too, +Captain Andries?" + +"T'at depents on what t'e notions pe. Some notions do nopoty any goot, +ant t'e sooner we're rit of 'em t'e petter; while some notions pe so +fery excellent t'at a man hat pest lay town his life as lay t'em town." + +This answer puzzled Thousandacres, who had no idea of a man's ever dying +for opinion's sake; and who was probably anxious, just at that moment, +to find his companion sufficiently indifferent to principle to make some +sacrifices to expediency. It was quite evident this man was disposed to +practise a _ruse_ on this occasion, that is often resorted to by +individuals, and sometimes by states, when disposed to gain a great +advantage out of a very small right; that of demanding much more than +they expect to receive, and of making a great merit of yielding points +that they never had the smallest claim to maintain. But this disposition +of the squatter's will make itself sufficiently apparent as we proceed. + +"I don't see any use in talkin' about layin' down lives," Thousandacres +returned to Chainbearer's remark, "seein' this is not a life and death +transaction at all. The most that can be made of squattin', give the law +its full swing, is trespass and damages, and them an't matters to +frighten a man that has stood out ag'in 'em all his days. We're pretty +much sich crittur's as sarcumstances make us. There be men, I don't +question, that a body can skear half out of their wits with a writ, +while a whull flock of sheep, skins and wool united, wunt intimidate +them that's used to sich things. I go on the principle of doin' what's +right, let the law say what it will of the matter; and this is the +principle on which I wish to settle our present difficulty." + +"Name your tarms--name your tarms!" cried Chainbearer, a little +impatiently; "talkin' ist talkin', all t'e worlt ofer, ant actin' ist +actin'. If you haf anyt'ing to propose, here we are, reaty ant willin' +to hear it." + +"That's hearty, and just my way of thinkin' and feelin', and I'll act up +to it, though it was the gospel of St. Paul himself, and I was set on +followin' it. Here, then, is the case, and any man can understand it. +There's two rights to all the land on 'arth, and the whull world over. +One of these rights is what I call a king's right, or that which depends +on writin's, and laws, and sichlike contrivances; and the other depends +on possession. It stands to reason, that fact is better than any writin' +about it can be; but I'm willin' to put 'em on a footin' for the time +bein', and for the sake of accommodatin'. I go all for accommodatin' +matters, and not for stirrin' up ill blood; and that I tell Chainbearer, +b'ys, is the right spirit to presarve harmony and fri'ndship!" + +This appeal was rewarded by a murmur of general approbation in all that +part of the audience which might be supposed to be in the squatter +interest, while the part that might be called adverse, remained silent, +though strictly attentive, old Andries included. + +"Yes, that's my principles," resumed Thousandacres, taking a hearty +draught of cider, a liquor of which he had provided an ample allowance, +passing the mug civilly to Chainbearer, as soon as he had his swallow. +"Yes, that's my principles, and good principles they be, for them that +likes peace and harmony, as all must allow. Now, in this matter afore +us, General Littlepage and his partner ripresents writin's, and I and +mine ripresent fact. I don't say which is the best, for I don't want to +be hard on any man's rights, and 'specially when the accommodatin' +spirit is up and doin'; but I'm fact, and the gin'ral's pretty much +writin's. But difficulties has sprung up atwixt us, and it's high time +to put 'em down. I look upon you, Chainbearer, as the fri'nd of the +t'other owners of this sile, and I'm now ready to make proposals, or to +hear them, just as it may prove convenient." + +"I haf no proposals to make, nor any aut'ority to offer t'em. I'm nut'in +here put a chainpearer, wit' a contract to survey t'e patent into small +lots, ant t'en my tuty ist tone. Put, here ist General Littlepage's only +son, ant he ist empoweret, I unterstant, to do all t'at is necessary on +t'is tract, as t'e attorney----" + +"He is and he isn't an attorney!" interrupted Thousandacres, a little +fiercely for one in whom "the accommodatin' spirit is up." "At one +moment he says he's an attorney, and at the next he isn't. I can't stand +this onsartainty any very great while." + +"Pooh, pooh! T'ousantacres," returned Chainbearer, coolly, "you're +frightenet at your own shadow; ant t'at comes, let me telt you, from not +lifing in 'peace and harmony,' as you call it, yourself, wit' t'e law. A +man hast a conscience, whet'er he pe a skinner or a cowboy, or efen a +squatter; and he hast it, pecause Got has gifen it to him, and not on +account of any sarfices of his own. T'at conscience it is, t'at makes my +young frient Mortaunt here an attorney in your eyes, when he ist no more +of a lawyer t'an you pe yourself." + +"Why has he called himself an attorney, then, and why do _you_ call him +one? An attorney is an attorney, in my eyes, and little difference is +there atween 'em. Rattlesnakes would fare better in a clearin' of +Thousandacres' than the smartest attorney in the land!" + +"Well, well, haf your own feelin's; for I s'pose Satan has put 'em into +you, ant talkin' won't pring t'em out. T'is young gentleman, however, +ist no attorney of t'e sort you mean, old squatter, put he hast been a +soltier, like myself, ant in my own regiment, which wast his fat'er's, +ant a prave young man he ist ant wast, ant one t'at has fou't gallantly +for liperty----" + +"If he's a fri'nd of liberty, he should be a fri'nd of liberty's people; +should give liberty and take liberty. Now I call it liberty to let every +man have as much land as he has need on, and no more, keepin' the rest +for them that's in the same situation. If he and his father be true +fri'nds of liberty, let 'em prove it like men, by giving up all claims +to any more land than they want. That's what I call liberty! Let every +man have as much land as he's need on; that's my religion, and it's +liberty, too."[19] + +[Footnote 19: I am a little apprehensive that the profound political +philosophers who have sprung up among us within a few years, including +some in high places, and who virtually maintain that the American is so +ineffably free, that it is opposed to the spirit of the institutions of +the country to suffer him to be either landlord or tenant, however much +he may desire it himself (and no one pretends that either law or facts +compel him to be either, contrary to his own wishes), will feel +mortified at discovering that they have not the merit of first proposing +their own exquisite theory; Aaron Thousandacres having certainly +preceded them by sixty years. There is no great secret on the subject of +the principle which lies at the bottom of this favorite doctrine, the +Deity himself having delivered to man, as far back as the days of Moses, +the tenth commandment, with the obvious design of controlling it. An +attempt to prove that the institutions of this country are unsuited to +the relations of landlord and tenant, is an attempt to prove that they +are unsuited to meet the various contingencies of human affairs, and is +an abandonment of their defence, as that defence can only be made on +broad, manly, and justifiable grounds. As a political principle, it is +just as true that the relations of debtor and creditor are unsuited to +the institutions, and ought to be abolished.--EDITOR.] + +"Why are you so moterate, T'ousantacres? why are you so unreasonaply +moterate? Why not say t'at efery man hast a right to efery t'hing he +hast need of, and so make him comfortaple at once! T'ere is no wistom in +toin' t'ings by hafs, ant it ist always petter to surfey all t'e lant +you want, while t'e compass is set ant t'e chains pe going. It's just as +much liperty to haf a right to share in a man's tollars, as to share in +his lants." + +"I don't go as far as that, Chainbearer," put in Thousandacres, with a +degree of moderation that ought to put the enemies of his principles to +the blush. "Money is what a man 'arns himself, and he has a right to it, +and so I say let him keep it; but land is necessary, and every man has a +right to as much as he has need on--I wouldn't give him an acre more, on +no account at all." + +"Put money wilt puy lant; ant, in sharin' t'e tollars, you share t'e +means of puyin' as much lant as a man hast neet of; t'en t'ere ist a +great teal more lant ast money in t'is country, ant, in gifin' a man +lant, you only gif him t'at which ist so cheap ant common, t'at he must +pe a poor tefil if he can't get all t'e lant he wants wit'out much +trouple and any squattin', if you wilt only gif him ever so little +money. No, no, T'ousantacres--you're fery wrong; you shoult pegin to +tivite wit' t'e tollars, ant t'at wilt not tisturp society, as tollars +are in t'e pocket, ant go ant come efery day; whereast lant is a +fixture, and some people lofe t'eir own hills, ant rocks, ant +trees--when t'ey haf peen long in a family most especially." + +There was a dark scowl gathering on the brow of Thousandacres, partly +because he felt himself puzzled by the upright and straightforward +common sense of Chainbearer, and partly for a reason that he himself +made manifest in the answer that he quite promptly gave to my old +friend's remarks. + +"No man need say anything ag'in squattin' that wants to keep fri'nds +with me," Thousandacres put in, with certain twitchings about the +muscles of the mouth, that were so many signs of his being in earnest. +"I hold to liberty and a man's rights, and that is no reason I should be +deflected on. My notions be other men's notions, I know, though they be +called squatters' notions. Congressmen have held 'em, and will hold 'em +ag'in, if they expect much support, in some parts of the country, at +election time. I dare say the day will come when governors will be found +to hold 'em. Governors be but men a'ter all, and must hold doctrines +that satisfy men's wants, or they won't be governors long.[20] But all +this is nuthin' but talk, and I want to come to suthin' like business, +Chainbearer. Here's this clearin', and here's the lumber. Now, I'm +willin' to settle on some sich tarms as these: I'll keep the lumber, +carryin' it off as soon as the water gets to be high enough, agreein' to +pay for the privilege by not fellin' another tree, though I must have +the right to saw up sich logs as be cut and hauled already; and then, as +to the land and clearin', if the writin' owners want 'em, they can have +'em by payin' for the betterments, leavin' the price out to men in this +neighborhood, sin' city-bred folks can't know nothin' of the toil and +labor of choppin', and loggin', and ashin', and gettin' in, and croppin' +new lands." + +[Footnote 20: Thousandacres speaks here like a veritable +prophet.--EDITOR.] + +"Mortaunt, t'at proposal ist for you. I haf nut'in' to do wit' t'e +clearin' put to surfey it; and t'at much will I perform, when I get as +far ast t'e place, come t'ere goot, or come t'ere efil of it." + +"Survey this clearin'!" put in Tobit, with his raven throat, and +certainly in a somewhat menacing tone. "No, no, Chainbearer--the man is +not out in the woods, that could ever get his chain across this +clearin'." + +"T'at man, I tell you, is Andries Coejemans, commonly called +Chainpearer," answered my old friend, calmly. "No clearin', ant no +squatter, ever stoppet him yet, nor do I t'ink he will pe stoppet here, +from performin' his tuty. Put praggin' is a pat quality, ant we'll leaf +time to show t'e trut'." + +Thousandacres gave a loud hem, and looked very dark, though he said +nothing until time had been given to his blood to resume its customary +current. Then he pursued the discourse as follows--evidently bent on +keeping on good terms with Chainbearer as long as possible. + +"On the whull," he said, "I rather think, Tobit, 'twill be best if you +leave this matter altogether to me. Years cool the blood, and allow time +to reason to spread. Years be as necessary to judgment as a top to a +fruit-tree. I kind o' b'lieve that Chainbearer and I, being both elderly +and considerate men, will be apt to get along best together. I dare say, +Chainbearer, that if the surveyin' of this clearin' be put to you on the +footin' of defiance, that your back would get up, like anybody else's, +and you'd bring on the chain, let who might stand in your way. But +that's neither here nor there. You're welcome to chain out just as much +of this part of the patent as you see fit, and 'twill help us along so +much the better when we come to the trade. Reason's reason, and I'm of +an accommodatin' spirit." + +"So much t'e better, T'ousantacres; yes, so much t'e better," answered +old Andries, somewhat mollified by the conciliatory temper in which the +squatter now delivered himself. "When work ist to pe performet, it +_must_ pe performet; ant, as I'm hiret to surfey and chain t'e whole +estate, t'e whole estate _must_ be chainet ant surfeyet. Well, what else +haf you to say?" + +"I am not answered as to my first offer. I'll take the lumber, agreein' +not to cut another tree, and the valie of the betterments can be left +out to men." + +"I am the proper person to answer this proposal," I thought it now right +to say, lest Andries and Thousandacres should get to loggerheads again +on some minor and immaterial point, and thus endanger every hope of +keeping the peace until Malbone could arrive. "At the same time, I +consider it no more than right to tell you, at once, that I have no +power that goes so far as to authorize me to agree to your terms. Both +Colonel Follock and my father have a stern sense of justice, and +neither, in my opinion, will feel much of a disposition to yield to any +conditions that, in the least, may have the appearance of compromising +any of their rights as landlords. I have heard them both say that, in +these particulars, 'yielding an inch would be giving an ell,' and I +confess that, from all I have seen lately of settlers and settlements, +I'm very much of the same way of thinking. My principals may concede +something, but they'll never treat on a subject of which all the right +is on their own side." + +"Am I to understand you, young man, that you're onaccommodatin', and +that my offers isn't to be listened to, in the spirit in which they're +made?" demanded Thousandacres, somewhat dryly. + +"You are to understand me as meaning exactly what I say, sir. In the +first place, I have no authority to accept your offers, and shall not +assume any, let the consequences to myself be what they may. Indeed, any +promises made in duresse are good for nothing." + +"Anan!" cried the squatter. "This is Mooseridge Patent, and Washington, +late Charlotte County--and this is the place we are to sign and seal in, +if writin's pass atween us." + +"By promises made in duresse, I mean promises made while the party +making them is in confinement, or not absolutely free to make them or +not; such promises are good for nothing in law, even though all the +'writings' that could be drawn passed between the parties." + +"This is strange doctrine, and says but little for your boasted law, +then! At one time, it asks for writin's, and nothin' but writin's will +answer; and then all the writin's on 'arth be of no account! Yet some +folks complain, and have hard feelin's, if a man wunt live altogether up +to law!" + +"I rather think, Thousandacres, you overlook the objects of the law, in +its naked regulations. Law is to enforce the right, and were it to +follow naked rules, without regard to principles, it might become the +instrument of effecting the very mischiefs it is designed to +counteract." + +I might have spared myself the trouble of uttering this fine speech; +which caused the old squatter to stare at me in wonder, and produced a +smile among the young men, and a titter among the females. I observed, +however, that the anxious face of Lowiny expressed admiration, rather +than the feeling that was so prevalent among the sisterhood. + +"There's no use in talkin' to this young spark, Chainbearer," +Thousandacres said, a little impatiently in the way of manner, too; +"he's passed his days in the open country, and has got open-country +ways, and notions, and talk; and them's things I don't pretend to +understand. You're woods, mainly; he's open country; and I'm clearin'. +There's a difference atween each; but woods and clearin' come clussest; +and so I'll say my say to you. Be you, now, r'ally disposed to +accommodate, or not, old Andries?" + +"Any t'ing t'at ist right, ant just, ant reasonaple, T'ousantacres; ant +nut'in' t'at ist not." + +"That's just my way of thinkin'! If the law, now, would do as much as +that for a man, the attorneys would soon starve. Wa-a-l, we'll try now +to come to tarms, as soon as possible. You're a single man, I know, +Chainbearer; but I've always supposed 'twas on account of no dislike to +the married state, but because you didn't chance to light on the right +gal; or maybe on account of the surveyin' principle, which keeps a man +pretty much movin' about from tract to tract; though not much more than +squattin' doos, neither, if the matter was inquired into." + +I understood the object of this sudden change from fee-simples, and +possessions, and the "accommodatin' spirit," to matrimony; but +Chainbearer did not. He only looked his surprise; while, as to myself, +if I looked at all as I felt, I must have been the picture of +uneasiness. The beloved, unconscious Dus sat there in her maiden beauty, +interested and anxious in her mind, beyond all question, but totally +ignorant of the terrible blow that was meditated against herself. As +Andries looked his desire to hear more, instead of answering the strange +remark he had just heard, Thousandacres proceeded, "It's quite nat'ral +to think of matrimony, afore so many young folks, isn't it, +Chainbearer?" added the squatter, chuckling at his own conceits. "Here's +lots of b'ys and gals about me; and I'm just as accommodatin' in findin' +husbands or wives for my fri'nds and neighbors, as I am in settlin' all +other difficulties. Anything for peace and a good neighborhood is my +religion!" + +Old Andries passed a hand over his eyes, in the way one is apt to do +when he wishes to aid a mental effort by external application. It was +evident he was puzzled to find out what the squatter would be at, though +he soon put a question that brought about something like an explanation. + +"I ton't unterstant you, T'ousantacres;--no, I ton't unterstant you. Is +it your tesire to gif me one of your puxom ant fine-lookin' gals, here, +for a wife?" + +The squatter laughed heartily at this notion, the young men joining in +the mirth; while the constant titter that the females had kept up ever +since the subject of matrimony was introduced, was greatly augmented in +zest. An indifferent spectator would have supposed that the utmost good +feeling prevailed among us. + +"With all my heart, Chainbearer, if you can persuade any of the gals to +have you!" cried Thousandacres, with the most apparent acquiescence. +"With such a son-in-law, I don't know but I should take to the chain, +a'ter all, and measure out my clearin's as well as the grandee farmers, +who take pride in knowin' where their lines be. There's Lowiny, she's +got no spark, and might suit you well enough, if she'd only think so." + +"Lowiny don't think any sich thing; and isn't likely to think any sich +thing," answered the girl, in a quick, irritated manner. + +"Wa-a-l, I do s'pose, a'ter all, Chainbearer," Thousandacres resumed, +"we'll get no weddin' out of _you_. Three-score-and-ten is somewhat late +for takin' a first wife; though I've known widowers marry ag'in when +hard on upon ninety. When a man has taken one wife in 'arly life, he has +a kind o' right to another in old age." + +"Yes--yes--or a hundred either," put in Prudence, with spirit. "Give 'em +a chance only, and they'll find wives as long as they can find breath to +ask women to have 'em! Gals, you may make up your minds to _that_--no +man will mourn long for any on you, a'ter you're once dead and buried." + +I should think this little sally must have been somewhat common, as +neither the "b'ys" nor the "gals" appeared to give it much attention. +These matrimonial insinuations occur frequently in the world, and +Prudence was not the first woman, by a million, who had ventured to make +them. + +"I will own I was not so much thinkin' of providin' a wife for you, +Chainbearer, as I was thinkin' of providin' one for a son of mine," +continued Thousandacres. "Here's Zephaniah, now, is as active and +hard-workin', upright, honest and obedient a young man as can be found +in this country. He's of a suitable age, and begins to think of a wife. +I tell him to marry, by all means, for it's the blessedest condition of +life, is the married state, that man ever entered into. You wouldn't +think it, perhaps, on lookin' at old Prudence, there, and beholdin' what +she now is; but I speak from exper'ence in recommendin' matrimony; and I +wouldn't, on no account, say what I didn't really think in the matter. A +little matrimony might settle all our difficulties, Chainbearer." + +"You surely do not expect me to marry your son, Zephaniah, I must +s'pose, T'ousantacres!" answered Andries, innocently. + +The laugh, this time, was neither as loud or as general as before, +intense expectation rendering the auditors grave. + +"No, no; I'll excuse you from that, of a sartainty, old Andries; though +you may have Lowiny, if you can only prevail on the gal. But, speakin' +of Zephaniah, I can r'ally ricommend the young man; a thing I'd never do +if he didn't desarve it, though he is my son. No one can say that I'm in +the habit of ever ricommendin' my own things, even to the boards. The +lumber of Thousandacres is as well known in all the markets below, they +tell me, as the flour of any miller in the highest credit. It's just so +with the b'ys, better lads is not to be met with; and I can ricommend +Zephaniah with just as much confidence as I could ricommend any lot of +boards I ever rafted." + +"And what haf I to do wit' all t'is?" asked Chainbearer, gravely. + +"Why, the matter is here, Chainbearer, if you'll only look a little into +it. There's difficulty atween us, and pretty serious difficulty, too. In +me the accommodatin' spirit is up, as I've said afore, and am willin' to +say ag'in. Now I've my son, Zeph, here, as I've said, and he's lookin' +about for a wife; and you've a niece here--Dus Malbone, I s'pose is her +name--and they'd just suit each other. It seems they're acquainted +somewhat, and have kept company some time already, and that'll make +things smooth. Now what I offer is just this, and no more; not a bit of +it. I offer to send off for a magistrate, and I'll do't at my own +expense; it shan't cost you a farthin'; and as soon as the magistrate +comes, we'll have the young folks married on the spot, and that will +make etarnal peace forever, as you must suppose, atween you and me. +Wa-a-l, peace made atween _us_, 'twill leave but little to accommodate +with the writin' owners of the sile, seein' that you are on tarms with +em' all, that a body may set you down all as one as bein' of the same +family, like. If Gin'ral Littlepage makes a p'int of anything of the +sort, I'll engage no one of my family, in all futur' time, shall ever +squat on any lands he may lay claim to, whether he owns em or not." + +I saw quite plainly that at first Chainbearer did not fully comprehend +the nature of the squatter's proposal. Neither did Dus herself; though +somewhat prepared for such a thing by her knowledge of Zephaniah's +extravagant wishes on the subject. But when Thousandacres spoke plainly +of sending for a magistrate, and of having "the young folks married on +the spot," it was not easy to mistake his meaning, and astonishment was +soon succeeded by offended pride, in the breast of old Andries, and that +to a degree and in a manner I had never before witnessed in him. Perhaps +I ought, in justice to my excellent friend, to add that his high +principles and keen sense of right were quite as much wounded by the +strange proposal as his personal feelings. It was some time before he +could or would speak; when he did, it was with a dignity and severity of +manner which I really had no idea he could assume. The thought of Ursula +Malbone's being sacrificed to such a being as Zephaniah, and such a +family as the squatter's, shocked all his sensibilities, and appeared +for a moment to overcome him. On the other hand, nothing was plainer +than that the breed of Thousandacres saw no such violation of the +proprieties in their scheme. The vulgar, almost invariably, in this +country, reduce the standard of distinction to mere money; and in this +respect they saw, or fancied they saw, that Dus was not much better off +than they were themselves. All those points which depended on taste, +refinement, education, habits and principles, were Hebrew to them; and, +quite as a matter of course, they took no account of qualities they +could neither see nor comprehend. It is not surprising, therefore, that +they could imagine the young squatter might make a suitable husband to +one who was known to have carried chain in the forest. + +"I pelieve I do begin to unterstant you, T'ousantacres," said the +Chainbearer, rising from his chair, and moving to the side of his niece +as if instinctively to protect her; "t'ough it ist not a fery easy t'ing +to comprehent such a proposal. You wish Ursula Malpone to pecome t'e +wife of Zephaniah T'ousantacres, ant t'ereupon you wish to patch up a +peace wit' General Littlepage and Colonel Follock, ant optain an +intemnity for all t'e wrong ant roppery you have done 'em----" + +"Harkee, old Chainbearer; you'd best be kearful of your language----" + +"Hear what t'at language ist to pe, pefore you interrupt me, +T'ousantacres. A wise man listens pefore he answers. Alt'ough I haf +nefer peen marriet myself, I know what ist tecent in pehavior, ant, +t'erefore, I wilt t'ank you for t'e wish of pein' connectet wit' t'e +Coejemans ant t'e Malpones. T'at tuty tone, I wish to say t'at my niece +wilt not haf your poy----" + +"You haven't given the gal a chance to speak for herself," cried +Thousandacres, at the top of his voice, for he began to be agitated now +with a fury that found a little vent in that manner. "You haven't given +the gal a chance to answer for herself, old Andries. Zeph is a lad that +she may go farther and fare worse, afore she'll meet his equal, I can +tell you, though perhaps, bein' the b'y's own father, I shouldn't say +it--but, in the way of accommodatin', I'm willin' to overlook a great +deal." + +"Zephaniah's an excellent son," put in Prudence, in the pride and +feeling of a mother, nature having its triumph in _her_ breast as well +as in that of the most cultivated woman of the land. "Of all my sons, +Zephaniah is the best; and I account him fit to marry with any who don't +live in the open country, and with many that do." + +"Praise your goots, ant extol your poy, if you see fit," answered +Chainbearer, with a calmness that I knew bespoke some desperate +resolution. "Praise your goots, ant extol your poy, I'll not teny your +right to do as much of t'at as you wish; put t'is gal was left me py an +only sister on her tyin' pet, ant may God forget me, when I forget the +tuty I owe to _her_. She shalt nefer marry a son of T'ousantacres--she +shalt nefer marry a squatter--she shalt nefer marry any man t'at ist not +of a class, ant feelin's, ant hapits, and opinions, fit to pe t'e +huspant of a laty!" + +A shout of derision, in which was blended the fierce resentment of +mortified pride, arose among that rude crew, but the thundering voice of +Thousandacres made itself audible, even amid the hellish din. + +"Beware, Chainbearer; beware how you aggravate us; natur' can't and +won't bear everything." + +"I want nut'in' of you or yours, T'ousantacres," calmly returned the old +man, passing his arm around the waist of Dus, who clung to him, with a +cheek that was flushed to fire, but an eye that was not accustomed to +quail, and who seemed, at that fearful moment, every way ready and able +to second her uncle's efforts. "You're nut'in' to me, ant I'll leaf you +here, in your misteets ant wicket t'oughts. Stant asite, I orter you. Do +not tare to stop t'e brod'er who is apout to safe his sister's da'ghter +from pecoming a squatter's wife. Stant asite, for I'll stay wit' you no +longer. An hour or two hence, miseraple Aaron, you'll see t'e folly of +all t'is, ant wish you hat livet an honest man." + +By this time the clamor of voices became so loud and confused, as to +render it impossible to distinguish what was said. Thousandacres +actually roared like a maddened bull, and he was soon hoarse with +uttering his menaces and maledictions. Tobit said less, but was probably +more dangerous. All the young men seemed violently agitated, and bent on +closing the door on the exit of the Chainbearer; who, with his arm +around Dus, still slowly advanced, waving the crowd aside, and +commanding them to make way for him, with a steadiness and dignity that +I began to think would really prevail. In the midst of this scene of +confusion, a rifle suddenly flashed; the report was simultaneous, and +old Andries Coejemans fell. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + "Ye midnight shades, o'er nature spread! + Dumb silence of the dreary hour! + In honor of th' approaching dead, + Around your awful terrors pour. + Yes, pour around, + On this pale ground, + Through all this deep surrounding gloom, + The sober thought, + The tear untaught, + Those meetest mourners at the tomb."--MALLET. + + +It is a law of human nature, that the excesses of passion bring their +own rebukes. The violence of man feeds itself, until some enormity +committed under its influence suddenly rises before the transgressor, as +the evidence of his blindness and the restorer of his senses. Guilt +performs the office of reason, staying the hand, stilling the pulses, +and arousing the conscience. + +Thus it seemed to be with the squatters of Mooseridge. A stillness so +profound succeeded the crack of that rifle, that I heard the stifled +breathing of Dus, as she stood over the body of her uncle, astounded, +and almost converted into a statue by the suddenness of the blow. No one +spoke; no one attempted to quit the place; in fact, no one moved. It was +never known who fired that shot. At first I ascribed it to the hand of +Tobit; but it was owing more to what I knew of his temper and character, +than to what I knew of his acts at that particular time. Afterward I +inclined to the opinion that my friend had fallen by the hand of +Thousandacres himself; though there were no means of bringing it home to +him by legal proof. If any knew who was the criminal besides the wretch +who executed the deed, the fact was never revealed. That family was +faithful to itself, and seemed determined to stand or fall together. In +the eye of the law, all who were present, aiding and abetting in the +unlawful detention of Dus and her uncle, were equally guilty; but the +hand on which the stain of blood rested in particular, was never dragged +to light. + +My first impulse, as soon as I could recollect myself, was to pass an +arm around the waist of Dus and force her through the crowd, with a view +to escape. Had this attempt been persevered in, I think it would have +succeeded, so profound was the sensation made, even upon those rude and +lawless men, by the deed of violence, that had just been done. But Dus +was not one to think of self at such a moment. For a single instant her +head fell on my shoulders, and I held her to my bosom, while I whispered +my wish for her to fly. Then raising her head, she gently extricated her +person from my arms, and knelt by the side of her uncle. + +"He breathes!" she said huskily, but hastily. "God be praised, Mordaunt, +he still breathes. The blow may not be as heavy as we at first supposed; +let us do what we can to aid him." + +Here were the characteristic decision and thoughtfulness of Ursula +Malbone! Rising quickly, she turned to the group of silent but observant +squatters, and appealed to any remains of humanity that might still be +found in their bosoms, to lend their assistance. Thousandacres stood +foremost in the dark cluster at the door, looking grimly at the +motionless body, over which Dus stood, pale and heart-stricken, but +still calm and collected. + +"The hardest-hearted man among you will not deny a daughter's right to +administer to a parent's wants!" she said, with a pathos in her voice, +and a dignity in her manner, that filled me with love and admiration, +and which had a visible effect on all who heard hear. "Help me to raise +my uncle and to place him on a bed, while Major Littlepage examines his +hurt. You'll not deny me this little comfort, Thousandacres, for you +cannot know how soon you may want succor yourself!" + +Zephaniah, who certainly had no hand in the murder of Chainbearer, now +advanced; and he, myself, Lowiny and Dus, raised the still motionless +body, and placed it on the bed of Prudence, which stood in the principal +room. There was a consultation among the squatters, while we were thus +employed, and one by one the family dropped off, until no one was left +in the house but Thousandacres, and his wife, and Lowiny; the latter +remaining with Dus, as a useful and even an affectionate assistant. The +father sat, in moody silence, on one side of the fire while Prudence +placed herself on the other. I did not like the aspect of the squatter's +countenance, but he said and did nothing. It struck me he was brooding +over the facts, nursing his resentments by calling up fancied wrongs to +his mind, and plotting for the future. If such was the case, he +manifested great nerve, inasmuch as neither alarm nor hurry was, in the +slightest degree, apparent in his mien. Prudence was dreadfully +agitated. + +She said nothing, but her body worked to and fro with nervous +excitement; and occasionally a heavy, but suppressed groan struggled +through her efforts to resist it. Otherwise, she was as if not present. + +I had been accustomed to seeing gunshot wounds, and possessed such a +general knowledge of their effects as to be a tolerable judge of what +would, and what would not, be likely to prove fatal. The first look I +took at the hurt of Chainbearer convinced me there could be no hope for +his life. The ball had passed between two of the ribs, and seemed to me +to take a direction downward; but it was impossible to miss the vitals +with a wound commencing at that point on the human body. The first shock +of the injury had produced insensibility; but we had hardly got the +sufferer on the bed, and applied a little water to his lips, ere he +revived; soon regaining his consciousness, as well as the power to +speak. Death was on him, however; and it was very obvious to me that his +hours were numbered. He might live days, but it was not possible for him +to survive. + +"Got pless you, Mortaunt," my old friend murmured, after my efforts had +thus partially succeeded. "Got forever pless ant preserf you, poy, ant +repay you for all your kintness to me ant mine. T'em squatters haf +killet me, lat; put I forgif t'em. T'ey are an ignorant, ant selfish, +ant prutal preed; ant I may haf triet 'em too sorely. Put Dus can never +pecome t'e wife of any of t'e family." + +As Zephaniah was in the room, though not near the bed at the moment, I +was anxious to change the current of the wounded man's thoughts; and I +questioned him as to the nature of his hurt, well knowing that +Chainbearer had seen so many soldiers in situations similar to his own +unhappy condition, as to be a tolerable judge of his actual state. + +"I'm killet, Mortaunt," old Andries answered, in a tone even firmer than +that in which he had just spoken. "Apout t'at, t'ere can pe no mistake. +T'ey haf shot t'rough my rips, and t'rough my vitals; ant life is +impossible. But t'at does not matter much to me, for I am an olt man +now, hafin' lifet my t'reescore years ant ten--no, t'at is no great +matter, t'ough some olt people cling to life wit' a tighter grip t'an +t'e young. Such ist not my case, howsefer; ant I am reaty to march when +t'e great wort of commant comet'. I am fery sorry, Mortaunt, t'at t'is +accitent shoult happen pefore t'e patent has peen fully surfeyet; put I +am not pait for t'e work t'at is finishet, ant it ist a great comfort to +me to know I shall not tie in tebt. I owe you, ant I owe my goot frient, +t'e general, a great teal for kintnesses, I must confess; put, in t'e +way of money, t'ere wilt pe no loss by t'is accitent." + +"Mention nothing of this sort, I do entreat of you, Chainbearer; I know +my father would gladly give the best farm he owns to see you standing, +erect and well, as you were twenty minutes since." + +"Well, I tares to say, t'at may pe true, for I haf always fount t'e +general to pe friently and consiterate. I wilt tell you a secret, +Mortaunt, t'at I haf nefer pefore revealet to mortal man, put which +t'ere ist no great use in keepin' any longer, ant which I shoult haf +peen willing to haf tolt long ago, hat not t'e general himself mate it a +p'int t'at I shoult not speak of it----" + +"Perhaps it might be better, my good friend, were you to tell me this +secret another time. Talking may weary and excite you; whereas, sleep +and rest may possibly do you service." + +"No, no, poy--t'e hope of t'at ist all itleness ant vanity. I shalt +nefer sleep ag'in, tilt I sleep t'e last long sleep of teat'; I feelt +sartain my wound is mortal, ant t'at my time must soon come. +Nefert'eless, it doesn't gif me pain to talk; ant, Mortaunt, my tear +lat, fri'nts t'at pe apout to part for so long a time, ought not to part +wit'out sayin' a wort to one anot'er pefore separation. I shoult pe +glat, in partic'lar, to tell to a son all t'e kintness ant fri'ntship I +haf receifet from his fat'er. You know fery well, yourself, Mortaunt, +t'at I am not great at figures; and why it shoult pe so, ist a wonter +ant a surprise to me, for my grantfat'er Van Syce was a wonterful man at +arit'metic, and t'e first Coejemans in t'is country, t'ey say, kept all +t'e tominie's accounts for him! Put, let t'at pe ast it wast, I nefer +coult do anyt'ing wit' figures; ant it ist a secret not to pe concealet +now, Mortaunt, t'at I nefer coult haf helt my commission of captain six +weeks, put for your own fat'ers kintness to me. Fintin' out how +impossible it was for me to get along wit' arit'metic, he offeret to do +all t'at sort of tuty for me, ant t'e whole time we was toget'er, seven +long years ant more, Colonel Littlepage mate out t'e reports of +Coejemans' company. Capital goot reports was t'ey, too, ant t'e +atmiration of all t'at see t'em; ant I often felt ashamet like, when I +he'rt t'em praiset, and people wonterin' how an olt Tutchman ever +l'arnet to do his tuty so well! I shalt nefer see t'e general ag'in, ant +I wish you to tell him t'at Andries tit not forget his gootness to him, +to t'e latest preat' t'at he trew." + +"I will do all you ask of me, Chainbearer--surely it must give you pain +to talk so much?" + +"Not at all, poy; not at all. It is goot to t'e poty to lighten t'e soul +of its opligations. Ast I see, howsefer, t'at Dus ist trouplet, I wilt +shut my eyes, and look into my own t'oughts a little, for I may not tie +for some hours yet." + +It sounded fearful to me to hear one I loved so well speak so calmly, +and with so much certainty, of his approaching end. I could see that +Ursula almost writhed under the agony these words produced in her; yet +that noble-minded creature wore an air of calmness that might have +deceived one who knew her less well than she was known to me. She signed +for me to quit the side of the bed, in the vain hope that her uncle +might fall asleep, and placed herself silently on a chair, at hand, in +readiness to attend to his wants. As for me, I took the occasion to +examine the state of things without, and to reflect on what course I +ought to take, in the novel and desperate circumstances in which we were +so unexpectedly placed; the time for something decisive having certainly +arrived. + +It was now near an hour after the deed had been done--and there sat +Thousandacres and his wife, one on each side of the fire, in silent +thought. As I turned to look at the squatters, and the father of +squatters, I saw that his countenance was set in that species of sullen +moodiness, which might well be taken as ominous in a man of his +looseness of principle and fierceness of temperament. Nor had the +nervous twitchings of Prudence ceased. In a word, both of these strange +beings appeared at the end of that hour just as they had appeared at its +commencement. It struck me, as I passed them in moving toward the door, +that there was even a sublimity in their steadiness in guilt. I ought, +however, in some slight degree to exempt the woman, whose agitation was +some proof that she repented of what had been done. At the door itself, +I found no one; but two or three of the young men were talking in a low +tone to each other at no great distance. Apparently they had an eye to +what was going on within the building. Still no one of them spoke to me, +and I began to think that the crime already committed had produced such +a shock, that no further wrong to any of us was contemplated, and that I +might consider myself at liberty to do and act as I saw fit. A twitch at +my sleeve, however, drew my look aside, and I saw Lowiny cowering within +the shadows of the house, seemingly eager to attract my attention. She +had been absent some little time, and had probably been listening to the +discourse of those without. + +"Don't think of venturing far from the house," the girl whispered. "The +evil spirit has got possession of Tobit; and he has just sworn the same +grave shall hold you, and Chainbearer and Dus. 'Graves don't turn +state's evidence,' he says. I never know'd him to be so awful as he is +to-night; though he's dreadful in temper when anything goes amiss." + +The girl glided past me as she ceased her hurried communication, and the +next instant she was standing quietly at the side of Dus, in readiness +to offer her assistance in any necessary office for the sick. I saw that +she had escaped notice, and then reconnoitred my own position with some +little care. + +By this time the night had got to be quite dark; and it was impossible +to recognize persons at the distance of twenty feet. It is true, one +could tell a man from a stump at twice that number of yards, or even +further; but the objects of the rude clearing began to be confounded +together in a way to deprive the vision of much of its customary power. +That group of young men, as I suppose, contained the formidable Tobit; +but I could be by no means certain of the fact without approaching quite +near to it. This I did not like to do, as there was nothing that I +desired particularly to say to any of the family at the moment. Could +they have known my heart, the squatters would have felt no uneasiness on +the subject of my escaping, for were Dus quite out of the question, as +she neither was nor could be, it would be morally impossible for me to +desert the Chainbearer in his dying moments. Nevertheless, Tobit and his +brethren did not know this; and it might be dangerous for me to presume +too far on the contrary supposition. + +The darkness was intensest near the house, as a matter of course; and I +glided along close to the walls of logs until I reached an angle of the +building, thinking the movement might be unseen. But I got an assurance +that I was watched that would admit of no question, by a call from one +of the young men, directing me not to turn the corner to go out of sight +in any direction, at the peril of my life. This was plain speaking; and +it induced a short dialogue between us, in which I avowed my +determination not to desert my friends--for the Chainbearer would +probably not outlive the night--and that I felt no apprehension for +myself. I was heated and excited, and had merely left the house for air; +if they offered no impediment I would walk to and fro near them for a +few minutes, solely with a view to refresh my feverish pulses, pledging +my word to make no attempt at escape. This explanation, with the +accompanying assurance, seemed to satisfy my guard; and I was quietly +permitted to do as I had proposed. + +The walk I selected was between the group of squatters and the house, +and at each turn it necessarily brought me close to the young men. At +such moments I profited by my position to look in through the door of +the dwelling at the motionless form of Dus, who sat at the bedside of +her uncle in the patient, silent, tender, and attentive manner of woman, +and whom I could plainly see in thus passing. Notwithstanding the +fidelity of my homage to my mistress at these instants, I could perceive +that the young men uniformly suspended the low dialogue they were +holding together, as I approached them, and as uniformly renewed it as I +moved away. This induced me gradually to extend my walk, lengthening it +a little on each end, until I may have gone as far as a hundred feet on +each side of the group, which I took for the centre. To have gone +farther would have been imprudent, as it might seem preparatory to an +attempt at escape, and to a consequent violation of my word. + +In this manner, then, I may have made eight or ten turns in as many +minutes, when I heard a low, hissing sound near me, while at the +extremity of one of my short promenades. A stump stood there, and the +sound came from the root of the stump. At first I fancied I had +encroached on the domain of some serpent; though animals of that +species, which would be likely to give forth such a menace, were even +then very rare among us. But my uncertainty was soon relieved. + +"Why you no stop at stump?" said Susquesus, in a voice so low as not to +be heard at the distance of ten feet, while it was perfectly distinct +and not in a whisper. "Got sut'in' tell--glad to hear." + +"Wait until I can make one or two more turns; I will come back in a +moment," was my guarded answer. + +Then I continued my march, placing myself against a stump that stood at +the other end of my walk, remaining leaning there for an entire minute +or two, when I returned, passing the young men as before. This I did +three several times, stopping at each turn, as if to rest or to reflect; +and making each succeeding halt longer than the one that had preceded +it. At length I took my stand against the very stump that concealed the +Indian. + +"How came you here, Susquesus?" I asked; "and are you armed?" + +"Yes; got good rifle. Chainbearer's gun. He no want him any longer, eh?" + +"You know then what has happened? Chainbearer is mortally wounded." + +"Dat bad--must take scalp to pay for _dat_! Ole fri'nd--good fri'nd. +Always kill murderer." + +"I beg nothing of the sort will be attempted; but how came you +here?--and how came you armed?" + +"Jaap do him--come and break open door. Nigger strong--do what he like +to. Bring rifle--say take him. Wish he come sooner--den Chainbearer no +get kill. We see." + +I thought it prudent to move on by the time this was said; and I made a +turn or two ere I was disposed to come to another halt. The truth, +however, was now apparent to me. Jaap had come in from the forest, +forced the fastenings of the Onondago's prison, given him arms, and they +were both out in the darkness, prowling round the building, watching for +the moment to strike a blow, or an opportunity to communicate with me. +How they had ascertained the fact of Chainbearer's being shot, I was +left to conjecture; though Susquesus must have heard the report of the +rifle; and an Indian, on such a night as that, left to pursue his own +course, would soon ascertain all the leading points of any circumstance +in which he felt an interest. + +My brain was in a whirl as all these details presented themselves to my +mind, and I was greatly at a loss to decide on my course. In order to +gain time for reflection, I stopped a moment at the stump, and whispered +to the Onondago a request that he would remain where he was until I +could give him his orders. An expressive "good" was the answer I +received, and I observed that the Indian crouched lower in his lair, +like some fierce animal of the woods, that restrained his impatience, in +order to make his leap, when it did come, more certain and fatal. + +I had now a little leisure for reflection. There lay poor Chainbearer, +stretched on his death-pallet, as motionless as if the breath had +already left his body. Dus maintained her post, nearly as immovable as +her uncle; while Lowiny stood at hand, manifesting the sympathy of her +sex in the mourning scene before her. I caught glimpses, too, in +passing, of Thousandacres and Prudence. It appeared to me as if the +first had not stirred from the moment when he had taken his seat on the +hearth. His countenance was as set, his air as moody, and his attitude +as stubborn, as each had been in the first five minutes after the +Chainbearer fell. Prudence, too, was as unchanged as her husband. Her +body continued to rock, in nervous excitement, but not once had I seen +her raise her eyes from the stone of the rude hearth that covered nearly +one-half of the room. The fire had nearly burned down, and no one +replenishing the brush which fed it, a flickering flame alone +remained to cast its wavering light over the forms of these two +conscience-stricken creatures, rendering them still more mysterious and +forbidding. Lowiny had indeed lighted a thin, miserable candle of +tallow, such as one usually sees in the lowest habitations; but it was +placed aside, in order to be removed from before the sight of the +supposed slumberer, and added but little to the light of the room. +Notwithstanding, I could and did see all I have described, stopping for +some little time at a point that commanded a view of the interior of the +house. + +Of Dus, I could ascertain but little. She was nearly immovable at the +bedside of her uncle, but her countenance was veiled from view. +Suddenly, and it was at one of those moments when I had stopped in front +of the building, she dropped on her knees, buried her face in the +coverlet, and became lost in prayer. Prudence started as she saw this +act; then she arose, after the fashion of those who imagine they have +contributed to the simplicity, and consequently to the beauty of +worship, by avoiding the ceremony of kneeling to Almighty God, and stood +erect, moving to and fro, as before, her tall, gaunt figure, resembling +some half-decayed hemlock of the adjacent forest, that has lost the +greater portion of its verdure, rocked by a tempest. I was touched, +notwithstanding, at this silent evidence that the woman retained some of +the respect and feeling for the services of the Deity, which, though +strangely blended with fanaticism and a pertinacious self-righteousness, +no doubt had a large influence in bringing those who belonged to her +race, across the Atlantic, some five or six generations previously to +her own. + +It was just at this instant that I recognized the voice of Tobit, as he +advanced toward the group composed of his brethren; and speaking to his +wife, who accompanied him as far as his father's habitation, and there +left him, apparently to return to her own. I did not distinguish what +was said, but the squatter spoke sullenly, and in the tone of one whose +humor was menacing. Believing that I might meet with some rudeness of a +provoking character from this man, should he see me walking about in the +manner I had now been doing for near a quarter of an hour, ere he had +the matter explained, I thought it wisest to enter the building, and +effect an object I had in view, by holding a brief conversation with +Thousandacres. + +This determination was no sooner formed than I put it in execution; +trusting that the patience of the Indian, and Jaap's habits of +obedience, would prevent anything like an outbreak from them, without +orders. As I re-entered the room, Dus was still on her knees, and +Prudence continued erect, oscillating as before, with her eyes riveted +on the hearth. Lowiny stood near the bed, and I thought, like her +mother, she was in some measure mingling in spirit with the prayer. + +"Thousandacres," I commenced in a low voice, drawing quite near the +squatter, and succeeding in causing him to look at me, by my +address--"Thousandacres, this has been a most melancholy business, but +everything should be done that can be done, to repair the evil. Will you +not send a messenger through to the 'Nest, to obtain the aid of the +physician?" + +"Doctors can do but little good to a wound made by a rifle that was +fired so cluss, young man. I want no doctors here, to betray me and mine +to the law." + +"Nay, your messenger can keep your secret; and I will give him gold to +induce the physician to come, and come at once. He can be told that I am +accidentally hurt, and might still reach us to be of service in +alleviating pain; I confess there is no hope for anything else." + +"Men must take their chances," coldly returned that obdurate being. +"Them that live in the woods, take woodsmen's luck; and them that live +in the open country, the open country luck. My family and lumber must be +presarved at all risks; and no doctor shall come here." + +What was to be done--what _could_ be done, with such a being? All +principle, all sense of right, was concentrated in self--in his moral +system. It was as impossible to make him see the side of any question +that was opposed to his interests, fancied or real, as it was to give +sight to the physically blind. I had hoped contrition was at work upon +him, and that some advantage might be obtained through the agency of so +powerful a mediator; but no sooner was his dull nature aroused into +anything like action, than it took the direction of selfishness, as the +needle points to the pole. + +Disgusted at this exhibition of the most confirmed trait of the +squatter's character, I was in the act of moving from him, when a loud +shout arose around the building, and the flashes and reports of three or +four rifles were heard. Rushing to the door, I was in time to hear the +tramp of men, who seemed to me to be pushing forward in all directions; +and the crack of the rifle was occasionally heard, apparently retiring +toward the woods. Men called to each other, in the excitement of a chase +and conflict; but I could gain no information, the body of darkness +which had settled on the place having completely hidden everything from +view, at any distance. + +In this state of most painful doubt I continued for five or six minutes, +the noise of the chase receding the whole time, when a man came rushing +up to the door of the hut where I stood, and, seizing my hand, I found +it was Frank Malbone. The succor, then, had arrived, and I was no longer +a captive. + +"God be praised! you at least are safe," cried Malbone. "But my dear +sister?" + +"Is there unharmed, watching by the side of her uncle's dying bed. Is +any one hurt without?" + +"That is more than I can tell you. Your black acted as guide, and +brought us down on the place so skilfully, that it was not my intention +to resort to arms at all, since we might have captured all the squatters +without firing a shot, had my orders been observed. But a rifle _was_ +discharged from behind a stump, and this drew a volley from the enemy. +Some of our side returned the discharge, and the squatters then took to +flight. The firing you have just heard is scattered discharges that have +come from both sides, and can be only sound, as any aim is impossible in +this obscurity. My own piece has not even been cocked, and I regret a +rifle has been fired." + +"Perhaps all is then well, and we have driven off our enemies without +doing them any harm. Are you strong enough to keep them at a distance?" + +"Perfectly so; we are a posse of near thirty men, led by an +under-sheriff and a magistrate. All we wanted was a direction to this +spot, to have arrived some hours earlier." + +I groaned in spirit at hearing this, since those few hours might have +saved the life of poor Chainbearer. As it was, however, this rescue was +the subject of grateful rejoicing, and one of the happiest moments of my +life was that in which I saw Dus fall on her brother's bosom and burst +into tears. I was at their side, in the doorway of the hut, when this +meeting took place; and Dus held out a hand affectionately to me, as she +withdrew herself from her brother's arms. Frank Malbone looked a little +surprised at this act; but, anxious to see and speak to Chainbearer, he +passed into the building, and approached the bed. Dus and I followed; +for the shouts and firing had reached the ears of the wounded man, and +Andries was anxious to learn their meaning. The sight of Malbone let him +into a general knowledge of the state of the facts; but a strong anxiety +was depicted in his falling countenance, as he looked toward me for +information. + +"What is it, Mortaunt?" he asked, with considerable strength of voice, +his interest in the answer probably stimulating his physical powers. +"What is it, poy? I hope t'ere hast peen no useless fightin' on account +of a poor olt man like me, who hast seen his t'reescore years ant ten, +ant who owest to his Maker t'e life t'at wast grantet to him seventy +long years ago. I hope no one hast peen injuret in so poor a cause." + +"We know of no one beside yourself, Chainbearer, who has been hurt +to-night. The firing you have heard, comes from the party of Frank +Malbone, which has just arrived, and which has driven off the squatters +by noise more than by any harm that has been done them." + +"Got pe praiset! Got pe praiset! I am glat to see Frank pefore I tie, +first to take leaf of him, as an olt frient, ant secontly to place his +sister, Dus, in his care. T'ey haf wantet to gif Dus one of t'ese +squatters for a huspant, by way of making peace petween t'ieves and +honest people. T'at woult nefer do, Frank, as you well know Dus ist t'e +ta'ghter of a gentleman, ant t'e ta'ghter of a laty; ant she ist a +gentlewoman herself, ant ist not to pe marriet to a coarse, rute, +illiterate, vulgar squatter. Wast I young, ant wast I not t'e gal's +uncle, I shoult not venture to s'pose I coult make her a fit companion +myself, peing too little edicated ant instructed to pe the huspant of +one like Dus Malpone." + +"There is no fear now, that any such calamity can befall my sister, my +dear Chainbearer," answered Frank Malbone. "Nor do I think any threats +or dangers could so far intimidate Dus, as to cause her to plight her +faith to any man she did not love or respect. They would have found my +sister difficult to coerce." + +"It ist pest as it ist, Frank--yes, it ist pest as it ist. T'ese +squatters are fery sat rascals, ant woult not pe apt to stop at trifles. +Ant, now we are on t'is supject, I wilt say a wort more consarnin' your +sister. I see she hast gone out of t'e hut to weep, ant she wilt not +hear what I haf to say. Here ist Mortaunt Littlepage, who says he lofes +Dus more ast man efer lovet woman pefore--" Frank started, and I fancied +that his countenance grew dark--"ant what ist nat'ral enough, when a man +dost truly lofe a woman in t'at tegree, he wishes fery, fery much to +marry her"--Frank's countenance brightened immediately, and seeing my +hand extended toward him, he grasped it and gave it a most cordial +pressure. "Now, Mortaunt woult pe an excellent match for Dus--a most +capital match, for he ist young ant goot lookin', ant prave, ant +honoraple, ant sensiple, ant rich, all of which pe fery goot t'ings in +matrimony; put, on t'e ot'er hant, he has a fat'er, ant a mot'er, ant +sisters, ant it ist nat'ral, too, t'at t'ey shoult not like, overmuch, +to haf a son ant a prot'er marry a gal t'at hasn't anyt'ing put a set of +chains, a new compass, ant a few fielt articles t'at wilt fall to her +share a'ter my teat'. No, no; we must t'ink of t'e honor of t'e +Coejemans ant t'e Malpones, ant not let our peloved gal go into a family +t'at may not want her." + +I could see that Frank Malbone smiled, though sadly, as he listened to +this warning; for, on him, it made little or no impression, since he was +generous enough to judge me by himself, and did not believe any such +mercenary considerations would influence my course. I felt differently, +however. Obstinacy in opinion, was one of the weak points in +Chainbearer's character, and I saw the danger of his leaving these +sentiments as a legacy to Dus. She, indeed, had been the first to +entertain them, and to communicate them to her uncle, and they might +revive in her when she came to reflect on the true condition of things, +and become confirmed by the dying requests of her uncle. It is true, +that in our own interview, when I obtained from the dear girl the +precious confession of her love, no such obstacle seemed to exist, but +both of us appeared to look forward with confidence to our future union +as to a thing certain; but at that moment, Dus was excited by my +declarations of the most ardent and unutterable attachment, and led away +by the strength of her own feelings. We were in the delirium of delight +produced by mutual confidence, and the full assurance of mutual love, +when Thousandacres came upon us, to carry us to the scenes of woe by +which we had been, and were still, in a degree, surrounded. Under such +circumstances, one might well fall under the influence of feelings and +emotions that would prove to be more controllable in cooler moments. It +was all-important, then, for me to set Chainbearer right in the matter, +and to have a care he did not quit us, leaving the two persons he most +loved on earth, very unnecessarily miserable, and that solely on account +of the strength of his own prejudices. Nevertheless, the moment was not +favorable to pursue such a purpose, and I was reflecting bitterly on the +future, when we were all startled by a heavy groan that seemed to come +out of the very depths of the chest of the squatter. + +Frank and I turned instinctively toward the chimney, on hearing this +unlooked-for interruption. The chair of Prudence was vacant, the woman +having rushed from the hut at the first sound of the recent alarm; most +probably in quest of her younger children. But Thousandacres remained in +the very seat he had now occupied nearly, if not quite, two hours. I +observed, however, that his form was not as erect as when previously +seen. It had sunk lower in the chair, while his chin hung down upon his +breast. Advancing nearer, a small pool of blood was seen on the stones +beneath him, and a short examination told Malbone and myself, that a +rifle-bullet had passed directly through his body, in a straight line, +and that only three inches above the hips! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + "With woful measures, wan despair-- + Low, sullen sounds his grief beguil'd, + A solemn, strange, and mingled air; + 'Twas sad by fits, by starts 'twas wild."--Collins. + + +Thousandacres had been shot in his chair, by one of the rifles first +discharged that night. As it turned out, he was the only one that we +could ascertain was hurt; though there was a report, to which many +persons gave credence, that Tobit had a leg broken, also, and that he +remained a cripple for life. I am inclined to believe this report may +have been true; for Jaap told me, after all was over, that he let fly on +a man who had just fired on himself, and who certainly fell, and was +borne off limping, by two of his companions. It is quite probable that +this hurt of Tobit's and the fate of his father, was the reason we +received no more annoyance that night from the squatters, who had all +vanished from the clearing so effectually, including most of the females +and all the children, that no traces of their place of retreat were to +be found next morning. Lowiny, however, did not accompany the family, +but remained near Dus, rendering herself highly useful as an attendant +in the melancholy scene that followed. I may as well add here, that no +evidence was ever obtained concerning the manner in which Thousandacres +received his death-wound. He was shot through the open door, beyond all +question, as he sat in his chair; and necessarily in the early part of +the fray, for then only was a rifle discharged very near the house, or +from a point that admitted of the ball's hitting its victim. For myself, +I believed from the first that Susquesus sacrificed the squatter to the +manes of his friend Chainbearer; dealing out Indian justice, without +hesitation or compunction. Still, I could not be certain of the fact; +and the Onondago had either sufficient prudence or sufficient philosophy +to keep his own secret. It is true that a remark or two did escape him +soon after the affair occurred, that tended to sustain my suspicions; +but, on the whole, he was remarkably reserved on the subject--less from +any apprehension of consequences, than from self-respect and pride of +character. There was little to be apprehended, indeed; the previous +murder of Chainbearer, and the unlawful nature of all the proceedings of +the squatters, justifying a direct and sudden attack on the part of the +posse. + +Just as Malbone and myself discovered the condition of Thousandacres, +this posse, with 'Squire Newcome at its head, began to collect around +the house, which might now be termed our hospital. As the party was +large, and necessarily a little tumultuous, I desired Frank to lead them +off to some of the other buildings, as soon as a bed had been prepared +for the squatter, who was placed in the same room with Chainbearer to +die. No one, in the least acquainted with injuries of that nature, could +entertain any hope for either; though a messenger was sent to the +settlements for the individual who was called "doctor," and who was +really fast acquiring many useful notions about his profession, by +practising on the human system. They say that "an ounce of experience is +worth a pound of theory," and this disciple of Esculapius seemed to have +set up in his art on this principle; having little or none of the last, +while he was really obtaining a very respectable amount of the first, as +he practised right and left, as the pugilist is most apt to hit in his +rallies. Occasionally, however, he gave a knock-down blow. + +As soon as the necessary arrangements were made in our hospital, I told +Dus that we would leave her and Lowiny in attendance on the wounded, +both of whom manifested weariness and a disposition to doze, while all +the rest of the party would draw off, and take up their quarters for the +night in the adjacent buildings. Malbone was to remain as a sentinel, a +little distance from the door, and I promised to join him in the course +of an hour. + +"Lowiny can attend to the wants of her father, while you will have the +tenderest care of your uncle, I well know. A little drink occasionally +is all that can alleviate their sufferings----" + +"Let me come in," interrupted a hoarse female voice at the door, as a +woman forced her way through the opposing arms of several of the posse. +"I am Aaron's wife, and they tell me he is hurt. God himself has ordered +that a woman should cleave unto her husband, and Thousandacres is mine; +and he is the father of my children, if he _has_ murdered and been +murdered in his turn." + +There was something so commanding in the natural emotions of this woman, +that the guard at the door gave way immediately, when Prudence entered +the room. The first glance of the squatter's wife was at the bed of +Chainbearer; but nothing there held her gaze riveted. That gaze only +became fixed as her eyes fell on the large form of Thousandacres, as he +lay extended on his death-bed. It is probable that this experienced +matron, who had seen so many accidents in the course of a long life, and +had sat by so many a bedside, understood the desperate nature of her +husband's situation as soon as her eyes fell on the fallen countenance: +for, turning to those near her, the first impulse was, to revenge the +wrong which she conceived had been done to her and hers. I will +acknowledge that I felt awed, and that a thrill passed through my frame +as this rude and unnurtured female, roused by her impulses, demanded +authoritatively: + +"Who has done this? Who has taken the breath from my man before the time +set by the Lord? Who has dared to make my children fatherless, and me a +widow, ag'in law and right? I left my man seated on that hearth, +heart-stricken and troubled at what had happened to another; and they +tell me he has been murdered in his chair. The Lord will be on our side +at last, and then we'll see whom the law will favor, and whom the law +will condemn--!" + +A movement and a groan, on the part of Thousandacres, would seem first +to have apprised Prudence that her husband was not actually dead. +Starting at this discovery, this tiger's mate and tiger's dam, if not +tigress herself, ceased everything like appeal and complaint, and set +herself about those duties which naturally suggested themselves to one +of her experience, with the energy of a frontier woman--a woodman's +wife, and the mother of a large brood of woodman's sons and daughters. +She wiped the face of Thousandacres, wet his lips, shifted his pillow, +such as it was, placed his limbs in postures she thought the easiest, +and otherwise manifested a sort of desperate energy in her care. The +whole time she was doing this, her tongue was muttering prayers and +menaces, strangely blended together, and quite as strangely mixed up +with epithets of endearment that were thrown away on her still +insensible and least unconscious husband. She called him Aaron, and that +too in a tone that sounded as if Thousandacres had a strong hold on her +affections, and might at least have been kind and true to _her_. + +I felt convinced that Dus had nothing to fear from Prudence, and I left +the place as soon as the two nurses had everything arranged for their +respective patients, and the house was quite free from the danger of +intrusion. On quitting her who now occupied most of my thoughts, I +ventured to whisper a request she would not forget the pledges given me +in the forest, and asked her to summon me to the bedside of Chainbearer, +should he rouse himself from the slumber that had come over him, and +manifest a desire to converse. I feared he might renew the subject to +which his mind had already once averted since receiving his wound, and +imbue his niece with some of his own set notions on that subject. Ursula +was kindness itself. Her affliction had even softened her feelings +toward me more than ever; and, so far as she was concerned, I certainly +had no ground for uneasiness. In passing Frank, who stood on post some +twenty yards from the door of the house, he said: "God bless you, +Littlepage--fear nothing. I am too much in your own situation, not to be +warmly your friend." I returned his good wishes, and went my way, in one +sense rejoicing. + +The posse, as has been stated, were in possession of the different +deserted habitations of the family of Thousandacres. The night being +cool, fires were blazing on all the hearths, and the place wore an air +of cheerfulness that it had probably never before known. Most of the men +had crowded into two of the dwellings, leaving a third for the +convenience of the magistrate, Frank Malbone, and myself, whenever we +might choose to repair to it. By the time I appeared, the posse had +supped, using the milk and bread, and other eatables of the squatters, +_ad libitum_, and were disposing of themselves on the beds and on the +floors, to take a little rest, after their long and rapid march. But in +my own quarters I found 'Squire Newcome alone, unless the silent and +motionless Onondago, who occupied a chair in a corner of the fireplace, +could be called a companion. Jaap, too, in expectation of my arrival, +was lounging near the door; and when I entered the house, he followed me +in for orders. + +It was easy for me, who knew of Newcome's relations with the squatters, +to discover the signs of confusion in his countenance, as his eye first +met mine. One who was not acquainted with the circumstances, most +probably would have detected nothing out of the common way. It will be +remembered that the "'squire" had no positive knowledge that I was +acquainted with his previous visit to the mill; and it will be easy to +see that he must have felt an itching and uneasy desire to ascertain +that fact. A great deal depended on that circumstance; nor was it long +before I had a specimen of his art in sounding round the truth, with a +view to relieve his mind. + +"Who'd 'a' thought of findin' Major Littlepage in the hands of the +Philistines, in sich an out o' the way place as this!" exclaimed Mr. +Newcome, as soon as our salutations had been exchanged. "I've heern say +there was squatters down hereabouts; but such things are so common, that +I never bethought me of givin' him a hint on the matter when I last saw +the major." + +Nothing could surpass the deferential manner of this person when he had +an object to gain, it being quite common with him to use the third +person, in this way, when addressing a superior; a practice that has +almost become obsolete in the English language, and which is seldom if +ever used in America, except by this particular class of men, who defer +before your face, and endeavor to undermine when the back is turned. My +humor was not to trifle with this fellow, though I did not know that it +was exactly prudent, just then, to let him know that I had both seen and +heard him in his former visit, and was fully aware of all his practices. +It was not easy, however, to resist the opportunity given by his own +remarks, to put him a little way on the tenter-hooks of conscience--that +quality of the human mind being one of the keenest allies an assailant +can possess, in cases of this sort. + +"I had supposed, Mr. Newcome, that you were generally charged with the +care of the Mooseridge lands, as one of the conditions annexed to the +Ravensnest agency?" I somewhat dryly remarked. + +"Sartain, sir; the colonel--or gin'ral, as he ought to be called now, I +do s'pose--gave me the superintendence of both at the same time. But the +major knows, I presume, that Mooseridge was not on sale?" + +"No, sir; it would seem to have been only on _plunder_. One would think +that an agent, intrusted with the care of an estate, and who heard of +squatters being in possession, and stripping the land of its trees, +would feel it to be his duty at least to apprise the owners of the +circumstance, that they might look to the case, if he did not." + +"The major hasn't rightly understood me," put in the 'squire, in a +manner that was particularly deprecatory; "I don't mean to say that I +_know'd_, with anything like positiveness, that there was squatters +hereabouts; but that rumors was stirrin' of some sich things. But +squatters is sich common objects in new countries, that a body scarce +turns aside to look at them!" + +"So it would seem, in your case at least, Mr. Newcome. This +Thousandacres, however, they tell me, is a well-known character, and has +done little since his youth but lumber on the property of other people. +I should suppose you must have met him, in the course of five-and-twenty +years' residence in this part of the world?" + +"Lord bless the major! met Thousandacres? Why, I've met him a hundred +times! We all know the old man well enough; and many and many is the +time I've met him at raisin's, and trainin's, and town meetin's, and +political meetin's, too. I've even seen him in court, though +Thousandacres don't set much store by law, not half as much as he and +every other man ought to do; for law is excellent, and society would be +no better than a collection of wild beasts, as I often tell Miss +Newcome, if it hadn't law to straighten it out, and to teach the +misguided and evil-disposed what's right. I s'pose the major will +coincide with that idee?" + +"I have no particular objection to the sentiment, sir, but wish it was +more general. As you have seen this person Thousandacres so often, +perhaps you can tell me something of his character. My opportunities of +knowing the man have been none of the best; for most of the time I was +his prisoner he had me shut up in an out-building in which I believe he +has usually kept his salt, and grain, and spare provisions." + +"Not the old store'us'!" exclaimed the magistrate, looking a little +aghast, for the reader will doubtless recollect that the confidential +dialogue between him and the squatter, on the subject of the lumber, had +occurred so near that building as to be overheard by me. "How long has +the major been in this clearin', I wonder?" + +"Not a very great while in fact, though long enough to make it appear a +week. I was put into the storehouse soon after my seizure, and have +passed at least half my time there since." + +"I want to know! Perhaps the major got in that hole as 'arly as +yesterday morn?" + +"Perhaps I did, sir. But, Mr. Newcome, on looking round at the quantity +of lumber these men have made, and recollecting the distance they are +from Albany, I am at a loss to imagine how they could hope to get their +ill-gotten gains to market without discovery. It would seem to me that +their movements must be known, and that the active and honest agents of +this part of the country would seize their rafts in the water-courses; +thus making the very objects of the squatters' roguery the means of +their punishment. Is it not extraordinary that theft, in a moral sense +at least, can be systematically carried on, and that on so large a +scale, with such entire impunity?" + +"Wa-a-l--I s'pose the major knows how things turn, in this world. Nobody +likes to meddle." + +"How, sir--not meddle! This is contrary to all my experience of the +habits of the country, and all I have heard of it! Meddling, I have been +given to understand, is the great vice of our immigrant population, in +particular, who never think they have their just rights, unless they are +privileged to talk about, and sit in judgment on the affairs of all +within twenty miles of them; making two-thirds of their facts as they do +so, in order to reconcile their theories with the wished-for results." + +"Ah! I don't mean meddlin' in that sense, of which there is enough, as +all must allow. But folks don't like to meddle with things that don't +belong to them in such serious matters as this." + +"I understand you--the man who will pass days in discussing his +neighbor's private affairs, about which he absolutely knows nothing but +what has been obtained from the least responsible and most vulgar +sources, will stand by and see that neighbor robbed and say nothing, +under the influence of a sentiment so delicate, that it forbids his +meddling with what don't belong to him." + +Lest the reader should think I was unduly severe upon 'Squire Newcome, +let me appeal to his own experience, and inquire if he never knew, not +only individuals, but whole neighborhoods, which were sorely addicted to +prying into every man's affairs, and to inventing when facts did not +exactly sustain theories; in a word, convulsing themselves with that +with which they have no real concern, draw themselves up in dignified +reserve, as the witnesses of wrongs of all sorts, that every honest man +is bound to oppose? I will go further, and ask if a man does happen to +step forth to vindicate the right, to assert truth, to defend the weak +and to punish the wrong-doer, if that man be not usually the one who +meddles least in the more ordinary and minor transactions of life--the +man who troubles his neighbors least, and has the least to say about +their private affairs? Does it not happen that the very individual who +will stand by and see his neighbor wronged, on account of his +indisposition to meddle with that which does not belong to him, will +occupy a large portion of his own time, in discussing, throwing out +hints, and otherwise commenting on the private affairs of that very +neighbor? + +Mr. Newcome was shrewd, and he understood me well enough, though he +probably found it a relief to his apprehensions to see the conversation +inclining toward these generalities, instead of sticking to the +storehouse. Nevertheless, "boards" must have been uppermost in his +conscience; and after a pause he made an invasion into the career of +Thousandacres, by way of diverting me from pushing matters too directly. + +"This old squatter was a desperate man, Major Littlepage," he answered, +"and it may be fortinate for the country that he is done with. I hear +the old fellow is killed, and that all the rest of the family has +absconded." + +"It is not quite so bad as that. Thousandacres is hurt--mortally, +perhaps--and all his sons have disappeared; but his wife and one of his +daughters are still here, in attendance on the husband and father." + +"Prudence is here, then!" exclaimed Mr. Newcome, a little indiscreetly +as I thought. + +"She is--but you seem to know the family well for a magistrate, 'squire, +seeing their ordinary occupation--so well, as to call the woman by her +name." + +"Prudence, I think Thousandacres used to call his woman. Yes, the major +is very right; we magistrates do get to know the neighborhood pretty +gin'rally; what between summonses, and warrants, and bailings-out. But +the major hasn't yet said when he first fell into the hands of these +folks?" + +"I first entered this clearing yesterday morning, not a long time after +the sun rose, since which time, sir, I have been detained, here, either +by force or by circumstances." + +A long pause succeeded this announcement. The 'squire fidgeted, and +seemed uncertain how to act; for, while my announcement must have given +rise, in his mind, to the strong probability of my knowing of his +connection with the squatters, it did not absolutely say as much. I +could see that he was debating with himself on the expediency of coming +out with some tale invented for the occasion, and I turned toward the +Indian and the negro, both of whom I knew to be thoroughly honest--after +the Indian and the negro fashions--in order to say a friendly word to +each in turn. + +Susquesus was in one of his quiescent moods, and had lighted a pipe, +which he was calmly smoking. No one, to look at him, would suppose that +he had so lately been engaged in a scene like that through which he had +actually gone; but, rather, that he was some thoughtful philosopher, who +habitually passed his time in reflection and study. + +As this was one of the occasions on which the Onondago came nearest to +admitting his own agency in procuring the death of the squatter, I shall +relate the little that passed between us. + +"Good evening, Sureflint," I commenced, extending a hand, which the +other courteously took in compliance with our customs. "I am glad to see +you at large, and no longer a prisoner in that storehouse." + +"Store'us' poor gaol. Jaap snap off bolt like pipe-stem. Won'er +T'ousandacres didn't t'ink of d'at." + +"Thousandacres has had too much to think of this evening, to remember +such a trifle. He has now to think of his end." + +The Onondago was clearing the bowl of his pipe of its superfluous ashes +as I said this, and he deliberately effected his purpose ere he +answered-- + +"Sartain--s'pose he kill _dis_ time." + +"I fear his hurt is mortal, and greatly regret that it has happened. The +blood of our tried friend, Chainbearer, was enough to be shed in so +miserable an affair as this." + +"Yes, 'fair pretty mis'rable; t'ink so, too. If squatter shoot surveyor, +must t'ink surveyor's fri'nd will shoot squatter." + +"That may be Indian law, Sureflint, but it is not the law of the +pale-face, in the time of peace and quiet." + +Susquesus continued to smoke, making no answer. + +"It was a very wicked thing to murder Chainbearer, and Thousandacres +should have been handed over to the magistrates, for punishment, if he +had a hand in it; not shot, like a dog." + +The Onondago drew his pipe from his mouth, looked round toward the +'squire, who had gone to the door in order to breathe the fresh +air--then, turning his eyes most significantly on me, he answered-- + +"Who magistrate go to, eh? What use good law wit' poor magistrate? +Better have redskin law, and warrior be his own magistrate--own gallows, +too." + +The pipe was replaced, and Sureflint appeared to be satisfied with what +had passed; for he turned away, and seemed to be lost again, in his own +reflections. + +After all, the strong native intellect of this barbarian had let him +into one of the greatest secrets connected with our social ills. Good +laws, badly administered, are no better than an absence of all law, +since they only encourage evil-doers by the protection they afford +through the power conferred on improper agents. Those who have studied +the defects of the American system, with a view to ascertain truth, say +that the want of a great moving power to set justice in motion lies at +the root of its feebleness. According to theory, the public virtue is to +constitute this power; but public virtue is never one-half as active as +private vice. Crime is only to be put down by the strong hand, and that +hand must belong to the public in truth, not in name only; whereas, the +individual wronged is fast getting to be the only moving power, and in +very many cases local parties are formed, and the rogue goes to the bar +sustained by an authority that has quite as much practical control as +the law itself. Juries and grand juries are no longer to be relied on, +and the bench is slowly, but steadily, losing its influence. When the +day shall come--as come it must, if present tendencies continue--that +verdicts are rendered directly in the teeth of law and evidence, and +jurors fancy themselves legislators, then may the just man fancy himself +approaching truly evil times, and the patriot begin to despair. It will +be the commencement of the rough's paradise! Nothing is easier, I am +willing to admit, than to over-govern men; but it ought not to be +forgotten, that the political vice that comes next in the scale of +facility, is to govern them too little. + +Jaap, or Jaaf, had been humbly waiting for his turn to be noticed. There +existed perfect confidence, as between him and myself, but there were +also bounds, in the way of respect, that the slave never presumed to +pass, without direct encouragement from the master. Had I not seen fit +to speak to the black that night, he would not have commenced a +conversation, which, begun by me, he entered into with the utmost +frankness and freedom from restraint. + +"You seem to have managed your part of this affair, Jaap," I said, "with +discretion and spirit. I have every reason to be satisfied with you; +more especially for liberating the Indian, and for the manner in which +you guided the posse down into the clearing, from the woods." + +"Yes, sah; s'pose you would t'ink _dat_ was pretty well. As for Sus, +t'ought it best to let him out, for he be won'erful sartain wid he +rifle. We should do much better, masser Mordy, but 'e 'squire so werry +backward about lettin' 'e men shoot 'em 'ere squatter! Gosh! massar +Mordy, if he only say 'fire' when I want him, I don't t'ink so much as +half a one get off." + +"It is best as it is, Jaap. We are at peace, and in the bosom of our +country; and bloodshed is to be avoided." + +"Yes, sah; but Chainbearer! If 'ey don't like bloodshed, why 'ey shoot +_him_, sah?" + +"There is a feeling of justice in what you say, Jaap, but the community +cannot get on in anything like safety unless we let the law rule. Our +business was to take those squatters, and to hand them over to the law." + +"Werry true, sah. Nobody can't deny dat, masser Mordy, but he nodder +seize nor shot, now! Sartain, it best to do one or t'odder with sich +rascal. Well, I t'ink dat Tobit, as dey calls him, will remember Jaap +Satanstoe long as he live. Dat a good t'ing, anyway!" + +"Good!" exclaimed the Onondago, with energy. + +I saw it was useless, then, to discuss abstract principles with men so +purely practical as my two companions, and I left the house to +reconnoitre, ere I returned to our hospital for the night. The negro +followed me, and I questioned him as to the manner of the attack, and +the direction of the retreat of the squatters, in order to ascertain +what danger there might be during the hours of darkness. Jaap gave me to +understand that the men of Thousandacres' family had retired by the way +of the stream, profiting by the declivity to place themselves under +cover as soon as possible. As respects the women and children, they must +have got into the woods at some other point, and it was probable the +whole had sought some place of retreat that would naturally have been +previously appointed by those who knew that they lived in the constant +danger of requiring one. Jaap was very certain we should see no more of +the men, and in that he was perfectly right. No more was ever seen of +any one of them all in that part of the country, though rumors reached +us, in the course of time, from some of the more western counties, that +Tobit had been seen there, a cripple, as I have already stated, but +maintaining his old character for lawlessness and disregard of the +rights of others. + +I next returned to Frank Malbone, who still stood on post at no great +distance from the door, through which we could both see the form and +features of his beautiful and beloved sister. Dus sat by her uncle's +bedside, while Prudence had stationed herself by that of her husband. +Frank and I advanced near the door, and looked in upon the solemn and +singular sight that room afforded. It was indeed a strange and sad +spectacle, to see those two aged men, each with his thin locks whitened +by seventy years, drawing near their ends, the victims of lawless +violence; for, while the death of Thousandacres was enveloped in a +certain mystery, and might by some eyes be viewed as merited and legal, +there could be no doubt that it was a direct consequence of the previous +murder of Chainbearer. It is in this way that wrong extends and +sometimes perpetuates its influence, proving the necessity of taking +time by the forelock, and resorting to prevention in the earliest stages +of the evil, instead of cure. + +There lay the two victims of the false principles that the physical +condition of the country, connected with its passive endurance of +encroachments on the right, had gradually permitted to grow up among us. +Squatting was a consequence of the thinness of the population and of the +abundance of land, the two very circumstances that rendered it the less +justifiable in a moral point of view; but which, by rendering the one +side careless of its rights, and the other proportionably encroaching, +had gradually led, not only to this violation of law, but to the +adoption of notions that are adverse to the supremacy of law in any +case. It is this gradual undermining of just opinions that forms the +imminent danger of our social system; a spurious philanthropy on the +subject of punishments, false notions on that of personal rights, and +the substitution of numbers for principles, bidding fair to produce much +the most important revolution that has ever yet taken place on the +American continent. The lover of real liberty, under such circumstances, +should never forget that the road to despotism lies along the borders of +the slough of licentiousness, even when it escapes wallowing in its +depths. + +When Malbone and myself drew back from gazing on the scene within the +house, he related to me in detail all that was connected with his own +proceedings. The reader knows that it was by means of a meeting in the +forest, between the Indian and the negro, that my friends first became +acquainted with my arrest, and the probable danger in which I was +placed. Chainbearer, Dus, and Jaap instantly repaired to the clearing of +Thousandacres; while Malbone hastened on to Ravensnest, in pursuit of +legal aid, and of a force to render my rescue certain. Meditating on all +the facts of the case, and entertaining most probably an exaggerated +notion of the malignant character of Thousandacres, by the time he +reached the Nest my new friend was in a most feverish state of +excitement. His first act was, to write a brief statement of the facts +to my father, and to dispatch his letter by a special messenger, with +orders to him to push on to Fishkill, all the family being there at the +time, on a visit to the Kettletases; proceeding by land or by water, as +the wind might favor. I was startled at this information, foreseeing at +once that it would bring not only the general himself, but my dear +mother and Kate, with Tom Bayard quite likely in her train, posthaste to +Ravensnest. It might even cause my excellent old grandmother to venture +so far from home; for my last letters had apprised me that they were all +on the point of visiting my sister Anneke, which was the way Frank had +learned where the family was to be found. + +As Malbone's messenger had left the Nest early the preceding night, and +the wind had been all day fresh at north, it came quite within the +bounds of possibility that he might be at Fishkill at the very moment I +was listening to the history of his message. The distance was about a +hundred and forty miles, and nearly one hundred of it could be made by +water. Such a messenger would care but little for the accommodations of +his craft; and, on the supposition that he reached Albany that morning, +and found a sloop ready to profit by the breeze, as would be likely to +occur, it would be quite in rule to reach the landing at Fishkill in the +course of the evening, aided by the little gale that had been blowing. I +knew General Littlepage too well, to doubt either his affection or his +promptitude. Albany could be reached in a day by land, and Ravensnest in +another. I made my account, therefore, to see a part if not all of the +family at the Nest, as soon as I should reach it myself; an event not +likely to occur, however, for some little time, on account of the +condition of Chainbearer. + +I shall not deny that this new state of things, with the expectations +connected with it, gave me sufficient food for reflection. I could not +and did not blame Frank Malbone for what he had done, since it was +natural and proper. Notwithstanding, it would precipitate matters as +regarded my relation to Dus a little faster than I could have wished. I +desired time to sound my family on the important subject of my +marriage--to let the three or four letters I had already written, and in +which she had been mentioned in a marked manner, produce their effect; +and I counted largely on the support I was to receive through the +friendship and representations of Miss Bayard. I felt certain that deep +disappointment on the subject of Pris would be felt by the whole family; +and it was my wish not to introduce Ursula to their acquaintance until +time had a little lessened its feeling. But things must now take their +course; and my determination was settled to deal as sincerely and simply +as possible with my parents on the subject. I knew their deep affection +for me, and relied strongly on that natural support. + +I had half an hour's conversation with Dus while walking in front of the +hospital that night, Frank taking his sister's place by the side of +Chainbearer's bed. Then it was that I again spoke of my hopes, and +explained the probabilities of our seeing all of my immediate family so +shortly at Ravensnest. My arm was round the waist of the dear girl as I +communicated these facts; and I felt her tremble, as if she dreaded the +trial she was to undergo. + +"This is very sudden and unexpected, Mordaunt," Dus remarked, after she +had had a little time to recover her recollection; "and I have so much +reason to fear the judgment of your respectable parents--of your +charming sister, of whom I have heard so often through Priscilla +Bayard--and indeed of all who have lived, as _they_ have done, amid the +elegancies of a refined state of society; I, Dus Malbone--a +chainbearer's niece, and a chainbearer myself!" + +"You have never borne any chain, love, that is as lasting or as strong +as that which you have entwined around my heart, and which will forever +bind me to you, let the rest of the world regard us both as it may. But +you can have nothing to fear from any, and least of all from my friends. +My father is not worldly-minded; and as for my dear, dear mother, Anneke +Mordaunt, as the general even now often affectionately calls her, as if +the name itself reminded him of the days of her maiden loveliness and +pride--as for that beloved mother, Ursula, I do firmly believe that, +when she comes to know you, she will even prefer you to her son." + +"That is a picture of your blinded partiality, Mordaunt," answered the +gratified girl, for gratified I could see she was, "and must not be too +fondly relied on. But this is no time to talk of our own future +happiness, when the eternal happiness or misery of those two aged men is +suspended, as it might be, by a thread. I have read prayers once already +with my dear uncle; and that strange woman, in whom there is so much of +her sex, mingled with a species of ferocity like that of a she-bear, has +muttered a hope that her own 'dying man,' as she calls him, is not to be +forgotten. I have promised he should not be, and it is time to attend to +that duty next." + +What a scene followed! Dus placed the light on a chest near the bed of +Thousandacres, and, with the prayer-book in her hand, she knelt beside +it. Prudence stationed herself in such a posture that her head was +buried in one of her own garments, that was suspended from a peg; and +there she stood, while the melodious voice of Ursula Malbone poured out +the petitions contained in the offices for the dying, in humble but +fervent piety. I say stood, for neither Prudence nor Lowiny knelt. The +captious temper of self-righteousness which had led their ancestors to +reject kneeling at prayers as the act of formalists, had descended to +them; and there they stood, praying doubtless in their hearts, but +ungracious formalists themselves in their zeal against forms. Frank and +I knelt in the doorway; and I can truly affirm that never did prayers +sound so sweetly in my ears, as those which then issued from the lips of +Ursula Malbone. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + "Thence cum we to the horrour and the hel, The large great + kyngdomes, and the dreadful raygne Of Pluto in his trone where + he dyd dwell, The wyde waste places, and the hugye playne: The + waylings, shrykes, and sundry sortes of payne. + + The syghes, and sobbes, and diep and deadly groane, Earth, + ayer, and all resounding playnt and moane." -Sackville. + + +In this manner did that memorable night wear away. The two wounded men +slumbered much of the time; nor did their wants extend beyond occasional +draughts of water, to cool their feverish mouths, or the wetting of +lips. I prevailed on Dus to lie down on the bed of Lowiny, and try to +get a little rest; and I had the pleasure to hear her say that she had +slept sweetly for two or three hours, after the turn of the night. Frank +and I caught naps, also, after the fashion of soldiers, and Lowiny slept +in her chair, or leaning on her father's bed. As for Prudence, I do not +think her watchfulness was lessened for a single instant. There she sat +the livelong night; silent, tearless, moody, and heart-stricken by the +great and sudden calamity that had befallen her race, but vigilant and +attentive to the least movement in the huge frame of her wounded +partner. No complaint escaped her; scarcely once did she turn to look at +what was going on around her, nor in any manner did she heed aught but +her husband. To him she seemed to be unerringly true; and whatever she +may, and must have thought of his natural sternness, and occasional fits +of severity toward herself, all now seemed to be forgotten. + +At length light returned, after hours of darkness that seemed to me to +be protracted to an unusual length. Then it was, when Jaap and the +Indian were ready to take our places on the watch, that Frank and I went +to one of the huts and lay down for two or three hours; and that was the +time when Dus got her sweetest and most refreshing sleep. Lowiny +prepared our morning's meal for us; which we three, that is, Dus, Frank +and myself, took together in the best way we could, in the dwelling of +Tobit. As for 'Squire Newcome, he left the clearing in the course of the +night, or very early in the morning, doubtless exceedingly uneasy in his +conscience, but still uncertain whether his connection with the +squatters was or was not known to me; the excuse for this movement being +the probable necessity of summoning a jury; Mr. Jason Newcome filling in +his own person, or by deputy, the several offices and functions of +justice of the peace, one of the coroners of the county, supervisor of +the township of Ravensnest merchant, shopkeeper, miller, lumber-dealer, +husbandman and innkeeper; to say nothing of the fact that he wrote all +the wills of the neighborhood; was a standing arbitrator when disputes +were "left out to men;" was a leading politician, a patriot by trade, +and a remarkable and steady advocate of the rights of the people, even +to minutiae. Those who know mankind will not be surprised, after this +enumeration of his pursuits and professions, to hear it added that he +was a remarkable rogue in the bargain. + +There are two things I have lived long enough to receive as truths +established by my own experience, and they are these; I never knew a man +who made large professions of a love for the people, and of his wish to +serve them on all occasions, whose aim was not to deceive them to his +own advantage; and the other is, that I never knew a man who was +compelled to come much in contact with the people, and who at the same +time was personally popular, who had anything in him at the bottom. But +it is time to quit Jason Newcome and his defects of character, in order +to attend to the interesting scene that awaited us in the dwelling of +Thousandacres, and to which we were now summoned by Jaap. + +As the day advanced, both the Chainbearer and the squatter became +aroused from the languor that had succeeded the receiving of their +respective hurts, and more or less alive to what was passing around +them. Life was ebbing fast in both, yet each seemed, just at that +moment, to turn his thoughts backward on the world, in order, as it +might be, to take a last look at those scenes in which he had now been +an actor for the long period of threescore-and-ten years. + +"Uncle Chainbearer is much revived, just now," said Dus, meeting Frank +and myself at the door, "and he has asked for you both; more especially +for Mordaunt, whose name he has mentioned three several times within the +last five minutes. 'Send for Mordaunt, my child,' he has said to me, +'for I wish to speak with him before I quit you.' I am fearful he has +inward admonitions of his approaching end." + +"That is possible, dearest Ursula; for men can hardly lose their hold of +life without being aware of the approaches of death. I will go at once +to his bedside, that he may know I am here. It is best to let his own +feelings decide whether he is able or not to converse." + +The sound of Chainbearer's voice, speaking in a low but distinct tone, +caught our ears as we approached him, and we all stopped to listen. + +"I say, T'ousantacres," repeated Andries, on a key a little louder than +before, "if you hear me, olt man, ant can answer, I wish you to let me +know it. You ant I pe about to start on a fery long journey, ant it ist +unreasonaple, as well as wicket, to set out wit' pad feelin's at t'e +heart. If you hat hat a niece, now, like Dus t'ere, to tell you t'ese +matters, olt Aaron, it might pe petter for your soul in t'e worlt into +which we are poth apout to enter." + +"He knows it--I'm sure he knows it, and feels it, too," muttered +Prudence, rocking her body as before. "He has had pious forefathers, and +cannot have fallen so far away from grace, as to forget death and +eternity." + +"Look you, Prutence, Aaron nefer coult fall away from what he nefer wast +fastenet to. As for pious forefat'ers, t'ey may do to talk apout in +Fourt' of July orations, put t'ey are of no great account in cleansin' a +man from his sins. I s'pose t'em pious forefat'ers of which you speak +was t'e people t'at first steppet on t'e rock town at Plymout'; put, let +me telt you, Prutence, hat t'ere peen twice as many of t'em, and hat +t'ey all peen twice as goot as you poast of t'eir hafin' peen, it wilt +do no goot to your man, unless he wilt repent, and pe sorry for all t'e +unlawful ant wicket t'ings he hast tone in t'is worlt, and his treatment +of pountaries in jin'ral, ant of ot'er men's lants in partic'lar. Pious +ancestors may pe pleasant to haf, put goot pehavior ist far petter as +t'e last hour approaches." + +"Answer him, Aaron," the wife rejoined--"answer him, my man, in order +that we may all of us know the frame of mind in which you take your +departure. Chainbearer is a kind-hearted man at the bottom, and has +never wilfully done us any harm." + +For the first time since Andries received his wound, I now heard the +voice of Thousandacres. Previously to that moment, the squatter, whether +hurt or not, had sat in moody silence, and I had supposed after he was +wounded that he was unable to use his tongue. To my surprise, however, +he now spoke with a depth and strength of voice that at first misled me, +by inducing me to think that the injury he had received could not be +fatal. + +"If there wasn't no chainbearers," growled Thousandacres, "there +wouldn't be no lines, or metes and bounds, as they call 'em; and where +there's no metes and bounds, there can be no right of possession. If +'twasn't for your writin' titles, I shouldn't be lyin' here, breathin' +my last." + +"Forgive it all, my man; forgive it all, as behooves a good Christian," +Prudence returned, to this characteristic glance at the past, in which +the squatter had so clearly overlooked all his own delinquencies, and +was anxious to impute consequences altogether to others. "It is the law +of God to forgive your enemies, Aaron, and I want you to forgive +Chainbearer, and not go to the world of spirits with gall in your +heart." + +"'Twoult pe much petter, Prutence, if T'ousantacres woult pray to Got to +forgif himself," put in Chainbearer. "I am fery willin', ant happy to +haf t'e forgifness of efery man, ant it ist not unlikely t'at I may haf +tone somet'ing, or sait somet'ing t'at hast peen hart to t'e feelin's of +your huspant; for we are rough, and plain-speakin', and plain-actin' +enough, in t'e woots; so I'm willin' to haf even T'ousantacres' +forgifness, I say, and wilt accept it wit' pleasure if he wilt offer it, +and take mine in exchange." + +A deep groan struggled out of the broad, cavern-like chest of the +squatter. I took it as an admission that he was the murderer of Andries. + +"Yes," resumed Chainbearer--"Dus hast mate me see----" + +"Uncle!" exclaimed Ursula, who was intently listening, and who now spoke +because unable to restrain the impulse. + +"Yes, yes, gal, it hast peen all your own toin's. Pefore ast you come +pack from school, ast we come into t'e woots, all alone like, you haf +nefer forgotten to teach an olt, forgetful man his tuty----" + +"Oh! uncle Chainbearer, it is not I, but God in his mercy who has +enlightened your understanding and touched your heart." + +"Yes, tarlin'; yes, Dus, my tear, I comprehent t'at too; but Got in His +mercy sent an angel to pe his minister on 'art' wit' a poor ignorant +Tutchman, who hast not t'e l'arnin' ant t'e grace he might ant ought to +have hat, wit'out your ait, and so hast t'e happy change come apout. +No--no--T'ousantacres, I wilt not tespise even your forgifness, little +as you may haf to forgif; for it lightens a man's heart of heafy loats, +when his time is short, to know he leafs no enemies pehind him. T'ey say +it ist pest to haf t'e goot wishes of a tog, ant how much petter ist it +to haf t'e goot wishes of one who hast a soul t'at only wants purifyin', +to twell in t'e Almighty's presence t'roughout eternity!" + +"I hope and believe," again growled Thousandacres, "that in the world +we're goin' to, there'll be no law, and no attorneys." + +"In t'at, t'en, Aaron, you pe greatly mistaken. T'at lant is all law, +ant justice, ant right; t'ough. Got forgif me if I do any man an injury; +put to pe frank wit' you, as pecomes two mortals so near t'eir ents, I +do not pelief, myself, t'at t'ere wilt pe a great many attorneys to +trouble t'em t'at are receivet into t'e courts of t'e Almighty, himself. +T'eir practices on 'arth does not suit t'em for practice in heafen." + +"If you'd always held them rational notions, Chainbearer, no harm might +have come to you, and my life and your'n been spared. But this is a +state of being in which short-sightedness prevails ag'in the best +calkerlations. I never felt more sure of gettin' lumber to market than I +felt three days ago, of gettin' this that's in the creek, safe to +Albany; and now, you see how it is! the b'ys are disparsed, and may +never see this spot again; the gals are in the woods, runnin' with the +deer of the forest; the lumber has fallen into the hands of the law; and +that, too, by the aid of a man that was bound in honesty to protect me, +and I'm dyin' here!" + +"Think no more of the lumber, my man, think no more of the lumber," said +Prudence, earnestly; "time is desp'rate short at the best, and yours is +shorter than common, even for a man of seventy, while etarnity has no +eend. Forgit the boards, and forgit the b'ys, and forgit the gals, +forgit 'arth and all it holds----" + +"You wouldn't have me forgit you, Prudence," interrupted Thousandacres, +"that's been my wife, now, forty long years, and whom I tuck when she +was young and comely, and that's borne me so many children, and has +always been a faithful and hard-working woman--you wouldn't have me +forget _you_!" + +This singular appeal, coming as it did from such a being, and almost in +his agony, sounded strangely and solemnly, amid the wild and semi-savage +appliances of a scene I can never forget. The effect on Ursula was still +more apparent; she left the bedside of her uncle, and with strong +womanly sympathy manifested in her countenance, approached that of this +aged couple, now about to be separated for a short time, at least, where +she stood gazing wistfully at the very man who was probably that uncle's +murderer, as if she could gladly administer to his moral ailings. Even +Chainbearer attempted to raise his head, and looked with interest toward +the other group. No one spoke, however, for all felt that the solemn +recollections and forebodings of a pair so situated, were too sacred for +interruption. The discourse went on, without any hiatus, between them. + +"Not I, not I, Aaron, my man," answered Prudence, with strong emotions +struggling in her voice; "there can be no law, or call for _that_. We +are one flesh, and what God has j'ined, God will not keep asunder long. +I cannot tarry long behind you, my man, and when we meet together ag'in, +I hope 'twill be where no boards, or trees or acres, can ever make more +trouble for us!" + +"I've been hardly treated about that lumber, a'ter all," muttered the +squatter, who was now apparently more aroused to consciousness than he +had been, and who could not but keep harping on what had been the one +great business of his life, even as that life was crumbling beneath his +feet--"hardly dealt by, do I consider myself, about that lumber, +Prudence. Make the most of the Littlepage rights, it was only trees that +they could any way claim, in reason; while the b'ys and I, as you well +know, have convarted them trees into as pretty and noble a lot of +han'some boards and planks as man ever rafted to market!" + +"It's convarsion of another natur' that you want now, Aaron, my man; +another sort of convarsion is the thing needful. We must all be +convarted once in our lives; at least all such as be the children of +Puritan parents and a godly ancestry; and it must be owned, takin' into +account our years, and the importance of example in such a family as +our'n, that you and I have put it off long enough. Come it must, or +suthin' worse; and time and etarnity, in your case, Aaron, is pretty +much the same thing." + +"I should die easier in mind, Prudence, if Chainbearer would only admit +that the man who chops and hauls, and saws and rafts a tree, does get +some sort of a right, nat'ral or legal, to the lumber." + +"I'm sorry, T'ousantacres," put in Andries, "t'at you feel any such +admission from me necessary to you at t'is awful moment, since I nefer +can make it ast an honest man. You hat petter listen to your wife, and +get confarted if you can, ant as soon ast you can. You ant I haf put a +few hours to lif; I am an olt solder, T'ousantacres, ant haf seen more +t'an t'ree t'ousant men shot town in my own ranks, to say nut'in' of t'e +ranks of t'e enemy; ant wit' so much exper'ence a man comes to know a +little apout wounts ant t'eir tarminations. I gif it ast my chugment, +t'erefore, t'at neit'er of us can haf t'e smallest hope to lif t'rough +t'e next night. So get t'at confarsion as hastily ant ast well ast you +can, for t'ere ist little time to lose, ant you a squatter! T'is ist t'e +moment of all ot'ers, T'ousantacres, to proofe t'e true falue of +professions, and trates, ant callin's, as well ast of t'e manner in +which t'eir tuties haf peen fulfillet. It may pe more honoraple ant more +profitaple to pe a calculating surveyor, ant to unterstant arit'metic, +and to pe talket of in t'e worlt for work tone on a large scale; put +efen his excellency himself, when he comes to t'e last moments, may pe +glat t'at t'e temptations of such larnin', ant his pein so t'oroughly an +honest man, toes not make him enfy t'e state of a poor chainpearer; who, +if he titn't know much, ant coultn't do much, at least measuret t'e lant +wit' fitelity, and tid his work ast well ast he knew how. Yes, yes, olt +Aaron; get confartet, I tell you; ant shoult Prutence not know enough of +religion ant her piple, ant of prayin' to Got to haf marcy on your soul, +t'ere ist Dus Malpone, my niece, who understants, ant what ist far +petter, who _feels_ t'ese matters, quite as well ast most tominies, ant +petter t'an some lazy ant selfish ones t'at I know, who treat t'eir +flocks as if t'e Lort meant t'ey wast to pe sheart only, ant who wast +too lazy to do much more t'an to keep cryin' out--not in t'e worts of +t'e inspiret writer--'Watchman, what of t'e night?--watchman, what of +t'e night?'--put, 'My pelovet, and most Christian, ant gotly-mintet +people, pay, pay, pay!' Yes, t'ere ist too much of such afarice ant +selfishness in t'e worlt, and it toes harm to t'e cause of t'e Safiour; +put trut' is so clear ant peautiful an opject, my poor Aaron, t'at efen +lies, ant fice, ant all manner of wicketnesses cannot long sully it. +Take my atvice, ant talk to Dus; ant t'ough you wilt touptless continue +to grow worse in poty, you wilt grow petter in spirit." + +Thousandacres turned his grim visage round, and gazed intently and +wistfully toward Ursula. I saw the struggle that was going on within, +through the clear mirror of the sweet, ingenuous face of my beloved, and +I saw the propriety of retiring. Frank Malbone understood my look, and +we left the house together, closing the door behind us. + +Two, to me, long and anxious hours succeeded, during most of which time +my companion and myself walked about the clearing, questioning the men +who composed the posse, and hearing their reports. These men were in +earnest in what they were doing; for a respect for law is a +distinguishing trait in the American character, and perhaps more so in +New England, whence most of these people came, than in any other part of +the country, the rascality of 'Squire Newcome to the contrary, +notwithstanding. Some observers pretend that this respect for law is +gradually decreasing among us, and that in its place, is sensibly +growing up a disposition to substitute the opinions, wishes, and +interests of local majorities, making the country subject to _men_ +instead of _principles_. The last are eternal and immutable; and coming +of God, men, however unanimous in sentiment, have no more right to +attempt to change them, than to blaspheme his holy name. All that the +most exalted and largest political liberty can ever beneficially effect +is to apply these principles to the good of the human race, in the +management of their daily affairs; but when they attempt to substitute +for these pure and just rules of right, laws conceived in selfishness +and executed by the power of numbers, they merely exhibit tyranny in its +popular form, instead of in its old aspect of kingly or aristocratic +abuses. It is a fatal mistake to fancy that freedom is gained by the +mere achievement of a right in the people to govern, unless the _manner_ +in which that right is to be both understood and practised, is closely +incorporated with all the popular notions of what has been obtained. +That right to govern means no more than the right of the people to avail +themselves of the power thus acquired, to apply the great principles of +justice to their own benefit, and from the possession of which they had +hitherto been excluded. It confers no power to do that which is +inherently wrong, under any pretence whatever; or would anything have +been gained, had America, as soon as she relieved herself from a sway +that diverted so many of her energies to the increase of the wealth and +influence of a distant people, gone to work to frame a new polity which +should inflict similar wrongs within her own bosom. + +My old acquaintance, the hearty Rhode Islander, was one of the posse, +and I had a short conversation with him, while thus kept out of the +house, which may serve to let the reader somewhat into the secret of the +state of things at the clearing. We met near the mill, when my +acquaintance, whose name was Hosmer, commenced as follows: + +"A good day to you, major, and a hearty welcome to the open air!" cried +the sturdy yeoman, frankly but respectfully, offering his hand. "You +fell into a pit here, or into a den among thieves; and it's downright +providential you e'er saw and breathed the clear air ag'in! Wa-a-l, I've +been trailin' a little this mornin' along with the Injin; and no hound +has a more sartain scent than he has. We went into the hollow along the +creek; and a desp'rate sight of boards them varmints have got into the +water, I can tell you! If the lot's worth forty pounds York, it must be +worth every shilling of five hundred. They'd 'a' made their fortin's, +every blackguard among 'em. I don't know but I'd fit myself to save so +many boards, and sich beautiful boards, whether wrongfully or rightfully +lumbered!" + +Here the hearty old fellow stopped to laugh, which he did exactly in the +full-mouthed, contented way in which he spoke and did everything else. I +profited by the occasion to put in a word in reply. + +"You are too honest a man, major, to think of ever making your boards +out of another man's trees," I answered. "These people have lived by +dishonest practices all their lives, and any one can see what it has +come to." + +"Yes, I hope I am, 'Squire Littlepage--I do hope I am. Hard work and I +an't nohow afeard of each other; and so long as a man _can_ work, and +_will_ work, Satan don't get a full grip on him. But, as I was sayin', +the Trackless struck the trail down the creek, though it was along a +somewhat beaten path; but the Injin would make no more of findin' it in +a highway, than you and I would of findin' our places in the Bible on +Sabba'day, where we had left off the Sabba'day that was gone. I always +mark mine with a string the old woman braided for me on purpose, and a +right-down good method it is; for, while you're s'archin' for your specs +with one hand, nothin' is easier than to open the Bible with t'other. +Them's handy things to have, major; and, when you marry some great lady +down at York, sich a one as your own mother was, for I know'd her and +honored her, as we all did hereaway--but, when you get married ask your +wife to braid a string for you, to find the place in the Bible with, and +all will go right, take an old man's word for it." + +"I thank you, friend, and will remember the advice, even though I might +happen to marry a lady in this part of the world, and not down in York." + +"This part of the world? No, we've got nobody our way, that's good +enough for you. Let me see; Newcome has a da'ghter that's _old_ enough, +but she's desp'rate humbly (Anglice, homely--the people of New England +reserve 'ugly' for moral qualities) and wouldn't suit, no how. I don't +think the Littlepages would overmuch like being warp and fillin' with +the Newcomes." + +"No! My father was an old friend--or, an old acquaintance at least, of +Mr. Newcome's, and must know and appreciate his merits." + +"Yes--yes--I'll warrant ye the gin'ral knows him. Wa-a-l! Human natur' +is human natur'; and I do s'pose, if truth must be spoken, none on us be +half as good as we ought to be. We read about faithful stewards in the +good book, and about onfaithful ones too, squire"--here the old yeoman +stopped to indulge in one of his hearty laughs, rendering it manifest he +felt the full application of his words. "Wa-a-l, all must allow the +Bible's a good book. I never open it, without l'arnin' suthin', and what +I l'arn, I strive not to forgit. But there's a messenger for you, major, +from Thousandacres' hut, and I fancy it will turn out that he or +Chainbearer is drawing near his eend." + +Lowiny was coming to summon us to the house, sure enough, and I took my +leave of my brother major for the moment. It was plain to me that this +honest-minded yeoman, a good specimen of his class, saw through Newcome +and his tricks, and was not unwilling to advert to them. Nevertheless, +this man had a fault, and one very characteristic of his "_order_." He +could not speak _directly_, but would _hint_ round a subject, instead of +coming out at once, and telling what he had to say; beating the bush to +start his game, when he might have put it up at once, by going in at it +directly. Before we parted, he gave me to understand that Susquesus and +my fellow, Jaap, had gone on in pursuit of the retreating squatters, +intending to follow their trail several miles, in order to make sure +that Tobit and his gang were not hanging around the clearing to watch +their property, ready to strike a blow when it might be least expected. + +Dus met me at the door of the cabin, tearful and sad, but with such a +holy calm reigning in her generally brilliant countenance, as denoted +the nature of the solemn business in which she had just been engaged. +She extended both hands to meet mine, and whispered, "Uncle Chainbearer +is anxious to speak to us--on the subject of our engagement, I think it +is." A tremor passed through the frame of Ursula, but she made an +effort, smiled sadly, and continued: "Hear him patiently, dear Mordaunt, +and remember that he is my father, in one sense, and as fully entitled +to my obedience and respect as if I were really his daughter." + +As I entered the room, I could see that Dus had been at prayer. Prudence +looked comforted, but Thousandacres himself had a wild and uncertain +expression of countenance, as if doubts had begun to beset him, at the +very moment when they must have been the most tormenting. I observed +that his anxious eye followed the form of Dus, and that he gazed on her +as one would be apt to regard the being who had just been the instrument +of awakening within him the consciousness of his critical state. But my +attention was soon drawn to the other bed. + +"Come near me, Mortaunt, lat; and come hit'er, Dus, my tearest ta'ghter +ant niece. I haf a few worts of importance to say to you pefore I go, +ant if t'ey pe not sait now, t'ey nefer may pe sait at all. It's always +pest to 'take time py t'e forelock,' t'ey say; ant surely I cannot pe +callet in haste to speak, when not only one foot, put pot' feet and half +my poty in t'e pargain, may well pe sait to pe in t'e grafe. Now listen +to an olt man's atfice, ant do not stop my worts until all haf peen +spoken, for I grow weak fast, ant haf not strength enough to t'row away +any of it in argument. + +"Mortaunt hast sait ast much, in my hearin' ast to atmit t'at he lofes +ant atmires my gal, ant t'at he wishes, ant hopes, ant expects to make +her his wife. On t'e ot'er hant, Ursula, or Dus, my niece, confesses ant +acknowledges t'at she lofes, ant esteems, ant hast a strong regart for +Mortaunt, ant ist willin' to pecome his wife. All t'is is nat'ral, ant +t'ere wast a time when it woult haf mate me ast happy ast t'e tay ist +long to hear as much sait py t'e one or t'e ot'er of t'e parties. You +know, my chiltren, t'at my affection for you is equal, ant t'at I +consiter you, in all respects put t'at of worltly contition, to pe as +well suitet to pecome man ant wife ast any young couple in America. Put +tuty is tuty, ant it must pe tischarget. General Littlepage wast my olt +colonel; ant an honest ant an honoraple man himself, he hast efery right +to expect t'at efery one of his former captains, in partic'lar, woult do +unto him as t'ey woult haf him do unto t'em. Now, t'ough heafen ist +heafen, t'is worlt must pe regartet as t'is worlt, ant t'e rules for its +gofernment are to pe respectet in t'eir place. T'e Malpones pe a +respectaple family, I know; ant t'ough Dus's own fat'er wast a little +wilt, ant t'oughtless, ant extrafagant----" + +"Uncle Chainbearer!" + +"True, gal, true; he wast your fat'er, ant t'e chilt shoult respect its +parent. I atmit t'at, ant wilt say no more t'an ist apsolutely +necessary; pesites, if Malpone hat his pat qualities, he hat his goot. A +hantsomer man coult not pe fount, far ant near, ast my poor sister felt, +I dares to say; ant he wast prave as a pull-dog, ant generous, ant +goot-naturet, ant many persons was quite captivated py all t'ese showy +atfantages, ant t'ought him petter ast he really wast. Yes, yes, Dus, my +chilt, he hat his goot qualities, as well as his pat. Put, t'e Malpones +pe gentlemen, as ist seen py Frank, Dus's prother, ant py ot'er mempers +of t'e family. T'en my mot'er's family, py which I am relatet to Dus, +wast very goot--even petter t'an t'e Coejemans--ant t'e gal is a +gentlewoman py pirt'. No one can deny t'at; put ploot won't do +eferyt'ing. Chiltren must pe fet, and clot'et; ant money ist necessary, +a'ter all, for t'e harmony ant comfort of families. I know Matam +Littlepage, in partic'lar. She ist a da'ter of olt Harman Mortaunt, who +wast a grant gentleman in t'e lant, ant t'e owner of Ravensnest, ast +well ast of ot'er estates, and who kept t'e highest company in t'e +profince. Now Matam Littlepage, who hast peen t'us born, ant etucatet, +ant associatet, may not like t'e itee of hafin' Dus Malpone, a +chainpearer's niece, ant a gal t'at hast peen chainpearer herself, for +which I honor ant lofe her so much t'e more, Mortaunt, lat; put for +which an ill-chutgin' worlt wilt despise her----" + +"My mother--my noble-hearted, right-judging and right-feeling +mother--never!" I exclaimed, in a burst of feeling I found it impossible +to control. + +My words, manner and earnestness produced a profound impression on my +auditors. A gleam of pained delight shot into and out of the countenance +of Ursula, like the passage of the electric spark. Chainbearer gazed on +me intently, and it was easy to trace, in the expression of his face, +the deep interest he felt in my words, and the importance he attached to +them. As for Frank Malbone, he fairly turned away to conceal the tears +that forced themselves from his eyes. + +"If I coult t'ink ast much--if I coult _hope_ ast much, Mortaunt," +resumed Chainbearer, "it woult pe a plesset relief to my partin' spirit, +for I know General Littlepage well enough to pe sartain t'at he ist a +just ant right-mintet man, ant t'at, in t'e long run, he woult see +matters ast he ought to see t'em. Wit' Matam Littlepage I fearet it was +tifferent; for I haf always hearet t'at t'e Mortaunts was tifferent +people, ant felt ast toppin' people commonly do feel. T'is makes some +change in my itees, ant some change in my plans. Howsefer, my young +frients, I haf now to ask of you each a promise--a solemn promise mate +to a tyin' man--ant it ist t'is----" + +"First hear me, Chainbearer," I interposed eagerly, "before you involve +Ursula heedlessly, and I had almost said cruelly, in any incautious +promise, that may make both our lives miserable hereafter. You yourself +first invited, tempted, courted me to love her; and now, when I know and +confess her worth, you throw ice on my flame, and command me to do that +of which it is too late to think." + +"I own it, I own it, lat, ant hope t'e Lort, in his great marcy, wilt +forgif ant parton t'e great mistake I mate. We haf talket of t'is +pefore, Mortaunt, ant you may rememper I tolt you it was Dus herself who +first mate me see t'e trut' in t'e matter, ant how much petter ant more +pecomin' it wast in me to holt you pack, t'an to encourage ant leat you +on. How comes it, my tear gal, t'at you haf forgot all t'is, ant now +seem to wish me to do t'e fery t'ing you atviset me not to do?" + +Ursula's face became pale as death; then it flashed to the brightness of +a summer sunset, and she sank on her knees, concealing her countenance +in the coarse quilt of the bed, as her truthful and ingenuous nature +poured out her answer. + +"Uncle Chainbearer," she said, "when we first talked on this subject I +had never seen Mordaunt." + +I knelt at the side of Ursula, folded her to my bosom, and endeavored to +express the profound sentiment of gratitude that I felt at hearing this +ingenuous explanation, by such caresses as nature and feeling dictated. +Dus, however, gently extricated herself from my arms, and rising, we +both stood waiting the effect of what had just been seen and heard on +Chainbearer. + +"I see t'at natur' is stronger t'an reason, ant opinion, ant custom," +the old man resumed, after a long, meditative pause--"I haf put little +time to spent in t'is matter, howsefer, my chiltren, ant must pring it +to a close. Promise me, pot' of you, t'at you will nefer marry wit'out +t'e free consent of General Littlepage, ant t'at of olt Matam +Littlepage, ant young Matam Littlepage, each or all pein' lifin'." + +"I do promise you, uncle Chainbearer," said Dus, with a promptitude that +I could hardly pardon--"I do promise you, and will keep my promise, as I +love you and fear and honor my Maker. 'Twould be misery to me to enter a +family that was not willing to receive me----" + +"Ursula!--dearest--dearest Ursula--do you reflect! Am I, then, nothing +in your eyes?" + +"It would also be misery to live without you, Mordaunt--but in one case +I should be supported by a sense of having discharged my duty; while in +the other, all that went wrong would appear a punishment for my own +errors." + +I would not promise; for, to own the truth, while I never distrusted my +father or mother for a single instant, I did distrust my dear and +venerable grandmother. I knew that she had not only set her heart on my +marrying Priscilla Bayard; but that she had a passion for making matches +in her own family; and I feared that she might have some of the tenacity +of old age in maintaining her opinions. Dus endeavored to prevail on me +to promise; but I evaded the pledge; and all solicitations were +abandoned in consequence of a remark that was soon after made by +Chainbearer. + +"Nefer mint--nefer mint, darlint; _your_ promise is enough. So long as +you pe true, what matters it w'et'er Mortaunt is heatstrong or not? Ant +now, children, ast I wish to talk no more of t'e matters of t'is worlt, +put to gif all my metitations ant language to t'e t'ings of Got, I wilt +utter my partin' worts to you. W'et'er you marry or not, I pray Almighty +Got to gif you his pest plessin's in t'is life, ant in t'at which ist to +come. Lif in sich a way, my tear chiltren, as to pe aple to meet t'is +awful moment, in which you see me placed, wit' hope ant joy, so t'at we +may all meet hereafter in t'e courts of Heafen. Amen." + +A short, solemn pause succeeded this benediction, when it was +interrupted by a fearful groan, that struggled out of the broad chest of +Thousandacres. All eyes were turned on the other bed, which presented a +most impressive contrast to the calm scene that surrounded the parting +soul of him about whom we had been gathered. I alone advanced to the +assistance of Prudence, who, woman-like, clung to her husband to the +last; "bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh." I must own, however, +that horror paralyzed my limbs; and that when I got as far as the foot +of the squatter's bed, I stood riveted to the place like a rooted tree. + +Thousandacres had been raised, by means of quilts, until half his body +lay almost in a sitting position; a change he had ordered during the +previous scene. His eyes were open; ghastly, wandering, hopeless. As the +lips contracted with the convulsive twitchings of death, they gave to +his grim visage a species of sardonic grin that rendered it doubly +terrific. At this moment a sullen calm came over the countenance, and +all was still. I knew that the last breath remained to be drawn, and +waited for it as the charmed bird gazes at the basilisk-eye of the +snake. It came, drawing aside the lips so as to show every tooth, and +not one was missing in that iron frame; when, finding the sight too +frightful for even my nerves, I veiled my eyes. When my hand was +removed, I caught one glimpse of that dark tenement in which the spirit +of the murderer and squatter had so long dwelt, Prudence being in the +act of closing the glary, but still fiery eyes. I never before had +looked upon so revolting a corpse, and never wish to see its equal +again. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + + "Mild as a babe reclines himself to rest, + And smiling sleeps upon the mother's breast-- + Tranquil, and with a patriarch's hope, he gave + His soul to heaven, his body to the grave."--Harte. + + +I saw that neither Chainbearer nor Dus looked at the revolting object +presented in the corpse of Thousandacres, after that selfish and +self-willed being ceased to live. I had another hut prepared immediately +for its reception, and the body was removed to it without delay. Thither +Prudence accompanied the senseless body; and there she passed the +remainder of the day, and the whole of the succeeding night, attended by +Lowiny--with occasional offers of food and assistance from the men of +the posse. Two or three of the latter, carpenters by trade, made a +coffin of pine, and the body was placed in it in the customary manner. +Others dug a grave in the centre of one of those rough fields that the +squatter had appropriated to his own uses, thus making everything ready +for the interment, as soon as the coroner, who had been sent for, should +have had his sitting over the body. + +The removal of the remains of Thousandacres left a sort of holy calm in +the cabin of Chainbearer. My old friend was fast sinking; and he said +but little. His consciousness continued to the last, and Dus was often +at prayer with him in the course of that day. Frank and I aided in doing +the duty of nurses; and we prevailed on Ursula to retire to the loft, +and catch some rest, after her unwearying watchfulness. It was near +sunset that old Andries again addressed himself particularly to me, who +was sitting at his side, Dus being then asleep. + +"I shalt lif till mornin', I now fint, Mortaunt," he said; "put, let +deat' come when it wilt, it ist sent py my Lort and Maker, ant it ist +welcome. Deat' hast no fears for me." + +"He never had, Captain Coejemans, as the history of your whole career in +the army shows." + +"Yes, lat, t'ere wast a time when I shoult haf peen glat to haf peen +shot on t'e fielt, ant to haf diet with Montgomery, ant Laurens, ant +Wooster, ant Warren, and sichlike gallant heroes; put t'at ist all gone, +now. I'm like a man t'at hast peen walkin' over a wite plain, ant who +hast come to its tarmination, where he sees pefore him an entless apyss +into which he must next step. At sich a sight, lat, all t'e trouples, +ant lapors, ant tifficulties of t'e plain seem so triflin', t'at t'ey pe +forgotten. Mint, I do not wish to say t'at eternity is an apyss to me in +fears, ant pains, ant tespair; for t'e gootness of Got hast enlightenet +my mint on t'at supject, ant hope, ant love, ant longin' for t'e +presence of my Maker, stant in t'eir places. Mortaunt, my lat, pefore I +quit you, I coult wish to say a coople of worts to you on t'is sacret +supject, if 'twill gif no offence?" + +"Say all, and what you please, dear Chainbearer. We are friends of the +camp and the field, and the advice of no one could be more welcome to me +than yours, given at a moment as solemn and truthful as this." + +"T'ank ye, Mortaunt; t'ank ye wit' all my heart. You know how it hast +peen wit' me, since poyhoot; for often ant often you ant I haf talket +over t'ese t'ings in camp. I wast t'rown young upon t'e worlt, and wast +left wit'out fat'er, or mot'er, to pring myself up. An only chilt of my +own fat'er, for Dus comes from a half-sister, you know, t'ere wast no +one to care for me in partic'lar, and I growet up in great ignorance of +t'e Lort of Hosts, ant my tuties to him, and to his plesset son, more +ast anyt'ing else. Well, Mortaunt, you know how it ist in t'e woots, ant +in t'e army. A man neet not pe fery pat, to pe far from pein' as goot as +ist expectet of him by t'e Almighty, who gafe him his soul, ant who +reteemet him from his sins, and who holts out taily t'e means of grace. +When I come here, wit' Dus, a chilt knewest almost as much of t'e real +natur' of religion ast I knewest. Put, t'at precious gal, t'rough Divine +grace, hast been t'e means of pringin' an olt ant ignorant man to a +sense of his true contition, ant to petter hapits, t'an t'ose you +knowest in him. Once I lovet a frolic, Mortaunt, and punch ant ot'er +savory liquors wast fery pleasant to me; ay, ant even a'ter years might +and shoult haf teachet me t'e folly of sich ways. Put you haf not seen +t'e glass at my lips t'is summer, lat, at unseemly moments, or in +unseemly numpers of times, ant t'at ist owin' to the confersations I haf +hat wit' Dus on t'e supject. It woult haf tone your heart goot, +Mortaunt, to haf seen t'e tear gal seated on my knee, combin' my olt +gray hairs wit' her telicate white fingers, ant playin' with my hart, +ret cheeks, ast t'e infant plays wit' t'e cheeks of t'e mot'er, whilst +she talket to me of t'e history of Christ, ant his sufferin's for us +all--ant tolt me t'e way to learn to know my Safiour in trut' ant +sincerity! You t'ink Dus hantsome; ant pleasant to look upon; ant +pleasant to talk wit'--put you can nefer know t'e gal in her colors of +golt, Mortaunt, till she pegins to converse wit' you, unreservetly, +apout Got ant retemption!" + +"I can believe anything in favor of Ursula Malbone, my dear Chainbearer; +and no music could be sweeter, to my ears, than thus to hear you +pronouncing her praise." + +The death of Chainbearer occurred, as he had himself prognosticated, +about the time of the return of light on the succeeding morning. A more +tranquil end I never witnessed. He ceased to suffer pain hours before he +drew his last breath; but he had whispered to me, in the course of that +day, that he endured agony at moments. He wished me to conceal the fact +from Dus, however, lest it should increase her grief. "So long ast t'e +tear gal ist in ignorance of my sufferin's," the excellent old man added +in his whisper, "she cannot feel so much for me; since she must have +confitence in t'e value of her own goot work, ant s'pose me to pe only +trawin' nearer to happiness. Put, you ant I know, Mortaunt, t'at men are +not often shot t'rough t'e poty wit'out feelin' much pain; ant I haf hat +my share--yes, I haf hat my share!" Nevertheless, it would have been +difficult for one who was not in the secret to detect the smallest sign +that the sufferer endured a tithe of the agony he actually underwent. +Ursula _was_ deceived; and to this hour she is ignorant how much her +uncle endured. But, as I have said, this pain ceased altogether about +nine o'clock, and Andries even slumbered for many minutes at a time. Not +long before the light returned, however, he became aroused, and never +slumbered again until he fell into the long, last sleep of death. His +niece prayed with him about five; after which he seemed to consider +himself as ready for the final march. + +It might have been owing to the age of the patient; but in this instance +death announced his near approach by a rapid loss of the senses. At +first came a difficulty of hearing; and then the quick decay of the +sense of sight. The first was made known to us by a repetition of +questions that had already been more than once answered; while the +painful fact that sight, if not absolutely gone, was going, was brought +home to us by the circumstance that, while Dus was actually hovering +over him like a guardian angel, he inquired anxiously where she was. + +"I am here, uncle Chainbearer," answered the dear girl, in tremulous +tones--"here, before you, and am about to wet your lips." + +"I want t'e gal--t'at ist--I wish her to pe near when t'e spirit mounts +to Heafen. Haf her callet, Frank or Mortaunt." + +"Dear--_dearest_ uncle, I _am_ here, now--here before you--closest to +you of all--almost in your arms," answered Dus, speaking loud enough to +make herself heard, by an effort that cost her a great deal. "Do not +think I can ever desert you, until I know that your spirit has gone to +the mercy-seat of God!" + +"I knowet it," said Chainbearer, endeavoring to raise his arms to feel +for his niece, who met the effort by receiving his feeble and clammy +hand in both her own. "Remember my wishes apout Mortaunt, gal--yet +shoult t'e family agree, marry him wit' my plessin'--yes, my pest +plessin'. Kiss me, Dus.--Wast t'em your lips?--t'ey felt colt; ant you +are nefer colt of hant or heart. Mortaunt--kiss me, too, lat--t'at wast +warmer, ant hat more feelin' in it. Frank, gif me your hant--I owe you +money--t'ere ist a stockin' half full of tollars. Your sister wilt pay +my tebts. Ant General Littlepage owes me money--put most he owest me +goot will. I pray Got to pless him--ant to pless Matam Littlepage--ant +olt Matam Littlepage, t'at I nefer did see--ant t'e major, or colonel, +ast he is now callet--ant all our rijiment--ant _your_ rijiment, +too, Frank, which wast a fery goot rijiment. Farewell, +Frank--Dus--sister--precious--Christ Jesus, receive my----" + +These words came with difficulty, and were whispered, rather than +uttered aloud. They came at intervals, too, especially toward the last, +in the way to announce the near approach of the state of which they were +the more immediate percursors. The last syllable I have recorded was no +sooner uttered, than the breath temporarily ceased. I removed Dus by +gentle force, placing her in the arms of her brother, and turned to note +the final respiration. That final breath in which the spirit appears to +be exhaled, was calm, placid, and as easy as comports with the +separation of soul and body; leaving the hard, aged, wrinkled, but +benevolent countenance of the deceased, with an expression of happy +repose on it, such as the friends of the dead love to look upon. Of all +the deaths I had then witnessed, this was the most tranquil, and the +best calculated to renew the hopes of a Christian. As for myself, it +added a profound respect for the character and moral qualities of Ursula +Malbone, to the love and admiration I bore her already, the fruits of +her beauty, wit, heart, and other attractions. + +The two expected deaths had now taken place, and it only remained to +dispose of the legal questions connected with the events which had +caused them, inter the bodies, and return to the Nest. I saw that one of +the cabins was prepared for the reception of Ursula and Lowiny, the +latter still clinging to us, while the body of Chainbearer was laid out +in a coffin that had been made by the same hands, and at the same time, +as that of Thousandacres. About noon, the coroner arrived, not 'Squire +Newcome, but another, for whom he had himself sent; and a jury was +immediately collected from among the members of the posse. The +proceedings were of no great length. I told my story, or as much of it +as was necessary, from beginning to end, and others gave their testimony +as to the proceedings at different periods in the events. The finding +was, in the case of Chainbearer, "murder by the hand of some person +unknown;" and in that of Thousandacres, "accidental death." The first +was right, unquestionably; as to the last, I conceive, there was as +little of "accident" as ever occurred, when a man was shot through the +body by a steady hand, and an unerring eye. But such was the verdict, +and I had nothing but conjectures for my opinion as to the agency of the +Indian in killing the squatter. + +That evening, and a cool autumnal night it was, we buried Thousandacres, +in the centre of the field I have mentioned. Of all his numerous family, +Prudence and Lowiny alone were present. The service was short, and the +man of violence descended to mingle with the clods of the earth, without +a common prayer, a verse from Holy Writ, or any religious rite whatever. +The men who had borne the body, and the few spectators present, filled +the grave, rounded it handsomely, and covered it with sods, and were +turning away in silence, to retrace their steps to the dwellings, when +the profound stillness which had reigned throughout the whole of the +brief ceremony, was suddenly broken by the clear, full voice of +Prudence, who spoke in a tone and manner that arrested every step. + +"Men and brethren," said this extraordinary woman, who had so many of +the vices of her condition, relieved by so many of the virtues of her +sex and origin; "Men and brethren," she said "for I cannot call ye +neighbors, and _will_ not call you foes, I thank ye for this act of +decent regard to the wants of both the departed and the living, and that +ye have thus come to assist in burying my dead out of my sight." + +Some such address, even a portion of these very words, were customary; +but as no one had expected anything of the sort at that moment, they +startled as much as they surprised us. As the rest of the party +recovered from its wonder, however, it proceeded toward the huts, +leaving me alone with Prudence, who stood, swinging her body as usual, +by the side of the grave. + +"The night threatens to be cool," I said, "and you had better return +with me to the dwelling." + +"What's the houses to me, now! Aaron is gone, the b'ys be fled, and +their wives and children, and _my_ children, be fled, leaving none in +this clearin' but Lowiny, who belongs more to your'n in feelin', than to +me and mine, and the body that lies beneath the clods! There's property +in the housen, that I do s'pose even the law would give us, and maybe +some one may want it. Give me that, Major Littlepage, to help to clothe +and feed my young, and I'll never trouble this place ag'in. They'll not +call Aaron a squatter for takin' up that small piece of 'arth; and one +day, perhaps, you'll not grudge to me as much more by its side. It's +little more squattin' that I can do, and the next pitch I make, will be +the last." + +"There is no wish on my part, good woman, to injure you. Your effects +can be taken away from this place whenever you please, and I will even +help you to do it," I answered, "in such a way as to put it in the power +of your sons to receive the goods without risk to themselves. I remember +to have seen a batteau of some size in the stream below the mill; can +you tell me whether it remains there or not?" + +"Why shouldn't it? The b'ys built it two years ago, to transport things +in, and it's not likely to go off of itself." + +"Well, then, I will use that boat to get your effects off with safety to +yourself. To-morrow, everything of any value that can be found about +this place, and to which you can have any right, shall be put in that +batteau, and I will send the boat, when loaded, down the stream, by +means of my own black and the Indian, who shall abandon it a mile or two +below, where those you may send to look for it, can take possession and +carry the effects to any place you may choose." + +The woman seemed surprised, and even affected by this proposal, though +she a little distrusted my motives. + +"Can I depend on this, Major Littlepage?" she asked, doubtingly. "Tobit +and his brethren would be desp'rate, if any scheme to take 'em should be +set on foot under sich a disguise." + +"Tobit and his brethren have nothing to fear from treachery of mine. Has +the word of a gentleman no value in your eyes?" + +"I know that gentlemen gin'rally do as they promise; and so I've often +told Aaron, as a reason for not bein' hard on their property, but he +never would hear to it. Waal, Major Littlepage, I'll put faith in you, +and will look for the batteau at the place you've mentioned. God bless +you for this, and may he prosper you in that which is nearest your +heart! We shall never see each other ag'in--farewell." + +"You surely will return to the house, and pass the night comfortably +under a roof!" + +"No; I'll quit you here. The housen have little in 'em now that I love, +and I shall be happier in the woods." + +"But the night is cool, and, ere it be morning, it will become even +chilling and cold." + +"It's colder in that grave," answered the woman, pointing mournfully +with her long, skinny finger to the mound which covered the remains of +her husband. "I'm used to the forest, and go to look for my children. +The mother that looks for her children is not to be kept back by winds +and frost. Farewell ag'in, Major Littlepage. May God remember what you +have done, and will do, for me and mine!" + +"But you forget your daughter. What is to become of your daughter?" + +"Lowiny has taken desp'rately to Dus Malbone, and wishes to stay with +her while Dus wishes to have her stay. If they get tired of each other, +my da'ghter can easily find us. No gal of mine will be long put out in +sich a s'arch." + +As all this sounded probable and well enough, I had no further +objections to urge. Prudence waved her hand in adieu, and away she went +across the dreary-looking fields with the strides of a man, burying her +tall, gaunt figure in the shadow of the wood, with as little hesitation +as another would have entered the well-known avenues of some town. I +never saw her afterward; though one or two messages from her did reach +me through Lowiny. + +As I was returning from the grave, Jaap and the Trackless came in from +their scout. The report they made was perfectly satisfactory. By the +trail, which they followed for miles, the squatters had actually +absconded, pushing for some distant point, and nothing more was to be +feared from them in that part of the country. I now gave my orders as +respected the goods and chattels of the family, which were neither very +numerous nor very valuable; and it may as well be said here as later, +that everything was done next day, strictly according to promise. The +first of the messages that I received from Prudence came within a month, +acknowledging the receipt of her effects, even to the gear of the mill, +and expressing her deep gratitude for the favor. I have reason to think, +too, that nearly half the lumber fell into the hands of these squatters, +quite that portion of it being in the stream at the time we removed from +the spot, and floating off with the rains that soon set in. What was +found at a later day was sold, and the proceeds were appropriated to +meet the expenses of, and to make presents to the posse, as an +encouragement to such persons to see the majesty of the laws maintained. + +Early next morning we made our preparations to quit the deserted mill. +Ten of the posse arranged themselves into a party to see the body of +Chainbearer transported to the Nest. This was done by making a rude +bier, that was carried by two horses, one preceding the other, and +having the corpse suspended between them. I remained with the body; but +Dus, attended by Lowiny, and protected by her brother, preceded us, +halting at Chainbearer's huts for our arrival. At this point we passed +the first night of our journey, Dus and Frank again preceding us, always +on foot, to the Nest. At this place, the final halt of poor Andries, the +brother and sister arrived at an hour before dinner, while we did not +get in with the body until the sun was just setting. + +As our little procession drew near the house, I saw a number of wagons +and horses in the orchard that spread around it, which at first I +mistook for a collection of the tenants, met to do honor to the manes of +Chainbearer. A second look, however, let me into the true secret of the +case. As we drew slowly near, the whole procession on foot, I discovered +the persons of my own dear parents, that of Colonel Follock, those of +Kate, Pris. Bayard, Tom Bayard, and even of my sister Kettletas, in the +group. Last of all, I saw, pressing forward to meet me, yet a little +repelled by the appearance of the coffin, my dear and venerable old +grandmother, herself! + +Here, then, were assembled nearly all of the house of Littlepage, with +two or three near friends, who did not belong to it! Frank Malbone was +among them, and doubtless had told his story so that our visitors could +not be surprised at our appearance. On the other hand, I was at no loss +to understand how all this had been brought about. Frank's express had +found the party at Fishkill, had communicated his intelligence, set +everybody in motion on the wings of anxiety and love, and here they +were. The journey had not been particularly rapid either, plenty of time +having elapsed between the time when my seizure by the squatters was +first made known to my friends, and the present moment, to have got a +message to Lilacsbush, and to have received its answer. + +Kate afterward told me we made an imposing and solemn appearance, as we +came up to the gate of Ravensnest, bearing the body of Chainbearer. In +advance marched Susquesus and Jaap, each armed, and the latter carrying +an axe, acting, as occasion required, in the character of a pioneer. The +bearers and attendants came next, two and two, armed as a part of the +posse, and carrying packs; next succeeded the horses with the bier, each +led by a keeper; I was the principal mourner, though armed like the +rest, while Chainbearer's poor slaves, now the property of Dus, brought +up the rear, carrying his compass, chains, and other emblems of his +calling. + +We made no halt, but passing the crowd collected on the lawn, we went +through the gateway, and only came to a stand when we had reached the +centre of the court. As all the arrangements had been previously made, +the next step was to inter the body. I knew that General Littlepage had +often officiated on such occasions, and a request to that effect was +made to him, through Tom Bayard. As for myself, I said not a word to any +of my own family, begging them to excuse me until I had seen the last +offices performed to the remains of my friend. In half an hour all was +ready, and again the solemn procession was resumed. As before, Susquesus +and Jaap led the way, the latter now carrying a shovel, and acting in +the capacity of a sexton. The Indian bore a flaming torch of pine, the +darkness having so far advanced as to render artificial light necessary. +Others of the party had these natural flambeaux also, which added +greatly to the solemnity and impressiveness of the scene. General +Littlepage preceded the corpse, carrying a prayer-book. Then followed +the bearers with the coffin, the horses being now dismissed. Dus, veiled +in black from head to foot and leaning on Frank, appeared as chief +mourner. Though this was not strictly in conformity with real New York +habits, yet no one thought the occasion one on which to manifest the +customary reserve of the sex. Everybody in or near the Nest, females as +well as males, appeared to do honor to the memory of Chainbearer, and +Dus came forth as the chief mourner. Priscilla Bayard, leaning on the +arm of her brother Tom, edged herself in next to her friend, though they +had not as yet exchanged a syllable together; and, after all was over, +Pris. told me it was the first funeral she had ever attended, or the +first time she had ever been at a grave. The same was true of my +grandmother, my mother, and both my sisters. I mention this lest some +antiquarian, a thousand years hence, might light on this manuscript, and +mistake our customs. Of late years, the New Englanders are introducing +an innovation on the old usage of the colony; but, among the upper real +New York families, women do not even now attend funerals. In this +respect, I apprehend, we follow the habits of England, where females of +the humbler classes, as I have heard, do, while their superiors do not +appear on such occasions. The reason of the difference between the two +is very easily appreciated, though I limit my statements to what I +conceive to be the facts, without affecting to philosophize on them. + +But all our ladies attended the funeral of Chainbearer. I came next to +Tom and Priscilla, Kate pressing up to my side, and placing my arm in +mine, without speaking. As she did this, however, the dear girl laid her +little hand on mine, and gave the latter a warm pressure, as much as to +say how greatly she was rejoiced at finding me safe, and out of the +hands of the Philistines. The rest of the party fell in behind, and, as +soon as the Indian saw that everybody was placed, he moved slowly +forward, holding his flaming torch so high as to light the footsteps of +those near him. + +Directions had been sent to the 'Nest to dig a grave for Andries, in the +orchard, and at no great distance from the verge of the rocks. As I +afterward ascertained, it was at the very spot where one of the most +remarkable events in the life of the general had occurred, an event in +which both Susquesus and Jaap had been conspicuous actors. Thither, +then, we proceeded in funeral order, and with funeral tread, the torches +throwing their wild and appropriate light over the nearer accessories of +the scene. Never did the service sound more solemnly to me, there being +a pathos and richness in my father's voice that were admirably adapted +to the occasion. Then he felt what he was reading, which does not always +happen even when a clergyman officiates; for not only was General +Littlepage a close friend of the deceased, but he was a devout +Christian. I felt a throb at the heart, as I heard the fall of the first +clods on the coffin of Chainbearer; but reflection brought its calm, and +from the moment Dus became, as it might be, doubly dear to me. It +appeared to me as if all her uncle's love and care had been transferred +to myself, and that, henceforth, I was to be his representative with his +much-beloved niece. I did not hear a sob from Ursula during the whole +ceremony. I knew that she wept, and wept bitterly; but her self-command +was so great as to prevent any undue obtrusion of her griefs on others. +We all remained at the grave until Jaap had rounded it with his utmost +skill, and had replaced the last sod. Then the procession formed anew, +and we accompanied Frank and Dus to the door of the house, when she +entered and left us without. Priscilla Bayard, however, glided in after +her friend, and I saw them locked in each other's arms, through the +window of the parlor, by the light of the fire within. At the next +moment, they retired together to the little room that Dus had +appropriated to her own particular use. + +Now it was that I embraced and was embraced by my friends. My mother +held me long in her arms, called me her "dear, dear boy," and left tears +on my face. Kate did pretty much the same, though she said nothing. As +for Anneke, my dear sister Kettletas, her embrace was like herself, +gentle, sincere, and warm-hearted. Nor must my dear old grandmother be +forgotten; for though she came last of the females, she held me longest +in her arms, and, after "thanking God" devoutly for my late escape, she +protested that "I grew every hour more and more like the Littlepages." +Aunt Mary kissed me with her customary affection. + +A portion of the embraces, however, occurred after we had entered the +parlor, which Frank, imitating Dus, had delicately, as well as +considerately, left to ourselves. Colonel Follock, nevertheless, gave me +his salutations and congratulations before we left the court; and they +were as cordial and hearty as if he had been a second father. + +"How atmiraply the general reats, Mortaunt," our old friend added, +becoming very Dutch as he got to be excited. "I haf always sayet t'at +Corny Littlepage woult make as goot a tominie as any rector t'ey ever +hat in olt Trinity. Put he mate as goot a soltier, too. Corny ist an +extraordinary man, Mortaunt, ant one tay he wilt pe gofernor." + +This was a favorite theory of Colonel Van Valkenburgh's. For himself, he +was totally without ambition, whereas he thought nothing good enough for +his friend, Corny Littlepage. Scarce a year passed that he did not +allude to the propriety of elevating "t'e general" to some high office +or other; nor am I certain that his allusions of this nature may not +have had their effect; since my father _was_ elected to Congress as soon +as the new constitution was formed, and continued to sit as long as his +health and comfort would permit. + +Supper was prepared for both parties of travellers, of course, and in +due time we all took our seats at table. I say all; but that was not +literally exact, inasmuch as neither Frank, Dus, nor Priscilla Bayard, +appeared among us again that evening. I presume each had something to +eat, though all took the meal apart from the rest of the family. + +After supper I was requested to relate, _seriatim_, all the recent +events connected with my visit to the 'Nest, my arrest and liberation. +This I did, of course, seated at my grandmother's side, the old lady +holding one of my hands the whole time I was speaking. The most profound +attention was lent by all the party; and a thoughtful silence succeeded +my narration, which ended only with the history of our departure from +the mills. + +"Ay," exclaimed Colonel Follock, who was the first to speak after I had +terminated my own account. "So much for Yankee religion! I'll warrant +you now, Corny, t'at t'e fellow, T'ousantacres, coult preach ant pray +just like all t'e rest of our Pilgrim Fat'ers." + +"There are rogues of New York birth and extraction, Colonel Follock, as +well as of New England," answered my father, dryly; "and the practice of +squatting is incidental to the condition of the country; as men are +certain to make free with the property that is least protected and +watched. Squatters are made by circumstances, and not by any peculiar +disposition of a particular portion of the population to appropriate the +land of others to their own uses. It would be the same with our hogs and +our horses, were they equally exposed to the depredations of lawless +men, let the latter come from Connecticut or Long Island." + +"Let me catch one of t'ese gentry among my horses!" answered the +colonel, with a menacing shake of his head, for, Dutchman-like, he had a +wonderful love for the species--"I woult crop him wit' my own hands, +wit'out chudge or chury." + +"That might lead to evils _almost_ as great as those produced by +squatting, Dirck," returned my father. + +"By the way, sir," I put in, knowing that Colonel Follock sometimes +uttered extravagances on such subjects, though as honest and +well-meaning a man as ever breathed--"I have forgotten to mention a +circumstance that may have some interest, as 'Squire Newcome is an old +acquaintance of yours." I then recounted all the facts connected with +the first visit of Mr. Jason Newcome to the clearing of Thousandacres, +and the substance of the conversation I had overheard between the +squatter and that upright magistrate. General Littlepage listened with +profound attention; and as for Colonel Follock, he raised his eyebrows, +grunted, laughed as well as a man could with his lips compressing a +pipe, and uttered in the best way he was able, under the circumstances, +and with sufficient sententiousness, the single word "Danpury." + +"No--no--Dirck," answered my father, "we must not put all the crimes and +vices on our neighbors, for many of them grow, from the seedling to the +tree bearing fruit in our own soil. I know this man, Jason Newcome, +reasonably well; and while I have confided in him more than I ought, +perhaps I have never supposed he was the person in the least influenced +by our conventional notions of honor and integrity. What is called 'law +honest,' I _have_ believed him to be; but it would seem, in that I have +been mistaken. Still I am not prepared to admit that the place of his +birth, or his education, is the sole cause of his backslidings." + +"Own t'e trut', Corny, like a man ast you pe, ant confess it ist all our +pilgrim fat'ers' ant Tanpury itees. What use ist t'ere in misleetin' +your own son, who wilt come, sooner or later, to see t'e whole trut'?" + +"I should be sorry, Dirck, to teach my son any narrow prejudices. The +last war has thrown me much among officers from New England, and the +intercourse has taught me to esteem that portion of our fellow-citizens +more than was our custom previously to the revolution." + +"Tush for 'intercourse,' ant 'esteem,' ant 'teachin', Corny! T'e whole +t'ing of squattin' hast crosset t'e Byram rifer, ant unless we look to +it, t'e Yankees wilt get all our lants away from us!" + +"Jason Newcome, when I knew him best, and I may say first," continued my +father, without appearing to pay much attention to the observations of +his friend the colonel, "was an exceedingly unfledged, narrow-minded +provincial, with a most overweening notion, certainly, of the high +excellences of the particular state of society from which he had not +long before emerged. He had just as great a contempt for New York, and +New York wit, and New York usages, and especially for New York religion +and morals, as Dirck here seems to have for all those excellences as +they are exhibited in New England. In a word, the Yankee despised the +Dutchman and the Dutchman abominated the Yankee. In all this, there is +nothing new, and I fancy the supercilious feeling of the New Englandman +can very easily be traced to his origin in the mother country. But, +differences _do_ exist, I admit, and I consider the feeling with which +every New Englander comes among us to be, by habit, adverse to our state +of society in many particulars--some good and some bad--and this merely +because he is not accustomed to them. Among other things, as a whole, +the population of these States do not relish the tenures by which our +large estates are held. There are plenty of men from that quarter of the +country, who are too well taught, and whose honesty is too much of +proof, not to wish to oppose anything that is wrong in connection with +this subject; still, the prejudices of nearly all who come from the east +are opposed to the relation of landlord and tenant, and this because +they do not wish to see large landlords among them, not being large +landlords themselves. I never found any gentleman, or man of education +from New England, who saw any harm in a man's leasing a single farm to a +single tenant, or half-a-dozen farms to half-a-dozen tenants; proof that +it is not the tenure itself with which they quarrel, but with a class of +men who are, or seem to be, their superiors." + +"I have heard the argument used against the leasehold system, that it +retards the growth and lessens the wealth of any district in which it +may prevail." + +"That it does not retard the growth, is proved by the fact that farms +can be leased _always_, when it often requires years to sell them. This +estate is half filled now, and will be entirely occupied, long ere +Mooseridge will be a third sold. That the latter may be the richest and +the best tilled district, in the end, is quite probable; and this for +the simple reasons that richer men buy than rent, to begin with, and the +owner usually takes better care of his farm than the mere tenant. Some +of the richest, best cultivated, and most civilized regions on earth, +however, are those in which the tenures of the actual occupants are, and +ever have been, merely leasehold. It is easy to talk, and to feel, in +these matters, but not quite so easy to come to just conclusions as some +imagine. There are portions of England, for instance--Norfolk in +particular--where the improvements are almost entirely owing to the +resources and enterprise of the large proprietors. As a question of +political economy, Mordaunt, depend on it, this is one that has two +sides to it; as a question of mere stomach, each man will be apt to view +it as his gorge is up or down." + +Shortly after this was said, the ladies complained of fatigue, a feeling +in which we all participated; and the party broke up for the night. It +seems the general had sent back word by the express, of the +accommodations he should require; which enabled the good people of the +Nest to make such arrangements as rendered everybody reasonably +comfortable. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + + "_Lid._--The victory is yours, sir." + + "_King._--It is a glorious one, and well sets off + Our scene of mercy; to the dead we tender + Our sorrow; to the living, ample wishes + Of future happiness."--BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER. + + +Fatigue kept me in bed next morning until it was late. On quitting the +house I passed through the gateway, then always left open--defence being +no longer thought of--and walked musingly toward the grave of +Chainbearer. Previously to doing this, I went as far as each corner of +the building, however, to cast an eye over the fields. On one side of +the house I saw my father and mother, arm in arm, gazing around them; +while on the other, aunt Mary stood by herself, looking wistfully in the +direction of a wooded ravine, which had been the scene of some important +event in the early history of the country. When she turned to re-enter +the building, I found her face bathed in tears. This respectable woman, +who was now well turned of forty, had lost her betrothed in battle, on +that very spot, a quarter of a century before, and was now gazing on the +sad scene for the first time since the occurrence of the event. + +Something almost as interesting, though not of so sad a nature, also +drew my parents to the other side of the house. When I joined them, an +expression of grateful happiness, a little saddened perhaps by +incidental recollections, was on the countenance of each. My dear mother +kissed me affectionately as I drew near, and the general cordially gave +me his hand while wishing me good morning. + +"We were talking of you," observed the last, "at the very moment you +appeared. Ravensnest is now becoming a valuable property; and its +income, added to the products of this large and very excellent farm that +you have in your own hands, should keep a country house, not only in +abundance, but with something more. You will naturally think of marrying +ere long, and your mother and I were just saying that you ought to build +a good, substantial stone dwelling on this very spot, and settle down on +your own property. Nothing contributes so much to the civilization of a +country, as to dot it with a gentry, and you will both give and receive +advantages by adopting such a course. It is impossible for those who +have never been witnesses of the result, to appreciate the effect +produced by one gentleman's family in a neighborhood, in the way of +manners, tastes, general intelligence, and civilization at large." + +"I am very willing to do my duty, sir, in this, as in other particulars; +but a good stone country house, such as a landlord ought to build on his +property, will cost money, and I have no sum in hand to use for such a +purpose." + +"The house will cost far less than you suppose. Materials are cheap, and +so is labor just now. Your mother and myself will manage to let you have +a few extra thousands, for our town property is beginning to tell again, +and fear nothing on that score. Make your selection of a spot, and lay +the foundation of the house this autumn; order the lumber sawed, the +lime burned, and other preparations made--and arrange matters so that +you can eat your Christmas dinner, in the year 1785, in the new +residence of Ravensnest. By that time you will be ready to get married, +and we may all come up to the house-warming." + +"Has anything occurred in particular, sir, to induce you to imagine I am +in any haste to marry? You seem to couple matrimony and the new house +together, in a way to make me think there has." + +I caught the general there, and, while my mother turned her head aside +and smiled, I saw that my father colored a little, though he made out to +laugh. After a moment of embarrassment, however, he answered with +spirit--my good, old grandmother coming up and linking her arm at his +vacant side as he did so. + +"Why, Mord, my boy, you can have very little of the sensibility of the +Littlepages in you," he said, "if you can be a daily spectator of such +female loveliness as is now near you, and not lose your heart." + +Grandmother fidgeted, and so did my mother; for I could see that both +thought the general had made too bold a demonstration. With the tact of +their sex, they would have been more on their guard. I reflected a +moment, and then determined to be frank; the present being as good a +time as any other, to reveal my secret. + +"I do not intend to be insincere with you, my dear sir," I answered, +"for I know how much better it is to be open on matters that are of a +common interest in a family, than to affect mysteriousness. I am a true +Littlepage on the score of sensibility to the charms of the sex, and +have not lived in daily familiar intercourse with female loveliness, +without experiencing so much of its influence as to be a warm advocate +for matrimony. It is my wish to marry, and that, too, before this new +abode of Ravensnest can be completed." + +The common exclamation of delight that followed this declamation, +sounded in my ears like a knell, for I knew it must be succeeded by a +disappointment exactly proportioned to the present hopes. But I had gone +too far to retreat, and felt bound to explain myself. + +"I'm afraid, my dear parents, and my beloved grandmother," I continued, +as soon as I could speak, conscious of the necessity of being as prompt +as possible, "that you have misunderstood me." + +"Not at all, my dear boy--not at all," interrupted my father. "You +admire Priscilla Bayard, but have not yet so far presumed on your +reception as to offer. But what of that? Your modesty is in your favor; +though I will acknowledge that, in my judgment, a gentleman is bound to +let his mistress know, as soon as his own mind is made up, that he is a +suitor for her hand, and that it is ungenerous and unmanly to wait until +certain of success. Remember that, Mordaunt, my boy; modesty may be +carried to a fault in a matter of this sort." + +"You still misunderstand me, sir. I have nothing to reproach myself with +on the score of manliness, though I may have gone too far in another way +without consulting my friends. Beyond sincere good-will and friendship, +Priscilla Bayard is nothing to me, and I am nothing to Priscilla +Bayard." + +"Mordaunt!" exclaimed a voice, that I never heard without its exciting +filial tenderness. + +"I have said but truth, dearest mother, and truth that ought to have +been sooner said. Miss Bayard would refuse me to-morrow, were I to +offer." + +"You don't know that, Mordaunt--you _can't_ know it until you try," +interrupted my grandmother, somewhat eagerly. "The minds of young women +are not to be judged by the same rules as those of young men. Such an +offer will not come every day, I can tell her; and she's much too +discreet and right-judging to do anything so silly. To be sure, I have +no authority to say how Priscilla feels toward you; but, if her heart is +her own, and Mordy Littlepage be not the youth that has stolen it, I am +no judge of my own sex." + +"But, you forget, dearest grandmother, that were your flattering +opinions in my behalf all true--as I have good reason to believe they +are not--but were they true, I could only regret it should be so; for I +love another." + +This time the sensation was so profound as to produce a common silence. +Just at that moment an interruption occurred, of a nature both so sweet +and singular, as greatly to relieve me at least, and to preclude the +necessity of my giving any immediate account of my meaning. I will +explain how it occurred. + +The reader may remember that there were, originally, loops in the +exterior walls of the house at Ravensnest, placed there for the purposes +of defence, and which were used as small windows in these peaceable +times. We were standing beneath one of those loops, not near enough, +however, to be seen or heard by one at the loop, unless we raised our +voices above the tone in which we were actually conversing. Out of this +loop, at that precise instant, issued the low, sweet strains of one of +Dus's exquisite Indian hymns, I might almost call them, set, as was +usual with her, to a plaintive Scotch melody. On looking toward the +grave of Chainbearer, I saw Susquesus standing over it, and I at once +understood the impulse which led Ursula to sing this song. The words had +been explained to me, and I knew that they alluded to a warrior's grave. + +The raised finger, the delighted expression of the eye, the attitude of +intense listening which my beloved mother assumed, each and all denoted +the pleasure and emotion she experienced. When, however, the singer +suddenly changed the language to English, after the last guttural words +of the Onondago had died on our ears, and commenced to the same strain a +solemn English hymn, that was short in itself, but full of piety and +hope, the tears started out of my mother's and grandmother's eyes, and +even General Littlepage sought an occasion to blow his nose in a very +suspicious manner. Presently, the sounds died away, and that exquisite +melody ceased. + +"In the name of wonder, Mordaunt, who can this nightingale be?" demanded +my father, for neither of the ladies could speak. + +"_That_ is the person, sir, who has my plighted faith--the woman I must +marry or remain single." + +"This, then, must be the Dus Malbone, or Ursula Malbone, of whom I have +heard so much from Priscilla Bayard, within the last day or two," said +my mother, in the tone and with the manner of one who is suddenly +enlightened on any subject that has much interest with him, or her; "I +ought to have expected something of the sort, if half the praises of +Priscilla be true." + +No one had a better mother than myself. Thoroughly a lady in all that +pertains to the character, she was also an humble and pious Christian. +Nevertheless, humility and piety are, in some respects, particularly the +first, matters of convention. The fitness of things had great merit in +the eyes of both my parents, and I cannot say that it is entirely +without it in mine. In nothing is this fitness of things more +appropriate than in equalizing marriages; and few things are less likely +to be overlooked by a discreet parent, than to have all proper care that +the child connects itself prudently; and that, too, as much in reference +to station, habits, opinions, breeding in particular, and the general +way of thinking, as to fortune. Principles are inferred among people of +principle, as a matter of course; but subordinate to these, worldly +position is ever of great importance in the eyes of parents. My parents +could not be very different from those of other people, and I could see +that both now thought that Ursula Malbone, the Chainbearer's niece, one +who had actually carried chain herself, for I had lightly mentioned that +circumstance in one of my letters, was scarcely a suitable match for the +only son of General Littlepage. Neither said much, however; though my +father did put one or two questions that were somewhat to the point, ere +we separated. + +"Am I to understand, Mordaunt," he asked, with a little of the gravity a +parent might be expected to exhibit on hearing so unpleasant an +announcement--"Am I to understand, Mordaunt, that you are actually +engaged to this young--eh-eh-eh--this young person?" + +"Do not hesitate, my dear sir, to call Ursula Malbone a lady. She is a +lady by both birth and education. The last, most certainly, or she never +could have stood in the relation she does to your family." + +"And what relation is that, sir?" + +"It is just this, my dear father. I have offered to +Ursula--indiscreetly, hastily if you will, as I ought to have waited to +consult you and my mother--but we do not always follow the dictates of +propriety in a matter of so much feeling. I dare say, sir, you did +better"--here I saw a slight smile on the pretty mouth of my mother, and +I began to suspect that the general had been no more dutiful than myself +in this particular--"but I hope my forgetfulness will be excused, on +account of the influence of a passion which we all find so hard to +resist." + +"But what is the relation this young--lady--bears to my family, +Mordaunt? You are not already married?" + +"Far from it, sir; I should not so far have failed in respect to you +three--or even to Anneke and Katrinke. I have _offered_, and have been +conditionally accepted." + +"Which condition is----" + +"The consent of you three; the perfect approbation of my whole near +connection. I believe that Dus, _dear_ Dus, does love me, and that she +would cheerfully give me her hand, were she certain of its being +agreeable to you, but that no persuasion of mine will ever induce her so +to do under other circumstances." + +"This is something, for it shows the girl has principle," answered my +father "Why, who goes there?" + +"Who went there?" sure enough. There went Frank Malbone and Priscilla +Bayard, arm in arm, and so engrossed in conversation that they did not +see who were observing them. I dare say they fancied they were in the +woods, quite sheltered from curious eyes, and at liberty to saunter +about, as much occupied with each other as they pleased; or, what is +more probable, that they thought of nothing, just then, but of +themselves. They came out of the court, and walked off swiftly into the +orchard, appearing to tread on air, and seemingly as happy as the birds +that were carolling on the surrounding trees. + +"There, sir," I said, significantly--"There, my dear mother, is the +proof that Miss Priscilla Bayard will not break her heart on my +account." + +"This is very extraordinary, indeed!" exclaimed my much disappointed +grandmother--"Is not that the young man who we were told acted as +Chainbearer's surveyor, Corny?" + +"It is, my good mother, and a very proper and agreeable youth he is, as +I know by a conversation held with him last night. It is very plain we +have all been mistaken"--added the general; "though I do not know that +we ought to say that we have any of us been deceived." + +"Here comes Kate, with a face which announces that she is fully mistress +of the secret," I put in, perceiving my sister coming round our angle of +the building, with a countenance which I knew betokened that her mind +and heart were full. She joined us, took my arm without speaking, and +followed my father, who led his wife and mother to a rude bench that had +been placed at the foot of a tree, where we all took seats, each waiting +for some other to speak. My grandmother broke the silence. + +"Do you see Pris Bayard yonder, walking with that Mr. Frank Chainbearer, +or Surveyor, or whatever his name is, Katrinke dear?" asked the good +_old_ lady. + +"I do, grandmamma," answered the good _young_ lady in a voice so pitched +as to be hardly audible. + +"And can you explain what it means, darling?" + +"I believe I can, ma'am--if--if--Mordaunt wishes to hear." + +"Don't mind me, Kate," returned I, smiling--"My heart will never be +broken by Miss Priscilla Bayard." + +The look of sisterly solicitude that I received from that honest-hearted +girl ought to have made me feel very grateful; and it did make me feel +grateful, for a sister's affection is a sweet thing. I believe the +calmness of my countenance and its smiling expression encouraged the +dear creature, for she now began to tell her story as fast as was at all +in rule. + +"The meaning, then, is this," said Kate. "That gentleman is Mr. Francis +Malbone, and he is the engaged suitor of Priscilla. I have had all the +facts from her own mouth." + +"Will you, then, let us hear as many of them as it is proper we should +know?" said the general, gravely. + +"There is no wish on the part of Priscilla to conceal anything. She has +known Mr. Malbone several years, and they have been attached all that +time. Nothing impeded the affair but his poverty. Old Mr. Bayard +objected to that, of course, you know, as fathers will, and Priscilla +would not engage herself. But--do you not remember to have heard of the +death of an old Mrs. Hazleton, at Bath, in England, this summer, mamma? +The Bayards are in half-mourning for her now." + +"Certainly, my dear--Mrs. Hazleton was Mr. Bayard's aunt. I knew her +well once, before she became a refugee--her husband was a half-pay +Colonel Hazleton of the royal artillery, and they were tories of course. +The aunt was named Priscilla, and was godmother to our Pris." + +"Just so--well, this lady has left Pris ten thousand pounds in the +English funds, and the Bayards now consent to her marrying Mr. Malbone. +They say, too, but I don't think _that_ can have had any influence, for +Mr. Bayard and his wife are particularly disinterested people, as indeed +are all the family"--added Kate, hesitatingly and looking down; "but +they _say_ that the death of some young man will probably leave Mr. +Malbone the heir of an aged cousin of his late father's." + +"And now, my dear father and mother, you will perceive that Miss Bayard +will not break her heart because I happen to love Dus Malbone. I see by +your look, Katrinke, that you have had some hint of this backsliding +also." + +"I have; and what is more, I have seen the young lady, and can hardly +wonder at it. Anneke and I have been passing two hours with her this +morning; and since you cannot get Pris, I know no other, Mordaunt, who +will so thoroughly supply her place. Anneke is in love with her also!" + +Dear, good, sober-minded, judicious Anneke; she had penetrated into the +true character of Dus, in a single interview; a circumstance that I +ascribed to the impression left by the recent death of Chainbearer. +Ordinarily, that spirited young woman would not have permitted a +sufficiently near approach in a first interview, to permit a discovery +of so many of her sterling qualities, but now her heart was softened, +and her spirit so much subdued, one of Anneke's habitual gentleness +would be very apt to win on her sympathies, and draw the two close to +each other. The reader is not to suppose that Dus had opened her mind +like a vulgar school-girl, and made my sister a confidant of the +relation in which she and I stood to one another. She had not said, or +hinted, a syllable on the subject. The information Kate possessed had +come from Priscilla Bayard, who obtained it from Frank, as a matter of +course; and my sister subsequently admitted to me that her friend's +happiness was augmented by the knowledge that I should not be a sufferer +by her earlier preference for Malbone, and that she was likely to have +me for a brother-in-law. All this I gleaned from Kate, in our subsequent +conferences. + +"This is extraordinary!" exclaimed the general--"very extraordinary; and +to me quite unexpected." + +"We can have no right to control Miss Bayard's choice," observed my +discreet and high-principled mother. "She is her own mistress, so far as +_we_ are concerned; and if her own parents approve of her choice, the +less we say about it the better. As respects this connection of +Mordaunt's, I hope he himself will admit of our right to have opinions." + +"Perfectly so, my dearest mother. All I ask of you is, to express no +opinion, however, until you have seen Ursula--have become acquainted +with her, and are qualified to judge of her fitness to be not only mine, +but any man's wife. I ask but this of your justice." + +"It is just; and I shall act on the suggestion," observed my father. +"You _have_ a right to demand this of us, Mordaunt, and I can promise +for your mother, as well as myself." + +"After all, Anneke," put in grandmother, "I am not sure we have no right +to complain of Miss Bayard's conduct toward us. Had she dropped the +remotest hint of her being engaged to this Malbone, I would never have +endeavored to lead my grandson to think of her seriously for one +moment." + +"Your grandson never _has_ thought of her seriously for one moment, or +for half a moment, dearest grandmother," I cried, "so give your mind no +concern on that subject. Nothing of the sort could make me happier than +to know that Priscilla Bayard is to marry Frank Malbone; unless it were +to be certain I am myself to marry the latter's half-sister." + +"How can this be?--How could such a thing possibly come to pass, my +child! I do not remember ever to have _heard_ of this person--much less +to have spoken to you on the subject of such a connection." + +"Oh! dearest grandmother, we truant children sometimes get conceits of +this nature into our heads and hearts, without stopping to consult our +relatives, as we ought to do." + +But it is useless to repeat all that was said in the long and desultory +conversation that followed. I had no reason to be dissatisfied with my +parents, who ever manifested toward me not only great discretion, but +great indulgence. I confess, when a domestic came to say that Miss Dus +was at the breakfast-table, waiting for us alone, I trembled a little +for the effect that might be produced on her appearance by the scenes +she had lately gone through. She had wept a great deal in the course of +the last week; and when I last saw her, which was the glimpse caught at +the funeral, she was pale and dejected in aspect. A lover is so jealous +of even the impression that his mistress will make on those he wishes to +admire her, that I felt particularly uncomfortable as we entered first +the court, then the house, and last the eating-room. + +A spacious and ample board had been spread for the accommodation of our +large party. Anneke, Priscilla, Frank Malbone, aunt Mary, and Ursula, +were already seated when we entered, Dus occupying the head of the +table. No one had commenced the meal, nor had the young mistress of the +board even begun to pour out the tea and coffee (for my presence had +brought abundance into the house), but there she sat, respectfully +waiting for those to approach who might be properly considered the +principal guests. I thought Dus had never appeared more lovely. Her +dress was a neatly-arranged and tasteful half-mourning; with which her +golden hair, rosy cheeks, and bright eyes contrasted admirably. The +cheeks of Dus, too, had recovered their color, and her eyes their +brightness. The fact was, that the news of her brother's improved +fortunes had even been better than we were just told. Frank found +letters for him at the 'Nest, announcing the death of his kinsman, with +a pressing invitation to join the bereaved parent, then an aged and +bed-ridden invalid, as his adopted son. He was urged to bring Dus with +him; and he received a handsome remittance to enable him so to do +without inconvenience to himself. This alone would have brought +happiness back to the countenance of the poor and dependent. Dus mourned +her uncle in sincerity, and she long continued to mourn for him; but her +mourning was that of the Christian who hoped. Chainbearer's hurt had +occurred several days before; and the first feeling of sorrow had become +lessened by time and reflection. His end had been happy; and he was now +believed to be enjoying the fruition of his penitence through the +sacrifice of the Son of God. + +It was easy to detect the surprise that appeared in the countenances of +all my parents, as Miss Malbone rose, like one who was now confident of +her position and claims to give and to receive the salutations that were +proper for the occasion. Never did any young woman acquit herself better +than Dus, who courtesied gracefully as a queen; while she returned the +compliments she received with the self-possession of one bred in courts. +To this she was largely indebted to nature, though her schooling had +been good. Many of the first young women of the colony had been her +companions for years; and in that day, manner was far more attended to +than it is getting to be among us now. My mother was delighted; for, as +she afterward assured me, her mind was already made up to receive Ursula +as a daughter; since she thought it due to honor to redeem my plighted +faith. General Littlepage might not have been so very scrupulous; though +even he admitted the right of the obligations I had incurred; but Dus +fairly carried him by storm. The tempered sadness of her mien gave an +exquisite finish to her beauty, rendering all she said, did, and looked, +that morning, perfect. In a word, everybody was wondering; but everybody +was pleased. An hour or two later, and after the ladies had been alone +together, my excellent grandmother came to me and desired to have a +little conversation with me apart. We found a seat in the arbor of the +court; and my venerable parent commenced as follows:-- + +"Well, Mordaunt, my dear, it _is_ time that you should think of marrying +and of settling in life. As Miss Bayard is happily engaged, I do not see +that you can do better than to offer to Miss Malbone. Never have I seen +so beautiful a creature; and the generous-minded Pris tells me she is as +good, and virtuous, and wise as she is lovely. She is well born and well +educated; and may have a good fortune in the bargain, if that old Mr. +Malbone is as rich as they tell me he is, and has conscience enough to +make a just will. Take my advice, my dear son, and marry Ursula +Malbone." + +Dear grandmother! I did take her advice; and I am persuaded that, to her +dying day, she was all the more happy under the impression that she had +materially aided in bringing about the connection. + +As General Littlepage and Colonel Follock had come so far, they chose to +remain a month or two, in order to look after their lands, and to +revisit some scenes in that part of the world in which both felt a deep +interest. My mother, and aunt Mary, too, seemed content to remain, for +they remembered events which the adjacent country recalled to their +minds with a melancholy pleasure. In the meanwhile Frank went to meet +his cousin, and had time to return, ere our party was disposed to break +up. During his absence everything was arranged for my marriage with his +sister. This event took place just two months, to a day, from that of +the funeral of Chainbearer. A clergyman was obtained from Albany to +perform the ceremony, as neither party belonged to the Congregational +order; and an hour after we were united, everybody left us alone at the +'Nest, on their return south. I say everybody, though Jaap and Susquesus +were exceptions. These two remained and remain to this hour; though the +negro did return to Lilacsbush and Satanstoe to assemble his family, and +to pay occasional visits. + +There was much profound feeling, but little parade, at the wedding. My +mother had got to love Ursula as if she were her own child: and I had +not only the pleasure, but the triumph of seeing the manner in which my +betrothed rendered herself from day to day, and this without any other +means than the most artless and natural, more and more acceptable to my +friends. + +"This is perfect happiness," said Dus to me, one lovely afternoon that +we were strolling in company along the cliff, near the Nest--and a few +minutes after she had left my mother's arms, who had embraced and +blessed her, as a pious parent does both to a well-beloved child--"This +is perfect happiness, Mordaunt, to be the chosen of you, and the +accepted of your parents! I never knew, until now, what it is to have a +parent. Uncle Chainbearer did all he could for me, and I shall cherish +his memory to my latest breath--but uncle Chainbearer could never supply +the place of a mother. How blessed, how undeservedly blessed does my lot +promise to become! You will give me not only parents, and parents I can +love as well as if they were those granted by nature, but you will give +me also two such sisters as few others possess!" + +"And I give you all, dearest Dus, encumbered with such a husband that I +am almost afraid you will fancy the other gifts too dearly purchased, +when you come to know him better." + +The ingenuous, grateful look, the conscious blush, and the thoughtful, +pensive smile, each and all said that my pleased and partial listener +had no concern on that score. Had I then understood the sex as well as I +now do, I might have foreseen that a wife's affection augments, instead +of diminishing; that the love the pure and devoted matron bears her +husband increases with time, and gets to be a part and parcel of her +moral existence. I am no advocate of what are called, strictly, +"marriages of reason"--I think the solemn and enduring knot should be +tied by the hands of warm-hearted, impulsive affection, increased and +strengthened by knowledge and confidential minglings of thought and +feeling; but I have lived long enough to understand that, lively as are +the passions of youth, they produce no delights like those which spring +from the tried and deep affections of a happy married life. + +And we were married! The ceremony took place before breakfast, in order +to enable our friends to reach the great highway ere night should +overtake them. The meal that succeeded was silent and thoughtful. Then +my dear, dear mother took Dus in her arms, and kissed and blessed her +again and again. My honored father did the same, bidding my weeping but +happy bride remember that she was now his daughter. "Mordaunt is a good +fellow, at the bottom, dear, and will love and cherish you as he has +promised," added the general, blowing his nose to conceal his emotion; +"but should he ever forget any part of his vows, come to me, and I will +visit him with a father's displeasure." + +"No fear of Mordaunt--no fear of Mordaunt," put in my worthy +grandmother, who succeeded in the temporary leave-taking--"he is a +Littlepage, and all the Littlepages make excellent husbands. The boy is +as like what his grandfather was, at his time of life, as one pea is +like another. God bless you, daughter--you will visit me at Satanstoe +this fall, when I shall have great pleasure in showing you _my_ +general's picture." + +Anneke and Kate, and Pris Bayard hugged Dus in such a way that I was +afraid they would eat her up, while Frank took his leave of his sister +with the manly tenderness he always showed her. The fellow was too happy +himself, however, to be shedding many tears, though Dus actually sobbed +on _his_ bosom. The dear creature was doubtless running over the past, +in her mind, and putting it in contrast with the blessed present. + +At the end of the honey-moon, I loved Dus twice as much as I had loved +her the hour we were married. Had any one told me this was possible, I +should have derided the thought; but thus it was, and I may truly add, +thus has it ever continued to be. At the end of that month, we left +Ravensnest for Lilacsbush, when I had the pleasure of seeing my bride +duly introduced to that portion of what is called the world, to which +she properly belonged. Previously to quitting the Patent, however, all +my plans were made, and contracts were signed, preparatory to the +construction of the house that my father had mentioned. The foundation +was laid that same season, and we did keep our Christmas holidays in it, +the following year, by which time Dus had made me the father of a noble +boy. + +It is scarcely necessary to say that Frank and Pris were married, as +were Tom and Kate, at no great distance of time after ourselves. Both of +those matches have turned out to be perfectly happy. Old Mr. Malbone did +not survive the winter, and he left the whole of a very sufficient +estate to his kinsman. Frank was desirous of making his sister a sharer +in his good fortune, but I would not hear of it. Dus was treasure enough +of herself, and wanted not money to enhance her value in my eyes. I +thought so in 1785, and I think so to-day. We got some plate and +presents, that were well enough, but never would accept any portion of +the property. The rapid growth of New York brought our vacant lots in +that thriving town into the market, and we soon became richer than was +necessary to happiness. I hope the gifts of Providence have never been +abused. Of one thing I am certain; Dus has ever been far more prized by +me than any other of my possessions. + +I ought to say a word of Jaap and the Indian. Both are still living, and +both dwell at the Nest. For the Indian I caused a habitation to be +erected in a certain ravine, at no great distance from the house, and +which had been the scene of one of his early exploits in that part of +the country. Here he lives, and has lived, for the last twenty years, +and here he hopes to die. He gets his food, blankets, and whatever else +is necessary to supply his few wants, at the Nest, coming and going at +will. He is now drawing fast on old age, but retains his elastic step, +upright movement, and vigor. I do not see but he may live to be a +hundred. The same is true of Jaap. The old fellow holds on, and enjoys +life like a true descendant of the Africans. He and Sus are inseparable, +and often stray off into the forest on long hunts, even in the winter, +returning with loads of venison, wild turkeys, and other game. The negro +dwells at the Nest, but half his time he sleeps in the wigwam, as we +call the dwelling of Sus. The two old fellows dispute frequently, and +occasionally they quarrel; but, as neither drinks, the quarrels are +never very long or very serious. They generally grow out of differences +of opinion on moral philosophy, as connected with their respective views +of the past and the future. + +Lowiny remained with us as a maid until she made a very suitable +marriage with one of my own tenants. For a little while after my +marriage I thought she was melancholy, probably through regret for her +absent and dispersed family; but this feeling soon disappeared, and she +became contented and happy. Her good looks improved under the influence +of civilization, and I have the satisfaction of adding that she never +has had any reason to regret having attached herself to us. To this +moment she is an out-door dependent and humble friend of my wife, and we +find her particularly useful in cases of illness among our children. + +What shall I say of 'Squire Newcome? He lived to a good old age, dying +quite recently; and with many who knew, or, rather, who did _not_ know +him, he passed for a portion of the salt of the earth. I never proceeded +against him on account of his connection with the squatters, and he +lived his time in a sort of lingering uncertainty as to my knowledge of +his tricks. That man became a sort of a deacon in his church, was more +than once a member of the Assembly, and continued to be a favorite +recipient of public favors down to his last moment; and this simply +because his habits brought him near to the mass, and because he took the +most elaborate care never to tell them a truth that was unpleasant. He +once had the temerity to run against me for Congress, but that +experiment proved to be a failure. Had it been attempted forty years +later, it might have succeeded better. Jason died poor and in debt, +after all his knavery and schemes. Avidity for gold had overreached +itself in his case, as it does in those of so many others. His +descendants, notwithstanding, remain with us; and while they have +succeeded to very little in the way of property, they are the legitimate +heritors of their ancestor's vulgarity of mind and manners--of his +tricks, his dissimulations, and his frauds. This is the way in which +Providence "visits the sins of the fathers upon the children, unto the +third and fourth generations." + +Little more remains to be said. The owners of Mooseridge have succeeded +in selling all the lots they wished to put into the market, and large +sums stand secured on them, in the way of bonds and mortgages. Anneke +and Kate have received fair portions of this property, including much +that belonged to Colonel Follock, who now lives altogether with my +parents. Aunt Mary, I regret to say, died a few years since, a victim to +small-pox. She never married, of course, and left her handsome property +between my sisters and a certain lady of the name of Ten Eyck, who +needed it, and whose principal claim consisted in her being a third +cousin of her former lover, I believe. My mother mourned the death of +her friend sincerely, as did we all; but we had the consolation of +believing her happy with the angels. + +I caused to be erected, in the extensive grounds that were laid out +around the new dwelling at the Nest, a suitable monument over the grave +of Chainbearer. It bore a simple inscription, and one that my children +now often read and comment on with pleasure. We all speak of him as +"Uncle Chainbearer" to this hour, and his grave is never mentioned on +other terms than those of "Uncle Chainbearer's grave." Excellent old +man! That he was not superior to the failings of human nature, need not +be said; but so long as he lived, he lived a proof of how much more +respectable and estimable is the man who takes simplicity, and honesty, +and principle, and truth for his guide, than he who endeavors to +struggle through the world by the aid of falsehood, chicanery, and +trick. + +THE END. + + + + +THE REDSKINS + +OR + +INDIAN AND INJIN + +BEING THE CONCLUSION OF + +_THE LITTLEPAGE MANUSCRIPTS_ + +BY J. FENIMORE COOPER + + "In every work regard the writer's end + None e'er can compass more than they intend" + --POPE + +[Illustration: "All of the girls but Mary Warren had entered the +house.... She remained at the side of my grandmother."] + + + +PREFACE. + + +This book closes the series of the Littlepage Manuscripts, which have +been given to the world, as containing a fair account of the comparative +sacrifices of time, money, and labor, made respectively by the landlord +and the tenants, on a New York estate; together with the manner in which +usages and opinions are changing among us; as well as certain of the +reasons of these changes. The discriminating reader will probably be +able to trace in these narratives the progress of those innovations on +the great laws of morals which are becoming so very manifest in +connection with this interest, setting at naught the plainest principles +that God has transmitted to man for the government of his conduct, and +all under the extraordinary pretence of favoring liberty! In this +downward course, our picture embraces some of the proofs of that +looseness of views on the subject of certain species of property which +is, in a degree perhaps, inseparable from the semi-barbarous condition +of a new settlement; the gradation of the squatter, from him who merely +makes his pitch to crop a few fields in passing, to him who carries on +the business by wholesale; and last, though not least in this catalogue +of marauders, the anti-renter. + +It would be idle to deny that the great principle which lies at the +bottom of anti-rentism, if principle it can be called, is the assumption +of a claim that the interests and wishes of numbers are to be respected, +though done at a sacrifice of the clearest rights of the few. That this +is not liberty, but tyranny in its worst form, every right-thinking and +right-feeling man must be fully aware. Every one who knows much of the +history of the past, and of the influence of classes, must understand, +that whenever the educated, the affluent, and the practised choose to +unite their means of combination and money to control the political +destiny of a country, they become irresistible; making the most +subservient tools of those very masses who vainly imagine _they_ are the +true guardians of their own liberties. The well-known election of 1840 +is a memorable instance of the power of such a combination; though that +was a combination formed mostly for the mere purposes of faction, +sustained perhaps by the desperate designs of the insolvents of the +country. Such a combination was necessarily wanting in union among the +affluent; it had not the high support of principles to give it sanctity, +and it affords little more than the proof of the power of money and +leisure, when applied in a very doubtful cause, in wielding the masses +of a great nation, to be the instruments of their own subjection. No +well-intentioned American legislator, consequently, ought ever to lose +sight of the fact, that each invasion of the right which he sanctions is +a blow struck against liberty itself, which, in a country like this, has +no auxiliary so certain or so powerful as justice. + +The State of New York contains about 43,000 square miles of land; or +something like 27,000,000 of acres. In 1783, its population must have +been about 200,000 souls. With such a proportion between people and +surface it is unnecessary to prove that the husbandman was not quite as +dependent on the landholder, as the landholder was dependent on the +husbandman. This would have been true, had the State been an island; but +we all know it was surrounded by many other communities similarly +situated, and that nothing else was so abundant as land. All notions of +exactions and monopolies, therefore, must be untrue, as applied to those +two interests at that day. + +In 1786-7, the State of New York, then in possession of all powers on +the subject, abolished entails, and otherwise brought its law of real +estate in harmony with the institutions. At that time, hundreds, perhaps +thousands, of the leases which have since become so obnoxious, were in +existence. With the attention of the State drawn directly to the main +subject, no one saw anything incompatible with the institutions in them. +_It was felt that the landlords had bought the tenants to occupy their +lands by the liberality of their concessions_, and that the latter were +the obliged parties. Had the landlords of that day endeavored to lease +for one year, or for ten years, no tenants could have been found for +wild lands; but it became a different thing, when the owner of the soil +agreed to part with it forever, in consideration of a very low rent, +granting six or eight years free from any charge whatever, and +consenting to receive the product of the soil itself in lieu of money. +Then, indeed, men were not only willing to come into the terms, but +eager; the best evidence of which is the fact, that the same tenants +might have bought land, out and out, in every direction around them, had +they not preferred the easier terms of the leases. Now that these same +men, or their successors, have become rich enough to care more to be rid +of the encumbrance of the rent than to keep their money, the rights of +the parties certainly are not altered. + +In 1789, the Constitution of the United States went into operation; New +York being a party to its creation and conditions. By that Constitution, +the State deliberately deprived itself of the power to touch the +covenants of these leases, without conceding the power to any other +government; unless it might be through a change of the Constitution +itself. As a necessary consequence, these leases, in a legal sense, +belong to the institutions of New York, instead of being opposed to +them. Not only is the spirit of the institutions in harmony with these +leases, but so is the letter also. Men must draw a distinction between +the "spirit of the institutions" and their own "spirits;" the latter +being often nothing more than a stomach that is not easily satisfied. It +would be just as true to affirm that domestic slavery is opposed to the +institutions of the United States, as to say the same of these leases. +It would be just as rational to maintain, because A does not choose to +make an associate of B, that he is acting in opposition to the "spirit +of the institutions," inasmuch as the Declaration of Independence +advances the dogma that men are born equal, as it is to say it is +opposed to the same spirit, for B to pay rent to A according to his +covenant. + +It is pretended that the durable leases are feudal in their nature. We +do not conceive this to be true; but, admitting it to be so, it would +only prove that feudality, to this extent, is a part of the institutions +of the State. What is more, it would become a part over which the State +itself has conceded all power of control, beyond that which it may +remotely possess as one, out of twenty-eight communities. As respects +this feudal feature, it is not easy to say where it must be looked for. +It is not to be found in the simple fact of paying rent, for that is so +general as to render the whole country feudal, could it be true; it +cannot be in the circumstance that the rent is to be paid "in kind," as +it is called, and in labor, for that is an advantage to the tenant, by +affording him the option, since the penalty of a failure leaves the +alternative of paying in money. It must be, therefore, that these leases +are feudal because they run forever! Now the length of the lease is +clearly a concession to the tenant, and was so regarded when received; +and there is not probably a single tenant, under lives, who would not +gladly exchange his term of possession for that of one of these +detestable durable leases! + +Among the absurdities that have been circulated on this subject of +feudality, it has been pretended that the well-known English statute of +_quia emptores_ has prohibited fines for alienation; or that the +quarter-sales, fifth-sales, sixth-sales, etc., of our own leases were +contrary to the law of the realm, when made. Under the common law, in +certain cases of feudal tenures, the fines for alienation were an +incident of the tenure. The statute of _quia emptores_ abolished that +general principle, but it in no manner forbade parties _to enter into +covenants of the nature of quarter-sales_, did they see fit. The common +law gives all the real estate to the eldest son. Our statute divides the +real estate among the nearest of kin, without regard even to sex. It +might just as well be pretended that the father cannot devise all his +lands to his eldest son, under our statute, as to say that the law of +Edward I. prevents parties from _bargaining_ for quarter-sales. Altering +a provision of the common law does not preclude parties from making +covenants similar to its ancient provisions. + +Feudal tenures were originally divided into two great classes; those +which were called the military tenures, or knight's service, and +_soccage_. The first tenure was that which became oppressive in the +progress of society. Soccage was of two kinds; free and villain. The +first has an affinity to our own system, as connected with these leases; +the last never existed among us at all. When the knight's service, or +military tenures of England, were converted into free soccage, in the +reign of Charles II., the concession was considered of a character so +favorable to liberty as to be classed among the great measures of the +time; one of which was the _habeas corpus_ act! + +The only feature of our own leases, in the least approaching "villain +soccage," is that of the "days' works." But every one acquainted with +the habits of American life, will understand that husbandmen, in +general, throughout the northern States, would regard it as an advantage +to be able to pay their debts in this way; and the law gives them an +option, since a failure to pay "in kind," or "in work," merely incurs +the forfeiture of paying what the particular thing is worth, in money. +In point of fact, money has always been received for these "days' +works," and at a stipulated price. + +But, it is pretended, whatever may be the equity of these leasehold +contracts, they are offensive to the tenants, and ought to be abrogated, +for the peace of the State. The State is bound to make all classes of +men respect its laws, and in nothing more so than in the fulfilment of +their legal contracts. The greater the number of the offenders, the +higher the obligation to act with decision and efficiency. To say that +these disorganizers _ought_ not to be put down, is to say that crime is +to obtain impunity by its own extent; and to say that they _cannot_ be +put down "under our form of government," is a direct admission that the +government is unequal to the discharge of one of the plainest and +commonest obligations of all civilized society. If this be really so, +the sooner we get rid of the present form of government the better. The +notion of remedying _such_ an evil by concession is as puerile as it is +dishonest. The larger the concessions become, the greater will be the +exactions of a cormorant cupidity. As soon as quiet is obtained by these +means, in reference to the leasehold tenures, it will be demanded by +some fresh combination to attain some other end. + +When Lee told Washington, at Monmouth, "Sir, your troops will not stand +against British grenadiers," Washington is said to have answered, "Sir, +you have never tried them." The same reply might be given to those +miserable traducers of this republic, who, in order to obtain votes, +affect to think there is not sufficient energy in its government to put +down so barefaced an attempt as this of the anti-renters to alter the +conditions of their own leases to suit their own convenience. The county +of Delaware has, of itself, nobly given the lie to the assertion, the +honest portion of its inhabitants scattering the knaves to the four +winds, the moment there was a fair occasion made for them to act. A +single, energetic proclamation from Albany, calling a "spade a spade," +and not affecting to gloss over the disguised robbery of these +anti-renters, and laying just principles fairly before the public mind, +would of itself have crushed the evil in its germ. The people of New +York, in their general capacity, are not the knaves their servants +evidently suppose. + +The Assembly of New York, in its memorable session of 1846, has taxed +the rents on long leases; thus, not only taxing the same property twice, +but imposing the worst sort of income-tax, or one aimed at a few +individuals. It has "thimble-rigged" in its legislation, as Mr. Hugh +Littlepage not unaptly terms it; endeavoring to do that indirectly, +which the Constitution will not permit it to do directly. In other +words, as it can pass no direct law "impairing the obligation of +contracts," while it _can_ regulate descents, it has enacted, so far as +one body of the legislature has power to enact anything, that on the +_death_ of a landlord the tenant may convert his lease into a mortgage, +on discharging which he shall hold his land in fee! + +We deem the first of these measures far more tyrannical than the attempt +of Great Britain to tax her colonies, which brought about the +Revolution. It is of the same general character, that of unjust +taxation: while it is attended by circumstances of aggravation that were +altogether wanting in the policy of the mother country. This is not a +tax for revenue, which is not needed; but a tax to "choke off" +landlords, to use a common American phrase. It is clearly taxing +_nothing_, or it is taxing the same property twice. It is done to +conciliate three or four thousand voters, who are now in the market, at +the expense of three or four hundred who, it is known, are not to be +bought. It is unjust in its motives, its means and its end. The measure +is discreditable to civilization, and an outrage on liberty. + +But, the other law mentioned is an atrocity so grave as to alarm every +man of common principle in the State, were it not so feeble in its +devices to cheat the Constitution as to excite contempt. This +extraordinary power is exercised because the legislature _can_ control +the law of descents, though it cannot "impair the obligation of +contracts!" Had the law said at once that on the death of a landlord +each of his tenants should _own_ his farm in fee, the _ensemble_ of the +fraud would have been preserved, since the "law of descents" would have +been so far regulated as to substitute one heir for another; but +changing the _nature_ of a contract, with a party who has nothing to do +with the succession at all, is not so very clearly altering, or +amending, the law of descents! It is scarcely necessary to say that +every reputable court in the country, whether state or federal, would +brand such a law with the disgrace it merits. + +But the worst feature of this law, or attempted law, remains to be +noticed. It would have been a premium on murder. Murder _has_ already +been committed by these anti-renters, and that obviously to effect their +ends; and they are to be told that whenever you shoot a landlord, as +some have already often shot _at_ them, you can convert your leasehold +tenures into tenures in fee! The mode of valuation is so obvious, too, +as to deserve a remark. A master was to settle the valuation on +testimony. The witnesses of course would be "the neighbors," and a whole +patent could swear for each other! + +As democrats we protest most solemnly against such barefaced frauds, +such palpable cupidity and covetousness, being termed anything but what +they are. If they come of any party at all, it is the party of the +devil. Democracy is a lofty and noble sentiment. It does not rob the +poor to make the rich richer, nor the rich to favor the poor. It is +just, and treats all men alike. It does not "impair the obligations of +contracts." It is not the friend of a canting legislation, but, meaning +right, dare act directly. There is no greater delusion than to suppose +that true democracy has anything in common with injustice or roguery. + +Nor is it an apology for anti-rentism, in any of its aspects, to say +that leasehold tenures are inexpedient. The most expedient thing in +existence is to do right. Were there no other objection to this +anti-rent movement than its corrupting influence, that alone should set +every wise man in the community firmly against it. We have seen too much +of this earth to be so easily convinced that there is any disadvantage, +nay, that there is not a positive advantage, in the existence of large +leasehold estates, when they carry with them no political power, as is +the fact here. The commonplace argument against them, that they defeat +the civilization of a country, is not sustained by fact. The most +civilized countries on earth are under this system; and this system, +too, not entirely free from grave objections which do not exist among +ourselves. That a poorer class of citizens have originally leased than +have purchased lands in New York is probably true; and it is equally +probable that the effects of this poverty, and even of the tenure in the +infancy of a country, are to be traced on the estates. But this is +taking a very one-sided view of the matter. The men who became tenants +in moderate but comfortable circumstances, would have been mostly +laborers on the farms of others, but for these leasehold tenures. That +is the benefit of the system in a new country, and the ultra friend of +humanity, who decries the condition of a tenant, should remember that if +he had not been in this very condition, he might have been in a worse. +It is, indeed, one of the proofs of the insincerity of those who are +decrying leases, on account of their aristocratic tendencies, that their +destruction will necessarily condemn a numerous class of agriculturists, +either to fall back into the ranks of the peasant or day-laborer, or to +migrate, as is the case with so many of the same class in New England. +In point of fact, the relation of landlord and tenant is one entirely +natural and salutary, in a wealthy community, and one that is so much in +accordance with the necessities of men, that no legislation can long +prevent it. A state of things which will not encourage the rich to hold +real estate would not be desirable, since it would be diverting their +money, knowledge, liberality, feelings and leisure, from the improvement +of the soil, to objects neither so useful nor so praiseworthy. + +The notion that every husbandman is to be a freeholder, is as Utopian in +practice, as it would be to expect that all men were to be on the same +level in fortune, condition, education, and habits. As such a state of +things as the last never yet did exist, it was probably never designed +by divine wisdom that it should exist. The whole structure of society +must be changed, even in this country, ere it could exist among +ourselves, and the change would not have been made a month before the +utter impracticability of such a social fusion would make itself felt by +all. + +We have elsewhere imputed much of the anti-rent feeling to provincial +education and habits. This term has given the deepest offence to those +who were most obnoxious to the charge. Nevertheless, our opinion is +unchanged. We know that the distance between the cataract at Niagara and +the Massachusetts line is a large hundred leagues, and that it is as +great between Sandy Hook and the 45th parallel of latitude. Many +excellent things, moral and physical, are to be found within these +limits, beyond a question; but we happen to know by an experience that +has extended to other quarters of the world, for a term now exceeding +forty years, that more are to found beyond them. If "honorable +gentlemen" at Albany fancy the reverse, they must still permit us to +believe they are too much under the influence of provincial notions. + + + + +THE REDSKINS. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + "Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and + She said--thou wert my daughter; and thy father + Was duke of Milan; and his only heir + A princess;--no worse issued."--_Tempest._ + + +My uncle Ro and myself had been travelling together in the East, and had +been absent from home fully five years when we reached Paris. For +eighteen months neither of us had seen a line from America, when we +drove through the barriers, on our way from Egypt, _via_ Algiers, +Marseilles, and Lyons. Not once, in all that time, had we crossed our +own track, in a way to enable us to pick up a straggling letter; and all +our previous precautions to have the epistles meet us at different +bankers in Italy, Turkey, and Malta were thrown away. + +My uncle was an old traveller--I might almost say, an old resident--in +Europe; for he had passed no less than twenty years of his fifty-nine +off the American continent. A bachelor, with nothing to do but to take +care of a very ample estate, which was rapidly increasing in value by +the enormous growth of the town of New York, and with tastes early +formed by travelling, it was natural he should seek those regions where +he most enjoyed himself. Hugh Roger Littlepage was born in 1786--the +second son of my grandfather, Mordaunt Littlepage, and of Ursula +Malbone, his wife. My own father, Malbone Littlepage, was the eldest +child of that connection; and he would have inherited the property of +Ravensnest, in virtue of his birthright, had he survived his own +parents; but, dying young, I stepped into what would otherwise have been +his succession, in my eighteenth year. My uncle Ro, however, had got +both Satanstoe and Lilacsbush; two country-houses and farms, which, +while they did not aspire to the dignity of being estates, were likely +to prove more valuable, in the long run, than the broad acres which were +intended for the patrimony of the elder brother. My grandfather was +affluent; for not only had the fortune of the Littlepages centred in +him, but so did that of the Mordaunts, the wealthier family of the two, +together with some exceedingly liberal bequests from a certain Colonel +Dirck Follock, or Van Valkenburgh; who, though only a very distant +connection, chose to make my great-grandmother's, or Anneke Mordaunt's +descendants his heirs. We all had enough; my aunts having handsome +legacies, in the way of bonds and mortgages on an estate called +Mooseridge, in addition to some lots in town; while my own sister, +Martha, had a clear fifty thousand dollars in money. I had town lots, +also, which were becoming productive; and a special minority of seven +years had made an accumulation of cash that was well vested in New York +State stock, and which promised well for the future. I say a "special" +minority; for both my father and grandfather, in placing, the one, +myself and a portion of the property, and the other, the remainder of my +estate, under the guardianship and ward of my uncle, had made a +provision that I was not to come into possession until I had completed +my twenty-fifth year. + +I left college at twenty; and my uncle Ro, for so Martha and myself +always called him, and so he was always called by some twenty cousins, +the offspring of our three aunts;--but my uncle Ro, when I was done with +college, proposed to finish my education by travelling. As this was only +too agreeable to a young man, away we went, just after the pressure of +the great panic of 1836-7 was over, and our "lots" were in tolerable +security, and our stocks safe. In America it requires almost as much +vigilance to _take care_ of property, as it does industry to acquire it. + +Mr. Hugh Roger Littlepage--by the way, I bore the same name, though I +was always called Hugh, while my uncle went by the different +appellations of Roger, Ro, and Hodge, among his familiars, as +circumstances had rendered the associations sentimental, affectionate, +or manly--Mr. Hugh Roger Littlepage, senior, then, had a system of his +own in the way of aiding the scales to fall from American eyes, by means +of seeing more clearly than one does, or can, at home, let him belong +where he may, and in clearing the specks of provincialism from off the +diamond of republican water. He had already seen enough to ascertain +that while "our country," as this blessed nation is very apt on all +occasions, appropriate or not, to be called by all who belong to it, as +well as by a good many who do not, could teach a great deal to the old +world, there was a possibility--just a _possibility_, remark, is my +word--that it might also learn a little. With a view, therefore, of +acquiring knowledge _seriatim_, as it might be, he was for beginning +with the hornbook, and going on regularly up to the _belles-lettres_ and +mathematics. The manner in which this was effected deserves a notice. + +Most American travellers land in England, the country farthest advanced +in material civilization; then proceed to Italy, and perhaps to Greece, +leaving Germany, and the less attractive regions of the north, to come +in at the end of the chapter. My uncle's theory was, to follow the order +of time, and to begin with the ancients and end with the moderns; +though, in adopting such a rule, he admitted he somewhat lessened the +pleasure of the novice; since an American, fresh from the fresher fields +of the western continent, might very well find delight in memorials of +the past, more especially in England, which pall on his taste, and +appear insignificant, after he has become familiar with the Temple of +Neptune, the Parthenon, or what is left of it, and the Coliseum. I make +no doubt that I lost a great deal of passing happiness in this way, by +beginning at the beginning, in Italy, and travelling north. + +Such was our course, however; and, landing at Leghorn, we did the +peninsula effectually in a twelvemonth; thence passed through Spain up +to Paris, and proceeded on to Moscow and the Baltic, reaching England +from Hamburg. When we had got through with the British isles, the +antiquities of which seemed flat and uninteresting to me, after having +seen those that were so much more _antique_, we returned to Paris, in +order that I might become a man of the world, if possible, by rubbing +off the provincial specks that had unavoidably adhered to the American +diamond while in its obscurity. + +My uncle Ro was fond of Paris, and he had actually become the owner of a +small hotel in the faubourg, in which he retained a handsome furnished +apartment for his own use. The remainder of the house was let to +permanent tenants; but the whole of the first floor, and of the +_entresol_, remained in his hands. As a special favor, he would allow +some American family to occupy even his own apartment--or rather +_appartement_, for the words are not exactly synonymous--when he +intended to be absent for a term exceeding six months, using the money +thus obtained in keeping the furniture in repair, and his handsome suite +of rooms, including a _salon_, _salle a manger_, _antichambre cabinet_, +several _chambres a coucher_, and a _boudoir_--yes, a male _boudoir_! +for so he affected to call it--in a condition to please even his +fastidiousness. + +On our arrival from England, we remained an entire season at Paris, all +that time rubbing the specks off the diamond, when my uncle suddenly +took it into his head that we ought to see the East. He had never been +further than Greece, himself; and he now took a fancy to be my companion +in such an excursion. We were gone two years and a half, visiting +Greece, Constantinople, Asia Minor, the Holy Land, Petra, the Red Sea, +Egypt quite to the second cataracts, and nearly the whole of Barbary. +The latter region we threw in, by way of seeing something out of the +common track. But so many hats and travelling-caps are to be met with, +nowadays, among the turbans, that a well-mannered Christian may get +along almost anywhere without being spit upon. This is a great +inducement for travelling generally, and ought to be so especially to an +American, who, on the whole, incurs rather more risk now of suffering +this humiliation at home, than he would even in Algiers. But the animus +is everything in morals. + +We had, then, been absent two years and a half from Paris and had not +seen a paper or received a letter from America in eighteen months, when +we drove through the barrier. Even the letters and papers received or +seen previously to this last term, were of a private nature, and +contained nothing of a general character. The "twenty millions"--it was +only the other day they were called the "twelve millions"--but, the +"twenty millions," we knew, had been looking up amazingly after the +temporary depression of the moneyed crisis it had gone through; and the +bankers had paid our drafts with confidence, and without extra charges, +during the whole time we had been absent. It is true, uncle Ro, as an +experienced traveller, went well fortified in the way of credit--a +precaution by no means unnecessary with America, after the cry that had +been raised against us in the old world. + +And here I wish to say one thing plainly, before I write another line. +As for falling into the narrow, self-adulatory, provincial feeling of +the American who has never left his mother's apron-string, and which +causes him to swallow, open-mouthed, all the nonsense that is uttered to +the world in the columns of newspapers, or in the pages of your yearling +travellers, who go on "excursions" before they are half instructed in +the social usages and the distinctive features of their own country, I +hope I shall be just as far removed from such a weakness, in any passing +remark that may flow from my pen, as from the crime of confounding +principles, and denying facts, in a way to do discredit to the land of +my birth and that of my ancestors. I have lived long enough in the +"world," not meaning thereby the southeast corner of the northwest +township of Connecticut, to understand that we are a vast way behind +older nations, in _thought_ as well as deed, in many things; while, on +the opposite hand, they are a vast way behind us in others. I see no +patriotism in concealing a wholesome truth; and least of all shall I be +influenced by the puerility of a desire to hide anything of this nature, +because I cannot communicate it to my countrymen, without communicating +it to the rest of the world. If England or France had acted on this +narrow principle, where would have been their Shakespeares, their +Sheridans, their Beaumonts and Fletchers, and their Molieres! No, no! +great national truths are not to be treated as the gossiping surmises of +village crones. He who reads what I _write_, therefore, must expect to +find what I _think_ of matters and things, and not exactly what he may +happen to think on the same subject. Any one is at liberty to compare +opinions with me; but I ask the privilege of possessing some small +liberty of conscience in what is, far and near, proclaimed to be the +_only_ free country on the earth. By "far and near," I mean from the St. +Croix to the Rio Grande, and from Cape Cod to the entrance of St. Juan +de Fuca, and a pretty farm it makes, the "interval" that lies between +these limits! One may call it "far and near" without the imputation of +obscurity, or that of vanity. + +Our tour was completed, in spite of all annoyances; and here we were +again, within the walls of magnificent Paris! The postilions had been +told to drive to the hotel, in the Rue St. Dominique; and we sat down to +dinner, an hour after our arrival, under our own roof. My uncle's tenant +had left the apartment a month before, according to agreement; and the +porter and his wife had engaged a cook, set the rooms in order, and +prepared everything for our arrival. + +"It must be owned, Hugh," said my uncle, as he finished his soup that +day, "one _may_ live quite comfortably in Paris, if he possess the +_savoir vivre_. Nevertheless, I have a strong desire to get a taste of +native air. One may say and think what he pleases about the Paris +pleasures, and the Paris _cuisine_, and all that sort of thing: but +'home is home, be it ever so homely.' A '_d'Inde aux truffes_' is +capital eating; so is a turkey with cranberry sauce. I sometimes think I +could fancy even a pumpkin pie, though there is not a fragment of the +rock of Plymouth in the granite of my frame." + +"I have always told you, sir, that America is a capital eating and +drinking country, let it want civilization in other matters, as much as +it may." + +"Capital for eating and drinking, Hugh, if you can keep clear of the +grease, in the first place, and find a real cook, in the second. There +is as much difference between the cookery of New England, for instance, +and that of the Middle States, barring the Dutch, as there is between +that of England and Germany. The cookery of the Middle States, and of +the Southern States, too, though that savors a little of the West +Indies--but the cookery of the Middle States is English, in its best +sense; meaning the hearty, substantial, savory dishes of the English in +their true domestic life, with their roast-beef underdone, their +beefsteaks done to a turn, their chops full of gravy, their +mutton-broth, legs-of-mutton, _et id omne genus_. We have some capital +things of our own, too; such as canvas-backs, reedbirds, sheepshead, +shad, and blackfish. The difference between New England and the Middle +States is still quite observable, though in my younger days it was +_patent_. I suppose the cause has been the more provincial origin, and +the more provincial habits of our neighbors. By George! Hugh, one could +fancy clam-soup just now, eh!" + +"Clam-soup, sir, well made, is one of the most delicious soups in the +world. If the cooks of Paris could get hold of the dish, it would set +them up for a whole season." + +"What is '_creme de Baviere_,' and all such nicknacks, boy, to a good +plateful of clam-soup? Well made, as you say,--made as a cook of +Jennings's used to make it, thirty years since. Did I ever mention that +fellow's soup to you before, Hugh?" + +"Often, sir. I have tasted very excellent clam-soup, however, that he +never saw. Of course, you mean soup just flavored by the little +hard-clam--none of your vulgar _potage a la_ soft-clam?" + +"Soft-clams be hanged! they are not made for gentlemen to eat. Of course +I mean the hard-clam, and the small clam, + + "Here's your fine clams, + As white as snow; + On Rockaway + These clams do grow." + +The cries of New York are quite going out, like everything else at home +that is twenty years old. Shall I send you some of this eternal _poulet +a la Marengo_? I wish it were honest American boiled fowl, with a +delicate bit of shoat-pork alongside of it. I feel amazingly _homeish_ +this evening, Hugh!" + +"It is quite natural, my dear uncle Ro; and I own to the 'soft +impeachment' myself. Here have we both been absent from our native land +five years, and half that time almost without hearing from it. We know +that Jacob"--this was a free negro who served my uncle, a relic of the +old domestic system of the colonies, whose name would have been Jaaf, or +Yop, thirty years before--"has gone to our banker's for letters and +papers; and that naturally draws our thoughts to the other side of the +Atlantic. I dare say we shall both feel relieved at breakfast to-morrow, +when we shall have read our respective dispatches." + +"Come, let us take a glass of wine together, in the good old York +fashion, Hugh. Your father and I, when boys, never thought of wetting +our lips with the half-glass of Madeira that fell to our share, without +saying, 'Good health, Mall!' 'Good health, Hodge!'" + +"With all my heart, uncle Ro. The custom was getting to be a little +obsolete even before I left home; but it is almost an American custom, +by sticking to us longer than to most people." + +"Henri!" + +This was my uncle's _maitre d' hotel_, whom he had kept at board-wages +the whole time of our absence, in order to make sure of his ease, quiet, +taste, skill, and honesty, on his return. + +"Monsieur!" + +"I dare say"--my uncle spoke French exceedingly well for a foreigner; +but it is better to translate what he said as we go--"I dare say this +glass of _vin de Bourgogne_ is very good; it _looks_ good, and it came +from a wine-merchant on whom I can rely; but Monsieur Hugh and I are +going to drink together, _a l'Americaine_, and I dare say you will let +us have a glass of Madeira, though it is somewhat late in the dinner to +take it." + +"Tres volontiers, Messieurs--it is my happiness to oblige you." + +Uncle Ro and I took the Madeira together; but I cannot say much in favor +of its quality. + +"What a capital thing is a good Newtown pippin!" exclaimed my uncle, +after eating a while in silence. "They talk a great deal about their +_poire beurree_, here at Paris; but, to my fancy, it will not compare +with the Newtowners we grow at Satanstoe, where, by the way, the fruit +is rather better, I think, than that one finds across the river, at +Newtown itself." + +"They are capital apples, sir; and your orchard at Satanstoe is one of +the best I know, or rather what is left of it; for I believe a portion +of your trees are in what is now a suburb of Dibbletonborough?" + +"Yes, blast that place! I wish I had never parted with a foot of the old +neck, though I did rather make money by the sale. But money is no +compensation for the affections." + +"_Rather_ make money, my dear sir! Pray, may I ask what Satanstoe was +valued at, when you got it from my grandfather?" + +"Pretty well up, Hugh; for it was, and indeed _is_, a first-rate farm. +Including sedges and salt-meadows, you will remember that there are +quite five hundred acres of it, altogether." + +"Which you inherited in 1829?" + +"Of course; that was the year of my father's death. Why, the place was +thought to be worth about thirty thousand dollars at that time; but land +was rather low in Westchester in 1829." + +"And you sold two hundred acres, including the point, the harbor, and a +good deal of the sedges, for the moderate modicum of one hundred and ten +thousand, cash. A tolerable sale, sir!" + +"No, not cash. I got only eighty thousand down, while thirty thousand +were secured by mortgage." + +"Which mortgage you hold yet, I dare say, if the truth were told, +covering the whole city of Dibbletonborough. A city ought to be good +security for thirty thousand dollars?" + +"It is not, nevertheless, in this case. The speculators who bought of me +in 1835 laid out their town, built a hotel, a wharf, and a warehouse, +and then had an auction. They sold four hundred lots, each twenty-five +feet by a hundred, regulation size, you see, at an average of two +hundred and fifty dollars, receiving one-half, or fifty thousand dollars +down, and leaving the balance on mortgage. Soon after this, the bubble +burst, and the best lot at Dibbletonborough would not bring, under the +hammer, twenty dollars. The hotel and the warehouse stand alone in their +glory, and will thus stand until they fall, which will not be a thousand +years hence, I rather think." + +"And what is the condition of the town-plot?" + +"Bad enough. The landmarks are disappearing, and it would cost any man +who should attempt it, the value of his lot, to hire a surveyor to find +his twenty-five by a hundred." + +"But your mortgage is good?" + +"Ay, good in one sense; but it would puzzle a Philadelphia lawyer to +foreclose it. Why, the equitable interests in that town-plot people the +place of themselves. I ordered my agent to commence buying up the +rights, as the shortest process of getting rid of them; and he told me +in the very last letter I received, that he had succeeded in purchasing +the titles to three hundred and seventeen of the lots, at an average +price of ten dollars. The remainder, I suppose, will have to be +absorbed." + +"Absorbed! That is a process I never heard of, as applied to land." + +"There is a good deal of it done, notwithstanding, in America. It is +merely including within your own possession, adjacent land for which no +claimant appears. What can I do? No owners are to be found; and then my +mortgage is always a title. A possession of twenty years under a +mortgage is as good as a deed in fee-simple, with full covenants of +warranty, barring minors and _femes covert_." + +"You did better by Lilacsbush?" + +"Ah, _that_ was a clean transaction, and has left no drawbacks. +Lilacsbush being on the island of Manhattan, one is sure there will be a +town there, some day or other. It is true, the property lies quite eight +miles from City Hall; nevertheless, it has a value, and can always be +sold at something near it. Then the plan of New York is made and +recorded, and one can find his lots. Nor can any man say when the town +will not reach Kingsbridge." + +"You got a round price for the bush, too, I have heard, sir?" + +"I got three hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, in hard cash. I +would give no credit, and have every dollar of the money, at this +moment, in good six per cent. stock of the States of New York and Ohio." + +"Which some persons in this part of the world would fancy to be no very +secure investment." + +"More fools they. America is a glorious country, after all, Hugh; and it +is a pride and a satisfaction to belong to it. Look back at it, as I can +remember it, a nation spit upon by all the rest of Christendom----" + +"You must at least own, my dear sir," I put in, somewhat pertly, +perhaps, "the example might tempt other people; for, if ever there was a +nation that is assiduously spitting on itself, it is our own beloved +land." + +"True, it has that nasty custom in excess, and it grows worse instead of +better, as the influence of the better mannered and better educated +diminishes; but this is a spot on the sun--a mere flaw in the diamond, +that friction will take out. But what a country--what a glorious +country, in truth, it is! You have now done the civilized parts of the +old world pretty thoroughly, my dear boy, and must be persuaded, +yourself, of the superiority of your native land." + +"I remember you have always used this language, uncle Ro; yet have you +passed nearly one-half of your time _out_ of that glorious country, +since you have reached man's estate." + +"The mere consequence of accidents and tastes. I do not mean that +America is a country for a bachelor to begin with; the means of +amusement for those who have no domestic hearths, are too limited for +the bachelor. Nor do I mean that society in America, in its ordinary +meaning, is in any way as well-ordered, as tasteful, as well-mannered, +as agreeable, or as instructive and useful, as society in almost any +European country I know. I have never supposed that the man of leisure, +apart from the affections, could ever enjoy himself half as much at +home, as he may enjoy himself in this part of the world; and I am +willing to admit that, intellectually, most gentlemen in a great +European capital live as much in one day, as they would live in a week +in such places as New York, and Philadelphia, and Baltimore." + +"You do not include Boston, I perceive, sir." + +"Of Boston I say nothing. They take the mind hard there, and we had +better let such a state of things alone. But as respects a man or woman +of leisure, a man or woman of taste, or man or woman of refinement +generally, I am willing enough to admit that, _caeteris paribus_, each +can find far more enjoyment in Europe than in America. But the +philosopher, the philanthropist, the political economist--in a word, the +patriot, may well exult in such elements of profound national +superiority as may be found in America." + +"I hope these elements are not so profound but they can be dug up at +need, uncle Ro?" + +"There will be little difficulty in doing that, my boy. Look at the +equality of the laws, to begin with. They are made on the principles of +natural justice, and are intended for the benefit of society--for the +poor as well as the rich." + +"Are they also intended for the rich as well as the poor?" + +"Well, I will grant you, a slight blemish is beginning to appear, in +that particular. It is a failing incidental to humanity, and we must not +expect perfection. There is certainly a slight disposition to legislate +for numbers, in order to obtain support at the polls, which has made the +relation of debtor and creditor a little insecure, possibly; but +prudence can easily get along with that. It is erring on the right side, +is it not, to favor the poor instead of the rich, if either is to be +preferred?" + +"Justice would favor neither, but treat all alike. I have always heard +that the tyranny of numbers was the worst tyranny in the world." + +"Perhaps it is, where there is actually tyranny, and for a very obvious +reason. One tyrant is sooner satisfied than a million, and has even a +greater sense of responsibility. I can easily conceive that the Czar +himself, if disposed to be a tyrant, which I am far from thinking to be +the case with Nicholas, might hesitate about doing that, under his +undivided responsibility, which one of our majorities would do, without +even being conscious of the oppression it exercised, or caring at all +about it. But, on the whole, we do little of the last, and not in the +least enough to counterbalance the immense advantages of the system." + +"I have heard very discreet men say that the worst symptom of our system +is the gradual decay of justice among us. The judges have lost most of +their influence, and the jurors are getting to be law-makers, as well as +law-breakers." + +"There is a good deal of truth in that, I will acknowledge, also; and +you hear it asked constantly, in a case of any interest, not which party +is in the right, but _who_ is on the jury. But I contend for no +perfection; all I say is, that the country is a glorious country, and +that you and I have every reason to be proud that old Hugh Roger, our +predecessor and namesake, saw fit to transplant himself into it, a +century and a half since." + +"I dare say now, uncle Ro, it would strike most Europeans as +singular that a man should be proud of having been born an +American--Manhattanese, as you and I both were." + +"All that may be true, for there have been calculated attempts to bring +us into discredit of late, by harping on the failure of certain States +to pay the interest on their debts. But all that is easily answered, and +more so by you and me as New Yorkers. There is not a nation in Europe +that would pay its interest, if those who are taxed to do so had the +control of these taxes, and the power to say whether they were to be +levied or not." + +"I do not see how that mends the matter. These countries tell us that +such is the effect of your _system_ there, while we are too honest to +allow such a system to _exist_ in this part of the world." + +"Pooh! all gammon, that. They prevent the existence of our system for +very different reasons, and they coerce the payment of the interest on +their debts that they may borrow more. This business of repudiation, as +it is called, however, has been miserably misrepresented; and there is +no answering a falsehood by an argument. No American State has +repudiated its debt, that I know of, though several have been unable to +meet their engagements as they have fallen due." + +"_Unable_, uncle Ro?" + +"Yes, _unable_--that is the precise word. Take Pennsylvania, for +instance; that is one of the richest communities in the civilized world; +its coal and iron alone would make any country affluent, and a portion +of its agricultural population is one of the most affluent I know of. +Nevertheless, Pennsylvania, owing to a concurrence of events, _could_ +not pay the interest on her debt for two years and a half, though she is +doing it now, and will doubtless continue to do it. The sudden breaking +down of that colossal moneyed institution, the _soi-disant_ Bank of the +United States, after it ceased to be in reality a bank of the +government, brought about such a state of the circulation as rendered +payment, by any of the ordinary means known to government, _impossible_. +I know what I say, and repeat _impossible_. It is well known that many +persons, accustomed to affluence, had to carry their plate to the mint, +in order to obtain money to go to market. Then something may be +attributed to the institutions, without disparaging a people's honesty. +Our institutions are popular, just as those of France are the reverse; +and the people, they who were on the spot--the home creditor, with his +account unpaid, and with his friends and relatives in the legislature, +and present to aid him, contended for his own money, before any should +be sent abroad." + +"Was that exactly right, sir?" + +"Certainly not; it was exactly wrong, but very particularly natural. Do +you suppose the king of France would not take the money for his civil +list, if circumstances should compel the country to suspend on the debt +for a year or two, or the ministers their salaries? My word for it, each +and all of them would prefer themselves as creditors, and act +accordingly. Every one of these countries has suspended in some form or +other, and in many instances balanced the account with the sponge. Their +clamor against us is altogether calculated with a view to political +effect." + +"Still, I wish Pennsylvania, for instance, had continued to pay, at +every hazard." + +"It is well enough to wish, Hugh: but it is wishing for an +impossibility. Then you and I, as New Yorkers, have nothing to do with +the debt of Pennsylvania, no more than London would have to do with the +debt of Dublin or Quebec. _We_ have always paid _our_ interest, and, +what is more, paid it more honestly, if honesty be the point, than even +England has paid hers. When _our_ banks suspended, the State paid its +interest in as much paper as would buy the specie in open market; +whereas England made paper legal tender, and paid the interest on her +debt in it for something like five-and-twenty years, and that, too, when +her paper was at a large discount. I knew of one American who held near +a million of dollars in the English debt, on which he had to take +unconvertible paper for the interest for a long series of years. No, no! +this is all gammon, Hugh, and is not to be regarded as making us a whit +worse than our neighbors. The equality of our laws is the fact in which +I glory!" + +"If the rich stood as fair a chance as the poor, Uncle Ro." + +"There _is_ a screw loose there, I must confess; but it amounts to no +great matter." + +"Then the late bankrupt law?" + +"Ay, that was an infernal procedure--that much I will acknowledge, too. +It was special legislation enacted to pay particular debts, and the law +was repealed as soon as it had done its duty. That is a much darker spot +in our history than what is called repudiation, though perfectly honest +men voted for it." + +"Did you ever hear of a farce they got up about it at New York, just +after we sailed?" + +"Never; what was it, Hugh? though American plays are pretty much all +farces." + +"This was a little better than common, and, on the whole, really clever. +It is the old story of Faust, in which a young spendthrift sells +himself, soul and body, to the devil. On a certain evening, as he is +making merry with a set of wild companions, his creditor arrives, and, +insisting on seeing the master, is admitted by the servant. He comes on, +club-footed and behorned, as usual, and betailed, too, I believe; but +Tom is not to be scared by trifles. He insists on his guest being +seated, on his taking a glass of wine, and then on Dick's finishing his +song. But, though the rest of the company had signed no bonds to Satan, +they had certain outstanding book-debts, which made them excessively +uncomfortable; and the odor of brimstone being rather strong, Tom arose, +approached his guest, and desired to know the nature of the particular +business he had mentioned to his servant. 'This bond, sir,' said Satan, +significantly. 'This bond? what of it, pray? It seems all right.' 'Is +not that your signature?' 'I admit it.' 'Signed in your blood?' 'A +conceit of your own; I told you at the time that ink was just as good in +law.' 'It is past due, seven minutes and fourteen seconds.' 'So it is, I +declare! but what of that?' 'I demand payment.' 'Nonsense! no one thinks +of paying nowadays. Why, even Pennsylvania and Maryland don't pay.' 'I +insist on payment' 'Oh! you do, do you?' Tom draws a paper from his +pocket, and adds, magnificently, 'There, then, if you're so +urgent--there is a discharge under the new bankrupt law, signed Smith +Thompson.' This knocked the devil into a cocked-hat at once." + +My uncle laughed heartily at my story; but, instead of taking the matter +as I had fancied he might, it made him think better of the country than +ever. + +"Well, Hugh, we have wit among us, it must be confessed," he cried, with +the tears running down his cheeks, "if we have some rascally laws, and +some rascals to administer them. But here comes Jacob with his letters +and papers--I declare, the fellow has a large basketful." + +Jacob, a highly respectable black, and the great-grandson of an old +negro named Jaaf, or Yop, who was then living on my own estate at +Ravensnest, had just then entered, with the porter and himself lugging +in the basket in question. There were several hundred newspapers, and +quite a hundred letters. The sight brought home and America clearly and +vividly before us; and having nearly finished the dessert, we rose to +look at the packages. It was no small task to sort our mail, there being +so many letters and packages to be divided. + +"Here are some newspapers I never saw before," said my uncle, as he +tumbled over the pile; "_The Guardian of the Soil_--that must have +something to do with Oregon." + +"I dare say it has, sir. Here are at least a dozen letters from my +sister." + +"Ay, _your_ sister is single, and can still think of her brother; but +mine are married, and one letter a year would be a great deal. This is +my dear old mother's hand, however; that is something. Ursula Malbone +would never forget her child. Well, _bon soir_, Hugh. Each of us has +enough to do for one evening." + +"_Au revoir_, sir. We shall meet at ten to-morrow, when we can compare +our news, and exchange gossip." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + "Why droops my lord, like over-ripened corn, + Hanging the head at Ceres' plenteous load?" + --_King Henry VI._ + + +I did not get into my bed that night until two, nor was I out of it +until half-past nine. It was near eleven when Jacob came to tell me his +master was in the _salle a manger_, and ready to eat his breakfast. I +hastened up stairs, sleeping in the _entresol_, and was at table with my +uncle in three minutes. I observed, on entering, that he was very grave, +and I now perceived that a couple of letters, and several American +newspapers, lay near him. His "Good-morrow, Hugh," was kind and +affectionate as usual, but I fancied it sad. + +"No bad news from home, I hope, sir?" I exclaimed, under the first +impulse of feeling. "Martha's last letter is of quite recent date, and +she writes very cheerfully. I _know_ that my grandmother was perfectly +well six weeks since." + +"I know the same, Hugh, for I have a letter from herself, written with +her own blessed hand. My mother is in excellent health for a woman of +fourscore; but she naturally wishes to see us, and you in particular. +Grandchildren are ever the pets with grandmothers." + +"I am glad to hear all this, sir; for I was really afraid, on entering +the room, that you had received some unpleasant news." + +"And is all your news pleasant, after so long a silence?" + +"Nothing that is disagreeable, I do assure you. Patt writes in charming +spirits, and I dare say is in blooming beauty by this time, though she +tells me that she is generally thought rather plain. _That_ is +impossible; for you know when we left her, at fifteen, she had every +promise of great beauty." + +"As you say, it is impossible that Martha Littlepage should be anything +but handsome; for fifteen is an age when, in America, one may safely +predict the woman's appearance. Your sister is preparing for you an +agreeable surprise. I have heard old persons say that she was very like +my mother at the same time of life; and Dus Malbone was a sort of toast +once in the forest." + +"I dare say it is all as you think; more especially as there are several +allusions to a certain Harry Beekman in her letters, at which I should +feel flattered, were I in Mr. Harry's place. Do you happen to know +anything of such a family as the Beekmans, sir?" + +My uncle looked up in a little surprise at this question. A thorough New +Yorker by birth, associations, alliances and feelings, he held all the +old names of the colony and State in profound respect; and I had often +heard him sneer at the manner in which the new-comers of my day, who had +appeared among us to blossom like the rose, scattered their odors +through the land. It was but a natural thing that a community which had +grown in population, in half a century, from half a million to two +millions and a half, and that as much by immigration from adjoining +communities as by natural increase, should undergo some change of +feeling in this respect; but, on the other hand, it was just as natural +that the true New Yorker should not. + +"Of course you know, Hugh, that it is an ancient and respected name +among us," answered my uncle, after he had given me the look of surprise +I have already mentioned. "There is a branch of the Beekmans, or +Bakemans, as we used to call them, settled near Satanstoe; and I dare +say that your sister, in her frequent visits to my mother, has met with +them. The association would be but natural; and the other feeling to +which you allude is, I dare say, but natural to the association, though +I cannot say I ever experienced it." + +"You will still adhere to your asseverations of never having been the +victim of Cupid, I find, sir." + +"Hugh, Hugh! let us trifle no more. There is news from home that has +almost broken my heart." + +I sat gazing at my uncle in wonder and alarm, while he placed both his +hands on his face, as if to exclude this wicked world, and all it +contained, from his sight. I did not speak, for I saw that the old +gentleman was really affected, but waited his pleasure to communicate +more. My impatience was soon relieved, however, as the hands were +removed, and I once more caught a view of my uncle's handsome, but +clouded countenance. + +"May I ask the nature of this news?" I then ventured to inquire. + +"You may, and I shall now tell you. It is proper, indeed, that you +should hear all, and understand it all; for you have a direct interest +in the matter, and a large portion of your property is dependent on the +result. Had not the manor troubles, as they were called, been spoken of +before we left home?" + +"Certainly, though not to any great extent. We saw something of it in +the papers, I remember, just before we went to Russia; and I recollect +you mentioned it as a discreditable affair to the State, though likely +to lead to no very important result." + +"So I then thought; but that hope has been delusive. There were some +reasons why a population like ours should chafe under the situation of +the estate of the late Patroon that I thought natural, though +unjustifiable; for it is unhappily too much a law of humanity to do that +which is wrong, more especially in matters connected with the pocket." + +"I do not exactly understand your allusions, sir." + +"It is easily explained. The Van Rensselaer property is, in the first +place, of great extent--the manor, as it is still called and once was, +spreading east and west eight-and-forty miles, and north and south +twenty-four. With a few immaterial exceptions, including the sites of +three or four towns, three of which are cities containing respectively +six, twenty, and forty thousand souls, this large surface was the +property of a single individual. Since his death, it has become the +property of two, subject to the conditions of the leases, of which by +far the greater portion are what are called durable." + +"I have heard all this, of course, sir, and know something of it myself. +But what is a durable lease? for I believe we have none of that nature +at Ravensnest." + +"No; your leases are all for three lives, and most of them renewals at +that. There are two sorts of 'durable leases,' as we term them, in use +among the landlords of New York. Both give the tenant a permanent +interest, being leases forever, reserving annual rent, with the right to +distrain and covenants of re-entry. But one class of these leases gives +the tenant a right at any time to demand a deed in fee-simple, on the +payment of a stipulated sum; while the other gives him no such +privilege. Thus one class of these leases is called 'a durable lease +with a clause of redemption,' while the other is a simple 'durable +lease.'" + +"And are there any new difficulties in relation to the manor rents?" + +"Far worse than that; the contagion has spread, until the greatest ills +that have been predicted from democratic institutions, by their worst +enemies, seriously menace the country. I am afraid, Hugh, I shall not be +able to call New York, any longer, an exception to the evil example of a +neighborhood, or the country itself a glorious country." + +"This is so serious, sir, that, were it not that your looks denote the +contrary, I might be disposed to doubt your words." + +"I fear my words are only too true. Dunning has written me a long +account of his own, made out with the precision of a lawyer; and, in +addition, he has sent me divers papers, some of which openly contend for +what is substantially a new division of property, and what in effect +would be agrarian laws." + +"Surely, my dear uncle, you cannot seriously apprehend anything of that +nature from our order-loving, law-loving, property-loving Americans?" + +"Your last description may contain the secret of the whole movement. The +love of property may be so strong as to induce them to do a great many +things they ought not to do. I certainly do not apprehend that any +direct attempt is about to be made in New York, to divide its property; +nor do I fear any open, declared agrarian statute; for what I apprehend +is to come through indirect and gradual innovations on the right, that +will be made to assume the delusive aspect of justice and equal rights, +and thus undermine the principles of the people, before they are aware +of the dangers themselves. In order that you may not only understand me, +but may understand facts that are of the last importance to your own +pockets, I will first tell you what has been done, and then tell you +what I fear is to follow. The first difficulty--or, rather, the first +difficulty of recent occurrence--arose at the death of the late Patroon. +I say of recent occurrence, since Dunning writes me that, during the +administration of John Jay, an attempt to resist the payment of rent was +made on the manor of the Livingstons; but _he_ put it down _instanter_." + +"Yes, I should rather think that roguery would not be apt to prosper, +while the execution of the laws was intrusted to such a man. The age of +such politicians, however, seems to have ended among us." + +"It did not prosper. Governor Jay met the pretension as we all know such +a man would meet it; and the matter died away, and has been nearly +forgotten. It is worthy of remark, that _he_ PUT THE EVIL DOWN. But this +is not the age of John Jays. To proceed to my narrative: When the late +Patroon died, there was due to him a sum of something like two hundred +thousand dollars of back-rents, and of which he had made a special +disposition in his will, vesting the money in trustees for a certain +purpose. It was the attempt to collect this money which first gave rise +to dissatisfaction. Those who had been debtors so long were reluctant to +pay. In casting round for the means to escape from the payment of their +just debts, these men, feeling the power that numbers ever give over +right in America, combined to resist with others who again had in view a +project to get rid of the rents altogether. Out of this combination grew +what have been called the 'manor troubles.' Men appeared in a sort of +mock-Indian dress, calico shirts thrown over their other clothes, and +with a species of calico masks on their faces, who resisted the +bailiffs' processes, and completely prevented the collection of rents. +These men were armed, mostly with rifles; and it was finally found +necessary to call out a strong body of the militia, in order to protect +the civil officers in the execution of their duties." + +"All this occurred before we went to the East. I had supposed _those_ +anti-renters, as they were called, had been effectually put down." + +"In appearance they were. But the very governor who called the militia +into the field, referred the subject of the '_griefs_' of the tenants to +the legislature, as if they were actually aggrieved citizens, when in +truth it was the landlords, or the Rensselaers--for at that time the +'troubles' were confined to their property--who were the aggrieved +parties. This false step has done an incalculable amount of mischief, if +it do not prove the entering wedge to rive asunder the institutions of +the State." + +"It is extraordinary, when such things occur, that any man can mistake +his duty. Why were the tenants thus spoken of, while nothing was said +beyond what the law compelled in favor of the landlords?" + +"I can see no reason but the fact that the Rensselaers were only two, +and that the disaffected tenants were probably two thousand. With all +the cry of aristocracy, and feudality, and nobility, neither of the +Rensselaers, by the letter of the law, has one particle more of +political power, or political right, than his own coachman or footman, +if the last be a white man; while, in practice, he is in many things +getting to be less protected." + +"Then you think, sir, that this matter has gained force from the +circumstance that so many votes depend on it?" + +"Out of all question. Its success depends on the violations of +principles that we have been so long taught to hold sacred, that nothing +short of the overruling and corrupting influence of politics would dare +to assail them. If there were a landlord to each farm, as well as a +tenant, universal indifference would prevail as to the griefs of the +tenants; and if two to one tenant, universal indignation at their +impudence." + +"Of what particular griefs do the tenants complain?" + +"You mean the Rensselaer tenants, I suppose? Why, they _complain_ of +such covenants as they can, though their deepest affliction is to be +found in the fact that they do not own other men's lands. The Patroon +had quarter-sales on many of his farms--those that were let in the last +century." + +"Well, what of that? A bargain to allow of quarter-sales is just as fair +as any other bargain." + +"It is fairer, in fact, than most bargains, when you come to analyze it, +since there is a very good reason why it should accompany a perpetual +lease. Is it to be supposed that a landlord has no interest in the +character and habits of his tenants? He has the closest interest in it +possible, and no prudent man should let his lands without holding some +sort of control over the assignment of leases. Now, there are but two +modes of doing this; either by holding over the tenant a power through +his interests, or a direct veto dependent solely on the landlord's +will." + +"The last would be apt to raise a pretty cry of tyranny and feudality in +America!" + +"Pretty cries on such subjects are very easily raised in America. More +people join in them than understand what they mean. Nevertheless, it is +quite as just, when two men bargain, that he who owns every right in the +land before the bargain is made, should retain this right over his +property, which he consents to part with only with limitations, as that +he should grant it to another. These men, in their clamor, forget that, +until their leases were obtained, they had no right in their lands at +all, and that what they have got is through those very leases of which +they complain; take away the leases, and they would have no rights +remaining. Now on what principle can honest men pretend that they have +rights beyond the leases? On the supposition, even, that the bargains +are hard, what have governors and legislators to do with thrusting +themselves in between parties so situated, as special umpires? I should +object to such umpires, moreover, on the general and controlling +principle that must govern all righteous arbitration--your governors and +legislators are not _impartial_; they are political or party men, one +may say, without exception; and such umpires, when votes are in the +question, are to be sorely distrusted. I would as soon trust my +interests to the decision of feed counsel, as trust them to such +judges." + +"I wonder the really impartial and upright portion of the community do +not rise in their might, and put this thing down--rip it up, root and +branch, and cast it away, at once." + +"That is the weak point of our system, which has a hundred strong +points, while it has this besetting vice. Our laws are not only made, +but they are administered, on the supposition that there are both +honesty and intelligence enough in the body of the community to see them +_well_ made, and _well_ administered. But the sad reality shows that +good men are commonly passive, until abuses become intolerable; it being +the designing rogue and manager who is usually the most active. Vigilant +philanthropists _do_ exist, I will allow; but it is in such small +numbers as to effect little on the whole, and nothing at all when +opposed by the zeal of a mercenary opposition. No, no--little is ever to +be expected, in a political sense, from the activity of virtue; while a +great deal may be looked for from the activity of vice." + +"You do not take a very favorable view of humanity, sir." + +"I speak of the world as I have found it in both hemispheres, or, as +your neighbor the magistrate 'Squire Newcome has it, the 'four +hemispheres.' Our representation is, at the best, but an average of the +qualities of the whole community, somewhat lessened by the fact that men +of real merit have taken a disgust at a state of things that is not very +tempting to their habits or tastes. As for a quarter-sale, I can see no +more hardship in it than there is in paying the rent itself; and, by +giving the landlord this check on the transfer of his lands, he compels +a compromise that maintains what is just. The tenant is not obliged to +sell, and he makes his conditions accordingly, when he has a good tenant +to offer in his stead. When he offers a bad tenant, he ought to pay for +it." + +"Many persons with us would think it very aristocratic," I cried, +laughingly, "that a landlord should have it in his power to say, I will +not accept this or that substitute for yourself." + +"It is just as aristocratic, and no more so, than it would be to put it +in the power of the tenant to say to the landlord, you _shall_ accept +this or that tenant at my hands. The covenant of the quarter-sale gives +each party a control in the matter; and the result has ever been a +compromise that is perfectly fair, as it is hardly possible that the +circumstance should have been overlooked in making the bargain; and he +who knows anything of such matters, knows that every exaction of this +sort is always considered in the rent. As for feudality, so long as the +power to alienate exists at all in the tenant, he does not hold by a +feudal tenure. He has bought himself from all such tenures by his +covenant of quarter-sale; and it only remains to say whether, having +agreed to such a bargain in order to obtain this advantage, he should +pay the stipulated price or not." + +"I understand you, sir. It is easy to come at the equity of this matter, +if one will only go back to the original facts which color it. The +tenant had no rights at all until he got his lease, and can have no +rights which that lease does not confer." + +"Then the cry is raised of feudal privileges, because some of the +Rensselaer tenants are obliged to find so many days' work with their +teams, or substitutes, to the landlord, and even because they have to +pay annually a pair of fat fowls! _We_ have seen enough of America, +Hugh, to know that most husbandmen would be delighted to have the +privilege of paying their debt in chickens and work, instead of in +money, which renders the cry only so much the more wicked. But what is +there more feudal in a tenant's thus paying his landlord, than in a +butcher's contracting to furnish so much meat for a series of years, or +a mail contractor's agreeing to carry the mail in a four-horse coach for +a term of years, eh? No one objects to the rent in wheat, and why should +they object to the rent in chickens? Is it because our republican +farmers have got to be so _aristocratic_ themselves, that they do not +like to be thought poulterers? This is being aristocratic on the other +side. These dignitaries should remember that if it be plebeian to +furnish fowls, it is plebeian to receive them; and if the tenant has to +find an individual who has to submit to the degradation of tendering a +pair of fat fowls, the landlord has to find an individual who has to +submit to the degradation of taking them, and of putting them away in +the larder. It seems to me that one is an offset to the other." + +"But if I remember rightly, uncle Ro, these little matters were always +commuted for in money." + +"They always must lie at the option of the tenant, unless the covenants +went to forfeiture, which I never heard that they did; for the failure +to pay in kind at the time stipulated, would only involve a payment in +money afterward. The most surprising part of this whole transaction is, +that men among us hold the doctrine that these leasehold estates are +opposed to our institutions, when, being guaranteed _by_ the +institutions, they in truth form a part of them. Were it not for these +very institutions, to which they are said to be opposed, and of which +they virtually form a part, we should soon have a pretty kettle of fish +between landlord and tenant." + +"How do you make it out that they form a part of the institutions, sir?" + +"Simply because the institutions have a solemn profession of protecting +property. There is such a parade of this, that all our constitutions +declare that property shall never be taken without due form of law; and +to read one of them, you would think the property of the citizen is held +quite as sacred as his person. Now, some of these very tenures existed +when the State institutions were framed; and, not satisfied with this, +we of New York, in common with our sister States, solemnly prohibited +ourselves, in the Constitution of the United States, from ever meddling +with them; nevertheless, men are found hardy enough to assert that a +thing which in fact belongs to the institutions, is opposed to them." + +"Perhaps they mean, sir, to their spirit, or to their tendency." + +"Ah! there may be some sense in that, though much less than the +declaimers fancy. The spirit of institutions is their legitimate object; +and it would be hard to prove that a leasehold tenure, with any +conditions of mere pecuniary indebtedness whatever, is opposed to any +institutions that recognize the full rights of property. The obligation +to pay rent no more creates political dependency, than to give credit +from an ordinary shop; not so much, indeed, more especially under such +leases as those of the Rensselaers; for the debtor on a book-debt can be +sued at any moment, whereas the tenant knows precisely when he has to +pay. There is the great absurdity of those who decry the system as +feudal and aristocratic; for they do not see that those very leases are +more favorable to the tenant than any other." + +"I shall have to ask you to explain this to me, sir, being too ignorant +to comprehend it." + +"Why, these leases are perpetual, and the tenant cannot be dispossessed. +The longer a lease is, other things being equal, the better it is for +the tenant, all the world over. Let us suppose two farms, the one leased +for five years, and the other forever. Which tenant is most independent +of the political influence of his landlord, to say nothing of the +impossibility of controlling votes in this way in America, from a +variety of causes? Certainly he who has a lease forever. He is just as +independent of his landlord as his landlord can be of him, with the +exception that he has rent to pay. In the latter case, he is precisely +like any other debtor--like the poor man who contracts debts with the +same store-keeper for a series of years. As for the possession of the +farm, which we are to suppose is a desirable thing for the tenant, he of +the long lease is clearly most independent, since the other may be +ejected at the end of each five years. Nor is there the least difference +as to acquiring the property in fee, since the landlord may sell equally +in either case, if so disposed; and if NOT DISPOSED, NO HONEST MAN, +UNDER ANY SYSTEM, OUGHT TO DO ANYTHING TO COMPEL HIM SO TO DO, directly +or indirectly; AND NO TRULY HONEST MAN WOULD." + +I put some of the words of my uncle Ro in small capitals, as the spirit +of the _times_, not of the _institutions_, renders such hints necessary. +But, to continue our dialogue: + +"I understand you now, sir, though the distinction you make between the +_spirit_ of the institutions and their _tendencies_ is what I do not +exactly comprehend." + +"It is very easily explained. The spirit of the institutions is their +_intention_; their tendencies are the natural direction they take under +the impulses of human motives, which are always corrupt and corrupting. +The 'spirit' refers to what things _ought_ to be; the 'tendencies,' to +what they _are_, or are _becoming_. The 'spirit' of all political +institutions is to place a check on the natural propensities of men, to +restrain them, and keep them within due bounds; while the tendencies +_follow_ those propensities, and are, quite often, in direct opposition +to the spirit. That this outcry against leasehold tenures in America is +following the tendencies of our institutions, I am afraid is only too +true; but that it is in any manner in compliance with their _spirit_, I +utterly deny." + +"You will allow that institutions have their spirit, which ought always +to be respected, in order to preserve harmony?" + +"Out of all question. The first great requisite of a political system is +the means of protecting itself; the second, to check its tendencies at +the point required by justice, wisdom, and good faith. In a despotism, +for instance, the spirit of the system is, to maintain that one man, who +is elevated above the necessities and temptations of a nation--who is +solemnly set apart for the sole purpose of government, fortified by +dignity, and rendered impartial by position--will rule in the manner +most conducive to the true interests of his subjects. It is just as much +the theory of Russia and Prussia that their monarchs reign not for their +own good, but for the good of those over whom they are placed, as it is +the theory in regard to the President of the United States. We all know +that the tendencies of a despotism are to abuses of a particular +character; and it is just as certain that the tendencies of a republic, +or rather of a democratic republic--for republic of itself means but +little, many republics having had kings--but it is just as certain that +the tendencies of a democracy are to abuses of another character. +Whatever man touches, he infallibly abuses; and this more in connection +with the exercise of political power, perhaps, than in the management of +any one interest of life, though he abuses all, even to religion. Less +depends on the nominal character of institutions, perhaps, than on their +ability to arrest their own tendencies at the point required by +everything that is just and right. Hitherto, surprisingly few _grave_ +abuses have followed from our institutions; but this matter looks +frightfully serious; for I have not told you half, Hugh." + +"Indeed, sir! I beg you will believe me quite equal to hearing the +worst." + +"It is true, anti-rentism did commence on the estate of the Rensselaers, +and with complaints of feudal tenures, and of days' works, and fat +fowls, backed by the extravagantly aristocratic pretension that a +'manor' tenant was so much a privileged being that it was beneath his +dignity, as a free man, to do that which is daily done by +mail-contractors, stage-coach owners, victuallers, and even by +themselves, in their passing bargains to deliver potatoes, onions, +turkeys, and pork, although they had solemnly covenanted with their +landlords to pay the fat fowls, and to give the days' works. The feudal +system has been found to extend much further, and 'troubles,' as they +are called, have broken out in other parts of the State. Resistance to +process, and a cessation of the payment of rents, have occurred on the +Livingston property, in Hardenberg--in short, in eight or ten counties +of the State. Even among the _bona fide_ purchasers on the Holland +Purchase, this resistance has been organized, and a species of troops +raised, who appear disguised and armed wherever a levy is to be made. +Several men have already been murdered, and there is the strong +probability of a civil war." + +"In the name of what is sacred and right, what has the government of the +State been doing all this time?" + +"In my poor judgment, a great deal that it ought not to have done, and +very little that it ought. You know the state of politics at home, Hugh; +how important New York is in all national questions, and how nearly tied +is her vote--less than ten thousand majority in a canvass of near a half +million of votes. When this is the case, the least-principled part of +the voters attain an undue importance--a truth that has been abundantly +illustrated in this question. The natural course would have been to +raise an armed constabulary force, and to have kept it in motion, as the +anti-renters have kept their 'Injins' in motion, which would have soon +tired out the rebels, for rebels they are, who would thus have had to +support one army in part, and the other altogether. Such a movement on +the part of the State, well and energetically managed, would have drawn +half the 'Injins' at once from the ranks of disaffection to those of +authority; for all that most of these men want is to live easy, and to +have a parade of military movements. Instead of that, the legislature +substantially did nothing, until blood was spilt, and the grievance had +got to be not only profoundly disgraceful for such a State and such a +country, but utterly intolerable to the well-affected of the revolted +counties, as well as to those who were kept out of the enjoyment of +their property. Then, indeed, it passed the law which ought to have been +passed the first year of the 'Injin' system--a law which renders it +felony to appear armed and disguised; but Dunning writes me this law is +openly disregarded in Delaware and Schoharie, in particular, and that +bodies of 'Injins,' in full costume and armed, of a thousand men, have +appeared to prevent levies or sales. Where it will end Heaven knows!" + +"Do you apprehend any serious civil war?" + +"It is impossible to say where false principles may lead, when they are +permitted to make head and to become widely disseminated, in a country +like ours. Still, the disturbances, as such, are utterly contemptible, +and could and would be put down by an energetic executive in ten days +after he had time to collect a force to do it with. In some particulars, +the present incumbent has behaved perfectly well; while in others, in my +judgment, he has inflicted injuries on the right that it will require +years to repair, if, indeed, they are ever repaired." + +"You surprise me, sir; and this the more especially, as I know you are +generally of the same way of thinking, on political subjects, with the +party that is now in power." + +"Did you ever know me to support what I conceived to be wrong, Hugh, on +account of my political affinities?" asked my uncle, a little +reproachfully as to manner. "But let me tell you the harm that I +conceive has been done by all the governors who have had anything to do +with the subject; and that includes one of a party to which I am +opposed, and two that are not. In the first place, they have all treated +the matter as if the tenants had really some cause of complaint; when in +truth all their griefs arise from the fact that other men will not let +them have their property just as they may want it, and in some respects +on their own terms." + +"That is certainly a grief not to be maintained by reason in a civilized +country, and in a Christian community." + +"Umph! Christianity, like liberty, suffers fearfully in human hands; one +is sometimes at a loss to recognize either. I have seen ministers of the +gospel just as dogged, just as regardless of general morality, and just +as indiffer-to the right, in upholding _their_ parties, as I ever saw +laymen; and I have seen laymen manifesting tempers, in this respect, +that properly belong to devils. But our governors have certainly treated +this matter as if the tenants actually had griefs; when in truth their +sole oppression is in being obliged to to pay rents that are merely +nominal, and in not being able to buy other men's property contrary to +their wishes, and very much at their own prices. One governor has even +been so generous as to volunteer a mode of settling disputes with which, +by the way, he has no concern, there being courts to discharge that +office, that is singularly presuming on his part, to say the least, and +which looks a confounded sight more like aristocracy, or monarchy, than +anything connected with leasehold tenure." + +"Why, what can the man have done?" + +"He has kindly taken on himself the office of doing that for which I +fancy he can find no authority in the institutions, or in their +spirit--no less than advising citizens how they may conveniently manage +their own affairs so as to get over difficulties that he himself +substantially admits, while giving this very advice, are difficulties +that the law sanctions." + +"This is a very extraordinary interference in a public functionary; +because one of the parties to a contract that is solemnly guaranteed by +the law, chooses to complain of its _nature_, rather than of its +_conditions_, to pretend to throw the weight of his even assumed +authority into the scales on either side of the question!" + +"And that is a popular government, Hugh, in which it tells so strongly +against a man to render him unpopular, that not one man in a million has +the moral courage to resist public opinion, even when he is right. You +have hit the nail on the head, boy; it is in the last degree presuming, +and what would be denounced as tyrannical in any monarch in Europe. But +he has lived in vain who has not learned that they who make the the +loudest professions of a love of liberty, have little knowledge of the +quality, beyond submission to the demands of numbers. Our executive has +carried his fatherly care even beyond this; he has actually suggested +the terms of a bargain by which he thinks the difficulty can be settled, +which, in addition to the gross assumption of having a voice in a matter +that in no manner belongs to him, has the palpable demerit of +recommending a pecuniary compromise that is flagrantly wrong as a mere +pecuniary compromise." + +"You astonish me, sir! What is the precise nature of his +recommendation?" + +"That the Rensselaers should receive such a sum from each tenant as +would produce an interest equal to the value of the present rent. Now, +in the first place, here is a citizen who has got as much property as he +wants, and who wishes to live for other purposes than to accumulate. +This property is not only invested to his entire satisfaction, as +regards convenience, security, and returns, but also in a way that is +connected with some of the best sentiments of his nature. It is property +that has descended to him through ancestors for two centuries; property +that is historically connected with his name--on which he was born, on +which he has lived, and on which he has hoped to die; property, in a +word, that is associated with all the higher feelings of humanity. +Because some interloper, perhaps, who has purchased an interest in one +of his farms six months before, feels an _aristocratic_ desire not to +have a landlord, and wishes to own a farm in fee, that in fact he has no +other right to than he gets through his lease, the Governor of the great +State of New York throws the weight of his official position against the +old hereditary owner of the soil, by solemnly suggesting, in an official +document that is intended to produce an effect on public opinion, that +he should sell that which he does not wish to sell, but wishes to keep, +and that at a price which I conceive is much below its true pecuniary +value. We have liberty with a vengeance, if these are some of its +antics!" + +"What makes the matter worse, is the fact that each of the Rensselaers +has a house on his estate, so placed as to be convenient to look after +his interest; which interests he is to be at the trouble of changing, +leaving him his house on his hands, because, forsooth, one of the +parties to a plain and equitable bargain wishes to make better +conditions than he covenanted for. I wonder what his excellency proposes +that the landlords shall do with their money when they get it? Buy new +estates, and build new houses, of which to be dispossessed when a new +set of tenants may choose to cry out against aristocracy, and +demonstrate their own love for democracy by wishing to pull others down +in order to shove themselves into their places?" + +"You are right again, Hugh; but it is a besetting vice of America to +regard life as all means, and as having no end, in a worldly point of +view. I dare say men may be found among us who regard it as highly +presuming in any man to build himself an ample residence, and to +announce by his mode of living that he is content with his present +means, and does not wish to increase them, at the very moment they view +the suggestions of the governor as the pink of modesty, and excessively +favorable to equal rights! I like that thought of yours about the house, +too; in order to suit the 'spirit' of the New York institutions, it +would seem that a New York landlord should build on wheels, that he may +move his abode to a new State, when it suits the pleasure of his tenants +to buy him out." + +"Do you suppose the Rensselaers would take their money, the principal of +the rent at seven per cent., and buy land with it, after their +experience of the uncertainty of such possessions among us?" + +"Not they," said my uncle Ro, laughing. "No, no! they would sell the +Manor-House, and the Beverwyck, for taverns; and then any one might live +in them who would pay the principal sum of the cost of a dinner; bag +their dollars, and proceed forthwith to Wall Street, and commence the +shaving of notes--that occupation having been decided, as I see by the +late arrivals, to be highly honorable and praiseworthy. Hitherto they +have been nothing but drones; but, by the time they can go to the quick +with their dollars, they will become useful members of society, and be +honored and esteemed accordingly." + +What next might have been said I do not know, for just then we were +interrupted by a visit from our common banker, and the discourse was +necessarily changed. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + "Oh, when shall I visit the land of my birth, + The loveliest land on the face of the earth? + When shall I those scenes of affection explore, + Our forests, our fountains, + Our hamlets, our mountains, + With the pride of our mountains, the maid I adore?" + --MONTGOMERY. + + +It was truly news for an American, who had been so long cut off from +intelligence from home, thus suddenly to be told that some of the scenes +of the middle ages--scenes connected with real wrongs and gross abuses +of human rights--were about to be enacted in his own land; that country +which boasted itself, not only to be the asylum of the oppressed, but +the conservator of the right. I was grieved at what I had heard, for, +during my travels, I had cherished a much-loved image of justice and +political excellence, that I now began to fear must be abandoned. My +uncle and myself decided at once to return home, a step that indeed was +required by prudence. I was now of an age to enter into the full +possession of my own property (so far as "new laws and new lords" would +permit); and the letters received by my late guardian, as well as +certain newspapers, communicated the unpleasant fact that a great many +of the tenants of Ravensnest had joined the association, paid tribute +for the support of "Injins," and were getting to be as bad as any of the +rest of them, so far as designs and schemes to plunder were concerned, +though they still paid their rents. The latter circumstance was ascribed +by our agent to the fact that many leases were about to fall in, and it +would be in my power to substitute more honest and better-disposed +successors for the present occupants of the several farms. Measures were +taken accordingly for quitting Paris as soon as possible, so that we +might reach home late in the month of May. + +"If we had time, I would certainly throw in a memorial or two to the +legislature," observed my uncle, a day or two before we proceeded to +Havre to join the packet. "I have a strong desire to protest against the +invasion of my rights as a freeman that is connected with some of their +contemplated laws. I do not at all like the idea of being abridged of +the power of hiring a farm for the longest time I can obtain it, which +is one of the projects of some of the ultra reformers of free and equal +New York. It is wonderful, Hugh, into what follies men precipitate +themselves as soon as they begin to run into exaggerations, whether of +politics, religion, or tastes. Here are half of the exquisite +philanthropists who see a great evil affecting the rights of human +nature in one man's hiring a farm from another for as long a term as he +can obtain it, who are at the very extreme in their opinion on free +trade! So free-trade are some of the journals which think it a capital +thing to prevent landlords and tenants from making their own bargains, +that they have actually derided the idea of having established fares for +hackney-coaches, but that it would be better to let the parties stand in +the rain and higgle about the price, on the free-trade principle. Some +of these men are either active agents in stimulating the legislature to +rob the citizen of this very simple control of his property, or passive +lookers-on while others do it." + +"Votes, sir, votes." + +"It is indeed votes, sir, votes; nothing short of votes could reconcile +these men to their own inconsistencies. As for yourself, Hugh, it might +be well to get rid of that canopied pew----" + +"Of what canopied pew? I am sure I do not understand you." + +"Do you forget that the family-pew in St. Andrew's Church, at +Ravensnest, has a wooden canopy over it--a relic of our colonial +opinions and usages?" + +"Now you mention it, I do remember a very clumsy, and, to own the truth, +a very ugly thing, that I have always supposed was placed there, by +those who built the church, by way of ornament." + +"That ugly thing, by way of ornament, was intended for a sort of canopy, +and was by no means an uncommon distinction in the State and colony, as +recently as the close of the last century. The church was built at the +expense of my grandfather, General Littlepage, and his bosom friend and +kinsman, Colonel Dirck Follock, both good Whigs and gallant defenders of +the liberty of their country. They thought it proper that the +Littlepages should have a canopied pew, and that is the state in which +they caused the building to be presented to my father. The old work +still stands; and Dunning writes me that, among the other arguments used +against your interests, is the fact that your pew is thus distinguished +from those of the rest of the congregation." + +"It is a distinction no man would envy me, could it be known that I have +ever thought the clumsy, ill-shaped thing a nuisance, and detestable as +an ornament. I have never even associated it in my mind with personal +distinction, but have always supposed it was erected with a view to +embellish the building, and placed over our pew as the spot where such +an excrescence would excite the least envy." + +"In all that, with one exception, you have judged quite naturally. Forty +years ago such a thing might have been done, and the majority of the +parishioners would have seen in it nothing out of place. But that day +has gone by; and you will discover that, on your own estate, and in the +very things created by your family and yourself, you will actually have +fewer rights of any sort, beyond those your money will purchase, than +any man around you. The simple fact that St. Andrew's Church was built +by your great-grandfather, and by him presented to the congregation, +will diminish your claim to have a voice in its affairs, with many of +the congregation." + +"This is so extraordinary, that I must ask the reason." + +"The reason is connected with a principle so obviously belonging to +human nature generally, and to American nature in particular, that I +wonder you ask it. It is envy. Did that pew belong to the Newcomes, for +instance, no one would think anything of it." + +"Nevertheless, the Newcomes would make themselves ridiculous by sitting +in a pew that was distinguished from those of their neighbors. The +absurdity of the contrast would strike every one." + +"And it is precisely because the absurdity does not exist in your case, +that your seat is envied. No one envies absurdity. However, you will +readily admit, Hugh, that a church and a church-yard are the two last +places in which human distinction ought to be exhibited. All are equal +in the eyes of Him we go to the one to worship, and all are equal in the +grave. I have ever been averse to everything like worldly distinction in +a congregation, and admire the usage of the Romish Church in even +dispensing with pews altogether. Monuments speak to the world, and have +a general connection with history, so that they be tolerated to a +certain point, though notorious liars." + +"I agree with you, sir, as to the unfitness of a church for all +distinction, and shall be happy on every account to get rid of my +canopy, though that has an historical connection, also. I am quite +innocent of any feeling of pride while sitting under it, though I will +confess to some of shame at its quizzical shape, when I see it has +attracted the eyes of intelligent strangers." + +"It is but natural that you should feel thus; for, while we may miss +distinctions and luxuries to which we have ever been accustomed, they +rarely excite pride in the possessor, even while they awaken envy in the +looker-on." + +"Nevertheless, I cannot see what the old pew has to do with the rents or +my legal rights." + +"When a cause is bad, everything is pressed into it that it is believed +may serve a turn. No man who had a good legal claim for property, would +ever think of urging any other; nor would any legislator who had sound +and sufficient reasons for his measures--reasons that could properly +justify him before God and man, for his laws--have recourse to slang to +sustain him. If these anti-renters were right, they would have no need +of secret combinations or disguises, blood-and-thunder names, and +special agents in the legislature of the land. The right requires no +false aid to make it appear the right; but the wrong must get such +support as it can press into its service. Your pew is called +aristocratic, though it confers no political power; it is called a +patent of nobility, though it neither gives nor takes away, and it is +hated, and you with it, for the very reason that you can sit in it and +not make yourself ridiculous. I suppose you have not examined very +closely the papers I gave you to read?" + +"Enough so to ascertain that they are filled with trash." + +"Worse than trash, Hugh; with some of the loosest principles, and most +atrocious feelings, that degrade poor human nature. Some of the +reformers propose that no man shall hold more than a thousand acres of +land, while others lay down the very intelligible and distinct principle +that no man ought to hold more than he can use. Even petitions to that +effect, I have been told, have been sent to the legislature." + +"Which has taken care not to allude to their purport, either in debate +or otherwise, as I see nothing to that effect in the reports." + +"Ay, I dare say the slang-whangers of those honorable bodies will +studiously keep all such enormities out of sight, as some of them +doubtless hope to step into the shoes of the present landlords, as soon +as they can get the feet out of them which are now in. But these are the +projects and the petitions in the columns of the journals, and they +speak for themselves. Among other things, they say it is nobility to be +a landlord." + +"I see by the letter of Mr. Dunning, that they have petitioned the +legislature to order an inquiry into my title. Now, we hold from the +crown----" + +"So much the worse, Hugh. Faugh! hold from a crown in a republican +country! I am amazed you are not ashamed to own it. Do you not know, +boy, that it has been gravely contended in a court of justice that, in +obtaining our national independence from the King of Great Britain, the +people conquered all his previous grants, which ought to be declared +void and of none effect?" + +"That is an absurdity of which I had not heard," I answered, laughing; +"why, the people of New York, who held all their lands under the crown, +would in that case have been conquering them for other persons! My good +grandfather and great-grandfather, both of whom actually fought and bled +in the revolution, must have been very silly thus to expose themselves +to take away their own estates, in order to give them to a set of +immigrants from New England and other parts of the world." + +"Quite justly said, Hugh," added my uncle, joining in the laugh. "Nor is +this half of the argument. The State, too, in its corporate character, +has been playing the swindler all this time. You may not know the fact, +but I as your guardian do know, that the quit-rents reserved by the +crown when it granted the lands of Mooseridge and Ravensnest, were +claimed by the State; and that, wanting money to save the people from +taxes, it commuted with us, receiving a certain gross sum in +satisfaction of all future claims." + +"Ay, _that_ I did not know. Can the fact be shown?" + +"Certainly--it is well known to all old fellows like myself, for it was +a very general measure, and very generally entered into by all the +landholders. In our case, the receipts are still to be found among the +family papers. In the cases of the older estates, such as those of the +Van Rensselaers, the equity is still stronger in their favor, since the +conditions to hold the land included an obligation to bring so many +settlers from Europe within a given time; conditions that were fulfilled +at great cost, as you may suppose, and on which, in truth, the colony +had its foundation." + +"How much it tells against a people's honesty to wish to forget such +facts, in a case like this!" + +"There is nothing forgotten, for the facts were probably never known to +those who prate about the conquered rights from the crown. As you say, +however, the civilization of a community is to be measured by its +consciousness of the existence of all principles of justice, and a +familiarity with its own history. The great bulk of the population of +New York have no active desire to invade what is right in this anti-rent +struggle, having no direct interests at stake; _their_ crime is a +passive inactivity, which allows those who are either working for +political advancement, or those who are working to obtain other men's +property, to make use of them, through their own laws." + +"But is it not an embarrassment to such a region as that directly around +Albany, to have such tenures to the land, and for so large a body of +people to be compelled to pay rent, in the very heart of the State, as +it might be, and in situations that render it desirable to leave +enterprise as unshackled as possible?" + +"I am not prepared to admit this much, even, as a general principle. One +argument used by these anti-renters is, for instance, that the patroons, +in their leases, reserved the mill-seats. Now, what if they did? Some +one must own the mill-seats; and why not the patroon as well as another? +To give the argument any weight, not as law, not as morals, but as mere +expediency, it must be shown that the patroons would not let these +mill-seats at as low rents as any one else; and my opinion is, that they +would let them at rents of not half the amount that would be asked, were +they the property of so many individuals scattered up and down the +country. But, admitting that so large an estate of this particular sort +has some inconveniences in that particular spot, can there be two +opinions among men of integrity about the mode of getting rid of it? +Every thing has its price, and, in a business sense, everything is +entitled to its price. No people acknowledge this more than the +Americans, or practise on it so extensively. Let the Rensselaers be +tempted by such offers as will induce them to sell, but do not let them +be invaded by that most infernal of all acts of oppression, special +legislation, in order to bully or frighten them from the enjoyment of +what is rightfully their own. If the State think such a description of +property injurious in its heart, let the State imitate England in her +conduct toward the slaveholders--_buy_ them out; not _tax_ them out, and +_wrong_ them out, and _annoy_ them out. But, Hugh, enough of this at +present; we shall have much more than we want of it when we get home. +Among my letters, I have one from each of my other wards." + +"'Still harping on my daughter,' sir!" I answered, laughing. "I hope +that the vivacious Miss Henrietta Coldbrooke, and the meek Miss Anne +Marston, are both perfectly well!" + +"Both in excellent health, and both write charmingly. I must really let +you see the letter of Henrietta, as I do think it is quite creditable to +her; I will step into my room and get it." + +I ought to let the reader into a secret here that will have some +connection with what is to follow. A dead-set had been made at me, +previously to leaving home, to induce me to marry either of three young +ladies--Miss Henrietta Coldbrooke, Miss Anne Marston, and Miss +Opportunity Newcome. The advances in the case of Miss Henrietta +Coldbrooke and Miss Anne Marston came from my uncle Ro, who, as their +guardian, had a natural interest in their making what he was pleased to +think might be a good connection for either; while the advances on +account of Miss Opportunity Newcome came from herself. Under such +circumstances, it may be well to say who these young ladies actually +were. + +Miss Henrietta Coldbrooke was the daughter of an Englishman of good +family, and some estate, who had emigrated to America and married, under +the impulse of certain theories in politics which induced him to imagine +that this was the promised land. I remember him as a disappointed and +dissatisfied widower, who was thought to be daily growing poorer under +the consequences of indiscreet investments, and who at last got to be so +very English in his wishes and longings, as to assert that the common +Muscovy was a better bird than the canvas-back! He died, however, in +time to leave his only child an estate which, under my uncle's excellent +management, was known by me to be rather more than one hundred and +seventy-nine thousand dollars, and which produced a net eight thousand a +year. This made Miss Henrietta a belle at once; but, having a prudent +friend in my grandmother, as yet she had not married a beggar. I knew +that uncle Ro went quite as far as was proper, in his letters, in the +way of hints touching myself; and my dear, excellent, honest-hearted, +straightforward old grandmother had once let fall an expression, in one +of her letters to myself, which induced me to think that these hints had +actually awakened as much interest in the young lady's bosom, as could +well be connected with what was necessarily nothing but curiosity. + +Miss Anne Marston was also an heiress, but on a very diminished scale. +She had rather more than three thousand a year in buildings in town, and +a pretty little sum of about sixteen thousand dollars laid by out of its +savings. She was not an only child, however, having two brothers, each +of whom had already received as much as the sister, and each of whom, as +is very apt to be the case with the heirs of New York merchants, was +already in a fair way of getting rid of his portion in riotous living. +Nothing does a young American so much good, under such circumstances, as +to induce him to travel. It makes or breaks at once. If a downright +fool, he is plucked by European adventurers in so short a time, that the +agony is soon over. If only vain and frivolous, because young and +ill-educated, the latter being a New York endemic, but with some +foundation of native mind, he lets his whiskers grow, becomes fuzzy +about the chin, dresses better, gets to be much better mannered, soon +loses his taste for the low and vulgar indulgences of his youth, and +comes out such a gentleman as one can only make who has entirely thrown +away the precious moments of youth. If tolerably educated in boyhood, +with capacity to build on, the chances are that the scales will fall +from his eyes very fast on landing in the old world--that his ideas and +tastes will take a new turn--that he will become what nature intended +him for, an intellectual man; and that he will finally return home, +conscious alike of the evils and blessings, the advantages and +disadvantages, of his own system and country--a wiser, and it is to be +hoped a better man. How the experiment had succeeded with the Marstons, +neither myself nor my uncle knew; for they had paid their visit while we +were in the East, and had already returned to America. As for Miss Anne, +she had a mother to take care of her mind and person, though I had +learned she was pretty, sensible and discreet. + +Miss Opportunity Newcome was a belle of Ravensnest, a village on my own +property; a rural beauty, and of rural education, virtues, manners and +habits. As Ravensnest was not particularly advanced in civilization, or, +to make use of the common language of the country, was not a very +"aristocratic place," I shall not dwell on her accomplishments, which +did well enough for Ravensnest, but would not essentially ornament my +manuscript. + +Opportunity was the daughter of Ovid, who was the son of Jason, of the +house of Newcome. In using the term "house," I adopt it understandingly; +for the family had dwelt in the same tenement, a leasehold property of +which the fee was in myself, and the dwelling had been associated with +the name of Newcome from time immemorial; that is, for about eighty +years. All that time had a Newcome been the tenant of the mill, tavern, +store, and farm, that lay nearest the village of Ravensnest, or Little +Nest, as it was commonly called; and it may not be impertinent to the +moral of my narrative if I add that, for all that time, and for +something longer, had I and my ancestors been the landlords. I beg the +reader to bear this last fact in mind, as there will soon be occasion to +show that there was a strong disposition in certain persons to forget +it. + +As I have said, Opportunity was the daughter of Ovid. There was also a +brother, who was named Seneca, or Seneky, as he always pronounced it +himself, the son of Ovid, the son of Jason, the first of the name at +Ravensnest. This Seneca was a lawyer, in the sense of a license granted +by the Justices of the Supreme Court, as well as by the Court of Common +Pleas, in and for the county of Washington. As there had been a sort of +hereditary education among the Newcomes for three generations, beginning +with Jason, and ending with Seneca; and as the latter was at the bar, I +had occasionally been thrown into the society of both brother and +sister. The latter, indeed, used to be fond of visiting the Nest, as my +house was familiarly called, Ravensnest being its true name, whence +those of the "patent" and village; and as Opportunity had early +manifested a partiality for my dear old grandmother, and not less dear +young sister, who occasionally passed a few weeks with me during the +vacations, more especially in the autumns, I had many occasions of being +brought within the influence of her charms--opportunities that I feel +bound to state, Opportunity did not neglect. I have understood that her +mother, who bore the same name, had taught Ovid the art of love by a +very similar demonstration, and had triumphed. That lady was still +living, and may be termed Opportunity the Great, while the daughter can +be styled Opportunity the Less. There was very little difference between +my own years and those of the young lady; and, as I had last passed +through the fiery ordeal at the sinister age of twenty, there was not +much danger in encountering the risk anew, now I was five years older. +But I must return to my uncle and the letter of Miss Henrietta +Coldbrooke. + +"Here it is, Hugh," cried my guardian, gayly; "and a capital letter it +is! I wish I could read the whole of it to you; but the two girls made +me promise never to show their letters to any one, which could mean only +you, before they would promise to write anything to me beyond +commonplaces. Now, I get their sentiments freely and naturally, and the +correspondence is a source of much pleasure to me. I think, however, I +might venture just to give you one extract." + +"You had better not, sir; there would be a sort of treachery in it, that +I confess I would rather not be accessory to. If Miss Coldbrooke does +not wish me to read what she writes, she can hardly wish that you should +read any of it to me." + +Uncle Ro glanced at me, and I fancied he seemed dissatisfied with my +_nonchalance_. He read the letter through to himself, however, laughing +here, smiling there, then muttering "capital!" "good!" "charming girl!" +"worthy of Hannah More!" etc., etc., as if just to provoke my curiosity. +But I had no desire to read "Hannah More," as any young fellow of +five-and-twenty can very well imagine, and I stood it all with the +indifference of a stoic. My guardian had to knock under, and put the +letters in his writing desk. + +"Well, the girls will be glad to see us," he said, after a moment of +reflection, "and not a little surprised. In my very last letter to my +mother, I sent them word that we should not be home until October; and +now we shall see them as early as June, at least." + +"Patt will be delighted, I make no doubt. As for the other two young +ladies, they have so many friends and relations to care for, that I +fancy our movements give them no great concern." + +"Then you do both injustice, as their letters would prove. They take the +liveliest interest in our proceedings, and speak of my return as if they +look for it with the greatest expectation and joy." + +I made my uncle Ro a somewhat saucy answer; but fair dealing compels me +to record it. + +"I dare say they do, sir," was my reply; "but what young lady does not +look with '_expectation_ and joy' for the return of a friend, who is +known to have a long purse, from Paris?" + +"Well, Hugh, you deserve neither of those dear girls; and, if I can help +it, you shall have neither." + +"Thank'ee, sir!" + +"Poh! this is worse than silly--it is rude. I dare say neither would +accept you, were you to offer to-morrow." + +"I trust not, sir, for her own sake. It would be a singularly palpable +demonstration were either to accept a man she barely knew, and whom she +had not seen since she was fifteen." + +Uncle Ro laughed, but I could see he was confoundedly vexed; and, as I +loved him with all my heart, though I did not love match-making, I +turned the discourse, in a pleasant way, on our approaching departure. + +"I'll tell you what I'll do, Hugh," cried my uncle, who was a good deal +of a boy in some things, for the reason, I suppose, that he was an old +bachelor; "I'll just have wrong names entered on board the packet, and +we'll surprise all our friends. Neither Jacob nor your man will betray +us, we know; and, for that matter, we can send them both home by the way +of England. Each of us has trunks in London to be looked after, and let +the two fellows go by the way of Liverpool. That is a good thought, and +occurred most happily." + +"With all my heart, sir. My fellow is of no more use to me at sea than +an automaton would be, and I shall be glad to get rid of his rueful +countenance. He is a capital servant on _terra firma_, but a perfect +Niobe on the briny main." + +The thing was agreed on; and, a day or two afterward, both our +body-servants, that is to say, Jacob the black and Hubert the German, +were on their way to England. My uncle let his apartment again, for he +always maintained I should wish to bring my bride to pass a winter in +it; and we proceeded to Havre in a sort of incognito. There was little +danger of our being known on board the packet, and we had previously +ascertained that there was not an acquaintance of either in the ship. +There was a strong family resemblance between my uncle and myself, and +we passed for father and son in the ship, as old Mr. Davidson and young +Mr. Davidson, of Maryland--or Myr-r-land, as it is Doric to call that +State. We had no concern in this part of the deception, unless +abstaining from calling my supposed father "uncle," as one would +naturally do in strange society, can be so considered. + +The passage itself--by the way, I wish all landsmen would be as accurate +as I am here, and understand that a "voyage" means "out" and "home," or +"thence" and "back again," while a "passage" means from place to +place--but our passage was pregnant with no events worth recording. We +had the usual amount of good and bad weather, the usual amount of eating +and drinking, and the usual amount of ennui. The latter circumstance, +perhaps, contributed to the digesting of a further scheme of my uncle's, +which it is now necessary to state. + +A reperusal of his letters and papers had induced him to think the +anti-rent movement a thing of more gravity, even, than he had at first +supposed. The combination on the part of the tenants, we learned also +from an intelligent New Yorker who was a fellow-passenger, extended much +further than our accounts had given us reason to believe; and it was +deemed decidedly dangerous for landlords, in many cases, to be seen on +their own estates. Insult, personal degradation, or injury, and even +death, it was thought, might be the consequences in many cases. The +blood actually spilled had had the effect to check the more violent +demonstrations, it is true; but the latent determination to achieve +their purposes was easily to be traced among the tenants, in the face of +all their tardy professions of moderation, and a desire for nothing but +what was right. In this case, what was right was the letter and spirit +of the contracts; and nothing was plainer than the fact that these were +not what was wanted. + +Professions pass for nothing, with the experienced, when connected with +a practice that flatly contradicts them. It was only too apparent to all +who chose to look into the matter, and that by evidence which could not +mislead, that the great body of the tenants in various counties of New +York were bent on obtaining interests in their farms that were not +conveyed by their leases, without the consent of their landlords, and +insomuch that they were bent on doing that which should be +discountenanced by every honest man in the community. The very fact that +they supported, or in any manner connived at, the so-called "Injin" +system, spoke all that was necessary as to their motives; and, when we +come to consider that these "Injins" had already proceeded to the +extremity of shedding blood, it was sufficiently plain that things must +soon reach a crisis. + +My uncle Roger and myself reflected on all these matters calmly, and +decided on our course, I trust, with prudence. As that decision has +proved to be pregnant with consequences that are likely to affect my +future life, I shall now briefly give an outline of what induced us to +adopt it. + +It was all-important for us to visit Ravensnest in person, while it +might be hazardous to do so openly. The Nest house stood in the very +centre of the estate, and, ignorant as we were of the temper of the +tenants, it might be indiscreet to let our presence be known; and +circumstances favored our projects of concealment. We were not expected +to reach the country at all until autumn, or "fall," as that season of +the year is poetically called in America; and this gave us the means of +reaching the property unexpectedly, and, as we hoped, undetected. Our +arrangement, then, was very simple, and will be best related in the +course of the narrative. + +The packet had a reasonably short passage, as we were twenty-nine days +from land to land. It was on a pleasant afternoon in May when the +hummock-like heights of Nevesink were first seen from the deck; and an +hour later we came in sight of the tower-resembling sails of the +coasters which were congregating in the neighborhood of the low point of +land that is so very appropriately called _Sandy_ Hook. The light-houses +rose out of the water soon after, and objects on the shore of New Jersey +next came gradually out of the misty background, until we got near +enough to be boarded, first by the pilot, and next by the news-boat; the +first preceding the last, for a wonder, news usually being far more +active, in this good republic, than watchfulness to prevent evil. My +uncle Ro gave the crew of this news-boat a thorough scrutiny, and, +finding no one on board her whom he had ever before seen, he bargained +for a passage up to town. + +We put our feet on the Battery just as the clocks of New York were +striking eight. A custom-house officer had examined our carpet-bags and +permitted them to pass, and we had disburdened ourselves of the effects +in the ship, by desiring the captain to attend to them. Each of us had a +town-house, but neither would go near his dwelling; mine being only kept +up in winter, for the use of my sister and aunt, who kindly took charge +of her during the season, while my uncle's was opened principally for +his mother. At that season, we had reason to think neither was tenanted +but by one or two old family servants; and it was our cue also to avoid +them. But "Jack Dunning," as my uncle always called him, was rather more +of a friend than of an agent; and he had a bachelor establishment in +Chambers Street that was precisely the place we wanted. Thither, then, +we proceeded, taking the route of Greenwich Street, fearful of meeting +some one in Broadway by whom we might be recognized. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + _Cit._ "Speak, speak." + _I Cit._ "You are all resolved rather to die than to famish?" + _Cit._ "Resolved, resolved." + _I Cit._ "First you know, Caius Marcus is chief enemy to the people." + _Cit._ "We know't, we know't." + _I Cit._ "Let's kill him, and we'll have corn at our price. + Is't a verdict?"--_Coriolanus._ + + +The most inveterate Manhattanese, if he be anything of a man of the +world, must confess that New York is, after all, but a rag-fair sort of +a place, so far as the eye is concerned. I was particularly struck with +this fact, even at that hour, as we went stumbling along over an +atrociously bad sidewalk, my eyes never at rest, as any one can imagine, +after five years of absence. I could not help noting the incongruities; +the dwellings of marble in close proximity with miserable, low +constructions in wood; the wretched pavements; and, above all, the +country air of a town of near four hundred thousand souls: I very well +know that many of the defects are to be ascribed to the rapid growth of +the place, which gives it a sort of hobble-de-hoy look; but, being a +Manhattanese by birth, I thought I might just as well own it all at +once, if it were only for the information of a particular portion of my +townsmen, who may have been under a certain delusion on the subject. As +for comparing the bay of New York with that of Naples on the score of +beauty, I shall no more be guilty of any such folly, to gratify the +cockney feelings of Broadway and Bond Street, than I should be guilty of +the folly of comparing the commerce of the ancient Parthenope with that +of _old_ New York, in order to excite complacency in the bosom of some +bottegajo in the Toledo, or on the Chiaja. Our fast-growing Manhattan is +a great town in its way--a wonderful place--without a parallel, I do +believe, on earth, as a proof of enterprise and of the accumulation of +business; and it is not easy to make such a town appear ridiculous by +any jibes and innuendoes that relate to the positive things of this +world, though nothing is easier than to do it for itself by setting up +to belong to the sisterhood of such places as London, Paris, Vienna, and +St. Petersburg. There is too much of the American notion of the +omnipotence of numbers among us Manhattanese, which induces us to think +that the higher rank in the scale of places is to be obtained by +majorities. No, no; let us remember the familiar axiom of "_ne sutor +ultra crepidum_." New York is just the queen of "business," but not yet +the queen of the world. Every man who travels ought to bring back +something to the common stock of knowledge; and I shall give a hint to +my townsmen, by which I really think they may be able to tell for +themselves, as by feeling a sort of moral pulse, when the town is rising +to the level of a capital. When simplicity takes the place of +pretension, is one good rule; but, as it may require a good deal of +practice, or native taste, to ascertain this fact, I will give another +that is obvious to the senses, which will at least be strongly +symptomatic; and that is this: when _squares_ cease to be called +_parks_; when horse-bazaars and fashionable streets are not called +Tattersalls and Bond Street; when _Washington_ market is rechristened +_Bear_ market, and Franklin and Fulton, and other great philosophers and +inventors, are plucked of the unmerited honors of having shambles named +after them; when _commercial_ is not used as a prefix to emporium; when +people can return from abroad without being asked "if they are +reconciled to their country?" and strangers are not interrogated at the +second question, "how do you like _our city_?" then may it be believed +that the town is beginning to go alone, and that it may set up for +itself. + +Although New York is, out of all question, decidedly provincial, +laboring under the peculiar vices of provincial habits and provincial +modes of thinking, it contains many a man of the world, and some, too, +who have never quitted their own fireside. Of this very number was the +Jack Dunning, as my uncle Ro called him, to whose house in Chambers +Street we were now proceeding. + +"If we were going anywhere but to Dunning's," said my uncle, as we +turned out of Greenwich Street, "I should have no fear of being +recognized by the servants; for no one here thinks of keeping a man six +months. Dunning, however, is of the old school, and does not like new +faces; so he will have no Irishman at his door, as is the case with two +out of three of the houses at which one calls nowadays." + +In another minute we were at the bottom of Mr. Dunning's "stoup"--what +an infernal contrivance it is to get in and out at the door by, in a +hotty-cold climate like ours!--but there we were, and I observed that my +uncle hesitated. + +"_Parlez au_ SUISSE," said I; "ten to one he is fresh from some +Bally-this, or Bally-that." + +"No, no; it must be old Garry, the nigger"--my uncle Ro was of the old +school himself, and _would_ say "nigger"--"Jack can never have parted +with Garry." + +"Garry" was the diminutive of Garret, a somewhat common Dutch Christian +name among us. + +We rang, and the door opened--in about five minutes. Although the terms +"aristocrat" and "aristocracy" are much in men's mouths in America just +now, as well as those of "feudal" and the "middle ages," and this, too, +as applied to modes of living as well as to leasehold tenures, there is +but one porter in the whole country; and he belongs to the White House, +at Washington. I am afraid even that personage, royal porter as he is, +is often out of the way; and the reception he gives when he _is_ there, +is not of the most brilliant and princely character. When we had waited +three minutes, my uncle Ro said: + +"I am afraid Garry is taking a nap by the kitchen fire; I'll try him +again." + +Uncle Ro did try again, and, two minutes later, the door opened. + +"What is your pleasure?" demanded the _Suisse_, with a strong brogue. + +My uncle started back as if he had met a sprite; but he asked if Mr. +Dunning was at home. + +"He is, indeed, sir." + +"Is he alone, or is he with company?" + +"He is, indeed." + +"But _what_ is he indeed?" + +"He is _that_." + +"Can you take the trouble to explain which _that_ it is? Has he company, +or is he alone?" + +"Just _that_, sir. Walk in, and he'll be charmed to see you. A fine +gentleman is his honor, and pleasure it is to live with him, I'm sure!" + +"How long is it since you left Ireland, my friend?" + +"Isn't it a mighty bit, now, yer honor!" answered Barney, closing the +door. "T'irteen weeks, if it's one day." + +"Well, go ahead, and show us the way. This is a bad omen, Hugh, to find +that Jack Dunning, of all men in the country, should have changed his +servant--good, quiet, lazy, respectable, old, gray-headed Garry, the +nigger--for such a bog-trotter as that fellow, who climbs those stairs +as if accustomed only to ladders." + +Dunning was in his library on the second floor, where he passed most of +his evenings. His surprise was equal to that which my uncle had just +experienced, when he saw us two standing before him. A significant +gesture, however, caused him to grasp his friend and client's hand in +silence; and nothing was said until the _Swiss_ had left the room, +although the fellow stood with the door in his hand a most inconvenient +time, just to listen to what might pass between the host and his guests. +At length we got rid of him, honest, well-meaning fellow that he was +after all; and the door was closed. + +"My last letters have brought you home, Roger?" said Jack, the moment he +_could_ speak; for feeling, as well as caution, had something to do with +his silence. + +"They have, indeed. A great change must have come over the country, by +what I hear; and one of the very worst symptoms is that you have turned +away Garry, and got an Irishman in his place." + +"Ah! old men must die, as well as old principles, I find. My poor fellow +went off in a fit, last week, and I took that Irishman as a _pis aller_. +After losing poor Garry who was born a slave in my father's house, I +became indifferent, and accepted the first comer from the intelligence +office." + +"We must be careful, Dunning, not to give up too soon. But hear my +story, and then to other matters." + +My uncle then explained his wish to be incognito, and his motive. +Dunning listened attentively, but seemed uncertain whether to dissent or +approve. The matter was discussed briefly, and then it was postponed for +further consideration. + +"But how comes on this great moral dereliction, called anti-rentism? Is +it on the wane, or the increase?" + +"On the wane to the eye, perhaps; but on the increase so far as +principles, the rights, and facts, are concerned. The necessity of +propitiating votes is tempting politicians of all sides to lend +themselves to it; and there is imminent danger now that atrocious wrongs +will be committed under the form of law." + +"In what way _can_ the law touch an existing contract? The Supreme Court +of the United States will set that right." + +"That is the only hope of the honest, let me tell you. It is folly to +expect that a body composed of such men as usually are sent to the State +Legislature can resist the temptation to gain power by conciliating +numbers. _That is out of the question._ Individuals of these bodies may +resist; but the tendency there will be as against the few, and in favor +of the many, bolstering their theories by clap-traps and slang political +phrases. The scheme to tax the rents, under the name of quit-rents, will +be resorted to, in the first place." + +"That will be a most iniquitous proceeding, and would justify resistance +just as much as our ancestors were justified in resisting the taxation +of Great Britain." + +"It would more so, for here we have a written covenant to render +taxation equal. The landlord already pays one tax on each of these +farms--a full and complete tax, that is reserved from the rent in the +original bargain with the tenant; and now the wish is to tax the rents +themselves; and this not to raise revenue, for that is confessedly not +wanted, but most clearly with a design to increase the inducements for +the landlords to part with their property. If that can be done, the +sales will be made on the principle that none but the tenant must be, as +indeed no one else _can_ be, the purchaser; and then we shall see a +queer exhibition--men parting with their property under the pressure of +a clamor that is backed by as much law as can be pressed into its +service, with a monopoly of price on the side of the purchaser, and all +in a country professing the most sensitive love of liberty, and where +the prevailing class of politicians are free-trade men?" + +"There is no end of these inconsistencies among politicians." + +"There is no end of knavery when men submit to 'noses,' instead of +principles. Call things by their right names, Ro, as they deserve to be. +This matter is so plain, that he who runs can read." + +"But will this scheme of taxation succeed? It does not affect us, for +instance, as our leases are for three lives." + +"Oh! that is nothing; for you they contemplate a law that will forbid +the letting of land, for the future, for a period longer than five +years. Hugh's leases will soon be falling in, and then he can't make a +slave of any man for a longer period than five years." + +"Surely no one is so silly as to think of passing such a law, with a +view to put down aristocracy, and to benefit the tenant!" I cried, +laughing. + +"Ay, you may laugh, young sir," resumed Jack Dunning; "but such _is_ the +intention. I know very well what will be your course of reasoning; you +will say, the longer the lease the better for the tenant, if the bargain +be reasonably good; and landlords cannot ask more for the use of their +lands than they are really worth in this country, there happening to be +more land than there are men to work it. No, no; landlords rather get +less for their lands than they are worth, instead of more, for that +plain reason. To compel the tenant to take a lease, therefore, for a +term as short as five years, is to injure him, you think; to place him +more at the control of his landlord, through the little interest +connected with the cost and trouble of moving, and through the natural +desire he may possess to cut the meadows he has seeded, and to get the +full benefit of manure he has made and carted. I see how you reason, +young sir; but you are behind the age--you are sadly behind the age." + +"The age is a queer one, if I am! All over the world it is believed that +long leases are favors, or advantages, to tenants; and nothing can make +it otherwise, _caeteris paribus_. Then what good will the tax do, after +violating right and moral justice, if not positive law, to lay it? On a +hundred dollars of rent, I should have to pay some fifty-five cents of +taxes, as I am assessed on other things at Ravensnest; and does anybody +suppose I will give up an estate that has passed through five +generations of my family, on account of a tribute like that!" + +"Mighty well, sir--mighty well, sir! This is fine talk; but I would +advise you not to speak of _your_ ancestors at all. Landlords can't name +_their_ ancestors with impunity just now." + +"I name mine only as showing a reason for a natural regard for my +paternal acres." + +"That you might do, if you were a tenant; but not as a landlord. In a +landlord it is aristocratic and intolerable pride, and to the last +degree offensive--as Dogberry says, 'tolerable and not to be endured.'" + +"But it is a _fact_, and it is natural one should have some feelings +connected with it." + +"The more it is a fact, the less it will be liked. People associate +social position with wealth and _estates_, but not with farms; and the +longer one has such things in a family, the worse for them!" + +"I do believe, Jack," put in my uncle Ro, "that the rule which prevails +all over the rest of the world is reversed here, and that with us it is +thought a family's claim is lessened, and not increased, by time." + +"To be sure it is!" answered Dunning, without giving me a chance to +speak. "Do you know that you wrote me a very silly letter once, from +Switzerland, about a family called De Blonay, that had been seated on +the same rock, in a little castle, some six or eight hundred years, and +the sort of respect and veneration the circumstance awakened! Well, all +that was very foolish, as you will find when you pay your incognito +visit to Ravensnest. I will not anticipate the result of your schooling; +but, go to school." + +"As the Rensselaers and other great landlords, who have estates on +durable leases, will not be very likely to give them up, except on terms +that will suit themselves, for a tax as insignificant as that mentioned +by Hugh," said my uncle, "what does the Legislature anticipate from +passing the law?" + +"That its members will be called the friends of the people, and not the +friends of the landlords. Would any man tax his friends, if he could +help it?" + +"But what will that portion of the people who compose the anti-renters +gain by such a measure?" + +"Nothing; and their complaints will be just as loud, and their longings +as active, as ever. Nothing that can have any effect on what they wish +will be accomplished by any legislation in the matter. One committee of +the Assembly has actually reported, you may remember, that the State +might assume the lands, and sell them to the tenants, or some one else; +or something of the sort." + +"The Constitution of the United States must be Hugh's aegis." + +"And that alone will protect him, let me tell you. But for that noble +provision of the Constitution of the Federal Government, his estate +would infallibly go for one-half of its true value. There is no use in +mincing things, or in affecting to believe men more honest than they +are--AN INFERNAL FEELING OF SELFISHNESS IS SO MUCH TALKED OF, AND CITED, +AND REFERRED TO, ON ALL OCCASIONS, IN THIS COUNTRY, THAT A MAN ALMOST +RENDERS HIMSELF RIDICULOUS WHO APPEARS TO REST ON PRINCIPLE." + +"Have you heard what the tenants of Ravensnest aim at, in particular?" + +"They want to get Hugh's lands, that's all; nothing more, I can assure +you." + +"On what conditions, pray?" demanded I. + +"As you 'light of chaps,' to use a saying of their own. Some even +profess a willingness to pay a fair price." + +"But I do not wish to sell for even a fair price. I have no desire to +part with property that is endeared to me by family feeling and +association. I have an expensive house and establishment on my estate, +which obtains its principal value from the circumstance that it is so +placed that I can look after my interests with the least inconvenience +to myself. What can I do with the money but buy another estate? and I +prefer this that I have." + +"Poh! boy, you can shave notes, you'll recollect," said Uncle Ro, dryly. +"The calling is decided to be honorable by the highest tribunal; and no +man should be above his business." + +"You have no right, sir, in a free country," returned the caustic Jack +Dunning, "to prefer one estate to another, more especially when other +people want it. Your lands are leased to honest, hard-working tenants, +who can eat their dinners without silver forks, and whose ancestors----" + +"Stop!" I cried, laughing; "I bar all ancestry. No man has a right to +ancestry in a free country, you'll remember!" + +"That means landlord ancestry; as for tenant ancestry, one can have a +pedigree as long as the Maison de Levis. No, sir; every tenant you have +has every right to demand that his sentiment of family feeling should be +respected. His father planted that orchard, and he loves the apples +better than any other apples in the world----" + +"And my father procured the grafts, and made him a present of them." + +"His grandfather cleared that field, and converted its ashes into pots +and pearls----" + +"And _my_ grandfather received that year ten shillings of rent, for land +off which his received two hundred and fifty dollars for his ashes." + +"His great-grandfather, honest and excellent man--nay, superhonest and +confiding creature--first 'took up' the land when a wilderness, and with +his own hands felled the timber, and sowed the wheat." + +"And got his pay twenty-fold for it all, or he would not have been fool +enough to do it. I had a great-grandfather, too; and I hope it will not +be considered aristocratic if I venture to hint as much. He--a +dishonest, pestilent knave, no doubt--leased that very lot for six years +without any rent at all, in order that the 'poor confiding creature' +might make himself comfortable, before he commenced paying his sixpence +or shilling an acre rent for the remainder of three lives, with a moral +certainty of getting a renewal on the most liberal terms known to a new +country; and who knew, the whole time, he could buy land in fee, within +ten miles of his door, but who thought _this_ a better bargain than +_that_." + +"Enough of this folly," cried Uncle Ro, joining in the laugh; "we all +know that in our excellent America, he who has the highest claims to +anything must affect to have the least, to stifle the monster envy; and +being of one mind as to principles, let us come to facts. What of the +girls, Jack, and of my honored mother?" + +"She, noble heroic woman! she is at Ravensnest at this moment; and as +the girls would not permit her to go alone, they are all with her." + +"And did you, Jack Dunning, suffer them to go unattended into a part of +the country that is in open rebellion?" demanded my uncle, +reproachfully. + +"Come, come! Hodge Littlepage, this is very sublime as a theory, but not +so clear when reduced to practice. I did not go with Mrs. Littlepage and +her young fry, for the good and substantial reason that I did not wish +to be 'tarred and feathered.'" + +"So you leave them to run the risk of being 'tarred and feathered' in +your stead?" + +"Say what you will about the cant of freedom that is becoming so common +among us, and from which we were once so free; say what you will, Ro, of +the inconsistency of those who raise the cry of 'feudality,' and +'aristocracy,' and 'nobility,' at the very moment they are manifesting a +desire for exclusive rights and privileges in their own persons; say +what you will of dishonesty, envy, that prominent American vice, +knavery, covetousness, and selfishness, and I will echo all you can +utter; but do not say that a woman can be in serious danger among any +material body of Americans, even if anti-renters and mock-redskins in +the bargain." + +"I believe you are right there, Jack, on reflection. Pardon my warmth; +but I have lately been living in the Old World, and in a country in +which women were not long since carried to the scaffold on account of +their politics." + +"Because they meddled with politics. Your mother is in no serious +danger, though it needs nerve in a woman to be able to think so. There +are few women in the State, and fewer of her time of life anywhere, that +would do what she has done; and I give the girls great credit for +sticking by her. Half the young men in town are desperate at the thought +of three such charming creatures thus exposing themselves to insult. +Your mother has only been sued." + +"Sued! Whom does she owe, or what can she have done to have brought this +indignity on her?" + +"You know, or ought to know, how it is in this country, Littlepage; we +must have a little law, even when most bent on breaking it. A downright, +straightforward rascal, who openly sets law at defiance, is a wonder. +Then we have a great talk of liberty, when plotting to give it the +deepest stab; and religion even gets to share in no small portion of our +vices. Thus it is that the anti-renters have dragged in the law in aid +of their designs. I understand one of the Rensselaers has been sued for +money borrowed in a ferryboat to help him across a river under his own +door, and for potatoes bought by his wife in the streets of Albany!" + +"But neither of the Rensselaers need borrow money to cross the ferry, as +the ferrymen would trust him; and no lady of the Rensselaer family ever +bought potatoes in the streets of Albany, I'll answer for it." + +"You have brought back some knowledge from your travels, I find!" said +Jack Dunning, with comic gravity. "Your mother writes me that _she_ has +been sued for twenty-seven pairs of shoes furnished her by a shoemaker +whom she never saw, or heard of, until she received the summons!" + +"This, then, is one of the species of annoyances that has been adopted +to bully the landlords out of their property?" + +"It is; and if the landlords have recourse even to the covenants of +their leases, solemnly and deliberately made, and as solemnly guaranteed +by a fundamental law, the cry is raised of 'aristocracy' and +'oppression' by these very men, and echoed by many of the creatures who +get seats in high places among us--or what _would_ be high places, if +filled with men worthy of their trusts." + +"I see you do not mince your words, Jack." + +"Why should I? Words are all that is left me. I am of no more weight in +the government of this State than that Irishman who let you in just now +will be five years hence--less, for he will vote to suit a majority; and +as I shall vote understandingly, my vote will probably do no one any +good." + +Dunning belonged to a school that mingles a good deal of speculative and +impracticable theory with a great deal of sound and just principles; but +who render themselves useless because they will admit of no compromises. +He did not belong to the class of American _doctrinaires_, however, or +to those who contend--no, not _contend_, for no one does _that_ any +longer in this country, whatever may be his opinion on the subject--but +those who _think_ that political power, as in the last resort, should be +the property of the few, for he was willing New York should have a very +broad constituency. Nevertheless, he was opposed to the universal +suffrage, in its wide extent, that does actually exist; as I suppose +quite three-fourths of the whole population are opposed to it, in their +hearts, though no political man of influence, now existing, has the +moral calibre necessary to take the lead in putting it down. Dunning +deferred to principles, and not to men. He well knew that an infallible +whole was not to be composed of fallible parts; and while he thought +majorities ought to determine many things, that there are rights and +principles that are superior to even such _unanimity_ as man can +manifest, and much more to their majorities. But Dunning had no selfish +views connected with his political notions, wanting no office, and +feeling no motive to affect that which he neither thought nor wished. He +never had quitted home, or it is highly probable his views of the +comparative abuses of the different systems that prevail in the world +would have been essentially modified. Those he saw had unavoidably a +democratic source, there being neither monarch nor aristocrat to produce +any other; and, under such circumstances, as abuses certainly abound, it +is not at all surprising that he sometimes a little distorted facts and +magnified evils. + +"And my noble, high-spirited, and venerable mother has actually gone to +the Nest to face the enemy!" exclaimed my uncle, after a thoughtful +pause. + +"She has, indeed; and the noble, high-spirited, though not venerable, +young ladies have gone with her," returned Mr. Dunning, in his caustic +way. + +"All three, do you mean?" + +"Every one of them--Martha, Henrietta, and Anne." + +"I am surprised that the last should have done so. Anne Marston is such +a meek, quiet, peace-loving person, that I should think _she_ would have +preferred remaining, as she naturally might have done, without exciting +remark, with her own mother." + +"She has not, nevertheless. Mrs. Littlepage _would_ brave the +anti-renters, and the three maidens _would_ be her companions. I dare +say, Ro, you know how it is with the gentle sex, when they make up their +minds?" + +"My girls are all good girls, and have given me very little trouble," +answered my uncle, complacently. + +"Yes, I dare say that may be true. You have only been absent from home +five years this trip." + +"An attentive guardian, notwithstanding, since I left you as a +substitute. Has my mother written to you since her arrival among the +hosts of the Philistines?" + +"She has, indeed, Littlepage," answered Dunning, gravely; "I have heard +from her three times, for she writes to urge my not appearing on the +estate. I did intend to pay her a visit; but she tells me that it might +lead to a violent scene, and can do no good. As the rents will not be +due until autumn, and Master Hugh is now of age, and was to be here to +look after his own affairs, I have seen no motive for incurring the risk +of the tarring and feathering. We American lawyers, young gentleman, +wear no wigs." + +"Does my mother write herself, or employ another?" inquired my uncle, +with interest. + +"She honors me with her own hand. Your mother writes much better than +you do yourself, Roger." + +"That is owing to her once having carried chain, as she would say +herself. Has Martha written to you?" + +"Of course. Sweet little Patty and I are bosom friends, as you know." + +"And does she say anything of the Indian and the negro?" + +"Jaaf and Susquesus? To be sure she does. Both are living still, and +both are well. I saw them myself, and even ate of their venison, so +lately as last winter." + +"Those old fellows must have each lived a great deal more than his +century, Jack. They were with my grandfather in the old French war, as +active, useful men--older than _my_ grandfather!" + +"Ay! a nigger or a redskin, before all others, for holding on to life, +when they have been temperate. Let me see--that expedition of +Abercrombie's was about eighty years since; why, these fellows must be +well turned of their hundred, though Jaap is rather the oldest, judging +from appearances." + +"I believe no one knows the age of either. A hundred each has been +thought now for many years. Susquesus was surprisingly active, too, when +I last saw him--like a healthy man of eighty." + +"He has failed of late, though he actually shot a deer, as I told you, +last winter. Both the old fellows stray down to the Nest, Martha writes +me; and the Indian is highly scandalized at the miserable imitations of +his race that are now abroad. I have even heard that he and Yop have +actually contemplated taking the field against them. Seneca Newcome is +their especial aversion." + +"How is Opportunity?" I inquired. "Does she take any part in this +movement?" + +"A decided one, I hear. She is anti-rent, while she wishes to keep on +good terms with her landlord; and that is endeavoring to serve God and +Mammon. She is not the first, however, by a thousand, that wears two +faces in this business." + +"Hugh has a deep admiration of Opportunity," observed my uncle, "and you +had needs be tender in your strictures. The modern Seneca, I take it, is +dead against us?" + +"Seneky wishes to go to the legislature, and of course he is on the side +of votes. Then his brother is a tenant at the mill, and naturally wishes +to be the landlord. He is also interested in the land himself. One thing +has struck me in this controversy as highly worthy of notice; and it is +the _naivete_ with which men reconcile the obvious longing of +covetousness with what they are pleased to fancy the principles of +liberty! When a man has worked a farm a certain number of years, he +boldly sets up the doctrine that the fact itself gives him a high moral +claim to possess it forever. A moment's examination will expose the +fallacy by which these sophists apply the flattering unction to their +souls. They work their farms under a lease, and in virtue of its +covenants. Now, in a moral sense, all that time can do in such a case, +is to render these covenants the more sacred, and consequently more +binding; but these worthies, whose morality is all on one side, imagine +that these time-honored covenants give them a right to fly from their +own conditions during their existence, and to raise pretensions far +exceeding anything they themselves confer, the moment they cease." + +"Poh, poh! Jack; there is no need of refining at all, to come at the +merits of such a question. This is a civilized country, or it is not. If +it be a civilized country, it will respect the rights of property, and +its own laws; and if the reverse, it will not respect them. As for +setting up the doctrine, at this late day, when millions and millions +are invested in this particular species of property, that the leasehold +tenure is opposed to the _spirit_ of institutions of which it has +substantially formed a part, ever since those institutions have +themselves had an existence, it requires a bold front, and more capacity +than any man at Albany possesses, to make the doctrines go down. Men may +run off with the notion that the _tendencies_ to certain abuses, which +mark every system, form their spirit; but this is a fallacy that a very +little thought will correct. Is it true that proposals have actually +been made, by these pretenders to liberty, to appoint commissioners to +act as arbitrators between the landlords and tenants, and to decide +points that no one has any right to raise?" + +"True as Holy Writ; and a regular 'Star Chamber' tribunal it would be! +It is wonderful, after all, how extremes do meet!" + +"That is as certain as the return of the sun after night. But let us now +talk of our project, Jack, and of the means of getting among these +self-deluded men--deluded by their own covetousness--without being +discovered; for I am determined to see them, and to judge of their +motives and conduct for myself." + +"Take care of the tar-barrel, and of the pillow-case of feathers, +Roger!" + +"I shall endeavor so to do." + +We then discussed the matter before us at length and leisurely. I shall +not relate all that was said, as it would be going over the same ground +twice, but refer the reader to the regular narrative. At the usual hour, +we retired to our beds, retaining the name of Davidson, as convenient +and prudent. Next day Mr. John Dunning busied himself in our behalf, and +made himself exceedingly useful to us. In his character of an old +bachelor, he had many acquaintances at the theatre; and through his +friends of the greenroom he supplied each of us with a wig. Both my +uncle and myself spoke German reasonably well, and our original plan was +to travel in the character of immigrant trinket and essence pedlers. But +I had a fancy for a hand-organ and a monkey; and it was finally agreed +that Mr. Hugh Roger Littlepage, senior, was to undertake this adventure +with a box of cheap watches and gilded trinkets; while Mr. Hugh Roger +Littlepage, junior, was to commence his travels at home, in the +character of a music-grinder. Modesty will not permit me to say all I +might, in favor of my own skill in music in general; but I sang well for +an amateur, and played both on the violin and flute, far better than is +common. + +Everything was arranged in the course of the following day, our wigs of +themselves completely effecting all the disguises that were necessary. +As for my uncle, he was nearly bald, and a wig was no great encumbrance; +but my shaggy locks gave me some trouble. A little clipping, however, +answered the turn; and I had a hearty laugh at myself, in costume, that +afternoon, before Dunning's dressing-room glass. We got round the felony +law, about being armed and disguised, by carrying no weapons but our +tools in the way of trade. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + "And she hath smiles to earth unknown-- + Smiles, that with motion of their own + Do spread, and sink, and rise: + That come and go with endless play + And ever, as they pass away, + Are hidden in her eyes."--WORDSWORTH. + + +I was early in costume the following morning. I question if my own +mother could have known me, had she lived long enough to see the +whiskers sprout on my cheeks, and to contemplate my countenance as a +man. I went into Dunning's library, drew the little hurdy-gurdy from its +hiding-place, slung it, and began to play "St. Patrick's Day in the +Morning," with spirit, and, I trust I may add, with execution. I was in +the height of the air, when the door opened, and Barney thrust his +high-cheeked-bone face into the room, his mouth as wide open as that of +a frozen porker. + +"Where the divil did ye come from!" demanded the new footman, with the +muscles of that vast aperture of his working from grin to grim, and grim +to grin again. "Yee's wilcome to the tchune; but how comes ye here?" + +"I coomes vrom Halle, in Preussen. Vat isht your vaterland?" + +"Bee yees a Jew?" + +"Nein--I isht a goot Christian. Vilt you haf Yankee Tootle?" + +"Yankee T'under! Ye'll wake up the masther, and he'll be displaise'd, +else ye might work on that tchune till the end of time. That I should +hear it here, in my own liberary, and ould Ireland t'ree thousand +laigues away!" + +A laugh from Dunning interrupted the dialogue, when Barney vanished, no +doubt anticipating some species of American punishment for a presumed +delinquency. Whether the blundering, well-meaning, honest fellow really +ascertained who we were that breakfasted with his master, I do not know; +but we got the meal and left the house without seeing his face again, +Dunning having a young yellow fellow to do the service of the table. + +I need scarcely say that I felt a little awkward at finding myself in +the streets of New York in such a guise; but the gravity and +self-possession of my uncle were a constant source of amusement to me. +He actually sold a watch on the wharf before the boat left it, though I +imputed his success to the circumstance that his price was what a +brother dealer, who happened to be trading in the same neighborhood, +pronounced "onconscionably low." We took a comfortable state-room +between us, under the pretence of locking up our property, and strolled +about the boat, gaping and looking curious, as became our class. + +"Here are at least a dozen people that I know," said my uncle, as we +were lounging around--loafing around is the modern Doric--about the time +that the boat was paddling past Fort Washington; "I have reconnoitred in +all quarters, and find quite a dozen. I have been conversing with an old +school-fellow, and one with whom I have ever lived in tolerable +intimacy, for the last ten minutes, and find my broken English and +disguise are perfect. I am confident my dear mother herself would not +recognize me." + +"We can then amuse ourselves with my grandmother and the young ladies," +I answered, "when we reach the Nest. For my part, it strikes me that we +had better keep our own secret to the last moment." + +"Hush! As I live, there is Seneca Newcome this moment! He is coming this +way, and we must be Germans again." + +Sure enough, there was 'Squire Seneky, as the honest farmers around the +Nest call him; though many of them must change their practices, or it +will shortly become so absurd to apply the term "honest" to them, that +no one will have the hardihood to use it. Newcome came slowly toward the +forecastle, on which we were standing; and my uncle determined to get +into conversation with him, as a means of further proving the virtue of +our disguises, as well as possibly of opening the way to some +communications that might facilitate our visit to the Nest. With this +view, the pretended pedler drew a watch from his pocket, and offering it +meekly to the inspection of the quasi lawyer, he said-- + +"Puy a vatch, shentlemans?" + +"Hey! what? Oh a watch," returned Seneca, in that high, condescending, +vulgar key, with which the salt of the earth usually affect to treat +those they evidently think much beneath them in intellect, station, or +some other great essential, at the very moment they are bursting with +envy, and denouncing as aristocrats all who are above them. "Hey! a +watch is it? What countryman are you, friend?" + +"A Charmans--ein Teutscher." + +"A German--ine Tycher is the place you come from, I s'pose?" + +"Nein--ein Teutscher isht a Charman." + +"Oh, yes! I understand. How long have you been in Ameriky?" + +"Twelf moont's." + +"Why, that's most long enough to make you citizens. Where do you live?" + +"Nowhere; I lifs jest asht it happens--soometimes here, ant soometimes +dere." + +"Ay, ay! I understand--no legal domicile, but lead a wandering life. +Have you many of these watches for sale?" + +"Yees--I haf asht many as twenty. Dey are as sheep as dirt, and go like +pig clocks." + +"And what may be your price for this?" + +"Dat you can haf for only eight tollars. Effery poty wilt say it is +golt, dat doesn't know petter." + +"Oh! it isn't gold then--I swan!"--what this oath meant I never exactly +knew, though I suppose it to be a Puritan mode of saying "I swear!" the +attempts to cheat the devil in this way being very common among their +pious descendants, though even "Smith Thompson" himself can do no man +any good in such a case of conscience--"I swan! you come plaguy near +taking even me in! Will you come down from that price any?" + +"If you wilt gif me some atfice, perhaps I may. You look like a goot +shentlemans, and one dat woultn't sheat a poor Charmans; ant effery poty +wants so much to sheat de poor Charmans, dat I will take six, if you +will drow in some atfice." + +"Advice? You have come to the right man for that? Walk a little this +way, where we shall be alone. What is the natur' of the matter--action +on the case, or a tort?" + +"Nein, nein! it isht not law dat I wants, put atfice." + +"Well, but advice leads to law, ninety-nine times in a hundred." + +"Ya, ya," answered the pedler, laughing; "dat may be so; put it isht not +vat I vants--I vants to know vere a Charman can trafel wit' his goots in +de country, and not in de pig towns." + +"I understand you--six dollars, hey! That sounds high for such a looking +watch"--he had just before mistaken it for gold--"but I'm always the +poor man's friend, and despise aristocracy"--what Seneca hated with the +strongest hate he ever fancied he _despised_ the most, and by +aristocracy he merely understood gentlemen and ladies, in the true +signification of the words--"why, I'm always ready to help along the +honest citizen. If you could make up your mind, now, to part with this +one watch for nawthin', I think I could tell you a part of the country +where you might sell the other nineteen in a week." + +"Goot!" exclaimed my uncle, cheerfully. "Take him--he ist your broberty, +and wilcome. Only show me de town where I canst sell de nineteen +udders." + +Had my uncle Ro been a true son of peddling, he would have charged a +dollar extra on each of the nineteen, and made eleven dollars by his +present liberality. + +"It is no town at all--only a township," returned the liberal Seneca. +"Did you expect it would be a city?" + +"Vat cares I? I woult radder sell my vatches to goot, honest country +men, dan asht to de best burghers in de land." + +"You're my man! The right spirit is in you. I hope you're no patroon--no +aristocrat?" + +"I don't know vat isht badroon, or vat isht arishtocrat." + +"No! You are a happy man in your ignorance. A patroon is a nobleman who +owns another man's land; and an aristocrat is a body that thinks himself +better than his neighbors, friend." + +"Well, den, I isht no badroon, for I don't own no land at all, not even +mine own; and I ishn't petter asht no poty at all." + +"Yes, you be; you've only to think so, and you'll be the greatest +gentleman of 'em all." + +"Well, den, I will dry and dink so, and pe petter asht de greatest +shentlemans of dem all. But dat won't do, nudder, as dat vilt make me +petter dan you; for you are one of de greatest of dem all, shentlemans." + +"Oh! as for me, let me alone. I scorn being on their level. I go for +'down with the rents!' and so'll you, too, afore you've been a week in +our part of the country." + +"Vat isht de rent dat you vants to git down?" + +"It's a thing that's opposed to the spirit of the institutions, as you +can see by my feelin's at this very moment. But no matter? I'll keep the +watch, if you say so, and show you the way into that part of the +country, as your pay." + +"Agreed, shentlemans. Vat I vants is atfice, and vat you vants is a +watch." + +Here uncle Ro laughed so much like himself, when he ought clearly to +have laughed in broken English, that I was very much afraid he might +give the alarm to our companion; but he did not. From that time the best +relation existed between us and Seneca, who, in the course of the day, +recognized us by sundry smiles and winks, though I could plainly see he +did not like the anti-aristocratic principle sufficiently to wish to +seem too intimate with us. Before we reached the islands, however, he +gave us directions where to meet him in the morning, and we parted, when +the boat stopped alongside of the pier at Albany that afternoon, the +best friends in the world. + +"Albany! dear, good old Albany!" exclaimed my uncle Ro, as we stopped on +the draw of the bridge to look at the busy scene in the basin, where +literally hundreds of canal-boats were either lying to discharge or to +load, or were coming and going, to say nothing of other craft: "dear, +good old Albany! you are a town to which I ever return with pleasure, +for you at least never disappoint me. A first-rate country-place you +are; and, though I miss your quaint old Dutch church, and your +rustic-looking old _English_ church from the centre of your principal +street, almost every change _you_ make is respectable. I know nothing +that tells so much against you as changing the name of Market Street by +the paltry imitation of Broadway; but, considering that a horde of +Yankees have come down upon you since the commencement of the present +century, you are lucky that the street was not called the Appian Way. +But, excellent old Albany! whom even the corruptions of politics cannot +change in the core, lying against the hill-side, and surrounded with thy +picturesque scenery, there is an air of respectability about thee that I +admire, and a quiet prosperity that I love. Yet, how changed since my +boyhood! Thy simple stoops have all vanished; thy gables are +disappearing; marble and granite are rising in thy streets, too, but +they take honest shapes, and are free from the ambition of mounting on +stilts; thy basin has changed the whole character of thy once +semi-sylvan, semi-commercial river; but it gives to thy young manhood an +appearance of abundance and thrift that promise well for thy age!" + +The reader may depend on it that I laughed heartily at this rhapsody; +for I could hardly enter into my uncle's feelings. Albany is certainly a +very good sort of a place, and relatively a more respectable-looking +town than the "_commercial_ emporium," which, after all, externally, is +a mere huge expansion of a very marked mediocrity, with the pretension +of a capital in its estimate of itself. But Albany lays no claim to be +anything more than a provincial town, and in that class it is highly +placed. By the way, there is nothing in which "_our_ people," to speak +idiomatically, more deceive themselves, than in their estimate of what +composes a capital. It would be ridiculous to suppose that the +representatives of such a government as this could impart to any place +the tone, opinions, habits and manners of a capital, for, if they did, +they would impart it on the novel principle of communicating that which +they do not possess in their own persons. Congress itself, though +tolerably free from most shackles, including those of the Constitution, +is not up to that. In my opinion, a man accustomed to the world might be +placed blindfolded in the most finished quarter of New York, and the +place has new quarters in which the incongruities I have already +mentioned do not exist, and, my life on it, he could pronounce, as soon +as the bandage was removed, that he was not in a town were the tone of a +capital exists. The last thing to make a capital is trade. Indeed, the +man who hears the words "business" and "the merchants" ringing in his +ears, may safely conclude, _de facto_, that he is not in a capital. Now +a New York village is often much less rustic than the villages of the +most advanced country of Europe; but a New York town is many degrees +below any capital of a large state in the old world. + +Will New York ever be a capital? Yes--out of all question, yes. But the +day will not come until after the sudden changes of condition which +immediately and so naturally succeeded the Revolution, have ceased to +influence ordinary society, and those above again impart to those below +more than they receive. This restoration to the natural state of things +must take place as soon as society gets settled; and there will be +nothing to prevent a town living under our own institutions--spirit, +_tendencies_ and all--from obtaining the highest tone that ever yet +prevailed in a capital. The folly is in anticipating the natural course +of events. Nothing will more hasten these events, however, than a +literature that is controlled, not by the lower, but by the higher +opinion of the country; which literature is yet, in a great degree, to +be created. + +I had dispensed with the monkey, after trying to get along with the +creature for an hour or two, and went around only with my music. I would +rather manage an army of anti-renters than one monkey. With the +hurdy-gurdy slung around my neck, therefore, I followed my uncle, who +actually sold another watch before we reached a tavern. Of course we did +not presume to go to Congress Hall, or the Eagle, for we knew we should +not be admitted. This was the toughest part of our adventures. I am of +opinion my uncle made a mistake; for he ventured to a second-class +house, under the impression that one of the sort usually frequented by +men of our supposed stamp might prove too coarse for us altogether. I +think we should have been better satisfied with the coarse fare of a +coarse tavern, than with the shabby-genteel of the house we blundered +into. In the former, everything would have reminded us, in a way we +expected to be reminded, that we were out of the common track; and we +might have been amused with the change, though it is one singularly hard +to be endured. I remember to have heard a young man, accustomed from +childhood to the better habits of the country, but who went to sea, a +lad before the mast, declare that the coarseness of his shipmates--and +there is no vulgarity about a true sailor, even when coarsest--gave him +more trouble to overcome, than all the gales, physical sufferings, +labor, exposures and dangers, put together. I must confess, I have found +it so, too, in my little experience. While acting as a strolling +musician, I could get along with anything better than the coarse habits +which I encountered at the table. Your silver-forkisms, and your purely +conventional customs, as a matter of course, no man of the world +attaches any serious importance to; but there are conventionalities that +belong to the fundamental principles of civilized society, which become +second nature, and with which it gets to be hard, indeed, to dispense. I +shall say as little as possible of the disagreeables of my new trade, +therefore, but stick to the essentials. + +The morning of the day which succeeded that of our arrival at Albany, my +uncle Ro and I took our seats in the train, intending to go to Saratoga, +_via_ Troy. I wonder the Trojan who first thought of playing this +travestie on Homer, did not think of calling the place Troyville, or +Troyborough! That would have been semi-American, at least, whereas the +present appellation is so purely classical! It is impossible to walk +through the streets of this neat and flourishing town, which already +counts its twenty thousand souls, and not have the images of Achilles +and Hector, and Priam, and Hecuba, pressing on the imagination a little +Uncomfortably. Had the place been called Try, the name would have been a +sensible one; for it is trying all it can to get the better of Albany; +and, much as I love the latter venerable old town, I hope Troy may +succeed in its trying to prevent the Hudson from being bridged. By the +way, I will here remark, for the benefit of those who have never seen +any country but their own, that there is a view on the road between +Schenectady and this Grecian place, just where the heights give the +first full appearance of the valley of the Hudson, including glimpses of +Waterford, Lansingburg and Albany, with a full view of both Troys, which +gives one a better idea of the affluence of European scenery than almost +any other spot I can recall in America. To my hurdy-gurdy: + +I made my first essay as a musician in public beneath the windows of the +principal inn of Troy. I cannot say much in favor of the instrument, +though I trust the playing itself was somewhat respectable. This I know +full well, that I soon brought a dozen fair faces to the windows of the +inn, and that each was decorated with a smile. Then it was that I +regretted the monkey. Such an opening could not but awaken the dormant +ambition of even a "patriot" of the purest water, and I will own I was +gratified. + +Among the curious who thus appeared, were two whom I at once supposed to +be father and daughter. The former was a clergyman, and, as I fancied by +something in his air of "_the_ Church," begging pardon of those who take +offence at this exclusive title, and to whom I will just give a hint in +passing. Any one at all acquainted with mankind, will at once understand +that no man who is certain of possessing any particular advantage, ever +manifests much sensibility because another lays claim to it also. In the +constant struggles of the jealous, for instance, on the subject of that +universal source of jealous feeling, social position, that man or woman +who is conscious of claims never troubles himself or herself about them. +For them the obvious fact is sufficient. If it be answered to this that +the pretension of "_the_ Church" is exclusive, I shall admit it is, and +"conclusive" too. It is not exclusive, however, in the sense urged, +since no one denies that there are many branches to "the Church," +although those branches do not embrace everything. I would advise those +who take offence at "our" styling "ourselves" "_the_ Church," to style +themselves "_the_ Church," just as they call all their parsons bishops, +and see who will care about it. That is a touchstone which will soon +separate the true metal from the alloy. + +My parson, I could easily see, was a _Church_ clergyman--not a +_meeting_-house clergyman. How I ascertained that fact at a glance, I +shall not reveal; but I also saw in his countenance some of that +curiosity which marks simplicity of character: it was not a vulgar +feeling, but one which induced him to beckon me to approach a little +nearer. I did so, when he invited me in. It was a little awkward, at +first, I must acknowledge, to be beckoned about in this manner; but +there was something in the air and countenance of the daughter that +induced me not to hesitate about complying. I cannot say that her beauty +was so _very_ striking, though she was decidedly pretty; but the +expression of her face, eyes, smile, and all put together, was so +singularly sweet and feminine, that I felt impelled by a sympathy I +shall not attempt to explain, to enter the house, and ascend to the door +of a parlor that I saw at once was public, though it then contained no +one but my proper hosts. + +"Walk in, young man," said the father in a benevolent tone of voice. "I +am curious to see that instrument; and my daughter here, who has a taste +for music, wishes it as much as I do myself. What do you call it." + +"Hurty-gurty," I answered. + +"From what part of the world do you come, my young friend?" continued +the clergyman, raising his meek eyes to mine still more curiously, "Vrom +Charmany; vrom Preussen, vere did reign so late de good Koenig Wilhelm." + +"What does he say, Molly?" + +So the pretty creature bore the name of Mary. I liked the Molly, too; it +was a good sign, as none but the truly respectable dare use such +familiar appellations in these ambitious times. Molly sounded as if +these people had the _aplomb_ of position and conscious breeding. Had +they been vulgar, it would have been Mollissa. + +"It is not difficult to translate, father," answered one of the sweetest +voices that had ever poured its melody on my ear, and which was rendered +still more musical by the slight laugh that mingled with it. "He says he +is from Germany--from Prussia, where the good King William lately +reigned." + +I liked the "father," too--that sounded refreshing, after passing a +night among a tribe of foul-nosed adventurers in humanity, every one of +whom had done his or her share toward caricaturing the once pretty +appellatives of "pa" and "ma." A young lady may still say "papa," or +even "mamma," though it were far better that she said "father" and +"mother;" but as for "pa" and "ma," they are now done with in +respectable life. They will not even do for the nursery. + +"And this instrument is a hurdy-gurdy?" continued the clergyman. "What +have we here--the name spelt on it?" + +"Dat isht de maker's name--_Hochstiel fecit_." + +"Fecit?" repeated the clergyman; "is that German?" + +"Nein--dat isht Latin; _facio_, _feci_, _factum_, _facere--feci_, +_fecisti_, FECIT. It means make, I suppose you know." + +The parson looked at me and at my dress and figure with open surprise, +and smiled as his eye glanced at his daughter. If asked why I made this +silly display of lower-form learning, I can only say that I chafed at +being fancied a mere every-day street musician, that had left his monkey +at home, by the charming girl who stood gracefully bending over her +father's elbow, as the latter examined the inscription that was stamped +on a small piece of ivory which had been let into the instrument. I +could see that Mary shrunk back a little under the sensitive feeling, so +natural to her sex, that she was manifesting too much freedom of manner +for the presence of a youth who was nearer to her own class than she +could have supposed it possible for a player on the hurdy-gurdy to be. A +blush succeeded; but the glance of the soft blue eye that instantly +followed, seemed to set all at rest, and she leaned over her father's +elbow again. + +"You understand Latin, then?" demanded the parent, examining me over his +spectacles from head to foot. + +"A leetle, sir--just a ferry leetle. In my coontry, efery mans isht +obliget to be a soldier some time, and them t'at knows Latin can be made +sergeants and corporals." + +"That is Prussia, is it?" + +"Ya--Preussen, vere so late did reign de goot Koenig Wilhelm." + +"And is Latin much understood among you? I have heard that, in Hungary, +most well-informed persons even speak the tongue." + +"In Charmany it isht not so. We all l'arnts somet'ing, but not all dost +l'arn eferyt'ing." + +I could see a smile struggling around the sweet lips of that dear girl, +after I had thus delivered myself, as I fancied, with a most accurate +inaccuracy; but she succeeded in repressing it, though those provoking +eyes of hers continued to laugh, much of the time our interview lasted. + +"Oh! I very well know that in Prussia the schools are quite good, and +that your government pays great attention to the wants of all classes," +rejoined the clergyman; "but I confess some surprise that _you_ should +understand anything of Latin. Now, even in this country, where we boast +so much----" + +"Ye-e-s," I could not refrain from drawling out, "dey does poast a great +teal in dis coontry!" + +Mary actually laughed; whether it was at my words, or at the somewhat +comical manner I had assumed--a manner in which simplicity was _tant +soit peu_ blended with irony--I shall not pretend to say. As for the +father, his simplicity was of proof; and, after civilly waiting until my +interruption was done, he resumed what he had been on the point of +saying. + +"I was about to add," continued the clergyman, "that even in this +country, where we boast so much"--the little minx of a daughter passed +her hand over her eyes, and fairly colored with the effort she made not +to laugh again--"of the common schools, and of their influence on the +public mind, it is not usual to find persons of your condition who +understand the dead languages." + +"Ye-e-e-s," I replied; "it isht my condition dat misleats you, sir. Mine +fat'er wast a shentlemans, and he gifet me as goot an etication as de +Koenig did gif to de Kron Prinz." + +Here, my desire to appear well in the eyes of Mary caused me to run into +another silly indiscretion. How I was to explain the circumstance of the +son of a Prussian gentleman, whose father had given him an education as +good as that which the king of his country had given to its crown +prince, being in the streets of Troy, playing on a hurdy-gurdy, was a +difficulty I did not reflect on for a moment. The idea of being thought +by that sweet girl a mere uneducated boor, was intolerable to me; and I +threw it off by this desperate falsehood--false in its accessories, but +true in its main facts--as one would resent an insult. Fortune favored +me, however, far more than I had any right to expect. + +There is a singular disposition in the American character to believe +every well-mannered European at least a count. I do not mean that those +who have seen the world are not like other persons in this respect; but +a very great proportion of the country never has seen any other world +than a world of "business." The credulity on this subject surpasseth +belief; and, were I to relate facts of this nature that might be +established in a court of justice, the very parties connected with them +would be ready to swear that they are caricatures. Now, well-mannered I +trust I am, and, though plainly dressed and thoroughly disguised, +neither my air nor attire was absolutely mean. As my clothes were new, I +was neat in my appearance; and there were possibly some incongruities +about the last, that might have struck eyes more penetrating than those +of my companions. I could see that both father and daughter felt a +lively interest in me, the instant I gave them reason to believe I was +one of better fortunes. So many crude notions exist among us on the +subject of convulsions and revolutions in Europe, that I dare say, had I +told any improbable tale of the political condition of Prussia, it would +have gone down; for nothing so much resembles the ignorance that +prevails in America, generally, concerning the true state of things in +Europe, as the ignorance that prevails in Europe, generally, concerning +the true state of things in America. As for Mary, her soft eyes seemed +to me to be imbued with thrice their customary gentleness and +compassion, as she recoiled a step in native modesty, and gazed at me, +when I had made my revelation. + +"If such is the case, my young friend," returned the clergyman, with +benevolent interest, "you ought, and might easily be placed in a better +position than this you are now in. Have you any knowledge of Greek?" + +"Certainly--Greek is moch study in Charmany." + +"In for a penny, in for a pound," I thought. + +"And the modern languages--do you understand any of them?" + +"I speaks de five great tongues of Europe, more ast less well; and I +read dem all, easily." + +"The _five_ tongues!" said the clergyman, counting on his fingers; "what +can they be, Mary?" + +"French, and German, and Spanish, and Italian, I suppose, sir." + +"These make but four. What can be the fifth, my dear?" + +"De yoong laty forgets de Englisch. De Englisch is das funf." + +"Oh! yes, the English!" exclaimed the pretty creature, pressing her lips +together to prevent laughing in my face. + +"True--I had forgotten the English, not being accustomed to think of it +as a mere European tongue. I suppose, young man, you naturally speak the +English less fluently than any other of your five languages?" + +"Ya!" + +Again the smile struggled to the lips of Mary. + +"I feel a deep interest in you as a stranger, and am sorry we have only +met to part so soon. Which way shall you be likely to direct your steps, +my Prussian young friend?" + +"I go to a place which is callet Ravensnest--goot place to sell vatch, +dey tells me." + +"Ravensnest!" exclaimed the father. + +"Ravensnest!" repeated the daughter, and that in tones which put the +hurdy-gurdy to shame. + +"Why, Ravensnest is the place where I live, and the parish of which I am +the clergyman--the Protestant Episcopal clergyman, I mean." + +This, then, was the Rev. Mr. Warren, the divine who had been called to +our church the very summer I left home, and who had been there ever +since! My sister Martha had written me much concerning these people, and +I felt as if I had known them for years. Mr. Warren was a man of good +connections, and some education, but of no fortune whatever, who had +gone into _the_ Church--it was the church of his ancestors, one of whom +had actually been an English bishop, a century or two ago--from choice, +and contrary to the wishes of his friends. As a preacher, his success +had never been great; but for the discharge of his duties no man stood +higher, and no man was more respected. The living of St. Andrew's, +Ravensnest, would have been poor enough, had it depended on the +contributions of the parishioners. These last gave about one hundred and +fifty dollars a year, for their share of the support of a priest. I gave +another hundred, as regularly as clock-work, and had been made to do so +throughout a long minority; and my grandmother and sister made up +another fifty between them. But there was a glebe of fifty acres of +capital land, a wood-lot, and a fund of two thousand dollars at +interest; the whole proceeding from endowments made by my grandfather, +during his lifetime. Altogether, the living may have been worth a clear +five hundred dollars a year, in addition to a comfortable house, hay, +wood, vegetables, pasture, and some advantages in the way of small +crops. Few country clergymen were better off than the rector of St. +Andrew's, Ravensnest, and all as a consequence of the feudal and +aristocratic habits of the Littlepages, though I say it, perhaps, who +might better not, in times like these. + +My letters had told me that the Rev. Mr. Warren was a widower; that Mary +was his only child; that he was a _truly_ pious, not a _sham_-pious, and +really zealous clergyman; a man of purest truth, whose word was +gospel--of great simplicity and integrity of mind and character; that he +never spoke evil of others, and that a complaint of this world and its +hardships seldom crossed his lips. He loved his fellow-creatures, both +naturally and on principle; mourned over the state of the diocese, and +greatly preferred piety even to high-churchism. High-churchman he was, +nevertheless; though it was not a high-churchmanship that outweighed the +loftier considerations of his Christian duties, and left him equally +without opinions of his own in matters of morals, and without a proper +respect, in practice, for those that he had solemnly vowed to maintain. + +His daughter was described as a sweet-tempered, arch, modest, sensible, +and well-bred girl, that had received a far better education than her +father's means would have permitted him to bestow, through the +liberality and affection of a widowed sister of her mother's, who was +affluent, and had caused her to attend the same school as that to which +she had sent her own daughters. In a word, she was a most charming +neighbor; and her presence at Ravensnest had rendered Martha's annual +visits to the "old house" (built in 1785) not only less irksome, but +actually pleasant. Such had been my sister's account of the Warrens and +their qualities, throughout a correspondence of five years. I have even +fancied that she loved this Mary Warren better than she loved any of her +uncle's wards, herself of course excepted. + +The foregoing flashed through my mind, the instant the clergyman +announced himself; but the coincidence of our being on the way to the +same part of the country, seemed to strike him as forcibly as it did +myself. What Mary thought of the matter, I had no means of ascertaining. + +"This is singular enough," resumed Mr. Warren. "What has directed your +steps toward Ravensnest?" + +"Dey tell mine ooncle 'tis goot place to sell moch vatch." + +"You have an uncle, then? Ah! I see him there in the street, showing a +watch at this moment to a gentleman. Is your uncle a linguist, too, and +has he been as well educated as you seem to be yourself?" + +"Certain--he moch more of a shentleman dan ast de shentleman to whom he +now sell vatch." + +"These must be the very persons," put in Mary, a little eagerly, "of +whom Mr. Newcome spoke, as the"--the dear girl did not like to say +pedlers, after what I had told them of my origin; so she added--"dealers +in watches and trinkets, who intended to visit our part of the country." + +"You are right, my dear, and the whole matter is now clear. Mr. Newcome +said he expected them to join us at Troy, when we should proceed in the +train together as far as Saratoga. But here comes Opportunity herself, +and her brother cannot be far off." + +At that moment, sure enough, my old acquaintance, Opportunity Newcome, +came into the room, a public parlor, with an air of great +self-satisfaction, and a _nonchalance_ of manner that was not a little +more peculiar to herself than it is to most of her caste. I trembled for +my disguise, since, to be quite frank on a very delicate subject, +Opportunity had made so very dead a set at me--"setting a cap" is but a +pitiful phrase to express the assault I had to withstand--as scarcely to +leave a hope that her feminine instinct, increased and stimulated with +the wish to be mistress of the Nest house, could possibly overlook the +thousand and one personal peculiarities that must still remain about one +whose personal peculiarities she had made her particular study. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + "Oh, sic a geek she gave her head, + And sic a toss she gave her feather; + Man, saw ye ne'er a bonnier lass + Before, among the blooming heather?" + --ALLAN CUNNINGHAM. + + +"Ah! here are some charming French _vignettes_!" cried Opportunity, +running up to a table where lay some inferior colored engravings, that +were intended to represent the cardinal virtues, under the forms of +tawdry female beauties. The workmanship was French, as were the +inscriptions. Now, Opportunity knew just enough French to translate +these inscriptions, simple and school-girl as they were, as wrong as +they could possibly be translated, under the circumstances. + +"_La Vertue_," cried Opportunity, in a high, decided way, as if to make +sure of an audience, "_The_ Virtue; _La Solitude_," pronouncing the last +word in a desperately English accent, "_The_ Solitude; _La Charite_, +_The_ Charity. It is really delightful, Mary, as 'Sarah Soothings' would +say, to meet with these glimmerings of taste in this wilderness of the +world." + +I wondered who the deuce "Sarah Soothings" could be, but afterward +learned this was the _nom-de-guerre_ of a female contributor to the +magazines, who, I dare say, silly as she might be, was never silly +enough to record the sentiments Opportunity had just professed to +repeat. As for _The la Charite_, and _The la Vertue_, they did not in +the least surprise me; for Martha, the hussy, often made herself merry +by recording that young lady's _tours de force_ in French. On one +occasion I remember she wrote me, that when Opportunity wished to say, +_On est venu me chercher_, instead of saying "I am come for," in homely +English, which would have been the best of all, she had flown off in the +high flight of "_Je suis venue pour_." + +Mary smiled, for she comprehended perfectly the difference between _la +Solitude_ and _the_ Solitude; but she said nothing. I must acknowledge +that I was so indiscreet as to smile also, though Opportunity's back +being turned toward us, these mutual signs of intelligence that escaped +us both through the eyes, opened a species of communication that, to me +at least, was infinitely agreeable. + +Opportunity, having shown the owner of the strange figure at which she +had just glanced on entering the room, that she had studied French, now +turned to take a better look at him. I have reason to think my +appearance did not make a very happy impression on her; for she tossed +her head, drew a chair, seated herself in the manner most opposed to the +descent of down, and opened her budget of news, without the least regard +to my presence, and apparently with as little attention to the wishes +and tastes of her companions. Her accent, and jumping, hitching mode of +speaking, with the high key in which she uttered her sentiments, too, +all grated on my ears, which had become a little accustomed to different +habits, in young ladies in particular, in the other hemisphere. I +confess myself to be one of those who regard an even, quiet, graceful +mode of utterance, as even a greater charm in a woman than beauty. Its +effect is more lasting, and seems to be directly connected with the +character. Mary Warren not only pronounced like one accustomed to good +society; but the modulations of her voice, which was singularly sweet by +nature, were even and agreeable, as is usual with well-bred women, and +as far as possible from the jerking, fluttering, now rapid, now drawling +manner of Opportunity. Perhaps, in this age of "loose attire," loose +habits, and free-and-easy deportment, the speech denotes the gentleman, +or the lady, more accurately than any other off-hand test. + +"Sen is enough to wear out anybody's patience!" exclaimed Opportunity. +"We must quit Troy in half an hour; and I have visits that I ought to +pay to Miss Jones, and Miss White, and Miss Black, and Miss Green, and +Miss Brown, and three or four others; and I can't get him to come near +me." + +"Why not go alone?" asked Mary, quietly. "It is but a step to two or +three of the houses, and you cannot possibly lose your way. I will go +with you, if you desire it." + +"Oh! lose my way? no, indeed! I know it too well for that. I wasn't +educated in Troy, not to know something of the streets. But it looks so, +to see a young lady walking in the streets without a beau! I never wish +to cross a room in company without a beau: much less to cross a street. +No; if Sen don't come in soon, I shall miss seeing every one of my +friends, and that will be a desperate disappointment to us all; but it +can't be helped; walk without a beau I _will not_, if I never see one of +them again." + +"Will you accept of me, Miss Opportunity?" asked Mr. Warren. "It will +afford me pleasure to be of service to you." + +"Lord! Mr. Warren, you don't think of setting up for a beau at your time +of life, do you? Everybody would see that you're a clergyman, and I +might just as well go alone. No, if Sen don't come in at once, I must +lose my visits; and the young ladies will be _so_ put about it, I know! +Araminta Maria wrote me, in the most particular manner, never to go +through Troy without stopping to see _her_, if I didn't see another +mortal; and Kathe_rine_ Clotilda has as much as said she would never +forgive me if I passed her door. But Seneca cares no more for the +friendship of young ladies, than he does"--Miss Newcome pronounced this +word "doos," notwithstanding her education, as she did "been," "ben," +and fifty others just as much out of the common way--"But Seneca cares +no more for the friendship of young ladies, than he does for the young +patroon. I declare, Mr. Warren, I believe Sen will go crazy unless the +anti-renters soon get the best of it; he does nothing but think and talk +of 'rents,' and 'aristocracy,' and 'poodle usages,' from morning till +night." + +We all smiled at the little mistake of Miss Opportunity, but it was of +no great consequence; and I dare say she knew what she meant as well as +most others who use the same term, though they spell it more accurately. +"Poodle usages" are quite as applicable to anything now existing in +America, as "feudal usages." + +"Your brother is, then, occupied with a matter of the last importance to +the community of which he is a member," answered the clergyman, gravely. +"On the termination of this anti-rent question hangs, in my judgment, a +vast amount of the future character, and much of the future destiny, of +New York." + +"I wonder, now? I'm surprised to hear you say this, Mr. Warren, for +generally you're thought to be unfriendly to the movement. Sen says, +however, that everything looks well, and that _he_ believes the tenants +will get their lands throughout the State before they've done with it. +He tells me we shall have Injins enough this summer at Ravensnest. The +visit of old Mrs. Littlepage has raised a spirit that will not easily be +put down, he says." + +"And why should the visit of Mrs. Littlepage to the house of her +grandson, and to the house built by her own husband, and in which she +passed the happiest days of her life, 'raise a spirit,' as you call it, +in any one in that part of the country?" + +"Oh! you're Episcopal, Mr. Warren; and we all know how the Episcopals +feel about such matters. But, for my part, I don't think the Littlepages +are a bit better than the Newcomes, though I won't liken them to some I +could name at Ravensnest; but I don't think they are any better than +you, yourself; and why should they ask so much more of the law than +other folks?" + +"I am not aware that they do ask more of the law than others; and, if +they do, I'm sure they obtain less. The law in this country is virtually +administered by jurors, who take good care to graduate justice, so far +as they can, by a scale suited to their own opinions, and, quite often, +to their prejudices. As the last are so universally opposed to persons +in Mrs. Littlepage's class in life, if there be a chance to make her +suffer, it is pretty certain it will be improved." + +"Sen says he can't see why he should pay rent to a Littlepage, any more +than a Littlepage should pay rent to him." + +"I am sorry to hear it, since there is a very sufficient reason for the +former, and no reason at all for the latter. Your brother uses the land +of Mr. Littlepage, and that is the reason why he should pay him rent. If +the case were reversed, then, indeed, Mr. Littlepage should pay rent to +your brother." + +"But what reason is there that these Littlepages should go on from +father to son, from generation to generation, as our landlords, when +we're just as good as they? It's time there was some change. Besides, +only think, we've been at the mills, now, hard upon eighty years, +grandpa having first settled there; and we have had them very mills, +now, for three generations among us." + +"High time, therefore, Opportunity, that there should be some change," +put in Mary, with a demure smile. + +"Oh! you're so intimate with Marthy Littlepage, I'm not surprised at +anything _you_ think or say. But reason is reason for all that. I +haven't the least grudge in the world against young Hugh Littlepage; if +foreign lands haven't spoilt him, as they say they're desperate apt to +do, he's an agreeable young gentleman, and I can't say that _he_ used to +think himself any better than other folks." + +"I should say none of the family are justly liable to the charge of so +doing," returned Mary. + +"Well, I'm amazed to hear you say _that_, Mary Warren. To my taste, +Marthy Littlepage is as disagreeable as she can be. If the anti-rent +cause had nobody better than she is to oppose it, it would soon +triumph." + +"May I ask, Miss Newcome, what particular reason you have for so +thinking?" asked Mr. Warren, who had kept his eye on the young lady the +whole time she had been thus running on, with an interest that struck me +as somewhat exaggerated, when one remembered the character of the +speaker, and the value of her remarks. + +"I think so, Mr. Warren, because everybody says so," was the answer. "If +Marthy Littlepage don't think herself better than other folks, why don't +she _act_ like other folks? Nothing is good enough for her in her own +conceit." + +Poor little Patt, who was the very _beau ideal_ of nature and +simplicity, as nature and simplicity manifest themselves under the +influence of refinement and good-breeding, was here accused of fancying +herself better than this ambitious young lady, for no other reason than +the fact of the little distinctive peculiarities of her air and +deportment, which Opportunity had found utterly unattainable, after one +or two efforts to compass them. In this very fact is the secret of a +thousand of the absurdities and vices that are going up and down the +land at this moment, like raging lions, seeking whom they may devour. +Men often turn to their statute-books and constitution to find the +sources of obvious evils, that, in truth, have their origin in some of +the lowest passions of human nature. The entrance of Seneca at that +moment, however, gave a new turn to the discourse, though it continued +substantially the same. I remarked that Seneca entered with his hat on, +and that he kept his head covered during most of the interview that +succeeded, notwithstanding the presence of the two young ladies and the +divine. As for myself, I had been so free as to remove my cap, though +many might suppose it was giving myself airs, while others would have +imagined it was manifesting a degree of respect to human beings that was +altogether unworthy of freemen. It is getting to be a thing so +particular and aristocratic to take off the hat on entering a house, +that few of the humbler democrats of America now ever think of it! + +As a matter of course, Opportunity upbraided her delinquent brother for +not appearing sooner to act as her beau; after which, she permitted him +to say a word for himself. That Seneca was in high good-humor was easily +enough to be seen; he even rubbed his hands together in the excess of +his delight. + +"Something has happened to please Sen," cried the sister, her own mouth +on a broad grin, in her expectation of coming in for a share of the +gratification. "I wish you would get him to tell us what it is, Mary; +he'll tell _you_ anything." + +I cannot describe how harshly this remark grated on my nerves. The +thought that Mary Warren could consent to exercise even the most distant +influence over such a man as Seneca Newcome was to the last degree +unpleasant to me, and I could have wished that she would openly and +indignantly repel the notion. But Mary Warren treated the whole matter +very much as a person who was accustomed to such remarks would be apt to +do. I cannot say that she manifested either pleasure or displeasure; but +a cold indifference was, if anything, uppermost in her manner. Possibly, +I should have been content with this; but I found it very difficult to +be so. Seneca, however, did not wait for Miss Warren to exert her +influence to induce him to talk, but appeared well enough disposed to do +it of his own accord. + +"Something _has_ happened to please me, I must own," he answered; "and I +would as lief Mr. Warren should know what it is, as not. Things go ahead +finely among us anti-renters, and we shall carry all our p'ints before +long!" + +"I wish I were certain no points would be carried but those that ought +to be carried, Mr. Newcome," was the answer. "But what has happened, +lately, to give a new aspect to the affair?" + +"We're gaining strength among the politicians. Both sides are beginning +to court us, and the 'spirit of the institutions' will shortly make +itself respected." + +"I am delighted to hear that! It is in the intention of the institutions +to repress covetousness, and uncharitableness, and all frauds, and to do +nothing but what is right," observed Mr. Warren. + +"Ah! here comes my friend the travelling jeweller," said Seneca, +interrupting the clergyman, in order to salute my uncle, who at that +instant showed himself in the door of the room, cap in hand. "Walk in, +Mr. Dafidson, since that is your name. Rev. Mr. Warren--Miss Mary +Warren--Miss Opportunity Newcome, my sister, who will be glad to look at +your wares. The cars will be detained on some special business, and we +have plenty of time before us." + +All this was done with a coolness and indifference of manner which went +to show that Seneca had no scruples whatever on the subject of whom he +introduced to any one. As for my uncle, accustomed to these free and +easy manners, and probably not absolutely conscious of the figure he cut +in his disguise, he bowed rather too much like a gentleman for one of +his present calling, though my previous explanation of our own +connection and fallen fortunes had luckily prepared the way for this +deportment. + +"Come in, Mr. Dafidson, and open your box--my sister may fancy some of +your trinkets; I never knew a girl that didn't." + +The imaginary pedler entered, and placed his box on a table near which I +was standing, the whole party immediately gathering around it. My +presence had attracted no particular attention from either Seneca or his +sister, the room being public, and my connection with the vender of +trinkets known. In the meantime, Seneca was too full of his good news to +let the subject drop; while the watches, rings, chains, brooches, +bracelets, etc., were passed under examination. + +"Yes, Mr. Warren, I trust we are about to have a complete development of +the spirit of our institutions, and that in futur' there will be no +privileged classes in New York, at least." + +"The last will certainly be a great gain, sir," the divine coldly +answered. "Hitherto, those who have most suppressed the truth, and who +have most contributed to the circulation of flattering falsehoods, have +had undue advantages in America." + +Seneca, obviously enough, did not like this sentiment; but I thought, by +his manner, that he was somewhat accustomed to meeting with such rebuffs +from Mr. Warren. + +"I suppose you will admit there _are_ privileged classes now among us, +Mr. Warren?" + +"I am ready enough to allow that, sir; it is too plain to be denied." + +"Wa-all, I should like to hear _you_ p'int 'em out; that I might see if +we agree in our sentiments." + +"Demagogues are a highly privileged class. The editors of newspapers are +another highly privileged class; doing things, daily and hourly, which +set all law and justice at defiance, and invading, with perfect impunity +the most precious rights of their fellow-citizens. The power of both is +enormous; and, as in all cases of great and irresponsible power, both +enormously abuse it." + +"Wa-all, that's not my way of thinking at all. In my judgment, the +privileged classes in this country are your patroons and your landlords; +men that's not satisfied with a reasonable quantity of land, but who +wish to hold more than the rest of their fellow-creatur's." + +"I am not aware of a single privilege that any patroon--of whom, by the +way, there no longer exists one, except in name--or any landlord, +possesses over any one of his fellow-citizens." + +"Do you call it no privilege for a man to hold all the land that may +happen to be in a township? I call that a great privilege; and such as +no man should have in a free country. Other people want land as well as +your Van Rensselaers and Littlepages; and other people mean to have it, +too." + +"On that principle, every man who owns more of any one thing than his +neighbor is privileged. Even I, poor as I am, and am believed to be, am +privileged over you, Mr. Newcome. I own a cassock, and have two gowns, +one old and one new, and various other things of the sort, of which you +have not one. What is more, I am privileged in another sense; since I +can _wear_ my cassock and gown, and bands, and _do_ wear them often; +whereas you cannot wear one of them at all without making yourself +laughed at." + +"Oh! but them are not privileges I care anything about; if I did I would +put on the things, as the law does not prohibit it." + +"I beg your pardon, Mr. Newcome; the law does prohibit you from wearing +_my_ cassock and gown contrary to my wishes." + +"Wa-all, wa-all, Mr. Warren; we never shall quarrel about that; I don't +desire to wear your cassock and gown." + +"I understand you, then; it is only the things that you _desire_ to use +that you deem it a privilege for the law to leave me." + +"I am afraid we shall never agree, Mr. Warren, about this anti-rent +business; and I'm very sorry for it, as I wish particularly to think as +you do," glancing his eye most profanely toward Mary as he spoke. "I am +for the movement-principle, while you are too much for the stand-still +doctrine." + +"I am certainly for remaining stationary, Mr. Newcome, if progress mean +taking away the property of old and long-established families in the +country, to give it to those whose names are not to be found in our +history; or, indeed, to give it to any but those to whom it rightfully +belongs." + +"We shall never agree, my dear sir, we shall never agree;" then, turning +toward my uncle with the air of superiority that the vulgar so easily +assume--"What do _you_ say to all this, friend Dafidson--are you up-rent +or down-rent?" + +"Ja, mynheer," was the quiet answer; "I always downs mit der rent vens I +leave a house or a garten. It is goot to pay de debts; ja, it ist herr +goot." + +This answer caused the clergyman and his daughter to smile, while +Opportunity laughed outright. + +"You won't make much of your Dutch friend, Sen," cried this buoyant +young lady; "he says you ought to keep on paying rent!" + +"I apprehend Mr. Dafidson does not exactly understand the case," +answered Seneca, who was a good deal disconcerted, but was bent on +maintaining his point. "I have understood you to say that you are a man +of liberal principles, Mr. Dafidson, and that you've come to America to +enjoy the light of intelligence and the benefits of a free government." + +"Ja; ven I might coome to America, I say, vell, dat 'tis a goot coontry, +vhere an honest man might haf vhat he 'arns, ant keep it, too. Ja, ja! +dat ist vhat I say, and vhat I dinks." + +"I understand you, sir; you come from a part of the world where the +nobles eat up the fat of the land, taking the poor man's share as well +as their own, to live in a country where the law is, or soon will be, so +equal that no citizen will dare to talk about his _estates_, and hurt +the feelin's of such as haven't got any." + +My uncle so well affected an innocent perplexity at the drift of this +remark as to make me smile, in spite of an effort to conceal it. Mary +Warren saw that smile, and another glance of intelligence was exchanged +between us; though the young lady immediately withdrew her look, a +little consciously and with a slight blush. + +"I say that you like equal laws and equal privileges, friend Dafidson," +continued Seneca, with emphasis; "and that you have seen too much of the +evils of nobility and of feudal oppression in the Old World, to wish to +fall in with them in the New." + +"Der noples ant der feudal privileges ist no goot," answered the +trinket-pedler, shaking his head with an appearance of great distaste. + +"Ay, I knew it would be so; you see, Mr. Warren, no man who has ever +lived under a feudal system can ever feel otherwise." + +"But what have we to do with feudal systems, Mr. Newcome? and what is +there in common between the landlords of New York and the nobles of +Europe, and between their leases and feudal tenures?" + +"What is there? A vast deal too much, sir, take my word for it. Do not +our very governors, even while ruthlessly calling on one citizen to +murder another----" + +"Nay, nay, Mr. Newcome," interrupted Mary Warren, laughing, "the +governors call on the citizens _not_ to murder each other." + +"I understand you, Miss Mary; but we shall make anti-renters of you both +before we are done. Surely, sir, there is a great deal too much +resemblance between the nobles of Europe and our landlords, when the +honest and freeborn tenants of the last are obliged to pay tribute for +permission to live on the very land that they till, and which they cause +to bring forth its increase." + +"But men who are not noble let their lands in Europe; nay, the very +serfs, as they become free and obtain riches, buy lands and let them, in +some parts of the old world, as I have heard and read." + +"All feudal, sir. The whole system is pernicious and feudal, serf or no +serf." + +"But, Mr. Newcome," said Mary Warren, quietly, though with a sort of +demure irony in her manner that said she was not without humor and +understood herself very well, "even you let your land--land that you +lease, too, and which you do not own, except as you hire it from Mr. +Littlepage." + +Seneca gave a hem, and was evidently disconcerted; but he had too much +of the game of the true progressive movement--which merely means to +_lead_ in changes, though they may lead to the devil--to give the matter +up. Repeating the hem, more to clear his brain than to clear his throat, +he hit upon his answer, and brought it out with something very like +triumph. + +"That is one of the evils of the present system, Miss Mary. Did I own +the two or three fields you mean, and to attend to which I have no +leisure, I might _sell_ them; but now it is impossible, since I can give +no deed. The instant my poor uncle dies--and he can't survive a week, +being, as you must know, nearly gone--the whole property, mills, +taverns, farms, timber-lot and all, fall in to young Hugh Littlepage, +who is off frolicking in Europe, doing no good to himself or others, +I'll venture to say, if the truth were known. That is another of the +hardships of the feudal system; it enables one man to travel in +idleness, wasting his substance in foreign lands, while it keeps another +at home, at the plough-handles and the cart-tail." + +"And why do you suppose Mr. Hugh Littlepage wastes his substance, and is +doing himself and country no good, in foreign lands, Mr. Newcome? That +is not at all the character I hear of him, nor is it the result that I +expect to see from his travels." + +"The money he spends in Europe might do a vast deal of good at +Ravensnest, sir." + +"For my part, my dear sir," put in Mary again, in her quiet but pungent +way, "I think it remarkable that neither of our late governors has seen +fit to enumerate the facts just mentioned by Mr. Newcome among those +that are opposed to the spirit of the institutions. It is, indeed, a +great hardship that Mr. Seneca Newcome cannot sell Mr. Hugh Littlepage's +land." + +"I complain less of that," cried Seneca, a little hastily, "than of the +circumstance that all my rights in the property must go with the death +of my uncle. _That_, at least, even you, Miss Mary, must admit is a +great hardship." + +"If your uncle were unexpectedly to revive, and live twenty years, Mr. +Newcome----" + +"No, no, Miss Mary," answered Seneca, shaking his head in a melancholy +manner; "_that_ is absolutely impossible. It would not surprise me to +find him dead and buried on our return." + +"But, admit that you may be mistaken, and that your lease should +continue--you would still have a rent to pay?" + +"Of that I wouldn't complain in the least. If Mr. Dunning, Littlepage's +agent, will just promise, in as much as half a sentence, that we can get +a new lease on the old terms, I'd not say a syllable about it." + +"Well, here is one proof that the system has its advantages!" exclaimed +Mr. Warren, cheerfully. "I'm delighted to hear you say this; for it is +something to have a class of men among us whose simple promises, in a +matter of money, have so much value! It is to be hoped that their +example will not be lost." + +"Mr. Newcome has made an admission I am also glad to hear," added Mary, +as soon as her father had done speaking. "His willingness to accept a +new lease on the old terms is a proof that he has been living under a +good bargain for himself hitherto, and that down to the present moment +he has been the obliged party." + +This was very simply said, but it bothered Seneca amazingly. As for +myself, I was delighted with it, and could have kissed the pretty, arch +creature who had just uttered the remark; though I will own that as much +might have been done without any great reluctance, had she even held her +tongue. As for Seneca, he did what most men are apt to do when they have +the consciousness of not appearing particularly well in a given point of +view; he endeavored to present himself to the eyes of his companions in +another. + +"There is one thing, Mr. Warren, that I think you will admit ought not +to be," he cried, exulting, "whatever Miss Mary thinks about it; and +that is, that the Littlepage pew in your church ought to come down." + +"I will not say that much, Mr. Newcome, though I rather think my +daughter will. I believe, my dear, you are of Mr. Newcome's way of +thinking in respect to this canopied pew, and also in respect to the old +hatchments?" + +"I wish neither was in the church," answered Mary, in a low voice. + +From that moment I was fully resolved neither should be, as soon as I +got into a situation to control the matter. + +"In that I agree with you entirely, my child," resumed the clergyman; +"and were it not for this movement connected with the rents, and the +false principles that have been so boldly announced of late years, I +might have taken on myself the authority, as rector, to remove the +hatchments. Even according to the laws connected with the use of such +things, they should have been taken away a generation or two back. As to +the pew, it is a different matter. It is private property; was +constructed with the church, which was built itself by the joint +liberality of the Littlepages and mother Trinity; and it would be a most +ungracious act to undertake to destroy it under such circumstances, and +more especially in the absence of its owner." + +"You agree, however, that it ought not to be there?" asked Seneca, with +exultation. + +"I wish with all my heart it were not. I dislike everything like worldly +distinction in the house of God; and heraldic emblems, in particular, +seem to be very much out of place where the cross is seen to be in its +proper place." + +"Wa-all now, Mr. Warren, I can't say I much fancy crosses about churches +either. What's the use in raising vain distinctions of any sort. A +church is but a house, after all, and ought so to be regarded." + +"True," said Mary, firmly; "but the house of God." + +"Yes, yes, we all know, Miss Mary, that you Episcopalians look more at +outward things, and more respect outward things, than most of the other +denominations of the country." + +"Do you call leases 'outward things,' Mr. Newcome?" asked Mary, archly; +"and contracts, and bargains, and promises, and the rights of property, +and the obligation to 'do as you would be done by?'" + +"Law! good folks," cried Opportunity, who had been all this time +tumbling over the trinkets, "I wish it was 'down with the rent' for +ever, with all my heart; and that not another word might ever be said on +the subject. Here is one of the prettiest pencils, Mary, I ever did see; +and its price is only four dollars. I wish, Sen, you'd let the rent +alone, and make me a present of this very pencil." + +As this was an act of which Seneca had not the least intention of being +guilty, he merely shifted his hat from one side of his head to the +other, began to whistle, and then he coolly left the room. My uncle Ro +profited by the occasion to beg Miss Opportunity would do him the honor +to accept the pencil as an offering from himself. + +"You an't surely in earnest!" exclaimed Opportunity, flushing up with +surprise and pleasure. "Why, you told me the price was four dollars, and +even that seems to me desperate little!" + +"Dat ist de price to anudder," said the gallant trinket-dealer; "but dat +ist not de price to you, Miss Opportunity. Ve shall trafel togedder; ant +vhen ve gets to your coontry you vill dell me de best houses vhere I +might go mit my vatches ant drinkets." + +"That I will; and get you in at the Nest house, in the bargain," cried +Opportunity, pocketing the pencil without further parley. + +In the meantime my uncle selected a very neat seal, the handsomest he +had, being of pure metal, and having a real topaz in it, and offered it +to Mary Warren, with his best bow. I watched the clergyman's daughter +with anxiety, as I witnessed the progress of this _galanterie_, doubting +and hoping at each change of the ingenuous and beautiful countenance of +her to whom the offering was made. Mary colored, smiled, seemed +embarrassed, and, as I feared, for a single moment doubting; but I must +have been mistaken, as she drew back, and, in the sweetest manner +possible, declined to accept the present. I saw that Opportunity's +having just adopted a different course added very much to her +embarrassment, as otherwise she might have said something to lessen the +seeming ungraciousness of the refusal. Luckily for herself, however, she +had a gentleman to deal with, instead of one in the station that my +uncle Ro had voluntarily assumed. When this offering was made, the +pretended pedler was ignorant altogether of the true characters of the +clergyman and his daughter, not even knowing that he saw the rector of +St. Andrew's, Ravensnest. But the manner of Mary at once disabused him +of an error into which he had fallen through her association with +Opportunity, and he now drew back himself with perfect tact, bowing and +apologizing in a way that I thought must certainly betray his disguise. +It did not, however; for Mr. Warren, with a smile that denoted equally +satisfaction at his daughter's conduct and a grateful sense of the +other's intended liberality, but with a simplicity that was of proof, +turned to me and begged a tune on the flute, which I had drawn from my +pocket and was holding in my hand, as expecting some such invitation. + +If I have any accomplishment, it is connected with music; and +particularly with the management of the flute. On this occasion I was +not at all backward about showing off, and I executed two or three airs, +from the best masters, with as much care as if I had been playing to a +salon in one of the best quarters of Paris. I could see that Mary and +her father were both surprised at the execution, and that the first was +delighted. We had a most agreeable quarter of an hour together; and +might have had two, had not Opportunity--who was certainly well named, +being apropos of everything--begun of her own accord to sing, though not +without inviting Mary to join her. As the latter declined this public +exhibition, as well as my uncle Ro's offering, Seneca's sister had it +all to herself; and she sang no less than three songs, in quick +succession, and altogether unasked. I shall not stop to characterize the +music or the words of these songs, any further than to say they were +all, more or less, of the Jim Crow school, and executed in a way that +did them ample justice. + +As it was understood that we were all to travel in the same train, the +interview lasted until we were ready to proceed; nor did it absolutely +terminate then. As Mary and Opportunity sat together, Mr. Warren asked +me to share his seat, regardless of the hurdy-gurdy; though my attire, +in addition to its being perfectly new and neat, was by no means of the +mean character that it is usual to see adorning street-music in general. +On the whole, so long as the instrument was not _en evidence_, I might +not have seemed very much out of place seated at Mr. Warren's side. In +this manner we proceeded to Saratoga, my uncle keeping up a private +discourse the whole way, with Seneca, on matters connected with the rent +movement. + +As for the divine and myself, we had also much interesting talk +together. I was questioned about Europe in general, and Germany in +particular; and had reason to think my answers gave surprise as well as +satisfaction. It was not an easy matter to preserve the Doric of my +assumed dialect, though practice and fear contributed their share to +render me content to resort to it. I made many mistakes, of course, but +my listeners were not the persons to discover them. I say my listeners, +for I soon ascertained that Mary Warren, who sat on the seat directly +before us, was a profoundly attentive listener to all that passed. This +circumstance did not render me the less communicative, though it did +increase the desire I felt to render what I said worthy of such a +listener. As for Opportunity, she read a newspaper a little while, +munched an apple a very little while, and slept the rest of the way. But +the journey between modern Troy and Saratoga is not a long one, and was +soon accomplished. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + "I will tell you; + If you'll bestow a small (of what you have little), + Patience, a while, you'll hear the belly's answer." + --_Menenius Agrippa._ + + +At the springs we parted, Mr. Warren and his friends finding a +conveyance, with their own horses, in readiness to carry them the +remainder of the distance. As for my uncle and myself, it was understood +that we were to get on in the best manner we could, it being expected +that we should reach Ravensnest in the course of a day or two. According +to the theory of our new business, we ought to travel on foot, but we +had a reservation _in petto_ that promised us also the relief of a +comfortable wagon of some sort or other. + +"Well," said my uncle, the moment we had got far enough from our new +acquaintance to be out of ear-shot, "I must say one thing in behalf of +Mr. Seneky, as he calls himself, or Sen, as his elegant sister calls +him, and that is, that I believe him to be one of the biggest scoundrels +the State holds." + +"This is not drawing his character _en beau_," I answered, laughing. +"But why do you come out so decidedly upon him at this particular +moment?" + +"Because this particular moment happens to be the first in which I have +had an opportunity to say anything since I have known the rascal. You +must have remarked that the fellow held me in discourse from the time we +left Troy until we stopped here." + +"Certainly; I could see that his tongue was in motion unceasingly; what +he said, I have to conjecture." + +"He said enough to lay bare his whole character. Our subject was +anti-rent, which he commenced with a view to explain it to a foreigner; +but I managed to lead him on, step by step, until he let me into all his +notions and expectations on the subject. Why, Hugh, the villain actually +proposed that you and I should enlist, and turn ourselves into two of +the rascally mock redskins." + +"Enlist! Do they still persevere so far as to keep up that organization, +in the very teeth of the late law?" + +"The law! What do two or three thousand voters care for any penal law, +in a country like this? Who is to enforce the law against them? Did they +commit murder, and were they even convicted, as _might_ happen under the +excitement of such a crime, they very well know nobody would be hanged. +Honesty is always too passive in matters that do not immediately press +on its direct interests. It is for the interest of every honest man in +the State to set his face against this anti-rent movement, and to do all +he can, by his vote and influence, to put it down into the dirt, out of +which it sprang, and into which it should be crushed; but not one in a +hundred, even of those who condemn it _toto coelo_, will go a foot out +of their way even to impede its progress. All depends on those who have +the power; and they will exert that power so as to conciliate the active +rogue, rather than protect the honest man. You are to remember that the +laws are executed here on the principle that 'what is everybody's +business is nobody's business.'" + +"You surely do not believe that the authorities will wink at an open +violation of the laws!" + +"That will depend on the characters of individuals; most will, but some +will not. You and I would be punished soon enough, were there a chance, +but the mass would escape. Oh! we have had some precious disclosures in +our corner of the car! The two or three men who joined Newcome are from +anti-rent districts, and, seeing me with their friend, little reserve +has been practised. One of those men is an anti-rent lecturer; and, +being somewhat didactic, he favored me with some of his arguments, +_seriatim_." + +"How! Have they got to lectures? I should have supposed the newspapers +would have been the means of circulating their ideas." + +"Oh, the newspapers, like hogs swimming too freely, have cut their own +throats; and it seems to be fashionable, just at this moment, not to +believe them. Lecturing is the great moral lever of the nation at +present." + +"But a man can lie in a lecture, as well as in a newspaper." + +"Out of all question; and if many of the lecturers are of the school of +this Mr. Holmes--'Lecturer Holmes,' as Seneca called him--but, if many +are of _his_ school, a pretty set of liberty-takers with the truth must +they be." + +"You detected him, then, in some of these liberties?" + +"In a hundred: nothing was easier than for a man in my situation to do +that; knowing, as I did, so much of the history of the land-titles of +the State. One of his arguments partakes so largely of the weak side of +our system, that I must give it to you. He spoke of the gravity of the +disturbances--of the importance to the peace and character of the State +of putting an end to them; and then, by way of corollary to his +proposition, produced a scheme for changing the titles, IN ORDER TO +SATISFY THE PEOPLE!" + +"The people, of course, meaning the tenants; the landlords and _their_ +rights passing for nothing." + +"That is one beautiful feature of the morality--an eye, or a cheek, if +you will--but here is the _nose_, and highly Roman it is. A certain +portion of the community wish to get rid of the obligations of their +contracts; and finding it cannot be done by law, they resort to means +that are opposed to all law in order to effect their purposes. Public +law-breakers, violators of the public peace, they make use of their own +wrong as an argument for perpetuating another that can be perpetuated in +no other way. I have been looking over some of the papers containing +proclamations, etc., and find that both law-makers and law-breakers are +of one mind as to this charming policy. Without a single manly effort to +put down the atrocious wrong that is meditated, the existence of the +wrong itself is made an argument for meeting it with concessions, and +thus sustaining it. Instead of using the means the institutions have +provided for putting down all such unjust and illegal combinations, the +combinations are a sufficient reason of themselves why the laws should +be altered, and wrong be done to a few, in order that many may be +propitiated, and their votes secured." + +"This is reasoning that can be used only where real grievances exist. +But there are no real grievances in the case of the tenants. They may +mystify weak heads in the instance of the manor leases, with their +quarter-sales, fat hens, loads of wood, and days' works; but my leases +are all on three lives, with rent payable in money, and with none of the +conditions that are called feudal, though no more feudal than any other +bargain to pay articles in kind. One might just as well call a bargain +made by a butcher, to deliver pork for a series of years, feudal. +However, feudal or not, my leases, and those of most other landlords, +are running on lives; and yet, by what I can learn, the discontent is +general; and the men who have solemnly bargained to give up their farms +at the expiration of their lives are just as warm for the 'down rent' +and titles in fee as the manor tenants themselves! They say that the +obligations given for actual purchases are beginning to be discredited." + +"You are quite right; and there is one of the frauds practised on the +world at large. In the public documents only the manor leases, with +their pretended feudal covenants, and their perpetuity, are kept in +view, while the combination goes to _all_ leases, or nearly all, and +certainly to all _sorts_ of leases, where the estates are of sufficient +extent to allow of the tenants to make head against the landlords. I +dare say there are hundreds of tenants, even on the property of the +Rensselaers, who are honest enough to be willing to comply with their +contracts if the conspirators would let them; but the rapacious spirit +is abroad among the occupants of other lands, as well as among the +occupants of theirs, and the government considers its existence a proof +that concessions should be made. The discontented must be appeased, +right or not!" + +"Did Seneca say anything on the subject of his own interests?" + +"He did; not so much in conversation with me as in the discourse he held +with 'Lecturer Holmes.' I listened attentively, happening to be +familiar, through tradition and through personal knowledge, with all the +leading facts of the case. As you will soon be called on to act in that +matter for yourself, I may as well relate them to you. They will serve, +also, as guides to the moral merits of the occupation of half the farms +on your estate. These are things, moreover, you would never know by +public statements, since all the good bargains are smothered in silence, +while those that may possibly have been a little unfavorable to the +tenant are proclaimed far and near. It is quite possible that, among the +many thousands of leased farms that are to be found in the State, some +bad bargains may have been made by the tenants; but what sort of a +government is that which should undertake to redress evils of this +nature? If either of the Rensselaers, or you yourself, were to venture +to send a memorial to the Legislature setting forth the grievances _you_ +labor under in connection with this very 'mill-lot'--and serious losses +do they bring to you, let me tell you, though grievances, in the proper +sense of the term, they are not--you and your memorial would be met with +a general and merited shout of ridicule and derision. _One_ man has no +rights, as opposed to a dozen." + +"So much difference is there between '_de la Rochefoucauld et de la +Rochefoucauld_.'" + +"All the difference in the world; but let me give you the facts, for +they will serve as a rule by which to judge of many others. In the first +place, my great-grandfather Mordaunt, the 'patentee,' as he was called, +first let the mill-lot to the grandfather of this Seneca, the tenant +then being quite a young man. In order to obtain settlers, in that early +day, it was necessary to give them great advantages, for there was +vastly more land than there were people to work it. The first lease, +therefore, was granted on highly advantageous terms to that Jason +Newcome, whom I can just remember. He had two characters; the one, and +the true, which set him down as a covetous, envious, narrow-minded +provincial, who was full of cant and roguery. Some traditions exist +among us of his having been detected in stealing timber, and in various +other frauds. In public he is one of those virtuous and hard-working +pioneers who have transmitted to their descendants all their claims, +those that are supposed to be moral, as well as those that are known to +be legal. This flummery may do for elderly ladies, who affect snuff and +bohea, and for some men who have minds of the same calibre, but they are +not circumstances to influence such legislators and executives as are +fit to be legislators and executives. Not a great while before my +father's marriage, the said Jason still living and in possession, the +lease expired, and a new one was granted for three lives, or twenty-one +years certain, of which one of the lives is still running. That lease +was granted, on terms highly favorable to the tenant, sixty years since; +old Newcome, luckily for himself and his posterity, having named this +long-lived son as one of his three lives. Now Seneky, God bless him! is +known to lease a few of the lots that have fallen to his share of the +property for more money than is required to meet all your rent on the +whole. Such, in effect, has been the fact with that mill-lot for the +last thirty years, or even longer; and the circumstance of the great +length of time so excellent a bargain has existed, is used as an +argument why the Newcomes ought to have a deed of the property for a +nominal price; or, indeed, for no price at all, if the tenants could +have their wishes." + +"I am afraid there is nothing unnatural in thus perverting principles; +half mankind appear to me really to get a great many of their notions +_dessus dessous_." + +"Half is a small proportion; as you will find, my boy, when you grow +older. But was it not an impudent proposal of Seneca, when he wished you +and me to join the corps of 'Injins?'" + +"What answer did you make? Though I suppose it would hardly do for us to +go disguised and armed, now that the law makes it a felony, even while +our motive at the bottom might be to aid the law." + +"Catch me at that act of folly! Why, Hugh, could they prove such a crime +on either of _us_, or any one connected with an old landed family, we +should be the certain victims. No governor would dare pardon _us_. No, +no; clemency is a word reserved for the obvious and confirmed rogues." + +"We might get a little favor on the score of belonging to a very +powerful body of offenders." + +"True, I forgot that circumstance. The more numerous the crimes and the +criminals, the greater the probability of impunity; and this, too, not +on the general principle that power cannot be resisted, but on the +particular principle that a thousand or two votes are of vast +importance, where three thousand can turn an election. God only knows +where this thing is to end!" + +We now approached one of the humbler taverns of the place, where it was +necessary for those of our apparent pretensions to seek lodgings, and +the discourse was dropped. It was several weeks too early in the season +for the springs to be frequented, and we found only a few of those in +the place who drank the waters because they really required them. My +uncle had been an old stager at Saratoga--a beau of the "purest water," +as he laughingly described himself--and he was enabled to explain all +that was necessary for me to know. An American watering-place, however, +is so very much inferior to most of those in Europe, as to furnish very +little, in their best moments, beyond the human beings they contain, to +attract the attention of the traveller. + +In the course of the afternoon we availed ourselves of the opportunity +of a return vehicle to go as far as Sandy Hill, where we passed the +night. The next morning, bright and early, we got into a hired wagon and +drove across the country until near night, when we paid for our passage, +sent the vehicle back, and sought a tavern. At this house, where we +passed the night, we heard a good deal of the "Injins" having made their +appearance on the Littlepage lands, and many conjectures as to the +probable result. We were in a township, or rather on a property, that +was called Mooseridge, and which had once belonged to us, but which, +having been sold, and in a great measure paid for by the occupants, no +one thought of impairing the force of the covenants under which the +parties held. The most trivial observer will soon discover that it is +only when something is to be gained that the aggrieved citizen wishes to +disturb a covenant. Now, I never heard anyone say a syllable against +either of the covenants of his lease under which he held his farm, let +him be ever so loud against those which would shortly compel him to give +it up! Had I complained of the fact--and such facts abounded--that my +predecessors had incautiously let farms at such low prices that the +lessees had been enabled to pay the rents for half a century by +subletting small portions of them, as my uncle Ro had intimated, I +should be pointed at as a fool. "Stick to your bond" would have been the +cry, and "Shylock" would have been forgotten. I do not say that there is +not a vast difference between the means of acquiring intelligence, the +cultivation, the manners, the social conditions, and, in some +senses, the social obligations of an affluent landlord and a +really hard-working, honest, well-intentioned husbandman, his +tenant--differences that should dispose the liberal and cultivated +gentleman to bear in mind the advantages he has perhaps inherited, and +not acquired by his own means, in such a way as to render him, in a +certain degree, the repository of the interests of those who hold him; +but, while I admit all this, and say that the community which does not +possess such a class of men is to be pitied, as it loses one of the most +certain means of liberalizing and enlarging its notions, and of +improving its civilization, I am far from thinking that the men of this +class are to have their real superiority of position, with its +consequences, thrown into their faces only when they are expected to +give, while they are grudgingly denied it on all other occasions! There +is nothing so likely to advance the habits, opinions, and true interests +of a rural population, as to have them all directed by the intelligence +and combined interests that ought to mark the connection between +landlord and tenant. It may do for one class of political economists to +prate about a state of things which supposes every husbandman a +freeholder, and rich enough to maintain his level among the other +freeholders of the State. But we all know that as many minute gradations +in means must and do exist in a community, as there exist gradations in +characters. A majority soon will, in the nature of things, be below the +level of the freeholder, and by destroying the system of having +landlords and tenants two great evils are created--the one preventing +men of large fortunes from investing in lands, as no man will place his +money where it will be insecure or profitless, thereby cutting off real +estate generally from the benefits that might be and would be conferred +by their capital, as well as cutting it off from the benefits of the +increased price which arise from having such buyers in the market; and +the other is, to prevent any man from being a husbandman who has not the +money necessary to purchase a farm. But they who want farms _now_, and +they who will want votes next November, do not look quite so far ahead +as that; while shouting "equal rights," they are, in fact, for +preventing the poor husbandman from being anything but a day-laborer. + +We obtained tolerably decent lodging at our inn, though the profoundest +patriot America possesses, if he know anything of other countries, or of +the best materials of his own, cannot say much in favor of the sleeping +arrangements of an ordinary country inn. The same money and the same +trouble would render that which is now the very _beau ideal_ of +discomfort, at least tolerable, and in many instances good. But who is +to produce this reform? According to the opinions circulated among us, +the humblest hamlet we have has already attained the highest point of +civilization; and as for the people, without distinction of classes, it +is universally admitted that they are the best educated, the acutest, +and the most intelligent in Christendom;--no, I must correct myself; +they are all this, except when they are in the act of leasing lands, and +then the innocent and illiterate husbandmen are the victims of the arts +of designing landlords, the wretches![21] + +[Footnote 21: Mr. Hugh Littlepage writes a little sharply, but there is +truth in all he says, at the bottom. His tone is probably produced by +the fact that there is so serious an attempt to deprive him of his old +paternal estate, an attempt which is receiving support in high quarters. +In addition to this provocation, the Littlepages, as the manuscript +shows farther on, are traduced, as one means of effecting the objects of +the anti-renters; no man, in any community in which it is necessary to +work on public sentiment in order to accomplish such a purpose, ever +being wronged without being calumniated. As respects the inns, truth +compels me, as an old traveller, to say that Mr. Littlepage has much +reason for what he says. I have met with a better bed in the lowest +French tavern I ever was compelled to use, and in one instance I slept +in an inn frequented by carters, than in the best purely country inn in +America. In the way of neatness, however, more is usually to be found in +our New York village taverns than in the public hotels of Paris itself. +As for the hit touching the intelligence of the people, it is merited; +for I have myself heard subtle distinctions drawn to show that the +"people" of a former generation were not as knowing as the "people" of +this, and imputing the covenants of the older leases to that +circumstance, instead of imputing them to their true cause, the opinions +and practices of the times. Half a century's experience would induce me +to say that the "people" were never particularly dull in making a +bargain.--EDITOR.] + +We passed an hour on the piazza, after eating our supper, and there +being a collection of men assembled there, inhabitants of the hamlet, we +had an opportunity to get into communication with them. My uncle sold a +watch, and I played on the hurdy-gurdy, by way of making myself popular. +After this beginning, the discourse turned on the engrossing subject of +the day, anti-rentism. The principal speaker was a young man about +six-and-twenty, of a sort of shabby-genteel air and appearance, whom I +soon discovered to be the attorney of the neighborhood. His name was +Hubbard, while that of the other principal speaker was Hall. The last +was a mechanic, as I ascertained, and was a plain-looking working-man of +middle age. Each of these persons seated himself on a common "kitchen +chair," leaning back against the side of the house, and, of course, +resting on the two hind-legs of the rickety support, while he placed his +own feet on the rounds in front. The attitudes were neither graceful nor +picturesque, but they were so entirely common as to excite no surprise. +As for Hall, he appeared perfectly contented with his situation, after +fidgeting a little to get the two supporting legs of his chair just +where he wanted them; but Hubbard's eye was restless, uneasy, and even +menacing, for more than a minute. He drew a knife from his pocket--a +small, neat penknife only, it is true--gazed a little wildly about him, +and just as I thought he intended to abandon his nicely poised chair, +and to make an assault on one of the pillars that upheld the roof of the +piazza, the innkeeper advanced, holding in his hand several narrow slips +of pine board, one of which he offered at once to 'Squire Hubbard. This +relieved the attorney, who took the wood, and was soon deeply plunged +in, to me, the unknown delights of whittling. I cannot explain the +mysterious pleasure that so many find in whittling, though the +prevalence of the custom is so well known. But I cannot explain the +pleasure so many find in chewing tobacco, or in smoking. The precaution +of the landlord was far from being unnecessary, and appeared to be taken +in good part by all to whom he offered "whittling-pieces," some six or +eight in the whole. The state of the piazza, indeed, proved that the +precaution was absolutely indispensable, if he did not wish to see the +house come tumbling down about his head. In order that those who have +never seen such things may understand their use, I will go a little out +of the way to explain. + +The inn was of wood, a hemlock frame with a "siding" of clapboards. In +this there was nothing remarkable, many countries of Europe, even, still +building principally of wood. Houses of lath and plaster were quite +common, until within a few years, even in large towns. I remember to +have seen some of these constructions while in London, in close +connection with the justly celebrated Westminster Hall; and of such +materials is the much-talked of miniature castle of Horace Walpole, at +Strawberry Hill. But the inn of Mooseridge had some pretensions to +architecture, besides being three or four times larger than any other +house in the place. A piazza it enjoyed, of course; it must be a pitiful +village inn that does not; and building, accessories and all, rejoiced +in several coats of a spurious white lead. The columns of this piazza, +as well as the clapboards of the house itself, however, exhibited the +proofs of the danger of abandoning your true whittler to his own +instincts. Spread-eagles, five-points, American flags, huzzas for Polk! +the initials of names, and names at full length, with various other +similar conceits, records, and ebullitions of patriotic or party-otic +feelings, were scattered up and down with an affluence that said volumes +in favor of the mint in which they had been coined. But the most +remarkable memorial of the industry of the guests was to be found on one +of the columns; and it was one at a corner, too, and consequently of +double importance to the superstructure--unless, indeed, the house were +built on that well-known principle of American architecture of the last +century, which made the architrave uphold the pillar, instead of the +pillar the architrave. The column in question was of white pine, as +usual--though latterly, in brick edifices, bricks and stucco are much +resorted to--and, at a convenient height for the whittlers, it was +literally cut two-thirds in two. The gash was very neatly made--that +much must be said for it--indicating skill and attention; and the +surfaces of the wound were smoothed in a manner to prove that +appearances were not neglected. + +"Vat do das?" I asked of the landlord, pointing to this gaping wound in +the main column of his piazza. + +"That! Oh! That's only the whittlers," answered the host, with a +good-natured smile. + +Assuredly the Americans _are_ the best-natured people on earth! Here was +a man whose house was nearly tumbling down about his ears--always bating +the principle in architecture just named--and he could smile as Nero may +be supposed to have done when fiddling over the conflagration of Rome. + +"But vhy might de vhittler vhittle down your house?" + +"Oh! this is a free country, you know, and folks do pretty much as they +like in it," returned the still smiling host. "I let 'em cut away as +long as I dared, but it was high time to get out 'whittling-pieces,' I +believe you must own. It's best always to keep a ruff (roof) over a +man's head, to be ready for bad weather. A week longer would have had +the column in two." + +"Vell, I dinks I might not bear dat! Vhat ist mein house ist mein house, +ant dey shall not so moch vittles." + +"By letting 'em so much vittles there, they so much vittles in the +kitchen; so you see there is policy in having your underpinnin' knocked +away sometimes, if it's done by the right sort of folks." + +"You're a stranger in these parts, friend?" observed Hubbard, +complacently, for by this time his "whittling-piece" was reduced to a +shape, and he could go on reducing it, according to some law of the art +of whittling with which I am not acquainted. "We are not so particular +in such matters as in some of your countries in the old world." + +"Ja--das I can see. But does not woot ant column cost money in America, +someding?" + +"To be sure it does. There is not a man in the country who would +undertake to replace that pillar with a new one, paint and all, for less +than ten dollars." + +This was an opening for a discussion on the probable cost of putting a +new pillar into the place of the one that was injured. Opinions +differed, and quite a dozen spoke on the subject; some placing the +expense as high as fifteen dollars, and others bringing it down as low +as five. I was struck with the quiet and self-possession with which each +man delivered his opinion, as well as with the language used. The accent +was uniformly provincial, that of Hubbard included, having a strong and +unpleasant taint of the dialect of New England in it; and some of the +expressions savored a little of the stilts of the newspapers; but, on +the whole, the language was sufficiently accurate and surprisingly good, +considering the class in life of the speakers. The conjectures, too, +manifested great shrewdness and familiarity with practical things, as +well as, in a few instances, some reading. Hall, however, actually +surprised me. He spoke with a precision and knowledge of mechanics that +would have done credit to a scholar, and with a simplicity that added to +the influence of what he said. Some casual remark induced me to put +in--"Vell, I might s'pose an Injin voult cut so das column, but I might +not s'pose a vhite man could." This opinion gave the discourse a +direction toward anti-rentism, and in a few minutes it caught all the +attention of my uncle Ro and myself. + +"This business is going ahead after all!" observed Hubbard, evasively, +after others had had their say. + +"More's the pity," put in Hall. "It might have been put an end to in a +month, at any time, and ought to be put an end to in a civilized land." + +"You will own, neighbor Hall, notwithstanding, it would be a great +improvement in the condition of the tenants all over the State, could +they change their tenures into freeholds." + +"No doubt 'twould; and so it would be a great improvement in the +condition of my journeyman in my shop if he could get to be the boss. +But that is not the question here; the question is, What right has the +State to say any man shall sell his property unless he wishes to sell +it? A pretty sort of liberty we should have if we all held our houses +and gardens under such laws as that supposes!" + +"But do we not all hold our houses and gardens, and farms, too, by some +such law?" rejoined the attorney, who evidently respected his +antagonist, and advanced his own opinions cautiously. "If the public +wants land to use, it can take it by paying for it." + +"Yes, to _use_; but use is everything. I've read that old report of the +committee of the house, and don't subscribe to its doctrines at all. +Public 'policy,' in that sense, doesn't at all mean public 'use.' If +land is wanted for a road, or a fort, or a canal, it must be taken, +under a law, by appraisement, or the thing could not be had at all; but +to pretend, because one side to a contract wishes to alter it, that the +State has a right to interfere, on the ground that the discontented can +be bought off in this way easier and cheaper than they can be made to +obey the laws, is but a poor way of supporting the right. The same +principle, carried out, might prove it would be easier to buy off +pickpockets by compromising than to punish them. Or it would be easy to +get round all sorts of contracts in this way." + +"But all governments use this power when it becomes necessary, neighbor +Hall." + +"That word _necessary_ covers a great deal of ground, 'Squire Hubbard. +The most that can be made of the necessity here is to say it is cheaper, +and may help along parties to their objects better. No man doubts that +the State of New York can put down these anti-renters; and, I trust, +_will_ put them down so far as force is concerned. There is, then, no +other necessity in the case, to begin with, than the necessity which +demagogues always feel, of getting as many votes as they can." + +"After all, neighbor Hall, these votes are pretty powerful weapons in a +popular government." + +"I'll not deny that; and now they talk of a convention to alter the +constitution, it is a favorable moment to teach such managers they shall +not abuse the right of suffrage in this way." + +"How is it to be prevented? You are a universal suffrage man, I know?" + +"Yes, I'm for universal suffrage among honest folks; but do not wish to +have my rulers chosen by them that are never satisfied without having +their hands in their neighbors' pockets. Let 'em put a clause into the +constitution providing that no town, or village, or county, shall hold a +poll within a given time after the execution of process has been openly +resisted in it. That would take the conceit out of all such law-breakers +in very short order." + +It was plain that this idea struck the listeners, and several even +avowed their approbation of the scheme aloud. Hubbard received it as a +new thought, but was more reluctant to admit its practicability. As +might be expected from a lawyer accustomed to practice in a small way, +his objections savored more of narrow views than of the notions of a +statesman. + +"How would you determine the extent of the district to be +disfranchised?" he asked. + +"Take the legal limits as they stand. If process be resisted openly by a +combination strong enough to look down the agents of the law in a town, +disfranchise that town for a given period; if in more than one town, +disfranchise the offending towns; if a county, disfranchise the whole +county." + +"But in that way you would punish the innocent with the guilty." + +"It would be for the good of all; besides, you punish the innocent for +the guilty, or _with_ the guilty rather, in a thousand ways. You and I +are taxed to keep drunkards from starving, because it is better to do +that than to offend humanity by seeing men die of hunger, or tempting +them to steal. When you declare martial law you punish the innocent with +the guilty, in one sense; and so you do in a hundred cases. All we have +to ask is, if it be not wiser and better to disarm demagogues, and those +disturbers of the public peace who wish to pervert their right of +suffrage to so wicked an end, by so simple a process, than to suffer +them to effect their purposes by the most flagrant abuse of their +political privileges?" + +"How would you determine _when_ a town should lose the right of voting?" + +"By evidence given in open court. The judges would be the proper +authority to decide in such a case; and they would decide, beyond all +question, nineteen times in twenty, right. It is the interest of every +man who is desirous of exercising the suffrage on right principles, to +give him some such protection against them that wish to exercise the +suffrage on wrong. A peace-officer can call on the _posse comitatus_ or +on the people to aid him; if enough appear to put down the rebels, well +and good; but if enough do not appear, let it be taken as proof that the +district is not worthy of giving the votes of freemen. They who abuse +such a liberty as man enjoys in this country are the least entitled to +our sympathies. As for the mode, that could easily be determined, as +soon as you settle the principle." + +The discourse went on for an hour, neighbor Hall giving his opinions +still more at large. I listened equally with pleasure and surprise. +"These, then, after all," I said to myself, "are the real bone and sinew +of the country. There are tens of thousands of this sort of men in the +State, and why should they be domineered over, and made to submit to a +legislation and to practices that are so often without principle, by the +agents of the worst part of the community? Will the honest forever be so +passive, while the corrupt and dishonest continue so active?" On my +mentioning these notions to my uncle, he answered: + +"Yes, it ever has been so, and, I fear, ever will be so. _There_ is the +curse of this country," pointing to a table covered with newspapers, the +invariable companion of an American inn of any size. "So long as men +believe what they find _there_, they can be nothing but dupes or +knaves." + +"But there is good in newspapers." + +"That adds to the curse. If they were nothing but lies, the world would +soon reject them; but how few are able to separate the true from the +false! Now, how few of these pages speak the truth about this very +anti-rentism! Occasionally an honest man in the corps does come out; but +where one does this, ten affect to think what they do not believe, in +order to secure votes--votes, votes, votes. In that simple word lies all +the mystery of the matter." + +"Jefferson said, if he were to choose between a government without +newspapers, or newspapers without a government, he would take the last." + +"Ay, Jefferson did not mean newspapers as they are now. I am old enough +to see the change that has taken place. In his day, three or four fairly +convicted lies would damn any editor; now, there are men that stand up +under a thousand. I'll tell you what, Hugh, this country is jogging on +under two of the most antagonist systems possible--Christianity and the +newspapers. The first is daily hammering into every man that he is a +miserable, frail, good-for-nothing being, while the last is eternally +proclaiming the perfection of the people and the virtues of +self-government." + +"Perhaps too much stress ought not to be laid on either." + +"The first is certainly true, under limitations that we all understand; +but as to the last, I will own I want more evidence than a newspaper +eulogy to believe it." + +After all, my uncle Ro is sometimes mistaken; though candor compels me +to acknowledge that he is very often right. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + "I see thee still, + Remembrance, faithful to her trust, + Calls thee in beauty from the dust; + Thou comest in the morning light, + Thou'rt with me through the gloomy night; + In dreams I meet thee as of old: + Then thy soft arms my neck enfold, + And thy sweet voice is in my ear: + In every sense to memory dear + I see thee still."--SPRAGUE. + + +It was just ten in the morning of the succeeding day when my uncle Ro +and myself came in sight of the old house at the Nest. I call it _old_, +for a dwelling that has stood more than half a century acquires a touch +of the venerable, in a country like America. To me it was truly old, the +building having stood there, where I then saw it, for a period more than +twice as long as that of my own existence, and was associated with all +my early ideas. From childhood I had regarded that place as my future +home, as it had been the home of my parents and grandparents, and, in +one sense, of those who had gone before them for two generations more. +The whole of the land in sight--the rich bottoms, then waving with +grass--the side-hills, the woods, the distant mountains--the orchards, +dwellings, barns, and all the other accessories of rural life that +appertained to the soil, were mine, and had thus become without a single +act of injustice to any human being, so far as I knew and believed. Even +the red man had been fairly bought by Herman Mordaunt, the patentee, and +so Susquesus, the Redskin of Ravensnest, as our old Onondago was often +called, had ever admitted the fact to be. It was natural that I should +love an estate thus inherited and thus situated. NO CIVILIZED MAN, NO +MAN, INDEED, SAVAGE OR NOT, HAD EVER BEEN THE OWNER OF THOSE BROAD +ACRES, BUT THOSE WHO WERE OF MY OWN BLOOD. This is what few besides +Americans _can_ say; and when it can be said truly, in parts of the +country where the arts of life have spread, and amid the blessings of +civilization, it becomes the foundation of a sentiment so profound, that +I do not wonder those adventurers-errant who are flying about the face +of the country, thrusting their hands into every man's mess, have not +been able to find it among their other superficial discoveries. Nothing +can be less like the ordinary cravings of avarice than the feeling that +is thus engendered; and I am certain that the general tendency of such +an influence is to elevate the feelings of him who experiences it. + +And there were men among us, high in political station--high as such men +ever can get, for the consequence of having such men in power is to draw +down station itself nearer to their own natural level--but men in power +had actually laid down propositions in political economy which, if +carried out, would cause me to sell all that estate, reserving, perhaps, +a single farm for my own use, and reinvest the money in such a way as +that the interest I obtained might equal my present income! It is true, +this theory was not directly applied to me, as my farms were to fall in +by the covenants of their leases, but it had been directly applied to +Stephen and William Van Rensselaer, and, by implication, to others; and +my turn might come next. What business had the Rensselaers, or the +Livingstons, or the Hunters, or the Littlepages, or the Morgans, or the +Verplancks, or the Wadsworths, or five hundred others similarly placed, +to entertain "sentiments" that interfered with "business," or that +interfered with the wishes of any straggling Yankee who had found his +way out of New England, and wanted a particular farm on his own terms? +It is aristocratic to put sentiment in opposition to trade; and TRADE +ITSELF IS NOT TO BE TRADE ANY LONGER THAN ALL THE PROFIT IS TO BE FOUND +ON THE SIDE OF NUMBERS. Even the principles of holy trade are to be +governed by majorities! + +Even my uncle Ro, who never owned a foot of the property, could not look +at it without emotion. He too had been born there--had passed his +childhood there--and loved the spot without a particle of the grovelling +feeling of avarice. He took pleasure in remembering that our race had +been the only owners of the soil on which he stood, and had that very +justifiable pride which belongs to enduring respectability and social +station. + +"Well, Hugh," he cried, after both of us had stood gazing at the gray +walls of the good and substantial, but certainly not very beautiful +dwelling, "here we are, and we now may determine on what is next to be +done. Shall we march down to the village, which is four miles distant, +you will remember, and get our breakfasts there? shall we try one of +your tenants? or shall we plunge at once _in medias res_, and ask +hospitality of my mother and your sister?" + +"The last might excite suspicion, I fear, sir. Tar and feathers would be +our mildest fate did we fall into the hands of the Injins." + +"Injins! Why not go at once to the wigwam of Susquesus, and get out of +him and Yop the history of the state of things. I heard them speaking of +the Onondago at our tavern last night, and while they said he was +generally thought to be much more than a hundred, that he was still like +a man of eighty. That Indian is full of observation, and may let us into +some of the secrets of his brethren." + +"They can at least give us the news from the family; and though it might +seem in the course of things for pedlers to visit the Nest house, it +will be just as much so for them to halt at the wigwam." + +This consideration decided the matter, and away we went toward the +ravine or glen, on the side of which stood the primitive-looking hut +that went by the name of the "wigwam." The house was a small cabin of +logs, neat and warm, or cool, as the season demanded. As it was kept up, +and was whitewashed, and occasionally furnished anew by the +landlord--the odious creature! he who paid for so many similar things in +the neighborhood--it was never unfit to be seen, though never of a very +alluring, cottage-like character. There was a garden, and it had been +properly made that very season, the negro picking and pecking about it, +during the summer, in a way to coax the vegetables and fruits on a +little, though I well knew that the regular weedings came from an +assistant at the Nest, who was ordered to give it an eye and an +occasional half-day. On one side of the hut there was a hog-pen and a +small stable for a cow; but on the other the trees of the virgin forest, +which had never been disturbed in that glen, overshadowed the roof. This +somewhat poetical arrangement was actually the consequence of a +compromise between the tenants of the cabin, the negro insisting on the +accessories of his rude civilization, while the Indian required the +shades of the woods to reconcile him to his position. Here had these two +singularly associated beings--the one deriving his descent from the +debased races of Africa, and the other from the fierce but lofty-minded +aboriginal inhabitant of this continent--dwelt for nearly the whole +period of an ordinary human life. The cabin itself began to look really +ancient, while those who dwelt in it had little altered within the +memory of man! Such instances of longevity, whatever theorists may say +on the subject, are not unfrequent among either the blacks or the +"natives," though probably less so among the last than among the first, +and still less so among the first of the northern than of the southern +sections of the republic. It is common to say that the great age so +often attributed to the people of these two races is owing to ignorance +of the periods of their births, and that they do not live longer than +the whites. This may be true, in the main, for a white man is known to +have died at no great distance from Ravensnest, within the last +five-and-twenty years, who numbered more than his six-score of years; +but aged negroes and aged Indians are nevertheless so common, when the +smallness of their whole numbers is remembered, as to render the fact +apparent to most of those who have seen much of their respective people. + +There was no highway in the vicinity of the wigwam, for so the cabin was +generally called, though wigwam, in the strict meaning of the word, it +was not. As the little building stood in the grounds of the Nest house, +which contain two hundred acres, a bit of virgin forest included, and +exclusively of the fields that belonged to the adjacent farm, it was +approached only by foot-paths, of which several led to and from it, and +by one narrow, winding carriage-road, which, in passing for miles +through the grounds, had been led near the hut, in order to enable my +grandmother and sister, and, I dare say, my dear departed mother, while +she lived, to make their calls in their frequent airings. By this +sweeping road we approached the cabin. + +"There are the two old fellows, sunning themselves this fine day!" +exclaimed my uncle, with something like a tremor in his voice, as we +drew near enough to the hut to distinguish objects. "Hugh, I never see +these men without a feeling of awe, as well as of affection. They were +the friends, and one was the slave of my grandfather; and as long as I +can remember, have they been aged men! They seem to be set up here as +monuments of the past, to connect the generations that are gone with +those that are to come." + +"If so, sir, they will soon be all there is of their sort. It really +seems to me that, if things continue much longer in their present +direction, men will begin to grow jealous and envious of history itself, +because its actors have left descendants to participate in any little +credit they may have gained." + +"Beyond all contradiction, boy, there is a strange perversion of the old +and natural sentiments on this head among us. But you must bear in mind +the fact, that of the two millions and a half the State contains, not +half a million, probably, possess any of the true York blood, and can +consequently feel any of the sentiments connected with the birthplace +and the older traditions of the very society in which they live. A great +deal must be attributed to the facts of our condition; though I admit +those facts need not, and ought not to unsettle principles. But look at +those two old fellows! There they are, true to the feelings and habits +of their races, even after passing so long a time together in this hut. +There squats Susquesus on a stone, idle and disdaining work, with his +rifle leaning against the apple-tree; while Jaaf--or Yop, as I believe +it is better to call him--is pecking about in the garden, still a slave +at his work, in fancy at least." + +"And which is the happiest, sir--the industrious old man or the idler?" + +"Probably each finds most happiness in indulging his own early habits. +The Onondago never _would_ work, however, and I have heard my father +say, great was his happiness when he found he was to pass the remainder +of his day in _otium cum dignitate_, and without the necessity of making +baskets." + +"Yop is looking at us; had we not better go up at once and speak to +them?" + +"Yop may stare the most openly, but my life on it the Indian _sees_ +twice as much. His faculties are the best, to begin with; and he is a +man of extraordinary and characteristic observation. In his best days +nothing ever escaped him. As you say, we will approach." + +My uncle and myself then consulted on the expediency of using broken +English with these two old men, of which, at first, we saw no necessity; +but when we remembered that others might join us, and that our +communication with the two might be frequent for the next few days, we +changed our minds, and determined rigidly to observe our incognitos. + +As we came up to the door of the hut, Jaaf slowly left his little garden +and joined the Indian, who remained immovable and unmoved on the stone +which served him for a seat. We could see but little change in either +during the five years of our absence, each being a perfect picture, in +his way, of extreme but not decrepit old age in the men of his race. Of +the two, the black--if black he could now be called, his color being a +muddy gray--was the most altered, though that seemed scarcely possible +when I saw him last. As for the Trackless, or Susquesus, as he was +commonly called, his temperance throughout a long life did him good +service, and his half-naked limbs and skeleton-like body, for he wore +the summer-dress of his people, appeared to be made of a leather long +steeped in a tannin of the purest quality. His sinews, too, though much +stiffened, seemed yet to be of whipcord, and his whole frame a species +of indurated mummy that retained its vitality. The color of the skin was +less red than formerly, and more closely approached to that of the +negro, as the latter now was, though perceptibly different. + +"Sago--sago," cried my uncle, as we came quite near, seeing no risk in +using that familiar semi-Indian salutation.[22] "Sago, sago, dis +charmin' mornin'; in my tongue, dat might be _guten tag_." + +[Footnote 22: The editor has often had occasion to explain the meaning +of terms of this nature. The colonists caught a great many words from +the Indians they first knew, and used them to all other Indians, though +not belonging to their language; and these other tribes using them as +English, a sort of limited _lingua franca_ has grown up in the country +that everybody understands. It is believed that "moccason," "squaw," +"pappoose," "sago," "tomahawk," "wigwam," etc., etc., all belong to this +class of words. There can be little doubt that the _sobriquet_ of +"Yankees" is derived from "Yengees," the manner in which the tribes +nearest to New England pronounced the word "English." It is to this hour +a provincialism of that part of the country to pronounce this word +"_Eng_-lish" instead of "_Ing_-lish," its conventional sound. The change +from "_Eng_-lish" to "_Yen_gees" is very trifling.--EDITOR.] + +"Sago," returned the Trackless, in his deep, guttural voice, while old +Yop brought two lips together that resembled thick pieces of overdone +beefsteak, fastened his red-encircled gummy eyes on each of us in turn, +pouted once more, working his jaws as if proud of the excellent teeth +they still held, and said nothing. As the slave of a Littlepage, he held +pedlers as inferior beings; for the ancient negroes of New York ever +identified themselves, more or less, with the families to which they +belonged, and in which they so often were born. "Sago," repeated the +Indian slowly, courteously, and with emphasis, after he had looked a +moment longer at my uncle, as if he saw something about him to command +respect. + +"Dis ist charmin' day, frients," said uncle Ro, placing himself coolly +on a log of wood that had been hauled for the stove, and wiping his +brow. "Vat might you calls dis coontry?" + +"Dis here?" answered Yop, not without a little contempt. "Dis is York +colony; where you come from to ask sich a question?" + +"Charmany. Dat ist far off, but a goot country; ant dis ist goot +country, too." + +"Why you leab him, den, if he be good country, eh?" + +"Vhy you leaf Africa, canst you dell me dat?" retorted uncle Ro, +somewhat coolly. + +"Nebber was dere," growled old Yop, bringing his blubber lips together +somewhat in the manner the boar works his jaws when it is prudent to get +out of his way. "I'm York-nigger born, and nebber seen no Africa; and +nebber want to see him, nudder." + +It is scarcely necessary to say that Jaaf belonged to a school by which +the term of "colored gentleman" was never used. The men of his time and +stamp called themselves "niggers;" and ladies and gentlemen of that age +took them at their word, and called them "niggers," too; a word that no +one of the race ever uses now, except in the way of reproach, and which, +by one of the singular workings of our very wayward and common nature, +he is more apt to use than any other, when reproach is intended. + +My uncle paused a moment to reflect before he continued a discourse that +had not appeared to commence under very flattering auspices. + +"Who might lif in dat big stone house?" asked uncle Ro, as soon as he +thought the negro had had time to cool a little. + +"Anybody can see you no Yorker, by dat werry speech," answered Yop, not +at all mollified by such a question. "Who _should_ lib dere but Gin'ral +Littlepage!" + +"Vell, I dought he wast dead, long ago." + +"What if he be? It is his house, and he lib in it; and ole _young_ +missus lib dere too." + +Now, there had been three generations of generals among the Littlepages, +counting from father to son. First, there had been Brigadier-General +Evans Littlepage, who held that rank in the militia, and died in service +during the revolution. The next was Brigadier-General Cornelius +Littlepage, who got his rank by brevet, at the close of the same war, in +which he had actually figured as a colonel of the New York line. Third, +and last, was my own grandfather, Major-General Mordaunt Littlepage: he +had been a captain in his father's regiment at the close of the same +struggle, got the brevet of major at its termination, and rose to be a +major-general of the militia, the station he held for many years before +he died. As soon as the privates had the power to elect their own +officers, the position of a major-general in the militia ceased to be +respectable, and few gentlemen could be induced to serve. As might have +been foreseen, the militia itself fell into general contempt, where it +now is, and where it will ever remain until a different class of +officers shall be chosen. The people can do a great deal, no doubt, but +they cannot make a "silk purse out of a sow's ear." As soon as officers +from the old classes shall be appointed, the militia will come up; for +in no interest in life is it so material to have men of certain habits, +and notions, and education, in authority, as in those connected with the +military service. A great many fine speeches may be made, and much +patriotic eulogy expended on the intrinsic virtue and intelligence of +the people, and divers projects entertained to make "citizen-soldiers," +as they are called; but citizens never can be, and never will be turned +into soldiers at all, good or bad, until proper officers are placed over +them. To return to Yop-- + +"Bray vhat might be de age of das laty dat you callet _olt_ young +missus?" asked my uncle. + +"Gosh! she nutten but gal--born some time just a'ter old French war. +Remember her well 'nough when she Miss Dus Malbone. Young masser +Mordaunt take fancy to her, and make her he wife." + +"Vell, I hopes you hafn't any objection to der match?" + +"Not I; she clebber young lady den, and she werry clebber young lady +now." + +And this of my venerable grandmother, who had fairly seen her fourscore +years! + +"Who might be der master of das big house now?" + +"Gin'ral Littlepage, doesn't I tell ye! Masser Mordaunt's name, _my_ +young master. Sus, dere, only Injin; he nebber so lucky as hab a good +master. Niggers gettin' scarce, dey tells me, nowadays, in dis world!" + +"Injins, too, I dinks; dere ist no more redskins might be blenty." + +The manner in which the Onondago raised his figure, and the look he +fastened on my uncle, were both fine and startling. As yet he had said +nothing beyond the salutation; but I could see he now intended to speak. + +"New tribe," he said, after regarding us for half a minute intently: +"what you call him--where he come from?" + +"Ja, ja--das ist der anti-rent redskins. Haf you seen 'em, Trackless?" + +"Sartain; come to see me--face in bag--behave like squaw; poor +Injin--poor warrior!" + +"Yees, I believe dat ist true enough. I can't bear soch Injin--might not +be soch Injin in the world. Vhat you call 'em, eh?" + +Susquesus shook his head slowly, and with dignity. Then he gazed +intently at my uncle; after which he fastened his eyes in a similar +manner on me. In this manner his looks turned from one to the other for +some little time, when he again dropped them to the earth, calmly and in +silence. I took out the hurdy-gurdy, and began to play a lively air--one +that was very popular among the American blacks, and which, I am sorry +to say, is getting to be not less so among the whites. No visible effect +was produced on Susquesus, unless a slight shade of contempt was visible +on his dark features. With Jaaf, however, it was very different. Old as +he was, I could see a certain nervous twitching of the lower limbs, +which indicated that the old fellow actually felt some disposition to +dance. It soon passed away, though his grim, hard, wrinkled, dusky-gray +countenance continued to gleam with a sort of dull pleasure for some +time. There was nothing surprising in this, the indifference of the +Indian to melody being almost as marked as the negro's sensitiveness to +its power. + +It was not to be expected that men so aged would be disposed to talk +much. The Onondago had ever been a silent man: dignity and gravity of +character uniting with prudence to render him so. But Jaaf was +constitutionally garrulous, though length of days had necessarily much +diminished the propensity. At that moment a fit of thoughtful and +melancholy silence came over my uncle, too, and all four of us continued +brooding on our own reflections for two or three minutes after I had +ceased to play. Presently the even, smooth approach of carriage-wheels +was heard, and a light summer vehicle that was an old acquaintance, came +whirling round the stable, and drew up within ten feet of the spot where +we were all seated. + +My heart was in my mouth at this unexpected interruption, and I could +perceive that my uncle was scarcely less affected. Amid the flowing and +pretty drapery of summer shawls, and the other ornaments of the female +toilet, were four youthful and sunny faces, and one venerable with +years. In a word, my grandmother, my sister, and my uncle's two other +wards, and Mary Warren were in the carriage; yes, the pretty, gentle, +timid, yet spirited and intelligent daughter of the rector was of the +party, and seemingly quite at home and at her ease, as one among +friends. She was the first to speak even, though it was in a low, quiet +voice, addressed to my sister, and in words that appeared extorted by +surprise. + +"There are the very two pedlers of whom I told you, Martha," she said, +"and now you may hear the flute well played." + +"I doubt if he can play better than Hugh," was my dear sister's answer. +"But we'll have some of his music, if it be only to remind us of him who +is so far away." + +"The music we can and will have, my child," cried my grandmother, +cheerfully; "though _that_ is not wanted to remind us of our absent boy. +Good-morrow, Susquesus; I hope this fine day agrees with you." + +"Sago," returned the Indian, making a dignified and even graceful +forward gesture with one arm, though he did not rise. "Weadder +good--Great Spirit good, dat reason. How squaws do?" + +"We are all well, I thank you, Trackless. Good-morrow, Jaaf; how do +_you_ do, this fine morning?" + +Yop, or Jaap, or Jaaf, rose tottering, made a low obeisance, and then +answered in the semi-respectful, semi-familiar manner of an old, +confidential family servant, as the last existed among our fathers: + +"Tank 'ee, Miss Dus, wid all my heart," he answered. "Pretty well +to-day; but old Sus, he fail, and grow ol'er and ol'er desp'ate fast!" + +Now, of the two, the Indian was much the finest relic of human powers, +though he was less uneasy and more stationary than the black. But the +propensity to see the mote in the eye of his friend, while he forgot the +beam in his own, was a long-established and well-known weakness of Jaaf, +and its present exhibition caused everybody to smile. I was delighted +with the beaming, laughing eyes of Mary Warren in particular, though she +said nothing. + +"I cannot say I agree with you, Jaaf," returned my smiling grandmother. +"The Trackless bears his years surprisingly; and I think I have not seem +him look better this many a day than he is looking this morning. We are +none of us as young as we were when we first became acquainted, +Jaaf--which is now near, if not quite, threescore of years ago." + +"You nuthin' but gal, nudder," growled the negro. "Ole Sus be raal ole +fellow; but Miss Dus and Masser Mordaunt, dey get married only tudder +day. Why _dat_ was a'ter the revylooshen!" + +"It was, indeed," replied the venerable woman, with a touch of +melancholy in her tones; "but the revolution took place many, many a +long year since!" + +"Well, now, I be surprise, Miss Dus! How you call _dat_ so long, when he +only be tudder day?" retorted the pertinacious negro, who began to grow +crusty, and to speak in a short, spiteful way, as if displeased by +hearing that to which he could not assent. "Masser Corny was little ole, +p'r'aps, if he lib, but all de rest ob you nuttin' but children. Tell me +one t'ing, Miss Dus, be it true dey's got a town at Satanstoe?" + +"An attempt was made, a few years since, to turn the whole country into +towns, and, among other places, the Neck; but I believe it will never be +anything more than a capital farm." + +"So besser. _Dat_ good land, I tell you! One acre down der wort' more +than twenty acre up here." + +"My grandson would not be pleased to hear you say that, Jaaf." + +"Who your grandson, Miss Dus. Remember you had little baby tudder day; +but baby can't hab baby." + +"Ah, Jaaf, my old friend, my babies have long since been men and women, +and are drawing on to old age. One, and he was my first-born, is gone +before us to a better world, and _his_ boy is now your young master. +This young lady, that is seated opposite to me, is the sister of that +young master, and she would be grieved to think you had forgotten her." + +Jaaf labored under the difficulty so common to old age, he was forgetful +of things of more recent date, while he remembered those which had +occurred a century ago! The memory is a tablet that partakes of the +peculiarity of all our opinions and habits. In youth it is easily +impressed, and the images then engraved on it are distinct, deep, and +lasting, while those that succeed become crowded, and take less root, +from the circumstance of finding the ground already occupied. In the +present instance, the age was so great that the change was really +startling, the old negro's recollections occasionally coming on the mind +like a voice from the grave. As for the Indian, as I afterward +ascertained, he was better preserved in all respects than the black; his +great temperance in youth, freedom from labor, exercise in the open air, +united to the comforts and abundance of semi-civilized habits, that had +now lasted for nearly a century, contributed to preserve both mind and +body. As I now looked at him, I remembered what I had heard in my +boyhood of his history. + +There had ever been a mystery about the life of the Onondago. If any one +of our set had ever been acquainted with the facts, it was Andries +Coejemans, a half-uncle of my dear grandmother, a person who has been +known among us by the _sobriquet_ of the Chainbearer. My grandmother had +told me that "uncle Chainbearer," as we all called the old relative, +_did_ know about Susquesus, in his time--the reason why he had left his +tribe, and become a hunter, and warrior, and runner among the +pale-faces--and that he had always said the particulars did his red +friend great credit, but that he would reveal it no further. So great, +however, was uncle Chainbearer's reputation for integrity, that such an +opinion was sufficient to procure for the Onondago the fullest +confidence of the whole connection, and the experience of fourscore +years and ten had proved that this confidence was well placed. Some +imputed the sort of exile in which the old man had so long lived to +love, others to war, and others, again, to the consequences of those +fierce personal feuds that are known to occur among men in the savage +state. But all was just as much a mystery and matter of conjecture, now +we were drawing near the middle of the nineteenth century, as it had +been when our forefathers were receding from the middle of the +eighteenth! To return to the negro. + +Although Jaaf had momentarily forgotten me, and quite forgotten my +parents, he remembered my sister, who was in the habit of seeing him so +often. In what manner he connected her with the family, it is not easy +to say; but he knew her not only by sight, but by name, and, as one +might say, by blood. + +"Yes, yes," cried the old fellow, a little eagerly, "_champing_" his +thick lips together, somewhat as an alligator snaps his jaws, "yes, I +knows Miss Patty, of course. Miss Patty is werry han'some, and grows +han'somer and han'somer ebbery time I sees her--yah, yah, yah!" The +laugh of that old negro sounded startling and unnatural, yet there was +something of the joyous in it, after all, like every negro's laugh. +"Yah, yah, yah! Yes, Miss Patty won'erful han'some, and werry like Miss +Dus. I s'pose, now, Miss Patty was born about 'e time dat Gin'ral +Washington die." + +As this was a good deal more than doubling my sister's age, it produced +a common laugh among the light-hearted girls in the carriage. A gleam of +intelligence that almost amounted to a smile also shot athwart the +countenance of the Onondago, while the muscles of his face worked, but +he said nothing. I had reason to know afterward that the tablet of his +memory retained its records better. + +"What friends have you with you to-day, Jaaf?" inquired my grandmother, +inclining her head toward us pedlers graciously, at the same time; a +salutation that my uncle Ro and myself rose hastily to acknowledge. + +As for myself, I own honestly that I could have jumped into the vehicle +and kissed my dear grandmother's still good-looking, but colorless +cheeks, and hugged Patt, and possibly some of the others, to my heart. +Uncle Ro had more command of himself, though I could see that the sound +of his venerable parent's voice, in which the tremor was barely +perceptible, was near overcoming him. + +"Dese be pedler, ma'am, I do s'pose," answered the black. "Dey's got box +wid somet'in' in him, and dey's got new kind of fiddle. Come, young man, +gib Miss Dus a tune--a libely one; sich as make an ole nigger dance." + +I drew round the hurdy-gurdy, and was beginning to flourish away, when a +gentle sweet voice, raised a little louder than usual by eagerness, +interrupted me. + +"Oh! not that thing, not that; the flute, the flute!" exclaimed Mary +Warren, blushing to the eyes at her own boldness, the instant she saw +that she was heard, and that I was about to comply. + +It is hardly necessary to say that I bowed respectfully, laid down the +hurdy-gurdy, drew the flute from my pocket, and, after a few flourishes, +commenced playing one of the newest airs, or melodies, from a favorite +opera. I saw the color rush into Martha's cheeks the moment I had got +through a bar or two, and the start she gave satisfied me that the dear +girl remembered her brother's flute. I had played on that very +instrument ever since I was sixteen, but I had made an immense progress +in the art during the five years just passed in Europe. Masters at +Naples, Paris, Vienna, and London had done a great deal for me; and I +trust I shall not be thought vain if I add, that nature had done +something too. My excellent grandmother listened in profound attention, +and all four of the girls were enchanted. + +"That music is worthy of being heard in a room," observed the former, as +soon as I concluded the air; "and we shall hope to hear it this evening, +at the Nest House, if you remain anywhere near us. In the meantime, we +must pursue our airing." + +As my grandmother spoke she leaned forward, and extended her hand to me, +with a benevolent smile. I advanced, received the dollar that was +offered, and, unable to command my feelings, raised the hand to my lips, +respectfully but with fervor. Had Martha's face been near me, it would +have suffered also. I suppose there was nothing in this respectful +salutation that struck the spectators as very much out of the way, +foreigners having foreign customs, but I saw a flush in my venerable +grandmother's cheek, as the carriage moved off. _She_ had noted the +warmth of the manner. My uncle had turned away, I dare say to conceal +the tears that started to his eyes, and Jaaf followed toward the door of +the hut, whither my uncle moved, in order to do the honors of the place. +This left me quite alone with the Indian. + +"Why no kiss _face_ of grandmodder?" asked the Onondago, coolly and +quietly. + +Had a clap of thunder broken over my head, I could not have been more +astonished! The disguise that had deceived my nearest relations--that +had baffled Seneca Newcome, and had set at naught even his sister +Opportunity--had failed to conceal me from that Indian, whose faculties +might be supposed to have been numbed with age! + +"Is it possible that you know me, Susquesus!" I exclaimed, signing +toward the negro at the same time, by way of caution; "that you remember +me at all! I should have thought this wig, these clothes, would have +concealed me." + +"Sartain," answered the aged Indian, calmly. "Know young chief +soon as see him; know fader--know mudder; know gran'fader, +gran'mudder--great-gran'fader; _his_ fader, too; know all. Why forget +young chief?" + +"Did you know me before I kissed my grandmother's hand, or only by that +act?" + +"Know as soon as see him. What eyes good for, if don't know? Know uncle, +dere, sartain; welcome home!" + +"But you will not let others know us, too, Trackless? We have always +been friends, I hope?" + +"Be sure, friends. Why ole eagle, wid white head, strike young pigeon? +Nebber hatchet in 'e path between Susquesus and any of de tribe of +Ravensnest. Too ole to dig him up now." + +"There are good reasons why my uncle and myself should not be known for +a few days. Perhaps you have heard something of the trouble that has +grown up between the landlords and the tenants, in the land?" + +"What dat trouble?" + +"The tenants are tired of paying rent, and wish to make a new bargain, +by which they can become owners of the farms on which they live." + +A grim light played upon the swarthy countenance of the Indian: his lips +moved, but he uttered nothing aloud. + +"Have you heard anything of this, Susquesus?" + +"Little bird sing sich song in my ear--didn't like to hear it." + +"And of Indians who are moving up and down the country, armed with +rifles and dressed in calico?" + +"What tribe, dem Injin," asked the Trackless, with a quickness and a +fire I did not think it possible for him to retain. "What 'ey do, +marchin' 'bout?--on war-path, eh?" + +"In one sense they may be said to be so. They belong to the anti-rent +tribe; do you know such a nation?" + +"Poor Injin dat, b'lieve. Why come so late?--why no come when 'e foot of +Susquesus light as feather of bird!--why stay away till pale-faces +plentier dan leaf on tree, or snow in air? Hundred year ago, when dat +oak little, sich Injin might be good; now, he good for nuttin'." + +"But you will keep our secret, Sus?--will not even tell the negro who we +are?" + +The Trackless simply nodded his head in assent. After this he seemed to +me to sink back in a sort of brooding lethargy, as if indisposed to +pursue the subject. I left him to go to my uncle, in order to relate +what had just passed. Mr. Roger Littlepage was as much astonished as I +had been myself, at hearing that one so aged should have detected us +through disguises that had deceived our nearest of kin. But the quiet +penetration and close observation of the man had long been remarkable. +As his good faith was of proof, however, neither felt any serious +apprehension of being betrayed, as soon as he had a moment for +reflection. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + "He saw a cottage with a double coach-house, + A cottage of gentility; + And the devil did grin, for his darling sin + Is the pride that apes humility."--_Devil's Thoughts_. + + +It was now necessary to determine what course we ought next to pursue. +It might appear presuming in men of our pursuits to go to the Nest +before the appointed time; and did we proceed on to the village, we +should have the distance between the two places to walk over twice, +carrying our instruments and jewel-box. After a short consultation, it +was decided to visit the nearest dwellings, and to remain as near my own +house as was practicable, making an arrangement to sleep somewhere in +its immediate vicinity. Could we trust any one with our secret, our fare +would probably be all the better; but my uncle thought it most prudent +to maintain a strict incognito until he had ascertained the true state +of things in the town. + +We took leave of the Indian and the negro, therefore, promising to visit +them again in the course of that or the succeeding day, and followed the +path that led to the farm-house. It was our opinion that we might, at +least, expect to meet with friends in the occupants of the home farm. +The same family had been retained in possession there for three +generations, and being hired to manage the husbandry and to take care of +the dairy, there was not the same reason for the disaffection, that was +said so generally to exist among the tenantry, prevailing among them. +The name of this family was Miller, and it consisted of the two heads +and some six or seven children, most of the latter being still quite +young. + +"Tom Miller was a trusty lad, when I knew much of him," said my uncle, +as we drew near to the barn, in which we saw the party mentioned, at +work; "and he is said to have behaved well in one or two alarms they +have had at the Nest, this summer; still, it may be wiser not to let +even him into our secret as yet." + +"I am quite of your mind, sir," I answered; "for who knows that he has +not just as strong a desire as any of them to own the farm on which he +lives? He is the grandson of the man who cleared it from the forest, and +has much the same title as the rest of them." + +"Very true; and why should not that give him just as good a right to +claim an interest in the farm, beyond that he has got under his contract +to work it, as if he held a lease? He who holds a lease gets no right +beyond his bargain; nor does this man. The one is paid for his labor by +the excess of his receipts over the amount of his annual rent, while the +other is paid partly in what he raises, and partly in wages. In +principle there is no difference whatever, not a particle; yet I +question if the veriest demagogue in the State would venture to say that +the man, or the family, which works the farm for hire, even for a +hundred years, gets the smallest right to say he shall not quit it, if +its owner please, as soon as his term of service is up!" + +"'The love of money is the root of all evil;' and when that feeling is +uppermost, one can never tell what a man will do. The bribe of a good +farm, obtained for nothing, or for an insignificant price, is sufficient +to upset the morality of even Tom Miller." + +"You are right, Hugh; and here is one of the points in which our +political men betray the cloven foot. They write, and proclaim, and make +speeches, as if the anti-rent troubles grew out of the durable lease +system solely, whereas we all know that it is extended to all +descriptions of obligations given for the occupancy of land--life +leases, leases for a term of years, articles for deeds, and bonds and +mortgages. It is a wide-spread, though not yet universal attempt of +those who have the least claim to the possession of real estate, to +obtain the entire right, and that by agencies that neither the law nor +good morals will justify. It is no new expedient for partisans to place +_en evidence_ no more of their principles and intentions than suits +their purposes. But, here we are within ear-shot, and must resort to the +High Dutch. _Guten tag, guten tag_," continued uncle Ro, dropping easily +into the broken English of our masquerade, as we walked into the barn, +where Miller, two of his older boys, and a couple of hired men were at +work, grinding scythes and preparing for the approaching hay-harvest. +"It might be warm day, dis fine mornin'." + +"Good-day, good-day," cried Miller, hastily, and glancing his eye a +little curiously at our equipments. "What have you got in your +box--essences?" + +"Nein; vatches and drinkets;" setting down the box and opening it at +once, for the inspection of all present. "Von't you burchase a goot +vatch, dis bleasant mornin'?" + +"Be they ra-al gold?" asked Miller, a little doubtingly. "And all them +chains and rings, be they gold too?" + +"Not true golt; nein, I might not say dat. But goot enough golt for +blain folks, like you and me." + +"Them things would never do for the grand quality over at the big +house!" cried one of the laborers, who was unknown to me, but whose name +I soon ascertained was Joshua Brigham, and who spoke with a sort of +malicious sneer that at once betrayed _he_ was no friend. "You mean 'em +for poor folks, I s'pose?" + +"I means dem for any bodies dat vill pay deir money for 'em," answered +my uncle. "Vould you like a vatch?" + +"That would I; and a farm, too, if I could get 'em cheap," answered +Brigham, with a sneer he did not attempt to conceal. "How do you sell +farms to-day?" + +"I haf got no farms; I sells drinkets and vatches, but I doesn't sell +farms. Vhat I haf got I vill sell, but I cannot sells vhat I haf not +got." + +"Oh! you'll get all you want if you'll stay long enough in this country! +This is a free land, and just the place for a poor man; or it will be, +as soon as we get all the lords and aristocrats out of it." + +This was the first time I had ever heard this political blarney with my +own ears, though I had understood it was often used by those who wish to +give to their own particular envy and covetousness a grand and sounding +air. + +"Vell, I haf heards dat in America dere might not be any noples ant +aristocrats," put in my uncle, with an appearance of beautiful +simplicity; "and dat dere ist not ein graaf in der whole coontry." + +"Oh! there's all sorts of folks here, just as they are to be found +elsewhere," cried Miller, seating himself coolly on the end of the +grindstone-frame, to open and look into the mysteries of one of the +watches. "Now, Joseph Brigham, here, calls all that's above him in the +world aristocrats, but lie doesn't call all that's below him his +equals." + +I liked that speech; and I liked the cool, decided way in which it was +uttered. It denoted, in its spirit, a man who saw things as they are, +and who was not afraid to say what he thought about them. My uncle Ro +was surprised, and that agreeably, too, and he turned to Miller to +pursue the discourse. + +"Den dere might not be any nopility in America, after all?" he asked, +inquiringly. + +"Yes, there's plenty of such lords as Josh here, who want to be +uppermost so plaguily that they don't stop to touch all the rounds of +the ladder. I tell him, friend, he wants to get on too fast, and that he +mustn't set up for a gentleman before he knows how to behave himself." + +Josh looked a little abashed at a rebuke that came from one of his own +class, and which he must have felt, in secret, was merited. But the +demon was at work in him, and he had persuaded himself that he was the +champion of a quality as sacred as liberty, when, in fact, he was simply +and obviously doing neither more nor less than breaking the tenth +commandment. He did not like to give up, while he skirmished with +Miller, as the dog that has been beaten already two or three times +growls over a bone at the approach of his conqueror. + +"Well, thank heaven," he cried, "_I_ have got some spirit in my body." + +"That's very true, Joshua," answered Miller, laying down one watch and +taking up another; "but it happens to be an evil spirit." + +"Now, here's them Littlepages; what makes them better than other folks?" + +"You had better let the Littlepages alone, Joshua, seein' they're a +family that you know nothing at all about." + +"I don't want to know them; though I _do_ happen to know all I want to +know. I despise 'em." + +"No, you don't, Joshy, my boy; nobody despises folks they talk so +spitefully about. What's the price of this here watch, friend?" + +"Four dollars," said my uncle, eagerly, falling lower than was prudent, +in his desire to reward Miller for his good feeling and sound +sentiments. "Ja, ja--you might haf das vatch for four dollars." + +"I'm afraid it isn't good for anything," returned Miller, feeling the +distrust that was natural at hearing a price so low. "Let's have another +look at its inside." + +No man, probably, ever bought a watch without looking into its works +with an air of great intelligence, though none but a mechanician is any +wiser for his survey. Tom Miller acted on this principle, for the good +looks of the machine he held in his hand, and the four dollars, tempted +him sorely. It had its effect, too, on the turbulent and envious Joshua, +who seemed to understand himself very well in a bargain. Neither of the +men had supposed the watches to be of gold, for though the metal that is +in a watch does not amount to a great deal, it is usually of more value +than all that was asked for the "article" now under examination. In +point of fact, my uncle had this very watch "invoiced to him" at twice +the price he now put it at. + +"And what do you ask for this?" demanded Joshua, taking up another watch +of very similar looks and of equal value to the one that Miller still +retained open in his hand. "Won't you let this go for three dollars?" + +"No; der brice of dat is effery cent of forty dollars," answered Uncle +Ro, stubbornly. + +The two men now looked at the pedler in surprise. Miller took the watch +from his hired man, examined it attentively, compared it with the other, +and then demanded its price anew. + +"_You_ might haf eider of dem vatches for four dollars," returned my +uncle, as I thought, incautiously. + +This occasioned a new surprise, though Brigham fortunately referred the +difference to a mistake. + +"Oh!" he said, "I understood you to say _forty_ dollars. Four dollars is +a different matter." + +"Josh," interrupted the more observant and cooler-headed Miller, "it is +high time, now, you and Peter go and look a'ter them sheep. The conch +will soon be blowing for dinner. If you want a trade, you can have one +when you get back." + +Notwithstanding the plainness of his appearance and language, Tom Miller +was captain of his own company. He gave this order quietly, and in his +usual familiar way, but it was obviously to be obeyed without a +remonstrance. In a minute the two hired men were off in company, leaving +no one behind in the barn but Miller, his sons, and us two. I could see +there was a motive for all this, but did not understand it. + +"Now _he's_ gone," continued Tom, quietly, but laying an emphasis that +sufficiently explained his meaning, "perhaps you'll let me know the true +price of this watch. I've a mind for it, and maybe we can agree." + +"Four dollars," answered my uncle, distinctly. "I haf said you might haf +it for dat money, and vhat I haf said once might always be." + +"I will take it, then. I almost wish you had asked eight, though four +dollars saved is suthin' for a poor man. It's so plaguy cheap I'm a +little afraid on't; but I'll ventur'. There; there's your money, and in +hard cash." + +"Dank you, sir. Won't das ladies choose to look at my drinkets?" + +"Oh! if you want to deal with ladies who buy chains and rings, the Nest +house is the place. My woman wouldn't know what to do with sich things, +and don't set herself up for a fine lady at all. That chap who has just +gone for the sheep is the only great man we have about this farm." + +"Ja, ja; he ist a nople in a dirty shirt, ja, ja; why hast he dem pig +feelin's?" + +"I believe you have named them just as they ought to be, _pig's_ +feelin's. It's because he wishes to thrust his own snout all over the +trough, and is mad when he finds anybody else's in the way. We're +getting to have plenty of such fellows up and down the country, and an +uncomfortable time they give us. Boys, I _do_ believe it will turn out +a'ter all, that Josh is an Injin!" + +"I _know_ he is," answered the oldest of the two sons, a lad of +nineteen; "where else should he be so much of nights and Sundays, but at +their trainin's?--and what was the meanin' of the calico bundle I saw +under his arm a month ago, as I told you on at the time?" + +"If I find it out to be as you say, Harry, he shall tramp off of this +farm. I'll have no Injins here!" + +"Vell, I dought I dit see an olt Injin in a hut up yonder ast by der +woots!" put in my uncle, innocently. + +"Oh! that is Susquesus, an Onondago; he is a true Injin, and a +gentleman; but we have a parcel of the mock gentry about, who are a pest +and an eyesore to every honest man in the country. Half on 'em are +nothing but thieves in mock Injin dresses. The law is ag'in 'em, right +is ag'in 'em, and every true friend of liberty in the country ought to +be ag'in 'em." + +"Vhat ist der matter in dis coontry? I hear in Europe how America ist a +free lant, ant how efery man hast his rights; but since I got here dey +do nothin' but talk of barons, and noples, and tenants, and arisdograts, +and all der bat dings I might leaf behint me in der Olt Worlt." + +"The plain matter is, friend, that they who have got little, envy them +that's got much; and the struggle is, to see which is the strongest. On +the one side is the law, and right, and bargains, and contracts; and on +the other thousands--not of dollars, but of men. Thousands of voters; +d'ye understand?" + +"Ja, ja--I oonderstands; dat ist easy enough. But vhy do dey dalk so +much of noples and arisdograts?--ist der noples and arisdograts in +America?" + +"Well, I don't much understand the natur' of sich things; there +sartainly is a difference in men, and a difference in their fortun's, +and edications, and such sort of things." + +"Und der law, den, favors der rich man at der cost of der poor, in +America, too, does it? Und you haf arisdograts who might not pay taxes, +and who holt all der offices, and get all der pooblic money, and who ist +petter pefore de law, in all dings, dan ast dem dat be not arisdograts? +Is it so?" + +Miller laughed outright, and shook his head at this question, continuing +to examine the trinkets the whole time. + +"No, no, my friend, we've not much of _that_, in this part of the world, +either. Rich men get very few offices, to begin with; for it's an +argooment in favor of a man for an office, that he's poor, and _wants_ +it. Folks don't so much ask who the office wants, as who wants the +office. Then, as for taxes, there isn't much respect paid to the rich on +that score. Young 'Squire Littlepage pays the tax on this farm directly +himself, and it's assessed half as high ag'in, all things considered, as +any other farm on his estate." + +"But dat is not right." + +"Right! Who says it is?--or who thinks there is anything right about +assessments, anywhere? I have heard assessors, with my own ears, use +such words as these:--'Sich a man is rich, and can afford to pay,' and +'sich a man is poor, and it will come hard on him.' Oh! they kiver up +dishonesty, nowadays, under all sorts of argooments." + +"But der law; der rich might haf der law on deir side, surely!" + +"In what way, I should like to know? Juries be everything, and juries +will go accordin' to their feelin's, as well as other men. I've seen the +things with my own eyes. The country pays just enough a day to make poor +men like to be on juries, and they never fail to attend, while them that +can pay their fines stay away, and so leave the law pretty much in the +hands of one party. No rich man gains his cause, unless his case is so +strong it can't be helped." + +I had heard this before, there being a very general complaint throughout +the country of the practical abuses connected with the jury system. I +have heard intelligent lawyers complain, that whenever a cause of any +interest is to be tried, the first question asked is not "what are the +merits?" "which has the law and the facts on his side?" but "who is +likely to be on the jury?"--thus obviously placing the composition of +the jury before either law or evidence. Systems may have a very fair +appearance on paper and as theories, that are execrable in practice. As +for juries, I believe the better opinion of the intelligent of all +countries is, that while they are a capital contrivance to resist the +abuse of power in narrow governments, in governments of a broad +constituency they have the effect, which might easily be seen, of +placing the control of the law in the hands of those who would be most +apt to abuse it; since it is adding to, instead of withstanding and +resisting the controlling authority of the State, from which, in a +popular government, most of the abuses must unavoidably proceed. + +As for my uncle Ro, he was disposed to pursue the subject with Miller, +who turned out to be a discreet and conscientious man. After a very +short pause, as if to reflect on what had been said, he resumed the +discourse. + +"Vhat, den, makes arisdograts in dis coontry?" asked my uncle. + +"Wa-a-l"--no man but an American of New England descent, as was the case +with Miller, can give this word its Attic sound--"Wa-a-l, it's hard to +say. I hear a great deal about aristocrats, and I read a great deal +about aristocrats, in this country and I know that most folks look upon +them as hateful, but I'm by no means sartain I know what an aristocrat +is. Do you happen to know anything about it, friend?" + +"Ja, ja; an arisdograt ist one of a few men dat hast all de power of de +government in deir own hands." + +"King! That isn't what we think an aristocrat in this part of the world. +Why, we call them critters here DIMIGOGUES! Now, young 'Squire +Littlepage, who owns the Nest house, over yonder, and who is owner of +all this estate, far and near, is what _we_ call an aristocrat, and he +hasn't power enough to be named town-clerk, much less to anything +considerable, or what is worth having." + +"How can he be an arisdograt, den?" + +"How, sure enough, if your account be true! I tell you 'tis the +dimigogues that be the aristocrats of America. Why, Josh Brigham, who +has just gone for the sheep, can get more votes for any office in the +country than young Littlepage!" + +"Berhaps dis young Littlebage ist a pat yoong man?" + +"Not he; he's as good as any on 'em, and better than most. Besides, if +he was as wicked as Lucifer, the folks of the country don't know +anything about it, sin' he's be'n away ever sin' he has be'n a man." + +"Vhy, den, gan't he haf as many votes as dat poor, ignorant fellow might +haf?--das ist ott." + +"It is odd, but it's true as gospel. _Why_, it may not be so easy to +tell. Many men, many minds, you know. Some folks don't like him because +he lives in a big house; some hate him because they think he is better +off than they are themselves; others mistrust him because he wears a +fine coat; and some pretend to laugh at him because he got his property +from his father, and grand'ther, and so on, and didn't make it himself. +Accordin' to some folks' notions, nowadays, a man ought to enj'y only +the property he heaps together himself." + +"If dis be so, your Herr Littlebage ist no arisdograt." + +"Wa-a-l, that isn't the idee, hereaway. We have had a great many +meetin's, latterly, about the right of the people to their farms; and +there has been a good deal of talk at them meetin's consarnin' +aristocracy and feudal tenors; do you know what a feudal tenor is?" + +"Ja; dere ist moch of dat in Teutchland--in mine coontry. It ist not +ferry easy to explain it in a few vords, but der brincipal ding ist dat +der vassal owes a serfice to hist lort. In de olten dimes dis serfice +vast military, und dere ist someding of dat now. It ist de noples who +owe der feudal serfice, brincipally, in mine coontry, and dey owes it to +the kings and brinces." + +"And don't you call giving a chicken for rent feudal service, in +Germany?" + +Uncle Ro and I laughed, in spite of our efforts to the contrary, there +being a bathos in this question that was supremely ridiculous. Curbing +his merriment, however, as soon as he could, my uncle answered the +question. + +"If der landlort has a right to coome and dake as many chickens as he +bleases, und ast often ast he bleases, den dat wouldt look like a feudal +right; but if de lease says dat so many chickens moost be paid a year, +for der rent, vhy dat ist all der same as baying so much moneys; und it +might be easier for der tenant to bay in chicken ast it might be to bay +in der silver. Vhen a man canst bay his debts in vhat he makes himself, +he ist ferry interpentent." + +"It does seem so, I vow! Yet there's folks about here and some at +Albany, that call it feudal for a man to have to carry a pair of fowls +to the landlord's office, and the landlord an aristocrat for asking it!" + +"But der man canst sent a poy, or a gal, or a nigger wid his fowls, if +he bleases?" + +"Sartain; all that is asked is that the fowls should come." + +"Und vhen der batroon might owe hist tailor, or hist shoemaker, must he +not go to hist shop, or find him and bay him vhat he owes, or be suet +for der debt?" + +"That's true, too; boys, put me in mind of telling that to Josh, this +evening. Yes, the greatest landlord in the land must hunt up his +creditor, or be sued, all the same as the lowest tenant." + +"Und he most bay in a partic'lar ding; he most bay in golt or silver?" + +"True; lawful tender is as good for one as 'tis for t'other." + +"Und if your Herr Littlebage signs a baper agreein' to gif der apples +from dat orchart to somebody on his landts, most he send or carry der +apples, too?" + +"To be sure; that would be the bargain." + +"Und he most carry der ferry apples dat grows on dem ferry drees, might +it not be so?" + +"All true as gospel. If a man contracts to sell the apples of one +orchard, he can't put off the purchaser with the apples of another." + +"Und der law ist der same for one ast for anudder, in dese t'ings?" + +"There is no difference; and there should be none." + +"Und der batroons und der landlordts wants to haf der law changet, so +dat dey may be excuset from baying der debts accordin' to der bargains, +und to gif dem atfantages over der poor tenants?" + +"I never heard anything of the sort, and don't believe they want any +such change." + +"Of vhat, den, dost der beople complain?" + +"Of having to pay rent at all; they think the landlords ought to be made +to sell their farms, or give them away. Some stand out for the last." + +"But der landlordts don't vant to sell deir farms; und dey might not be +made to sell vhat ist deir own, und vhat dey don't vant to sell, any +more dan der tenants might be made to sell deir hogs and deir sheep, +vhen dey don't vant to sell dem." + +"It does seem so, boys, as I've told the neighbors, all along. But I'll +tell this Dutchman all about it, Some folks want the State to look a'ter +the title of young Littlepage, pretending he has no title." + +"But der State wilt do dat widout asking for it particularly, vill it +not?" + +"I never heard that it would." + +"If anybody hast a claim to der broperty, vilt not der courts try it?" + +"Yes, yes--in that way; but a tenant can't set up a title ag'n his +landlord." + +"Vhy should he? He canst haf no title but his landlort's, and it vould +be roguery and cheatery to let a man get into der bossession of a farm +under der pretence of hiring it, und den come out und claim it as owner. +If any tenant dinks he hast a better right dan his landlort, he can put +der farm vhere it vast before he might be a tenant, und den der State +wilt examine into der title, I fancy." + +"Yes, yes--in that way; but these men want it another way. What they +want is, for the State to set up a legal examination, and turn the +landlords off altogether, if they can, and then let themselves have the +farms in their stead." + +"But dat would not be honest to dem dat hafen't nothing to do wid der +farms. If der State owns der farms, it ought to get as moch as it can +for dem, and so safe _all_ der people from baying taxes. It looks like +roguery, all roundt." + +"I believe it is that, and nothing else! As you say, the State will +examine into the title as it is, and there is no need of any laws about +it." + +"Would der State, dink you, pass a law dat might inquire into de demands +dat are made against der batroons, vhen der tratesman sent in deir +bills?" + +"I should like to see any patroon ask sich a thing! He would be laughed +at from York to Buffalo." + +"Und he would desarf if. By vhat I see, frient, your denants be der +arisdograts, und der landlordts der vassals." + +"Why, you see--what may your name be?--as we're likely to become +acquainted, I should like to know your name." + +"My name is Greisenbach, und I comes from Preussen." + +"Well, Mr. Greisenbach, the difficulty about aristocracy is this: Hugh +Littlepage is rich, and his money gives him advantages that other men +can't enj'y. Now, that sticks in some folks' crops." + +"Oh! den it ist meant to divite broperty in dis coontry; und to say no +man might haf more ast anudder!" + +"Folks don't go quite as far as that, yet; though some of their talk +does squint that-a-way, I must own. Now, there are folks about here that +complain that old Madam Littlepage and her young ladies don't visit the +poor." + +"Vell, if deys be hard-hearted, und hast no feelin's for der poor and +miseraple----" + +"No, no; that is not what I mean, neither. As for that sort of poor, +everybody allows they do more for _them_ than anybody else about here. +But they don't visit the poor that isn't in want." + +"Vell, it ist a ferry coomfortable sort of poor dat ist not in any vant. +Berhaps you mean dey don't associate wid 'em, as equals?" + +"That's it. Now, on that head, I must say there is some truth in the +charge, for the gals over at the Nest never come here to visit my gal, +and Kitty is as nice a young thing as there is about." + +"Und Gitty goes to visit the gal of the man who lives over yonter, in de +house on der hill?" pointing to a residence of a man of the very +humblest class in the town. + +"Hardly! Kitty's by no means proud, but I shouldn't like her to be too +thick there." + +"Oh! you're an arisdograt, den, after all; else might your daughter +visit dat man's daughter." + +"I tell you, Grunzebach, or whatever your name may be," returned Miller, +a little angrily, though a particularly good-natured man in the main, +"that _my_ gal shall _not_ visit old Steven's da'ghters." + +"Vell, I'm sure she might do as she bleases; but I dinks der +Mademoiselles Littlepage might do ast dey pleases, too." + +"There is but one Littlepage gal; if you saw them out this morning in +the carriage, you saw two York gals and parson Warren's da'ghter with +her." + +"Und dis parson Warren might be rich, too?" + +"Not he; he hasn't a sixpence on 'arth but what he gets from the parish. +Why, he is so poor his friends had to edicate his da'ghter, I have heern +say, over and over!" + +"Und das Littlepage gal und de Warren gal might be goot friends?" + +"They are the thickest together of any two young women in this part of +the world. I've never seen two gals more intimate. Now, there's a young +lady in the town, one Opportunity Newcome, who, one might think, would +stand before Mary Warren at the big house, any day in the week, but she +doesn't! Mary takes all the shine out on her." + +"Which ist der richest, Obbordunity or Mary?" + +"By all accounts Mary Warren has nothing, while Opportunity is thought +to come next to Matty herself, as to property, of all the young gals +about here. But Opportunity is no favorite at the Nest." + +"Den it would seem, after all, dat dis Miss Littlebage does not choose +her friends on account of riches. She likes Mary Warren, who ist boor, +und she does not like Obbordunity, who ist vell to do in de vorlt. +Berhaps der Littlepages be not as big arisdograts as you supposes." + +Miller was bothered, while I felt a disposition to laugh. One of the +commonest errors of those who, from position and habits, are unable to +appreciate the links which connect cultivated society together, is to +refer everything to riches. Riches, in a certain sense, as a means and +through their consequences, may be a principal agent in dividing society +into classes; but, long after riches have taken wings, their fruits +remain, when good use has been made of their presence. So untrue is the +vulgar opinion--or it might be better to say the opinion of the +vulgar--that money is the one tie which unites polished society, that it +is a fact which all must know who have access to the better circles, of +even our own commercial towns, that those circles, loosely and +accidentally constructed as they are receive with reluctance, nay, often +sternly exclude, vulgar wealth from their associations, while the door +is open to the cultivated who have nothing. The young, in particular, +seldom think much of money, while family connections, early +communications, similarity of opinions, and, most of all, of tastes, +bring sets together, and often keep them together long after the golden +band has been broken. + +But men have great difficulty in comprehending things that lie beyond +their reach; and money being apparent to the senses, while refinement, +through its infinite gradations, is visible principally, and in some +cases exclusively, to its possessors, it is not surprising that common +minds should refer a tie that, to them, would otherwise be mysterious, +to the more glittering influence, and not to the less obvious. Infinite, +indeed, are the gradations of cultivated habits; nor are as many of them +the fruits of caprice and self-indulgence as men usually suppose. There +is a common sense, nay, a certain degree of wisdom, in the laws of even +etiquette, while they are confined to equals, that bespeak the respect +of those who understand them. As for the influence of associations on +men's manners, on their exteriors, and even on their opinions, my uncle +Ro has long maintained that it is so apparent, that one of his time of +life could detect the man of the world, at such a place as Saratoga +even, by an intercourse of five minutes; and what is more, that he could +tell the class in life from which he originally emerged. He tried it, +the last summer, on our return from Ravensnest, and I was amused with +his success, though he made a few mistakes, it must be admitted. + +"That young man comes from the better circles, but he has never +travelled," he said, alluding to one of a group which still remained at +table; "while he who is next him _has_ travelled, but commenced badly." +This may seem a very nice distinction, but I think it is easily made. +"There are two brothers, of an excellent family in Pennsylvania," he +continued, "as one might know from the name; the eldest has travelled, +the youngest has not." This was a still harder distinction to make, but +one who knew the world as well as my uncle Ro could do it. He went on +amusing me by his decisions--all of which were respectable, and some +surprisingly accurate--in this way for several minutes. Now, like has an +affinity to like, and in this natural attraction is to be found the +secret of the ordinary construction of society. You shall put two men of +superior minds in a room full of company, and they will find each other +out directly, and enjoy the accident. The same is true as to the mere +modes of thinking that characterize social castes; and it is truer in +this country, perhaps, than most others, from the mixed character of our +associations. Of the two, I am really of opinion that the man of high +intellect, who meets with one of moderate capacity, but of manners and +social opinions on a level with his own, has more pleasure in the +communication than with one of equal mind, but of inferior habits. + +That Patt should cling to one like Mary Warren seemed to me quite as +natural as that she should be averse to much association with +Opportunity Newcome. The money of the latter, had my sister been in the +least liable to such an influence, was so much below what she had been +accustomed, all her life, to consider affluence, that it would have had +no effect, even had she been subject to so low a consideration in +regulating her intercourse with others. But this poor Tom Miller could +not understand. He could "only reason from what he knew," and he knew +little of the comparative notions of wealth, and less of the powers of +cultivation on the mind and manners. He was struck, however, with a fact +that did come completely within the circle of his own knowledge, and +that was the circumstance that Mary Warren, while admitted to be poor, +was the bosom friend of her whom he was pleased to call, sometimes, the +"Littlepage gal." It was easy to see he felt the force of this +circumstance; and it is to be hoped that, as he was certainly a wiser, +he also became a better man, on one of the most common of the weaknesses +of human frailty. + +"Wa-a-l," he replied to my uncle's last remark, after fully a minute of +silent reflection, "I don't know! It would seem so, I vow; and yet it +hasn't been my wife's notion, nor is it Kitty's. You're quite upsetting +my idees about aristocrats; for though I like the Littlepages, I've +always set 'em down as desp'rate aristocrats." + +"Nein, nein; dem as vat you calls dimigogues be der American +arisdograts. Dey gets all der money of der pooblic, und haf all der +power, but dey gets a little mads because dey might not force demselves +on der gentlemen and laties of der coontry, as well as on der lands und +der offices!" + +"I swan! I don't know but this may be true! A'ter all, I don't know what +right anybody has to complain of the Littlepages." + +"Does dey dreat beoples vell, as might coome to see dem?" + +"Yes, indeed! if folks treat _them_ well, as sometimes doesn't happen. +I've seen hogs here"--Tom was a little Saxon in his figures, but their +nature will prove their justification--"I've seen hogs about here, bolt +right in before old Madam Littlepage, and draw their chairs up to her +fire, and squirt about the tobacco, and never think of even taking off +their hats. Them folks be always huffy about their own importance, +though they never think of other people's feelin's." + +We were interrupted by the sound of wheels, and looking round, we +perceived that the carriage of my grandmother had driven up to the +farm-house door, on its return home. Miller conceived it to be no more +than proper to go and see if he were wanted, and we followed him slowly, +it being the intention of my uncle to offer his mother a watch, by way +of ascertaining if she could penetrate his disguise. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + "Will you buy any tape, + Or lace for your cape?-- + + Come to the peddler, + Money's a meddler + That doth utter all men's ware-a."--_Winter's Tale._ + + +There they sat, those four young creatures, a perfect galaxy of bright +and beaming eyes. There was not a plain face among them; and I was +struck with the circumstance of how rare it was to meet with a youthful +and positively ugly American female. Kitty, too, was at the door by the +time we reached the carriage, and she also was a blooming and +attractive-looking girl. It was a thousand pities that she spoke, +however; the vulgarity of her utterance, tone of voice, cadences, and +accents, the latter a sort of singing whine, being in striking contrast +to a sort of healthful and vigorous delicacy that marked her appearance. +All the bright eyes grew brighter as I drew nearer, carrying the flute +in my hand; but neither of the young ladies spoke. + +"Buy a vatch, ma'ams," said uncle Ro, approaching his mother, cap in +hand, with his box open. + +"I thank you, friend; but I believe all here are provided with watches +already." + +"Mine ist ferry sheaps." + +"I dare say they may be," returned dear grandmother, smiling; "though +cheap watches are not usually the best. Is that very pretty pencil +gold?" + +"Yes, ma'ams; it ist of goot gold. If it might not be I might not say +so." + +I saw suppressed smiles among the girls; all of whom, however, were too +well-bred to betray to common observers the sense of the ridiculous that +each felt at the equivoque that suggested itself in my uncle's words. + +"What is the price of this pencil?" asked my grandmother. + +Uncle Roger had too much tact to think of inducing his mother to take a +purchase as he had influenced Miller, and he mentioned something near +the true value of the "article," which was fifteen dollars. + +"I will take it," returned my grandmother, dropping three half-eagles +into the box; when, turning to Mary Warren, she begged her acceptance of +the pencil, with as much respect in her manner as if she solicited +instead of conferred a favor. + +Mary Warren's handsome face was covered with blushes; she looked +pleased, and she accepted the offering, though I thought she hesitated +one moment about the propriety of so doing, most probably on account of +its value. My sister asked to look at this little present, and after +admiring it, it passed from hand to hand, each praising its shape and +ornaments. All my uncle's wares, indeed, were in perfect good taste, the +purchase having been made of an importer of character, and paid for at +some cost. The watches, it is true, were, with one or two exceptions, +cheap, as were most of the trinkets; but my uncle had about his person a +watch or two, and some fine jewelry, that he had brought from Europe +himself, expressly to bestow in presents, among which had been the +pencil in question, and which he had dropped into the box but a moment +before it was sold. + +"Wa-a-l, Madam Littlepage," cried Miller, who used the familiarity of +one born on the estate, "this is the queerest watch-pedler I've met with +yet. He asks fifteen dollars for that pencil, and only four for this +watch!" showing his own purchase as he concluded. + +My grandmother took the watch in her hand, and examined it attentively. + +"It strikes me as singularly cheap!" she remarked, glancing a little +distrustfully, as I fancied, at her son, as if she thought he might be +selling his brushes cheaper than those who only stole the materials, +because he stole them ready made. "I know that these watches are made +for very little in the cheap countries of Europe, but one can hardly see +how this machinery was put together for so small a sum." + +"I has 'em, matam, at all brices," put in my uncle. + +"I have a strong desire to purchase a _good_ lady's watch, but should a +little fear buying of any but a known and regular dealer." + +"You needn't fear us, ma'am," I ventured to say. "If we might sheat +anypodies, we shouldn't sheat so goot a laty." + +I do not know whether my voice struck Patt's ear pleasantly, or a wish +to see the project of her grandmother carried out at once induced my +sister to interfere; but interfere she did, and that by urging her aged +parent to put confidence in us. Years had taught my grandmother caution, +and she hesitated. + +"But all these watches are of base metal, and I want one of good gold +and handsome finish," observed my grandmother. + +My uncle immediately produced a watch that he had bought of Blondel, in +Paris, for five hundred francs, and which was a beautiful little +ornament for a lady's belt. He gave it to my grandmother, who read the +name of the manufacturer with some little surprise. The watch itself was +then examined attentively, and was applauded by all. + +"And what may be the price of this?" demanded my grandmother. + +"One hoondred dollars, matam: and sheaps at dat." + +Tom Miller looked at the bit of tinsel in his own hand, and at the +smaller, but exquisitely-shaped "article" that my grandmother held up to +look at, suspended by its bit of ribbon, and was quite as much puzzled +as he had evidently been a little while before, in his distinctions +between the rich and the poor. Tom was not able to distinguish the base +from the true; that was all. + +My grandmother did not appear at all alarmed at the price, though she +cast another distrustful glance or two over her spectacles at the +imaginary pedler. At length the beauty of the watch overcame her. + +"If you will bring this watch to yonder large dwelling, I will pay you +the hundred dollars for it," she said; "I have not as much money with me +here." + +"Ja, ja--ferry goot; you might keep das vatch, laty, und I will coome +for der money after I haf got some dinners of somebodys." + +My grandmother had no scruple about accepting of the credit, of course, +and she was about to put the watch in her pocket, when Patt laid her +little gloved hand on it, and cried-- + +"Now, dearest grandmother, let it be done at once--there is no one but +us three present, you know!" + +"Such is the impatience of a child!" exclaimed the elder lady, laughing. +"Well, you shall be indulged. I gave you that pencil for a keepsake, +Mary, only _en attendant_, it having been my intention to offer a watch, +as soon as a suitable one could be found, as a memorial of the sense I +entertain of the spirit you showed during that dark week in which the +anti-renters were so menacing. Here, then, is such a watch as I might +presume to ask you to have the goodness to accept." + +Mary Warren seemed astounded! The color mounted to her temples; then she +became suddenly pale. I had never seen so pretty a picture of gentle +female distress--a distress that arose from conflicting, but creditable +feelings. + +"Oh! Mrs. Littlepage!" she exclaimed, after looking in astonishment at +the offering for a moment, and in silence. "You cannot have intended +that beautiful watch for me!" + +"For you, my dear; the beautiful watch is not a whit too good for my +beautiful Mary." + +"But, dear, _dear_ Mrs. Littlepage, it is altogether too handsome for my +station--for my means." + +"A lady can very well wear such a watch; and you are a lady in every +sense of the word, and so you need have no scruples on that account. As +for the means, you will not misunderstand me if I remind you that it +will be bought with my means, and there can be no extravagance in the +purchase." + +"But we are so poor, and that watch has so rich an appearance! It +scarcely seems right." + +"I respect your feelings and sentiments, my dear girl, and can +appreciate them. I suppose you know I was once as poor, nay, much poorer +than you are yourself." + +"You, Mrs. Littlepage! No, that can hardly be. You are of an affluent +and very respectable family, I know." + +"It is quite true, nevertheless, my dear. I shall not affect extreme +humility, and deny that the Malbones did and do belong to the gentry of +the land, but my brother and myself were once so much reduced as to toil +with the surveyors, in the woods, quite near this property. We had then +no claim superior to yours, and in many respects were reduced much +lower. Besides, the daughter of an educated and well-connected clergyman +has claims that, in a worldly point of view alone, entitle her to a +certain consideration. You will do me the favor to accept my offering?" + +"Dear Mrs. Littlepage! I do not know how to refuse _you_, or how to +accept so rich a gift! You will let me consult my father, first?" + +"That will be no more than proper, my dear," returned my beloved +grandmother, quietly putting the watch into her own pocket; "Mr. Warren, +luckily, dines with us, and the matter can be settled before we sit down +to table." + +This ended the discussion, which had commenced under an impulse of +feeling that left us all its auditors. As for my uncle and myself, it is +scarcely necessary to say we were delighted with the little scene. The +benevolent wish to gratify, on the one side, with the natural scruples +on the other, about receiving, made a perfect picture for our +contemplation. The three girls, who were witnesses of what passed, too +much respected Mary's feelings to interfere, though Patt restrained +herself with difficulty. As to Tom Miller and Kitty, they doubtless +wondered why "Warren's gal" was such a fool as to hesitate about +accepting a watch that was worth a hundred dollars. This was another +point they did not understand. + +"You spoke of dinner," continued my grandmother, looking at my uncle. +"If you and your companion will follow us to the house, I will pay you +for the watch, and order you a dinner in the bargain." + +We were right down glad to accept this offer, making our bows and +expressing our thanks, as the carriage whirled off. We remained a +moment, to take our leave of Miller. + +"When you've got through at the Nest," said that semi-worthy fellow, +"give us another call here. I should like my woman and Kitty to have a +look at your finery, before you go down to the village with it." + +With a promise to return to the farm-house, we proceeded on our way to +the building which, in the familiar parlance of the country, was called +the Nest, or the Nest house, from Ravensnest, its true name, and which +Tom Miller, in his country dialect, called the "Neest." The distance +between the two buildings was less than half a mile, the grounds of the +family residence lying partly between them. Many persons would have +called the extensive lawns which surrounded my paternal abode a park, +but it never bore that name with us. They were too large for a paddock, +and might very well have come under the former appellation; but, as +deer, or animals of any sort, except those that are domestic, had never +been kept within it, the name had not been used. We called them the +grounds--a term which applies equally to large and small enclosures of +this nature--while the broad expanse of verdure which lies directly +under the windows goes by the name of the lawn. Notwithstanding the +cheapness of land among us, there has been very little progress made in +the art of landscape gardening; and if we have anything like park +scenery, it is far more owing to the gifts of a bountiful nature than to +any of the suggestions of art. Thanks to the cultivated taste of +Downing, as well as to his well-directed labors, this reproach is likely +to be soon removed, and country life will acquire this pleasure, among +the many others that are so peculiarly its own. After lying for more +than twenty years--a stigma on the national taste--disfigured by ravines +or gullies, and otherwise in a rude and discreditable condition, the +grounds of the White House have been brought into a condition to denote +that they are the property of a civilized country. The Americans are as +apt at imitation as the Chinese, with a far greater disposition to admit +of change; and little beyond good models is required to set them on the +right track. But it is certain that, as a nation, we have yet to acquire +nearly all that belongs to the art I have mentioned that lies beyond +avenues of trees, with an occasional tuft of shrubbery. The abundance of +the latter, that forms the wilderness of sweets, the _masses_ of flowers +that spot the surface of Europe, the beauty of curved lines, and the +whole finesse of surprises, reliefs, backgrounds and vistas, are things +so little known among us as to be almost "arisdogratic," as my uncle Ro +would call the word. + +Little else had been done at Ravensnest than to profit by the native +growth of the trees, and to take advantage of the favorable +circumstances in the formation of the grounds. Most travellers imagine +that it might be an easy thing to lay out a park in the virgin forest, +as the axe might spare the thickets, and copses, and woods, that +elsewhere are the fruits of time and planting. This is all a mistake, +however, as the rule; though modified exceptions may and do exist. The +tree of the American forest shoots upward toward the light, growing so +tall and slender as to be unsightly; and even when time has given its +trunk a due size, the top is rarely of a breadth to ornament a park or a +lawn, while its roots, seeking their nourishment in the rich alluvium +formed by the decayed leaves of a thousand years, lie too near the +surface to afford sufficient support after losing the shelter of its +neighbors. It is owing to reasons like these that the ornamental grounds +of an American country-house have usually to be commenced _ab origine_, +and that natural causes so little aid in furnishing them. + +My predecessors had done a little toward assisting nature, at the Nest, +and what was of almost equal importance, in the state of knowledge on +this subject as it existed in the country sixty years since, they had +done little to mar her efforts. The results were, that the grounds of +Ravensnest possess a breadth that is the fruit of the breadth of our +lands, and a rural beauty which, without being much aided by art, was +still attractive. The herbage was kept short by sheep, of which one +thousand, of the fine wool, were feeding on the lawns, along the slopes, +and particularly on the distant heights, as we crossed the grounds on +our way to the doors. + +The Nest house was a respectable New York country dwelling, as such +buildings were constructed among us in the last quarter of the past +century, a little improved and enlarged by the second and third +generations of its owners. The material was of stone, the low cliff on +which it stood supplying enough of an excellent quality; and the shape +of the main _corps de batiment_ as near a square as might be. Each face +of this part of the constructions offered five windows to view, this +being almost the prescribed number for a country residence in that day, +as three have since got to be in towns. These windows, however, had some +size, the main building being just sixty feet square, which was about +ten feet in each direction larger than was common so soon after the +revolution. But wings had been added to the original building, and that +on a plan which conformed to the shape of a structure in square logs, +that had been its predecessor on its immediate site. These wings were +only of a story and a half each, and doubling on each side of the main +edifice just far enough to form a sufficient communication, they ran +back to the very verge of a cliff some forty feet in height, +overlooking, at their respective ends, a meandering rivulet, and a wide +expanse of very productive flats, that annually filled my barns with hay +and my cribs with corn. Of this level and fertile bottomland there was +near a thousand acres, stretching in three directions, of which two +hundred belonged to what was called the Nest farm. The remainder was +divided among the farms of the adjacent tenantry. This little +circumstance, among the thousand-and-one other atrocities that were +charged upon me, had been made a ground of accusation, to which I shall +presently have occasion to advert. I shall do this the more readily, +because the fact has not yet reached the ears and set in motion the +tongues of legislators--heaven bless us, how words do get corrupted by +too much use!--in their enumeration of the griefs of the tenants of the +State. + +Everything about the Nest was kept in perfect order, and in a condition +to do credit to the energy and taste of my grandmother, who had ordered +all these things for the last few years, or since the death of my +grandfather. This circumstance, connected with the fact that the +building was larger and more costly than those of most of the other +citizens of the country, had, of late years, caused Ravensnest to be +termed an "aristocratic residence." This word "aristocratic," I find +since my return home, has got to be a term of expansive signification, +its meaning depending on the particular habits and opinions of the +person who happens to use it. Thus, he who chews tobacco thinks it +aristocratic in him who deems the practice nasty not to do the same; the +man who stoops accuses him who is straight in the back of having +aristocratic shoulders; and I have actually met with one individual who +maintained that it was excessively aristocratic to pretend not to blow +one's nose with his fingers. It will soon be aristocratic to maintain +the truth of the familiar Latin axiom of "_de gustibus non disputandum +est_." + +As we approached the door of the Nest house, which opened on the piazza +that stretched along three sides of the main building, and the outer +ends of both wings, the coachman was walking his horses away from it, on +the road that led to the stables. The party of ladies had made a +considerable circuit after quitting the farm, and had arrived but a +minute before us. All the girls but Mary Warren had entered the house, +careless on the subject of the approach of two pedlers; she remained, +however, at the side of my grandmother, to receive us. + +"I believe in my soul," whispered uncle Ro, "that my dear old mother has +a secret presentiment who we are, by her manifesting so much respect. +T'ousand t'anks, matam, t'ousand t'anks," he continued, dropping into +his half-accurate, half-blundering broken English, "for dis great honor, +such as we might not expect das laty of das house to wait for us at her +door." + +"This young lady tells me that she has seen you before, and that she +understands you are both persons of education and good manners, who have +been driven from your native country by political troubles. Such being +the case, I cannot regard you as common pedlers. I have known what it +was to be reduced in fortune"--my dear grandmother's voice trembled a +little--"and can feel for those who thus suffer." + +"Matam, dere might be moch trut' in some of dis," answered my uncle, +taking off his cap, and bowing very much like a gentleman, an act in +which I imitated him immediately. "We _haf_ seen petter tays; und my +son, dere, hast peen edicated at an university. But we are now poor +pedlers of vatches, und dem dat might make moosic in der streets." + +My grandmother looked as a lady would look under such circumstances, +neither too free to forget present appearances, nor coldly neglectful of +the past. She knew that something was due to her own household, and to +the example she ought to set it, while she felt that far more was due to +the sentiment that unites the cultivated. We were asked into the house, +were told a table was preparing for us, and were treated with a generous +and considerate hospitality that involved no descent from her own +character, or that of the sex; the last being committed to the keeping +of every lady. + +In the meantime, business proceeded with my uncle. He was paid his +hundred dollars; and all his stores of value, including rings, brooches, +earrings, chains, bracelets, and other trinkets that he had intended as +presents to his wards, were produced from his pockets, and laid before +the bright eyes of the three girls--Mary Warren keeping in the +background, as one who ought not to look on things unsuited to her +fortune. Her father had arrived, however, had been consulted, and the +pretty watch was already attached to the girdle of the prettier waist. I +fancied the tear of gratitude that still floated in her serene eyes was +a jewel of a far higher price than any my uncle could exhibit. + +We had been shown into the library, a room that was in the front of the +house, and of which the windows all opened on the piazza. I was at first +a little overcome at thus finding myself, and unrecognized, under the +paternal roof, and in a dwelling that was my own, after so many years of +absence. Shall I confess it! Everything appeared diminutive and mean, +after the buildings to which I had been accustomed in the old world. I +am not now drawing comparisons with the palaces of princes and the +abodes of the great, as the American is apt to fancy, whenever anything +is named that is superior to the things to which he is accustomed; but +to the style, dwellings, and appliances of domestic life that pertain to +those of other countries who have not a claim in anything to be +accounted my superiors--scarcely my equals. In a word, American +aristocracy, or that which it is getting to be the fashion to stigmatize +as aristocratic, would be deemed very democratic in most of the nations +of Europe. Our Swiss brethren have their chateaux and their habits, that +are a hundred times more aristocratic than anything about Ravensnest, +without giving offence to liberty; and I feel persuaded, were the +proudest establishment in all America pointed out to a European as an +aristocratic abode, he would be very apt to laugh at it, in his sleeve. +The secret of this charge among ourselves is the innate dislike which is +growing up in the country to see any man distinguished from the mass +around him in anything, even though it should be in merit. It is nothing +but the expansion of the principle which gave rise to the traditionary +feud between the "plebeians and patricians" of Albany at the +commencement of this century, and which has now descended so much +farther than was then contemplated by the _soi-disant_ "plebeians" of +that day, as to become quite disagreeable to their own descendants. But +to return to myself-- + +I will own that, so far from finding any grounds of exultation in my own +aristocratical splendor, when I came to view my possessions at home, I +felt mortified and disappointed. The things that I had fancied really +respectable, and even fine, from recollection, now appeared very +commonplace, and in many particulars mean. "Really," I found myself +saying, _sotto voce_, "all this is scarcely worthy of being the cause of +deserting the right, setting sound principles at defiance, and of +forgetting God and his commandments!" Perhaps I was too inexperienced to +comprehend how capacious is the maw of the covetous man, and how +microscopic the eye of envy. + +"You are welcome to Ravensnest," said Mr. Warren, approaching and +offering his hand in a friendly way, much as he would address any other +young friend; "we arrived a little before you, and I have had my ears +and eyes open ever since, in the hope of hearing your flute, and of +seeing your form in the highway, near the parsonage, where you promised +to visit me." + +Mary was standing at her father's elbow, as when I first saw her, and +she gazed wistfully at my flute, as she would not have done had she seen +me in my proper attire, assuming my proper character. + +"I danks you, sir," was my answer. "We might haf plenty of times for a +little moosic, vhen das laties shall be pleaset to say so. I canst blay +'Yankee Doodle,' 'Hail Coloombias,' and der 'Star Spangled Banner,' und +all dem airs, as dey so moch likes at der taverns and on der road." + +Mr. Warren laughed, and he took the flute from my hand, and began to +examine it. I now trembled for the incognito! The instrument had been +mine for many years, and was a very capital one, with silver keys, +stops, and ornaments. What if Patt--what if my dear grandmother should +recognize it! I would have given the handsomest trinket in my uncle's +collection to get the flute back again into my own hands; but, before an +opportunity offered for that, it went from hand to hand, as the +instrument that had produced the charming sounds heard that morning, +until it reached those of Martha. The dear girl was thinking of the +jewelry, which, it will be remembered, was rich, and intended in part +for herself, and she passed the instrument on, saying, hurriedly: + +"See, dear grandmother, this is the flute which you pronounced the +sweetest-toned of any you had ever heard!" + +My grandmother took the flute, started, put her spectacles closer to her +eyes, examined the instrument, and turned pale--for her cheeks still +retained a little of the color of their youth--and then cast a glance +hurriedly and anxiously at me. I could see that she was pondering on +something profoundly in her most secret mind, for a minute or two. +Luckily the others were too much occupied with the box of the pedler to +heed her movements. She walked slowly out of the door, almost brushing +me as she passed, and went into the hall. Here she turned, and, catching +my eye, she signed for me to join her. Obeying this signal, I followed, +until I was led into a little room, in one of the wings, that I well +remembered as a sort of private parlor attached to my grandmother's own +bedroom. To call it a _boudoir_ would be to caricature things, its +furniture being just that of the sort of room I have mentioned, or of a +plain, neat, comfortable, country parlor. Here my grandmother took her +seat on a sofa, for she trembled so she could not stand, and then she +turned to gaze at me wistfully, and with an anxiety it would be +difficult for me to describe. + +"Do not keep me in suspense!" she said, almost awfully in tone and +manner, "am I right in my conjecture?" + +"Dearest grandmother, you are!" I answered in my natural voice. + +No more was needed: we hung on each other's necks, as had been my wont +in boyhood. + +"But who is that pedler, Hugh?" demanded my grandmother, after a time. +"Can it possibly be Roger, my son?" + +"It is no other; we have come to visit you, incog." + +"And why this disguise?--Is it connected with the troubles?" + +"Certainly; we have wished to take a near view with our own eyes, and +supposed it might be unwise to come openly, in our proper characters." + +"In this you have done well; yet I hardly know how to welcome you, in +your present characters. On no account must your real names be revealed. +The demons of tar and feathers, the sons of liberty and equality, who +illustrate their principles as they do their courage, by attacking the +few with the many, would be stirring, fancying themselves heroes and +martyrs in the cause of justice, did they learn you were here. Ten armed +and resolute men might drive a hundred of them, I do believe; for they +have all the cowardice of thieves, but they are heroes with the unarmed +and feeble. Are you safe yourselves, appearing thus disguised, under the +new law?" + +"We are not armed, not having so much as a pistol; and that will protect +us." + +"I am sorry to say, Hugh, that this country is no longer what I once +knew it. Its justice, if not wholly departed, is taking to itself wings, +and its blindness, not in a disregard of persons, but in a faculty of +seeing only the stronger side. A landlord, in my opinion, would have but +little hope, with jury, judge, or executive, for doing that which +thousands of the tenants have done, still do, and will continue to do, +with perfect impunity, unless some dire catastrophe stimulate the public +functionaries to their duties, by awakening public indignation." + +"This is a miserable state of things, dearest grandmother; and what +makes it worse is the cool indifference with which most persons regard +it. A better illustration of the utter selfishness of human nature +cannot be given, than in the manner in which the body of the people look +on, and see wrong thus done to a few of their number." + +"Such persons as Mr. Seneca Newcome would answer, that the public +sympathizes with the poor, who are oppressed by the rich, because the +last do not wish to let the first rob them of their estates! We hear a +great deal of the strong robbing the weak, all over the world, but few +among ourselves, I am afraid, are sufficiently clear-sighted to see how +vivid an instance of the truth now exists among ourselves." + +"Calling the tenants the strong, and the landlords the weak?" + +"Certainly; numbers make strength in this country, in which all power in +practice, and most of it in theory, rests with the majority. Were there +as many landlords as there are tenants, my life on it, no one would see +the least injustice in the present state of things." + +"So says my uncle; but I hear the light steps of the girls--we must be +on our guard." + +At that instant Martha entered, followed by all three of the girls, +holding in her hand a very beautiful Manilla chain that my uncle had +picked up in his travels, and had purchased as a present to my future +wife, whomsoever she might turn out to be, and which he had had the +indiscretion to show to his ward. A look of surprise was cast by each +girl in succession, as she entered the room, on me, but neither said, +and I fancy neither thought much of my being shut up there with an old +lady of eighty, after the first moment. Other thoughts were uppermost at +the moment. + +"Look at this, dearest grandmamma!" cried Patt, holding up the chain as +she entered the room. "Here is just the most exquisite chain that was +ever wrought, and of the purest gold; but the pedler refuses to part +with it!" + +"Perhaps you do not offer enough, my child; it is, indeed, very, very +beautiful; pray what does he say is its value?" + +"One hundred dollars, he says; and I can readily believe it, for its +weight is near half the money. I do wish Hugh were at home; I am certain +he would contrive to get it, and make it a present to me!" + +"Nein, nein, young lady," put in the pedler, who, a little +unceremoniously, had followed the girls into the room, though he knew, +of course, precisely where he was coming; "dat might not be. Dat chain +is der broperty of my son, t'ere, und I haf sworn it shalt only be gifen +to his wife." + +Patt colored a little, and she pouted a good deal; then she laughed +outright. + +"If it is only to be had on those conditions, I am afraid I shall never +own it," she said, saucily, though it was intended to be uttered so low +as not to reach my ears. "I will pay the hundred dollars out of my own +pocket-money, however, if that will buy it. Do say a good word for me, +grandmamma?" + +How prettily the hussy uttered that word of endearment, so different +from the "paw" and "maw" one hears among the dirty-noses that are to be +found in the mud-puddles! But our grandparent was puzzled, for she knew +with whom she had to deal, and of course saw that money would do +nothing. Nevertheless, the state of the game rendered it necessary to +say and do something that might have an appearance of complying with +Patty's request. + +"Can I have more success in persuading you to change your mind, sir?" +she said, looking at her son in a way that let him know at once, or at +least made him suspect at once, that she was in his secret. "It would +give me great pleasure to be able to gratify my granddaughter, by making +her a present of so beautiful a chain." + +My uncle Ro advanced to his mother, took the hand she had extended with +the chain in it, in order the better to admire the trinket, and he +kissed it with a profound respect, but in such a manner as to make it +seem to the lookers-on an act of European usage, rather than what it +was, the tempered salute of a child to his parent. + +"Laty," he then said, with emphasis, "if anyboty might make me change a +resolution long since made, it would be one as fenerable, und gracious, +und goot as I am sartain you most be. But I haf vowet to gif dat chain +to das wife of mine son, vhen he might marry, one day, some bretty young +American; und it might not be." + +Dear grandmother smiled; but now she understood that it was really +intended the chain was to be an offering to my wife, she no longer +wished to change its destination. She examined the bauble a few moments, +and said to me: + +"Do you wish this, as well as your un--father, I should say? It is a +rich present for a poor man to make." + +"Ja, ja, laty, it ist so; but vhen der heart goes, golt might be t'ought +sheap to go wid it." + +The old lady was half ready to laugh in my face, at hearing this attempt +at Germanic English; but the kindness, and delight, and benevolent +tenderness of her still fine eyes made me wish to throw myself in her +arms again, and kiss her. Patt continued to _bouder_ for a moment or two +longer, but her excellent nature soon gave in, and the smiles returned +to her countenance as the sun issues from behind a cloud in May. + +"Well, the disappointment may and must be borne," she said, +good-naturedly; "though it is much the most lovely chain I have ever +seen." + +"I dare say the right person will one day find one quite as lovely to +present to you!" said Henrietta Coldbrooke, a little pointedly. + +I did not like this speech. It was an allusion that a well-bred young +woman ought not to have made, at least before others, even pedlers; and +it was one that a young woman of a proper tone of feeling would not be +apt to make. I determined from that instant the chain should never +belong to Miss Henrietta, though she was a fine, showy girl, and though +such a decision would disappoint my uncle sadly. I was a little +surprised to see a slight blush on Patt's cheeks, and then I remembered +something of the name of the traveller, Beekman. Turning toward Mary +Warren, I saw plain enough that she was disappointed because my sister +was disappointed, and for no other reason in the world. + +"Your grandmother will meet with another chain, when she goes to town, +that will make you forget this," she whispered, affectionately, close at +my sister's ears. + +Patt smiled, and kissed her friend with a warmth of manner that +satisfied me these two charming young creatures loved each other +sincerely. But my dear old grandmother's curiosity had been awakened, +and she felt a necessity for having it appeased. She still held the +chain, and as she returned it to me, who happened to be nearest to her, +she said: + +"And so, sir, your mind is sincerely made up to offer this chain to your +future wife?" + +"Yes, laty; or what might be better, to das young frau, before we might +be marriet." + +"And is your choice made?" glancing round at the girls, who were grouped +together, looking at some other trinkets of my uncle's. "Have you chosen +the young woman who is to possess so handsome a chain?" + +"Nein, nein," I answered, returning the smile, and glancing also at the +group; "dere ist so many peautiful laties in America, one needn't be in +a hurry. In goot time I shalt find her dat ist intended for me." + +"Well, grandmamma," interrupted Patt, "since nobody can have the chain, +unless on certain conditions, here are the three other things that we +have chosen for Ann, Henrietta, and myself, and they are a ring, a pair +of bracelets, and a pair of earrings. The cost, altogether, will be two +hundred dollars; can you approve of that?" + +My grandmother, now she knew who was the pedler, understood the whole +matter, and had no scruples. The bargain was soon made, when she sent us +all out of the room, under the pretence we should disturb her while +settling with the watchseller. Her real object, however, was to be alone +with her son, not a dollar passing between them, of course. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + "Our life was changed. Another love + In this lone woof began to twine; + But oh! the golden thread was wove + Between my sister's heart and mine."--WILLIS. + + +Half an hour later, Uncle Ro and myself were seated at table, eating our +dinners as quietly as if we were in an inn. The footman who had set the +table was an old family servant, one who had performed the same sort of +duty in that very house for a quarter of a century. Of course he was not +an American, no _man_ of American birth ever remained so long a time in +an inferior station, or in any station so low as that of a +house-servant. If he has good qualities enough to render it desirable to +keep him he is almost certain to go up in the world; if not, one does +not care particularly about having him. But Europeans are less elastic +and less ambitious, and it is no uncommon thing to find one of such an +origin remaining a long time in the same service. Such had been the fact +with this man, who had followed my own parents from Europe, when they +returned from their marriage tour, and had been in the house on the +occasion of my birth. From that time he had continued at the Nest, never +marrying, nor ever manifesting the smallest wish for any change. He was +an Englishman by birth; and what is very unusual in a servant of that +country, when transferred to America, the "letting-up," which is certain +to attend such a change from the depression of the original condition to +that in which he is so suddenly placed, had not made him saucy. An +American is seldom what is called impudent, under any circumstances; he +is careless, nay ignorant, of forms; pays little or no purely +conventional respect; does not understand half the social distinctions +which exist among the higher classes of even his own countrymen, and +fancies there are equalities in things about which, in truth, there is +great inequality between himself and others, merely because he has been +taught that all men are equal in rights; but he is so unconscious of any +pressure as seldom to feel a disposition to revenge himself by +impudence. + +But, while John was not impudent either, he had a footman's feeling +toward those whom he fancied no better than himself. He had set the +table with his customary neatness and method, and he served the soup +with as much regularity as he would have done had we sat there in our +proper characters, but then he withdrew. He probably remembered that the +landlord, or upper servant of an English hotel, is apt to make his +appearance with the soup, and to disappear as that disappears. So it was +with John; after removing the soup, he put a dumb-waiter near my uncle, +touched a carving-knife or two, as much as to say "help yourselves," and +quitted the room. As a matter of course, our dinner was not a very +elaborate one, it wanting two or three hours to the regular time of +dining, though my grandmother had ordered, in my hearing, one or two +delicacies to be placed on the table that had surprised Patt. Among the +extraordinary things for such guests was wine. The singularity, however, +was a little explained by the quality commanded, which was Rhenish. + +My uncle Ro was a little surprised at the disappearance of John; for, +seated in that room, he was so accustomed to his face, that it appeared +as if he were not half at home without him. + +"Let the fellow go," he said, withdrawing his hand from the bell-cord, +which he had already touched to order him back again; "we can talk more +freely without him. Well, Hugh, here you are, under your own roof, +eating a charitable dinner, and treated as hospitably as if you did not +own all you can see for a circle of five miles around you. It was a +lucky idea of the old lady's, by the way, to think of ordering this +Rudesheimer, in our character of Dutchmen! How amazingly well she is +looking, boy!" + +"Indeed she is; and I am delighted to see it. I do not know why my +grandmother may not live these twenty years; for even that would not +make her near as old as Sus, who, I have often heard her say, was a +middle-aged man when she was born." + +"True; she seems like an elder sister to me, rather than as a mother; +and is altogether a most delightful old woman. But, if we had so +charming an old woman to receive us, so are there also some very +charming _young_ women--hey, Hugh?" + +"I am quite of your way of thinking, sir; and must say I have not, in +many a day, seen two as charming creatures as I have met with here." + +"_Two_!--umph; a body would think _one_ might suffice. Pray, which may +be the two, Master Padishah?" + +"Patt and Mary Warren, of course. The other two are well enough, but +these two are excellent." + +My uncle Ro looked grum, but he said nothing for some time. Eating is +always an excuse for a broken conversation, and he ate away as if +resolute not to betray his disappointment. But it is a hard matter for a +gentleman to do nothing but eat at table, and so he was obliged to talk. + +"Everything looks well here, after all, Hugh," observed my uncle. "These +anti-renters may have done an infinite deal of harm in the way of +abusing principles, but they do not seem to have yet destroyed any +material things." + +"It is not their cue, sir. The crops are their own; and as they hope to +own the farms, it would be scarcely wise to injure what, no doubt, they +begin to look on as their own property, too. As for the Nest house, +grounds, farm, etc., I dare say they will be very willing to leave me +them for a while longer, provided they can get everything else away from +me." + +"For a time longer, at least; though that is the folly of those who +expect to get along by concessions; as if men were ever satisfied with +the yielding of a part, when they ask that which is wrong in itself, +without sooner or later expecting to get the whole. As well might one +expect the pickpocket who had abstracted a dollar to put back +two-and-sixpence change. But things really look well around the place." + +"So much the better for us. Though, to my judgment and taste, Miss Mary +Warren looks better than anything else I have yet seen in America." + +Another "umph" expressed my uncle's dissatisfaction--displeasure would +be too strong a word--and he continued eating. + +"You have really some good Rhenish in your cellar, Hugh," resumed Uncle +Ro, after tossing off one of the knowing green glasses full--though I +never could understand why any man should wish to drink his wine out of +green, when he might do it out of crystal. "It must have been a purchase +of mine, made when we were last in Germany, and for the use of my +mother." + +"As you please, sir; it neither adds nor subtracts from the beauty of +Martha and her friend." + +"Since you are disposed to make these boyish allusions, be frank with +me, and say, at once, how you like my wards." + +"Meaning, of course, sir, my own sister exclusively. I will be as +sincere as possible, and say that, as to Miss Marston, I have no opinion +at all; and as to Miss Coldbrooke, she is what, in Europe, would be +called a 'fine' woman." + +"You can say nothing as to her mind, Hugh, for you have had no +opportunity for forming an opinion." + +"Not much of a one, I will own. Nevertheless, I should have liked her +better had she spared the allusion to the 'proper person' who is one day +to forge a chain for my sister, to begin with." + +"Poh, poh! that is the mere squeamishness of a boy. I do not think her +in the least pert or forward, and your construction would be _tant soi +peu_ vulgar." + +"Put your own construction on it, _mon oncle_; _I_ do not like it." + +"I do not wonder young men remain unmarried; they are getting to be so +ultra in their tastes and notions." + +A stranger might have retorted on an old bachelor, for such a speech, by +some allusion to his own example; but I well knew that my uncle Ro had +once been engaged, and that he lost the object of his passion by death, +and too much respected his constancy and true sentiments ever to joke on +such subjects. I believe he felt the delicacy of my forbearance rather +more than common, for he immediately manifested a disposition to relent, +and to prove it by changing the subject. + +"We can never stay here to-night," he said. "It would be at once to +proclaim our names--our name, I might say--a name that was once so +honored and beloved in this town, and which is now so hated!" + +"No, no; not as bad as that. We have done nothing to merit hatred." + +"_Raison de plus_ for hating us so much the more heartily. When men are +wronged, who have done nothing to deserve it, the evil-doer seeks to +justify his wickedness to himself by striving all he can to calumniate +the injured party; and the more difficulty he finds in doing that to his +mind, the more profound is his hatred. Rely on it, we are most sincerely +disliked here on the spot where we were once both much beloved. Such is +human nature." + +At that moment John returned to the room, to see how we were getting on, +and to count his forks and spoons, for I saw the fellow actually doing +it. My uncle, somewhat indiscreetly, I fancied, but by merely following +the chain of thought then uppermost in his mind, detained him in +conversation. + +"Dis broperty," he said, inquiringly, "is de broperty of one Yeneral +Littlepage, I hears say?" + +"Not of the General, who was Madam Littlepage's husband, and who has +long been dead, but of his grandson, Mr. Hugh." + +"Und vhere might he be, dis Mr. Hugh?--might he be at hand, or might he +not?" + +"No; he's in Europe; that is to say, in Hengland." John thought England +covered most of Europe, though he had long gotten over his wish to +return. "Mr. Hugh and Mr. Roger be both habsent from the country, just +now." + +"Dat ist unfortunate, for dey dells me dere might be moch troobles +hereabouts, and Injin-acting." + +"There is, indeed; and a wicked thing it is, that there should be +anything of the sort." + +"Und vhat might be der reason of so moch troobles?--and vhere ist der +blame?" + +"Well, that is pretty plain, I fancy," returned John, who in consequence +of being a favored servant at head-quarters, fancied himself a sort of +cabinet minister, and had much pleasure in letting his knowledge be +seen. "The tenants on this estate wants to be landlords; and as they +can't be so, so long as Mr. Hugh lives and won't let 'em, why they just +tries all sorts of schemes and plans to frighten people out of their +property. I never go down to the village but I has a talk with some of +them, and that in a way that might do them some good, if anything can." + +"Und vhat dost you say?--and vid whom dost you talk, as might do dem +moch goot?" + +"Why, you see, I talks more with one 'Squire Newcome, as they calls him, +though he's no more of a real 'squire than you be--only a sort of an +attorney, like, such as they has in this country. You come from the old +countries, I believe?" + +"Ja, ja--dat ist, yes--we comes from Charmany; so you can say vhat you +pleases." + +"They has queer 'squires in this part of the world, if truth must be +said. But that's neither here nor there, though I give this Mr. Seneca +Newcome as good as he sends. What is it you wants? I says to him--you +can't all be landlords--somebody must be tenants; and if you didn't want +to be tenants, how come you to be so? Land is plenty in this country, +and cheap, too; and why didn't you buy your land at first, instead of +coming to rent of Mr. Hugh; and now when you _have_ rented, to be +quarrelling about the very thing you did of your own accord?" + +"Dere you didst dell 'em a goot t'ing; and vhat might der 'squire say to +dat?" + +"Oh! he was quite dumfounded, at first; then he said that in old times, +when people first rented these lands, they didn't _know_ as much as they +do now, or they never would have done it." + +"Und you could answer dat; or vast it your durn to be dumfounded?" + +"I pitched it into him, as they says; I did. Says I, how's this, says +I--you are forever boasting how much you Americans know--and how the +people knows everything that ought to be done, about politics and +religion--and you proclaim far and near that your yeomen are the salt of +the earth--and yet you don't know how to bargain for your leases! A +pretty sort of wisdom is this, says I! I had him there; for the people +round about here is only too sharp at a trade." + +"Did he own that you vast right, and dat he vast wrong, dis Herr 'Squire +Newcome?" + +"Not he; he will never own anything that makes against his own doctrine, +unless he does it ignorantly. But I haven't told you half of it. I told +him, says I, how is it you talk of one of the Littlepage family cheating +you, when, as you knows yourselves, you had rather have the word of one +of the family than have each other's bonds, says I. You know, sir, it +must be a poor landlord that a tenant can't and won't take his word: and +this they all know to be true; for a gentleman as has a fine estate is +raised above temptation, like, and has a pride in him to do what is +honorable and fair; and, in my opinion, it is good to have a few such +people in a country, if it be only to keep the wicked one from getting +it altogether in his own keeping." + +"Und did you say dat moch to der 'squire?" + +"No; that I just say to you two, seeing that we are here, talking +together in a friendly way; but a man needn't be ashamed to say it +anywhere, for it's a religious truth. But I says to him, Newcome, says +I, you, who has been living so long on the property of the Littlepages, +ought to be ashamed to wish to strip them of it; but you're not +satisfied with keeping gentlemen down quite as much out of sight as you +can, by holding all the offices yourselves, and taking all the money of +the public you can lay your hands on for your own use, but you wants to +trample them under your feet, I says, and so take your revenge for being +what you be, says I." + +"Vell, my friend," said my uncle, "you vast a bolt man to dell all dis +to der beoples of dis coontry, vhere, I have heard, a man may say just +vhat he hast a mind to say, so dat he dost not speak too moch trut!" + +"That's it--that's it; you have been a quick scholar, I find. I told +this Mr. Newcome, says I, you're bold enough in railing at kings and +nobles, for you very well know, says I, that they are three thousand +miles away from you, and can do you no harm; but you would no more dare +get up before your masters, the people, here, and say what you really +think about 'em, and what I have heard you say of them in private, than +you would dare put your head before a cannon, as the gunner touched it +off. Oh! I gave him a lesson, you may be sure!" + +Although there was a good deal of the English footman in John's logic +and feeling, there was also a good deal of truth in what he said. The +part where he accused Newcome of holding one set of opinions in private, +concerning _his_ masters, and another in public, is true to the life. +There is not, at this moment, within the wide reach of the American +borders, one demagogue to be found who might not, with justice, be +accused of precisely the same deception. There is not one demagogue in +the whole country, who, if he lived in a monarchy, would not be the +humblest advocate of men in power, ready to kneel at the feet of those +who stood in the sovereign's presence. There is not, at this instant, a +man in power among us, a senator or a legislator, who is now the seeming +advocate of what he wishes to call the rights of the tenants, and who is +for overlooking principles and destroying law and right, in order to +pacify the anti-renters by extraordinary concessions, that would not be +among the foremost, under a monarchial system, to recommend and support +the freest application of the sword and the bayonet to suppress what +would then be viewed, ay, and be termed, "the rapacious longings of the +disaffected to enjoy the property of others without paying for it." All +this is certain; for it depends on a law of morals that is infallible. +Any one who wishes to obtain a clear index to the true characters of the +public men he is required to support, or oppose, has now the +opportunity; for each stands before a mirror that reflects him in his +just proportions, and in which the dullest eye has only to cast a +glance, in order to view him from head to foot. + +The entrance of my grandmother put a stop to John's discourse. He was +sent out of the room on a message, and then I learned the object of this +visit. My sister had been let into the secret of our true characters, +and was dying to embrace me. My dear grandmother, rightly enough, had +decided it would be to the last degree unkind to keep her in ignorance +of our presence; and, the fact known, nature had longings which must be +appeased. I had myself been tempted twenty times that morning to snatch +Patt to my heart and kiss her, as I used to do just after my beard began +to grow, and she was so much of a child as to complain. The principal +thing to be arranged, then, was to obtain an interview for me without +awakening suspicion in the observers. My grandmother's plan was +arranged, however, and she now communicated it to us. + +There was a neat little dressing-room annexed to Martha's bedroom; in +that the meeting was to take place. + +"She and Mary Warren are now there, waiting for your appearance, +Hugh----" + +"Mary Warren!--Does she, then, know who I am?" + +"Not in the least; she has no other idea than that you are a young +German, of good connections and well educated, who has been driven from +his own country by political troubles, and who is reduced to turn his +musical taste and acquisitions to account, in the way you seem to do, +until he can find some better employment. All this she had told us +before we met you, and you are not to be vain, Hugh, if I add, that your +supposed misfortunes, and great skill with the flute, and good behavior, +have made a friend of one of the best and most true-hearted girls I ever +had the good fortune to know. I say good _behavior_, for little, just +now, can be ascribed to good _looks_." + +"I hope I am not in the least revolting in appearance, in this disguise. +For my sister's sake----" + +The hearty laugh of my dear old grandmother brought me up, and I said no +more; coloring, I believe, a little, at my own folly. Even Uncle Ro +joined in the mirth, though I could see he wished Mary Warren even +safely translated along with her father, and that the latter was +Archbishop of Canterbury. I must acknowledge that I felt a good deal +ashamed of the weakness I had betrayed. + +"You are very well, Hugh, darling," continued my grandmother; "though I +must think you would be more interesting in your own hair, which is +curling, than in that long wig. Still, one can see enough of your face +to recognize it, if one has the clew; and I told Martha, at the first, +that I was struck with a certain expression of the eyes and smile that +reminded me of her brother. But, there they are, Mary and Martha, in the +drawing-room, waiting for your appearance. The first is so fond of +music, and, indeed, is so practised in it, as to have been delighted +with your flute; and she has talked so much of your skill as to justify +us in seeming to wish for a further exhibition of your skill. Henrietta +and Ann, having less taste that way, have gone together to select +bouquets, in the greenhouse, and there is now an excellent opportunity +to gratify your sister. I am to draw Mary out of the room, after a +little while, when you and Martha may say a word to each other in your +proper characters. As for you, Roger, you are to open your box again, +and I will answer for it _that_ will serve to amuse your other wards, +should they return too soon from their visit to the gardener." + +Everything being thus explained, and our dinner ended, all parties +proceeded to the execution of the plan, each in his or her designated +mode. When my grandmother and I reached the dressing-room, however, +Martha was not there, though Mary Warren was, her bright but serene eyes +full of happiness and expectation. Martha had retired to the inner room +for a moment, whither my grandmother, suspecting the truth, followed +her. As I afterward ascertained, my sister, fearful of not being able to +suppress her tears on my entrance, had withdrawn, in order to struggle +for self-command without betraying our secret. I was told to commence an +air, without waiting for the absent young lady, as the strain could +easily be heard through the open door. + +I might have played ten minutes before my sister and grandmother came +out again. Both had been in tears, though the intense manner in which +Mary Warren was occupied with the harmony of my flute, probably +prevented her from observing it. To me, however, it was plain enough; +and glad was I to find that my sister had succeeded in commanding her +feelings. In a minute or two my grandmother profited by a pause to rise +and carry away with her Mary Warren, though the last left the room with +a reluctance that was very manifest. The pretence was a promise to meet +the divine in the library, on some business connected with the +Sunday-schools. + +"You can keep the young man for another air, Martha," observed my +grandmother, "and I will send Jane to you, as I pass her room." + +Jane was my sister's own maid, and her room was close at hand, and I +dare say dear grandmother gave her the order, in Mary Warren's presence, +as soon as she quitted the room, else might Mary Warren well be +surprised at the singularity of the whole procedure; but Jane did not +make her appearance, nevertheless. As for myself, I continued to play as +long as I thought any ear was near enough to hear me; then I laid aside +my flute. In the next instant Patt was in my arms, where she lay some +time weeping, but looking inexpressibly happy. + +"Oh! Hugh, what a disguise was this to visit your own house in!" she +said, as soon as composed enough to speak. + +"Would it have done to come here otherwise? You know the state of the +country, and the precious fruits our boasted tree of liberty is bringing +forth. The owner of the land can only visit his property at the risk of +his life!" + +Martha pressed me in her arms in a way to show how conscious she was of +the danger I incurred in even thus visiting her; after which we seated +ourselves, side by side, on a little divan, and began to speak of those +things that were most natural to a brother and sister who so much loved +each other, and who had not met for five years. My grandmother had +managed so well as to prevent all interruption for an hour, if we saw +fit to remain together, while to others it should seem as if Patt had +dismissed me in a few minutes. + +"Not one of the other girls suspects, in the least, who you are," said +Martha, smiling, when we had got through with the questions and answers +so natural to our situation. "I am surprised that Henrietta has not, for +_she_ prides herself on her penetration. She is as much in the dark as +the others, however." + +"And Miss Mary Warren--the young lady who has just left the room--has +she not some _small_ notion that I am not a common Dutch music-grinder?" + +Patt laughed, and that so merrily as to cause the tones of her sweet +voice to fill me with delight, as I remembered what she had been in +childhood and girlhood five years before, and she shook her bright +tresses off her cheeks ere she would answer. + +"No, Hugh," she replied, "she fancies you an _uncommon_ Dutch +music-grinder; an _artiste_ that not only grinds, but who dresses up his +harmonies in such a way as to be palatable to the most refined taste. +How came Mary to think you and my uncle two reduced German gentlemen?" + +"And does the dear girl believe--that is, does Miss Mary Warren do us so +much honor, as to imagine that?" + +"Indeed she does, for she told us as much as soon as she got home; and +Henrietta and Ann have made themselves very merry with their +speculations on the subject of Miss Warren's great incognito. They call +you Herzog von Geige." + +"Thank them for that." I am afraid I answered a little too pointedly, +for I saw that Patt seemed surprised. "But your American towns are just +such half-way things as to spoil young women; making them neither +refined and polished as they might be in real capitals, while they are +not left the simplicity and nature of the country." + +"Well, Master Hugh, this is being very cross about a very little, and +not particularly complimentary to your own sister. And why not _your_ +American towns, as well as _ours_?--are you no longer one of us?" + +"Certainly; one of _yours_, always, my dearest Patt, though not one of +every chattering girl who may set up for a _belle_, with her Dukes of +Fiddle! But, enough of this;--you like the Warrens?" + +"Very much so; father and daughter. The first is just what a clergyman +should be; of a cultivation and intelligence to fit him to be any man's +companion, and a simplicity like that of a child. Your remember his +predecessor--so dissatisfied, so selfish, so lazy, so censorious, so +unjust to every person and thing around him, and yet so exacting; and, +at the same time, so----" + +"What? Thus far you have drawn his character well: I should like to hear +the remainder." + +"I have said more than I ought already; for one has an idea that, by +bringing a clergyman into disrepute, it brings religion and the Church +into discredit, too. A priest must be a _very_ bad man to have injurious +things said of him, in this country, Hugh." + +"That is, perhaps, true. But you like Mr. Warren better than him who has +left you?" + +"A thousand times, and in all things. In addition to having a most pious +and sincere pastor, _we_ have an agreeable and well-bred neighbor, from +whose mouth, in the five years that he has dwelt here, I have not heard +a syllable at the expense of a single fellow-creature. You know how it +is apt to be with the other clergy and ours, in the country--forever at +swords' points; and if not actually quarrelling, keeping up a hollow +peace." + +"That is only too true--or used to be true, before I went abroad." + +"And it is so now elsewhere, I'll answer for it, though it be so no +longer here. Mr. Warren and Mr. Peck seem to live on perfectly amicable +terms, though as little alike at bottom as fire and water." + +"By the way, how do the clergy of the different sects, up and down the +country, behave on the subject of anti-rent?" + +"I can answer only from what I hear, with the exception of Mr. Warren's +course. _He_ has preached two or three plain and severe sermons on the +duty of honesty in our worldly transactions, one of which was from the +tenth commandment. Of course he said nothing of the particular trouble, +but everybody must have made the necessary application of the +home-truths he uttered. I question if another voice has been raised, far +and near, on the subject, although I have heard Mr. Warren say the +movement threatens more to demoralize New York than anything that has +happened in his time." + +"And the man down at the village?" + +"Oh, he goes, of course, with the majority. When was one of that sect +known to oppose his parish, in anything?" + +"And Mary is as sound and as high-principled as her father?" + +"Quite so; though there has been a good deal said about the necessity of +Mr. Warren's removing, and giving up St. Andrew's, since he preached +against covetousness. All the anti-renters say, I hear, that they know +he meant _them_, and that they won't put up with it." + +"I dare say; each one fancying he was almost called out by name; that is +the way, when conscience works." + +"I should be very, very sorry to part with Mary; and almost as much so +to part with her father. There is one thing, however, that Mr. Warren +himself thinks we had better have done, Hugh; and that is to take down +the canopy from over our pew. You can have no notion of the noise that +foolish canopy is making up and down the country." + +"I shall _not_ take it down. It is my property, and there it shall +remain. As for the canopy, it was a wrong distinction to place in a +church, I am willing to allow; but it never gave offence until it has +been thought that a cry against it would help to rob me of my lands at +half-price, or at no price at all, as it may happen." + +"All that may be true; but if improper for a church, why keep it?" + +"Because I do not choose to be bullied out of what is my own, even +though I care nothing about it. There might have been a time when the +canopy was unsuited to the house of God, and that was when those who saw +it might fancy it canopied the head of a fellow-creature who had higher +claims than themselves to divine favor; but in times like these, when +men estimate merit by beginning at the other end of the social scale, +there is little danger of any one's falling into the mistake. The canopy +shall stand, little as I care about it; now, I would actually prefer it +should come down, and I can fully see the impropriety of making any +distinctions in the temple; but it shall stand until concessions cease +to be dangerous. It is a right of property, and as such I will maintain +it. If others dislike it, let them put canopies over their pews, too. +The best test, in such a matter, is to see who could bear it. A pretty +figure Seneca Newcome would cut, for instance, seated in a canopied pew! +Even his own set would laugh at him, which, I fancy, is more than they +yet do at me." + +Martha was disappointed; but she changed the subject. We next talked of +our own little private affairs, as they were connected with smaller +matters. + +"For whom is that beautiful chain intended, Hugh?" asked Patt, +laughingly. "I can now believe the pedler when he says it is reserved +for your future wife. But who is that wife to be? Will her name be +Henrietta or Ann?" + +"Why not ask, also, if it will be Mary?--why exclude one of your +companions, while you include the other two?" + +Patt started--seemed surprised; her cheeks flushed, and then I saw that +pleasure was the feeling predominant. + +"Am I too late to secure that jewel, as a pendant to my chain?" I asked, +half in jest, half seriously. + +"Too soon, at least, to attract it by the richness and beauty of the +bawble. A more natural and disinterested girl than Mary Warren does not +exist in the country." + +"Be frank with me, Martha, and say at once; has she a favored suitor?" + +"Why, this seems really serious!" exclaimed my sister, laughing. "But, +to put you out of your pain, I will answer, I know of but one. One she +has certainly, or female sagacity is at fault." + +"But is he one that is favored? You can never know how much depends on +your answer." + +"Of that you can judge for yourself. It is 'Squire Seneky Newcome, as he +is called hereabouts--the brother of the charming Opportunity, who still +reserves herself for you." + +"And they are as rank anti-renters as any male and female in the +country." + +"They are rank Newcomites; and that means that each is for himself. +Would you believe it, but Opportunity really gives herself airs with +Mary Warren!" + +"And how does Mary Warren take such an assumption?" + +"As a young person should--quietly and without manifesting any feeling. +But there is something quite intolerable in one like Opportunity +Newcome's assuming a superiority over any true lady! Mary is as well +educated and as well connected as any of us, and is quite as much +accustomed to good company; while Opportunity--" here Patt laughed, and +then added, hurriedly, "but you know Opportunity as well as I do." + +"Oh! yes; she is _la_ vertue, or _the_ virtue, and _je suis venue +pour_." + +The latter allusion Patt understood well enough, having laughed over the +story a dozen times; and she laughed again when I explained the affair +of "_the_ solitude." + +Then came a fit of sisterly feeling. Patt insisted on taking off my wig, +and seeing my face in its natural dress. I consented to gratify her, +when the girl really behaved like a simpleton. First she pushed about my +curls until they were arranged to suit the silly creature, when she ran +back several steps, clapped her hands in delight, then rushed into "my +arms and kissed my forehead and eyes, and called me her brother"--her +"only brother"--her "dear, _dear_ Hugh," and by a number of other such +epithets, until she worked herself, and me too, into such an excess of +feeling that we sat down, side by side, and each had a hearty fit of +crying. Perhaps some such burst as this was necessary to relieve our +minds, and we submitted to it wisely. + +My sister wept the longest, as a matter of course; but, as soon as she +had dried her eyes, she replaced the wig, and completely restored my +disguise, trembling the whole time lest some one might enter and detect +me. + +"You have been very imprudent, Hugh, in coming here at all," she said, +while thus busy. "You can form no notion of the miserable state of the +country, or how far the anti-rent poison has extended, or the malignant +nature of its feeling. The annoyances they have attempted with dear +grandmother are odious; _you_ they would scarcely leave alive." + +"The country and the people must have strangely altered, then, in five +years. Our New York population has hitherto had very little of the +assassin-like character. Tar and feathers are the blackguards', and have +been the petty tyrants' weapons, from time immemorial, in this country; +but not the knife." + +"And can anything sooner or more effectually alter a people than +longings for the property of others? Is not the 'love of money the root +of all evil?'--and what right have we to suppose our Ravensnest +population is better than another, when that sordid feeling is +thoroughly aroused? You know you have written one yourself, that all the +American can or does live for is money." + +"I have written you, dear, that the country, in its present condition, +leaves no other incentive to exertion, and therein it is cursed. +Military fame, military rank, even, are unattainable, under our system; +the arts, letters, and science bring little or no reward; and there +being no political rank that a man of refinement would care for, men +must live for money, or live altogether for another state of being. But +I have told you, at the same time, Martha, that, notwithstanding all +this, I believe the American a less mercenary being, in the ordinary +sense of the word, than the European; that two men might be bought, for +instance, in any European country, for one here. This last I suppose to +be the result of the facility of making a living, and the habits it +produces." + +"Never mind causes; Mr. Warren says there is a desperate intention to +rob existing among these people, and that they are dangerous. As yet +they do a little respect women, but how long they will do that one +cannot know." + +"It may all be so. It _must_ be so, respecting what I have heard and +read; yet this vale looks as smiling and as sweet, at this very moment, +as if an evil passion never sullied it! But depend on my prudence, which +tells me that we ought now to part. I shall see you again and again +before I quit the estate, and you will, of course, join us somewhere--at +the Springs, perhaps--as soon as we find it necessary or expedient to +decamp." + +Martha promised this, of course, and I kissed her, previously to +separating. No one crossed my way as I descended to the piazza, which +was easily done, since I was literally at home. I lounged about on the +lawn a few minutes, and then, showing myself in front of the library +windows, I was summoned to the room, as I had expected. + +Uncle Ro had disposed of every article of the fine jewelry that he had +brought home as presents for his wards. The pay was a matter to be +arranged with Mrs. Littlepage, which meant no pay at all; and, as the +donor afterward told me, he liked this mode of distributing the various +ornaments better than presenting them himself, as he was now certain +each girl had consulted her own fancy. + +As the hour of the regular dinner was approaching, we took our leave +soon after, not without receiving kind and pressing invitations to visit +the Nest again ere we left the township. Of course we promised all that +was required, intending most faithfully to comply. On quitting the house +we returned toward the farm, though not without pausing on the lawn to +gaze around us on a scene so dear to both, from recollection, +association, and interest. But I forget, this is aristocratical; the +landlord has no right to sentiments of this nature, which are feelings +that the sublimated liberty of the law is beginning to hold in reserve +solely for the benefit of the tenant! + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + "There shall be, in England, seven half penny loaves sold for a + penny; the three-hooped pot shall have ten hoops; and I will + make it felony to drink small beer; all the realm shall be in + common, and in Cheapside shall my palfrey go to grass."--_Jack + Cade._ + + +"I do not see, sir," I remarked, as we moved on from the last of these +pauses, "why the governors and the legislators, and writers on this +subject of anti-rentism, talk so much of feudality, and chickens, and +days' works, and durable leases, when we have none of these, while we +have all the disaffection they are said to produce." + +"You will understand that better as you come to know more of men. No +party alludes to its weak points. It is just as you say; but the +proceedings of your tenants, for instance, give the lie to the theories +of the philanthropists, and must be kept in the background. It is true +that the disaffection has not yet extended to one-half, or to one-fourth +of the leased estates in the country, perhaps not to one-tenth, if you +take the number of the landlords as the standard, instead of the extent +of their possessions, but it certainly _will_, should the authorities +tamper with the rebels much longer." + +"If they tax the incomes of the landlords under the durable rent system, +why would not the parties aggrieved have the same right to take up arms +to resist such an act of oppression as our fathers had in 1776?" + +"Their cause would be better; for that was only a constructive right, +and one dependent on general principles, whereas this is an attempt at a +most mean evasion of a written law, the meanness of the attempt being +quite as culpable as its fraud. Every human being knows that such a tax, +so far as it has any object beyond that of an election-sop, is to choke +off the landlords from the maintenance of their covenants, which is a +thing that no State _can_ do directly, without running the risk of +having its law pronounced unconstitutional by the courts of the United +States, if, indeed, not by its own courts." + +"The Court of Errors, think you?" + +"The Court of Errors is doomed, by its own abuses. Catiline never abused +the patience of Rome more than that mongrel assembly has abused the +patience of every sound lawyer in the State. '_Fiat justitia, ruat +coelum_,' is interpreted, now, into 'Let justice be done, and the +court fall.' No one wishes to see it continued, and the approaching +convention will send it to the Capulets, if it do nothing else to be +commended. It was a pitiful imitation of the House of Lords system, with +this striking difference; the English lords are men of education, and +men with a vast deal at stake, and their knowledge and interests teach +them to leave the settlement of appeals to the legal men of their body, +of whom there are always a respectable number, in addition to those in +possession of the woolsack and the bench; whereas our Senate is a court +composed of small lawyers, country doctors, merchants, farmers, with +occasionally a man of really liberal attainments. Under the direction of +an acute and honest judge, as most of our true judges actually are, the +Court of Errors would hardly form such a jury as would allow a +creditable person to be tried by his peers, in a case affecting +character, for instance, and here we have it set up as a court of the +last resort, to settle points of law!" + +"I see it has just made a decision in a libel suit, at which the +profession sneers." + +"It has, indeed. Now look at that very decision, for instance, as the +measure of its knowledge. An editor of a newspaper holds up a literary +man to the world as one anxious to obtain a small sum of money, in order +to put it into Wall Street, for 'shaving purposes.' Now, the only +material question raised was the true signification of the word +'shaving.' If to say a man is a 'shaver,' in the sense in which it is +applied to the use of money, be bringing him into discredit, then was +the plaintiff's declaration sufficient; if not, it was insufficient, +being wanting in what is called an 'innuendo.' The dictionaries, and men +in general, understand by 'shaving,' 'extortion,' and nothing else. To +call a man a 'shaver' is to say he is an 'extortioner,' without going +into details. But, in Wall Street, and among money-dealers, certain +transactions that, in their eyes, and by the courts, are not deemed +discreditable, have of late been brought within the category of +'shaving.' Thus it is technically, or by convention among bankers, +termed 'shaving' if a man buy a note at less than its face, which is a +legal transaction. On the strength of this last circumstance, _as is set +forth in the published opinions_, the highest Court of Appeals in New +York has decided that it does not bring a man into discredit to say he +is a 'shaver!'--thus making a conventional signification of the brokers +of Wall Street higher authority for the use of the English tongue than +the standard lexicographers, and all the rest of those who use the +language! On the same principle, if a set of pickpockets at the Five +Points, should choose to mystify their trade a little by including in +the term 'to filch' the literal _borrowing_ of a pocket-handkerchief, it +would not be a libel to accuse a citizen of 'filching his neighbor's +handkerchief!'" + +"But the libel was uttered to the _world_, and not to the brokers of +Wall Street only, who might possibly understand their own terms." + +"Very true; and was uttered in a newspaper that carried the falsehood to +Europe; for the writer of the charge, when brought up for it, publicly +admitted that he had no ground for suspecting the literary man of any +such practices. _He_ called it a '_joke_.' Every line of the context, +however, showed it was a malicious charge. The decision is very much as +if a man who is sued for accusing another of 'stealing' should set up a +defence that he meant 'stealing' hearts, for the word is sometimes used +in _that_ sense. When men use epithets that convey discredit in their +general meaning, it is their business to give them a special +signification in their own contexts, if such be their real intention. +But I much question if there be a respectable money-dealer, even in Wall +Street, who would not swear, if called on in a court of justice so to +do, that _he_ thought the general charge of 'shaving' discreditable to +any man." + +"And you think the landlords whose rents were taxed, sir, would have a +moral right to resist?" + +"Beyond all question; as it would be an income-tax on them only of all +in the country. What is more, I am fully persuaded that two thousand men +embodied to resist such tyranny would look down the whole available +authority of the State; inasmuch as I do not believe citizens could be +found to take up arms to enforce a law so flagrantly unjust. Men will +look on passively and see wrongs inflicted, that would never come out to +support them by their own acts. But we are approaching the farm, and +there are Tom Miller and his hired men waiting our arrival." + +It is unnecessary to repeat, in detail, all that passed in this our +second visit to the farm-house. Miller received us in a friendly manner, +and offered us a bed, if we would pass the night with him. This business +of _a_ bed had given us more difficulty than anything else in the course +of our peregrinations. New York has long got over the "two-man" and +"three-man bed" system, as regards its best inns. At no respectable New +York inn is a gentleman now asked to share even his room, without an +apology and a special necessity, with another, much less his bed; but +the rule does not hold good as respects pedlers and music-grinders. We +had ascertained that we were not only expected to share the same bed, +but to occupy that bed in a room filled with other beds. There are +certain things that get to be second nature, and that no masquerading +will cause to go down; and, among others, one gets to dislike sharing +his room and his tooth-brush. This little difficulty gave us more +trouble that night at Tom Miller's than anything we had yet encountered. +At the taverns, bribes had answered our purpose; but this would not do +so well at a farm residence. At length the matter was got along with by +putting me in the garret, where I was favored with a straw bed under my +own roof, the decent Mrs. Miller making many apologies for not having a +feather-smootherer, into which to "squash" me. I did not tell the good +woman that I never used feathers, summer or winter; for, had I done so, +she would have set me down as a poor creature from "oppressed" Germany, +where the "folks" did not know how to live. Nor would she have been so +much out of the way _quoad_ the beds, for in all my journeyings I never +met with such uncomfortable sleeping as one finds in Germany, off the +Rhine and out of the large towns.[23] + +[Footnote 23: As the "honorable gentleman from Albany" does not seem to +understand the precise signification of "provincial," I can tell him +that one sign of such a character is to admire a bed at an American +country inn.--EDITOR.] + +While the negotiation was in progress I observed that Josh Brigham, as +the anti-rent disposed hireling of Miller's was called, kept a watchful +eye and an open ear on what was done and said. Of all men on earth, the +American of that class is the most "distrustful," as he calls it +himself, and has his suspicions the soonest awakened. The Indian on the +war-path--the sentinel who is posted in a fog, near his enemy, an hour +before the dawn of day--the husband that is jealous, or the priest that +has become a partisan, is not a whit more apt to fancy, conjecture, or +assert, than the American of that class who has become "distrustful." +This fellow, Brigham, was the very _beau ideal_ of the suspicious +school, being envious and malignant, as well as shrewd, observant, and +covetous. The very fact that he was connected with the "Injins," as +turned out to be the case, added to his natural propensities the +consciousness of guilt, and rendered him doubly dangerous. The whole +time my uncle and myself were crossing over and figuring in, in order to +procure for each a room, though it were only a closet, his watchful, +distrustful looks denoted how much he saw in our movements to awaken +curiosity, if not downright suspicion. When all was over, he followed me +to the little lawn in front of the house, whither I had gone to look at +the familiar scene by the light of the setting sun, and began to betray +the nature of his own suspicions by his language. + +"The old man" (meaning my uncle Ro) "must have plenty of gold watches +about him," he said, "to be so plaguy partic'lar consarnin' his bed. +Peddlin' sich matters is a ticklish trade, I guess, in some parts?" + +"Ja; it ist dangerous somevhere, but it might not be so in dis goot +coontry." + +"Why did the old fellow, then, try so hard to get that little room all +to himself, and shove you off into the garret? We hired men don't like +the garret, which is a hot place in summer." + +"In Charmany one man hast ever one bed," I answered, anxious to get rid +of the subject. + +I bounced a little, as "one has one-half of a bed" would be nearer to +the truth, though the other half might be in another room. + +"Oh! that's it, is't? Wa-a-l, every country has its ways, I s'pose. +Jarmany is a desp'ate aristocratic land, I take it." + +"Ja; dere ist moch of de old feudal law, and feudal coostum still +remaining in Charmany." + +"Landlords a plenty, I guess, if the truth was known. Leases as long as +my arm, I calkerlate?" + +"Vell, dey do dink, in Charmany, dat de longer might be de lease, de +better it might be for de denant." + +As that was purely a German sentiment, or at least not an American +sentiment, according to the notions broached by statesmen among +ourselves, I made it as Dutch as possible by garnishing it well with +d's. + +"That's a droll idee! Now, we think, here, that a lease is a bad thing; +and the less you have of a bad thing, the better." + +"Vell, dat _ist_ queer, so queer as I don't know! Vhat vill dey do as +might help it?" + +"Oh! the legislature will set it all right. They mean to pass a law to +prevent any more leases at all." + +"Und vill de beople stand dat? Dis ist a free country, efferybody dells +me, and vilt der beoples agree not to hire lands if dey vants to?" + +"Oh! you see we wish to choke the landlords off from their present +leases; and, by and by, when _that_ is done, the law can let up again." + +"But ist dat right? Der law should be joost, und not hold down und let +oop, as you calls it." + +"You don't understand us yet, I see. Why that's the prettiest and the +neatest legislation on airth! That's just what the bankrupt law did." + +"Vhat did her bankroopt law do, bray? Vhat might you mean now?--I don't +know." + +"Do! why, it did wonders for some on us, I can tell you! It paid our +debts, and let us up when we was down; and that's no trifle, I can tell +you. I took 'the benefit,' as it is called, myself." + +"You!--you might take der benefit of a bankrupt law! You, lifing here +ast a hiret man, on dis farm!" + +"Sartain; why not? All a man wanted under _that_ law was about $60 to +carry him through the mill; and if he could rake and scrape that much +together, he might wipe off as long a score as he pleased. I had been +dealin' in speckylation, and that's a make or break business, I can tell +you. Well, I got to be about $423.22 wuss than nothin'; but, having +about $90 in hand, I went through the mill without getting cogged the +smallest morsel! A man doos a good business, to my notion, when he can +make twenty cents pay a whull dollar of debt." + +"Und you did dat goot business?" + +"You may say that; and now I means to make anti-rentism get me a farm +cheap--what _I_ call cheap; and that an't none of your $30 or $40 an +acre, I can tell you!" + +It was quite clear that Mr. Joshua Brigham regarded these transactions +as so many Pragmatic Sanctions, that were to clear the moral and legal +atmospheres of any atoms of difficulty that might exist in the forms of +old opinions, to his getting easily out of debt, in the one case, and +suddenly rich in the other. I dare say I looked bewildered, but I +certainly felt so, at thus finding myself face to face with a low knave, +who had a deliberate intention, as I now found, to rob me of a farm. It +is certain that Joshua so imagined, for, inviting me to walk down the +road with him a short distance, he endeavored to clear up any moral +difficulties that might beset me, by pursuing the subject. + +"You see," resumed Joshua, "I will tell you how it is. These Littlepages +have had this land long enough, and it's time to give poor folks a +chance. The young spark that pretends to own all the farms you see, far +and near, never _did_ anything for 'em in his life; only to be his +father's son. Now, to my notion, a man should do suthin' for his land, +and not be obligated for it to mere natur'. This is a free country, and +what right has one man to land more than another?" + +"Or do his shirt, or do his dobacco, or do his coat, or do anyding +else." + +"Well, I don't go as far as that. A man has a right to his clothes, and +maybe to a horse, or a cow, but he has no right to all the land in +creation. The law gives a right to a cow as ag'in' execution." + +"Und doesn't der law gif a right to der landt, too? You must not depend +on der law, if you might succeed." + +"We like to get as much law as we can on our side. Americans like law: +now, you'll read in all the books--_our_ books, I mean, them that's +printed here--that the Americans be the most lawful people on airth, and +that they'll do more for the law than any other folks known!" + +"Vell, dat isn't vhat dey says of der Americans in Europe; nein, nein, +dey might not say dat." + +"Why, don't you think it is so? Don't you think this the greatest +country on airth, and the most lawful?" + +"Vell, I don'ts know. Das coontry ist das coontry, und it ist vhat it +ist, you might see." + +"Yes; I thought you would be of my way of thinking, when we got to +understand each other." Nothing is easier than to mislead an American on +the estimate foreigners place on them: in this respect they are the most +deluded people living, though, in other matters, certainly among the +shrewdest. "That's the way with acquaintances, at first; they don't +always understand one another: and then you talk a little thick, like. +But now, friend, I'll come to the p'int--but first swear you'll not +betray me." + +"Ja, ja--I oonderstandst; I most schwear I won't bedray you: das ist +goot." + +"But, hold up your hand. Stop; of what religion be you?" + +"Gristian, to be sure. I might not be a Chew. Nein, nein; I am a ferry +vat Gristian." + +"We are all bad enough, for that matter; but I lay no stress on _that_. +A little of the devil in a man helps him along, in this business of +ourn. But you must be suthin' more than a Christian, I s'pose, as we +don't call _that_ bein' of any religion at all, in this country. Of what +_supportin_' religion be you?" + +"Soobortin'; vell, I might not oonderstands dat. Vhat is soobortin' +religion? Coomes dat vrom Melanchton und Luther?--or coomes it vrom der +Pope? Vhat ist dat soobortin' religion?" + +"Why, what religion do you _patronize_? Do you patronize the standin' +order, or the kneelin' order?--or do you patronize neither? Some folks +thinks its best to lie down at prayer, as the least likely to divart the +thoughts." + +"I might not oonderstand. But nefer mindt der religion, und coome to der +p'int dat you mentioned." + +"Well, that p'int is this. You're a Jarman, and can't like aristocrats, +and so I'll trust you; though, if you do betray me, you'll never play on +another bit of music in this country, or any other! If you want to be an +Injin, as good an opportunity will offer to-morrow as ever fell in a +man's way?" + +"An Injin! Vhat goot vill it do to be an Injin? I dought it might be +better to be a vhite man, in America?" + +"Oh! I mean only an anti-rent Injin. We've got matters so nicely fixed +now, that a chap can be an Injin without any paint at all, or any +washin' or scrubbin', but can convart himself into himself ag'in, at any +time, in two minutes. The wages is good and the work light; then we have +rare chances in the stores, and round about among the farms. The law is, +that an Injin must have what he wants, and no grumblin', and we take +care to want enough. If you'll be at the meetin', I'll tell you how +you'll know me." + +"Ja, ja--dat ist goot; I vill be at der meetin', sartainly. Vhere might +it be?" + +"Down at the village. The word came up this a'ternoon, and we shall all +be on the ground by ten o'clock." + +"Vilt der be a fight, dat you meet so bunctually, and wid so moch +spirit?" + +"Fight! Lord, no; who is there to fight, I should like to know? We are +pretty much all ag'in the Littlepages, and there's none of them on the +ground but two or three women. I'll tell you how it's all settled. The +meetin' is called on the deliberative and liberty-supportin' plan. I +s'pose you know we've all sorts of meetin's in this country?" + +"Nein; I dought dere might be meetin's for bolitics, vhen der beople +might coome, but I don't know vhat else." + +"Is't possible! What, have you no 'indignation meetin's' in Jarmany? We +count a great deal on our indignation meetin's, and both sides have 'em +in abundance, when things get to be warm. Our meetin' to-morrow is for +deliberation and liberty-principles generally. We may pass some +indignation resolutions about aristocrats, for nobody can bear them +critturs in this part of the country, I can tell you." + +Lest this manuscript should get into the hands of some of those who do +not understand the real condition of New York society, it may be well to +explain that "aristocrat" means, in the parlance of the country, no +other than a man of gentleman-like tastes, habits, opinions, and +associations. There are gradations among the aristocracy of the State, +as well as among other men. Thus he who is an aristocrat in a hamlet, +would be very democratic in a village; and he of the village might be no +aristocrat in the town, at all; though, in the towns generally, indeed +always, when their population has the least of a town character, the +distinction ceases altogether, men quietly dropping into the traces of +civilized society, and talking or thinking very little about it. To see +the crying evils of American aristocracy, then, one must go into the +country. There, indeed, a plenty of cases exist. Thus, if there happen +to be a man whose property is assessed at twenty-five per cent. above +that of all his neighbors--who must have right on his side bright as a +cloudless sun to get a verdict, if obliged to appeal to the laws--who +pays fifty per cent. more for everything he buys, and receives fifty per +cent. less for everything he sells, than any other person near him--who +is surrounded by rancorous enemies, in the midst of a seeming state of +peace--who has everything he says and does perverted, and added to, and +lied about--who is traduced because his dinner-hour is later than that +of "other folks"--who don't stoop, but is straight in the back--who +presumes to doubt that this country in general, and his own township in +particular, is the focus of civilization--who hesitates about signing +his name to any flagrant instance of ignorance, bad taste, or worse +morals, that his neighbors may get up in the shape of a petition, +remonstrance, or resolution--depend on it that man is a prodigious +aristocrat, and one who, for his many offences and manner of lording it +over mankind, deserves to be banished. I ask the reader's pardon for so +abruptly breaking in upon Joshua's speech, but such very different +notions exist about aristocrats, in different parts of the world, that +some such explanation was necessary in order to prevent mistakes. I have +forgotten one mark of the tribe that is, perhaps, more material than all +the rest, which must not be omitted, and is this:--if he happen to be a +man who prefers his own pursuits to public life, and is regardless of +"popularity," he is just guilty of the unpardonable sin. The "people" +will forgive anything sooner than this; though there are "folks" who +fancy it as infallible a sign of an aristocrat not to chew tobacco. But, +unless I return to Joshua, the reader will complain that I cause him to +stand still. + +"No, no," continued Mr. Brigham; anything but an aristocrat for me. I +hate the very name of the sarpents, and wish there warn't one in the +land. To-morrow we are to have a great anti-rent lecturer out----" + +"A vhat?" + +"A lecturer; one that lectur's, you understand, on anti-rentism, +temperance, aristocracy, government, or any other grievance that may +happen to be uppermost. Have you no lecturers in Jarmany?" + +"Ja, ja; dere ist lecturers in das universities--blenty of dem." + +"Well, we have 'em universal and partic'lar, as we happen to want 'em. +To-morrow we're to have one, they tell me, the smartest man that has +appeared in the cause. He goes it strong, and the Injins mean to back +him up with all sorts of shrieks and whoopin's. Your hurdy-gurdy, there, +makes no sort of music to what our tribe can make when we fairly open +our throats." + +"Vell, dis ist queer! I vast told dat der Americans vast all +philosophers, und dat all dey didt vast didt in a t'oughtful and sober +manner; und now you dells me dey screams deir arguments like Injins!" + +"That we do! I wish you'd been here in the hard-cider and log-cabin +times, and you'd a seen reason and philosophy, as you call it! I was a +whig that summer, though I went democrat last season. There's about five +hundred on us in this country that makes the most of things, I can tell +you. What's the use of a vote, if a body gets nothin' by it? But +to-morrow you'll see the business done up, and matters detarmined for +this part of the world, in fine style. We know what we're about, and we +mean to carry things through quite to the end." + +"Und vhat do you means to do?" + +"Well, seein' that you seem to be of the right sort, and be so likely to +put on the Injin shirt, I'll tell you all about it. We mean to get good +and old farms at favorable rates. That's what we mean to do. The +people's up and in 'arnest, and what the people want they'll have! This +time they want farms, and farms they must have. What's the use of havin' +a government of the people, if the people's obliged to want farms? We've +begun ag'in' the Rensselaers, and the durables, and the quarter-sales, +and the chickens; but we don't, by no manner of means, think of eending +there. What should we get by that? A man wants to get suthin' when he +puts his foot into a matter of this natur'. We know who's our fri'nds +and who's our inimies! Could we have some men I could name for +governors, all would go clear enough the first winter. We would tax the +landlords out, and law 'em about in one way and another, so as to make +'em right down glad to sell the last rod of their lands, and that cheap, +too!" + +"Und who might own these farms, all oop and down der coontry, dat I +see?" + +"As the law now stands, Littlepage owns 'em; but if we alter the law +enough, he wun't. If we can only work the legislature up to the stickin' +p'int, we shall get all we want. Would you believe it, the man wun't +sell a single farm, they say; but wishes to keep every one on 'em for +himself! Is that to be borne in a free country? They'd hardly stand that +in Jarmany, I'm thinkin'. A man that is such an aristocrat as to refuse +to sell anything, I despise." + +"Vell, dey stand to der laws in Charmany, and broperty is respected in +most coontries. You vouldn't do away wid der rights of broperty, if you +mights, I hopes?" + +"Not I. If a man owns a watch, or a horse, or a cow, I'm for having the +law such that a poor man can keep 'em, even ag'in execution. We're +getting the laws pretty straight on them p'ints, in old York, I can tell +you; a poor man, let him be ever so much in debt, can hold on to a +mighty smart lot of things, nowadays, and laugh at the law right in its +face! I've known chaps that owed as much as $200, hold on to as good as +$300; though most of their debts was for the very things they held on +to!" + +What a picture is this, yet is it not true? A state of society in which +a man can contract a debt for a cow, or his household goods, and laugh +at his creditor when he seeks his pay, on the one hand; and on the +other, legislators and executives lending themselves to the chicanery of +another set, that are striving to deprive a particular class of its +rights of property, directly in the face of written contracts! This is +straining at the gnat and swallowing the camel, with a vengeance; and +all for votes! Does any one really expect a community can long exist, +favored by a wise and justice-dispensing Providence, in which such +things are coolly attempted--ay, and coolly done? It is time that the +American began to see things as they are, and not as they are _said_ to +be, in the speeches of governors, Fourth-of-July orations, and +electioneering addresses. I write warmly, I know, but I feel warmly; and +I write like a man who sees that a most flagitious attempt to rob him is +tampered with by some in power, instead of being met, as the boasted +morals and intelligence of the country would require, by the stern +opposition of all in authority. Curses--deep, deep curses--ere long, +will fall on all who shrink from their duty in such a crisis. Even the +very men who succeed, if succeed they should, will, in the end, curse +the instruments of their own success.[24] + +[Footnote 24: That Mr. Hugh Littlepage does not feel or express himself +too strongly on the state of things that has now existed among us for +long, long years, the following case, but one that illustrates the +melancholy truth among many, will show. At a time when the tenants of an +extensive landlord, to whom tens of thousands were owing for rent, were +openly resisting the law, and defeating every attempt to distrain, +though two ordinary companies of even armed constables would have put +them down, the sheriff entered the house of that very landlord, and +levied on his furniture for debt. Had that gentleman, on the just and +pervading principle that he owed no allegiance to an authority that did +not protect him, resisted the sheriff's officer, _he_ would have gone to +the State's prison; and there he might have staid until his last hour of +service was expended.--EDITOR.] + +"A first-rate lecturer on feudal tenors" (Joshua was not in the least +particular in his language, but, in the substance, he knew what he was +talking about as well as some who are in high places), "chickens and +days' works. We expect a great deal from this man, who is paid well for +coming." + +"Und who might bay him?--der State?" + +"No--we haven't got to that _yet_; though some think the State will +_have_ to do it, in the long run. At present the tenants are taxed so +much on the dollar, accordin' to rent, or so much an acre, and that way +the needful money is raised. But one of our lecturers told us, a time +back, that it was money put out at use, and every man ought to keep an +account of what he give, for the time was not far off when he would get +it back, with double interest. 'It is paid now for a reform,' he said, +'and when the reform is obtained, no doubt the State would feel itself +so much indebted to us all, that it would tax the late landlords until +we got all our money back again, and more too.'" + +"Dat vould pe a bretty speculation; ja, dat might be most bootiful!" + +"Why, yes, it wouldn't be a bad operation, living on the inimy, as a +body might say. But you'll not catch our folks livin' on themselves, I +can tell you. That they might do without societies. No, we've an object; +and when folks has an object, they commonly look sharp a'ter it. We +don't let on all we want and mean openly; and you'll find folks among us +that'll stoutly deny that anti-renters has anything to do with the Injin +system; but folks an't obliged to believe the moon is _all_ cheese, +unless they've a mind to. Some among us maintain that no man ought to +hold more than a thousand acres of land, while others think natur' has +laid down the law on that p'int, and that a man shouldn't hold more than +he has need on." + +"Und vich side dost you favor?--vich of dese obinions might not be +yours?" + +"I'm not partic'lar, so I get a good farm. I should like one with +comfortable buildin's on't, and one that hasn't been worked to death. +For them two principles I think I'd stand out; but, whether there be +four hundred acres, or four hundred and fifty, or even five hundred, I'm +no way onaccommodatin'. I expect there'll be trouble in the eend, when +we come to the division, but I'm not the man to make it. I s'pose I +shall get my turn at the town offices, and other chances, and, givin' me +my rights to them, I'll take up with almost any farm young Littlepage +has, though I should rather have one in the main valley here, than one +more out of the way; still, I don't set myself down as at all +partic'lar." + +"Und vhat do you expect to bay Mr. Littlepage for der farm, ast you +might choose?" + +"That depends on circumstances. The Injins mainly expect to come in +cheap. Some folks think it's best to pay suthin', as it might stand +ag'in law better, should it come to that; while other some see no great +use in paying anything. Them that's willing to pay, mainly hold out for +paying the principal of the first rents." + +"I doesn't oonderstandt vhat you means by der brincipal of der first +rents." + +"It's plain enough, when you get the lay on't. You see, these lands were +let pretty low, when they were first taken up from the forest, in order +to get folks to live here. That's the way we're obliged to do in +America, or people won't come. Many tenants paid no rent at all for six, +eight, or ten years; and a'ter that, until their three lives run out, as +it is called, they paid only sixpence an acre, or six dollars and a +quarter on the hundred acres. That was done, you see, to buy men to come +here at all; and you can see by the price that was paid, how hard a time +they must have had on't. Now, some of our folks hold that the whull time +ought to be counted--that which was rent free, and that which was +not--in a way that I'll explain to you; for I'd have you to know I +haven't entered into this business without looking to the right and the +wrong on't." + +"Exblain, exblain; I might hear you exblain, and you most exblain." + +"Why, you're in a hurry, friend Griezenbach, or whatever your name be. +But I'll explain, if you wish it. S'pose, now, a lease run thirty +years--ten on nothin', and twenty on sixpences. Well, a hundred +sixpences makes fifty shillings, and twenty times fifty makes a +thousand, as all the rent paid in thirty years. If you divide a thousand +by thirty, it leaves thirty-three shillings and a fraction"--Joshua +calculated like an American of his class, accurately and with +rapidity--"for the average rent of the thirty years. Calling +thirty-three shillings four dollars, and it's plaguey little more, we +have that for the interest, which, at seven per cent., will make a +principal of rather more than fifty dollars, though not as much as +sixty. As sich matters ought to be done on liberal principles, they say +Littlepage ought to take fifty dollars, and give a deed for the hundred +acres." + +"Und vhat might be der rent of a hoondred acres now:--he might get more +dan sixpence to-day?" + +"That he does. Most all of the farms are running out on second, and some +on third leases. Four shilling an acre is about the average of the +rents, accordin' to circumstances." + +"Den you dinks der landlort ought to accept one year's rent for der +farms?" + +"I don't look on it in that light. He ought to take fifty dollars for a +hundred acres. You forget the tenants have paid for their farms, over +and over again, in rent. They _feel_ as if they have paid enough, and +that it was time to stop." + +Extraordinary as this reasoning may seem in most men's minds, I have +since found it is a very favorite sentiment among anti-renters. "Are we +to go on, and pay rent forever?" they ask, with logical and virtuous +indignation! + +"Und vhat may be der aferage value of a hoondred acre farm, in dis part +of de coontry?" I inquired. + +"From two thousand five hundred to three thousand dollars. It would be +more, but tenants won't put good buildings on farms, you know, seein' +that they don't own them. I heard one of our leaders lamentin' that he +didn't foresee what times were comin' to, when he repaired his old +house, or he would have built a new one. But a man can't foretell +everything. I dare say many has the same feelin's, now." + +"Den you dinks Herr Littlebage ought to accept $50 for vhat is worth +$2,500? Das seems fery little." + +"You forget the back rent that has been paid, and the work the tenant +has done. What would the farm be good for without the work that has been +done on it?" + +"Ja, ja--I oonderstandst; und vhat vould der work be goot for vidout der +landt on which it vast done?" + +This was rather an incautious question to put to a man as distrustful +and roguish as Joshua Brigham. The fellow cast a lowering and +distrustful look at me; but ere there was time to answer, Miller, of +whom he stood in healthful awe, called him away to look after the cows. + +Here, then, I had enjoyed an opportunity of hearing the opinions of one +of my own hirelings on the interesting subject of my right to my own +estate. I have since ascertained that, while these sentiments are +sedulously kept out of view in the proceedings of the government, which +deals with the whole matter as if the tenants were nothing but martyrs +to hard bargains, and the landlords their taskmasters, of greater or +less lenity, they are extensively circulated in the "infected +districts," and are held to be very sound doctrines by a large number of +the "bone and sinew of the land." Of course the reasoning is varied a +little, to suit circumstances, and to make it meet the facts. But of +this school is a great deal, and a very great deal, of the reasoning +that circulates on the leased property; and, from what I have seen and +heard already, I make no doubt that there are _quasi_ legislators among +us, who, instead of holding the manly and only safe doctrine which ought +to be held on such a subject, and saying that these deluded men should +be taught better, are ready to cite the very fact that such notions do +exist as a reason for the necessity of making concessions, in order to +keep the peace at the cheaper rate. That profound principle of +legislation, which concedes the right in order to maintain quiet, is +admirably adapted to forming sinners; and, if carried out in favor of +all who may happen to covet their neighbors' goods, would, in a short +time, render this community the very paradise of knaves. + +As for Joshua Brigham, I saw no more of him that night; for he quitted +the farm on leave, just as it got to be dark. Where he went I do not +know; but the errand on which he left us could no longer be a secret to +me. As the family retired early, and we ourselves were a good deal +fatigued, everybody was in bed by nine o'clock, and, judging from +myself, soon asleep. Previously to saying "good-night," however, Miller +told us of the meeting of the next day, and of his intention to attend +it. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + "He knows the game; how true he keeps the wind! + Silence."--_King Henry VI._ + + +After an early breakfast, next morning, the signs of preparation for a +start became very apparent in the family. Not only Miller, but his wife +and daughter, intended to go down to "Little Neest," as the hamlet was +almost invariably called in that fragment of the universe, in +contradistinction to the "Neest" proper. I found afterward that this +very circumstance was cited against me in the controversy, it being +thought _lese-majeste_ for a private residence to monopolize the major +of the proposition, while a hamlet had to put up with the minor; the +latter, moreover, including two taverns, which are exclusively the +property of the public, there being exclusiveness with the public as +well as with aristocrats--more especially in all things that pertain to +power or profit. As to the two last, even Joshua Brigham was much more +of an aristocrat than I was myself. It must be admitted that the +Americans are a humane population, for they are the only people who deem +that bankruptcy gives a claim to public favor.[25] + +[Footnote 25: Absurd as this may seem, it is nevertheless true, and for +a reason that is creditable, rather than the reverse--a wish to help +along the unfortunate. It is a great mistake, however, as a rule, to +admit of any other motive for selecting for public trusts, than +qualification.--EDITOR.] + +As respects the two "Nests," had not so much more serious matter been in +agitation, the precedence of the names might actually have been taken up +as a question of moment. I have heard of a lawsuit in France, touching a +name that has been illustrious in that country for a period so long as +to extend beyond the reach of man--as, indeed, was apparent by the +matter in controversy--and which name has obtained for itself a high +place in the annals of even our own republic. I allude to the house of +Grasse, which was seated, prior to the revolution, and may be still, at +a place called Grasse, in the southern part of the kingdom, the town +being almost as famous for the manufacture of pleasant things as the +family for its exploits in arms. About a century since, the Marquis de +Grasse is said to have had a _proces_ with his neighbors of the place, +to establish the fact whether the family gave its name to the town, or +the town gave its name to the family. The marquis prevailed in the +struggle, but greatly impaired his fortune in achieving that new +victory. As my house, or its predecessor, was certainly erected and +named while the site of Little Nest was still in the virgin forest, one +would think its claims to the priority of possession beyond dispute; but +such might not prove to be the case on a trial. There are two histories +among us, as relates to both public and private things; the one being as +nearly true as is usual, while the other is invariably the fruits of the +human imagination. Everything depending so much on majorities, that soon +gets to be the most authentic tradition which has the most believers; +for, under the system of numbers, little regard is paid to superior +advantages, knowledge, or investigation, all depending on three as +against two, which makes one majority. I find a great deal of this +spurious history is getting to be mixed up with the anti-rent +controversy, facts coming out daily that long have lain dormant in the +graves of the past. These facts affect the whole structure of the +historical picture of the State and colony, leaving touches of black +where the pencil had originally put in white, and placing the high +lights where the shadows have before always been understood to be. In a +word, men are telling the stories as best agrees with their present +views, and not at all as they agree with the fact. + +It was the intention of Tom Miller to give my uncle Ro and me a dearborn +to ourselves, while he drove his wife, Kitty and a _help_, as far as the +"Little Neest," in a two-horse vehicle that was better adapted to such a +freight. Thus disposed of, then, we all left the place in company, just +as the clock in the farm-house entry struck nine. I drove our horse +myself; and _mine_ he was, in fact, every hoof, vehicle and farming +utensil on the Nest farm, being as much my property, under the _old_ +laws, as the hat on my head. It is true, the Millers had now been fifty +years or more, nay, nearly sixty, in possession, and by the _new_ mode +of construction it is possible some may fancy that we had paid them +wages so long for working the land, and for using the cattle and +utensils, that the title, in a moral sense, had passed out of me, in +order to pass into Tom Miller. If use begets a right, why not to a wagon +and horse, as well as to a farm. + +As we left the place I gazed wistfully toward the Nest House, in the +hope of seeing the form of some one that I loved, at a window, on the +lawn, or in the piazza. Not a soul appeared, however, and we trotted +down the road a short distance in the rear of the other wagon, +conversing on such things as came uppermost in our minds. The distance +we had to go was about four miles, and the hour named for the +commencement of the lecture, which was to be the great affair of the +day, had been named at eleven. This caused us to be in no hurry, and I +rather preferred to coincide with the animal I drove, and move very +slowly, than hurry on, and arrive an hour or two sooner than was +required. In consequence of this feeling on our part, Miller and his +family were soon out of sight, it being their wish to obtain as much of +the marvels of the day as was possible. + +The road, of course, was perfectly well known to my uncle and myself; +but, had it not been, there was no danger of missing our way, as we had +only to follow the general direction of the broad valley through which +it ran. Then Miller had considerately told us that we must pass two +churches, or a church and a "meetin'-'us'," the spires of both of which +were visible most of the way, answering for beacons. Referring to this +term of "meeting-house," does it not furnish conclusive evidence, of +itself, of the inconsistent folly of that wisest of all earthly beings, +man? It was adopted in contradistinction from, and in direct opposition +to, the supposed idolatrous association connected with the use of the +word "church," at a time when certain sects would feel offended at +hearing their places of worship thus styled; whereas, at the present +day, those very sectarians are a little disposed to resent this +exclusive appropriation of the proscribed word by the sects who have +always adhered to it as offensively presuming, and, in a slight degree, +"arisdogradic!" I am a little afraid that your out-and-outers in +politics, religion, love of liberty, and other human excellences, are +somewhat apt to make these circuits in their eccentric orbits, and to +come out somewhere quite near the places from which they started. + +The road between the Nest House and Little Nest, the hamlet, is rural, +and quite as agreeable as is usually found in a part of the country that +is without water-views or mountain scenery. Our New York landscapes are +rarely, nay, never grand, as compared with the noble views one finds in +Italy, Switzerland, Spain, and the finer parts of Europe; but we have a +vast many that want nothing but a finish to their artificial accessories +to render them singularly agreeable. Such is the case with the principal +vale of Ravensnest, which, at the very moment we were driving through +it, struck my uncle and myself as presenting a picture of rural +abundance, mingled with rural comfort, that one seldom sees in the old +world, where the absence of enclosures, and the concentration of the +dwellings in villages, leave the fields naked and with a desolate +appearance, in spite of their high tillage and crops. + +"This is an estate worth contending for, now," said my uncle, as we +trotted slowly on, "although it has not hitherto been very productive to +its owner. The first half-century of an American property of this sort +rarely brings much to its proprietor beyond trouble and vexation." + +"And after that time the tenant is to have it, pretty much at his own +price, as a reward for his own labor!" + +"What evidences are to be found, wherever the eye rests, of the +selfishness of man, and his unfitness to be left to the unlimited +control of his own affairs! In England they are quarrelling with the +landlords, who _do_ compose a real aristocracy, and make the laws, about +the manner in which they protect themselves and the products of their +estates; while here the true owner of the soil is struggling against the +power of numbers, with the people, who are the only aristocrats we +possess, in order to maintain his right of property in the simplest and +most naked form! A common vice is at the bottom of both wrongs, and that +is the vice of selfishness." + +"But how are abuses like those of which we complain here--abuses of the +most formidable character of any that can exist, since the oppressors +are so many, and so totally irresponsible by their numbers--to be +avoided, if you give the people the right of self-government?" + +"God help the nation where self-government, in its literal sense, +exists, Hugh! The term is conventional, and, properly viewed, means a +government in which the source of authority is the body of the nation, +and does not come from any other sovereign. When a people that has been +properly educated by experience calmly selects its agents, and coolly +sets to work to adopt a set of principles to form its fundamental law or +constitution, the machine is on the right track, and will work well +enough so long as it is kept there; but this running off, and altering +the fundamental principles every time a political faction has need of +recruits, is introducing tyranny in its worst form--a tyranny that is +just as dangerous to real liberty as hypocrisy is to religion!" + +We were now approaching St. Andrew's church and the rectory, with its +glebe, the latter lying contiguous to the church-yard, or, as it is an +Americanism to say, the "graveyard." There had been an evident +improvement around the rectory since I had last seen it. Shrubbery had +been planted, care was taken of the fences, the garden was neatly and +well worked, the fields looked smooth, and everything denoted that it +was "new lords and new laws." The last incumbent had been a whining, +complaining, narrow-minded, selfish and lazy priest, the least estimable +of all human characters, short of the commission of the actual and +higher crimes; but his successor had the reputation of being a devout +and real Christian--one who took delight in the duties of his holy +office, and who served God because he loved him. I am fully aware how +laborious is the life of a country priest, and how contracted and mean +is the pittance he in common receives, and how much more he merits than +he gets, if his reward were to be graduated by things here. But this +picture, like every other, has its different sides, and occasionally men +do certainly enter the church from motives as little as possible +connected with those that ought to influence them. + +"There is the wagon of Mr. Warren, at his door," observed my uncle, as +we passed the rectory. "Can it be that he intends visiting the village +also, on an occasion like this?" + +"Nothing more probable, sir, if the character Patt has given of him be +true," I answered. "She tells me he has been active in endeavoring to +put down the covetous spirit that is getting uppermost in the town, and +has even preached boldly, though generally, against the principles +involved in the question. The other man, they say, goes for popularity, +and preaches and prays with the anti-renters." + +No more was said, but on we went, soon entering a large bit of wood, a +part of the virgin forest. This wood, exceeding a thousand acres in +extent, stretched down from the hills along some broken and otherwise +little valuable land, and had been reserved from the axe to meet the +wants of some future day. It was mine, therefore, in the fullest sense +of the word; and, singular as it may seem, one of the grounds of +accusation brought against me and my predecessors was that we had +_declined leasing it_! Thus, on the one hand, we were abused for having +leased our land, and, on the other, for not having leased it. The fact +is, we, in common with other extensive landlords, are expected to use +our property as much as possible for the particular benefit of other +people, while those other people are expected to use _their_ property as +much as possible for their own particular benefit. + +There was near a mile of forest to pass before we came out again in the +open country, at about a mile and a half's distance from the hamlet. On +our left this little forest did not extend more than a hundred rods, +terminating at the edge of the rivulet--or _creek_, as the stream is +erroneously called, and for no visible reason but the fact that it was +only a hundred feet wide--which swept close under the broken ground +mentioned at this point. On our right, however, the forest stretched +away for more than a mile, until, indeed, it became lost and confounded +with other portions of wood that had been reserved for the farms on +which they grew. As is very usual in America, in cases where roads pass +through a forest, a second growth had shot up on each side of this +highway, which was fringed for the whole distance with large bushes of +pine, hemlock, chestnut, and maple. In some places these bushes almost +touched the track, while in others a large space was given. We were +winding our way through this wood, and had nearly reached its centre, at +a point where no house was visible--and no house, indeed, stood within +half a mile of us--with the view in front and in rear limited to some +six or eight rods in each direction by the young trees, when our ears +were startled by a low, shrill, banditti-like whistle. I must confess +that my feelings were anything but comfortable at that interruption, for +I remembered the conversation of the previous night. I thought by the +sudden jump of my uncle, and the manner he instinctively felt where he +ought to have had a pistol, to meet such a crisis, that he believed +himself already in the hands of the Philistines. + +A half minute sufficed to tell us the truth. I had hardly stopped the +horse, in order to look around me, when a line of men, all armed and +disguised, issued in single file from the bushes, and drew up in the +road, at right angles to its course. There were six of these "Injins," +as they are called, and, indeed, call themselves, each carrying a rifle, +horn, and pouch, and otherwise equipped for the field. The disguises +were very simple, consisting of a sort of loose calico hunting-shirt and +trowsers that completely concealed the person. The head was covered by a +species of hood or mask, equally of calico, that was fitted with holes +for the eyes, nose, and mouth, and which completed the disguise. There +were no means of recognizing a man thus equipped, unless it might be by +the stature, in cases in which the party was either unusually tall or +unusually short. A middle-sized man was perfectly safe from recognition, +so long as he did not speak and could keep his equipments. Those who did +speak altered their voices, as we soon found, using a jargon that was +intended to imitate the imperfect English of the native owners of the +soil. Although neither of us had ever seen one of the gang before, we +knew these disturbers of the public peace to be what in truth they were, +the instant our eyes fell on them. One could not well be mistaken, +indeed, under the circumstances in which we were placed; but the +tomahawks that one or two carried, the manner of their march, and other +pieces of mummery that they exhibited, would have told us the fact, had +we met them even in another place. + +My first impulse was to turn the wagon, and to endeavor to lash the lazy +beast I drove into a run. Fortunately, before the attempt was made, I +turned my head to see if there was room for such an exploit, and saw six +others of these "Injins" drawn across the road behind us. It was now so +obviously the wisest course to put the best face on the matter, that we +walked the horse boldly up to the party in front, until he was stopped +by one of the gang taking him by the bridle. + +"Sago, sago," cried one who seemed to act as a chief, and whom I shall +thus designate, speaking in his natural voice, though affecting an +Indian pronunciation. "How do, how do?--where come from, eh?--where go, +eh? What you say, too--up rent or down rent, eh?" + +"Ve ist two Charmans," returned Uncle Ro, in his most desperate dialect, +the absurdity of men who spoke the same language resorting to such +similar means of deception tempting me sorely to laugh in the fellows' +faces; "Ve ist two Charmans dat ist goin' to hear a man's sbeak about +bayin rent, und to sell vatches. Might you buy a vatch, goot +shentlemans?" + +Although the fellows doubtless knew who we were, so far as our assumed +characters went, and had probably been advised of our approach, this +bait took, and there was a general jumping up and down, and a common +pow-wowing among them, indicative of the pleasure such a proposal gave. +In a minute the whole party were around us, with some eight or ten more, +who appeared from the nearest bushes. We were helped out of the wagon +with a gentle violence that denoted their impatience. As a matter of +course, I expected that all the trinkets and watches, which were of +little value, fortunately, would immediately disappear; for who could +doubt that men engaged in attempting to rob on so large a scale as these +fellows were engaged in, would hesitate about doing a job on one a +little more diminutive. I was mistaken, however; some sort of +imperceptible discipline keeping those who were thus disposed, of whom +there must have been some in such a party, in temporary order. The horse +was left standing in the middle of the highway, right glad to take his +rest, while we were shown the trunk of a fallen tree, near by, on which +to place our box of wares. A dozen watches were presently in the hands +of as many of these seeming savages, who manifested a good deal of +admiration at their shining appearance. While this scene, which was half +mummery and half nature, was in the course of enactment, the chief +beckoned me to a seat on the further end of the tree, and, attended by +one or two of his companions, he began to question me as follows: + +"Mind, tell truth," he said, making no very expert actor in the way of +imitation. "Dis 'Streak o' Lightning,'" laying his hand on his own +breast, that I might not misconceive the person of the warrior who bore +so eminent a title--"no good lie to him--know ebbery t'ing afore he ask, +only ask for fun--what do here, eh?" + +"Ve coomes to see der Injins und der beoples at der village, dat ve +might sell our vatches." + +"Dat all; sartain?--can call 'down rent,' eh?" + +"Dat ist ferry easy; 'down rent, eh?'" + +"Sartain Jarman, eh?--you no spy?--you no sent here by gubbernor, +eh?--landlord no pay you, eh?" + +"Vhat might I spy? Dere ist nothin' to spy, but mans vid calico faces. +Vhy been you afraid of der governor?--I dinks der governors be ferry +goot frients of der anti-rents." + +"Not when we act this way. Send horse, send foot a'ter us, den. T'ink +good friend, too, when he dare." + +"He be d--d!" bawled out one of the tribe, in as good, homely, rustic +English as ever came out of the mouth of a clown. "If he's our friend, +why did he send the artillery and horse down to Hudson?--and why has he +had Big Thunder up afore his infarnal courts? He be d--d!" + +There was no mistaking this outpouring of the feelings; and so "Streak +o' Lightning" seemed to think too, for he whispered one of the tribe, +who took the plain-speaking Injin by the arm and led him away, grumbling +and growling, as the thunder mutters in the horizon after the storm has +passed on. For myself, I made several profitable reflections concerning +the inevitable fate of those who attempt to "serve God and Mammon." This +anti-rentism is a question in which, so far as a governor is concerned, +there is but one course to pursue, and that is to enforce the laws by +suppressing violence, and leaving the parties to the covenants of leases +to settle their differences in the courts, like the parties to any other +contracts. It is a poor rule that will not work both ways. Many a +landlord has made a hard bargain for himself; and I happen to know of +one case in particular, in which a family has long been, and is still, +kept out of the enjoyment of a very valuable estate, as to any benefit +of importance, purely by the circumstance that a weak-minded possessor +of the property fancied he was securing souls for paradise by letting +his farms on leases for ninety-nine years, at nominal rents, with a +covenant that the tenant should go twice to a particular church! Now, +nothing is plainer than that it is a greater hardship to the citizen who +is the owner of many farms so situated, than to the citizen who is the +lessee of only one with a hard covenant; and, on general principles, the +landlord in question would be most entitled to relief, since one man who +suffers a good deal is more an object of true commiseration than many +who suffer each a little. What would a governor be apt to say if my +landlord should go with his complaints to the foot of the executive +chair, and tell him that the very covenant which had led his predecessor +into the mistake of thus wasting his means was openly disregarded; that +farms worth many thousands of dollars had now been enjoyed by the +tenants for near a century for mere nominal rents, and that the owner of +the land in fee had occasion for his property, etc., etc.? Would the +governor recommend legislative action in that case? Would the _length_ +of _such_ leases induce him to recommend that no lease should exceed +five years in duration? Would the landlords who should get up a corps of +Injins to worry their tenants into an abandonment of their farms be the +objects of commiseration?--and would the law slumber for years over +_their_ rebellions and depredations, until two or three murders aroused +public indignation? Let them answer that know. As a landlord, I should +be sorry to incur the ridicule that would attend even a public complaint +of the hardships of such a case. A common sneer would send me to the +courts for my remedy, if I had one, and the whole difference between the +"if and ifs" of the two cases would be that a landlord gives but one +vote, while his tenants may be legion.[26] + +[Footnote 26: This is no invented statement, but strictly one that is +true, the writer having himself a small interest in a property so +situated; though he has not yet bethought him of applying to the +legislature for relief.--EDITOR.] + +"He be d----d," muttered the plain-speaking Injin, as long as I could +hear him. As soon as released from his presence, Streak o' Lightning +continued his examination, though a little vexed at the undramatical +character of the interruption. + +"Sartain no spy, eh?--sartain gubbernor no send him, eh?--sartain come +to sell watch, eh?" + +"I coomes, as I tell ye, to see if vatches might be solt, und not for +der gobbernor; I neffer might see der mans." + +As all this was true, my conscience felt pretty easy on the score of +whatever there might be equivocal about it. + +"What folks think of Injin down below, eh?--what folks say of anti-rent, +eh?--hear him talk about much?" + +"Vell, soome does dink anti-rent ist goot, and soome does dink anti-rent +ist bad. Dey dinks as they wishes." + +Here a low whistle came down the road, or rather down the bushes, when +every Injin started up; each man very fairly gave back the watch he was +examining, and in less than half a minute we were alone on the log. This +movement was so sudden that it left us in a little doubt as to the +proper mode of proceeding. My uncle, however, coolly set about replacing +his treasures in their box, while I went to the horse, which had shaken +off his head-stall, and was quietly grazing along the road-side. A +minute or two might have been thus occupied, when the trotting of a +horse and the sound of wheels announced the near approach of one of +those vehicles which have got to be almost national--a dearborn, or a +one-horse wagon. As it came out from behind a screen of bushes formed by +a curvature in the road, I saw that it contained the Rev. Mr. Warren and +his sweet daughter. + +The road being narrow, and our vehicle in its centre, it was not +possible for the new-comers to proceed until we got out of the way, and +the divine pulled up as soon as he reached the spot where we stood. + +"Good morning, _gentlemen_," said Mr. Warren, cordially, and using a +word that, in _his_ mouth, I felt meant all it expressed. "Good morning, +_gentlemen_. Are you playing Handel to the wood-nymphs, or reciting +eclogues?" + +"Neider, neider, Herr Pastor; we meet wid coostomers here, and dey has +joost left us," answered uncle Ro, who certainly enacted his part with +perfect _aplomb_, and the most admirable mimicry as to manner. "_Guten +tag, guten tag._ Might der Herr Pastor been going to der village?" + +"We are. I understand there is to be a meeting there of the misguided +men called anti-renters, and that several of my parishioners are likely +to be present. On such an occasion I conceive it to be my duty to go +among my own particular people, and whisper a word of advice. Nothing +can be farther from my notions of propriety than for a clergyman to be +mingling and mixing himself up with political concerns in general, but +this is a matter that touches morality, and the minister of God is +neglectful of his duty who keeps aloof when a word of admonition might +aid in preventing some wavering brother from the commission of a +grievous sin. This last consideration has brought me out to a scene I +could otherwise most heartily avoid." + +This might be well enough, I said to myself, but what has your daughter +to do in such a scene? Is the mind of Mary Warren then, after all, no +better than vulgar minds in general?--and can she find a pleasure in the +excitement of lectures of this cast, and in that of public meetings? No +surer test can be found of cultivation, than the manner in which it +almost intuitively shrinks from communion unnecessarily with tastes and +principles below its own level; yet here was the girl with whom I was +already half in love--and that was saying as little as could be said, +too--actually going down to the "Little Nest" to hear an itinerant +lecturer on political economy utter his crudities, and to see and be +seen! I was grievously disappointed, and would at the moment have +cheerfully yielded the best farm on my estate to have had the thing +otherwise. My uncle must have had some similar notion, by the remark he +made. + +"Und doost das _jung frau_ go to see the Injins, too; to bersuade 'em +dey ist fery vicked?" + +Mary's face had been a little pale for her, I thought, as the wagon drew +up; but it immediately became scarlet. She even suffered her head to +droop a little, and then I perceived that she cast an anxious and tender +glance at her father. I cannot say whether this look were or were not +intended for a silent appeal, unconsciously made; but the father, +without even seeing it, acted as if he fancied it might be. + +"No, no," he said, hurriedly; "this dear girl is doing violence to all +her feelings but one, in venturing to such a place. Her filial piety has +proved stronger than her fears and her tastes, and when she found that +go I would, no argument of mine could persuade her to remain at home. I +hope she will not repent it." + +The color did not quit Mary's face, but she looked grateful at finding +her true motives appreciated; and she even smiled, though she said +nothing. My own feelings underwent another sudden revulsion. There was +no want of those tastes and inclinations that can alone render a young +woman attractive to any man of sentiment, but there was high moral +feeling and natural affection enough to overcome them in a case in which +she thought duty demanded the sacrifice! It was very little probable +that anything would or could occur that day to render the presence of +Mary Warren in the least necessary or useful; but it was very pleasant +to me and very lovely in her to think otherwise, under the strong +impulses of her filial attachment. + +Another idea, however, and one far less pleasant, suggested itself to +the minds of my uncle and myself, and almost at the same instant; it was +this: the conversation was carried on in a high key, or loud enough to +be heard at some little distance, the horse and part of the wagon +interposing between the speakers; and there was the physical certainty +that some of those whom we knew to be close at hand, in the bushes, must +hear all that was said, and might take serious offense at it. Under this +apprehension, therefore, my uncle directed me to remove our own vehicle +as fast as possible, in order that the clergyman might pass. Mr. Warren, +however, was in no hurry to do this, for he was utterly ignorant of the +audience he had, and entertained that feeling toward us that men of +liberal acquirements are apt to feel when they see others of similar +educations reduced by fortune below their proper level. He was +consequently desirous of manifesting his sympathy with us, and would not +proceed, even after I had opened the way for him. + +"It is a painful thing," continued Mr. Warren, "to find men mistaking +their own cupidity for the workings of a love of liberty. To me nothing +is more palpable than that this anti-rent movement is covetousness +incited by the father of evil; yet you will find men among us who fancy +they are aiding the cause of free institutions by joining in it, when, +in truth, they are doing all they can to bring them into discredit, and +to insure their certain downfall, in the end." + +This was sufficiently awkward; for, by going near enough to give a +warning in a low voice, and have that warning followed by a change in +the discourse, we should be betraying ourselves, and might fall into +serious danger. At the very moment the clergyman was thus speaking I saw +the masked head of Streak o' Lightning appearing through an opening in +some small pines that grew a little in the rear of the wagon, a position +that enabled him to hear every syllable that was uttered. I was afraid +to act myself, and trusted to the greater experience of my uncle. + +Whether the last also saw the pretended chief was more than I knew, but +he decided to let the conversation go on, rather leaning to the +anti-rent side of the question, as the course that could do no serious +evil, while it might secure our own safety. It is scarcely necessary to +say all these considerations glanced through our minds so swiftly as to +cause no very awkward or suspicious pause in the discourse. + +"B'rhaps dey doosn't like to bay rent?" put in my uncle, with a +roughness of manner that was in accordance with the roughness of the +sentiment "Beoples might radder haf deir landts for nuttin', dan bay +rents for dem." + +"In that case, then, let them go and buy lands for themselves; if they +do not wish to pay rent, why did they agree to pay rent?" + +"May be dey changes deir minds. Vhat is goot to-day doosn't always seem +goot to-morrow." + +"That may be true; but we have no right to make others suffer for our +own fickleness. I dare say, now, that it might be better for the whole +community that so large a tract of land as that included in the Manor of +Rensselaerwyck, for instance, and lying as it does in the very heart of +the State, should be altogether in the hands of the occupants, than have +it subject to the divided interest that actually exists; but it does not +follow that a change is to be made by violence, or by fraudulent means. +In either of the latter cases the injury done the community would be +greater than if the present tenures were to exist a thousand years. I +dare say much the larger portion of those farms can be bought off at a +moderate advance on their actual money-value; and that is the way to get +rid of the difficulty; not by bullying owners out of their property. If +the State finds a political consideration of so much importance for +getting rid of the tenures, let the State tax itself to do so, and make +a liberal offer, in addition to what the tenants will offer, and I'll +answer for it the landlords will not stand so much in their own way as +to decline good prices." + +"But maybes dey won't sell all der landts; dey may wants to keep some of +dem." + +"They have a right to say yes or no, while we have no right to juggle or +legislate them out of their property. The Legislature of this State has +quite lately been exhibiting one of the most pitiable sights the world +has seen in my day. It has been struggling for months to find a way to +get round the positive provisions of laws and constitutions, in order to +make a sacrifice of the rights of a few, to secure the votes of the +many." + +"Votes ist a goot ding, at election dimes--haw, haw, haw!" exclaimed my +uncle. + +Mr. Warren looked both surprised and offended. The coarseness of manner +that my uncle had assumed effected its object with the Injins, but it +almost destroyed the divine's previous good opinion of our characters, +and quite upset his notions of our refinement and principles. There was +no time for explanations, however; for, just as my uncle's broad and +well-acted "haw, haw, haw" was ended, a shrill whistle was heard in the +bushes, and some forty or fifty of the Injins came whooping and leaping +out from their cover, filling the road in all directions, immediately +around the wagons. + +Mary Warren uttered a little scream at this startling scene, and I saw +her arm clinging to that of her father, by a sort of involuntary +movement, as if she would protect him at all hazards. Then she seemed to +rally, and from that instant her character assumed an energy, an +earnestness, a spirit and an intrepidity that I had least expected in +one so mild in aspect, and so really sweet in disposition. + +All this was unnoticed by the Injins. They had their impulses, too, and +the first thing they did was to assist Mr. Warren and his daughter to +alight from the wagon. This was done not without decorum of manner, and +certainly not without some regard to the holy office of one of the +parties, and to the sex of the other. Nevertheless, it was done neatly +and expeditiously, leaving us all, Mr. Warren and Mary, my uncle and +myself, with a cluster of some fifty Injins around us, standing in the +centre of the highway. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + "No toil in despair, + No tyrant, no slave, + No bread-tax is there, + With a maw like the grave." + + +All this was so suddenly done as scarce to leave us time to think. There +was one instant, notwithstanding, while two Injins were assisting Mary +Warren to jump from the wagon, when my incognito was in great danger. +Perceiving that the young lady was treated with no particular +disrespect, I so far overcame the feeling as to remain quiet, though I +silently changed my position sufficiently to get near her elbow, where I +could and did whisper a word or two of encouragement. But Mary thought +only of her father, and had no fears for herself. She saw none but him, +trembled only for him, dreaded and hoped for him alone. + +As for Mr. Warren himself, he betrayed no discomposure. Had he been +about to enter the desk, his manner could not have been more calm. He +gazed around him, to ascertain if it were possible to recognize any of +his captors, but suddenly turned his head away, as if struck with the +expediency of not learning their names, even though it had been +possible. He might be put on the stand as a witness against some +misguided neighbor, did he know his person. All this was so apparent in +his benevolent countenance, that I think it struck some among the +Injins, and still believe it may have had a little influence on their +treatment of him. A pot of tar and a bag of feathers had been brought +into the road when the gang poured out of the bushes, but whether this +were merely accidental, or it had originally been intended to use them +on Mr. Warren, I cannot say. The offensive materials soon and silently +disappeared, and with them every sign of any intention to offer personal +injury. + +"What have I done that I am thus arrested in the public highway, by men +armed and disguised, contrary to law?" demanded the divine, as soon as +the general pause which succeeded the first movement invited him to +speak. "This is a rash and illegal step, that may yet bring repentance." + +"No preachee now," answered Streak o' Lightning; "preachee for meetin', +no good for road." + +Mr. Warren afterward admitted to me that he was much relieved by this +reply, the substitution of the word "meeting" for "church" giving him +the grateful assurance that _this_ individual, at least, was not one of +his own people. + +"Admonition and remonstrance may always be useful when crime is +meditated. You are now committing a felony, for which the State's Prison +is the punishment prescribed by the laws of the land, and the duties of +my holy office direct me to warn you of the consequences. The earth +itself is but one of God's temples, and his ministers need never +hesitate to proclaim his laws on any part of it." + +It was evident that the calm severity of the divine, aided, no doubt, by +his known character, produced an impression on the gang, for the two who +had still hold of his arms released them, and a little circle was now +formed, in the centre of which he stood. + +"If you will enlarge this circle, my friends," continued Mr. Warren, +"and give room, I will address you here, where we stand, and let you +know my reasons why I think your conduct ought to be----" + +"No, no--no preachee here," suddenly interrupted Streak o' Lightning; +"go to village, go to meetin'-'us'--preachee there--Two preacher, +den.--Bring wagon and put him in. March, march; path open." + +Although this was but an "Injin" imitation of Indian sententiousness, +and somewhat of a caricature, everybody understood well enough what was +meant. Mr. Warren offered no resistance, but suffered himself to be +placed in Miller's wagon, with my uncle at his side, without opposition. +Then it was, however, that he bethought himself of his daughter, though +his daughter had never ceased to think of him. I had some little +difficulty in keeping her from rushing into the crowd and clinging to +his side. Mr. Warren rose, and, giving her an encouraging smile, bade +her be calm, told her he had nothing to fear, and requested that she +would enter his own wagon again and return home, promising to rejoin her +as soon as his duties at the village were discharged. + +"Here is no one to drive the horse, my child, but our young German +acquaintance. The distance is very short, and if he will thus oblige me +he can come down to the village with the wagon, as soon as he has seen +you safe at our own door." + +Mary Warren was accustomed to defer to her father's opinions, and she so +far submitted, now, as to permit me to assist her into the wagon, and to +place myself at her side, whip in hand, proud of and pleased with the +precious charge thus committed to my care. These arrangements made, the +Injins commenced their march, about half of them preceding, and the +remainder following the wagon that contained their prisoner. Four, +however, walked on each side of the vehicle, thus preventing the +possibility of escape. No noise was made, and little was said; the +orders being given by signs and signals, rather than by words. + +Our wagon continued stationary until the party had got at least a +hundred yards from us, no one giving any heed to our movements. I had +waited thus long for the double purpose of noting the manner of the +proceedings among the Injins, and to obtain room to turn at a spot in +the road a short distance in advance of us, and which was wider than +common. To this spot I now walked the horse, and was in the act of +turning the animal's head in the required direction, when I saw Mary +Warren's little gloved hand laid hurriedly on the reins. She endeavored +to keep the head of the horse in the road. + +"No, no," said the charming girl, speaking earnestly, as if she would +not be denied, "we will follow my father to the village. I may not, must +not, _cannot_ quit him." + +The time and place were every way propitious, and I determined to let +Mary Warren know who I was. By doing it I might give her confidence in +me at a moment when she was in distress, and encourage her with the hope +that I might also befriend her father. At any rate, I was determined to +pass for an itinerant Dutch music-grinder with _her_ no longer. + +"Miss Mary, Miss Warren," I commenced, cautiously, and with quite as +much hesitation and diffidence of feeling as of manner, "I am not what I +seem--that is, I am no music-grinder." + +The start, the look, and the alarm of my companion, were all eloquent +and natural. Her hand was still on the reins, and she now drew on them +so hard as actually to stop the horse. I thought she intended to jump +out of the vehicle, as a place no longer fit for her. + +"Be not alarmed, Miss Warren," I said, eagerly, and, I trust, so +earnestly as to inspire a little confidence. "You will not think the +worse of me at finding I am your countryman instead of a foreigner, and +a gentleman instead of a music-grinder. I shall do all you ask, and will +protect you with my life." + +"This is so extraordinary!--so unusual. The whole country appears +unsettled! Pray, sir, if you are not the person whom you have +represented yourself to be, who are you?" + +"One who admires your filial love and courage--who honors you for them +both. I am the brother of your friend, Martha--I am Hugh Littlepage!" + +The little hand now abandoned the reins, and the dear girl turned half +round on the cushion of the seat, gazing at me in mute astonishment! I +had been cursing in my heart the lank locks of the miserable wig I was +compelled to wear, ever since I had met with Mary Warren, as +unnecessarily deforming and ugly, for one might have as well a becoming +as a horridly unbecoming disguise. Off went my cap, therefore, and off +went the wig after it, leaving my own shaggy curls for the sole setting +of my face. + +Mary made a slight exclamation as she gazed at me, and the deadly +paleness of her countenance was succeeded by a slight blush. A smile, +too, parted her lips, and I fancied she was less alarmed. + +"Am I forgiven, Miss Warren," I asked; "and will you recognize me for +the brother of your friend?" + +"Does Martha--does Mrs. Littlepage know of this?" the charming girl at +length asked. + +"Both; I have had the happiness of being embraced by both my grandmother +and my sister. You were taken out of the room yesterday by the first, +that I might be left alone with the last, for that very purpose!" + +"I see it all now; yes, I thought it singular then, though I felt there +could be no impropriety in any of Mrs. Littlepage's acts. Dearest +Martha! how well she played her part, and how admirably she has kept +your secret!" + +"It is very necessary. You see the condition of the country, and will +understand that it would be imprudent in me to appear openly, even on my +own estate. I have a written covenant authorizing me to visit every farm +near us, to look after my own interests; yet it may be questioned if it +would be safe to visit one among them all, now that the spirits of +misrule and covetousness are up and doing." + +"Replace your disguise at once, Mr. Littlepage" said Mary, eagerly; +"do--do not delay an instant." + +I did as desired, Mary watching the process with interested and, at the +same time, amused eyes. I thought she looked as sorry as I felt myself +when that lank, villanous wig was again performing its office. + +"Am I as well arranged as when we first met, Miss Warren? Do I appear +again the music-grinder?" + +"I see no difference," returned the dear girl, laughing. How musical and +cheering to me were the sounds of her voice in that little burst of +sweet, feminine merriment. "Indeed, indeed, I do not think even Martha +could know you _now_, for the person you the moment before seemed." + +"My disguise is, then, perfect. I was in hopes it left a little that my +friends might recognize, while it effectually concealed me from my +enemies." + +"It does--oh! it does. Now I know who you are, I find no difficulty in +tracing in your features the resemblance to your portrait in the family +gallery, at the Nest. The eyes, too, cannot be altered without +artificial brows, and those you have not." + +This was consoling; but all that time Mr. Warren and the party in front +had been forgotten. Perhaps it was excusable in two young persons thus +situated, and who had now known each other a week, to think more of what +was just then passing in the wagon, than to recollect the tribe that was +marching down the road, and the errand they were on. I felt the +necessity, however, of next consulting my companion as to our future +movements. Mary heard me in evident anxiety, and her purpose seemed +unsettled, for she changed color under each new impulse of her feelings. + +"If it were not for one thing," she answered, after a thoughtful pause, +"I should insist on following my father." + +"And what may be the reason of this change of purpose?" + +"Would it be altogether safe for _you_, Mr. Littlepage, to venture again +among those misguided men?" + +"Never think of me, Miss Warren. You see I have been among them already +undetected, and it is my intention to join them again, even should I +first have to take you home. Decide for yourself." + +"I will, then, follow my father. My presence may be the means of saving +him from some indignity." + +I was rejoiced at this decision, on two accounts; of which one might +have been creditable enough to me, while the other, I am sorry to say, +was rather selfish. I delighted in the dear girl's devotion to her +parent, and I was glad to have her company as long as possible that +morning. Without entering into a very close analysis of motives, +however, I drove down the road, keeping the horse on a very slow gait, +being in no particular hurry to quit my present fair companion. + +Mary and I had now a free, and in some sense, a confidential dialogue. +Her manner toward me had entirely changed; for while it maintained the +modesty and _retenue_ of her sex and station, it displayed much of that +frankness which was the natural consequence of her great intimacy at the +Nest, and, as I have since ascertained, of her own ingenuous nature. The +circumstance, too, that she now felt she was with one of her own class, +who had opinions, habits, tastes, and thoughts like her own, removed a +mountain of restraint, and made her communications natural and easy. I +was near an hour, I do believe, in driving the two miles that lay +between the point where the Injins had met and the village, and in that +hour Mary Warren and I became better acquainted than would have been the +case, under ordinary circumstances, in a year. + +In the first place, I explained the reasons and manners of my early and +unexpected return home, and the motives by which I had been governed in +thus coming in disguise on my own property. Then I said a little of my +future intentions, and of my disposition to hold out to the last against +every attempt on my rights, whether they might come from the open +violence and unprincipled designs of those below, or the equally +unprincipled schemes of those above. A spurious liberty and political +cant were things that I despised, as every intelligent and independent +man must; and I did not intend to be persuaded I was an aristocrat, +merely because I had the habits of a gentleman, at the very moment when +I had less political influence than the hired laborers in my own +service. + +Mary Warren manifested a spirit and an intelligence that surprised me. +She expressed her own belief that the proscribed classes of the country +had only to be true to themselves to be restored to their just rights, +and that on the very principle by which they were so fast losing them. +The opinions she thus expressed are worthy of being recorded. + +"Everything that is done in that way," said this gentle, but admirable +creature, "has hitherto been done on a principle that is quite as false +and vicious as that by which they are now oppressed. We have had a great +deal written and said, lately, about uniting people of property, but it +has been so evidently with an intention to make money rule, and that in +its most vulgar and vicious manner, that persons of right feelings would +not unite in such an effort; but it does seem to me, Mr. Littlepage, +that if the gentlemen of New York would form themselves into an +association in defence of their rights, and for nothing else, and let it +be known that they would _not_ be robbed with impunity, they are +numerous enough and powerful enough to put down this anti-rent project +by the mere force of numbers. Thousands would join them for the sake of +principles, and the country might be left to the enjoyment of the fruits +of liberty, without getting any of the fruits of its cant." + +This is a capital idea, and might easily be carried out. It requires +nothing but a little self-denial, with the conviction of the necessity +of doing something, if the downward tendency is to be ever checked short +of civil war, and a revolution that is to let in despotism in its more +direct form; despotism, in the indirect, is fast appearing among us, as +it is. + +"I have heard of a proposition for the legislature to appoint special +commissioners, who are to settle all the difficulties between the +landlords and the tenants," I remarked, "a scheme in the result of which +some people profess to have a faith. I regard it as only one of the many +projects that have been devised to evade the laws and institutions of +the country, as they now exist." + +Mary Warren seemed thoughtful for a moment; then her eye and face +brightened as if she were struck with some thought suddenly; after which +the color deepened on her cheek, and she turned to me as if half +doubting, and yet half desirous of giving utterance to the idea that was +uppermost. + +"You wish to say something, Miss Warren?" + +"I dare say it will be very silly--and I hope you won't think it +pedantic in a girl, but really it does look so to me--what difference +would there be between such a commission and the Star-Chamber judges of +the Stuarts, Mr. Littlepage?" + +"Not much in general principles, certainly, as both would be the +instruments of tyrants; but a very important one in a great essential. +The Star-Chamber courts were legal, whereas this commission would be +flagrantly illegal; the adoption of a special tribunal to effect certain +purposes that could exist only in the very teeth of the constitution, +both in its spirit and its letter. Yet this project comes from men who +prate about the 'spirit of the institutions,' which they clearly +understand to be their own spirit, let that be what it may." + +"Providence, I trust, will not smile on such desperate efforts to do +wrong!" said Mary Warren, solemnly. + +"One hardly dare look into the inscrutable ways of a Power that has its +motives so high beyond our reach. Providence permits much evil to be +done, and is very apt to be, as Frederick of Prussia expressed it, on +the side of strong battalions, so far as human vision can penetrate. Of +one thing, however, I feel certain, and that is, that they who are now +the most eager to overturn everything to effect present purposes, will +be made to repent of it bitterly, either in their own persons, or in +those of their descendants." + +"That is what is meant, my father says, by visiting 'the sins of the +fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generations.' But +there is the party, with their prisoners, just entering the village. Who +is your companion, Mr. Littlepage?--One hired to act as an assistant?" + +"It is my uncle himself. You have often heard, I should think, of Mr. +Roger Littlepage?" + +Mary gave a little exclamation at hearing this, and she almost laughed. +After a short pause she blushed brightly, and turned to me as she said-- + +"And my father and I have supposed you, the one a pedler, and the other +a street-musician!" + +"But beddlars and moosic-grinders of goot etications, as might be +panished for deir bolitics." + +Now, indeed, she laughed out, for the long and frank dialogue we had +held together made this change to broken English seem as if a third +person had joined us. I profited by the occasion to exhort the dear girl +to be calm, and not to feel any apprehension on the subject of her +father. I pointed out how little probable it was that violence would be +offered to a minister of the gospel, and showed her, by the number of +persons that had collected in the village, that it was impossible he +should not have many warm and devoted friends present. I also gave her +permission to, nay, requested she would, tell Mr. Warren the fact of my +uncle's and my own presence, and the reasons of our disguises, trusting +altogether to the very obvious interest the dear girl took in our +safety, that she would add, of her own accord, the necessary warning on +the subject of secrecy. Just as this conversation ended we drove into +the hamlet, and I helped my fair companion to alight. + +Mary Warren now hastened to seek her father, while I was left to take +care of the horse. This I did by fastening him to the rails of a fence, +that was lined for a long distance by horses and wagons drawn up by the +wayside. Surprisingly few persons in the country, at this day, are seen +on horseback. Notwithstanding the vast difference in the amount of the +population, ten horsemen were to be met with forty years ago, by all +accounts, on the highways of the State, for one to-day. The well-known +vehicle, called a dearborn, with its four light wheels and mere shell of +a box, is in such general use as to have superseded almost every other +species of conveyance. Coaches and chariots are no longer met with, +except in the towns; and even the coachee, the English sociable, which +was once so common, has very generally given way to a sort of +carriage-wagon, that seems a very general favorite. My grandmother, who +did use the stately-looking and elegant chariot in town, had nothing but +this carriage-wagon in the country; and I question if one-half of the +population of the State would know what to call the former vehicle, if +they should see it. + +As a matter of course, the collection of people assembled at Little Nest +on this occasion had been brought together in dearborns, of which there +must have been between two and three hundred lining the fences and +crowding the horse-sheds of the two inns. The American countryman, in +the true sense of the word, is still quite rustic in many of his +notions; though, on the whole, less marked in this particular than his +European counterpart. As a rule, he has yet to learn that the little +liberties which are tolerated in a thinly peopled district, and which +are of no great moment when put in practice under such circumstances, +become oppressive and offensive when reverted to in places of much +resort. The habits of popular control, too, come to aid in making them +fancy that what everybody does in their part of the country can have no +great harm in it. It was in conformity with this _tendency_ of the +institutions, perhaps, that very many of the vehicles I have named were +thrust into improper places, stopping up the footways, impeding the +entrances to doors, here and there letting down bars without permission, +and garnishing orchards and pastures with one-horse wagons. Nothing was +meant by all these liberties beyond a desire to dispose of the horses +and vehicles in the manner easiest to their owners. Nevertheless, there +was some connection between the institutions and these little liberties +which some statesmen might fancy existed in the _spirit_ of the former. +This, however, was a capital mistake, inasmuch as the _spirit_ of the +institutions is to be found in the laws, which prohibit and punish all +sorts of trespasses, and which are enacted expressly to curb the +_tendencies_ of human nature! No, no, as my uncle Ro says, nothing can +be less alike, sometimes, than the _spirit_ of institutions and their +_tendencies_. + +I was surprised to find nearly as many females as men had collected at +the Little Nest on this occasion. As for the Injins, after escorting Mr. +Warren as far as the village, as if significantly to admonish him of +their presence, they had quietly released him, permitting him to go +where he pleased. Mary had no difficulty in finding him, and I saw her +at his side, apparently in conversation with Opportunity and her +brother, Seneca, as soon as I moved down the road, after securing the +horses. The Injins themselves kept a little aloof, having my uncle in +their very centre; not as a prisoner, for it was clear no one suspected +his character, but as a pedler. The watches were out again, and near +half of the whole gang seemed busy in trading, though I thought that +some among them were anxious and distrustful. + +It was a singular spectacle to see men who were raising the cry of +"aristocracy" against those who happened to be richer than themselves, +while they did not possess a single privilege or power that, +substantially, was not equally shared by every other man in the country, +thus openly arrayed in defiance of law, and thus violently trampling the +law under their feet. What made the spectacle more painful was the +certainty that was obtained by their very actions on the ground, that no +small portion of these Injins were mere boys, led on by artful and +knavish men, and who considered the whole thing as a joke. When the laws +fall so much into disrepute as to be the subjects of jokes of this sort, +it is time to inquire into their mode of administration. Does any one +believe that fifty landlords could have thus flown into the face of a +recent enactment, and committed felony openly, and under circumstances +that had rendered their intentions no secret, for a time long enough to +enable the authorities to collect a force sufficient to repress them? My +own opinion is, that had Mr. Stephen Rensselaer, and Mr. William +Rensselaer, and Mr. Harry Livingston, and Mr. John Hunter, and Mr. +Daniel Livingston, and Mr. Hugh Littlepage, and fifty more that I could +name, been caught armed and disguised, in order to _defend_ the rights +of property that are solemnly guaranteed in these institutions, of which +it would seem to be the notion of some that it is the "spirit" to +dispossess them, we should all of us have been the inmates of States' +prisons, without legislators troubling themselves to pass laws for our +liberation! This is another of the extraordinary features of American +aristocracy, which almost deprives the noble of the every-day use and +benefit of the law. It would be worth our while to lose a moment in +inquiring into the process by which such strange results are brought +about, but it is fortunately rendered unnecessary by the circumstance +that the principle will be amply developed in the course of the +narrative. + +A stranger could hardly have felt the real character of this meeting by +noting the air and manner of those who had come to attend it. The "armed +and disguised" kept themselves in a body, it is true, and maintained, in +a slight degree, the appearance of distinctness from "the people," but +many of the latter stopped to speak to these men, and were apparently on +good terms with them. Not a few of the gentler sex, even, appeared to +have acquaintances in the gang; and it would have struck a political +philosopher from the other hemisphere with some surprise, to have seen +the "people" thus tolerating fellows who were openly trampling on a law +that the "people" themselves had just enacted! A political philosopher +from among ourselves, however, might have explained the seeming +contradiction by referring it to the "spirit of the institutions." If +one were to ask Hugh Littlepage to solve the difficulty, he would have +been very apt to answer that the "people" of Ravensnest wanted to compel +him to sell lands which he did not wish to sell, and that not a few of +them were anxious to add to the compulsory bargains conditions as to +price that would rob him of about one-half of his estate; and that what +the Albany philosophers called the "spirit of the institutions," was, in +fact, a "spirit of the devil," which the institutions were expressly +designed to hold in subjection! + +There was a good deal of out-door management going on, as might be seen +by the private discussions that were held between pairs, under what is +called the "horse-shedding" process. This "horse-shedding" process, I +understand, is well known among us, and extends not only to politics, +but to the administration of justice. Your regular "horse-shedder" is +employed to frequent taverns where jurors stay, and drop hints before +them touching the merits of causes known to be on the calendars; +possibly contrives to get into a room with six or eight beds, in which +there may accidentally be a juror, or even two, in a bed, when he drops +into a natural conversation on the merits of some matter at issue, +praises one of the parties, while he drops dark hints to the prejudice +of the other, and makes his own representations of the facts in a way to +scatter the seed where he is morally certain it will take root and grow. +All this time he is not conversing with a juror, not he; he is only +assuming the office of the judge by anticipation, and dissecting +evidence before it has been given, in the ear of a particular friend. It +is true there is a law against doing anything of the sort; it is true +there is law to punish the editor of a newspaper who shall publish +anything to prejudice the interests of litigants; it is true the +"horse-shedding process" is flagrantly wicked, and intended to destroy +most of the benefits of the jury system; but, notwithstanding all this, +the "spirit of the institutions" carries everything before it, and men +regard all these laws and provisions, as well as the eternal principles +of right, precisely as if they had no existence at all, or as if a +freeman were above the law. He makes the law, and why should he not +break it? Here is another effect of the "spirit of the institutions." + +At length the bell rang, and the crowd began to move toward the +"meetin'-'us'." This building was not that which had been originally +constructed, and at the raising of which I have heard it said, my dear +old grandmother, then a lovely and spirited girl of nineteen, had been +conspicuous for her coolness and judgment, but a far more pretending +successor. The old building had been constructed on the true model of +the highest dissenting spirit--a spirit that induced its advocates to +quarrel with good taste as well as religious dogmas, in order to make +the chasm as wide as possible--while in this, some concessions had been +made to the temper of the times. I very well remember the old +"meetin'-'us'," at the "Little Nest," for it was pulled down to give +place to its more pretending successor after I had attained my sixteenth +year. A description of both may let the reader into the secret of our +rural church architecture. + +The "old Neest meetin'-'us'," like its successor, was of a hemlock +frame, covered with pine clapboards, and painted white. Of late years, +the paint had been of a most fleeting quality, the oil seeming to +evaporate, instead of striking in and setting, leaving the coloring +matter in a somewhat decomposed condition, to rub off by friction and +wash away in the rains. The house was a stiff, formal parallelogram, +resembling a man with high shoulders, appearing to be "stuck up." It had +two rows of formal, short and ungraceful windows, _that_ being a point +in orthodoxy at the period of its erection. It had a tower, uncouth, and +in some respects too large and others too small, if one can reconcile +the contradiction; but there are anomalies of this sort in art, as well +as in nature. On top of this tower stood a long-legged belfry, which had +got a very dangerous, though a very common, propensity in ecclesiastical +matters; in other words, it had begun to "cant." It was this diversion +from the perpendicular which had suggested the necessity of erecting a +new edifice, and the building in which the "lecture" on feudal tenures +and aristocracy was now to be delivered. + +The new meeting-house at Little Nest was a much more pretending edifice +than its predecessor. It was also of wood, but a bold diverging from +"first principles" had been ventured on, not only in the physical, but +in the moral church. The last was "new-school;" as, indeed, was the +first. What "new-school" means, in a spiritual sense, I do not exactly +know, but I suppose it to be some improvement on some other improvement +of the more ancient and venerable dogmas of the sect to which it +belongs. These improvements on improvements are rather common among us, +and are favorably viewed by a great number under the name of progress; +though he who stands at a little distance can, half the time, discover +that the parties in progress very often come out at the precise spot +from which they started. + +For my part, I find so much wisdom in the Bible--so profound a knowledge +of human nature, and of its tendencies--counsel so comprehensive and so +safe, and this solely in reference to the things of this life, that I do +not believe everything is progress in the right direction because it +sets us in motion on paths that are not two thousand years old! I +believe that we have quite as much that ought to be kept, as of that +which ought to be thrown away; and while I admit the vast number of +abuses that have grown up in the old world, under the "spirit of _their_ +institutions," as our philosophers would say, I can see a goodly number +that are also growing up here, certainly not under the same "spirit," +unless we refer them both, as a truly wise man would, to our common and +miserable nature. + +The main departure from first principles, in the sense of material +things, was in the fact that the new meeting-house had only _one_ row of +windows, and that the windows of that row had the pointed arch. The time +has been when this circumstance would have created a schism in the +theological world; and I hope that my youth and inexperience will be +pardoned, if I respectfully suggest that a pointed arch, or any other +arch in _wood_, ought to create another in the world of taste. + +But in we went, men, women and children; uncle Ro, Mr. Warren, Mary, +Seneca, Opportunity, and all, the Injins excepted. For some reason +connected with their policy, those savages remained outside, until the +whole audience had assembled in grave silence. The orator was in, or on, +a sort of stage, which was made, under the new-light system in +architecture, to supersede the old, inconvenient, and ugly pulpit, +supported on each side by two divines, of what denomination I shall not +take on myself to say. It will be sufficient if I add, Mr. Warren was +not one of them. He and Mary had taken their seats quite near the door, +and under the gallery. I saw that the rector was uneasy the moment the +lecturer and his two supporters entered the pulpit and appeared on the +stage; and at length he arose, and, followed by Mary, he suddenly left +the building. In an instant I was at their side, for it struck me +indisposition was the cause of so strange a movement. Fortunately, at +this moment, the whole audience rose in a body, and one of the ministers +commenced an extempore prayer. + +At that instant, the Injins had drawn themselves up around the building, +close to its sides, and under the open windows, in a position that +enabled them to hear all that passed. As I afterward learned, this +arrangement was made with an understanding with those within, one of the +ministers having positively refused to address the throne of grace so +long as any of the tribe were present. Well has it been said, that man +often strains at a gnat, and swallows a camel! + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + "I tell thee, Jack Cade, the clothier means to dress the + commonwealth, and turn it, and put a new nap upon it."--_King + Henry VI._ + + +As I knew Mary must have communicated to her father my real name, I did +not hesitate, as I ought to have done in my actual dress and in my +assumed character, about following them, in order to inquire if I could +be of any service. I never saw distress more strongly painted in any +man's countenance than it was in that of Mr. Warren, when I approached. +So very obvious, indeed, was his emotion, that I did not venture to +obtrude myself on him, but followed in silence; and he and Mary slowly +walked, side by side, across the street to the stoop of a house, of +which all the usual inmates had probably gone in the other direction. +Here Mr. Warren took a seat, Mary still at his side, while I drew near, +standing before him. + +"I thank you, Mr. Littlepage," the divine at length said, with a smile +so painful it was almost haggard, "for, so Mary tells me you should be +called--I thank you for this attention, sir--but, it will be over in +another minute--I feel better now, and shall be able to command myself." + +No more was then said, concerning the reason of this distress; but Mary +has since explained to me its cause. When her father went into the +meeting-house, he had not the smallest idea that anything like a +religious service would be dragged into the ceremonies of such a day. +The two ministers on the stage first gave him the alarm; when a most +painful struggle occurred in his mind, whether or not he should remain, +and be a party to the mockery of addressing God in prayer, in an +assembly collected to set at naught one of the plainest of his +laws--nay, with banded felons drawn up around the building, as principal +actors in the whole mummery. The alternative was for him, a minister of +the altar, to seem to quit those who were about to join in prayer, and +to do this moreover under circumstances which might appear to others as +if he rejected all worship but that which was in accordance with his own +views of right, a notion that would be certain to spread far and near, +greatly to the prejudice of his own people. But the first, as he viewed +the matter, involved a species of blasphemy; and yielding to his +feelings, he took the decided step he had, intending to remain out of +the building, until the more regular business of the day commenced. + +It is certain Mr. Warren, who acted under the best impulse of Christian +feeling, a reverence for God, and a profound wish not to be a party in +offending him with the mockery of worship under such circumstances, has +lost much influence, and made many enemies, by the step he then took. +The very same feeling which has raised the cry of aristocracy against +every gentleman who dwells in sufficiently near contact with the masses +to distinguish his habits from those around him; which induces the +eastern emigrant, who comes from a state of society where there are no +landlords, to fancy those he finds here ought to be pulled down, because +he is not a landlord himself; which enables the legislator to stand up +in his place, and unblushingly talk about feudal usages, at the very +instant he is demonstrating that equal rights are denied to those he +would fain stigmatize as feudal lords, has extended to religion, and the +Church of which Mr. Warren was a minister, is very generally accused of +being aristocratic, too! This charge is brought because it has claims +which other Churches affect to renounce and reject as forming no part of +the faith; but the last cannot remain easy under their own decision; and +while they shout, and sing that they have found "a Church without a +bishop," they hate the Church that has a bishop, because it has +something they do not possess themselves, instead of pitying its deluded +members, if they believe them wrong. This will not be admitted +generally, but it is nevertheless true; and betrays itself in a hundred +ways. It is seen in the attempt to _call_ their own priests bishops, in +the feeling so manifest whenever a cry can be raised against their +existence, and in the _general_ character of these theological rallies, +whenever they do occur. + +For one, I see a close analogy between my own Church, as it exists in +this country, and comparing it with that from which it sprung, and to +those which surround it, and the true political circumstances of the two +hemispheres. In discarding a vast amount of surplusage, in reducing the +orders of the ministry, in practice as well as in theory, to their +primitive number, three, and in rejecting all connection with the state, +the American branch of the Episcopal Church has assumed the position it +was desirous to fill; restoring, as near as may be, the simplicity of +the apostolical ages, while it does not disregard the precepts and +practices of the apostles themselves. It has not set itself above +antiquity and authority, but merely endeavored to sustain them, without +the encumbrances of more modern abuses. Thus, too, has it been in +political things. No attempt has been made to create new organic social +distinctions in this country, but solely to disencumber those that are +inseparable from the existence of all civilized society, of the clumsy +machinery with which the expedients of military oppressors had invested +them. The real sages of this country, in founding its institutions, no +more thought of getting rid of the landlords of the country, than the +Church thought of getting rid of its bishops. The first knew that the +gradations of property were an inevitable incident of civilization; that +it would not be wise, if it were possible, to prevent the affluent from +making large investments in the soil; and that this could not be done in +practice, without leaving the relation of landlord and tenant. Because +landlords, in other parts of the world, possessed privileges that were +not necessary to the natural or simple existence of the character, was +no reason for destroying the character itself; any more than the fact +that the bishops of England possess an authority the apostles knew +nothing of, rendered it proper for the American branch of the Church to +do away with an office that came from the apostles. But envy and +jealousy do not pause to reflect on such things; it is enough for +_them_, in the one case, that you and yours have estates and occupy +social positions, that I and mine do not, and cannot easily, occupy and +possess; _therefore_ I will oppose you, and join my voice to the cry of +those who wish to get their farms for nothing; and in the other, that +you have bishops when we can have none, without abandoning our present +organization and doctrines. + +I dwell on these points at some little length, because the movement of +Mr. Warren and myself, at that moment, had a direct influence on the +circumstances that will soon be related. It is probable that fully +one-half of those collected in the Little Nest meeting-house, that +morning, as they stood up, and lent a sort of one-sided and listless +attention to the prayer, were thinking of the scandalous and +aristocratical conduct of Mr. Warren, in "goin' out o' meetin' just as +meetin' went to prayers!" Few, indeed, were they who would be likely to +ascribe any charitable motive for the act; and probably not one of those +present thought of the true and conscientious feeling that had induced +it. So the world wags! It is certain that a malignant and bitter feeling +was got up against the worthy rector on that occasion, and for that act, +which has not yet abated, and which will not abate in many hundreds, +until the near approach of death shall lay bare to them the true +character of so many of their own feelings. + +It was some minutes before Mr. Warren entirely regained his composure. +At length he spoke to me, in his usual benevolent and mild way, saying a +few words that were complimentary, on the subject of my return, while he +expressed his fears that my uncle Ro and myself had been imprudent in +thus placing ourselves, as it might be, in the lion's jaws. + +"You have certainly made your disguises so complete," he added, smiling, +"as to have escaped wonderfully well so far. That you should deceive +Mary and myself is no great matter, since neither of us ever saw you +before; but, the manner in which your nearest relatives have been +misled, is surprising. Nevertheless, you have every inducement to be +cautious, for hatred and jealousy have a penetration that does not +belong even to love." + +"We think we are safe, sir," I answered, "for we are certainly within +the statute. We are too well aware of our miserable aristocratical +condition to place ourselves within the grasp of the law, for such are +our eminent privileges as a landed nobility, that we are morally certain +either of us would not only be sent to the State's prison were he to be +guilty of the felony those Injins are committing, and will commit, with +a perfect impunity, but that he would be kept there, as long as a single +tear of anguish could be wrung from one of those who are classed with +the aristocracy. Democracy alone finds any sympathy in the ordinary +administration of American justice." + +"I am afraid that your irony has only too much truth in it. But the +movement around the building would seem to say that the real business of +the day is about to commence, and we had better return to the church." + +"Those men in disguise are watching us, in a most unpleasant and +alarming manner," said Mary Warren, delighting me far more by the +vigilance she thus manifested in my behalf, than alarming me by the +fact. + +That we were watched, however, became obviously apparent, as we walked +toward the building, by the actions of some of the Injins. They had left +the side of the church where they had posted themselves during the +prayer, and head was going to head, among those nearest to us; or, it +would be nearer to appearances, were I to say bunch of calico was going +to bunch of calico, for nothing in the form of a head was visible among +them. Nothing was said to Mr. Warren and Mary, however, who were +permitted to go into the meeting-house, unmolested; but two of these +disguised gentry placed themselves before me, laying their rifles across +my path, and completely intercepting my advance. + +"Who you?" abruptly demanded one of the two;--"where go--where come +from?" + +The answer was ready, and I trust was sufficiently steady. + +"I coomes from Charmany, und I goes into der kerch, as dey say in mine +coontry; what might be callet a meetin'-'us, here." + +What might have followed, it is not easy to say, had not the loud, +declamatory voice of the lecturer just then been heard, as he commenced +his address. This appeared to be a signal for the tribe to make some +movement, for the two fellows who had stopped me, walked silently away, +though bag of calico went to bag of calico, as they trotted off +together, seemingly communicating to each other their suspicions. I took +advantage of the opening, and passed into the church, where I worked my +way through the throng, and got a seat at my uncle's side. + +I have neither time, room, nor inclination to give anything like an +analysis of the lecture. The speaker was fluent, inflated, and anything +but logical. Not only did he contradict himself, but he contradicted the +laws of nature. The intelligent reader will not require to be reminded +of the general character of a speech that was addressed to the passions +and interests of such an audience, rather than to their reason. He +commented, at first, on the particular covenants of the leases on the +old estates of the colony, alluding to the quarter-sales, chickens, +days' work, and durable tenures, in the customary way. The reservation +of the mines, too, was mentioned as a tyrannical covenant, precisely as +if a landlord were obliged to convey any more of the rights that were +vested in him, than he saw fit; or the tenant could justly claim more +than he had hired! This man treated all these branches of the subject, +as if the tenants had acquired certain mysterious interests by time and +occupation, overlooking the fact that the one party got just as good a +title as the other by this process; the lease being the instrument +between them, that was getting to be venerable. If one party grew old as +a tenant, so did the other as a landlord. I thought that this lecturer +would have been glad to confine himself to the Manor leases, that being +the particular branch of the subject he had been accustomed to treat; +but, such was not the precise nature of the job he was now employed to +execute. At Ravensnest, he could not flourish the feudal grievance of +the quarter-sales, the "four fat fowls," the "days' works," and the +_length_ of the leases. Here it was clearly his cue to say nothing of +the three first, and to complain of the _shortness_ of the leases, as +mine were about to fall in, in considerable numbers. Finding it was +necessary to take new ground, he determined it should be bold ground, +and such as would give him the least trouble to get along with. + +As soon as the lecturer had got through with his general heads, and felt +the necessity of coming down to particulars, he opened upon the family +of Littlepage, in a very declamatory way. What had _they_ ever done for +the country, he demanded, that they should be lords in the land? By some +process known to himself, he had converted landlords into lords in the +land, and was now aiming to make the tenants occupy the latter +station--nay, both stations. Of course, some services of a public +character, of which the Littlepages might boast, were not touched upon +at all, everything of that nature being compressed into what the +lecturer and his audience deemed serving the people, by helping to +indulge them in all their desires, however rapacious or wicked. As +everybody who knows anything of the actual state of matters among us, +must be aware how rarely the "people" hear the truth, when their own +power and interests are in question, it is not surprising that a very +shallow reasoner was enabled to draw wool over the eyes of the audience +of Ravensnest on that particular subject. + +But my interest was most awakened when this man came to speak of myself. +It is not often that a man enjoys the same opportunity as that I then +possessed to hear his own character delineated, and his most private +motives analyzed. In the first place, the audience were told that this +"young Hugh Littlepage had never done anything for the land that he +proudly, and like a great European noble, calls his 'estate.' Most of +you, fellow-citizens, can show your hard hands, and recall the burning +suns under which you have opened the swath, through those then lovely +meadows yonder, as _your_ titles to these farms. But Hugh Littlepage +never did a day's work in his life"--ten minutes before he had been +complaining of the "days' work" in the Manor leases as indignities that +a freeman ought not to submit to--"no, fellow-citizens, he never had +that honor, and never will have it, until by a just division of his +property, or what he now _calls_ his property, you reduce him to the +necessity of laboring to raise the crops he wants to consume." + +"Where is this Hugh Littlepage at this very moment? In Paris, +squandering _your_ hard earnings in riotous living, according to the +best standards of aristocracy. He lives in the midst of abundance, +dresses richly and fares richly, while _you_ and _yours_ are eating the +sweat of your brows. He is no man for a pewter spoon and two-pronged +fork! No, my countrymen! He must have a _gold_ spoon for some of his +dishes, and you will find it hard to believe--plain, unpretending, +republican farmers as you are, but it is not the less true--he must have +forks of _silver_! Fellow-citizens, Hugh Littlepage would not put his +knife into his mouth, as you and I do, in eating--as all plain, +unpretending republicans do--for the world. It would choke him; no, he +keeps _silver_ forks to touch his anointed lips!" Here there was an +attempt to get up something like applause, but it totally failed. The +men of Ravensnest had been accustomed all their lives to see the +Littlepages in the social station they occupied; and, after all, it did +not seem so very extraordinary that we should have silver forks, any +more than that others should have silver spoons. The lecturer had the +tact to see that he had failed on this point and he turned to another. + +The next onset was made against our title. Whence did it come? demanded +the lecturer. From the King of England; and the people had conquered the +country from that sovereign, and put themselves in his place. Now, is it +not a good principle in politics, that to the victors belong the spoils? +He believed it was; and that in conquering America, he was of opinion +that the people of America had conquered the land, and that they had a +right to take the land, and to keep it. Titles from kings he did not +respect much; and he believed the American people, generally, did not +think much of them. If Hugh Littlepage wished an "estate," as he called +it, let him come to the people and "starve _them_" and see what sort of +an estate _they_ would give him. + +But there was one portion of his speech which was so remarkable, that I +must attempt to give it as it was uttered. It was while the lecturer was +expatiating on this subject of titles, that he broke out in the +following language:--"Don't talk to me," he bellowed--for by this +time his voice had risen to the pitch of a Methodist's in a +camp-meeting--"Don't talk to me of antiquity, and time, and length of +possession, as things to be respected. They're nawthin'--jest nawthin' +at all. Possession's good in law, I'll admit; and I contind that's jest +what the tenants has. They've got the lawful possession of this very +property, that layeth (not eggs, but) up and down, far and near, and all +around; a rich and goodly heritage, when divided up among hard-working +and honest folks; but too much, by tens of thousands of acres, for a +young chap, who is wasting his substance in foreign lands, to hold. I +contind that the tenants has this very precise, lawful possession, at +this blessed moment, only the law won't let 'em enj'y it. It's all owing +to that accursed law, that the tenant can't set up a title ag'in his +landlord. You see by this one fact, fellow-citizens, that they are a +privileged class, and ought to be brought down to the level of gin'ral +humanity. You can set up title ag'in anybody else, but you shan't set up +title ag'in a landlord. I know what is said in the primisis," shaking +his head, in derision of any arguments on the other side of this +particular point; "I know that circumstances alter cases. I can see the +hardship of one neighbor's coming to another, and asking to borrow or +hire his horse for a day, and then pretendin' to hold him on some other +ketch. But horses isn't land; you must all allow _that_. No, if horses +_was_ land, the case would be altered. Land is an element, and so is +fire, and so is water, and so is air. Now who will say that a freeman +hasn't a right to air, hasn't a right to water, and, on the same +process, hasn't a right to land? He _has_, fellow-citizens--he _has_. +These are what are called in philosophy elementary rights; which is the +same thing as a right to the elements, of which land is one, and a +principal one. I say a principal one; for, if there was no land to stand +on, we should drop away from air, and couldn't enj'y _that_; we should +lose all our water in vapor, and couldn't put it to millin' and +manafacterin' purposes; and where could we build our fires? No; land is +the _first_ elementary right, and connected with it comes the first and +most sacred right to the elements. + +"I do not altogether disregard antiquity, neither. No; I respect and +revere pre-emption rights; for they fortify and sustain the right to the +elements. Now I do not condemn squattin' as some does. It's actin' +accordin' to natur', and natur' is right. I respect and venerate a +squatter's possession; for it's held under the sacred principle of +usefulness. It says, 'Go and make the wilderness blossom as the rose,' +and means 'progress.' That's an antiquity I respect. I respect the +antiquity of your possessions here, _as tenants_; for it is a +hard-working and useful antiquity--an antiquity that increases and +multiplies. If it be said that Hugh Littlepage's ancestors--your noble +has his 'ancestors,' while us 'common folks' are satisfied with +forefathers"--[this hit took with a great many present, raising a very +general laugh]--"but if this Hugh's ancestors did pay anything for the +land, if I was you, fellow-citizens, I'd be gin'rous, and let him have +it back ag'in. Perhaps his forefathers gave a cent an acre to the +king--may be two; or say sixpence, if you will. I'd let him have his +sixpence an acre back again, by way of shutting his mouth. No; I'm for +nawthin' that's ungin'rous. + +"Fellow-citizens, I profess to be what is called a democrat. I know that +many of you be what is called whigs; but I apprehend there isn't much +difference between us on the subject of this system of leasing land. We +are all republicans, and leasing farms is anti-republican. Then, I wish +to be liberal even to them I commonly oppose at elections, and I will +freely admit, then, on the whull, the whigs have rather outdone us +democrats, on the subject of this anti-rentism. I am sorry to be obliged +to own in it, but it must be confessed that, while in the way of +governors there hasn't been much difference--yes, put 'em in a bag, and +shake 'em up, and you'd hardly know which would come out first--which +has done himself the most immortal honor, which has shown himself the +most comprehensive, profound, and safe statesman; I know that some of +our people complain of the governors for ordering out troops ag'in the +Injins, but they could not _help_ that--they wouldn't have done it, in +my judgment, had there been any way of getting round it; but the law was +too strong for them, so they druv' in the Injins, and now they join us +in putting down aristocracy, and in raising up gin'ral humanity. No; I +don't go ag'in the governors, though many does. + +"But I profess to be a democrat, and I'll give an outline of my +principles, that all may see why they can't, and don't, and never will +agree with aristocracy or nobility, in any form or shape. I believe one +man is as good as another in all things. Neither birth, nor law, nor +edication, nor riches, nor poverty, nor anything else, can ever make any +difference in this principle, which is sacred and fundamental, and is +the chief stone of the corner in true democracy. One man is as good as +another, I say, and has just the same right to the enj'yment of 'arth +and its privileges, as any other man. I think the majority ought to rule +in all things, and that it is the duty of the minority to submit. Now +I've had this here sentiment thrown back upon me, in some places where I +have spoken, and been asked, 'how is this--the majority must rule, and +the minority must submit--in that case, the minority isn't as good as +the majority in practice, and hasn't the same right. They are made to +own what they think ought not to be done?' The answer to this is so +plain, I wonder a sensible man can ask the question, for all the +minority has to do, is to join the majority, to have things as they want +'em. The road is free, and it is this open road that makes true liberty. +Any man can fall in with the majority, and sensible folks commonly do, +when they can find it, and that makes a person not only a man, as the +saying is, but a FREEMAN, a still more honorable title. + +"Fellow-citizens, a great movement is in progress. 'Go ahead!' is the +cry, and the march is onward; our thoughts already fly about on the +wings of the lightning, and our bodies move but little slower, on the +vapor of steam--soon our principles will rush ahead of all, and let in +the radiance of a glorious day of universal reform, and loveliness, and +virtue and charity, when the odious sound of _rent_ will never be heard, +when every man will sit down under his own apple, or cherry tree, if not +under his own fig-tree. + +"I am a democrat--yes, a democrat. Glorious appellation! I delight in +it! It is my pride, my boast, my very virtue. Let but the people truly +rule, and all must come well. The people has no temptation to do wrong. +If they hurt the State, they hurt themselves, for they are the State. Is +a man likely to hurt himself? Equality is my axiom. Nor, by equality, do +I mean your narrow pitiful equality before the law, as it is sometimes +tarmed, for that may be no equality at all; but I mean an equality that +is substantial, and which must be restored, when the working of the law +has deranged it. Fellow-citizens, do you know what leap-year means? I +dare say some of you don't, the ladies in partic'lar not giving much +attention to astronomy. Well, I have inquired, and it is this: The 'arth +revolves around the sun in a year, as we all know. And we count three +hundred and sixty-five days in a year, we all know. But the 'arth is a +few hours longer than three hundred and sixty-five days in making its +circuit--nearly six hours longer. Now everybody knows that four times +six makes twenty-four, and so a twenty-ninth day is put into February, +every fourth year, to restore the lost time; another change being to be +made a long distance ahead to settle the fractions. Thus will it be with +democracy. Human natur' can't devise laws yet, that will keep all things +on an exactly equal footing, and political leap-years must be introduced +into the political calendar, to restore the equilibrium. In astronomy we +must divide up anew the hours and minutes; in humanity, we must, from +time to time, divide up the land." + +But I cannot follow this inflated fool any longer; for he was quite as +much of fool as of knave, though partaking largely of the latter +character. It was plain that he carried many of his notions much further +than a good portion of his audience carried theirs; though, whenever he +touched upon anti-rentism, he hit a chord that vibrated through the +whole assembly. That the tenants ought to own their farms, and pay no +more rents, AND POCKET ALL THE BENEFITS OF THEIR OWN PREVIOUS LABORS, +THOUGH THESE LABORS HAD BEEN CONSIDERED IN THE EARLIER RENTS, AND WERE, +INDEED, STILL CONSIDERED IN THE LOW RATES AT WHICH THE LANDS WERE LET, +was a doctrine all could understand; and few were they, I am sorry to +say, who did not betray how much self-love and self-interest had +obscured the sense of right. + +The lecture, such as it was, lasted more than two hours; and when it was +done, an individual rose, in the character of a chairman--when did three +Americans ever get together to discuss anything, that they had not a +chairman and secretary, and all the parliamentary forms?--and invited +any one present, who might entertain views different from the speaker, +to give his opinion. Never before did I feel so tempted to speak in +public. My first impulse was to throw away the wig, and come out in my +own person, and expose the shallow trash that had just been uttered. I +believe even I, unaccustomed as I was to public speaking, could easily +have done this, and I whispered as much to my uncle, who was actually on +his feet, to perform the office for me, when the sound of "Mr. +Chairman," from a different part of the church, anticipated him. Looking +round, I recognized at once the face of the intelligent mechanic, named +Hall, whom we had met at Mooseridge, on our way to the Nest. I took my +seat at once, perfectly satisfied that the subject was in good hands. + +This speaker commenced with great moderation, both of manner and tone, +and, indeed, he preserved them throughout. His utterance, accent, and +language, of course, were all tinctured by his habits and associations; +but his good sense and his good principles were equally gifts from +above. More of the "true image of his Maker" was to be found in that one +individual than existed in fifty common men. He saw clearly, spoke +clearly, and demonstrated effectively. As he was well known in that +vicinity and generally respected, he was listened to with profound +attention, and spoke like a man who stood in no dread of tar and +feathers. Had the same sentiments been delivered by one in a fine coat, +and a stranger, or even by myself, who had so much at stake, very many +of them would have been incontinently set down as aristocratic, and not +to be tolerated, the most sublimated lover of equality occasionally +falling into these little contradictions. + +Hall commenced by reminding the audience that they all knew him, and +knew he was no landlord. He was a mechanic, and a laboring man, like +most of themselves, and had no interest that could be separated from the +general good of society. This opening was a little homage to prejudice, +since reason is reason, and right right, let them come whence they will. +"I, too, am a democrat," he went on to say, "but I do not understand +democracy to mean anything like that which has been described by the +last speaker. I tell that gentleman plainly, that if he is a democrat, I +am none, and if I am a democrat, he is none. By democracy I understand a +government in which the sovereign power resides in the body of the +nation; and not in a few, or in one. But this principle no more gives +the body of the people authority to act wrong, than in a monarchy, in +which the sovereign power resides in one man, that one man has a right +to act wrong. By equality, I do not understand anything more than +equality before the law--now if the law had said that when the late +Malbone Littlepage died, his farms should go not to his next of kin, or +to his devisee, but to his neighbors, then that would have been the law +to be obeyed, although it would be a law destructive of civilization, +since men would never accumulate property to go to the public. Something +nearer home is necessary to make men work, and deny themselves what they +like. + +"The gentleman has told us of a sort of a political leap-year that is to +regulate the social calendar. I understand him to mean that when +property has got to be unequal, it must be divided up, in order that men +may make a new start. I fear he will have to dispense with leap-years, +and come to leap-months, or leap-weeks, ay, or even to leap-days; for, +was the property of this township divided up this very morning, and in +this meetin'-'us, it would get to be unequal before night. Some folks +can't keep money when they have it; and others can't keep their hands +off it. + +"Then, again, if Hugh Littlepage's property is to be divided, the +property of all of Hugh Littlepage's neighbors ought to be divided too, +to make even an _appearance_ of equality; though it would be but an +_appearance_ of equality, admitting that were done, since Hugh +Littlepage has more than all the rest of the town put together. Yes, +fellow-citizens, Hugh Littlepage pays, at this moment, one-twentieth of +the taxes of this whole county. That is about the proportion of +Ravensnest; and that tax, in reality, comes out of his pockets, as much +as the greater part of the taxes of Rensselaer and Albany Counties, if +you will except the cities they contain, are paid by the Rensselaers. It +wun't do to tell me the tenants pay the taxes, for I know better. We all +know that the probable amount of the taxes is estimated in the original +bargain, and is so much deducted from the rent, and comes out of the +landlord if it comes out of anybody. There is a good reason why the +tenant should pay it, and a reason that is altogether in his interest; +because the law would make his oxen, and horses, and carts liable for +the taxes, should the landlord neglect to pay the taxes. The collector +always sells personals for a tax if he can find them on the property; +and by deducting it from the rent, and paying it himself, the tenant +makes himself secure against that loss. To say that a tenant don't take +any account of the taxes he will be likely to pay, in making his +bargain, is as if one should say he is _non com._, and not fit to be +trusted with his own affairs. There are men in this community, I am +sorry to say, who wish a law passed to tax the rents on durable leases, +or on all leases, in order to choke the landlords off from their claims, +but such men are true friends to neither justice nor their country. Such +a law would be a tax on the incomes of a particular class of society, +and on no other. It is a law that would justify the aggrieved parties in +taking up arms to resist it, unless the law would give 'em relief, as I +rather think it would. By removing into another State, however, they +would escape the tax completely, laugh at those who framed it, who would +incur the odium of doing an impotent wrong, and get laughed at as well +as despised, besides injuring the State by drawing away its money to be +spent out of its limits. Think, for one moment, of the impression that +would be made of New York justice, if a hundred citizens of note and +standing were to be found living in Philadelphia or Paris, and +circulating to the world the report that they were exiles to escape a +special taxation! The more the matter was inquired into, the worse it +must appear; for men may say what they please, to be ready ag'in +election time, as there is but one piece or parcel of property to tax, +it is an income tax, and nothing else. What makes the matter still worse +is, that every man of sense will know that it is taxing the same person +twice, substantially for the same thing, since the landlord has the +direct land-tax deducted from the rent in the original bargain. + +"As for all this cry about aristocracy, I don't understand it. Hugh +Littlepage has just as good a right to his ways as I have to mine. The +gentleman says he needs gold spoons and silver forks to eat with. Well, +what of that? I dare say the gentleman himself finds a steel knife and +fork useful, and has no objection to silver, or, at least, to a pewter +spoon. Now, there are folks that use wooden forks, or no forks, and who +are glad to get horn spoons; and _they_ might call that gentleman +himself an aristocrat. This setting of ourselves up as the standard in +all things is anything but liberty. If I don't like to eat my dinner +with a man who uses a silver fork, no man in this country can compel me. +On the other hand, if young Mr. Littlepage don't like a companion who +chews tobacco, as I do, he ought to be left to follow his own +inclination. + +"Then, this doctrine that one man's as good as another has got two sides +to it. One man ought to have the same general rights as another, I am +ready to allow; but if one man is as _good_ as another, why do we have +the trouble and cost of elections? We might draw lots, as we do for +jurors, and save a good deal of time and money. We all know there is +ch'ice in men, and I think that so long as the people have their ch'ice +in sayin' who shall and who shall not be their agents, they've got all +they have any right to. So long as this is done, the rest of the world +may be left to follow their own ways, provided they obey the laws. + +"Then, I am no great admirer of them that are always telling the people +they're parfect. I know this county pretty well, as well as most in it; +and if there be a parfect man in Washington County, I have not yet +fallen in with him. Ten millions of imparfect men won't make one parfect +man, and so I don't look for parfection in the people any more than I do +in princes. All I look for in democracy is to keep the reins in so many +hands as to prevent a few from turning everything to their own account; +still, we must'nt forget that when a great many do go wrong, it is much +worse than when a few go wrong. + +"If my son didn't inherit the property of Malbone Littlepage, neither +will Malbone Littlepage's son inherit mine. We are on a footing in that +respect. As to paying rent, which some persons think so hard, what would +they do if they had no house to live in, or farm to work? If folks wish +to purchase houses and farms, no one can prevent them if they have money +to do it with; and if they have not, is it expected other people have to +provide them with such things out of their own----" + +Here the speaker was interrupted by a sudden whooping, and the Injins +came pressing into the house, in a way to drive all in the aisles before +them. Men, women and children leaped from the windows, the distance +being trifling, while others made their escape by the two side-doors, +the Injins coming in only by the main entrance. In less time than it +takes to record the fact, the audience had nearly all dispersed. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + "And yet it is said--Labor in thy vocation; which is as much as + to say--let the magistrates be laboring men; and therefore + should we be magistrates."--_King Henry VI._ + + +In a minute or two the tumult ceased, and a singular scene presented +itself. The church had four separate groups or parties left in it, +beside the Injins, who crowded the main aisle. The chairman, secretary, +two ministers, and lecturer, remained perfectly tranquil in their seats, +probably understanding quite well _they_ had nothing to fear from the +intruders. Mr. Warren and Mary were in another corner, under the +gallery, he having disdained flight, and prudently kept his daughter at +his side. My uncle and myself were the _pendants_ of the two last named, +occupying the opposite corner, also under the gallery. Mr. Hall, and two +or three friends who stuck by him, were in a pew near the wall, but +about half-way down the church, the former erect on a seat, where he had +placed himself to speak. + +"Proceed with your remarks, sir," coolly observed the chairman, who was +one of those paradoxical anti-renters who had nothing to do with the +Injins, though he knew all about them, and, as I have been told, was +actually foremost in collecting and disbursing their pay. At this +instant, Seneca Newcome sneaked in at the side door, keeping as far as +possible from the "disguised and armed," but curious to ascertain what +would come next. + +As for Hall, he behaved with admirable self-possession. He probably knew +that his former auditors were collecting under the windows, and by +raising his voice he would be easily heard. At all events, he did +elevate his voice, and went on as if nothing had happened. + +"I was about to say a word, Mr. Chairman, on the natur' of the two +qualities that have, to me at least, seemed uppermost in the lecturer's +argooment"--yes, this sensible, well-principled man, actually used that +detestable sound, just as I have written it, calling "argument" +"argooment"--what a pity it is that so little attention is paid to the +very first principles of speaking the language well in this country, the +common schools probably doing more harm than they do good in this +respect--"that have, to me at least, seemed uppermost in the lecturer's +argooment, and they are both those that God himself has viewed as of so +great importance to our nature as to give his express commandments about +them. He has commanded us not to steal, and he has commanded us not to +covet our neighbor's goods; proof sufficient that the possession of +property is sanctioned by divine authority, and that it is endowed with +a certain sanctity of privilege. Now for the application. + +"You can do nothing as to leases in existence, because the State can't +impair a contract. A great deal is said about this government's being +one of the people, and that the people ought to do as they please. Now, +I'm a plain man, and am talking to plain men, and mean to talk plainly. +That this is a government of the people, being a democracy, or because +the sovereign power, in the last resort, resides in the body of the +people, is true; but that this is a government of the people, in the +common signification, or as too many of the people themselves understand +it, is not true. This very interest about which there is so much +commotion, or the right to interfere with contracts, is put beyond the +people of the State by a clause in the Constitution of the United +States. Now, the Constitution of the United States might be altered, +making another provision, saying that 'no State shall ever pass any law +to do away with the existence of durable leases,' and every man, woman, +and child in New York be opposed to such a change, but they would have +to swallow it. Come, let us see what figures will do. There are +twenty-seven States in actual existence, and soon will be thirty. I +don't care on which number you calculate; say thirty, if you please, as +that is likely to be the number before the Constitution could be +altered. Well, twenty-three of these States can put a clause into the +Constitution, saying you shan't meddle with leases. This might leave the +seven most populous States, with every voter, opposed to the change. +I've made a calculation, and find what the seven most populous States +had in 1840, and I find that more than half of all the population of the +country is contained in them seven States, which can be made to submit +to a minority. Nor is this all; the alteration may be carried by only +one vote in each of the twenty-three States, and, deducting these from +the electors in the seven dissenting States, you might have a +Constitutional change made in the country against a majority of say two +millions! It follows that the people, in the common meaning, are not as +omnipotent as some suppose. There's something stronger than the people, +after all, and that's principles, and if we go to work to tear to pieces +our own----" + +It was impossible to hear another word that the speaker said. The idea +that the people are not omnipotent was one little likely to find favor +among any portion of the population that fancy themselves to be +peculiarly the people. So much accustomed to consider themselves +invested with the exercise of a power which, in any case, can be +rightfully exercised by only the whole people, have local assemblages +got to be, that they often run into illegal excesses, fancying even +their little fragment of the body politic infallible, as well as +omnipotent, in such matters at least. To have it openly denied, +therefore, that the popular fabric of American institutions is so put +together as to leave it in the power of a decided minority to change the +organic law, as is unquestionably the fact in theory, however little +likely to occur in practice, sounded in the ears of Mr. Hall's auditors +like political blasphemy. Those under the windows groaned, while the +gang in the aisle whooped and yelled, and that in a fashion that had all +the exaggeration of a caricature. It was very apparent that there was an +end of all the deliberative part of the proceedings of the day. + +Hall seemed neither surprised nor uneasy. He wiped his face very coolly, +and then took his seat, leaving the Injins to dance about the church, +flourishing their rifles and knives, in a way that might have frightened +one less steady. As for Mr. Warren, he led Mary out, though there was a +movement that threatened to stop him. My uncle and myself followed, the +whooping and screaming being really unpleasant to the ear. As to the +chairman, the secretary, and the two ministers of the gospel, they kept +their stations on the stage, entirely self-possessed and unmolested. No +one went near them, a forbearance that must have been owing to the often +alleged fact that the real anti-renters, the oppressed tenantry of New +York, and these vile masqueraders, had nothing to do with each other! + +One of the astounding circumstances of the times, is the general +prevalence of falsehood among us, and the almost total suppression of +truth. No matter what amount of evidence there may be to contradict a +statement, or how often it has been disproved, it is reaffirmed, with +just as much assurance, as if the matter had never been investigated; +ay, and believed, as if its substance were uncontradicted. I am +persuaded there is no part of the world, in which it is more difficult +to get a truth into the public mind, when there is a motive to suppress +it, than among ourselves. This may seem singular, when it is remembered +how many journals there are, which are uttered with the avowed purpose +to circulate information. Alas! the machinery which can be used to give +currency to truth, is equally efficient in giving currency to falsehood. +There are so many modes, too, of diluting truth, in addition to the +downright lies which are told, that I greatly question, if one alleged +fact out of twenty, that goes the rounds of the public prints, those of +the commoner sort excepted, is true in all its essentials. It requires +so much integrity of purpose, so much discrimination, such a +sensitiveness of conscience, and often so large a degree of +self-sacrifice, in men, to speak nothing but truth, that one is not to +expect that their more vulgar and irresponsible agents are to possess a +quality that is so very rare among the very best of the principals. + +If I was glad to get out of the church myself, the reader may depend on +it, I was rejoiced when I saw Mr. Warren leading Mary toward the place +where I had left his wagon, as if about to quit a scene that now +promised nothing but clamor and wrangling, if not something more +serious. Uncle Ro desired me to bring out the wagon in which we had left +the farm; and, in the midst of a species of general panic, in which the +women, in particular, went flying about in all directions, I proceeded +to comply. It was at this moment that a general pause to all movements +was produced by the gang of Injins pouring out of the church, bringing +in their centre the late speaker, Mr. Hall. As the chairman, secretary, +lecturer, and the two "ministers of the gospel" followed, it was +conclusive as to the termination of anything like further discussion. + +My uncle called me back, and I thought was disposed to assist Hall, who, +manfully supported by the two or three friends that had stood by him the +whole day, was now moving toward us, surrounded by a cluster of +wrangling and menacing Injins; the whole party bearing no little +resemblance to a pack of village curs that set upon the strange dog that +has ventured in among them. + +Oaths and threats filled the air; and poor Hall's ears were offended by +an imputation that, I dare say, they then heard for the first time. He +was called a "d----d aristocrat," and a hireling is the pay of "d----d +aristocrats." To all this, however, the sturdy and right-thinking +blacksmith was very indifferent; well knowing there was not a fact +connected with his existence, or a sentiment of his moral being, that +would justify any such charge. It was in answer to this deadly +imputation, that I first heard him speak again, after he had been +interrupted in the church. + +"Call me what you please," he cried, in his clear full voice; "I don't +mind hard names. There isn't a man among you who thinks I'm an +aristocrat, or the hireling of any one; but I hope I am not yet so great +a knave as to wish to rob a neighbor because he happens to be richer +than I am myself." + +"Who gave Hugh Littlepage his land?" demanded one in the midst of the +gang, speaking without the affectation of mimicry, though the covering +to his head sufficiently changed his voice. "You know yourself it came +from the king." + +"He never worked for an acre of it!" bawled another. "If he was a +hard-working, honest man, like yourself, Tim Hall, we might bear it; but +you know he is not. He's a spendthrift and an aristocrat." + +"I know that hard hands don't make a man honest, any more than soft +hands make him a rogue," answered Tim Hall, with spirit. "As for the +Littlepages, they are gentlemen in every sense of the word, and always +have been. Their word will pass even now, when the bond of many a man +who sets himself up ag'in them wouldn't be looked at." + +I was grateful and touched with this proof that a character, which I +fully believed to be merited, was not lost on one of the most +intelligent men of his class, in that part of the country. Envy, and +covetousness, and malignancy, may lie as they will, but the upright +recognize the upright; the truly poor know who most assuage their +sorrows and relieve their wants; and the real lover of liberty +understands that its privileges are not to be interpreted altogether in +his own favor. I did not like the idea of such a man's being ill-treated +by a gang of disguised blackguards--fellows who added to the crime of +violating a positive law, the high moral offence of prostituting the +sacred principles of liberty, by professing to drag them into the +service of a cause, which wanted very little, in its range, to include +all the pickpockets and thieves in the land. + +"They will do that noble fellow some injury, I fear," I whispered to my +uncle. + +"If it were not for the mortification of admitting our disguise, I would +go forward at once, and attempt to bring him out of the crowd," was the +answer. "But that will not do, under the circumstances. Let us be +patient, and observe what is to follow." + +"Tar and feathers!" shouted some one among the Injins; "Tar and feather +him!" "Crop him, and send him home!" answered others. "Tim Hall has gone +over to the enemy," added the Injin who asked whence I had my lands. + +I fancied I knew that voice, and when its tones had been repeated two or +three times, it struck me it was that of Seneca Newcome. That Seneca was +an anti-renter, was no secret; but that he, a lawyer, would be guilty of +the great indiscretion of committing felony, was a matter about which +one might well entertain a doubt. To urge others to be guilty was a +different matter, but to commit himself seemed unlikely. With a view to +keep an eye on the figure I distrusted, I looked out for some mode by +which he might be known. A patch, or rather gore in the calico, answered +admirably, for on looking at others, I saw that this gore was +accidental, and peculiar to that particular dress, most probably owing +to a deficiency in the material originally supplied. + +All this time, which indeed was but a minute or two, the tumult +continued. The Injins seemed undetermined what to do; equally afraid to +carry out their menaces against Hall, and unwilling to let him go. At +the very instant when we were looking for something serious, the storm +abated, and an unexpected calm settled on the scene. How this was +effected, I never knew; though it is reasonable to suppose an order had +been communicated to the Injins, by some signal that was known only to +themselves. Of the result there was no doubt; the crowd around Hall +opened, and that sturdy and uncompromising freeman came out of it, +wiping his face, looking heated and a little angry. He did not yield, +however, remaining near the spot, still supported by the two or three +friends who had accompanied him from Mooseridge. + +My uncle Ro, on reflection, conceived it wisest not to seem in a hurry +to quit the village, and as soon as I had ascertained that Mr. Warren +had come to a similar decision, and had actually taken refuge in the +house of a parishioner, I "was agreeable," as the English say. While the +pedler, therefore, made a new display of his watches, I strolled round +among the crowd, Injins and others intermixed, to see what could be +seen, and to glean intelligence. In the course of my wanderings, chance +brought me close to the side of the masker in the dress with the gore. +Tickling him gently on the elbow, I induced him to step a little aside +with me, where our conversation would not be overheard. + +"Why might you be Injin--gentleman as you be?" I asked, with as much of +an air of simplicity as I could assume. + +The start with which this question was met convinced me I was right; and +I scarce needed farther confirmation of the justice of my suspicion. If +I had, however, it was afforded. + +"Why ask Injin dat?" returned the man with the gore. + +"Vell, dat might do, and it might not do, 'Squire Newcome; but it might +not do wid one as knows you as vell as I know you. So dell me; vy might +you be Injin?" + +"Harkee," said Seneca, in his natural speech, and evidently much +disturbed by my discovery: "you must, on no account, let it be known who +I am. You see, this Injin business is ticklish work, and the law +might--that is--_you_ could get nothing by mentioning what you know, but +as you have said, as I'm a gentleman, and an attorney at law, it +wouldn't sound well to have it said that I was caught dressed up in this +manner, playing Injin." + +"Ja--ja--I oonderstants--gentlemans might not do sich dings, und not be +laughed at--dat's all." + +"Ye-e-e-s--that's all, as you say, so be careful what you say or hint +about it. Well, since you have found me out, it's my treat. What shall't +be?" + +This was not very elegant for a "gentleman," and "an attorney at law," +certainly, but, as it belonged to the school of Mr. Newcome, it struck +me it might not be prudent for me to betray that I belonged to one of a +different sort. Affecting contentment, therefore, I told him, what he +pleased, and he led me to a store of all business, that was kept by his +brother, and in which, as I afterward found, he himself was a partner. +Here he generously treated me to a glass of fiery whiskey, which I +managed to spill in a way that prevented my being choked. This was +adroitly enough effected, as a refusal to drink would have been taken as +a most suspicious circumstance in a German. As respects Americans of my +assumed class, I am happy to say it is now more possible for one to +refuse a glass than to accept it. It says a good deal in favor of the +population of a country, when even the coachman declines his whet. +Nevertheless, a nation may become perfectly sober, and fall away with +fearful rapidity on other great essentials. On the subject of sobriety, +I agree altogether with my uncle, in thinking that the Americans drink +much less than most, if not less than any European nation; the common +notion that long prevailed to the contrary in the country, being no more +than the fruits of the general disposition, in other people, to decry +democracy, aided somewhat, perhaps, by the exaggerations that are so +common in all the published statistics of morals. + +I remarked that very few even of the Injins drank, though they now began +to circulate freely among the crowd, and in the stores. Seneca left me +as soon as he fancied he had clinched my discretion with a treat, and I +stood looking round at the manner in which the "armed and disguised" +conducted themselves. One fellow, in particular, attracted my attention; +and his deportment may be taken as a specimen of that of many of his +comrades. + +I was soon struck by the fact that Orson Newcome, Seneca's brother and +partner, was obviously desirous of having as little to do with any of +the Injins as possible. As soon as one entered his store, he appeared +uneasy, and whenever one left it, he seemed glad. At first, I was +inclined to think that Orson--what names will not the great +Eastern family adopt, before they have got through with their +catalogue?--really, they seem to select their appellations as they do so +many other things, or to prove that they'll do as they please; but +Orson, I fancied at first, was influenced by principle, and did not care +to conceal the disgust he felt at such audacious and illegal +proceedings. But I soon discovered my mistake, by ascertaining the true +cause of his distaste for the presence of an Injin. + +"Injin want calico, for shirt"--said one of these worthies, +significantly, to Orson, who at first affected not to hear him. + +The demand was repeated, however, with additional significance, when the +cloth was reluctantly thrown on the counter. + +"Good," said the Injin, after examining the quality; "cut Injin twenty +yard--_good_ measure, hear?" + +The calico was cut, with a sort of desperate submission; the twenty +yards were folded, enveloped, and handed to the customer, who coolly put +the bundle under his arm, saying, as he turned to leave the +store--"Charge it to Down Rent." + +The mystery of Orson's sullenness was now explained. As invariably +follows the abandonment of principle, the fomenters of wrong were +suffering smartly through the encroachments of their own agents. I +ascertained afterward that these very Injins, who had been embodied in +hundreds, with a view to look down law, and right, and the sacred +character of contracts, had begun to carry out their main principle, and +were making all sorts of demands on the pockets and property of their +very employers, under one pretence or another, but with very obvious +tendencies toward their own benefit. The "spirit of anti-rentism" was +beginning to develop itself in this form, under the system of violence; +as, under that of legislative usurpation, and legislative truckling to +numbers, which is most to be feared from the character of our +representatives, it will as certainly be developed, unless suppressed in +the bud, by such further demands on its complaisant ministers, as will +either compel them to repent of their first false step, will drive the +State to civil war, or will drive all the honest men out of it. + +I did not remain long in the store. After quitting it, I went in quest +of Mr. Warren and Mary, anxious to know if I could be of any service to +them. The father thanked me for this attention, and let me know that he +was now about to quit the village, as he saw others beginning to go +away, among whom was Hall, who was an old and much valued acquaintance +of his, and whom he had invited to stop at the rectory to dine. He +advised us to imitate the example, as there were strangers among the +Injins, who might be addicted to drinking. + +On this information I hunted up my uncle, who had actually sold most of +his trinkets, and all his watches but one, the secret of his great +success being the smallness of his prices. He sold for what he had +bought, and in some instances for even less, quitting the place with the +reputation of being the _most reasonable_ jewel-pedler who had ever +appeared in it. + +The road was beginning to be lined with vehicles carrying home the +people who had collected to hear the lecture. As this was the first +occasion which offered for witnessing such an exhibition since my +return, I examined the different parties we passed, with a view to +comparison. There is a certain air of rusticity, even in the large towns +of America, which one does not meet with in the capitals of the old +world. But the American country is less rustic than any part of the +world with which I am acquainted, England alone excepted. Of course, in +making such a remark, no allusion is intended to the immediate environs +of very large towns; though I am far from certain that the population of +St. Ouen, the Runnymede of France, and which stands within a league of +the walls of Paris, would not have offered a more decidedly rustic +spectacle than that which we then saw. As respects females, this was +very strikingly true; scarce one being visible who had that air of +coarseness, and ignorance, and vulgarity, which denotes a degraded +condition and a life of hardships. There was little apparent that marked +a peasantry in the moral sense of the word; but the whole population +seemed to be at their ease, using neat and well-kept vehicles; solid, +active horses; and being themselves reasonably well, though not very +tastefully clad. Yet, all this was on a leased estate, under the dire +oppression of a landlord, and beneath the shadow of aristocracy! A short +dialogue which took place between my uncle and two sturdy weather-beaten +husbandmen, who drove their horses to a short distance on a walk at the +side of ours, made the impression produced by such facts deeper than it +might otherwise have been. I will relate it. + +"You are Jarmans, I b'lieve," commenced the oldest of the two men, a +gray-headed tenant of my own, of the name of Holmes, who was well known +to us both--"Jarmans, from the old countries, I hear?" + +"Ja--we bees from der olt coontries; und dat is a great vay off." + +"Ye-e-es, I s'pose it is--I've heern tell of them coontries, often. Does +the landlord system exist there?" + +"Ja--dere ist lantlordts all ofer dis worlt, I do dinks; und tenants, +doo." + +"Well, and how is the plan liked there; or be folks thinking of getting +red (rid) on't?" + +"Nein--how might dey gets red of it? It ist der law, you might see, and +vhat ist der law moost be done." + +This answer puzzled old Holmes a good deal. He passed a hand over his +face, and turned to his companion, one Tubbs, also a tenant on my +estate, as if to ask assistance. Tubbs was one of the new school; a +school that makes more laws than it respects, and belongs to the +movement. He is a man that fancies the world never knew anything of +principles, facts, or tendencies, until the commencement of this +century. + +"What sort of a goverment had you, in your own country?" demanded Tubbs. + +"Bretty goot. Mein coontry was Preussen; und dat might be t'ought a +bretty goot gofernment." + +"Yes, but it's a kingly government, I take it;--it seems to me, I have +heern tell of kings in that land." + +"Ja, ja--dere ist ein koenig--one king. De last might be der goot koenig +Vilhelm, und now dere ist his son, who ist a goot koenig, too, as I +might dink. Ja, ja--dere ist a king." + +"That explains it all," cried Tubbs, with a sort of triumph. "You see, +they have a king, and so they have tenants; but, here we have no king, +and we have no need of landlords. Every man, in a free country, should +be his own landlord; that's my doctrine, and to that I'll stick." + +"There is some reason in that, fri'nd; isn't that your idee?" asked +Holmes. + +"Vell, I might not oonderstandt. Dost der shentlemans object to +landlordts, in his coontry, because dere might be landlordts in dem +coontries as might haf kings." + +"That's it! That's just the reason on't, and the true principle!" +answered Tubbs. "Kings and liberty can't go together, and landlords and +liberty can't go together." + +"But might not der law in this coontry be to haf landlordts, too? I hear +dat it ist so." + +"Yes, that is the law, as it stands; but we mean to alter it all. We +have got so many votes now, as to be sure to have both parties with us +at the gin'ral election; and give us the Governor on our side, with the +sartainty of votes enough to turn an election, and we're pretty +confident of success. Votes is all that is wanting, in a truly free +country, for men to have things pretty much in their own way." + +"Und dost you mean to haf not'in dat might be in de coontries ast haf +kings?" + +"To be sure not. What do we want of any of your lordly contrivances, to +make the rich richer, and the poor poorer." + +"Vell, you moost alter de law of nature, if de rich vilt not get riches, +und de poor vill not feel dey be poor. De Piple dells us dat de misery +of de poor ist deir poverty." + +"Ay, ay, Bible talk don't go for much in politics. Sabba' days are set +aside for the Bible, and week-days for public and private matters. Now, +here is Hugh Littlepage, of the same flesh and blood as my neighbor +Holmes and myself be--no better and no worse; yes, I'm willing to allow +he's no worse, in the main, though in some things I do think we might +claim the preference; but I'll allow he's no worse, for the sake of +argooment. Each on us rents a farm of this Littlepage, of a hundred +acres good. Wa-al, this land we till, and crop, and labor, with our own +hands, and the hands of our sons, and hired help, perhaps; and yet we +have to pay fifty dollars apiece, annually, to that youngster, Hugh +Littlepage, for rent; which money he takes and squanders where he +pleases, in riotous livin', for't we know. Now, is that right, I ask; +and isn't it an onsuitable state of things for a republican country?" + +"Und you dinks yoong Littlebage might spend his money in riotous lifin' +in foreign landts?" + +"Sartain--that's the tale hereabouts; and I have seen a man who knows +another, that has an acquaintance who has been in Paris, and who tells +the people of his neighborhood that he stood at the door of the king's +palace one day, and actually saw both the Littlepages going in to pay +'tribute unto Caesar,' as it is called--I suppose you know; and they tell +me that all that goes to see a king, has to kneel and kiss his +hand--some say his toe. Do you happen to know how it is in the old +countries?" + +"It ist not so; I haf seen more kings as half a dozen, und dey dost not +kneel down and kiss deir hants, except on sartain business. Dey might +not allvays hear what is true, in dis country." + +"Wa-a-l, I don't know, I never was there to see," answered Tubbs, in +that peculiar manner, which, whenever it is used by an American, may +safely be interpreted to mean, "I'll not contradict you, but I'll +believe what I please." "That is what I've heern say. But, why should we +pay rent to young Littlepage to spend in riotous living?" + +"I might not know, oonless you haf hiret his landt, und agree't to pay +him rent; in which case you might do as you agree't." + +"But when the bargain's of a kingly natur', I say no. Every country has +its natur', and every government has its natur', and all things should +be in conformity with natur'. Now it's ag'in natur' to pay rent in a +republican country. We want nothing here, that's in common with lords +and kings." + +"Vell, den, you most alter your whole coontry. You might not haf wifes +und children; you might not lif in houses; and plough de landt; you +might not eat und drink; and you might not wear any shirt." + +Tubbs looked a little astonished. Like the _Bourgeois Gentilhomme_, he +was amazed to find he had been talking prose all his life without +knowing it. There is no question that laws unsuitable to the +institutions of a republic might exist in a kingdom, but it is equally +certain that the law which compels the tenant to pay for the use of his +house or farm is not one of the number. Tubbs, however, had been so +thoroughly persuaded, by dint of talking, there was something +exceedingly anti-republican in one man's paying rent to another, that he +was not disposed to give the matter up so easily. + +"Ay, ay," he answered, "we have many things in common with kingdoms as +_men_, I must allow; but why should we have anything in common of this +aristocratic natur'? A free country should contain freemen, and how +_can_ a man be free if he doesn't own the land out of which he makes his +living?" + +"Und if he makes his lifin' out of anoder man's land, he might be honest +enough to pay for its use, I dinks." + +"But, we hold it _ought_ not to be another man's land, but the land of +him who works it." + +"Dell me dis--dost you efer let out a field to a poor neighbor on +shares?" + +"Sartain; we will do that, both to accommodate folks, and to get crops +when we are crowded with work ourselves." + +"Und why might not all dat crop pelong to him dat works de field?" + +"Oh! that's doin' business on a small scale, and can't do anybody harm. +But the American institutions never intended that there should be a +great privileged class among us, like the lords in Europe." + +"Did you efer haf any difficulty in getting your hire for a field dat +might be so let out?" + +"Sartain. There's miserable neighbors as well as them that isn't. I had +to sue the very last chap I had such dealin's with." + +"Und dit das law let you haf your money?" + +"To be sure it did! What would law be good for, if it didn't help a body +to his rights?" + +"Und dost den tenants of dis broperty let Hugh Littlebage haf his rents, +as might be due?" + +"That's a different thing, I tell you. Hugh Littlepage has more than he +wants, and spends his money in riotous livin' in foreign parts." + +"Vell, und sooppose your neighpors might vants to ask you what you do +wit' your tollars after you shall sell your pork and beef, to see you +mate goot use of it--might dat be liperty?" + +"That! Why, who do you think would trouble himself about my 'arnin's. +It's the big fish only that folks talk about, and care about, in such +matters." + +"Den folks make Hugh Littlebage a big fish, by dair own mettlin', und +enfy, und cofetousness--is it not so?" + +"Harkee, fri'nd, I some think you're leanin' yourself to kingly ways, +and to the idees in which you was brought up. Take my advice, and +abandon all these notions as soon as you can, for they'll never be +popular in this part of the world." + +Popular! How broad has the signification of this word got to be! In the +eyes of two-thirds of the population it already means, "what is right." +_Vox populi, vox dei!_ To what an extent is this little word made to +entwine itself around all the interests of life! When it is deemed +expedient to inculcate certain notions in the minds of the people, the +first argument used is to endeavor to persuade the inhabitants of New +York that the inhabitants of Pennsylvania are already of that mind. A +simulated public opinion is the strongest argument used, indeed, on +every occasion of the public discussion of any disputed point. He that +can count the most voices is a better man than he who can give the most +reasons; numbers carrying more weight with them than facts or law. It is +evident, that, while in some things, such a system may work well, there +are others, and those of overshadowing importance, in which its tendency +is direct and fearful toward corruption. + +As soon as Tubbs had given his admonition, he applied the whip to his +horse, and trotted on, leaving us to follow at the best gait we could +extort from Tom Miller's hack. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + "If he were with me, King of Tuscarora, + Gazing as I upon thy portrait now, + In all its medalled, fringed, and bearded glory, + Its eyes' dark beauty, and its thoughtful brow-- + + "Its brow, half martial, half diplomatic; + Its eye, upsoaring, like an eagle's wings; + Well might he boast that we, the democratic, + Outrival Europe--even in our kings."--_Red Jacket._ + + +My uncle Ro said nothing when the two tenants left us; though I saw, by +his countenance, that he felt all the absurdity of the stuff we had just +been listening to. We had got within half a mile of the woods, when +eight Injins came galloping up to a wagon that was directly behind us, +which contained another of my tenants, with his eldest son, a lad of +sixteen, whom he had brought with him as a scholar, in having his sense +of right unsettled by the selfish mystification that was going on in the +land; a species of fatherly care that was of very questionable merit. I +said there were eight of these Injins, but there were only four horses, +each beast carrying double. No sooner did the leaders of the party reach +the wagon I have mentioned, than it was stopped, and its owner was +commanded to alight. The man was a decided down-renter, but he obeyed +the order with a very ill-grace; and did not obey at all, indeed, until +he was helped out of the wagon, by a little gentle violence of this +fragment of his own _corps d'armee_. The boy was soon put into the +highway, when two of the "disguised and armed" leaped into the vacant +places, and drove on, passing us at a furious pace, making a parting nod +to the owner of the vehicle, and consoling him for its temporary loss by +calling out, "Injin want him--Injin good fellow, you know." + +Whether the discomfited farmer _knew_ or not, we could not tell; but he +_looked_ as if he wished the Injins anywhere but in their "happy hunting +grounds." We drove on laughing, for it was in human nature to be amused +at such an exhibition of the compulsory system, or of "liberty and +equality carried out;" and more particularly so, when I was certain that +the "honest, hard-working, horny-handed tiller of the soil," wanted to +cheat me out of a farm; or to put his case in the most favorable point +of view, wanted to compel me to sell him one at his own price. Nor did +our amusement stop here. Before we reached the woods, we found Holmes +and Tubbs in the highway, too; the other two worthies who had been +mounted _en croupe_ having dispossessed them of their wagon also, and +told them to "charge it to Injin." We afterward learned that this +practice was very general; the owner recovering his horse and team, in +the course of a few days, by hearing it had been left secretly at some +tavern within a few miles of his residence. As for old Holmes, he was in +an honest indignation, when we came up with him, while even Tubbs looked +soured and discontented, or as if he thought friends were entitled to +better treatment. + +"Vhat ist der matter?" cried out uncle Ro, who could hardly keep from +laughing the whole time; "vhat ist der matter now? Vhere might be your +hantsome vaggin and your gay horse?" + +"It's too bad!--yes, it's eeny most too bad!" grunted Holmes. "Here am +I, past threescore-and-ten, which is the full time of man, the Bible +says--and what the Bible says _must_ be true, you know?--here have they +trundled me into the highway, as they would a sack of potatoes, and left +me to walk every step of four miles to reach my own door! It's too +bad--it's eeny most too bad!" + +"Oh! dat might be a trifle, compared to vhat it vould be to haf peen +drundelled out of your farm." + +"I know't!--I know't!--I understand it!--it's all meant for the good +cause--to put down aristocracy, and make men raa'ly equal as the law +intends them to be--but this I say is eeny most too bad!" + +"Und you so olt!" + +"Seventy-six, if I'm a day. My time can't be long, and my legs is weak, +they be. Yes, the Bible says a man's time is limited pretty much to +threescore-and-ten--and I'll never stand out ag'in the Bible." + +"Und vhat might der Piple say apout vanting to haf your neighpors' +goots?" + +"It cries that down dreadfully! Yes, there's plenty of that in the good +book, I know from havin' heard it read--ay, and havin' read it myself, +these threescore years; it _doos_ cry it down, the most awfully. I shall +tell the Injins this, the next time they want my wagon. There's Bible +ag'in all sich practices." + +"Der Piple ist a good pook." + +"That it is--that it is--and great is the consolation and hope that I +have known drawn from its pages. I'm glad to find that they set store by +the Bible in Jarmany. I was pretty much of the notion, we had most of +the religion that's goin', in Ameriky, and it's pleasant to find there +_is_ some in Jarmany." + +All this time old Holmes was puffing along on foot, my uncle Ro walking +his horse, in order to enjoy his discourse. + +"Oh! ja--ja, ja--dere might be _some_ religion left in der olt worlt--de +Puritans, as you might call dem, did not pring it all away." + +"Desp'rate good people them! We got all our best sarcumstances from our +Puritan forefathers. Some folks say that all America has got, is owing +to them very saints!" + +"Ja--und if it bees not so, nefer mind; for dey will be sartain to get +all Ameriky." + +Holmes was mystified, but he kept tugging on, casting wistful glances at +our wagon, as he endeavored to keep up with it. Fearful we might trot on +and leave him, the old man continued the discourse. "Yes," he said, "our +authority for everything must come from the Bible, a'ter all. It tells +us we hadn't ought to bear malice, and that's a rule I endivor to act up +to; for an old man, you see, can't indulge his sinful natur' if he +would. Now I've been down to Little Neest to attend a Down-Rent +meetin',--but I bear no more malice ag'in Hugh Littlepage, not I, no +more than if he weren't a bit of my landlord! All I want of him is my +farm, on such a lay as I can live by, and the b'ys a'ter me. I look on +it as dreadful hard and oppressive that the Littlepages should refuse to +let us have the place, seein' that I have worked it now for the tarm of +three whull lives." + +"Und dey agreet dat dey might sell you de farm, when dem dree lifes wast +up?" + +"No, not in downright language they didn't, as I must allow. In the way +of bargain, I must own the advantage is altogether on the side of +Littlepage. That was his grand'ther's act; and if you wun't drive quite +so fast, as I'm getting a little out of wind, I'll tell you all about +it. That is just what we complain on; the bargain being so much in his +favor. Now my lives _have_ hung on desp'rately, haven't they, +Shabbakuk?" appealing to Tubbs. "It's every hour of forty-five years +sin' I tuck that lease, and one life, that of my old woman, is still in +bein', as they call it, though it's a sort of bein' that a body might as +well not have as have. She can't stand it a great while longer, and then +that farm that I set so much store by, out of which I've made my +livelihood most of my life, and on which I've brought up fourteen +children, will go out of my hands to enrich Hugh Littlepage, who's got +so much now he can't spend it at hum like honest folks, but must go +abroad, to waste it in riotous living, as they tell us. Yes, onless the +Governor and the Legislature helps me out of my difficulty, I don't see +but Hugh Littlepage must get it all, making the 'rich richer, and the +poor poorer.'" + +"Und vhy must dis cruel ding come to pass? Vhy might not mans keep his +own in Ameriky?" + +"That's jest it, you see. It isn't my own, in law, only by natur', like, +and the 'speret of the institutions,' as they call it. I'm sure I don't +kear much how I get it, so it only comes. If the Governor can only make +the landlords sell, or even give away, he may sartainly count on my +support providin' they don't put the prices too high. I hate high +prices, which is onsuitable to a free country." + +"Fery drue. I sooppose your lease might gif you dat farm quite +reasonaple, as it might be mate so long ago?" + +"Only two shillings the acre," answered the old fellow, with a knowing +look, which as much as boasted of the capital bargain he had in the +affair, "or twenty-five dollars a year for a hundred acres. That's no +great matter, I'm ready to allow; but my lives havin' held on so +desp'rately, until land's got up to forty dollars an acre about here, I +can't no more expect sich another lay than I can expect to go to +Congress. I can rent that place, to-morrow mornin', for $150 of as good +money as any man can pay." + +"Und how much might you expect 'Squire Littlepage woult ask on a new +lease?" + +"Some think as much as $62.50; though other some think he would let it +go to _me_ for $50, for three lives longer. The old gin'ral told me when +he signed the lease that I was gettin' a bargain, 'but, niver mind,' +said he, 'if I give you good tarms, you'll make the better tenant, and I +look to posterity and their benefit as much as I do to my own. If I +don't get the advantage I might,' says he, 'my children, or my +children's children, will. A man musn't altogether live for himself in +this world, especially if he has children.' Them was good idees, wasn't +they?" + +"You might not dink differently. Und, how moch woult you love to bay for +a deet of de farm?" + +"Wa-a-l, there's differences of opinion on that subject. The most +approved notion is, that Hugh Littlepage ought to be made to give +warrantees, with full covenants, as it's called; and covenants is all in +all, in a deed, you know----" + +"But might not be in a lease?" put in uncle Ro, somewhat dryly. + +"That depinds--but some say them deeds ought to be given, if the tenants +allow the landlords the worth of the land when the patentee got it, and +interest down to the present day. It does not seem a desp'rate price to +pay for land, to give principal and interest, and to throw in all that +has been paid beside?" + +"Haf you made a calculation, to see vhat it might come to?" + +"Shabbakuk has; tell the gentleman, Shabbakuk, how much you made it come +to, the acre." + +Shabbakuk was a far deeper rogue than his neighbor, Holmes. The last was +merely a man of selfish and narrow views, who, from passing a long life +with no other object before him than that of scraping together property, +had got his mind completely ensnared in the meshes of this world's net; +whereas, his companion took the _initiative_, as the French have it, in +knavery, and not only carried out, but invented the schemes of the +wicked. He clearly did not like this appeal to his arithmetic, but +having no suspicion to whom he was talking, and fancying every man in +the lower conditions of life must be an ally in a plan to make the "rich +poorer, and the poor richer," he was a little more communicative than +might otherwise have been the case. After reflecting a moment, he gave +us his answer, reading from a paper in his hand, on which the whole sum +had been elaborately worked for the occasion of the late meeting. + +"The land was worth ten cents an acre, maybe, when the first Littlepage +got it, and that is a liberal price. Now that was eighty years since, +for we don't count old Herman Mordaunt's time as anything; seeing that +the land was worth next to nothin' in his time. The interest on ten +cents at seven per cent, is seven mills a year, or five hundred and +sixty mills for eighty years. This is without compound; compound being +unlawful, and nothin' agin law should be taken into the account. Add the +ten cents to the five hundred and sixty mills, and you get six hundred +and sixty mills, or sixty-six cents. Now this sum, or a sum calculated +on the same principles, all the tenants are willing to pay for their +farms,[27] and if justice prevails they will get 'em." + +[Footnote 27: In order that the reader may understand Mr. Hugh +Littlepage is not inventing, I will add that propositions still more +extravagant than these, have been openly circulated among the +anti-renters, up and down the country.--EDITOR.] + +"Dat seems but little to bay for landt dat might now rent for a dollar +an acre each year." + +"You forgit that the Littlepages have had the rent these eighty years, +the whull time." + +"Und de denants haf hat de farms dese eighty years, de whole time, too." + +"Oh! we put the land ag'in the work. If my neighbor, Holmes, here, has +had his farm forty-five years, so the farm has had his work forty-five +years, as an offset. You may depind on't, the Governor and the +Legislature understand all that." + +"If dey does," answered Uncle Ro, whipping his horse into a trot, "dey +must be fit for deir high stations. It is goot for a country to haf +great governors, and great legisladors. _Guten Tag._" + +Away he went, leaving neighbor Holmes, Shabbakuk Tubbs, the Governor and +Legislature, with their joint morals, wisdom, logic, and philosophy, in +the highway together. My uncle Ro shook his head, and then he laughed, +as the absurdity of what had just passed forced itself on his +imagination. + +I dare say many may be found, who have openly professed principles and +opinions identical, in substance, with what has just been related here, +who will be disposed to deny them, when they are thrown into their +faces. There is nothing unusual in men's refusing to recognize their own +children, when they are ashamed of the circumstances that brought them +into being. But, in the course of this controversy, I have often heard +arguments in discourse, and have often read them in the journals, as +they have been put into the mouths of men in authority, and that, too, +in their public communications, which, stripped of their very thin +coverings, are pretty much on the level with those of Holmes and Tubbs. +I am aware that no governor has, _as yet_; alluded to the _hardships_ of +the tenants, under the limited leases, but it would be idle to deny that +the door has been opened to principles, or want of principles, that must +sweep away all such property in the current of reckless popular clamor, +unless the evil be soon arrested. I say _evil_, for it must prove a +curse to any community to break down the securities of property, as it +is held in what has hitherto been thought its most secure form, and, +what is of still more importance in a moral point of view, all to +appease the cravings of cupidity, as they are exhibited in the masses. + +We were soon out of sight of Holmes and Tubbs, and in the woods. I +confess that I expected each instant to overtake Hall in the hands of +the Injins; for the movement among that class of persons had appeared to +me as one directed particularly against him. We saw nothing of the sort, +however, and had nearly reached the northern limits of the bit of +forest, when we came in sight of the two wagons which had been so +cavalierly taken possession of, and of the two horses ridden by the +mounted men. The whole were drawn up on one side of the highway, under +the charge of a single Injin, in a manner to announce that we were +approaching a point of some interest. + +My uncle and myself fully expected to be again stopped, as we drove up +to the place just mentioned; not only was the track of the road left +clear, however, but we were suffered to pass without a question. All the +horses had been in a lather, as if driven very hard; though, otherwise, +there was nothing to indicate trouble, if we except the presence of the +solitary sentinel. From this fellow neither signs nor order molested us; +but on we went at Tom Miller's horse's favorite amble, until we were so +near the verge of the wood, as to get a view into the open fields +beyond. Here, indeed, we obtained a sight of certain movements that, I +confess, gave me some little concern. + +Among the bushes that lined the highway, and which have been already +mentioned, I got a glimpse of several of the "disguised and armed," who +were evidently lying in ambush. Their number might have been twenty in +all, and it was now sufficiently apparent that those who had pressed the +wagons had been hurrying forward to re-enforce their party. At this +point, I felt quite certain we should be stopped; but we were not. We +were suffered to pass without question, as we had just passed the wagons +and horses, though it must have been known to the party that we were +fully aware of their presence at that particular spot. But on we went, +and were soon, unmolested, in the open country. + +It was not long, however, before the mystery was explained. A road +descended from the higher ground, which lay to the westward of us, a +little on our left, and a party of men was coming down it, at a quick +walk, which, at the first glance, I mistook for a detachment of the +Injins, but which, at a second look, I ascertained to be composed of +Indians, or real red men. The difference between the two is very great, +as every American will at once admit, though many who read this +manuscript will be obliged to me for an explanation. There is "Indian" +and "Injin." The Injin is a white man, who, bent on an unworthy and +illegal purpose, is obliged to hide his face, and to perform his task in +disguise. The Indian is a red man, who is neither afraid nor ashamed to +show his countenance, equally to friend or enemy. The first is the agent +of designing demagogues, the hireling of a discontented and grasping +spirit, who mocks at truth and right by calling himself one who labors +to carry out "the spirit of those institutions" which he dishonors and +is afraid to trust; while the other serves himself only, and is afraid +of nothing. One is skulking from, and shirking the duties of +civilization, while the other, though a savage, is, at least, true to +his own professions. + +There they were, sure enough, a party of some sixteen or eighteen of the +real aborigines. It is not an uncommon thing to meet with an Indian or +two, strolling about the country selling baskets--formerly it was brooms +of birch, but the march of improvement has nearly banished so rude a +manufacture from the country--with a squaw or two in company; but it is +now very unusual to meet a true Indian warrior in the heart of the +State, carrying his rifle and tomahawk, as was the case with all those +who were so swiftly descending the road. My uncle Ro was quite as much +astonished as I was myself; and he pulled up at the junction of the two +highways, in order to await the arrival of the strangers. + +"These are real redskins, Hugh--and of a noble tribe," cried my uncle, +as a still nearer approach gave him a better and better view. "Warriors +of the West, out of all question, with one white man in attendance--what +can such a party possibly want at Ravensnest!" + +"Perhaps the anti-renters intend to enlarge their plans, and have a +scheme to come out upon us, with an alliance formed with the true sons +of the forest--may they not intend intimidation?" + +"Whom could they thus intimidate, but their own wives and children? But, +here they come, in a noble body, and we can speak to them." + +There they did come, indeed; seventeen of the finer specimens of the +Redskins, as they are now sometimes seen passing among us in bodies, +moving to or from their distant prairies; for the white man has already +forced the Indian, with the bears, and the elk, and the moose, out of +the forests of America, upon those vast plains. + +What is to be the end of the increase of this nation is one of the +mysteries of Divine Providence. If faithful to the right, if _just_, not +in the sense of yielding to the clamors of the many, but in the sense of +good laws, if true to themselves, the people of this republic may laugh +at European interference and European power, when brought to bear on +their home interests, as so much of the lumbering policy of ages no +longer suited to the facts and feelings of our own times, and push on to +the fulfilment of a destiny, which, if carried out on the apparent +designs of the Ruler of the earth, will leave that of all other states +which have preceded us, as much in the shade, as the mountain leaves the +valley. But, it must not be forgotten that the brightest dawns often +usher in the darkest days; that the most brilliant youths frequently +precede manhoods of disappointment and baffled wishes; that even the +professed man of God can fall away from his vows and his faith, and +finish a career that was commenced in virtue and hope, in profligacy and +sin. Nations are no more safe from the influence of temptation than +individuals, and this has a weakness peculiarly its own. Instead of +falling back on its popular principle, in extremities, as its infallible +safeguard, it is precisely in the irresponsible and grasping character +of that principle that its danger is to be apprehended. That principle, +which, kept within the limits of right, is so admirably adapted to +restraining the ordinary workings of cupidity and selfishness, as they +are familiarly seen in narrow governments, when permitted to overrun the +boundaries placed for its control, becomes a torrent that has broken out +of its icy bed, in the spring, and completely defaces all that is +beneficial or lovely, in either nature or art, that may happen to lie in +its course. As yet, the experience of two centuries has offered nothing +so menacing to the future prosperity of this country, as the social +fermentation which is at this moment at work in the State of New York. +On the result of this depends the solution of the all-important +question, whether principles are to rule this republic, or men; and +these last, too, viewed in their most vulgar and repulsive qualities, or +as the mere creatures of self, instead of being the guardians and agents +of that which ought to be. It is owing to this state of things, that we +have already seen a Legislature occupied with discussing the modes of +evading the provisions of its own laws, and men who ought to stand +before the world, stern and uncompromising in their public morals, +manifesting a most pernicious ingenuity in endeavoring to master and +overreach each other in wielding the arts of the demagogue. + +As the Indians entered the north and south road, or that in which we had +stopped, the whole party came to a halt, with characteristic courtesy, +as if to meet our wish to speak to them. The foremost of the band, who +was also the oldest, being a man of sixty, if not older, nodded his +head, and uttered the usual conventional salutation of "Sago, sago." + +"Sago," said my uncle, and "Sago" put in I. + +"How do?" continued the Indian, who we now discovered spoke English. +"What call this country?" + +"This is Ravensnest. The village of Little Nest is about a mile and a +half on the other side of that wood." + +The Indian now turned, and in his deep guttural tones communicated this +intelligence to his fellows. The information obviously was well +received, which was as much as saying that they had reached the end of +their journey. Some conversation next succeeded, delivered in brief, +sententious remarks, when the old chief again turned to us. I call him +chief, though it was evident that the whole party was composed of +chiefs. This was apparent by their medals, their fine appearance +generally, and by their quiet, dignified, not so say lofty bearing. Each +of them was in a light summer attire, wearing the moccason and leggings, +etc.; the calico shirt, or a thin blanket, that was cast around the +upper part of the person, much as the Roman may be supposed to have worn +his toga; all carrying the rifle, the bright, well-scoured tomahawk, and +the sheathed knife. Each, too, had his horn and his bullet-pouch, and +some of the more youthful were a little elaborate in their ornaments, in +the way of feathers, and such presents as they had received on their +long journey. Not one of them all, however, was painted. + +"This Raven-nest, eh?" continued the old chief, speaking directly, but +with sufficient courtesy. + +"As I have said. The village lies on the other side of that wood; the +house from which the name is taken is a mile and a half in the other +direction." + +This, too, was translated, and a low, but general expression of pleasure +was given. + +"Any Injins 'bout here, eh?" demanded the chief, looking so earnestly at +the same time as to surprise us both. + +"Yes," answered my uncle. "There _are_ Injins--a party is in the edge of +the woods, there, within thirty rods of you at this moment." + +With great rapidity this fact was communicated to the eager listeners, +and there was a sensation in the party, though it was a sensation +betrayed as such feelings are only betrayed among the aborigines of this +part of the world; quietly, reservedly, and with a coldness amounting +nearly to indifference. We were amused, however, at noting how much more +interest this news awakened than would probably have been excited had +these red-men been told a town like London was on the other side of the +wood. As children are known to feel most interest in children, so did +these children of the forest seem to be most alive to an interest in +these unexpected neighbors, brethren of the same habits and race, as +they unquestionably imagined. After some earnest discourse among +themselves, the old chief, whose named turned out to be Prairiefire, +once more addressed himself to us. + +"What tribe, eh? Know tribe?" + +"They are called Anti rent Injins--a new tribe in this part of the +country, and are not much esteemed." + +"Bad Injin, eh?" + +"I am afraid so. They are not honest enough to go in paint, but wear +shirts over their faces." + +Another long and wondering conference succeeded. It is to be supposed +that such a _tribe_ as that of the Anti-renters was hitherto unknown +among the American savages. The first intelligence of the existence of +such a people would naturally awaken great interest, and we were soon +requested to show them the way to the spot where this unheard of tribe +might be found. This was going somewhat further than my uncle had +anticipated, but he was not a man to beat a retreat when he had once +undertaken an enterprise. After a short deliberation with himself, he +signified his assent; and alighting from our wagon, we fastened Tom +Miller's horse to a stake of one of the fences, and set off, on foot, as +guides to our new brethren, in seeking the great tribe of the +Anti-renters! We had not gone half the distance to the woods before we +met Holmes and Tubbs, who, getting a cast in another wagon, until they +reached the place where their own vehicle was stationed, had recovered +that, and were now on their way home, apprehensive that some new freak +of their great allies might throw them out into the highway again. This +wagon, our own excepted, was the only one that had yet emerged from the +wood, the owners of some twenty others preferring to remain in the +background until the development of the meeting between the tribes +should occur. + +"What, in natur', does all this mean?" exclaimed old Holmes, as we +approached him, reining in his horse, for the purposes of a conference. +"Is the governor sending out ra-al Injins ag'in' us, in order to favor +the landlords?" + +This was taking a harsh and most uncharitable view of the course of the +governor, for an anti-renter; but that functionary having made the +capital blunder of serving, altogether, neither "God nor Mammon" in this +great question, must expect to take it right and left, as neither God +nor Mammon will be very likely to approve of his course. + +"Vell, I don't know," was my uncle's answer. "Dese ist ra-al red-men, +und dem younder ist ra-al Injins, dat's all. Vhat might bring dese +warriors here, joost now, you must ask of demselves, if you wants to +l'arn." + +"There can be no harm in asking; I'm no way skeary about redskins, +having seen 'em often, and my father fit 'em in his day, as I've heern +him tell. Sago, sago." + +"Sago," answered Prairiefire, with his customary courtesy. + +"Where, in natur', do you red-men all come _from_, and where _can_ ye be +goin'?" + +It was apparent that Holmes belonged to a school that never hesitated +about putting any question; and that would have an answer, if an answer +was to be got. The old chief had probably met with such pale-faces +before, the untrained American being certainly among the most diligent +of all the human beings of that class. But, on the other hand, the +red-man regards the indulgence of a too eager curiosity as womanish, and +unworthy of the self-command and dignity of a warrior. The betraying of +surprise, and the indulgence of a curiosity fit only for squaws, were +two things that Prairiefire had doubtless been early told were unworthy +of his sex; for to some such in-and-in breeding alone could be referred +the explanation of the circumstance that neither Holmes's manner, +address, nor language, caused in him the least expression of emotion. He +answered the questions, however, and that with a coldness that seemed of +proof. + +"Come from setting sun--been to see Great Father, at Washington--go +home," was the sententious reply. + +"But how come ye to pass by Ravensnest?--I'm afeared the governor, and +them chaps at Albany, must have a hand in this, Shabbakuk." + +What Shabbakuk thought of the "governor, and them chaps at Albany" is +not known, as he did not see fit to make any reply. His ordinary +propensity to meddle was probably awed by the appearance of these real +redskins. + +"I say, _why_ do ye come this-a-way?" Holmes continued, repeating his +question. "If you've been to Washington, and found him to hum (Anglice, +'at home'), why didn't ye go back by the way ye come?" + +"Come here to find Injin; got no Injin here, eh?" + +"Injin? why, of one sort we've got more of the critturs than a body can +very well git along with. Of what color be the Injins you want to find? +Be they of the pale-face natur', or be they red like yourselves?" + +"Want to find red-man. He ole, now; like top of dead hemlock, wind blow +t'rough his branches till leaf all fall off." + +"By George, Hugh," whispered my uncle, "these redskins are in search of +old Susquesus!" Then entirely forgetting the necessity of maintaining +his broken English in the presence of his two Ravensnest listeners, +Shabbakuk Tubbs in particular, he turned, somewhat inconsiderately for +one of his years, to the Prairiefire, and hastily remarked-- + +"I can help you in your search. You are looking for a warrior of the +Onondagoes; one who left his tribe a hundred summers ago, a red-man of +great renown for finding his path in the forest, and who would never +taste fire-water. His name is Susquesus." + +Until this moment, the only white man who was in company with this +strange party--strange at least in our portion of the State of New York, +though common enough, perhaps, on the great thoroughfares of the +country--broke silence. This man was an ordinary interpreter, who had +been sent with the party in case of necessity; but being little more +acquainted with the ways of civilization than those whom he was to +guide, he had prudently held his tongue until he saw that he might be of +some use. We afterward learned that the subagent who had accompanied the +chiefs to Washington, had profited by the wish of the Indians to pay +their passing homage to the "Withered Hemlock, that still stands," as +they poetically called Susquesus in their own dialects--for Indians of +several tribes were present--to pay a visit to his own relatives in +Massachusetts, his presence not being deemed necessary in such a purely +pious pilgrimage. + +"You're right," observed the interpreter. "These chiefs have not come to +look up any _tribe_, but there are two of the ancient Onondagoes among +them, and their traditions tell of a chief, called Susquesus, that has +outlived everything but tradition; who left his own people long, long +ago, and who left a great name behind him for vartue, and that is a +thing a redskin never forgets." + +"And all these warriors have come fifty miles out of their way, to pay +this homage to Susquesus?" + +"Such has been their wish, and I asked permission of the Bureau at +Washington, to permit them to come. It costs Uncle Sam $50 or a $100 +more than it otherwise might, but such a visit will do all the warriors +of the West a million of dollars of good; no men honor right and justice +more than redskins, though it's in their own fashion." + +"I am sure Uncle Sam has acted no more than righteously, as I hope he +always may act as respects these people. Susquesus is an old friend of +mine, and I will lead you to him." + +"And who in natur' be _you_?" demanded Holmes, his curiosity starting +off on a new track. + +"Who am I?--You shall know who I am," answered uncle Ro, removing his +wig, an action that I imitated on the spot--"I am Roger Littlepage, the +late trustee of this estate, and this is Hugh Littlepage, its owner." +Old Holmes was good pluck in most matters; of far better stuff at the +bottom, than the sneaking, snivelling, prating demagogue at his side; +but by this discovery he was dumfounded! He looked at my uncle, then he +looked at me; after which, he fastened a distressed and inquiring gaze +on Shabbakuk. As for the Indians, notwithstanding their habitual +self-command, a common "hugh!" was uttered among them, when they saw two +men, as it might be, thus scalping themselves. Uncle Ro was excited, and +his manner was, in the last degree, theatrical, as with one hand he +removed his cap, and with the other his wig; holding the last, with an +extended arm, in the direction of the Indians. As a red-man is rarely +guilty of any act of rudeness, unless he means to play the brute in good +earnest, it is possible that the Chippewa toward whom the hand which +held the wig was extended, mistook the attitude for an invitation to +examine that curious article, for himself. It is certain he gently +forced it from my uncle's grasp, and, in the twinkling of an eye, all +the savages were gathered round it, uttering many but low and guarded +expressions of surprise. Those men were all chiefs, and they restrained +their astonishment at this point. Had there been any of the ignoble +vulgar among them, there is little doubt that the wig would have passed +from hand to hand, and been fitted to a dozen heads, already shaved to +receive it. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + "The Gordon is gude in a hurry, + An' Campbell is steel to the bane, + An' Grant, an' Mackenzie, an' Murray, + An' Cameron will truckle to name."--HOGG. + + +The interruption of this scene came from old Holmes, who cried to his +companion, on the high key in which it was usual for him to speak: + +"This is downright bad, Shabbakuk--we'll never get our leases a'ter +this!" + +"Nobody can say"--answered Tubbs, giving a loud hem, as if determined to +brazen the matter out. "Maybe the gentleman will be glad to compromise +the matter. It's ag'in law, I believe, for anyone to appear on the +highway disguised--and both the 'Squire Littlepages, you'll notice, +neighbor Holmes, be in the very _middle_ of the road, and both was +disguised, only a minute ago." + +"That's true. D'ye think anything can be got out o' that? I want +profitable proceedin's." + +Shabbakuk gave another hem, looked behind him, as if to ascertain what +had become of the Injins, for he clearly did not fancy the real +"article" before him, and then he answered: + +"We may get our farms, neighbor Holmes, if you'll agree as I'm willin' +to do, to be reasonable about this matter, so long as 'Squire Littlepage +wishes to hearken to his own interests." + +My uncle did not deign to make any answer, but, knowing we had done +nothing to bring us within the view of the late statute, he turned +toward the Indians, renewing his offer to them to be their guide. + +"The chiefs want very much to know who you are, and how you two came by +double scalps," said the interpreter, smiling like one who understood, +for his own part, the nature of a wig very well. + +"Tell them that this young gentleman is Hugh Littlepage, and that I am +his uncle. Hugh Littlepage is the owner of the land that you see on +every side of you." + +The answer was communicated, and we waited for its effect on the +Indians. To our surprise, several of them soon gathered around, +evidently regarding us both with interest and respect. + +"The claims of a landlord seem to be better understood among these +untutored savages, than among your own tenants, Hugh," said my uncle. +"But there goes old Holmes, the inbred rogue, and his friend Shabbakuk, +back to the woods; we may have an affair on hand with _his_ Injins." + +"I think not, sir. It does not appear to me that there is valor enough +in that tribe, to face this. In general, the white man is fully a match +for the redskin; but it may be doubted whether chiefs like these would +not prove too much for twice their number of varlets, of the breed of +yonder skulking scoundrels." + +"Why do the chiefs manifest so much interest in us?" asked my uncle, of +the interpreter. "Is it possible that they pay so much respect to us, on +account of our connection with this estate?" + +"Not at all--not at all. They know the difference between a chief and a +common man well enough, it is true," was the answer; "and twenty times, +as we have come down through the country, have they expressed their +surprise to me, that so many common men should be chiefs, among the +pale-faces; but they care nothing for riches. He is the greatest man +among them, who is best on a war-path, and at a council-fire; though +they _do_ honor them that has had great and useful ancestors." + +"But, they seem to betray some unusual and extraordinary interest in us, +too; perhaps they are surprised at seeing gentlemen in such dresses?" + +"Lord, sir, what do men care for dresses, that are used to see the heads +of factories and forts half the time dressed in skins? They know that +there be holidays and workin'-days; times for every-day wear, and times +for feathers and paint. No--no--they look at you both, with so much +interest, on account of their traditions." + +"Their traditions! What can these have to do with us? We have never had +anything to do with Indians." + +"That's true of you, and may be true of your fathers; but it's not true +of some of your ancestors. Yesterday, after we had got to our night's +stopping-place, two of the chiefs, this smallish man with the double +plate on his breast, and that elderly warrior, who has been once +scalped, as you can see by his crown, began to tell of some of the +treacheries of their own tribe, which was once a Canada people. The +elderly chief related the adventures of a war-path, that led out of +Canada, across the large waters, down to a settlement where they +expected to get a great many scalps, but where in the end they lost more +scalps than they found; and where they met Susquesus, the upright +Onondago, as they call him in that tongue, as well as the Yengeese owner +of the land, at this very spot, whom they called by a name something +like your own, who was a warrior of great courage and skill by their +traditions. They suppose you to be the descendants of the last, and +honor you accordingly; that's all." + +"And, is it possible that these untutored beings have traditions as +reliable as this?" + +"Lord, if you could hear what they say among themselves, about the lies +that are read to them out of the pale-face prints, you would l'arn how +much store they set by truth! In my day, I have travelled through a +hundred miles of wilderness, by a path that was no better, nor any +worse, than an Indian tradition of its manner of running; and a +tradition that must have been at least a hundred summers old. They know +all about your forefathers, and they know something about you, too, if +you be the gentleman that finds the upright Onondago, or the Withered +Hemlock, in his old age, with a wigwam, and keeps it filled with food +and fuel." + +"Is this possible! And all this is spoken of, and known among the +savages of the Far West?" + +"If you call these chiefs savages," returned the interpreter, a little +offended at hearing such a term applied to his best friends and constant +associates. "To be sure they have their ways, and so have the +pale-faces; but Injin ways be not so very savage, when a body gets a +little used to them. Now, I remember it was a long time before I could +get reconciled to seeing a warrior scalp his enemy; but as I reasoned on +it, and entered into the spirit of the practice, I began to feel it was +all right." + +I was walking just in front of my uncle, for we were in motion again on +our way to the wood, but could not help turning and saying to him with a +smile-- + +"So it would seem that this matter of the 'spirit' is to be found in +other places beside the legislature. There is the 'spirit of scalping,' +as well as the 'spirit of the institutions!'" + +"Ay, Hugh; and the 'spirit of fleecing,' as a consequence of what is +profanely termed the last. But it may be well to go no nearer to the +wood than this spot. The Injins I have told you of are in these bushes +in front, and they are armed; I leave you to communicate with them in +any manner you please. They are about twenty in number." + +The interpreter informed his chiefs of what had been said, who spoke +together in earnest consultation for a moment. Then Prairiefire himself +plucked a branch off the nearest bush, and holding it up he advanced +close to the cover, and called out aloud in some one, or in many of the +different dialects with which he was acquainted. I saw, by the moving of +the branches, that men were in the bushes; but no answer of any sort was +made. There was one savage in our band, who betrayed manifest impatience +at these proceedings. He was a large, athletic Iowa chief, called in +English Flintyheart, and, as we subsequently learned, of great renown +for martial exploits. It was always difficult to hold him in when there +was a prospect of scalps, and he was now less restrained than common, +from the circumstance of his having no superior of his own particular +tribe present. After Prairiefire had called two or three times in vain +to the party in the cover, Flintyheart stepped out, spoke a few words +with energy and spirit, terminating his appeal by a most effective, not +to say appalling, whoop. That sound was echoed back by most of the band, +when they all broke off, right and left, stealing more like snakes than +bipeds to the fences, under cover of which they glanced forward to the +wood, in which every man of them buried himself in the twinkling of an +eye. In vain had the interpreter called to them, to remind them where +they were, and to tell them that they might displease their great +father, at Washington, and Prairiefire stood his ground, exposed to any +shot the supposed foe might send at him; on they went, like so many +hounds that have struck a scent too strong to be held in restraint by +any whipper-in. + +"They expect to find Injins," said the interpreter, in a sort of +despair; "and there's no holdin' 'em back. There can be no enemies of +their'n down hereaway, and the agent will be awfully angry if blood is +drawn; though I shouldn't mind it a bit if the party was some of them +scoundrels, the Sacs and Foxes, whom it's often a marcy to kill. It's +different down here, however, and I must say I wish this hadn't +happened." + +My uncle and myself just waited long enough to hear this when we rushed +forward, along the highway, and entered the wood, joined by Prairiefire, +who, fancying by our movement that all was right, now raised such a +whoop himself as to demonstrate it was not for want of "knowing how" +that he had hitherto been silent. The road made a curve at the very +point where it penetrated the forest, and being fringed with the bushes +already mentioned, the two circumstances shut out the view of what was +passing behind the scenes, until we reached the turn, where a common +halt of the wagons had been made, when the whole view burst upon us at +once in all its magnificence. + +A rout of a "grand army" could scarcely have been more picturesque! The +road was lined with vehicles in full retreat, to use a military term, +or, to speak in the more common parlance, scampering off. Every whip was +in active use, every horse was on the run, while half the faces were +turned behind their owners, the women sending back screams to the whoops +of the savages. As for the Injins, they had instinctively abandoned the +woods, and poured down into the highway--speed like theirs demanding +open ground for its finest display. Some had leaped into wagons, piling +themselves up among those virtuous wives and daughters of that portion +of the honest yeomanry who had collected to devise the means of cheating +me out of my property. But, why dwell on this scene, since the exploits +of these Indians, for the last six years, have amply proved that the +only thing in which they excel, is in running away? They are heroes when +a dozen can get round a single man to tar and feather him; valiant, as a +hundred against five or six, and occasionally murderers, when each +victim can be destroyed by five or six bullets, to make sure of him. The +very cowardice of the scoundrels should render them loathsome to the +whole community; the dog that has spirit only to hunt in packs being cur +at the bottom. + +I must add one other object to the view, however. Holmes and Shabbakuk +brought up the rear, and both were flogging their devoted beast as if +his employers--I dare not call them "masters," as I might be accused of +aristocracy for using so offensive a term in this age of common-sense +liberty, while "employers" is a very significant expression for the +particular occasion--as if his "employers," then, had left something +behind them, at "Little Neest," and were hurrying back to obtain it +before it fell into other hands. Old Holmes kept looking behind, as if +chased by the covenants of forty leases, while the "spirit of the +institutions," headed by two governors, and "the honorable gentleman +from Albany," was in full pursuit. If the "spirit of the institutions" +was really there, it was quite alone; for I looked in vain for the +exhibition of any other spirit. In much less time than it has taken me +to write this account, the road was cleared, leaving my uncle, myself, +and Prairiefire, in quiet possession; the latter uttering a very +significant "hugh!" as the last wagon went out of sight in a cloud of +dust. + +It was but a moment, however, before our own tribe, or _tribes_ would be +more accurate, came down upon us, collecting in the road at the very +spot where we stood. The victory had been bloodless, but it was +complete. Not only had the savage Indians completely routed the virtuous +and much-oppressed-by-aristocracy Injins, but they had captured two +specimens of virtue and depression in the persons of as many of the +band. So very significant and expressive was the manner of the +captives, that Flintyheart, into whose hands they had fallen, not only +seemed to hold their scalps in contempt, but actually had disdained to +disarm them. There they stood, bundles of calico, resembling children in +swaddling-clothes, with nothing partaking of that natural freedom of +which their party love to boast, but their legs, which were left at +perfect liberty, by way of a _dernier resort_. My uncle now assumed a +little authority, and commanded these fellows to take off their +disguises. He might as well have ordered one of the oaks, or maples, to +lay down its leaves before the season came round; for neither would +obey. + +The interpreter, however, whose name was Manytongues, rendered into +English from the Indian dialects, was a man of surprisingly few words, +considering his calling, on an occasion like this. Walking up to one of +the prisoners, he first disarmed him, and then removed his calico hood, +exposing the discomfited countenance of Brigham, Tom Miller's envious +laborer. The "hughs!" that escaped the Indians were very expressive, on +finding that not only did a pale-face countenance appear from beneath +the covering, but one that might be said to be somewhat paler than +common. Manytongues had a good deal of frontier waggery about him, and, +by this time he began to comprehend how the land lay. Passing his hand +over Josh's head, he coolly remarked-- + +"That scalp would be thought more of, in Iowa, than it's ra-ally worth, +I'm thinking, if truth was said. But let us see who we have here." + +Suiting the action to the words, as it is termed, the interpreter laid +hold of the hood of the other captive, but did not succeed in removing +it without a sharp struggle. He effected his purpose, assisted by two of +the younger chiefs, who stepped forward to aid him. I anticipated the +result, for I had early recognized the gore; but great was the surprise; +of my uncle when he saw Seneca Newcome's well-known face developed by +the change! + +Seneca--or, it might be better now to use his own favorite orthoepy, and +call him Sene_ky_, at once, for he had a particularly sneaking look as +he emerged from under the calico, and this would be suiting the sound to +appearances--Seneky, then, was in a "mingled tumult," as it is called, +of rage and shame. The first predominated, however, and, as is only too +common in cases of military disasters, instead of attributing his +capture to circumstances, the prowess of his enemies, or any fault of +his own, he sought to mitigate his own disgrace by heaping disgrace on +his comrade. Indeed, the manner in which these men went at each other, +as soon as unsacked, reminded me of two game-cocks that are let out of +their bags within three feet of each other, with this exception--neither +crowed. + +"This is all your fault, you cowardly dog," said Seneky, almost +fiercely, for shame had filled his face with blood. "Had you kept on +your feet, and not run me down, in your haste to get off, I might have +retreated, and got clear with the rest of them." + +This assault was too much for Joshua, who gained spirit to answer by its +rudeness and violence, not to say injustice; for, as we afterward +ascertained, Newcome had actually fallen in his eagerness to retreat; +and Brigham, so far from being the cause of his coming down, had only +prevented his getting up, by falling on top of him. In this prostrate +condition they had further fallen into the hands of their enemies. + +"I want nothin' from you, 'Squire Newcome," answered Joshua quite +decidedly as to tone and manner; "_your_ character is well known, all up +and down the country." + +"What of my character? What have _you_ got to say ag'in' me or my +character?" demanded the attorney-at-law, in a tone of high defiance. "I +want to see the man who can say anything ag'in' my character." + +This was pretty well, considering that the fellow had actually been +detected in the commission of a felony; though I suppose that difficulty +would have been gotten over, in a moral sense, by the claim of being +taken while struggling in defence of human rights, and the "spirit of +the institutions." The defiance was too much for Brigham's patience, and +being fully assured, by this time, that he was not in much danger of +being scalped, he turned upon Seneca, and cried, with something more +than spirit, with downright rancor: + +"You're a pretty fri'nd of the poor man, and of the people, if truth +must be said, an't you? Everybody in the county that's in want of money +knows what _you_ be, you d----d shaver." + +As the last words came out, Seneky's fist went in upon Brigham's nose, +causing the blood to flow freely. My uncle Ro now thought it time to +interfere, and he rebuked the irritated lawyer with dignity. + +"Why did he call me a d----d shaver, then?" retorted Seneky, still angry +and red. "I'll stand _that_ from no man." + +"Why, what harm can there be in such a charge, Mr. Newcome? You are a +member of the bar, and ought to understand the laws of your country, and +cannot stand in need of being told that it has been decided by the +highest tribunal of your State that it is no reproach to be called a +shaver! Some of the honorable members of that learned body, indeed, seem +to think, on the contrary, that it is matter of commendation and +congratulation. I am ashamed of you, Mr. Newcome--I'm quite ashamed of +you." + +Seneky muttered something, in which I fancied I understood the words +"the Court of Errors be d----d," or "the Court of Errors" might go to +some very bad place, which I will not name; but I will not take on +myself that any man of decency could really use such irreverent language +about a body so truly eminent, though a person in a passion is sometimes +disposed to forget propriety. My uncle now thought it time to put an end +to this scene; and, without deigning to enter into any explanation, he +signified to Manytongues his readiness to lead his chiefs to the point +where they desired to go. + +"As to these two Injins," he added, "their capture will do us no honor; +and now we know who they are, they can be taken at any time by the +deputy sheriffs or constables. It is hardly worth while to encumber your +march with such fellows." + +The chiefs assented to this proposal, too, and we quitted the woods in a +body, leaving Seneky and Joshua on the ground. As we subsequently +learned, our backs were no sooner turned, than the last pitched into the +first, and pounded him not only until he owned he was "a shaver," but +that he was "a d----d shaver" in the bargain. Such was the man, and such +the class, that the deluded anti-renters of New York wish to substitute, +in a social sense, for the ancient landlords of the country? A pretty +top-sheaf they would make to the stack of the community, and admirably +would the grain be kept that was protected by their covering! One would +like to see fellows of this moral calibre interpreting _their_ +covenants; and it would be a useful, though a painful lesson, to see the +change effected for a twelvemonth, in order to ascertain, after things +had got back into the old natural channel, how many would _then_ wish to +"return, like the dog to his vomit, or the sow to her wallowing in the +mire." + +After giving some directions to Manytongues, my uncle and I got into our +wagon and drove up the road, leaving the Indians to follow. The +rendezvous was at the Nest, whither we had now determined to proceed at +once and assume our proper characters. In passing the rectory, we found +time to stop and run in, to inquire after the welfare of Mr. and Miss +Warren. Great was my joy at learning they had gone on to the Nest, where +they were all to dine. This intelligence did not tend to lessen the +speed of Miller's horse, or my horse, it would be better to say, for I +am the real owner of everything on the Nest farm, and shall probably so +remain, unless the "spirit of the institutions" gets at my property +there, as well as in other places. In the course of half an hour we +drove on the lawn, and stopped at the door. It will be recollected that +the Indians had our wigs, which had been left by my uncle and myself in +their hands, as things of no further use to us. Notwithstanding our +dresses, the instant we presented ourselves without these instruments of +disguise we were recognized, and the cry went through the house and +grounds that "Mr. Hugh had come home!" I confess I was touched with some +signs of interest and feeling that escaped the domestics, as well as +those who belonged out of doors, when they saw me again standing before +them in health, if not in good looks. My uncle, too, was welcome; and +there were a few minutes during which I forgot all my grounds for +vexation, and was truly happy. + +Although my grandmother, and sister, and Mary Warren all knew what the +cry of "Mr. Hugh has got home" meant, it brought everybody out upon the +piazza. Mr. Warren had related the events of the day, as far as he was +acquainted with them; but even those who were in the secret, were +surprised at our thus returning unwigged, and in our proper characters. +As for myself I could not but note the manner in which the four girls +came out to meet me. Martha flew into my embrace, cast her arms around +my neck, kissing me six or eight times without stopping. Then Miss +Colebrooke came next, with Ann Marston leaning on her arm, both smiling, +though greatly surprised, and both bright, and pretty, and lady-like. +They were glad to see me, and met my salutations frankly and like old +friends; though I could see they did not fancy my dress in the least. +Mary Warren was behind them all, smiling, blushing, and shy; but it did +not require two looks from me to make certain that _her_ welcome was as +sincere as that of my older friends. Mr. Warren was glad to have it in +his power to greet us openly, and to form an acquaintance with those to +whose return he had now been looking, with anxiety and hope, for three +or four years. + +A few minutes sufficed for the necessary explanations, a part of which, +indeed, had already been made by those who were previously in the +secret; when my dear grandmother and Patt insisted on our going up to +our old room, and of dressing ourselves in attire more suitable to our +stations. A plenty of summer clothes had been left behind us, and our +wardrobes had been examined that morning in anticipation of our soon +having need of them, so that no great time was necessary to make the +change. I was a little fuller than when I left home, but the clothes +being loose, there was no difficulty in equipping myself. I found a +handsome blue dress-coat that did very well, and vests and pantaloons +_ad libitum_. Clothing is so much cheaper in Europe than at home, that +Americans who are well supplied do not often carry much with them when +they go abroad; and this had been a rule with my uncle all his life. +Each of us, moreover, habitually kept a supply of country attire at the +Nest, which we did not think of removing. In consequence of these little +domestic circumstances, as has been said, there was no want of the means +of putting my uncle and myself on a level with others of our class, as +respects outward appearance, in that retired part of the country, at +least. + +The apartments of my uncle and myself were quite near each other, in the +north wing of the house, or that which looked in the direction of a part +of the meadows under the cliff, the wooded ravine, and the wigwam, or +cabin of the "Upright Onondago." The last was very plainly in view from +the window of my dressing-room; and I was standing at the latter, +contemplating the figures of the two old fellows, as they sat basking in +the sun, as was their practice of an afternoon, when a tap at the door +proved to be the announcement of the entrance of John. + +"Well, John, my good fellow," I said, laughingly; "I find a wig makes a +great difference with your means of recognizing an old friend. I must +thank you, nevertheless, for the good treatment you gave me in my +character of a music-grinder." + +"I am sure, Mr. Hugh, you are heartily welcome to my services, come as +you may to ask them. It was a most surprisingest deception, sir, as I +shall ever hadmit; but I thought the whole time you wasn't exactly what +you seemed to be, as I told Kitty as soon as I went down stairs: +'Kitty,' says I, 'them two pedlers is just the two genteelest pedlers as +hever I see in this country, and I shouldn't wonder if they had known +better days.' But, now you have been to see the hanti-renters with your +own eyes, Mr. Hugh, what do you think of them, if I may be so bold as to +ask the question?" + +"Very much as I thought, before I had been to see them. They are a set +of fellows who are canting about liberty, at the very moment when they +are doing all they can to discredit its laws, and who mistake +selfishness for patriotism; just as their backers in the State +government are doing, by using the same cant, when their object is +nothing but votes. If no tenant had a vote, this question would never +have been raised, or dreamt of--but I see those two old fellows, Jaaf +and Sus, seem to enjoy themselves still." + +"Indeed they do, sir, in the most surprisingest manner! They was both +antiquities, as we says in Hengland, when I came to this country, +sir--and that was before you was born, Mr. Hugh--an age agone. But there +they sits, sir, day in and day out, looking like monumentals of past +times. The nigger"--John had been long enough in the country to catch +the vernacular--"The nigger grows uglier and uglier every year, and that +is most of a change I can see in _him_; while I do think, sir, that the +Indian grows 'andsomer and 'andsomer. He's the 'andsomest old gentleman, +sir, as I know of, far and near!" + +"Old _gentleman_!" What an expressive term that was, in this case! No +human being would ever think of calling Jaaf an "old gentleman," even in +these "aristrocratic" days, when "gentlemen" are plentier than +blackberries; while any one might feel disposed thus to describe +Susquesus. The Onondago _was_ a gentleman, in the best meaning of the +word; though he may, and certainly did, want a great deal in the way of +mere conventional usages. As for John, he never would have used the word +to me, except in a case in which he felt the party had a claim to the +appellation. + +"Susquesus is a magnificent sight, with his gray or white head, fiery +eyes, composed features, and impressive air," I answered; "and Jaaf is +no beauty. How do the old men get on together?" + +"Why, sir, they quarrel a good deal--that is, the nigger quarrels; +though the Indian is too much above him to mind what he says. Nor will I +say that Yop actually quarrels, sir, for he has the greatest possible +regard for his friend; but he aggravates in the most surprisingest +manner--just like a nigger, howsever, I do suppose." + +"They have wanted for nothing, I trust, during my absence. Their table +and other comforts have been seen to carefully, I hope?" + +"No fear of that, sir, so long as Mrs. Littlepage lives! She has the +affection of a child for the old men, and has everything provided for +them that they can possibly want. Betty Smith, sir--you remember Betty, +the widow of the old coachman, that died when you was at college, +sir--well, Betty has done nothing, these four years, but look after them +two old men. She keeps everything tidy in their hut, and washes it out +twice a week, and washes their clothes for them, and darns, and sews, +and cooks, and looks after all their comforts. She lives hard by, in the +other cottage, sir, and has everything handy." + +"I am glad of that. Does either of the old men ever stray over as far as +the Nest House now, John? Before I went abroad, we had a visit from +each, daily." + +"That custom has fallen away a little, sir; though the nigger comes much +the oftenest. He is sure to be here once or twice a week, in good +weather. Then he walks into the kitchen, where he will sit sometimes for +a whole morning telling the hardest stories, sir--ha, ha, ha!--yes, sir, +just the hardest stories one ever heard!" + +"Why, what can he have to say of that nature, that it seems to amuse you +so?" + +"According to his notion, sir, everything in the country is falling +away, and is inferior like to what it may have been in his young days. +The turkeys arn't so large, sir; and the fowls is poorer, sir; and the +mutton isn't so fat, sir; and sich sort of enormities." + +Here John laughed very heartily, though it was plain enough he did not +much fancy the comparisons. + +"And Susquesus," I said, "he does not share in his friend's criticism?" + +"Sus never enters the kitchen, sir, at all. He knows that all the +quality and upper class come to the great door of the house, and is too +much of a gentleman to come in at any other entrance. No, sir, I never +saw Sus in the kitchen or hoffices, at all; nor does Mrs. Littlepage +'ave his table set anywhere but in the hupper rooms, or on the piazza, +when she wishes to treat him to anything nice. The old gentleman has +what he calls his traditions, sir, and can tell a great many stories of +old times; but they ar'n't about turkeys, and 'orses, and garden-stuff, +and such things as Yop dwells on so much, and so uncomfortably." + +I now dismissed John, after again thanking him for his civilities to one +of my late appearance, and joined my uncle. When we entered the little +drawing-room, where the whole party was waiting to meet us, previously +to going to the table, a common exclamation of pleasure escaped them +all. Martha again kissed me, declaring I was now Hugh; that I looked as +she had expected to see Hugh; that she would now know me for Hugh, and +many other similar things; while my dear grandmother stood and parted my +hair, and gazed into my face with tears in her eyes, for I reminded her +of her first-born, who had died so young! As for the other ladies, the +two heiress-wards of Uncle Ro seemed smiling and friendly, and willing +to renew our ancient amicable relations; but Mary Warren still kept +herself in the background, though I thought by her modest and +half-averted eye, and flushed cheeks, that she sympathized as deeply in +her friend Patt's present happiness as any of the others; possibly more +deeply. + +Before we went to the table I sent a servant to the top of the house, +with orders to look down the road, in order to ascertain when my red +friends might be expected. This man reported that they were advancing +along the highway, and would probably reach the door in the course of +half an hour. They had stopped; and he thought that he could perceive, +by means of his glass, that they were painting their faces, and +otherwise arranging their toilets, in preparation for the anticipated +interview. On receiving this information we took our seats at table, +expecting to be ready to receive the chiefs, as soon as they should +arrive. + +Ours was a happy dinner. For the moment, the condition of the country +and the schemes of my tenants were forgotten, and we chatted of those +nearer interests and feelings that naturally presented themselves to our +minds at such a time. At length dear grandmother pleasantly +remarked--"You must have an instinct for the discovery of discretion, +Hugh, for no one could have made a better choice of a confidant than you +did, while going to the village this morning." + +Mary blushed like an Italian sky at eventide, and looked down, to +conceal her confusion. + +"I do not know whether it was discretion or vanity, grandmother," was my +answer, "for I am conscious of feeling an unconquerable reluctance to +passing for a common music-grinder in Miss Warren's eyes." + +"Nay, Hugh," put in the saucy Patt, "I had told you before that you +passed for a very _un_common music-grinder in her eyes. As for the +grinding, she said but little; for it was of the flute, and of the +manner in which it was played, that Miss Warren spoke the most +eloquently." + +The "Martha!" of Mary Warren, lowly, but half reproachfully uttered, +showed that the charming girl was beginning to be really distressed, and +my observant parent changed the discourse by a gentle and adroit +expedient such as a woman alone knows thoroughly how to put in practice. +It was simply handing Mr. Warren a plate of greengages; but the act was +so performed as to change the discourse. + +During the whole of that meal I felt certain there was a secret, +mysterious communication between me and Mary Warren, which, while it +probably did escape the notice of others, was perfectly evident to +ourselves. This fact I _felt_ to be true; while there was a +consciousness betrayed in Mary's blushes, and even in her averted eyes, +that I found extremely eloquent on the same subject. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + "With look, like patient Job's, eschewing evil; + With motions graceful as a bird's in air; + Thou art, in sober truth, the veriest devil + That e'er clinched fingers in a captive's hair." + --_Red Jacket._ + + +Although an immense progress has been made in liberating this country +from the domination of England, in the way of opinion and usages, a good +deal remains to be done yet. Still, he who can look back forty years +must see the great changes that have occurred in very many things; and +it is to be hoped that he who lives forty years hence will find very few +remaining that have no better reasons for their existence among +ourselves than the example of a people so remote, with a different +climate, different social organization, and different wants. I am for no +more condemning a usage, however, simply because it is English, than I +am for approving it simply because it is English. I wish everything to +stand on its own merits, and feel certain that no nation ever can become +great, in the higher signification of the term, until it ceases to +imitate, because it is imitation of a certain fixed model. One of the +very greatest evils of this imitative spirit is even now developing +itself in what is called the "progress" of the country, which is +assailing principles that are as old as the existence of man, and which +may almost be said to be eternal as social truths, at the very moment +that notions derived from our ancestors are submitted to in the highest +places, the Senate of the United States for example, that are founded in +facts which not only have no existence among ourselves, but which are +positively antagonistic to such as have. So much easier is it to join in +the hurrah! of a "progress," than to ascertain whether it is making in +the right direction, or whether it be progress at all. But, to return +from things of moment to those of less concern. + +Among other customs to be condemned that we have derived from England, +is the practice of the men sitting at table after the women have left +it. Much as I may wish to see this every-way offensive custom done away +with, and the more polished and humanizing usage of all the rest of +Christendom adopted in its stead, I should feel ashamed at finding, as I +make no doubt I should find it, that our custom would be abandoned +within a twelvemonth after it might be understood it was abandoned in +England. My uncle had long endeavored to introduce into our own +immediate circle the practice of retaining the ladies at table for a +reasonable time, and of then quitting it with them at the expiration of +that time; but it is hard to "kick against the pricks." Men who fancy it +"society" to meet at each other's houses to drink wine, and taste wine, +and talk about wine, and to outdo each other in giving their guests the +most costly wines, are not to be diverted easily from their objects. The +hard-drinking days are past, but the hard "talking days" are in their +vigor. If it could be understood, generally, that even in England it is +deemed vulgar to descant on the liquor that is put upon the table, +perhaps we might get rid of the practice too. Vulgar in England! It is +even deemed vulgar here, by the right sort, as I am ready to maintain, +and indeed know of my own observation. That one or two friends who are +participating in the benefits of some particularly benevolent bottle, +should say a word in commendation of its merits, is natural enough, and +well enough; no one can reasonably find any fault with such a sign of +grateful feeling; but I know of nothing more revolting than to see +twenty grave faces arrayed around a table, employed as so many tasters +at a Rhenish wine sale, while the cheeks of their host look like those +of Boreas, owing to the process of sucking syphons. + +When my dear grandmother rose, imitated by the four bright-faced girls, +who did as she set the example, and said, as was customary with the old +school, "Well, gentlemen, I leave you to your wine; but you will +recollect that you will be most welcome guests in the drawing-room," my +uncle caught her hand, and insisted she should not quit us. There was +something exceedingly touching, to my eyes, in the sort of intercourse, +and in the affection, which existed between my uncle Ro and his mother. +A bachelor himself, while she was a widow, they were particularly fond +of each other; and many is the time that I have seen him go up to her, +when we were alone, and pat her cheeks, and then kiss them, as one might +do to a much-beloved sister. My grandmother always received these little +liberties with perfect good humor, and with evident affection. In her +turn, I have frequently known her to approach "Roger," as she always +called him, and kiss his bald head in a way that denoted she vividly +remembered the time when he was an infant in her arms. On this occasion +she yielded to his request, and resumed her seat, the girls imitating +her, nothing loath, as they had done in rising. The conversation then, +naturally enough, reverted to the state of the country. + +"It has much surprised me, that the men in authority among us have +confined all their remarks and statements to the facts of the Rensselaer +and Livingston estates," observed my grandmother, "when there are +difficulties existing in so many others." + +"The explanation is very simple, my good mother," answered Uncle Ro. +"The Rensselaer estates have the quarter-sales, and chickens, and days' +works; and there is much of the _ad captandum_ argument about such +things, that does very well to work up for political effect; whereas, on +the other estates, these great auxiliaries must be laid aside. It is +just as certain, as it is that the sun has risen this day, that an +extensive and concerted plan exists to transfer the freehold rights of +the landlords, on nearly every property in the State, to the tenants; +and that, too, on conditions unjustly favorable to the last; but you +will find nothing of the sort in the messages of governors, or speeches +of legislators, who seem to think all is said, when they have dwelt on +the expediency of appeasing the complaints of the tenants, as a high +political duty, without stopping to inquire whether those complaints are +founded in right or not. The injury that will be done to the republic, +by showing men how much can be effected by clamor, is of itself +incalculable. It would take a generation to do away the evil +consequences of the example, were the anti-rent combination to be +utterly defeated to-morrow." + +"I find that the general argument against the landlords is a want of +title, in those cases in which nothing better can be found," observed +Mr. Warren. "The lecturer, to-day, seemed to condemn any title that was +derived from the king, as defeated by the conquest over that monarch, by +the war of the revolution." + +"A most charming consummation that would have been for the heroic deeds +of the Littlepages! There were my father, grandfather, and +great-grandfather, all in arms, in that war; the two first as general +officers, and the last as a major; and the result of all their hardships +and dangers is to be to rob themselves of their own property! I am aware +that this silly pretence has been urged, even in a court of justice; but +folly, and wrong, and madness, are not yet quite ripe enough among us, +to carry such a doctrine down. As 'coming events cast their shadows +before,' it is possible we are to take this very movement, however, as +the dawn of the approaching day of American reason, and not as a +twilight left by the departed rays of a sun of a period of mental +darkness." + +"You surely do not apprehend, Uncle Ro, that these people can really get +Hugh's lands away from him!" exclaimed Patt, reddening with anxiety and +anger. + +"No one can say, my dear; for, certainly, no one is safe when opinions +and acts, like those which have been circulated and attempted among us +of late years, can be acted on without awakening very general +indignation. Look to the moneyed classes at this very moment, agonized +and excited on the subject of a war about Oregon--a thing very little +likely to occur, though certainly possible; while they manifest the +utmost indifference to this anti-rentism, though the positive existence +of everything connected with just social organization is directly +involved in its fate. One is a bare possibility, but it convulses the +class I have named; while the other is connected with the existence of +civilized society itself; yet it has ceased to attract attention, and is +nearly forgotten! Every man in the community, whose means raise him at +all above the common level, has a direct interest in facing this danger, +and in endeavoring to put it down; but scarcely any one appears to be +conscious of the importance of the crisis. We have only one or two more +steps to make, in order to become like Turkey; a country in which the +wealthy are obliged to conceal their means, in order to protect it from +the grasp of the government; but no one seems to care at all about it!" + +"Some recent travellers among us have said that we have nearly reached +that pass already, as our rich affect great simplicity and plainness in +public, while they fill their houses in private with all the usual +evidences of wealth and luxury. I think De Tocqueville, among others, +makes that remark." + +"Ay, that is merely one of the ordinarily sagacious remarks of the +Europeans, who, by not understanding the American history, confound +causes and make mistakes. The plainness of things in public is no more +than an ancient habit of the country, while the elegance and luxury in +private are a very simple and natural consequence of the tastes of women +who live in a state of society in which they are limited to the very +minimum of refined habits and intellectual pleasures. The writer who +made this mistake is a very clever man, and has exceeding merit, +considering his means of ascertaining truth; but he has made very many +similar blunders." + +"Nevertheless, Mr. Littlepage," resumed the rector, who was a gentleman, +in all the senses of the word, and knew the world, and the best part of +it, too, even while he had preserved an admirable simplicity of +character, "changes _have_ certainly taken place among us, of the nature +alluded to by M. de Tocqueville." + +"That is quite true, sir; but they have also taken place elsewhere. When +I was a boy, I can well remember to have seen coaches-and-six in this +country, and almost every man of fortune drove his coach-and-four; +whereas, now such a thing is of the rarest occurrence possible. But the +same is true all over Christendom; for when I first went to Europe, +coaches-and-six, with outriders, and all that sort of state, was an +every-day thing; whereas, it is now never, or at least very seldom, +seen. Improved roads, steamboats, and railroads, can produce such +changes, without having recourse to the oppression of the masses." + +"I am sure," put in Patt, laughing, "if publicity be what Mons. De +Tocqueville requires, there is publicity enough in New York! All the +new-fashioned houses are so constructed, with their low balconies and +lower windows, that anybody can see in at their windows. If what I have +read and heard of a Paris house be true, standing between _cour et +jardin_, there is infinitely more of privacy there than here; and one +might just as well say that the Parisians bury themselves behind _porte +cocheres_, and among trees, to escape the attacks of the Faubourg St. +Antoine, as to say we retreat into our houses to be fine, lest the +mobocracy would not tolerate us." + +"The girl has profited by your letters, I see, Hugh," said my uncle, +nodding his head in approbation; "and what is more, she makes a suitable +application of her tuition, or rather of yours. No, no, all that is a +mistake; and, as Martha says, no houses are so much in the street as +those of the new style in our own towns. It would be far more just to +say that, instead of retiring within doors to be fine, as Patt calls it, +unseen by envious neighbors, the Manhattanese, in particular, turn their +dwellings wrong side out, lest their neighbors should take offence at +not being permitted to see all that is going on within. But neither is +true. The house is the more showy because it is most under woman's +control; and it would be just as near the truth to say that the reason +why the American men appear abroad in plain blue, and black, and brown +clothes, while their wives and daughters are at home in silks and +satins--ay, even in modern brocades--is an apprehension of the masses, +as to ascribe the plainness of street life, compared to that within +doors, to the same cause. There is a good deal of difference between a +_salon_ in the Faubourg, or the Chaussee d'Antin, and even on the +Boulevard des Italiens. But, John is craning with his neck, out there on +the piazza, as if our red brethren were at hand." + +So it was, in point of fact, and everybody now rose from table, without +ceremony, and went forth to meet our guests. We had barely time to reach +the lawn, the ladies having run for their hats in the meantime, before +Prairiefire, Flintyheart, Manytongues, and all the rest of them, came +up, on the sort of half-trot that distinguishes an Indian's march. + +Notwithstanding the change in our dresses, my uncle and myself were +instantly recognized, and courteously saluted by the principal chiefs. +Then our wigs were gravely offered to us by two of the younger men; but +we declined receiving them, begging the gentlemen who had them in +keeping to do us the honor to accept them as tokens of our particular +regard. This was done with great good-will, and with a pleasure that was +much too obvious to be concealed. Half an hour later, I observed that +each of the young forest dandies had a wig on his otherwise naked head, +with a peacock's feather stuck quite knowingly in the lank hair. The +effect was somewhat ludicrous; particularly on the young ladies; but I +saw that each of the warriors himself looked round, as if to ask for the +admiration that he felt his appearance ought to awaken! + +No sooner were the salutations exchanged than the red-men began to +examine the house--the cliff on which it stood--the meadows beneath, and +the surrounding ground. At first we supposed that they were struck with +the extent and solidity of the buildings, together with a certain air of +finish and neatness that is not everywhere seen in America, even in the +vicinity of its better-class houses; but Manytongues soon undeceived us. +My uncle asked him why all the red-men had broken off, and scattered +themselves around the buildings, some looking here, others pointing +there, and all manifestly earnest and much engaged with something; +though it was not easy to understand what that something was; intimating +his supposition that they might be struck with the buildings. + +"Lord bless ye, no, sir," answered the interpreter; "they don't care a +straw about the house, or any house. There's Flintyheart, in particular; +he's a chief that you can no more move with riches and large housen, and +sichlike matters, than you can make the Mississippi run up stream. When +we went to Uncle Sam's house, at Washington, he scarce condescended to +look at it; and the Capital had no more effect on any on 'em, than if it +had been a better sort of wigwam; not so much, for that matter, as +Injins be curious in wigwams. What's put 'em up on a trail like, just +now, is the knowledge that this is the spot where a battle was fit, +something like ninety seasons ago, in which the Upright Onondago was +consarned, as well as some of their own people on t'other side--that's +what's put 'em in commotion." + +"And why does Flintyheart talk to those around him with so much energy; +and point to the flats, and the cliff, and the ravine yonder, that lies +beyond the wigwam of Susquesus?" + +"Ah! is that, then, the wigwam of the Upright Onondago?" exclaimed the +interpreter, betraying some such interest as one might manifest on +unexpectedly being told that he saw Mount Vernon or Monticello for the +first time in his life. "Well, it's something to have seen _that_; +though it will be more to see the man himself; for all the tribes on the +upper prairies, are full of his story and his behavior. No Injin, since +the time of Tamenund himself, has made as much talk, of late years, as +Susquesus, the Upright Onondago, unless it might be Tecumthe, perhaps. +But what occupies Flintyheart, just at this moment, is an account of the +battle, in which his father's grandfather lost his life, though he did +not lose his scalp. That disgrace, he is now telling on 'em, he escaped, +and glad enough is his descendant that it was so. It's no great matter +to an Injin to be killed; but he'd rather escape losing his scalp, or +being struck at all by the inimy, if it can possibly made to turn out +so. Now he's talking of some young pale-face that was killed, whom he +calls Lover of Fun--and now he's got on some nigger, who he says fit +like a devil." + +"All these persons are known to us, by _our_ traditions, also!" +exclaimed my uncle, with more interest than I had known him to manifest +for many a day. "But I'm amazed to find that the Indians retain so +accurate an account of such small matters for so long a time." + +"It isn't a small matter to them. Their battles is seldom on a very +great scale, and they make great account of any skrimmage in which noted +warriors have fallen." Here Manytongues paused for a minute, and +listened attentively to the discourse of the chiefs, after which he +resumed his explanations. "They have met with a great difficulty in the +house," he continued, "while everything else is right. They understand +the cliff of rocks, the position of the buildings themselves, that +ravine thereaway, and all the rest of the things hereabouts, except the +house." + +"What may be the difficulty with the house? Does it not stand in the +place it ought to occupy?" + +"That's just their difficulty. It _does_ stand where it ought to stand, +but it isn't the right sort of house, though they say the shape agrees +well enough--one side out to the fields, like; two sides running back to +the cliff, and the cliff itself for the other. But their traditions say +that their warriors indivor'd to burn out your forefathers, and that +they built a fire ag'in the side of the buildin', which they never would +have done had it been built of stone, as this house is built. _That's_ +what partic'larly puzzles them." + +"Then their traditions are surprisingly minute and accurate! The house +which then stood on, or near this spot, and which did resemble the +present building in the ground plan, _was_ of squared logs, and might +have been set on fire, and an attempt was actually made to do so, but +was successfully resisted. Your chiefs have had a true account; but +changes have been made here. The house of logs stood near fifty years, +when it was replaced by this dwelling, which was originally erected +about sixty years ago, and has been added to since, on the old design. +No, no--the traditions are surprisingly accurate." + +This gave the Indians great satisfaction, as soon as the fact was +communicated to them; and from that instant all their doubts and +uncertainty were ended. Their own knowledge of the progress of things in +a settlement gave them the means of comprehending any other changes; +though the shape of this building having so nearly corresponded with +that of which their traditions spoke, they had become embarrassed by the +difference in the material. While they were still continuing their +examinations, and ascertaining localities to their own satisfaction, my +uncle and myself continued the discourse with Manytongues. + +"I am curious to know," said my uncle, "what may be the history of +Susquesus, that a party of chiefs like these should travel so far out of +their way to pay him the homage of a visit. Is his great age the cause?" + +"That is one reason, sartainly; though there is another, that is of more +account, but which is known only to themselves. I have often tried to +get the history out of them, but never could succeed. As long as I can +remember, the Onondagoes, and Tuscaroras, and the Injins of the old New +York tribes, that have found their way up to the prairies, have talked +of the Upright Onondago, who must have been an old man when I was born. +Of late years they have talked more and more of him; and so good an +opportunity offering to come and see him, there would have been great +disappointment out West had it been neglected. His age is, no doubt, one +principal cause; but there is another, though I have never been able to +discover what it is." + +"This Indian has been in communication, and connected with my immediate +family, now near, if not quite ninety years. He was with my grandfather, +Cornelius Littlepage, in the attack on Ty, that was made by Abercrombie, +in 1758; and here we are within twelve or thirteen years of a century +from that event. I believe my great-grandfather, Herman Mordaunt, had +even some previous knowledge of him. As long as I can remember, he has +been a gray-headed old man; and we suppose both he and the negro who +lives with him to have seen fully a hundred and twenty years, if not +more." + +"Something of importance happened to Susquesus, or the Trackless, as he +was then called, about ninety-three winters ago; that much I've gathered +from what has fallen from the chiefs at different times; but what that +something was, it has exceeded my means to discover. At any rate, it has +quite as much to do with this visit, as the Withered Hemlock's great +age. Injins respect years; and they respect wisdom highly; but they +respect courage and justice most of all. The tarm 'Upright' has its +meaning, depend on't." + +We were greatly interested by all this, as indeed were my grandmother +and her sweet companions. Mary Warren, in particular, manifested a +lively interest in Susquesus's history, as was betrayed in a brief +dialogue I now had with her, walking to and fro in front of the piazza, +while the rest of the party were curiously watching the movements of the +still excited savages. + +"My father and I have often visited the two old men, and have been +deeply interested in them," observed this intelligent, yet simple-minded +girl--"with the Indian, in particular, we have felt a strong sympathy, +for nothing is plainer than the keenness with which he still feels on +the subject of his own people. We have been told that he is often +visited by red-men--or, at least, as often as any come near him; and +they are said ever to exhibit a great reverence for his years, and +respect for his character." + +"This I know to be true, for I have frequently seen those who have come +to pay him visits. But they have usually been merely your basket-making, +half-and-half sort of savages, who have possessed the characteristics of +neither race, entirely. This is the first instance in which I have heard +of so marked a demonstration of respect--how is that, dear grandmother? +can you recall any other instance of Susquesus's receiving such a +decided mark of homage from his own people as this?" + +"This is the third within my recollection, Hugh. Shortly after my +marriage, which was not long after the Revolution, as you may know, +there was a party here on a visit to Susquesus. It remained ten days. +The chiefs it contained were said to be Onondagoes altogether, or +warriors of his own particular people; and something like a +misunderstanding was reported to have been made up; though what it was, +I confess I was too thoughtless then to inquire. Both my father-in-law, +and my uncle Chainbearer, it was always believed, knew the whole of the +Trackless's story, though neither ever related it to me. I do not +believe your grandfather knew it," added the venerable speaker, with a +sort of tender regret, "or I think I should have heard it. But that +first visit was soon after Susquesus and Jaaf took possession of their +house, and it was reported, at the time, that the strangers remained so +long, in the hope of inducing Sus to rejoin his tribe. If such was their +wish, however, it failed; for there he is now, and there he has ever +been since he first went to the hut." + +"And the second visit, grandmother--you mentioned that there were +three." + +"Oh! tell us of them all, Mrs. Littlepage," added Mary earnestly, +blushing up to the eyes the moment after at her own eagerness. My dear +grandmother smiled benevolently on both, and I thought she looked a +little archly at us, as old ladies sometimes will, when the images of +their own youth recur to their minds. + +"You appear to have a common sympathy in these red-men, my children," +she answered, Mary fairly blushing scarlet at hearing herself thus +coupled with me in the term "children,"--"and I have great pleasure in +gratifying your curiosity. The second great visit that Susquesus +received from Indians occurred the very year you were born, Hugh, and +then we really felt afraid we might lose the old man; so earnest were +his own people in their entreaties that he would go away with them. But +he would not. Here he has remained ever since, and a few weeks ago he +told me that here he should die. If these Indians hope to prevail any +better, I am sure they will be disappointed." + +"So he told my father, also," added Mary Warren, "who has often spoken +to him of death, and has hoped to open his eyes to the truths of the +gospel." + +"With what success, Miss Warren? That is a consummation which would +terminate the old man's career most worthily." + +"With little, I fear," answered the charming girl, in a low, melancholy +tone. "At least, I know that my father has been disappointed. Sus +listens to him attentively, but he manifests no feeling beyond respect +for the speaker. Attempts have been made to induce him to enter the +church before, but----" + +"You were about to add something, Miss Warren, which still remains to be +said." + +"I can add it for her," resumed my grandmother, "for certain I am that +Mary Warren will never add it herself. The fact is, as you must know, +Hugh, from your own observation, that Mr. Warren's predecessor was an +unfaithful and selfish servant of the Church--one who did little good to +any, not even himself. In this country it takes a good deal in a +clergyman to wear out the patience of a people; but it can be done; and +when they once get to look at him through the same medium as that with +which other men are viewed, a reaction follows, under which he is +certain to suffer. We could all wish to throw a veil over the conduct of +the late incumbent of St. Andrew's, but it requires one so much thicker +and larger than common, that the task is not easy. Mary has merely meant +that better instruction, and a closer attention to duty, might have done +more for Trackless twenty years ago, than they can do to-day." + +"How much injury, after all, faithless ministers can do to the Church of +God! One such bad example unsettles more minds than twenty good examples +keep steady." + +"I do not know that, Hugh; but of one thing I am certain--that more evil +is done by pretending to struggle for the honor of the Church, by +attempting to sustain its unworthy ministers, than could be done by at +once admitting their offences, in cases that are clear. We all know that +the ministers of the altar are but men, and as such are to be expected +to fall--certain to do so without Divine aid--but if we cannot make its +ministers pure, we ought to do all we can to keep the altar itself from +contamination." + +"Yes, yes, grandmother--but the day has gone by for _ex officio_ +religion in the American branch of the Church"--here Mary Warren joined +the other girls--"at least. And it is so best. Suspicions may be base +and unworthy, but a blind credulity is contemptible. If I see a chestnut +forming on yonder branch, it would be an act of exceeding folly in me to +suppose that the tree was a walnut, though all the nursery-men in the +country were ready to swear to it." + +My grandmother smiled, but she also walked away, when I joined my uncle +again. + +"The interpreter tells me, Hugh," said the last, "that the chiefs wish +to pay their first visit to the hut this evening. Luckily, the old +farm-house is empty just now, since Miller has taken possession of the +new one; and I have directed Mr. Manytongues to establish himself there, +while he and his party remain here. There is a kitchen, all ready for +their use, and it is only to send over a few cooking utensils, that is +to say, a pot or two, and fifty bundles of straw, to set them up in +housekeeping. For all this I have just given orders, not wishing to +disturb you, or possibly unwilling to lay down a guardian's authority; +and there is the straw already loading up in yonder barn-yard. In half +an hour they may rank themselves among the pot-wallopers of Ravensnest." + +"Shall we go with them to the house before or after they have paid their +visit to Susquesus?" + +"Before, certainly. John has volunteered to go over and let the Onondago +know the honor that is intended him, and to assist him in making his +toilet; for the red-man would not like to be taken in undress any more +than another. While this is doing, we can install our guests in their +new abode, and see the preparations commenced for their supper. As for +the "_Injins_" there is little to apprehend from them, I fancy, so long +as we have a strong party of the real Simon Pures within call." + +After this, we invited the interpreter to lead his chiefs toward the +dwelling they were to occupy, preceding the party ourselves, and leaving +the ladies on the lawn. At that season, the days were at the longest, +and it would be pleasanter to pay the visit to the hut in the cool of +the evening than to go at an earlier hour. My grandmother ordered her +covered wagon before we left her, intending to be present at an +interview which everybody felt must be most interesting. + +The empty building which was thus appropriated to the use of the Indians +was quite a century old, having been erected by my ancestor, Herman +Mordaunt, as the original farm-house on his own particular farm. For a +long time it had been used in its original character; and when it was +found convenient to erect another, in a more eligible spot, and of more +convenient form, this old structure had been preserved as a relic, and +from year to year its removal had been talked of, but not effected. It +remained, therefore, for me to decide on its fate, unless, indeed, the +"spirit of the institutions" should happen to get hold of it, and take +its control out of my hands, along with that of the rest of my property, +by way of demonstrating to mankind how thoroughly the great State of New +York is imbued with a love of rational liberty! + +As we walked toward the "old farm-house," Miller came from the other +building to meet us. He had learned that his friends, the pedlers, were +his--what I shall call myself? "Master" would be the _legal_ term, and +it would be good English; but it would give the "honorable gentleman" +and his friends mortal offence, and I am not now to learn that there are +those among us who deny facts that are as plain as the noses on their +faces, and who fly right into the face of the law whenever it is +convenient. I shall not, however, call myself a "boss" to please even +these eminent statesmen, and therefore must be content with using a term +that, if the moving spirits of the day can prevail, will soon be +sufficiently close in its signification, and call myself Tom +Miller's--nothing. + +It was enough to see that Miller was a good deal embarrassed with the +dilemma in which he was placed. For a great many years he and his family +had been in the employment of me and mine, receiving ample pay, as all +such men ever do--when they are so unfortunate as to serve a malignant +aristocrat--much higher pay than they would get in the service of your +Newcomes, your Holmeses and Tubbses, besides far better treatment in all +essentials; and now he had only to carry out the principles of the +anti-renters to claim the farm he and they had so long worked, as of +right. Yes, the same principles would just as soon give this hireling my +home and farm as it would give any tenant on my estate that which he +worked. It is true, one party received wages, while the other paid rent; +but these facts do not affect the principle at all; since he who +received the wages got no other benefit from his toil, while he who paid +the rent was master of all the crops--I beg pardon, the _boss_ of all +the crops. The common title of both--if any title at all exist--is the +circumstance that each had expended his labor on a particular farm, and +consequently had a right to own it for all future time. + +Miller made some awkward apologies for not recognizing me, and +endeavored to explain away one or two little things that he must have +felt put him in rather an awkward position, but to which neither my +uncle nor myself attached any moment. We knew that poor Tom was human, +and that the easiest of all transgressions for a man to fall into were +those connected with his self-love; and that the temptation to a man who +has the consciousness of not being anywhere near the summit of the +social ladder, is a strong inducement to err when he thinks there is a +chance of getting up a round or two; failing of success in which it +requires higher feelings, and perhaps a higher station, than that of Tom +Miller's, not to leave him open to a certain demoniacal gratification +which so many experience at the prospect of beholding others dragged +down to their own level. We heard Tom's excuses kindly, but did not +commit ourselves by promises or declarations of any sort. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + "Two hundred years! two hundred years! + How much of human power and pride, + What glorious hopes, what gloomy fears, + Have sunk beneath their noiseless tide!"--PIERPONT. + + +It wanted about an hour to sunset--or sun-_down_, to use our common +Americanism--when we all left the new quarters of our red brethren, in +order to visit the huts. As the moment approached, it was easy to trace +in the Indians the evidence of strong interest; mingled, as we fancied, +with a little awe. Several of the chiefs had improved the intervening +time, to retouch the wild conceits that they had previously painted on +their visages, rendering their countenances still more appalling. +Flintyheart, in particular, was conspicuous in his grim embellishments; +though Prairiefire had not laid any veil between the eye and his natural +hue. + +As the course of my narrative will now render it necessary to relate +conversations that occurred in languages and dialects of which I know +literally nothing, it may be well to say here, once for all, that I got +as close a translation of everything that passed, as it was possible to +obtain, from Manytongues; and wrote it all down, either on the spot, or +immediately after returning to the Nest. This explanation may be +necessary in order to prevent some of those who may read this +manuscript, from fancying that I am inventing. + +The carriage of my grandmother had left the door, filled with its +smiling freight, several minutes before we took up our line of march. +This last, however, was not done without a little ceremony, and some +attention to order. As Indians rarely march except in what is called +"Indian file," or singly, each man following in the footsteps of his +leader, such was the mode of advancing adopted on the present occasion. +The Prairiefire led the line, as the oldest chief, and the one most +distinguished in council. Flintyheart was second, while the others were +arranged by some rule of precedency that was known to themselves. As +soon as the line had formed, it commenced its march; my uncle, the +interpreter, and myself walking at the side of Prairiefire, while +Miller, followed by half-a-dozen of the curious from the Nest House and +the farm, followed in the rear. + +It will be remembered that John had been sent to the hut to announce the +intended visit. His stay had been much longer than was anticipated; but +when the procession had gone about half the distance it was to march, it +was met by this faithful domestic, on his return. The worthy fellow +wheeled into line, on my flank, and communicated what he had to say +while keeping up with the column. + +"To own the truth, Mr. Hugh," he said, "the old man was more moved by +hearing that about fifty Indians had come a long distance to see +him----" + +"Seventeen--you should have said seventeen, John; that being the exact +number." + +"Is it, sir? Well, I declared that I thought there might be fifty--I +once thought of calling 'em forty, sir, but it then occurred to me that +it might not be enough." All this time John was looking over his +shoulder to count the grave-looking warriors who followed in a line; and +satisfied of his mistake, one of the commonest in the world for men of +his class, that of exaggeration, he resumed his report. "Well, sir, I +_do_ believe you are right, and I have been a little hout. But old Sus +was quite moved, sir, when I told him of the intended visit, and so I +stayed to help the old gentleman to dress and paint; for that nigger, +Yop, is of no more use now, you know, sir, than if he had never lived in +a gentleman's family at all. It must have been hawful times, sir, when +the gentry of York had nothing but niggers to serve 'em, sir." + +"We did pretty well, John, notwithstanding," answered my uncle, who had +a strong attachment to the old black race, that once so generally filled +all the menial stations of the country, as is apt to be the case with +all gentlemen of fifty; "we did pretty well, notwithstanding; Jaaf, +however, never acted strictly as a body-servant, though he was my +grandfather's own man." + +"Well, sir, if there had been nobody but Yop at the hut, Sus would never +have been decently dressed and painted for this occasion. As it is, I +hope that you will be satisfied, sir, for the old gentleman looks +remarkably well;--Indian fashion, you know, sir." + +"Did the Onondago ask any questions?" + +"Why, you know how it is with him in that particular, Mr. Hugh. He's a +very silent person, is Susquesus; most remarkable so when he 'as any one +has can entertain him with conversation. _I_ talked most of the time +myself, sir, has I commonly does when I pays him a visit. Indians is +remarkably silent, in general, I believe, sir." + +"And whose idea was it to paint and dress--yours, or the Onondago's?" + +"Why, sir, I supposes the hidear to be Indian, by origin, though in this +case it was my suggestion. Yes, sir, I suggested the thought; though I +will not take it on myself to say Sus had not some hinclination that +way, even before I 'inted my hopinion." + +"Did you think of the paint!" put in uncle Ro. "I do not remember to +have seen the Trackless in his paint these thirty years. I once asked +him to paint and dress on a Fourth of July; it was about the time you +were born, Hugh--and I remember the old fellow's answer as well as if it +were given yesterday. 'When the tree ceases to bear fruit,' was the +substance of his reply, 'blossoms only remind the observer of its +uselessness.'" + +"I have heard that Susquesus was once considered very eloquent, even for +an Indian." + +"I remember him to have had some such reputation, though I will not +answer for its justice. Occasionally, I have heard strong expressions in +his brief, clipping manner of speaking English--but in common, he has +been content to be simple and taciturn. I remember to have heard my +father say that when he first made the acquaintance of Susquesus, and +that must have been quite sixty years since, the old man had great +apprehension of being reduced to mortifying necessity of making baskets +and brooms; but, his dread on that subject once removed, he had ever +after seemed satisfied and without care." + +"Without care is the condition of those who have least, I believe, sir. +It would not be an easy matter for the government of New York to devise +ways and means to deprive Sus of _his_ farms, either by instituting +suits for title, destroying quarter-sales, laying taxes, or resorting to +any other of the ingenious expedients known to the Albany politics." + +My uncle did not answer for quite a minute; when he did, it was +thoughtfully and with great deliberation of manner. + +"Your term of 'Albany politics' has recalled to my mind," he said, "a +consideration that has often forced itself upon my reflections. There is +doubtless an advantage--nay, there may be a necessity for cutting up the +local affairs of this country; by intrusting their management to so many +local governments; but there is, out of all question, one great evil +consequent on it. When legislators have the great affairs of state on +their hands, the making of war and peace, the maintaining of armies, and +the control of all those interests which connect one country with +another, the mind gets to be enlarged, and with it the character and +disposition of the man. But, bring men together, who _must_ act, or +appear incapable of acting, and set them at work upon the smaller +concerns of legislation, and it's ten to one but they betray the +narrowness of their education by the narrowness of their views. This is +the reason of the vast difference that every intelligent man knows to +exist between Albany and Washington." + +"Do you then think our legislators so much inferior to those of Europe?" + +"Only as they are provincial; which nine in ten necessarily are, since +nine Americans in ten, even among the educated classes, are decidedly +provincial. This term 'provincial' covers quite one-half of the +distinctive sins of the country, though many laugh at a deficiency, of +which, in the nature of things, they can have no notion, as purely a +matter of the imagination. The active communications of the Americans +certainly render them surprisingly little obnoxious to such a charge, +for their age and geographical position. These last disadvantages +produce effects, nevertheless, that are perhaps unavoidable. When you +have had an opportunity of seeing something of the society of the towns, +for instance, after your intercourse with the world of Europe, you will +understand what I mean, for it is a difference much more readily _felt_ +than _described_. Provincialism, however, may be defined as a general +tendency to the narrow views which mark a contracted association, and an +ignorance of the great world--not in the sense of station solely, but in +the sense of liberality, intelligence, and a knowledge of all the varied +interests of life. But, here we are, at the hut." + +There we were sure enough. The evening was delightful. Susquesus had +seated himself on a stool, on the green sward that extended for some +distance around the door of his habitation, and where he was a little in +shade, protected from the strong rays of a setting, but June, sun. A +tree cast its shadow over his person. Jaaf was posted on one side, as no +doubt, he himself thought best became his color and character. It is +another trait of human nature, that while the negro affects a great +contempt and aversion for the red-man, the Indian feels his own mental +superiority to the domestic slave. I had never seen Susquesus in so +grand costume, as that in which he appeared this evening. Habitually he +wore his Indian vestments; the leggings, moccason, breech-piece, blanket +or calico shirt, according to the season; but I had never before seen +him in his ornaments and paint. The first consisted of two medals which +bore the images, the one of George III., the other of his +grandfather--of two more, bestowed by the agents of the republic; of +large rings in his ears, that dropped nearly to his shoulders, and of +bracelets formed of the teeth of some animal, that, at first, I was +afraid was a man. A tomahawk that was kept as bright as friction could +make it, and a sheathed knife, were in his girdle, while his well-tried +rifle stood leaning against a tree; weapons that were now exhibited as +emblems of the past, since their owner could scarcely render either very +effective. The old man had used the paint with unusual judgment for an +Indian, merely tingeing his cheeks with a color that served to give +brightness to eyes that had once been keen as intense expression could +render them, but which were now somewhat dimmed by age. In other +respects, nothing was changed in the customary neat simplicity that +reigned in and around the cabin, though Jaaf had brought out, as if to +sun, an old livery coat of his own, that he had formerly worn, and a +cocked hat, in which I have been told he was wont actually to exhibit +himself of Sundays, and holidays; reminders of the superiority of a +"nigger" over an "Injin." + +Three or four rude benches, which belonged to the establishment of the +hut, were placed at a short distance in front of Susquesus, in a sort of +semicircle, for the reception of his guests. Toward these benches, then, +Prairiefire led the way, followed by all the chiefs. Although they soon +ranged themselves in the circle, not one took his seat for fully a +minute. That time they all stood gazing intently, but reverently, toward +the aged man before them, who returned their look as steadily and +intently as it was given. Then, at a signal from their leader, who on +this occasion was Prairiefire, every man seated himself. This change of +position, however, did not cause the silence to be broken; but there +they all sat, for quite ten minutes, gazing at the Upright Onondago, +who, in his turn, kept his look steadily fastened on his visitors. It +was during this interval of silence that the carriage of my grandmother +drove up, and stopped just without the circle of grave, attentive +Indians, not one of whom even turned his head to ascertain who or what +caused the interruption. No one spoke; my dear grandmother being a +profoundly attentive observer of the scene, while all the bright faces +around her were so many eloquent pictures of curiosity, blended with +some gentler and better feelings, exhibited in the most pleasing form of +which humanity is susceptible. + +At length Susquesus himself arose, which he did with great dignity of +manner, and without any visible bodily effort, and spoke. His voice was +a little tremulous, I thought, though more through feeling than age; +but, on the whole, he was calm, and surprisingly connected and clear, +considering his great age. Of course, I was indebted to Manytongues for +the interpretation of all that passed. + +"Brethren," commenced Susquesus, "you are welcome. You have travelled on +a long, and crooked, and thorny path, to find an old chief, whose tribe +ought ninety summers ago to have looked upon him as among the departed. +I am sorry no better sight will meet your eyes at the end of so long a +journey. I would make the path back toward the setting sun broader and +straighter if I knew how. But I do not know how. I am old. The pine in +the woods is scarce older; the villages of the pale-faces, through so +many of which you have journeyed, are not half so old; I was born when +the white race were like the moose on the hills; here and there one; now +they are like the pigeons after they have hatched their young. When I +was a boy my young legs could never run out of the woods into a +clearing; now, my old legs cannot carry me into the woods, they are so +far off. Everything is changed in the land, but the red-man's heart. +_That_ is like the rock which never alters. My children, you are +welcome." + +That speech, pronounced in the deep husky tones of extreme old age, yet +relieved by the fire of a spirit that was smothered rather than extinct, +produced a profound impression. A low murmur of admiration passed among +the guests, though neither rose to answer, until a sufficient time had +seemed to pass, in which the wisdom that they had just been listeners to +might make its proper impression. When this pause was thought to be +sufficiently long to have produced its effect, Prairiefire, a chief more +celebrated in council even than in the field, arose to answer. His +speech, freely translated, was in the following words. + +"Father: your words are always wise--they are always true. The path +between your wigwam and our village _is_ a long one--it is a crooked +path, and many thorns and stones have been found on it. But all +difficulties may be overcome. Two moons ago we were at one end of it; +now we are at the other end. We have come with two notches on our +sticks. One notch told us to go to the great Council House of the +pale-face, to see our great pale-face father--the other notch told us to +come here, to see our great red father. We have been to the great +Council House of the pale-faces; we have seen Uncle Sam. His arm is very +long; it reaches from the salt lake, the water of which we tried to +drink, but it is too salt, to our own lakes, near the setting sun, of +which the water is sweet. We never tasted water that was salt before, +and we do not find it pleasant. We shall never taste it again; it is not +worth while to come so far to drink water that is salt. + +"Uncle Sam is a wise chief. He has many counsellors. The council at his +council-fire must be a great council--it has much to say. Its words +ought to have some good in them, they are so many. We thought of our red +father while listening to them, and wanted to come here. We _have_ come +here. We are glad to find our red father still alive and well. The Great +Spirit loves a just Indian, and takes care of him. A hundred winters, in +his eyes, are like a single winter. We are thankful to him for having +led us by the crooked and long path, at the end of which we have found +the Trackless--the Upright of the Onondagoes. I have spoken." + +A gleam of happiness shot into the swarthy lineaments of Susquesus, as +he heard, in his own language, a well-merited appellation that had not +greeted his ears for a period as long as the ordinary life of man. It +was a title, a cognomen that told the story of his connection with his +tribe; and neither years, nor distance, nor new scenes, nor new ties, +nor wars, nor strifes had caused him to forget the smallest incident +connected with that tale. I gazed at the old man with awe, as his +countenance became illuminated by the flood of recollections that was +rushing into it, through the channel of his memory, and the expressive +glance my uncle threw at me, said how much he was impressed also. One of +the faculties of Manytongues was to be able to interpret _pari passu_ +with the speaker; and, standing between us and the carriage, he kept up, +sentence by sentence, a low accompaniment of each speech, so that none +of us lost a syllable of what was said. + +As soon as Prairiefire resumed his seat, another silence succeeded. It +lasted several minutes, during which the only audible sounds were +various discontented grunts, accompanied by suppressed mutterings on the +part of old Jaaf, who never could tolerate any Indian but his companion. +That the negro was dissatisfied with this extraordinary visit was +sufficiently apparent to us, but not one of all the red-men took heed of +his deportment. Sus, who was nearest to him, must have heard his low +grumbling, but it did not induce him to change his look from the +countenances of those in his front for a single moment. On the other +hand, the visitors themselves seemed totally unconscious of the negro's +presence, though in fact they were not, as subsequently appeared. In a +word, the Upright Onondago was the centre of attraction for them, all +other things being apparently forgotten for the time. + +At length there was a slight movement among the redskins, and another +arose. This man was positively the least well-looking of the whole +party. His stature was lower than that of the rest of the Indians; his +form was meagre and ungraceful--the last at least, while his mind was in +a state of rest; and his appearance, generally, was wanting in that +nobleness of exterior which so singularly marked that of every one of +his companions. As I afterward learned, the name of this Indian was +Eaglesflight, being so called from the soaring character of the +eloquence in which he had been known to indulge. On the present +occasion, though his manner was serious and his countenance interested, +the spirit within was not heaving with any of its extraordinary throes. +Still, such a man could not rise to speak and avoid creating some slight +sensation among his expectant auditors. Guarded as are the red-men in +general on the subject of betraying their emotions, we could detect +something like a suppressed movement among his friends when Eaglesflight +stood erect. The orator commenced in a low, but solemn manner, his tones +changing from the deep, impressive guttural to the gentle and pathetic, +in a way to constitute eloquence of itself. As I listened, I fancied +that never before did the human voice seem to possess so much winning +power. The utterance was slow and impressive, as is usually the case +with true orators. + +"The Great Spirit makes men differently," commenced Eaglesflight. "Some +are like willows, that bend with the breeze, and are broken in the +storm. Some are pines, with slender trunks, few branches, and a soft +wood. Now and then there is an oak among them, which grows on the +prairie, stretching its branches a great way, and making a pleasant +shade. This wood is hard; it lasts a long time. Why has the Great Spirit +made this difference in trees?--why does the Great Spirit make this +difference in men? There is a reason for it. _He_ knows it, though we +may not. What he does is always right! + +"I have heard orators at our council-fires complain that things should +be as they are. They say that the land, and the lakes, and the rivers, +and the hunting-grounds, belong to the red-man only, and that no other +color ought ever to be seen there. The Great Spirit has thought +otherwise, and what he thinks happens. Men are of many colors. Some are +red, which is the color of my father. Some are pale, which is the color +of my friends. Some are black, which is the color of my father's friend. +He is black, though old age is changing his skin. All this is right; it +comes from the Great Spirit, and we must not complain. + +"My father says he is very old--that the pine in the woods is scarce +older. We know it. That is one reason why we have come so far to see +him, though there is another reason. My father knows what that other +reason is; so do we. For a hundred winters and summers, that reason has +not gone out of our minds. The old men have told it to the young men; +and the young men, when they have grown older, have told it to their +sons. In this way it has reached our ears. How may bad Indians have +lived in that time, have died, and are forgotten! It is the good Indian +that lives longest in our memories. We wish to forget that the wicked +ever were in our tribes. We never forget the good. + +"I have seen many changes. I am but a child, compared with my father; +but I feel the cold of sixty winters in my bones. During all that time, +the red-men have been travelling toward the setting sun. I sometimes +think I shall live to reach it! It must be a great way off, but the man +who never stops goes far. Let us go there, pale-faces will follow. Why +all this is, I do not know. My father is wiser than his son, and he may +be able to tell us. I sit down to hear his answer." + +Although Eaglesflight had spoken so quietly, and concluded in a manner +so different from what I had expected, there was a deep interest in what +was now going on. The particular reason why these red-men had come so +far out of their way to visit Susquesus had not yet been revealed, as we +all hoped would be the case; but the profound reverence that these +strangers, from the wilds of the far west, manifested for our aged +friend, gave every assurance that when we did learn it, there would be +no reason for disappointment. As usual, a pause succeeded the brief +address of the last speaker; after which, Susquesus once more arose and +spoke. + +"My children," he said, "I am very old. Fifty autumns ago, when the +leaves fell, I thought it was time for me to pass on to the happy +hunting-grounds of my people, and be a redskin again. But my name was +not called. I have been left alone here, in the midst of the pale-face +fields, and houses, and villages, without a single being of my own color +and race to speak to. My head was almost grown white. Still, as years +came on my head, the spirit turned more toward my youth. I began to +forget the battles, and hunts, and journeys of middle life, and to think +of the things seen when a young chief among the Onondagoes. My day is +now a dream, in which I dream of the past. Why is the eye of Susquesus +so far-seeing, after a hundred winters and more? Can any one tell? I +think not. We do not understand the Great Spirit, and we do not +understand his doings. Here I am, where I have been for half my days. +That big wigwam is the wigwam of my best friends. Though their faces are +pale, and mine is red, our hearts have the same color. I never forget +_them_--no, not one of them. I see them all, from the oldest to the +youngest. They seem to be of my blood. This comes from friendship, and +many kindnesses. These are all the pale-faces I now see. Red-men stand +before my eyes in all other places. My mind is with them. + +"My children, you are young. Seventy winters are a great many for one of +you. It is not so with me. Why I have been left standing alone here near +the hunting-grounds of our fathers, is more than I can say. So it is, +and it is right. A withered hemlock is sometimes seen standing by itself +in the fields of the pale-faces. I am such a tree. It is not cut down, +because the wood is of no use, and even the squaws do not like it to +cook by. When the winds blow, they seem to blow around it. It is tired +of standing there alone, but it cannot fall. That tree wishes for the +axe, but no man puts the axe to its root. Its time has not come. So it +is with me--my time has not come. + +"Children, my days now are dreams of my tribe. I see the wigwam of my +father. It was the best in the village. He was a chief, and venison was +never scarce in his lodge. I see him come off the war-path with many +scalps on his pole. He had plenty of wampum, and wore many medals. The +scalps on his pole were sometimes from red-men, sometimes from +pale-faces. He took them all himself. I see my mother, too. She loved me +as the she-bear loves her cubs. I had brothers and sisters, and I see +them, too. They laugh and play, and seem happy. There is the spring +where we dipped up water in our gourds, and here is the hill where we +lay waiting for the warriors to come in from the war-paths and the hunt. +Everything looks pleasant to me. That was a village of the Onondagoes, +my own people, and I loved them a hundred and twenty winters ago. I love +them now, as if the time were but one winter and one summer. The mind +does not feel time. For fifty seasons I thought but little of my own +people. My thoughts were on the hunt and the war-path, and on the +quarrels of the pale-faces, with whom I lived. Now, I say again, I think +most of the past, and of my young days. It is a great mystery why we can +see things that are so far off so plainly, and cannot see things that +are so near by. Still, it is so. + +"Children, you ask why the red-men keep moving toward the setting sun, +and why the pale-faces follow? You ask if the place where the sun sets +will ever be reached, and if pale-men will go there to plough and to +build, and to cut down the trees. He that has seen what _has_ happened, +ought to know what _will_ happen again. I am very old, but I see nothing +new. One day is like another. The same fruits come each summer, and the +winters are alike. The bird builds in the same tree many times. + +"My children, I have lived long among the pale-faces. Still, my heart is +of the same color as my face. I have never forgotten that I am a +red-man; never forgotten the Onondagoes. When I was young, beautiful +woods covered these fields. Far and near the buck and the moose leaped +among the trees. Nothing but the hunter stopped them. It is all changed! +The plough has frightened away the deer. The moose will not stay near +the sound of the church-bell. He does not know what it means. The deer +goes first. The red-man keeps on his trail, and the pale-face is never +far behind. So it has been since the big canoes of the stranger first +came into our waters; so it will be until another salt lake is reached +beneath the setting sun. When that other lake is seen, the red-man must +stop, and die in the open fields, where rum, and tobacco, and bread are +plenty, or march on into the great salt lake of the west and be drowned. +_Why_ this is so, I cannot tell. That it has been so, I know; that it +_will_ be so, I believe. There is a reason for it; none can tell what +that reason is but the Great Spirit." + +Susquesus had spoken calmly and clearly, and Manytongues translated as +he proceeded, sentence by sentence. So profound was the attention of the +savage listeners that I heard their suppressed breathings. We white men +are so occupied with ourselves, and our own passing concerns, look on +all other races of human beings as so much our inferiors, that it is +seldom we have time or inclination to reflect on the consequences of our +own acts. Like the wheel that rolls along the highway, however, many is +the inferior creature that we heedlessly crush in our path. Thus has it +been with the red-man, and, as the Trackless had said, thus will it +continue to be. He will be driven to the salt lake of the far west, +where he must plunge in and be drowned, or turn and die in the midst of +abundance. + +My uncle Ro knew more of the Indians, and of their habits, than any one +else of our party, unless it might be my grandmother. She, indeed, had +seen a good deal of them in early life; and when quite a young girl, +dwelling with that uncle of her own who went by the _sobriquet_ of the +"Chainbearer," she had even dwelt in the woods, near the tribe of +Susquesus, and had often heard him named there as an Indian in high +repute, although he was even at that distant day an exile from his +people. When our old friend resumed his seat, she beckoned her son and +myself to the side of the carriage, and spoke to us on the subject of +what had just been been uttered, the translation of Manytongues having +been loud enough to let the whole party hear what he said. + +"This is not a visit of business, but one of ceremony only," she said. +"To-morrow, probably, the real object of the strangers will be made +known. All that has passed, as yet, has been complimentary, mixed with a +little desire to hear the wisdom of the sage. The red-man is never in a +hurry, impatience being a failing that he is apt to impute to us women. +Well, though we are females, we can wait. In the meantime, some of us +can weep, as you see is particularly the case with Miss Mary Warren." + +This was true enough; the fine eyes of all four of the girls glistening +with tears, while the cheeks of the person named were quite wet with +those that had streamed down them. At this allusion to such an excess of +sympathy, the young lady dried her eyes, and the color heightened so +much in her face, that I thought it best to avert my looks. While this +by-play was going on, Prairiefire arose again, and concluded the +proceedings of that preliminary visit, by making another short speech: + +"Father," he said, "we thank you. What we have heard will not be +forgotten. All red-men are afraid of that great salt lake, under the +setting sun, and in which some say it dips every night. What you have +told us, will make us think more of it. We have come a great distance, +and are tired. We will now go to our wigwam, and eat, and sleep. +To-morrow, when the sun is up here," pointing to a part of the heavens +that would indicate something like nine o'clock, "we will come again, +and open our ears. The Great Spirit who has spared you so long, will +spare you until then, and we shall not forget to come. It is too +pleasant to us to be near you, for us to forget. Farewell." + +The Indians now rose in a body, and stood regarding Susquesus fully a +minute, in profound silence, when they filed off at a quick pace, and +followed their leader toward their quarters for the night. As the train +noiselessly wound its way from before him, a shade passed athwart the +dark countenance of the Trackless, and he smiled no more that day. + +All this time the negro, the contemporary of the Indian, kept muttering +his discontent at seeing so many redskins in his presence, unheeded and +indeed unheard by his friend. + +"What you do wid dem Injin," he growled, as the party disappeared. "No +good ebber come of sich as dem. How many time dey work debbletry in a +wood, and you and I not werry far off, Sus. How ole you got, redskin; +and forgetful! Nobody can hold out wid color' man. Gosh! I do b'lieve I +lib for ebber, sometime! It won'erful to think of, how long I stay on +dis werry 'arth!" + +Such exclamations were not uncommon with the aged Jaaf, and no one noted +them. He did not seem to expect any answer himself, nor did any one +appear to deem it at all necessary to make one. As for the Trackless, he +arose with a saddened countenance, and moved into his hut like one who +wished to be left alone with his thoughts. My grandmother ordered the +carriage to move on, and the rest of us returned to the house on foot. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + "With all thy rural echoes come, + Sweet comrade of the rosy day, + Wafting the wild bee's gentle hum, + Or cuckoo's plaintive roundelay."--CAMPBELL. + + +That night was passed under my own roof, in the family circle. Although +my presence on the estate was now generally known, to all who were +interested in it, I cannot say that I thought much of the anti-renters, +or of any risks incurred by the discovery. The craven spirit manifested +by the "Injins" in presence of the Indians, the assumed before the real, +had not a tendency to awaken much respect for the disaffected, and quite +likely disposed me to be more indifferent to their proceedings than I +might otherwise have been. At all events, I was happy with Patt and +Mary, and my uncle's wards, and did not give the disorganizers a +thought, until quite at the close of the evening. The manner in which +John went about to barricade the doors and windows, after the ladies had +retired, struck me unpleasantly, however, and it did not fail to produce +the same effect on my uncle. This seemingly important duty was done, +when my faithful _maitre-d'hotel_, for such, in a measure, was the +Englishman's station, came to me and my uncle, who were waiting for his +appearance in the library, armed like Robinson Crusoe. He brought us +each a revolving pistol, and a rifle, with a proper allowance of +ammunition. + +"Missus," so John persevered in calling my grandmother, though it was +very unlike an English servant to do so, after he had been in the +country three months--"Missus 'as hordered harms to be laid in, in +quantities, Mr. Hugh, and hall of us has our rifles and pistols, just +like these. She keeps some for herself and Miss Martha, in her own room +still, but as she supposes you can make better use of these than the +maids, I had her orders to bring them down out of the maids' room, and +hoffer them to yourselves, gentlemen. They are hall loaded, and smart +weapons be they." + +"Surely there has been no occasion as yet, for using such things as +these!" exclaimed my uncle. + +"One doesn't know, Mr. Roger, when the hinimy may come. We have had only +three alarms since the ladies arrived, and most luckily no blood was +shed; though we fired at the hinimy, and the hinimy fired at us. When I +says no blood was spilt, I should add, on our side; for there was no way +to know how much the anti's suffered, and they hadn't good stone walls +to cover them, as we 'ad on our side." + +"Gracious Providence! I had no notion of this! Hugh, the country is in a +worse state than I had supposed, and we ought not to leave the ladies +here an hour after to-morrow!" + +As the ladies who came within my uncle's category, did not include Mary +Warren, I did not take exactly the same view of the subject as he did +himself. Nothing further was said on the subject, however; and shortly +after each shouldered his rifle, and retired to his own room. + +It was past midnight when I reached my apartment, but I felt no +inclination for sleep. That had been an important day to me, one full of +excitement, and I was still too much under the influence of its +circumstances to think of my bed. There was soon a profound silence in +the house, the closing of doors and the sound of footsteps having +ceased, and I went to a window, to gaze on the scene without. There was +a three-quarters' moon, which gave light enough to render all the nearer +objects of the landscape distinctly visible. The view had nothing +remarkable in it, but it was always rural and pretty. The little river, +and the broad meadows, were not to be seen from my side of the house, +which commanded the carriage road that wound through the lawn--the +farm-house--the distant church--the neat and pretty rectory--the +dwelling of Mary, and a long reach of farms, that lay along the valley, +and on the broad breast of the rising ground to the westward. + +Everything, far and near, seemed buried in the quiet of deep night. Even +the cattle in the fields had lain down to sleep; for, like men, they +love to follow the law of nature, and divide the hours by light and +darkness. John had placed the candles in my dressing-room, and closed +the inner shutters; but I had taken a seat by a window of the bedroom +and sat in no other light but that which came from the moon, which was +now near setting. I might have been ruminating on the events of the day +half an hour or more, when I fancied some object was in motion on a path +that led toward the village, but which was quite distinct from the +ordinary highway. This path was private, indeed, running fully a mile +through my own farm and grounds, bounded for a considerable distance by +high fences on each side of it, and running among the copses and +thickets of the lawn, as soon as it emerged from the fields. It had been +made in order to enable my grandfather to ride to his fields, +uninterrupted by gates or bars; and issuing into the bit of forest +already described, it passed through that by a short cut, and enabled us +to reach the hamlet by a road that saved nearly a mile in the whole +distance. This path was often used by those who left the Nest, or who +came to it, in the saddle, but rarely by any but those who belonged to +the family. Though old as the place itself, it was little known by +others, not suiting the general taste for publicity, there not being a +solitary dwelling on it between the Nest House itself and the point +where it emerged into the highway, beyond the wood, which was quite near +to the village. + +I could see the whole line of this private path, with the exception, +here and there, of intervals that were hid by trees and thickets, from +the point where it terminated until it entered the wood. There could be +no mistake. Late as was the hour, some one mounted was galloping along +that path, winding his or _her_ way among the rails of the fences; now +plainly visible, then lost to view. I had caught a glimpse of this +phantom (for at that unusual hour, and by that delusive light, it +required no great effort of the imagination thus to fancy the +equestrian), just as it emerged from the wood, and could not well be +mistaken as to the accuracy of my discovery. The path led through a +pretty wooded ravine in the lawn, and no sooner did I lose sight of this +strange object than I turned my eyes eagerly to the spot where it ought +to reappear, on emerging from its cover. + +The path lay in shadow for twenty rods on quitting the ravine, after +which it wound across the lawn to the door, for about twice that +distance in full moonlight. At the termination of the shadow there was a +noble oak, which stood alone, and beneath its wide branches was a seat +much frequented by the ladies in the heats of summer. My eye kept moving +from this point, where the light became strong, to that where the path +issued from the ravine. At the latter it was just possible to +distinguish a moving object, and, sure enough, there I got my next view +of the person I was watching. The horse came up the ascent on a +gallop--a pace that was continued until its rider drew the rein beneath +the oak. Here, to my surprise, a female sprang from the saddle with +great alacrity, and secured her steed within the shadow of the tree. +This was no sooner done than she moved on toward the house, in much +apparent haste. Fearful of disturbing the family, I now left my room on +tiptoe, and without a candle, the light of the moon penetrating the +passages in sufficient quantity to serve my purpose, descending as fast +as possible to the lower floor. Swift and prompt as had been my own +movement, it had been anticipated by another. To my great surprise, on +reaching the little side door to which the path led, and where the +ladies had long been accustomed to get into the saddle, when they used +it, I found a female figure, with her hand on the massive lock, as if +ready to turn its key at some expected summons. To my great +astonishment, on drawing nearer, I recognized, by the faint light that +penetrated through a little window over the door, the person of Mary +Warren! + +I certainly started at this unexpected discovery, but, if she who caused +that start in me submitted to any similar emotion, I did not discover +it. She may have heard my step, however, descending the stairs, and have +been prepared for the meeting. + +"You have seen her, too, have you, Mr. Littlepage!" exclaimed Mary, +though she used the precaution to speak in a suppressed tone. "What +_can_ have brought her here at this late hour?" + +"You know who it is, then, Miss Warren?" I answered, feeling an +indescribable pleasure succeed my surprise, as I remembered the dear +girl, who was fully dressed, just as she had left the drawing-room an +hour before, must have been gazing out upon the moonlight view as well +as myself; a species of romance that proved something like a similiarity +of tastes, if not a secret sympathy between us. + +"Certainly," returned Mary steadily. "I cannot well be mistaken in the +person, I think. It is Opportunity Newcome." + +My hand was on the key, and I turned it in the lock. A bar remained, and +this I also removed, when we opened the door. Sure enough, there came +the person just named, within ten feet of the steps, which she doubtless +intended to ascend. She manifested surprise on ascertaining who were her +porters, but hastened into the house, looking anxiously behind her, as +if distrustful of pursuit or observation. I led the way to the library, +lighted its lamp, and then returned to my two silent companions, looking +a request for explanation. + +Opportunity was a young woman, in her twenty-sixth year, and was not +without considerable personal charms. The exercise and excitement +through which she had just gone had heightened the color in her cheeks, +and rendered her appearance unusually pleasing. Nevertheless, +Opportunity was not a woman to awaken anything like the passion of love +in me, though I had long been aware such was her purpose. I suspected +that her present business was connected with this scheme, I will own, +and was prepared to listen to her communication with distrust. As for +Opportunity herself, she hesitated about making her disclosures, and the +very first words she uttered were anything but delicate or feminine. + +"Well, I declare!" exclaimed Opportunity, "I did not expect to find you +two alone at this time of night!" + +I could have given her tongue a twitch to cure it of its propensity to +speak evil, but concern for Mary Warren induced me to turn anxiously +toward her. Never did the steady self-possession of perfect innocence +better assert itself than in the dear girl at this rude assault; the +innocence which can leave no latent intention, or wish, to alarm the +feelings. + +"We had all retired," answered the pure-minded girl, "and everybody on +my side of the house is in bed and asleep, I believe; but I did not feel +any drowsiness, and was sitting at a window, looking out upon the view +by this lovely moonlight, when I saw you ride out of the woods, and +follow the lane. As you came up to the oak I knew who it was, +Opportunity, and ran down to admit you; for I was certain something +extraordinary must bring you here at this late hour." + +"Oh! nothing extraordinary, at all!" cried Miss Opportunity, in a +careless way. "I love moonlight as well as yourself, Mary, and am a +desperate horse-woman, as you know. I thought it would be romantic to +gallop over to the Nest, and go back between one and two in the morning. +Nothing more, I can assure you." + +The coolness with which this was said amazed me not a little, though I +was not so silly as to believe a syllable of it. Opportunity had a great +deal of vulgar sentimentalism about her, it is true--such as some girls +are apt to mistake for refinement; but she was not quite so bad as to +travel that lane, at midnight, and alone, without some special object. +It occurred to me that this object might be connected with her brother, +and that she would naturally wish to make her communications privately. +We had all taken seats at a table which occupied the centre of the room, +Mary and myself quite near each other, and Opportunity at a distant +angle. I wrote on a slip of paper a short request for Mary to leave me +alone with our visitor, and laid it under her eyes, without exciting +Opportunity's suspicion; talking to her, the whole time, about the +night, and the weather, and her ride. While we were thus engaged, Miss +Warren rose, and quietly glided out of the room. So silently was this +done, that I do not believe my remaining companion was conscious of it +at the moment. + +"You have driven Mary Warren away, Miss Opportunity," I remarked, "by +the hint about our being alone together." + +"Lord! there's no great harm in that! I am used to being alone with +gentlemen, and think nothing of it. But, are we really alone, Mr. Hugh, +and quite by ourselves?" + +"Quite, as you see. Our two selves and Mary Warren I believe to be the +only persons in the house out of our beds. She has left us, a little +hurt, perhaps, and we are quite alone." + +"Oh! As for Mary Warren's feelings, I don't mind them much, Mr. Hugh. +She's a good critter"--yes, this elegant young lady actually used that +extraordinary word--"and as forgiving as religion. Besides, she's only +the Episcopal clergyman's daughter; and, take your family away, that's a +denomination that would not stand long at Ravensnest, I can tell you." + +"I am very glad, then, my family is not away, for it is a denomination I +both honor and love. So long as the grasping and innovating spirit of +the times leaves the Littlepages anything, a fair portion of their means +shall be given to support that congregation. As for Miss Warren, I am +pleased to hear that her temperament is so forgiving." + +"I know that well, and did not speak in the hope of making any change in +your views, Mr. Hugh. Mary Warren, however, will not think much of my +remark to-morrow; I do not believe she thought half as much about it +to-night as I should have done, had it been made to _me_." + +I fancy this was quite true; Mary Warren having listened to the +insinuation as the guileless and innocent hear innuendos that bring no +consciousness with them, while Opportunity's spirit would have been very +apt to buckle on the armor which practice had rendered well-fitting. + +"You have not taken this long ride merely to admire the moon, Miss +Opportunity," I now carelessly remarked, willing to bring things to a +head. "If you would favor me with its real object, I should be pleased +to learn it." + +"What if Mary should be standing at the keyhole, listening?" said this +elegant "critter," with the suspicion of a vulgar mind. "I wouldn't have +her hear what I've got to tell you, for a mint of money." + +"I do not think there is much danger of that," I answered, rising +notwithstanding, and throwing open the door. "You perceive there is no +one here, and we can converse in safety." + +Opportunity was not so easily satisfied. Of a gossiping, craving +disposition herself, in all things that pertain to curiosity, it was not +easy for her to imagine another could be less guided by that feeling +than herself. Rising, therefore, she went on tiptoe to the passage, and +examined it for herself. Satisfied, at length, that we were not watched, +she returned to the room, closed the door softly, motioned for me to be +seated, placed herself quite near me, and then appeared disposed to +proceed to business. + +"This has been a dreadful day, Mr. Hugh," the young woman now commenced, +actually looking sorrowful, as I make little doubt she really felt. "Who +could have thought that the street-musician was you, and that old German +pedler of watches, Mr. Roger! I declare, the world seems to be getting +upside-down, and folks don't know when they're in their right places!" + +"It was a foolish adventure, perhaps; but it has let us into some most +important secrets." + +"That's just the difficulty. I defend you all I can, and tell my +brothers that you've not done anything they wouldn't do in a minute, if +only half a farm depended on it, while, in your case, it may be more +than a hundred." + +"Your brothers, then, complain of my having appeared among the +anti-renters in disguise?" + +"They do, desperately, Mr. Hugh, and seem quite put out about it. They +say it was ungenerous to come in that way into your own country, and +steal their secrets from them! I say all I can in your favor, but words +won't pass for much with men in such a taking. You know, Mr. Hugh, I've +always been your friend, even from our childish days, having got myself +into more than one scrape to get you out of them." + +As Opportunity made this declaration, one a little loose as to facts, by +the way, she sighed gently, dropped her eyes, and looked as conscious +and confused as I believe it was at all in her nature to appear. It was +not my cue to betray undue bashfulness at such a moment, and as for any +scruples on the subject of misleading a confiding heart, I should as +soon have thought of feeding an anaconda or a boa constrictor with +angle-worms. I took the young lady's hand, therefore, squeezed it with +as sentimental a pressure as I knew now to use, and looked green enough +about the eyes, I dare say. + +"You are only too good, Opportunity," I answered. "Yes, I have ever +relied on you as a friend, and have never doubted you would defend me, +when I was not present to defend myself." + +Here I released the hand, a little apprehensive I might have the young +lady sobbing on my shoulder, unless some little moderation were +observed. Opportunity manifested a reluctance to let go her hold, but +what could a young woman do, when the gentleman himself exhibited so +much discretion? + +"Yes, Seneky, in particular, is in a dreadful taking," she resumed, "and +to pacify him, I consented to ride over myself, at this time of night, +to let you know what is threatened." + +"That is most kind of you, Opportunity; and, as it is so late, had you +not better tell your story at once, and then go to a room and rest +yourself, after so sharp a ride?" + +"Tell my tale I will, for it's high time you heard it; but, as for rest, +I must jump on my horse and gallop back the moment the moon sets; sleep +I must in my own bed this night. Of course you and Mary Warren will both +be silent as to my visit, since it has been made for your good." + +I promised for myself and Mary, and then pressed my companion to delay +no longer in imparting the information she had ridden so far to bring. +The story was soon told and proved to be sufficiently alarming. One +portion of the facts I got directly from Opportunity herself, while +another has been subsequently gleaned from various sources, all being +certain. The particular circumstances were these: + +When Seneca followed the band of "Injins" and his co-anti-renters, in +their precipitate retreat on the hamlet, his revelations produced a +general consternation. It then became known that the young Paris +spendthrift was on his own estate, that he had actually been among the +disaffected that day, had learned many of their secrets, and had +probably made black marks against certain of the tenants, whose leases +were nearly expired. Bad as this was, of itself, it was not the worst of +the matter. Nothing was more certain than the fact that this young +landlord knew a few of those who had committed felony, and might have +sundry highly probable suspicions as to others. The guilty lay at his +mercy, as a matter of course; and there was a sufficiency of common +sense left among these conspirators, to understand that a man, who must +feel that attempts were making to rob him of his estate, would be very +likely to turn the tables on his assailants, did an occasion offer. When +men embark in an undertaking as innately nefarious as that of +anti-rentism certainly is, when it is stripped of its pretentions and +stands in its naked deformity, they are not apt to stop at trifles. To +this desperate character of its mischief, the country owes the general +depression of truth that has accompanied its career, its false and +dangerous principles, its confusion between right and wrong, and finally +its murders. It has been the miserable prerogative of demagogues alone, +to defend its career and its demoralization. Thus has it happened that +the country has seen the same quasi legislators--legislators by the vote +of a party and the courtesy of the country, if by no other +tenure--supporting with an air of high pretension, the very doubtful +policy of attempting to make men moral by statute law, on the one side, +while they go the full length of these property depredators, on the +other! In such a state of society, it is not surprising that any +expedient should be adopted to intimidate and bully me into silence. It +was consequently determined, in a conclave of the chiefs, that a +complaint should be made against my uncle and myself, before an +anti-rent justice of the peace, for felony under the recent statute, in +appearing "disguised and armed," as a means of preventing our complaints +against real offenders. It is true, we were not in masks, but our +disguises, nevertheless, were so effectual as possibly to meet the +contingency contemplated by the law, had we been armed. As to weapons, +however, we had been totally and intentionally without anything of the +sort; but oaths cost villains, like those engaged in this plot, very +little. Those oaths had been taken, and warrants were actually signed by +the magistrate, of which the service was suspended at Seneca's +solicitation, merely to enable the last to effect a compromise. It was +not thought sufficient, however, to menace my uncle and myself with a +prosecution of this nature; intimidation of another sort was to be put +in requisition, to enforce the dread of the legal proceedings; a measure +which should let us see that our assailants were in downright earnest. +Opportunity had ascertained that something serious was to be attempted, +and she believed that very night, though what it was precisely was more +than she knew; or knowing, was willing to communicate. + +The object of this late visit, then, was to make terms for her brother, +or brothers; to apprise me of some unknown but pressing danger, and to +obtain all that influence in my breast that might fairly be anticipated +from services so material. Beyond a question, I was fortunate in having +such a friend in the enemy's camp, though past experience had taught me +to be wary how I trusted my miserable and sensitive heart within the +meshes of a net that had been so often cast. + +"I am very sensible of the importance of your services, Miss +Opportunity," I said, when the voluble young lady had told her tale, +"and shall not fail to bear it in mind. As for making any direct +arrangement with your brother Seneca, that is out of the question, since +it would be compromising felony, and subject me to punishment; but I can +be passive, if I see fit, and your wishes will have great weight with +me. The attempt to arrest my uncle and myself, should it ever be made, +will only subject its instigators to action for malicious prosecutions, +and gives me no concern. It is very doubtful how far we were disguised, +in the sense of the statute, and it is certain we were not armed, in any +sense. Without perjury therefore, such a prosecution must fail----" + +"Folks take desperate oaths in anti-rent times!" interrupted +Opportunity, with a significant look. + +"I am quite aware of that. Human testimony, at the best, is very frail, +and often to be distrusted; but in seasons of excitement, and passion, +and cupidity, it is common to find it corrupt. The most material thing, +at present, is to know precisely the nature of the evil they meditate +against us." + +Opportunity's eye did not turn away, as mine was fastened on her while +she answered this question, but retained all the steadiness of +sincerity. + +"I wish I could tell you, Mr. Hugh," she said; "but I can say no more +than I have. Some injury will be attempted this night, I feel certain; +but what that injury will be, is more than I know myself. I must now go +home; for the moon will be nearly down, and it will never do for me to +be seen by any of the antis. The little I _have_ said in favor of the +Littlepages has made me enemies, as it is; but I never should be +forgiven, was this ride to be known." + +Opportunity now rose, and smiling on me, as any other rover might be +supposed to fire a parting broadside, in order to render the +recollection of her presence as memorable as possible, she hurried away. +I accompanied her to the oak, as a matter of course, and assisted her +into her saddle. Sundry little passages of country coquetry occurred +during these movements, and the young lady manifested a reluctance to +depart, even when all was ready, though she was in so great a hurry. Her +game was certainly as desperate as that of the anti-renters themselves, +but it was a game she was determined to play out. The moon was not yet +quite down, and that circumstance served as a pretence for delay, while +I fancied that she might still have something in reserve to communicate. + +"This has been so kind in you, dear Opportunity," I said, laying my hand +gently on the one of hers which held the bridle--"so like old times--so +like yourself, indeed--that I scarce know how to thank you. But we shall +live to have old-fashioned times again, when the former communications +can be opened among us. Those were happy days, when we all went +galloping over the hills together; mere boys and girls, it is true, but +delighted boys and girls I hope you will allow." + +"That they was"--Opportunity's education and graces did not extend to +good grammar, in her ordinary discourse, which many persons among us +seem to fancy is anti-republican--"That they was! And I should like to +live 'em over again. Never mind, Hugh; you'll live to put down these +people, and then you'll settle and marry. You mean to marry, of course?" + +This was a pretty plain demonstration; but I was used to it, as what +young man of fortune is not?--and a danger known is a danger avoided. I +pressed the hand I held gently, relinquished it, and then observed, in a +somewhat disappointed tone---- + +"Well, I ought not to ask again, what is the particular injury I am to +expect to-night. A brother is nearer than a friend, I know; and I can +appreciate your difficulties." + +Opportunity had actually given the spirited beast she rode the rein, and +was on the point of galloping off, when these last words touched her +heart. Leaning forward, and bending her head down, so as to bring our +faces within a foot of each other, she said, in a low voice---- + +"_Fire_ is a good servant, but a hard master. A teakettle of water +thrown on it, at first, would have put out the last great conflagration +in York." + +These words were no sooner uttered than the bold young woman struck her +horse a smart blow, and away she went galloping over the turf with an +almost noiseless hoof. I watched her for a moment, and saw her descend +into the ravine; when, left quite alone, there was abundant opportunity +for reflection, though no longer any Opportunity to look at. + +"Fire!"--That _was_ an ominous word. It is the instrument of the low +villain, and is an injury against which it is difficult, indeed, to +guard. It had been used in these anti-rent troubles, though less, +perhaps, than would have been the case in almost any other country; the +institutions of this, even if they have introduced so many false and +exaggerated notions of liberty, having had a most beneficial effect in +lessening some of the other evils of humanity. Still, fire _had_ been +resorted to, and the term of "barn-burner" had got to be common among +us; far more common, I rejoice to say, than the practice which gave it +birth. Nevertheless, it was clearly of the last importance to certain +persons at Ravensnest to frighten me from complaining, since their +crimes could only lead them to the State's prison, were justice done. I +determined, therefore, not to lay my head on a pillow that night, until +assured that the danger was past. + +The moon had now set, but the stars shed their twinkling rays on the +dusky landscape. I was not sorry for the change, as it enabled me to +move about with less risk of being seen. The first thing was to seek +some auxiliaries to aid me in watching, and I at once decided to look +for them among my guests, the Indians. If "fire will fight fire," +"Indian" ought to be a match for "Injin" any day. There is just the +difference between these two classes of men, that their names would +imply. The one is natural, dignified, polished in his way--nay, +gentleman-like; while the other is a sneaking scoundrel, and as vulgar +as his own appellation. No one would think of calling these last +masquerading rogues "Indians;" by common consent, even the most +particular purist in language terms them "Injins." "_Il y a chapeau et +chapeau_," and there are "Indian" and "Injin." + +Without returning to the house, I took my way at once toward the +quarters of my red guests. Familiar with every object around me, I kept +so much within the shadows, and moved across the lawn and fields by a +route so hidden, that there was not much risk of my being seen, even had +there been enemies on the lookout. The distance was not great, and I +soon stood at the foot of the little knoll on which the old farm-house +stood, sheltered in a manner by a dark row of aged currants, which lined +the bottom of an old and half-deserted garden. Here I paused to look +about me, and to reflect a moment, before I proceeded any further. + +There stood the good old substantial residence of my fathers, in shadowy +outline, looming large and massive in its form and aspect. It might be +fired, certainly, but not with much facility, on its exterior. With the +exception of its roof, its piazza, and its outside doors, little wood +was exposed to an incendiary without; and a slight degree of +watchfulness might suffice against such a danger. Then the law punished +arson of an inhabited dwelling with death, as it should do, and your +sneaking scoundrels seldom brave such a penalty in this country. Much is +said about the impotency of the punishment of the gallows, but no man +can tell how many thousand times it has stayed the hand and caused the +heart to quail. Until some one can appear among us, who is able to +reveal this important secret, it is idle to talk about the few cases in +which it is known that the risk of death has been insufficient to +prevent crime. One thing we all know; other punishments exist, and crime +is perpetrated directly in _their_ face, daily and hourly; and I cannot +see why such a circumstance should not be just as much of an argument +against the punishment of the penitentiary, as against punishment by the +gallows. For one, I am clearly for keeping in existence the knowledge +that there is a power in the country, potent to sweep away the offender, +when cases of sufficient gravity occur to render the warning wholesome. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + "O, time and death! with certain pace + Though still unequal, hurrying on, + O'erturning, in your awful race, + The cot, the palace, and the throne! + + "Not always in the storm of war, + Nor by the pestilence that sweeps + From the plague-smitten realms afar, + Beyond the old and solemn deeps."--SANDS. + + +Besides the house with its walls of stone, however, there were numerous +out-buildings. The carriage-house, stables, and home-barn were all of +stone also; but a brand thrown into a hay-mow would easily produce a +conflagration. The barns, hay-ricks, etc., on the flats, and near the +dwelling of Miller, were all of wood, according to the custom of the +country, and it was not death to set fire to a barn. The "disguised and +armed" who should commit this last offence would incur no other risk +than that which had already been incurred in carrying out his desperate +plans. I thought of these things for a moment, when I opened a passage +through the currant bushes, intending to pass by a breach in the decayed +fence into the garden, and thus by a private way to the house. To my +astonishment, and in a slight degree to my alarm, a man stood before me +the instant I emerged from the thicket. + +"Who be--where go--what want?" demanded one of the real redskins, +significantly; this being a sentinal of the party, whose vigilance even +my guarded approach had not eluded. + +I told him who I was, and that I came to seek the interpreter, +Manytongues. No sooner was I recognized, than my red friend offered me +his hand to shake, American fashion, and seemed satisfied. He asked no +question, manifested no curiosity at this visit at an hour so unusual, +and took it all as one in ordinary life would receive a call in a +morning between the permitted hours of twelve and three. _Something_ had +brought me there, he must have known; but what that something was, +appeared to give him no concern. This man accompanied me to the house, +and pointed to the spot where I should find the person I sought, snoring +on his well-shaken bundles of straw. + +At the first touch of my finger, Manytongues awoke, and stood erect. He +recognized me in an instant, dark as was the room, and touching my arm +as a signal to follow, led the way into the open air. After moving out +of ear-shot, he stopped and proceeded to business himself, like one +accustomed to such interruptions. + +"Anything stirring to-night?" demanded this frontier-man, with the +coolness of one who was ever ready. "Am I to call my redskins, or is it +only a notice that is to be given?" + +"Of that you shall judge for yourself. You doubtless know the condition +of this part of the country, and the troubles that exist on the subject +of the rents paid for the use of the farms. What you saw to-day is a +specimen of the scenes that are now constantly acted among us." + +"Colonel, I can't say I do rightly understand the state of things down +hereaway," drawled out the interpreter, after yawning like a hound, and +giving me the most favorite title of the frontiers. "It seems to be +neither one thing nor t'other; nuther tomahawk nor law. I can understand +both of _them_, but this half-and-half sort of thing bothers me, and +puts me out. You ought to have law, or you hadn't ought; but what you +have should be stuck to." + +"You mean that you do not find this part of the country either civilized +or savage. Not submitting to the laws, nor yet permitting the natural +appeal to force?" + +"Something of that sort. The agent told me, when I came on with this +party of redskins, that I was comin' down into a quarter of the country +where there was justices of the peace, and that no man, red or pale, +could or should right himself. So we've all on us indivor'd to go by +that rule; and I can qualify that not a critter has been shot or scalped +since we crossed the Mississippi. Some sich law was necessary among us, +as we came from different and hostile tribes, and nothing would be +easier than to breed a quarrel among ourselves, if a body was so +disposed. But, I must say, that I'm not only disapp'inted myself, but +most of my chiefs be dreadfully disapp'inted likewise." + +"In what particular have you been most disappointed?" + +"In many matters. The first thing that set me athinkin' was to hear +folks read them newspapers. The way men talk of each other, in them +things, is wonderful, and to me it's a surprise any's left, at the end +of the year, to begin the same game the next. Why, Colonel +Littlepage----" + +"I am no colonel--not even an ensign--you must be confounding me with +some other of my family." + +"You _ought_ to be, sir, and I shall not do you the injustice to call +you by any lower title. I've known gentlemen of not one-quarter your +pretensions tarmed gin'rals, out west. I've hunted on the prer-ies these +twenty-five years, and have now crossed the upper lakes six times, and +know what is due to a gentleman as well as any man. And so, as I was +sayin', Colonel Littlepage, was men to _talk_ of each other out on the +prer-ies as they _print_ of each other down here among the +meetin'-'uses, scalps would be so plenty as to fall considerable in +valie. I'm not at all spiteful, but my feelin's has been r'iled at only +just _hearin_' 'em things _read_, for, as for reading myself, that's a +thing I never condescended to. This somewhat prepared me for findin' +things different as I got deeper into the settlement, and I've not been +disapp'inted so far as them expectations went--it's the old idee that's +been crossed." + +"I am not astonished to hear this, and agree with you entirely in +thinking that the nations which can withstand a press of which the +general character is as degraded as that of this country, must be +composed of beings of a higher order than man. But, to come to business; +you must have some notions of these mock savages, and of the people +called anti-renters?" + +"Sort o', and sort o' not. I can't understand when a man has agreed to +pay rent, why he should not pay it. A bargain is a bargain, and the word +of a gentleman is as good as his bond." + +"These opinions would surprise some among us, a few legislators +included. _They_ appear to think that the moral test of every engagement +is whether the parties like it or not." + +"One word, if you please, colonel. Do they give in as much to complaints +of the owners of the sile as to the complaints of them that hire the +land in order to work it?" + +"Not at all. The complaints of the landlords would not find a single +sympathetic chord in the breast of the softest-hearted politician in +America, let them be ever so well-founded. Surely, _you_, who are a +rover on the prairies, can have no great respect for land titles?" + +"The prer-ie is the prer-ie, colonel, and men live and act by prer-ie +law on prer-ie ground. But right is right, too, colonel, as well as +prer-ie is prer-ie; and I like to see it prevail. I do not think you +will find a redskin among all the chiefs who are asleep under that roof +who will not give his voice again flying from the tarms of a solemn +bargain. A man must be well steeped in the ways of the law, I should +judge, to bring his mind to such an act." + +"Do these red-men, then, know anything of the nature of the difficulties +that exist here?" + +"They have heard on 'em, and have talked a good deal together on the +subject. It's opposyte to the very natur' of an Indian, like, to agree +to one thing, and to do another. But, here is a Chippewa, who is on the +lookout. I will ask him a question, and you shall hear his answer." + +Manytongues now spoke to the sentinel, who was sauntering near. After a +brief exchange of questions and answers in the tongue of the latter, the +interpreter communicated what had passed. + +"This Chippewa has heard somewhere," he said, "that there are folks in +this part of the world who get into wigwams, by agreeing to pay rent for +them, and, when once in possession, they want to fly from their +agreements, and make the man they got it from prove his right to it. Is +that true, colonel?" + +"It is true, out of all question, and not only do the tenants wish to +enact this treachery, but they have found others, that call themselves +legislators, who are willing to sustain them in the fraud. It is much as +if you should borrow, or hire a rifle for a day's sporting, and when the +man who let you have it, came to claim it at night, you should tell him +to prove he was the right owner." + +"What's that to me? I got the rifle of him; have no right but such as he +had; and am bound to stand by my bargain. No, no, colonel; not a redskin +on the prer-ies but would revolutionize at that! But what may have +brought you here, at this time o' night? Them that sleep in beds, don't +like to quit them till mornin' comes to tell 'em to rise." + +I then gave Manytongues an account of the visit I had received, without +mentioning the name of Opportunity, however, and related the nature of +the warning I had heard. The interpreter was in nowise disturbed at this +prospect of a collision with the Injins, against whom he had a grudge, +not only on account of the little affair of the preceding day, but +mainly in consequence of their having brought real savages into +discredit, by the craven and clumsy manner in which they had carried out +their imitation. + +"Nothin' better is to be expected from such critturs," he observed, +after we had discussed the matter together, at some little length, +"though fire is held to be lawful warfare, even on the prer-ies. For my +part, I'm not at all sorry there is something to do; nor will my chiefs +be melancholy on this account, for it is dull work to be doing nothing, +for months and months at a time, but smoking at councils, making +speeches to folks who live by talking, and eating and drinking. Activity +is the natur' of a prer-ie man, and he's always glad to pick his flint, +after a spell of considerable quiet. I'll tell the Chippewa to step in +and bring out the redskins, a'ter which you can give your orders." + +"I could wish watchfulness rather than violence. The men can lie in +watch, near the principal buildings, and it might be well to have some +water ready, to extinguish any flames that may be lighted, before they +get too far ahead." + +"Just as you say, colonel, for you are my captain-general. But I can +tell you how I did once, out on the prer-ies, when I caught a rascal of +a Sioux blowing a fire he had kindled at one of my own lodges. I just +laid him on the flames, and let him put them out himself by bleeding on +them." + +"We must have no violence, unless it become indispensable to save the +buildings. The law will not justify us in using our arms, except in the +least extremity. Prisoners I wish you to take; for they may serve as +hostages, besides furnishing examples to intimidate other offenders. I +rely on you to give due warning to our red friends on this subject." + +The interpreter gave a sort of grunt, but he said nothing. The +conversation went no farther, however, just then; for, by this time, the +Indians came stealing out of the house, every man of them armed, looking +dusky, prepared and full of wariness. Manytongues did not keep them +long, but soon told his story. After this, his authority appeared, in a +great measure, to cease. Flintyheart was now the most prominent of the +party, though Prairiefire, and another warrior, were also connected with +the orders given to the rest. I observed that Eaglesflight had no part +in these arrangements, which were peculiarly military, though he +appeared armed and ready, and went forth on the sudden call, like the +rest. In five minutes, the Indians were all off, principally in pairs, +leaving the interpreter and myself still standing together, in front of +the deserted house. + +It was, by this time, past one o'clock, and I thought it probable my +enemies would soon appear, if they came that night. Accompanied by the +interpreter, I took the way toward the Nest House, it occurring to me +that arms might be wanted, in the course of the morning. On quitting my +room, the rifle and pistol provided by John had been left there, and I +thought of stealing into the house again, obtaining those weapons, +extinguish my light, and rejoin my present companion, without giving +alarm to any of the sleepers. + +This plan was successfully executed, so far as ascending to my room and +descending to the door were concerned, but there it met with an +interruption. While in the very act of closing the little postern, as we +used to call it, by way of pleasantry, I felt a small soft hand laid on +the one of my own which was drawing-to the door after me. In an instant +I had turned, and was at the side of Mary Warren. I expressed my +surprise at finding her still up, and concern lest she might suffer in +health, in consequence of so much unusual watchfulness. + +"I could not sleep after what has passed to-night," she answered, +"without knowing the meaning of all these movements. I have been looking +from my window, and saw you assist Opportunity to get on her horse, and +afterward walk toward the old farm-house, where the Indians are lodged. +Tell me, frankly, Mr. Littlepage, is there any danger to be +apprehended?" + +"I shall be frank with you, Mary"--how easy and pleasant it was to me to +use this gentle familiarity, which might now be assumed without +appearing to be presumptuous, under all the circumstances of our +intercourse; "I shall be frank with you, Mary; for I know that your +prudence and self-command will prevent any unnecessary alarm, while your +watchfulness may be of use. There is some reason to fear the brand." + +"The brand!" + +"So Opportunity has given me reason to suppose; and I do not think she +would have ridden the distance she did at such an hour, unless her +business were serious. The brand is the proper instrument of the +anti-renter, and renders his disguise convenient. I have got all the +red-men on the lookout, however; and I do not think that mischief can be +done to-night, without its being detected. To-morrow, we can appeal to +the authorities for protection." + +"I will not sleep this night!" exclaimed Mary, drawing the light shawl +she wore, as a protection against the air of that summer-night, more +closely around her person, as a sterner being might be supposed to gird +on his armor in a moment of peril. "I care not for rest. They ought not, +they _shall_ not, Mr. Littlepage, do you this wrong. Have you +apprehensions for this house?" + +"One never knows. This house is not easily set fire to from without, and +I scarcely think there can be any enemy within. The domestics are old +and tried, and I do not believe that either of them could be bought. I +feel little apprehension, therefore, from any within, while I confess to +a good deal from those without. Fire is such a dreadful foe, and one is +usually so helpless against its ravages in the country! I will not ask +you to retire, for I know you will not--nay, cannot sleep; but, by +passing from window to window, for the next hour, or until I rejoin you, +your mind will be occupied, and possibly some injury might be prevented. +An unseen observer from a window might detect an attempt that would +escape those on the watch without." + +"I will do so," said Mary, eagerly; "and should I discover anything, I +will open a leaf of the shutter of my own room. You can then see the +light of the candle within, and by coming at once to this door, you will +find me here, ready to let you know my discovery." + +With this understanding they parted, but not until I had shaken hands +affectionately with this gentle-looking, but really resolute and +clear-headed girl. I rejoined Manytongues, who stood in the shadows of +the piazza, where there was no possibility of his being seen, except by +one quite near his person. After a brief explanation, we parted, one +taking the north side of the buildings, and the other the south, in +order to make certain no incendiary was at work on either of the wings. + +The Nest House was much less exposed to attempts like those we +apprehended, than most American dwellings. The structure being of stone, +left but little inflammable material accessible; and the doors, on the +exterior, were only two--those already mentioned. There was a great +gate, it is true; one large enough to admit a cart into the inner court, +on the southern face of the wing, beneath the arch of which an +incendiary might, indeed, make his attempt, though a practised rogue +would at once see the difficulties. Little wood was even there, beyond +that of the massive gate itself, which, once burnt, would leave no +further fuel for flames. I examined the place, notwithstanding; and +finding all safe on my side of the building, I went to rejoin the +interpreter, who was to meet me at the foot of a fine beech, which +spread its broad arms over the lawn, at the distance of about a hundred +yards from the house, and so nearly in its front, as to afford us, in +all respects, the most eligible position for sentinels on duty like +ours, far or near. + +At the foot of that beech I found Manytongues, and the deep obscurity in +which his form was embedded, was, of itself, a high recommendation of +the position. I did not see him until almost near enough to touch him. +He was seated on a bench, and seemed entirely at his ease, like one +accustomed to ambushes, vigilance, and midnight assaults. We exchanged +reports, ascertained all was well, and then I took my seat at the +interpreter's side, willing to beguile the time by such discourse as +occurred to my mind. + +"That was a most interesting scene, last evening," I remarked; "the +interview between Old Trackless and your red companions! I own a lively +curiosity to know what particular claim our aged friend has on those +distant tribes, that chiefs of note have come so far to see him?" + +"They have not come all the way from the prer-ies, to this spot, on any +such ar'n'd, though I do not question their readiness to do so. In the +first place, old age, when accompanied by wisdom, and sobriety, and a +good character, goes a great way with savages, in gin'ral. But there is +something partic'lar about the acts of Susquesus that I do not know, +which raises him higher than common in redskin eyes. I intend to l'arn +what it is before we quit this country." + +A pause succeeded; then I spoke of the "prer-ies," as almost all western +men pronounce the word. I drew such an outline of the life as I supposed +my companion passed there, thinking it might be agreeable to hear his +own habits and enjoyments extolled. + +"I'll tell you how it is, colonel," returned the interpreter, with a +little show of feeling; much more than he had previously manifested on +any occasion during our short acquaintance; "yes, I'll jist tell you how +it is. Prer-ie life is delightsome to them that loves freedom and +justice." + +"Freedom I can understand," said I, interrupting him, in my +surprise--"but as for justice, I should think that laws are absolutely +necessary." + +"Ay, that's a settlement idee, I know, but it's not as true as some +supposes. There is no court and jury like _this_, colonel," slapping the +breech of his rifle with energy, "and eastern powder conspired with +Galena lead makes the best of attorneys. I've tried both, and speak on +sartainty. Law druv' me out on the prer-ies, and love for them keeps me +there. Down this-a-way, you're neither one thing nor tuther--law nor +rifle; for, if you _had_ law, as law _ought_ to be, you and I wouldn't +be sitting here, at this time of night, to prevent your mock Injins from +setting fire to your houses and barns." + +There was only too much truth in this last position of the +straightforward interpreter to be gainsaid. After making some proper +allowances for the difficulties of the case, and the unexpected +circumstances, no impartial man could deny that the laws had been +trifled with, or things never would have reached the pass they had: as +Manytongues affirmed, we had neither the protection of the law, nor the +use of the rifle. It ought to be written in letters of brass in all the +highways and places of resort in the country, that A STATE OF SOCIETY +WHICH PRETENDS TO THE PROTECTION THAT BELONGS TO CIVILIZATION, AND FAILS +TO GIVE IT, ONLY MAKES THE CONDITION OF THE HONEST PORTION OF THE +COMMUNITY SO MUCH THE WORSE, BY DEPRIVING IT OF THE PROTECTION CONFERRED +BY NATURE, WITHOUT SUPPLYING THE SUBSTITUTE. I dare say the interpreter +and I sat an hour under that tree, conversing in low voices, on such +matters and things as came uppermost in our minds. There was a good deal +of true prer-ie philosophy in the opinions of my companion, which is +much as if one should say his notions were a mixture of clear natural +justice and strong local prejudices. The last sentiment he uttered was +so very characteristic as to merit particular notice. + +"I'll tell you how it is, colonel," he said, "right is right, and +nonsense is nonsense. If so be, we should happen to catch one of these +mocking rascals firing your house or barn, it would be a smart chance at +justice to settle things on the spot. If I had _my_ way, I should just +tie the fellow, hands and feet, and toss him into the flames to help him +along with his own work. A rascal makes the best of kindling wood!" + +Just at that instant I saw an upper leaf of the inside shutter of Mary +Warren's room open, for my eye was resting on the window at that very +moment. The light had been brought so near the opening as plainly to +show the change, leaving no doubt that my fair sentinel within had made +some important discovery. At such a summons I could not hesitate; but, +telling Manytongues to continue his watchfulness, I went across the lawn +with the steps of youth and haste. In two minutes my hand was on the +latch of the little door; and in two seconds more it was open, and I +found myself standing in front of Mary Warren. A gesture from her hand +induced me to be cautious, and closing the door silently, I asked an +explanation. + +"Speak not too loud," whispered the anxious girl, preserving a wonderful +self-command, nevertheless, for the extraordinary circumstances in which +she was placed. "I have discovered them; they are here!" + +"Here!--not in the house, surely?" + +"In the house itself!--in the kitchen, where they are kindling a fire on +the floor at this instant. Come quickly--there is not a moment to lose." + +It may be well to explain here the arrangement of the kitchen and +offices, in order to render what is to follow the more intelligible. The +gateway mentioned cut the southern wing of the house into two equal +parts, the chambers, however, extending the whole length, and of course +passing over it. On the western side of this gateway were certain +offices connected with the eating-rooms, and those eating-rooms +themselves. On the eastern side were the kitchen, servants' hall, +scullery, etc., and a flight of narrow stairs that led to the chambers +occupied by the domestics. The outside door to this latter portion of +the building was beneath the arch of the gateway, one corresponding to +it opening on its opposite side, and by means of which the service was +ordinarily made. There was a court, environed on three of its sides by +the main edifice, and by two long, low wings that have been so often +mentioned, while it was open on the fourth to the cliff. This cliff was +low land, while it was nearly perpendicular, it was possible for an +active man to ascend, or even to descend it, by clinging to the rocks, +which were sufficiently ragged to admit of such an adventure. When a boy +I had done both fifty times, and it was a somewhat common experiment +among the male domestics and hirelings of the household. It occurred to +me at once that the incendiaries had most probably entered the house by +ascending the cliff, the kitchen of itself furnishing all the materials +to light a conflagration. + +The reader will be assured that, after receiving the startling +communication of Mary Warren, I did not stop to discuss all these +matters with her. My first impulse was to desire her to run to the +beech, and bid Manytongues join me, but she refused to quit my side. + +"No--no--no. You must not go to the kitchen alone," she said, hurriedly. +"There are _two_ of them, and desperate looking wretches are they, with +their faces blackened, and they have muskets. No--no--no. Come, _I_ will +accompany you." + +I hesitated no longer, but moved forward, Mary keeping close at my side. +Fortunately, I had brought the rifle with me, and the revolving pistol +was in my pocket. We went by the eating-rooms and offices, the course +taken by Mary herself on her watch; and who, in looking through a small +window of one of the last, that opened beneath the gateway, had +discovered what was going on, by means of a similar window in the +kitchen. As we went, the noble girl told me that she had kept moving +through the lower rooms of the whole house during the time I had been on +watch out of doors, and attracted by the light that gleamed through +these windows, she had distinctly seen two men, with blackened faces, +kindling a fire in a corner of the kitchen, where the flames must soon +communicate with the stairs, by means of which they would speedily reach +the attics and the wood-work of the roof. Fortunately, the floors of all +that part of the house were made of bricks; that of the servants' hall +excepted, which was a room beyond the narrow passage that contained the +stairs. As soon as apprised of the danger, Mary Warren had flown to the +window of her own room to make the signal to me, and then to the door to +meet me. But three or four minutes had elapsed between the time when she +became apprised of the danger and that when we were walking hurriedly to +the window beneath the gateway. + +A bright light, which shone through the opposite window, announced the +progress made by the incendiaries. Requesting Mary to remain where she +was, I passed through the door, and descended to the pavement of the +gateway. The little window beneath the arch was too high for my +purposes, when on that level, but there was a row of low windows that +opened on the court. To one of these I moved swiftly, and got a clear +view of all that was passing within. + +"There they are!" exclaimed Mary, who, neglectful of my request, still +kept close at my side. "Two men with blackened faces, and the wood of +which they have made their fire is blazing brightly." + +The fire, now I saw it, did not confirm the dread I felt when I had it +before me only in imagination. The stairway had an open place beneath +it, and on the brick floor below had the incendiaries built their pile. +It was constructed at the bottom of some of the common wood that was +found there, in readiness for the wants of the cook in the morning, +lighted by coals taken from the fireplace. A considerable pile had been +made with the wood, which was now burning pretty freely, and the two +rascals were busy piling on the chairs when I first saw them. They had +made a good beginning, and in ten or fifteen minutes longer there is no +doubt that all that portion of the house would have been in flames. + +"You said they had muskets," I whispered to Mary. "Do you see them now?" + +"No: when I saw them, each held his musket in one hand, and worked with +the other." + +I could have shot the villains without difficulty or risk to myself, but +felt deeply averse to taking human life. Still, there was the prospect +of a serious struggle before me, and I saw the necessity of obtaining +assistance. + +"Will you go to my uncle's room, Mary, and tell him to rise immediately. +Then to the front door of the house, and call out 'Manytongues, come +here as fast as possible.' It will take but two minutes to do both, and +I will watch these rascals in the meantime." + +"I dread leaving you here alone with the wretches, Mr. Littlepage," +whispered Mary, gently. + +An earnest entreaty on my part, however, induced her to comply; and, no +sooner did the dear girl set about the accomplishment of the task, then +she flew rather than ran. It did not seem to me a minute ere I heard her +call to the interpreter. The night was so still, that, sweet as were +those tones, and busy as were the incendiaries, they heard them too; or +fancied they heard something which alarmed them. They spoke to each +other, looked intently at their infernal work for a single instant, +sought their arms, which were standing in the corner of the kitchen, and +were evidently preparing to depart. + +The crisis was near. There was not time to receive assistance before the +two fellows would be out, and I must either meet them in conflict, or +suffer them to escape. My first impression was to shoot down the leading +man, and grapple with the other ere he had time to prepare his arms. But +a timely thought prevented this hazardous step. The incendiaries were +retiring, and I had a doubt of the legality of killing a retreating +felon. I believed that _my_ chances before a jury would be far less than +those of an ordinary pickpocket, or highway robber, and had heard and +read enough to be certain there were thousands around me who would fancy +it a sufficient moral provocation for all which had passed, that I held +the fee of farms that other men desired to possess. + +A majority of my countrymen will scout this idea as forced and +improbable. But, majorities are far from being infallible in their +judgments. Let any discreet and observant man take a near view of that +which is daily going on around him. If he do not find in men this +disposition to distort principles, to pervert justice, and to attain +their ends regardless of the means, then will I admit I do not +understand human nature, as human nature exhibits its deformity in this +blessed republic of ours. + +There was no time to lose, however; and the course I actually decided to +take will be soonest told by relating things as they occurred. I heard +the door open, and was ready for action. Whether the incendiaries +intended to retreat by the cliff, or to open the gate, which was barred +within, I could not tell; but I was ready for either alternative. + +No sooner did I hear a step on the pavement of the gateway than I +discharged my rifle in the air. This was done as an alarm-signal. +Clubbing the piece, I sprang forward, and felled the foremost of the two +with a sharp blow on his hat. The fellow came down on the pavement like +an ox under the axe of the slaughter-house. Dropping the rifle, I +bounded over his body, and grappled with his companion. All this was +done so rapidly as to take the rascals completely by surprise. So +sudden, indeed, was my assault on the fellow who stood erect, that he +was under the necessity of dropping his rifle, and at it we went, +clinched like bears in the death-hug. I was young and active, but my +antagonist was the stronger man of the two. He had also the advantage of +being practised in wrestling, and I soon went down, my enemy falling on +top of me. Luckily, I fell on the body of the other incendiary, who was +just beginning to discover signs of consciousness after the crushing +blow he had received. My chance would now have been small but for +assistance. The incendiary had caught my neck-handkerchief, and was +twisting it to choke me, when I felt a sudden relief. The light of the +fire shone through the kitchen doors, rendering everything distinct +beneath the arch. Mary came flying back just in time to rescue me. With +a resolution that did her honor, she caught up the rifle I had dropped, +and passed its small end between the bent arms of my antagonist and his +own back, raising it at the same time like a lever. In the brief +interval of breathing this ready expedient gave me, I rallied my force, +caught my enemy by the throat, made a desperate effort, threw him off, +and over on his side, and was on my feet in an instant. Drawing the +pistol, I ordered the rascal to yield, or to take the consequences. The +sight of this weapon secured the victory, the black-faced villain +shrinking back into a corner, begging piteously not to be shot. At the +next moment, the interpreter appeared under the arch, followed by a +stream of redskins, which had been turned in this direction by the alarm +given by my rifle. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + "Ye say they all have passed away, That noble race and brave: + That their light canoes have vanished From off the crested + wave: That 'mid the forests where they roamed There rings no + hunter's shout: But their name is on your waters, Ye may not + wash it out."--Mrs. Sigourney. + + +Directing Manytongues to secure the two incendiaries, I sprang into the +kitchen to extinguish the flames. It was high time, though Mary Warren +had already anticipated me here, too. She had actually thrown several +dippers of water upon the fire, which was beginning to crackle through +the pile of chairs, and had already succeeded in lessening the flames, I +knew that a hydrant stood in the kitchen itself, which gave a full +stream of water. Filling a pail, I threw the contents on the flames; and +repeating the application, in half a minute the room was filled with +vapor, and to the bright light succeeded a darkness that was so deep as +to suggest the necessity of finding lamps and candles. + +The tumult produced by the scene just described soon brought all in the +house to the spot. The domestics, male and female, came tumbling down +the stairs, under which the fire had been lighted, and presently candles +were seen glancing about the house, in all directions. + +"I declare, Mr. Hugh," cried John, the moment he had taken a survey of +the state of the kitchen, "this is worse than Hireland, sir! The +Hamericans affect to laugh at the poor Hirish, and calls their country +savage, and hunfit to be in'abited, but nothing worse passes in it than +is beginning to pass 'ere. Them stairs would have been all in flames in +a few minutes, and them stairs once on fire, not one of hus, up in the +hattics, could 'ave escaped death! Don't talk of Hireland, after this!" + +Poor John! his prejudices are those of an Englishman of his class, and +that is saying as much in favor of their strength as _can_ be well said +of any prejudices. But how much truth was there in his remark! The quiet +manner in which we assume superiority, in morals, order, justice, and +virtue, over all other nations, really contains an instructive lesson, +if one will only regard things as they really are. I have no wish to +exaggerate the faults of my own country, but certainly I shall not +remorselessly conceal them, when the most dangerous consequences are +connected with such a mistake. As a whole, the disorders, disturbances, +and convulsions of America have certainly been much fewer than those of +most, perhaps of all other Christian nations, comparing numbers, and +including the time since the great experiment commenced. But such +_ought_ to have been the result of our facts, quite independently of +national character. The institutions leave nothing for the masses to +struggle for, and famine is unknown among us. But what does the other +side of the picture exhibit? Can any man point to a country in Europe in +which a great political movement has commenced on a principle as +barefacedly knavish as that of transferring property from one class of +men to another. That such a project does exist here, is beyond all just +contradiction; and it is equally certain that it has carried its devices +into legislation, and is fast corrupting the government in its most +efficient agents. John was right in saying we ought not to turn up our +noses at the ebullitions of abused and trodden-on "Hireland," while our +own skirts are to be cleared of such sins against the plainest dictates +of right. + +The fire was extinguished, and the house was safe. The kitchen was soon +cleared of the steam and smoke, and in their places appeared a cloud of +redskins. Prairiefire, Eaglesflight, and Flintyheart, were all there, +examining the effects of the fire, with stern and interesting +countenances. I looked round for Mary Warren; but that gentle and +singularly feminine girl, after manifesting a presence of mind and +decision that would have done honor to a young man of her own age, had +shrunk back with sensitive consciousness, and now concealed herself +among the others of her sex. Her duty, so eminently useful and +protective, had been performed, and she was only anxious to have it all +forgotten. This I discovered only next day, however. + +Manytongues had secured the incendiaries, and they were now in the +kitchen, also, with their hands tied together, and arms bound behind +their backs, at the elbows. + +As their faces remained black, it was out of my power to recognize +either. The rascal who had been felled by the blow of the rifle was yet +confused in manner, and I ordered the domestics to wash him, in the +double expectation of bringing him more completely to his senses, and of +ascertaining who he might be. + +The work was soon done, and both objects were attained. The cook used a +dishcloth with so much dexterity, that the blackamoor came out a white +man, at the first application, and he was soon as clean as a child that +is about to be sent to school, fresh from the hands of its nurse. The +removal of the disguise brought out the abashed and frightened +physiognomy of Joshua Brigham, Miller's hired man--or _my_ hired man, in +effect, as I paid him his wages. + +Yes! such was one of the effects of the pernicious opinions that had +been so widely circulated in the land, during the profound moral mania +that was working its ravages among us, with a fatality and danger that +greatly exceed those which accompanied the cholera. A fellow, who was +almost an inmate of my family, had not only conspired with others to rob +me of my property, on a large scale, but he had actually carried his +plot so far as to resort to the brand and the rifle, as two of the +agents to be employed in carrying out his virtuous objects. Nor was this +the result of the vulgar disposition to steal; it was purely a +consequence of a widely-extended system, that is fast becoming +incorporated with the politics of the land, and which men, relying on +the efficacy of majorities, are bold enough to stand up, in legislative +halls, to defend.[28] + +[Footnote 28: In order that the reader who is not familiar with what is +passing in New York may not suppose that exaggerated terms are here +used, the writer will state a single expedient of the anti-renters in +the Legislature to obtain their ends. It is generally known that the +Constitution of the United States prevents the separate States from +passing laws impairing the obligations of contracts. But for this +provision of the Federal Constitution, it is probable, numbers would +have succeeded, long ago, in obtaining the property of the few on their +own terms, amid shouts in honor of liberty! This provision, however, has +proved a stubborn obstacle, until the world, near the middle of the +nineteenth century, has been favored with the following notable scheme +to effect the ends of those who "want farms and must have them." The +State _can_ regulate, by statute, the laws of descents. It has, +accordingly, been solemnly proposed in the Legislature of New York, that +the statute of descents should be so far altered, that when a landlord, +holding lands subject to certain leasehold tenures, dies, or a descent +is cast, that it shall be lawful for the tenants, on application to the +chancellor, to convert these leasehold tenures into mortgages, and to +obtain the fee-simple of the estates in payment of the debt! In other +words, A leases a farm to B forever, reserving a ground-rent, with +covenants of re-entry, etc., etc. B wishes a deed, but will not pay A's +price. The United States says the contract shall not be impaired, and +the Legislature of New York is illustrated by the expedient we have +named, to get over the provision of the Constitution! + +Since writing the foregoing, this law has actually passed the Assembly, +though it has not been adopted by the Senate. The provision included all +leased property, when the leases were for more than twenty-one years, or +were on lives.--EDITOR.] + +I confess that the discovery of the person of Joshua Brigham rendered me +a little curious to ascertain that of his companion. Hester, the cook, +was directed to take the other child in hand, as soon as she had well +wiped the countenance of the one first unmasked. Nothing loath, the good +housewife set about her task, and the first dab of water she applied +revealed the astounding fact that I had again captured Seneca Newcome! +It will be remembered, that the last time I saw these two men together, +I left them fighting in the highway. + +I admit that this discovery shocked me. There never had been a being of +the Newcome tribe, from the grandfather, who was its root at Ravensnest, +down to Opportunity, who had ever been esteemed or respected among us. +Trick--trick--trick--low cunning, and overreaching management, had been +the family trait, from the day Jason, of that name, had rented the mill +lot, down to the present hour. This I had heard from my grandfather, my +grandmother, my own father, my uncle, my aunts and all, older than +myself, who belonged to me. Still, _there_ they had been, and habit had +created a sort of feeling for them. There had, also, been a species of +pretension about the family, which brought them more before us, than +most of the families of the tenantry. The grandfather had received a +sort of an education, and this practice had been continued, after a +manner, down to the unfortunate wretch who now stood a prisoner taken +_flagrante delictu_, and for a capital crime. Seneca could never have +made a gentleman, as the term is understood among gentlemen; but he +belonged to a profession which ought to raise a man materially above the +level of the vulgar. Opportunity, too, had received her _quasi_ +education, a far more pretending one than that of my own Patt, but +nothing had been well taught to her; not even reading, inasmuch as she +had a decided provincial pronunciation, which sometimes grated on my +nerves. But, Opportunity had feelings, and could not have anticipated +her own brother's intentions, when she communicated the important +information she had. Opportunity, moreover, had more refinement than +Seneca, in consequence of having a more limited association, and she +might fall into despair, at this unexpected result of her own acts! + +I was still reflecting on these things, when summoned to my grandmother. +She was in her own dressing-room, surrounded by the four girls; just so +many pictures of alarm, interest, and female loveliness. Mary Warren +alone, was in regular _toilette_; but the others, with instinctive +coquetry, had contrived to wrap themselves up, in a way to render them +handsomer than ever. As for my dear grandmother herself, she had been +told that the house was safe, but felt that vague desire to see me, that +was perhaps natural to the circumstances. + +"The state of the country is frightful," she said, when I had answered a +few of her questions, and had told her who the prisoners really were; +"and we can hardly remain here, in safety. Think of one of the +Newcomes--and of Seneca, in particular, with his profession and +education, being engaged in such a crime!" + +"Nay, grandmother," put in Patt, a little archly, "I never yet heard you +speak well of the Newcomes; you barely tolerated Opportunity, in the +hope of improving her." + +"It is true that the race is a bad one, and the circumstances show what +injury a set of false notions, transmitted from father to son, for +generations, may do in a family. We cannot think of keeping these dear +girls here, one hour after to-morrow, Hugh. To-morrow, or to-day, for it +is now past two o'clock, I see;--to-day is Sunday, and we can go to +church; to-night we will be watchful, and Monday morning your uncle +shall start for Satanstoe, with all three of the girls." + +"I shall not leave my dear grandmother," rejoined Patt--"nor do I think +it would be very kind to leave Mary Warren behind us, in a place like +this." + +"I cannot quit my father," said Mary herself, quietly, but very firmly. +"It is his duty to remain with his parishioners, and more so, now that +so many of them are misguided, than at any other time; and it is always +my duty and my pleasure to remain with _him_." + +Was that acting? Was that Pharisaical! Or was it genuine nature; pure +filial affection and filial piety? Beyond all question, it was the last; +and, had not the simple tone, the earnest manner, and the almost alarmed +eagerness, with which the dear girl spoke, proclaimed as much, no one +could have looked in at that serene and guileless eye and doubted. My +grandmother smiled on the lovely earnest speaker, in her kindest manner, +took her hand, and charmingly observed-- + +"Mary and I will remain together. Her father is in no danger, for even +anti-renters will respect a minister of the gospel, and can be made to +understand it is his duty to rebuke even their sins. As for the other +girls, I think it is our duty to insist that your uncle's wards, at +least, should no longer be exposed to dangers like those we have gone +through to-night." + +The two young ladies, however, protested in the prettiest manner +possible, their determination not to quit "grandmamma," as they +affectionately termed their guardian's mother; and while they were thus +employed, my uncle Ro entered the room, having just paid a visit to the +kitchen. + +"Here's a charming affair!" exclaimed the old bachelor, as soon as in +our midst. "Arson, anti-rentism, attempts at murder, and all sorts of +enormities, going hand in hand, in the very heart of the wisest and best +community that earth ever knew; and the laws as profoundly asleep the +whole time, as if such gentle acts were considered meritorious. This +outdoes repudiation twenty-fold, Hugh." + +"Ay, my dear sir, but it will not make a tithe of the talk. Look at the +newspapers that will be put into your hands to-morrow morning, fresh +from Wall and Pine and Ann Streets. They will be in convulsions, if some +unfortunate wight of a senator speak of adding an extra corporal to a +regiment of foot, as an alarming war-demonstration, or quote the fall of +a fancy stock that has not one cent of intrinsic value, as if it +betokened the downfall of a nation; while they doze over this volcano, +which is raging and gathering strength beneath the whole community, +menacing destruction to the nation itself, which is the father of +stocks." + +"The intense selfishness that is uppermost is a bad symptom, certainly; +and no one can say to what it will lead. One thing is sure; it causes +men to limit all their calculations to the present moment; and, to abate +a nuisance that presses on our existing interests, they will jeopard +everything that belongs to the future. But what are we to do with Seneca +Newcome, and his co-rascal, the other incendiary?" + +"I had thought of referring that to your discretion, sir. They have been +guilty of arson, I suppose, and must take their chances, like every-day +criminals." + +"Their chances will be very good ones, Hugh. Had _you_ been caught in +Seneca Newcome's kitchen, setting fire to his house, condign and +merciless punishment would have been _your_ lot, beyond all controversy; +but _their_ cases will be very different. I'll bet you a hundred that +they'll not be convicted; and a thousand that they are pardoned, if +convicted." + +"Acquitted, sir, will be out of the question--Miss Warren and I saw them +both, in the very act of building their fire; and there is plenty of +testimony, as to their identity." + +This indiscreet speech drew every eye on my late companion; all the +ladies, old and young, repeating the name of "Mary!" in the pretty +manner in which the sex express surprise. As for Mary, herself, the poor +blushing girl shrunk back abashed, ashamed of she knew not what, unless +it might be in connection with some secret consciousness, at finding +herself so strangely associated with me. + +"Miss Warren is, indeed, in her evening dress," said my grandmother, a +little gravely, "and cannot have been in bed this night. How has this +happened, my dear?". + +Thus called on, Mary Warren was of too guileless and pure a mind, to +hesitate in telling her tale. Every incident, with which she had been +connected, was simply and clearly related, though she suppressed the +name of our midnight visitor, out of tenderness to Opportunity. All +present were too discreet to ask the name, and, I may add, all present +heard the narrative with a marked and approving interest. When Mary had +done, my grandmother kissed her, and Patt, the generous creature, +encircled her waist, with the tenderness and affection of a sister, who +felt for all the trials the other had endured. + +"It seems, then, we owe our safety to Mary, after all!" exclaimed my +good grandmother; "without her care and watchfulness, Hugh might, most +probably _would_, have remained on the lawn, until it was too late to +save the house, or us." + +"That is not all," added uncle Ro. "Any one could have cried 'fire,' or +given a _senseless_ alarm, but it is evident from Miss Warren's account, +unpremeditated and artless as it is, that, but for the cool and discreet +manner in which she played her part, not one-half of that which has been +done, would have been effected, and that the house might have been lost. +Nay, had these fellows surprised Hugh, instead of Hugh's surprising +them, we might have been called on to deplore his loss." + +I saw a common shudder in Patt and Mary, as they stood encircling each +other with their arms; but the last was evidently so pained, that I +interfered for her relief. + +"I do not see any possibility of escape for these incendiaries," + +I said, turning to my uncle, "under the testimony that can be offered, +and am surprised to hear you suggest a doubt of the result of the +trial." + +"You feel and reason like a very young man, Hugh; one who fancies things +are much nearer what they ought to be than facts will sustain. Justice +is blind, nowadays, not as a proof of impartiality, but as a proof that +she too often sees only one side of a question. How will they escape? +Perhaps the jury may fancy setting fire to a pile of wood and certain +chairs, is not setting fire to a house, let the _animus_ be as plain as +the noses on their faces. Mark me, Hugh Littlepage; one month will not +go by, before the events of this very night will be tortured into an +argument in favor of anti-rentism." + +A common exclamation, in which even my grandmother joined, expressed the +general dissent from this opinion. + +"It is all very well, ladies," answered my uncle Ro, coolly--"all well +enough, Master Hugh; but let the issue tell its own story. I have heard +already _other_ abuses of the anti-renters urged as a reason why the +laws should be changed, in order that men may not be tempted beyond +their strength; and why not use the same reasoning in favor of this +crime when it has been used already, in cases of murder? 'The leasehold +tenures make men commit murder,' it is said, 'and they ought to be +destroyed themselves.' 'The leasehold tenures make men commit arson,' it +will now be said, 'and who desires to retain laws that induce men to +commit arson?'" + +"On the same principle it might be pretended there should be no such +thing as personals, as they tempt men, beyond what they can bear, to +commit petty larceny." + +"No doubt it could, and no doubt it _would_, if political supremacy were +to be the reward. There is nothing--no fallacy, no moral sophism, that +would not be used to attain such an end. But it is late, and we ought to +bethink us of disposing of the prisoners for the night--what means this +light? The house is not on fire, after all?" + +Sure enough, notwithstanding the close shutters, and drawn curtains of +my grandmother's dressing-room, an unusual light had penetrated to the +place, filling us with sudden and intense alarm. I opened the door and +found the passages illuminated, though all within appeared tranquil and +safe. There was a clamor in the court, however, and presently the +fearful warwhoop of the savages rose on the night air. The cries came +from without, as I fancied, and rushing to the little door, I was on the +lawn in a moment, when the mystery was solved. An extensive hay-barn, +one well filled with the remainder of the last year's crops, was on +fire, sending its forged and waving tongues of flame at least a hundred +feet into the air. It was merely a new argument against the leasehold +tenures, and in favor of the "spirit of the institutions," a little +vividly pressed on the human senses. Next year, it may figure in the +message of a governor, or the philanthropical efforts of some Albany +orator, if the same "spirit" prevail in the "institutions," as would +seem to prevail this! Is a contract to be tolerated which induces +freemen to set barns on fire? + +The barn that had been set on fire stood on the flats, below the cliff, +and fully half a mile away from the Nest. The conflagration made a most +brilliant blaze, and, as a matter of course, produced an intense light. +The loss to myself did not exceed a few hundred dollars; and, while this +particular argument in favor of anti-rentism was not entirely agreeable, +it was not so grave as it might have been, had it been urged on other +buildings, and in the same mode. In other words, I was not so much +distressed with my loss as not to be able to see the beauty of the +scene; particularly as my uncle Ro whispered that Dunning had caused an +insurance to be effected in the Saratoga Mutual Assurance, which would +probably place a considerable portion of the tenants in the unlooked-for +category of those who were to pay for their own frolic. + +As it was too late to think of saving the barn and ricks, and Miller, +with his people, had already descended to the spot to look after the +fences, and any other object that might be endangered by the flying +embers, there was nothing for us to do but to remain passive spectators. +Truly, the scene was one worthy of being viewed, and is not altogether +unfit for description. + +The light of that burning barn extended for a great distance, shining +like what it was, an "_evil_ deed in a naughty world;" for, +notwithstanding the high authority of Shakespeare, it is your "evil +deeds," after all, that produce the brightest blazes, and which throw +their beams the farthest, in this state of probation in which we live. + +The most remarkable objects in that remarkable scene were the true and +the false redskins--the "Indians" and the "Injins"--both of whom were in +motion on the meadows, and both of whom were distinctly visible to us +where we stood, on the cliffs (the ladies being at their chamber +windows), though I dare say they were not quite so obvious to each +other. + +The Indians had formed themselves into a very open order, and were +advancing toward the other party in a stealthy manner, by creeping on +all-fours, or crouching like catamounts to the earth, and availing +themselves of everything like a cover that offered. The burning barn was +between the two parties, and was a principal reason that the "Injins" +were not sooner aware of the risk they ran. The last were a whooping, +shouting, dancing, leaping band, of some forty or fifty of the +"disguised and armed," who were quite near enough to the conflagration +to enjoy it, without being so near as to be necessarily connected with +it. We understood their presence and antics to be intended as so many +intimations of the secret agency they had had in the depredations of the +night, and as so many warnings how I withstood the "spirit of the +institutions." + +Manytongues, who had certain vague notions of the necessity of his +keeping on the windy side of the law, did not accompany his red +brethren, but came through the gateway and joined my uncle and myself, +as we stood beneath the cover of a noble chestnut, on the verge of the +cliff, watching the course of things on the meadow. I expressed my +surprise at seeing him there, and inquired if his presence might not be +needed by Flintyheart or Prairiefire. + +"Not at all, not at all, colonel," he answered with perfect coolness. +"The savages have no great need of an intarpreter in the business they +are on; and if harm comes of the meetin', it's perhaps best that the two +parties should not understand each other, in which case it might all be +looked on as an accident. I hope they'll not be particular about +scalps--for I told Flintyheart, as he was leaving us, the people of this +part of the world did not like to be scalped." + +This was the only encouragement we received from the interpreter, who +appeared to think that matters were now in the right train, and that +every difficulty would soon be disposed of, _secundum artem_. The +Injins, however, viewed the affair differently, having no wish for a +serious brush with any one; much less with enemies of the known +character of redskins. How they ascertained the presence of their foe I +cannot say, though it is probable some one saw them stealing along the +meadows, in spite of all their care, and gave the alarm. Alarm it was, +sure enough; the party of the previous day scarce retreating through the +woods with greater haste than the "disguised and armed" now vanished. + +Such has been the fact, as respects these men, in every instance in +which they have been brought in contact with armed bodies, though much +inferior to their own in numbers. Fierce enough, and even brutal, on a +variety of occasions in which individuals have become subject to their +power, in all cases in which armed parties, however small, have been +sent against them, they have betrayed timidity and a dread of making +that very appeal to force, which, by their own previous acts, they had +insolently invited. Is it then true, that these soi-disant "Injins" have +not the ordinary courage of their race, and that they are less than +Americans with arms in their hands, and below the level of all around +them in spirit? Such is not the case. The consciousness of guilt has +made them cowards; they have found "that the king's name is a tower of +strength," and have shrunk from conflicts, in which the secret warnings +that come from on high have told them that they were embodied in a +wicked cause, and contending for the attainment of wrong ends by +unjustifiable means. Their conduct proves how easy it would have been to +suppress their depredations at the earliest day, by a judicious +application of the power of the State, and how much _they_ have to +answer for who have neglected their duty in this particular. + +As soon as Flintyheart and his followers ascertained that the "disguised +and armed" were actually off again, and that they were not to pass the +morning in a skirmish, as no doubt each man among them had hoped would +be the case, they set up such whoops and cries as had not been heard on +those meadows during the last eighty years. The period went beyond the +memory of man since Indian warfare had existed at Ravensnest, a few +false alarms in the Revolution excepted. The effect of these yells was +to hasten the retreat, as was quite apparent to us on the cliffs; but +the sagacious warriors of the prairies knew too much to expose their +persons by approaching nearer to the blazing barn than might be prudent. +On the contrary, seemingly satisfied that nothing was to be done, and +disdaining a parade of service where no service was to be effected, they +slowly retired from the meadows, regaining the cliffs by means known to +themselves. + +This military demonstration, on the part of our red brethren, was not +without its useful consequences. It gave the "Injins" an intimation of +watchfulness, and of a readiness to meet them that prevented any new +alarm that night, and satisfied everybody at the Nest that our immediate +danger had come to an end. Not only was this the feeling of my uncle and +myself, but it was also the feeling of the females, as we found on +returning to the house, who had witnessed all that passed from the upper +windows. After a short interview with my grandmother, she consented to +retire, and preparations were made for setting a lookout, and dismissing +everybody to their beds again. Manytongues took charge of the watch, +though he laughed at the probability of there being any further +disturbance that night. + +"As for the redskins," he said, "they would as soon sleep out under the +trees, at this season of the year, as sleep under a roof; and as for +waking--cats a'nt their equals. No--no--colonel; leave it all to me, and +I'll carry you through the night as quietly as if we were on the +prer-ies and living under good wholesome prer-ie law." + +"As quietly, as if we were on the prairies!" We had then reached that +pass in New York, that after one burning, a citizen might really hope to +pass the remainder of his night as quietly as if he were on the +prairies! And there was that frothy, lumbering, useless machine, called +a government, at Albany, within fifty miles of us, as placid, as +self-satisfied, as much convinced that this was the greatest people on +earth, and itself their illustrious representatives, as if the disturbed +counties were so many gardens of Eden, before sin and transgression had +become known to it! If it was doing anything in the premises, it was +probably calculating the minimum the tenant should pay for the +landlord's land, when the latter might be sufficiently worried to part +with his estate. Perhaps it was illustrating its notions of liberty, by +naming the precise sum that one citizen ought to accept, in order that +the covetous longings of another should be satisfied! + +I was about to retire to my bed, for the first time that night, when my +uncle Ro remarked it might be well to see one of our prisoners at least. +Orders had been given to unbind the wretched men, and to keep them in an +empty store-room which had no available outlet but the door. Thither we +then repaired, and of course were admitted by the sentinels, without a +question. Seneca Newcome was startled at my appearance, and I confess I +was myself embarrassed how to address him, from a wish to say nothing +that might appear like exultation on one side, or concession on the +other. My uncle, however, had no such scruples, probably from better +knowing his man; accordingly, he came to the point at once. + +"The evil spirit must have got great ascendency in the country, Seneca +Newcome, when men of your knowledge dip so deeply into his designs," +said Mr. Littlepage, sternly. "What has my nephew ever done to incite +you to come into his house, as an incendiary, like a thief in the +night?" + +"Ask me no questions, Mr. Littlepage," surlily replied the attorney, +"for I shall answer none." + +"And this miserable misguided creature who has been your companion. The +last we saw of these two men, Hugh, they were quarrelling in the +highway, like cat and dog, and there are signs about their faces that +the interview became still more hostile than it had been, after we left +them." + +"And here we find them together, companions in an enterprise of life and +death!" + +"It is ever thus with rogues. They will push their quarrels to +extremities, and make them up in an hour, when the demon of rapine +points to an object for common plunder. You see the same spirit in +politics, ay, and even in religion. Men that have lived in hostility for +half their lives, contending for selfish objects, will suddenly combine +their powers to attain a common end, and work together like the most +true-hearted friends, so long as they see a chance of effecting their +wishes. If honesty were only one-half as active as roguery, it would +fare better than it does. But the honest man has his scruples; his +self-respect; his consistency, and, most of all, his principles, to mark +out his course, and he cannot turn aside at each new impulse, like your +pure knave, to convert enemies into friends, and friends into enemies. +And you," turning to Josh Brigham, who was looking surlily on--"who have +actually been eating Hugh Littlepage's bread, what has he done, that you +should come at midnight, to burn him up like a caterpillar in the +spring?" + +"He has had his farm long enough"--muttered the fellow--"It's time that +poor folks had some chance." + +My uncle shrugged his shoulders; then, as if he suddenly recollected +himself, he lifted his hat, bowed like a thoroughbred gentleman as he +was, when he chose to be, wished Seneca good-night, and walked away. As +we retired, he expressed his conviction of the uselessness of +remonstrance, in this case, and of the necessity of suffering the law to +take its own course. It might be unpleasant to see a Newcome actually +hanged, but nothing short of that operation, he felt persuaded, would +ever fetch up the breed in its evil courses. Wearied with all that had +passed, I now went to bed, and slept soundly for the succeeding seven +hours. As the house was kept quiet by orders, everybody repaired the +lost time, the Nest being as quiet as in those days in which the law +ruled in the republic. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + "Well may we sing her beauties + This pleasant land of ours, + Her sunny smiles, her golden fruits, + And all her world of flowers. + And well would they persuade us now, + In moments all too dear, + That, sinful though our hearts may be, + We have our Eden here."--SIMMS. + + +The following day was Sunday. I did not rise until nine, and when I +withdrew the curtains and opened the shutters of my window, and looked +out upon the lawn, and the fields beyond it, and the blue void that +canopied all, I thought a lovelier day, or one more in harmony with the +tranquil character of the whole scene, never shone from the heavens. I +threw up the sash, and breathed the morning air which filled my +dressing-room, pregnant with the balms and odors of the hundred +sweet-smelling flowers and plants that embellished the shrubberies. The +repose of the Sabbath seemed to rest on man and beast; the bees and +humming-birds that buzzed about the flowers, even at their usual +pursuits, seemed as if conscious of the sanctity of the day. I think no +one can be insensible to the difference there is between a Sabbath in +the country and any other day of the week. Most of this, doubtless, is +the simple consequence of abstaining from labor; but, connected with the +history of the festival, its usual observances, and the holy calm that +appears to reign around, it is so very obvious and impressive, that a +Sunday in a mild day in June is to me ever a delicious resting-place, as +a mere poetical pause in the bustling and turmoil of this world's time. +Such a day was that which succeeded the night through which we had just +passed, and it came most opportunely to soothe the spirits, tranquillize +the apprehensions, and afford a moment for sober reflection. + +There lay the smouldering ruins of the barn, it is true; a blackened +monument of a wicked deed; but the mood which had produced this waste +and wrong appeared to have passed away; and in all other respects, far +and near, the farms of Ravensnest had never spread themselves before the +eye in colors more in consonance with the general benevolence of a +bountiful nature. For a moment, as I gazed on the broad view, I felt all +my earlier interests in it revive, and am not ashamed to own that a +profound feeling of gratitude to God came over me, when I recollected it +was by his Providence I was born the heir to such a scene, instead of +having my lot cast among the serfs and dependents of other regions. + +After standing at the window a minute, in contemplation of that pleasing +view, I drew back, suddenly and painfully conscious of the character and +extent of the combination that existed to rob me of my rights in it. +America no longer seemed America to my eyes; but in place of its ancient +submission to the law, its quick distinction between right and wrong, +its sober and discriminating liberty, which equally avoided submission +to the injustice of power, and the excesses of popular delusions, there +had been substituted the rapacity of the plunderer, rendered formidable +by the insidious manner in which it was interwoven with political +machinery, and the truckling of the wretches intrusted with authority; +men who were playing into the hands of demagogues, solely in order to +secure majorities to perpetuate their own influence. Was, then, the +State really so corrupt as to lend itself to projects as base as those +openly maintained by the anti-renters? Far from it: four men out of +five, if not a larger proportion, must be, and indeed are, sensible of +the ills that their success would entail on the community, and would +lift up heart and hand to-morrow to put them down totally and without +pity; but they have made themselves slaves of the lamp; have enlisted in +the ranks of _party_, and _dare_ not oppose their leaders, who wield +them as Napoleon wielded his masses, to further private views, +apostrophizing and affecting an homage to liberty all the while! Such is +the history of man! + +When the family met in the breakfast-room, a singular tranquillity +prevailed among us. As for my grandmother, I knew her spirit and early +experience, and was not so much surprised to find her calm and +reasonable; but these qualities seemed imparted to her four young +companions also. Patt could laugh, and yield to her buoyant spirits, +just the same as if nothing had occurred, while my uncle's other wards +maintained a lady-like quiet, that denoted anything but apprehension. +Mary Warren, however, surprised me by her air and deportment. There she +sat, in her place at the table, looking, if possible, the most feminine, +gentle, and timid of the four. I could scarcely believe that the +blushing, retiring, modest, pretty daughter of the rector could be the +prompt, decided, and clear-headed young girl who had been of so much +service to me the past night, and to whose coolness and discretion, +indeed, we were all indebted for the roof that was over our heads, and +some of us, most probably, for our lives. + +Notwithstanding this air of tranquillity, the breakfast was a silent and +thoughtful meal. Most of the conversation was between my uncle and +grandmother, and a portion of it related to the disposal of the +prisoners. There was no magistrate within several miles of the Nest, but +those who were tainted with anti-rentism; and to carry Seneca and his +companion before a justice of the peace of this character, would be, in +effect, to let them go at large. Nominal bail would be taken, and it is +more than probable the constable employed would have suffered a rescue, +did they even deem it necessary to go through this parade of performing +their duties. My uncle, consequently, adopted the following plan. He had +caused the two incendiaries to be transferred to the old farm-house, +which happened to contain a perfectly dry and empty cellar, and which +had much of the security of a dungeon, without the usual defects of +obscurity and dampness. The red-men had assumed the office of sentinels, +one having his station at the door, while another watched near a window +which admitted the light, while it was scarcely large enough to permit +the human body to squeeze through it. The interpreter had received +instructions from the agent to respect the Christian Sabbath; and no +movement being contemplated for the day, this little duty just suited +their lounging, idle habits, when in a state of rest. Food and water, of +course, had not been forgotten; and there my uncle Ro had left that +portion of the business, intending to have the delinquents carried to a +distant magistrate, one of the judges of the county, early on Monday +morning. As for the disturbers of the past night, no signs of them were +any longer visible; and there being little extensive cover near the +Nest, no apprehension was felt of any surprise. + +We were still at breakfast, when the tone of St. Andrew's bell came +floating, plaintively, through the air, as a summons to prepare +ourselves for the services of the day. It was little more than a mile to +the church, and the younger ladies expressed a desire to walk. My +grandmother, attended by her son, therefore, alone used the carriage, +while we young people went off in a body, on foot, half an hour before +the ringing of the second bell. Considering the state of the country, +and the history of the past night, I was astonished at my own +indifference on this occasion, no less than at that of my charming +companions; nor was it long before I gave utterance to the feeling. + +"This America of ours is a queer place, it must be admitted," I cried, +as we crossed the lawn to take a foot-path that would lead us, by +pleasant pastures, quite to the church-door, without entering the +highway, except to cross it once; "here we have the whole neighborhood +as tranquil as if crime never disturbed it, though it is not yet a dozen +hours since riot, arson, and perhaps murder, were in the contemplation +of hundreds of those who live on every side of us. The change is +wonderful!" + +"But, you will remember it is Sunday, Hugh," put in Patt. "All summer, +when Sunday has come, we have had a respite from disturbances and fears. +In this part of the country, the people are too religious to think of +desecrating the Sabbath by violence and armed bands. The anti-renters +would lose more than they would gain by pursuing a different course." + +I had little or no difficulty in believing this, it being no unusual +thing, among us, to find observances of this nature clinging to the +habits of thousands, long after the devout feeling which had first +instilled it into the race has become extinct. Something very like it +prevails in other countries, and among even higher and more intellectual +classes, where it is no unusual thing to find the most profound outward +respect manifested toward the altar and its rites, by men who live in +the hourly neglect of the first and plainest commands of the decalogue. +We are not alone, therefore, in this pharisaical spirit, which exists, +in some mode or other, wherever man himself is to be found. + +But this equivocal piety was certainly manifested to a striking degree, +that day, at Ravensnest. The very men who were almost desperate in their +covetous longings appeared at church, and went through the service with +as much seeming devotion as if conscious of no evil; and a general truce +appeared to prevail in the country, notwithstanding there must have been +much bitterness of feeling among the discomfited. Nevertheless, I could +detect in the countenances of many of the old tenants of the family, an +altered expression, and a coldness of the eye, which bespoke anything +but the ancient friendly feeling which had so long existed between us. +The solution was very simple; demagogues had stirred up the spirit--not +of the institutions, but--of covetousness, in their breasts; and so long +as that evil tendency predominated, there was little room for better +feelings. + +"Now I shall have another look at the canopied pew," I cried, as we +entered the last field, on our way to the church. "That offensive, but +unoffending object, had almost gone out of my mind's eye, until my uncle +recollected it, by intimating that Jack Dunning, as he calls his friend +and council, had written him it _must_ come down." + +"I agree with Mr. Dunning altogether," answered Martha, quickly. "I wish +with all my heart, Hugh, you would order that hideous-looking thing to +be taken away this very week." + +"Why this earnestness, my dear Patt? There has the hideous thing been +ever since the church was built, which is now these threescore years, +and no harm has come of it, as I know." + +"It is harm to be so ugly. It disfigures the church; and then I do not +think distinctions of that sort are proper for the house of God. I know +this ever has been my grandmother's opinion; but finding her +father-in-law and husband desirous of such an _ornament_, she consented +in silence, during their lives." + +"What do _you_ say to all this, Miss Warren," I asked, turning to my +companion, for by some secret influence I was walking at her side. "Are +you 'up canopy' or 'down canopy'?" + +"'Down canopy,'" answered Mary, firmly. "I am of Mrs. Littlepage's +opinion, that churches ought to contain as little as possible to mark +worldly distinctions. Such distinctions are inseparable from life, I +know; but it is to prepare for death that we enter such buildings." + +"And your father, Miss Warren--have you ever heard him speak of my +unfortunate pew?" + +Mary hesitated an instant, changed color, then looked up into my face +with a countenance so ingenuous and lovely, that I would have forgiven +her even a severe comment on some act of folly of my own. + +"My father is an advocate for doing away with pews altogether," she +answered, "and, of course, can have no particular wish to preserve +yours. He tells me, that in the churches of the Romanists, the +congregation sit, stand, or kneel, promiscuously before the altar, or +crowd around the pulpit, without any distinction of rank or persons. +Surely, that is better than bringing into the very temple the most +pitiful of all worldly classifications, that of mere money." + +"It _is_ better, Miss Warren; and I wish, with all my heart, the custom +could be adopted here. But the church that might best dispense with the +support obtained from pews, and which by its size and architecture, is +best fitted to set the example of a new mode, has gone on in the old +way, I understand, and has its pews as well as another." + +"Do we get our custom from England, Hugh!" demanded Martha. + +"Assuredly; as we do most others, good, bad and indifferent. The +property-notion would be very likely to prevail in a country like +England; and then it is not absolutely true that everybody sits in +common, even in the churches of the continent of the old world. The +seigneur, under the old regime, in France, had _his_ pew, usually; and +high dignitaries of the State in no country are found mingling with the +mass of worshippers, unless it be in good company. It is true, a +_duchesse_ will kneel in the crowd, in most Romish churches, in the +towns, for there are too many such persons to accommodate all with +privileged seats, and such honors are reserved for the very great; but +in the country, there are commonly pews, in by-places, for the great +personages of the neighborhood. We are not quite so bad as we fancy +ourselves, in this particular, though we might be better." + +"But you will allow that a canopied pew is unsuited to this country, +brother?" + +"Not more to this than to any other. I agree that it is unsuited to all +places of worship, where the petty differences between men, which are +created by their own usages, should sink into insignificance, in the +direct presence, as it might be, of the power of God. But, in this +country, I find a spirit rising, which some persons would call the +'spirit of the institutions,' that is forever denying men rewards, and +honors, and credit exactly in the degree in which they deserve them. The +moment a citizen's head is seen above the crowd of faces around him, it +becomes the mark of rotten eggs, as if he were raised in the pillory, +and his fellow-creatures would not tolerate any difference in moral +stature." + +"How do you reconcile that with the great number of Catos, and Brutuses, +not to say of the Gracchi, that are to be found among us?" asked Mary +Warren, slyly. + +"Oh! these are the mere creatures of party--great men for the nonce. +They are used to serve the purposes of factions, and are be-greated for +the occasion. Thus it is, that nine-tenths of the Catos you mention are +forgotten, even by name, every political _lustrum_. But let a man rise, +_independently of the people_, by his own merit, and see how the people +will tolerate him. Thus it is with my pew--it is a _great_ pew, and +become great without any agency of the 'folks;' and the 'folks' don't +like it." + +The girls laughed at this sally, as light-hearted, happy girls will +laugh at anything of the sort; and Patt put in her retort, in her own +direct, spirited manner. + +"It is a _great_ ugly thing, if that concession will flatter your +vanity," she said, "and I do entreat it may come down _greatly_, this +present week. Really, you can have no notion, Hugh, how much talk it has +made of late." + +"I do not doubt it, my dear. The talk is all aimed at the leases; +everything that can be thought of, being dragged into the account +against us poor landlords, in order to render our cause unpopular, and +thus increase the chances of robbing us with impunity. _The good people +of this State little imagine that the very evils that the enemies of the +institutions have long predicted, and which their friends have as warmly +repudiated, are now actively at work among us, and that the great +experiment is in imminent danger of failing, at the very moment the +people are loudly exulting in its success. Let this attempt on property +succeed, ever so indirectly, AND IT WILL BE FOLLOWED UP BY OTHERS, +WHICH WILL AS INEVITABLY DRIVE US INTO DESPOTISM, AS A REFUGE AGAINST +ANARCHY, AS EFFECT SUCCEEDS TO CAUSE_. The danger exists, now, in its +very worst form--that of political demagogueism--and must be met, face +to face, and put down manfully, and on true principles, or, in my poor +judgment, we are gone. Cant is a prevailing vice of the nation, more +especially political and religious cant, and cant can never be appeased +by concessions. My canopy _shall_ stand, so long as anti-rentism exists +at Ravensnest, or be torn down by violence; when men return to their +senses, and begin to see the just distinctions between _meum_ and +_tuum_, the cook may have it for oven-wood, any day in the week." + +As we were now about to cross the stile that communicated with the +highway, directly in front of the church, the conversation ceased, as +unsuited to the place and the occasion. The congregation of St. Andrew's +was small, as is usually the case with country congregations of its +sect, which are commonly regarded with distrust by the descendants of +the Puritans in particular, and not unfrequently with strong aversion. +The rowdy religion--half-cant, half-blasphemy--that Cromwell and his +associates entailed on so many Englishmen, but which was not without a +degree of ferocious, narrow-minded sincerity about it, after all, has +probably been transmitted to this country, with more of its original +peculiarities than exist, at the present day, in any other part of the +world. Much of the narrow-mindedness remains; but, unhappily, when +liberality does begin to show itself in these sects, it is apt to take +the character of latitudinarianism. In a word, the exaggerations and +false principles that were so common among the religious fanatics of the +American colonies in the seventeenth century, which burnt witches, +hanged Quakers, and denounced all but the elect few, are now running +their natural race, with the goal of infidelity in open view before +them. Thus will it be, also, with the abuses of political liberty, which +must as certainly terminate in despotism, unless checked in season; such +being not the "_spirit_ of the institutions," but the tendency of human +nature, as connected with everything in which the right is abandoned to +sustain the wrong. + +Mr. Warren, I found, was a popular preacher, notwithstanding the +disfavor with which his sect was generally regarded. A prejudiced and +provincial people were naturally disposed to look at everything that +differed from their own opinions and habits with dislike; and the simple +circumstance that he belonged to a church that possessed bishops, was of +itself tortured into a proof that his sect favored aristocracy and +privileged classes. It is true that nearly every other sect in the +country had orders in the church, under the names of ministers, elders, +and deacons, and was just as liable to the same criticism; but then they +did not possess _bishops_, and having that which we do not happen to +have ourselves, usually constitutes the _gist_ of an offence, in cases +of this sort. Notwithstanding these obstacles to popularity, Mr. Warren +commanded the respect of all around him; and, strange as it may seem, +none the less because, of all the clergy in that vicinity, he alone had +dared to rebuke the spirit of covetousness that was abroad, and which it +suits the morals of some among us to style the "spirit of the +institutions;" a duty he had discharged on more than one occasion, and +with great distinctness and force, though temperately and under the full +influence of a profound feeling of Christian charity. This conscientious +course had given rise to menaces and anonymous letters, the usual +recourse of the mean and cowardly; but it had also increased the weight +of his character, and extorted the secret deference of many who would +gladly have entertained a different feeling toward him, had it been in +their power. + +My grandmother and uncle were already seated in the canopied pew when we +pedestrians entered the church. Mary Warren turned into another aisle, +and proceeded to the pew reserved for the rector, accompanied by my +sister, while the other two ladies passed up to the chancel, and took +their customary places. I followed, and for the first time in my life +was seated beneath the offensive canopy, vested with all the rights of +ownership. By the term "canopy," however, the reader is not to imagine +anything like festooned drapery--crimson colors and gilded laces; our +ambition had never soared so high. The amount of the distinction between +this pew and any other in the church was simply this: it was larger and +more convenient than those around it, an advantage which any other might +have equally enjoyed who saw fit to pay for it, as had been the case +with us, and it was canopied with a heavy, clumsy, ill-shaped sort of a +roof, that was a perfect caricature of the celebrated _baldachino_ of +St. Peter's in Rome. The first of these advantages probably excited no +particular envy, for it came within the common rule of the country, of +"play and pay;" but as for the canopy, that was aristocratic, and was +not to be tolerated. Like the leasehold tenure, it was opposed to the +"spirit of the institutions." It is true, it did no real harm, as an +existing thing; it is true, it had a certain use, as a memorial of past +opinions and customs; it is true, it was property, and could not be +touched without interfering with its privileges; it is true, that every +person who saw it secretly felt there was nothing, after all, so very +inappropriate in such a pew's belonging to a Littlepage; and, most of +all, it was true that they who sat in it never fancied for a moment that +it made them any better or any worse than the rest of their +fellow-creatures. There it was, however; and, next to the feudal +character of a lease, it was the most offensive object then existing in +Ravensnest. It may be questioned if the cross, which occupied the place +that, according to provincial orthodoxy, a weathercock should have +adorned, or Mr. Warren's surplice, was one-half as offensive. + +When I raised my head, after the private devotions which are customary +with us semi-papishes, on entering a place of worship, and looking +around me, I found that the building was crowded nearly to overflowing. +A second glance told me that nearly every eye was fastened on myself. At +first, the canopy having been uppermost so lately in my mind, I fancied +that the looks were directed at _that_; but I soon became satisfied that +I, in my own unworthy person, was their object. I shall not stop to +relate most of the idle and silly reports that had got abroad, in +connection with the manner and reason of my disguised appearance in the +hamlet the preceding day, or in connection with anything else, though +one of those reports was so very characteristic, and so entirely +peculiar to the subject in hand, that I cannot omit it. That report was +simply a rumor that I had caused one of my own barns to be set on fire, +the second night of my arrival, in order to throw the odium of the act +on those "virtuous and hard-working husbandmen," who only maintained an +illegal and armed body on foot, just to bully and worry me out of my +property. Yes, there I sat; altogether unconscious of the honor done me; +regarded by quite half that congregation as the respected and +just-minded youth who had devised and carried out precisely such a +rascally scheme. Now no one who has not had the opportunity to compare, +can form any idea how much more potent and formidable is the American +"folks say," than the vulgar reports of any other state of society. The +French _on dit_ is a poor, pitiful report, placed by the side of this +vast lever, which, like that of Archimedes, only wants a stand for its +fulcrum, to move the world. The American "folks say" has a certain +omnipotence, so long as it lasts, which arises from, not the spirit, but +the _character_ of the institutions themselves. In a country in which +the people rule, "folks" are resolved that their "say" shall not pass +for nothing. So few doubt the justice of the popular decision, that holy +writ itself has not, in practical effect, one-half the power that really +belongs to one of these reports, so long as it suits the common mind to +entertain it. Few dare resist it; fewer still call in question its +accuracy; though, in sober truth, it is hardly ever right. It makes and +unmakes reputation, for the time being _bien entendu_; it even makes and +unmakes patriots themselves. In short, though never quite truth, and not +often very much like the truth, paradoxical as it may appear, it is +truth, and nothing but the truth, _pro hac vice_. Everybody knows, +nevertheless, that there is no permanency to what "folks say" about +anything; and that "folks" frequently, nay, almost invariably, "unsay" +what has been said six months before; yet, all submit to the authority +of its _dicta_, so long as "folks" choose to "say." The only exception +to this rule, and it merely proves it, is in the case of political +parties, when there are always two "folks say" which flatly contradict +each other; and sometimes there are half-a-dozen, no two of which are +ever precisely alike! + +There I sat, as I afterward learned, "the observed of all observers," +merely because it suited the purposes of those who wished to get away my +estate to raise various reports to my prejudice--not one of which, I am +happy to have it in my power to say, was in any manner true. The first +good look that I took at the congregation satisfied me that very much +the larger part of it consisted of those who did not belong to St. +Andrew's Church. Curiosity, or some worse feeling, had trebled the +number of Mr. Warren's hearers that day--or, it might be more correct to +say, of my observers. + +There was no other interruption to the services than that which was +produced by the awkwardness of so many who were strangers to the ritual. +The habitual respect paid to religious rites kept every one in order; +and, in the midst of a feeling that was as malignant and selfish as well +could exist under circumstances of so little provocation, I was safe +from violence, and even from insult. As for myself, little was or could +be known of my character and propensities at Ravensnest. School, +college, and travelling, with winter residences in town, had made me a +sort of stranger in my own domain, and I was regarded through the +covenants of my leases, rather than through any known facts. The same +was true, though in a less degree, with my uncle, who had lived so much +abroad as to be considered a sort of half foreigner, and one who +preferred other countries to his own. This is an offence that is rarely +forgiven by the masses in America, though it is probably the most venial +sin that one who has had the opportunities of comparing can commit. Old +nations offer so many more inducements than young nations to tempt men +of leisure and cultivation to reside in them, that it is not surprising +the travelled American should prefer Europe to his own quarter of the +world; but the jealousy of a provincial people is not apt to forgive +this preference. For myself, I have heard it said, and I believe it to +be true, to a certain extent, that countries on the decline, supposing +them to have been once at the summit of civilization, make pleasanter +abodes for the idler than nations on the advance. This is one of the +reasons why Italy attracts so many more visitors than England, though +climate must pass for something in such a comparison. But these long +absences, and supposed preferences for foreign life, had made my uncle +Ro, in one sense, unpopular with the mass, which has been taught to +believe, by means of interested and fulsome eulogies on their own state +of society, that it implies something more than a want of taste, almost +a want of principle, to prefer any other. This want of popularity, +however, was a good deal relieved by a wide and deep conviction of my +uncle's probity, as well as of his liberality, his purse having no more +string to it than General Harrison's door was thought to have a latch. +But the case was very different with my grandmother. The early part of +her life had been spent at the Nest, and it was impossible so excellent +a woman could be anything but respected. She had, in truth, been a sore +impediment with the anti-renters; more especially in carrying out that +part of their schemes which is connected with traduction, and its +legitimate offspring, prejudice. It would hardly do to traduce this +noble-minded, charitable, spirited, and just woman; yet, hazardous as +the experiment must and did seem, it was attempted, and not altogether +without success. She was accused of an aristocratic preference of her +own family to the families of other people. Patt and I, it was urged, +were only her grandchildren, and had ample provision made for us in +other estates besides this--and a woman of Mrs. Littlepage's time of +life, it was said, who had one foot in the grave, ought to have too much +general philanthropy to give a preference to the interests of mere +grandchildren, over the interests of the children of men who had paid +her husband and sons rent, now, for quite sixty years. This attack had +come from the pulpit, too, or the top of a molasses hogshead, which was +made a substitute for a pulpit, by an itinerant preacher, who had taken +a bit of job-work, in which the promulgation of the tenets of the gospel +and those of anti-rentism was the great end in view. + +As I have said, my good grandmother suffered somewhat in public +estimation, in consequence of this assault. It is true, had any one +openly charged the circulators of this silly calumny with their offence, +they would have stoutly denied it; but it was none the less certain that +this charge, among a hundred others, varying from it only in degree, and +not at all in character, was industriously circulated in order to render +the Littlepages unpopular; unpopularity being among us the sin that is +apt to entail all the evil consequences of every other offence. + +The reader who is not acquainted with the interior of our social habits, +must not suppose that I am coloring for effect. So far from this, I am +quite conscious of having kept the tone of the picture down, it being an +undeniable truth that nothing of much interest, nowadays, is left to the +simple decision of principles and laws, in this part of the country at +least. The supremacy of numbers is so great, that scarce a private suit +of magnitude is committed to a jury, without attempts, more or less +direct, to influence the common mind in favor of one side or the other, +in the hope that the jurors will be induced to think as the majority +thinks. In Europe, it is known that judges were, nay, _are_, visited and +solicited by the parties; but here, it is the public that must be +treated in the same way. I am far from wishing to blazon the defects of +my own country, and I know from observation, that corresponding evils, +differing in their exterior aspects, and in their mode of acting, exist +elsewhere; but these are the forms in which some of our defects present +themselves, and he is neither a friend to his country, nor an honest +man, who wishes them to be bundled up and cloaked, instead of being +exposed, understood, and corrected. This notion of "_nil nisi bene_" has +done an infinite degree of harm to the country; and, through the +country, to freedom. + +I do not think the worship of the temple amounted to any great matter +that day in St. Andrew's Church, Ravensnest. Quite half the congregation +was blundering through the liturgy, and every man who lost his place in +the prayer-book, or who could not find it at all, seemed to fancy it was +quite sufficient for the ritual of us semi-papists if he kept his eye on +_me_ and my canopied pew. How many pharisees were present, who actually +believed that I had caused my own barn to be burned, in order to throw +opprobrium on the "virtuous," "honest," and "hard-working" tenants, and +who gave credit to the stories affecting my title, and all the rest of +the stuff that calculating cupidity had set afloat in the country, I +have no way of knowing; but subsequent circumstances have given me +reason to suppose they were not a few. A great many men left the house +of God that morning, I make no doubt, whose whole souls were wrapped up +in effecting an act of the grossest injustice, professing to themselves +to thank God that they were not as wicked as the being whom they desired +to injure. + +I stopped to say a word to Mr. Warren, in the vestry-room, after the +people were dismissed, for he had not passed the night with us at the +Nest, though his daughter had. After we had said a word about the +occurrence of the morning, the good rector having heard a rumor of the +arrest of certain incendiaries, without knowing who they were, I made a +more general remark or two previously to quitting the place. + +"Your congregation was unusually large this morning, sir," I said, +smiling, "though not altogether as attentive as it might have been." + +"I owe it to your return, Mr. Littlepage, aided by the events of the +past day or two. At one moment I was afraid that some secret project was +on foot, and that the day and place might be desecrated by some scene of +disgraceful violence. All has gone off well in that respect, however, +and I trust that no harm will come of this crowd. We Americans _have_ a +respect for sacred things, which will ordinarily protect the temple." + +"Did you, then, think St. Andrew's ran any risk to-day, sir?" + +Mr. Warren colored a little, and he hesitated an instant before he +answered. + +"You doubtless know, young sir," he said, "the nature of the feeling +that is now abroad in the country. With a view to obtain its ends, +anti-rentism drags every auxiliary it can find into its ranks, and, +among other things, it has assailed your canopied pew. I own, that, at +first, I apprehended some assault might be contemplated on _that_." + +"Let it come, sir; the pew shall be altered on a general and right +principle, but not until it is let alone by envy, malice, and +covetousness. It would be worse to make a concession to these than to +let the pew stand another half century." + +With these words in my mouth, I took my leave, hastening on to overtake +the girls in the fields. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + "There is a pure republic--wild, yet strong-- + A 'fierce democracie,' where all are true + To what themselves have voted--right or wrong-- + And to their laws denominated blue; + (If red, they might to Draco's code belong.)"--HALLECK. + + +Such was my haste in quitting the church, that I did not turn to the +right or the left. I saw the light, but well-rounded form of Mary Warren +loitering along with the rest of the party, seemingly in waiting for me +to join them; and crossing the road, I sprang upon the stile, and thence +to the ground, coming up with the girls at the next instant. + +"What is the meaning of the crowd, Hugh?" asked my sister, pointing down +the road with the stick of her parasol, as she put the question. + +"Crowd! I have seen no crowd. Everybody had left the church before I +quitted it, and all has gone off peaceably. Ha! sure enough, that does +look like a crowd yonder in the highway. It seems an organized meeting, +by George! Yes, there is the chairman, seated on the upper rail of the +fence, and the fellow with a bit of paper in his hand is doubtless the +secretary. Very American, and regular, all that! Some vile project is +hatching, I'll answer for it, under the aspect of an expression of +public opinion. See, there is a chap speaking, and gesticulating +manfully!" + +We all stopped, for a moment, and stood looking at the crowd, which +really had all the signs of a public meeting about it. There it had +been, the girls told me, ever since they had quitted the church, and +seemingly engaged much as it was at that moment. The spectacle was +curious, and the day being fine, while time did not press, we lingered +in the fields, occasionally stopping to look behind us, and note what +was passing on in the highway. + +In this manner, we might have walked half the distance to the Nest, +when, on turning to take another look, we perceived that the crowd had +dispersed; some driving off in the ever-recurring one-horse wagon, some +on horseback and others on foot. Three men, however, were walking fast +in our direction, as if desirous of overtaking us. They had already +crossed the stile, and were on the path in the field, a route rarely or +never taken by any but those who desired to come to the house. Under the +circumstances, I determined at once to stop and wait for them. First +feeling in my pocket, and making sure of the "revolver," which is +getting to be an important weapon, now that private battles are fought +not only "yard-arm and yard-arm," but by regular "broadsides," starboard +and larboard, I intimated my intention to the girls. + +"As these men are evidently coming in quest of me," I remarked, "it may +be as well, ladies, for you to continue your walk toward home, while I +wait for them on this stile." + +"Very true," answered Patt. "They can have little to say that we shall +wish to hear, and you will soon overtake us. Remember, we dine at two on +Sundays, Hugh; the evening service commencing at four, in this month." + +"No, no," said Mary Warren, hurriedly, "we ought not, _cannot_, quit Mr. +Littlepage. These men may do him some harm." + +I was delighted with this simple, natural manifestation of interest, as +well as with the air of decision with which it was made. Mary herself +colored at her own interest, but did not the less maintain the ground +she had taken. + +"Why, of what use can we be to Hugh, dear, even admitting what you say +to be true?" answered Patt; "it were better for us to hurry on to the +house, and send those here who can assist him in such a case, than stand +by idle and useless." + +As if profiting by this hint, Miss Coldbrooke and Miss Marston, who were +already some little distance in advance, went off almost on a run, +doubtless intending to put my sister's project into execution. But Mary +Warren stood firm, and Patt would not desert her friend, whatever might +have been her disposition to treat me with less consideration. + +"It is true, we may not be able to assist Mr. Littlepage, should +violence be attempted," the first remarked; "but violence is, perhaps, +what is least to be apprehended. These wretched people so little regard +truth, and they will be three to one, if your brother be left alone; +that it is better we stay and _hear_ what is said, in order that we may +assert what the facts really were, should these persons see fit to +pervert them, as too often happens." + +Both Patt and myself were struck with the prudence and sagacity of this +suggestion; and the former now came quite near to the stile, on which I +was still standing, with an air as steady and resolute as that of Mary +Warren herself. Just then the three men approached. Two of them I knew +by name, though scarcely in person, while the third was a total +stranger. The two of whom I had some knowledge, were named Bunce and +Mowatt, and were both tenants of my own; and, as I have since learned, +warm anti-renters. The stranger was a travelling demagogue, who had been +at the bottom of the whole affair connected with the late meeting, and +who had made his two companions his tools. The three came up to the +stile, with an air of great importance, nor could the dignity of their +demeanor have been greater had they been ambassadors extraordinary from +the Emperor of China. + +"Mr. Littlepage," commenced Mr. Bunce, with a particularly important +physiognomy, "there has been a meeting of the public, this morning, at +which these resolutions was passed. We have been appointed a committee +to deliver a copy of them to you, and our duty is now performed by +handing you this paper." + +"Not unless I see fit to accept it, I presume, sir," was my answer. + +"I should think no man, in a free country, would refuse to receive a set +of resolutions that has been passed by a meeting of his +fellow-citizens." + +"That might depend on circumstances; the character of the resolutions, +in particular. The freedom of the country it is, precisely, which gives +one man the same right to say he cares nothing about your resolutions, +as it does you to pass them." + +"But you have not looked at the resolutions, sir, and until you do, you +cannot know how you may like them." + +"That is very true; but I have looked at their bearers, have seen their +manner, and do not quite like the assumption of power which says any +body of men can send me resolutions, whether I like to receive them or +not." + +This declaration seemed to strike the committee aghast! The idea that +_one_ man should hesitate to submit himself to a yoke imposed by a +_hundred_, was so new and inconceivable to those who deem majorities all +in all, that they hardly knew how to take it.[29] At first there was an +obvious disposition to resent the insult; then came reflection, which +probably told them that such a course might not prove so well, the whole +terminating in the more philosophical determination of getting along +easily. + +[Footnote 29: The prevalence of the notion of the omnipotence of +majorities, in America, is so wide-spread and deep, among the people in +general, as to form a distinctive trait in the national character. It is +doing an infinity of mischief, by being mistaken for the governing +principle of the institutions, when in fact it is merely a necessary +expedient to decide certain questions which must be decided by somebody, +and in some mode or other. Kept in its proper sphere, the use of +majorities is replete with justice, so far as justice _can_ be exercised +among men; abused, it opens the highway to the most intolerable tyranny. +As a matter of course, the errors connected with this subject vary +through all the gradations of intellect and selfishness. The following +anecdote will give the reader some notion how the feeling impressed a +stranger shortly after his arrival in this country. + +A year or two since the writer had in his service an Irishman who had +been only two years in the country. It was a part of this man's duty to +look after the welfare of certain pigs, of which one occupied the +position of a "runt." "Has your honor looked at the pigs lately?" said +the honest fellow, one day. "No, not lately, Pat; is there any change?" +"That there is, indeed, sir, and a great change. The little fellow is +getting the _majority_ of the rest, and will make the best hog of 'em +all!"--EDITOR.] + +"Am I to understand, Mr. Littlepage, that you refuse to accept the +resolutions of a public meeting?" + +"Yes; of half a dozen public meetings put together, if those resolutions +are offensive, or are offered offensively." + +"As to the resolutions, you can know nothing, having never seen them. Of +the right of any number of the people to pass such resolutions as they +may think proper, I presume there can be no question." + +"Of that right, sir, there is a very great question, as has been settled +within the last few years, in our own courts. But, even if the right +existed, and in as broad a way as you seem to think, it would not form a +right to force these resolutions on me." + +"I am, then, to tell the people you refuse even to read their +resolutions, 'Squire Littlepage?" + +"You can tell them what you please, sir. I know of no people, except in +a legal sense, and under the limited powers that they exercise by law. +As for this new power, which is rising up in the country, and has the +impudence to call itself the people, though composed of little knots of +men got together by management, and practised on by falsehood, it has +neither my respect nor dread; and as I hold it in contempt, I shall +treat it with contempt whenever it comes in my way." + +"I am, then, to tell the people of Ravensnest you hold them in contempt, +sir?" + +"I authorize you tell the people of Ravensnest nothing, as coming from +me, for I do not know that the people of Ravensnest have employed you. +If you will ask me, respectfully, as if you were soliciting a favor +instead of demanding a right, to read the contents of the paper you hold +in your hand, I may be willing to comply. What I object to is a handful +of men getting together, setting themselves up as the people, pretending +to authority in that capacity, and claiming a right to _force_ their +notions on other folks." + +The three committee-men now drew back a few paces, and consulted +together apart for two or three minutes. While they were thus employed, +I heard the sweet gentle voice of Mary Warren say at my elbow--"Take +their resolutions, Mr. Littlepage, and get rid of them. I dare say they +are very silly, but you will get rid of them all the sooner by receiving +the paper." This was woman's advice, which is a little apt to err on the +side of concession, when her apprehensions are aroused; but I was spared +the pain of not complying with it, by the altered tone of the trio, who +now came up to the stile again, having apparently come to a final +decision in the premises. + +"Mr. Hugh Roger Littlepage, junior," said Bunce, in a solemn voice, and +in a manner as precise as if he were making some legal tender that was +of the last importance, and which required set phrases, "I now ask you, +in a most respectful manner, if you will consent to receive this paper. +It contains certain resolutions, passed with great unanimity by the +people of Ravensnest, and which may be found to affect you. I am +directed respectfully to ask you, if you will accept this copy of the +said resolutions." + +I cut the rest of the speech short by receiving the proffered paper, and +I thought all three of the worthy ambassadors looked disappointed at my +having done so. This gave a new turn to my ideas, and had they now +demanded their resolutions back again, they should not have had them, so +long as the revolvers could do their duty. For a moment, I do believe +Bunce was for trying the experiment. He and his companions would have +been delighted to have it in their power to run up and down the country +crying out that the aristocrat-landlord, young Littlepage, held the +people in contempt, and had refused even to accept the resolutions they +had deigned, in their majesty, to pass. As it was, however, I had +sufficiently rebuked the presumption of these pretenders to liberty, +avoided all the consequences of their clamor in that behalf, and had an +opportunity to gratify a curiosity to know what the leaders of the +meeting had been about, and to read their resolutions. I say, the +leaders of the meeting, for it is very certain the meetings themselves, +on all such occasions, have no more to do with the forming or +entertaining the opinions that are thus expressed, than if they had been +in Kamtschatka the whole time. Folding the paper, therefore, and putting +it in my pocket, I bowed to the committee, saying, as I descended the +stile on the other side of the fence-- + +"It is well, gentlemen; if the resolutions require any notice, they'll +be sure to receive it. Public meetings held of a Sunday are so unusual +in this part of the world, that this may have interest with that small +portion of the State which does not dwell at Ravensnest." + +I thought the committee was a little abashed; but the stranger, or the +travelling demagogue, caught at my words, and answered as I walked away, +in company with Patt and Mary Warren-- + +"The better day, the better deed. The matter related to the Sabbath, and +no time so suitable as the Sabbath to act on it." + +I will own I was dying of curiosity to read the resolutions, but dignity +prevented any such thing until we had reached a spot where the path led +through a copse, that concealed us from observation. Once under that +cover, however, I eagerly drew out the paper, the two girls drawing near +to listen, with as lively an interest as that I felt myself in the +result. + +"Here you may see at a glance," I cried, shaking open the folds of the +paper, "the manner in which the _people_ so often pass their +resolutions! All this writing has a very school-master air, and has been +done with care and a deliberation, whereas there was certainly no +opportunity to make a copy as fair as this of anything out in the +highway where the meeting was actually held. This proves that matters +had been cut and dried for the sovereign people, who, like other +monarchs, are saved a great deal of trouble by their confidential +servants." + +"I dare say," said Patt, "two or three men down at the village prepared +everything, and then brought their work up to the meeting to be read and +approved, and to go forth as public sentiment." + +"If it were only honesty approved by even those who heard it read, it +would be another matter; but two-thirds of every meeting are nothing but +dough-faces, that are moulded to look whichever way the skilful manager +may choose. But let us see what these notable resolutions are; we may +like them, possibly, after having read them." + +"It is so extraordinary to have a public meeting of a Sunday in this +part of the world!" + +I now set about reading the contents of the paper, which, at a glance, I +saw had been very carefully prepared for publication, and no doubt would +soon figure in some of the journals. Fortunately, this business has been +so much overdone, and so many meetings are held that flatly contradict +each other, though all represent public sentiment, fire is made so +effectually to fight fire, that the whole procedure is falling into +contempt, and the public is actually losing the great advantage which, +under a more temperate use of its power, it might possess, by making +known from time to time, as serious occasions offered, its true opinions +and wishes. As things actually are, every man of intelligence is fully +aware that simulated public opinions are much the most noisy and active +in the country, and he regards nothing of the sort of which he hears or +reads, unless he happen to know something of the authority. It is the +same with the newspaper press generally; into such deep discredit has it +fallen, that not only is its power to do evil much curtailed, but it has +nearly lost all power to do good; for, by indulging in licentiousness, +and running into the habit of crying "wolf," nobody is disposed to +believe, were the beast actually committing its ravages in the flocks of +the nation. There are but two ways for a man to regain a position from +which he has departed; the one is by manfully retracing his steps, and +the other is by making a circuit so complete that all who choose to +watch him may see and understand all sides of him, and estimate him +accordingly. The last is likely to be the career of demagogueism and the +press; both of which have already gone so far as to render retreat next +to impossible, and who can only regain any portion of public confidence +by being satisfied with completing their circuit, and falling in the +rear of the nation, content to follow those whom it has been their +craving ambition to lead. + +"At a meeting of the citizens of Ravensnest," I began to read aloud, +"spontaneously convened, June 22d, 1845, in the public highway, after +attending divine service in the Episcopal meeting-house, according to +the forms of the established denomination of England, on the church and +state system, Onesiphoras Hayden, Esquire, was called to the chair, and +Pulaski Todd, Esquire, was appointed secretary. After a luminous and +eloquent exposition of the objects of the meeting, and some most pungent +strictures on aristocracy and the rights of man, from Demosthenes +Hewlett and John Smith, Esquires, the following expression of public +sentiment was sustained by an undivided unanimity:--_Resolved_, That a +temperate expression of public opinion is useful to the rights of +freemen, and is one of the most precious privileges of freedom, as the +last has been transmitted to us in a free country by our ancestors, who +fought and bled for free and equal institutions on free and equal +grounds. + +"_Resolved_, That we prize this privilege, and shall ever watch over its +exercise with vigilance, the price of liberty. + +"_Resolved_, That, as all men are equal in the eyes of the law, so are +they much more so in the eyes of God. + +"_Resolved_, That meeting-houses are places constructed for the +convenience of the people, and that nothing ought to be admitted into +them that is opposed to public sentiment, or which can possibly offend +it. + +"_Resolved_, That, in our judgment, the seat that is good enough for one +man is good enough for another; that we know no differences in families +and races, and that pews ought to be constructed on the principles of +equality, as well as laws. + +"_Resolved_, That canopies are royal distinctions, and quite unsuited to +republicans; and most of all, to republican meeting-houses. + +"_Resolved_, That religion should be adapted to the institutions of a +country, and that a republican form of government is entitled to a +republican form of religion; and that we do not see the principles of +freedom in privileged seats in the house of God." + +"That resolution has been got up as a commentary on what has been +circulated so much, of late, in the newspapers," cried Mary Warren, +quickly; "in which it has been advanced, as a recommendation of certain +sects, that their dogmas and church-government are more in harmony with +republicanism than certain others, our own Church included." + +"One would think," I answered, "if this conformity be a recommendation, +that it would be the duty of men to make their institutions conform to +the Church, instead of the Church's conforming to the institutions." + +"Yes; but it is not the fashion to reason in this way, nowadays. +Prejudice is just as much appealed to in matters connected with +religion, as with anything else." + +"_Resolved_," I continued to read, "That in placing a canopy over his +pew, in St. Andrew's meeting-house, Ravensnest, General Cornelius +Littlepage conformed to the spirit of a past age, rather than to the +spirit of the present time, and that we regard its continuance there as +an aristocratical assumption of a superiority that is opposed to the +character of the government, offensive to liberty, and dangerous as an +example." + +"Really that is too bad!" exclaimed Patt, vexed at heart, even while she +laughed at the outrageous silliness of the resolutions, and all +connected with them. "Dear, liberal-minded grandpapa, who fought and +bled for that very liberty about which these people cant so much, and +who was actively concerned in framing the very institutions that they do +not understand, and are constantly violating, is accused to being false +to what were notoriously his own principles!" + +"Never mind that, my dear; there only remain three more resolutions: let +us hear them. _Resolved_, That we see an obvious connection between +crowned heads, patents of nobility, canopied pews, personal +distinctions, leasehold tenures, land-LORDS, days' works, fat fowls, +quarter-sales, three-lives leases, and RENT. + +"_Resolved_, That we are of opinion that, when the owners of barns wish +them destroyed, for any purpose whatever, there is a mode less alarming +to a neighborhood than by setting them on fire, and thus giving rise to +a thousand reports and accusations that are wanting in the great merit +of truth. + +"_Resolved_, That a fair draft be made of these resolutions, and a copy +of them delivered to one Hugh Roger Littlepage, a citizen of Ravensnest, +in the county of Washington; and that Peter Bunce, Esq., John Mowatt, +Esq., and Hezekiah Trott, Esq., be a commitee to see that this act be +performed. + +"Whereupon the meeting adjourned, _sine die_. Onesiphoras Hayden, +chairman; Pulaski Todd, secretary." + +"Whe-e-e-w!" I whistled, "here's gunpowder enough for another Waterloo!" + +"What means that last resolution, Mr. Littlepage?" asked Mary Warren, +anxiously. "That about the barn." + +"Sure enough; there is a latent meaning there which has its sting. Can +the scoundrels intend to insinuate that I caused that barn to be set on +fire!" + +"If they should, it is scarcely more than they have attempted to do with +every landlord they have endeavored to rob," said Patt, with spirit. +"Calumny seems a natural weapon of those who get their power by +appealing to numbers." + +"That is natural enough, my dear sister; since prejudice and passion are +quite as active agents as reasons and facts, in the common mind. But +this is a slander that shall be looked to. If I find that these men +really wish to circulate a report that I caused my own barn to be set on +fire--pshaw! nonsense, after all; have we not Newcome, and that other +rascal in confinement, at this moment, for attempting to set fire to my +_house_?" + +"Be not too confident, Mr. Littlepage," said Mary, with an anxiety so +pointed that I could not but feel its flattery--"my dear father tells me +he has lost most of his confidence in innocence, except as One above all +weaknesses shall be the judge: this very story may be got up expressly +to throw distrust on your accusations against the two incendiaries you +have taken in the act. Remember how much of the facts will depend on +your own testimony." + +"I shall have _you_ to sustain me, Miss Warren, and the juror is not +living, who would hesitate to believe that to which you will testify. +But here we are approaching the house; we will talk no more on the +subject, lest it distress my grandmother." + +We found all quiet at the Nest, no report of any sort having come from +the red-men. Sunday was like any other day to them, with the exception +that they so far deferred to our habits as to respect it, to a certain +extent, while in our presence. Some writers have imagined that the +aborigines of America are of the lost tribes of Israel; but it seems to +me that such a people could never have existed apart, uninfluenced by +foreign association, and preserved no tradition, no memorial of the +Jewish Sabbath. Let this be as it may, John, who met us at the door, +which we reached just after my uncle and grandmother, reported all +quiet, so far as he knew anything of the state of the farm-buildings. + +"They got enough last night, I'se thinking, Mr. Hugh, and has found out +by this time, that it's better to light a fire in one of their own +cook-stoves, than come to light it on the floor of a gentleman's +kitchen. I never heard it said, sir, that the Hamericans was as much +Hirish as they be Henglish, but to me they seems to grow every day more +like the wild Hirishers, of whom we used to hear so much in Lun'un. Your +honored father, sir, would never have believed that his own dwelling +would be entered, at night, by men who are his very neighbors, and who +act like burglariouses, as if they were so many Newgate birds--no. Why, +Mr. Hugh, this 'Squire Newcome, as they call him, is an hattorney, and +has often dined here at the Nest. I have 'anded him his soup, and fish, +and wine, fifty times, just as if he was a gentleman, and to his sister, +Miss Hopportunity, too; and they to come to set fire to the house, at +midnight!" + +"You do Miss Opportunity injustice, John; for _she_ has not had the +least connection with the matter." + +"Well, sir, nobody knows anything nowaday--I declare, my eyes be getting +weak, or there is the young lady, at this very instant!" + +"Young lady! where?--you do not mean Opportunity Newcome, surely?" + +"I does though, sir, and it's she, sure enough. If that isn't Miss +Hopportunity, the prisoner that the savages has got up in the cellar of +the old farm-house, isn't her brother." + +John was quite right; there was Opportunity standing in the very path, +and at the very spot where I had last seen her disappear from my sight, +the past night. That spot was just where the path plunged into the +wooded ravine, and so far was her person concealed by the descent, that +we could only perceive the head, and the upper part of the body. The +girl had shown herself just that much, in order to attract my attention, +in which she had no sooner succeeded, than, by moving downward a few +paces, she was entirely hid from sight. Cautioning John to say nothing +of what had passed, I sprang down the steps, and walked in the direction +of the ravine, perfectly satisfied I was expected, and far from certain +that this visit did not portend further evil. + +The distance was so short that I was soon at the verge of the ravine, +but when I reached it Opportunity had disappeared. Owing to the thicket, +her concealment was easily obtained, while she might be within a few +yards from me, and I plunged downward, bent only on ascertaining her +object. One gleam of distrust shot across my mind, I will own, as I +strided down the declivity; but it was soon lost in the expectation and +curiosity that were awakened by the appearance of the girl. + +I believe it has already been explained, that in this part of the lawn a +deep, narrow ravine had been left in wood, and that the bridle-path that +leads to the hamlet had been carried directly through it, for effect. +This patch of wood may be three or four acres in extent, following the +course of the ravine until it reaches the meadows, and it contains three +or four rustic seats, intended to be used in the warmer months. As +Opportunity was accustomed to all the windings and turnings of the +place, she had posted herself near one of these seats, which stood in a +dense thicket, but so near the main path as to enable her to let me know +where she was to be found, by a low utterance of my name, as my tread +announced my approach. Springing up the by-path, I was at her side in an +instant. I do believe that, now she had so far succeeded, the girl sunk +upon the seat from inability to stand. + +"Oh! Mr. Hugh!" she exclaimed, looking at me with a degree of nature and +concern in her countenance that it was not usual to see there--"Sen--my +poor brother Sen--what _have_ I done?--what _have_ I done?" + +"Will you answer me one or two questions, Miss Opportunity, with +frankness, under the pledge that the replies never shall be used to +injure you or yours? This is a very serious affair, and should be +treated with perfect frankness." + +"I will answer anything to _you_--any question you can put me, though I +might blush to do so--but," laying her hand familiarly, not to say +tenderly, on my arm--"why should we be _Mr._ Hugh and _Miss_ Opportunity +to each other, when we were so long Hugh and Op? Call me Op again, and I +shall feel that the credit of my family and the happiness of my poor Sen +are, after all, in the keeping of a true friend." + +"No one can be more willing to do this than myself, my dear Op, and I am +willing to be Hugh again. But, you know all that has passed." + +"I do--yes, the dreadful news has reached us, and mother wouldn't leave +me a moment's peace till I stole out again to see you." + +"Again? Was your mother, then, acquainted with the visit of last night?" + +"Yes, yes--she knew it all, and advised it all." + +"Your mother is a most thoughtful and prudent parent," I answered, +biting my lip, "and I shall know hereafter how much I am indebted to +her. To _you_, Opportunity, I owe the preservation of my house, and +possibly the lives of all who are most dear to me." + +"Well, that's something, any how. There's no grief that hasn't its +relief. But, you must know, Hugh, that I never could or did suppose that +Sen himself would be so weak as to come in his own person on such an +errand! I didn't want telling to understand that, in anti-rent times, +fire and sword are the law--but, take him in general, Sen is altogether +prudent and cautious. I'd a bit my tongue off before I'd got my own +brother into so cruel a scrape. No, no--don't think so ill of me as to +suppose I came to tell of Sen." + +"It is enough for me that I know how much trouble you took to warn me of +danger. It is unnecessary for me to think of _you_ in any other light +than that of a friend." + +"Ah, Hugh! how happy and merry we all of us used to be a few years +since! That was before your Miss Coldbrookes, and Miss Marstons, and +Mary Warrens ever saw the country. _Then_ we _did_ enjoy ourselves, and +I hope such times will return. If Miss Martha would only stick to old +friends, instead of running after new ones, Ravensnest would be +Ravensnest again." + +"You are not to censure my sister for loving her own closest associates +best. She is several years our junior, you will remember, and was +scarcely of an age to be _our_ companion six years ago." + +Opportunity had the grace to color a little, for she had only used Patt +as a cloak to make her assaults on me, and she knew as well as I did +that my sister was good seven years younger than herself. This feeling, +however, was but momentary, and she next turned to the real object of +this visit. + +"What am I to tell mother, Hugh? You will let Sen off, I know?" + +I reflected, for the first time, on the hardships of the case; but felt +a strong reluctance to allow incendiaries to escape. + +"The facts must be known, soon, all over the town," I remarked. + +"No fear of that; they are pretty much known already. News _does_ fly +_fast_ at Ravensnest, all must admit." + +"Ay, if it would only fly _true_. But your brother can hardly remain +here, after such an occurrence." + +"Lord! How you talk! If the law will only let him alone, who'd trouble +him for this? You haven't been home long enough to learn that folks +don't think half as much of setting fire to a house, in anti-rent times, +as they'd think of a trespass under the old-fashioned law. Anti-rent +alters the whole spirit." + +How true was this! And we have lads among us, who have passed from their +tenth to their eighteenth and twentieth years, in a condition of society +that is almost hopelessly abandoned to the most corrupting influence of +all the temptations that beset human beings. It is not surprising that +men begin to regard arson as a venial offence, when the moral feeling of +the community is thus unhinged, and boys are suffered to grow into +manhood in the midst of notions so fatal to everything that is just and +safe. + +"But the law itself will not be quite as complaisant as the 'folks.' It +will scarcely allow incendiaries to escape; and your brother would be +compelled to flee the land." + +"What of that? How many go off, and stay off for a time; and that's +better than going up north to work at the new prison. I'm not a bit +afraid of Sen's being hanged, for these an't hanging times, in this +country; but it is _some_ disgrace to a family to have a member in the +State's prison. As for any punishment that is lasting, you can see how +it is, as well as I. There've been men murdered about anti-rentism, but, +Lord! the Senators and Assemblymen will raise such a rumpus, if you go +to punish them, that it won't be long, if things go on as they have, +before it will be thought more honorable to be put in jail for shooting +a peace-officer, than to stay out of it for not having done it. Talk's +all; and if folks have a mind to make anything honorable, they've only +to say so often enough to make it out." + +Such were the notions of Miss Opportunity Newcome, on the subject of +modern morals, and how far was she from the truth? I could not but smile +at the manner in which she treated things, though there was a homely and +practical common sense in her way of thinking that was probably of more +efficiency than would have been the case with a more refined and nicer +code. She looked at things as they are, and that is always something +toward success. + +As for myself, I was well enough disposed to consider Opportunity, in +this unfortunate affair of the fire, for it Would have been a cruel +thing to suffer the girl to imagine she had been an instrument in +destroying her brother. It is true, there is no great danger of a +rogue's being hanged, nowadays, and Seneca was not sufficiently a +gentleman, though very tenacious of the title, to endanger his neck. Had +he been a landlord, and caught lighting a fire on the kitchen-floor of +one of the tenants, the State would not grow hemp enough for his +execution; but it was a very different thing to catch a tenant at that +work. I could not but ask myself, how many of the "honorable gentlemen" +at Albany would interfere in _my_ behalf, had matters been reversed? for +this is the true mode of arriving at the "spirit of the institutions;" +or, rather, I have just as good a right to affirm such is their +"spirit," as any one has to assert that the leasehold tenure is opposed +to them; the laws and institutions themselves being equally antagonist +to both. + +The results of the interview I had with Opportunity were: firstly, I +kept my heart just where it was at its commencement, though I am not +certain that it was in my own custody; secondly, the young lady left me +much encouraged on the subject of the credit of the Newcomes, though I +took very good care not to put myself in her power by promising to +compromise felony; thirdly, I invited the sister to come openly to the +Nest, that evening, as one of the means to be employed in attaining her +ends--as respects Seneca, be it remembered, not as respects _me_; and +lastly, we parted just as good friends as we ever had been, and +entertaining exactly the same views as regards each other. What those +views were it may not be modest in me to record. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + "If men desire the rights of property, they must take their + consequences; distinction in social classes. Without the rights + of property civilization can hardly exist, while the highest + class of improvements is probably the result of the very social + distinctions that so many decry. The great political problem to + be solved is to ascertain if the social distinctions that are + inseparable from civilization can really exist with perfect + equality in political rights. We are of opinion they can; and + as much condemn him who vainly contends for a visionary and + impracticable social equality, as we do him who would deny to + men equal opportunities for advancement."--_Political Essay._ + + +My interview with Opportunity Newcome remained a secret between those +who first knew of it. The evening service in St. Andrew's was attended +only by the usual congregation, all the curiosity of the multitude +seeming to have been allayed by the visit in the morning. The remainder +of the day passed as usual, and after enjoying a pleasant eventide, and +the earlier hours of the night in the company of the girls, I retired +early to bed, and slept profoundly until morning. My Uncle Ro partook of +my own philosophical temper, and we encouraged each other in it by a +short conversation that occurred in his room before we respectively +retired to rest. + +"I agree with you, Hugh," said my uncle, in reply to a remark of my own; +"there is little use in making ourselves unhappy about evils that _we_ +cannot help. If we are to be burnt up and stripped of our property, we +_shall_ be burnt up and stripped of our property. I have a competency +secured in Europe, and we can all live on _that_, with economy, should +the worst come to the worst." + +"It is a strange thing to hear an American talk of seeking a refuge of +any sort in the Old World!" + +"If matters proceed in the lively manner they have for the last ten +years, you'll hear of it often. Hitherto, the rich of Europe have been +in the habit of laying by a penny in America against an evil day, but +the time will soon come, unless there is a great change, when the rich +of America will return the compliment in kind. We are worse off than if +we were in a state of nature, in many respects; having _our_ hands tied +by the responsibility that belongs to our position and means, while +those who choose to assail us are under a mere nominal restraint. They +make the magistrates, who are altogether in their interests; and they +elect the sheriffs who are to see the laws executed. The theory is, that +the people are sufficiently virtuous to perform all these duties well; +but no provision has been made for the case in which the people +themselves happen to go astray, _en masse_." + +"We have our governors and masters at Albany, sir." + +"Yes, we _have_ our governors and servants at Albany, and there they +are! There has not been the time, probably, since this infernal spirit +first had its rise among us, that a clear, manly, energetic and +well-principled proclamation alone, issued by the governor of this +State, would not have aroused all the better feelings of the community +and put this thing down; but, small as would have been that tribute to +the right, it has never been paid, and, until we drop double-distilled +patriots, and have recourse again to the old-fashioned, high-principled +gentlemen for offices of mark, it never will be done. Heaven preserve me +from extra-virtuous, patriotic, and enlightened citizens; no good ever +comes of them." + +"I believe the wisest way, sir, is to make up our minds that we have +reached the point of reaction in the institutions, and be ready to +submit to the worst. I keep the 'revolver' well primed, and hope to +escape being burnt up at least." + +After a little more such discourse, we parted and sought our pillows, +and I can say that I never slept more soundly in my life. If I did lose +my estate, it was what other men had suffered and survived, and why +might not I as well as another? It is true, those other men were, in the +main, the victims of what are called tyrants; but others, again, had +certainly been wronged by the masses. Thousands have been impoverished +in France, for instance, by the political confiscations of the +multitude, and thousands enriched by ill-gotten gains, profiting by the +calamities of those around them; and what has happened there might +happen here. Big words ought to pass for nothing. No man was ever a whit +more free because he was the whole time boasting of his liberty, and I +was not now to learn that when numbers did inflict a wrong, it was +always of the most intolerable character. Ordinarily, they were not much +disposed to this species of crime; but men in masses were no more +infallible than individuals. In this philosophic mood I slept. + +I was awoke next morning by John's appearing at my bedside, after having +opened the shutter of my window. + +"I declare to you, Mr. Hugh," began this well-meaning, but sometimes +officious servant, "I don't know what will come next at Ravensnest, now +the evil spirit has got uppermost among the inhabitants!" + +"Tut, tut, John--what you call the evil spirit is only the 'spirit of +the institutions;' and is to be honored, instead of disliked." + +"Well, sir, I don't know what they calls it, for they talks so much +about the hinstitutions in this country, I never can find out what they +would be at. There was a hinstitution near where I lived in my last +place, at the West End, in Lun'on, and there they taught young masters +to speak and write Latin and Greek. But hinstitutions in Hamerica must +mean something, for them as doesn't know any more Latin than I do seems +to be quite hintimate with these Hamerican hinstitutions. But, Mr. Hugh, +would you, _could_ you, believe the people committed parricide last +night?" + +"I am not at all surprised at it, for to me they have seemed to be bent +on matricide for some time, calling the country their mother." + +"It's hawful, sir--it's truly hawful, when a whole people commits such a +crime as parricide! I know'd you would be shocked to hear it, Mr. Hugh, +and so I just came in to let you know it." + +"I am infinitely obliged to you for this attention, my good fellow, and +shall be still more so when you tell me all about it." + +"Yes, sir, most willingly; and most unwillingly, too. But there's no use +in 'iding the fact; it's gone, Mr. Hugh!" + +"What is gone, John? Speak out, my good fellow; I can bear it." + +"The pew, sir--or, rather that beautiful canopy that covered it and made +it look so much like the lord mayor's seat in Guildhall. I 'ave hadmired +and honored that canopy, sir, as the most helegant hobject in this +country, sir." + +"So they have destroyed it at last, have they? Encouraged and sustained +by an expression of public sentiment, as proclaimed in a meeting that +had a chairman and secretary, they have actually cut it down, I +suppose?" + +"They have, sir; and a pretty job they've made of it. There it stands, +up at Miller's, hover his pig-pen!" + +This was not a very heroic termination of the career of the obnoxious +canopy; but it was one that made me laugh heartily. John was a little +offended at this levity, and he soon left me to finish my toilet myself. +I dare say, many of the honest folk of Ravensnest would have been as +much surprised as John himself, at the indifference I manifested at the +fate of this dignified pew. But, certainly, so far as my own social +elevation, or social depression, was concerned, I cared nothing about +it. It left me just where I was--neither greater nor otherwise; and as +for any monuments to let the world know who my predecessors had been, or +who I was at that moment, the country itself, or the part of it in which +we dwelt, was sufficient. Its history must be forgotten, or changed, +before our position could be mistaken; though I dare say the time will +come when some extremely sublimated friend of equality will wish to +extinguish all the lights of the past, in order that there may not exist +that very offensive distinction of one man's name being illustrated, +while another man's name is not. The pride of family is justly deemed +the most offensive of all pride, since a man may value himself on a +possession to which he has not the smallest claim in the way of personal +merit, while those of the highest personal claims are altogether +deprived of an advantage, to the enjoyment of which ancestors alone have +created the right. Now, the institutions, both in their letter and their +spirit, _do_ favor justice in this particular, as far as they can; +though even they are obliged to sustain one of the most potent agents to +such distinctions, by declaring, through the laws, that the child shall +succeed to the estate of the father. When we shall get everything +straight, and as it ought to be, in this progressive country, heaven +only knows; for I find my tenants laying stress on the fact that _their_ +fathers have leased my lands for generations, while they are quite +willing to forget that _my_ fathers were the lessors all the while. + +I found all four of the girls on the piazza, breathing the air of as +balmy a summer morning as a bountiful nature ever bestowed. They had +heard of the fate of the canopy, which affected them differently, and +somewhat according to temperament. Henrietta Coldbrooke laughed at it +violently, and in a way I did not like; your laughing young lady rarely +having much beyond merriment in her. I make all allowance for youthful +spirits, and a natural disposition to turn things into fun; but it was +too much to laugh at this exploit of the anti-renters for quite half an +hour together. I liked Anne Marston's manner of regarding it better. She +smiled a good deal, and laughed just enough to show that she was not +insensible to the effect of an absurdity; and then she looked as if she +felt that a wrong had been done. As for Patt, she was quite indignant at +the insult; nor was she very backward in letting her opinions be known. +But Mary Warren's manner of viewing the affair pleased me best, as +indeed was fast getting to be the fact with most of her notions and +conceits. She manifested neither levity nor resentment. Once or twice, +when a droll remark escaped Henrietta, she laughed a little; a very +little, and involuntarily, as it might be--just enough to prove that +there was fun in her--when she would make some sensible observation, to +the effect that the evil temper that was up in the country was the true +part of the transaction that deserved attention; and that she _felt_ +this as well as saw it. Nobody seemed to care for the canopy--not even +my excellent grandmother, in whose youth the church had been built, when +distinctions of this sort were more in accordance with the temper and +habits of the times than they are to-day. I had been on the piazza just +long enough to note this difference in the manner of the girls, when my +grandmother joined us. + +"Oh! grandmother, have you heard what those wretches of 'Injins,' as +they are rightly named, have been doing with the canopy of the pew?" +cried Patt, who had been at the bedside of our venerable parent and +kissed her an hour before; "they have torn it down, and placed it over +the pen of the pigs!" + +A common laugh, in which Patt herself now joined, interrupted the answer +for a moment, old Mrs. Littlepage herself manifesting a slight +disposition to make one of the amused. + +"I have heard it all, my dear," returned my grandmother, "and, on the +whole, think the thing is well enough gotten rid of. I do not believe it +would have done for Hugh to have had it taken down under a menace, while +it is perhaps better that it should no longer stand." + +"Were such things common in your youth, Mrs. Littlepage?" asked Mary +Warren. + +"Far from uncommon; though less so in country than in town churches. You +will remember that we were but recently separated from England when St. +Andrew's was built, and that most of the old colonial ideas prevailed +among us. People in that day had very different notions of social +station from those which now exist; and New York was, in a certain +sense, one of the most, perhaps _the_ most, aristocratic colony in the +country. It was somewhat so under the Dutch, republicans as they were, +with its patroons; but when the colony was transferred to the English, +it became a royal colony at once, and English notions were introduced as +a matter of course. In no other colony were there as many manors, +perhaps; the slavery of the South introducing quite a different system +there, while the policy of Penn and New England generally was more +democratic. I apprehend, Roger, that we owe this anti-rent struggle, and +particularly the feebleness with which it is resisted, to the difference +of opinion that prevails among the people of New England, who have sent +so many immigrants among us, and our own purely New York notions." + +"You are quite right, my dear mother," answered my uncle, "though New +Yorkers, by descent, are not wanting among the tenants to sustain the +innovation. The last act either from direct cupidity, or to gain +popularity with a set, whereas, as I view the matter, the first are +influenced by the notions of the state of society from which either they +themselves, or their parents, were directly derived. A very large +proportion of the present population of New York is of New England +origin. Perhaps one-third have this extraction, either as born there, or +as the sons or grandsons of those who were. Now, in New England +generally, great equality of condition exists, more especially when you +rise above the lower classes; there being very few, out of the large +trading towns, who would be deemed rich in New York, and scarcely such a +thing as a large landholder at all. The relation of landlord and tenant, +as connected with what we should term estates, is virtually unknown to +New England; though Maine may afford some exceptions. This circumstance +is owing to the peculiar origin of the people, and to the fact that +emigration has so long carried off the surplus population; the bulk of +those who remain being able to possess freeholds. There is a natural +antipathy in men who have been educated in such a state of society to +anything that seems to place others in positions they do not and cannot +occupy themselves. Now, while the population of New York may be +one-third, perhaps, of New England descent, and consequently more or +less of New England notions, a much larger proportion of the lawyers, +editors of newspapers, physicians, and active politicians, are of that +class. We think little, and talk little of these circumstances; for no +nation inquires into its moral influences, and what I may call its +political statistics, less than the Americans; but they produce large +consequences." + +"Am I to understand you, sir, to say that anti-rentism is of New England +origin?" + +"Perhaps not. Its origin was probably more directly derived from the +devil, who has tempted the tenants as he is known once to have tempted +the Saviour. The outbreak was originally among the descendants of the +Dutch, for they happened to be the tenants, and, as for the theories +that have been broached, they savor more of the reaction of European +abuses than of anything American at all; and least of all of anything +from New England, where there is generally a great respect for the +rights of property, and unusual reverence for the law. Still, I think we +owe our greatest danger to the opinions and habits of those of New +England descent among us." + +"This seems a little paradoxical, uncle Ro, and I confess I should like +to hear it explained." + +"I will endeavor so to do, and in as few words as possible. The real +danger is among those who influence legislation. Now, you will find +hundreds of men among us who feel the vast importance of respecting +contracts, who perceive much of the danger of anti-rentism, and who wish +to see it defeated in its violent and most offensive forms, but who lean +against the great landlords, on account of those secret jealousies which +cause most men to dislike advantages in which they do not share, and who +would gladly enough see all leases abolished, if it could be done +without a too violent conflict with justice. When you talk with these +men, they will make you the commonplace but unmeaning profession of +wishing to see every husbandman the owner in fee of his farm, instead of +a tenant, and that it is a _hardship_ to pay rent, and quantities of +such twaddle. Henry the Fourth, in a much better spirit, is said to have +wished that each of his subjects had "_une poule dans son pot_," but +that wish did not put it there. So it is with this idle profession of +wishing to see every American husbandman a freeholder. We all know such +a state of society never did exist, and probably never will; and it is +merely placing a vapid pretension to philanthropy in the foreground of a +picture that should rigidly represent things as they are. For my part, I +am one of those who do not believe that this or any other country would +be any the better for dispensing with landlords and tenants." + +"Mr. Littlepage!" exclaimed Mary Warren, "you surely do not mean that +competency widely diffused is not better than wealth in a few hands and +poverty in a great many!" + +"No, I shall not go as far as that; but I do say, that what this country +most wants just now is precisely the class that is connected with the +independence of character and station, the leisure, with its attendant +cultivation and refinement, and the _principles_ as well as taste that +are connected with all." + +"Principles! Mr. Littlepage!" added my uncle's sweet interlocutor; "my +father would hardly uphold _that_, though he agrees with you in so much +of what you say." + +"I do not know that. I repeat the word _principles_; for when you have a +class of men who are removed from a large range of temptations, without +being placed above public opinion, you get precisely those who are most +likely to uphold that sort of secondary, but highly useful morals which +are not directly derived from purely religious duties. Against the last +I shall not say one word, as it comes from the grace, which is of the +power of God, and is happily as accessible to the poor as to the rich, +and more too; but, of men as they are, not one in a hundred regulates +his life by a standard created under such impulses; and even when they +do, the standard itself is, in some degree, qualified by the ordinary +notions I apprehend. The Christian morality of an East Indian is not +identical with that of a Puritan, or that of a man of highly cultivated +mind with that of one who has enjoyed fewer advantages. There is one +class of principles, embracing all those that are adverse to the +littlenesses of daily practice, which is much the more extended among +the liberal-minded and educated, and it is to that set of principles I +refer. Now we want a due proportion of that class of men, as our society +is getting to be organized; of those who are superior to meannesses." + +"All this would be deemed atrociously aristocratic, were it told in +Gath!" exclaimed Patt, laughing. + +"It is atrociously common sense, notwithstanding," answered my uncle, +who was not to be laughed out of anything he felt to be true; "and the +facts will show it. New England early established a system of common +schools, and no part of the world, perhaps, has a population that is +better grounded in intelligence. This has been the case so long as to +put the people of Connecticut and Massachusetts, for instance, as a +whole, materially in advance of the people of any other State, New York +included; although, by taking the system from our eastern brethren, we +are now doing pretty well. Notwithstanding, who will say that New +England is as far advanced, in many material things, as the Middle +States. To begin with the kitchen--her best cookery is much below that +of even the humbler classes of the true Middle States' families; take +her language for another test, it is provincial and vulgar; and there is +no exaggeration in saying that the laboring classes of the Middle +States, if not of New England origin, use better English than thousands +of educated men in New England itself. Both of these peculiarities, as I +conceive, come from the fact that in one part of the country there has +been a class to give a tone that does not exist in the other. The +gentlemen of the larger towns in the East have an influence where they +live, no doubt; but in the interior, as no one leads, all these matters +are left to the common mind to get along with as well as it can." + +"Aristocratic, sir--rank aristocracy!" + +"If it be, has aristocracy, as you call it, which in this instance must +only mean decided social position, no advantages? Is not even a wealthy +idler of some use in a nation? He contributes his full share to the +higher civilization that is connected with the tastes and refinements, +and, in fact, he forms it. In Europe they will tell you that a court is +necessary to such civilization; but facts contradict the theory. Social +classes, no doubt, are; but they can exist independently of courts, as +they can, have, do, and ever will in the face of democracy. Now, connect +this class with the landed interest, and see how much your chances for +material improvement are increased. Coke, of Norfolk, probably conferred +more benefit on the husbandry of England than all the mere operatives +that existed in his time. It is from such men, indeed, from their +enterprise and their means, that nearly all the greater benefits come. +The fine wool of America is mainly owing to Livingston's connection with +land; and if you drive such men out of existence, you must drive the +benefits they confer with them. A body of intelligent, well-educated, +liberalized landlords, scattered through New York, would have more +effect in advancing the highest interests of the community than all the +'small potato' lawyers and governors you can name in a twelvemonth. What +is more, this is just the state of society in which to reap all the +benefits of such a class, without the evils of a real aristocracy. They +are and would be without any particular political power, and there is no +danger of corn-laws and exclusive legislation for their benefit. Rich +and poor we _must_ have; and let any fair-minded man say whether he wish +a state of things in which the first shall have no inducement to take an +extended interest in real estate, and the last no chance to become +agriculturists, except as hired laborers?" + +"You do not mince matters, uncle Ro," put in Patt, "and will never go to +Congress." + +"That may be, my dear, but I shall retain my own self-respect by fair +dealing. What I say I _mean_, while many who take the other side do not. +I say, that in a country like this, in which land is so abundant as to +render the evils of a general monopoly impossible, a landed gentry is +precisely what is most needed for the higher order of civilization, +including manners, tastes, and the minor principles, and is the very +class which, if reasonably maintained and properly regarded, would do +the most good at the least risk of any social caste known. They _have_ +always existed in New York, though with a lessening influence, and are +the reason, in my judgment, why we are so much before New England in +particular things, while certainly behind that quarter of the country in +many others that are dependent on ordinary schooling." + +"I like to hear a person maintain his opinion frankly and manfully," +said my grandmother; "and this have you done, Roger, from boyhood. My +own family, on my father's side, was from New England, and I subscribe +to a great deal that you say; and particularly to the part that relates +to the apathy of the public to this great wrong. It is now time, +however, to go to the breakfast-table, as John has been bowing in the +door yonder for the last minute or two." + +To breakfast we went; and, notwithstanding incendiaries, anti-rentism, +and canopies of pig-pens, a merry time we had of it. Henrietta +Coldbrooke and Anne Marston never came out with more spirit, though in +their several ways, than each did that morning. I believe I looked a +little surprised, for I observed that my uncle stole occasional glances +at me, that seemed to say, "There, my fine fellow, what do you think of +that, now?" whenever either of his wards uttered anything that he +fancied cleverer than common. + +"Have you heard, ma'am," asked my uncle Ro of my grandmother, "that we +are to have old Sus and Jaaf here at the Nest, shortly, and both in +grand costume? It seems the red men are about to depart, and there is to +be smoking of pipes and a great council, which the Trackless fancies +will be more dignified if held in front of the house of his pale-face +friends than if held at his own hut." + +"How did you ascertain that, Roger?" + +"I have been at the wigwam this morning, and have the fact directly from +the Onondago, as well as from the interpreter, whom I met there. By the +way, Hugh, we must shortly decide what is to be done with the prisoners, +or we shall have writs of habeas corpus served on us, to know why we +detain them." + +"Is it possible, uncle Ro," for so his wards called him habitually--"to +rescue a gentleman from the gallows by marrying him?" asked Henrietta +Coldbrooke, demurely. + +"That is so strange a question, that as a guardian I feel curious to +hear its meaning." + +"Tell--tell at once, Henrietta," said the other ward, urging her +companion to speak. "I will save your blushes, and act as your +interpreter. Miss Coldbrooke was honored by Mr. Seneca Newcome with this +letter, within the last twenty-four hours; and, it being a family +matter, I think it ought to be referred to a family council." + +"Nay, Anne," said the blushing Henrietta, "this is hardly fair--nor am I +sure that it would be quite lady-like in me to suffer that letter to be +generally known--_particularly_ known to you it certainly is already." + +"Perhaps your reluctance to have it read does not extend to me, +Henrietta?" said my uncle. + +"Certainly not, sir; nor to my dear Mrs. Littlepage, nor to +Martha--though I confess that I cannot see what interest Mr. Hugh can +have in the subject. Here it is; take it and read it when you please." + +My uncle was pleased to read it on the spot. As he proceeded a frown +collected on his brow, and he bit his lip like one provoked as well as +vexed. Then he laughed, and threw the letter on the table, where no one +presumed to molest it. As Henrietta Coldbrooke was blushing all this +time, though she laughed and seemed provoked, our curiosity was so great +and manifest that my grandmother felt an inclination to interfere. + +"May not that letter be read aloud, for the benefit of all?" she asked. + +"There can be no particular reason for concealing it," answered uncle +Ro, spitefully. "The more it is known, the more the fellow will be +laughed at, as he deserves to be." + +"Will that be right, uncle Ro?" exclaimed Miss Coldbrooke, hastily. +"Will it be treating a gentleman as he----" + +"Pshaw!--it will not be treating a gentleman at all. The fellow is, at +this moment, a prisoner for attempting to set an inhabited house on +fire, in the middle of the night." + +Henrietta said no more; and my grandmother took the letter, and read it +for the common benefit. I shall not copy the effusion of Seneca, which +was more cunning than philosophical; but it contained a strong +profession of love, urged in a somewhat business manner, and a generous +offer of his hand to the heiress of eight thousand a year. And this +proposal was made only a day or two before the fellow was "taken in the +act," and at the very time he was the most deeply engaged in his schemes +of anti-rentism. + +"There is a class of men among us," said my uncle, after everybody had +laughed at this magnificent offer, "who do not seem to entertain a +single idea of the proprieties. How is it possible, or where could the +chap have been bred, to fancy for an instant that a young woman of +fortune and station would marry _him_, and that, too, almost without an +acquaintance. I dare say Henrietta never spoke to him ten times in her +life." + +"Not five, sir, and scarcely anything was said at either of those five." + +"And you answered the letter, my dear?" asked my grandmother. "An +_answer_ ought not to have been forgotten, though it might have properly +come, in this case, from your guardian." + +"I answered it myself, ma'm, not wishing to be laughed at for my part of +the affair. I declined the honor of Mr. Seneca Newcome's hand." + +"Well, if the truth _must_ be said," put in Patt, dryly, "_I_ did the +same thing, only three weeks since." + +"And I so lately as last week," added Anne Marston, demurely. + +I do not know that I ever saw my uncle Ro so strangely affected. While +everybody around him was laughing heartily, he looked grave, not to say +fierce. Then he turned suddenly to me, and said: + +"We must let him be hanged, Hugh. Were he to live a thousand years he +would never learn the fitness of things." + +"You'll think better of this, sir, and become more merciful. The man has +only nobly dared. But I confess a strong desire to ascertain if Miss +Warren alone has escaped his assaults." + +Mary--pretty Mary--she blushed scarlet, but shook her head, and refused +to give any answer. We all saw that her feelings were not enlisted in +the affair in any way; but there was evidently something of a more +serious nature connected with Seneca's addresses to her than in +connection with his addresses to either of the others. As I have since +ascertained, he really had a sort of affection for Mary; and I have been +ready to pardon him the unprincipled and impudent manner in which he +cast his flies toward the other fish, in consideration of his taste in +this particular. But Mary herself would tell us nothing. + +"You are not to think so much of this, Mr. Littlepage," she cried, so +soon as a little recovered from her confusion, "since it is only acting +on the great anti-rent principle, after all. In the one case, it is only +a wish to get good farms cheap--and in the other, good wives." + +"In the one case, other men's farms--and in the other, other men's +wives." + +"Other men's wives, certainly, if wives at all," said Patt, pointedly. +"There is no Mr. _Seneky_ Newcome there." + +"We must let the law have its way, and the fellow be hanged!" rejoined +my uncle. "I could overlook the attempt to burn the Nest House, but I +cannot overlook this. Fellows of this class get everything _dessus +dessous_, and I do not wonder there is anti-rentism in the land. Such a +matrimonial experiment could never have been attempted, as between such +parties, in any region but one tainted with anti-rentism, or deluded by +the devil." + +"An Irishman would have included my grandmother in his cast of the net; +that's the only difference, sir." + +"Sure enough, why have you escaped, my dearest mother? You, who have a +fair widow's portion, too." + +"Because the suitor was not an Irishman, as Hugh intimated--I know no +other reason, Hodge. But a person so devoted to the ladies must not +suffer in the cruel way you speak of. The wretch must be permitted to +get off." + +All the girls now joined with my grandmother in prefering this, to them, +very natural petition; and, for a few minutes, we heard of nothing but +regrets and solicitations that Seneca might not be given up to the law. +"Tender mercies of the law" might not be an unapt way to express the +idea, as it is now almost certain that the bigger the rogue, the greater +is the chance of escape. + +"All this is very well, ladies; mighty humane and feminine and quite in +character," answered my uncle; "but, in the first place, there is such a +thing as compounding felony, and its consequences are not altogether +agreeable; then, one is bound to consider the effect on society in +general. Here is a fellow who first endeavors to raise a flame in the +hearts of no less than four young ladies: failing of which, he takes +refuge in lighting a fire in Hugh's kitchen. Do you know, I am almost as +much disposed to punish him for the first of these offences as for the +last?" + +"There's a grand movement as is making among all the redskins, ma'am," +said John, standing in the door of the breakfast parlor, "and I didn't +know but the ladies, and Mr. Littlepage, and Mr. Hugh, would like to see +it. Old Sus is on his way here, followed by Yop, who comes grumbling +along after him, as if he didn't like the amusement any way at all." + +"Have any arrangements been made for the proper reception of our guests +this morning, Roger?" + +"Yes, ma'am. At least, I gave orders to have benches brought and placed +under the trees, and plenty of tobacco provided. Smoking is a great part +of a council, I believe, and we shall be ready to commence at that as +soon as they meet." + +"Yes, sir, all is ready for 'em," resumed John. "Miller has sent an +'orse cart to bring the benches, and we've provided as much 'baccy as +they can use. The servants 'opes, ma'am, they can have permission to +witness the ceremony. It isn't often that civilized people _can_ get a +sight at real savages." + +My grandmother gave an assent, and there was a general movement, +preparatory to going on the lawn to witness the parting interview +between the Trackless and his visitors. + +"You have been very considerate, Miss Warren," I whispered Mary, as I +helped her to put on her shawl, "in not betraying what I fancy is the +most important of all Seneca's love secrets." + +"I confess these letters have surprised me," the dear girl said +thoughtfully, and with a look that seemed perplexed. "No one would be +apt to think very favorably of Mr. Newcome; yet it was by no means +necessary to complete his character, that one should think as ill as +this." + +I said no more--but these few words, which appeared to escape Mary +unconsciously and involuntarily, satisfied me that Seneca had been +seriously endeavoring to obtain an interest in _her_ heart +notwithstanding her poverty. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + "And underneath that face like summer's dreams, + Its lips as moveless, and its cheek as clear, + Slumbers a whirlwind of the heart's emotions, + Love, hatred, pride, hope, sorrow--all save fear." + --HALLECK. + + +The only singularity connected with the great age of the Indian and the +negro, was the fact that they should have been associates for near a +century, and so long intimately united in adventures and friendship. I +say friendship, for the term was not at all unsuited to the feeling that +connected these old men together, though they had so little in common in +the way of character. While the Indian possessed all the manly and high +qualities of a warrior of the woods, of a chief, and of one who had +never acknowledged a superior, the other was necessarily distinguished +by many of the wickednesses of a state of servitude; the bitter +consequences of a degraded caste. Fortunately both were temperate, by no +means an every-day virtue among the red-men who dwelt with the whites, +though much more so with the blacks. But Susquesus was born at Onondago, +a tribe remarkable for its sobriety, and at no period of his long life +would he taste any intoxicating drink, while Jaaf was essentially a +sober man, though he had a thorough "nigger" relish for hard cider. +There can be little doubt that these two aged memorials of past ages, +and almost forgotten generations, owed their health and strength to +their temperance, fortifying natural predispositions to tenacity of +life. + +It was always thought that Jaaf was a little the senior of the Indian, +though the difference in their ages could not be great. It is certain +that the red-man retained much the most of his bodily powers, though, +for fifty years, he had taxed them the least. Susquesus never worked; +never would work in the ordinary meaning of the term. He deemed it to be +beneath his dignity as a warrior, and, I have heard it said, that +nothing but necessity could have induced him to plant, or hoe, even when +in his prime. So long as the boundless forest furnished the deer, the +moose, the beaver, the bear, and the other animals that it is usual for +the red-man to convert into food, he had cared little for the fruits of +the earth, beyond those that were found growing in their native state. +His hunts were the last regular occupation that the old man abandoned. +He carried the rifle, and threaded the woods with considerable vigor +after he had seen a hundred winters; but the game deserted him, under +the never-dying process of clearing acre after acre, until little of the +native forest was left, with the exception of the reservation of my own, +already named, and the pieces of woodland that are almost invariably +attached to every American farm, lending to the landscape a relief and +beauty that are usually wanting to the views of older countries. It is +this peculiarity which gives to so many of the views of the republic, +nay, it may be said to all of them, so much of the character of +park-scenery when seen at a distance, that excludes the blemishes of a +want of finish, and the coarser appliances of husbandry. + +With Jaaf, though he had imbibed a strong relish for the forest, and for +forest-life, it was different in many respects. Accustomed to labor from +childhood, _he_ could not be kept from work, even by his extreme old +age. He had the hoe, or the axe, or the spade in his hand daily, many +years after he could wield either to any material advantage. The little +he did in this way, now, was not done to kill thought, for he never had +any to kill; it was purely the effect of habit, and of a craving desire +to be Jaaf still, and to act his life over again. + +I am sorry to say that neither of these men had any essential knowledge, +or any visible feeling for the truths of Christianity. A hundred years +ago, little spiritual care was extended to the black, and the difficulty +of making an impression in this way on the Indian has become matter of +history. Perhaps success best attends such efforts when the pious +missionary can penetrate to the retired village, and disseminate his +doctrines far from the miserable illustration of their effects, that is +to be hourly traced, by the most casual observer, amid the haunts of +civilized men. That Christianity does produce a deep and benign +influence on our social condition cannot be doubted; but he who is only +superficially acquainted with Christian nations, as they are called, and +sets about tracing the effects of this influence, meets with so many +proofs of a contrary nature, as to feel a strong disposition to doubt +the truth of dogmas that seem so impotent. It is quite likely such was +the case with Susquesus, who had passed all the earlier years of his +exclusive association with the pale-faces, on the flanks of armies, or +among hunters, surveyors, runners, and scouts; situations that were not +very likely to produce any high notions of moral culture. Nevertheless, +many earnest and long-continued efforts had been made to awaken in this +aged Indian some notions of the future state of a pale-face, and to +persuade him to be baptized. My grandmother, in particular, had kept +this end in view for quite half a century, but with no success. The +different clergy, of all denominations, had paid more or less attention +to this Indian, with the same object, though no visible results had +followed their efforts. Among others, Mr. Warren had not overlooked this +part of his duty, but he had met with no more success than those who had +been before him. Singular as it seemed to some, though I saw nothing +strange in it, Mary Warren had joined in this benevolent project with a +gentle zeal, and affectionate and tender interest, that promised to +achieve more than had been even hoped for these many years by her +predecessors in the same kind office. Her visits to the hut had been +frequent, and I learned that morning from Patt, that, "though Mary +herself never spoke on the subject, enough has been seen by others to +leave no doubt that her gentle offices and prayers had, at last, +touched, in some slight degree, the marble-like heart of the Trackless." + +As for Jaaf, it is possible that it was his misfortune to be a slave in +a family that belonged to the Episcopal Church, a sect that is so +tempered and chastened in its religious rites, and so far removed from +exaggeration, as often to seem cold to those who seek excitement, and +fancy quiet and self-control incompatible with a lively faith. "Your +priests are unsuited to make converts among the people," said an +enthusiastic clergyman of another denomination to me, quite lately. +"They cannot go among the brambles and thorns without tearing their +gowns and surplices." There may be a certain degree of truth in this, +though the obstacle exists rather with the convert than with the +missionary. The vulgar love coarse excitement, and fancy that a profound +spiritual sensibility must needs awaken a powerful physical sympathy. To +such, groans, and sighs, and lamentations must be not only audible to +exist at all, but audible in a dramatic and striking form with men, in +order to be groans, and sighs, and lamentations acceptable with God. It +is certain, at any rate, that the practices which reason, education, a +good taste, and a sound comprehension of Christian obligations condemn, +are, if not _most_ effective, still effective with the ignorant and +coarse-minded. Thus may it have been with Jaaf, who had not fallen into +the hands of the exaggerated during that period of life when he was most +likely to be aroused by their practices, and who now really seemed to +have lived beyond everything but the recollections connected with the +persons and things he loved in youth. + +As men, in the higher meaning of the term, the reader will remember that +Susquesus was ever vastly the superior of the black. Jaaf's intellect +had suffered under the blight which seems to have so generally caused +the African mind to wither, as we know that mind among ourselves; while +that of his associate had ever possessed much of the loftiness of a +grand nature, left to its native workings by the impetus of an +unrestrained, though savage liberty. + +Such were the characters of the two extraordinary men whom we now went +forth to meet. By the time we reached the lawn, they were walking slowly +toward the piazza, having got within the range of the shrubbery that +immediately surrounds, and sheds its perfume on the house. The Indian +led, as seemed to become his character and rank. But Jaaf had never +presumed on his years and indulgences so far as to forget his condition. +A slave he had been born, a slave had he lived, and a slave he would +die. This, too, in spite of the law of emancipation, which had, in fact, +liberated him long ere he had reached his hundredth year. I have been +told that when my father announced to Jaaf the fact that he and all his +progeny, the latter of which was very numerous, were free and at liberty +to go and do as they pleased, the old black was greatly dissatisfied. +"What good dat all do, Masser Malbone," he growled. "Why 'ey won't let +well alone? Nigger be nigger, and white gentle'em be white gentle'em. I +'speck, now, nuttin' but disgrace and poverty come on my breed! We +always _hab_ been gentle'em's nigger, and why can't 'ey let us be +gentle'em's nigger as long as we like? Ole Sus hab liberty all he life, +and what good he get? Nuttin' but poor red sabbage, for all dat, and +never be anyt'ing more. If he could be gentle'em's sabbage, I tell him, +_dat_ war' somet'ing; but, no, he too proud for dat! Gosh! so he only he +own sabbage!" + +The Onondago was in high costume; much higher even than when he first +received the visit of the prairie Indians. The paint he used gave new +fire to eyes that age had certainly dimmed, though they had not +extinguished their light; and fierce and savage as was the conceit, it +unquestionably relieved the furrows of time. That red should be as much +the favorite color of the redskin is, perhaps, as natural as that our +ladies should use cosmetics to imitate the lilies and roses that are +wanting. A grim fierceness, however, was the aim of the Onondago; it +being his ambition, at that moment, to stand before his guests in the +colors of a warrior. Of the medals and wampum, and feathers, and +blankets, and moccasons, gay with the quills of the porcupine, tinged +half a dozen hues, and the tomahawk polished to the brightness of +silver, it is not necessary to say anything. So much has been said, and +written, and seen, of late, on such subjects, that almost every one now +knows how the North American warrior appears when he comes forth in his +robes. + +Nor had Jaaf neglected to do honor to a festival that was so peculiarly +in honor of his friend. Grumble he would and did, throughout the whole +of that day; but he was not the less mindful of the credit and honor of +Susquesus. It is the fashion of the times to lament the disappearance of +the red-men from among us; but, for my part, I feel much more disposed +to mourn over the disappearance of the "nigger." I use the Doric, in +place of the more modern and mincing term of "colored man;" for the +Doric alone will convey to the American the meaning in which I wish to +be understood. I regret the "nigger;" the old-fashioned, careless, +light-hearted, laborious, idle, roguish, honest, faithful, fraudulent, +grumbling, dogmatical slave; who was at times good for nothing, and, +again, the stay and support of many a family. But him I regret in +particular is the domestic slave, who identified himself with the +interests, and most of all with the _credit_ of those he served, and who +always played the part of an humble privy counsellor, and sometimes that +of a prime minister. It is true, I had never seen Jaaf acting in the +latter capacity, among us; nor is it probable he ever did exactly +discharge such functions with any of his old masters; but he was a much +indulged servant always, and had become so completely associated with +us, by not only long services, but by playing his part well and manfully +in divers of the wild adventures that are apt to characterize the +settlement of a new country, that we all of us thought of him rather as +an humble and distant relative, than as a slave. Slave, indeed, he had +not been for more than fourscore years, his manumission-papers having +been signed and regularly recorded as far back as that, though they +remained a perfect dead letter, so far as the negro himself was +concerned. + +The costume of Yop Littlepage, as this black was familiarly called by +all who knew anything of his existence, and his great age, as well as +that of Susquesus, had gotten into more than one newspaper, was of what +might be termed the old school of the "nigger!" The coat was scarlet, +with buttons of mother-of-pearl, each as large as a half-dollar; his +breeches were sky blue; the vest was green; the stockings striped blue +and white, and the legs had no other peculiarities about them than the +facts that all that remained of the calves was on the shins, and that +they were stepped nearer than is quite common to the centre of the foot; +the heel-part of the latter being about half as long as the part +connected with the toes. The shoes, indeed, were somewhat conspicuous +portions of the dress, having a length, and breadth, and proportions +that might almost justify a naturalist in supposing that they were never +intended for a human being. But the head and hat, according to Jaaf's +own notion, contained the real glories of his toilet and person. As for +the last, it was actually laced, having formed a part of my grandfather +General Cornelius Littlepage's uniform in the field, and the wool +beneath it was as white as the snow of the hills. This style of dress +has long disappeared from among the black race, as well as from among +the whites; but vestiges of it were to be traced, my uncle tells me, in +his boyhood; particularly at the pinkster holidays, that peculiar +festival of the negro. Notwithstanding the incongruities of his attire, +Yop Littlepage made a very respectable figure on this occasion, the +great age of both him and the Onondago being the circumstances that +accorded least with their magnificence. + +Notwithstanding the habitual grumbling of the negro, the Indian always +led when they made a movement. He had led in the forest, on the early +hunts and on the war-paths; he had led in their later excursions on the +neighboring hills; he always led when it was their wont to stroll to the +hamlet together, to witness the militia musters and other similar +striking events; he even was foremost when they paid their daily visits +to the Nest; and, now, he came a little in advance, slow in movement, +quiet, with lips compressed, eye roving and watchful, and far from dim, +and his whole features wonderfully composed and noble, considering the +great number of years he had seen. Jaaf followed at the same gait, but a +very different man in demeanor and aspect. _His_ face scarce seemed +human, even the color of his skin, once so glistening and black, having +changed to a dirty gray, all its gloss having disappeared, while his +lips were, perhaps, the most prominent feature. These, too, were in +incessant motion, the old man working his jaws, in a sort of second +childhood; or as the infant bites its gums to feel its nearly developed +teeth, even when he was not keeping up the almost unceasing +accompaniment of his grumbles. + +As the old man walked toward us, and the men of the prairies had not yet +shown themselves, we all advanced to meet the former. Every one of our +party, the girls included, shook hands with Susquesus, and wished him a +good morning. He knew my grandmother, and betrayed some strong feeling, +when he shook _her_ hand. He knew Patt, and nodded kindly in answer to +her good wishes. He knew Mary Warren, too, and held her hand a little +time in his own, gazing at her wistfully the while. My uncle Ro and I +were also recognized, his look at me being earnest and long. The two +other girls were courteously received, but his feelings were little +interested in them. A chair was placed for Susquesus on the lawn, and he +took his seat. As for Jaaf, he walked slowly up to the party, took off +his fine cocked hat, but respectfully refused the seat he too was +offered. Happening thus to be the last saluted, he was the first with +whom my grandmother opened the discourse. + +"It is a pleasant sight, Jaaf, to see you, and our old friend Susquesus, +once more on the lawn of the old house." + +"Not so berry ole house, Miss Duss, a'ter all," answered the negro, in +his grumbling way. "Remem'er him well 'nough; only built tudder day." + +"It has been built threescore years, if you call that the other day. I +was then young myself; a bride--happy and blessed far beyond my deserts. +Alas! how changed have things become since that time!" + +"Yes, you won'erful changed--must say _dat_ for you, Miss Duss. I +sometime surprise myself so young a lady get change so berry soon." + +"Ah! Jaaf, though it may seem a short time to you, who are so much my +senior, fourscore years are a heavy load to carry. I enjoy excellent +health and spirits for my years: but age will assert its power." + +"Remem'er you, Miss Duss, like dat young lady dere," pointing at +Patt--"now you _do_ seem won'erful change. Ole Sus, too, berry much +alter of late--can't hole out much longer, I do t'ink. But Injin nebber +hab much raal grit in 'em." + +"And you, my friend," continued my grandmother, turning to Susquesus, +who had sat motionless while she was speaking to Jaaf--"do you also see +this great change in me? I have known you much longer than I have known +Jaaf; and _your_ recollection of me must go back nearly to childhood--to +the time when I first lived in the woods, as a companion of my dear, +excellent old uncle, Chainbearer." + +"Why should Susquesus forget little wren? Hear song now in his ear. No +change at all in little wren, in Susquesus's eye." + +"This is at least gallant, and worthy of an Onondago chief. But, my +worthy friend, age will make its mark even on the trees; and we cannot +hope to escape it forever!" + +"No; bark smooth on young tree--rough on ole tree. Nebber forget +Chainbearer. He's same age as Susquesus--little ole'er, too. Brave +warrior--good man. Know him when young hunter--he dere when _dat_ +happen." + +"When _what_ happened, Susquesus? I have long wished to know what drove +you from your people; and why you, a red man in your heart and habits, +to the last, should have so long lived among us pale-faces, away from +your own tribe. I can understand why you like _us_, and wish to pass the +remainder of your days with this family; for I know all that we have +gone through together, and your early connection with my father-in-law, +and _his_ father-in-law, too; but the reason why you left your own +people so young, and have now lived near a hundred years away from them, +is what I could wish to hear, before the angel of death summons one of +us away." + +While my grandmother was thus coming to the point, for the first time in +her life, on this subject, as she afterward told me, the Onondago's eye +was never off her own. I thought he seemed surprised; then his look +changed to sadness; and bowing his head a little, he sat a long time, +apparently musing on the past. The subject had evidently aroused the +strongest of the remaining feelings of the old man, and the allusion to +it had brought back images of things long gone by, that were probably +reviewed not altogether without pain. I think his head must have been +bowed, and his face riveted on the ground, for quite a minute. + +"Chainbearer nebber say why?" the old man suddenly asked, raising his +face again to look at my grandmother. "Ole chief, too--he know; nebber +talk of it, eh?" + +"Never. I have heard both my uncle and my father-in-law say that they +knew the reason why you left your people, so many long, long, years ago, +and that it did you credit; but neither ever said more. It is reported +here, that these red-men, who have come so far to see you, also know it, +and that it is one reason of their coming so much out of their way to +pay you a visit." + +Susquesus listened attentively, though no portion of his person +manifested emotion but his eyes. All the rest of the man seemed to be +made of some material that was totally without sensibility; but those +restless, keen, still penetrating eyes, opened a communication with the +being within, and proved that the spirit was far younger than the +tenement in which it dwelt. Still, he made no revelation; and our +curiosity, which was getting to be intense, was completely baffled. It +was even some little time before the Indian said anything more at all. +When he did speak, it was merely to say-- + +"Good. Chainbearer wise chief--Gin'ral wise, too. Good in camp--good at +council-fire. Know _when_ to talk--know _what_ to talk." + +How much further my dear grandmother might have been disposed to push +the subject, I cannot say, for just then we saw the redskins coming out +of their quarters, evidently about to cross from the old farm to the +lawn, this being their last visit to the Trackless, preparatory to +departing on their long journey to the prairies. Aware of all this, she +fell back, and my uncle led Susquesus to the tree where the benches were +placed for the guests, I carrying the chair in the rear. Everybody +followed, even to all the domestics who could be spared from the +ordinary occupations of the household. + +The Indian and the negro were both seated; and chairs having been +brought out for the members of the family, we took our places near by, +though so much in the back ground as not to appear obtrusive. + +The Indians of the prairies arrived in their customary marching order, +or in single files. Manytongues led, followed by Prairiefire; +Flintyheart and Eaglesflight came next, and the rest succeeded in a +nameless but perfect order. To our surprise, however, they brought the +two prisoners with them, secured with savage ingenuity, and in a way to +render escape nearly impossible. + +It is unnecessary to dwell on the deportment of these strangers, as they +took their allotted places on the benches, it being essentially the same +as that described in their first visit. The same interest, however, was +betrayed in their manner, nor did their curiosity or veneration appear +to be in the least appeased by having passed a day or two in the +immediate vicinity of their subject. That this curiosity and veneration +proceeded, in some measure, from the great age and the extended +experience of the Trackless was probable enough, but I could not divest +myself of the idea that there lay something unusual behind all, which +tradition had made familiar to these sons of the soil, but which had +become lost to us. + +The American savage enjoys one great advantage over the civilized man of +the same quarter of the world. His traditions ordinarily are true, +whereas, the multipled means of imparting intelligence among ourselves +has induced so many pretenders to throw themselves into the ranks of the +wise and learned, that blessed, thrice blessed is he, whose mind escapes +the contamination of falsehood and prejudice. Well would it be for men +if they oftener remembered that the very facilities that exist to +circulate the truth, are just so many facilities for circulating +falsehood; and that he who believes even one-half of that which meets +his eyes, in his daily inquiries into passing events, is most apt to +throw away quite a moiety of even that much credulity, on facts that +either never had an existence at all, or, which have been so mutilated +in the relation, that their eye-witnesses would be the last to recognize +them. + +The customary silence succeeded the arrival of the visitors; then +Eaglesflight struck fire with a flint, touched the tobacco with the +flame, and puffed at a very curiously carved pipe, made of some soft +stone of the interior, until he had lighted it beyond any risk of its +soon becoming extinguished. This done, he rose, advanced with profound +reverence in his air, and presented it to Susquesus, who took it and +smoked for a few seconds, after which he returned it to him from whom it +had been received. This was a signal for other pipes to be lighted, and +one was offered to my uncle and myself, each of us making a puff or two; +and even John and the other male domestics were not neglected. +Prairiefire himself paid the compliment to Jaaf. The negro had noted +what was passing, and was much disgusted with the niggardliness which +required the pipe to be so soon returned. This he did not care to +conceal, as was obvious by the crusty observation he made when the pipe +was offered to him. Cider and tobacco had from time immemorial been the +two great blessings of this black's existence, and he felt at seeing one +standing to receive his pipe, after a puff or two, much as he might have +felt had one pulled the mug from his mouth, after the second or third +swallow. + +"No need wait here"--grumbled old Jaaf--"when I done, gib you de pipe, +ag'in; nebber fear. Masser Corny, or Masser Malborne, or Masser +Hugh--dear me, I nebber knows which be libbin' and which be dead, I get +so ole, nowaday! But nebber mind if he be ole; can smoke yet, and don't +lub Injin fashion of gibbin' t'ings; and dat is gib him and den take +away ag'in. Nigger is nigger, and Injin is Injin; and nigger best. Lord! +how many years I _do_ see--I do see--most get tire of libbin' so long. +Don't wait, Injin; when I done, you get pipe again, I say. Best not make +ole Jaaf _too_ mad, or he dreadful!" + +Although it is probable that Prairiefire did not understand one-half of +the negro's words, he comprehended his wish to finish the tobacco, +before he relinquished the pipe. This was against all rule, and a +species of slight on Indian usages, but the red-man overlooked all, with +a courtesy of one trained in high society, and walked away as composedly +as if everything were right. In these particulars the high-breeding of +an Indian is always made apparent. No one ever sees in his deportment, a +shrug or a half-concealed smile, or a look of intelligence; a wink or a +nod, or any other of that class of signs, or communications, which it is +usually deemed underbred to resort to in company. In all things, he is +dignified and quiet, whether it be the effect of coldness, or the result +of character. + +The smoking now became general, but only as a ceremony; no one but Jaaf +setting to with regularity to finish his pipe. As for the black, his +opinion of the superiority of his own race over that of the red-man, was +as fixed as his consciousness of his inferiority to the white, and he +would have thought the circumstance that the present mode of using +tobacco was an Indian custom, a sufficient reason why he himself should +not adopt it. The smoking did not last long, but was succeeded by a +silent pause. Then Prairiefire arose and spoke. + +"Father," he commenced, "we are about to quit you. Our squaws and +pappooses, on the prairies, wish to see us; it is time for us to go. +They are looking toward the great salt lake for us; we are looking +toward the great fresh-water lakes for them. There the sun sets--here it +rises; the distance is great, and many strange tribes of pale-faces live +along the path. Our journey has been one of peace. We have not hunted; +we have taken no scalps; but we have seen our great father, uncle Sam, +and we have seen our great father Susquesus; we shall travel toward the +setting sun satisfied. Father, our traditions are true; they never lie. +A lying tradition is worse than a lying Indian. What a lying Indian +says, deceives his friends, his wife, his children; what a lying +tradition says, deceives a tribe. Our traditions are true; they speak of +the Upright Onondago. All the tribes on the prairies have heard this +tradition, and are very glad. It is good to hear of justice; it is bad +to hear of injustice. Without justice an Indian is no better than a +wolf. No; there is not a tongue spoken on the prairies which does not +tell of that pleasant tradition. We could not pass the wigwam of our +father without turning aside to look at him. Our squaws and pappooses +wish to see us, but they would have told us to come back, and turn aside +to look upon our father, had we forgotten to do so. Why has my father +seen so many winters? It is the will of the Manitou. The Great Spirit +wants to keep him here a little longer. He is like stones piled together +to tell the hunters where the pleasant path is to be found. All the +red-men who see him think of what is right. No; the Great Spirit cannot +yet spare my father from the earth, lest red-men forget what is right. +He is stones piled together." + +Here Prairiefire ceased, sitting down amid a low murmur of applause. He +had expressed the common feeling, and met with the success usual to such +efforts. Susquesus had heard and understood all that was said, and I +could perceive that he felt it, though he betrayed less emotion on this +occasion than he had done on the occasion of the previous interview. +Then, the novelty of the scene, no doubt, contributed to influence his +feelings. A pause followed this opening speech, and we were anxiously +waiting for the renowned orator Eaglesflight, to rise, when a singular +and somewhat ludicrous interruption of the solemn dignity of the scene +occurred. In the place of Eaglesflight whom Manytongues had given us +reason to expect would now come forth with energy and power, a much +younger warrior arose and spoke, commanding the attention of his +listeners in a way to show that he possessed their respect. We were told +that the young warrior's name, rendered into English, was Deersfoot, an +appellation obtained on account of his speed, and which we were assured +he well merited. Much to our surprise, however, he addressed himself to +Jaaf, Indian courtesy requiring that something should be said to the +constant friend and tried associate of the Trackless. The reader may be +certain we were all much amused at this bit of homage, though every one +of us felt some little concern on the subject of the answer it might +elicit. Deersfoot delivered himself, substantially, as follows:-- + +"The Great Spirit sees all things; he makes all things. In his eyes, +color is nothing. Although he made children that he loved of a red +color, he made children that he loved with pale faces, too. He did not +stop there. No; he said, 'I wish to see warriors and men with faces +darker than the skin of the bear. I will have warriors who shall +frighten their enemies by their countenances.' He made black men. My +father is black; his skin is neither red, like the skin of Susquesus, +nor white, like the skin of the young chief of Ravensnest. It is now +gray, with having had the sun shine on it so many summers; but it was +once the color of the crow. Then it must have been pleasant to look at. +My black father is very old. They tell me he is even older than the +Upright Onondago. The Manitou must be well pleased with him, not to have +called him away sooner. He has left him in his wigwam, that all the +black men may see whom their Great Spirit loves. This is the tradition +told to us by our fathers. The pale men come from the rising sun, and +were born before the heat burned their skins. The black men came from +under the sun at noon-day, and their faces were darkened by looking up +above their heads to admire the warmth that ripened their fruits. The +red men were born under the setting sun, and their faces were colored by +the hues of the evening skies. The red man was born here; the pale man +was born across the salt lake; the black man came from a country of his +own, where the sun is always above his head. What of that? We are +brothers. The Thicklips (this was the name by which the strangers +designated Jaaf, as we afterward learned) is the friend of Susquesus. +They have lived in the same wigwam, now, so many winters, that their +venison and bear's-meat have the same taste. They love one another. +Whomsoever Susquesus loves and honors, all just Indians love and honor. +I have no more to say." + +It is very certain that Jaaf would not have understood a syllable that +was uttered in this address, had not Manytongues first given him to +understand that Deersfoot was talking to him in particular, and then +translated the speaker's language, word for word, and with great +deliberation, as each sentence was finished. Even this care might not +have sufficed to make the negro sensible of what was going on, had not +Patt gone to him, and told him, in a manner and voice to which he was +accustomed, to attend to what was said, and to endeavor, as soon as +Deersfoot sat down, to say something in reply. Jaaf was so accustomed to +my sister, and was so deeply impressed with the necessity of obeying +her, as one of his many "y'ung missuses"--_which_ he scarcely knew +himself--that she succeeded in perfectly arousing him; and he astonished +us all with the intelligence of his very characteristic answer, which he +did not fail to deliver exactly as he had been directed to do. +Previously to beginning to speak, the negro champed his toothless gums +together, like a vexed swine; but "y'ung missus" had told him he _must_ +answer, and answer he _did_. It is probable, also, that the old fellow +had some sort of recollection of such scenes, having been present, in +his younger days, at various councils held by the different tribes of +New York; among whom my grandfather, General Mordaunt Littlepage, had +more than once been a commissioner. + +"Well," Jaaf began, in a short, snappish manner, "s'pose nigger _must_ +say somet'in'. No berry great talker, 'cause I no Injin. Nigger had too +much work to do, to talk all 'e time. What you say 'bout where nigger +come from, isn't true. He come from Africa, as I hear 'em say, 'long +time ago. Ahs, me! how ole I do get! Sometimes I t'ink poor ole black +man be nebber to lie down and rest himself. It _do_ seem dat ebberybody +take his rest but old Sus and me. I berry strong, yet; and git stronger +and stronger, dough won'erful tired; but Sus, he git weaker and weaker +ebbery day. Can't last long, now, poor Sus! Ebbery body _must_ die some +time. Ole, ole, ole masser and missus, fust dey die. Den Masser Corny +go; putty well adwanced, too. Den come Masser Mordaunt's turn, and +Masser Malbone, and now dere anudder Masser Hugh. Well, dey putty much +all de same to me. I lubs 'em all and all on 'em lubs me. Den Miss Duss +count for somet'in', but she be libbin', yet. Most time she die, too, +but don't seem to go. Ahs, me! how ole I _do_ git! Ha! dere come dem +debbils of Injins, ag'in, and dis time we _must_ clean 'em out! Get your +rifle, Sus; get your rifle, boy, and mind dat ole Jaaf be at your +elbow." + +Sure enough, there the Injins _did_ come; but I must reserve an account +of what followed for the commencement of the next chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + "Hope--that thy wrongs will be by the Great Spirit + Remembered and revenged when thou art gone; + Sorrow--that none are left thee to inherit + Thy name, thy fame, thy passions, and thy throne." + --_Red Jacket._ + + +It was a little remarkable that one as old and blear-eyed as the negro, +should be the first among us to discover the approach of a large body of +the Injins, who could not be less than two hundred in number. The +circumstance was probably owing to the fact that, while every other eye +was riveted on the speaker, his eyes were fastened on nothing. There the +Injins did come, however, in force; and this time apparently without +fear. The white American meets the red-man with much confidence, when he +is prepared for the struggle; and the result has shown that, when thrown +upon his resources in the wilderness, and after he has been allowed time +to gain a little experience, he is usually the most formidable enemy. +But a dozen Indians, of the stamp of those who had here come to visit +us, armed and painted, and placed in the centre of one of our largest +peopled counties, would be sufficient to throw that county into a +paroxysm of fear. Until time were given for thought, and the opinions of +the judicious superseded the effects of rumor, nothing but panic would +prevail. Mothers would clasp their children to their bosoms, fathers +would hold back their sons from the slaughter, and even the heroes of +the militia would momentarily forget their ardor in the suggestions of +prudence and forethought. + +Such, in fact, had been the state of things in and about Ravensnest, +when Flintyheart so unexpectedly led his companions into the forest, and +dispersed the virtuous and oppressed tenants of my estate on their +return from a meeting held with but one virtuous object; viz., that of +transferring the fee of the farms they occupied from me to themselves. +No one doubted, at the moment, that in addition to the other enormities +committed by me and mine, I had obtained a body of savages from the far +west to meet the forces already levied by the tenants, on a principle +that it would not do to examine very clearly. If I _had_ done so, I am +far from certain that I should not have been perfectly justified in +morals; for an evil of that nature, that might at any time be put down +in a month, and which is suffered to exist for years, through the +selfish indifference of the community, restores to every man his natural +rights of self-defence; though I make no doubt had I resorted to such +means, I should have been hanged, without benefit of philanthropists; +the "clergy" in this country not being included in the class, so far as +suspension by the neck is concerned. + +But the panic had disappeared, as soon as the truth became known +concerning the true object of the visit of the redskins. The courage of +the "virtuous and honest" revived, and one of the first exhibitions of +this renewed spirit was the attempt to set fire to my house and barns. +So serious a demonstration, it was thought, would convince me of the +real power of the people, and satisfy us all that their wishes are not +to be resisted with impunity. As no one likes to have his house and +barns burned, it must be a singular being who could withstand the +influence of such a manifestation of the "spirit of the institutions;" +for it is just as reasonable to suppose that the attempts of the +incendiaries came within their political category, as it is to suppose +that the attempt of the tenants to get a title beyond what was bestowed +in their leases, was owing to this cause. + +That habit of deferring to externals, which is so general in a certain +class of our citizens, and which endures in matters of religion long +after the vital principle is forgotten, prevented any serious outbreak +on the next day, which was the Sunday mentioned; though the occasion was +improved to coerce by intimidation, the meeting and resolutions having +been regularly digested in secret conclave among the local leaders of +anti-rentism, and carried out, as has been described. Then followed the +destruction of the canopy, another demonstration of the "spirit of the +institutions," and as good an argument as any that has yet been offered, +in favor of the dogmas of the new political faith. Public opinion is +entitled to some relief, surely, when it betrays so much excitement as +to desecrate churches and to destroy private property. This circumstance +of the canopy had been much dwelt on, as a favorable anti-rent argument, +and it might now be considered that the subject was carried out to +demonstration. + +By the time all this was effected, so completely had the "Injins" got +over their dread of the Indians, that it was with difficulty the leaders +of the former could prevent the most heroic portion of their corps from +following their blow at the canopy by a _coup de main_ against the old +farm-house and its occupants. Had not the discretion of the leaders been +greater than that of their subordinates, it is very probable blood would +have been shed between these quasi belligerents. But the warriors of the +prairies were the guests of Uncle Sam, and the old gentleman, after all, +has a long arm, and can extend it from Washington to Ravensnest without +much effort. He was not to be offended heedlessly, therefore; for his +power was especially to be dreaded in this matter of the covenants, +without which Injins and agitation would be altogether unnecessary to +attaining the great object, the Albany politicians being so well +disposed to do all they can for the "virtuous and honest." Uncle Sam's +Indians, consequently, were held a good deal more in respect than the +laws of the State, and they consequently escaped being murdered in their +sleep. + +When Jaaf first drew our attention to the Injins, they were advancing in +a long line, by the highway, and at a moderate pace; leaving us time to +shift our own position, did we deem it necessary. My uncle was of +opinion it would never do to remain out on the lawn, exposed to so great +a superiority of force, and he took his measures accordingly. In the +first place, the females, mistresses and maids--and there were eight or +ten of the last--were requested to retire, at once, to the house. The +latter, with John at their head, were directed to close all the lower +outside shutters of the building, and secure them within. This done, and +the gate and two outer doors fastened, it would not be altogether +without hazard to make an assault on our fortress. As no one required a +second request to move, this part of the precaution was soon effected, +and the house placed in a species of temporary security. + +While the foregoing was in the course of execution, Susquesus and Jaaf +were induced to change their positions, by transferring themselves to +the piazza. That change was made, and the two old fellows were +comfortably seated in their chairs again before a single man of the +redskins moved a foot. There they all remained, motionless as so many +statues, with the exception that Flintyheart seemed to be reconnoitring +with his eyes the thicket that fringed the neighboring ravine, and which +formed a bit of dense cover, as already described, of some considerable +extent. + +"Do you wish the redskins in the house, colonel?" asked the interpreter, +coolly, when matters had reached to this pass; "if you do, it's time to +speak, or they'll soon be off, like a flock of pigeons, into that cover. +There'll be a fight as sartain as they move, for there's no more joke +and making of faces about them critturs than there is about a +mile-stone. So it's best to speak in time." + +No delay occurred after this hint was given. The request of my uncle Ro +that the chiefs would follow the Upright Onondago was just in time to +prevent a flight; in the sense of Manytongues, I mean, for it was not +very likely these warriors would literally run away. It is probable that +they would have preferred the cover of the woods as more natural and +familiar to them--but I remarked, as the whole party came on the piazza, +that Flintyheart, in particular, cast a quick, scrutinizing glance at +the house, which said in pretty plain language that he was examining its +capabilities as a work of defence. The movement, however, was made with +perfect steadiness; and, what most surprised us all, was the fact that +not one of the chiefs appeared to pay the slightest attention to their +advancing foes; or men whom it was reasonable for them to suppose so +considered themselves to be. We imputed this extraordinary reserve to +force of character, and a desire to maintain a calm and dignified +deportment in the presence of Susquesus. If it were really the latter +motive that so completely restrained every exhibition of impatience, +apprehension, or disquietude, they had every reason to congratulate +themselves on the entire success of their characteristic restraint on +their feelings. + +The Injins were just appearing on the lawn as our arrangements were +completed. John had come to report every shutter secure, and the gate +and little door barred. He also informed us that all the men and boys +who could be mustered, including gardeners, laborers, and stable people, +to the number of five or six, were in the little passage, armed; where +rifles were ready also for ourselves. In short, the preparations that +had been made by my grandmother, immediately after her arrival, were now +of use, and enabled us to make much more formidable resistance, +sustained as we were by the party from the prairies, than I could have +ever hoped for on so sudden an emergency. + +Our arrangement was very simple. The ladies were seated near the great +door, in order that they might be placed under cover the first, in the +event of necessity; Susquesus and Jaaf had their chairs a little on one +side, but quite near this group, and the men from the far west occupied +the opposite end of the piazza, whither the benches had been removed, +for their accommodation. Manytongues stood between the two divisions of +our company, ready to interpret for either; while my uncle, myself, +John, and two or three of the other servants took position behind our +aged friends. Seneca and his fellow-incendiary were in the midst of the +chiefs. + +It was just as the Injins had got fairly on the lawn that we heard the +clattering of hoofs, and every eye was turned in the direction whence +the sound proceeded. This was on the side of the ravine, and to me it +seemed from the first that some one was approaching us through that +dell. So it proved, truly; for soon Opportunity came galloping up the +path, and appeared in sight. She did not check her horse until under the +tree, where she alighted, by a single bound, and hitching the animal to +a hook in the tree, she moved swiftly toward the house. My sister Patt +advanced to the steps of the piazza to receive this unexpected guest, +and I was just behind her to make my bow. But the salutations of +Opportunity were hasty and far from being very composed. She glanced +around her, ascertained the precise condition of her brother--and, +taking my arm, she led me into the library with very little, or, indeed, +with no ceremony; for, to give this young woman her due, she was a +person of great energy when there was anything serious to be done. The +only sign of deviating, in the slightest degree, from the object in +view, was pausing, one instant, in passing, to make her compliments to +my grandmother. + +"What, in the name of wonder, do you mean to do with Sen?" demanded this +active young lady, looking at me intently, with an expression +half-hostile, half-tender. "You are standing over an earthquake, Mr. +Hugh, if you did but know it." + +Opportunity had confounded the effect with the cause, but that was of +little moment on an occasion so interesting. She was much in earnest, +and I had learned by experience that her hints and advice might be of +great service to us at the Nest. + +"To what particular danger do you allude, my dear Opportunity?" + +"Ah, Hugh! if things was only as they used to be, how happy might we all +be together here at Ravensnest! But, there is no time to talk of such +things; for, as Sarah Soothings says, 'the heart is most monopolized +when grief is the profoundest, and it is only when our sentiments rise +freely to the surface of the imagination, that the mind escapes the +shackles of thraldom.' But I haven't a minute for Sarah Soothings, even, +just now. Don't you see the Injins?" + +"Quite plainly, and they probably see my 'Indians.'" + +"Oh! they don't regard them now the least in the world. At first, when +they thought you might have hired a set of desperate wretches to scalp +the folks, there was some misgivings; but the whole story is now known, +and nobody cares a straw about them. If anybody's scalp is taken, 'twill +be their own. Why, the whole country is up, and the report has gone +forth, far and near, that you have brought in with you a set of +blood-thirsty savages from the prairies to cut the throats of women and +children, and drive off the tenants, that you may get all the farms into +your own hands before the lives fall in. Some folks say, these savages +have had a list of all the lives named in your leases given to them, and +that they are to make way with all such people first, that you may have +the law as much as possible on your side. You stand on an earthquake, +Mr. Hugh; you do, indeed!" + +"My dear Opportunity," I answered, laughing, "I am infinitely obliged to +you for all this attention to my interests, and freely own that on +Saturday night you were of great service to me; but I must now think +that you magnify the danger--that you color the picture too high." + +"Not in the least, I do protest, you stand on an earthquake; and as your +friend, I have ridden over here to tell you as much, while there is yet +time." + +"To get off it, I suppose you mean. But how can all these evil and +blood-thirsty reports be abroad, when the characters of the Western +Indians are, as you own yourself, understood, and the dread of them that +did exist in the town has entirely vanished? There is a contradiction in +this." + +"Why, you know how it is, in anti-rent times. When an excitement is +needed, folks don't stick at facts very closely, but repeat things, and +make things, just as it happens to be convenient." + +"True; I can understand this, and have no difficulty in believing you +now. But have you come here this morning simply to let me know the +danger which besets me from this quarter?" + +"I believe I'm always only too ready to gallop over to the Nest! But +everybody has some weakness or other, and I suppose I am to be no +exception to the rule," returned Opportunity, who doubtless fancied the +moment propitious to throw in a volley toward achieving her great +conquest, and who reinforced that volley of words with such a glance of +the eye, as none but a most practised picaroon on the sea of flirtation +could have thrown. "But, Hugh--I call you Hugh, Mr. Littlepage, for you +seem more like Hugh to me, than like the proud, evil-minded aristocrat, +and hard-hearted landlord, that folks want to make you out to be--but I +never could have told you what I did last night, had I supposed it would +bring Sen into this difficulty." + +"I can very well understand how unpleasantly you are situated as +respects your brother, Opportunity, and your friendly services will not +be forgotten in the management of his affairs." + +"If you are of this mind, why won't you suffer these Injins to get him +out of the hands of your real savages," returned Opportunity, coaxingly. +"I'll promise for him that Sen will go off, and stay off for some +months, if you insist on't; when all is forgotten, he can come back +again." + +"Is the release of your brother, then, the object of this visit from the +Injins?" + +"Partly so--they're bent on having him. He's in all the secrets of the +anti-renters, and they're afraid for their very lives, so long as he's +in your hands. Should he get a little scared, and give up only +one-quarter of what he knows, there'd be no peace in the county for a +twelvemonth." + +At this instant, and before there was time to make an answer, I was +summoned to the piazza, the Injins approaching so near as to induce my +uncle to step to the door and call my name in a loud voice. I was +compelled to quit Opportunity, who did not deem it prudent to show +herself among us, though her presence in the house, as an intercessor +for her brother, could excite neither surprise nor resentment. + +When I reached the piazza, the Injins had advanced as far as the tree +where we had first been posted, and there they had halted, seemingly for +a conference. In their rear, Mr. Warren was walking hurriedly toward us, +keeping the direct line, regardless of those whom we well knew to be +inimical to him, and intent only on reaching the house before it could +be gained by the "disguised and armed." This little circumstance gave +rise to an incident of touching interest, and which I cannot refrain +from relating, though it may interrupt the narration of matters that +others may possibly think of more moment. + +Mr. Warren did not pass directly through the crowd of rioters--for such +those people were, in effect, unless the epithet should be changed to +the still more serious one of rebels--but he made a little detour, in +order to prevent a collision that was unnecessary. When about half-way +between the tree and the piazza, however, the Injins gave a discordant +yell, and many of them sprang forward, as if in haste to overtake, and +probably to arrest him. Just as we all involuntarily arose, under a +common feeling of interest in the fate of the good rector, Mary darted +from the piazza, was at her father's side and in his arms so quickly, as +to seem to have flown there. Clinging to his side, she appeared to urge +him toward us. But Mr. Warren adopted a course much wiser than that of +flight would have been. Conscious of having said or done no more than +his duty, he stopped and faced his pursuers. The act of Mary Warren had +produced a check to the intended proceedings of these lawless men, and +the calm, dignified aspect of the divine completed his conquest. The +leaders of the Injins paused, conferred together, when all who had +issued from the main body returned to their companions beneath the tree, +leaving Mr. Warren and his charming daughter at liberty to join us +unmolested, and with decorum. + +The instant Mary Warren left the piazza on her pious errand, I sprang +forward to follow her with an impulse I could not control. Although my +own power over this impulsive movement was so small, that of my uncle +and grandmother was greater. The former seized the skirt of my frock, +and held me back by main strength, while the light touch of the latter +had even greater power. Both remonstrated, and with so much obvious +justice, that I saw the folly of what I was about in an instant, and +abandoned my design. Had _I_ fallen into the hands of the anti-renters, +their momentary triumph, at least, would have been complete. + +Mr. Warren ascended the steps of the piazza with a mien as unaltered, +and an air as undisturbed, as if about to enter his own church. The good +old gentleman had so schooled his feelings, and was so much accustomed +to view himself as especially protected, or as so ready to suffer, when +in the discharge of any serious duty, that I have had occasions to +ascertain fear was unknown to him. As for Mary, never had she appeared +so truly lovely, as she ascended the steps, still clinging fondly and +confidingly to his arm. The excitement of such a scene had brought more +than the usual quantity of blood into her face, and the brilliancy of +her eyes was augmented by that circumstance, perhaps; but I fancied that +a more charming picture of feminine softness, blended with the +self-devotion of the child, could not have been imagined by the mind of +man. + +Patt, dear, generous girl, sprang forward to embrace her friend, which +she did with warmth and honest fervor, and my venerable grandmother +kissed her on both cheeks, while the other two girls were not backward +in giving the customary signs of the sympathy of their sex. My uncle Ro +even went so far as gallantly to kiss her hand, causing the poor girl's +face to be suffused with blushes, while poor Hugh was obliged to keep in +the background, and content himself with looking his admiration. I got +one glance, however, from the sweet creature, that was replete with +consolation, since it assured me that my forbearance was understood, and +attributed to its right motive. + +In that singular scene, the men of the prairies alone appeared to be +unmoved. Even the domestics and workmen had betrayed a powerful interest +in this generous act of Mary Warren's, the females all screaming in +chorus, very much as a matter of course. But, not an Indian moved. +Scarce one turned his eyes from the countenance of Susquesus, though all +must have been conscious that something of interest was going on so near +them, by the concern we betrayed; and all certainly knew that their +enemies were hard by. As respects the last, I have supposed the +unconcern, or seeming unconcern of these western warriors, ought to be +ascribed to the circumstance of the presence of the ladies, and an +impression that there could be no very imminent risk of hostilities +while the company then present remained together. The apathy of the +chiefs seemed to be extended to the interpreter, who was coolly lighting +his pipe at the very moment when the whole affair of the Warren episode +occurred; an occupation that was not interrupted by the clamor and +confusion among ourselves. + +As there was a delay in the nearer approach of the Injins, there was +leisure to confer together for a moment. Mr. Warren told us, therefore, +that he had seen the "disguised and armed" pass the rectory, and had +followed in order to act as a mediator between us and any contemplated +harm. + +"The destruction of the canopy of Hugh's pew must have given you a +serious intimation that things were coming to a head," observed my +grandmother. + +Mr. Warren had not heard of the affair of the canopy, at all. Although +living quite within sound of a hammer used in the church, everything had +been conducted with so much management, that the canopy had been taken +down, and removed bodily, without any one in the rectory's knowing the +fact. The latter had become known at the Nest, solely by the +circumstance that the object which had so lately canopied aristocracy in +St. Andrew's, Ravensrest, was now canopying pigs up at the farm house. +The good divine expressed his surprise a little strongly, and, as I +thought, his regrets a little indifferently. He was not one to +countenance illegality and violence, and least of all that peculiarly +American vice, envy; but, on the other hand, he was not one to look with +favor on the empty distinctions, as set up between men equally sinners +and in need of grace to redeem them from a common condemnation, in the +house of God. As the grave is known to be the great leveller of the +human race, so ought the church to be used as a preparatory step in +descending to the plain all must occupy, in spirit at least, before they +can hope to be elevated to any, even of the meanest places, among the +many mansions of our Father's bosom! + +There was but a short breathing time given us, however, before the +Injins again advanced. It was soon evident they did not mean to remain +mere idle spectators of the scene that was in the course of enactment on +the piazza, but that it was their intention to become actors, in some +mode or other. Forming themselves into a line, that savored a great deal +more of the militia of this great republic than of the warriors of the +West, they came on tramping, with the design of striking terror into our +souls. Our arrangements were made, however, and on our part everything +was conducted just as one could have wished. The ladies, influenced by +my grandmother, retained their seats, near the door; the men of the +household were standing, but continued stationary, while not an Indian +stirred. As for Susquesus, he had lived far beyond surprises and all +emotions of the lower class, and the men of the prairies appeared to +take their cues from him. So long as he continued immovable, they seemed +disposed to remain immovable also. + +The distance between the tree and the piazza, did not much exceed a +hundred yards, and little time was necessary to march across it. I +remarked, however, that, contrary to the laws of attraction, the nearer +the Injins' line got to its goal, the slower and more unsteady its +movement became. It also lost its formation, bending into curves, though +its tramps became louder and louder, as if those who were in it, wished +to keep alive their own courage by noise. When within fifty feet of the +steps, they ceased to advance at all merely, stamping with their feet, +as if hoping to frighten us into flight. I thought this a favorable +moment to do that which it had been decided between my uncle and myself +ought to be done by me, as owner of the property these lawless men had +thus invaded. Stepping to the front of the piazza, I made a sign for +attention. The tramping ceased all at once, and I had a profound silence +for my speech. + +"You know me, all of you," I said, quietly I know, and I trust firmly; +"and you know, therefore, that I am the owner of this house and these +lands. As such owner, I order every man among you to quit the place, and +to go into the highway, or upon the property of some other person. +Whoever remains, after this notice, will be a trespasser, and the evil +done by a trespasser is doubly serious in the eyes of the law." + +I uttered these words loud enough to be heard by everybody present, but +I cannot pretend that they were attended by much success. The calico +bundles turned toward each other, and there was an appearance of a sort +of commotion, but the leaders composed the people, the omnipotent people +in this instance, as they do in most others. The sovereignty of the mass +is a capital thing as a principle, and once in a long while it evinces a +great good in practice; in a certain sense, it is always working good, +by holding a particular class of most odious and intolerable abuses in +check; but as for the practice of every-day political management, their +imperial majesties, the sovereigns of America, of whom I happen to be +one, have quite as little connection with the measures they are made to +seem to demand, and to sustain, as the Nawab of Oude; if the English, +who are so disinterested as to feel a generous concern for the rights of +mankind, whenever the great republic adds a few acres to the small +paternal homestead, have left any such potentate in existence. + +So it was with the decision of the "disguised and armed," on the +occasion I am describing. They decided that no other notice should be +taken of my summons to quit, than a contemptuous yell, though they had +to ascertain from their leaders what they had decided before they knew +themselves. The shout was pretty general, notwithstanding, and it had +one good effect; that of satisfying the Injins themselves, that they had +made a clear demonstration of their contempt of my authority, which they +fancied victory sufficient for the moment; nevertheless, the +demonstration did not end exactly here. Certain cries, and a brief +dialogue, succeeded, which it may be well to record. + +"_King_ Littlepage," called out one, from among the "disguised and +armed," "what has become of your throne? St. Andrew's meeting-'us' has +lost its monarch's throne!" + +"His pigs have set up for great aristocrats of late; presently they'll +want to be patroons." + +"Hugh Littlepage, be a man; come down to a level with your +fellow-citizens, and don't think yourself any better than other folks. +You're but flesh and blood, a'ter all." + +"Why don't you invite me to come and dine with you as well as priest +Warren? I can eat, as well as any man in the country, and as much." + +"Yes, and he'll _drink_, too, Hugh Littlepage; so provide your best +liquor the day he's to be invited." + +All this passed for wit among the Injins, and among that portion of the +"virtuous and honest and hard-working," who not only kept them on foot, +but on this occasion kept them company also; it having since been +ascertained that about one-half of that band was actually composed of +the tenants of the Ravensnest farms. I endeavored to keep myself cool, +and succeeded pretty well, considering the inducements there were to be +angry. Argument with such men was out of the question--and knowing their +numbers and physical superiority, they held my legal rights in contempt. + +What was probably worse than all, they knew that the law itself was +administered by the people, and that they had little to apprehend, and +did apprehend virtually nothing from any of the pains and penalties it +might undertake to inflict, should recourse be had to it at any future +day. Ten or a dozen wily agents sent through the country to circulate +lies, and to visit the county town previously to, and during a trial, in +order to raise a party that will act more or less directly on the minds +of the jurors, with a newspaper or two to scatter untruths and +prejudices, would at least be as effective, at the critical moment, as +the law, the evidence, and the right. As for the judges, and their +charges, they have lost most of their influence, under the operation of +this nefarious system, and count but for very little in the +administration of justice either at Nisi Prius or at Oyer Terminer. +These are melancholy truths, that any man who quits his theories and +descends into the arena of practice will soon ascertain to be such, to +his wonder and alarm, if he be a novice and an honest man. A portion of +this unhappy state of things is a consequence of the legislative +tinkering that has destroyed one of the most healthful provisions of the +common law, in prohibiting the judges to punish for contempt, unless for +outrages committed in open court. The press, in particular, now profits +by this impunity, and influences the decision of nearly every case that +can at all enlist public feeling. All these things men feel, and few who +are wrong care for the law; for those who are right, it is true, there +is still some danger. My uncle Ro says America is no more like what +America was in this respect twenty years since, than Kamtschatka is like +Italy. For myself, I wish to state the truth; exaggerating nothing, nor +yet taking refuge in a dastardly concealment. + +Unwilling to be browbeaten on the threshold of my own door, I determined +to say something ere I returned to my place. Men like these before me +can never understand that silence proceeds from contempt; and I fancied +it best to make some sort of a reply to the speeches I have recorded, +and to twenty more of the same moral calibre. Motioning for silence, I +again obtained it. + +"I have ordered you to quit my lawn, in the character of its owner," I +said, "and, by remaining, you make yourselves trespassers. As for what +you have done to my pew, I should thank you for it, had it not been done +in violation of the right; for it was fully my intention to have that +canopy removed as soon as the feeling about it had subsided. I am as +much opposed to distinctions of any sort in the house of God as any of +you can be, and desire them not for myself, or any belonging to me. I +ask for nothing but equal rights with all my fellow-citizens; that _my_ +property should be as much protected as _theirs_, but not more so. But I +do not conceive that you or any man has a right to ask to share in my +world's goods any more than I have a right to ask to share in his; that +you can more justly claim a portion of my lands than I can claim a share +in your cattle and crops. It is a poor rule that does not work both +ways." + +"You're an aristocrat," cried one from among the Injins, "or you'd be +willing to let other men have as much land as you've got yourself. +You're a patroon; and all patroons are aristocrats and hateful." + +"An aristocrat," I answered, "is one of a few who wield political power. +The highest birth, the largest fortune, the most exclusive association +would not make an aristocrat, without the addition of a narrow political +power. In this country there are no aristocrats, because there is no +narrow political power. There is, however, a spurious aristocracy which +you do not recognize, merely because it does not happen to be in the +hands of gentlemen. Demagogues and editors are your privileged classes, +and consequently your aristocrats, and none others. As for your landlord +aristocrats, listen to a true tale, which will satisfy you how far they +deserve to be called an aristocracy. Mark! what I now tell you is +religious truth, and it deserves to be known far and near, wherever your +cry of aristocracy reaches. There is a landlord in this State, a man of +large means, who became liable for the debts of another to a +considerable amount. At the very moment when _his_ rents could not be +collected, owing to _your_ interference and the remissness of those in +authority to enforce the laws, the sheriff entered _his_ house and sold +its contents, in order to satisfy an execution against _him_! There is +American aristocracy for you, and, I am sorry to add, American justice, +as justice has got to be administered among us." + +I was not disappointed in the effect of this narration of what is a +sober truth. Wherever I have told it, it has confounded even the most +brawling demagogue, and momentarily revived in his breast some of those +principles of right which God originally planted there. American +aristocracy, in sooth! Fortunate is the gentleman that can obtain even a +reluctant and meagre justice. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + + "How far that little candle throws his beams, + So shines a good deed in a naughty world." + --SHAKESPEARE. + + +I have said that my narrative of the manner in which justice is +sometimes meted out among us was not without its effect on even that +rude band of selfish and envious rioters: rude, because setting at +naught reason and the law; and selfish, because induced so to do by +covetousness, and the desire to substitute the tenants for those whom +they fancied to be better off in the world than they were themselves. A +profound stillness succeeded; and after the bundles of calico had +whispered one with another for a moment or two, they remained quiet, +seemingly indisposed, just then at least, to molest us any farther. I +thought the moment favorable, and fell back to my old station, +determined to let things take their own course. This change, and the +profound stillness that succeeded, brought matters back to the visit of +the Indians, and its object. + +During the whole time occupied by the advance of the "Injins," the men +of the prairies and Susquesus had continued nearly as motionless as so +many statues. It is true that the eyes of Flintyheart were on the +invaders, but he managed to take good heed of them without betraying any +undue uneasiness or care. Beyond this, I do affirm that I scarce noted a +single sign of even vigilance among these extraordinary beings; though +Manytongues afterward gave me to understand that they knew very well +what they were about; and then I could not be watching the red-men the +whole time. Now that there was a pause, however, everybody and thing +seemed to revert to the original visit, as naturally as if no +interruption had occurred. Manytongues, by the way of securing +attention, called on the Injins, in an authoritative voice, to offer no +interruption to the proceedings of the chiefs, which had a species of +religious sanctity, and were not to be too much interfered with, with +impunity. + +"So long as you keep quiet, my warriors will not molest you," he added; +"but if any man amongst you has ever been on the prer-ies, he must +understand enough of the nature of a redskin to know that when he's in +'airnest he _is_ in 'airnest. Men who are on a journey three thousand +miles in length, don't turn aside for trifles, which is a sign that +serious business has brought these chiefs here." + +Whether it was that this admonition produced an effect, or that +curiosity influenced the "disguised and armed," or that they did not +choose to proceed to extremities, or that all three considerations had +their weight, is more than I can say; but it is certain the whole band +remained stationary, quiet and interested observers of what now +occurred, until an interruption took place, which will be related in +proper time. Manytongues, who had posted himself near the centre of the +piazza, to interpret, now signified to the chiefs that they might pursue +their own purposes in tranquillity. After a decent pause, the same young +warrior who had "called up" Jaaf, in the first instance, now rose again, +and with a refinement in politeness that would be looked for in vain in +most of the deliberative bodies of civilized men, adverted to the +circumstance that the negro had not finished his address, and might have +matter on his mind of which he wished to be delivered. This was said +simply, but distinctly; and it was explained to the negro by +Manytongues, who assured him not one among all the chiefs would say a +word until the last person "on his legs" had an opportunity of finishing +his address. This reserve marks the deportment of those whom we call +savages; men that have their own fierce, and even ruthless customs, +beyond all controversy, but who possess certain other excellent +qualities that do not appear to flourish in the civilized state. + +It was with a good deal of difficulty that we got old Jaaf up again; +for, though a famous grumbler, he was not much of an orator. As it was +understood that no chief would speak, however, until the black had +exhausted his right, my dear Patt had to go, and laying one of her +ivory-looking hands on the shoulder of the grim old negro, persuade him +to rise and finish his speech. He knew her, and she succeeded; it being +worthy of remark, that while this aged black scarce remembered for an +hour what occurred, confounding dates fearfully, often speaking of my +grandmother as Miss Dus, and as if she were still a girl, he knew every +one of the family then living, and honored and loved us accordingly, at +the very moments he would fancy we had been present at scenes that +occurred when our great-grandparents were young people. But to the +speech-- + +"What all them fellow want, bundle up in calico, like so many squaw?" +growled out Jaaf, as soon as on his legs, and looking intently at the +Injins, ranged as they were in a line four deep, quite near the piazza. +"Why you let 'em come, Masser Hugh, Masser Hodge, Masser Malbone, Masser +Mordaunt--which you be here, now, I don't know, dere so many, and it so +hard to 'member ebberyt'ing? Oh! I _so_ ole!--I do won'er when my time +come! Dere Sus, too, _he_ good for nuttin' at all. Once he great +walker--great warrior--great hunter--pretty good fellow for redskin; but +he quite wore out. Don't see much use why he lib any longer. Injin good +for nuttin' when he can't hunt. Sometime he make basket and broom; but +they uses better broom now, and Injin lose _dat_ business. What dem +calico debbil want here, eh, Miss Patty? Dere redskin, too--two, t'ree, +four--all come to see Sus. Won'er nigger don't come to see _me_! Ole +black good as ole red-man. Where dem fellow get all dat calico, and put +over deir faces? Masser Hodge, what all dat mean?" + +"These are anti-renters, Jaaf," my uncle coldly answered. "Men that wish +to own your Master Hugh's farms, and relieve him from the trouble of +receiving any more rent. They cover their faces, I presume, to conceal +their blushes, the modesty of their nature sinking under the sense of +their own generosity." + +Although it is not very probable that Jaaf understood the whole of the +speech, he comprehended a part; for, so thoroughly had his feelings been +aroused on this subject, a year or two earlier, when his mind was not +quite so much dimmed as at present, that the impression made was +indelible. The effect of what my uncle said, nevertheless, was most +apparent among the Injins, who barely escaped an outbreak. My uncle has +been blamed for imprudence, in having resorted to irony on such an +occasion; but, after all, I am far from sure good did not come of it. Of +one thing I am certain; nothing is ever gained by temporizing on the +subject of principles; that which is right, had better always be freely +said, since it is from the sacrifices that are made of the truth, as +concession to expediency, that error obtains one half its power. Policy, +or fear, or some other motive, kept the rising ire of the Injins under, +however, and no interruption occurred, in consequence of this speech. + +"What you want here, fellow?" demanded Jaaf, roughly, and speaking as a +scold would break out on some intrusive boy. "Home wid ye!--get out! Oh! +I _do_ grow so ole!--I wish I was as I was when young for your sake, you +varmint! What you want wid Masser Hugh's land?--why dat you t'ink to get +gentle'em's property, eh? 'Member 'e time when your fadder come creepin' +and beggin' to Masser Morder, to ask just little farm to lib on, and be +he tenant, and try to do a little for he family, like; and now come, in +calico bundle, to tell _my_ Masser Hugh dat he shan't be masser of he +own land. Who _you_, I want to knew, to come and talk to gentle'em in +dis poor fashion? Go home--get out--off wid you, or you hear what you +don't like." + +Now, while there was a good deal of "nigger" in this argument, it was +quite as good as that which was sometimes advanced in support of the +"spirit of the institutions," more especially that part of the latter +which is connected with "aristocracy" and "poodle usages." The negro had +an idea that all his "massers," old and young, were better than the rest +of the human race; while the advocates of the modern improvement seem to +think that every right is concentrated in the lower half of the great +"republican family." Every gentleman is no gentleman; and every +blackguard, a gentleman, for one postulate of their great social +proposition; and, what is more, every man in the least elevated _above_ +the mass, unless so elevated by the mass, who consequently retain the +power to pull him down again, has no rights at all, when put in +opposition to the cravings of numbers. So that, after all, the negro was +not much more out of the way, in his fashion of viewing things, than the +philosophers of industrious honesty! Happily, neither the reasoning of +one of these parties, nor that of the other, has much influence on the +actual state of things. Facts are facts, and the flounderings of envy +and covetousness can no more shut men's eyes to their existence, and +prove that black is white, than Jaaf's long-enduring and besetting +notion that the Littlepages are the great of the earth, can make us more +than what we certainly are. I have recorded the negro's speech, simply +to show some, who listen only to the misstatements and opinions of those +who wish to become owners of other men's farms, that there are two sides +to the question; and, in the way of argument, I do not see but one is +quite as good as the other. + +One could hardly refrain from smiling, notwithstanding the seriousness +of the circumstances in which we were placed, at the gravity of the +Indians during the continuance of this queer episode. Not one of them +all rose, turned round, or manifested the least impatience, or even +curiosity. The presence of two hundred armed men, bagged in calico, did +not induce them to look about them, though their previous experience +with this gallant corps may possibly have led them to hold it somewhat +cheap. + +The time had now come for the Indians to carry out the main design of +their visit to Ravensnest, and Prairiefire slowly arose to speak. The +reader will understand that Manytongues translated, sentence by +sentence, all that passed, he being expert in the different dialects of +the tribes, some of which had carried that of the Onondagoes to the +prairies. In this particular, the interpreter was a somewhat remarkable +man, not only rendering what was said readily and without hesitation, +but energetically and with considerable power. It may be well to add, +however, that in writing out the language I may have used English +expressions that are a little more choice, in some instances, than those +given by this uneducated person. + +"Father," commenced Prairefire, solemnly, and with a dignity that it is +not usual to find connected with modern oratory; the gestures he used +being few, but of singular force and significance--"Father, the minds of +your children are heavy. They have travelled over a long and thorny +path, with moccasons worn out, and feet that were getting sore; but +their minds were light. They hoped to look at the face of the Upright +Onondago, when they got to the end of the path. They have come to the +end of that path, and they see him. He looks as they expected he would +look. He is like an oak that lightning may burn, and the snows cover +with moss, but which a thousand storms and a hundred winters cannot +strip of its leaves. He looks like the oldest oak in the forest. He is +very grand. It is pleasant to look on him. When we see him, we see a +chief who knew our fathers' fathers, and _their_ fathers' fathers. That +is a long time ago. He is a tradition, and knows all things. There is +only one thing about him, that ought not to be. He was born a red-man, +but has lived so long with the pale-faces, that when he does go away to +the happy hunting-grounds, we are afraid the good spirits will mistake +him for a pale-face, and point out the wrong path. Should this happen, +the red-men would lose the Upright of the Onondagoes, forever. It should +not be. My father does not wish it to be. He will think better. He will +come back among his children, and leave his wisdom and advice among the +people of his own color. I ask him to do this. + +"It is a long path, now, to the wigwams of red-men. It was not so once, +but the path has been stretched. It is a very long path. Our young men +travel it often, to visit the graves of their fathers, and they know how +long it is. My tongue is not crooked, but it is straight; it will not +sing a false song--it tells my father the truth. The path is very long. +But the pale-faces are wonderful! What have they not done? What will +they not do? They have made canoes and sledges that fly swift as the +birds. The deer could not catch them. They have wings of fire, and never +weary. They go when men sleep. The path is long, but it is soon +travelled with such wings. My father can make the journey, and not think +of weariness. Let him try it. His children will take good care of him. +Uncle Sam will give him venison, and he will want nothing. Then, when he +starts for the happy hunting-grounds, he will not mistake the path, and +will live with red-men forever." + +A long, solemn pause succeeded this speech, which was delivered with +great dignity and emphasis. I could see that Susquesus was touched with +this request, and at the homage paid his character, by having tribes +from the prairies--tribes of which he had never even heard through +traditions in his younger days--come so far to do justice to his +character; to request him to go and die in their midst. It is true, he +must have known that the fragments of the old New York tribes had mostly +found their way to those distant regions; nevertheless, it could not but +be soothing to learn that even they had succeeded in making so strong an +impression in his favor, by means of their representations. Most men of +his great age would have been insensible to feelings of this sort. Such, +in a great degree, was the fact with Jaaf; but such was not the case +with the Onondago. As he said in his former speech to his visitors, his +mind dwelt more on the scenes of his youth, and native emotions came +fresher to his spirit, now, than they had done even in middle age. All +that remained of his youthful fire seemed to be awakened, and he did not +appear that morning, except when compelled to walk and in his outward +person, to be a man who had seen much more than his threescore years and +ten. + +As a matter of course, now that the chiefs from the prairies had so +distinctly made known the great object of their visit, and so vividly +portrayed their desire to receive back, into the bosom of their +communities, one of their color and race, it remained for the Onondago +to let the manner in which he viewed this proposition be known. The +profound stillness that reigned around him must have assured the old +Indian how anxiously his reply was expected. It extended even to the +"disguised and armed," who, by this time, seemed to be as much absorbed +in the interest of this curious scene as any of us who occupied the +piazza. I do believe that anti-rentism was momentarily forgotten by all +parties--tenants as well as landlords, Landlords as well as tenants. I +dare say, Prairiefire had taken his seat three minutes ere Susquesus +arose; during all which time, the deep stillness, of which I have +spoken, prevailed. + +"My children," answered the Onondago, whose voice possessed just enough +of the hollow tremulousness of age to render it profoundly impressive, +but who spoke so distinctly as to be heard by all present--"My children, +we do not know what will happen when we are young--all is young, too, +that we see. It is when we grow old, that all grows old with us. Youth +is full of hope; but age is full of eyes, it sees things as they are. I +have lived in my wigwam alone, since the Great Spirit called out the +name of my mother, and she hurried away to the happy hunting-grounds to +cook venison for my father, who was called first. My father was a great +warrior. You did not know him. He was killed by the Delawares, more than +a hundred winters ago. + +"I have told you the truth. When my mother went to cook venison for her +husband, I was left alone in my wigwam." + +Here a long pause succeeded, during which Susquesus appeared to be +struggling with his own feelings, though he continued erect, like a tree +firmly rooted. As for the chiefs, most of them inclined their bodies +forward to listen, so intense was their interest; here and there one of +their number explaining in soft guttural tones, certain passages in the +speech to some other Indians, who did not fully comprehend the dialect +in which they were uttered. After a time, Susquesus proceeded: "Yes, I +lived alone. A young squaw _was_ to have entered my wigwam and staid +there. She never came. She wished to enter it, but she did not. Another +warrior had her promise, and it was right that she should keep her word. +Her mind was heavy at first, but she lived to feel that it is good to be +just. No squaw has ever lived in any wigwam of mine. I do not think ever +to be a father: but see how different it has turned out! I am now the +father of all red-men! Every Indian warrior is my son. _You_ are my +children! I will own you when we meet on the pleasant paths beyond the +hunts you make to-day. You will call me father, and I will call you +sons. + +"That will be enough. You ask me to go on the long path with you, and +leave my bones on the prairies. I have heard of those hunting-grounds. +Our ancient traditions told us of them. 'Toward the rising sun,' they +said, 'is a great salt lake, and toward the setting sun, great lakes of +sweet water. Across the great salt lake is a distant country, filled +with pale-faces, who live in large villages, and in the midst of cleared +fields. Toward the setting sun were large cleared fields, too, but no +pale-faces, and few villages.' Some of our wise men thought these fields +were the fields of red-men following the pale-faces round after the sun; +some thought they were fields in which the pale-faces were following +them. I think this was the truth. The red-man cannot hide himself in any +corner where the pale-faces will not find him. The Great Spirit will +have it so. It is his will; the red-man must submit. + +"My sons, the journey you ask me to make is too long for old age. I have +lived with the pale-faces, until one-half of my heart is white; though +the other half is red. One-half is filled with the traditions of my +fathers, the other half is filled with the wisdom of the stranger. I +cannot cut my heart in two pieces. I must all go with you, or all stay +here. The body must stay with the heart, and both must remain where they +have now dwelt so long. I thank you, my children, but what you wish can +never come to pass. + +"You see a very old man, but you see a very unsettled mind. There are +red traditions and pale-face traditions. Both speak of the Great Spirit, +but only one speak of his Son. A soft voice has been whispering in my +ear, lately, much of the Son of God. Do they speak to you in that way on +the prairies? I know not what to think. I wish to think what is right; +but it is not easy to understand." + +Here Susquesus paused; then he took his seat, with the air of one who is +at a loss how to explain his own feelings. Prairiefire waited a +respectful time for him to continue his address, but perceiving that he +rose not, he stood up himself, to request a further explanation. + +"My father has spoken wisdom," he said, "and his children have listened. +They have not heard enough; they wish to hear more. If my father is +tired of standing, he can sit; his children do not ask him to stand. +They ask to know where that soft voice came from, and what it said?" + +Susquesus did not rise, now, but he prepared for a reply. Mr. Warren was +standing quite near him, and Mary was leaning on his arm. He signed for +the father to advance a step or two, in complying with which, the parent +brought forth the unconscious child also. + +"See, my children," resumed Susquesus. "This is a great medicine of the +pale-faces. He talks always of the Great Spirit, and of his goodness to +men. It is his business to talk of the happy hunting-ground, and of good +and bad pale-faces. I cannot tell you whether he does any good or not. +Many such talk of these things constantly among the whites, but I can +see little change, and I have lived among them, now, more than eighty +winters and summers--yes, near ninety. The land is changed so much that +I hardly know it; but the people do not alter. See, there; here are +men--pale-faces in calico bags. Why do they run about, and dishonor the +red-man by calling themselves Injins? I will tell you." + +There was now a decided movement among the "virtuous and industrious," +though a strong desire to hear the old man out, prevented any violent +interruption at that time. I question if ever men listened more +intently, than we all lent our faculties now, to ascertain what the +Upright of the Onondagoes thought of anti-rentism. I received the +opinions he expressed with the greater alacrity, because I knew he was a +living witness of most of what he related, and because I was clearly of +opinion that he knew quite as much of the subject as many who rose in +the legislative halls to discuss the subject. + +"These men are not warriors," continued Susquesus. "They hide their +faces and they carry rifles, but they frighten none but the squaws and +pappooses. When they take a scalp, it is because they are a hundred, and +their enemies one. They are not braves. Why do they come at all? What do +they want? They want the land of this young chief. My children, all the +land, far and near, was ours. The pale-faces came with their papers, and +made laws, and said 'It is well! We want this land. There is plenty +farther west for you red-men. Go there, and hunt, and fish, and plant +your corn, and leave us this land.' Our red brethren did as they were +asked to do. The pale-faces had it as they wished. They made laws, and +sold the land, as the red-men sell the skins of beavers. When the money +was paid, each pale-face got a deed, and thought he owned all that he +had paid for. But the wicked spirit that drove out the red-man is now +about to drive off the pale-face chiefs. It is the same devil, and it is +no other. He wanted land then, and he wants land now. There is one +difference, and it is this. When the pale-face drove off the red-man +there was no treaty between them. They had not smoked together, and +given wampum, and signed a paper. If they had, it was to agree that the +red-man should go away, and the pale-face stay. When the pale-face +drives off the pale-face, there is a treaty; they have smoked together, +and given wampum, and signed a paper. This is the difference. Indian +will keep his word with Indian; pale-face will not keep his word with +pale-face." + +Susquesus stopped speaking, and the eye of every chief was immediately, +and for the first time that morning, turned on the "disguised and +armed"--the "virtuous and hard-working." A slight movement occurred in +the band, but no outbreak took place; and, in the midst of the sensation +that existed, Eaglesflight slowly arose. The native dignity and ease of +his manner more than compensated for his personal appearance, and he now +seemed to us all one of those by no means unusual instances of the power +of the mind to overshadow, and even to obliterate, the imperfections of +the body. Before the effect of what Susquesus had just said was lost, +this eloquent and much-practised orator began his address. His utterance +was highly impressive, being so deliberate, with pauses so well +adjusted, as to permit Manytongues to give full effect to each syllable +he translated. + +"My brethren," said Eaglesflight, addressing the Injins and the other +auditors, rather than any one else, "you have heard the words of age. +They are the words of wisdom. They are the words of truth. The Upright +of the Onondagoes cannot lie. He never could. The Great Spirit made him +a just Indian; and, as the Great Spirit makes an Indian, so he is. My +brethren, I will tell you his story; it will be good for _you_ to hear +it. We have heard your story; first from the interpreter, now from +Susquesus. It is a bad story. We were made sorrowful when we heard it. +What is right, should be done; what is wrong, should not be done. There +are bad red-men, and good red-men; there are bad pale-faces, and good +pale-faces. The good red-men and good pale-faces do what is right; the +bad, what is wrong. It is the same with both. The Great Spirit of the +Indian and the Great Spirit of the white man are alike; so are the +wicked spirits. There is no difference in this. + +"My brethren, a red-man knows in his heart when he does what is right, +and when he does what is wrong. He does not want to be told. He tells +himself. His face is red, and he cannot change color. The paint is too +thick. When he tells himself how much wrong he has done, he goes into +the bushes, and is sorry. When he comes out he is a better man. + +"My brethren, it is different with a pale-face. He is white, and uses no +stones for paint. When he tells himself that he has done wrong, his face +can paint itself. Everybody can see that he is ashamed. He does not go +into the bushes; it would do no good. He paints himself so quickly that +there is no time. He hides his face in a calico bag. This is not good, +but it is better than to be pointed at with the finger. + +"My brethren, the Upright of the Onondagoes has never run into the +bushes because he was ashamed. There has been no need of it. He has not +told himself he was wicked. He has not put his face in a calico bag; he +cannot paint himself, like a pale-face. + +"My brethren, listen; I will tell you a story. A long time ago +everything was very different here. The clearings were small, and the +woods large. Then the red-men were many, and the pale-faces few. Now it +is different. You know how it is, to-day. + +"My brethren, I am talking of what was a hundred winters since. We were +not born, then. Susquesus was then young, and strong, and active. He +could run with the deer, and battle with the bear. He was a chief, +because his fathers were chiefs before him. The Onondagoes knew him and +loved him. Not a war-path was opened that he was not the first to go on +it. No other warrior could count so many scalps. No young chief had so +many listeners at the council-fire. The Onondagoes were proud that they +had so great a chief, and one so young. They thought he would live a +long time, and they should see him, and be proud of him for fifty +winters more. + +"My brethren, Susquesus has lived twice fifty winters longer; but he has +not lived them with his own people. No; he has been a stranger among the +Onondagoes all that time. The warriors he knew are dead. The wigwams +that he went into have fallen to the earth with time; the graves have +crumbled, and the sons' sons of his companions walk heavily with old +age. Susquesus is there; you see him; he sees you. He can walk; he +speaks; he sees: he is a living tradition! Why is this so? The Great +Spirit has not called him away. He is a just Indian, and it is good that +he be kept here, that all red-men may know how much he is loved. So long +as he stays no red-men need want a calico bag. + +"My brethren, the younger days of Susquesus, the Trackless, were happy. +When he had seen twenty winters, he was talked of in all the neighboring +tribes. The scalp notches were a great many. When he had seen thirty +winters, no chief of the Onondagoes had more honor, or more power. He +was first among the Onondagoes. There was but one fault in him. He did +not take a squaw into his wigwam. Death comes when he is not looked for; +so does marriage. At length my father became like other men, and wished +for a squaw. It happened in this way. + +"My brethren, red-men have laws, as well as the pale-faces. If there is +a difference, it is in keeping those laws. A law of the red-men gives +every warrior his prisoners. If he bring off a warrior, he is his; if a +squaw, she is his. This is right. He can take the scalp of the warrior; +he can take the squaw into his wigwam, if it be empty. A warrior named +Waterfowl, brought in a captive girl of the Delawares. She was called +Ouithwith, and was handsomer than the humming-bird. The Waterfowl had +his ears open, and heard how beautiful she was. He watched long to take +her, and he did take her. She was his, and he thought to take her into +his wigwam when it was empty. Three moons passed, before that could be. +In the meantime, Susquesus saw Ouithwith, and Ouithwith saw Susquesus. +Their eyes were never off each other. He was the noblest moose of the +woods, in her eyes; she was the spotted fawn, in his. He wished to ask +her to his wigwam; she wished to go. + +"My brethren, Susquesus was a great chief; the Waterfowl was only a +warrior. One had power and authority, the other had neither. But there +is authority among red-men beyond that of the chief. It is the red-man's +law. Ouithwith belonged to the Waterfowl, and she did not belong to +Susquesus. A great council was held, and men differed. Some said that so +useful a chief, so renowned a warrior as Susquesus, ought to be the +husband of Ouithwith, some said her husband ought to be the Waterfowl, +for he had brought her out from among the Delawares. A great difficulty +arose on this question, and the whole six nations took part in it. Many +warriors were for the law, but most were for Susquesus. They loved him, +and thought he would make the best husband for the Delaware girl. For +six moons the quarrel thickened, and a dark cloud gathered over the path +that led among the tribes. Warriors who had taken scalps in company, +looked at each other, as the panther looks at the deer. Some were ready +to dig up the hatchet for the law; some for the pride of the Onondagoes, +and the humming-bird of the Delawares. The squaws took sides with +Susquesus. Far and near, they met to talk together, and they even +threatened to light a council-fire, and smoke around it, like warriors +and chiefs. + +"Brethren, things could not stand so another moon. Ouithwith must go +into the wigwam of the Waterfowl, or into the wigwam of Susquesus. The +squaws said she should go into the wigwam of Susquesus; and they met +together, and led her to his door. As she went along that path, +Ouithwith looked at her feet with her eyes, but her heart leaped like +the bounding fawn, when playing in the sun. She did not go in at the +door. The Waterfowl was there, and forbade it. He had come alone; his +friends were but few, while the heads and arms of the friends of +Susquesus were as plenty as the berries on the bush. + +"My brethren, that command of the Waterfowl's was like a wall of rock +before the door of the Trackless's wigwam. Ouithwith could not go in. +The eyes of Susquesus said 'no,' while his heart said 'yes.' He offered +the Waterfowl his rifle, his powder, all his skins, his wigwam; but +Waterfowl would rather have his prisoner, and answered, 'no.' 'Take my +scalp,' he said; 'you are strong and can do it; but do not take my +prisoner.' + +"My brethren, Susquesus then stood up, in the midst of the tribe, and +opened his mind. 'The Waterfowl is right,' he said. 'She is his, by our +laws; and what the laws of the red-man say, the red-man must do. When +the warrior is about to be tormented, and he asks for time to go home +and see his friends, does he not come back at the day and hour agreed +on? Shall I, Susquesus, the first chief of the Onondagoes, be stronger +than the law? No--my face would be forever hid in the bushes, did that +come to pass. It should not be--it _shall_ not be. Take her, Waterfowl; +she is yours. Deal kindly by her, for she is as tender as the wren when +it first quits the nest. I must go into the woods for awhile. When my +mind is at peace, Susquesus will return.' + +"Brethren, the stillness in that tribe, while Susquesus was getting his +rifle, and his horn, and his best moccasons, and his tomahawk, was like +that which comes in the darkness. Men saw him go, but none dare follow. +He left no trail, and he was called the Trackless. His mind was never at +peace, for he never came back. Summer and winter came and went often +before the Onondagoes heard of him among the pale-faces. All that time +the Waterfowl lived with Ouithwith in his wigwam, and she bore him +children. The chief was gone, but the law remained. Go you, men of the +pale-faces, who hide your shame in calico bags, and do the same. Follow +the example of an Indian--be honest, like the Upright of the +Onondagoes!" + +While this simple narrative was drawing to a close, I could detect the +signs of great uneasiness among the leaders of the "calico bags." The +biting comparison between themselves and their own course, and an Indian +and his justice, was intolerable to them, for nothing has more conduced +to the abuses connected with anti-rentism than the wide-spread delusion +that prevails in the land concerning the omnipotency of the masses. The +error is deeply rooted which persuades men that fallible parts can make +an infallible whole. It was offensive to their self-conceit, and +menacing to their success. A murmur ran through the assembly, and a +shout followed. The Injins rattled their rifles, most relying on +intimidation to effect their purpose; but a few seemed influenced by a +worse intention, and I have never doubted that blood would have been +shed in the next minute, the Indians now standing to their arms, had not +the sheriff of the county suddenly appeared on the piazza, with Jack +Dunning at his elbow. This unexpected apparition produced a pause, +during which the "disguised and armed" fell back some twenty yards, and +the ladies rushed into the house. As for my uncle and myself, we were as +much astonished as any there at this interruption. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + + "Strong sense, deep feeling, passions strong, + A hate of tyrant and of knave, + + A love of right, a scorn of wrong, + Of coward and of slave." + --_Halleck's Wild Rose of Alloway._ + + +Although experience has shown that the appearance of a sheriff is by no +means a pledge of the appearance of a friend of the law in this +anti-rent movement, in our instance the fact happened to be so. It was +known to the "disguised and armed" that this functionary was disposed to +do his duty.[30] One of the rank absurdities into which democracy has +fallen, and democracy is no more infallible than individual democrats, +has been to make the officers of the militia and the sheriffs of +counties elective. The consequences are, that the militia is converted +into a farce, and the execution of the laws in a particular county is +very much dependent on the pleasure of that county to have them executed +or not. The last is a capital arrangement for the resident debtor, for +instance, though absent creditors are somewhat disposed to find fault. +But all this is of no great moment, since the theories for laws and +governments in vogue just now are of such a character as would render +laws and governments quite unnecessary at all, were they founded in +truth. Restraints of all kinds can only be injurious when they are +imposed on perfection! + +[Footnote 30: The editor may as well say here, that, for obvious +reasons, the _name_s, counties, etc., used in these manuscripts are +feigned, the real localities being close enough to those mentioned for +the double purposes of truth and fiction. As one of the "honorable +gentlemen" of the Legislature has quoted our references to +"_provincial_" feelings and notions, with a magnificence that proves how +thoroughly he is a man of the world himself, we will tell all the rest +of the human race, who may happen to read this book, that we have made +this explanation lest that comprehensive view of things, which has +hitherto been so eager, because a street and a house are named in the +pages of a fiction, to suppose that everybody is to believe they know +the very individual who dwelt in it, should fancy that our allusions are +to this or that particular functionary.--EDITOR.] + +The instant the commotion commenced, and the ladies fled, I took Seneca +and his fellow-prisoner by the arm, and led them into the library. This +I did, conceiving it to be unfair to keep prisoners in a situation of +danger. This I did, too, without reflecting in the least on anything but +the character of the act. Returning to the piazza immediately, I was not +missed, and was a witness of all that passed. + +As has been intimated, this particular sheriff was known to be +unfavorable to the anti-rent movement, and, no one supposing he would +appear in the midst unsupported, in such a scene, the Injins fell back, +thus arresting the danger of an immediate collision. It has since been +privately intimated to me, that some among them, after hearing the +narrative of Eaglesflight, really felt ashamed that a redskin should +have a more lively sense of justice than a white man. Whatever may be +said of the hardships of the tenants, and of "poodle-usages," and of +"aristocracy," and "fat hens," by the leaders in this matter, it by no +means follows that those leaders believe in their own theories and +arguments. On the contrary, it is generally the case with such men, that +they keep themselves quite free from the excitement that it is their +business to awaken in others, resembling the celebrated John Wilkes, who +gravely said to George III., in describing the character of a former +co-operator in agitation, "_He_ was a Wilkesite, sir; _I_ never was." + +The unexpected appearance of Dunning, the offending agent, too, was not +without its effect--for they who were behind the curtains found it +difficult to believe that he would dare to show himself at Ravensnest +without sufficient support. Those who thought thus, however, did not +know Jack Dunning. He had a natural and judicious aversion to being +tarred and feathered, it is true; but, when it was necessary to expose +himself, no man did it more freely. The explanation of his unlooked-for +arrival is simply this. + +Uneasy at our manner of visiting Ravensnest, this trustworthy friend, +after the delay of a day or two, determined to follow us. On reaching +the county he heard of the firing of the barn, and of the attempt on the +house, and went in quest of the sheriff without a moment's delay. As the +object of Dunning was to get the ladies out of the lion's den, he did +not wait for the summoning of the _posse comitatus_; but, hiring a dozen +resolute fellows, they were armed, and all set out in a body for the +Nest. When within a mile or two of the house, the rumor reached the +party that we were besieged; and it became expedient to have recourse to +some manoeuvring, in order to throw succor into the garrison. Dunning +was familiar with all the windings and turnings of the place, having +passed many a month at the Nest with my uncle and father, both as man +and boy, and he knew the exact situation of the cliff, court, and of the +various peculiar features of the place. Among other arrangements that +had been made of late years, a door had been opened at the end of the +long gallery which led through one of the wings, and a flight of steps +been built against the rocks, by means of which certain paths and walks +that meandered through the meadows and followed the windings of the +stream might be reached. Dunning determined to attempt an ascent from +this quarter, trusting to make himself heard by some one within, should +he find the door fastened. Everything succeeded to his wishes--the cook +alone, of all the household, being at her post in the other wing, and +seeing him the instant he presented himself on the upper part of the +steps. Jack Dunning's face was so well known at the Nest, that the good +woman did not hesitate a moment about admitting him, and he thus +penetrated into the building, followed by all his party. The last he +kept concealed by sending them into the chambers, while he and the +sheriff drew near the door, and heard most of the speech of +Eaglesflight, the attention of everybody being given to the narrative. +The reader knows the rest. + +I might as well say at once, however, that Opportunity, who, by her +position, had seen the entrance of Dunning and his party, no sooner +found herself alone with the prisoners, than she unbound them, and +showed them the means of flight, by the same passage, door and steps. At +least, such has been my supposition, for the sister has never been +questioned on the subject. Seneca and his co-rascal vanished, and have +not since been seen in our part of the country. In consequence of the +flight, no one has ever complained of either for arson. The murder of +Steele, the deputy-sheriff of Delaware, has given a check to the "Injin" +system, and awakened a feeling in the country that was not to be +resisted, in that form at least, by men engaged in a scheme so utterly +opposed to the first principles of honesty as anti-rentism. + +When I regained the piazza, after thrusting Seneca into the library, the +Injins had fallen back to the distance of twenty or thirty yards from +the piazza in evident confusion; while the Indians, cool and collected, +stood to their arms, watchful as crouching panthers, but held in hand by +the calmness with which their leaders watched the progress of events. +The sheriff now required the first to disperse, as violators of the law; +with the penalties of which he menaced them in a voice sufficiently +clear and distinct to make itself audible. There was a moment during +which the Injins seemed undecided. They had come with the full intent to +inflict on my uncle and myself the punishment of the tar-bucket, with +the hope of frightening us into some sort of a compromise; the cowardly +expedient of a hundred men attacking and annoying one being particularly +in favor with a certain class of those ultra-friends of liberty, who +fancy that they alone possess all the public virtue of the nation, which +public virtue justifies any of their acts. All of a sudden, the entire +body of these virtuous citizens, who found it necessary to hide their +blushes beneath calico, fell rapidly back; observing a little order at +first, which soon degenerated, however, into confusion, and shortly +after into a downright scampering flight. The fact was, that Dunning's +men began to show themselves at the windows of the chambers, thrusting +muskets and rifles out before them, and the "disguised and armed," as +has invariably been the case in the anti-rent disturbances, exhibited a +surprising facility at the retreat. If he is "thrice-armed who hath his +quarrel just," ten times is he a coward who hath his quarrel unjust. +This is the simple solution of the cowardice that has been so generally +shown by those who have been engaged in this "Injin" warfare; causing +twenty to chase one, secret attempts on the lives of sentinels, and all +the other violations of manly feeling that have disgraced the +proceedings of the heroes. + +As soon as released from all immediate apprehension on the score of the +Injins, we had time to attend to the Indians. The warriors gazed after +those who were caricaturing their habits, and most of all their spirit, +with silent contempt; and Prairiefire, who spoke a little English, said +to me with emphasis, "Poor Injin--poor tribe--run away from own whoop!" +This was positively every syllable the men of the prairies deigned to +bestow on these disturbers of the public peace, the agents of +covetousness, who prowl about at night, like wolves, ready to seize the +stray lamb, but are quick to sneak off at the growl of the mastiff. One +cannot express himself in terms too harsh of such wretches, who in no +instance have manifested a solitary spark of the true spirit of freemen; +having invariably quailed before authority when that authority has +assumed in the least the aspect of its power, and as invariably trampled +it underfoot, whenever numbers put danger out of the question. + +Old Susquesus had been a quiet observer of all that passed. He knew the +nature of the disturbance, and understood everything material that was +connected with the outbreaks. As soon as order was restored on the +piazza, he rose once more to address his guests. + +"My children," he said, solemnly, "you hear my voice for the last time. +Even the wren cannot sing forever. The very eagle's wing gets tired in +time. I shall soon cease to speak. When I reach the happy +hunting-grounds of the Onondagoes, I will tell the warriors I meet there +of your visit. Your fathers shall know that their sons still love +justice. Let the pale-faces sign papers, and laugh at them afterward. +The promise of a red-man is his law. If he is made a prisoner, and his +conquerors wish to torment him, they are too generous to do so without +letting him go to his tribe to take leave of his friends. When the time +is reached, he comes back. If he promises skins, he brings them, though +no law can follow into the woods to force him to do so. His promise goes +with him; his promise is stronger than chains--it brings him back. + +"My children, never forget this. You are not pale-faces, to say one +thing and do another. What you say, you do. When you make a law, you +keep it. That is right. No red-man wants another's wigwam. If he wants a +wigwam, he builds one himself. It is not so with the pale-faces. The man +who has no wigwam tries to get away his neighbor's. While he does this, +he reads in his Bible and goes to his church. I have sometimes thought, +the more he reads and prays, the more he tries to get into his +neighbor's wigwam. So it seems to an Indian, but it may not be so. + +"My children, the red-man is his own master. He goes and comes as he +pleases. If the young men strike the war-path, he can strike it too. He +can go on the war-path, or the hunt, or he can stay in his wigwam. All +he has to do is to keep his promise, not steal, and not to go into +another red-man's wigwam unasked. He is his own master. He does not +_say_ so; he _is_ so. How is it with the pale-faces? They say they are +free when the sun rises; they say they are free when the sun is over +their heads; they say they are free when the sun goes down behind the +hills. They never stop talking of their being their own masters. They +talk of _that_ more than they read their Bibles. I have lived near a +hundred winters among them, and know what they are. They do that; then +they take away another's wigwam. They talk of liberty; then they say you +shall have this farm, and you shan't have that. They talk of liberty, +and call to one another to put on calico bags, that fifty men may tar +and feather one. They talk of liberty, and want everything their own +way. + +"My children, these pale-faces might go back with you to the prairies, +and learn to do what is right. I do not wonder they hide their faces in +bags. They feel ashamed; they ought to feel ashamed. + +"My children, this is the last time you will hear my voice. The tongue +of an old man cannot move forever. This is my counsel: do what is right. +The Great Spirit will tell you what that is. Let it be done. What my son +said of me is true. It was hard to do; the feelings yearned to do +otherwise, but it was not done. In a little time peace came on my +spirit, and I was glad. I could not go back to live among my people, for +I was afraid of doing what was wrong. I stayed among the pale-faces, and +made friends here. My children, farewell; do what is right, and you will +be happier than the richest pale-face who does what is wrong." + +Susquesus took his seat, and at the same time each of the redskins +advanced and shook his hand. The Indians make few professions, but let +their acts speak for them. Not a syllable was uttered by one of those +rude warriors as he took his leave of Susquesus. Each man had willingly +paid this tribute to one whose justice and self-denial were celebrated +in their traditions, and having paid it, he went his way satisfied, if +not altogether happy. Each man shook hands, too, with all on the piazza, +and to us they expressed their thanks for their kind treatment. My uncle +Ro had distributed the remains of his trinkets among them, and they left +us with the most amicable feelings. Still there was nothing dramatic in +their departure. It was simple as their arrival. They had come to see +the Upright of the Onondagoes, had fulfilled their mission, and were +ready to depart. Depart they did, and as I saw their line winding along +the highway, the episode of such a visit appeared to us all more like a +dream than reality. + +No interruption occurred to the return of these men, and half an hour +after they had left the piazza we saw them winding their way up the +hill, descending which we had first seen them. + +"Well, Hugh," said Jack Dunning, two or three hours later, "what is your +decision; will you remain here, or will you go to your own place in +Westchester?" + +"I will remain here until it is our pleasure to depart; then we will +endeavor to be as free as Indians, and go where we please, provided +always we do not go into our neighbor's wigwam against his will." + +Jack Dunning smiled, and he paced the library once or twice before he +resumed. + +"They told me, as soon as I got into the county, that you, and all +belonging to you, were preparing to retreat the morning after the +attempt to fire your house." + +"One of those amiable perversions of the truth that so much embellish +the morality of the whole affair. What men wish, they fancy, and what +they fancy, they say. The girls, even, protest they would not quit the +house while it has a roof to cover their heads. But, Jack, whence comes +this spirit?" + +"I should think that was the last question a reasonably informed man +need ask," answered Dunning laughing. "It is very plain where it comes +from. It comes from the devil and has every one of the characteristics +of his handiwork. In the first place, love of money, or covetousness, is +at its root. Then lies are its agents. Its first and most pretending lie +is that of liberty, every principle of which it tramples underfoot. Then +come in the fifty auxiliaries in the way of smaller inventions, denying +the facts of the original settlement of the country, fabricating +statements concerning its progress, and asserting directly in the teeth +of truth, such statements as it is supposed will serve a turn.[31] There +can be no mistaking the origin of such contrivance, or all that has been +taught us of good and evil is a fiction. Really, Hodge, I am astonished +that so sensible a man should have asked the question." + +[Footnote 31: The frightful propensity to effect its purposes by lying +has come to such a head in the country, as seriously to threaten the +subversion of all justice. Without adverting to general facts, two +circumstances directly connected with this anti-rent question force +themselves on my attention. They refer to large estates that were +inherited by an Englishman, who passed half of a long life in the +country. In public legislative documents it has been pretended that the +question of his title to his estates is still open, when the published +reports of the highest court of the country show that a decision was +made in his favor thirty years since; and, in reference to his heir, it +has been officially stated that he has invariably refused to give any +leases but such as run on lives. Now it is of little moment whether this +be true or not, since the law allows every man to do as he may please in +this respect. But the fact, as I understand from the agent who draws the +leases, is precisely the reverse of that which has been openly stated in +this legislative document; THE PRESENT POSSESSOR OF THE ESTATE IN +QUESTION HAVING BEEN EARNESTLY SOLICITED BY THE TENANTS TO GRANT NEW +LEASES ON LIVES AND ABSOLUTELY REFUSED TO COMPLY! In this instance the +Legislature, doubtless, have been deceived by the interested +representations of anti-renters.--EDITOR.] + +"Perhaps you are right, Jack; but to what will it lead?" + +"Aye, that is not so easily answered. The recent events in Delaware have +aroused the better feelings of the country, and there is no telling what +it may do. One thing, however, I hold to be certain; the spirit +connected with this affair must be put down, thoroughly, effectually, +completely, or we are lost. Let it once be understood, in the country, +that men can control their own indebtedness, and fashion contracts to +suit their own purposes, by combinations and numbers, and pandemonium +would soon be a paradise compared to New York. There is not a single +just ground of complaint in the nature of any of these leases, whatever +hardships may exist in particular cases; but, admitting that there were +false principles of social life, embodied in the relation of landlord +and tenant, as it exists among us, _it would be a far greater evil to +attempt a reform under such a combination_, _than to endure the original +wrong_." + +"I suppose these gentry fancy themselves strong enough to thrust their +interests into politics, and hope to succeed by that process. But +anti-masonry, and various other schemes of that sort have failed, +hitherto, and this may fail along with it. That is a redeeming feature +of the institutions, Jack; you may humbug for a time, but the humbuggery +is not apt to last forever. It is only to be regretted that the really +upright portion of the community are so long in making themselves felt; +would they only be one-half as active as the miscreants, we should get +along well enough." + +"The result is unknown. The thing _may_ be put down, totally, +effectually, and in a way to kill the snake, not scotch it; or it may be +met with only half-way measures; in which case it will remain like a +disease in the human system, always existing, always menacing relapses, +quite possibly to be the agent of the final destruction of the body." + +My uncle, nevertheless, was as good as his word, and did remain in the +country, where he is yet. Our establishment has received another +reinforcement, however, and a change occurred, shortly after our visit +from the Injins, in the policy of the anti-renters, the two giving us a +feeling of security that might otherwise have been wanting. The +reinforcement came from certain young men, who have found their way +across from the springs, and become guests at the Nest. They are all old +acquaintances of mine, most of them school-fellows, and also admirers of +the young ladies. Each of my uncle's wards, the Coldbrooke and the +Marston, has an accepted lover, as we now discovered, circumstances that +have left me unobstructed in pursuing my suit with Mary Warren. I have +found Patt a capital ally, for she loves the dear girl almost as I do +myself, and has been of great service in the affair. I am conditionally +accepted, though Mr. Warren's consent has not been asked. Indeed, I much +question if the good rector has the least suspicion of what is in the +wind. As for my uncle Ro, he knew all about it, though I have never +breathed a syllable to him on the subject. Fortunately, he is well +satisfied with the choice made by his two wards, and this has somewhat +mitigated the disappointment. + +My uncle Ro is not in the least mercenary; and the circumstance that +Mary Warren has not a cent gives him no concern. He is, indeed, so rich +himself that he knows it is in his power to make any reasonable addition +to my means, and, if necessary, to place me above the dangers of +anti-rentism. The following is a specimen of his humor, and of his +manner of doing things when the humor takes him. We were in the library +one morning, about a week after the Injins were shamed out of the field +by the Indians, for that was the secret of their final disappearance +from our part of the country; but, one morning, about a week after their +last visit, my grandmother, my uncle, Patt, and I were seated in the +library, chatting over matters and things, when my uncle suddenly +exclaimed-- + +"By the way, Hugh, I have a piece of important news to communicate to +you; news affecting your interests to the tune of fifty thousand +dollars." + +"No more anti-rent dangers, I hope, Roger?" said my grandmother +anxiously. + +"Hugh has little to apprehend from that source, just now. The Supreme +Court of the United States is his buckler, and it is broad enough to +cover his whole body. As for his future leases, if he will take my +advice, he will not grant one for a term longer than five years, and +then his tenants will become clamorous petitioners to the Legislature to +allow them to make their own bargains. Shame will probably bring your +free-trade men round, and the time will come when your double-distilled +friends of liberty will begin to see it is a very indifferent sort of +freedom which will not permit a wealthy landlord to part with his farms +for a long period, or a poor husbandman to make the best bargain in his +power. No, no; Hugh has nothing serious to apprehend, just now at least, +from that source, whatever may come of it hereafter. The loss to which I +allude is much more certain, and to the tune of fifty thousand dollars, +I repeat." + +"That is a good deal of money for me to lose, sir," I answered, but +little disturbed by the intelligence; "and it might embarrass me to +raise so large a sum in a hurry. Nevertheless, I confess to no very +great concern on the subject, notwithstanding your announcement. I have +no debts, and the title to all I possess is indisputable, unless it +shall be decided that a _royal_ grant is not to be tolerated by +republicans." + +"All very fine, Master Hugh, but you forget that you are the natural +heir of my estate. Patt knows that she is to have a slice of it when she +marries, and I am now about to make a settlement of just as much more on +another young lady, by way of marriage portion." + +"Roger!" exclaimed my grandmother, "surely you do not mean what you say! +Of as much more!" + +"Of precisely that money, my dear mother. I have taken a fancy to a +young lady, and as I cannot marry her myself, I am determined to make +her a good match, so far as money is concerned, for some one else." + +"But why not marry her yourself?" I asked. "Older men than yourself +marry every day." + +"Ay, widowers, I grant you; _they_ will marry until they are a thousand; +but it is not so with us bachelors. Let a man once get fairly past +forty, and it is no easy matter to bring him to the sacrifice. No, Jack +Dunning's being here is the most fortunate thing in the world, and so I +have set him at work to draw up a settlement on the young lady to whom I +refer, without any rights to her future husband, let him turn out to be +whom he may." + +"It is Mary Warren!" exclaimed my sister, in a tone of delight. + +My uncle smiled, and he tried to look demure; but I cannot say that he +succeeded particularly well. + +"It is--it is--it is Mary Warren, and uncle Ro means to give her a +fortune!" added Patt, bounding across the floor like a young deer, +throwing herself into her guardian's lap, hugging and kissing him as if +she were nothing but a child, though a fine young woman of nineteen. +"Yes, it is Mary Warren, and uncle Hodge is a delightful old +gentleman--no, a delightful young gentleman, and were he only thirty +years younger he should have his own heiress for a wife himself. Good, +dear, generous, sensible uncle Ro. This is so like him, after all his +disappointment; for I know, Hugh, his heart was set on your marrying +Henrietta." + +"And what has my marrying, or not marrying Henrietta, to do with this +settlement of fifty thousand dollars on Miss Warren? The young ladies +are not even connected, I believe." + +"Oh! you know how all such things are managed," said Patt, blushing and +laughing at the passing allusion to matrimony, even in another: "Mary +Warren will not be Mary Warren always." + +"Who will she be, then?" demanded uncle Ro, quickly. + +But Patt was too true to the rights and privileges of her sex to say +anything directly that might seem to commit her friend. She patted her +uncle's cheek, therefore, like a saucy minx as she was, colored still +higher, looked archly at me, then averted her eyes consciously, as if +betraying a secret, and returned to her seat as demurely as if the +subject had been one of the gravest character. + +"But are you serious in what you have told us, Roger?" asked my +grandmother, with more interest than I supposed the dear old lady would +be apt to feel on such a subject. "Is not this settlement a matter of +fancy?" + +"True as the gospel, my dear mother." + +"And is Martha right? Is Mary Warren really the favored young lady?" + +"For a novelty, Patt is right." + +"Does Mary Warren know of your intention, or has her father been +consulted in the matter?" + +"Both know of it; we had it all over together, last evening, and Mr. +Warren _consents_." + +"To what?" I cried, springing to my feet, the emphasis on the last word +being too significant to be overlooked. + +"To receive Hugh Roger Littlepage, which is my own name, recollect, for +a son-in-law; and what is more, the young lady 'is agreeable.'" + +"We all know that she is more than agreeable," put in Patt; "she is +delightful, excellent; agreeable is no word to apply to Mary Warren." + +"Pshaw, girl! If you had travelled, now, you would know that this +expression is cockney English for agreeing to a thing. Mary Warren +agrees to become the wife of Hugh Roger Littlepage, and I settle fifty +thousand dollars on her in consideration of matrimony." + +"This Hugh Roger Littlepage," cried Patt, throwing an arm around my +neck; "not that Hugh Roger Littlepage. Do but add that, dearest uncle, +and I will kiss you for an hour." + +"Excuse me, my child; a fourth of that time would be as much as I could +reasonably expect. I believe you are right, however, as I do not +remember that _this_ Hugh Roger had any connection with the affair, +unless it were to give his money. I shall deny none of your +imputations." + +Just as this was said, the door of the library was slowly opened, and +Mary Warren appeared. The moment she saw who composed our party, she +would have drawn back, but my grandmother kindly bade her "come in." + +"I was afraid of disturbing a family party, ma'am," Mary timidly +answered. + +Patt darted forward, threw her arm around Mary's waist, and drew her +into the room, closing and locking the door. All this was done in a way +to attract attention, and as if the young lady wished to attract +attention. We all smiled but Mary, who seemed half pleased, half +frightened. + +"It _is_ a family party," cried Patt, kissing her affianced sister, "and +no one else shall be admitted to it, unless good Mr. Warren come to +claim his place. Uncle Ro has told us all about it, and we know all." + +Mary hid her face in Patt's bosom, but it was soon drawn out by my dear +grandmother to kiss it; then my uncle had his turn, and Patt hers. After +this, the whole party, except Mary and I, slid out of the room, +and--yes, and then it was _my_ turn. + +We are not yet married, but the day is named. The same is true with +respect to the wards, and even Patt blushes, and my grandmother smiles, +occasionally, when gentlemen who are travelling in Egypt just now, are +named. The last letters from young Beekman, they tell me, say that he +was then there. The three marriages are to take place in St. Andrew's +church, Mr. Warren being engaged to officiate. + +The reader will be surprised to hear two things. My engagement with the +daughter of a poor clergyman has produced great scandal among the +anti-renters, they who so loudly decry aristocracy! The objection is +that the match is not equal! That equality which is the consequence of +social position, connections, education and similarity of habits, +thoughts, and, if you will, prejudices, is all thrown away on these +persons. They have no notion of its existence; but they can very well +understand that the owner of an unencumbered and handsome estate is +richer than the heiress of a poor divine, who can just make the year +meet on $500 per annum. I let them grumble, as I know they must and will +find fault with something connected with myself, until they have got +away my land, or are satisfied it is not to be had. As for Opportunity, +I have been assured that she threatens to sue me for a "breach of +promise;" nor should I be at all surprised were she actually to make the +attempt. It is by no means unusual, when a person sets his or her whole +soul on a particular object, to imagine circumstances favorable to his +or her views, which never had an existence; and Opportunity may fancy +that what I have heard has been "the buzzing in her own ear." Then the +quackery of Legislatures has set the ladies at work in earnest, and he +will soon be a fortunate youth who can pass through his days of celibacy +without some desperate assault, legal or moral, from the other sex. +Besides, nothing can be out of the way, when it is found that the more +popular and most numerous branch of the Legislature of New York really +believes it can evade that solemn provision of the Constitution of the +United States, which says "no State shall pass any law impairing the +obligations of contracts," by enacting, as they can regulate the statute +of descent, that whenever a landlord dies, the tenant, by applying to +the chancellor, can have his leasehold tenure converted into a mortgage, +on discharging which the land will be his, unencumbered! We have heard +of a "thimble-rig administration" in England, and really that +industrious nation seems to have exported the breed to this country. How +many of those who voted for such a law will like to see the ayes and +noes on the journals of the Assembly ten years hence? If there should be +one such man left in the State, he will be an object of humane +commiseration. We have had many efforts at legislative chicanery, and +some that have been tolerably clever, but this is a palpable experiment +in the same way, made for a reason that everybody understands, that has +not even the negative merit of ingenuity. Our own courts will probably +disregard it, should the Senate even concur; and as for those of the +United States, they will, out of all doubt, treat it as it ought to be +treated, and brand it with ignominy. The next step will be to pass a law +regulating descents, as it is called, under the provisions of which the +debtors of the deceased can meet his obligations with a coin technically +called "puppies." + +Jaaf drivels away. The black occasionally mumbles out his sentiments +concerning past events and the state of the country. An anti-renter he +regards as he would a thief, and makes no bones of saying so. Sometimes +he blunders on a very good remark in connection with the subject, and +one he made no later than yesterday is worthy of notice. + +"What dem feller want, Masser Hugh?" he demanded. "Dey's got one half of +deir farms, and now dey wants tudder half. S'pose I own a cow, or a +sheep, in par'nership, what right I got to say I will have him all? +Gosh! dere no sich law in ole time. Den, who ebber see sich poor Injins! +Redskins mis'rubble enough, make 'e bess of him, but dis Injin so +mis'rubble dat I doesn't won'er you can't bear him. Oh! how ole I do +git--I _do_ t'ink ole Sus can't last much longer, too!" + +Old Susquesus still survives, but an object of great hatred to all the +anti-renters, far and near. The "Injin" system has been broken up, +temporarily at least, but the spirit which brought it into existence +survives under the hypocritical aspect of "human rights." The Upright of +the Onondagoes is insensible of the bad feeling which is so active +against him, nor is it probable that most of those who entertain this +enmity are conscious of the reason; which is simply the fact that he is +a man who respected laws to the making of which he was a party, and +preferred to suffer rather than be guilty of an act of injustice. + + + + +NOTE BY THE EDITOR. + + +Here the manuscript of Mr. Hugh Roger Littlepage, jun., terminates. That +gentleman's feelings have probably forbidden his relating events so +recent as those which have since occurred. It remains, therefore, for us +to add a few words. + +Jaaf died about ten days since, railing at the redskins to the last, and +talking about his young massers and missuses as long as he had breath. +As for his own descendants, he had not been heard to name _them_, for +the last forty years. + +Susquesus still survives, but the "Injins" are all defunct. Public +opinion has, at last, struck that tribe out of existence, and it is +hoped that their calico bags have been transmitted to certain +politicians among us, who, as certain as the sun rises and sets, will +find them useful to conceal their own countenances, when contrition and +shame come, as contrition and shame will be sure to succeed such conduct +as theirs. + +It may be well to add a word on the subject of the tone of this book. It +is the language of a man who feels that he has been grievously injured, +and who writes with the ardor of youth increased by a sense of wrong. As +editors, we have nothing more to do with that than to see, while calling +things by their right names, that language too strong for the public +taste should not be introduced into our pages. As to the moral and +political principles connected with this matter, we are wholly of the +side of the Messrs. Littlepage, though we do not think it necessary to +adopt all their phrases--phrases that may be natural to men of their +situations, but which would be out of place, perhaps, in the mouths of +those who act solely in the capacity of essayists and historians. + +To conclude,--Mr. Littlepage and Mary Warren were married, in St. +Andrew's Church, a very few days since. We met the young gentleman, on +his wedding tour, no later than yesterday, and he assured us that, +provided with such a companion, he was ready to change his domicile to +any other part of the Union, and that he had selected Washington, for +the express purpose of being favorably situated for trying the validity +of the laws of the United States, as opposed to the "thimble-rigging" of +the New York Legislature. It is his intention to have every question +connected with the covenants of his leases clearly settled, that of +taxing the landlord for property on which the tenant has covenanted to +pay all taxes; that of distress for rent, when distress must precede the +re-entry stipulated for by the leases; and that of any other trick or +device which the brains of your "small-potato" Legislature may invent in +order to wrong him out of his property. As for ourselves, we can only +say, God give him success! for we are most deeply impressed that the +more valuable parts of the institutions of this country can be preserved +only by crushing into the dust this nefarious spirit of cupidity, which +threatens the destruction of all moral feeling and every sense of right +that remains among us. + +In our view, Oregon, Mexico and Europe, united against us, do not +threaten this nation with one-half as much real danger as that which +menaces at this moment, from an enemy that is now in possession of many +of its strongholds, and which is incessantly working its evil under the +cry of liberty, while laying deeper the foundation of a most atrocious +tyranny. + +I forgot to add, Mr. Littlepage significantly remarked at parting, that +should Washington fail him, he has the refuge of Florence open, where he +can reside among the other victims of oppression, with the advantage of +being admired as a refugee from republican tyranny. + + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Chainbearer, by J. 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