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+Project Gutenberg Etext of A Modern Cinderella, by Louisa May Alcott
+#10 in our series by Louisa M. Alcott
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+Title: A Modern Cinderella
+
+Author:  Louisa May Alcott
+
+Official Release Date: March, 2002  [Etext #3806]
+[Yes, we are about one year ahead of schedule]
+[The actual date this etext first posted = 09/16/01]
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+Edition: 11
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+Language: English
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+Project Gutenberg Etext A Modern Cinderella, by Louisa May Alcott
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+This edition produced by Jo Hogan.
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+
+
+A Modern Cinderella
+or The Little Old Shoe
+And Other Stories
+
+by LOUISA MAY ALCOTT
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+A MODERN CINDERELLA: OR, THE LITTLE OLD SHOE
+DEBBY'S DEBUT
+BROTHERS
+NELLY'S HOSPITAL
+
+
+
+
+A MODERN CINDERELLA
+OR,
+THE LITTLE OLD SHOE
+
+HOW IT WAS LOST
+Among green New England hills stood an
+ancient house, many-gabled, mossy-roofed, and
+quaintly built, but picturesque and pleasant to the
+eye; for a brook ran babbling through the orchard
+that encompassed it about, a garden-plat stretched
+upward to the whispering birches on the slope, and
+patriarchal elms stood sentinel upon the lawn, as
+they had stood almost a century ago, when the
+Revoiution rolled that way and found them young.
+
+One summer morning, when the air was full of
+country sounds, of mowers in the meadow, black-
+birds by the brook, and the low of kine upon the
+hill-side, the old house wore its cheeriest aspect,
+and a certain humble history began.
+
+"Nan!"
+
+"Yes, Di."
+
+And a head, brown-locked, blue-eyed, soft-
+featured, looked in at the open door in answer
+to the call.
+
+Just bring me the third volume of 'Wilhelm
+Meister,' there's a dear.  It's hardly worth while
+to rouse such a restless ghost as I, when I'm
+once fairly laid."
+
+As she spoke, Di PUlled up her black braids,
+thumped the pillow of the couch where she was
+lying, and with eager eyes went down the last
+page of her book.
+
+"Nan!"
+
+"Yes, Laura," replied the girl, coming back
+with the third volume for the literay cormorant,
+who took it with a nod, still too content upon
+the "Confessions of a Fair Saint" to remember
+the failings of a certain plain sinner.
+
+"Don't forget the Italian cream for dinner. I
+depend upon it; for it's the only thing fit for me
+this hot weather."
+
+And Laura, the cool blonde, disposed the folds
+of her white gown more gracefully about her, and
+touched up the eyebrow of the Minerva she was
+drawing.
+
+"Little daughter!"
+
+"Yes, father."
+
+"Let me have plenty of clean collars in my
+bag, for I must go at once; and some of you bring
+me a glass of cider in about an hour;--I shall be
+in the lower garden."
+
+The old man went away into his imaginary
+paradise, and Nan into that domestic purgatory
+on a summer day, -- the kitchen.  There were
+vines about the windows, sunshine on the floor,
+and order everywhere; but it was haunted by a
+cooking-stove, that family altar whence such varied
+incense rises to appease the appetite of household
+gods, before which such dire incantations are
+pronounced to ease the wrath and woe of the priestess
+of the fire, and about which often linger saddest
+memories of wasted temper, time, and toil.
+
+Nan was tired, having risen with the birds,--
+hurried, having many cares those happy little
+housewives never know,--and disappointed in a
+hope that hourly " dwindled, peaked, and pined."
+She was too young to make the anxious lines upon
+her forehead seem at home there, too patient to
+be burdened with the labor others should have
+shared, too light of heart to be pent up  when
+earth and sky were keeping a blithe holiday.  But
+she was one of that meek sisterhood who, thinking
+humbly of themselves, believe they are honored
+by being spent in the service of less conscientious
+souls, whose careless thanks seem quite
+reward enough.
+
+To and fro she went, silent and diligent, giving
+the grace of willingness to every humble or distasteful
+task the day had brought her; but some
+malignant sprite seemed to have taken possession
+of her kingdom, for rebellion broke out everywhere.
+The kettles would boil over most obstreperously,--
+the mutton refused to cook with the
+meek alacrity to be expected from the nature of
+a sheep,--the stove, with unnecessary warmth of
+temper, would glow like a fiery furnace,--the
+irons would scorch,--the linens would dry,--and
+spirits would fail, though patience never.
+
+Nan tugged on, growing hotter and wearier,
+more hurried and more hopeless, till at last the
+crisis came; for in one fell moment she tore her
+gown, burnt her hand, and smutched the collar she
+was preparing to finish in the most unexceptionable
+style.  Then, if she had been a nervous
+woman, she would have scolded; being a gentle
+girl, she only "lifted up her voice and wept."
+
+"Behold, she watereth her linen with salt tears,
+and bewaileth herself because of much tribulation.
+But, lo! Help cometh from afar: a strong man
+bringeth lettuce wherewith to stay her, plucketh
+berries to comfort her withal, and clasheth cymbals
+that she may dance for joy."
+
+The voice came from the porch, and, with her
+hope fulfilled, Nan looked up to greet John Lord,
+the house-friend, who stood there with a basket
+on his arm; and as she saw his honest eyes, kind
+lips, and helpful hands, the girl thought this plain
+young man the comeliest, most welcome sight she
+had beheld that day.
+
+"How good of you, to come through all this
+heat, and not to laugh at my despair!" she said,
+looking up like a grateful child, as she led him in.
+
+"I only obeyed orders, Nan; for a certain dear
+old lady had a motherly presentiment that you had
+got into a deomestic whirlpool, and sent me as a
+sort of life-preserver. So I took the basket of
+consolation, and came to fold my feet upon the carpet
+of contentment in the tent of friendship."
+
+As he spoke, John gave his own gift in his
+mother's name, and bestowed himself in the wide
+window-seat, where morning-glories nodded at him,
+and the old butternut sent pleasant shadows
+dancing to and fro.
+
+His advent, like that of Orpheus in hades,
+seemed to soothe all unpropitious powers with a
+sudden spell. The Fire began to slacken. the
+kettles began to lull, the meat began to
+cook, the irons began to cool, the clothes began to
+behave, the spirits began to rise, and the collar was
+finished off with most triumphant success.  John
+watched the change, and, though a lord of creation,
+abased himself to take compassion on the
+weaker vessel, and was seized with a great desire
+to lighten the homely tasks that tried her strength
+of body and soul.  He took a comprehensive
+glance about the room; then, extracting a dish
+from he closet, proceeded to imbrue his hands in
+the strawberries' blood.
+
+"Oh,  John, you needn't do that; I shall have
+time when I've turned the meat, made the pudding
+and done these things.  See, I'm getting on
+finely now:--you're a judge of such matters;
+isn't that nice?"
+
+As she spole, Nan offered the polished absurdity
+for inspection with innocent pride.
+
+"Oh that I were a collar, to sit upon that
+hand!" sighed John,--adding, argumentatively,
+
+"As to the berry question, I might answer it with
+a gem from Dr. Watts, relative to 'Satan' and
+idle hands,' but will merely say, that, as a matter
+of public safety, you'd better leave me alone; for
+such is the destructiveness of my nature, that I shall
+certainly eat something hurtful, break something
+valuable, or sit upon something crushable, unless
+you let me concentrate my energies by knocking
+on these young fellows' hats, and preparing them
+for their doom."
+
+Looking at the matter in a charitable light,
+Nan consented, and went cheerfully on with her
+work, wondering how she could have thought
+ironing an infliction, and been so ungrateful for
+the blessings of her lot.
+
+"Where's Sally?" asked John, looking vainly
+for the functionary who usually pervaded
+that region like a domestic police-woman, a terror
+to cats, dogs, and men.
+
+"She has gone to her cousin's funeral, and
+won't be back till Monday.  There seems to be
+a great fatality among her relations; for one dies,
+or comes to grief in some way, about once a month.
+But I don't blame poor Sally for wanting to get
+away from this place now and then.  I think I
+could find it in my heart to murder an imaginary
+friend or two, if I had to stay here long."
+
+And Nan laughed so blithely, it was a pleasure
+to hear her.
+
+"Where's Di?" asked John, seized with a
+most unmasculine curiosity all at once.
+
+"She is in Germany with 'Wilhelm Meister';
+but, though 'lost to sight, to memory clear'; for
+I was just thinking, as I did her things, how
+clever she is to like all kinds of books that I don't
+understand at all, and to write things that make
+me cry with pride and delight.  Yes, she's a
+talented dear, though she hardly knows a needle
+from a crowbar, and will make herself one great
+blot some of these days, when the 'divine afflatus'
+descends upon her, I'm afraid."
+
+And Nan rubbed away with sisterly zeal at
+Di's forlorn hose and inky pocket-handkerchiefs.
+
+"Where is Laura?" proceeded the inquisitor.
+
+"Well, I might say that she was in Italy; for
+she is copying some fine thing of Raphael's or
+Michael Angelo's, or some great creatures or
+other; and she looks so picturesque in her pretty
+gown, sitting before her easel, that it's really a
+sight to behold, and I've peeped two or three
+times to see how she gets on."
+
+And Nan bestirred herself to prepare the dish
+Wherewith her picturesque sister desired to
+prolong her artistic existence.
+
+"Where is your father?" John asked again,
+checking off each answewr with a nod and a little
+frown.
+
+"He is down in the garden, deep in some plan
+about melons, the beginning of which seems to
+consist in stamping the first proposition in Euclid
+all over the bed, and then poking a few seeds
+into the middle of each.  Why, bless the dear
+man!  I forgot it was time for the cider.  Wouldn't
+you like to take it to him, John? He'd love to
+consult you; and the lane is so cool, it does one's
+heart good to look at it."
+
+John glanced from the steamy kitchen to the
+shadowy path, and answered with a sudden assumption
+of immense industry,--
+
+"I couldn't possibly go, Nan,--I've so much
+on my hands.  You'll have to do it yourself.  'Mr.
+Robert of Lincoln' has something for your private
+ear; and the lane is so cool, it will do one's heart
+good to see you in it.  Give my regards to your
+father, and, in the words of 'Little Mabel's'
+mother, with slight variation,--
+
+'Tell the dear old body
+This day I cannot run,
+For the pots are boiling over
+And the mutton isn't done.'"
+
+"I will; but please, John, go in to the girls and
+be comfortable; for I don't like to leave you here,"
+said Nan.
+
+"You insinuate that I should pick at the pudding
+or invade the cream, do you?  Ungrateful
+girl, leave me!" And, with melodramatic sterness,
+John extinguished her in his broad-brimmed
+hat, and offered the glass like a poisoned goblet.
+
+Nan took it, and went smiling away.  But the
+lane might have been the Desert of Sahara, for
+all she knew of it; and she would have passed
+her father as unconcernedly as if he had been an
+apple-tree, had he not called out,--
+
+"Stand and deliver, little woman!"
+
+She obeyed the venerable highwayman, and
+followed him to and fro, listening to his plans and
+directions with a mute attention that quite won
+his heart.
+
+"That hop-pole is really an ornament now,
+Nan; this sage-bed needs weeding,--that's good
+work for you girls; and, now I think of it, you'd
+better water the lettuce in the cool of the
+evening, after I'm gone."
+
+To all of which remarks Nan gave her assent;
+the hop-pole took the likeness of a tall
+figure she had seen in the porch, the sage-bed,
+curiously enough, suggested a strawberry ditto,
+the lettuce vividly reminded her of certain vegetable
+productions a basket had brought, and the
+bobolink only sung in his cheeriest voice, "Go
+home, go home! he is there!"
+
+She found John--he having made a free-mason
+of himself, by assuming her little apron--meditating
+over the partially spread table, lost in amaze
+at its desolate appearance; one half its proper paraphernalia
+having been forgotten, and the other
+half put on awry.  Nan laughed till the tears ran
+over her cheeks, and John was gratified at the
+efficacy of his treatment; for her face had brought
+a whole harvest of sunshine from the garden, and
+all her cares seemed to have been lost in the windings
+of the lane.
+
+"Nan, are you in hysterics?" cried Di, appearing,
+book in hand. "John, you absurd man,
+what are you doing?"
+
+"I'm helpin' the maid of all work, please
+marm." And John dropped a curtsy with his
+limited apron.
+
+Di looked ruffled, for the merry words were a
+covert reproach; and with her usual energy of
+manner and freedom of speech she tossed "Wilhelm"
+out of the window, exclaiming, irefully.--
+
+"That's always the way; I'm never where I
+ought to be, and never think of anything till it's
+too late; but it's all Goethe's fault.  What does
+he write books full of smart 'Phillinas' and
+interesting 'Meisters' for?  How can I be expected
+to remember that Sally's away, and people must
+eat, when I'm hearing the 'Harper' and little
+'Mignon?' John, how dare you come here and
+do my work, instead of shaking me and telling
+me to do it myself?  Take that toasted child away,
+and fan her like a Chinese mandarin, while I dish
+up this dreadful dinner."
+
+John and Nan fled like chaff before the wind,
+while Di, full of remorseful zeal, charged at the
+kettles, and wrenched off the potatoes' jackets,
+as if she were revengefully pulling her own hair.
+Laura had a vague intention of going to assist;
+but, getting lost among the lights and shadows of
+Minerva's helmet, forgot to appear till dinner had
+been evoked from chaos and peace was restored.
+
+At three o'clock, Di performed the coronation
+ceremony with her father's best hat; Laura retied
+his old-fashioned neckcloth, and arranged his white
+locks with an eye to saintly effect; Nan appeared
+with a beautifully written sermon, and suspicious
+ink-stains on the fingers that slipped it into his
+pocket; John attached himself to the bag; and the
+patriarch was escorted to the door of his tent with
+the triumphal procession which usually attended
+his out-goings and in-comings.  Having kissed the
+female portion of his tribe, he ascended the venerable
+chariot, which received him with audible
+lamentation, as its rheumatic joints swayed to and
+fro.
+
+"Good-bye, my dears! I shall be back early
+on Monday morning; so take care of yourselves,
+and be sure you all go and hear Mr. Emerboy
+preach to-morrow.  My regards to your mother.
+John.  Come, Solon!"
+
+But Solon merely cocked one ear, and remained
+a fixed fact; for long experience had induced the
+philosophic beast to take for his motto the Yankee
+maxim, "Be sure you're right, then go ahead!
+He knew things were not right; therefore he did
+not go ahead.
+
+"Oh, by the way, girls, don't forget to pay
+Tommy Mullein for bringing up the cow: he
+expects it to-night.  And Di, don't sit up till
+daylight, nor let Laura stay out in the dew.  Now, I
+believe I'm off.  Come, Solon!"
+
+But Solon only cocked the other ear, gently
+agitated his mortified tail, as premonitory
+symptoms of departure, and never stirred a hoof,
+being well aware that it always took three "comes"
+to make a "go."
+
+"Bless me! I've forgotten my spectacles.
+They are probablv shut up in that volume of
+Herbert on my table.  Very awkward to find
+myself without them ten miles away.  Thank you,
+John.  Don't neglect to water the lettuce,
+Nan, and don't overwork yourself, my little
+'Martha.' Come--"
+
+At this juncture Solon suddenly went off, like
+"Mrs. Gamp," in a sort of walking swoon, apparently
+deaf and blind to all mundane matters,
+except the refreshments awaiting him ten miles
+away; and the benign old pastor disappeared,
+humming "Hebron" to the creaking accompaniment
+of the bulgy chaise.
+
+Laura retired to take her siesta; Nan made a
+small carbonaro of herself by sharpening her
+sister's crayons, and Di, as a sort of penance for
+past sins, tried her patience over a piece of knitting,
+in which she soon originated a somewhat remarkable
+pattern, by dropping every third stitch, and seaming
+ad libitum.  If John bad been a gentlemanly creature,
+with refined tastes, he would have elevated his feet
+and made a nuisance of himself by indulging in a "weed;"
+but being only an uncultivated youth, with a rustic
+regard for pure air and womankind in general, he kept
+his head uppermost, and talked like a man, instead of
+smoking like a chimney.
+
+"It will probably be six months before I sit
+here again, tangling your threads and maltreating
+your needles, Nan.  How glad you must feel
+to hear it!" he said, looking up from a thoughtful
+examination of the hard-working little citizens
+of the Industrial Community settled in Nan's
+work-basket.
+
+"No, I'm very sorry; for I like to see you
+coming and going as you used to, years ago, and I
+miss you very much when you are gone, John,"
+answered truthful Nan, whittling away in a sadly
+wasteful manner, as her thoughts flew back to the
+happy times when a little lad rode a little lass in a
+big wheelbarrow, and never spilt his load,--when
+two brown heads bobbed daily side by side to
+school, and the favorite play was "Babes in the
+Wood," with Di for a somewhat peckish robin
+to cover the small martyrs with any vegetable
+substance that lay at hand. Nan sighed, as she
+thought of these things, and John regarded the
+battered thimble on his finger-tip with increased
+benignity of aspect as he heard the sound.
+
+"When are you going to make your fortune,
+John, and get out of that disagreeable hardware
+concern? " demanded Di, pausing after an
+exciting "round," and looking almost as much
+exhausted as if it had been a veritable pugilistic
+encounter.
+
+"I intend to make it by plunging still deeper
+into 'that disagreeable hardware concern;' for,
+next year, if the world keeps rolling, and
+John Lord is alive, he will become a partner, and then
+--and then--"
+
+The color sprang up into the young man's
+cheek, his eyes looked out with a sudden shine,
+and his hand seemed involuntarily to close, as if
+he saw and seized some invisible delight.
+
+"What will happen then, John?" asked Nan,
+with a wondering glance.
+
+"I'll tell you in a year, Nan, wait till then."
+and John's strong hand unclosed, as if the
+desired good were not to be his yet.
+
+Di looked at him, with a knitting-needle stuck
+into her hair, saying, like a sarcastic unicorn,--
+
+"I really thought you had a soul above pots
+and kettles, but I see you haven't; and I beg
+your pardon for the injustice I have done you."
+
+Not a whit disturbed, John smiled, as if at some
+mighty pleasant fancy of his own, as he replied,--
+
+"Thank you, Di; and as a further proof of the
+utter depravity of my nature, let me tell you that
+I have the greatest possible respect for those articles
+of ironmongery.  Some of the happiest hours of my
+life have been spent in their society; some of my
+pleasantest associations are connected with them;
+some of my best lessons have come to me among
+them; and when my fortune is made, I intend to
+show my gratitude by taking three flat-irons
+rampant for my coat of arms.
+
+Nan laughed merrily, as she looked at the burns
+on her hand; but Di elevated the most prominent
+feature of her brown countenance, and sighed
+despondingly,--
+
+"Dear, dear, what a disappointing world this
+is! I no sooner build a nice castle in Spain, and
+settle a smart young knight therein, than down it
+comes about my ears; and the ungrateful youth,
+who might fight dragons, if he chose, insists on
+quenching his energies in a saucepan, and making
+a Saint Lawrence of himself by wasting his life
+on a series of gridirons.  Ah, if I were only a man,
+I would do something better than that, and prove
+that heroes are not all dead yet. But, instead
+of that, I'm only a woman, and must sit rasping
+my temper with absurdities like this." And Di
+wrestled with her knitting as if it were Fate, and
+she were paying off the grudge she owed it.
+
+John leaned toward her, saying, with a look
+that made his plain face handsome,--
+
+"Di, my father began the world as I begin
+it, and left it the richer for the useful years he
+spent here,--as I hope I may leave it some half-
+century hence.  His memory makes that dingy
+shop a pleasant place to me; for there he made an
+honest name, led an honest life and bequeathed
+to me his reverence for honest work.  That is a
+sort of hardware, Di, that no rust can corrupt, and
+which will always prove a better fortune than
+any your knights can achieve with sword and
+shield. I think I am not quite a clod, or quite
+without some aspirations above money-getting; for
+I sincerely desire that courage that makes daily
+life heroic by self-denial and cheerfulness of heart;
+I am eager to conquer my own rebellious nature,
+and earn the confidence of innocent and upright
+souls; I have a great ambition to become as good a
+man and leave as good a memory behind me as
+old John Lord."
+
+Di winked violently, and seamed five times in
+perfect silence; but quiet Nan had the gift of
+knowing when to speak, and by a timely word
+saved her sister from a thunder-shower and her
+stocking from destruction.
+
+"John, have you seen Philip since you wrote
+about your last meeting with him?
+
+The question was for John, but the soothing
+tone was for Di, who gratefully accepted it, and
+perked up again with speed.
+
+"Yes; and I meant to have told you about it,"
+answered John, piunging into the subject at once.
+
+"I saw him a few days before I came home, and
+found him more disconsolate than ever,--' just
+ready to go to the Devil,' as he forcibly expressed
+himself. I consoled the poor lad as well as I could,
+telling him his wisest plan was to defer his proposed
+expedition, and go on as steadily as he had
+begun,--thereby proving the injustice of your
+father's prediction concerning his want of perseverance,
+and the sincerity of his affection.  I told him
+the change in Laura's health and spirits was silently
+working in his favor, and that a few more months
+of persistent endeavor would conquer your father's
+prejudice against him, and make him a stronger
+man for the trial and the pain.  I read him bits
+about Laura from your own and Di's letters, and
+he went away at last as patient as Jacob ready to
+serve another 'seven years' for his beloved
+Rachel."
+
+"God bless you for it, John!" cried a fervent
+voice; and, looking up, they saw the cold, listless
+Laura transformed into a tender girl, all aglow
+with love and longing, as she dropped her mask,
+and showed a living countenance eloquent with
+the first passion and softened by the first grief of
+her life.
+
+John rose involuntarily in the presence of an
+innocent nature whose sorrow needed no interpreter
+to him.  The girl read sympathy in his
+brotherly regard, and found comfort in the friendly
+voice that asked, half playfully, half seriously,--
+
+"Shall I tell him that he is not forgotten, even
+for an Apollo? that Laura the artist has not
+conquered Laura the woman? and predict that the
+good daughter will yet prove the happy wife?"
+
+With a gesture full of energy, Laura tore her
+Minerva from top to bottom, while two great tears
+rolled down the cheeks grown wan with hope
+deferred.
+
+"Tell him I believe all things, hope all things,
+and that I never can forget."
+
+Nan went to her and held her fast, leaving the
+prints of two loving but grimy hands upon her
+shoulders; Di looked on approvingly, for, though
+stony-hearted regarding the cause, she fully
+appreciated the effect; and John, turning to the
+window, received the commendations of a robin
+swaying on an elm-bough with sunshine on its
+ruddy breast.
+
+The clock struck five, and John declared that he
+must go; for, being an old-fashioned soul, he
+fancied that his mother had a better right to his
+last hour than any younger woman in the land,--
+always remembering that "she was a widow, and
+he her only son."
+
+Nan ran away to wash her hands, and came
+back with the appearance of one who had washed
+her face also: and so she had; but there was a
+difference in the water.
+
+"Play I'm your father, girls, and remember
+that it will be six months before 'that John' will
+trouble you again."
+
+With which preface the young man kissed his
+former playfellows as heartily as the boy had been
+wont to do, when stern parents banished him to
+distant schools, and three little maids bemoaned
+his fate.  But times were changed now; for Di
+grew alarmingly rigid during the ceremony; Laura
+received the salute like a graceful queen; and Nan
+returned it with heart and eyes and tender lips,
+making such an improvement on the childish fashion
+of the thing that John was moved to support
+his paternal character by softly echoing her father's
+words,--"Take care of yourself, my little
+'Martha.'"
+
+Then they all streamed after him along the
+garden-path, with the endless messages and warnings
+girls are so prone to give; and the young man,
+with a great softness at his heart, went away, as
+many another John has gone, feeling better for the
+companionship of innocent maidenhood, and
+stronger to wrestle with temptation, to wait and
+hope and work.
+
+"Let's throw a shoe after him for luck, as dear
+old 'Mrs.  Gummage' did after 'David' and the
+'willin' Barkis!' Quick, Nan! you always have
+old shoes on; toss one, and shout, 'Good luck!'"
+cried Di, with one of her eccentric inspirations.
+
+Nan tore off her shoe, and threw it far along the
+dusty road, with a sudden longing to become that
+auspicious article of apparel, that the omen might
+not fail.
+
+Looking backward from the hill-top, John answered
+the meek shout cheerily, and took in the
+group with a lingering glance: Laura in the shadow
+of the elms, Di perched on the fence, and Nan
+leaning far over the gate with her hand above her
+eyes and the sunshine touching her brown hair
+with gold.  He waved his hat and turned away;
+but the music seemed to die out of the blackbird's
+song, and in all the summer landscape his eyes saw
+nothing but the little figure at the gate.
+
+"Bless and save us! here's a flock of people
+coming; my hair is in a toss, and Nan's without
+her shoe; run! fly, girls! or the Philistines will be
+upon us!" cried Di, tumbling off her perch in
+sudden alarm.
+
+Three agitated young ladies, with flying draperies
+and countenances of mingled mirth and dismay,
+might have been seen precipitating themselves into
+a respectable mansion with unbecoming haste; but
+the squirrels were the only witnesses of this "vision
+of sudden flight," and, being used to ground-and-lofty
+tumbling, didn't mind it.
+
+When the pedestrians passed, the door was
+decorously closed, and no one visible but a young
+man, who snatched something out of the road,
+and marched away again, whistling with more
+vigor of tone than accuracy of tune, "Only that,
+and nothing more."
+
+
+HOW IT WAS FOUND.
+
+Summer ripened into autumn, and something
+fairer than
+
+"Sweet-peas and mignonette
+In Annie's garden grew."
+
+Her nature was the counterpart of the hill-side
+grove, where as a child she had read her fairy
+tales, and now as a woman turned the first pages
+of a more wondrous legend still. Lifted above
+the many-gabled roof, yet not cut off from the
+echo of human speech, the little grove seemed a
+green sanctuary, fringed about with violets, and
+full of summer melody and bloom.  Gentle creatures
+haunted it, and there was none to make
+afraid; wood-pigeons cooed and crickets chirped
+their shrill roundelays, anemones and lady-ferns
+looked up from the moss that kissed the wanderer's
+feet. Warm airs were all afloat, full of vernal
+odors for the grateful sense, silvery birches
+shimmered like spirits of the wood, larches gave their
+green tassels to the wind, and pines made airy
+music sweet and solemn, as they stood looking
+heavenward through veils of summer sunshine or
+shrouds of wintry snow.
+
+Nan never felt alone now in this charmed wood;
+for when she came into its precincts, once so full of
+solitude, all things seemed to wear one shape,
+familiar eyes looked at her from the violets in the
+grass, familiar words sounded in the whisper of
+the leaves, grew conscious that an unseen
+influence filled the air with new delights, and
+touched earth and sky with a beauty never seen
+before.  Slowly these Mayflowers budded in her
+maiden heart, rosily they bloomed and silently they
+waited till some lover of such lowly herbs should
+catch their fresh aroma, should brush away the
+fallen leaves, and lift them to the sun.
+
+Though the eldest of the three, she had long
+been overtopped by the more aspiring maids.  But
+though she meekly yielded the reins of government,
+whenever they chose to drive, they were soon restored
+to her again; for Di fell into literature, and
+Laura into love.  Thus engrossed, these two forgot
+many duties which even bluestockings and inamoratos
+are expected to perform, and slowly all the
+homely humdrum cares that housewives know
+became Nan's daily life, and she accepted it without
+a thought of discontent.  Noiseless and cheerful
+as the sunshine, she went to and fro, doing the
+tasks that mothers do, but without a mother's sweet
+reward, holding fast the numberless slight threads
+that bind a household tenderly together, and
+making each day a beautiful success.
+
+Di, being tired of running, riding, climbing, and
+boating, decided at last to let her body rest and
+put her equally active mind through what classical
+collegians term "a course of sprouts."  Having
+undertaken to read and know everything, she devoted
+herself to the task with great energy, going
+from Sue to Swedenborg with perfect impartiality,
+and having different authors as children have sundry
+distempers, being fractious while they lasted,
+but all the better for them when once over.  Carlyle
+appeared like scarlet-fever, and raged violently
+for a time; for, being anything but a "passive
+bucket," Di became prophetic with Mahomet,
+belligerent with Cromwell, and made the French
+Revolution a veritable Reign of Terror to her
+family.  Goethe and Schiller alternated like fever
+and ague; Mephistopheles became her hero, Joan
+of Arc her model, and she turned her black eyes
+red over Egmont and Wallenstein. A mild attack of
+Emerson followed, during which she was lost in a
+fog, and her sisters rejoiced inwardly when she
+emerged informing them that
+
+"The Sphinx was drowsy,
+Her wings were furled."
+
+Poor Di was floundering slowly to her proper
+place; but she splashed up a good deal of foam by
+getting out of her depth, and rather exhausted
+herself by trying to drink the ocean dry.
+
+Laura, after the "midsummer night's dream "
+that often comes to girls of seventeen, woke up to
+find that youth and love were no match for age and
+common sense.  Philip had been flying about the
+world like a thistle-down for five-and-twenty years,
+generous-hearted. frank, and kind, but with never
+an idea of the serious side of life in his handsome
+head.  Great, therefore, were the wrath and dismay
+of the enamored thistle-down, when the father
+of his love mildly objected to seeing her begin the
+world in a balloon with a very tender but very
+inexperienced aeronaut for a guide.
+
+"Laura is too young to 'play house' yet, and
+you are too unstable to assume the part of lord
+and master, Philip.  Go and prove that you have
+prudence, patience, energy, and enterprise, and I
+will give you my girl,--but not before. I must
+seem cruel, that I may be truly kind; believe this,
+and let a little pain lead you to great happiness,
+or show you where you would have made a bitter
+blunder."
+
+The lovers listened, owned the truth of the old
+man's words, bewailed their fate, and yielded,--
+Laura for love of her father, Philip for love of her.
+He went away to build a firm foundation for his
+castle in the air, and Laura retired into an invisible
+convent, where she cast off the world, and regarded
+her sympathizing sisters throug a grate of superior
+knowledge and unsharable grief. Like a devout nun, she
+worshipped "St. Philip," and firmly believed in his
+miraculous powers. She fancied that her woes set her
+apart from common cares, and slowly fell into a dreamy
+state, professing no interest in any mundane matter, but
+the art that first attacted Philip. Crayons, bread-crusts,
+and gray paper became glorified in Laura's eyes; and
+her one pleasure was to sit pale and still before
+her easel, day after day, filling her portfolios with
+the faces he had once admired. Her sisters observed
+that every Bacchus, Piping Faun, or Dying
+Gladiator bore some likeness to a comely countenance
+that heathen god or hero never owned;
+and seeing this, they privately rejoiced that she
+had found such solace for her grief.
+
+Mrs. Lord's keen eye had read a certain newly
+written page in her son's heart,--his first chapter
+of that romance, begun in paradise, whose interest
+never flags, whose beauty never fades, whose end
+can never come till Love lies dead. With
+womanly skill she divined the secret, with motherly
+discretion she counselled patience, and her son
+accepted her advice, feeling that, like many a
+healthful herb, its worth lay in its bitterness.
+
+"Love like a man, John, not like a boy, and
+learn to know yourself before you take a woman's
+happiness into your keeping.  You and Nan have
+known each other all your lives; yet, till this last
+visit, you never thought you loved her more than
+any other childish friend.  It is too soon to say the
+words so often spoken hastily,--so hard to be recalled.
+Go back to your work, dear, for another year; think
+of Nan in the light of this new hope:
+compare her with comelier, gayer girls; and by
+absence prove the truth of your belief.   Then,
+if distance only makes her dearer, if time only
+strengthens your affection, and no doubt of your
+own worthiness disturbs you, come back and offer
+her what any woman should be glad to take,--
+my boy's true heart."
+
+John smiled at the motherly pride of her words,
+but answered with a wistful look.
+
+"It seems very long to wait, mother.  If I could
+just ask her for a word of hope, I could be very
+patient then."
+
+"Ah, my dear, better bear one year of impatience
+now than a lifetime of regret hereafter. Nan
+is happy; why disturb her by a word which will
+bring the tender cares and troubles that come soon
+enough to such conscientious creatures as herself?
+If she loves you, time will prove it; therefore, let
+the new affection spring and ripen as your early
+friendship has done, and it will be all the stronger
+for a summer's growth.  Philip was rash, and has
+to bear his trial now, and Laura shares it with him.
+Be more generous, John; make your trial, bear
+your doubts alone, and give Nan the happiness
+without the pain.  Promise me this, dear,--promise
+me to hope and wait."
+
+The young man's eye kindled, and in his heart
+there rose a better chivalry, a truer valor, than any
+Di's knights had ever known.
+
+"I'll try, mother," was all he said; but she was
+satisfied, for John seldom tried in vain.
+
+"Oh, girls, how splendid you are!  It does
+my heart good to see my handsome sisters in their
+best array," cried Nan, one mild October night,
+as she put the last touches to certain airy raiment
+fashioned by her own skilful hands, and then fell
+back to survey the grand effect.
+
+"Di and Laura were preparing to assist at an
+event of the season," and Nan, with her own
+locks fallen on her shoulders, for want of sundry
+combs promoted to her sisters' heads and her dress
+in unwonted disorder, for lack of the many pins
+extracted in exciting crises of the toilet, hovered
+like an affectionate bee about two very full-blown
+flowers.
+
+"Laura looks like a cool Undine, with the ivy-
+wreaths in her shining hair; and Di has illuminated
+herself to such an extent with those scarlet leaves.
+that I don't know what great creature she resembles
+most," said Nan, beaming with sisterly admiration.
+
+"Like Juno, Zenobia, and Cleopatra simmered
+into one, with a touch of Xantippe by way of
+spice. But, to my eye, the finest woman of the
+three is the dishevelled young person embracing
+the bed-post: for she stays at home herself, and
+gives her time and taste to making homely people
+fine,--which is a waste of good material, and an
+imposition on the public."
+
+As Di spoke, both the fashion-plates looked
+affectionately at the gray-gowned figure; but, being
+works of art, they were obliged to nip their feelings
+in the bud, and reserve their caresses till they
+returned to common life.
+
+"Put on your bonnet, and we'll leave you at
+Mrs. Lord's on our way.  It will do you good,
+Nan; and perhaps there may be news from John,"
+added Di, as she bore down upon the door like a
+man-of-war under full sail.
+
+"Or from Philip," sighed Laura, with a wistful
+look.
+
+Whereupon Nan persuaded herself that her
+strong inclination to sit down was owing to want
+of exercise, and the heaviness of her eyelids a freak
+of imagination; so, speedily smoothing her ruffled
+plumage, she ran down to tell her father of the new
+arrangement.
+
+"Go, my dear, by alll means. I shall be writing;
+and you will be lonely if you stay.  But I
+must see my girls; for I caught glimpses of certain
+surprising phantoms flitting by the door."
+
+Nan led the way, and the two pyramids revolved
+before him with the rapidity of lay-figures,
+much to the good man's edification: for with his
+fatherly pleasure there was mingled much mild
+wonderment at the amplitude of array.
+
+"Yes, I see my geese are really swans, though
+there is such a cloud between us that I feel a long
+way off, and hardly know them.  But this little
+daughter is always available, always my 'cricket
+on the hearth.'
+
+As he spoke, her father drew Nan closer, kissed
+her tranquil face, and smiled content.
+
+"Well, if ever I see picters, I see 'em now, and
+I declare to goodness it's as interestin' as
+playactin', every bit.  Miss Di with all them boughs
+in her head, looks like the Queen of Sheby, when
+she went a-visitin' What's-his-name; and if Miss
+Laura ain't as sweet as a lally-barster figger, I
+should like to know what is."
+
+In her enthusiasm, Sally gambolled about the
+girls, flourishing her milk-pan like a modern
+Miriam about to sound her timbrel for excess of
+joy.
+
+Laughing merrily, the two Mont Blancs bestowed
+themselves in the family ark, Nan hopped
+up beside Patrick, and Solon, roused from his
+lawful slumbers, morosely trundled them away.
+But, looking backward with a last "Good-
+night!" Nan saw her father still standing at the
+door with smiling countenance, and the moonlight
+falling like a benediction on his silver hair.
+
+"Betsey shall go up the hill with you, my dear,
+and here's a basket of eggs for your father.  Give
+him my love, and be sure you let me know the
+next time he is poorly," Mrs. Lord said, when her
+guest rose to depart, after an hour of pleasant chat.
+
+But Nan never got the gift; for, to her great
+dismay, her hostess dropped the basket with a
+crash, and flew across the room to meet a tall
+shape pausing in the shadow of the door.  There
+was no need to ask who the new-comer was; for,
+even in his mother's arms, John looked over her
+shoulder with an eager nod to Nan, who stood
+among the ruins with never a sign of weariness in
+her face, nor the memory of a care at her heart.--
+for they all went out when John came in.
+
+"Now tell us how and why and when you came.
+Take off your coat, my dear!  And here are the
+old slippers.  Why didn't you let us know
+you were coming so soon?  How have you been?
+and what makes you so late to-night?  Betsey,
+you needn't put on your bonnet.  And--oh, my
+dear boy, have you been to supper yet?
+
+Mrs. Lord was a quiet soul, and her flood of
+questions was purred softly in her son's ear; for,
+being a woman, she must talk, and, being a mother,
+must pet the one delight of her life, and make a
+little festival when the lord of the manor came
+home. A whole drove of fatted calves were
+metaphorically killed, and a banquet appeared
+with speed.
+
+John was not one of those romantic heroes who
+can go through three volumes of hair-breadth
+escapes without the faintest hint of that blessed
+institution, dinner; therefore, like "Lady Letherbridge,"
+he partook, copiously of everything."
+while the two women beamed over each mouthful
+with an interest that enhanced its flavor, and urged
+upon him cold meat and cheese, pickles and pie, as
+if dyspepsia and nightmare were among the lost
+arts.
+
+Then he opened his budget of news and fed
+them.
+
+"I was coming next month, according to custom;
+but Philip fell upon and so tempted me, that
+I was driven to sacrifice myself to the cause of
+friendship, and up we came to-night.  He would
+not let me come here till we had seen your father,
+Nan; for the poor lad was pining for Laura, and
+hoped his good behavior for the past year would
+satisfy his judge and secure his recall.  We had a
+fine talk with your father; and, upon my life, Philip
+seemed to have received the gift of tongues, for he
+made a most eloquent plea, which I've stored away
+for future use, I assure you.  The dear old gentleman
+was very kind, told Phil he was satisfied with
+the success of his probation, that he should see
+Laura when he liked, and, if all went well, should
+receive his reward in the spring. It must be a
+delightful sensation to know you have made a
+fellow-creature as happy as those words made Phil
+to-night."
+
+John paused, and looked musingly at the matronly
+tea-pot, as if he saw a wondrous future in
+its shine.
+
+Nan twinkled off the drops that rose at the
+thought of Laura's joy, and said, with grateful
+warmth,--
+
+"You say nothing of your own share in the
+making of that happiness, John; but we know it,
+for Philip has told Laura in his letters all that you
+have been to him, and I am sure there was other
+eloquence beside his own before father granted all
+you say he has.  Oh, John, I thank you very much
+for this!
+
+Mrs. Lord beamed a whole midsummer of delight
+upon her son, as she saw the pleasure these
+words gave him, though he answered simply,--
+
+"I only tried to be a brother to him, Nan; for
+he has been most kind to me.  Yes, I said my little
+say to-night, and gave my testimony in behalf of
+the prisoner at the bar; a most merciful judge
+pronounced his sentence, and he rushed straight
+to Mrs. Leigh's to tell Laura the blissful news.
+Just imagine the scene when he appears, and how
+Di will open her wicked eyes and enjoy the spectacle
+of the dishevelled lover, the bride-elect's tears,
+the stir, and the romance of the thing.  She'll
+cry over it to-night, and caricature it to-morrow.
+
+And John led the laugh at the picture he had
+conjured up, to turn the thoughts of Di's dangerous
+sister from himself.
+
+At ten Nan retired into the depths of her old
+bonnet with a far different face from the one she
+brought out of it, and John, resuming his hat,
+mounted guard.
+
+"Don't stay late, remember, John!" And in
+Mrs. Lord's voice there was a warning tone that
+her son interpreted aright.
+
+"I'll not forget, mother."
+
+And he kept his word; for though Philip's happiness
+floated temptingly before him, and the little
+figure at his side had never seemed so dear, he
+ignored the bland winds, the tender night, and set
+a seal upon his lips, thinking manfully within himself.
+"I see many signs of promise in her happy
+face; but I will wait and hope a little longer for
+her sake."
+
+"Where is father, Sally?" asked Nan, as that
+functionary appeared, blinking owlishly, but utterly
+repudiating the idea of sleep.
+
+"He went down the garding, miss, when the
+gentlemen cleared, bein' a little flustered by the
+goin's on.  Shall I fetch him in?" asked Sally, as
+irreverently as if her master were a bag of meal.
+
+"No, we will go ourselves." And slowly the
+two paced down the leaf-strewn walk.
+
+Fields of yellow grain were waving on the
+hill-side, and sere corn blades rustled in the wind,
+from the orchard came the scent of ripening fruit,
+and all the garden-plots lay ready to yield up their
+humble offerings to their master's hand.  But in
+the silence of the night a greater Reaper had
+passed by, gathering in the harvest of a righteous
+life, and leaving only tender memories for the
+gleaners who had come so late.
+
+The old man sat in the shadow of the tree his
+own hands planted; its fruit boughs shone ruddily,
+and its leaves still whispered the low lullaby
+that hushed him to his rest.
+
+"How fast he sleeps! Poor father! I should
+have come before and made it pleasant for
+him."
+
+As she spoke, Nan lifted up the head bent down
+upon his breast, and kissed his pallid cheek.
+
+"Oh, John, this is not sleep."
+
+"Yes, dear, the happiest he will ever
+know."
+
+For a moment the shadows flickered over three
+white faces and the silence deepened solemnly.
+Then John reverently bore the pale shape in, and
+Nan dropped down beside it, saying, with a rain
+of grateful tears,--
+
+"He kissed me when I went, and said a last
+good-night!'"
+
+For an hour steps went to and fro about her,
+many voices whispered near her, and skilful hands
+touched the beloved clay she held so fast; but one
+by one the busy feet passed out, one by one the
+voices died away, and human skill proved vain.
+
+Then Mrs. Lord drew the orphan to the shelter of
+her arms, soothing her with the mute solace of that
+motherly embrace.
+
+"Nan, Nan! here's Philip! come and see!"
+The happy call re-echoed through the house,
+and Nan sprang up as if her time for grief were
+past.
+
+"I must tell them. Oh, my poor girls, how
+will they bear it?--they have known so little
+sorrow!"
+
+But there was no need for her to speak; other
+lips had spared her the hard task.  For, as she
+stirred to meet them, a sharp cry rent the air, steps
+rang upon the stairs, and two wild-eyed creatures
+came into the hush of that familiar room, for the
+first time meeting with no welcome from their
+father's voice.
+
+With one impulse, Di and Laura fled to Nan.
+and the sisters clung together in a silent embrace,
+more eloquent than words. John took his
+mother by the hand, and led her from the room,
+closing the door upon the sacredness of grief.
+
+"Yes, we are poorer than we thought; but
+when everything is settled, we shall get on very
+well.  We can let a part of this great house, and
+live quietly together until spring; then Laura will
+be married, and Di can go on their travels with
+them, as Philip wishes her to do.  We shall be
+cared for; so never fear for us, John."
+
+Nan said this, as her friend parted from her a
+week later, after the saddest holiday he had ever
+known.
+
+"And what becomes of you, Nan?" he asked,
+watching the patient eyes that smiled when
+others would have wept.
+
+"I shall stay in the dear old house; for no other
+place would seem like home to me.  I shall find
+some little child to love and care for, and be quite
+happy till the girls come back and want me."
+
+John nodded wisely, as he listened, and went
+away prophesying within himself,--
+
+"She shall find something more than a child to
+love; and, God willing, shall be very happy till
+the girls come home and--cannot have her."
+
+Nan's plan was carried into effect.  Slowly the
+divided waters closed again, and the three fell
+back into their old life.  But the touch of sorrow
+drew them closer; and, though invisible, a beloved
+presence still moved among them, a familiar voice
+still spoke to them in the silence of their softened
+hearts.  Thus the soil was made ready, and in the
+depth of winter the good seed was sown, was
+watered with many tears, and soon sprang up
+green with a promise of a harvest for their after
+years.
+
+Di and Laura consoled themselves with their
+favorite employments, unconscious that Nan was
+growing paler, thinner, and more silent, as the
+weeks went by, till one day she dropped quietly
+before them, and it suddenly became manifest that
+she was utterly worn out with many cares and the
+secret suffering of a tender heart bereft of the
+paternal love which had been its strength and stay.
+
+"I'm only tired, dear girls.  Don't be troubled!,
+for I shall be up to-morrow," she said cheerily, as
+she looked into the anxious faces bending over
+her.
+
+But the weariness was of many months' growth,
+and it was weeks before that "to-morrow " came.
+
+Laura installed herself as nurse, and her devotion
+was repaid four-fold; for, sitting at her sister's
+bedside, she learned a finer art than that she had
+left.  Her eye grew clear to see the beauty of a
+self-denying life, and in the depths of Nan's meek
+nature she found the strong, sweet virtues that
+made her what she was.
+
+Then remembering that these womanly attributes were
+a bride's best dowry, Laura gave herself to their
+attainment, that she might become to another household
+the blessing Nan had been to her own; and turning
+from the worship of the goddess Beauty, she gave
+her hand to that humbler and more human teacher,
+Duty,--learning her lessons with a willing heart,
+for Philip's sake.
+
+Di corked her inkstand, locked her bookcase,
+and went at housework as if it were a five-barred
+gate; of course she missed the leap, but scrambled
+bravely through, and appeared much sobered by
+the exercise.  Sally had departed to sit under a
+vine and fig-tree of her own, so Di had undisputed
+sway; but if dish-pans and dusters had tongues,
+direful would have been the history of that crusade
+against frost and fire, indolence and inexperience.
+But they were dumb, and Di scorned to complain,
+though her struggles were pathetic to behold, and
+her sisters went through a series of messes equal to
+a course of "Prince Benreddin's" peppery tarts.
+Reality turned Romance out of doors; for, unlike
+her favorite heroines in satin and tears, or helmet
+and shield, Di met her fate in a big checked apron
+and dust-cap, wonderful to see; yet she wielded
+her broom as stoutly as "Moll Pitcher" shouldered
+her gun, and marched to her daily martyrdom in the
+kitchen with as heroic a heart as the "Maid of Orleans"
+took to her stake.
+
+Mind won the victory over matter in the end,
+and Di was better all her days for the tribulations
+and the triumphs of that time; for she drowned her
+idle fancies in her wash-tub, made burnt-offerings
+of selfishness and pride, and learned the worth of
+self-denial, as she sang with happy voice among
+the pots and kettles of her conquered realm.
+
+Nan thought of John, and in the stillness of her
+sleepless nights prayed Heaven to keep him safe,
+and make her worthy to receive and strong enough
+to bear the blessedness or pain of love.
+
+Snow fell without, and keen winds howled
+among the leafless elms, but "herbs of grace"
+were blooming beautifully in the sunshine of
+sincere endeavor, and this dreariest season proved the
+most fruitful of the year; for love taught Laura,
+labor chastened Di, and patience fitted Nan for the
+blessing of her life.
+
+Nature, that stillest, yet most diligent of housewives,
+began at last that "spring cleaning" which
+she makes so pleasant that none find the heart to
+grumble as they do when other matrons set their
+premises a-dust.  Her hand-maids, wind and rain
+and sun, swept, washed, and garnished busily,
+green carpets were unrolled, apple-boughs were
+hung with draperies of bloom, and dandelions, pet
+nurslings of the year, came out to play upon the
+sward.
+
+From the South returned that opera troupe
+whose manager is never in despair, whose tenor
+never sulks, whose prima donna never fails, and
+in the orchard bona fide matinees were held, to
+which buttercups and clovers crowded in their
+prettiest spring hats, and verdant young blades
+twinkled their dewy lorgnettes, as they bowed and
+made way for the floral belles.
+
+May was bidding June good-morrow, and the
+roses were just dreaming that it was almost time to
+wake, when John came again into the quiet room
+which now seemed the Eden that contained his
+Eve. Of course there was a jubilee; but something
+seemed to have befallen the whole group, for
+never had they appeared in such odd frames of
+mind.  John was restless, and wore an excited
+look, most unlike his usual serenity of aspect.
+
+Nan the cheerful had fallen into a well of
+silence and was not to be extracted by any
+Hydraulic power, though she smiled like the June sky
+over her head.  Di's peculiarities were out in full
+force, and she looked as if she would go off like a
+torpedo at a touch; but through all her moods
+there was a half-triumphant, half-remorseful
+expression in the glance she fixed on John.  And
+Laura, once so silent, now sang like a blackbird,
+as she flitted to and fro; but her fitful song was
+always, "Philip, my king."
+
+John felt that there had come a change upon
+the three, and silently divined whose unconscious
+influence had wrought the miracle.  The embargo
+was off his tongue, and he was in a fever to ask
+that question which brings a flutter to the stoutest
+heart; but though the "man" had come, the
+"hour" had not.  So, by way of steadying his
+nerves, he paced the room, pausing often to take
+notes of his companions, and each pause seemed to
+increase his wonder and content.
+
+He looked at Nan.  She was in her usual place,
+the rigid little chair she loved, because it once
+was large enough to hold a curly-headed
+playmate and herself.  The old work-basket was at
+her side, and the battered thimble busily at work;
+but her lips wore a smile they had never worn be-
+fore, the color of the unblown roses touched her
+cheek, and her downcast eyes were full of light.
+
+He looked at Di.  The inevitable book was on
+her knee, but its leaves were uncut; the strong-
+minded knob of hair still asserted its supremacy
+aloft upon her head, and the triangular jacket still
+adorned her shoulders in defiance of all fashions,
+past, present, or to come; but the expression of her
+brown countenance had grown softer, her tongue
+had found a curb, and in her hand lay a card with
+"Potts, Kettel & Co." inscribed thereon, which
+she regarded with never a scornful word for the
+Co."
+
+He looked at Laura.  She was before her easel
+as of old; but the pale nun had given place to a
+blooming girl, who sang at her work, which was
+no prim Pallas, but a Clytie turning her human
+face to meet the sun.
+
+"John, what are you thinking of?"
+
+He stirred as if Di's voice had disturbed his
+fancy at some pleasant pastime, but answered with
+his usual sincerity,--
+
+"I was thinking of a certain dear old fairy tale
+called 'Cinderella.'"
+
+"Oh!" said Di; and her "Oh" was a most
+impressive monosyllable.  "I see the meaning of
+your smile now; and though the application of the
+story is not very complimentary to all parties
+concerned, it is very just and very true."
+
+She paused a moment, then went on with softened
+voice and earnest mien:--
+
+"You think I am a blind and selfish creature.
+So I am, but not so blind and selfish as I have
+been; for many tears have cleared my eyes, and
+much sincere regret has made me humbler than I
+was. I have found a better book than any father's
+library can give me, and I have read it with
+a love and admiration that grew stronger as I
+turned the leaves. Henceforth I take it for my
+guide and gospel, and, looking back upon the
+selfish and neglectful past, can only say, Heaven
+bless your dear heart, Nan!"
+
+Laura echoed Di's last words; for, with eyes
+as full of tenderness, she looked down upon the
+sister she had lately learned to know, saying,
+warmly,--
+
+"Yes, 'Heaven bless your dear heart, Nan!'
+I never can forget all you have been to me; and
+when I am far away with Philip, there will always
+be one countenance more beautiful to me
+than any pictured face I may discover, there will
+be one place more dear to me than Rome.  The
+face will be yours, Nan, always so patient, always
+so serene; and the dearer place will be this home of
+ours, which you have made so pleasant to me all
+these years by kindnesses as numberless and
+noiseless as the drops of dew."
+
+"Dear girls, what have I ever done, that you
+should love me so?" cried Nan, with happy
+wonderment, as the tall heads, black and golden,
+bent to meet the lowly brown one, and her sisters'
+mute lips answered her.
+
+Then Laura looked up, saying, playfully,--
+
+"Here are the good and wicked sisters;-where
+shall we find the Prince? "
+
+"There!" cried Di, pointing to John; and
+then her secret went off like a rocket; for, with her
+old impetuosity, she said,--
+
+"I have found you out, John, and am ashamed
+to look you in the face, remembering the past.
+Girls, you know when father died, John sent us
+money, which he said Mr. Owen had long owed
+us and had paid at last?  It was a kind lie, John,
+and a generous thing to do; for we needed it, but
+never would have taken it as a gift.  I know you
+meant that we should never find this out; but
+yesterday I met Mr. Owen returning from the
+West, and when I thanked him for a piece of justice
+we had not expected of him, he gruffly told me
+he had never paid the debt, never meant to pay it,
+for it was outlawed, and we could not claim a
+farthing.  John, I have laughed at you, thought
+you stupid, treated you unkindly; but I know you
+now, and never shall forget the lesson you have
+taught me.  I am proud as Lucifer, but I ask you
+to forgive me, and I seal my real repentance so--
+and so."
+
+With tragic countenance, Di rushed across the
+room, threw both arms about the astonished young
+man's neck and dropped an energetic kiss upon his
+cheek.  There was a momentary silence; for Di
+finally illustrated her strong-minded theories by
+crying like the weakest of her sex.  Laura, with "the
+ruling passion strong in death," still tried to draw,
+but broke her pet crayon, and endowed her Clytie
+with a supplementary orb, owing to the dimness of
+her own.  And Nan sat with drooping eyes, that
+shone upon her work, thinking with tender pride,--
+They know him now, and love him for his generous heart."
+
+Di spoke first, rallying to her colors, though a
+little daunted by her loss of self-control.
+
+"Don't laugh, John,--I couldn't help it; and
+don't think I'm not sincere, for I am,--I am; and
+I will prove it by growing good enough to be your
+friend.  That debt must all be paid, and I shall
+do it; for I'll turn my books and pen to some
+account, and write stories full of clear old souls like
+you and Nan; and some one, I know, will like and
+buy them, though they are not 'works of Shakespeare.'
+I've thought of this before, have felt I
+had the power in me; now I have the motive, and
+now I'll do it."
+
+If Di had Proposed to translate the Koran, or
+build a new Saint Paul's, there would have been
+many chances of success; for, once moved, her
+will, like a battering-ram, would knock down the
+obstacles her wits could not surmount.  John
+believed in her most heartily, and showed it, as he
+answered, looking into her resolute face,--
+
+"I know you will, and yet make us very proud
+of our 'Chaos,' Di.  Let the money lie, and when
+you have a fortune, I'll claim it with enormous
+interest; but, believe me, I feel already doubly
+repaid by the esteem so generously confessed, so
+cordially bestowed, and can only say, as we used
+to years ago,--'Now let's forgive and so forget."
+
+But proud Di would not let him add to her obligation,
+even by returning her impetuous salute;
+she slipped away, and, shaking off the last drops,
+answered with a curious mixture of old freedom
+and new respect,--
+
+"No more sentiment, please, John.  We know
+each other now; and when I find a friend, I never
+let him go.  We have smoked the pipe of peace;
+so let us go back to our wigwams and bury the
+feud.  Where were we when I lost my head? and
+what were we talking about?"
+
+"Cinderella and the Prince."
+
+As she spoke, John's eye kindled, and, turning,
+he looked down at Nan, who sat diligently ornamenting
+with microscopic stitches a great patch
+going on, the wrong side out.
+
+"Yes,--so we were; and now taking pussy for
+the godmother, the characters of the story are well
+personated,--all but the slipper," said Di, laughing,
+as she thought of the many times they had
+played it together years ago.
+
+A sudden movement stirred John's frame, a
+sudden purpose shone in his countenance, and a
+sudden change befell his voice, as he said,
+producing from some hiding-place a little
+wornout shoe,--
+
+"I can supply the slipper;--who will try it
+first?"
+
+Di's black eyes opened wide, as they fell on
+the familiar object; then her romance-loving nature
+saw the whole plot of that drama which needs but
+two to act it. A great delight flushed up
+into her face, as she promptly took her cue, saying--
+
+" No need for us to try it, Laura; for it wouldn't
+fit us, if our feet were as small as Chinese dolls;
+our parts are played out; therefore 'Exeunt
+wicked sisters to the music of the wedding-bells.'"
+
+And pouncing upon the dismayed artist, she swept
+her out and closed the door with a triumphant
+bang.
+
+John went to Nan, and, dropping on his knee as
+reverently as the herald of the fairy tale, he asked,
+still smiling, but with lips grown tremulous,--
+
+"Will Cinderella try the little shoe, and--if
+it fits--go with the Prince?"
+
+But Nan only covered up her face, weeping
+happy tears, while all the weary work strayed
+down upon the floor, as if it knew her holiday had
+come.
+
+John drew the hidden face still closer, and while
+she listened to his eager words, Nan heard the
+beating of the strong man's heart, and knew it
+spoke the truth.
+
+"Nan, I promised mother to be silent till I was
+sure I loved you wholly,--sure that the knowledge
+would give no pain when I should tell it, as I am
+trying to tell it now.  This little shoe has been mv
+comforter through this long year, and I have kept
+it as other lovers keep their fairer favors. It has
+been a talisman more eloquent to me than flower
+or ring; for, when I saw how worn it was, I always
+thought of the willing feet that came and went for
+others' comfort all day long; when I saw the little
+bow you tied, I always thought of the hands so
+diligent in serving any one who knew a want or
+felt a pain; and when I recalled the gentle creature
+who had worn it last, I always saw her patient,
+tender, and devout,--and tried to grow more
+worthy of her, that I might one day dare to ask
+if she would walk beside me all my life and be my
+'angel in the house.' Will you, dear?  Believe
+me, you shall never know a weariness or grief I
+have the power to shield you from."
+
+Then Nan, as simple in her love as in her life,
+laid her arms about his neck, her happy face against
+his own, and answered softly,--
+
+"Oh, John, I never can be sad or tired any
+more!"
+
+
+DEBBY'S DEBUT.
+
+On a cheery June day Mrs. Penelope Carroll
+and her niece Debby Wilder, were whizzing along
+on their way to a certain gay watering-place, both
+in the best of humors with each other and all the
+world beside.  Aunt Pen was concocting sundry
+mild romances, and laying harmless plots for the
+pursuance of her favorite pastime, match-making;
+for she had invited her pretty relative to join her
+summer jaunt, ostensibly that the girl might see a
+little of fashionable life, but the good lady secretly
+proposed to herself to take her to the beach and
+get her a rich husband, very much as she would
+have proposed to take her to Broadway and get her
+a new bonnet: for both articles she considered
+necessary, but somewhat difficult for a poor girl
+to obtain.
+
+Debby was slowly getting her poise, after the
+excitement of a first visit to New York; for ten
+days of bustle had introduced the young philosopher
+to a new existence, and the working-day
+world seemed to have vanished when she made her
+last pat of butter in the dairy at home.  For an
+hour she sat thinking over the good-fortune which
+had befallen her, and the comforts of this life which
+she had suddenly acquired. Debby was a true
+girl, with all a girl's love of ease and pleasure;
+it must not be set down against her that she
+surveyed her pretty travelling-suit with much
+complacency, rejoicing inwardly that she could use
+her hands without exposing fractured gloves, that
+her bonnet was of the newest mode, needing no
+veil to hide a faded ribbon or a last year's shape,
+that her dress swept the ground with fashionable
+untidiness, and her boots were guiltless of a patch,
+--that she was the possessor of a mine of wealth
+in two of the eight trunks belonging to her aunt,
+that she was travelling like any lady of the land
+with man- and maid-servant at her command, and
+that she was leaving work and care behind her for
+a month or two of novelty and rest.
+
+When these agreeable facts were fully realized,
+and Aunt Pen had fallen asleep behind her veil,
+Debby took out a book, and indulged in her favorite
+luxury, soon forgetting past, present, and future
+in the inimitable history of Martin Chuzzlewit.
+The sun blazed, the cars rattled, children
+cried, ladies nodded, gentlemen longed for the
+solace of prohibited cigars, and newspapers were
+converted into sun-shades, nightcaps, and fans;
+but Debby read on, unconscious of all about her,
+even of the pair of eves that watched her from the
+Opposite corner of the car.  A Gentleman with a
+frank, strong-featured face sat therin, and amused
+himself by scanning with thoughtful gaze the
+countenances of his fellow-travellers.  Stout Aunt Pen,
+dignified even in her sleep, was a "model of deportment"
+to the rising generation; but the student
+of human nature found a more attractive subject in
+her companion, the girl with an apple-blossom face
+and merry brown eyes, who sat smiling into her
+book, never heeding that her bonnet was awry,
+and the wind taking unwarrantable liberties with
+her ribbons and her hair.
+
+Innocent Debby turned her pages, unaware that
+her fate sat opposite in the likeness of a serious,
+black-bearded gentleman, who watched the smiles
+rippling from her lips to her eyes with an interest
+that deepened as the minutes passed.  If his paper
+had been full of anything but "Bronchial
+Troches" and "Spalding's Prepared Glue," he
+would have found more profitable employment;
+but it wasn't, and with the usual readiness of idle
+souls he fell into evil ways, and permitted curiosity,
+that feminine sin, to enter in and take possession
+of his manly mind. A great desire seized him to
+discover what book his pretty neighbor;
+but a cover hid the name, and he was too
+distant to catch it on the fluttering leaves. Presently
+a stout Emerald-Islander, with her wardrobe
+oozing out of sundry paper parcels, vacated the
+seat behind the two ladies; and it was soon quietly
+occupied by the individual for whom Satan was
+finding such indecorous employment.  Peeping
+round the little gray bonnet, past a brown braid
+and a fresh cheek, the young man's eye fell upon
+the words the girl was reading, and forgot to look
+away again.  Books were the desire of his life;
+but an honorable purpose and an indomitable will
+kept him steady at his ledgers till he could feel
+that he had earned the right to read.  Like wine to
+many another was an open page to his; he read a
+line, and, longing for more, took a hasty sip from
+his neighbor's cup, forgetting that it was a
+stranger's also.
+
+Down the page went the two pairs of eyes,
+and the merriment from Debby's seemed to light
+up the sombre ones behind her with a sudden shine
+that softened the whole face and made it very
+winning.  No wonder they twinkled, for Elijah
+Pogram spoke, and "Mrs. Hominy, the mother
+of the modern Gracchi, in the classical blue cap
+and the red cotton pocket-handkerchief, came
+down the room in a procession of one." A low
+laugh startled Debby, though it was smothered
+like the babes in the Tower; and, turning, she
+beheld the trespasser scarlet with confusion, and
+sobered with a tardy sense of his transgression.
+Debby was not a starched young lady of the
+"prune and prism" school, but a frank, free-
+hearted little body, quick to read the sincerity of
+others, and to take looks and words at their real
+value.  Dickens was her idol; and for his sake she
+could have forgiven a greater offence than this.
+
+The stranger's contrite countenance and respecttul
+apology won her good-will at once; and with
+a finer courtesy than any Aunt Pen would have
+taught, she smilingly bowed her pardon, and,
+taking another book from her basket, opened it,
+saying, pleasantly,--
+
+"Here is the first volume if you like it, Sir.  I
+can recommend it as an invaluable consolation for
+the discomforts of a summer day's journey, and it
+is heartily at your service."
+
+As much surprised as gratified, the gentleman
+accepted the book, and retired behind it with the
+sudden discovery that wrongdoing has its compensation
+in the pleasurable sensation of being forgiven.
+Stolen delights are well known to be specially
+saccharine: and much as this pardoned sinner loved
+books, it seemed to him that the interest
+of the story flagged, and that the enjoyment of
+reading was much enhanced by the proximity of a
+gray bonnet and a girlish profile. But Dickens
+soon proved more powerful than Debby, and she was
+forgotten, till, pausing to turn a leaf, the young
+man met her shy glance, as she asked, with the
+pleased expression of a child who has shared an
+apple with a playmate,--
+
+"Is it good?"
+
+"Oh, very!"--and the man looked as honestly
+grateful for the book as the boy would have done
+for the apple.
+
+Only five words in the conversation, but Aunt
+Pen woke, as if the watchful spirit of propriety had
+roused her to pluck her charge from the precipice
+on which she stood.
+
+"Dora, I'm astonished at you! Speaking to
+strangers in that free manner is a most unladylike
+thing.  How came you to forget what I have told
+you over and over again about a proper reserve?"
+The energetic whisper reached the gentleman's
+ear, and he expected to be annihilated with a look
+when his offence was revealed; but he was spared
+that ordeal, for the young voice answered,
+softly,--
+
+"Don't faint, Aunt Pen: I only did as I'd be
+done by; for I had two books, and the poor man
+looked so hungry for something to read that I
+couldn't resist sharing my 'goodies.' He will see
+that I'm a countrified little thing in spite of my
+fine feathers, and won't be shocked at my want of
+rigidity and frigidity; so don't look dismal, and I'll
+be prim and proper all the rest of the way,--if I
+don't forget it."
+
+"I wonder who he is; may belong to some of our
+first families, and in that case it might be worth
+while to exert ourselves, you know. Did you
+learn his name, Dora? " whispered the elder lady.
+
+Debby shook her head, and murmured, "Hush!"--but
+Aunt Pen had heard of matches being made in cars as
+well as in heaven; and as an experienced general,
+it became her to reconnoitre, when one of the enemy
+approached her camp. Slightly altering her position,
+she darted an all-comprehensive glance at the invader,
+who seemed entirely absorbed, for not an eyelash stirred
+during the scrutiny. It lasted but an instant, yet in
+that instant he was weighed and found wanting; for
+that experienced eye detected that his cravat was
+two inches wider than fashion ordained, that his
+coat was not of the latest style, that his gloves
+were mended, and his handkerchief neither cambric
+nor silk.  That was enough, and sentence was
+passed forthwith,--"Some respectable clerk,
+good-looking, but poor, and not at all the thing
+for Dora"; and Aunt Pen turned to adjust a
+voluminous green veil over her niece's bonnet,
+"To shield it from the dust, dear," which process
+also shielded the face within from the eye of man.
+
+A curious smile, half mirthful, half melancholy,
+passed over their neighbor's lips; but his peace of
+mind seemed undisturbed, and he remained buried
+in his book Till they reached -----, at dusk.  As he
+returned it, he offered his services in procuring a
+carriage or attending to luggage; but Mrs. Carroll,
+with much dignity of aspect, informed him that her
+servants would attend to those matters, and, bowing
+gravely, he vanished into the night.
+
+As they rolled away to the hotel, Debby was
+wild to run down to the beach whence came the
+solemn music of the sea, making the twilight
+beautiful.  But Aunt Pen was too tired to do
+anything but sup in her own apartment and go
+early to bed; and Debby might as soon have
+proposed to walk up the great Pyramid as to make
+her first appearance without that sage matron to
+mount guard over her; so she resigned herself to
+pie and patience, and fell asleep, wishing it were
+to-morrow.
+
+At five, a. m., a nightcapped head appeared
+at one of the myriad windows of the ----- Hotel,
+and remained there as if fascinated by the miracle
+of sunrise over the sea.  Under her simplicity of
+character and girlish merriment Debby possessed a
+devout spirit and a nature full of the real poetry of
+life, two gifts that gave her dawning womanhood
+its sweetest charm, and made her what she was.
+As she looked out that summer dawn upon the
+royal marriage of the ocean and the sun, all petty
+hopes and longings faded out of sight, and her
+young face grew luminous with thoughts too deep
+for words.  Her day was happier for that silent
+hour, her life richer for the aspirations that uplifted
+her like beautiful strong angels, and left a blessing
+when they went.  The smile of the June sky
+touched her lips, the morning red seemed to linger
+on her cheek, and in her eye arose a light kindled
+by the shimmer of that broad sea of gold; for
+Nature rewarded her young votary well, and gave
+her beauty, when she offered love.  How long she
+leaned there Debby did not know; steps from below
+roused her from her reverie, and led her back
+into the world again.  Smiling at herself, She stole
+to bed, and lay wrapped in waking dreams as
+changeful as the shadows. ancing on her charnber-
+wall.
+
+The advent of her aunt's maid, Victorine, some
+two hours later, was the signal to be "up and
+doing"; and she meekly resigned herself into the
+hands of that functionary, who appeared to regard
+her in the light of an animated pin-cushion, as she
+performed the toilet-ceremonies with an absorbed
+aspect, which impressed her subject with a sense
+of the solemnity of the occasion.
+
+"Now, Mademoiselle, regard yourself, and
+pronounce that you are ravishing" Victorine said
+at length, folding her hands with a sigh of
+satisfaction, as she fell back in an attitude of
+serene triumph.
+
+Debby robeyed, and inspected herself with great
+interest and some astonishment; for there was a
+sweeping amplitude of array about the young
+lady whom she beheld in the much-befrilled gown
+and embroidered skirts, which somewhat alarmed
+her as to the navigation of a vessel "with such a
+spread of sail," while a curious sensation of being
+somebody else pervaded her from the crown of
+her head, with its shining coils of hair, to the soles
+of the French slippers, whose energies seemed to
+have been devoted to the production of marvellous
+rosettes.
+
+"Yes, I look very nice, thank you; and yet I
+feel like a doll, helpless and fine, and fancy I was
+more of a woman in my fresh gingham, with a knot
+of clovers in my hair, than I am now.  Aunt Pen
+was very kind to get me all these pretty things;
+but I'm afraid my mother would look horrified to
+see me in such a high state of flounce externally
+and so little room to breath internally."
+
+"Your mamma would not flatter me, Mademoiselle;
+but come now to Madame; she is waiting to behold
+you, and I have yet her toilet to make "; and,
+with a pitying shrug, Victorine followed Debby
+to her aunt's room.
+
+"Charming! really elegant!" cried that lady,
+emerging from her towel with a rubicund visage.
+
+"Drop that braid half an inch lower, and pull the
+worked end of her handkerchief out of the right-hand
+pocket, Vic.  There! Now, Dora, don't run about and
+get rumpled, but sit quietly down and practice repose
+till I am ready."
+
+Debby obeyed, and sat mute, with the air of
+a child in its Sunday-best on a week-day, pleased
+with the novelty, but somewhat oppressed with the
+responsibility of such unaccustomed splendor, and
+uttefly unable to connect any ideas of repose with
+tight shoes and skirts in a rampant state of starch.
+
+
+"Well, you see, I bet on Lady Gay against
+Cockadoodle, and if you'll believe me -- Hullo!
+there's Mrs. Carroll, and deuse take me if she
+hasn't got a girl with her!  Look, Seguin!"--
+and Joe Leavenworth, a "man of the world,"
+aged twenty, paused in his account of an exciting
+race to make the announcement.
+
+Mr. Seguin, his friend and Mentor, as much his,
+senior in worldly wickedness as in years, tore himself
+from his breakfast long enough to survey the
+new-comers, and then returned to it, saying,
+briefly,--
+
+"The old lady is worth cultivating,--gives
+good suppers, and thanks you for eating them.
+The girl is well got up, but has no style, and
+blushes like a milkmaid.  Better fight shy of her,
+Joe."
+
+"Do you think so?  Well, now I rather fancy
+that kind of thing.  She's new, you,see, and I get
+on with that sort of girl the best, for the old ones
+are so deused knowing that a fellow has no chance
+of a -- By the Lord Harry, she's eating bread
+and milk!"
+
+Young Leavenworth whisked his glass into his
+eye, and Mr. Seguin put down his roll to behold
+the phenomenon.  Poor Debby! her first step had
+been a wrong one.
+
+All great minds have their weak points.  Aunt
+Pen's was her breakfast, and the peace of her
+entire day depended upon the success of that meal.
+Therefore, being down rather late, the worthy
+lady concentrated her energies upon the achievement
+of a copious repast, and, trusting to former
+lessons, left Debby to her own resources for a few
+fatal moments. After the flutter occasioned by
+being scooped into her seat by a severe-nosed
+waiter, Debby had only courage enough left to
+refuse tea and coffee and accept milk.  That being
+done, she took the first familiar viand that appeared,
+and congratulated herself upon being able
+to get her usual breakfast. With returning composure,
+she looked about her and began to  enjoy
+the buzz of voices, the clatter of knives and forks,
+and the long lines of faces all intent upon the business
+of the hour; but her peace was of short duration.
+Pausing for a fresh relay of toast, Aunt
+Pen glanced toward her niece with the comfortable
+conviction that her appearance was highly creditable;
+and her dismay can be imagined, when she
+beheld that young lady placidly devouring a great
+cup of brown-bread and milk before the eyes of the
+assembled multitude.  The poor lady choked
+in her coffee, and between her gasps whispered
+irefully behind her napkin,--
+
+"For Heaven's sake, Dora, put away that
+mess! The Ellenboroughs are directly opposite,
+watching everything you do.  Eat that omelet, or
+anything respectable, unless you want me to die of
+mortification."
+
+Debby dropped her spoon, and, hastily helping
+herself from the dish her aunt pushed toward her,
+consumed the leathery compound with as much
+grace as she could assume, though unable to
+repress a laugh at Aunt Pen's disturbed countenance.
+There was a slight lull in the clatter, and the blithe
+sound caused several heads to turn toward the
+quarter whence it came, for it was as unexpected
+and pleasant a sound as a bobolink's song in a cage
+of shrill-voiced canaries.
+
+"She's a jolly little thing and powerful pretty,
+so deuse take me if I don't make up to the old lady
+and find out who the girl is.  I've been introduced
+to Mrs. Carroll at our house: but I suppose she
+won't remember me till I remind her."
+
+The "deuse" declining to accept of his repeated
+offers (probably because there was still too
+much honor and honesty in the boy,) young
+Leavenworth sought out Mrs. Carroll on the
+Piazza, as she and Debby were strolling there an
+hour later.
+
+"Joe Leavenworth, my dear, from one of our
+first families,--very wealthy,--fine match,--pray,
+be civil,--smooth your hair, hold back your shoulders,
+and put down your parasol," murmured
+Aunt Pen, as the gentleman approached with as
+much pleasure in his countenance as it was consistent
+with manly dignity to express upon meeting
+two of the inferior race.
+
+"My niece, Miss Dora Wilder.  This is her
+first season at the beach, and we must endeavor to
+make it pleasant for her, or she will be getting
+homesick and running away to mamma," said Aunt Pen,
+in her society-tone, after she had returned his
+greeting, and perpetrated a polite fiction,
+by declaring that she remembered him perfectly,
+for he was the image of his father.
+
+Mr. Leavenworth brought the heels of his varnished
+boots together with a click, and executed the latest
+bow imported, then stuck his glass in his eye and stared
+till it fell out, (the glass, not the eye,) upon which
+he fell into step with them, remarking,--
+
+"I shall be most happy to show the lions: they
+are deused tame ones, so you needn't be alarmed.
+Miss Wilder."
+
+Debby was good-natured enough to laugh; and,
+elated with that success, he proceeded to pour
+forth his stores of wit and learning in true collegian
+style, quite unconscious that the "jolly little thing"
+was looking him through and through with the
+smiling eyes that were producing such pleasurable
+sensations under the mosaic studs.  They strolled
+toward the beach, and, meeting an old acquaintance,
+Aunt Pen fell behind, and beamed upon the
+young pair as if her prophetic eye even at this early
+stage beheld them walking altarward in a proper
+state of blond white vest and bridal awkwardness.
+
+"Can you skip a stone, Mr. Leavenworth?
+asked Debby, possessed with a mischievous desire
+to shock the piece of elegance at her side.
+
+"Eh? what's that? " he inquired, with his
+head on one side, like an inquisitive robin.
+
+Debby repeated her question, and illustrated it
+by sending a stone skimming over the water in the
+most scientific manner.  Mr. Joe was painfully
+aware that this was not at all "the thing," that his
+sisters never did so, and that Seguin would laugh
+confoundedly, if he caught him at it; but Debby
+looked so irresistibly fresh and pretty under her
+rose-lined parasol that he was moved to confess
+that he had done such a thing, and to sacrifice his
+gloves by poking in the sand, that he might indulge
+in a like unfashionable pastime.
+
+"You'll be at the hop to-night, I hope, Miss
+Wilder," he observed, introducing a topic suited
+to a young lady's mental capacity.
+
+"Yes, indeed; for dancing is one of the joys of
+my life, next to husking and making hay"; and
+Debby polked a few steps along the beach, much
+to the edification of a pair of old gentlemen,
+serenely taking their first constitutional."
+
+"Making what? " cried Mr. Joe, poking after
+her.
+
+"Hay; ah, that is the pleasantest fun in the
+world,--and better exercise, my mother says, for
+soul and body, than dancing till dawn in crowded
+rooms, with everything in a state of unnatural
+excitement.  If one wants real merriment, let him go
+into a new-mown field, where all the air is full of
+summer odors, where wild-flowers nod along the
+walls, where blackbirds make finer music than any
+band, and sun and wind and cheery voices do their
+part, while windrows rise, and great loads go
+rumbling through the lanes with merry brown faces
+atop.  Yes, much as I like dancing, it is not to be
+compared with that; for in the one case we shut
+out the lovely world, and in the other we become
+a part of it, till by its magic labor turns to poetry,
+and we harvest something better than dried buttercups
+and grass."
+
+As she spoke, Debby looked up, expecting to
+meet a glance of disapproval; but something in the
+simple earnestness of her manner had recalled
+certain boyish pleasures as innocent as they were
+hearty, which now contrasted very favorably with
+the later pastimes in which fast horses, and that
+lower class of animals, fast men, bore so large a
+part.  Mr. Joe thoughtfully punched five holes in
+the sand, and for a moment Debby liked the expression
+of his face; then the old listlessness returned,
+and, looking up, he said, with an air of
+ennui that was half sad, half ludicrous, in one so
+young and so generously endowed with youth,
+health, and the good gifts of this life,--
+
+"I used to fancy that sort of thing years ago,
+but I'm afraid I should find it a little slow now,
+though you describe it in such an inviting manner
+that I would be tempted to try it, if a hay-cock
+came in my way; for, upon my life, it's deused
+heavy work loafing about at these watering-places
+all summer.  Between ourselves, there's a deal of
+humbug about this kind of life, as you will find,
+when you've tried it as long as I have."
+
+"Yes, I begin to think so already; but perhaps
+you can give me a few friendly words of warning
+from the stones of your experience, that I may be
+spared the pain of saying what so many look,--
+'Grandma, the world is hollow; my doll is stuffed
+with sawdust; and I should 'like to go into a
+convent, if you please.'"
+
+Debby's eyes were dancing with merriment;
+but they were demurely down-cast, and her voice
+was perfectly serious.
+
+The milk of human kindness had been slightly
+curdled for Mr. Joe by sundry college-tribulations;
+and having been "suspended," he very naturally
+vibrated between the inborn jollity of his
+temperament and the bitterness occasioned by his wrongs.
+
+He had lost at billiards the night before, had been
+hurried at breakfast, had mislaid his cigar-case,
+and splashed his boots; consequently the darker
+mood prevailed that morning, and when his counsel
+was asked, he gave it like one who bad known
+the heaviest trials of this "Piljin Projiss of a
+wale."
+
+"There's no justice in the world, no chance
+for us young people to enjoy ourselves, without
+some penalty to pay, some drawback to worry us
+like these confounded 'all-rounders.' Even here,
+where all seems free and easy, there's no end of
+gossips and spies who tattle and watch till you feel
+as if you lived in a lantern. 'Every one for himself,
+and the Devil take the hindmost'; that's the
+principle they go on, and you have to keep your
+wits about you in the most exhausting manner, or
+you are done for before you know it.  I've seen a
+good deal of this sort of thing, and hope you'll get
+on better than some do, when it's known that you
+are the rich Mrs. Carroll's niece; though you don't
+need that fact to enhance your charms,--upon my
+life, you don't."
+
+Debby laughed behind her parasol at this burst
+of candor; but her independent nature prompted
+her to make a fair beginning, in spite of Aunt
+Pen's polite fictions and well-meant plans.
+
+" Thank you for your warning, but I don't
+apprehend much annoyance of that kind," she said,
+demurely.  "Do you know, I think, if young
+ladies were truthfully labelled when they went into
+society, it would be a charming fashion, and save a
+world of trouble? Something in this style:--
+'Arabella Marabout, aged nineteen, fortune
+$100,000, temper warranted'; 'Laura Eau-de-Cologne,
+aged twenty-eight, fortune $30,000,
+temper slightly damaged'; Deborah Wilder,
+aged eighteen, fortune, one pair of hands, one head,
+indifferently well filled, one heart, (not in the
+market,) temper decided, and no expectations.'
+There, you see, that would do away with much of
+the humbug you lament, and we poor souls would
+know at once whether we were sought for our fortunes
+or ourselves, and that would be so comfortable!"
+
+Mr. Leavenworth turned away, with a convicted sort
+of expression, as she spoke, and, making
+a spyglass of his hand, seemed to be watching
+something out at sea with absorbing interest.  He
+had been guilty of a strong desire to discover
+whether Debby was an heiress, but had not expected
+to be so entirely satisfied on that important
+subject, and was dimly conscious that a keen eye
+had seen his anxiety, and a quick wit devised a
+means of setting it at rest forever.  Somewhat
+disconcerted, he suddenly changed the conversation,
+and, like many another distressed creature, took to
+the water, saying briskly,--
+
+"By-the-by, Miss Wilder, as I've engaged to
+do the honors, shall I have the pleasure of bathing
+with you when the fun begins?  As you are fond
+of hay-making, I suppose you intend to pay your
+respects to the old gentleman with the three-
+pronged pitchfork?"
+
+"Yes, Aunt Pen means to put me through a course
+of salt water, and any instructions in the art
+of navigation will be gratefully received; for I
+never saw the ocean before, and labor under a
+firm conviction, that, once in, I never shall come
+out again till I am brought, like Mr. Mantilini, a
+'damp, moist, unpleasant body.'"
+
+As Debby spoke, Mrs. Carroll hove in sight,
+coming down before the wind with all sails set, and
+signals of distress visible long before she dropped
+anchor and came along-side.  The devoted woman
+had been strolling slowly for the girl's sake, though
+oppressed with a mournful certainty that her most
+prominent feature was fast becoming a fine copper-
+color; yet she had sustained herself like a Spartan
+matron, till it suddenly occurred to her that her
+charge might be suffering a like
+
+"sea-change
+Into something rich and strange."
+
+Her fears, however, were groundless, for Debby
+met her without a freckle, looking all the better
+for her walk; and though her feet were wet with
+chasing the waves, and her pretty gown the worse
+for salt water, Aunt Pen never chid her for the
+destruction of her raiment, nor uttered a warning
+word against an unladylike exuberance of spirits,
+but replied to her inquiry most graciously,--
+
+"Certainly, my love, we shall bathe at eleven,
+and there will be just time to get Victorine and our
+dresses; so run on to the house, and I will join you
+as soon as I have finished what I am saying to
+Mrs. Earl,"--then added, in a stage-aside, as she
+put a fallen lock off the girl's forehead, "You are
+doing beautifully!  He is evidently struck; make
+yourself interesting, and don't burn your nose, I
+beg of you."
+
+Debby's bright face clouded over, and she
+wakked on with so much stateliness that her escort
+wondered " what the deuse the old lady had done
+to her," and exerted himself to the utmost to recall
+her merry mood, but with indifferent success.
+
+
+"Now I begin to feel more like myself, for this
+is getting back to first principles, though I fancy I
+look like the little old woman who fell asleep on
+the king's highway and woke up with abbreviated
+drapery; and you look funnier still, Aunt Pen,"
+said Debby, as she tied on her pagoda-hat, and
+followed Mrs. Carroll, who walked out of her
+dressing-room an animated bale of blue cloth
+surmounted by a gigantic sun-bonnet.
+
+Mr. Leavenworth was in waiting, and so like a
+blond-headed lobster in his scarlet suit that Debby
+could hardly keep her countenance as they joined
+the groups of bathers gathering along the breezy
+shore.
+
+For an hour each day the actors and actresses
+who played their different roles at the ----- Hotel
+with such precision and success put off their masks
+and dared to be themselves.  The ocean wrought
+the change, for it took old and young into its arms,
+and for a little while they played like children in
+their mother's lap.  No falsehood could withstand
+its rough sincerity; for the waves washed paint and
+powder from worn faces, and left a fresh bloom
+there.  No ailment could entirely resist its vigorous
+cure; for every wind brought healing on its wings,
+endowing many a meagre life with another year
+of health.  No gloomy spirit could refuse to listen
+to its lullaby, and the spray baptized it with the
+subtile benediction of a cheerier mood.  No rank
+held place there; for the democratic sea toppled
+down the greatest statesman in the land, and
+dashed over the bald pate of a millionnaire with
+the same white-crested wave that stranded a poor
+parson on the beach and filled a fierce reformer's
+mouth with brine.  No fashion ruled, but that
+which is as old as Eden,--the beautiful fashion of
+simplicity.  Belles dropped their affectations with
+their hoops, and ran about the shore blithe-hearted
+girls again. Young men forgot their vices and
+their follies, and were not ashamed of the real
+courage, strength, and skill they had tried to leave
+behind them with their boyish plays.  Old men
+gathered shells with the little Cupids dancing on
+the sand, and were better for that innocent
+companionship; and young mothers never looked so
+beautiful as when they rocked their babies on the
+bosom of the sea.
+
+Debby vaguely felt this charm, and, yielding
+to it, splashed and sang like any beach-bird, while
+Aunt Pen bobbed placidly up and down in a
+retired corner, and Mr. Leavenworth swam to and
+fro, expressing his firm belief in mermaids, sirens,
+and the rest of the aquatic sisterhood, whose warbling
+no manly ear can resist.
+
+" Miss Wilder, you must learn to swim.  I've
+taught quantities of young ladies, and shall be
+delighted to launch the 'Dora,' if you'll accept me
+as a pilot.  Stop a bit; I'll get a life-preserver
+and leaving Debby to flirt with the waves, the scarlet
+youth departed like a flame of fire.
+
+A dismal shriek interrupted his pupil's play, and
+looking up, she saw her aunt beckoning wildly with
+one hand, while she was groping in the water with
+the other. Debby ran to her, alarmed at her
+tragic expression, and Mrs. Carroll, drawing the
+girl's face into the privacy of her big bonnet,
+whispered one awful word, adding, distractedly,--
+
+"Dive for them! oh, dive for them! I shall be
+perfectly helpless, if they are lost!"
+
+"I can't dive, Aunt Pen; but there is a man,
+let us ask him," said Debby, as a black head
+appeared to windward.
+
+But Mrs. Carroll's "nerves" had received a
+shock, and, gathering up her dripping garments,
+she fled precipitately along the shore and vanished
+into her dressing-room.
+
+Debby's keen sense of the ludicrous got the better
+of her respect, and peal after peal of laughter
+broke from her lips, till a splash behind her put an
+end to her merriment, and, turning, she found that
+this friend in need was her acquaintance of the day
+before.  The gentleman seemed pausing for permission
+to approach, with much the appearance of a sagacious
+Newfoundland, wistful and wet.
+
+"Oh, I'm very glad it's you, Sir!" was Debby's
+cordial greeting, as she shook a drop off the end of
+her nose, and nodded, smiling.
+
+The new-comer immediately beamed upon her
+like an amiable Triton, saying, as they turned
+shoreward,--
+
+"Our first interview opened with a laugh on my
+side, and our second with one on yours.  I accept
+the fact as a good omen.  Your friend seemed in
+trouble; allow me to atone for my past misdemeanors
+by offering my services now.  But first let me introduce
+myself; and as I believe in the fitness of things, let
+me present you with an appropriate card"; and, stooping,
+the young man wrote "Frank Evan" on the hard sand at
+Debby's feet.
+
+The girl liked his manner, and, entering into the
+spirit of the thing, swept as grand a curtsy as her
+limited drapery would allow saying, merrily,-
+-
+"I am Debby Wilder, or Dora, as aunt prefers
+to call me; and instead of laughing, I ought to be
+four feet under water, looking for something we
+have lost; but I can't dive, and my distress is
+dreadful, as you see."
+
+"What have you lost?  I will look for it, and
+bring it back in spite of the kelpies, if it is a human
+possibility," replied Mr. Evan, pushing his wet
+locks out of his eyes, and regarding the ocean with
+a determined aspect.
+
+Debby leaned toward him, whispering with
+solemn countenance,--
+
+"It is a set of teeth, Sir."
+
+Mr. Evan was more a man of deeds than words,
+therefore he disappeared at once with a mighty
+splash, and after repeated divings and much
+laughter appeared bearing the chief ornament of Mrs.
+Penelope Carroll's comely countenance.  Debby
+looked very pretty and grateful as she returned her
+thanks, and Mr.  Evan was guilty of a secret wish
+that all the worthy lady's features were at the
+bottom of the sea, that he might have the satisfaction
+of restoring them to her attractive niece;
+but curbing this unnatural desire, he bowed, saying,
+gravely,--
+
+"Tell your aunt, if you please, that this little
+accident will remain a dead secret, so far as I am
+concerned, and I am very glad to have been of
+service at such a critical moment."
+
+Whereupon Mr. Evan marched again into the
+briny deep, and Debby trotted away to her aunt,
+whom she found a clammy heap of blue flannel
+and despair. Mrs. Carroll's temper was ruffled,
+and though she joyfully rattled in her teeth, she
+said, somewhat testily, when Debby's story was
+done,--
+
+"Now that man will have a sort of claim on us,
+and we must be civil, whoever he is. Dear! dear!
+I wish it had been Joe Leavenworth instead.
+Evan,--I don't remember any of our first families
+with connections of that name, and I dislike to be
+under obligations to a person of that sort, for
+there's no knowing how far he may presume; so,
+pray, be careful, Dora."
+
+"I think you are very ungrateful, Aunt Pen;
+and if Mr. Evan should happen to be poor, it does
+not become me to turn up my nose at him, for I'm
+nothing but a make-believe myself just now. I
+don't wish to go down upon my knees to him, but
+I do intend to be as kind to him as I should to that
+conceited Leavenworth boy; yes, kinder even; for
+poor people value such things more, as I know very
+well."
+
+Mrs. Carroll instantly recovered her temper,
+changed the subject, and privately resolved to
+confine her prejudices to her own bosom, as they
+seerned to have an aggravating effect upon the
+youthful person whom she had set her heart on
+disposing of to the best advantage.
+
+Debby took her swimming-lesson with much
+success, and would have achieved her dinner with
+composure, if white-aproned gentlemen had not
+effectually taken away her appetite by whisking
+bills-of-fare into her hands, and awaiting her orders
+with a fatherly interest, which induced them to
+congregate mysterious dishes before her, and
+blandly rectify her frequent mistakes. She survived
+the ordeal, however, and at four p.m. went to drive
+with "that Leavenworth boy" in the finest turnout
+----- could produce.  Aunt Pen then came off guard,
+and with a sigh of satisfaction subsided into a peaceful
+doze, still murmuring, even in her sleep,-
+
+"Propinquity, my love, propinquity works
+wonders."
+
+
+
+"Aunt Pen, are you a modest woman?" asked
+the young cruisader against established absurdities,
+as she came into the presence-chamber that evening
+ready for the hop.
+
+"Bless the child, what does she mean? " cried
+Mrs. Carroll, with a start that twitched her
+back-hair out of Victorine's hands.
+
+"Would you like to have a daughter of yours
+go to a party looking as I look?" continued her
+niece, spreading her airy dress, and standing
+very erect before her astonished relative.
+
+"Why, of course I should, and be proud to own
+such a charming creature," regarding the slender
+white shape with much approbation,--adding,
+with a smile, as she met the girl's eye,--
+
+"Ah, I see the difficulty, now; you are disturbed
+because there is not a bit of lace over
+these pretty shoulders of yours.  Now don't be
+absurd, Dora; the dress is perfectly proper, or
+Madame Tiphany never would have sent it home.
+It is the fashion, child; and many a girl with such
+a figure would go twice as decolletee, and think
+nothing of it, I assure you."
+
+Debby shook her head with an energy that set
+the pink heather-bells a-tremble in her hair, and
+her color deepened beautifully as she said, with
+reproachful eyes,--
+
+"Aunt Pen, I think there is a better fashion
+in every young girl's heart than any Madame
+Tiphany can teach.  I am very grateful for all
+you have done for me, but I cannot go into public
+in such an undress as this; my mother would never
+allow it, and father never forgive it. Please don't
+ask me to, for indeed I cannot do it even for you."
+
+Debby looked so pathetic that both mistress
+and maid broke into a laugh which somewhat
+reassured the young lady, who allowed her
+determined features to relax into a smile,
+as she said,--
+
+"Now, Aunt Pen, you want me to look pretty
+and be a credit to you; but how would you like to
+see my face the color of those geraniums all the
+evening?"
+
+"Why, Dora, you are out of your mind to ask
+such a thing, when you know it's the desire of
+my life to keep your color down and make you
+look more delicate," said her aunt, alarmed at the
+fearful prospect of a peony-faced protegee.
+
+Well, I should be anything but that, if I wore
+this gown in its present waistless condition; so here
+is a remedy which will prevent such a calamity
+and ease my mind."
+
+As she spoke, Debby tied on her little blonde
+fichu with a gesture which left nothing more to be
+said.
+
+Victorine scolded, and clasped her hands; but
+Mrs. Carroll, fearing to push her authority too far,
+made a virtue of necessity, saying, resignedly,--
+
+"Have your own way, Dora, but in return
+oblige me by being agreeable to such persons as I
+may introduce to you; and some day, when I ask
+a favor, remember how much I hope to do for you,
+and grant it cheerfully."
+
+"Indeed I will, Aunt Pen, if it is anything I
+can do without disobeying mother's 'notions' as
+you call them.  Ask me to wear an orange-colored
+gown, or dance with the plainest, poorest man in
+the room, and I'll do it; for there never was a
+kinder aunt than mine in all the world," cried
+Debby, eager to atone for her seeming wilfulness,
+and really grateful for her escape from what seemed
+to her benighted mind a very imminent peril.
+
+Like a clover-blossom in a vase of camellias little
+Debby looked that night among the dashing or
+languid women who surrounded her; for she possessed
+the charm they had lost,--the freshness of
+her youth.  Innocent gayety sat smiling in her eyes,
+healthful roses bloomed upon her cheek, and
+maiden modesty crowned her like a garland. She
+was the creature that she seemed, and, yielding to
+the influence of the hour, danced to the music of
+her own blithe heart. Many felt the spell whose
+secret they had lost the power to divine, and
+watched the girlish figure as if it were a symbol
+of their early aspirations dawning freshly from the
+dimness of their past. More than one old man
+thought again of some little maid whose love made
+his boyish days a pleasant memory to him now.
+More than one smiling fop felt the emptiness of his
+smooth speech, when the truthful eyes looked up
+into his own; and more than one pale woman
+sighed regretfully with herself, "I, too, was a
+happy-hearted creature once!"
+
+"That Mr. Evan does not seem very anxious
+to claim our acquaintance, after all, and I think
+better of him on that account.  Has he spoken to
+you to-night, Dora?" asked Mrs. Carroll, as
+Debby dropped down beside her after a "splendid
+polka."
+
+"No, ma'am, he only bowed.  You see some
+people are not so presuming as other people
+thought they were; for we are not the most
+attractive beings on the planet; therefore a gentleman
+can be polite and then forget us without breaking
+any of the Ten Commandments.  Don't be offended
+with him yet, for he may prove to be some
+great creature with a finer pedigree than any of
+your first families.' Mr. Leavenworth, as you
+know everybody, perhaps you can relieve Aunt
+Pen's mind, by telling her something about the
+tall, brown man standing behind the lady with
+salmon-colored hair."
+
+Mr. Joe, who was fanning the top of Debby's
+head with the best intentions in life, took a survey,
+and answered readily,--
+
+"Why, that's Frank Evan.  I know him, and
+a deused good fellow he is,--though he don't
+belong to our set, you know."
+
+"Indeed! pray, tell us something about him,
+Mr. Leavenworth.  We met in the cars, and he
+did us a favor or two.  Who and what is the
+man?" asked Mrs. Carroll, relenting at once
+toward a person who was favorably spoken of by
+one who did belong to her "set."
+
+"Well, let me see," began Mr. Joe, whose
+narrative powers were not great." He is a
+bookkeeper in my Uncle Josh Loring's importing
+concern, and a powerful smart man, they say.  There's
+some kind of clever story about his father's leaving
+a load of debts, and Frank's working a deused
+number of years till they were paid.  Good of him,
+wasn't it?  Then, just as he was going to take
+things easier and enjoy life a bit, his mother died,
+and that rather knocked him up, you see.  He fell
+sick, and came to grief generally, Uncle Josh said;
+so he was ordered off to get righted, and here he
+is, looking like a tombstone. I've a regard for
+Frank, for he took care of me through the smallpox
+a year ago, and I don't forget things of that
+sort; so, if you wish to be introduced, Mrs. Carroll,
+I'll trot him out with pleasure, and make a proud
+man of him."
+
+Mrs. Carroll glanced at Debby, and as that
+young lady was regarding Mr. Joe with a friendly
+aspect, owing to the warmth of his words, she
+graciously assented, and the youth departed on his
+errand.  Mr. Evan went through the ceremony
+with a calmness wonderful to behold, considering
+the position of one lady and the charms of the
+other, and soon glided into the conversation with
+the ease of a most accomplished courtier.
+
+"Now I must tear myself away, for I'm engaged
+to that stout Miss Bandoline for this dance.
+She's a friend of my sisLer's, and I must do the
+civil, you know; powerful slow work it is, too, but
+I pity the poor soul,--upon my life, I do;" and
+Mr.  Joe assumed the air of a martyr.
+
+Debby looked up with a wicked smile in her
+eyes, as she said,--
+
+"Ah, that sounds very amiable here; but in five
+minutes you'll be murmuring in Miss Bandoline's
+earm--'I've been pining to come to you this half
+hour, but I was obliged to take out that Miss
+Wilder, you see--countrified little thing enough,
+but not bad-looking, and has a rich aunt; so I've
+done my duty to her, but deuse take me if I can
+stand it any longer."
+
+Mr. Evan joined in Debby's merriment; but
+Mr. Joe was so appalled at the sudden attack that
+he could only stammer a remonstrance and beat a
+hasty retreat, wondering how on earth she came
+to know that his favorite style of making himself
+agreeable to one young lady was by decrying
+another.
+
+"Dora, my love, that is very rude, and 'Deuse'
+is not a proper expression for a woman's lips.
+Pray, restrain your lively tongue, for strangers may
+not understand that it is nothing but the sprightliness
+of your disposition which sometimes runs away with you."
+
+"It was only a quotation, and I thought you
+would admire anything Mr. Leavenworth said,
+Aunt Pen," replied Debby, demurely.
+
+Mrs. Carroll trod on her foot, and abruptly
+changed the conversation, by saying, with an
+appearance of deep interest,--
+
+"Mr. Evan, you are doubtless connected with
+the Malcoms of Georgia; for they, I believe, are
+descended from the ancient Evans of Scotland.
+They are a very wealthy and aristocratic family,
+and I remember seeing their coat-of-arms once:
+three bannocks and a thistle."
+
+Mr. Evan had been standing before them with
+a composure which impressed Mrs. Carroll with a
+belief in his gentle blood, for she remembered her
+own fussy, plebeian husband, whose fortune had
+never been able to purchase him the manners of a
+gentleman.  Mr. Evan only grew a little more
+erect, as he replied, with an untroubled mien,--
+
+"I cannot claim relationship with the Malcoms
+of Georgia or the Evans of Scotland, I believe,
+Madam.  My father was a farmer, my grandfather
+a blacksmith, and beyond that my ancestors
+may have been street-sweepers, for anything I
+know; but whatever they were, I fancy they were
+honest men, for that has always been our boast,
+though, like President Jackson's, our coat-of-arms
+is nothing but 'a pair of shirt-sleeves.'"
+
+From Debby's eyes there shot a bright glance
+of admiration for the young man who could look
+two comely women in the face and serenely own
+that he was poor.  Mrs. Carroll tried to appear at
+ease, and, gliding out of personalities, expatiated
+on the comfort of "living in a land where fame
+and fortune were attainable by all who chose to
+earn them," and the contempt she felt for those
+"who had no sympathy with the humbler classes,
+no interest in the welfare of the race," and many
+more moral reflections as new and original as the
+Multiplication-Table or the Westminster Catechism.
+To all of which Mr. Evan listened with
+polite deference, though there was something in
+the keen intelligence of his eye that made Debby
+blush for shallow Aunt Pen, and rejoice when the
+good lady got out of her depth and seized upon a
+new subject as a drowning mariner would a hen-coop.
+
+"Dora, Mr. Ellenborough is coming this way;
+you have danced with him but once, and he is a
+very desirable partner; so, pray, accept, if he asks
+you," said Mrs. Carroll, watching a far-off individual
+who seemed steering his zigzag course toward them.
+
+"I never intend to dance with Mr. Ellenborough
+again, so please don't urge me, Aunt Pen; "
+and Debby knit her brows with a somewhat irate
+expression.
+
+"My love, you astonish me!  He is a most agreeable 
+and accomplished young man,--spent three years in
+Paris, moves in the first circles, and is considered
+an ornament to fashionable society.
+
+"What can be your objection, Dora?" cried Mrs.
+Carroll, looking as alarmed as if her niece had
+suddenly announced her belief in the Koran.
+
+"One of his accomplishments consists in drinking
+champagne till he is not a 'desirable partner'
+for any young lady with a prejudice in favor of
+decency.  His moving in 'circles' is just what I
+complain of; and if he is an ornament, I prefer
+my society undecorated.  Aunt Pen, I cannot
+make the nice distinctions you would have me,
+and a sot in broadcloth is as odious as one in rags.
+Forgive me, but I cannot dance with that silver-
+labelled decanter again."
+
+Debby was a genuine little piece of womanhood;
+and though she tried to speak lightly, her
+color deepened, as she remembered looks that had
+wounded her like insults, and her indignant eyes
+silenced the excuses rising to her aunt's lips.  Mrs.
+Carroll began to rue the hour she ever undertook
+the guidance of Sister Deborah's headstrong child,
+and for an instant heartily wished she had left her
+to bloom unseen in the shadow of the parsonage;
+but she concealed her annoyance, still hoping to
+overcome the girl's absurd resolve, by saying,
+mildly,--
+
+"As you please, dear; but if you refuse Mr.
+Ellenborough, you will be obliged to sit through
+the dance, which is your favorite, you know."
+
+Debby's countenance fell, for she had forgotten
+that, and the Lancers was to her the crowning
+rapture of the night.  She paused a moment, and
+Aunt Pen brightened; but Debby made her little
+sacrifice to principle as heroically as many a greater
+one had been made, and, with a wistful look down
+the long room, answered steadily, though her foot
+kept time to the first strains as she spoke,--
+
+"Then I will sit, Aunt Pen; for that is preferable
+to staggering about the room with a partner
+who has no idea of the laws of gravitation."
+
+"Shall I have the honor of averting either calamity?"
+said Mr. Evan, coming to the rescue with
+a devotion beautiful to see; for dancing was nearly
+a lost art with him, and the Lancers to a novice is
+equal to a second Labyrinth of Crete.
+
+"Oh, thank you!" cried Debby, tumbling fan,
+bouquet, and handkerchief into Mrs. Carroll's lap,
+with a look of relief that repaid him fourfold for
+the trials he was about to undergo.  They went
+merrily away together, leaving Aunt Pen to wish
+that it was according to the laws of etiquette to
+rap officious gentlemen over the knuckles, when
+they introduce their fingers into private pies
+without permission from the chief cook.  How the
+dance went Debby hardly knew, for the conversation
+fell upon books, and in the interest of her
+favorite theme she found even the "grand square"
+an impertinent interruption, while her own deficiences
+became almost as great as her partner's;
+yet, when the music ended with a flourish, and her
+last curtsy was successfully achieved, she longed
+to begin all over again, and secretly regretted that
+she was engaged four deep.
+
+"How do you like our new acquaintance, Dora?" asked
+Aunt Pen, following Joe Leavenworth with her eye,
+as the "yellow-haired laddie" whirled by with the
+ponderous Miss Flora.
+
+"Very much; and I'm glad we met as we did,
+for it makes things free and easy, and that is so
+agreeable in this ceremonious place," replied
+Debby, looking in quite an opposite direction.
+
+"Well, I'm delighted to hear you say so, dear,
+for I was afraid you had taken a dislike to him,
+and he is really a very charming young man, just
+the sort of person to make a pleasant companion
+for a few weeks.  These little friendships are part
+of the summer's amusement, and do no harm; so
+smile away. Dora, and enjoy yourself while you
+may."
+
+"Yes, Aunt, I certainly will, and all the more
+because I have found a sensible soul to talk to.
+Do you know, he is very witty and well informed,
+though he says he never had much time for self-
+cultivation? But I think trouble makes people
+wise, and he seems to have had a good deal,
+though he leaves it for others to tell of.  I am
+glad you are willing I should know him, for I
+shall enjoy talking about my pet heroes with him
+as a relief from the silly chatter I must keep up
+most of the time."
+
+Mrs. Carroll was a woman of one idea; and
+though a slightly puzzled expression appeared in
+her face, she listened approvingly, and answered,
+with a gracious smile,--
+
+"Of course, I should not object to your knowing
+such a person, my love; but I'd no idea Joe
+Leavenworth was a literary man, or had known
+much trouble, except his father's death and his
+sister Clementina's runaway-marriage with her
+drawing-master."
+
+Debby opened her brown eyes very wide, and
+hastily picked at the down on her fan, but had
+no time to correct her aunt's mistake, for the real
+subject of her commendations appeared at that
+moment, and Mrs. Caroll was immediately absorbed
+in the consumption of a large pink ice.
+
+"That girl is what I call a surprise-party, now,"
+remarked Mr. Joe confidentially to his cigar, as
+he pulled off his coat and stuck his feet up in the
+privacy of his own apartment. "She looks as mild
+as strawberries and cream till you come to the
+complimentary, then she turns on a fellow with
+that deused satirical look of hers, and makes him
+feel like a fool.  I'll try the moral dodge to-morrow
+and see what effect that will have; for she is
+mighty taking, and I must amuse myself somehow,
+you know."
+
+"How many years will it take to change that
+fresh-hearted little girl into a fashionable belle,
+I wonder?" thought Frank Evan, as he climbed
+the four flights that led to his "sky-parlor."
+
+"What a curious world this is!" mused
+Debby, with her nightcap in her hand.  "The
+right seems odd and rude, the wrong respectable
+and easy, and this sort of life a merry-go-round,
+with no higher aim than pleasure.  Well, I have
+made my Declaration of Independence, and Aunt
+Pen must be ready for a Revolution if she taxes
+me too heavily."
+
+As she leaned her hot cheek on her arm,
+Debby's eye fell on the quaint little cap made
+by the motherly hands that never were tired of
+working for her.  She touched it tenderly, and
+love's simple magic swept the gathering shadows
+from her face, and left it clear again, as her
+thoughts flew home like birds into the shelter of
+their nest.
+
+"Good night, mother! I'll face temptation steadily.
+I'll try to take life cheerily, and do nothing that
+shall make your dear face a reproach, when it looks
+into my own again."
+
+Then Debby said her prayers like any pious
+child, and lay down to dream of pulling
+buttercups with Baby Bess, and singing in the
+twilight on her father's knee.
+
+
+
+The history of Debby's first day might serve
+as a sample of most that followed, as week after
+week went by with varying pleasures and increasing
+interest to more than one young debutante.
+
+Mrs. Carroll did her best, but Debby was too
+simple for a belle, too honest for a flirt, too
+independent for a fine lady; she would be nothing
+but her sturdy little self, open as daylight, gay as
+a lark, and blunt as any Puritan.  Poor Aunt
+Pen was in despair, till she observed that the girl
+often "took" with the very peculiarities which
+she was lamenting; this somewhat consoled her,
+and she tried to make the best of the pretty bit
+of homespun which would not and could not become
+velvet or brocade.  Seguin, Ellenborough,
+& Co. looked with lordly scorn upon her, as a
+worm blind to their attractions.  Miss MacRimsy
+and her "set" quizzed her unmercifully behind
+her back, after being worsted in several passages
+of arms; and more than one successful mamma
+condoled with Aunt Pen upon the terribly defective
+education of her charge, till that stout matron
+could have found it in her heart to tweak off their
+caps and walk on them, like the irascible Betsey
+Trotwood.
+
+But Debby had a circle of admirers who loved
+her with a sincerity few summer queens could
+boast; for they were real friends, won by gentle
+arts, and retained by the gracious sweetness of her
+nature.  Moon-faced babies crowed and clapped
+their chubby hands when she passed by their
+wicker-thrones; story-loving children clustered
+round her knee, and never were denied; pale invalids
+found wild-flowers on their pillows; and
+forlorn papas forgot the state of the moneymarket
+when she sang for them the homely airs their
+daughters had no time to learn.  Certain plain
+young ladies poured their woes into her friendly
+ear, and were comforted; several smart Sophomores
+fell into a state of chronic stammer, blush,
+and adoration, when she took a motherly interest
+in their affairs; and a melancholy old Frenchman
+blessed her with the enthusiasm of his nation, because
+she put a posy in the button-hole of his
+rusty coat, and never failed to smile and bow as
+he passed by.  Yet Debby was no Edgworth heroine
+preternaturally prudent, wise, and untemptable;
+she had a fine crop of piques, vanities, and
+dislikes growing up under this new style of cultivation.
+She loved admiration, enjoyed her purple
+and fine linen, hid new-born envy, disappointed
+hope, and wounded pride behind a smiling face,
+and often thought with a sigh of the humdrum
+duties that awaited her at home.  But under the
+airs and graces Aunt Pen cherished with such
+sedulous care, under the flounces and furbelows
+Victorine daily adjusted with groans, under the
+polish which she acquired with feminine ease, the
+girl's heart still beat steadfast and strong, and
+conscience kept watch and ward that no traitor should
+enter in to surprise the citadel which mother-love
+had tried to garrison so well.
+
+In pursuance of his sage resolve,  Mr. Joe tried
+the "moral dodge," as he elegantly expressed it,
+and, failing in that, followed it up with the tragic,
+religious, negligent, and devoted ditto; but acting
+was not his forte, so Debby routed him in all; and
+at last, when he was at his wit's end for an idea,
+she suggested one, and completed her victory by
+saying pleasantly,--
+
+"You took me behind the curtain too soon, and
+now the paste-diamonds and cotton-velvet don't
+impose upon me a bit.  Just be your natural self,
+and we shall get on nicely, Mr. Leavenworth."
+
+The novelty of the proposal struck his fancy,
+and after a few relapses it was carried into effect
+and thenceforth, with Debby, he became the
+simple, good-humored lad Nature designed him
+to be, and, as a proof of it, soon fell very sincerely
+in love.
+
+Frank Evan, seated in the parquet of society,
+surveyed the dress-circle with much the same
+expression that Debby had seen during Aunt Pen's
+oration; but he soon neglected that amusement
+to watch several actors in the drama going on
+before his eyes, while a strong desire to perform a
+part therein slowly took possession of his mind.
+
+Debby always had a look of welcome when he
+came, always treated him with the kindness of a
+generous woman who has had an opportunity to
+forgive, and always watched the serious, solitary
+man with a great compassion for his loss, a growing
+admiration for his upright life.  More than
+once the beach-birds saw two figures pacing the
+sands at sunrise with the peace of early day upon
+their faces and the light of a kindred mood shining
+in their eyes.  More than once the friendly ocean
+made a third in the pleasant conversation, and its
+low undertone came and went between the mellow
+bass and silvery treble of the human voices
+with a melody that lent another charm to interviews
+which soon grew wondrous sweet to man
+and maid.  Aunt Pen seldom saw the twain together,
+seldom spoke of Evan; and Debby held
+her peace, for, when she planned to make her
+innocent confessions, she found that what seemed
+much to her was nothing to another ear  and
+scarcely worth the telling; so, unconscious as yet
+whither the green path led, she went on her way,
+leading two lives, one rich and earnest, hoarded
+deep within herself, the other frivolous and gay
+for all the world to criticize.  But those venerable
+spinsters, the Fates, took the matter into their own
+hands, and soon got the better of those short-sighted
+matrons, Mesdames Grundy and Carroll;
+for, long before they knew it, Frank and Debby
+had begun to read together a book greater than
+Dickens ever wrote, and when they had come to
+the fairest part of the sweet story Adam first told
+Eve, they looked for the name upon the title-page,
+and found that it was "Love."
+
+Fight weeks came and went,--eight wonderfully
+happy weeks to Debby and her friend; for
+"propinquity" had worked more wonders than poor
+Mrs. Carroll knew, as the only one she saw or guessed
+was the utter captivation of Joe Leavenworth.
+He had become "himself" to such an extent that a
+change of identity would have been a relief; for
+the object of his adoration showed no
+signs of relenting, and he began to fear, that, as
+Debby said, her heart was "not in the market."
+She was always friendly, but never made those
+interesting betrayals of regard which are so
+encouraging to youthful gentlemen "who fain would
+climb, yet fear to fall." She never blushed when
+he pressed her hand, never fainted or grew pale
+when he appeared with a smashed trotting-wagon
+and black eye, and actually slept through a
+serenade that would have won any other woman's
+soul out of her body with its despairing quavers.
+Matters were getting desperate; for horses lost
+their charms, "flowing bowls" palled upon his
+lips, ruffled shirt-bosoms no longer delighted him,
+and hops possessed no soothing power to allay
+the anguish of his mind.  Mr. Seguin, after
+unavailing ridicule and pity, took compassion on
+him, and from his large experience suggested a
+remedy, just as he was departing for a more
+congenial sphere.
+
+"Now don't be an idiot, Joe, but, if you want
+to keep your hand in and go through a regular
+chapter of flirtation, just right about face, and
+devote yourself to some one else.  Nothing like
+jealousy to teach womankind their own minds,
+and a touch of it will bring little Wilder round in
+a jiffy.  Try it, my boy, and good luck to you!"
+--with which Christian advice Mr. Seguin slapped
+his pupil on the shoulder, and disappeared, like
+a modern Mephistopheles, in a cloud of cigar-smoke.
+
+"I'm glad he's gone, for in my present state of
+mind he's not up to my mark at all.  I'll try his
+plan, though, and flirt with Clara West; she's
+engaged, so it won't damage her affections; her
+lover isn't here, so it won't disturb his; and, by
+Jove!  I must do something, for I can't stand this
+suspense."
+
+Debby was infinitely relieved by this new move,
+and infinitely amused as she guessed the motive
+that prompted it; but the more contented she
+seemed, the more violently Mr. Joe flirted with her
+rival, till at last weak-minded Miss Clara began to
+think her absent George the most undesirable of
+lovers, and to mourn that she ever said "Yes"
+to a merchant's clerk, when she might have said it
+to a merchant's son.  Aunt Pen watched and approved
+this stratagem, hoped for the best results,
+and believed the day won when Debby grew pale
+and silent, and followed with her eyes the young
+couple who were playing battledoor and shuttle-cock
+with each other's hearts, as if she took some
+interest in the game. But Aunt Pen clashed
+her cymbals too soon; for Debby's trouble had a
+better source than jealousy, and in the silence of
+the sleepless nights that stole her bloom she was
+taking counsel of her own full heart, and resolving
+to serve another woman as she would herself be
+served in a like peril, though etiquette was outraged
+and the customs of polite society turned upside down.
+
+
+
+"Look, Aunt Pen! what lovely shells and moss
+I've got! Such a splendid scramble over the rocks
+as I've had with Mrs. Duncan's boys! It seemed
+so like home to run and sing with a troop of
+topsy-turvy children that it did me good; and I wish you
+had all been there to see." cried Debby, running
+into the drawing-room, one day, where Mrs. Carroll
+and a circle of ladies sat enjoying a dish of
+highly flavored scandal, as they exercised their
+eyesight over fancy-work.
+
+"My dear Dora, spare my nerves; and if you
+have any regard for the proprieties of life, don't go
+romping in the sun with a parcel of noisy boys.  If
+you could see what an object you are, I think you
+would try to imitate Miss Clara, who is always a
+model of elegant repose."
+
+Miss West primmed up her lips, and settled a
+fold in her ninth flounce, as Mrs. Carroll spoke,
+while the whole group fixed their eyes with
+dignified disapproval on the invader of their refined
+society.  Debby had come like a fresh wind into
+a sultry room; but no one welcomed the healthful
+visitant, no one saw a pleasant picture in the
+bright-faced girl with windtossed hair and rustic
+hat heaped with moss and many-tinted shells; they
+only saw that her gown was wet, her gloves forgotten,
+and her scarf trailing at her waist in a manner no
+well-bred lady could approve.  The sunshine faded out
+of Debby's face, and there was a touch of bitterness
+in her tone, as she glanced at the circle of fashion-plates,
+saying with an earnestness which caused Miss West to
+open her pale eyes to their widest extent,--
+
+"Aunt Pen, don't freeze me yet,--don't take
+away my faith in simple things, but let me be a
+child a little longer,--let me play and sing and keep
+my spirit blithe among the dandelions and the
+robins while I can; for trouble comes soon enough,
+and all my life will be the richer and the better for
+a happy youth."
+
+Mrs. Carroll had nothing at hand to offer in
+reply to this appeal, and four ladies dropped their
+work to stare; but Frank Evan looked in from
+the piazza, saying, as he beckoned like a boy,--
+
+"I'll play with you, Miss Dora; come and make
+sand pies upon the shore.  Please let her, Mrs.
+Carroll; we'll be very good, and not wet our
+pinafores or feet."
+
+Without waiting for permission, Debby poured
+her treasures into the lap of a certain lame Freddy,
+and went away to a kind of play she had never
+known before.  Quiet as a chidden child, she
+walked beside her companion, who looked down
+at the little figure, longing to take it on his knee
+and call the sunshine back again.  That he dared
+not do; but accident, the lover's friend, performed
+the work, and did him a good turn beside.  The
+old Frenchman was slowly approaching, when a
+frolicsome wind whisked off his hat and sent it
+skimming along the beach.  In spite of her late
+lecture, away went Debby, and caught the truant
+chapeau just as a wave was hurrying up to claim
+it. This restored her cheerfulness, and when she
+returned, she was herself again.
+
+"A thousand thanks; but does Mademoiselle
+remember the forfeit I might demand to add to the
+favor she has already done me?" asked the gallant
+old gentleman, as Debby took the hat off
+her own head, and presented it with a martial
+salute.
+
+"Ah, I had forgotten that; but you may claim
+[text missing in original copy]
+do something more to give you pleasure;" and
+Debby looked up into the withered face which
+had grown familiar to her, with kind eyes, full
+of pity and respect.
+
+Her manner touched the old man very much;
+he bent his gray head before her, saying,
+gratefully,--
+
+"My child, I am not good enough to salute
+these blooming checks; but I shall pray the Virgin
+to reward you for the compassion you bestow on
+the poor exile, and I shall keep your memory very
+green through all my life."
+
+He kissed her hand, as if it were a queen's,
+and went on his way, thinking of the little daughter
+whose death left him childless in a foreign land.
+
+Debby softly began to sing, "Oh, come unto
+the yellow sands! " but stopped in the middle of
+a line, to say,--
+
+"Shall I tell you why I did what Aunt Pen
+would call a very unladylike and improper thing,
+Mr. Evans? "
+
+"If you will be so kind;" and her companion
+looked delighted at the confidence about to be
+reposed in him.
+
+"Somewhere across this great wide sea I hope
+I have a brother," Debby said, with softened voice
+and a wistful look into the dim horizon." Five
+years ago he left us, and we have never heard
+from him since, except to know that he landed
+safely in Australia.  People tell us he is dead; but
+I believe he will yet come home; and so I love to
+help and pity any man who needs it, rich or poor,
+young or old, hoping that as I do by them some
+tender-hearted woman far away will do by Brother
+Will."
+
+As Debby spoke, across Frank Evan's face
+there passed the look that seldom comes but once
+to any young man's countenance; for suddenly
+the moment dawned when love asserted its supremacy,
+and putting pride, doubt, and fear underneath
+its feet, ruled the strong heart royally and bent it
+to its will.  Debby's thoughts had floated across
+the sea; but they came swiftly back when her
+companion spoke again, steadily and slow, but
+with a subtile change in tone and manner which
+arrested them at once.
+
+"Miss Dora, if you should meet a man who
+had known a laborious youth, a solitary manhood,
+who had no sweet domestic ties to make home
+beautiful and keep his nature warm, who longed
+most ardently to be so blessed, and made it the aim
+of his life to grow more worthy the good gift,
+should it ever come,--if you should learn that you
+possessed the power to make this fellow-creature's
+happiness, could you find it in your gentle heart
+to take compassion on him for the love of 'Brother
+Will'?"
+
+Debby was silent, wondering why heart and
+nerves and brain were stirred by such a sudden
+thrill, why she dared not look up, and why, when
+she desired so much to speak, she could only
+answer, in a voice that sounded strange to her own
+ears,--
+
+"I cannot tell."
+
+Still, steadily and slow, with strong emotion
+deepening and softening his voice, the lover at her
+side went on,--
+
+"Will you ask yourself this question in some quiet
+hour?  For such a man has lived in the sunshine of
+your presence for eight happy weeks, and
+now, when his holiday is done, he finds that the
+old solitude will be more sorrowful than ever,
+unless he can discover whether his summer dream
+will change into a beautiful reality.  Miss Dora,
+I have very little to offer you; a faithful heart to
+cherish you, a strong arm to work for you, an
+honest name to give into your keeping,--these are
+all; but if they have any worth in your eyes, they
+are most truly yours forever."
+
+Debby was steadying her voice to reply, when
+a troop of bathers came shouting down the bank,
+and she took flight into her dressing-room, there
+to sit staring at the wall, till the advent of Aunt
+Pen forced her to resume the business of the hour
+by assuming her aquatic attire and stealing shyly
+down into the surf.
+
+Frank Evan, still pacing in the footprints they
+had lately made, watched the lithe figure tripping
+to and fro, and, as he looked, murmured to himself
+the last line of a ballad Debby sometimes sang,--
+
+"Dance light! for my heart it lies under your feet, love!"
+
+Presently a great wave swept Debby up, and
+stranded her very near him, much to her confusion
+and his satisfaction. Shaking the spray out of her
+eyes, she was hurrying away, when Frank said,--
+
+"You will trip, Miss Dora; let me tie these
+strings for you;" and, suiting the action to the
+word, he knelt down and began to fasten the cords
+of her bathing shoe.
+
+Debby stood Looking down at the tall head bent
+before her, with a curious sense of wonder that a
+look from her could make a strong man flush and
+pale, as he had done; and she was trying to concoct
+some friendly speech, when Frank, still fumbling
+at the knots, said, very earnestly and low,--
+
+"Forgive me, if I am selfish in pressing for an
+answer; but I must go to-morrow, and a single
+word will change my whole future for the better
+or the worse.  Won't you speak it, Dora?"
+
+If they had been alone, Debby would have put
+her arms about his neck, and said it with all her
+heart; but she had a presentiment that she should
+cry, if her love found vent; and here forty pairs
+of eyes were on them, and salt water seemed
+superfluous.  Besides, Debby had not breathed the air
+of coquetry so long without a touch of the infection;
+and the love of power, that lies dormant in
+the meekest woman's breast, suddenly awoke and
+tempted her.
+
+"If you catch me before I reach that rock,
+perhaps I will say 'Yes,'" was her unexpected
+answer; and before her lover caught her meaning,
+she was floating leisurely away.
+
+Frank was not in bathing-costume, and Debby
+never dreamed that he would take her at her
+word; but she did not know the man she had to
+deal with; for, taking no second thought, he flung
+hat and coat away, and dashed into the sea.  This
+gave a serious aspect to Debby's foolish jest.  A
+feeling of dismay seized her, when she saw a
+resolute face dividing the waves behind her, and
+thought of the rash challenge she had given; but
+she had a spirit of her own, and had profited well
+by Mr. Joe's instructions: so she drew a long
+breath, and swam as if for life, instead of love.
+Evan was incumbered by his clothing, and Debby
+had much the start of him; but, like a second
+Leander, he hoped to win his Hero, and, lending
+every muscle to the work, gained rapidly upon
+the little hat which was his beacon through the
+foam.  Debby heard the deep breathing drawing
+nearer and nearer, as her pursuer's strong arms
+cleft the water and sent it rippling past her lips,
+something like terror took possession of her; for
+the strength seemed going out of her limbs, and
+the rock appeared to recede before her; but the
+unconquerable blood of the Pilgrims was in her
+veins, and "Nil desperandum" her motto; so,
+setting her teeth, she muttered, defiantly,--
+
+"I'll not be beaten, if I go to the bottom!"
+
+A great splashing arose, and when Evan recovered
+the use of his eyes, the pagoda-hat had
+taken a sudden turn, and seemed making for the
+farthest point of the goal. "I am sure of her
+now," thought Frank; and, like a gallant seagod,
+he bore down upon his prize, clutching it with a
+shout of triumph.  But the hat was empty, and like
+a mocking echo came Debby's laugh, as she
+climbed, exhausted, to a cranny in the rock.
+
+"A very neat thing, by Jove! Deuse take me
+if you a'n't 'an honor to your teacher, and a terror
+to the foe,' Miss Wilder," cried Mr. Joe, as he
+came up from a solitary cruise and dropped anchor
+at her side.  "Here, bring along the hat, Evan;
+I'm going to crown the victor with apropriate
+what-d'ye-call-'ems," he continued, pulling a handful
+of sea-weed that looked like well-boiled greens.
+
+Frank came up, smiling; but his lips were white,
+and in his eye a look Debby could not meet; so,
+being full of remorse, she naturally assumed an air
+of gayety, and began to sing the merriest air she
+knew, merely because she longed to throw herself
+upon the stones and cry violently.
+
+"It was 'most as exciting as a regatta, and you
+pulled well, Evan; but you had too much ballast
+aboard, and Miss Wilder ran up false colors just
+in time to save her ship.  What was the wager?"
+asked the lively Joseph, complacently surveying
+his marine millinery, which would have scandalized
+a fashionable mermaid.
+
+"Only a trifle," answered Debby, knotting up
+her braids with a revengeful jerk.
+
+"It's taken the wind out of your sails, I fancy,
+Evan, for you look immensely Byronic with the
+starch minus in your collar and your hair in a
+poetic toss.  Come, I'll try a race with you; and
+Miss Wilder will dance all the evening with the
+winner.  Bless the man, what's he doing down
+there?  Burying sunfish, hey?"
+
+Frank had been sitting below them on a narrow
+strip of sand, absently piling up a little mound
+that bore some likeness to a grave.  As his
+companion spoke, he looked at it, and a sudden flush
+of feeling swept across his face, as he replied,--
+
+"No, only a dead hope."
+
+"Deuse take it, yes, a good many of that sort
+of craft founder in these waters, as I know to my
+sorrow;" and, sighing tragically.  Mr. Joe turned
+to help Debby from her perch, but she had glided
+silently into the sea, and was gone.
+
+For the next four hours the poor girl suffered
+the sharpest pain she had ever known; for now
+she clearly saw the strait her folly had betrayed
+her into. Frank Evan was a proud man, and
+would not ask her love again, believing she had
+tacitly refused it; and how could she tell him that
+she had trifled with the heart she wholly loved and
+longed to make her own?  She could not confide
+in Aunt Pen, for that worldly lady would have
+no sympathy to bestow. She longed for her
+mother; but there was no time to write, for Frank
+was going on the morrow, --might even then be
+gone; and as this fear came over her, she covered
+up her face and wished that she were dead.  Poor
+Debby! her last mistake was sadder than her first,
+and she was reaping a bitter harvest from her summer's
+sowing.  She sat and thought till her cheeks
+burned and her temples throbbed; but she dared
+not ease her pain with tears.  The gong sounded
+like a Judgment-Day trump of doom, and she
+trembled at the idea of confronting many eyes with
+such a telltale face; but she could not stay behind,
+for Aunt Pen must know the cause.  She tried to
+play her hard part well; but wherever she looked,
+some fresh anxiety appeared, as if every fault and
+folly of those months had blossomed suddenly
+within the hour. She saw Frank Evan more
+sombre and more solitary than when she met him
+first, and cried regretfully within herself, "How
+could I so forget the truth I owed him? -- She
+saw Clara West watching with eager eyes for the
+coming of young Leavenworth, and sighed, -- "This
+is the fruit of my wicked vanity!" She saw Aunt
+Pen regarded her with an anxious face, and longed
+to say, "Forgive me, for I have not been sincere!"
+At last, as her trouble grew, she resolved to go
+away and have a quiet "think,"--a remedy which
+had served her in many a lesser perplexity; so,
+stealing out, she went to a grove of cedars usually
+deserted at that hour.  But in ten minutes Joe
+Leavenworth appeared at the door of the summer
+house, and, looking in, said, with a well-acted
+start of pleasure and surprise,--
+
+"Beg pardon, I thought there was no one here,
+My dear Miss Wilder, you look contemplative;
+but I fancy it wouldn't do to ask the subject of
+your meditations, would it?"
+
+He paused with such an evident intention of
+remaining that Debby resolved to make use of the
+moment, and ease her conscience of one care that
+burdened it; therefore she answered his question
+with her usual directness,--
+
+"My meditations were partly about you."
+
+Mr. Joe was guilty of the weakness of blushing
+violently and looking immensely gratified; but
+his rapture was of short duration, for Debby went
+on very earnestly,--
+
+"I believe I am going to do what you may
+consider a very impertinent thing; but I would
+rather be unmannerly than unjust to others or
+untrue to my own sense of right.  Mr. Leavenworth,
+if you were an older man, I should not dare to say
+this to you; but I have brothers of my own, and,
+remembering how many unkind things they do for
+want of thought, I venture to remind you that a
+woman's heart is a perilous plaything, and too tender
+to be used for a selfish purpose or an hour's
+pleasure.  I know this kind of amusement is not
+considered wrong; but it is wrong, and I cannot
+shut my eyes to the fact, or sit silent while another
+woman is allowed to deceive herself and wound
+the heart that trusts her. Oh, if you love your
+own sisters, be generous, be just, and do not
+destroy that poor girl's happiness, but go away
+before your sport becomes a bitter pain to her!"
+
+Joe Leavenworth had stood staring at Debby
+with a troubled countenance, feeling as if all the
+misdemeanors of his life were about to be paraded
+before him; but, as he listened to her plea, the
+womanly spirit that prompted it appealed more
+loudly than her words, and in his really generous
+heart he felt regret for what had never seemed
+a fault before.  Shallow as he was, nature was
+stronger than education, and he admired and
+accepted what many a wiser, worldlier man would
+have resented with anger or contempt.  He loved
+Debby with all his little might; he meant to tell
+her so, and graciously present his fortune and
+himself for her acceptance; but now, when the
+moment came, the well-turned speech he had prepared
+vanished from his memory, and with the
+better eloquence of feeling he blundered out his
+passion like a very boy.
+
+"Miss Dora, I never meant to make trouble between
+Clara and her lover; upon my soul, I didn't,
+and wish Seguin had not put the notion into my
+head, since it has given you pain.  I only tried to
+pique you into showing some regret, when I
+neglected you; but you didn't, and then I got
+desperate and didn't care what became of any one.
+Oh, Dora, if you knew how much I loved you, I
+am sure you'd forgive it, and let me prove my
+repentance by giving up everything that you dislike.
+I mean what I say; upon my life I do; and I'll
+keep my word, if you will only let me hope."
+
+If Debby had wanted a proof of her love for
+Frank Evan, she might have found it in the fact
+that she had words enough at her command now,
+and no difficulty in being sisterly pitiful toward
+her second suitor.
+
+"Please get up," she said; for Mr. Joe, feeling
+very humble and very earnest, had gone down
+upon his knees, and sat there entirely regardless
+of his personal apearance.
+
+He obeyed; and Debby stood looking up at
+him with her kindest aspect, as she said, more
+tenderly than she had ever spoken to him before,--
+
+"Thank you for the affection you offer me, but
+I cannot accept it, for I have nothing to give you
+in return but the friendliest regard, the most sincere
+good-will.  I know you will forgive me, and do
+for your own sake the good things you would have
+done for mine, that I may add to my esteem a real
+respect for one who has been very kind to me."
+
+"I'll try,--indeed, I will, Miss Dora, though
+it will be powerful hard without yourself for a
+help and a reward."
+
+Poor Joe choked a little, but called up an
+unexpected manliness, and added, stoutly,--
+
+"Don't think I shall be offended at your speaking
+so or saying 'No' to me,--not a bit; it's all
+right, and I'm much obliged to you.  I might have
+known you couldn't care for such a fellow as I am,
+and don't blame you, for nobody in the world
+is good enough for you.  I'll go away at once,
+I'll try to keep my promise, and I hope you'll be
+very happy all your life."
+
+He shook Debby's bands heartily, and hurried
+down the steps, but at the bottom paused and
+looked back. Debby stood upon the threshold
+with sunshine dancing on her winsome face, and
+kind words trembling on her lips; for the moment
+it seemed impossible to part, and, with an
+impetuous gesture, he cried to her,--
+
+"Oh, Dora, let me stay and try to win you!
+for everything is possible to love, and I never
+knew how dear you were to me till now!"
+
+There were sudden tears in the young man's
+eyes, the flush of a genuine emotion on his cheek,
+the tremor of an ardent longing in his voice, and,
+for the first time, a very true affection strengthened
+his whole countenance.  Debby's heart was full of
+penitence; she had given so much pain to more than
+one that she longed to atone for it--longed to do
+some very friendly thing, and soothe some trouble
+such as she herself had known.  She looked into
+the eager face uplifted to her own and thought
+of Will, then stooped and touched her lover's
+forehead with the lips that softly whispered, "No."
+
+If she had cared for him, she never would
+have done it; poor Joe knew that, and murmuring
+an incoherent "Thank you!" he rushed away,
+feeling very much as he remembered to have felt
+when his baby sister died and he wept his grief
+away upon his mother's neck.  He began his
+preparations for departure at once, in a burst of
+virtuous energy quite refreshing to behold, thinking
+within himself, as he flung his cigar-case into the
+grate, kicked a billiard-ball into a corner, and
+suppressed his favorite allusion to the Devil,--
+
+"This is a new sort of thing to me, but I can
+bear it, and upon my life I think I feel the better
+for it already."
+
+And so he did; for though he was no Augustine
+to turn in an hour from worldly hopes and climb
+to sainthood through long years of inward strife,
+yet in aftertimes no one knew how many false
+steps had been saved, how many small sins repented
+of, through the power of the memory that
+far away a generous woman waited to respect him,
+and in his secret soul he owned that one of the best
+moments of his life was that in which little Debby
+Wilder whispered "No," and kissed him.
+
+As he passed from sight, the girl leaned her
+head upon her hand, thinking sorrowfully to herself,--
+
+"What right had I to censure him, when my
+own actions are so far from true?  I have done a
+wicked thing, and as an honest girl I should undo
+it, if I can.  I have broken through the rules of a
+false propriety for Clara's sake; can I not do as
+much for Frank's?  I will. I'll find him, if I
+search the house,--and tell him all, though I never
+dare to look him in the face again, and Aunt Pen
+sends me home to-morrow."
+
+Full of zeal and courage, Debby caught up her
+hat and ran down the steps, but, as she saw Frank
+Evan coming up the path, a sudden panic fell
+upon her, and she could only stand mutely waiting
+his approach.
+
+It is asserted that Love is blind; and on the
+strength of that popular delusion novel heroes and
+heroines go blundering through three volumes of
+despair with the plain truth directly under their
+absurd noses: but in real life this theory is not
+supported; for to a living man the countenance of a
+loving woman is more eloquent than any language,
+more trustworthy than a world of proverbs, more
+beautiful than the sweetest love-lay ever sung.
+
+Frank looked at Debby, and "all her heart
+stood up in her eyes," as she stretched her hands
+to him, though her lips only whispered very
+low,--
+
+"Forgive me, and let me say the 'Yes' I
+should have said so long ago."
+
+Had she required any assurance of her lover's
+truth, or any reward for her own, she would have
+found it in the change that dawned so swiftly in
+his face, smoothing the lines upon his forehead,
+lighting the gloom of his eye, stirring his firm lips
+with a sudden tremor, and making his touch as soft
+as it was strong.  For a moment both stood very
+still, while Debby's tears streamed down like
+summer rain; then Frank drew her into the green
+shadow of the grove, and its peace soothed her
+like a mother's voice, till she looked up smiling
+with a shy delight her glance had never known
+before.  The slant sunbeams dropped a benediction
+on their heads, the robins peeped, and the
+cedars whispered, but no rumor of what further
+passed ever went beyond the precincts of the
+wood; for such hours are sacred, and Nature
+guards the first blossoms of a human love as
+tenderly as she nurses May-flowers underneath
+the leaves.
+
+
+
+Mrs. Carroll had retired to her bed with a
+nervous headache, leaving Debby to the watch
+and ward of friendly Mrs. Earle, who performed
+her office finely by letting her charge entirely alone.
+In her dreams Aunt Pen was just imbibing a copious
+draught of champagne at the wedding-breakfast of
+her niece, "Mrs. Joseph Leavenworth,"
+when she was roused by the bride elect, who
+passed through the room with a lamp and a shawl
+in her hand.
+
+"What time is it, and where are you going,
+dear?" she asked, dozily wondering if the carriage
+for the wedding-tour was at the door so soon.
+
+"It's only nine, and I am going for a sail, Aunt
+Pen."
+
+As Debby spoke, the light flashed full into her
+face, and a sudden thought into Mrs. Carroll's
+mind.  She rose up from her pillow, looking as
+stately in her night-cap as Maria Theresa is said
+to have done in like unassuming head-gear.
+
+"Something has happened, Dora!  What have
+you done?  What have you said?  I insist upon
+knowing immediately," she demanded, with somewhat
+startling brevity.
+
+"I have said 'No' to Mr. Leavenworth and 'Yes' to
+Mr. Evan; and I should like to go home to-morrow,
+if you please," was the equally concise reply.
+
+Mrs. Carroll fell flat in her bed, and lay
+there stiff and rigid as Morlena Kenwigs.  Debby
+gently drew the curtains, and stole away leaving
+Aunt Pen's wrath to effervesce before morning.
+
+The moon was hanging luminous and large on
+the horizon's edge, sending shafts of light before
+her till the melancholy ocean seemed to smile, and
+along that shining pathway happy Debby and her
+lover floated into that new world where all things
+seem divine.
+
+
+THE BROTHERS.
+
+Doctor Franck came in as I sat sewing up the
+rents in an old shirt, that Tom might go tidily to his
+grave.  New shirts were needed for the living, and
+there was no wife or mother to "dress him handsome
+when he went to meet the Lord," as one
+woman said, describing the fine funeral she had
+pinched herself to give her son.
+
+"Miss Dane, I'm in a quandary," began the
+Doctor, with that expression of countenance which
+says as plainly as words, "I want to ask a favor,
+but I wish you'd save me the trouble."
+
+"Can I help you out of it?
+
+"Faith!  I don't like to propose it. but you
+certainly can, if you please."
+
+"Then give it a name, I beg."
+
+"You see a Reb has just been brought in crazy
+with typhoid; a bad case every way; a drunken,
+rascally little captain somebody took the trouble
+to capture, but whom nobody wants to take the
+trouble to cure.  The wards are full, the ladies
+worked to death, and willing to be for our own
+boys, but rather slow to risk their lives for a Reb.
+Now you've had the fever, you like queer patients,
+your mate will see to your ward for a while, and I
+will find you a good attendant.  The fellow won't
+last long, I fancy; but he can't die without some
+sort of care, you know.  I've put him in the fourth
+story of the west wing, away from the rest.  It is
+airy, quiet, and comfortable there. I'm on that
+ward, and will do my best for you in every way.
+Now, then, will you go?"
+
+"Of course I will, out of perversity, if not common
+charity; for some of these people think that
+because I'm an abolitionist I am also a heathen,
+and I should rather like to show them, that, though
+I cannot quite love my enemies, I am willing to
+take care of them."
+
+"Very good; I thought you'd go; and speaking
+of abolition reminds me that you can have a contraband
+for servant, if you like. It is that fine
+mulatto fellow who was found burying his Rebel
+master after the fight, and, being badly cut over
+the head, our boys brought him along.  Will you
+have him?"
+
+"By all means,--for I'll stand to my guns on
+that point, as on the other; these black boys are
+far more faithful and handy than some of the white
+scamps given me to serve, instead of being served
+by. But is this man well enough?"
+
+"Yes, for that sort of work, and I think you'll
+like him.  He must have been a handsome fellow
+before he got his face slashed; not much darker
+than myself; his master's son, I dare say, and the
+white blood makes him rather high and haughty
+about some things.  He was in a bad way when
+he came in, but vowed he'd die in the street rather
+than turn in with the black fellows below; so I
+put him up in the west wing, to be out of the way,
+and he's seen to the captain all the morning.
+When can you go up?"
+
+"As soon as Tom is laid out, Skinner moved,
+Haywood washed, Marble dressed, Charley
+rubbed, Downs taken up, Upham laid down, and
+the whole forty fed."
+
+We both laughed, though the Doctor was on
+his way to the dead-house and I held a shroud on
+my lap.  But in a hospital one learns that cheerfulness
+is one's salvation; for, in an atmosphere of
+suffering and death, heaviness of heart would soon
+paralyze usefulness of hand, if the blessed gift of
+smiles had been denied us.
+
+In an hour I took possession of my new charge,
+finding a dissipated-looking boy of nineteen or
+twenty raving in the solitary little room, with no
+one near him but the contraband in the room adjoining.
+Feeling decidedly more interest in the
+black man than in the white, yet remembering the
+Doctor's hint of his being "high and haughty," I
+glanced furtively at him as I scattered chloride of
+lime about the room to purify the air, and settled
+matters to suit myself.  I had seen many contrabands,
+but never one so attractive as this.  All
+colored men are called "boys," even if their heads
+are white; this boy was five-and-twenty at least,
+strong-limbed and manly, and had the look of one
+who never had been cowed by abuse or worn with
+oppressive labor.  He sat on his bed doing nothing;
+no book, no pipe, no pen or paper anywhere
+appeared, yet anything less indolent or listless than
+his attitude and expression I never saw.  Erect he
+sat with a hand on either knee, and eyes fixed on
+the bare wall opposite, so rapt in some absorbing
+thought as to be unconscious of my presence,
+though the door stood wide open and my movements
+were by no means noiseless.  His face was
+half averted, but I instantly approved the Doctor's
+taste, for the profile which I saw possessed all the
+attributes of comeliness belonging to his mixed race.
+He was more quadroon than mulatto, with Saxon
+features, Spanish complexion darkened by exposure,
+color in lips and cheek, waving hair, and
+an eye full of the passionate melancholy which in
+such men always seems to utter a mute protest
+against the broken law that doomed them at their
+birth.  What could he be thinking of? The sick
+boy cursed and raved, I rustled to and fro, steps
+passed the door, bells rang, and the steady rumble
+of army-wagons came up from the street, still he
+never stirred.  I had seen colored people in what
+they call "the black sulks," when, for days, they
+neither smiled nor spoke, and scarcely ate.  But
+this was something more than that; for the man
+was not dully brooding over some small grievance,--
+he seemed to see an all-absorbing fact or fancy
+recorded on the wall, which was a blank to me.
+I wondered if it were some deep wrong or sorrow,
+kept alive by memory and impotent regret; if he
+mourned for the dead master to whom he had been
+faithful to the end; or if the liberty now his were
+robbed of half its sweetness by the knowledge that
+some one near and dear to him still languished in
+the hell from which he had escaped.  My heart
+quite warmed to him at that idea; I wanted to
+know and comfort him; and, following the impulse
+of the moment, I went in and touched him on the
+shoulder.
+
+In an instant the man vanished and the slave
+appeared.  Freedom was too new a boon to have
+wrought its blessed changes yet, and as he started
+up, with his hand at his temple and an obsequious
+"Yes, Ma'am," any romance that had gathered
+round him fled away, leaving the saddest of all
+sad facts in living guise before me.  Not only did
+the manhood seem to die out of him, but the comeliness
+that first attracted me; for, as he turned, I
+saw the ghastly wound that had laid open cheek
+and forehead. Being partly healed, it was no
+longer bandaged, but held together with strips of
+that transparent plaster which I never see without
+a shiver and swift recollections of scenes with
+which it is associated in my mind. Part of his
+black hair had been shorn away, and one eye was
+nearly closed; pain so distorted, and the cruel
+sabre-cut so marred that portion of his face, that,
+when I saw it, I felt as if a fine medal had been
+suddenly reversed, showing me a far more striking
+type of human suffering and wrong than Michel
+Angelo's bronze prisoner.  By one of those inexplicable
+processes that often teach us how little we
+understand ourselves, my purpose was suddenly
+changed, and though I went in to offer comfort as
+a friend, I merely gave an order as a mistress.
+
+"Will you open these windows? this man needs
+more air."
+
+He obeyed at once, and, as he slowly urged up
+the unruly sash, the handsome profile was again
+turned toward me, and again I was possessed by
+my first impression so strongly that I involuntarily
+said,--
+
+"Thank you, Sir."
+
+Perhaps it was fancy, but I thought that in the
+look of mingled surprise and something like
+reproach which be gave me there was also a trace of
+grateful pleasure. But he said, in that tone of
+spiritless humility these poor souls learn so
+soon,--
+
+"I ain't a white man, Ma'am, I'm a contraband."
+
+"Yes, I know it; but a contraband is a free
+man, and I heartily congratulate you."
+
+He liked that; his face shone, he squared his
+shoulders, lifted his head, and looked me full in
+the eye with a brisk--
+
+"Thank ye, Ma'am; anything more to do fer
+yer?"
+
+"Doctor Franck thought you would help me
+with this man, as there are many patients and few
+nurses or attendants.  Have you had the fever?"
+
+"No, Ma'am."
+
+"They should have thought of that when they
+put him here; wounds and fevers should not be
+together. I'll try to get you moved."
+
+He laughed a sudden laugh,--if he had been a
+white man, I should have called it scornful; as he
+was a few shades darker than myself, I suppose it
+must be considered an insolent, or at least an
+unmannerly one.
+
+"It don't matter, Ma'am. I'd rather be up
+here with the fever than down with those niggers;
+and there ain't no other place fer me."
+
+Poor fellow! that was true.  No ward in all
+the hospital would take him in to lie side by side
+with the most miserable white wreck there.  Like
+the bat in Aesop's fable, he belonged to neither
+race; and the pride of one, the helplessness of the
+other, kept him hovering alone in the twilight a
+great sin has brought to overshadow the whole
+land.
+
+"You shall stay, then; for I would far rather
+have you than any lazy Jack.  But are you well
+and strong enough?"
+
+"I guess I'll do, Ma'am."
+
+He spoke with a passive sort of acquiescence,--
+as if it did not much matter, if he were not able,
+and no one would particularly rejoice, if he
+were.
+
+"Yes, I think you will.  By what name shall
+I call you?"
+
+"Bob, Ma'am."
+
+Every woman has her pet whim; one of mine
+was to teach the men self-respect by treating them
+respectfully.  Tom, Dick, and Harry would pass,
+when lads rejoiced in those familiar abbreviations;
+but to address men often old enough to be my
+father in that style did not suit my old-fashioned
+ideas of propriety.  This "Bob" would never do;
+I should have found it as easy to call the chaplain
+"Gus" as my tragical-looking contraband by a
+title so strongly associated with the tail of a kite.
+
+"What is your other name?" I asked. "I like to call my
+attendants by their last names rather than by their first."
+
+"I've got no other, Ma'am; we have our masters' names,
+or do without.  Mine's dead, and I won't have anything
+of his about me."
+
+"Well, I'll call you Robert, then, and you may
+fill this pitcher for me, if you will be so kind."
+
+He went; but, through all the tame, obedience
+years of servitude had taught him, I could see that
+the proud spirit his father gave him was not yet
+subdued, for the look and gesture with which he
+repudiated his master's name were a more effective
+declaration of independence than any Fourth-of-July
+orator could have prepared.
+
+We spent a curious week together.  Robert
+seldom left his room, except upon my errands; and
+I was a prisoner all day, often all night, by the
+bedside of the Rebel.  The fever burned itself rapidly
+away, for there seemed little vitality to feed it in
+the feeble frame of this old young man, whose life
+had been none of the most righteous, judging from
+the revelations made by his unconscious lips; since
+more than once Robert authoritatively silenced
+him, when my gentler bushings were of no avail,
+and blasphemous wanderings or ribald camp-songs
+made my cheeks burn and Robert's face assume
+an aspect of disgust.  The captain was a gentleman
+in the world's eye, but the contraband was
+the gentleman in mine;--I was a fanatic, and that
+accounts for such depravity of taste, I hope. I
+never asked Robert of himself, feeling that somewhere
+there was a spot still too sore to bear the
+lightest touch; but, from his language, manner, and
+intelligence, I inferred that his color had procured
+for him the few advantages within the reach of a
+quick-witted, kindly treated slave.  Silent, grave,
+and thoughtful, but most serviceable, was my contraband;
+glad of the books I brought him, faithful
+in the performance of the duties I assigned to him,
+grateful for the friendliness I could not but feel and
+show toward him.  Often I longed to ask what purpose
+was so visibly altering his aspect with such daily
+deepening gloom.  But I never dared, and no one else
+had either time or desire to pry into the past of this
+specimen of one branch of the chivalrous "F.F.Vs."
+
+On the seventh night, Dr. Franck suggested that
+it would be well for some one, besides the general
+watchman of the ward, to be with the captain, as
+it might be his last.  Although the greater part of
+the two preceding nights had been spent there, of
+course I offered to remain,--for there is a strange
+fascination in these scenes, which renders one
+careless of fatigue and unconscious of fear until the
+crisis is passed.
+
+"Give him water as long as he can drink, and
+if he drops into a natural sleep, it may save him.
+I'll look in at midnight, when some change will
+probably take place. Nothing but sleep or a
+miracle will keep him now.  Good night."
+
+Away went the Doctor; and, devouring a whole
+mouthful of grapes, I lowered the lamp, wet
+the captain's head, and sat down on a hard stool
+to begin my watch.  The captain lay with his
+hot, haggard face turned toward me, filling the air
+with his poisonous breath, and feebly muttering,
+with lips and tongue so parched that the sanest
+speech would have been difficult to understand.
+Robert was stretched on his bed in the inner room,
+the door of which stood ajar, that a fresh draught
+from his open window might carry the fever-fumes
+away through mine.  I could just see a long, dark
+figure, with the lighter outline of a face, and, having
+little else to do just then, I fell to thinking of
+this curious contraband, who evidently prized
+his freedom highly, yet seemed in no haste to
+enjoy it. Doctor Franck had offered to send him on
+to safer quarters, but he had said, "No, thank
+yer, Sir, not yet," and then had gone away to
+fall into one of those black moods of his, which
+began to disturb me, because I had no power to
+lighten them.  As I sat listening to the clocks from
+the steeples all about us, I amused myself with
+planning Robert's future, as I often did my own,
+and had dealt out to him a generous hand of
+trumps wherewith to play this game of life which
+hitherto had gone so cruelly against him, when a
+harsh, choked voice called,--
+
+"Lucy!"
+
+It was the captain, and some new terror seemed
+to have gifted him with momentary strength.
+
+"Yes, here's Lucy," I answered, hoping that
+by following the fancy I might quiet him,--for
+his face was damp with the clammy moisture, and
+his frame shaken with the nervous tremor that so
+often precedes death. His dull eye fixed upon
+me, dilating with a bewildered look of incredulity
+and wrath, till he broke out fiercely.--
+
+"That's a lie! she's dead,--and so's Bob,
+damn him!"
+
+Finding speech a failure, I began to sing the
+quiet tune that had often soothed delirium like
+this; but hardly had the line,
+
+"See gentle patience smile on pain,"
+
+passed my lips, when he clutched me by the wrist,
+whispering like one in mortal fear,--
+
+"Hush! she used to sing that way to Bob, but
+she never would to me. I swore I'd whip the
+Devil out of her, and I did; but you know before
+she cut her throat she said she'd haunt me, and
+there she is!"
+
+He pointed behind me with an aspect of such
+pale dismay, that I involuntarily glanced over
+my shoulder and started as if I had seen a veritable
+ghost; for, peering from the gloom of that inner
+room, I saw a shadowy face, with dark hair all
+about it, and a glimpse of scarlet at the throat.
+An instant showed me that it was only Robert
+leaning from his bed's-foot, wrapped in a gray
+army-blanket, with his red shirt just visible above
+it, and his long hair disordered by sleep.  But
+what a strange expression was on his face!  The
+unmarred side was toward me, fixed and motionless
+as when I first observed it,--less absorbed
+now, but more intent.  His eye glittered, his lips
+were apart like one who listened with every sense,
+and his whole aspect reminded me of a hound to which
+some wind had brought the scent of unsuspected prey.
+
+"Do you know him, Robert?  Does he mean
+you?"
+
+"Lord, no, Ma'am; they all own half a dozen
+Bobs: but hearin' my name woke me; that's all."
+
+He spoke quite naturally, and lay down again,
+while I returned to my charge, thinking that this
+paroxysm was probably his last.  But by another
+hour I perceived a hopeful change, for the tremor
+had subsided, the cold dew was gone, his breathing
+was more regular, and Sleep, the healer, had
+descended to save or take him gently away.
+Doctor Franck looked in at midnight, bade me
+keep all cool and quiet, and not fail to administer
+a certain draught as soon as the captain woke.
+Very much relieved, I laid my head on my arms,
+uncomfortably folded on the little table, and
+fancied I was about to perform one of the feats
+which practice renders possible,--"sleeping with
+one eye open," as we say: a half-and-half doze, for
+all senses sleep but that of hearing; the faintest
+murmur, sigh, or motion will break it, and give
+one back one's wits much brightened by the
+permission to "stand at ease." On this night,
+the experiment was a failure, for previous vigils,
+confinement, and much care had rendered naps
+a dangerous indulgence, Having roused half a
+dozen times in an hour to find all quiet, I dropped
+my heavy head on my arms, and, drowsily resolving
+to look up again in fifteen minutes, fell fast
+asleep.
+
+The striking of a deep-voiced clock woke me
+with a start.  "That is one," thought I, but, to
+my dismay, two more strokes followed; and in
+remorseful haste I sprang up to see what harm my
+long oblivion had done.  A strong hand put me
+back into my seat, and held me there.  It was
+Robert.  The instant my eye met his my heart
+began to beat, and all along my nerves tingled
+that electric flash which foretells a danger that we
+cannot see.  He was very pale, his mouth grim,
+and both eyes full of sombre fire,--for even the
+wounded one was open now, all the more sinister
+for the deep scar above and below.  But his touch
+was steady, his voice quiet, as he said,--
+
+"Sit still, Ma'am; I won't hurt yer, nor even
+scare yer, if I can help it, but yer waked too
+soon."
+
+"Let me go, Robert,--the captain is stirring,
+--I must give him something."
+
+"No, Ma'am, yer can't stir an inch.  Look
+here!"
+
+Holding me with one hand, with the other he
+took up the glass in which I had left the draught,
+and showed me it was empty.
+
+"Has he taken it?" I asked, more and more
+bewildered.
+
+"I flung it out o' winder, Ma'am; he'll have to
+do without."
+
+"But why, Robert? why did you do it?"
+
+"Because I hate him!"
+
+Impossible to doubt the truth of that; his whole
+face showed it, as he spoke through his set teeth,
+and launched a fiery glance at the unconscious
+captain.  I could only hold my breath and stare
+blankly at him, wondering what mad act was coming
+next.  I suppose I shook and turned white, as women
+have a foolish habit of doing when sudden danger
+daunts them; for Robert released my arm, sat down
+upon the bedside just in front of me, and said, with
+the ominous quietude that made me cold to see and hear,--
+
+"Don't yer be frightened, Ma'am: don't try
+to run away, fer the door's locked an' the key
+in my pocket; don't yer cry out, fer yer'd have to
+scream a long while, with my hand on yer mouth,
+before yer was heard.  Be still, an' I'll tell yer
+what I'm goin' to do."
+
+"Lord help us! he has taken the fever in some
+sudden, violent way, and is out of his head.  I
+must humor him till some one comes"; in pursuance
+of which swift determination, I tried to say,
+quite composedly,--
+
+"I will be still and hear you; but open the
+window.  Why did you shut it?"
+
+"I'm sorry I can't do it, Ma'am; but yer'd
+jump out, or call, if I did, an' I'm not ready yet.
+I shut it to make yer sleep, an' heat would do it
+quicker'n anything else I could do."
+
+The captain moved, and feebly muttered,
+"Water!" Instinctively I rose to give it to him,
+but the heavy hand came down upon my shoulder,
+and in the same decided tone Robert said,-=
+
+"The water went with the physic; let him
+call."
+
+"Do let me go to him! he'll die without
+care!"
+
+"I mean he shall;--don't yer interfere, if yer
+please, Ma'am."
+
+In spite of his quiet tone and respectful manner,
+I saw murder in his eyes, and turned faint with
+fear; yet the fear excited me, and, hardly knowing
+what I did, I seized the hands that had seized me,
+crying,--
+
+"No, no, you shall not kill him! it is base to
+hurt a helpless man.  Why do you hate him?
+He is not your master?"
+
+"He's my brother."
+
+I felt that answer from head to foot. and
+seemed to fathom what was coming, with a
+prescience vague, but unmistakable.  One appeal
+was left to me, and I made it.
+
+"Robert, tell me what it means? Do not
+commit a crime and make me accessory to it--
+There is a better way of righting wrong than by
+violence;--let me help you find it."
+
+My voice trembled as I spoke, and I heard the
+frightened flutter of my heart; so did he, and if
+any little act of mine had ever won affection or
+respect from him, the memory of it served me
+then.  He looked down, and seemed to put some
+question to himself; whatever it was, the answer
+was in my favor, for when his eyes rose again,
+they were gloomy, but not desperate.
+
+"I will tell you, Ma'am; but mind, this makes
+no difference; the boy is mine.  I'll give the Lord
+a chance to take him fust; if He don't, I shall."
+
+"Oh, no! remember, he is your brother."
+
+An unwise speech; I felt it as it passed my lips,
+for a black frown gathered on Robert's face, and
+his strong hands closed with an ugly sort of grip.
+But he did not touch the poor soul gasping there
+before him, and seemed content to let the slow
+suffocation of that stifling room end his frail life.
+
+"I'm not like to forget that, Ma'am, when I've
+been thinkin' of it all this week.  I knew him when
+they fetched him in, an' would 'a' done it long
+'fore this, but I wanted to ask where Lucy was;
+he knows,--he told to-night,--an' now he's done
+for."
+
+"Who is Lucy?" I asked hurriedly, intent on
+keeping his mind busy with any thought but
+murder.
+
+With one of the swift transitions of a mixed
+temperament like this, at my question Robert's
+deep eyes filled, the clenched hands were spread
+before his face, and all I heard were the broken
+words,--
+
+"My wife,--he took her--"
+
+In that instant every thought of fear was swallowed
+up in burning indignation for the wrong,
+and a perfect passion of pity for the desperate man
+so tempted to avenge an injury for which there
+seemed no redress but this. He was no longer
+slave or contraband, no drop of black blood
+marred him in my sight, but an infinite compassion
+yearned to save, to help, to comfort him.
+Words seemed so powerless I offered none, only
+put my hand on his poor head, wounded, homeless,
+bowed down with grief for which I had no
+cure, and softly smoothed the long neglected hair,
+pitifully wondering the while where was the
+wife who must have loved this tender-hearted man
+so well.
+
+The captain moaned again, and faintly whispered,
+"Air!" but I never stirred.  God forgive me!
+just then I hated him as only a woman thinking
+of a sister woman's wrong could hate.  Robert
+looked up; his eyes were dry again, his mouth
+grim.  I saw that, said, "Tell me more," and he
+did,--for sympathy is a gift the poorest may give,
+the proudest stoop to receive.
+
+"Yer see, Ma'am, his father,--I might say
+ours, if I warn't ashamed of both of 'em,--his
+father died two years ago, an' left us all to
+Marster Ned,--that's him here, eighteen then.   He
+always hated me, I looked so like old Marster: he
+don't--only the light skin an' hair.  Old Marster
+was kind to all of us, me 'specially, an' bought
+Lucy off the next plantation down there in South
+Car'lina, when he found I liked her.  I married
+her, all I could, Ma'am; it warn't much, but we
+was true to one another till Marster Ned come
+home a year after an' made hell fer both of us.
+He sent my old mother to be used up in his
+rice swamp in Georgy; he found me with my pretty
+Lucy, an' though young Miss cried, an' I prayed
+to him on my knees, an' Lucy run away, he
+wouldn't have no mercy; he brought her back,
+an'--took her, Ma'am."
+
+"Oh! what did you do?" I cried, hot with
+helpless pain and passion.
+
+How the man's outraged heart sent the blood
+flaming up into his face and deepened the tones
+of his impetuous voice, as he stretched his arm
+across the bed, saying, with a terribly expressive
+gesture,--
+
+"I half murdered him, an' to-night I'll finish."
+
+"Yes, yes,--but go on now; what came next?"
+
+He gave me a look that showed no white man could
+have felt a deeper degradation in remembering and
+confessing these last acts of brotherly
+oppression.
+
+"They whipped me till I couldn't stand, an'
+then they sold me further South. Yer thought
+I was a white man once;--look here!"
+
+With a sudden wrench he tore the shirt from
+neck to waist, and on his strong brown shoulders
+showed me furrows deeply ploughed, wounds
+which, though healed, were ghastlier to me than
+any in that house.  I could not speak to him, and,
+with the pathetic dignity a great grief lends the
+humblest sufferer, he ended his brief tragedy by
+simply saying,--
+
+"That's all.  Ma'am.  I've never seen her since,
+an' now I never shall in this world,--maybe not
+in t' other."
+
+"But, Robert, why think her dead?  The
+captain was wandering when he said those sad
+things; perhaps he will retract them when he is
+sane.  Don't despair; don't give up yet."
+
+"No, Ma'am, I guess he's right; she was too
+proud to bear that long.  It's like her to kill
+herself.  I told her to, if there was no other way;
+an' she always minded me, Lucy did.  My poor
+girl!  Oh, it warn't right! No, by God, it warn't!"
+
+As the memory of this bitter wrong, this
+double bereavement, burned in his sore heart, the
+devil that lurks in every strong man's blood leaped
+up; he put his hand upon his brother's throat, and,
+watching the white face before him, muttered low
+between his teeth,--
+
+"I'm lettin' him go too easy; there's no pain in
+this; we a'n't even yet.  I wish he knew me.
+Marster Ned! it's Bob; where's Lucy?"
+
+From the captain's lips there came a long faint
+sigh, and nothing but a flutter of the eyelids
+showed that he still lived.  A strange stillness
+filled the room as the elder brother held the
+younger's life suspended in his hand, while wavering
+between a dim hope and a deadly hate.  In
+the whirl of thoughts that went on in my brain,
+only one was clear enough to act upon.  I must
+prevent murder, if I could,--but how?  What
+could I do up there alone, locked in with a dying
+man and a lunatic?--for any mind yielded utterly
+to any unrighteous impulse is mad while the impulse
+rules it. Strength I had not, nor much
+courage, neither time nor wit for stratagem, and
+chance only could bring me help before it was
+too late.  But one weapon I possessed,--a tongue,
+--often a woman's best defence: and sympathy,
+stronger than fear, gave me power to use it.  What
+I said Heaven only knows, but surely Heaven
+helped me; words burned on my lips, tears
+streamed from my eyes, and some good angel
+prompted me to use the one name that had power
+to arrest my hearer's hand and touch his heart.
+For at that moment I heartily believed that Lucy
+lived, and this earnest faith roused in him a like
+belief.
+
+He listened with the lowering look of one in
+whom brute instinct was sovereign for the time,--
+a look that makes the noblest countenance base.
+He was but a man,--a poor, untaught, outcast,
+outraged man.  Life had few joys for him; the
+world offered him no honors, no success, no home,
+no love.  What future would this crime mar? and
+why should he deny himself that sweet, yet bitter
+morsel called revenge?  How many white men,
+with all New England's freedom, culture, Christianity,
+would not have felt as he felt then?
+Should I have reproached him for a human anguish,
+a human longing for redress, all now left
+him from the ruin of his few poor hopes?  Who
+had taught him that self-control, self-sacrifice, are
+attributes that make men masters of the earth and
+lift them nearer heaven?  Should I have urged
+the beauty of forgiveness, the duty of devout
+submission? He had no religion, for he was no
+saintly "Uncle Tom," and Slavery's black shadow
+seemed to darken all the world to him and shut
+out God.  Should I have warned him of penalties,
+of judgments, and the potency of law?  What
+did he know of justice, or the mercy that should
+temper that stern virtue, when every law, human
+and divine, had been broken on his hearthstone?
+Should I have tried to touch him by appeals to
+filial duty, to brotherly love?  How had his
+appeals been answered? What memories had
+father and brother stored up in his heart to plead
+for either now?  No,--all these influences, these
+associations, would have proved worse than useless,
+had I been calm enough to try them.  I was
+not; but instinct, subtler than reason, showed me
+the one safe clue by which to lead this troubled
+soul from the labyrinth in which it groped and
+nearly fell. When I paused, breathless, Robert
+turned to me, asking, as if human assurances could
+strengthen his faith in Divine Omnipotence,--
+
+"Do you believe, if I let Marster Ned live, the
+Lord will give me back my Lucy?"
+
+"As surely as there is a Lord, you will find her
+here or in the beautiful hereafter, where there is
+no black or white, no master and no slave."
+
+He took his hand from his brother's throat,
+lifted his eyes from my face to the wintry sky
+beyond, as if searching for that blessed country,
+happier even than the happy North.  Alas, it was
+the darkest hour before the dawn!--there was no
+star above, no light below but the pale glimmer
+of the lamp that showed the brother who had
+made him desolate.  Like a blind man who believes
+there is a sun, yet cannot see it, he shook
+his head, let his arms drop nervously upon his
+knees, and sat there dumbly asking that question
+which many a soul whose faith is firmer fixed than
+his has asked in hours less dark than this,--
+
+"Where is God?" I saw the tide had turned,
+and strenuously tried to keep this rudderless
+lifeboat from slipping back into the whirlpool
+wherein it had been so nearly lost.
+
+"I have listened to you, Robert; now hear me,
+and heed what I say, because my heart is full of
+pity for you, full of hope for your future, and a
+desire to help you now.  I want you to go away
+from here, from the temptation of this place, and
+the sad thoughts that haunt it.  You have conquered
+yourself once, and I honor you for it, because,
+the harder the battle, the more glorious the
+victory; but it is safer to put a greater distance
+between you and this man.  I will write you
+letters, give you money, and send you to good old
+Massachusetts to begin your new life a freeman,
+--yes, and a happy man; for when the captain is
+himself again, I will learn where Lucy is, and move
+heaven and earth to find and give her back to
+you.  Will you do this, Robert?"
+
+Slowly, very slowly, the answer came; for the
+purpose of a week, perhaps a year, was hard to
+relinquish in an hour.
+
+"Yes, Ma'am, I will."
+
+"Good! Now you are the man I thought you,
+and I'll work for you with all my heart.  You
+need sleep, my poor fellow; go, and try to forget.
+The captain is still alive, and as yet you are spared
+the sin.  No, don't look there; I'll care for him.
+Come, Robert, for Lucy's sake."
+
+Thank Heaven for the immortality of love!
+for when all other means of salvation failed, a spark
+of this vital fire softened the man's iron will until
+a woman's hand could bend it.  He let me take
+from him the key, let me draw him gently away
+and lead him to the solitude which now was the
+most healing balm I could bestow.  Once in his
+little room, he fell down on his bed and lay there
+as if spent with the sharpest conflict of his life. I
+slipped the bolt across his door, and unlocked my
+own, flung up the window, steadied myself with a
+breath of air, then rushed to Doctor Franck. He
+came; and till dawn we worked together, saving
+one brother's life, and taking earnest thought how
+best to secure the other's liberty.  When the sun
+came up as blithely as if it shone only upon happy
+homes, the Doctor went to Robert.  For an hour
+I heard the murmur of their voices; once I caught
+the sound of heavy sobs, and for a time a reverent
+hush, as if in the silence that good man were
+ministering to soul as well as sense.  When he
+departed he took Robert with him, pausing to tell
+me he should get him off as soon as possible, but
+not before we met again.
+
+Nothing more was seen of them all day; another
+surgeon came to see the captain, and another
+attendant came to fill the empty place.  I tried to
+rest, but could not, with the thought of poor Lucy
+tugging at my heart, and was soon back at my
+post again, anxiously hoping that my contraband
+had not been too hastily spirited away. Just as
+night fell there came a tap, and opening, I saw
+Robert literally "clothed and in his right mind."
+The Doctor had replaced the ragged suit with
+tidy garments, and no trace of that tempestuous
+night remained but deeper lines upon the forehead,
+and the docile look of a repentant child.  He did
+not cross the threshold, did not offer me his hand,
+--only took off his cap, saying, with a traitorous
+falter in his voice,--
+
+"God bless you, Ma'am!  I'm goin'."
+
+I put out both my hands, and held his fast.
+
+"Good-bye, Robert! Keep up good heart,
+and when I come home to Massachusetts we'll
+meet in a happier place than this.  Are you quite
+ready, quite comfortable for your journey?
+
+"Yes, Ma'am, Yes; the Doctor's fixed everything;
+I'm goin' with a friend of his; my papers
+are all right, an' I'm as happy as I can be till I
+find,--"
+
+He stopped there; then went on, with a glance
+into the room,--
+
+"I'm glad I didn't do it, an' I thank yer,
+Ma'am, fer hinderin' me,--thank yer hearty; but
+I'm afraid I hate him jest the same."
+
+Of course he did; and so did I; for these faulty
+hearts of ours cannot turn perfect in a night, but
+need frost and fire, wind and rain, to ripen and
+make them ready for the great harvest-home.
+Wishing to divert his mind, I put my poor mite
+into his hand, and, remembering the magic of a
+certain little book, I gave him mine, on whose
+dark cover whitely shone the Virgin Mother and
+the Child, the grand history of whose life the book
+contained.  The money went into Robert's pocket
+with a grateful murmur, the book into his bosom
+with a long took and a tremulous--
+
+"I never saw my baby, Ma'am."
+
+I broke down then; and though my eyes were
+too dim to see, I felt the touch of lips upon my
+hands, heard the sound of departing feet, and
+knew my contraband was gone.
+
+When one feels an intense dislike, the less one
+says about the subject of it the better; therefore
+I shall merely record that the captain lived,--in
+time was exchanged; and that, whoever the other
+party was, I am convinced the Government got
+the best of the bargain.  But long before this
+occurred, I had fulfilled my promise to Robert; for
+as soon as my patient recovered strength of memory
+enough to make his answer trustworthy, I asked, without
+any circumlocution,--
+
+"Captain Fairfax, where is Lucy?"
+
+And too feeble to be angry, surprised, or insincere,
+he straightway answered,--
+
+"Dead, Miss Dane."
+
+"And she killed herself, when you sold Bob?"
+
+"How the Devil did you know that?" he
+muttered, with an expression half-remorseful,
+half-amazed; but I was satisfied, and said no more.
+
+Of course, this went to Robert, waiting far
+away there in a lonely home,--waiting, working,
+hoping for his Lucy.  It almost broke my heart
+to do it; but delay was weak, deceit was wicked;
+so I sent the heavy tidings. and very soon the
+answer came,--only three lines; but I felt that the
+sustaining power of the man's life was gone.
+
+"I thought I'd never see her any more; I'm glad
+to know she's out of trouble.  I thank yer, Ma'am;
+an' if they let us, I'll fight fer yer till I'm killed.
+which I hope will be 'fore long."
+
+Six months later he had his wish, and kept his
+word.
+
+Every one knows the story of the attack on
+Fort Wagner; but we should not tire yet of
+recalling how our Fifty-Fourth, spent with three
+sleepless nights, a day's fast, and a march under
+the July sun, stormed the fort as night fell, facing
+death in many shapes, following their brave leaders
+through a fiery rain of shot and shell, fighting
+valiantly for God and Governor Andrew,"--
+how the regiment that went into action seven hundred
+strong came out having had nearly half its
+number captured, killed, or wounded, leaving
+their young commander to be buried, like a chief
+of earlier times, with his body-guard around him,
+faithful to the death. Surely, the insult turns to
+honor, and the wide grave needs no monument
+but the heroism that consecrates it in our sight;
+surely, the hearts that held him nearest see through
+their tears a noble victory in the seeming sad defeat;
+and surely, God's benediction was bestowed,
+when this loyal soul answered, as Death called
+the roll, "Lord, here I am, with the brothers
+Thou hast given me!"
+
+The future must show how well that fight was
+fought; for though Fort Wagner still defies us,
+public prejudice is down; and through the cannon
+smoke of that black night the manhood of the
+colored race shines before many eyes that would
+not see, rings in many ears that would not hear,
+wins many hearts that would not hitherto believe.
+
+When the news came that we were needed,
+there was none so glad as I to leave teaching
+contrabands, the new work I had taken up, and
+go to nurse "our boys," as my dusky flock so
+proudly called the wounded of the Fifty-Fourth.
+Feeling more satisfaction, as I assumed my big
+apron and turned up my cuffs, than if dressing for
+the President's levee, I fell to work on board the
+hospital-ship in Hilton-Head harbor.  The scene
+was most familiar, and yet strange; for only dark
+faces looked up at me from the pallets so thickly
+laid along the floor, and I missed the sharp accent
+of my Yankee boys in the slower, softer voices
+calling cheerily to one another, or answering my
+questions with a stout, "We'll never give it up,
+Ma'am, till the last Reb's dead," or, "If our
+people's free, we can afford to die."
+
+Passing from bed to bed, intent on making one
+pair of hands do the work of three, at least, I
+gradually washed, fed, and bandaged my way
+down the long line of sable heroes, and coming to
+the very last, found that he was my contraband.
+So old, so worn, so deathly weak and wan, I
+never should have known him but for the deep
+scar on his cheek.  That side lay uppermost, and
+caught my eye at once; but even then I doubted,
+such an awful change had come upon him, when,
+turning to the ticket just above his head, I saw the
+name, "Robert Dane." That both assured and
+touched me, for, remembering that he had no
+name, I knew that he had taken mine.  I longed
+for him to speak to me, to tell how he had fared
+since I lost sight of him, and let me perform some
+little service for him in return for many he had
+done for me; but he seemed asleep; and as I
+stood re-living that strange night again, a bright
+lad, who lay next him softly waving an old fan
+across both beds, looked up and said,--
+
+"I guess you know him, Ma'am?"
+
+"You are right.  Do you?"
+
+"As much as any one was able to, Ma'am."
+
+"Why do you say 'was,' as if the man were
+dead and gone?"
+
+"I s'pose because I know he'll have to go.
+He's got a bad jab in the breast, an' is bleedin'
+inside, the Doctor says. He don't suffer any,
+only gets weaker 'n' weaker every minute.  I've
+been fannin' him this long while, an' he's talked
+a little; but he don't know me now, so he's most
+gone, I guess."
+
+There was so much sorrow and affection in the
+boy's face, that I remembered something, and
+asked, with redoubled interest,--
+
+Are you the one that brought him off?  I
+was told about a boy who nearly lost his life in
+saving that of his mate."
+
+I dare say the young fellow blushed, as any
+modest lad might have done; I could not see it,
+but I heard the chuckle of satisfaction that escaped
+him, as he glanced from his shattered arm and
+bandaged side to the pale figure opposite.
+
+"Lord, Ma'am, that's nothin'; we boys always
+stan' by one another, an' I warn't goin' to
+leave him to be tormented any more by them
+cussed Rebs.  He's been a slave once, though
+he don't look half so much like it as me, an'
+was born in Boston."
+
+He did not; for the speaker was as black as the ace
+of spades,--being a sturdy specimen, the knave of clubs
+would perhaps be a fitter representative,-- but the dark
+freeman looked at the white slave with the pitiful, yet
+puzzled expression I have so often seen on the faces of
+our wisest men, when this tangled question of Slavery
+presents itself, asking to be cut or patiently undone.
+
+"Tell me what you know of this man; for,
+even if he were awake, he is too weak to talk."
+
+"I never saw him till I joined the regiment, an'
+no one 'peared to have got much out of him.  He
+was a shut-up sort of feller, an' didn't seem to
+care for anything but gettin' at the Rebs.  Some
+say he was the fust man of us that enlisted; I know
+he fretted till we were off, an' when we pitched
+into old Wagner, he fought like the Devil."
+
+"Were you with him when he was wounded?
+How was it?"
+
+"Yes, Ma'am.  There was somethin' queer
+about it; for he 'peared to know the chap that
+killed him, an' the chap knew him.  I don't dare
+to ask, but I rather guess one owned the other
+some time,--for, when they clinched, the chap
+sung out, 'Bob!' an' Dane, 'Marster Ned!
+then they went at it."
+
+I sat down suddenly, for the old anger and
+compassion struggled in my heart, and I both longed
+and feared to hear what was to follow.
+
+"You see, when the Colonel--Lord keep an'
+send him back to us!--it a'n't certain yet,  you
+know, Ma'am, though it's two days ago we lost
+him--well, when the Colonel shouted, 'Rush on.
+boys, rush on!' Dane tore away as if he was
+goin' to take the fort alone; I was next him, an'
+kept close as we went through the ditch an' up
+the wall. Hi! warn't that a rusher!" and the
+boy flung up his well arm with a whoop, as if the
+mere memory of that stirring moment came over
+him in a gust of irrepressible excitement.
+
+"Were you afraid?" I said,--asking the question
+women often put, and receiving the answer
+they seldom fail to get.
+
+"No, Ma'am!"-- emphasis on the "Ma'am,"
+--"I never thought of anything but the damn
+Rebs, that scalp, slash, an' cut our ears off, when
+they git us.  I was bound to let daylight into one
+of 'em at least, an' I did.  Hope he liked it!"
+
+"It is evident that you did, and I don't blame
+you in the least.  Now go on about Robert, for
+I should be at work."
+
+"He was one of the fust up; I was just behind,
+an' though the whole thing happened in a minute.
+I remember how it was, for all I was yellin' an'
+knockin' round like mad.  Just where we were,
+some sort of an officer was wavin' his sword an'
+cheerin' on his men; Dane saw him by a big
+flash that come by; he flung away his gun, give a
+leap, an' went at that feller as if he was Jeff,
+Beauregard, an' Lee, all in one.  I scrabbled
+after as quick as I could, but was only up in time
+to see him git the sword straight through him an'
+drop into the ditch.  You needn't ask what I did
+next, Ma'am, for I don't quite know myself; all
+I 'm clear about is, that I managed somehow to
+pitch that Reb into the fort as dead as Moses,
+git hold of Dane, an' bring him off.  Poor old
+feller! we said we went in to live or die; he said
+he went in to die, an' he 's done it."
+
+I had been intently watching the excited
+speaker; but as he regretfully added those last
+words I turned again, and Robert's eyes met mine,
+--those melancholy eyes, so full of an intelligence
+that proved he had heard, remembered, and reflected
+with that preternatural power which often
+outlives all other faculties. He knew me, yet
+gave no greeting; was glad to see a woman's face,
+yet had no smile wherewith to welcome it; felt
+that he was dying, yet uttered no farewell.  He
+was too far across the river to return or linger
+now; departing thought, strength, breath, were
+spent in one grateful look, one murmur of submission
+to the last pang he could ever feel.  His lips
+moved, and, bending to them, a whisper chilled
+my cheek, as it shaped the broken words,--
+
+"I would have done it,--but it 's better so,--
+I'm satisfied."
+
+Ah! well he might be,--for, as he turned his face
+from the shadow of the life that was, the sunshine
+of the life to be touched it with a beautiful
+content, and in the drawing of a breath my
+contraband found wife and home, eternal liberty
+and God.
+
+
+NELLY'S HOSPITAL
+
+Nelly sat beside her mother picking lint; but
+while her fingers flew, her eyes often looked
+wistfully out into the meadow, golden with
+buttercups, and bright with sunshine.  Presently she
+said, rather bashfully, but very earnestly, "Mamma,
+I want to tell you a little plan I've made, if
+you'll please not laugh."
+
+I think I can safely promise that, my dear,"
+said her mother, putting down her work that she
+might listen quite respectfully.
+
+Nelly looked pleased, and went on confidingly,
+
+"Since brother Will came home with his lame
+foot, and I've helped you tend him, I've heard a
+great deal about hospitals, and liked it very much.
+To-day I said I wanted to go and be a nurse, like
+Aunt Mercy; but Will laughed, and told me I'd
+better begin by nursing sick birds and butterflies
+and pussies before I tried to take care of men.  I
+did not like to be made fun of, but I've been
+thinking that it would be very pleasant to have a
+little hospital all my own, and be a nurse in it,
+because, if I took pains, so many pretty creatures
+might be made well, perhaps.  Could I, mamma?"
+
+Her mother wanted to smile at the idea, but
+did not, for Nelly looked up with her heart and
+eyes so full of tender compassion, both for the
+unknown men for whom her little hands had done
+their best, and for the smaller sufferers nearer
+home, that she stroked the shining head, and answered
+readily: "Yes, Nelly, it will be a proper
+charity for such a young Samaritan, and you may
+learn much if you are in earnest.  You must study
+how to feed and nurse your little patients, else
+your pity will do no good, and your hospital become
+a prison.  I will help you, and Tony shall
+be your surgeon."
+
+"O mamma, how good you always are to me!
+Indeed, I am in truly earnest; I will learn,
+I will be kind, and may I go now and begin?"
+
+"You may, but tell me first where will you
+have your hospital?"
+
+"In my room, mamma; it is so snug and sunny,
+and I never should forget it there," said Nelly.
+
+"You must not forget it anywhere.  I think
+that plan will not do.  How would you like to
+find caterpillars walking in your bed, to hear sick
+pussies mewing in the night, to have beetles clinging
+to your clothes, or see mice, bugs, and birds
+tumbling downstairs whenever the door was
+open?" said her mother.
+
+Nelly laughed at that thought a minute, then
+clapped her hands, and cried: "Let us have the
+old summer-house!  My doves only use the upper
+part, and it would be so like Frank in the storybook.
+Please say yes again, mamma."
+
+Her mother did say yes, and, snatching up her
+hat, Nelly ran to find Tony, the gardener's son,
+a pleasant lad of twelve, who was Nelly's favorite
+playmate. Tony pronounced the plan a "jolly" one, and,
+leaving his work, followed his young mistress to the
+summer-house, for she could not wait one minute.
+
+"What must we do first?" she asked, as they
+stood looking in at the dusty room, full of
+garden tools, bags of seeds, old flower-pots, and
+watering-cans.
+
+"Clear out the rubbish, miss," answered Tony.
+
+"Here it goes, then," and Nelly began bundling
+everything out in such haste that she broke
+two flower-pots, scattered all the squash-seeds,
+and brought a pile of rakes and hoes clattering
+down about her ears.
+
+"Just wait a bit, and let me take the lead,
+miss.  You hand me things, I'll pile 'em in the
+barrow and wheel 'em off to the barn; then it
+will save time, and be finished up tidy."
+
+Nelly did as he advised, and very soon nothing
+but dust remained.
+
+"What next?" she asked, not knowing in the
+least.
+
+"I'll sweep up while you see if Polly can
+come and scrub the room out. It ought to
+be done before you stay here, let alone the
+patients."
+
+"So it had," said Nelly, looking very wise all
+of a sudden. "Will says the wards--that means
+the rooms, Tony--are scrubbed every day or
+two, and kept very clean, and well venti-some-
+thing--I can't say it; but it means having a plenty
+of air come in.  I can clean windows while Polly
+mops, and then we shall soon be done."
+Away she ran, feeling very busy and important.
+Polly came, and very soon the room looked
+like another place. The four latticed windows
+were set wide open, so the sunshine came dancing
+through the vines that grew outside, and curious
+roses peeped in to see what frolic was afoot.  The
+walls shone white again, for not a spider dared
+to stay; the wide seat which encircled the room
+was dustless now,--the floor as nice as willing
+hands could make it; and the south wind blew
+away all musty odors with its fragrant breath.
+" How fine it looks! " cried Nelly, dancing
+on the doorstep, lest a foot-print should mar the
+still damp floor.
+
+"I'd almost like to fall sick for the sake of
+staying here," said Tony, admiringly.  "Now, what
+sort of beds are you going to have, miss?
+
+"I suppose it won't do to put butterflies and
+toads and worms into beds like the real soldiers
+where Will was?" answered Nelly, looking
+anxious.
+
+Tony could hardly help shouting at the idea;
+but, rather than trouble his little mistress, he said
+very soberly: "I'm afraid they wouldn't lay
+easy, not being used to it.  Tucking up a butterfly
+would about kill him; the worms would be apt to
+get lost among the bed-clothes; and the toads
+would tumble out the first thing."
+
+"I shall have to ask mamma about it.  What will
+you do while I'm gone?" said Nelly, unwilling
+that a moment should be lost.
+
+"I'll make frames for nettings to the windows,
+else the doves will come in and eat up the sick
+people.
+
+"I think they will know that it is a hospital,
+and be too kind to hurt or frighten their neighbors,"
+began Nelly; but as she spoke, a plump white dove walked
+in, looked about with its red-ringed eyes, and quietly
+pecked up a tiny bug that had just ventured out from
+the crack where it had taken refuge when the deluge came.
+
+"Yes, we must have the nettings.  I'll ask
+mamma for some lace," said Nelly, when she saw
+that; and, taking her pet dove on her shoulder,
+told it about her hospital as she went toward the
+house; for, loving all little creatures as she did, it
+grieved her to have any harm befall even the least
+or plainest of them. She had a sweet child-fancy
+that her playmates understood her language
+as she did theirs, and that birds, flowers, animals,
+and insects felt for her the same affection which
+she felt for them. Love always makes friends,
+and nothing seemed to fear the gentle child; but
+welcomed her like a little sun who shone alike on
+all, and never suffered an eclipse.
+
+She was gone some time, and when she came
+back her mind was full of new plans, one hand
+full of rushes, the other of books, while over her
+head floated the lace, and a bright green ribbon
+hung across her arm.
+
+"Mamma says that the best beds will be little
+baskets, boxes, cages, and any sort of thing that
+suits the patients; for each will need different care
+and food and medicine. I have not baskets
+enough, so, as I cannot have pretty white beds, I
+am going to braid pretty green nests for my
+patients, and, while I do it, mamma thought you'd
+read to me the pages she has marked, so that we
+may begin right."
+
+"Yes, miss; I like that.  But what is the ribbon
+for?" asked Tony.
+
+"O, that's for you.  Will says that, if you are
+to be an army surgeon, you must have a green
+band on your arm; so I got this to tie on when we
+play hospital."
+
+Tony let her decorate the sleeve of his gray
+jacket, and when the nettings were done, the
+welcome books were opened and enjoyed. It
+was a happy time, sitting in the sunshine, with
+leaves pleasantly astir all about them, doves cooing
+overhead, and flowers sweetly gossiping together
+through the summer afternoon.  Nelly wove her
+smooth, green rushes.  Tony pored over his pages,
+and both found something better than fairy legends
+in the family histories of insects, birds, and beasts.
+All manner of wonders appeared, and were explained
+to them, till Nelly felt as if a new world
+had been given her, so full of beauty, interest, and
+pleasure that she never could be tired of studying
+it. Many of these things were not strange to
+Tony, because, born among plants, he had grown
+up with them as if they were brothers and sisters,
+and the sturdy, brown-faced boy had learned
+many lessons which no poet or philosopher could
+have taught him, unless he had become as child-like a
+s himself, and studied from the same great book.
+
+When the baskets were done, the marked pages
+all read, and the sun began to draw his rosy
+curtains round him before smiling "Good night,"
+Nelly ranged the green beds round the room, Tony
+put in the screens, and the hospital was ready.
+The little nurse was so excited that she could
+hardly eat her supper, and directly afterwards
+ran up to tell Will how well she had succeeded
+with the first part of her enterprise.  Now brother
+Will was a brave young officer, who had fought
+stoutly and done his duty like a man.  But when
+lying weak and wounded at home, the cheerful
+courage which had led him safely through many
+dangers seemed to have deserted him, and he was
+often gloomy, sad, or fretful, because he longed
+to be at his post again, and time passed very
+slowly. This troubled his mother, and made
+Nelly wonder why he found lying in a pleasant
+room so much harder than fighting battles or
+making weary marches. Anything that interested
+and amused him was very welcome, and when
+Nelly, climbing on the arm of his sofa, told her
+plans, mishaps, and successes, he laughed out more
+heartily than he had done for many a day, and his
+thin face began to twinkle with fun as it used to
+do so long ago.  That pleased Nelly, and she
+chatted like any affectionate little magpie, till
+Will was really interested; for when one is ill,
+small things amuse.
+
+"Do you expect your patients to come to you,
+Nelly?" he asked.
+
+"No, I shall go and look for them. I often
+see poor things suffering in the garden, and the
+wood, and always feel as if they ought to be taken
+care of, as people are."
+
+"You won't like to carry insane bugs, lame
+toads, and convulsive kittens in your hands, and
+they would not stay on a stretcher if you had
+one. You should have an ambulance and be
+a branch of the Sanitary Commission," said
+Will.
+
+Nelly had often heard the words, but did not
+quite understand what they meant.  So Will told
+her of that great never-failing charity, to which
+thousands owe their lives; and the child listened
+with lips apart, eyes often full, and so much love
+and admiration in her heart that she could find no
+words in which to tell it.  When her brother
+paused, she said earnestly: "Yes, I will be a
+Sanitary. This little cart of mine shall be my
+amb'lance, and I'll never let my water-barrels go
+empty, never drive too fast, or be rough with my
+poor passengers, like some of the men you tell
+about.  Does this look like an ambulance, Will?"
+
+"Not a bit, but it shall, if you and mamma
+like to help me.  I want four long bits of cane, a
+square of white cloth, some pieces of thin wood,
+and the gum-pot," said Will, sitting up to examine
+the little cart, feeling like a boy again as
+he took out his knife and began to whittle.
+Upstairs and downstairs ran Nelly till all
+necessary materials were collected, and almost
+breathlessly she watched her brother arch the
+canes over the cart, cover them with the cloth,
+and fit an upper shelf of small compartments, each
+lined with cotton-wool to serve as beds for
+wounded insects, lest they should hurt one another
+or jostle out.  The lower part was left free for any
+larger creatures which Nelly might find.  Among
+her toys she bad a tiny cask which only needed a
+peg to be water-tight; this was filled and fitted
+in before, because, as the small sufferers needed
+no seats, there was no place for it behind, and, as
+Nelly was both horse and driver, it was more
+convenient in front.  On each side of it stood a
+box of stores. In one were minute rollers, as
+bandages are called, a few bottles not yet filled,
+and a wee doll's jar of cold-cream, because Nelly
+could not feel that her outfit was complete without
+a medicine-chest. The other box was full of
+crumbs, bits of sugar, bird-seed, and grains of
+wheat and corn, lest any famished stranger should
+die for want of food before she got it home.  Then
+mamma painted "U.S. San. Com." in bright letters on
+the cover, and Nelly received her charitable
+plaything with a long sigh of satisfaction.
+
+"Nine o'clock already.  Bless me, what a
+short evening this has been," exclaimed Will, as
+Nelly came to give him her good-night kiss.
+
+"And such a happy one," she answered.
+
+"Thank you very, very much, dear Will.  I only
+wish my little amb'lance was big enough for
+you to go in,--I'd so like to give you the first
+ride."
+
+"Nothing I should like better, if it were possible,
+though I've a prejudice against ambulances in
+general.  But as I cannot ride, I'll try and hop out
+to your hospital to-morrow, and see how you get
+on,"--which was a great deal for Captain Will
+to say, because he had been too listless to leave
+his sofa for several days.
+
+That promise sent Nelly happily away to bed,
+only stopping to pop her head out of the window
+to see if it was likely to be a fair day to-morrow,
+and to tell Tony about the new plan as he passed
+below.
+
+"Where shall you go to look for your first load
+of sick folks, miss?" he asked.
+
+"All round the garden first, then through the
+grove, and home across the brook.  Do you think
+I can find any patients so? " said Nelly.
+
+"I know you will.  Good night, miss," and
+Tony walked away with a merry look on his face,
+that Nelly would not have understood if she had
+seen it.
+
+Up rose the sun bright and early, and up rose
+Nurse Nelly almost as early and as bright.  Breakfast
+was taken in a great hurry, and before the
+dew was off the grass this branch of the S. C.
+was all astir.  Papa, mamma, big brother and
+baby sister, men and maids, all looked out to see
+the funny little ambulance depart, and nowhere in
+all the summer fields was there a happier child than
+Nelly, as she went smiling down the garden path,
+where tall flowers kissed her as she passed and
+every blithe bird seemed singing a "Good speed!"
+
+"How I wonder what I shall find first," she
+thought, looking sharply on all sides as she went.
+Crickets chirped, grasshoppers leaped, ants
+worked busily at their subterranean houses,
+spiders spun shining webs from twig to twig, bees
+were coming for their bags of gold, and butterflies
+had just begun their holiday.  A large white one
+alighted on the top of the ambulance, walked
+over the inscription as if spelling it letter by letter,
+then floated away from flower to flower, like one
+carrying the good news far and wide.
+
+"Now every one will know about the hospital
+and be glad to see me coming," thought Nelly.
+And indeed it seemed so, for just then a black-
+bird, sitting on a garden wall, burst out with a
+song full of musical joy, Nelly's kitten came
+running after to stare at the wagon and rub her soft
+side against it, a bright-eyed toad looked out
+from his cool bower among the lily-leaves, and at
+that minute Nelly found her first patient.  In one
+of the dewy cobwebs hanging from a shrub near
+by sat a fat black and yellow spider, watching
+a fly whose delicate wings were just caught in the
+net.  The poor fly buzzed pitifully, and struggled
+so hard that the whole web shook: but the more
+he struggled, the more he entangled himself, and
+the fierce spider was preparing to descend that it
+might weave a shroud about its prey, when a
+little finger broke the threads and lifted the fly
+safely into the palm of a hand, where he lay
+faintly humming his thanks.
+
+Nelly had heard much about contrabands, knew who
+they were, and was very much interested in them;
+so, when she freed the poor black
+fly she played he was her contraband, and felt
+glad that her first patient was one that needed
+help so much.  Carefully brushing away as much
+of the web as she could, she left small Pompey,
+as she named him, to free his own legs, lest her
+clumsy fingers should hurt him; then she laid him
+in one of the soft beds with a grain or two of
+sugar if he needed refreshment, and bade him rest
+and recover from his fright, remembering that he
+was at liberty to fly away whenever he liked,
+because she had no wish to male a slave of him.
+
+Feeling very happy over this new friend, Nelly
+went on singing softly as she walked, and presently
+she found a pretty caterpillar dressed in
+brown fur, although the day was warm. He lay
+so still she thought him dead, till he rolled himself
+into a ball as she touched him.
+
+"I think you are either faint from the heat of
+this thick coat of yours, or that you are going to
+make a cocoon of yourself, Mr. Fuzz," said Nelly.
+
+"Now I want to see you turn into a butterfly, so
+I shall take you, and if get lively again I will
+let you go. I shall play that you have given out
+on a march, as the soldiers sometimes do, and
+been left behind for the Sanitary people to see to."
+
+In went sulky Mr. Fuzz, and on trundled the
+ambulance till a golden green rose-beetle was
+discovered, lying on his back kicking as if in a fit.
+
+"Dear me, what shall I do for him?" thought
+Nelly. "He acts as baby did when she was so
+illl, and mamma put her in a warm bath.  I haven't
+got my little tub here, or any hot water, and I'm
+afraid the beetle would not like it if I had.  Perhaps
+he has pain in his stomach; I'll turn him over,
+and pat his back, as nurse does baby's when she
+cries for pain like that."
+
+She set the beetle on his legs, and did her best
+to comfort him; but he was evidently in great distress,
+for he could not walk, and instead of lifting
+his emerald overcoat, and spreading the wings
+that lay underneath, be turned over again, and
+kicked more violently than before.  Not knowing
+what to do,  Nelly put him into one of her soft
+nests for Tony to cure if possible.  She found no
+more patients in the garden except a dead bee,
+which she wrapped in a leaf, and took home to
+bury.  When she came to the grove, it was so
+green and cool she longed to sit and listen to the
+whisper of the pines, and watch the larch-tassels
+wave in the wind.  But, recollecting her charitable
+errand, she went rustling along the pleasant
+path till she came to another patient, over which
+she stood considering several minutes before she
+could decide whether it was best to take it to her
+hospital, because it was a little gray snake, with
+bruised tail.  She knew it would not hurt her,
+yet she was afraid of it; she thought it pretty,
+yet could not like it: she pitied its pain, yet shrunk
+from helping it, for it had a fiery eye, and a keep
+quivering tongue, that looked as if longing to bite.
+
+"He is a rebel, I wonder if I ought to be good
+to him," thought Nelly, watching the reptile
+writhe with pain.  "Will said there were sick
+rebels in his hospital, and one was very kind to
+him.  It says, too, in my little book, 'Love your
+enemies.' I think snakes are mine, but I guess I'll
+try and love him because God made him.  Some boy
+will kill him if I leave him here, and then perhaps
+his mother will be very sad about it.  Come,
+poor worm, I wish to help you, so be patient, and
+don't frighten me."
+
+Then Nelly laid her little handkerchief on the
+ground, and with a stick gently lifted the wounded
+snake upon it, and, folding it together, laid it in
+the ambulance. She was thoughtful after that,
+and so busy puzzling her young head about the
+duty of loving those who hate us, and being kind
+to those who are disagreeable or unkind, that she
+went through the rest of the wood quite forgetful
+of her work.  A soft "Queek,queek!" made her
+look up and listen. The sound came from the
+long meadow-grass, and, bending it carefully
+back, she found a half-fledged bird, with one
+wing trailing on the ground, and its eyes dim with
+pain or hunger.
+
+"You darling thing, did you fall out of your
+nest and hurt your wing?" cried Nelly, looking
+up into the single tree that stood near by.  No
+nest was to be seen, no parent birds hovered
+overhead, and little Robin could only tell its troubles
+in that mournful "Queek, queek, queek!"
+
+Nelly ran to get both her chests, and, sitting
+down beside the bird, tried to feed it. To her
+joy it ate crumb after crumb, as if it were
+half starved, and soon fluttered nearer a
+confiding fearlessness that made her very proud.
+Soon baby Robin seemed quite comfortable, his
+eye brightened, he "queeked" no more, and but
+for the drooping wing would have been himself
+again.  With one of her bandages Nelly bound
+both wings closely to his sides for fear he should
+hurt himself by trying to fly; and though he seemed
+amazed at her proceedings, he behaved very
+well, only staring at her, and ruffling up his few
+feathers in a funny way that made her laugh.
+Then she had to discover some way of accommodating
+her two larger patients so that neither should
+hurt nor alarm the other.  A bright thought came
+to her after much pondering. Carefully lifting
+the handkerchief, she pinned the two ends to the
+roof of the cart, and there swung little Forked-
+tongue, while Rob lay easily below.
+
+By this time, Nelly began to wonder how it
+happened that she found so many more injured
+things than ever before.  But it never entered her
+innocent head that Tony had searched the wood
+and meadow before she was up, and laid most of
+these creatures ready to her hands, that she
+might not be disappointed.  She had not yet lost
+her faith in fairies, so she fancied they too
+belonged to her small sisterhood, and presently it
+did really seem impossible to doubt that the good
+folk had been at work.
+
+Coming to the bridge that crossed the brook,
+she stopped a moment to watch the water ripple
+over the bright pebbles, the ferns bend down to
+drink, and the funny tadpoles frolic in quieter
+nooks, where the sun shone, and the dragon-flies
+swung among the rushes.  When Nelly turned to
+go on, her blue eyes opened wide. and the handle
+of the ambulance dropped with a noise that caused
+a stout frog to skip into the water heels over head.
+Directly in the middle of the bridge was a pretty
+green tent, made of two tall burdock leaves. The
+stems were stuck into cracks between the boards,
+the tips were pinned together with a thorn, and
+one great buttercup nodded in the doorway like a
+sleepy sentinel.  Nelly stared and smiled, listened,
+and looked about on every side.  Nothing was
+seen but the quiet meadow and the shady
+grove, nothing was heard but the babble of
+the brook and the cheery music of the bobolinks.
+
+"Yes," said Nelly softly to herself, "that is a
+fairy tent, and in it I may find a baby elf sick
+with whooping-cough or scarlet-fever.  How
+splendid it would be! only I could never nurse

+such a dainty thing."
+
+Stooping eagerly, she peeped over the buttercup's
+drowsy head, and saw what seemed a tiny
+cock of hay. She had no time to feel disappointed,
+for the haycock began to stir, and, looking
+nearer, she beheld two silvery gray mites, who
+wagged wee tails, and stretched themselves as if
+they had just waked up.  Nelly knew that they
+were young field-mice, and rejoiced over them,
+feeling rather relieved that no fairy had appeared,
+though she still believed them to have had a hand
+in the matter.
+
+"I shall call the mice my Babes in the Wood,
+because they are lost and covered up with leaves,"
+said Nelly, as she laid them in her snuggest bed,
+where they nestled close together, and fell fast
+asleep again.
+
+Being very anxious to get home, that she might
+tell her adventures, and show how great was the
+need of a sanitary commission in that region,
+Nelly marched proudly up the avenue, and, having
+displayed her load, hurried to the hospital,
+where another applicant was waiting for her.  On
+the step of the door lay a large turtle, with one
+claw gone, and on his back was pasted a bit of
+paper, with his name,-- Commodore Waddle,
+U.S.N." Nelly knew this was a joke of Will's,
+but welcomed the ancient mariner, and called
+Tony to help her get him in.
+
+All that morning they were very busy settling
+the new-comers, for both people and books had
+to be consulted before they could decide what
+diet and treatment was best for each.  The
+winged contraband had taken Nelly at her word,
+and flown away on the journey home.  Little
+Rob was put in a large cage, where he could use
+his legs, yet not injure his lame wing.  Forked-tongue
+lay under a wire cover, on sprigs of fennel,
+for the gardener said that snakes were fond of it.
+The Babes in the Wood were put to bed in one
+of the rush baskets, under a cotton-wool coverlet.
+Greenback, the beetle, found ease for his unknown
+aches in the warm heart of a rose, where he sunned
+himself all day. The Commodore was
+made happy in a tub of water, grass, and stones,
+and Mr. Fuzz was put in a well-ventilated glass
+box to decide whether he would be a cocoon or not.
+
+Tony had not been idle while his mistress was
+away, and he showed her the hospital garden he
+had made close by, in which were cabbage, nettle,
+and mignonette plants for the butterflies, flowering
+herbs for the bees, chick-weed and hemp for
+the birds, catnip for the pussies, and plenty of room
+left for whatever other patients might need.  In
+the afternoon, while Nelly did her task at lint-picking,
+talking busily to Will as she worked, and
+interesting him in her affairs, Tony cleared a
+pretty spot in the grove for the burying-ground,
+and made ready some small bits of slate on which
+to write the names of those who died.  He did
+not have it ready an hour too soon, for at sunset
+two little graves were needed, and Nurse Nelly
+shed tender tears for her first losses as she laid the
+motherless mice in one smooth hollow, and the
+gray-coated rebel in the other. She had learned
+to care for him already, and when she found him
+dead, was very glad she had been kind to him,
+hoping that he knew it, and died happier in her
+hospital than all alone in the shadowy wood.
+
+The rest of Nelly's patients prospered, and of
+the many added afterward few died, because of
+Tony's skilful treatment and her own faithful care.
+Every morning when the day proved fair the little
+ambulance went out upon its charitable errand;
+every afternoon Nelly worked for the human
+sufferers whom she loved; and every evening brother
+Will read aloud to her from useful books, showed
+her wonders with his microscope, or prescribed
+remedies for the patients, whom he soon knew by
+name and took much interest in.  It was Nelly's
+holiday; but, though she studied no lessons, she
+learned much, and unconsciously made her pretty
+play both an example and a rebuke for others.
+
+At first it seemed a childish pastime, and people
+laughed.  But there was something in the familiar
+words "sanitary," "hospital" and "ambulance"
+that made them pleasant sounds to
+many ears.  As reports of Nelly's work went
+through the neighborhood, other children came to
+see and copy her design. Rough lads looked
+ashamed when in her wards they found harmless
+creatures hurt by them, and going out they said
+among themselves, "We won't stone birds, chase
+butterflies, and drown the girls' little cats any
+more, though we won't tell them so." And most
+of the lads kept their word so well that people
+said there never had been so many birds before
+as all that summer haunted wood and field.  Tender-
+hearted playmates brought their pets to be
+cured; even busy farmers bad a friendly word
+for the small charity, which reminded them so
+sweetly of the great one which should never be
+forgotten; lonely mothers sometimes looked out
+with wet eyes as the little ambulance went by,
+recalling thoughts or absent sons who might be
+journeying painfully to some far-off hospital, where
+brave women waited to tend them with hands as
+willing, hearts as tender, as those the gentle child
+gave to her self-appointed task.
+
+At home the charm worked also.  No more idle
+days for Nelly, or fretful ones for Will, because
+the little sister would not neglect the helpless
+creatures so dependent upon her, and the big
+brother was ashamed to complain after watching
+the patience of these lesser sufferers, and merrily
+said he would try to bear his own wound as
+quietly and bravely as the "Commodore" bore
+his.  Nelly never knew how much good she had
+done Captain Will till he went away again in the
+early autumn.  Then he thanked her for it, and
+though she cried for joy and sorrow she never
+forgot it, because he left something behind him
+which always pleasantly reminded her of the
+double success her little hospital had won.
+
+When Will was gone and she had prayed
+softly in her heart that God would keep him safe
+and bring him home again, she dried her tears
+and went away to find comfort in the place where
+he had spent so many happy hours with her.  She
+had not been there before that day, and when she
+reached the door she stood quite still and wanted
+very much to cry again, far something beautiful
+had happened.  She had often asked Will for a
+motto for her hospital, and he had promised to
+find her one.  She thought he had forgotten it;
+but even in the hurry of that busy day he had
+found time to do more than keep his word, while
+Nelly sat indoors, lovingly brightening the tarnished
+buttons on the blue coat that had seen so
+many battles.
+
+Above the roof, where the doves cooed in the
+sun, now rustled a white flag with the golden
+S.C." shining on it as the wind tossed it to and
+fro.  Below, on the smooth panel of the door, a
+skilful pencil had drawn two arching ferns, in
+whose soft shadow, poised upon a mushroom,
+stood a little figure of Nurse Nelly, and undeneath
+it another of Dr. Tony bottling medicine, with spectacles
+upon his nose.  Both hands of the miniature Nelly were
+outstretched, as if beckoning to a train of insects,
+birds and beasts, which was so long that it not only
+circled round the lower rim of this fine sketch, but
+dwindled in the distance to mere dots and lines.  Such
+merry conceits as one found there!  A mouse bringing the
+tail it had lost in some cruel trap, a dor-bug with
+a shade over its eyes, an invalid butterfly carried
+in a tiny litter by long-legged spiders, a fat frog
+with gouty feet hopping upon crutches, Jenny
+Wren sobbing in a nice handkerchief, as she
+brought dear dead Cock Robin to be restored to
+life.  Rabbits, lambs, cats, calves, and turtles, all
+came trooping up to be healed by the benevolent
+little maid who welcomed them so heartily.
+
+Nelly laughed at these comical mites till the
+tears ran down her cheeks, and thought she never
+could be tired of looking at them.  But presently
+she saw four lines clearly printed underneath her
+picture, ahd her childish face grew sweetly serious
+as she read the words of a great poet, which
+Will had made both compliment and motto:-
+
+"He prayeth best who loveth best
+All things, both great and small;
+For the dear God who loveth us,
+He made and loveth all."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Etext of A Modern Cinderella by Louisa May Alcott
+
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