initial commit of ebook 4033HEADmain

2 files changed, 1731 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/whspk10.txt b/old/whspk10.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d7341d8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/whspk10.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,1731 @@
+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Who Spoke Next
+by Eliza Lee Follen
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check
+the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!!
+
+Please take a look at the important information in this header.
+We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an
+electronic path open for the next readers.
+
+Please do not remove this.
+
+This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book.
+Do not change or edit it without written permission.  The words
+are carefully chosen to provide users with the information they
+need about what they can legally do with the texts.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These Etexts Are Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and
+further information is included below, including for donations.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3)
+organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541
+
+Title: Who Spoke Next
+
+Author: Eliza Lee Follen
+
+Release Date: May, 2003  [Etext #4033]
+[Yes, we are about one year ahead of schedule]
+[The actual date this file first posted = 10/17/01]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Who Spoke Next
+by Eliza Lee Follen
+******This file should be named whspk10.txt or whspk10.zip******
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, whspk11.txt
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, whspk10a.txt
+
+This etext was produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions,
+all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a
+copyright notice is included.  Therefore, we usually do NOT keep any
+of these books in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our books one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to send us error messages even years after
+the official publication date.
+
+Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our sites at:
+http://gutenberg.net
+http://promo.net/pg
+
+
+Those of you who want to download any Etext before announcement
+can surf to them as follows, and just download by date; this is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03
+or
+ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03
+
+Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.  This
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If our value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour this year as we release fifty new Etext
+files per month, or 500 more Etexts in 2000 for a total of 3000+
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+should reach over 300 billion Etexts given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext
+Files by December 31, 2001.  [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion]
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third
+of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 4,000 Etexts unless we
+manage to get some real funding.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
+to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+As of July 12, 2001 contributions are only being solicited from people in:
+Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho,
+Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota,
+Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North
+Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota,
+Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia,
+Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
+
+We have filed in about 45 states now, but these are the only ones
+that have responded.
+
+As the requirements for other states are met,
+additions to this list will be made and fund raising
+will begin in the additional states.  Please feel
+free to ask to check the status of your state.
+
+In answer to various questions we have received on this:
+
+We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork
+to legally request donations in all 50 states.  If
+your state is not listed and you would like to know
+if we have added it since the list you have, just ask.
+
+While we cannot solicit donations from people in
+states where we are not yet registered, we know
+of no prohibition against accepting donations
+from donors in these states who approach us with
+an offer to donate.
+
+
+International donations are accepted,
+but we don't know ANYTHING about how
+to make them tax-deductible, or
+even if they CAN be made deductible,
+and don't have the staff to handle it
+even if there are ways.
+
+All donations should be made to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655-4109
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3)
+organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541,
+and has been approved as a 501(c)(3) organization by the US Internal
+Revenue Service (IRS).  Donations are tax-deductible to the maximum
+extent permitted by law.  As the requirements for other states are met,
+additions to this list will be made and fund raising will begin in the
+additional states.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html
+
+
+***
+
+If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
+you can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+hart@pobox.com forwards to hart@prairienet.org and archive.org
+if your mail bounces from archive.org, I will still see it, if
+it bounces from prairienet.org, better resend later on. . . .
+
+Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
+
+We would prefer to send you information by email.
+
+
+***
+
+
+Example command-line FTP session:
+
+ftp ftp.ibiblio.org
+login: anonymous
+password: your@login
+cd pub/docs/books/gutenberg
+cd etext90 through etext99 or etext00 through etext02, etc.
+dir [to see files]
+get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files]
+GET GUTINDEX.??  [to get a year's listing of books, e.g., GUTINDEX.99]
+GET GUTINDEX.ALL [to get a listing of ALL books]
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here?  You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault.  So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you.  It also tells you how
+you may distribute copies of this etext if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement.  If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from.  If you received this etext on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etexts,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext
+under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
+any commercial products without permission.
+
+To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works.  Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects".  Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
+receive this etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims
+all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from.  If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy.  If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS".  NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
+and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
+with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
+legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
+following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this etext,
+[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the etext,
+or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     etext or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word
+     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The etext may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the etext (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
+public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form.
+
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
+public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
+Money should be paid to the:
+"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+hart@pobox.com
+
+[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart
+and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.]
+[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales
+of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or
+software or any other related product without express permission.]
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.07/27/01*END*
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+This etext was produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+WHO SPOKE NEXT
+
+BY MRS. FOLLEN
+
+
+With Illustrations by Billings and others
+
+
+
+
+
+THE OLD GARRET
+
+
+
+
+Boys are not apt to forget a promise of a story. Frank and Harry did
+not fail to call upon their mother for the history of the old
+musket.
+
+"It appeared to me," said the mother, "that the old musket was not
+very willing to tell his story. He had a sort of old republican
+pride, and felt himself superior to the rest of the company in
+character and importance. When he had made himself heard in the
+world hitherto, it had always been by one short, but very decided
+and emphatic word; he despised any thing like a palaver; so he began
+very abruptly, and as if he had half a mind not to speak at all,
+because he could not speak in his own way.
+
+"None but fools," said he, "have much to say about themselves--
+'Deeds, not words,' is a good motto for all. But as I would not be
+churlish, and as I have agreed, as well as the rest of my
+companions, to tell my story, I will mention what few things worth
+relating I can recollect.
+
+I have no distinct consciousness, as my friend the pitcher or the
+curling tongs has, of what I was before the ingenuity of man brought
+me into my present form. I would only mention that all the different
+materials of which I was formed must have been perfect of their
+kind, or I could never have performed the duties required of me.
+
+My first very distinct recollection is of being stood up in the way
+I am standing now, with a long row of my brethren, of the same shape
+and character as myself, as I supposed. This was in a large building
+somewhere in England. I, like the curling tongs, was at last packed
+up in a box, and brought to America, but it took a rather larger box
+to take me and my friends, than it took to pack up him and his
+friends, with all their thin straddle legs."
+
+Creak went the curling tongs at this personal attack.
+
+"We were brought to this country," continued the old musket, "by an
+Englishman. Little did he think how soon we should take part against
+our Fatherland, or he would have kept us at home.
+
+One day, the elder brother of the gentleman who owned our little
+friend curling tongs came into the shop where I then was, and, after
+looking at all the muskets, selected me as one that he might trust.
+As he paid for me, he said to the man, "This is an argument which we
+shall soon have to use in defence of our liberties."
+
+"I fear we shall," said the shopman, "and if many men are of your
+mind, I hope, sir, you will recommend my shop to them. I shall be
+happy to supply all true patriots with the very best English
+muskets."
+
+My new master smiled, and took me home to his house in the country.
+
+The family consisted of himself, his wife, and three children--two
+sons and a daughter. The eldest son was eighteen, the second
+sixteen, and the daughter fourteen. The mistress of the house turned
+pale when she saw my master bring me in and quietly set me down in a
+corner of the room behind the old clock.
+
+Presently the two young men entered. The younger shuddered a little
+when he saw me, but the elder clapped his hands and exclaimed,
+"That's good! We have got a musket now, and the English will find
+out that we know how to use it!"
+
+"Pray to God, my son," said his mother, "that we may never have to
+use it."
+
+The boy did not give much heed to what his mother said, but took me
+up, examined me all over, and, after snapping my trigger two or
+three times, pronounced me to be a real good musket, and placed me
+again in the corner where his father had put me at first.
+
+The next day, my master took me out to try me. I confess I was not
+pleased at the first charge with which I was loaded. When I felt the
+powder, ball, wadding and all, rammed down so hard, it was as
+disagreeable to me as a boy's first hard lesson in grammar is to
+him, and seemed to me as useless, for I did not then know what I was
+made for, nor of what use all this stuffing could be. But when my
+master pulled the trigger, and I heard the neighboring hills echo
+and reecho with the sound, I began to feel that I was made for
+something, and grew a little vain at the thought of the noise I
+should make in the world.
+
+I did not then know all I was created for; it seemed to me that it
+was only to make a great noise. I soon learned better, and
+understood the purpose of my being more perfectly.
+
+A few days after this, the family was all astir some time before
+sunrise. There was a solemn earnestness in their faces, even in the
+youngest of them, that was very impressive.
+
+At last, my master took me up, put me in complete order, loaded me
+and set me down in the same place, saying as he did so, "Now all is
+ready." His wife sighed heavily. He looked at her and said, "My
+dear, would you not have us defend our children and firesides
+against the oppressors?"
+
+"Yes," she said, "go, but my heart must ache at the thought of what
+may happen. If I could only go with you!"
+
+They sat silent for a long time, holding each other's hands, and
+looking at their children, till, just at sunrise, his brother John,
+that sleeping child's grandfather, rushed into the house, crying,
+"They are in sight from the hill. Come, Tom, quickly, come to the
+church." My master seized me in a moment, kissed his wife and
+children, and without speaking hastened to the place where the few
+men of the then very small town were assembled to resist the
+invaders.
+
+Presently about eight hundred men, all armed with muskets as good as
+I was, and of the same fashion, were seen. These men had two cannon
+with them which made a fearful show to the poor colonists, as the
+Americans were then called.
+
+Our men were about one hundred in number. The lordly English marched
+up within a few rods of us, and one called out, "Disperse, you
+rebels. Lay down your arms, and disperse."
+
+Our men did not however lay down their arms. My master grasped me
+tighter than before. We did not stir an inch. Immediately the
+British officers fired their pistols, then a few of their men fired
+their muskets, and, at last, the whole party fired upon our little
+band as we were retreating. They killed eight men, and then went on
+to Concord, to do more mischief there.
+
+I felt a heavy weight fall upon me; it was my master's dead body;
+and so I learned what muskets were made for. His fingers were on the
+trigger; as he fell, he pulled it, and in that sound his spirit
+seemed to depart.
+
+The British marched on to Concord, and the poor brave people of
+Lexington, who had so gallantly made the first resistance, were left
+to mourn over dead companions and friends.
+
+Soon the eldest son of my master discovered his father among the
+slain. The poor fellow! I never shall forget his sorrow. He groaned
+as if his heart would break, and then he laid himself down on the
+ground by the side of his father's body, and wept bitterly.
+
+One must be made of harder stuff than I am, to forget such a thing
+as this. I do not ever like to speak of it, or of the painful scene
+that followed. The poor widow and her fatherless children! It seemed
+a dreadful work that I and such as I were made to perform.
+
+But there were other things to be thought of then. The British soon
+returned from Concord, where they had destroyed some barrels of
+flour and killed two or three men.
+
+In the mean time, the men from all the neighboring towns collected
+together, armed with all the muskets they could find, and annoyed
+them severely on their return by firing on them from behind stone
+walls.
+
+My master's brother took me from the corner where I had been again
+placed, and joined the party. He placed himself behind a fence by
+which they must pass, and took such good aim with me that down fell
+a man every time I spoke.
+
+Other muskets performed the same work. What they did you may judge
+of, when I tell you that, while two hundred and seventy-three
+Englishmen fell that day, only eighty-eight Americans were killed. I
+will not talk of what I myself performed, for I despise a boaster,
+but I did my share of duty, I believe.
+
+About two months after this, uncle John, as the children called him,
+came again to borrow me. He was going to join the few brave men who
+opposed the British force at Bunker or Breed's Hill.
+
+"Sister," he said, "you will lend me the musket, will you not? I
+cannot afford to buy one, and we must teach these English what stuff
+we are made of."
+
+"Let me go, Mother," said the eldest boy. "I am old enough now; I am
+almost nineteen; let me go."
+
+His mother said nothing; she looked at the vacant chair which was
+called his father's; she considered a while, and then took me and
+put me into her son's hands.
+
+"God bless you, William," she said, "and bring you back safe to us;
+but do your duty and fear nothing."
+
+She kissed him, and he left her. I felt William's heart beat bravely
+as he shouldered me. He was a fine fellow. We were as one. I was
+proud of him, and he of me. No man and musket did better than
+William and I, on that never-to-be-forgotten day; but, in the midst
+of the battle, a shot wounded William's right arm, and he let me
+fall.
+
+His uncle led him off the field and sent him home to his mother. A
+countryman, who had nothing but an oak stick to fight with, seized
+me as I lay on the ground, and here I met with the first
+mortification of my life--he actually used me to dig with. This was
+a contemptible feeling in me, and I have since learned to be ashamed
+of it, and to know that all labor is equally honorable, if it is for
+a good end. They had not tools enough for making entrenchments, and
+they actually used the bayonet, of which I had been proud, for this
+purpose. In the confusion after the battle, I was forgotten. I was
+left at the bottom of the works in the mud.
+
+It was a hard thing for me to be parted from William, and to feel
+that I should never be restored to my corner in his mother's room
+behind the old clock; but I had a conviction that I had taken part
+in a great work, and I enjoyed our triumphs greatly.
+
+This, you will think, no doubt, was glory enough for one musket; but
+a greater still was in reserve for me. It is with muskets as with
+men, one opportunity improved opens the way for another, and every
+chance missed is a loss past calculation; for every gain that might
+have grown out of that chance is lost too.
+
+Every one should remember that, as he fights his way through the
+battle of life; and, when tempted to slacken his fire, think of what
+the old revolutionary spirit, speaking through my muzzle, taught on
+that day,--'hold on, and hold fast, and hold out. Never stop, stay,
+or delay, but make ready!--present!-- fire!--and, again and again,
+make ready!--present!--fire!--till every round of ammunition is
+gone.'"
+
+Here the dry, rusty, unmodulated tone, in which the old king's arm
+had, up to this time, spoken, suddenly changed; and it seemed as if
+a succession of shots had been let off. Then, bringing himself down
+to the floor with a DUNT off of the little tea chest full of old
+shoes, on which he had stood leaning against the brick chimney,
+exactly as he used to do grounding arms seventy years ago, he
+quietly dropped back into the drowsy tone of narrative, and
+proceeded:--
+
+"Yes--never flag nor hang back. The greater the danger, the more do
+you press up to the mark. So we did at Trenton in the Jerseys, on
+that most glorious day of my life of which I am now about to tell
+you.
+
+I must tell you that I had the honor of fighting under General
+Washington; for I had been marched down to Trenton with a stout-
+hearted teamster, named Judah Loring, from Braintree, Massachusetts,
+who, after our battle at Bunker Hill, in that State, picked me up
+from the bottom of the works, where, for want of pickaxes, I had
+been, as I told you, serving as a trenching, tool, and made himself
+my better-half and commander-in-chief. Excuse a stately phrase; but,
+after the battle of Bunker Hill, I never could screw up my muzzle to
+call any man master or owner again.
+
+We found only a few thousand men and muskets there, principally from
+Virginia, Pennsylvania, and the Jerseys, with a few companies of New
+Englanders; and a steadier, sturdier set of men than these last
+never breathed. They had enlisted for six months only, and their
+time was out; but they never spoke of quitting the field.
+
+It was now December, in the midst of snow and ice; and not a foot
+among them that did not come bleeding to the frozen path it trod.
+But, night after night, the men relieved each other to mount guard,
+though the provision chest was well nigh empty; and, day after day,
+they scoured the country for the chance of supplies, appearing to
+the enemy on half a dozen points in the course of the day; making
+him think the provincials, as we were scornfully called, ten times
+as numerous as we really were. But alas, I am old, I find, and lose
+the thread of my story. It was of Washington I meant to speak.
+
+Nobody could know General Washington that had not seen him as we
+did, at that dark hour of the struggle. It seemed as if that man
+never slept. All day he was planning, directing, contriving; and all
+night long he would write--write--write; letters to Congress,
+begging them to give him full powers, and all would go well, for he
+did not want power for himself, but only power to serve them;
+letters to the generals in the north, warning, comforting, and
+advising them; letters to his family and friends, bidding them look
+at him and do as he did; letters to influential men every where,
+entreating them to enlist men and money for the holy cause.
+
+He never rested; and, with the cold gray dawning, would order out
+his horse and ride through and around the miserable tents, and where
+we often slept under the bare heavens, and every heart was of bolder
+and better cheer as he passed.
+
+His look never changed. It was just the same steady face, whatever
+went on before it; whether he saw us provincials beaten back, or
+watched a thousand British regulars pile their arms after the
+victory at Trenton.
+
+He looked as he does in the great picture in Faneuil Hall, on the
+right, as you stand before the rostrum. He stands there, by his
+horse, just as I saw him before the passage of the Delaware, with
+the steady, serious, immovable look that puts difficulties out of
+countenance. It is the look of a man of sense and judgment, who has
+come to the determination to save the country, and means to transact
+that piece of business without fail.
+
+I never saw that quiet, iron look change but once. I will tell you
+about it. It was one of those days after the battle of Trenton, when
+he tried to concentrate the troops that he had scattered over the
+country, to bring them to bear upon the British. His object was to
+show the enemy that they could not keep their foothold.
+
+Between Trenton and Princeton he ordered the assault. The Virginians
+were broken at the enemy's first charge, and could not be rallied a
+second time against the British bayonets. General Washington
+commanded and threatened and entreated in vain.
+
+We of New England saw the crisis, marched rapidly up, and poured in
+our fire at the exact moment, Judah Loring and I in the very front.
+
+The British could not stand the fire. We gave it to them plenty, I
+tell you. Judah Loring loaded, and I fired over and over and over
+again, till it seemed as if he and I were one creature.
+
+A musket, I should explain to you, feels nothing of itself, but only
+receives a double share of the nature of the man who carries it.
+
+I felt ALIVE that day. Judah was hot, but I was hotter; and, before
+the cartridge box was empty, he pulled down his homespun blue and
+white frock sleeve over his wrist, and rested me upon it when he
+took aim. He was a gentle-hearted fellow, though as brave as his
+musket.
+
+"She's so hot," says he, doubling his sleeve into his palm, "that I
+can't hold her; but I can't stop firing NOW!"
+
+I met his wishes exactly, I knew by that word; for he always called
+every thing he liked, SHE. The sun was SHE; so was his father's old
+London-made watch; so was the Continental Congress.
+
+General Washington saw the whole;--the enemy, driven back before our
+fire, could never be brought to look us in the face again. We held
+the ground;--the Virginia troops rallied; --General Washington took
+off his cocked hat, and lifted it high, like a finished gentleman,
+as he was. "Hurrah!" he shouted, "God bless the New England troops!
+God bless the Massachusetts line!" [Footnote: This was all fact,
+related by one who was present.] And his steady face flamed and gave
+way like melting metal.
+
+Ah, what a set of men were those! I felt the firm trip-hammer of all
+their pulses beat through the whole fight, for we stood in platoon,
+shoulder to shoulder. I felt my kindred with every one of them. They
+had more steel in their nerves and more iron in their blood than
+other men. Not a man cared a straw for his life, so he saved from
+wrong and bondage the lives of them that should come after him.
+
+That day's work raised hope in every man's heart through the land.
+Said I not well that it was the most glorious of my life?
+
+I have but little more to say. I have said more than I meant to,
+more perhaps than was wise to say of my own glory. But the thought
+of those brave days of old makes one too talkative.
+
+I must tell you, however, how I at last came here. Judah Loring
+brought me home safe; he was a very honest fellow, and seeing the
+initials scratched on my butt-end, and 'Lexington' underneath, he
+went there on purpose to find to whom I belonged.
+
+My friend William claimed me, and I was again placed behind the old
+clock in the little parlor. His mother looked very calm, and almost
+happy, but not as she once did; she sighed heavily when William
+brought me home. William's wound in his arm healed after a while,
+but his arm was disabled. By great self-denial and exertion, his
+mother had got him into college, and he was to be a schoolmaster.
+
+The sight of me was painful to this good woman, and she gave me to
+uncle John who kept me safely and, on the whole, honorably till his
+son placed me here.
+
+There is one disgrace I have met with which, in good faith, however
+unwillingly, I ought to mention. Uncle John used me to kill skunks
+occasionally. This there was no great harm in doing, only he should
+not have talked about it. I disliked, it, however, exceedingly.
+
+Once, I am told, when he was in the South, some southern gentleman,
+for some trifling offense, challenged him.
+
+Uncle John was told that he, as the party challenged, might choose
+his weapons.
+
+"Well," he said to his enemy, "if you will wait till I can send for
+my skunk gun, I am ready for you."
+
+I have since, I do hate to say it, been called the skunk gun
+repeatedly. To be sure, no one that has any reverence in his nature
+speaks of me in this way. Uncle John had not much, but his son, the
+father of that little girl, treats me with due respect, and forbids
+them to call me the skunk gun.
+
+I was once the defender of liberty, and am ready to be so again. I
+was not made to kill skunks, those disgusting little animals. I hate
+to think of them.
+
+Pardon me for keeping you listening to me so long; I have done. I
+wish to hear now what that respectable-looking broadsword has to
+say. We two ought to be friends."
+
+"I was born a gentleman," said the broadsword. "I was always
+considered the sign, the symbol of one. Not many years since, a
+sword was so essential to the character of a gentleman that a man
+without one by his side, was, in fact, not considered a gentleman.
+
+My master, who was also yours, Mr. Curlingtongs, was one the
+officers in the company of Cadets at its first formation. He had the
+honorable title of Major, and all his best friends called him Major.
+Little did I think once that I should be condemned to the disgrace
+of spending my old age in a garret with crooked curling tongs,
+broken pitchers, old baize gowns, noseless tea-kettles, old
+crutches, a foot stove, and, worse than all, a spinning wheel.
+
+My only peers here are the venerable musket and the respectable wig.
+Even they have seen too much hard service to be able fully to
+appreciate the feelings of a gentleman who has been brought up as I
+have. The degradation the musket especially endured, in being used
+as a spade by such a very common sort of person as Judah Loring--a
+degradation of which, far from being ashamed, he seems actually
+proud; all this, I say, my friends, makes a wide separation between
+us never to be forgotten or got over."
+
+"I'm agreed, the further off the better," growled the musket. The
+old wig also gave a sort of contemptuous hitch, that seemed to say,
+he agreed with the musket.
+
+"I consider myself," resumed the broad-sword, "to be a perfect
+gentleman. I have never denied myself by any sort of labor. I have
+been considered something to show, something to be used only as a
+terror to evil doers.
+
+It strikes me that I really made the Major; he never could appear in
+his company or perform his duties without me; his queue was not more
+essential. He was not a Major without me. Every one feared me when
+they saw my shining blade out of its scabbard, and it was really
+amusing occasionally to see the effect I produced. There have been
+swords that have done bloody work, but I have never been so defiled.
+
+The Boston Cadets, you know, are the Governor's body guard, and such
+is the anxiety of people sometimes to see a real live governor when
+he has on his governor's dress and character, that the women and
+children crowd around him so that he can hardly find room to move
+and breathe. At one of these times of great pressure, my master took
+me out and flourished me round bravely. O, how they all scampered!
+just like a flock of frightened geese, merely at the sight of me.
+Such is the effect of my mere appearance. To be sure, the Major
+laughed whenever he told this story. I know not why, for it is
+perfectly true.
+
+Once, when all the men in the family were gone away,--it was since
+we have lived in the country,--the children were in the upper
+chamber, and the doors were open below, and they saw a frightful-
+looking beggar coming up the avenue; he was lame and had a patch
+over his eye. He looked terrible; but one of the girls ran for me,
+and took me out of the scabbard, and shook me at him out of the
+window, and screamed out to him to go off; whereupon he turned about
+and hobbled off as fast as he could.
+
+One of the little girls said she did not believe there was any harm
+in the poor beggar, and that she would go down and let him in, and
+give him something to eat, but the biggest boy shook me at her for
+only saying so, so as to dazzle her eyes and frighten her, and she
+became silent and remained where she was.
+
+Many such feats I have performed, too many to relate. Children, to
+be sure, especially big blustering rude boys, have occasionally
+played tricks with me. When they play Bombastes Furioso they come
+for me."
+
+"All right," said the musket.
+
+"These little rogues have gapped my fine edge, and one good-for-
+nothing scamp used me to cut down cabbages, but, as he came very
+near cutting down his younger brother at the same time, he was sent
+to bed supperless by his father. I have really never performed any
+drudgery. Like Caesar, 'I came, I saw, I conquered.'"
+
+At these words, there was a sort of scornful laugh from every
+venerable person in the garret. Even the old baize gown shook with
+merriment; this vexed the sword so completely that he stopped
+speaking; and, notwithstanding their entreaties, would not resume
+the story or speak another word.
+
+There was a deep silence, for a few moments, which was broken, at
+last, by the old wig, who called upon the warming pan to tell her
+story; the warming pan obeyed, and spoke as follows:--
+
+"I pass over my early life. Time was when I was thought much of in
+this family. Early in the autumn, I was rubbed and polished till you
+could see your face in me.
+
+On the first cold night, some nice walnut wood embers were carefully
+put into me; I had the pleasure and honor of being passed up and
+down my mistress's bed till it was well warmed, and this service I
+performed for her constantly till the warm weather returned.
+
+When any one in the family was ill, I was employed on the same
+service for him or her; or when guests came to pass the night, I
+performed this office for them, and this was all apparently which my
+existence was for. A very monotonous life I led, to be sure, but I
+am of a quiet nature and care not for much variety.
+
+I remember only one or two things which occurred beyond this dull
+routine; these I will relate and then give place to some more
+interesting speaker.
+
+One day, I was suddenly seized upon by one of the maids, and carried
+out into the orchard, when she began beating me with an iron spoon,
+and making as much noise as she possibly could; presently others of
+the family joined with tin pans and kettles, and such a babel of
+sound you never heard; this, I found afterwards, was to stupefy a
+swarm of bees and make them alight which, at last, they did. Then
+one of the men with a handkerchief over his face, and with gloves
+on, swept the bees into a new hive, and put it by the side of the
+old ones.
+
+After this bruising, I was hung up upon my accustomed peg, but my
+brazen face still shows the marks which Dolly's iron spoon left on
+me that morning.
+
+One feat, however, I performed, which I should think might put our
+friend the sword to the blush. I did do something in defence of our
+native land in the hour of her danger; he it seems did nothing in
+his whole life but play gentleman.
+
+Our cook Dolly was a brave woman, and, during the Revolution, once
+or twice she was left quite alone in the house, and every thing was
+put under her care.
+
+Upon one of these occasions, she was up stairs, and thought she
+heard some one in the house; she came down very softly, and saw a
+man in the pantry helping himself to the silver; he was so much
+occupied, and she moved so softly, that he did not see or hear her.
+I was hanging in the entry close by where she passed; she took me
+down very softly, came up behind the soldier,--for such he was,--
+and gave him a good box on the ear with me, instead of her hand.
+This scared him so effectually that he threw down the silver, and
+scampered off after his companions who were in the stable looking
+for horses which they meant to take for themselves. Dolly, in the
+mean time, caught up the silver, ran out of another door into a wood
+near the house, where she hid herself and the silver till the enemy
+were gone.
+
+These are all the events of my life that I remember. After my
+master's and mistress's death, I was sent up garret to be put among
+the useless old things, such as gentlemen's broadswords, broken
+pitchers, noseless tea-kettles, &c. The reason for this is not that
+I am worn out, but because the age is so much wiser that they have
+come to the conclusion that cold beds are more healthy than warm
+ones; so here I am left to rust out with the rest of my fellow-
+sufferers. Perhaps my cousin foot stove may have something more
+interesting to relate. I have done."
+
+The foot stove seemed half inclined not to speak; but, after a
+little urging, she said, in a whining tone,
+
+"Every one knows that I was made to be trodden under foot and to be
+abused. There was, to be sure, a period of my life somewhat more
+respectable.
+
+Many years ago, I was regularly, during the cold weather, brightened
+up and put in nice order every Saturday, and on Sunday taken to
+church; for then the churches were cold, and, without me well filled
+with blazing coals, my mistress could not have borne to listen for
+more than an hour to the good minister's sermon.
+
+Sermons at that time were sermons indeed; and the people got their
+money's worth of preaching.
+
+I was indeed, at that time, a great favorite in the house. All the
+old people cared for me especially, and I was kept often in the
+parlor, and, when I was cold, the children were allowed to sit upon
+me, but never to abuse me. But this is a capricious, changing,
+cheating, vain world, and foot stoves are not thought much of
+nowadays. The churches are warmed all over, so that foot stoves are
+not needed, and so I never go to church; indeed, in my broken-down
+state of health, it would hardly be safe for me to do so. I am not
+even used at home, if it is possible to do without me: and then, if
+I ever am brought down stairs, a long apology is made for my looks.
+
+The truth is, my life has not been a happy or desirable one. I have
+had much to suffer. One happy moment I had. The dear lady to whom I
+first belonged had long wished to have a stove, but was prevented
+from buying one because she would not spend money on herself for any
+thing if she could possibly do without. Her husband, who was the
+owner of the curling tongs, when he knew this, determined to get her
+a stove; and, on the very day when she burned his hair in her
+efforts to learn to dress it as well as the hair dresser, he
+purchased me for her.
+
+I was the very best stove in the shop; and, when he presented me to
+her, he said, "Now, my dear, in revenge for your burning my head, I
+will heap coals of fire not on your head, but under your feet,
+especially when you go to church; so beware lest I burn your feet as
+you did my head."
+
+This pretty attention of her husband's pleased her so much that she
+kept me in sight for many days. When shall I forget how soft and
+light her pretty, neatly dressed feet felt, the first time she used
+me?
+
+For a long while I was her stove alone; but after a time, all sorts
+of feet were put upon me, and life grew common and tiresome.
+
+After my mistress's death, I was much neglected, for wise folks said
+foot stoves should not be used. At last, the cook, who was no
+invalid, and did not care for doctors, took me up, and soon began to
+consider me as her property, and kept me in the kitchen.
+
+One day, however, the farmer's boy brought in some heavy logs of
+wood, and threw them down carelessly. One fell upon me, and smashed
+me up, leaving me as you now see me. Here I remain shattered and
+forsaken--nothing but an old broken foot stove that nobody cares
+for.
+
+I hope that those stout, good-looking and-irons will now tell their
+story. They look to me just as upright and stiff and strong as when
+I first saw them in our dear master's chimney corner. To be sure,
+they are not so bright and shining as they were then, but they look,
+in all other respects, just as they did then, and life has fallen
+lighter on them than on your poor humble servant, the foot stove."
+
+The andirons were now called upon to entertain the company. "We have
+always had the comfort and blessing of living together," said one of
+them. Indeed we should not be good for any thing apart. A pair of
+andirons belong together as much as the two parts of a pair of
+scissors. So we have never been lonely. We have had much to be
+thankful for. We are, to be sure, called 'the old dogs.' The name
+sounds disagreeable, and is hard to bear; but we are made of good
+Russia iron, and can endure a good deal.
+
+Time was when the old dogs were essential to the warmth and comfort
+of the family, but they went out of fashion. Modern improvements, as
+they are called, sent us away from the cheerful domestic hearth to
+this old dusty garret, and spiders weave their webs over our very
+faces; but, like other DOGS, we had our day.
+
+What article of furniture in the old-fashioned snug parlor was so
+essential as we? How could the fragrant hickory and birch sticks
+have sent their cheering light and warmth over the faces of the
+happy family circles without our support?
+
+The tea-kettle, genial and comely as it always was while it had a
+nose, was still but an occasional visitor. We were always there. We
+listened to the early morning prayer which the good man offered, on
+every new day, to the Giver of all good. We were present when he
+lifted his earnest voice of grateful joy, for the blessings of
+loving friends and healthy children, who made their quiet life an
+Eden of peace and goodness.
+
+We were present too when sorrow came, softened by religious faith--
+by trust in a loving Father.
+
+We heard when, again and again, the news that another child was born
+was sounded through the house with a sweetly solemn joy, like the
+voice of an angel proclaiming anew peace on earth and good will to
+men.
+
+How many secrets we have listened to! How many love scenes we have
+witnessed! How many ringing shouts of laughter have we heard! How
+many unbidden tears have we seen flow! What stories we might tell!
+But it would not be right for us to tell all we know. I suppose the
+good old couple, as they sat of winter evenings over the embers,
+when the children were gone to bed, never thought of our telling
+what we heard.
+
+One trick that the boys planned in our hearing, and the punishment
+they got for their roguery, I will tell you about, if you are not
+tired of our story."
+
+"Go ahead," shouted the musket, with a bounce.
+
+"There were five boys in the family. One of them, a little fellow of
+ten years of age, was foolish enough to be afraid of the dark. His
+brothers resolved to cure him, and took the worst way possible,
+which was, to give him something to be frightened at.
+
+On the upper shelf of a closet in the room in which they slept was a
+very large bundle. They determined to tie a string to the bundle,
+and, before George went up to bed, to tie the other end of the
+string to the latch of the door, so that, when he opened it, this
+bundle would come thundering down, and, as they said, give him
+something to be scared at.
+
+The man servant heard of the plan as he was lighting the lamps while
+the boys were talking it over. He had a particular fancy for George
+and told him.
+
+George said nothing, but, just before the time when he thought Tom
+would go up to the bedroom to set the trap, went up himself, tied
+the string to the latch of the door, having previously put a tin pan
+and wash basin on the top of the bundle, then put the old cat in the
+closet, and came down stairs.
+
+"When do you go to bed, George?" said Tom.
+
+"At the usual time," said George, quietly. Up ran Tom to prepare the
+entertainment for his brother, and opened the door fearing nothing--
+bang slam came great bundle, tin kettle and wash basin, and out
+jumped the great black cat, howling and spitting at the racket.
+
+Tom forgot he was the big brave boy, and scampering, like lightning,
+down stairs, he slipped, fell, and was brought in faint from fright,
+and with a bleeding nose.
+
+His father inquired what had frightened him so. George told what he
+had done.
+
+His father blamed him severely.
+
+"Blame us, father," said the other boys.
+
+"It is only the biter bitten," said Tom. "I am justly punished. I
+was the oldest, and I only am really to blame. It is all right that
+I suffered instead of poor George."
+
+Then their father gathered them around him, and told them stories of
+the evil consequences he had known follow from being severely
+frightened.
+
+The children all promised him never to commit such a fault again;
+and I believe they kept their word.
+
+"But I am too long, and am growing prosy."
+
+"So you are," bounced the musket.
+
+"An ugly, impertinent contrivance, called a grate, was introduced in
+lieu of us--black, dirty coal was burned instead of beautiful oak
+and walnut, to warm the dear family. We were no longer of any use.
+Poetry went away with the andirons, sentiment and refinement are
+obsolete, and here we stand, the head and foot-stones, as it seems
+to me, at the grave of the dear old-fashioned buried past.
+
+"I have done. Please, friend tea-kettle, favor us with your
+experiences."
+
+"My story has nothing extraordinary in it," said the tea-kettle.
+"Like most of my friends, I have had my ups and downs in the world.
+
+I had the honor of being made in the mother country. I am of the
+very best of tin; what there is left of me is still pretty good.
+When that little girl's parents were married, I first took my place
+in the family, and contributed my part to the adornment of the
+kitchen closet. I was kept as bright as silver, and was carried,
+twice a day, into the parlor, and set upon some red-hot coals, where
+I used to sing my morning and evening song to the happy family I
+served.
+
+Erelong, an ugly upstart of a grate took the place, as you know, of
+the dear old andirons, and I was banished with them from my happy
+place.
+
+After this, I was rarely used. When any one was ill, and hot water
+was wanted to be kept upstairs, I was called for. My nature is a
+kindly one, so I sang away just as merrily as if I had not been
+somewhat neglected.
+
+For this sweetness of temper I had my reward; for once my kind
+mistress took me up, and said as she looked at me, "I do love this
+tea-kettle. It discourses to me eloquent music. It tells the story
+of the early days of my happy married life. It reminds me of the
+precious hours we passed talking over so many pleasant things that
+we enjoyed, or that we hoped for, while there it sat on the coals
+singing away a sort of sweet cheerful accompaniment to our talk, as
+if it understood all we said. We understand each other, you dear old
+thing."
+
+In my visits up stairs, I often heard amusing stories told by the
+nurse to the poor invalid of whom she had the charge, when he was
+getting better, and such an indulgence as to hear stories was
+allowed him.
+
+Once, when one of the boys--it was little Jonathan--was recovering
+from an attack of scarlatina, and was very fidgety and
+uncomfortable, nothing but some kind of story would keep him quiet
+in his bed.
+
+It so happened that the good nurse was a sort of family friend, and
+had been a great deal in the house of Jonathan's cousin, a very
+roguish boy who was always getting into some kind of scrape.
+
+Jonathan was never satisfied with hearing of Ned's frolics. One I
+will relate. "At one time," said the nurse, "his father had been ill
+for some days, and the order of the house was to be very quiet, as
+sleep was essential to the recovery of the invalid. Now poor Ned was
+rather in the habit of making a good deal of noise everywhere, but
+he loved his father, and was very anxious not to disturb him. In the
+house, he could not avoid making some little noise; so he passed
+much of his time out of doors, wandering about alone when he could
+find no playfellow.
+
+At last, Ned remembered that he had some money left of his last
+allowance for pocket money. This was a rare thing; usually Ned's
+money burned in his pocket so that there was no comfort for him till
+it was spent for something or other. Often--it must be told in Ned's
+favor--his pocket money was given to some poor little boy or girl
+whom he saw in the street, or who might happen to come to his
+father's house to ask charity. Ned's father, though not rich, gave
+him pocket money, that Ned might be able to give for himself if he
+had the inclination so to do. Well, it so happened that neither
+charity, nor sugar-plums, nor any other sweet thing had taken off
+Ned's money; he had as much as seventy-five cents in his pocket,
+and, for the want of something better to do, he went into a shop,
+called, in the country town in which they lived, a 'Variety Shop.'
+
+'Variety Shop' was a just and proper name for such an assemblage of
+every thing ever devised for the convenience and inconvenience of
+human beings. There were caps after Parisian fashions for ladies,
+and there, not far off, were horse nets and blankets. There were
+collars after the newest patterns for gentlemen, and yokes for oxen.
+There were corsets and Noah's arks, salt fish and sugar almonds,
+Chinese Joshes and Little Samuels, accordeons and fish horns,
+almanacs, Joe Millers, and Bibles, toothpicks and churns, silver
+thimbles and wash tubs, penknives, tweezers and pickaxes, Adams and
+Eves in sugar, and Napoleons in brass. In short, what was there not
+in that shop?
+
+Ned entered, and his eyes were dazzled with the show and the
+variety. He had some money in his pocket, and spend it now he began
+to think he must; the fire burned very hot in that little pocket of
+his, it must be put out. Somewhere or other it must go, that
+troublesome seventy-five cents.
+
+Now what did Ned want of toothpicks, or churns, or horse blankets,
+or collars, or caps, or yokes, or thimbles, or tubs? A little Samuel
+his aunt had given him. A Chinese Josh had a charm for him. He would
+look at it.
+
+The shopman, who had once been a pedler, saw the state of things
+with Ned, and resolved to relieve him of that burning trouble in his
+pocket, if possible. The man was an honest fellow, and meant to give
+Ned his money's worth. But an exchange was no robbery, and he was
+convinced that it would be better for both sides if something in his
+Variety Shop should go to Ned, and Ned's money should go into the
+money drawer.
+
+After Ned had looked some time at the Josh, and had half made up his
+mind to take it, and had motioned away all the sugar monsters and
+Noah's arks and bronze Napoleons and even the penknives, the shopman
+said, "You have not looked at my fancy fowls, young gentleman; I
+should like you would see them before you decide what you will have
+of my variety this morning. That is quite a new article which I have
+just received."
+
+Ned was not used to being called young gentleman. He was nothing but
+a boy. Of course, he went to look at the new article, after this.
+Every one but him and the shopman had left the shop. It was very
+quiet, and, just as the shopman had finished speaking, a cock, who
+was in a crate in the corner, set up the loudest crowing that Ned
+had ever heard, and with a decidedly foreign tone.
+
+In a moment, Ned made up his mind that cock he would have. His
+father had given him leave to keep fowls, and he already had a cock
+and three hens of a fine breed.
+
+"What's the price of that fellow?" said he; "he's a real buster;
+he'll wake us all up early enough in the morning."
+
+"A dollar, and cheap enough, too," said the shopman; "but, as it's
+you, and I know your family, you shall have it for that."
+
+"I have only seventy-five cents," said Ned, "and shall have no more
+till next week, when I have my allowance. If you will trust me, and
+are willing to wait, I will take the rooster."
+
+"Suppose the critter was to die afore then," said the shopman,
+"would you pay all the same?"
+
+"To be sure," said Ned; and the bargain was settled.
+
+The shopman advised him not to take the cock away before dark. Ned
+agreed to wait till then. Just before his bed time, he went for
+Chanticleer, and brought him as quietly as possible to the house. He
+was afraid to put the new master of the poultry yard on the roost
+with the old cock, lest they should fight in the morning; so he
+carried his treasure softly up to his own bedroom in which was a
+large closet where he had prepared a temporary roost. The cock, who
+was very tame, as he had been always a pet, made no fuss, but went
+to sleep on his new roost. So did Ned in his comfortable bed.
+
+Now it so happened that this large closet was between Ned's bedroom
+and that of his father who, as we have before mentioned, had been
+seriously ill, and who particularly demanded quiet. All the first
+part of the night the sick man had been tossing all out, very
+uneasy, till about three o'clock in the morning, when he fell into a
+sweet sleep. His wife, weary with anxiety and watching, was trying
+to get a nap in the easy chair, when, suddenly, close by them, as if
+in the very room, came an indescribable screech, an unearthly, long,
+shrill cock-a-doodle-do yell, such as only a fancy feathered biped
+can perform.
+
+The poor invalid screamed with horror, and his wife would have
+screamed too, had she not thought first of her dear patient.
+
+In a moment, all the household had left their beds to learn the
+cause of the horrid noise. Every one ran to the sick man's door, to
+listen if it was from there that the frightful noise came. When the
+door was opened, there stood all the terrified family, and, among
+the rest, poor Ned with the culprit in his arms.
+
+"It's only my new fancy rooster in my closet," said he; "I never
+thought of his crowing. Poor father and mother, I am so sorry! O,
+dear! dear! what shall I do? I'll carry him right down, this minute;
+and I never, dear father, will do such a thing again. Who'd a'
+thought of his crowing so early? and then he's such an awful buster
+when he crows. Do look at him."
+
+Ned's father was the best tempered man that ever lived, and he was
+really getting well; so, after a minute or two, he burst into a fit
+of laughter at the droll group assembled in his room, with poor Ned
+in the midst of them in his night shirt. As soon as Ned heard his
+father laugh, he scampered off on his bare feet, with his fancy
+rooster in his arms, covering its head with his shirt to keep down
+the crowing. He shut the creature up in the cellar, where it shouted
+and screeched till morning."
+
+Some of my most amusing recollections are of the queer scenes and
+conversations at which I was present, when my kind mistress lent me
+to a farmer's wife. This woman was in the habit of depending, as far
+as possible, upon her neighbors for any little conveniences she
+fancied, and did not like to pay the cost of. Usually she managed to
+do without such a nice tea-kettle as I really was; but, when she had
+company, she regularly came in for me. This was her usual way of
+asking for me, after saying good morning: "All your folks pretty
+well?"
+
+"Yes, we are all very well," was the answer usually.
+
+"Well, then, I spose you've nothin' agin my havin' your kittle this
+arternoon. I expect Deacon Fish and his wife, and tew darters to an
+arely tea; and I'm kind o' used to that ere kittle o' yourn, and
+can't somehow git along without it; and I han't yet got none of my
+own, you see."
+
+She, of course, always had me to entertain her company; she knew she
+should get me; and, as she went away, she always said something
+about how pleasant and right it was to be neighborly.
+
+After a few years, some one of her relations gave her a nice tea-
+kettle. She brought it in to show to my mistress. I was hissing away
+at the time for breakfast, which was hardly over when she entered.
+After she had shown her kettle to every one, and satisfied herself
+that it would bear a comparison with me, she said,--
+
+"Now, at last, I've got a kittle o' my own; and I'll never borry nor
+lend agin as long as I live in this here vale o' tears."
+
+Not long after this, a careless girl left my rival on the fire till
+the bottom was burned through, and the kettle was ruined.
+
+The next time the good woman came, her speech ran somewhat thus; "I
+spose you was to meetin' last Sabbath."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, if you was, I guess you heerd how the minister told us to be
+good to one another--to be neighborly, and help folks along. Now I
+guess as how I told you once that I shouldn't neither borry nor
+lend. Now I ain't tew old to larn and mend my ways, and I mean to
+deu as the parson says, and lend and borry all the days of my life;
+so maybe you'll lend me that ere kittle."
+
+But I must tell you about one of these visits I made to this
+peculiar neighbor. When she came in for me that day, she looked full
+of business and earnestness, and, before she was fairly seated, she
+began to tell her errand.
+
+"I have come," she said, "to invite you all to a rag bee, every one
+on ye--men folks and all, because they can cut and wind and be
+agreeable, and hand round cups and sarcers and things to eat, if
+they can't deu nothin' else; so now you must all come and bring your
+thimbles and scissors and big needles, and, ef you've no objections,
+I'll jest take the tea-kittle now, as I'm goin' straight home."
+
+My mistress, who was the kindest person that ever lived, promised to
+go to the rag party. She wished to please and aid this selfish
+woman, for she was her nearest neighbor."
+
+"Pray, dear mother, tell us what a rag bee is," said Harry.
+
+"At the time when our tea-kettle was in its prime, we had no woollen
+or cotton factories in this country. Our carpets all came from
+Europe, from England most of them, and poor people could not afford
+to buy them. Families were in the habit of carefully saving all
+their woollen pieces, all their old woollen clothes; not a scrap was
+lost.
+
+When a large quantity of these old woollen pieces was collected, it
+was a custom in the country to invite all the neighbors to come in,
+and aid the family in cutting these fragments up into narrow strips,
+about an eighth of an inch wide, and then sewing the strips
+together, and winding them up into large balls. This was used for
+what the weavers call the warp or the filling of the carpet. The
+woof was made of yarn, spun usually in the house from wool taken
+from the backs of their own sheep, and colored with a dye made from
+the roots of the barberry bushes, or the poke weed, with the aid of
+a little foreign indigo, or perhaps logwood. A sufficient variety of
+colors could be manufactured to produce a very decent-looking
+carpet.
+
+The weaving of this homemade carpet was done also in the
+neighborhood. There were always looms enough to weave, for a
+moderate price, all the carpets required in the place. At that time,
+there was usually a carpet only in what was called the sitting room,
+or, as the country people called it, "the settin room." The rest of
+the house had bare floors; perhaps, in the houses of the richest of
+the country people, a bit of carpet by the bed side.
+
+But I must tell you what else the tea-kettle said. "I went, or
+rather was carried," said she, "to the rag party. The good lady who
+borrowed me, I must say for her, did brighten me up famously.
+"There," said she, as she gave me the last touch with her rubbing
+cloth, "ef it ain't as bright as our Lijah's cheeks a Sabberday
+mornins!"
+
+The country hour for dining was twelve o'clock, and the rag party
+was invited to come at two. Accordingly, all the women of the place
+with whom Mrs. Nutter had any acquaintance that did or did not
+authorize an invitation, were assembled in her best parlor, to take
+part in the rag bee.
+
+A nice-looking, sensible set of folks they were, and, if I could
+remember all they said, I am sure you would think it very amusing.
+One of the subjects that I now think of was introduced by a pair of
+very old breeches.
+
+"Where," said Mrs. White, "did you get such a pair of horrid, old,
+scrimpy, frightful things as them? Why, the knees are patched with
+blue, and the seats with red, and they are so very small, and yet so
+long--who did they belong to?"
+
+Mrs. Nutter hesitated for a moment; at last, she seemed to muster
+courage, and to be determined to speak the whole truth.
+
+"Well," said she, "ef I must tell the treuth, them are breeches come
+off of a scarecrow. It stands to reason that none of us could ever
+have worn 'em. This here's the way I got 'em. My husband bought Mr.
+Crane's piece that jined on to ourn, and I made him throw in the
+scarecrow, cause I meant to have a rag party; and I reckon that
+you'll get a good many strips out on 'em, though they be so patched
+like."
+
+"I wonder," said one of the party, a fine, rosy, jolly-looking girl,
+"I wonder if these are not the ones which they say old Scrimp the
+miser changed with a scarecrow; and, after the exchange, old Scrimp
+looked so smart that people thought he was going to be married."
+
+"Did you ever see any one so lean favored as he is?" asked one of
+the company. "Folks say he's so thin that he turns in his hat, but
+that ere don't seem likely."
+
+Another of the company now looked up from her work, showing, at the
+same time, the nice strips she had been cutting. "I can't believe,"
+said she, "all the stories they tell of old Scrimp's miserly ways.
+They say that he almost lives upon samples."
+
+"Lives upon samples? What does that mean? I never heard of such a
+thing. What kind of victuals is samples?"
+
+"Why, Lois Ward, don't you know what a sample is? Why, he goes to a
+shop, and he asks for samples of all the different kinds of sugar,
+and so of tea and coffee, and he makes these last a great while, and
+then he goes to another, and does the same thing; and, when he
+thinks they know his tricks, he walks clear over to another town
+after samples; and so he lives upon almost nothing. They say that he
+keeps all his money in an old boot hanging up in his cellar, because
+he thinks no robber would think to look in an old boot after money."
+
+"They tell me," said another, "that he kills cats for their skins,
+and that he goes out o' nights with a long pole to kill skunks, and
+roasts them to get their grease, because skunk's grease is mighty
+powerful for men and beasts sometimes, and sells for a good deal,
+'cause there ain't many folks willing to undertake the nasty
+varmints."
+
+"Do you know what Beckey Cross said about him? She said that he was
+nothing but skin and grief, and that he never made any shadow. But
+poor Scrimp, though he is such a miser, has a heart, and can do a
+very kind thing."
+
+"How did you find out that, Miss Dolly?" said the rosy-cheeked girl.
+"Did he ever ask you to take care of his heart? if such a thing
+could be found. Perhaps it is your fault that poor Scrimp is nothing
+but skin and grief."
+
+Miss Dolly drew herself up, and looked in a very dignified manner at
+the young village belle. "I never kept company with Mr. Scrimp, and
+never should wish to with such a thread paper of a man as him; but I
+stick to it, he has a heart, and I'll tell you how I diskivered it.
+You know poor Mrs. Fowler, whose house is just out of the town, near
+two miles from old Scrimp's. I was there to see the poor woman the
+other day. You know her husband was killed last winter by the
+falling of a tree before the woodcutters thought it was ready to
+fall. You know she has one little boy, who she sets every thing by,
+and they are pretty poor, though the parish does help them.
+
+I sat with her some time, and heard all her troubles and
+misfortings. At last, she spoke of all the kind things she'd had
+done for her by different people; among others, she told me of a
+kind act of old Scrimp's.
+
+"One day," says she, "my little boy, only four years old, did not,
+as usual, come in at supper time. I went out to look for him in the
+wood where he goes to play; but he was not there. Night came on, and
+no Willie. I was half crazy with fear. I was at my wits' ends. I had
+forbidden him to go to the village, but I concluded he had disobeyed
+me; and so, at last, I sot out in that direction, though I'm so lame
+I can't walk fast.
+
+Well, she said she hadn't gone far before she met Mr. Scrimp leading
+her little boy home. He had found the child, after dark, crying in
+the street. He knew who was his mother, and where she lived, and he
+took hold of the little fellow's hand, carried him to the bakers,
+bought him a roll for supper, and was leading him home to his
+mother. He insisted upon the poor widow's taking his arm, and he
+went back with her to her cottage, and left a quarter of a dollar on
+her table when he went away."
+
+"Now," said Miss Dolly, as she finished, "hain't Mr. Scrimp got a
+heart? and, as for his living on samples, I don't believe a word of
+such a ridiculous story. You see he's got a kind of habit o' saving,
+and he's so thin he don't want much, and he's nobody to spend for;
+but I tell you he has got a heart, and a good one, when you come at
+it."
+
+This was a specimen of the conversations at the rag parties. At five
+o'clock in the afternoon, the tea table was spread, and such loads
+of bread and butter, cake, cheese, and what they called sweet sarse
+and apple trade you never saw. The farmers and their sons, as many
+as could be spared from work, put on their best coats, and helped
+hand about the tea and good things. At nine exactly, they all went
+home, leaving many large balls, nicely sewed, of filling for the
+intended new carpet.
+
+Early in the morning of the next day, I was brightened up again, and
+sent home, when my dear mistress saw me put up on a high shelf among
+valuable things not often used, but always well cared for. As I said
+before, she seemed really to love me, and often said, as she looked
+at me, "I hope no harm will come to, my precious old tea-kettle."
+
+Now I come to the painful part of my story, of which, even now, I
+hate to think. With all this love and consideration for me, my
+mistress made one fatal mistake. She allowed those same boys, who
+used the curling tongs to get a bone out of the pig's throat, to
+take me with them when they went into the woods to pass a day and
+night, and have a frolic, as they called it.
+
+The boys made a huge fire, and put me on it, and I boiled some water
+for them, and did my duty well. But, after they had satisfied their
+thirst with the good tea I had enabled them to make, they forgot
+your humble servant, and left me on the coals.
+
+The water all evaporated, and I was left to the fury of the fire; my
+pleasant song turned into a groan, a scream, in fact; my nose could
+not stand the fire; it dropped into the ashes; and here I am, the
+wreck of what I was, with this ghastly hole in me which you see.
+
+To be sure, the boys were sorry enough for their carelessness; but
+that did not mend my nose. I am kept here by my mistress for the
+same reason that she keeps the old pitcher and other useless things,
+as memorials of happy days past and gone."
+
+The tea-kettle was silent. Without any preface, the spinning wheel
+began to whirl and whiz, and whiz and whirl, and grumble and rumble,
+and buzz and buzz, and made altogether such a sleepy sound, as she
+told her story, which was, I guess, what the sailors call a long
+yarn, that she put me into such a sound sleep, that I could no
+longer hear any thing distinctly, and lost her story altogether."
+
+"But, dear mother," said Frank, "I hope you woke up so as to hear
+the history of the old cloak, and the comical coat, and the wig."
+
+"I will see," she answered, "what more I can remember of those
+dreamy times which I passed in my dear mother's attic, the palace of
+my early days."
+
+One very rainy Sunday, the noise of the children was too much for
+the older and graver part of the family, who wished to read and be
+quiet; and my mother advised me to take my book, and go up to my
+parlor.
+
+I always liked to be there, and to be by myself, with only the
+society of my friend the cat who was perfectly docile and obedient
+to me. I took Pilgrim's Progress, my favorite book, and was soon
+very comfortably seated in my great old-fashioned arm chair. Puss
+was by my side in the chair, for there was plenty of room for us
+both.
+
+O, that Puss, a famous cat she was. She was of a beautiful Maltese
+blue, with a very nice white handkerchief on her breast, a white
+ring for a necklace, and four white feet. She once met with an
+adventure worth relating.
+
+A young harum scarum Italian was a friend of my mother's, and was
+often at our house. A young lady, to whom he was much devoted, had a
+fancy for cats. He resolved, at the Christmas season, to gratify
+this taste of hers, as well as his own love of all sorts of
+vagaries.
+
+Christmas fell on Monday. On that morning, the young lady received
+an elegant package which contained, wrapped up in seven papers,
+carefully sealed, a picture of a great black cat, with fiery eyes,
+long whiskers, and a flaming red tongue, The young lady was a good
+deal astonished, you may believe.
+
+The next morning, she found in her breakfast cup the prettiest
+little sugar cat you can imagine. She asked all the family who had
+played her the trick, but no one knew.
+
+On Wednesday morning, when the house-maid opened the window to sweep
+the drawing room, as she always did at seven o'clock, a small, soft
+bundle came flying in at the window, and fell in the middle of the
+floor. The bundle was directed to Miss Mary, and contained a large
+rag cat, with a painted face, and with little bunches gathered up
+for nose and ears.
+
+Inquiries were in vain. No one had seen the daring hand that tossed
+the rag pussy into the window. The lady's suspicions did not fall
+upon the Italian, because he had made her think that he was out of
+town.
+
+Early on Thursday morning, came a great double knock and ring at the
+house door. So loud and long was the noise that the servant, a
+little, scary old man, thought the house was coming down. With
+trembling hand, he opened the door, when a black man, six feet high,
+delivered a huge box. The two men together had to take it in, it was
+so clumsy, though the weight was not much. In answer to the old
+man's inquiries as to who sent it, &c., the black only pointed to
+his mouth and ears, significantly, to intimate that he was deaf and
+dumb. On the top of the box was marked in red chalk "Miss Mary--."
+
+As soon as she came down, she was led to the box. It was opened with
+some difficulty. Inside was a quantity of cotton wool, and scattered
+about in the wool were little packages of soft paper, and inside of
+each was a little china cat. When all were taken out, the young lady
+found herself the possessor of a white china cat with gold ears and
+gold collar, and five little china kittens of various colors.
+
+It did no good asking questions, and the poor young lady resigned
+herself to her fate.
+
+The part of the house in which Miss Mary slept was a sort of wing.
+The only room there with a chimney was hers. The roof communicated
+with a shed, so that it was not difficult for a good climber to get
+at the chimney.
+
+On Friday morning, Miss Mary was awakened by a rattling in the
+chimney corner where, to her amazement, was a "Noah's ark" dangling
+by a string. She took hold of it, and drew it out of the chimney.
+
+"This must be meant for one of the little children," thought she.
+But no; the ark bore her name. On opening it, she discovered that it
+was a collection made from many arks, a cat having been culled from
+each. So there were cats of many sizes, and all painted as red as
+they could be. They made a long procession of red cats.
+
+On Saturday morning, the young lady awoke very early, but found
+nothing in her chimney corner. Although the weather was very cold,
+she went out, as was her custom, to walk in the garden before
+breakfast. There was a high wall on the side of the garden next the
+street. She walked down by the side of this wall towards a little
+arbor at the bottom of the garden. Just as she reached the arbor,
+she was startled by a squeak from the top of the wall, and something
+fell just at her feet. Taking the thing up, she perceived that it
+was a toy cat with a mewing arrangement underneath. It had been
+carefully wrapped up, but the paper was broken in the attempt to
+make it mew at the top of the wall. The lady burst into an
+uncontrollable fit of laughter; but, in answer to her laugh, came a
+dismal mewing from the other side of the wall; and, as she walked
+towards the house, at every few steps, a yowling toy cat jumped
+over, and fell at her feet.
+
+The next day was Sunday, and the lady said, "I shall be left in
+peace to-day, I think all the different kinds of cats must be
+exhausted."
+
+On going to her writing table, after breakfast, she found a little
+package lying on some note paper. It was very heavy, and was
+directed to her in a hand she did not recognize. It proved to be a
+most beautiful Paris bronze cat paper weight. The cat had her paw on
+a bird, and looked so life-like that it was almost painful to see
+her.
+
+"I am now in a state," said Miss Mary, "to arrange a cat museum."
+
+So she took all the cats, and placed them, in the order of their
+appearance, in a recess on one side of the room. There were picture
+cat, rag cat, China cats, ark cats, yowling cats, bronze cat.
+
+The next morning was New Year's Day. The young lady passed it in
+quiet. No cats invaded her repose. She began to think the eruption
+of cats was beginning to subside. Vain hope! Her tormentor was busy
+enough.
+
+On Sunday evening, he arrived at our house in the country. He came
+to spend the night.
+
+"My dear E.," said he to me, "you must lend me a cat. I have sent
+Miss Mary--every kind of cat except a live one, and now I must send
+that too. I am going to make you dress up your favorite blue
+kitten."
+
+At first, I refused; but, on his promise that the kitten should be
+treated with the greatest care and consideration, I agreed. I made
+her a gown of yellow satin coming down over her legs. The tail went
+through the gown and helped to keep it on. That tail was the
+gaudiest part of all, being wound with gold lace, and bearing at the
+tip a gay, flourishing bow. I made for pussy beautiful pettiloons of
+dark-red glazed cambric, and shod her with black morocco boots. Her
+cap was made of paste-board, tall and peaked, trimmed with gay
+ribbons, and surmounted by a cock's feather. A coral necklace with a
+locket was put about her neck; and then poor pussy was complete, and
+shone in her whole brilliancy Her patience was a shining example.
+Not a mew nor a growl at all the often-repeated fittings and tryings
+on. She purred kindly all the time.
+
+Her carriage was a bandbox, big enough to avoid crushing the cap and
+tail, with a hole cut in the cover for ventilation; and Miss Pussy
+set off for town.
+
+"A whole day gone, and no cat!" exclaimed Miss Mary--, as the family
+rose from tea. "The joke is over now, whatever it was."
+
+No sooner were the words spoken than a rousing knock and ring
+startled the silence, and a bandbox appeared covered with brilliant
+red letters spelling, "This side up with care," and several other
+phrases with the same meaning. "Open carefully" stood prominent
+among them. The direction was, of course, to Miss Mary. With careful
+hand, she raised the lid, when the cat, tired of long confinement,
+bewildered by the sudden light, and scared by the roars of laughter
+that greeted her, leapt from the box, and sped around the room like
+lightning. The dress held on well, while she galloped about like a
+gayly caparisoned circus pony. At last, she took a leap and fell
+into the midst of her predecessors. Rag cats, China cats, Noah's
+cats, yowling cats were upset and dashed to pieces.
+
+At this moment, the author of all the nonsense poked his head into
+the door. "My dear Miss Mary, I trust I have, at last, satisfied
+your taste for cats. I hope you like your New Year's gifts."
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Who Spoke Next
+by Eliza Lee Follen
+
diff --git a/old/whspk10.zip b/old/whspk10.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..75fe772
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/whspk10.zip