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diff --git a/44257-0.txt b/44257-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d64ccac --- /dev/null +++ b/44257-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3539 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44257 *** + +CAPE BRETON TALES + + +[Illustration: THE INNER HARBOR] + + + + +CAPE BRETON TALES + +BY + +HARRY JAMES SMITH + +AUTHOR OF + +_Amédée's Son, Enchanted Ground, Mrs. Bumpstead Leigh, +Tailor Made Man, etc._ + +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY + +OLIVER M. WIARD + +[Illustration] + +_The_ ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS + +BOSTON +Copyright 1920 + +_Printed in the United States of America_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + + ON THE FRENCH SHORE OF CAPE BRETON (1908) 1 + + LA ROSE WITNESSETH (1908) 17 + + OF THE BUCHERONS 19 + + OF LA BELLE MÉLANIE 32 + + OF SIMÉON'S SON 44 + + AT A BRETON CALVAIRE (1903) 57 + + THE PRIVILEGE (1910) 61 + + THEIR TRUE LOVE (1910) 77 + + GARLANDS FOR PETTIPAW (1915) 99 + + FLY, MY HEART (1915) 119 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +By OLIVER M. WIARD + + + THE INNER HARBOR _Frontispiece_ + + ARICHAT 17 + + A CALVAIRE 56 + + FOUGÈRE'S COVE 76 + + A FISHERMAN'S HOUSE 118 + + +_"On the French Shore of Cape Breton" and "The Privilege" were first +published in The Atlantic Monthly, while "La Rose Witnesseth of La Belle +Mélanie" is reprinted from "Amédée's Son" (Chapters VIII and IX) with +the kind permission of the publishers, Houghton Mifflin Company._ + +_"At a Breton Calvaire" was first published in The Williams Literary +Monthly during undergraduate days, and was rewritten several times +during the next few years. The final form is the one used here, except +for the last stanza, which is a combination of the two versions now +extant._ + +_The illustrations are from sketches made during Oliver Wiard's visits +in Arichat. It is an especial pleasure to include them, not only +because of their fidelity and beauty, but also because of my brother's +enthusiastic interest and delight in them._ + +EDITH SMITH. + + + + +ON THE FRENCH SHORE OF CAPE BRETON + + + + +ON THE FRENCH SHORE OF CAPE BRETON + + +Summer comes late along the Cape Breton shore; and even while it stays +there is something a little diffident and ticklish about it, as if each +clear warm day might perhaps be the last. Though by early June the +fields are in their first emerald, there are no flowers yet. The little +convent girls who carry the banners at the head of the Corpus Christi +procession at Arichat wear wreaths of artificial lilies of the valley +and marguerites over their white veils, and often enough their teeth +chatter with cold before the completion of the long march--out from the +church portals westward by the populous street, then up through the +steep open fields to the old Calvary on top of the hill, then back to +the church along the grass-grown upper road, far above the roofs, in +full view of the wide bay. + +Despite some discomforts, the procession is a very great event; every +house along the route is decked out with bunting or flags or a bright +home-made carpet, hung from a window. Pots of tall geraniums in scarlet +bloom have been set out on the steps; and numbers of little evergreen +trees, or birches newly in leaf, have been brought in from the country +and bound to the fences. Along the roadside are gathered all the +Acadians from the neighboring parishes, devoutly gay, enchanted with +the pious spectacle. The choir, following after the richly canopied +Sacrament and swinging censers, are chanting psalms of benediction and +thanksgiving; banners and flags and veils flutter in the wind; the +harbor, ice-bound so many months, is flecked with dancing white-caps and +purple shadows: surely summer cannot be far off. + +"When once the ice has done passing _down there_," they say--"which may +happen any time now--you will see! Perhaps all in a day the change will +come. The fog that creeps in so cold at night--it will all be sucked up; +the sky will be clear as glass down to the very edge of the water. Ah, +the fine season it will be!" + +That is the way summer arrives on the Acadian shore: everything bursting +pell-mell into bloom; daisies and buttercups and August flowers rioting +in the fields, lilacs and roses shedding their fragrance in sheltered +gardens; and over all the world a drench of unspeakable sunlight. + +You could never forget your first sight of Arichat if you entered its +narrow harbor at this divine moment. Steep, low hills, destitute of +trees, set a singularly definite sky-line just behind; and the town +runs--dawdles, rather--in a thin, wavering band for some miles sheer +on the edge of the water. Eight or ten wharves, some of them fallen +into dilapidation, jut out at intervals from clumps of weatherbeaten +storehouses; and a few small vessels, it may be, are lying up alongside +or anchored idly off shore. Only the occasional sound of a creaking +block or of a wagon rattling by on the hard roadway breaks the silence. + +Along the street the houses elbow one another in neighborly groups, +or straggle out in single file, separated by bits of declivitous +white-fenced yard; and to the westward, a little distance up the hill, +sits the square church, far outvying every other edifice in size and +dignity, glistening white, with a tall bronze Virgin on the peak of the +roof--Our Lady of the Assumption, the special patron of the Acadians. + +But what impresses you above all is the incredible vividness of color +in this landscape: the dazzling gold-green of the fields, heightened +here and there by luminous patches of foam-white where the daisies are +in full carnival, or subdued to duller tones where, on uncultivated +ground, moss-hummocks and patches of rock break through the investiture +of grass. The sky has so much room here too: the whole world seems to be +adrift in azure; the thin strip of land hangs poised between, claimed +equally by firmament and the waters under it. + +In the old days, they tell us, Arichat was a very different place from +now. Famous among the seaports of the Dominion, it saw a continual +coming and going of brigs and ships and barquentines in the South +American fish trade. + +"But if you had known it then!" they say. "The wharves were as thick all +the length of the harbor as the teeth of a comb; and in winter, when the +vessels were laid up--eh, mon Dieu! you would have called it a forest, +for all the masts and spars you saw there. No indeed, it was not dreamed +of in those days that Arichat would ever come to this!" + +So passes the world's glory! An air of tender, almost jealous +reminiscence hangs about the town; and in its gentle decline into +obscurity it has kept a sort of dignity, a self-possession, a certain +look of wisdom and experience, which in a sense make it proof against +all arrows of outrageous Fortune. + +Back from the other shore of the harbor, jutting out for some miles +into Chedabucto Bay, lies the Cape. You get a view of it if you climb +to the crest of the hill--a broad reach of barrens, fretted all day +by the sea. Out there it is what the Acadians call a bad country. +About the sluice-like coves that have been eaten into its rocky shore +are scrambling groups of fishermen's houses; but aside from these +and the lighthouse on the spit of rocks to southward, the region is +uninhabited--a waste of rock and swamp-alder and scrub-balsam, across +which a single thread of a road takes its circuitous way, dipping over +steep low hills, turning out for gnarls of rock and patches of gleaming +marsh, losing itself amid dense thickets of alder, then emerging upon +some bare hilltop, where the whole measureless sweep of sea and sky +fills the vision. + +When the dusk begins to fall of an autumn afternoon--between dog and +wolf, as the saying goes--you could almost believe in the strange +noises--the rumblings, clankings, shrill voices--that are to be heard +above the dull roar of the sea by belated passers on the barrens. Some +people have seen death-fires too, and a headless creature, much like a +horse, galloping through the darkness; and over there at Fougère's Cove, +the most remote settlement of the Cape, there were knockings at doors +through all one winter from hands not human. The Fougères--they were +mostly of one tribe there--were driven to desperation; they consulted a +priest; they protected themselves with blessed images, with prayers and +holy water; and no harm came to them, though poor Marcelle, who was a +_jeune fille_ of marriageable age, was prostrated for a year with the +fright of it. + +This barren territory, where nothing grows above the height of a man's +shoulder, still goes by the name of "the woods"--_les bois_--among the +Acadians. "Once the forest was magnificent here," they tell you--"trees +as tall as the church tower; but the great fire swept it all away; and +never has there been a good growth since. For one thing, you see, we +must get our firewood from it somehow." + +This fact accounts for a curious look in the ubiquitous stubby +evergreens: their lower branches spread flat and wide close on the +ground,--that is where the snow in winter protects them,--and above +reaches a thin, spire-like stem, trimmed close, except for new growth at +the top, of all its branches. It gives suggestion of a harsh, misshapen, +all but defeated existence; the adverse forces are so tyrannical out +here on the Cape, the material of life so sparse. + +I remember once meeting a little funeral train crossing the barrens. +They were bearing the body of a young girl, Anna Béjean, to its last +rest, five miles away by the road, in the yard of the parish church +amongst the wooden crosses. The long box of pine lay on the bottom of +a country wagon, and a wreath of artificial flowers and another of +home-dyed immortelles were fastened to the cover. A young fisherman, +sunburned and muscular, was leading the horse along the rough road, and +behind followed three or four carts, carrying persons in black, all of +middle age or beyond, and silent. + +Yet in the full tide of summer the barrens have a beauty in which +this characteristic melancholy is only a persistent undertone. Then +the marshes flush rose-pink with lovely multitudes of calopogons that +cluster like poising butterflies amongst the dark grasses; here too +the canary-yellow bladderwort flecks the black pools, and the red, +leathery pitcher-plant springs in sturdy clumps from the moss-hummocks. +And the wealth of color over all the country!--gray rock touched into +life with sky-reflections; rusty green of alder thickets, glistening +silver-green of balsam and juniper; and to the sky-line, wherever it +can keep its hold, the thin, variegated carpet of close-cropped grass, +where creeping berries of many kinds grow in profusion. Flocks of sheep +scamper untended over the barrens all day, and groups of horses, turned +out to shift for themselves while the fishing season keeps their owners +occupied, look for a moment, nose in the air, at the passer, kick up +their heels, and race off. + +As you turn back again toward Arichat you catch a glimpse of its +glistening white church, miles distant in reality, but looking curiously +near, across a landscape where none of the familiar standards of +measure exist. You lose it on the next decline; then it flashes in +sight again, and the blue, sun-burnished expanse of water between. It +occurs to you that the whole life of the country finds its focus +there: christenings and first communions, marriages and burials--how +wonderfully the church holds them all in her keeping; how she sends +out her comfort and her exhortation, her reproach and her eternal hope +across even this bad country, where the circumstances of human life are +so ungracious. + +But it is on a Sunday morning, when, in response to the quavering +summons of the chapel bell, the whole countryside gives up its +population, that you get the clearest notion of what religion means +in the life of the Acadians. From the doorway of our house, which was +close to the road at the upper end of the harbor, we could see the whole +church-going procession from the outlying districts. The passing would +be almost unbroken from eight o'clock on for more than an hour and a +half: a varied, vivacious, friendly human stream. They came in hundreds +from the scattered villages and hamlets of the parish--from Petit de +Grat and Little Anse and Pig Cove and Gros Nez and Point Rouge and Cap +au Guet, eight or nine miles often enough. + +First, those who went afoot and must allow plenty of time on account +of age: bent old fishermen, whose yellowed and shiny coats had been +made for more robust shoulders; old women, invariably in short black +capes, and black bonnets tied tight under the chin, and in their hands +a rosary and perhaps a thumb-worn missal. Then troops of children, much +_endimanché_,--one would like to say "Sundayfied,"--trotting along +noisily, stopping to examine every object of interest by the way, +extracting all the excitement possible out of the weekly pilgrimage. + +A little later the procession became more general: young and old and +middle-aged together. In Sunday boots that creaked loudly passed numbers +of men and boys, sometimes five or six abreast, reaching from side +to side of the street, sometimes singly attendant upon a conscious +young person of the other sex. The wagons are beginning to appear now, +scattering the pedestrians right and left as they rattle by, bearing +whole families packed in little space; and away across the harbor, you +see a small fleet of brown sails putting off from the Cape for the +nearer shore. + +Outside the church, in the open space before the steps, is gathered a +constantly growing multitude, a dense, restless swarm of humanity, full +of gossip and prognostic, until suddenly the bell stops its clangor +overhead; then there is a surging up the steps and through the wide +doors of the sanctuary; and outside all is quiet once more. + +The Acadians do not appear greatly to relish the more solemn things of +religion. They like better a religion demurely gay, pervaded by light +and color. + +"Elle est très chic, notre petite église, n'est-ce pas?" was a comment +made by a pious soul of my acquaintance, eager to uphold the honor of +her parish. + +Proper, mild-featured saints and smiling Virgins in painted robes and +gilt haloes abound in the Acadian churches; on the altars are lavish +decorations of artificial flowers--silver lilies, paper roses, red +and purple immortelles; and the ceilings and pillars and wall-spaces +are often done in blue and pink, with gold stars; such a style, one +imagines, as might appeal to our modern St. Valentine. The piety +that expresses itself in this inoffensive gayety of embellishment is +more akin to that which moves universal humanity to don its finery +o' Sundays,--to the greater glory of God,--than to the sombre, +death-remembering zeal of some other communities. A kind religion +this, one not without its coquetries, gracious, tactful, irresistible, +interweaving itself throughout the very texture of the common life. + +Last summer, out at Petit de Grat, three miles from Arichat, where +the people have just built a little church of their own, they held a +"Grand Picnic and Ball" for the raising of funds with which to erect +a glebe house. The priest authorized the affair, but stipulated that +sunset should end each day's festivities, so that all decencies might be +respected. This parish picnic started on a Monday and continued daily +for the rest of the week--that is to say, until all that there was to +sell was sold, and until all the youth of the vicinity had danced their +legs to exhaustion. + +An unoccupied shop was given over to the sale of cakes, tartines, +doughnuts, imported fruits, syrup drinks (unauthorized beverages being +obtainable elsewhere), to the vending of chances on wheels of fortune, +target-shooting, dice-throwing, hooked rugs, shawls, couvertures, +knitted hoods, and the like; and above all the hubbub and excitement +twanged the ceaseless, inevitable voice of a graphophone, reviving +long-forgotten rag-time. + +Outside, most conspicuous on the treeless slope of hill, was a +"pavilion" of boards, bunting-decked, on which, from morn till eve, +rained the incessant clump-clump of happy feet. For music there was a +succession of performers and of instruments: a mouth-organ, a fiddle, a +concertina, each lending its particular quality of gayety to the dance; +the mouth-organ, shrill, extravagant, whimsical, failing in richness; +the concertina, rich, noisy, impetuous, failing in fine shades; the +fiddle, wheedling, provocative, but a little thin. And besides--the +fiddle is not what it used to be in the hands of old Fortune. + +Fortune died a year ago, and he was never appreciated till death +snatched him from us: the skinniest, most ramshackle of mankind, tall, +loose-jointed, shuffling in gait; at all other times than those that +called his art into play, a shiftless, hang-dog sort of personage, who +would always be begging a coat of you, or asking the gift of ten cents +to buy him some tobacco. But at a dance he was a despot unchallenged. +Only to hear him jig off the Irish Washerwoman was to acknowledge +his preëminence. His bleary eyes and tobacco-stained lips took on a +radiance, his body rocked to and fro, vibrated to the devil-may-care +rhythm of the thing, while his left foot emphatically rapped out the +measure. + +Until another genius shall be raised up amongst us, Fortune's name will +be held in cherished memory. For that matter, it is not likely to die +out, since, on the day of his death, the old reprobate was married to +the mother of his seven children--baptized, married, administered, and +shuffled off in a day. + +It had never occurred to any of us, somehow, that Fortune might be as +transitory and impermanent as his patron goddess herself. We had always +accepted him as a sort of ageless thing, a living symbol, a peripatetic +mortal, coming out of Petit de Grat, and going about, tobacco in cheek, +fiddle under arm, as irresponsible as mirth itself among the sons of +men. God rest him! Another landmark gone. + +And old Maximen Forêt, too, from whom one used to take weather-wisdom +every day--his bench out there in the sun is empty. Maximen's shop was +just across the street from our house--a long, darkish, tunnel-like +place under a steep roof. Tinware of all descriptions hung in dully +shining array from the ceiling; barrels and a rusty stove and two broad +low counters occupied most of the floor space, and the atmosphere was +charged with a curious sharp odor in which you could distinguish oil and +tobacco and molasses. The floor was all dented full of little holes, +like a honeycomb, where Maximen had walked over it with his iron-pointed +crutch; for he was something of a cripple. But you rarely had any +occasion to enter the smelly little shop, for no one ever bought much of +anything there nowadays. + +Instead, you sat down on the sunny bench beside the old man--Acadian of +the Acadians--and listened to his tireless, genial babble--now French, +now English, as the humor struck him. + +"It go mak' a leetle weat'er, m'sieu," he would say. "I t'ink you better +not go fur in the p'tit caneau t'is day. Dere is squall--là-bas--see, +dark--may be t'unner. Dat is not so unlike, dis mont'. Oh, w'at a hell +time for de hays!" + +For everybody who passed he had a greeting, even for those who had +hastened his business troubles through never paying their accounts. To +the last he never lost his faith in their good intentions. + +"Dose poor devil fishermen," he would say, "however dey mak' leeve, God +know. You t'ink I mak' 'em go wid notting? It ain't lak dat wit' me here +yet, m'sieu. Dey pay some day, when le bon Dieu, he send dem some feesh; +dat's sure sure." + +If it happened that anybody stopped on business, old Maximen would +hobble to the door and tug violently at a bell-rope. + +"Cr-r-r-line! Cr-r-r-line!" he would call. + +"Tout d' suite!" answered a shrill voice from some remoter portion of +the edifice; and a moment later an old woman with straggling white +hair, toothless gums, and penetrating, humorous eyes, deepset under a +forehead of infinite wrinkles, would come shuffling up the pebble walk +from the basement. + +"Me voila!" she would ejaculate, panting. "Me ol' man, he always know +how to git me in a leetle minute, hé?" + +On Sundays Caroline and Maximen would drive to chapel in a queer, heavy, +antiquated road-cart that had been built especially for his use, hung +almost as low between the axles as a chariot. + +"We go mak' our respec' to the bon Dieu," he would laugh, as he took +the reins in hand and waited for Célestine, the chunky little mare, to +start--which she did when the mood took her. + +The small shop is closed and beginning to fall to pieces. Maximen has +been making his respects amid other surroundings for some four or five +years, and Caroline, at the end of a twelvemonth of lonely waiting, +followed after. + +"It seem lak I need t'e ol' man to look out for," she used to say. "All +t'e day I listen to hear t'at bell again. 'Tout d' suite! I used to +call, no matter what I do--maybe over the stove or pounding my bread; +and den, 'Me voila, mon homme!' I would be at t'e shop, ready to help." + +I suppose that wherever a man looks in the world, if he but have the +eyes to see, he finds as much of gayety and pathos, of failure and +courage, as in any particular section of it; yet so much at least is +true: that in a little community like this, so removed from the larger, +more spectacular conflicts of life, so face to face, all the year, with +the inveterate and domineering forces of nature, one seems to discover a +more poignant relief in all the homely, familiar, universal episodes of +the human comedy. + + +[Illustration: ARICHAT] + + + + +LA ROSE WITNESSETH + + OF THE BUCHERONS + OF LA BELLE MÉLANIE + OF SIMÉON'S SON + + + + +LA ROSE WITNESSETH + +_Of How the Bucherons Were Punished for Their Hard Hearts_ + + +It was a boy of ten who listened to La Rose, and while he listened, the +sun stood still in the sky, there was an enchantment on all the world. +Whatever La Rose said you had to believe, somehow. Oh, I assure you, no +one could be more exacting than she in the matter of proofs. For persons +who would give an ear to any absurd story tattled abroad she had nothing +but contempt. + +"Before you believe a thing," said La Rose, sagely, "you must know +whether it is true or not. That is the most important part of a story." + +She would give a decisive nod to her small head and shut her lips +together almost defiantly. Yet always, somewhere in the corner of her +alert gray eye, there seemed to be lurking the ghost of a twinkle. La +Rose had no age. She was both very young and very old. For all she had +never traveled more than ten miles from the little Cape Breton town of +Port l'Évêque, you had the feeling that she had seen a good deal of +the world, and it is certain that her life had not been easy; yet she +would laugh as quickly and abundantly as a young girl just home from the +convent. + +These two were the best of comrades. La Rose had been the boy's nurse +when he was little, and as he had no mother she had kept a feeling +of special affection and responsibility for him. Thus it happened +that whenever she was making some little expedition out across the +harbor--say for blueberries on the barrens, or white moorberries, or +ginseng--she would get permission from the captain for Michel to go with +her; and this was the happiest privilege in the boy's life. Most of all +because of the stories La Rose would tell him. + +La Rose had a story to tell about every spot they visited, about every +person they passed. She had been brought up, herself, out here on the +Cape; and not an inch of its territory but was familiar to her. + +"Now that is where those Bucherons lived," she observed one day, as they +were walking homeward from Pig Cove by the Calvaire road. "They are all +gone now, and the house is almost fallen to pieces; but once things were +lively enough there--mon Dieu, oui!--quite lively enough for comfort." + +She gave a sagacious nod to her head, with the look of one who could say +more, and would, if you urged her a little. + +"Was it at the Bucherons' that all the chairs stood on one leg?" asked +Michel, thrilling mysteriously. + +"Oui, c'est ça," answered La Rose, in a voice of the most sepulchral, +"right there in that house, the chairs stood on one leg and went +rap--rap--against the floor. And more than once a table with dishes +and other things on it fell over, and there were strange sounds in +the cupboard. Oh, it is certain those Bucherons were tormented; but +for that matter they had brought it on themselves because of their +greediness and their hard hearts. It came for a punishment; and when +they repented themselves, it went away." + +"I haven't ever heard all the story about the Bucherons," said +Michel--"or at least, not since I was big. I am almost sure I would like +it." + +"Well, I daresay," agreed La Rose. "It is an interesting story in some +ways; and the best of it is, it is not one of those stories that are +only to make you laugh, and then you go right away and forget them. And +another thing: this story about the Bucherons really happened. It was +when my poor stepmother was a girl. She lived at Pig Cove then, and that +is only two miles from Gros Nez. And one of those Bucherons was once +wanting to marry her; but do you think she would have anything to do +with a man like that? + +"'No,' she said. 'I will have nothing to do with you. I would sooner not +ever be married, me, than to have you for my man.' + +"And the reason she spoke that way was because of the cruelty they had +shown toward that poor widow of a Noémi, which everybody on the Cape +knew about, and it was a great scandal. And if you want me to tell you +about it, that is what I am going to do now." + +La Rose seated herself on a flat rock by the road, and Michel found +another for himself close by. Below them lay a deep rocky cove, with +shores as steep as a sluice, and close above its inner margin stood the +shell of a small house. The chimney had fallen in, the windows were all +gone--only vacant holes now, through which you saw the daylight from the +other side, and the roof had begun to sag. + +"Yes," said La Rose, "it will soon be gone to pieces entirely, and then +there will be nothing to remind anyone of those Bucherons and what +torments they had. You see there were four of them, an old woman and two +sons, and one of the sons was married, but there were not any children; +and all those four must have had stones instead of hearts. They were +only thinking how they could get the better of other people, and so +become rich. + +"And before that there had been three sons at home; but one of +them--Benoît his name was--had married a certain Noémi Boudrot; and she +was as sweet and beautiful as a lily, and he too was different from the +others; and so they had not lived here, but had got a little house at +Pig Cove, where they were very happy; and the good God sent them two +children, of a beauty and gentleness indescribable; and they called them +Évangéline and little Benoît, but you do not need to remember that, +because it is not a part of the story. + +"So things went on that way for quite a while; and all the time those +four Bucherons were growing more and more hard-hearted, like four +serpents in a pile together. + +"Well, one day in October that Benoît Bucheron who lived in Pig Cove +was going alone in a small cart to Port l'Évêque to buy some provisions +for winter--flour, I suppose, and meal, and perhaps some clothes and +some tobacco; and instead of going direct by the Gros Nez road, he +came around this way by the Calvaire so as to stop in and speak to his +relatives; and to see them welcoming him, you would never have suspected +their stone hearts. But Benoît was solemn for all that, as if troubled +by some idea. Then that sly old mother, she said: + +"'Dear Benoît,' she said, 'what troubles you? Can you not put trust in +your own mother, who loves you better than her eyes and nose?'--and she +smiled at him just like a fat wicked old spider that is waiting for a +fly to come and get tangled up in her net. + +"But Benoît only remembered then that she was his mother; so he said: + +"'I have a fear, me, that I shall not be long for this world, my mother. +Last week I saw a little blue fire on the barrens one night, and again +one night I heard hoofs going _claquin-claquant_ down there on the +beach, much like the horse without head. And that is why I am getting my +provisions so early, and making everything ready for the winter. See,' +he said, 'here is the thirteen dollars I have saved this year. I am +going to buy things with it in Port l'Évêque.' + +"Now you may depend that when he showed them all that money, their +eyes stuck out like the eyes of crabs; but of course they did not say +anything only some words of the most comforting. And finally he said, +getting ready to go: + +"'If anything should happen,' he said, 'will you promise me to be good +to that poor Noémi and those two poor little innocent lambs?'--and +those serpents said, certainly, they would do all that was possible; +and with that Benoît gets into his cart, and starts down the hill; and +suddenly the horse takes a fright of something and runs away, and the +cart tips over, and Benoît is thrown out; and when his brothers get to +him he is quite quite dead--and that shows what it means to see one of +those little blue fires at night in the woods. + +"Well, you can believe that Noémi was not very happy when they brought +back that poor Benoît to Pig Cove. Her eyes were like two brooks, and +for a long time she could not say anything, and then finally, summoning +a little voice of courage: + +"'I am glad of one thing,' she said, 'which is that he had saved all +that money, for without it I would never know how to live through the +winter.' + +"And one of those brothers said, with an innocent voice of a dove, 'what +money then?'--and she said, 'He had it with him.' And so they look for +it; but no, there is not any. + +"'You must have deceived yourself,' said that brother. 'I am sure he +would have spoken of it if he had had any money with him; but he said +never a word of such a thing.' + +"Now was not that a wicked lie for him to tell? It is hard to understand +how abominable can be some of those men! But you may be sure they will +be punished for it in the end; and that is what happened to those four +serpents, the Bucherons. + +"For listen. The old mother had taken the money and had put it inside a +sort of covered bowl, like a sugar bowl, but there was no sugar in it; +and then she had set this bowl away on a shelf in the cupboard where +they kept the dishes and such things; and the Bucherons thought it +would be safe until the time when they had something to spend it for in +Port l'Évêque; and they were telling themselves how no one would ever +know what they had done; and they were glad that the promise they had +made to Benoît had not been heard by anyone but themselves. And so that +poor Noémi was left all alone without man or money; but sometimes the +neighbors would give her a little food; but for all that those two lambs +were often hungry, and their mother too, when it came bedtime. + +"But do you think the Bucherons cared--those four hearts of stone? They +would not even give her so much as a crust of dry, mouldy bread; and +Noémi was too proud to go and beg; and beside something seemed to tell +her that there had been a wickedness somewhere, and that the Bucherons +perhaps knew more than they had told her about that money. So she waited +to see if anything would happen. + +"Now one night in December, when all those four were in the house alone, +the beginning of their punishment arrived, and surely nothing more +strange was ever heard of in this world. + +"'Ah, mon Dieu!' cries out the married woman all of a sudden--'mon Dieu, +what is that!' + +"They all looked where she was looking, and what do you think they saw? +There was a chair standing with three legs in the air, and only the +little point of one on the floor. + +"The old woman pushed a scream and jumped to her feet and went over to +it, and with much force set it back on the floor, the way a chair is +meant to stand; but immediately when she let go of it, there it was +again, as before, all on one leg. + +"And then, there cries out the younger woman again, with a voice shrill +as a frightened horse that throws up its head and then runs away--'Oh, +mère Bucheron, mère Bucheron,' cries she, 'the chair you were just +sitting in is three legs in air too!' + +"And so it was! With that all the family got up in terror; but no sooner +had they done that than at once all the chairs behaved just like the +first, which made five chairs. These chairs did not seem to move at all, +but stood there on one leg just as if they were always like that. Those +Bucherons were almost dead with fright, and all four of them fled out of +the house as fast as ever their legs could carry them--you would have +said sheep chased by a mad dog--and never stopped for breath till they +reached Gros Nez. + +"And pell-mell into old Pierre Leblanc's house all together, and shaking +like ague. Hardly able to talk, they tell what has happened; and he will +not believe them but says, well, he will go back with them and see. So +he does, and they re-enter the house together, and look! the chairs are +all just as usual. + +"'You have been making some crazy dreams,' says Pierre, rather angry, +'or else,' he says, 'you have something bad in your hearts.' And with +that he goes home again; and there is nothing more to be told about that +night, though I daresay none of those wicked persons slept very well. + +"But that was only the beginning of what happened to them during that +winter. Sometimes it would be these knockings about the roof, as of +someone with a great hammer; and again it was as if they had seen a face +at the window--just an instant, all white, in the dark--and then it +would be gone. And often, often, the chairs would be standing as before +on one leg. The table likewise, which once let fall a great crowd of +dishes, and not a few were broken. But worst of all were these strange +sounds that made themselves heard in the cupboard, like the hand of +a corpse going rap--rap, rap--rap--rap, rap,--against the lid of its +coffin. You may well believe it was a dreadful fright for those four +infamous ones; but still they would do nothing, because of their desire +to keep all that money and buy things with it. + +"Everybody on the Cape soon knew about what was happening at the +Bucherons', but some pretended it was to laugh at, saying that such +things did not happen nowadays; and others said the Bucherons must +have gone crazy, and had better be left alone--and their arms and legs +would sometimes keep jerking a little when they talked to anyone, as +my stepmother told me a thousand times; and they had a way of looking +behind them--so!--as if they were afraid of being pursued. So however +that might be, nobody would go and see them. + +"Well, things went on like that for quite a while, and finally, one day +in February, through all the snow that it made on the ground then, that +poor Noémi marched on her feet from Pig Cove to her mother-in-law's, +having left her two infants at a neighbor's; for she had resolved +herself to ask for some help, seeing that she had had nothing but a +little bite since three days. And when they saw her coming they were +taken with a fright, and at first they were not going to let her in; but +that old snake of a mother, she said: + +"'If we refuse to let her in, my children, she will go and suspect +something.' + +"So they let her in, and when she was in, they let her make all her +story, or as much as she had breath for, and then: + +"'I am sorry,' said this old snake of a mother, 'that we cannot possibly +do anything for you. Alas, my dear little daughter, it is barely even +if we can manage to hold soul and body together ourselves, with the +terrible winter it makes these days.' + +"And just as she said that, what do you think happened? A chair got on +one leg and went rap--rap, rap--against the floor. + +"That Noémi would often be telling about it afterwards to my stepmother, +and she said never of her life had she seen anything so terrifying. But +she did not scream or do anything like that, because something, she +said, inside her seemed to bid her keep quiet just then. And she used +to tell how that old Bucheron woman's face turned exactly the color of +an oyster on a white plate, and a trembling took her, and finally she +said, scarcely able to make the sound of the words: + +"'Though perhaps--I might find--a crust of bread somewhere that--that we +could spare.' + +"That was how she spoke, and at the same instant, _rap_ went the chair, +still on its one leg; and there was a sound of a hammering on the roof. + +"'Or perhaps--a little loaf of bread and some potatoes,' said that old +Bucheron, while the other Bucherons sat there without one word, in +their chairs, as if paralyzed, except that their hands kept up a little +shaking motion all the time, like this scour-grass you get in the marsh, +which trembles always even if there is not any wind. 'Or perhaps a loaf +of bread and some potatoes'--that is what she was saying, when listen, +there is a knock as of the hand of corpse just inside the cupboard; and +suddenly the two doors fly open--you would have said _pushed_ from the +inside! + +"Noémi crosses herself, but does not say anything, for she knows it is a +time to keep still. + +"'And perhaps,' says the old woman then, in a voice of the most piteous, +as if someone were giving her a pinch, 'and perhaps, if only I had it, +a dollar or two to help buy some medicine and a pair of shoes for that +Évangéline.... But no, I do not think we have so much as that anywhere +in the house.' + +"Now was not that like the old serpent, to be telling a lie even at the +last; and surely if God had struck her dead by a ball of lightning at +that moment it would have been none too good for her. But no, he was +going to give her a chance to repent and not to have to go to Hell for a +punishment. So what do you think He made happen then? + +"Hardly had those abominable words jumped out of her when with a great +crash, down off the top shelf comes that sugar bowl (if it was a sugar +bowl), and as it hits the floor, it breaks into a thousand pieces; and +there, in a little pile, are those thirteen dollars, just as on the day +when that poor Benoît had been carrying them with him to Port l'Évêque. + +"Now just as if they are not doing it at all of their own wish, but +something makes them act that way, all of a sudden those four Bucherons +are kneeling on the floor, saying their prayers in a strange voice like +the prayers you might hear in a tomb; and with that, the chair goes back +quietly to its four legs, and the noise ceases on the roof, and those +two cupboard doors draw shut without human hands. As for Noémi, she +grabs up the money, and out she goes, swift as a bird that is carrying +a worm to its children, leaving her parents by marriage still there on +their knees, like so many images; but as she opens the door she says: + +"'May the good God have pity on all the four of you!'--which was a +Christian thing to say, seeing how much she had suffered at their hands. + +"Well, there is not much more to tell. Noémi got through the rest of +that winter without any more trouble; and the next year she married a +fisherman from Little Anse, and went away from the Cape. As for the +Bucherons, they were not like the same people any more. You would not +have known them--so pious they were and charitable, though always, +perhaps, a little strange in their ways. But when the old woman died, +two years later, or three, all the people of Pig Cove and Gros Nez +followed the corpse in to Port l'Évêque; and her grave is there in the +cemetery. + +"The rest of the family are gone now too, as you see; and soon, I +suppose, there will not be many left, even out here on the Cape, who +know all about what happened to the Bucherons, because of their hard +hearts; which is a pity, seeing that the story has such a good lesson to +it...." + + + + +LA ROSE WITNESSETH + +[A]_Of the Headless Horse and of La Belle Mélanie's Narrow Escape from +the Feu Follet_ + + +[A] Included with permission of and by arrangements with Houghton +Mifflin Company authorized publishers. + +One of the privileges Michel esteemed most highly was that of +accompanying La Rose occasionally when she went blueberrying over on the +barrens--_dans les bois_, as the phrase still goes in Port l'Évêque, +though it is all of sixty years since there were any woods there. The +best barrens for blueberrying lay across the harbor. They reached back +to the bay four or five miles to southward. Along the edges of several +rocky coves, narrow and steep as a sluice, clung a few weatherbeaten +fishermen's houses; but there was no other sign of human habitation. + +It is what they call a bad country over there. Alder and scrub balsam +grow sparsely over the low rocky hills, where little flocks of sheep +nibble all day at the thin herbage; and from the marshes that lie, green +and mossy, at the foot of every slope, a solitary loon may occasionally +be seen rising into the air with a great spread of slow wings. A single +thread of a road makes its way somehow across the region, twisting +in and out among the small hills, now climbing suddenly to a bare +elevation, from which the whole sweep of the sea bursts upon the view, +now shelving off along the side of a knoll of rocks, quickly dipping +into some close hollow, where the world seems to reach no farther than +to the strange sky-line, wheeling sharply against infinite space. + +Two miles back from the inner shore, the road forks at the base of a +little hill more conspicuously bare than the rest, and close to the +naked summit of it, overlooking all the Cape, stands a Calvary. Nobody +knows how long it has stood there, or why it was first erected; though +tradition has it that long, long ago, a certain man by the name of +Toussaint was there set upon by wild beasts and torn to pieces. However +that may be, the tall wooden cross, painted black, and bearing on its +center, beneath a rude penthouse, a small iron crucifix, has been there +longer than any present memory records--an encouragement, as they say, +for those who have to cross the bad country after dark. + +"That makes courage for you," they say. "It is good to know it is there +on the windy nights." + +By daylight, however, and especially in the sunshine, the barrens are +quite without other terrors than those of loneliness; and upon Michel +this remoteness and silence always exercised a kind of spell. He was +glad that La Rose was with him, partly because he would have been a +little afraid to be there quite by himself, but chiefly because of the +imaginative sympathy that at this time existed so strongly between them. +La Rose could tell him all about the strange things that had been seen +here of winter nights; she herself once, tending a poor old sick woman +at Gros Nez, out at the end of the Cape, had heard the hoofs of the +white horse that gallops across the barrens _claquin-claquant_ in the +darkness. + +"It was just there outside the house, pawing the ground. Almost +paralyzed for terror, I ran to the window and looked out. It was as tall +as the church door,--that animal,--all white, and there was no head to +it. + +"'Oh, mère Babinot,' I whispered, scarcely able to make the sound of the +words. 'It is as tall as the church door and all white.' + +"She sits up in bed and stares at me like a corpse. 'La Rose,' she +says,--just like that, shrill as a whistle of wind,--'La Rose, do you +see a head to it?' + +"'No, not any!' + +"'Oh, mon Dieu, mon Dieu! Then it's sure! It is the very one, the horse +without head!' + +"And the next day she took only a little spoonful of tea, and in two +weeks she was dead, poor mère Babinot; and that's as true as that I made +my communion last Easter. Oh, it's often seen hereabouts, that horse. +It's a sign that something will happen, and never has it failed yet." + +They made their way, La Rose and Michel, slowly over the low hills, +picking the blueberries that grew thickly in clumps of green close to +the ground. La Rose always wore a faded yellow-black dress, the skirt +caught up, to save it, over a red petticoat; and on her small brown head +she carried the old Acadian _mouchoir_, black, brought up to a peak in +front, and knotted at the side. + +She picked rapidly, with her alert, spry movements, her head always +cocked a little to one side, almost humorously, as she peered about +among the bushes for the best spots. And wherever he was, Michel heard +her chattering softly to herself, in an inconsequential undertone, now +humming a scrap of some pious song, now commenting on the quality of the +berry crop--never had she seen so few and so small as these last years. +Surely there must be something to account for it. Perhaps the birds had +learned the habitude of devouring them--now addressing some strayed +sheep that had ventured with timid bleats within range: "Te voilà, petit +méchant! Little rogue! What are you looking about for? Did the others go +off and leave you? Eh bien, that's how it happens, mon petit. They'll +leave you. The world's like that. Eh, là, là!" + +He liked to go to the other side of the hill, out of sight of her, +where he could imagine that he was lost _dans les bois_. Then he would +listen for her continual soft garrulity; and if he could not hear it +he would wait quietly for a minute in the silence, feeling a strange +exhilaration, which was almost pain, in the presence of the great sombre +spaces, the immense emptiness of the overhanging sky, until he could +endure it no longer. + +"La Rose!" he would call. "Êtes-vous toujours là?" + +"Mais oui, mon enfant. What do you want?" + +"Nothing. It is only that I was thinking." + +"The strange child that you are!" she would exclaim. "You are not like +the others." + +"La Rose," he would ask, "was it by here that La Belle Mélanie passed on +the night she saw the death fire?" + +"Yes, by this very spot. She was on her way to Pig Cove, over beyond +the Calvary to the east. It is a desolate little rat-hole, Pig Cove, +nowadays; but then it was different--as many as two dozen houses. My +stepmother lived in one of them. Now there are scarcely six, and falling +to pieces at that. La Belle Mélanie, she was a Boudrot, sister of the +Pierre Boudrot whose son, Théobald, was brother-in-law of stepmother. +That was many years ago. They are all dead now, or gone away from +here--to Boston, I daresay." + +"Will you tell me about that again,--the _feu follet_ and Mélanie?" + +It was the story Michel liked the best, most of all when he could sit +beside La Rose, on a moss-hummock of some rough hill on the barrens. +Perhaps there would be cloud shadows flitting like dream presences +across the shining face of the moor. In the distance, over the backs of +the hills that crouched so thickly about them, he saw the stretch of the +ocean, a motionless floor of azure and purple, flecked, it might be, by +a leaning sail far away; and now and then a gull or two would fly close +over their heads, wheeling and screaming for a few seconds, and then +off again through the blue. + +"S'il vous plaît, tante La Rose, see how many berries I have picked +already!" + +The little woman was not difficult of persuasion. + +"It was in November," she began. "There had not been any snow yet; but +the nights were cold and terribly dark under a sky of clouds. That +autumn, as my stepmother often told me, many people had seen the horse +without head as it galloped _claquin-claquant_ across the barrens. At +Gros Nez it was so bad that no one dared go out after dark, unless it +was to run with all one's force to the neighbors--but not across the +woods to save their souls. Especially because of the _feu follet_. + +"Now you must know that the _feu follet_ is of all objects whatever in +the world the most mysterious. No one knows what it is or when it will +come. You might walk across the barrens every night of your life and +never encounter it; and again it might come upon you all unawares, not +more than ten yards from your own threshold. It is more like a ball +of fire than any other mortal thing, now large, now small, and always +moving. Usually it is seen first hovering over one of the marshes, +feeding on the poison vapors that rise from them at night: it floats +there, all low, and like a little luminous cloud, so faint as scarcely +to be seen by the eye. And sometimes people can travel straight by it, +giving no attention, as if they did not know it was there, but keeping +the regard altogether ahead of them on the road, and the _feu follet_ +will let them pass without harm. + +"But that does not happen often, for there are not many who can keep +their wits clear enough to manage it. It brings a sort of dizziness, and +one's legs grow weak. And then the _feu follet_ draws itself together +into a ball of fire and begins to pursue. It glides over the hills and +flies across the marshes, sometimes in circles, sometimes bounding +from rock to rock, but all the while stealing a little closer and a +little closer, no matter how fast you run away. And finally--bff! like +that--it's upon you--and that's the end. Death for a certainty. Not all +the medicine in the four parishes can help you. + +"Indeed, there are only two things in all the world that can save you +from the _feu follet_ once it gets after you. One is, if you are in a +state of grace, all your sins confessed; which does not happen often +to the inhabitants of Pig Cove, for even at this day Père Galland +reproaches them for their neglect. And the other is, if you have a +needle with you. So little a thing as a needle is enough, incredible as +it may seem; for if you stick the needle upright--like that--in an old +stump, the _feu follet_ gets all tangled up in the eye of it. Try as it +will, it cannot free itself; and meanwhile you run away, and are safe +before it reappears. That is why all the inhabitants of the Cape used +to carry a needle stuck somewhere in their garments, to use on such an +occasion. + +"Well, I must tell you about La Belle Mélanie. That is the name she +was known by in all parts, for she was beautiful as a lily flower, and +no lily was ever more pure and sweet than she. Mélanie lived with her +mother, who was aged almost to helplessness, and she cared for her with +all the tenderness imaginable. You may believe that she was much sought +after by the young fellows of the Cape--yes, and of Port l'Évêque as +well, which used to hold its head in the air in those days; but her +mother would hear nothing of her marrying. + +"'You are only seventeen,' she said, 'ma Mélanie. I will hear nothing +of your marrying, no, not for five years at the least. By that time we +shall see.' + +"And Mélanie tried to be obedient to all her mother's commands, +difficult as they often were for a young girl, who naturally desires a +little to amuse herself sometimes. For even had her mother forbidden her +to speak alone to the young men of the neighborhood, so fearful was she +lest her daughter should think of marriage. + +"Eh bien, and so that was how things went for quite a while, and every +day Mélanie grew more beautiful. And one Saturday afternoon in November +she had been in to Port l'Évêque to make her confession, for she was a +pious girl. And when she went to meet her companions in order to return +to Pig Cove with them, they said they were not going back that night, +for there was to be a dance at the courthouse, and they were going to +spend the night with some parents by marriage of theirs. Poor Mélanie! +she would have been glad to stay, but alas, her poor mother, aged and +helpless, was expecting her, and she dared not disappoint the poor soul. + +"So finally one of the young men said he would put her across the +harbor, if she did not mind traversing the woods alone; and she said, +no, why should she mind? It was still plain daylight. And so he put her +across. And she said good-night to him and set off along the solitary +road to the Cape, little imagining what an adventure was ahead of her. + +"For scarcely had she gone so much as a mile when it had grown almost +night, so suddenly at that time of the year does the daylight extinguish +itself. The sky had grown dark, dark, and there was a look of storm in +it. La Belle Mélanie began to grow uneasy of mind. And she thought then +of the _feu follet_, and put her hand to her bodice to assure herself of +her needle. What then! Alas! it was gone, by some accident, whether or +not she had lost it on the road or in the church. + +"With that Mélanie began to feel a terror creep over her; and this was +not lessened, as you may well believe, when, a few minutes later, she +perceived a floating thing like a luminous cloud in a marsh some long +distance from the road. The night was now all black; scarcely could she +perceive the road ahead, always winding there among the hills. + +"She had the idea of running; but alas, her legs were like lead; she +could not make them march in front of her. She saw herself already dead. +The _feu follet_ was beginning to move, first very slowly and all +uncertain, but then drawing itself together into a ball of fire, and +leaping as if in play from one hummock of moss to another, just as a cat +will leave a poor little mouse half dead on the floor while it amuses +itself in another way. + +"What the end would have been, who would have the courage to say, if +just at this moment, all ready to fall to the ground for terror, poor +Mélanie had not bethought herself of her rosary. It was in her pocket. +She grasped it. She crossed herself. She saluted the crucifix. And then +she commenced to say her prayers; and with that, wonderful to say, her +strength came back to her, and she began to run. She had never ran like +that before--swift as a horse, not feeling her legs under her, and +praying with high voice all the time. + +"But for all that, the death fire followed, always faster and faster, +now creeping, now flying, now leaping from rock to rock, and always +drawing nearer, and nearer, with a strange sound of a hissing not of +this world. Mélanie began to feel her forces departing. She was almost +exhausted. She would not be able to run much more. + +"And suddenly, just ahead, on a bare height, there was the tall +Calvaire, and a new hope came to her. If she could only reach it! She +summoned all her strength and struggled up. She climbs the ascent. Alas, +once more it seems she will fail! There is a fence, as you know, built +of white pales, about the cross. She had not the power to climb it. She +sinks to the ground. And it was at that last minute, all flat on the +ground in fear of death, that an idea came to her, as I will tell you. + +"She raises herself to her feet by clinging to the white palings; she +faces the _feu follet_, already not more than ten yards away; she holds +out the rosary, making the holy sign in the air. + +"'I did not make a full confession!' she cries. 'I omitted one thing. My +mother had forbidden me to have anything to do with a young man; and one +day when I was looking for Fanchette, our cow, who had wandered in the +woods, I met André Babinot, and he kissed me.' + +"That was what saved her. The _feu follet_ rushed at her with a roar of +defeat, and in the same instant it burst apart into a thousand flames +and disappeared. + +"As for Mélanie, she fell to the ground again, and lay there for a +while, quite unconscious. At last the rain came on, and she revived, and +set out for home, but not very vigorously. Ah, mon Dieu! if her poor +mother was glad to see her alive again! She embraced her most tenderly, +and with encouraging voice inquired what had happened, for Mélanie +was still as white as milk, and there was a strange smell of fire in +her garments, and still she held in her hands the little rosary; and +so finally Mélanie told her everything, not even concealing the last +confession about André, and with that her mother burst into tears, and +said: + +"'Mélanie,' she said, 'I have been wrong, me. A young girl will be a +young girl despite all the contrary intentions of her mother. To show +how grateful to God I am that you are returned to me safe and sound, you +shall marry André as soon as you like.' + +"So they were married the next year. And there is a lesson to this +story, too, which is that one should always tell the truth; because if +La Belle Mélanie had told all the truth at the beginning she would not +have had all that fright. + +"And to show that the story is true, there were found the marks of +flames on the white fence of the Calvaire the next day; and as often as +they painted it over with whitewash, still the darkness of the scorched +wood would show through, as I often saw for myself; but now there is a +new fence there...." + + + + +LA ROSE WITNESSETH + +_Of How Old Siméon's Son Came Home Again_ + + +In the old cemetery above the church some men were at work setting up a +rather ornate monument at the head of two long-neglected and overgrown +graves. La Rose had noticed what was going on, as she came out from +early mass, and had informed herself about it; and since then, she said, +all through the day, her thoughts had been traveling back to things that +happened many years ago. + +"Is it not strange," she observed musingly, sitting about dusk with +Michel on the doorsill of the kitchen, while Céleste finished the +putting-away of the supper dishes--"is it not strange how things go +in this world? So often they turn out sorrowfully, and you cannot +understand why that should be so. Think of that poor Léonie Gilet, who +was taken so suddenly in the chest last winter and died all in a month, +and she one of the purest and sweetest lilies that ever existed, and the +next year she was to be married to a good man that loved her better than +both his two eyes. Ah, mon Dieu, sometimes I think the sadness comes +much more often than the joy down here." + +She looked out broodingly, and with eyes that did not see anything, +across the captain's garden and the hayfield below, dipping gently +to the margin of the harbor. Michel was silent. La Rose's fits of +melancholy interested him even when he only dimly sensed the burden of +them. + +"And then," she resumed, after a moment, "sometimes the ending to things +is happy. For a while all looks dark, dark, and there is grief, perhaps, +and some tears; and then, just at the worst moment--tiens!--there is a +change, and the happiness comes again, very likely even greater than +it was at first. It is as if this good God up there, he could not bear +any longer to see it so heartbreaking, and so he must take things into +his own hands and set them right. And so, sometimes, when I find myself +feeling sad about things, I like to remember what arrived to that poor +Siméon Leblanc, whose son is just having them place a fine tombstone for +him up there in the cimetière; for if ever happiness came to any man, +it came to him, and that after a long time of griefs. Did you ever hear +about this old Siméon Leblanc?" + +"Never, tante La Rose," answered the boy, gravely. "But if it has a +pleasant ending, I wish you would tell me about it, and I don't mind if +it makes me cry a little in the middle." + +By this, Céleste, the stout domestic, had finished her kitchen work, and +throwing an apron over her stocky head and shoulders, she clumped out +into the yard. + +"I am running over to Alec Samson's," she explained, "to get a mackerel +for breakfast, if he caught any to-day." + +The gate clicked after her, and there was a silence. At last La Rose +began, a little absently and as if, for the moment at least, unaware of +her auditor.... + +"This Siméon Leblanc, he lived over there on the other side of the +harbor, just beyond the place where the road turns off to go to the +Cape. My poor stepmother when coming in to Port l'Évêque to sell some +eggs or berries--three gallons, say, of blueberries, or perhaps some of +those large strawberries from Pig Cove--she would often be running in +there for a little rest and a talk with his wife, Célie--who always was +glad to see any one, for that matter, the poor soul, for this Siméon was +not too gentle, and often he made her unhappy with his harsh talk. + +"'Ah, mon amie,' she would say to my stepmother, at the same time +wetting her eyes with tears--'Ah, I have such a fear, me, that he will +do himself a harm, one day, with the temper he has. He frightens me to +death sometimes--especially about that Tommy.' + +"Now you must understand that this Tommy was the son they had, and in +some ways he resembled to his father, and in some ways to his mother. +For it is certain he had a pride of the most incredible, which I daresay +made him a little hard to manage; and yet in his heart there was a +softness. + +"'That Tommy,' said his mother, 'he wants to be loved. That is the way +to get him to do anything. There is no use in always punishing him and +treating him hardly.' + +"But for all that, old Siméon must have his will, and so he does not +cease to be scolding the boy. He commands him now to do this thing, now +that--here, there. He forbids him to be from home at night. He tells him +he is a disgrace of a son to be so little laborious. Oh, it was a horror +the way that poor lamb of a Tommy was treated; and finally, one day, +when he was seventeen or eighteen, there was a great quarrel, and that +Siméon called him by some cruel name, and white as a corpse cries out +Tommy: + +"'My father, that is not true. You shall not say it!'--and the other, +furious as an animal: 'I shall say what I choose!' And he says the same +thing again. And Tommy: 'After that, I will not endure to stay here +another day. I am tired of being treated so. You will not have another +chance.' + +"And with that he places a kiss on the forehead of his poor mother, who +was letting drop some tears, and walks out of the house without so much +as turning his head again; and he marches over to Petit Ingrat, where +there was an American fisherman which had put in for some bait, and he +says to the captain: 'Will you give me a place?' and the captain says, +'We are just needing another man. Yes, we will give you a place.' So +this Tommy, he got aboard, and a little later they put out and went off +to the Banks for the fish. + +"Well, it was not very long before that Siméon got over his bad wicked +rage; and then he was sorry enough for what he had done, especially +because there was no longer any son in the house, and that poor Célie +must always be grieving herself after him. And you may believe that +Siméon got little pity from the neighbors. + +"'It is good enough for him,' they would say--'a man like that, who is +not decent to his own son.' + +"But they were sorry for Célie, most of all when she began to grow +thinner and thinner and had a strange look in her eyes that was not +entirely of this world. The old man said, 'She will be all right again +when that schooner comes back,' and he was always going over to Petit +Ingrat to find out if it had returned yet; but you see, of course there +would not be any need of bait when the season was finished, and so +the schooner did not put in at all; and the autumn came, and went by, +and then followed the winter, and still no news, but only waiting and +waiting, and a little before Easter that poor Célie went away among the +angels. I think her heart was quite broken in two, and it did not seem +to her that she needed to stay any longer in this hustling world. And so +they buried her in the old cimetière--I saw her grave to-day, next to +Siméon's, and this fine new monument is to be for the two of them; but +for all these years there has been just a wooden cross there, like the +other graves. + +"But still no word came of Tommy, and the old Siméon was all alone in +the house. Oh, I can remember him well, well, although I was only a +young tiny girl then and had not had any sorrow myself. We would see him +walking along the Petit Ingrat road, all bent over and trailing one leg +a little. + +"'Hst!' one of my companions would whisper, 'that is old Siméon, who +drove his son from home; and his poor wife is dead with grief. He is +going across there to see if a schooner will have come in yet with any +news.' + +"And that was true. He took this habitude of making a promenade +almost every day to Petit Ingrat during that season of the year when +the Americans are going down to the fish--là-bas--and if there was a +schooner in the harbor, he finds the captain or one of the crew, and he +says, 'Is it, m'sieu, for example, that you have seen a boy anywhere +named Tommy Leblanc? It is my son--you understand?--a very pretty +young boy, with black hair and fine white teeth and a little curly +mustache--so--just beginning to sprout.' And he would go on to describe +that Tommy, but of course, for one thing they could not understand his +French very well, for the Americans, as you know, do not speak that +language among themselves; and anyway, you may depend that none of them +had ever heard of Tommy Leblanc; and sometimes they would have a little +mockery of the old man; and sometimes, on the contrary, they would feel +pity, and would say, well, God's name, it was a damage, but they could +not tell him anything. + +"And then the old man would say, 'Well, if ever you should see him +anywhere, will you please tell him that his father is wanting him +to come home, if he will be so kind as to do it; because it is very +lonesome without him, and the mother is dead.' + +"Then after he had said that, he would go back again along the road +to the Cape, not speaking to anybody unless they spoke to him first, +and trailing one leg after him a little, like one of these horses you +see sometimes with a weight tied to a hind foot so that it cannot run +away--or at least not very far. That is how I remember old Siméon from +the time when I was a little girl--walking there along the road to or +from Petit Ingrat. I used to hear people say: 'Ah, my God, how old he +is grown all in these few years! He is not the same man--so quiet and +so timid'--and others: 'But can one say how it is possible for him to +live there all alone like that?'--and someone replied: 'You could not +persuade him to live anywhere else, for that is where he has all his +memories, both the good and the bad, and what else is left for him +now--that, and the crazy idea he has that his Tommy will one day come +home again?' + +"You see, as the years passed, everybody took the belief that Tommy must +be dead, at sea or somewhere, seeing that not one word was heard of him; +but of course they guarded themselves well from saying anything like +that to poor old Siméon. + +"Well, it was about the time when your poor father, Amédée, was a boy +of your age, or a little older, that all this sorrow came to an end; +and this is the pleasant part of the story. I was living at Madame +Paon's then, down near the post-office wharf, and we had the habitude +of looking out of the window every day when the packet-boat came in +(which was three times a week) to see if anybody would be landing at +Port l'Évêque. Well, and one afternoon whom should we see but a fine +m'sieu with black beard, carrying a cane, dressed like an American; and +next, a lovely lady in clothes of the most fashionable and magnificent; +and then, six beautiful young children, all just as handsome as dolls, +and holding tightly one another by the hand, with an affection the most +charming in the world. Ah, ma foi, if I shall ever forget that sight! + +"And Madame Paon to me: 'Rose,--La Rose,--in God's name, who can they +be! Perhaps some millionaires from Boston--for look, the trunks that +they have!' + +"And that was the truth, for the trunks and bags were piled all over the +wharf; and opening the window a little, we hear m'sieu giving directions +to have them taken to the Couronne d'Or--'and who,' he asks in French, +'is the proprietor there now?'--and they say: 'Gaston Lebal'--and he +says: 'What! Gaston Lebal! Is it possible!' + +"'He knows Port l'Évêque, it seems,' says Madame Paon, all excitement; +and just then the first two trunks go by the windows, and she tells me, +'It is an English name, or an American.' And then, spelling out the +letters, for she reads with a marvel of ease, she says, 'W-H-I-T-E is +what the trunks say on them; but I can make nothing out of that. I am +going outside, me,' she says, 'and perhaps I shall learn something.' + +"She descends into the garden, and seems to be working a little at +the flowers, and a minute later, here comes the fine m'sieu, and he +looks at her for an instant--right in the face, so, and as if asking +a question--and then: 'Ah, mon Dieu, it is Suzon Boudrot!' he cries, +using the name she was born with. 'Can you not remember me?--That Tommy +Leblanc who ran away twenty years ago?' + +"Madame Paon gives a scream of joy, and they embrace; and then he +presents this Mees W'ite, qui est une belle Américaine, and then he +says: 'What is there of news about my dear mother and my father?'--and +she: 'Did you not know your poor mother was dead the year after you +went!'--and he: 'Ma mère--she is dead?'--and the tears jump out of his +eyes, and his voice trembles as if it had a crack in it. 'Well, she is +with the blessed angels, then,' says he. + +"'But your poor old father,' goes on Madame Paon, 'he is still waiting +for you every day. He has waited all these twenty years for you to come +back.' + +"'He is still in the old place?' asks he. + +"'Yes, he would not leave it.' + +"'We shall go over there at once,' he says, opening out his two +arms--so!--'before ever we set foot in another house. It is my duty as a +son.' + +"So while André Gilet--the father of that dear Léonie who was taken in +the chest--while he is getting the boat ready to cross the harbor, Tommy +tells her how he has been up there in Boston all these years--at a place +called Shee-cahgo, a big city--and has been making money; and how he +changed his name to W'ite, which means the same as Leblanc and is more +in the mode; and how he married this lovely Américaine, whose name was +Finnegan, and had all these sweet little children; but always, he said, +he had desired to make a little visit at home, only it was so far to +come; and he was afraid that his father would still be angry at him. + +"'Ah,' says Madame Paon, with emotion, 'you will not know your father. +He is so different: just as mild as a sheep. Everyone has come to love +him.' ... + +"Now for the rest of the story, all I know is what that André told us, +for he put all this family across to the other side in his boat. So when +they reached the shore, M'sieu Tommy, he says: 'You will all wait here +until I open the door and beckon: and then you, Maggie, will come up; +and then, a little later, we will have the children in, all together.' + +"And with that he leaves them, and goes up to the old house, and +knocks, and opens the door, and walks in--and who can say the joy and +the comfort of the meeting that happened then? And quite a long while +passed, André said; and that lovely lady sat there on the side of the +boat, all as white as milk, and never saying a word; and those six +lambs, whispering softly among themselves--and one of them said, just a +little above its breath: + +"'It will be nice to have a grandpa all for ourselves, don't you +think?'--and was not that a dear sweet little thing for it to say?... + +"And finally the door opens again, and see! and his hand makes a sign; +and that lady, swift as one of these sea-gulls, leaps ashore. And up the +hill; and through the gate; and into the house! And the door shuts again. + +"And another wait, while those six look at each other, and say their +little things. And at last they are called too, and away they go, all +together, just like one of these flocks of curlew that fly over the +Cape, making those soft little sounds; and then into the house; and +André said he had to wipe two tears out of his eyes to see a thing like +that. + +"Well, this was the end of old Siméon's grief, as you may well believe. +Those W'ites stay at the Couronne d'Or for as much as nine or ten days, +and every morning they will be going across to see their dear dear +grandfather; and finally when they went away, they had hired that widow +Bergère to keep his house comfortable for him; and M'sieu Tommy left +money for all needs. + +"And every Christmas after that, so long as old Siméon existed, there +would come boxes of presents from that place in Boston. Oh, I assure +you, he did not lack that good care. And always he must be talking about +that Tommy of his, who was so rich, and was some great personage in the +city--what they called an alderman--and yet he had not forgotten his +poor old father, who had waited all those years to see him. + +"So this story shows that sometimes things turn out just as well in +this life down here as they do in those silly stories they tell you +about princesses and all those things that are not so; and that is a +comfort sometimes, when you see so much that is sad and heartbreaking in +this world...." + + +[Illustration: A CALVAIRE] + + + + +AT A BRETON CALVAIRE + + + + +AT A BRETON CALVAIRE + + + Upon that cape that thrusts so bare + Its crest above the wasting sea-- + Grey rocks amidst eternity-- + There stands an old and frail calvaire, + Upraising like an unvoiced cry + Its great black arms against the sky. + + For storm-beat years that cross has stood: + It slants before the winter gale; + And now the Christ is marred and pale; + The rain has washed away the blood + That ran once on its brow and side, + And in its feet the seams are wide. + + But when the boats put out to sea + At earliest dawn before the day, + The fishermen, they turn and pray, + Their eyes upon the calvary: + "O Jesu, Son of Mary fair, + Our little boats are in thy care!" + + And when the storm beats hard and shrill + Then toil-bent women, worn with fear, + Pray for the lives they hold so dear, + And seek the cross upon the hill: + "O Jesu, Son of Mary mild, + Be with them where the waves are wild!" + + And when the dead they carry by + Across that melancholy land,-- + Dead that were cast up on the strand + Beneath a black and whirling sky,-- + They pause before the old calvaire; + They cross themselves and say a prayer. + + * * * * * + + O Jesu, Son of Mary fair! + O Faith, that seeks thy cross of pain! + Their voices break above the rain, + The wind blows hard, the heart lies bare: + Clutching through dark, their hands find Thee, + O Christ, that died on Calvary! + + + + +THE PRIVILEGE + + + + +THE PRIVILEGE + + +To-day I can think about only one thing. It is in vain I have tried +to busy myself with my sermon for next Sunday. Last week, for another +reason, I had recourse to an old sermon; but I dislike to make a +practice of so doing, even though I strongly suspect that none of our +little Salmon River congregation would know the difference. We are a +very simple people, in this out-of-the-way Cape Breton parish, called +mostly to be fishers, like Our Lord's apostles, and recking not a +whit of the finer points of doctrine. Nevertheless, it is an hireling +shepherd who is faithless only because the flock do not ask to be fed +with the appointed manna; and I shall broach the sermon again, once I +have set down the thing that is so heavy on my heart. + +For all I can think of just now is that Renny and Suse, out there on +Halibut Head, four miles away, are alone; alone for the first time in +well-nigh thirty years. The last of the brood has taken wing. + +Yet it came to me this morning, as I watched Renny on the wharf saying +good-by to the boy, and bidding him wrap the tippet snug about his neck +in case the wind would be raw--it came to me that there is a triumph +about the nest when it is empty that it could never have earlier. I saw +the look of it in Renny's face--not defeat, but exultation. + +"And what are you going to do now, Renny?" I asked him, as the steamer +slipped out of sight behind the lighthouse rock. + +He stared at me a little contemptuously, a manner he has always had. + +"_Do_, Mr. Biddles?" says he, with a queer laugh. "Why, what _would_ I +do, sor? They ain't no less fish to be catched, is they, off Halibut +Head, just because I got quit of a son or two?" + +He left me, with a toss of his crisp, tawny-gray curls, jumped into his +little two-wheeled cart, and was off. And I thought, "Ah, Renny Marks, +outside you are still the same wild beast as when I had my first meeting +with you, two-and-thirty years ago; but inside--yes, I knew then it must +come; and it was not for me to order the how of it." + +So as I took my way homeward, alone, toward the Rectory, I found myself +recalling, as if it were yesterday, the first words I had ever exchanged +with that tawny giant, just then in his first flush of manhood, and +with a face as ruddy and healthy-looking as one of these early New Rose +potatoes. Often, to be sure, I had seen him already in church, of a +Sunday, sitting defiant and uncomfortable on one of the rear benches, +struggling vainly to keep his eyes open; but before the last Amen was +fairly out of the people's mouth, he had always bolted for the door; +and I had never come, as you may say, face to face with him until this +afternoon when I was footing it back, by the cove road, from a visit to +an old sick woman, Nannie Odell. And here comes Renny Marks on his way +home from the boat; and over his shoulder was the mainsail and gaff and +a mackerel-seine and two great oars; and by one arm he had slung the +rudder and tackle and bait-pot; and under the other he lugged a couple +of bundles of lath for to mend his traps; and so he was pacing along +there as proud and careless as Samson bearing away the gates of Gaza on +his back (_Judges_ xvi, 3). + +Now I had entertained the belief for some time that it was my duty, +should the occasion offer, to have a serious word with Renny about +matters not temporal; and this was clearly the moment. Yet even before +we had met he gave me one of those proud, distrustful, I have said +contemptuous, looks of his; and I seemed suddenly to perceive the figure +I must cut in his eyes, pattering along there so trimly in my clerical +garb, and with my book of prayers under one arm; and, do you know, I was +right tongue-tied; and so we came within hand-reach, and still never a +word. + +At last, "Good-day to ye, Mister Biddles," says he, with a scant, +off-hand nod; and, as if he knew I must be admiring of his strength, "I +can fetch twice this load, sor," says he, "without so mucht as knowing +the difference." + +"It's a fine thing, Renny Marks," said I, gaining my tongue again, at +his boast, "a fine thing to be the strongest man in three parishes, if +that's what ye be, as they tell me." + +"It is that, sor," says he. "I never been cast yet; and I don't never +expect for to be." + +"But it's still finer a thing, Renny," I went on, "to use that strength +in the honor of your Maker. Tell me, do you remember to say your prayers +every night before you go to bed?" + +Never shall I forget the horse-laugh the young fellow had at those words. + +"Why, sor," he exclaimed, as if I had suggested the most unconscionable +thing in the world, "saying prayers! that's for the likes of them as +wash their face every day. I say my prayers on Sunday; and that's enough +for the likes of me!" + +And with that, not even affording me a chance to reply, he strode off up +the beach road; and in every movement of his great limbs I seemed to see +the pride and glory of life. Doubtless I was to blame for not pressing +home to him more urgently at that moment the claims of religion; but as +I stood there, watching him, it came to me that after all he was almost +to be pardoned for being proud. For surely there is something to warm +the heart in the sight of the young lion's strength and courage; and +even the Creator, I thought, must have taken delight in turning out such +a fine piece of mortal handiwork as that Renny Marks. + +But with that thought immediately came another: "Whom the Lord loveth he +chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth" (_Hebrews_ xii, +6). And I went home sadly, for I seemed to see that Renny had bitter +things ahead of him before he should learn the great lesson of life. + +Well, and this is the way it came to him. At the age of +four-and-twenty, he married this Suse Barlow from down the coast a +piece,--Green Harbor was the name of the town,--and she was a sweet +young thing, gentle and ladylike, though of plainest country stock, and +with enough education so they'd let her keep school down there. He built +a little house for her, the one they still live in, with his own hands, +at Halibut Head; and I never saw anything prettier than the way that +young giant treated his wife--like a princess! It was the first time +in his life, I dare say, he had ever given a thought to anything but +himself; and in a fashion, I suppose, 'twas still but a satisfaction of +his pride, to have her so beautiful, and so well-dressed. + +I remember of how often they would come in late to church,--even as late +as the Te Deum,--and I could almost suspect him of being behindhand of +purpose, for of course every one would look around when he came creaking +down the aisle in his big shoes, with a wide smile on his ruddy face +that showed all his white teeth through his beard; and none could fail +to observe how fresh and pretty Suse was, tripping along there behind +him, and looking very demure and modest in her print frock, and oh, so +very, very sorry to be late! And during the prayers I had to remark how +his face would always be turned straight toward her, as if it were to +her he was addressing his supplications; the young heathen! + +Now there is one thing I never could seem to understand, though I have +often turned it over in my mind, and that is, why it should be that a +young Samson like Renny Marks, and a fine, bouncing girl like that +Suse of his, should have children who were too weak and frail to stay +long on this earth; but such was the case. They saved only three out +of six; and the oldest of those three, Michael John, when he got to be +thirteen years of age, shipped as cabin boy on a fisherman down to the +Grand Banks, and never came back. So that left only Bessie Lou, who was +twelve, and little Martin, who was the baby. + +If ever children had a good bringing up, it was those two. I never +saw either of them in a dirty frock or in bare feet; and that means +something, you must allow, when you consider the hardness of the +fisherman's life, and how often he has nothing at all to show for a +season's toil except debts! But work--I never saw any one work like +that Renny; and he made a lovely little farm out there; and Suse wasn't +ashamed to raise chickens and sell them in Salmon River; and she dyed +wool, and used to hook these rugs, with patterns of her own design, +baskets of flowers, or handsome fruit-dishes; and almost always she +could get a price for them. But, as you may believe, she couldn't keep +her sweet looks with work like that. Before she was thirty she began +to look old, as is so often true in a hard country like ours; and not +often would she be coming in to church any more, because, she said, +of the household duties; but my own belief is that she did not have +anything to wear. But Bessie Lou and little Martin, when the boy was +well enough, were there every fine Sunday, as pretty as pictures, and +able to recite the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer, and the Collects, and +the Commandments, quite like the children of gentlefolk. + +Well, when Bessie Lou got to be sixteen, she took it into her head that +she must go off to Boston, where she would be earning her own living, +and see something more of the world than is possible for a girl in +Salmon River. Our girls all get that notion nowadays; they are not +content to stay at home as girls used to do; but off they go in droves +to the States, where wages are big, and there is excitement and variety. +So the old people finally said yes, and off goes Bessie Lou, like the +others; and in two years we heard she was to be married to a mechanic in +Lynn (I think that is the name of the city) somewhere outside of Boston. +She has been gone eight years now, and has three children; and she +writes occasionally. She is always wishing she could come down and visit +the old folks; but it is hard to get away, I presume, and they are plain +working people. + +So after Bessie Lou's going, all they had left at home was Martin, who +was always ailing more or less. And on my word, I never saw anything +like the care they gave that boy. There wasn't anything too good for +him. All these most expensive tonics and patent medicines they would +be for trying, one after another, and telling themselves every time +that at last they had found just the right thing, because he'd seem to +be bracing up a bit, and getting more active. And then he would take +another of his bad spells, and lose ground again; and they would put +by that bottle and try something else. One day when I was out there +his ma showed me all of twenty bottles of patent medicine, some of them +scarcely touched, that Renny had got for him, one time or another. + +You see, Martin couldn't run about outdoors very much because of his +asthma; and then, his eyes being bad, that made him unhappy in the +house, for he couldn't be reading or studying. His father got him an +old fiddle once, he'd picked up at an auction, and the boy took to it +something wonderful; but not having any teacher and no music he soon +grew tired of it. And whenever old Renny would be in the village, he +must always be getting some little thing to take out to Martin: a couple +of bananas, say, or a jack-knife, or one of those American magazines +with nice pictures, especially pictures of ships and other sailing +craft, of which the lad was very fond. + +Well, and so last winter came, which was a very bad winter indeed, in +these parts; and the poor lamb had a pitiful hard time; and whenever +Renny got in to church, it was plain to see that he was eating his heart +out with worry. He still had his old way of always snoring during the +sermon; but oh, if you could see once the tired, anxious, supplicating +look in his face, as soon as his proud eyes shut, you never would have +had the heart to wish anything but "Sleep on now, and take your rest" +(_Mark_ xiv, 41), for you knew that perhaps, for a few minutes, he had +stopped worrying about that little lad of his. + +Spring came on, at last, and Martin was out again for a while every +day in the sun; and sometimes the old man would be taking him abroad +for a drive or for a little sail in the boat, when he was going out to +his traps; and it appeared that the strain was over again for the time +being. That is why I was greatly surprised and troubled one day, about +two months ago, to see Renny come driving up toward the Rectory like +mad, all alone in his cart. + +I had just been doing a turn of work myself at the hay; for it is hard +to get help with us when you need it most; and as I came from the barn, +in my shirt-sleeves, Renny turned in at the gate. + +"Something has happened to the boy," was my thought; and I was all but +certain of it when I saw the man's face, sharp set as a flint stone, and +all the blood gone from his ruddy skin so that it looked right blue. He +jumped out before the mare stopped, and came up to me. + +"Can I have a word with ye?" said he; and when he saw my look of +question, he added, "It ain't nothink, sor. He's all right." + +I put my hand on his shoulder, and led him into my study, and we sat +down there, just as we were, I in my shirt-sleeves, and still unwashed +after the hayfield. + +"What is it, Renny, man?" says I. + +It seemed like he could not make his lips open for a moment, and then, +suddenly, he began talking very fast and excitedly, pecking little dents +in the arms of the chair with his big black fingernails. + +"That Bessie Lou of oors up to Boston," said he, as if he were accusing +some one of an outrage, "we got a letter from 'er last night, we did, +and she sayse, says she, why wouldn't we be for a-sending o' the leetle +lad up theyr? They'd gladly look oot for him, she sayse; and the winter +ain't severe, she sayse; and he could go to one o' them fine city +eye-doctors and 'ave his eyes put right with glasses or somethink; and +prob'ly he could be for going to school again and a-getting of his +learning, which he's sadly be'indhand in, sor, becaust he's ben ailing +so much." + +His eyes flashed, and the sweat poured down his forehead in streams. + +I don't know why I was so slow to understand; but I read his look +wrong, there seemed so much of the old insolence and pride in it, and I +replied, I daresay a little reproachfully,-- + +"Well, and why wouldn't that be an excellent thing, Renny? I should +think you would feel grateful." + +He stared at me for a second, as if I had struck him. Ah, we can +forget the words people say to us, even in wrath; but can we ever free +ourselves from the memory of such a look? Without knowing why, I had +the feeling of being a traitor. And then, all of a sudden, there he had +crumpled down in his chair, and put his head in his big hands, and was +sobbing. + +"I cain't--I cain't let him go," he groaned. "I woon't let him go. He's +all what we got left." + +I sat there for a time, helpless, looking at him. You might think that +a priest, with the daily acquaintance he has with the bitter things +of life, ought to know how to face them calmly; but so far as my own +small experience goes, I seem to know nothing more about all that than +at the beginning. It always hurts just as much; it's always just as +bewildering, just as terrible, as if you had never seen anything like +it before. And when I saw that giant of a Renny Marks just broken over +there like some big tree shattered by lightning, it seemed as if I could +not bear to face such suffering. Then I remembered that he had been +committed into my care by God, and that I must not be only an hireling +shepherd. So I said:-- + +"Renny, lad, it isn't for ourselves we must be thinking. It's for him." + +He lifted up his head, with the shaggy, half-gray hair all rumpled on +his wet forehead, and pulled his sleeve across his eyes. + +"Hark'e, Mister Biddles," he commanded harshly. "Ain't we did the best +we could for him? Who dares say we ain't did the best we could for him? +_You?_" + +I made no answer, and for a minute we faced each other, while he shook +his clenched fists at me, and the creature in him that had never yet +been cast challenged all the universe. + +"They're tryin' to tak my boy away from me," he roared, "and they cain't +do it--I tell you they cain't. He's all what we got left, now." + +"And so you mean to keep him for yourself?" I asked. + +"Ay, that I do," he cried, jumping out of his chair, and striding up and +down the room as if clean out of his wits. "I do! I do! Why _wouldn't_ +I mean to, hey? Ain't he mine? Who's got a better right to him?" + +Of a sudden he comes to a dead halt in front of me, with his arms +crossed. "Mister Biddles," he says, very bitterly, "you may well be +thankfu' you never wast a father yoursel'. Nobody ain't for trying to +tak nothink away from you." + +"That's quite true, Renny," said I. "But remember," I said, not +intending any irreverence, but uttering such poor words as were given +to me in my extremity, "remember, Renny, it's to a Father you say your +prayers in church every Sunday; and you needn't think as that Father +doesn't know full as well as you what it is to give up an only Son for +love's sake." + +"Hey?--What's that, sor?" cries Renny, with a face right like a dead +thing. + +"And would He be asking of you for to let yours go, if He didn't know +there was love enough in your heart to stand the test?" + +Renny broke out with a terrible groan, like the roar of anguish of a +wild beast that has got a mortal wound; and the same instant the savage +look died in his eyes, and the bigger love in him had triumphed over the +smaller love. I could see it, I knew it, even before he spoke. He caught +at my hand, blunderingly, and gave it a twist like a winch. + +"He shall go, sor. He shall go for all of I. And Mr. Biddles, while I'm +for telling the old woman and the boy, would ye be so condescending as +to say over some of them there prayers, so I could have the feeling, as +you might say, that some one was keeping an eye on me? It'll all be done +in less nor a half-hour." + +And with that, off he goes, and jumps into his cart, and whips up the +mare, tearing down the road like a whirlwind, just as he had come, +without so much as saying good-by. And the next day I heard them saying +in the village that Renny Marks's boy was to go up to the States to be +raised with his sister's family. + +Ah, well, that's only a common sort of a story, I know. The same kind of +things happen near us every day. I can't even quite tell why I wanted to +set it down on paper like this, only that, some way, it makes me believe +in God more; even when I have to remember, and it seems to me just now +like I could never stop remembering it, that Renny and Suse are all +alone to-day out there on Halibut Head. Renny is at the fish, of course; +and Suse, I daresay, is working in her little potato patch; and Martin +is out there on the sea, being borne to a world far away, and from +which, I suppose, he will not be very anxious to return; for few of them +do come back, nowadays, to the home country. + + +[Illustration: FOUGÈRE'S COVE] + + + + +THEIR TRUE LOVE + + + + +THEIR TRUE LOVE + + +Even Zabette, with her thousand wrinkles, was young once. They say her +lips were red as wild strawberries and her hair as sleek as the wing +of a blackbird in spring. All the old people of St. Esprit remember +how she used to swing along the street on her way to mass of a Sunday, +straight, proud, agile as a goat, with her dark head flung back, and +a disdainful smile on her lips that kept young men from being unduly +forward. The country people, who must have their own name for everything +and everybody, used to call her "la belle orgueilleuse," and sometimes, +"the highstepper"; and though they had to laugh at her a little for her +lofty ways, they found it quite natural to address her as mademoiselle. + +But all these things one only knows by hearsay. Zabette does not talk +much herself. So far as she is concerned, you might never guess that +she had a story at all. She lives there in the little dormer-windowed +cottage beyond the post-office with Suzanne Benoît. For thirty-three +years now the two women have lived together; and it is the earnest +prayer of both of them that when the time for going arrives, they may go +together. + +These two good souls have the reputation, all over the country, of +immense industry and thrift. Suzanne keeps three cows, and her butter +is famous. Zabette--she was a Fuseau, from the Grande Anse--takes in +washing of the better class. Nobody in St. Esprit can do one of those +stiff white linen collars so well as she. Positively, it shines in the +sun like a looking-glass. If you notice the men going to church, you can +always pick out those who have their shirts and collars done by Zabette +Fuseau. By comparison, the others appear dull and very commonplace. + +"But why must Zabette do collars for her living?" you are asking. "Why +has she not a man of her own to look out for her, and half a dozen grown +up children? Did she never marry, then--this belle orgueilleuse?" + +No. Never. But not on account of that pride of hers; at least not +directly. If you go into the pretty little living-room of the second +cottage beyond the post-office--the one with such a show of geraniums +in the front windows--you will guess half the secret, for just above +the mantelpiece, between two vases of artificial asters, hangs the +daguerreotype portrait of a young man in mariner's slops. The lineaments +have so faded with the years that it is difficult to make them out with +any assurance. It is as if the portrait itself were seeking to escape +from life, retreating little by little, imperceptibly, into the dull +shadows of the ground, so that only as you look at it from a certain +angle can you still clearly distinguish the small dark eyes, the full +moustache, the round chin, the square stocky shoulders of the subject. +Only the two rosy spots added by the daguerreotypist to the cheeks defy +time and change, indestructible token of youth and ardor. + +A little frame of immortelles encloses the portrait. And directly in +front of it, on the mantelpiece, stands a pretty shell box, with the +three words on the mother-of-pearl lid: "À ma chérie." What is in the +box--if anything--no one can tell you for a certainty, though there are +plenty of theories. "Love letters," say some; and others, with a pitying +laugh, "Old maid's tears." + +Zabette and Suzanne hold their tongues. I think I know what the treasure +of the box is; for I had the story directly from a very aged woman who +knew both the "girls" when they were young; and she vouched for the +truth of it by all the beads of her rosary. This is how it went. + +Zabette Fuseau was eighteen, and she lived at the Grand Anse, two miles +out of St. Esprit; and the procession of young fellows, going there +to woo, was like a pilgrimage, exactly. Among them came one from far +down the coast, a place called Rivière Bourgeoise. He was a deep sea +fisherman, from off a vessel which had put in at St. Esprit for repairs, +mid-course to the Grand Banks; and on his first shore leave Maxence +had caught sight of la belle orgueilleuse, who had come into town with +a basket of eggs; and he had followed her home, at a little distance, +sighing, but without the courage to address her so long as they were +in the village. He was a very handsome young fellow, with a brown, +ruddy skin, and the most beautiful dark curly hair and crisp moustache +imaginable. + +Zabette knew he was behind her; but she would not turn; not she; only +walked a little more proudly and gracefully, with that swinging movement +of hers, like a vessel sailing in a head wind. At last, when they had +reached the Calvaire at the end of the village, he managed to get out +his first word. + +"Oh!" he cried, haltingly. "Mademoiselle!" + +She turned half about and fixed her dark proud eyes upon him, while her +cheeks crimsoned. + +"Well, m'sieur?" + +He could not speak, and the two stared at each other for a long time in +silence, while the thought came to her that this was the man for whom +she was destined. + +"Had you something to say to me?" she repeated, finally, in a tone that +tried to be severe, but was really very soft. + +He nodded his curly head, and licked his lips hard to moisten them. + +"I cannot wait any longer," she protested, after a while. "They need me +at home." + +She turned quickly again, as if to go; but her feet were glued to the +ground, and she did not take a step. + +"Oh, s'il vous plaît, mam'selle!" he cried, to hold her. "You think I am +rude. But I did not mean to follow you like this. I could not help it. +You are so beautiful." + +The look he gave her with those words sank deep into her heart and +rooted itself there forever. In vain, for the rest of her life, she +might try to tear it out; there was a fatality about it. Zabette, fine +highstepper that she was, had been caught at last. She knew that she +ought to send the handsome young sailor away; but her tongue would not +obey her. Instead, it uttered some very childish words of confusion and +pleasure; and before she knew it, there was her man walking along at +her side, with one hand on his heart, declaring that she was the most +angelic creature in the world, that he was desperately in love with +her, that he could not live without her, and that she must promise then +and there to be his, or he would instantly kill himself. The burning, +impassioned look in his eyes struck her with dismay. + +"But I cannot decide all in a moment like this," she protested, in a +weak voice. "It would be indecent. I must think." + +"Think!" he retorted, bitterly. "Oh, very well. Then you do not love me!" + +"Ah, but I do!" she cried, all trembling. + +With that he took her in his arms and kissed her, and nothing more was +heard about suicide or any such subject. + +"But we must not tell any one yet," she pleaded. "They would not +understand." + +He agreed, with the utmost readiness. "We will not tell a soul. It shall +be exactly as you wish. But I may come and see you?" + +"Oh, certainly," she responded. "Often,--that is, every day or two,--at +Grande Anse; and perhaps we may happen to meet sometimes in the +village, as well." + +"The _Soleil_ will be delaying at St. Esprit for two weeks," he +explained, as they walked along, hand in hand. "She put in for some +repairs. By the end of that time, perhaps"-- + +"Oh, no, not so soon as that," she interrupted. "We must let a longer +while pass first." + +She gazed at him yearningly. "You will be returning by here in the +autumn, at the end of the season on the Banks?" + +"We are taking on three men from St. Esprit," he answered. "We shall +stop here on the return to set them ashore. That will be in October, +near the end of the month, if the season is good." + +She sighed, as if dreading some disaster; and they looked at each other +again, and the look ended in a kiss. It is not by words, that new love +feeds and grows. + +Before they reached the Grande Anse he quitted her; but he gave her +his promise to come again that evening. He did--that evening, and two +evenings later, and so on, every other evening for those two weeks. +Zabette's old mother took a great fancy to him, and gave him every +encouragement; but the old père Fuseau, who had sailed many a voyage, in +younger days, round the Horn, would never speak a good word for him--and +perhaps his hostility only increased the girl's attachment. + +"A little grease is all very well for the hair of a young man," he would +say. "But this scented pomade they use nowadays--pah!" + +"You object then to a sailor's being a gentleman?" demanded the girl +haughtily. + +"Yes, I do," roared the old père Fuseau. "Have a care, Zabette." + +Nevertheless, the two lovers found plenty of chances to be alone +together; and they would talk, in low voices, of their happiness and +of the future, which looked very bright to Zabette, despite all the +uncertainties of the sea. + +"When we put in on the return from the Banks," said Maxence, "you will +be at the wharf to meet me; and that very day we will announce our +fiancailles. What an astonishment for everybody!" + +"And then," she asked--"after that?" + +"After that, I will stay ashore for a while. They can do without me on +the _Soleil_. And at the end of a month"--he told her the rest with a +kiss; and surely Zabette had never been so happy in her life. + +But for the time being the affair was kept very, very secret, so that +people might not get to gossiping. Even those frequent expeditions of +Maxence to the Grande Anse were not remarked, for he always came after +dusk: and when the fortnight was over and the _Soleil_ once more was +ready for sea, the two sweethearts exchanged keepsakes, and he left her. + +"I will send you a letter from St. Pierre Miquelon," he said, to cheer +her, while he wiped away her tears with a silk handkerchief. + +"Do you promise?" she asked. + +He promised. Three weeks later the letter arrived; and it told her that +his heart was breaking for his dear little Zabette. "Sois fidèle--be +true," were the last words. The letter had a perfume of pomade about it, +and she carried it all summer in her bodice, taking it out many times a +day to scan the loving words again. + +In St. Esprit, when the fishing fleet begins to return from the Banks, +they keep an old man on the lookout in the church tower; and as soon as +he sights a vessel in the offing, he rings the bell. + +It was the fourth week in October that year before the bell was heard; +and then rapidly, two or three at a time, the schooners came in. First +the _Dame Blanche_, which was always in the lead; then the _Êtoile_, the +_Deux Frères_, the _Lottie B._, and the _Milo_. Every day, morning or +afternoon, the bell would ring, and poor Zabette must find some excuse +or other to be in town. Down at the wharf there was always gathered an +anxious throng, watching for the appearance of the vessel round the +Cape. And when she was visible at last, there would be cries of joy from +some, and silence on the part of others. Zabette was among the silent. +When she saw the happiness about her, tears would swim unbidden in her +eyes; but of course she did not lose heart, for still there were several +vessels to arrive, and no disasters had been reported by the earlier +comers. People noticed her, standing there with expectant mien, and they +wondered what it could be that brought her; but it was not their habit +to ask questions of the fine highstepper. + +There was another young girl on the wharf, too, who had the air of +looking for some one--a certain Suzanne Benoît, from l'Étang, three +miles inshore, a very pretty girl, with a mild, appealing look in her +brown eyes. Zabette had seen her often here and there; but she had no +acquaintance with her. At the present moment, strangely enough, she +felt herself powerfully drawn to this Suzanne. It came to her, somehow, +that the girl had come thither on a mission similar to her own, she +was so silent, and had not the look of those who had waited on the +wharf in previous years. And so, one afternoon, when two vessels had +rounded the Cape and were entering the harbor, amid a great hubbub of +expectancy,--and neither of them was the _Soleil_,--Zabette surprised +a look of woe in the face of the other which she could not resist. She +went over to her, with some diffidence, and offered a few words of +sympathy. + +"You are waiting for some one, too?" she asked her. + +The eyes of the other filled quickly to overflowing. "Yes," she +answered. "He has not come yet." + +"You must not worry," said Zabette, stoutly. "There are always delays, +you know. Some are ahead; others behind; it is so every year." + +The girl gave her a grateful look, and squeezed her hand. "It is a +secret," she murmured. + +Zabette smiled. "I have a secret too." + +"Then we are waiting together," said Suzanne. "That makes it so much +easier!" + +They walked back to the street, arm in arm, as if they had always been +bosom friends. And the next day they were both at the wharf again. The +afternoon was bleak; but as usual they were in their best clothes. + +"Oh, it does not seem as if I could wait any longer," whispered Suzanne, +confidingly. "I do hope it will be the _Soleil_ this time." + +"The _Soleil_!" exclaimed Zabette, joyfully. "You are waiting for the +_Soleil_?" + +And at the other's nod, she went on. "How lovely that we are expecting +the same vessel. Oh, I am sure it will come to-day--or certainly +to-morrow." + +The two girls felt themselves very close together, now that they had +shared so much of their secret; and it made the waiting less hard to +bear. + +"Is he handsome, your man?" asked Suzanne, timidly. + +"Ravishing," replied Zabette, eagerly. "And yours?" + +Suzanne sighed with adoration. "Beyond words," was her reply--and the +girls exchanged another of those pressures of the hand which mean so +much where love is concerned. "He has the most beautiful moustache in +the world." + +"Oh, no," protested Zabette, smilingly. "Mine has a more beautiful one +yet, and such crisp curly hair, and dark eyes." + +Her companion suddenly looked at her. "Large eyes or small?" she asked +in a strange voice. + +"Oh," replied Zabette, doubtfully. "Not too large. I would not fancy ox +eyes in a man." + +Suzanne freed herself and stood facing her with a flash of hatred in her +mild face which Zabette could not understand. + +"And his name!" she demanded, harshly. "His name, then!" + +Zabette smiled a little proudly. "That is my secret," she replied. "But, +Suzanne, what is the matter?" + +"It is not your secret," laughed the other, bitterly. "It is not your +secret. It is my secret." + +"What do you mean?" cried Zabette, with a sudden feeling of terror at +the girl's drawn face. + +"His name is Maxence!" Suzanne's laugh was like bones rattling in a +coffin. + +It seemed to Zabette as if a flash of lightning had cleft her soul in +two. That was the way the truth came to her. She drew back like a viper +ready to strike. + +"Oh, I hate you!" she cried, and turned on her heel, white to the eyes +with anger and shame. + +But Suzanne would not leave her. She followed to the other side of +the wharf, and as soon as she could speak again without attracting +attention, she said, more kindly: + +"I am very sorry for you, Zabette. It is too bad you were so mistaken. +Why, he was engaged to me the very second day he came ashore." + +Zabette stifled back a cry, and retorted, icily, "He was engaged to me +the first day. He followed me all the way to the Grande Anse." + +Suzanne's eyes glittered, this time. "He followed me all the way to +l'Étang. He is mine." + +Zabette brought out, through white lips, "Leave me alone. He was mine +first." + +"He was mine last," retaliated the other, undauntedly. "The very morning +he went away, he came to see me. Did he come to you that day? Did he? +Did he?" + +Zabette ignored her question. "He wrote me a letter from St. Pierre +Miquelon," she announced, crisply. "So that settles it, first and last." + +The hand of Suzanne suddenly lifted to her bosom, as if feeling for +something. "My letter was written at St. Pierre, too." + +For an instant they glared at each other like wild animals fighting over +prey. Neither said a word. Neither yielded a hair. Each felt that her +life's happiness was at stake. Zabette had thought that this chit of a +girl from l'Étang was mild and timid; but now she realized that she had +met her match for courage. And the thought came to her: "When he sees +us, let him choose." + +She was not conscious of having uttered the words. Perhaps her glance, +swiftly directed toward the Cape, conveyed the thought to her rival. At +all events the answer came promptly and with complete self-assurance: + +"Yes, let Maxence choose." + +Just at that moment the first vessel appeared at the harbor entrance, +while the bell redoubled its jubilation in the church tower on the hill. + +"The _Mercure_!" cried an old woman. "Thank God!" + +And a few minutes later, there was the _Anne-Marie_, all sail set over +her green hull; and then a vessel which at first no one seemed to +recognize. + +"Which is that?" they asked. "Oh, it must be--yes, it is the _Soleil_, +from Rivière Bourgeoise. She has several men from here aboard." + +With eyes that seemed to be starting from her head, Zabette watched the +_Soleil_ entering the harbor. She could distinguish forms on deck. She +saw handkerchiefs waving. At last she could begin to make out the faces +a little. But she did not discover the one she sought. Holding tight to +a mooring post, unable to think, unable to do anything but watch, it +seemed to her that hours passed before the schooner cast anchor and a +boat was put over. There were four persons in it: the mate and the three +men from St. Esprit. They rowed rapidly to the wharf; and the three men +threw up their gunny sacks and climbed the ladder, one after the other. + +The mate was just about to put off again when Zabette spoke to him. She +leaned over the edge of the wharf, reaching out a detaining hand. + +"M'sieur!" + +At the same instant the word was uttered by another voice close by. She +looked up and saw Suzanne, very white, in the same attitude. + +"What is it, mesdemoiselles?" asked the mate, touching his vizor. + +As if by concerted arrangement came the question from both sides. + +"And Maxence?" + +The man answered them seriously and directly, perceiving from their +manner that his reply was of great import to these two, whatever the +reason for it might be. + +"Maxence?--But we do not know where he is. There was a fog. He was out +in a dory, alone. We picked up the dory the next day. Perhaps"--he +shrugged his shoulders incredulously--"perhaps he might have been picked +up by another vessel. Who can say?" + +The girls gave him no answer. They reeled, and would have fallen, save +that each found support in the other's arms. Sinking to the string +piece of the wharf, they buried their faces on each other's shoulders +and sobbed. Happy fathers and mothers and sweethearts, gathered on the +wharf, looked at them in wonder, and left them alone, ignorant of the +cause of their grief. So a long time passed, and still they crouched +there, tight clasped, with buried heads. + +"He was so good, so brave!" sobbed Suzanne. + +"I loved him so much," repeated Zabette, over and over. + +"I shall die without him," moaned Suzanne. + +"So shall I," responded the other. "I cannot bear to live any longer." + +"If only I had a picture of him, that would be some comfort," said the +poor girl from l'Étang. + +"I have one," said Zabette, sitting up straight and putting some orderly +touches to her disarranged _mouchoir_. "He gave it to me the very last +night." + +Suzanne looked at her enviously, and mopped her red eyes. "All I have," +she sighed, "is a little shell box he brought me, with the motto, _À +ma chérie_. He gave me that the very last morning of all. It is very +beautiful, but no one but me has seen it yet." + +"You must show it to me sometime," said Zabette. "I have a right to see +it." + +"If you will let me look at the picture," consented the other, guardedly. + +"Yes, you may look at it," said Zabette, "so long as you do not forget +that it belongs to me." + +"To you!" retorted the other. "And have you a better right to it than I, +seeing that he would have been my husband in a month's time? You are a +bad, cruel girl; you have no heart. It is a mercy he escaped the traps +you set for him--my poor Maxence!" + +A thousand taunting words came to Zabette's lips, but she controlled +herself, rose to her feet with a show of dignity, and quitted the wharf. +She resolved that she would never speak to that Benoît girl again. To do +so was only to be insulted. + +She went back to her home on the Grande Anse and endeavored to take up +her everyday life again as though nothing had happened. She hid her +grief from the neighbors, even from her own parents, who had never +suspected the strength of her attachment for Maxence. By day she could +keep herself busy about the house, and the secret would only be a dull +pain; but at night, especially when the wind blew, it would gnaw and +gnaw at her heart like a hungry beast. + +At last she could keep it to herself no longer. She must share her +misery. But there was only one person in the world who could understand. +She declared to herself that nothing would induce her to go to l'Étang; +and yet, as if under a spell, she made ready for the journey. + +"Where are you going, my Zabette?" asked her old mother. + +"To l'Étang," she answered. "I hear there is a girl there who makes a +special brown dye for wool." + +"Well, the walk will do you good, ma fille. You have been indoors too +much lately. You are growing right pale and ill-looking." + +"Oh, it is nothing, maman. I never feel very brisk, you know, in +November. 'Tis such a dreary month." + +She took a back road across the barrens to l'Étang. Scarcely any one +traveled it except in winter to fetch kindling wood from the scrub fir +that grew there. Consequently Zabette was much surprised, after walking +about a mile and a half, to discover that some one was approaching from +the opposite direction--a woman, with a red shawl across her shoulders. +Gradually the distance between them lessened; and then she saw, with +a start, that it was Suzanne Benoît. Her knees began to tremble under +her. When they met, at last, no words would come to her lips: they only +looked at each other with questioning, hunted eyes, then embraced, +weeping, and sat down silently on a moss-hummock beside the road. +Zabette had not felt so comforted since the disaster of October. For the +first time she could let the tears flow without any fear of detection. +At last she said, very calmly: + +"I have brought the picture." + +She drew it out from under her coat, and held it on her knees, where +Suzanne could see it. + +"And here is the shell box," rejoined her companion. "I do not +know how to read, me; but there are the words--_À ma chérie_. It's +pretty--_hein_?" + +Each gazed at the other's treasure. + +"Ah," sighed Suzanne, mournfully. "How handsome he was to look at--and +so true and brave!" + +"I shall never love another," said Zabette, with sad conviction--"never. +Love is over for me." + +"And for me," said Suzanne. "But we have our memories." + +"Mine," corrected Zabette. "You are forgetting." + +"Did he ever give you a present that said _À ma chérie_?" demanded +Suzanne, pointedly. + +The other explained blandly: "You cannot say anything, my dear, on the +back of a tintype.--But I have my letter from St. Pierre." + +She showed it. + +"Even if I cannot read mine," declared the girl from l'Étang, hotly, "I +know it is fully as nice as yours. Nicer!" + +"Oh, can I never see you but you must insult me!" cried Zabette. "Keep +your old box and your precious letter from St. Pierre Miquelon. What can +they matter to me?" + +Without a word of good-by she sprang to her feet and set out for the +Grande Anse. She did not see the Benoît girl again that winter; but she +could not help thinking about her, sometimes with sympathy, sometimes +with bitter hatred. The young men came flocking to her home, as usual, +vying with one another in attentions to her, for not only was Zabette +known as the handsomest girl in three parishes, but also as an excellent +housekeeper--"good saver, rare spender." + +She would not encourage any of them, however. + +"If I marry," she said to herself, "it is giving Maxence over to that +l'Étang girl. She will crow about it. She will say, 'At last he is mine +altogether. She has surrendered.' No, I could not stand that." + +So that winter passed, and the next summer, and other winters and +summers. Zabette did not marry; and after a time she began hearing +herself spoken of as an old maid. The young men flocked to other houses, +not hers. At the end of twelve years both her father and mother were +dead, and she was alone in the world, thirty, and unprovided for. + +It was, of course, fated, that these two women whose lives had been so +strangely entangled should drift together again, sooner or later. So +long as both were young and could claim love for themselves, jealousy +was bound to separate them; but when they found themselves quite alone +in the world, no longer beautiful, no longer arousing thoughts of love +in the breast of another, the memory of all that was most precious in +their lives drew them together as surely as a magnet draws two bits of +metal. + +It was after mass, one Sunday, that Zabette sought out her rival finally +and found the courage to propose a singular plan. + +"You are alone, Suzanne," she said. "So am I. We are both poor. Come and +live with me." + +"And you will give me Maxence?" asked Suzanne, a little hardly. + +"No. But I will give you half of him. See, why should we quarrel any +more? He is dead. Let us be reasonable. After this he shall belong to +both of us." + +Still the _vieille fille_ from l'Étang held back, though her eyes +softened. + +"All these years," she said, with a remnant of defiance--"all these +years he has been mine. I did not get married, me, because that would +have let him belong to you." + +Zabette sighed wearily. "And all these years I have been saying the same +thing. And yet I could never forget the shell box and your letter from +St. Pierre Miquelon. Come, don't you see how much easier it will be--how +much more natural--if we put our treasures together: all we have of +Maxence, and call him _ours_?" + +Suzanne was beginning to yield, but doubtfully. "If it would be proper," +she said. + +"Not if he were living, of course," replied the other, with assurance. +"The laws of the church forbid that. But in the course of a lifetime a +husband may have more than one wife. I do not see why, when a husband is +dead, two wives should not have him. Do you?" + +"I will come," said Suzanne, softly and gratefully. "I am so lonely." + +Three years later the two women moved from the Grande Anse into the +village, renting the little cottage with the dormer windows in which +they have lived ever since. You must look far to find so devoted a pair. +They are more than sisters to each other. If their lives have not been +happy, as the world judges happiness, they have at least been illumined +by two great and abiding loves,--which does not happen often,--that for +the dead, and that for each other. + + + + +GARLANDS FOR PETTIPAW + + + + +GARLANDS FOR PETTIPAW + + +Towns, like persons, I suppose, wake up now and then to find themselves +famous; but I doubt if any town having this experience could be more +amazed by it, more dazed by it, than was Three Rivers, one day last +March, when we opened our newspapers from Boston and Montreal and lo, +there was our own name staring at us from the front page! Three Rivers +is in the Province of Quebec, on the shore of the Bay de Chaleurs; but +we receive our metropolitan papers every day, only thirty-six hours off +the presses; and this makes us feel closely in touch with the outside +world. Until the railroad from Matapedia came through, four years ago, +mail was brought by stage, every second day. The coming of the railroad +had seemed an important event then; but it had never put Three Rivers on +the front page of the Boston _Herald_. + +The news-item in question was to the effect that the S. S. _Maid +of the North_, Captain Pettipaw of Three Rivers, P. Q., had been +torpedoed, forty miles off Fastnet, while en route from Sydney, N. S., +to Liverpool, with a cargo of pig-iron. The captain and crew (said the +item) had been allowed to take to the boats; but only one of the two +boats had been heard from. That one was in command of the mate, and had +been rescued by a trawler. + +Captain Pettipaw of Three Rivers! _Our_ Captain Pettipaw! How well we +knew him; and who among us had ever thought of him as one likely to +make Three Rivers figure on the front page of the world's news! Yet +this had come to pass; and even amid the anxiety we felt as to the fate +of Captain Joe, we could but be agreeably conscious of the distinction +that had come to our little community. All that afternoon poor Mrs. +Pettipaw's house was thronged with neighbors who hurried over there, +newspaper in hand, ready to congratulate or to condole as might seem +most called for. + +"Poor Mrs. Pettipaw" or "poor Melina" was the way we always spoke +of her, partly, I suppose, because of her nine children, and partly +because--I hesitate to say it--she was Captain Joe's wife. But now that +it seemed so very likely she might be his widow, our hearts went out +to her the more. You see Captain Joe was, in our local phrase, "one +of those Pettipaws." Pettipaws never seemed to get anywhere or to do +anything that mattered. Pettipaws were always behindhand. Pettipaws were +always in trouble, one way or another. It was a family characteristic. + +Only five or six years ago Captain Joe's new schooner, the _Melina +P._, had broken from her harbor moorings under a sudden gale from the +northwest and driven square on the Fiddle Reef, where she foundered +before our eyes. Other vessels were anchored close by the _Melina P._; +but not one of them broke loose. All the Captain's savings for years and +years had gone into the new schooner, not to speak of several hundreds +borrowed from his fellow-townsmen. + +And the very next winter his house had burned to the ground; and the +seven children--there were only seven then--had been parceled out +amongst the neighbors for six or seven months until, about midsummer, +the new house was roofed over and the windows set; and then the family +moved in, and there they lived for several more months, "sort of +camping-out fashion," as poor Melina cheerfully put it, while Captain +Joe was occasionally seen putting on a row of shingles or sawing a +board. At last, after the snow had begun to fly, the neighbors came +once more to the rescue. A collection was made for the stricken family; +carpenters finished the house; a mason built the chimney and plastered +the downstairs partitions; curtains were donated for the windows; and +the Pettipaws spent the winter in comfort. + +The following spring Captain Joe got a position as second officer on +a coastwise ship out of Boston, and the affairs of the family began +to look up. From that he was promoted to the captaincy of a little +freighter plying between Montreal and the Labrador; and the next we +knew, he was in command of a large collier sailing out of Sydney, Nova +Scotia. Poor Melina appeared in a really handsome new traveling suit, +ordered from the big mail order house in Montreal; and the young ones +could all go to church the same Sunday, and often did. + +For the last year or two we had ceased to make frequent inquiries after +Captain Joe; he had dropped pretty completely out of our life; and the +thought that he might be holding a commission of special dangerousness +had never so much as entered our minds. But poor Melina's calmness in +the face of the news-item surprised everyone. It was like a reproach to +her neighbors for not having acknowledged before the worth of the man +she had married. It had not required a German torpedo to teach her that. +And as for his safety, that apparently caused her no anxiety whatever. + +"You couldn't kill the Captain," she repeated, with a quiet, untroubled +smile, which was as much as to say that anything else might happen to a +Pettipaw, but not that. + +The rest of us admired her faith without being able to share it. Poor +Melina rarely had leisure to read a newspaper, and she did not know much +about the disasters of the war zone. And so, instinctively, everyone +began to say the eulogistic things about Captain Joe that had never been +said--though now we realized they ought to have been said--while he was +with us. + +"He was such a good man," said Mrs. Thibault, the barrister's wife. +"So devoted to his home. I remember of how he would sit there on the +doorstep for hours, watching his little ones at their play. Poor babies! +Poor little babies!" + +"Such a brave man, too; and so witty!" said John Boutin, our tailor. +"The stories he would tell, my! my! Many a day in the shop he'd be +telling stories from dinner till dark, without once stopping for breath +as you might say. It passed the time so nice!" + +"And devout!" added Mrs. Fougère, the postmistress. "A Christian. He +loved to listen to the church-bells. I remember like it was yesterday +his saying to me, 'The man,' he said, 'who can hear a church-bell +without thinking of religion, is as good as lost, to my thinking.'" + +"Not that he went to church very often," said Boutin. + +"His knee troubled him," explained Mrs. Fougère. + +Early in the evening came the cable message that justified poor Melina's +confidence. Eugénie White--the Whites used to be Le Blancs, but since +Eugénie came back from Boston, they have taken the more up-to-date +name--Eugénie came flying up the street from the railroad station, +waving the yellow envelope and spreading the news as she flew. The +message consisted of only one word: "Safe"; but it was dated Queenstown, +and it bore the signature we were henceforth to be so proud of: Joseph +Pettipaw. + +Two days later the _Herald_ contained a notice of the rescue by a +Norwegian freighter of the Captain of the _Maid of the North_; but we +had to wait ten days for the full story, which occupied two columns in +one of the Queenstown journals and almost as much in the Dublin _Post_, +with a very lifelike photograph of Captain Joe. It was a wonderful +story, as you may very likely remember, for the American papers gave it +plenty of attention a little later. + +It had been a calm, warm day, but with an immense sea running. Before +entering the war zone Captain Joe had made due preparation for +emergencies. The ship's boats were ready to be swung, and in each was a +barrel of water and a supply of biscuit and other rations. The submarine +was not sighted until it was too late to think of escaping; the engines +were reversed; and when the German commander called out through his +megaphone that ten minutes would be allowed for the escape of the crew, +all hands hurried to the lee side and began piling into the boats. The +mate's was lowered away first and cleared safely. + +The Captain was about to give the order for the lowering of his own +boat, when the only woman in the party cried out that her husband was +being left behind. It was the cook, who was indulging in an untimely +nap, his noonday labors in the galley being over. In her first +excitement Martha Figman had failed to notice his absence, but had made +for the boat as fast as she could, carrying her three-year-old child. + +"Be quick!" called out the commander of the submarine. "Your time is up!" + +"Oh, Captain, Captain, don't leave him," implored the desperate woman. +"He's all I have!" + +Then Captain Joe did the thing that will go down in history. He seized +the little girl and held her aloft in his arms and called out to the +Germans: + +"In the name of this little child, grant me three more minutes." + +"Two!" replied the commander. + +Captain Joe leaped to the deck and rushed aft, burst open the cook's +cabin, and hauled Danny Figman, quite sound asleep, out of his berth. +The poor rascal was only partly dressed, but there was no time to make +him presentable. A blanket and a sou'wester had to suffice. Still +bewildered, he was dragged on deck and ordered to run for his life. + +A few seconds later the boat lowered away with its full quota of +passengers; the men took the oars, cleared a hundred yards safely; and +then there was a snort, a white furrow through the waves, an explosion; +the _Maid of the North_ listed, settled, and disappeared. The submarine +steamed quickly out of sight; and the two boats were all that was left +as witness of what had happened. + +On account of the terrible seas that were running, the boats soon became +separated; and for sixty-two hours Captain Joe bent his every energy +to keeping his boat afloat, for she was in momentary danger of being +swamped, until on the third morning the Norwegian was sighted, came to +the rescue, and carried the exhausted occupants into Queenstown. + +Three Rivers, you may depend, had this story by heart, and backward +and forward, long before Captain Joe returned to us; for not only did +it appear in those Irish journals, but also on the occasion of the +Captain's arrival in New York in several metropolitan papers, written +up with great detail, and with a picture of little Tina Figman in the +Captain's arms. + +"This is the Captain," ran the print under the picture, "who risked his +life that a baby might not be fatherless." + +You can imagine how anxious we were by this time in Three Rivers to +welcome that Captain home again; not one of us but wanted to make ample +amends for the injustice we had done him in the past. But we had to +wait several weeks, for even after the owners had brought Captain Joe +and his crew back to New York on the St. Louis, still he had to go to +Montreal for a ten days' stay, to depose his evidence officially and to +wind up the affairs of the torpedoed ship. But at last he was positively +returning to us; and extensive preparations were undertaken for his +reception. + +As he was coming by the St. Lawrence steamer, _Lady of Gaspé_, the +principal decorations were massed in the vicinity of the government +wharf. If I tell you that well nigh three hundred dollars had been +collected for this purpose from the good people of Three Rivers, you +can form some idea of the magnitude of the effort. A double row of +saplings had been set up along the wharf and led thence to the Palace +of Justice; and the full distance, an eighth of a mile, was hung with +red and tricolor bunting. Then there were three triumphal arches, one +at the head of the wharf, one at the turn into the street, and one in +front of the post-office. These arches were very cleverly built, with +little turrets at the corners, the timber-work completely covered with +spruce-branches; and each arch displayed a motto. Mrs. Fougère and +Eugénie White had devised the mottoes, little John Boutin had traced +the letters on cotton, and Mrs. Boutin had painted them. The first +read: "Honor to Our Hero." The second was in French, for the reason that +half our population still use that language by preference, and it read: +"Honneur à notre Héro"; and the third arch bore the one word, ornately +inscribed: "Welcome." + +All the houses along the way were decorated with geraniums and flags; +and as the grass was already very green (it was June) and the willows +and silver-oaks beginning to leave out, it may fairly be said that Three +Rivers was a beauty spot. + +Seeing that no one can tell beforehand when a steamer is going to +arrive, the whole town was in its best clothes and ready at an early +hour of the morning. The neighbors trooped in at poor Melina's, offering +their services in case any of the children still needed combing, +curling, or buttoning; and all through the forenoon the young people +were climbing to the top of St. Anne's hill to see if there was any sign +of the _Lady of Gaspé_; but it was not till three in the afternoon that +the church-bell, madly ringing, announced that the long-expected moment +was about to arrive. + +I wish I could quote for you in full the account of that day's doings +which appeared in our local sheet, the Bonaventure _Record_, for it +was beautifully written and described every feature as it deserved, +reproducing _verbatim_ the Mayor's address of welcome, Father Quinnan's +speech in the Palace, and the Resolutions drawn up by ten representative +citizens and presented to Captain Pettipaw on a handsomely illuminated +scroll, which you may see to-day hanging in the place of honor in his +parlor. + +But let my readers imagine for themselves the arrival of the steamer, +the cheer upon cheer as Captain Joe came gravely down the gang-plank; +the affecting meeting between him and poor Melina and the nine little +Pettipaws, the littlest of whom he had never seen, and several of whom +had grown so in these last four years that he had the names wrong, which +caused happy laughter and happy tears on all sides. Then the procession +to the Palace! There was an orchestra of four pieces from Cape Cove; and +a troop of little girls, in white, scattered tissue-paper flowers along +the line of march. + +The Mayor began his speech by saying that an honor had come to our +little town which would be rehearsed from father to son for generations. +Father Quinnan took for his theme the three words: "Father, Husband, +Hero"; and he showed us how each of those words, in its highest and best +sense, necessarily comprised the other two. And the exercises closed +with a very enjoyable piano duet which you doubtless know: "Wandering +Dreams," by some foreign composer. + +People watched Captain Joe very closely. It would have been only natural +if, returning to us in this way, he should have remembered a time, +not so long before, when the attitude of his fellow-citizens had been +extremely cool. But if he remembered it, he gave no sign; and he smiled +at everyone in a grave, thoughtful manner that made one's heart beat +high. + +"He has aged," whispered Mrs. Fougère. "But his face is noble. It +reminds me of Napoleon, somehow." + +"To me he looks more like that American we see so often in the +papers--Bryan. So much dignity!" This from Mrs. Boutin. + +We appreciated the Captain's freedom from condescension the more when +we heard from his own lips, that same evening, a recital of the honors +that had been showered upon him during the past weeks. The Mayor of +Queenstown had had him to dinner; Lady Derntwood, known as the most +beautiful woman in Ireland, had entertained him for three days at +Derntwood Park, and sent an Indian shawl as a present to his wife. On +the _St. Louis_ he had sat at the Captain's right hand; in New York he +had been interviewed and royally fêted by the newspaper-men; and at +Montreal the owners had presented him with a gold watch and a purse of +$250. Also, they had offered him another ship immediately. + +"Oh, you're going again!" we exclaimed; and the words were repeated from +one to another in admiration--"He's going again!" But Captain Joe smiled +thoughtfully. + +"I told them I didn't mind being torpedoed," he said ('Oh, no! Certainly +not! Mind being torpedoed; you! Captain Joe!') "but--" + +"But what, Captain?" + +"But I said as I couldn't bear for to see a little child exposed again +in an open boat for sixty-four hours." + +"But Captain, wouldn't they give you a ship without a child?" + +"They _said_ they would," he replied, doubtfully, shaking his head. + +"Then what will you be doing next?" we asked, mentally reviewing the +various fields in which he might add laurels to laurels. + +He meditated a little while and then replied: "Home'll suit me pretty +good for a spell." + +Well, that could be understood, certainly. Indeed, it was to his credit. +We remembered Father Quinnan's speech. The husband, the father, had +their claim. A little stay at home, in the bosom of loved ones, yes, to +be sure, it seemed fitting and right, after the perils of the sea. + +And yet, why was it, as we took down the one-eighth-mile of bunting that +night, there was a faint but perceptible dampening of our enthusiasm. +Perhaps it was the reaction from the strain and excitement of the day, +for it had been, there was no denying it, a day of days for Three +Rivers; a day, which, as Father Quinnan had said, would be writ in +letters of gold in Memory's fair album. This day was ended now, and +night came down upon a very proud and very tired little community. + + * * * * * + +If this were a fancy story instead of a record of things that came to +pass last year on the Gaspé Coast, my pen should stop here; but as it +is, I feel under a plain obligation to pursue the narrative. + +I've no doubt that many other towns in the history of the world have +faced precisely the same problem that Three Rivers faced in the months +following: namely, what to do with a hero when you have one. Oh, if +you could only set them up on a pedestal in front of the Town Hall or +the post-office and _keep_ them there! A statue is so practicable. +Once in so often, say on anniversaries, you can freshen it up, hang +it with garlands and bunting, and polish the inscription; and then +the school-children can come, and somebody can explain to them about +the statue, and why we should venerate it, and what were the splendid +qualities of the hero which we are to try to imitate in our own lives. I +hope that all cities with statues realize their happy condition. + +For two or three weeks after the Great Day Three Rivers still kept its +air of festivity. The triumphal arches could be appreciated even from +the train, and many travelers, we heard, passing through, leaned out of +the windows and asked questions of the station agent. + +Wherever Captain Joe went, there followed a little knot of children, +listening open-mouthed for any word that might fall from his lips; and +you could hear them explaining to one another how it was that a man +could be torpedoed and escape undamaged. At first no one of lesser +importance than the Mayor or the Bank Manager presumed to walk with him +on the street; and he was usually to be seen proceeding in solitary +dignity to or from the post-office, head a little bowed, one hand +in the opening of his coat, his step slow and thoughtful, while the +children pattered along behind. + +But the barrier between the Captain and his fellow-townsmen was +entirely of their own creation, it transpired, for he was naturally a +sociable man, and now more than ever he craved society, being sure of a +deferential hearing. Once established again in Boutin's tailor-shop and +pool-parlor, he seemed disposed never to budge from it; and as often +as you might pass, day or night, you could hear him holding forth to +whatever company happened to be present. It was impossible not to gather +many scraps of his discourse, for his voice was as loud as an orator's. + +"And Lady Derntwood--no, it was Lady Genevieve, Lady Derntwood's dairter +by her first husband and fully as beautiful as her mother, she said to +me, 'Captain,' she said, 'when I read that about the little girl--For +the sake of this little child, grant me three minutes!--the tears filled +my eyes, and I said to my maid, who had brought me my _Times_ on the +breakfast tray, "Lucienne," I said, "that is a man I should be proud +to know!"'--and that's a fact sir, as true as I'm settin' here, for +Lucienne herself told me the same thing. A little beauty, that Lucienne: +black hair; medium height. We used to talk French together." + +Or another time you would hear: "And they said to me, 'Captain,' they +says, 'and are you satisfied with the gold watch and chain and with the +little purse we have made up for you here, not pretending, of course, +for one minute,' they says, 'that 'tis any measure of the services you +have rendered to us or to your country. We ask you,' they says, 'are you +satisfied?' And I said, 'I am,' and the fact is, I was, for the watch +I'd lost was an Ingersoll, and my clothes put together wouldn't have +brought a hundred dollars." + +So the weeks went by; and the triumphal arches, on which the mottoes +had run a good deal, were taken down and broken up for kindling; and +still Captain Joe sat and talked all day long and all night long, too, +if only anybody would listen to him. But listeners were growing scarce. +His story had been heard too often; and any child in town was able to +correct him when he slipped up, which often happened. The two hundred +and fifty dollars was spent long since, and now the local merchants were +forced to insist once more on strictly cash purchases, and many a day +the Pettipaw family must have "done meagre," as the French say. Unless +all signs failed, they would be soon living again at the charge of the +community. Close your eyes if you like, sooner or later certain grim +truths will be borne home to you. A leopard cannot change his spots, nor +a Pettipaw his skin. Before our very eyes the honor and glory of Three +Rivers, the thing that was to be passed from generation to generation, +was vanishing: worse than that, we were becoming ridiculous in our own +eyes, which is harder to bear, even, than being ridiculous in the eyes +of others. + +There was one remedy and only one. It was plain to anybody who +considered the situation thoughtfully. Captain Joe must be got away. So +long as your hero is alive, he can only be viewed advantageously at a +distance. At all events, if he is a Pettipaw. + +It was proposed that we should elect him our local member to the +provincial Parliament. It might be managed. We suggested it to him, +dwelling upon the opportunities it would afford for the exercise of his +special talents which, we said, were being thrown away in a little town +like Three Rivers. He conceded that we spoke the truth; "but," he said, +after a moment of thoughtful silence, "I am a sailor born and bred, and +my health would never stand the confinement. Never!" + +Next it was found that we could secure for him the position of purser +on the S. S. _Lady of the Gaspé_. But this offer he refused even more +emphatically. + +"Purser!--Me!" There was evidently nothing more to be said. + +Writing to Montreal, Father Quinnan learned that if he so wished Captain +Pettipaw might have again the command of the little freighter that ran +to the Labrador; and the proposition was laid before him with sanguine +expectations. Again he declined. + +"The Labrador! Thank you! They wouldn't even know who I was!" + +"You could tell them, Captain." + +"What good would that do?" + +No answer being forthcoming to this demand, still another scheme had to +be sought. It was the Mayor who finally saved the day for Three Rivers. +He instigated a Patriotic Fund, to which every man, woman and child +contributed what he could, and with the proceeds a three-masted schooner +of two hundred tons burden was acquired (she had been knocked down for a +song at a sheriff's sale at Campbellton); she was handsomely refitted, +rechristened, and presented, late in October, to Captain Joe, as a +tribute of esteem from his native town. + +It is not for me to say just how grateful the Captain was, at heart; but +he accepted the gift with becoming dignity; and before the winter ice +closed the Gulf (so expeditiously had our plans been carried out) the +_Gloria_ was ready to sail with a cargo of dry fish for the Barbadoes. + +The evening previous to her departure there was a big farewell meeting +in the Palace of Justice, with speeches by the Mayor and Father Quinnan, +a piano duet, and an original poem by Eugénie White, beginning: + + _Sail forth, sail far, + O Captain bold!_ + +It was remarkable to see how all the enthusiasm and fervor of an earlier +celebration in that same hall sprang to life again; yes, and with a +solemnity added, for this time our hero was going from us. He sat +there on the platform by the Mayor, handsome, square-shouldered, his +head a little bowed, a thoughtful smile on his lips under the grizzled +moustache: he was every inch the noble figure that had stood unflinching +before the gates of death; and we realized as never before what a debt +of gratitude we owed him. At last our hero was our hero again. + +There is but little more to tell. The next morning, bright and early, +everybody was at the wharf to watch the _Gloria_ hoist her sails, weigh +anchor, and tack out into the bay. There were tears in many, many eyes +besides those of poor Mrs. Pettipaw. The sea had a dark look, off there, +and one thought of the dangers that awaited any man who sailed out on it +at this time of the year. + +"Heaven send him good passage!" said Mrs. Thibault, wiping her eyes +vigorously. + +"Yes, yes, and bring him safe home again, the brave man!" added Mrs. +Boutin, earnestly; and all those who heard her breathed a sincere amen +to that prayer. + +It was sincere. We had wanted Captain Joe to go away; we had actually +forced him to go away; yet no sooner was he gone than we prayed he might +be brought safe home again. Yes, for when all is said and done, a town +that has a hero must love him and cherish him and wish him well. Because +we have ours, Three Rivers will always be a better place to live in and +to bring up children in: a more inspiring place. + +Only, perhaps, if Mrs. Boutin had spoken less impulsively, she would +have added one or two qualifying clauses to her petition. For instance, +she might have added: "Only not too soon, and not for too long at once!" +But for my part, I believe that will be understood by the good angel who +puts these matters on record, up there. + + +[Illustration: A FISHERMAN'S HOUSE] + + + + +FLY, MY HEART! + + + + +FLY, MY HEART! + + +They called her Sabine Bob--"S'been Bob"--because her real name was +Sabine Anne Boudrot; and being a Boudrot in Petit Espoir is like being +a Smith or a Brown in our part of the world, only ten times more so, +for in that little fishing-port of Cape Breton, down in the Maritime +Provinces, practically everybody belongs to the abounding tribe. +Boudrot, therefore, having ceased to possess more than a modicum of +specificity (to borrow a term from the logicians), the custom has arisen +of tagging the various generations and households of Boudrots with the +familiar name of the father that begat them. + +And thus Sabine Anne Boudrot, "old girl" of fifty, was known only as +Sabine Bob, and Mary Boudrot, her friend, to whom she was dictating +a love-letter on a certain August evening, was known only as Mary +Willee--with the accent so strongly on the final syllable that it +sounded like Marywil-Lee. Sabine Bob was in service; always had +been. Mary kept house for an invalid father. But there was no social +distinction between the two. + +Mary Willee bent close over the sheet of ruled note-paper and +laboriously traced out the words, dipping her pen every few seconds with +professional punctiliousness and screwing up her homely face into all +sorts of homely expressions: tongue now tight-bitten between her teeth, +now working restlessly in one cheek, now hard pressed against bulging +lips. There was agony for both of them in this business of producing a +love-letter: agony for Mary Willee because she had never fully mastered +the art of writing, and the shaping just-so of the letters and above +all the spelling brought out beads of sweat on her forehead; agony for +Sabine Bob because her heart was so burstingly full and words were so +powerless to ease that bursting. + +Besides, how could she be sure, really, positively _sure_, that Mary +Willee was recording there on that paper the very words, just those +very words and none others, which she was confiding to her! Writing was +a tricky affair. Tricky, like the English language which Sabine Bob +was using, against her will, for the reason that Mary Willee had never +learned to write French. French was natural. In French one could say +what one thought: it felt homelike. In English one had to be stiff. + +"Read me what I have said so far," directed Sabine Bob, and she held to +the seat of her chair with her bony hands and listened. + +Mary Willee began, compliantly. "'My dearling Thomas'"-- + +Sabine Bob interrupted. "The number of the day comes first. Always! I +brought you the calendar with the day marked on it." + +"I wrote it here," said Mary Willee. "You need not be so anxious. I have +done letters before this." + +"Oh, but everything is so important!" ejaculated Sabine, with tragedy in +her voice. "Now begin again." + +"'My dearling Thomas. It is bad times here. So much fogg all ways. i was +houghing potatoes since 2 days and they looks fine and i am nitting yous +some socks for when yous come back. i hope you is getting lots of them +poggiz.'" + +Mary Willee hesitated. "I ain't just sure how to spell that word," she +confessed. + +"Pogeys?" + +"Yes." + +"You ought to be. What for did they send you to the convent all those +four years?" + +"It was only three. And the nuns never taught us no such things as +about pogey-fishing. But no matter. Thomas Ned will know what you mean, +because that's what he's gone fishing after." + +And she continued: "'I miss yous awful some days. when you comes back in +octobre we's git married sure.'" + +She looked up. "That's all you told me so far." + +Sabine's face was drawn into furrows of intense thought. "How many more +lines is there to fill?" + +"Seven." + +"Well, then, tell him I was looking at the little house what his auntie +Sophie John left him and thinking how nice it would be when there was +some front steps and the shimney was fix' and there were curtains to the +windows in front and some geraniums and I t'ink I will raise some hens +because they are such good company running in and out all day when he +will be away pogey-fishing but perhaps when we're married he won't have +to go off any more because his healt' is put to danger by it and how +would it do, say, if he got a little horse and truck with the hundred +and fifty dollars I got saved up and did work by the day for people +ashore and then"--she paused for breath. + +"Is that too much to write?" she remarked with sudden anxiety. + +"It is," replied Mary Willee, firmly. "You can say two things, and then +good-by." + +Two things! Sabine Bob stared at the little yellow circle of light +on the smoky ceiling over the lamp; then out of the window into the +darkness. Two things more; and there were so many thousand things to +say! Her mind was a blank. + +"I am waiting," Mary reminded her, poising her pen pitilessly. + +"Tell him," gasped out Sabine, "tell him--I t'ink I raise some hens." + +Letter by letter the pregnant sentence was inscribed, while Sabine +stared at the pen with paralyzed attention, as if her doom were being +written in the Book of Judgment; and now the time had come for the +second thing! Tears of helplessness stood in her eyes. + +"Ask him," she blurted out, "would the hundred and fifty dollars what I +got buy a nice little horse and truck." + +Mary Willee paused. She seemed embarrassed. + +"Write it," commanded the other. + +Mary Willee looked almost frightened. "Must you say that about the +money?" she asked, weakly. + +"Write the words I told you," insisted Sabine. "This is my letter, not +yours." + +Reluctantly the younger woman set down the sentence; then added the +requisite and necessary "Good-by, from Sabine." + +"Is there room for a few kisses?" asked the fiancée. + +"One row." + +Sabine seized the pen greedily and holding it between clenched fingers +added a line of significant little lop-sided symbols. Then while her +secretary prepared the letter for mailing, she wiped her forehead +with a large blue handkerchief which she refolded and returned to the +skirt-pocket that contained her rosary and her purse. She put on her +little old yellow-black hat again and made ready to go. + +"Now to the post-office," she said. "How glad Thomas Ned will be when he +gets it!" + +"I am sure he will," said Mary; and if there was any doubt in her tone, +it was not perceived by her friend, who suddenly flung her arms about +her in a gush of happy emotion. + +"Dieu, que c'est beau, l'amour!" she exclaimed. + +The sentiment was not a new one in the world; but it was still a new +one, and very wonderful, to Sabine Bob: Sabine Bob who had never been +pretty, even in youthful days, who had never had any nice clothes or +gone to parties, but had just scrubbed and washed and swept, saved what +she could, gone to church on Sundays, bought a new pair of shoes every +other year. + +Not that she had ever thought of pitying herself. She was too practical +for that; and besides, there had always been plenty to be happy about. +The music in church, for instance, which thrilled and dissolved and +comforted her; and the pictures there, which she loved to gaze at, +especially the one of Our Lady above the altar. + +And then there were children! No one need be very unhappy, it seemed +to Sabine Bob, in a world where there were children. She never went +out without first putting a few little hard, colored candies in her +pocket to dispense along the street, over gates and on front steps. +The tinier the children were the more she loved them. Every spring in +Petit Espoir there was a fresh crop of the very tiniest of all; and +towards these--little pink bundles of softness and helplessness--she +felt something of the adoration which those old Wise Men felt who had +followed the star. If she had had spices and frankincense, Sabine Bob +would have offered it, on her knees. But in lieu of that, she brought +little knitted sacques and blankets and hoods. + +Such had been Sabine Bob's past; and that a day was to come in her +life when a handsome young man should say sweet, loving things to +her, present her with perfumery, bottle on bottle, ask her to be his +wife, bless you, she would have been the first to scout the ridiculous +idea--till six months ago! Thomas Ned was a small man, about forty, +squarely built, with pink cheeks, long lashes, luxuriant moustache; a +pretty man; a man who cut quite a figure amongst the girls and (many +declared) could have had his pick of them. Why, why, had he chosen +Sabine Bob? When she considered the question thoughtfully, she found +answers enough, for she was not a girl who underestimated her own worth. + +"Thomas is sensible," she explained to Mary Willee. "He knows better +than to take up with one of those weak, sickly young things that have +nothing but a pretty face and stylish clothes to recommend them. I can +work; I can save; I can make his life easy. He knows he will be well +looked out for." + +If Mary Willee could have revised this explanation, she refrained from +doing so. It would have taken courage to do so at that moment, for +Sabine Bob was so happy! It was almost comical for any one to be so +happy as that! Sabine realized it and laughed at herself and was happier +still. Morning, noon, and night, during those first mad, marvelous days +after she had promised to become Madame Thomas Ned, she was singing a +bit of gay nonsense she had known from childhood: + + _Vive la Canadienne, + Vole, vole, vole, mon coeur!_ + +"Fly, fly, oh fly, my heart," trolled Sabine Bob; and every evening, +until the time came when he must depart for the pogey-fishing, in May, +he had come and sat with her in the kitchen; he would smoke; she would +knit away at a pair of mittens for him (oh, such small hands as that +Thomas had!), and about ten o'clock she would fetch a glass of blueberry +wine and some currant cookies. How nice it was to be doing such things +for some one--of one's own! + +She hovered over him like a ministering spirit, beaming and tender. This +was what she had starved for all her life without knowing it: to serve +some one of her own! Not for wages now; for love! She flung herself on +the altar of Thomas and burned there with a clear ecstatic flame. + +And now that he had been away four months, pogey-fishing, she would +sometimes console herself by getting out the five picture-postcards he +had sent her and muse upon the scenes of affection depicted there and +pick out, word by word, the brief messages he had written. With Mary +Willee's assistance she had memorized them; and they were words of +sempiternal devotion; and there were little round love-knows-what's in +plenty; and on one card he called her his little wife; and that was the +one she prized the most. Wife! Sabine Bob! + +That no card arrived in answer to her August letter did not surprise +her, for the pogeymen often did not put into port for weeks at a time; +and anyhow the day was not far away, now, when the season would be over +and those who had gone up from Petit Espoir would come down again. + +So the weeks slipped by. October came. The pogey-fishermen returned. + +She waited for Thomas Ned in the kitchen that first evening, palpitating +with expectancy; and he did not come. During the sleepless night that +followed she conjured up excuses for him. He had had one of his attacks +of rheumatism. His mother had been ill and had required his presence +at home. The next evening he would come, oh certainly, and explain +everything. Attired in her best, she sat and waited a second evening; +then a third. There was no sign of him. + +From Mary Willie she learned that Thomas had arrived with the others; +that he appeared in perfect health, never handsomer; also that his +mother was well. + +"Oh, it cannot be that anything has happened," cried Sabine, with +choking tears. "Surely it will all be explained soon!" But there was a +tightening about her heart, a black premonition of ill to come. + +She continued to wait. She was on the watch for him day and night. At +least he would pass on the street, and she could waylay him! Every time +she heard footsteps or voices she flew to the kitchen door. When her +work was done, she would hurry out to the barn, where there was a little +window commanding a good view of the harbor-front; and there she would +sit, muffled in a shawl, for hours, hunger gnawing at her heart, her +eyes dry and staring, until her teeth began to chatter with cold and +nervousness. + +He never passed. Some one met him taking the back road into the village. +He was purposely avoiding her. + +When Sabine Bob realized that she was deserted by the man she loved, +thrown aside without a word, she suffered unspeakably; but her native +good sense saved her from making any exhibition of her grief. She +knew better than to make a fool of herself. If there was one thing +she dreaded worse than death it was being laughed at. She was a +self-respecting girl; she had her pride. And no one witnessed the +spasms, the cyclones, which sometimes seized her in the seclusion of +her little attic bedroom. These were not the picturesque, grandiose +sufferings of high tragedy; there was small resemblance between Sabine +Bob and Carthaginian Dido; Sabine's agonies were stark and cruel and +ugly, unsoftened by poetry. But she kept them to herself. + +She did her work as before. But she did not sing; and perhaps she nicked +more dishes than usual, for her hands trembled a good deal. But she kept +her lips tight shut. And she never went out on the street if she could +help it. + +So a month passed. Two months. And then one evening Mary Willee came +running in breathless with news for her: news that made her skin prickle +and her blood, after one dizzy, faint moment, drum hotly in her temples. + +Thomas Ned was paying attentions to Tina Lejeune, that blonde young girl +from the Ponds. He had taken her to a dance. He had bought a scarf for +her and a bottle of perfumery. He had taken her to drive. They had been +seen walking together several times in the dark on the upper street. + +"Does he say he is going to marry her?" asked Sabine Bob, with dry lips. + +"I do not know that. _She_ says so. She says they are to be married +soon." + +"Does she know about--about me?" + +"Yes, but she says--" Mary Willee stopped short in embarrassment. + +"Says what! Tell me! Tell me at once!" commanded Sabine, fiercely. "What +does she say!" + +"She says Thomas thought you had a lot of money. He was deceived, he +said." + +Sabine broke out in a passion of indignation. "I never deceived him: +never, never! I never once said anything about money. He never asked me +anything. It's a lie. I tell you, it's a lie!" + +Mary quailed visibly, unable to disguise a tell-tale look of guilt. + +"What is the matter with you, Mary Willee!" cried Sabine. "You are +hiding something. You know something you have not told me!" + +Mary replied, in a very frightened voice: "Once he asked me if you had +any money. I did not think he was really in earnest, so I told him you +had saved a thousand dollars. Oh, I didn't mean any harm. I only said it +to be agreeable. And later I was afraid to tell the truth, for it was +only two or three days later he asked you to marry him, and you were so +happy." + +Mary Willee hid her face in her hands and waited for the storm to break +upon her; but it did not break. The room was very quiet. At last she +heard Sabine moving about, and she looked up again. Sabine was putting +on her hat and coat. + +"Sabine! Sabine!" she gasped. "What are you doing!" + +Sabine Bob turned quietly and stood for a moment gazing at her without a +word. Then she said: + +"Mary Willee, you are a bad girl and I can never forgive you; but if +Tina Lejeune thinks she is going to marry Thomas Ned, she will find out +that she is mistaken. That is a thing that will not happen." + +Mary recoiled, terrified, at the pitiless, menacing smile on the other +woman's face; but before she could say anything Sabine Bob had stalked +out of the house into the darkness. + +She climbed the hill to the back road, stumbling often, blinded more by +her own fierce emotions than by the winter night; she fought her way +westward against the bitter wind that was rising; then turned off by the +Old French Road, as it was called, toward the Ponds. + +It was ten o'clock at night; stars, but no moon. She saw a shadow +approaching in the darkness from the opposite direction: it was a man, +short and squarely-built. With a sickening weakness she sank down +against the wattle fence at the side of the road. He passed her, so +close that she could have reached out and touched him. But he had not +seen. She got up and hurried on. + +By and by she saw ahead of her the little black bulk of a house from the +tiny window of which issued a yellow glow. The house stood directly on +the road. She went quietly to the window and looked in. A young girl +was sitting by a bare table, her head supported by the palms of her +hands. Sabine knew the weak white face and hated it. She made her way to +the door and knocked. There was a smothered, startled exclamation; then +the rustle of some one moving. + +"Who is it?" inquired a timid voice. + +"Let me in and I will tell you," responded the woman outside, in a voice +the more menacing because of its control. + +"My mother is not at home to-night. She is over at the widow Babinot's. +If you go over there you will find her." + +"It is you I wish to see. Open the door!" + +There was no answer. Sabine turned the knob and entered. At the sight of +her the blonde girl gave a cry of dismay and retreated behind the table, +trembling. + +"What do you want?" she gasped. + +"We have an account to settle together, you and me," said Sabine, with +something like a laugh. + +"Account?" said the other, bracing herself, but scarcely able to +articulate. "What account? I have not done you any harm. Before God I +have not done you any harm." + +Sabine laughed mockingly. "So you think there is no harm in taking away +from me the man I was going to marry?" + +"I did not take him away," said Tina, faintly. + +"You did! You did take him away!" cried Sabine, fiercely. "He was mine; +it was last March he promised to marry me; any one can tell you that. I +have witnesses. I have letters. Everything I tell you can be proved. He +belongs to me just as much as if we had been before a priest already; +and if you think you can take him away from me, you will find out you +are wrong!" + +For a few seconds the paralyzed girl before her could not utter a word; +then she stammered out: + +"He told me you had deceived him about money." + +Sabine gave an inarticulate cry of rage, like a wild beast at bay. "It's +a lie! A lie! I never deceived him. It's he who deceived me; but let me +tell you this: when a woman like me promises to marry a man, she keeps +her word. Do you understand? She keeps her word! I am going to marry +Thomas Ned. He cannot escape me. I will go to the priest. I will go to +the lawyer. There are plenty of ways." + +The blonde girl sank trembling into a chair. + +"He cannot marry you," she gasped. "He cannot. He cannot." + +"No?" cried Sabine, with ringing mockery. "And why not?" + +Tina's lips moved inaudibly. She moistened them with her tongue and made +a second attempt. + +"Because--" she breathed. + +"Yes? Yes?" + +"Because--he must marry me." She buried her head in her hands and sobbed. + +Sabine Bob strode to the cringing girl, seized her by the shoulders, +forcing her up roughly against the back of the chair, and broke out with +a ruthless laugh: + +"Must! Must! You don't say so! And why, tell me, must he marry you?" + +The white girl raised her eyes for one instant to the other's face; and +there was a look in them of mute pleading and confession, a look that +was like a death-cry for pity. The look shot through Sabine's turgid +consciousness like a white-hot dagger. She staggered back as if mortally +stricken, supporting herself against a tall cupboard, staring at the +girl, whose head had now sunk to the table again and whose body was +shaking with spasmodic sobs. It was one of the moments when destinies +are written. + +At such moments we act from something deeper, more elemental, than will. +The best or the worst in us leaps out--or perhaps neither one nor the +other but merely that thing in us that is most essentially ourselves. + +Sabine stared at the poor girl whose terrifying, wonderful secret had +just been revealed to her, and she felt through all her being a sense of +shattering and disintegration; and suddenly she was there, beside Tina, +on the arm of her chair; and she brought the girl's head over against +her bosom and held her very tight in her eager old arms, patting her +shoulders and stroking her soft hair, while the tears rained down her +cheeks and she murmured, soothingly: + +"Pauvre petite!" and again and again, "Pauvre petite! Ma pauvre petite!" + +Tina abandoned herself utterly to the other's impassioned tenderness; +and for a long time the two sat there, tightly clasped, silent, +understanding. + +Sabine Bob had no word of blame for the unhappy girl. Vaguely she knew +that she ought to blame her; very vaguely she remembered that girls +like this were bad girls; but that did not seem to make any difference. +Instead of indignation she felt something very like humility and +reverence. + +"Yes, he must marry you," she said at last, very simply and gently. + +"Oh, if he only would!" sobbed Tina. + +"What!" cried Sabine, in amazement. + +"He says such cruel things to me," confessed the girl. "He knows, oh, he +does know I never loved any man but himself; never, never any other man, +nor ever will!" + +Sabine's eyes opened upon new vistas of man's perfidiousness. And yet, +in spite of everything, how one could love them! She felt an immense +compassion toward this poor girl who had loved not wisely but so +all-givingly. + +"I will go to him," she said, resolutely. "I will tell him he must marry +you; and I will say that if he does not, I will tell every person in +Petit Espoir what a wicked thing he has done." + +Tina leaped to her feet in terror. "Oh, no, no!" she pleaded. "No one +must know." + +Sabine understood. Not the present only, but the future must be thought +of. + +"And if he was forced like that to marry me, he would hate me," pursued +the girl, who saw things with the pitiless clear foresight that +desperation gives. "He must marry me from his own choice. Oh, if I could +only make him choose; but to-night he said NO! and went away, very +angry. I'm afraid he will never come back again." + +"Yes, he will," said Sabine Bob. There was a grim smile on her lips; and +she squared her shoulders as if to give herself courage for some dreaded +ordeal. "There is a way." + +But to the startled, eager question in the other's eyes, she vouchsafed +no answer. She came to her and put her hands firmly on her shoulders. + +"Tina, will you promise not to believe anything you hear them say about +me? Will you promise to keep on loving me just the same?" + +The girl clung to her. "Oh, yes, yes," she promised. "Always!" and then, +in a shy whisper, she added: "And some day--I will not be the only one +to love you." + +Sabine Bob gave her a quick, almost violent kiss, and went out, not +stopping for even a word of good-night. And the next day she put her +plan into execution. There was a perfectly relentless logic about Sabine +Bob. She saw a thing to do; and she went and did it. + +As soon as her dinner dishes were washed and put away, she donned +her old brown coat and the little yellow-black hat that had served +her winter and summer from time immemorial, and proceeded to make +a dozen calls on her friends, up and down the street. Wherever she +went she talked, volubly, feverishly. She railed; she threatened; she +vociferated; and the object of her vociferations was Thomas Ned. He had +promised to marry her; and he had deserted her; and she would have the +law on him! Marry her he must, now, whether he would or no. + +"See that word?" she demanded, displaying her sheaf of compromising +post-cards. "That word is _wife_; and the man who calls me wife must +stick to it. I am not a woman to be made a fool of!" + +So she stormed away, from house to house. Her friends tried to pacify +her; but the more they tried, the more venom she put into her threats. +And soon the news spread through the whole town. Nothing else was talked +of. + +"She's crazy," people said. "But she can make trouble for him, if she +wants to, no doubt about it." + +Sabine laughed grimly to herself. She was going to succeed. The scheme +would work. She knew the kind of man Thomas Ned was: full of shifts. He +had proved that already. He would never face a thing squarely. He would +look for a way out. + +She was right. It was only ten days later, at high mass, that the +success of her strategy was tangibly proved. At the usual point in +the service for such announcements, just before the sermon, Father +Beauclerc, standing in the pulpit, called the banns for Thomas Boudrot, +of Petit Espoir, North, and Tina Mélanie Brigitte Lejeune, of the Ponds. + +The announcement caused a sensation. An audible murmur of amazement, not +to say consternation, went up from all quarters of the edifice, floor +and galleries; even the altar boys exchanged whispers with one another; +and there was a great stretching of necks in the direction of Sabine +Bob, who sat there in her uncushioned pew, very straight and very red, +with set lips, while her rough old fingers played nervously with the +rosary in her lap. + +This was her victory! She had never felt the ugliness of her fifty years +so cruelly before. A bony, ridiculous old maid, making a fool of herself +in public! That was the sum of it! And all her life she had been so +careful, so jealously careful, not to do anything that might cause her +to be laughed at! + +She could hear some of the whispers that were being exchanged in +neighboring pews. "Poor old thing!" people were saying. "But how could +she expect anybody would want to marry her at her age!" + +A trembling like ague seized her, and she felt suddenly very cold and +very very weak. She shut her eyes, for things were beginning to flicker +and whirl; and when she opened them again, they were caught and held by +the picture above the high altar. + +It was the Mother. The Mother and the Little One. He lay in her arms and +smiled. + +The tears gushed up in Sabine Bob's eyes, and a smile of wonderful +tenderness and peace broke over the harsh lines of her face and +transfigured it, just for one instant. It was a victory; it _was_ a +victory; though nobody knew it but herself; just herself, and one +other, and--perhaps-- + +Sabine still gazed at the picture, poor old Sabine Bob in her brown +coat and faded little yellow-black hat: and the Eternal Mother returned +the gaze of the Eternal Mother, smiling; and it didn't matter very much +after that--how could it?--what people might think or say in Petit +Espoir. + +Once more, that afternoon, as she slashed the suds over the dishes, +Sabine Bob was singing. You could hear her way down there on the street, +so buoyant and so merry was her voice: + + _Long live the Canadian maid; + Fly, fly, oh fly, my heart!_ + +[Illustration] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Cape Breton Tales, by Harry James Smith + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44257 *** |