initial commit of ebook 4960HEADmain

1 files changed, 3794 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/4960-8.txt b/4960-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c127c2f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/4960-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3794 @@
+Project Gutenberg's On Picket Duty and Other Tales, by Louisa May Alcott
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: On Picket Duty and Other Tales
+
+Author: Louisa May Alcott
+
+
+Release Date: January, 2004 [EBook #4960]
+This file was first posted on April 4, 2002
+Last Updated: April 24, 2013
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON PICKET DUTY AND OTHER TALES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Aldarondo
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ON PICKET DUTY, AND OTHER TALES
+
+By L. M. Alcott
+
+Boston:
+
+NEW YORK:
+
+1864
+
+
+
+
+ON PICKET DUTY.
+
+
+_WHAT_ air you thinkin' of, Phil?
+
+"My wife, Dick."
+
+"So was I! Aint it odd how fellers fall to thinkin' of thar little
+women, when they get a quiet spell like this?"
+
+"Fortunate for us that we do get it, and have such gentle bosom
+guests to keep us brave and honest through the trials and
+temptations of a life like ours."
+
+October moonlight shone clearly on the solitary tree, draped with
+gray moss, scarred by lightning and warped by wind, looking like a
+venerable warrior, whose long campaign was nearly done; and
+underneath was posted the guard of four. Behind them twinkled many
+camp-fires on a distant plain, before them wound a road ploughed by
+the passage of an army, strewn with the relics of a rout. On the
+right, a sluggish river glided, like a serpent, stealthy, sinuous,
+and dark, into a seemingly impervious jungle; on the left, a
+Southern swamp filled the air with malarial damps, swarms of noisome
+life, and discordant sounds that robbed the hour of its repose. The
+men were friends as well as comrades, for though gathered from the
+four quarters of the Union, and dissimilar in education, character,
+and tastes, the same spirit animated all; the routine of camp life
+threw them much together, and mutual esteem soon grew into a bond of
+mutual good fellowship.
+
+Thorn was a Massachusetts volunteer; a man who seemed too early old,
+too early embittered by some cross, for though grim of countenance,
+rough of speech, cold of manner, a keen observer would have soon
+discovered traces of a deeper, warmer nature hidden, behind the
+repellent front he turned upon the world. A true New Englander,
+thoughtful, acute, reticent, and opinionated; yet earnest withal,
+intensely patriotic, and often humorous, despite a touch of Puritan
+austerity.
+
+Phil, the "romantic chap," as he was called, looked his character to
+the life. Slender, swarthy, melancholy eyed, and darkly bearded;
+with feminine features, mellow voice and, alternately languid or
+vivacious manners. A child of the South in nature as in aspect,
+ardent, impressible, and proud; fitfully aspiring and despairing;
+without the native energy which moulds character and ennobles life.
+Months of discipline and devotion had done much for him, and some
+deep experience was fast ripening the youth into a man.
+
+Flint, the long-limbed lumberman, from the wilds of Maine, was a
+conscript who, when government demanded his money or his life,
+calculated the cost, and decided that the cash would be a dead loss
+and the claim might be repeated, whereas the conscript would get
+both pay and plunder out of government, while taking excellent care
+that government got precious little out of him. A shrewd,
+slow-spoken, self-reliant specimen, was Flint; yet something of the
+fresh flavor of the backwoods lingered in him still, as if Nature
+were loath to give him up, and left the mark of her motherly hand
+upon him, as she leaves it in a dry, pale lichen, on the bosom of
+the roughest stone.
+
+Dick "hailed" from Illinois, and was a comely young fellow, full of
+dash and daring; rough and rowdy, generous and jolly, overflowing
+with spirits and ready for a free fight with all the world.
+
+Silence followed the last words, while the friendly moon climbed up
+the sky. Each man's eye followed it, and each man's heart was busy
+with remembrances of other eyes and hearts that might be watching
+and wishing as theirs watched and wished. In the silence, each
+shaped for himself that vision of home that brightens so many
+camp-fires, haunts so many dreamers under canvas roofs, and keeps so
+many turbulent natures tender by memories which often are both
+solace and salvation.
+
+Thorn paced to and fro, his rifle on his shoulder, vigilant and
+soldierly, however soft his heart might be. Phil leaned against the
+tree, one hand in the breast of his blue jacket, on the painted
+presentment of the face his fancy was picturing in the golden circle
+of the moon. Flint lounged on the sward, whistling softly as he
+whittled at a fallen bough. Dick was flat on his back, heels in air,
+cigar in mouth, and some hilarious notion in his mind, for suddenly
+he broke into a laugh.
+
+"What is it, lad?" asked Thorn, pausing in his tramp, as if willing
+to be drawn from the disturbing thought that made his black brows
+lower and his mouth look grim.
+
+"Thinkin' of my wife, and wishin' she was here, bless her heart! set
+me rememberin' how I see her fust, and so I roared, as I always do
+when it comes into my head."
+
+"How was it? Come, reel off a yarn and let's hear houw yeou hitched
+teams," said Flint, always glad to get information concerning his
+neighbors, if it could be cheaply done.
+
+"Tellin' how we found our wives wouldn't be a bad game, would it,
+Phil?"
+
+"I'm agreeable; but let us have your romance first."
+
+"Devilish little of that about me or any of my doin's. I hate
+sentimental bosh as much as you hate slang, and should have been a
+bachelor to this day if I hadn't seen Kitty jest as I did. You see,
+I'd been too busy larkin' round to get time for marryin', till a
+couple of years ago, when I did up the job double-quick, as I'd like
+to do this thunderin' slow one, hang it all!"
+
+"Halt a minute till I give a look, for this picket isn't going to be
+driven in or taken while I'm on guard."
+
+Down his beat went Thorn, reconnoitring river, road, and swamp, as
+thoroughly as one pair of keen eyes could do it, and came back
+satisfied, but still growling like a faithful mastiff on the watch;
+performances which he repeated at intervals till his own turn came.
+
+"I didn't have to go out of my own State for a wife, you'd better
+believe," began Dick, with a boast, as usual; "for we raise as fine
+a crop of girls thar as any State in or out of the Union, and don't
+mind raisin' Cain with any man who denies it. I was out on a gunnin'
+tramp with Joe Partridge, a cousin of mine,--poor old chap! he fired
+his last shot at Gettysburg, and died game in a way he didn't dream
+of the day we popped off the birds together. It ain't right to joke
+that way; I won't if I can help it; but a feller gets awfully kind
+of heathenish these times, don't he?"
+
+"Settle up them scores byme-by; fightin' Christians scurse raound
+here. Fire away, Dick."
+
+"Well, we got as hungry as hounds half a dozen mile from home, and
+when a farm-house hove in sight, Joe said he'd ask for a bite and
+leave some of the plunder for pay. I was visitin' Joe, didn't know
+folks round, and backed out of the beggin' part of the job; so he
+went ahead alone. We'd come up the woods behind the house, and while
+Joe was foragin', I took are connoissance. The view was fust-rate,
+for the main part of it was a girl airin' beds on the roof of a
+stoop. Now, jest about that time, havin' a leisure spell, I'd begun
+to think of marryin', and took a look at all the girls I met, with
+an eye to business. I s'pose every man has some sort of an idee or
+pattern of the wife he wants; pretty and plucky, good and gay was
+mine, but I'd never found it till I see Kitty; and as she didn't see
+me, I had the advantage and took an extra long stare."
+
+"What was her good pints, hey?"
+
+"Oh, well, she had a wide-awake pair of eyes, a bright, jolly sort
+of a face, lots of curly hair tumblin' out of her net, a trig little
+figger, and a pair of the neatest feet and ankles that ever stepped.
+'Pretty,' thinks I; 'so far so good.' The way she whacked the
+pillers, shooked the blankets, and pitched into the beds was a
+caution; specially one blunderin' old featherbed that wouldn't do
+nothin' but sag round in a pig-headed sort of way, that would have
+made most girls get mad and give up. Kitty didn't, but just wrastled
+with it like a good one, till she got it turned, banged, and spread
+to suit her; then she plumped down in the middle of it, with a sarcy
+little nod and chuckle to herself, that tickled me mightily.
+'Plucky,' thinks I, 'better 'n' better.' Jest then an old woman came
+flyin' out the back-door, callin', 'Kitty! Kitty! Squire Partridge's
+son's here, 'long with a friend; been gunnin', want luncheon, and
+I'm all in the suds; do come down and see to 'em.'
+
+"'Where are they?' says Kitty, scrambling up her hair and settlin'
+her gown in a jiffy, as women have a knack of doin', you know.
+
+"'Mr. Joe's in the front entry; the other man's somewheres round,
+Billy says, waitin' till I send word whether they can stop. I
+darsn't till I'd seen you, for I can't do nothin', I'm in such a
+mess,' says the old lady.
+
+"'So am I, for I can't get in except by the entry window, and
+he'll see me,' says Kitty, gigglin' at the thoughts of Joe.
+
+"'Come down the ladder, there's a dear. I'll pull it round and keep
+it stiddy,' says her mother.
+
+"'Oh, ma, don't ask me!' says Kitty, with a shiver. 'I'm dreadfully
+scared of ladders since I broke my arm off this very one. It's so
+high, it makes me dizzy jest to think of.'
+
+"'Well, then, I'll do the best I can; but I wish them boys was to
+Jericho!' says the old lady, with a groan, for she was fat and hot,
+had her gown pinned up, and was in a fluster generally. She was
+goin' off rather huffy, when Kitty called out,--
+
+"'Stop, ma! I'll come down and help you, only ketch me if I tumble.'
+
+"She looked scared but stiddy, and I'll bet it took as much grit for
+her to do it as for one of us to face a battery. It don't seem much
+to tell of, but I wish I may be hit if it wasn't a right down
+dutiful and clever thing to see done. When the old lady took her off
+at the bottom, with a good motherly hug, I found myself huggin' my
+rifle like a fool, but whether I thought it was the ladder, or
+Kitty, I ain't clear about. 'Good,' thinks I; 'what more do you
+want?'
+
+"A snug little property wouldn't a ben bad, I reckon. Well she had
+it, old skin-flint, though I didn't know or care about it then. What
+a jolly row she'd make if she knew I was tellin' the ladder part of
+the story! She always does when I get to it, and makes believe cry,
+with her head in my breast-pocket, or any such handy place, till I
+take it out and swear I'll never do so ag'in. Poor little Kit, I
+wonder what she's doin' now. Thinkin' of me, I'll bet."
+
+Dick paused, pitched his cap lower over his eyes, and smoked a
+minute with more energy than enjoyment, for his cigar was out and he
+did not perceive it.
+
+"That's not all, is it?" asked Thorn, taking a fatherly interest in
+the younger man's love passages.
+
+"Not quite. 'Fore long, Joe whistled, and as I always take short
+cuts everywhar, I put in at the back-door, jest as Kitty come
+trottin' out of the pantry with a big berry-pie in her hand. I
+startled her, she tripped over the sill and down she come; the dish
+flew one way, the pie flopped into her lap, the juice spatterin' my
+boots and her clean gown. I thought she'd cry, scold, have
+hysterics, or some confounded thing or other; but she jest sat still
+a minute, then looked up at me with a great blue splosh on her face,
+and went off into the good-naturedest gale of laughin' you ever
+heard in your life. That finished me. 'Gay,' thinks I; 'go in and
+win.' So I, did; made love hand over hand, while I stayed with Joe;
+pupposed a fortnight after, married her in three months, and there
+she is, a tip-top little woman, with a pair of stunnin' boys in her
+arms!"
+
+Out came a well-worn case, and Dick proudly displayed the likeness
+of a stout, much bejewelled young woman, with two staring infants on
+her knee. In his sight, the poor picture was a more perfect work of
+art than any of Sir Joshua's baby-beauties, or Raphael's Madonnas,
+and the little story needed no better sequel than the young father's
+praises of his twins, the covert kiss he gave their mother when he
+turned as if to get a clearer light upon the face. Ashamed to show
+the tenderness that filled his honest heart, he hummed "Kingdom
+Coming," while relighting his cigar, and presently began to talk
+again.
+
+"Now, then, Flint, it's your turn to keep guard, and Thorn's to tell
+his romance. Come, don't try to shirk; it does a man good to talk of
+such things, and we're all mates here."
+
+"In some cases it don't do any good to talk of such things; better
+let 'em alone," muttered Thorn, as he reluctantly sat down, while
+Flint as reluctantly departed.
+
+With a glance and gesture of real affection, Phil laid his hand upon
+his comrade's knee, saying, in his persuasive voice, "Old fellow, it
+_will_ do you good, because I know you often long to speak of
+something that weighs upon you. You've kept us steady many a time,
+and done us no end of kindnesses; why be too proud to let us give
+our sympathy in return, if nothing more?"
+
+Thorn's big hand closed over the slender one upon his knee, and the
+mild expression, so rarely seen upon his face, passed over it as he
+replied,--
+
+"I think I could tell you almost anything if you asked me that way,
+my boy. It isn't that I'm too proud,--and you're right about my
+sometimes wanting to free my mind,--but it's because a man of forty
+don't just like to open out to young fellows, if there is any danger
+of their laughing at him, though he may deserve it. I guess there
+isn't now, and I'll tell you how I found my wife."
+
+Dick sat up, and Phil drew nearer, for the earnestness that was in
+the man dignified his plain speech, and inspired an interest in his
+history, even before it was begun. Looking gravely at the river and
+never at his hearers, as if still a little shy of confidants, yet
+grateful for the relief of words, Thorn began abruptly,--
+
+"I never hear the number eighty-four without clapping my hand to my
+left breast and missing my badge. You know I was on the police in New
+York, before the war, and that's about all you do know yet. One bitter
+cold night, I was going my rounds for the last time, when, as I turned
+a corner, I saw there was a trifle of work to be done. It was a bad
+part of the city, full of dirt and deviltry; one of the streets led to
+a ferry, and at the corner an old woman had an apple-stall. The poor
+soul had dropped asleep, worn out with the cold, and there were her
+goods left, with no one to watch 'em. Somebody was watching 'em,
+however; a girl, with a ragged shawl over her head, stood at the mouth
+of an alley close by, waiting for a chance to grab something. I'd seen
+her there when I went by before, and mistrusted she was up to some
+mischief; as I turned the corner, she put out her hand and cribbed an
+apple. She saw me the minute she did it, but neither dropped it nor
+ran, only stood stocks still with the apple in her hand till came up.
+
+"'This won't do, my girl,' said I. I never could be harsh with 'em,
+poor things! She laid it back and looked up at me with a miserable
+sort of a smile, that made me put my hand in my pocket to fish for a
+ninepence before she spoke.
+
+"'I know it won't,' she says. 'I didn't want to do it, it's so mean,
+but I'm awful hungry, sir.'
+
+"'Better run home and get your supper then.'
+
+"'I've got no home.'
+
+"'Where do you live?'
+
+"'In the street.'
+
+"'Where do you sleep?'
+
+"'Anywhere; last night in the lock-up, and I thought I'd get in
+there again, if I did that when you saw me. I like to go there, it's
+warm and safe.'
+
+"'If I don't take you there, what will you do?'
+
+"'Don't know. I want to go over there and dance again, as I used to;
+but being sick has made me ugly, so they won't have me, and no one
+else will take me because I have been there once.'
+
+"I looked where she pointed, and thanked the Lord that they wouldn't
+take her. It was one of those low theatres that do so much damage to
+the like of her; there was a gambling den one side of it, an eating
+saloon the other, and at the door of it lounged a scamp I knew very
+well, looking like a big spider watching for a fly. I longed to
+fling my billy at him; but as I couldn't, I held on to the girl. I
+was new to the thing then, but though I'd heard about hunger and
+homelessness often enough, I'd never had this sort of thing, nor
+seen that look on a girl's face. A white, pinched face hers was,
+with frighted, tired-looking eyes, but so innocent; she wasn't more
+than sixteen, had been pretty once I saw, looked sick and starved
+now, and seemed just the most helpless, hopeless little thing that
+ever was.
+
+"'You'd better come to the Station for to-night, and we'll see to
+you to-morrow,' says I.
+
+"'Thank you, sir,' says she, looking as grateful as if I'd asked her
+home. I suppose I did speaks kind of fatherly. I ain't ashamed to
+say I felt so, seeing what a child she was; nor to own that when she
+put her little hand in mine, it hurt me to feel how thin and cold it
+was. We passed the eating-house where the red lights made her face
+as rosy as it ought to have been; there was meat and pies in the
+window, and the poor thing stopped to look. It was too much for her;
+off came her shawl, and she said in that coaxing way of hers,--
+
+"'I wish you'd let me stop at the place close by and sell this;
+they'll give a little for it, and I'll get some supper. I've had
+nothing since yesterday morning, and maybe cold is easier to bear
+than hunger.'
+
+"'Have you nothing better than that to sell?" I says, not quite sure
+that she wasn't all a humbug, like so many of 'em. She seemed to see
+that, and looked up at me again with such innocent eyes, I couldn't
+doubt her when she said, shivering with something beside the cold,--
+
+"'Nothing but myself.' Then the tears came, and she laid her head
+down on my arm, sobbing,--'Keep me! oh, do keep me safe somewhere!'"
+
+Thorn choked here, steadied his voice with a resolute hem! but could
+only add one sentence more:
+
+"That's how I found my wife."
+
+"Come, don't stop thar? I told the whole o' mine, you do the same.
+Whar did you take her? how'd it all come round?"
+
+"Please tell us, Thorn."
+
+The gentler request was answered presently, very steadily, very
+quietly.
+
+"I was always a soft-hearted fellow, though you wouldn't think it
+now, and when that little girl asked me to keep her safe, I just did
+it. I took her to a good woman whom I knew, for I hadn't any women
+belonging to me, nor any place but that to put her in. She stayed
+there till spring working for her keep, growing brighter, prettier,
+every day, and fonder of me I thought. If I believed in witchcraft,
+I shouldn't think myself such a cursed fool as I do now, but I don't
+believe in it, and to this day I can't understand how I came to do
+it. To be sure I was a lonely man, without kith or kin, had never
+had a sweetheart in my life, or been much with women since my mother
+died. Maybe that's why I was so bewitched with Mary, for she had
+little ways with her that took your fancy and made you love her
+whether you would or no. I found her father was an honest fellow
+enough, a fiddler in the some theatre, that he'd taken good care of
+Mary till he died, leaving precious little but advice for her to
+live on. She'd tried to get work, failed, spent all she had, got
+sick, and was going to the devil, as the poor souls can hardly help
+doing with so many ready to give them a shove. It's no use trying to
+make a bad job better; so the long and short of it was, I thought
+she loved me; God knows I loved her, and I married her before the
+year was out."
+
+"Show us her picture; I know you've got one; all the fellows have,
+though half of 'em won't own up."
+
+"I've only got part of one. I once saved my little girl, and her
+picture once saved me."
+
+From an inner pocket Thorn produced a woman's housewife, carefully
+untied it, though all its implements were missing but a little
+thimble and from one of its compartments took a flattened bullet and
+the remnants of a picture.
+
+"I gave her that the first Christmas after I found her. She wasn't
+as tidy about her clothes as I liked to see, and I thought if I gave
+her a handy thing like this, she'd be willing to sew. But she only
+made one shirt for me, and then got tired, so I keep it like an old
+fool, as I am. Yes, that's the bit of lead that would have done for
+me, if Mary's likeness hadn't been just where it was."
+
+"You'll like to show her this when you go home, won't you?" said
+Dick, as he took up the bullet, while Phil examined the marred
+picture, and Thorn poised the little thimble on his big finger, with
+a sigh.
+
+"How can I, when I don't know where she is, and camp is all the home
+I've got?"
+
+The words broke from him like a sudden cry, when some old wound is
+rudely touched. Both of the young men started, both laid back the
+relics they had taken up, and turned their eyes from Thorn's face,
+across which swept a look of shame and sorrow, too significant to be
+misunderstood. Their silence assured him of their sympathy, and, as
+if that touch of friendlessness unlocked his heavy heart, he eased
+it by a full confession. When he spoke again, it was with the
+calmness of repressed emotion; and calmness more touching to his
+mates than the most passionate outbreak, the most pathetic
+lamentation; for the coarse camp-phrases seemed to drop from his
+vocabulary; more than once his softened voice grew tremulous, and to
+the words "my little girl," there went a tenderness that proved how
+dear a place she still retained in that deep heart of his.
+
+"Boys, I've gone so far; I may as well finish; and you'll see I'm
+not without some cause for my stern looks and ways; you'll pity me,
+and from you I'll take the comfort of it. It's only the old
+story,--I married her, worked for her, lived for her, and kept my
+little girl like a lady. I should have known that I was too old, too
+sober, for a young thing like that; the life she led before the
+pinch came just suited her. She liked to be admired, to dress and
+dance and make herself pretty for all the world to see; not to keep
+house for a quiet man like me. Idleness wasn't good for her, it bred
+discontent; then some of her old friends, who'd left her in her
+trouble, found her out when better times came round, and tried to
+get her back again. I was away all day, I didn't know how things
+were going, and she wasn't open with me, afraid, she said; I was so
+grave, and hated theatres so. She got courage, finally, to tell me
+that she wasn't happy; that she wanted to dance again, and asked me
+if she mightn't. I'd rather have had her ask me to put her in a
+fire, for I _did_ hate theatres, and was bred to; others think
+they're no harm. I do; and knew it was a bad life for a girl like
+mine. It pampers vanity, and vanity is the Devil's help with such;
+so I said No, kindly at first, sharp and stern when she kept on
+teasing. That roused her spirit. 'I will go!' she said, one day.
+'Not while you're my wife,' I answered back; and neither said any
+more, but she gave me a look I didn't think she could, and I
+resolved to take her away from temptation before worse came of it.
+
+"I didn't tell her my plan; but I resigned my place, spent a week or
+more finding and fixing a little home for her out in the wholesome
+country, where she'd be safe from theatres and disreputable friends,
+and maybe learn to love me better when she saw how much she was to
+me. It was coming summer, and I made things look as home-like and as
+pretty as I could. She liked flowers, and I fixed a garden for her;
+she was fond of pets, and I got her a bird, a kitten, and a dog to
+play with her; she fancied gay colors and tasty little matters, so I
+filled her rooms with all the handsome things I could afford, and
+when it was done, I was as pleased as any boy, thinking what happy
+times we'd have together and how pleased she'd be. Boys, when I went
+to tell her and to take her to her little home, she was gone."
+
+"Who with?"
+
+"With those cursed friends of hers; a party of them left the city
+just then; she was wild to go; she had money now, and all her good
+looks back again. They teased and tempted her; I wasn't there to
+keep her, and she went, leaving a line behind to tell me that she
+loved the old life more than the new; that my house was a prison,
+and she hoped I'd let her go in peace. That almost killed me; but I
+managed to bear it, for I knew most of the fault was mine; but it
+was awful bitter to think I hadn't saved her, after all."
+
+"Oh, Thorn! what did you do?"
+
+"Went straight after her; found her dancing in Philadelphia, with
+paint on her cheeks, trinkets on her neck and arms, looking prettier
+than ever; but the innocent eyes were gone, and I couldn't see my
+little girl in the bold, handsome woman twirling there before the
+footlights. She saw me, looked scared at first, then smiled, and
+danced on with her eyes upon me, as if she said,--
+
+"'See! I'm happy now; go away and let me be.'
+
+"I couldn't stand that, and got out somehow. People thought me mad,
+or drunk; I didn't care, I only wanted to see her once in quiet and
+try to get her home. I couldn't do it then nor afterwards by fair
+means, and I wouldn't try force. I wrote to her, promised to forgive
+her, begged her to come back, or let me keep her honestly somewhere
+away from me. But she never answered, never came, and I have never
+tried again."
+
+"She wasn't worthy of you, Thorn; you jest forgit her."
+
+"I wish I could! I wish I could!" in his voice quivered an almost
+passionate regret, and a great sob heaved his chest, as he turned
+his face away to hide the love and longing, still so tender and so
+strong.
+
+"Don't say that, Dick; such fidelity should make us charitable for
+its own sake. There is always time for penitence, always a certainty
+of pardon. Take heart, Thorn, you may not wait in vain, and she may
+yet return to you."
+
+"I know she will! I've dreamed of it, I've prayed for it; every
+battle I come out of safe makes me surer that I was kept for that,
+and when I've borne enough to atone for my part of the fault, I'll
+be repaid for all my patience, all my pain, by finding her again.
+She knows how well I love her still, and if there comes a time when
+she is sick and poor and all alone again, then she'll remember her
+old John, then she'll come home and let me take her in."
+
+Hope shone in Thorn's melancholy eyes, and long-suffering
+all-forgiving love beautified the rough, brown face, as he folded
+his arms and bent his gray head on his breast, as if the wanderer
+were already come.
+
+The emotion which Dick scorned to show on his own account was freely
+manifested for another, as he sniffed audibly, and, boy-like, drew
+his sleeve across his eyes. But Phil, with the delicate perception
+of a finer nature, felt that the truest kindness he could show his
+friend was to distract his thoughts from himself, to spare him any
+comments, and lessen the embarrassment which would surely follow
+such unwonted confidence.
+
+"Now I'll relieve Flint, and he will give you a laugh. Come on Hiram
+and tell us about your Beulah."
+
+The gentleman addressed had performed his duty, by sitting on a
+fence and "righting up" his pockets, to beguile the tedium of his
+exile. Before his multitudinous possessions could be restored to
+their native sphere, Thorn was himself again, and on his feet.
+
+"Stay where you are Phil; I like to tramp, it seems like old times,
+and I know you're tired. Just forget all this I've been saying, and
+go on as before. Thank you, boys! thank you!" and with a grasp of
+the two hands extended to him, he strode away along the path already
+worn by his own restless feet.
+
+"It's done him good, and I'm glad of that; but I'd like to see the
+little baggage that bewitched the poor old boy, wouldn't you, Phil?"
+
+"Hush! here's Flint."
+
+"What's up naow? want me tew address the meetin', hey? I'm willin',
+only the laugh's ruther ag'inst me, ef I tell that story; expect
+yeu'll like it all the better fer that." Flint coiled up his long
+limbs, put his hands in his pockets, chewed meditatively for a
+moment, and then began with his slowest drawl--
+
+"Waal, sir, it's pretty nigh ten year ago, I was damster daown tew
+Oldtaown, clos't tew Banggore. My folks lived tew Bethel; there was
+only the old man, and Aunt Siloam, keepin' house fer him, seein' as
+I was the only chick he hed. I hedn't heared from 'em fer a long
+spell, when there come a letter sayin' the old man was breakin' up.
+He'd said it every spring fer a number er years, and I didn't mind
+it no more'n the breakin' up er the river; not so much jest then;
+fer the gret spring drive was comin' on, and my hands was tew full
+to quit work all tew oncet. I sent word I'd be 'long fore a gret
+while, and bymeby I went. I ought tew hev gone at fust; but they'd
+sung aout 'Wolf!' so often I wasn't scared; an' sure 'nuff the wolf
+did come at last. Father hed been dead an' berried a week when I got
+there, and aunt was so mad she wouldn't write, nor scurcely speak
+tew me fer a consider'ble spell. I didn't blame her a mite, and felt
+jest the wust kind; so I give in every way, and fetched her raound.
+Yeou see I hed a cousin who'd kind er took my place tew hum while I
+was off, an' the old man hed left him a good slice er his money, an'
+me the farm, hopin' to keep me there. He'd never liked the lumberin'
+bizness, an' hankered arfter me a sight, I faound. Waal, seein' haow
+'twas, I tried tew please him, late as it was; but ef there was
+ennything I did spleen ag'inst, it was farmin, 'specially arfter the
+smart times I'd ben hevin, up Oldtaown way. Yeou don't know nothin'
+abaout it; but ef yeou want tew see high dewin's, jest hitch onto a
+timber-drive an' go it daown along them lakes and rivers, say from
+Kaumchenungamooth tew Punnobscot Bay. Guess yeou'd see a thing or
+tew, an' find livin' on a log come as handy as ef yeou was born a
+turtle.
+
+"Waal, I stood it one summer; but it was the longest kind of a job.
+Come fall I turned contrary, darned the farm, and vaowed I'd go back
+tew loggin'. Aunt hed got fond er me by that time, and felt dreadful
+bad abaout my leavin' on her. Cousin Siah, as we called Josiah,
+didn't cotton tew the old woman, though he did tew her cash; but we
+hitched along fust-rate. She was 'tached tew the place, hated tew
+hev it let or sold, thought I'd go to everlastin' rewin ef I took
+tew lumberin' ag'in, an' hevin' a tidy little sum er money all her
+own, she took a notion tew buy me off. 'Hiram,' sez she, 'ef yeou'll
+stay tew hum, merry some smart gal, an' kerry on the farm, I'll
+leave yeou the hull er my fortin. Ef yeou don't, I'll leave every
+cent on't tew Siah, though he ain't done as waal by me as yeou hev.
+Come,' sez she, 'I'm breakin' up like brother; I shan't wurry any
+one a gret while, and 'fore spring I dessay you'll hev cause tew
+rejice that yeou done as Aunt Si counselled yeou.'
+
+"Now, that idee kinder took me, seein' I hedn't no overpaourin' love
+fer cousin; but I brewdid over it a spell 'fore I 'greed. Fin'lly, I
+said I'd dew it, as it warn't a hard nor a bad trade; and begun to
+look raound fer Mis Flint, Jr. Aunt was dreadf'l pleased; but 'mazin
+pertickler as tew who was goan tew stan' in her shoes, when she was
+fetched up ag'inst the etarnal boom. There was a sight er lovely
+women-folks raound taown; but aunt she set her foot daown that Mis
+Flint must be smart, pious, an' good-natered; harnsome she didn't
+say nothin' abaout, bein' the humliest woman in the State er Maine.
+I hed my own calk'lations on that pint, an' went sparkin' two or
+three er the pootiest gals, all that winter. I warn't in no hurry,
+fer merryin' is an awful resky bizness; an' I warn't goan to be took
+in by nobuddy. Some haouw I couldn't make up my mind which I'd hev,
+and kept dodgin', all ready to slew raound, an' hitch on tew ary one
+that seemed likeliest. 'Long in March, aunt, she ketched cold, took
+tew her bed, got wuss, an' told me tew hurry up, fer nary red should
+I hev, ef I warn't safely merried 'fore she stepped out. I thought
+that was ruther craoudin' a feller; but I see she was goan sure, an'
+I'd got intew a way er considerin' the cash mine, so that it come
+hard to hear abaout givin' on't up. Off I went that evenin' an'
+asked Almiry Nash ef she'd hev me. No, she wouldn't; I'd
+shilly-shallyed so long, she'd got tired er waitin' and took tew
+keepin' company with a doctor daown tew Bang-gore, where she'd ben
+visitin' a spell. I didn't find that as hard a rub to swaller, as
+I'd a thought I would, though Almiry was the richest, pootiest, and
+good-naterest of the lot. Aunt larfed waal, an' told me tew try
+agin; so a couple er nights arfter, I spruced up, an' went over to
+Car'line Miles's; she was as smart as old cheese, an' waal off intew
+the barg'in. I was just as sure she'd hev me, as I be that I'm
+gittin' the rewmatiz a settin' in this ma'sh. But that minx, Almiry,
+hed ben and let on abaout her own sarsy way er servin' on me, an'
+Car'line jest up an' said she warn't goan to hev annybuddy's
+leavin's; so daown I come ag'in.
+
+"Things was gettin' desper't by that time; for aunt was failin'
+rapid, an' the story hed leaked aout some way, so the hull taown was
+gigglin' over it. I thought I'd better quit them parts; but aunt she
+showed me her will all done complete, 'sceptin' the fust name er the
+legatee. 'There,' sez she, 'it all depends on yeou, whether that
+place is took by Hiram or Josiah. It's easy done, an' so it's goan
+tew stan' till the last minnit.' That riled me consid'able, an' I
+streaked off tew May Jane Simlin's. She want very waal off, nor
+extra harnsome, but she was pious the wust kind, an' dreadf'l clever
+to them she fancied. But I was daown on my luck agin; fer at the
+fust word I spoke of merryin', she showed me the door, an' give me
+to understan' that she couldn't think er hevin' a man that warn't a
+church-member, that hadn't experienced religion, or even ben struck
+with conviction, an' all the rest on't. Ef anny one hed a wanted tew
+hev seen a walkin' hornet's nest, they could hev done it cheap that
+night, as I went hum. I jest stramed intew the kitchen, chucked my
+hat intew one corner, my coat intew 'nother, kicked the cat, cussed
+the fire, drawed up a chair, and set scaoulin' like sixty, bein' tew
+mad for talkin'. The young woman that was nussin' aunt,--Bewlah
+Blish, by name,--was a cookin' grewel on the coals, and 'peared tew
+understan' the mess I was in; but she didn't say nothin', only
+blowed up the fire, fetched me a mug er cider, an' went raound so
+kinder quiet, and sympathizin', that I faound the wrinkles in my
+temper gettin' smoothed aout 'mazin' quick; an' 'fore long I made a
+clean breast er the hull thing. Bewlah larfed, but I didn't mind her
+doin' on't, for she sez, sez she, real sort o' cunnin',--
+
+"'Poor Hiram! they didn't use yeou waal. Yeou ought to hev tried
+some er the poor an' humly girls; they'd a' been glad an' grateful
+fer such a sweetheart as yeou be.'
+
+"I was good-natered agin by that time, an' I sez, larfin' along with
+her, 'Waal I've got three mittens, but I guess I might's waal hev
+'nother, and that will make two pair complete. Say, Bewlah, will
+yeou hev me?'
+
+"'Yes, I will,' sez she.
+
+"'Reelly?' sez I.
+
+"'Solemn trew,' sez she.
+
+"Ef she'd up an' slapped me in the face, I shouldn't hev ben more
+throwed aback, fer I never mistrusted she cared two chips for me. I
+jest set an' gawped; fer she was solemn trew, I see that with half
+an eye, an' it kinder took my breath away. Bewlah drawed the grewel
+off the fire, wiped her hands, an' stood lookin' at me a minnet,
+then she sez, slow an' quiet, but tremblin' a little, as women hev a
+way er doin', when they've consid'able steam aboard,--
+
+"'Hiram, other folks think lumberin' has spilt yeou; I don't; they
+call yeou rough an' rewd; I know you've got a real kind heart fer
+them as knows haow tew find it. Them girls give yeou up so easy,
+'cause they never loved yeou, an' yeou give them up 'cause yeou only
+thought abaout their looks an' money. I'm humly, an' I'm poor; but
+I've loved yeou ever sence we went a-nuttin' years ago, an' yeou
+shook daown fer me, kerried my bag, and kissed me tew the gate, when
+all the others shunned me, 'cause my father drank an' I was shably
+dressed, ugly, an' shy. Yeou asked me in sport, I answered in
+airnest; but I don't expect nothin' unless yeou mean as I mean. Like
+me, Hiram, or leave me, it won't make no odds in my lovin' er yeou,
+nor helpin' er yeou, ef I kin.'
+
+"'Tain't easy tew say haouw I felt, while she was goin' on that way;
+but my idees was tumblin' raound inside er me, as ef half a dozen
+dams was broke loose all tew oncet. One thing was ruther stiddier 'n
+the rest, an' that was that I liked Bewlah morn'n I knew. I begun
+tew see what kep me loopin' tew hum so much, sence aunt was took
+daown; why I want in no hurry tew git them other gals, an' haow I
+come tew pocket my mittens so easy arfter the fust rile was over.
+Bewlah was humly, poor in flesh, dreadful freckled, hed red hair,
+black eyes, an' a gret mold side er her nose. But I'd got wonted tew
+her; she knowed my ways, was a fust rate housekeeper, real
+good-tempered, and pious without flingin' on't in yer face. She was
+a lonely creeter,--her folks bein' all dead but one sister, who
+didn't use her waal, an' somehow I kinder yearned over her, as they
+say in Scripter. For all I set an' gawped, I was coming raound fast,
+though I felt as I used tew, when I was goin' to shoot the rapids,
+kinder breathless an' oncertin, whether Id come aout right side up
+or not. Queer, warn't it?"
+
+"Love, Flint; that was a sure symptom of it."
+
+"Waal, guess 'twas; anyway I jumped up all er a sudden, ketched
+Bewlah raound the neck, give her a hearty kiss, and sung aout, 'I'll
+dew it sure's my name's Hi Flint!' The words was scurcely aout er my
+maouth, 'fore daown come Dr. Parr. He'd ben up tew see aunt, an'
+said she wouldn't last the night threw, prob'ly. That give me a
+scarer the wust kind; an' when I told doctor haow things was, he
+sez, kinder jokin',--
+
+"'Better git merried right away, then. Parson Dill is tew come an'
+see the old lady, an' he'll dew both jobs tew oncet.'
+
+"'Will yeou, Bewlah?' sez I.
+
+"'Yes, Hiram, to 'blige yeou,' sez she.
+
+"With that, I put it fer the parson and the license; got 'em both,
+an' was back in less'n half an haour, most tuckered aout with the
+flurry er the hull concern. Quick as I'd been, Bewlah hed faound
+time tew whip on her best gaoun, fix up her hair, and put a couple
+er white chrissanthymums intew her hank'chif pin. Fer the fust time
+in her life, she looked harnsome,--leastways I thought so,--with a
+pretty color in her cheeks, somethin' brighter'n a larf shinin' in
+her eyes, an' her lips smilin' an' tremblin', as she come to me an'
+whispered so's't none er the rest could hear,--
+
+"'Hiram, don't yeou dew it, ef yeou'd ruther not. I've stood it a
+gret while alone, an' I guess I can ag'in.'
+
+"Never yeou mind what I said or done abaout that; but we was married
+ten minutes arfter, 'fore the kitchen fire, with Dr. Parr an' oaur
+hired man, fer witnesses; an' then we all went up tew aunt. She was
+goan fast, but she understood what I told her, hed strength tew fill
+up the hole in the will, an' to say, a-kissin' Bewlah, 'Yeou'll be a
+good wife, an' naouw yeou ain't a poor one.'
+
+"I couldn't help givin' a peek tew the will, and there I see not
+Hiram Flint, nor Josiah Flint, but Bewlah Flint, wrote every which
+way, but as plain as the nose on yer face. 'It won't make no odds
+dear,' whispered my wife, peekin' over my shoulder. 'Guess it
+won't!' sez I, aout laoud; 'I'm glad on't, and it ain't a cent
+more'n yeou derserve.'
+
+"That pleased aunt. 'Riz me, Hiram,' sez she; an' when I'd got her
+easy, she put her old arms raound my neck, an' tried to say, 'God
+bless you, dear--,' but died a doin' of it; an' I ain't ashamed tew
+say I boo-hooed real hearty, when I laid her daown, fer she was
+dreadf'l good tew me, an' I don't forgit her in a hurry."
+
+"How's Bewlah?" asked Dick, after the little tribute of respect all
+paid to Aunt Siloam's memory, by a momentary silence.
+
+"Fust-rate! that harum scarum venter er mine was the best I ever
+made. She's done waal by me, hes Bewlah; ben a grand good
+haousekeeper, kin kerry on the farm better'n me, any time, an' is as
+dutif'l an' lovin' a wife as,--waal as annything that _is_ extra
+dutif'l and lovin'."
+
+"Got any boys to brag of?"
+
+"We don't think much o' boys daown aour way; they're 'mazin resky
+stock to fetch up,--alluz breakin' baounds, gittin' intew the
+paound, and wurry your life aout somehaow 'nother. Gals naow doos
+waal; I got six o' the likeliest the is goin', every one on 'em is
+the very moral of Bewlah,--red hair, black eyes, quiet ways, an' a
+mold side the nose. Baby's ain't growed yet; but I expect tew see it
+in a consid'able state o' forrardness, when I git hum, an' wouldn't
+miss it fer the world."
+
+The droll expressions of Flint's face, and the satisfied twang of
+his last words, were irresistable. Dick and Phil went off into a
+shout of laughter; and even Thorn's grave lips relapsed into a smile
+at the vision of six little Flints with their six little moles. As
+if the act were an established ceremony, the "paternal head"
+produced his pocket-book, selected a worn, black and white paper,
+which he spread in his broad palm, and displayed with the air of a
+connoisseur.
+
+"There, thets Bewlah! we call it a cuttin'; but the proper name's a
+silly-hoot I b'leeve. I've got a harnsome big degarrytype tew hum
+but the heft on't makes it bad tew kerry raound, so I took this. I
+don't tote it abaout inside my shirt as some dew,--it aint my way;
+but I keep it in my puss long with my other valleu'bles, and guess I
+set as much stoxe by it as ef it was all painted up, and done off to
+keell."
+
+The "silly-hoot" was examined with interest, and carefully stowed
+away again in the old brown wallet which was settled in its place
+with a satisfied slap, then Flint said briskly,--
+
+"Naouw, Phil, yeou close this interestin' and instructive meeting;
+and be spry, fer time's most up."
+
+"I haven't much to tell, but must begin with a confession which I
+have often longed but never dared to make before, because I am a
+coward."
+
+"Sho! who's goan to b'leeve that o' a man who fit like a wild cat,
+wuz offered fer permotion on the field, and wuz reported tew
+headquarters arfter his fust scrimmage. Try ag'in, Phil."
+
+"Physical courage is as plentiful as brass buttons, nowadays, but
+moral courage is a rarer virtue; and I'm lacking in it, as I'll
+prove. You think me a Virginian; I'm an Alabamian by birth, and was
+a reb three months ago."
+
+This confession startled his hearers, as he knew it would, for he
+had kept his secret well. Thorn laid his hand involuntarily upon his
+rifle, Dick drew off a little, and Flint illustrated one of his own
+expressions, for he "gawped." Phil laughed that musical laugh of
+his, and looked up at them with his dark face waking into sudden
+life as he went on:--
+
+"There's no treason in the camp, for I'm as fierce a Federalist as
+any of you now, and you may thank a woman for it. When Lee made his
+raid into Pennsylvania, I was a lieutenant in the--well, never mind
+what regiment, it hasn't signalized itself since, and I'd rather not
+hit my old neighbors when they are down. In one of the skirmishes
+during our retreat, I got a wound and was left for dead. A kind old
+Quaker found and took me home; but though I was too weak to talk, I
+had my senses by that time, and knew what went on about me.
+Everything was in confusion, even in that well-ordered place; no
+surgeon could be got at first, and a flock of frightened women
+thee'd and thou'd one another over me, but hadn't wit enough to see
+that I was bleeding to death. Among the faces that danced before my
+dizzy eyes was one that seemed familiar, probably because no cap
+surrounded it. I was glad to have it bending over me, to hear a
+steady voice say, 'Give me a bandage, quick!' and when none was
+instantly forthcoming to me, the young lady stripped up a little
+white apron she wore, and stanched the wound in my shoulder. I was
+not as badly hurt as I supposed, but so worn-out, and faint from
+loss of blood, they believed me to be dying, and so did I, when the
+old man took off his hat and said,--
+
+"'Friend, if thee has anything to say, thee had better say it, for
+thee probably has not long to live.'
+
+"I thought of my little sister, far away in Alabama, fancied she
+came to me, and muttered, 'Amy, kiss me, good-by.' The women sobbed
+at that; but the girl bent her sweet compassionate face to mine, and
+kissed me on the forehead. That was my wife."
+
+"So you seceded from Secession right away, to pay for that
+lip-service, hey?"
+
+"No, Thorn, not right away,--to my shame be it spoken. I'll tell you
+how it came about. Margaret was not old Bent's daughter, but a
+Virginia girl on a visit, and a long one it proved, for she couldn't
+go till things were quieter. While she waited, she helped take care
+of me; for the good souls petted me like a baby when they found that
+a Rebel could be a gentleman. I held my tongue, and behaved my best
+to prove my gratitude, you know. Of course, I loved Margaret very
+soon. How could I help it? She was the sweetest woman I had ever
+seen, tender, frank, and spirited; all I had ever dreamed of and
+longed for. I did not speak of this, nor hope for a return, because
+I knew she was a hearty Unionist, and thought she only tended me
+from pity. But suddenly she decided to go home, and when I ventured
+to wish she would stay longer, she would not listen, and said, 'I
+must not stay; I should have gone before.'"
+
+"The words were nothing, but as she uttered them the color came up
+beautifully over all her face, and her eyes filled as they looked
+away from mine. Then I knew that she loved me, and my secret broke
+out half against my will. Margaret was forced to listen, for I would
+not let her go, but she seemed to harden herself against me, growing
+colder, stiller, statelier, as I went on, and when I said in my
+desperate way,--
+
+"'You should love me, for we are bid to love our enemies,' she
+flashed an indignant look at me and said,--
+
+"'I will not love what I cannot respect! Come to me a loyal man, and
+see what answer I shall give you.'
+
+"Then she went away. It was the wisest thing she could have done,
+for absence did more to change me than an ocean of tears, a year of
+exhortations. Lying there, I missed her every hour of the day,
+recalled every gentle act, kind word, and fair example she had given
+me. I contrasted my own belief with hers, and found a new
+significance in the words honesty and honor, and, remembering her
+fidelity to principle, was ashamed of my own treason to God and to
+herself. Education, prejudice, and interest, are difficult things to
+overcome, and that was the hottest fight I ever passed through,
+for, as I tell you, I was a coward. But love and loyalty won the
+day, and, asking no quarter, the Rebel surrendered."
+
+"Phil Beaufort, you're a brick!" cried Dick, with a sounding slap on
+his comrade's shoulder.
+
+"A brand snatched from the burnin'. Hallelujah!" chanted Flint,
+seesawing with excitement.
+
+"Then you went to find your wife? How? Where?" asked Thorn,
+forgetting vigilance in interest.
+
+"Friend Bent hated war so heartily that he would have nothing to do
+with paroles, exchanges, or any martial process whatever, but bade
+me go when and where I liked, remembering to do by others as I had
+been done by. Before I was well enough to go, however, I managed, by
+means of Copperhead influence and returned prisoners, to send a
+letter to my father and receive an answer. You can imagine what both
+contained; and so I found myself penniless, but not poor, an
+outcast, but not alone. Old Bent treated me like a prodigal son, and
+put money in my purse; his pretty daughters loved me for Margaret's
+sake, and gave me a patriotic salute all round when I left them, the
+humblest, happiest man in Pennsylvania. Margaret once said to me
+that this was the time for deeds, not words; that no man should
+stand idle, but serve the good cause with head, heart, and hand, no
+matter in what rank; for in her eyes a private fighting for liberty
+was nobler than a dozen generals defending slavery. I remembered
+that, and, not having influential friends to get me a commission,
+enlisted in one of her own Virginia regiments, knowing that no act
+of mine would prove my sincerity like that. You should have seen her
+face when I walked in upon her, as she sat alone, busied with the
+army work, as I'd so often seen her sitting by my bed; it showed me
+all she had been suffering in silence, all I should have lost had I
+chosen darkness instead of light. She hoped and feared so much she
+could not speak, neither could I, but dropped my cloak, and showed
+her that, through love of her, I had become a soldier of the Flag.
+How I love the coarse blue uniform! for when she saw it, she came to
+me without a word and kept her promise in a month."
+
+"Thunder! what a harnsome woman!" exclaimed Flint, as Phil, opening
+the golden case that held his talisman, showed them the beautiful,
+beloved face of which he spoke.
+
+"Yes! and a right noble woman too. I don't deserve her, but I will.
+We parted on our wedding-day, for orders to be off came suddenly,
+and she would not let me go until I had given her my name to keep.
+We were married in the morning, and at noon I had to go. Other women
+wept as we marched through the town, but my brave Margaret kept her
+tears till we were gone, smiling, and waving her hand to me,--the
+hand that wore the wedding-ring,--till I was out of sight. That
+image of her is before me day and night, and day and night her last
+words are ringing in my ears,--
+
+"'I give you freely, do your best. Better a true man's widow than a
+traitor's wife.'
+
+"Boys, I've only stood on the right side for a month; I've only
+fought one battle, earned one honor; but I believe these poor
+achievements are an earnest of the long atonement I desire to make
+for five and twenty years of blind transgression. You say I fight
+well. Have I not cause to dare much?--for in owning many slaves, I
+too became a slave; in helping to make many freemen, I liberate
+myself. You wonder why I refused promotion. Have I any right to it
+yet? Are there not men who never sinned as I have done, and beside
+whose sacrifices mine look pitifully small? You tell me I have no
+ambition. I have the highest, for I desire to become God's noblest
+work,--an honest man,--living, to make Margaret happy, in a love
+that every hour grows worthier of her own,--dying, to make death
+proud to take me."
+
+Phil had risen while he spoke, as if the enthusiasm of his mood
+lifted him into the truer manhood he aspired to attain. Straight and
+strong he stood up in the moonlight, his voice deepened by unwonted
+energy, his eye clear and steadfast, his whole face ennobled by the
+regenerating power of this late loyalty to country, wife, and self,
+and bright against the dark blue of his jacket shone the pictured
+face, the only medal he was proud to wear.
+
+Ah, brave, brief moment, cancelling years of wrong! Ah, fair and
+fatal decoration, serving as a mark for a hidden foe! The sharp
+crack of a rifle broke the stillness of the night, and with those
+hopeful words upon his lips, the young man sealed his purpose with
+his life.
+
+
+
+
+THE KING OF CLUBS AND THE QUEEN OF HEARTS.
+
+A STORY FOR YOUNG AMERICA.
+
+
+_FIVE_ and twenty ladies, all in a row, sat on one side of the hall,
+looking very much as if they felt like the little old woman who fell
+asleep on the king's highway and awoke with abbreviated drapery, for
+they were all arrayed in gray tunics and Turkish continuations,
+profusely adorned with many-colored trimmings. Five and twenty
+gentleman, all in a row, sat on the opposite side of the hall,
+looking somewhat subdued, as men are apt to do when they fancy they
+are in danger of making fools of themselves. They, also, were _en_
+costume, for all the dark ones had grown piratical in red shirts,
+the light ones nautical in blue; and a few boldly appeared in white,
+making up in starch and studs what they lost in color, while all
+were more or less Byronic as to collar.
+
+On the platform appeared a pile of dumb-bells, a regiment of clubs,
+and a pyramid of bean-bags, and stirring nervously among them a
+foreign-looking gentleman, the new leader of a class lately formed
+by Dr. Thor Turner, whose mission it was to strengthen the world's
+spine, and convert it to a belief in air and exercise, by setting it
+to balancing its poles and spinning merrily, while enjoying the
+"Sun-cure" on a large scale. His advent formed an epoch in the
+history of the town; for it was a quiet old village, guiltless of
+bustle, fashion, or parade, where each man stood for what he was;
+and, being a sagacious set, every one's true value was pretty
+accurately known. It was a neighborly town, with gossip enough to
+stir the social atmosphere with small gusts of interest or wonder,
+yet do no harm. A sensible, free-and-easy town, for the wisest man
+in it wore the worst boots, and no one thought the less of his
+understanding; the belle of the village went shopping with a big
+sun-bonnet and tin pail, and no one found her beauty lessened;
+oddities of all sorts ambled peacefully about on their various
+hobbies, and no one suggested the expediency of a trip on the wooden
+horse upon which the chivalrous South is always eager to mount an
+irrepressible abolitionist. Restless people were soothed by the
+lullaby the river sang in its slow journey to the sea, old people
+found here a pleasant place to make ready to die in, young people to
+survey the world from, before taking their first flight, and
+strangers looked back upon it, as a quiet nook full of ancient
+legends and modern lights, which would keep its memory green when
+many a gayer spot was quite forgotten. Anything based upon common
+sense found favor with the inhabitants, and Dr. Turner's theories,
+being eminently so, were accepted at once and energetically carried
+out. A sort of heathen revival took place, for even the ministers
+and deacons turned Musclemen; old ladies tossed bean-bags till their
+caps were awry, and winter roses blossomed on their cheeks;
+school-children proved the worth of the old proverb, "An ounce of
+prevention is worth a pound of cure," by getting their backs ready
+before the burdens came; pale girls grew blithe and strong swinging
+their dumb namesakes; and jolly lads marched to and fro embracing
+clubs as if longevity were corked up in those wooden bottles, and
+they all took "modest quenchers" by the way.
+
+August Bopp, the new leader of the class, was a German possessing
+but a small stock of English, though a fine gynmast; and, being also
+a bashful man, the appointed moment had no sooner arrived than he
+found his carefully prepared sentences slipping away from his memory
+as the ice appears to do from under unhappy souls first mounted upon
+skates. An awful silence reigned; Mr. Bopp glanced nervously over
+his shoulder at the staring rows, more appalling in their stillness
+than if they had risen up and hooted at him, then piling up the bags
+for the seventh time, he gave himself a mental shake, and, with a
+crimson visage, was about to launch his first "Ladees und
+gentlemen," when the door opened, and a small, merry-faced figure
+appeared, looking quite at ease in the novel dress, as, with a
+comprehensive nod, it marched straight across the hall to its place
+among the weaker vessels.
+
+A general glance of approbation followed from the gentlemen's side,
+a welcoming murmur ran along the ladies', and the fifty pairs of
+eyes changed their focus for a moment. Taking advantage of which,
+Mr. Bopp righted himself, and burst out with a decided,--
+
+"Ladees und gentlemen: the time have arrived that we shall begin.
+Will the gentlemen serve the ladees to a wand, each one, then spread
+theirselves about the hall, and follow the motions I will make as I
+shall count."
+
+Five minutes of chaos, then all fell into order, and nothing was
+heard but the leader's voice and the stir of many bodies moving
+simultaneously. An uninitiated observer would have thought himself
+in Bedlam; for as the evening wore on, the laws of society seemed
+given to the winds, and humanity gone mad. Bags flew in all
+directions, clubs hurtled through the air, and dumb-bells played a
+castinet accompaniment to peals of laughter that made better music
+than any band. Old and young gave themselves up to the universal
+merriment, and, setting dignity aside, played like happy-hearted
+children for an hour. Stout Dr. Quackenboss gasped twice round the
+hall on one toe; stately Mrs. Primmins ran like a girl of fifteen to
+get her pins home before her competitor; Tommy Inches, four feet
+three, trotted away with Deacon Stone on his shoulder, while Mr.
+Steepleton and Miss Maypole hopped together like a pair of lively
+young ostriches, and Ned Amandine, the village beau, blew arrows
+through a pop-gun, like a modern Cupid in pegtops instead of
+pinions.
+
+The sprightly young lady whose entrance had been so opportune seemed
+a universal favorite, and was overwhelmed with invitations to "bag,"
+"hop," and "blow" from the gentlemen who hovered about her,
+cheerfully distorting themselves to the verge of dislocation in
+order to win a glance of approbation from the merry black eyes which
+were the tapers where all these muscular moths singed their wings.
+Mr. Bopp had never seen such a little piece of earnestness before,
+and began to think the young lady must be training for a boat-race
+or the ring. Her dumb-bells flew about till a pair of white arms
+looked like the sails of a windmill; she hit out from the shoulder
+with a vigor that would have done execution had there been anything
+but empty air to "punish;" and the "one, two, three!" of the Zouave
+movement went off with a snap; while the color deepened from pink to
+scarlet in her cheeks, the black braids tumbled down upon her
+shoulders, and the clasp of her belt flew asunder; but her eye
+seldom left the leader's face, and she followed every motion with an
+agility and precision quite inspiring. Mr. Bopp's courage rose as he
+watched her, and a burning desire to excel took possession of him,
+till he felt as if his muscles were made of India-rubber, and his
+nerves of iron. He went into his work heart and soul, shaking a
+brown mane out of his eyes, issuing commands like general at the
+head of his troops, and keeping both interest and fun in full blast
+till people laughed who had not laughed heartily for years; lungs
+got their fill for once, unsuspected muscles were suddenly
+developed, and, when the clock struck ten, all were bubbling over
+with that innocent jollity which makes youth worth possessing, and
+its memory the sunshine of old age.
+
+The last exercise was drawing to a close, and a large ring of
+respectable members of society were violently sitting down and
+rising up in a manner which would have scandalized Miss Wilhelmina
+Carolina Amelia S. Keggs to the last degree, when Mr. Bopp was seen
+to grow very pale, and drop in a manner which it was evident his
+pupils were not expected to follow.
+
+At this unexpected performance, the gentlemen took advantage of
+their newly-acquired agility to fly over all obstacles and swarm on
+to the platform, while the ladies successfully lessened their
+unusual bloom by staring wildly at one another and suggesting awful
+impossibilities. The bustle subsided, as suddenly as it arose; and
+Mr. Bopp, rather damp about the head and dizzy about the eye, but
+quite composed, appeared, saying, with the broken English and
+appealing manner which caused all the ladies to pronounce him "a
+dear" on the spot,--
+
+"I hope you will excoose me for making this lesson to be more short
+than it should; but I have exercise nine hours this day, and being
+just got well from a illness, I have not recover the strength I have
+lost. Next week I shall be able to take time by the hair, so that I
+will not have so much engagements in one day. I thank you for your
+kindness, and say good-efening."
+
+After a round of applause, as a last vent for their spirits, the
+class dispersed, and Mr. Bopp was wrestling with a vicious pin as he
+put on his collar ("a sure sign he has no ma to see to his buttons,
+poor lamb!" thought Mrs. Fairbairn, watching him from afar); when
+the sprightly young lady, accompanied by a lad the masculine image
+of herself, appeared upon the platform, saying, with an aspect as
+cordial as her words,--
+
+"Good-evening, Professor. Allow me to introduce my brother and
+myself, Dick and Dolly Ward, and ask you in my mother's name, to
+come home with us; for the tavern is not a cosy place, and after all
+this exertion you should be made comfortable. Please come, for Dr.
+Turner always stayed with us, and we promised to do the honors of
+the town to any gentleman he might send to supply his place."
+
+"Of course we did; and mother is probably freezing her blessed nose
+off watching for us; so don't disappoint her, Bopp. It's all
+settled, the sleigh's at the door, and here's your coat; so, come
+on!"
+
+Dick was a fine sample of young America in its best aspect, and
+would have said "How are you?" to Louis Napoleon if he had been at
+hand, and have done it so heartily that the great Frenchman would
+have found it hard to resist giving as frank an answer. Therefore no
+wonder that Mr. Bopp surrendered at once; for the young gentleman
+took possession of him bodily, and shook him into his coat with an
+amiable impetuosity which developed a sudden rent in the well-worn
+sleeve thereof, and caused an expression of dismay, to dawn upon the
+owner's countenance.
+
+"Beg pardon; never mind; mother'll sew you up in two seconds, and
+your overcoat will hide the damage. Where is it? I'll get it, and
+then we'll be off."
+
+Mr. Bopp colored distressfully, looked up, looked down, and then
+straight into the lad's face, saying simply,--
+
+"Thank you; I haf no coat but one."
+
+Dick opened his eyes, and was about opening his mouth also, for the
+exit of some blunderingly good-natured reply, when a warning poke
+from his sister restrained him, while Dolly, with the innocent
+hypocrisy which is as natural to some women as the art of tying
+bows, said, as she led the way out,--
+
+"You see the worth of gymnastics, Dick, in this delightful
+indifference to cold. I sincerely hope we may reach a like enviable
+state of health, and look upon great-coats as effeminate, and
+mufflers a weakness of the flesh. Do you think we shall, Mr. Bopp?"
+
+He shook his head with a perceptible shiver as the keen north wind
+smote him in the face, but answered, with a look half merry, half
+sad,--
+
+"It is not choice, but what you call necessitee, with me; and I
+truly hope you may never haf to exercise to keep life in you when
+you haf sold your coat to pay a doctor's bill, or teach the art of
+laughing while your heart is heavy as one stone. You would not like
+that, I think, yet it is good, too; for small things make much
+happiness for me, and a kind word is often better than a rix
+dollar."
+
+There was something in the young man's tone and manner which touched
+and won his hearers at once. Dolly secretly resolved to put an extra
+blanket on his bed, and shower kind words upon him, while Dick
+tucked him up in buffalo robes where he sat helplessly beaming down
+upon the red hood at his side.
+
+A roaring fire shone out hospitably as they came, and glorified the
+pleasant room, dancing on ancient furniture and pictured walls till
+the jolly old portraits seemed to wink a visible welcome. A
+cheery-faced little woman, like an elder Dolly, in a widow's cap,
+stood on the threshold, with a friendly greeting for the stranger,
+which warmed him as no fine could have done.
+
+If August Bopp had been an Englishman, he would have felt much, but
+said less on that account; if he had been an American, he would have
+tried to conceal his poverty, and impress the family with his past
+grandeur, present importance, or future prospects; being a German,
+he showed exactly what he was, with the childlike frankness of his
+race. Having had no dinner, he ate heartily of what was offered him;
+being cold, he basked in the generous warmth; being homesick and
+solitary, he enjoyed the genial influences that surrounded him, and
+told his story, sure of sympathy; for even in prosaic Yankeedom he
+had found it, as travellers find Alpine flowers among the snow.
+
+It was a simple story of a laborious boyhood, being early left an
+orphan, with a little sister dependent on him, till an opening in
+America tempted him to leave her and come to try and earn a home for
+her and for himself. Sickness, misfortune, and disappointment had
+been his companions for a year; but he still worked, still hoped,
+and waited for the happy hour when little Ulla should come to him
+across the sea. This was all; yet as he told it, with the magical
+accompaniments of gesture, look, and tone, it seemed full of pathos
+and romance to his listeners, whose faces proved their interest more
+flatteringly than their words.
+
+Mrs. Ward mended the torn coat with motherly zeal, and gave it many
+of those timely stitches which thrifty women love to sew. The twins
+devoted themselves to their guest, each in a characteristic manner.
+Dick, as host, offered every article of refreshment the house
+afforded, goaded the fire to a perpetual roar, and discussed
+gymnastics, with bursts of boyish admiration for the grace and skill
+of his new leader, whom he christened King of Clubs on the spot.
+Dolly made the stranger one of them at once by talking bad German,
+as an offset to his bad English, called him Professor in spite of
+all denials, and unconsciously symbolized his future bondage by
+giving him a tangled skein to hold for the furtherance of her
+mother's somewhat lengthened job.
+
+The Cupid of the present day was undoubtedly "raised" in
+Connecticut; for the ingenuity and shrewdness of that small
+personage could have sprung from no other soil. In former times his
+stratagems were of the romantic order. Colin bleated forth his
+passion in rhyme, and cast sheep's eyes from among his flock, while
+Phyllis coquetted with her crook and stuck posies in his hat; royal
+Ferdinand and Miranda played at chess; Ivanhoe upset his fellow-men
+like ninepins for love of lackadaisical Rowena; and "sweet Moll"
+turned the pages while her lover, Milton, sang. But in our day the
+jolly little god, though still a heathen in the severe simplicity of
+his attire, has become modernized in his arts, and invented
+huskings, apple-bees, sleigh-rides, "drop-ins," gymnastics, and,
+among his finer snares, the putting on of skates, drawing of
+patterns, and holding skeins,--the last-named having superior
+advantages over the others, as all will testify who have enjoyed one
+of those hand-to-hand skirmishes.
+
+August Bopp was three and twenty, imaginative, grateful, and
+heart-whole; therefore, when he found himself sitting opposite a
+blooming little damsel, with a head, bound by a pretty red snood,
+bent down before him, and very close to his own a pair of
+distracting hands, every finger of which had a hit to make, and made
+it, it is not to be denied that he felt himself entering upon a new
+and very agreeable experience. Where could he look but in the face
+opposite, sometimes so girlishly merry and sometimes so beautifully
+shy? It was a winning face, full of smooth curves, fresh colors, and
+sunshiny twinkles,--a face every one liked, for it was as changeful
+as an April day, and always pleasant, whether mischievous, mournful,
+or demure.
+
+Like one watching a new picture, Mr. Bopp inspected every feature of
+the countenance so near his own; and, as his admiration "grew by
+what it fed on," he fell into a chronic state of stammer and blush;
+for the frank eyes were very kind, the smooth cheeks reflected a
+pretty shade of his own crimson, and the smiling lips seemed
+constantly suggesting, with mute eloquence, that they were made for
+kissing, while the expressive hands picked at the knots till the
+Professor felt like a very resigned fly in the web of a most
+enticing young spider.
+
+If the King of Clubs saw a comely face, the Queen of Hearts saw what
+observing girls call a "good face;" and with a womanly respect for
+strength, the manliest attribute of man, she admired the broad
+shoulders and six feet one of her new master. This face was not
+handsome, for, true to his fatherland, the Professor had an eminent
+nose, a blonde beard, and a crop of "bonny brown hair" long enough
+to have been gathered into a ribbon, as in the days of Schiller and
+Jean Paul; but Dolly liked it, for its strength was tempered with
+gentleness; patience and courage gave it dignity, and the glance
+that met her own was both keen and kind.
+
+The silk was wound at last, the coat repaired. Dick with difficulty
+concealed the growing stiffness of his shoulders, while Dolly turned
+up the lamp, which bluntly hinted bedtime, and Mrs. Ward
+successfully devoured six gapes behind her hand, but was detected in
+the seventh by Mr. Bopp, who glanced at the clock, stopped in the
+middle of a sentence, and, with a hurried "goot-night," made for the
+door without the least idea whither he was going. Piloted by Dick,
+he was installed in the "best chamber," where his waking dreams were
+enlivened by a great fire, and his sleeping ones by an endless
+succession of skeins, each rapturously concluded in the style of Sam
+Weller when folding carpets with the pretty maid.
+
+"I tell you, Dolly, it won't do, and I'm not going to have it."
+
+"Oh, indeed; and how will you help it, you absurd boy?"
+
+"Why, if you don't stop it, I'll just say to Bopp,--'Look here, my
+dear fellow; this sister of mine is a capital girl, but she will
+flirt and'"--
+
+"And it's a family failing, Dick," cut in Dolly.
+
+"Not a bit of it. I shall say, 'Take care of your heart, Bopp, for
+she has a bad habit of playing battle-door and shuttle-cock with
+these articles; and, though it may be very good fun for a time, it
+makes them ache when they get a last knock and are left to lie in a
+corner.'"
+
+"What eloquence! But you'd never dare to try it on Mr. Bopp; and I
+shouldn't like to predict what would happen to you if you did."
+
+"If you say 'dare,' I'll do it the first minute I see him. As for
+consequences, I don't care that for 'em;" and Dick snapped his
+fingers with an aspect of much disdain. But something in his
+sister's face suggested the wisdom of moderation, and moved him to
+say, less like a lord of creation, and more like a brother who
+privately adored his sister, but of course was not going to
+acknowledge such a weakness,--
+
+"Well, but soberly, now, I wish you wouldn't plague Bopp; for it's
+evident to me that he is hit; and from the way you've gone on these
+two months, what else was to be expected? Now, as the head of the
+family,--you needn't laugh, for I am,--I think I ought to interfere;
+and so I put it to you,--do you like him, and will you have him? or
+are you merely amusing yourself, as you have done ever since you
+were out of pinafores? If you like him, all serene. I'd rather have
+him for a brother than any one I know, for he's a regular trump
+though he _is_ poor; but if you don't, I won't have the dear old
+fellow floored just because you like to see it done."
+
+It may here be remarked that Dolly quite glowed to hear her brother
+praise Mr. Bopp, and that she indorsed every word with mental
+additions of double warmth; but Dick had begun all wrong, and,
+manlike, demanded her confidence before she had made up her mind to
+own she had any to bestow; therefore nothing came of it but vexation
+of spirit; for it is a well-known fact that, on some subjects, if
+boys will tease, girls will fib, and both maintain that it is right.
+So Dolly whetted her feminine weapon, and assumed a lofty
+superiority.
+
+"Dear me! what a sudden spasm of virtue; and why, if it is such a
+sin, has not the 'head of the house' taken his sister to task
+before, instead of indulging in a like degeneracy, and causing
+several interesting persons to tear their hair, and bewail his
+forgetfulness, when they ought to have blessed their stars he was
+out of the way?"
+
+Dick snowballed a dozing crow and looked nettled; for he had
+attained that age when "Tom Brown at Oxford" was the book of books,
+the twelfth chapter being the favorite, and five young ladies having
+already been endowed with the significant heliotrope flower; all of
+which facts Dolly had skilfully brought to mind, as a return-shot
+for his somewhat personal remarks.
+
+"Bah! they were only girls, and it don't amount to anything among us
+young folks; but Bopp is a grown man, and you ought to respect him
+too much to play such pranks with him. Besides, he's a German, and
+more tender-hearted than we rough Yankees, as any one can see by the
+way he acts when you snub him. He is proud, too, for all his
+meekness, and waits till he's sure you like him before he says
+anything; and he'll need the patience of a family of Jobs at the
+rate you're going on,--a honey-pot one day and a pickle-jar the
+next. Do make up your mind, and say yes or no, right off, Dolly."
+
+"Would you have me meet him at the door with a meek courtesy, and
+say, 'Oh, if you please, I'm ready to say Yes, thank you, if you'll
+be good enough to say, Will you'?"
+
+"Don't be a goose, child; you know I mean nothing of the kind; only
+you girls never will do anything straight ahead if you can dodge and
+fuss and make a mess of it. Just tell me one thing: Do you, or don't
+you, like old Bopp?"
+
+"What an elegant way to put it! Of course I like him well enough as
+a leader; he is clever, and sort of cunning, and I enjoy his funny
+ways; but what in the world should I do with a great yellow-haired
+laddie who could put me in his pocket, and yet is so meek that I
+should never find the heart to henpeck him? You are welcome to him;
+and since you love him so much, there's no need of my troubling
+myself on his account; for with you for a friend, he can have no
+earthly wish ungratified."
+
+"Don't try to be cutting, Dolly, because you look homely when you
+do, and it's a woman's business to be pretty, always. All I've got
+to say is, you will be in a nice state of mind if you damage Bopp;
+for every one likes him, and will be down upon you for a heartless
+little wretch; and I shan't blame them, I promise you."
+
+"I wish the town wouldn't put its fingers in other people's pies,
+and you may tell it so, with my compliments; and all _I_ have to say
+is, that you men have more liberty than you know what to do with,
+and we women haven't enough; so it's perfectly fair that we should
+show you the worth of the thing by taking it away now and then. I
+shall do exactly as I please; dance, walk, ride, and flirt, whenever
+and with whomever I see fit; and the whole town, with Mr. Dick Ward
+at their head, can't stop me if I choose to go on. Now, then, what
+next?" After which declaration of independence, Dolly folded her
+arms, wheeled about and faced her brother, a spirited statuette of
+Self Will, in a red hood and mittens.
+
+Dick sternly asked,--
+
+"Is that your firm decision, ma'am?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And you will not give up your nonsense?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You are quite sure you don't care for Bopp?"
+
+"I could slap him with all my heart."
+
+"Very good. I shall see that you don't get a chance."
+
+"I wouldn't try a skirmish, for you'll get beaten, Dick."
+
+"We'll prove that, ma'am."
+
+"We will, sir."
+
+And the belligerents loftily paced up the lawn, with their purpose
+so well expressed by outward signs, that Mrs. Ward knew, by the cock
+of Dick's hat and the decided tap of Dolly's heels, that a storm was
+brewing, before they entered the door.
+
+This fraternal conversation took place some two months from the
+evening of Mr. Bopp's advent, as the twins were strolling home from
+school, which school must be briefly alluded to in order to explain
+the foregoing remarks. It was an excellent institution in all
+respects; for its presiding genius stood high in the townfolks'
+esteem, and might have served as an example to Dr. Watts' "busy
+bee," in the zeal with which he improved his "shining hours," and
+laid up honey against the winter, which many hoped would be long in
+coming. All manner of aids were provided for sprouting souls and
+bodies, diversions innumerable, and society, some members of which
+might have polished off Alcibiades _a la_ Socrates, or entertained
+Plato with "æsthetic tea." But, sad to relate, in spite of all these
+blessings, the students who resorted to this academy possessed an
+Adam-and-Eve-like proclivity for exactly what they hadn't got and
+didn't need; and, not contented with the pleasures provided, must
+needs play truant with that young scamp Eros, and turn the ancient
+town topsy-turvy with modern innovations, till scandalized spinsters
+predicted that the very babies would catch the fever, refuse their
+panada in jealous gloom, send billet-doux in their rattles, elope in
+wicker-carriages, and set up housekeeping in dolls' houses, after
+the latest fashion.
+
+Certain inflammable Southerners introduced the new game, and left
+such romantic legends of their loves behind them that their
+successors were fired with an ambition to do the like, and excel in
+all things, from cricket to captivation.
+
+This state of things is not to be wondered at; for America, being
+renowned as a "fast" nation, has become a sort of hotbed, and seems
+to force humanity into early bloom. Therefore, past generations must
+not groan over the sprightly present, but sit in the chimney-corner
+and see boys and girls play the game which is too apt to end in a
+checkmate for one of the players. To many of the lookers-on, the new
+order of things was as good as a puppet-show; for, with the
+enthusiasm of youth, the actors performed their parts heartily,
+forgetting the audience in their own earnestness. Bless us! what
+revolutions went on under the round jackets, and what love-tokens
+lay in the pockets thereof. What plots and counterplots occupied the
+heads that wore the innocent-looking snoods, and what captives were
+taken in the many-colored nets that would come off and have to be
+taken care of. What romances blossomed like dandelions along the
+road to school, and what tales the river might have told if any one
+could have learned its musical speech. How certain gates were
+glorified by daily lingerings thereat, and what tender memories hung
+about dingy desks, old pens, and books illustrated with all manner
+of symbolical designs.
+
+Let those laugh who will; older and wiser men and women might have
+taken lessons of these budding heroes and heroines; for here all was
+honest, sincere, and fresh; the old world had not taught them
+falsehood, self-interest, or mean ambitions. When they lost or won,
+they frankly grieved or rejoiced, and wore no masks except in play,
+and then got them off as soon as possible. If blue-eyed Lizzie
+frowned, or went home with Joe, Ned, with a wisdom older lovers
+would do well to imitate, went in for another game of foot-ball,
+gave the rejected apple to little Sally, and whistled "Glory
+Hallelujah," instead of "Annie Laurie," which was better than
+blowing a rival's brains out, or glowering at womankind forever
+after. Or, when Tom put on Clara's skates three successive days, and
+danced with her three successive evenings, leaving Kitty to freeze
+her feet in the one instance and fold her hands in the other, she
+just had a "good cry," gave her mother an extra kiss, and waited
+till the recreant Tom returned to his allegiance, finding his little
+friend a sweetheart in nature as in name.
+
+Dick and Dolly were foremost in the ranks, and expert in all the new
+amusements. Dick worshipped at many shrines, but most faithfully at
+that of a meek divinity, who returned charming answers to the ardent
+epistles which he left in her father's garden wall, where, Pyramus
+and Thisbe-like, they often chatted through a chink; and Dolly was
+seldom seen without a staff of aids who would have "fought, bled,
+and died" for her as cheerfully as the Little Corporal's Old Guard,
+though she paid them only in words; for her Waterloo had not yet
+come.
+
+With the charming, perversity of her sex in such matters, no sooner
+had Dolly declared that she didn't like Mr. Bopp, than she began to
+discover that she did; and so far from desiring "to slap him," a
+tendency to regard him with peculiar good-will and tenderness
+developed itself, much to her own surprise; for with all her
+coquetry and seeming coldness, Dolly had a right womanly heart of
+her own, though she had never acknowledged the fact till August Bopp
+looked at her with so much love and longing in his honest eyes. Then
+she found a little fear mingling with her regard, felt a strong
+desire to be respected by him, discovered a certain something which
+she called conscience, restraining a reckless use of her power, and,
+soon after her lofty denial to Dick, was forced to own that Mr. Bopp
+had become her master in the finer species of gymnastics that came
+in with Adam and Eve, and have kept all creation turning somersets
+ever since. Of course these discoveries were unconfessed, even to
+that best bosom friend which any of us can have; yet her mother
+suspected them, and, with much anxiety, saw all, yet held her peace,
+knowing that her little daughter would, sooner or later, give her a
+fuller confidence than could be demanded; and remembering the
+happiest moments of her own happy past, when an older Dick wooed
+another Dolly, she left that flower, which never can be forced, to
+open at its own sweet will.
+
+Meanwhile, Mr. Bopp, though carrying his heart upon his sleeve,
+believed his secret buried in the deepest gloom, and enjoyed all the
+delightful miseries lovers insist upon making for themselves. When
+Dolly was quiet and absent, he became pensive, the lesson dragged,
+and people fancied they were getting tired of the humbug; when Dolly
+was blithe and bland, he grew radiant, exercised within an inch of
+his life as a vent for his emotions, and people went home declaring
+gymnastics to be the crowning triumph of the age; and when Dolly was
+capricious, Mr. Bopp, became a bewildered weathercock, changing as
+the wind changed, and dire was the confusion occasioned thereby.
+
+Like the sage fowl in the story, Dick said nothing, but "kept up a
+terrible thinking," and, not having had experience enough to know
+that when a woman says No she is very apt to mean Yes, he took Dolly
+at her word. Believing it to be his duty to warn "Old Bopp," he
+resolved to do it like a Roman brother, regardless of his own
+feelings or his sister's wrath, quite unconscious that the motive
+power in the affair was a boyish love of ruling the young person who
+ruled every one else.
+
+Matters stood thus, when the town was electrified by a general
+invitation to the annual jubilee at Jollyboys Hall, which this
+spring flowered into a masquerade, and filled the souls of old and
+young with visions of splendor, frolic, and fun. Being an amiable
+old town, it gave itself up, like a kind grandma, to the wishes of
+its children, let them put its knitting away, disturb its naps, keep
+its hands busy with vanities of the flesh, and its mind in a state
+of chaos for three mortal weeks. Young ladies were obscured by
+tarletan fogs, behind which they concocted angels' wings, newspaper
+gowns, Minnehaha's wampum, and Cinderella's slippers. Inspired but
+incapable boys undertook designs that would have daunted a costumer
+of the first water, fell into sloughs of despond, and, emerging,
+settled down from peers and paladins into jovial tars, friar
+waterproofs, and officers in miscellaneous uniforms. Fathers laughed
+or grumbled at the whole thing and advanced pecuniary loans with
+good or ill grace, as the case might be; but the mothers, whose
+interest in their children's pleasure is a sort of evergreen that no
+snows of time can kill, sewed spangles by the bushel, made
+wildernesses of tissue-paper blossom as the rose, kept tempers
+sweet, stomachs full, and domestic machinery working smoothly
+through it all, by that maternal magic which makes them the human
+providences of this naughty world.
+
+"What shall I go as?" was the universal cry. Garrets were taken by
+storm, cherished relics were teased out of old ladies' lavendered
+chests (happy she who saw them again!), hats were made into boots,
+gowns into doublets, cloaks into hose, Sunday bonnets despoiled of
+their plumage, silken cauliflowers sown broadcast over the land, and
+cocked-up caps erected in every style of architecture, while "Tag,
+Rag, and Bobtail" drove a smashing business, and everybody knew what
+everybody else was going to be, and solemnly vowed they
+didn't--which transparent falsehood was the best joke of the whole.
+
+Dolly allowed her mates to believe she was to be the Queen of
+Hearts, but privately laid hold of certain brocades worn by a trim
+grandmother half a century ago, and one evening burst upon her
+brother in a charming "Little Bo-Peep" costume, which, for the
+benefit of future distressed damsels, may be described as a "white
+silk skirt, scarlet overdress neatly bundled up behind," as ancient
+ladies expressed it, blue hose with red clocks, high-heeled shoes
+with silver buckles, a nosegay in the tucker, and a fly-way hat
+perched in this case on the top of black curls, which gave
+additional archness to Dolly's face as she entered, singing that
+famous ditty.
+
+Dick surveyed her with approval, turning her about like a lay
+figure, and expressing his fraternal opinion that she was "the
+sauciest little turn-out he ever saw," and then wet-blanketed the
+remarks by adding, "Of course you don't call it a disguise, do you?
+and don't flatter yourself that you won't be known; for Dolly Ward
+is as plainly written in every curl, bow, and gimcrack, as if you
+wore a label on your back."
+
+"Then I shan't wear it;" and off went the hat at one fell blow, as
+Dolly threw her crook in one corner, her posy in another, and sat
+down an image of despair.
+
+"Now don't be a goose, and rip everything to bits; just wear a
+domino over all, as Fan is going to, and then, when you've had fun
+enough, take it off and do the pretty. It will make two rigs, you
+see, and bother the boys to your heart's content."
+
+"Dick, I insist upon kissing you for that brilliant suggestion; and
+then you may run and get me eight yards of cambric, just the color
+of Fan's; but if you tell any one, I'll keep her from dancing with
+you the whole evening;" with which bribe and threat Dolly embraced
+her brother, and shut the door in his face, while he, putting
+himself in good humor by imagining she was somebody else, departed
+on his muddy mission.
+
+If the ghosts of the first settlers had taken their walks abroad on
+the eventful Friday night, they would have held up their shadowy
+hands at the scenes going on under their venerable noses; for
+strange figures flitted through the quiet streets, and instead of
+decorous slumber, there was decidedly,--"A sound of revelry by
+night."
+
+Spurs clanked and swords rattled over the frosty ground, as if the
+British were about to make another flying call; hooded monks and
+nuns paced along, on carnal thoughts intent; ancient ladies and
+bewigged gentlemen seemed hurrying to enjoy a social cup of tea, and
+groan over the tax; barrels staggered and stuck through narrow ways,
+as if temperance were still among the lost arts, while bears, apes,
+imps, and elves pattered or sparkled by, as if a second Walpurgis
+Night had come, and all were bound for Blocksberg.
+
+"Hooray for the Rooster!" shouted young Ireland, encamped on the
+sidewalk to see the show, as Mephistopheles' red cock's feather
+skimmed up the stairs, and he left a pink domino at the ladies'
+dressing-room door, with the brief warning, "Now cut your own capers
+and leave me to mine," adding, as he paused a moment at the great
+door,--
+
+"By Jove! isn't it a jolly sight, though?"
+
+And so it was; for a mammoth boot stood sentinel at the entrance; a
+Bedouin Arab leaned on his spear in one corner, looking as if ready
+to say,--
+
+"Fly to the desert, fly with me,"
+
+to the pretty Jewess on his arm; a stately Hamlet, with
+irreproachable legs, settled his plumage in another, still undecided
+to which Ophelia he would first address "The honey of his music
+vows."
+
+Bluff King Hal's representative was waltzing in a way that would
+have filled that stout potentate with respectful admiration, while
+Queen Katherine flirted with a Fire Zouave. Alcipades whisked Mother
+Goose about the room till the old lady's conical hat tottered on her
+head, and the Union held fast to a very little Mac. Flocks of
+friars, black, white, and gray, pervaded the hall, with flocks of
+ballet girls, intended to represent peasants, but failing for lack
+of drapery; morning and evening stars rose or set, as partners
+willed; lively red demons harassed meek nuns, and knights of the
+Leopard, the Lion or Griffin, flashed by, looking heroically
+uncomfortable, in their gilded cages; court ladies promenaded with
+Jack tars, and dukes danced with dairy-maids, while Brother Jonathan
+whittled, Aunt Dinah jabbered, Ingomar flourished his club, and
+every one felt warmly enthusiastic and vigorously jolly.
+
+"Ach himmel! Das ist wunder schon!" murmured a tall, gray monk,
+looking in, and quite unconscious that he spoke aloud.
+
+"Hullo, Bopp! I thought you weren't coming," cried Mephistopheles in
+an emphatic whisper.
+
+"Ah, I guess you! yes, you are well done. I should like to be a
+Faust for you, but I haf no time, no purse for a dress, so I throw
+this on, and run up for a hour or two. Where is--who is all these
+people? Do you know them?"
+
+"The one with the Pope, Fra Diavolo; the telegraph, and two knights
+asking her to dance, is Dolly, if that's what you want to know. Go
+in and keep it up, Bopp, while you can; I am off for Fan;" and
+Mephistopheles departed over the banisters with a weird agility that
+delighted the beholders; while the gray friar stole into a corner
+and watched the pink domino for half an hour, at the end of which
+time his regards were somewhat confused by discovering that there
+were two pink damsels so like that he could not tell which was the
+one pointed out by Dick and which the new-comer.
+
+"She thinks I will not know her, but I shall go now and find out for
+myself;" and, starting into sudden activity, the gray brother strode
+up to the nearest pink lady, bowed, and offered his arm. With a
+haughty little gesture of denial to several others, she accepted it,
+and they joined the circle of many-colored promenaders that eddied
+round the hall. As they went, Mr. Bopp scrutinized his companion,
+but saw only a slender figure shrouded from head to foot, and the
+tip of a white glove resting on his arm.
+
+"I will speak; then her voice will betray her," he thought,
+forgetting that his own was undisguisable.
+
+"Madame, permit me that I fan you, it is so greatly warm."
+
+A fan was surrendered with a bow, and the masked face turned fully
+toward his own, while the hood trembled as if its wearer laughed
+silently.
+
+"Ah, it is you,--I know the eyes, the step, the laugh. Miss Dolly,
+did you think you could hide from me?"
+
+"I did not wish to," was the whispered answer.
+
+"Did you think I would come?"
+
+"I hoped so."
+
+"Then you are not displease with me?"
+
+"No; I am very glad; I wanted you."
+
+The pink head drooped a little nearer, and another white glove went
+to meet its mate upon his arm with a pretty, confiding gesture. Mr.
+Bopp instantly fell into a state of bliss,--the lights, music, gay
+surroundings, and, more than all, this unwonted demonstration, put
+the crowning glory to the moment; and, fired with the hopeful omen,
+he allowed his love to silence his prudence, and lead him to do,
+then and there, the very thing he had often resolved never to do at
+all.
+
+"Ah, Miss Dolly, if you knew how much, how very much you haf
+enlarged my happiness, and made this efening shine for me, you would
+more often be a little friendly, for this winter has been all summer
+to me, since I knew you and your kind home, and now I haf no sorrow
+but that after the next lesson I come no more unless you gif me
+leaf. See now I must say this even here, when so much people are
+about us, because I cannot stop it; and you will forgif me that I
+cannot wait any longer."
+
+"Mr. Bopp, please don't, please stop!" began the pink domino in a
+hurried whisper. But Mr. Bopp was not to be stopped. He had dammed
+up the stream so long, that now it rushed on fast, full, and
+uncontrollable; for, leading her into one of the curtained recesses
+near by, he sat down beside her, and, still plying the fan, went on
+impetuously,--
+
+"I feel to say that I lofe you, and tho' I try to kill it, my love
+will not die, because it is more strong than my will, more dear than
+my pride, for I haf much, and I do not ask you to be meine Frau till
+I can gif you more than my heart and my poor name. But hear now; I
+will work, and save, and wait a many years if at the end you will
+take all I haf and say, 'August, I lofe you.' Do not laugh at me
+because I say this in such poor words; you are my heart's dearest,
+and I must tell it or never come again. Speak to me one kind yes,
+and I will thank Gott in himmel for so much joy."
+
+The pink domino had listened to this rapid speech with averted head,
+and, when it ended, started up, saying eagerly, "You are mistaken,
+sir, I am not Dolly;" but as she spoke her words were belied, for
+the hasty movement displaced her mask, and Mr. Bopp saw Dolly's
+eyes, a lock of dark hair, and a pair of burning cheeks, before the
+screen was readjusted. With redoubled earnestness he held her back,
+whispering,--
+
+"Do not go mitout the little word, Yes, or No; it is not much to
+say."
+
+"Well then, No!"
+
+"You mean it? Dolly! truly mean it?"
+
+"Yes, let me go at once, sir."
+
+Mr. Bopp stood up, saying slowly,--"Yes, go now; they told me you
+had no heart; I beliefe it, and thank you for that No;" then bowed,
+and walked straight out of the hall, while the pink domino broke
+into a fit of laughter, saying to herself,--
+
+"I've done it! I've done it! but what a piece of work there'll be
+to-morrow."
+
+"Dick, who was that tall creature Fan was parading with last night?
+No one knew, and he vanished before the masks were taken off," asked
+Dolly, as she and her brother lounged in opposite corners of the
+sofa the morning after the masquerade, "talking it over."
+
+"That was old Bopp, Mrs. Peep."
+
+"Gracious me! why, he said he wasn't coming."
+
+"People sometimes say what they don't mean, as you may have
+discovered."
+
+"But why didn't he come and speak to a body, Dick?"
+
+"Better employed, I suppose."
+
+"Now don't be cross, dear, but tell me all about it, for I don't
+understand how you allowed him to monopolize Fan so."
+
+"Oh, don't bother, I'm sleepy."
+
+"No you're not; you look wicked; I know you've been in mischief, and
+I insist upon hearing all about it, so come and 'fess' this
+instant."
+
+Dolly proceeded to enforce her command by pulling away his pillow
+and dragging her brother into a sitting posture in spite of his
+laughing resistance and evident desire to exhaust her patience; for
+Dick excelled in teasing, and kept his sister in a fidget from
+morning till night, with occasional fits of penitence and petting
+which lasted till next time. Therefore, though dying to 'fess,' he
+was undecided as to the best method of executing that task in the
+manner most aggravating to his listener and most agreeable to
+himself, and sat regarding her with twinkling eyes, and his curly
+pate in a high state of rumple, trying to appear innocently meek,
+but failing signally.
+
+"Now, then, up and tell," commanded Dolly.
+
+"Well, if you won't take my head off till I'm done, I'll tell you
+the best joke of the season. Are you sure the pink domino with Bopp
+wasn't yourself,--for she looked and acted very like you?"
+
+"Of course I am. I didn't even know he was there, and think it very
+rude and ungentlemanly in him not to come and speak to me. You know
+it was Fan, so do go on."
+
+"But it wasn't, for she changed her mind and wore a black domino; I
+saw her put it on myself. Her Cousin Jack came unexpectedly, and she
+thought if she altered her dress and went with him, you wouldn't
+know her."
+
+"Who could it have been, Dick?"
+
+"That's the mystery, for, do you know, Bopp proposed to her."
+
+"He didn't!" and Dolly flew up with a startled look that, to adopt a
+phrase from his own vocabulary, was "nuts" to her brother.
+
+"Yes he did; I heard him."
+
+"When, where, and how?"
+
+"In one of these flirtation boxes; they dropped the curtain, but I
+heard him do it, on my honor I did."
+
+"Persons of honor don't listen at curtains and key-holes. What did
+they say?"
+
+"Oh, if it wasn't honorable to listen, it isn't to hear; so I won't
+tell, though I could not help knowing it."
+
+"Mercy! don't stop now, or I shall die with curiosity. I dare say I
+should have done the same; no one minds at such a place, you know.
+But I don't see the joke yet," said Dolly dismally.
+
+"I do," and Dick went off into a shout.
+
+"You idiotic boy, take that pillow out of your mouth, and tell me
+the whole thing,--what he said, what she said, and what they both
+did. It was all fun of course, but I'd like to hear about it."
+
+"It may have been fun on her part, but it was solemn earnest on his,
+for he went it strong I assure you. I'd no idea the old fellow was
+so sly, for he appeared smashed with you, you know, and there he was
+finishing up with this unknown lady. I wish you could have heard him
+go on, with tears in his eyes"--
+
+"How do you know if you didn't see him?"
+
+"Oh, well, that's only a figure of speech; I thought so from his
+voice. He was ever so tender, and took to Dutch when English was too
+cool for him. It was really touching, for I never heard a fellow do
+it before; and, upon my word, I should think it was rather a tough
+job to say that sort of thing to a pretty woman, mask or no mask."
+
+"What did she say?" asked Dolly, with her hands pressed tight
+together, and a curious little quiver of the lips.
+
+"She said, No, as short as pie-crust; and when he rushed out with
+his heart broken all to bits apparently, she just burst out
+laughing, and went and polked at a two-forty pace for half an hour."
+
+Dora unclasped her hands, took a long breath, and cried out,--
+
+"She was a wicked, heartless hussy! and if I know her, I'll never
+speak to her again; for if he was really in earnest, she ought to be
+killed for laughing at him."
+
+"So ought you, then, for making fun of poor Fisher when he went down
+on his knees behind the huckleberry bushes last summer. He was
+earnest enough, for he looked as black-and-blue as his berries when
+he got home. Your theory is all right, ma'am, but your practice is
+all bosh."
+
+"Hold your tongue about that silly thing. Boys in college think they
+know everything, can do everything, have everything, and only need
+beckon, and all womankind will come and adore. It made a man of him,
+and he'll thank me for taking the sentimental nonsense and conceit
+out of him. You will need just such a lesson at the rate you go on,
+and I hope Fan will give it to you."
+
+"When the lecture is over, I'll go on with the joke, if you want to
+know it."
+
+"Isn't this enough?"
+
+"Oh, bless you, no! the cream of it is to come. What would you give
+to know who the lady was?"
+
+"Five dollars, down, this minute."
+
+"Very good, hand 'em over, and I'll tell you."
+
+"Truly, Dick?"
+
+"Yes, and prove it."
+
+Dolly produced her purse, and, bill in hand, sat waiting for the
+disclosure. Dick rose with a melo-dramatic bow,--
+
+"Lo, it was I."
+
+"That's a great fib, for I saw you flying about the whole evening."
+
+"You saw my dress, but I was not in it."
+
+"Oh! oh! who _did_ I keep going to, then? and what _did_ I do to
+make a fool of myself, I wonder?"
+
+Purse and bill dropped out of Dolly's hand, and she looked at her
+brother with a distracted expression of countenance. Dick rubbed his
+hands and chuckled.
+
+"Here's a jolly state of things. Now I'll tell you the whole story.
+I never thought of doing it till I saw Bopp and told him who you
+were; but on my way for Fan I wondered if he'd get puzzled between
+you two; and then a grand idea popped into my head to puzzle him
+myself, for I can take you off to the life. Fan didn't want me to,
+but I made her, so she lent me hoops and gown and the pink domino,
+and if ever I thanked my stars I wasn't tall, I did then, for the
+things fitted capitally as to length, tho' I kept splitting
+something down the back, and scattering hooks and eyes in all
+directions. I wish you could have heard Jack roar while they rigged
+me. He had no dress, so I lent him mine, till just before the masks
+were taken off, when we cut home and changed. He told me how you
+kept running to him to tie up your slippers, find your fan, and tell
+him funny things, thinking it was me. I never enjoyed anything so
+much in my life."
+
+"Go on," said Dolly in a breathless sort of voice, and the deluded
+boy obeyed.
+
+"I knew Bopp, and hovered near till he came to find out who I was. I
+took you off in style, and it deceived him, for I'm only an inch or
+two taller than you, and kept my head down in the lackadaisical way
+you girls do; I whispered, so my voice didn't betray me; and was
+very clinging, and sweet, and fluttery, and that blessed old goose
+was sure it was you. I thought it was all over once, for when he
+came the heavy in the recess, I got a bit flustered, he was so
+serious about it, my mask slipped, but I caught it, so he only saw
+my eyes and forehead, which are just like yours, and that finished
+him, for I've no doubt I looked as red and silly as you would have
+done in a like fix."
+
+"Why did you say No?" and Dolly looked as stern as fate.
+
+"What else should I say? You told me you wouldn't have him, and I
+thought it would save you the bother of saying it, and him the pain
+of asking twice. I told him some time ago that you were a born
+flirt; he said he knew it; so I was surprised to hear him go on at
+such a rate, but supposed that I was too amiable, and that misled
+him. Poor old Bopp, I kept thinking of him all night, as he looked
+when he said, 'They told me you had no heart, now I believe it, and
+I thank you for that No.' It was rather a hard joke for him, but
+it's over now, and he won't have to do it again. You said I wouldn't
+dare tell him about you; didn't I? and haven't I won the"--
+
+The rest of the sentence went spinning dizzily through Dick's head,
+as a sudden tingling sensation pervaded his left ear, followed by a
+similar smart in the right; and, for a moment, chaos seemed to have
+come again. Whatever Dolly did was thoroughly done: when she danced,
+the soles of her shoes attested the fact; when she flirted, it was
+warm work while it lasted; and when she was angry, it thundered,
+lightened, and blew great guns till the shower came, and the whole
+affair ended in a rainbow. Therefore, being outwitted, disappointed,
+mortified, and hurt, her first impulse was to find a vent for these
+conflicting emotions, and possessing skillful hands, she left them
+to avenge the wrong done her heart, which they did so faithfully,
+that if ever a young gentleman's ears were vigorously and completely
+boxed, Dick was that young individual. As the thunder-clap ceased,
+the gale began and blew steadily for several minutes.
+
+"You think it a joke, do you? I tell you, it's a wicked, cruel
+thing; you've told a lie; you've broken August's heart, and made me
+so angry that I'll never forgive you as long as I live. What do you
+know about my feelings? and how dare you take it upon yourself to
+answer for me? You think because we are the same age that I am no
+older than you, but you're mistaken, for a boy of eighteen _is_ a
+boy, a girl is often a woman, with a woman's hopes and plans; you
+don't understand this any more than you do August's love for me,
+which you listened to and laughed at. I said I didn't like him, and
+I didn't find out till afterward that I did; then I was afraid to
+tell you lest you'd twit me with it. But now I care for no one, and
+I say I do like him,--yes, I love him with all my heart and soul and
+might and I'd die this minute if I could undo the harm you've done,
+and see him happy. I know I've been selfish, vain, and thoughtless,
+but I am not now; I hoped he'd love me, hoped he'd see I cared for
+him, that I'd done trifling, and didn't mind if he _was_ poor, for
+I'd enough for both; that I longed to make his life pleasant after
+all his troubles; that I'd send for the little sister he loves so
+well, and never let him suffer any more; for he is so good, so
+patient, so generous, and dear to me, I cannot do enough for him.
+Now it's all spoilt; now I can never tell him this, never comfort
+him in any way, never be happy again all my life, and you have done
+it."
+
+As Dolly stood before her brother, pouring out her words with
+glittering eyes, impetuous voice, and face pale with passionate
+emotion, he was scared; for as his scattered wits returned to him,
+he felt that he had been playing with edge tools, and had cut and
+slashed in rather a promiscuous manner. Dazed and dizzy, he sat
+staring at the excited figure before him, forgetting the indignity
+he had received, the mistake he had made, the damage he had done, in
+simple wonder at the revolutions going on under his astonished eyes.
+When Dolly stopped for breath, he muttered with a contrite look,--
+
+"I'm very sorry,--it was only fun; and I thought it would help you
+both, for how the deuce should I know you liked the man when you
+said you hated him?"
+
+"I never said that, and if I'd wanted advice I should have gone to
+mother. You men go blundering off with half an idea in your heads,
+and never see your stupidity till you have made a mess that can't be
+mended; we women don't work so, but save people's feelings, and are
+called hypocrites for our pains. I never meant to tell you, but I
+will now, to show you how I've been serving you, while you've been
+harming me: every one of those notes from Fan which you admire so
+much, answer so carefully, and wear out in your pocket, though
+copied by her, were written by me."
+
+"The devil they were!" Up flew Dick, and clapping his hand on the
+left breast-pocket, out came a dozen pink notes tied up with a blue
+ribbon, and much the worse for wear. He hastily turned them over as
+Dolly went on.
+
+"Yes, I did it, for she didn't know how to answer your notes, and
+came to me. I didn't laugh at them, or make fun of her, but helped
+her silly little wits, and made you a happy boy for three months,
+though you teased me day and night, for I loved you, and hadn't the
+heart to spoil your pleasure."
+
+"You've done it now with a vengeance, and you're a pair of deceitful
+minxes. I've _paid_ you off. I'll give Fan one more note that will
+keep her eyes red for a month; and I'll never love or trust a girl
+again as long as I live,--never! never!"
+
+Red with wrath, Dick flung the treasured packet into the fire,
+punched it well down among the coals, flung away the poker, and
+turned about with a look and gesture which would have been comically
+tragic if they had not been decidedly pathetic, for, in spite of his
+years, a very tender heart beat under the blue jacket, and it was
+grievously wounded at the perfidy of the gentle little divinity whom
+he worshipped with daily increasing ardor. His eyes filled, but he
+winked resolutely; his lips trembled, but he bit them hard; his
+hands doubled themselves up, but he remembered his adversary was a
+woman; and, as a last effort to preserve his masculine dignity, he
+began to whistle.
+
+As if the inconsistencies of womankind were to be shown him as
+rapidly as possible, at this moment the shower came on, for, taking
+him tenderly about the neck, Dolly fell to weeping so infectiously,
+that, after standing rigidly erect till a great tear dropped off the
+end of his nose, ignominiously announcing that it was no go, Dick
+gave in, and laying his head on Dolly's shoulder, the twins quenched
+their anger, washed away their malice, and soothed their sorrow by
+one of those natural processes, so kindly provided for poor
+humanity, and so often despised as a weakness when it might prove a
+better strength than any pride.
+
+Dick cleared up first, with no sign of the tempest but a slight mist
+through which his native sunshine glimmered pensively.
+
+"Don't dear, don't cry so; it will make you sick, and won't do any
+good, for things will come right, or I'll make 'em, and we'll be
+comfortable all round."
+
+"No, we never can be as we were, and it's all my fault. I've
+betrayed Fan's confidence, I've spoiled your little romance, I've
+been a thoughtless, wicked girl, I've lost August; and, oh, dear me,
+I wish I was dead!" with which funereal climax Dolly cried so
+despairingly that, like the youngest Miss Pecksniff, she was indeed
+"a gushing creature."
+
+"Oh, come now, don't be dismal, and blame yourself for every trouble
+under the sun. Sit down and talk it over, and see what can be done.
+Poor old girl, I forgave you the notes, and say I _was_ wrong to
+meddle with Bopp. I got you into the scrape, and I'll get you out if
+the sky don't fall, or Bopp blow his brains out, like a second
+Werther, before to-morrow."
+
+Dick drew the animated fountain to the wide chair, where they had
+sat together since they were born, wiped her eyes, laid her wet
+cheek against his own, and patted her back, with an idea that it was
+soothing to babies, and why not to girls?
+
+"I wish mother was at home," sighed Dolly, longing for that port
+which was always a haven of refuge in domestic squalls like this.
+
+"Write, and tell her not to stay till Saturday."
+
+"No; it would spoil her visit, and you know she deferred it to help
+us through this dreadful masquerade. But I don't know what to do."
+
+"Why, bless your heart, it's simple enough. I'll tell Bopp, beg his
+pardon, say 'Dolly's willing,' and there you are all taut and
+ship-shape again."
+
+"I wouldn't for the world, Dick. It would be very hard for you, very
+awkward for me, and do no good in the end; for August is so proud
+he'd never forgive you for such a trick, would never believe that I
+'had a heart' after all you've said and I've done; and I should only
+hear with my own ears that he thanked me for that No. Oh, why can't
+people know when they are in love, and not go heels over head before
+they are ready!"
+
+"Well, if that don't suit, I'll let it alone, for that is all I can
+suggest; and if you like your woman's way better, try it, only
+you'll have to fly round, because to-morrow is the last night, you
+know."
+
+"I shan't go, Dick."
+
+"Why not? we are going to give him the rose-wood set of things, have
+speeches, cheers for the King of Clubs, and no end of fun."
+
+"I can't help it; there would be no fun for me, and I couldn't look
+him in the face after all this."
+
+"Oh, pooh! yes, you could, or it will be the first time you dared
+not do damage with those wicked eyes of yours."
+
+"It is the first time I ever loved any one." Dolly's voice was so
+low, and her head drooped so much, that this brief confession was
+apparently put away in Dick's pocket, and being an exceedingly novel
+one, filled that inflammable youth with a desire to deposit a
+similar one in the other pocket, which, being emptied of its
+accustomed contents, left a somewhat aching void in itself and the
+heart underneath. After a moment's silence, he said,--
+
+"Well, if you won't go, you can settle it when he comes here, though
+I think we should all do better to confess coming home in the dark."
+
+"He won't come here again, Dick."
+
+"Won't he! that shows you don't know Bopp as well as I. He'll come
+to say good-by, to thank mother for her kindness, and you and me for
+the little things we've done for him (I wish I'd left the last
+undone!), and go away like a gentleman, as he is,--see if he don't."
+
+"Do you think so? Then I must see him."
+
+"I'm sure he will, for we men don't bear malice and sulk and bawl
+when we come to grief this way, but stand up and take it without
+winking, like the young Spartan brick when the fox was digging into
+him, you know."
+
+"Then, of course, you'll forgive Fan."
+
+"I'll be hanged if I do," growled Dick.
+
+"Ah ha! your theory is very good, sir, but your practice is bosh,"
+quoted Dolly, with a gleam of the old mischief in her face.
+
+Dick took a sudden turn through the room, burst out laughing, and
+came back, saying heartily,--
+
+"I'll own up; it is mean to feel so, and I'll think about forgiving
+you both; but she may stop up the hole in the wall, for she won't
+get any more letters just yet; and you may devote your epistolary
+powers to A. Bopp in future. Well, what is it? free your mind, and
+have done with it; but don't make your nose red, or take the starch
+out of my collar with any more salt water, if you please."
+
+"No, I won't; and I only want to say that, as you owe the
+explanation to us both, perhaps it would be best for you to tell
+August your part of the thing as you come home to-morrow, and then
+leave the rest to fate. I can't let him go away thinking me such a
+heartless creature, and once gone it will be too late to mend the
+matter. Can you do this without getting me into another scrape, do
+you think?"
+
+"I haven't a doubt of it, and I call that sensible. I'll fix it
+capitally,--go down on my knees in the mud, if it is necessary;
+treat you like eggs for fear of another smash-up; and bring him home
+in such a tip-top state, you'll only have to nod and find yourself
+Mrs. B. any day you like. Now let's kiss and be friends, and then go
+pitch into that pie for luncheon."
+
+So they did, and an hour afterward were rioting in the garret under
+pretence of putting grandma's things away; for at eighteen, in spite
+of love and mischief, boys and girls have a spell to exorcise blue
+devils, and a happy faculty of forgetting that "the world is hollow,
+and their dolls stuffed with saw-dust."
+
+Dick was right, for on the following evening, after the lesson, Mr.
+Bopp did go home with him, "to say good-by, like a gentleman as he
+was." Dolly got over the first greeting in the dusky hall, and as
+her guest passed on to the parlor, she popped her head out to ask
+anxiously,--
+
+"Did you say anything, Dick?"
+
+"I couldn't; something has happened to him; he'll tell you about it.
+I'm going to see to the horse, so take your time, and do what you
+like," with which vague information Dick vanished, and Dolly wished
+herself anywhere but where she was.
+
+Mr. Bopp sat before the fire, looking so haggard and worn out that
+the girl's conscience pricked her sorely for her part in the change,
+but plucking up her courage, she stirred briskly among the tea-cups,
+asking,--
+
+"What shall I give you, sir?"
+
+"Thank you, I haf no care to eat."
+
+Something in his spiritless mien and sorrowful voice made Dolly's
+eyes fill; but knowing she must depend upon herself now, and make
+the best of her position, she said kindly, yet nervously,--
+
+"You look tired; let me do something for you if I can; shall I sing
+for you a little? you once said music rested you."
+
+"You are kind; I could like that I think. Excoose me if I am dull, I
+haf--yes, a little air if you please."
+
+More and more disturbed by his absent, troubled manner, Dolly began
+a German song he had taught her, but before the first line was sung
+he stopped her with an imploring--
+
+"For Gott sake not that! I cannot hear it this night; it was the
+last I sung her in the Vaterland."
+
+"Mr. Bopp, what is it? Dick says you have a trouble; tell me, and
+let us help you if we can. Are you ill, in want, or has any one
+wronged or injured you in any way? Oh, let me help you!"
+
+Tears had been streaming down Mr. Bopp's cheeks, but as she spoke he
+checked them, and tried to answer steadily,--
+
+"No, I am not ill; I haf no wants now, and no one has hurt me but in
+kindness; yet I haf so great a grief, I could not bear it all alone,
+and so I came to ask a little sympathy from your good Mutter, who
+has been kind to me as if I was a son. She is not here, and I
+thought I would stop back my grief; but that moosic was too much;
+you pity me, and so I tell you. See, now! when I find things go
+bright with me, and haf a hope of much work, I take the little store
+I saved, I send it to my friend Carl Hoffman, who is coming from my
+home, and say, 'Bring Ulla to me now, for I can make life go well to
+her, and I am hungry till I haf her in my arms again.' I tell no
+one, for I am bold to think that one day I come here with her in my
+hand, to let her thank you in her so sweet way for all you haf done
+for me. Well, I watch the wind, I count the days, I haf no rest for
+joy; and when Carl comes, I fly to him. He gifs me back my store, he
+falls upon my neck and does not speak, then I know my little Kind
+will never come, for she has gone to Himmel before I could make a
+home for her on earth. Oh, my Ulla! it is hard to bear;" and, with a
+rain of bitter tears, poor Mr. Bopp covered up his face and laid it
+down on his empty plate, as if he never cared to lift it up again.
+
+Then Dolly forgot herself in her great sympathy, and, going to him,
+she touched the bent head with a soothing hand; let her tears flow
+to comfort his; and whispered in her tenderest voice,--
+
+"Dear Mr. Bopp, I wish I could heal this sorrow, but as I cannot,
+let me bear it with you; let me tell you how we loved the little
+child, and longed to see her; how we should have rejoiced to know
+you had so dear a friend to make your life happy in this strange
+land; how we shall grieve for your great loss, and long to prove our
+respect and love for you. I cannot say this as I ought, but, oh, be
+comforted, for you will see the child again, and, remembering that
+she waits for you, you will be glad to go when God calls you to meet
+your Ulla in that other Fatherland."
+
+"Ah, I will go now! I haf no wish to stay, for all my life is black
+to me. If I had found that other little friend to fill her place, I
+should not grieve so much, because she is weller there above than I
+could make her here; but no; I wait for that other one; I save all
+my heart for her; I send it, but it comes back to me; then I know my
+hope is dead, and I am all alone in the strange land."
+
+There was neither bitterness nor reproach in these broken words,
+only a patient sorrow, a regretful pain, as if he saw the two lost
+loves before him and uttered over them an irrepressible lament. It
+was too much for Dolly and with sudden resolution she spoke out fast
+and low,--
+
+"Mr. Bopp, that was a mistake. It was not I you saw at the masque;
+it was Dick. He played a cruel trick; he insulted you and wronged me
+by that deceit, and I find it very hard to pardon him."
+
+"What! what is that!" and Mr. Bopp looked up with tears still
+shining in his beard, and intense surprise in every feature of his
+face.
+
+Dolly turned scarlet, and her heart beat fast as she repeated with
+an unsteady voice,--
+
+"It was Dick, not I."
+
+A cloud swept over Mr. Bopp's face, and he knit his brows a moment
+as if Dolly had not been far from right when she said "he never
+would forgive the joke." Presently, he spoke in a tone she had never
+heard before,--cold and quiet,--and in his eye she thought she read
+contempt for her brother and herself,--
+
+"I see now, and I say no more but this; it was not kind when I so
+trusted you. Yet it is well, for you and Richart are so one, I haf
+no doubt he spoke your wish."
+
+Here was a desperate state of things. Dolly had done her best, yet
+he did not, or would not, understand, and, before she could restrain
+them, the words slipped over her tongue,--
+
+"No! Dick and I never agree."
+
+Mr. Bopp started, swept three spoons and a tea-cup off the table as
+he turned, for something in the hasty whisper reassured him. The
+color sprang up to his cheek, the old warmth to his eye, the old
+erectness to his figure, and the eager accent to his voice. He rose,
+drew Dolly nearer, took her face between his hands, and bending,
+fixed on her a look tender yet masterful, as he said with an
+earnestness that stirred her as words had never done before,--
+
+"Dollee, _he_ said No! do _you_ say, Yes?"
+
+She could not speak, but her heart stood up in her eyes and answered
+him so eloquently that he was satisfied.
+
+"Thank the Lord, it's all right!" thought Dick, as, peeping in at the
+window ten minutes later, he saw Dolly enthroned upon Mr. Bopp's knee,
+both her hands in his, and an expression in her April countenance
+which proved that she found it natural and pleasant to be sitting
+there, with her head on the kind heart that loved her; to hear herself
+called "_meine leibchen;_" to know that she alone could comfort him for
+little Ulla's loss, and fill her empty place.
+
+"They make a very pretty landscape, but too much honey isn't good
+for 'em, so I'll go in, and we'll eat, drink, and be merry, in honor
+of the night."
+
+He rattled the latch and tramped on the mat to warn them of his
+approach, and appeared just as Dolly was skimming into a chair, and
+Mr. Bopp picking up the spoons, which he dropped again to meet Dick,
+with a face "clear shining after rain;" and kissing him on both
+cheeks after the fashion of his country, he said, pointing to
+Dolly,--
+
+"See, it is all fine again. I forgif you, and leave all blame to
+that bad spirit, Mephistopheles, who has much pranks like that, but
+never pays one for their pain, as you haf me. Heart's dearest, come
+and say a friendly word to Richart, then we will haf a little
+health,--Long life and happiness to the King of Clubs and the Queen
+of Hearts."
+
+"Yes, August, and as he's to be a farmer, we'll add another,--'Wiser
+wits and better manners to the Knave of Spades.'"
+
+
+
+
+THE CROSS ON THE OLD CHURCH TOWER.
+
+
+_UP_ the dark stairs that led to his poor home strode a gloomy-faced
+young man with despair in his heart and these words on his lips:--
+
+"I will struggle and suffer no longer; my last hope has failed, and
+life, become a burden, I will rid myself of at once."
+
+As he muttered his stern purpose, he flung wide the door and was
+about to enter, but paused upon the threshold; for a glance told him
+that he had unconsciously passed his own apartment and come up
+higher, till he found himself in a room poorer but more cheerful
+than his own.
+
+Sunshine streamed in through the one small window, where a caged
+bird was blithely singing, and a few flowers blossomed in the light.
+But blither than the bird's song, sweeter than the flowers, was the
+little voice and wan face of a child, who lay upon a bed placed
+where the warmest sunbeams fell.
+
+The face turned smiling on the pillow, and the voice said
+pleasantly,--
+
+"Come in, sir, Bess will soon be back if you will wait."
+
+"I want nothing of Bess. Who is she and who are you?" asked the
+intruder pausing as he was about to go.
+
+"She is my sister, sir, and I'm 'poor Jamie' as they call me. But
+indeed, I am not to be pitied, for I am a happy child, though it may
+not seem so."
+
+"Why do you lie there? are you sick?"
+
+"No, I am not sick, though I shall never leave my bed again. See,
+this is why;" and, folding back the covering, the child showed his
+little withered limbs.
+
+"How long have you lain here, my poor boy?" asked the stranger,
+touched and interested in spite of himself.
+
+"Three years, sir."
+
+"And yet you are happy! What in Heaven's name have you to render you
+contented, child?"
+
+"Come sit beside me, and I'll tell you, sir; that is, if you please
+I should love to talk with you, for it's lonely here when Bess is
+gone."
+
+Something in the child's winning voice, and the influence of the
+cheerful room, calmed the young man's troubled spirit and seemed to
+lighten his despair. He sat down at the bedside looking gloomily
+upon the child, who lay smiling placidly as with skilful hands he
+carved small figures from the bits of wood scattered round him on
+the coverlid.
+
+"What have you to make you happy, Jamie? Tell me your secret, for I
+need the knowledge very much," said his new friend earnestly.
+
+"First of all I have dear Bess," and the child's voice lingered
+lovingly upon the name; "she is so good, so very good to me, no one
+can tell how much we love each other. All day, she sits beside my
+bed singing to ease my pain, or reading while I work; she gives me
+flowers and birds, and all the sunshine that comes in to us, and
+sits there in the shadow that I may be warm and glad. She waits on
+me all day; but when I wake at night, I always see her sewing
+busily, and know it is for me,--my good kind Bess!
+
+"Then I have my work, sir, to amuse me; and it helps a little too,
+for kind children always buy my toys, when Bess tells them of the
+little boy who carved them lying here at home while they play out
+among the grass and flowers where he can never be."
+
+"What else, Jamie?" and the listener's face grew softer as the
+cheerful voice went on.
+
+"I have my bird, sir, and my roses, I have books, and best of all, I
+have the cross on the old church tower. I can see it from my pillow
+and it shines there all day long, so bright and beautiful, while the
+white doves coo upon the roof below. I love it dearly."
+
+The young man looked out through the narrow window and saw, rising
+high above the house-tops, like a finger pointing heavenward, the
+old gray tower and the gleaming cross. The city's din was far below,
+and through the summer air the faint coo of the doves and the
+flutter of their wings came down, like peaceful country sounds.
+
+"Why do you love it, Jamie?" he asked, looking at the thoughtful
+face that lit up eagerly as the boy replied,--
+
+"Because it does me so much good, sir. Bess told me long ago about
+the blessed Jesus who bore so much for us, and I longed to be as
+like him as a little child could grow. So when my pain was very
+sharp, I looked up there, and, thinking of the things he suffered,
+tried so hard to bear it that I often could; but sometimes when it
+was too bad, instead of fretting Bess, I'd cry softly, looking up
+there all the time and asking him to help me be a patient child. I
+think he did; and now it seems so like a friend to me, I love it
+better every day. I watch the sun climb up along the roofs in the
+morning, creeping higher and higher till it shines upon the cross
+and turns it into gold. Then through the day I watch the sunshine
+fade away till all the red goes from the sky, and for a little while
+I cannot see it through the dark. But the moon comes, and I love it
+better then; for lying awake through the long nights, I see the
+cross so high and bright with stars all shining round it, and I feel
+still and happy in my heart as when Bess sings to me in the
+twilight."
+
+"But when there is no moon, or clouds hide it from you, what then,
+Jamie?" asked the young man, wondering if there were no cloud to
+darken the cheerful child's content.
+
+"I wait till it is clear again, and feel that it is there, although
+I cannot see it, sir. I hope it never will be taken down, for the
+light upon the cross seems like that I see in dear Bessie's eyes
+when she holds me in her arms and calls me her 'patient Jamie.' She
+never knows I try to bear my troubles for her sake, as she bears
+hunger and cold for mine. So you see, sir, how many things I have to
+make me a happy child."
+
+"I would gladly lie down on your pillow to be half as light of heart
+as you are, little Jamie, for I have lost my faith in everything and
+with it all my happiness;" and the heavy shadow which had lifted for
+a while fell back darker than before upon the anxious face beside
+the bed.
+
+"If I were well and strong like you, sir, I think I should be so
+thankful nothing could trouble me;" and with a sigh the boy glanced
+at the vigorous frame and energetic countenance of his new friend,
+wondering at the despondent look he wore.
+
+"If you were poor, so poor you had no means wherewith to get a crust
+of bread, nor a shelter for the night; if you were worn-out with
+suffering and labor, soured by disappointment and haunted by
+ambitious hopes never to be realized, what would you do, Jamie?"
+suddenly asked the young man, prompted by the desire that every
+human heart has felt for sympathy and counsel, even from the little
+creature before him ignorant and inexperienced as he was.
+
+But the child, wiser in his innocence than many an older counsellor,
+pointed upward, saying with a look of perfect trust,--
+
+"I should look up to the cross upon the tower and think of what Bess
+told me about God, who feeds the birds and clothes the flowers, and
+I should wait patiently, feeling sure he would remember me."
+
+The young man leaned his head upon his folded arms and nothing
+stirred in the room, but the wind that stole in through the roses to
+fan the placid face upon the pillow.
+
+"Are you weary waiting for me, Jamie dear? I could not come before;"
+and as her eager voice broke the silence, Sister Bess came hastening
+in.
+
+The stranger, looking up, saw a young girl regarding him from
+Jamie's close embrace, with a face whose only beauty was the light
+her brother spoke of, that beamed warm and bright from her mild
+countenance and made the poor room fairer for its presence.
+
+"This is Bess, my Bess, sir," cried the boy, "and she will thank you
+for your kindness in sitting here so long with me."
+
+"I am the person who lodges just below you; I mistook this room for
+my own; pardon me, and let me come again, for Jamie has already done
+me good," replied the stranger as he rose to go.
+
+"Bess, dear, will you bring me a cup of water?" Jamie said; and as
+she hastened away, he beckoned his friend nearer, saying with a
+timid wistful look,--
+
+"Forgive me, if it's wrong, but I wish you would let me give you
+this; it's very little, but it may help some; and I think you'll
+take it to please 'poor Jamie.' Won't you, sir?" and as he spoke,
+the child offered a bright coin, the proceeds of his work.
+
+Tears sprung into the proud man's eyes; he held the little wasted
+hand fast in his own a moment, saying seriously,--
+
+"I _will_ take it, Jamie, as a loan wherewith to begin anew the life
+I was about to fling away as readily as I do this;" and with a quick
+motion he sent a vial whirling down into the street. "I'll try the
+world once more in a humbler spirit, and have faith in _you,_ at
+least, my little Providence."
+
+With an altered purpose in his heart, and a brave smile on his lips,
+the young man went away, leaving the child with another happy
+memory, to watch the cross upon the old church tower.
+
+It was mid-winter; and in the gloomy house reigned suffering and
+want. Sister Bess worked steadily to earn the dear daily bread so
+many pray for and so many need. Jamie lay upon his bed, carving with
+feeble hands the toys which would have found far readier purchasers,
+could they have told the touching story of the frail boy lying
+meekly in the shadow of the solemn change which daily drew more
+near.
+
+Cheerful and patient always, poverty and pain seemed to have no
+power to darken his bright spirit; for God's blessed charity had
+gifted him with that inward strength and peace it so often brings to
+those who seem to human eyes most heavily afflicted.
+
+Secret tears fell sometimes on his pillow, and whispered prayers
+went up; but Bess never knew it, and like a ray of sunshine, the
+boy's tranquil presence lit up that poor home; and amid the darkest
+hours of their adversity, the little rushlight of his childish faith
+never wavered nor went out.
+
+Below them lived the young man, no stranger now, but a true friend,
+whose generous pity would not let them suffer any want he could
+supply. Hunger and cold were hard teachers, but he learned their
+lessons bravely, and though his frame grew gaunt and his eye hollow,
+yet, at heart, he felt a better, happier man for the stern
+discipline that taught him the beauty of self-denial and the
+blessedness of loving his neighbor _better_ than himself.
+
+The child's influence remained unchanged, and when anxiety or
+disappointment burdened him, the young man sat at Jamie's bedside
+listening to the boy's unconscious teaching, and receiving fresh
+hope and courage from the childish words and the wan face, always
+cheerful and serene.
+
+With this example constantly before him, he struggled on, feeling
+that if the world were cold and dark, he had within himself one true
+affection to warm and brighten his hard life.
+
+"Give me joy, Jamie! Give me joy, Bess! the book sells well, and we
+shall yet be rich and famous," cried the young author as he burst
+into the quiet room one wintry night with snow-flakes glittering in
+his hair, and his face aglow with the keen air which had no chill in
+it to him now.
+
+Bess looked up to smile a welcome, and Jamie tried to cry "Hurrah;"
+but the feeble voice faltered and failed, and he could only wave his
+hand and cling fast to his friend, whispering, brokenly,--
+
+"I'm glad, oh, very glad; for now you need not rob yourself for us.
+I know you have, Walter; I have seen it in your poor thin face and
+these old clothes. It never would have been so, but for Bess and
+me."
+
+"Hush, Jamie, and lie here upon my arm and rest; for you are very
+tired with your work,--I know by this hot hand and shortened breath.
+Are you easy now? Then listen; for I've brave news to tell you, and
+never say again I do too much for you,--the cause of my success."
+
+"I, Walter," cried the boy; "what do you mean?"
+
+Looking down upon the wondering face uplifted to his own, the young
+man answered with deep feeling,--
+
+"Six months ago I came into this room a desperate and despairing
+man, weary of life, because I knew not how to use it, and eager to
+quit the struggle because I had not learned to conquer fortune by
+energy and patience. You kept me, Jamie, till the reckless mood was
+passed, and by the beauty of your life showed me what mine should
+be. Your courage shamed my cowardice; your faith rebuked my fears;
+your lot made my own seem bright again. I, a man with youth, health,
+and the world before me, was about to fling away the life which you,
+a helpless little child, made useful, good, and happy, by the power
+of your own brave will. I felt how weak, how wicked I had been, and
+was not ashamed to learn of you the lesson you so unconsciously were
+teaching. God bless you, Jamie, for the work you did that day."
+
+"Did I do so much?" asked the boy with innocent wonder; "I never
+knew it, and always thought you had grown happier and kinder because
+I had learned to love you more. I'm very glad if I did anything for
+you, who do so much for us. But tell me of the book; you never would
+before."
+
+With a kindling eye Walter replied,--
+
+"I would not tell you till all was sure; now, listen. I wrote a
+story, Jamie,--a story of our lives, weaving in few fancies of my
+own and leaving you unchanged,--the little counsellor and good angel
+of the ambitious man's hard life. I painted no fictitious sorrows.
+What I had seen and keenly felt I could truly tell,--your cheerful
+patience, Bess's faithful love, my struggles, hopes, and fears. This
+book, unlike the others, was not rejected; for the simple truth,
+told by an earnest pen, touched and interested. It was accepted, and
+has been kindly welcomed, thanks to you, Jamie; for many buy it to
+learn more of you, to weep and smile over artless words of yours,
+and forget their pity in their reverence and love for the child who
+taught the man to be, not what he is, but what, with God's help, he
+will yet become."
+
+"They are very kind, and so are you, Walter, and I shall be proud to
+have you rich and great, though I may not be here to see it."
+
+"You will, Jamie, you must; for it will be nothing without you;" and
+as he spoke, the young man held the thin hand closer in his own and
+looked more tenderly into the face upon his arm.
+
+The boy's eyes shone with a feverish light, a scarlet flush burned
+on his hollow cheek, and the breath came slowly from his parted
+lips, but over his whole countenance there lay a beautiful serenity
+which filled his friend with hope and fear.
+
+"Walter bid Bess put away that tiresome work; she has sat at it all
+day long, never stirring but to wait on me;" and as he spoke, a
+troubled look flitted across the boy's calm face.
+
+"I shall soon be done, Jamie, and I must not think of rest till
+then, for there is neither food nor fuel for the morrow. Sleep,
+yourself, dear, and dream of pleasant things; I am not very tired."
+
+And Bess bent closer to her work, trying to sing a little song, that
+they might not guess how near the tears were to her aching eyes.
+
+From beneath his pillow Jamie drew a bit of bread, whispering to his
+friend as he displayed it,--
+
+"Give it to Bess; I saved it for her till you came, for she will not
+take it from me, and she has eaten nothing all this day."
+
+"And you, Jamie?" asked Walter, struck by the sharpened features of
+the boy, and the hungry look which for a moment glistened in his
+eye.
+
+"I don't need much, you know, for I don't work like Bess; but yet
+she gives me all. Oh, how can I bear to see her working so for me,
+and I lying idle here!"
+
+As he spoke, Jamie clasped his hands before his face, and through
+his slender fingers streamed such tears as children seldom shed.
+
+It was so rare a thing for him to weep that it filled Walter with
+dismay and a keener sense of his own powerlessness. Ho could bear
+any privation for himself alone, but he could not see them suffer.
+He had nothing to offer them; for though there was seeming wealth in
+store for him, he was now miserably poor. He stood a moment, looking
+from brother to sister, both so dear to him, and both so plainly
+showing how hard a struggle life had been to them.
+
+With a bitter exclamation, the young man turned away and went out
+into the night, muttering to himself,--
+
+"They shall not suffer; I will beg or steal first."
+
+And with some vague purpose stirring within him, he went swiftly on
+until he reached a great thoroughfare, nearly deserted now, but
+echoing occasionally to a quick step as some one hurried home to his
+warm fireside.
+
+"A little money, sir, for a sick child and a starving woman;" and
+with outstretched hand Walter arrested an old man. But he only
+wrapped his furs still closer and passed on, saying sternly,--
+
+"I have nothing for vagrants. Go to work, young man."
+
+A woman poorly clad in widow's weeds passed at that moment, and, as
+the beggar fell back from the rich man's path, she dropped a bit of
+silver in his hand, saying with true womanly compassion,--
+
+"Heaven help you! it is all I have to give."
+
+"I'll beg no more," muttered Walter, as he turned away burning with
+shame and indignation; "I'll _take_ from the rich what the poor so
+freely _give._ God pardon me; I see no other way, and they must not
+starve."
+
+With a vague sense of guilt already upon him, he stole into a more
+unfrequented street and slunk into the shadow of a doorway to wait
+for coming steps and nerve himself for his first evil deed.
+
+Glancing up to chide the moonlight for betraying him, he started;
+for there, above the snow-clad roofs, rose the cross upon the tower.
+Hastily he averted his eyes, as if they had rested on the mild,
+reproachful countenance of a friend.
+
+Far up in the wintry sky the bright symbol shone, and from it seemed
+to fall a radiance, warmer than the moonlight, clearer than the
+starlight, showing to that tempted heart the darkness of the yet
+uncommitted wrong.
+
+That familiar sight recalled the past; he thought of Jamie, and
+seemed to hear again the childish words, uttered long ago, "God will
+remember us."
+
+Steps came and went along the lonely street, but the dark figure in
+the shadow never stirred, only stood there with bent head, accepting
+the silent rebuke that shone down upon it, and murmuring, softly,--
+
+"God remember little Jamie, and forgive me that my love for him led
+me astray."
+
+As Walter raised his hand to dash away the drops that rose at the
+memory of the boy, his eye fell on the ring he always wore for his
+dead mother's sake. He had hoped to see it one day on Bess's hand,
+but now a generous thought banished all others and with the energy
+of an honest purpose be hastened to sell the ring, purchase a little
+food and fuel, and borrowing a warm covering of a kindly neighbor,
+he went back to dispense these comforts with a satisfaction he had
+little thought to feel.
+
+The one lamp burned low; a few dying embers lay upon the earth, and
+no sound broke the silence but the steady rustle of Bess's needle,
+and the echo of Jamie's hollow cough.
+
+"Wrap it around Bess; she has given me her cloak, and needs it more
+than I,--these coverings do very well;" and as he spoke, Jamie put
+away the blanket Walter offered, and suppressing a shiver, hid his
+purple hands beneath the old, thin cloak.
+
+"Here is bread, Jamie; eat for Heaven's sake, no need to save it
+now;" and Walter pressed it on the boy, but he only took a little,
+saying he had not much need of food and loved to see them eat far
+better.
+
+So in the cheery blaze of the rekindled fire, Bess and Walter broke
+their long fast, and never saw how eagerly Jamie gathered up the
+scattered crumbs, nor heard him murmur softly, as he watched them
+with loving eyes,--
+
+"There will be no cold nor hunger up in heaven, but enough for
+all,--enough for all."
+
+"Walter, you'll be kind to Bess when I am not here?" he whispered
+earnestly, as his friend came to draw his bed within the ruddy
+circle of the firelight gleaming on the floor.
+
+"I will, Jamie, kinder than a brother," was the quick reply. "But
+why ask me that with such a wistful face?"
+
+The boy did not answer, but turned on his pillow and kissed his
+sister's shadow as it flitted by.
+
+Gray dawn was in the sky before they spoke again. Bess slept the
+deep, dreamless sleep of utter weariness, her head pillowed on her
+arms. Walter sat beside the bed, lost in sweet and bitter musings,
+silent and motionless, fancying the boy slept. But a low voice broke
+the silence, whispering feebly.
+
+"Walter, will you take me in your strong arms and lay me on my
+little couch beside the window? I should love to see the cross
+again, and it is nearly day."
+
+So light, so very light, the burden seemed, Walter turned his face
+aside lest the boy should see the sorrowful emotion painted there,
+and with a close embrace he laid him tenderly down to watch the
+first ray climbing up the old gray tower.
+
+"The frost lies so thickly on the window-panes that you cannot see
+it, even when the light comes, Jamie," said his friend, vainly
+trying to gratify the boy's wish.
+
+"The sun will melt it soon, and I can wait,--I can wait, Walter;
+it's but a little while;" and Jamie, with a patient smile, turned
+his face to the dim window and lay silent.
+
+Higher and higher crept the sunshine till it shone through the
+frostwork on the boy's bright head; his bird awoke and carolled
+blithely, but he never stirred.
+
+"Asleep at last, poor, tired little Jamie; I'll not wake him till
+the day is warmer;" and Walter, folding the coverings closer over
+the quiet figure, sat beside it, waiting till it should wake.
+
+"Jamie dear, look up, and see how beautifully your last rose has
+blossomed in the night when least we looked for it;" and Bess came
+smiling in with the one white rose, so fragrant but so frail.
+
+Jamie did not turn to greet her, for all frost had melted from the
+boy's life now; another flower had blossomed in the early dawn, and
+though the patient face upon the pillow was bathed in sunshine,
+little Jamie was not there to see it gleaming on the cross. God had
+remembered him.
+
+Spring showers had made the small mound green, and scattered flowers
+in the churchyard. Sister Bess sat in the silent room alone, working
+still, but pausing often to wipe away the tears that fell upon a
+letter on her knee.
+
+Steps came springing up the narrow stairs and Walter entered with a
+beaming face, to show the first rich earnings of his pen, and ask
+her to rest from her long labor in the shelter of his love.
+
+"Dear Bess, what troubles you? Let me share your sorrow and try to
+lighten it," he cried with anxious tenderness, sitting beside her on
+the little couch where Jamie fell asleep.
+
+In the frank face smiling on her, the girl's innocent eyes read
+nothing but the friendly interest of a brother, and remembering his
+care and kindness, she forgot her womanly timidity in her great
+longing for sympathy, and freely told him all.
+
+Told him of the lover she left years ago to cling to Jamie, and how
+this lover went across the sea hoping to increase his little fortune
+that the helpless brother might be sheltered for love of her. How
+misfortune followed him, and when she looked to welcome back a
+prosperous man, there came a letter saying that all was lost and he
+must begin the world anew and win a home to offer her before he
+claimed the heart so faithful to him all these years.
+
+"He writes so tenderly and bears his disappointment bravely for my
+sake; but it is very hard to see our happiness deferred again when
+such a little sum would give us to each other."
+
+As she ceased, Bess looked for comfort into the countenance of her
+companion, never seeing through her tears how pale it was with
+sudden grief, how stern with repressed emotion. She only saw the
+friend whom Jamie loved and that tie drew her toward him as to an
+elder brother to whom she turned for help, unconscious then how
+great his own need was.
+
+"I never knew of this before, Bess; you kept your secret well" he
+said, trying to seem unchanged.
+
+The color deepened in her cheek; but she answered simply, "I never
+spoke of it, for words could do no good, and Jamie grieved silently
+about it, for he thought it a great sacrifice, though I looked on it
+as a sacred duty, and he often wearied himself to show in many
+loving ways how freshly he remembered it. My grateful little Jamie."
+
+And her eyes wandered to the green tree-tops tossing in the wind,
+whose shadows flickered pleasantly above the child.
+
+"Let me think a little, Bess, before I counsel you. Keep a good
+heart and rest assured that I will help you if I can," said Walter,
+trying to speak hopefully.
+
+"But you come to tell me something; at least, I fancied I saw some
+good tidings in your face just now. Forgive my selfish grief, and
+see how gladly I will sympathize with any joy of yours."
+
+"It is nothing, Bess, another time will do as well," he answered,
+eager to be gone lest he should betray what must be kept most
+closely now.
+
+"It never will be told, Bess,--never in this world," he sighed
+bitterly as he went back to his own room which never in his darkest
+hours had seemed so dreary; for now the bright hope of his life was
+gone.
+
+"I have it in my power to make them happy," he mused as he sat
+alone, "but I cannot do it, for in this separation lies my only
+hope. He may die or may grow weary, and then to whom will Bess turn
+for comfort but to me? I will work on, earn riches and a name, and
+if that hour should come, then in her desolation I will offer all to
+Bess and surely she will listen and accept. Yet it were a generous
+thing to make her happiness at once, forgetful of my own. How shall
+I bear to see her waiting patiently, while youth and hope are fading
+slowly, and know that I might end her weary trial and join two
+faithful hearts? Oh, Jamie, I wish to Heaven I were asleep with you,
+freed from the temptations that beset me. It is so easy to perceive
+the right, so hard to do it."
+
+The sound of that familiar name, uttered despairingly, aloud, fell
+with a sweet and solemn music upon Walter's ear. A flood of tender
+memories swept away the present, and brought back the past. He
+thought of that short life, so full of pain and yet of patience, of
+the sunny nature which no cloud could overshadow, and the simple
+trust which was its strength and guide.
+
+He thought of that last night and saw now with clearer eyes the
+sacrifices and the trials silently borne for love of Bess.
+
+The beautiful example of the child rebuked the passion of he man,
+and through the magic of affection strengthened generous impulses
+and banished selfish hopes.
+
+"I promised to be kind to Bess, and with God's help I will keep my
+vow. Teach me to bear my pain, to look for help where you found it,
+little Jamie;" and as he spoke, the young man gazed up at the
+shining cross, striving to see in it not merely an object of the
+dead boy's love, but a symbol of consolation, hope, and faith.
+
+"It is a noble thing to see an honest man cleave his own heart in
+twain to fling away the baser part of it."
+
+These words came to Walter's mind and fixed the resolution wavering
+there, and as his glance wandered from the gray tower to the
+churchyard full of summer stillness, he said within himself,--
+
+"This is the hardest struggle of my life, but I will conquer and
+come out from the conflict master of myself at least, and like
+Jamie, try to wait until the sunshine comes again, even if it only
+shine upon me, dead like him."
+
+It was no light task to leave the airy castles built by love and
+hope, and go back cheerfully to the solitude of a life whose only
+happiness for a time was in the memory of the past. But through the
+weeks that bore one lover home, the other struggled to subdue his
+passion, and be as generous in his sorrow as he would have been in
+his joy.
+
+It was no easy conquest; but he won the hardest of all victories,
+that of self, and found in the place of banished pride and
+bitterness a patient strength, and the one desire to be indeed more
+generous than a brother to gentle Bess. He had truly, "cleft his
+heart in twain and flung away the baser part."
+
+A few days before the absent lover came, Walter went to Bess, and,
+with a countenance whose pale serenity touched her deeply, he laid
+his gift before her, saying,--
+
+"I owe this all to Jamie; and the best use I can make of it is to
+secure your happiness, as I promised him I'd try to do. Take it and
+God bless you, Sister Bess."
+
+"And you, Walter, what will your future be if I take this and go
+away to enjoy it as you would have me?" Bess asked, with an
+earnestness that awoke his wonder.
+
+"I shall work, Bess, and in that find content and consolation for
+the loss of you and Jamie. Do not think of me; this money will do me
+far more good in your hands than my own. Believe me it is best to be
+so, therefore do not hesitate."
+
+Bess took it, for she had learned the cause of Walter's restless
+wanderings and strange avoidance of herself of late, and she judged
+wisely that the generous nature should be gratified, and the
+hard-won victory rewarded by the full accomplishment of its
+unselfish end. Few words expressed her joyful thanks, but from that
+time Walter felt that he held as dear a place as Jamie in her
+grateful heart, and was content.
+
+Summer flowers were blooming when Bess went from the old home a
+happy wife, leaving her faithful friend alone in the little room
+where Jamie lived and died.
+
+Years passed, and Walter's pen had won for him an honored name.
+Poverty and care were no longer his companions; many homes were open
+to him, many hearts would gladly welcome him, but he still lingered
+in the gloomy house, a serious, solitary man, for his heart lay
+beneath the daisies of a child's grave.
+
+But his life was rich in noble aims and charitable deeds, and with
+his strong nature softened by the sharp discipline of sorrow, and
+sweetened by the presence of a generous love, he was content to
+dwell alone with the memory of little Jamie, in the shadow of "the
+cross upon the tower."
+
+
+
+
+THE DEATH OF JOHN.
+
+This is not a tale, but a true history.--ED.
+
+FROM "HOSPITAL SKETCHES."
+
+
+_HARDLY_ was I settled again, when the inevitable bowl appeared, and
+its bearer delivered a message I had expected, yet dreaded to
+receive:--
+
+"John is going, ma'am, and wants to see you, if you can come."
+
+"The moment this boy is asleep; tell him so, and let me know if I am
+in danger of being too late."
+
+My Ganymede departed, and while I quieted poor Shaw, I thought of
+John. He came in a day or two after the others; and, one evening,
+when I entered my "pathetic room," I found a lately emptied bed
+occupied by a large, fair man, with a fine face, and the serenest
+eyes I ever met. One of the earlier comers had often spoken of a
+friend, who had remained behind, that those apparently worse wounded
+than himself might reach a shelter first. It seemed a David and
+Jonathan sort of friendship. The man fretted for his mate, and was
+never tired of praising John,--his courage, sobriety, self-denial,
+and unfailing kindliness of heart; always winding up with, "He's an
+out an' out fine feller, ma'am; you see if he ain't."
+
+I had some curiosity to behold this piece of excellence, and when he
+came, watched him for a night or two, before I made friends with
+him; for, to tell the truth, I was a little afraid of the stately
+looking man, whose bed had to be lengthened to accommodate his
+commanding stature; who seldom spoke, uttered no complaint, asked no
+sympathy, but tranquilly observed what went on about him; and, as he
+lay high upon his pillows, no picture of dying statesman or warrior
+was ever fuller of real dignity than this Virginia blacksmith. A
+most attractive face he had, framed in brown hair and beard, comely
+featured and full of vigor, as yet unsubdued by pain; thoughtful and
+often beautifully mild while watching the afflictions of others, as
+if entirely forgetful of his own. His mouth was grave and firm, with
+plenty of will and courage in its lines, but a smile could make it
+as sweet as any woman's; and his eyes were child's eyes, looking one
+fairly in the face with a clear, straightforward glance, which
+promised well for such as placed their faith in him. He seemed to
+cling to life, as if it were rich in duties and delights, and he had
+learned the secret of content. The only time I saw his composure
+disturbed was when my surgeon brought another to examine John, who
+scrutinized their faces with an anxious look, asking of the
+elder,--"Do you think I shall pull through, sir?" "I hope so, my
+man." And, as the two passed on, John's eye still followed them,
+with an intentness which would have won a clearer answer from them,
+had they seen it. A momentary shadow flitted over his face; then
+came the usual serenity, as if, in that brief eclipse, he had
+acknowledged the existence of some hard possibility, and, asking
+nothing, yet hoping all things, left the issue in God's hands, with
+that submission which is true piety.
+
+The next night, as I went my rounds with Dr. P., I happened to ask
+which man in the room probably suffered most; and, to my great
+surprise, he glanced at John:--
+
+"Every breath he draws is like a stab; for the ball pierced the left
+lung, broke a rib, and did no end of damage here and there; so the
+poor lad can find neither forgetfulness nor ease, because he must
+lie on his wounded back or suffocate. It will be a hard struggle and
+a long one, for he possesses great vitality; but even his temperate
+life can't save him; I wish it could."
+
+"You don't mean he must die, Doctor?"
+
+"Bless you, there's not the slightest hope for him; and you'd better
+tell him so before long; women have a way of doing such things
+comfortably, so I leave it to you. He won't last more than a day or
+two, at furthest."
+
+I could have sat down on the spot and cried heartily, if I had not
+learned the wisdom of bottling up one's tears for leisure moments.
+Such an end seemed very hard for such a man, when half a dozen
+worn-out, worthless bodies round him were gathering up the remnants
+of wasted lives, to linger on for years perhaps, burdens to others,
+daily reproaches to themselves. The army needed men like
+John,--earnest, brave, and faithful; fighting for liberty and
+justice with both heart and hand, true soldiers of the Lord. I could
+not give him up so soon, or think with any patience of so excellent
+a nature robbed of its fulfilment, and blundered into eternity by
+the rashness or stupidity of those at whose hands so many lives may
+be required. It was an easy thing for Dr. P. to say, "Tell him he
+must die," but a cruelly hard thing to do, and by no means as
+"comfortable" as he politely suggested. I had not the heart to do it
+then, and privately indulged the hope that some change for the
+better might take place, in spite of gloomy prophecies, so,
+rendering my task unnecessary. A few minutes later, as I came in
+again with fresh rollers, I saw John sitting erect, with no one to
+support him, while the surgeon dressed his back. I had never
+hitherto seen it done; for, having simpler wounds to attend to, and
+knowing the fidelity of the attendant, I had left John to him,
+thinking it might be more agreeable and safe; for both strength and
+experience were needed in his case. I had forgotten that the strong
+man might long for the gentler tendance of a woman's hands, the
+sympathetic magnetism of a woman's presence, as well as the feebler
+souls about him. The Doctor's words caused me to reproach myself
+with neglect, not of any real duty perhaps, but of those little
+cares and kindnesses that solace homesick spirits, and make the
+heavy hours pass easier. John looked lonely and forsaken just then,
+as he sat with bent head, hands folded on his knee, and no outward
+sign of suffering, till, looking nearer, I saw great tears roll down
+and drop upon the floor. It was a new sight there; for though I had
+seen many suffer, some swore, some groaned, most endured silently,
+but none wept. Yet it did not seem weak, only very touching, and
+straightway my fear vanished, my heart opened wide and took him in,
+as, gathering the bent head in my arms, as freely as if he had been
+a little child, I said,--"Let me help you bear it, John."
+
+Never, on any human countenance, have I seen so swift and beautiful
+a look of gratitude, surprise, and comfort, as that which answered
+me more eloquently than the whispered,--
+
+"Thank you ma'am; this is right good! this is what I wanted!"
+
+"Then why not ask for it before?"
+
+"I didn't like to be a trouble; you seemed so busy, and I could
+manage to get on alone."
+
+"You shall not want it any more, John."
+
+Nor did he; for now I understood the wistful look that sometimes
+followed me, as I went out, after a brief pause beside his bed, or
+merely a passing nod, while busied with those who seemed to need me
+more than he, because more urgent in their demands; now I knew that
+to him, as to so many, I was the poor substitute for mother, wife,
+or sister, and in his eyes no stranger, but a friend who hitherto
+had seemed neglectful; for, in his modesty, he had never guessed the
+truth. This was changed now; and, through the tedious operation of
+probing, bathing, and dressing his wounds, he leaned against me,
+holding my hand fast, and, if pain wrung further tears from him, no
+one saw them fall but me. When he was laid down again, I hovered
+about him, in a remorseful state of mind that would not let me rest,
+till I had bathed his face, brushed his "bonny brown hair," set all
+things smooth about him, and laid a knot of heath and heliotrope on
+his clean pillow. While doing this, he watched me with the satisfied
+expression I so linked to see; and when I offered the little
+nosegay, held it carefully in his great hand, smoothed a ruffled
+leaf or two, surveyed and smelt it with an air of genuine delight,
+and lay contentedly regarding the glimmer of the sunshine on the
+green. Although the manliest man among my forty, he said, "Yes,
+ma'am," like a little boy; received suggestions for his comfort with
+the quick smile that brightened his whole face; and now and then, as
+I stood tidying the table by his bed, I felt him softly touch my
+gown, as if to assure himself that I was there. Anything more
+natural and frank I never saw, and found this brave John as bashful
+as brave, yet full of excellences and fine aspirations, which,
+having no power to express themselves in words, seemed to have
+bloomed into his character and made him what he was.
+
+After that night, an hour of each evening that remained to him was
+devoted to his ease or pleasure. He could not talk much, for breath
+was precious, and he spoke in whispers; but from occasional
+conversations, I gleaned scraps of private history which only added
+to the affection and respect I felt for him. Once he asked me to
+write a letter, and, as I settled pen and paper, I said, with an
+irrepressible glimmer of feminine curiosity, "Shall it be addressed
+to wife, or mother, John?"
+
+"Neither, ma'am; I've got no wife, and will write to mother myself
+when I get better. Did you think I was married because of this?" he
+asked, touching a plain ring he wore, and often turned thoughtfully
+on his finger when he lay alone.
+
+"Partly that, but more from a settled sort of look you have,--a look
+which young men seldom get until they marry."
+
+"I don't know that; but I'm not so very young, ma'am; thirty in May
+and have been what you might call settled this ten years; for
+mother's a widow; I'm the oldest child she has, and it wouldn't do
+for me to marry until Lizzie has a home of her own, and Laurie's
+learned his trade; for we're not rich, and I must be father to the
+children, and husband to the dear old woman, if I can."
+
+"No doubt but you are both, John; yet how came you to go to war, if
+you felt so? Wasn't enlisting as bad as marrying?"
+
+"No, ma'am, not as I see it, for one is helping my neighbor, the
+other pleasing myself. I went because I couldn't help it. I didn't
+want the glory or the pay; I wanted the right thing done, and people
+kept saying the men who were in earnest ought to flight. I was in
+earnest, the Lord knows! but I held off as long as I could, not
+knowing which was my duty; mother saw the case, gave me her ring to
+keep me steady, and said 'Go;' so I went."
+
+A short story and a simple one, but the man and the mother were
+portrayed better than pages of fine writing could have done it.
+
+"Do you ever regret that you came, when you lie here suffering so
+much?"
+
+"Never ma'am; I haven't helped a great deal, but I've shown I was
+willing to give my life, and perhaps I've got to; but I don't blame
+anybody, and if it was to do over again, I'd do it. I'm a little
+sorry I wasn't wounded in front; it looks cowardly to be hit in the
+back, but I obeyed orders, and it doesn't matter in the end, I
+know."
+
+Poor John! it did not matter now, except that a shot in front might
+have spared the long agony in store for him. He seemed to read the
+thought that troubled me, as he spoke so hopefully when there was no
+hope, for he suddenly added,--
+
+"This is my first battle; do they think it's going to be my last?"
+
+"I'm afraid they do, John."
+
+It was the hardest question I had ever been called upon to answer;
+doubly hard with those clear eyes fixed on mine, forcing a truthful
+answer by their own truth. He seemed a little startled at first,
+pondered over the fateful fact a moment, then shook his head, with a
+glance at the broad chest and muscular limbs stretched out before
+him:--
+
+"I'm not afraid, but it's difficult to believe all at once. I'm so
+strong it don't seem possible for such a little wound to kill me."
+
+Merry Mercutio's dying words glanced through my memory as he
+spoke:--"'Tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door,
+but 'tis enough." And John would have said the same, could he have
+seen the ominous black holes between his shoulders, he never had;
+and, seeing the ghastly sights about him, could not believe his own
+wound more fatal than these, for all the suffering it caused him.
+
+"Shall I write to your mother, now?" I asked, thinking that these
+sudden tidings might change all plans and purposes; but they did
+not; for the man received the order of the Divine Commander to
+march, with the same unquestioning obedience with which the soldier
+had received that of the human one, doubtless remembering that the
+first led him to life, and the last to death.
+
+"No, ma'am; to Laurie just the same; he'll break it to her best, and
+I'll add a line to her myself when you get done."
+
+So I wrote the letter which he dictated, finding it better than any
+I had sent; for, though here and there a little ungrammatical or
+inelegant, each sentence came to me briefly worded, but most
+expressive; full of excellent counsel to the boy, tenderly
+"bequeathing mother and Lizzie" to his care, and bidding him good-by
+in words the sadder for their simplicity. He added a few lines with
+steady hand, and, as I sealed it, said, with a patient sort of sigh,
+"I hope the answer will come in time for me to see it;" then,
+turning away his face, laid the flowers against his lips, as if to
+hide some quiver of emotion at the thought of such a sudden
+sundering of all the dear home-ties.
+
+These things had happened two days before; now John was dying, and
+the letter had not come. I had been summoned to many death-beds in
+my life, but to none that made my heart ache as it did then, since
+my mother called me to watch the departure of a spirit akin to this
+in its gentleness and patient strength. As I went in, John stretched
+out both hands,--
+
+"I knew you'd come! I guess I'm moving on, ma'am."
+
+He was; and so rapidly that, even while he spoke, over his face I
+saw the gray veil falling that no human hand can lift. I sat down by
+him, wiped the drops from his forehead, stirred the air about him
+with the slow wave of a fan, and waited to help him die. He stood in
+sore need of help,--and I could do so little; for, as the doctor had
+foretold, the strong body rebelled against death, and fought every
+inch of the way, forcing him to draw each breath with a spasm, and
+clench his hands with an imploring look, as if he asked, "How long
+must I endure this, and be still?" For hours he suffered dumbly,
+without a moment's respite, or a moment's murmuring; his limbs grew
+cold, his face damp, his lips white, and, again and again, he tore
+the covering off his breast, as if the lightest weight added to his
+agony; yet through it all, his eyes never lost their perfect
+serenity, and the man's soul seemed to sit therein, undaunted by the
+ills that vexed his flesh.
+
+One by one the men woke, and round the room appeared a circle of
+pale faces and watchful eyes, full of awe and pity; for, though a
+stranger, John was beloved by all. Each man there had wondered at
+his patience, respected his piety, admired his fortitude, and now
+lamented his hard death; for the influence of an upright nature had
+made itself deeply felt, even in one little week. Presently, the
+Jonathan who so loved this comely David came creeping from his bed
+for a last look and word. The kind soul was full of trouble, as the
+choke in his voice, the grasp of his hand betrayed; but there were
+no tears, and the farewell of the friends was the more touching for
+its brevity.
+
+"Old boy, how are you?" faltered the one.
+
+"Most through, thank heaven!" whispered the other.
+
+"Can I say or do anything for you anywheres?"
+
+"Take my things home, and tell them that I did my best."
+
+"I will! I will!"
+
+"Good-by, Ned."
+
+"Good-by, John, good-by!"
+
+They kissed each other, tenderly as women, and so parted; for poor
+Ned could not stay to see his comrade die. For a little while, there
+was no sound in the room but the drip of water from a stump or two,
+and John's distressful gasps, as he slowly breathed his life away. I
+thought him nearly gone, and had just laid down the fan, believing
+its help to be no longer needed, when suddenly he rose up in his
+bed, and cried out with a bitter cry that broke the silence, sharply
+startling every one with its agonized appeal,--
+
+"For God's sake, give me air!"
+
+It was the only cry pain or death had wrung from him, the only boon
+he had asked; and none of us could grant it, for all the airs that
+blew were useless now. Dan flung up the window. The first red streak
+of dawn was warming the gray east, a herald of the coming sun. John
+saw it, and with the love of light which lingers in us to the end,
+seemed to read in it a sign of hope of help, for, over his whole
+face there broke that mysterious expression, brighter than any
+smile, which often comes to eyes that look their last. He laid
+himself gently down; and, stretching out his strong right arm, as if
+to grasp and bring the blessed air to his lips in a fuller flow,
+lapsed into a merciful unconsciousness, which assured us that for
+him suffering was forever past. He died then; for, though the heavy
+breaths still tore their way up for a little longer, they were but
+the waves of an ebbing tide that beat unfelt against the wreck,
+which an immortal voyager had deserted with a smile. He never spoke
+again, but to the end held my hand close, so close that when he was
+asleep at last, I could not draw it away. Dan helped me, warning me
+as he did so, that it was unsafe for dead and living flesh to lie so
+long together; but though my hand was strangely cold and stiff, and
+four white marks remained across its back, even when warmth and
+color had returned elsewhere, I could not but be glad that, through
+its touch, the presence of human sympathy, perhaps, had lightened
+that hard hour.
+
+When they had made him ready for the grave, John lay in state for
+half an hour, a thing which seldom happened in that busy place; but
+a universal sentiment of reverence and affection seemed to fill the
+hearts of all who had known or heard of him; and when the rumor of
+his death went through the house, always astir, many came to see
+him, and I felt a tender sort of pride in my lost patient; for he
+looked a most heroic figure, lying there stately and still as the
+statue of some young knight asleep upon his tomb. The lovely
+expression which so often beautifies dead faces soon replaced the
+marks of pain, and I longed for those who loved him best to see him
+when half an hour's acquaintance with Death had made them friends.
+As we stood looking at him, the ward master handed me a letter,
+saying it had been forgotten the night before. It was John's letter,
+come just an hour too late to gladden the eyes that had longed and
+looked for it so eagerly; yet he had it; for, after I had cut some
+brown locks for his mother, and taken off the ring to send her,
+telling how well the talisman had done its work, I kissed this good
+son for her sake, and laid the letter in his hand, still folded as
+when I drew my own away, feeling that its place was there, and
+making myself happy with the thought, even in his solitary place in
+the "Government Lot," he would not be without some token of the love
+which makes life beautiful and outlives death. Then I left him, glad
+to have known so genuine a man, and carrying with me an enduring
+memory of the brave Virginia blacksmith, as he lay serenely waiting
+for the dawn of that long day which knows no night.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of On Picket Duty and Other Tales, by
+Louisa May Alcott
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON PICKET DUTY AND OTHER TALES ***
+
+***** This file should be named 4960-8.txt or 4960-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/4/9/6/4960/
+
+Produced by Charles Aldarondo
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
+  www.gutenberg.org/license.
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at 809
+North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887.  Email
+contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the
+Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:  www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For forty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+