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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Turning of Griggsby, by Irving Bacheller
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world 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.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-
-
-Title: The Turning of Griggsby
-       Being a Story of Keeping up with Dan'l Webster
-
-Author: Irving Bacheller
-
-Illustrator: Reginald Birch
-
-Release Date: September 30, 2015 [EBook #50087]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ASCII
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TURNING OF GRIGGSBY ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by David Widger from page images generously
-provided by the Internet Archive
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-THE TURNING OF GRIGGSBY
-
-Being a Story of Keeping up with Dan'l Webster
-
-By Irving Bacheller
-
-Illustrated By Reginald Birch
-
-Harper & Brothers Publishers New York And London
-
-MCMXIII
-
-
-[Illustration: 0002]
-
-
-[Illustration: 0014]
-
-
-[Illustration: 0017]
-
-
-THE TURNING OF GRIGGSBY
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I
-
-IT was a wonderful thing to see the way he rose and stepped forward,
-and stood before the people, and their cheering was like the shout of
-winds in a forest." So spake our old schoolmaster, Appleton Hall, as he
-told us of Daniel Webster and the famous Bunker Hill address.
-
-His black eyes glowed as he went on: "There was something grand in the
-look of the man, for he was tall and strong-built, and stood straight
-as an arrow, and his soul was in his face. A godlike and solemn face it
-was, like that of St. Paul, as I think of him after reading the twelfth
-chapter of Romans. He had a wonderful authority in his face, and what a
-silence it commanded after that first greeting had passed, and before he
-had opened his mouth to speak. My eyes grew dim as I looked at him. He
-wore a blue coat, with bright brass buttons on it, and a buff waistcoat,
-and his great black-crested, swarthy head was nobly poised above his
-white linen. His dark eyes were deep set under massive brows. Now
-comes the first sentence of that immortal speech. His voice is like a
-deep-toned bell as he speaks with great deliberation the opening words:
-'This uncounted multitude before me and around me proves the feeling
-which the occasion has excited.'
-
-"Near him, and looking into his face, were two hundred veterans of the
-Revolution, some in their old uniforms, many crippled by wounds and bent
-by infirmities.
-
-"It was a mighty thing to hear when he looked into their faces and
-said: 'Venerable men, you have come down to us from a former generation.
-Heaven has bountifully lengthened out your lives that you might behold
-this joyous day.'
-
-"Well I remember how, when he had ceased, the people were still for half
-a moment dreading to break the spell. Suddenly they were like a sea in a
-wind, although many held their places and were loath to go, and lingered
-awhile talking of the speech, and I among them. And I saw the vast crowd
-slowly break and go drifting away by thousands, and I fancied that some
-of the men held their heads a bit higher, and that certain of those near
-me were trying the Websterian tone. Since then that tone and that manner
-have become as familiar as the flag. At the inn I heard much talk of
-the great man--idle words which one may hear to this day and be none the
-wiser, but possibly much the worse for it.
-
-"Some said that he always took a tumbler of brandy before he made a
-speech; but I observed that these gossipers had the odor of rum about
-them. There was, too, a relish of Me and Dan'l in all their talk.
-However, the tradition has come down to us, and had its effect in the
-life of this village, and of others like it. However well you may do,
-young men, there will be those seeking ever to pull you down to their
-level, and if they cannot move your character they will attack your
-reputation."
-
-I have often thought of these words of the schoolmaster. They showed me
-some of the curious monkey traits of man. Through them I began to know
-Griggsby, to which I had lately come. I suddenly discovered that I was
-living in the Websterian age, and a high-headed, reverberating time it
-was.
-
-But, first, let me introduce myself. People have always called me
-"Havelock, of Stillwater," though I am plain Uriel Havelock. I have
-little in my purse, but there are treasures in my memory, and I am
-trying here to give them to the world with all my joyous thoughts about
-them and never a feeling of ill will.
-
-I write of that time when the fame of Webster was on every lip, although
-his soul had passed some twenty years before. All through the North,
-from the Atlantic to far frontiers beyond the Mississippi, men in beaver
-hats and tall collars were playing Daniel Webster. They dressed as he
-had dressed, and had his grand manners, while their diaphragms were
-often sorely strained in an effort to deliver his deep, resounding
-tones. The peace of most farms and villages was disturbed by Websterian
-shouts of ready-made patriotism from the lips of sires and sons.
-
-Webster was a demi-god, in the imagination of the people, with a voice
-of thunder and an eye to threaten and command. Countless anecdotes
-celebrated his wit, his eloquence, and his supposed capacity for
-stimulants. He was not the only man of that period who suffered from the
-inventive talent of his successors. Powers of indulgence and of reckless
-wit were conferred upon them in a way to excite the wonder and emulation
-of the weak. Daniel Webster especially had been a martyr to such
-flattery. He never deserved it. Wearied by his great labors, he may now
-and then have resorted to stimulants; but his reputation as an absorber
-of strong drink is a baseless fabrication. Those brimming cups of his
-have been mostly filled with fiction.
-
-Nevertheless, he was handed down to posterity as a product of genius
-and stimulation--a sublime toper. In that capacity he filled a long-felt
-need of those engaged in the West Indian trade and the innkeepers. In
-those days, it should be remembered, an inn-keeper was a man of some
-account. With that imaginary trait of greatness at the fore, the
-resounding Websterian age began.
-
-When still a boy I left home and went to live in Griggsby. It was
-a better place to die in; but that does not matter, since, going to
-Griggsby to live, I succeeded. At school among my fellow-students was
-a boy I greatly envied. Bright and handsome, as a scholar he was at
-one end of the class, and I at the other; and that was about the way
-we stood in local prophecy. I wonder when people will learn that
-scholarship should not be the first, or even the second, aim of a
-schooling. For it is not what the mind takes in that makes the man, but
-what the mind gives out; it is not the quantity of one's memories, but
-the quality of one's thoughts. Character makes the man and also the
-community. It was character that made Griggsby, and Griggsby in turn
-made characters.
-
-Old John Henry Griggs was the first sample of its finished product.
-He had been keeping up with Webster, as he thought, ever since he left
-school, and in that effort was both a drunkard and a "distinguished
-statesman." Though he modestly disclaimed these great accomplishments, a
-majority of his fellow-citizens conferred them upon him. The result was
-a public peril.
-
-Among the students at school was a girl that I loved. Her name was
-Florence Dunbar, which had a fine sound, while mine, like many other
-names of Yankee choosing, was a help to humility and a discouragement
-to pride. Then, again, Florence was rich and beautiful, while I was poor
-and plain. She had come to Griggsby from the West, where her father
-had gone in his youth and had made a fortune. They had sent her and her
-brother back to the old home to be educated. I had come to Griggsby from
-a stumpy farm on the edge of the forest ten miles away.
-
-Now, this plainness of mine, I soon discovered, was largely due to my
-mother's looking-glass, aided and abetted by untiring efforts on the
-part of all the family to keep me humble. I often wondered how it
-came about that I was the only one in the house whose looks were a
-misfortune. It did not seem just that I should be singled out to carry
-all the ugliness for that generation of Havelocks. I would not have
-minded a generous share, but it seemed to me that I was the only one who
-had been hit by the avalanche. One day I confided to my elder brother
-this overwhelming sense of facial deformity. To my surprise, he assured
-me that I had a face to be proud of, while his had kept him awake
-of nights and caused him to despise himself. That exchange of views
-increased our confidence in ourselves a little, if not our knowledge. By
-and by a neighbor moved into that lonely part of the world where we were
-living. I shall never forget the day I went to play with the strange
-children, and especially the moment when I stood before their
-looking-glass combing my hair. To my joy and astonishment, I saw a new
-face, of better proportions and smaller defects, and with only one twist
-in it. I tarried so long at the glass that the mother of the family
-smiled and said that she feared I was a rather foolish boy.
-
-When I went home I proceeded with as little delay as possible to my
-mother's looking-glass, where I found the long, gnarled face of old
-with its magnified freckles. I wondered at this difference of opinion
-regarding my personal appearance between the two glasses, but with noble
-patriotism decided that my mother's mirror was probably right. As a
-discourager of sinful pride that gilt-bound, oval looking-glass was
-a great success. It lengthened the face and enlarged every defect; it
-crumpled the nose and put sundry twists in the countenance. There have
-been two ministers and three old maids in our family, and in my opinion
-that looking-glass did it. Of course, other things helped, but the glass
-was mainly responsible. I myself would have been a minister if it had
-not fallen to my lot to break a yoke of steers, and that saved me. In
-the course of this task I acquired an accomplishment inconsistent with
-the life of a clergyman. I kept it long enough to trim the beech trees
-about my father's house, and it lasted through many calls to repentance.
-Then, too, my father discovered that I had an unusual talent for lying.
-He did his best to destroy it, and would have succeeded if he had not
-appealed to the wrong side of me--a side which never had much capacity
-for absorbing information. Now as the cow jumped over the moon in my
-story book, I could not understand why it should be thought wicked for
-her to jump over the stable in my conversation. But my story lacked
-verisimilitude. It wouldn't do. Indeed, for a time I felt as if the cow
-had landed on me. It was a great monopoly that controlled the output of
-the human imagination, those days, and while most of my elders were in
-it, as I knew, they wouldn't give me a chance. I persevered. It cost me
-great pain, but I persevered. My father lost heart and consulted with
-the Rev. Appleton Hall, who was principal of the village school at
-Griggsby, and he undertook to make a man of me. That was how I came to
-go there, and to live in a small room rudely furnished by my father,
-where I did my own cooking. The school principal began to call me
-"Havelock of Stillwater," Stillwater being our township in the woods,
-and others followed his example. Mr. Hall did not waste any time in
-trying to convince me that lying produced pain. I knew that. He took the
-positive side of the proposition and soon taught me that the truth pays.
-
-In the main, the looking-glasses of Griggsby were kind to me, and the
-weight of evidence seemed to indicate that my face was not a misfortune,
-after all. Still, I had no conceit of it.
-
-The big buildings of the town, the high hats and "lofty" manners of the
-great men, excited my wonder and admiration. At first they were beyond
-my understanding, and did not even amuse me.
-
-I had a profound sense of inferiority to almost every one I met, and
-especially to Florence Dunbar. I suppose it was a part of that ample
-gift of humility which had been pounded into my ancestors and passed on
-to me with the aid of the beech rod, the looking-glass, and the shrill
-voice of Elder Whitman in the schoolhouse. For a long time my love for
-Florence was a secret locked in my own breast.
-
-Summer had returned to the little village in the hills, and one Saturday
-in June I gathered wild flowers in the fields and took them to Florence.
-She received them with a cry of joy, and asked me to show her where they
-grew; so away we went together into the meadows by a wayside, and, when
-our hands were full, sat under a tree to look at them. Then, poor lad!
-I opened my heart to her, and I remember it was in full bloom. I shall
-never forget the sweet, girlish frankness with which she said:
-
-"I'm sorry, but I cannot love you."
-
-"I didn't think it would be possible," I said.
-
-"Oh yes, it would be _possible_," she explained; "but, you see, I love
-another."
-
-I remember well how her frankness hurt me. I turned away, and had
-trouble to breathe for a moment. She saw the effect of her words, and
-said, by way of comfort: "But I think you're very, very nice; Henry
-likes you, too."
-
-Henry was her brother and my chum at school.
-
-"I wish you would tell me what to do with him," she went on, after
-a moment. "He's drinking, and behind in his work, and I am terribly
-worried."
-
-"It's nothing to worry about," I said, though not in perfect innocence.
-"All great men drink--it helps 'em stand the strain, I suppose."
-
-"Havelock, you talk like a child," she answered. "These leading men
-are leading us in the wrong direction. You boys think that they are so
-wonderful you begin to take after them. Look at Ralph. He's going to the
-bad as fast as possible. I'd pack up and go home with Henry if--"
-
-Her eyes filled with tears. I sat silent and full of shame, and quite
-aware of her secret. She loved Ralph Buckstone, the good-looking son of
-the great Colonel.
-
-"You love him, don't you?" I said, sorrowfully.
-
-She smiled at me through a spray of clover blossoms with cheeks as red
-as they, but made no answer.
-
-At that moment Colonel Buckstone himself came galloping along on his big
-black horse, shotgun in hand, with two hounds at his heels. He pulled up
-with a knowing look, shook his head, and then rode away with only a wave
-of his hand.
-
-Florence and I rose and walked along in silence for a while, then she
-said:
-
-"I'm sorry for you, and I will never tell what you have told me, never."
-
-"And I will never tell what you have told me," I said.
-
-"I'm willing you should tell _him_," she answered. "He may as well know,
-even if he doesn't care."
-
-Temptation beset me even then, but in those first months my natural
-innocence was like a shield. By and by I began to feel the weight of it,
-and to lighten the load a little. That wonderful comedy which was being
-enacted in the life around me had begun to excite my interest when I
-went home to work in the fields for the summer.
-
-I returned to school in the autumn, a big swarthy youth of seventeen.
-Before the end of that year the first of these many adventures of mine
-opened the gate of a better life before me.
-
-It was a day in December. Henry and Florence Dunbar, Ralph Buckstone,
-and I were skating on the lake. The ice was new, and bent a little under
-our feet as we flew, out on the glassy plain in pursuit of Florence,
-more daring and expert than the rest of us. The day was cloudless,
-and the smooth lake roof shone in the sunlight. An hour later we were
-returning, with Florence a hundred or more feet ahead of us, when I
-heard the snap of the breaking ice and saw her go down like a stone
-falling through a skylight. I skated straight for the break, and, taking
-a deep breath, crashed among the broken slabs of ice and down into cold,
-roaring water. My hand touched something, and I seized it--her coat,
-as I knew by the feeling. Then came that little fraction of a minute
-in which one must do the right thing and do it quickly. I could see,
-of course, and could hear the shouts of the boys, the click of skates
-passing near, and the stir of the shattered ice. That saved us, that
-sound of the wavering ice. I made for it, got my hand through, and
-caught a shinny stick in the hands of Henry Dunbar, who was lying flat
-near the edge of the break. There we hung and lived until the boys came
-with a pole and got us out. Chilled? No. I was never so hot in my life
-until I began to feel the wind.
-
-One day soon after that my father came into the village and said that
-I was to board at the house of Mr. Daniel W. Smead, have three square
-meals a day, and a room with four windows and a stove in it. Poor lad! I
-did not know until long after that Florence and Henry paid the bill.
-My father said that he had sold the big Wilkes mare and her foal, and I
-supposed that that accounted for his generosity.
-
-Florence would have it that I had saved her life, although the truth is
-that if I had not gone down after her one of the other boys would have
-done so, I am sure, or she might even have reached the air alone. How
-she pitied me after that! Almost every day she tried to show me her
-gratitude with some little token--a flower, a tender word or look, or
-an invitation to supper. I loved her with all the steadfastness of the
-true-born Yankee, but it seemed to me now that my love was hopeless. I
-could never ask her to marry me, for how could she say no to me with all
-that burden of gratitude in her heart? How could I have got an honest
-answer if I had been unfair enough to ask it?
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II
-
-MR. DANIEL WEBSTER SMEAD had five children and a wife, who did all the
-work of the household. He was an auctioneer, a musician, and a horseman.
-
-When I went to begin my life in his house, it was he who opened the
-door. He was coatless, collarless, and in dirty linen.
-
-"I am Uriel Havelock," I said.
-
-"Havelock of Stillwater," said he. "I salute you. How is your health?"
-
-"Pretty good," I said.
-
-"Walk right into the drawin'-room, an' draw yer jade knife an' go to
-whittlin' if ye want to."
-
-The drawing-room wrung a smile from my sad face. It was the plainest of
-rooms, decorated with chromos, mottos in colored yams, and with faded
-wall paper. On the floor was a worn and shabby carpet; and some plain,
-wooden chairs; a haircloth sofa, with its antimacassar and crocheted
-cushion, completed the furnishings. The woodwork, the windows, and all
-the appointments of the room were noticeably dean. A ragged-looking
-Newfoundland dog came roaring in upon me.
-
-"Leo, Leo, be still, or I'll subject you to punishment," said Mr. Smead.
-
-"Is He full-blooded?" I asked.
-
-"As full-blooded as Col. Sile Buckstone, an' that's sayin' a good deal."
-
-"Good watch dog?"
-
-"Sets an' watches the scenery all day." He opened the stairway door
-and called: "Mrs. Smead! Oh, Mrs. Smead! A noble guest is under our
-battlements."
-
-There was a sound of footsteps on the floor above, and in a moment a
-pale, weary woman, followed by three boys from seven to twelve years of
-age, each in patched trousers, came down the stairway. The woman shook
-my hand and said that she was glad to see me, although I had never
-beheld a face so utterly joyless.
-
-The master of the household kept up a running fire of talk. Addressing
-the children, he said:
-
-"Dan'l, Rufus, Edward, salute the young gentleman." They had been named
-after the great orators Webster, Choate, and Everett.
-
-As they timidly shook my hand their father observed: "These boys have
-ascended from Roger Williams, Remember Baker, an' General Winfield
-Scott. If they look tired, excuse them; it's quite a climb."
-
-The eldest boy showed me to my room, and so began my life at Smead's.
-Distressed with loneliness, I walked about the village for hours that
-afternoon, and on my return had time only to wash my face and comb my
-hair, when a bell summoned me to supper.
-
-Mr. Smead was considerably dressed up in clean linen, a prodigious
-necktie, and a coat of black broadcloth. His wife wore a dean calico
-dress, with a gold-plated brooch at her throat.
-
-"I wish the girls were here," said Smead.
-
-"They are out in the country teaching school," Mrs. Smead explained;
-"they want to help their father."
-
-"Beautiful girls," said their father--"tall, queenly, magnificent,
-talented. By force of habit I was about to ask, 'How much am I bid?'"
-
-"How do you like Griggsby?" Mrs. Smead inquired of me, as though wishing
-to change the subject.
-
-"I do not call it a very pretty place," I said, still loyal to
-Stillwater.
-
-"An' you wouldn't be a pretty place if you were the mother of so many
-orators an' statesmen," said Smead. "You would be a proud but a worn
-an' weary place. There would be dust an' scratched-up gravel in your
-immediate vicinity, an' you wouldn't care. Don't expect too much o'
-Griggsby. It is a Vesuvius of oratory, sir. It is full of high an' grand
-emotions, mingled with smoke an' fire an' thunder an' other accessories,
-includin' Smeads. It is the home an' birthplace of the Griggses. There
-was the Hon. John Henry Griggs, once the Speaker of our Lower House an'
-a great orator. By pure eloquence one day he established the reputation
-of an honest man, his greatest accomplishment, for as an honest man
-there were obstacles in his way. It didn't last long, that reputation;
-it had so much to contend with. He never gave it a fair chance. By an'
-by it tottered an' fell. Then he established another with some more
-eloquence. He was the first Dan'l Webster of Griggsby--looked like him,
-dressed like him, spoke like him, drank like him. Always took a tumbler
-of brandy before he made a speech, an' say, wa'n't he a swayer? The way
-he handled an audience was like swingin' a cat by the tail. He kep' 'em
-goin'; didn't give 'em time to think. It wouldn't have been safe. As
-a thought-preventer John Henry beats the world! The result was both
-humorous an' pathetic."
-
-Mr. Smead, with the voice of Stentor at the gates of Troy, delivered a
-playful imitation of the late John Henry.
-
-"You're quite an orator," I said.
-
-"Oh, I can swing the cat a little," said he. "Ye ought to hear me talk
-hoss or tackle the old armchair at an auction sale. It would break a
-drought. So much for the Smeads. As to the other great folks, Senator
-John Griggs, a distinguished member of our Upper House, is also a son of
-Griggsby, not so great as his father, but a high-headed, hard-workin',
-hand-engraved, full-tinted orator. He has a scar on his face three
-inches long that he got in a political argument. Flowers of rhetoric
-grow on him as naturally as moss on a log.
-
-"Years ago he convicted a man of murder here with oratory--made the jury
-weep till they longed for blood an' got it. Bill Smithers loaded himself
-to the muzzle with rum an' oratory for the defense. Nobody did any
-work on the case. The oratory of Griggs was keener than the oratory
-of Smithers--more flowery, more movin'. It fetched the tears, an'
-conviction came with them. Of course, Griggs had the body of the victim
-on his side. Smithers roared an' wept for half a day. The jury had been
-swung until it was tired. It clung to the ground with tooth an' nail.
-The fountain of its tears had gone dry. The prisoner was convicted,
-slain by oratory--pure oratory, undefiled by intelligence; an' years
-after he was put in his grave a woman confessed that she had committed
-the crime. Oh, Griggs is a wonder. He's another D. W., but he's a
-good-hearted man. I heard him say that he had rebuilt the church of
-his parish with his earnings at poker. That's the kind of man he
-is--reckless, but charitable. Everybody calls him John. They say that
-whisky has no effect on him. It is like water pouring on a rock. It only
-moistens the surface.
-
-"Then there is Col. Silas Buckstone, our Congressman, whose home is
-also in Griggs--by, another D. W., a man of quality an' quantity, great
-length, breadth, an' thickness, with a mustache eight inches long an'
-a voice that can travel like a trottin'-hoss. A man of a distinguished
-presence an' several distinguished absences.
-
-"Yes, I regret to say that he goes on a spree now an' then. It's a pity,
-but so often the case with men o' talent--so awfully often. About twice
-a year the Colonel slides off his eminence, an' down he goes into the
-valley o' the common herd with loud yells o' joy. Once he slid across a
-corner o' the valley o' death, but that didn't matter. What's the use o'
-havin' an eminence unless you're to enjoy the privilege of slidin'
-down it when ye want to? It was his eminence. While his spree lasts the
-Colonel buys everything in sight until his money is gone. Then some one
-has to go an' tow him back to us. Once he returned the proud owner of a
-carload of goats an' a millinery store."
-
-Mr. Smead also told me of the two judges, Warner and Brooks, the ablest
-members of the county bar, who, it seems, were always wandering toward
-the dewy, meadowy path of dalliance. He said that sometimes they hit
-the path, and sometimes the path hit them and left some bruises. They
-enjoyed the distinctions of being looked up to and of being looked down
-upon.
-
-"Of course, there are able men in the village who are addicted to
-sobriety," he went on. "Some of them have tried to reform, but, alas!
-the habit of sobriety has become fixed upon them--weak stomachs, maybe.
-They have to worry along without the stamp o' genius, just commonplace,
-every-day-alike men. Nobody takes any notice of 'em. Once a prominent
-citizen denounced one o' them on the street as a damn little-souled,
-conscientious Christian who could get drunk on a thimble o' whisky. It
-was one o' the first indictments against virtue on record.
-
-"'Ha! I see that you are sober,' said John Griggs to a constituent
-whom he met in the street one day. I will forgive you, but don't let it
-happen again. Think of the obscurity that awaits you and of the example
-you are setting to the young. Think of Deacon Bradley and Priscilla
-Perkins. Sir, if you keep on you will be wrecked on the hidden reefs of
-hopeless sobriety.'"
-
-Dan'l Webster laughed for a minute and continued: "Griggsby is the home
-and Paradise of the rural hoss-trader, whose word is as good as his
-hoss, and who never fools anybody except when he is telling the truth.
-One of 'em was sued for sellin' a worthless hoss. His defense was that a
-man who traded with him took his life in his hands, an' everybody ought
-to know it; an' the justice ruled that there were certain men that it
-was a crime to believe, an' that he who did it received a natural and
-deserved punishment."
-
-So in his curious way, which was not to be forgotten, he described
-this heroism of the human stomach, this adventurous defiance of God and
-nature. In those callow days that view appealed to my sporting instinct.
-
-"You see, the stamp of genius is on all our public men," Mr. Smead
-continued. "They all wear the scarlet blossom of capacity on their
-noses. The scarlet blossom an' the silver tongue go hand in hand, as it
-were."
-
-Mr. Daniel Webster Smead was, indeed, a singular man. He had little
-learning, but was a keen observer. Ever since his boyhood he had browsed
-in good books, notably those of Artemus Ward and Charles Dickens. The
-Websterian thunder did not appeal to him, but he had cultivated certain
-of the weaknesses which he had vividly described. He had a massive
-indolence and a great fondness for horses. He was drunk with hope all
-the time, and now and then sought the stimulation of beer. Hopes and
-hops were his worst enemies. When he talked people were wont to laugh,
-but every one said that Smead did not amount to anything. However, if
-all the other leading lights of the village had conferred their brains
-jointly on one man, he would not have been more than knee-high to the
-mental stature of Smead. He was a man of wide talent--a kind of human
-what-not. He could do many things well, but accomplished little.
-
-In fact, Mr. Smead was an ass, and he knew enough to know that he was
-an ass, which of itself distinguished him above all the citizens of
-Griggsby. He was drifting along in the bondage of custom; and he knew
-it, and laughed at his own folly.
-
-As we rose from the table he said, in a little aside to me: "In the
-morning I'll show you a hoss an' a fool, an' both standard-bred an' in
-the two-thirty list."
-
-I spent the evening in my own room with a book, and when I came down in
-the morning I saw Mr. Smead entering the gate in a shining red road cart
-behind a horse blanketed to his nose, and in knee and ankle boots. I
-hurried to the stable, where Mr. Smead stood proudly, with a short whip
-in his hand, while the boys were removing the harness and boots from a
-big, steaming stallion.
-
-"There is Montravers--mark of two twenty-nine an' a half," said he,
-glibly. "By Bald Eagle out of Clara Belle, she by George Wilkes, he by
-Hambletonian X.; his dam was Queen Bess by Wanderer, out of Crazy Jane,
-she by Meteor. I expect him to transport me to the goal of affluence."
-
-[Illustration: 0055]
-
-Two of the boys were deftly scraping Montravers's sides, while the
-third sponged his mouth and legs. Then the youthful band fell to with
-rubbing-cloths, backed by terrible energy, on the body of the big horse.
-
-"The fathers of this village all have to be helped," said Mr. Smead;
-"they're so busy with one thing or another, mostly another. Ye can't be
-a Dan'l Webster an' do anything else."
-
-This matter of "helpin' father" seemed to me to be rather arduous. As
-the horse grew dry the boys grew wet. Perspiration had begun to roll
-down their faces.
-
-"The trottin'-hoss is the natural ally of the orator an' the
-conversationalist," said Mr. Smead. "He stimulates the mind an'
-furnishes food for thought. A man who has owned a trotter is capable
-of any feat of the imagination, an' some of our deepest thinkers have
-graduated from the grand stand an' the sulky. Everybody goes in for
-trotters here.
-
-"John Griggs an' Colonel Sile an' Horace Brooks an' Bill Warner, all
-have their trotters. If a farmer gets some money ahead he buys a trotter
-an' begins to train for speed an' bankruptcy. It helps him to a sense o'
-grandeur an' distinction. If there's anything else that can be done with
-money, he don't know it. His boys look like beggars, an' his hoss looks
-like a prince; just like mine. I told ye I'd show ye a fool, an' here
-I am--a direct descendant of Thankful Smead by Remember Baker. But I
-really have a prize in this animal. I expect to sell him for big money."
-
-Soon we heard the voice of Mrs. Smead at the back door.
-
-"Boys, where are you?" she called.
-
-"Helpin' father," answered Daniel, the eldest of them.
-
-"Well, breakfast is waiting," said she, with a touch of impatience in
-her tone. "You must be getting ready for school."
-
-"He'll do now," said Smead. "Put on the coolin' sheet an' walk him for
-ten minutes."
-
-A big, spotless sheet blanket was thrown over the shiny, silken coat of
-the horse, and Rufus began to walk him up and down the yard while the
-rest of us went in to breakfast.
-
-There was a pathetic contrast which I did not fail to observe, young as
-I was, between the silken coat of the beast and the faded calico dress
-of the woman; between his lustrous, flashing eyes and hers, dull and
-sad; between his bounding feet and hers, which moved about heavily;
-between the whole spirit of Montravers and that of Mrs. Smead. I saw,
-too, the contrast between the splendid trappings of the stallion and the
-patched trousers of the boys. I wondered how the boys were going to be
-cooled off. They simply took a hurried wash in a tin basin at the back
-door and sat down at the table in damp clothes. We could hear timid
-remarks in the kitchen about a worthless horse, about boys who would be
-late to school, and the delayed work of the day.
-
-"If that hoss could only keep up with my imagination!" said Smead,
-mournfully.
-
-"Dan'l, you must take care of the horse yourself in the morning," said
-Mrs. Smead.
-
-"But my imagination keeps me so busy, mother," said he. "Montravers
-works it night an' day. It don't give me any sleep, thinkin' o' the
-wealth that's just ahead of us. It pants with weariness. Almost every
-night I dream of tossin' a whole basket of gold into my wife's lap an'
-sayin', 'There, mother, it's yours; do as you like with it.'"
-
-She made no reply. That gold-tossing had revived her hope a little and
-pacified her for the moment.
-
-Such was a sample day in the life of the Smeads when Dan'l Webster was
-at home. Every night and morning the boys were helping father by rubbing
-the legs and body of the stallion. I soon acquired the habit, partly
-because I admired the splendid animal, partly to help the boys. I had
-never rubbed a horse's legs before, and it appealed to me as a new form
-of dissipation.
-
-We were all helping father while the mother worked along from dawn till
-we had all gone to our beds--all save the head of the house. He spent
-his evenings reading, or in the company of the horsemen at the Palace
-Hotel.
-
-I was now deeply interested in my school work. One night I had sat late
-with my problems in algebra, and lay awake for hours after I went to
-bed. The clock struck twelve, and still I could hear Mrs. Smead rocking
-as she sewed downstairs. By and by there were sounds of Mr. Smead
-entering the front door. Then I heard her say: "Dan'l, you promised me
-not to do this again. The boys are growing up, and you must set them a
-better example."
-
-She spoke kindly, but with feeling. "Mother, don't wake me up," he
-pleaded. "I've enjoyed an evening of great pride an' immeasurable
-wealth. They've been praisin' my hoss, an' two men from New York are
-comin' to buy him. I'm a Croesus. For the Lord's sake, lemme go to bed
-with the money!"
-
-I lay awake thinking what a singular sort of slavery was going on in
-that house.
-
-What a faithful, weary, plodding creature the slave was! She reminded me
-of those wonderful words which my mother had asked me and my sister to
-commit to memory:
-
-"Entreat me not to leave thee or to return from following after thee:
-for whither thou goest I will go; and where thou lodgest I will lodge:
-thy people shall be my people and thy God my God. Where thou diest will
-I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me and more, also,
-if aught but death part thee and me."
-
-Thy God shall be my God, indeed, even though He be nothing better than a
-highbred stallion!
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III
-
-IN a way Henry Dunbar was like Texas, whence he had come with his
-sister Florence to go to school in Griggsby. Colonel Buckstone had often
-referred to him as "The Lone Star." He was big, warm-hearted, and brave,
-could turn a hand-spring, and was the best ball-player at the academy.
-He could also smoke and chew tobacco.
-
-"Have a chew?" he asked, the first day we met.
-
-I confessed with shame that I was not so accomplished.
-
-"If you get sick, take some more," he said. "That's the only way.
-Everybody chews that is anybody."
-
-It was almost true. Many of the leading men went about with a bulge on
-one side of their faces. An idea came to me. I would show Henry that I
-had at least one manly accomplishment. So I conducted him to the Smead
-stable and began rubbing a leg of Montravers. Henry was impressed;
-he wanted to try it, and did, and thereby the horse got hold of his
-imagination also.
-
-Next morning at daylight we went down to the fairground to see
-Montravers driven. There were other horses at work, and the shouts
-of the drivers and the swift tattoo of the hoofs quickened our pulses
-before we could see the track. The scene, so full of life and spirit,
-thrilled us. It was fine bait for boys and men. In our excitement we
-thought neither of school nor of breakfast.
-
-By and by the leading citizens began to arrive in handsome runabouts and
-to take their places on the grand stand.
-
-"That's Colonel Sile Buckstone," Henry whispered.
-
-There was no mistaking the Colonel's bovine head and scarlet blossom.
-His voice roared a greeting to every newcomer. His son Ralph, our
-schoolmate, arrived with his father, and joined us down by the wire.
-Senator Griggs, Judge Warner, and a number of leading merchants had also
-arrived. These men had what was called a fine "delivery." Most of them
-sat in broadcloth and silk hats, expectorating with a delivery at once
-exact and impressive. There was the resounding Websterian tone coupled
-with a rustic swagger and glibness that could be found in every country
-village. What vocal and pedestrial splendor was theirs as they rose and
-strode to the sulky of Montravers, who had finished a trial heat! Much
-of the splendor had been imported from the capitals by Smithers, Brooks,
-and Buckstone; but more of it was natural Websterian effulgence.
-
-Mr. Smead was right; the trotter was indeed the friend and ally of
-the "conversationalist." How well those high-sounding names fitted the
-Websterian tone--Montravers, Hambletonian, Abdallah, Mambrino Chief.
-And so it was with all the vivid phrases of the racetrack. The sleek,
-high heads and spurning feet of the horses seemed to stimulate and
-reflect the Websterian spirit. When a man looked at one of those horses
-he unconsciously tightened his check rein. If his neck was a bit weary,
-he felt for his flask or set out for the Palace Hotel.
-
-Those great men complimented Mr. Smead on his horse, and the Senator
-bet a hundred dollars with the Congressman that Montravers would win his
-race.
-
-"Let us bet on that horse," said Henry to me; "we can't lose."
-
-I confessed with some shame that I did not know how to bet.
-
-"That's easy," said Henry. "I'll show you how when the time comes."
-
-Then we went round among the stables.
-
-What a center of influence and power was that half-mile track and the
-stables about it. It was a primary school of crime, with its museum of
-blasphemy and its department of slang and lewdness. What a place for the
-tender soul of youth!
-
-There were the sleek trotters passing in and out, booted for their work.
-In the sulkies behind them were those cursing, kinglike, contemptuous
-jockeys, so sublime and exalted that they were even beyond the reach of
-our envy. There were the great prancing, beautiful stallions, and the
-swipes--heroic, foul-mouthed, proud, free, and some of them dog-faced.
-Scarred, sniffing bulldogs were among them, spaniels with grace locks
-on their brows, sleek little fox terriers, and now and then a roaring
-mastiff. How we envied them! We became their willing slaves, we boys of
-the school, fetching water and sweeping floors for the sacred privilege
-of rubbing a horse's leg. In the end some had been kicked out of the
-stables, but they did not mind that. What was that if they could only
-play swipes and rub a horse's leg? It only heightened their respect and
-their will to return.
-
-As my life went on I saw how these leading lights of Griggsby shone,
-like stars, above the paths of the young who were choosing their way.
-
-We boys began to think that greatness was like a tree, with its top in
-the brain and its roots in the human stomach, and that the latter needed
-much irrigation. It seemed to us that poker, inebriety, slangy wit, and
-the lavish hand were as the foliage of the tree; that fame, wealth,
-and honor were its fruit; that the goat, the trot-ting-horse, and the
-millinery store were as birds of the air that sometimes lit in its
-branches.
-
-We boys were wont to gather in an abandoned mill near the Smead
-house, on the river bank, after school, for practice in chewing and
-expectoration, and to discuss the affairs of the village.
-
-One day Henry Dunbar and Ralph Buckstone had a little flask of whisky,
-which they had stolen from the coat pocket of old Thurst Giles as he lay
-drunk in the lumber yard. Henry held it up and gave us an able imitation
-of John Griggs in the bar-room of the Palace Hotel, through the open
-door of which we boys had witnessed bloody and amusing episodes.
-
-"Gentlemen, here's to the juice of the corn," he began, in the swelling
-tone of Griggs. "The inspiration of poetry, the handmaid of eloquence,
-the enemy of sorrow, the friend of genius, the provoker of truth."
-
-It was rather convincing to the youthful mind, coming as it did from the
-lips of the great Griggs. We wondered how it was that old Thurst
-Giles and Billy Suds, and other town drunkards, had failed to achieve
-greatness. They were always soaked; Ralph said that the juice did not
-have a fair chance in such men, that they were too poor and scrawny, and
-their stomachs too small. They lacked capacity. It was like putting seed
-in thin soil. Everybody knew that John Griggs could drink a whole big
-bottle and walk off as if nothing had happened.
-
-Henry Dunbar said that a man had to have money and clothes and a good
-voice, and especially a high hat, as well as whisky and cigars, to
-amount to anything.
-
-Tommy West thought that the failure of Thurst and Billy was due to the
-fact that they were dirty and mean, and could not make a speech. In his
-view, also, they didn't shave often enough. If a man used whisky just
-for the sake of keeping up appearances, it was all right; but if he used
-it to get drunk with, it made him just naturally comical.
-
-Parents, ministers, and Sunday schools were temporary obstacles to
-the wearing of beaver hats, the carrying of gold-headed canes, and the
-driving of fast horses. It would not do for a boy to be swelling around
-bigger than his father, but when we had become large and strong and
-worthy, the beaver and its accompaniments would be added unto us. Some
-of us got the idea--although none of us dared to express it--that our
-fathers were not so great or so grand as they might be, and we thought
-we knew the reason. Luckily, from this last of our secret sessions I
-went home sick, convinced that a humble life was best for me.
-
-The next day Florence sent a note to my room, saying that she wished to
-see me. We went out for a walk together.
-
-"I'm going to look after you," she said. "You haven't any mother here,
-and you need me. You've simply _got_ to behave yourself."
-
-She stopped, faced me, and stamped her pretty foot on the ground, and
-there were tears in her blue eyes. She turned me about and took my arm
-and held it dose against her side as we walked on in silence.
-
-"I don't know how--that's what's the matter with me," I said,
-helplessly.
-
-"Don't worry," she answered. "I'm only a girl, but I can give you
-lessons in the art of being a gentleman if--if necessary. I owe much to
-you, Havelock, and I can't forget it. I shall not let you be a fool."
-
-"I can't help it," I said.
-
-"Then _I'll_ try to help it," she answered. "At least, I'll make it hurt
-you."
-
-I did my best after that--not very well, I fear, but my best, all things
-considered--and kept my heart decently clean for her sake. More than
-once I wept for sorrow over my adventure through the ice, for it had
-made me give her up.
-
-That night I told Ralph that Florence loved him, and how I knew. It was
-a sublime renunciation. After all, what is better than the heart of a
-decent boy? I wish it were mine again.
-
-"I love her, too," he said, "but I haven't dared to tell her of it. I'm
-going to see her now."
-
-After that Ralph was a model student and a warm friend of mine.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV
-
-FAIR-TIME had arrived. The Smead boys had worked every night and
-morning on the legs and body of that splendid horse. His coat was satin,
-and his plumes were silk when he went out of the stable. He returned
-dripping with sweat and foam.
-
-I wonder what Daniel Webster Smead would have accomplished with those
-boys if they had had the care and training of his "hoss." But they
-were only descended from Thankful Smead and Remember Baker and Winfield
-Scott, and what was that in comparison with the blood of Hambletonian
-X.?
-
-I gave to Henry, to be wagered, a part of the money which my father had
-provided for the term's expenses. Henry promised that he would surely
-double it, and that is what happened. Montravers won, our pockets bulged
-with money, but the horse did not sell. A buyer from New York made an
-offer, which was refused. Mr. Smead informed us that the buyer had said
-that if Montravers showed that he could repeat his performance the
-price was not too high. Hope realized maketh the heart strong; and our
-imaginations, lighted by the gleam of gold, worked far into the night
-after full days of labor.
-
-The next week the stallion was entered at Diddlebury. Henry and I were
-going over to get rich. Early in the morning of the race we skipped
-school and took a train to Diddlebury. Such riches have never come to
-me as we had in our minds that morning. We considered what we should do
-with the money. I secretly decided that I would buy a diamond ring for
-Florence Dunbar, his sister, and that, if there were any money left, I
-would give it to my mother.
-
-Henry had his mental eye on a ranch in Texas, near his father's--not a
-very big one--he explained to me. As Henry knew the art of betting, I
-gave all my money to him, except a dollar and fifty-four cents.
-
-We spent the morning at the stables by the track, and endured a good
-deal of abuse from the swipe boys, who looked down upon us from that
-upper level of horsedom. We knew it was justified, and made only a
-feeble response. We stood near with eyes and ears of envy while they
-jested with many a full round oath of their night's adventures. And I
-remember that one of them called to me:
-
-"Here, sonny, keep away fr'm that mare's legs. She'll kick a hole in ye.
-If she don't I will. Come, now, take a walk. Run home to yer mammy."
-
-That was the mildest brand of scorn which they ladled out to us when
-we tried to show our familiarity with the "trottin'-hoss." We found the
-stall of Montravers, but the trainer would not have us there despite our
-friendship for the owner. Driven by the contempt of our superiors
-from this part of the grounds, we haunted the rifle ranges and the
-gingerbread and lemonade stalls until the grand stand was thrown open.
-Henry left me for a while, and on his return said that he had wagered
-all our money on Montravers. I sat in a joyful trance until the bell
-rang.
-
-The race began with our favorite among the five leaders of a large
-field. Suddenly the sky turned black. Montravers had broken and begun
-bucking, and acted as though he wanted to kick. He fell far behind, and
-when the red flag came down before him and shut him out of the race,
-I had to believe it, and could not. It was like having to climb a tree
-with a wolf coming, and no tree in sight.
-
-Now, the truth is, Montravers might have won, but his driver sold the
-race, as we were to learn by and by--sold it for ten dollars and two
-bottles of whisky. He pulled and bedeviled the horse until the latter
-showed more temper than speed. The horse made every effort to get free
-and head the procession. He was on the square, that horse, but the
-ten-dollar man kept pulling. The horse was far more decent, more honest,
-more human than his driver; but the latter blamed the horse, and the
-New-Yorker got him for a thousand dollars less than he would have had to
-pay by any other method.
-
-The ten-dollar man proved to be one of the few philanthropists in
-Griggsby. He became one of the great educators of the village. He
-stood by the gate that opened into the broad way of leisure. His cheap
-venality was like a dub in his hands, with which he smote the head of
-the fool and turned him back. If he had been a hundred-dollar man, the
-farms of the county would have gone to weeds.
-
-Henry and I had only twenty-four cents between us. We met Mr. Smead
-coming from the stables. He was awfully cut up, in spite of that happy
-way he had of taking his trouble. We soon saw that something like an
-earthquake had happened to him.
-
-"My education is complete," said he, sadly. "I have got my degree; it
-is D.F. I have honestly earned it, and shall seek new worlds to conquer.
-The man who mentions hoss to me after this day shall perish by the sword
-of my wrath."
-
-He carried his little driving-whip in his hand.
-
-"I have sold everything but this whip," he added; "I keep that as a
-souvenir of my school days. Boys, are you ready to join me in a life of
-industry?"
-
-"We are," said both of us, in concert. "Then, in the language of D.
-Webster, follow me, strike down yon guard, gain the highway, an' start
-for a new destination. Boys, we will walk home; let us shake from our
-feet the dust of Diddlebury."
-
-"We have got to walk," said Henry. "We lost every dollar we had on the
-race."
-
-"We are all of equal rank," said Smead, with a smile. "I will share with
-you my distinction. There is enough of it for all of us. Evenly divided,
-it should satisfy the ambition of every damn fool in Vermont. Now let
-us proceed to the higher walks of life, the first of which shall be the
-walk to Griggsby."
-
-The sun was low when, beyond the last house in the village of
-Diddlebury, we came out on the turnpike with our faces set in the
-direction of Griggsby, nine miles away--and destinations far better and
-more remote.
-
-Henry and I were weary, but the talk of Smead helped us along.
-
-By and by he said: "Boys, as workers of iniquity we are failures; let us
-admit it. For the weak the competition is too severe. The ill-trained,
-half-hearted, third-rate, incompetent criminal is no good. He is
-respected neither by God, man, nor the devil. Let's be respectable.
-If we must have something for nothing, let's go to cuttin' throats, or
-boldly an' openly an' without shame go into the railroad business. Then
-we might have our mansions, our horses, an' our hounds. Whether we died
-in bed or on the gallows, we should be honored in song an' story, like
-Captain Kidd."
-
-He gaily sang a verse of the ballad, very familiar in the days of which
-I am telling:
-
-               "Jim Fisk was a man, wore his heart on his sleeve,
-
-                   No matter what people might say,
-
-               And he did all his deeds--both the good and the
-
-                        bad--
-
-                   In the broad, open light of the day.
-
-               If a man was in trouble Jim helped him along
-
-                   To drive the grim wolf from the door;
-
-               He often did right, and he often did wrong,
-
-                   But he always remembered the poor.
-
-"That's the thing!" he went on. "Cut the throats of the people, grab a
-million, an' throw back a thousand for charity.
-
-"As it is, we are neither fish, flesh, nor fowl. Satan scorns our aid.
-I, for one, resent it. After all, a man of my gifts an' attainments
-deserves some recognition. Le's resign our commissions in his army an'
-go in for reform.
-
-"Le's take up the idee o' givin' somethin' fer somethin', an' see how
-that 'll work. In my opinion, it 'll pay better. For one thing, we
-shall not have much competition in Griggsby. Of course, there are
-the churches, but they are busy with the sins of the Philistines an'
-Amalekites an' the distant heathen.
-
-"Satan has made Griggsby his head-quarters as bein' more homelike than
-any other part of the universe. That is the place to begin operations.
-We'll be lonesome an' unpopular, but we'll raze hell--I mean, of course,
-that we'll cause it to move from Griggsby. There is nothing else for us
-to do. We are driven to it. Griggsby is untouched; it is virgin soil. As
-we have been coming along I have been counting on my fingers the young
-men of good families who under my eye have gone down to untimely an'
-dishonored graves in that little village. There are twenty-six that
-I can think of who have followed the leading lights to perdition. Of
-course, there are more, but that is enough. It's a ghastly harvest,
-boys. First, we will attack the leading lights; we will put them out."
-
-Henry and I were rather deeply impressed by this talk, so new, so
-different, so suited to our state of mind. It hit us straight between
-the eyes.
-
-I was in a bad way, and dreadfully worried, without a cent for books or
-tuition or spending money, or the courage to appeal to my father.
-
-"I've got some money in my pocket, boys," he went on. "If I could only
-buy _The Little Corporal_ [our weekly paper] it would be just the jaw bone
-with which to slay the Philistines. Wholesome publicity is the weapon we
-need. With it we could both demolish an' build up."
-
-Black clouds had covered the sky, and now we were walking in darkness,
-with a damp wind coming out of the west. We were some miles from the
-village of Griggsby when a drenching rain began to fall. We could see a
-light in a window close by the road, and we made for it.
-
-A woman timidly opened the door as we rapped. Smead knew her.
-
-"Sorry to trouble you, Mrs. Bradshaw," said he. "Where is Bill?"
-
-"He an' Sam Reynolds went over to Diddlebury Fair," said she.
-
-"Well, it is time the prize pumpkins were rollin' home," said Smead;
-"but I'm 'fraid _we_ have rolled about as far as we can tonight. A heavy
-rain has set in, an' we're nearly wet through."
-
-"We ain't much to offer you," said the woman, "but if one o' you can
-sleep with the hired man there's a bed for the other two upstairs."
-
-"Do you think the hired man would sleep with me?" asked Smead, in
-playful astonishment.
-
-"I guess so," said the woman.
-
-"Well, if you don't think he'd be offended, if he wouldn't git mad an'
-throw me out, I'd take it as a great compliment to sleep with the hired
-man."
-
-The woman put aside her sewing, rose wearily, lit a candle, and went
-upstairs to make the bed for Henry and me. She moved heavily in big
-shoes. Her face was pale and care-worn, her hands were knotted with
-toil. She was another slave.
-
-"Her girl is away teaching school," Smead explained to us. "One boy has
-worked his way to the grave--worn out as ye'd wear out a hoss. Another
-is working his way through college."
-
-We went to bed, but my sorrows kept me awake. Henry and I discussed
-them in whispers for half an hour. He said that he felt sure his sister
-Florence could lend us some money. Their bank account was in her name.
-
-He fell asleep by and by, but I lay thinking of Florence and of my
-folly. I could hear Mrs. Bradshaw singing softly downstairs as she
-rocked in her sewing-chair. Near midnight I heard a carriage, and soon
-there was an entrance at the front door. Then I heard the woman speak in
-a low tone, and the angry answer of the man.
-
-Had it come to this, he said, with an oath. A man couldn't do as he
-liked in his own house? He would see. Then he proceeded to break the
-furniture. Oh, the men were always at the bat in those days, and the
-women chasing the ball!
-
-When we left in the morning, on a muddy road, Mr. Smead said to us:
-
-"That man is another Simon Legree. The women are mostly slaves about
-here. If they could have their way, how long do you suppose the leading
-lights would be leading us? What would become of the trottin'-hoss an'
-the half-mile road to bankruptcy, an' perdition an' the red noses?
-
-"Now, look at me. I went an' grabbed the earnings o' my wife an'
-children an' staked 'em on a hoss. Not that I've anything agin the hoss;
-hosses would be all right if it wa'n't for their associatin' with men.
-You put a five-thousan'-dollar hoss in the company of a ten-dollar man,
-an' the reputation o' the hoss is bound to suffer. If it's hard on a
-hoss, it's harder on a woman.
-
-"Boys, I shall not buy the _Corporal._ I shall give every dollar in my
-pocket to Mrs. Smead an' throw in myself. It ain't much, but it may be
-more."
-
-That week he lettered a placard with great pains, and had it framed and
-hung in the "drawing-room," and it said:
-
-_Proclamation of D. W. Smead:_
-
-_In the name of God, amen. I hereby declare my wife to be a free woman
-and entitled to the rights of a human being in my home; the same right
-that I have to be wise or foolish. She shall have a part of the money
-that she earns by her own labor, and the right to rest when she is
-weary, and to enjoy a share of my abundant leisure. All persons are
-warned against harboring or trusting me any further at her expense._
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V
-
-THE physical as well as the mental and moral boundaries of the
-community of Griggsby, in northern New England, were fitted to inspire
-eloquence. The town lay between two mountain ranges crowned with
-primeval forests, and near the shore of a beautiful lake, with the
-Canadian line a little north of it. There lived among us a lawyer from
-the state of Maine who had sung of its "forests, lakes, and rivers, and
-the magnificent sinuosities of its coast," but he had been silenced by
-Colonel Buckstone's "towering, cloud-capped, evergreen galleries above
-the silver floor of our noble lake."
-
-There were also our mental and moral boundaries; on the east, hard times
-and history; on the west, the horse-traders of York State, mingled with
-wild animals and backed by pathless woods; on the north, the Declaration
-of Independence; on the south, the Democratic party; while above was a
-very difficult heaven, and beneath a wide open and most accessible hell.
-
-Our environment had some element that appealed to every imagination, and
-was emphasized by the solemn responsibilities of the time. Our ancient
-enemies in the South had begun to threaten the land under the leadership
-of Seymour and Blair. The oratory of New England was sorely taxed.
-
-My own imagination had been touched by all these influences, and by
-another--the dear and beautiful girl of whom I have said not half
-enough. There was no flower in all the gardens of Griggsby so graceful
-in form or so beautiful in color as Florence Dunbar. I felt a touch of
-the tender passion every time I looked into her eyes. No, she was not
-of the "sweet Alice" type; she was too full-blooded and strong-armed for
-that. She never entered a churchyard without being able to walk out of
-it, and if she had loved "Ben Bolt" she would have got him, to his great
-happiness and advantage. She was a modest, fun-loving, red-cheeked,
-sweet-souled girl, with golden hair and hazel eyes, and seventeen when
-first I saw her. Candor compels me to admit that she had a few freckles,
-but I remember that I liked the look of them; they had come of the wind
-and the sunlight.
-
-The father of my chum Henry and his sister Florence had gone West from
-Griggsby with his bride in the early fifties, and had made a fortune.
-Florence and her brother had grown up on a ranch, and had been sent back
-to enjoy the educational disadvantages of Griggsby. They could ride
-like Indians, and their shooting had filled us with astonishment. With
-a revolver Florence could hit a half dollar thrown in the air before it
-touched the ground.
-
-Her brother Henry was two years older, and as many inches taller than
-I, and always in my company, as I have said. He had begun to emulate the
-leading lights of the neighborhood. He and Ralph Buckstone, the handsome
-and gifted son of the great Colonel, were friends and boon companions.
-
-Having been chastened by misfortune, like the great Dan'l Webster Smead,
-and being in dire need of money, Henry and I went straight to Florence's
-room the morning of our return from the horse races at Diddlebery, and
-confessed our ruin and the folly that had led to it. Henry urged me to
-do it, and said that he would do all the talking, for I told him that I
-would ask no favor of Florence--coward that I was.
-
-She was kind, but she added to our conviction of guilt a sense of idiocy
-which was hard to bear. I secretly resolved to keep my brain unspotted
-by suspicion thereafter, whatever might happen to my soul. We gladly
-promised to be good. We would have given our notes for a million acts of
-virtue.
-
-"We are for reform," I assured her. "Henry and Mr. Smead and I have had
-a long talk about ourselves and the village. We are going to do what we
-can to improve the place. He spoke of buying _The Little Corporal_ and
-drowning out the gamblers and drunkards with publicity."
-
-"That would be fun!" she exclaimed. "I will write to my father about
-that. Maybe it's lucky after all that you have had this trouble. I am
-grateful to you, Havelock, and I am going to help you, but you--" She
-hesitated, and I was quick to say: "I will not take your help unless you
-will let me return the money. I can work Saturdays in the mill and do
-it."
-
-"Oh, don't think of it again!" she said, with sympathy.
-
-"I must think of it," was my answer, "and with God's help I will not be
-so unfair to you again."
-
-She did not know how deeply I felt the words, and added:
-
-"I am afraid that Mr. Hall may send you both home."
-
-That, indeed, was our great fear.
-
-I have tried to make it dear that there were some good men in Griggsby;
-and I must not fail to tell of one of them, the Rev. Appleton Hall, head
-of the academy, a plain, simple, modest citizen. What a splendid figure
-of a man he was--big, strong-armed, hard-handed, with black eyes and a
-beautiful, great head crowned with a wavy mass of blonde hair. That and
-its heavy, curling beard were as yellow as fine gold. What a tower of
-rugged strength and fatherly kindness! We loved the touch of his hand
-and the sound of his voice--when we did not fear them. As he stood with
-his feet in the soil of his garden and his collar loose at his throat he
-reminded me of that man of old of whom it was written: "A thousand shall
-fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not
-come nigh thee."
-
-He fought against the powers of darkness for the sake of the boys. He
-was handicapped; he could not denounce the great men of the village by
-name as pestilential enemies of decency and order. Perhaps that should
-have been done by the churches. Old "App" Hall, as some called him,
-warned and watched us; but, with his rugged figure, his old-fashioned
-clothes, and his farmer dialect, he had not the appeal--the darling
-appeal of Websterians like Griggs and Colonel Buckstone. However, there
-was something fatherly about him that made it easy to confess both our
-truancy and our money loss. Of course, he forgave us, but with stern
-advice, which did not get under our jackets, as had that of Dan'l
-Webster Smead. He said we were fools; but we knew that, and would have
-admitted more.
-
-I began to attend to business as a student, but Henry went on with his
-skylarking. Dan'l Webster Smead went to work buying produce for the
-Boston market, and spent every evening at home. He got his wife a
-hired girl, and the poor woman soon had a happier look in her face.
-The children wore new clothes, and a touch of the buoyant spirit of the
-racer Montravers, now cast out of his life, soon entered the home of
-Smead.
-
-Ralph Buckstone and I had become the special favorites of Appleton
-Hall. Florence had managed to keep me out of mischief for some time.
-Naturally, my love for her had led to the love of decency and honor,
-which meant that I must do the work set before me and keep on fairly
-good terms with myself. It was Florence, I am sure, who had had a like
-effect upon Ralph. We took no part, thereafter, in the ranker deviltry
-of the boys and did fairly good work in school.
-
-One evening Ralph came to my room and told me that he had had a quarrel
-with his father. It seemed that a clever remark of Florence about the
-last spree of the Colonel had reached his ears. The Colonel, boiling
-with indignation, had made some slighting reference to her and all other
-women in the presence of his son. High words and worse had followed,
-in the course of which the sacred, gold-headed cane of the Colonel,
-presented to him by the Republican electors of the town, had been
-splintered in a violent gesture. The cane had been used, not for
-assault, but for emphasis. Ralph had been blamed by the Colonel for the
-loss of his temper and the loss of his cane. The great man might have
-forgiven the former, but the latter went beyond his power of endurance.
-So he turned the boy out of doors, and Ralph came directly to my
-room, where his father found and forgave him with great dignity in the
-morning, and bade him return to his home.
-
-There was some drunken brawling in the streets by night, and now and
-then a memorable battle, followed by prosecution and repairs. About then
-Appleton Hall gave a lecture on the morals of Griggsby, which was the
-talk of the school and the village for a month or more. In it were the
-words about Daniel Webster and the first Bunker Hill oration which I
-quoted at the beginning of this little history. People began to wake up.
-
-Our preachers came back from Samaria and Egypt, "from Africa's sunny
-fountains and India's coral strands," and began to think about Griggsby.
-At last they seemed to recognize that foreign heathens were inferior to
-the home-made article; that they were not to be compared with the latter
-in finish and general efficiency. They turned their cannons of oratory
-and altered the range of their fire. A public meeting was held in the
-town hall, and the curses of the village were discussed and berated.
-A chapter of the Cadets of Temperance was organized, and Ralph and I
-joined. We carried torch lights in a small procession led by Samantha
-Simpson, and cheered and shouted and had a grand time; but we failed to
-overawe the enemy. Nothing resulted that could be discerned by the
-naked contemporary eye save the ridicule that was heaped upon us. If one
-wanted to create a laugh in a public speech he would playfully refer
-to the Cadets of Temperance. Good people were wont to say, "What's the
-use?"
-
-The people are a patient ox. A big woolen mill polluted the stream that
-flowed through the village. It was our main water supply. The people
-permitted the pollution until the water was not fit to use. Then they
-went back to the wells and springs again. There was some futile talk
-about the shame of it. Letters of complaint were printed in _The Little
-Corporal_, our local paper. By and by a meeting was held and a committee
-appointed to see what could be done. They made sundry suggestions, most
-of which were ridiculed, and the committee succeeded only in getting
-themselves disliked.
-
-As a matter of fact, the leading merchants and lawyers, and even the
-churches, derived a profit from the presence of the woolen mill. Then,
-too, about every man in Griggsby had his own imperishable views, and
-loved to ridicule those of his neighbor. Indolence, jealousy, and
-conceit were piled in the path of reform, which was already filled with
-obstacles.
-
-Now, in those evil days a thing happened which I wish it were not my
-duty to recall. Unpleasant gossip had gone about concerning Florence and
-me. As to its source I had my suspicions. Colonel Buckstone had seen
-us sitting together by the roadside adjoining the meadow where we
-had gathered flowers. To Colonel Buckstone that was a serious matter,
-especially in view of the fact that Florence had expressed strong
-disapproval of his general conduct. Men like him are ever trying to hold
-the world in leash and to pull it back to the plane of their own morals.
-
-Griggsby was like most country towns. The county fair had passed; the
-trotters had retired; Colonel Buckstone had not slid off his eminence
-for some time, and the material for conversation had run low; somebody
-had to be sacrificed. The inventive talent of the village got busy.
-It needed a gay Lothario, and I was nominated and elected without
-opposition, save that of my own face. It ought to have turned the tide,
-but it did not. My decency was all assumed. At heart I was a base and
-subtle villain.
-
-Florence naturally turned to me for advice, and I felt the situation
-bitterly.
-
-"You poor thing!" said she, with a tearful laugh. "I'm sorry for you,
-but don't worry. Your honor shall be vindicated."
-
-"I'll fight the Colonel," I said.
-
-"You shall not fight him," said she. "Go and fight somebody else. I want
-to save _him_ for myself."
-
-That is the way she took it, bravely, calmly. She did not ask any one to
-be sorry for her. A less courageous spirit would have given up and
-gone home in disgust; but she stood her ground, with the fatherly
-encouragement of Appleton Hall, and stored the lightning that by and by
-was to fall from her hand upon the appalled citizens of Griggsby.
-
-I was at work in my room one evening when Dan'l Webster Smead came to my
-door.
-
-"Florence Dunbar and a friend have called to see you," he said. "They
-are waiting in the parlor."
-
-I went down to meet them at once. Florence and Miss Elizabeth Collins,
-Colonel Buckstone's stenographer, rose to greet me.
-
-Neither I nor any other man knew at that time that Florence had done
-her family a great favor when the Collins home had been threatened by
-a mortgage. Years after it helped me to understand the conduct of
-Elizabeth. In a moment I had heard their story.
-
-Before going home that evening the Colonel had dictated a letter to
-Roswell Dunbar, Florence's father, calculated to fill his mind with
-alarm and cause him to recall her from Griggsby. Miss Collins had left
-the office with her employer, who had put the letter with others in his
-overcoat pocket, intending to mail them in the morning, the post office
-having closed for the night. She said that the Colonel had been imbibing
-freely that day and had gone to the Palace Hotel for supper.
-
-"I have decided to start for home in the morning," said Florence. "I
-must reach there before the letter does, and probably I shall not come
-back."
-
-"Don't go," I said. "I'll attend to the letter."
-
-"How?" she asked.
-
-"I don't know, but in some way," I said, with the strong confidence of
-youth in its own capacity. "I only ask that you give me permission to
-consult my friend Dan'l Webster Smead in strict confidence. It won't
-do to let the Colonel drive us out of town. He is the one to be driven
-out."
-
-Florence agreed with me, and I walked home with the girls, and left them
-in a better frame of mind.
-
-I asked Smead to come to my room with me, and laid the facts before him.
-He sat smoking thoughtfully, and said not a word until I had finished.
-Then he said in that slow drawl of his:
-
-"I take it that you are willing to suffer, if need be, for the sake of
-decency and fair women."
-
-"I am," was my response.
-
-"Then again I ask you to follow me," he said, rising; and together we
-left his house as the old town dock was striking nine; Mr. Smead wore
-his great overcoat with its fur collar and cuds.
-
-"The Colonel has often admired it," said he. "He's a great swapper when
-he's drinking, and perhaps--"
-
-"I shall fight the Colonel, if necessary," I suggested.
-
-"Hush, boy! Let us first try eloquence," said he. "It is only the vulgar
-mind that resorts to muscle when the tongue may do as well. Eloquence,
-my dear boy, is the jimmy of Griggsby; it is also the gold brick, the
-giant powder, the nitroglycerin of Griggsby. Let us see what it can
-accomplish." We went on in silence, and soon heard sounds of revelry
-in a bar-room. We stopped and listened a moment, after which he led me
-farther up the street.
-
-"The Colonel began to slide from his eminence to-day," my companion
-whispered. "I doubt not he is still sliding, and what I hope to hear are
-sundry deep-voiced remarks about the 'witchin' hour of night."'
-
-We came soon to the lighted windows of the Palace Hotel, through which a
-loud and mirthful joy floated into the still night. We listened again. I
-could hear the rumbling words, "When churchyards yawn and graves give up
-their dead."
-
-"Those graves and churchyards are counterfeit," Smead whispered. "They
-have not the Buckstonian ring to them. Let's go in for a minute."
-
-We entered. About the stove in the office was the usual crowd of
-horsemen with meerschaum pipes. I took the only vacant chair by the side
-of a maudlin old soldier who did chores for his keep, and who addressed
-me with incoherent mumbles. The air was heavy with tobacco smoke and the
-odor of rum and molasses. "Rat" Emerson, a driver, was telling how he
-had worn out a faster horse than his in the scoring and won a race.
-Through the open door of the bar-room I could see a man with his glass
-raised, and hear him saying in a stentorian tone:
-
-"Ye call me chief, and ye do well to call him chief who for twelve
-long years has met upon the arena every shape of man or beast the broad
-empire of Rome could furnish, and who never yet lowered his arm."
-
-This tournament of orators was interrupted by Smead, who was suddenly
-and almost simultaneously embraced by every member of the group, while
-the barkeeper was preparing to minister to his needs.
-
-"Again I am in the grasp of the octopus of intemperance," I heard Smead
-say, whereat the others roared with laughter.
-
-Soon he disengaged himself, and I saw him speaking to the bartender. In
-a moment he came out, and we left the place together.
-
-"Colonel Buckstone is taking the nine-thirty train to St. Johnstown," he
-whispered. "We must hurry and get aboard. There is yet time."
-
-We ran to the depot and caught the train. Colonel Buckstone sat near
-the center of the smoking-car with Thurst Giles, a town drunkard, of
-Griggsby. Fortunately, we got a seat just behind them. I remember that,
-of the two, Thurst was much the soberer. Shabby and unshaven, he was an
-odd sort of extravagance for the imposing Colonel to be indulging in.
-The latter was arrayed in broadcloth and fine linen, and crowned with a
-beaver hat.
-
-"Giles, I like you," said Buckstone, in a thick, maudlin voice; "but,
-sir, I feel constrained to remind you that in the matter of dress and
-conduct you are damnably careless. You, sir, are in the unfortunate
-position of a man climbing to a great height. You are all right as long
-as you do not look down."
-
-Giles laughed, as did others near them.
-
-"But be of good cheer," the Colonel went on, as he passed him a roll
-of greenbacks. "I appoint you Chancellor of the Exchequer, and shall at
-once look after the improvement of your person. All I demand of you is
-that you pay the bills and keep sober, sir. Do not worry about me,
-but rest assured that I can drink enough for both of us, and that your
-occupation as paymaster will be sufficient."
-
-A fanner with a long beard was passing down the aisle of the car.
-
-"My friend, your beard annoys me," said the Colonel. "Are you much
-attached to it?"
-
-"No; it's attached to me," the farmer answered, as he stopped and looked
-at the statesman in a flurry of laughter.
-
-"If you don't mind, sir, I presume that it wouldn't hurt the feelings
-of your beard to part with you. Please have it removed. It makes me
-nervous."
-
-"I'll have it cut and boxed and shipped to you," said the farmer.
-
-"Giles, give the gentleman ten dollars, and take his note payable in
-whiskers," the statesman directed.
-
-At the next station a number entered the car, and among them was
-the Websterian form of John Henry Griggs, with its stovepipe hat and
-gold-headed cane.
-
-"Hello, Senator. Would you allow me to look at your hat?" the Colonel
-demanded of him.
-
-"Certainly," said the gentleman addressed, as he laughingly passed his
-beaver to the Colonel, having halted by the seat of the latter.
-
-The Colonel examined it critically, and asked, "How much will you take
-for it?"
-
-"Well, to-night it's a pretty valuable hat," said the other. "I wouldn't
-care to take less than twenty-five dollars for it."
-
-"And it is easily worth that to my needy friend here, who seeks
-admittance to the higher circles of society," the Colonel answered.
-"Giles, you will kindly settle with the Senator."
-
-Giles paid for the hat, and was promptly crowned with it, to the great
-amusement of every occupant of the car. The big beaver came down upon
-his ears and settled until its after part rested on his coat collar. The
-Colonel passed his gold-headed cane to his new friend, singing as he did
-so:
-
-               "He often did right, and he often did wrong,
-
-               But he always remembered the poor."
-
-When the noisy laughter had subsided he shrewdly remarked to the passive
-Giles:
-
-"Now, sir, you have the prime essentials of respectability."
-
-"I feel like a d--fool," Giles protested.
-
-"Never mind your feelings," said the Colonel. "Take care of your looks,
-and your feelings will take care of themselves."
-
-At the next station a man entered the car leading a lank hound.
-
-"How much for your dog?" the Colonel demanded.
-
-"Ten dollars."
-
-"Make it fifteen, and I'll take him. I don't want a dog that's worth
-less than fifteen dollars."
-
-"All right!"
-
-"Mr. Giles, kindly settle with the gentleman."
-
-The hound was paid for, and Giles promptly took possession of him.
-
-"That is the Colonel's way of advertising," Smead whispered to me. "When
-he buys anything of a farmer he always overpays him, and the farmer
-never ceases to talk about it."
-
-In the lull that followed Smead rose and showed himself to the Colonel.
-
-"Ha! There is Senator Smead and his famous overcoat," was Buckstone's
-greeting.
-
-"That coat has always worried me. In all my plans for the improvement of
-Griggs-by that overcoat has figured more or less. What will you take for
-it?"
-
-Smead drew off his coat, which had a rolling collar of brown fur.
-
-"I should not care to sell it," said Smead, "but I will trade even for
-yours."
-
-"Anything for the good of the old town," said the obliging Colonel, as
-they exchanged overcoats.
-
-In a moment each had put on his new coat.
-
-"Here, I don't want your gloves," said Buckstone, as he drew them out of
-a side pocket.
-
-I observed that Smead had been feeling the contents of his coat.
-
-"Keep them," said he. "You shall have all that my coat contained, and I
-shall claim all that was in yours."
-
-The train entered the depot at St. Johnstown.
-
-The Colonel and his new secretary followed the crowd to the station
-platform. Giles, in big boots and patched and threadbare garments, his
-big beaver hat resting on his ears, with the Colonel's bag in one hand
-while the other held his gold-headed cane and the leash of the lank and
-wistful hound, was an epic figure.
-
-[Illustration: 0113]
-
-I doubt if Colonel Buckstone could have had a more able assistant in
-the task which lay before him that night, for in his lighter moods the
-Colonel was a most industrious merrymaker. We saw them buying another
-dog on the station platform, and presently they started for an inn, with
-two quarreling dogs and the bag and the gold-headed cane and the beaver
-hat, all in the possession of the faithful Giles.
-
-"I have secured the letters," said Smead. "As I suspected, they were in
-a pocket of this overcoat, and we can return to Griggsby by the midnight
-train; you must never tell what you know of this--not a word, not a
-syllable. He will land in New York in a day or two--always points that
-way when he's drinking--and will not think of the letter for weeks,
-anyhow. Tell Florence to write to her father and explain the Colonel's
-rage. That will take the edge off his razor."
-
-I promised, and we were soon riding back to Griggsby. It was a sleepless
-but a happy and wonderful night for me and Mr. Smead.
-
-Early in the morning he went to the dormitory with a note that I had
-written to Florence. When I met her she took my hand, but did not speak.
-I knew why. For a long minute we walked together in silence; then she
-said, rather brokenly: "Havelock, you are the most wonderful boy that I
-ever met, and I owe you everything. What _can_ I do for?"
-
-The words were a new blow to me, for, as the read will understand, they
-put her farther away.
-
-"Please take that back," I said, almost woefully. "Please do not think
-that you owe me anything. I don't want you to feel that way. I didn't--"
-
-I was about to say that it was not I who had obtained the letter from
-the Colonel, but I halted, suddenly remembering my promise.
-
-"You strange, modest boy!" she exclaimed. "Don't you want me to be
-grateful to you?"
-
-"Florence," I said, with all the seriousness of my nature, "I'd almost
-rather you'd hate me."
-
-I have never forgotten the look in her face then, and how quickly it
-changed color. A sorry fool I was not to have understood it; but, then,
-what did I know about women? She, too, knew as little of the heart of a
-Puritan lad who had grown up in the edge of a wilderness.
-
-A few days later the ragged Giles walked into Griggsby with a battered
-beaver hat on his head and a gold-headed cane in his left hand, while
-with his right he wielded a bull whip over the backs of a pair of oxen
-which the Colonel had purchased.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI
-
-DAN'L WEBSTER SMEAD was right. Colonel Buckstone went to New York, and
-Ralph joined him there. Weeks passed, and they were still absent. Then
-the truth came to me and to Florence in a letter from Ralph, which she
-asked me to read. It ran as follows:
-
-"Dearest Florence,--I'm having a hard time with the governor. I want you
-to know that I do not believe a word of all I've heard about you, and
-that I shall never care about anybody else. I'm going to England with my
-aunt. Dad suddenly decided that for me here in New York, and we've had
-an awful row. It seems as if I ought to be there with you, but I can't.
-Luck is against me. I should have to walk to Griggsby and go to work for
-my living, for I should have no home. Don't worry; everything will come
-out all right. Dad says I may write to you and come home in a year. What
-do we care what people say so long as we are true to each other, which
-I will always be. Dad says that Henry is leading me astray. What do you
-think of that?"
-
-Then he added his signature and his London address.
-
-The girl was game. Her eyes flashed with indignation.
-
-"Never mind," said she; "my turn will come by and by."
-
-She said that she had written to Ralph; and I knew, without saying
-it, that he would receive no letter from her, for I suspected that the
-cunning old politician would have laid his plans to discourage him
-with her silence. Two other letters came from Ralph, the last of which
-complained of what he called "her indifference"; and, although I wrote
-him, as did she, again and again, I happen to know that Ralph looked in
-vain for a letter.
-
-Yes, it was the old, old plan, and easier managed in those days, when
-England was very far from us and one who had crossed the ocean was a
-curiosity.
-
-"Ralph ain't the right timber for a hero," said Smead, as we sat
-together one day. "He won't do."
-
-"Why not?" I asked.
-
-"Too easily bamboozled. For one thing, a hero has got to be bigger than
-his father, especially when his father is only knee-high to a johnny
-cake. If I were young an' full o' vinegar, I'd jump in an' cut him out."
-
-I made no answer.
-
-"You're a good jumper," he suggested; "why don't ye jump for this big
-prize? The girl has beauty an' character an' wit an' wealth. Don't be
-afraid; hop in an' take her."
-
-"It's impossible," I said. "She don't care for me; but that's only one
-reason."
-
-"Nonsense!" he exclaimed.
-
-"She told me so," I insisted.
-
-"Young man, I maintain that a lady cannot lie; but it ain't always best
-to believe her. You didn't expect that she was goin' to toss her heart
-into your lap at the first bid, did ye? They don't do that, not if they
-'re real cunnin'. They like to hang on to their hearts an' make ye bid
-for 'em. They want to know how much you'll give; and they're right,
-absolutely right. It's good business. A girl has to be won."
-
-I sat in a thoughtful silence, and Smead went on.
-
-"It's a kind of auction sale. 'How much am I bid?' the girl says with
-her eyes. You say, I offer my love.' It isn't enough. You offer houses
-an' lands. Still she shakes her head no. By an' by you speak up with a
-brave voice, an' offer the strong heart of a hero an' a love as deep an'
-boundless as the sea, an' you mean every word of it. That fetches her.
-You see, love is the biggest thing in a woman's life--or in the world,
-for that matter. So you've got to say it big an' mean it big. Feeble
-words an' manners won't do when you're tellin' the best girl in the
-world how ye love her. Now, you've got the goods--the hero's heart an'
-all. Why don't ye offer 'em?"
-
-I wish I had told him why, but I did not. In the first place, I knew
-that I was no hero; and, again, I was like most Yankee boys of that
-time--I could not bear any tempting of my heart's history. It was full
-of deep sentiment, but somehow that was awfully sacred to me. Then, too,
-I was not much of a talker. I could not have said those pretty things to
-Florence. My words had never been cheapened by overuse, and I had quit
-lying, and any sort of hyperbole would have made me ashamed of myself.
-
-I decided to leave school soon, and go to New York to seek my fortune.
-So I should have done but for my next adventure.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII
-
-THERE were days when there was a mighty ferment in the systems of
-Griggsby.
-
-On a gray, chilly Saturday in the early autumn the village was full of
-farmer folk who had come to market their produce. With these people and
-the mill hands, Saturday was apt to be a busy day, with all doors open
-until eight or nine o'clock. Most of the farmers went home in good order
-after their selling and buying. Some, however, proceeded to squander the
-proceeds and went home reeling in their wagons, with horses running and
-lathering under the whip.
-
-Late in the afternoon Henry Dunbar and I were walking down the main
-street when we saw a crowd gathering and heard an outburst of drunken
-profanity. We ran with the crowd, which was surrounding the town bully,
-a giant blacksmith, of the name of Josh, noted for his great strength
-and thunderous voice, and a farmer from an Irish neighborhood above the
-village. Both had been drinking, and the blacksmith was berating the
-farmer. We mounted a wagon that stood near, where we could see and hear.
-The blacksmith had rolled up his right shirt sleeve to the shoulder, and
-stood with his huge arm raised as the foul thunder of his wrath broke
-the peace of the village.
-
-The farmer rushed in, striking with both fists. Josh seized him about
-the shoulders, and the two wrestled for a moment, then fell, the farmer
-underneath. Josh held him by his hair and ears, and was banging his head
-on the stone pavement. It was now like a fight between bulldogs; blood
-was flowing. The farmer had the blacksmith's thumb between his teeth,
-and the latter was roaring with pain. There were loud cries of "Stop
-it!" Two bystanders were tugging at the great shoulders of Josh.
-
-Henry and I leaped from the wagon, pushed our way through the crowd,
-and, seizing the blacksmith by his collar, broke their holds with
-a quick pull and brought Josh's neck to the ground. The farmer was
-surrounded and pushed away, while the mighty Josh made for me. I was
-minded to run away, but how could I, after all that Smead had said to
-me? I expected to be killed, but I could not run away. So I did a
-thing no man had ever done before when the great Josh was coming. I ran
-straight at the giant and, as I met him, delivered a blow, behind
-which was the weight and impulse of my body, full in the face of that
-redoubtable man. It was like the stroke of a hundred-and-sixty-pound
-sledge hammer. The man toppled backward and fell into a cellarway,
-head foremost, burst the door at the foot of the stairs, and stopped
-senseless on the threshold of a butcher's shop. It was a notable fall,
-that of this town bully, and his pristine eminence was never wholly
-recovered. Henry, too, was set upon by rowdy partisans, and was
-defending himself when the town constable reached the battlefield and
-arrested Josh and the farmer and me for a breach of the peace. But the
-incident was not closed.
-
-Friends of the fighters began to discuss the merits of the men and their
-quarrel in the bar-rooms and stable yards of Griggsby. Feeling ran high,
-and there was noisy brawling in the streets.
-
-Soon after nightfall a fight began in a bar-room between the two
-factions represented by farmer boys and horse-rubbers, and was carried
-into the back yard; and while it lasted one young man was kicked in the
-chest until he was nearly dead. Word ran through the town that a murder
-had been committed. The Websterian age of Griggsby had come to its
-climax, and naturally.
-
-Next day Henry was arrested for his part in the affray. His father, who
-happened to be in Boston at the time, was summoned by a telegram from
-Florence. He came, and the result of his coming was the purchase of
-_The Little Corporal_ for his daughter. I sat with him and his son and
-daughter when Dan'l Webster Smead told him the story of that day with
-the insight of a true philosopher.
-
-"The old town is in a bad way," said Dunbar, when the story was
-finished.
-
-"But it can be set right," said Smead, "an' you're the man to do it."
-
-"How?"
-
-"Buy _The Little Corporal_ for your daughter, an' we'll do the rest,"
-said Smead.
-
-Mr. Dunbar shook his head. "I'd rather she'd marry some fine young
-fellow and settle down," said he.
-
-"What's the matter with her doin' both?" Smead asked.
-
-"Give me the _Corporal_, and I'll attend to the young fellow," said
-Florence.
-
-"Well, if you'll agree to help her in both enterprises," said Dunbar to
-Smead, "I'll buy the paper. But you and Havelock must agree to help with
-the newspaper, and make no important contracts without my consent."
-
-So I agreed to work for the _Corporal_, and changed my plan of leaving
-Griggsby.
-
-Immediately I began to suffer an ill-earned and unwelcome adulation. The
-Dan'l Websters touched their hats when I passed, and one likened me to
-Achilles; small boys followed me in the streets and gazed into my face.
-Fortunately, my alleged crimes were soon forgotten. That is one
-curious thing about the Yankees: they will use a lie for conversational
-purposes, but they never believe it. They rarely love a man until
-they have taken him apart and put him together again by the surgery of
-conversation. They want to know how he stands it.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII
-
-GOOD food, and plenty of it, was required to maintain the talents for
-leisure, racing, and Websterian grandeur that distinguished the men
-of Griggsby. As a rule, the women, therefore, were overworked. Men who
-could not afford the grandeur or the sport indulged in dreams of it, and
-surrendered their lives to inelegant leisure. Some left their farms and
-moved into the village to make Dan'l Websters of their sons. Some talked
-of going West, where the opportunities were better. You could hear men
-in blue denim dreaming of wealth on the pavements and cracker barrels of
-Griggsby, while their wives battled with poverty at home.
-
-Wifehood was still a form of bondage, as it was bound to be among a
-people who for generations had spent every Sabbath and the beginning
-and the end of every other day with Abraham and his descendants. Their
-ideals and their duties were from three to four thousand years apart--so
-far apart that they seldom got acquainted with one another. Among the
-highest of their ideals was Ruth, of the country of Moab. Did she not
-touch her face to the ground to find favor with the man she loved? Did
-she not glean in the fields till even, and thresh out her bundles, and
-then lie down at the feet of Boaz?
-
-In love and fear the wives of the Yankees were always gleaning. They
-found a certain joy in trouble. Sorrow was a form of dissipation
-to many, disappointment a welcome means of grace, and weariness a
-comforting sign of duty done. Their fears were an ever-present trouble
-in time of need. They were three--idleness, God, and the poorhouse.
-Whatever the men might do or fail to do in Griggsby, it was the part of
-the women to work and save. They squandered to save; squandered their
-abundant strength to save the earnings of the family, the souls of
-husbands, sons, and daughters, the lives of the sick. If ever they
-thought of themselves it was in secret. Their hands were never idle.
-
-The Yankee was often an orator to his own wife at least, and had
-convinced his little audience of one of two things, either that he had
-achieved greatness or was soon to be crowned. The lures of politics,
-invention, horsemanship, speculation, religion, and even poesy, led
-their victims from the ax and the plow. In certain homes you found
-soft-handed, horny-hearted tyrants of vast hope and good nature, and
-one or more slaves in calico. In my humble opinion, these willing
-slaves suffered from injustice more profound than did their dark-skinned
-sisters of the South.
-
-You might see a judge or a statesman strutting in purple and fine linen,
-or exchanging compliments in noble rhetoric at a mahogany bar, while his
-aproned wife, with bare arms, was hard at work in the kitchen, trying
-to save the expense of a second hired girl. And you would find her
-immensely proud of her rhetorical peacock. His drinking and his maudlin
-conduct were often excused as the sad but inevitable accessories of
-Websterian genius.
-
-But the Websterian impulse had begun to show itself in a new generation
-of women. It flowered in resounding rhetoric.
-
-Now and then Florence Dunbar called at the home of the Smeads, and
-had learned to enjoy the jests of Dan'l, and especially his talk about
-social conditions in Griggsby. It was there that she got the notion of
-buying the _Corporal_ and hiring Smead to help her reform the place.
-
-One evening a number of my schoolmates were asked to meet the daughters
-of Smead, who had attended the normal school before going out to teach.
-
-"Ruth, won't you get up and give us a piece?" Mrs. Smead asked one of
-her daughters.
-
-"Mince, apple, or pumpkin, mother?" Dan'l W. inquired, playfully.
-
-"Oh, stop your joking!" said Mrs. Smead.
-
-The young lady stepped to the middle of the floor, after the fashion of
-Charlotte Cushman in the sleep-walking scene of "Lady Macbeth." She
-gave us Warren's "Address," trilling her (r's) and pronouncing "my" like
-"me."
-
-"There's the makin' of another D. W.," said Smead, soberly.
-
-Ruth did not get the point, and he went on. "She makes the boys and
-girls roar like cottage organs up there at the red school-house. They
-know how to work every stop in the organ, too--patriotic defiance, king
-hatred, sorrow, despair, torpid liver, pious rant. They need two more
-stops on the organ, humor and sanity."
-
-Betsey, the younger sister of Ruth, would not speak "a piece," and I
-was glad of it. She sat by me and modestly told of her work, and now and
-then gave me a look out of her lovely blue eyes that would have moved
-the heart of a stone. What a mouth and face she had, what a fair, full,
-soft crown of hair! What a slim, inviting waist! And I liked her; that
-is the most I can say of it. Soc Potter, another schoolmate of those
-days, was said to be in love with her and to have the inside track.
-
-Two other young ladies possessed by the demon of elocution shook out
-a few faded rags of literature with noble gestures and high-flavored
-tones. Yet these ladies of Griggsby were content with the intoxication
-of whirling words, while their husbands, sons, and brothers indulged in
-feelings of grandeur not so easily supported. But I do not wish you
-to forget that the women were always busy. If it had not been for them
-Griggsby would long ago have perished of dignity and indolence, or of
-that trouble which the Germans call _katzenjammer_.
-
-To sum up, the women stood for industry, the men sat down for it; the
-women worked for decency, and every man recommended it to his neighbor.
-But the women had no voice in the government of the town.
-
-A year had passed since Ralph's departure. For months no word from him
-had come to me, or to Florence, as she informed me.
-
-"I'm very sorry," I said, as we were walking together..
-
-"I'm afraid I'm not," she surprised me by saying.
-
-I turned and looked into her eyes.
-
-"For a long time I've been trying to make a hero of Ralph, but it's hard
-work," she went on; "I fear it's impossible."
-
-"Why?"
-
-"He doesn't help me a bit; he doesn't give me any material to work
-with."
-
-There was a moment of silence, in which the girl seemed to be trying to
-hold her poise. Then she added.
-
-"Either he doesn't care or he is very easily fooled."
-
-I said nothing, but I heartily agreed with her.
-
-Congress had adjourned, and the Colonel had returned to his native
-haunts with all his Websterian accessories. There were moral weather
-prophets in Griggsby who used to say, when the Colonel came back, that
-they could tell whether it was going to be a wet or a dry summer by the
-color of his nose and the set of his high hat. "Wet" was now the general
-verdict as he strode down the main street swinging his gold-headed cane.
-
-On a lovely May day I tramped off into the country to attend Betsey
-Smead's last day of school and to walk home with her. The latter was the
-main part of it. She was glad to see me, and I enjoyed the children, and
-the songs of the birds in the maples of the old schoolyard.
-
-In the middle of the afternoon a stern-faced old man with a hickory cane
-in his hand entered the schoolhouse, and Betsey hurried to meet and kiss
-him. Then she helped him to a seat at the teacher's desk. He was stoutly
-built, and wore a high collar, a black stock, and a suit of faded brown.
-There was a fringe of iron-gray hair above his ears, with tufts of the
-same color in front of them. The rest of his rugged, deep-lined face was
-as bare as the top of his head. His stem, gray eyes quizzically regarded
-the girl and the pupils.
-
-"Describe the course of the Connecticut River," he demanded of a member
-of the geography class.
-
-To my joy, the frightened girl answered correctly.
-
-"Very well, very well," said he, loudly, as though it were a matter of
-small credit, after all.
-
-A member of the first class in arithmetic was not so fortunate. To him
-he put a problem.
-
-"Go to the blackboard," the old gentleman commanded. "A man had three
-sons--put down three, if you please.
-
-"To A he willed half his property, to B a quarter, and to C a sixth.
-Now, his property consisted of eleven sheep. The sons wished to divide
-the sheep without killing any, so they consulted a neighbor. The
-neighbor came with one of his own sheep and put it in with the
-eleven, making twelve in all. Then he gave one-half to A, making six;
-one-quarter to B, making three; one-sixth to C, making two--a total of
-eleven--and drove back his own sheep. Now, tell me, young man, what is
-the matter with that problem--tell me at once, sir."
-
-The boy trembled, looked stupidly at the blackboard, and gave up.
-
-"Huh! that will do," snapped the old gentleman.
-
-Here was the grand, stentorian method applied to geography and
-mathematics.
-
-At last school was dismissed. The tears of the children as they parted
-with Betsey seemed to please the old gentleman. His face softened a
-little.
-
-"Ah, you'll make a good mother, Betsey," he said, rather snappishly, as
-he came down from his seat, drawing his breath at the proper places of
-punctuation and touching his right leg as though he had a pain in it.
-"Do ye know how to work, eh?"
-
-"I've always had to work," said Betsey.
-
-"That's good, that's good!" the old man exclaimed. "Your grandmother was
-a good woman to work."
-
-"Grandfather, this is Mr. Havelock," said Betsey, as she presented me.
-
-"How d' do?" snapped the old gentleman, looking sharply into my face.
-Then he turned to Betsey and said: "Don't be in a hurry to get married.
-There are plenty of fish in the sea, girl--plenty of fish. Huh! Tell
-your father that I am very much pleased with the last news of him--very
-much pleased; but I shall not trust him again--never, nor any of them
-except you."
-
-A man was waiting for him in a buggy outside the door. I withdrew a
-little, and waited while Betsey spoke with the old gentleman. The girl
-joined me as her grandfather drove away, and together we walked down the
-hills to Griggsby, that lovely afternoon of the early summer. We talked
-of many things, and always when I have thought of that hour I have heard
-the hum of new life in ponds and marshes and seen the light of a day's
-end glowing on windows, woods, and hills, and felt the joy of youth
-again.
-
-"You are a friend of Florence Dunbar," said Betsey, as we were crossing
-a field. "She has told me lots about you."
-
-"I fear that I'm not much of a success either as a subject or a
-predicate," I said.
-
-"She thinks you are a great hero, and there are others who think it,
-too."
-
-I blushed and stumbled a little in trying to say:
-
-"Well--it--it isn't my fault. I've--I've done my best to--to keep her
-from making any mistake."
-
-"We've been hoping that you and she would make a match," the little
-school teacher went on.
-
-"It's--it's impossible," I said, bitterly.
-
-"Impossible? Why?"
-
-"Well, she--she feels so horribly grateful to me that--that if I asked
-her to be my wife, I--I suppose she would think it her duty to say yes."
-
-Betsey laughed, and we walked along in silence for half a minute. Then
-she stopped, and her glowing eyes looked into mine as she said, very
-soberly:
-
-"Havelock, you're a strange boy. I don't want to spoil you, but I
-think--well, I won't say what I think."
-
-So I never knew what she thought, but I well remember there were tears
-in her eyes and mine as we walked in silence. She was the first to
-speak.
-
-"If Florence said yes, it would be because she loves you," said Betsey.
-
-"But you do not know all that I know," was my answer.
-
-"I want to be decently modest, but I know some things that you do not,"
-she declared.
-
-Then, as if she dared go no further in that direction, she timidly
-veered about.
-
-"I believe you are acquainted with Socrates Potter?"
-
-"Yes, and I like him. He can say such funny things."
-
-"Sometimes I fear that he hasn't a serious thought in his head."
-
-"Oh yes! He has at least one," I said.
-
-"Well, I should like to know what it is."
-
-"His thought of you."
-
-She blushed and looked away, and I could see that she was in quite a
-flutter of excitement.
-
-Oh, what a day was that, and--we were in its last moments!
-
-We were nearing the village, and had begun to meet people, and, while we
-had a little distance to go, our serious talk went no further.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX
-
-GRADUATION day had arrived, when Florence was to complete her course
-at the academy. The best women, as though by general agreement, had
-combined to right the wrong done her. No girl so noble and splendid
-had ever stood on the platform of the old academy. She was the
-valedictorian. Her gown was white, her voice music, while her form and
-face would have delighted a sculptor. That very day she assumed control
-of _The Little Corporal,_ and began her work, with Dan! Webster Smead as
-associate editor.
-
-The first issue of the paper under its new management had an editorial
-to this effect:
-
-Things are going to happen in Griggsby--things that have never happened
-before in Griggsby or elsewhere. We have a large, distinguished, and
-growing list of drunkards whose careers thus far have suffered from
-neglect, concealment, and a general lack of appreciation.
-
-                   Full many a brawl of purest ray serene
-
-                   The dark, unfathomed depths of Griggsby bear;
-
-                   Full many a spree is born to blush unseen
-
-                   And waste its fragrance on the midnight air.
-
-It shall be so no longer. We propose to fathom the depths. Hereafter the
-adventures of our merry gentlemen shall be duly chronicled, so that
-the public may share their joy and give them credit according to their
-deserts.
-
-We have a number of idlers and gamblers in Griggsby whose exploits have
-also been shrouded in obscurity. They, too, may rejoice that at last
-full justice is to be accorded them in this paper, so that their winning
-and losing shall no longer be a subject of inaccurate knowledge. Some
-are blamed who ought not to be blamed, and some are not blamed who ought
-to be blamed, and there is no health in the present situation.
-
-We have a large number of young men who are looking to their elders for
-an example worthy of emulation. _The Little Corporal_ will let its
-light shine hereafter upon the example set by the elder generation of
-Griggsby, to the end that none of it may be lost.
-
-We have seven saloons and three drug stores that have violated the law
-with notable and unnoted persistence. They, too, may be assured that
-their achievements will no longer be overlooked.
-
-But the biggest thing we have in Griggsby is a _conscience_. That, too,
-may rejoice that its findings are no longer to be unknown and neglected.
-It shall be busy night and day, and its approval shall be recorded with
-joy and its condemnations with deep regret in the _Corporal_. But both
-shall be duly signalized and set forth.
-
-It is recorded of Napoleon, who was himself known as the Little
-Corporal, that one night, having found a sentinel asleep at his post,
-he took the weapon of the latter and stood guard for him until he awoke.
-That this paper will try to do for the conscience of Griggsby, when it
-is weary and overworked.
-
-Well, things did begin to happen in Griggsby. The Mutual Adulation
-Company that had paid its daily dividends in compliments and good wishes
-at the bar of the Palace Hotel went out of business. The souls of the
-leading citizens ceased to flow. The babbling brooks of flattery ran
-dry.
-
-Among other items this appeared in the next number of the _Corporal_:
-
-Jerry McMann attacked his horse in the street the other day, and without
-any provocation that the bystanders could observe beat him over the
-head with the butt of his whip, for which he has had to pay the utterly
-inadequate fine of five dollars. The _Corporal_ hereby adds to his fine
-the distinction which his act has won. This beater of a helpless animal
-is probably the most brutal man in the township, and the most arrant
-coward.
-
-_The Little Corporal_ passed from hand to hand, and waves of joy and
-consternation swept over the community. Thoughtful and worried looks
-gathered under the hats of silk and beaver. Colonel Buckstone smote
-the bar of the Palace Hotel and roared about the "Magna Charta of our
-liberties," as he viewed his image in a mirror among the outlines of a
-bird drawn in soap.
-
-Now, there lived in the village of Griggsby a certain lawyer of the name
-of Pike--G. Washington Pike. He was the most magnificent human being
-in that part of the country. He shone every day in broadcloth, a tall
-beaver hat, and a stock and collar. He greeted one with a low bow and a
-sweeping gesture of the right hand, and said "Good morning" as though
-it were a solemn and eternal verity. His distinguished presence graced
-every public occasion, and he was made up as the living image of Dan'l
-Webster. At one time or another many who lived in the village had been
-nudged by visitors from a distance and asked: "Who is that grand-looking
-man?" It was a query not so easy to answer. He was a lawyer without
-visible clients, whose wife was the leading dressmaker of Griggsby.
-
-I was sitting in the office of the _Corporal_ with Smead when the great
-man entered, bowed low, and cut a scroll in the air with his right hand.
-
-"Good morning, Editor Smead," said he, oratorically.
-
-"Good morning, Mr. Pike," was the greeting of Smead.
-
-"On this occasion it is _Lawyer_ Pike, who presents his compliments to
-_Editor_ Smead, and begs to confer with him on a matter of business,"
-said the great man.
-
-"Go ahead, _Lawyer_ Pike," said the editor.
-
-"While _Mr._ Pike has the highest personal regard for _Mr._ Smead,
-_Lawyer_ Pike takes issue with _Editor_ Smead in behalf of his client,
-Mr. Jeremiah McMann, and demands a retraction of certain words in the
-_Corporal_ of last week, calculated to injure the reputation of said
-McMann."
-
-Then the great Dan'l said:
-
-[Illustration: 0151]
-
-"_Editor_ Smead refuses the request of _Lawyer_ Pike, and suggests that
-he and horse-killer McMann should join hands and jump into the air as
-high as possible."
-
-And so ended the first bluff in the new life of Griggsby.
-
-A great public meeting was held in the town hall in support of the
-candidacy of Colonel Buckstone for the post of consul at Hongkong.
-The merchant princes and Daniel Websters, representing the beauty and
-fashion of Griggsby, the women, representing its industry and sturdy
-virtue, were on hand. So were many mill-workers and students from the
-old academy.
-
-Judge Warner was chosen to preside, and opened the meeting with sober,
-well-chosen words. Then followed a great and memorable tournament of the
-D. W.'s. Floods of impassioned eloquence swept over the crowd and out
-of the open windows, and at every impressive pause we could hear birds
-chattering as they slipped from their perches in the treetops that
-overhung the eaves.
-
-The great Bill Smithers was telling of the poor, barefooted boy who
-came down from the hills long ago and bade fair to rise to the highest
-pinnacle of statesmanship.
-
-Among other things he said: "Think of this poor boy, who used to
-feed the chickens and milk the patient cow. Since then he has fed the
-multitude of his fellow-citizens with political wisdom and milked the
-great Republic for their benefit."
-
-He soared and roared in praise of the manly virtues of the Colonel.
-
-A stray cow began to bellow in the streets. Mr. Smithers, who was
-speaking, paused to inquire if some one would please stop that beast.
-
-A voice in the gallery shouted, "Give the cow a chance." Another said,
-"It's the cow that Sile milked." The crowd began to laugh and the
-situation was critical; but, fortunately, the emotions of the cow
-subsided.
-
-The Rev. Sam Shackleford turned himself into a human earthquake, and
-tears rolled down his face while he told of the great talents and the
-noble heart of his distinguished fellow-townsman.
-
-In due time Colonel Buckstone rose to acknowledge the kindness of his
-fellow-citizens.
-
-He spoke of the affairs of his native town, and presently referred to
-the newspaper, which had always been a power for good in the village.
-He hoped that it would continue to be so, but had his fears. A certain
-editorial had already injured the fair fame of Griggsby. There was not
-a scintilla of evidence in support of its veiled and open charges, not
-one. He challenged Mr. D. W. Smead to prove that Griggsby was any worse
-than other communities.
-
-In the name of Heaven, what new assault was to be made upon the Magna
-Charta of our liberties, secured by the blood of our fathers? He would
-defend it. He served notice then and there that he would pour out his
-life's blood, if need be, rather than see the liberties of the citizens
-of Griggsby abated by one jot or tittle. No, he would rather see his
-right arm severed from his body.
-
-That dear old Magna Charta was often on his lips. Indeed, the chart of
-his liberties was so great and so threatening that Moses and the
-prophets had to get out of its way. Every day he referred to "jots and
-tittles" of abatement and absent "scintillas of evidence."
-
-He closed his address with this Websterian peroration:
-
-"When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in
-heaven, may they not see him shining on the enslaved citizens of my
-native town. Rather let their last feeble and lingering glance behold
-them eating and drinking according to their needs and wishes, and in
-the full enjoyment of every blessing that the Almighty has showered upon
-us."
-
-These sentiments met with noisy approval. How often the eyes of the
-great man were "turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven"!
-
-There was a call for Dan'l W. Smead. Mr. Smead rose from his seat in the
-audience, went to the platform, and said:
-
-"I feel like Pompeii after the great eruption of seventy-nine a.d. I am
-overwhelmed, but I propose to dig myself up and continue in business.
-First, let me say that I am glad that Colonel Buckstone is likely to
-enter the missionary field an' show the Christian virtues of New England
-to the heathen of the Orient. I have long thought that it was a good
-thing for him to do--a good thing for anybody to do. In my opinion, the
-Colonel would soon take the conceit out of those foreign heathen. But
-we need him here. We do not wish him to be plucked from the garden of
-Griggsby. What, I ask you, what is to become of our own heathen if he
-is removed from among them? Have not the press an' the pulpit already
-threatened their sacred liberties? Who would remind us of those jots and
-tittles of abatement, of those absent scintillas of evidence? It is too
-bad that the palladium of our oratory is threatened. It must not be.
-Think of the feelings of the sun in heaven if he were not again to be
-beheld for the last time in the village of Griggsby! Of course, there
-are other villages, but let it never be said that we have fallen behind
-them.
-
-"When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in
-heaven, may I not see him shining on a bereft an' joyful Griggsby; on
-citizens who have ceased to weep except for sorrow, whose tears have
-gone dry because the village pumps of oratory have failed them. God
-forbid that I should behold him shining upon men of genius in bondage
-or in exile! Rather let their last feeble and lingering glance see those
-citizens eating and drinking, according to their needs and wishes, at
-the Palace Hotel, while their wives are at work, according to their
-habit, in the kitchen and the laundry."
-
-For a moment he was silenced by a storm of laughter.
-
-It was a death blow to the Dan'l Websters of Griggsby. Those hardened
-criminals of the rostrum, who had long been robbing the people of their
-tears, had themselves been touched. Their consciences were awakened.
-They tumbled and fell.
-
-Bill Smithers, who had so highly praised his friend the Colonel on the
-stage, said to a fellow-citizen after he had left the hall, "Well, after
-all is said and done, what a d------d pirate Buckstone is!"
-
-That shows how sincere, how heartfelt was the loud-sounding oratory of
-that time.
-
-Next day a stem and sorrowful silence fell upon Colonel Buckstone.
-It boomed like an empty barrel at the slightest touch. Judge Brooks
-ventured to ask him what was the matter. He smote the air with his fist,
-muttered an oath, checked himself, shook his head, and said, in a tone
-worthy of Edwin Forrest:
-
-"The evil days have come, sir. I tremble for Griggsby."
-
-Then he sadly strode away.
-
-Now, that morning, Colonel Buckstone had received a letter from the able
-editor of the _Corporal_, in circumstances fraught with some peril to
-myself. The letter ran about as follows:
-
-My dear Colonel,--I have undertaken to improve the morals of Griggsby,
-and as a first step I shall insist upon your retirement from public
-life. I inclose the proof of an article, now in type in this office,
-in which, as you will observe, is a full and accurate review of your
-career. In my opinion, this justifies my demand that forthwith you
-resign your seat in Congress. If you fail to do so within one week from
-date, I shall submit this article to the judgment of the electors of the
-district; but I should like, if possible, to spare your family the pain
-of that process. I can only leave you to choose between voluntary
-and enforced retirement, with some unnecessary disgrace attending the
-latter. I am sending this by Mr. Havelock, who is instructed to deliver
-it to you, and only to you.
-
-Yours truly,
-
-Florence Dunbar.
-
-I had gone to work in the office of _The Little Corporal_, and had
-delivered the message, of the nature of which I knew nothing. The
-Colonel tore the envelope, grew hot with rage, struck at me with
-his cane, and shattered the Ninth Commandment with a cannon shot of
-profanity.
-
-I wondered what it was all about, and promptly decided that the
-profession of journalism was too full of peril for me.
-
-"Ha, blackmailer!" he shouted. "Child of iniquity, I will not slay you
-until you have taken my reply to your mistress, who is a disgrace to the
-name of woman. Say to her that if she publishes the article, a proof of
-which I have just read, I shall kill her, so help me God!"
-
-Yes, it was a kind of blackmail, but how noble and how absolutely
-feminine.
-
-When I returned to the Colonel's office I knew what I was doing. It was
-with a note which read as follows:
-
-_Dear Sir,--This is to advise you, first, that you cannot change my
-purpose with cheap and vulgar threats; second, that resignation would
-be an easier means of retirement, and probably less painful, than a
-shooting-match with me._
-
-_Yours truly,_
-
-_Florence Dunbar._
-
-The old bluff mill of his brain, which had won many lawsuits and jack
-pots for the Colonel, had failed him for once. Its goods, the quality of
-which had never been disputed, were now declared cheap and vulgar.
-
-He was comparatively calm until he had finished reading the note, when
-the storm broke out again, and I fled before it.
-
-Well, next day a note of surprising politeness came from the Colonel. It
-apologized for the haste and heat of his former message, and requested
-an interview. Miss Dunbar was quick to grant his request, demanding that
-the interview occur in her office, and in the presence of a witness
-of her choosing, who could be trusted to divulge no part of the
-conversation. The interview took place, and I was the chosen witness.
-
-The Colonel was calm under a look of injured innocence.
-
-"Young woman," he began, "let us be brief. You have it in your power to
-ruin me. That I admit, and only that, and ask what you want me to do."
-
-"Resign," said she, firmly. "Mademoiselle, I have been foolish," said
-the Colonel, "but my follies are those which, unfortunately, are shared
-by many of my sex. I ask you to consider my family and my long devotion
-to the interests of this community. If I resign with no apparent
-reason, what will my constituents say, who are now being asked to sign
-a petition in favor of my appointment to a consular position? My fondest
-hopes will be crushed."
-
-Colonel Buckstone wiped his watery eyes with his handkerchief.
-
-Miss Dunbar spoke out with courage and judgment.
-
-"I don't want to be hard on you," she said. "There are two conditions
-which would induce me to modify my demand. The first is that you turn in
-and help us to improve the morals of this community."
-
-"I have always labored in that cause," said the Colonel, with a
-righteous look.
-
-"But you have succeeded in concealing your efforts," she said. "You are
-one of the leading citizens of Griggsby. All eyes are upon you. Your
-example has a tremendous influence on the young men of this village.
-Often you have a highly moral pair of lungs in your breast, but your
-heart does not seem to agree with them. A man is known by his conduct,
-and not by his words. By your conduct you teach the young men to buy and
-sell votes, to go on sprees, to drink and gamble in public places, to
-have little regard for the virtue and good name of woman."
-
-Then a thing happened which gave me new hope of the Colonel. It was the
-first time that his jacket had been warmed, and it looked as though the
-fire of remorse had begun to burn a little.
-
-"Young woman," he said, very solemnly, "if my humble example has been so
-misunderstood, if my conduct has so belied the sentiments of my heart
-as to create such an impression in the mind of the observer, I will
-do anything in my power to make amends, and I will listen to any
-suggestions you are good enough to offer."
-
-The suggestions were offered and accepted, and the sway of Buckstone was
-at its end.
-
-"There is one other thing," said Miss Dunbar. "You have cruelly
-misjudged my character, and there is one thing I shall ask you to do."
-
-"What is it?"
-
-"That you join Ralph in Europe, and see that he returns all my letters
-within six weeks from date."
-
-"It was my plan to join him for a needed rest," said the Colonel, "and
-you may be glad to know that I propose to bring him back with me."
-
-"What you propose to do with him is a matter of no interest to me," said
-Florence. "I only demand the letters."
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER X
-
-I WAS discussing plans with Florence in her sanctum one afternoon, when
-she said to me:
-
-"Uriel, you're a hummer. We can't get along without you. The advertising
-has doubled, and it's due mostly to your efforts. Please consider
-yourself married to this paper, and with no chance of divorce. I'll
-treble your salary."
-
-"I couldn't help doing well with such a paper to work for," I said.
-"There's no credit due me."
-
-"I don't agree with you. Of course, we've made a good paper. I thought
-it was about time that the women, who did most of the work, had a voice
-in the government of the village. Women have some rights, and I think
-I've a right to know whether you still care for me or not."
-
-"Florence, I love you more than ever," I said. I rose and stepped toward
-her, my face burning; and she quickly opened the gate of the railing,
-went behind it, and held me back with her hand.
-
-"Havelock, you stupid thing!" said she. "What I want now is
-eloquence--real, Websterian eloquence, and plenty of it."
-
-I stood like a fool, blushing to the roots of my hair, and she took pity
-on me.
-
-"Bear in mind," said she, "that I am not the least bit grateful. I just
-naturally love you, sir; that's the truth about it." Then my tongue was
-loosed. I do not remember what I said, but it was satisfactory to her,
-and right in the midst of it she unlocked the gate.
-
-We were both crying in each other's arms when there came a rap at the
-door.
-
-"One moment," she called, as we endeavored to dry our eyes, while she
-noisily bustled about the room. Then she opened the door, and there
-stood Dan'l W. Smead.
-
-"Come in," said she; "and don't mind my appearance. I have just listened
-to an address full of the most impassioned eloquence. It touched my
-heart."
-
-Dan'l W. looked at us, smiled, and said with unerring insight, "I
-presume it was an address to the electors of his home district."
-
-"It was," said she.
-
-"Did his eyes behold for the last time the sun in heaven?"
-
-"No, sir; they beheld it for the first time."
-
-"And it shines brighter than ever before on land or sea," I added.
-
-"He'll do," said Smead. "He has much to learn about the oratory and
-politics of love; but I move that he be elected by osculation."
-
-"It has been accomplished," said Florence, as she covered her blushing
-face.
-
-"But there were no tellers to record the vote," he insisted.
-
-We voted again.
-
-"God bless you both!" said Smead, with enthusiasm.
-
-He kissed her, gave me a little hug, and added: "Her father told me what
-would happen, an' I believe he gave his consent in advance."
-
-"He did," said Florence.
-
-"Old boy, you've got a life job on your hands keepin' up with her. It
-suggests an editorial."
-
-"How so?" Florence inquired.
-
-"It will run about like this," Dan! W. went on. "'The first occupation
-of man was keepin' up with Eve. She got tired of seein' him lie in the
-shade an' of hearin' him lie in the shade. So she contrived a situation
-in which it was necessary for him to get busy; she got him a job. It
-was no temporary thing; it was a real, permanent job. Many have tried to
-resign an' devote their lives to rum, eloquence, an' trottin'-hosses.
-We have seen the result in Griggsby. It is deplorable. _Little Corporal_
-calls them back to their tasks.'"
-
-We applauded his editorial.
-
-"Oh, I could compose an Iliad, now that I know you're both happy," said
-he.
-
-"Betsey did it!" Florence exclaimed. "She gave me courage."
-
-"Poor Betsey!" said Dan'l W. "You know, her grandfather died a few weeks
-ago an' left her his fortune, an' she's dreadfully grieved about it
-because her beau, young Socrates Potter, has said that he would never
-marry a rich woman. The boys are gettin' awfully noble an' inhuman. I'm
-glad that Havelock has reformed."
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XI
-
-THAT was the end of the interview, and of the Websterian age in
-Griggsby. It still lives, the Websterian impulse; but, like many other
-things, it has gone West, although there are certain relics of it in
-every part of the land. Imaginary greatness now expresses itself in
-luxury instead of eloquence here in the East, and every community is in
-sore need of a Florence Dunbar.
-
-Our citizens had begun to fear and respect _The Little Corporal_.
-Special officers with a commission from its editor paroled the streets.
-Our leading lights ceased to enter the public bar-rooms. Midnight brawls
-and revels were discontinued. The poker-players conducted their
-game with the utmost secrecy and good order. The Young Men's Social
-Improvement League was organized. New justices of the peace were
-elected. The first time that Thurst Giles got drunk and beat his wife
-he was promptly put in jail at hard labor for a long term, while the
-man who had sold the whisky lost his license. A well-known and highly
-respected inn-keeper, at whose bar a minor had bought drinks, was
-compelled to give a bond against any repetition of the offense or take a
-bitter and ruinous draft of publicity.
-
-Every week _The Little Corporal_ swept over the town like a wholesome
-rain cloud, and refreshing showers of wit and lightning shafts of
-ridicule fell out of it, and the people laughed and thought and
-applauded. The poker sharp and the ten-dollar man were praised as
-philanthropists, while the "trottin'-hoss" and the rum-scented brand of
-Websterian dignity were riddled with good-natured wit, and people began
-to look askance at them. The perennial springs of maudlin blasphemy and
-obscenity had begun to dry up, and their greatness had departed. The
-common drunkards moved out of the village. The resounding Websterian
-coterie took their grog in wholesome fear and the strictest privacy.
-
-"How are you?" one was heard to ask another on the street.
-
-"Sir, I am well, but distressfully sober," said the man addressed.
-
-At fair-time the half-mile track was used only for a big athletic meet,
-in which every large school in the county was represented. A company
-of the best metropolitan players amused the people in a large, open
-amphitheater, for which money had been raised by subscription. A
-quartette from Boston sang between the acts. The grounds were well
-policed; everything was done decently and in order.. The citizens of
-Griggsby and its countryside found enlightenment and inspiration at the
-fair. Every exhibit of drunkenness went to jail as swiftly as a team
-of horses and ample help could take him there. The trotting farce was
-abolished, and the ten-dollar man was out of employment, and no longer
-the observed of all observers. That living fountain of blasphemy and
-tobacco juice wandered among the cattle sheds and said the fair was a
-failure, and went home heartsick and robbed of adulation. And a mere
-slip of a girl had accomplished all this!
-
-Ralph Buckstone returned by and by, the harbinger of a new era. He
-was like the wooden horse of the Greeks. He came full of enemies that
-hastened the fall of Griggsby. He brought in the cigarette. Through him
-the cocktail, the liqueur, and the cordial entered the gates and leading
-citizens of the village. They were welcomed without suspicion and with
-every evidence of regard.
-
-In a short time the flowers of rhetoric began to wither and die.
-Compliments turned to groans. The leading citizens were in trouble. One
-retired to Poland Springs, one to Arkansas, two to the old cemetery, and
-one to a nearer hell of indigestion in his own bed. Dan'l W. Smead had
-long since gone to his rest, with a name honored above all others in his
-own county; for, having accomplished our purpose, we sold the _Corporal_
-to the man who had done much to make it. I qualified for the bar, and
-we settled in New York, and our lives have been blessed with children,
-great happiness, and a fair degree of success.
-
-Ralph left Griggsby, and broke down, and went a fast pace. I heard of
-him, now and then, in the next few years. He had gone into journalism in
-Boston, and it was rumored that he had made a handsome success. One day
-a friend of us both said to me:
-
-"Ralph? Oh, he's getting on famously. He is a typical journalist; talks
-like the first deputy of the Creator, and regards all things with a
-knowing and indulgent tolerance."
-
-Well, on a day in June twenty years after my marriage, I was in court
-in New York, conducting the defense of a millionaire in trouble. I
-was examining a witness when the proceedings were interrupted by the
-arraignment of a prisoner. The clerk read the charge; it was forgery,
-and the man was Ralph Buckstone. An officer explained that he was a
-gambler, and had never been arraigned before. Evidently, the prisoner
-had no defense, and pleaded guilty, as I expected.
-
-Then the recorder said to him: "You understand, I presume, what is
-involved in the step you are taking? Have you consulted counsel?"
-
-"There is no occasion for it," said Ralph. "At last I have decided to
-speak and live the truth. I am guilty. I have been a weak and foolish
-man, but what I have been, and what I am to be henceforth, all the world
-is welcome to know. In my life hereafter there shall be no concealment,
-and I hope never again to be ashamed of the truth about me."
-
-It was a great moment, and those were great words, simply and modestly
-spoken, and they were the very words of old Appleton Hall.
-
-Deep under the weeds, in the neglected soil of his spirit, the good
-seed had been lying all this long time. Now it had burst, and was taking
-root, as though it had needed only the heat of his trouble. The face of
-the old recorder shone with kindness; and I, remembering my promise and
-the teaching of the old schoolmaster, was on my feet in a second.
-
-"Your Honor," I said, "I appear for the prisoner. There was a time long
-ago when he and I were boys together. In the battles of our youth I
-defended him, as I shall again. Since that far day I fear we have both
-erred and strayed from the paths we had hoped to follow, for I do not
-need to remind your Honor that life is full of things that trip and turn
-one from his course, or how easy it is for men to lose their reckoning.
-But we are going to do better; we are firmly resolved, and to-day we ask
-you to help us. I promise full reparation to any who have suffered loss,
-through his conduct, in the matter charged, and a bond in any reasonable
-amount for his good behavior."
-
-Then the tide turned for Ralph Buck-stone. It is enough for me to say
-that he faced about and became an able and successful author.
-
-Yes, there are still Daniel Websters in America, many of them; there are
-Griggses and Griggsbys; but our Griggsby is a changed town. The seats
-of leisure are now occupied by the ladies. They have suffered from
-the angel theory, and it is their own fault. They look like birds of
-paradise. I should like to see them give up sweetmeats and idleness,
-jewels and ethereal raiment, and rejoin the human ranks, not as slaves,
-but as real women, with a work to do and with all the rights they may
-desire.
-
-In a recent humorous account of the old Cadets of Temperance Ralph
-concluded with these words:
-
-"My subsequent career is well known, but, alas, poor Havelock!"
-
-THE END
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-End of Project Gutenberg's The Turning of Griggsby, by Irving Bacheller
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