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diff --git a/5172.txt b/5172.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..278345a --- /dev/null +++ b/5172.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6026 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Aladdin O'Brien, by Gouverneur Morris + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Aladdin O'Brien + +Author: Gouverneur Morris + +Release Date: February, 2004 [EBook #5172] +Posting Date: April 13, 2009 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALADDIN O'BRIEN *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + + + + + + + + +ALADDIN O'BRIEN + +BY GOUVERNEUR MORRIS + + + + + +BOOK I + + "It was many and many a year ago, + In a kingdom by the sea, + That a maiden there lived whom you may know + By the name of Annabel Lee. + And this maiden she lived with no other thought + Than to love and be loved by me. + I was a child and she was a child"-- + + + + + +ALADDIN O'BRIEN + + + + +I + + +It was on the way home from Sunday-school that Aladdin had enticed +Margaret to the forbidden river. She was not sure that he knew how to +row, for he was prone to exaggerate his prowess at this and that, +and she went because of the fine defiance of it, and because Aladdin +exercised an irresistible fascination. He it was who could whistle the +most engagingly through his front teeth; and he it was, when sad dogs of +boys of the world were met behind the barn, who could blow the smoke of +the fragrant grapevine through his nose, and swallow the same without +alarm to himself or to his admirers. To be with him was in itself a +soulful wickedness, a delicious and elevating lesson in corruption. But +to be with him when he had done wrong, and was sorry for it (as always +when found out), that was enough to give one visions of freckled angels, +and the sweetness of Paradise in May. + +Aladdin brought the skiff into the float, stern first, with a bump. +Pride sat high upon his freckled brow, and he whistled piercing notes. + +"I can do it," he said. "Now get in." + +Margaret embarked very gingerly and smoothed her dress carefully, before +and after sitting down. It was a white and starchy dress of price, with +little blue ribbons at the throat and wrists--such a dress as the little +girl of a very poor papa will find laid out on the gilt and brocade +chair beside her bed if she goes to sleep and wakes up in heaven. + +"Only a little way, 'Laddin, please." + +The boy made half a dozen circular, jabbing strokes, and the skiff +zigzagged out from the float. It was a fine blue day, cool as a +cucumber, and across the river from the deserted shipyards, where, upon +lofty beamings, stood all sorts of ships in all stages of composition, +the frequent beeches and maples showed pink and red and yellow against +the evergreen pines. + +"It's easy 'nough," said Aladdin. And Margaret agreed in her mind, for +it is the splash of deeds rather than the skill or power which impresses +a lady. The little lady sat primly in the stern, her mitted paws folded; +her eyes, innocent and immense, fastened admiringly upon the rowing boy. + +"Only 'bout's far's the cat-boat, 'Laddin, please," she said. "I +oughtn't to of come 't all." + +Somehow the cat-boat, anchored fifty yards out and straining back from +her moorings, would not allow herself to be approached. For although +Aladdin maintained a proper direction (at times), the ocean tide, +setting rigidly in and overbearing the current of the river, was +beginning to carry the skiff to some haven where she would not be. + +Aladdin saw this and tried to go back, catching many crabs in the +earnestness of his endeavor. Then the little girl, without being told, +perceived that matters were not entirely in the hands of man, and began +to look wistfully from Aladdin to the shore. After a while he stopped +grinning, and then rowing. + +"Can't you get back, 'Laddin?" said the little girl. + +"No," said the boy, "I can't." He was all angel now, for he was being +visited for wrong. + +The little girl's lips trembled and got white. + +"I'm awful sorry, Margaret." + +"What'll we do, 'Laddin?" + +"Just sit still, 'n' whatever happens I'll take care of you, Margaret." + +They were passing the shipyards with a steady sweep, but the offices +were closed, the men at home, and no one saw the distressed expedition. +The last yard of all was conspicuous by a three-master, finished, +painted, sparred, ready for the fragrant bottle to be cracked on her +nose, and the long shivering slide into the river. Then came a fine +square, chimneyed house with sherry-glass-shaped elm-trees about it. The +boy shouted to a man contorted under a load of wood. The man looked up +and grinned vacantly, for he was not even half-witted. And they were +swept on. Presently woods drew between them and the last traces of +habitation,--gorgeous woods with intense splashes of color, standing +upon clean rocks that emphatically divided the water from the land,--and +they scurried into a region as untroubled by man as was Eden on the +first morning. The little boy was not afraid, but so sorry and ashamed +that he could have cried. The little girl, however, was even deeper down +the throat of remorse, for she had sinned three times on Sunday,--first, +she had spoken to the "inventor's boy"; second, she had not "come +straight home"; third, she had been seduced into a forbidden boat,--and +there was no balm in Gilead; nor any forgiveness forever. She pictured +her grand, dark father standing like a biblical allegory of "Hell and +Damnation" within the somber leathern cube of his books, the fiercely +white, whalebone cane upon which he and old brother gout leaned, and the +vast gloomy centers at the bases of which glowed his savage eyes. She +thought of the rolling bitter voice with which she had once heard him +stiffen the backs of his constituents, and she was sore afraid. She did +not remember how much he loved her, or the impotence of his principles +where she was concerned. And she did not recollect, for she had not been +old enough to know, that the great bitter voice, with its heavy, telling +sarcasm, had been lifted for humanity--for more humanity upon earth. + +"Oh, 'Laddin," she said suddenly, "I daren't go home now." + +"Maybe we can get her in farther up," said Aladdin, "and go home through +the woods. That'll be something, anyhow." + +Margaret shuddered. She thought of the thin aunt who gave her lessons +upon the pianoforte--one of the elect, that aunt, who had never done +wrong, and whom any halo would fit; who gave her to understand that the +Almighty would raise Cain with any little girl who did not practise an +hour every day, and pray Him, night and morning, to help her keep off +the black notes when the white notes were intended. First there would +be a reckoning with papa, then one with Aunt Marion, last with Almighty +God, and afterward, horribile dictu, pitchforks for little Margaret, +and a vivid incandescent state to be maintained through eternity at vast +cost of pit-coal to a gentleman who carried over his arm, so as not to +step on it, a long snaky tail with a point like a harpoon's. + +Meanwhile, Aladdin made sundry attempts to get the boat ashore, and +failed signally. The current was as saucy as strong. Now it swept them +into the very shade of the trees, and as hope rose hot in the boy's +heart and he began to stab the water with the oars, sent them skipping +for the midriver. Occasionally a fish jumped to show how easy it was, +and high overhead an eagle passed statelily in the wake of a cloud. +After the eagle came a V of geese flying south, moving through the +treacherous currents and whirlpools of the upper air as steadily and +directly as a train upon its track. It seemed as if nature had conspired +with her children to demonstrate to Margaret and Aladdin the facility of +precise locomotion. The narrow deeps of the river ended where the shore +rolled into a high knob of trees; above this it spread over the lower +land into a great, shallow, swiftly currented lake, having in its +midst a long turtlebacked island of dense woods and abrupt shores. Two +currents met off the knob and formed in the direction of the island a +long curve of spitting white. Aladdin rowed with great fervor. + +"Do it if you can, 'Laddin," said the little girl. + +It seemed for one moment as if success were about to crown the boy's +effort, for he brought the boat to an exciting nearness to the shore; +but that was all. The current said: "No, Aladdin, that is not just the +place to land; come with me, and bring the boat and the young lady." And +Aladdin at once went with the current. + +"Margaret," he said, "I done my best." He crossed his heart. + +"I know you done your best, 'Laddin." Margaret's cheeks were on the +brink of tears. "I know you done it." + +They were dancing sportively farther and farther from the shore. The +water broke, now and again, and slapped the boat playfully. + +"We 've come 'most three miles," said Aladdin. + +"I daren't go back if I could now," said Margaret. + +Meanwhile Aladdin scanned the horizon far and wide to see if he could +see anything of Antheus, tossed by the winds, or the Phrygian triremes, +or Capys, or the ships having upon their lofty poops the arms of Caicus. +There was no help in sight. Far and wide was the bubbling ruffled river, +behind the mainland, and ahead the leafy island. + +"What'll your father do, 'Laddin?" + +Aladdin merely grinned, less by way of explaining what his father would +do than of expressing to Margaret this: "Have courage; I am still with +you." + +"'Laddin, we're not going so fast." + +They had run into nominally still water, and the skiff was losing +momentum. + +"Maybe we'd better land on the island," said Aladdin, "if we can, and +wait till the tide turns; won't be long now." + +Again he plied the oars, and this time with success. For after a little +they came into the shadow of the island, the keel grunted upon sand, +and they got out. There was a little crescent of white beach, with an +occasional exclamatory green reed sticking from it, and above was a fine +arch of birch and pine. They hauled up the boat as far as they could, +and sat down to wait for the tide to turn. Firm earth, in spite of +her awful spiritual forebodings, put Margaret in a more cheerful mood. +Furthermore, the woods and the general mystery of islands were as +inviting as Punch. + +"It's not much fun watching the tide come in," she said after a time. + +Aladdin got up. + +"Let's go away," he said, "and come back. It never comes in if you watch +for it to." + +Margaret arose, and they went into the woods. + +A devil's darning-needle came and buzzed for an instant on the bow of +the skiff. A belated sandpiper flew into the cove, peeped, and flew out. + +The tide rose a little and said: + +"What is this heavy thing upon my back?" + +Then it rose a little more. + +"Why, it's poor little sister boat stuck in the mud," said the tide. + +From far off came joyful crackling of twigs and the sounds of children +at play. + +The tide rose a little more and freed an end of the boat. + +"That's better," said the boat, "ever so much better. I can almost +float." + +Again the tide raised its broad shoulders a hair's-breadth. + +"Great!" said the boat. "Once more, Old Party!" + +When the children came back, they found that poor little sister boat was +gone, and in her stead all of their forgotten troubles had returned and +were waiting for them, and looking them in the face. + + + + +II + + +It is absurdly difficult to get help in this world. If a lady puts her +head out of a window and yells "Police," she is considered funny, or if +a man from the very bottom of his soul calls for help, he is commonly +supposed to be drunk. Thus if, cast away upon an island, you should wave +your handkerchief to people passing in a boat, they would imagine that +you wanted to be friendly, and wave back; or, if they were New York +aldermen out for a day's fishing in the Sound, call you names. And so +it was with Margaret and Aladdin. With shrill piping voices they called +tearfully to a party sailing up the river from church, waved and waved, +were answered in kind, and tasted the bitterest cup possible to the +Crusoed. + +Then after much wandering in search of the boat it got to be +hunger-time, and two small stomachs calling lustily for food did not add +to the felicity of the situation. + +With hunger-time came dusk, and afterward darkness, blacker than the +tall hat of Margaret's father. For at the last moment nature had thought +better of the fine weather which man had been enjoying for the past +month, and drawn a vast curtain of inkiness over the luminaries from +one horizon even unto the other, and sent a great puff of wet fog up the +valley of the river from the ocean, so that teeth chattered and the ends +of fingers became shriveled and bloodless. And had not vanity gone out +with the entrance of sin, Margaret would have noticed that her tight +little curls were looser and the once stately ostrich feather upon her +Sunday hat, the envy of little girls whom the green monster possessed, +as flabby as a long sermon. + +Meanwhile the tide having turned, little sister boat made fine way of +it down the river, and, burrowing in the fog, holding her breath as it +were, and greatly assisted by the tide, slipped past the town unseen, +and put for open sea, where it is to be supposed she enjoyed herself +hugely and, finally, becoming a little skeleton of herself on unknown +shores, was gathered up by somebody who wanted a pretty fire with +green lights in it. The main point is that she went her selfish way +undetected, so that the wide-lanterned search which presently arose for +little Margaret tumbled and stumbled about clueless, and halted to take +drinks, and came back about morning and lay down all day, and said it +never did, which it certainly hadn't. All the to-do was over Margaret, +for Aladdin had not been missed, and, even if he had, nobody would have +looked for him. His father was at home bending over the model of the +wonderful lamp which was to make his fortune, and over which he had been +bending for fifteen rolling years. It had come to him, at about the time +that he fell in love with Aladdin's mother, that a certain worthless +biproduct of something would, if combined with something else and +steeped in water, generate a certain gas, which, though desperately +explosive, would burn with a flame as white as day. Over the perfection +of this invention, with a brief honeymoon for vacation, he had spent +fifteen years, a small fortune,--till he had nothing left,--the most +of his health, and indeed everything but his conviction that it was a +beautiful invention and sure of success. When Aladdin arrived, he was +red and wrinkled, after the everlasting fashion of the human babe, and +had no name, so because of the wonderful lamp they called him Aladdin. +And that rendered his first school-days wretched and had nothing to do +with the rest of his life, after the everlasting fashion of wonderful +names. Aladdin's mother went out of the world in the very natural act +of ushering his young brother into it, and he remembered her as a thin +person who was not strictly honorable (for, having betrayed him with +a kiss, she punished him for smoking) and had a headache. So there was +nobody to miss Aladdin or to waste the valuable night in looking for +him. + +About this time Margaret began to cry and Aladdin to comfort her, and +they stumbled about in the woods trying to find--anything. After awhile +they happened into a grassy glade between two steep rocks, and there +agreeing to rest, scrunched into a depression of the rock on the right. +And Margaret, her nose very red, her hat at an angle, and her head on +Aladdin's shoulder, sobbed herself to sleep. And then, because being +trusted is next to being God, and the most moving and gentlest condition +possible, Aladdin, for the first time, felt the full measure of his +crime in leading Margaret from the straight way home, and he pressed her +close to him and stroked her draggled hair with his cold little hands +and cried. Whenever she moved in sleep, his heart went out to her, and +before the night was old he loved her forever. + +Sleep did not come to Aladdin, who had suddenly become a father and a +mother and a nurse and a brother and a lover and a man who must not be +afraid. His coat was wrapped about Margaret, and his arms were wrapped +about his coat, and the body of him shivered against the damp, cold +shirt, which would come open in front because there was a button gone. +The fog came in thicker and colder, and night with her strange noises +moved slower and slower. There was an old loon out on the river, who +would suddenly throw back his head and laugh for no reason at all. And +once a great strange bird went rushing past, squeaking like a mouse; and +once two bright eyes came, flashing out of the night and swung this way +and that like signal-lanterns and disappeared. Aladdin gave himself up +for lost and would have screamed if he had been alone. + +Presently his throat began to tickle, then the base of his nose, then +the bridge thereof, and then he felt for a handkerchief and found none. +For a little while he maintained the proprieties by a gentle sniffling, +finally by one great agonized snuff. It seemed after that as if he were +to be left in peace. But no. His lips parted, his chin went up a +little, his eyes closed, the tickling gave place to a sudden imperative +ultimatum, and, when all was over, Margaret had waked. + +They talked for a long time, for she could not go to sleep again, and +Aladdin told her many things and kept her from crying, but he did not +tell her about the awful bird or the more awful eyes. He told her about +his little brother, and the yellow cat they had, and about the great +city where he had once lived, and why he was called Aladdin. And when +the real began to grow dim, he told her stories out of strange books +that he had read, as he remembered them--first the story of Aladdin and +then others. + +"Once," began Aladdin, though his teeth were knocking together and his +arms aching and his nose running--"once there was a man named Ali Baba, +and he had forty thieves--" + + + + +III + + +Even in the good north country, where the white breath of the melting +icebergs takes turn and turn with diamond nights and days, people did +not remember so thick a fog; nor was there a thicker recorded in any +chapter of tradition. Indeed, if the expression be endurable, so black +was the whiteness that it was difficult to know when morning came. There +was a fresher shiver in the cold, the sensibility that tree-tops +were stirring, a filmy distinction of objects near at hand, and the +possibility that somewhere 'way back in the east the rosy fingers of +dawn were spread upon a clear horizon. Collisions between ships at sea +were reported, and many a good sailorman went down full fathom five to +wait for the whistle of the Great Boatswain. + +The little children on the island roused themselves and groped about +among the chilled, dripping stems of the trees; they had no end in view, +and no place to go, but motion was necessary for the lame legs and arms. +Margaret had caught a frightful cold and Aladdin a worse, and they were +hungrier than should be allowed. Now a jarred tree rained water down +their necks, and now their faces went with a splash and sting into +low-hanging plumes of leaves; often there would be a slip and a +scrambling fall. And by the time Aladdin had done grimacing over a +banged shin, Margaret would have a bruised anklebone to cry about. +The poor little soul was very tired and penitent and cold and hurt and +hungry, and she cried most of the time and was not to be comforted. But +Aladdin bit his lips and held his head up and said it all would be well +sometime. Perhaps, though he still had a little courage left, Aladdin +was the more to be pitied of the two: he was not only desperately +responsible for it all, but full of imagination and the horrible +things he had read. Margaret, like most women, suffered a little from +self-centration, and to her the trunk of a birch was just a nasty old +wet tree, but to Aladdin it was the clammy limb of one drowned, +and drawn from the waters to stand in eternal unrest. At length the +stumbling progress brought them to a shore of the island: a slippery +ledge of rock, past whose feet the water slipped hurriedly, steaming +with fog as if it had been hot, two big leaning birches, and a ruddy +mink that slipped like winking into a hole. The river, evident for only +a few yards, became lost in the fog, and where they were could only be +guessed, and which way the tide was setting could only be learned by +experiment. Aladdin planted a twig at the precise edge of the water, +and they sat down to watch. Stubbornly and unwillingly the water receded +from the twig, and they knew that the tide was running out. + +"That's the way home," said Aladdin. Margaret looked wistfully +down-stream, her eyes as misty as the fog. + +"If we had the boat we could go now," said Aladdin. + +Then he sat moody, evolving enterprise, and neither spoke for a long +time. + +"Marg'ret," said Aladdin, at length, "help me find a big log near the +water." + +"What you going to do, 'Laddin?" + +"You 'll see. Help look." + +They crept along the edge of the island, now among the close-growing +trees and now on the bare strip between them and the water, until at +length they came upon a big log, lying like some gnarled amphibian half +in the river and half on the dry land. + +"Help push," said Aladdin. + +They could move it only a little, not enough. + +"Wait till I get a lever," said Aladdin. He went, and came back with a +long, stiff little birch, that, growing recklessly in the thin soil over +a rock, had been willing to yield to the persuasion of a child and come +up by the roots. And then, Margaret pushing her best, and Aladdin prying +and grunting, the log was moved to within an ace of launching. Until +now, for she was too young to understand about daring and unselfishness, +Margaret had considered the log-launching as a game invented by Aladdin +to while away the dreary time; but now she realized, from the look in +the pale, set, freckly, almost comical face of the boy, that deeds more +serious were afoot, and when he said, "Somebody'll pick me up, sure, +Marg'ret, and help me come back and get you," she broke out crying +afresh and said, "Don't, 'Laddin! Doo-on't, 'Laddin!" + +"Don't cry, Marg'ret," said Aladdin, with a gulp. "I'd do more'n that +for you, and I can swim a little, too--b-better'n I can row." + +"Oh, 'Laddin," said Margaret, "it's so cold in the water." + +"Shucks!" said Aladdin, whose teeth had been knocking all night. "She's +the stanch little craft" (he had the phrase of a book) "Good Luck. +I'm the captain and you're the builder's daughter"--and so she was. +"Chrissen 'er, Marg'et. Kiss her on the bow an' say she's the Good +Luck." + +Then Margaret, her hat over one ear, and the draggled ostrich feather +greatly in the way, knelt, and putting her arms about the shoreward end +of the log, kissed it, and said in a drawn little voice + +"The Good Luck." + +"And now, Margaret," said Aladdin, "you must stay right here' n' not +go 'way from the shore, so's I can find you when I come back. But +don't just sit still all the time,--keep moving, so's not to get any +colder,--'n I'll come back for you sure." + +Then, because he felt his courage failing, he said, "Good-by, Marg'ret," +and turning abruptly, waded in to his ankles and bent over the log to +give it that final impetus which was to set it adrift. In his heart +were several things: the desire to make good, fear of the river, and, +poignant and bitter, the feeling that Margaret did not understand. He +was too young to believe that death might really be near him (almost +reckless enough not to care if he had), but keenly aware that his +undertaking was perilous enough to warrant a more adequate farewell. So +he bent bitterly over the log and stiffened his back for the heave. It +must be owned that Aladdin wanted more of a scene. + +"'Laddin, I forgot something. Come back." + +He came, his white lips drawn into a sort of smile. Then they kissed +each other on the mouth with the loud, innocent kiss of little children, +and after that Aladdin felt that the river was only a river, the cold +only cold, the danger only danger and flowers--more than flowers. + +He moved the log easily and waded with it into the icy waters, until his +feet were dragged from the bottom, and after one awful instant of +total submersion the stanch little ship Good Luck and valiant Captain +Kissed-by-Margaret were embarked on the voyage perilous. His left arm +over and about the log, his legs kicking lustily like the legs of +a frog, his right hand paddling desperately for stability, Aladdin +disappeared into the fog. After a few minutes he became so freezing cold +that he would have let go and drowned gladly if it had not been for the +wonderful lamp which had been lighted in his heart. + +Margaret, when she saw him borne from her by the irresistible current, +cried out with all the illogic of her womanly little soul, "Come back, +'Laddin, come back!" and sank sobbing upon the empty shore. + + + + +IV + + +However imminent the peril of the man, it is the better part of +chivalry to remain by the distressed lady, and though impotent to be of +assistance, we must linger near Margaret, and watch her gradually rise +from prone sobbing to a sitting attitude of tears. For a long time she +sat crying on the empty shore, regarding for the most part black life +and not at all the signs of cheerful change which were becoming evident +in the atmosphere about her. The cold breath across her face and hands +and needling through her shivering body, the increasing sounds of +treetops in commotion, the recurring appearance of branches where before +had been only an opaque vault, did little to inform her that the fog was +about to lift. The rising wind merely made her the more miserable and +alone. Nor was it until a disk of gold smote suddenly on the rock before +her that she looked up and beheld a twinkle of blue sky. The fog +puffed across the blue, the blue looked down again,--a bigger eye than +before,--a wisp of fog filmed it again, and again it gleamed out, ever +larger and always more blue. The good wind living far to the south had +heard that in a few days a little girl was to be alone and comfortless +upon a foggy island, and, hearing, had filled his vast chest with warmth +and sunshine, and puffed out his merry cheeks and blown. The great +breath sent the blue waves thundering upon the coral beaches of Florida, +tore across the forests of palm and set them all waving hilariously, +shook the merry orange-trees till they rattled, whistled through the +dismal swamps of Georgia, swept, calling and shouting to itself, over +the Carolinas, where clouds were hatching in men's minds, banked up the +waters of the Chesapeake so that there was a great high tide and the +ducks were sent scudding to the decoys of the nearest gunner, went +roaring into the oaks and hickories of New York, warmed the veins of New +England fruit-trees, and finally coming to the giant fog, rent it apart +by handfuls as you pluck feathers from a goose, and hurled it this way +and that, until once more the sky and land could look each other in the +face. Then the great wind laughed and ceased. For a long time Margaret +looked down the cleared face of the river, but there was no trace +of Aladdin, and in life but one comfort: the sun was hot and she was +getting warm. + +After a time, in the woods directly behind where she sat hoping and +fearing and trying to dry her tears, a gun sounded like an exclamation +of hope. Had Aladdin by any incredible circumstance returned so soon? +Mindful of his warning not to stray from where she was, Margaret stood +up and called in a shrill little voice + +"Here I am! Here I am!" + +Silence in the woods immediately behind where Margaret stood hoping and +fearing! + +"Here I am!" she cried. And it had been piteous to hear, so small and +shrill was the voice. + +Presently, though much farther off, sounded the merry yapping bark of +a little dog, and again, but this time like an echo of itself, the +exclamation of hope--hope deferred. + +"Here I am! Here--I--am!" called Margaret. + +Then there was a long silence--so long that it seemed as if nothing in +the world could have been so long. Margaret sat down gasping. The sun +rose higher, the river ran on, and hope flew away. And just as hope +had gone for good, the merry yapping of the dog broke out so near that +Margaret jumped, and bang went the gun--like a promise of salvation. +Instantly she was on her feet with her shrill, + +"Here I am! Here I am!" + +And this time came back a lusty young voice crying: + +"I'm coming!" + +And hard behind the voice leaves shook, and a boy came striding into +the sunlight. In one hand he trailed a gun, and at his heels trotted +a waggish spaniel of immense importance and infinitesimal size. In his +other hand the boy carried by the legs a splendid cock-grouse, ruffled +and hunger-compelling. The boy, perhaps two years older than Aladdin, +was big and strong for his age, and bore his shining head like a young +wood-god. + +Margaret ran to him, telling her story as she went, but so incoherently +that when she reached him she had to stop and begin over again. + +"Then Senator St. John is your father?" said the boy at length. "You +know, he's a great friend of my father's. My father's name is Peter +Manners, and he used to be a congressman for New York. Are you hungry?" + +Margaret could only look it. + +They sat down, and the boy took wonderful things out of his wonderful +pockets--sandwiches of egg and sandwiches of jam; and Margaret fell to. + +"I live in New York," said the boy, "but I'm staying with my cousins +up the river. They told me there were partridges on this island, and I +rowed down to try and get some, but I missed two." The boy blushed most +becomingly whenever he spoke, and his voice, and the way he said words, +were different from anything Margaret had ever heard. And she admired +him tremendously. And the boy, because she had spent a night on a desert +island, which he never had, admired her in turn. + +"Maybe we'll find 'Laddin on the way," said Margaret, cheerfully, and +she looked up with great eyes at her godlike young friend. + + + + +V + + +Meanwhile to Aladdin and his log divers things had occurred, but the +wonderful lamp, burning low or high at the will of the river, had +not gone out. Sliding through the smoking fog at three miles an hour, +kicking and paddling, all had gone well for a while. Then, for he was +more keen than Margaret to note the fog's promise to lift, at the very +moment when the shores began to appear and mark his course as favorable, +at the very moment when the sun struck one end of the log, an eddy of +the current struck the other, and sent the stanch little craft Good Luck +and her captain by a wide curve back up the river. The backward journey +was slow and tortuous, and twice when the Good Luck turned turtle, +submerging Aladdin, he gave himself up for lost; but amidships of the +island, fairly opposite to the spot where he had left Margaret, the log +was again seized by the right current, and the voyage recommenced. +But the same eddy seized them, and back they came, with only an arm +stiffened by cold between Aladdin and death. The third descent of the +river, however, was more propitious. The eddy, it is true, made a final +snatch, but its fingers were weakened and its murderous intentions +thwarted. They passed by the knob of trees at the narrowing of the +river, and swept grandly toward the town. Past the first shipyard they +tore unnoticed, but at the second a shouting arose, and a boat was +slipped overboard and put after them. Strong hands dragged Aladdin from +the water, and, gulp after gulp, water gushed from his mouth. Then they +rowed him quickly to land, and the Good Luck, having done her duty, went +down the river alone. Years after, could Aladdin have met with that log, +he would have recognized it like the face of a friend, and would have +embraced and kissed it, painted it white to stave off the decay of old +age, and set it foremost among his Lares and Penates. + +For the present he was insensible. They put him naked into coarse, warm +horse-blankets, and laid him before the great fire in the blacksmith's +shop across the road from the shipyard. And at the same time they sent +one flying with a horse and buggy to the house of Hannibal St. John, for +Aladdin had not passed into unconsciousness without partly completing +his mission. + +"Margaret--is--up--at--" he said, and darkness came. + +At the moment when Aladdin came to, the door of the smithy was darkened +by the tremendous figure of Hannibal St. John. Wrapped in his long black +cloak, fastened at the throat by three links of steel chain, his face +glowering and cavernous, the great man strode like a controlled storm +through the awed underlings and stopped rigid at Aladdin's side. + +"Can the boy speak?" he said. + +To Aladdin, looking up, there was neither pity nor mercy apparent in the +senator's face, and a great fear shook him. Would the wrath descend? + +"Do you know where my daughter is?" + +The great rolling voice nearly broke between the "my" and the +"daughter," and the fear left Aladdin. + +"Mister St. John," he said, "she's up at one of the islands. We went in +a boat and couldn't get back. If you'll only get a boat and some one +to row, I can take you right to her." Then Aladdin knew that he had not +said all there was to say. "Mister St. John," said Aladdin, "I done it +all." + +Men ran out of the smithy to prepare a boat. + +"Who is this boy?" said St. John. + +"It's Aladdin O'Brien, the inventor's boy," said the smith. + +"Are you strong enough to go with me, O'Brien?" said the senator. + +"Yes, sir; I've got to go," said Aladdin. "I said I'd come back for +her." + +"Give him some whisky," said St. John, in the voice of Jupiter saying +"Poison him," "and wrap him up warm, and bring him along." + +They embarked. Aladdin, cuddled in blankets, was laid in the bow, St. +John, not deigning to sit, stood like a black tree-trunk in the stern, +and amidships were four men to row. + +A little distance up the river they met a boat coming down. In the stern +sat Margaret, and at the oars her godlike young friend. Just over +the bow appeared the snout and merry eyes of the spaniel, one of his +delightful ears hanging over on each side. + +"I am glad to see you alive," said St. John to Margaret when the boats +were within hailing distance, and to her friend he said, "Since you have +brought her so far, be good enough to bring her the rest of the way." +And to his own rowers he said, "Go back." When the boats came to land +at the shipyard, Margaret's father lifted her out and kissed her once +on each cheek. Of the godlike boy he asked his name, and when he learned +that it was Peter Manners and that his father was Peter Manners, he +almost smiled, and he shook the boy's hand. + +"I will send word to your cousins up the river that you are with me," he +said, and thus was the invitation extended and accepted. + +"O'Brien," said the great man to Aladdin, "when you feel able, come to +my house; I have something to say to you." + +Then Senator St. John, and Margaret, and Margaret's godlike young +friend, and the spaniel got into the carriage that was waiting for them, +and drove off. But Margaret turned and waved to Aladdin. + +"Good-by, Aladdin!" she called. + + + + +VI + +They helped Aladdin back to the smithy, for his only covering was +a clumsy blanket; and there he put on his shrunken clothes, which +meanwhile had dried. The kindly men pressed food on him, but he could +not eat. He could only sit blankly by the fire and nurse the numb, +overpowering pain in his heart. Another had succeeded where he had +failed. Even at parting, just now, Margaret's eyes had not been for him, +but for the stranger who had done so easily what he had not been able to +do at all. The voyage down the river had been mere foolishness without +result. He had not rescued his fair lady, but deserted her upon a desert +island. For him no bouquets were flung, nor was there to be any clapping +of hands. After a time he rose like one dreaming, and went slowly, for +he was sick and weak, up to the great pillared house of Hannibal St. +John. The senator in that stern voice of his had bade him come; nothing +could be any worse than it was. He would go. He knocked, and they showed +him into the library. It was four walls of leather books, an oak table +neater than a pin, a huge chair covered with horsehair much worn, and +a blazing fire of birch logs. Before the fire, one hand thrust into his +coat, the other resting somewhat heavily upon the head of a whalebone +cane, stood the senator. Far off Aladdin heard Margaret's laugh and with +it another young laugh. Then he looked up like a little hunted thing +into the senator's smoldering eyes. + +"Sit down in that chair," said the senator, pointing with his cane +to the only chair in the room. His voice had the effect of a strong +muscular compulsion to which men at once yielded. Aladdin sat into the +big chair, his toes swinging just clear of the ground. Then there was +silence. Aladdin broke it. + +"Is Margaret all right?" he gulped. + +The senator disregarded the question. Having chosen his words, he said +them. + +"I do not know," he began, "what my daughter was doing in a boat with +you. I do not object to her enjoying the society at proper times of +suitable companions of her own age, but the society of those who lead +her into temptation is not suitable." Aladdin fairly wilted under the +glowering voice. "You will not be allowed to associate with her any +more," said the senator. "I will speak to your father and see that he +forbids it." + +Aladdin climbed out of the chair, and stumbled blindly into the table. +He had meant to find the door and go. + +"Wait; I have not done," said the senator. + +Aladdin turned and faced the enemy who was taking away the joy of life +from him. + +"In trying to atone for your fault," said the senator, "by imperiling +your life, you did at once a foolhardy and a fine thing--one which I +will do my best to repay at any time that you may see fit to call upon +me. For the present you may find this of use." He held forward between +his thumb and forefinger a twenty-dollar gold piece. Aladdin groped for +words, and remembered a phrase which he had heard his own father return +to a tormentor. He thrust his red hands into his tight pockets, and with +trembling lips looked up. + +"It's a matter of pride," he said, and walked out of the room. When he +had gone the senator took from his pocket a leather purse, opened it, +put back the gold piece, and carefully tied the string. Then far from +any known key or tune the great man whistled a few notes. Could his +constituents have heard, they would have known--and often had the +subject been debated--that Hannibal St. John was human. + +Aladdin stood for a while upon the lofty pillared portico of the +senator's house, and with a mist in his eyes looked away and away to +where the cause of all his troubles flowed like a ribbon of silver +through the bright-colored land. Grown men, having, in their whole +lives, suffered less than Aladdin was at that moment suffering, have +considered themselves heartbroken. The little boy shivered and toiled +down the steps, between the tall box hedges lining the path, and out +into the road. A late rose leaning over the garden fence gave up her +leaves in a pink shower as he passed, and at the same instant all the +glass in a window of the house opposite fell out with a smash. These +events seemed perfectly natural to Aladdin, but when people, talking at +the tops of their voices and gesticulating, began to run out of houses +and make down the hill toward the town, he remembered that, just as the +rose-leaves fell and just as the glass came out of the window-frame, +he had been conscious of a distant thudding boom, and a jarring of the +ground under his feet. So he joined in the stream of his neighbors, and +ran with them down the hill to see what had happened. + +Aladdin remembered little of that breathless run, and one thing only +stood ever afterward vivid among his recollections. All the people were +headed eagerly in one direction, but at the corner of the street in +which Aladdin lived, an awkish, half-grown girl, her face contorted +with terror, struggled against the tugging of two younger companions and +screamed in a terrible voice: + +"I don't wahnt to go! I don't wahnt to go!" + +But they dragged her along. That girl had no father, and her mother +walked the streets. She would never have any beauty nor any grace; she +was dirt of the dirt, dirty, but she had a heart of mercy and could not +bear to look upon suffering. + +"I don't wahnt to go! I don't wahnt to go!" and now the scream was a +shudder. + +Aladdin's street was crowded to suffocation, and the front of the house +where Aladdin lived was blown out, and men with grave faces were going +about among the ruins looking for what was left of Aladdin's father. + +A much littler boy than Aladdin stood in the yard of the house. In his +arms folded high he clutched a yellow cat, who licked his cheek with her +rough tongue. The littler boy kept crying, "'Laddin, 'Laddin!" + +Aladdin took the little boy and the yellow cat all into one embrace, and +people turned away their heads. + + + + +VII + + +In the ensuing two days Aladdin matured enormously, for though a kind +neighbor took him in, together with his brother Jack and the yellow cat, +he had suffered many things and already sniffed the wolf at the door. +The kind neighbor was a widow lady, whose husband, having been a master +carpenter of retentive habits, had left her independently rich. She +owned the white-and-green house in which she lived, the plot of ground, +including a small front and a small back yard, upon which it stood, +and she spent with some splendor a certain income of three hundred and +eighty-two dollars a year. Every picture, every chair, every mantelpiece +in the Widow Brackett's house was draped with a silk scarf. The parlor +lamp had a glass shade upon which, painted in oils, by hand, were +crimson moss-roses and scarlet poppies. A crushed plush spring rocker +had goldenrod painted on back and seat, while two white-and-gold vases +in precise positions on the mantel were filled with tight round +bunches of immortelles, stained pink. Upon the marble-topped, +carved-by-machine-walnut-legged table in the bay-window were things to +be taken up by a visitor and examined. A white plate with a spreading of +foreign postage-stamps, such as any boy collector has in quantities for +exchange, was the first surprise: you were supposed to discover that the +stamps were not real, but painted on the plate, and exclaim about it. A +china basket contained most edible-looking fruit of the same material, +and a huge album, not to be confounded with the family Bible upon which +it rested, was filled with speaking likenesses of the Widow Brackett's +relatives. The Bible beneath could have told when each was born, when +many had died, and where many were buried. But nobody was ever allowed +to look into the Widow Brackett's Bible for information mundane or +spiritual, since the only result would have been showers of pressed +ferns and flowers upon the carpet, which was not without well-pressed +flowers and ferns of its own. + +Very soon after the explosion of the wonderful lamp the Widow Brackett +had taken Aladdin and Jack and the cat into her house and seen to it +that they had a square meal. Early on the second day she came to the +conclusion that if it could in any way be made worth her while, she +would like to keep them until they grew up. And when the ground upon +which Aladdin's father's house had stood was sold at auction for three +hundred and eight dollars, she let it be known that if she could get +that she would board the two little waifs until Aladdin was old enough +to work. The court appointed two guardians. The guardians consulted for +a few minutes over something brown in a glass, and promptly turned over +the three hundred and eight dollars to the Widow Brackett; and the Widow +Brackett almost as promptly made a few alterations in the up-stairs +of her house the better to accommodate the orphans, tied a dirty white +ribbon about the yellow cat's neck, and bought a derelict piano upon +which her heart had been set for many months. She was no musician, but +she loved a tightly closed piano with a scarf draped over the top, and +thought that no parlor should be without one. Up to middle C, as +Aladdin in time found out, the piano in question was not without musical +pretensions, but above that any chord sounded like a nest of tin plates +dropped on a wooden floor, and the intervals were those of no known +scale nor fragment thereof. But in time he learned to draw pleasant +things from the old piano and to accompany his shrill voice in song. As +a matter of fact, he had no voice and never would have, but almost from +the first he knew how to sing. It so happened that he was drawn to the +piano by a singular thing: a note from his beloved. + +It came one morning thumb-marked about the sealing, and covered with the +generous sprawl of her writing. It said: + +DEAR ALADDIN: Do not say anything about this because I do not know if my +father would like it but I am so sorry about your father blowing up and +all your troubles and I want you to know how sory I am. I must stop now +because I have to practis. + + Your loving friend + + MARGARET ST. JOHN. + +Aladdin was an exquisite speller, and the first thing he noticed about +the letter was that it contained two words spelled wrong, and that he +loved Margaret the better by two misspelled words, and that he had a +lump in his throat. + +He had found the letter by his plate at breakfast, and the eyes of Mrs. +Brackett fastened upon it. + +"I don't know who ken have been writin' to you," she said. + +"Neither do I," said Aladdin, giving, as is proper, the direct lie to +the remark inquisitive. He had put the letter in his pocket. + +"Why don't you open it and see?" + +Aladdin blushed. + +"Time enough after breakfast," he said. + +There was a silence. + +"Jack's eatin' his breakfast; why ain't you eatin' yours?" + +Aladdin fell upon his breakfast for the sake of peace. And Mrs. Brackett +said no more. Some days later, for she was not to be denied in little +matters or great, Mrs. Brackett found where Aladdin had hidden the +letter, took it up, read it, sniffed, and put it back, with the remark +that she never "see such carryin's-on." + +Aladdin hid, and read his letter over and over; then an ominous silence +having informed him that Mrs. Brackett had gone abroad, he stole into +the parlor, perched on the piano-stool, and, like a second Columbus, +began to discover things which other people have to be shown. The joy of +his soul had to find expression, as often afterward the sorrow of it. + +That winter Jack entered school in the lowest class, and the two little +boys were to be seen going or coming in close comradeship, fair weather +or foul. The yellow cat had affairs of gallantry, and bore to the +family, at about Christmas-time, five yellow kittens, which nobody had +the heart to drown, and about whose necks, at the age of eye-opening, +the Widow Brackett tied little white ribbons in large bows. + +Sometimes Aladdin saw Margaret, but only for a little. + +So the years passed, and Aladdin turned his sixteenth year. He was very +tall and very thin, energetic but not strong, very clever, but with less +application than an uncoerced camel. To single him from other boys, he +was full of music and visions. And rhymes were beginning to ring in his +head. + +A week came when the rhymes and the music went clean out of his head, +which became as heavy as a scuttle full of coal, and he walked about +heavily like an old man. + + + + +VIII + + +One day, during the morning session of school, Aladdin's head got so +heavy that he could hardly see, and he felt hot all over. He spoke to +the teacher and was allowed to go home. Mrs. Brackett, when she saw him +enter the yard, was in great alarm, for she at once supposed that he had +done something awful, which was not out of the question, and suffered +expulsion. + +"What have you done?" she said. + +"Nothing," said Aladdin. "I think I'm going to be sick." + +Mrs. Brackett tossed her hands heavenward. + +"What is the matter?" she cried. + +"I don't know," said Aladdin. She followed him into the house and up the +stairs, which he climbed heavily. + +"Where do you feel bad, 'Laddin O'Brien?" she said sharply. + +"It's my head, ma'am," said Aladdin. He went into his room and lay face +down on the bed, having first dropped his schoolbooks on the floor, and +began to talk fluently of kings' daughters and genii and copper bottles. + +The Widow Brackett was an active woman of action. Flat-footed and +hatless, but with incredible speed, she dashed down the stairs, out +of the house, and up the street. She returned in five minutes with the +doctor. + +The doctor said, "Fever." It was quite evident that it was fever; but +a doctor's word for it put everything on a comfortable and satisfactory +footing. + +"We must get him to bed," said the doctor. He made the attempt alone, +but Aladdin struggled, and the doctor was old. Mrs. Brackett came to the +rescue and, finally, they got Aladdin, no longer violent, into his bed, +while the doctor, in a soft voice, said what maybe it was and what maybe +it wasn't,--he leaned to a bilious fever,--and prescribed this and that +as sovereign in any case. They darkened the room, and Aladdin was sick +with typhoid fever for many weeks. He was delirious much too much, and +Mrs. Brackett got thin with watching. Occasionally it seemed as if he +might possibly live, but oftenest as if he would surely die. + +In his delirium for the most part Aladdin dwelt upon Margaret, so that +his love for her was an old story to Mrs. Brackett. One gay spring +morning, after a terrible night, Aladdin's fever cooled a little, and he +was able to talk in whispers. + +"Mrs. Brackett," he said, "Mrs. Brackett." + +She came hurriedly to the bed. + +"I know you're feelin' better, 'Laddin O'Brien." + +He smiled up at her. + +"Mrs. Brackett," he said, "I dreamed that Margaret St. John came here to +ask how I was--did she?" + +Margaret hadn't. She had not, so hedged was her life, even heard that +Aladdin lay sick. + +Mrs. Brackett lied nobly. + +"She was here yesterday," she said, "and that anxious to know all about +you." + +Aladdin looked like one that had found peace. + +"Thank you," he said. + +Mrs. Brackett raised his head, pillow and all, very gently, and gave him +his medicine. + +"How's Jack?" said Aladdin. + +"He comes twice every day to ask about you," said Mrs. Brackett. "He's +livin' with my brother-in-law." + +"That's good," said Aladdin. He lay back and dozed. After a while he +opened his eyes. + +"Mrs. Brackett-" + +"What is it, deary?" The good woman had been herself on the point of +dozing, but was instantly alert. + +"Am I going to die?" + +"You goin' to die!" She tried to make her voice indignant, but it broke. + +"I want to know." + +"He wants to know, good land!" exclaimed Mrs. Brackett. + +"If a man's going to die," said Aladdin, aeat-sixteen, "he wants to +know, because he has things that have to be done." + +"Doctor said you wasn't to talk much," said Mrs. Brackett. + +"If I've got to die," said Aladdin, abruptly, "I've got to see +Margaret." + +A woman in a blue wrapper, muddy slippers, her gray hair disheveled, +hatless, her eyes bright and wild, burst suddenly upon Hannibal St. John +where he sat in his library reading in the book called "Hesperides." + +"Senator St. John," she began rapidly, "Aladdin O'Brien's sick in my +house, and the last thing he said was, 'I've got to see Margaret'; and +he's dyin' wantin' to see her, and I've come for her, and she's got to +come." + +It was a tribute to St. John's genius that in spite of her incoherent +utterance he understood precisely what the woman was driving at. + +"You say he's dying?" he said. + +"Doctor's given up hope. He's had a relapse since this mornin', and +she's got to come right now if she's to see him at all." + +The senator hesitated for once. + +"It's got nothin' to do with the proprieties," said Mrs. Brackett, +sternly, "nor what he was to her, nor her to him; it's a plain case of +humanity and--" + +"What is the nature of the sickness?" asked the senator. + +"It's fever--" + +"Is it contagious?" asked the senator. + +"No, it ain't!" almost shrieked the old lady. "And what if it was?" + +"Of course if it were contagious she couldn't go," said the senator. + +"It ain't contagious, and, what's more, he once laid down his life for +her on the log, that time." + +"If you assure me the fever is not contagious--" + +"You'll let her come--" + +"It seems nonsense," said the senator. "They are only children, and I +don't want her to get silly ideas." + +"Only children!" exclaimed Mrs. Brackett. "Senator, give me the troubles +of the grown-ups, childbirth, and losing the first-born with none +to follow, the losing of husband and mother, and the approach of old +age,--give me them and I'll bear them, but spare me the sorrows and +trials of little children which we grown-ups ain't strong enough to +bear. You can say I said so," she finished defiantly. + +The senator bowed in agreement. + +"I believe you are right," he said. "I will take you home in my +carriage, Mrs.--" + +"Brackett," said she, with pride. + +The senator stepped into the hall and raised his voice the least trifle. + +"Daughter!" + +She answered from several rooms away, and came running. Her hands were +inky, and she held a letter. She was no longer the timid little girl +of the island, for somehow that escapade had emancipated her. She had +waited for a few days in expectation of damnation, but, that failing to +materialize, had turned over a leaf in her character, and became such a +bully at home that the family and servants loved her more and more from +day to day. She was fourteen at this time; altogether exquisite and +charming and wayward. + +"Aladdin O'Brien is very sick, daughter," said the senator, "and we are +going to see him." + +"And don't tell him that you didn't come to ask after him yesterday," +said Mrs. Brackett, defiantly, "because I said you did. I had my +reasons," she went on, "and you can say I said so." + +Margaret ran up-stairs to get her hat. She was almost wild with +excitement and foreboding of she knew not what. + +The letter which she had been writing fell from her hand. She picked it +up, looked hastily at the superscription, "Mr. Peter Manners, Jr.," and +tore it into pieces. + + + + +IX + + +There is no doubt that Aladdin's recovery dated from Margaret's visit. +The poor boy was too sick to say what he had planned, but Margaret +sat by his bed for a while and held his hand, and said little abrupt +conventional things that meant much more to them both, and that was +enough. Besides, and under the guns of her father's eyes, just before +she went away she stooped and kissed him on the forehead, and that was +more than enough to make anybody get over anything, Aladdin thought. +So he slept a long cool sleep after Margaret had gone, and woke free of +fever. As he lay gathering strength to sit up in bed, which treat had +been promised him in ten days, Aladdin's mind worked hard over the +future, and what he could machinate in order one day to be almost worthy +to kiss the dust under Margaret's feet. She sent him flowers twice, but +was not allowed to come and see him again. + +Aladdin had awful struggles with the boredom of convalescence. He felt +perfectly well, and they wouldn't let him get up and out; everything +forbidden he wanted to eat. And his one solace was the Brackett library. +This was an extraordinary collection of books. They were seven, and how +they got there nobody knows. The most important in the collection was, +in Mrs. Brackett's estimation, an odd volume of an encyclopedia, bound +in tree-calf and labeled, "Safety-lamps to Stranglers." Next were four +fat tomes in the German language on scientific subjects; these, provided +that anybody had ever wanted to read them, had never succeeded +in getting themselves read, but they had cuts and cuts which were +fascinating to surmise about. The sixth book was the second volume of +a romance called "The Headsman," by "the author of 'The Spy,'" and the +seventh was a back-split edition of Poe's poems. + +The second volume of "The Headsman" went like cakes and syrup on a cold +morning, for it was narrative, and then it was laid aside, because it +was dull. The four German books had their cuts almost examined out of +them, and the encyclopedia book, from "Safety-lamps to Stranglers," +practically had its contents torn out and devoured. In after life +Aladdin could always speak with extraordinary fluency, feeling, and +understanding on anything that began with S, such as Simeon Stylites and +Senegambia. But the poems of Poe were what made his sickness worth while +and put the call upon all his after life. We learn of the critics and +professors of English that there are greater lyric poets than Poe. They +will base this on technicalities and theories of what poetry has been +and what poetry ought to be, and will not take into account the fact +that of all of them--Keats, Shelley, Wordsworth when he is a poet +at all, Heine, and the lyric body of Goethe and the rest--not one in +proportion to the mass of his production so often leaves the ground and +spreads wings as Poe,-- + + If I might dwell + Where Israfel + Hath dwelt, and he where I, + He might not sing so wildly well + A mortal melody, + While a bolder note than his might swell + From my lyre within the sky,-- + +and that where they have, they have perhaps risen a little higher, but +never have sung more hauntingly and clear. The wonderful sounds and +the unearthly purity--the purity of a little child that has died--took +Aladdin by the throat and shook up the imagination and music that had +lain dormant within him; his father's bent for invention clarified into +a passion for creation. The first thing he read was three stanzas on the +left-hand page where the book opened to his uneager hands, and his eyes, +expectant of disappointment,--for up to that time, never having read +any, he hated poetry,--fell on one of the five or six perfect poems in +the world: + + Helen, thy beauty is to me + Like those Nicean barks of yore + That gently o'er a perfumed sea + The weary, wayworn wanderer bore + To his own native shore. + + On desperate seas long wont to roam, + Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face, + Thy naiad airs have brought me home + To the glory that was Greece, + And the grandeur that was Rome. + + Lo, in yon brilliant window-niche + How statue-like I see thee stand, + The agate lamp within thy hand! + Ah, Psyche! From the regions which + Are holy land. + +And he knew that he had read the most exquisite, the most insouciant, +and the most universal account of every man's heart's desire--Margaret +as she would be when she grew tall. He knew little of the glory that was +Greece or the grandeur that was Rome, but whatever they were, Margaret +had all of them, and the hyacinth hair, very thick and clustery and +beautiful, and the naiad airs. Ah, Psyche! + +And he read forward and back in the book, and after a little he knew +that he had a soul, and that the only beautiful thing in the world is +beauty, and the only sad thing, and that beauty is truth. + +Open at the lines to Helen he laid the book face down upon his heart, +with his hands clasped over it, and shut his eyes. + +"Now I know what I've got to do," he said. "Now I know what I've got to +do." + +He dreamed away hours until suddenly the need of deeds set him bolt +upright in bed, and he called to Mrs. Brackett to bring him pencil +and paper. From that time on he was seldom without them, and, by +turns reading and writing, entered with hope and fortitude into the +challenging field of literature. And from the first, however ignorant +and unkempt the effort, he wrote a kind of literature, for he buckled to +no work that he knew, and was forever striving after an ideal (nebulous, +indescribable, and far) of his own, and that is literature. Go to those +who have wrought for--forever (without, of course, knowing it) and those +who have wrought earnestly for the day, and these things you will find +made the god in their machine: Raphael's sonnets and Dante's picture! +Aladdin had no message, that he knew of, for the world, but the call +of one of the arts was upon him; and he knew that willy-nilly he must +answer that call as long as eyes could see, or hands hold pen, or tongue +call for pencil and paper, money buy them, or theft procure them. He set +himself stubbornly and courageously to the bitter-sweet task of learning +to write. + +"It must be like learning anything else," he said, his eyes on a sheet +of seemingly uncorrectable misbalances, "and just because I'm rotten at +it now doesn't prove that if I practise and practise, and try and try, +and hope and hope, I won't be some good sometime." + +He saw very clearly the squat dark tower itself in the midst of the +chin-upon-hand hills, and the world and his friends sitting about to +see him fail. He saw them, and he knew them all, and yet, with Childe +Roland, + + Dauntless the slughorn to his lips he set, + And blew. + +And incidentally, when he got well and returned to school, he entered +on a period of learning his lessons, for he thought that these might one +day be of use to him in his chosen line. + + + + +X + + +Senator St. John, for he was at heart democratic, and heard little of +Aladdin that was not to Aladdin's credit, derigorized the taboo which he +had once placed on Aladdin's and Margaret's friendship, and allowed the +young man to come occasionally to the house, and occasionally loaned +him books. Margaret was really at the bottom of this, but she stayed +comfortably at the bottom, and teased her father to do the needful, and +he, wrapped up in the great issues which were threatening to divide the +country, complied. In those days the senator's interests extended +far beyond his family, Margaret and the three powerful sons who were +building a reputation for the firm of John St. John & Brothers, lawyers +in Portland. He gave Aladdin leave to come and go, even smiled grimly +as he did so, and, except at those moments when he met him face to +face, forgot that Aladdin existed. Margaret enjoyed Aladdin hugely, +and unconsciously sat for the heroine of every novel he began, and +the inspiration of every verse that he wrote. When Aladdin reached his +eighteenth year and Margaret her sixteenth there was such a delightful +and strong friendship between them that the other young people of the +town talked. Margaret in her heart of hearts was fonder of Aladdin than +of anybody else--when she was with him, or under the immediate influence +of having been with him, for nobody else had such extraordinary ideas, +or such a fund of amusing vitality, or such fascinating moods. Like +every one with a touch of the Celt in him, Aladdin was by turns +gloomiest and most unfortunate of all mortals upon whom the sun +positively would not shine, or the gayest of the gay. From his droll +manner of singing a song, to the seriousness with which he sometimes +bore all the sufferings of all the world, he seemed to her a most +complex and unusual individual. But his spells were of the instant, and +her thoughts were very often on that beautiful young man, Manners, who, +having completed his course at the law school, was coming to spend a +month before he should begin to practise. Since his first visit years +ago, Manners, now a grown man of twenty, had spent much of many of his +vacations with the St. Johns. The senator was obliged, as well as his +limitations would allow, to take the place of a mother to Margaret, and +though it was barely guessable from his words or actions, he loved Peter +Manners like a son, and had resolved, almost since the beginning, to end +by having him for one. And the last time that Manners had visited them +in Washington, St. John had seen to it that he shook hands with all the +great men who were making history. Once the senator and Margaret +had visited the Manners in New York. That had been a bitter time for +Aladdin, for while all the others of his age were sniffing timidly at +love and life, he had found his grand passion early and stuck to it, and +was now blissful with hope and now acrid with jealousy. Peter Manners he +hated with a green and jealous hatred. And if Peter Manners had any of +the baser passions, he divined this, and hated Aladdin back, but rather +contemptuously. They met occasionally, and the meetings, always in the +presence of Margaret, were never very happy. She was woman enough to +rejoice at being a bone of contention, and angel enough to hate seeing +good times spoiled. + +But it was hard on Aladdin. He could go to her house almost when he +liked, and be welcomed by her, but to her father and the rest of the +household he was not especially welcome. They were always polite to him, +and always considerate, and he felt--quite rightly--that he was merely +tolerated, as a more or less presentable acquaintance of Margaret's. +Manners, on the other hand, and it took less intuition to know it, was +not only greatly welcome to Margaret, but to all the others--from +the gardener up to the senator. Manners' distinction of manner, his +wellbred, easy ways, his charmingly enunciative and gracious voice, +together with his naive and simple nature, went far with people's +hearts. Aladdin bitterly conceded every advantage to his rival except +that of mind. To this, for he knew even in his humble moments that he +himself had it, he clung tenaciously. Mrs. Brackett, with a sneaking +admiration for Peter Manners, whom she had once seen on the street, had +Aladdin's interests well in heart, and the lay of the matter well in +hand. She put it like this to a friendly gossip: + +"I guess' Laddin O'Brien's 'bout smaht enough to go a long ways further +than fine clothes and money and a genealogical past will carry a body. +He writes sometimes six and eight big sides of paper up in a day, and +if he ain't content with that he just tears it up and goes at it again. +There won't be anybody'll go further in this world than 'Laddin O'Brien, +and you can say I said so--" + +Here under oath of secrecy Mrs. Brackett lowered her voice and divulged +a secret: + +"He got a letter this mornin' sayin' that the Portland'spy' is goin' to +print three poems he sent 'em, and enclosin' three dollars to pay for +'em. I guess beginnin' right now he could go along at that rate and make +mebbe five or six hundred dollars a year. Poetry's nothin' to him; he +can write it faster than you and I can baste." + +At the very moment of this adoring act of divulgence Aladdin was in +the parlor, giving his first taste of success a musical soul, and +waiting--waiting--waiting until it should be late enough in the day for +him to climb the hill to the St. Johns' and hand over the Big News to +Margaret. And as he sat before the piano, demipatient and wholly joyful, +his fingers twinkled the yellowed and black keys into fits of merriment, +or, after an abrupt pause, built heap upon heap of bass chords. Then +the mood would change and, to a whanging accompaniment, he would chant, +recitative fashion, the three poems which alone he had made. + +The day waned, and it was time to go and tell Margaret. His way lay +past the railway-station, under the "Look out for the locomotive" sign, +across the track, and up the hill. In the air was the exhilarating +evening cool of June, and the fragrance of flowers, which in the north +country, to make up for the shorter tale of their days, bloom bigger +and smell sweeter than any other flowers in the world. Even in the dirty +paved square fronting the station was a smell of summer and flowers. You +could see people's faces lighten and sniff it, as they got out of the +hot, cindery coaches of the five-forty, which had just rolled in. + +The St. Johns' fine pair of bays and their open carriage were drawn up +beside the station. The horses were entering a spirited, ground-pawing +protest against the vicinity of that alway inexplicable and snorting +monster on wheels. On the platform, evidently waiting for some one to +get off the train, stood St. John and Margaret. She looked much fresher +and sweeter than a rose, and Aladdin noted that she was wearing her hair +up for the first time. Her dress was a floaty white affair with a +blue ribbon round it, and her beautiful, gay young face flushed with +excitement and anticipation till it sparkled. There was a large crowd +getting off the train, at that aggravating rate of progression with +which people habitually leave a crowded public conveyance or a theater, +and Margaret and her father were looking through the windows of the cars +to see if they could catch a glimpse of whom they sought. Suddenly the +senator broke into a smile and waved his cane. The action was so unusual +for him that it looked grotesque. Margaret stood on tiptoe and waved her +hand, and a presentiment came to Aladdin and took away all his joy. + +Peter Manners, looking fresh and clean in spite of his long, dusty ride, +got off the train and made a hilarious rush for his friends. He +shook hands with Margaret, then with the senator, and turned again to +Margaret. She was altogether too pretty, and much too glad to see him. +In the excitement of the moment it couldn't be borne, and he kissed her. +Then they both laughed, and the senator laughed, for he was glad. He put +his great hand on Manners' shoulder, and laughing and talking, the three +went to the carriage. Then the senator remembered that the checks had +been forgotten, and against a voluble protest he secured them from +Manners, and went after an expressman. Having found the expressman--one +of his constituents and a power in the town,--he handed him the checks, +a fifty-cent piece, and a ponderous joke as old as Xerxes, at which the +expressman roared. Manners stood by the carriage and looked at Margaret. +"Lord God," he thought, "it has come at last!" and they grinned at each +other. + +"Mmm!" said Margaret, who stood for the glory that was Greece and the +grandeur that was Rome. She had not expected to be so glad to see him. + +Meanwhile Aladdin had turned and was going home. + +Margaret caught sight of his back, and the pitiful little droop in the +usually erect shoulders, and she divined like a flash, and called +after him. He pretended not to hear and went on. In his pocket was the +editor's letter which he had designed to show her. It had lain down and +died. + +"Why does that man hate me so?" said Manners. + +A little of the joy of meeting had gone. A cloud passed over the sun, +and the earth was darkened. Many drops of rain began to fall, each +making a distinct splash as it struck. One began to smell the disturbed +dust. But the flowers continued to send up their incense to heaven, and +Manners put his light overcoat about Margaret. + + + + +XI + + +Aladdin had a large acquaintance in the town among all sorts of men, +and, as he went home sorrowfully in the rain, he met a youth, older +than himself, who had an evil notoriety; for being born with brains, of +respectable people, and propitiously launched on the world, he had begun +in his early teens, and in the face of the most heartrending solicitude, +to drink himself to death. The miserable part of it was that everybody +loved him when he was sober, and out of consideration to his family +still asked him to the best that the town could do in the way of parties +and entertainments. He was a good-looking young man with a big frame and +a pale face. His real name was William Addison Larch, but he was better +known as "Beau Larch." He had a nervous, engaging smile, of which he +made frequent use. + +"My word, Aladdin," he said, "you look sick as a dog. Come with me and +take a snifter for it." + +Aladdin hesitated a moment. And as soon as he had thoroughly made up his +mind that it was wrong to say so, he said: + +"I believe I will." The Celt in him was feeling suicidal. They went into +the ground-floor room of a house where liquor was sold. + +"For me, whisky," said Beau Larch. + +"The same for me," said Aladdin, with something suspiciously like a +gulp. The first drink which a man takes against his better judgment is +a grisly epoch in his life. Aladdin realized this, and was at once +miserable and willing that it should be so. + +"To those that love us!" said Beau Larch. + +Aladdin put down his liquor without grimace or gasp. + +Beau Larch paid. + +In Aladdin's pocket were three dollars, the first mile-post on the steep +road to his ideal. He felt, to be sure that they were there. + +"Now you 'll have one with me," he said. + +When the sudden rain-storm had rained and thundered and lightened itself +out, they went to another saloon, and from there to the Boat Club, of +which Beau Larch was a member and whither he asked Aladdin to supper. +Fishes and lobsters and clams were the staple articles of Boat Club +suppers, and over savory messes of these, helped down with much whisky +and water, Aladdin and Beau Larch made the evening spin. Aladdin, +talking eagerly and with the naivete of a child, wondered why he had +never liked this man so much before. And Larch told the somewhat +abject story of his life three times with an introduction of much racy +anecdote. + +Aladdin's head held surprisingly well. Every now and then he would hand +himself an inward congratulation on the alertness and clearness of +his mind, and think what a fine constitution he must have. They got to +singing after a while, and reciting poems, of which each knew a quantity +by heart. And, oddly enough, Aladdin, though he had been brought up to +speak sound American, developed in his cups, and afterward clung to, +in moments of exhilaration or excitement, an indescribably faint but +perfectly distinct Hibernian accent. It was the heritage to which he +was heir, and made his eager and earnest rendering of "Annabel Lee" so +pathetic that Beau Larch wept, and knocked a glass off the table.... + +Men came and sat with them, and Aladdin discovered in himself what +he had hitherto never suspected--the power of becoming heart-to-heart +friends with strangers in two seconds. + +Aladdin was never able to remember just how or when or with whom they +left the Boat Club. He only remembered walking and walking and talking +and talking, and finally arguing a knotty question, on which all +defended the same side, and then sitting down on the steps of a house +in a low quarter of the town, and pouring the ramifications of all his +troubles into the thoroughly sympathetic if somewhat noncomprehending +ears of Beau Larch. He talked long and became drunker as he talked, +while Larch became soberer. Then Aladdin remembered that the door at the +top of the steps had opened, and a frowzy head had been stuck out, and +that a brassy voice, with something at once pathetic and wheedling in +it, had said: + +"Aren't you coming in, boys?" + +Then Aladdin remembered that Beau Larch and he had had angry words, +and that Beau Larch had told him not to make an ass of himself, and for +heaven's sake to go home. To which Aladdin had retorted that he was old +enough to know what was good for him, and hated the world and didn't +give a damn who knew it, and wouldn't go home. Aladdin could swear that +after that he only closed his eyes for a second to shut out something or +other, and that when he opened them, the reverberation of a door closing +was in his ears. But for all that Beau Larch had gone, and was to be +seen neither up the street nor down. Although his own was past mending, +Beau Larch, drunk as he was, had done a good deed that night, for he had +guarded a precious innocence against the assaults of a drunken little +Irish boy who was feeling down about something--a girl named something +or other, Beau Larch thought, and another boy named something or other. +The next day Beau had forgotten even that much. + +Aladdin thought that Larch was hiding in jest. He arose unsteadily and +wandered off in search of him. After a time he found himself before +the door of his own house. There were lights in the parlor, and Aladdin +became almost sober. He realized with a thrill of stricken conscience +that Mrs. Brackett was sitting up for him, and he was afraid. He tried +the front door and found it unlocked. He went in. On the right, the door +leading into the parlor stood open. On the table burned a lamp. Beside +the table in the crushed plush rocker sat Mrs. Brackett. Her spectacles +were pushed high up on her forehead. Her eyes were closed, and her mouth +was slightly open. From the corners of her eyes red marks ran down her +cheeks. Her thin gray hair was in disarray. In her lap, open, lay her +huge family Bible; a spray of pressed maidenhair fern marked the place. + +Aladdin, somewhat sobered by now, and already stung with the anguish of +remorse, tiptoed into the parlor and softly blew out the light; but the +instant before he did so he glanced down at the Bible in the good lady's +lap and saw that she had been reading about the prodigal son. Great +tears ran out of Aladdin's eyes. He went up-stairs, weeping and on +tiptoe, and as he passed the door of his brother's room he heard a stir +within. + +"Is that you, 'Laddin?" + +"Sssh, darlint," said Aladdin; "you'll wake Mother Brackett." + +In his own room there was a lamp burning low, and on his bureau was a +note for him from Margaret: + +DEAR ALADDIN: Papa wants you to come up and have supper with us. +Peter Manners is here, and I think it will be fun. Please do come, and +remember a lot of foolish songs to sing. Why wouldn't you speak to me? +It hurts so when you act like that.... + +Aladdin, kissing the note, went down on his knees and twice began to +pray, "O God--O God!" He could say no more, but all the penitence and +heartburnings of his soul were in his prayer. Later he lay on his bed +staring into a darkness which moved in wheels, and he kept saying to the +darkness: + + "Neither the angels in Heaven above, + Nor the demons down under the sea, + Can ever dissever my soul from the soul + Of the beautiful Annabel Lee." + +Late in the still morning he awoke, grieving and hurt, for he did not +see how he should ever face Mrs. Brackett, or his brother, or Margaret, +or himself, or anybody ever again. + + + + +XII + + +There was in town at this time what passed for a comic-opera troupe, and +Margaret and her father, by way of doing honor to their guest, invited +all the young people to go to the performance and attend a supper +afterward. The party occupied the three foremost rows in the music-hall, +and Aladdin sat next to Margaret, and Manners sat upon the other side. + +The hero of the piece was a jovial big rascal with a spirited voice, and +much byplay which kept his good-natured audience in titters--from the +young gentlemen and little shrieks--from the young ladies. Mr. Blythoe, +the hero, when the curtain had fallen upon what the management was +pleased to call the second act, consented, in response to continued +applause, due to a double back somersault and two appropriate remarks +fired off in midair (this was his great psychic moment), to make a +little speech and sing a song. His speech, though syntactically erratic, +was delivered in a loud, frank way that won everybody's heart, and in +closing he said: + +"Three nights ago I met with a young feller in this tow--city +[applause], and when we had taken one together for luck [titters from +the young gentlemen, who wanted one another to know that they knew what +he meant], he made me the loan of the song I'm a-going to sing. He made +up the words and the tune of this song hisself, and he's right here in +this audience." This gave an opportunity for some buffoonery among the +young gentlemen. Mr. Blythoe looked for one instant straight at Aladdin, +and Aladdin went into a cold sweat, for he began to recollect that +somewhere on a certain awful night he had taken drinks with Mr. Blythoe +and had sung him songs. Mr. Blythoe went on: + +"This young gentleman said I specially wasn't to mention his name, and +I won't, but I want all you ladies and gentlemen to know that this here +beautiful ballad was composed right here in this tow--city [applause] by +a citizen of this city. And here goes." + +Then Mr. Blythoe did a wonderful thing. Much was owing to the words and +air, but a little something to the way in which Mr. Blythoe sang. He +took his audience with the first bar, and had some of them crying when +he was through. And the song should have been silly. It was about a gay, +gay young dog of a crow, that left the flock and went to a sunny land +and lived a mad, mad life; and finally, penitent and old, came home to +the north country and saw his old playmates in the distance circling +about the old pine-tree, but was too weak to reach them, or to call loud +enough for them to hear, and so lay down and died, died, died. The tune +was the sweetest little plaintive wail, and at the end of each stanza it +died, died, till you had to cry. + +Mr. Blythoe received tremendous applause, but refused to encore. He +winked to Aladdin and bowed himself off. Then Aladdin executed an +unparalleled blush. He could feel it start in the small of his back and +spread all over him--up under the roots of his hair to the top of his +head. He should have felt proud, instead of which he was suffused with +shame. Margaret caught sight of his face. + +"What is it, Aladdin?" she said in a whisper. + +"Nothing." + +"Won't you tell me?" + +"It's nothing." He got redder and redder. + +"Please." + +With downcast eyes he shook his head. She looked at him dubiously and +a little pathetically for a moment. Then she said, "Silly goose," and +turned to Manners. + +"Poor old crow!" said Manners. "I had one, Margaret, when I was little; +he had his wings clipped and used to follow me like a dog, and one day +he saw some of his old friends out on the salt-marsh, and he hopped out +to talk it over with them, and they set upon him and killed him. And +I couldn't get there quick enough to help him--I beg your pardon." He +picked up a fan and handed it to the girl on his left, and she, having +dropped it on purpose, blushed, thanked him, and giggled. Manners turned +to Margaret again. "Ever since then," he said, "when I have a gun in my +hand and see a crow, I want to kill him for the sake of the crows that +killed mine, and to let him go for the sake of mine, who was such a nice +old fellow. So it's an awful problem." + +Aladdin sat and looked straight before him. "Is real fame as awful as +this?" he thought. + +Somebody clapped him on the shoulder, and a hearty voice, something the +worse for wear, said loudly in his ear, "Bully, Aladdin, bully!" + +Aladdin looked up and recognized that bad companion, Beau Larch. + +"That's all right," Aladdin tried to say, but Mr. Larch would not be +downed. + +"Wasn't it bully, Margaret?" he said. + +"Oh--hallo--hallo, Beau!" said she, starting and turning round and +collecting her wits. "What? Wasn't what bully?" + +Aladdin frowned at Larch with all the forbiddingness that he could +muster, but Larch was imperturbable. + +"Why, Aladdin's song!" he said. "You know, the one about the old +crow--the one the man just sang." + +Here a young lady, over whom Beau Larch was leaning, confided to her +escort in an audible, nervous voice that she knew Beau Larch had been +drinking, but she wouldn't say why she knew--anybody could see he had; +and then she sniffed with her nose by way of indicating that seeing was +not the only or best method of telling. + +"You don't mean to say--" said Margaret to Aladdin, and looked him in the +eyes. "Why, Aladdin!" she said. And then: "Peter--Peter--'Laddin wrote +it, he did. Isn't it gr-reat!" + +And Peter, rising to the occasion, said, "Bully," and "I thought it was +great," with such absolute frankness and sincerity that Aladdin's heart +almost warmed toward him. It was presently known all over the house that +Aladdin had written the song. And some of the more clownish of the young +people called for Author, Author. Aladdin hung his head. + +At supper at the St. Johns' later was a crisp, brisk gentleman with +grayish hair, who talked in a pleasant, dry way. Aladdin learned that it +was Mr. Blankinship, editor and proprietor of the Portland "Spy." Almost +immediately on learning this important item, he saw Mr. Blankinship +exchange a word with Margaret and come toward him. + +"Mr. O'Brien?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"The same that sent us three poems a while ago?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"And you wrote that song we heard to-night?" + +"Yes, sir." Aladdin was now fiery red. + +"What do you do for a living?" + +"I've just finished school," said Aladdin. "And I don't know what to +do." + +"Newspaper work appeal to you?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Timid as a coot," thought Mr. Blankinship. + +"Write easily?" he said. "Fast--short words?" + +Aladdin thought a moment. "Yes, sir," he said coolly. + +"Less timid than a coot," thought Mr. Blankinship. + +"Willing to live in Portland?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"I'll give you five dollars a week and give you a trial." + +"Thank you, sir." + +"Can you get moved and start work Monday?" + +"Yes, sir." + +Mr. Blankinship smiled cheerfully. + +"Pretty entertainment, isn't it?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Well, O'Brien, see you Monday; hope we get on." Mr. Blankinship nodded +pleasantly and passed up the room to the punch, muttering as he went, +"Writes better than talks--dash of genius--more or less timid than a +coot." + +Aladdin went quickly to find Margaret. He traced her to the pantry, +where she was hurrying the servant who had charge of the ice-cream. +Aladdin waited until the servant had gone out with a heaping tray. + +"Margaret," he said, "I'm going away to live." + +He spoke in the flat, colorless voice with which a little child +announces that it has hurt itself. + +"What do you mean, Aladdin?" She changed color slightly. + +"Only that I've got to make a living, Margaret, and it's on a paper, so +I ought to be glad." + +"Aren't you glad, Aladdin?" + +"A little." + +"Aladdin--" + +"Margaret--O Margaret--" + +She read in his eyes what was coming. + +"Not now, Aladdin," she said. + +"Not now--dear Aladdin." + +"Then you know?" + +"I've always known, Aladdin, and been grateful and that proud." + +"Will there never be any chance for me, Margaret?" + +"Aladdin, I think I like you better than anybody else in the world--" + +"Darling--" he had never supposed that it could be said so easily; he +leaned toward her. + +"No," she said suddenly; "I've got to go and see after all those foolish +people." + +"Just for the sake of old times, and now, and new times--" + +She hesitated, reddened a little, and then, as sweetly and innocently as +a child, put up her lips for him to kiss. + + + + +XIII + + +Hannibal St. John's campaign for reelection to the senatorship was, +owing to a grievous error in tact, of doubtful issue. A hue and cry +arose against him among his constituents, and things in general fell +out so unhappily that it looked toward the close of the contest as if he +would be obliged to sit idle and dangle his heels, while the two halves +of the country, pushing against each other, were rising in the middle +like the hinge of a toggle-joint into the most momentous crisis in +the nation's history. It looked as if the strong man, with his almost +blasphemous intolerance of disunion, his columnlike power of supporting, +and his incomparable intellect, was to stand in the background and watch +the nightmare play from afar. He fought for his place in the forefront +of the battle with a great fervor of bitterness, and the possibility of +defeat weighed upon his glowering soul like a premature day of judgment. +He knew himself to be the one man for the opportunity, and could his +true feelings have found utterance, they would have said, "Damn us +everlastingly in hell, but don't shelve us now!" + +Opposed to St. John was a Mr. Bispham, of about quarter his height +intellectually and integrally--a politician, simple, who went to war for +loot. But he was blessed with a tremendous voice and an inexhaustible +store of elemental, fundamental humor, upon the waves of which the ship +bearing his banner floated high. It seemed that because of one glaring +exhibition of tactlessness, and a lack of humor, a really important, +valuable, and honest man was to lose the chance of serving his country +to a designing whipper-snapper, who was without even the saving grace of +violent and virulent prejudices. And so the world goes. It seemed at one +time that St. John's chance was a ghost of a chance, and his friends, +sons, and relatives, toiling headstrong by night and day, were brought +up at the verge of despair. To make the situation even more difficult, +St. John himself was prostrated with the gout, so that his telling +oratory and commanding personality could not be brought to bear. +Margaret was never far from her father's side, and she worked like a dog +for him, writing to dictation till her hands became almost useless, and +when the spasms of pain were great, leaving her work to kiss his old +brow. + +It was at this time that people all over the State began to take up a +song with an inimitably catching tune. The words of this song held up +Mr. Bispham in so shrewdly true and farcically humorous a light that +even his own star began to titter and threatened to slip from its high +place in the heavens. The song fell so absolutely on the head of +the nail that Mr. Bispham, when he heard it for the first time, was +convulsed with anger and talked of horse-whips. The second time he heard +it, he drew himself up with dignity and pretended not to notice, and +the third time he broke into a cold sweat, for he began to be afraid of +those words and that tune. At a mass-meeting, while in the midst of a +voluble harangue, somebody in the back of the hall punctuated--an absurd +statement, which otherwise might have passed unnoticed, by whistling the +first bar of the song. Mr. Bispham faced the tittering like a man, and +endeavored to rehabilitate himself. But his hands had slipped on the +handle of the audience, and the forensic rosin of Demosthenes would not +have enabled him to regain his grip. He was cruelly assured of the fact +by the hostile and ready-witted whistler. Again Mr. Bispham absurded. +This time the tune broke out in all parts of the hall and was itself +punctuated by catcalls and sotto-voce insults delivered with terrific +shouts. Mr. Bispham's speech was hurriedly finished, and the peroration +came down as flat as a skater who tries a grape-vine for the first time. +He left the hall hurriedly, pale and nervous. The tune followed him down +the street and haunted him to his room. The alarming takingness of it +had gotten in at his ear, and as he was savagely undressing he caught +himself in the traitorous act of humming it to himself. + +Among others to leave the hall was a tall, slim young man with freckles +across the bridge of his nose and very bright blue eyes. A party of +young men accompanied him, and all were a little noisy, and, as they +made the street, broke lustily into the campaign song. People said, +"That's him," "That's O'Brien," "That's Aladdin O'Brien," "That's the +man wrote it," and the like. The young men disappeared down the street +singing at the tops of their voices, with interlardations of turbulent, +mocking laughter. + +Aladdin's song went all over the North, and his name became known in the +land. + +Hannibal St. John was not musical. There were only four tunes, and three +of them were variations of "Carry Me Back to Old Virginia," that he +recognized when he heard them. As he lay on his bed of pain, he +heard the shrill whistle of his gardener piping in the garden below. +Unconsciously the senator's well hand marked the time. All day, as he +came and went about his business, the gardener kept whistling that tune, +and the senator heard and reheard ever with increasing pleasure. And +this was an extraordinary thing, for it was as difficult or nearly so +to move Hannibal St. John with music as it must have been for Orpheus +to get himself approached by rocks and stones and trees, and far more +difficult than it ever was for the Pied Piper to achieve a following of +brats and rats. + +Margaret had been for a drive with a girl friend. She came home and to +her father's side in great spirits. + +"Oh, papa," she cried, "will you do me a favor?" + +She read consent. + +"Claire has got the wonderfulest song, and I want you to let her come in +and sing it for you." + +"A song?" said the senator, doubtfully. + +"Papa de-e-ear, please." + +He smiled grimly. + +"If Claire will not be shocked by my appearance," he said against hope. + +"Rubbish," cried Margaret, and flew out of the room. + + +There were a few preliminary gasps and giggles in the hall, and the +two maidens, as sedate and demure as mice, entered. Claire was a little +party, with vivacious manners and a comical little upturned face. + +"How do you do, senator?" she said. "I'm so sorry you're laid up. Isn't +it lovely out?" She advanced and shook his well hand. + +"Won't you take a chair?" said the senator. + +"I just ran in for a moment. Margaret and I thought maybe you'd like to +hear the new campaign song that everybody's singing. My brother brought +it up from Portland--" she paused, out of breath. + +"It would afford me great pleasure," said the senator. + +And forthwith Claire sang in a rollicking voice. The tune was the same +as that which the gardener had been whistling. St. John recognized it +in spite of the difference in the mediums and smiled. Then he smiled +because of the words, and presently he laughed. It was the first real +pleasure he had had in many a day. + +"Everybody is wild about it," said Claire, when she had finished. + +The senator was shaking with laughter. + +"That's good," he said, "that's good." + +"Papa," said Margaret, when Claire had gone, "who do you think wrote +that song?" + +"I don't know," said the senator. "But it's good." + +"Aladdin wrote it," said Margaret. + +"Upon my word!" said the senator. + +Margaret knelt and threw her arms about her father's neck and blushed a +lovely blush. + +"Isn't it splendid?" + +There was a ring at the front door, and a telegram was brought in. + +"Read it, Peggy," said the senator. He used that name only when moved +about something. The despatch was from the senator's youngest son, +Hannibal, and read: + + Do not worry; we are singing Bispham up a tree. + +"And Aladdin wrote the song!" cried Margaret. "Aladdin wrote it!" + +The senator's face clouded for a moment. He forced the cloud to pass. + +"We must thank him," he said. "We must thank him." + +Senator St. John was reelected by a small majority. Everybody admitted +that it was due to Aladdin O'Brien's song. It was impossible to disguise +the engaging childishness of the vote. + + + + +XIV + + +As he went to his desk in the back room of the Portland "Spy" offices +the morning after the election, Aladdin had an evil headache, and a +subconscious hope that nobody would speak to him suddenly. He felt that +his arms and legs might drop off if anybody did, and he could have sworn +that he saw a gray sparrow with blue eyes run into a dark corner, and +turn into a mouse. But he was quite free from penitence, as the occasion +of this last offense had been joy and triumph, whereas that of his first +had been sorrow. He lighted a bad cigar, put off his editorial till +later, and covered a whole sheet of paper with pictures like these: + +(Transcriber's note: These are simple sketches of birds and animals.) + +He looked back with a certain smug satisfaction upon a hilarious evening +beginning with a dinner at the club, which some of the older adherents +of St. John had given him in gratitude for the part he had taken in the +campaign. He remembered that he had not given a bad exhibition, and that +noble prophecies had been made of his future by gentlemen in their cups, +and that he himself, when just far enough gone to be courageous without +being silly, had made a snappy little speech of thanks which had been +received with great applause, and that later he had sung his campaign +song and others, and that finally, in company with an ex-judge, whose +hat was also decorated with a wreath of smilax, he had rolled amiably +about the town in a hack, going from one place where drinks could be +gotten to another, and singing with great fervor and patriotism: + + Zhohn Brownzh bozhy liezh a mole-ring in zhe grave. + +Aladdin thought over these things with pleasure, for he had fallen +under the dangerous flattery of older men, and with less pleasure of the +editorial which it was his immediate business to write. His brisk, +crisp chief, Mr. Blankinship, came in for a moment, walking testily and +looking like the deuce. + +"So you've showed up, Aladdin, have you?" he said. "That's young +blood. If any question of politics--I mean policy--arises, I leave it +absolutely to you. I'm going back to bed. Can't you stop smoking that +rotten cigar?" + +Aladdin laughed aloud, and Mr. Blankinship endeavored to smile. + +"Somewhere," he said, "in this transcendentally beautiful continent, +Aladdin, there may be some one that feels worse than I do, but I doubt +it." He turned to go. + +"Won't Mr. Orde be here either?" said Aladdin. + +"No; he's home in bed. You're editor-in-chief and everything else for +the day, see? And I wish I was dead." Mr. Blankinship nodded, very +slightly, for it hurt, and went out. + +The misery of others is a great cure: with the first sight of Mr. +Blankinship, Aladdin's headache had gone, and he now pounced upon fresh +paper, got a notion out of the God-knows-where, wrote his editorial at +full speed, and finished it without once removing the cigar from his +mouth. + +He had just done when the shrewd, inky little boy, who did everything +about the "Spy" offices which nobody else would do, entered and said +that a gentleman wanted to speak with Mr. O'Brien. Aladdin had the +gentleman shown up, and recognized the oldest of Hannibal St. John's +sons; he knew them well by sight, but it so happened that he had never +met them. They were the three biggest and most clean-cut young men +in Maine, measuring between six feet three and four; erect, massive, +utterly composed, and, if anything, a little stronger than so many +dray-horses. They were notable shots, great fishermen, and the whole +State was beginning to speculate with excitement about their respective +futures and the present almost glittering success of the law firm which +they composed. The oldest was the tallest and the strongest. He had been +known to break horseshoes and to tear a silver dollar in two. Iron was +as sealing-wax in his huge hands. His habits were Spartan. The second +son was almost a replica of the first--a little darker and a little less +vivid. The third was like the others; but his face was handsomer, and +not so strong. He was of a more gentle and winning disposition, for his +life was not ignorant of the frailties. The girl to whom he had +been engaged had died, and that had left a kind of sweetness, almost +beseechingness, in his manner, very engaging in so tall and strong a +man. + +"Mr. O'Brien?" said John St. John. + +Aladdin arose and held out his long, slender hand. + +Aladdin had a way of moving which was very individual to himself, a +slight, ever so slight, exaggeration of stride and gesture, a kind of +captivating awkwardness and diffidence that was on the borderland of +grace and assurance. Like all slender people who work much with +their heads, he had a strong grip, but he felt that his hand was as +inconsistent as an eel when St. John's closed over it. + +"I came in for a moment," said St. John, "to say that we are all +exceedingly grateful to you. Your song was a great factor in my father's +reelection to the Senate. But we do not hold so much by the song as +by the good will which you showed us in writing it. I want you to +understand and believe that if I can ever be of the slightest service to +you, I will go very far to render it." + +"I'm as obliged as I can be," said Aladdin. "It's mighty good of you +to come and talk to me like this, and except for the good will I have +toward all your family, I don't deserve it a bit." + +When John St. John had gone, the inky boy came to announce that another +gentleman wished to speak with Mr. O'Brien. + +The second gentleman proved to be the second brother, Hamilton St. John. + +"Mr. O'Brien?" said he. + +Aladdin shook hands with him. + +"I came in for a moment," said Hamilton St. John, "for the pleasure of +telling you how tremendously grateful we all are to you for your song, +which was such a big factor in my father's redirection to the Senate. +But I want to say, too, that we're more grateful for your good will than +for the song, and if I can ever do you a service, I want you to feel +perfectly free to come and ask it of me, whatever it is." + +Aladdin could have laughed for joy. Margaret did not seem so far away as +sometimes. + +"I'm as obliged as I can be," he said. "It's mighty good of you to come +and talk to me like this, and except for the good will I have toward +all your family, I don't deserve it a bit, but I appreciate it just the +same." + +Presently Hamilton St. John departed. + +Again the inky boy, and this time grinning. + +"There's a gentleman would like to speak with you, sir," he said. + +"Show him in," said Aladdin. + +Hannibal St. John, Jr., entered. + +"O'Brien," he said, "I've often heard my sister Margaret speak about +you, and I've been meaning for ever so long to look you up. And I wish +I'd done it before I had such an awfully good excuse as that song of +yours, because I don't know how to thank you, quite. But I want you to +understand that if at any time--rubbish, you know what I mean. Come up +to the club, and we'll make a drink and talk things over." + +He drew Aladdin's arm into his, and they went out. + +Aladdin had never before felt so near Margaret. + +He returned to the office in half an hour, happy and a slave. Hannibal +St. John, Jr., had won the heart right out of him in ten minutes. He sat +musing and dreaming. Was he to be one of those chosen? + +"Gentleman to see you, sir." + +"Show him in." + +The inky snickered and hurried out. He could be heard saying with +importance, "This way, sir. Look out for that press, sir. It's very dark +in here, sir." And then, like a smart flunky in a house of condition, he +appeared again at the door and announced + +"Senator Hannibal St. John." + +Aladdin sprang up. + +The senator, still suffering from the gout, and leaning heavily on his +whalebone cane, limped majestically in. There was an amiability on his +face, which Aladdin had never seen there before. He placed a chair for +his distinguished guest. The senator removed his high hat and stood it +upon the edge of Aladdin's desk. + +"My boy," he said,--the word tingled from Aladdin's ears to his heart, +for it was a word of great approachment and unbending,--"I am very +grateful for your efforts in my behalf. I will place honor where honor +is due, and say that I owe my recent reflection to the United States +Senate not so much to my more experienced political friends as to you. +The present crisis in the affairs of the nation calls for men of feeling +and honor, and not for politicians. I hope that you will not misconstrue +me into a braggart if I say from the bottom of my heart I believe +that, in returning a man of integrity and tradition to his seat in the +Congress of the nation, you have rendered a service to the nation." + +The senator paused, and Aladdin, still standing, waited for him to +finish. + +"After a week," said the senator, "I shall return to my duties in +Washington. In the meanwhile, Margaret" (he had hitherto always referred +to her before Aladdin as "my daughter") "and I are keeping open house, +and if it will give you pleasure we shall be charmed" (the word fell +from the senator's lips like a complete poem) "to have you make us a +visit. Two of my sons will be at home, and other young people." + +"Indeed, and it will give me pleasure!" cried Aladdin, falling into the +least suspicion of a brogue. + +"I will write a line to your chief," continued the senator, "and I have +reason to believe that he will see you excused. We shall expect you +to-morrow by the fourthirty." + +"I'm ever so much obliged, sir," said Aladdin. + +"My boy," said the senator, gravely, after a full minute's pause, "we +are all concerned in your future, which promises to be a brilliant +one. It rests with you. But, if an old man may be permitted a word of +caution, it would be this: Let your chief recreation lie in your work; +leave the other things. Do I make myself clear enough?" (Aladdin nodded +guiltily.) "Leave the frailties to the dullards of this world." + +He rose to go. + +"My young friend," said the senator, "you have my best wishes." + +Grimacing with the pain in his foot, limping badly, but always stately +and impressive,--almost superimpending,--Hannibal St. John moved slowly +out of the office. + + + + +XV + + +The weather turned suddenly gusty and cold, and that afternoon it began +to snow, and it kept on snowing. All night fine dry flakes fell in +unexampled profusion, and by morning the face of the land was many +inches deep. Nor did the snow then cease. All the morning it continued +to fall with vigor. The train by which Aladdin was to go to the St. +Johns' left at two-thirty, arriving there two hours later; and it was +with numb feet and stinging ears that he entered the car reserved for +smokers, and, bundling in a somewhat threadbare over coat, endeavored +to make himself comfortable for the journey. As the train creaked and +jerked out of the protecting station, the storm smote upon the windows +with a noise like thrown sand, and a back draft down the chimney of +the iron stove in one end of the car sent out puffs of smutty smoke at +whatever points the various castings of the stove came together with +insufficient snugness. There were but half a dozen people in the whole +train. + +"Troubles, old man," said Aladdin, for so he was in the habit of +addressing himself at moments of self-communication, "this is going to +be the slowest kind of a trip, but we're going to enjoy every minute +of it, because it's taking us to the place where we would be-God bless +her!" + +Aladdin took a cigar from his breast pocket. + +"Troubles," said he, "may I offer you a smoke? What? Oh, you're very +much obliged and don't mind if you do. There you are, then." Aladdin +sent out a great puff of white smoke; this turned into a blue wraith, +drifted down the aisle, between the seats, gathering momentum as it +went, and finally, with the rapidity of a mint julep mounting a sucked +straw (that isn't split) and spun long and fine, it was drawn through a +puncture of the isinglass in the stove door and went up the chimney +in company with other smoke, and out into the storm. Aladdin, full of +anticipation and glee, smoked away with great spirit. Presently, for the +car was empty but for himself, Aladdin launched into the rollicking air +of "Red Renard" + + "Three scarlet huntsmen rode up to White Plains + With a carol of voices and jangle of chains, + For the morning was blue and the morning was fair, + And the word ran, "Red Renard" is waiting us there." + +He puffed at his cigar a moment to be sure that its fire should not +flag, and sang on: + + "The first scarlet huntsman blew into his horn, + Lirala, Lovely Morning, I'm glad I was born"; + The second red huntsman he whistled an air, + And the third sang, "Red Renard" is waiting us there." + +"Just such weather as this, Troubles," he said, looking out into the +swirl of snow. "Just the beautifulest kind of cross-country weather!" He +sang on: + + Three lovely ladies they met at the meet, + With whips in their hands and with boots on their feet; + And the gentlemen lifted their hats with a cheer, + As the girls said, "Red Renard is waiting you here." + +He quickened into the stanza he liked best: + + Three scarlet huntsmen rode off by the side + Of three lovely ladies on horses of pride. + Said the first, "Call me Ellen"; the second, "I'm Claire"; + Said the third, "I'm Red Renard--so called from my hair." + +The train, which had been running more slowly, drew up with a chug, and +some minutes passed before it again gathered itself and lurched on. + +"That's all right," said Aladdin. He was quite warm now, and thoroughly +happy. + + Three scarlet huntsmen rode home from White Plains, + With its mud on their boots, and its girls on their brains; + And the first sang of Ellen, the second of Claire, + But the third sang, "Red Renard is waiting back there." + +He made a waggish face to finish with: + + Three scarlet huntsmen got into frock-coats, + And they pinched their poor feet, and they tortured their throats; + And the first married Ellen, the second wed Claire, + While the third said, "Re Renar izh waishing back zhere." + +He assumed the expression for a moment of one astutely drunk. + +"A bas!" he said, for this much of the French language was his to +command, and no more. He turned and attempted to look out. He yawned. +Presently he threw away the reeking butt of his cigar, closed his eyes, +and fell asleep. + +The water below the veranda was alive with struggling fishes in high +hats and frock-coats. Each fish had a label painted across his back with +his name and address neatly printed on it, and each fish was struggling +to reach a tiny minnow-hook, naked of bait, which dangled just out of +reach above the water. The baitless hook was connected by a fine line +(who ever heard of baiting a line at the wrong end?) with Margaret's +hand. She had on a white dress stamped with big pink roses, and there +was a pale-green ribbon round the middle of it; her hair was done up for +the first time, and she was leaning over the railing, which was made of +safety-lamps and stranglers alternately, painted light blue, regarding +the struggling fishes with a look at once full of curiosity and pity. +Presently one of the fishes' labels soaked off, and went hurtling out +to sea, with the fish weeping bitterly and following at express speed, +until in less than one moment both label and fish were hull down +below the horizon. Then another label washed off, and then another and +another, and fish after fish, in varying states of distraction, followed +after and disappeared, until all you could see were two, whereof the one +was labeled Manners and the other O'Brien (these continued to fight for +the hook), and all you could hear was Neptune, from down, down, down in +the sea, saying coquettishly to Cleopatra, "I'm Red Renard--so +called from my hair." And then all of a sudden valiant Captain +Kissed-by-Margaret went by on a log writing mottos for the wives of +famous men. And then Manners and O'Brien, struggling desperately to +drown each other, sank down, down, down, and Cleopatra could be heard +saying perfectly logically to Neptune, "You didn't!" And then there was +a tremendous shower of roses, and the dream went out like a candle. + + +Aladdin opened his eyes and stroked his chin. He was troubled about the +dream. The senator had spoken to him of "others." Could Peter Manners +possibly be there? Was that the especial demolishment that fate held in +store for him? He was very wide awake now. + +At times, owing to the opaqueness of the storm, it was impossible to see +out of the car window. But there were moments when a sudden rush of wind +blew a path for the eye, and by such occasional pictures--little long +of the instantaneous--one could follow the progress of the blizzard. +Aladdin saw a huddle of sheep big with snow; then a man getting into a +house by the window; an ancient apple-tree with a huge limb torn off; +two telegraph poles that leaned toward each other, like one man fixing +another's cravat; and he caught glimpses of wires broken, loosened, +snarled, and fuzzy with snow. Then the train crawled over a remembered +trestle, and Aladdin knew that he was within four miles of his station, +and within three of the St. Johns' house by the best of short cuts +across country. He looked precisely in its direction, and kissed his +fingers to Margaret, and wondered what she was doing. Then there was a +rumbling, jumping jar, and the train stopped. Minute after minute went +by. Aladdin waited impatiently for the train to start. The conductor +passed hurriedly through. + +"What's up?" called Aladdin after him. + +"Up!" cried the conductor. "We're off the track." + +"Can't we go on to-night?" + +"Nup!" The conductor passed out of the car and banged the door. + +"Got to sit here all night!" said Aladdin. "Not much! Get up, Troubles! +If you don't think I know the way about here, you can stay by the stove. +I'm going to walk." + +Aladdin and Troubles rose, buttoned their coat, left the car, and set +out in the direction of the St. Johns'. Aladdin's watch at starting read +five o'clock. + +"Our luggage is all checked, Troubles," he said, "and all we've got +to face is the idea of walking three miles through very disagreeable +weather, over a broad path that we know like the palm of our hand (which +we don't know as well as we might), arriving late, wet to the skin, and +without a change of clothes. On the other hand, we shall deserve a long +drink and much sympathy. As for you, Troubles, you're the best company I +know, and all is well." + + The first scarlet huntsman blew into his horn, + "Lirala, Lovely Morning, I'm glad I was born." + + + + +XVI + + +At first the way, lying through waist-high fir scrub, was pretty bad +underfoot, but beyond was a stretch of fine timber, where the trees had +done much to arrest the snow, and the going was not so severe. Aladdin +calculated that he should make the distance in an hour and a half; and +when the wood ended, he looked at his watch and found that the first +mile, together with only twenty-five minutes, was behind him. + +"That's the rate of an hour and a quarter, Troubles," he said. "And +that's good time. Are you listening?" + +But following the wood was a great open space of country pitched up from +the surrounding levels, and naked to every fury of nature. Across that +upland the wind blew a wicked gale, scarifying the tops of knolls to the +brown, dead grass, and filling the hollows flush with snow. At times, to +keep from being blown over, it was necessary to lean against the gusts. +Aladdin was conscious of not making very rapid progress, but there was +something exhilarating in the wildness, the bitter cold, and the roar of +the wind; it had an effect as of sea thundering upon beach, great +views from mountain-tops, black wild nights, the coming of thunder and +freshness after intense heat, or any of the thousand and one vaster +demonstrations of nature. Now and again Aladdin sang snatches of song: + + Gaily bedight, + A gallant knight + In sunshine and shadow + Journeyed long, + Singing a song, + In search of El Dorado. + +Or from "The Mole of Marimolena" + + I was turning fifty-odd when the everlasting God + Smote a path of molten gold across the blue, + Says, "There's many million men would have done the like again, + But you didn't, and, my man, there's hope for you. + + "Start sheets and sail for the Mole-- + For the old rotten Mole of Marimolena; + There's maybe some one there + That you're longing to treat fair, + On the dismal, woeful Mole of Marimolena." + +And other deep-sea chanteys,--the one in which the pirate found the Lady +in the C-a-a-bin and slivered off her head, or back to Red Renard, or +further to his own campaign song, and furthest of all to the bad, bad +young dog of a crow. Then he got quite out of breath, and pausing for a +moment to catch it, noted for the first time the extreme bitterness of +the cold. It stung the face like insects. "Woof!" he said. "And now for +lost time." + +Again he stepped out, but with each step the snow became deeper, and +presently he floundered in to his waist. "Must be a ditch!" he said, +turning a little to the right and exclaiming, "Thought so!" as the +wading got shallower. Whereupon he stepped into a deep hole and fell. +After plunging and plowing about, it was brought home to him that he had +lost the path. Even at that the difficulty remained one of hard walking +alone, for he had been familiar with that country since childhood, +and knew the precise direction in which it was necessary for him to +locomote. It was a pity that the only structure in the vicinity was an +ancient and deserted house,--it lay just off there,--as he should have +liked to have warmed himself by a good fire before going farther. He +remembered that there were a partly preserved stove in the deserted +house, broken laths, and naily boards, and swathes of curious old +wall-papers, layer upon layer, which, dampening and rotting from the +wall, hung raggedly down. He had once explored the house with Margaret, +and it seemed almost wise to go to the place and make a fire. But on +account of the delay involved and the approach of darkness, he +discarded the notion, and, a little impatient at being badly used by a +neighborhood he knew so well, struggled on. + +"Troubles," he said, "what sort of a storm is this anyway? Did you ever +see anything quite like it round here? Because I never did. It must +be like those things they have out West, when millions of poor little +baa-sheeps and horses and cattles freeze to death. I'd hate to be a +horse out in this, but I wish I had one. I--" + +If, as a child, you have ever slipped, though only an inch, while +climbing over roofs, you will know that sudden, stabbing, sinking +feeling that came to Aladdin and stopped the beating of his heart by the +hairbreadth of a second. He had been proceeding chin on breast, and head +bent against the wind, or he would have seen it before, for it was a +notable landmark in that part of the world, and showed him that he had +been making way, not toward his destination, but toward the wilderness. + +He gazed up at the great black blasted pine, its waist the height of a +tall tree, and its two lonely lightning-scathed and white arms stretched +out like a malediction; and for a moment he had to take himself in hand. +After a little he mastered the fear that had seized him. + +"It's only a poor old lonely vegetable out in the cold," he said. "And +it shows us exactly where we are and exactly which way we have to go." + +He set himself right, and, with head lowered and hands clenched, again +started on. But he was beginning to be very much bored, and sensible +that his legs were not accustomed to being used so hard. Furthermore, +there was a little difficulty--not by any means an insurmountable +one--in steering straight, because of the constantly varying point of +the compass in which the wind blew. He went on for a long time.... + +He began to look for the high ground to decline, as it should, about +now, if it was the high ground he took it for. "I ought to be getting +somewhere," he said. + +And, God help him! tired out, half frozen and very foot-sore, he was +getting somewhere, for, glancing up, he again beheld the gigantic and +demoniac shape of the blasted pine. + +It is on prairies and among mountains, far from the habitations of +men, that man is most readily terrified before nature, and not on the +three-mile primrose way from a railway accident to a house-party. But +for a moment cold terror struck at Aladdin like a serpent, and the +marrow in his bones froze. Before he could succeed in reducing this +awful feeling to one of acute anxiety alone, he had to talk to himself +and explain things as to a child. + +"Then it is true, Troubles, old man," he said, "about a person's +tendency to go to the left. That's interesting, isn't it? But what do we +care? Being gifted with a certain (flighty, it is true) intelligence, we +will simply take pains, and every step pull a little to the right; and +that will make us go straight. Come now-keep thinking about it-every +step!" + +As the end of the day approached, a lull came in the gale, and the +snow fell less freely. The consequently widened horizon of vision was +eminently comforting, and Aladdin's unpleasant feeling of anxiety almost +disappeared. + +Suddenly he was aware of a red horse. + + + + +XVII + + +It was standing almost leg-clear, in an angle of what seemed a +drifted-over snake-fence. Its ugly, Roman-nosed head was thrown up and +out, as if about to neigh. + +"Poor beastie," said Aladdin, after a start. "You must be direfful cold, +but we'll ride you, and that will make you warm, and us cold, and we'll +all get along faster." + +Drawing near, he began to gentle the horse and call it pet names. It was +a huge brute, over seventeen hands high, and Aladdin, aided only by a +rickety fence, and a pair of legs that would hardly support him, was +appalled by the idea of having to climb to that lofty eminence, its +back. Without doubt he was dreadfully tired. + +"The fence will help, old man" he said. "Here, you, pay attention and +get over." He tried to insinuate himself between the horse and the +fence, but the horse did not seem inclined to move. + +"Get over, you!" he said, and gave a shove. The horse moved a little, +very unwillingly. "Farther yet," said Aladdin: "Get over, you, get +over." Again he shoved; this time harder. He slapped the great shoulder +with his open hand. And again the horse moved, but very slowly. "You're +an unwilling brute, aren't you?" he said angrily. + +For answer the thing tottered, and, to his horror, began to fall, at +first slowly, but ever with accelerating speed, until, in the exact +attitude in which it had stood by the fence,--the great Roman-nosed head +thrown up and out, as if to neigh,--he beheld the horse stretched before +him on the ground, and noted for the first time the awful death-like +glint of the yellow teeth through the parting of the lips. + +He went very gravely from that place, for he had been looking upon death +by freezing, and he himself was terribly cold, terribly tired, and--he +admitted it now--completely lost. + +But he went on for a long time--four or five hundred years. And it grew +darker and colder. + +He began to talk to himself, to try and steady himself, as he had done +ever since childhood at forsaken times. + +"Troubles," he said, "You're full of troubles, aren't you, old man? You +always were. But this is the worst. You can't walk very much farther, +can you? I can't. And if you don't get helped by some one pretty soon, +you're going to come to the end of your troubles. And, Troubles, do you +know, I think that's what's going to happen to you and me, and I want +you to stand up to it if it comes [gulp] and face it like a man. Now +let's rest a little, Troubles, will we?" + +Troubles and Aladdin rested a little. When the rest was over they could +hardly move, and they began to see the end of a young man that they had +hoped would live a long time and be very happy. They went on. + +"Troubles," said Aladdin, "do you suppose she knows that we are out +here, perhaps dying? We would know if she were, wouldn't we? And do you +think she cares? Liar, you know she cares, and a lot. She wouldn't +be she if she didn't care. But we didn't think that all the years of +waiting and hoping and loving and trying to be something would end like +this, did we, Troubles? We thought that it might end with the godlike +Manners (whom we wouldn't help if he were freezing to death, would we?), +but not like this--O Lord God, not like this!... And we weren't sure it +would end with Manners; we were going to fight it out to a mighty good +finish, weren't we, Troubles? But now it's going to end in a mighty good +storm, and you're going to die for all your troubles, Troubles... And +I'm talking to you so that we won't lose our sand, even if we are afraid +to die, and there's no one looking on." + +Though Aladdin stopped making talk in his head, the talk kept going on +by itself; and he suddenly shouted aloud for it to stop. Then he began +to whimper and shiver, for he thought that his mind was going. + +Presently he shook himself. + +"Troubles," he said, "we've only a little farther to go--just as far as +our feet will carry us, and no farther. That's the proper way to finish. +And for God's sake keep sane. We won't give her up yet!" + +Ten steps and years passed. + +"Troubles," said Aladdin, "we're going to call for help, and if it don't +come, which it won't, we're going to try and be calm. It seems simplest +and looks best to be calm." + +Aladdin stood there crying aloud for the help of man, but it did +not come. And then he cried for the help of God. And he stood there +waiting--waiting for it to come. + +"We must help ourselves, Troubles," he said, with a desperate effort to +be calm. "We've got ten steps left in us. Now, then, one--two--" + +During the taking of those ten steps the snow ceased entirely to fall, +and black night enveloped the earth. + +Aladdin was all numb, and he wished to sleep, but he made the ten steps +into eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, before his limbs refused to +act, and he fell forward in the snow. He managed to raise himself and +crawl a little way. He saw a light afar off, and guessing that it must +be an angel, held out his hands to it--and one of them encountered a +something in the dark. + +Even through his thick mitten it felt round and smooth and colder than +his fingers, like a ball of ice. Then Aladdin laughed aloud, for he knew +that his last walk upon earth had been in the form of a silly circle. He +had returned to the dead horse, and his gloved hand was resting upon its +frozen eye. He shrieked with laughter and became heavy with a desire to +sleep. + +He sank deliciously down, and began to see showers of roses, when it +flashed upon him that this was not sleep, but death. + +It was like lifting prodigious dumb-bells to get his eyes to open, and +a return to consciousness was like the stabbing of knives. But he opened +his eyes and roused himself. + +"I won't give her up yet," he cried. + +And then, by the help of God Almighty, he crawled the whole length of +the horse. + +And fell asleep. + + + + +XVIII + + +It was a miserable, undressed thing wrapped in a horse-blanket and a +buffalo-robe that woke up in front of a red-hot stove and remembered +that it used to be Aladdin O'Brien. It had a dreadful headache, and +could smell whisky and feel warm, and that for a long time was about +all. Then it noticed that the wall opposite was ragged with loosened +wall-paper and in places stripped of plaster, so that the lathing showed +through, and that in its own head--no, in the room beyond the wall--an +impatient stamping noise of iron on wood was occurring at intervals. +Then it managed to turn its head, and it saw a big, beautiful man +sitting on the end of an old soapbox and smoking a pipe. Then it was +seized with a wrenching sickness, and the big man came quickly and held +its head and was very good to it, and it felt better and went to sleep. +After a while it descended into the Red Sea, with the avowed intention +of calling Neptune Red Renard to his face, and when it got to the +bottom, which was of red brick sprinkled with white door-knobs that +people kept diving for, it became frightened and ran and ran until it +came to the bottom of an iceberg, that had roots like a hyacinth bulb +and was looking for a place to plant itself, and it climbed up to the +top of the iceberg, which was all bulrushes, and said, "I beg your +pardon, but I forgot; I must go back and make my apologies." Then it +woke up and spoke in a weak voice. + +"Peter Manners," said Aladdin, "come here." + +Manners came and sat on the floor beside him. + +"Feel better now?" he said. + +"Tell me--" said Aladdin. + +"Oh, stuff!" said Manners. + +"Manners," said Aladdin, "you don't look as if you hated me any more." + +"You sleep," said Manners. "That's what you need." + +Aladdin thought for a long time and tried to remember what he wanted to +say, and shutting his eyes, to think better, fell asleep. + +For the third time he awoke. Manners was back on the soap-box, still as +a sphinx, and smoking his pipe. + +"Please come and talk some more," said Aladdin. + +Again Manners came. + +"Tell me about it," said Aladdin. + +"You be good and go to sleep," said Manners. + +"What time is it?" + +"Nearly morning." + +"Still storming?" + +"No; stars out and warmer." + +Aladdin thought a moment. + +"Manners," he said, "please talk to me. How did you find me?" + +"Simply enough," said Manners. "I took the senator's cutter out for +a little drive, and got lost. Then I heard somebody laughing, and I +stumbled over you and your horse; that's all. How the devil did you +manage to lose your saddle and bridle?" + +"It was a dead horse," said Aladdin, and he shivered at the +recollection. + +"Quite so," said Manners. + +"It was the funniest thing," said Aladdin, and again he shuddered with +a kind of reminiscent revolt. "I pushed it, and it fell over frozen to +death." He was conscious of talking nonsense. + +"Wait a minute, Manners," he said. "I'll be sensible in a minute." + +Presently he told Manners about the horse. + +"I saw alight just then," he said, "and I thought it was an angel." + +"It was I," said Manners, naively. + +"Yes, Manners, it was you," said Aladdin. + +He thought about an angel turning out to be Manners for a long time. +Then a terrible recollection came to him, and, in a voice shaking with +remorse and self-incrimination, he cried: + +"God help me, Manners, I would have let you freeze." + +Manners pulled at his pipe. + +"Manners," said Aladdin, "it's true I know it's true, because, for all I +knew, I was dying when I said it." + +Manners shook his head. + +"Oh, no," said Manners. + +"Make me think that," said Aladdin, with a quaver. "Please make me think +that if you can, for, God help me, I think I would have let you freeze." + +"When I found you," said Manners, "I--I was sorry that the Lord hadn't +sent somebody else to you, and me to somebody else. That was because you +always hated me with no very good reason, and a man hates to be hated, +and so, to be quite honest, I hated you back." + +"Right," said Aladdin, "right." + +Light began to come in through the windows, whose broken panes Manners +had stopped with crumpled wall-paper. + +"But when I got you here," said Manners, "and began to work over you, +you stopped being Aladdin O'Brien, and were just a man in trouble." + +"Yes," said Aladdin, "it must be like that. It's got to be like that." + +"At first," said Manners, "I worked because it seemed the proper thing +to do, and then I got interested, and then it became terrible to think +that you might die." + +"Yes," said Aladdin. His face was ghastly in the pre-sunrise light. + +"You wouldn't get warm for hours," said Manners, "and I got so tired +that I couldn't rub any more, and so I stripped and got into the +blankets with you, and tried to keep you as warm as I could that way." + +He paused to relight his pipe. + +Aladdin stared up at the tattered ceiling with wide, wondering eyes. + +"When you got warm," said Manners, "I gave you all the rest of the +whisky, and I'm sorry it made you sick, and now you're as fit as a +fiddle." + +"Fit-as-a-fiddle," said Aladdin, slowly, as the wonder grew. And then he +began to cry like a little child. Manners waited till he had done, and +then wiped his face for him. + +"So you see," said Manners, simply, though with difficulty,--for he was +a man shy, to terror, of discussing his own feelings,--"I can't help +liking you now, and--and I hope you won't feel so hard toward me any +more." + +"I feel hard toward you!" said Aladdin. "Oh, Manners!" he cried. "I +thought all along that you were just a man that knew about horses and +dogs, but I see, I see; and I'm not going to worship anybody any more +except you and God, I'm not!" + +Then he had another great long, hot cry. Manners waited patiently till +it was over. + +"Manners," said Aladdin, in a choky, hoarse voice, "I think you're +different from what you used to be. You look as if--as if you 'd got the +love of mankind in you." + +Manners did not answer. He appeared to be thinking of something +wonderful. + +"Do you think that's it?" cried Aladdin. + +Manners did not answer. + +"Can't I get it, too?" Aladdin cried. "Have I got to be little and mean +always? So help me, Manners, I don't love any one but you and her." + +"You 're not fit to talk," said Manners, with great gentleness. "You +go to sleep." He arose, and going to the door of the house, opened it a +little way and looked out. + +"It's warm as toast out, Aladdin," he called. "There's going to be a big +thaw." He closed the door and went into the next room, and Aladdin could +hear him talking to the horse. After a little he came back. + +"Greener says that she never was better stalled," he said. + +"Manners," said Aladdin, "have I been raving?" + +"Not been riding quite straight," said Manners. + +"How soon are we going to start?" said Aladdin. + +"We've got to wait till the snow's pretty well melted," said Manners. +"About noon, I think." + +Then, because he was very tired and sick and weak, and perhaps a trifle +delirious, Aladdin asked Manners if he would mind holding his hand. +Manners took the hand in his, and a thrill ran up Aladdin's arm and all +over him, till it settled deliciously about his heart, and he slept. + +The sun rose, and dazzling beams of light filled the room. + + + + + +BOOK II + + +"In this combat no man can imagine, unless he had seen and heard as I +did, what yelling and hideous roaring Apollyon made all the time of the +fight, he spake like a Dragon; and on the other side, what sighs and +groans burst from Christian's heart. I never saw him all the while give +so much as one pleasant look, till he perceived he had wounded Apollyon +with his two-edged sword: then indeed he did smile and look upward." + + + + + +XIX + + +Senator St. John, attended by Margaret, her maid, and a physician, had +made the arduous journey from Washington to Portland without too much +fatigue, and it seemed reasonable to suppose that a long rest in his +comfortable house, far from the turmoil of public affairs, would do much +to reinstate his body after the savage attack of gout with complications +to which it had been subjected during six long weeks. Arrived at +Portland, he was driven to the house of his old friend Mr. Blankinship, +and helped to bed. Next morning he was seized with acute pains in the +region of the heart, and though his valiant mind refused for a single +moment to tolerate the thought that the end might be near, was persuaded +to send for his daughter and his sons. + +Margaret was in the parlor with Aladdin. It was April, and the whole +land dripped. Through the open window, for the day was warm, the +moisture of the soaked ground and trees was almost audible. Margaret +had much to say to Aladdin, and he to her; they had not met for several +months. + +"I want to hear about Peter," said Aladdin--"all about him. He met you, +of course, and got you across the city?" + +"Yes, and his father came, too," said Margaret. "Such an old dear--you +never saw him, did you? He's taller than Peter, but much thinner, and +a great aristocrat. He's the only man I ever saw that has more presence +than papa. He looks like a fine old bird, and you can see his skull very +plainly--especially when he laughs, if you know what I mean. And he's +really witty. He knows all about you and wants you to go and stay +with them sometime." Aladdin sighed for the pure delight of hearing +Margaret's voice running on and on. He was busy looking at her, and did +not pay the slightest attention to what she said. "And the girl came to +lunch, Aladdin, and she is so pretty, but not a bit serene like Peter, +and the men are all wild about her, but she doesn't care that--" + +"Doesn't she?" said Aladdin, annoyingly. + +"No, she doesn't!" said Margaret, tartly. "She says she's going to be +a horse-breaker or a nurse, and all the while she kept making eyes at +brother John, and he lost his poise entirely and smirked and blushed, +and I shouldn't wonder a bit if he'd made up his mind to marry her, and +if he has he will--" + +Aladdin caught at the gist of the last sentence. "Is that all that's +necessary?" he said. "Has a man only got to make up his mind to marry a +certain girl?" + +"It's all brother John would have to do," said Margaret, provokingly. + +"Admitting that," said Aladdin, "how about the other men?" + +"Why," said Margaret, "I suppose that if a man really and truly makes up +his mind to get the girl he wants, he'll get her." + +She looked at him with a grand innocence. Aladdin's heart leaped a +little. + +"But suppose two men made up their minds," said Aladdin, "to get the +same girl." + +"That would just prove the rule," said Margaret, refusing to see any +personal application, "because one of them would get her, and the other +would be the exception." + +"Would the one who spoke first have an advantage?" said Aladdin. +"Suppose he'd wanted her ever so long, and had tried to succeed because +of her, and"--he was warming to the subject, which meant much to +him--"had never known that there was any other girl in the world, and +had pinned all his faith and hope on her, would he have any advantage?" + +"I don't know," said Margaret, rather dreamily. + +"Because if he would--" Aladdin reached forward and took one of her +hands in his two. + +She let it lie there, and for a moment they looked into each other's +eyes. Margaret withdrew her hand. + +"I know--I know," she said. "But you mustn't say it, 'Laddin dear, +because--somehow I feel that there are heaps of things to be considered +before either of us ought to think of that. And how can we be quite +sure? Anyway, if it's going to happen--it will happen. And that's all +I'm going to say, 'Laddin." + +"Tell me," he said gently, "what the trouble is, dear. Is it this: do +you think you care for me, and aren't sure? Is that it?" + +She nodded gravely. Aladdin took a long breath. + +"Well," he said finally, "I believe I love you well enough, Margaret, to +hope that you get the man who will make you happiest. I don't know," he +went on rather gloomily, "that I'm exactly calculated to make anybody +happy, but," he concluded, with a quavering smile, "I'd like to try." +They shook hands like the two very old friends they were. + +"We'll always be that, anyway," said Margaret. + +"Always," said Aladdin. + +"Mademoiselle!" Eugenie opened the parlor door and looked cautiously in, +after the manner of the French domestic. + +"What is it?" said Margaret in French. + +Aladdin listened with intense admiration, for he did not understand a +word. + +"Monsieur does not carry himself so well," said Eugenie, "and he asks if +mademoiselle will have the goodness to mount a moment to his room." + +"I'll go at once." Margaret rose. "Papa's worse," she said to Aladdin. +"Will you wait?" + +"I am so sorry," said Aladdin. "No, I can't wait; I have to get out the +paper. I"--he smiled--"am announcing to an eager public what general, +in my expert opinion, is best fitted to command the armies of the United +States." + +"Of course there'll be fighting." + +"Of course--and in a day or two. Good-by." + +"Good-by." + +"I'll come round later and inquire about your father. Give him my love." + +Margaret ran up-stairs to her father's room. He was in great pain, but +perfectly calm and collected. As Margaret entered, the doctor went out, +and she was alone with her father. + +"Are you feeling badly, dear?" she said. + +"I am feeling more easy than a moment ago," said the senator. "Bring a +chair over here, Peggy; we must have a little talk." + +She brought a little upright chair and sat down facing him, her right +hand nestling over one of his. + +"The doctor," said the senator, "considers that my condition is +critical." + +"Papa" + +"I disagree with him. I shall, I believe, live to see the end of this +civil riot, but I cannot be sure. So it behooves me to ask my dear +daughter a question." St. John asked it with eagerness. "Which is it to +be, Peggy?" + +She blushed deeply. + +"You are interested in Aladdin O'Brien?" + +Her head drooped a little. + +"Yes, papa." + +The senator sighed. + +"Thank you, dear," he said. "That is all I wanted to know. I had hoped +that it would be otherwise. Peggy," he said, "I love that other young +man like a son." + +"Peter?" + +"I have always hoped that you would see him as I have seen him. I would +be happy if I thought that I could leave you in such strong young hands. +I trust him absolutely." + +"Papa." + +"Well, dear?" + +"You don't like Aladdin?" + +"He is not steady, Margaret." The simple word was pregnant with meaning +as it fell from the senator. + +"You don't mean that he--that he's like--" + +"Yes, dear; I should not wish my youngest son to marry." + +"Poor boy," said Margaret, softly. + +"It's the Irish in him," said the senator. "He must do all things to +extremes. There, in a word, lies all his strength and all his weakness." + +"You would be sorry if I married Aladdin?" + +"I should be afraid for your happiness. Do you love him?" + +"I am not sure, papa." + +"You are fond of Peter, aren't you?" + +She leaned forward till her cheek touched his. + +"Next to you and 'Laddin." + +The senator patted her shoulder, and thus they remained for some time. + +A great shouting arose in the neighborhood. + +The senator sat bolt upright in bed. His nostrils began to quiver. He +was like an old war-horse that hears bugles. + +"Sumter?" he cried. "Sumter? Do I hear Sumter?" + +The shouting became louder. + +"Sumter?" he cried. "Have they fired upon Sumter?" + +Margaret flew to the window and threw it open. It acted upon the +shouting like the big swell of an organ, and the cries of excitement +filled the room to bursting. South Carolina had clenched her hand and +struck the flag in the face. + +The doctor rushed in. He paused flabbergasted at sight of the man whom +he had supposed to be dying. + +"Great God, man!" cried the senator, "can't you get my clothes?" + +When he was dressed they brought him his whalebone stick. + +"Damn it, I can walk!" said he, and he broke the faithful old thing over +a knee that had not been bent for a month. + + + + +XX + + +New fervor of enlistment took place, and among the first to enlist was +Aladdin, and when his regiment met for organization he was unanimously +elected major. He had many friends. + +At first he thought that his duty did not lie where his heart lay, +because of his brother Jack, now fourteen, whom he had to support. And +then, the old promises coming to mind, he presented himself one morning +before Senator St. John. + +"Senator," he said, "you promised to do me a favor if I should ever ask +it." + +The senator thought of Margaret and trembled. + +"I have come to ask it." + +"Well, sir?" + +"I want to enlist, sir, but if I do there's nobody to look after Jack." + +Again the senator thought of Margaret, and his heart warmed. + +"He shall live in my house, sir," said the senator, "as a member of my +family, sir." + +"God bless you, sir!" cried Aladdin. + +In a state of dancing glee he darted off to the "Spy" office to see his +chief. + +Mr. Blankinship was leaning against the post of the street door, reading +his own editorial in the morning issue. + +"Hallo, Mr. Blankinship!" cried Aladdin. + +"Hallo, Aladdin!" cried Mr. Blankinship, grinning at his favorite. "Late +as usual." + +"And for the last time, sir." + +"I know of only one good reason for such a statement." + +"It's it, sir!" + +Mr. Blankinship folded his paper carefully. His eyes were red, for he +had been up late the night before. + +"I'd go, too," he said simply, "if it wasn't for the mother." + + +The firm of John St. John & Brothers sat in its office. The head of +the firm was gorgeous in a new uniform; he had hurried up from New York +(where he had been paying vigorous court to Ellen Manners, whom he had +made up his mind to marry) in order, as oldest, biggest, and strongest, +to enlist for the family in one of the home regiments. There lingered +on his lips the thrill of a kiss half stolen, half yielded, while in his +pockets were a number of telegrams since received, and the usually grave +and stern young man was jocular and bantering. The two younger members +of the firm were correspondingly savage. + +"For God's sake, clear out of here," said Hamilton. "Your shingle's +down. Bul and I are running this office now." + +"Well, it's the chance of your lives, boys," said the frisky colonel. +"I'll have forgotten the law by the time I come back." + +"Hope you may choke, John," said Hannibal, sweetly. + +"Don't allow smoking in here, do you, boys?" He got no answer. It was a +hard-and-fast rule which he himself had instituted. + +"Well, here goes." He lighted a huge cigar and puffed it insolently +about the office. He surveyed himself in the cracked mirror. + +"Cursed if a uniform isn't becoming to a man!" he said. + +"Chicken!" said Hamilton. + +"Puppy!" said Hannibal. + +"Titmouse!" said Hamilton. + +"Ant!" said Hannibal. + +John's grin widened. + +"Boys," he said, "you've got one swell looker in the family, anyway, and +you ought to be glad of that." + +The boys exchanged glances. + +Hannibal had upon his desk a pen-wiper which consisted of a small sponge +heavy with the ink of wiped pens. Hamilton had beneath his desk an +odd rubber boot which served him as a scrap-basket. These ornamental +missiles took John St. John in the back of the head at about the same +moment, the weight and impetus of the boot knocking the cigar clean out +of his mouth, so that it dashed itself against the mirror. + +The gallant colonel turned, still grinning. "Which threw the boot?" said +he. + +"I did," said Hamilton. + +"Then you get the first licking." + +Hamilton met his brother's hostile if grinning advance with the hardest +blow that he could strike him over the left eye. Then they clenched, +and Hannibal joined the fray. The three brothers, roaring with laughter, +proceeded to inflict as much damage to each other and the office as +they jointly could. Over and under they squirmed and contorted, hitting, +tripping, falling and rising. Desks went over, lawbooks strewed the +floor, ink ran, and finally the bust of George Washington, which had +stood over the inner door since the foundation of the firm, came down +with a crash. + +By this time the three brothers were helpless with laughter. The combat +ceased, and they sat upon the floor to survey the damage. + +"You can't handle the old man yet, boys," said the colonel. His left +eye was closed, and his new uniform looked like the ribbons hung on a +May-pole. + +Hamilton was bleeding at the nose. Hannibal's lip was split. The three +looked at each other and shook with laughter. + +"I'm inclined to think we've had a healthy bringing-up," said Hamilton +between gasps. + +"Better move, colonel," said Hannibal; "you're sitting in a pool of +ink." + +"So I am," said the colonel, as the cold struck through his new +trousers. + +The laughter broke out afresh. + +Beau Larch, in the uniform of a private, appeared at the door. + +"Hallo, Beau!" + +"Come in." + +"Take a hand?" + +"Thank you, no," said Beau. "I just dropped in to tell you fellows that +we've just had a hell of a licking at Bull Run." + +"Us!" said the colonel, rising. + +"Us!" said Hamilton. "Licked!" + +"Us!" said Hannibal. + +"And I've got other news, too," said Beau, bashfully. "If I stop +drinking till my year's up, and don't ever drink any more, Claire says +she'll marry me." + +Hannibal was the first to shake his hand. + +"Boys," said Beau, "I hope if any of you ever sees me touch a drop +you'll strike me dead." + +He went out. + +"I'm going to find out about this," said John; "what did he say the name +of the licking was?" + +"Bull Run." + +"Bull Run. And I'll come back and tell you." + +He was starting to descend the steep stairs to the street, when he +caught the sound of snickers and creeping footsteps behind him. He +turned like a panther, but was not in time. The heavily driven toes of +the right boots of the younger St. Johns lifted him clear of the stairs, +and clean to the bottom of them. There he sat, his uniform a thing of +the past, his left eye blackening and closed, and roars of laughter +shaking him. + +But Hamilton and Hannibal put the office more or less to rights, and +sat down gloomily at their respective desks. Up till now they had faced +being left behind, but this licking was too much. Each brooded over it, +while pretending to be up to the ears in work. Hamilton wrote a letter, +sealed it, addressed it, and presently rose. + +"Bul," he said, and to Hannibal the whole manoeuver smacked suspicious, +"I'm going to run up and see the old man for a few minutes." + +"All right," said Hannibal. + +Hamilton reached the door and turned. + +"By the way," he said, "I left a letter on my desk; wish you'd put a +stamp on it and mail it." + +He went out. + +Hannibal felt very lonely and fidgety. + +"I think I'll just mail that letter and get it off my mind," he said. + +He put on his hat, licked a stamp, and crossed to his brother's desk. +The letter was there, right enough, but it did not require a stamp, for +on it was written but one word, and that word was Hannibal. + +Hannibal tore open the envelop and read: + +DEAR OLD Bul: I can't stand it any longer, but you'll try and not be mad +with me for running off and leaving you to keep up the old place alone, +and damn it, Bul, two of us ought to go anyway.... + +The letter ran on for a little in the same strain. Hannibal put the +letter in his pocket, and sat down at his brother's desk. + +"It will kill the old man if we all go," he said. "And of all three I'm +the one with the best rights to go and get shot." + +He took from somewhere in his clothes a little gold locket, flat and +plain. Each of the St. John boys had carried one since their mother's +death. Facing her picture each had had engraved the motto which he had +chosen for himself to be his watchword in life. In John's locket was +engraved, "In fortis vinces"; in Hamilton's, "Deo volente"; and in +Hannibal's, "Carpe diem." But in Hannibal's locket there was another +picture besides that of his mother. He opened the locket with his +thumb-nails and laid it on the desk before him. Presently his eyes +dimmed, and he looked beyond the locket. + +Hamilton St. John's ink-well was a globe of glass, with a hole like a +thimble in the top to contain ink. Hannibal found himself looking at +this, and noting the perfect miniature reproduction of the big calendar +on the wall, as it was refracted by the glass. With his thoughts far +away, his eyes continued to look at the neat little curly calendar in +the ink-well. Presently it seemed to him that it was not a calendar at +all, but just a patch of bright green color--a patch of bright green +that became grass, an acre of it, a ten-acre field, a great field gay +with trampled flowers, rolling hills, woods, meadows, fences, streams. +Then he saw, lying thickly over a fair region, broken guns, exploded +cannons, torn flags, horses and men contorted and sprung in death; +everywhere death and demolition. He wandered over the field and came +presently upon himself, scorched, mangled, and dead under the wheel of a +cannon. + +After a little it seemed to him that the field of battle shrank until +it became again the calendar. But there was something odd about that +calendar; the dates were queer. It read July, right enough; but this +was the year 1861, whereas the calendar bore the date 1863. And why was +there a cross to mark the third day of July? Hannibal came to with a +shock; but he could have sworn that he had not been asleep. + +"God is very--very good!" he said solemnly. + +Then he opened his pen-knife, and scratched a deep line of erasure +through the "Carpe diem" in his locket, and underneath, cutting with +great pains, he inserted a date, "July 3, 1863," and the words "Nunc +dimittis." Below that he cut "Te Deum laudamus." + +He looked once more at the picture of his mother and at the picture that +was not of his mother, shut the little gold case, and put it back in his +pocket. + +Then he inked on the white inside of a paper-box cover, in large +letters, these words: + +This office will not be opened until the end of the war. + +That office was never opened again. + + + + +XXI + + +The lives of sixty million people had become suddenly full of drill, +organization, uniforms, military music, flags, hatred, love, and +self-sacrifice, and the nations of the Old World stood about, note-book +in hand, like so many medical students at a clinic: could a heart, cut +in two, continue to supply a body with blood after the soul had been +withdrawn? And the nations of the Old World hoped that there would be +enough fresh meat left on the carcass for them to feed on, when the +experiment should be at an end. Mother England was particularly hungry, +and dearly hoped to have the sucking of the eggs which she herself had +laid. + +It was a great time for young men, and Margaret shed secret tears on +behalf of five of them. It had fallen upon her to tell the old man that +his three sons had enlisted, and that task had tortured her for an hour +before she had dared go and accomplish it. + +"Papa," she said, "Ham has enlisted, and so has Bul." + +The senator had not moved a muscle. + +"It was only a question of time," he said. "I wish that I had begotten a +dozen others." + +He had borrowed her well-marked Bible from old Mrs. Blankinship and read +Isaiah at a gulp. Then he had sought out his boys and bantered them on +their new clothes. + +Margaret sat very still for a long time after the interview with her +father. She knew that Bul, whom she loved best of her brothers, was +going to be killed. She had never before seen his face so serenely +happy as when he came to tell her that he had sworn in, nor had she +ever before seen that unexplainable phenomenon, known variously as fate, +doom, numbered, Nemesis, written upon a face. And there were others who +might be taken. + +Aladdin came in for a moment to give her the news. He was nervous with +enthusiasm, and had been working like a horse. His regiment was to leave +Friday for the front; he could stay but a minute; he had only dashed +in on his way to drill. Would she care to come? Quite right; there was +nothing much to look at. He talked as cheerfully and as rapidly as a +mountain brook runs. And then he gave his best piece of news, and looked +almost handsome as he gave it. + +"Peter's here," he said. "He's outside talking to the senator. He looks +simply stunning, and he's a whole lot of things on a staff--assistant +adjutant-general with the rank of a colonel; and he's floated up here on +a dash against time to say good-by to us." + +Aladdin's face puckered. + +"You and Peter and I, Margaret," he said, "Lord, what a muddle!" + +"I'm terribly blue, old man," said Margaret, "and it hurts to have you +say things like that." + +Instantly Aladdin was all concern. + +"You know I wouldn't hurt you purposely," he said, "but I'm terribly +blue, too, dear, and one tries to keep up and says asinine things, +and"--he smiled, and his smile was very winning--"is at once forgiven by +an old dear." + +She held out her hand and gave his a friendly squeeze. + +"You old darling!" he said, and ran out. + +She followed him into the hall, and met Manners, who had just parted +from the senator at the front door. His uniform was wonderfully +becoming. + +"Is it Peter?" + +They shook hands. + +"Never," she said, "have I seen anything so beautiful!" + +Peter blushed (looking even more beautiful, for he hated to be talked +about). + +"Where was 'Laddin going?" he said. "He went by me like a shot out of a +gun, and had only time to pull my hat over my eyes and squeal Peeeter." + +"He's very important now," said Margaret, "and wonders how anybody can +want to write things and be a poet or a musician when there are real +things to do in the world." + +Peter looked at his watch. + +"Isn't that the least bit rude?" said Margaret. + +"No," said Peter; "my train back leaves in one hour, and I could better +afford to lose my chances of heaven. I had no business to come, as it +was. But I had to come." + +Margaret sighed. She had hoped that it would not happen so soon. He +followed her into the parlor and closed the door behind him. + +"First, Margaret," he said, "I'm going to tell you something that may +surprise you a little. It did me; it was so sudden. My sister Ellen is +going to be married." + +"Ellen!" exclaimed Margaret. "Why, she always said--" "It's only been +arranged in the last few days," said Peter, "by many telegrams. I was +told to tell you." + +"Is he nice?" + +"Yes. He's a good chap." + +"Rich?" + +"Well--rather rising than rich." + +"Who is it?" + +"Your brother John." + +"My dear Peter--" + +"No--I never did, either!" + +"Isn't that splendid!" + +Peter pulled a grave face. + +"Yes--and no," he said. + +"I hope you're not going to be insolent," said Margaret. + +"It depends on what you call insolent. My father, you see, objects very +much to having Ellen go out of the family, but he says that he can learn +to bear that if the only other girl in the world will come into the +family." + +Manners' voice had become husky toward the last of the sentence, and +perhaps not husky so much as hungry. Margaret knew better than to say +anything of the kind, but she couldn't help looking as innocent as a +child and saying: + +"Won't she?" + +"How do I know?" said Peter. "I have come to ask her." + +He looked so very strong and manly and frank that Margaret, whose world +had been terribly blue recently, was half tempted to throw herself into +his arms and cry. + +"O Peter!" she said pitifully. + +He came and sat beside her on the sofa, and drew her close to him. + +"My darling," he said brokenly. + +A great sense of trust and security stole over Margaret, but she knew +that it was not love. Yet for a moment she hesitated, for she knew that +if she took this man, his arm would always be about her, and he would +always--always--always be good to her. As she sat there, not trusting +herself to speak, she had her first doubt of Aladdin, and she wondered +if he loved her as much--as much as he loved Aladdin. Then she felt like +a traitor. + +For a little neither could find any words to say. So still they sat +that Margaret could hear the muffled ticking of Peter's watch. At length +Peter spoke. + +"What shall I tell my father?" he said. + +"Tell him--" said Margaret, and her voice broke. + +"Aren't you sure, darling--is that it?" + +She nodded with tears in her eyes. + +He took his arm from round her waist, and she felt very lonely. + +"But I'm always going to love you," he said. + +She felt still more alone. + +"Peter," she said, "I can't explain things very well, but I--I--don't +want you to go away feeling as if--" + +Manners' eyes lifted up. + +"As if it was all over?" he asked eagerly. + +"Almost that, Peter," she said. "I--I can't say yes now--but God knows, +Peter, perhaps sometime--I--I can." + +She was thinking of the flighty and moody Aladdin, who had loved her so +long, and whom (she suddenly realized in spite of the words just spoken) +she loved back with all her heart and soul. + +Honor rose hot in her to give Peter a final answer now and forever--no. +But she looked into his eyes and could not. He looked at his watch. + +"Margaret dear," he said, "I've got to go. Thanks for everything, and +for the hope and all, and--and I may never see you again, but if I do, +will you give me my answer then?" + +"I will," said Margaret, "when I see you again." + +They rose. + +"May I kiss you, Margaret?" he said. + +"Certainly, Peter." + +He kissed her on the cheek, and went away with her tears on his lips. + +A newly organized fife-and-drum corps marched by struggling with "The +Girl I Left Behind Me." + +In those days the most strangled rendering of that tune would bring +lumps into the throats of those that heard. + + + + +XXII + + +Hannible and Hamilton were privates in the nth regiment, Aladdin was +major, and John was colonel. If any of them had the slightest military +knowledge, it was Aladdin. Not in vain had he mastered the encyclopedia +from Safety-lamps to Stranglers. He could explain with strange words and +in long, balanced sentences everything about the British army that began +with an S, except only those things whose second letter stood farther +down in the alphabet than T. But the elements of knowledge kept dropping +in, at first on perfunctory calls, visitors that disappeared when you +turned to speak with them, but that later came to stay. The four young +men were like children with a "roll-the-seven-number-eight-shot-into-the +middle" puzzle. They could make a great rattling with the shot, and +control their tempers; that was about all. Later they were to form units +in the most efficient and intelligent large body of men that the world +ever saw, with the possible exception of the armies it was to be pitted +against; but those, it must be owned, were usually smaller, though, in +the ability of their commanders to form concentration, often of three +times the size. They learned that it is cheaper to let a company sleep +in tents upon hard ground of a rainy night than to lodge them in a +neighboring hotel at one's own expense, and that going the rounds in +pitch-darkness grows less thrilling in exact ratio to the number of +times you do it, and finally, even in sight of the enemy's lines, +becomes as boring as waltzing with a girl you don't like. They began to +learn that cleanliness is next to godliness only in times of peace, and +that food is the one god, and the stomach his only prophet. They learned +that the most difficult of all duties is to keep the face straight when +the horse of a brother officer who mounts for the first time is +surprised to vehemence by its first experience with a brass band. + +Aladdin was absolutely equal to the occasion, and developed an +astonishing talent for play-acting, and, it is to be feared, strutted a +little, both in the bosom of his soul and on the parade-ground. It was +only when he looked at two of the "tall men on the right," Hamilton and +Hannibal St. John, who had chosen humble parts that they might serve +under their brother, that he felt properly small and resented himself. +Sometimes, too, he searched his past life and could find in it only +one brave deed, his swim down the river, and he wondered with an +awful wonder what he would do when the firing began. He need not have +troubled: he was of too curious and inquiring a disposition to be afraid +of most things. And he was yet to see proved on many Southern fields +that a coward is, if anything, a rarer bird than a white quail. Only +once in action did Aladdin see a man really show the white feather. The +man had gone into the army from a grocery-store, and was a very thin, +small specimen with a very big, bulbous head; and, like many others of +his class, proved to be a perfect fire-eater in battle, and a regular +buzzard to escape fever and find food. But during the famous seven days +before Richmond a retreat was ordered of a part of the line which the +Buzzard helped compose, and he was confronted by the necessity, for his +friends were hastening him from behind, of crossing a gully by means of +a somewhat slender fallen tree. It was then that Aladdin saw him show +fear. Bullets tore up the bark of the tree, and pine needles, clipped +from the trees overhead, fell in showers. But he did not mind that. It +was the slenderness and instability of the fallen tree that froze the +marrow in his bones: would it bear his one hundred and twenty-four +pounds, or would it precipitate him, an awful drop of ten feet, into the +softest of muds at the bottom of the gully, where a sickeningly striped +but in reality harmless water-snake lay coiled? + +Finally, pale and shaking, he ventured on the log, got half-way across, +turned giddy, and fell with such a howl of terror that it was only +equaled in vehemence by the efforts of the snake to get out of the way. +After which the Buzzard picked himself up, scrambled out, and continued +his retreat, scraping his muddied boots among the fallen leaves as he +went. "Some talk of Alexander and some of Hercules," but it may be that +an exceedingly giddy elevation coupled with a serpent would have +made shivering children of both those heroes. To each his own fear. +Margaret's and Aladdin's was the same they both feared Aladdin. + +That afternoon the regiment was to leave for the front, and Aladdin went +to bid Margaret good-by. She and her father were still staying with the +Blankinships. + +They had a very satisfactory talk, beginning with the beginning of +things, and going over their long friendship, laughing, remembering, and +regretting. Jack was to live with the St. Johns, and they talked much of +him, and of old Mrs. Brackett, and of affairs at home. Jack about this +time was in the seventh hell of despair, for his extreme youth had +prevented him from bringing to its triumphant conclusion a pleasant +little surprise, consisting of a blue uniform, which he had planned +for himself and others. No love of country stirred the bosom of the +guileless Jack; only hatred of certain books out of which he was obliged +to learn many useless things, such as reading, writing, spelling, and +arithmetic. Besides, word had come to him that persimmons were to be +had for the picking and chickens for the broiling in that country toward +which the troops were heading. And much also had he heard concerning +the beauty of Southern maidens, and of the striped watermelons in the +watermelon-patch. And so he was to be left behind, and God was not good. + +Toward the end their talk got very serious. + +"I'm going to turn over a new leaf," said Aladdin, "and be better +things, Margaret, and you must save up a lot of pride to have in me if I +do, and perhaps it will all come right in the end." + +"You know how fond I am of you," said Margaret, "and because I am, and +because you're all the big things that are hard to be, I want you to be +all the little things that ought to be so easy to be. That doesn't seem +very plain, but I mean--" + +"I know exactly what you mean," said Aladdin. "Don't you suppose I know +myself pretty well by this time, and how far I've got to climb before I +have a ghost of a right to tell you what I tell you every time I look at +you?" + +Aladdin rose. + +"Margaret," he said, "this time I'm going like an old friend. If I make +good and live steady, as I mean to do, I shall come back like a lover. +Meanwhile you shall think all things over, and if you think that you can +care for me, you shall tell me so when I come back. And if you conclude +that you can't, you shall tell me. I'm not going to ask you to marry me +now, because in no way am I in a position to. But if I come back and say +to you, 'Margaret, I have turned into a man at last,' you will know that +I am telling the truth and am in a position to ask anything I please. +For I shall come back without a cent, but with a character, and that's +everything. I shall not drink any more, and every night I shall pray +to God to help me believe in Him. But, Margaret, I may not come back at +all. If I don't it will be for one of two reasons. Either I shall fail +in becoming worthy to kiss the dust under your blessed feet, or I shall +be killed. In the first case, I beg that you will pray for me; but in +the second I pray that you will forget all that was bad in me and only +remember what was good. And so, darling--" his voice broke, "because I +am a little afraid of death and terribly afraid of myself--" + +She came obediently into his arms, and knew what it was to be kissed by +the man she loved. + +"Aladdin," she said, "promise that nothing except--" + +"Death?" said Aladdin. + +"--that nothing, nothing except death--shall keep you from coming back." + +"If I live," said Aladdin, "I will come back." + +Everybody of education knows that Lucy Locket lost her pocket and that +Betty Pringle found it without a penny "in it" (to rhyme with "found +it"), but everybody does not know that the aforementioned Lucy Locket +had a tune composed for her benefit that has thrilled the hearts of more +sons of the young republic when stepping to battle than any other tune, +past, present, or to come. There is a martial vigor and a tear in "The +Girl I Left Behind Me"; some feet cannot help falling into rhythm when +they hear the "British Grenadiers"; North and South alike are possessed +with a do-or-die madness when the wild notes of "Dixie" rush from the +brass; and "John Brown's Body" will cause the dumb to sing. But it is +the farcical little quickstep known by the ridiculous name of "Yankee +Doodle" which the nations would do well to consider when straining the +patience of the peace-loving and United States. + +And so they marched down the street to the station, and the tall men +walked on the right and the little men on the left, and the small boys +trotted alongside, and the brand-new flags flung out, and bouquets were +thrown, and there were cheers from the heart up all along the line. But +ever the saucy fifes sang, and the drums gaily beat + + Yankee Doodle came to town + Riding on a pony, + Stuck a feather in his Hat, + And called it macaroni. + +At the station the emotions attendant on departure found but one voice. +The mother said to the son what the sweetheart said to the lover, and +the sister to the brother. Nor was this in any manner different from +what the brother, lover, and son said to the sister, sweetheart, and +mother. It was the last sentence which bleeding hearts supply to lips at +moments of farewell: + +"Write to me." + +And the supercilious little quickstep went on: + + Yankee Doodle came to town + Riding on a pony, + Stuck a feather in his Hat, + And called it macaroni. + + + + +XXIII + + +A tongue of land with Richmond (built, like another capital beginning +with R, on many hills) for its major root, and a fortification vulgarly +supposed to be of the gentler sex for its tip, is formed by the yellow +flow of the James and York rivers. To land an army upon the tip of this +tongue, march the length of it and extract the root, after reducing it +to a reminiscence, was the wise plan of the powers early in the year +1862. To march an army of preponderous strength through level +and fertile country, flanked by friendly war-ships and backed by +unassailable credit; to meet and overcome a much smaller and far less +rich army, intrenched behind earthworks of doubtful formidableness, and +finally to besiege and capture an isolated city of more historic than +strategic advantages, seemed on the face of it as easy as rolling a +barrel downhill or eating when hungry. But the level, fertile country +was discovered to be very muddy, its supply of rain from heaven +unparalleled in nature, its streams as deadly as arsenic, and its +topography utterly different from that assigned to it in any known +geography. Furthermore, in its woods, and it was nearly all woods, dwelt +far more mosquitos than there are lost souls in Hades, and each mosquito +had a hollow spike in his head through which he not only could but would +squirt, with or without provocation, the triple compound essence of +malaria into veins brought up on oxygen, and on water through which you +could see the pebbles at the bottom. A bosom friend of the mosquito, +and some say his paramour, was little Miss Tick. Of the two she was +considerably the more hellish, and forsook her dwelling-places in the +woods for the warm flesh of soldiers where it is rosiest, next the skin. +The body, arms, and legs of Miss Tick could be scratched to nothing by +poisonous finger-nails, but her detached head was eternal, and through +eternity she bit and gnawed and sometimes laughed in the hollow of her +black soul. For the horses, mules, and cattle there were shrubs which +disagreed with them, and gigantic horse-flies. And for the general at +the head of the vast body of irritation there was an opposing army +whose numbers he overrated, and whose whereabouts he kept discovering +suddenly. It is said that during the Peninsular campaign the buzzards +were so well nourished that they raised a second brood. + +While the army was still in the vicinity of Fort Monroe, numbers of +officers secured leave to ride over to Newport News and view the traces +of the recent and celebrated naval fight, which was to relegate wooden +battle-ships to the fireplace. Aladdin was among those to go. At this +time he was in great spirits, for it had been brought home to him +that he was one of the elect, one of those infinitely rare and godlike +creatures whom mosquitos do not bite nor ticks molest. His nights were +as peaceful as the grave, and the poisonous drinking-waters glanced from +his rubber constitution. Besides, he had forsaken his regimental duties +to enjoy a life of constant variety upon the staff of a general, and had +begun to feel at home on horseback. It was one of those radiant, smiling +days, which later on were to become rarer than charity, and the woods +were positively festive with sunshine. And the temperature was precisely +that which brings to a young man's fancy thoughts of love. So that it +was in the nature of a shock to come suddenly upon the shore and behold +for the first time the finality of war. There was no visible glory +about it. What had happened to the Cumberland and the Congress was +disappointingly like what would happen to two ships destroyed in shallow +water. The masts of the Cumberland, slightly off the vertical and still +rigged, projected for half their length from the yellow surface of the +river. That was all. Some distance to the left and half submerged was a +blackened and charred mass that bore some resemblance to a ship that had +once been proud and tall, and known by the name of Congress. That +was all. Aladdin had hoped that war would be a little more like the +pictures. + +As he rode back, pondering, toward the encampment, however, he came upon +something which was truly an earnest of what was to come. There were so +many buzzards perched in the trees of a certain wood that he turned in +to see what they had. He came upon it suddenly, just beyond a cheerful +bush of holly, and the buzzards stepped reluctantly back until he had +looked. It was only a horse. Some of the buzzards, heavy with food, +raised their eyelids heavily and looked at Aladdin, and then lapsed +back into filthy sleep. Others, not yet satiated, looked upon him +querulously, and suggested as much as looks can suggest that he go, and +trouble them no more. Others, the newly arrived and ravenous, swooped +above the trees, so that dark circles were drawn over the fallen +sunlight. Now a buzzard opened and closed its wings, and now one looked +from the horse to Aladdin, and back, fretfully, to the horse. There +seemed to be hundreds of them, dark and dirty, with raw heads and +eyelids. Aladdin sat solemn and motionless upon his horse, but he could +feel the cold sweat of horror running down his sides from under his +arms, and the bristling of his hair. He wanted to make a great noise, to +shout, to do anything, but he did not dare. It would have been breaking +the rules. In that assembly no sound was allowed, for the meeting was +unholy and wicked and worked with hurried stealth, so that the attention +of God should not be drawn. Aladdin knew that he had no right to be +there, that without knocking he had entered the bedroom of horror and +found her naked in the arms of lust. He turned and rode away shivering +and without looking back. He had not ridden the distance between two +forest trees before the carcass was again black with the descending +birds, and the blood streamed to their bills. + +The Peninsular campaign developed four kinds of men: the survivors, the +wounded, the dead, and the missing. When the campaign was over Aladdin +sometimes woke starting in the night to think of those missing and of +what he had seen in the woods. + + + + +XXIV + + +The tedious locomotion of an army and the incessant reluctance of +the battle to be met will try a sinner; but a scarcity of tobacco and +constantly wet feet will try a saint. Aladdin was somewhat of both. But +in the fidgety gloom which presently settled upon man and beast, his, +great Irish gift of cheerfulness shone like a star. He even gave up +longing for promotion, and strained his mind to the cracking-point for +humorous verses and catching tunes. He went singing up the Peninsula, +and thumped the gay banjo by the camp-fire, and was greatly beloved by +the foot-sore and sick. He had given up worrying about what he would do +in battle, for there were much more important things to think about. + +Battles are to soldiers what Christmas trees are to children: you must +wait, wait, and wait for them, and forever wait; and when they do come +the presents are apt to be a little tawdry. And you are only envied by +the other little children who didn't really see what you really got. The +most comforting man in the army was one minister of the gospel, and +the most annoying was another. The first had the divine gift of +story-telling and laughter, and the second thanked God because the +soldiers had run out of their best friend, tobacco, which he described +through his nose as "filthy weed," "vile narcotic," or "pernicious +hell-plant." And they both served the Lord as hard as they could--and +they both suffered from dysentery. + +As the days passed and the temperature of the army rose, and its +digestion became permanently impaired, Aladdin, by giving out, and +constantly, all that was best in himself, became gradually exhausted. +He found himself telling stories as many as three times to the same man, +and he began to steal from the poets and musicians that he knew in order +to keep abreast of his own original powers of production. He even went +so far as to draw inspiration from men of uneven heights stood in line: +he would hum the intervals as scored by their heads on an imaginary +staff and fashion his tune accordingly, but this tended to a somewhat +compressed range and was not always happy in its results. His efforts, +however, were appreciated, and the emaciated young Irishman became a +most exceptional prophet, and received honor in his own land. + +For the rest, being a staff-officer, he was kept busy and rode hundreds +of extra miles through the rain. It was a large army, as inexperienced +as it was large, and it stood in great need of being kept in contact +with itself. If you lived at one end of it and wanted to know what was +going on at the other end, you had to travel about as far as from New +York to New Haven. The army proper, marching by fours, stretched away +through the wet lands for forty miles. A fly-bitten tail of ambulances +and wagons, with six miserable horses or six perfectly happy mules +attached to each, added another twenty miles. At the not always attained +rate of fifteen miles a day the army could pass a given point in four +days. To the gods in Olympus it would have appeared to have all the +characteristic color and shape of an angleworm, without, however, +enjoying that reptile's excellent good health. If the armies of +Washington, Cornwallis, Clive, Pizarro, Cortes, and Christian de Wet had +been added to it, they would have passed unnoticed in the crowd. And the +recurring fear of the general in command of this army was that the army +he sought would prove to be twice as big. So speculation was active +between the York and James rivers. + +In the minds of the soldiers a thousand years passed, and then there was +a little fight, and they learned that they were soldiers. And so did +the other army. Another thousand years passed, and it seemed tactful to +change bases. Accordingly, that which had been arduously established on +a muddy river called the Chickahominy (and it was very far from either +of those two good things) was forsaken, and the host began to be moved +toward the James. This move would have been more smoothly accomplished +if the enemy had not interfered. They, however, insisted upon making +history, turning a change of base into a nominal retreat, and begetting +in themselves a brass-bound and untamable spirit which it took vast +wealth and several years to humble. From Gaines's Mill to the awful brow +of Malvern Hill there were thunder and death. Forty thousand men were +somewhat needlessly killed, wounded, or (as one paradoxical account has +it) "found missing." + +Aladdin missed the fight at Malvern Hill and became wounded in a +non-bellicose fashion. His general desired to make a remark to another +general, and writing it on a piece of thin yellow paper, gave it to him +to deliver. He rode off to the tune of axes,--for a Maine regiment +was putting in an hour in undoing the stately work of a hundred +years,--trotted fifteen miles peacefully enough, delivered his general's +remark, and started back. Then came night and a sticky mist. Then the +impossibility of finding the way. Aladdin rode on and on, courageously +if not wisely, and came in time to the dimly discernible outbuildings of +a Virginia mansion. They stood huddled dark and wet in the mist, which +was turning to rain, and there was no sign of life in or about them. +Aladdin passed them and turned into an alley of great trees. By looking +skyward he could keep to the road they bounded. As he drew near the +mansion itself a great smell of box and roses filled his nostrils with +fragrance. But to him, standing under the pillared portico and knocking +upon the door, came no word of welcome and no stir of lights. He gave +it up in disgust, mounted, and rode back through the rich mud to the +stables. Had he looked over his shoulder he might have seen a face at +one of the windows of the house. + +He found a door of one of the stables unlocked, and went in, leading his +horse. Within there was a smell of hay. He closed the door behind him, +unsaddled, and fell to groping about in the dark. He wanted several +armfuls of that hay, and he couldn't find them. The hay kept calling to +his nose, "Here I am, here I am"; but when he got there, it was hiding +somewhere else. It was like a game of blindman's-buff. Then he heard +the munching of his horse and knew that the sought was found. He moved +toward the horse, stepped on a rotten planking, and fell through the +floor. Something caught his chin violently as he went through, and in +a pool of filthy water, one leg doubled and broken under him, he passed +the night as tranquilly as if he had been dosed with laudanum. + + + + +XXV + + +Aladdin came to consciousness in the early morning. He was about as sick +as a man can be this side of actual dissolution, and the pain in his +broken leg was as sharp as a scream. He lay groaning and doubled in +the filthy half-inch of water into which he had fallen. About him was +darkness, but overhead a glimmer of light showed a jagged and cruel +hole in the planking of the stable floor. Very slowly, for his agony was +unspeakable, he came to a realization of what had happened. He called +for help, and his voice was thick and unresonant, like the voice of a +drunken man. His horse heard him and neighed. Now and again he lapsed +into semi-unconsciousness, and time passed without track. Hours passed, +when suddenly the glimmer above him brightened, and he heard light +footsteps and the cackling of hens. He called for help. Instantly there +was silence. It continued a long time. Then he heard a voice like soft +music, and the voice said, "Who's there?" + +A shadow came between him and the light, and a fair face that was +darkened looked down upon him. + +"For God's sake take care," he said. "Those boards are rotten." + +"You 're a Yankee, aren't you?" said the voice, sweetly. + +"Yes," said Aladdin, "and I'm badly hurt." + +The voice laughed. + +"Hurt, are you?" it said. + +"I think I've broken my leg," said Aladdin. "Can you get some one to +help me out of this?" + +"Reckon you're all right down there," said the voice. + +Aladdin revolved the brutality of it in his mind. + +"Do you mean to say that you're not going to help me?" he said. + +"Help you? Why should I?" + +Aladdin groaned, and could have killed himself for groaning. + +"If you don't help me," he said, and his voice broke, for he was +suffering tortures, "I'll die before long." + +A perfectly cool and cruel "Well?" came back to him. + +"You won't help me?" + +"No." + +Anger surged in his heart, but he spoke with measured sarcasm. + +"Then," he said, "will you at least do me the favor of getting from +between me and God's light? If I die, I may go to hell, but I prefer not +to see devils this side of it, thank you." + +The girl went away, but presently came back. She lowered something to +him on a string. "I got it out of one of your holsters," she said. + +Aladdin's fingers closed on the butt of a revolver. + +"It may save you a certain amount of hunger and pain," she said. "When +you are dead, we will give it to one of our men, and your horse too. +He's a beauty." + +"I hope to God he may--" began Aladdin. + +"Pretty!" said the girl. + +She went away, and he heard her clucking to the chickens. After a time +she came back. Aladdin was waiting with a plan. + +"Don't move," he said, "or you'll be shot." + +"Rubbish!" said the girl. She leaned casually back from the hole, and +he could hear her moving away and clucking to the chickens. Again she +returned. + +"Thank you for not shooting," she said. + +There was no answer. + +"Are you dead?" she said. + +When he came to, there was a bright light in Aladdin's eyes, for a +lantern swung just to the left of his head. + +"I thought you were dead," said the girl, still from her point of +advantage. The lantern's light was in her face, too, and Aladdin saw +that it was beautiful. + +"Won't you help me?" he said plaintively. + +"Were you ever told that you had nice eyes?" said the girl. + +Aladdin groaned. + +"It bores you to be told that?" + +"My dear young lady," said Aladdin, "if you were as kind as you are +beautiful--" + +"How about your horse kicking me to a certain place? That was what you +started to say, you know." + +"Lady--lady," said Aladdin, "if you only knew how I'm suffering, and I'm +just an ordinary young man with a sweetheart at home, and I don't want +to die in this hole. And now that I look at you," he said, "I see that +you're not so much a girl as an armful of roses." + +"Are you by any chance--Irish?" said the girl, with a laugh. + +"Faith and of ahm that," said Aladdin, lapsing into full brogue; "oi'm a +hireling sojer, mahm, and no inimy av yours, mahm." + +"What will you do for me if I help you?" said the girl. + +"Anything," said Aladdin. + +"Will you say 'God save Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate +States of America,' and sing 'Dixie'--that is, if you can keep a tune. +'Dixie''s rather hard." + +"I'll 'God bless Jefferson Davis and every future President of the +Confederate States, if there are any,' ten million times, if you'll help +me out, and--" + +"Will you promise not to fight any more?" + +A long silence. + +"No." + +"You needn't do the other things either," said the girl, presently. Her +voice, oddly enough, was husky. + +"I thought it would be good to see a Yankee suffer," she said after a +while, "but it isn't." + +"If you could let a ladder down," said Aladdin, "I might be able to get +up it." + +"I'll get one," said the girl. Then she appeared to reflect. "No," she +said; "we must wait till dark. There are people about, and they'd kill +you. Can you live in that hole till dark?" + +"If you could throw down a lot of hay," said Aladdin. "It's very wet +down here and hard." + +The girl went, and came with a bundle of hay. + +"Look out for the lantern," she called, and threw the hay down to +him. She brought, in all, seven large bundles and was starting for the +eighth, when, by a special act of Providence, the flooring gave again, +and she made an excellent imitation of Aladdin's shute on the previous +evening. By good fortune, however, she landed on the soft hay and was +not hurt beyond a few scratches. + +"Did you notice," she said, with a little gasp, "that I didn't scream?" + +"You aren't hurt, are you?" said Aladdin. + +"No," she said; "but--do you realize that we can't get out, now?" + +She made a bed of the hay. + +"You crawl over on that," she said. + +Aladdin bit his lips and groaned as he moved. + +"It's really broken, isn't it?" said the girl. Aladdin lay back gasping. + +"You poor boy," she said. + + + + +XXVI + + +The girl borrowed Aladdin's pocket-knife and began whittling at a +fragment of board. Then she tore several yards of ruffle from her white +petticoat, cut his trouser leg off below the knee, cut the lacings of +his boot, and bandaged his broken leg to the splint she had made. All +that was against a series of most courteous protests, made in a tearful +voice. + +When she had done, Aladdin took her hand in his and kissed the fingers. + +"They're the smallest sisters of mercy I ever saw," said he. She made no +attempt to withdraw her hand. + +"It was stupid of me to fall through," she said. + +"Isn't there any possible way of getting out?" + +"No; the walls are stone." + +"O Lord!" said Aladdin. + +"I'm glad I repented before I fell through," said the girl. + +"So am I," said Aladdin. + +"What were you doing in our stable?" said the girl. + +"I got lost, and came in for shelter." + +"You came to the house first. I heard you knocking, and saw you from the +window. But I wouldn't let you in, because my father and brother were +away, and besides, I knew you were a Yankee." + +"It was too dark to see my uniform." + +"I could tell by the way you rode." + +"Is it as bad as that?" + +"No--but it's different." + +The girl laid her hand on Aladdin's forehead. + +"You've got fever," she said. + +"It doesn't matter," said Aladdin, politely. + +"Does your leg hurt awfully?" + +"It doesn't matter." + +"Did any one ever tell you that you were very civil for a Yankee?" + +"It doesn't matter," said Aladdin. + +She looked at him shrewdly, and saw that the light of reason had gone +out of his eyes. She wetted her handkerchief with the cold, filthy water +spread over the cellar floor and laid it on his forehead. Aladdin spoke +ramblingly or kept silence. Every now and then the girl freshened the +handkerchief, and presently Aladdin fell into a troubled sleep. + +When he awoke his mind was quite clear. The lantern still burned, but +faintly, for the air in the cellar was becoming heavy. Beside him on +the straw the girl lay sleeping. And overhead footsteps sounded on the +stable floor. He remembered what the girl had said about the people who +would kill him if they found him, and blew out the lantern. Then, his +hand over her mouth, he waked the girl. + +"Don't make a noise," he said. "Listen." + +The girl sat up on the straw. + +"I'll call," she whispered presently, "and pretend you're not here." + +"But the horse?" + +"I'll lie about him." + +She raised her voice. + +"Who's there?" she called. + +"It's I--Calvert. Where are you?" + +"Listen," she answered; "I've fallen through the floor into the cellar. +Don't you see where it's broken?" + +The footsteps approached. + +"You're not hurt, are you?" + +"No; but don't come too close, don't try to look down; the floor's +frightfully rickety. Isn't there a ladder there somewhere?" + +A man laughed. + +"Wait," he said. They heard his footsteps and laughter receding. +Presently the bottom of a ladder appeared through the hole in the floor. + +"Look out for your head," said the man. + +The girl rose and guided the ladder clear of Aladdin's head. + +"What have you done with the Yankee's horse?" she called. + +"He's here." + +"Where's the Yankee, do you suppose?" + +"We think he must have run off into the woods." + +"That's what I thought." + +The girl began to mount the ladder. + +"I'm coming up," she said. + +She disappeared, and the ladder was withdrawn. + +She came back after a long time, and there were men with her. + +"It's all right, Yankee," she called down the hole. "They're your own +men, and I'm the prisoner now." + +The ladder reappeared, and two friendly men in blue came down into the +cellar. + +"Good God!" they said. "It's Aladdin O'Brien!" + +Hannibal St. John and Beau Larch lifted Aladdin tenderly and took him +out of his prison. + +Outside, tents were being pitched in the dark, and there was a sound of +axes. Fires glowed here and there through the woods and over the fields, +and troops kept pouring into the plantation. They laid Aladdin on a heap +of hay and went to bring a stretcher. The girl sat down beside him. + +"You'll be all right now," she said. + +"Yes," said Aladdin. + +"And go home to your sweetheart." + +"Yes," said Aladdin, and he thought of the tall violets on the banks of +the Maine brooks, and the freshness of the sea. + +"What is her name?" said the girl. + +"Margaret," said Aladdin. + +"Mine's Ellen," said the girl, and it seemed as if she sighed. + +Aladdin took her hand. + +"You 've been very good to me," he said, and his voice grew tender, for +she was very beautiful, "and I'll never forget you," he said. + +"Oh, me!" said the girl, and there was a silence between them. + +"I tried to help you," said the girl, faintly, "but I wasn't very good +at it." + +"You were an angel," said Aladdin. + +"I don't suppose we'll ever see each other again, will we?" said the +girl. + +"I don't know," said Aladdin. "Perhaps I'll come back some day." + +"It's very silly of me--" said the girl. + +"What?" said Aladdin. + +"Nothing." + +He closed his eyes, for he was very weak. It seemed as if a great +sweetness came close to his face, and he could have sworn that something +wet and hot fell lightly on his forehead; but when he opened his eyes, +the girl was sitting aloof, her face in the shadow. + +"I dreamed just then," said Aladdin, "that something wonderful happened +to me. Did it?" + +"What would you consider wonderful?" + +Aladdin laid a finger on his forehead; he drew it away and saw that the +tip was wet. + +"I couldn't very well say," he said. + +The girl bent over him. + +"It nearly happened," she said. + +"You are very wonderful and beautiful," said Aladdin. + +Her eyes were like stars, and she leaned closer. + +"Are you going to go on fighting against my people?" she said. + +Roses lay for a moment on his lips. + +"Are you?" + +He made no sign. If she had kissed him again he would have renounced his +birthright and his love. + +"God bless and keep you, Yankee," she said. + +Tears rushed out of Aladdin's eyes. + +"They're coming to take you away," she said. "Good-by." + +"Kiss me again," said Aladdin, hoarsely. + +She looked at him quietly for some moments. + +"And your sweetheart?" she said. + +Aladdin covered his face with his arm. + +"Poor little traitor," said the girl, sadly. She rose and, without +looking back, moved slowly up the road toward the house. + +Nor did Aladdin ever see her again, but in after years the smell of box +or roses would bring into his mind the wonderful face of her, and the +music of her voice. + +In the delirium which was upon him all that night, he harped to the +surgeon of Ellen, and in the morning fell asleep. + +"Haec olim meminisse juvabit," said the surgeon, as rain-clouded dawn +rose whitely in the east. + + + + +XXVII + + +Aladdin was jolted miserably down the Peninsula in a white ambulance, +which mules dragged through knee-deep mud and over flowing, corduroy +roads. He had fever in his whole body, anguish in one leg, and hardly a +wish to live. But at Fort Monroe the breezes came hurrying from the sea, +like so many unfailing doctors, and blew his fever back inland where +it belonged. He lay under a live-oak on the parade ground and once more +received the joy of life into his heart. When he was well enough to limp +about, they gave him leave to go home; and he went down into a ship, +and sailed away up the laughing Chesapeake, and up the broad Potomac to +Washington. There he rested during one night, and in the morning took +train for New York. The train was full of sick and wounded going home, +and there was a great cheerfulness upon them all. Men joined by the +brotherhood of common experience talked loudly, smoked hard, and drank +deep. There was tremendous boasting and the accounting of unrivaled +adventures. In Aladdin's car, however, there was one man who did not +join in the fellowship, for he was too sick. He had been a big man and +strong, but he looked like a ghost made of white gossamer and violet +shadows. His own mother would not have recognized him. He lay back +into the corner of a seat with averted face and closed eyes. The more +decent-minded endeavored, on his account, to impose upon the noisy a +degree of quiet, but their efforts were unavailing. Aladdin, drumming +with his nails upon the windowpane, fell presently into soft song: + + Give me three breaths of pleasure + After three deaths of pain, + And make me not remeasure + The ways that were in vain. + +Men grew silent and gathered to hear, for Aladdin's fame as a maker of +songs had spread over the whole army, and he was called the Minstrel +Major. He felt his audience and sang louder. The very sick man turned +a little so that he, too, could hear. Only the occasional striking of +a match or the surreptitious drawing of a cork interrupted. The stately +tune moved on: + + The first breath shall be laughter, + The second shall be wine; + And there shall follow after + A kiss that shall be mine. + +Somehow all the homing hearts were set to beating. + + Roses with dewfall laden + One garden grows for me; + I call them kisses, maiden, + And gather them from thee. + +The very sick man turned fully, and there was a glad light of +recognition in his eyes. + + Give me three kisses only-- + Then let the storm break o'er + The vessel beached and lonely + Upon the lonely shore. + +If Aladdin's singing ever moved anybody particularly, it was Aladdin, +and that was why it moved other people. He sang on with tears in his +voice + + Give me three breaths of pleasure + After three deaths of pain, + And I will no more treasure + The hopes that are in vain. + +There was silence for a moment, more engaging than applause, and then +applause. Aladdin was in his element, and he wondered what he would +best sing next if they should ask him to sing again, and this they +immediately did. The train was jolting along between Baltimore and +Philadelphia. There was much beer in the bellies of the sick and +wounded, and much sentiment in their hearts. Aladdin's finger was always +on the pulse of his audience, and he began with relish: + + Oh, shut and dark her window is + In the dark house on the hill, + But I have come up through the lilac walk + To the lilt of the whippoorwill, + With the old years tugging at my hands + And my heart which is her heart still. + +There was another man in the car whose whole life centered about a house +on a hill with a lilac walk leading up to it. He was the very sick man, +and a shadow of red color came into his cheeks. + + They said, "You must come to the house once more, + Ere the tale of your years be done, + You must stand and look up at her window again, + Ere the sands of your life are run, + As the night-time follows the lost daytime, + And the heart goes down with the sun." + +There were tears in the very sick man's eyes, for the future was hidden +from him. Aladdin sang on: + + Though her window be darkest of every one, + In the dark house on the hill, + Yet I turn to it here from this ruin of grass, + She has leaned on that window's sill, + And dark it is, but there is, there is + An echo of light there still! + +There was great applause from the drunk and sentimental. And Aladdin +lowered his eyes until it was over. When he raised them it was to +encounter those of the very sick man. Aladdin sprang to his feet with a +cry and went limping down the aisle. + +"Peter," he cried, "by all that's holy!" + +All the tenderness of the Celt gushed into Aladdin's heart as he +realized the pitiful condition and shocking emaciation of his friend. He +put his arm gently about him, and thus they sat until the journey's end. +In New York they separated. + +Aladdin rested that night and boarded an early morning train for Boston. +He settled himself contentedly behind a newspaper, and fell to gathering +news of the army. But it was difficult to read. A sentence beginning +like this: "Rumors of a savage engagement between the light horse +under" would shape itself like this: "I am going to see Margaret +to-morrow--to-morrow--to-morrow--I am going to see Margaret +to-morrow-tomorrow--and God is good--is good--is good." + +Oddly enough, there was another man in the car who was having precisely +the same difficulty in deciphering his newspaper. At about the same +time they both gave up the attempt; and their eyes met. And they laughed +aloud. And presently, seated together, they fell into good talk, but +each refrained pointedly from asking the other where he was going. + +With a splendid assumption of innocence, they drove together across +Boston, and remarking nothing on the coincidence, each distinctly heard +the other checking his luggage for Portland, Maine. + +Side by side they rolled out of Portland and saw familiar trees and +hills go by. Presently Aladdin chuckled: + +"Where are you going, Peter, anyway?" he said. + +"Just where you are," said Peter. + + + + +XXVIII + + +"Peter," said Aladdin, presently, "it seems to me that for two such old +friends we are lacking in confidence. I know precisely what you are +thinking about, and you know precisely what I am. We mustn't play the +jealous rivals to the last; and to put it plainly, Peter, if God is +going to be good to you instead of me, why, I'm going to try and thank +God just the same. A personal disappointment is a purely private matter +and has no license to upset old ties and affections. Does it occur to +you that we are after the same thing and that one of us isn't going to +get it?" + +"We won't let it make any difference," said Peter, stoutly. + +"That's just it," said Aladdin. "We mustn't." + +"The situation--" Peter began. + +"Is none the less difficult, I know. Here we are with a certain amount +of leave to occupy as we each see fit. And, unfortunately, there's only +one thing which seems fit to either of us. And, equally unfortunately, +it's something we can't hold hands and do at the same time. Shall I go +straight from the station to Mrs. Brackett's and wait until you've had +your say, Peter?--not that I want to wait very long," he added. + +"That wouldn't be at all fair," said Peter. + +"Do you mind," said Aladdin after a pause, "telling me about what your +chances are?" + +Peter reddened uncomfortably. + +"I'm afraid they're not very good, 'Laddin," he said. "She--she said +she wasn't sure. And that's a good deal more apt to mean nothing than +everything, but I can't straighten my life out till I'm sure." + +"My chances," said Aladdin, critically, "shouldn't by rights be anywhere +near as good as yours, but as long as they remain chances I feel just +the same as you do about yours, and want to get things straightened out. +But if I were any kind of a man, I'd drop it, because I'm not in her +class." + +"Nonsense," said Peter. + +"No, I'm not," said Aladdin, gloomily. "I know that. But, Peter, what is +a man going to do, a single, solitary, pretty much good-for-nothing man, +with three great bouncing Fates lined up against him?" + +Peter laughed his big, frank laugh. + +"Shall we chuck the whole thing," said Aladdin, "until it's time to go +back to the army?" + +"No," said Peter, "that would be shirking; it's got to be settled one +way or another very quickly." He became grave again. + +"I think so, too, Peter," said Aladdin. "And I think that if she takes +one of us it will be a great sorrow for the other." + +"And for her," said Peter, quietly. + +"Perhaps," said Aladdin, whimsically, "she won't take either of us." + +"That," said Peter, "should be a great sorrow for us both." + +"I know," said Aladdin. "Anyway, there's got to be sorrow." + +"I think I shall bear it better," said Peter, "if she takes you, +'Laddin." + +A flash of comparison between his somewhat morbid and warped self and +the bigness and nobility of his friend passed through Aladdin's mind. He +glanced covertly at the strong, emaciated face beside him, and noted the +steadiness and purity of the eyes. A little quixotic flame, springing +like an orchid from nothing, blazed suddenly in his heart, and for the +instant he was the better man of the two. + +"I hope she takes you, Peter," he said. + +They rolled on through the midsummer woods, heavy with bright leaves and +waist-deep with bracken; little brooks, clean as whistles, piped away +among immaculate stones, and limpid light broken by delicious shadows +fell over all. + +"Who shall ask her first?" said Aladdin. Peter smiled. "Shall we toss +for it?" said Aladdin. Peter laughed gaily. "Do you really want it to be +like that?" he said. + +"What's the use of our being friends," said Aladdin, "if we are not +going to back each other up in this of all things?" + +"Right!" said Peter. "But you ought to have the first show because you +mentioned it first." + +"Rubbish!" said Aladdin. "We'll toss, but not now; we'll wait till we +get there." + +Peter looked at his watch. + +"Nearly in," he said. + +"Yes," said Aladdin. "I know by the woods." + +"Did you telegraph, by any chance?" said Peter. "Because I didn't." + +"Nor I," said Aladdin; "I didn't want to be met." + +"Nor I," said Peter. + +"The sick man and the lame man will take hands and hobble up the hill," +said Aladdin. "And whatever happens, they mustn't let anything make any +difference." + +"No," said Peter, "they mustn't." + + + + +XXIX + + +Our veterans walked painfully through the town and up the hill; nor were +they suffered to go in peace, for right and left they were recognized, +and people rushed up to shake them by the hands and ask news of such an +one, and if Peter's bullet was still in him, and if it was true, which +of course they saw it wasn't, that Aladdin had a wooden leg. Aladdin, +it must be owned, enjoyed these demonstrations, and in spite of his +lameness strutted a little. But Peter, white from the after effects of +his wound and weary with the long travel, did not enjoy them at all. +Then the steep pitch of the hill was almost too much for him, and now +and again he was obliged to stop and rest. + +The St. Johns' house stood among lilacs and back from the street by the +breadth of a small garden. In the rear were large grounds, fields, and +even woods. The place had two entrances, one immediately in front of the +house for people on foot, and the other, a quarter of a mile distant, +for people driving. This latter, opening from a joyous country lane +of blackberry-vines and goldenrod, passed between two prodigious round +stones, and S-ed into a dark and stately wood. Trees, standing gladly +where God had set them, made a screen, impenetrable to the eye, between +the gateway and the house. + +Here Peter and Aladdin halted, while Aladdin sent a coin spinning into +the air. + +"Heads!" called Peter. + +Aladdin let the piece fall to the ground, and they bent over it eagerly. + +"After you," said Peter, for the coin read, "Tails." + +Aladdin picked up the coin, and hurled it far away among the trees. + +"That's our joint sacrifice to the gods, Peter," he said. + +Peter gave him five cents. + +"My share," he said. + +"Peter," said Aladdin, "I will ask her the first chance I get, and if +there's nothing in it for me, I will go away and leave the road clear +for you. Come." + +"No," said Peter; "you've got your chance now. And here I wait until you +send me news." + +"Lord!" said Aladdin, "has it got to be as sudden as this?" + +"Let's get it over," said Peter. + +"Very good," said Aladdin. "I'll go. But, Peter, whatever happens, I +won't keep you long in suspense." + +"Good man," said Peter. + +Aladdin turned his face to the house like a man measuring a distance. He +drew a deep breath. + +"Well--here goes," he said, and took two steps. + +"Wait, 'Laddin," said Peter. + +Aladdin turned. + +"Can I have your pipe?" + +"Of course." + +Aladdin turned over his pipe and pouch. "I'm afraid it's a little +bitter," he said. + +Again he started up the drive; but Peter ran after him. + +"'Laddin," he cried, "wait--I forgot something." + +Aladdin came back to meet him. + +"Aladdin," said Peter, "I forgot something." He held out his hand, and +Aladdin squeezed it. + +"Aladdin," said Peter, "from the bottom of my heart I wish you luck." + +When they separated again there were tears in the eyes of both. + +Just before the curtain of trees quite closed the view of the gate, +Aladdin turned to look at Peter. Peter sat upon one of the big stones +that marked the entrance, smoking and smoking. He had thrown aside his +hat, and his hair shone in the sun. There was a kind of wistfulness in +his poise, and his calm, pure eyes were lifted toward the open sky. A +great hero-worship surged in Aladdin's heart, and he thought that there +was nothing that he would not do for such a friend. "He gave you your +life once," said a little voice in Aladdin's heart; "give him his. He is +worth a million of you; don't stand in his way." + +Aladdin turned and went on, and the well-known house came into view, but +he saw only the splendid, wistful man at the gate, waiting calmly, as a +gentleman should, for life or death, and smoking smoking. + +Even as he made his resolve, a lump of self-pity rose in Aladdin's +throat. That was the old Adam in him, the base clay out of which springs +the fair flower of self-sacrifice. + +He tried a variety of smiles, for he wished to be easy in the difficult +part which he had so suddenly, and in the face of all the old years, +elected to play. "He must know by the look of me," said Aladdin, "that I +do not love her any more, for, God help me, I can't say it." + +He found her on the broad rear veranda of the house. And instead of +going up to her and taking her in his arms,--for he had planned this +meeting often, as the stars could tell, he stood rooted, and said: + +"Hallo, Margaret!" + +He acted better than he knew, for the great light which had blazed for +one instant in her eyes on first seeing him went out like a snuffed +candle, and he did not see it or know that it had blazed. Therefore his +own cruelty was hidden from him, and his part became easier to play. +They shook hands, and even then, if he had not been blinded with the +egotism of self-sacrifice, he might have seen. That was his last chance. +For Margaret's heart cried to her, "It is over," and in believing it, +suddenly, and as she thought forever, an older sweetness came in her +face. + +"You've changed, Aladdin," she said. + +"Yes, I'm thinner, if possible," said Aladdin, "almost willowy. Do you +think it's becoming?" + +"I am not sure," said Margaret. "The fact remains that I'm more than +glad to see you." + +Aladdin fumbled for speech. + +"I'm still a little lame, you see," he said apologetically, and took +several steps to show. + +"Very!" said Margaret, in such a voice that Aladdin wondered what she +meant. + +"But it doesn't hurt any more." + +"Then that's all right." + +"Where's Jack?" he asked at length. + +Margaret became very grave. + +"I'm afraid we've betrayed our trust, Aladdin," she said. "Because only +yesterday he slipped away and left a little note to say that he was +going to enlist. We're very much distressed about it." + +"Perhaps it's better so," said Aladdin, "if he really wanted to go. Did +he leave any address?" + +"None whatever; he simply vanished." + +"Ungrateful little brute!" said Aladdin. Then he bethought him of Peter. +"I'll come back later, Margaret," he said, "but it behooves me to go and +look up the good Mrs. Brackett." + +He hardly knew how he got out of the house. He felt like a criminal who +has been let off by the judge. + +The sun was now low, and the shadows long and black. Aladdin found Peter +where he had left him, balancing on the great stone at the entrance, and +sending up clouds of smoke. He rose when he saw Aladdin, and he looked +paler and more worn. "Peter," said Aladdin, "from the bottom of my heart +I wish you luck." + +Aladdin had never seen just such a look as came into Peter's eyes; at +once they were full of infinite pity, and at peace with the whole world. + +"Peter," said Aladdin, "give me back my pipe." His voice broke in spite +of himself, for he had given up golden things. "I--" he said, "I'll wait +here a little while, but if--if all goes well, Peter, don't you bother +to come back." + +They clasped hands long and in silence. Then Peter turned with a gulp, +and, his weakness a thing of the past, went striding up the driveway. +But Aladdin sat down to wait. And now a great piping of tree-frogs arose +in all that country. Aladdin waited for a long time. He waited until +the day gave way to twilight and the sun went down. He waited until the +twilight turned to dark and the stars came out. He waited until, after +all the years of waiting and longing, his heart was finally at peace. +And then he rose to go. + +For Peter had not yet come. + + + + + +BOOK III + + + "Where are the tall men that marched on the right, + That marched to the battle so handsome and tall? + They 've been left to mark the places where they saw the foemen's faces, + For the fever and the lead took them all, Jenny Orde, + The fever and the lead took them all. + + "I found him in the forefront of the battle, Kenny Orde, + With the bullets spitting up the ground around him, + And the sweat was on his brow, and his lips were on his sword, + And his life was going from him when I found him. + + "We lowered him to rest, Jenny Orde, + With your picture on his breast, Jenny Orde, + And the rumble of pursuit was the regiment's salute + To the man that loved you best, Jenny Orde." + + + + +XXX + + +As a dam breaking gives free passage to the imprisoned waters, and they +rush out victoriously, so Vicksburg, starving and crumbling in the West, +was about to open her gates and set the Father of Waters free forever. +That was where the Union hammer, grasped so firmly by strong fingers +that their knuckles turned white, was striking the heaviest blows +upon the cracking skull of the Confederacy. On the other hand, +Chancellorsville had verged upon disaster, and the powers of Europe +were waiting for one more Confederate victory in order to declare the +blockade of Southern ports at an end, and to float a Southern loan. +That a Confederate victory was to be feared, the presence in Northern +territory of Lee, grasping the handle of a sword, whose splendid blade +was seventy thousand men concentrated, testified. That Lee had lost the +best finger of his right hand at Chancellorsville was but job's comfort +to the threatened government at Washington. That government was still, +after years of stern fighting, trying generals and finding them wanting. +But now the Fates, in secret conclave, weighed the lots of Union and +Disunion; and that of Disunion, though glittering and brilliant like +gold, sank heavily to the ground, as a great eagle whose wing is broken +by the hunter's bullet comes surely if fiercely down, to be put to +death. + +Early on the morning of July 1, 1863, Lee found himself in the +neighborhood of a small and obscure town named Gettysburg. A military +invasion is the process of occupying in succession a series of towns. +To occupy Gettysburg, which seemed as possible as eating breakfast, Lee +sent forward a division of a corps, and followed leisurely with all his +forces. But Gettysburg and the ridges to the west of Gettysburg were +already occupied by two brigades of cavalry, and those, with a cockiness +begotten of big lumps of armed friends approaching from the rear, +determined to go on occupying. This, in a spirit of great courage, with +slowly increasing forces, against rapidly increasing forces, they did, +until the brisk and pliant skirmish which opened the business of the +day had grown so in weight and ferocity that it was evident to the least +astute that the decisive battle of the New World was being fought. + + + + +XXXI + +There was a pretty girl in Manchester, Maryland (possibly several, but +one was particularly pretty), and Aladdin, together with several young +officers (nearly all officers were young in that war) of the Sixth Army +Corps, rather flattered himself that he was making an impression. He was +all for making impressions in those days. Margaret was engaged to +marry Peter--and a pretty girl was a pretty girl. The pretty girl of +Manchester had several girls and several officers to tea on a certain +evening, and they remained till midnight, making a great deal of +noise and flirting outrageously in dark corners. Two of the girls got +themselves kissed, and two of the officers got their ears boxed, and +later a glove each to stick in their hat-bands. At midnight the party +broke up with regret, and the young officers, seeking their quarters, +turned in, and were presently sleeping the sleep of the constant in +heart. But Aladdin did not dream about the pretty girl of Manchester, +Maryland. When he could not help himself--under the disadvantage of +sleep, when suddenly awakened, or when left alone--his mind harped upon +Margaret. And often the chords of the harping were sad chords. But on +this particular night he dreamed well. He dreamed that her little feet +did wrong and fled for safety unto him. What the wrong was he knew +in his dream, but never afterward--only that it was a dreadful, +unforgivable wrong, not to be condoned, even by a lover. But in his +dream Aladdin was more than her lover, and could condone anything. So +he hid her feet in his hands until those who came to arrest them had +passed, and then he waked to find that his hands were empty, and the +delicious dream over. He waked also to find that it was still dark, +and that the Sixth Army Corps was to march to a place called Taneytown, +where General Meade had headquarters. He made ready and presently was +riding by his general at the head of a creaking column, under the starry +sky. In the great hush and cool that is before a July dawn, God showed +himself to the men, and they sang the "Battle-hymn of the Republic," but +it sounded sweetly and yearningly, as if sung by thousands of lovers: + + Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord: + He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; + He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword + His truth is marching on. + +The full sunlight gives man poise and shows him the practical side of +things, but in the early morning and late at night man is seldom quite +rational. He weakly allows himself to dwell upon what was not, is not, +and will not be. And so Aladdin, during the first period of that march, +pretended that Margaret was to be his and that all was well. + +A short distance out of Manchester the column met with orders from +General Meade and was turned westward toward Gettysburg. With the +orders came details of the first day's fight, and Aladdin learned of the +officer bringing them, for he was a Maine man, that Hamilton St. John +was among the dead. Aladdin and the officer talked long of the poor boy, +for both had known him well. They said that he had not been as brilliant +as John, nor as winning as Hannibal, but so honest and reliable, so +friendly and unselfish. They went over his good qualities again and +again, and spoke of his great strength and purity, and of other things +which men hold best in men. + +And now they were riding with the sun in their eyes, and white dust +rolled up from the swift feet of horses and men. Wild roses and new-mown +grass filled the air with delightful fragrance, and such fields as were +uncut blazed with daisies and buttercups. Over the trimmed lawns about +homesteads yellow dandelions shone like stars in a green sky. Men, +women, and children left their occupations, and stood with open mouths +and wide eyes to see the soldiers pass. The sun rose higher and the day +became most hot, but steadily, unflinchingly as the ticking of a clock, +the swift, bleeding, valiant feet of the Sixth Army Corps stepped off +the miles. And the men stretched their ears to hear the mumbled distant +thunder of artillery--that voice of battle which says so much and tells +so little to those far off. The Sixth Corps felt that it was expected to +decide a battle upon Northern soil for the North, and marching in +that buoyant hope, left scarcely a man, broken with fatigue and +disappointment, among the wild flowers by the side of the way. + +If you have ever ridden from Cairo to the Pyramids you will remember +that at five miles' distance they look as huge as at a hundred yards, +and that it is not until you actually touch them with your hand that you +even begin to realize how wonderfully huge they really are. It was +so with the thunders of Gettysburg. They sounded no louder, and they +connoted no more to the column now in the immediate vicinage of the +battle, than they had to its far-distant ears. But presently the +column halted behind a circle of hills, and beheld white smoke pouring +heavenward as if a fissure had opened in the earth and was giving forth +steam. And they beheld in the heavens themselves tiny, fleecy white +clouds and motionless rings, and they knew that shells were bursting and +men falling upon the slopes beyond the hills. + +A frenzy of eagerness seized upon the tired feet, and they pressed +upward, lightly, like dancers' feet. Straps creaked upon straining +breasts, and sweat ran in bubbles. Then the head of the column reached +the ridge of a hill, and its leaders saw through smarting eyes a great +horseshoe of sudden death. + + + + +XXXII + + +That morning Peter Manners had received a letter, but he had not had a +chance to open and read it. It was a letter that belonged next to his +heart, as he judged by the writing, and next to his heart, in a secure +pocket, he placed it, there to lie and give him strength and courage for +the cruel day's work, and something besides the coming of night to look +forward to. For the rest, he went among the lines, and smiled like a boy +released from school to see how silently and savagely they fought. + +The Sixth Corps rested wherever there was shade along the banks of Rock +Creek, and gathered strength and breath for whatever work should be +assigned to it. + +Aladdin, sharing a cherry-pie with a friend, shivered with excitement, +for there was a terrific and ever-increasing discharge of cannons and +muskets on the left, and it seemed that the time to go forward again and +win glory was at hand. Presently one came riding back from the battle. +His face was shining with delight, and, sitting like a centaur to +the fiery plunges of his horse, he swung his hat and shouted. It was +Sedgwick's chief of staff, McMahon, and he brought glorious news, for +he said that the corps was to move toward the heavy firing, where the +fighting was most severe. + +Then the whole corps sprang to its feet and went forward, tearing down +the fences in its path and trampling the long grass in the fields. A +mile away the long, flowery slopes ended in a knobbed hill revealed +through smoke. That was Little Round Top, and its possession meant +victory or defeat. The corps was halted and two regiments were sent +forward up the long slope. To them the minutes seemed moments. They went +like a wave over the crest to the right of the hill, and poured down +into the valley beyond. Here the blue flood of men banked against a +stone wall, spreading to right and left, as the waters of a stream +spread the length of a dam. Then they began to fire dreadfully into the +faces of their enemy, and to curse terribly, as is proper in battle. +Bullets stung the long line like wasps, and men bit the sod. + +Aladdin was ordered to ride up Little Round Top for information. +Half-way up he left his horse among the boulders and finished the +laborious ascent on foot. At the summit he came upon a leaderless +battery loading and firing like clockwork, and he saw that the rocks +were strewn with dead men in light-blue Zouave uniforms, who looked as +if they had fallen in a shower from the clouds. Many had their faces +caved in with stones, and terrible rents showed where the bayonet +had been at work, for in this battle men had fought hand to hand like +cave-dwellers. Bullets hit the rocks with stinging blows, and round +shot screamed in the air. Sometimes a dead man would be lifted from +where he lay and hurled backward, while every instant men cried hoarsely +and joined the dead. In the midst of this thunder and carnage, Aladdin +came suddenly upon Peter, smiling like a favorite at a dance, and +shouted to him. They grinned at each other, and as Aladdin grinned he +looked about to see where he could be of use, and sprang toward a gun +half of whose crew had been blasted to death by a bursting shell. The +sweat ran down his face, and already it was black with burning powder. +The flash of the guns set fire to the clothing of the dead and wounded +who lay in front, and on the recoil the iron-shod wheels broke the +bones of those lying behind. It was impossible to know how the fight was +going. It was only possible to go on fighting. + +There was a voice in front of the battery that kept calling so terribly +for water that it turned cold the stomachs of those that heard. It +came from a Confederate, a general officer, who had been wounded in +the spine. Occasionally it was possible to see him through the smoke. +Sometimes a convulsion seized him, and he beat the ground with his whole +body, as a great fish that has been drawn from the water beats the deck +of a vessel. It was terrible to look at and hear. Bullets and shot tore +the ground about the man and showered him with dust and stones. Aladdin +shook his canteen and heard the swish of water. It seemed to him, and +his knees turned to water at the thought, that he must go out into that +place swept by the fire of both sides, and give relief to his enemy. +He did not want to go, and fear shook him; but he threw down the rammer +which he had been serving, and drawing breath in long gasps, took a step +forward. His resolve came too late. A blue figure slipped by him and +went down the slope at a run. It was Manners. They saw him kneel by the +dying Confederate in the bright sunlight, and then smoke swept between +like a wave of fog. The red flashes of the guns went crashing into the +smoke, and on all sides men fell. But presently there came a star-shaped +explosion in the midst of the smoke, hurling it back, and they saw +Manners again. He was staggering about with his hands over his eyes, +and blood was running through his fingers. Even as they looked, a shot +struck him in the back, and he came down. They saw his splendid square +chest heaving, and knew that he was not yet dead. Then the smoke closed +in, but this time another figure was hidden by the smoke. For no sooner +did Aladdin see Peter fall than he sprang forward like a hound from the +leash. Aladdin kneeled by Manners, and as he kneeled a bullet struck his +hat from his head, and a round shot, smashing into the rocky ground +a dozen feet away, filled his eyes with dirt and sparks. There was a +pungent smell of brimstone from the furious concussions of iron against +rock. A bullet struck the handle of Aladdin's sword and broke it. He +unstopped his canteen and pressed the nozzle to Manners' lips. Manners +sucked eagerly, like an infant at its mother's breast. A bullet struck +the canteen and dashed it to pieces. The crashing of the cannon was like +close thunder, and the air sang like the strings of an instrument. But +Aladdin, so cool and collected he was, might have been the target for +praises and roses flung by beauties. He put his lips close to Peter's +ear, and spoke loudly, for the noise of battle was deafening. + +"Is it much, darlint?" + +Manners turned his bleeding eyes toward Aladdin. + +"Go back, you damn little fool!" he said. + +"Peter, Peter," said Aladdin, "can't you see?" + +"No, I can't. I'm no use now. Go back; go back and give 'em hell!" + +Aladdin endeavored to raise Peter in his arms, but was not strong +enough. + +"I can't lift you, I can't lift you," he said. + +"You can't," said Peter. "Bless you for coming, and go back." + +"Shut up, will you?" cried Aladdin, savagely. "Where are you hit?" + +"In the back," said Peter, "and I'm done for." + +"The hell you are!" said Aladdin. Tears hotter than blood were running +out of his eyes. "What can I do for you, Peter?" he said in a husky +voice. + +Manners' blackened fingers fumbled at the buttons of his coat, but he +had not the strength to undo them. + +"It's there, 'Laddin," he said. + +"What's there?" said Aladdin. He undid the coat with swift, clever +fingers. + +"Let me hold it in my hands," said Peter. + +"Is it this--this letter--this letter from Margaret?" asked Aladdin, +chokingly, for he saw that the letter had not been opened. + +A shower of dirt and stones fell upon them, and a shell burst with a +sharp crash above their heads. + +"Yes," said Peter. "Give it to me. I can't ever read it now." + +"I can read it for you," said Aladdin. He was struggling with a sob that +wanted to tear his throat. + +"Will you? Will you?" cried Peter, and he smiled like a beautiful child. + +"Sure I will," said Aladdin. + +With the palm of his hand he pressed back the streaming sweat from his +forehead twice and three times. Then, having wiped his hands upon his +knees, he drew the battered fragment of his sword, and using it as a +paper-knife, opened the letter carefully, as a man opens letters which +are not to be destroyed. Then his stomach turned cold and his tongue +grew thick and burred. For the letter which Margaret had written to her +lover was more cruel than the shell which had blinded his eyes and the +bullet which was taking his life. + +"'Laddin--" this in a fearful voice. + +"Yes." + +"Thank God. I thought you'd been hit. Why don't you read?" + +Aladdin's eyes, used to reading in blocks of lines rather than a word at +a time, had at one glance taken in the purport of Margaret's letter, +and his wits had gone from him. She called herself every base and cruel +name, and she prayed her lover to forgive her, but she had never had the +right to tell him that she would marry him, for she had never loved him +in that way. She said that, God forgive her, she could not keep up the +false position any longer, and she wished she was dead. + +"There's a man at the bottom of this," thought Aladdin. He caught a +glimpse of Peter's poor, bloody face and choked. + +"I--it--the sheets are mixed," he said presently. "I'm trying to find +the beginning. There are eight pages," he went on, "fighting for time," +and they 're folded all wrong, and they're not numbered or anything." + +Peter waited patiently while Aladdin fumbled with the sheets and tried, +to the cracking-point, to master the confusion in his mind. + +Suddenly God sent light, and he could have laughed aloud. Not in vain +had he pursued the muse and sought after the true romance in the far +country where she sweeps her skirts beyond the fingers of men. Not in +vain had he rolled the arduous ink-pots and striven manfully for the +right word and the telling phrase. The chance had come, and the years of +preparation had not been thrown away. He knew that he was going to +make good at last. His throat cleared of itself, and the choking phlegm +disappeared as if before a hot flame of joy. His voice came from between +his trembling lips clear as a bell, and the thunder of battle rolled +back from the plain of his consciousness, as, slowly, tenderly, and +helped by God, he began to speak those eight closely lined pages which +she should have written. + +"My Heart's Darling--" he began, and there followed a molten stream of +golden and sacred words. + +And the very soul of Manners shouted aloud, for the girl was speaking to +him as she had never spoken before. + + + + +XXXIII + + +When the fighting was over for that day, Aladdin wrote as follows to +Margaret: + +MARGARET DEAR: Peter was shot down to-day, while doing more than his +duty by his enemies and by his country and by himself, which was always +his way. He will not live very long, and you must come to him if it +is in any way possible. His love for you makes other loves seem very +little, and I think it would be better that you should walk the streets +than that you should refuse to come to him now. He had a letter from +you, which God, knowing about, blinded him so that he could not read it, +and he believes that you love him and are faithful to him. It is very +merciful of God to let him believe that. He must not be undeceived now, +and you must come and be lovely to him and pretend and pretend, and make +his dying beautiful. I have the right to ask this of you, for, next to +Peter, I was the one that loved you most. And when I made you think I +didn't I lied. I lied because I felt that I was not worthy, and I loved +you enough to want you to belong to the best man God ever made, and I +loved him too. And that was why it was. I tell you because I think you +must have wondered about it sometimes. But it was very hard to do, and +because I did it, and because Peter is what he is, you must come to him +now. If God will continue to be merciful, you will get here in time. I +hope I may be on hand to see you, but I do not know. Hamilton is gone, +and Peter is going, and there will be a terrible battle to-morrow, and +thousands of poor lads will lie on this field forever. And here, one way +or another, the war will be decided. I have not the heart to write to +you any more, my darling. You will come to Peter, I know, and all will +be as well as it can be. I pray to God that I too shall live to see you +again, and I ask him to bless you and keep you for ever and ever. Always +I see your dear face before me in the battle, and sometimes at night +God lets me dream of you. I am without dogma, sweetest of all possible +sweethearts, but this creed I say over and over, and this creed I +believe: I believe in one God, Maker of heaven and Margaret. + + Angels guard you, darling. + + ALADDIN. +GETTYSBURG, July 2, 1863. + + + + + +XXXIV + + +On the morning of the third day of July, young Hannibal St. John shaved +his face clean and put himself into a new uniform. The old nth Maine was +no longer a regiment, but a name of sufficient glory. On three occasions +it had been shot to pieces, and after the third the remaining tens were +absorbed by other regiments. Hannibal's father had obtained for him +a lieutenancy in the United States artillery, Beau Larch was second +lieutenant in another Maine regiment, and John, the old and honored +colonel of the nth, was now, like Aladdin, serving on a staff. + +The battle began with a movement against Johnson on the Confederate +left, and one against Longstreet on their right. + +That against Longstreet became known in history as Farnsworth's charge, +and Aladdin saw it from the signal-station on Little Round Top. + +It was a series of blue lines, whose relations to one another could not +be justly estimated, because of the wooded nature of the ground, which +ran out into open places before fences and woods that spat red fire, and +became thinner and of less extension, as if they had been made of +wax and were melting under the blaze of the July sun. In that charge +Farnsworth fell and achieved glory. + +Aladdin held a field-glass to his eyes with trembling hands, and watched +the cruel mowing of the blue flowers. Sometimes he recognized a man that +he knew, and saw him die for his country. Three times he saw John St. +John in the forefront of the battle. The first time he was riding a +glorious black horse, of spirit and proportions to correspond with those +of the hero himself. The second time he was on foot, running forward +with a-halt in his stride, hatless, and carrying a great battle-flag. +Upon the top of it gleamed a gold eagle, that nodded toward the enemy. +A dozen blue-coated soldiers, straggling like the finishers in a +long-distance race, followed him with bayonets fixed. The little loose +knot of men ran across a field toward a stone wall that bounded it upon +the other side. Then white smoke burst from the wall, and they were +cut down to the last man. The smoke cleared, and Aladdin saw John lying +above the great flag which he had carried. A figure in gray leaped the +stone wall and ran out to him, stooped, and seizing the staff of the +flag in both hands, braced his hands and endeavored to draw it from +beneath the great body of the hero. But it would not come, and as he +bent closer to obtain a better hold, the back of a great clenched hand +struck him across the jaw, and he fell like a log. Other men in gray +leaped the wall and ran out. The flag came easily now, for St. John was +dead; but so was the gray brother, for his comrades raised him, and his +head hung back over his left shoulder, and they saw that his neck had +been broken like a dry stick. + +Aladdin had not been sent to that place to mourn, but to gain +information. Twice and three times he wiped his eyes clear of tears, and +then he swept his faltering glass along the lines of the enemy, until, +ranged in their center, he beheld a great semicircle of a hundred and +more iron and brass cannons, and movements of troops. Then Aladdin +scrambled down from Little Round Top to report what he had seen in the +center of the Confederate lines. + +At one o'clock the Confederate batteries, one hundred and fifteen pieces +in all, opened their tremendous fire upon the center of the Union lines. +Eighty cannons roared back at them with defiant thunder, and the blue +sky became hidden by smoke. Among the Union batteries horses began to +run loose, cannons to be splintered like fire-wood, and caissons to +explode. At these moments men, horses, fragments of men and horses, +stones, earth, and things living and things dead were hurled high into +the air with great blasts of flame and smoke, and it was possible to +hear miles of exultant yells from the hills opposite. But fresh cannon +were brought lumbering up at the gallop and rolled into the places of +those dismantled, shot and shell and canister and powder were rushed +forward from the reserve, and the grim, silent infantry, the great +lumbermen of Maine and Vermont, the shrill-voiced regiments from New +York, the shrewd farmers of Ohio and Massachusetts, the deliberate +Pennsylvanians, and the rest, lay closely, wherever there was shelter, +and moistened their lips, and gripped their rifles, and waited--waited. + +For two hours that terrible cannonading was maintained. The men who +served the guns looked like stokers of ships, for, such was the heat, +many of them, casting away first one piece of clothing and then another, +were half naked, and black sweat glistened in streams on their chests +and backs. As sight-seers crowd in eagerly by one door of a building +where there is an exhibition, and come reluctantly out by another and go +their ways, so the reserves kept pressing to the front, and the wounded +maintained an unceasing reluctant stream to the rear. + +A little before three o'clock Hannibal St. John had his right knee +smashed by the exploding of a caisson, and fell behind one of the guns +of his battery. He was so sure that he was to be killed on this day +that it had never occurred to him that he might be trivially wounded and +carried to the rear in safety. An expression of almost comical chagrin +came over his face, for life was nothing to him, and somewhere far above +the smoke a goodly welcome awaited him: that he knew. Men came with a +stretcher to carry him off, but he cursed them roundly and struggled +to his well knee. The cannon behind which he had fallen was about to be +discharged. + +"Give 'em hell!" cried Hannibal. + +As he spoke, the piece was fired, and leaping back on the recoil, as a +frenzied horse that breaks its halter, one of the wheels struck him +a terrible blow on the body, breaking all the ribs on that side and +killing him instantly. His face wore a glad smile, and afterward, when +Aladdin found him and took the gold locket from his pocket, and read the +inscription written, a great wonder seized men: + + July 3, 1863. + Nunc dimittis. + Te Deum laudamus. + +Thus in one battle fell the three strong hostages which an old man had +given to fortune. + + + + +XXXV + + +Three o'clock the Union batteries were ordered to be silent, for it was +well known to those in command that presently there would be a powerful +attack by infantry, for which the cannonade was supposed to have paved +the way with death and disorder, and it was necessary that the pieces +should be kept cool in order to be in efficient condition to grapple +with and suppress this attack. Sometimes a regiment, stung to a frenzy +of courage by bullets and the death of comrades, will rise from its +trench without the volition of its officers, and go frantically forward +against overwhelming odds. A different effect of an almost identical +psychological process is patience. Men will sometimes lie as quietly +under a rain of bullets, in order to get in one effective shot at an +enemy, as cattle in the hot months will lie under a rain of water to get +cool. It was so now. The whole Union army was seized by a kind of bloody +deliberation and lay like statues of men, while, for quarter of an hour +more, the Confederates continued to thunder from their guns. Now and +again a man felt lovingly the long black tube of a cannon to see if its +temperature was falling. Others came hurrying from the rear with relays +of powder, shot, shell, and canister. + +It seemed now to the Confederate leaders that the Union batteries had +been silenced, and that the time had come for Pickett, the Ney of the +South, to go forward with all his forces. Only Longstreet demurred and +protested against the charge. When Pickett asked him for the order to +advance he turned away his head sorrowfully and would not speak. Then +Pickett, that great leader of men, who was one half daring and one half +magnetism and all hero, said proudly: "I shall go forward, sir." And +turned to his lovers. + +Silence and smoke hung over Gettysburg. + +Presently out of the smoke on the Confederate side came three lines of +gray a mile long. Battle-flags nodded at intervals, and swords blazed in +the sun. + +Very deliberately and with pains about aiming, the Union batteries began +to hurl solid shot against the gray advance. Soon holes were bitten here +and there, and occasionally a flag went down, to be instantly snatched +up and waved defiantly. When Pickett, Pettigrew, and the splendid +brigade of Cadmus Wilcox had reached the bottom of the valley, their +organization was as unbroken as a parade. But there shell, instead of +round shot, met them, and men tasted death by fives and tens. But the +lines, drawing together, closed the spaces left by mortality, and the +flags began to approach each other. Then the gray men began to come +up the slope, and there were thousands of them. But shell yielded to +canister, and the muskets of the infantry sent out death in leaden +showers, so that the great charge began to melt like wax over heat, and +the flags hung close together like a trophy of battle in a chapel. But +still the gray men came. And now, in a storm of flame and smoke, they +reached the foremost cannons of the Union line, and planted their flags. +So much were they permitted for the glory of a lost cause. For a little, +men killed one another with the butts of guns, with bayonets, and with +stones, and then, as the overdrip of a wave broken upon an iron coast +trickles back through the stones of the beach to the ocean, so all +that was left of Pickett's great charge trickled back down the slope, +driblets of gray, running blood. For a little while longer the firing +continued. Battle-flags were gathered, and thrown together in sheaves. +There was a little broken cheering, and to all intents and purposes the +great war was at an end. + +Aladdin, broken with grief and fatigue, went picking his way among the +dead and wounded. He had lost Peter and Hannibal in that battle, and +Hamilton and John were dead; he alone remained, and it was not just. He +felt that the Great Reaper had spared the weed among the flowers, and +he was bitter against the Great Reaper. But there was one more sorrow +reserved for Aladdin, and he was to blaspheme against the God that made +him. + +There was still desultory firing from both armies. As when, on the +Fourth of July, you set off a whole bunch of firecrackers, there is +at first a crackling roar, and afterward a little explosion here and a +little explosion there, so Gettysburg must have sounded to the gods in +Olympus. Thunder-clouds begotten of the intense heat rolled across +the heavens from east to west, accentuating the streaming glory of +the setting sun, and now distant thunder rumbled, with a sound as of +artillery crossing a bridge. Drops of rain fell here and there. + +Aladdin heard himself called by name, "'Laddin, 'Laddin." + +As quickly as the brain is advertised of an insect's sting, so quickly +did Aladdin recognize the voice and know that his brother. Jack was +calling to him. He turned, and saw a little freckled boy, in a uniform +much too big for him, trailing a large musket. + +"Jack!" he cried, and rushed toward him with outstretched arms. "You +little beggar, what are you doin' here?" + +Jack grinned like one confessing to a successful theft of apples +belonging to a cross farmer. And then God saw fit to take away his life. +He dropped suddenly, and there came a rapid pool of blood where his face +had been. With his arms wrapped about the little figure that a moment +before had been so warlike and gay, Aladdin turned toward the heavens a +face of white flint. + +"I believe in one God, Maker of hell!" he cried. + +Thunder rumbled and rolled slowly across the battle-field from east, to +west. + +"I believe in one God, Maker of hell!" cried Aladdin, "Father of +injustice and doer of hellish deeds! I believe in two damnations, the +damnation of the living and the damnation of the dead." + +He turned to the little boy in his arms, and terrible sobs shook his +body, so that it appeared as if he was vomiting. After a while he turned +his convulsed face again to the sky. + +"Come down," he cried, "come down, you--" + +Far down the hill there was a puff of white smoke, and a merciful +bullet, glancing from a rock, struck Aladdin on the head with sufficient +force to stretch him senseless upon the ground. + +When the news of Gettysburg reached the Northern cities, lights were +placed in every window, and horns were blown as at the coming of a new +year. Senator Hannibal St. John had lost his three boys and the hopes of +his old age in that terrible fight, but he caused his Washington house +to be illuminated from basement to garret. + +And then he walked out in the streets alone, and the tears ran down his +old cheeks. + + + + +XXXVI + + +There had been a wedding in the hospital tent. Margaret bent over Peter +and kissed him goodby. She was in deep black, and by her side loomed a +great, dark figure, whose eyes were like caverns in the depths of which +burned coals. The great, dark man leaned heavily upon a stick, and did +not seem conscious of what was going on. The minister who had performed +the ceremony stood with averted face. Every now and then he moistened +his lips with the tip of his tongue. The wounded in neighboring cots +turned pitiful eyes upon the girl in black, for she was most lovely--and +very sad. Occasionally a throat was cleared. + +"When you come, darling," said the dying man, "there will be an end of +sorrow." + +"There will be an end of sorrow," echoed the girl. She bent closer to +him, and kissed him again. + +"It is very wonderful to have been loved," said Peter. Then his face +became still and very beautiful. A smile, innocent like that of a little +child, lingered upon his lips, and his blind eyes closed. + +St. John laid his hand upon Margaret's shoulder. + +A man, very tall and lean and homely, entered the tent. He was clad in +an exceedingly long and ill-fitting frock-coat. Upon his head was a high +black hat, somewhat the worse for wear. He turned a pair of very gentle +and pitying eyes slowly over those in the tent. + +Aladdin, his head almost concealed by bandages, sat suddenly upright +in a neighboring cot. A wild, unreasoning light was in his eyes, and +marking time with his hand, he burst suddenly into the "Battle Hymn of +the Republic" + + He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call + retreat; + He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat + Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet! + Our God is marching on. + +He sang on, and the wounded joined him with weak voices: + + In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, + With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me; + As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, + While God is marching on. + +The tall man who had entered, to whom every death was nearer than his +own, and to whom the suffering of others was as a crucifixion, removed +the silk hat from his head, and wiped his forehead with a colored +handkerchief. + +Margaret knelt by Aladdin and held his unconscious form in her arms. + +Outside, the earth was bathing in exquisite sunshine. + + + + +XXXVII + + +It was not long before Aladdin got back the strength of his body, but +the gray bullet which had come in answer to his cry against God, even +as the lightning came to Amyas Leigh, in that romance to which it is so +good to bow, had injured the delicate mechanism of his brain, so that +it seemed as if he would go down to the grave without memory of things +past, or power upon the hour. Indeed, the war ended before the surgeons +spoke of an operation which might restore his mind. He went under the +knife a little child, his head full of pictures, playthings, and fear of +the alphabet; he came forth made over, and turned clear, wondering eyes +to the girl at his side. And he held her hand while she bridged over the +years for him in her sweet voice. + +He learned that she had married Peter, making his death peaceful, and he +God-blessed her for so doing, while the tears ran down his cheeks. + +But much of Aladdin that had slept so long was to wake no more. For it +was spring when he woke, and waking, he fell in love with all living +things. + +One day he sat with Margaret on the porch of a familiar house, and +looked upon a familiar river that flowed silverly beyond the dark trees. + +Senator St. John, very old and very moving, came heavily out of the +house, and laid his hands upon the shoulders of Margaret and Aladdin. It +was like a benediction. + +"I have been thinking," said the senator, very slowly, and in the voice +of an old man, "that God has left some flowers in my garden." + +"Roses?" said Aladdin, and he looked at Margaret. + +"Roses perhaps," said the senator, "and withal some bittersweet, but, +better than these, and more, he has left me heart's-ease. This little +flower," continued the senator, "is sown in times of great doubt and +sorrow and trouble, and it will grow only for a good gardener, one who +has learned to bow patiently in all things to God's will, and to set his +feet valiantly against the stony way which God appoints. I call Margaret +'Heart's-ease,' and I call you, too, 'Heart's-ease,' Aladdin, for you +are becoming like a son to me in my declining years. Consider the +river, how it flows," said the old man, "smoothly to the sea, asking no +questions, and making no lamentations against the length of its days, +and receiving cheerfully into the steadfast current of its going alike +the bitter waters and the sweet." + +We have forgotten Aladdin's songs and the tunes which he made, for the +people's ear is not tuned to them any more. But that is a little thing. +It is pleasant to think of that night when, the knocking of his heart +against his ribs louder than the knocking of his hand upon her door, he +carried to Margaret's side the wonderful lamp which, years before, had +been lighted within him, and which, burning always, now high, now low, +like the rising and falling tides in the river, had at length consumed +whatever in his nature was little or base, until there was nothing +left save those precious qualities, love and charity, which fire cannot +calcine nor cold freeze. Also it is pleasant to think that little +children came of their love and sang about their everlasting fire. + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Aladdin O'Brien, by Gouverneur Morris + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALADDIN O'BRIEN *** + +***** This file should be named 5172.txt or 5172.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/7/5172/ + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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