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+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #52454 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/52454)
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-
-Project Gutenberg's Eben Holden's Last Day A-Fishing, by Irving
-Bacheller
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll
-have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using
-this ebook.
-
-Title: Eben Holden's Last Day A-Fishing
-
-Author: Irving Bacheller
-
-Release Date: June 30, 2016 [EBook #52454]
-Last Updated: March 12, 2018
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EBEN HOLDEN'S LAST DAY
-A-FISHING ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by David Widger from page images generously provided by the
-Internet Archive
-
-
-
-
-EBEN HOLDEN'. LAST DAY A-FISHING
-
-By Irving Bacheller Author Of “Eben Holden” “Silas Strong” Etc.
-Etc. New York And London Harper & Brothers Publishers 1907
-
-
-
-0006
-
-
-
-0007
-
-
-
-0009 A. BARTON HEPBURN FISHERMAN, HUNTER, FRIEND OF UNCLE EB, AND LOVER
-OF THE LAND IN WHICH HE DWELT, I DEDICATE THIS LITTLE VOLUME
-
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS
-
-EBEN HOLDEN'S LAST DAY A-FISHING
-
-I
-
-II
-
-III
-
-
-
-
-EBEN HOLDEN'S LAST DAY A-FISHING
-
-
-
-
-I
-
-8011
-
-9011
-
-NE morning in early June I was walking on a crowded thoroughfare. The
-earth had rolled suddenly into summer skies. Birds chattered in the
-parks, and I could hear a cock crow in a passing freight wagon. I
-stopped to listen, while he seemed to hurl defiance at his captors and
-all the noisy crowd, and bid them do their worst to him. His outcry put
-me in
-
-8012
-
-mind of my own imprisonment there in the rock-bound city. As I thought
-of it, I could see the green hills of the North all starred with
-dandelions; I could hear the full flow of the streams that pass between
-them—you know—and that evening we were on our way to Hillsborough.
-Uncle Eb, then a “likely boy” of eighty-six, and Elizabeth Brower
-and Lucinda Bisnette were still in the old home. We had quickly planned
-a holiday to be full of surprise and delight for them.
-
-They were in the midst of the days that are few and silent—those
-adorned with the fading flowers of old happiness and thoughts which are
-“the conclusion of the whole matter.” As for ourselves, we found
-them full of a peace and charm I would fain impart to those who read of
-them, if that
-
-8013
-
-were possible. I know well how feebly I shall do my task, but now, at
-last, a time is come when it seems to call me, and I can begin it with
-some hope and courage. I shall try not to write a book, nor a tale even,
-but mainly to gather a few flowers, now full grown, in the garden
-of remembrance. You that see it growing lovelier in the lengthening
-distance will understand me.
-
-Always, when our train went roaring into the quiet village, we used to
-look out of the car-window down across the river and a smooth stretch of
-fields into the edge of the little town. At a small, familiar opening in
-the shade-trees, almost half a mile from the train, we never failed to
-see the flicker of a white handkerchief. It signalled their welcome. And
-then—well, I doubt
-
-8014
-
-if any one may have in this world better moment. Yes—that was years
-ago, and there are strangers in the old home, but to this day every time
-I enter Hillsborough I look for that flicker of white, away off among
-the trees.
-
-That day the signal greeted us, and was only one of many joys, for it
-was a day of a thousand, warm, and full of the music of birds and
-of bees' wings and the odor of new blossoms and a great happiness.
-Elizabeth Brower stood at the gate, and beyond her we could see Uncle Eb
-on the veranda, sitting in his arm-chair. The dear woman put her fingers
-on her lips, and we knew what it meant. Uncle Eb had fallen asleep in
-the warm sunlight. We greeted her with hushed voices, and approached the
-venerable man, and sat down at his feet, smiling
-
-8015
-
-and looking up at his fine old face. He continued to sleep, all
-unconscious that we were near him. Soon we heard him call in his dreams,
-just above a whisper: “Here Fred! here Fred!” It was the name of
-our old dog, dead these many years. His nap must have taken him far
-back—perhaps into that long, westward journey through woods and
-fields. I took his hand in mine. He came out of his dreams with a start,
-and looked up at me.
-
-“What!” said he. “Wal, I declare.”
-
-He rose and clung to our hands and looked into our faces with a full
-heart.
-
-“A merry birthday!” I exclaimed.
-
-“See here, Bill Brower,” said he. “You've hearn o' the joy
-o' Paradise?”
-
-“Often,” I answered.
-
-8016
-
-“Wal, here's the key-note o' the song,” said Uncle Eb. “Now
-look here, Liz Brower,” he went on, “you tell 'Sindy we got
-to have the best dinner ever made by human hands. I'll bring some
-water.”
-
-Elizabeth, Uncle Eb, and that daughter of Grandma Bisnette were there.
-
-Hope and her mother went into the sitting-room, and I followed them,
-while Uncle Eb went to the well for water. She looked up at us proudly
-as we stood before her, side by side.
-
-“Turn around,” she said, “an' let me look at ye careful.”
-
-She surveyed the fit and material of Hope's gown with great
-satisfaction.
-
-“Look so ye was just goin' t' be married,” she remarked.
-
-We sat down presently upon the ancient hair-cloth sofa, with its knitted
-
-8017
-
-afghan of many colors lying folded against a curved arm. There were the
-old, plain, priceless things—the carpet, the pictures, a pyramid of
-plants and flowers in front of the large window, the centre-table, with
-its album and reading-lamp, the secretary and the what-not filled with
-books that were a part of our history.
-
-There were the ingredients of that receipt which, as it were, had made
-the intellectual cake of my boyhood: Josephus' History of the Jews
-(the flour, two heaping volumes); Ten Nights in a Bar-Room (the milk
-and water, one volume); Great Expectations, Bleak House), and David
-Copperfield (the sugar, three volumes); Pilgrim's Progress (the egg,
-one volume); Our Golden West (the spice, one volume); The Letters of
-Lord Chesterfield
-
-8018
-
-(the frosting, one large table volume); Wrigglesworth's Day of Doom
-(the fire that did the baking).
-
-Soon we found Uncle Eb with my boy David upon his knees on the veranda,
-and he was telling him the tale of The Witch's Bridle, which I had
-heard in my childhood, and we stood and listened. It was a relic of old
-Yankee folk-lore and immensely true.
-
-“Once there was a young man who lived with his father an' mother in
-a little village,” the story went. “An' there was a house in the
-village where a witch lived, an' it had a beautiful door. An' his
-mother told him that he must keep away from that house; but one night
-it looked so splendid that he opened the door an' went in, an' the
-witch spied him an' come and
-
-8019
-
-looked into his face an' he thought she was beautiful. An' she ast
-him to put on her bridle, but he said no. An' the ol' witch follered
-behind him as careful as a cat after a bird, an' what do ye s'pose
-she done?—waited until he was sound asleep an' put her bridle on
-him—that's what she done. Now, ye see, when a witch puts her bridle
-on any one it always turns him into a hoss, an' a witch's hoss can
-go right thro' the side of a house without makin' a hole in it,
-an' can jump over trees an' hills an' travel like the wind. She
-rode him high an' low, an' brought him back hum jest before daylight
-an' took off the bridle an' that changed him into a boy again. An'
-when he woke up he was tired out an' all of a tremble. An' ev'ry
-night the ol' witch come for him an' put on her bridle an'
-
-8020
-
-turned him into a hoss, an' rode him all over the hills an' valleys
-until he was about done fer, an' then fetched him back, an' ev'ry
-morning when he woke up he was a boy ag'in, an' was lame an' sore
-an' had a headache an' was sorry that he ever see the witch. He grew
-poor an' spindlin', an' he'd lay awake night after night to keep
-the witch away. But o' course he had to go to sleep some time, an'
-the minute he forgot himself she'd slip in an' put on the bridle
-an' away they'd go. An' he grew poorer an' poorer an' less
-an' less like a boy, an' more an' more like an animal. By an'
-by, he got used to bein' a hoss an' loved to go up in the air an'
-hadn't any more heart in him than my ol' mare.
-
-“Wal, one night, what d'ye s'pose happened? The witch come an'
-rode
-
-8021
-
-him away, an' when she got back, by an' by, an' took off his
-bridle, he never changed a hair, but stayed a hoss. Why? 'Cause the
-boy in him was all wore out an' dead as a door-nail. Fact is, hosses
-can stan' more'n men. An' the witch grew sick o' him, an' said
-she wanted a better hoss, an' give him a cut an' turned him loose in
-the sky. An' ev'ry night fer years he galloped over the house-tops
-as if he was tryin' to find suthin, an' when I went to bed I used
-to hear him whinny way up in the dark, an' it sounded suthin' like
-this:”
-
-Here he whinnied like the witch's horse, and went on:
-
-“Keep on the ground, Dave, an' mind yer elders, 'cause a boy that
-has his own head is apt to get it caught in the witch's bridle. Same
-way with a
-
-8022
-
-man, 'less he takes advice ev'ry day from the great Father of all.
-They's witches ev'rywhere, an' they're always lookin' fer a
-hoss to ride.”
-
-“See here,” said he, as soon as he discovered us, “you must all
-come out an' look at my garden.”
-
-“They want to rest,” Elizabeth objected.
-
-“No; we'd rather go with Uncle Eb,” said Hope, and we followed him
-to the garden.
-
-“Godfrey cordial! hear the birds!” Uncle Eb went on, as we took the
-path that crossed an edge of the clover meadow. “Lot of 'em been
-gettin' married, I guess. Don't do a thing but sing an' laugh
-an' holler—like a lot o' boys an' gals.”
-
-His strength had failed since we saw
-
-8023
-
-him last. He was bent a little farther, his hands trembled, a small task
-affected his breathing, but he was the same cheerful, keen-minded man.
-
-“Gardens are all right, but the sight of a hoe makes me shudder,”
-said I.
-
-“The hoe is a good teacher,” he answered. “Man that don't hoe
-his character ev'ry few days won't have any.”
-
-“My wife hoes mine,” I said.
-
-“An' does it kind o' careless.” He drew his hand over his mouth
-and cleared his throat and went on as if nothing had happened. “These
-things are a good deal like folks. Some grow up an' some grow down. I
-used to know a woman that looked like a turnip, and a gal that was like
-a flower, an' another that was like a pepper-plant, an' a man that
-was a reg'lar human onion.”
-
-8024
-
-“A garden always reminds me that it's about time to get your hook
-and line ready,” I suggested.
-
-He stopped and put his hand upon my arm. He glanced up at the sky, and
-seemed to note the direction of the wind.
-
-“Say, by mighty!” he exclaimed. “You stop, or you'll make
-trouble.”
-
-“Think of Paradise Valley,” I went on. “It will be green and
-sprinkled with blossoms, and the brook will be singing as it goes by.”
-
-“You quit!” he answered, with a little gesture of impatience.
-“Say!” he suggested, with enthusiasm, after a moment, “I
-wouldn't wonder but what the fish would bite—ye take it on the
-rapids there.”
-
-We returned to the house and he sat in his chair on the small veranda.
-
-8025
-
-Robins were building their nest on a shelf near him, and were busy with
-their fetching and weaving.
-
-“Look at the scalawags!” he laughed. “No, there ain't nothin'
-that's 'fraid o' me some way. I got a club one day an' tried to
-scare a mouse; but seems so she knew I was only foolin'. Now she's
-begun to bully me an' fetch her children right into my bedroom, an'
-I guess I'll have to git mad an' declare war.”
-
-I hailed a boy in the street, and sent him for a team, to be brought
-immediately after dinner.
-
-When we sat down to eat, Uncle Eb put the same old question:
-
-“Wal, how's ev'rything down there in the city?”
-
-“About as usual.”
-
-“Too many folks there,” he said,
-
-8026
-
-“an' they all look a leetle cross. I like t' pass the time o'
-day with ev'ry man I meet, but mighty Dinah! they's so many of
-'em!—there ain't no use tryin' t' be pleasant. I got t'
-showin' the whites o' my eyes as bad as any of 'em.” He spoke,
-laughingly, of a symphony concert to which we had taken him.
-
-“I'll never fergit the man with a p'inter,” he said, his head
-noddin with amusement. “How he could toss the music! It was like
-spreadin' hay.” Again his cheery voice, after a moment of silence:
-“No more meat! Hope Brower, if you don't eat yer dinner, you'll be
-put to bed.”
-
-After dinner I gathered up my tackle.
-
-“I dunno,” Uncle Eb remarked.
-
-“Great day for fishing,” I insisted.
-
-The team arrived, a lively pair of Morgan mares. Uncle Eb came out
-
-8027
-
-of the house in rubber boots, with his overcoat upon his arm.
-
-“I'm 'fraid you better not go,” said Elizabeth Brower from the
-door-step, with a look of anxiety, and now the trembling of his hands
-made me almost regret that I had tempted him.
-
-“See here,” said Uncle Eb, firmly, as he turned to my mother.
-“He's picked on me 'til I can't stan' it any longer. Ye
-couldn't keep me out o' that buggy with a gun.”
-
-I helped him in and took my place at his side, and away we went a pace
-of twelve miles to the hour, through town, across the flat, and up the
-stairway of the hills. We passed the old Hosper homestead.
-
-“What's become of the deacon?” I asked.
-
-“Dead; got sick o' life. Wouldn't
-
-8028
-
-eat or take any medicine; kind o' pined away.”
-
-“What was the trouble?”
-
-“Wal, ye know, he had to live with himself,” said Uncle Eb, “an'
-he wa'n'. what ye might call good comp'ny. He couldn't help it,
-an' I always felt kind o' sorry fer Hosper. They got him so scairt
-over there at the white church that he was 'fraid to live an'
-'fraid to die, an' fer a long time he didn't do either. He thought
-it was his duty to suffer. God had cursed the world, an' that was the
-reason why men had to sweat an' toil. Think o' his days—full o'
-fear an' repentence an' atonement an' hell an' ancient history.
-He kind o' straddled his span o' life. One foot was in the future
-an' the other in the past. No wonder he had the rheumatiz. Nobody
-liked him. He got to
-
-8029
-
-be a lonesome, sickly ol' man, I went to see him one day. Says I:
-
-“'Deacon, I wouldn't wonder if the fish 'u'd bite.'
-
-“'Fish!' says he, 'my mind ain't on fish. I'm thinkin'
-o' my immortal soul.'
-
-“'Man's soul is like his stummick,' says I. 'It ain't
-healthy 'less he can fergit it. Come an' have some fun.'.rdquo; We
-rode in silence until Uncle Eb went on:
-
-“He seemed to think that God was a kind of a bully, an' that he
-loved to make men cowards. It don't seem likely to me. I don't
-b'lieve He meant toil fer a curse nuther. I couldn't be happy
-'less I had suthin' to do. Seems 's 'o' them who wrote down
-the plans o' the Almighty made a mistake now an' then, an' it
-ain't no wonder if they
-
-8030
-
-did. No man can be perfect, specially when he takes holt o' so big a
-job. Prob'ly it was purty hot where they lived, an' work didn't
-agree with 'em. Now it looks to me as if that fust family couldn't
-'a' been very happy without a thing to do. I don't wonder that
-Cain an' Abel quarrelled. God must 'a' seen that the world lacked
-suthin' very important. So He blessed it with toil. I don't believe
-He ever intended to curse it, 'cause, if He did, ye got to own up that
-He ain't succeeded fust-rate.”
-
-We came to the top of Bowman's Hill and looked down into the little
-valley, and were both silent.
-
-“Time flies!” I remarked, presently.
-
-“Beats all,” Uncle Eb answered.
-
-The Brower farm had run down, as they say in the back country. The
-
-8031
-
-house and stable were in ill repair. Evil days had come to the neat and
-cleanly fireside, where in the old time Santa Claus had blessed us, and
-I had heard the cry of the swift and felt the touch of love and sorrow.
-
-The tenant, a man who showed the wear of hard times, put our team in the
-stable.
-
-“If you'd stayed here,” said he, with a glance at me, “this farm
-wouldn't 'a' looked as it does now.
-
-Uncle Eb smiled.
-
-“No,” said he; “the farm would 'a' looked better, but he'd
-'a' looked a dum sight wuss.”
-
-He cleared his throat, and spoke of the weather as if to soften the blow
-a little.
-
-I got my tackle ready while the man dug worms for Uncle Eb—an angler
-
-8032
-
-of the bait-and-sinker type. Soon we made our way slowly through the
-same old cow-path that wavered across the green slope now starred with
-soft, golden blossoms. It is curious, that conservatism of the cloven
-hoof, which, like water, follows its old path, having found the way of
-least resistance. In a few minutes we came near the rotted stump of Lone
-Pine.
-
-“Hats off!” said Uncle Eb, as he uncovered.
-
-In a second my hat was in my hand; or there, between our feet, was a
-lonely, half-forgotten grave—that of old Fred. Slowly, silently, we
-resumed our walk. My venerable friend was breathing hard. I supported
-him with my arm, and soon we sat down to rest upon a rock. The air was
-clear and still. There was not a cloud in the sky. A
-
-8033
-
-hawk flew across the flat near us, his white butcher's apron stained
-with blood. He was flying low, with some small creature in his talons.
-It made me break the silence, and I said:
-
-“There's a thing that puzzles me—the cruelty that is in all
-God's creation. It's a great slaughter-house, and everything that
-lives has the stain of blood upon it.”
-
-“It all teaches us that death ain't o' much account,” said Uncle
-Eb. “It looks like cruelty, an' most of us think it a curse. Death
-is a wonderful blessin'—that's the way it looks to me. Why, Bill
-Brower, ye've died twice already. Fust the child, then the boy, an'
-each time ye wove a new body. Bym by yer loom is wore out. Got t' go
-git a new one. Ye'll begin t' feel as if yer body was a kind of a
-bad fit.
-
-8034
-
-It'll be too small an' shabby an' un-comf'table.
-
-“I 'member a boy over'n Vermont by the name o' Lem Barker. Grew
-so fast that the fust he knew his clo's begun to pinch him, an' the
-bottoms of his pants wouldn't 'sociate with his shoe-leather, an'
-his hands was way down below his coat sleeves, an' the old suit was
-wore so thin he didn't dast run er rassle fer fear it would bust an'
-drop off him. All he could do was to set an' think an' talk
-an' chaw ter-baccer an' walk as careful as a hen lookin' fer
-grasshoppers. He hadn't any confidence in that old suit, an'
-was kind o' 'fraid of it. One day he see a bear, an' it come
-nec'sary fer him to move quick, an' he split his clo's, an' hed
-to go hum in a rain-barrel. At fust he thought it was bad luck, but when
-his
-
-8035
-
-father got him a new suit he see that he was mistaken. We old folks are
-a good deal like poor Lem. We toddle around in our old clo's an' are
-a leetle bit afraid of 'em. It would be lucky for us if we could meet
-a bear. I'd like to go down to the brook there on the run jest as
-I used to. But I wouldn't dast try it. My body don't fit my
-spirit—that's what's the matter. Got to go an' have my measure
-took, an' throw 'way the old suit. An' I'll tell ye, Bill, I
-need a better outfit than what I've ever had—suthin' stouter-wove
-an' han'somer an' more durable—suthin' fit fer a man. I'm
-goin' to hev it—call that a curse?”
-
-He looked at his bony, trembling hands, and went on:
-
-“It's all faded an' kind o' cold an' threadbare. My back
-couldn't carry
-
-8036
-
-one small boy in a basket these days, but I'd like t' carry all
-the boys in the county, an' mebbe some time I'll have a back broad
-'nough. That'll be when school's dismissed, an' I go off t'
-seek my fortune, good deal as you did. I 'member how you went an'
-got some new clo's there 'n New York fust thing. An' they was
-splendid—better 'n any ye could git in Hillsborough.”
-
-We heard footsteps in a moment, and I turned and saw Jed Feary
-approaching us. He was past eighty years of age, and his hair and beard
-were white, and he walked slowly with a cane. He stopped near us, and
-began to laugh as we greeted him.
-
-“Heard you was here,” he said, “an' Rans Walker druv me down the
-road.”
-
-“Stump ye t' rassle with me,” said Uncle Eb, with a smile.
-
-8037
-
-“Wait 'til I've throwed the rheumatiz, an' then I'll tackle
-you,” said the poet.
-
-“How are you, Uncle Jed?” was my query.
-
-“As you see—the trembling hand an' slippered pantaloon.”
-
-“All the world's a stage,” I quoted.
-
-“It used to be in the time o' Shakespeare,” said the poet.
-“Life was a pretty play those days, but since then we've got down to
-business. Now
-
-
-“All the world's a school,
-
-And all the men and women merely scholars.
-
-It has its teachers, grades, and many classes;
-
-Its trustees, honors, torts, and punishments.
-
-Its books are three: Nature, history,
-
-And revelation teaching holy truth:
-
-That men are brothers and must learn to
-
-love.”
-
-
-“And you are one of its teachers,” said Uncle Eb.
-
-8038
-
-“I'm only a humble student,” said the poet. “Think what we've
-learnt in a hundred years. That little Devil, who rode across Europe
-killing an' burning an' spreading terror until they stopped him at
-Waterloo, he taught us a great lesson. He made us hate war, and that was
-the beginning o' the end of it. There were to be other wars, but they
-have been steps only in the conquest of Peace.”
-
-“And there will be no more war?” I queried.
-
-“Yes; but the learned races will put an end to it by and by,” he
-went on. “The upper classes have all learnt their lesson—they know
-too much. We know suthin' 'bout war here in Faraway. Let me tell ye
-a story.”
-
-The old poet sat on a rock near, and began this little epic of the
-countryside:
-
-8039
-
-“So ye're runnin' fer Congress, mister? Le'
-
-me tell ye 'bout my son,
-
-Might make you fellers carefuller down
-
-there in Washington:
-
-He clings to his rifle an' uniform—folks
-
-call him Whisperin' Bill,
-
-An' I tell ye the war ain't over yit up here
-
-on Bowman's Hill.
-
-
-“This dooryard is his battle-field—le's see,
-
-he was nigh sixteen
-
-When Sumter fell, an' as likely a boy as
-
-ever this world has seen,
-
-An' what with the news o' battle lost, the
-
-speeches, an' all the noise,
-
-I guess ev'ry farm in the neighborhood
-
-lost a part of its crop o' boys.
-
-
-“'Twas harvest time when Bill left home,
-
-ev'ry stalk in the fields o' rye
-
-Seemed t' stan' tip-toe t' see him off an'
-
-wave a fond good-bye.
-
-
-His sweetheart was here with some other
-
-gals—the sassy little miss—
-
-An' pertendin' she wanted t' whisper 'n
-
-his ear, she give him a rousin' kiss.
-
-
-
-8040
-
-“Oh, he was a han'some feller! an* tender
-
-an' brave an' smart,
-
-An' though he was bigger 'n I was, the boy
-
-had a woman's heart.
-
-I couldn't control my feelin's, but I tried
-
-with all my might,
-
-An' his mother an' me stood a-cryin' till
-
-Bill was out o' sight.
-
-
-“His mother she often tol' him, when she
-
-knew he was goin' away,
-
-That God would take care o' him, maybe,
-
-if he didn't fergit to pray;
-
-An' on the bloodiest battle-fields, when
-
-bullets whizzed in the air,
-
-An' Bill was a fightin' desperit, he used to
-
-whisper a prayer.
-
-
-'Oh, his comrades has often told me that
-
-Bill never flinched a bit
-
-When ev'ry second a gap in the ranks tol'
-
-where a ball had hit.
-
-
-An' one night when the field was covered
-
-with the awful harvest o' war,
-
-They found my boy 'mongst the martyrs
-
-o' the cause he was fightin' for.
-
-
-
-8041
-
-“His fingers was clutched in the dewy grass
-
-—oh, no sir, he wasn't dead,
-
-But he lay kind o' helpless an' crazy with
-
-a rifle-ball in his head;
-
-An' he trembled with the battle-fear a-lay-
-
-in' in the dew,
-
-An' he whispered, as he tried to rise: 'God
-
-'ll take care o' you.'
-
-
-'An officer wrote an' tol' us how the boy
-
-had been hurt in the fight,
-
-But he said the doctors reckoned they
-
-could bring him around all right,
-
-An' then we heard from a neighbor, dis-
-
-abled at Malvern Hill,
-
-That he thought in the course of a week
-
-or so he'd be cornin' home with Bill.
-
-
-'We was that anxious t' see him we'd set
-
-up an' talk o' nights
-
-Till the break o' day had dimmed the
-
-stars an' put out the Northern Lights;
-
-We waited an' watched fer a month or
-
-more, an' the summer was nearly past,
-
-When a letter come one day that said
-
-they'd started fer hum at last.
-
-
-8042
-
-“I'll never fergit the day Bill come—'twas
-
-harvest time again—
-
-An' the air blown over the yellow fields was
-
-sweet with the scent o' the grain.
-
-The dooryard was full o' the neighbors,
-
-who had come to share our joy,
-
-An' all of us sent up a mighty cheer at
-
-the sight o' that soldier boy.
-
-
-“An' all of a sudden somebody said: 'My
-
-God! don't the boy know his mother?'
-
-An' Bill stood a-whisperin', fearful like,
-
-an' a starin' from one to another;
-
-'Have courage, Bill,' says he to himself,
-
-as he stood in his coat o' blue,
-
-'Why, God 'll take care o' you, my boy,
-
-God 'll take care o' you.'
-
-
-“He seemed to be loadin' an' firin' a gun,
-
-an't' act like a man who hears
-
-The awful roar o' the battle-field a-sound-
-
-
-
-in' in his ears;
-
-Ten thousan' ghosts o' that bloody day
-
-was marchin' through his brain,
-
-An' his feet they kind o' picked their way
-
-as if they felt the slain.
-
-
-8043
-
-An' I grabbed his hand, an' says I to Bill,
-
-'Don't ye 'member me?
-
-I'm yer father—don't ye know me? How
-
-frightened ye seem to be.'
-
-But the boy kep' a-whisperin' to himself,
-
-as if 't was all he knew,
-
-'God 'll take care o' you, Bill, God 'll take
-
-care o' you.'
-
-
-He's never known us since that day, nor
-
-his sweetheart, an' never will;
-
-Father an' mother an' sweetheart are all
-
-the same to Bill.
-
-An' he groans like a wounded soldier,
-
-sometimes, the whole night through,
-
-An' we smooth his head, an' say: 'Yes,
-
-Bill, He'll surely take care o' you.'
-
-
-'Ye can stop a war in a minute, but when
-
-can ye stop the groans?
-
-Fer ye've broke our hearts an' sapped our
-
-strength an' plucked away our bones.
-
-An' ye've filled our souls with bitterness
-
-that goes from sire to son,
-
-So ye best be kind o' careful down there
-
-in Washington.”
-
-
-8044
-
-Before us lay the peaceful valley, and on a far hill we could see the
-door-yard bordered with small trees and haunted by the ghosts of the
-battlefield.
-
-“We've had our lesson,” said Uncle Eb, “but there's some that
-havint. You 'member Lon Tracy—he was one o' the most peaceable men
-that ever lived. One day he went to the village, an' some mis'rable,
-drunken cuss pitched on him an' Lon set to an' thrashed him proper.
-
-“'I'm surprised,' said the Justice o' the Peace, when Lon come
-before him.
-
-“'So'm I,' said Lon.
-
-“'S'pose ye knew 'nough t' keep out o' trouble.'
-
-“'So did I,' says Lon.
-
-“'I didn't think you were a fighting man.'
-
-8045
-
-“'I didn't nuther,' says Lon.
-
-“'How did it happen?'
-
-“'Very easy—he rapped me an' I rapped back,' says Lon.
-
-“'An' you rapped the hardest.'
-
-“'Wal, when ye pay a debt o' that kind,' says Lon, 'ye ain't
-no way petic'lar how much int'rest ye allow.'
-
-“Now that's what's the matter,” said Uncle Eb. “They's some
-that 'ain't learnt any better than to fight an' quarrel, an'
-when they git rapped they're goin' t' rap back, an' be a leetle
-too liberal with the pay.”
-
-“But the great school ain't goin' t' be ruled much longer by its
-primer class,” said the poet. “An' the Principal an' trustees
-will put an end to fightin' between classes. They find it interferes
-with the work o' the school, whose great aim is given in three
-
-8046
-
-words: Peace, Happiness, Brotherhood.”
-
-“Wal, I'm goin' t' play truant an' go fishin',” said Uncle
-Eb.
-
-“School's dismissed fer the day,” said Feary, as he rose to
-leave us. “Eb Holden, we're both likely to be promoted before long.
-We're like two boys who've been away to school. When we get home
-they're goin' to be glad to see us. Good-bye!”
-
-“Good-bye!”
-
-So the old man left us, and we sat watching him as he crossed the brook
-and slowly mounted the green uplands.
-
-“Purty good fishin' when Jed Feary's around,” said Uncle Eb,
-as we slowly made our way to the edge of the woods. “Growin' old,
-ain't he?—say, if his body fitted his soul what do ye s'pose
-we'd think o' him? I dunno but we'd
-
-8047
-
-feel like gittin' on our knees when he come around. It wouldn't do.
-This world's no place fer angels, after all. Wal, come on, le's quit
-thinkin' an' have some fun.”
-
-
-
-
-II
-
-9048
-
-8048
-
-S we entered the cool woods and came where we could hear the song of the
-brook, Uncle Eb cautioned me in a whisper, just as he used to do: “Now
-go careful.”
-
-I found a rock at the head of a likely stretch of rapids on which he
-could sit comfortably as he fished. I prepared his tackle and baited
-his hook for him, and stood by as it went plunking into smooth water.
-Sitting there, he seemed to forget his feebleness, and his voice and
-figure were full of animation. His hair, as white as snow, was
-
-8049
-
-like the crown of glory of which David sings.
-
-He kept hauling and giving out. Now and then, as he felt a nibble, he
-addressed the fish:
-
-“How d' do? Come ag'in,” he said, as he continued to work his
-line. “Tut, tut! you're another!” he exclaimed, with a sharp
-twitch.
-
-The trout was a large one, and Uncle Eb, with a six-ounce rod, had not
-been able to lift and swing him ashore in the old fashion. He held on
-with jiggling hands and a look of great animation as the fish took line
-in half a dozen quick rushes.
-
-“You're tryin' to jerk me out o' my boots”—the words were
-emphasized and broken here and there by the struggle. The rod's
-vibration had got into his voice and all the upper part
-
-8050
-
-of his body. “Stop that, ye scalawag!” he went on. “Consarn ye,
-come here to me!”
-
-He seized the line, flung his rod on the shore, and began to haul
-vigorously hand over hand. When the splendid fish lay gasping at his
-feet, Uncle Eb turned to me and shook his head. He sat breathing hard,
-as if the exertion had wearied him. Soon he took out his jack-knife, a
-serious look on his face.
-
-“You go cut me an alder pole,” said he, with decision. “That thing
-ain't no better'n a spear o' grass.”
-
-I ran up the shore, glad of the chance he had given me to conceal my
-laughter. I cut a long, stout pole among the bushes, and returned,
-trimming it as I ran.
-
-“Willie, hurry up!” said he, with an eager look on his face, as if
-it were one
-
-8051
-
-again.
-
-“There,” said he, trying the pole, “that's a reg'lar
-stun-lifter. I can sass 'em back now. Put on the hook an' line.”
-
-In a moment he gave his bait a fling, and assumed that alert and eager
-attitude so familiar to me.
-
-“Tut, tut!” said he, with a lively twitch. “I dare ye to do it
-ag'in.”
-
-Soon the rod sprang upward, and a wriggling trout rose in the air, swung
-above the head of Uncle Eb, and fell to the earth behind him.
-
-“There, by gravy! that's what I call fun,” said he. “No, I
-don't want to torment 'em there 'n the water; 'taint fair. I'd
-ruther fetch 'em right out.”
-
-I unhooked the fish for him.
-
-“Look here, you go on 'bout yer
-
-8052
-
-business,” he added. “I can bait my own hook.”
-
-I left him and began to whip my way down the brook. It was good fishing,
-but the scene was by far the best part of it. What was there in those
-lovely and familiar shores to keep my heart so busy? The crows, hurrying
-like boys let out of school, seemed to denounce me as an alien. A crane
-flew over my head, crunkling a fierce complaint of me, and the startled
-kingfisher was most inhospitable.
-
-A small, bare-footed boy passed me, fishing on the farther bank. He had
-a happy face, and mine—well, I turned away for very shame of it. The
-boy looked at me critically, as if I were a trespasser, and I remembered
-how I felt years ago, when I saw a stranger on the brook.
-
-8053
-
-I remembered how, as a boy, I used to long for a watch-chain, and
-how once Uncle Eb hung his upon my coat, and said I could “call it
-mine.” So it goes all through life. We are the veriest children, and
-there is nothing one may really own. He may call it his for a little
-while, just to satisfy him. The whole matter of deeds and titles had
-become now a kind of baby's play. You may think you own the land,
-and you pass on; but there it is, while others, full of the same old
-illusion, take your place.
-
-I followed the brook to where it idled on, bordered with buttercups, in
-a great meadow. The music and the color halted me, and I lay on my
-back in the tall grass for a little while, and looked up at the sky and
-listened. There under the clover tops I could
-
-8054
-
-hear the low, sweet music of many wings—the continuous treble of the
-honey-bee in chord with flashes of deep bass from the wings of that big,
-wild, improvident cousin of his.
-
-Above this lower heaven I could hear a tournament of bobolinks. They
-flew over me, and clung in the grass tops and sang—their notes
-bursting out like those of a plucked string. What a pressure of delight
-was behind them! Hope and I used to go there for berries when we were
-children, and later—when youth had come, and the colors of the wild
-rose and the tiger-lily were in our faces—we found a secret joy in
-being alone together. Those days there was something beautiful in that
-hidden fear we had of each other—was it not the native, imperial
-majesty of innocence? The look of
-
-8055
-
-her eyes seemed to lift me up and prepare me for any sacrifice. That
-orchestra of the meadow spoke our thoughts for us—youth, delight and
-love were in its music.
-
-Soon I heard a merry laugh and the sound of feet approaching, and then
-the voice of a young man.
-
-“Mary, I love you,” it said, “and I would die for your sake.”
-
-The same old story, and I knew that he meant every word of it. What Mary
-may have said to him I know well enough, too, although it came not to my
-ears; for when I rose, by and by, and crossed the woodland and saw them
-walking up the slopes, she all in white and crowned with meadow flowers,
-I observed that his arm supported her in the right way.
-
-I took down my rod and hurried up
-
-8056
-
-stream, and came soon where I could see Uncle Eb sitting motionless
-and leaning on a tree trunk. I approached him silently. His head leaned
-forward; the “pole” lay upon his knees. Like a child, weary of play,
-he had fallen asleep. His trout lay in a row beside him; there were
-at least a dozen. That old body was now, indeed, a very bad fit, and
-more—it was too shabby for a spirit so noble and brave. I knew, as I
-looked down upon him, that Uncle Eb would fish no more after that day.
-In a moment there came a twitch on the line. He woke suddenly, tightened
-his grasp, and flung another fish into the air. It broke free and fell
-upon the ripples.
-
-“Huh! ketched me nappin',” said he. “I declare, Bill, I'm kind
-o' shamed.”
-
-8057
-
-I could see that he felt the pathos of that moment.
-
-“I guess we've fished enough,” he said to himself, as he broke off
-the end of the pole and began to wind his line upon it. “When the fish
-hev t' wake ye up to be hauled in its redic'lous. The next time I go
-fishin' with you I'm goin' t' be rigged proper.”
-
-In a moment he went on: “Fishin' ain't what it used t' be.
-I've grown old and lazy, an' so has the brook. They've cut the
-timber an' dried the springs, an' by an' by the live water will
-go down to the big sea, an' the dead water will sink into the ground,
-an' you won't see any brook there.”
-
-We began our walk up one of the cowpaths.
-
-“One more look,” said he, facing about, and gazing up and down the
-
-8058
-
-familiar valley. “We've had a lot o' fun here—'bout as much as
-we're entitled to, I guess—let 'em have it.”
-
-So, in a way, he deeded Tinkle Brook and its valley to future
-generations.
-
-We proceeded in silence for a moment, and soon he added: “That little
-brook has done a lot fer us. It took our thoughts off the hard work, and
-helped us fergit the mortgage, an' taught us to laugh like the rapid
-water. It never owed us anything after the day Mose Tupper lost his
-pole. Put it all together, I guess I've laughed a year over that.
-'Bout the best payin' job we ever done. Mose thought he had a whale,
-an' I don't blame him. Fact is, a lost fish is an awful liar. A
-trout would deceive the devil when he's way down out o' sight in the
-
-8059
-
-water, an' his weight is telegraphed through twenty feet o' line.
-When ye fetch him up an' look him square in the eye he tells a
-different story. I blame the fish more'n I do the folks.
-
-“That 'swallered pole' was a kind of a magic wand round here in
-Faraway. Ye could allwus fetch a laugh with it. Sometimes I think they
-must 'a' lost one commandment, an' that is: Be happy. Ye can't
-be happy an' be bad. I never see a bad man in my life that was
-hevin' fun. Let me hear a man laugh an' I'll tell ye what kind
-o' metal there is in him. There ain't any sech devilish sound in the
-world as the laugh of a wicked man. It's like the cry o' the swift,
-an' you 'member what that was.”
-
-Uncle Eb shook with laughter as I
-
-8060
-
-tried the cry of that deadly bugbear of my youth.
-
-We got into the wagon presently and drove away. The sun was down as I
-drew up at the old school-house.
-
-“Run in fer a minute an' set down in yer old seat an' see how it
-seems,” said Uncle Eb. “They're goin' to tear it down, an'
-tain't likely you'll see it ag'in.”
-
-I went to the door and lifted its clanking latch and walked in. My
-footsteps filled the silent room with echoes, and how small it
-looked! There was the same indescribable odor of the old time country
-school—that of pine timber and seasoning fire-wood. I sat down in the
-familiar seat carved by jack-knives. There was my name surrounded by
-others cut in the rough wood.
-
-8061
-
-Ghosts began to file into the dusky room, and above a plaintive hum of
-insects it seemed as if I could hear the voices of children and bits of
-the old lessons—that loud, triumphant sound of tender intelligence as
-it began to seize the alphabet; those parrot-like answers: “Round like
-a ball,”
-
-“Three-fourths water and one-fourth land,” and others like them.
-
-“William Brower, stop whispering!” I seemed to hear the teacher say.
-What was the writing on the blackboard? I rose and walked to it as I had
-been wont to do when the teacher gave his command. There in the silence
-of the closing day I learned my last lesson in the old school-house.
-These lines in the large, familiar script of Feary, who it seems had
-been a
-
-8062
-
-visitor at the last day of school, were written on the board: SCHOOL
-'S OUT
-
-Attention all—the old school's end is near.
-
-Behold the sum of all its lessons here:
-
-If e'er by loss of friends your heart is bowed!
-
-Straightway go find ye others in the crowd.
-
-Let Love's discoveries console its pain
-
-And each year's loss be smaller than its gain.
-
-God's love is in them—count the friends ye
-
-get
-
-The only wealth, and foes the only debt.
-
-In life and Nature read the simple plan:
-
-Be kind, be just, and fear not God or man.
-
-School's out.
-
-
-I passed through the door—not eagerly, as when I had been a boy,
-but with feet paced by sober thought—and I felt like one who had
-“improved his time,” as they used to say.
-
-8063
-
-We rode in silence on our way to Hillsborough, as the dusk fell.
-
-“The end o' good things is better'n the beginning,” said Uncle
-Eb, as we got out of the carriage.
-
-
-
-
-III
-
-8064
-
-9064
-
-NE more scene from that last year, and I am done with it. There is much
-comes crowding out of my memory, but only one thing which I could wish
-were now a part of the record. Yet I have withheld it, and well might
-keep it to myself, for need of better words than any which have come to
-me in all my life.
-
-Christmas! And we were back in the old home again. We had brought the
-children with us. Somehow they seemed to know our needs and perils. They
-rallied to our defence, marching
-
-8065
-
-up and down with fife and drum, and waving banners, and shouts of
-victory—a battalion as brave as any in the great army of happiness.
-They saved the day which else had been overrun with thoughts and fears
-from the camp of the enemy. Well, we had a cheerful time of it, and not
-an eye closed until after the stroke of ten that night.
-
-Slowly, silence fell in the little house. Below-stairs the lights were
-out, and Hope and I were sitting alone before the fire. We were talking
-of old times in the dim firelight. Soon there came a gentle rap at our
-door. It was Uncle Eb with a candle in his hand.
-
-“I jes' thought I'd come in an' talk a leetle conversation,”
-said he, and sat down, laughing with good humor.
-
-“'Member the ol' hair trunk?” he asked, and when I assured him
-that we
-
-8066
-
-could not ever forget it, he put his hand over his face and shook with
-silent and almost sorrowful laughter.
-
-“I 'member years ago, you use' to think my watch was a gran'
-thing, an' when ye left hum ye wanted t' take it with ye, but we
-didn't think it was best then.”
-
-“Yes, I remember that.”
-
-“I don't s'pose”—he hesitated as a little
-embarrassed—“you've got so. many splendid things now, I—I
-don't s'pose—”
-
-“Oh, Uncle Eb, I'd prize it above all things,” I assured him.
-
-“Would ye? Here 't is,” said he, with a smile, as he took it
-out of his pocket and put it in my hand. “It's been a gran' good
-watch.”
-
-“But you—you'll need it.”
-
-“No,” he answered. “The clock
-
-8067
-
-'ll do fer me—I'm goin' to move soon.”
-
-“Move!” we both exclaimed. “Goin' out in the fields to work
-ag'in,” he added, cheerfully.
-
-After a glance at our faces, he added: “I ain't afraid. It's all
-goin' t' be fair an' square. If we couldn't meet them we loved,
-an' do fer 'em, it wouldn't be honest. We'd all feel as if
-we'd been kind o' cheated. Suthin' has always said to me: 'Eb
-Holden, when ye git through here yer goin' t' meet them ye love.'
-Who do ye s'pose it was that spoke t' me? I couldn't tell ye, but
-somebody said it, an' whoever 'tis He says the same thing to most
-ev'ry one in the world.”
-
-“It was the voice of Nature,” I suggested.
-
-“Call it God er Natur' er what ye
-
-8068
-
-please—fact is it's built into us an' is a part of us jest as the
-beams are a part o' this house. I don't b'lieve it was put there
-fer nuthin. An' it wa'n'. put there t' make fools of us nuther.
-I tell ye, Bill, this givin' life fer death ain't no hoss-trade. If
-ye give good value, ye're goin' to git good value, an' what folks
-hev been led to hope an' pray fer since Love come into the world,
-they're goin' to have—sure.”
-
-He went to Hope and put a tiny locket in her hand. Beneath its panel lay
-a ringlet of hair, golden-brown.
-
-“It was give to me,” he said, as he stood looking down at her.
-“Them little threads o' gold is kind o' wove all into my life.
-Sixty year ago I begun to spin my hope with 'em. It's grow-in'
-stronger an' stronger. It ain't
-
-8069
-
-possible that Natur' has been a foolin' me all this time.”
-
-After a little silence, he said to Hope: “I want you to have it.”
-
-Her pleasure delighted him, and his face glowed with tender feeling.
-
-Slowly he left us. The candle trembled in his hand, and flickering
-shadows fell upon us. He stopped in the open door. We knew well what
-thought was in his mind as he whispered back to us:
-
-“Merry Chris'mas—ev'ry year.” Soon I went to his room. The
-door was open. He had drawn off his boots and was sitting on the side of
-his bed. I did not enter or speak to him, as I had planned to do; for I
-saw him leaning forward on his elbows and wiping his eyes, and I heard
-him saying to himself:
-
-8070
-
-“Eb Holden, you oughter be 'shamed, I declare. Merry Chris'mas! I
-tell ye. Hold up yer head.”
-
-I returned to Hope, and we sat long looking into the firelight. Youth
-and its grace and color were gone from us, yet I saw in her that beauty
-“which maketh the face to shine.”
-
-Our love lay as a road before and behind us. Long ago it had left the
-enchanted gardens and had led us far, and was now entering the City of
-Faith and we could see its splendor against the cloud of mystery beyond.
-Our souls sought each other in the silence and were filled with awe as
-they looked ahead of them and, at last, I understood the love of a man
-for a woman.
-
-
-THE END
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
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-  <head>
-    <title>
-      Eben Holden's Last Day A-fishing, by Irving Bacheller
-    </title>
-    <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" />
-    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
-
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-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-
-Project Gutenberg's Eben Holden's Last Day A-Fishing, by Irving Bacheller
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-
-
-Title: Eben Holden's Last Day A-Fishing
-
-Author: Irving Bacheller
-
-Release Date: June 30, 2016 [EBook #52454]
-Last Updated: March 12, 2018
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EBEN HOLDEN'S LAST DAY A-FISHING ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by David Widger from page images generously
-provided by the Internet Archive
-
-
-
-
-
-
-</pre>
-    <div style="height: 8em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h1>
-      EBEN HOLDEN'. LAST DAY A-FISHING
-    </h1>
-    <h2>
-      By Irving Bacheller
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Author Of &ldquo;Eben Holden&rdquo; &ldquo;Silas Strong&rdquo; Etc. Etc.
-    </h3>
-    <h4>
-      New York And London Harper &amp; Brothers Publishers
-    </h4>
-    <h3>
-      1907
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0002" id="linkimage-0002"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
-      <img src="images/0006.jpg" alt="0006 " width="100%" /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h5>
-      <a href="images/0006.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </h5>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0003" id="linkimage-0003"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
-      <img src="images/0007.jpg" alt="0007 " width="100%" /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h5>
-      <a href="images/0007.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </h5>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0004" id="linkimage-0004"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
-      <img src="images/0009.jpg" alt="0009 " width="100%" /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h5>
-      <a href="images/0009.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </h5>
-    <h3>
-      A. BARTON HEPBURN
-    </h3>
-    <h3>
-      FISHERMAN, HUNTER, FRIEND OF UNCLE EB,
-    </h3>
-    <h3>
-      AND LOVER OF THE LAND IN WHICH HE DWELT,
-    </h3>
-    <h3>
-      I DEDICATE THIS LITTLE VOLUME
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <b>CONTENTS</b>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> EBEN HOLDEN'. LAST DAY A-FISHING </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> I </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> II </a>
-    </p>
-    <p class="toc">
-      <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> III </a>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      EBEN HOLDEN'. LAST DAY A-FISHING
-    </h2>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      I
-    </h2>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0006" id="linkimage-0006"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8011.jpg" alt="8011 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8011.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0005" id="linkimage-0005"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figleft" style="width:10%;">
-      <img src="images/9011.jpg" alt="9011 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/9011.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      NE morning in early June I was walking on a crowded thoroughfare. The
-      earth had rolled suddenly into summer skies. Birds chattered in the parks,
-      and I could hear a cock crow in a passing freight wagon. I stopped to
-      listen, while he seemed to hurl defiance at his captors and all the noisy
-      crowd, and bid them do their worst to him. His outcry put me in
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0007" id="linkimage-0007"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8012.jpg" alt="8012 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8012.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      mind of my own imprisonment there in the rock-bound city. As I thought of
-      it, I could see the green hills of the North all starred with dandelions;
-      I could hear the full flow of the streams that pass between them&mdash;you
-      know&mdash;and that evening we were on our way to Hillsborough. Uncle Eb,
-      then a &ldquo;likely boy&rdquo; of eighty-six, and Elizabeth Brower and
-      Lucinda Bisnette were still in the old home. We had quickly planned a
-      holiday to be full of surprise and delight for them.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      They were in the midst of the days that are few and silent&mdash;those
-      adorned with the fading flowers of old happiness and thoughts which are
-      &ldquo;the conclusion of the whole matter.&rdquo; As for ourselves, we
-      found them full of a peace and charm I would fain impart to those who read
-      of them, if that
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0008" id="linkimage-0008"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8013.jpg" alt="8013 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8013.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      were possible. I know well how feebly I shall do my task, but now, at
-      last, a time is come when it seems to call me, and I can begin it with
-      some hope and courage. I shall try not to write a book, nor a tale even,
-      but mainly to gather a few flowers, now full grown, in the garden of
-      remembrance. You that see it growing lovelier in the lengthening distance
-      will understand me.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Always, when our train went roaring into the quiet village, we used to
-      look out of the car-window down across the river and a smooth stretch of
-      fields into the edge of the little town. At a small, familiar opening in
-      the shade-trees, almost half a mile from the train, we never failed to see
-      the flicker of a white handkerchief. It signalled their welcome. And then&mdash;well,
-      I doubt
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0009" id="linkimage-0009"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8014.jpg" alt="8014 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8014.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      if any one may have in this world better moment. Yes&mdash;that was years
-      ago, and there are strangers in the old home, but to this day every time I
-      enter Hillsborough I look for that flicker of white, away off among the
-      trees.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      That day the signal greeted us, and was only one of many joys, for it was
-      a day of a thousand, warm, and full of the music of birds and of bees'
-      wings and the odor of new blossoms and a great happiness. Elizabeth Brower
-      stood at the gate, and beyond her we could see Uncle Eb on the veranda,
-      sitting in his arm-chair. The dear woman put her fingers on her lips, and
-      we knew what it meant. Uncle Eb had fallen asleep in the warm sunlight. We
-      greeted her with hushed voices, and approached the venerable man, and sat
-      down at his feet, smiling
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0010" id="linkimage-0010"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8015.jpg" alt="8015 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8015.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      and looking up at his fine old face. He continued to sleep, all
-      unconscious that we were near him. Soon we heard him call in his dreams,
-      just above a whisper: &ldquo;Here Fred! here Fred!&rdquo; It was the name
-      of our old dog, dead these many years. His nap must have taken him far
-      back&mdash;perhaps into that long, westward journey through woods and
-      fields. I took his hand in mine. He came out of his dreams with a start,
-      and looked up at me.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What!&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;Wal, I <i>de</i>clare.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He rose and clung to our hands and looked into our faces with a full
-      heart.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;A merry birthday!&rdquo; I exclaimed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;See here, Bill Brower,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;You've hearn o'
-      the joy o' Paradise?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Often,&rdquo; I answered.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0011" id="linkimage-0011"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8016.jpg" alt="8016 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8016.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Wal, here's the key-note o' the song,&rdquo; said Uncle
-      Eb. &ldquo;Now look here, Liz Brower,&rdquo; he went on, &ldquo;you tell
-      'Sindy we got to have the best dinner ever made by human hands. I'll
-      bring some water.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Elizabeth, Uncle Eb, and that daughter of Grandma Bisnette were there.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Hope and her mother went into the sitting-room, and I followed them, while
-      Uncle Eb went to the well for water. She looked up at us proudly as we
-      stood before her, side by side.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Turn around,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;an' let me look at ye
-      careful.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She surveyed the fit and material of Hope's gown with great
-      satisfaction.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Look so ye was just goin' t' be married,&rdquo; she
-      remarked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      We sat down presently upon the ancient hair-cloth sofa, with its knitted
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0012" id="linkimage-0012"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8017.jpg" alt="8017 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8017.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      afghan of many colors lying folded against a curved arm. There were the
-      old, plain, priceless things&mdash;the carpet, the pictures, a pyramid of
-      plants and flowers in front of the large window, the centre-table, with
-      its album and reading-lamp, the secretary and the what-not filled with
-      books that were a part of our history.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      There were the ingredients of that receipt which, as it were, had made the
-      intellectual cake of my boyhood: Josephus' <i>History of the Jews</i>
-      (the flour, two heaping volumes); <i>Ten Nights in a Bar-Room</i> (the
-      milk and water, one volume); <i>Great Expectations, Bleak House), and
-      David Copperfield</i> (the sugar, three volumes); <i>Pilgrim's
-      Progress</i> (the egg, one volume); <i>Our Golden West</i> (the spice, one
-      volume); <i>The Letters of Lord Chesterfield</i>
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0013" id="linkimage-0013"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8018.jpg" alt="8018 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8018.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      (the frosting, one large table volume); Wrigglesworth's <i>Day of
-      Doom</i> (the fire that did the baking).
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Soon we found Uncle Eb with my boy David upon his knees on the veranda,
-      and he was telling him the tale of <i>The Witch's Bridle</i>, which
-      I had heard in my childhood, and we stood and listened. It was a relic of
-      old Yankee folk-lore and immensely true.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Once there was a young man who lived with his father an'
-      mother in a little village,&rdquo; the story went. &ldquo;An' there
-      was a house in the village where a witch lived, an' it had a
-      beautiful door. An' his mother told him that he must keep away from
-      that house; but one night it looked so splendid that he opened the door an'
-      went in, an' the witch spied him an' come and
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0014" id="linkimage-0014"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8019.jpg" alt="8019 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8019.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      looked into his face an' he thought she was beautiful. An' she
-      ast him to put on her bridle, but he said no. An' the ol'
-      witch follered behind him as careful as a cat after a bird, an' what
-      do ye s'pose she done?&mdash;waited until he was sound asleep an'
-      put her bridle on him&mdash;that's what she done. Now, ye see, when
-      a witch puts her bridle on any one it always turns him into a hoss, an'
-      a witch's hoss can go right thro' the side of a house without
-      makin' a hole in it, an' can jump over trees an' hills
-      an' travel like the wind. She rode him high an' low, an'
-      brought him back hum jest before daylight an' took off the bridle an'
-      that changed him into a boy again. An' when he woke up he was tired
-      out an' all of a tremble. An' ev'ry night the ol'
-      witch come for him an' put on her bridle an'
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0015" id="linkimage-0015"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8020.jpg" alt="8020 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8020.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      turned him into a hoss, an' rode him all over the hills an'
-      valleys until he was about done fer, an' then fetched him back, an'
-      ev'ry morning when he woke up he was a boy ag'in, an'
-      was lame an' sore an' had a headache an' was sorry that
-      he ever see the witch. He grew poor an' spindlin', an'
-      he'd lay awake night after night to keep the witch away. But o'
-      course he had to go to sleep some time, an' the minute he forgot
-      himself she'd slip in an' put on the bridle an' away
-      they'd go. An' he grew poorer an' poorer an' less
-      an' less like a boy, an' more an' more like an animal.
-      By an' by, he got used to bein' a hoss an' loved to go
-      up in the air an' hadn't any more heart in him than my ol'
-      mare.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Wal, one night, what d'ye s'pose happened? The witch
-      come an' rode
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0016" id="linkimage-0016"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8021.jpg" alt="8021 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8021.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      him away, an' when she got back, by an' by, an' took off
-      his bridle, he never changed a hair, but stayed a hoss. Why? 'Cause
-      the boy in him was all wore out an' dead as a door-nail. Fact is,
-      hosses can stan' more'n men. An' the witch grew sick o'
-      him, an' said she wanted a better hoss, an' give him a cut an'
-      turned him loose in the sky. An' ev'ry night fer years he
-      galloped over the house-tops as if he was tryin' to find suthin, an'
-      when I went to bed I used to hear him whinny way up in the dark, an'
-      it sounded suthin' like this:&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Here he whinnied like the witch's horse, and went on:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Keep on the ground, Dave, an' mind yer elders, 'cause a
-      boy that has his own head is apt to get it caught in the witch's
-      bridle. Same way with a
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0017" id="linkimage-0017"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8022.jpg" alt="8022 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8022.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      man, 'less he takes advice ev'ry day from the great Father of
-      all. They's witches ev'rywhere, an' they're always
-      lookin' fer a hoss to ride.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;See here,&rdquo; said he, as soon as he discovered us, &ldquo;you
-      must all come out an' look at my garden.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;They want to rest,&rdquo; Elizabeth objected.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No; we'd rather go with Uncle Eb,&rdquo; said Hope, and we
-      followed him to the garden.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Godfrey cordial! hear the birds!&rdquo; Uncle Eb went on, as we
-      took the path that crossed an edge of the clover meadow. &ldquo;Lot of
-      'em been gettin' married, I guess. Don't do a thing but
-      sing an' laugh an' holler&mdash;like a lot o' boys an'
-      gals.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      His strength had failed since we saw
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0018" id="linkimage-0018"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8023.jpg" alt="8023 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8023.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      him last. He was bent a little farther, his hands trembled, a small task
-      affected his breathing, but he was the same cheerful, keen-minded man.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Gardens are all right, but the sight of a hoe makes me shudder,&rdquo;
-      said I.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;The hoe is a good teacher,&rdquo; he answered. &ldquo;Man that don't
-      hoe his character ev'ry few days won't have any.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;My wife hoes mine,&rdquo; I said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;An' does it kind o' careless.&rdquo; He drew his hand
-      over his mouth and cleared his throat and went on as if nothing had
-      happened. &ldquo;These things are a good deal like folks. Some grow up an'
-      some grow down. I used to know a woman that looked like a turnip, and a
-      gal that was like a flower, an' another that was like a
-      pepper-plant, an' a man that was a reg'lar human onion.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0019" id="linkimage-0019"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8024.jpg" alt="8024 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8024.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;A garden always reminds me that it's about time to get your
-      hook and line ready,&rdquo; I suggested.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He stopped and put his hand upon my arm. He glanced up at the sky, and
-      seemed to note the direction of the wind.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Say, by mighty!&rdquo; he exclaimed. &ldquo;You stop, or you'll
-      make trouble.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Think of Paradise Valley,&rdquo; I went on. &ldquo;It will be green
-      and sprinkled with blossoms, and the brook will be singing as it goes by.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You quit!&rdquo; he answered, with a little gesture of impatience.
-      &ldquo;Say!&rdquo; he suggested, with enthusiasm, after a moment, &ldquo;I
-      wouldn't wonder but what the fish would bite&mdash;ye take it on the
-      rapids there.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      We returned to the house and he sat in his chair on the small veranda.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0020" id="linkimage-0020"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8025.jpg" alt="8025 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8025.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      Robins were building their nest on a shelf near him, and were busy with
-      their fetching and weaving.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Look at the scalawags!&rdquo; he laughed. &ldquo;No, there ain't
-      nothin' that's 'fraid o' me some way. I got a club
-      one day an' tried to scare a mouse; but seems so she knew I was only
-      foolin'. Now she's begun to bully me an' fetch her
-      children right into my bedroom, an' I guess I'll have to git
-      mad an' declare war.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      I hailed a boy in the street, and sent him for a team, to be brought
-      immediately after dinner.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When we sat down to eat, Uncle Eb put the same old question:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Wal, how's ev'rything down there in the city?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;About as usual.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Too many folks there,&rdquo; he said,
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0021" id="linkimage-0021"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8026.jpg" alt="8026 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8026.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;an' they all look a leetle cross. I like t' pass the
-      time o' day with ev'ry man I meet, but mighty Dinah! they's
-      so many of 'em!&mdash;there ain't no use tryin' t'
-      be pleasant. I got t' showin' the whites o' my eyes as
-      bad as any of 'em.&rdquo; He spoke, laughingly, of a symphony
-      concert to which we had taken him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'll never fergit the man with a p'inter,&rdquo; he
-      said, his head noddin with amusement. &ldquo;How he could toss the music!
-      It was like spreadin' hay.&rdquo; Again his cheery voice, after a
-      moment of silence: &ldquo;No more meat! Hope Brower, if you don't
-      eat yer dinner, you'll be put to bed.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      After dinner I gathered up my tackle.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I dunno,&rdquo; Uncle Eb remarked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Great day for fishing,&rdquo; I insisted.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The team arrived, a lively pair of Morgan mares. Uncle Eb came out
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0022" id="linkimage-0022"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8027.jpg" alt="8027 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8027.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      of the house in rubber boots, with his overcoat upon his arm.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'm 'fraid you better not go,&rdquo; said Elizabeth
-      Brower from the door-step, with a look of anxiety, and now the trembling
-      of his hands made me almost regret that I had tempted him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;See here,&rdquo; said Uncle Eb, firmly, as he turned to my mother.
-      &ldquo;He's picked on me 'til I can't stan' it any
-      longer. Ye couldn't keep me out o' that buggy with a gun.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      I helped him in and took my place at his side, and away we went a pace of
-      twelve miles to the hour, through town, across the flat, and up the
-      stairway of the hills. We passed the old Hosper homestead.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What's become of the deacon?&rdquo; I asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Dead; got sick o' life. Wouldn't
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0023" id="linkimage-0023"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8028.jpg" alt="8028 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8028.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      eat or take any medicine; kind o' pined away.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What was the trouble?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Wal, ye know, he had to live with himself,&rdquo; said Uncle Eb,
-      &ldquo;an' he wa'n'. what ye might call good comp'ny.
-      He couldn't help it, an' I always felt kind o' sorry fer
-      Hosper. They got him so scairt over there at the white church that he was
-      'fraid to live an' 'fraid to die, an' fer a long
-      time he didn't do either. He thought it was his duty to suffer. God
-      had cursed the world, an' that was the reason why men had to sweat
-      an' toil. Think o' his days&mdash;full o' fear an'
-      repentence an' atonement an' hell an' ancient history.
-      He kind o' straddled his span o' life. One foot was in the
-      future an' the other in the past. No wonder he had the rheumatiz.
-      Nobody liked him. He got to
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0024" id="linkimage-0024"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8029.jpg" alt="8029 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8029.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      be a lonesome, sickly ol' man, I went to see him one day. Says I:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'Deacon, I wouldn't wonder if the fish 'u'd
-      bite.'
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'Fish!' says he, 'my mind ain't on fish. I'm
-      thinkin' o' my immortal soul.'
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'Man's soul is like his stummick,' says I.
-      'It ain't healthy 'less he can fergit it. Come an'
-      have some fun.'.rdquo; We rode in silence until Uncle Eb went on:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He seemed to think that God was a kind of a bully, an' that
-      he loved to make men cowards. It don't seem likely to me. I don't
-      b'lieve He meant toil fer a curse nuther. I couldn't be happy
-      'less I had suthin' to do. Seems 's 'o' them
-      who wrote down the plans o' the Almighty made a mistake now an'
-      then, an' it ain't no wonder if they
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0025" id="linkimage-0025"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8030.jpg" alt="8030 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8030.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      did. No man can be perfect, specially when he takes holt o' so big a
-      job. Prob'ly it was purty hot where they lived, an' work didn't
-      agree with 'em. Now it looks to me as if that fust family couldn't
-      'a' been very happy without a thing to do. I don't
-      wonder that Cain an' Abel quarrelled. God must 'a' seen
-      that the world lacked suthin' very important. So He blessed it with
-      toil. I don't believe He ever intended to curse it, 'cause, if
-      He did, ye got to own up that He ain't succeeded fust-rate.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      We came to the top of Bowman's Hill and looked down into the little
-      valley, and were both silent.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Time flies!&rdquo; I remarked, presently.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Beats all,&rdquo; Uncle Eb answered.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Brower farm had run down, as they say in the back country. The
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0026" id="linkimage-0026"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8031.jpg" alt="8031 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8031.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      house and stable were in ill repair. Evil days had come to the neat and
-      cleanly fireside, where in the old time Santa Claus had blessed us, and I
-      had heard the cry of the swift and felt the touch of love and sorrow.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The tenant, a man who showed the wear of hard times, put our team in the
-      stable.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;If you'd stayed here,&rdquo; said he, with a glance at me,
-      &ldquo;this farm wouldn't 'a' looked as it does now.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Uncle Eb smiled.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;the farm would 'a' looked
-      better, but he'd 'a' looked a dum sight wuss.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He cleared his throat, and spoke of the weather as if to soften the blow a
-      little.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      I got my tackle ready while the man dug worms for Uncle Eb&mdash;an angler
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0027" id="linkimage-0027"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8032.jpg" alt="8032 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8032.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      of the bait-and-sinker type. Soon we made our way slowly through the same
-      old cow-path that wavered across the green slope now starred with soft,
-      golden blossoms. It is curious, that conservatism of the cloven hoof,
-      which, like water, follows its old path, having found the way of least
-      resistance. In a few minutes we came near the rotted stump of Lone Pine.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Hats off!&rdquo; said Uncle Eb, as he uncovered.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In a second my hat was in my hand; or there, between our feet, was a
-      lonely, half-forgotten grave&mdash;that of old Fred. Slowly, silently, we
-      resumed our walk. My venerable friend was breathing hard. I supported him
-      with my arm, and soon we sat down to rest upon a rock. The air was clear
-      and still. There was not a cloud in the sky. A
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0028" id="linkimage-0028"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8033.jpg" alt="8033 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8033.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      hawk flew across the flat near us, his white butcher's apron stained
-      with blood. He was flying low, with some small creature in his talons. It
-      made me break the silence, and I said:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;There's a thing that puzzles me&mdash;the cruelty that is in
-      all God's creation. It's a great slaughter-house, and
-      everything that lives has the stain of blood upon it.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It all teaches us that death ain't o' much account,&rdquo;
-      said Uncle Eb. &ldquo;It looks like cruelty, an' most of us think it
-      a curse. Death is a wonderful blessin'&mdash;that's the way it
-      looks to me. Why, Bill Brower, ye've died twice already. Fust the
-      child, then the boy, an' each time ye wove a new body. Bym by yer
-      loom is wore out. Got t' go git a new one. Ye'll begin t'
-      feel as if yer body was a kind of a bad fit.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0029" id="linkimage-0029"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8034.jpg" alt="8034 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8034.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      It'll be too small an' shabby an' un-comf'table.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I 'member a boy over'n Vermont by the name o' Lem
-      Barker. Grew so fast that the fust he knew his clo's begun to pinch
-      him, an' the bottoms of his pants wouldn't 'sociate with
-      his shoe-leather, an' his hands was way down below his coat sleeves,
-      an' the old suit was wore so thin he didn't dast run er rassle
-      fer fear it would bust an' drop off him. All he could do was to set
-      an' think an' talk an' chaw ter-baccer an' walk as
-      careful as a hen lookin' fer grasshoppers. He hadn't any
-      confidence in that old suit, an' was kind o' 'fraid of
-      it. One day he see a bear, an' it come nec'sary fer him to
-      move quick, an' he split his clo's, an' hed to go hum in
-      a rain-barrel. At fust he thought it was bad luck, but when his
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0030" id="linkimage-0030"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8035.jpg" alt="8035 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8035.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      father got him a new suit he see that he was mistaken. We old folks are a
-      good deal like poor Lem. We toddle around in our old clo's an'
-      are a leetle bit afraid of 'em. It would be lucky for us if we could
-      meet a bear. I'd like to go down to the brook there on the run jest
-      as I used to. But I wouldn't dast try it. My body don't fit my
-      spirit&mdash;that's what's the matter. Got to go an'
-      have my measure took, an' throw 'way the old suit. An' I'll
-      tell ye, Bill, I need a better outfit than what I've ever had&mdash;suthin'
-      stouter-wove an' han'somer an' more durable&mdash;suthin'
-      fit fer a man. I'm goin' to hev it&mdash;call that a curse?&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He looked at his bony, trembling hands, and went on:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's all faded an' kind o' cold an'
-      threadbare. My back couldn't carry
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0031" id="linkimage-0031"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8036.jpg" alt="8036 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8036.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      one small boy in a basket these days, but I'd like t' carry
-      all the boys in the county, an' mebbe some time I'll have a
-      back broad 'nough. That'll be when school's dismissed,
-      an' I go off t' seek my fortune, good deal as you did. I
-      'member how you went an' got some new clo's there
-      'n New York fust thing. An' they was splendid&mdash;better
-      'n any ye could git in Hillsborough.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      We heard footsteps in a moment, and I turned and saw Jed Feary approaching
-      us. He was past eighty years of age, and his hair and beard were white,
-      and he walked slowly with a cane. He stopped near us, and began to laugh
-      as we greeted him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Heard you was here,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;an' Rans Walker
-      druv me down the road.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Stump ye t' rassle with me,&rdquo; said Uncle Eb, with a
-      smile.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0032" id="linkimage-0032"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8037.jpg" alt="8037 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8037.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Wait 'til I've throwed the rheumatiz, an' then I'll
-      tackle you,&rdquo; said the poet.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;How are you, Uncle Jed?&rdquo; was my query.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;As you see&mdash;the trembling hand an' slippered pantaloon.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;All the world's a stage,&rdquo; I quoted.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It used to be in the time o' Shakespeare,&rdquo; said the
-      poet. &ldquo;Life was a pretty play those days, but since then we've
-      got down to business. Now
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br />
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent30">
-      &ldquo;All the world's a school,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      And all the men and women merely scholars.
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      It has its teachers, grades, and many classes;
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      Its trustees, honors, torts, and punishments.
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      Its books are three: Nature, history,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      And revelation teaching holy truth:
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      That men are brothers and must learn to
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent30">
-      love.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br />
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And you are one of its teachers,&rdquo; said Uncle Eb.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0033" id="linkimage-0033"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8038.jpg" alt="8038 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8038.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'm only a humble student,&rdquo; said the poet. &ldquo;Think
-      what we've learnt in a hundred years. That little Devil, who rode
-      across Europe killing an' burning an' spreading terror until
-      they stopped him at Waterloo, he taught us a great lesson. He made us hate
-      war, and that was the beginning o' the end of it. There were to be
-      other wars, but they have been steps only in the conquest of Peace.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And there will be no more war?&rdquo; I queried.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes; but the learned races will put an end to it by and by,&rdquo;
-      he went on. &ldquo;The upper classes have all learnt their lesson&mdash;they
-      know too much. We know suthin' 'bout war here in Faraway. Let
-      me tell ye a story.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The old poet sat on a rock near, and began this little epic of the
-      countryside:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0034" id="linkimage-0034"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8039.jpg" alt="8039 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8039.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      &ldquo;So ye're runnin' fer Congress, mister? Le'
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      me tell ye 'bout my son,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      Might make you fellers carefuller down
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      there in Washington:
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      He clings to his rifle an' uniform&mdash;folks
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      call him Whisperin' Bill,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      An' I tell ye the war ain't over yit up here
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      on Bowman's Hill.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br />
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      &ldquo;This dooryard is his battle-field&mdash;le's see,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      he was nigh sixteen
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      When Sumter fell, an' as likely a boy as
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      ever this world has seen,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      An' what with the news o' battle lost, the
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      speeches, an' all the noise,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      I guess ev'ry farm in the neighborhood
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      lost a part of its crop o' boys.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br />
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      &ldquo;'Twas harvest time when Bill left home,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      ev'ry stalk in the fields o' rye
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      Seemed t' stan' tip-toe t' see him off an'
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      wave a fond good-bye.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br />
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      His sweetheart was here with some other
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      gals&mdash;the sassy little miss&mdash;
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      An' pertendin' she wanted t' whisper 'n
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      his ear, she give him a rousin' kiss.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /> <a name="linkimage-0035" id="linkimage-0035"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8040.jpg" alt="8040 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8040.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      &ldquo;Oh, he was a han'some feller! an* tender
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      an' brave an' smart,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      An' though he was bigger 'n I was, the boy
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      had a woman's heart.
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      I couldn't control my feelin's, but I tried
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      with all my might,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      An' his mother an' me stood a-cryin' till
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      Bill was out o' sight.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br />
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      &ldquo;His mother she often tol' him, when she
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      knew he was goin' away,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      That God would take care o' him, maybe,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      if he didn't fergit to pray;
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      An' on the bloodiest battle-fields, when
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      bullets whizzed in the air,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      An' Bill was a fightin' desperit, he used to
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      whisper a prayer.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br />
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      'Oh, his comrades has often told me that
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      Bill never flinched a bit
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      When ev'ry second a gap in the ranks tol'
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      where a ball had hit.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br />
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      An' one night when the field was covered
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      with the awful harvest o' war,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      They found my boy 'mongst the martyrs
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      o' the cause he was fightin' for.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /> <a name="linkimage-0036" id="linkimage-0036"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8041.jpg" alt="8041 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8041.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      &ldquo;His fingers was clutched in the dewy grass
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      &mdash;oh, no sir, he wasn't dead,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      But he lay kind o' helpless an' crazy with
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      a rifle-ball in his head;
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      An' he trembled with the battle-fear a-lay-
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      in' in the dew,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      An' he whispered, as he tried to rise: 'God
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      'll take care o' you.'
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br />
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      'An officer wrote an' tol' us how the boy
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      had been hurt in the fight,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      But he said the doctors reckoned they
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      could bring him around all right,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      An' then we heard from a neighbor, dis-
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      abled at Malvern Hill,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      That he thought in the course of a week
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      or so he'd be cornin' home with Bill.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br />
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      'We was that anxious t' see him we'd set
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      up an' talk o' nights
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      Till the break o' day had dimmed the
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      stars an' put out the Northern Lights;
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      We waited an' watched fer a month or
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      more, an' the summer was nearly past,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      When a letter come one day that said
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      they'd started fer hum at last.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /> <a name="linkimage-0037" id="linkimage-0037"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8042.jpg" alt="8042 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8042.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      &ldquo;I'll never fergit the day Bill come&mdash;'twas
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      harvest time again&mdash;
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      An' the air blown over the yellow fields was
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      sweet with the scent o' the grain.
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      The dooryard was full o' the neighbors,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      who had come to share our joy,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      An' all of us sent up a mighty cheer at
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      the sight o' that soldier boy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br />
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      &ldquo;An' all of a sudden somebody said: 'My
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      God! don't the boy know his mother?'
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      An' Bill stood a-whisperin', fearful like,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      an' a starin' from one to another;
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      'Have courage, Bill,' says he to himself,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      as he stood in his coat o' blue,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      'Why, God 'll take care o' you, my boy,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      God 'll take care o' you.'
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br />
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      &ldquo;He seemed to be loadin' an' firin' a gun,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      an't' act like a man who hears
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      The awful roar o' the battle-field a-sound- <br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;in'
-      in his ears;
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      Ten thousan' ghosts o' that bloody day
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      was marchin' through his brain,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      An' his feet they kind o' picked their way
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      as if they felt the slain.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /> <a name="linkimage-0038" id="linkimage-0038"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8043.jpg" alt="8043 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8043.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      An' I grabbed his hand, an' says I to Bill,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      'Don't ye 'member me?
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      I'm yer father&mdash;don't ye know me? How
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      frightened ye seem to be.'
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      But the boy kep' a-whisperin' to himself,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      as if 't was all he knew,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      'God 'll take care o' you, Bill, God 'll take
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      care o' you.'
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br />
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      He's never known us since that day, nor
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      his sweetheart, an' never will;
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      Father an' mother an' sweetheart are all
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      the same to Bill.
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      An' he groans like a wounded soldier,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      sometimes, the whole night through,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      An' we smooth his head, an' say: 'Yes,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      Bill, He'll surely take care o' you.'
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br />
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      'Ye can stop a war in a minute, but when
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      can ye stop the groans?
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      Fer ye've broke our hearts an' sapped our
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      strength an' plucked away our bones.
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      An' ye've filled our souls with bitterness
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      that goes from sire to son,
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      So ye best be kind o' careful down there
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent20">
-      in Washington.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /> <a name="linkimage-0039" id="linkimage-0039"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8044.jpg" alt="8044 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8044.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      Before us lay the peaceful valley, and on a far hill we could see the
-      door-yard bordered with small trees and haunted by the ghosts of the
-      battlefield.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;We've had our lesson,&rdquo; said Uncle Eb, &ldquo;but there's
-      some that havint. You 'member Lon Tracy&mdash;he was one o'
-      the most peaceable men that ever lived. One day he went to the village, an'
-      some mis'rable, drunken cuss pitched on him an' Lon set to an'
-      thrashed him proper.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'I'm surprised,' said the Justice o' the
-      Peace, when Lon come before him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'So'm I,' said Lon.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'S'pose ye knew 'nough t' keep out o'
-      trouble.'
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'So did I,' says Lon.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'I didn't think you were a fighting man.'
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0040" id="linkimage-0040"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8045.jpg" alt="8045 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8045.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'I didn't nuther,' says Lon.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'How did it happen?'
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'Very easy&mdash;he rapped me an' I rapped back,'
-      says Lon.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'An' you rapped the hardest.'
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'Wal, when ye pay a debt o' that kind,' says Lon,
-      'ye ain't no way petic'lar how much int'rest ye
-      allow.'
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now that's what's the matter,&rdquo; said Uncle Eb.
-      &ldquo;They's some that 'ain't learnt any better than to
-      fight an' quarrel, an' when they git rapped they're goin'
-      t' rap back, an' be a leetle too liberal with the pay.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But the great school ain't goin' t' be ruled much
-      longer by its primer class,&rdquo; said the poet. &ldquo;An' the
-      Principal an' trustees will put an end to fightin' between
-      classes. They find it interferes with the work o' the school, whose
-      great aim is given in three
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0041" id="linkimage-0041"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8046.jpg" alt="8046 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8046.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      words: Peace, Happiness, Brotherhood.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Wal, I'm goin' t' play truant an' go fishin',&rdquo;
-      said Uncle Eb.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;School's dismissed fer the day,&rdquo; said Feary, as he rose
-      to leave us. &ldquo;Eb Holden, we're both likely to be promoted
-      before long. We're like two boys who've been away to school.
-      When we get home they're goin' to be glad to see us. Good-bye!&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Good-bye!&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      So the old man left us, and we sat watching him as he crossed the brook
-      and slowly mounted the green uplands.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Purty good fishin' when Jed Feary's around,&rdquo; said
-      Uncle Eb, as we slowly made our way to the edge of the woods. &ldquo;Growin'
-      old, ain't he?&mdash;say, if his body fitted his soul what do ye s'pose
-      we'd think o' him? I dunno but we'd
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0042" id="linkimage-0042"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8047.jpg" alt="8047 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8047.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      feel like gittin' on our knees when he come around. It wouldn't
-      do. This world's no place fer angels, after all. Wal, come on, le's
-      quit thinkin' an' have some fun.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      II
-    </h2>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0043" id="linkimage-0043"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figleft" style="width:10%;">
-      <img src="images/9048.jpg" alt="9048 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/9048.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0044" id="linkimage-0044"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8048.jpg" alt="8048 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8048.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      S we entered the cool woods and came where we could hear the song of the
-      brook, Uncle Eb cautioned me in a whisper, just as he used to do: &ldquo;Now
-      go careful.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      I found a rock at the head of a likely stretch of rapids on which he could
-      sit comfortably as he fished. I prepared his tackle and baited his hook
-      for him, and stood by as it went plunking into smooth water. Sitting
-      there, he seemed to forget his feebleness, and his voice and figure were
-      full of animation. His hair, as white as snow, was
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0045" id="linkimage-0045"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8049.jpg" alt="8049 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8049.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      like the crown of glory of which David sings.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He kept hauling and giving out. Now and then, as he felt a nibble, he
-      addressed the fish:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;How d' do? Come ag'in,&rdquo; he said, as he continued
-      to work his line. &ldquo;Tut, tut! you're another!&rdquo; he
-      exclaimed, with a sharp twitch.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The trout was a large one, and Uncle Eb, with a six-ounce rod, had not
-      been able to lift and swing him ashore in the old fashion. He held on with
-      jiggling hands and a look of great animation as the fish took line in half
-      a dozen quick rushes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You're tryin' to jerk me out o' my boots&rdquo;&mdash;the
-      words were emphasized and broken here and there by the struggle. The rod's
-      vibration had got into his voice and all the upper part
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0046" id="linkimage-0046"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8050.jpg" alt="8050 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8050.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      of his body. &ldquo;Stop that, ye scalawag!&rdquo; he went on. &ldquo;Consarn
-      ye, come here to me!&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He seized the line, flung his rod on the shore, and began to haul
-      vigorously hand over hand. When the splendid fish lay gasping at his feet,
-      Uncle Eb turned to me and shook his head. He sat breathing hard, as if the
-      exertion had wearied him. Soon he took out his jack-knife, a serious look
-      on his face.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You go cut me an alder pole,&rdquo; said he, with decision. &ldquo;That
-      thing ain't no better'n a spear o' grass.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      I ran up the shore, glad of the chance he had given me to conceal my
-      laughter. I cut a long, stout pole among the bushes, and returned,
-      trimming it as I ran.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Willie, hurry up!&rdquo; said he, with an eager look on his face,
-      as if it were one
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0047" id="linkimage-0047"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8051.jpg" alt="8051 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8051.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      again.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;There,&rdquo; said he, trying the pole, &ldquo;that's a reg'lar
-      stun-lifter. I can sass 'em back now. Put on the hook an'
-      line.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In a moment he gave his bait a fling, and assumed that alert and eager
-      attitude so familiar to me.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Tut, tut!&rdquo; said he, with a lively twitch. &ldquo;I dare ye to
-      do it ag'in.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Soon the rod sprang upward, and a wriggling trout rose in the air, swung
-      above the head of Uncle Eb, and fell to the earth behind him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;There, by gravy! that's what I call fun,&rdquo; said he.
-      &ldquo;No, I don't want to torment 'em there 'n the
-      water; 'taint fair. I'd ruther fetch 'em right out.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      I unhooked the fish for him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Look here, you go on 'bout yer
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0048" id="linkimage-0048"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8052.jpg" alt="8052 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8052.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      business,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;I can bait my own hook.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      I left him and began to whip my way down the brook. It was good fishing,
-      but the scene was by far the best part of it. What was there in those
-      lovely and familiar shores to keep my heart so busy? The crows, hurrying
-      like boys let out of school, seemed to denounce me as an alien. A crane
-      flew over my head, crunkling a fierce complaint of me, and the startled
-      kingfisher was most inhospitable.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      A small, bare-footed boy passed me, fishing on the farther bank. He had a
-      happy face, and mine&mdash;well, I turned away for very shame of it. The
-      boy looked at me critically, as if I were a trespasser, and I remembered
-      how I felt years ago, when I saw a stranger on the brook.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0049" id="linkimage-0049"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8053.jpg" alt="8053 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8053.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      I remembered how, as a boy, I used to long for a watch-chain, and how once
-      Uncle Eb hung his upon my coat, and said I could &ldquo;call it mine.&rdquo;
-      So it goes all through life. We are the veriest children, and there is
-      nothing one may really own. He may call it his for a little while, just to
-      satisfy him. The whole matter of deeds and titles had become now a kind of
-      baby's play. You may think you own the land, and you pass on; but
-      there it is, while others, full of the same old illusion, take your place.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      I followed the brook to where it idled on, bordered with buttercups, in a
-      great meadow. The music and the color halted me, and I lay on my back in
-      the tall grass for a little while, and looked up at the sky and listened.
-      There under the clover tops I could
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0050" id="linkimage-0050"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8054.jpg" alt="8054 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8054.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      hear the low, sweet music of many wings&mdash;the continuous treble of the
-      honey-bee in chord with flashes of deep bass from the wings of that big,
-      wild, improvident cousin of his.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Above this lower heaven I could hear a tournament of bobolinks. They flew
-      over me, and clung in the grass tops and sang&mdash;their notes bursting
-      out like those of a plucked string. What a pressure of delight was behind
-      them! Hope and I used to go there for berries when we were children, and
-      later&mdash;when youth had come, and the colors of the wild rose and the
-      tiger-lily were in our faces&mdash;we found a secret joy in being alone
-      together. Those days there was something beautiful in that hidden fear we
-      had of each other&mdash;was it not the native, imperial majesty of
-      innocence? The look of
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0051" id="linkimage-0051"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8055.jpg" alt="8055 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8055.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      her eyes seemed to lift me up and prepare me for any sacrifice. That
-      orchestra of the meadow spoke our thoughts for us&mdash;youth, delight and
-      love were in its music.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Soon I heard a merry laugh and the sound of feet approaching, and then the
-      voice of a young man.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Mary, I love you,&rdquo; it said, &ldquo;and I would die for your
-      sake.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The same old story, and I knew that he meant every word of it. What Mary
-      may have said to him I know well enough, too, although it came not to my
-      ears; for when I rose, by and by, and crossed the woodland and saw them
-      walking up the slopes, she all in white and crowned with meadow flowers, I
-      observed that his arm supported her in the right way.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      I took down my rod and hurried up
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0052" id="linkimage-0052"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8056.jpg" alt="8056 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8056.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      stream, and came soon where I could see Uncle Eb sitting motionless and
-      leaning on a tree trunk. I approached him silently. His head leaned
-      forward; the &ldquo;pole&rdquo; lay upon his knees. Like a child, weary of
-      play, he had fallen asleep. His trout lay in a row beside him; there were
-      at least a dozen. That old body was now, indeed, a very bad fit, and more&mdash;it
-      was too shabby for a spirit so noble and brave. I knew, as I looked down
-      upon him, that Uncle Eb would fish no more after that day. In a moment
-      there came a twitch on the line. He woke suddenly, tightened his grasp,
-      and flung another fish into the air. It broke free and fell upon the
-      ripples.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Huh! ketched me nappin',&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;I declare,
-      Bill, I'm kind o' shamed.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0053" id="linkimage-0053"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8057.jpg" alt="8057 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8057.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      I could see that he felt the pathos of that moment.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I guess we've fished enough,&rdquo; he said to himself, as he
-      broke off the end of the pole and began to wind his line upon it. &ldquo;When
-      the fish hev t' wake ye up to be hauled in its redic'lous. The
-      next time I go fishin' with you I'm goin' t' be
-      rigged proper.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In a moment he went on: &ldquo;Fishin' ain't what it used t'
-      be. I've grown old and lazy, an' so has the brook. They've
-      cut the timber an' dried the springs, an' by an' by the
-      live water will go down to the big sea, an' the dead water will sink
-      into the ground, an' you won't see any brook there.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      We began our walk up one of the cowpaths.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;One more look,&rdquo; said he, facing about, and gazing up and down
-      the
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0054" id="linkimage-0054"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8058.jpg" alt="8058 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8058.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      familiar valley. &ldquo;We've had a lot o' fun here&mdash;'bout
-      as much as we're entitled to, I guess&mdash;let 'em have it.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      So, in a way, he deeded Tinkle Brook and its valley to future generations.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      We proceeded in silence for a moment, and soon he added: &ldquo;That
-      little brook has done a lot fer us. It took our thoughts off the hard
-      work, and helped us fergit the mortgage, an' taught us to laugh like
-      the rapid water. It never owed us anything after the day Mose Tupper lost
-      his pole. Put it all together, I guess I've laughed a year over
-      that. 'Bout the best payin' job we ever done. Mose thought he
-      had a whale, an' I don't blame him. Fact is, a lost fish is an
-      awful liar. A trout would deceive the devil when he's way down out o'
-      sight in the
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0055" id="linkimage-0055"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8059.jpg" alt="8059 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8059.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      water, an' his weight is telegraphed through twenty feet o'
-      line. When ye fetch him up an' look him square in the eye he tells a
-      different story. I blame the fish more'n I do the folks.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That 'swallered pole' was a kind of a magic wand round
-      here in Faraway. Ye could allwus fetch a laugh with it. Sometimes I think
-      they must 'a' lost one commandment, an' that is: Be
-      happy. Ye can't be happy an' be bad. I never see a bad man in
-      my life that was hevin' fun. Let me hear a man laugh an' I'll
-      tell ye what kind o' metal there is in him. There ain't any
-      sech devilish sound in the world as the laugh of a wicked man. It's
-      like the cry o' the swift, an' you 'member what that
-      was.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Uncle Eb shook with laughter as I
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0056" id="linkimage-0056"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8060.jpg" alt="8060 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8060.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      tried the cry of that deadly bugbear of my youth.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      We got into the wagon presently and drove away. The sun was down as I drew
-      up at the old school-house.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Run in fer a minute an' set down in yer old seat an'
-      see how it seems,&rdquo; said Uncle Eb. &ldquo;They're goin'
-      to tear it down, an' tain't likely you'll see it ag'in.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      I went to the door and lifted its clanking latch and walked in. My
-      footsteps filled the silent room with echoes, and how small it looked!
-      There was the same indescribable odor of the old time country school&mdash;that
-      of pine timber and seasoning fire-wood. I sat down in the familiar seat
-      carved by jack-knives. There was my name surrounded by others cut in the
-      rough wood.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0057" id="linkimage-0057"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8061.jpg" alt="8061 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8061.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      Ghosts began to file into the dusky room, and above a plaintive hum of
-      insects it seemed as if I could hear the voices of children and bits of
-      the old lessons&mdash;that loud, triumphant sound of tender intelligence
-      as it began to seize the alphabet; those parrot-like answers: &ldquo;Round
-      like a ball,&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Three-fourths water and one-fourth land,&rdquo; and others like
-      them.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;William Brower, stop whispering!&rdquo; I seemed to hear the
-      teacher say. What was the writing on the blackboard? I rose and walked to
-      it as I had been wont to do when the teacher gave his command. There in
-      the silence of the closing day I learned my last lesson in the old
-      school-house. These lines in the large, familiar script of Feary, who it
-      seems had been a
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0058" id="linkimage-0058"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8062.jpg" alt="8062 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8062.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      visitor at the last day of school, were written on the board:
-    </p>
-    <h3>
-      SCHOOL 'S OUT
-    </h3>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      Attention all&mdash;the old school's end is near.
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      Behold the sum of all its lessons here:
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      If e'er by loss of friends your heart is bowed!
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      Straightway go find ye others in the crowd.
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      Let Love's discoveries console its pain
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      And each year's loss be smaller than its gain.
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      God's love is in them&mdash;count the friends ye
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent30">
-      get
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      The only wealth, and foes the only debt.
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      In life and Nature read the simple plan:
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent15">
-      Be kind, be just, and fear not God or man.
-    </p>
-    <p class="indent30">
-      School's out.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br />
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      I passed through the door&mdash;not eagerly, as when I had been a boy, but
-      with feet paced by sober thought&mdash;and I felt like one who had &ldquo;improved
-      his time,&rdquo; as they used to say.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0059" id="linkimage-0059"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8063.jpg" alt="8063 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8063.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      We rode in silence on our way to Hillsborough, as the dusk fell.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;The end o' good things is better'n the beginning,&rdquo;
-      said Uncle Eb, as we got out of the carriage.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <br /><br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      III
-    </h2>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0060" id="linkimage-0060"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8064.jpg" alt="8064 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8064.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0061" id="linkimage-0061"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figleft" style="width:10%;">
-      <img src="images/9064.jpg" alt="9064 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/9064.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      NE more scene from that last year, and I am done with it. There is much
-      comes crowding out of my memory, but only one thing which I could wish
-      were now a part of the record. Yet I have withheld it, and well might keep
-      it to myself, for need of better words than any which have come to me in
-      all my life.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Christmas! And we were back in the old home again. We had brought the
-      children with us. Somehow they seemed to know our needs and perils. They
-      rallied to our defence, marching
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0062" id="linkimage-0062"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8065.jpg" alt="8065 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8065.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      up and down with fife and drum, and waving banners, and shouts of victory&mdash;a
-      battalion as brave as any in the great army of happiness. They saved the
-      day which else had been overrun with thoughts and fears from the camp of
-      the enemy. Well, we had a cheerful time of it, and not an eye closed until
-      after the stroke of ten that night.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Slowly, silence fell in the little house. Below-stairs the lights were
-      out, and Hope and I were sitting alone before the fire. We were talking of
-      old times in the dim firelight. Soon there came a gentle rap at our door.
-      It was Uncle Eb with a candle in his hand.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I jes' thought I'd come in an' talk a leetle
-      conversation,&rdquo; said he, and sat down, laughing with good humor.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'Member the ol' hair trunk?&rdquo; he asked, and when I
-      assured him that we
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0063" id="linkimage-0063"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8066.jpg" alt="8066 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8066.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      could not ever forget it, he put his hand over his face and shook with
-      silent and almost sorrowful laughter.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I 'member years ago, you use' to think my watch was a
-      gran' thing, an' when ye left hum ye wanted t' take it
-      with ye, but we didn't think it was best then.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes, I remember that.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I don't s'pose&rdquo;&mdash;he hesitated as a little
-      embarrassed&mdash;&ldquo;you've got so. many splendid things now, I&mdash;I
-      don't s'pose&mdash;&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, Uncle Eb, I'd prize it above all things,&rdquo; I assured
-      him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Would ye? Here 't is,&rdquo; said he, with a smile, as he
-      took it out of his pocket and put it in my hand. &ldquo;It's been a
-      gran' good watch.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But you&mdash;you'll need it.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; he answered. &ldquo;The clock
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0064" id="linkimage-0064"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8067.jpg" alt="8067 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8067.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      'll do fer me&mdash;I'm goin' to move soon.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Move!&rdquo; we both exclaimed. &ldquo;Goin' out in the
-      fields to work ag'in,&rdquo; he added, cheerfully.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      After a glance at our faces, he added: &ldquo;I ain't afraid. It's
-      all goin' t' be fair an' square. If we couldn't
-      meet them we loved, an' do fer 'em, it wouldn't be
-      honest. We'd all feel as if we'd been kind o' cheated.
-      Suthin' has always said to me: 'Eb Holden, when ye git through
-      here yer goin' t' meet them ye love.' Who do ye s'pose
-      it was that spoke t' me? I couldn't tell ye, but somebody said
-      it, an' whoever 'tis He says the same thing to most ev'ry
-      one in the world.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It was the voice of Nature,&rdquo; I suggested.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Call it God er Natur' er what ye
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0065" id="linkimage-0065"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8068.jpg" alt="8068 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8068.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      please&mdash;fact is it's built into us an' is a part of us
-      jest as the beams are a part o' this house. I don't b'lieve
-      it was put there fer nuthin. An' it wa'n'. put there t'
-      make fools of us nuther. I tell ye, Bill, this givin' life fer death
-      ain't no hoss-trade. If ye give good value, ye're goin'
-      to git good value, an' what folks hev been led to hope an'
-      pray fer since Love come into the world, they're goin' to have&mdash;sure.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He went to Hope and put a tiny locket in her hand. Beneath its panel lay a
-      ringlet of hair, golden-brown.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It was give to me,&rdquo; he said, as he stood looking down at her.
-      &ldquo;Them little threads o' gold is kind o' wove all into my
-      life. Sixty year ago I begun to spin my hope with 'em. It's
-      grow-in' stronger an' stronger. It ain't
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0066" id="linkimage-0066"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8069.jpg" alt="8069 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8069.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      possible that Natur' has been a foolin' me all this time.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      After a little silence, he said to Hope: &ldquo;I want you to have it.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Her pleasure delighted him, and his face glowed with tender feeling.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Slowly he left us. The candle trembled in his hand, and flickering shadows
-      fell upon us. He stopped in the open door. We knew well what thought was
-      in his mind as he whispered back to us:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Merry Chris'mas&mdash;ev'ry year.&rdquo; Soon I went to
-      his room. The door was open. He had drawn off his boots and was sitting on
-      the side of his bed. I did not enter or speak to him, as I had planned to
-      do; for I saw him leaning forward on his elbows and wiping his eyes, and I
-      heard him saying to himself:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="linkimage-0067" id="linkimage-0067"> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div class="figright" style="width:5%;">
-      <img src="images/8070.jpg" alt="8070 " width="100%" /><br /><a
-      href="images/8070.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
-    </div>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Eb Holden, you oughter be 'shamed, I declare. Merry Chris'mas!
-      I tell ye. Hold up yer head.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      I returned to Hope, and we sat long looking into the firelight. Youth and
-      its grace and color were gone from us, yet I saw in her that beauty
-      &ldquo;which maketh the face to shine.&rdquo;
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Our love lay as a road before and behind us. Long ago it had left the
-      enchanted gardens and had led us far, and was now entering the City of
-      Faith and we could see its splendor against the cloud of mystery beyond.
-      Our souls sought each other in the silence and were filled with awe as
-      they looked ahead of them and, at last, I understood the love of a man for
-      a woman.
-    </p>
-    <h3>
-      THE END
-    </h3>
-    <div style="height: 6em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-
-
-
-
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-Project Gutenberg's Eben Holden's Last Day A-Fishing, by Irving Bacheller
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-
-
-Title: Eben Holden's Last Day A-Fishing
-
-Author: Irving Bacheller
-
-Release Date: June 30, 2016 [EBook #52454]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ASCII
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EBEN HOLDEN'S LAST DAY A-FISHING ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by David Widger from page images generously
-provided by the Internet Archive
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-EBEN HOLDEN'S LAST DAY A-FISHING
-
-By Irving Bacheller
-
-Author Of "Eben Holden"
-
-"Silas Strong" Etc. Etc.
-
-New York And London Harper & Brothers Publishers
-
-1907
-
-[Illustration: 0001]
-
-[Illustration: 0006]
-
-[Illustration: 0007]
-
-[Illustration: 0009]
-
-
-A. BARTON HEPBURN
-
-FISHERMAN, HUNTER, FRIEND OF UNCLE EB,
-
-AND LOVER OF THE LAND IN WHICH HE DWELT,
-
-I DEDICATE THIS LITTLE VOLUME
-
-
-
-
-EBEN HOLDEN'S LAST DAY A-FISHING
-
-
-
-
-I
-
-
-[Illustration: 9011]
-
-[Illustration: 8011]
-
-NE morning in early June I was walking on a crowded thoroughfare. The
-earth had rolled suddenly into summer skies. Birds chattered in the
-parks, and I could hear a cock crow in a passing freight wagon. I
-stopped to listen, while he seemed to hurl defiance at his captors and
-all the noisy crowd, and bid them do their worst to him. His outcry put
-me in
-
-[Illustration: 8012]
-
-mind of my own imprisonment there in the rock-bound city. As I thought
-of it, I could see the green hills of the North all starred with
-dandelions; I could hear the full flow of the streams that pass between
-them--you know--and that evening we were on our way to Hillsborough.
-Uncle Eb, then a "likely boy" of eighty-six, and Elizabeth Brower and
-Lucinda Bisnette were still in the old home. We had quickly planned a
-holiday to be full of surprise and delight for them.
-
-They were in the midst of the days that are few and silent--those
-adorned with the fading flowers of old happiness and thoughts which are
-"the conclusion of the whole matter." As for ourselves, we found them
-full of a peace and charm I would fain impart to those who read of them,
-if that
-
-[Illustration: 8013]
-
-were possible. I know well how feebly I shall do my task, but now, at
-last, a time is come when it seems to call me, and I can begin it with
-some hope and courage. I shall try not to write a book, nor a tale even,
-but mainly to gather a few flowers, now full grown, in the garden
-of remembrance. You that see it growing lovelier in the lengthening
-distance will understand me.
-
-Always, when our train went roaring into the quiet village, we used to
-look out of the car-window down across the river and a smooth stretch of
-fields into the edge of the little town. At a small, familiar opening in
-the shade-trees, almost half a mile from the train, we never failed to
-see the flicker of a white handkerchief. It signalled their welcome. And
-then--well, I doubt
-
-[Illustration: 8014]
-
-if any one may have in this world better moment. Yes--that was years
-ago, and there are strangers in the old home, but to this day every time
-I enter Hillsborough I look for that flicker of white, away off among
-the trees.
-
-That day the signal greeted us, and was only one of many joys, for it
-was a day of a thousand, warm, and full of the music of birds and
-of bees' wings and the odor of new blossoms and a great happiness.
-Elizabeth Brower stood at the gate, and beyond her we could see Uncle Eb
-on the veranda, sitting in his arm-chair. The dear woman put her fingers
-on her lips, and we knew what it meant. Uncle Eb had fallen asleep in
-the warm sunlight. We greeted her with hushed voices, and approached the
-venerable man, and sat down at his feet, smiling
-
-[Illustration: 8015]
-
-and looking up at his fine old face. He continued to sleep, all
-unconscious that we were near him. Soon we heard him call in his dreams,
-just above a whisper: "Here Fred! here Fred!" It was the name of our
-old dog, dead these many years. His nap must have taken him far
-back--perhaps into that long, westward journey through woods and fields.
-I took his hand in mine. He came out of his dreams with a start, and
-looked up at me.
-
-"What!" said he. "Wal, I _de_clare."
-
-He rose and clung to our hands and looked into our faces with a full
-heart.
-
-"A merry birthday!" I exclaimed.
-
-"See here, Bill Brower," said he. "You've hearn o' the joy o' Paradise?"
-
-"Often," I answered.
-
-[Illustration: 8016]
-
-"Wal, here's the key-note o' the song," said Uncle Eb. "Now look here,
-Liz Brower," he went on, "you tell 'Sindy we got to have the best dinner
-ever made by human hands. I'll bring some water."
-
-Elizabeth, Uncle Eb, and that daughter of Grandma Bisnette were there.
-
-Hope and her mother went into the sitting-room, and I followed them,
-while Uncle Eb went to the well for water. She looked up at us proudly
-as we stood before her, side by side.
-
-"Turn around," she said, "an' let me look at ye careful."
-
-She surveyed the fit and material of Hope's gown with great
-satisfaction.
-
-"Look so ye was just goin' t' be married," she remarked.
-
-We sat down presently upon the ancient hair-cloth sofa, with its knitted
-
-[Illustration: 8017]
-
-afghan of many colors lying folded against a curved arm. There were the
-old, plain, priceless things--the carpet, the pictures, a pyramid of
-plants and flowers in front of the large window, the centre-table, with
-its album and reading-lamp, the secretary and the what-not filled with
-books that were a part of our history.
-
-There were the ingredients of that receipt which, as it were, had made
-the intellectual cake of my boyhood: Josephus' _History of the Jews_
-(the flour, two heaping volumes); _Ten Nights in a Bar-Room_ (the milk
-and water, one volume); _Great Expectations, Bleak House), and _David
-Copperfield_ (the sugar, three volumes); _Pilgrim's Progress_ (the egg,
-one volume); _Our Golden West_ (the spice, one volume); _The Letters of
-Lord Chesterfield_
-
-[Illustration: 8018]
-
-(the frosting, one large table volume); _Wrigglesworth's _Day of
-Doom_ (the fire that did the baking).
-
-Soon we found Uncle Eb with my boy David upon his knees on the veranda,
-and he was telling him the tale of _The Witch's Bridle_, which I had
-heard in my childhood, and we stood and listened. It was a relic of old
-Yankee folk-lore and immensely true.
-
-"Once there was a young man who lived with his father an' mother in a
-little village," the story went. "An' there was a house in the village
-where a witch lived, an' it had a beautiful door. An' his mother told
-him that he must keep away from that house; but one night it looked so
-splendid that he opened the door an' went in, an' the witch spied him
-an' come and
-
-[Illustration: 8019]
-
-looked into his face an' he thought she was beautiful. An' she ast him
-to put on her bridle, but he said no. An' the ol' witch follered
-behind him as careful as a cat after a bird, an' what do ye s'pose
-she done?--waited until he was sound asleep an' put her bridle on
-him--that's what she done. Now, ye see, when a witch puts her bridle on
-any one it always turns him into a hoss, an' a witch's hoss can go right
-thro' the side of a house without makin' a hole in it, an' can jump over
-trees an' hills an' travel like the wind. She rode him high an' low, an'
-brought him back hum jest before daylight an' took off the bridle an'
-that changed him into a boy again. An' when he woke up he was tired out
-an' all of a tremble. An' ev'ry night the ol' witch come for him an' put
-on her bridle an'
-
-[Illustration: 8020]
-
-turned him into a hoss, an' rode him all over the hills an' valleys
-until he was about done fer, an' then fetched him back, an' ev'ry
-morning when he woke up he was a boy ag'in, an' was lame an' sore an'
-had a headache an' was sorry that he ever see the witch. He grew poor
-an' spindlin', an' he'd lay awake night after night to keep the witch
-away. But o' course he had to go to sleep some time, an' the minute he
-forgot himself she'd slip in an' put on the bridle an' away they'd go.
-An' he grew poorer an' poorer an' less an' less like a boy, an' more an'
-more like an animal. By an' by, he got used to bein' a hoss an' loved to
-go up in the air an' hadn't any more heart in him than my ol' mare.
-
-"Wal, one night, what d'ye s'pose happened? The witch come an' rode
-
-[Illustration: 8021]
-
-him away, an' when she got back, by an' by, an' took off his bridle, he
-never changed a hair, but stayed a hoss. Why? 'Cause the boy in him was
-all wore out an' dead as a door-nail. Fact is, hosses can stan' more'n
-men. An' the witch grew sick o' him, an' said she wanted a better hoss,
-an' give him a cut an' turned him loose in the sky. An' ev'ry night
-fer years he galloped over the house-tops as if he was tryin' to find
-suthin, an' when I went to bed I used to hear him whinny way up in the
-dark, an' it sounded suthin' like this:"
-
-Here he whinnied like the witch's horse, and went on:
-
-"Keep on the ground, Dave, an' mind yer elders, 'cause a boy that has
-his own head is apt to get it caught in the witch's bridle. Same way
-with a
-
-[Illustration: 8022]
-
-man, 'less he takes advice ev'ry day from the great Father of all.
-They's witches ev'rywhere, an' they're always lookin' fer a hoss to
-ride."
-
-"See here," said he, as soon as he discovered us, "you must all come out
-an' look at my garden."
-
-"They want to rest," Elizabeth objected.
-
-"No; we'd rather go with Uncle Eb," said Hope, and we followed him to
-the garden.
-
-"Godfrey cordial! hear the birds!" Uncle Eb went on, as we took the
-path that crossed an edge of the clover meadow. "Lot of 'em been gettin'
-married, I guess. Don't do a thing but sing an' laugh an' holler--like a
-lot o' boys an' gals."
-
-His strength had failed since we saw
-
-[Illustration: 8023]
-
-him last. He was bent a little farther, his hands trembled, a small task
-affected his breathing, but he was the same cheerful, keen-minded man.
-
-"Gardens are all right, but the sight of a hoe makes me shudder," said
-I.
-
-"The hoe is a good teacher," he answered. "Man that don't hoe his
-character ev'ry few days won't have any."
-
-"My wife hoes mine," I said.
-
-"An' does it kind o' careless." He drew his hand over his mouth and
-cleared his throat and went on as if nothing had happened. "These things
-are a good deal like folks. Some grow up an' some grow down. I used
-to know a woman that looked like a turnip, and a gal that was like a
-flower, an' another that was like a pepper-plant, an' a man that was a
-reg'lar human onion."
-
-[Illustration: 8024]
-
-"A garden always reminds me that it's about time to get your hook and
-line ready," I suggested.
-
-He stopped and put his hand upon my arm. He glanced up at the sky, and
-seemed to note the direction of the wind.
-
-"Say, by mighty!" he exclaimed. "You stop, or you'll make trouble."
-
-"Think of Paradise Valley," I went on. "It will be green and sprinkled
-with blossoms, and the brook will be singing as it goes by."
-
-"You quit!" he answered, with a little gesture of impatience. "Say!" he
-suggested, with enthusiasm, after a moment, "I wouldn't wonder but what
-the fish would bite--ye take it on the rapids there."
-
-We returned to the house and he sat in his chair on the small veranda.
-
-[Illustration: 8025]
-
-Robins were building their nest on a shelf near him, and were busy with
-their fetching and weaving.
-
-"Look at the scalawags!" he laughed. "No, there ain't nothin' that's
-'fraid o' me some way. I got a club one day an' tried to scare a mouse;
-but seems so she knew I was only foolin'. Now she's begun to bully me
-an' fetch her children right into my bedroom, an' I guess I'll have to
-git mad an' declare war."
-
-I hailed a boy in the street, and sent him for a team, to be brought
-immediately after dinner.
-
-When we sat down to eat, Uncle Eb put the same old question:
-
-"Wal, how's ev'rything down there in the city?"
-
-"About as usual."
-
-"Too many folks there," he said,
-
-[Illustration: 8026]
-
-"an' they all look a leetle cross. I like t' pass the time o' day with
-ev'ry man I meet, but mighty Dinah! they's so many of 'em!--there ain't
-no use tryin' t' be pleasant. I got t' showin' the whites o' my eyes as
-bad as any of 'em." He spoke, laughingly, of a symphony concert to which
-we had taken him.
-
-"I'll never fergit the man with a p'inter," he said, his head noddin
-with amusement. "How he could toss the music! It was like spreadin'
-hay." Again his cheery voice, after a moment of silence: "No more meat!
-Hope Brower, if you don't eat yer dinner, you'll be put to bed."
-
-After dinner I gathered up my tackle.
-
-"I dunno," Uncle Eb remarked.
-
-"Great day for fishing," I insisted.
-
-The team arrived, a lively pair of Morgan mares. Uncle Eb came out
-
-[Illustration: 8027]
-
-of the house in rubber boots, with his overcoat upon his arm.
-
-"I'm 'fraid you better not go," said Elizabeth Brower from the
-door-step, with a look of anxiety, and now the trembling of his hands
-made me almost regret that I had tempted him.
-
-"See here," said Uncle Eb, firmly, as he turned to my mother. "He's
-picked on me 'til I can't stan' it any longer. Ye couldn't keep me out
-o' that buggy with a gun."
-
-I helped him in and took my place at his side, and away we went a pace
-of twelve miles to the hour, through town, across the flat, and up the
-stairway of the hills. We passed the old Hosper homestead.
-
-"What's become of the deacon?" I asked.
-
-"Dead; got sick o' life. Wouldn't
-
-[Illustration: 8028]
-
-eat or take any medicine; kind o' pined away."
-
-"What was the trouble?"
-
-"Wal, ye know, he had to live with himself," said Uncle Eb, "an' he
-wa'n't what ye might call good comp'ny. He couldn't help it, an' I
-always felt kind o' sorry fer Hosper. They got him so scairt over there
-at the white church that he was 'fraid to live an' 'fraid to die, an'
-fer a long time he didn't do either. He thought it was his duty to
-suffer. God had cursed the world, an' that was the reason why men had
-to sweat an' toil. Think o' his days--full o' fear an' repentence an'
-atonement an' hell an' ancient history. He kind o' straddled his span o'
-life. One foot was in the future an' the other in the past. No wonder he
-had the rheumatiz. Nobody liked him. He got to
-
-[Illustration: 8029]
-
-be a lonesome, sickly ol' man, I went to see him one day. Says I:
-
-"'Deacon, I wouldn't wonder if the fish 'u'd bite.'
-
-"'Fish!' says he, 'my mind ain't on fish. I'm thinkin' o' my immortal
-soul.'
-
-"'Man's soul is like his stummick,' says I. 'It ain't healthy 'less he
-can fergit it. Come an' have some fun.'" We rode in silence until Uncle
-Eb went on:
-
-"He seemed to think that God was a kind of a bully, an' that he loved to
-make men cowards. It don't seem likely to me. I don't b'lieve He meant
-toil fer a curse nuther. I couldn't be happy 'less I had suthin' to
-do. Seems 's 'o' them who wrote down the plans o' the Almighty made a
-mistake now an' then, an' it ain't no wonder if they
-
-[Illustration: 8030]
-
-did. No man can be perfect, specially when he takes holt o' so big a
-job. Prob'ly it was purty hot where they lived, an' work didn't agree
-with 'em. Now it looks to me as if that fust family couldn't 'a' been
-very happy without a thing to do. I don't wonder that Cain an' Abel
-quarrelled. God must 'a' seen that the world lacked suthin' very
-important. So He blessed it with toil. I don't believe He ever intended
-to curse it, 'cause, if He did, ye got to own up that He ain't succeeded
-fust-rate."
-
-We came to the top of Bowman's Hill and looked down into the little
-valley, and were both silent.
-
-"Time flies!" I remarked, presently.
-
-"Beats all," Uncle Eb answered.
-
-The Brower farm had run down, as they say in the back country. The
-
-[Illustration: 8031]
-
-house and stable were in ill repair. Evil days had come to the neat and
-cleanly fireside, where in the old time Santa Claus had blessed us, and
-I had heard the cry of the swift and felt the touch of love and sorrow.
-
-The tenant, a man who showed the wear of hard times, put our team in the
-stable.
-
-"If you'd stayed here," said he, with a glance at me, "this farm
-wouldn't 'a' looked as it does now.
-
-Uncle Eb smiled.
-
-"No," said he; "the farm would 'a' looked better, but he'd 'a' looked a
-dum sight wuss."
-
-He cleared his throat, and spoke of the weather as if to soften the blow
-a little.
-
-I got my tackle ready while the man dug worms for Uncle Eb--an angler
-
-[Illustration: 8032]
-
-of the bait-and-sinker type. Soon we made our way slowly through the
-same old cow-path that wavered across the green slope now starred with
-soft, golden blossoms. It is curious, that conservatism of the cloven
-hoof, which, like water, follows its old path, having found the way of
-least resistance. In a few minutes we came near the rotted stump of Lone
-Pine.
-
-"Hats off!" said Uncle Eb, as he uncovered.
-
-In a second my hat was in my hand; or there, between our feet, was a
-lonely, half-forgotten grave--that of old Fred. Slowly, silently, we
-resumed our walk. My venerable friend was breathing hard. I supported
-him with my arm, and soon we sat down to rest upon a rock. The air was
-clear and still. There was not a cloud in the sky. A
-
-[Illustration: 8033]
-
-hawk flew across the flat near us, his white butcher's apron stained
-with blood. He was flying low, with some small creature in his talons.
-It made me break the silence, and I said:
-
-"There's a thing that puzzles me--the cruelty that is in all God's
-creation. It's a great slaughter-house, and everything that lives has
-the stain of blood upon it."
-
-"It all teaches us that death ain't o' much account," said Uncle Eb.
-"It looks like cruelty, an' most of us think it a curse. Death is a
-wonderful blessin'--that's the way it looks to me. Why, Bill Brower,
-ye've died twice already. Fust the child, then the boy, an' each time ye
-wove a new body. Bym by yer loom is wore out. Got t' go git a new one.
-Ye'll begin t' feel as if yer body was a kind of a bad fit.
-
-[Illustration: 8034]
-
-It'll be too small an' shabby an' un-comf'table.
-
-"I 'member a boy over'n Vermont by the name o' Lem Barker. Grew so fast
-that the fust he knew his clo's begun to pinch him, an' the bottoms of
-his pants wouldn't 'sociate with his shoe-leather, an' his hands was way
-down below his coat sleeves, an' the old suit was wore so thin he didn't
-dast run er rassle fer fear it would bust an' drop off him. All he could
-do was to set an' think an' talk an' chaw ter-baccer an' walk as careful
-as a hen lookin' fer grasshoppers. He hadn't any confidence in that old
-suit, an' was kind o' 'fraid of it. One day he see a bear, an' it come
-nec'sary fer him to move quick, an' he split his clo's, an' hed to go
-hum in a rain-barrel. At fust he thought it was bad luck, but when his
-
-[Illustration: 8035]
-
-father got him a new suit he see that he was mistaken. We old folks are
-a good deal like poor Lem. We toddle around in our old clo's an' are a
-leetle bit afraid of 'em. It would be lucky for us if we could meet a
-bear. I'd like to go down to the brook there on the run jest as I used
-to. But I wouldn't dast try it. My body don't fit my spirit--that's
-what's the matter. Got to go an' have my measure took, an' throw 'way
-the old suit. An' I'll tell ye, Bill, I need a better outfit than
-what I've ever had--suthin' stouter-wove an' han'somer an' more
-durable--suthin' fit fer a man. I'm goin' to hev it--call that a curse?"
-
-He looked at his bony, trembling hands, and went on:
-
-"It's all faded an' kind o' cold an' threadbare. My back couldn't carry
-
-[Illustration: 8036]
-
-one small boy in a basket these days, but I'd like t' carry all the
-boys in the county, an' mebbe some time I'll have a back broad 'nough.
-That'll be when school's dismissed, an' I go off t' seek my fortune,
-good deal as you did. I 'member how you went an' got some new clo's
-there 'n New York fust thing. An' they was splendid--better 'n any ye
-could git in Hillsborough."
-
-We heard footsteps in a moment, and I turned and saw Jed Feary
-approaching us. He was past eighty years of age, and his hair and beard
-were white, and he walked slowly with a cane. He stopped near us, and
-began to laugh as we greeted him.
-
-"Heard you was here," he said, "an' Rans Walker druv me down the road."
-
-"Stump ye t' rassle with me," said Uncle Eb, with a smile.
-
-[Illustration: 8037]
-
-"Wait 'til I've throwed the rheumatiz, an' then I'll tackle you," said
-the poet.
-
-"How are you, Uncle Jed?" was my query.
-
-"As you see--the trembling hand an' slippered pantaloon."
-
-"All the world's a stage," I quoted.
-
-"It used to be in the time o' Shakespeare," said the poet. "Life was a
-pretty play those days, but since then we've got down to business. Now
-
-                        "All the world's a school,
-
-               And all the men and women merely scholars.
-
-               It has its teachers, grades, and many classes;
-
-               Its trustees, honors, torts, and punishments.
-
-               Its books are three: Nature, history,
-
-               And revelation teaching holy truth:
-
-               That men are brothers and must learn to
-
-                        love."
-
-"And you are one of its teachers," said Uncle Eb.
-
-[Illustration: 8038]
-
-"I'm only a humble student," said the poet. "Think what we've learnt in
-a hundred years. That little Devil, who rode across Europe killing an'
-burning an' spreading terror until they stopped him at Waterloo,
-he taught us a great lesson. He made us hate war, and that was the
-beginning o' the end of it. There were to be other wars, but they have
-been steps only in the conquest of Peace."
-
-"And there will be no more war?" I queried.
-
-"Yes; but the learned races will put an end to it by and by," he went
-on. "The upper classes have all learnt their lesson--they know too much.
-We know suthin' 'bout war here in Faraway. Let me tell ye a story."
-
-The old poet sat on a rock near, and began this little epic of the
-countryside:
-
-[Illustration: 8039]
-
-               "So ye're runnin' fer Congress, mister? Le'
-
-                   me tell ye 'bout my son,
-
-               Might make you fellers carefuller down
-
-                   there in Washington:
-
-               He clings to his rifle an' uniform--folks
-
-                   call him Whisperin' Bill,
-
-               An' I tell ye the war ain't over yit up here
-
-                   on Bowman's Hill.
-
-               "This dooryard is his battle-field--le's see,
-
-                   he was nigh sixteen
-
-               When Sumter fell, an' as likely a boy as
-
-                   ever this world has seen,
-
-               An' what with the news o' battle lost, the
-
-                   speeches, an' all the noise,
-
-               I guess ev'ry farm in the neighborhood
-
-                   lost a part of its crop o' boys.
-
-               "'Twas harvest time when Bill left home,
-
-                   ev'ry stalk in the fields o' rye
-
-               Seemed t' stan' tip-toe t' see him off an'
-
-                   wave a fond good-bye.
-
-               His sweetheart was here with some other
-
-                   gals--the sassy little miss--
-
-               An' pertendin' she wanted t' whisper 'n
-
-                   his ear, she give him a rousin' kiss.
-
-[Illustration: 8040]
-
-               "Oh, he was a han'some feller! an* tender
-
-                   an' brave an' smart,
-
-               An' though he was bigger 'n I was, the boy
-
-                   had a woman's heart.
-
-               I couldn't control my feelin's, but I tried
-
-                   with all my might,
-
-               An' his mother an' me stood a-cryin' till
-
-                   Bill was out o' sight.
-
-               "His mother she often tol' him, when she
-
-                   knew he was goin' away,
-
-               That God would take care o' him, maybe,
-
-                   if he didn't fergit to pray;
-
-               An' on the bloodiest battle-fields, when
-
-                   bullets whizzed in the air,
-
-               An' Bill was a fightin' desperit, he used to
-
-                   whisper a prayer.
-
-               'Oh, his comrades has often told me that
-
-                   Bill never flinched a bit
-
-               When ev'ry second a gap in the ranks tol'
-
-                   where a ball had hit.
-
-               An' one night when the field was covered
-
-                   with the awful harvest o' war,
-
-               They found my boy 'mongst the martyrs
-
-                   o' the cause he was fightin' for.
-
-[Illustration: 8041]
-
-               "His fingers was clutched in the dewy grass
-
-                   --oh, no sir, he wasn't dead,
-
-               But he lay kind o' helpless an' crazy with
-
-                   a rifle-ball in his head;
-
-               An' he trembled with the battle-fear a-lay-
-
-                   in' in the dew,
-
-               An' he whispered, as he tried to rise: 'God
-
-                   'll take care o' you.'
-
-               'An officer wrote an' tol' us how the boy
-
-                   had been hurt in the fight,
-
-               But he said the doctors reckoned they
-
-                   could bring him around all right,
-
-               An' then we heard from a neighbor, dis-
-
-                   abled at Malvern Hill,
-
-               That he thought in the course of a week
-
-                   or so he'd be cornin' home with Bill.
-
-               'We was that anxious t' see him we'd set
-
-                   up an' talk o' nights
-
-               Till the break o' day had dimmed the
-
-                   stars an' put out the Northern Lights;
-
-               We waited an' watched fer a month or
-
-                   more, an' the summer was nearly past,
-
-               When a letter come one day that said
-
-                   they'd started fer hum at last.
-
-[Illustration: 8042]
-
-               "I'll never fergit the day Bill come--'twas
-
-                   harvest time again--
-
-               An' the air blown over the yellow fields was
-
-                   sweet with the scent o' the grain.
-
-               The dooryard was full o' the neighbors,
-
-                   who had come to share our joy,
-
-               An' all of us sent up a mighty cheer at
-
-                   the sight o' that soldier boy.
-
-               "An' all of a sudden somebody said: 'My
-
-                   God! don't the boy know his mother?'
-
-               An' Bill stood a-whisperin', fearful like,
-
-                   an' a starin' from one to another;
-
-               'Have courage, Bill,' says he to himself,
-
-                   as he stood in his coat o' blue,
-
-               'Why, God 'll take care o' you, my boy,
-
-                   God 'll take care o' you.'
-
-               "He seemed to be loadin' an' firin' a gun,
-
-                   an't' act like a man who hears
-
-               The awful roar o' the battle-field a-sound-                    in' in his ears;
-
-               Ten thousan' ghosts o' that bloody day
-
-                   was marchin' through his brain,
-
-               An' his feet they kind o' picked their way
-
-                   as if they felt the slain.
-
-[Illustration: 8043]
-
-               An' I grabbed his hand, an' says I to Bill,
-
-                   'Don't ye 'member me?
-
-               I'm yer father--don't ye know me? How
-
-                   frightened ye seem to be.'
-
-               But the boy kep' a-whisperin' to himself,
-
-                   as if 't was all he knew,
-
-               'God 'll take care o' you, Bill, God 'll take
-
-                   care o' you.'
-
-               He's never known us since that day, nor
-
-                   his sweetheart, an' never will;
-
-               Father an' mother an' sweetheart are all
-
-                   the same to Bill.
-
-               An' he groans like a wounded soldier,
-
-                   sometimes, the whole night through,
-
-               An' we smooth his head, an' say: 'Yes,
-
-                   Bill, He'll surely take care o' you.'
-
-               'Ye can stop a war in a minute, but when
-
-                   can ye stop the groans?
-
-               Fer ye've broke our hearts an' sapped our
-
-                   strength an' plucked away our bones.
-
-               An' ye've filled our souls with bitterness
-
-                   that goes from sire to son,
-
-               So ye best be kind o' careful down there
-
-                   in Washington."
-
-[Illustration: 8044]
-
-Before us lay the peaceful valley, and on a far hill we could see the
-door-yard bordered with small trees and haunted by the ghosts of the
-battlefield.
-
-"We've had our lesson," said Uncle Eb, "but there's some that havint.
-You 'member Lon Tracy--he was one o' the most peaceable men that ever
-lived. One day he went to the village, an' some mis'rable, drunken cuss
-pitched on him an' Lon set to an' thrashed him proper.
-
-"'I'm surprised,' said the Justice o' the Peace, when Lon come before
-him.
-
-"'So'm I,' said Lon.
-
-"'S'pose ye knew 'nough t' keep out o' trouble.'
-
-"'So did I,' says Lon.
-
-"'I didn't think you were a fighting man.'
-
-[Illustration: 8045]
-
-"'I didn't nuther,' says Lon.
-
-"'How did it happen?'
-
-"'Very easy--he rapped me an' I rapped back,' says Lon.
-
-"'An' you rapped the hardest.'
-
-"'Wal, when ye pay a debt o' that kind,' says Lon, 'ye ain't no way
-petic'lar how much int'rest ye allow.'
-
-"Now that's what's the matter," said Uncle Eb. "They's some that 'ain't
-learnt any better than to fight an' quarrel, an' when they git rapped
-they're goin' t' rap back, an' be a leetle too liberal with the pay."
-
-"But the great school ain't goin' t' be ruled much longer by its primer
-class," said the poet. "An' the Principal an' trustees will put an end
-to fightin' between classes. They find it interferes with the work o'
-the school, whose great aim is given in three
-
-[Illustration: 8046]
-
-words: Peace, Happiness, Brotherhood."
-
-"Wal, I'm goin' t' play truant an' go fishin'," said Uncle Eb.
-
-"School's dismissed fer the day," said Feary, as he rose to leave us.
-"Eb Holden, we're both likely to be promoted before long. We're like two
-boys who've been away to school. When we get home they're goin' to be
-glad to see us. Good-bye!"
-
-"Good-bye!"
-
-So the old man left us, and we sat watching him as he crossed the brook
-and slowly mounted the green uplands.
-
-"Purty good fishin' when Jed Feary's around," said Uncle Eb, as we
-slowly made our way to the edge of the woods. "Growin' old, ain't
-he?--say, if his body fitted his soul what do ye s'pose we'd think o'
-him? I dunno but we'd
-
-[Illustration: 8047]
-
-feel like gittin' on our knees when he come around. It wouldn't do. This
-world's no place fer angels, after all. Wal, come on, le's quit thinkin'
-an' have some fun."
-
-
-
-
-II
-
-
-[Illustration: 9048]
-
-[Illustration: 8048]
-
-S we entered the cool woods and came where we could hear the song of the
-brook, Uncle Eb cautioned me in a whisper, just as he used to do: "Now
-go careful."
-
-I found a rock at the head of a likely stretch of rapids on which he
-could sit comfortably as he fished. I prepared his tackle and baited
-his hook for him, and stood by as it went plunking into smooth water.
-Sitting there, he seemed to forget his feebleness, and his voice and
-figure were full of animation. His hair, as white as snow, was
-
-[Illustration: 8049]
-
-like the crown of glory of which David sings.
-
-He kept hauling and giving out. Now and then, as he felt a nibble, he
-addressed the fish:
-
-"How d' do? Come ag'in," he said, as he continued to work his line.
-"Tut, tut! you're another!" he exclaimed, with a sharp twitch.
-
-The trout was a large one, and Uncle Eb, with a six-ounce rod, had not
-been able to lift and swing him ashore in the old fashion. He held on
-with jiggling hands and a look of great animation as the fish took line
-in half a dozen quick rushes.
-
-"You're tryin' to jerk me out o' my boots"--the words were emphasized
-and broken here and there by the struggle. The rod's vibration had got
-into his voice and all the upper part
-
-[Illustration: 8050]
-
-of his body. "Stop that, ye scalawag!" he went on. "Consarn ye, come
-here to me!"
-
-He seized the line, flung his rod on the shore, and began to haul
-vigorously hand over hand. When the splendid fish lay gasping at his
-feet, Uncle Eb turned to me and shook his head. He sat breathing hard,
-as if the exertion had wearied him. Soon he took out his jack-knife, a
-serious look on his face.
-
-"You go cut me an alder pole," said he, with decision. "That thing ain't
-no better'n a spear o' grass."
-
-I ran up the shore, glad of the chance he had given me to conceal my
-laughter. I cut a long, stout pole among the bushes, and returned,
-trimming it as I ran.
-
-"Willie, hurry up!" said he, with an eager look on his face, as if it
-were one
-
-[Illustration: 8051]
-
-again.
-
-"There," said he, trying the pole, "that's a reg'lar stun-lifter. I can
-sass 'em back now. Put on the hook an' line."
-
-In a moment he gave his bait a fling, and assumed that alert and eager
-attitude so familiar to me.
-
-"Tut, tut!" said he, with a lively twitch. "I dare ye to do it ag'in."
-
-Soon the rod sprang upward, and a wriggling trout rose in the air, swung
-above the head of Uncle Eb, and fell to the earth behind him.
-
-"There, by gravy! that's what I call fun," said he. "No, I don't want to
-torment 'em there 'n the water; 'taint fair. I'd ruther fetch 'em right
-out."
-
-I unhooked the fish for him.
-
-"Look here, you go on 'bout yer
-
-[Illustration: 8052]
-
-business," he added. "I can bait my own hook."
-
-I left him and began to whip my way down the brook. It was good fishing,
-but the scene was by far the best part of it. What was there in those
-lovely and familiar shores to keep my heart so busy? The crows, hurrying
-like boys let out of school, seemed to denounce me as an alien. A crane
-flew over my head, crunkling a fierce complaint of me, and the startled
-kingfisher was most inhospitable.
-
-A small, bare-footed boy passed me, fishing on the farther bank. He had
-a happy face, and mine--well, I turned away for very shame of it. The
-boy looked at me critically, as if I were a trespasser, and I remembered
-how I felt years ago, when I saw a stranger on the brook.
-
-[Illustration: 8053]
-
-I remembered how, as a boy, I used to long for a watch-chain, and how
-once Uncle Eb hung his upon my coat, and said I could "call it mine."
-So it goes all through life. We are the veriest children, and there is
-nothing one may really own. He may call it his for a little while, just
-to satisfy him. The whole matter of deeds and titles had become now a
-kind of baby's play. You may think you own the land, and you pass on;
-but there it is, while others, full of the same old illusion, take your
-place.
-
-I followed the brook to where it idled on, bordered with buttercups, in
-a great meadow. The music and the color halted me, and I lay on my
-back in the tall grass for a little while, and looked up at the sky and
-listened. There under the clover tops I could
-
-[Illustration: 8054]
-
-hear the low, sweet music of many wings--the continuous treble of the
-honey-bee in chord with flashes of deep bass from the wings of that big,
-wild, improvident cousin of his.
-
-Above this lower heaven I could hear a tournament of bobolinks. They
-flew over me, and clung in the grass tops and sang--their notes bursting
-out like those of a plucked string. What a pressure of delight was
-behind them! Hope and I used to go there for berries when we were
-children, and later--when youth had come, and the colors of the wild
-rose and the tiger-lily were in our faces--we found a secret joy in
-being alone together. Those days there was something beautiful in
-that hidden fear we had of each other--was it not the native, imperial
-majesty of innocence? The look of
-
-[Illustration: 8055]
-
-her eyes seemed to lift me up and prepare me for any sacrifice. That
-orchestra of the meadow spoke our thoughts for us--youth, delight and
-love were in its music.
-
-Soon I heard a merry laugh and the sound of feet approaching, and then
-the voice of a young man.
-
-"Mary, I love you," it said, "and I would die for your sake."
-
-The same old story, and I knew that he meant every word of it. What Mary
-may have said to him I know well enough, too, although it came not to my
-ears; for when I rose, by and by, and crossed the woodland and saw them
-walking up the slopes, she all in white and crowned with meadow flowers,
-I observed that his arm supported her in the right way.
-
-I took down my rod and hurried up
-
-[Illustration: 8056]
-
-stream, and came soon where I could see Uncle Eb sitting motionless
-and leaning on a tree trunk. I approached him silently. His head leaned
-forward; the "pole" lay upon his knees. Like a child, weary of play,
-he had fallen asleep. His trout lay in a row beside him; there were
-at least a dozen. That old body was now, indeed, a very bad fit, and
-more--it was too shabby for a spirit so noble and brave. I knew, as I
-looked down upon him, that Uncle Eb would fish no more after that day.
-In a moment there came a twitch on the line. He woke suddenly, tightened
-his grasp, and flung another fish into the air. It broke free and fell
-upon the ripples.
-
-"Huh! ketched me nappin'," said he. "I declare, Bill, I'm kind o'
-shamed."
-
-[Illustration: 8057]
-
-I could see that he felt the pathos of that moment.
-
-"I guess we've fished enough," he said to himself, as he broke off the
-end of the pole and began to wind his line upon it. "When the fish hev
-t' wake ye up to be hauled in its redic'lous. The next time I go fishin'
-with you I'm goin' t' be rigged proper."
-
-In a moment he went on: "Fishin' ain't what it used t' be. I've grown
-old and lazy, an' so has the brook. They've cut the timber an' dried the
-springs, an' by an' by the live water will go down to the big sea, an'
-the dead water will sink into the ground, an' you won't see any brook
-there."
-
-We began our walk up one of the cowpaths.
-
-"One more look," said he, facing about, and gazing up and down the
-
-[Illustration: 8058]
-
-familiar valley. "We've had a lot o' fun here--'bout as much as we're
-entitled to, I guess--let 'em have it."
-
-So, in a way, he deeded Tinkle Brook and its valley to future
-generations.
-
-We proceeded in silence for a moment, and soon he added: "That little
-brook has done a lot fer us. It took our thoughts off the hard work,
-and helped us fergit the mortgage, an' taught us to laugh like the rapid
-water. It never owed us anything after the day Mose Tupper lost his
-pole. Put it all together, I guess I've laughed a year over that. 'Bout
-the best payin' job we ever done. Mose thought he had a whale, an' I
-don't blame him. Fact is, a lost fish is an awful liar. A trout would
-deceive the devil when he's way down out o' sight in the
-
-[Illustration: 8059]
-
-water, an' his weight is telegraphed through twenty feet o' line. When
-ye fetch him up an' look him square in the eye he tells a different
-story. I blame the fish more'n I do the folks.
-
-"That 'swallered pole' was a kind of a magic wand round here in Faraway.
-Ye could allwus fetch a laugh with it. Sometimes I think they must 'a'
-lost one commandment, an' that is: Be happy. Ye can't be happy an' be
-bad. I never see a bad man in my life that was hevin' fun. Let me hear
-a man laugh an' I'll tell ye what kind o' metal there is in him. There
-ain't any sech devilish sound in the world as the laugh of a wicked man.
-It's like the cry o' the swift, an' you 'member what that was."
-
-Uncle Eb shook with laughter as I
-
-[Illustration: 8060]
-
-tried the cry of that deadly bugbear of my youth.
-
-We got into the wagon presently and drove away. The sun was down as I
-drew up at the old school-house.
-
-"Run in fer a minute an' set down in yer old seat an' see how it seems,"
-said Uncle Eb. "They're goin' to tear it down, an' tain't likely you'll
-see it ag'in."
-
-I went to the door and lifted its clanking latch and walked in. My
-footsteps filled the silent room with echoes, and how small it
-looked! There was the same indescribable odor of the old time country
-school--that of pine timber and seasoning fire-wood. I sat down in the
-familiar seat carved by jack-knives. There was my name surrounded by
-others cut in the rough wood.
-
-[Illustration: 8061]
-
-Ghosts began to file into the dusky room, and above a plaintive hum of
-insects it seemed as if I could hear the voices of children and bits of
-the old lessons--that loud, triumphant sound of tender intelligence as
-it began to seize the alphabet; those parrot-like answers: "Round like a
-ball,"
-
-"Three-fourths water and one-fourth land," and others like them.
-
-"William Brower, stop whispering!" I seemed to hear the teacher say.
-What was the writing on the blackboard? I rose and walked to it as I had
-been wont to do when the teacher gave his command. There in the silence
-of the closing day I learned my last lesson in the old school-house.
-These lines in the large, familiar script of Feary, who it seems had
-been a
-
-[Illustration: 8062]
-
-visitor at the last day of school, were written on the board:
-
-
-SCHOOL 'S OUT
-
-               Attention all--the old school's end is near.
-
-               Behold the sum of all its lessons here:
-
-               If e'er by loss of friends your heart is bowed!
-
-               Straightway go find ye others in the crowd.
-
-               Let Love's discoveries console its pain
-
-               And each year's loss be smaller than its gain.
-
-               God's love is in them--count the friends ye
-
-                        get
-
-               The only wealth, and foes the only debt.
-
-               In life and Nature read the simple plan:
-
-               Be kind, be just, and fear not God or man.
-
-                        School's out.
-
-I passed through the door--not eagerly, as when I had been a boy, but
-with feet paced by sober thought--and I felt like one who had "improved
-his time," as they used to say.
-
-[Illustration: 8063]
-
-We rode in silence on our way to Hillsborough, as the dusk fell.
-
-"The end o' good things is better'n the beginning," said Uncle Eb, as we
-got out of the carriage.
-
-
-
-
-III
-
-[Illustration: 8064]
-
-[Illustration: 9064]
-
-NE more scene from that last year, and I am done with it. There is much
-comes crowding out of my memory, but only one thing which I could wish
-were now a part of the record. Yet I have withheld it, and well might
-keep it to myself, for need of better words than any which have come to
-me in all my life.
-
-Christmas! And we were back in the old home again. We had brought the
-children with us. Somehow they seemed to know our needs and perils. They
-rallied to our defence, marching
-
-[Illustration: 8065]
-
-up and down with fife and drum, and waving banners, and shouts of
-victory--a battalion as brave as any in the great army of happiness.
-They saved the day which else had been overrun with thoughts and fears
-from the camp of the enemy. Well, we had a cheerful time of it, and not
-an eye closed until after the stroke of ten that night.
-
-Slowly, silence fell in the little house. Below-stairs the lights were
-out, and Hope and I were sitting alone before the fire. We were talking
-of old times in the dim firelight. Soon there came a gentle rap at our
-door. It was Uncle Eb with a candle in his hand.
-
-"I jes' thought I'd come in an' talk a leetle conversation," said he,
-and sat down, laughing with good humor.
-
-"'Member the ol' hair trunk?" he asked, and when I assured him that we
-
-[Illustration: 8066]
-
-could not ever forget it, he put his hand over his face and shook with
-silent and almost sorrowful laughter.
-
-"I 'member years ago, you use' to think my watch was a gran' thing, an'
-when ye left hum ye wanted t' take it with ye, but we didn't think it
-was best then."
-
-"Yes, I remember that."
-
-"I don't s'pose"--he hesitated as a little embarrassed--"you've got so.
-many splendid things now, I--I don't s'pose--"
-
-"Oh, Uncle Eb, I'd prize it above all things," I assured him.
-
-"Would ye? Here 't is," said he, with a smile, as he took it out of his
-pocket and put it in my hand. "It's been a gran' good watch."
-
-"But you--you'll need it."
-
-"No," he answered. "The clock
-
-[Illustration: 8067]
-
-'ll do fer me--I'm goin' to move soon."
-
-"Move!" we both exclaimed. "Goin' out in the fields to work ag'in," he
-added, cheerfully.
-
-After a glance at our faces, he added: "I ain't afraid. It's all goin'
-t' be fair an' square. If we couldn't meet them we loved, an' do fer
-'em, it wouldn't be honest. We'd all feel as if we'd been kind o'
-cheated. Suthin' has always said to me: 'Eb Holden, when ye git through
-here yer goin' t' meet them ye love.' Who do ye s'pose it was that spoke
-t' me? I couldn't tell ye, but somebody said it, an' whoever 'tis He
-says the same thing to most ev'ry one in the world."
-
-"It was the voice of Nature," I suggested.
-
-"Call it God er Natur' er what ye
-
-[Illustration: 8068]
-
-please--fact is it's built into us an' is a part of us jest as the beams
-are a part o' this house. I don't b'lieve it was put there fer nuthin.
-An' it wa'n't put there t' make fools of us nuther. I tell ye, Bill,
-this givin' life fer death ain't no hoss-trade. If ye give good value,
-ye're goin' to git good value, an' what folks hev been led to hope an'
-pray fer since Love come into the world, they're goin' to have--sure."
-
-He went to Hope and put a tiny locket in her hand. Beneath its panel lay
-a ringlet of hair, golden-brown.
-
-"It was give to me," he said, as he stood looking down at her. "Them
-little threads o' gold is kind o' wove all into my life. Sixty year ago
-I begun to spin my hope with 'em. It's grow-in' stronger an' stronger.
-It ain't
-
-[Illustration: 8069]
-
-possible that Natur' has been a foolin' me all this time."
-
-After a little silence, he said to Hope: "I want you to have it."
-
-Her pleasure delighted him, and his face glowed with tender feeling.
-
-Slowly he left us. The candle trembled in his hand, and flickering
-shadows fell upon us. He stopped in the open door. We knew well what
-thought was in his mind as he whispered back to us:
-
-"Merry Chris'mas--ev'ry year." Soon I went to his room. The door was
-open. He had drawn off his boots and was sitting on the side of his bed.
-I did not enter or speak to him, as I had planned to do; for I saw
-him leaning forward on his elbows and wiping his eyes, and I heard him
-saying to himself:
-
-[Illustration: 8070]
-
-"Eb Holden, you oughter be 'shamed, I declare. Merry Chris'mas! I tell
-ye. Hold up yer head."
-
-I returned to Hope, and we sat long looking into the firelight. Youth
-and its grace and color were gone from us, yet I saw in her that beauty
-"which maketh the face to shine."
-
-Our love lay as a road before and behind us. Long ago it had left the
-enchanted gardens and had led us far, and was now entering the City of
-Faith and we could see its splendor against the cloud of mystery beyond.
-Our souls sought each other in the silence and were filled with awe as
-they looked ahead of them and, at last, I understood the love of a man
-for a woman.
-
-THE END
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Eben Holden's Last Day A-Fishing, by 
-Irving Bacheller
-
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