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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of Youth, Vol. I, No. 3, May 1902, by Herbert
-Leonard Coggins
-
-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
-will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
-using this eBook.
-
-Title: Youth, Vol. I, No. 3, May 1902
- An Illustrated Monthly Journal for Boys & Girls
-
-Author: Various
-
-Editor: Herbert Leonard Coggins
-
-Release Date: May 21, 2021 [eBook #65400]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-Produced by: hekula03, Mike Stember and the Online Distributed
- Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was
- produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital
- Library.)
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK YOUTH, VOL. I, NO. 3, MAY 1902 ***
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
- YOUTH
-
- VOLUME 1 NUMBER 3
- 1902
- MAY
-
- An ILLUSTRATED MONTHLY JOURNAL for BOYS & GIRLS
-
- The Penn Publishing Company Philadelphia
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS FOR MAY
-
-
- FRONTISPIECE Page
-
- WITH WASHINGTON AT VALLEY FORGE (Serial) W. Bert Foster 77
- Illustrated by F. A. Carter
-
- THE “DANDY FIFTH’S” LAST TRIUMPH Laura Alton Payne 86
- A Memorial Day Story
-
- TO MAY (Selected) Wordsworth 89
-
- LITTLE POLLY PRENTISS (Serial) Elizabeth Lincoln Gould 90
- Illustrated by Ida Waugh
-
- WOOD-FOLK TALK J. Allison Atwood 97
- Bobolink and the Stranger
-
- A DAUGHTER OF THE FOREST (Serial) Evelyn Raymond 99
- Illustrated by Ida Waugh
-
- THE MONTH OF FLOWER Julia McNair Wright 107
- Illustrated by Nina G. Barlow
-
- WITH THE EDITOR 109
-
- EVENT AND COMMENT 110
-
- IN-DOORS (Parlor Magic, Paper III) Ellis Stanyon 111
-
- THE OLD TRUNK (Puzzles) 113
-
- WITH THE PUBLISHER 114
-
-
- YOUTH
-
- _An Illustrated Monthly Journal for Boys and Girls_
-
- SINGLE COPIES 10 CENTS ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION $1.00
-
- Sent postpaid to any address
-
- Subscriptions can begin at any time and must be paid in advance
-
- Remittances may be made in the way most convenient to the sender,
- and should be sent to
-
- The Penn Publishing Company
- 923 ARCH STREET, PHILADELPHIA, PA.
-
- Copyright 1902 by The Penn Publishing Company
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: WASHINGTON AND THE COMMITTEE OF CONGRESS AT VALLEY FORGE.]
-
-
-
-
- YOUTH
-
- VOL. I MAY 1902 No. 3
-
-
-
-
- WITH WASHINGTON AT VALLEY FORGE
-
- By W. Bert Foster
-
-
- CHAPTER VII
-
- A Friend on the Enemy’s Side
-
-
- SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS
-
- The story opens in the year of 1777, during one of the most critical
- periods of the Revolution. Hadley Morris, our hero, is in the
- employ of Jonas Benson, the host of the Three Oaks, a well-known
- inn on the road between Philadelphia and New York. Like most of
- his neighbors, Hadley is an ardent sympathizer with the patriot
- cause. When, therefore, a dispatch bearer is captured on the way to
- Philadelphia, he gives Hadley the all-important packet to be forwarded
- to General Washington. The boy immediately escapes with it, and,
- after many perilous experiences, finally makes his way across the
- river to the Pennsylvania side. On the road, Hadley, failing to give
- the countersign, is stopped by a foraging party of Americans; but
- by his honest bearing he wins the attention of John Cadwalader, a
- personal friend of Washington, just then journeying to the American
- headquarters. Under his protection, our hero speedily arrives at
- his destination, and there, in an interview with General Washington
- himself, he tells his story and delivers the dispatches, which,
- because of the impending crisis, are received eagerly by the head of
- the patriot cause.
-
-The collie rattled his chain at the corner of the sheep pen, and from
-a low growl changed his welcome to a bark of delight and frisked about
-Hadley’s legs as the boy stopped to pat him. The house door across the
-paved yard opened and the innkeeper’s voice cried: “Be still, Bose!
-Who’s out there?”
-
-Hadley went nearer and laughed. “What’s the matter, Master Benson?” he
-asked. “Are the dragoons still about the place?”
-
-At once the innkeeper plunged down the steps, and, reaching the boy,
-seized him tightly in his arms. “Had! Had!” he cried, “why did you come
-back to the Three Oaks? We thought you’d join the army for sure this
-time.”
-
-“Is the colonel still here?” asked Hadley, in haste, and drawing back
-from the inn.
-
-“Yes, he’s here,” grunted Jonas, “but he can’t do anything to you. The
-dragoons are no longer at the Mills. Malcolm’s troop started for York
-this morning. There’s something going to happen ’fore long, for the
-British are stirring, and they say Lord Howe has sailed with his fleet.”
-
-“I know,” said the boy, with some pride. “There’s going to be a big
-battle, or something. Those papers I ran away with told all about Lord
-Howe’s plans, and now our generals will be able to meet him.”
-
-“Who told you?” Jonas asked, open-mouthed in astonishment.
-
-“I heard General Washington himself say so,” declared the boy, and
-then, having entered the wide inn kitchen, and, finding it empty, he
-had to sit down and relate the particulars of his ride to Germantown,
-and his brief interview with the Commander-in-Chief of the American
-forces.
-
-“I’ve heard of that Colonel Cadwalader,” Jonas said, drawing a long
-breath, “and you were certainly lucky to make such a powerful friend,
-Hadley. Why didn’t you join the army? You’d make a good soldier, and
-perhaps get to be a captain, or something. Men rise quick from the
-ranks now-a-days.”
-
-“You know very well why I cannot enlist,” Hadley replied, gravely. “If
-Uncle Ephraim should tell me I could go, I might feel as though I would
-not be breaking my word by enlisting. But unless he says so, I don’t
-see how I can do it, much as I would like.”
-
-The innkeeper shook his head. “Ah, boy, there’s plenty of time yet for
-you, after all, it’s likely. The struggle is bound to be a long one.
-The king is sending over more troops, they say, and there’s a big force
-marching from Canada. We’ll never give up till we’re free; but most of
-us may be dead before freedom comes.”
-
-Mistress Benson came in a minute later, and her delight at seeing
-Hadley safe and sound again was sincere, although, as Jonas had
-admitted to the boy’s private ear, she was none too sympathetic with
-the patriot cause. She set before the boy a bountiful repast and made
-him eat his fill. Then he retired to his usual couch in the loft of the
-great barn and slept undisturbed until morning.
-
-He was currying down Black Molly in the open door of the stable before
-breakfast when Colonel Knowles chanced to stroll into the inn yard. The
-Englishman stopped and stared at the stableboy with a lowering brow.
-Hadley kept at work, whistling cheerfully, but a little amused at the
-colonel’s evident surprise, and not at all sure what the outcome of
-the meeting might be.
-
-“Well, young man!” exclaimed the guest; “you certainly are a youth of
-mettle to dare come back here after what occurred the other day. Do you
-know who I am?”
-
-“You are a guest of Master Benson’s, sir,” Hadley said, quietly.
-
-“I am an officer in His Majesty’s army, sir.”
-
-“But you are in the enemy’s country just now, Colonel Knowles,” the boy
-said, softly. “The dragoons are no longer within call, and although
-there are some Tories in the neighborhood, there are more men who hold
-to the cause of the Colonies. I think I am safer to come back here than
-you are to remain.”
-
-“Humph!” grunted the colonel; but the words evidently impressed him.
-After a moment of sullen silence he said: “They tell me your name is
-Morris; is that so?”
-
-“It is, sir.”
-
-“Do you know a person named Ephraim Morris living in this part of the
-country?”
-
-“That is my uncle’s name,” declared the boy, and his interest grew, for
-he remembered his conversation two days before with Mistress Lillian.
-
-“How old a man is he?” demanded Colonel Knowles, with some eagerness.
-
-“Rising sixty, sir. He is a farmer and lives not more than four miles
-from here.”
-
-“Well,” said the Englishman, turning finally on his heel, “you’re a
-worthy nephew of such an uncle, I don’t doubt.”
-
-“I’m afraid Uncle Ephraim would not agree with you,” Hadley called
-after the gentleman. “He is a Tory.”
-
-But Colonel Knowles paid no further attention to him, and the boy went
-on with his work. But his mind ran continually on the interest the
-colonel and his daughter evidently had in old Ephraim Morris. Mistress
-Lillian herself appeared after breakfast, and while Hadley was clearing
-up the entrance to the inn yard. Jonas Benson prided himself on having
-everything about the inn as neatly kept as did his wife inside the
-house.
-
-“Hadley Morris!” the colonel’s daughter exclaimed, leaning over the
-railing of the inn porch and looking at the youth with sparkling eyes.
-“Has my father seen you? Mistress Benson told me you had come back and
-that she was afraid father would be angry when he saw you. Aren’t you
-afraid?”
-
-“I’ve seen the colonel,” Hadley replied, smiling up at her. He
-remembered the anxiety in her countenance when he had last seen her
-looking from the inn window as he ran with the dispatches to escape the
-dragoons, and he was not so much afraid of her as he had been earlier
-in their acquaintance. “He wasn’t very pleasant, but the dragoons
-aren’t in the neighborhood now and I guess he won’t try to do anything
-to me. You see, m’am, most of the farmers are on my side.”
-
-“You are a terrible rebel!” declared the girl, but she still smiled
-down upon him. “Did you carry those dispatches ’way to--to that Mr.
-Washington whom your people call ‘general’?”
-
-“I went all the way with them and saw General Washington himself,”
-declared the boy, proudly. “He is a mighty fine gentleman, and the
-place where he stops was full of officers. All the American army are
-not ragamuffins,” and his eyes twinkled as he thus reminded her of her
-criticism of the American soldiery on a previous occasion. “Some of the
-colonists know how to fight as well as hired soldiers.”
-
-“And some of them know how to run,” Lillian cried.
-
-“True. Would you have had me stand here and face that whole mob of
-dragoons--to say nothing of your father?”
-
-“Oh, I didn’t mean you. I think you were very smart to get away on that
-horse with the dispatches. And I’ll tell you what father said about
-it,” she added, lowering her voice and glancing about her. “He said
-that ‘if the rebel youth can fight so well and are such strategists, it
-is no wonder that my Lord Howe and the other generals have so little
-luck in bringing the uprising to a swift close.’ Now, aren’t you proud?”
-
-Hadley flushed as she spoke. “I thought he was very angry with me this
-morning.”
-
-“Well, I think he is angry enough; but he seemed to admire your ability
-to beat the dragoons and get across the river as you did. I heard him
-and the officer in command of the troopers talking about it, and they
-both wondered how you escaped them on the road to the ferry. Father
-said he had almost caught you--he could tell by the sound of your
-horse’s feet--when the sound suddenly stopped and you disappeared as
-though the earth had opened and swallowed you. How did you do it?”
-
-“You are an enemy,” the boy returned, with amusement. “I couldn’t tell
-you that, you know. Anything else--”
-
-“Tell me what sort of a man that uncle of yours, Ephraim Morris, is?”
-she broke in, suddenly. “I spoke to father about him and he said he
-must be the man he has come here to see.”
-
-“Uncle Ephraim is an old man. He came from England years ago. He isn’t
-liked very well. He’s a king’s man, you know--a Tory.”
-
-“Oh! that’s something in his favor,” she declared.
-
-“So I thought you’d say,” he replied, shouldering his rake and broom
-and preparing to return to the stableyard. “I didn’t want you to have
-too bad an opinion of Uncle Ephraim.”
-
-“If he is the person my father is looking for I have a very bad opinion
-of him, indeed, and his being for the king will make little difference
-one way or another.”
-
-Her words disturbed Hadley when he thought them over. Mistress Lillian
-had seemed well disposed towards him personally, but she was also
-bitter against his uncle, and Hadley believed Uncle Ephraim should have
-warning of the colonel’s visit. So, immediately after his duties at the
-Three Oaks were performed, Hadley set out to his uncle’s house.
-
-The Morris pastures were the nearest to the Three Oaks Inn, and
-crossing the road where he had so fortunately escaped the dragoons by
-the aid of Lafe Holdness, Hadley struck into the open plain on which
-his uncle’s cattle grazed.
-
-The big pasture was dotted with clumps of trees, and while yet Hadley
-was some distance from the farmhouse and its neighboring buildings,
-he saw a band of young stock stampeding wildly from the vicinity of a
-grove of dwarfed oaks not far away. The cattle, heads down and tails
-in the air, plunged across the plain at a mad pace, and Hadley was
-positive that they were not running without cause. The drove passed him
-like a whirlwind, and in their wake came a loudly-yelping cur and a
-person whom he very well knew, urging the dog on.
-
-“Hold on there! what are you about?” cried Hadley, running forward.
-“What are you chasing the cattle for? That brute of yours will kill
-some of the stock.”
-
-It was Lon Alwood, and it was quite evident by Lon’s expression of
-countenance that Hadley was the last person he had expected to meet
-just then. “Wh--why, I thought you had gone to join the army!” he
-gasped.
-
-“I’m right here to tell you to stop chasing my uncle’s cattle,”
-returned Hadley, in disgust.
-
-“Oh, you are, hey?” cried the other boy, with bravado. Then, to the cur
-who had halted like his master at the appearance of Hadley: “Sic ’em,
-boy--sic ’em!”
-
-Hadley grabbed a clod, and as the dog started after the fleeing steers
-he hurled the lump of earth with considerable force and it bounded
-resoundingly from the canine’s ribs. The brute gave a yelp and took
-refuge behind its master, its interest for the moment lost in the
-inoffensive cattle. There it crouched and growled at Hadley, while Lon
-fairly danced up and down in his rage.
-
-“What you need, Had Morris, is a sound thrashing, and I’m going to give
-it to you right now!” declared the young Tory.
-
-“I wouldn’t try any thrashing, if I were you, Lon. You know you tried
-it once, a long time ago, and I haven’t forgotten how to wrestle since
-then.”
-
-Hadley tried to pass on as he spoke, but young Alwood sprang before
-him and barred his way. “You’re going to get thrashed right here and
-now, Had Morris!” declared he, resentfully. “You haven’t got any gun
-or pistol to help you out, and I’m not afraid of you. So look out for
-yourself!”
-
-Hadley saw no way of avoiding the struggle unless he took to his heels,
-and he could not bring himself to do that. So he met his antagonist’s
-charge to the best of his ability, and in a moment they were locked
-together in a close, but far from loving, embrace, while the dog ran
-around and around them, barking its approval of its master’s conduct.
-
-
- CHAPTER VIII
-
- UNCLE EPHRAIM DISPLAYS GREAT INTEREST
-
-The boys had scarcely gripped each other when Lon realized that he was
-now no better able to cope with his rival in a wrestling bout than he
-was at their last encounter, months previous. The stableboy of the
-Three Oaks Inn had been in perfect training every day of his active
-life. Lon was lazy, and had to be fairly driven to work by his father.
-He would much rather roam the woods with a gun and dog, or go fishing,
-than do those tasks which fell to the share of the other lads of the
-neighborhood, and leaping and running, and frolicking with his friends
-in their off-hours, had not hardened his muscles as Hadley’s toil
-hardened his.
-
-The latter obtained a good hold on his enemy and, with a sudden
-squeeze, almost drove the breath out of Lon’s lungs. The Tory youth
-gasped as he felt this sudden strength. “Oh! oh!” he groaned. And then,
-kicking frantically and endeavoring to beat his antagonist in the face
-with his fists, cried aloud to the excited dog: “Sic ’im, sir! Go at
-’im!”
-
-The mongrel, as cruel as its master, plunged into the fray and grabbed
-at Hadley’s leg. Fortunately, the stableboy wore high riding boots, and
-instead of seizing the calf of his leg, the brute sunk its teeth in the
-leather. The attack, however, brought Hadley to the ground, with the
-dog chewing at the bootleg and snarling, and Lon Alwood on top. But the
-under boy still hugged his human antagonist tightly to him, and for the
-moment his brute enemy did little harm.
-
-All the time Lon was encouraging the dog in his attack, but Hadley
-would not strike him. “Call off the beast and fight fair, Alwood!” he
-said. “Call him off and try it over again. This is no fair game.”
-
-Lon’s only answer was a more desperate attempt to get his arms free
-and so strike his enemy with more precision. But the unequal contest
-was exhausting Hadley’s strength, and he knew he could not keep his
-advantage for long. So, putting forth all his remaining energy, he
-suddenly rolled Lon over and came uppermost himself. The dog yelped
-loudly and let go the boot, for Hadley had managed to give him a
-well-placed kick at the same moment, and while the brute was recovering
-from this the boy broke away from Lon and sprang to his feet.
-
-The dog seeing its master on the ground, growled savagely and leaped
-for Hadley again--this time for his throat. But the boy was ready for
-the attack, and the toe of his riding boot caught the animal under
-the jaw and sent it backward with terrific force. Lon had secured his
-footing, too, and seeing his canine friend so badly treated, came at
-Hadley with redoubled fury. The latter caught him at arms’ length and
-before Lon could secure any hold, threw him forcibly to the ground.
-
-The dog happened to be in the way and his master fell flat upon him and
-with sufficient force to break the animal’s spine. The dog’s almost
-humanlike cry of agony shocked Hadley, and his anger was gone in an
-instant. “Oh, the poor creature!” he cried, and as Lon got up, bleeding
-at the nose and much bruised, Hadley knelt down beside the beast to
-see how badly it was hurt. But with a few spasmodic jerks of its limbs
-the dog lay still; its master’s fall had killed it.
-
-Alwood, however, little interested in the death of the faithful
-creature, was searching about the pasture, and suddenly finding a
-smooth cobble, hurled it with all his might at the kneeling boy.
-Fortunately, Hadley turned in time to see the action and dodge the
-stone. He leaped up, and Lon turned tail and ran to escape merited
-punishment for this cowardly act.
-
-“That fellow hasn’t a spark of honor,” thought the victor of this
-rather sanguinary encounter. “He can’t fight fair. I’m sorry I killed
-his dog; but I don’t believe Lon thought of the poor brute at all.
-He was just mad at me and cared nothing about it. I’ll have to watch
-out for Lon Alwood, for he’ll seek to injure me without giving fair
-warning, I know.”
-
-His encounter with the Tory youth had detained him, until now it was
-growing dusk along the edges of the wood which bordered the pasture.
-He hurried on and soon arrived at the outbuildings and barns belonging
-to his uncle. The cattle had come up to the barnyard and the cows were
-being milked by the hired hands, while Ephraim overlooked the feeding.
-If the old gentleman deprived himself of everything but the bare
-necessities of life, he was careful that his stock was well fed.
-
-The men were mostly lads from neighboring farms, who went home at
-night, working for their monthly wage for Master Morris because there
-was not enough to do to keep them busy at home. They cordially greeted
-the miser’s nephew, for though they were nearly all from Tory families,
-Hadley was popular with them. Ephraim Morris, however, had but a cold
-welcome for the stableboy.
-
-“Well,” he said, in an unpleasant voice, “what have you got to say for
-yourself, Hadley?”
-
-“About what, uncle?” demanded the boy.
-
-“Oh, I’ve heard all about it. I let you work for that innkeeper and
-this is what it comes to, hey? I thought so--I thought so! Hanging
-around a place like that would spoil anybody’s morals. I’m surprised at
-you, Hadley--and your mother was a good woman. And for you, who were
-born a British subject on English soil yourself, to help these crazy
-colonists along--”
-
-“But I believe they are right, uncle, just as you believe the king and
-the king’s men are right.”
-
-“Pah! pah!” exclaimed the old man, savagely. “What does a boy like
-you know of such matters? You have hung about that Jonas Benson, and
-his inn, which is a hotbed of rebellion, so long that you talk like a
-lawyer. It is ruining you, and I won’t have a nephew of mine--”
-
-“But Master Benson pays you my wages regularly, doesn’t he?” demanded
-Hadley, before the old man could say anything rash.
-
-“Hem--well, I can say he does,” admitted Uncle Ephraim, and subsided
-for a moment. Soon, however, he started on a new tack. “Who is this
-English officer who is a guest at the inn, nephew?” he asked. “It is
-said that he is a great man from York way. And to think that you should
-oppose a gentleman and an officer of His Majesty’s army!”
-
-“I don’t know how great a man he is,” Hadley returned. “He calls
-himself Colonel Creston Knowles--”
-
-The old man started and leaned forward so that his wrinkled face came
-within the candlelight. Wonder, and an expression which seemed like
-fear, slowly grew upon his countenance. “Who did you say he was?” he
-demanded, his lean fingers clutching the edge of the table.
-
-“Colonel Creston Knowles, uncle. His daughter, Mistress Lillian, is
-with him. They have come into Jersey to find a family by our name, I
-understand. Both of them have asked me about you, sir.” While he said
-this, Hadley scrutinized Uncle Ephraim closely. The old man was much
-disturbed, for he sat silent for several minutes and his face showed
-plainly that he was the man Colonel Knowles was so anxious to see. “Who
-is Colonel Knowles?” the boy asked, at length. “What does he want to
-see you for? Is he--is he related to us in any way?”
-
-“No, no!” snarled the miser. “He’s nothing to either you or me. I--I
-don’t know him--I don’t know him, I tell you! Now, go to bed, and don’t
-disturb me with your questions.”
-
-Hadley cleared up the untidy kitchen as best he could, and then lit a
-tallow dip at the single candle on the table, and obeyed his uncle’s
-behest by mounting the stairs to the loft over the room. He went to bed
-at once, for he was tired enough, but he could not sleep for thinking
-of his uncle’s strange manner and words. There was some mysterious
-connection between Colonel Knowles and the Morrises; but Uncle Ephraim
-did not intend to admit it.
-
-Hadley fell into a doze at last, but only for a short time. The squeak
-of a door below aroused him, and after listening a moment and fancying
-all sort of noises, as one will in the night when the house is still,
-he crept out of bed, slipped on his outer clothes again, and tiptoed
-to the head of the stairs to see if his uncle had himself gone to bed.
-There was a faint light below, and the boy was confident that the
-candle must be burning, for Uncle Ephraim would never leave a fire on
-the hearth at this time of the year.
-
-Carefully going down several steps in perfect silence, he managed to
-get a view of the whole kitchen, including the fireplace, and what was
-his astonishment to see Ephraim Morris standing upon a chair before
-an old brick oven built high in the chimney, and which Hadley never
-remembered seeing opened before. It was open now, however, and the old
-gentleman had his head and shoulders thrust inside, as though reaching
-for something concealed at the extreme back of the oven.
-
-
- CHAPTER IX
-
- A MIDNIGHT BURYING
-
-To play the rôle of eavesdropper, or “Peeping Tom,” was not exactly as
-Hadley Morris would have wished. He hated a sneak; but his curiosity
-regarding his uncle’s manœuvres was for the time too strong for his
-ideas of what was really honorable, and instead of retreating up the
-stairs to the loft again, he remained where he was and watched the old
-gentleman with wide-open eyes.
-
-Like most substantially built houses of that day, the Morris homestead
-had a great stone and brick fireplace built into the end wall. To the
-right of the fireplace was one of those ovens in which the pioneer
-housewives did all their baking. The oven was like a safe built into
-the side of the chimney, and had a smooth clay floor. Uncle Ephraim had
-always kept the oven door fastened with an old-fashioned brass padlock.
-
-The padlock now lay on the floor, and as Hadley continued to peer into
-the wide kitchen from around the corner of the door-frame, he saw
-Master Morris draw back from the mouth of the oven, holding a bag in
-each hand. The bags were not large, but by the way his uncle carried
-them the boy knew they were heavy, and when the old man stepped down
-from the chair and laid them on the table, the listener heard a faint
-chink as though of metal. “It’s gold!” whispered the boy to himself,
-and his eyes opened even more widely at the thought.
-
-Then for the first time Hadley saw that Master Morris wore his
-waistcoat and coat, as though he were ready to go out of doors. He put
-on his hat at once, stuck the half-burned candle in a lantern, and with
-the latter swung over his arm and one of the heavy bags in each hand,
-he left the house.
-
-Hadley hesitated only a moment; then, curiosity still spurring him,
-he ran lightly down the remaining steps into the kitchen and followed
-his uncle out of doors without stopping for his own hat. The night was
-mild and not at all dark, but the boy might have found some difficulty
-in following the old man had it not been for the flickering lantern
-which swung from his arm. This dancing will-o’-the-wisp led the boy
-down behind the barns and cribs and directly into the orchard where the
-branches of the gnarled old apple trees met and, with their fruit and
-foliage, shut out most of the star-light.
-
-Hadley crept near, cautiously, when he saw that Uncle Ephraim had
-halted and set the light upon the ground. Soon he discovered that the
-old man had been here before since he went to bed, for there was a
-shovel and a heap of earth in plain view. He watched his uncle and saw
-him drop the two bags into what appeared to be a rather deep hole, then
-place a flat stone on top of them, and afterward fill in the hole with
-the soil and stamp it all down with care. There was considerable soil
-left then, and the old man carried this away, shovelful by shovelful,
-and threw it into a ditch at the far edge of the orchard. Afterward
-he replaced the sod which he had earlier removed, patting it all down
-evenly with the flat of his shovel. The burying was completed, and
-marking the spot well for future reference, Hadley ran back to the
-house and climbed to the loft, and was nicely in bed again before the
-old man returned to the kitchen.
-
-But the strangeness of the whole matter kept the boy awake long after
-he was sure his uncle had sought his own couch. He was unable to
-compose his mind to sleep, and was glad when at length the cocks crew
-to announce the gray light in the east. He rose and went back to the
-Three Oaks without again seeing Uncle Ephraim, and tried to forget
-the incident of the night in his work about the inn. But when he saw
-Colonel Creston Knowles ride off with William toward the Morris farm
-soon after breakfast, Hadley wished he had remained longer with his
-uncle, and so been present at the interview which was about to take
-place between the old man and the British officer.
-
-Lillian avoided him that day, seemingly, and Hadley went about his
-duties with much trouble at his heart. It was after noon when Colonel
-Knowles and his henchman returned, and a glance at the officer’s face
-told Hadley that the gentleman was in a towering rage. Evidently his
-visit had afforded him little satisfaction.
-
-Soon, however, something occurred which succeeded in driving this
-mystery into the background of the boy’s mind. News from Philadelphia
-had been scarce since his return from the Pennsylvania side of the
-river; but after supper that evening a man rode up to the inn on a
-fagged-out horse, and told them that the army under Washington was on
-the move, and was marching toward Philadelphia, as it was believed Lord
-Howe’s fleet would land troops to attack the city, where Congress was
-then in session. The man obtained a fresh mount and rode on into the
-east, having secret business in that direction.
-
-That night, while Jonas Benson and Hadley sat together in the chimney
-place of the inn kitchen, talking over the possibilities of the battle
-which must occur before long, the heralding squeak of Lafe Holdness’
-wagon axles reached their ears, the outer door being ajar.
-
-“Run and open the gate for him, Had!” exclaimed Benson. “Mistress, put
-down something to eat for a hungry man, and I warrant you Lafe will do
-justice to it.”
-
-His wife grumblingly expressed herself that a cold supper was good
-enough for a man like Lafe Holdness; but she, nevertheless, obeyed her
-husband’s request.
-
-“Stan’ round ther, you!” From the yard the teamster’s voice could be
-heard addressing the horses. “Ef ye want suthin’ ter eat, why don’t ye
-stan’ still so’t I kin unbuckle this strap? Hello, Had Morris! is that
-air yeou? I didn’t ’spect to see yeou ag’in this side o’ the river till
-the war was over,” and the Yankee chuckled mightily and dug the boy
-good-naturedly in the ribs.
-
-“We heard to-night the army was on the move, Lafe,” Jonas said, coming
-to the porch, and speaking low.
-
-Lafe dropped for the moment his bantering tone and spoke seriously.
-“There’s going to be something done purty soon, friends--somethin’ big!
-There’s sure to be a battle. Howe’s fleet is comin’ up Chesapeake Bay
-and General Washington will meet the troops he lands somewhere south of
-Philadelphia; but we ain’t got much more’n ten thousand men all told.”
-
-“How many sailed from York?” queried the innkeeper.
-
-“Nobody knows!” returned Lafe, ruefully. “Them dispatches Had took over
-ter Germantown didn’t give the exact figgers. But I’m out this way
-sendin’ in all the scatterin’ men that hev’ got guns. There won’t much
-happen hereabout until the two armies meet. And, speakin’ about Had,”
-added Lafe, suddenly, “I’m wantin’ ter use him, Jonas.”
-
-“Well,” remarked the innkeeper, with twinkling eyes, “he’s a pretty
-valuable boy to me. I have to pay his uncle for him, too.”
-
-“You’d oughter be called Judas Benson!” declared the Yankee. “You’re a
-great feller ter haggle over the price of a ’prentice boy. I’m goin’
-ter send him to the army--it’s at Philadelphia now.”
-
-“And that means I’ll likely lose a good horse as well as the boy,”
-grumbled Jonas.
-
-“Don’t you think I’ve got anything to say about it myself?” demanded
-Hadley of the Yankee.
-
-“Not much. I’ve got orders for you,” he declared, nodding his head.
-“See here.” He drew a battered wallet from his pocket, and in the light
-of the innkeeper’s lantern selected a slip of paper from one of the
-compartments. This he displayed before the wondering eyes of both Jonas
-and Hadley. On the paper was written, in a rather cramped and formal
-hand:
-
- “Send back the boy from the Three Oaks Inn with any message.
- “Cadwalader.”
-
-“Why!” exclaimed the round-eyed innkeeper, “that’s the man who saved
-you from the soldiers, Had--Colonel Cadwalader.”
-
-“I reckon ye’ must ha’ got purty thick with Master Cadwalader, Had,”
-said Lafe, tearing the paper into small pieces. “Let me tell yeou he is
-in the General’s confidence as much as old Knox, or Colonel Pickering.
-I got suthin’ important for yeou to take to headquarters, an’ if
-yeou’ve had your supper yeou’d better saddle a hoss an’ git away with
-it purty soon. The quicker ye start the sooner ye’ll ketch the army,
-for it’s on the move.”
-
-While he was speaking, Jonas Benson was already leading Black Molly
-out of her stall, showing at once that his objections to the boy’s
-departure had been but momentary. “He’s had his supper, and he can git
-out right now!” he declared.
-
-But Hadley waited long enough to go into the loft and put on the best
-suit of homespun which he possessed, and encased his legs in long
-riding boots with a pair of tiny spurs screwed into the heels. There
-were no papers to take this time, for Lafe Holdness whispered the
-message he had to send into the boy’s attentive ear. “An’ now good luck
-to ye!” exclaimed the scout as the youth mounted into the saddle and
-Jonas opened the stable door. “Nobody can take nothin’ from ye this
-time, but mebbe it’s just as well if yeou dodge all armed men of airy
-complection till ye pass Germantown.”
-
-Black Molly trotted quietly down the inn yard toward the gate. Just
-as she was going through this and her rider was about to give her the
-rein, he was startled by a soft “S-s-st!” beside him. He turned his
-head quickly and drew Molly down to a walk. A shadowy figure stood at
-the end of the porch. In an instant Hadley recognized Lillian Knowles,
-with a light shawl flung over her head and shoulders, and her hand
-outstretched to him.
-
-[Illustration: A FIGURE STOOD AT THE END OF THE PORCH]
-
-“Hadley Morris!” she whispered, “if you are carrying anything--anything
-you don’t want other folks to see--look out! There are others beside me
-who know you are riding toward the ferry to-night.” And then, before he
-could reply or express his astonishment at her warning, she disappeared
-within the shadow of the porch. He heard the door close softly behind
-her, and, after a moment’s hesitation, he started Molly on again and
-turned her head toward the distant ferry, wondering if he ought to take
-the girl’s words seriously and turn back for reinforcements.
-
-
-[TO BE CONTINUED]
-
-
-
-
- THE “DANDY FIFTH’S” LAST TRIUMPH
-
- A MEMORIAL DAY STORY
-
- By LAURA ALTON PAYNE
-
-
- “We called them the kid-gloved Dandy Fifth
- When we passed them on parade.”
-
-A sharp, imperative rat-a-tat-tat on the class-room door almost at her
-back startled the speaker, Sidney Dallas. She turned for an instant,
-but that instant was enough to scatter her wits like chaff before the
-wind. She paused--stammered--paused again, then repeated vaguely:
-
- “We called--we called them the kid-gloved Dandy Fifth
- When we passed them on parade.
- We called--we called--”
-
-But the words would not be coaxed back. Her mind was a perfect blank.
-She was so confused that she did not see that the visitor who was being
-ushered in by Bess Martin, and whose sharp knock had so disconcerted
-her, was her own mother.
-
-A hot flush of shame scorched her face, the crowd of attentive faces
-before her began to waver, her knees grew weak, her feet cowardly, but
-she made one more brave effort:
-
-“We called--we called”--she repeated weakly and hurriedly, then stopped
-short.
-
-“But it would not come,” murmured mischievous Ted Scott, lugubriously.
-Ted had been crowded to the front seat, which he shared with two other
-boys. The boys snickered, and Sidney’s misery was complete. Never
-before had she failed in a speech, or realized the humiliation.
-
-All a-tremble she stepped off the platform, and with scarlet face and
-tearful eyes passed down the aisle between the double row of visitors,
-whose looks of sympathy her distorted imagination turned into looks
-of derision at her distress. But the tears should not fall, and she
-would not lower her head. As she reached her seat she caught a look of
-amusement on the face of Myrtle Emmons, who sat at the desk immediately
-behind her own. It was that that gave her the bit over her runaway
-self-possession. Myrtle was somewhat noted for making fun of people.
-She would show Myrtle how little she cared.
-
-Disregarding Myrtle’s nudge, she concentrated her attention upon the
-beautifully decorated school-room. It had been transformed into a
-veritable bower, not with boughs of pine and cedar as in the Eastern
-States, but with fragrant branches of catalpa with their great clusters
-of snowy blossoms and with immense sprays of feathery asparagus. The
-platform, as well as the teacher’s desk at the back of it, was banked
-with potted ferns and palms and flowering plants. The beribboned
-waste-basket formed a huge bouquet of feathery greenery, amidst which
-tall, graceful sunflowers bowed their golden heads. That artistic touch
-was her own, and she gazed at it with pride. Sunflowers and asparagus
-adorned the pictures and caught up the folds of the large flag draped
-gracefully over the front blackboard, and of the bright bunting
-festooned around the walls.
-
-Flags and sunflowers, sunflowers and flags--a combination so popular
-that she should always associate the golden emblem-flower of her
-State with the glorious emblem of her country. They had devoted more
-time than usual to their decorations, for, the following Monday
-being Memorial Day, they had turned their “last day” exercises into
-a memorial service. Owing to the naval victory of scarce a month
-previous, patriotism was at a white heat, and patriotic selections of
-spirit shared the honors with tributes to the dead--both the Blue and
-the Gray, sectionalism being forgotten in the new union of the North
-and the South.
-
-But it did not require recent victory to stir Sidney’s enthusiasm; she
-was at all times intensely patriotic. As a small child, a mere babe,
-she had listened enthralled to her father’s tales of the Civil War,
-through many of whose terrible battles he had passed. She invariably
-chose patriotic selections to speak. Such a deed as described in the
-“Dandy Fifth” made her forget herself. And now, of all times, to fail
-to-day! The school were singing softly:
-
- “Cover them over--yes, cover them over--
- Parent and husband, and brother, and lover:
- Crown in your hearts those dead heroes of ours.
- And cover them over with beautiful flowers.”
-
-How she would love to lay a tribute of flowers upon the graves of the
-Dandy Fifth’s many dead heroes! And, oh, shame! she had failed to give
-them even the tribute of honor due them--failed miserably!
-
- “Lying so silent by night and by day,
- Sleeping the years of their manhood away.”
-
-That meant the most of the Dandy Fifth. She could see the gaunt, silent
-forms, fallen at their posts in that awful hour that “tried men’s
-souls.” But theirs stood the test--stood it grandly.
-
- “Swiftly they rushed to the help of the right,
- Firmly they stood in the shock of the fight.”
-
-Stood firm--firm? Did they not? Why, they made a glorious stand--none
-braver in all the war, none more deserving of honor!--and she had left
-them with their courage unproven, with the scorn of their comrades
-upon them, before they had been given a chance to make their derisive
-epithet a name to be proud of for all time. Oh, she could not bear it!
-she could not bear it! She must save the honor of the Dandy Fifth.
-
-The thought was electric. It shocked into full life the resolve already
-half formed in her mind. Hastening up to Miss Mason she whispered a
-request, which was smilingly granted. With a bright face Sidney hurried
-from the room just as the next number was called. She meant to go
-home, find the poem, then come back and redeem herself. She had but
-three blocks to go, and that distance was covered with flying feet. To
-her dismay she found the door locked. Of course, her mother meant to
-attend the exercises. No doubt she was in the room all the time, and
-had witnessed her failure. But--she must get in. She looked for the
-key in its customary hiding-place when all the family were expected
-to be absent at once; it was not there. Recent petty thieving in the
-neighborhood had probably induced Mrs. Dallas to take the key with her.
-
-Sidney was dismayed. She rushed from door to door, and from window to
-window. All were securely fastened. She sat down on the porch to think
-a moment. Perhaps she could get in through an upper window; she had
-left her own window, which, fortunately, was over the kitchen, lowered
-slightly and the screen unlatched. She could reach the spring through
-the opening, lower it still more, then crawl through. Desperation lent
-her strength to drag the long, heavy ladder from the barn and to raise
-it to the low kitchen roof. A moment later she pattered over the flat
-tin roof to the window--only to find further evidence of her mother’s
-caution. It was closed and latched.
-
-Then, in spite of her courageous soul and her fifteen years, Sidney
-gave up to a tearful despair for a few minutes. Down upon the tin roof
-she sat, huddled close up in the corner, and, bowing her head upon her
-knees, wept silent tears of mortification. The thought that she would
-have to leave the Dandy Fifth unhonored brought forth the bitterest
-drops of all.
-
-But--they did not give up. Neither would she. Something must be done.
-She would go back to the school-house and get the key, come back and
-get the book, then return and save the day for the Dandy Fifth if
-possible.
-
-It was a very tired, hot-faced girl that labored up the second flight
-of stairs at the school-house. As she paused for breath a moment in the
-upper hall she heard Rob Ellison stentoriously depicting “Sheridan’s
-Ride.” In the room across the hall the “Fifth Graders” were singing
-“Sherman’s March to the Sea,” and farther on the “Sixths” were sending
-out a vigorous chorus of the “Star-Spangled Banner.” Passing into the
-library, a small room just across the hall, she sat down to cool off,
-and at the same time to work up sufficient courage to face the crowded
-room in search of her mother. She didn’t want to disconcert another
-speaker by knocking on the door in order to call her mother out. She
-glanced around the room. Right there in that corner was where she stood
-when she rehearsed the “Dandy Fifth” to the elocution teacher.
-
-Mechanically Sidney placed herself in the accustomed position, and
-half unconsciously began to recite the poem in a low tone. To her
-amazement and delight she went through it without a break. Whether
-it was the effect of association, or whether her recreant memory had
-suddenly chosen to return, she neither questioned nor cared, she was so
-overjoyed. She tried it again, then a third time, all unconscious of
-an interested listener beyond the closed door--Prof. Marlow, who stood
-there smiling to himself as the speaker’s voice rose higher and higher
-with returning confidence.
-
-As Sidney finished with a triumphant flourish, he clapped his hands
-softly, then opened the door to remark smilingly. “Well done, Miss
-Sidney. Now, rally to the charge again, and march on to victory.”
-
-Sidney blushed: she knew he had witnessed her failure. She felt that
-explanations were in order.
-
-Prof. Marlow held up a warning finger. “At the eleventh hour, Miss
-Sidney,” he said, with a smile.
-
-“It’s the twelfth hour that tells,” she retorted merrily, and passed
-into the school-room. Prof. Marlow followed her. He was curious to see
-how such a plucky effort would turn out.
-
-Sidney was met with many swift glances as she entered, but her radiant
-face showed no trace of her recent failure. A few moments later she
-again faced the many expectant eyes, now no longer dreaded. No sudden
-rat-a-tat-tat could scatter her wits again--no, not even a cannon’s
-roar, for the Dandy Fifth’s honor was at stake. The audience greeted
-her enthusiastically. It is human nature to admire courage even in
-small things. Self was forgotten; every thought and feeling was centred
-on the subject in hand--that famous regiment of young aristocrats, men
-who knew not toil, who had never suffered want or endured hardship,
-whose fastidiousness fastened upon them the scornful epithet, “The
-Dandy Fifth.”
-
-Her listeners saw it all: the old fort “somewhere down on the Rapidan”
-that the Dandy Fifth was ordered to hold; the fierce onslaught of the
-enemy along the whole line; the raging of battle day after day; how
-gloriously the old fort, the “key of the whole line,” on which hung
-the fate of the whole army, was held by the Dandy Fifth against all
-odds--a brave, determined foe without and starvation within. The water
-gave out; they fought on. Another day, and their rations were gone;
-they fought on. One by one, they sank to “rest where they wearied
-and lie where they fell.” A third day of fierce siege--a fourth,
-then reinforcements fought their way through, inch by inch, to the
-beleaguered men. And what a sight met their gaze!--a few gaunt-eyed
-men behind the guns, and many, many more lying as they fell, in the
-stupor of famine or ghastly and rigid in death. But the old flag
-floated still!--and the “kid-gloved Dandy Fifth” had proved that white
-hands are not incompatible with brave hearts. How their old comrades
-cheered!--and cheered! And how proud they were to clasp those brave,
-emaciated white hands!
-
-Sidney’s little head might well have been turned by praise had it been
-that kind of a head, she received so many words of commendation.
-Ted Scott led the applause, and it was his hands that gave the final
-appreciative clap. Even Myrtle Emmons congratulated her. “It was grand,
-Sid,” she said, earnestly. “But how could you ever do it after breaking
-down once? I never could, and I always break down. I was awfully sorry
-for you, for, you see, I know how it goes. But, say, Sid! I thought I
-couldn’t help laughing as you came down the aisle; old Mrs. Perkins
-stalked along right behind you, her battered bonnet over one ear as
-usual, and that ancient, solitary, stiff, bedraggled, black feather
-sticking straight up. I always have to laugh when I see it, though, of
-course, I oughtn’t.”
-
-“So do I,” returned Sidney, with sudden cordiality. So she had
-misjudged Myrtle, after all.
-
-“But how could you do it?” persisted Myrtle.
-
-Then out came the whole story, even to the tears, and they had a merry
-time over it.
-
-“And to think that I was the cause of it,” laughed Mrs. Dallas. “But I
-am glad my little girl was brave enough to turn defeat into victory.”
-
-“I don’t think it was really I, mamma,” said Sidney, slowly and
-thoughtfully. “It was the Dandy Fifth.”
-
-
-
-
-TO MAY
-
-
- Though many suns have risen and set
- Since thou, blithe May, wert born,
- And bards, who hail’d thee, may forget
- Thy gifts, thy beauty scorn;
- There are who to a birthday strain
- Confine not harp and voice,
- But evermore throughout thy reign
- Are grateful and rejoice!
-
- Delicious odors! music sweet,
- Too sweet to pass away!
- O, for a deathless song to meet
- The soul’s desire,--a lay
- That, when a thousand years are told,
- Should praise thee, genial Power!
- Through summer heat, autumnal cold,
- And Winter’s dreariest hour.
-
- Season of fancy and of hope,
- Permit not for one hour
- A blossom from thy crown to drop,
- Nor add to it a flower!
- Keep, lovely May, as if by touch
- Of self-restraining art,
- This modest charm of not too much,
- Part seen, imagined part.
-
- --_Wordsworth._
-
-
-
-
- LITTLE POLLY PRENTISS
-
- BY ELIZABETH LINCOLN GOULD
-
-
- CHAPTER VI
-
- A TRYING AFTERNOON
-
-
- SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS
-
- Polly Prentiss is an orphan who, for the greater part of her life, has
- lived with a distant relative, Mrs. Manser, the mistress of Manser
- Farm. Miss Hetty Pomeroy, a maiden lady of middle age, has, ever since
- the death of her favorite niece, been on the lookout for a little
- girl whom she might adopt. She is attracted by Polly’s appearance and
- quaint manners, and finally decides to take her home and keep her
- for a month’s trial. In the foregoing chapters, Polly has arrived at
- her new home, and the great difference between the way of living at
- Pomeroy Oaks and her past life affords her much food for wonderment.
-
-“So you like your new friends, my dear,” said Miss Hetty. “They must be
-banished to the shed now for their dinner while you and I eat ours. Do
-you hear Arctura’s signal to us?”
-
-There came a sound unlike anything Polly had ever heard; it was not
-exactly a bell; she couldn’t imagine what it was. Miss Hetty held out
-her hand with a smile, and Polly, still with Snip and Snap on her
-shoulders, was led out of the library, across the porch hall to a big,
-sunny dining-room. On the table, at Miss Hetty’s place, stood a strange
-thing with three bronze cups upside down, a little one highest up, one
-somewhat larger under it, and one still larger at the bottom; at least
-that was the way it looked to Polly.
-
-Arctura stood close to it with a little stick in her hand; she struck
-the bronze cups as Polly looked at her, and again the musical sound was
-heard.
-
-“There, I reckoned you’d never heard anything like that!” said Arctura
-as she beamed on Polly, and then took the kittens from the little
-girl’s shoulders. “That’s a heathen invention, called a gong, brought
-to Miss Pomeroy by her Uncle Pete. I hope you’ll relish your food; I’ve
-got no time to sit down now,” said Arctura, and bearing Snip and Snap
-in her arms she marched out of a doorway through which there was a
-glimpse of the kitchen.
-
-Arctura Green had never sat at the table with Miss Pomeroy in all the
-years of her faithful service, but it was understood to be purely a
-matter of choice on her part, and a few words were spoken now and then
-to make this state of affairs clear to any chance visitor.
-
-Polly ate her steak and potato and fresh bread and butter, sitting
-opposite Miss Pomeroy, and only speaking in answer to questions.
-She looked at the spotless white table-cloth with its rose and fern
-pattern, at the shining glass tumblers, and the big glass water bottle,
-at the fat silver tea-pot and sugar-bowl, and the slender spoons and
-forks, at the knives, with mother-of-pearl handles, at the white plates
-with dull blue figures that matched those on the platter, and at the
-big bread plate with its gold rim. Then she looked at the buffet on
-which there were all sorts of shining things.
-
-“It is because everything is so wonderful in the house that they like
-to stay here better than out-doors,” thought Polly, but in spite of
-everything her eyes turned wistfully to the window. The sunshine
-flickered and danced among the branches of the Pomeroy oaks, and Polly
-gave a half sigh as she looked at it.
-
-“Don’t you like your pudding, my dear?” asked Miss Hetty, and the
-little girl turned quickly to her dinner again.
-
-After dinner she followed Miss Pomeroy up the broad, shallow front
-stairs to the pretty room which had been prepared for her. It
-had a white bed, a white bureau, a white wash-stand, two little
-straight-backed white chairs, and a white rocking-chair. A pink stripe
-ran through the white near the edges of all these pieces of furniture,
-and Polly thought it was the most beautiful bed-room that could
-possibly be imagined.
-
-“And here is your closet,” said Miss Hetty, as she opened a door, and
-showed what seemed to Polly like a good-sized room, with shelves and
-hooks. On the lowest shelf sat the big black enamel cloth bag, looking
-old and forlorn.
-
-“Now, you’d better take out your things and put them away in the closet
-and the bureau, Mary,” said Miss Hetty, “and perhaps you’d like to lie
-down and rest awhile; I am going to take my nap now. When you wish to
-go downstairs you may, but I wouldn’t run out to-day, for the ground is
-so damp. I dare say you’ll find plenty to amuse you in the house, and
-you are free to go anywhere. I’m sure I can trust such a careful, quiet
-little girl as you are.”
-
-When the door that led into Miss Pomeroy’s room across the hall was
-fairly shut, Polly executed a silent dance on the soft gray and pink
-carpet.
-
-“I guess Mrs. Manser’d think I was doing pretty well,” said Polly,
-thrilling with pride. “I never was called ‘quiet’ or ‘careful’ before.
-She’d hardly believe it. I must be growing like Eleanor pretty fast. As
-soon as I’ve put away my things I shall lie right down on that bed. I
-wonder how long I ought to stay on it. I suppose most probably Eleanor
-would stay till she heard her aunt getting up; that’s what I’ll do.
-Mrs. Manser said most likely Miss Pomeroy would give me tests. I shall
-lie on that bed till I hear Miss Pomeroy if its--two hours,” said
-Polly, firmly, mentioning the longest space of time which she could
-conceive might be spent in sleeping by daylight.
-
-Then Polly took the big bag out of the closet and proceeded to unpack
-it. There was her other new gingham frock on top of everything else;
-it had blue and white stripes, and was very pretty, Polly thought, as
-she laid it carefully away in the lowest of the four bureau drawers.
-Then came her little brown cashmere frock, made over from one which
-had done service for six years as Mrs. Manser’s Sunday gown; it was
-Polly’s Sunday best now, very brave with a little red piping around the
-neck and sleeves, and at the head of the ruffle. This Polly hung in the
-closet.
-
-In the closet, too, went a very old and much-mended red frock which
-was always nearly hidden by long-sleeved and high-necked aprons. There
-were four of these, and two more new ones without sleeves. Polly was so
-small that there had been plenty of room in the big bag for all these
-things and for the little store of underclothes which went into the
-third drawer. The aprons had the second drawer to themselves, and in
-the top drawer there were Polly’s small handkerchiefs and one pair of
-little white cotton gloves, freshly washed.
-
-Polly took the bag back to the closet after removing the very last
-thing, her work basket, which she put on the bureau, beside the fat
-pincushion. Looking at this cushion reminded her of hidden treasures,
-and diving into her petticoat pocket she brought forth Aunty Peebles’s
-gift, and then the knife; these Polly placed on a table, which stood
-near one of the two windows. Then, after looking about the room for a
-moment with an air of much satisfaction, Polly slipped off her little
-shoes, and folding her shawl about her shoulders after the manner of
-Mrs. Ramsdell when ready for a nap, she turned back the white quilt,
-and climbing sedately up on the bed, laid her head on the pillow and
-clasped her little hands.
-
-“I don’t feel sleepy,” said Polly, “but that doesn’t make any
-difference. I’ve got plenty of things to think of. Perhaps Eleanor
-didn’t always go to sleep. There are all those leaks in Manser
-farm--they’ll get mended if I’m adopted. And this is a beautiful place,
-and I’m not going to be lonesome, a great girl like me, if ’tis pretty
-still here. I wonder what Miss Arctura Green is doing: and those
-kitties, I wonder where they are.”
-
-An hour or so later Miss Hetty held a consultation with Arctura in the
-kitchen.
-
-“I came down the back way so I should not wake that child,” said Miss
-Pomeroy. “She hasn’t stirred since she lay down, I verily believe. Do
-you think it’s natural for a little girl of her age to sleep nearly two
-hours at this time of day?”
-
-“Why, you see we don’t either of us know much about children,” said
-Arctura, meditatively. “She looks pretty strong, but I notice her
-appetite’s nothing extra, and probably she’s all excited up and tired
-out. Seems to me, though, if she don’t stir by the end of another half
-hour I should kind of make a noise in my room if I was in your place,
-and wake her up gradual.”
-
-At the end of another half-hour Miss Pomeroy opened and shut a window
-in her room with vigor, and when she stepped across the hall to Polly’s
-room, the little girl was putting on her shoes.
-
-“Well, well,” said Miss Pomeroy, “you’ve had a nice, long nap. You
-shall take one every day, my dear, if you like; I’ve no doubt it will
-do you good.”
-
-“Yes’m,” said Polly meekly, with a faint little smile.
-
-“I don’t know as I shall let you sleep quite so long, always,” said
-Miss Hetty, briskly, “for fear you won’t rest so well at night: but
-we’ll see.”
-
-“Yes’m,” said Polly again; and Miss Pomeroy never suspected that those
-two hours on the bed had seemed like weeks to her little guest.
-
-
- CHAPTER VII
-
- THE FIRST MORNING
-
-Polly slept soundly that night in her little white bed, and woke to see
-the sun peeping in at her between the snowy curtains of her east window.
-
-“Dear me!” cried Polly. “I ought to be downstairs helping Mrs. Manser
-this very minute!” Then she clapped her little hands over her mouth and
-lay very still, remembering where she was, and that Mrs. Manser and
-all her old friends were nearly seven miles away, on Maple Hill.
-
-“I believe I’d better not think about them just now,” said Polly,
-winking fast, as she got out of bed. “Someway it makes me feel as if
-I wanted to swallow every minute. Maybe I can do something for Miss
-Arctura Green if I hurry and get dressed.”
-
-But when she stole softly downstairs, wearing the old red frock covered
-with one of her new white aprons, Polly stopped for a minute to look up
-at the tall clock. Near the clock was a high-backed chair, and as Polly
-heard Arctura’s voice and a strange one, she sat down in the chair to
-wait until Miss Green’s visitor departed. She was sitting there when
-Miss Pomeroy’s door opened, and down she came over the stairs.
-
-“So you’re up before me, Mary,” said the mistress of the house as she
-held out her hand to the little girl. Polly took the kind hand and
-shook it vigorously up and down as she had seen grown people do. “For
-she doesn’t want to kiss me, of course,” thought Polly, wistfully,
-remembering Mrs. Ramsdell and dear Grandma Manser. “I expect grand
-people like her don’t kiss little girls much.”
-
-“I thought,” said Polly, when the ceremony was over, “that maybe I
-could help Miss Arctura set the table for breakfast, but I heard her
-talking to somebody at the porch door, so I sat down here to wait.”
-
-Just then the door into the hall from the library burst open and
-Arctura appeared with a much vexed expression on her flushed face.
-
-“Morning, both,” she said, abruptly. “There, I knew you’d be down and
-waiting! ’Twas old Jane Hackett kep’ me; she’s come spying out the land
-already. I didn’t let her into the hall for fear she’d abide with us
-all day.”
-
-“S--h, Arctura!” said Miss Pomeroy, gravely, though her lips seemed
-inclined to twitch a little. “How is Mrs. Hackett’s rheumatism to-day?”
-
-“Thinks there’s a spell coming on, I believe,” said Arctura, looking
-rather crestfallen. “Breakfast’s ready, all but the griddle-cakes; I
-can’t sit down with you, for I’ve got them to fry.”
-
-After breakfast, Miss Pomeroy sent Polly out on the broad piazza that
-ran across the front of the house and the west side, to play with the
-kittens.
-
-“I have some plans to talk over with Arctura,” said she, “and then I
-want a little talk with you before I start my letter-writing. Don’t
-step off the piazza, for the grass is very wet. It rained in the night,
-and I don’t wish my guest to take cold,” said Miss Pomeroy, with her
-pleasant smile.
-
-“I presume,” said Polly to Snip and Snap, as she dangled a string
-alluringly just above their reach, and watched their wild jumps into
-the air, “Miss Pomeroy is going to speak to me about my top apron
-button not being buttoned; but I didn’t forget it till she came down.
-I was going to ask Miss Arctura Green to fasten it for me. Probably
-Eleanor had long arms that could reach; I expect she did. Don’t you
-catch the bottom of this dress, mister,” said Polly, uplifting a
-warning finger at Snap, whose attitude certainly justified firm, quick
-measures, “for it’s just as tender!”
-
-Meanwhile Miss Pomeroy and Arctura were having another consultation in
-the kitchen.
-
-“I don’t know just what to plan about little Mary,” said Miss Hetty,
-doubtfully. “You see, I want to find out what she likes best to do, so
-that I can tell what kind of a child she is. I want her to act her own
-nature, but, of course, I must suggest things and ask some questions,
-for she’s very shy.”
-
-“M--m,” said Arctura, thoughtfully, “she handles her knife and fork
-real pretty. I noticed it as I was in and out the two meals, yesterday
-and to-day. You’d know she come of good folks, and I must say that
-Manser woman’s brought her up well, though she’s a hatchet-faced piece,
-if ever I saw one, and given to nagging, if I’m any judge. Supposing
-you should ride off to the village without Mary this morning and let me
-visit with her a little mite. She’s full as used to kitchens as she is
-to parlors, I expect.”
-
-“I believe that would be an excellent idea,” said Miss Pomeroy.
-“Arctura, you are a very sensible woman.”
-
-“Sho!” said Arctura but she turned quickly to the sink to hide a smile
-of gratification.
-
-“Now, Mary, you and I will have our little talk,” said Miss Pomeroy, a
-few minutes later, and then to Polly’s great amazement, she sat down in
-one of the big piazza chairs, and drew the child into her lap.
-
-“I didn’t mean to forget that top-button,” said Polly, bravely, “but
-you came downstairs sooner than I expected, and I can’t quite reach it,
-so I was going to ask Miss Arctura to fasten it for me. I’m sorry I was
-an untidy girl; ’tisn’t Mrs. Manser’s fault; she spoke to me and spoke
-to me about my careless habits.”
-
-“I’ve no doubt she did,” said Miss Hetty, dryly; “I presume she’d speak
-to me about my placket-hook that’s generally undone.” As she said this
-she buttoned Polly’s apron and gave her a pat which warmed the little
-girl’s heart; and then Miss Hetty held her in such a way that Polly
-could not see the kind, grave face.
-
-“Now, my dear,” she said, slowly, “I suppose Mrs. Manser may have told
-you that I had a little niece of whom you remind me.” Polly nodded
-her head, and scarcely breathed. “I asked Mrs. Manser to let me have
-you for at least a month,” said Miss Pomeroy, unsteadily, “to see--to
-see if perhaps we might decide to be together as long as I live, my
-dear. If you are as like my little Eleanor as I think you may be, in
-many ways,” said Miss Hetty, after a pause during which Polly sat very
-still, “I shall not be able to let you go, I am sure. I’m growing old,
-Mary, and I need somebody to help me forget it. Eleanor would have done
-it, I know, though I had not seen her often enough for her to care a
-great deal about me, I’m--”
-
-Polly turned quickly around as the voice faltered and stopped. She laid
-her soft cheek against Miss Pomeroy’s with a little cry of sympathy.
-
-“I will be just as like Eleanor as ever I can,” said Polly, earnestly,
-“and I will love you every minute, and try to do everything you want.”
-
-“I want you to have a good time,” said Miss Pomeroy, patting the brown
-curls. “We are old-fashioned people here, and you may find it very dull
-and quiet, my dear.”
-
-“I shall like it very, very much,” said Polly, stoutly, and to herself
-she said, “There! you can help Miss Pomeroy as well as the poor-farm
-folks, Polly Prentiss, and if you didn’t do it, you’d be as selfish as
-old Redtop!” Redtop was a rooster, resident at Manser farm, whose greed
-and ugliness were by-words in the place of his abode.
-
-“Now I must go to my letter-writing,” said Miss Pomeroy, briskly, after
-a few moments’ silence. She had stroked Polly’s curls, with a far-away
-expression, and then had given her a sudden kiss and set her down on
-the piazza floor. “I’m obliged to do a good many errands to-day, and
-I think perhaps I’d better not take you, though I should, generally.
-Suppose you run out to the kitchen and see if you can help Arctura in
-any way.”
-
-
- CHAPTER VIII
-
- A LITTLE COOK
-
-Half an hour later, anyone who looked in at the windows of the Pomeroy
-kitchen would have seen a pretty sight. Polly, mounted on a stool, was
-beating a golden mixture in a white bowl, and Arctura, at the opposite
-end of the long table, was stirring whites of eggs carefully into a
-white batter in a yellow bowl.
-
-[Illustration: POLLY WAS BEATING A GOLDEN MIXTURE IN A BIG WHITE BOWL]
-
-“This is what I call solid comfort,” said Arctura, gayly. “I don’t know
-when I’ve had such a helper as you are! Miss Hetty’s without the gift
-when it comes to cooking. You wouldn’t believe it, but she’d be just as
-likely to put the eggs right in after the butter, without beating ’em
-separate, as any other way. Ain’t it singular?”
-
-“I expect she writes beautiful letters, Miss Arctura,” said Polly,
-loyally evading the discussion of Miss Pomeroy’s weak point.
-
-“My, I guess she does!” said Arctura, heartily. “That’s it; we’ve all
-got different talents. Hiram says he’d full as soon see me with a
-pistol pointed at him as with a pen in my hand. The only way I ever
-wrote a letter was by main strength, and I’d rather take a whipping any
-time.”
-
-“I guess it would be pretty hard work for anybody to whip you,” said
-Polly, shrewdly, and Arctura laughed with much relish.
-
-“’Twould now-a-days,” she said, as she gave the final stir to her
-batter, “but I’ve been whipped in my time. I didn’t get my growth all
-at once, you see. Is your cake ready for the pans? You wait till I show
-you the cunning little brush I’m going to butter the tins with. I’ll
-let you do yours next time, after I’ve once showed you how. You can’t
-slight the edges or any spot, if you want the cakes to slip out right.”
-
-When the heat of the oven had been tested and the little round tins had
-been put in and the oven doors shut on them, Arctura selected a stout
-testing straw from a pile on a high shelf above the kitchen sink and
-seated herself, holding the straw erect in her hand like a tiny weapon.
-
-“I always take this time for a breathing spell,” she announced,
-motioning Polly to another chair, “for if I start in on a fresh job,
-those cakes more’n likely’ll get burned; it only takes twenty-five
-minutes to bake ’em to the queen’s taste.”
-
-“Yes’m,” said Polly; then she looked eagerly over at Arctura. “Did you
-ever see little Eleanor?” she asked, breathlessly.
-
-“No, never,” said Arctura, and Polly felt a throb of disappointment.
-“You see, Square Pomeroy didn’t depart this life till a year ago last
-December, and he was kind of queer,” Arctura tapped her forehead
-significantly, “the last few years, and ’twasn’t a cheerful place to
-bring a child. And he’d hardly let his daughter out of his sight. About
-once in six months I’d send her off to Shelby to see the twins for two
-or three days, but I was always put to it to keep the Square satisfied
-till she got back.”
-
-“Was he cross?” asked Polly.
-
-“Not to say cross,” replied Arctura, slowly, “but terrible decided and
-unreasonable. Miss Hetty’s had her trials, and so’ve I; money isn’t
-all.”
-
-“No’m,” said Polly, soberly, “but it does a great many things, Miss
-Arctura. Did you know how poor this town is? Manser farm leaks in
-places, and the paint is all gone, and the ceilings drop sometimes,
-pieces of them, I mean. But the town is too poor to help fix any of
-those things. Uncle Sam Blodgett and Father Manser would shingle the
-roof quick enough, though they aren’t as spry as once they were, if
-only they could set eyes on the shingles,” said Polly, quoting freely
-from her old friends.
-
-“It’s a stingy town, I’m afraid,” said Arctura, shaking her head. “The
-Square was the most liberal man in it, and Miss Hetty follows right
-on, but most of the purse strings are drawn pretty close. Sometime
-I’ll tell you a little story about the Square and me when I was your
-age; you remind me to relate it to you. We haven’t got time now,” she
-said, glancing at the clock, “for those cakes have got to come out in a
-minute, and then I’ll have to fly around; dinner time always gains on
-me, someway.”
-
-“Do you know anything special I could do to please Miss Pomeroy?” asked
-Polly, wistfully. “She’s being so good to me.”
-
-“Let’s see,” said Arctura, meditatively. “Why, of course, she wants you
-to enjoy yourself. I expect she’d be pleased to see you take notice
-of things like the old shells and so on, and there’s the books; Bobby
-admired to read, and she always said Eleanor was quite a hand for
-stories, too. And you could go to walk with her, pleasant days, same as
-Bobby did last winter. And she’d be glad to see you relish your food.”
-
-“Oh, I do, Miss Arctura,” cried Polly. “I do, every single bite I take!”
-
-“Well now, that’s good news,” said Miss Green, comfortably. “I can’t
-think of anything else; you do all right so far as I know. I wouldn’t
-worry, but just do my best every day as things come along. Now we’ll
-take a look at those cakes.”
-
-“She didn’t say a word about playing or running round,” thought Polly,
-as Arctura rose to open the oven doors; “of course, she thinks I’m too
-big now for those things, just as Mrs. Manser said. There’s a girl in
-the village that’s most twelve, and she plays with a dolly, for I’ve
-seen her. But she belonged to somebody, and that’s different, I guess,
-from when you’re going to be adopted.”
-
-Polly’s lips seemed inclined to quiver for a moment, but then her
-cakes--the dozen golden brown cakes--were lifted from the oven and set
-on the table, and in the rush of delight, at seeing the delicate tops
-puffed up above the edges of the tins, the quiver changed to a smile.
-
-“Arctura says you are a born cook,” said Miss Pomeroy at dinner time,
-“and she has requested the pleasure of your company tomorrow morning
-when she makes the pies.”
-
-Polly dimpled with pleasure; she was eating steadily, just as much as
-she could. Miss Pomeroy noticed her increased appetite with agreeable
-surprise.
-
-“Miss Arctura was very, very kind to me,” said the little girl,
-sedately, “and I had a beautiful time, and Miss Arctura said if the
-minister--the supply minister, that’s nothing more or less than a
-bashful boy, according to her ideas--came to dinner Sunday, she should
-set four of my cakes along with four of hers on the table for dessert
-with the pudding.”
-
-Miss Pomeroy suppressed an inclination to laugh, and told Polly she had
-understood from Arctura that the cakes were a great success.
-
-“But the minister is not a boy, my dear,” she added; “you must not
-always take what Arctura says word for word. She used to call me her
-little girl until I was more than thirty years old.”
-
-Then Miss Pomeroy and Polly had a laugh together, though Polly could
-not help feeling that Arctura was very brave indeed ever to have called
-the tall mistress of Pomeroy Oaks her little girl.
-
-After dinner came the two naps, or at least Miss Pomeroy’s nap and
-Polly’s hour on the bed. Yesterday’s experience had taught Polly that
-an hour’s nap would be considered enough for her, so at the end of that
-time she got off the bed softly, and after making herself tidy for the
-rest of the day, she stole softly downstairs. It was a mild afternoon,
-and the big front door had been half opened so that the spring air
-might blow through the screen.
-
-“Of course, if she asks me if I’ve been asleep, I shall have to say
-no,” said Polly, looking a little bit troubled as she stood at the
-door, “but I don’t believe she will ask me. Of course, big girls that
-want to be adopted can learn to go to sleep in the day-time, just as
-grand grown-up folks do, and I shall learn as soon as ever I can.”
-
-Polly stepped out on the piazza and walked softly up and down, sniffing
-the air, and thinking how little fear she would have had of the damp
-ground if she could have run out barefoot as she did so often at Manser
-farm: and she gave a little sigh as she looked down at the shiny shoes
-Miss Pomeroy had brought home for her that morning. But Snip and Snap
-came racing up on the piazza from somewhere, ready for a frolic, and
-Polly did not disappoint them.
-
-Arctura appeared on the kitchen porch, collecting the milk pans that
-had been sunning all day, and snapped her fingers to attract Polly’s
-attention.
-
-“Look here,” she called, “my brother, Hiram, is feeling real neglected
-because you haven’t been nigh the barn since you came. Can’t you step
-out and visit with him for a spell now? I’ll call you whenever Miss
-Hetty wants you.”
-
-Polly needed no second invitation. She was ready to go wherever anyone
-wished, but, above all things, she had longed to see the barn, with
-Daisy in it; and Hiram reminded her in some way of Uncle Sam Blodgett,
-though she could not have told just how. Certainly the two men did not
-look alike, for Uncle Blodgett was lean and wiry, with a long, thin,
-nervous face, while Hiram was stout and ruddy, and never in a hurry
-about anything.
-
-
-[TO BE CONTINUED.]
-
-
-
-
- WOOD-FOLK TALK
-
- By J. ALLISON ATWOOD
-
-
-BOBOLINK AND THE STRANGER
-
-Has it ever seemed strange to you why Bobolink should have two suits of
-feathers so entirely different? Why, when he comes to us in the spring,
-should he wear a beautiful black and white costume, and in the fall
-put on his modest plumage of brown? It was not always so. The time was
-when Bobolink wore his best spring plumage all year round; but that,
-of course, was before his quarrel with Rough-leg. Rough-leg was one of
-the hawk family and was really the most agreeable of them. He had never
-been known to disturb the birds, but made his entire living by catching
-mice. No wonder, then, that he was greatly provoked when, after he had
-watched patiently for two hours in the hot sun with the vain hope of
-catching Meadow-mouse, he learned that the latter had been warned by
-Bobolink. Although generally good-natured, Rough-leg had a temper and
-he was very angry at Bobolink for poking his bill into other folks’
-affairs. He was even heard to threaten to dine upon Bobolink instead of
-Meadow-mouse.
-
-This, of course, was alarming news to Bobolink, yet he never regretted
-saving Meadow-mouse, who had been one of his old neighbors for years.
-Nevertheless, he was greatly worried at the threat and went South to
-his winter home earlier than usual that year, for fear that Rough-leg
-would catch him.
-
-The next spring when he reached the Great Meadows again Bobolink
-supposed that the whole matter had been forgotten. But no. There, on
-exactly the same limb of the tall poplar, as if he had been waiting
-all winter, sat Rough-leg. Bobolink was so frightened that he did not
-stop at the Meadows, as had been his custom, but went straight North
-many miles even past his summer home. Rough-leg had kept his eyes shut
-and pretended not to see Bobolink when he arrived on the Meadows, but
-in reality he was only waiting for a good chance to get his claws upon
-him. So, of course, his disappointment was great when he opened his
-eyes, to find that Bobolink had gone. Somehow this only made him more
-determined, and he resolved to catch Bobolink if it took a year. To a
-bird a year is a very long time. Rough-leg knew that Bobolink would
-have to stop at the Great Meadow on his way south in the autumn, for
-there he must get his food supply. Rough-leg would wait for him. His
-feathers puffed out and his eyes blazed as he thought of revenge.
-
-At length the hot summer drew to a close, and Bobolink bethought
-himself of going South, for, of course, he could not remain where he
-was all winter. But he shuddered as he thought of Rough-leg. He must
-stop at the Great Meadows else he could get no food until he reached
-the rice lands.
-
-It would soon begin to get cold, and already the birds around him were
-leaving. They seemed to enjoy the fact that he could not follow. That
-mischievous little imp, Maryland Yellow-throat, especially took the
-greatest delight in peeping out from his brier thicket and then calling
-in his shrill voice, “Wintery, Wintery, Wintery,” just for the fun of
-seeing Bobolink look round anxiously at the falling leaves.
-
-And now Blackbird, usually among the last, was ready to go and would
-soon be feeding lavishly on the reed seeds. They would not last long.
-Bobolink was at his wit’s end. Then, as from the top of a reed he
-looked wistfully at the dusky form of departing Song Sparrow, an idea
-occurred to him.
-
-That afternoon he disappeared. He was not seen on the next day nor
-the next. At the end of the third day a very strange-looking bird
-might have been seen hopping about in the thicket which Bobolink
-had occupied. This newcomer was a modest fellow. He wore a plain,
-brown coat without a trace of the tall, white collar such as adorned
-Bobolink; and he talked very little. Indeed, his only note seemed to
-be a dull, little chirp which no one understood. While folks in the
-north country were beginning to wonder who this new comer could be, he,
-too, disappeared. A little later the birds of the Great Meadow were
-surprised to see what to them was a very odd-looking traveler. He was
-no other than the brown stranger who had just left the north country.
-No one remembered to have seen him before.
-
-Rough-leg, who from his high lookout kept his eyes open for Bobolink,
-saw the newcomer, but the modest plumage awakened little interest
-in his mind. Blackbird, who always fed near the stranger, kept up a
-sociable chat all the time, but he was unable to learn anything of
-the other’s history. Indeed the latter, although polite, paid little
-attention to his neighbors but went on busily about his food. He soon
-became quite stout.
-
-The fall had nearly passed. All the birds except Rough-leg, Blackbird,
-and the stranger had gone South. The leaves had fallen and the reeds
-turned to brown fagots. Rough-leg still kept up his weary look-out.
-Occasionally he would launch himself from the now leafless poplar and
-circle over the Meadows. The brown bird would bolt up nervously from
-his feeding ground and Blackbird, thinking that it was he who had
-disturbed him would flutter overhead, calling out heartily, “Don’t
-mind me-e-e! Don’t mind me-e-e!” But in spite of Blackbird’s cheer the
-stranger would start up every time Rough-leg’s shadow passed over the
-meadow. But one day when the autumn wind murmured through the dry reeds
-the brown bird had flown. A day later Blackbird followed.
-
-Old Rough-leg still keeps up his watch. Every little while you can see
-him launch out from the great poplar and circle above the Meadows as if
-perchance Bobolink might be hiding among the reeds. But his search is
-vain. Often, however, he sees the brown stranger, whom folks have since
-named Reed Bird, but as he sails back to his favorite perch, he vainly
-wonders what has become of Bobolink in his beautiful coat of black and
-white.
-
-Perhaps he would wonder still more if he knew that, although they
-pass to and fro with each year’s migration, Bobolink and Reed Bird
-have never met. Couldn’t the reader explain something of this to old
-Rough-leg?
-
- * * * * *
-
- “The good are better made by ill,
- As odors crushed are sweeter still.”
-
- --_Rogers._
-
-
-
-
- A DAUGHTER OF THE FOREST
-
- By Evelyn Raymond
-
-
- CHAPTER VII
-
- A Woodland Menagerie
-
- SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS
-
- Brought up in the forests of northern Maine, and seeing few persons
- excepting her uncle and Angelique, the Indian housekeeper, Margot
- Romeyn knows little of life beyond the deep hemlocks. Naturally
- observant, she is encouraged in her out-of-door studies by her uncle,
- at one time a college professor. Through her woodland instincts, she
- and her uncle are enabled to save the life of Adrian Wadislaw, a youth
- who, lost and almost overcome with hunger, has been wandering in the
- neighboring forest. To Margot the new friend is a welcome addition
- to her small circle of acquaintances, and after his rapid recovery
- she takes great delight in showing him the many wonders of the forest
- about her home.
-
- * * * * *
-
-“Hoo-ah! Yo-ho! H-e-r-e! This way!”
-
-Adrian followed the voice. It led him aside into the woods on the
-eastern slope, and it was accompanied by an indescribable babel of
-noises. Running water, screaming of wild fowl, cooing of pigeons,
-barking of dogs or some other beasts, cackling, chattering, laughter.
-
-All the sounds of wild life ceased suddenly in the tree-tops as Adrian
-approached, recognizing and fearing his alien presence. But they were
-reassured by Margot’s familiar summons, and soon the menagerie he had
-suspected was gathered about her.
-
-“Whew! it just rains squirrels--and chipmunks--and birds! Hello! that’s
-a fawn; that’s a fox! as sure as I’m alive, a magnificent red fox! Why
-isn’t he eating the whole outfit? And--hurrah!”
-
-To the amazement of the watcher, there came from the depths of the
-woods a sound that always thrills the pulses of any hunter--the cry
-of a moose-calf, accompanied by a soft crashing of branches, growing
-gradually louder.
-
-“So they tame even the moose--these wonderful people! What next!”
-and as Adrian leaned forward the better to watch the advance of
-this uncommon pet, the next concerning which he had speculated also
-approached. Slowly up the river bank stalked a pair of blue herons, and
-for them Margot had her warmest welcome.
-
-“Heigho, Xanthippé, Socrates! What laggards! But here’s your breakfast,
-or one of them. I suppose you’ve eaten the other long ago. Indeed,
-you’re always eating, gourmands!”
-
-The red fox eyed the new-comers with a longing eye and crept cautiously
-to his mistress’ side as she coaxed the herons nearer. But she was
-always prepared for any outbreak of nature among her forest friends,
-and drew him also close to her with the caressing touch she might have
-bestowed upon a beloved house-dog.
-
-“Reynard, you beauty! your head in my lap, sir;” and dropping to a
-sitting posture, she forced him to obey her. There he lay, winking but
-alert, which she scattered her store of good things right and left.
-There were nuts for the squirrels and ’munks, grains and seeds for
-the winged creatures, and for the herons, as well as Reynard, a few
-bits of dried meat. But for Browser, the moose-calf, she pulled the
-tender twigs and foliage with a lavish hand. When she had given some
-dainty to each of her oddly-assorted pets, she sprang up, closed the
-box, and waved her arms in dismissal. The more timid of the creatures
-obeyed her, but some held their ground persistently, hoping for greater
-favors. To these she paid no further attention, and still keeping hold
-of Reynard’s neck, started back to her human guest.
-
-The fox, however, declined to accompany her. He distrusted strangers,
-and, it may be, had designs of his own upon some other forest wilding.
-
-“That’s the worst of it. We tame them and they love us. But they are
-only conquered, not changed. Isn’t Reynard beautiful? Doesn’t he look
-noble? as noble as a St. Bernard dog? If you’ll believe me, that fellow
-is thoroughly acquainted with every one of Angelique’s fowls, and knows
-he must never, never touch them. Yet he’d eat one, quick as a flash, if
-he got a chance. He’s a coward, though; and by his cowardice we manage
-him. Sometimes,” sighed Margot, who had led the way into a little path
-toward the lake.
-
-“How odd! You seem actually grieved at this state of things.”
-
-“Why shouldn’t I be? I love him, and I have a notion that love will do
-anything with anybody or anything. I do believe it will, but that I
-haven’t found just the right way of showing it. Uncle laughs at me, a
-little, but helps me all he can. Indeed, it is he who has tamed most of
-our pets. He says it is the very best way to study natural history.”
-
-“H-m-m! He intends your education shall be complete!”
-
-“Of course. But one thing troubles him. He cannot teach me music.
-And you seem surprised. Aren’t girls, where you come from, educated?
-Doesn’t everybody prize knowledge?”
-
-“That depends. Our girls are educated, of course. They go to college
-and all that, but I think you’d down any of them in exams. For my own
-part, I ran away just because I did not want this famous ‘education’
-you value. That is, I didn’t of a certain sort. I wasn’t fair with you
-awhile ago, you said. I’d like to tell you my story now.”
-
-“I’d like to hear it, of course. But, look yonder! Did you ever see
-anything like that?”
-
-Margot was proud of the surprises she was able to offer this stranger
-in her woods, and pointed outward over the lake. They had just come to
-an open place on the shore and the water spread before them, sparkling
-in the sunlight. Something was crossing the smooth surface, heading
-straight for their island, and of a nature to make Adrian cry out:
-
-“Oh! for a gun!”
-
-
- VIII
-
- KING MADOC
-
-“If you had one you should not use it! Are you a dreadful hunter?”
-
-Margot had turned upon her guest with a defiant fear. As near as she
-had ever come to hating anything she hated the men, of whom she had
-heard, who used this wonderful northland as a murder ground. That was
-what she named it in her uncompromising judgment of those who killed
-for the sake of killing, for the lust of blood that was in them.
-
-“Yes; I reckon I am a ‘dreadful’ hunter, for I am a mighty poor shot.
-But I’d like a try at that fellow. What horns! what a head! and how can
-that fellow in the canoe keep so close to him, yet not finish him?”
-
-Adrian was so excited he could not stand still. His eyes gleamed, his
-hands clenched, and his whole appearance was changed; greatly for the
-worse, the girl thought, regarding him with disgust.
-
-“Finish him? That’s King Madoc, Pierre’s trained moose. You’d be
-finished yourself, I fear, if you harmed that splendid creature.
-Pierre’s a lazy fellow, mostly, but he spent a long time teaching
-Madoc; and with his temper--I’m thankful you lost your gun.”
-
-“Do you never shoot things up here? I saw you giving the fox and
-herons what looked like meat. You had a stew for supper, and fish for
-breakfast. I don’t mean to be impertinent, but the sight of that big
-game--whew!”
-
-“Yes; we do kill things, or have them killed, when it is necessary for
-food. Never in sport. Man is almost the only animal who does that. It’s
-all terrible, seems to me. Everything preys upon something else, weaker
-than itself. Sometimes when I think of it, my dinner chokes me. It’s
-so easy to take life, and only God can create it. But uncle says it is
-also God’s law to take what is provided, and that there is no mistake,
-even if it seems such to me.”
-
-But there Margot perceived that Adrian was not listening. Instead,
-he was watching, with the intensest interest, the closer approach of
-the canoe, in which sat idle Pierre, holding the reins of a harness
-attached to his aquatic steed. The moose swam easily, with powerful
-strokes, and Pierre was singing a gay melody, richer in his unique
-possession than any king.
-
-“Indeed, it’s not one other has a king for a bow man,” he often
-asserted.
-
-When he touched the shore and the great animal stood shaking his wet
-hide, Adrian’s astonishment found vent in a whirlwind of questions
-that Pierre answered at his leisure and after his kind. But he walked
-first toward Margot and offered her a great bunch of trailing arbutus
-flowers, saying:
-
-“I saw these just as I pushed off and went back after them. What’s the
-matter here, that the flag is up? It was the biggest storm I ever saw.
-Yes; a deal of beasties are killed back on the mainland. Any dead over
-here?”
-
-“No, I’m glad to say, none that we know of. But Snowfoot’s shed is down
-and uncle is going to build a new one. I hope you’ve come to work.”
-
-Pierre laughed and shrugged his shoulders.
-
-“Oh! yes.”
-
-But his interest in work was far less than in the stranger whom he now
-answered, and whose presence on Peace Island was a mystery to him.
-Heretofore, the only visitors there had been laborers or traders, but
-this young fellow, so near his own age, and despite his worn clothing,
-was of another sort. He recognized this, at once, as Margot had done,
-and his curiosity made him ask:
-
-“Where’d you come from? Hurricane blow you out the sky?”
-
-“About the same. I was lost in the woods and Margot found me and saved
-my life. What’ll you take for that moose?”
-
-“There isn’t money enough in the State of Maine to buy him!”
-
-“Nonsense! Well, if there was I haven’t it. But you could get a good
-price for it anywhere.”
-
-Pierre looked Adrian over. From his appearance the lad was not likely
-to be possessed of much cash, but the moose-trainer was eager for
-capital, and never missed an opportunity of seeking it.
-
-“I want to go into the show business. What do you say? would you
-furnish the tents and fixings, and share the profits? I’m no scholar,
-but maybe you’d know enough to get out the hand bills and so on. What
-do you say?”
-
-“I--say--What you mean, Pierre Ricord, keepin’ the master waitin’ your
-foolishness and him half sick? What kept you twice as long as you
-ought? Hurry up, now, and put that moose in the cow yard and get to
-work.”
-
-The interruption was caused by Angelique, and it was curious to see the
-fear with which she inspired the great fellow, her son. He forgot the
-stranger, the show business, and all his own immediate interests, and
-with the docility of a little child obeyed. Unhitching his odd steed,
-he turned the canoe bottom upwards on the beach and hastily led the
-animal toward that part of the island clearing where Snowfoot stood in
-a little fenced-in lot behind her ruined shed.
-
-Adrian went with him, and asked:
-
-“Won’t those two animals fight?”
-
-“Won’t get a chance. When one goes in the other goes out. Here, bossy,
-you can take the range of the island. Get out!”
-
-She was more willing to go than Madoc to enter the cramped place, but
-the transfer was made, and Adrian lingered by the osier paling, to
-observe at close range this subjugated monarch of the forest.
-
-“Oh! for a palette and brush!” he exclaimed, while Pierre walked away.
-
-“What would you do with them?”
-
-Margot had followed the lads and was beside Adrian, though he had not
-heard her footsteps. Now he wheeled about, eager, enthusiastic.
-
-“Paint--as I have never painted before!”
-
-“Oh!--are you an--artist?”
-
-“I want to be one. That’s why I’m here.”
-
-“What! What do you mean?”
-
-“I told you I was a runaway. I didn’t say why, before. It’s truth. My
-people, my--father--forced me to college. I hated it. He was forcing me
-to business. I liked art. All my friends were artists. When I should
-have been at the books I was in their studios. They were a gay crowd,
-spent money like water when they had it; merrily starved and pinched
-when they hadn’t. A few were worse than spendthrifts, and with my usual
-want of sense I made that particular set my intimates. I never had any
-money, though, after it was suspected what my tastes were, except a
-little that my mother gave.”
-
-Margot was listening breathlessly and watching intently. At the mention
-of his mother a shadow crossed Adrian’s face, softening and bettering
-it, and as they rose to go home she saw that his whole mood had changed.
-
-
- IX.
-
- AN UNANSWERABLE QUESTION
-
-It was weeks afterward when they were again surrounded by the many
-wonderful inhabitants of the forest that Adrian mentioned his own
-parents. Their talk drifted from vexing subjects to merry anecdotes of
-his childhood, in the home where he had been the petted, only brother
-of a half-dozen elder sisters. But while they laughed and Margot
-listened, her fingers were busy weaving a great garland of wild laurel,
-and when it was finished she rose and said:
-
-“It’s getting late. There’ll be just time to take this to the grave.
-Will you go with me?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-But this was another of the puzzling things he found at Peace Island.
-In its very loveliest nook was the last resting-place of Cecily Romeyn,
-and the sacred spot was always beautiful with flowers, or, in the
-winter, with brilliant berries. Both the master and the girl spoke of
-their dead as if she were still present with them; or, at least, lived
-as if she were only removed from sight but not from their lives.
-
-When Margot had laid the fresh wreath upon the mound, she carefully
-removed the faded flowers of the day before, and a thought of his own
-mother stirred Adrian’s heart.
-
-“I wish I could send a bunch of such blossoms to the mater!”
-
-“How can you live without her, since she is still alive?”
-
-His face hardened again.
-
-“You forget. I told you that she, too, turned against me at the last.
-It was a case of husband or son, and she made her choice.”
-
-“Oh! no. She was unhappy. One may do strange things then, I suppose.
-But I tell you one thing: if I had either father or mother, anywhere
-in this world; no matter if either was bad--had done everything that
-is sinful!--nothing should ever, ever make me leave them. Nothing. I
-would bear anything, do anything, suffer anything--but I would be true
-to them. I could not forget that I was their child, and if I had done
-wrong to them my whole life would be too short to make atonement.”
-
-She spoke strongly, as she felt. So early orphaned, she had come to
-think of her parents as the most wonderful blessing in the power of God
-to leave one. She loved her Uncle Hugh like a second father, but her
-tenderest dreams were over the pictured faces of her dead.
-
-“Where is your father buried?”
-
-It was the simplest, most natural question.
-
-“I--don’t--know.”
-
-They stared at one another. It was proof of her childlike acceptance of
-her life that she had never asked--had never thought to do so, even.
-She had been told that he had passed out of sight before they came to
-Peace Island and the forest, and had asked no further concerning him.
-Of his character and habits she had heard much. Her uncle was never
-weary in extolling his virtues; but of his death he had said only what
-has been written.
-
-“But--I must know right away!”
-
-In her eagerness she ran, and Adrian followed as swiftly. He was sorry
-for his thoughtless inquiry, but regret came too late. He tried to call
-Margot back, but she would not wait.
-
-“I must know--I must know right away. Why have I never thought before?”
-
-Hugh Dutton was resting after a day of study and mental labor, and his
-head leaned easily upon his cushioned chair. Yet as his dear child
-entered his room he held out his arms to draw her to his knee.
-
-“In a minute, uncle. But Adrian has asked me something and it is the
-strangest thing that I cannot answer him. Where is my father buried?”
-
-If she had dealt him a mortal blow he could not have turned more white.
-With a groan that pierced her very heart, he stared at Margot with
-wide, unseeing eyes; then sprang to his feet and fixed upon poor Adrian
-a look that scorched.
-
-“You! you!” he gasped, and, sinking back, covered his face with his
-hands.
-
-
-
-
- X
-
- PERPLEXITIES
-
-What had he done?
-
-Ignorant why his simple question should have such strange results, that
-piercing look made Adrian feel the veriest culprit, and he hastened to
-leave the room and the cabin. Hurrying to the beach, he appropriated
-Margot’s little canvas canoe and pushed out upon the lake. From her
-and Pierre he had learned to handle the light craft with considerable
-skill, and he now worked off his excitement by swift paddling, so that
-there was soon a wide distance between him and the island.
-
-Then he paused and looked around him, upon as fair a scene as could be
-found in any land. Unbroken forests bounded this hidden Lake Profundus,
-out of whose placid waters rose that mountain-crowned, verdure-clad
-Island of Peace, with its picturesque home and its cultured owner, who
-had brought into this best of the wilderness the best of civilization.
-
-“What is this mystery? How am I concerned in it? For I am, and mystery
-there is. It is like that mist over the island, which I can see and
-feel but cannot touch. Pshaw! I’m getting sentimental, when I ought
-to be turning detective. Yet I couldn’t do that--pry into the private
-affairs of a man who’s treated me so generously. What shall I do? How
-can I go back there? But where else can I go?”
-
-At the thought that he might never return to the roof he had quitted,
-a curious homesickness seized him.
-
-“Who’ll hunt what game they need? Who’ll catch their fish? Who’ll keep
-the garden growing? Where can I study the forest and its furry people,
-at first hand, as in the Hollow? And I was doing well--not as I hope
-to do, but getting on. Margot was a merciless critic, but even she
-admitted that my last picture had the look, the spirit of the woods.
-That’s what I want to do, what Mr. Dutton, also, approved: to bring
-glimpses of these solitudes back to the cities and the thousands who
-can never see them in any other way. Well--let it go. I can’t stay and
-be a torment to anybody, and sometime in some other place, maybe--Ah!”
-
-What he had mistaken for the laughter of a loon was Pierre’s halloo.
-He was coming back, then, from the mainland where he had been absent
-these past days. Adrian was thankful. There was nothing mysterious or
-perplexing about Pierre, whose rule of life was extremely simple:
-
-“Pierre, first, second, and forever. After Pierre, if there was
-anything left, then--anybody, the nearest at hand,” would have
-expressed the situation; but his honest, unblushing selfishness was
-sometimes a relief.
-
-“One always knows just where to find Pierre,” Margot had said.
-
-So Adrian’s answering halloo was prompt, and, turning about, he watched
-the birch leaving the shadow of the forest and heading for himself. It
-was soon alongside and Ricord’s excited voice was shouting his good
-news:
-
-“Run him up to seven hundred and fifty!”
-
-“But I thought there wasn’t money enough anywhere to buy him?”
-
-Pierre cocked his dark head on one side and winked.
-
-“Madoc sick and Madoc well are different.”
-
-“Oh, you wretch! Would you sell a sick moose and cheat the buyer?”
-
-“Would I lose such a pile of money for foolishness? I guess not.”
-
-“But suppose, after you parted with him, he got well?”
-
-Again the woodlander grinned and winked.
-
-“Could you drive the King?”
-
-“No.”
-
-“Well, that’s all right. I buy him back, what you call trade. One do
-that many times, good enough. If--”
-
-Pierre was silent for some moments, during which Adrian had steadily
-paddled backward to the island, keeping time with the other boat, and
-without thinking what he was doing. But when he did remember, he turned
-to Pierre and asked:
-
-“Will you take me across the lake again?”
-
-“What for?”
-
-“No matter. I’ll just leave Margot’s canoe and you do it. There’s time
-enough.”
-
-“What’ll you give me?”
-
-“Pshaw! What can I give you? Nothing.”
-
-“That’s all right. My mother, she wants the salt,” and he kicked the
-sack of that valuable article lying at his feet. “There, she’s on the
-bank now, and it’s not she will let me out of her sight again, this
-long time.”
-
-“You’d go fast enough for money.”
-
-“Maybe not. When one has Angelique Ricord for mére--U-m-m!”
-
-But it was less for Pierre than for Adrian that Angelique was waiting,
-and her expression was kinder than common.
-
-“Carry that salt to my kitchen cupboard, son, and get to bed. No;
-you’ve no call to tarry. What the master’s word is for his guest is
-nothin’ to you.”
-
-Pierre’s curiosity was roused. Why had Adrian wanted to leave the
-island at nightfall, since there was neither hunting nor fishing to be
-done? Sport for sport’s sake--that was forbidden. And what could be the
-message he was not to hear? He meant to learn, and lingered, busying
-himself uselessly in beaching the canoes afresh, after he had once
-carefully turned them bottom side upwards: in brushing out imaginary
-dirt, readjusting his own clothing--a task he did not often bother
-with--and in general making himself a nuisance to his impatient parent.
-
-But, so long as he remained, she kept silence, till, unable to hold
-back her rising anger, she stole up behind him, unperceived, and
-administered a sounding box upon his sizable ears.
-
-“Would you? To the cupboard, miserable!” and Adrian could not repress a
-smile at the meekness with which the great woodlander submitted to the
-little woman’s authority.
-
-“Xanthippé and Socrates!” he murmured, and Pierre heard him. So,
-grimacing at him from under the heavy sack, he called back “Fifty
-dollar. Tell her fifty--dollar.”
-
-“What did he mean by fifty dollar?” demanded Angelique.
-
-“I suppose something about that show business of his. It is his
-ambition, you know, and I must admit I believe he’d be a success at it.”
-
-“Pouf! There is more better business than the showin’ one, of takin’
-God’s beasties in the towns and lettin’ the fool people stare. The
-money comes that way is not good money.”
-
-“Oh, yes. It’s all right, fair Angelique. But what is the word for me?”
-
-“It is: that you come with me, at once, to the master. He will speak
-with you before he sleeps. Yes. And, Adrian, lad!”
-
-“Well, Angelique?”
-
-“This is the truth. Remember--when the heart is sore tried the tongue
-is often sharp. There is death--that is a sorrow--God sends it. There
-are sorrows God does not send, but the evil one. Death is but joy to
-them. What the master says, answer; and luck light upon your lips.”
-
-The lad had never seen the old housekeeper so impressive nor so gentle.
-At the moment it seemed as if she almost liked him, though, despite the
-faithfulness with which she had obeyed her master’s wishes and served
-him, he had never before suspected it.
-
-“Thank you, Angelique. I am troubled, too, and I will take care that I
-neither say nor resent anything harsh. More than that, I will go away.
-I have stayed too long already, though I had hoped I was making myself
-useful. Is he in his own study?”
-
-“Yes, and the little maid is with him. No--there she comes, but she
-is not laughin’, no. Oh! the broken glass. Scat! Meroude. Why leap
-upon one to scare the breath out, that way? Pst! ’Tis here that tame
-creatures grow wild and wild ones tame. Scat! I say.”
-
-Margot was coming through the rooms, holding Reynard by the collar she
-made him wear whenever he was in the neighborhood of the hen-house, and
-Tom limped listlessly along upon her other side. There was trouble and
-perplexity in the girl’s face, and Angelique made a great pretense of
-being angry with the cat, to hide that in her own.
-
-But Margot noticed neither her nor Adrian, and sitting down upon the
-threshold dropped her chin in her hands and fixed her eyes upon the
-darkening lake.
-
-“Why, mistress! The beast here at the cabin, and it nightfall! My poor
-fowls!”
-
-“He’s leashed, you see, Angelique. And I’ll lock the poultry up, if you
-like,” observed Adrian. Anything to delay a little an interview from
-which he shrank with something very like that cowardice of which the
-girl had once accused him.
-
-The housekeeper’s ready temper flamed, and she laid an ungentle touch
-upon the stranger’s shoulder.
-
-“Go, boy. When Master Hugh commands, ’tis not for such as we to
-disobey.”
-
-“All right. I’m going; and I’ll remember.”
-
-At the inner doorway he turned and looked back. Margot was still
-sitting, thoughtful and motionless, the firelight from the great
-hearth making a Rembrandt-like silhouette of her slight figure against
-the outer darkness and touching her wonderful hair with a flood of
-silver. Reynard and the eagle, the wild foresters her love had tamed,
-stood guard on either side. It was a picture that appealed to Adrian’s
-artistic sense and he lingered a little, regarding its effects, even
-considering what pigments would best convey them.
-
-[Illustration: HER PETS STOOD GUARD ON EITHER SIDE]
-
-“Adrian!”
-
-“Yes, Angelique--yes.”
-
-When the door shut behind him, Angelique touched her darling’s shining
-head, and the toil-stiffened fingers had for it almost a mother’s
-tenderness.
-
-“Sweetheart, the bed-time.”
-
-“I know--I’m going, Angelique; my uncle sent me from him to-night. It
-was the first time in all my life that I remember.”
-
-“Maybe, little stupid, because you’ve never waited for that, before,
-but were quick enough to see whenever you were not wanted.”
-
-“He--there’s something wrong, and Adrian is the cause of it.
-I--Angelique, you tell me--uncle did not hear, or reply, any way--where
-is my father buried?”
-
-Angelique was prepared and had her answer ready.
-
-“’Tis not for the servant to reveal what her master hides. No--all will
-come to you in good time. Tarry the master’s will. But, that silly
-Pierre! What think you? Is it fifty dollar would be the price of they
-tame blue herons? Hey?”
-
-“No; nor fifty times fifty. Pierre knows that. Love is more than
-money.”
-
-“Sometimes, to some folks. Well, what would you? That son will
-be havin’ even me, his old mother, in his show--why not? As a
-cur’osity--the only livin’ human bein’ can make that ingrate mind.
-Yes--to bed, ma p’tite.”
-
-Margot rose and housed her pets. This threat of Pierre’s, that he would
-eventually carry off the foresters and exhibit their helplessness
-to staring crowds, always roused her fiercest indignation; and this
-result was just what Angelique wanted, at present, and she murmured her
-satisfaction.
-
-“Good! That bee will buzz in her ear till she sleeps, and so sound
-she’ll hear no dip of the paddle, by and by. Here, Pierre, my son,
-you’re wanted.”
-
-“What for, now? Do leave me be. I’m going to bed. I’m just wore out,
-trot-trottin’ from Pontius to Pilate, luggin’ salt, and--” he finished
-by yawning most prodigiously.
-
-“Firs’-rate sign, that gapin’. Yes--sign you’re healthy and able to do
-all’s needed. There’s no rest for you this night. Come--here--take this
-basket to the beach. If your canoe needs pitchin’, pitch it. There’s
-the lantern. If one goes into the show business he learns right now to
-work and travel o’ nights. Yes--start--I’ll follow and explain.”
-
-
-[TO BE CONTINUED]
-
- * * * * *
-
- “Believe not each accusing tongue,
- As most weak people do;
- But still believe that story wrong
- Which ought not to be true.”
-
- --_R. B. Sheridan._
-
-
-
-
- THE MONTH OF FLOWER
-
- By Julia McNair Wright
-
-
-Neither age, learning, nor fortune are needed to enable one to love and
-admire these gracious children of beauty--the flowers.
-
-When the chill winds of autumn sound a knell for their departure, we
-have a sense of loneliness and loss. As the winter passes we long for
-the days when the blossoms shall come again.
-
-The first tiny blossom of the star-flower; the first little tasseled
-bloom on the birch; the first adder’s tongue, or violet, or broad,
-white salver of the mandrake flower; the snowy banners of the dogwood;
-the gray-white of the brave little plantain-leaved everlasting, fill
-all hearts with delight.
-
-The life object of the flower is the production of seed. All the parts
-of the flower are in some way fitted to further that end. What is the
-story of the flower?
-
-The stem and branches having developed a certain amount of leafage, may
-at length put forth blossoms. These spring, as leaves do, from the tips
-or axils of the branches. In truth, a flower is a modified branch, and
-all its parts are modified leaves. We will pass over this distinction
-of science, and will consider the flower as we popularly think and
-speak of it, the beautiful producer of seeds.
-
-What is called a perfect flower we will examine in the common buttercup
-of the fields. At the top of the stem we find a cup or calyx of five
-narrow, separate green leaves, called sepals; these form the outer
-wrapping of the bud, and maintain and protect the more delicate inner
-parts of a flower. Within the calyx is the corolla--five glossy,
-yellow, roundish petals, set in a circle; within this we have another
-ring of downy, bright-yellow stamens, and still within these,
-protected by all the others, certain yellow pistils, fewer and firmer
-in texture than the stamens.
-
-All of these four rings of parts are placed upon the fleshy, enlarged
-top of the stem, which is called the receptacle. The yellow of this
-flower is very yellow, and the stem and leaves are very green. The stem
-and leaves of our buttercups are hairy; the whole plant is provided
-with a sharp, stinging juice.
-
-The buttercup, as we have seen, is made up of four circles, each
-composed of several distinct parts.
-
-A flower with several petals is called polypetalous.
-
-Other flowers have but one petal; they are styled monopetalous. In
-fact, in such one-petaled flowers a number of petals have simply grown
-together. Let us take the morning-glory as an example. Pull off the
-calyx; it comes off as a whole, but is cleft half way down into five
-lobes, showing that it is truly composed of five united petals. Now
-pull the corolla from another calyx cup; it comes as a whole, and is
-not cleft as the calyx is, but it has five stripes, and at each stripe
-the margin has a little point, and we can make out very plainly that
-here are five prettily-pointed petals united into one, with a long tube
-made of the claws, and a beautiful wide margin made of the banners.
-Four-o’clocks, stramonium, Canterbury bells, phlox, and many other
-flowers have these one-petaled corollas. Such corollas differ greatly
-in shape, owing to the length and diameter of the tube and margin.
-
-In the polypetalous corollas we have the rich splendors of roses,
-from single to the fullest double, where cultivation has changed all
-stamens and pistils into petals. The polypetalous tribe give us also
-the lovely, perfume-filled chalices of the lilies; the peas, with their
-many-colored banners; the charming violets, with their spurred petals;
-the columbine, with its horns of plenty.
-
-Color of some kind is one of the distinguishing features of blossoms.
-
-Fragrance is another marked characteristic of plants, and is chiefly in
-the flower.
-
-There are plenty of scentless plants, yet the majority are full of
-perfume. Some few have a very disagreeable smell. Fragrance in plants
-comes from certain oils or resin laid up in different parts of the
-plant, whether in the leaves, bark, wood, fruit, seeds, or blossoms.
-
-In the month of May flowers crowd upon us in numbers so great that
-we are at a loss for a time to study them. Even if April has been
-cold, the matchless arbutus has found time to bloom above last
-year’s protecting leaves and has passed away, leaving only a memory
-of its fragrance and rosy beauty. The dandelions--jolly, popular,
-child-beloved gold of the spring--have bloomed, and in May the grass is
-covered with their delicate clocks; we still, in early May, find the
-oxalis almost making a carpet for the pasture lands or sunny hillsides.
-When the oxalis grows in damp shade its flowers and leaves are larger
-and of a deeper color, but the blossoms are fewer. The leaf of the
-oxalis is three-divided, like the coarser leaf of the clover.
-
-Some hold that it was the oxalis and not the shamrock leaf which good
-St. Patrick took to prove the possibility of Trinity--one in three.
-Some think that really the oxalis and not the clover was the shamrock
-of the ancient Irish.
-
-May brings us an abundance of wild violets; the blue violets and the
-beautiful tri-colored pansies come in April, but the blue violets
-linger, growing larger and richer, while their cousins, the dainty
-white and the branching yellow violets, appear in the cool, damp woods.
-The wild violets are scentless, except for the spicy “woods odor” that
-seems to hang about all wild flowers.
-
-[Illustration: NATURE’S FAVORITES]
-
-A much humbler flower than the violets greets us on the roadsides--the
-bright yellow cinquefoil, its vine leaves, and blossom bearing
-resemblance to the strawberry, so that the county people call them
-“yellow-flowered strawberries.” Common as the cinquefoil is, it belongs
-to a noble, even royal, family among flowers--the rose. It is a poor
-cousin of the garden’s queen.
-
-
-
-
- WITH THE EDITOR
-
-
-For our name we have chosen YOUTH. This word is the fullest expression
-of our ambition. It stands for that period of human life toward which
-the very young folk look forward with pleasant anticipations, and the
-old look back with something like regret. It contains the suggestion
-of hope, vigor, and buoyancy--the ideal requisites of America’s young
-folks. Surely we might have looked far for a more fitting title.
-
-Although a new name to many, and therefore lacking in that esteem which
-only long acquaintance can give, we have every reason to expect the
-same generous greeting which we have heretofore received.
-
-Indeed, beginning with this issue, we shall have with us many who have
-known YOUTH in its earlier home. We offer them a hearty welcome and
-promise to do our utmost to deserve a continuation of their stanch
-support.
-
- * * * * *
-
-A great many well-meaning people seem to regard childhood and youth
-in the light of an ailment. This is painfully apparent in their views
-of juvenile literature. As they might forbid a particular diet to all
-invalids, so, just as rigidly, they prohibit the reading of this or
-that form of literature by those afflicted with youthfulness.
-
-Like the doctors who deal with our physical bodies, these very earnest
-people seldom agree among themselves as to the proper remedies and
-measures of prevention.
-
-What, most unfortunately, they do agree in, is that the best attention
-must be given to the supposed ailment instead of to the individual boy
-or girl. No young person should be allowed to read fairy stories, says
-one. Nor stories without an immediate moral purpose, declares another.
-Nor stories of adventure, insists a third.
-
-Now, upon behalf of the young people themselves, we wish to enter our
-most solemn objection to this kind of reasoning.
-
-There are books, of course, which should not be read by young people,
-but as a rule these same books should not be read by grown people,
-either. They are essentially bad, and no one will defend them.
-
-We admit, moreover, that no highly improbable fiction is healthy as
-a regular diet. But we do assert that for a child of undeveloped
-imagination--one who is inclined to take the world too literally--there
-is, perhaps, nothing better than a well-written fairy-story. It tends
-to awaken that faculty of the brain which gives life half its pleasure.
-What, again, can better counteract the thoughtless cruelty of childhood
-than such a story as Black Beauty? And yet, in the great essential of
-possibility, Black Beauty is a fairy tale.
-
-Finally, to one whose mind is over-perplexed by studies or who is
-inclined to brood over the common occurrences of daily life, what can
-bring happier relief than some stirring narrative of adventure? Such a
-story at such a time, even if it has no moral aim, is not without its
-moral result.
-
-In short, each of these forms of fiction has its own special and
-valuable function, and those who would make the best use of juvenile
-literature must recognize the fact and avail themselves of the
-principle.
-
-
-
-
- EVENT AND COMMENT
-
-
- Telephoning Without Wire
-
-According to late newspaper accounts, one of the most striking efforts
-in the direction of wireless communication is that of Mr. Nathan
-Stubblefield, residing near Murray, in the State of Kentucky.
-
-Mr. Stubblefield holds the theory that sound waves, as well as
-vibrations of ether, can be conveyed from one point to the other
-without the use of wires. To prove this, he has invented an apparatus
-of apparently simple construction, consisting of a transmitter and
-receiver. Its only metallic contact with any solid object is by means
-of a wire rod, which is sunk into the ground at the desired point.
-Through this the waves of sound are conveyed from the transmitter to
-the ground, and from the ground to the receiver of the other station.
-
-To show that water as well as land will conduct these vibrations, Mr.
-Stubblefield established communication between a boat some distance
-from the shore and a station on the land. From the boat, the strains of
-a musical instrument playing on the shore could be distinctly heard and
-recognized.
-
-Mr. Stubblefield believes that it is only upon the question of
-obtaining a high voltage that the unlimited application of his system
-depends.
-
-The many persons who have viewed his experiments are fully convinced
-that Mr. Stubblefield will do much toward furthering the possibilities
-of wireless communication.
-
-
- The Oxford Scholarships
-
-In the will of the late Cecil Rhodes, provisions were made, setting
-aside $10,000,000 for the founding of free scholarships for the
-benefit of students from the British colonies, Germany, and the United
-States. Of these, the United States is to have two for each State and
-Territory. The conditions of these scholarships are that the candidates
-must possess the necessary educational qualifications, manly qualities,
-a fondness for out-of-door sports, and an “exhibition during their
-school days of moral force of character and instincts to lead and take
-interest in their schoolmates.”
-
-Mr. Rhodes’ purpose is to concentrate the scattered forces of the
-Anglo-Saxon race, which, he believes, contributes the greatest
-influence for good upon humanity.
-
-
- Terms of Peace in South Africa
-
-The Edinburgh _Evening News_ of April 12 has stated that Mr. Kruger, in
-behalf of the Boers, desires peace on the following conditions:
-
-Absolute independence will not be made an issue if otherwise a
-satisfactory form of government can be reached.
-
-The proclamation of banishment must be canceled, the confiscated
-property restored to its owners, and all other property destroyed by
-the British soldiers must be paid for by their government.
-
-The recognition of both languages in the schools and courts.
-
-The pardon of rebels and the release of political prisoners.
-
-All prisoners of war are to be returned to South Africa on a fixed date.
-
-The foregoing terms and conditions are to be carried out under the
-supervision of one or more of the powers friendly to the Boer cause.
-
-Negotiations have now reached such a point as to promise a speedy
-termination of the war in South Africa.
-
-
- General Miles’ Plan for the Philippines
-
-In the recent correspondence between Lieutenant-General Miles and
-the Secretary of War, the former asked for authority to take with
-him to the Philippines ten Cubans and Porto Ricans, for the purpose
-of illustrating to the inhabitants of those islands the beneficial
-influence of the United States.
-
-A representative group of Filipinos would then, on the return journey,
-be brought to this country, to familiarize them with our civilization.
-In this way it was hoped to establish a more amicable understanding
-between the two peoples.
-
-After a careful consideration of General Miles’ plan, the Secretary
-of War stated his disapproval of it on the ground that it would be
-impracticable.
-
-
- The Decline of Great Salt Lake
-
-The Great Salt Lake, which for a number of years past has been
-gradually diminishing in size, is now causing some little apprehension
-to the people of Utah. Although not well understood, it is thought that
-the diversion of the streams which formerly fed this interesting body
-of water, for the purpose of agriculture, is partly responsible for its
-decrease. The cutting away of forests also is supposed to have had its
-effect in diminishing the water supply of the region.
-
-
- The Great Power House
-
-The largest power house in the world is that recently erected in New
-York City by the Manhattan Elevated Railroad. The total energy of its
-entire system of engines is 1,000,000 horse-power. This is capable of
-being converted into a force of 600,000 electrical horse-power, in
-which form it will be used for propelling the trains of the elevated
-railroad.
-
-
-
-
- IN-DOORS
-
-
- PARLOR MAGIC
-
- By Ellis Stanyon
-
- The first of this series of papers on Magic, commencing with the March
- number, included directions to the beginner for Palming and the Pass.
-
-
-PROGRAMME AND COIN.--The effect of this experiment is as follows: The
-performer borrows a marked half-dollar from a stranger in the audience,
-immediately handing it to a gentleman to examine the mark, date, and
-other items. While this is being done, the performer obtains the loan
-of a programme, which he tears in half, laying one half on his table.
-The gentleman is now requested to place the coin in the half of the
-programme held by the performer, who wraps it up and gives it to him
-to hold. He now goes to his table for a piece of sealing-wax, which
-he passes several times over the packet held by the gentleman, when
-immediately it is transformed into a packet of three envelopes, made
-from the programme, all gummed and sealed, one inside the other, with
-the marked half-dollar in the smallest one. As the gentleman cannot see
-how it is done, the performer repeats the trick for his benefit with
-the other half of the programme, but the result is the same. This time,
-however, the gentleman is requested to take the last envelope to the
-owner of the money, that he may open it and satisfy himself that it
-actually contains his own coin.
-
-The six envelopes are now rolled up and given to the gentleman to hand
-to the lady, to keep as a souvenir of the entertainment, but before
-he has proceeded far the performer tells him he has dropped one of
-them (he has not really done so), and, failing to find it, he very
-naturally begins to count those in his hand, when he discovers to his
-astonishment that he holds the programme restored.
-
- * * * * *
-
-_Explanation._--After the performer has borrowed the half-dollar, in
-the act of handing it to the gentleman for examination he adroitly
-changes it for one of his own, bearing the mark of a cross, which mark,
-is, of course, taken for that of the owner of the coin. The performer
-now asks for a programme, and while it is being procured he drops the
-actual borrowed coin into the smallest of the three envelopes, which
-are placed one inside the other and concealed by a book or some other
-object on the table. To facilitate the introduction of the coin, a tin
-tube, with a rather wide mouth, just large enough for the coin to pass
-through, is placed in the smallest envelope. After this coin has been
-introduced this tube is withdrawn, left in its concealed position, and
-the envelopes closed.
-
-The flaps of the envelopes are sealed with wax beforehand and prepared
-with the best gum arabic, which is allowed to dry. They are moistened
-with the tongue just before the performance of the trick, and, if cut
-as in Fig. 7, can all be closed at once while lying on the table. This
-packet is laid on the table under cover of the half of a programme used
-in the second stage of the trick.
-
-[Illustration: Fig. 7]
-
-To begin, the performer palms a similar packet of envelopes containing
-another half-dollar marked in exactly the same way as the one he handed
-to the gentleman, and it is hardly necessary to say, having the same
-appearance and bearing the same date. When rolling up the programme the
-performer retains it and hands the gentleman the packet of envelopes;
-and when going to his table for the wax leaves half of the programme
-and the half-dollar thereon. By the time the first coin is taken from
-the envelopes the packet containing the actual borrowed coin will be
-dry and ready for use.
-
-The remaining portion of the trick will now be understood. When the
-performer goes for the other half of the programme he takes the packet
-of envelopes with it and substitutes it as before, and the trick
-proceeds as described. When collecting the six envelopes for the final
-effect, the performer palms a duplicate programme which has been lying
-on his table behind some object, and substitutes this as before when
-giving the gentleman the envelopes to hand to the lady.
-
- * * * * *
-
-FILTRATED COIN.--Borrow a half-dollar from one of the company, wrap it
-up in a handkerchief, and request some one to hold it over a glass of
-water.
-
-Presto! The coin is dropped into the glass and heard to jingle. When
-the handkerchief is removed the half-dollar has disappeared, apparently
-dissolved in the water. This very effective trick is accomplished by
-means of a glass disc of the same diameter as a half-dollar. The modus
-operandi is as follows: Borrow a half-dollar and while holding it in
-your hand throw a handkerchief over it. Under cover of the handkerchief
-exchange the coin for the glass disc which you have concealed in your
-palm. Now get some one to hold the disc by its edges through the
-handkerchief, directly over the glass of water. He naturally supposes
-that he is holding the coin.
-
-Pronounce your magical phrase, and command your volunteer assistant
-to drop the half-dollar into the glass. It will fall with a jingle
-similar to that of a coin, and will lie invisible at the bottom of the
-glass. You may even pour off the water, but the disc, thanks to the
-power of suction, will remain in the same position, firmly attached
-to the drinking-glass. To complete the effect the genuine half-dollar
-should then be produced from under the table or from the pocket of the
-volunteer assistant.
-
-
-
-
- THE OLD TRUNK
-
-
-For the month of May we will award a year’s subscription to YOUTH
-for each of the best three original puzzles submitted to us before
-June 1st. The names of the successful competitors, together with the
-prize-winning puzzles, will be published in an early number of the
-magazine. Of the remaining puzzles, all of those which show merit will
-also appear in the succeeding issues. This offer is open to every one.
-
-The correct answers for the April puzzles are given below:
-
- 1. Herring, ray, carp.
- Shark, perch, shad.
- Sole, bass, eel.
- 2. Ericsson.
- 3. Monongahela.
- Yukon.
- Amazon.
- Rhine.
- Colorado.
- 4. James Russell Lowell.
- 5. Thou-sand.
- 6. Pear-bear.
-
-(1) Deprive farewell of head and tail and leave expire; (2) the
-usual covering of the head, and leave atmosphere; (3) on fire, and
-leave whim; (4) distant, and leave a note in the musical scale; (5)
-collections of regulations, and leave song; (6) an image of false
-worship, and leave a verb of action; (7) employed for money, and leave
-anger; (8) free from obscurity, and leave meadow.
-
-When the above words have been correctly guessed and then beheaded and
-abridged, their initials, when placed one above each other in the order
-given, will spell the name of a well-known garden flower.
-
- --O. T. M.
-
-
- DIAMOND
-
-1. a letter; 2. a bank; 3. women; 4. specimens; 5. a quarrel; 6. to
-discern; 7. a letter.
-
- --_Ruth._
-
-
- SUBSTITUTION
-
-Supply the objects described in the parentheses and read by sound:
-
-If a great storm were (a body of water north-west of North America)
-down on the British Isles, do you suppose you could ring a (city in
-Ireland) and make the (body of water west of England) the (a watch
-manufacturing town of the United States) the city of (the bark of a
-kind of oak)?
-
- --_Sidney M._
-
-
-CHARADE
-
- The first use sparingly.
- The second treat kindly.
- The third hold as a sacred trust.
- The whole is a shy bird.
-
- --_E. L. Barnes._
-
-
-THE BOUQUET
-
-In the following sentences there are eight flowers. Can you identify
-them?
-
-Alyar rowed his best, but Fox, a listless oarsman on most occasions,
-won the race.
-
-Can Nature be excelled on Easter day?
-
-For the table of the Pope, onyx is brought from afar, but usually
-unpolished.
-
-“Hannibal,” Samuel remarked, looking up from his book of prose, “was
-the world’s greatest general.”
-
-
-ENIGMA
-
- I am composed of twenty-one letters.
- My 3-6-21-19-14-8-1 is sincere.
- My 12-17-7-18-20-5 is a mineral.
- My 9-2-3-10-4-17-11-1 is a bird.
- My 16-13-20-19-15 is to mingle.
- My whole is the name of a well-known song.
-
- --_William Harris._
-
- I am the first, and one of seven,
- I live betwixt the seas and heaven:
- Look not below, for I am not there,
- My home is in the ancient air.
- Come to my second, behold how fair
- I am, how bright and debonair:
- A pleasant vision and a beauty,
- A thing of life and joy and duty;
- My youth is changed. I live alone,
- My views are crossed--my hopes are gone,
- My whole is sorrow, grief, and woe,
- My singing now is all heigh-ho.
-
- --_Selected._
-
-
-
-
- WITH THE PUBLISHER
-
-
- YOUTH
- An Illustrated Monthly Journal for Boys and Girls
- =Edited by HERBERT LEONARD COGGINS=
-
- =Single Copies 10 Cents= =Annual Subscription $1.00=
-
-Sent postpaid to any address. Subscriptions can begin at any time and
-must be paid in advance.
-
-The publishers should be promptly informed of any change of address.
-
-Remittances may be made in the way most convenient to the sender, and
-should be addressed to
-
- THE PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY
- 923 Arch Street, Philadelphia, Pa.
-
-
- _CHANGE OF NAME_
-
-As most of our readers are aware, the name originally used for this
-magazine was only temporary, to be continued until a better one might
-be found. Many other names have been suggested, but none of them seemed
-to be just what was wanted. A name that has been in our minds from the
-beginning was YOUTH, but, for the reason that it had already been used
-with another publication, we could not adopt it. We have now purchased
-the right to use this name, and shall continue it henceforth. It has
-the advantage of being a title of but one word, a short one at that,
-and one that is catchy, suggestive, and easily remembered. We hope that
-it will meet with cordial favor at the hands of all our subscribers.
-
-
- _WELCOME TO OUR NEW FRIENDS_
-
-We have not only purchased the right to use the name of YOUTH, but
-we have also arranged to fill out with this journal the unexpired
-subscriptions to the magazine formerly published at Buffalo, N. Y.
-We hope that our new friends will not only be satisfied with this
-arrangement, but that they will be so well pleased as to permanently
-remain with us.
-
-
- _MANUSCRIPTS_
-
-The publishers of YOUTH will be glad to examine manuscripts submitted
-for publication. They should, if possible, be type-written, with the
-name and address of the writer appearing on the first page. Stamps
-should be enclosed for their return if unavailable. Prompt attention
-will be given to all manuscripts, and such as are found available
-will be paid for upon acceptance, not upon publication. While all
-manuscripts will be examined impartially, we shall, of course, be
-disposed to consider with greater favor those submitted by our
-subscribers, as we wish to encourage them as much as possible to
-contribute to our columns.
-
-
- _DATE OF PUBLICATION_
-
-It will be noticed that, this month, the magazine reaches our
-subscribers much earlier than any former issue. We now have everything
-in such working order that we shall be able to do even better with
-succeeding numbers. It is our intention to eventually have the magazine
-in the hands of our subscribers by the first of the month.
-
-
- _$100 PRIZE STORY_
-
-In order to encourage our readers to literary effort, we have decided
-to offer a cash prize of $100 for the best short story for young
-people, from one to five thousand words in length, suitable for
-publication in this magazine. Full particulars in regard to this offer
-will be found in the advertising pages of this issue. The offer is
-confined exclusively to subscribers of Youth, and we hope to see a
-large number of stories entered from them for competition.
-
-
- _TELL YOUR FRIENDS_
-
-If you are pleased with YOUTH, we hope you will tell your friends
-about it, and thus aid very substantially in increasing our circle of
-acquaintances. In case you have any criticisms or suggestions, we shall
-be very glad to receive them. YOUTH is published in the interest of its
-subscribers, and while we have many ideas which we will carry out in
-the immediate future, we would be glad, nevertheless, to receive the
-criticism and advice of our subscribers. It is our purpose, as far as
-possible, to meet their views.
-
-
- _50c. FOR TWENTY-FIVE NAMES_
-
-Anyone who will send us the names and addresses of twenty-five of his
-friends, boys or girls, and fifty cents additional, will receive a
-year’s subscription to YOUTH. The magazine will be sent to any desired
-address. This is a very easy way for any person, young or old, to
-obtain a year’s subscription. We wish the twenty-five names for the
-sole purpose of distributing sample copies of YOUTH. They will be put
-to no other use, so that no one need have any hesitation in sending the
-list.
-
-
- _AN EASY WAY TO EARN MONEY_
-
-In order to increase the circulation of YOUTH as rapidly as possible,
-we have decided to make some exceptional inducements to boys and girls
-to obtain subscriptions. The work can be done after school hours,
-and on Saturdays and holidays. The arrangement we make for doing the
-canvassing renders the work very agreeable, and the commission offered
-is so large that it cannot fail to be an inducement.
-
-To such of our readers as would like to earn a considerable sum of
-money with little effort, we suggest that they send us their names and
-addresses, and we will at once forward full particulars.
-
-
-
-
-Transcriber’s Notes:
-
-
-A number of typographical errors have been corrected silently.
-
-Irregular closing quotes were not modernized.
-
-Archaic spellings have been retained.
-
-Correct MacNair to McNair in Table of Contents.
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