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diff --git a/9213.txt b/9213.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3217385 --- /dev/null +++ b/9213.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1051 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Seven Vagabonds (From "Twice Told +Tales"), by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Seven Vagabonds (From "Twice Told Tales") + +Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Posting Date: December 2, 2010 [EBook #9213] +Release Date: November, 2005 +First Posted: August 23, 2003 +Last Updated: February 5, 2007 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEVEN VAGABONDS *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + + TWICE TOLD TALES + + THE SEVEN VAGABONDS + + By Nathaniel Hawthorne + + + +Rambling on foot in the spring of my life and the summer of the year, +I came one afternoon to a point which gave me the choice of three +directions. Straight before me, the main road extended its dusty +length to Boston; on the left a branch went towards the sea, and would +have lengthened my journey a trifle of twenty or thirty miles; while +by the right-hand path, I might have gone over hills and lakes to +Canada, visiting in my way the celebrated town of Stamford. On a +level spot of grass, at the foot of the guidepost, appeared an object, +which, though locomotive on a different principle, reminded me of +Gulliver's portable mansion among the Brobdignags. It was a huge +covered wagon, or, more properly, a small house on wheels, with a door +on one side and a window shaded by green blinds on the other. Two +horses, munching provender out of the baskets which muzzled them, were +fastened near the vehicle: a delectable sound of music proceeded from +the interior; and I immediately conjectured that this was some +itinerant show, halting at the confluence of the roads to intercept +such idle travellers as myself. A shower had long been climbing up +the western sky, and now hung so blackly over my onward path that it +was a point of wisdom to seek shelter here. + +"Halloo! Who stands guard here? Is the doorkeeper asleep?" cried I, +approaching a ladder of two or three steps which was let down from the +wagon. + +The music ceased at my summons, and there appeared at the door, not +the sort of figure that I had mentally assigned to the wandering +showman, but a most respectable old personage, whom I was sorry to +have addressed in so free a style. He wore a snuff colored coat and +small-clothes, with white-top boots, and exhibited the mild dignity of +aspect and manner which may often be noticed in aged schoolmasters, +and sometimes in deacons, selectmen, or other potentates of that kind. +A small piece of silver was my passport within his premises, where I +found only one other person, hereafter to be described. + +"This is a dull day for business," said the old gentleman, as he +ushered me in; "but I merely tarry here to refresh the cattle, being +bound for the camp-meeting at Stamford." + +Perhaps the movable scene of this narrative is still peregrinating New +England, and may enable the reader to test the accuracy of my +description. The spectacle--for I will not use the unworthy term of +puppet-show--consisted of a multitude of little people assembled on a +miniature stage. Among them were artisans of every kind, in the +attitudes of their toil, and a group of fair ladies and gay gentlemen +standing ready for the dance; a company of foot-soldiers formed a line +across the stage, looking stern, grim, and terrible enough, to make it +a pleasant consideration that they were but three inches high; and +conspicuous above the whole was seen a Merry-Andrew, in the pointed +cap and motley coat of his profession. All the inhabitants of this +mimic world were motionless, like the figures in a picture, or like +that people who one moment were alive in the midst of their business +and delights, and the next were transformed to statues, preserving an +eternal semblance of labor that was ended, and pleasure that could be +felt no more. Anon, however, the old gentleman turned the handle of a +barrel-organ, the first note of which produced a most enlivening +effect upon the figures, and awoke them all to their proper +occupations and amusements. By the self-same impulse the tailor plied +his needle, the blacksmith's hammer descended upon the anvil, and the +dancers whirled away on feathery tiptoes; the company of soldiers +broke into platoons, retreated from the stage, and were succeeded by a +troop of horse, who came prancing onward with such a sound of trumpets +and trampling of hoofs, as might have startled Don Quixote himself; +while an old toper, of inveterate ill habits, uplifted his black +bottle and took off a hearty swig. Meantime the Merry-Andrew began to +caper and turn somersets, shaking his sides, nodding his head, and +winking his eyes in as life-like a manner as if he were ridiculing the +nonsense of all human affairs, and making fun of the whole multitude +beneath him. At length the old magician (for I compared the showman +to Prospero, entertaining his guests with a mask of shadows) paused +that I might give utterance to my wonder. + +"What an admirable piece of work is this!" exclaimed I, lifting up my +bands in astonishment. + +Indeed, I liked the spectacle, and was tickled with the old man's +gravity as he presided at it, for I had none of that foolish wisdom +which reproves every occupation that is not useful in this world of +vanities. If there be a faculty which I possess more perfectly than +most men, it is that of throwing myself mentally into situations +foreign to my own, and detecting, with a cheerful eye, the desirable +circumstances of each. I could have envied the life of this +gray-headed showman, spent as it had been in a course of safe and +pleasurable adventure, in driving his huge vehicle sometimes through +the sands of Cape Cod, and sometimes over the rough forest roads of +the north and east, and halting now on the green before a village +meeting-house, and now in a paved square of the metropolis. How often +must his heart have been gladdened by the delight of children, as they +viewed these animated figures! or his pride indulged, by haranguing +learnedly to grown men on the mechanical powers which produced such +wonderful effects! or his gallantry brought into play (for this is an +attribute which such grave men do not lack) by the visits of pretty +maidens! And then with how fresh a feeling must he return, at +intervals, to his own peculiar home! + +"I would I were assured of as happy a life as his," thought I. Though +the showman's wagon might have accommodated fifteen or twenty +spectators, it now contained only himself and me, and a third person +at whom I threw a glance on entering. He was a neat and trim young +man of two or three and twenty; his drab hat, and green frock-coat +with velvet collar, were smart, though no longer new; while a pair of +green spectacles, that seemed needless to his brisk little eyes, gave +him something of a scholar-like and literary air. After allowing me a +sufficient time to inspect the puppets, he advanced with a bow, and +drew my attention to some books in a corner of the wagon. These he +forthwith began to extol, with an amazing volubility of well-sounding +words, and an ingenuity of praise that won him my heart, as being +myself one of the most merciful of critics. Indeed, his stock +required some considerable powers of commendation in the salesman; +there were several ancient friends of mine, the novels of those happy +days when my affections wavered between the Scottish Chiefs and Thomas +Thumb; besides a few of later date, whose merits had not been +acknowledged by the public. I was glad to find that dear little +venerable volume, the New England Primer, looking as antique as ever, +though in its thousandth new edition; a bundle of superannuated gilt +picture-books made such a child of me, that, partly for the glittering +covers, and partly for the fairy-tales within, I bought the whole; and +an assortment of ballads and popular theatrical songs drew largely on +my purse. To balance these expenditures, I meddled neither with +sermons, nor science, nor morality, though volumes of each were there; +nor with a Life of Franklin in the coarsest of paper, but so showily +bound that it was emblematical of the Doctor himself, in the court +dress which he refused to wear at Paris; nor with Webster's Spelling +Book, nor some of Byron's minor poems, nor half a dozen little +Testaments at twenty-five cents each. + +Thus far the collection might have been swept from some great +bookstore, or picked up at an evening auction-room; but there was one +small blue-covered pamphlet, which the peddler handed me with so +peculiar an air, that I purchased it immediately at his own price; and +then, for the first time, the thought struck me, that I had spoken +face to face with the veritable author of a printed book. The +literary man now evinced a great kindness for me, and I ventured to +inquire which way he was travelling. + +"O," said he, "I keep company with this old gentleman here, and we are +moving now towards the camp-meeting at Stamford!" + +He then explained to me, that for the present season he had rented a +corner of the wagon as a bookstore, which, as he wittily observed, was +a true Circulating Library, since there were few parts of the country +where it had not gone its rounds. I approved of the plan exceedingly, +and began to sum up within my mind the many uncommon felicities in the +life of a book-peddler, especially when his character resembled that of +the individual before me. At a high rate was to be reckoned the daily +and hourly enjoyment of such interviews as the present, in which he +seized upon the admiration of a passing stranger, and made him aware +that a man of literary taste, and even of literary achievement, was +travelling the country in a showman's wagon. A more valuable, yet not +infrequent triumph, might be won in his conversation with some elderly +clergyman, long vegetating in a rocky, woody, watery back settlement of +New England, who, as he recruited his library from the peddler's stock +of sermons, would exhort him to seek a college education and become +the first scholar in his class. Sweeter and prouder yet would be his +sensations, when, talking poetry while he sold spelling-books, he +should charm the mind, and haply touch the heart of a fair country +schoolmistress, herself an unhonored poetess, a wearer of blue +stockings which none but himself took pains to look at. But the scene +of his completest glory would be when the wagon had halted for the +night, and his stock of books was transferred to some crowded bar-room. +Then would he recommend to the multifarious company, whether +traveller from the city, or teamster from the hills, or neighboring +squire, or the landlord himself, or his loutish hostler, works suited +to each particular taste and capacity; proving, all the while, by +acute criticism and profound remark, that the lore in his books was +even exceeded by that in his brain. + +Thus happily would he traverse the land; sometimes a herald before the +march of Mind; sometimes walking arm in arm with awful Literature; and +reaping everywhere a harvest of real and sensible popularity, which +the secluded bookworms, by whose toil he lived, could never hope for. + +"If ever I meddle with literature," thought I, fixing myself in +adamantine resolution, "it shall be as a travelling bookseller." + +Though it was still mid-afternoon, the air had now grown dark about +us, and a few drops of rain came down upon the roof of our vehicle, +pattering like the feet of birds that had flown thither to rest. A +sound of pleasant voices made us listen, and there soon appeared half-way +up the ladder the pretty person of a young damsel, whose rosy face +was so cheerful, that even amid the gloomy light it seemed as if the +sunbeams were peeping under her bonnet. We next saw the dark and +handsome features of a young man, who, with easier gallantry than +might have been expected in the heart of Yankee-land, was assisting +her into the wagon. It became immediately evident to us, when the two +strangers stood within the door, that they were of a profession +kindred to those of my companions; and I was delighted with the more +than hospitable, the even paternal kindness, of the old showman's +manner, as he welcomed them; while the man of literature hastened to +lead the merry-eyed girl to a seat on the long bench. + +"You are housed but just in time, my young friends," said the master +of the wagon. "The sky would have been down upon you within five +minutes." + +The young man's reply marked him as a foreigner, not by any variation +from the idiom and accent of good English, but because he spoke with +more caution and accuracy, than if perfectly familiar with the +language. + +"We knew that a shower was hanging over us," said he, "and consulted +whether it were best to enter the house on the top of yonder hill, but +seeing your wagon in the road--" + +"We agreed to come hither," interrupted the girl, with a smile, +"because we should be more at home in a wandering house like this." + +I, meanwhile, with many a wild and undetermined fantasy, was narrowly +inspecting these two doves that had flown into our ark. The young man, +tall, agile, and athletic, wore a mass of black shining curls +clustering round a dark and vivacious countenance, which, if it had +not greater expression, was at least more active, and attracted +readier notice, than the quiet faces of our countrymen. At his first +appearance, he had been laden with a neat mahogany box, of about two +feet square, but very light in proportion to its size, which he had +immediately unstrapped from his shoulders and deposited on the floor +of the wagon. + +The girl had nearly as fair a complexion as our own beauties, and a +brighter one than most of them; the lightness of her figure, which +seemed calculated to traverse the whole world without weariness, +suited well with the glowing cheerfulness of her face; and her gay +attire, combining the rainbow hues of crimson, green, and a deep +orange, was as proper to her lightsome aspect as if she had been born +in it. This gay stranger was appropriately burdened with that +mirth-inspiring instrument, the fiddle, which her companion took from +her hands, and shortly began the process of tuning. Neither of us--the +previous company of the wagon-needed to inquire their trade; for this +could be no mystery to frequenters of brigade-musters, ordinations, +cattle-shows, commencements, and other festal meetings in our sober +land; and there is a dear friend of mine, who will smile when this +page recalls to his memory a chivalrous deed performed by us, in +rescuing the show-box of such a couple from a mob of great +double-fisted countrymen. + +"Come," said I to the damsel of gay attire, "shall we visit all the +wonders of the world together?" + +She understood the metaphor at once; though indeed it would not much +have troubled me, if she had assented to the literal meaning of my +words. The mahogany box was placed in a proper position, and I peeped +in through its small round magnifying window, while the girl sat by my +side, and gave short descriptive sketches, as one after another the +pictures were unfolded to my view. We visited together, at least our +imaginations did, full many a famous city, in the streets of which I +had long yearned to tread; once, I remember, we were in the harbor of +Barcelona, gazing townwards; next, she bore me through the air to +Sicily, and bade me look up at blazing AEtna; then we took wing to +Venice, and sat in a gondola beneath the arch of the Rialto; and anon +she sat me down among the thronged spectators at the coronation of +Napoleon. But there was one scene, its locality she could not tell, +which charmed my attention longer than all those gorgeous palaces and +churches, because the fancy hammed me, that I myself, the preceding +summer, had beheld just such a humble meeting-house, in just such a +pine-surrounded nook, among our own green mountains. All these +pictures were tolerably executed, though far inferior to the girl's +touches of description; nor was it easy to comprehend, how in so few +sentences, and these, as I supposed, in a language foreign to her, she +contrived to present an airy copy of each varied scene. When we had +travelled through the vast extent of the mahogany box, I looked into +my guide's face. + +"Where are you going, my pretty maid?" inquired I, in the words of an +old song. + +"Ah," said the gay damsel, "you might as well ask where the summer +wind is going. We are wanderers here, and there, and everywhere. +Wherever there is mirth, our merry hearts are drawn to it. To-day, +indeed, the people have told us of a great frolic and festival in +these parts; so perhaps we may be needed at what you call the +camp-meeting at Stamford." + +Then in my happy youth, and while her pleasant voice yet sounded in my +ears, I sighed; for none but myself, I thought, should have been her +companion in a life which seemed to realize my own wild fancies, +cherished all through visionary boyhood to that hour. To these two +strangers the world was in its golden age, not that indeed it was less +dark and sad than ever, but because its weariness and sorrow had no +community with their ethereal nature. Wherever they might appear in +their pilgrimage of bliss, Youth would echo back their gladness, +care-stricken Maturity would rest a moment from its toil, and Age, +tottering among the graves, would smile in withered joy for their +sakes. The lonely cot, the narrow and gloomy street, the sombre +shade, would catch a passing gleam like that now shining on ourselves, +as these bright spirits wandered by. Blessed pair, whose happy home +was throughout all the earth! I looked at my shoulders, and thought +them broad enough to sustain those pictured towns and mountains; mine, +too, was an elastic foot, as tireless as the wing of the bird of +paradise; mine was then an untroubled heart, that would have gone +singing on its delightful way. + +"O maiden!" said I aloud, "why did you not come hither alone?" + +While the merry girl and myself were busy with the show-box, the +unceasing rain had driven another wayfarer into the wagon. He seemed +pretty nearly of the old showman's age, but much smaller, leaner, and +more withered than he, and less respectably clad in a patched suit of +gray; withal, he had a thin, shrewd countenance, and a pair of +diminutive gray eyes, which peeped rather too keenly out of their +puckered sockets. This old fellow had been joking with the showman, +in a manner which intimated previous acquaintance; but perceiving that +the damsel and I had terminated our affairs, he drew forth a folded +document, and presented it to me. As I had anticipated, it proved to +be a circular, written in a very fair and legible hand, and signed by +several distinguished gentlemen whom I had never heard of, stating +that the bearer had encountered every variety of misfortune, and +recommending him to the notice of all charitable people. Previous +disbursements had left me no more than a five-dollar bill, out of +which, however, I offered to make the beggar a donation, provided he +would give me change for it. The object of my beneficence looked +keenly in my face, and discerned that, I had none of that abominable +spirit, characteristic though it be, of a full-blooded Yankee, which +takes pleasure in detecting every little harmless piece of knavery. + +"Why, perhaps," said the ragged old mendicant, "if the bank is in good +standing, I can't say but I may have enough about me to change your +bill." + +"It is a bill of the Suffolk Bank," said I, "and better than the +specie." + +As the beggar had nothing to object, he now produced a small +buff-leather bag, tied up carefully with a shoe-string. When this was +opened, there appeared a very comfortable treasure of silver coins of +all sorts and sizes; and I even fancied that I saw, gleaming among +them, the golden plumage of that rare bird in our currency, the +American Eagle. In this precious heap was my bank, note deposited, +the rate of exchange being considerably against me. His wants being +thus relieved, the destitute man pulled out of his pocket an old pack +of greasy cards, which had probably contributed to fill the buff +leather bag, in more ways than one. + +"Come," said he, "I spy a rare fortune in your face, and for +twenty-five cents more, I'll tell you what it is." + +I never refuse to take a glimpse into futurity; so, after shuffling +the cards, and when the fair damsel had cut them, I dealt a portion to +the prophetic beggar. Like others of his profession, before +predicting the shadowy events that were moving on to meet me, he gave +proof of his preternatural science, by describing scenes through which +I had already passed. Here let me have credit for a sober fact. When +the old man had read a page in his book of fate, he bent his keen gray +eyes on mine, and proceeded to relate, in all its minute particulars, +what was then the most singular event of my life. It was one which I +had no purpose to disclose, till the general unfolding of all secrets; +nor would it be a much stranger instance of inscrutable knowledge, or +fortunate conjecture, if the beggar were to meet me in the street +to-day, and repeat, word for word, the page which I have here written. +The fortune-teller, after predicting a destiny which time seems loath +to make good, put up his cards, secreted his treasure-bag, and began +to converse with the other occupants of the wagon. + +"Well, old friend," said the showman, "you have not yet told us which +way your face is turned this afternoon." + +"I am taking a trip northward, this warm weather," replied the +conjurer, "across the Connecticut first, and then up through Vermont, +and may be into Canada before the fall. But I must stop and see the +breaking up of the camp-meeting at Stamford." + +I began to think that all the vagrants in New England were converging +to the camp-meeting, and had made this wagon their rendezvous by the +way. The showman now proposed that, when the shower was over, they +should pursue the road to Stamford together, it being sometimes the +policy of these people to form a sort of league and confederacy. + +"And the young lady too," observed the gallant bibliopolist, bowing to +her profoundly, "and this foreign gentleman, as I understand, are on a +jaunt of pleasure to the same spot. It would add incalculably to my +own enjoyment, and I presume to that of my colleague and his friend, +if they could be prevailed upon to join our party." + +This arrangement met with approbation on all hands, nor were any of +those concerned more sensible of its advantages than myself, who had +no title to be included in it. Having already satisfied myself as to +the several modes in which the four others attained felicity, I next +set my mind at work to discover what enjoyments were peculiar to the +old "Straggler," as the people of the country would have termed the +wandering mendicant and prophet. As he pretended to familiarity with +the Devil, so I fancied that he was fitted to pursue and take delight +in his way of life, by possessing some of the mental and moral +characteristics, the lighter and more comic ones, of the Devil in +popular stories. Among them might be reckoned a love of deception for +its own sake, a shrewd eye and keen relish for human weakness and +ridiculous infirmity, and the talent of petty fraud. Thus to this old +man there would be pleasure even in the consciousness, so +insupportable to some minds, that his whole life was a cheat upon the +world, and that, so far as he was concerned with the public, his +little cunning had the upper hand of its united wisdom. Every day +would furnish him with a succession of minute and pungent triumphs: as +when, for instance, his importunity wrung a pittance out of the heart +of a miser, or when my silly good-nature transferred a part of my +slender purse to his plump leather bag; or when some ostentatious +gentleman should throw a coin to the ragged beggar who was richer than +himself; or when, though he would not always be so decidedly +diabolical, his pretended wants should make him a sharer in the scanty +living of real indigence. And then what an inexhaustible field of +enjoyment, both as enabling him to discern so much folly and achieve +such quantities of minor mischief, was opened to his sneering spirit +by his pretensions to prophetic knowledge. + +All this was a sort of happiness which I could conceive of, though I +had little sympathy with it. Perhaps, had I been then inclined to +admit it, I might have found that the roving life was more proper to +him than to either of his companions; for Satan, to whom I had +compared the poor man, has delighted, ever since the time of Job, in +"wandering up and down upon the earth"; and indeed a crafty +disposition, which operates not in deep-laid plans, but in +disconnected tricks, could not have an adequate scope, unless +naturally impelled to a continual change of scene and society. My +reflections were here interrupted. + +"Another visitor!" exclaimed the old showman. + +The door of the wagon had been closed against the tempest, which was +roaring and blustering with prodigious fury and commotion, and beating +violently against our shelter, as if it claimed all those homeless +people for its lawful prey, while we, caring little for the +displeasure of the elements, sat comfortably talking. There was now +an attempt to open the door, succeeded by a voice, uttering some +strange, unintelligible gibberish, which my companions mistook for +Greek, and I suspected to be thieves' Latin. However, the showman +stepped forward, and gave admittance to a figure which made me +imagine; either that our wagon had rolled back two hundred years into +past ages, or that the forest and its old inhabitants had sprung up +around us by enchantment. + +It was a red Indian, armed with his bow and arrow. His dress was a +sort of cap, adorned with a single feather of some wild bird, and a +frock of blue cotton, girded tight about him; on his breast, like +orders of knighthood, hung a crescent and a circle, and other +ornaments of silver; while a small crucifix betokened that our Father +the Pope had interposed between the Indian and the Great Spirit, whom +he had worshipped in his simplicity. This son of the wilderness, and +pilgrim of the storm, took his place silently in the midst of us. +When the first surprise was over, I rightly conjectured him to be one +of the Penobscot tribe, parties of which I had often seen, in their +summer excursions down our Eastern rivers. There they paddle their +birch canoes among the coasting schooners, and build their wigwam +beside some roaring milldam, and drive a little trade in basket-work +where their fathers hunted deer. Our new visitor was probably +wandering through the country towards Boston, subsisting on the +careless charity of the people, while he turned his archery to +profitable account by shooting at cents, which were to be the prize of +his successful aim. + +The Indian had not long been seated, ere our merry damsel sought to +draw him into conversation. She, indeed, seemed all made up of +sunshine in the mouth of May; for there was nothing so dark and dismal +that her pleasant mind could not cast a glow over it; and the wild +Indian, like a fir-tree in his native forest, soon began to brighten +into a sort of sombre cheerfulness. At length, she inquired whether +his journey had any particular end or purpose. + +"I go shoot at the camp-meeting at Stamford," replied the Indian. + +"And here are five more," said the girl, "all aiming at the camp-meeting +too. You shall be one of us, for we travel with light hearts; +and as for me, I sing merry songs, and tell merry tales, and am full +of merry thoughts, and I dance merrily along the road, so that there +is never any sadness among them that keep me company. But, O, you +would find it very dull indeed, to go all the way to Stamford alone!" + +My ideas of the aboriginal character led me to fear that the Indian +would prefer his own solitary musings to the gay society thus offered +him; on the contrary, the girl's proposal met with immediate +acceptance, and seemed to animate him with a misty expectation of +enjoyment. I now gave myself up to a course of thought which, whether +it flowed naturally from this combination of events, or was drawn +forth by a wayward fancy, caused my mind to thrill as if I were +listening to deep music. I saw mankind, in this weary old age of the +world, either enduring a sluggish existence amid the smoke and dust of +cities, or, if they breathed a purer air, still lying down at night +with no hope but to wear out to-morrow, and all the to-morrows which +make up life, among the same dull scenes and in the same wretched toil +that had darkened the sunshine of to-day. But there were some, full +of the primeval instinct, who preserved the freshness of youth to +their latest years by the continual excitement of new objects, new +pursuits, and new associates; and cared little, though their +birthplace might have been here in New England, if the grave should +close over them in Central Asia. Fate was summoning a parliament of +these free spirits; unconscious of the impulse which directed them to +a common centre, they had come hither from far and near; and last of +all appeared the representative of those mighty vagrants, who had +chased the deer during thousands of years, and were chasing it now in +the Spirit Land. Wandering down through the waste of ages, the woods +had vanished around his path; his arm had lost somewhat of its +strength, his foot of its fleetness, his mien of its wild regality, +his heart and mind of their savage virtue and uncultured force; but +here, untamable to the routine of artificial life, roving now along +the dusty road, as of old over the forest leaves, here was the Indian +still. + +"Well," said the old showman, in the midst of my meditations, "here is +an honest company of us,--one, two, three, four, five, six,--all going +to the camp-meeting at Stamford. Now, hoping no offence, I should +like to know where this young gentleman may be going?" + +I started. How came I among these wanderers? The free mind, that +preferred its own folly to another's wisdom; the open spirit, that +found companions everywhere; above all, the restless impulse, that had +so often made me wretched in the midst of enjoyments: these were my +claims to be of their society. + +"My friends!" cried I, stepping into the centre of the wagon, "I am +going with you to the camp-meeting at Stamford." + +"But in what capacity?" asked the old showman, after a moment's +silence. "All of us here can get our bread in some creditable way. +Every honest man should have his livelihood. You, sir, as I take it, +are a mere strolling gentleman." + +I proceeded to inform the company, that, when Nature gave me a +propensity to their way of life, she had not left me altogether +destitute of qualifications for it; though I could not deny that my +talent was less respectable, and might be less profitable, than the +meanest of theirs. My design, in short, was to imitate the +storytellers of whom Oriental travellers have told us, and become an +itinerant novelist, reciting my own extemporaneous fictions to such +audiences as I could collect. + +"Either this," said I, "is my vocation, or I have been born in vain." + +The fortune-teller, with a sly wink to the company, proposed to take +me as an apprentice to one or other of his professions, either of +which, undoubtedly, would have given full scope to whatever inventive +talent I might possess. The bibliopolist spoke a few words in +opposition to my plan, influenced partly, I suspect, by the jealousy +of authorship, and partly by an apprehension that the _viva voce_ +practice would become general among novelists, to the infinite +detriment of the book-trade. Dreading a rejection, I solicited the +interest of the merry damsel. + +"Mirth," cried I, most aptly appropriating the words of L'Allegro, "to +thee I sue! Mirth, admit me of thy crew!" + +"Let us indulge the poor youth," said Mirth, with a kindness which +made me love her dearly, though I was no such coxcomb as to +misinterpret her motives. "I have espied much promise in him. True, a +shadow sometimes flits across his brow, but the sunshine is sure to +follow in a moment. He is never guilty of a sad thought, but a merry +one is twin born with it. We will take him with us; and you shall see +that he will set us all a-laughing before we reach the camp-meeting at +Stamford." + +Her voice silenced the scruples of the rest, and gained me admittance +into the league; according to the terms of which, without a community +of goods or profits, we were to lend each other all the aid, and avert +all the harm, that might be in our power. This affair settled, a +marvellous jollity entered into the whole tribe of us, manifesting +itself characteristically in each individual. The old showman, +sitting down to his barrel-organ, stirred up the souls of the pygmy +people with one of the quickest tunes in the music-book; tailors, +blacksmiths, gentlemen, and ladies, all seemed to share in the spirit +of the occasion; and the Merry-Andrew played his part more facetiously +than ever, nodding and winking particularly at me. The young +foreigner flourished his fiddle-bow with a master's hand, and gave an +inspiring echo to the showman's melody. The bookish man and the merry +damsel started up simultaneously to dance; the former enacting the +double shuffle in a style which everybody must have witnessed, ere +Election week was blotted out of time; while the girl, setting her +arms akimbo with both hands at her slim waist, displayed such light +rapidity of foot, and harmony of varying attitude and motion, that I +could not conceive how she ever was to stop; imagining, at the moment, +that Nature had made her, as the old showman had made his puppets, for +no earthly purpose but to dance jigs. The Indian bellowed forth a +succession of most hideous outcries, somewhat afrighting us, till we +interpreted them as the war-song, with which, in imitation of his +ancestors, he was prefacing the assault on Stamford. The conjurer, +meanwhile, sat demurely in a corner, extracting a sly enjoyment from +the whole scene, and, like the facetious Merry Andrew, directing his +queer glance particularly at me. + +As for myself, with great exhilaration of fancy, I began to arrange +and color the incidents of a tale, wherewith I proposed to amuse an +audience that very evening; for I saw that my associates were a little +ashamed of me, and that no time was to be lost in obtaining a public +acknowledgment of my abilities. + +"Come, fellow-laborers," at last said the old showman, whom we had +elected President; "the shower is over, and we must be doing our duty +by these poor souls at Stamford." + +"We'll come among them in procession, with music and dancing," cried +the merry damsel. + +Accordingly--for it must be understood that our pilgrimage was to be +performed on foot--we sallied joyously out of the wagon, each of us, +even the old gentleman in his white-top boots, giving a great skip as +we came down the ladder. Above our heads there was such a glory of +sunshine and splendor of clouds, and such brightness of verdure below, +that, as I modestly remarked at the time, Nature seemed to have washed +her face, and put on the best of her jewelry and a fresh green gown, +in honor of our confederation. Casting our eyes northward, we beheld +a horseman approaching leisurely, and splashing through the little +puddles on the Stamford road. Onward he came, sticking up in his +saddle with rigid perpendicularity, a tall, thin figure in rusty +black, whom the showman and the conjurer shortly recognized to be, +what his aspect sufficiently indicated, a travelling preacher of great +fame among the Methodists. What puzzled us was the fact, that his +face appeared turned from, instead of to, the camp-meeting at +Stamford. However, as this new votary of the wandering life drew near +the little green space, where the guidepost and our wagon were +situated, my six fellow-vagabonds and myself rushed forward and +surrounded him, crying out with united voices,-- + +"What news, what news from the camp-meeting at Stamford?" + +The missionary looked down, in surprise, at as singular a knot of +people as could have been selected from all his heterogeneous +auditors. Indeed, considering that we might all be classified under +the general head of Vagabond, there was great diversity of character +among the grave old showman, the sly, prophetic beggar, the fiddling +foreigner and his merry damsel, the smart bibliopolist, the sombre +Indian, and myself, the itinerant novelist, a slender youth of +eighteen. I even fancied that a smile was endeavoring to disturb the +iron gravity of the preacher's mouth. + +"Good people," answered he, "the camp-meeting is broke up." + +So saying, the Methodist minister switched his steed, and rode +westward. Our union being thus nullified, by the removal of its +object, we were sundered at once to the four winds of heaven. The +fortune-teller, giving a nod to all, and a peculiar wink to me, +departed on his northern tour, chuckling within himself as he took the +Stamford road. The old showman and his literary coadjutor were +already tackling their horses to the wagon, with a design to +peregrinate southwest along the seacoast. The foreigner and the merry +damsel took their laughing leave, and pursued the eastern road, which +I had that day trodden; as they passed away, the young man played a +lively strain, and the girl's happy spirit broke into a dance; and +thus, dissolving, as it were, into sunbeams and gay music, that +pleasant pair departed from my view. Finally, with a pensive shadow +thrown across my mind, yet emulous of the light philosophy of my late +companions, I joined myself to the Penobscot Indian, and set forth +towards the distant city. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Seven Vagabonds (From "Twice Told +Tales"), by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEVEN VAGABONDS *** + +***** This file should be named 9213.txt or 9213.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/2/1/9213/ + +Produced by David Widger. 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