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WAS IT HEAVEN? OR HELL?

  

  				

CHAPTER I



"You told a _lie_?"



"You confess it--you actually confess it--you told a lie!"







CHAPTER II



The family consisted of four persons: Margaret Lester, widow, aged

thirty six; Helen Lester, her daughter, aged sixteen; Mrs. Lester's

maiden aunts, Hannah and Hester Gray, twins, aged sixty-seven. Waking

and sleeping, the three women spent their days and nights in adoring the

young girl; in watching the movements of her sweet spirit in the mirror

of her face; in refreshing their souls with the vision of her bloom

and beauty; in listening to the music of her voice; in gratefully

recognizing how rich and fair for them was the world with this presence

in it; in shuddering to think how desolate it would be with this light

gone out of it.



By nature--and inside--the aged aunts were utterly dear and lovable and

good, but in the matter of morals and conduct their training had been so

uncompromisingly strict that it had made them exteriorly austere, not to

say stern. Their influence was effective in the house; so effective

that the mother and the daughter conformed to its moral and religious

requirements cheerfully, contentedly, happily, unquestionably. To do

this was become second nature to them. And so in this peaceful

heaven there were no clashings, no irritations, no fault-finding, no

heart-burnings.



In it a lie had no place. In it a lie was unthinkable. In it speech

was restricted to absolute truth, iron-bound truth, implacable and

uncompromising truth, let the resulting consequences be what they might.

At last, one day, under stress of circumstances, the darling of the

house sullied her lips with a lie--and confessed it, with tears

and self-upbraidings. There are not any words that can paint the

consternation of the aunts. It was as if the sky had crumpled up and

collapsed and the earth had tumbled to ruin with a crash. They sat side

by side, white and stern, gazing speechless upon the culprit, who was on

her knees before them with her face buried first in one lap and then the

other, moaning and sobbing, and appealing for sympathy and forgiveness

and getting no response, humbly kissing the hand of the one, then of the

other, only to see it withdrawn as suffering defilement by those soiled

lips.



Twice, at intervals, Aunt Hester said, in frozen amazement:



"You told a _lie_?"



Twice, at intervals, Aunt Hannah followed with the muttered and amazed

ejaculation:



"You confess it--you actually confess it--you told a lie!"



It was all they could say. The situation was new, unheard of,

incredible; they could not understand it, they did not know how to take

hold of it, it approximately paralyzed speech.



At length it was decided that the erring child must be taken to her

mother, who was ill, and who ought to know what had happened. Helen

begged, besought, implored that she might be spared this further

disgrace, and that her mother might be spared the grief and pain of

it; but this could not be: duty required this sacrifice, duty takes

precedence of all things, nothing can absolve one from a duty, with a

duty no compromise is possible.



Helen still begged, and said the sin was her own, her mother had had no

hand in it--why must she be made to suffer for it?



But the aunts were obdurate in their righteousness, and said the law

that visited the sins of the parent upon the child was by all right

and reason reversible; and therefore it was but just that the innocent

mother of a sinning child should suffer her rightful share of the grief

and pain and shame which were the allotted wages of the sin.



The three moved toward the sick-room.



At this time the doctor was approaching the house. He was still a good

distance away, however. He was a good doctor and a good man, and he had

a good heart, but one had to know him a year to get over hating him, two

years to learn to endure him, three to learn to like him, and four and

five to learn to love him. It was a slow and trying education, but it

paid. He was of great stature; he had a leonine head, a leonine face, a

rough voice, and an eye which was sometimes a pirate's and sometimes

a woman's, according to the mood. He knew nothing about etiquette, and

cared nothing about it; in speech, manner, carriage, and conduct he was

the reverse of conventional. He was frank, to the limit; he had opinions

on all subjects; they were always on tap and ready for delivery, and he

cared not a farthing whether his listener liked them or didn't. Whom

he loved he loved, and manifested it; whom he didn't love he hated, and

published it from the housetops. In his young days he had been a sailor,

and the salt-airs of all the seas blew from him yet. He was a sturdy and

loyal Christian, and believed he was the best one in the land, and the

only one whose Christianity was perfectly sound, healthy, full-charged

with common sense, and had no decayed places in it. People who had an ax

to grind, or people who for any reason wanted to get on the soft side

of him, called him The Christian--a phrase whose delicate flattery was

music to his ears, and whose capital T was such an enchanting and vivid

object to him that he could _see _it when it fell out of a person's

mouth even in the dark. Many who were fond of him stood on their

consciences with both feet and brazenly called him by that large title

habitually, because it was a pleasure to them to do anything that

would please him; and with eager and cordial malice his extensive and

diligently cultivated crop of enemies gilded it, beflowered it, expanded

it to "The _only _Christian." Of these two titles, the latter had the

wider currency; the enemy, being greatly in the majority, attended to

that. Whatever the doctor believed, he believed with all his heart,

and would fight for it whenever he got the chance; and if the intervals

between chances grew to be irksomely wide, he would invent ways of

shortening them himself. He was severely conscientious, according to

his rather independent lights, and whatever he took to be a duty he

performed, no matter whether the judgment of the professional moralists

agreed with his own or not. At sea, in his young days, he had used

profanity freely, but as soon as he was converted he made a rule, which

he rigidly stuck to ever afterward, never to use it except on the rarest

occasions, and then only when duty commanded. He had been a hard

drinker at sea, but after his conversion he became a firm and outspoken

teetotaler, in order to be an example to the young, and from that time

forth he seldom drank; never, indeed, except when it seemed to him to be

a duty--a condition which sometimes occurred a couple of times a year,

but never as many as five times.



Necessarily, such a man is impressionable, impulsive, emotional. This

one was, and had no gift at hiding his feelings; or if he had it he took

no trouble to exercise it. He carried his soul's prevailing weather in

his face, and when he entered a room the parasols or the umbrellas went

up--figuratively speaking--according to the indications. When the soft

light was in his eye it meant approval, and delivered a benediction;

when he came with a frown he lowered the temperature ten degrees. He was

a well-beloved man in the house of his friends, but sometimes a dreaded

one.



He had a deep affection for the Lester household and its several members

returned this feeling with interest. They mourned over his kind of

Christianity, and he frankly scoffed at theirs; but both parties went on

loving each other just the same.



He was approaching the house--out of the distance; the aunts and the

culprit were moving toward the sick-chamber.







CHAPTER III



The three last named stood by the bed; the aunts austere, the

transgressor softly sobbing. The mother turned her head on the pillow;

her tired eyes flamed up instantly with sympathy and passionate

mother-love when they fell upon her child, and she opened the refuge and

shelter of her arms.



"Wait!" said Aunt Hannah, and put out her hand and stayed the girl from

leaping into them.



"Helen," said the other aunt, impressively, "tell your mother all. Purge

your soul; leave nothing unconfessed."



Standing stricken and forlorn before her judges, the young girl mourned

her sorrowful tale through the end, then in a passion of appeal cried

out:



"Oh, mother, can't you forgive me? won't you forgive me?--I am so

desolate!"



"Forgive you, my darling? Oh, come to my arms!--there, lay your head

upon my breast, and be at peace. If you had told a thousand lies--"



There was a sound--a warning--the clearing of a throat. The aunts

glanced up, and withered in their clothes--there stood the doctor, his

face a thunder-cloud. Mother and child knew nothing of his presence;

they lay locked together, heart to heart, steeped in immeasurable

content, dead to all things else. The physician stood many moments

glaring and glooming upon the scene before him; studying it, analyzing

it, searching out its genesis; then he put up his hand and beckoned to

the aunts. They came trembling to him, and stood humbly before him and

waited. He bent down and whispered:



"Didn't I tell you this patient must be protected from all excitement?

What the hell have you been doing? Clear out of the place!"



They obeyed. Half an hour later he appeared in the parlor, serene,

cheery, clothed in sunshine, conducting Helen, with his arm about her

waist, petting her, and saying gentle and playful things to her; and she

also was her sunny and happy self again.



"Now, then;" he said, "good-by, dear. Go to your room, and keep away

from your mother, and behave yourself. But wait--put out your tongue.

There, that will do--you're as sound as a nut!" He patted her cheek and

added, "Run along now; I want to talk to these aunts."



She went from the presence. His face clouded over again at once; and as

he sat down he said:



"You too have been doing a lot of damage--and maybe some good. Some

good, yes--such as it is. That woman's disease is typhoid! You've

brought it to a show-up, I think, with your insanities, and that's a

service--such as it is. I hadn't been able to determine what it was

before."



With one impulse the old ladies sprang to their feet, quaking with

terror.



"Sit down! What are you proposing to do?"



"Do? We must fly to her. We--"



"You'll do nothing of the kind; you've done enough harm for one day. Do

you want to squander all your capital of crimes and follies on a single

deal? Sit down, I tell you. I have arranged for her to sleep; she needs

it; if you disturb her without my orders, I'll brain you--if you've got

the materials for it."



They sat down, distressed and indignant, but obedient, under compulsion.

He proceeded:



"Now, then, I want this case explained. _They _wanted to explain it to

me--as if there hadn't been emotion or excitement enough already. You

knew my orders; how did you dare to go in there and get up that riot?"



Hester looked appealing at Hannah; Hannah returned a beseeching look

at Hester--neither wanted to dance to this unsympathetic orchestra. The

doctor came to their help. He said:



"Begin, Hester."



Fingering at the fringes of her shawl, and with lowered eyes, Hester

said, timidly:



"We should not have disobeyed for any ordinary cause, but this was

vital. This was a duty. With a duty one has no choice; one must put all

lighter considerations aside and perform it. We were obliged to arraign

her before her mother. She had told a lie."



The doctor glowered upon the woman a moment, and seemed to be trying

to work up in his mind an understanding of a wholly incomprehensible

proposition; then he stormed out:



"She told a lie! _did _she? God bless my soul! I tell a million a day!

And so does every doctor. And so does everybody--including you--for

that matter. And _that _was the important thing that authorized you to

venture to disobey my orders and imperil that woman's life! Look here,

Hester Gray, this is pure lunacy; that girl _couldn't_ tell a lie that

was intended to injure a person. The thing is impossible--absolutely

impossible. You know it yourselves--both of you; you know it perfectly

well."



Hannah came to her sister's rescue:



"Hester didn't mean that it was that kind of a lie, and it wasn't. But

it was a lie."



"Well, upon my word, I never heard such nonsense! Haven't you got sense

enough to discriminate between lies! Don't you know the difference

between a lie that helps and a lie that hurts?"



"_All _lies are sinful," said Hannah, setting her lips together like a

vise; "all lies are forbidden."



The Only Christian fidgeted impatiently in his chair. He went to attack

this proposition, but he did not quite know how or where to begin.

Finally he made a venture:



"Hester, wouldn't you tell a lie to shield a person from an undeserved

injury or shame?"



"No."



"Not even a friend?"



"No."



"Not even your dearest friend?"



"No. I would not."



The doctor struggled in silence awhile with this situation; then he

asked:



"Not even to save him from bitter pain and misery and grief?"



"No. Not even to save his life."



Another pause. Then:



"Nor his soul?"



There was a hush--a silence which endured a measurable interval--then

Hester answered, in a low voice, but with decision:



"Nor his soul?"



No one spoke for a while; then the doctor said:



"Is it with you the same, Hannah?"



"Yes," she answered.



"I ask you both--why?"



"Because to tell such a lie, or any lie, is a sin, and could cost us

the loss of our own souls--_would_, indeed, if we died without time to

repent."



"Strange... strange... it is past belief." Then he asked, roughly: "Is

such a soul as that _worth _saving?" He rose up, mumbling and grumbling,

and started for the door, stumping vigorously along. At the threshold he

turned and rasped out an admonition: "Reform! Drop this mean and sordid

and selfish devotion to the saving of your shabby little souls, and hunt

up something to do that's got some dignity to it! _Risk _your souls!

risk them in good causes; then if you lose them, why should you care?

Reform!"



The good old gentlewomen sat paralyzed, pulverized, outraged, insulted,

and brooded in bitterness and indignation over these blasphemies. They

were hurt to the heart, poor old ladies, and said they could never

forgive these injuries.



"Reform!"



They kept repeating that word resentfully. "Reform--and learn to tell

lies!"



Time slipped along, and in due course a change came over their spirits.

They had completed the human being's first duty--which is to think about

himself until he has exhausted the subject, then he is in a condition

to take up minor interests and think of other people. This changes the

complexion of his spirits--generally wholesomely. The minds of the two

old ladies reverted to their beloved niece and the fearful disease which

had smitten her; instantly they forgot the hurts their self-love had

received, and a passionate desire rose in their hearts to go to the help

of the sufferer and comfort her with their love, and minister to

her, and labor for her the best they could with their weak hands, and

joyfully and affectionately wear out their poor old bodies in her dear

service if only they might have the privilege.



"And we shall have it!" said Hester, with the tears running down her

face. "There are no nurses comparable to us, for there are no others

that will stand their watch by that bed till they drop and die, and God

knows we would do that."



"Amen," said Hannah, smiling approval and endorsement through the mist

of moisture that blurred her glasses. "The doctor knows us, and knows we

will not disobey again; and he will call no others. He will not dare!"



"Dare?" said Hester, with temper, and dashing the water from her eyes;

"he will dare anything--that Christian devil! But it will do no good for

him to try it this time--but, laws! Hannah! after all's said and

done, he is gifted and wise and good, and he would not think of such a

thing.... It is surely time for one of us to go to that room. What is

keeping him? Why doesn't he come and say so?"



They caught the sound of his approaching step. He entered, sat down, and

began to talk.



"Margaret is a sick woman," he said. "She is still sleeping, but she

will wake presently; then one of you must go to her. She will be worse

before she is better. Pretty soon a night-and-day watch must be set. How

much of it can you two undertake?"



"All of it!" burst from both ladies at once.



The doctor's eyes flashed, and he said, with energy:



"You _do_ ring true, you brave old relics! And you _shall _do all of the

nursing you can, for there's none to match you in that divine office in

this town; but you can't do all of it, and it would be a crime to let

you." It was grand praise, golden praise, coming from such a source, and

it took nearly all the resentment out of the aged twin's hearts. "Your

Tilly and my old Nancy shall do the rest--good nurses both, white souls

with black skins, watchful, loving, tender--just perfect nurses!--and

competent liars from the cradle.... Look you! keep a little watch on

Helen; she is sick, and is going to be sicker."



The ladies looked a little surprised, and not credulous; and Hester

said:



"How is that? It isn't an hour since you said she was as sound as a

nut."



The doctor answered, tranquilly:



"It was a lie."



The ladies turned upon him indignantly, and Hannah said:



"How can you make an odious confession like that, in so indifferent a

tone, when you know how we feel about all forms of--"



"Hush! You are as ignorant as cats, both of you, and you don't know what

you are talking about. You are like all the rest of the moral moles;

you lie from morning till night, but because you don't do it with your

mouths, but only with your lying eyes, your lying inflections, your

deceptively misplaced emphasis, and your misleading gestures, you turn

up your complacent noses and parade before God and the world as saintly

and unsmirched Truth-Speakers, in whose cold-storage souls a lie would

freeze to death if it got there! Why will you humbug yourselves with

that foolish notion that no lie is a lie except a spoken one? What is

the difference between lying with your eyes and lying with your mouth?

There is none; and if you would reflect a moment you would see that it

is so. There isn't a human being that doesn't tell a gross of lies every

day of his life; and you--why, between you, you tell thirty thousand;

yet you flare up here in a lurid hypocritical horror because I tell that

child a benevolent and sinless lie to protect her from her imagination,

which would get to work and warm up her blood to a fever in an hour, if

I were disloyal enough to my duty to let it. Which I should probably do

if I were interested in saving my soul by such disreputable means.



"Come, let us reason together. Let us examine details. When you two were

in the sick-room raising that riot, what would you have done if you had

known I was coming?"



"Well, what?"



"You would have slipped out and carried Helen with you--wouldn't you?"



The ladies were silent.



"What would be your object and intention?"



"Well, what?"



"To keep me from finding out your guilt; to beguile me to infer that

Margaret's excitement proceeded from some cause not known to you. In a

word, to tell me a lie--a silent lie. Moreover, a possibly harmful one."



The twins colored, but did not speak.



"You not only tell myriads of silent lies, but you tell lies with your

mouths--you two."



"_That _is not so!"



"It is so. But only harmless ones. You never dream of uttering a harmful

one. Do you know that that is a concession--and a confession?"



"How do you mean?"



"It is an unconscious concession that harmless lies are not criminal;

it is a confession that you constantly _make _that discrimination. For

instance, you declined old Mrs. Foster's invitation last week to meet

those odious Higbies at supper--in a polite note in which you expressed

regret and said you were very sorry you could not go. It was a lie.

It was as unmitigated a lie as was ever uttered. Deny it, Hester--with

another lie."



Hester replied with a toss of her head.



"That will not do. Answer. Was it a lie, or wasn't it?"



The color stole into the cheeks of both women, and with a struggle and

an effort they got out their confession:



"It was a lie."



"Good--the reform is beginning; there is hope for you yet; you will not

tell a lie to save your dearest friend's soul, but you will spew out

one without a scruple to save yourself the discomfort of telling an

unpleasant truth."



He rose. Hester, speaking for both, said; coldly:



"We have lied; we perceive it; it will occur no more. To lie is a sin.

We shall never tell another one of any kind whatsoever, even lies of

courtesy or benevolence, to save any one a pang or a sorrow decreed for

him by God."



"Ah, how soon you will fall! In fact, you have fallen already; for what

you have just uttered is a lie. Good-by. Reform! One of you go to the

sick-room now."







CHAPTER IV



Twelve days later.



Mother and child were lingering in the grip of the hideous disease.

Of hope for either there was little. The aged sisters looked white

and worn, but they would not give up their posts. Their hearts

were breaking, poor old things, but their grit was steadfast and

indestructible. All the twelve days the mother had pined for the child,

and the child for the mother, but both knew that the prayer of these

longings could not be granted. When the mother was told--on the first

day--that her disease was typhoid, she was frightened, and asked if

there was danger that Helen could have contracted it the day before,

when she was in the sick-chamber on that confession visit. Hester told

her the doctor had poo-pooed the idea. It troubled Hester to say it,

although it was true, for she had not believed the doctor; but when

she saw the mother's joy in the news, the pain in her conscience

lost something of its force--a result which made her ashamed of the

constructive deception which she had practiced, though not ashamed

enough to make her distinctly and definitely wish she had refrained from

it. From that moment the sick woman understood that her daughter must

remain away, and she said she would reconcile herself to the separation

the best she could, for she would rather suffer death than have her

child's health imperiled. That afternoon Helen had to take to her bed,

ill. She grew worse during the night. In the morning her mother asked

after her:



"Is she well?"



Hester turned cold; she opened her lips, but the words refused to come.

The mother lay languidly looking, musing, waiting; suddenly she turned

white and gasped out:



"Oh, my God! what is it? is she sick?"



Then the poor aunt's tortured heart rose in rebellion, and words came:



"No--be comforted; she is well."



The sick woman put all her happy heart in her gratitude:



"Thank God for those dear words! Kiss me. How I worship you for saying

them!"



Hester told this incident to Hannah, who received it with a rebuking

look, and said, coldly:



"Sister, it was a lie."



Hester's lips trembled piteously; she choked down a sob, and said:



"Oh, Hannah, it was a sin, but I could not help it. I could not endure

the fright and the misery that were in her face."



"No matter. It was a lie. God will hold you to account for it."



"Oh, I know it, I know it," cried Hester, wringing her hands, "but even

if it were now, I could not help it. I know I should do it again."



"Then take my place with Helen in the morning. I will make the report

myself."



Hester clung to her sister, begging and imploring.



"Don't, Hannah, oh, don't--you will kill her."



"I will at least speak the truth."



In the morning she had a cruel report to bear to the mother, and she

braced herself for the trial. When she returned from her mission, Hester

was waiting, pale and trembling, in the hall. She whispered:



"Oh, how did she take it--that poor, desolate mother?"



Hannah's eyes were swimming in tears. She said:



"God forgive me, I told her the child was well!"



Hester gathered her to her heart, with a grateful "God bless you,

Hannah!" and poured out her thankfulness in an inundation of worshiping

praises.



After that, the two knew the limit of their strength, and accepted their

fate. They surrendered humbly, and abandoned themselves to the hard

requirements of the situation. Daily they told the morning lie, and

confessed their sin in prayer; not asking forgiveness, as not being

worthy of it, but only wishing to make record that they realized their

wickedness and were not desiring to hide it or excuse it.



Daily, as the fair young idol of the house sank lower and lower, the

sorrowful old aunts painted her glowing bloom and her fresh young beauty

to the wan mother, and winced under the stabs her ecstasies of joy and

gratitude gave them.



In the first days, while the child had strength to hold a pencil, she

wrote fond little love-notes to her mother, in which she concealed her

illness; and these the mother read and reread through happy eyes wet

with thankful tears, and kissed them over and over again, and treasured

them as precious things under her pillow.



Then came a day when the strength was gone from the hand, and the mind

wandered, and the tongue babbled pathetic incoherences. This was a sore

dilemma for the poor aunts. There were no love-notes for the mother.

They did not know what to do. Hester began a carefully studied and

plausible explanation, but lost the track of it and grew confused;

suspicion began to show in the mother's face, then alarm. Hester saw it,

recognized the imminence of the danger, and descended to the emergency,

pulling herself resolutely together and plucking victory from the open

jaws of defeat. In a placid and convincing voice she said:



"I thought it might distress you to know it, but Helen spent the night

at the Sloanes'. There was a little party there, and, although she did

not want to go, and you so sick, we persuaded her, she being young

and needing the innocent pastimes of youth, and we believing you would

approve. Be sure she will write the moment she comes."



"How good you are, and how dear and thoughtful for us both! Approve?

Why, I thank you with all my heart. My poor little exile! Tell her I

want her to have every pleasure she can--I would not rob her of one.

Only let her keep her health, that is all I ask. Don't let that

suffer; I could not bear it. How thankful I am that she escaped this

infection--and what a narrow risk she ran, Aunt Hester! Think of that

lovely face all dulled and burned with fever. I can't bear the thought

of it. Keep her health. Keep her bloom! I can see her now, the dainty

creature--with the big, blue, earnest eyes; and sweet, oh, so sweet and

gentle and winning! Is she as beautiful as ever, dear Aunt Hester?"



"Oh, more beautiful and bright and charming than ever she was before,

if such a thing can be"--and Hester turned away and fumbled with the

medicine-bottles, to hide her shame and grief.







CHAPTER V



After a little, both aunts were laboring upon a difficult and baffling

work in Helen's chamber. Patiently and earnestly, with their stiff old

fingers, they were trying to forge the required note. They made failure

after failure, but they improved little by little all the time. The

pity of it all, the pathetic humor of it, there was none to see; they

themselves were unconscious of it. Often their tears fell upon the notes

and spoiled them; sometimes a single misformed word made a note risky

which could have been ventured but for that; but at last Hannah produced

one whose script was a good enough imitation of Helen's to pass any but

a suspicious eye, and bountifully enriched it with the petting phrases

and loving nicknames that had been familiar on the child's lips from her

nursery days. She carried it to the mother, who took it with avidity,

and kissed it, and fondled it, reading its precious words over and over

again, and dwelling with deep contentment upon its closing paragraph:



"Mousie darling, if I could only see you, and kiss your eyes, and feel

your arms about me! I am so glad my practicing does not disturb you. Get

well soon. Everybody is good to me, but I am so lonesome without you,

dear mamma."



"The poor child, I know just how she feels. She cannot be quite happy

without me; and I--oh, I live in the light of her eyes! Tell her she

must practice all she pleases; and, Aunt Hannah--tell her I can't hear

the piano this far, nor her dear voice when she sings: God knows I wish

I could. No one knows how sweet that voice is to me; and to think--some

day it will be silent! What are you crying for?"



"Only because--because--it was just a memory. When I came away she was

singing, 'Loch Lomond.' The pathos of it! It always moves me so when she

sings that."



"And me, too. How heartbreakingly beautiful it is when some youthful

sorrow is brooding in her breast and she sings it for the mystic healing

it brings.... Aunt Hannah?"



"Dear Margaret?"



"I am very ill. Sometimes it comes over me that I shall never hear that

dear voice again."



"Oh, don't--don't, Margaret! I can't bear it!"



Margaret was moved and distressed, and said, gently:



"There--there--let me put my arms around you. Don't cry. There--put your

cheek to mine. Be comforted. I wish to live. I will live if I can. Ah,

what could she do without me!... Does she often speak of me?--but I know

she does."



"Oh, all the time--all the time!"



"My sweet child! She wrote the note the moment she came home?"



"Yes--the first moment. She would not wait to take off her things."



"I knew it. It is her dear, impulsive, affectionate way. I knew it

without asking, but I wanted to hear you say it. The petted wife knows

she is loved, but she makes her husband tell her so every day, just for

the joy of hearing it.... She used the pen this time. That is better;

the pencil-marks could rub out, and I should grieve for that. Did you

suggest that she use the pen?"



"Y--no--she--it was her own idea."



The mother looked her pleasure, and said:



"I was hoping you would say that. There was never such a dear and

thoughtful child!... Aunt Hannah?"



"Dear Margaret?"



"Go and tell her I think of her all the time, and worship her. Why--you

are crying again. Don't be so worried about me, dear; I think there is

nothing to fear, yet."



The grieving messenger carried her message, and piously delivered it

to unheeding ears. The girl babbled on unaware; looking up at her with

wondering and startled eyes flaming with fever, eyes in which was no

light of recognition:



"Are you--no, you are not my mother. I want her--oh, I want her! She was

here a minute ago--I did not see her go. Will she come? will she come

quickly? will she come now?... There are so many houses ... and they

oppress me so... and everything whirls and turns and whirls... oh, my

head, my head!"--and so she wandered on and on, in her pain, flitting

from one torturing fancy to another, and tossing her arms about in a

weary and ceaseless persecution of unrest.



Poor old Hannah wetted the parched lips and softly stroked the hot brow,

murmuring endearing and pitying words, and thanking the Father of all

that the mother was happy and did not know.







CHAPTER VI



Daily the child sank lower and steadily lower towards the grave, and

daily the sorrowing old watchers carried gilded tidings of her radiant

health and loveliness to the happy mother, whose pilgrimage was also now

nearing its end. And daily they forged loving and cheery notes in the

child's hand, and stood by with remorseful consciences and bleeding

hearts, and wept to see the grateful mother devour them and adore them

and treasure them away as things beyond price, because of their sweet

source, and sacred because her child's hand had touched them.



At last came that kindly friend who brings healing and peace to all.

The lights were burning low. In the solemn hush which precedes the dawn

vague figures flitted soundless along the dim hall and gathered silent

and awed in Helen's chamber, and grouped themselves about her bed, for

a warning had gone forth, and they knew. The dying girl lay with closed

lids, and unconscious, the drapery upon her breast faintly rising and

falling as her wasting life ebbed away. At intervals a sigh or a muffled

sob broke upon the stillness. The same haunting thought was in all minds

there: the pity of this death, the going out into the great darkness,

and the mother not here to help and hearten and bless.



Helen stirred; her hands began to grope wistfully about as if they

sought something--she had been blind some hours. The end was come; all

knew it. With a great sob Hester gathered her to her breast, crying,

"Oh, my child, my darling!" A rapturous light broke in the dying girl's

face, for it was mercifully vouchsafed her to mistake those sheltering

arms for another's; and she went to her rest murmuring, "Oh, mamma, I am

so happy--I longed for you--now I can die."



Two hours later Hester made her report. The mother asked:



"How is it with the child?"



"She is well."







CHAPTER VII



A sheaf of white crape and black was hung upon the door of the house,

and there it swayed and rustled in the wind and whispered its tidings.

At noon the preparation of the dead was finished, and in the coffin lay

the fair young form, beautiful, and in the sweet face a great peace. Two

mourners sat by it, grieving and worshipping--Hannah and the black woman

Tilly. Hester came, and she was trembling, for a great trouble was upon

her spirit. She said:



"She asks for a note."



Hannah's face blanched. She had not thought of this; it had seemed that

that pathetic service was ended. But she realized now that that could

not be. For a little while the two women stood looking into each other's

face, with vacant eyes; then Hannah said:



"There is no way out of it--she must have it; she will suspect, else."



"And she would find out."



"Yes. It would break her heart." She looked at the dead face, and her

eyes filled. "I will write it," she said.



Hester carried it. The closing line said:



"Darling Mousie, dear sweet mother, we shall soon be together again. Is

not that good news? And it is true; they all say it is true."



The mother mourned, saying:



"Poor child, how will she bear it when she knows? I shall never see her

again in life. It is hard, so hard. She does not suspect? You guard her

from that?"



"She thinks you will soon be well."



"How good you are, and careful, dear Aunt Hester! None goes near her who

could carry the infection?"



"It would be a crime."



"But you _see _her?"



"With a distance between--yes."



"That is so good. Others one could not trust; but you two guardian

angels--steel is not so true as you. Others would be unfaithful; and

many would deceive, and lie."



Hester's eyes fell, and her poor old lips trembled.



"Let me kiss you for her, Aunt Hester; and when I am gone, and the

danger is past, place the kiss upon her dear lips some day, and say her

mother sent it, and all her mother's broken heart is in it."



Within the hour, Hester, raining tears upon the dead face, performed her

pathetic mission.







CHAPTER VIII



Another day dawned, and grew, and spread its sunshine in the earth. Aunt

Hannah brought comforting news to the failing mother, and a happy note,

which said again, "We have but a little time to wait, darling mother,

then we shall be together."



The deep note of a bell came moaning down the wind.



"Aunt Hannah, it is tolling. Some poor soul is at rest. As I shall be

soon. You will not let her forget me?"



"Oh, God knows she never will!"



"Do not you hear strange noises, Aunt Hannah? It sounds like the

shuffling of many feet."



"We hoped you would not hear it, dear. It is a little company gathering,

for--for Helen's sake, poor little prisoner. There will be music--and

she loves it so. We thought you would not mind."



"Mind? Oh no, no--oh, give her everything her dear heart can desire. How

good you two are to her, and how good to me! God bless you both always!"



After a listening pause:



"How lovely! It is her organ. Is she playing it herself, do you think?"

 Faint and rich and inspiring the chords floating to her ears on the

still air. "Yes, it is her touch, dear heart, I recognize it. They are

singing. Why--it is a hymn! and the sacredest of all, the most touching,

the most consoling.... It seems to open the gates of paradise to me....

If I could die now...."



Faint and far the words rose out of the stillness:





Nearer, my God, to Thee,



Nearer to Thee,



E'en though it be a cross



That raiseth me.



With the closing of the hymn another soul passed to its rest, and they

that had been one in life were not sundered in death. The sisters,

mourning and rejoicing, said:



"How blessed it was that she never knew!"







CHAPTER IX



At midnight they sat together, grieving, and the angel of the Lord

appeared in the midst transfigured with a radiance not of earth; and

speaking, said:



"For liars a place is appointed. There they burn in the fires of hell

from everlasting unto everlasting. Repent!"



The bereaved fell upon their knees before him and clasped their hands

and bowed their gray heads, adoring. But their tongues clove to the roof

of their mouths, and they were dumb.



"Speak! that I may bear the message to the chancery of heaven and bring

again the decree from which there is no appeal."



Then they bowed their heads yet lower, and one said:



"Our sin is great, and we suffer shame; but only perfect and final

repentance can make us whole; and we are poor creatures who have learned

our human weakness, and we know that if we were in those hard straits

again our hearts would fail again, and we should sin as before. The

strong could prevail, and so be saved, but we are lost."



They lifted their heads in supplication. The angel was gone. While

they marveled and wept he came again; and bending low, he whispered the

decree.







CHAPTER X



Was it Heaven? Or Hell?

		

		

		

		  

  

A BURLESQUE BIOGRAPHY

		

		

		

Two or three persons having at different times intimated that if I would

write an autobiography they would read it when they got leisure, I yield

at last to this frenzied public demand and herewith tender my history.



Ours is a noble house, and stretches a long way back into antiquity.

The earliest ancestor the Twains have any record of was a friend of the

family by the name of Higgins. This was in the eleventh century, when

our people were living in Aberdeen, county of Cork, England. Why it is

that our long line has ever since borne the maternal name (except when

one of them now and then took a playful refuge in an alias to avert

foolishness), instead of Higgins, is a mystery which none of us has ever

felt much desire to stir. It is a kind of vague, pretty romance, and we

leave it alone. All the old families do that way.



Arthour Twain was a man of considerable note--a solicitor on the highway

in William Rufus's time. At about the age of thirty he went to one of

those fine old English places of resort called Newgate, to see about

something, and never returned again. While there he died suddenly.



Augustus Twain seems to have made something of a stir about the year

1160. He was as full of fun as he could be, and used to take his old

saber and sharpen it up, and get in a convenient place on a dark night,

and stick it through people as they went by, to see them jump. He was a

born humorist. But he got to going too far with it; and the first time

he was found stripping one of these parties, the authorities removed one

end of him, and put it up on a nice high place on Temple Bar, where it

could contemplate the people and have a good time. He never liked any

situation so much or stuck to it so long.



Then for the next two hundred years the family tree shows a succession

of soldiers--noble, high-spirited fellows, who always went into battle

singing, right behind the army, and always went out a-whooping, right

ahead of it.



This is a scathing rebuke to old dead Froissart's poor witticism that

our family tree never had but one limb to it, and that that one stuck

out at right angles, and bore fruit winter and summer.



Early in the fifteenth century we have Beau Twain, called "the Scholar."

 He wrote a beautiful, beautiful hand. And he could imitate anybody's

hand so closely that it was enough to make a person laugh his head off

to see it. He had infinite sport with his talent. But by and by he took

a contract to break stone for a road, and the roughness of the work

spoiled his hand. Still, he enjoyed life all the time he was in the

stone business, which, with inconsiderable intervals, was some forty-two

years. In fact, he died in harness. During all those long years he gave

such satisfaction that he never was through with one contract a week

till the government gave him another. He was a perfect pet. And he was

always a favorite with his fellow-artists, and was a conspicuous member

of their benevolent secret society, called the Chain Gang. He always

wore his hair short, had a preference for striped clothes, and died

lamented by the government. He was a sore loss to his country. For he

was so regular.



Some years later we have the illustrious John Morgan Twain. He came over

to this country with Columbus in 1492 as a passenger. He appears to have

been of a crusty, uncomfortable disposition. He complained of the food

all the way over, and was always threatening to go ashore unless there

was a change. He wanted fresh shad. Hardly a day passed over his head

that he did not go idling about the ship with his nose in the air,

sneering about the commander, and saying he did not believe Columbus

knew where he was going to or had ever been there before. The memorable

cry of "Land ho!" thrilled every heart in the ship but his. He gazed

awhile through a piece of smoked glass at the penciled line lying on the

distant water, and then said: "Land be hanged--it's a raft!"



When this questionable passenger came on board the ship, he brought

nothing with him but an old newspaper containing a handkerchief marked

"B. G.," one cotton sock marked "L. W. C.," one woolen one marked "D.

F.," and a night-shirt marked "O. M. R." And yet during the voyage he

worried more about his "trunk," and gave himself more airs about it,

than all the rest of the passengers put together. If the ship was "down

by the head," and would not steer, he would go and move his "trunk"

 further aft, and then watch the effect. If the ship was "by the stern,"

 he would suggest to Columbus to detail some men to "shift that baggage."

 In storms he had to be gagged, because his wailings about his "trunk"

 made it impossible for the men to hear the orders. The man does not

appear to have been openly charged with any gravely unbecoming thing,

but it is noted in the ship's log as a "curious circumstance" that

albeit he brought his baggage on board the ship in a newspaper, he took

it ashore in four trunks, a queensware crate, and a couple of champagne

baskets. But when he came back insinuating, in an insolent, swaggering

way, that some of this things were missing, and was going to search

the other passengers' baggage, it was too much, and they threw him

overboard. They watched long and wonderingly for him to come up, but not

even a bubble rose on the quietly ebbing tide. But while every one was

most absorbed in gazing over the side, and the interest was momentarily

increasing, it was observed with consternation that the vessel was

adrift and the anchor-cable hanging limp from the bow. Then in the

ship's dimmed and ancient log we find this quaint note:



"In time it was discouvered yt ye troblesome passenger hadde gone downe

and got ye anchor, and toke ye same and solde it to ye dam sauvages from

ye interior, saying yt he hadde founde it, ye sonne of a ghun!"



Yet this ancestor had good and noble instincts, and it is with pride

that we call to mind the fact that he was the first white person who

ever interested himself in the work of elevating and civilizing our

Indians. He built a commodious jail and put up a gallows, and to

his dying day he claimed with satisfaction that he had had a more

restraining and elevating influence on the Indians than any other

reformer that ever labored among them. At this point the chronicle

becomes less frank and chatty, and closes abruptly by saying that the

old voyager went to see his gallows perform on the first white man ever

hanged in America, and while there received injuries which terminated in

his death.



The great-grandson of the "Reformer" flourished in sixteen hundred and

something, and was known in our annals as "the old Admiral," though in

history he had other titles. He was long in command of fleets of swift

vessels, well armed and manned, and did great service in hurrying up

merchantmen. Vessels which he followed and kept his eagle eye on, always

made good fair time across the ocean. But if a ship still loitered

in spite of all he could do, his indignation would grow till he could

contain himself no longer--and then he would take that ship home where

he lived and keep it there carefully, expecting the owners to come for

it, but they never did. And he would try to get the idleness and sloth

out of the sailors of that ship by compelling them to take invigorating

exercise and a bath. He called it "walking a plank." All the pupils

liked it. At any rate, they never found any fault with it after trying

it. When the owners were late coming for their ships, the Admiral always

burned them, so that the insurance money should not be lost. At last

this fine old tar was cut down in the fullness of his years and honors.

And to her dying day, his poor heart-broken widow believed that if

he had been cut down fifteen minutes sooner he might have been

resuscitated.



Charles Henry Twain lived during the latter part of the seventeenth

century, and was a zealous and distinguished missionary. He converted

sixteen thousand South Sea islanders, and taught them that a dog-tooth

necklace and a pair of spectacles was not enough clothing to come to

divine service in. His poor flock loved him very, very dearly; and

when his funeral was over, they got up in a body (and came out of the

restaurant) with tears in their eyes, and saying, one to another, that

he was a good tender missionary, and they wished they had some more of

him.



Pah-go-to-wah-wah-pukketekeewis (Mighty-Hunter-with-a-Hog-Eye-Twain)

adorned the middle of the eighteenth century, and aided General Braddock

with all his heart to resist the oppressor Washington. It was this

ancestor who fired seventeen times at our Washington from behind a tree.

So far the beautiful romantic narrative in the moral story-books is

correct; but when that narrative goes on to say that at the seventeenth

round the awe-stricken savage said solemnly that that man was being

reserved by the Great Spirit for some mighty mission, and he dared not

lift his sacrilegious rifle against him again, the narrative seriously

impairs the integrity of history. What he did say was:



"It ain't no (hic) no use. 'At man's so drunk he can't stan' still long

enough for a man to hit him. I (hic) I can't 'ford to fool away any more

am'nition on him."



That was why he stopped at the seventeenth round, and it was a good,

plain, matter-of-fact reason, too, and one that easily commends itself

to us by the eloquent, persuasive flavor of probability there is about

it.



I also enjoyed the story-book narrative, but I felt a marring misgiving

that every Indian at Braddock's Defeat who fired at a soldier a couple

of times (two easily grows to seventeen in a century), and missed

him, jumped to the conclusion that the Great Spirit was reserving that

soldier for some grand mission; and so I somehow feared that the only

reason why Washington's case is remembered and the others forgotten is,

that in his the prophecy came true, and in that of the others it

didn't. There are not books enough on earth to contain the record of the

prophecies Indians and other unauthorized parties have made; but one may

carry in his overcoat pockets the record of all the prophecies that have

been fulfilled.



I will remark here, in passing, that certain ancestors of mine are so

thoroughly well-known in history by their aliases, that I have not felt

it to be worth while to dwell upon them, or even mention them in the

order of their birth. Among these may be mentioned Richard Brinsley

Twain, alias Guy Fawkes; John Wentworth Twain, alias Sixteen-String

Jack; William Hogarth Twain, alias Jack Sheppard; Ananias Twain, alias

Baron Munchausen; John George Twain, alias Captain Kydd; and then there

are George Francis Twain, Tom Pepper, Nebuchadnezzar, and Baalam's

Ass--they all belong to our family, but to a branch of it somewhat

distinctly removed from the honorable direct line--in fact, a collateral

branch, whose members chiefly differ from the ancient stock in that, in

order to acquire the notoriety we have always yearned and hungered for,

they have got into a low way of going to jail instead of getting hanged.



It is not well, when writing an autobiography, to follow your ancestry

down too close to your own time--it is safest to speak only vaguely of

your great-grandfather, and then skip from there to yourself, which I

now do.



I was born without teeth--and there Richard III. had the advantage of

me; but I was born without a humpback, likewise, and there I had the

advantage of him. My parents were neither very poor nor conspicuously

honest.



But now a thought occurs to me. My own history would really seem so tame

contrasted with that of my ancestors, that it is simply wisdom to leave

it unwritten until I am hanged. If some other biographies I have read

had stopped with the ancestry until a like event occurred, it would have

been a felicitous thing for the reading public. How does it strike you?

		

		

		

		  

A CURE FOR THE BLUES

		

		

		

By courtesy of Mr. Cable I came into possession of a singular book

eight or ten years ago. It is likely that mine is now the only copy in

existence. Its title-page, unabbreviated, reads as follows:



"The Enemy Conquered; or, Love Triumphant. By G. Ragsdale McClintock,

(1) author of 'An Address,' etc., delivered at Sunflower Hill, South

Carolina, and member of the Yale Law School. New Haven: published by T.

H. Pease, 83 Chapel Street, 1845."



No one can take up this book and lay it down again unread. Whoever reads

one line of it is caught, is chained; he has become the contented slave

of its fascinations; and he will read and read, devour and devour, and

will not let it go out of his hand till it is finished to the last line,

though the house be on fire over his head. And after a first reading he

will not throw it aside, but will keep it by him, with his Shakespeare

and his Homer, and will take it up many and many a time, when the

world is dark and his spirits are low, and be straightway cheered and

refreshed. Yet this work has been allowed to lie wholly neglected,

unmentioned, and apparently unregretted, for nearly half a century.



The reader must not imagine that he is to find in it wisdom, brilliancy,

fertility of invention, ingenuity of construction, excellence of form,

purity of style, perfection of imagery, truth to nature, clearness of

statement, humanly possible situations, humanly possible people, fluent

narrative, connected sequence of events--or philosophy, or logic, or

sense. No; the rich, deep, beguiling charm of the book lies in the total

and miraculous _absence _from it of all these qualities--a charm which

is completed and perfected by the evident fact that the author, whose

naive innocence easily and surely wins our regard, and almost our

worship, does not know that they are absent, does not even suspect

that they are absent. When read by the light of these helps to an

understanding of the situation, the book is delicious--profoundly and

satisfyingly delicious.



I call it a book because the author calls it a book, I call it a work

because he calls it a work; but, in truth, it is merely a duodecimo

pamphlet of thirty-one pages. It was written for fame and money, as the

author very frankly--yes, and very hopefully, too, poor fellow--says

in his preface. The money never came--no penny of it ever came; and how

long, how pathetically long, the fame has been deferred--forty-seven

years! He was young then, it would have been so much to him then; but

will he care for it now?



As time is measured in America, McClintock's epoch is antiquity. In his

long-vanished day the Southern author had a passion for "eloquence";

it was his pet, his darling. He would be eloquent, or perish. And he

recognized only one kind of eloquence--the lurid, the tempestuous, the

volcanic. He liked words--big words, fine words, grand words, rumbling,

thundering, reverberating words; with sense attaching if it could be got

in without marring the sound, but not otherwise. He loved to stand

up before a dazed world, and pour forth flame and smoke and lava and

pumice-stone into the skies, and work his subterranean thunders, and

shake himself with earthquakes, and stench himself with sulphur fumes.

If he consumed his own fields and vineyards, that was a pity, yes; but

he would have his eruption at any cost. Mr. McClintock's eloquence--and

he is always eloquent, his crater is always spouting--is of the pattern

common to his day, but he departs from the custom of the time in one

respect: his brethren allowed sense to intrude when it did not mar the

sound, but he does not allow it to intrude at all. For example, consider

this figure, which he used in the village "Address" referred to with

such candid complacency in the title-page above quoted--"like the

topmost topaz of an ancient tower." Please read it again; contemplate

it; measure it; walk around it; climb up it; try to get at an

approximate realization of the size of it. Is the fellow to that to be

found in literature, ancient or modern, foreign or domestic, living or

dead, drunk or sober? One notices how fine and grand it sounds. We know

that if it was loftily uttered, it got a noble burst of applause from

the villagers; yet there isn't a ray of sense in it, or meaning to it.



McClintock finished his education at Yale in 1843, and came to Hartford

on a visit that same year. I have talked with men who at that time

talked with him, and felt of him, and knew he was real. One needs to

remember that fact and to keep fast hold of it; it is the only way to

keep McClintock's book from undermining one's faith in McClintock's

actuality.



As to the book. The first four pages are devoted to an inflamed

eulogy of Woman--simply Woman in general, or perhaps as an

Institution--wherein, among other compliments to her details, he pays a

unique one to her voice. He says it "fills the breast with fond alarms,

echoed by every rill." It sounds well enough, but it is not true. After

the eulogy he takes up his real work and the novel begins. It begins in

the woods, near the village of Sunflower Hill.



Brightening clouds seemed to rise from the mist of the fair

Chattahoochee, to spread their beauty over the thick forest, to guide

the hero whose bosom beats with aspirations to conquer the enemy that

would tarnish his name, and to win back the admiration of his long-tried

friend.



It seems a general remark, but it is not general; the hero mentioned is

the to-be hero of the book; and in this abrupt fashion, and without

name or description, he is shoveled into the tale. "With aspirations to

conquer the enemy that would tarnish his name" is merely a phrase flung

in for the sake of the sound--let it not mislead the reader. No one is

trying to tarnish this person; no one has thought of it. The rest of the

sentence is also merely a phrase; the man has no friend as yet, and

of course has had no chance to try him, or win back his admiration, or

disturb him in any other way.



The hero climbs up over "Sawney's Mountain," and down the other side,

making for an old Indian "castle"--which becomes "the red man's hut"

 in the next sentence; and when he gets there at last, he "surveys with

wonder and astonishment" the invisible structure, "which time has buried

in the dust, and thought to himself his happiness was not yet complete."

 One doesn't know why it wasn't, nor how near it came to being complete,

nor what was still wanting to round it up and make it so. Maybe it was

the Indian; but the book does not say. At this point we have an episode:



Beside the shore of the brook sat a young man, about eighteen or twenty,

who seemed to be reading some favorite book, and who had a remarkably

noble countenance--eyes which betrayed more than a common mind. This

of course made the youth a welcome guest, and gained him friends in

whatever condition of his life he might be placed. The traveler observed

that he was a well-built figure which showed strength and grace in every

movement. He accordingly addressed him in quite a gentlemanly manner,

and inquired of him the way to the village. After he had received the

desired information, and was about taking his leave, the youth said,

"Are you not Major Elfonzo, the great musician (2)--the champion of a

noble cause--the modern Achilles, who gained so many victories in the

Florida War?" "I bear that name," said the Major, "and those titles,

trusting at the same time that the ministers of grace will carry me

triumphantly through all my laudable undertakings, and if," continued

the Major, "you, sir, are the patronizer of noble deeds, I should like

to make you my confidant and learn your address." The youth looked

somewhat amazed, bowed low, mused for a moment, and began: "My name is

Roswell. I have been recently admitted to the bar, and can only give a

faint outline of my future success in that honorable profession; but I

trust, sir, like the Eagle, I shall look down from the lofty rocks upon

the dwellings of man, and shall ever be ready to give you any assistance

in my official capacity, and whatever this muscular arm of mine can

do, whenever it shall be called from its buried _greatness_." The Major

grasped him by the hand, and exclaimed: "O! thou exalted spirit of

inspiration--thou flame of burning prosperity, may the Heaven-directed

blaze be the glare of thy soul, and battle down every rampart that seems

to impede your progress!"



There is a strange sort of originality about McClintock; he imitates

other people's styles, but nobody can imitate his, not even an idiot.

Other people can be windy, but McClintock blows a gale; other people can

blubber sentiment, but McClintock spews it; other people can mishandle

metaphors, but only McClintock knows how to make a business of it.

McClintock is always McClintock, he is always consistent, his style is

always his own style. He does not make the mistake of being relevant on

one page and irrelevant on another; he is irrelevant on all of them.

He does not make the mistake of being lucid in one place and obscure

in another; he is obscure all the time. He does not make the mistake

of slipping in a name here and there that is out of character with

his work; he always uses names that exactly and fantastically fit his

lunatics. In the matter of undeviating consistency he stands alone in

authorship. It is this that makes his style unique, and entitles it to

a name of its own--McClintockian. It is this that protects it from being

mistaken for anybody else's. Uncredited quotations from other writers

often leave a reader in doubt as to their authorship, but McClintock is

safe from that accident; an uncredited quotation from him would always

be recognizable. When a boy nineteen years old, who had just been

admitted to the bar, says, "I trust, sir, like the Eagle, I shall

look down from lofty rocks upon the dwellings of man," we know who is

speaking through that boy; we should recognize that note anywhere. There

be myriads of instruments in this world's literary orchestra, and a

multitudinous confusion of sounds that they make, wherein fiddles

are drowned, and guitars smothered, and one sort of drum mistaken

for another sort; but whensoever the brazen note of the McClintockian

trombone breaks through that fog of music, that note is recognizable,

and about it there can be no blur of doubt.



The novel now arrives at the point where the Major goes home to see his

father. When McClintock wrote this interview he probably believed it was

pathetic.



The road which led to the town presented many attractions Elfonzo had

bid farewell to the youth of deep feeling, and was now wending his way

to the dreaming spot of his fondness. The south winds whistled through

the woods, as the waters dashed against the banks, as rapid fire in the

pent furnace roars. This brought him to remember while alone, that he

quietly left behind the hospitality of a father's house, and gladly

entered the world, with higher hopes than are often realized. But as he

journeyed onward, he was mindful of the advice of his father, who had

often looked sadly on the ground, when tears of cruelly deceived hope

moistened his eyes. Elfonzo had been somewhat a dutiful son; yet fond

of the amusements of life--had been in distant lands--had enjoyed the

pleasure of the world, and had frequently returned to the scenes of

his boyhood, almost destitute of many of the comforts of life. In this

condition, he would frequently say to his father, "Have I offended you,

that you look upon me as a stranger, and frown upon me with stinging

looks? Will you not favor me with the sound of your voice? If I have

trampled upon your veneration, or have spread a humid veil of darkness

around your expectations, send me back into the world, where no heart

beats for me--where the foot of man had never yet trod; but give me at

least one kind word--allow me to come into the presence sometimes of

thy winter-worn locks." "Forbid it, Heaven, that I should be angry with

thee," answered the father, "my son, and yet I send thee back to the

children of the world--to the cold charity of the combat, and to a

land of victory. I read another destiny in thy countenance--I learn

thy inclinations from the flame that has already kindled in my soul a

strange sensation. It will seek thee, my dear _Elfonzo_, it will find

thee--thou canst not escape that lighted torch, which shall blot out

from the remembrance of men a long train of prophecies which they have

foretold against thee. I once thought not so. Once, I was blind; but

now the path of life is plain before me, and my sight is clear; yet,

Elfonzo, return to thy worldly occupation--take again in thy hand that

chord of sweet sounds--struggle with the civilized world and with your

own heart; fly swiftly to the enchanted ground--let the night-_owl_ send

forth its screams from the stubborn oak--let the sea sport upon the

beach, and the stars sing together; but learn of these, Elfonzo, thy

doom, and thy hiding-place. Our most innocent as well as our most lawful

_desires_ must often be denied us, that we may learn to sacrifice them

to a Higher will."



Remembering such admonitions with gratitude, Elfonzo was immediately

urged by the recollection of his father's family to keep moving.



McClintock has a fine gift in the matter of surprises; but as a rule

they are not pleasant ones, they jar upon the feelings. His closing

sentence in the last quotation is of that sort. It brings one down out

of the tinted clouds in too sudden and collapsed a fashion. It incenses

one against the author for a moment. It makes the reader want to take

him by his winter-worn locks, and trample on his veneration, and deliver

him over to the cold charity of combat, and blot him out with his own

lighted torch. But the feeling does not last. The master takes again

in his hand that concord of sweet sounds of his, and one is reconciled,

pacified.



His steps became quicker and quicker--he hastened through the _piny_

woods, dark as the forest was, and with joy he very soon reached the

little village of repose, in whose bosom rested the boldest chivalry.

His close attention to every important object--his modest questions

about whatever was new to him--his reverence for wise old age, and his

ardent desire to learn many of the fine arts, soon brought him into

respectable notice.



One mild winter day, as he walked along the streets toward the Academy,

which stood upon a small eminence, surrounded by native growth--some

venerable in its appearance, others young and prosperous--all seemed

inviting, and seemed to be the very place for learning as well as for

genius to spend its research beneath its spreading shades. He entered

its classic walls in the usual mode of southern manners.



The artfulness of this man! None knows so well as he how to pique the

curiosity of the reader--and how to disappoint it. He raises the hope,

here, that he is going to tell all about how one enters a classic wall

in the usual mode of Southern manners; but does he? No; he smiles in his

sleeve, and turns aside to other matters.



The principal of the Institution begged him to be seated and listen to

the recitations that were going on. He accordingly obeyed the request,

and seemed to be much pleased. After the school was dismissed, and the

young hearts regained their freedom, with the songs of the evening,

laughing at the anticipated pleasures of a happy home, while others

tittered at the actions of the past day, he addressed the teacher in a

tone that indicated a resolution--with an undaunted mind. He said he had

determined to become a student, if he could meet with his approbation.

"Sir," said he, "I have spent much time in the world. I have traveled

among the uncivilized inhabitants of America. I have met with friends,

and combated with foes; but none of these gratify my ambition, or decide

what is to be my destiny. I see the learned world have an influence

with the voice of the people themselves. The despoilers of the remotest

kingdoms of the earth refer their differences to this class of persons.

This the illiterate and inexperienced little dream of; and now if you

will receive me as I am, with these deficiencies--with all my misguided

opinions, I will give you my honor, sir, that I will never disgrace the

Institution, or those who have placed you in this honorable station."

 The instructor, who had met with many disappointments, knew how to

feel for a stranger who had been thus turned upon the charities of an

unfeeling community. He looked at him earnestly, and said: "Be of

good cheer--look forward, sir, to the high destination you may attain.

Remember, the more elevated the mark at which you aim, the more sure,

the more glorious, the more magnificent the prize." From wonder to

wonder, his encouragement led the impatient listener. A strange nature

bloomed before him--giant streams promised him success--gardens of

hidden treasures opened to his view. All this, so vividly described,

seemed to gain a new witchery from his glowing fancy.



It seems to me that this situation is new in romance. I feel sure it has

not been attempted before. Military celebrities have been disguised and

set at lowly occupations for dramatic effect, but I think McClintock is

the first to send one of them to school. Thus, in this book, you pass

from wonder to wonder, through gardens of hidden treasure, where giant

streams bloom before you, and behind you, and all around, and you feel

as happy, and groggy, and satisfied with your quart of mixed metaphor

aboard as you would if it had been mixed in a sample-room and delivered

from a jug.



Now we come upon some more McClintockian surprises--a sweetheart who is

sprung upon us without any preparation, along with a name for her which

is even a little more of a surprise than she herself is.



In 1842 he entered the class, and made rapid progress in the English

and Latin departments. Indeed, he continued advancing with such rapidity

that he was like to become the first in his class, and made such

unexpected progress, and was so studious, that he had almost forgotten

the pictured saint of his affections. The fresh wreaths of the pine and

cypress had waited anxiously to drop once more the dews of Heaven upon

the heads of those who had so often poured forth the tender emotions of

their souls under its boughs. He was aware of the pleasure that he had

seen there. So one evening, as he was returning from his reading, he

concluded he would pay a visit to this enchanting spot. Little did he

think of witnessing a shadow of his former happiness, though no doubt

he wished it might be so. He continued sauntering by the roadside,

meditating on the past. The nearer he approached the spot, the more

anxious he became. At that moment a tall female figure flitted across

his path, with a bunch of roses in her hand; her countenance showed

uncommon vivacity, with a resolute spirit; her ivory teeth already

appeared as she smiled beautifully, promenading--while her ringlets of

hair dangled unconsciously around her snowy neck. Nothing was wanting

to complete her beauty. The tinge of the rose was in full bloom upon

her cheek; the charms of sensibility and tenderness were always her

associates. In Ambulinia's bosom dwelt a noble soul--one that never

faded--one that never was conquered.



Ambulinia! It can hardly be matched in fiction. The full name is

Ambulinia Valeer. Marriage will presently round it out and perfect it.

Then it will be Mrs. Ambulinia Valeer Elfonzo. It takes the chromo.



Her heart yielded to no feeling but the love of Elfonzo, on whom she

gazed with intense delight, and to whom she felt herself more closely

bound, because he sought the hand of no other. Elfonzo was roused

from his apparent reverie. His books no longer were his inseparable

companions--his thoughts arrayed themselves to encourage him to the

field of victory. He endeavored to speak to his supposed Ambulinia, but

his speech appeared not in words. No, his effort was a stream of fire,

that kindled his soul into a flame of admiration, and carried his senses

away captive. Ambulinia had disappeared, to make him more mindful of

his duty. As she walked speedily away through the piny woods, she calmly

echoed: "O! Elfonzo, thou wilt now look from thy sunbeams. Thou shalt

now walk in a new path--perhaps thy way leads through darkness; but fear

not, the stars foretell happiness."



To McClintock that jingling jumble of fine words meant something, no

doubt, or seemed to mean something; but it is useless for us to try to

divine what it was. Ambulinia comes--we don't know whence nor why; she

mysteriously intimates--we don't know what; and then she goes echoing

away--we don't know whither; and down comes the curtain. McClintock's

art is subtle; McClintock's art is deep.



Not many days afterward, as surrounded by fragrant flowers she sat one

evening at twilight, to enjoy the cool breeze that whispered notes of

melody along the distant groves, the little birds perched on every

side, as if to watch the movements of their new visitor. The bells were

tolling, when Elfonzo silently stole along by the wild wood flowers,

holding in his hand his favorite instrument of music--his eye

continually searching for Ambulinia, who hardly seemed to perceive him,

as she played carelessly with the songsters that hopped from branch to

branch. Nothing could be more striking than the difference between the

two. Nature seemed to have given the more tender soul to Elfonzo, and

the stronger and more courageous to Ambulinia. A deep feeling spoke from

the eyes of Elfonzo--such a feeling as can only be expressed by those

who are blessed as admirers, and by those who are able to return the

same with sincerity of heart. He was a few years older than Ambulinia:

she had turned a little into her seventeenth. He had almost grown up

in the Cherokee country, with the same equal proportions as one of the

natives. But little intimacy had existed between them until the year

forty-one--because the youth felt that the character of such a lovely

girl was too exalted to inspire any other feeling than that of quiet

reverence. But as lovers will not always be insulted, at all times and

under all circumstances, by the frowns and cold looks of crabbed old

age, which should continually reflect dignity upon those around, and

treat the unfortunate as well as the fortunate with a graceful mien, he

continued to use diligence and perseverance. All this lighted a spark

in his heart that changed his whole character, and like the unyielding

Deity that follows the storm to check its rage in the forest, he

resolves for the first time to shake off his embarrassment and return

where he had before only worshiped.



At last we begin to get the Major's measure. We are able to put this

and that casual fact together, and build the man up before our eyes,

and look at him. And after we have got him built, we find him worth the

trouble. By the above comparison between his age and Ambulinia's, we

guess the war-worn veteran to be twenty-two; and the other facts stand

thus: he had grown up in the Cherokee country with the same equal

proportions as one of the natives--how flowing and graceful the

language, and yet how tantalizing as to meaning!--he had been turned

adrift by his father, to whom he had been "somewhat of a dutiful son";

he wandered in distant lands; came back frequently "to the scenes of his

boyhood, almost destitute of many of the comforts of life," in order to

get into the presence of his father's winter-worn locks, and spread

a humid veil of darkness around his expectations; but he was always

promptly sent back to the cold charity of the combat again; he learned

to play the fiddle, and made a name for himself in that line; he had

dwelt among the wild tribes; he had philosophized about the despoilers

of the kingdoms of the earth, and found out--the cunning creature--that

they refer their differences to the learned for settlement; he had

achieved a vast fame as a military chieftain, the Achilles of the

Florida campaigns, and then had got him a spelling-book and started

to school; he had fallen in love with Ambulinia Valeer while she was

teething, but had kept it to himself awhile, out of the reverential awe

which he felt for the child; but now at last, like the unyielding Deity

who follows the storm to check its rage in the forest, he resolves to

shake off his embarrassment, and to return where before he had only

worshiped. The Major, indeed, has made up his mind to rise up and shake

his faculties together, and to see if_ he_ can't do that thing himself.

This is not clear. But no matter about that: there stands the hero,

compact and visible; and he is no mean structure, considering that his

creator had never created anything before, and hadn't anything but

rags and wind to build with this time. It seems to me that no one can

contemplate this odd creature, this quaint and curious blatherskite,

without admiring McClintock, or, at any rate, loving him and feeling

grateful to him; for McClintock made him, he gave him to us; without

McClintock we could not have had him, and would now be poor.



But we must come to the feast again. Here is a courtship scene, down

there in the romantic glades among the raccoons, alligators, and things,

that has merit, peculiar literary merit. See how Achilles woos.

Dwell upon the second sentence (particularly the close of it) and the

beginning of the third. Never mind the new personage, Leos, who is

intruded upon us unheralded and unexplained. That is McClintock's way;

it is his habit; it is a part of his genius; he cannot help it; he never

interrupts the rush of his narrative to make introductions.



It could not escape Ambulinia's penetrating eye that he sought an

interview with her, which she as anxiously avoided, and assumed a more

distant calmness than before, seemingly to destroy all hope. After many

efforts and struggles with his own person, with timid steps the Major

approached the damsel, with the same caution as he would have done in

a field of battle. "Lady Ambulinia," said he, trembling, "I have

long desired a moment like this. I dare not let it escape. I fear the

consequences; yet I hope your indulgence will at least hear my petition.

Can you not anticipate what I would say, and what I am about to express?

Will not you, like Minerva, who sprung from the brain of Jupiter,

release me from thy winding chains or cure me--" "Say no more, Elfonzo,"

 answered Ambulinia, with a serious look, raising her hand as if she

intended to swear eternal hatred against the whole world; "another

lady in my place would have perhaps answered your question in bitter

coldness. I know not the little arts of my sex. I care but little for

the vanity of those who would chide me, and am unwilling as well as

ashamed to be guilty of anything that would lead you to think 'all is

not gold that glitters'; so be not rash in your resolution. It is better

to repent now, than to do it in a more solemn hour. Yes, I know what you

would say. I know you have a costly gift for me--the noblest that man

can make--_your heart!_ You should not offer it to one so unworthy.

Heaven, you know, has allowed my father's house to be made a house of

solitude, a home of silent obedience, which my parents say is more to

be admired than big names and high-sounding titles. Notwithstanding all

this, let me speak the emotions of an honest heart--allow me to say in

the fullness of my hopes that I anticipate better days. The bird may

stretch its wings toward the sun, which it can never reach; and flowers

of the field appear to ascend in the same direction, because they cannot

do otherwise; but man confides his complaints to the saints in whom he

believes; for in their abodes of light they know no more sorrow. From

your confession and indicative looks, I must be that person; if so

deceive not yourself."



Elfonzo replied, "Pardon me, my dear madam, for my frankness. I have

loved you from my earliest days--everything grand and beautiful hath

borne the image of Ambulinia; while precipices on every hand surrounded

me, your _guardian angel_ stood and beckoned me away from the deep

abyss. In every trial, in every misfortune, I have met with your helping

hand; yet I never dreamed or dared to cherish thy love, till a voice

impaired with age encouraged the cause, and declared they who acquired

thy favor should win a victory. I saw how Leos worshiped thee. I felt my

own unworthiness. I began to _know jealously_, a strong guest--indeed,

in my bosom,--yet I could see if I gained your admiration Leos was to be

my rival. I was aware that he had the influence of your parents, and the

wealth of a deceased relative, which is too often mistaken for permanent

and regular tranquillity; yet I have determined by your permission

to beg an interest in your prayers--to ask you to animate my drooping

spirits by your smiles and your winning looks; for if you but speak I

shall be conqueror, my enemies shall stagger like Olympus shakes. And

though earth and sea may tremble, and the charioteer of the sun may

forget his dashing steed, yet I am assured that it is only to arm me

with divine weapons which will enable me to complete my long-tried

intention."



"Return to yourself, Elfonzo," said Ambulinia, pleasantly: "a dream

of vision has disturbed your intellect; you are above the atmosphere,

dwelling in the celestial regions; nothing is there that urges or

hinders, nothing that brings discord into our present litigation. I

entreat you to condescend a little, and be a man, and forget it all.

When Homer describes the battle of the gods and noble men fighting with

giants and dragons, they represent under this image our struggles with

the delusions of our passions. You have exalted me, an unhappy girl, to

the skies; you have called me a saint, and portrayed in your imagination

an angel in human form. Let her remain such to you, let her continue to

be as you have supposed, and be assured that she will consider a share

in your esteem as her highest treasure. Think not that I would allure

you from the path in which your conscience leads you; for you know I

respect the conscience of others, as I would die for my own. Elfonzo, if

I am worthy of thy love, let such conversation never again pass between

us. Go, seek a nobler theme! we will seek it in the stream of time, as

the sun set in the Tigris." As she spake these words she grasped the

hand of Elfonzo, saying at the same time--"Peace and prosperity

attend you, my hero; be up and doing!" Closing her remarks with this

expression, she walked slowly away, leaving Elfonzo astonished and

amazed. He ventured not to follow or detain her. Here he stood alone,

gazing at the stars; confounded as he was, here he stood.



Yes; there he stood. There seems to be no doubt about that. Nearly half

of this delirious story has now been delivered to the reader. It seems a

pity to reduce the other half to a cold synopsis. Pity! it is more

than a pity, it is a crime; for to synopsize McClintock is to reduce

a sky-flushing conflagration to dull embers, it is to reduce barbaric

splendor to ragged poverty. McClintock never wrote a line that was not

precious; he never wrote one that could be spared; he never framed one

from which a word could be removed without damage. Every sentence that

this master has produced may be likened to a perfect set of teeth,

white, uniform, beautiful. If you pull one, the charm is gone.



Still, it is now necessary to begin to pull, and to keep it up; for lack

of space requires us to synopsize.



We left Elfonzo standing there amazed. At what, we do not know. Not at

the girl's speech. No; we ourselves should have been amazed at it,

of course, for none of us has ever heard anything resembling it; but

Elfonzo was used to speeches made up of noise and vacancy, and could

listen to them with undaunted mind like the "topmost topaz of an ancient

tower"; he was used to making them himself; he--but let it go, it cannot

be guessed out; we shall never know what it was that astonished him. He

stood there awhile; then he said, "Alas! am I now Grief's disappointed

son at last?" He did not stop to examine his mind, and to try to find

out what he probably meant by that, because, for one reason, "a mixture

of ambition and greatness of soul moved upon his young heart," and

started him for the village. He resumed his bench in school, "and

reasonably progressed in his education." His heart was heavy, but

he went into society, and sought surcease of sorrow in its light

distractions. He made himself popular with his violin, "which seemed to

have a thousand chords--more symphonious than the Muses of Apollo, and

more enchanting than the ghost of the Hills." This is obscure, but let

it go.



During this interval Leos did some unencouraged courting, but at last,

"choked by his undertaking," he desisted.



Presently "Elfonzo again wends his way to the stately walls and

new-built village." He goes to the house of his beloved; she opens the

door herself. To my surprise--for Ambulinia's heart had still seemed

free at the time of their last interview--love beamed from the girl's

eyes. One sees that Elfonzo was surprised, too; for when he caught that

light, "a halloo of smothered shouts ran through every vein." A neat

figure--a very neat figure, indeed! Then he kissed her. "The scene was

overwhelming." They went into the parlor. The girl said it was safe,

for her parents were abed, and would never know. Then we have this

fine picture--flung upon the canvas with hardly an effort, as you will

notice.



Advancing toward him, she gave a bright display of her rosy neck, and

from her head the ambrosial locks breathed divine fragrance; her robe

hung waving to his view, while she stood like a goddess confessed before

him.



There is nothing of interest in the couple's interview. Now at this

point the girl invites Elfonzo to a village show, where jealousy is the

motive of the play, for she wants to teach him a wholesome lesson, if he

is a jealous person. But this is a sham, and pretty shallow. McClintock

merely wants a pretext to drag in a plagiarism of his upon a scene or

two in "Othello."



The lovers went to the play. Elfonzo was one of the fiddlers. He and

Ambulinia must not be seen together, lest trouble follow with the girl's

malignant father; we are made to understand that clearly. So the two sit

together in the orchestra, in the midst of the musicians. This does not

seem to be good art. In the first place, the girl would be in the way,

for orchestras are always packed closely together, and there is no room

to spare for people's girls; in the next place, one cannot conceal a

girl in an orchestra without everybody taking notice of it. There can be

no doubt, it seems to me, that this is bad art.



Leos is present. Of course, one of the first things that catches his eye

is the maddening spectacle of Ambulinia "leaning upon Elfonzo's chair."

 This poor girl does not seem to understand even the rudiments of

concealment. But she is "in her seventeenth," as the author phrases it,

and that is her justification.



Leos meditates, constructs a plan--with personal violence as a basis,

of course. It was their way down there. It is a good plain plan, without

any imagination in it. He will go out and stand at the front door, and

when these two come out he will "arrest Ambulinia from the hands of the

insolent Elfonzo," and thus make for himself a "more prosperous field of

immortality than ever was decreed by Omnipotence, or ever pencil drew

or artist imagined." But, dear me, while he is waiting there the couple

climb out at the back window and scurry home! This is romantic enough,

but there is a lack of dignity in the situation.



At this point McClintock puts in the whole of his curious play--which we

skip.



Some correspondence follows now. The bitter father and the distressed

lovers write the letters. Elopements are attempted. They are idiotically

planned, and they fail. Then we have several pages of romantic powwow

and confusion signifying nothing. Another elopement is planned; it is to

take place on Sunday, when everybody is at church. But the "hero" cannot

keep the secret; he tells everybody. Another author would have found

another instrument when he decided to defeat this elopement; but that is

not McClintock's way. He uses the person that is nearest at hand.



The evasion failed, of course. Ambulinia, in her flight, takes refuge

in a neighbor's house. Her father drags her home. The villagers gather,

attracted by the racket.



Elfonzo was moved at this sight. The people followed on to see what was

going to become of Ambulinia, while he, with downcast looks, kept at

a distance, until he saw them enter the abode of the father, thrusting

her, that was the sigh of his soul, out of his presence into a solitary

apartment, when she exclaimed, "Elfonzo! Elfonzo! oh, Elfonzo! where

art thou, with all thy heroes? haste, oh! haste, come thou to my relief.

Ride on the wings of the wind! Turn thy force loose like a tempest, and

roll on thy army like a whirlwind, over this mountain of trouble and

confusion. Oh friends! if any pity me, let your last efforts throng upon

the green hills, and come to the relief of Ambulinia, who is guilty of

nothing but innocent love." Elfonzo called out with a loud voice, "My

God, can I stand this! arouse up, I beseech you, and put an end to this

tyranny. Come, my brave boys," said he, "are you ready to go forth to

your duty?" They stood around him. "Who," said he, "will call us to

arms? Where are my thunderbolts of war? Speak ye, the first who will

meet the foe! Who will go forward with me in this ocean of grievous

temptation? If there is one who desires to go, let him come and shake

hands upon the altar of devotion, and swear that he will be a hero; yes,

a Hector in a cause like this, which calls aloud for a speedy remedy."

 "Mine be the deed," said a young lawyer, "and mine alone; Venus alone

shall quit her station before I will forsake one jot or tittle of my

promise to you; what is death to me? what is all this warlike army,

if it is not to win a victory? I love the sleep of the lover and the

mighty; nor would I give it over till the blood of my enemies should

wreak with that of my own. But God forbid that our fame should soar

on the blood of the slumberer." Mr. Valeer stands at his door with the

frown of a demon upon his brow, with his dangerous weapon (3) ready to

strike the first man who should enter his door. "Who will arise and go

forward through blood and carnage to the rescue of my Ambulinia?" said

Elfonzo. "All," exclaimed the multitude; and onward they went, with

their implements of battle. Others, of a more timid nature, stood among

the distant hills to see the result of the contest.



It will hardly be believed that after all this thunder and lightning not

a drop of rain fell; but such is the fact. Elfonzo and his gang stood up

and black-guarded Mr. Valeer with vigor all night, getting their outlay

back with interest; then in the early morning the army and its general

retired from the field, leaving the victory with their solitary

adversary and his crowbar. This is the first time this has happened in

romantic literature. The invention is original. Everything in this book

is original; there is nothing hackneyed about it anywhere. Always, in

other romances, when you find the author leading up to a climax, you

know what is going to happen. But in this book it is different; the

thing which seems inevitable and unavoidable never happens; it is

circumvented by the art of the author every time.



Another elopement was attempted. It failed.



We have now arrived at the end. But it is not exciting. McClintock

thinks it is; but it isn't. One day Elfonzo sent Ambulinia another

note--a note proposing elopement No. 16. This time the plan is

admirable; admirable, sagacious, ingenious, imaginative, deep--oh,

everything, and perfectly easy. One wonders why it was never thought of

before. This is the scheme. Ambulinia is to leave the breakfast-table,

ostensibly to "attend to the placing of those flowers, which should have

been done a week ago"--artificial ones, of course; the others wouldn't

keep so long--and then, instead of fixing the flowers, she is to walk

out to the grove, and go off with Elfonzo. The invention of this plan

overstrained the author that is plain, for he straightway shows failing

powers. The details of the plan are not many or elaborate. The author

shall state them himself--this good soul, whose intentions are always

better than his English:



"You walk carelessly toward the academy grove, where you will find me

with a lightning steed, elegantly equipped to bear you off where we

shall be joined in wedlock with the first connubial rights."



Last scene of all, which the author, now much enfeebled, tries to

smarten up and make acceptable to his spectacular heart by introducing

some new properties--silver bow, golden harp, olive branch--things that

can all come good in an elopement, no doubt, yet are not to be compared

to an umbrella for real handiness and reliability in an excursion of

that kind.



And away she ran to the sacred grove, surrounded with glittering pearls,

that indicated her coming. Elfonzo hails her with his silver bow and his

golden harp. They meet--Ambulinia's countenance brightens--Elfonzo leads

up the winged steed. "Mount," said he, "ye true-hearted, ye fearless

soul--the day is ours." She sprang upon the back of the young

thunderbolt, a brilliant star sparkles upon her head, with one hand she

grasps the reins, and with the other she holds an olive branch. "Lend

thy aid, ye strong winds," they exclaimed, "ye moon, ye sun, and all ye

fair host of heaven, witness the enemy conquered." "Hold," said Elfonzo,

"thy dashing steed." "Ride on," said Ambulinia, "the voice of thunder is

behind us." And onward they went, with such rapidity that they very soon

arrived at Rural Retreat, where they dismounted, and were united with

all the solemnities that usually attended such divine operations.



There is but one Homer, there is but one Shakespeare, there is but one

McClintock--and his immortal book is before you. Homer could not have

written this book, Shakespeare could not have written it, I could not

have done it myself. There is nothing just like it in the literature of

any country or of any epoch. It stands alone; it is monumental. It

adds G. Ragsdale McClintock's to the sum of the republic's imperishable

names.



1. The name here given is a substitute for the one actually attached to

the pamphlet.



2. Further on it will be seen that he is a country expert on the fiddle,

and has a three-township fame.



3. It is a crowbar.



		

		

		

		  

ADVICE TO LITTLE GIRLS

		

		

		

Good little girls ought not to make mouths at their teachers for every

trifling offense. This retaliation should only be resorted to under

peculiarly aggravated circumstances.



If you have nothing but a rag-doll stuffed with sawdust, while one of

your more fortunate little playmates has a costly China one, you should

treat her with a show of kindness nevertheless. And you ought not to

attempt to make a forcible swap with her unless your conscience would

justify you in it, and you know you are able to do it.



You ought never to take your little brother's "chewing-gum" away from

him by main force; it is better to rope him in with the promise of

the first two dollars and a half you find floating down the river on a

grindstone. In the artless simplicity natural to this time of life, he

will regard it as a perfectly fair transaction. In all ages of the

world this eminently plausible fiction has lured the obtuse infant to

financial ruin and disaster.



If at any time you find it necessary to correct your brother, do not

correct him with mud--never, on any account, throw mud at him, because

it will spoil his clothes. It is better to scald him a little, for then

you obtain desirable results. You secure his immediate attention to the

lessons you are inculcating, and at the same time your hot water will

have a tendency to move impurities from his person, and possibly the

skin, in spots.



If your mother tells you to do a thing, it is wrong to reply that you

won't. It is better and more becoming to intimate that you will do as

she bids you, and then afterward act quietly in the matter according to

the dictates of your best judgment.



You should ever bear in mind that it is to your kind parents that you

are indebted for your food, and for the privilege of staying home from

school when you let on that you are sick. Therefore you ought to respect

their little prejudices, and humor their little whims, and put up with

their little foibles until they get to crowding you too much.



Good little girls always show marked deference for the aged. You ought

never to "sass" old people unless they "sass" you first.

		

		

		

		  

A HELPLESS SITUATION

		

		

		

Once or twice a year I get a letter of a certain pattern, a pattern that

never materially changes, in form and substance, yet I cannot get used

to that letter--it always astonishes me. It affects me as the locomotive

always affects me: I say to myself, "I have seen you a thousand times,

you always look the same way, yet you are always a wonder, and you are

always impossible; to contrive you is clearly beyond human genius--you

can't exist, you don't exist, yet here you are!"



I have a letter of that kind by me, a very old one. I yearn to print it,

and where is the harm? The writer of it is dead years ago, no doubt, and

if I conceal her name and address--her this-world address--I am sure

her shade will not mind. And with it I wish to print the answer which

I wrote at the time but probably did not send. If it went--which is not

likely--it went in the form of a copy, for I find the original still

here, pigeonholed with the said letter. To that kind of letters we all

write answers which we do not send, fearing to hurt where we have no

desire to hurt; I have done it many a time, and this is doubtless a case

of the sort.



THE LETTER



X------, California, JUNE 3, 1879.



Mr. S. L. Clemens, HARTFORD, CONN.:



Dear Sir,--You will doubtless be surprised to know who has presumed to

write and ask a favor of you. Let your memory go back to your days in

the Humboldt mines--'62-'63. You will remember, you and Clagett and

Oliver and the old blacksmith Tillou lived in a lean-to which was

half-way up the gulch, and there were six log cabins in the camp--strung

pretty well separated up the gulch from its mouth at the desert to where

the last claim was, at the divide. The lean-to you lived in was the one

with a canvas roof that the cow fell down through one night, as told

about by you in _Roughing It_--my uncle Simmons remembers it very well.

He lived in the principal cabin, half-way up the divide, along with

Dixon and Parker and Smith. It had two rooms, one for kitchen and the

other for bunks, and was the only one that had. You and your party

were there on the great night, the time they had dried-apple-pie, Uncle

Simmons often speaks of it. It seems curious that dried-apple-pie

should have seemed such a great thing, but it was, and it shows how far

Humboldt was out of the world and difficult to get to, and how slim the

regular bill of fare was. Sixteen years ago--it is a long time. I was a

little girl then, only fourteen. I never saw you, I lived in Washoe. But

Uncle Simmons ran across you every now and then, all during those weeks

that you and party were there working your claim which was like the

rest. The camp played out long and long ago, there wasn't silver enough

in it to make a button. You never saw my husband, but he was there after

you left, _and lived in that very lean-to_, a bachelor then but married

to me now. He often wishes there had been a photographer there in

those days, he would have taken the lean-to. He got hurt in the old Hal

Clayton claim that was abandoned like the others, putting in a blast and

not climbing out quick enough, though he scrambled the best he could.

It landed him clear down on the train and hit a Piute. For weeks they

thought he would not get over it but he did, and is all right, now. Has

been ever since. This is a long introduction but it is the only way

I can make myself known. The favor I ask I feel assured your generous

heart will grant: Give me some advice about a book I have written. I do

not claim anything for it only it is mostly true and as interesting as

most of the books of the times. I am unknown in the literary world and

you know what that means unless one has some one of influence (like

yourself) to help you by speaking a good word for you. I would like to

place the book on royalty basis plan with any one you would suggest.



This is a secret from my husband and family. I intend it as a surprise

in case I get it published.



Feeling you will take an interest in this and if possible write me a

letter to some publisher, or, better still, if you could see them for me

and then let me hear.



I appeal to you to grant me this favor. With deepest gratitude I think

you for your attention.



One knows, without inquiring, that the twin of that embarrassing letter

is forever and ever flying in this and that and the other direction

across the continent in the mails, daily, nightly, hourly, unceasingly,

unrestingly. It goes to every well-known merchant, and railway official,

and manufacturer, and capitalist, and Mayor, and Congressman, and

Governor, and editor, and publisher, and author, and broker, and

banker--in a word, to every person who is supposed to have "influence."

 It always follows the one pattern: "You do not know me, _but you once

knew a relative of mine,_" etc., etc. We should all like to help the

applicants, we should all be glad to do it, we should all like to return

the sort of answer that is desired, but--Well, there is not a thing we

can do that would be a help, for not in any instance does that latter

ever come from anyone who _can _be helped. The struggler whom you _could

_help does his own helping; it would not occur to him to apply to you,

stranger. He has talent and knows it, and he goes into his fight eagerly

and with energy and determination--all alone, preferring to be alone.

That pathetic letter which comes to you from the incapable, the

unhelpable--how do you who are familiar with it answer it? What do you

find to say? You do not want to inflict a wound; you hunt ways to avoid

that. What do you find? How do you get out of your hard place with a

content conscience? Do you try to explain? The old reply of mine to such

a letter shows that I tried that once. Was I satisfied with the result?

Possibly; and possibly not; probably not; almost certainly not. I have

long ago forgotten all about it. But, anyway, I append my effort:



THE REPLY



I know Mr. H., and I will go to him, dear madam, if upon reflection you

find you still desire it. There will be a conversation. I know the form

it will take. It will be like this:



MR. H. How do her books strike you?



MR. CLEMENS. I am not acquainted with them.



H. Who has been her publisher?



C. I don't know.



H. She _has _one, I suppose?



C. I--I think not.



H. Ah. You think this is her first book?



C. Yes--I suppose so. I think so.



H. What is it about? What is the character of it?



C. I believe I do not know.



H. Have you seen it?



C. Well--no, I haven't.



H. Ah-h. How long have you known her?



C. I don't know her.



H. Don't know her?



C. No.



H. Ah-h. How did you come to be interested in her book, then?



C. Well, she--she wrote and asked me to find a publisher for her, and

mentioned you.



H. Why should she apply to you instead of me?



C. She wished me to use my influence.



H. Dear me, what has _influence _to do with such a matter?



C. Well, I think she thought you would be more likely to examine her

book if you were influenced.



H. Why, what we are here _for _is to examine books--anybody's book

that comes along. It's our _business_. Why should we turn away a book

unexamined because it's a stranger's? It would be foolish. No publisher

does it. On what ground did she request your influence, since you do not

know her? She must have thought you knew her literature and could speak

for it. Is that it?



C. No; she knew I didn't.



H. Well, what then? She had a reason of _some _sort for believing you

competent to recommend her literature, and also under obligations to do

it?



C. Yes, I--I knew her uncle.



H. Knew her _uncle_?



C. Yes.



H. Upon my word! So, you knew her uncle; her uncle knows her literature;

he endorses it to you; the chain is complete, nothing further needed;

you are satisfied, and therefore--



C._ No_, that isn't all, there are other ties. I know the cabin her

uncle lived in, in the mines; I knew his partners, too; also I came

near knowing her husband before she married him, and I _did _know the

abandoned shaft where a premature blast went off and he went flying

through the air and clear down to the trail and hit an Indian in the

back with almost fatal consequences.



H. To _him_, or to the Indian?



C. She didn't say which it was.



H. (_With a sigh_). It certainly beats the band! You don't know _her_,

you don't know her literature, you don't know who got hurt when the

blast went off, you don't know a single thing for us to build an

estimate of her book upon, so far as I--



C. I knew her uncle. You are forgetting her uncle.



H. Oh, what use is_ he_? Did you know him long? How long was it?



C. Well, I don't know that I really knew him, but I must have met him,

anyway. I think it was that way; you can't tell about these things, you

know, except when they are recent.



H. Recent? When was all this?



C. Sixteen years ago.



H. What a basis to judge a book upon! As first you said you knew him,

and now you don't know whether you did or not.



C. Oh yes, I know him; anyway, I think I thought I did; I'm perfectly

certain of it.



H. What makes you think you thought you knew him?



C. Why, she says I did, herself.



H._ She_ says so!



C. Yes, she does, and I _did _know him, too, though I don't remember it

now.



H. Come--how can you know it when you don't remember it.



C. _I_ don't know. That is, I don't know the process, but I_ do_ know

lots of things that I don't remember, and remember lots of things that I

don't know. It's so with every educated person.



H. (_After a pause_). Is your time valuable?



C. No--well, not very.



H. Mine is.



So I came away then, because he was looking tired. Overwork, I reckon; I

never do that; I have seen the evil effects of it. My mother was always

afraid I would overwork myself, but I never did.



Dear madam, you see how it would happen if I went there. He would ask

me those questions, and I would try to answer them to suit him, and he

would hunt me here and there and yonder and get me embarrassed more

and more all the time, and at last he would look tired on account of

overwork, and there it would end and nothing done. I wish I could be

useful to you, but, you see, they do not care for uncles or any of those

things; it doesn't move them, it doesn't have the least effect, they

don't care for anything but the literature itself, and they as good as

despise influence. But they do care for books, and are eager to get them

and examine them, no matter whence they come, nor from whose pen. If you

will send yours to a publisher--any publisher--he will certainly examine

it, I can assure you of that.





		

		

		

		  

A HUMANE WORD FROM SATAN

		

		

		

(The following letter, signed by Satan and purporting to come from

him, we have reason to believe was not written by him, but by Mark

Twain.--Editor.)



TO THE EDITOR OF HARPER'S WEEKLY:



Dear Sir and Kinsman,--Let us have done with this frivolous talk.

The American Board accepts contributions from me every year: then why

shouldn't it from Mr. Rockefeller? In all the ages, three-fourths of the

support of the great charities has been conscience-money, as my books

will show: then what becomes of the sting when that term is applied to

Mr. Rockefeller's gift? The American Board's trade is financed mainly

from the graveyards. Bequests, you understand. Conscience-money.

Confession of an old crime and deliberate perpetration of a new one;

for deceased's contribution is a robbery of his heirs. Shall the Board

decline bequests because they stand for one of these offenses every time

and generally for both?



Allow me to continue. The charge most persistently and resentfully

and remorselessly dwelt upon is that Mr. Rockefeller's contribution is

incurably tainted by perjury--perjury proved against him in the courts.

_It makes us smile_--down in my place! Because there isn't a rich man

in your vast city who doesn't perjure himself every year before the tax

board. They are all caked with perjury, many layers thick. Iron-clad,

so to speak. If there is one that isn't, I desire to acquire him for my

museum, and will pay Dinosaur rates. Will you say it isn't infraction

of the law, but only annual evasion of it? Comfort yourselves with that

nice distinction if you like--_for the present_. But by and by, when

you arrive, I will show you something interesting: a whole hell-full

of evaders! Sometimes a frank law-breaker turns up elsewhere, but I get

those others every time.



To return to my muttons. I wish you to remember that my rich perjurers

are contributing to the American Board with frequency: it is money

filched from the sworn-off personal tax; therefore it is the wages of

sin; therefore it is my money; therefore it is _I_ that contribute it;

and, finally, it is therefore as I have said: since the Board daily

accepts contributions from me, why should it decline them from Mr.

Rockefeller, who is as good as I am, let the courts say what they may?



Satan.



		

		

		

		  

A LETTER TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY

		

		

		

Riverdale-on-the-Hudson, OCTOBER 15, 1902.



_The Hon. The Secretary Of The Treasury,_ WASHINGTON, D. C.:



Sir,--Prices for the customary kinds of winter fuel having reached

an altitude which puts them out of the reach of literary persons in

straitened circumstances, I desire to place with you the following

order:



Forty-five tons best old dry government bonds, suitable for furnace,

gold 7 per cents., 1864, preferred.



Twelve tons early greenbacks, range size, suitable for cooking.



Eight barrels seasoned 25 and 50 cent postal currency, vintage of 1866,

eligible for kindlings.



Please deliver with all convenient despatch at my house in Riverdale at

lowest rates for spot cash, and send bill to



Your obliged servant,



Mark Twain, Who will be very grateful, and will vote right.

		

		

		

		  

AMENDED OBITUARIES

		

		

		

TO THE EDITOR:



Sir,--I am approaching seventy; it is in sight; it is only three years

away. Necessarily, I must go soon. It is but matter-of-course wisdom,

then, that I should begin to set my worldly house in order now, so that

it may be done calmly and with thoroughness, in place of waiting until

the last day, when, as we have often seen, the attempt to set both

houses in order at the same time has been marred by the necessity for

haste and by the confusion and waste of time arising from the inability

of the notary and the ecclesiastic to work together harmoniously, taking

turn about and giving each other friendly assistance--not perhaps in

fielding, which could hardly be expected, but at least in the minor

offices of keeping game and umpiring; by consequence of which conflict

of interests and absence of harmonious action a draw has frequently

resulted where this ill-fortune could not have happened if the houses

had been set in order one at a time and hurry avoided by beginning in

season, and giving to each the amount of time fairly and justly proper

to it.



In setting my earthly house in order I find it of moment that I should

attend in person to one or two matters which men in my position have

long had the habit of leaving wholly to others, with consequences often

most regrettable. I wish to speak of only one of these matters at this

time: Obituaries. Of necessity, an Obituary is a thing which cannot be

so judiciously edited by any hand as by that of the subject of it. In

such a work it is not the Facts that are of chief importance, but the

light which the obituarist shall throw upon them, the meaning which he

shall dress them in, the conclusions which he shall draw from them,

and the judgments which he shall deliver upon them. The Verdicts, you

understand: that is the danger-line.



In considering this matter, in view of my approaching change, it has

seemed to me wise to take such measures as may be feasible, to acquire,

by courtesy of the press, access to my standing obituaries, with the

privilege--if this is not asking too much--of editing, not their Facts,

but their Verdicts. This, not for the present profit, further than as

concerns my family, but as a favorable influence usable on the Other

Side, where there are some who are not friendly to me.



With this explanation of my motives, I will now ask you of your courtesy

to make an appeal for me to the public press. It is my desire that

such journals and periodicals as have obituaries of me lying in their

pigeonholes, with a view to sudden use some day, will not wait longer,

but will publish them now, and kindly send me a marked copy. My address

is simply New York City--I have no other that is permanent and not

transient.



I will correct them--not the Facts, but the Verdicts--striking out such

clauses as could have a deleterious influence on the Other Side, and

replacing them with clauses of a more judicious character. I should,

of course, expect to pay double rates for both the omissions and the

substitutions; and I should also expect to pay quadruple rates for

all obituaries which proved to be rightly and wisely worded in the

originals, thus requiring no emendations at all.



It is my desire to leave these Amended Obituaries neatly bound behind

me as a perennial consolation and entertainment to my family, and as an

heirloom which shall have a mournful but definite commercial value for

my remote posterity.



I beg, sir, that you will insert this Advertisement (1t-eow, agate,

inside), and send the bill to



Yours very respectfully.



Mark Twain.



P.S.--For the best Obituary--one suitable for me to read in public, and

calculated to inspire regret--I desire to offer a Prize, consisting of

a Portrait of me done entirely by myself in pen and ink without previous

instructions. The ink warranted to be the kind used by the very best

artists.

		

		

		

		  

A MONUMENT TO ADAM

		

		

		

Some one has revealed to the _Tribune _that I once suggested to Rev.

Thomas K. Beecher, of Elmira, New York, that we get up a monument to

Adam, and that Mr. Beecher favored the project. There is more to it

than that. The matter started as a joke, but it came somewhat near to

materializing.



It is long ago--thirty years. Mr. Darwin's _Descent of Man_ has been in

print five or six years, and the storm of indignation raised by it was

still raging in pulpits and periodicals. In tracing the genesis of the

human race back to its sources, Mr. Darwin had left Adam out altogether.

We had monkeys, and "missing links," and plenty of other kinds of

ancestors, but no Adam. Jesting with Mr. Beecher and other friends in

Elmira, I said there seemed to be a likelihood that the world would

discard Adam and accept the monkey, and that in the course of time

Adam's very name would be forgotten in the earth; therefore this

calamity ought to be averted; a monument would accomplish this, and

Elmira ought not to waste this honorable opportunity to do Adam a favor

and herself a credit.



Then the unexpected happened. Two bankers came forward and took hold of

the matter--not for fun, not for sentiment, but because they saw in the

monument certain commercial advantages for the town. The project had

seemed gently humorous before--it was more than that now, with this

stern business gravity injected into it. The bankers discussed the

monument with me. We met several times. They proposed an indestructible

memorial, to cost twenty-five thousand dollars. The insane oddity of a

monument set up in a village to preserve a name that would outlast the

hills and the rocks without any such help, would advertise Elmira to the

ends of the earth--and draw custom. It would be the only monument on the

planet to Adam, and in the matter of interest and impressiveness could

never have a rival until somebody should set up a monument to the Milky

Way.



People would come from every corner of the globe and stop off to look

at it, no tour of the world would be complete that left out Adam's

monument. Elmira would be a Mecca; there would be pilgrim ships at

pilgrim rates, pilgrim specials on the continent's railways; libraries

would be written about the monument, every tourist would kodak it,

models of it would be for sale everywhere in the earth, its form would

become as familiar as the figure of Napoleon.



One of the bankers subscribed five thousand dollars, and I think the

other one subscribed half as much, but I do not remember with certainty

now whether that was the figure or not. We got designs made--some of

them came from Paris.



In the beginning--as a detail of the project when it was yet a joke--I

had framed a humble and beseeching and perfervid petition to Congress

begging the government to build the monument, as a testimony of the

Great Republic's gratitude to the Father of the Human Race and as a

token of her loyalty to him in this dark day of humiliation when his

older children were doubting and deserting him. It seemed to me that

this petition ought to be presented, now--it would be widely and

feelingly abused and ridiculed and cursed, and would advertise our

scheme and make our ground-floor stock go off briskly. So I sent it

to General Joseph R. Hawley, who was then in the House, and he said he

would present it. But he did not do it. I think he explained that when

he came to read it he was afraid of it: it was too serious, to gushy,

too sentimental--the House might take it for earnest.



We ought to have carried out our monument scheme; we could have managed

it without any great difficulty, and Elmira would now be the most

celebrated town in the universe.



Very recently I began to build a book in which one of the minor

characters touches incidentally upon a project for a monument to Adam,

and now the _Tribune _has come upon a trace of the forgotten jest of

thirty years ago. Apparently mental telegraphy is still in business. It

is odd; but the freaks of mental telegraphy are usually odd.



		

		

		

		  

AN ENTERTAINING ARTICLE

		

		

		

I take the following paragraph from an article in the Boston

_Advertiser_:



AN ENGLISH CRITIC ON MARK TWAIN



Perhaps the most successful flights of humor of Mark Twain have been

descriptions of the persons who did not appreciate his humor at all. We

have become familiar with the Californians who were thrilled with terror

by his burlesque of a newspaper reporter's way of telling a story,

and we have heard of the Pennsylvania clergyman who sadly returned his

_Innocents Abroad_ to the book-agent with the remark that "the man who

could shed tears over the tomb of Adam must be an idiot." But Mark Twain

may now add a much more glorious instance to his string of trophies.

The _Saturday Review,_ in its number of October 8th, reviews his book

of travels, which has been republished in England, and reviews it

seriously. We can imagine the delight of the humorist in reading this

tribute to his power; and indeed it is so amusing in itself that he can

hardly do better than reproduce the article in full in his next monthly

Memoranda.



(Publishing the above paragraph thus, gives me a sort of authority for

reproducing the _Saturday Review's_ article in full in these pages. I

dearly wanted to do it, for I cannot write anything half so delicious

myself. If I had a cast-iron dog that could read this English criticism

and preserve his austerity, I would drive him off the door-step.)



(From the London "Saturday Review.")



REVIEWS OF NEW BOOKS



_The Innocents Abroad_. A Book of Travels. By Mark Twain. London:

Hotten, publisher. 1870.



Lord Macaulay died too soon. We never felt this so deeply as when we

finished the last chapter of the above-named extravagant work. Macaulay

died too soon--for none but he could mete out complete and comprehensive

justice to the insolence, the impertinence, the presumption, the

mendacity, and, above all, the majestic ignorance of this author.



To say that _The Innocents Abroad_ is a curious book, would be to use

the faintest language--would be to speak of the Matterhorn as a neat

elevation or of Niagara as being "nice" or "pretty." "Curious" is too

tame a word wherewith to describe the imposing insanity of this work.

There is no word that is large enough or long enough. Let us, therefore,

photograph a passing glimpse of book and author, and trust the rest to

the reader. Let the cultivated English student of human nature

picture to himself this Mark Twain as a person capable of doing the

following-described things--and not only doing them, but with incredible

innocence _printing them_ calmly and tranquilly in a book. For instance:



He states that he entered a hair-dresser's in Paris to get shaved, and

the first "rake" the barber gave him with his razor it _loosened his

"hide"_ and _lifted him out of the chair._



This is unquestionably exaggerated. In Florence he was so annoyed by

beggars that he pretends to have seized and eaten one in a frantic

spirit of revenge. There is, of course, no truth in this. He gives at

full length a theatrical program seventeen or eighteen hundred years

old, which he professes to have found in the ruins of the Coliseum,

among the dirt and mold and rubbish. It is a sufficient comment upon

this statement to remark that even a cast-iron program would not have

lasted so long under such circumstances. In Greece he plainly betrays

both fright and flight upon one occasion, but with frozen effrontery

puts the latter in this falsely tamed form: "We _sidled _toward the

Piraeus." "Sidled," indeed! He does not hesitate to intimate that at

Ephesus, when his mule strayed from the proper course, he got down, took

him under his arm, carried him to the road again, pointed him right,

remounted, and went to sleep contentedly till it was time to restore the

beast to the path once more. He states that a growing youth among his

ship's passengers was in the constant habit of appeasing his hunger with

soap and oakum between meals. In Palestine he tells of ants that

came eleven miles to spend the summer in the desert and brought their

provisions with them; yet he shows by his description of the country

that the feat was an impossibility. He mentions, as if it were the most

commonplace of matters, that he cut a Moslem in two in broad daylight

in Jerusalem, with Godfrey de Bouillon's sword, and would have shed

more blood _if he had had a graveyard of his own._ These statements are

unworthy a moment's attention. Mr. Twain or any other foreigner who did

such a thing in Jerusalem would be mobbed, and would infallibly lose his

life. But why go on? Why repeat more of his audacious and exasperating

falsehoods? Let us close fittingly with this one: he affirms that "in

the mosque of St. Sophia at Constantinople I got my feet so stuck up

with a complication of gums, slime, and general impurity, that I wore

out more than two thousand pair of bootjacks getting my boots off that

night, and even then some Christian hide peeled off with them." It is

monstrous. Such statements are simply lies--there is no other name

for them. Will the reader longer marvel at the brutal ignorance that

pervades the American nation when we tell him that we are informed

upon perfectly good authority that this extravagant compilation of

falsehoods, this exhaustless mine of stupendous lies, this _Innocents

Abroad_, has actually been adopted by the schools and colleges of

several of the states as a text-book!



But if his falsehoods are distressing, his innocence and his ignorance

are enough to make one burn the book and despise the author. In one

place he was so appalled at the sudden spectacle of a murdered man,

unveiled by the moonlight, that he jumped out of the window, going

through sash and all, and then remarks with the most childlike

simplicity that he "was not scared, but was considerably agitated."

 It puts us out of patience to note that the simpleton is densely

unconscious that Lucrezia Borgia ever existed off the stage. He is

vulgarly ignorant of all foreign languages, but is frank enough to

criticize, the Italians' use of their own tongue. He says they spell the

name of their great painter "Vinci, but pronounce it Vinchy"--and then

adds with a naivete possible only to helpless ignorance, "foreigners

always spell better than they pronounce." In another place he commits

the bald absurdity of putting the phrase "tare an ouns" into an

Italian's mouth. In Rome he unhesitatingly believes the legend that St.

Philip Neri's heart was so inflamed with divine love that it burst

his ribs--believes it wholly because an author with a learned list of

university degrees strung after his name endorses it--"otherwise," says

this gentle idiot, "I should have felt a curiosity to know what Philip

had for dinner." Our author makes a long, fatiguing journey to the

Grotto del Cane on purpose to test its poisoning powers on a dog--got

elaborately ready for the experiment, and then discovered that he had no

dog. A wiser person would have kept such a thing discreetly to himself,

but with this harmless creature everything comes out. He hurts his foot

in a rut two thousand years old in exhumed Pompeii, and presently, when

staring at one of the cinder-like corpses unearthed in the next square,

conceives the idea that maybe it is the remains of the ancient Street

Commissioner, and straightway his horror softens down to a sort of

chirpy contentment with the condition of things. In Damascus he visits

the well of Ananias, three thousand years old, and is as surprised and

delighted as a child to find that the water is "as pure and fresh as if

the well had been dug yesterday." In the Holy Land he gags desperately

at the hard Arabic and Hebrew Biblical names, and finally concludes to

call them Baldwinsville, Williamsburgh, and so on, "for convenience of

spelling."



We have thus spoken freely of this man's stupefying simplicity and

innocence, but we cannot deal similarly with his colossal ignorance. We

do not know where to begin. And if we knew where to begin, we certainly

would not know where to leave off. We will give one specimen, and one

only. He did not know, until he got to Rome, that Michael Angelo

was dead! And then, instead of crawling away and hiding his shameful

ignorance somewhere, he proceeds to express a pious, grateful sort of

satisfaction that he is gone and out of his troubles!



No, the reader may seek out the author's exhibition of his uncultivation

for himself. The book is absolutely dangerous, considering the magnitude

and variety of its misstatements, and the convincing confidence with

which they are made. And yet it is a text-book in the schools of

America.



The poor blunderer mouses among the sublime creations of the Old

Masters, trying to acquire the elegant proficiency in art-knowledge,

which he has a groping sort of comprehension is a proper thing for a

traveled man to be able to display. But what is the manner of his study?

And what is the progress he achieves? To what extent does he

familiarize himself with the great pictures of Italy, and what degree of

appreciation does he arrive at? Read:



"When we see a monk going about with a lion and looking up into heaven,

we know that that is St. Mark. When we see a monk with a book and a pen,

looking tranquilly up to heaven, trying to think of a word, we know

that that is St. Matthew. When we see a monk sitting on a rock, looking

tranquilly up to heaven, with a human skull beside him, and without

other baggage, we know that that is St. Jerome. Because we know that

he always went flying light in the matter of baggage. When we see other

monks looking tranquilly up to heaven, but having no trade-mark, we

always ask who those parties are. We do this because we humbly wish to

learn."



He then enumerates the thousands and thousand of copies of these several

pictures which he has seen, and adds with accustomed simplicity that he

feels encouraged to believe that when he has seen "Some More" of each,

and had a larger experience, he will eventually "begin to take an

absorbing interest in them"--the vulgar boor.



That we have shown this to be a remarkable book, we think no one

will deny. That it is a pernicious book to place in the hands of the

confiding and uniformed, we think we have also shown. That the book is

a deliberate and wicked creation of a diseased mind, is apparent upon

every page. Having placed our judgment thus upon record, let us close

with what charity we can, by remarking that even in this volume there is

some good to be found; for whenever the author talks of his own country

and lets Europe alone, he never fails to make himself interesting, and

not only interesting but instructive. No one can read without benefit

his occasional chapters and paragraphs, about life in the gold and

silver mines of California and Nevada; about the Indians of the plains

and deserts of the West, and their cannibalism; about the raising of

vegetables in kegs of gunpowder by the aid of two or three teaspoons of

guano; about the moving of small arms from place to place at night in

wheelbarrows to avoid taxes; and about a sort of cows and mules in

the Humboldt mines, that climb down chimneys and disturb the people at

night. These matters are not only new, but are well worth knowing. It is

a pity the author did not put in more of the same kind. His book is well

written and is exceedingly entertaining, and so it just barely escaped

being quite valuable also.



(One month later)



Latterly I have received several letters, and see a number of newspaper

paragraphs, all upon a certain subject, and all of about the same tenor.

I here give honest specimens. One is from a New York paper, one is from

a letter from an old friend, and one is from a letter from a New York

publisher who is a stranger to me. I humbly endeavor to make these bits

toothsome with the remark that the article they are praising (which

appeared in the December _Galaxy_, and _pretended _to be a criticism

from the London _Saturday Review_ on my _Innocents Abroad_) _was written

by myself, every line of it_:



The _Herald _says the richest thing out is the "serious critique" in the

London _Saturday Review_, on Mark Twain's _Innocents Abroad_. We thought

before we read it that it must be "serious," as everybody said so, and

were even ready to shed a few tears; but since perusing it, we are bound

to confess that next to Mark Twain's "_Jumping Frog_" it's the finest

bit of humor and sarcasm that we've come across in many a day.



(I do not get a compliment like that every day.)



I used to think that your writings were pretty good, but after reading

the criticism in _The Galaxy_ from the _London Review_, have discovered

what an ass I must have been. If suggestions are in order, mine is,

that you put that article in your next edition of the _Innocents_, as

an extra chapter, if you are not afraid to put your own humor in

competition with it. It is as rich a thing as I ever read.



(Which is strong commendation from a book publisher.)

The London Reviewer, my friend, is not the stupid, "serious" creature he

pretends to be, _I_ think; but, on the contrary, has a keen appreciation

and enjoyment of your book. As I read his article in _The Galaxy_, I

could imagine him giving vent to many a hearty laugh. But he is writing

for Catholics and Established Church people, and high-toned, antiquated,

conservative gentility, whom it is a delight to him to help you shock,

while he pretends to shake his head with owlish density. He is a

magnificent humorist himself.



(Now that is graceful and handsome. I take off my hat to my life-long

friend and comrade, and with my feet together and my fingers spread over

my heart, I say, in the language of Alabama, "You do me proud.")



I stand guilty of the authorship of the article, but I did not mean any

harm. I saw by an item in the Boston _Advertiser_ that a solemn, serious

critique on the English edition of my book had appeared in the London

_Saturday Review_, and the idea of _such _a literary breakfast by a

stolid, ponderous British ogre of the quill was too much for a naturally

weak virtue, and I went home and burlesqued it--reveled in it, I may

say. I never saw a copy of the real _Saturday Review_ criticism until

after my burlesque was written and mailed to the printer. But when I

did get hold of a copy, I found it to be vulgar, awkwardly written,

ill-natured, and entirely serious and in earnest. The gentleman who

wrote the newspaper paragraph above quoted had not been misled as to its

character.



If any man doubts my word now, I will kill him. No, I will not kill him;

I will win his money. I will bet him twenty to one, and let any New York

publisher hold the stakes, that the statements I have above made as to

the authorship of the article in question are entirely true. Perhaps

I may get wealthy at this, for I am willing to take all the bets that

offer; and if a man wants larger odds, I will give him all he requires.

But he ought to find out whether I am betting on what is termed "a sure

thing" or not before he ventures his money, and he can do that by

going to a public library and examining the London _Saturday Review_ of

October 8th, which contains the real critique.



Bless me, some people thought that _I_ was the "sold" person!



P.S.--I cannot resist the temptation to toss in this most savory thing

of all--this easy, graceful, philosophical disquisition, with his happy,

chirping confidence. It is from the Cincinnati _Enquirer_:



Nothing is more uncertain than the value of a fine cigar. Nine smokers

out of ten would prefer an ordinary domestic article, three for a

quarter, to a fifty-cent Partaga, if kept in ignorance of the cost of

the latter. The flavor of the Partaga is too delicate for palates that

have been accustomed to Connecticut seed leaf. So it is with humor. The

finer it is in quality, the more danger of its not being recognized

at all. Even Mark Twain has been taken in by an English review of his

_Innocents Abroad_. Mark Twain is by no means a coarse humorist, but the

Englishman's humor is so much finer than his, that he mistakes it for

solid earnest, and "larfs most consumedly."



A man who cannot learn stands in his own light. Hereafter, when I write

an article which I know to be good, but which I may have reason to fear

will not, in some quarters, be considered to amount to much, coming

from an American, I will aver that an Englishman wrote it and that it

is copied from a London journal. And then I will occupy a back seat and

enjoy the cordial applause.



(Still later)



Mark Twain at last sees that the _Saturday Review's_ criticism of his

_Innocents Abroad_ was not serious, and he is intensely mortified at the

thought of having been so badly sold. He takes the only course left him,

and in the last _Galaxy _claims that _he _wrote the criticism himself,

and published it in _The Galaxy_ to sell the public. This is ingenious,

but unfortunately it is not true. If any of our readers will take the

trouble to call at this office we sill show them the original article

in the _Saturday Review_ of October 8th, which, on comparison, will be

found to be identical with the one published in _The Galaxy._ The best

thing for Mark to do will be to admit that he was sold, and say no more

about it.





The above is from the Cincinnati _Enquirer_, and is a falsehood. Come to

the proof. If the _Enquirer _people, through any agent, will produce

at _The Galaxy_ office a London _Saturday Review_ of October 8th,

containing an article which, on comparison, will be found to be

identical with the one published in _The Galaxy_, I will pay to that

agent five hundred dollars cash. Moreover, if at any specified time I

fail to produce at the same place a copy of the London _Saturday Review_

of October 8th, containing a lengthy criticism upon the _Innocents

Abroad_, entirely different, in every paragraph and sentence, from the

one I published in _The Galaxy,_ I will pay to the _Enquirer_ agent

another five hundred dollars cash. I offer Sheldon & Co., publishers,

500 Broadway, New York, as my "backers." Any one in New York, authorized

by the _Enquirer_, will receive prompt attention. It is an easy and

profitable way for the _Enquirer _people to prove that they have not

uttered a pitiful, deliberate falsehood in the above paragraphs. Will

they swallow that falsehood ignominiously, or will they send an agent to

_ The Galaxy _office. I think the Cincinnati _Enquirer _must be edited

by children.

		

		

		

		  

A TELEPHONIC CONVERSATION

		

		

		

Consider that a conversation by telephone--when you are simply sitting

by and not taking any part in that conversation--is one of the solemnest

curiosities of modern life. Yesterday I was writing a deep article on a

sublime philosophical subject while such a conversation was going on

in the room. I notice that one can always write best when somebody is

talking through a telephone close by. Well, the thing began in this way.

A member of our household came in and asked me to have our house put

into communication with Mr. Bagley's downtown. I have observed, in many

cities, that the sex always shrink from calling up the central office

themselves. I don't know why, but they do. So I touched the bell, and

this talk ensued:



_Central Office. (Gruffly.)_ Hello!



I. Is it the Central Office?



C. O. Of course it is. What do you want?



I. Will you switch me on to the Bagleys, please?



C. O. All right. Just keep your ear to the telephone.



Then I heard _k-look, k-look, k'look--klook-klook-klook-look-look!_ then a

horrible "gritting" of teeth, and finally a piping female voice: Y-e-s?

(_Rising inflection._) Did you wish to speak to me?



Without answering, I handed the telephone to the applicant, and sat

down. Then followed that queerest of all the queer things in this

world--a conversation with only one end to it. You hear questions asked;

you don't hear the answer. You hear invitations given; you hear no

thanks in return. You have listening pauses of dead silence, followed by

apparently irrelevant and unjustifiable exclamations of glad surprise or

sorrow or dismay. You can't make head or tail of the talk, because you

never hear anything that the person at the other end of the wire says.

Well, I heard the following remarkable series of observations, all from

the one tongue, and all shouted--for you can't ever persuade the sex to

speak gently into a telephone:



Yes? Why, how did _that _happen?



Pause.



What did you say?



Pause.



Oh no, I don't think it was.



Pause.



_ No_! Oh no, I didn't mean _that_. I meant, put it in while it is still

boiling--or just before it _comes _to a boil.



Pause.



_What_?



Pause.



I turned it over with a backstitch on the selvage edge.



Pause.



Yes, I like that way, too; but I think it's better to baste it on with

Valenciennes or bombazine, or something of that sort. It gives it such

an air--and attracts so much noise.



Pause.



It's forty-ninth Deuteronomy, sixty-forth to ninety-seventh inclusive. I

think we ought all to read it often.



Pause.



Perhaps so; I generally use a hair pin.



Pause.



What did you say? (_Aside_.) Children, do be quiet!



Pause



_Oh!_ B _flat!_ Dear me, I thought you said it was the cat!



Pause.



Since _when_?



Pause.



Why, _I_ never heard of it.



Pause.



You astound me! It seems utterly impossible!



Pause.



_Who _did?



Pause.



Good-ness gracious!



Pause.



Well, what_ is_ this world coming to? Was it right in _church_?



Pause.



And was her _mother _there?



Pause.



Why, Mrs. Bagley, I should have died of humiliation! What did they_ do_?



Long pause.



I can't be perfectly sure, because I haven't the notes by me; but

I think it goes something like this: te-rolly-loll-loll, loll

lolly-loll-loll, O tolly-loll-loll-_lee-ly-li_-i-do! And then _repeat_,

you know.



Pause.



Yes, I think it_ is_ very sweet--and very solemn and impressive, if you

get the andantino and the pianissimo right.



Pause.



Oh, gum-drops, gum-drops! But I never allow them to eat striped candy.

And of course they _can't_, till they get their teeth, anyway.



Pause.



_What_?



Pause.



Oh, not in the least--go right on. He's here writing--it doesn't bother

_him_.



Pause.



Very well, I'll come if I canI'll come if I can. (_Aside_.) Dear me, how it does tire a

person's arm to hold this thing up so long! I wish she'd--



Pause.



Oh no, not at all; I _like _to talk--but I'm afraid I'm keeping you from

your affairs.



Pause.



Visitors?



Pause.



No, we never use butter on them.



Pause.



Yes, that is a very good way; but all the cook-books say they are very

unhealthy when they are out of season. And_ he_ doesn't like them,

anyway--especially canned.



Pause.



Oh, I think that is too high for them; we have never paid over fifty

cents a bunch.



Pause.



_Must _you go? Well, _good_-by.



Pause.



Yes, I think so. _good_-by.



Pause.



Four o'clock, then--I'll be ready. _good_-by.



Pause.



Thank you ever so much. _good_-by.



Pause.



Oh, not at all!--just as fresh--_which_? Oh, I'm glad to hear you say

that. _Good_-by.



(Hangs up the telephone and says, "Oh, it _does _tire a person's arm

so!")



A man delivers a single brutal "Good-by," and that is the end of it.

Not so with the gentle sex--I say it in their praise; they cannot abide

abruptness.

		

		

		

		  

DOES THE RACE OF MAN LOVE A LORD?

		

		

		

Often a quite assified remark becomes sanctified by use and petrified by

custom; it is then a permanency, its term of activity a geologic period.



The day after the arrival of Prince Henry I met an English friend, and

he rubbed his hands and broke out with a remark that was charged to the

brim with joy--joy that was evidently a pleasant salve to an old sore

place:



"Many a time I've had to listen without retort to an old saying that is

irritatingly true, and until now seemed to offer no chance for a return

jibe: 'An Englishman does dearly love a lord'; but after this I shall

talk back, and say, 'How about the Americans?'"



It is a curious thing, the currency that an idiotic saying can get. The

man that first says it thinks he has made a discovery. The man he

says it to, thinks the same. It departs on its travels, is received

everywhere with admiring acceptance, and not only as a piece of rare and

acute observation, but as being exhaustively true and profoundly wise;

and so it presently takes its place in the world's list of recognized

and established wisdoms, and after that no one thinks of examining it to

see whether it is really entitled to its high honors or not. I call to

mind instances of this in two well-established proverbs, whose dullness

is not surpassed by the one about the Englishman and his love for a

lord: one of them records the American's Adoration of the Almighty

Dollar, the other the American millionaire-girl's ambition to trade cash

for a title, with a husband thrown in.



It isn't merely the American that adores the Almighty Dollar, it is the

human race. The human race has always adored the hatful of shells, or

the bale of calico, or the half-bushel of brass rings, or the handful of

steel fish-hooks, or the houseful of black wives, or the zareba full of

cattle, or the two-score camels and asses, or the factory, or the farm,

or the block of buildings, or the railroad bonds, or the bank stock, or

the hoarded cash, or--anything that stands for wealth and consideration

and independence, and can secure to the possessor that most precious of

all things, another man's envy. It was a dull person that invented the

idea that the American's devotion to the dollar is more strenuous than

another's.



Rich American girls do buy titles, but they did not invent that idea;

it had been worn threadbare several hundred centuries before America

was discovered. European girls still exploit it as briskly as ever;

and, when a title is not to be had for the money in hand, they buy the

husband without it. They must put up the "dot," or there is no trade.

The commercialization of brides is substantially universal, except in

America. It exists with us, to some little extent, but in no degree

approaching a custom.



"The Englishman dearly loves a lord."



What is the soul and source of this love? I think the thing could be

more correctly worded:



"The human race dearly envies a lord."



That is to say, it envies the lord's place. Why? On two accounts, I

think: its Power and its Conspicuousness.



Where Conspicuousness carries with it a Power which, by the light of our

own observation and experience, we are able to measure and comprehend, I

think our envy of the possessor is as deep and as passionate as is

that of any other nation. No one can care less for a lord than the

backwoodsman, who has had no personal contact with lords and has seldom

heard them spoken of; but I will not allow that any Englishman has a

profounder envy of a lord than has the average American who has lived

long years in a European capital and fully learned how immense is the

position the lord occupies.



Of any ten thousand Americans who eagerly gather, at vast inconvenience,

to get a glimpse of Prince Henry, all but a couple of hundred will be

there out of an immense curiosity; they are burning up with desire to

see a personage who is so much talked about. They envy him; but it is

Conspicuousness they envy mainly, not the Power that is lodged in his

royal quality and position, for they have but a vague and spectral

knowledge and appreciation of that; through their environment and

associations they have been accustomed to regard such things lightly,

and as not being very real; consequently, they are not able to value

them enough to consumingly envy them.



But, whenever an American (or other human being) is in the presence,

for the first time, of a combination of great Power and Conspicuousness

which he thoroughly understands and appreciates, his eager curiosity and

pleasure will be well-sodden with that other passion--envy--whether he

suspects it or not. At any time, on any day, in any part of America,

you can confer a happiness upon any passing stranger by calling his

attention to any other passing stranger and saying:



"Do you see that gentleman going along there? It is Mr. Rockefeller."



Watch his eye. It is a combination of power and conspicuousness which

the man understands.



When we understand rank, we always like to rub against it. When a man

is conspicuous, we always want to see him. Also, if he will pay us an

attention we will manage to remember it. Also, we will mention it now

and then, casually; sometimes to a friend, or if a friend is not handy,

we will make out with a stranger.



Well, then, what is rank, and what is conspicuousness? At once we

think of kings and aristocracies, and of world-wide celebrities in

soldierships, the arts, letters, etc., and we stop there. But that is a

mistake. Rank holds its court and receives its homage on every round of

the ladder, from the emperor down to the rat-catcher; and distinction,

also, exists on every round of the ladder, and commands its due of

deference and envy.



To worship rank and distinction is the dear and valued privilege of all

the human race, and it is freely and joyfully exercised in democracies

as well as in monarchies--and even, to some extent, among those

creatures whom we impertinently call the Lower Animals. For even they

have some poor little vanities and foibles, though in this matter they

are paupers as compared to us.



A Chinese Emperor has the worship of his four hundred millions of

subjects, but the rest of the world is indifferent to him. A Christian

Emperor has the worship of his subjects and of a large part of

the Christian world outside of his domains; but he is a matter of

indifference to all China. A king, class A, has an extensive worship; a

king, class B, has a less extensive worship; class C, class D, class

E get a steadily diminishing share of worship; class L (Sultan of

Zanzibar), class P (Sultan of Sulu), and class W (half-king of Samoa),

get no worship at all outside their own little patch of sovereignty.



Take the distinguished people along down. Each has his group of

homage-payers. In the navy, there are many groups; they start with the

Secretary and the Admiral, and go down to the quartermaster--and below;

for there will be groups among the sailors, and each of these groups

will have a tar who is distinguished for his battles, or his strength,

or his daring, or his profanity, and is admired and envied by his group.

The same with the army; the same with the literary and journalistic

craft; the publishing craft; the cod-fishery craft; Standard Oil; U. S.

Steel; the class A hotel--and the rest of the alphabet in that line; the

class A prize-fighter--and the rest of the alphabet in his line--clear

down to the lowest and obscurest six-boy gang of little gamins, with

its one boy that can thrash the rest, and to whom he is king of Samoa,

bottom of the royal race, but looked up to with a most ardent admiration

and envy.



There is something pathetic, and funny, and pretty, about this human

race's fondness for contact with power and distinction, and for the

reflected glory it gets out of it. The king, class A, is happy in the

state banquet and the military show which the emperor provides for him,

and he goes home and gathers the queen and the princelings around him in

the privacy of the spare room, and tells them all about it, and says:



"His Imperial Majesty put his hand upon my shoulder in the most friendly

way--just as friendly and familiar, oh, you can't imagine it!--and

everybody _seeing _him do it; charming, perfectly charming!"



The king, class G, is happy in the cold collation and the police parade

provided for him by the king, class B, and goes home and tells the

family all about it, and says:



"And His Majesty took me into his own private cabinet for a smoke and a

chat, and there we sat just as sociable, and talking away and laughing

and chatting, just the same as if we had been born in the same bunk; and

all the servants in the anteroom could see us doing it! Oh, it was too

lovely for anything!"



The king, class Q, is happy in the modest entertainment furnished him by

the king, class M, and goes home and tells the household about it,

and is as grateful and joyful over it as were his predecessors in the

gaudier attentions that had fallen to their larger lot.



Emperors, kings, artisans, peasants, big people, little people--at the

bottom we are all alike and all the same; all just alike on the inside,

and when our clothes are off, nobody can tell which of us is which. We

are unanimous in the pride we take in good and genuine compliments paid

us, and distinctions conferred upon us, in attentions shown. There is

not one of us, from the emperor down, but is made like that. Do I

mean attentions shown us by the guest? No, I mean simply flattering

attentions, let them come whence they may. We despise no source that can

pay us a pleasing attention--there is no source that is humble enough

for that. You have heard a dear little girl say to a frowzy and

disreputable dog: "He came right to me and let me pat him on the head,

and he wouldn't let the others touch him!" and you have seen her eyes

dance with pride in that high distinction. You have often seen that. If

the child were a princess, would that random dog be able to confer the

like glory upon her with his pretty compliment? Yes; and even in her

mature life and seated upon a throne, she would still remember it, still

recall it, still speak of it with frank satisfaction. That charming

and lovable German princess and poet, Carmen Sylva, Queen of Roumania,

remembers yet that the flowers of the woods and fields "talked to her"

 when she was a girl, and she sets it down in her latest book; and that

the squirrels conferred upon her and her father the valued compliment of

not being afraid of them; and "once one of them, holding a nut between

its sharp little teeth, ran right up against my father"--it has the very

note of "He came right to me and let me pat him on the head"--"and when

it saw itself reflected in his boot it was very much surprised,

and stopped for a long time to contemplate itself in the polished

leather"--then it went its way. And the birds! she still remembers with

pride that "they came boldly into my room," when she had neglected her

"duty" and put no food on the window-sill for them; she knew all the

wild birds, and forgets the royal crown on her head to remember with

pride that they knew her; also that the wasp and the bee were personal

friends of hers, and never forgot that gracious relationship to her

injury: "never have I been stung by a wasp or a bee." And here is that

proud note again that sings in that little child's elation in being

singled out, among all the company of children, for the random dog's

honor-conferring attentions. "Even in the very worst summer for wasps,

when, in lunching out of doors, our table was covered with them and

every one else was stung, they never hurt me."



When a queen whose qualities of mind and heart and character are able to

add distinction to so distinguished a place as a throne, remembers

with grateful exultation, after thirty years, honors and distinctions

conferred upon her by the humble, wild creatures of the forest, we are

helped to realize that complimentary attentions, homage,

distinctions, are of no caste, but are above all cast--that they are a

nobility-conferring power apart.



We all like these things. When the gate-guard at the railway-station

passes me through unchallenged and examines other people's tickets, I

feel as the king, class A, felt when the emperor put the imperial hand

on his shoulder, "everybody seeing him do it"; and as the child felt

when the random dog allowed her to pat his head and ostracized the

others; and as the princess felt when the wasps spared her and stung

the rest; and I felt just so, four years ago in Vienna (and remember it

yet), when the helmeted police shut me off, with fifty others, from a

street which the Emperor was to pass through, and the captain of the

squad turned and saw the situation and said indignantly to that guard:



"Can't you see it is the Herr Mark Twain? Let him through!"



It was four years ago; but it will be four hundred before I forget the

wind of self-complacency that rose in me, and strained my buttons when I

marked the deference for me evoked in the faces of my fellow-rabble, and

noted, mingled with it, a puzzled and resentful expression which said,

as plainly as speech could have worded it: "And who in the nation is the

Herr Mark Twain _um gotteswillen?_"



How many times in your life have you heard this boastful remark:



"I stood as close to him as I am to you; I could have put out my hand

and touched him."



We have all heard it many and many a time. It was a proud distinction

to be able to say those words. It brought envy to the speaker, a kind of

glory; and he basked in it and was happy through all his veins. And

who was it he stood so close to? The answer would cover all the grades.

Sometimes it was a king; sometimes it was a renowned highwayman;

sometimes it was an unknown man killed in an extraordinary way and made

suddenly famous by it; always it was a person who was for the moment the

subject of public interest of a village.



"I was there, and I saw it myself." That is a common and envy-compelling

remark. It can refer to a battle; to a hanging; to a coronation; to the

killing of Jumbo by the railway-train; to the arrival of Jenny Lind at

the Battery; to the meeting of the President and Prince Henry; to the

chase of a murderous maniac; to the disaster in the tunnel; to the

explosion in the subway; to a remarkable dog-fight; to a village

church struck by lightning. It will be said, more or less causally, by

everybody in America who has seen Prince Henry do anything, or try to.

The man who was absent and didn't see him to anything, will scoff. It

is his privilege; and he can make capital out of it, too; he will seem,

even to himself, to be different from other Americans, and better.

As his opinion of his superior Americanism grows, and swells, and

concentrates and coagulates, he will go further and try to belittle the

distinction of those that saw the Prince do things, and will spoil their

pleasure in it if he can. My life has been embittered by that kind of

person. If you are able to tell of a special distinction that has fallen

to your lot, it gravels them; they cannot bear it; and they try to make

believe that the thing you took for a special distinction was nothing

of the kind and was meant in quite another way. Once I was received in

private audience by an emperor. Last week I was telling a jealous person

about it, and I could see him wince under it, see him bite, see

him suffer. I revealed the whole episode to him with considerable

elaboration and nice attention to detail. When I was through, he asked

me what had impressed me most. I said:



"His Majesty's delicacy. They told me to be sure and back out from the

presence, and find the door-knob as best I could; it was not allowable

to face around. Now the Emperor knew it would be a difficult ordeal for

me, because of lack of practice; and so, when it was time to part, he

turned, with exceeding delicacy, and pretended to fumble with things on

his desk, so I could get out in my own way, without his seeing me."



It went home! It was vitriol! I saw the envy and disgruntlement rise

in the man's face; he couldn't keep it down. I saw him try to fix up

something in his mind to take the bloom off that distinction. I enjoyed

that, for I judged that he had his work cut out for him. He struggled

along inwardly for quite a while; then he said, with a manner of a

person who has to say something and hasn't anything relevant to say:



"You said he had a handful of special-brand cigars on the table?"



"Yes; _I_ never saw anything to match them."



I had him again. He had to fumble around in his mind as much as another

minute before he could play; then he said in as mean a way as I ever

heard a person say anything:



"He could have been counting the cigars, you know."



I cannot endure a man like that. It is nothing to him how unkind he is,

so long as he takes the bloom off. It is all he cares for.



"An Englishman (or other human being) does dearly love a lord," (or

other conspicuous person.) It includes us all. We love to be noticed by

the conspicuous person; we love to be associated with such, or with

a conspicuous event, even in a seventh-rate fashion, even in the

forty-seventh, if we cannot do better. This accounts for some of our

curious tastes in mementos. It accounts for the large private trade in

the Prince of Wales's hair, which chambermaids were able to drive in

that article of commerce when the Prince made the tour of the world in

the long ago--hair which probably did not always come from his brush,

since enough of it was marketed to refurnish a bald comet; it accounts

for the fact that the rope which lynches a negro in the presence of

ten thousand Christian spectators is salable five minutes later at

two dollars and inch; it accounts for the mournful fact that a royal

personage does not venture to wear buttons on his coat in public.



We do love a lord--and by that term I mean any person whose situation

is higher than our own. The lord of the group, for instance: a group of

peers, a group of millionaires, a group of hoodlums, a group of sailors,

a group of newsboys, a group of saloon politicians, a group of college

girls. No royal person has ever been the object of a more delirious

loyalty and slavish adoration than is paid by the vast Tammany herd to

its squalid idol of Wantage. There is not a bifurcated animal in that

menagerie that would not be proud to appear in a newspaper picture in

his company. At the same time, there are some in that organization who

would scoff at the people who have been daily pictured in company with

Prince Henry, and would say vigorously that _they _would not consent

to be photographed with him--a statement which would not be true in any

instance. There are hundreds of people in America who would frankly say

to you that they would not be proud to be photographed in a group

with the Prince, if invited; and some of these unthinking people would

believe it when they said it; yet in no instance would it be true. We

have a large population, but we have not a large enough one, by several

millions, to furnish that man. He has not yet been begotten, and in fact

he is not begettable.



You may take any of the printed groups, and there isn't a person in the

dim background who isn't visibly trying to be vivid; if it is a crowd of

ten thousand--ten thousand proud, untamed democrats, horny-handed sons

of toil and of politics, and fliers of the eagle--there isn't one who

is trying to keep out of range, there isn't one who isn't plainly

meditating a purchase of the paper in the morning, with the intention of

hunting himself out in the picture and of framing and keeping it if he

shall find so much of his person in it as his starboard ear.



We all love to get some of the drippings of Conspicuousness, and we

will put up with a single, humble drip, if we can't get any more. We may

pretend otherwise, in conversation; but we can't pretend it to ourselves

privately--and we don't. We do confess in public that we are the

noblest work of God, being moved to it by long habit, and teaching,

and superstition; but deep down in the secret places of our souls we

recognize that, if we _are _the noblest work, the less said about it the

better.



We of the North poke fun at the South for its fondness of titles--a

fondness for titles pure and simple, regardless of whether they are

genuine or pinchbeck. We forget that whatever a Southerner likes the

rest of the human race likes, and that there is no law of predilection

lodged in one people that is absent from another people. There is no

variety in the human race. We are all children, all children of the one

Adam, and we love toys. We can soon acquire that Southern disease if

some one will give it a start. It already has a start, in fact. I have

been personally acquainted with over eighty-four thousand persons who,

at one time or another in their lives, have served for a year or two

on the staffs of our multitudinous governors, and through that

fatality have been generals temporarily, and colonels temporarily, and

judge-advocates temporarily; but I have known only nine among them who

could be hired to let the title go when it ceased to be legitimate. I

know thousands and thousands of governors who ceased to be governors

away back in the last century; but I am acquainted with only three who

would answer your letter if you failed to call them "Governor" in it.

I know acres and acres of men who have done time in a legislature in

prehistoric days, but among them is not half an acre whose resentment

you would not raise if you addressed them as "Mr." instead of "Hon."

 The first thing a legislature does is to convene in an impressive

legislative attitude, and get itself photographed. Each member

frames his copy and takes it to the woods and hangs it up in the most

aggressively conspicuous place in his house; and if you visit the house

and fail to inquire what that accumulation is, the conversation will be

brought around to it by that aforetime legislator, and he will show you

a figure in it which in the course of years he has almost obliterated

with the smut of his finger-marks, and say with a solemn joy, "It's me!"



Have you ever seen a country Congressman enter the hotel breakfast-room

in Washington with his letters?--and sit at his table and let on to

read them?--and wrinkle his brows and frown statesman-like?--keeping a

furtive watch-out over his glasses all the while to see if he is being

observed and admired?--those same old letters which he fetches in every

morning? Have you seen it? Have you seen him show off? It is _the_

sight of the national capital. Except one; a pathetic one. That is the

ex-Congressman: the poor fellow whose life has been ruined by a two-year

taste of glory and of fictitious consequence; who has been superseded,

and ought to take his heartbreak home and hide it, but cannot tear

himself away from the scene of his lost little grandeur; and so he

lingers, and still lingers, year after year, unconsidered, sometimes

snubbed, ashamed of his fallen estate, and valiantly trying to look

otherwise; dreary and depressed, but counterfeiting breeziness and

gaiety, hailing with chummy familiarity, which is not always welcomed,

the more-fortunates who are still in place and were once his mates. Have

you seen him? He clings piteously to the one little shred that is left

of his departed distinction--the "privilege of the floor"; and works it

hard and gets what he can out of it. That is the saddest figure I know

of.



Yes, we do so love our little distinctions! And then we loftily scoff

at a Prince for enjoying his larger ones; forgetting that if we only had

his chance--ah! "Senator" is not a legitimate title. A Senator has no

more right to be addressed by it than have you or I; but, in the several

state capitals and in Washington, there are five thousand Senators who

take very kindly to that fiction, and who purr gratefully when you call

them by it--which you may do quite unrebuked. Then those same Senators

smile at the self-constructed majors and generals and judges of the

South!



Indeed, we do love our distinctions, get them how we may. And we work

them for all they are worth. In prayer we call ourselves "worms of the

dust," but it is only on a sort of tacit understanding that the remark

shall not be taken at par._ We_--worms of the dust! Oh, no, we are

not that. Except in fact; and we do not deal much in fact when we are

contemplating ourselves.



As a race, we do certainly love a lord--let him be Croker, or a duke, or

a prize-fighter, or whatever other personage shall chance to be the head

of our group. Many years ago, I saw a greasy youth in overalls standing

by the _Herald _office, with an expectant look in his face. Soon a large

man passed out, and gave him a pat on the shoulder. That was what the

boy was waiting for--the large man's notice. The pat made him proud and

happy, and the exultation inside of him shone out through his eyes; and

his mates were there to see the pat and envy it and wish they could have

that glory. The boy belonged down cellar in the press-room, the large

man was king of the upper floors, foreman of the composing-room. The

light in the boy's face was worship, the foreman was his lord, head of

his group. The pat was an accolade. It was as precious to the boy as it

would have been if he had been an aristocrat's son and the accolade had

been delivered by his sovereign with a sword. The quintessence of the

honor was all there; there was no difference in values; in truth there

was no difference present except an artificial one--clothes.



All the human race loves a lord--that is, loves to look upon or be

noticed by the possessor of Power or Conspicuousness; and sometimes

animals, born to better things and higher ideals, descend to man's level

in this matter. In the Jardin des Plantes I have see a cat that was so

vain of being the personal friend of an elephant that I was ashamed of

her.

		

		

		

		  

EDWARD MILLS AND GEORGE BENTON: A TALE

		

		

		

These two were distantly related to each other--seventh cousins, or

something of that sort. While still babies they became orphans, and were

adopted by the Brants, a childless couple, who quickly grew very fond

of them. The Brants were always saying: "Be pure, honest, sober,

industrious, and considerate of others, and success in life is assured."

 The children heard this repeated some thousands of times before they

understood it; they could repeat it themselves long before they could

say the Lord's Prayer; it was painted over the nursery door, and was

about the first thing they learned to read. It was destined to be the

unswerving rule of Edward Mills's life. Sometimes the Brants changed

the wording a little, and said: "Be pure, honest, sober, industrious,

considerate, and you will never lack friends."



Baby Mills was a comfort to everybody about him. When he wanted candy

and could not have it, he listened to reason, and contented himself

without it. When Baby Benton wanted candy, he cried for it until he got

it. Baby Mills took care of his toys; Baby Benton always destroyed his

in a very brief time, and then made himself so insistently disagreeable

that, in order to have peace in the house, little Edward was persuaded

to yield up his play-things to him.



When the children were a little older, Georgie became a heavy expense

in one respect: he took no care of his clothes; consequently, he shone

frequently in new ones, which was not the case with Eddie. The boys

grew apace. Eddie was an increasing comfort, Georgie an increasing

solicitude. It was always sufficient to say, in answer to Eddie's

petitions, "I would rather you would not do it"--meaning swimming,

skating, picnicking, berrying, circusing, and all sorts of things which

boys delight in. But_ no_ answer was sufficient for Georgie; he had

to be humored in his desires, or he would carry them with a high hand.

Naturally, no boy got more swimming skating, berrying, and so forth than

he; no body ever had a better time. The good Brants did not allow the

boys to play out after nine in summer evenings; they were sent to bed at

that hour; Eddie honorably remained, but Georgie usually slipped out

of the window toward ten, and enjoyed himself until midnight. It seemed

impossible to break Georgie of this bad habit, but the Brants managed

it at last by hiring him, with apples and marbles, to stay in. The good

Brants gave all their time and attention to vain endeavors to regulate

Georgie; they said, with grateful tears in their eyes, that Eddie needed

no efforts of theirs, he was so good, so considerate, and in all ways so

perfect.



By and by the boys were big enough to work, so they were apprenticed to

a trade: Edward went voluntarily; George was coaxed and bribed. Edward

worked hard and faithfully, and ceased to be an expense to the good

Brants; they praised him, so did his master; but George ran away, and it

cost Mr. Brant both money and trouble to hunt him up and get him back.

By and by he ran away again--more money and more trouble. He ran away

a third time--and stole a few things to carry with him. Trouble and

expense for Mr. Brant once more; and, besides, it was with the greatest

difficulty that he succeeded in persuading the master to let the youth

go unprosecuted for the theft.



Edward worked steadily along, and in time became a full partner in his

master's business. George did not improve; he kept the loving hearts of

his aged benefactors full of trouble, and their hands full of inventive

activities to protect him from ruin. Edward, as a boy, had interested

himself in Sunday-schools, debating societies, penny missionary affairs,

anti-tobacco organizations, anti-profanity associations, and all such

things; as a man, he was a quiet but steady and reliable helper in the

church, the temperance societies, and in all movements looking to

the aiding and uplifting of men. This excited no remark, attracted no

attention--for it was his "natural bent."



Finally, the old people died. The will testified their loving pride in

Edward, and left their little property to George--because he "needed

it"; whereas, "owing to a bountiful Providence," such was not the case

with Edward. The property was left to George conditionally: he must

buy out Edward's partner with it; else it must go to a benevolent

organization called the Prisoner's Friend Society. The old people left

a letter, in which they begged their dear son Edward to take their place

and watch over George, and help and shield him as they had done.



Edward dutifully acquiesced, and George became his partner in the

business. He was not a valuable partner: he had been meddling with drink

before; he soon developed into a constant tippler now, and his flesh and

eyes showed the fact unpleasantly. Edward had been courting a sweet

and kindly spirited girl for some time. They loved each other dearly,

and--But about this period George began to haunt her tearfully and

imploringly, and at last she went crying to Edward, and said her high

and holy duty was plain before her--she must not let her own selfish

desires interfere with it: she must marry "poor George" and "reform

him." It would break her heart, she knew it would, and so on; but duty

was duty. So she married George, and Edward's heart came very near

breaking, as well as her own. However, Edward recovered, and married

another girl--a very excellent one she was, too.



Children came to both families. Mary did her honest best to reform her

husband, but the contract was too large. George went on drinking, and by

and by he fell to misusing her and the little ones sadly. A great many

good people strove with George--they were always at it, in fact--but he

calmly took such efforts as his due and their duty, and did not mend his

ways. He added a vice, presently--that of secret gambling. He got deeply

in debt; he borrowed money on the firm's credit, as quietly as he could,

and carried this system so far and so successfully that one morning the

sheriff took possession of the establishment, and the two cousins found

themselves penniless.



Times were hard, now, and they grew worse. Edward moved his family into

a garret, and walked the streets day and night, seeking work. He begged

for it, but it was really not to be had. He was astonished to see how

soon his face became unwelcome; he was astonished and hurt to see how

quickly the ancient interest which people had had in him faded out and

disappeared. Still, he _must _get work; so he swallowed his chagrin, and

toiled on in search of it. At last he got a job of carrying bricks up a

ladder in a hod, and was a grateful man in consequence; but after that

_nobody _knew him or cared anything about him. He was not able to keep

up his dues in the various moral organizations to which he belonged,

and had to endure the sharp pain of seeing himself brought under the

disgrace of suspension.



But the faster Edward died out of public knowledge and interest, the

faster George rose in them. He was found lying, ragged and drunk, in the

gutter one morning. A member of the Ladies' Temperance Refuge fished him

out, took him in hand, got up a subscription for him, kept him sober

a whole week, then got a situation for him. An account of it was

published.



General attention was thus drawn to the poor fellow, and a great many

people came forward and helped him toward reform with their countenance

and encouragement. He did not drink a drop for two months, and meantime

was the pet of the good. Then he fell--in the gutter; and there was

general sorrow and lamentation. But the noble sisterhood rescued him

again. They cleaned him up, they fed him, they listened to the mournful

music of his repentances, they got him his situation again. An account

of this, also, was published, and the town was drowned in happy tears

over the re-restoration of the poor beast and struggling victim of

the fatal bowl. A grand temperance revival was got up, and after some

rousing speeches had been made the chairman said, impressively: "We are

not about to call for signers; and I think there is a spectacle in

store for you which not many in this house will be able to view with dry

eyes." There was an eloquent pause, and then George Benton, escorted

by a red-sashed detachment of the Ladies of the Refuge, stepped forward

upon the platform and signed the pledge. The air was rent with applause,

and everybody cried for joy. Everybody wrung the hand of the new convert

when the meeting was over; his salary was enlarged next day; he was the

talk of the town, and its hero. An account of it was published.



George Benton fell, regularly, every three months, but was faithfully

rescued and wrought with, every time, and good situations were found for

him. Finally, he was taken around the country lecturing, as a reformed

drunkard, and he had great houses and did an immense amount of good.



He was so popular at home, and so trusted--during his sober

intervals--that he was enabled to use the name of a principal citizen,

and get a large sum of money at the bank. A mighty pressure was brought

to bear to save him from the consequences of his forgery, and it was

partially successful--he was "sent up" for only two years. When, at the

end of a year, the tireless efforts of the benevolent were crowned

with success, and he emerged from the penitentiary with a pardon in

his pocket, the Prisoner's Friend Society met him at the door with a

situation and a comfortable salary, and all the other benevolent people

came forward and gave him advice, encouragement and help. Edward Mills

had once applied to the Prisoner's Friend Society for a situation, when

in dire need, but the question, "Have you been a prisoner?" made brief

work of his case.



While all these things were going on, Edward Mills had been quietly

making head against adversity. He was still poor, but was in receipt of

a steady and sufficient salary, as the respected and trusted cashier

of a bank. George Benton never came near him, and was never heard to

inquire about him. George got to indulging in long absences from the

town; there were ill reports about him, but nothing definite.



One winter's night some masked burglars forced their way into the bank,

and found Edward Mills there alone. They commanded him to reveal the

"combination," so that they could get into the safe. He refused. They

threatened his life. He said his employers trusted him, and he could not

be traitor to that trust. He could die, if he must, but while he lived

he would be faithful; he would not yield up the "combination." The

burglars killed him.



The detectives hunted down the criminals; the chief one proved to be

George Benton. A wide sympathy was felt for the widow and orphans of the

dead man, and all the newspapers in the land begged that all the banks

in the land would testify their appreciation of the fidelity and heroism

of the murdered cashier by coming forward with a generous contribution

of money in aid of his family, now bereft of support. The result was

a mass of solid cash amounting to upward of five hundred dollars--an

average of nearly three-eights of a cent for each bank in the Union. The

cashier's own bank testified its gratitude by endeavoring to show (but

humiliatingly failed in it) that the peerless servant's accounts were

not square, and that he himself had knocked his brains out with a

bludgeon to escape detection and punishment.



George Benton was arraigned for trial. Then everybody seemed to forget

the widow and orphans in their solicitude for poor George. Everything

that money and influence could do was done to save him, but it all

failed; he was sentenced to death. Straightway the Governor was besieged

with petitions for commutation or pardon; they were brought by tearful

young girls; by sorrowful old maids; by deputations of pathetic widows;

by shoals of impressive orphans. But no, the Governor--for once--would

not yield.



Now George Benton experienced religion. The glad news flew all around.

From that time forth his cell was always full of girls and women and

fresh flowers; all the day long there was prayer, and hymn-singing,

and thanksgiving, and homilies, and tears, with never an interruption,

except an occasional five-minute intermission for refreshments.



This sort of thing continued up to the very gallows, and George Benton

went proudly home, in the black cap, before a wailing audience of the

sweetest and best that the region could produce. His grave had fresh

flowers on it every day, for a while, and the head-stone bore these

words, under a hand pointing aloft: "He has fought the good fight."



The brave cashier's head-stone has this inscription: "Be pure, honest,

sober, industrious, considerate, and you will never--"



Nobody knows who gave the order to leave it that way, but it was so

given.



The cashier's family are in stringent circumstances, now, it is said;

but no matter; a lot of appreciative people, who were not willing that

an act so brave and true as his should go unrewarded, have collected

forty-two thousand dollars--and built a Memorial Church with it.

		

		

		

		  

EVE'S DIARY

		

		

		

Translated from the Original



SATURDAY.--I am almost a whole day old, now. I arrived yesterday.

That is as it seems to me. And it must be so, for if there was a

day-before-yesterday I was not there when it happened, or I should

remember it. It could be, of course, that it did happen, and that I

was not noticing. Very well; I will be very watchful now, and if any

day-before-yesterdays happen I will make a note of it. It will be best

to start right and not let the record get confused, for some instinct

tells me that these details are going to be important to the historian

some day. For I feel like an experiment, I feel exactly like an

experiment; it would be impossible for a person to feel more like an

experiment than I do, and so I am coming to feel convinced that that is

what I _am_--an experiment; just an experiment, and nothing more.



Then if I am an experiment, am I the whole of it? No, I think not; I

think the rest of it is part of it. I am the main part of it, but

I think the rest of it has its share in the matter. Is my position

assured, or do I have to watch it and take care of it? The latter,

perhaps. Some instinct tells me that eternal vigilance is the price of

supremacy. (That is a good phrase, I think, for one so young.)



Everything looks better today than it did yesterday. In the rush of

finishing up yesterday, the mountains were left in a ragged condition,

and some of the plains were so cluttered with rubbish and remnants that

the aspects were quite distressing. Noble and beautiful works of art

should not be subjected to haste; and this majestic new world is indeed

a most noble and beautiful work. And certainly marvelously near to being

perfect, notwithstanding the shortness of the time. There are too many

stars in some places and not enough in others, but that can be remedied

presently, no doubt. The moon got loose last night, and slid down and

fell out of the scheme--a very great loss; it breaks my heart to think

of it. There isn't another thing among the ornaments and decorations

that is comparable to it for beauty and finish. It should have been

fastened better. If we can only get it back again--



But of course there is no telling where it went to. And besides, whoever

gets it will hide it; I know it because I would do it myself. I believe

I can be honest in all other matters, but I already begin to realize

that the core and center of my nature is love of the beautiful, a

passion for the beautiful, and that it would not be safe to trust me

with a moon that belonged to another person and that person didn't know

I had it. I could give up a moon that I found in the daytime, because I

should be afraid some one was looking; but if I found it in the dark,

I am sure I should find some kind of an excuse for not saying anything

about it. For I do love moons, they are so pretty and so romantic. I

wish we had five or six; I would never go to bed; I should never get

tired lying on the moss-bank and looking up at them.



Stars are good, too. I wish I could get some to put in my hair. But I

suppose I never can. You would be surprised to find how far off they

are, for they do not look it. When they first showed, last night,

I tried to knock some down with a pole, but it didn't reach, which

astonished me; then I tried clods till I was all tired out, but I never

got one. It was because I am left-handed and cannot throw good. Even

when I aimed at the one I wasn't after I couldn't hit the other one,

though I did make some close shots, for I saw the black blot of the clod

sail right into the midst of the golden clusters forty or fifty times,

just barely missing them, and if I could have held out a little longer

maybe I could have got one.



So I cried a little, which was natural, I suppose, for one of my age,

and after I was rested I got a basket and started for a place on the

extreme rim of the circle, where the stars were close to the ground and

I could get them with my hands, which would be better, anyway, because I

could gather them tenderly then, and not break them. But it was farther

than I thought, and at last I had to give it up; I was so tired I

couldn't drag my feet another step; and besides, they were sore and hurt

me very much.



I couldn't get back home; it was too far and turning cold; but I found

some tigers and nestled in among them and was most adorably comfortable,

and their breath was sweet and pleasant, because they live on

strawberries. I had never seen a tiger before, but I knew them in a

minute by the stripes. If I could have one of those skins, it would make

a lovely gown.



Today I am getting better ideas about distances. I was so eager to get

hold of every pretty thing that I giddily grabbed for it, sometimes when

it was too far off, and sometimes when it was but six inches away but

seemed a foot--alas, with thorns between! I learned a lesson; also I

made an axiom, all out of my own head--my very first one; _The scratched

experiment shuns the thorn_. I think it is a very good one for one so

young.



I followed the other Experiment around, yesterday afternoon, at a

distance, to see what it might be for, if I could. But I was not able

to make out. I think it is a man. I had never seen a man, but it looked

like one, and I feel sure that that is what it is. I realize that I feel

more curiosity about it than about any of the other reptiles. If it is a

reptile, and I suppose it is; for it has frowzy hair and blue eyes, and

looks like a reptile. It has no hips; it tapers like a carrot; when

it stands, it spreads itself apart like a derrick; so I think it is a

reptile, though it may be architecture.



I was afraid of it at first, and started to run every time it turned

around, for I thought it was going to chase me; but by and by I found it

was only trying to get away, so after that I was not timid any more, but

tracked it along, several hours, about twenty yards behind, which made

it nervous and unhappy. At last it was a good deal worried, and climbed

a tree. I waited a good while, then gave it up and went home.



Today the same thing over. I've got it up the tree again.



SUNDAY.--It is up there yet. Resting, apparently. But that is a

subterfuge: Sunday isn't the day of rest; Saturday is appointed for

that. It looks to me like a creature that is more interested in resting

than in anything else. It would tire me to rest so much. It tires me

just to sit around and watch the tree. I do wonder what it is for; I

never see it do anything.



They returned the moon last night, and I was_ so_ happy! I think it

is very honest of them. It slid down and fell off again, but I was

not distressed; there is no need to worry when one has that kind of

neighbors; they will fetch it back. I wish I could do something to show

my appreciation. I would like to send them some stars, for we have more

than we can use. I mean I, not we, for I can see that the reptile cares

nothing for such things.



It has low tastes, and is not kind. When I went there yesterday evening

in the gloaming it had crept down and was trying to catch the little

speckled fishes that play in the pool, and I had to clod it to make it

go up the tree again and let them alone. I wonder if _that _is what it

is for? Hasn't it any heart? Hasn't it any compassion for those little

creature? Can it be that it was designed and manufactured for such

ungentle work? It has the look of it. One of the clods took it back of

the ear, and it used language. It gave me a thrill, for it was the first

time I had ever heard speech, except my own. I did not understand the

words, but they seemed expressive.



When I found it could talk I felt a new interest in it, for I love to

talk; I talk, all day, and in my sleep, too, and I am very interesting,

but if I had another to talk to I could be twice as interesting, and

would never stop, if desired.



If this reptile is a man, it isn't an_ it_, is it? That wouldn't be

grammatical, would it? I think it would be _he_. I think so. In

that case one would parse it thus: nominative, _he_; dative, _him_;

possessive, _his'n._ Well, I will consider it a man and call it he until

it turns out to be something else. This will be handier than having so

many uncertainties.



NEXT WEEK SUNDAY.--All the week I tagged around after him and tried

to get acquainted. I had to do the talking, because he was shy, but

I didn't mind it. He seemed pleased to have me around, and I used

the sociable "we" a good deal, because it seemed to flatter him to be

included.



WEDNESDAY.--We are getting along very well indeed, now, and getting

better and better acquainted. He does not try to avoid me any more,

which is a good sign, and shows that he likes to have me with him. That

pleases me, and I study to be useful to him in every way I can, so as

to increase his regard. During the last day or two I have taken all the

work of naming things off his hands, and this has been a great relief to

him, for he has no gift in that line, and is evidently very grateful.

He can't think of a rational name to save him, but I do not let him see

that I am aware of his defect. Whenever a new creature comes along I

name it before he has time to expose himself by an awkward silence. In

this way I have saved him many embarrassments. I have no defect like

this. The minute I set eyes on an animal I know what it is. I don't have

to reflect a moment; the right name comes out instantly, just as if it

were an inspiration, as no doubt it is, for I am sure it wasn't in me

half a minute before. I seem to know just by the shape of the creature

and the way it acts what animal it is.



When the dodo came along he thought it was a wildcat--I saw it in his

eye. But I saved him. And I was careful not to do it in a way that

could hurt his pride. I just spoke up in a quite natural way of pleased

surprise, and not as if I was dreaming of conveying information,

and said, "Well, I do declare, if there isn't the dodo!" I

explained--without seeming to be explaining--how I know it for a dodo,

and although I thought maybe he was a little piqued that I knew the

creature when he didn't, it was quite evident that he admired me.

That was very agreeable, and I thought of it more than once with

gratification before I slept. How little a thing can make us happy when

we feel that we have earned it!



THURSDAY.--my first sorrow. Yesterday he avoided me and seemed to wish

I would not talk to him. I could not believe it, and thought there was

some mistake, for I loved to be with him, and loved to hear him talk,

and so how could it be that he could feel unkind toward me when I had

not done anything? But at last it seemed true, so I went away and sat

lonely in the place where I first saw him the morning that we were made

and I did not know what he was and was indifferent about him; but now it

was a mournful place, and every little thing spoke of him, and my

heart was very sore. I did not know why very clearly, for it was a new

feeling; I had not experienced it before, and it was all a mystery, and

I could not make it out.



But when night came I could not bear the lonesomeness, and went to the

new shelter which he has built, to ask him what I had done that was

wrong and how I could mend it and get back his kindness again; but he

put me out in the rain, and it was my first sorrow.



SUNDAY.--It is pleasant again, now, and I am happy; but those were heavy

days; I do not think of them when I can help it.



I tried to get him some of those apples, but I cannot learn to throw

straight. I failed, but I think the good intention pleased him. They

are forbidden, and he says I shall come to harm; but so I come to harm

through pleasing him, why shall I care for that harm?



MONDAY.--This morning I told him my name, hoping it would interest him.

But he did not care for it. It is strange. If he should tell me his

name, I would care. I think it would be pleasanter in my ears than any

other sound.



He talks very little. Perhaps it is because he is not bright, and is

sensitive about it and wishes to conceal it. It is such a pity that he

should feel so, for brightness is nothing; it is in the heart that the

values lie. I wish I could make him understand that a loving good heart

is riches, and riches enough, and that without it intellect is poverty.



Although he talks so little, he has quite a considerable vocabulary.

This morning he used a surprisingly good word. He evidently recognized,

himself, that it was a good one, for he worked it in twice afterward,

casually. It was not good casual art, still it showed that he possesses

a certain quality of perception. Without a doubt that seed can be made

to grow, if cultivated.



Where did he get that word? I do not think I have ever used it.



No, he took no interest in my name. I tried to hide my disappointment,

but I suppose I did not succeed. I went away and sat on the moss-bank

with my feet in the water. It is where I go when I hunger for

companionship, some one to look at, some one to talk to. It is not

enough--that lovely white body painted there in the pool--but it is

something, and something is better than utter loneliness. It talks when

I talk; it is sad when I am sad; it comforts me with its sympathy; it

says, "Do not be downhearted, you poor friendless girl; I will be your

friend." It_ is_ a good friend to me, and my only one; it is my sister.



That first time that she forsook me! ah, I shall never forget

that--never, never. My heart was lead in my body! I said, "She was all

I had, and now she is gone!" In my despair I said, "Break, my heart; I

cannot bear my life any more!" and hid my face in my hands, and there

was no solace for me. And when I took them away, after a little, there

she was again, white and shining and beautiful, and I sprang into her

arms!



That was perfect happiness; I had known happiness before, but it was not

like this, which was ecstasy. I never doubted her afterward. Sometimes

she stayed away--maybe an hour, maybe almost the whole day, but I waited

and did not doubt; I said, "She is busy, or she is gone on a journey,

but she will come." And it was so: she always did. At night she would

not come if it was dark, for she was a timid little thing; but if there

was a moon she would come. I am not afraid of the dark, but she is

younger than I am; she was born after I was. Many and many are the

visits I have paid her; she is my comfort and my refuge when my life is

hard--and it is mainly that.



TUESDAY.--All the morning I was at work improving the estate; and I

purposely kept away from him in the hope that he would get lonely and

come. But he did not.



At noon I stopped for the day and took my recreation by flitting all

about with the bees and the butterflies and reveling in the flowers,

those beautiful creatures that catch the smile of God out of the sky and

preserve it! I gathered them, and made them into wreaths and garlands

and clothed myself in them while I ate my luncheon--apples, of course;

then I sat in the shade and wished and waited. But he did not come.



But no matter. Nothing would have come of it, for he does not care for

flowers. He called them rubbish, and cannot tell one from another, and

thinks it is superior to feel like that. He does not care for me, he

does not care for flowers, he does not care for the painted sky at

eventide--is there anything he does care for, except building shacks to

coop himself up in from the good clean rain, and thumping the melons,

and sampling the grapes, and fingering the fruit on the trees, to see

how those properties are coming along?



I laid a dry stick on the ground and tried to bore a hole in it with

another one, in order to carry out a scheme that I had, and soon I got

an awful fright. A thin, transparent bluish film rose out of the hole,

and I dropped everything and ran! I thought it was a spirit, and I _was

_so frightened! But I looked back, and it was not coming; so I leaned

against a rock and rested and panted, and let my limbs go on trembling

until they got steady again; then I crept warily back, alert, watching,

and ready to fly if there was occasion; and when I was come near, I

parted the branches of a rose-bush and peeped through--wishing the man

was about, I was looking so cunning and pretty--but the sprite was gone.

I went there, and there was a pinch of delicate pink dust in the hole. I

put my finger in, to feel it, and said _ouch_! and took it out again. It

was a cruel pain. I put my finger in my mouth; and by standing first on

one foot and then the other, and grunting, I presently eased my misery;

then I was full of interest, and began to examine.



I was curious to know what the pink dust was. Suddenly the name of it

occurred to me, though I had never heard of it before. It was _fire_! I

was as certain of it as a person could be of anything in the world. So

without hesitation I named it that--fire.



I had created something that didn't exist before; I had added a new

thing to the world's uncountable properties; I realized this, and was

proud of my achievement, and was going to run and find him and tell him

about it, thinking to raise myself in his esteem--but I reflected, and

did not do it. No--he would not care for it. He would ask what it

was good for, and what could I answer? for if it was not _good _for

something, but only beautiful, merely beautiful-- So I sighed, and did

not go. For it wasn't good for anything; it could not build a shack,

it could not improve melons, it could not hurry a fruit crop; it was

useless, it was a foolishness and a vanity; he would despise it and say

cutting words. But to me it was not despicable; I said, "Oh, you fire, I

love you, you dainty pink creature, for you are _beautiful_--and that is

enough!" and was going to gather it to my breast. But refrained. Then

I made another maxim out of my head, though it was so nearly like

the first one that I was afraid it was only a plagiarism: "_The burnt

experiment shuns the fire_."



I wrought again; and when I had made a good deal of fire-dust I emptied

it into a handful of dry brown grass, intending to carry it home and

keep it always and play with it; but the wind struck it and it sprayed

up and spat out at me fiercely, and I dropped it and ran. When I looked

back the blue spirit was towering up and stretching and rolling away

like a cloud, and instantly I thought of the name of it--smoke!--though,

upon my word, I had never heard of smoke before.



Soon brilliant yellow and red flares shot up through the smoke, and I

named them in an instant--flames--and I was right, too, though these

were the very first flames that had ever been in the world. They climbed

the trees, then flashed splendidly in and out of the vast and increasing

volume of tumbling smoke, and I had to clap my hands and laugh and

dance in my rapture, it was so new and strange and so wonderful and so

beautiful!



He came running, and stopped and gazed, and said not a word for many

minutes. Then he asked what it was. Ah, it was too bad that he should

ask such a direct question. I had to answer it, of course, and I did. I

said it was fire. If it annoyed him that I should know and he must ask;

that was not my fault; I had no desire to annoy him. After a pause he

asked:



"How did it come?"



Another direct question, and it also had to have a direct answer.



"I made it."



The fire was traveling farther and farther off. He went to the edge of

the burned place and stood looking down, and said:



"What are these?"



"Fire-coals."



He picked up one to examine it, but changed his mind and put it down

again. Then he went away. _Nothing _interests him.



But I was interested. There were ashes, gray and soft and delicate

and pretty--I knew what they were at once. And the embers; I knew the

embers, too. I found my apples, and raked them out, and was glad; for

I am very young and my appetite is active. But I was disappointed; they

were all burst open and spoiled. Spoiled apparently; but it was not so;

they were better than raw ones. Fire is beautiful; some day it will be

useful, I think.



FRIDAY.--I saw him again, for a moment, last Monday at nightfall, but

only for a moment. I was hoping he would praise me for trying to improve

the estate, for I had meant well and had worked hard. But he was not

pleased, and turned away and left me. He was also displeased on another

account: I tried once more to persuade him to stop going over the Falls.

That was because the fire had revealed to me a new passion--quite new,

and distinctly different from love, grief, and those others which I

had already discovered--fear. And it is horrible!--I wish I had never

discovered it; it gives me dark moments, it spoils my happiness, it

makes me shiver and tremble and shudder. But I could not persuade him,

for he has not discovered fear yet, and so he could not understand me.

		

		

		

		  

EXTRACT FROM ADAM'S DIARY

		

		

		

Perhaps I ought to remember that she is very young, a mere girl and make

allowances. She is all interest, eagerness, vivacity, the world is to

her a charm, a wonder, a mystery, a joy; she can't speak for delight

when she finds a new flower, she must pet it and caress it and smell

it and talk to it, and pour out endearing names upon it. And she is

color-mad: brown rocks, yellow sand, gray moss, green foliage, blue sky;

the pearl of the dawn, the purple shadows on the mountains, the golden

islands floating in crimson seas at sunset, the pallid moon sailing

through the shredded cloud-rack, the star-jewels glittering in the

wastes of space--none of them is of any practical value, so far as I can

see, but because they have color and majesty, that is enough for her,

and she loses her mind over them. If she could quiet down and keep still

a couple minutes at a time, it would be a reposeful spectacle. In that

case I think I could enjoy looking at her; indeed I am sure I could,

for I am coming to realize that she is a quite remarkably comely

creature--lithe, slender, trim, rounded, shapely, nimble, graceful; and

once when she was standing marble-white and sun-drenched on a boulder,

with her young head tilted back and her hand shading her eyes, watching

the flight of a bird in the sky, I recognized that she was beautiful.



MONDAY NOON.--If there is anything on the planet that she is not

interested in it is not in my list. There are animals that I am

indifferent to, but it is not so with her. She has no discrimination,

she takes to all of them, she thinks they are all treasures, every new

one is welcome.



When the mighty brontosaurus came striding into camp, she regarded it as

an acquisition, I considered it a calamity; that is a good sample of

the lack of harmony that prevails in our views of things. She wanted to

domesticate it, I wanted to make it a present of the homestead and move

out. She believed it could be tamed by kind treatment and would be a

good pet; I said a pet twenty-one feet high and eighty-four feet long

would be no proper thing to have about the place, because, even with the

best intentions and without meaning any harm, it could sit down on the

house and mash it, for any one could see by the look of its eye that it

was absent-minded.



Still, her heart was set upon having that monster, and she couldn't give

it up. She thought we could start a dairy with it, and wanted me to help

milk it; but I wouldn't; it was too risky. The sex wasn't right, and we

hadn't any ladder anyway. Then she wanted to ride it, and look at the

scenery. Thirty or forty feet of its tail was lying on the ground, like

a fallen tree, and she thought she could climb it, but she was mistaken;

when she got to the steep place it was too slick and down she came, and

would have hurt herself but for me.



Was she satisfied now? No. Nothing ever satisfies her but demonstration;

untested theories are not in her line, and she won't have them. It is

the right spirit, I concede it; it attracts me; I feel the influence of

it; if I were with her more I think I should take it up myself. Well,

she had one theory remaining about this colossus: she thought that if we

could tame it and make him friendly we could stand him in the river

and use him for a bridge. It turned out that he was already plenty tame

enough--at least as far as she was concerned--so she tried her theory,

but it failed: every time she got him properly placed in the river and

went ashore to cross over him, he came out and followed her around like

a pet mountain. Like the other animals. They all do that.



FRIDAY.--Tuesday--Wednesday--Thursday--and today: all without seeing

him. It is a long time to be alone; still, it is better to be alone than

unwelcome.







I _had _to have company--I was made for it, I think--so I made friends

with the animals. They are just charming, and they have the kindest

disposition and the politest ways; they never look sour, they never let

you feel that you are intruding, they smile at you and wag their tail,

if they've got one, and they are always ready for a romp or an excursion

or anything you want to propose. I think they are perfect gentlemen. All

these days we have had such good times, and it hasn't been lonesome for

me, ever. Lonesome! No, I should say not. Why, there's always a swarm

of them around--sometimes as much as four or five acres--you can't count

them; and when you stand on a rock in the midst and look out over the

furry expanse it is so mottled and splashed and gay with color and

frisking sheen and sun-flash, and so rippled with stripes, that you

might think it was a lake, only you know it isn't; and there's storms

of sociable birds, and hurricanes of whirring wings; and when the sun

strikes all that feathery commotion, you have a blazing up of all the

colors you can think of, enough to put your eyes out.



We have made long excursions, and I have seen a great deal of the world;

almost all of it, I think; and so I am the first traveler, and the only

one. When we are on the march, it is an imposing sight--there's nothing

like it anywhere. For comfort I ride a tiger or a leopard, because it is

soft and has a round back that fits me, and because they are such pretty

animals; but for long distance or for scenery I ride the elephant. He

hoists me up with his trunk, but I can get off myself; when we are ready

to camp, he sits and I slide down the back way.



The birds and animals are all friendly to each other, and there are no

disputes about anything. They all talk, and they all talk to me, but it

must be a foreign language, for I cannot make out a word they say; yet

they often understand me when I talk back, particularly the dog and the

elephant. It makes me ashamed. It shows that they are brighter than I

am, for I want to be the principal Experiment myself--and I intend to

be, too.



I have learned a number of things, and am educated, now, but I wasn't at

first. I was ignorant at first. At first it used to vex me because, with

all my watching, I was never smart enough to be around when the water

was running uphill; but now I do not mind it. I have experimented and

experimented until now I know it never does run uphill, except in the

dark. I know it does in the dark, because the pool never goes dry, which

it would, of course, if the water didn't come back in the night. It is

best to prove things by actual experiment; then you _know_; whereas if

you depend on guessing and supposing and conjecturing, you never get

educated.



Some things you _can't_ find out; but you will never know you can't

by guessing and supposing: no, you have to be patient and go on

experimenting until you find out that you can't find out. And it is

delightful to have it that way, it makes the world so interesting. If

there wasn't anything to find out, it would be dull. Even trying to find

out and not finding out is just as interesting as trying to find out and

finding out, and I don't know but more so. The secret of the water was

a treasure until I _got _it; then the excitement all went away, and I

recognized a sense of loss.



By experiment I know that wood swims, and dry leaves, and feathers, and

plenty of other things; therefore by all that cumulative evidence you

know that a rock will swim; but you have to put up with simply knowing

it, for there isn't any way to prove it--up to now. But I shall find a

way--then _that _excitement will go. Such things make me sad; because

by and by when I have found out everything there won't be any more

excitements, and I do love excitements so! The other night I couldn't

sleep for thinking about it.



At first I couldn't make out what I was made for, but now I think it was

to search out the secrets of this wonderful world and be happy and thank

the Giver of it all for devising it. I think there are many things to

learn yet--I hope so; and by economizing and not hurrying too fast I

think they will last weeks and weeks. I hope so. When you cast up a

feather it sails away on the air and goes out of sight; then you throw

up a clod and it doesn't. It comes down, every time. I have tried it

and tried it, and it is always so. I wonder why it is? Of course it

_doesn't_ come down, but why should it _seem _to? I suppose it is an

optical illusion. I mean, one of them is. I don't know which one. It

may be the feather, it may be the clod; I can't prove which it is, I can

only demonstrate that one or the other is a fake, and let a person take

his choice.



By watching, I know that the stars are not going to last. I have seen

some of the best ones melt and run down the sky. Since one can melt,

they can all melt; since they can all melt, they can all melt the same

night. That sorrow will come--I know it. I mean to sit up every night

and look at them as long as I can keep awake; and I will impress those

sparkling fields on my memory, so that by and by when they are taken

away I can by my fancy restore those lovely myriads to the black sky and

make them sparkle again, and double them by the blur of my tears.



After the Fall



When I look back, the Garden is a dream to me. It was beautiful,

surpassingly beautiful, enchantingly beautiful; and now it is lost, and

I shall not see it any more.



The Garden is lost, but I have found _him_, and am content. He loves

me as well as he can; I love him with all the strength of my passionate

nature, and this, I think, is proper to my youth and sex. If I ask

myself why I love him, I find I do not know, and do not really much

care to know; so I suppose that this kind of love is not a product

of reasoning and statistics, like one's love for other reptiles and

animals. I think that this must be so. I love certain birds because of

their song; but I do not love Adam on account of his singing--no, it is

not that; the more he sings the more I do not get reconciled to it.

Yet I ask him to sing, because I wish to learn to like everything he is

interested in. I am sure I can learn, because at first I could not stand

it, but now I can. It sours the milk, but it doesn't matter; I can get

used to that kind of milk.



It is not on account of his brightness that I love him--no, it is not

that. He is not to blame for his brightness, such as it is, for he did

not make it himself; he is as God made him, and that is sufficient.

There was a wise purpose in it, _that _I know. In time it will develop,

though I think it will not be sudden; and besides, there is no hurry; he

is well enough just as he is.



It is not on account of his gracious and considerate ways and his

delicacy that I love him. No, he has lacks in this regard, but he is

well enough just so, and is improving.



It is not on account of his industry that I love him--no, it is not

that. I think he has it in him, and I do not know why he conceals it

from me. It is my only pain. Otherwise he is frank and open with me,

now. I am sure he keeps nothing from me but this. It grieves me that he

should have a secret from me, and sometimes it spoils my sleep, thinking

of it, but I will put it out of my mind; it shall not trouble my

happiness, which is otherwise full to overflowing.



It is not on account of his education that I love him--no, it is not

that. He is self-educated, and does really know a multitude of things,

but they are not so.



It is not on account of his chivalry that I love him--no, it is not

that. He told on me, but I do not blame him; it is a peculiarity of sex,

I think, and he did not make his sex. Of course I would not have told on

him, I would have perished first; but that is a peculiarity of sex, too,

and I do not take credit for it, for I did not make my sex.



Then why is it that I love him? _Merely because he is masculine_, I

think.



At bottom he is good, and I love him for that, but I could love him

without it. If he should beat me and abuse me, I should go on loving

him. I know it. It is a matter of sex, I think.



He is strong and handsome, and I love him for that, and I admire him

and am proud of him, but I could love him without those qualities. If

he were plain, I should love him; if he were a wreck, I should love

him; and I would work for him, and slave over him, and pray for him, and

watch by his bedside until I died.



Yes, I think I love him merely because he is _mine _and is _masculine_.

There is no other reason, I suppose. And so I think it is as I first

said: that this kind of love is not a product of reasonings and

statistics. It just _comes_--none knows whence--and cannot explain

itself. And doesn't need to.



It is what I think. But I am only a girl, the first that has examined

this matter, and it may turn out that in my ignorance and inexperience I

have not got it right.



Forty Years Later



It is my prayer, it is my longing, that we may pass from this life

together--a longing which shall never perish from the earth, but shall

have place in the heart of every wife that loves, until the end of time;

and it shall be called by my name.



But if one of us must go first, it is my prayer that it shall be I;

for he is strong, I am weak, I am not so necessary to him as he is to

me--life without him would not be life; how could I endure it? This

prayer is also immortal, and will not cease from being offered up while

my race continues. I am the first wife; and in the last wife I shall be

repeated.



AT EVE'S GRAVE



ADAM: Wheresoever she was, _there_ was Eden.

		

		

		

		  

EXTRACTS FROM ADAM'S DIARY

		

		

		

MONDAY.--This new creature with the long hair is a good deal in the way.

It is always hanging around and following me about. I don't like this; I

am not used to company. I wish it would stay with the other animals....

Cloudy today, wind in the east; think we shall have rain.... _We?_ Where

did I get that word--the new creature uses it.



TUESDAY.--Been examining the great waterfall. It is the finest thing on

the estate, I think. The new creature calls it Niagara Falls--why, I am

sure I do not know. Says it _looks _like Niagara Falls. That is not a

reason, it is mere waywardness and imbecility. I get no chance to name

anything myself. The new creature names everything that comes along,

before I can get in a protest. And always that same pretext is

offered--it _looks _like the thing. There is a dodo, for instance. Says

the moment one looks at it one sees at a glance that it "looks like a

dodo." It will have to keep that name, no doubt. It wearies me to fret

about it, and it does no good, anyway. Dodo! It looks no more like a

dodo than I do.



WEDNESDAY.--Built me a shelter against the rain, but could not have it

to myself in peace. The new creature intruded. When I tried to put it

out it shed water out of the holes it looks with, and wiped it away with

the back of its paws, and made a noise such as some of the other animals

make when they are in distress. I wish it would not talk; it is always

talking. That sounds like a cheap fling at the poor creature, a slur;

but I do not mean it so. I have never heard the human voice before, and

any new and strange sound intruding itself here upon the solemn hush of

these dreaming solitudes offends my ear and seems a false note. And this

new sound is so close to me; it is right at my shoulder, right at my

ear, first on one side and then on the other, and I am used only to

sounds that are more or less distant from me.



FRIDAY. The naming goes recklessly on, in spite of anything I can do.

I had a very good name for the estate, and it was musical and

pretty--_Garden Of Eden._ Privately, I continue to call it that, but not

any longer publicly. The new creature says it is all woods and rocks and

scenery, and therefore has no resemblance to a garden. Says it

_looks _like a park, and does not look like anything _but _a park.

Consequently, without consulting me, it has been new-named _Niagara

Falls Park_. This is sufficiently high-handed, it seems to me. And

already there is a sign up:



KEEP OFF THE GRASS



My life is not as happy as it was.



SATURDAY.--The new creature eats too much fruit. We are going to run

short, most likely. "We" again--that is _its_ word; mine, too, now, from

hearing it so much. Good deal of fog this morning. I do not go out in

the fog myself. This new creature does. It goes out in all weathers,

and stumps right in with its muddy feet. And talks. It used to be so

pleasant and quiet here.



SUNDAY.--Pulled through. This day is getting to be more and more trying.

It was selected and set apart last November as a day of rest. I had

already six of them per week before. This morning found the new creature

trying to clod apples out of that forbidden tree.



MONDAY.--The new creature says its name is Eve. That is all right, I

have no objections. Says it is to call it by, when I want it to come.

I said it was superfluous, then. The word evidently raised me in its

respect; and indeed it is a large, good word and will bear repetition.

It says it is not an It, it is a She. This is probably doubtful; yet it

is all one to me; what she is were nothing to me if she would but go by

herself and not talk.



TUESDAY.--She has littered the whole estate with execrable names and

offensive signs:



This way to the Whirlpool



This way to Goat Island



Cave of the Winds this way



She says this park would make a tidy summer resort if there was any

custom for it. Summer resort--another invention of hers--just words,

without any meaning. What is a summer resort? But it is best not to ask

her, she has such a rage for explaining.



FRIDAY.--She has taken to beseeching me to stop going over the Falls.

What harm does it do? Says it makes her shudder. I wonder why; I have

always done it--always liked the plunge, and coolness. I supposed it was

what the Falls were for. They have no other use that I can see, and

they must have been made for something. She says they were only made for

scenery--like the rhinoceros and the mastodon.



I went over the Falls in a barrel--not satisfactory to her. Went over

in a tub--still not satisfactory. Swam the Whirlpool and the Rapids in

a fig-leaf suit. It got much damaged. Hence, tedious complaints about

my extravagance. I am too much hampered here. What I need is a change of

scene.



SATURDAY.--I escaped last Tuesday night, and traveled two days, and

built me another shelter in a secluded place, and obliterated my tracks

as well as I could, but she hunted me out by means of a beast which she

has tamed and calls a wolf, and came making that pitiful noise again,

and shedding that water out of the places she looks with. I was obliged

to return with her, but will presently emigrate again when occasion

offers. She engages herself in many foolish things; among others; to

study out why the animals called lions and tigers live on grass and

flowers, when, as she says, the sort of teeth they wear would indicate

that they were intended to eat each other. This is foolish, because to

do that would be to kill each other, and that would introduce what, as

I understand, is called "death"; and death, as I have been told, has not

yet entered the Park. Which is a pity, on some accounts.



SUNDAY.--Pulled through.



MONDAY.--I believe I see what the week is for: it is to give time to

rest up from the weariness of Sunday. It seems a good idea. ... She has

been climbing that tree again. Clodded her out of it. She said nobody

was looking. Seems to consider that a sufficient justification for

chancing any dangerous thing. Told her that. The word justification

moved her admiration--and envy, too, I thought. It is a good word.



TUESDAY.--She told me she was made out of a rib taken from my body.

This is at least doubtful, if not more than that. I have not missed any

rib.... She is in much trouble about the buzzard; says grass does not

agree with it; is afraid she can't raise it; thinks it was intended to

live on decayed flesh. The buzzard must get along the best it can with

what is provided. We cannot overturn the whole scheme to accommodate the

buzzard.



SATURDAY.--She fell in the pond yesterday when she was looking at

herself in it, which she is always doing. She nearly strangled, and said

it was most uncomfortable. This made her sorry for the creatures which

live in there, which she calls fish, for she continues to fasten names

on to things that don't need them and don't come when they are called

by them, which is a matter of no consequence to her, she is such a

numbskull, anyway; so she got a lot of them out and brought them in last

night and put them in my bed to keep warm, but I have noticed them now

and then all day and I don't see that they are any happier there then

they were before, only quieter. When night comes I shall throw them

outdoors. I will not sleep with them again, for I find them clammy and

unpleasant to lie among when a person hasn't anything on.



SUNDAY.--Pulled through.



TUESDAY.--She has taken up with a snake now. The other animals are glad,

for she was always experimenting with them and bothering them; and I am

glad because the snake talks, and this enables me to get a rest.



FRIDAY.--She says the snake advises her to try the fruit of the tree,

and says the result will be a great and fine and noble education. I told

her there would be another result, too--it would introduce death into

the world. That was a mistake--it had been better to keep the remark to

myself; it only gave her an idea--she could save the sick buzzard, and

furnish fresh meat to the despondent lions and tigers. I advised her to

keep away from the tree. She said she wouldn't. I foresee trouble. Will

emigrate.



WEDNESDAY.--I have had a variegated time. I escaped last night, and rode

a horse all night as fast as he could go, hoping to get clear of the

Park and hide in some other country before the trouble should begin; but

it was not to be. About an hour after sun-up, as I was riding through

a flowery plain where thousands of animals were grazing, slumbering, or

playing with each other, according to their wont, all of a sudden they

broke into a tempest of frightful noises, and in one moment the plain

was a frantic commotion and every beast was destroying its neighbor. I

knew what it meant--Eve had eaten that fruit, and death was come into

the world. ... The tigers ate my house, paying no attention when

I ordered them to desist, and they would have eaten me if I had

stayed--which I didn't, but went away in much haste.... I found this

place, outside the Park, and was fairly comfortable for a few days,

but she has found me out. Found me out, and has named the place

Tonawanda--says it _looks _like that. In fact I was not sorry she came,

for there are but meager pickings here, and she brought some of those

apples. I was obliged to eat them, I was so hungry. It was against my

principles, but I find that principles have no real force except when

one is well fed.... She came curtained in boughs and bunches of leaves,

and when I asked her what she meant by such nonsense, and snatched them

away and threw them down, she tittered and blushed. I had never seen

a person titter and blush before, and to me it seemed unbecoming and

idiotic. She said I would soon know how it was myself. This was correct.

Hungry as I was, I laid down the apple half-eaten--certainly the best

one I ever saw, considering the lateness of the season--and arrayed

myself in the discarded boughs and branches, and then spoke to her with

some severity and ordered her to go and get some more and not make a

spectacle of herself. She did it, and after this we crept down to where

the wild-beast battle had been, and collected some skins, and I made her

patch together a couple of suits proper for public occasions. They are

uncomfortable, it is true, but stylish, and that is the main point about

clothes.... I find she is a good deal of a companion. I see I should be

lonesome and depressed without her, now that I have lost my property.

Another thing, she says it is ordered that we work for our living

hereafter. She will be useful. I will superintend.



TEN DAYS LATER.--She accuses _me _of being the cause of our disaster!

She says, with apparent sincerity and truth, that the Serpent assured

her that the forbidden fruit was not apples, it was chestnuts. I said

I was innocent, then, for I had not eaten any chestnuts. She said the

Serpent informed her that "chestnut" was a figurative term meaning an

aged and moldy joke. I turned pale at that, for I have made many jokes

to pass the weary time, and some of them could have been of that sort,

though I had honestly supposed that they were new when I made them. She

asked me if I had made one just at the time of the catastrophe. I was

obliged to admit that I had made one to myself, though not aloud. It

was this. I was thinking about the Falls, and I said to myself, "How

wonderful it is to see that vast body of water tumble down there!" Then

in an instant a bright thought flashed into my head, and I let it

fly, saying, "It would be a deal more wonderful to see it tumble_ up_

there!"--and I was just about to kill myself with laughing at it when

all nature broke loose in war and death and I had to flee for my life.

"There," she said, with triumph, "that is just it; the Serpent mentioned

that very jest, and called it the First Chestnut, and said it was coeval

with the creation." Alas, I am indeed to blame. Would that I were not

witty; oh, that I had never had that radiant thought!



NEXT YEAR.--We have named it Cain. She caught it while I was up country

trapping on the North Shore of the Erie; caught it in the timber a

couple of miles from our dug-out--or it might have been four, she isn't

certain which. It resembles us in some ways, and may be a relation. That

is what she thinks, but this is an error, in my judgment. The difference

in size warrants the conclusion that it is a different and new kind of

animal--a fish, perhaps, though when I put it in the water to see,

it sank, and she plunged in and snatched it out before there was

opportunity for the experiment to determine the matter. I still think it

is a fish, but she is indifferent about what it is, and will not let

me have it to try. I do not understand this. The coming of the creature

seems to have changed her whole nature and made her unreasonable about

experiments. She thinks more of it than she does of any of the

other animals, but is not able to explain why. Her mind is

disordered--everything shows it. Sometimes she carries the fish in her

arms half the night when it complains and wants to get to the water. At

such times the water comes out of the places in her face that she looks

out of, and she pats the fish on the back and makes soft sounds with her

mouth to soothe it, and betrays sorrow and solicitude in a hundred ways.

I have never seen her do like this with any other fish, and it troubles

me greatly. She used to carry the young tigers around so, and play with

them, before we lost our property, but it was only play; she never took

on about them like this when their dinner disagreed with them.



SUNDAY.--She doesn't work, Sundays, but lies around all tired out, and

likes to have the fish wallow over her; and she makes fool noises to

amuse it, and pretends to chew its paws, and that makes it laugh. I have

not seen a fish before that could laugh. This makes me doubt.... I have

come to like Sunday myself. Superintending all the week tires a body so.

There ought to be more Sundays. In the old days they were tough, but now

they come handy.



WEDNESDAY.--It isn't a fish. I cannot quite make out what it is. It

makes curious devilish noises when not satisfied, and says "goo-goo"

 when it is. It is not one of us, for it doesn't walk; it is not a bird,

for it doesn't fly; it is not a frog, for it doesn't hop; it is not

a snake, for it doesn't crawl; I feel sure it is not a fish, though I

cannot get a chance to find out whether it can swim or not. It merely

lies around, and mostly on its back, with its feet up. I have not seen

any other animal do that before. I said I believed it was an enigma; but

she only admired the word without understanding it. In my judgment it is

either an enigma or some kind of a bug. If it dies, I will take it apart

and see what its arrangements are. I never had a thing perplex me so.



THREE MONTHS LATER.--The perplexity augments instead of diminishing. I

sleep but little. It has ceased from lying around, and goes about on

its four legs now. Yet it differs from the other four legged animals,

in that its front legs are unusually short, consequently this causes the

main part of its person to stick up uncomfortably high in the air, and

this is not attractive. It is built much as we are, but its method of

traveling shows that it is not of our breed. The short front legs and

long hind ones indicate that it is a of the kangaroo family, but it is a

marked variation of that species, since the true kangaroo hops, whereas

this one never does. Still it is a curious and interesting variety,

and has not been catalogued before. As I discovered it, I have felt

justified in securing the credit of the discovery by attaching my name

to it, and hence have called it _Kangaroorum Adamiensis_.... It must

have been a young one when it came, for it has grown exceedingly since.

It must be five times as big, now, as it was then, and when discontented

it is able to make from twenty-two to thirty-eight times the noise

it made at first. Coercion does not modify this, but has the contrary

effect. For this reason I discontinued the system. She reconciles it by

persuasion, and by giving it things which she had previously told me she

wouldn't give it. As already observed, I was not at home when it first

came, and she told me she found it in the woods. It seems odd that it

should be the only one, yet it must be so, for I have worn myself out

these many weeks trying to find another one to add to my collection, and

for this to play with; for surely then it would be quieter and we

could tame it more easily. But I find none, nor any vestige of any; and

strangest of all, no tracks. It has to live on the ground, it cannot

help itself; therefore, how does it get about without leaving a track?

I have set a dozen traps, but they do no good. I catch all small animals

except that one; animals that merely go into the trap out of curiosity,

I think, to see what the milk is there for. They never drink it.



THREE MONTHS LATER.--The Kangaroo still continues to grow, which is

very strange and perplexing. I never knew one to be so long getting its

growth. It has fur on its head now; not like kangaroo fur, but exactly

like our hair except that it is much finer and softer, and instead of

being black is red. I am like to lose my mind over the capricious and

harassing developments of this unclassifiable zoological freak. If I

could catch another one--but that is hopeless; it is a new variety, and

the only sample; this is plain. But I caught a true kangaroo and brought

it in, thinking that this one, being lonesome, would rather have that

for company than have no kin at all, or any animal it could feel a

nearness to or get sympathy from in its forlorn condition here among

strangers who do not know its ways or habits, or what to do to make it

feel that it is among friends; but it was a mistake--it went into such

fits at the sight of the kangaroo that I was convinced it had never seen

one before. I pity the poor noisy little animal, but there is nothing

I can do to make it happy. If I could tame it--but that is out of the

question; the more I try the worse I seem to make it. It grieves me to

the heart to see it in its little storms of sorrow and passion. I wanted

to let it go, but she wouldn't hear of it. That seemed cruel and not

like her; and yet she may be right. It might be lonelier than ever; for

since I cannot find another one, how could_ it_?



FIVE MONTHS LATER.--It is not a kangaroo. No, for it supports itself by

holding to her finger, and thus goes a few steps on its hind legs, and

then falls down. It is probably some kind of a bear; and yet it has

no tail--as yet--and no fur, except upon its head. It still keeps on

growing--that is a curious circumstance, for bears get their growth

earlier than this. Bears are dangerous--since our catastrophe--and I

shall not be satisfied to have this one prowling about the place much

longer without a muzzle on. I have offered to get her a kangaroo if she

would let this one go, but it did no good--she is determined to run us

into all sorts of foolish risks, I think. She was not like this before

she lost her mind.



A FORTNIGHT LATER.--I examined its mouth. There is no danger yet: it has

only one tooth. It has no tail yet. It makes more noise now than it ever

did before--and mainly at night. I have moved out. But I shall go over,

mornings, to breakfast, and see if it has more teeth. If it gets a

mouthful of teeth it will be time for it to go, tail or no tail, for a

bear does not need a tail in order to be dangerous.



FOUR MONTHS LATER.--I have been off hunting and fishing a month, up

in the region that she calls Buffalo; I don't know why, unless it is

because there are not any buffaloes there. Meantime the bear has learned

to paddle around all by itself on its hind legs, and says "poppa" and

"momma." It is certainly a new species. This resemblance to words may

be purely accidental, of course, and may have no purpose or meaning;

but even in that case it is still extraordinary, and is a thing which no

other bear can do. This imitation of speech, taken together with general

absence of fur and entire absence of tail, sufficiently indicates that

this is a new kind of bear. The further study of it will be exceedingly

interesting. Meantime I will go off on a far expedition among the

forests of the north and make an exhaustive search. There must certainly

be another one somewhere, and this one will be less dangerous when it

has company of its own species. I will go straightway; but I will muzzle

this one first.



THREE MONTHS LATER.--It has been a weary, weary hunt, yet I have had no

success. In the mean time, without stirring from the home estate, she

has caught another one! I never saw such luck. I might have hunted these

woods a hundred years, I never would have run across that thing.



NEXT DAY.--I have been comparing the new one with the old one, and it

is perfectly plain that they are of the same breed. I was going to stuff

one of them for my collection, but she is prejudiced against it for some

reason or other; so I have relinquished the idea, though I think it is

a mistake. It would be an irreparable loss to science if they should

get away. The old one is tamer than it was and can laugh and talk like

a parrot, having learned this, no doubt, from being with the parrot so

much, and having the imitative faculty in a high developed degree. I

shall be astonished if it turns out to be a new kind of parrot; and yet

I ought not to be astonished, for it has already been everything else it

could think of since those first days when it was a fish. The new one is

as ugly as the old one was at first; has the same sulphur-and-raw-meat

complexion and the same singular head without any fur on it. She calls

it Abel.



TEN YEARS LATER.--They are _boys_; we found it out long ago. It was

their coming in that small immature shape that puzzled us; we were not

used to it. There are some girls now. Abel is a good boy, but if Cain

had stayed a bear it would have improved him. After all these years, I

see that I was mistaken about Eve in the beginning; it is better to

live outside the Garden with her than inside it without her. At first

I thought she talked too much; but now I should be sorry to have that

voice fall silent and pass out of my life. Blessed be the chestnut that

brought us near together and taught me to know the goodness of her heart

and the sweetness of her spirit!





		

		

		

		  

GENERAL WASHINGTON'S NEGRO BODY-SERVANT

		

		

		

A Biographical Sketch



The stirring part of this celebrated colored man's life properly began

with his death--that is to say, the notable features of his biography

began with the first time he died. He had been little heard of up to

that time, but since then we have never ceased to hear of him; we have

never ceased to hear of him at stated, unfailing intervals. His was a

most remarkable career, and I have thought that its history would make

a valuable addition to our biographical literature. Therefore, I

have carefully collated the materials for such a work, from authentic

sources, and here present them to the public. I have rigidly excluded

from these pages everything of a doubtful character, with the object in

view of introducing my work into the schools for the instruction of the

youth of my country.



The name of the famous body-servant of General Washington was George.

After serving his illustrious master faithfully for half a century, and

enjoying throughout this long term his high regard and confidence, it

became his sorrowful duty at last to lay that beloved master to rest in

his peaceful grave by the Potomac. Ten years afterward--in 1809--full

of years and honors, he died himself, mourned by all who knew him. The

_Boston Gazette_ of that date thus refers to the event:



George, the favorite body-servant of the lamented Washington, died in

Richmond, Va., last Tuesday, at the ripe age of 95 years. His intellect

was unimpaired, and his memory tenacious, up to within a few minutes of

his decease. He was present at the second installation of Washington as

President, and also at his funeral, and distinctly remembered all the

prominent incidents connected with those noted events.



From this period we hear no more of the favorite body-servant of General

Washington until May, 1825, at which time he died again. A Philadelphia

paper thus speaks of the sad occurrence:



At Macon, Ga., last week, a colored man named George, who was the

favorite body-servant of General Washington, died at the advanced age

of 95 years. Up to within a few hours of his dissolution he was in full

possession of all his faculties, and could distinctly recollect the

second installation of Washington, his death and burial, the surrender

of Cornwallis, the battle of Trenton, the griefs and hardships of Valley

Forge, etc. Deceased was followed to the grave by the entire population

of Macon.



On the Fourth of July, 1830, and also of 1834 and 1836, the subject of

this sketch was exhibited in great state upon the rostrum of the

orator of the day, and in November of 1840 he died again. The St. Louis

_Republican_ of the 25th of that month spoke as follows:



"ANOTHER RELIC OF THE REVOLUTION GONE."



"George, once the favorite body-servant of General Washington, died

yesterday at the house of Mr. John Leavenworth in this city, at

the venerable age of 95 years. He was in the full possession of his

faculties up to the hour of his death, and distinctly recollected the

first and second installations and death of President Washington,

the surrender of Cornwallis, the battles of Trenton and Monmouth, the

sufferings of the patriot army at Valley Forge, the proclamation of the

Declaration of Independence, the speech of Patrick Henry in the Virginia

House of Delegates, and many other old-time reminiscences of stirring

interest. Few white men die lamented as was this aged negro. The funeral

was very largely attended."



During the next ten or eleven years the subject of this sketch appeared

at intervals at Fourth-of-July celebrations in various parts of the

country, and was exhibited upon the rostrum with flattering success. But

in the fall of 1855 he died again. The California papers thus speak of

the event:



ANOTHER OLD HERO GONE



Died, at Dutch Flat, on the 7th of March, George (once the confidential

body-servant of General Washington), at the great age of 95 years. His

memory, which did not fail him till the last, was a wonderful storehouse

of interesting reminiscences. He could distinctly recollect the

first and second installations and death of President Washington, the

surrender of Cornwallis, the battles of Trenton and Monmouth, and

Bunker Hill, the proclamation of the Declaration of Independence, and

Braddock's defeat. George was greatly respected in Dutch Flat, and it is

estimated that there were 10,000 people present at his funeral.



The last time the subject of this sketch died was in June, 1864;

and until we learn the contrary, it is just to presume that he died

permanently this time. The Michigan papers thus refer to the sorrowful

event:



ANOTHER CHERISHED REMNANT OF THE REVOLUTION GONE



George, a colored man, and once the favorite body-servant of George

Washington, died in Detroit last week, at the patriarchal age of 95

years. To the moment of his death his intellect was unclouded, and he

could distinctly remember the first and second installations and death

of Washington, the surrender of Cornwallis, the battles of Trenton

and Monmouth, and Bunker Hill, the proclamation of the Declaration of

Independence, Braddock's defeat, the throwing over of the tea in Boston

harbor, and the landing of the Pilgrims. He died greatly respected, and

was followed to the grave by a vast concourse of people.



The faithful old servant is gone! We shall never see him more until

he turns up again. He has closed his long and splendid career of

dissolution, for the present, and sleeps peacefully, as only they sleep

who have earned their rest. He was in all respects a remarkable man. He

held his age better than any celebrity that has figured in history; and

the longer he lived the stronger and longer his memory grew. If he lives

to die again, he will distinctly recollect the discovery of America.



The above resume of his biography I believe to be substantially correct,

although it is possible that he may have died once or twice in obscure

places where the event failed of newspaper notoriety. One fault I find

in all the notices of his death I have quoted, and this ought to be

corrected. In them he uniformly and impartially died at the age of 95.

This could not have been. He might have done that once, or maybe twice,

but he could not have continued it indefinitely. Allowing that when he

first died, he died at the age of 95, he was 151 years old when he died

last, in 1864. But his age did not keep pace with his recollections.

When he died the last time, he distinctly remembered the landing of the

Pilgrims, which took place in 1620. He must have been about twenty years

old when he witnessed that event, wherefore it is safe to assert that

the body-servant of General Washington was in the neighborhood of

two hundred and sixty or seventy years old when he departed this life

finally.



Having waited a proper length of time, to see if the subject of his

sketch had gone from us reliably and irrevocably, I now publish his

biography with confidence, and respectfully offer it to a mourning

nation.



P.S.--I see by the papers that this infamous old fraud has just died

again, in Arkansas. This makes six times that he is known to have died,

and always in a new place. The death of Washington's body-servant has

ceased to be a novelty; it's charm is gone; the people are tired of

it; let it cease. This well-meaning but misguided negro has now put six

different communities to the expense of burying him in state, and has

swindled tens of thousands of people into following him to the grave

under the delusion that a select and peculiar distinction was being

conferred upon them. Let him stay buried for good now; and let that

newspaper suffer the severest censure that shall ever, in all the future

time, publish to the world that General Washington's favorite colored

body-servant has died again.





		

		

		

		  

HOW TO TELL A STORY

		

		

		

The Humorous Story an American Development.--Its Difference from Comic

and Witty Stories



I do not claim that I can tell a story as it ought to be told. I only

claim to know how a story ought to be told, for I have been almost daily

in the company of the most expert story-tellers for many years.



There are several kinds of stories, but only one difficult kind--the

humorous. I will talk mainly about that one. The humorous story is

American, the comic story is English, the witty story is French. The

humorous story depends for its effect upon the _manner _of the telling;

the comic story and the witty story upon the _matter_.



The humorous story may be spun out to great length, and may wander

around as much as it pleases, and arrive nowhere in particular; but the

comic and witty stories must be brief and end with a point. The humorous

story bubbles gently along, the others burst.



The humorous story is strictly a work of art--high and delicate art--and

only an artist can tell it; but no art is necessary in telling the comic

and the witty story; anybody can do it. The art of telling a humorous

story--understand, I mean by word of mouth, not print--was created in

America, and has remained at home.



The humorous story is told gravely; the teller does his best to conceal

the fact that he even dimly suspects that there is anything funny about

it; but the teller of the comic story tells you beforehand that it is

one of the funniest things he has ever heard, then tells it with eager

delight, and is the first person to laugh when he gets through. And

sometimes, if he has had good success, he is so glad and happy that

he will repeat the "nub" of it and glance around from face to face,

collecting applause, and then repeat it again. It is a pathetic thing to

see.



Very often, of course, the rambling and disjointed humorous story

finishes with a nub, point, snapper, or whatever you like to call it.

Then the listener must be alert, for in many cases the teller will

divert attention from that nub by dropping it in a carefully casual and

indifferent way, with the pretense that he does not know it is a nub.



Artemus Ward used that trick a good deal; then when the belated audience

presently caught the joke he would look up with innocent surprise, as if

wondering what they had found to laugh at. Dan Setchell used it before

him, Nye and Riley and others use it today.



But the teller of the comic story does not slur the nub; he shouts it at

you--every time. And when he prints it, in England, France, Germany, and

Italy, he italicizes it, puts some whopping exclamation-points after

it, and sometimes explains it in a parenthesis. All of which is very

depressing, and makes one want to renounce joking and lead a better

life.



Let me set down an instance of the comic method, using an anecdote which

has been popular all over the world for twelve or fifteen hundred years.

The teller tells it in this way:



THE WOUNDED SOLDIER



In the course of a certain battle a soldier whose leg had been shot

off appealed to another soldier who was hurrying by to carry him to the

rear, informing him at the same time of the loss which he had sustained;

whereupon the generous son of Mars, shouldering the unfortunate,

proceeded to carry out his desire. The bullets and cannon-balls were

flying in all directions, and presently one of the latter took the

wounded man's head off--without, however, his deliverer being aware of

it. In no long time he was hailed by an officer, who said:



"Where are you going with that carcass?"



"To the rear, sir--he's lost his leg!"



"His leg, forsooth?" responded the astonished officer; "you mean his

head, you booby."



Whereupon the soldier dispossessed himself of his burden, and stood

looking down upon it in great perplexity. At length he said:



"It is true, sir, just as you have said." Then after a pause he added,

"_But he TOLD me IT WAS HIS LEG!!!!!_"



Here the narrator bursts into explosion after explosion of thunderous

horse-laughter, repeating that nub from time to time through his gasping

and shriekings and suffocatings.



It takes only a minute and a half to tell that in its comic-story form;

and isn't worth the telling, after all. Put into the humorous-story

form it takes ten minutes, and is about the funniest thing I have ever

listened to--as James Whitcomb Riley tells it.



He tells it in the character of a dull-witted old farmer who has just

heard it for the first time, thinks it is unspeakably funny, and is

trying to repeat it to a neighbor. But he can't remember it; so he gets

all mixed up and wanders helplessly round and round, putting in tedious

details that don't belong in the tale and only retard it; taking them

out conscientiously and putting in others that are just as useless;

making minor mistakes now and then and stopping to correct them and

explain how he came to make them; remembering things which he forgot

to put in in their proper place and going back to put them in there;

stopping his narrative a good while in order to try to recall the name

of the soldier that was hurt, and finally remembering that the soldier's

name was not mentioned, and remarking placidly that the name is of no

real importance, anyway--better, of course, if one knew it, but not

essential, after all--and so on, and so on, and so on.



The teller is innocent and happy and pleased with himself, and has

to stop every little while to hold himself in and keep from laughing

outright; and does hold in, but his body quakes in a jelly-like way with

interior chuckles; and at the end of the ten minutes the audience have

laughed until they are exhausted, and the tears are running down their

faces.



The simplicity and innocence and sincerity and unconsciousness of the

old farmer are perfectly simulated, and the result is a performance

which is thoroughly charming and delicious. This is art--and fine and

beautiful, and only a master can compass it; but a machine could tell

the other story.



To string incongruities and absurdities together in a wandering and

sometimes purposeless way, and seem innocently unaware that they

are absurdities, is the basis of the American art, if my position is

correct. Another feature is the slurring of the point. A third is the

dropping of a studied remark apparently without knowing it, as if one

where thinking aloud. The fourth and last is the pause.



Artemus Ward dealt in numbers three and four a good deal. He would begin

to tell with great animation something which he seemed to think was

wonderful; then lose confidence, and after an apparently absent-minded

pause add an incongruous remark in a soliloquizing way; and that was the

remark intended to explode the mine--and it did.



For instance, he would say eagerly, excitedly, "I once knew a man in New

Zealand who hadn't a tooth in his head"--here his animation would

die out; a silent, reflective pause would follow, then he would say

dreamily, and as if to himself, "and yet that man could beat a drum

better than any man I ever saw."



The pause is an exceedingly important feature in any kind of story, and

a frequently recurring feature, too. It is a dainty thing, and delicate,

and also uncertain and treacherous; for it must be exactly the right

length--no more and no less--or it fails of its purpose and makes

trouble. If the pause is too short the impressive point is passed, and

the audience have had time to divine that a surprise is intended--and

then you can't surprise them, of course.



On the platform I used to tell a negro ghost story that had a pause in

front of the snapper on the end, and that pause was the most important

thing in the whole story. If I got it the right length precisely, I

could spring the finishing ejaculation with effect enough to make some

impressible girl deliver a startled little yelp and jump out of her

seat--and that was what I was after. This story was called "The

Golden Arm," and was told in this fashion. You can practice with it

yourself--and mind you look out for the pause and get it right.





THE GOLDEN ARM



Once 'pon a time dey wuz a monsus mean man, en he live 'way out in de

prairie all 'lone by hisself, 'cep'n he had a wife. En bimeby she died,

en he tuck en toted her way out dah in de prairie en buried her. Well,

she had a golden arm--all solid gold, fum de shoulder down. He wuz

pow'ful mean--pow'ful; en dat night he couldn't sleep, caze he want dat

golden arm so bad.



When it come midnight he couldn't stan' it no mo'; so he git up, he did,

en tuck his lantern en shoved out thoo de storm en dug her up en got de

golden arm; en he bent his head down 'gin de win', en plowed en plowed

en plowed thoo de snow. Den all on a sudden he stop (make a considerable

pause here, and look startled, and take a listening attitude) en say:

"My _lan'_, what's dat?"



En he listen--en listen--en de win' say (set your teeth together and

imitate the wailing and wheezing singsong of the wind), "Bzzz-z-zzz"--en

den, way back yonder whah de grave is, he hear a _voice_!--he hear

a voice all mix' up in de win'--can't hardly tell 'em 'part--

"Bzzz--zzz--W-h-o--g-o-t--m-y--g-o-l-d-e-n _arm?_" (You must begin to

shiver violently now.)



En he begin to shiver en shake, en say, "Oh, my! _Oh_, my lan'!" en de

win' blow de lantern out, en de snow en sleet blow in his face en mos'

choke him, en he start a-plowin' knee-deep toward home mos' dead, he so

sk'yerd--en pooty soon he hear de voice agin, en (pause) it 'us comin

_after _him! "Bzzz--zzz--zzz W-h-o--g-o-t--m-y--g-o-l-d-e-n--_arm_?"



When he git to de pasture he hear it agin--closter now, en

_a-comin'!_--a-comin' back dah in de dark en de storm--(repeat the wind

and the voice). When he git to de house he rush upstairs en jump in de

bed en kiver up, head and years, en lay da shiverin' en shakin'--en

den way out dah he hear it _agin!_--en a-_comin'_! En bimeby he hear

(pause--awed, listening attitude)--pat--pat--pat _Hit's a-comin'

upstairs!_ Den he hear de latch, en he _know _it's in de room!



Den pooty soon he know it's a-_stannin' by de bed!_ (Pause.) Den--he

know it's a-_bendin' down over him_--en he cain't skasely git his

breath! Den--den--he seem to feel someth'n' _c-o-l-d_, right down 'most

agin his head! (Pause.)



Den de voice say, _right at his year_--"W-h-o--g-o-t--m-y g-o-l-d-e-n

_arm?_" (You must wail it out very plaintively and accusingly; then

you stare steadily and impressively into the face of the farthest-gone

auditor--a girl, preferably--and let that awe-inspiring pause begin to

build itself in the deep hush. When it has reached exactly the right

length, jump suddenly at that girl and yell, "_You've_ got it!")



If you've got the _pause _right, she'll fetch a dear little yelp and

spring right out of her shoes. But you _must _get the pause right; and

you will find it the most troublesome and aggravating and uncertain

thing you ever undertook.

		

		

		

		  

INTRODUCTION TO "THE NEW GUIDE OF THE CONVERSATION IN PORTUGUESE AND ENGLISH"

		

		

		

In this world of uncertainties, there is, at any rate, one thing which

may be pretty confidently set down as a certainty: and that is, that

this celebrated little phrase-book will never die while the English

language lasts. Its delicious unconscious ridiculousness, and its

enchanting naivete, are as supreme and unapproachable, in their way,

as are Shakespeare's sublimities. Whatsoever is perfect in its kind, in

literature, is imperishable: nobody can imitate it successfully, nobody

can hope to produce its fellow; it is perfect, it must and will stand

alone: its immortality is secure.



It is one of the smallest books in the world, but few big books have

received such wide attention, and been so much pondered by the grave and

learned, and so much discussed and written about by the thoughtful,

the thoughtless, the wise, and the foolish. Long notices of it have

appeared, from time to time, in the great English reviews, and in

erudite and authoritative philological periodicals; and it has been

laughed at, danced upon, and tossed in a blanket by nearly every

newspaper and magazine in the English-speaking world. Every scribbler,

almost, has had his little fling at it, at one time or another; I had

mine fifteen years ago. The book gets out of print, every now and then,

and one ceases to hear of it for a season; but presently the nations and

near and far colonies of our tongue and lineage call for it once more,

and once more it issues from some London or Continental or American

press, and runs a new course around the globe, wafted on its way by the

wind of a world's laughter.



Many persons have believed that this book's miraculous stupidities

were studied and disingenuous; but no one can read the volume carefully

through and keep that opinion. It was written in serious good faith and

deep earnestness, by an honest and upright idiot who believed he knew

something of the English language, and could impart his knowledge to

others. The amplest proof of this crops out somewhere or other upon each

and every page. There are sentences in the book which could have been

manufactured by a man in his right mind, and with an intelligent and

deliberate purposes to seem innocently ignorant; but there are other

sentences, and paragraphs, which no mere pretended ignorance could ever

achieve--nor yet even the most genuine and comprehensive ignorance, when

unbacked by inspiration.



It is not a fraud who speaks in the following paragraph of the author's

Preface, but a good man, an honest man, a man whose conscience is at

rest, a man who believes he has done a high and worthy work for his

nation and his generation, and is well pleased with his performance:



We expect then, who the little book (for the care what we wrote him, and

for her typographical correction) that may be worth the acceptation of

the studious persons, and especially of the Youth, at which we dedicate

him particularly.



One cannot open this book anywhere and not find richness. To prove that

this is true, I will open it at random and copy the page I happen to

stumble upon. Here is the result:



DIALOGUE 16



For To See the Town



Anothony, go to accompany they gentilsmen, do they see the town.



We won't to see all that is it remarquable here.



Come with me, if you please. I shall not folget nothing what can to

merit your attention. Here we are near to cathedral; will you come in

there?



We will first to see him in oudside, after we shall go in there for to

look the interior.



Admire this master piece gothic architecture's.



The chasing of all they figures is astonishing' indeed.



The cupola and the nave are not less curious to see.



What is this palace how I see yonder?



It is the town hall.



And this tower here at this side?



It is the Observatory.



The bridge is very fine, it have ten arches, and is constructed of free

stone.



The streets are very layed out by line and too paved.



What is the circuit of this town?



Two leagues.



There is it also hospitals here?



It not fail them.



What are then the edifices the worthest to have seen?



It is the arsnehal, the spectacle's hall, the Cusiomhouse, and the

Purse.



We are going too see the others monuments such that the public

pawnbroker's office, the plants garden's, the money office's, the

library.



That it shall be for another day; we are tired.



DIALOGUE 17



To Inform One'self of a Person



How is that gentilman who you did speak by and by?



Is a German.



I did think him Englishman.



He is of the Saxony side.



He speak the french very well.



Tough he is German, he speak so much well italyan, french, spanish and

english, that among the Italyans, they believe him Italyan, he speak

the frenche as the Frenches himselves. The Spanishesmen believe him

Spanishing, and the Englishes, Englishman. It is difficult to enjoy well

so much several languages.



The last remark contains a general truth; but it ceases to be a truth

when one contracts it and applies it to an individual--provided that that

individual is the author of this book, Senhor Pedro Carolino. I am

sure I should not find it difficult "to enjoy well so much several

languages"--or even a thousand of them--if he did the translating for me

from the originals into his ostensible English.

		

		

		

		  

ITALIAN WITH GRAMMAR

		

		

		

I found that a person of large intelligence could read this beautiful

language with considerable facility without a dictionary, but I

presently found that to such a person a grammar could be of use at

times. It is because, if he does not know the _were's_ and the

_was's_ and the _maybe's_ and the _has-beens's_ apart, confusions and

uncertainties can arise. He can get the idea that a thing is going to

happen next week when the truth is that it has already happened week

before last. Even more previously, sometimes. Examination and inquiry

showed me that the adjectives and such things were frank and fair-minded

and straightforward, and did not shuffle; it was the Verb that mixed the

hands, it was the Verb that lacked stability, it was the Verb that had

no permanent opinion about anything, it was the Verb that was always

dodging the issue and putting out the light and making all the trouble.



Further examination, further inquiry, further reflection, confirmed this

judgment, and established beyond peradventure the fact that the Verb was

the storm-center. This discovery made plain the right and wise course to

pursue in order to acquire certainty and exactness in understanding the

statements which the newspaper was daily endeavoring to convey to me: I

must catch a Verb and tame it. I must find out its ways, I must spot

its eccentricities, I must penetrate its disguises, I must intelligently

foresee and forecast at least the commoner of the dodges it was likely

to try upon a stranger in given circumstances, I must get in on its main

shifts and head them off, I must learn its game and play the limit.



I had noticed, in other foreign languages, that verbs are bred in

families, and that the members of each family have certain features or

resemblances that are common to that family and distinguish it from the

other families--the other kin, the cousins and what not. I had noticed

that this family-mark is not usually the nose or the hair, so to speak,

but the tail--the Termination--and that these tails are quite definitely

differentiated; insomuch that an expert can tell a Pluperfect from a

Subjunctive by its tail as easily and as certainly as a cowboy can tell

a cow from a horse by the like process, the result of observation and

culture. I should explain that I am speaking of legitimate verbs, those

verbs which in the slang of the grammar are called Regular. There are

others--I am not meaning to conceal this; others called Irregulars, born

out of wedlock, of unknown and uninteresting parentage, and naturally

destitute of family resemblances, as regards to all features, tails

included. But of these pathetic outcasts I have nothing to say. I do not

approve of them, I do not encourage them; I am prudishly delicate and

sensitive, and I do not allow them to be used in my presence.



But, as I have said, I decided to catch one of the others and break it

into harness. One is enough. Once familiar with its assortment of tails,

you are immune; after that, no regular verb can conceal its specialty

from you and make you think it is working the past or the future or the

conditional or the unconditional when it is engaged in some other line

of business--its tail will give it away. I found out all these things by

myself, without a teacher.



I selected the verb _amare, to love._ Not for any personal reason, for

I am indifferent about verbs; I care no more for one verb than for

another, and have little or no respect for any of them; but in foreign

languages you always begin with that one. Why, I don't know. It is

merely habit, I suppose; the first teacher chose it, Adam was satisfied,

and there hasn't been a successor since with originality enough to start

a fresh one. For they _are _a pretty limited lot, you will admit that?

Originality is not in their line; they can't think up anything new,

anything to freshen up the old moss-grown dullness of the language

lesson and put life and "go" into it, and charm and grace and

picturesqueness.



I knew I must look after those details myself; therefore I thought them

out and wrote them down, and sent for the _facchino _and explained them

to him, and said he must arrange a proper plant, and get together a

good stock company among the _contadini_, and design the costumes, and

distribute the parts; and drill the troupe, and be ready in three days

to begin on this Verb in a shipshape and workman-like manner. I told him

to put each grand division of it under a foreman, and each subdivision

under a subordinate of the rank of sergeant or corporal or something

like that, and to have a different uniform for each squad, so that I

could tell a Pluperfect from a Compound Future without looking at the

book; the whole battery to be under his own special and particular

command, with the rank of Brigadier, and I to pay the freight.



I then inquired into the character and possibilities of the selected

verb, and was much disturbed to find that it was over my size, it being

chambered for fifty-seven rounds--fifty-seven ways of saying I _love_

without reloading; and yet none of them likely to convince a girl that

was laying for a title, or a title that was laying for rocks.



It seemed to me that with my inexperience it would be foolish to go into

action with this mitrailleuse, so I ordered it to the rear and told the

facchino to provide something a little more primitive to start with,

something less elaborate, some gentle old-fashioned flint-lock,

smooth-bore, double-barreled thing, calculated to cripple at two hundred

yards and kill at forty--an arrangement suitable for a beginner who

could be satisfied with moderate results on the offstart and did not

wish to take the whole territory in the first campaign.



But in vain. He was not able to mend the matter, all the verbs being

of the same build, all Gatlings, all of the same caliber and delivery,

fifty-seven to the volley, and fatal at a mile and a half. But he said

the auxiliary verb _avere, to have_, was a tidy thing, and easy to

handle in a seaway, and less likely to miss stays in going about than

some of the others; so, upon his recommendation I chose that one,

and told him to take it along and scrape its bottom and break out its

spinnaker and get it ready for business.



I will explain that a facchino is a general-utility domestic. Mine was a

horse-doctor in his better days, and a very good one.



At the end of three days the facchino-doctor-brigadier was ready. I was

also ready, with a stenographer. We were in a room called the Rope-Walk.

This is a formidably long room, as is indicated by its facetious name,

and is a good place for reviews. At 9:30 the F.-D.-B. took his place

near me and gave the word of command; the drums began to rumble and

thunder, the head of the forces appeared at an upper door, and the

"march-past" was on. Down they filed, a blaze of variegated color, each

squad gaudy in a uniform of its own and bearing a banner inscribed with

its verbal rank and quality: first the Present Tense in Mediterranean

blue and old gold, then the Past Definite in scarlet and black, then the

Imperfect in green and yellow, then the Indicative Future in the stars

and stripes, then the Old Red Sandstone Subjunctive in purple

and silver--and so on and so on, fifty-seven privates and twenty

commissioned and non-commissioned officers; certainly one of the most

fiery and dazzling and eloquent sights I have ever beheld. I could not

keep back the tears. Presently:



"Halt!" commanded the Brigadier.



"Front--face!"



"Right dress!"



"Stand at ease!"



"One--two--three. In unison--_recite!_"



It was fine. In one noble volume of sound of all the fifty-seven

Haves in the Italian language burst forth in an exalting and splendid

confusion. Then came commands:



"About--face! Eyes--front! Helm alee--hard aport! Forward--march!" and

the drums let go again.



When the last Termination had disappeared, the commander said the

instruction drill would now begin, and asked for suggestions. I said:



"They say _I have, thou hast, he has_, and so on, but they don't say

_what_. It will be better, and more definite, if they have something to

have; just an object, you know, a something--anything will do; anything

that will give the listener a sort of personal as well as grammatical

interest in their joys and complaints, you see."



He said:



"It is a good point. Would a dog do?"



I said I did not know, but we could try a dog and see. So he sent out an

aide-de-camp to give the order to add the dog.



The six privates of the Present Tense now filed in, in charge of

Sergeant Avere (_to have_), and displaying their banner. They formed in

line of battle, and recited, one at a time, thus:



"_Io ho un cane,_ I have a dog."



"_Tu hai un cane_, thou hast a dog."



_"Egli ha un cane, _he has a dog."



_"Noi abbiamo un cane_, we have a dog."



"_Voi avete un cane_, you have a dog."



"_Eglino hanno un cane,_ they have a dog."



No comment followed. They returned to camp, and I reflected a while. The

commander said:



"I fear you are disappointed."



"Yes," I said; "they are too monotonous, too singsong, to

dead-and-alive; they have no expression, no elocution. It isn't natural;

it could never happen in real life. A person who had just acquired a dog

is either blame' glad or blame' sorry. He is not on the fence. I never

saw a case. What the nation do you suppose is the matter with these

people?"



He thought maybe the trouble was with the dog. He said:



"These are _contadini_, you know, and they have a prejudice against

dogs--that is, against marimane. Marimana dogs stand guard over people's

vines and olives, you know, and are very savage, and thereby a grief and

an inconvenience to persons who want other people's things at night. In

my judgment they have taken this dog for a marimana, and have soured on

him."



I saw that the dog was a mistake, and not functionable: we must try

something else; something, if possible, that could evoke sentiment,

interest, feeling.



"What is cat, in Italian?" I asked.



"Gatto."



"Is it a gentleman cat, or a lady?"



"Gentleman cat."



"How are these people as regards that animal?"



"We-ll, they--they--"



"You hesitate: that is enough. How are they about chickens?"



He tilted his eyes toward heaven in mute ecstasy. I understood.



"What is chicken, in Italian?" I asked.



"Pollo, _Podere._" (Podere is Italian for master. It is a title of

courtesy, and conveys reverence and admiration.) "Pollo is one chicken

by itself; when there are enough present to constitute a plural, it is

_polli._"



"Very well, polli will do. Which squad is detailed for duty next?"



"The Past Definite."



"Send out and order it to the front--with chickens. And let them

understand that we don't want any more of this cold indifference."



He gave the order to an aide, adding, with a haunting tenderness in his

tone and a watering mouth in his aspect:



"Convey to them the conception that these are unprotected chickens." He

turned to me, saluting with his hand to his temple, and explained, "It

will inflame their interest in the poultry, sire."



A few minutes elapsed. Then the squad marched in and formed up, their

faces glowing with enthusiasm, and the file-leader shouted:



"_Ebbi polli_, I had chickens!"



"Good!" I said. "Go on, the next."



"_Avest polli_, thou hadst chickens!"



"Fine! Next!"



"_Ebbe polli_, he had chickens!"



"Moltimoltissimo! Go on, the next!"



"_Avemmo polli,_ we had chickens!"



"Basta-basta aspettatto avanti--last man--_charge_!"



"_Ebbero polli_, they had chickens!"



Then they formed in echelon, by columns of fours, refused the left, and

retired in great style on the double-quick. I was enchanted, and said:



"Now, doctor, that is something _like_! Chickens are the ticket, there

is no doubt about it. What is the next squad?"



"The Imperfect."



"How does it go?"



"_Io Aveva_, I had, _tu avevi_, thou hadst, _egli aveva_, he had, _noi

av_--"



"Wait--we've just _had _the hads. What are you giving me?"



"But this is another breed."



"What do we want of another breed? Isn't one breed enough? _Had_ is

_had_, and your tricking it out in a fresh way of spelling isn't going

to make it any hadder than it was before; now you know that yourself."



"But there is a distinction--they are not just the same Hads."



"How do you make it out?"



"Well, you use that first Had when you are referring to something that

happened at a named and sharp and perfectly definite moment; you use the

other when the thing happened at a vaguely defined time and in a more

prolonged and indefinitely continuous way."



"Why, doctor, it is pure nonsense; you know it yourself. Look here: If

I have had a had, or have wanted to have had a had, or was in a position

right then and there to have had a had that hadn't had any chance to go

out hadding on account of this foolish discrimination which lets one Had

go hadding in any kind of indefinite grammatical weather but restricts

the other one to definite and datable meteoric convulsions, and keeps it

pining around and watching the barometer all the time, and liable to

get sick through confinement and lack of exercise, and all that sort of

thing, why--why, the inhumanity of it is enough, let alone the

wanton superfluity and uselessness of any such a loafing consumptive

hospital-bird of a Had taking up room and cumbering the place for

nothing. These finical refinements revolt me; it is not right, it is not

honorable; it is constructive nepotism to keep in office a Had that is

so delicate it can't come out when the wind's in the nor'west--I won't

have this dude on the payroll. Cancel his exequator; and look here--"



"But you miss the point. It is like this. You see--"



"Never mind explaining, I don't care anything about it. Six Hads is

enough for me; anybody that needs twelve, let him subscribe; I don't

want any stock in a Had Trust. Knock out the Prolonged and Indefinitely

Continuous; four-fifths of it is water, anyway."



"But I beg you, podere! It is often quite indispensable in cases

where--"



"Pipe the next squad to the assault!"



But it was not to be; for at that moment the dull boom of the noon

gun floated up out of far-off Florence, followed by the usual softened

jangle of church-bells, Florentine and suburban, that bursts out in

murmurous response; by labor-union law the _colazione_ (1) must stop;

stop promptly, stop instantly, stop definitely, like the chosen and best

of the breed of Hads.



1. Colazione is Italian for a collection, a meeting, a seance, a

sitting.--M.T.





		

		

		

		  

ITALIAN WITHOUT A MASTER

		

		

		

It is almost a fortnight now that I am domiciled in a medieval villa in

the country, a mile or two from Florence. I cannot speak the language;

I am too old now to learn how, also too busy when I am busy, and too

indolent when I am not; wherefore some will imagine that I am having a

dull time of it. But it is not so. The "help" are all natives; they talk

Italian to me, I answer in English; I do not understand them, they

do not understand me, consequently no harm is done, and everybody is

satisfied. In order to be just and fair, I throw in an Italian word when

I have one, and this has a good influence. I get the word out of the

morning paper. I have to use it while it is fresh, for I find that

Italian words do not keep in this climate. They fade toward night, and

next morning they are gone. But it is no matter; I get a new one out of

the paper before breakfast, and thrill the domestics with it while it

lasts. I have no dictionary, and I do not want one; I can select words

by the sound, or by orthographic aspect. Many of them have French or

German or English look, and these are the ones I enslave for the day's

service. That is, as a rule. Not always. If I find a learnable phrase

that has an imposing look and warbles musically along I do not care to

know the meaning of it; I pay it out to the first applicant, knowing

that if I pronounce it carefully_ he_ will understand it, and that's

enough.



Yesterday's word was _avanti_. It sounds Shakespearian, and probably

means Avaunt and quit my sight. Today I have a whole phrase: _sono

dispiacentissimo_. I do not know what it means, but it seems to fit

in everywhere and give satisfaction. Although as a rule my words and

phrases are good for one day and train only, I have several that stay by

me all the time, for some unknown reason, and these come very handy

when I get into a long conversation and need things to fire up with

in monotonous stretches. One of the best ones is _dov � il gatto_. It

nearly always produces a pleasant surprise, therefore I save it up for

places where I want to express applause or admiration. The fourth word

has a French sound, and I think the phrase means "that takes the cake."



During my first week in the deep and dreamy stillness of this woodsy

and flowery place I was without news of the outside world, and was well

content without it. It had been four weeks since I had seen a newspaper,

and this lack seemed to give life a new charm and grace, and to saturate

it with a feeling verging upon actual delight. Then came a change that

was to be expected: the appetite for news began to rise again, after

this invigorating rest. I had to feed it, but I was not willing to let

it make me its helpless slave again; I determined to put it on a diet,

and a strict and limited one. So I examined an Italian paper, with

the idea of feeding it on that, and on that exclusively. On that

exclusively, and without help of a dictionary. In this way I should

surely be well protected against overloading and indigestion.



A glance at the telegraphic page filled me with encouragement. There

were no scare-heads. That was good--supremely good. But there were

headings--one-liners and two-liners--and that was good too; for without

these, one must do as one does with a German paper--pay out precious

time in finding out what an article is about, only to discover, in many

cases, that there is nothing in it of interest to you. The headline is a

valuable thing.



Necessarily we are all fond of murders, scandals, swindles, robberies,

explosions, collisions, and all such things, when we know the people,

and when they are neighbors and friends, but when they are strangers we

do not get any great pleasure out of them, as a rule. Now the trouble

with an American paper is that it has no discrimination; it rakes the

whole earth for blood and garbage, and the result is that you are daily

overfed and suffer a surfeit. By habit you stow this muck every day, but

you come by and by to take no vital interest in it--indeed, you

almost get tired of it. As a rule, forty-nine-fiftieths of it concerns

strangers only--people away off yonder, a thousand miles, two thousand

miles, ten thousand miles from where you are. Why, when you come to

think of it, who cares what becomes of those people? I would not give

the assassination of one personal friend for a whole massacre of those

others. And, to my mind, one relative or neighbor mixed up in a scandal

is more interesting than a whole Sodom and Gomorrah of outlanders gone

rotten. Give me the home product every time.



Very well. I saw at a glance that the Florentine paper would suit me:

five out of six of its scandals and tragedies were local; they were

adventures of one's very neighbors, one might almost say one's friends.

In the matter of world news there was not too much, but just about

enough. I subscribed. I have had no occasion to regret it. Every morning

I get all the news I need for the day; sometimes from the headlines,

sometimes from the text. I have never had to call for a dictionary yet.

I read the paper with ease. Often I do not quite understand, often some

of the details escape me, but no matter, I get the idea. I will cut out

a passage or two, then you see how limpid the language is:



Il ritorno dei Beati d'Italia



Elargizione del Re all' Ospedale italiano



The first line means that the Italian sovereigns are coming back--they

have been to England. The second line seems to mean that they enlarged

the King at the Italian hospital. With a banquet, I suppose. An English

banquet has that effect. Further:



_Il ritorno dei sovrani_



a Roma



ROMA, 24, ore 22,50.--_I Sovrani e le Principessine Reali si attendono a

Roma domani alle ore_ 15,51.



Return of the sovereigns to Rome, you see. Date of the telegram, Rome,

November 24, ten minutes before twenty-three o'clock. The telegram seems

to say, "The Sovereigns and the Royal Children expect themselves at Rome

tomorrow at fifty-one minutes after fifteen o'clock."



I do not know about Italian time, but I judge it begins at midnight

and runs through the twenty-four hours without breaking bulk. In the

following ad, the theaters open at half-past twenty. If these are not

matinees, 20.30 must mean 8.30 P.M., by my reckoning.



Spettacolli del di 25



TEATRO DELLA PERGOLA--(Ore 20,30)--Opera. BOHEME. TEATRO

ALFIERI.--Compagnia drammatica Drago--(Ore 20,30)--LA LEGGE.

ALHAMBRA--(Ore 20,30)--Spettacolo variato. SALA EDISON--Grandioso

spettacolo Cinematografico: QUO-VADIS?--Inaugurazione della

Chiesa Russa -- In coda al Direttissimo -- Vedute di Firenze con gran

movimeno -- America: Transporto tronchi giganteschi--I ladri in casa del

Diavolo -- Scene comiche. CINEMATOGRAFO -- Via Brunelleschi n. 4.--Programma

straordinario, DON CHISCIOTTE -- Prezzi populari.



The whole of that is intelligible to me--and sane and rational,

too--except the remark about the Inauguration of a Russian Cheese. That

one oversizes my hand. Gimme me five cards.



This is a four-page paper; and as it is set in long primer leaded

and has a page of advertisements, there is no room for the crimes,

disasters, and general sweepings of the outside world--thanks be! Today

I find only a single importation of the off-color sort:



Una Principessa



che fugge con un cocchiere



PARIGI, 24.--Il MATIN ha da Berlino che la principessa

Schovenbare-Waldenbure scomparve il 9 novembre. Sarebbe partita col suo

cocchiere.



La Principassa ha 27 anni.



Twenty-seven years old, and scomparve--scampered--on the 9th November.

You see by the added detail that she departed with her coachman. I hope

Sarebbe has not made a mistake, but I am afraid the chances are that she

has. _Sono dispiacentissimo_.



There are several fires: also a couple of accidents. This is one of

them:



Grave disgrazia sul Ponte Vecchio



Stammattina, circe le 7,30, mentre Giuseppe Sciatti, di anni 55, di

Casellina e Torri, passava dal Ponte Vecchio, stando seduto sopra un

barroccio carico di verdura, perse l' equilibrio e cadde al suolo,

rimanendo con la gamba destra sotto una ruota del veicolo.



Lo Sciatti fu subito raccolto da alcuni cittadini, che, per mezzo della

pubblica vettura n. 365, lo transporto a San Giovanni di Dio.



Ivi il medico di guardia gli riscontro la frattura della gamba destra

e alcune lievi escoriazioni giudicandolo guaribile in 50 giorni salvo

complicazioni.



What it seems to say is this: "Serious Disgrace on the Old Old Bridge.

This morning about 7.30, Mr. Joseph Sciatti, aged 55, of Casellina and

Torri, while standing up in a sitting posture on top of a carico barrow

of vedure (foliage? hay? vegetables?), lost his equilibrium and fell

on himself, arriving with his left leg under one of the wheels of the

vehicle.



"Said Sciatti was suddenly harvested (gathered in?) by several citizens,

who by means of public cab No. 365 transported him to St. John of God."



Paragraph No. 3 is a little obscure, but I think it says that the medico

set the broken left leg--right enough, since there was nothing the

matter with the other one--and that several are encouraged to hope that

fifty days well fetch him around in quite giudicandolo-guaribile way, if

no complications intervene.



I am sure I hope so myself.



There is a great and peculiar charm about reading news-scraps in a

language which you are not acquainted with--the charm that always goes

with the mysterious and the uncertain. You can never be absolutely

sure of the meaning of anything you read in such circumstances; you are

chasing an alert and gamy riddle all the time, and the baffling turns

and dodges of the prey make the life of the hunt. A dictionary would

spoil it. Sometimes a single word of doubtful purport will cast a veil

of dreamy and golden uncertainty over a whole paragraph of cold and

practical certainties, and leave steeped in a haunting and adorable

mystery an incident which had been vulgar and commonplace but for that

benefaction. Would you be wise to draw a dictionary on that gracious

word? would you be properly grateful?



After a couple of days' rest I now come back to my subject and seek

a case in point. I find it without trouble, in the morning paper; a

cablegram from Chicago and Indiana by way of Paris. All the words save

one are guessable by a person ignorant of Italian:



Revolverate in teatro



PARIGI, 27.--La PATRIE ha da Chicago:



Il guardiano del teatro dell'opera di Walace (Indiana), avendo voluto

espellare uno spettatore che continuava a fumare malgrado il diviety,

questo spalleggiato dai suoi amici tir`o diversi colpi di rivoltella.

Il guardiano ripose. Nacque una scarica generale. Grande panico tra gli

spettatori. Nessun ferito.



_Translation._--"Revolveration in Theater. _Paris, 27th. La Patrie_ has

from Chicago: The cop of the theater of the opera of Wallace, Indiana,

had willed to expel a spectator which continued to smoke in spite of the

prohibition, who, spalleggiato by his friends, tire (_Fr. Tire, Anglice

Pulled_) manifold revolver-shots; great panic among the spectators.

Nobody hurt."



It is bettable that that harmless cataclysm in the theater of the opera

of Wallace, Indiana, excited not a person in Europe but me, and so came

near to not being worth cabling to Florence by way of France. But it

does excite me. It excites me because I cannot make out, for sure, what

it was that moved the spectator to resist the officer. I was gliding

along smoothly and without obstruction or accident, until I came to that

word "spalleggiato," then the bottom fell out. You notice what a rich

gloom, what a somber and pervading mystery, that word sheds all over the

whole Wallachian tragedy. That is the charm of the thing, that is the

delight of it. This is where you begin, this is where you revel. You can

guess and guess, and have all the fun you like; you need not be afraid

there will be an end to it; none is possible, for no amount of guessing

will ever furnish you a meaning for that word that you can be sure is

the right one. All the other words give you hints, by their form, their

sound, or their spelling--this one doesn't, this one throws out no

hints, this one keeps its secret. If there is even the slightest slight

shadow of a hint anywhere, it lies in the very meagerly suggestive fact

that "spalleggiato" carries our word "egg" in its stomach. Well, make

the most out of it, and then where are you at? You conjecture that

the spectator which was smoking in spite of the prohibition and become

reprohibited by the guardians, was "egged on" by his friends, and that

was owing to that evil influence that he initiated the revolveration in

theater that has galloped under the sea and come crashing through the

European press without exciting anybody but me. But are you sure, are

you dead sure, that that was the way of it? No. Then the uncertainty

remains, the mystery abides, and with it the charm. Guess again.



If I had a phrase-book of a really satisfactory sort I would study it,

and not give all my free time to undictionarial readings, but there is

no such work on the market. The existing phrase-books are inadequate.

They are well enough as far as they go, but when you fall down and skin

your leg they don't tell you what to say.

		

		

		

		  

PORTRAIT OF KING WILLIAM III

		

		

		

I never can look at those periodical portraits in _The Galaxy_ magazine

without feeling a wild, tempestuous ambition to be an artist. I have

seen thousands and thousands of pictures in my time--acres of them here

and leagues of them in the galleries of Europe--but never any that moved

me as these portraits do.



There is a portrait of Monsignore Capel in the November number, now

_could_ anything be sweeter than that? And there was Bismarck's, in the

October number; who can look at that without being purer and stronger

and nobler for it? And Thurlow and Weed's picture in the September

number; I would not have died without seeing that, no, not for anything

this world can give. But look back still further and recall my own

likeness as printed in the August number; if I had been in my grave a

thousand years when that appeared, I would have got up and visited the

artist.



I sleep with all these portraits under my pillow every night, so that I

can go on studying them as soon as the day dawns in the morning. I know

them all as thoroughly as if I had made them myself; I know every line

and mark about them. Sometimes when company are present I shuffle the

portraits all up together, and then pick them out one by one and call

their names, without referring to the printing on the bottom. I seldom

make a mistake--never, when I am calm.



I have had the portraits framed for a long time, waiting till my aunt

gets everything ready for hanging them up in the parlor. But first one

thing and then another interferes, and so the thing is delayed. Once she

said they would have more of the peculiar kind of light they needed in

the attic. The old simpleton! it is as dark as a tomb up there. But she

does not know anything about art, and so she has no reverence for it.

When I showed her my "Map of the Fortifications of Paris," she said it

was rubbish.



Well, from nursing those portraits so long, I have come at last to have

a perfect infatuation for art. I have a teacher now, and my enthusiasm

continually and tumultuously grows, as I learn to use with more and

more facility the pencil, brush, and graver. I am studying under De

Mellville, the house and portrait painter. (His name was Smith when he

lived in the West.) He does any kind of artist work a body wants, having

a genius that is universal, like Michael Angelo. Resembles that great

artist, in fact. The back of his head is like his, and he wears his

hat-brim tilted down on his nose to expose it.



I have been studying under De Mellville several months now. The first

month I painted fences, and gave general satisfaction. The next month I

white-washed a barn. The third, I was doing tin roofs; the forth, common

signs; the fifth, statuary to stand before cigar shops. This present

month is only the sixth, and I am already in portraits!



The humble offering which accompanies these remarks (see figure)--the

portrait of his Majesty William III., King of Prussia--is my fifth

attempt in portraits, and my greatest success. It has received unbounded

praise from all classes of the community, but that which gratifies me

most is the frequent and cordial verdict that it resembles the _Galaxy_

portraits. Those were my first love, my earliest admiration, the

original source and incentive of my art-ambition. Whatever I am in Art

today, I owe to these portraits. I ask no credit for myself--I deserve

none. And I never take any, either. Many a stranger has come to my

exhibition (for I have had my portrait of King William on exhibition at

one dollar a ticket), and would have gone away blessing_ me_, if I had

let him, but I never did. I always stated where I got the idea.



King William wears large bushy side-whiskers, and some critics have

thought that this portrait would be more complete if they were added.

But it was not possible. There was not room for side-whiskers and

epaulets both, and so I let the whiskers go, and put in the epaulets,

for the sake of style. That thing on his hat is an eagle. The Prussian

eagle--it is a national emblem. When I say hat I mean helmet; but it

seems impossible to make a picture of a helmet that a body can have

confidence in.



I wish kind friends everywhere would aid me in my endeavor to attract a

little attention to the _Galaxy _portraits. I feel persuaded it can be

accomplished, if the course to be pursued be chosen with judgment. I

write for that magazine all the time, and so do many abler men, and if

I can get these portraits into universal favor, it is all I ask; the

reading-matter will take care of itself.







COMMENDATIONS OF THE PORTRAIT



There is nothing like it in the Vatican. Pius IX.



It has none of that vagueness, that dreamy spirituality about it, which

many of the first critics of Arkansas have objected to in the Murillo

school of Art. Ruskin.



The expression is very interesting. J.W. Titian.



(Keeps a macaroni store in Venice, at the old family stand.)



It is the neatest thing in still life I have seen for years.



Rosa Bonheur.



The smile may be almost called unique. Bismarck.



I never saw such character portrayed in a picture face before. De

Mellville.



There is a benignant simplicity about the execution of this work which

warms the heart toward it as much, full as much, as it fascinates the

eye. Landseer.



One cannot see it without longing to contemplate the artist.



Frederick William.



Send me the entire edition--together with the plate and the original

portrait--and name your own price. And--would you like to come over and

stay awhile with Napoleon at Wilhelmshohe? It shall not cost you a cent.

William III.



		

		

		

		  

POST-MORTEM POETRY

		

		

		

In Philadelphia they have a custom which it would be pleasant to see

adopted throughout the land. It is that of appending to published

death-notices a little verse or two of comforting poetry. Any one who is

in the habit of reading the daily Philadelphia _Ledger _must frequently

be touched by these plaintive tributes to extinguished worth. In

Philadelphia, the departure of a child is a circumstance which is not

more surely followed by a burial than by the accustomed solacing poesy

in the _Public Ledger_. In that city death loses half its terror because

the knowledge of its presence comes thus disguised in the sweet drapery

of verse. For instance, in a late _Ledger _I find the following (I

change the surname):



DIED



Hawks.--On the 17th inst., Clara, the daughter of Ephraim and Laura

Hawks, aged 21 months and 2 days.





That merry shout no more I hear, No laughing child I see, No little arms

are around my neck, No feet upon my knee;



No kisses drop upon my cheek, These lips are sealed to me. Dear Lord,

how could I give Clara up To any but to Thee?



A child thus mourned could not die wholly discontented. From the _Ledger

_of the same date I make the following extract, merely changing the

surname, as before:



Becket.--On Sunday morning, 19th inst., John P., infant son of George

and Julia Becket, aged 1 year, 6 months, and 15 days.





That merry shout no more I hear, No laughing child I see, No little arms

are round my neck, No feet upon my knee;



No kisses drop upon my cheek; These lips are sealed to me. Dear Lord,

how could I give Johnnie up To any but to Thee?



The similarity of the emotions as produced in the mourners in these two

instances is remarkably evidenced by the singular similarity of thought

which they experienced, and the surprising coincidence of language used

by them to give it expression.



In the same journal, of the same date, I find the following (surname

suppressed, as before):



Wagner.--On the 10th inst., Ferguson G., the son of William L. and

Martha Theresa Wagner, aged 4 weeks and 1 day.





That merry shout no more I hear, No laughing child I see, No little arms

are round my neck, No feet upon my knee;



No kisses drop upon my cheek, These lips are sealed to me. Dear Lord,

how could I give Ferguson up To any but to Thee?



It is strange what power the reiteration of an essentially poetical

thought has upon one's feelings. When we take up the _Ledger _and read

the poetry about little Clara, we feel an unaccountable depression of

the spirits. When we drift further down the column and read the poetry

about little Johnnie, the depression and spirits acquires an added

emphasis, and we experience tangible suffering. When we saunter along

down the column further still and read the poetry about little Ferguson,

the word torture but vaguely suggests the anguish that rends us.



In the _Ledger _(same copy referred to above) I find the following (I

alter surname, as usual):



Welch.--On the 5th inst., Mary C. Welch, wife of William B. Welch, and

daughter of Catharine and George W. Markland, in the 29th year of her

age.





A mother dear, a mother kind, Has gone and left us all behind. Cease to

weep, for tears are vain, Mother dear is out of pain.



Farewell, husband, children dear, Serve thy God with filial fear, And

meet me in the land above, Where all is peace, and joy, and love.



What could be sweeter than that? No collection of salient facts (without

reduction to tabular form) could be more succinctly stated than is done

in the first stanza by the surviving relatives, and no more concise and

comprehensive program of farewells, post-mortuary general orders, etc.,

could be framed in any form than is done in verse by deceased in the

last stanza. These things insensibly make us wiser and tenderer, and

better. Another extract:



Ball.--On the morning of the 15th inst., Mary E., daughter of John and

Sarah F. Ball.





'Tis sweet to rest in lively hope That when my change shall come Angels

will hover round my bed, To waft my spirit home.



The following is apparently the customary form for heads of families:



Burns.--On the 20th inst., Michael Burns, aged 40 years.





Dearest father, thou hast left us, Here thy loss we deeply feel; But

'tis God that has bereft us, He can all our sorrows heal.



Funeral at 2 o'clock sharp.



There is something very simple and pleasant about the following, which,

in Philadelphia, seems to be the usual form for consumptives of long

standing. (It deplores four distinct cases in the single copy of the

_Ledger _which lies on the Memoranda editorial table):



Bromley.--On the 29th inst., of consumption, Philip Bromley, in the 50th

year of his age.





Affliction sore long time he bore, Physicians were in vain-- Till God at

last did hear him mourn, And eased him of his pain.



That friend whom death from us has torn, We did not think so soon to

part; An anxious care now sinks the thorn Still deeper in our bleeding

heart.



This beautiful creation loses nothing by repetition. On the

contrary, the oftener one sees it in the _Ledger_, the more grand and

awe-inspiring it seems.



With one more extract I will close:



Doble.--On the 4th inst., Samuel Pervil Worthington Doble, aged 4 days.





Our little Sammy's gone, His tiny spirit's fled; Our little boy we loved

so dear Lies sleeping with the dead.



A tear within a father's eye, A mother's aching heart, Can only tell the

agony How hard it is to part.



Could anything be more plaintive than that, without requiring further

concessions of grammar? Could anything be likely to do more toward

reconciling deceased to circumstances, and making him willing to go?

Perhaps not. The power of song can hardly be estimated. There is an

element about some poetry which is able to make even physical suffering

and death cheerful things to contemplate and consummations to be

desired. This element is present in the mortuary poetry of Philadelphia,

and in a noticeable degree of development.



The custom I have been treating of is one that should be adopted in all

the cities of the land.



It is said that once a man of small consequence died, and the Rev. T.

K. Beecher was asked to preach the funeral sermon--a man who abhors the

lauding of people, either dead or alive, except in dignified and simple

language, and then only for merits which they actually possessed or

possess, not merits which they merely ought to have possessed. The

friends of the deceased got up a stately funeral. They must have had

misgivings that the corpse might not be praised strongly enough, for

they prepared some manuscript headings and notes in which nothing was

left unsaid on that subject that a fervid imagination and an unabridged

dictionary could compile, and these they handed to the minister as he

entered the pulpit. They were merely intended as suggestions, and so the

friends were filled with consternation when the minister stood in the

pulpit and proceeded to read off the curious odds and ends in ghastly

detail and in a loud voice! And their consternation solidified to

petrification when he paused at the end, contemplated the multitude

reflectively, and then said, impressively:



"The man would be a fool who tried to add anything to that. Let us

pray!"



And with the same strict adhesion to truth it can be said that the man

would be a fool who tried to add anything to the following transcendent

obituary poem. There is something so innocent, so guileless, so

complacent, so unearthly serene and self-satisfied about this peerless

"hog-wash," that the man must be made of stone who can read it without a

dulcet ecstasy creeping along his backbone and quivering in his marrow.

There is no need to say that this poem is genuine and in earnest, for

its proofs are written all over its face. An ingenious scribbler

might imitate it after a fashion, but Shakespeare himself could not

counterfeit it. It is noticeable that the country editor who published

it did not know that it was a treasure and the most perfect thing of its

kind that the storehouses and museums of literature could show. He did

not dare to say no to the dread poet--for such a poet must have been

something of an apparition--but he just shoveled it into his paper

anywhere that came handy, and felt ashamed, and put that disgusted

"Published by Request" over it, and hoped that his subscribers would

overlook it or not feel an impulse to read it:



(Published by Request)



LINES



Composed on the death of Samuel and Catharine Belknap's children



by M. A. Glaze





Friends and neighbors all draw near, And listen to what I have to say;

And never leave your children dear When they are small, and go away.



But always think of that sad fate, That happened in year of '63; Four

children with a house did burn, Think of their awful agony.



Their mother she had gone away, And left them there alone to stay; The

house took fire and down did burn; Before their mother did return.



Their piteous cry the neighbors heard, And then the cry of fire was

given; But, ah! before they could them reach, Their little spirits had

flown to heaven.



Their father he to war had gone, And on the battle-field was slain; But

little did he think when he went away, But what on earth they would meet

again.



The neighbors often told his wife Not to leave his children there,

Unless she got some one to stay, And of the little ones take care.



The oldest he was years not six, And the youngest only eleven months

old, But often she had left them there alone, As, by the neighbors, I

have been told.



How can she bear to see the place. Where she so oft has left them there,

Without a single one to look to them, Or of the little ones to take good

care.



Oh, can she look upon the spot, Whereunder their little burnt bones lay,

But what she thinks she hears them say, ''Twas God had pity, and took us

on high.'



And there may she kneel down and pray, And ask God her to forgive; And

she may lead a different life While she on earth remains to live.



Her husband and her children too, God has took from pain and woe. May

she reform and mend her ways, That she may also to them go.



And when it is God's holy will, O, may she be prepared To meet her God

and friends in peace, And leave this world of care.



1. Written in 1870.

		

		

		

		  

THE $30,000 BEQUEST

CHAPTER I



Lakeside was a pleasant little town of five or six thousand inhabitants,

and a rather pretty one, too, as towns go in the Far West. It had church

accommodations for thirty-five thousand, which is the way of the Far

West and the South, where everybody is religious, and where each of the

Protestant sects is represented and has a plant of its own. Rank was

unknown in Lakeside--unconfessed, anyway; everybody knew everybody and

his dog, and a sociable friendliness was the prevailing atmosphere.



Saladin Foster was book-keeper in the principal store, and the only

high-salaried man of his profession in Lakeside. He was thirty-five

years old, now; he had served that store for fourteen years; he had

begun in his marriage-week at four hundred dollars a year, and had

climbed steadily up, a hundred dollars a year, for four years; from

that time forth his wage had remained eight hundred--a handsome figure

indeed, and everybody conceded that he was worth it.



His wife, Electra, was a capable helpmeet, although--like himself--a

dreamer of dreams and a private dabbler in romance. The first thing she

did, after her marriage--child as she was, aged only nineteen--was to

buy an acre of ground on the edge of the town, and pay down the cash for

it--twenty-five dollars, all her fortune. Saladin had less, by fifteen.

She instituted a vegetable garden there, got it farmed on shares by the

nearest neighbor, and made it pay her a hundred per cent. a year. Out of

Saladin's first year's wage she put thirty dollars in the savings-bank,

sixty out of his second, a hundred out of his third, a hundred and fifty

out of his fourth. His wage went to eight hundred a year, then, and

meantime two children had arrived and increased the expenses, but she

banked two hundred a year from the salary, nevertheless, thenceforth.

When she had been married seven years she built and furnished a

pretty and comfortable two-thousand-dollar house in the midst of her

garden-acre, paid half of the money down and moved her family in. Seven

years later she was out of debt and had several hundred dollars out

earning its living.



Earning it by the rise in landed estate; for she had long ago bought

another acre or two and sold the most of it at a profit to pleasant

people who were willing to build, and would be good neighbors and

furnish a general comradeship for herself and her growing family. She

had an independent income from safe investments of about a hundred

dollars a year; her children were growing in years and grace; and

she was a pleased and happy woman. Happy in her husband, happy in her

children, and the husband and the children were happy in her. It is at

this point that this history begins.



The youngest girl, Clytemnestra--called Clytie for short--was eleven;

her sister, Gwendolen--called Gwen for short--was thirteen; nice girls,

and comely. The names betray the latent romance-tinge in the parental

blood, the parents' names indicate that the tinge was an inheritance. It

was an affectionate family, hence all four of its members had pet

names, Saladin's was a curious and unsexing one--Sally; and so was

Electra's--Aleck. All day long Sally was a good and diligent book-keeper

and salesman; all day long Aleck was a good and faithful mother and

housewife, and thoughtful and calculating business woman; but in the

cozy living-room at night they put the plodding world away, and lived in

another and a fairer, reading romances to each other, dreaming dreams,

comrading with kings and princes and stately lords and ladies in the

flash and stir and splendor of noble palaces and grim and ancient

castles.







CHAPTER II



Now came great news! Stunning news--joyous news, in fact. It came from a

neighboring state, where the family's only surviving relative lived. It

was Sally's relative--a sort of vague and indefinite uncle or second

or third cousin by the name of Tilbury Foster, seventy and a bachelor,

reputed well off and corresponding sour and crusty. Sally had tried to

make up to him once, by letter, in a bygone time, and had not made that

mistake again. Tilbury now wrote to Sally, saying he should shortly die,

and should leave him thirty thousand dollars, cash; not for love, but

because money had given him most of his troubles and exasperations, and

he wished to place it where there was good hope that it would continue

its malignant work. The bequest would be found in his will, and would be

paid over. PROVIDED, that Sally should be able to prove to the executors

that he had _Taken no notice of the gift by spoken word or by letter,

had made no inquiries concerning the moribund's progress toward the

everlasting tropics, and had not attended the funeral._



As soon as Aleck had partially recovered from the tremendous emotions

created by the letter, she sent to the relative's habitat and subscribed

for the local paper.



Man and wife entered into a solemn compact, now, to never mention the

great news to any one while the relative lived, lest some ignorant

person carry the fact to the death-bed and distort it and make it appear

that they were disobediently thankful for the bequest, and just the

same as confessing it and publishing it, right in the face of the

prohibition.



For the rest of the day Sally made havoc and confusion with his books,

and Aleck could not keep her mind on her affairs, not even take up a

flower-pot or book or a stick of wood without forgetting what she had

intended to do with it. For both were dreaming.



"Thir-ty thousand dollars!"



All day long the music of those inspiring words sang through those

people's heads.



From his marriage-day forth, Aleck's grip had been upon the purse, and

Sally had seldom known what it was to be privileged to squander a dime

on non-necessities.



"Thir-ty thousand dollars!" the song went on and on. A vast sum, an

unthinkable sum!



All day long Aleck was absorbed in planning how to invest it, Sally in

planning how to spend it.



There was no romance-reading that night. The children took themselves

away early, for their parents were silent, distraught, and strangely

unentertaining. The good-night kisses might as well have been impressed

upon vacancy, for all the response they got; the parents were not aware

of the kisses, and the children had been gone an hour before

their absence was noticed. Two pencils had been busy during that

hour--note-making; in the way of plans. It was Sally who broke the

stillness at last. He said, with exultation:



"Ah, it'll be grand, Aleck! Out of the first thousand we'll have a horse

and a buggy for summer, and a cutter and a skin lap-robe for winter."



Aleck responded with decision and composure--



"Out of the _capital_? Nothing of the kind. Not if it was a million!"



Sally was deeply disappointed; the glow went out of his face.



"Oh, Aleck!" he said, reproachfully. "We've always worked so hard and

been so scrimped: and now that we are rich, it does seem--"



He did not finish, for he saw her eye soften; his supplication had

touched her. She said, with gentle persuasiveness:



"We must not spend the capital, dear, it would not be wise. Out of the

income from it--"



"That will answer, that will answer, Aleck! How dear and good you are!

There will be a noble income and if we can spend that--"



"Not _all _of it, dear, not all of it, but you can spend a part of it.

That is, a reasonable part. But the whole of the capital--every penny

of it--must be put right to work, and kept at it. You see the

reasonableness of that, don't you?"



"Why, ye-s. Yes, of course. But we'll have to wait so long. Six months

before the first interest falls due."



"Yes--maybe longer."



"Longer, Aleck? Why? Don't they pay half-yearly?"



"_That _kind of an investment--yes; but I sha'n't invest in that way."



"What way, then?"



"For big returns."



"Big. That's good. Go on, Aleck. What is it?"



"Coal. The new mines. Cannel. I mean to put in ten thousand. Ground

floor. When we organize, we'll get three shares for one."



"By George, but it sounds good, Aleck! Then the shares will be

worth--how much? And when?"



"About a year. They'll pay ten per cent. half yearly, and be worth

thirty thousand. I know all about it; the advertisement is in the

Cincinnati paper here."



"Land, thirty thousand for ten--in a year! Let's jam in the

whole capital and pull out ninety! I'll write and subscribe right

now--tomorrow it maybe too late."



He was flying to the writing-desk, but Aleck stopped him and put him

back in his chair. She said:



"Don't lose your head so. _We_ mustn't subscribe till we've got the

money; don't you know that?"



Sally's excitement went down a degree or two, but he was not wholly

appeased.



"Why, Aleck, we'll _have _it, you know--and so soon, too. He's probably

out of his troubles before this; it's a hundred to nothing he's

selecting his brimstone-shovel this very minute. Now, I think--"



Aleck shuddered, and said:



"How _can _you, Sally! Don't talk in that way, it is perfectly

scandalous."



"Oh, well, make it a halo, if you like, _I_ don't care for his outfit, I

was only just talking. Can't you let a person talk?"



"But why should you _want _to talk in that dreadful way? How would you

like to have people talk so about _you_, and you not cold yet?"



"Not likely to be, for _one _while, I reckon, if my last act was giving

away money for the sake of doing somebody a harm with it. But never mind

about Tilbury, Aleck, let's talk about something worldly. It does seem

to me that that mine is the place for the whole thirty. What's the

objection?"



"All the eggs in one basket--that's the objection."



"All right, if you say so. What about the other twenty? What do you mean

to do with that?"



"There is no hurry; I am going to look around before I do anything with

it."



"All right, if your mind's made up," sighed Sally. He was deep in

thought awhile, then he said:



"There'll be twenty thousand profit coming from the ten a year from now.

We can spend that, can't we, Aleck?"



Aleck shook her head.



"No, dear," she said, "it won't sell high till we've had the first

semi-annual dividend. You can spend part of that."



"Shucks, only _that_--and a whole year to wait! Confound it, I--"



"Oh, do be patient! It might even be declared in three months--it's

quite within the possibilities."



"Oh, jolly! oh, thanks!" and Sally jumped up and kissed his wife in

gratitude. "It'll be three thousand--three whole thousand! how much

of it can we spend, Aleck? Make it liberal!--do, dear, that's a good

fellow."



Aleck was pleased; so pleased that she yielded to the pressure and

conceded a sum which her judgment told her was a foolish extravagance--a

thousand dollars. Sally kissed her half a dozen times and even in that

way could not express all his joy and thankfulness. This new access

of gratitude and affection carried Aleck quite beyond the bounds of

prudence, and before she could restrain herself she had made her darling

another grant--a couple of thousand out of the fifty or sixty which she

meant to clear within a year of the twenty which still remained of the

bequest. The happy tears sprang to Sally's eyes, and he said:



"Oh, I want to hug you!" And he did it. Then he got his notes and sat

down and began to check off, for first purchase, the luxuries which

he should earliest wish to secure.

"Horse--buggy--cutter--lap-robe--patent-leathers--dog--plug-hat--

church-pew--stem-winder--new teeth--_say_, Aleck!"



"Well?"



"Ciphering away, aren't you? That's right. Have you got the twenty

thousand invested yet?"



"No, there's no hurry about that; I must look around first, and think."



"But you are ciphering; what's it about?"



"Why, I have to find work for the thirty thousand that comes out of the

coal, haven't I?"



"Scott, what a head! I never thought of that. How are you getting along?

Where have you arrived?"



"Not very far--two years or three. I've turned it over twice; once in

oil and once in wheat."



"Why, Aleck, it's splendid! How does it aggregate?"



"I think--well, to be on the safe side, about a hundred and eighty

thousand clear, though it will probably be more."



"My! isn't it wonderful? By gracious! luck has come our way at last,

after all the hard sledding. Aleck!"



"Well?"



"I'm going to cash in a whole three hundred on the missionaries--what

real right have we care for expenses!"



"You couldn't do a nobler thing, dear; and it's just like your generous

nature, you unselfish boy."



The praise made Sally poignantly happy, but he was fair and just enough

to say it was rightfully due to Aleck rather than to himself, since but

for her he should never have had the money.



Then they went up to bed, and in their delirium of bliss they forgot and

left the candle burning in the parlor. They did not remember until they

were undressed; then Sally was for letting it burn; he said they could

afford it, if it was a thousand. But Aleck went down and put it out.



A good job, too; for on her way back she hit on a scheme that would turn

the hundred and eighty thousand into half a million before it had had

time to get cold.







CHAPTER III



The little newspaper which Aleck had subscribed for was a Thursday

sheet; it would make the trip of five hundred miles from Tilbury's

village and arrive on Saturday. Tilbury's letter had started on Friday,

more than a day too late for the benefactor to die and get into that

week's issue, but in plenty of time to make connection for the next

output. Thus the Fosters had to wait almost a complete week to find out

whether anything of a satisfactory nature had happened to him or not.

It was a long, long week, and the strain was a heavy one. The pair could

hardly have borne it if their minds had not had the relief of wholesome

diversion. We have seen that they had that. The woman was piling up

fortunes right along, the man was spending them--spending all his wife

would give him a chance at, at any rate.



At last the Saturday came, and the _Weekly Sagamore_ arrived. Mrs.

Eversly Bennett was present. She was the Presbyterian parson's wife, and

was working the Fosters for a charity. Talk now died a sudden death--on

the Foster side. Mrs. Bennett presently discovered that her hosts

were not hearing a word she was saying; so she got up, wondering and

indignant, and went away. The moment she was out of the house, Aleck

eagerly tore the wrapper from the paper, and her eyes and Sally's swept

the columns for the death-notices. Disappointment! Tilbury was not

anywhere mentioned. Aleck was a Christian from the cradle, and duty and

the force of habit required her to go through the motions. She pulled

herself together and said, with a pious two-per-cent. trade joyousness:



"Let us be humbly thankful that he has been spared; and--"



"Damn his treacherous hide, I wish--"



"Sally! For shame!"



"I don't care!" retorted the angry man. "It's the way _you _feel, and if

you weren't so immorally pious you'd be honest and say so."



Aleck said, with wounded dignity:



"I do not see how you can say such unkind and unjust things. There is no

such thing as immoral piety."



Sally felt a pang, but tried to conceal it under a shuffling attempt to

save his case by changing the form of it--as if changing the form while

retaining the juice could deceive the expert he was trying to placate.

He said:



"I didn't mean so bad as that, Aleck; I didn't really mean immoral

piety, I only meant--meant--well, conventional piety, you know; er--shop

piety; the--the--why, _you _know what I mean. Aleck--the--well, where

you put up that plated article and play it for solid, you know, without

intending anything improper, but just out of trade habit, ancient

policy, petrified custom, loyalty to--to--hang it, I can't find the

right words, but _you _know what I mean, Aleck, and that there isn't any

harm in it. I'll try again. You see, it's this way. If a person--"



"You have said quite enough," said Aleck, coldly; "let the subject be

dropped."



"I'm willing," fervently responded Sally, wiping the sweat from his

forehead and looking the thankfulness he had no words for. Then,

musingly, he apologized to himself. "I certainly held threes--_I know_

it--but I drew and didn't fill. That's where I'm so often weak in

the game. If I had stood pat--but I didn't. I never do. I don't know

enough."



Confessedly defeated, he was properly tame now and subdued. Aleck

forgave him with her eyes.



The grand interest, the supreme interest, came instantly to the front

again; nothing could keep it in the background many minutes on a

stretch. The couple took up the puzzle of the absence of Tilbury's

death-notice. They discussed it every which way, more or less hopefully,

but they had to finish where they began, and concede that the only

really sane explanation of the absence of the notice must be--and

without doubt was--that Tilbury was not dead. There was something sad

about it, something even a little unfair, maybe, but there it was, and

had to be put up with. They were agreed as to that. To Sally it seemed

a strangely inscrutable dispensation; more inscrutable than usual, he

thought; one of the most unnecessary inscrutable he could call to mind,

in fact--and said so, with some feeling; but if he was hoping to draw

Aleck he failed; she reserved her opinion, if she had one; she had not

the habit of taking injudicious risks in any market, worldly or other.



The pair must wait for next week's paper--Tilbury had evidently

postponed. That was their thought and their decision. So they put the

subject away and went about their affairs again with as good heart as

they could.



Now, if they had but known it, they had been wronging Tilbury all the

time. Tilbury had kept faith, kept it to the letter; he was dead, he had

died to schedule. He was dead more than four days now and used to it;

entirely dead, perfectly dead, as dead as any other new person in the

cemetery; dead in abundant time to get into that week's _Sagamore_, too,

and only shut out by an accident; an accident which could not happen

to a metropolitan journal, but which happens easily to a poor little

village rag like the _Sagamore_. On this occasion, just as the editorial

page was being locked up, a gratis quart of strawberry ice-water arrived

from Hostetter's Ladies and Gents Ice-Cream Parlors, and the stickful of

rather chilly regret over Tilbury's translation got crowded out to make

room for the editor's frantic gratitude.



On its way to the standing-galley Tilbury's notice got pied. Otherwise

it would have gone into some future edition, for _weekly Sagamores_ do

not waste "live" matter, and in their galleys "live" matter is immortal,

unless a pi accident intervenes. But a thing that gets pied is dead, and

for such there is no resurrection; its chance of seeing print is gone,

forever and ever. And so, let Tilbury like it or not, let him rave in

his grave to his fill, no matter--no mention of his death would ever see

the light in the _Weekly Sagamore_.







CHAPTER IV



Five weeks drifted tediously along. The _Sagamore _arrived regularly

on the Saturdays, but never once contained a mention of Tilbury Foster.

Sally's patience broke down at this point, and he said, resentfully:



"Damn his livers, he's immortal!"



Aleck give him a very severe rebuke, and added with icy solemnity:



"How would you feel if you were suddenly cut off just after such an

awful remark had escaped out of you?"



Without sufficient reflection Sally responded:



"I'd feel I was lucky I hadn't got caught with it _in_ me."



Pride had forced him to say something, and as he could not think of any

rational thing to say he flung that out. Then he stole a base--as he

called it--that is, slipped from the presence, to keep from being brayed

in his wife's discussion-mortar.



Six months came and went. The _Sagamore _was still silent about Tilbury.

Meantime, Sally had several times thrown out a feeler--that is, a hint

that he would like to know. Aleck had ignored the hints. Sally now

resolved to brace up and risk a frontal attack. So he squarely proposed

to disguise himself and go to Tilbury's village and surreptitiously find

out as to the prospects. Aleck put her foot on the dangerous project

with energy and decision. She said:



"What can you be thinking of? You do keep my hands full! You have to be

watched all the time, like a little child, to keep you from walking into

the fire. You'll stay right where you are!"



"Why, Aleck, I could do it and not be found out--I'm certain of it."



"Sally Foster, don't you know you would have to inquire around?"



"Of course, but what of it? Nobody would suspect who I was."



"Oh, listen to the man! Some day you've got to prove to the executors

that you never inquired. What then?"



He had forgotten that detail. He didn't reply; there wasn't anything to

say. Aleck added:



"Now then, drop that notion out of your mind, and don't ever meddle with

it again. Tilbury set that trap for you. Don't you know it's a trap? He

is on the watch, and fully expecting you to blunder into it. Well, he is

going to be disappointed--at least while I am on deck. Sally!"



"Well?"



"As long as you live, if it's a hundred years, don't you ever make an

inquiry. Promise!"



"All right," with a sigh and reluctantly.



Then Aleck softened and said:



"Don't be impatient. We are prospering; we can wait; there is no hurry.

Our small dead-certain income increases all the time; and as to futures,

I have not made a mistake yet--they are piling up by the thousands and

tens of thousands. There is not another family in the state with such

prospects as ours. Already we are beginning to roll in eventual wealth.

You know that, don't you?"



"Yes, Aleck, it's certainly so."



"Then be grateful for what God is doing for us and stop worrying. You do

not believe we could have achieved these prodigious results without His

special help and guidance, do you?"



Hesitatingly, "N-no, I suppose not." Then, with feeling and admiration,

"And yet, when it comes to judiciousness in watering a stock or putting

up a hand to skin Wall Street I don't give in that _you _need any

outside amateur help, if I do wish I--"



"Oh, _do_ shut up! I know you do not mean any harm or any irreverence,

poor boy, but you can't seem to open your mouth without letting out

things to make a person shudder. You keep me in constant dread. For you

and for all of us. Once I had no fear of the thunder, but now when I

hear it I--"



Her voice broke, and she began to cry, and could not finish. The sight

of this smote Sally to the heart and he took her in his arms and petted

her and comforted her and promised better conduct, and upbraided himself

and remorsefully pleaded for forgiveness. And he was in earnest, and

sorry for what he had done and ready for any sacrifice that could make

up for it.



And so, in privacy, he thought long and deeply over the matter,

resolving to do what should seem best. It was easy to _promise _reform;

indeed he had already promised it. But would that do any real good, any

permanent good? No, it would be but temporary--he knew his weakness,

and confessed it to himself with sorrow--he could not keep the promise.

Something surer and better must be devised; and he devised it. At

cost of precious money which he had long been saving up, shilling by

shilling, he put a lightning-rod on the house.



At a subsequent time he relapsed.



What miracles habit can do! and how quickly and how easily habits are

acquired--both trifling habits and habits which profoundly change us.

If by accident we wake at two in the morning a couple of nights in

succession, we have need to be uneasy, for another repetition can turn

the accident into a habit; and a month's dallying with whiskey--but we

all know these commonplace facts.



The castle-building habit, the day-dreaming habit--how it grows! what a

luxury it becomes; how we fly to its enchantments at every idle moment,

how we revel in them, steep our souls in them, intoxicate ourselves with

their beguiling fantasies--oh yes, and how soon and how easily our dream

life and our material life become so intermingled and so fused together

that we can't quite tell which is which, any more.



By and by Aleck subscribed to a Chicago daily and for the _Wall Street

Pointer_. With an eye single to finance she studied these as diligently

all the week as she studied her Bible Sundays. Sally was lost in

admiration, to note with what swift and sure strides her genius and

judgment developed and expanded in the forecasting and handling of the

securities of both the material and spiritual markets. He was proud of

her nerve and daring in exploiting worldly stocks, and just as proud of

her conservative caution in working her spiritual deals. He noted that

she never lost her head in either case; that with a splendid courage

she often went short on worldly futures, but heedfully drew the line

there--she was always long on the others. Her policy was quite sane and

simple, as she explained it to him: what she put into earthly futures

was for speculation, what she put into spiritual futures was for

investment; she was willing to go into the one on a margin, and take

chances, but in the case of the other, "margin her no margins"--she

wanted to cash in a hundred cents per dollar's worth, and have the stock

transferred on the books.



It took but a very few months to educate Aleck's imagination and

Sally's. Each day's training added something to the spread and

effectiveness of the two machines. As a consequence, Aleck made

imaginary money much faster than at first she had dreamed of making it,

and Sally's competency in spending the overflow of it kept pace with the

strain put upon it, right along. In the beginning, Aleck had given the

coal speculation a twelvemonth in which to materialize, and had been

loath to grant that this term might possibly be shortened by nine

months. But that was the feeble work, the nursery work, of a financial

fancy that had had no teaching, no experience, no practice. These

aids soon came, then that nine months vanished, and the imaginary

ten-thousand-dollar investment came marching home with three hundred per

cent. profit on its back!



It was a great day for the pair of Fosters. They were speechless for

joy. Also speechless for another reason: after much watching of the

market, Aleck had lately, with fear and trembling, made her first flyer

on a "margin," using the remaining twenty thousand of the bequest

in this risk. In her mind's eye she had seen it climb, point by

point--always with a chance that the market would break--until at last

her anxieties were too great for further endurance--she being new to

the margin business and unhardened, as yet--and she gave her imaginary

broker an imaginary order by imaginary telegraph to sell. She said forty

thousand dollars' profit was enough. The sale was made on the very day

that the coal venture had returned with its rich freight. As I have

said, the couple were speechless, they sat dazed and blissful that

night, trying to realize that they were actually worth a hundred

thousand dollars in clean, imaginary cash. Yet so it was.



It was the last time that ever Aleck was afraid of a margin; at least

afraid enough to let it break her sleep and pale her cheek to the extent

that this first experience in that line had done.



Indeed it was a memorable night. Gradually the realization that they

were rich sank securely home into the souls of the pair, then they began

to place the money. If we could have looked out through the eyes of

these dreamers, we should have seen their tidy little wooden house

disappear, and two-story brick with a cast-iron fence in front of it

take its place; we should have seen a three-globed gas-chandelier grow

down from the parlor ceiling; we should have seen the homely rag carpet

turn to noble Brussels, a dollar and a half a yard; we should have seen

the plebeian fireplace vanish away and a recherche, big base-burner with

isinglass windows take position and spread awe around. And we should

have seen other things, too; among them the buggy, the lap-robe, the

stove-pipe hat, and so on.



From that time forth, although the daughters and the neighbors saw only

the same old wooden house there, it was a two-story brick to Aleck

and Sally and not a night went by that Aleck did not worry about the

imaginary gas-bills, and get for all comfort Sally's reckless retort:

"What of it? We can afford it."



Before the couple went to bed, that first night that they were rich,

they had decided that they must celebrate. They must give a party--that

was the idea. But how to explain it--to the daughters and the neighbors?

They could not expose the fact that they were rich. Sally was willing,

even anxious, to do it; but Aleck kept her head and would not allow it.

She said that although the money was as good as in, it would be as well

to wait until it was actually in. On that policy she took her stand, and

would not budge. The great secret must be kept, she said--kept from the

daughters and everybody else.



The pair were puzzled. They must celebrate, they were determined to

celebrate, but since the secret must be kept, what could they celebrate?

No birthdays were due for three months. Tilbury wasn't available,

evidently he was going to live forever; what the nation _could _they

celebrate? That was Sally's way of putting it; and he was getting

impatient, too, and harassed. But at last he hit it--just by sheer

inspiration, as it seemed to him--and all their troubles were gone in a

moment; they would celebrate the Discovery of America. A splendid idea!



Aleck was almost too proud of Sally for words--she said _she _never

would have thought of it. But Sally, although he was bursting with

delight in the compliment and with wonder at himself, tried not to let

on, and said it wasn't really anything, anybody could have done it.

Whereat Aleck, with a prideful toss of her happy head, said:



"Oh, certainly! Anybody could--oh, anybody! Hosannah Dilkins, for

instance! Or maybe Adelbert Peanut--oh, _dear_--yes! Well, I'd like to

see them try it, that's all. Dear-me-suz, if they could think of the

discovery of a forty-acre island it's more than _I_ believe they could;

and as for the whole continent, why, Sally Foster, you know perfectly

well it would strain the livers and lights out of them and _then_ they

couldn't!"



The dear woman, she knew he had talent; and if affection made her

over-estimate the size of it a little, surely it was a sweet and gentle

crime, and forgivable for its source's sake.







CHAPTER V



The celebration went off well. The friends were all present, both the

young and the old. Among the young were Flossie and Gracie Peanut and

their brother Adelbert, who was a rising young journeyman tinner,

also Hosannah Dilkins, Jr., journeyman plasterer, just out of his

apprenticeship. For many months Adelbert and Hosannah had been showing

interest in Gwendolen and Clytemnestra Foster, and the parents of the

girls had noticed this with private satisfaction. But they suddenly

realized now that that feeling had passed. They recognized that the

changed financial conditions had raised up a social bar between

their daughters and the young mechanics. The daughters could now look

higher--and must. Yes, must. They need marry nothing below the grade of

lawyer or merchant; poppa and momma would take care of this; there must

be no mesalliances.



However, these thinkings and projects of theirs were private, and

did not show on the surface, and therefore threw no shadow upon the

celebration. What showed upon the surface was a serene and lofty

contentment and a dignity of carriage and gravity of deportment which

compelled the admiration and likewise the wonder of the company. All

noticed it and all commented upon it, but none was able to divine the

secret of it. It was a marvel and a mystery. Three several persons

remarked, without suspecting what clever shots they were making:



"It's as if they'd come into property."



That was just it, indeed.



Most mothers would have taken hold of the matrimonial matter in the

old regulation way; they would have given the girls a talking to, of

a solemn sort and untactful--a lecture calculated to defeat its own

purpose, by producing tears and secret rebellion; and the said mothers

would have further damaged the business by requesting the young

mechanics to discontinue their attentions. But this mother was

different. She was practical. She said nothing to any of the young

people concerned, nor to any one else except Sally. He listened to her

and understood; understood and admired. He said:



"I get the idea. Instead of finding fault with the samples on view,

thus hurting feelings and obstructing trade without occasion, you merely

offer a higher class of goods for the money, and leave nature to take

her course. It's wisdom, Aleck, solid wisdom, and sound as a nut. Who's

your fish? Have you nominated him yet?"



No, she hadn't. They must look the market over--which they did. To start

with, they considered and discussed Brandish, rising young lawyer, and

Fulton, rising young dentist. Sally must invite them to dinner. But not

right away; there was no hurry, Aleck said. Keep an eye on the pair, and

wait; nothing would be lost by going slowly in so important a matter.



It turned out that this was wisdom, too; for inside of three weeks Aleck

made a wonderful strike which swelled her imaginary hundred thousand

to four hundred thousand of the same quality. She and Sally were in the

clouds that evening. For the first time they introduced champagne at

dinner. Not real champagne, but plenty real enough for the amount of

imagination expended on it. It was Sally that did it, and Aleck weakly

submitted. At bottom both were troubled and ashamed, for he was a

high-up Son of Temperance, and at funerals wore an apron which no dog

could look upon and retain his reason and his opinion; and she was a

W. C. T. U., with all that that implies of boiler-iron virtue and

unendurable holiness. But there it was; the pride of riches was

beginning its disintegrating work. They had lived to prove, once more,

a sad truth which had been proven many times before in the world: that

whereas principle is a great and noble protection against showy and

degrading vanities and vices, poverty is worth six of it. More than

four hundred thousand dollars to the good. They took up the matrimonial

matter again. Neither the dentist nor the lawyer was mentioned; there

was no occasion, they were out of the running. Disqualified. They

discussed the son of the pork-packer and the son of the village banker.

But finally, as in the previous case, they concluded to wait and think,

and go cautiously and sure.



Luck came their way again. Aleck, ever watchful saw a great and risky

chance, and took a daring flyer. A time of trembling, of doubt, of awful

uneasiness followed, for non-success meant absolute ruin and nothing

short of it. Then came the result, and Aleck, faint with joy, could

hardly control her voice when she said:



"The suspense is over, Sally--and we are worth a cold million!"



Sally wept for gratitude, and said:



"Oh, Electra, jewel of women, darling of my heart, we are free at last,

we roll in wealth, we need never scrimp again. It's a case for Veuve

Cliquot!" and he got out a pint of spruce-beer and made sacrifice, he

saying "Damn the expense," and she rebuking him gently with reproachful

but humid and happy eyes.



They shelved the pork-packer's son and the banker's son, and sat down to

consider the Governor's son and the son of the Congressman.







CHAPTER VI



It were a weariness to follow in detail the leaps and bounds the Foster

fictitious finances took from this time forth. It was marvelous, it

was dizzying, it was dazzling. Everything Aleck touched turned to fairy

gold, and heaped itself glittering toward the firmament. Millions upon

millions poured in, and still the mighty stream flowed thundering

along, still its vast volume increased. Five millions--ten

millions--twenty--thirty--was there never to be an end?



Two years swept by in a splendid delirium, the intoxicated Fosters

scarcely noticing the flight of time. They were now worth three

hundred million dollars; they were in every board of directors of every

prodigious combine in the country; and still as time drifted along, the

millions went on piling up, five at a time, ten at a time, as fast as

they could tally them off, almost. The three hundred double itself--then

doubled again--and yet again--and yet once more.



Twenty-four hundred millions!



The business was getting a little confused. It was necessary to take an

account of stock, and straighten it out. The Fosters knew it, they felt

it, they realized that it was imperative; but they also knew that to do

it properly and perfectly the task must be carried to a finish without

a break when once it was begun. A ten-hours' job; and where could _they

_find ten leisure hours in a bunch? Sally was selling pins and sugar and

calico all day and every day; Aleck was cooking and washing dishes and

sweeping and making beds all day and every day, with none to help, for

the daughters were being saved up for high society. The Fosters knew

there was one way to get the ten hours, and only one. Both were ashamed

to name it; each waited for the other to do it. Finally Sally said:



"Somebody's got to give in. It's up to me. Consider that I've named

it--never mind pronouncing it out aloud."



Aleck colored, but was grateful. Without further remark, they fell.

Fell, and--broke the Sabbath. For that was their only free ten-hour

stretch. It was but another step in the downward path. Others would

follow. Vast wealth has temptations which fatally and surely undermine

the moral structure of persons not habituated to its possession.



They pulled down the shades and broke the Sabbath. With hard and patient

labor they overhauled their holdings and listed them. And a long-drawn

procession of formidable names it was! Starting with the Railway

Systems, Steamer Lines, Standard Oil, Ocean Cables, Diluted Telegraph,

and all the rest, and winding up with Klondike, De Beers, Tammany Graft,

and Shady Privileges in the Post-office Department.



Twenty-four hundred millions, and all safely planted in Good Things,

gilt-edged and interest-bearing. Income, $120,000,000 a year. Aleck

fetched a long purr of soft delight, and said:



"Is it enough?"



"It is, Aleck."



"What shall we do?"



"Stand pat."



"Retire from business?"



"That's it."



"I am agreed. The good work is finished; we will take a long rest and

enjoy the money."



"Good! Aleck!"



"Yes, dear?"



"How much of the income can we spend?"



"The whole of it."



It seemed to her husband that a ton of chains fell from his limbs. He

did not say a word; he was happy beyond the power of speech.



After that, they broke the Sabbaths right along as fast as they turned

up. It is the first wrong step that counts. Every Sunday they put in the

whole day, after morning service, on inventions--inventions of ways to

spend the money. They got to continuing this delicious dissipation until

past midnight; and at every seance Aleck lavished millions upon great

charities and religious enterprises, and Sally lavished like sums upon

matters to which (at first) he gave definite names. Only at first. Later

the names gradually lost sharpness of outline, and eventually faded into

"sundries," thus becoming entirely--but safely--undescriptive. For Sally

was crumbling. The placing of these millions added seriously and most

uncomfortably to the family expenses--in tallow candles. For a while

Aleck was worried. Then, after a little, she ceased to worry, for

the occasion of it was gone. She was pained, she was grieved, she was

ashamed; but she said nothing, and so became an accessory. Sally was

taking candles; he was robbing the store. It is ever thus. Vast wealth,

to the person unaccustomed to it, is a bane; it eats into the flesh and

bone of his morals. When the Fosters were poor, they could have been

trusted with untold candles. But now they--but let us not dwell upon it.

From candles to apples is but a step: Sally got to taking apples; then

soap; then maple-sugar; then canned goods; then crockery. How easy it

is to go from bad to worse, when once we have started upon a downward

course!



Meantime, other effects had been milestoning the course of the Fosters'

splendid financial march. The fictitious brick dwelling had given place

to an imaginary granite one with a checker-board mansard roof; in time

this one disappeared and gave place to a still grander home--and so on

and so on. Mansion after mansion, made of air, rose, higher, broader,

finer, and each in its turn vanished away; until now in these latter

great days, our dreamers were in fancy housed, in a distant region, in a

sumptuous vast palace which looked out from a leafy summit upon a

noble prospect of vale and river and receding hills steeped in tinted

mists--and all private, all the property of the dreamers; a palace

swarming with liveried servants, and populous with guests of fame and

power, hailing from all the world's capitals, foreign and domestic.



This palace was far, far away toward the rising sun, immeasurably

remote, astronomically remote, in Newport, Rhode Island, Holy Land of

High Society, ineffable Domain of the American Aristocracy. As a rule

they spent a part of every Sabbath--after morning service--in this

sumptuous home, the rest of it they spent in Europe, or in dawdling

around in their private yacht. Six days of sordid and plodding fact life

at home on the ragged edge of Lakeside and straitened means, the seventh

in Fairyland--such had been their program and their habit.



In their sternly restricted fact life they remained as of old--plodding,

diligent, careful, practical, economical. They stuck loyally to the

little Presbyterian Church, and labored faithfully in its interests

and stood by its high and tough doctrines with all their mental and

spiritual energies. But in their dream life they obeyed the invitations

of their fancies, whatever they might be, and howsoever the fancies

might change. Aleck's fancies were not very capricious, and not

frequent, but Sally's scattered a good deal. Aleck, in her dream life,

went over to the Episcopal camp, on account of its large official

titles; next she became High-church on account of the candles and shows;

and next she naturally changed to Rome, where there were cardinals and

more candles. But these excursions were a nothing to Sally's. His dream

life was a glowing and continuous and persistent excitement, and he kept

every part of it fresh and sparkling by frequent changes, the religious

part along with the rest. He worked his religions hard, and changed them

with his shirt.



The liberal spendings of the Fosters upon their fancies began early

in their prosperities, and grew in prodigality step by step with their

advancing fortunes. In time they became truly enormous. Aleck built

a university or two per Sunday; also a hospital or two; also a Rowton

hotel or so; also a batch of churches; now and then a cathedral; and

once, with untimely and ill-chosen playfulness, Sally said, "It was

a cold day when she didn't ship a cargo of missionaries to persuade

unreflecting Chinamen to trade off twenty-four carat Confucianism for

counterfeit Christianity."



This rude and unfeeling language hurt Aleck to the heart, and she went

from the presence crying. That spectacle went to his own heart, and in

his pain and shame he would have given worlds to have those unkind words

back. She had uttered no syllable of reproach--and that cut him. Not one

suggestion that he look at his own record--and she could have made, oh,

so many, and such blistering ones! Her generous silence brought a swift

revenge, for it turned his thoughts upon himself, it summoned before

him a spectral procession, a moving vision of his life as he had been

leading it these past few years of limitless prosperity, and as he

sat there reviewing it his cheeks burned and his soul was steeped in

humiliation. Look at her life--how fair it was, and tending ever upward;

and look at his own--how frivolous, how charged with mean vanities,

how selfish, how empty, how ignoble! And its trend--never upward, but

downward, ever downward!



He instituted comparisons between her record and his own. He had found

fault with her--so he mused--_he_! And what could he say for himself?

When she built her first church what was he doing? Gathering other blase

multimillionaires into a Poker Club; defiling his own palace with it;

losing hundreds of thousands to it at every sitting, and sillily vain of

the admiring notoriety it made for him. When she was building her

first university, what was he doing? Polluting himself with a gay

and dissipated secret life in the company of other fast bloods,

multimillionaires in money and paupers in character. When she was

building her first foundling asylum, what was he doing? Alas! When she

was projecting her noble Society for the Purifying of the Sex, what was

he doing? Ah, what, indeed! When she and the W. C. T. U. and the Woman

with the Hatchet, moving with resistless march, were sweeping the fatal

bottle from the land, what was he doing? Getting drunk three times a

day. When she, builder of a hundred cathedrals, was being gratefully

welcomed and blest in papal Rome and decorated with the Golden Rose

which she had so honorably earned, what was he doing? Breaking the bank

at Monte Carlo.



He stopped. He could go no farther; he could not bear the rest. He rose

up, with a great resolution upon his lips: this secret life should be

revealed, and confessed; no longer would he live it clandestinely, he

would go and tell her All.



And that is what he did. He told her All; and wept upon her bosom; wept,

and moaned, and begged for her forgiveness. It was a profound shock, and

she staggered under the blow, but he was her own, the core of her heart,

the blessing of her eyes, her all in all, she could deny him nothing,

and she forgave him. She felt that he could never again be quite to her

what he had been before; she knew that he could only repent, and not

reform; yet all morally defaced and decayed as he was, was he not her

own, her very own, the idol of her deathless worship? She said she was

his serf, his slave, and she opened her yearning heart and took him in.







CHAPTER VII



One Sunday afternoon some time after this they were sailing the summer

seas in their dream yacht, and reclining in lazy luxury under the awning

of the after-deck. There was silence, for each was busy with his own

thoughts. These seasons of silence had insensibly been growing more

and more frequent of late; the old nearness and cordiality were waning.

Sally's terrible revelation had done its work; Aleck had tried hard to

drive the memory of it out of her mind, but it would not go, and the

shame and bitterness of it were poisoning her gracious dream life. She

could see now (on Sundays) that her husband was becoming a bloated and

repulsive Thing. She could not close her eyes to this, and in these days

she no longer looked at him, Sundays, when she could help it.



But she--was she herself without blemish? Alas, she knew she was not.

She was keeping a secret from him, she was acting dishonorably toward

him, and many a pang it was costing her. _She was breaking the compact,

and concealing it from him_. Under strong temptation she had gone into

business again; she had risked their whole fortune in a purchase of all

the railway systems and coal and steel companies in the country on a

margin, and she was now trembling, every Sabbath hour, lest through some

chance word of hers he find it out. In her misery and remorse for this

treachery she could not keep her heart from going out to him in pity;

she was filled with compunctions to see him lying there, drunk and

contented, and never suspecting. Never suspecting--trusting her with

a perfect and pathetic trust, and she holding over him by a thread a

possible calamity of so devastating a--



"_Say_--Aleck?"



The interrupting words brought her suddenly to herself. She was grateful

to have that persecuting subject from her thoughts, and she answered,

with much of the old-time tenderness in her tone:



"Yes, dear."



"Do you know, Aleck, I think we are making a mistake--that is, you

are. I mean about the marriage business." He sat up, fat and froggy and

benevolent, like a bronze Buddha, and grew earnest. "Consider--it's more

than five years. You've continued the same policy from the start: with

every rise, always holding on for five points higher. Always when I

think we are going to have some weddings, you see a bigger thing ahead,

and I undergo another disappointment. _I_ think you are too hard to

please. Some day we'll get left. First, we turned down the dentist and

the lawyer. That was all right--it was sound. Next, we turned down the

banker's son and the pork-butcher's heir--right again, and sound. Next,

we turned down the Congressman's son and the Governor's--right as

a trivet, I confess it. Next the Senator's son and the son of the

Vice-President of the United States--perfectly right, there's no

permanency about those little distinctions. Then you went for the

aristocracy; and I thought we had struck oil at last--yes. We would

make a plunge at the Four Hundred, and pull in some ancient lineage,

venerable, holy, ineffable, mellow with the antiquity of a hundred and

fifty years, disinfected of the ancestral odors of salt-cod and pelts

all of a century ago, and unsmirched by a day's work since, and then!

why, then the marriages, of course. But no, along comes a pair of real

aristocrats from Europe, and straightway you throw over the half-breeds.

It was awfully discouraging, Aleck! Since then, what a procession!

You turned down the baronets for a pair of barons; you turned down the

barons for a pair of viscounts; the viscounts for a pair of earls;

the earls for a pair of marquises; the marquises for a brace of dukes.

_Now_, Aleck, cash in!--you've played the limit. You've got a job lot

of four dukes under the hammer; of four nationalities; all sound in the

wind and limb and pedigree, all bankrupt and in debt up to the ears.

They come high, but we can afford it. Come, Aleck, don't delay any

longer, don't keep up the suspense: take the whole lay-out, and leave

the girls to choose!"



Aleck had been smiling blandly and contentedly all through this

arraignment of her marriage policy, a pleasant light, as of triumph with

perhaps a nice surprise peeping out through it, rose in her eyes, and

she said, as calmly as she could:



"Sally, what would you say to--_royalty_?"



Prodigious! Poor man, it knocked him silly, and he fell over the

garboard-strake and barked his shin on the cat-heads. He was dizzy for a

moment, then he gathered himself up and limped over and sat down by

his wife and beamed his old-time admiration and affection upon her in

floods, out of his bleary eyes.



"By George!" he said, fervently, "Aleck, you _are _great--the greatest

woman in the whole earth! I can't ever learn the whole size of you.

I can't ever learn the immeasurable deeps of you. Here I've been

considering myself qualified to criticize your game. _I!_ Why, if I had

stopped to think, I'd have known you had a lone hand up your sleeve.

Now, dear heart, I'm all red-hot impatience--tell me about it!"



The flattered and happy woman put her lips to his ear and whispered

a princely name. It made him catch his breath, it lit his face with

exultation.



"Land!" he said, "it's a stunning catch! He's got a gambling-hall, and

a graveyard, and a bishop, and a cathedral--all his very own. And all

gilt-edged five-hundred-per-cent. stock, every detail of it; the tidiest

little property in Europe; and that graveyard--it's the selectest in

the world: none but suicides admitted; _yes_, sir, and the free-list

suspended, too, _all _the time. There isn't much land in the

principality, but there's enough: eight hundred acres in the graveyard

and forty-two outside. It's a _sovereignty_--that's the main thing;

_land's_ nothing. There's plenty land, Sahara's drugged with it."



Aleck glowed; she was profoundly happy. She said:



"Think of it, Sally--it is a family that has never married outside the

Royal and Imperial Houses of Europe: our grandchildren will sit upon

thrones!"



"True as you live, Aleck--and bear scepters, too; and handle them as

naturally and nonchantly as I handle a yardstick. It's a grand catch,

Aleck. He's corralled, is he? Can't get away? You didn't take him on a

margin?"



"No. Trust me for that. He's not a liability, he's an asset. So is the

other one."



"Who is it, Aleck?"



"His Royal Highness

Sigismund-Siegfried-Lauenfeld-Dinkelspiel-Schwartzenberg Blutwurst,

Hereditary Grand Duke of Katzenyammer."



"No! You can't mean it!"



"It's as true as I'm sitting here, I give you my word," she answered.



His cup was full, and he hugged her to his heart with rapture, saying:



"How wonderful it all seems, and how beautiful! It's one of the

oldest and noblest of the three hundred and sixty-four ancient German

principalities, and one of the few that was allowed to retain its royal

estate when Bismarck got done trimming them. I know that farm, I've been

there. It's got a rope-walk and a candle-factory and an army. Standing

army. Infantry and cavalry. Three soldier and a horse. Aleck, it's been

a long wait, and full of heartbreak and hope deferred, but God knows I

am happy now. Happy, and grateful to you, my own, who have done it all.

When is it to be?"



"Next Sunday."



"Good. And we'll want to do these weddings up in the very regalest style

that's going. It's properly due to the royal quality of the parties

of the first part. Now as I understand it, there is only one kind of

marriage that is sacred to royalty, exclusive to royalty: it's the

morganatic."



"What do they call it that for, Sally?"



"I don't know; but anyway it's royal, and royal only."



"Then we will insist upon it. More--I will compel it. It is morganatic

marriage or none."



"That settles it!" said Sally, rubbing his hands with delight. "And it

will be the very first in America. Aleck, it will make Newport sick."



Then they fell silent, and drifted away upon their dream wings to the

far regions of the earth to invite all the crowned heads and their

families and provide gratis transportation to them.







CHAPTER VIII



During three days the couple walked upon air, with their heads in the

clouds. They were but vaguely conscious of their surroundings; they saw

all things dimly, as through a veil; they were steeped in dreams,

often they did not hear when they were spoken to; they often did not

understand when they heard; they answered confusedly or at random; Sally

sold molasses by weight, sugar by the yard, and furnished soap when

asked for candles, and Aleck put the cat in the wash and fed milk to

the soiled linen. Everybody was stunned and amazed, and went about

muttering, "What _can _be the matter with the Fosters?"



Three days. Then came events! Things had taken a happy turn, and

for forty-eight hours Aleck's imaginary corner had been booming. Up--up-

-still up! Cost point was passed. Still up--and up--and up! Five points

above cost--then ten--fifteen--twenty! Twenty points cold profit on the

vast venture, now, and Aleck's imaginary brokers were shouting

frantically by imaginary long-distance, "Sell! sell! for Heaven's sake

_sell_!"



She broke the splendid news to Sally, and he, too, said, "Sell!

sell--oh, don't make a blunder, now, you own the earth!--sell, sell!"

 But she set her iron will and lashed it amidships, and said she would

hold on for five points more if she died for it.



It was a fatal resolve. The very next day came the historic crash, the

record crash, the devastating crash, when the bottom fell out of Wall

Street, and the whole body of gilt-edged stocks dropped ninety-five

points in five hours, and the multimillionaire was seen begging his

bread in the Bowery. Aleck sternly held her grip and "put up" as long

as she could, but at last there came a call which she was powerless to

meet, and her imaginary brokers sold her out. Then, and not till then,

the man in her was vanished, and the woman in her resumed sway. She put

her arms about her husband's neck and wept, saying:



"I am to blame, do not forgive me, I cannot bear it. We are paupers!

Paupers, and I am so miserable. The weddings will never come off; all

that is past; we could not even buy the dentist, now."



A bitter reproach was on Sally's tongue: "I _begged _you to sell, but

you--" He did not say it; he had not the heart to add a hurt to that

broken and repentant spirit. A nobler thought came to him and he said:



"Bear up, my Aleck, all is not lost! You really never invested a penny

of my uncle's bequest, but only its unmaterialized future; what we

have lost was only the incremented harvest from that future by your

incomparable financial judgment and sagacity. Cheer up, banish these

griefs; we still have the thirty thousand untouched; and with the

experience which you have acquired, think what you will be able to do

with it in a couple years! The marriages are not off, they are only

postponed."



These were blessed words. Aleck saw how true they were, and their

influence was electric; her tears ceased to flow, and her great spirit

rose to its full stature again. With flashing eye and grateful heart,

and with hand uplifted in pledge and prophecy, she said:



"Now and here I proclaim--"



But she was interrupted by a visitor. It was the editor and proprietor

of the _Sagamore_. He had happened into Lakeside to pay a duty-call upon

an obscure grandmother of his who was nearing the end of her pilgrimage,

and with the idea of combining business with grief he had looked up

the Fosters, who had been so absorbed in other things for the past four

years that they neglected to pay up their subscription. Six dollars due.

No visitor could have been more welcome. He would know all about Uncle

Tilbury and what his chances might be getting to be, cemeterywards. They

could, of course, ask no questions, for that would squelch the bequest,

but they could nibble around on the edge of the subject and hope for

results. The scheme did not work. The obtuse editor did not know he was

being nibbled at; but at last, chance accomplished what art had failed

in. In illustration of something under discussion which required the

help of metaphor, the editor said:



"Land, it's as tough as Tilbury Foster!--as _we_ say."



It was sudden, and it made the Fosters jump. The editor noticed, and

said, apologetically:



"No harm intended, I assure you. It's just a saying; just a joke, you

know--nothing in it. Relation of yours?"



Sally crowded his burning eagerness down, and answered with all the

indifference he could assume:



"I--well, not that I know of, but we've heard of him." The editor was

thankful, and resumed his composure. Sally added: "Is he--is he--well?"



"Is he _well_? Why, bless you he's in Sheol these five years!"



The Fosters were trembling with grief, though it felt like joy. Sally

said, non-committally--and tentatively:



"Ah, well, such is life, and none can escape--not even the rich are

spared."



The editor laughed.



"If you are including Tilbury," said he, "it don't apply. _He_ hadn't a

cent; the town had to bury him."



The Fosters sat petrified for two minutes; petrified and cold. Then,

white-faced and weak-voiced, Sally asked:



"Is it true? Do you _know _it to be true?"



"Well, I should say! I was one of the executors. He hadn't anything to

leave but a wheelbarrow, and he left that to me. It hadn't any wheel,

and wasn't any good. Still, it was something, and so, to square up, I

scribbled off a sort of a little obituarial send-off for him, but it got

crowded out."



The Fosters were not listening--their cup was full, it could contain

no more. They sat with bowed heads, dead to all things but the ache at

their hearts.



An hour later. Still they sat there, bowed, motionless, silent, the

visitor long ago gone, they unaware.



Then they stirred, and lifted their heads wearily, and gazed at each

other wistfully, dreamily, dazed; then presently began to twaddle to

each other in a wandering and childish way. At intervals they lapsed

into silences, leaving a sentence unfinished, seemingly either unaware

of it or losing their way. Sometimes, when they woke out of these

silences they had a dim and transient consciousness that something had

happened to their minds; then with a dumb and yearning solicitude they

would softly caress each other's hands in mutual compassion and support,

as if they would say: "I am near you, I will not forsake you, we

will bear it together; somewhere there is release and forgetfulness,

somewhere there is a grave and peace; be patient, it will not be long."



They lived yet two years, in mental night, always brooding, steeped in

vague regrets and melancholy dreams, never speaking; then release came

to both on the same day.



Toward the end the darkness lifted from Sally's ruined mind for a

moment, and he said:



"Vast wealth, acquired by sudden and unwholesome means, is a snare. It

did us no good, transient were its feverish pleasures; yet for its

sake we threw away our sweet and simple and happy life--let others take

warning by us."



He lay silent awhile, with closed eyes; then as the chill of death crept

upward toward his heart, and consciousness was fading from his brain, he

muttered:



"Money had brought him misery, and he took his revenge upon us, who had

done him no harm. He had his desire: with base and cunning calculation

he left us but thirty thousand, knowing we would try to increase it, and

ruin our life and break our hearts. Without added expense he could

have left us far above desire of increase, far above the temptation

to speculate, and a kinder soul would have done it; but in him was no

generous spirit, no pity, no--"

THE CALIFORNIAN'S TALE

		

		

		

Thirty-five years ago I was out prospecting on the Stanislaus, tramping

all day long with pick and pan and horn, and washing a hatful of dirt

here and there, always expecting to make a rich strike, and never doing

it. It was a lovely region, woodsy, balmy, delicious, and had once been

populous, long years before, but now the people had vanished and the

charming paradise was a solitude. They went away when the surface

diggings gave out. In one place, where a busy little city with banks

and newspapers and fire companies and a mayor and aldermen had been, was

nothing but a wide expanse of emerald turf, with not even the faintest

sign that human life had ever been present there. This was down toward

Tuttletown. In the country neighborhood thereabouts, along the dusty

roads, one found at intervals the prettiest little cottage homes, snug

and cozy, and so cobwebbed with vines snowed thick with roses that the

doors and windows were wholly hidden from sight--sign that these were

deserted homes, forsaken years ago by defeated and disappointed families

who could neither sell them nor give them away. Now and then, half an

hour apart, one came across solitary log cabins of the earliest

mining days, built by the first gold-miners, the predecessors of the

cottage-builders. In some few cases these cabins were still occupied;

and when this was so, you could depend upon it that the occupant was the

very pioneer who had built the cabin; and you could depend on another

thing, too--that he was there because he had once had his opportunity

to go home to the States rich, and had not done it; had rather lost

his wealth, and had then in his humiliation resolved to sever all

communication with his home relatives and friends, and be to them

thenceforth as one dead. Round about California in that day were

scattered a host of these living dead men--pride-smitten poor fellows,

grizzled and old at forty, whose secret thoughts were made all of

regrets and longings--regrets for their wasted lives, and longings to be

out of the struggle and done with it all.



It was a lonesome land! Not a sound in all those peaceful expanses of

grass and woods but the drowsy hum of insects; no glimpse of man or

beast; nothing to keep up your spirits and make you glad to be alive.

And so, at last, in the early part of the afternoon, when I caught sight

of a human creature, I felt a most grateful uplift. This person was a

man about forty-five years old, and he was standing at the gate of one

of those cozy little rose-clad cottages of the sort already referred to.

However, this one hadn't a deserted look; it had the look of being lived

in and petted and cared for and looked after; and so had its front yard,

which was a garden of flowers, abundant, gay, and flourishing. I was

invited in, of course, and required to make myself at home--it was the

custom of the country.



It was delightful to be in such a place, after long weeks of daily and

nightly familiarity with miners' cabins--with all which this implies of

dirt floor, never-made beds, tin plates and cups, bacon and beans and

black coffee, and nothing of ornament but war pictures from the

Eastern illustrated papers tacked to the log walls. That was all hard,

cheerless, materialistic desolation, but here was a nest which had

aspects to rest the tired eye and refresh that something in one's nature

which, after long fasting, recognizes, when confronted by the

belongings of art, howsoever cheap and modest they may be, that it has

unconsciously been famishing and now has found nourishment. I could not

have believed that a rag carpet could feast me so, and so content me;

or that there could be such solace to the soul in wall-paper and framed

lithographs, and bright-colored tidies and lamp-mats, and Windsor

chairs, and varnished what-nots, with sea-shells and books and china

vases on them, and the score of little unclassifiable tricks and touches

that a woman's hand distributes about a home, which one sees without

knowing he sees them, yet would miss in a moment if they were taken

away. The delight that was in my heart showed in my face, and the man

saw it and was pleased; saw it so plainly that he answered it as if it

had been spoken.



"All her work," he said, caressingly; "she did it all herself--every

bit," and he took the room in with a glance which was full of

affectionate worship. One of those soft Japanese fabrics with which

women drape with careful negligence the upper part of a picture-frame

was out of adjustment. He noticed it, and rearranged it with cautious

pains, stepping back several times to gauge the effect before he got it

to suit him. Then he gave it a light finishing pat or two with his hand,

and said: "She always does that. You can't tell just what it lacks, but

it does lack something until you've done that--you can see it yourself

after it's done, but that is all you know; you can't find out the law of

it. It's like the finishing pats a mother gives the child's hair after

she's got it combed and brushed, I reckon. I've seen her fix all these

things so much that I can do them all just her way, though I don't know

the law of any of them. But she knows the law. She knows the why and the

how both; but I don't know the why; I only know the how."



He took me into a bedroom so that I might wash my hands; such a bedroom

as I had not seen for years: white counterpane, white pillows, carpeted

floor, papered walls, pictures, dressing-table, with mirror and

pin-cushion and dainty toilet things; and in the corner a wash-stand,

with real china-ware bowl and pitcher, and with soap in a china dish,

and on a rack more than a dozen towels--towels too clean and white for

one out of practice to use without some vague sense of profanation. So

my face spoke again, and he answered with gratified words:



"All her work; she did it all herself--every bit. Nothing here that

hasn't felt the touch of her hand. Now you would think--But I mustn't

talk so much."



By this time I was wiping my hands and glancing from detail to detail

of the room's belongings, as one is apt to do when he is in a new place,

where everything he sees is a comfort to his eye and his spirit; and

I became conscious, in one of those unaccountable ways, you know, that

there was something there somewhere that the man wanted me to discover

for myself. I knew it perfectly, and I knew he was trying to help me by

furtive indications with his eye, so I tried hard to get on the right

track, being eager to gratify him. I failed several times, as I could

see out of the corner of my eye without being told; but at last I knew I

must be looking straight at the thing--knew it from the pleasure issuing

in invisible waves from him. He broke into a happy laugh, and rubbed his

hands together, and cried out:



"That's it! You've found it. I knew you would. It's her picture."



I went to the little black-walnut bracket on the farther wall, and

did find there what I had not yet noticed--a daguerreotype-case. It

contained the sweetest girlish face, and the most beautiful, as it

seemed to me, that I had ever seen. The man drank the admiration from my

face, and was fully satisfied.



"Nineteen her last birthday," he said, as he put the picture back; "and

that was the day we were married. When you see her--ah, just wait till

you see her!"



"Where is she? When will she be in?"



"Oh, she's away now. She's gone to see her people. They live forty or

fifty miles from here. She's been gone two weeks today."



"When do you expect her back?"



"This is Wednesday. She'll be back Saturday, in the evening--about nine

o'clock, likely."



I felt a sharp sense of disappointment.



"I'm sorry, because I'll be gone then," I said, regretfully.



"Gone? No--why should you go? Don't go. She'll be disappointed."



She would be disappointed--that beautiful creature! If she had said the

words herself they could hardly have blessed me more. I was feeling

a deep, strong longing to see her--a longing so supplicating, so

insistent, that it made me afraid. I said to myself: "I will go straight

away from this place, for my peace of mind's sake."



"You see, she likes to have people come and stop with us--people who

know things, and can talk--people like you. She delights in it; for she

knows--oh, she knows nearly everything herself, and can talk, oh, like

a bird--and the books she reads, why, you would be astonished. Don't go;

it's only a little while, you know, and she'll be so disappointed."



I heard the words, but hardly noticed them, I was so deep in my

thinkings and strugglings. He left me, but I didn't know. Presently he

was back, with the picture case in his hand, and he held it open before

me and said:



"There, now, tell her to her face you could have stayed to see her, and

you wouldn't."



That second glimpse broke down my good resolution. I would stay and take

the risk. That night we smoked the tranquil pipe, and talked till late

about various things, but mainly about her; and certainly I had had no

such pleasant and restful time for many a day. The Thursday followed and

slipped comfortably away. Toward twilight a big miner from three miles

away came--one of the grizzled, stranded pioneers--and gave us warm

salutation, clothed in grave and sober speech. Then he said:



"I only just dropped over to ask about the little madam, and when is she

coming home. Any news from her?"



"Oh, yes, a letter. Would you like to hear it, Tom?"



"Well, I should think I would, if you don't mind, Henry!"



Henry got the letter out of his wallet, and said he would skip some of

the private phrases, if we were willing; then he went on and read the

bulk of it--a loving, sedate, and altogether charming and gracious

piece of handiwork, with a postscript full of affectionate regards

and messages to Tom, and Joe, and Charley, and other close friends and

neighbors.



As the reader finished, he glanced at Tom, and cried out:



"Oho, you're at it again! Take your hands away, and let me see your

eyes. You always do that when I read a letter from her. I will write and

tell her."



"Oh no, you mustn't, Henry. I'm getting old, you know, and any little

disappointment makes me want to cry. I thought she'd be here herself,

and now you've got only a letter."



"Well, now, what put that in your head? I thought everybody knew she

wasn't coming till Saturday."



"Saturday! Why, come to think, I did know it. I wonder what's the matter

with me lately? Certainly I knew it. Ain't we all getting ready for her?

Well, I must be going now. But I'll be on hand when she comes, old man!"



Late Friday afternoon another gray veteran tramped over from his cabin a

mile or so away, and said the boys wanted to have a little gaiety and

a good time Saturday night, if Henry thought she wouldn't be too tired

after her journey to be kept up.



"Tired? She tired! Oh, hear the man! Joe, _you _know she'd sit up six

weeks to please any one of you!"



When Joe heard that there was a letter, he asked to have it read, and

the loving messages in it for him broke the old fellow all up; but he

said he was such an old wreck that _that _would happen to him if she

only just mentioned his name. "Lord, we miss her so!" he said.



Saturday afternoon I found I was taking out my watch pretty often. Henry

noticed it, and said, with a startled look:



"You don't think she ought to be here soon, do you?"



I felt caught, and a little embarrassed; but I laughed, and said it was

a habit of mine when I was in a state of expenctancy. But he didn't seem

quite satisfied; and from that time on he began to show uneasiness. Four

times he walked me up the road to a point whence we could see a long

distance; and there he would stand, shading his eyes with his hand, and

looking. Several times he said:



"I'm getting worried, I'm getting right down worried. I know she's not

due till about nine o'clock, and yet something seems to be trying

to warn me that something's happened. You don't think anything has

happened, do you?"



I began to get pretty thoroughly ashamed of him for his childishness;

and at last, when he repeated that imploring question still another

time, I lost my patience for the moment, and spoke pretty brutally to

him. It seemed to shrivel him up and cow him; and he looked so wounded

and so humble after that, that I detested myself for having done the

cruel and unnecessary thing. And so I was glad when Charley, another

veteran, arrived toward the edge of the evening, and nestled up to

Henry to hear the letter read, and talked over the preparations for the

welcome. Charley fetched out one hearty speech after another, and did

his best to drive away his friend's bodings and apprehensions.



"Anything _happened _to her? Henry, that's pure nonsense. There isn't

anything going to happen to her; just make your mind easy as to that.

What did the letter say? Said she was well, didn't it? And said she'd

be here by nine o'clock, didn't it? Did you ever know her to fail of her

word? Why, you know you never did. Well, then, don't you fret; she'll_

be_ here, and that's absolutely certain, and as sure as you are born.

Come, now, let's get to decorating--not much time left."



Pretty soon Tom and Joe arrived, and then all hands set about adorning

the house with flowers. Toward nine the three miners said that as they

had brought their instruments they might as well tune up, for the

boys and girls would soon be arriving now, and hungry for a good,

old-fashioned break-down. A fiddle, a banjo, and a clarinet--these were

the instruments. The trio took their places side by side, and began to

play some rattling dance-music, and beat time with their big boots.



It was getting very close to nine. Henry was standing in the door with

his eyes directed up the road, his body swaying to the torture of his

mental distress. He had been made to drink his wife's health and safety

several times, and now Tom shouted:



"All hands stand by! One more drink, and she's here!"



Joe brought the glasses on a waiter, and served the party. I reached for

one of the two remaining glasses, but Joe growled under his breath:



"Drop that! Take the other."



Which I did. Henry was served last. He had hardly swallowed his drink

when the clock began to strike. He listened till it finished, his face

growing pale and paler; then he said:



"Boys, I'm sick with fear. Help me--I want to lie down!"



They helped him to the sofa. He began to nestle and drowse, but

presently spoke like one talking in his sleep, and said: "Did I hear

horses' feet? Have they come?"



One of the veterans answered, close to his ear: "It was Jimmy Parish

come to say the party got delayed, but they're right up the road a

piece, and coming along. Her horse is lame, but she'll be here in half

an hour."



"Oh, I'm_ so_ thankful nothing has happened!"



He was asleep almost before the words were out of his mouth. In a moment

those handy men had his clothes off, and had tucked him into his bed in

the chamber where I had washed my hands. They closed the door and came

back. Then they seemed preparing to leave; but I said: "Please don't go,

gentlemen. She won't know me; I am a stranger."



They glanced at each other. Then Joe said:



"She? Poor thing, she's been dead nineteen years!"



"Dead?"



"That or worse. She went to see her folks half a year after she was

married, and on her way back, on a Saturday evening, the Indians

captured her within five miles of this place, and she's never been heard

of since."



"And he lost his mind in consequence?"



"Never has been sane an hour since. But he only gets bad when that time

of year comes round. Then we begin to drop in here, three days before

she's due, to encourage him up, and ask if he's heard from her,

and Saturday we all come and fix up the house with flowers, and get

everything ready for a dance. We've done it every year for nineteen

years. The first Saturday there was twenty-seven of us, without counting

the girls; there's only three of us now, and the girls are gone. We

drug him to sleep, or he would go wild; then he's all right for another

year--thinks she's with him till the last three or four days come round;

then he begins to look for her, and gets out his poor old letter, and we

come and ask him to read it to us. Lord, she was a darling!"





		

		

		

		  

THE CURIOUS BOOK

		

		

		

COMPLETE



(The foregoing review of the great work of G. Ragsdale McClintock is

liberally illuminated with sample extracts, but these cannot appease the

appetite. Only the complete book, unabridged, can do that. Therefore it

is here printed.--M.T.)



THE ENEMY CONQUERED; OR, LOVE TRIUMPHANT





Sweet girl, thy smiles are full of charms,



Thy voice is sweeter still,



It fills the breast with fond alarms,



Echoed by every rill.



I begin this little work with an eulogy upon woman, who has ever been

distinguished for her perseverance, her constancy, and her devoted

attention to those upon whom she has been pleased to place her

_affections_. Many have been the themes upon which writers and public

speakers have dwelt with intense and increasing interest. Among these

delightful themes stands that of woman, the balm to all our sighs and

disappointments, and the most pre-eminent of all other topics. Here the

poet and orator have stood and gazed with wonder and with admiration;

they have dwelt upon her innocence, the ornament of all her virtues.

First viewing her external charms, such as set forth in her form and

benevolent countenance, and then passing to the deep hidden springs of

loveliness and disinterested devotion. In every clime, and in every age,

she has been the pride of her _nation_. Her watchfulness is untiring;

she who guarded the sepulcher was the first to approach it, and the last

to depart from its awful yet sublime scene. Even here, in this highly

favored land, we look to her for the security of our institutions, and

for our future greatness as a nation. But, strange as it may appear,

woman's charms and virtues are but slightly appreciated by thousands.

Those who should raise the standard of female worth, and paint her value

with her virtues, in living colors, upon the banners that are fanned by

the zephyrs of heaven, and hand them down to posterity as emblematical

of a rich inheritance, do not properly estimate them.



Man is not sensible, at all times, of the nature and the emotions which

bear that name; he does not understand, he will not comprehend; his

intelligence has not expanded to that degree of glory which drinks in

the vast revolution of humanity, its end, its mighty destination, and

the causes which operated, and are still operating, to produce a

more elevated station, and the objects which energize and enliven its

consummation. This he is a stranger to; he is not aware that woman is

the recipient of celestial love, and that man is dependent upon her

to perfect his character; that without her, philosophically and truly

speaking, the brightest of his intelligence is but the coldness of a

winter moon, whose beams can produce no fruit, whose solar light is not

its own, but borrowed from the great dispenser of effulgent beauty. We

have no disposition in the world to flatter the fair sex, we would raise

them above those dastardly principles which only exist in little souls,

contracted hearts, and a distracted brain. Often does she unfold herself

in all her fascinating loveliness, presenting the most captivating

charms; yet we find man frequently treats such purity of purpose with

indifference. Why does he do it? Why does he baffle that which is

inevitably the source of his better days? Is he so much of a stranger

to those excellent qualities as not to appreciate woman, as not to have

respect to her dignity? Since her art and beauty first captivated man,

she has been his delight and his comfort; she has shared alike in his

misfortunes and in his prosperity.



Whenever the billows of adversity and the tumultuous waves of trouble

beat high, her smiles subdue their fury. Should the tear of sorrow and

the mournful sigh of grief interrupt the peace of his mind, her voice

removes them all, and she bends from her circle to encourage him onward.

When darkness would obscure his mind, and a thick cloud of gloom would

bewilder its operations, her intelligent eye darts a ray of streaming

light into his heart. Mighty and charming is that disinterested devotion

which she is ever ready to exercise toward man, not waiting till

the last moment of his danger, but seeks to relieve him in his early

afflictions. It gushes forth from the expansive fullness of a tender and

devoted heart, where the noblest, the purest, and the most elevated and

refined feelings are matured and developed in those many kind offices

which invariably make her character.



In the room of sorrow and sickness, this unequaled characteristic

may always been seen, in the performance of the most charitable acts;

nothing that she can do to promote the happiness of him who she claims

to be her protector will be omitted; all is invigorated by the animating

sunbeams which awaken the heart to songs of gaiety. Leaving this point,

to notice another prominent consideration, which is generally one of

great moment and of vital importance. Invariably she is firm and steady

in all her pursuits and aims. There is required a combination of forces

and extreme opposition to drive her from her position; she takes her

stand, not to be moved by the sound of Apollo's lyre or the curved bow

of pleasure.



Firm and true to what she undertakes, and that which she requires by

her own aggrandizement, and regards as being within the strict rules of

propriety, she will remain stable and unflinching to the last. A more

genuine principle is not to be found in the most determined, resolute

heart of man. For this she deserves to be held in the highest

commendation, for this she deserves the purest of all other blessings,

and for this she deserves the most laudable reward of all others. It is

a noble characteristic and is worthy of imitation of any age. And when

we look at it in one particular aspect, it is still magnified, and grows

brighter and brighter the more we reflect upon its eternal duration.

What will she not do, when her word as well as her affections and _love

_are pledged to her lover? Everything that is dear to her on earth,

all the hospitalities of kind and loving parents, all the sincerity and

loveliness of sisters, and the benevolent devotion of brothers, who have

surrounded her with every comfort; she will forsake them all, quit the

harmony and sweet sound of the lute and the harp, and throw herself upon

the affections of some devoted admirer, in whom she fondly hopes to

find more than she has left behind, which is not often realized by many.

Truth and virtue all combined! How deserving our admiration and love! Ah

cruel would it be in man, after she has thus manifested such an unshaken

confidence in him, and said by her determination to abandon all the

endearments and blandishments of home, to act a villainous part, and

prove a traitor in the revolution of his mission, and then turn Hector

over the innocent victim whom he swore to protect, in the presence of

Heaven, recorded by the pen of an angel.



Striking as this trait may unfold itself in her character, and as

pre-eminent as it may stand among the fair display of her other

qualities, yet there is another, which struggles into existence, and

adds an additional luster to what she already possesses. I mean that

disposition in woman which enables her, in sorrow, in grief, and in

distress, to bear all with enduring patience. This she has done, and

can and will do, amid the din of war and clash of arms. Scenes and

occurrences which, to every appearance, are calculated to rend the heart

with the profoundest emotions of trouble, do not fetter that exalted

principle imbued in her very nature. It is true, her tender and feeling

heart may often be moved (as she is thus constituted), but she is not

conquered, she has not given up to the harlequin of disappointments, her

energies have not become clouded in the last movement of misfortune, but

she is continually invigorated by the archetype of her affections. She

may bury her face in her hands, and let the tear of anguish roll, she

may promenade the delightful walks of some garden, decorated with all

the flowers of nature, or she may steal out along some gently rippling

stream, and there, as the silver waters uninterruptedly move forward,

shed her silent tears; they mingle with the waves, and take a last

farewell of their agitated home, to seek a peaceful dwelling among

the rolling floods; yet there is a voice rushing from her breast,

that proclaims _victory _along the whole line and battlement of her

affections. That voice is the voice of patience and resignation; that

voice is one that bears everything calmly and dispassionately, amid the

most distressing scenes; when the fates are arrayed against her peace,

and apparently plotting for her destruction, still she is resigned.



Woman's affections are deep, consequently her troubles may be made to

sink deep. Although you may not be able to mark the traces of her grief

and the furrowings of her anguish upon her winning countenance, yet be

assured they are nevertheless preying upon her inward person, sapping

the very foundation of that heart which alone was made for the weal and

not the woe of man. The deep recesses of the soul are fields for their

operation. But they are not destined simply to take the regions of

the heart for their dominion, they are not satisfied merely with

interrupting her better feelings; but after a while you may see the

blooming cheek beginning to droop and fade, her intelligent eye no

longer sparkles with the starry light of heaven, her vibrating pulse

long since changed its regular motion, and her palpitating bosom beats

once more for the midday of her glory. Anxiety and care ultimately throw

her into the arms of the haggard and grim monster death. But, oh, how

patient, under every pining influence! Let us view the matter in bolder

colors; see her when the dearest object of her affections recklessly

seeks every bacchanalian pleasure, contents himself with the last

rubbish of creation. With what solicitude she awaits his return! Sleep

fails to perform its office--she weeps while the nocturnal shades of the

night triumph in the stillness. Bending over some favorite book, whilst

the author throws before her mind the most beautiful imagery, she

startles at every sound. The midnight silence is broken by the solemn

announcement of the return of another morning. He is still absent; she

listens for that voice which has so often been greeted by the melodies

of her own; but, alas! stern silence is all that she receives for her

vigilance.



Mark her unwearied watchfulness, as the night passes away. At last,

brutalized by the accursed thing, he staggers along with rage, and,

shivering with cold, he makes his appearance. Not a murmur is heard from

her lips. On the contrary, she meets him with a smile--she caresses him

with tender arms, with all the gentleness and softness of her sex. Here,

then, is seen her disposition, beautifully arrayed. Woman, thou art more

to be admired than the spicy gales of Arabia, and more sought for than

the gold of Golconda. We believe that Woman should associate freely with

man, and we believe that it is for the preservation of her rights. She

should become acquainted with the metaphysical designs of those who

condescended to sing the siren song of flattery. This, we think, should

be according to the unwritten law of decorum, which is stamped upon

every innocent heart. The precepts of prudery are often steeped in the

guilt of contamination, which blasts the expectations of better moments.

Truth, and beautiful dreams--loveliness, and delicacy of character, with

cherished affections of the ideal woman--gentle hopes and aspirations,

are enough to uphold her in the storms of darkness, without the

transferred colorings of a stained sufferer. How often have we seen it

in our public prints, that woman occupies a false station in the world!

and some have gone so far as to say it was an unnatural one. So long has

she been regarded a weak creature, by the rabble and illiterate--they

have looked upon her as an insufficient actress on the great stage of

human life--a mere puppet, to fill up the drama of human existence--a

thoughtless, inactive being--that she has too often come to the same

conclusion herself, and has sometimes forgotten her high destination, in

the meridian of her glory. We have but little sympathy or patience for

those who treat her as a mere Rosy Melindi--who are always fishing for

pretty complements--who are satisfied by the gossamer of Romance,

and who can be allured by the verbosity of high-flown words, rich in

language, but poor and barren in sentiment. Beset, as she has been, by

the intellectual vulgar, the selfish, the designing, the cunning, the

hidden, and the artful--no wonder she has sometimes folded her wings

in despair, and forgotten her _heavenly _mission in the delirium of

imagination; no wonder she searches out some wild desert, to find a

peaceful home. But this cannot always continue. A new era is moving

gently onward, old things are rapidly passing away; old superstitions,

old prejudices, and old notions are now bidding farewell to their old

associates and companions, and giving way to one whose wings are plumed

with the light of heaven and tinged by the dews of the morning. There

is a remnant of blessedness that clings to her in spite of all evil

influence, there is enough of the Divine Master left to accomplish the

noblest work ever achieved under the canopy of the vaulted skies; and

that time is fast approaching, when the picture of the true woman will

shine from its frame of glory, to captivate, to win back, to restore,

and to call into being once more, _the object of her mission_.





Star of the brave! thy glory shed, O'er all the earth, thy army led--

Bold meteor of immortal birth! Why come from Heaven to dwell on Earth?



Mighty and glorious are the days of youth; happy the moments of the

_lover_, mingled with smiles and tears of his devoted, and long to be

remembered are the achievements which he gains with a palpitating heart

and a trembling hand. A bright and lovely dawn, the harbinger of a fair

and prosperous day, had arisen over the beautiful little village

of Cumming, which is surrounded by the most romantic scenery in the

Cherokee country. Brightening clouds seemed to rise from the mist of

the fair Chattahoochee, to spread their beauty over the thick forest, to

guide the hero whose bosom beats with aspirations to conquer the enemy

that would tarnish his name, and to win back the admiration of his

long-tried friend. He endeavored to make his way through Sawney's

Mountain, where many meet to catch the gales that are continually

blowing for the refreshment of the stranger and the traveler. Surrounded

as he was by hills on every side, naked rocks dared the efforts of his

energies. Soon the sky became overcast, the sun buried itself in the

clouds, and the fair day gave place to gloomy twilight, which lay

heavily on the Indian Plains. He remembered an old Indian Castle, that

once stood at the foot of the mountain. He thought if he could make his

way to this, he would rest contented for a short time. The mountain

air breathed fragrance--a rosy tinge rested on the glassy waters that

murmured at its base. His resolution soon brought him to the remains of

the red man's hut: he surveyed with wonder and astonishment the decayed

building, which time had buried in the dust, and thought to himself,

his happiness was not yet complete. Beside the shore of the brook sat

a young man, about eighteen or twenty, who seemed to be reading some

favorite book, and who had a remarkably noble countenance--eyes which

betrayed more than a common mind. This of course made the youth a

welcome guest, and gained him friends in whatever condition of life he

might be placed. The traveler observed that he was a well-built figure,

which showed strength and grace in every movement. He accordingly

addressed him in quite a gentlemanly manner, and inquired of him the way

to the village. After he had received the desired information, and was

about taking his leave, the youth said, "Are you not Major Elfonzo, the

great musician--the champion of a noble cause--the modern Achilles, who

gained so many victories in the Florida War?" "I bear that name,"

 said the Major, "and those titles, trusting at the same time that the

ministers of grace will carry me triumphantly through all my laudable

undertakings, and if," continued the Major, "you, sir, are the

patronizer of noble deeds, I should like to make you my confidant and

learn your address." The youth looked somewhat amazed, bowed low, mused

for a moment, and began: "My name is Roswell. I have been recently

admitted to the bar, and can only give a faint outline of my future

success in that honorable profession; but I trust, sir, like the Eagle,

I shall look down from lofty rocks upon the dwellings of man, and shall

ever be ready to give you any assistance in my official capacity, and

whatever this muscular arm of mine can do, whenever it shall be called

from its buried _greatness_." The Major grasped him by the hand, and

exclaimed: "O! thou exalted spirit of inspiration--thou flame of burning

prosperity, may the Heaven-directed blaze be the glare of thy soul, and

battle down every rampart that seems to impede your progress!"



The road which led to the town presented many attractions. Elfonzo had

bid farewell to the youth of deep feeling, and was now wending his way

to the dreaming spot of his fondness. The south winds whistled through

the woods, as the waters dashed against the banks, as rapid fire in the

pent furnace roars. This brought him to remember while alone, that he

quietly left behind the hospitality of a father's house, and gladly

entered the world, with higher hopes than are often realized. But as he

journeyed onward, he was mindful of the advice of his father, who had

often looked sadly on the ground when tears of cruelly deceived hope

moistened his eye. Elfonzo had been somewhat of a dutiful son; yet fond

of the amusements of life--had been in distant lands--had enjoyed the

pleasure of the world and had frequently returned to the scenes of

his boyhood, almost destitute of many of the comforts of life. In this

condition, he would frequently say to his father, "Have I offended you,

that you look upon me as a stranger, and frown upon me with stinging

looks? Will you not favor me with the sound of your voice? If I have

trampled upon your veneration, or have spread a humid veil of darkness

around your expectations, send me back into the world where no heart

beats for me--where the foot of man has never yet trod; but give me at

least one kind word--allow me to come into the presence sometimes of

thy winter-worn locks." "Forbid it, Heaven, that I should be angry with

thee," answered the father, "my son, and yet I send thee back to the

children of the world--to the cold charity of the combat, and to a

land of victory. I read another destiny in thy countenance--I learn

thy inclinations from the flame that has already kindled in my soul a

strange sensation. It will seek thee, my dear _Elfonzo_, it will find

thee--thou canst not escape that lighted torch, which shall blot out

from the remembrance of men a long train of prophecies which they have

foretold against thee. I once thought not so. Once, I was blind; but now

the path of life is plain before me, and my sight is clear; yet Elfonzo,

return to thy worldly occupation--take again in thy hand that chord

of sweet sounds--struggle with the civilized world, and with your own

heart; fly swiftly to the enchanted ground--let the night-_owl_ send forth

its screams from the stubborn oak--let the sea sport upon the beach, and

the stars sing together; but learn of these, Elfonzo, thy doom, and

thy hiding-place. Our most innocent as well as our most lawful _desires

_must often be denied us, that we may learn to sacrifice them to a

Higher will."



Remembering such admonitions with gratitude, Elfonzo was immediately

urged by the recollection of his father's family to keep moving. His

steps became quicker and quicker--he hastened through the _piny _woods,

dark as the forest was, and with joy he very soon reached the little

village of repose, in whose bosom rested the boldest chivalry. His close

attention to every important object--his modest questions about whatever

was new to him--his reverence for wise old age, and his ardent desire to

learn many of the fine arts, soon brought him into respectable notice.



One mild winter day as he walked along the streets toward the Academy,

which stood upon a small eminence, surrounded by native growth--some

venerable in its appearance, others young and prosperous--all seemed

inviting, and seemed to be the very place for learning as well as for

genius to spend its research beneath its spreading shades. He entered

its classic walls in the usual mode of southern manners. The principal

of the Institution begged him to be seated and listen to the recitations

that were going on. He accordingly obeyed the request, and seemed to

be much pleased. After the school was dismissed, and the young hearts

regained their freedom, with the songs of the evening, laughing at the

anticipated pleasures of a happy home, while others tittered at the

actions of the past day, he addressed the teacher in a tone that

indicated a resolution--with an undaunted mind. He said he had

determined to become a student, if he could meet with his approbation.

"Sir," said he, "I have spent much time in the world. I have traveled

among the uncivilized inhabitants of America. I have met with friends,

and combated with foes; but none of these gratify my ambition, or decide

what is to be my destiny. I see the learned would have an influence

with the voice of the people themselves. The despoilers of the remotest

kingdoms of the earth refer their differences to this class of persons.

This the illiterate and inexperienced little dream of; and now if you

will receive me as I am, with these deficiencies--with all my misguided

opinions, I will give you my honor, sir, that I will never disgrace the

Institution, or those who have placed you in this honorable station."

 The instructor, who had met with many disappointments, knew how to

feel for a stranger who had been thus turned upon the charities of an

unfeeling community. He looked at him earnestly, and said: "Be of

good cheer--look forward, sir, to the high destination you may attain.

Remember, the more elevated the mark at which you aim, the more sure,

the more glorious, the more magnificent the prize." From wonder to

wonder, his encouragement led the impatient listener. A strange nature

bloomed before him--giant streams promised him success--gardens of

hidden treasures opened to his view. All this, so vividly described,

seemed to gain a new witchery from his glowing fancy.



In 1842 he entered the class, and made rapid progress in the English

and Latin departments. Indeed, he continued advancing with such rapidity

that he was like to become the first in his class, and made such

unexpected progress, and was so studious, that he had almost forgotten

the pictured saint of his affections. The fresh wreaths of the pine and

cypress had waited anxiously to drop once more the dews of Heavens upon

the heads of those who had so often poured forth the tender emotions of

their souls under its boughs. He was aware of the pleasure that he had

seen there. So one evening, as he was returning from his reading, he

concluded he would pay a visit to this enchanting spot. Little did he

think of witnessing a shadow of his former happiness, though no doubt

he wished it might be so. He continued sauntering by the roadside,

meditating on the past. The nearer he approached the spot, the more

anxious he became. At the moment a tall female figure flitted across his

path, with a bunch of roses in her hand; her countenance showed uncommon

vivacity, with a resolute spirit; her ivory teeth already appeared as

she smiled beautifully, promenading--while her ringlets of hair dangled

unconsciously around her snowy neck. Nothing was wanting to complete

her beauty. The tinge of the rose was in full bloom upon her cheek; the

charms of sensibility and tenderness were always her associates.. In

Ambulinia's bosom dwelt a noble soul--one that never faded--one that

never was conquered. Her heart yielded to no feeling but the love of

Elfonzo, on whom she gazed with intense delight, and to whom she felt

herself more closely bound, because he sought the hand of no other.

Elfonzo was roused from his apparent reverie. His books no longer were

his inseparable companions--his thoughts arrayed themselves to encourage

him in the field of victory. He endeavored to speak to his supposed

Ambulinia, but his speech appeared not in words. No, his effort was a

stream of fire, that kindled his soul into a flame of admiration, and

carried his senses away captive. Ambulinia had disappeared, to make him

more mindful of his duty. As she walked speedily away through the

piny woods she calmly echoed: "O! Elfonzo, thou wilt now look from

thy sunbeams. Thou shalt now walk in a new path--perhaps thy way leads

through darkness; but fear not, the stars foretell happiness."



Not many days afterward, as surrounded by fragrant flowers she sat one

evening at twilight, to enjoy the cool breeze that whispered notes of

melody along the distant groves, the little birds perched on every

side, as if to watch the movements of their new visitor. The bells were

tolling when Elfonzo silently stole along by the wild wood flowers,

holding in his hand his favorite instrument of music--his eye

continually searching for Ambulinia, who hardly seemed to perceive him,

as she played carelessly with the songsters that hopped from branch to

branch. Nothing could be more striking than the difference between the

two. Nature seemed to have given the more tender soul to Elfonzo, and

the stronger and more courageous to Ambulinia. A deep feeling spoke from

the eyes of Elfonzo--such a feeling as can only be expressed by those

who are blessed as admirers, and by those who are able to return the

same with sincerity of heart. He was a few years older than Ambulinia:

she had turned a little into her seventeenth. He had almost grown up

in the Cherokee country, with the same equal proportions as one of the

natives. But little intimacy had existed between them until the year

forty-one--because the youth felt that the character of such a lovely

girl was too exalted to inspire any other feeling than that of quiet

reverence. But as lovers will not always be insulted, at all times and

under all circumstances, by the frowns and cold looks of crabbed old

age, which should continually reflect dignity upon those around, and

treat unfortunate as well as the fortunate with a graceful mien, he

continued to use diligence and perseverance. All this lighted a spark

in his heart that changed his whole character, and like the unyielding

Deity that follows the storm to check its rage in the forest, he

resolves for the first time to shake off his embarrassment and return

where he had before only worshiped.



It could not escape Ambulinia's penetrating eye that he sought an

interview with her, which she as anxiously avoided, and assumed a more

distant calmness than before, seemingly to destroy all hope. After many

efforts and struggles with his own person, with timid steps the Major

approached the damsel, with the same caution as he would have done in

a field of battle. "Lady Ambulinia," said he, trembling, "I have

long desired a moment like this. I dare not let it escape. I fear the

consequences; yet I hope your indulgence will at least hear my petition.

Can you not anticipate what I would say, and what I am about to express?

Will not you, like Minerva, who sprung from the brain of Jupiter,

release me from thy winding chains or cure me--" "Say no more, Elfonzo,"

 answered Ambulinia, with a serious look, raising her hand as if she

intended to swear eternal hatred against the whole world; "another

lady in my place would have perhaps answered your question in bitter

coldness. I know not the little arts of my sex. I care but little for

the vanity of those who would chide me, and am unwilling as well as

shamed to be guilty of anything that would lead you to think 'all is not

gold that glitters'; so be not rash in your resolution. It is better

to repent now than to do it in a more solemn hour. Yes, I know what you

would say. I know you have a costly gift for me--the noblest that man

can make--_your heart!_ you should not offer it to one so unworthy.

Heaven, you know, has allowed my father's house to be made a house of

solitude, a home of silent obedience, which my parents say is more to

be admired than big names and high-sounding titles. Notwithstanding all

this, let me speak the emotions of an honest heart; allow me to say in

the fullness of my hopes that I anticipate better days. The bird may

stretch its wings toward the sun, which it can never reach; and flowers

of the field appear to ascend in the same direction, because they cannot

do otherwise; but man confides his complaints to the saints in whom he

believes; for in their abodes of light they know no more sorrow. From

your confession and indicative looks, I must be that person; if so,

deceive not yourself."



Elfonzo replied, "Pardon me, my dear madam, for my frankness. I have

loved you from my earliest days; everything grand and beautiful hath

borne the image of Ambulinia; while precipices on every hand surrounded

me, your _guardian angel_ stood and beckoned me away from the deep

abyss. In every trial, in every misfortune, I have met with your helping

hand; yet I never dreamed or dared to cherish thy love till a voice

impaired with age encouraged the cause, and declared they who acquired

thy favor should win a victory. I saw how Leos worshipped thee. I felt

my own unworthiness. I began to _know jealousy_--a strong guest, indeed,

in my bosom--yet I could see if I gained your admiration Leos was to be

my rival. I was aware that he had the influence of your parents, and the

wealth of a deceased relative, which is too often mistaken for permanent

and regular tranquillity; yet I have determined by your permission

to beg an interest in your prayers--to ask you to animate my drooping

spirits by your smiles and your winning looks; for if you but speak I

shall be conqueror, my enemies shall stagger like Olympus shakes. And

though earth and sea may tremble, and the charioteer of the sun may

forget his dashing steed, yet I am assured that it is only to arm me

with divine weapons which will enable me to complete my long-tried

intention."



"Return to your self, Elfonzo," said Ambulinia, pleasantly; "a dream

of vision has disturbed your intellect; you are above the atmosphere,

dwelling in the celestial regions; nothing is there that urges or

hinders, nothing that brings discord into our present litigation. I

entreat you to condescend a little, and be a man, and forget it all.

When Homer describes the battle of the gods and noble men fighting with

giants and dragons, they represent under this image our struggles with

the delusions of our passions. You have exalted me, an unhappy girl, to

the skies; you have called me a saint, and portrayed in your imagination

an angel in human form. Let her remain such to you, let her continue to

be as you have supposed, and be assured that she will consider a share

in your esteem as her highest treasure. Think not that I would allure

you from the path in which your conscience leads you; for you know I

respect the conscience of others, as I would die for my own. Elfonzo, if

I am worthy of thy love, let such conversation never again pass between

us. Go, seek a nobler theme! we will seek it in the stream of time as

the sun set in the Tigris." As she spake these words she grasped the

hand of Elfonzo, saying at the same time, "Peace and prosperity

attend you, my hero: be up and doing!" Closing her remarks with this

expression, she walked slowly away, leaving Elfonzo astonished and

amazed. He ventured not to follow or detain her. Here he stood alone,

gazing at the stars; confounded as he was, here he stood. The rippling

stream rolled on at his feet. Twilight had already begun to draw her

sable mantle over the earth, and now and then the fiery smoke would

ascend from the little town which lay spread out before him. The

citizens seemed to be full of life and good-humor; but poor Elfonzo saw

not a brilliant scene. No; his future life stood before him, stripped of

the hopes that once adorned all his sanguine desires. "Alas!" said he,

"am I now Grief's disappointed son at last." Ambulinia's image rose

before his fancy. A mixture of ambition and greatness of soul moved upon

his young heart, and encouraged him to bear all his crosses with the

patience of a Job, notwithstanding he had to encounter with so many

obstacles. He still endeavored to prosecute his studies, and reasonably

progressed in his education. Still, he was not content; there was

something yet to be done before his happiness was complete. He would

visit his friends and acquaintances. They would invite him to social

parties, insisting that he should partake of the amusements that were

going on. This he enjoyed tolerably well. The ladies and gentlemen were

generally well pleased with the Major; as he delighted all with his

violin, which seemed to have a thousand chords--more symphonious than

the Muses of Apollo and more enchanting than the ghost of the Hills.

He passed some days in the country. During that time Leos had made many

calls upon Ambulinia, who was generally received with a great deal of

courtesy by the family. They thought him to be a young man worthy of

attention, though he had but little in his soul to attract the attention

or even win the affections of her whose graceful manners had almost made

him a slave to every bewitching look that fell from her eyes. Leos made

several attempts to tell her of his fair prospects--how much he loved

her, and how much it would add to his bliss if he could but think she

would be willing to share these blessings with him; but, choked by his

undertaking, he made himself more like an inactive drone than he did

like one who bowed at beauty's shrine.



Elfonzo again wends his way to the stately walls and new-built village.

He now determines to see the end of the prophesy which had been foretold

to him. The clouds burst from his sight; he believes if he can but see

his Ambulinia, he can open to her view the bloody altars that have

been misrepresented to stigmatize his name. He knows that her breast is

transfixed with the sword of reason, and ready at all times to detect

the hidden villainy of her enemies. He resolves to see her in her own

home, with the consoling theme: "'I can but perish if I go.' Let

the consequences be what they may," said he, "if I die, it shall be

contending and struggling for my own rights."



Night had almost overtaken him when he arrived in town. Colonel Elder, a

noble-hearted, high-minded, and independent man, met him at his door as

usual, and seized him by the hand. "Well, Elfonzo," said the Colonel,

"how does the world use you in your efforts?" "I have no objection to

the world," said Elfonzo, "but the people are rather singular in some of

their opinions." "Aye, well," said the Colonel, "you must remember that

creation is made up of many mysteries; just take things by the right

handle; be always sure you know which is the smooth side before you

attempt your polish; be reconciled to your fate, be it what it may;

and never find fault with your condition, unless your complaining will

benefit it. Perseverance is a principle that should be commendable

in those who have judgment to govern it. I should never have been so

successful in my hunting excursions had I waited till the deer, by some

magic dream, had been drawn to the muzzle of the gun before I made an

attempt to fire at the game that dared my boldness in the wild forest.

The great mystery in hunting seems to be--a good marksman, a resolute

mind, a fixed determination, and my word for it, you will never return

home without sounding your horn with the breath of a new victory. And

so with every other undertaking. Be confident that your ammunition is of

the right kind--always pull your trigger with a steady hand, and so soon

as you perceive a calm, touch her off, and the spoils are yours."



This filled him with redoubled vigor, and he set out with a stronger

anxiety than ever to the home of Ambulinia. A few short steps soon

brought him to the door, half out of breath. He rapped gently.

Ambulinia, who sat in the parlor alone, suspecting Elfonzo was near,

ventured to the door, opened it, and beheld the hero, who stood in an

humble attitude, bowed gracefully, and as they caught each other's looks

the light of peace beamed from the eyes of Ambulinia. Elfonzo caught the

expression; a halloo of smothered shouts ran through every vein, and for

the first time he dared to impress a kiss upon her cheek. The scene was

overwhelming; had the temptation been less animating, he would not have

ventured to have acted so contrary to the desired wish of his Ambulinia;

but who could have withstood the irrestistable temptation! What society

condemns the practice but a cold, heartless, uncivilized people that

know nothing of the warm attachments of refined society? Here the dead

was raised to his long-cherished hopes, and the lost was found. Here

all doubt and danger were buried in the vortex of oblivion; sectional

differences no longer disunited their opinions; like the freed bird from

the cage, sportive claps its rustling wings, wheels about to heaven in a

joyful strain, and raises its notes to the upper sky. Ambulinia insisted

upon Elfonzo to be seated, and give her a history of his unnecessary

absence; assuring him the family had retired, consequently they would

ever remain ignorant of his visit. Advancing toward him, she gave a

bright display of her rosy neck, and from her head the ambrosial locks

breathed divine fragrance; her robe hung waving to his view, while she

stood like a goddess confessed before him.



"It does seem to me, my dear sir," said Ambulinia, "that you have been

gone an age. Oh, the restless hours I have spent since I last saw you,

in yon beautiful grove. There is where I trifled with your feelings for

the express purpose of trying your attachment for me. I now find you are

devoted; but ah! I trust you live not unguarded by the powers of Heaven.

Though oft did I refuse to join my hand with thine, and as oft did

I cruelly mock thy entreaties with borrowed shapes: yes, I feared to

answer thee by terms, in words sincere and undissembled. O! could I

pursue, and you have leisure to hear the annals of my woes, the evening

star would shut Heaven's gates upon the impending day before my

tale would be finished, and this night would find me soliciting your

forgiveness."



"Dismiss thy fears and thy doubts," replied Elfonzo.



"Look, O! look: that angelic look of thine--bathe not thy visage in

tears; banish those floods that are gathering; let my confession and my

presence bring thee some relief." "Then, indeed, I will be cheerful,"

 said Ambulinia, "and I think if we will go to the exhibition this

evening, we certainly will see something worthy of our attention. One

of the most tragical scenes is to be acted that has ever been witnessed,

and one that every jealous-hearted person should learn a lesson from. It

cannot fail to have a good effect, as it will be performed by those who

are young and vigorous, and learned as well as enticing. You are aware,

Major Elfonzo, who are to appear on the stage, and what the characters

are to represent." "I am acquainted with the circumstances," replied

Elfonzo, "and as I am to be one of the musicians upon that interesting

occasion, I should be much gratified if you would favor me with your

company during the hours of the exercises."



"What strange notions are in your mind?" inquired Ambulinia. "Now I know

you have something in view, and I desire you to tell me why it is that

you are so anxious that I should continue with you while the exercises

are going on; though if you think I can add to your happiness and

predilections, I have no particular objection to acquiesce in your

request. Oh, I think I foresee, now, what you anticipate." "And will

you have the goodness to tell me what you think it will be?" inquired

Elfonzo. "By all means," answered Ambulinia; "a rival, sir, you would

fancy in your own mind; but let me say for you, fear not! fear not! I

will be one of the last persons to disgrace my sex by thus encouraging

every one who may feel disposed to visit me, who may honor me with their

graceful bows and their choicest compliments. It is true that young men

too often mistake civil politeness for the finer emotions of the heart,

which is tantamount to courtship; but, ah! how often are they deceived,

when they come to test the weight of sunbeams with those on whose

strength hangs the future happiness of an untried life."



The people were now rushing to the Academy with impatient anxiety; the

band of music was closely followed by the students; then the parents

and guardians; nothing interrupted the glow of spirits which ran through

every bosom, tinged with the songs of a Virgil and the tide of a Homer.

Elfonzo and Ambulinia soon repaired to the scene, and fortunately for

them both the house was so crowded that they took their seats together

in the music department, which was not in view of the auditory. This

fortuitous circumstances added more the bliss of the Major than a

thousand such exhibitions would have done. He forgot that he was man;

music had lost its charms for him; whenever he attempted to carry his

part, the string of the instrument would break, the bow became stubborn,

and refused to obey the loud calls of the audience. Here, he said, was

the paradise of his home, the long-sought-for opportunity; he felt as

though he could send a million supplications to the throne of Heaven for

such an exalted privilege. Poor Leos, who was somewhere in the crowd,

looking as attentively as if he was searching for a needle in a

haystack; here he stood, wondering to himself why Ambulinia was not

there. "Where can she be? Oh! if she was only here, how I could relish

the scene! Elfonzo is certainly not in town; but what if he is? I have

got the wealth, if I have not the dignity, and I am sure that the squire

and his lady have always been particular friends of mine, and I think

with this assurance I shall be able to get upon the blind side of the

rest of the family and make the heaven-born Ambulinia the mistress of

all I possess." Then, again, he would drop his head, as if attempting

to solve the most difficult problem in Euclid. While he was thus

conjecturing in his own mind, a very interesting part of the exhibition

was going on, which called the attention of all present. The curtains

of the stage waved continually by the repelled forces that were given

to them, which caused Leos to behold Ambulinia leaning upon the chair

of Elfonzo. Her lofty beauty, seen by the glimmering of the chandelier,

filled his heart with rapture, he knew not how to contain himself; to go

where they were would expose him to ridicule; to continue where he was,

with such an object before him, without being allowed an explanation in

that trying hour, would be to the great injury of his mental as well as

of his physical powers; and, in the name of high heaven, what must he

do? Finally, he resolved to contain himself as well as he conveniently

could, until the scene was over, and then he would plant himself at the

door, to arrest Ambulinia from the hands of the insolent Elfonzo, and

thus make for himself a more prosperous field of immortality than ever

was decreed by Omnipotence, or ever pencil drew or artist imagined.

Accordingly he made himself sentinel, immediately after the performance

of the evening--retained his position apparently in defiance of all the

world; he waited, he gazed at every lady, his whole frame trembled; here

he stood, until everything like human shape had disappeared from the

institution, and he had done nothing; he had failed to accomplish that

which he so eagerly sought for. Poor, unfortunate creature! he had

not the eyes of an Argus, or he might have seen his Juno and Elfonzo,

assisted by his friend Sigma, make their escape from the window, and,

with the rapidity of a race-horse, hurry through the blast of the storm

to the residence of her father, without being recognized. He did not

tarry long, but assured Ambulinia the endless chain of their existence

was more closely connected than ever, since he had seen the virtuous,

innocent, imploring, and the constant Amelia murdered by the

jealous-hearted Farcillo, the accursed of the land.



The following is the tragical scene, which is only introduced to show

the subject-matter that enabled Elfonzo to come to such a determinate

resolution that nothing of the kind should ever dispossess him of his

true character, should he be so fortunate as to succeed in his present

undertaking.



Amelia was the wife of Farcillo, and a virtuous woman; Gracia, a young

lady, was her particular friend and confidant. Farcillo grew jealous

of Amelia, murders her, finds out that he was deceived, _and stabs

himself_. Amelia appears alone, talking to herself.



A. Hail, ye solitary ruins of antiquity, ye sacred tombs and silent

walks! it is your aid I invoke; it is to you, my soul, wrapt in deep

mediation, pours forth its prayer. Here I wander upon the stage of

mortality, since the world hath turned against me. Those whom I believed

to be my friends, alas! are now my enemies, planting thorns in all my

paths, poisoning all my pleasures, and turning the past to pain. What a

lingering catalogue of sighs and tears lies just before me, crowding

my aching bosom with the fleeting dream of humanity, which must shortly

terminate. And to what purpose will all this bustle of life, these

agitations and emotions of the heart have conduced, if it leave behind

it nothing of utility, if it leave no traces of improvement? Can it be

that I am deceived in my conclusions? No, I see that I have nothing to

hope for, but everything to fear, which tends to drive me from the walks

of time.





Oh! in this dead night, if loud winds arise,



To lash the surge and bluster in the skies,



May the west its furious rage display,



Toss me with storms in the watery way.



(Enter Gracia.)



G. Oh, Amelia, is it you, the object of grief, the daughter of opulence,

of wisdom and philosophy, that thus complaineth? It cannot be you are

the child of misfortune, speaking of the monuments of former ages, which

were allotted not for the reflection of the distressed, but for the

fearless and bold.



A. Not the child of poverty, Gracia, or the heir of glory and peace, but

of fate. Remember, I have wealth more than wit can number; I have had

power more than kings could emcompass; yet the world seems a desert; all

nature appears an afflictive spectacle of warring passions. This blind

fatality, that capriciously sports with the rules and lives of mortals,

tells me that the mountains will never again send forth the water of

their springs to my thirst. Oh, that I might be freed and set at liberty

from wretchedness! But I fear, I fear this will never be.



G. Why, Amelia, this untimely grief? What has caused the sorrows that

bespeak better and happier days, to those lavish out such heaps of

misery? You are aware that your instructive lessons embellish the mind

with holy truths, by wedding its attention to none but great and noble

affections.



A. This, of course, is some consolation. I will ever love my own species

with feelings of a fond recollection, and while I am studying to advance

the universal philanthropy, and the spotless name of my own sex, I will

try to build my own upon the pleasing belief that I have accelerated the

advancement of one who whispers of departed confidence.





And I, like some poor peasant fated to reside



Remote from friends, in a forest wide.



Oh, see what woman's woes and human wants require,



Since that great day hath spread the seed of sinful fire.



G. Look up, thou poor disconsolate; you speak of quitting earthly

enjoyments. Unfold thy bosom to a friend, who would be willing to

sacrifice every enjoyment for the restoration of the dignity and

gentleness of mind which used to grace your walks, and which is so

natural to yourself; not only that, but your paths were strewed with

flowers of every hue and of every order.





With verdant green the mountains glow,



For thee, for thee, the lilies grow;



Far stretched beneath the tented hills,



A fairer flower the valley fills.



A. Oh, would to Heaven I could give you a short narrative of my

former prospects for happiness, since you have acknowledged to be an

unchangeable confidant--the richest of all other blessings. Oh, ye names

forever glorious, ye celebrated scenes, ye renowned spot of my hymeneal

moments; how replete is your chart with sublime reflections! How many

profound vows, decorated with immaculate deeds, are written upon the

surface of that precious spot of earth where I yielded up my life of

celibacy, bade youth with all its beauties a final adieu, took a last

farewell of the laurels that had accompanied me up the hill of my

juvenile career. It was then I began to descend toward the valley of

disappointment and sorrow; it was then I cast my little bark upon a

mysterious ocean of wedlock, with him who then smiled and caressed me,

but, alas! now frowns with bitterness, and has grown jealous and cold

toward me, because the ring he gave me is misplaced or lost. Oh, bear

me, ye flowers of memory, softly through the eventful history of past

times; and ye places that have witnessed the progression of man in

the circle of so many societies, and, of, aid my recollection, while I

endeavor to trace the vicissitudes of a life devoted in endeavoring to

comfort him that I claim as the object of my wishes.





Ah! ye mysterious men, of all the world, how few



Act just to Heaven and to your promise true!



But He who guides the stars with a watchful eye,



The deeds of men lay open without disguise;



Oh, this alone will avenge the wrongs I bear,



For all the oppressed are His peculiar care.



(F. makes a slight noise.)



A. Who is there--Farcillo?



G. Then I must gone. Heaven protect you. Oh, Amelia, farewell, be of

good cheer.





May you stand like Olympus' towers,



Against earth and all jealous powers!



May you, with loud shouts ascend on high



Swift as an eagle in the upper sky.



A. Why so cold and distant tonight, Farcillo? Come, let us each other

greet, and forget all the past, and give security for the future.



F. Security! talk to me about giving security for the future--what an

insulting requisition! Have you said your prayers tonight, Madam Amelia?



A. Farcillo, we sometimes forget our duty, particularly when we expect

to be caressed by others.



F. If you bethink yourself of any crime, or of any fault, that is yet

concealed from the courts of Heaven and the thrones of grace, I bid you

ask and solicit forgiveness for it now.



A. Oh, be kind, Farcillo, don't treat me so. What do you mean by all

this?



F. Be kind, you say; you, madam, have forgot that kindness you owe to

me, and bestowed it upon another; you shall suffer for your conduct

when you make your peace with your God. I would not slay thy unprotected

spirit. I call to Heaven to be my guard and my watch--I would not kill

thy soul, in which all once seemed just, right, and perfect; but I must

be brief, woman.



A. What, talk you of killing? Oh, Farcillo, Farcillo, what is the

matter?



F. Aye, I do, without doubt; mark what I say, Amelia.



A. Then, O God, O Heaven, and Angels, be propitious, and have mercy upon

me.



F. Amen to that, madam, with all my heart, and with all my soul.



A. Farcillo, listen to me one moment; I hope you will not kill me.



F. Kill you, aye, that I will; attest it, ye fair host of light, record

it, ye dark imps of hell!



A. Oh, I fear you--you are fatal when darkness covers your brow; yet I

know not why I should fear, since I never wronged you in all my life. I

stand, sir, guiltless before you.



F. You pretend to say you are guiltless! Think of thy sins, Amelia;

think, oh, think, hidden woman.



A. Wherein have I not been true to you? That death is unkind, cruel, and

unnatural, that kills for living.



F. Peace, and be still while I unfold to thee.



A. I will, Farcillo, and while I am thus silent, tell me the cause of

such cruel coldness in an hour like this.



F. That _ring_, oh, that ring I so loved, and gave thee as the ring of

my heart; the allegiance you took to be faithful, when it was presented;

the kisses and smiles with which you honored it. You became tired of

the donor, despised it as a plague, and finally gave it to Malos, the

hidden, the vile traitor.



A. No, upon my word and honor, I never did; I appeal to the Most High to

bear me out in this matter. Send for Malos, and ask him.



F. Send for Malos, aye! Malos you wish to see; I thought so. I knew you

could not keep his name concealed. Amelia, sweet Amelia, take heed,

take heed of perjury; you are on the stage of death, to suffer for _your

sins_.



A. What, not to die I hope, my Farcillo, my ever beloved.



F. Yes, madam, to die a traitor's death. Shortly your spirit shall take

its exit; therefore confess freely thy sins, for to deny tends only to

make me groan under the bitter cup thou hast made for me. Thou art to

die with the name of traitor on thy brow!



A. Then, O Lord, have mercy upon me; give me courage, give me grace and

fortitude to stand this hour of trial.



F. Amen, I say, with all my heart.



A. And, oh, Farcillo, will you have mercy, too? I never intentionally

offended you in all my life, never _loved _Malos, never gave him cause

to think so, as the high court of Justice will acquit me before its

tribunal.



F. Oh, false, perjured woman, thou didst chill my blood, and makest me a

demon like thyself. I saw the ring.



A. He found it, then, or got it clandestinely; send for him, and let him

confess the truth; let his confession be sifted.



F. And you still wish to see him! I tell you, madam, he hath already

confessed, and thou knowest the darkness of thy heart.



A. What, my deceived Farcillo, that I gave him the ring, in which all my

affections were concentrated? Oh, surely not.



F. Aye, he did. Ask thy conscience, and it will speak with a voice of

thunder to thy soul.



A. He will not say so, he dare not, he cannot.



F. No, he will not say so now, because his mouth, I trust, is hushed in

death, and his body stretched to the four winds of heaven, to be torn to

pieces by carnivorous birds.



A. What, he is dead, and gone to the world of spirits with that

declaration in his mouth? Oh, unhappy man! Oh, insupportable hour!



F. Yes, and had all his sighs and looks and tears been lives, my great

revenge could have slain them all, without the least condemnation.



A. Alas! he is ushered into eternity without testing the matter for

which I am abused and sentenced and condemned to die.



F. Cursed, infernal woman! Weepest thou for him to my face? He that hath

robbed me of my peace, my energy, the whole love of my life? Could I

call the fabled Hydra, I would have him live and perish, survive and

die, until the sun itself would grow dim with age. I would make him

have the thirst of a Tantalus, and roll the wheel of an Ixion, until the

stars of heaven should quit their brilliant stations.



A. Oh, invincible God, save me! Oh, unsupportable moment! Oh, heavy

hour! Banish me, Farcillo--send me where no eye can ever see me, where

no sound shall ever great my ear; but, oh, slay me not, Farcillo; vent

thy rage and thy spite upon this emaciated frame of mine, only spare my

life.



F. Your petitions avail nothing, cruel Amelia.



A. Oh, Farcillo, perpetrate the dark deed tomorrow; let me live till

then, for my past kindness to you, and it may be some kind angel will

show to you that I am not only the object of innocence, but one who

never loved another but your noble self.



F. Amelia, the decree has gone forth, it is to be done, and that

quickly; thou art to die, madam.



A. But half an hour allow me, to see my father and my only child, to

tell her the treachery and vanity of this world.



F. There is no alternative, there is no pause: my daughter shall not see

its deceptive mother die; your father shall not know that his daughter

fell disgraced, despised by all but her enchanting Malos.



A. Oh, Farcillo, put up thy threatening dagger into its scabbard; let

it rest and be still, just while I say one prayer for thee and for my

child.



F. It is too late, thy doom is fixed, thou hast not confessed to Heaven

or to me, my child's protector--thou art to die. Ye powers of earth and

heaven, protect and defend me in this alone. (_Stabs her while imploring

for mercy._)



A. Oh, Farcillo, Farcillo, a guiltless death I die.



F. Die! die! die!



(Gracia enters running, falls on her knees weeping, and kisses Amelia.)



G. Oh, Farcillo, Farcillo! oh, Farcillo!



F. I am here, the genius of the age, and the avenger of my wrongs.



G. Oh, lady, speak once more; sweet Amelia, oh, speak again. Gone,

gone--yes, forever gone! Farcillo, oh, cold-hearted Farcillo, some evil

fiend hath urged you to do this, Farcillo.



F. Say not so again, or you shall receive the same fate. I did the

glorious deed, madam--beware, then, how you talk.



G. I fear not your implements of war; I will let you know you have not

the power to do me harm. If you have a heart of triple brass, it shall

be reached and melted, and thy blood shall chill thy veins and grow

stiff in thy arteries. Here is the ring of the virtuous and innocent

murdered Amelia; I obtained it from Malos, who yet lives, in hopes

that he will survive the wound given him, and says he got it

clandestinely--declares Amelia to be the princess of truth and virtue,

invulnerable to anything like forgetting her first devotion to thee.

The world has heard of your conduct and your jealousy, and with one

universal voice declares her to be the best of all in piety; that she is

the star of this great universe, and a more virtuous woman never lived

since the wheels of time began. Oh, had you waited till tomorrow, or

until I had returned, some kind window would have been opened to her

relief. But, alas! she is gone--yes, forever gone, to try the realities

of an unknown world!



(Farcillo leaning over the body of Amelia.)



F. Malos not dead, and here is my ring! Oh, Amelia! falsely murdered!

Oh, bloody deed! Oh, wretch that I am! Oh, angels forgive me! Oh, God,

withhold thy vengeance! Oh, Amelia! if Heaven would make a thousand

worlds like this, set with diamonds, and all of one perfect chrysolite,

I would not have done this for them all, I would not have frowned and

cursed as I did. Oh, she was heavenly true, nursed in the very lap

of bright angels! Cursed slave that I am! Jealousy, oh! thou infernal

demon! Lost, lost to every sense of honor! Oh! Amelia--heaven-born

Amelia--dead, dead! Oh! oh! oh!--then let me die with thee. Farewell!

farewell! ye world that deceived me! (_Stabs himself_.)



Soon after the excitement of this tragical scene was over, and the

enlisted feeling for Amelia had grown more buoyant with Elfonzo and

Ambulinia, he determined to visit his retired home, and make the

necessary improvements to enjoy a better day; consequently he conveyed

the following lines to Ambulinia:





Go tell the world that hope is glowing,



Go bid the rocks their silence break,



Go tell the stars that love is glowing,



Then bid the hero his lover take.



In the region where scarcely the foot of man hath ever trod, where the

woodman hath not found his way, lies a blooming grove, seen only by the

sun when he mounts his lofty throne, visited only by the light of the

stars, to whom are entrusted the guardianship of earth, before the

sun sinks to rest in his rosy bed. High cliffs of rocks surround the

romantic place, and in the small cavity of the rocky wall grows the

daffodil clear and pure; and as the wind blows along the enchanting

little mountain which surrounds the lonely spot, it nourishes the

flowers with the dew-drops of heaven. Here is the seat of Elfonzo;

darkness claims but little victory over this dominion, and in vain does

she spread out her gloomy wings. Here the waters flow perpetually, and

the trees lash their tops together to bid the welcome visitor a happy

muse. Elfonzo, during his short stay in the country, had fully persuaded

himself that it was his duty to bring this solemn matter to an issue.

A duty that he individually owed, as a gentleman, to the parents of

Ambulinia, a duty in itself involving not only his own happiness and

his own standing in society, but one that called aloud the act of the

parties to make it perfect and complete. How he should communicate his

intentions to get a favorable reply, he was at a loss to know; he knew

not whether to address Esq. Valeer in prose or in poetry, in a jocular

or an argumentative manner, or whether he should use moral suasion,

legal injunction, or seizure and take by reprisal; if it was to do the

latter, he would have no difficulty in deciding in his own mind, but his

gentlemanly honor was at stake; so he concluded to address the following

letter to the father and mother of Ambulinia, as his address in person

he knew would only aggravate the old gentleman, and perhaps his lady.



Cumming, Ga., January 22, 1844



Mr. and Mrs. Valeer--



Again I resume the pleasing task of addressing you, and once more beg

an immediate answer to my many salutations. From every circumstance that

has taken place, I feel in duty bound to comply with my obligations; to

forfeit my word would be more than I dare do; to break my pledge, and my

vows that have been witnessed, sealed, and delivered in the presence of

an unseen Deity, would be disgraceful on my part, as well as ruinous to

Ambulinia. I wish no longer to be kept in suspense about this matter. I

wish to act gentlemanly in every particular. It is true, the promises I

have made are unknown to any but Ambulinia, and I think it unnecessary

to here enumerate them, as they who promise the most generally perform

the least. Can you for a moment doubt my sincerity or my character? My

only wish is, sir, that you may calmly and dispassionately look at

the situation of the case, and if your better judgment should dictate

otherwise, my obligations may induce me to pluck the flower that you

so diametrically opposed. We have sworn by the saints--by the gods

of battle, and by that faith whereby just men are made perfect--to be

united. I hope, my dear sir, you will find it convenient as well as

agreeable to give me a favorable answer, with the signature of Mrs.

Valeer, as well as yourself.



With very great esteem,



your humble servant,



J. I. Elfonzo.



The moon and stars had grown pale when Ambulinia had retired to rest. A

crowd of unpleasant thoughts passed through her bosom. Solitude dwelt

in her chamber--no sound from the neighboring world penetrated its

stillness; it appeared a temple of silence, of repose, and of mystery.

At that moment she heard a still voice calling her father. In an

instant, like the flash of lightning, a thought ran through her mind

that it must be the bearer of Elfonzo's communication. "It is not a

dream!" she said, "no, I cannot read dreams. Oh! I would to Heaven I was

near that glowing eloquence--that poetical language--it charms the

mind in an inexpressible manner, and warms the coldest heart." While

consoling herself with this strain, her father rushed into her room

almost frantic with rage, exclaiming: "Oh, Ambulinia! Ambulinia!!

undutiful, ungrateful daughter! What does this mean? Why does this

letter bear such heart-rending intelligence? Will you quit a father's

house with this debased wretch, without a place to lay his distracted

head; going up and down the country, with every novel object that may

chance to wander through this region. He is a pretty man to make love

known to his superiors, and you, Ambulinia, have done but little credit

to yourself by honoring his visits. Oh, wretchedness! can it be that

my hopes of happiness are forever blasted! Will you not listen to a

father's entreaties, and pay some regard to a mother's tears. I know,

and I do pray that God will give me fortitude to bear with this sea

of troubles, and rescue my daughter, my Ambulinia, as a brand from the

eternal burning." "Forgive me, father, oh! forgive thy child," replied

Ambulinia. "My heart is ready to break, when I see you in this grieved

state of agitation. Oh! think not so meanly of me, as that I mourn for

my own danger. Father, I am only woman. Mother, I am only the templement

of thy youthful years, but will suffer courageously whatever punishment

you think proper to inflict upon me, if you will but allow me to comply

with my most sacred promises--if you will but give me my personal right

and my personal liberty. Oh, father! if your generosity will but give me

these, I ask nothing more. When Elfonzo offered me his heart, I gave

him my hand, never to forsake him, and now may the mighty God banish me

before I leave him in adversity. What a heart must I have to rejoice in

prosperity with him whose offers I have accepted, and then, when poverty

comes, haggard as it may be, for me to trifle with the oracles of

Heaven, and change with every fluctuation that may interrupt our

happiness--like the politician who runs the political gantlet for office

one day, and the next day, because the horizon is darkened a little,

he is seen running for his life, for fear he might perish in its ruins.

Where is the philosophy, where is the consistency, where is the charity,

in conduct like this? Be happy then, my beloved father, and forget me;

let the sorrow of parting break down the wall of separation and make

us equal in our feeling; let me now say how ardently I love you; let

me kiss that age-worn cheek, and should my tears bedew thy face, I will

wipe them away. Oh, I never can forget you; no, never, never!"



"Weep not," said the father, "Ambulinia. I will forbid Elfonzo my house,

and desire that you may keep retired a few days. I will let him know

that my friendship for my family is not linked together by cankered

chains; and if he ever enters upon my premises again, I will send him

to his long home." "Oh, father! let me entreat you to be calm upon this

occasion, and though Elfonzo may be the sport of the clouds and winds,

yet I feel assured that no fate will send him to the silent tomb until

the God of the Universe calls him hence with a triumphant voice."



Here the father turned away, exclaiming: "I will answer his letter in a

very few words, and you, madam, will have the goodness to stay at home

with your mother; and remember, I am determined to protect you from the

consuming fire that looks so fair to your view."



Cumming, January 22, 1844.



Sir--In regard to your request, I am as I ever have been, utterly

opposed to your marrying into my family; and if you have any regard for

yourself, or any gentlemanly feeling, I hope you will mention it to me

no more; but seek some other one who is not so far superior to you in

standing.



W. W. Valeer.



When Elfonzo read the above letter, he became so much depressed in

spirits that many of his friends thought it advisable to use other means

to bring about the happy union. "Strange," said he, "that the contents

of this diminutive letter should cause me to have such depressed

feelings; but there is a nobler theme than this. I know not why my

_military title_ is not as great as that of _Squire Valeer_. For my life

I cannot see that my ancestors are inferior to those who are so bitterly

opposed to my marriage with Ambulinia. I know I have seen huge mountains

before me, yet, when I think that I know gentlemen will insult me upon

this delicate matter, should I become angry at fools and babblers, who

pride themselves in their impudence and ignorance? No. My equals! I

know not where to find them. My inferiors! I think it beneath me; and my

superiors! I think it presumption; therefore, if this youthful heart is

protected by any of the divine rights, I never will betray my trust."



He was aware that Ambulinia had a confidence that was, indeed, as firm

and as resolute as she was beautiful and interesting. He hastened to the

cottage of Louisa, who received him in her usual mode of pleasantness,

and informed him that Ambulinia had just that moment left. "Is it

possible?" said Elfonzo. "Oh, murdered hours! Why did she not remain and

be the guardian of my secrets? But hasten and tell me how she has stood

this trying scene, and what are her future determinations." "You know,"

 said Louisa, "Major Elfonzo, that you have Ambulinia's first love, which

is of no small consequence. She came here about twilight, and shed many

precious tears in consequence of her own fate with yours. We walked

silently in yon little valley you see, where we spent a momentary

repose. She seemed to be quite as determined as ever, and before we left

that beautiful spot she offered up a prayer to Heaven for thee." "I will

see her then," replied Elfonzo, "though legions of enemies may oppose.

She is mine by foreordination--she is mine by prophesy--she is mine

by her own free will, and I will rescue her from the hands of her

oppressors. Will you not, Miss Louisa, assist me in my capture?"



"I will certainly, by the aid of Divine Providence," answered Louisa,

"endeavor to break those slavish chains that bind the richest of prizes;

though allow me, Major, to entreat you to use no harsh means on this

important occasion; take a decided stand, and write freely to Ambulinia

upon this subject, and I will see that no intervening cause hinders its

passage to her. God alone will save a mourning people. Now is the day

and now is the hour to obey a command of such valuable worth." The Major

felt himself grow stronger after this short interview with Louisa. He

felt as if he could whip his weight in wildcats--he knew he was master

of his own feelings, and could now write a letter that would bring this

litigation to _an issue._



Cumming, January 24, 1844.



Dear Ambulinia--



We have now reached the most trying moment of our lives; we are pledged

not to forsake our trust; we have waited for a favorable hour to

come, thinking your friends would settle the matter agreeably among

themselves, and finally be reconciled to our marriage; but as I have

waited in vain, and looked in vain, I have determined in my own mind to

make a proposition to you, though you may think it not in accord with

your station, or compatible with your rank; yet, "sub hoc signo

vinces." You know I cannot resume my visits, in consequence of the utter

hostility that your father has to me; therefore the consummation of

our union will have to be sought for in a more sublime sphere, at the

residence of a respectable friend of this village. You cannot have

any scruples upon this mode of proceeding, if you will but remember it

emanates from one who loves you better than his own life--who is more

than anxious to bid you welcome to a new and happy home. Your warmest

associates say come; the talented, the learned, the wise, and the

experienced say come;--all these with their friends say, come. Viewing

these, with many other inducements, I flatter myself that you will come

to the embraces of your Elfonzo; for now is the time of your acceptance

of the day of your liberation. You cannot be ignorant, Ambulinia, that

thou art the desire of my heart; its thoughts are too noble, and too

pure, to conceal themselves from you. I shall wait for your answer to

this impatiently, expecting that you will set the time to make your

departure, and to be in readiness at a moment's warning to share the

joys of a more preferable life. This will be handed to you by Louisa,

who will take a pleasure in communicating anything to you that may

relieve your dejected spirits, and will assure you that I now stand

ready, willing, and waiting to make good my vows.



I am, dear Ambulinia, yours



truly, and forever,



J. I. Elfonzo.



Louisa made it convenient to visit Mr. Valeer's, though they did not

suspect her in the least the bearer of love epistles; consequently,

she was invited in the room to console Ambulinia, where they were left

alone. Ambulinia was seated by a small table--her head resting on her

hand--her brilliant eyes were bathed in tears. Louisa handed her the

letter of Elfonzo, when another spirit animated her features--the

spirit of renewed confidence that never fails to strengthen the

female character in an hour of grief and sorrow like this, and as she

pronounced the last accent of his name, she exclaimed, "And does he love

me yet! I never will forget your generosity, Louisa. Oh, unhappy and yet

blessed Louisa! may you never feel what I have felt--may you never know

the pangs of love. Had I never loved, I never would have been unhappy;

but I turn to Him who can save, and if His wisdom does not will my

expected union, I know He will give me strength to bear my lot. Amuse

yourself with this little book, and take it as an apology for my

silence," said Ambulinia, "while I attempt to answer this volume of

consolation." "Thank you," said Louisa, "you are excusable upon this

occasion; but I pray you, Ambulinia, to be expert upon this momentous

subject, that there may be nothing mistrustful upon my part." "I will,"

 said Ambulinia, and immediately resumed her seat and addressed the

following to Elfonzo:



Cumming, Ga., January 28, 1844.



Devoted Elfonzo--



I hail your letter as a welcome messenger of faith, and can now say

truly and firmly that my feelings correspond with yours. Nothing shall

be wanting on my part to make my obedience your fidelity. Courage and

perseverance will accomplish success. Receive this as my oath, that

while I grasp your hand in my own imagination, we stand united before a

higher tribunal than any on earth. All the powers of my life, soul, and

body, I devote to thee. Whatever dangers may threaten me, I fear not to

encounter them. Perhaps I have determined upon my own destruction, by

leaving the house of the best of parents; be it so; I flee to you; I

share your destiny, faithful to the end. The day that I have concluded

upon for this task is _sabbath _next, when the family with the citizens

are generally at church. For Heaven's sake let not that day pass

unimproved: trust not till tomorrow, it is the cheat of life--the future

that never comes--the grave of many noble births--the cavern of ruined

enterprise: which like the lightning's flash is born, and dies, and

perishes, ere the voice of him who sees can cry, _behold! behold!!_ You

may trust to what I say, no power shall tempt me to betray confidence.

Suffer me to add one word more.





I will soothe thee, in all thy grief,



Beside the gloomy river;



And though thy love may yet be brief;



Mine is fixed forever.



Receive the deepest emotions of my heart for thy constant love, and

may the power of inspiration be thy guide, thy portion, and thy all. In

great haste,



Yours faithfully,



Ambulinia.



"I now take my leave of you, sweet girl," said Louisa, "sincerely

wishing you success on Sabbath next." When Ambulinia's letter was handed

to Elfonzo, he perused it without doubting its contents. Louisa charged

him to make but few confidants; but like most young men who happened to

win the heart of a beautiful girl, he was so elated with the idea that

he felt as a commanding general on parade, who had confidence in all,

consequently gave orders to all. The appointed Sabbath, with a delicious

breeze and cloudless sky, made its appearance. The people gathered in

crowds to the church--the streets were filled with neighboring citizens,

all marching to the house of worship. It is entirely useless for me

to attempt to describe the feelings of Elfonzo and Ambulinia, who were

silently watching the movements of the multitude, apparently counting

them as then entered the house of God, looking for the last one to

darken the door. The impatience and anxiety with which they waited,

and the bliss they anticipated on the eventful day, is altogether

indescribable. Those that have been so fortunate as to embark in such a

noble enterprise know all its realities; and those who have not had this

inestimable privilege will have to taste its sweets before they can tell

to others its joys, its comforts, and its Heaven-born worth. Immediately

after Ambulinia had assisted the family off to church, she took

advantage of that opportunity to make good her promises. She left a home

of enjoyment to be wedded to one whose love had been justifiable. A few

short steps brought her to the presence of Louisa, who urged her to make

good use of her time, and not to delay a moment, but to go with her to

her brother's house, where Elfonzo would forever make her happy. With

lively speed, and yet a graceful air, she entered the door and found

herself protected by the champion of her confidence. The necessary

arrangements were fast making to have the two lovers united--everything

was in readiness except the parson; and as they are generally very

sanctimonious on such occasions, the news got to the parents of

Ambulinia before the everlasting knot was tied, and they both came

running, with uplifted hands and injured feelings, to arrest their

daughter from an unguarded and hasty resolution. Elfonzo desired to

maintain his ground, but Ambulinia thought it best for him to leave, to

prepare for a greater contest. He accordingly obeyed, as it would have

been a vain endeavor for him to have battled against a man who was armed

with deadly weapons; and besides, he could not resist the request of

such a pure heart. Ambulinia concealed herself in the upper story of

the house, fearing the rebuke of her father; the door was locked, and no

chastisement was now expected. Esquire Valeer, whose pride was already

touched, resolved to preserve the dignity of his family. He entered

the house almost exhausted, looking wildly for Ambulinia. "Amazed and

astonished indeed I am," said he, "at a people who call themselves

civilized, to allow such behavior as this. Ambulinia, Ambulinia!"

 he cried, "come to the calls of your first, your best, and your only

friend. I appeal to you, sir," turning to the gentleman of the house,

"to know where Ambulinia has gone, or where is she?" "Do you mean

to insult me, sir, in my own house?" inquired the gentleman. "I will

burst," said Mr. V., "asunder every door in your dwelling, in search of

my daughter, if you do not speak quickly, and tell me where she is.

I care nothing about that outcast rubbish of creation, that mean,

low-lived Elfonzo, if I can but obtain Ambulinia. Are you not going to

open this door?" said he. "By the Eternal that made Heaven and earth!

I will go about the work instantly, if this is not done!" The confused

citizens gathered from all parts of the village, to know the cause of

this commotion. Some rushed into the house; the door that was locked

flew open, and there stood Ambulinia, weeping. "Father, be still," said

she, "and I will follow thee home." But the agitated man seized her, and

bore her off through the gazing multitude. "Father!" she exclaimed, "I

humbly beg your pardon--I will be dutiful--I will obey thy commands.

Let the sixteen years I have lived in obedience to thee be my future

security." "I don't like to be always giving credit, when the old score

is not paid up, madam," said the father. The mother followed almost in a

state of derangement, crying and imploring her to think beforehand, and

ask advice from experienced persons, and they would tell her it was a

rash undertaking. "Oh!" said she, "Ambulinia, my daughter, did you know

what I have suffered--did you know how many nights I have whiled away in

agony, in pain, and in fear, you would pity the sorrows of a heartbroken

mother."



"Well, mother," replied Ambulinia, "I know I have been disobedient; I

am aware that what I have done might have been done much better; but

oh! what shall I do with my honor? it is so dear to me; I am pledged

to Elfonzo. His high moral worth is certainly worth some attention;

moreover, my vows, I have no doubt, are recorded in the book of life,

and must I give these all up? must my fair hopes be forever blasted?

Forbid it, father; oh! forbid it, mother; forbid it, Heaven." "I have

seen so many beautiful skies overclouded," replied the mother, "so many

blossoms nipped by the frost, that I am afraid to trust you to the

care of those fair days, which may be interrupted by thundering and

tempestuous nights. You no doubt think as I did--life's devious ways

were strewn with sweet-scented flowers, but ah! how long they have

lingered around me and took their flight in the vivid hope that laughs

at the drooping victims it has murdered." Elfonzo was moved at this

sight. The people followed on to see what was going to become of

Ambulinia, while he, with downcast looks, kept at a distance, until he

saw them enter the abode of the father, thrusting her, that was the sigh

of his soul, out of his presence into a solitary apartment, when she

exclaimed, "Elfonzo! Elfonzo! oh, Elfonzo! where art thou, with all thy

heroes? haste, oh! haste, come thou to my relief. Ride on the wings of

the wind! Turn thy force loose like a tempest, and roll on thy army like

a whirlwind, over this mountain of trouble and confusion. Oh, friends!

if any pity me, let your last efforts throng upon the green hills, and

come to the relief of Ambulinia, who is guilty of nothing but innocent

love." Elfonzo called out with a loud voice, "My God, can I stand this!

arise up, I beseech you, and put an end to this tyranny. Come, my brave

boys," said he, "are you ready to go forth to your duty?" They stood

around him. "Who," said he, "will call us to arms? Where are my

thunderbolts of war? Speak ye, the first who will meet the foe! Who will

go forward with me in this ocean of grievous temptation? If there is

one who desires to go, let him come and shake hands upon the altar of

devotion, and swear that he will be a hero; yes, a Hector in a cause

like this, which calls aloud for a speedy remedy." "Mine be the deed,"

 said a young lawyer, "and mine alone; Venus alone shall quit her station

before I will forsake one jot or tittle of my promise to you; what

is death to me? what is all this warlike army, if it is not to win a

victory? I love the sleep of the lover and the mighty; nor would I give

it over till the blood of my enemies should wreak with that of my own.

But God forbid that our fame should soar on the blood of the slumberer."

 Mr. Valeer stands at his door with the frown of a demon upon his brow,

with his dangerous weapon ready to strike the first man who should enter

his door. "Who will arise and go forward through blood and carnage

to the rescue of my Ambulinia?" said Elfonzo. "All," exclaimed the

multitude; and onward they went, with their implements of battle.

Others, of a more timid nature, stood among the distant hills to see the

result of the contest.



Elfonzo took the lead of his band. Night arose in clouds; darkness

concealed the heavens; but the blazing hopes that stimulated them

gleamed in every bosom. All approached the anxious spot; they rushed to

the front of the house and, with one exclamation, demanded Ambulinia.

"Away, begone, and disturb my peace no more," said Mr. Valeer. "You are

a set of base, insolent, and infernal rascals. Go, the northern star

points your path through the dim twilight of the night; go, and vent

your spite upon the lonely hills; pour forth your love, you poor,

weak-minded wretch, upon your idleness and upon your guitar, and your

fiddle; they are fit subjects for your admiration, for let me assure

you, though this sword and iron lever are cankered, yet they frown in

sleep, and let one of you dare to enter my house this night and you

shall have the contents and the weight of these instruments." "Never

yet did base dishonor blur my name," said Elfonzo; "mine is a cause of

renown; here are my warriors; fear and tremble, for this night, though

hell itself should oppose, I will endeavor to avenge her whom thou hast

banished in solitude. The voice of Ambulinia shall be heard from that

dark dungeon." At that moment Ambulinia appeared at the window above,

and with a tremulous voice said, "Live, Elfonzo! oh! live to raise my

stone of moss! why should such language enter your heart? why should

thy voice rend the air with such agitation? I bid thee live, once more

remembering these tears of mine are shed alone for thee, in this dark

and gloomy vault, and should I perish under this load of trouble, join

the song of thrilling accents with the raven above my grave, and lay

this tattered frame beside the banks of the Chattahoochee or the stream

of Sawney's brook; sweet will be the song of death to your Ambulinia. My

ghost shall visit you in the smiles of Paradise, and tell your high

fame to the minds of that region, which is far more preferable than this

lonely cell. My heart shall speak for thee till the latest hour; I know

faint and broken are the sounds of sorrow, yet our souls, Elfonzo, shall

hear the peaceful songs together. One bright name shall be ours on high,

if we are not permitted to be united here; bear in mind that I still

cherish my old sentiments, and the poet will mingle the names of Elfonzo

and Ambulinia in the tide of other days." "Fly, Elfonzo," said the

voices of his united band, "to the wounded heart of your beloved. All

enemies shall fall beneath thy sword. Fly through the clefts, and the

dim spark shall sleep in death." Elfonzo rushes forward and strikes

his shield against the door, which was barricaded, to prevent any

intercourse. His brave sons throng around him. The people pour along

the streets, both male and female, to prevent or witness the melancholy

scene.



"To arms, to arms!" cried Elfonzo; "here is a victory to be won, a prize

to be gained that is more to me that the whole world beside." "It

cannot be done tonight," said Mr. Valeer. "I bear the clang of death; my

strength and armor shall prevail. My Ambulinia shall rest in this hall

until the break of another day, and if we fall, we fall together. If we

die, we die clinging to our tattered rights, and our blood alone shall

tell the mournful tale of a murdered daughter and a ruined father." Sure

enough, he kept watch all night, and was successful in defending his

house and family. The bright morning gleamed upon the hills, night

vanished away, the Major and his associates felt somewhat ashamed that

they had not been as fortunate as they expected to have been; however,

they still leaned upon their arms in dispersed groups; some were walking

the streets, others were talking in the Major's behalf. Many of

the citizen suspended business, as the town presented nothing but

consternation. A novelty that might end in the destruction of some

worthy and respectable citizens. Mr. Valeer ventured in the streets,

though not without being well armed. Some of his friends congratulated

him on the decided stand he had taken, and hoped he would settle the

matter amicably with Elfonzo, without any serious injury. "Me," he

replied, "what, me, condescend to fellowship with a coward, and a

low-lived, lazy, undermining villain? no, gentlemen, this cannot be; I

had rather be borne off, like the bubble upon the dark blue ocean, with

Ambulinia by my side, than to have him in the ascending or descending

line of relationship. Gentlemen," continued he, "if Elfonzo is so much

of a distinguished character, and is so learned in the fine arts, why do

you not patronize such men? why not introduce him into your families, as

a gentleman of taste and of unequaled magnanimity? why are you so very

anxious that he should become a relative of mine? Oh, gentlemen, I fear

you yet are tainted with the curiosity of our first parents, who were

beguiled by the poisonous kiss of an old ugly serpent, and who, for

one _apple, damned_ all mankind. I wish to divest myself, as far as

possible, of that untutored custom. I have long since learned that the

perfection of wisdom, and the end of true philosophy, is to proportion

our wants to our possessions, our ambition to our capacities; we will

then be a happy and a virtuous people." Ambulinia was sent off to

prepare for a long and tedious journey. Her new acquaintances had been

instructed by her father how to treat her, and in what manner, and to

keep the anticipated visit entirely secret. Elfonzo was watching the

movements of everybody; some friends had told him of the plot that was

laid to carry off Ambulinia. At night, he rallied some two or three of

his forces, and went silently along to the stately mansion; a faint and

glimmering light showed through the windows; lightly he steps to the

door; there were many voices rallying fresh in fancy's eye; he tapped

the shutter; it was opened instantly, and he beheld once more, seated

beside several ladies, the hope of all his toils; he rushed toward

her, she rose from her seat, rejoicing; he made one mighty grasp, when

Ambulinia exclaimed, "Huzza for Major Elfonzo! I will defend myself and

you, too, with this conquering instrument I hold in my hand; huzza, I

say, I now invoke time's broad wing to shed around us some dewdrops of

verdant spring."



But the hour had not come for this joyous reunion; her friends struggled

with Elfonzo for some time, and finally succeeded in arresting her from

his hands. He dared not injure them, because they were matrons whose

courage needed no spur; she was snatched from the arms of Elfonzo, with

so much eagerness, and yet with such expressive signification, that he

calmly withdrew from this lovely enterprise, with an ardent hope that he

should be lulled to repose by the zephyrs which whispered peace to his

soul. Several long days and nights passed unmolested, all seemed to have

grounded their arms of rebellion, and no callidity appeared to be going

on with any of the parties. Other arrangements were made by Ambulinia;

she feigned herself to be entirely the votary of a mother's care, and

she, by her graceful smiles, that manhood might claim his stern dominion

in some other region, where such boisterous love was not so prevalent.

This gave the parents a confidence that yielded some hours of sober joy;

they believed that Ambulinia would now cease to love Elfonzo, and that

her stolen affections would now expire with her misguided opinions. They

therefore declined the idea of sending her to a distant land. But oh!

they dreamed not of the rapture that dazzled the fancy of Ambulinia, who

would say, when alone, youth should not fly away on his rosy pinions,

and leave her to grapple in the conflict with unknown admirers.





No frowning age shall control



The constant current of my soul,



Nor a tear from pity's eye



Shall check my sympathetic sigh.



With this resolution fixed in her mind, one dark and dreary night, when

the winds whistled and the tempest roared, she received intelligence

that Elfonzo was then waiting, and every preparation was then ready, at

the residence of Dr. Tully, and for her to make a quick escape while

the family was reposing. Accordingly she gathered her books, went the

wardrobe supplied with a variety of ornamental dressing, and ventured

alone in the streets to make her way to Elfonzo, who was near at hand,

impatiently looking and watching her arrival. "What forms," said she,

"are those rising before me? What is that dark spot on the clouds? I do

wonder what frightful ghost that is, gleaming on the red tempest? Oh,

be merciful and tell me what region you are from. Oh, tell me, ye strong

spirits, or ye dark and fleeting clouds, that I yet have a friend." "A

friend," said a low, whispering voice. "I am thy unchanging, thy aged,

and thy disappointed mother. Why brandish in that hand of thine a

javelin of pointed steel? Why suffer that lip I have kissed a thousand

times to equivocate? My daughter, let these tears sink deep into thy

soul, and no longer persist in that which may be your destruction and

ruin. Come, my dear child, retract your steps, and bear me company to

your welcome home." Without one retorting word, or frown from her brow,

she yielded to the entreaties of her mother, and with all the mildness

of her former character she went along with the silver lamp of age, to

the home of candor and benevolence. Her father received her cold and

formal politeness--"Where has Ambulinia been, this blustering evening,

Mrs. Valeer?" inquired he. "Oh, she and I have been taking a solitary

walk," said the mother; "all things, I presume, are now working for the

best."



Elfonzo heard this news shortly after it happened. "What," said he,

"has heaven and earth turned against me? I have been disappointed times

without number. Shall I despair?--must I give it over? Heaven's decrees

will not fade; I will write again--I will try again; and if it traverses

a gory field, I pray forgiveness at the altar of justice."



Desolate Hill, Cumming, Geo., 1844.



Unconquered and Beloved Ambulinia-- I have only time to say to you, not

to despair; thy fame shall not perish; my visions are brightening before

me. The whirlwind's rage is past, and we now shall subdue our enemies

without doubt. On Monday morning, when your friends are at breakfast,

they will not suspect your departure, or even mistrust me being in town,

as it has been reported advantageously that I have left for the west.

You walk carelessly toward the academy grove, where you will find me

with a lightning steed, elegantly equipped to bear you off where we

shall be joined in wedlock with the first connubial rights. Fail not

to do this--think not of the tedious relations of our wrongs--be

invincible. You alone occupy all my ambition, and I alone will make you

my happy spouse, with the same unimpeached veracity. I remain, forever,

your devoted friend and admirer, J. I. Elfonzo.



The appointed day ushered in undisturbed by any clouds; nothing

disturbed Ambulinia's soft beauty. With serenity and loveliness she

obeys the request of Elfonzo. The moment the family seated themselves

at the table--"Excuse my absence for a short time," said she, "while I

attend to the placing of those flowers, which should have been done

a week ago." And away she ran to the sacred grove, surrounded with

glittering pearls, that indicated her coming. Elfonzo hails her with

his silver bow and his golden harp. They meet--Ambulinia's countenance

brightens--Elfonzo leads up his winged steed. "Mount," said he, "ye

true-hearted, ye fearless soul--the day is ours." She sprang upon the

back of the young thunder bolt, a brilliant star sparkles upon her head,

with one hand she grasps the reins, and with the other she holds an

olive branch. "Lend thy aid, ye strong winds," they exclaimed, "ye moon,

ye sun, and all ye fair host of heaven, witness the enemy conquered."

 "Hold," said Elfonzo, "thy dashing steed." "Ride on," said Ambulinia,

"the voice of thunder is behind us." And onward they went, with such

rapidity that they very soon arrived at Rural Retreat, where they

dismounted, and were united with all the solemnities that usually attend

such divine operations. They passed the day in thanksgiving and great

rejoicing, and on that evening they visited their uncle, where many of

their friends and acquaintances had gathered to congratulate them in the

field of untainted bliss. The kind old gentleman met them in the yard:

"Well," said he, "I wish I may die, Elfonzo, if you and Ambulinia

haven't tied a knot with your tongue that you can't untie with your

teeth. But come in, come in, never mind, all is right--the world still

moves on, and no one has fallen in this great battle."



Happy now is their lot! Unmoved by misfortune, they live among the fair

beauties of the South. Heaven spreads their peace and fame upon the arch

of the rainbow, and smiles propitiously at their triumph, _through the

tears of the storm._



		

		

		

		  

THE DANGER OF LYING IN BED

Etiam est. Se

		

		

		

The man in the ticket-office said:



"Have an accident insurance ticket, also?"



"No," I said, after studying the matter over a little. "No, I believe

not; I am going to be traveling by rail all day today. However, tomorrow

I don't travel. Give me one for tomorrow."



The man looked puzzled. He said:



"But it is for accident insurance, and if you are going to travel by

rail--"



"If I am going to travel by rail I sha'n't need it. Lying at home in bed

is the thing _I_ am afraid of."



I had been looking into this matter. Last year I traveled twenty

thousand miles, almost entirely by rail; the year before, I traveled

over twenty-five thousand miles, half by sea and half by rail; and the

year before that I traveled in the neighborhood of ten thousand miles,

exclusively by rail. I suppose if I put in all the little odd journeys

here and there, I may say I have traveled sixty thousand miles during

the three years I have mentioned. _And never an accident._



For a good while I said to myself every morning: "Now I have escaped

thus far, and so the chances are just that much increased that I shall

catch it this time. I will be shrewd, and buy an accident ticket." And

to a dead moral certainty I drew a blank, and went to bed that night

without a joint started or a bone splintered. I got tired of that sort

of daily bother, and fell to buying accident tickets that were good

for a month. I said to myself, "A man _can't_ buy thirty blanks in one

bundle."



But I was mistaken. There was never a prize in the the lot. I could read

of railway accidents every day--the newspaper atmosphere was foggy with

them; but somehow they never came my way. I found I had spent a good

deal of money in the accident business, and had nothing to show for it.

My suspicions were aroused, and I began to hunt around for somebody that

had won in this lottery. I found plenty of people who had invested,

but not an individual that had ever had an accident or made a cent. I

stopped buying accident tickets and went to ciphering. The result was

astounding. THE PERIL LAY NOT IN TRAVELING, BUT IN STAYING AT HOME.



I hunted up statistics, and was amazed to find that after all the

glaring newspaper headlines concerning railroad disasters, less than

_three hundred_ people had really lost their lives by those disasters

in the preceding twelve months. The Erie road was set down as the most

murderous in the list. It had killed forty-six--or twenty-six, I do not

exactly remember which, but I know the number was double that of any

other road. But the fact straightway suggested itself that the Erie was

an immensely long road, and did more business than any other line in

the country; so the double number of killed ceased to be matter for

surprise.



By further figuring, it appeared that between New York and Rochester the

Erie ran eight passenger-trains each way every day--16 altogether; and

carried a daily average of 6,000 persons. That is about a million in six

months--the population of New York City. Well, the Erie kills from 13 to

23 persons of _its_ million in six months; and in the same time 13,000

of New York's million die in their beds! My flesh crept, my hair stood

on end. "This is appalling!" I said. "The danger isn't in traveling by

rail, but in trusting to those deadly beds. I will never sleep in a bed

again."



I had figured on considerably less than one-half the length of the Erie

road. It was plain that the entire road must transport at least eleven

or twelve thousand people every day. There are many short roads running

out of Boston that do fully half as much; a great many such roads. There

are many roads scattered about the Union that do a prodigious passenger

business. Therefore it was fair to presume that an average of 2,500

passengers a day for each road in the country would be almost correct.

There are 846 railway lines in our country, and 846 times 2,500 are

2,115,000. So the railways of America move more than two millions of

people every day; six hundred and fifty millions of people a year,

without counting the Sundays. They do that, too--there is no question

about it; though where they get the raw material is clear beyond the

jurisdiction of my arithmetic; for I have hunted the census through and

through, and I find that there are not that many people in the United

States, by a matter of six hundred and ten millions at the very least.

They must use some of the same people over again, likely.



San Francisco is one-eighth as populous as New York; there are 60 deaths

a week in the former and 500 a week in the latter--if they have luck.

That is 3,120 deaths a year in San Francisco, and eight times as many

in New York--say about 25,000 or 26,000. The health of the two places is

the same. So we will let it stand as a fair presumption that this will

hold good all over the country, and that consequently 25,000 out of

every million of people we have must die every year. That amounts to

one-fortieth of our total population. One million of us, then, die

annually. Out of this million ten or twelve thousand are stabbed, shot,

drowned, hanged, poisoned, or meet a similarly violent death in some

other popular way, such as perishing by kerosene-lamp and hoop-skirt

conflagrations, getting buried in coal-mines, falling off house-tops,

breaking through church, or lecture-room floors, taking patent

medicines, or committing suicide in other forms. The Erie railroad kills

23 to 46; the other 845 railroads kill an average of one-third of a man

each; and the rest of that million, amounting in the aggregate to that

appalling figure of 987,631 corpses, die naturally in their beds!



You will excuse me from taking any more chances on those beds. The

railroads are good enough for me.



And my advice to all people is, Don't stay at home any more than you can

help; but when you have _got _to stay at home a while, buy a package of

those insurance tickets and sit up nights. You cannot be too cautious.



(One can see now why I answered that ticket-agent in the manner recorded

at the top of this sketch.)



The moral of this composition is, that thoughtless people grumble more

than is fair about railroad management in the United States. When we

consider that every day and night of the year full fourteen thousand

railway-trains of various kinds, freighted with life and armed with

death, go thundering over the land, the marvel is, _not _that they kill

three hundred human beings in a twelvemonth, but that they do not kill

three hundred times three hundred!



		

		

		

		  

A DOG'S TALE

CHAPTER I



My father was a St. Bernard, my mother was a collie, but I am a

Presbyterian. This is what my mother told me, I do not know these

nice distinctions myself. To me they are only fine large words meaning

nothing. My mother had a fondness for such; she liked to say them, and

see other dogs look surprised and envious, as wondering how she got

so much education. But, indeed, it was not real education; it was only

show: she got the words by listening in the dining-room and drawing-room

when there was company, and by going with the children to Sunday-school

and listening there; and whenever she heard a large word she said it

over to herself many times, and so was able to keep it until there was

a dogmatic gathering in the neighborhood, then she would get it off,

and surprise and distress them all, from pocket-pup to mastiff, which

rewarded her for all her trouble. If there was a stranger he was nearly

sure to be suspicious, and when he got his breath again he would ask her

what it meant. And she always told him. He was never expecting this but

thought he would catch her; so when she told him, he was the one that

looked ashamed, whereas he had thought it was going to be she. The

others were always waiting for this, and glad of it and proud of her,

for they knew what was going to happen, because they had had experience.

When she told the meaning of a big word they were all so taken up with

admiration that it never occurred to any dog to doubt if it was the

right one; and that was natural, because, for one thing, she answered up

so promptly that it seemed like a dictionary speaking, and for another

thing, where could they find out whether it was right or not? for she

was the only cultivated dog there was. By and by, when I was older, she

brought home the word Unintellectual, one time, and worked it pretty

hard all the week at different gatherings, making much unhappiness and

despondency; and it was at this time that I noticed that during that

week she was asked for the meaning at eight different assemblages, and

flashed out a fresh definition every time, which showed me that she had

more presence of mind than culture, though I said nothing, of course.

She had one word which she always kept on hand, and ready, like a

life-preserver, a kind of emergency word to strap on when she was likely

to get washed overboard in a sudden way--that was the word Synonymous.

When she happened to fetch out a long word which had had its day weeks

before and its prepared meanings gone to her dump-pile, if there was a

stranger there of course it knocked him groggy for a couple of minutes,

then he would come to, and by that time she would be away down wind on

another tack, and not expecting anything; so when he'd hail and ask her

to cash in, I (the only dog on the inside of her game) could see her

canvas flicker a moment--but only just a moment--then it would belly

out taut and full, and she would say, as calm as a summer's day, "It's

synonymous with supererogation," or some godless long reptile of a

word like that, and go placidly about and skim away on the next tack,

perfectly comfortable, you know, and leave that stranger looking profane

and embarrassed, and the initiated slatting the floor with their tails

in unison and their faces transfigured with a holy joy.



And it was the same with phrases. She would drag home a whole phrase,

if it had a grand sound, and play it six nights and two matinees, and

explain it a new way every time--which she had to, for all she cared for

was the phrase; she wasn't interested in what it meant, and knew those

dogs hadn't wit enough to catch her, anyway. Yes, she was a daisy! She

got so she wasn't afraid of anything, she had such confidence in the

ignorance of those creatures. She even brought anecdotes that she had

heard the family and the dinner-guests laugh and shout over; and as

a rule she got the nub of one chestnut hitched onto another chestnut,

where, of course, it didn't fit and hadn't any point; and when she

delivered the nub she fell over and rolled on the floor and laughed and

barked in the most insane way, while I could see that she was wondering

to herself why it didn't seem as funny as it did when she first heard

it. But no harm was done; the others rolled and barked too, privately

ashamed of themselves for not seeing the point, and never suspecting

that the fault was not with them and there wasn't any to see.



You can see by these things that she was of a rather vain and frivolous

character; still, she had virtues, and enough to make up, I think. She

had a kind heart and gentle ways, and never harbored resentments for

injuries done her, but put them easily out of her mind and forgot them;

and she taught her children her kindly way, and from her we learned also

to be brave and prompt in time of danger, and not to run away, but face

the peril that threatened friend or stranger, and help him the best we

could without stopping to think what the cost might be to us. And she

taught us not by words only, but by example, and that is the best way

and the surest and the most lasting. Why, the brave things she did, the

splendid things! she was just a soldier; and so modest about it--well,

you couldn't help admiring her, and you couldn't help imitating her;

not even a King Charles spaniel could remain entirely despicable in her

society. So, as you see, there was more to her than her education.







CHAPTER II



When I was well grown, at last, I was sold and taken away, and I never

saw her again. She was broken-hearted, and so was I, and we cried; but

she comforted me as well as she could, and said we were sent into

this world for a wise and good purpose, and must do our duties without

repining, take our life as we might find it, live it for the best good

of others, and never mind about the results; they were not our affair.

She said men who did like this would have a noble and beautiful reward

by and by in another world, and although we animals would not go there,

to do well and right without reward would give to our brief lives

a worthiness and dignity which in itself would be a reward. She had

gathered these things from time to time when she had gone to the

Sunday-school with the children, and had laid them up in her memory more

carefully than she had done with those other words and phrases; and she

had studied them deeply, for her good and ours. One may see by this that

she had a wise and thoughtful head, for all there was so much lightness

and vanity in it.



So we said our farewells, and looked our last upon each other through

our tears; and the last thing she said--keeping it for the last to make

me remember it the better, I think--was, "In memory of me, when there

is a time of danger to another do not think of yourself, think of your

mother, and do as she would do."



Do you think I could forget that? No.







CHAPTER III



It was such a charming home!--my new one; a fine great house, with

pictures, and delicate decorations, and rich furniture, and no gloom

anywhere, but all the wilderness of dainty colors lit up with flooding

sunshine; and the spacious grounds around it, and the great garden--oh,

greensward, and noble trees, and flowers, no end! And I was the same as

a member of the family; and they loved me, and petted me, and did not

give me a new name, but called me by my old one that was dear to me

because my mother had given it me--Aileen Mavoureen. She got it out of a

song; and the Grays knew that song, and said it was a beautiful name.



Mrs. Gray was thirty, and so sweet and so lovely, you cannot imagine

it; and Sadie was ten, and just like her mother, just a darling slender

little copy of her, with auburn tails down her back, and short frocks;

and the baby was a year old, and plump and dimpled, and fond of me,

and never could get enough of hauling on my tail, and hugging me, and

laughing out its innocent happiness; and Mr. Gray was thirty-eight, and

tall and slender and handsome, a little bald in front, alert, quick in

his movements, business-like, prompt, decided, unsentimental, and with

that kind of trim-chiseled face that just seems to glint and sparkle

with frosty intellectuality! He was a renowned scientist. I do not know

what the word means, but my mother would know how to use it and get

effects. She would know how to depress a rat-terrier with it and make a

lap-dog look sorry he came. But that is not the best one; the best one

was Laboratory. My mother could organize a Trust on that one that would

skin the tax-collars off the whole herd. The laboratory was not a

book, or a picture, or a place to wash your hands in, as the college

president's dog said--no, that is the lavatory; the laboratory is quite

different, and is filled with jars, and bottles, and electrics, and

wires, and strange machines; and every week other scientists came there

and sat in the place, and used the machines, and discussed, and made

what they called experiments and discoveries; and often I came, too,

and stood around and listened, and tried to learn, for the sake of my

mother, and in loving memory of her, although it was a pain to me, as

realizing what she was losing out of her life and I gaining nothing at

all; for try as I might, I was never able to make anything out of it at

all.



Other times I lay on the floor in the mistress's work-room and slept,

she gently using me for a foot-stool, knowing it pleased me, for it

was a caress; other times I spent an hour in the nursery, and got well

tousled and made happy; other times I watched by the crib there, when

the baby was asleep and the nurse out for a few minutes on the baby's

affairs; other times I romped and raced through the grounds and the

garden with Sadie till we were tired out, then slumbered on the grass in

the shade of a tree while she read her book; other times I went visiting

among the neighbor dogs--for there were some most pleasant ones not

far away, and one very handsome and courteous and graceful one,

a curly-haired Irish setter by the name of Robin Adair, who was a

Presbyterian like me, and belonged to the Scotch minister.



The servants in our house were all kind to me and were fond of me, and

so, as you see, mine was a pleasant life. There could not be a happier

dog that I was, nor a gratefuler one. I will say this for myself, for it

is only the truth: I tried in all ways to do well and right, and honor

my mother's memory and her teachings, and earn the happiness that had

come to me, as best I could.



By and by came my little puppy, and then my cup was full, my happiness

was perfect. It was the dearest little waddling thing, and so smooth

and soft and velvety, and had such cunning little awkward paws, and such

affectionate eyes, and such a sweet and innocent face; and it made me

so proud to see how the children and their mother adored it, and fondled

it, and exclaimed over every little wonderful thing it did. It did seem

to me that life was just too lovely to--



Then came the winter. One day I was standing a watch in the nursery.

That is to say, I was asleep on the bed. The baby was asleep in the

crib, which was alongside the bed, on the side next the fireplace. It

was the kind of crib that has a lofty tent over it made of gauzy stuff

that you can see through. The nurse was out, and we two sleepers were

alone. A spark from the wood-fire was shot out, and it lit on the slope

of the tent. I suppose a quiet interval followed, then a scream from the

baby awoke me, and there was that tent flaming up toward the ceiling!

Before I could think, I sprang to the floor in my fright, and in a

second was half-way to the door; but in the next half-second my mother's

farewell was sounding in my ears, and I was back on the bed again.,

I reached my head through the flames and dragged the baby out by the

waist-band, and tugged it along, and we fell to the floor together in a

cloud of smoke; I snatched a new hold, and dragged the screaming little

creature along and out at the door and around the bend of the hall,

and was still tugging away, all excited and happy and proud, when the

master's voice shouted:



"Begone you cursed beast!" and I jumped to save myself; but he was

furiously quick, and chased me up, striking furiously at me with his

cane, I dodging this way and that, in terror, and at last a strong

blow fell upon my left foreleg, which made me shriek and fall, for

the moment, helpless; the cane went up for another blow, but never

descended, for the nurse's voice rang wildly out, "The nursery's on

fire!" and the master rushed away in that direction, and my other bones

were saved.



The pain was cruel, but, no matter, I must not lose any time; he might

come back at any moment; so I limped on three legs to the other end

of the hall, where there was a dark little stairway leading up into a

garret where old boxes and such things were kept, as I had heard say,

and where people seldom went. I managed to climb up there, then I

searched my way through the dark among the piles of things, and hid in

the secretest place I could find. It was foolish to be afraid there, yet

still I was; so afraid that I held in and hardly even whimpered, though

it would have been such a comfort to whimper, because that eases the

pain, you know. But I could lick my leg, and that did some good.



For half an hour there was a commotion downstairs, and shoutings,

and rushing footsteps, and then there was quiet again. Quiet for some

minutes, and that was grateful to my spirit, for then my fears began

to go down; and fears are worse than pains--oh, much worse. Then came a

sound that froze me. They were calling me--calling me by name--hunting

for me!



It was muffled by distance, but that could not take the terror out of

it, and it was the most dreadful sound to me that I had ever heard. It

went all about, everywhere, down there: along the halls, through all

the rooms, in both stories, and in the basement and the cellar; then

outside, and farther and farther away--then back, and all about the

house again, and I thought it would never, never stop. But at last it

did, hours and hours after the vague twilight of the garret had long ago

been blotted out by black darkness.



Then in that blessed stillness my terrors fell little by little away,

and I was at peace and slept. It was a good rest I had, but I woke

before the twilight had come again. I was feeling fairly comfortable,

and I could think out a plan now. I made a very good one; which was, to

creep down, all the way down the back stairs, and hide behind the cellar

door, and slip out and escape when the iceman came at dawn, while he was

inside filling the refrigerator; then I would hide all day, and start

on my journey when night came; my journey to--well, anywhere where they

would not know me and betray me to the master. I was feeling almost

cheerful now; then suddenly I thought: Why, what would life be without

my puppy!



That was despair. There was no plan for me; I saw that; I must say where

I was; stay, and wait, and take what might come--it was not my affair;

that was what life is--my mother had said it. Then--well, then the

calling began again! All my sorrows came back. I said to myself, the

master will never forgive. I did not know what I had done to make him so

bitter and so unforgiving, yet I judged it was something a dog could not

understand, but which was clear to a man and dreadful.



They called and called--days and nights, it seemed to me. So long that

the hunger and thirst near drove me mad, and I recognized that I was

getting very weak. When you are this way you sleep a great deal, and I

did. Once I woke in an awful fright--it seemed to me that the calling

was right there in the garret! And so it was: it was Sadie's voice,

and she was crying; my name was falling from her lips all broken, poor

thing, and I could not believe my ears for the joy of it when I heard

her say:



"Come back to us--oh, come back to us, and forgive--it is all so sad

without our--"



I broke in with _such _a grateful little yelp, and the next moment

Sadie was plunging and stumbling through the darkness and the lumber and

shouting for the family to hear, "She's found, she's found!"



The days that followed--well, they were wonderful. The mother and Sadie

and the servants--why, they just seemed to worship me. They couldn't

seem to make me a bed that was fine enough; and as for food, they

couldn't be satisfied with anything but game and delicacies that were

out of season; and every day the friends and neighbors flocked in to

hear about my heroism--that was the name they called it by, and it

means agriculture. I remember my mother pulling it on a kennel once, and

explaining it in that way, but didn't say what agriculture was, except

that it was synonymous with intramural incandescence; and a dozen times

a day Mrs. Gray and Sadie would tell the tale to new-comers, and say I

risked my life to save the baby's, and both of us had burns to prove it,

and then the company would pass me around and pet me and exclaim about

me, and you could see the pride in the eyes of Sadie and her mother; and

when the people wanted to know what made me limp, they looked ashamed

and changed the subject, and sometimes when people hunted them this way

and that way with questions about it, it looked to me as if they were

going to cry.



And this was not all the glory; no, the master's friends came, a whole

twenty of the most distinguished people, and had me in the laboratory,

and discussed me as if I was a kind of discovery; and some of them said

it was wonderful in a dumb beast, the finest exhibition of instinct they

could call to mind; but the master said, with vehemence, "It's far above

instinct; it's _reason_, and many a man, privileged to be saved and go

with you and me to a better world by right of its possession, has less

of it that this poor silly quadruped that's foreordained to perish"; and

then he laughed, and said: "Why, look at me--I'm a sarcasm! bless you,

with all my grand intelligence, the only thing I inferred was that

the dog had gone mad and was destroying the child, whereas but for the

beast's intelligence--it's _reason_, I tell you!--the child would have

perished!"



They disputed and disputed, and _I_ was the very center of subject of it

all, and I wished my mother could know that this grand honor had come to

me; it would have made her proud.



Then they discussed optics, as they called it, and whether a certain

injury to the brain would produce blindness or not, but they could not

agree about it, and said they must test it by experiment by and by;

and next they discussed plants, and that interested me, because in the

summer Sadie and I had planted seeds--I helped her dig the holes, you

know--and after days and days a little shrub or a flower came up there,

and it was a wonder how that could happen; but it did, and I wished I

could talk--I would have told those people about it and shown then how

much I knew, and been all alive with the subject; but I didn't care for

the optics; it was dull, and when they came back to it again it bored

me, and I went to sleep.



Pretty soon it was spring, and sunny and pleasant and lovely, and the

sweet mother and the children patted me and the puppy good-by, and went

away on a journey and a visit to their kin, and the master wasn't any

company for us, but we played together and had good times, and the

servants were kind and friendly, so we got along quite happily and

counted the days and waited for the family.



And one day those men came again, and said, now for the test, and they

took the puppy to the laboratory, and I limped three-leggedly along,

too, feeling proud, for any attention shown to the puppy was a pleasure

to me, of course. They discussed and experimented, and then suddenly the

puppy shrieked, and they set him on the floor, and he went staggering

around, with his head all bloody, and the master clapped his hands and

shouted:



"There, I've won--confess it! He's a blind as a bat!"



And they all said:



"It's so--you've proved your theory, and suffering humanity owes you a

great debt from henceforth," and they crowded around him, and wrung his

hand cordially and thankfully, and praised him.



But I hardly saw or heard these things, for I ran at once to my little

darling, and snuggled close to it where it lay, and licked the blood,

and it put its head against mine, whimpering softly, and I knew in

my heart it was a comfort to it in its pain and trouble to feel its

mother's touch, though it could not see me. Then it dropped down,

presently, and its little velvet nose rested upon the floor, and it was

still, and did not move any more.



Soon the master stopped discussing a moment, and rang in the footman,

and said, "Bury it in the far corner of the garden," and then went on

with the discussion, and I trotted after the footman, very happy and

grateful, for I knew the puppy was out of its pain now, because it

was asleep. We went far down the garden to the farthest end, where the

children and the nurse and the puppy and I used to play in the summer in

the shade of a great elm, and there the footman dug a hole, and I saw he

was going to plant the puppy, and I was glad, because it would grow

and come up a fine handsome dog, like Robin Adair, and be a beautiful

surprise for the family when they came home; so I tried to help him dig,

but my lame leg was no good, being stiff, you know, and you have to have

two, or it is no use. When the footman had finished and covered little

Robin up, he patted my head, and there were tears in his eyes, and he

said: "Poor little doggie, you saved _his _child!"



I have watched two whole weeks, and he doesn't come up! This last week

a fright has been stealing upon me. I think there is something terrible

about this. I do not know what it is, but the fear makes me sick, and I

cannot eat, though the servants bring me the best of food; and they pet

me so, and even come in the night, and cry, and say, "Poor doggie--do

give it up and come home; _don't_ break our hearts!" and all this

terrifies me the more, and makes me sure something has happened. And

I am so weak; since yesterday I cannot stand on my feet anymore. And

within this hour the servants, looking toward the sun where it was

sinking out of sight and the night chill coming on, said things I could

not understand, but they carried something cold to my heart.



"Those poor creatures! They do not suspect. They will come home in the

morning, and eagerly ask for the little doggie that did the brave deed,

and who of us will be strong enough to say the truth to them: 'The

humble little friend is gone where go the beasts that perish.'"

THE FIRST WRITING-MACHINES

		

		

		

From My Unpublished Autobiography



Some days ago a correspondent sent in an old typewritten sheet, faded by

age, containing the following letter over the signature of Mark Twain:



"Hartford, March 10, 1875.



"Please do not use my name in any way. Please do not even divulge that

fact that I own a machine. I have entirely stopped using the typewriter,

for the reason that I never could write a letter with it to anybody

without receiving a request by return mail that I would not only

describe the machine, but state what progress I had made in the use of

it, etc., etc. I don't like to write letters, and so I don't want people

to know I own this curiosity-breeding little joker."



A note was sent to Mr. Clemens asking him if the letter was genuine

and whether he really had a typewriter as long ago as that. Mr.

Clemens replied that his best answer is the following chapter from his

unpublished autobiography:



1904. VILLA QUARTO, FLORENCE, JANUARY.



Dictating autobiography to a typewriter is a new experience for me, but

it goes very well, and is going to save time and "language"--the kind of

language that soothes vexation.



I have dictated to a typewriter before--but not autobiography. Between

that experience and the present one there lies a mighty gap--more than

thirty years! It is a sort of lifetime. In that wide interval much

has happened--to the type-machine as well as to the rest of us. At the

beginning of that interval a type-machine was a curiosity. The person

who owned one was a curiosity, too. But now it is the other way about:

the person who _doesn't_ own one is a curiosity. I saw a type-machine

for the first time in--what year? I suppose it was 1873--because

Nasby was with me at the time, and it was in Boston. We must have been

lecturing, or we could not have been in Boston, I take it. I quitted the

platform that season.



But never mind about that, it is no matter. Nasby and I saw the machine

through a window, and went in to look at it. The salesman explained it

to us, showed us samples of its work, and said it could do fifty-seven

words a minute--a statement which we frankly confessed that we did not

believe. So he put his type-girl to work, and we timed her by the

watch. She actually did the fifty-seven in sixty seconds. We were partly

convinced, but said it probably couldn't happen again. But it did. We

timed the girl over and over again--with the same result always: she won

out. She did her work on narrow slips of paper, and we pocketed them as

fast as she turned them out, to show as curiosities. The price of the

machine was one hundred and twenty-five dollars. I bought one, and we

went away very much excited.



At the hotel we got out our slips and were a little disappointed to find

that they contained the same words. The girl had economized time

and labor by using a formula which she knew by heart. However, we

argued--safely enough--that the _first _type-girl must naturally take

rank with the first billiard-player: neither of them could be expected

to get out of the game any more than a third or a half of what was in

it. If the machine survived--_if_ it survived--experts would come to the

front, by and by, who would double the girl's output without a doubt.

They would do one hundred words a minute--my talking speed on the

platform. That score has long ago been beaten.



At home I played with the toy, repeating and repeating and repeating

"The Boy stood on the Burning Deck," until I could turn that boy's

adventure out at the rate of twelve words a minute; then I resumed the

pen, for business, and only worked the machine to astonish inquiring

visitors. They carried off many reams of the boy and his burning deck.



By and by I hired a young woman, and did my first dictating (letters,

merely), and my last until now. The machine did not do both capitals and

lower case (as now), but only capitals. Gothic capitals they were, and

sufficiently ugly. I remember the first letter I dictated, it was to

Edward Bok, who was a boy then. I was not acquainted with him at that

time. His present enterprising spirit is not new--he had it in that

early day. He was accumulating autographs, and was not content with mere

signatures, he wanted a whole autograph _letter_. I furnished it--in

type-written capitals, _signature and all._ It was long; it was a

sermon; it contained advice; also reproaches. I said writing was my

_trade_, my bread-and-butter; I said it was not fair to ask a man

to give away samples of his trade; would he ask the blacksmith for a

horseshoe? would he ask the doctor for a corpse?



Now I come to an important matter--as I regard it. In the year '74

the young woman copied a considerable part of a book of mine _on the

machine_. In a previous chapter of this Autobiography I have claimed

that I was the first person in the world that ever had a telephone

in the house for practical purposes; I will now claim--until

dispossessed--that I was the first person in the world to _apply the

type-machine to literature_. That book must have been _The Adventures Of

Tom Sawyer._ I wrote the first half of it in '72, the rest of it in '74.

My machinist type-copied a book for me in '74, so I concluded it was

that one.



That early machine was full of caprices, full of defects--devilish ones.

It had as many immoralities as the machine of today has virtues. After

a year or two I found that it was degrading my character, so I thought

I would give it to Howells. He was reluctant, for he was suspicious of

novelties and unfriendly toward them, and he remains so to this day. But

I persuaded him. He had great confidence in me, and I got him to believe

things about the machine that I did not believe myself. He took it home

to Boston, and my morals began to improve, but his have never recovered.



He kept it six months, and then returned it to me. I gave it away twice

after that, but it wouldn't stay; it came back. Then I gave it to our

coachman, Patrick McAleer, who was very grateful, because he did not

know the animal, and thought I was trying to make him wiser and better.

As soon as he got wiser and better he traded it to a heretic for a

side-saddle which he could not use, and there my knowledge of its

history ends.

		

		

		

		  

THE FIVE BOONS OF LIFE

		

		

		

Chapter I



In the morning of life came a good fairy with her basket, and said:



"Here are gifts. Take one, leave the others. And be wary, choose wisely;

oh, choose wisely! for only one of them is valuable."



The gifts were five: Fame, Love, Riches, Pleasure, Death. The youth

said, eagerly:



"There is no need to consider"; and he chose Pleasure.



He went out into the world and sought out the pleasures that youth

delights in. But each in its turn was short-lived and disappointing,

vain and empty; and each, departing, mocked him. In the end he said:

"These years I have wasted. If I could but choose again, I would choose

wisely."







Chapter II



The fairy appeared, and said:



"Four of the gifts remain. Choose once more; and oh, remember--time is

flying, and only one of them is precious."



The man considered long, then chose Love; and did not mark the tears

that rose in the fairy's eyes.



After many, many years the man sat by a coffin, in an empty home. And he

communed with himself, saying: "One by one they have gone away and left

me; and now she lies here, the dearest and the last. Desolation after

desolation has swept over me; for each hour of happiness the treacherous

trader, Love, has sold me I have paid a thousand hours of grief. Out of

my heart of hearts I curse him."







Chapter III



"Choose again." It was the fairy speaking.



"The years have taught you wisdom--surely it must be so. Three gifts

remain. Only one of them has any worth--remember it, and choose warily."



The man reflected long, then chose Fame; and the fairy, sighing, went

her way.



Years went by and she came again, and stood behind the man where he sat

solitary in the fading day, thinking. And she knew his thought:



"My name filled the world, and its praises were on every tongue, and it

seemed well with me for a little while. How little a while it was! Then

came envy; then detraction; then calumny; then hate; then persecution.

Then derision, which is the beginning of the end. And last of all came

pity, which is the funeral of fame. Oh, the bitterness and misery of

renown! target for mud in its prime, for contempt and compassion in its

decay."







Chapter IV



"Chose yet again." It was the fairy's voice.



"Two gifts remain. And do not despair. In the beginning there was but

one that was precious, and it is still here."



"Wealth--which is power! How blind I was!" said the man. "Now, at last,

life will be worth the living. I will spend, squander, dazzle. These

mockers and despisers will crawl in the dirt before me, and I will feed

my hungry heart with their envy. I will have all luxuries, all joys, all

enchantments of the spirit, all contentments of the body that man holds

dear. I will buy, buy, buy! deference, respect, esteem, worship--every

pinchbeck grace of life the market of a trivial world can furnish forth.

I have lost much time, and chosen badly heretofore, but let that pass; I

was ignorant then, and could but take for best what seemed so."



Three short years went by, and a day came when the man sat shivering in

a mean garret; and he was gaunt and wan and hollow-eyed, and clothed in

rags; and he was gnawing a dry crust and mumbling:



"Curse all the world's gifts, for mockeries and gilded lies! And

miscalled, every one. They are not gifts, but merely lendings. Pleasure,

Love, Fame, Riches: they are but temporary disguises for lasting

realities--Pain, Grief, Shame, Poverty. The fairy said true; in all her

store there was but one gift which was precious, only one that was not

valueless. How poor and cheap and mean I know those others now to be,

compared with that inestimable one, that dear and sweet and kindly one,

that steeps in dreamless and enduring sleep the pains that persecute the

body, and the shames and griefs that eat the mind and heart. Bring it! I

am weary, I would rest."







Chapter V



The fairy came, bringing again four of the gifts, but Death was wanting.

She said:



"I gave it to a mother's pet, a little child. It was ignorant, but

trusted me, asking me to choose for it. You did not ask me to choose."



"Oh, miserable me! What is left for me?"



"What not even you have deserved: the wanton insult of Old Age."

		

		

		

		  



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Gloomy place

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Lonely night

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