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NicholasSynovic
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kingdom would drink at eat before dawn and lie up in the day s heat the and forest guards lived in little huts far away in the only appearing when one of them had been injured by a falling tree or a wild beast there was alone in spring the put out few new leaves but lay dry and still by the finger of the year waiting for rain only there was then more calling and roaring in the dark on a quiet night the tumult of a battle royal among the the of an buck or the steady of an old his against a then laid aside his gun altogether for it was to him a sin to kill in summer through the furious may the in the haze and watched for the by ic first sign of curling smoke that should betray a forest fire then came the rains with a roar and the was blotted out in fetch after fetch of warm mist and the broad leaves the night through under the big drops and there was a noise of running water and of green stuff where the wind struck it and the lightning patterns behind the dense of the foliage till the sun broke loose again and the stood with hot smoking to the newly washed sky then the heat and the dry cold subdued everything to tiger colour again so learned to know his and was very happy his pay came month by month but he had very little need for money the notes accumulated in the drawer where he kept his home letters and the machine if he drew anything it was to make a purchase from the gardens or to pay a s widow a sum that the government of india would never have payment was good but vengeance was also necessary and he took it when he could one night of many nights a breathless and gasping came to him with the news that a forest guard lay dead by the stream the side of his head smashed in as though it had been an egg went out at dawn to look for the murderer it is only travellers and now and then young soldiers who are known to the world as great hunt by ic in th era the forest officers take their r as part of the day s work and no one hears of it went on foot to the place of the kill the widow was wailing over the corpse as it lay on a while two or three men were looking at on the moist ground that is the bed one said a man i knew he would turn to man in time but surely there is game enough even for him this must have been done for the bed one lies up in the at the back of the trees said he knew the tiger under suspicion not now not now he will be raging and to and fro that the first kill is a triple kill always our blood makes them mad he may be behind us even as we speak he may have gone to the next hut said another it is only four who is this turned with the others a man was walking down the dried bed of the stream naked except for the cloth but crowned with a wreath of the blossoms of the white so noiselessly did he move over the little pebbles that even used to the of started the tiger that killed he began without any salute has gone to drink and now he is asleep under a rock beyond that hill his voice was clear and bell like utterly from the usual by ic many of the native and his face as he lifted it in the sunshine might have been that of an angel strayed among the woods the widow ceased wailing above the corpse and looked round eyed at the stranger returning to her duty with double strength shall i show the he said simply if thou art began sure indeed i saw him only an hour ago the dog it is before his time to eat man s flesh he has yet a dozen sound teeth in his evil head the men kneeling above the off quietly for fear that should ask them to go with him and the young man laughed a little to himself come he cried and turned on his heel walking before his companion not so fast i cannot keep that pace said the white man halt there thy face is new to me that may be i am but newly come into this forest from what village i am without a village i came from over there he flung out his arm towards the north a then no i am a man without caste and for matter of that without a father what do men call thee and what is the name by ic m ths i am the of this is my name how do they number the trees and blades of grass here even so lest such fellows as thou set them ii i would not hurt the for any gift that is my home he turned to with a smile that was irresistible and held up a warning hand now we must go a little quietly there is no need to wake the dog though he sleeps heavily enough perhaps it were better if i went forward alone and drove him down wind to the i since when have been driven to and fro like cattle by naked men said aghast at the man s audacity he laughed again softly nay then come along with me and shoot him in thy own way with the big english rifle stepped in his guide s track twisted crawled and and stooped and suffered through all the many agonies of a stalk he was purple and dripping	39
with sweat when at the last bade him raise his head and peer over a blue baked rock near a tiny hill pool by the water side lay the tiger extended and at ease lazily clean again an enormous elbow and fore by ic many he was old yellow and not a little but in that setting and sunshine imposing enough had no false ideas of i where a man was concerned this thing was to be killed as speedily as possible he waited to recover his breath rested the rifle on the rock and whistled the brute s head turned slowly not twenty feet from the rifle mouth and planted his shots business like one behind the shoulder and the other a little below the eye at that range the heavy bones were no guard against the bullets well the skin was not worth keeping at any rate said he as the smoke cleared away and the beast lay kicking and gasping in the last agony a dog s death for a dog said quietly indeed there is nothing in that worth the taking away the whiskers dost thou not take the whiskers said who knew how the valued such things i p am i a of the to die with a tiger s let him lie here come his friends already a dropping whistled overhead as snapped out the empty shells and wiped his face and if thou art not where thou by ic ik the s learn thy knowledge of the tiger said he no could have done better i hate all said let the give me his gun to carry it is a very fine one and where does the go now f to my house may i come i have never yet looked within a white man s house returned to his noiselessly before him his brown skin glistening in the sunlight he stared curiously at the and the two chairs there the split shade curtains with suspicion and entered looking always behind him a curtain to keep out the sun it dropped with a clatter but almost before it had touched the of the had leaped clear and was standing with heaving chest in the open it is a trap he said quickly laughed white men do not trap men indeed thou art altogether of the i see said it has neither catch nor fall i i never beheld these things till to day he came in on and stared with large eyes at the furniture of the two rooms who was laying lunch looked at him with deep disgust so much trouble to eat and so much trouble to by ic many lie down after you have eaten i said with a grin we do better in the it is very wonderful there are very many rich things here is the not afraid that he may be robbed i have never seen such wonderful things he was staring at a dusty brass plate on a only a thief from the would rob here said setting down a plate with a clatter opened his eyes wide and stared at the white bearded in my country when very loud we cut their throats he returned cheerfully but have no fear thou i am going he turned and disappeared into the looked after him with a laugh that ended in a little sigh there was not much outside regular work to interest a forest officer and this son of the forest who seemed to know as other people know dogs would have been a diversion he s a most wonderful chap thought he s like the illustrations in the classical dictionary i wish i could have made him a gun boy there s no fun in alone and this fellow would have been a perfect i wonder what in the world he is that evening he sat on the under the stairs smoking as he wondered a puff of smoke curled from the pipe bowl as it cleared he was aware of sitting with arms crossed on the by ic in ths ss ge a ghost could not have drifted up more noiselessly started and let the pipe drop there is no man to talk to out there in the ru v said i came here therefore he picked up the pipe and returned it to oh said and after a long pause what news is there in the f hast thou found another tiger the are changing their feeding ground against the new moon as is their custom the pig are feeding near the river now because they will not feed with the and one of their has been killed by a in the long grass at the water head i do not know any more and how thou know all these things said leaning forward and looking at the eyes that burned in the how should i not know the has his custom and his use and a child knows that pig will not feed with him i do not know this said i and thou art in so the men of the huts tell in charge of all this he laughed to himself it is well enough to talk and to tell child s tales retorted at the chuckle to say that this and that goes on in the no man can deny thee by ic as for the sow s i will show thee her bones to morrow returned absolutely unmoved touching the matter of the if the will sit here very still i will drive one up to this place and by listening to the sounds carefully the can tell whence that has been driven the has made thee mad said who can drive sit still then i go the man s a ghost said for had faded out into the darkness and there was no sound of feet the lay out in great folds in the uncertain of	39
the so still that the least little wandering wind among the tree tops came up as the sigh of a child sleeping ur in the cook house was plates together be still there shouted and composed himself to listen as a man can who is used to the stillness of the it had been his custom to preserve self respect in his to dress for dinner each night and the stiff white shirt front with his regular breathing till he shifted a little sideways then the tobacco of a somewhat foul pipe began to and he threw the pipe from him now except for the night breath in the everything was dumb from an inconceivable distance and by ic ik the ss through darkness came the faint echo of a howl then silence again for it seemed long hours at last when his feet below the knee had lost all feeling heard something that might have been a crash far off through the he doubted till it was repeated again and yet again that s from the west he muttered there s something on foot there the noise increased crash on crash plunge on plunge with the thick of a hotly pressed flying in panic terror and taking no heed to his feet a shadow out from between the tree trunks wheeled back turned again and with a clatter on the bare ground dashed up almost within reach of his hand it was a bull dripping with his hung with a torn trail of his eyes shining in the light from the house the creature checked at sight of the man and fled along the edge of the till he melted in the darkness the first idea in s bewildered mind was the of thus dragging out for inspection the big blue bull of the the putting him through his paces in the night which should have been his own then said a level voice at his ear he came from the water head where he was leading the herd from the west he came does the believe now or shall i bring up the herd by ic to be counted the is in charge of had himself on the breathing a little quickly looked at him with open month how was that accomplished he said the saw the bull was driven as a is he will have a fine tale to tell when he returns to the herd that is a new trick to me thou run as swiftly as the then the has seen if the needs more knowledge at any time of the of the game i am here this is a good and i shall stay stay then and if thou hast need of a meal at any time my servants shall give thee one yes indeed i am fond of cooked food answered quickly no man may say that i do not eat boiled and roast as much as any other man i will come for that meal now on my part i that the shall sleep safely in his house by night and no thief shall break in to carry away his so rich treasures the conversation ended itself on s abrupt departure sat long smoking and the of his thoughts was that in he had found at last that ideal and forest guard for whom he and the department were always looking by ic in the i must get him into the service somehow a man who can drive would know more about the than fifty men he s a a but a forest guard he must be if hell only settle down in one place said s opinion was less favourable he confided to at that strangers from gk d knew where were more than likely to be pro thieves and that he personally did not approve of naked who had not the proper manner of addressing white i laughed and bade him go to his quarters and retreated growling later in the night he found occasion to rise up and beat his thirteen daughter nobody knew the cause of dispute but heard the cry through the days that followed came and went like a shadow he had established himself and his wild housekeeping close to the but on the edge of the where going out on to the for a breath of cool air would see him sometimes sitting in the moonlight his forehead on his knees or lying out along the fling of a branch closely pressed to it as some beast of the night thence would throw him a salutation and bid him sleep at ease or descending would prodigious stories of the manners of the beasts in the once he strayed by ic many into the stables and was found looking at the horses with deep interest that said i is sure sign that some day he will steal one why if he lives about this house does he not take an honest employment but no he must wander up and down like a loose turning the heads of fools and opening the jaws of the unwise to folly so would give harsh orders to when they met would bid him fetch water and pluck fowls and laughing would obey he has no caste said he will do anything look to it that he does not do too much a snake is a snake and a is a thief till the death be silent thou said i allow thee to correct thy own household if there is not too much noise because i know thy customs and use my custom thou dost not know the man is without doubt a little mad very little mad indeed said but we shall see what comes thereof a few days later on his business took into the for three days being old and fat was left at home he did not approve of lying up in huts and	39
was inclined to in his master s name of grain and oil and milk from those who could ill afford such by ic rode off early one dawn a little annoyed that his man of the woods was not at the to accompany him he liked liked his strength and silence of foot and his ever ready open smile his ignorance of all forms of ceremony and and the tales that he would tell and would credit now of what the game was doing in the after an hour s riding through the he heard a rustle behind him and trotted at his we have a three days work toward said among the new trees good said it is always good to cherish young trees they make cover if the beasts leave them alone we must shift the pig again again how smiled oh they were and among the young last night and i drove them off therefore i did not come to the this morning the pig should not be on this side of the at all we must keep them below the head of the river if a man could herd clouds he might do that thing but if as thou thou art in the for no gain and for no pay it is the s said quickly looking up nodded thanks and went on would it not be better to work for pay from the by ic many g there is a at the end of long service of that i have thought said bnt the live in with doors and all that is all to much a trap to me yet i think think well then and tell me later here we will stay for breakfast dismounted took his morning meal from his home made saddle bags and saw the day open hot above the lay in the grass at his side staring up to the sky presently he said in a lazy whisper is there any order at the to take out the white mare to day no she is fat and old and a little lame beside why she is being ridden now and not slowly on the road that runs to the railway line that is two away it is a put up his to keep the sun out of his eyes the road curves in with a big curve from the it is not more than a at the farthest as the goes and sound flies with the birds shall we see what folly i to go a in this sun to see a noise in the forest nay the pony is the s pony i meant by ic the only to bring her here if she is not the s pony no matter if she is the can do what he wills she is certainly being ridden fast and how wilt bring her here madman has the forgotten by the road of the and no other up then and run if thou art so full of zeal oh i do not run he put out his hand to sign for silence and still lying on his back called aloud with a long cry that was new to she will come he said at the end let us wait in the shade the long drooped over the wild eyes as began to in the morning hush waited patiently was surely mad but as entertaining a companion as a lonely forest officer could desire ho ho said lazily with shut eyes he has dropped oflf well first the mare will come and then the man then he yawned as s pony three minutes later s white mare but tore into the where they were sitting and hurried to her companion she is not very warm said but in this heat the sweat comes easily presently we shall see her rider for a man goes more slowly than a horse especially if he chance to be a fat man and old this is the devil s work cried by ic many borne leaping to his feet for lie heard a yell in the have no care he will not be hurt he also will say that it is devil s work ah listen who is that it was the voice of ur in an agony of terror crying out upon unknown things to spare him and his gray hairs nay i cannot move another step he howled i am old and my is lost but i will move indeed i will hasten i will run oh devils of the pit i am a the parted and revealed with his waist cloth mud and grass in his clutched hands and his face purple he saw anew and pitched forwards exhausted and quivering at his feet watched him with a sweet smile this is no joke said sternly the man is like to die he will not die he is only afraid there was no need that he should have come out of a walk groaned and rose up shaking in every limb it was and he sobbed with his hand in his breast because of my sin i have been whipped through the woods by devils it is all finished i repent by ic m the take them he held out a roll of dirty paper what is the meaning of this said already knowing what would come put me in the jail the notes are all here but lock me up safely that no devils may follow i have against the and his salt which i have eaten and but for those accursed i might have bought land afar off and lived in peace all my days he bent his head upon the ground in an agony of despair nd mortification turned the roll of notes over and over it was his accumulated back pay for the last nine months the roll that lay in the drawer with the home	39
letters and the machine watched ur laughing noiselessly to himself there is no need to put me on the horse again i will walk home slowly with the and then he can send me under guard to the the government gives many years for this offence said the butler sullenly loneliness in the affects very many ideas about very many things stared at remembering that he was a very good servant and that a new butler must be broken into the ways of the house from the beginning and at the best would be a new face and a new tongue listen ur he said thou hast done great wrong and altogether lost thy and thy by ic inventions reputation but i know that this came upon thee suddenly al l a h i had never desired the notes before the evil took me by the throat while i that also i can believe go then back to my house and when i return i will send the notes by a to the bank and there shall be no more said thou art too old for the jail also thy household is for answer sobbed between s riding boots is there no dismissal then he that we shall see it hangs upon thy conduct when we return get upon the mare and ride slowly back the is full of devils i no matter my father they will do thee no more harm unless indeed the s orders be not obeyed said then perchance they may drive thee home by the road of the s lower jaw dropped as he twisted up his waist cloth staring at are they his devils his and i had thought to return and put the blame upon this war lock that was well thought of but before we make a trap we see first how big the game is that may fall into it now i thought no more than that a man had taken one of the s horses i by ic thb s s did not know that the design was to make me a thief before the or my devils had thee here by the leg it is not too late now looked at but hastily to the white mare scrambled on her back and fled the crashing and echoing behind him that was well done said but he will fall again unless he holds by the mane now it is time to tell me what these things mean said a little sternly what is this talk of thy devils how can men be driven up and down the like cattle give answer is the angry because i have saved him his money no but there is in this that does not please me very good now if i rose and stepped three paces into the there is no one not even the could find me till i choose as i would not willingly do this so i would not willingly tell have patience a little and some day i will show thee everything for if thou wilt some day we will drive the buck together there is no in the matter at all only i know the as a man knows the cooking place in his house was speaking as he would si to an impatient child puzzled and not a little annoyed said nothing but stared on the by ic many inventions ground and thought when he looked np the man of the woods had gone it is not good said a calm voice from the for friends to be angry wait till the evening when the air left to himself thus dropped as it were in the heart of the swore then laughed his pony and rode on he visited a s hut overlooked a couple of new left some orders as to the burning of a patch of dry grass and set out for a ground of his own choice a pile of rocks roughly over with branches and leaves not far from the banks of the stream it was twilight when he came in sight of his resting place and the was waking to the hushed life of the night a camp fire on the and there was the smell of a very good dinner in the wind um said that s better than cold meat at any rate now the only man who d be likely to be here d be and he ought to be looking over the i suppose that s why he s on my ground tke gigantic german who was the head of the woods and forests of all india head from to had a habit of flitting bat like without warning from one place to another and turning up exactly where he was least looked for by ic ik the his theory was that sudden the discovery of and a word of mouth of a subordinate were infinitely better than the slow processes of correspondence which might end in a written and official a thing in after years to be counted against a forest officer s record as he explained it if i only talk to my boys like a dutch say it was only dot damned old and do better next but if my fat head clerk he write and say dot der general fail to and is much annoyed first dot does no because i am not and second der fool dot comes after me he may say to my best boys you been by my i tell you der big brass hat does not make der trees grow s deep voice was coming out of the darkness behind the as he bent over the shoulders of his pet cook not so much you son of he is a and not a ah you come to a very bad dinner where is your camp and he walked up to shake hands tm the camp sir said i	39
didn t know you were about here looked at the young man s trim figure that is very i one horse and some cold things to eat when i was young i did my camp so now you shall dine with me i went by ic many into to make up my report last month i written ho and der rest i to my and come out for a walk der gk is mad about dose reports i der so at chuckled remembering the many tales that were told of s with the supreme he was the of all the offices for as a forest officer he had no equal k i find you sitting in your und reports to me about der instead of riding der i will transfer you to der middle of der desert to him i am sick of reports und paper when we should do our work there s not much danger of my wasting time over my i hate em as much as you do sir the talk went over at this point to professional matters had some questions to ask and orders and hints to receive till dinner was ready it was the most meal that had eaten for months no distance from the base of supplies was allowed to interfere with the work of s cook and that table spread in tlie wilderness began with small fresh water fish and ended with coffee and said at the end with a sigh of satisfaction as he lighted a and dropped into by ic in the s his much worn camp chair when i am making reports i am und but here in der i am more dan christian i am also he rolled the butt under his tongue dropped his hands on his knees and stared before him into the dim shifting heart of the full of stealthy noises the snapping of twigs like the snapping of the fire behind him the sigh and rustle of a heat branch recovering her in the cool night the incessant of the stream and the of the many peopled grass out of sight beyond a swell of hill he blew out a thick puff of smoke and began to quote to himself yes it is very very yes i work miracles and by come off too i remember when was no more big than your knee from here to der plough lands und in der cattle ate bones of dead cattle up and down now der trees come back were planted by a because he know just de cause dot made der effect but der trees had der of der old gods und der christian gods howl loudly could not live in der a shadow moved in one of the bridle paths moved and came out into the i said true hush i here is himself come to see der q he is der god look i by ic it was crowned with a wreath of white flowers and walking with a half branch very of the fire light and ready to fly back to the thicket on the least alarm a friend of mine said he s looking for me oh had barely time to gasp before the man was at s side crying i was wrong to i was wrong but i did not know then that the mate of him that was killed by this river was awake looking for the else i should not have gone away she thee from the back range he is a little mad said and he speaks of all the beasts about here as if he was a friend of theirs of course of course if does not know who should know said gravely what does he say about dis god who knows you so well his and before he had finished the story of and his exploits it was burned down to moustache edge listened without interruption dot is not madness he said at last when had described the driving of ur dot is not madness at all what is it then he left me in a temper this morning because i asked him to tell how he did it i fancy the chap s possessed in some way by ic in thb no is no but it is most wonderful die und you say now dot your thief servant did not say what drove der pony und of course der he could not speak no but confound it there wasn t anything i listened and i can hear most things the bull and the man simply came headlong mad with fright for answer looked up and down from head to foot then beckoned him nearer he came as a buck a trail there is no harm said in the thy arm he ran his hand down to the elbow felt that and nodded so i thought now the knee saw him feel the knee cap and smile two or three white just above the ankle caught his eye those came when thou very yoimg he said ay answered with a smile they were love tokens from the little ones then to over his shoulder this knows everything who is he dot comes after my friend now where are hey f said swept his hand round his head in a circle so and thou drive see by ic there is my mare in her thou bring her to me without her can i bring the mare to the without her repeated raising his voice a little above its normal pitch what is more easy if the heel ropes are loose the head and heel shouted to the groom they were hardly out of the ground before the mare a huge black flung up her head and cocked her ears careful i i do not wish her driven into the said stood still the blaze of the fire in the	39
very form and likeness of that god who is so described in the novels the mare drew up one hind leg found that the heel ropes were free and moved swiftly to her master on whose bosom she dropped her head lightly she came of her own accord my horses will do cried feel if she said laid a hand on the damp flank it is enough said it is enough repeated and a rock behind him threw back the word that s enough isn t it f said no only most wonderful still you do not know f by ic jn thb a i confess well then i shall not tell he says dot some day he will show you what it is it would be if i told but why he is not dead i do not understand now listen thou faced and returned to the i am the head of all the in the country of india and farther across the black water i do not know how many men be under me perhaps five thousand perhaps ten thy business is this to wander no more up and down the and drive beasts for sport or for show but to take service imder me who am the government in the matter of woods and forests and to live in this as a forest guard to drive the villagers away when there is no order to feed them in the to admit them when there is an order to keep down as thou keep down the and the when they become too many to tell how and where the move and what game there is in the forests and to give sure warning of all the fires in the for thou give warning more quickly than any other for that work there is a payment each month in silver and at the end when thou hast gathered a wife and cattle and may be children a what answer that s just what i began my spoke this morning of such a service i walked all day alone considering the matter and by ic many inventions my answer is ready here i serve if i serve in this and no other k and with no other it shall be so in a week comes the written order that the honour of the government for the after that thou wilt take up thy hut where shall i was going to speak to you about it said i did not want to be told when i saw that man will never be a forest guard like him he is a miracle i tell you some day you will find it so he is blood brother to every beast in der i should be easier in my mind if i could understand him dot will come now i tell you dot only once in my service and dot is thirty years i met a boy dot began as this man began und he died sometimes you hear of in der reports but all die dis man lived und he is an for he is before der iron age and der stone age look here he is at der of der history of adam in der und now we want only an i no he is older dan dot as der is older dan der gods i am a now once for all through the rest of the long evening sat smoking and smoking and staring and staring into by ic in the the darkness his lips moving in multiplied and great wonder upon his face he went to his tent but presently came out again in his majestic pink sleeping suit and the last words that heard him address to the through the deep hush of midnight were these delivered with immense emphasis we und und m don art noble and und us a god und a greek now i know dot or christian i shall know der of der it was midnight in the a week later when ur gray with rage stood at the foot of s bed and whispering bade him awake up he stammered up and bring thy mine honour is gone up and kill before any the old man s face had changed so that stared it was for this then that that helped me to polish the s table and drew water and plucked fowls they have gone off together for all my and now he sits among his devils dragging her soul to the pit up and come with me i by ic he thrust a rifle into s half hand and almost dragged him from the room on to the they are there in the even within of the house come softly with me but what is it what is the trouble and his devils also my own daughter said whistled and followed his guide not for nothing he knew had beaten his daughter of nights and not for nothing had helped in the a man whom his own powers whatever those were had convicted of also a forest goes quickly there was the breathing of a in the ba it might have been the song of some wandering wood god and as they came nearer a murmur of voices the path ended in a little walled partly by high grass and partly by trees in the centre upon a fallen trunk his back to the and his arm round the neck of ur s daughter sat newly crowned with flowers playing upon a rude to whose music four huge wolves danced solemnly on their hind legs those are his devils whispered he held a bunch of in his hand the beasts dropped to a long drawn note and lay still with steady green eyes glaring at the girl by ic ur bush behold said laying aside the is there anything of fear in that i told thee little stout heart	39
that there was not and thou believe thy father said and oh if thou have seen thy father being driven by the road of the thy father said that they were devils and by who is thy god i do not wonder that he so believed the girl laughed a little rippling laugh and heard his few remaining teeth this was not at all the girl that had seen with a half eye about the compound veiled and silent but another a woman fuu blown in a night as the puts out in an hour s moist heat but they are my and my brothers children of that mother that gave me as i told thee behind the cook house went on children of the father that lay between me and the cold at the mouth of the cave when i was a little naked child look a wolf raised his huge head at s feet my brother knows that i speak of them yes when i was a little child he was a rolling with me on the clay but thou hast said that thou art human bom the girl closer to the shoulder thou art human bom said i nay i know that i am human because my heart is in thy hold little the head dropped under s chin put up a by ic warning hand to restrain not in the least impressed hy the wonder of the sight but i was a wolf among wolves none the less till a time came when those of the bade me go because i was a man who bade thee go that is not like a true man s talk the very beasts themselves little one thou never believe that telling but so it was the beasts of the bade me go but these four followed me because i was their brother then was i a of cattle among men having learned their language ho the herds paid toll to my brothers till a woman an old woman beloved saw me playing by night with my brethren in the crops they said that i was possessed of devils and drove me from that village with sticks and stones and the four came with me by and not openly that was when i had learned to eat cooked meat and to boldly from village to village i went heart of my heart a of cattle a tender of a of game but there was no man that dared lift a finger against me twice he stooped down and patted one of the heads do thou also like this there is neither hurt nor magic in them see they know thee the woods are full of all manner of devils said the girl with a shudder a lie a child s lie returned confidently by ic m ths i have lain out in the dew the stars and in the dark night and i know the is my shall a man fear his own roof beams or a woman her man s hearth stoop down and pat them they are dogs and she murmured bending forward with averted head having eaten the fruit now we remember the law said ur bitterly what is the need of this waiting kill h sh thou let us learn what has said that is well done said slipping his arm round the girl afresh dogs or no dogs they were with me through a thousand villages and where was thy heart then through a thousand villages thou hast seen a thousand maids i that am that am a maid no more have i thy heart what shall i swear by by of whom thou nay by the life that is in thee and i am well content where was thy heart in those days laughed a little in my belly because i was young and always hungry so i learned to track and to hunt sending and calling my brothers back and forth as a king calls his armies therefore i drove the for the foolish young and the big fat mare for the big fat when they by ic questioned my power it were as easy to liave driven the men themselves even now his voice lifted a little even now i know that behind me stand thy father and nay do not run for no ten men dare move a pace forward that thy father beat thee more than once shall i give the word and drive him again in rings through the a wolf stood up and the on his neck lifted felt tremble at his side next his place was empty and the fat man was down the remains only said still without turning but i have eaten s bread and presently i shall be in his service and my brothers will be his servants to drive game and carry the news hide thou in the grass the girl fled the tall grass closed behind her and the guardian wolf that followed and turning with his three faced as the forest officer came forward that is all the magic he said pointing to the three the fat knew that we who are bom among wolves run on our elbows and our knees for a season feeling my arms and legs he felt the truth which thou not know is it so wonder ful indeed it is all more wonderful than these then drove the by ic int the ay as they would drive if i gave the order they are my eyes and more to me to it then that does not carry a double rifle they have yet something to learn thy devils for they stand one behind the other so that two shots would kill the three ah but they know they will be thy servants as soon as i am a forest guard guard or no guard thou hast done a great shame	39
to ur thou has his house and blackened his face for that it was blackened when he took thy money and made still when he whispered in thy ear a little while since to kill a naked man i myself will talk to ur for i am a man of the government service with a he shall make the marriage by whatsoever he will or he shall run once more i will speak to him in the dawn for the rest the has his house and this is mine it is time to sleep again turned on his heel and disappeared into the grass leaving alone the hint of the wood god was not to be mistaken and went back to the where torn by rage and fear was aloud peace peace said shaking him for he looked as though he were going to have a fit has made the man a forest guard and by ic many inventions as thou there is a at the end of that business and it is government service he is an a a dog among dogs an of what can pay for that knows and thou hast heard that the mischief is done thou blaze it to all the other servants f make the swiftly and the girl make him a he is very comely thou wonder that after tb y she went to him f did he say that he would chase me with his so it seemed to me if he be a he is at least a very strong one thought awhile and then broke down and howled forgetting that he was a thou art a i am thy cow make thou the matter plain and save my honour if it can be saved a second time then plunged into the and called the answer came from high overhead and in no tones speak softly said looking up there is yet time to strip thee of thy place and hunt thee with thy wolves the girl goes back to her father s house to night to morrow there will be the by the law and then thou take her away bring her to by ic m the i hear there was a of two voices among the leaves also we will obey f or the last time a year later and were riding through the together talking of their business they came out among the rocks near the stream riding a little in advance under the shade of a thorn thicket a naked brown baby and from the immediately behind him peered the head of a gray wolf had just time to strike up s rifle and the bullet tore through the branches above are you mad thundered i see said quietly the mother s somewhere near wake the whole pack by jove the bushes parted once more and a woman snatched up the child who fired she cried to this he had not remembered thy man s people not remembered but indeed it may be so for we who live with them forget that they are strangers at all is down the stream catching fish does the wish to see him come out ye lacking manners come out of the bushes and make your service to the eyes grew and he by ic swung himself off the plunging and dismounted while the gave up four wolves who round the mother stood nursing her child and them aside as they brushed against her bare feet tou were quite right about said i meant to have told you but got so used to these fellows in the last twelve months that it slipped my mind oh don t said it s nothing in i und i work miracle und come off tool by ic this th ship went down and all hands was bat me the first officer of the asked me to dinner on boards before the ship went round to to pick up her passengers the was lying below london bridge her fore opened for cargo and her deck with and and and chains the black had been putting some finishing touches to his adored engines and is the most tidy of chief if the leg of a gets into one of his slide the whole ship knows it and half the ship has to clean up the mess after dinner which the first officer and i ate in one little comer of the empty saloon returned to the engine room to attend to some the first officer and i smoked on the bridge and watched the lights of the crowded shipping till it was time for me to go home it seemed in the pauses of our conversation that i could catch an t b j by ic echo of fearful from the engine room and the voice of singing of home and the domestic affections has a friend aboard to night a man who was a maker at when was a said the first officer i didn t ask him to dine with us because i see i mean i hear i answered we talked on for a few minutes longer and came up from the engine room with his friend on his arm let me present ye to this gentleman said he s a great admirer o your he has just hear rd o them could never pay a compliment prettily the friend sat down suddenly on a saying that had under stated the truth personally he on the considered that shakespeare was trembling in the balance solely on my account and if the first officer wished to dispute this he was prepared to fight the first officer then or later as per man if ye only knew said he his head the times i ve lain in my lonely reading vanity fair an ay bitterly at the pure fascination of it he shed a few tears for of	39
he caught up a and began the boat as it ranged alongside you re a nice pair said the at last i am anything you please so long as you take this away tow us in to the nearest station and i ll make it worth your while i said corruption roared the man throwing himself flat in the bottom of the boat like unto the worms that perish so is man and all for the sake of a filthy half crown to be arrested by the river police at my time o life i for pity s sake row i shouted the man s drunk they rowed us to a a fire or a police station it was too dark to see which i could feel that they regarded me in no better light than my com i and i could not explain for i was holding by ic the f end of the painter ten long feet from all respectability we got ont of the boat my falling flat on his wicked face and the asked ns rude questions the my companion washed his hands of all responsibility he was an old man he had been into a stolen boat by a probably a he had saved the boat from wreck this was absolutely true and now he expected in the shape of hot and water the turned to me fortunately i was in evening dress and had a card to show more fortunately still the happened to know the and he promised to send the down next tide and was not beyond accepting my thanks in silver as this was satisfactorily arranged i heard my companion say angrily to a if you will not give it to a dry man ye to a then he walked deliberately off the edge of the flat into the water somebody stuck a boat hook into his clothes and hauled him out now said he triumphantly under the rules o the r royal humane society ye must give me hot and water do not put temptation before the he s my nephew an a good boy i the main tho why he should as on the high seas is beyond my comprehension oh the vanity o youth i told by ic me ye were as vain as a i mind that now yon had better give him something to drink and wrap him np for the night i don t know who he is i said desperately and when the man had settled down to a drink supplied on my representations i escaped and found that i was near bridge i went towards fleet street intending to take a and go home after the first feeling of in died out the absurdity of the experience struck me fully and i began to laugh aloud in the empty streets to the scandal of a policeman the more i reflected the more heartily i laughed till my mirth was by a hand on my shoulder and turning i saw him who should have been in bed at the river police station he was damp all over his wet silk hat rode far at the back of his head and round his shoulders hung a striped yellow blanket evidently the property of the state the o thorns under a pot said he solemnly have ye not thought o the sin of idle laughter my heart me that ever ye d get home an i ve just come to you a piece they re sore down there by the river they would na listen to me when i talked o your so i e en left them cast the blanket about you it s fine and cold i groaned inwardly providence evidently in by ic many tended tliat i should through eternity s infamous acquaintance away i said go home or give you in charge he leaned against a lamp post and laid his finger to his nose his i mind now that told me ye were than a an your me adrift in a boat shows ye were than an owl a good name is as a i ha he his lips well i know that i said ay but ye have i mind now that m spoke o your reputation that you re so proud of if ye me in charge i m old enough to be your ni your reputation as far as my voice can carry for i ll call you by name till the cows come it s no matter to be a friend to me if you my friendship ye must come to vine street wi me for the s then he sang at the top of his voice in the rain r the by the buck we ll ap to vine street v the t yon s my own but i m not vain well go home together well go home together and he sang to show that he meant it by ic s s a policeman suggested that we had better move on and we moved on to the law courts near st my companion was now and his speech which up till that time had been distinct it was a marvel to see how in his condition he could talk dialect began to and slide and he bade me observe the architecture of the law courts and linked himself lovingly to my arm then he saw a policeman and before i could shake him off whirled me up to the man singing member of the force has a watch and chain of and threw his dripping blanket over the of the law in any other country in the world we should have run an exceedingly good chance of being shot or or and is worse than being shot but i reflected in that that this was england where the police are made to be and battered and bruised	39
that they may the better endure a police court next morning we three fell in a he calling on me by name that was the horror of it to sit on the policeman s head and cut the traces i clear first and shouted to the policeman to kill the blanket man naturally the policeman answered you re as bad as im and chased me as the smaller man round st into street where i ran by ic into the of another policeman that flight could not have lasted more than a minute and a half but it seemed to me as long and as wearisome as the foot bound flight of a nightmare i had leisure to think of a thousand things as i ran but most i thought of the great and god like man who held a sitting in the north gallery of st a hundred years ago i know that he at least would have felt for me so occupied was i with these considerations that when the other policeman me to his bosom and said what are you to do i answered with exquisite politeness sir let us take a walk down fleet street bow do your business i think was the answer and for a moment i thought so too till it seemed i might out of it then there was a hideous scene and it was complicated by my companion hurrying up with the blanket and telling always by name that he would rescue me or perish in the attempt knock him down i pleaded club his head open first and explain afterwards the first policeman the one who had been outraged drew his and cut my companion s head the high silk hat and the owner dropped like a log now you ve done it i said you ve probably killed him street never goes to bed a small by ic crowd gathered on the spot and some one of german cried you killed the man another cried take his number i saw him cruel ard now the street was empty when the trouble began and saving the two and myself no one had seen the blow i said therefore in a loud and cheerful voice the man s a friend of mine he s fallen down in a fit will you bring the under my breath i added it s five shillings apiece and the man didn t hit you no but im and you tried to me said the policeman this was not a thing to argue about is on duty at cross i said d you know of you p said the policeman if s there he knows me the quick and take him to cross you re coming to bow street you are said the the man s dying he lay groaning on the pavement get the said l there is an at the back of st whereof i know more than most people the policeman seemed to possess the keys of the box in which it lived we it it was a three by ic wheeled affair witli a and we the body of the man upon it a body in an looks very extremely dead the policeman softened at the sight of the stiff boot heels now then said they and i fancied that they still meant bow street let me see for three minutes if he s on duty i answered very good he is then i knew that all would be well but before we started i put my head under the hood to see if the man were alive a guarded whisper caught my ear you pay me for a new hat broken it desert me now tm o er old to go to bow street in my gray hairs for a fault of yours desert me you ll be lucky if you get off under seven years i said to the policeman moved by a very lively fear of having exceeded their duty the two policeman left their beats and the mournful procession wound down the empty strand once west of the i knew i should be in my own country and the had reason to know that too for as i was pacing proudly a little ahead of the another policeman said good night sir to me as he passed now you see i said with condescension i by ic t wouldn t be in your shoes for something on my word a great mind to march you two down to scotland yard if the gentleman s a friend o yours per said the policeman who had given the blow and was reflecting on the consequences perhaps you d like me to go away and say ing about it i said then there into view the figure of c glittering in his and an angel of light to me i had known him for months he was an esteemed friend of mine and we used to talk together in the early mornings the fool seeks to himself with princes and ministers and courts and leave him to perish miserably the wise man makes among the police and the so that his friends spring up from the round house and the cab rank and even his become said i have the police been on strike again they ve put some things on duty at st that want to take me to bow street for lor sir i said indignantly tell them i m not a nor a thief it s simply disgraceful that a gentleman cant walk down the strand without being man handled by these one of them has done his best to kill my friend here and i m taking the body home speak for me by ic there was no time for the much to say a word spoke to them in language calculated to alarm they tried to explain but launched into a	39
glowing catalogue of my as noted by him in the early hours and he concluded vehemently e writes for the papers too ho you like to be written for in the in verse too which is is you leave hm alone im an me have been friends for months what about the dead man said the policeman who had not given the blow tell you i said and to the three under the lights of cross assembled i faithfully and at length the adventures of the night beginning with the and ending at st i described the sinful old in the in terms that made him where he lay and never since the police was founded did three laugh as those three laughed the strand echoed to it and the birds of the night stood and wondered oh lor said wiping his eyes i d ha given anything to see that old man about with a wet blanket an all excuse me sir but you ought to get took up every night for to make us he dissolved into fresh there was a of silver and the two po by ic s of st hurried back to their beats as they ran take im to cross said between shouts they send the back in the morning ed me shameful names but o er old to go to a hospital desert me me home to my wife said the voice in the he s none so bad is ell comb is hair for im proper said who was a married man where d you live i demanded was the answer what s that p i said to more skilled than i in the words of early dawn brook translated promptly of course i said that s just the sort of place he would choose to live in i only wonder it was not are you going to wheel him ome sir said i d wheel him home if he lived in paradise he s not going to get out of this while i m here he d drag me into a murder for then im up an make sure said and he two that hung by the side of the over the man s body by ic fi i know not his other was sleeping deeply he even smiled in his sleep that s all right said and i moved off my devil s before me square was empty except for the few that slept in the open one of these wretches ranged alongside and begged for money asserting that he had once been a gentleman so have i said that was long ago ill give yon a shilling if you ll help me to push this thing is it a murder p said the vagabond shrinking back i ve not got to thai yet no it s going to be one i answered i have the man back into the darkness and i pressed on through street and up to wondering what i should do with my treasure all london was asleep and i had only this drunken to bear me company it was silent silent as a young man of my acquaintance came out of a pink brick club as i passed a faded drooped from his he had been playing cards and was walking home before the dawn when he overtook me what are you doing he said i was far beyond any feeling of shame it s for a bet said i come and help who s yon p said the voice beneath the hood by ic good lord said the young man leaping across the pavement perhaps card losses had told on his nerves mine were steel that night the lord the lord the voice went on be profane he u in his ain good time the young man looked at me with horror it s all part of the bet i answered do and push w where are you going to said he said the voice within d ye ken my wife no said l well she s just a i want a drink knock at one o these houses an an ye may kiss the girl for your pains lie still or i ll you i said savagely the young man with the crossed to the other side of and hailed the only visible for miles what he thought i cannot tell later i was told i pressed on to brook green there i would abandon to the gods of that desolate land we had been through so much together that i could not leave him bound in the street besides he would call after me and oh it is a shameful thing to hear one s name ringing down the of london in the by ic s so i went on house even to the tall but there was no coffee for and into respectable i wheeled my burden the body of what are ye going to do to me he said when opposite the kill you i said briefly or hand yon over to your wife be he would not obey he talked in one sentence from clear cut dialect to wild and drunken at the hall he said that i was the which i apprehend is the garden at high street he loved me as a son but when my weary legs came to the road bridge he implored me with tears to the and to fight against the sin of vanity no man us it was as though a bar had been set between myself and all humanity till i had cleared my account with the glimmering of light grew in the sky the cloudy brown of the wood pavement turned to purple i made no doubt that i should be allowed vengeance on ere the evening at the heavens were steel gray and the day came weeping all the tides of the sadness	39
of an dawning poured into the of he wept bitterly by ic s the looked cold and i entered a half public in evening dress and an i marched to the and got him on condition that he should cease kicking at the canvas of the then he wept more bitterly for that he had ever been associated with me and so into stealing the s the day was white and wan when i reached my long s end and putting back the hood bade declare where he lived his eyes wandered round the red and gray houses till they fell on a villa in whose garden stood a staggering board with the legend to let it needed only this to break him down utterly and with that fled his fine in his northern tongue for liquor all while he sobbed while f of e you know my wife left them all a while ago now everything s all sold all sold i i the cautiously smith rolled off his resting place and staggered to the house i do p he said then i understood the depths in the mind of ring i said perhaps they are in the o the cellar by ic s yon do know my wife she on in the room you do know my wife he took off his boots covered them with his tall hat and as a bed indian picked his way np the garden path and smote the bell marked visitors a severe blow with his clenched fist bell sole too sole this i can t bell he moaned yon it pull it hard i repeated keeping a wary eye down the road vengeance was coming and i desired no witnesses yes pull it hard he his forehead inspiration i ll pull it out leaning back he grasped the with both hands and pulled a wild ringing in the kitchen was his answer on his hands he pulled with renewed strength and shouted for his wife then he bent his ear to the shook his head drew out an enormous yellow and red handkerchief tied it round the turned his back to the door and pulled over his shoulder either the handkerchief or the wire it seemed to me was bound to give way but i had forgotten the bell something cracked in the kitchen and moved slowly down the pulling three feet of wire followed him pull oh pull i cried it s coming now qui ri he said tb bell by ic t he bowed forward the wire creaking and straining behind him the bell clasped to his bosom and from the noises within i fancied the bell was taking away with it half the wood work of the kitchen and all the as it came up a purchase on her i shouted and he spun round that good copper wire about him i opened the garden gate politely and he passed out spinning his own still the bell came up hand over hand and still the wire held fast he was in the middle of the road now whirling like an and shouting madly for his wife and family there he met with the the bell within the house gave one last peal and bounded from the far end of the hall to the inner side of the hall door when it stayed fast so did not my friend he fell upon his face embracing the as he did so and the two turned over together in the toils of the never to be advertised copper wire he gasped his speech returning have i a legal remedy p i will go and look for one i said and departing found two whom i told that daylight had surprised a in brook while he was stealing lead from an empty perhaps they had better take care of that thief he seemed to be in difficulties i led the way to the spot and behold i in the by ic s of the dawning the wheels uppermost was walking down the muddy road on two was shuffling to and fro in a quarter of a circle whose was copper wire and whose centre was the bell plate of the empty house next to the amazing ingenuity with which had contrived to lash himself under the the thing that appeared to impress the most was the fact of the st being at brook green they even asked me of all people in the world whether i knew anything about it they him not without pain and dirt he explained that he was boarding attacks by a who had sold his house wife and family as to the bell wire he offered no explanation and was borne off shoulder high between the two though his feet were not within six inches of the ground they swiftly and i saw that in his magnificent mind he was running furiously running sometimes i have wondered whether he wished to find me by ic women a lamentable tale of things done long ago and ill done thb horror the confusion and the separation of the murderer from his comrades were all over before i came there remained only on the square the blood of man calling from the ground the hot sun had dried it to a dusky gold skin cracked wise by the heat and as the wind rose each rising a little curled up at the edges as if it were a dumb tongue then a heavier gust blew all away down wind in of dark coloured dust it was too hot to stand in the sunshine before breakfast the men were all in talking the matter over a knot of soldiers wives stood by one of the to the married quarters while inside a woman shrieked and with wicked filthy words a quiet and well conducted had shot down in broad daylight just after early parade one of his own had then	39
returned to d a ca by ic and bat on a cot till the guard came for urn he would therefore in due time be handed over to the high court for trial further but this he could hardly have considered in his scheme of revenge he would horribly upset my work for the of the trial would fall on me without a relief what that trial would be like i knew even to weariness there would be the rifle carefully with the marks about and to be sworn to by half a dozen superfluous there would be heat heat till the wet pencil slipped sideways between the fingers and the would and the would in the and his commanding officer would put in of the prisoner s moral character while the jury would and the summer of the witnesses would smell of and and some abject would lose his head in cross examination and the young who always defended soldiers cases for the credit that they never brought him would say and do wonderful things and would then quarrel with me because i had not reported him correctly at the last for he surely would not be hanged i might meet the prisoner again ruling blank account forms in the central jail and cheer him with the hope of a war in the tho indian code and its do not treat murder under any provocation whatever by ic o in a spirit of jest would be lucky indeed if he got off with seven years i he had slept the night upon his wrongs and had killed his man at twenty yards before any talk was possible that much i knew unless therefore the case was a little years would be his least and i fancied it was weu for that he had been liked by his company that same no day is so long as the day of a i met with the dogs and he plunged into the middle of the matter m be one o the witnesses said he i was in the when came along e come from mrs s quarters an trot they was in the inside so they couldn t ave nothing was in the to me an e come along the square an e well e ave they pushed your off yet e an at that e catches is breath an e my i can t stand this e an e up my rifle an shoots see but what were you doing with your rifle in the outer an hour after parade p er said with the sullen stare that always went with his choice lies he might as well have said that he was dancing naked for at no time did his rifle need hand or rag by ic on her twenty minutes after parade still the hi court not know his routine are you going to stick to on the book f i asked yes like a all right i don t want to know any more only remember that and trot couldn t haye been where you say without hearing something and there s nearly certain to be a who was knocking about the square at the time there always is t the it was the e s all right then i knew that there was going to be some spirited and i felt sorry for the government advocate who would conduct the when the trial came on i pitied him more for he was always quick to lose his temper and made a personal matter of each lost cause s young had for once put aside his and passion for and insanity had f or sworn and and worked for his the hot weather was yet young and there had been no cases of up to the time and the jury was a good one even for an indian jury where nine men out of every twelve are accustomed to weighing deuce stood firm and was not shaken by any cross examination the one weak point in his by ic the of his rifle in the outer went by wisdom though some of the witnesses could not help smiling the government advocate called for the rope throughout that the murder had been a deliberate one time had passed he argued for that reflection which comes so naturally to a man whose honour is lost there was also the law ever ready and anxious to right the wrongs of the common soldier if indeed wrong had been done but he doubted much whether there had been any wrong cause less suspicion over long upon had led by his theory to deliberate crime but his attempts to the motive failed the most witness had known for the causes of offence and the prisoner who naturally was the last of all to know groaned in the dock while he listened the one question that the trial round was whether had fired under sudden and blinding provocation given that very morning and in the up it was clear that s evidence told he had contrived most to suggest that he personally hated the who had come into the to give him a talking to for in a weak moment the government advocate asked one question too many your pardon sir replied e was me a dam impudent little lawyer the c shook the jury brought it in a killing but with by ic many inventions every provocation and known to or man and the judge put his hand to his brow before giving sentence and the adam s apple in the prisoner s throat went up and down before a in consideration of all considerations from his commanding officer s of good conduct to the sure loss of service and honour the prisoner would get two years to be served in india and there need be no demonstration in the government advocate and picked up his papers the guard wheeled	39
with a clash and the prisoner was relaxed to the arm and driven to the jail in a broken down his guard and some ten or twelve military wit being less important were ordered to wait till what was called the cool of the evening before marching back to they gathered together in one of the deep red brick of a lock up and congratulated who bore his honours modestly i sent my work into the office and joined them watched the government advocate driving off to lunch that s a nasty little bald little butcher that is he said e don t please me e s got a dog do though i m goin up to in a week that bring fifteen you had better spend it in masses said by ic o his belt for he had been on the prison er s guard standing and bolt upright for three long hours not me said cheerfully put it down to company s one o these days you look faith fm not so young as i was that wears on the sole the f ut and this he contemptuously at the brick is as hard setting as wait a minute ill get the cushions out of my cart i said we re going it gay said as dropped himself section by section on the leather cushions saying prettily may you want a soft place you go an power to share ut a another for yourself that s good it lets me sit pass me a an that s another man gone all to pieces a woman i must ha been on forty or fifty prisoners first an last an hate ut new time let s see you were on s s s and s that i can remember i said ay an before that an before scores he answered with a worn smile tis better to die than to live for them though comes out hell be his at the jail now hell think that too he ha shot himself an by ic s the woman by an made a clean bill all now he s left the she sunday gone an he s left himself s the lucky man he s probably getting it hot where he is i ventured for i knew something of the dead s record be sure that said over the edge of the but f what hell get there is light to he d ha got here if he d lived surely not he d have gone on and forgotten like the others did ye know well p said he was on the guard of honour last winter and i went out shooting with him in an for the day and i found him rather an amusing man weu hell ha got shut from wan side to the other these few years to come i knew an i ve seen too many to be in the muster wan man he might ha gone on an forgot as you say but he was a man an an he used ut for his an the same an an all that made him able to do he had a mind to a woman that same turn back again in the long run an tear him alive i can t say that i mane to say i don t know how but was the spit by ic women an image a man that i the same march ok hut an twas worse for him that he did not come by s ind wait while i now twas f i was in the black an he was us from an f what was his name ut was an wan of the said he was a gentleman an an three parts killed him for saying so an he was a big man an a strong man an a handsome man an that tells heavy in practice some women but them by an large not all yet twas all that os for he ud put the on any woman that trod the green earth gk d an he knew ut like that s now he knew ut an did he put the on any woman save an for the black shame tis not me that be dear knows dear knows but the most my was for pure an mighty sorry i have been harm came an time an again a girl ay an a woman too for the matter that i have seen by the eyes her that i was more than i talked i have an let be for the sake the mother that bore me but i m he was by a she devil for he let wan go that came nigh to listen to him twas his business as if it might ha bin go he was a good soldier too now there was the colonel s an he a that was by ic known in an wan the major s maids and she was promised to a man an some more outside an ut was amongst ns we ll never know till judgment day i twas the nature of the to put the on the best of not the prettiest by any manner but the like such woman as you lay your hand on the book an swear there was thought foolishness in an for that very reason mark you he was caught he came close to ut or twice but caught he was an that cost him more at the ind than the he talked to me more than most he me the accident my i d ha been the same kind he was an is ut like he say his head high is ut like that i d be for am i when all s said an done p he a damned he an is ut like think you that i know be connect a like	39
me number tin thousand four hundred an he i knew by the turn his he was not care to talk rough that he was a gentleman i do not ut at all i but i know i that the looks out your eyes an i ll have no share you a little fun by way where t will do no harm is right and fair but i am if tis any amusement to you i by ic women you are much he an i counsel you not to judge your my i god help you there s no in this tis all bad as you will find for you re not like me he says his head praise the saints i am not i i have done i have done an been sorry your time comes i ye ll i say an that time comes he come to you for ghostly consolation father an at that he off some more s business for to get he me he was wicked rank wicked wicked as all hell i m not by nature to go in fear any man but i was afraid he d come in to his cap on three hairs an lie on his cot and stare at the and now an again he d fetch a little laugh the like a splash in the bottom a well an by that i knew he was new wickedness an rd be afraid all this was long an long ago but ut me straight for a while i you did i not that i was an to lave the on account a something to do with a belt and a man head wasn t it had never given me the facts by ic it was faith time i go on prisoner s in i f why i am not where the prisoner is but the man i it in fair fight an he had the good not to die now ha come to the if he had i was to exchange an my of me i not to be an me he was powerful sorry to lose me though done to make him i do not know so to the ould i came to go to the his own way an to see him again except as a case in who s that the compound s quick eye had caught sight of a white uniform behind the hedge the s gone visiting said a voice thin i command here an i will have no away to the an for you a at midnight for i know ut s you come back to the detected back to his fellows there was a that died away in a minute or two and turning on the other side went on that was the last i saw for a while exchange is the same as death for not an by token i married an that kept me from ould times thin we up to the front an ut tore my heart in tu to lave ok by ic o the in i was at the front i fought till i up an thin i fought double tides you f what i you in the gate ay the fight at silver s theatre s that about silver s said quickly over his shoulder nothing little man a tale that ye know as i was saying af ther that fight us the ould an the was all mixed together the dead an i about ta find if there was any man that me the second man i came an how i d missed him in the fight i do not know was an a fine man he looked but by token that he had a to be i how is ut you ye re the wrong man he his gentleman s smile has been dead these three years they call him love o women now he by that i knew the ould was in him yet but the ind a fight is no time for the confession so we sat down an talked times they tell me you re a married man he puffing slow at his are ye happy i will be i get back to i tis a now i m married too he slow an more an his forefinger by ic you happiness i that s the best for a long time are ye that opinion he an thin he began the campaign the sweat of silver s theatre was not upon him an he was for more work i was well to lie and listen to the cook pot he got up off the ground he a little an over all twisted ye ve got more than ye for i take an tis like you re hurt he turned round stiff as a an damned the eyes me up an down for an irish faced if that had been in ha stretched him an no more said but twas at the front an af ther such a fight as silver s theatre i knew there was no a man to account for his he might as well ha kissed me af i was well pleased i kept my fists home then our captain na came up he d been to the little the we re all cut to he but the are damned short for go you over there an be lance an everything else ye can lay hands on till i bid you stop i over an there was wan left an they d pay no heed to him the was me an twas high time i by ic o some i talked to an some i did not but before night the the to attention by if i on my above a you an me an i was the company an that was what had me for an the little knew ut	39
and i knew ut but the ny did not and here mark you is the that no money an no can buy the the ould soldier that knows his s work an does ut at the salute i thin the the ould in touch was and the hills an unsatisfactory tis my opinion that a gin does not know half his time f what to do three his command so he on his an bids run round an round him while he on ut by the process nature they get into a big fight that was none their he my i meant ut to come so we ran round an about an all we got was into the camp at night an empty the long an bein hit from behind rocks till we was wore out all except love o women that dog business was mate an to him he get enough ut me well that it is just this that the best men an that if i was cut the little by ic all his men in to get out i lie most powerful i heard a shot an curl my long legs behind a an ran like the ground was clear faith if i led the in i led them forty times love o women stay an from behind a rock and wait till the fire was heaviest an thin stand up an fire man height clear he lie out in camp too at night at the shadows for he never a my save his little soul i not see the beauty my an the ould crossed us an that was a week he d off to his big blue eyes as round as an lay an information against me i heard through the tent wall an i nearly laughed he like a hare the little tis my men ye damned little fool he s you your business have ye been rushed at night yet f no the child that he had been have you any wounded no he there was no for that they follow too quick he more do you want thin is you neat an handy he he knows you do not an s that there s by ic o a time for hell not lead you wrong he but give a month s pay to lam he thinks you that kept the babe quiet but love o women was at me for i did an specially my mr he wan very you re very your feet among gentlemen he among gentlemen that s called no pretty name among tis i get back to your tent i m here i there was just enough in the voice me to tell him he was his life his teeth he off an i noticed that this man that was set off from the halt a as tho he was bein kicked behind that same night there was a in the hills about an into our tents fit to wake the dead lie down all i lie down an still no more than waste i heard a man s feet on the ground an thin a in the chorus i d been warm an all but i out the for to look round in case there was a rush an the was at the f ore ind the camp an the hill near by was fair long range fire the i beheld love women on a rods his belt and off by ic he shouted or twice an thin i heard him say they ha got the range long ago maybe they ll fire at the flash thin he fired again an that a fresh and the long sings that they in their teeth came among the rocks like tree a hot night that s better love o women h lord how long how long he an at that he lit a match an held nt above his head mad thinks i mad as a an i wan forward an the i knew was the sole my boot like a cavalry an the my toes twas a cut shot a that touched or hide but set me bare fat on the rocks at that i love o women by the an threw him under a an i sat down i heard the bullets on that good stone ye may your own wicked fire i him but fm not goin to be too ye ve come too soon he ye ve come too soon in another minute they not ha missed me mother god he f why did ye not lave me be now tis all to do again an he hides his face in his hands so that s it i him again s the your i dare not kill he to and my own hand not let me die and there s by ic o not a bullet this month past touch me fm to die slow he fm to die slow but fm in hell now he like a woman fm in hell gk d be good to us all i for i saw his face will ye tell a man the if tis not murder maybe well mend it yet at that he laughed d you f what i said in the about to you for ghostly consolation i have not forgot he that came back an the rest my time is on me now fought ut for months an months but the liquor will not bite any more he i can t get thin i knew he spoke the truth about bein in hell for liquor does not take the ay a man is rotten in him but me bein such as i was f what could i say to him diamonds an pearls he begins again diamonds and pearls i have thrown away both an have i left oh have i left he was an up against my	39
an the were overhead an i was whether my little have enough to his men quiet through all this so long as i did not think love o women so long i did not i not but i can by ic now what lost the time an the place he an the very words i said ut pleased me to go off alone to hell bnt thin even thin he i not ha been happy there was too behind ay ma how end i ha believed her me that have mine again an again for the sport them cry an there are the others he oh what will i what will i do he rocked back an forward again an i think he was like wan the women he dealt the full half he said was to me bnt from the rest an the i his twas the gk d had the heel him as i him in the the was over our rock more an more an i for to him bad alone i they l be to rush the camp in a i had no more than said that a man up on his belly his knife his teeth not yards from us love o women jumped up an fetched a yell an the man saw him an ran at him he d left his rifle under the rock the knife o women turned a hair but by the living power for i saw ut a stone twisted under the pay than man s feet an he came down full an his knife the rocks i i you i was love o women by ic o women the use him f he s an honest by compare i was not about the that tide so i love o women s butt the man s face an hurry into camp i for this may be the first a rush there was no rush after au though we waited arms to give them a the man must ha come alone for the mischief an a while love o women back to his tint that off in his walk that i understand i pitied him an the more he made me think for the rest the night the day i was confirmed ril not tenant an my thoughts was not good ye can that that night we came to a together an bit by bit ut came out f what i d the whole his in s on an had come back on him hard as liquor comes back you ve been on the for a wake all he d said an all he d done an only he tell how much that was come back an there was a s peace in his twas the horrors any cause to see an yet an f what am i he d ha taken the horrors the the man an that was the nature man awful awful to i there was more that was worst than any the scores an scores by ic many inventions that he called over in his mind an they were him mad there was mark yon wan woman all an she was not his wife that cut him to the quick his twas there he said that he d thrown away di an pearls past count an thin he d begin again like a blind in an oil mill round and round to him that was beyond all touch being happy this side hell how happy he ha been her the more he the more he d himself that he d lost mighty happiness an thin he work ut all backwards an cry that he ha been happy time an time an again in camp on p ay an in action i ve seen that man shut his eyes an duck his head as you duck to the a bay for twas thin he me that the thought all he d missed came an him like red hot irons for what he d done the others he was sorry but he did not care but this wan woman that i ve of by the god she made him pay for all the others twice over did i know that a man en such his heart in his ribs an i have been turned the pipe stem slowly between his teeth i have been in some black all i suffered tho was not to be talked of alongside him an what could i do was no more than peas for his sorrow we finished our by ic love o women the hills and thanks to me for the same there was no an no glory the campaign was to an ind an all the was bein drawn together for to be back home love o women was mighty sorry he had no work to do an all his time to think in i ve heard that man to his belt plate an his side arms while he was all to himself from an time he got up af ther he had been down or on from the halt he d start that kick an that i you his legs all ways to he go see the tho i him to be wise he d curse me up an down for my advice but i knew he was no more a man to be reckoned than the little was a so i let his tongue nm if it him wan day twas on the way back i was round camp him an he stopped an struck ground his right three or four times doubtful is ut i is that ground he an while i was his mind was goin up comes the who d been a dead love o women starts to go on quick an lands me a kick on the knee while his legs was into on there the an love o	39
women s face that was lined like a turns red as brick by ic says the an love o women now shut your eyes the no ye must not by your comrade tis all up love o women trying to smile i d fall an you know ut fall i fall at attention your eyes shut do you mane the knows he i ve up as long as i can but i m glad tis all done but i will die slow he i will die very slow i see by the s face that he was sorry for the man an he ordered him to hospital we back together an i was love o women was and at step he walked a hand on my shoulder all sideways an his right leg like a lame me not more than the dead him twas just as though the s word had done ut as if love o women had but been for the to let go in hospital he to the that i could not catch holy the an who are you to be names to your diseases tis all the in not be a much longer love o women in his gentleman s voice an the jumped me as a study doctor he by ic love women an that was the first time heard a called his name good bye love o women tis a dead man i am the pleasure ay come an set me sometimes for the peace my soul now i had been minded to ask to take me back to the ould for the was over an i was wore out the ways the in the but i shifted my will an on an to set love o women in the hospital as i have said the man all to little pieces under my hand how long he had up an forced himself fit to march i cannot tell but in hospital but two days later he was such as i hardly knew i hands him an his grip was fair strong but his hands all ways to an he not button his i ll take long an long to die yet he for the ways of sin they re like interest in the mental s sure but a damned long time bein paid the to me quiet one day has there on his mind he he s himself out how i know i as innocent as they call him love o women in the do they not he i was a fool to ask be by ic many inventions him all you can he s on to your strength but f what him i they call ut attacks us he he ut attacks us like a if ye know that an ut comes he at me ut comes from bein called love o women you re i he if i ver you feel that you ve got a felt sole in your boot instead a government bull s wool come to me he an i ll show you whether tis a joke you would not ut but that an love o women put the fear attacks us on me so strong that for a week an more i was my toes against stones an for the pleasure them hurt an love o women lay in the cot he might have gone down the wounded before an before but he asked to stay me and there was in his mind had full swing at him night an day an hour the day an the night an he withered like beef in a hot sun an his eyes was like eyes an his hands was they was the away wan by wan the campaign bein but as they was as if a had been moved before in the ry man now f why is that by ic love o there s in an out nine months the twelve somewhere in the army there has been for years an years an years an i ha thought they d begin to get the hang for but no time it s like a girls school a big red bull they re goin to church an mother god the an the rail ways an the masters will we do now the came to us the an the ould an half a dozen more to go down an there the stopped dumb we down by the si grace god down the there was sick us an i m that them was to death in the but they was anxious to be so if they get to alive the sooner i walked by love o women there was no an love o women was not in a to get on if i d only ha died up there he through the curtains an then he d twist up his eyes an duck his head for the thoughts that came to him was in at but i for well i knew tis just at the ind all things that his luck turns on a man by token i had seen a of a goin by at a trot home home at the top his shout and no heed to his bridle hand i had seen that man under the gun in the middle of a word and come out by the like a by ic on a no i not hurry though knows my heart was all in love o women saw f what was in my mind an go on he i know f what s for you i wiu not i a little yet ye know the turn of the pass f and the nine mile road on the flat to t all was along that road day and night for men women and bands some the was round an some went on to to get away down to their we came through in the early	39
been awake the night through and we sheer into the middle the mess mother glory will i ever forget that back the light was not fair lifted and the we heard was for tis my delight a shiny night f rum a band that thought we was the second four the at that we was forced to them a yell to say who we was an thin up the the green it made me crawl all up my not taken my thin right into our rear came f what was left as the s four an not half a among for the dear life an their like buck an a native shrieking blue ye heard the like there was men like women that did an faith i do not blame me down by ic love o women was the band an like angels the horse at the head an the silver kettle an all an all for their men that was behind us they up the cavalry an those poor ghosts that had not a sound f ut in a they answered to ut the men in their we to cheer them as they by but ut came out like a big cough so there must have been many that was f like me oh but i m f the fly by nights was for their second an ut came out there was the colonel s horse led at the saddle empty the men fair worshipped him an he d died at on the road down they waited till the the was up and lane against for who wanted thai that day they back to slow time an the out man that heard the dead march right across our line they an ye know their are as black as the sweeps past like the dead an the other bands them to let be little they cared the was them an they d ha taken ut so through a our was to go into an we hot past the fly by nights not to lave that behind us that was how we the road of the other corps twas in my ears still i felt in the by ic many inventions bones of me that was an i heard a shout an thin i saw a horse an a down the road hell to under women i knew i knew wan was the colonel s wife ould s her gray hair an her fat round in the saddle an the other was that ha been at the colonel s lady she charged at the head our column like a stone wall an she all but knocked off his horse her arms round his neck an me me i an wheeled left an came down our flank an i let a yell that had suffered inside me for months and came will i forget that while i live she d come on pass from an the colonel s lady had hei the they d been an in each other s arms all the long night so she walked along her hand in mine forty questions to an me on the virgin to make oath that there was not a bullet in me somewhere an thin i love o women he was us an his face was like the face a that has been cooked too long i did not wish to see ut for a woman s over with happiness she s like to be touched for harm by the little thing in life so i the curtain an love o women lay back and groaned we marched into to by ic o women to wait for me an me f so rich that tide i on to take love o women to hospital it was the last i do an to save him the dust an the i turned the men down a road well clear the rest the an we along me through the curtains a sudden i heard him say let me look for the mercy let me look i had been so up him out the dust an of that i had not kept my eyes about me there was a woman a little behind us an ut over afterwards that same woman must ha rid not far on the road said that she had been like a on the left flank ay the column i halted the to set the curtains an she rode by pace an love o women s eyes went her as if he would fair haul her down from the saddle follow there was all he but i heard a man in that voice before or since an i knew by those two wan words an the look in his face that she was di an pearls that he d talked in his we followed till she turned into the gate a little house that near the s there was two girls in the an they ran in they saw us faith at long eye range it did not take me a wink to see f what kind house ut by ic was the bein there an all there was three or four such but af the bade them go at the love o women catching his breath stop here an thin an thin a that must ha tore the heart up from his stomach he swung himself out the an my he up on his feet the sweat down his face if was to walk in here now i d be less back than i was thin where he d his power from god or the but twas a dead man in the sim the face ay a dead man and the breath a dead man held up by the power an the legs an the arms of the the woman in the she d been a beauty too though her eyes was sunk	39
in her head an she looked love o women up an down terrible an she kicking back the tall her habit an she are you here married man love o women said but a little came to his lips an he wiped ut off his hand an looked at her an the paint on her an looked an looked an looked an yet she a laugh did you hear mrs laugh died ye did not p well for you an yet she who but you have right she you taught me the you showed me the way she ay by ic l ve w s look she for tis your work you that d you it that a woman who was false to wan man be false to two i have been that she that an more for you always said i was a quick look well she for it is me that you called your wife in the sight ay long since an she laughed love o women still in the sun thin he groaned an to an i thought twas the death rattle but he his eyes off her face not for a wink ye ha put her through the flies an e p tent they were so long do you do here she word by word that have taken away my joy in my man this five years gone that have broken my rest an killed my body an damned my soul for the sake how twas done did your af bring you any woman that gave you more than i did i not ha died for you an you ye know that man i if ever your saw truth in life ye know that an o women lifted up his head and said i knew an that was all while she was the power him up i set in the sun an the sweat his twas more an more for him to talk an his mouth was running do you do she an her voice by ic up twas like bells before time was you were quick enough your words you that talked me down to hell are ye dumb now an love o women got his tongue an simple like a little child may i come in he the house is open day an night she a laugh an love o women his head an up his hand as tho he was the power was oh him still it him up still for by my as i ll never save ut he walked up the steps that had been a corpse in hospital for a month an now she at him an the red paint lone on the white her face like a bull on a he lifted up his eyes slow an very slow an he looked at her long an very long an he his his teeth a that him i m he ay those were his words for i the name he called her he was the death colour but his eyes they were set set on her word or she opened her arms full stretch an here she oh f what a golden a voice ut was die here she an love o women forward an she him up for she was a fine big woman i had no time to turn that i heard the quit him tore out in the death rattle an by ic women she laid him back in a long chair an she to met soldier she will ye not go in an talk to wan the girls this sun s too much for him well i knew there was no sun he d see but i not so i away the empty to find the he d been an ever since we d come in an he was as full as a faith ye ve got mighty soon he i d him to see that man walk a or two life he was a corpse before we left i ve a great mind he to confine you there s a liquor about i solemn as a hard boiled egg maybe tis so but will ye not come an see the corpse at the house tis he that i would be expected to go to a place like that was she a pretty woman he an at that he set off double quick i see that the two was in the where i d left them an i knew by the hang her head an the noise the f what had happened twas the first and the last time that i d ever known woman to use the pistol they dread the shot as a rule but di an pearls she did not she did not the touched the long black hair her by ic inventions head twas all loose upon love o women s chest an that cleared the liquor out him he a long time his hands in his pockets an at last he to me here s a double death from causes most causes an in the state affairs the will be thankful for wan grave the less to dig he these two will be buried together in the civil ry at my an may the good gk d he make it so much for me my time comes go you to your wife he go an be happy ill see to this all i left him still they was buried in the ry together a church of england service there was too many s thin to ask questions an the he ran away major major van s lady that he saw to ut all the right an the wrong love o women an di an pearls was i knew an i will know but i ve ut as i came here there in little pieces so being i am an i	39
knew that s f why i say in this case here s that dead an in hell is the lucky man there are times tis better for the man to die than to live an by forty million times for the woman h up there said it s time to go by ic l w men the witnesses and guard formed up in the thick white dust of the twilight and swung off marching easy and whistling down the road to the green by the church i could hear the black book lie still on his lips setting with a fine sense of the fitness of things the shrill that runs oh do not despise the of the wise learn wisdom from those that are older and don t try for things that are out of your an that s what the told the soldier i soldier soldier i oh that s what the told the soldier by ic the record of the year s at the spring and day s at the dawn morning s at the hill side s dew the lark s on the wing the s on the thorn god s in his heaven all s right with the world l this is not that whose spare names were and m as the song says but another and much lady in the beginning of things she had been had worn the heavy fringe which is the ornament of the s girl and there is a legend in street that on her she a lamp in either hand danced dances on a discarded lover s till a policeman interfered and then danced with the law amid those were her days of and they did not last long for her husband after two years took to himself another woman and passed out of s life over s senseless ck hj d co by ic record of h n t body for he stifled protest with blows while she was enjoying her the baby that the husband had not taken away died of and was altogether alone with rare fidelity she listened to no proposals for a second marriage according to the customs of street which do not differ from those of the my man she explained to her come back one o these days an then like as not ell take an kill me if i was long o you you don t know tom i do now you go i can do for myself not a kid she did for herself with a some tending of babies and an occasional sale of flowers this latter trade is one that needs capital and takes the very far westward in so much that the return journey from let us say the to street e is an excuse for drink and then as pointed out you come ome with your shawl off of your back an your under your arm and the price of nothing at all in your pocket let alone a care o you did not drink but she knew her and gave them rude counsel otherwise she kept herself to herself and meditated a great deal upon tom her husband who would come back some day and the baby that would never return in what manner these thoughts wrought upon her mind will not be known her entry into society dates from the night when by ic many she rose literally under tlie feet of the on the landing of no street and told him that he was a fool without in the of his district you give loo said she without the formality of introduction give her pork wine give er ome er mother she eats em all and drinks the em back from the shop she does before you come visiting again so as to ave em all handy an proper an loo she to you oh my mother s that good to me i she do loo ad better talk so bein sick r else er mother would kill er you re a gardener you an yer i loo don t never smell of em even the instead of being offended recognised in the heavy eyes under the fringe the soul of a fellow and so bade mount guard over loo when the next or should arrive to see that the invalid actually ate it this did to the disgust of loo s mother and the sharing of a black eye between the three but loo got her and heartily rather enjoyed the later on partly through the s swift recognition of her uses and partly through certain tales poured out with moist eyes and flushed cheeks by sister youngest and most of the little sisters of the bed by ic the of d f t diamond it came to pass that fringed and perfectly in speech won a recognised place among such as labour in street these were a mixed corps zealous or hysterical faint hearted or only very wearied of battle against misery according to their lights the most part were consumed with small and personal to be to their own tiny in the pauses between with death for the body of a or for further mission to a s very boots there was a that lived in dread of the poor would fain have held for fresh altar and prayed in secret for a new large brass bird with eyes of red glass fondly believed to be there was brother victor of the order of little ease who knew a great deal about altar but kept his knowledge in the background while he strove to mrs the secretary of the tea cup board who had money to dispense but hated rome even though rome would on its honour do ho more than fill the stomach leaving the dazed soul to the of mrs there were all the little sisters of	39
the bed diamond daughters of the crying give when their own charity was exhausted and explaining to such as demanded an account of their by ic in return for one half sovereign that relief work in a bad district can hardly be on the accounts side without expensive of staff there was the reverend who worked with ladies and brother victor and anybody else who could give him money boots or blankets or that more precious help that allows itself to be directed by those who know and all these people learned one by one to consult on matters of personal character right to relief and hope of in street her answers were seldom cheering but she possessed special knowledge and complete confidence in herself i m street she said to the austere mrs i know what s what i do an they don t want your religion not a single excuse me it s all right when they comes to die but till they die what they wants is things to eat the men they ll for themselves that s why nick to you that e wants to be confirmed an all that e won t never lead no new life nor is wife won t get no good out o all the money you gives im no more you can t them as t things to begin with re well the women they can t for themselves specially bein always confined ow should they they wants things if they can by ic the of get em if not they dies and a good job too for women is cruel put upon in street do you believe that that mrs is altogether a proper person to trust funds to said mrs to the after this conversation she seems to be utterly in her speech at least the agreed she was according to mrs s views but did not mrs think that since knew street and its needs as none other knew it she might in a humble way be as it were the of charity from purer sources and that if say the tea cup board could give a few shillings a week and the little sisters of the red diamond a few more and yes he himself could raise yet a few more the total not at all likely to be excessive might be handed over to to dispense among her associates thus mrs herself would be set free to attend more directly to the spiritual wants of certain men who sat on the lower benches of her and sought for truth which is quite as precious as silver when you know the market for it shell favour her own friends said mrs the refrained from mirth and after wise flattery carried his point to her unbounded pride was appointed the of a grant a by ic inventions weekly to be held for the benefit of street i don t know what we can get together each week said the to her but here are seventeen to start with you do what you like with them among your people only let me know how it goes so that we sha get in the accounts d you see ho tain t much though is it said regarding the white in her palm the sacred fever of the only known to those who have tasted power burned in her veins boots is boots unless they re give you an then they ain t fit to wear unless re mended top an bottom an is an i don t think anything o that cheap pork wine but it all comes to something it ll go quicker n a of gin seventeen bob an i ll keep a book same as i used to do before tom went an took up long o that pan faced in s rents we was the only that regular books me an im she bought a large copy her handwriting demanded room and in it she wrote the story of her war boldly as a general and for no other eyes than her own and those of the reverend long ere the pages were full the cover had been soaked in loo s mother of her on her daughter s invaded s room by ic the of in street and fought with her to the of the lamp and her own hair it was hard too to carry the precious pork wine in one hand and the book in the other through an thirsty land so red were added to those of the oil but the looking at the matter of the book never objected the generous told their own tale every saturday night supplying the chorus between the written statements thus very hi brandy d cab for hospital she had to go is mrs confined in money for tea she took u i know sir d met her nd out looking for work i is face for a bone idle beggar e won t get no work this side o excuse me sir won t you go on the mrs no for baby most in money s i from miss did sister do that said the very softly now charity was sister s duty yet to one man s eyes each act of her daily toil was a of grace and goodness a thing to perpetually admire tes sir she went back to the sisters ome an took em off er own bed most beautiful marked too gk on sir that makes up four and by ic many inventions mrs to keep good fire coal s is up d mrs took a baby to nurse to earn a but mother can d pay husband summons over and over he won t help cash s d worked in a but to leave fire tea and of beef is id there was a fight there sir	39
said me sir er o course e come in at the wrong time was to ave the beef so i calls up the next floor an down comes that man the sword stick top o ill i you big black beast you take an this big white beast ere i knew i couldn t stop tom drunk with the beef in is i ll beef m an e did it with that pore woman a in the next room an the top on that is broke out but she got er beef tea an tom e s got is will you go on sir no i think it will be all right ill sign for the week said the one gets so used to these things called human documents mrs s baby s got said turning to go where s that the of painter s alley or the other in street street the painter s alley people they re sold an left sister s sitting one night a week with old by ic the record of mrs in isn t she said the uneasily yes but she won t sit no longer i ve took up mrs i can t talk er no religion but she don t want it an miss she don t want no tho she she does don t you be afraid for miss but you ll get it perhaps like as not she looked the between the eyes and her own eyes under the fringe maybe i d like to get it for aught you know the thought upon these words for a little time till he began to think of sister in the gray cloak with the white bonnet ribbons under the chin then he thought no more of what thought was never expressed in words but it is known in street that loo s mother sitting blind drunk on her own was that night captured and wrapped up in the war cloud of s wrath so that she did not know whether she stood on her head or her heels and after being soundly on every particular stair up to her room was set down on s bed there to and quiver till the dawn protesting that all the world was against her and calling on the names of children long since slain by dirt and neglect went out to war and since the hosts of the enemy were many found enough work to keep her busy till the dawn by ic m v as she had promised she took mrs into her own care and began by nearly startling the old lady into a fit with the announcement that there ain t no like as not an if there is it don t matter to you or me an any ow you take this sister objected to being shut off from her pious work in street but insisted and by fair words and the promise of to come so prevailed on three or four of the more sober men of the neighbourhood that they the door whenever sister attempted to force an entry and pleaded the as an excuse i ve got to keep er out o arm s way said an out she keeps the won t care a for me but e wouldn t any ow the effect of that was to shift the sphere of sister s activity to other streets and those most haunted by the reverend and brother victor of the order of little ease there exists for all their human a very close brotherhood in the ranks of those whose work lies in street to begin with they have seen pain pain that no word or deed of theirs can life bom into death and death crowded down by unhappy life also they understand the full significance of drink which is a knowledge hidden from very many well meaning people and some of them have fought with the beasts at they meet at hours in by ic the of ly places exchange a word or two of hasty counsel advice or suggestion and pass on to their appointed toil since time is precious and lives hang in the balance of five minutes for many the gas lamps are their sun and the the of the twilight they have all in their station begged for money so that the of the them together to all these influences there was added in the case of two workers that thing which men have agreed to call love the chance of sister s catching did not enter into the s head till had spoken then it seemed a thing intolerable and monstrous that she should be exposed not only to this risk but any accident whatever of the streets a coming round a comer might kill her the rotten on which she trod daily and nightly might and her there was danger in the tottering of certain crazy houses that he knew well danger more deadly within those houses what if one of a thousand drunken men crushed out that precious life a woman had once flung a chair at the s head sister s arm would not be strong enough to ward off a chair there were also knives that were apt to fly these and other considerations cast the soul of the reverend into torment that no leaning upon providence could relieve gk d was great and by ic many inventions terrible one had only to walk through street to see that much but it would be better vastly better that should have the protection of his own arm and the world that was not too busy to watch might have seen a woman not too yoimg light haired and light eyed slightly in her speech and very limited in such ideas as lay beyond the immediate sphere of her duty where the eyes of the reverend turned to follow the footsteps of	39
without any word to say for that ud off and leave me an never so much as a be ind i you call yourself a man you call yourself the shadow of a man i ve seen better men than you made outer paper and out look at im i e s been drunk since thursday last an e u be drunk s long s e can get drink e s took all i ve got an me an as you see a murmur of sympathy from the women took it all e did an of is an yes you you thief e goes off an tries to take up long o that here followed a complete and minute description of the young woman luckily she was not on the spot to hear ell serve er as e served me i e u drink every copper she makes an then leave er go same by ic toe of as e done me i o women look you i ve bore im one an there s another on the way an e d np an leave me as i am now the an you may leave ma i don t want none o your s go away away i the of passion overpowered the voice the crowd attracted a policeman as tom began to away look at im said grateful for the new listener ain t there no law for such as im e s took all my money e s beat me once twice an over e s swine drunk when e ain t mad drunk an now an now e s to pick up along o another woman im i give up a four times better man for ain t there no law what s the matter now you go into your m see to the man as said the policeman me e s cut my in two an e stands there as tho twas all a play to im you go on into your an lie down a bit i m a married woman i tell you an ave my i ain t done er no arm said tom from the edge of the crowd he felt that public opinion was against him you ain t done me any good you i m a married woman i am an i won t ave my took from me well if you are a married woman cover your by ic breasts said the policeman soothingly he was used to domestic thank you for your look ere i she tore open her and showed such shaped as are made by a well applied chair back that s what e done to me my heart break quick enough s tried to get in an break it look at that tom that you gave me last night an i made it up with you but that was before i knew what you were to do long o that charge im said the policeman ell get a month for it per no said firmly it was one thing ta expose her man to the scorn of the street and another to lead him to jail then you go in an lie down and you this to the pass along the pavement there past along taint nothing to laugh at to tom who was being by his friends good for you she didn t charge you but mind this now the next time etc tom did not at all appreciate s forbearance nor did his friends help to compose his mind he had the woman because he was a nuisance for precisely the same reason he had cast about for a new mate and all his kind acts had ended in a truly painful scene in the street a most exposure by and of his woman and a by ic of certain loss of this he among his associates consequently all women were and consequently was a good thing his friends with him perhaps he had been more hard on his woman than she deserved but her disgraceful conduct under provocation all offence i wouldn t ave no more to do with a woman like that there said one let er go an dig for her self a man wears out to is bones meat down their mouths while sit at ome easy all day an the very time mark you you ts a bit of a difference an very proper too for a man as is a man she an as you out into the street you knows what all what s the good o that i you r so spoke the second the was the third and his suggestion struck tom as the best of all he would return to his wife probably she would have been doing something wrong while he had been away and he could then his authority as a husband certainly she would have money single women always seemed to i the pence that gk d and the government denied to hard working men he refreshed himself with more it was beyond any doubt that would have done something wrong she might even have married another man he would wait till the new husband by ic b many was out of the way and after kicking would get money and a long absent sense of satisfaction there is much virtue in a creed or a law but when all is prayed and suffered drink is the only thing that will make clean all a man s deeds in his own eyes pity it is that the effects are not permanent tom parted with his friends bidding them tell that he was going to street and would return to her arms no more because this was the message they remembered and delivered it with drunken distinctness in s ears then tom took more drink till his rolled back and stood off from him	39
enough that money s my trust there s a book along of it too your trust are you with any trust that your don t know of you an your trust take you that tom stepped towards her and delivered a blow of the clenched fist across the mouth give me you ve got said he in the thick abstracted voice of one talking in dreams i won t said staggering to the with any other man than her husband she would have fought savagely as a wild cat but tom had been absent two years and perhaps a little submission would win him back to her none the less the weekly trust was sacred the wave that had so long held back descended on tom s brain he caught by the throat and forced her to her knee it seemed just to him in that hour to punish an wife for two years of wilful desertion and the more in that she had confessed her guilt by refusing to give up the of sin loo s mother waited on the pavement without for the sounds of but none came even if tom had released her throat not have screamed by ic give it up you said tom is that ow you pay me back for all done i can t taint my money forgive you tom for you the voice ceased as the grip and tom heaved against the bed her forehead struck the bed post and she sank half kneeling on the floor it was impossible for a self respecting man to refrain from kicking her so tom kicked with the deadly intelligence bom of the head drooped to the floor and tom kicked at that till the crisp of hair striking through his nailed boot with the chill of cold water warned him that it might be as well to where s the s money you woman p he whispered in the blood stained ear but there was no only a rattling at the door and the voice of crying come out o that tom an come ome with me an you i ll tear your face off its bones i tom s friends had delivered their message and after the first flood of passionate tears rose up to follow tom and if possible to win him back she was prepared even to endure an for her performances in s rents loo s mother guided her to the chamber of horrors and chuckled as she retired down the staircase if tom had not the soul out of there would at least be a royal fight between by ic the of d f t s and and loo s mother knew well that hell has no fury like a woman fighting above the life that is quick in her still there was no sound in the street swung back the door to discover her man regarding a heap by the bed an eminent murderer has remarked that if people did not die so most men and all women would commit at least one murder in their lives tom was reflecting on the present and the was fighting with the clear current of his thoughts don t make that noise he said come in quick my i said checking like a startled wild beast s all this ere you ain t i done it done it i tou done it a sight too well this time she was said tom thickly dropping back into the chair that you d never believe on the fat o the land among these aristocratic an all look at them white on the bed we ain t got no white what i want to know is the voice died as s had died but from a different cause the was its grip after the accomplished deed and tom s eyes were beginning to close on the floor breathed heavily by ic no nor like to ave said done for er this time you go not me she won t hurt do er i m goin to sleep look at those there clean sheets you too bent over and there was intelligence in the battered woman s eyes intelligence and much hate i never told im to do such whispered twas tom s own none o mine shall i get im took p the eyes told their own story tom who was beginning to must not be taken by the law gk said get out out of ere you told that this afternoon said the man very go asleep that wasn t nothing you d only it me this time it s murder murder murder tom you ve killed er now she shook the man from his rest and understanding with cold terror filled his brain i done it for your sake he feebly trying to take her hand you killed er for the money same as you would ha killed me out o this lay er on the bed first you brute they lifted on to the bed and crept forth i can t be took along o you and if you was by ic the record of her d f t took you d say i made you do it an try to get me away outer ere said and she dragged him down the stairs goin to look for the said a from the pavement loo s mother was still waiting patiently to hear said swiftly there was a chance of her conscience yet in regard to the bundle upstairs terrace close ere said the old woman she had never been regarded by the perhaps since had not tom preferred the man to the woman there was no for tastes thrust her man before her till they reached the nearest main road away now she gasped off but don t come back to me i ll never go with you	39
again an tom tom d yer ear me clean your boots vain counsel the desperate thrust of disgust which she bestowed upon him sent him staggering face down into the where a policeman showed interest in his welfare took for a common drunk send they don t look at is boots terrace settled her hat and ran the excellent housekeeper of the still remembers how there arrived a young person blue and gasping who cried only ba by ic street tell the to at at at and into the this message was borne to the then enjoying his beauty sleep he saw there was in the demand and knocked up brother victor across the landing as a matter of etiquette rome and england their cases in the district according to the of the but was an institution and not a case and there was no district relief etiquette to be considered something has happened to the said and it s your affair as well as mine dress and come along i am ready was the answer is there any hint of what s wrong nothing beyond a knock and a call then it s a confinement or a assault wouldn t wake us up for anything less i m qualified for both thank god the two men to street for there were no abroad and under any circumstances a cab fare means two days good firing for such as are with cold loo s mother had gone to bed and the door was naturally on the latch they found considerably mo than they had expected in s room and the church of rome itself nobly with while the church of england could only pray to be from the sin of the order of little ease by ic the of d f t s that the soul is in most cases accessible through the body take their measures and train their men accordingly shell do now said brother victor in a whisper internal bleeding i fear and a certain amount of injury to the brain she has a husband of course they all have more s the pity tee there s a about these injuries that shows their origin he lowered his voice it s a perfectly hopeless business you understand twelve hours at the longest s right hand began to beat on the counter pane palm down i think you are wrong said the church of she is going no that s not picking at the said the church of rome she wants to say some thing you know her better than l the bent very low send for miss said with a cough in the morning she will come in the morning said the and was content only the church of rome who knew something of the human heart his brows and said nothing after all the law of his order was plain his duty was to watch till the dawn while the gray worn moon went down it was a little before her sinking that the rev by ic inventions said hadn t we better send for ter she seems to be going fast brother victor made no answer but as early as decency allowed there came one to the door of the house of the little sisters of the red diamond and demanded sister that she might soothe the pain of that man saying very little led her to street no and into the room where lay then he stood on the landing and bit the flesh of his fingers in agony because he was a priest trained to know and knew how the hearts of men and women beat back at the so that love is born out of horror and passion declares itself when the soul is quivering with pain wise to the last her strength till the coming of sister it is generally maintained by the little sisters of the red diamond that she died in delirium but since one sister at least took a half of her dying advice this seems she tried to turn feebly on the bed and the poor broken human machinery protested according to its nature sister started forward thinking that she heard the dread of the death rattle lay still conscious and spoke with startling distinctness the irrepressible of the the girl who had danced on th by ic the of d f t twinkling in her one available eye sounds jest like mrs don t it before she s ad er lunch an as been all the to er classes neither sister nor the said anything brother victor stood without the door and the breath came harshly between his clenched teeth for he was in pain put a cloth over my said i ve got it good an i don t want miss to see i ain t pretty this time who was it said the man from outside never seed im no more n adam drunk i s pose s me s truth is miss ere i can t see under the i ve got it good miss excuse my not with you but i m not strong an it s f for mrs s beef tea an you can give er for baby these people i t talk for my e never come nigh me these two years or i d a bin as bad as the rest but e never come nigh me a man come an it me over the an e kicked me miss so it was just the same s if i had ha had a ain t it the book s in the drawer an it s all right an i never up a copper o the trust money not a copper you look under the o drawers all isn t spent this by ic week is there an miss don t yon that gray no more i you from the an i didn t want	39
to keep you so but the said it ad to be done i d a sooner ha took up with im than any one only tom he come an you see miss tom e never come nigh me for two years nor i t seen him yet s me i t do you ear but you two go along and make a match of it i ve wished often but o course it was not for the likes o ma if tom ad come back which e never did i d ha been like the rest sixpence for beef tea for the baby an a shilling for out the baby you ve seen it in the books that s what it is an o course you couldn t never ave nothing to do with me but a woman she wishes as she looks an never you ave no doubt about im miss i ve seen it in is face time an time an make it a four pound ten funeral with a pall it was a seven pound fifteen shilling funeral and all street turned out to do it honour all but two for loo s mother saw that a power had departed and that her road lay clear to the therefore when the carriages rattled off the cat on the door step heard the wail of the dying who could not die oh mother mother won t you even let me by ic and the empire t the don attack us whenever his stomach be fain he must reach us before he can rack us and where are the of spain t of the many beauties of a is its almost skill in ing troubles with other countries and finding its honour in the process a true has a large contempt for all other lands that are governed by kings and queens and and knows little and thinks less of their internal affairs all it regards is its own dignity which is its king queen and so sooner or later an differ ence ends in the common people who have no dignity shouting the common abuse of the street which also has no dignity across the seas in order to their own dignity the consequences may or may not be war but the chances do not favour peace an advantage in living in a land which hj d ft go by ic many inventions is really governed lies in the fact that all the kings and queens and of the continent are closely related by blood or marriage are in fact one large family a wise head of them knows that what appears to be a studied insult may be no more than some man s or woman s to be treated as such and explained in quiet talk again a popular demonstration headed by king and court may mean nothing more than that so s people are out of hand for the minute when a horse falls to kicking in a hunt crowd at a gate the rider does not but puts his open hand behind him and the others draw aside it is so with the rulers of men in the old days they cured their own and their people s bad temper with fire and slaughter but now that the fire is so long of range and the slaughter so large they do other things and few among their people guess how much they owe in mere life and money to what the of the minute calls and luxuries once upon a time there was a little power the half wreck of a once great empire that lost its temper with england the boy of all the world and behaved as every one knows most but it is not generally known that that power fought a pitched battle with land and won a glorious victory the trouble began with the i their own misfortunes had been many and for private rage it is always refresh by ic n and ths ing to find a vent in public swearing their national vanity had been deeply injured and they thought of their ancient glories and the days when their had first rounded the cape of storms and their own newspapers called upon and urged them to it was the gross smooth sleek lying england that was checking their career of they assumed at once that their ruler was in league with that country and consequently they his people would forthwith become a republic and themselves as a free people should this made plain the people threw stones at the english and at english ladies and cut off drunken sailors of our fleet in their ports and them with oars and made things very unpleasant for at their customs and threatened awful deaths to the at while the junior officers of the army drank fruit and entered into the blood against their monarch all with the object of being a republic now the history of all the south american shows that it is not good that southern should be also they glide too quickly into military and the of men against walls and shooting them in can be arranged much more and with less effect on the death rate by a hide bound still the by ic performances of the power as represented by its people were extremely inconvenient it was the kicking horse in the crowd and probably the rider explained that he could not check it the people enjoyed all the glory of war with none of the risks and the who were in their travels returned to england and told the times that the police arrangements of foreign towns were this then was the state of affairs north the line south it was more strained for there the powers were at direct issue england unable to go back because of the pressure of adventurous children behind her and the	39
actions of far away who would not come to heel but offering to buy out her rival and the other power lacking men or money stiff in the conviction that three hundred years of slave holding and with the nearest natives gave an right to hold slaves and issue half to all eternity they had built no roads their towns were under their hands they had no trade worth the freight of a crazy steamer and their ran almost one shot inland when things were ul for these very reasons they raged all the more and the things that they said and wrote about the manners and customs of the english would have driven a younger nation to the guns with a long red bill for wounded honour by ic the s it was then that fate sent down in a twin screw shallow designed for the defence of rivers of some two hundred and seventy tons lieutenant edward to be known for the future as jove his type of craft looked exactly like a flat iron with a match stuck up in the middle it drew five feet of water or less carried a four inch gun forward which was trained by the ship and on account of its persistent rolling was to live in three degrees worse than a boat when was appointed to take charge of the thing on her little trip of six or seven thousand miles southward his first remark as he went to look her over in dock was jove that wants staying forward i the was a stick about as thick as a clothes but the flat iron was s first command and he would not have exchanged his position for second post on the or the he her under tenderly and lovingly to the cape the story of the came with him and he was so in love with his wash tub when he reported himself that the admiral of the station thought it would be a pity to kill a new man on her and allowed to continue in his rule the admiral visited her once in s bay and she was bad even for a flat iron strictly designed for river and harbour defence she by ic drops of dew between decks in spite of a preparation of powdered cork that was sprinkled over her inside paint she rolled in the long cape swell like a her was a dog s cabin was practically under the water line not one of her dead lights could ever be opened and her thanks to the influence of the gun were a curiosity even among but jove was radiant and enthusiastic he had even contrived to all mr the second class engine room who was his chief engineer with the glow of his passion the admiral who remembered his own first command when pride forbade him to off a single rope on a night and he had his to pieces in consequence looked at the keenly her were done all over with white which was truly white her big gun was with a better composition than the allowed the spare sights were as carefully as the the for spare two of them were made of four inch carved with heads that was one result of jove on s experiences with the naval in the war the bow anchor was instead of being painted and there were more than the scale supplied the admiral was well pleased for he loved a ship s a man who had a little money of his own by ic and the and was willing to spend it on his command looked at him he was only a junior lieutenant under eight years standing he might be kept in s bay for six months and his ship at sea was his delight the dream of his heart was to her dismal official gray with a line of gold leaf and perhaps a little work at her blunt like bows there s nothing like a first command is there said the admiral reading his thoughts you seem to have rather queer though better get them adjusted it s no use sir said the gun would throw out the pole itself but i ve got the hang of most of their weaknesses will you be good enough to lay that gun over thirty degrees please the gun was put over round and round and round went the needle merrily and the admiral whistled you must have kept close to your saw her twice between here and sir said with a flush for he resented the on his it s it s a little out of hand now but shell settle down after a while the admiral went over the side according to the rules of the service but the captain must have told the other men of the in s bay for they one and all made light of the flat iron for many days what can you shake out of her by ic many t n son said the of the a real white painted ram bow with quick firing guns as he came into the upper of the little naval club overlooking the one hot afternoon it is in that club as the captains come and go that you hear all the gossip of all the seven seas ten point four said jove ah that was on her trial trip she s too deep by the head now i told you staying that would throw her out of trim you leave my top alone said for the joke was beginning to pall on him oh my soul i listen to him s top i have you heard of the flat iron s f you re to leave it alone s feelings are hurt was the lieutenant of the big and he despised small things his said he slowly oh ah yes of there s a of in the bay	39
and i think they re foul of your better go down or they ll carry away something i don t let things carry away as a rule you see no lieutenant on board thank god within the past week had so managed to the in of a small boat on the that the boat had broken the by ic and the in which she rested and was herself being repaired in the the club windows one for you never mind you re appointed tender for the next three years and if you re very good and there s no sea on you shall take me round the harbour what ll you take for the cook and the captain bold and the mate o the and the bo sun tight put that cue down or put you under arrest for insulting the lieutenant of the real ship and the and the crew of the captain s by this time had pinned him in a comer and was him with the half butt the admiral s secretary entered and saw the from afar i i take that er of yours away here s the man with the i wish i were a staff captain instead of a bloody sleeps below every night that s what makes tumble home from the waist i defy you to touch me i m under orders for probably i shall it the admiral wants to see you i said the staff captain the of the i told you you d be a tender yet a side of fresh beef to morrow and three by ic dozen on ice on you understand jove and the staff captain went out together now what does the admiral want with said from the bar don t know s a damned good fellow though i wish to goodness he was on the with us the lieutenant of the dropped into a chair and read the mail papers for an hour then he saw jove in the street and shouted to him s eyes were very bright and his figure was held very straight and he moved except for the lieutenant of the the club was empty there will be a beautiful row said that young man when he had heard the news delivered in an probably have to fight and yet i can t see what the admiral s thinking of my orders are not to fight under any circumstances said go look see that all when do you go to night if i can i must go down and see about things i say i may want a few men for the day anything on the is at your service there s my come in now i know that coast by ic and the empire dead drunk or asleep and need all the knowledge you can get if it had only been us two together come over with me for one whole hour remained in the stem cabin of the listening over upon and taking notes and for an hour the marine at the door heard nothing but things like these now you ll have to put in here if there s any sea on that current is under estimated and it west at this season of the year remember their boats never come south of this see so it s no good looking out for them and so on and so forth while lay at length on the by the three and smoked and absorbed it all next morning there was no flat iron in s bay only a little of smoke off cape to show that mr the second class engine room was giving her all she could carry at the admiral s house the ancient and retired bo sun who had seen many come and go brought out his paint and and gave a new coat of pure raw green to the two big cannon balls that stood one on each side of the admiral s entrance gate he felt dimly that great events were stirring and the flat iron constructed as has been before said solely for the defence of rivers met the great roll off cape and was swept from end to by ic many end and sat upon her twin and leaped as gracefully as a cow in a from one sea to another till mr began to fear for the safety of his and the boys that made the majority of the crew were sick she ran along a very badly lighted coast past that were no where ugly flat rocks lay almost level with the water and very many extraordinary things happened that have nothing to do with the story but they were all duly by jove at last the coast changed and grew green and low and exceedingly muddy and there were broad rivers whose bars were little islands standing three or four miles out at sea and jove the shore more closely than ever remembering what the lieutenant of the had told him then he found a river full of the smell of fever and mud with green stuff growing far into its waters and a current that made the flat iron gasp and we will turn up here said jove and they turned up accordingly mr wondering what in the world it all meant and the boys grinning jove went forward to the bows and meditated staring through the muddy waters after six hours of through this desolation at an average rate of five miles an hour his eyes were cheered by the sight of one white in the coffee mid stream the flat iron crept up to it cautiously and a took by ic s all around it from a while jove smoked and thought with his head on one side about seven feet isn t there said he that must be the tail end of the there s four in the knock that down with i don t	39
think it s picturesque somehow the men the wooden sides to pieces in three minutes and the chain sank with the last of wood jove laid the flat iron carefully over the site while mr watched biting his nails nervously can you back her against this current p said jove mr could inch by inch but only inch by inch and jove sat in the bows and gazed at various things on the bank as they came into line or opened out the flat iron dropped down over the tail of the exactly where the had been and backed once before jove was satisfied then they went up stream for half an hour put into water by the bank and waited with a slip rope on the anchor seems to me said mr like as if i heard some one a firing off at intervals so to say there was beyond doubt a dull in the air seems to me said jove as if i heard a screw stand by to slip her another ten minutes passed and the beat of engines grew then round the bend of the by ic many river came a remarkably prettily built white with a blue and white flag bearing a red in the centre the stream both i easy let go all i the slip rope flew out the two in the water to mark where anchor and cable had been left and the out into with the white at her one mast head give her all you can that thing has the legs of us said and down we go i it s war bloody war he s going to fire said mr looking up through the engine room the white without a word of explanation fired three guns at the flat iron cutting the trees on the banks into green jove was at the wheel and mr and the current helped the boat to an almost respectable degree of speed it was an exciting chase but it did not last for more than five minutes the white fired again and mr in his engine room gave a wild shout what s the matter hit said jove no i ve just seized of your de beg y pardon sir right just the half a of a point more the wheel turned under the steady hand as by ic the watched his marks on the bank coming in line swiftly as troops anxious to aid the flat iron smelt the water under her checked for an instant and went on now we re oyer come along you there the white too hurried even to fire was in the wake of the flat iron as she this was unfortunate because the lighter craft was dead over the missing what you do here shouted a voice from the bows tm going on hold tight now you re arranged for there was a crash and a clatter as the white s nose took the and the brown mud boiled up in circles imder her then the current caught her stem by the side and drove her on to the slowly and gracefully there she at an angle and her crew aloud neat oh damn neat mr dancing on the engine room plates while the grinned the flat iron turned again and passed under the up side of the white to be received with and in a strange tongue the boat exposed even to her lower was as as a m its back without the advantage of the by ic and the one big blunt gun in the bows of the flat iron was near but the captain was and swore jove took no sort of notice his business was to go up the we will come in a of boats and your vile tricks said the captain with language that need not be published then said jove who was a you stay o where you are o or leave a hole o in bottom o that will make you much os there was a great deal of mixed language in reply but jove was out of hearing in a few minutes and mr himself a man of few confided to one of his that lieutenant was a most remarkable prompt officer in a way of putting it for two hours the flat iron madly through the muddy water and that which had been at first a became a distinct was war declared said and jove laughed then damn his eyes he might have spoilt my pretty little engines there s war up there though the next bend brought them full in sight of a small but lively village built round a mud house of some pretensions there were scores and scores of saddle coloured on duty white by ic to and fro and shouting round a man in a litter and on a gentle slope that ran inland for four or miles something like a brisk battle was raging round a rude a smell of un buried floated through the air and vexed the sensitive nose of mr who over the side i want to get this gun on that house said indicating the superior dwelling oyer whose flat roof floated the blue and white flag the little twin kicked up the water exactly as a hen s legs kick in the dust before she settles down to a bath the little boat moved uneasily from left to right backed again went ahead and at last the gray blunt gun s nose was held as straight as a rifle barrel on the mark indicated then mr allowed the whistle to speak as it is not allowed to speak in her majesty s service on account of waste of steam the of the village gathered into knots and groups and and the firing up the hill ceased and every one except the crew of the flat iron aloud something like an english cheer came down	39
wind our in mischief for sure probably said mr they must have declared war weeks ago in a kind of way seems to me hold her steady you son of a soldier shouted jove as the fell off the white house by ic something rang as loudly as a ship s bell on the forward plates of the flat iron something in the water and another thing cut a in the deck an inch in front of s left foot the saddle coloured were firing as the mood took them and the man in the litter waved a shining sword the of the big gun kicked down a as it was laid on the mud wall at the bottom of the house garden ten pounds of shut up in a hundred pounds of metal was its charge three or four yards of the mud wall jumped up a little as a man when he is caught in the small of the back with a and then fell forward spreading fan wise in the fall the fired no more that day and saw an old black woman climb to the flat roof of the house she for a time with the flag then finding that they were took off her one garment which happened to be an coloured and waved it impatiently the man in the litter flourished a white handkerchief and jove grinned now well give em one up the hill bound with her mr curse the man who invented those floating gun when can i pitch in a notice without one of those little devils the side of the slope was with men returning in a fashion to the river front behind them marched a small but very compact by ic am body of men who had filed out of the these last dragged quick firing guns with jove it s a regular army i wonder whose said and he waited the descending troops met and mixed with the troops in the village and with the litter in the centre crowded down to the river till the men with the quick firing guns came up behind them then they divided left and right and the marched through heave these damned things over said the leader of the party and one after another ten little into the muddy water the lay close to the bank when you re quite done said jove politely would you mind telling me what s the matter p i m in charge here we re the of the general development company said the leader these little have been us in for twelve hours and we re getting rid of their had to climb out and take them but they ve the lock actions glad to see you any one hurt no one killed exactly but we re very dry can you hold your men the man turned round and looked at his command with a grin there were seventy of them all dusty and by ic we sack this ash bin if that s what you mean we re mostly gentlemen here though we don t look it all right send the head of this post or fort or or whatever it is aboard and make what arrangements you can for your men well find some accommodation some where i tou in the litter there go aboard the the command wheeled round pushed through the and began to search through the village for spare huts the little man in the litter came aboard nervously he was in the fullest of full uniform with many yards of gold lace and dangling chains also he wore very large spurs the nearest horse being not more than four hundred miles away my children said he facing the silent lay aside your arms most of the men had dropped them already and were sitting down to smoke let nothing he added in his own tongue tempt you to kill these who have sought your protection now said jove on whom the last remark was lost will you have the goodness to explain what the deuce you mean by all this nonsense it was of a said the little man the operations of war are i am the governor and i operate captain be old my little sword by ic and the s confound your little sword sir i don t want it you ve fired on our flag you ve been firing at our people here for a week and been fired at coming up the river ah i the she have you for a possibly how are the t a ship of her majesty s navy for a you mistake any craft for a jove sir i ve a good mind to hang you at the there was nothing nearer that terrible than the walking stick in the rack of s cabin the governor looked at the one mast and smiled a smile the position is embarrassment he said captain do you think those illustrious bum my capital my people will give them beer never mind the i want an explanation hum there are popular in europe in my country his eye wandered round the horizon what has that to do with captain you are very young there is still but i here he his chest till his i am to of os my go on said and his mouth quivered an order arrive to me to establish a here and to collect of the from the by ic n when she are come here necessarily that was on account of political with your country and mine but on that arrangement there was no money also not one damn little i desire to extend all commercial things and why i am and there is rebellion yes i tell you in my country for to just begin you do not believe see some time how it exist i cannot make this custom houses and pay the	39
so high paid officials the too in my country they say the king she has no into honour of her nation he throw away everything her all you say pay yes that s what we say said with a grin therefore they say let us be on hot cakes but i i am to all my hands ends captain once i was attach at i say the are no good the have her stomach high they desire they desire a course for the bills what on earth is that the cock fight for pay at the gate you give something pay for see bloody row do i make its comprehension p a run for their money is that what you mean p you re sporting governor so i say i am too he smiled more easily now how can anything do herself for the by ic k am the houses but when the company s she arrives then a cock fight for pay at gate that is quite correct my army he says it will republic and shoot me off upon walls if i have not give her blood an army captain are terrible in her when she are not paid i know too here he laid his hand on s shoulder i know too we are old friends yes d time ever since and a little little cock fight for pay at gate that is good for my king more sit her tight on throne behind you see now he waved his hand round the decayed village i say to my armies fight fight the company s men when she come but fight not so very strong that you are any it is all in the that i send but you understand captain we are good friends all the time ah you remember no perhaps your father then so you see no one are and we fight a fight and it is all in the to please the people in our country and my armies they do not put me against the walls you see yes but the she fired on us was that part of your game my the ah no i think not her captain he is too big fool but i think she have gone down the coast those your her nose and her oar in every place how is by ic on a stuck till i take her off there are any no the drew a breath of deep relief there are no here so you see none are anywhere and nothing is done captain you talk to the company s i think they are not pleased naturally they have no sense i thought to go backwards again they would i leave her alone all night to let them out but they stay and come to me not backwards they did not know we must conquer much in all these battles or the king he is kicked off her throne now we have won this this great battle he waved his arms abroad and i think you will say so that we have won captain you are also you would not disturb to the peaceful europe p captain i tell you this your queen she know too she would not fight her cousins it is a a hand up thing what hand up thing you put how you say p put up job yes put up job who is hurt we win you lose jove had been at intervals for the last five minutes here he broke down completely and roared aloud by ic the l but look here gk he said at last i ve got to think of other things than your in fired on our flag captain if yon are me yon have done how p and also and also he drew himself up to his height we are both brave men of our honour is the honour of our king here he and of our queen here he bowed low now captain you shall shell my palace and i shall be your prisoner i said jove i can t shell that old then come to dinner she are till to us and i have of the best she ac he over the side beaming and jove went into the cabin to laugh his laugh out when he had recovered ik little he sent mr to the head of the the dusty man with the and the troops who had abandoned the pursuit of arms watched the disgraceful spectacle of two men with laughter on the quarter deck of a ni put my men to build him a custom house said the head of the gasping well make him one ent road at least that governor ought to be fm glad now that we fight em in the open or we d have killed some of them so he s won great battles has he give him the compliments of the victims and tell him i m by ic many inventions coming to dinner yon t such a thing as a suit have you i haven t seen one for six months that evening there was a dinner in the village a general and enthusiastic dinner whose head was in the s house and whose tail at large throughout all the streets the was everything that the governor had said and more and it was tested against two or three bottles of jove s best which is cape brandy ten years in the bottle with orange and before the coffee was removed by the lady who had made the flag of the had sold the whole of his and its once to jove for services rendered by s grandfather in the war and once to the head of the in consideration of that gentleman s good friendship after the he retreated for a while into an inner apartment and there a true and complete	39
account of the defeat of the british arms which he read with his cocked hat over one eye to and his companion it was who suggested the sinking of the flat iron with all hands and the head of the who supplied the list of and wounded not more than two hundred in his command said the from under his cocked hat the peace of europe are saved by this by ic k you shall all be knights of the gk hide she shall go by the heavens i said jove flushed but composed that reminds me left that boat stuck on her down the river i must go down and soothe the hell be blue with rage governor let us go a sail on the river to cool our heads a you understand as everything i understand you are all my prisoner but i am good we shall on the river and we shall take all the girls come on my prisoners i do hope said the head of the staring from the into the roaring village that my won t set the town alight by accident a guard of honour for his the most illustrious governor some thirty men answered the call made a swaying line upon a more swaying course and bore the governor most of all high in the arms as they staggered down to the river and the song that they sang bade them swing swing together their body between their knees and they obeyed the words of the song faithfully except that they were anything but steady from stroke to bow his the governor slept on his uneasy litter and did not wake when the chorus dropped him on the deck of the flat iron night and good bye said the head o the by ic to you my card if i it but i m so damned drunk i hardly know my own club oh yes it s the travellers if ever we meet in town remember me i must stay here and look after my fellows we re all right in the open now i s pose you ll return the governor some time this is a political crisis gk od night the flat iron went down stream through the dark the governor slept on deck and took the wheel but how he and why he did not run into each bank many times that officer does not remember mr did not note anything unusual for there are two ways of taking too much and was only ward room not drunk as the night grew colder the governor woke up and expressed a desire for and when that came they were nearly abreast of the and his saluted the flag that he could not see with loyal and patriotic strains they do not see they do not hear he cried ten thousand saints i they sleep and i have won battles ha he started forward to the gun which very naturally was loaded pulled the and woke the dead night with the roar of the full charge behind a common shell that shell just missed the stem of the and burst on the bank now you shall salute your governor said he as he heard feet running in all directions within the iron by ic the skin why you demand so base a quarter i am here with all my prisoners in the and the general shriek for mercy his were not heard captain said a grave voice from the ship we have surrendered is it the custom of the to fire on a helpless ship surrendered holy virgin i go to cut all their heads you shall be ate by wild and drowned throw me a balcony it is i the governor i you shall never surrender of my soul ascend her and send me a bed for i am sleepy but oh i will time kill that captain oh i said the voice in the darkness i begin to and a rope ladder was thrown up which the governor scrambled with at his heels now we will enjoy said the governor on the deck all these shall be shot little if i am not drunk why are so sloping the boards which do not support the deck as i have said was at a very stiff cant his sat down slid to and was asleep again the captain of the bit his moustache furiously and muttered in his own tongue this land is the father of great and the of honest men you see our material cap by ic many it is so everywhere with us yon have some of the rats i hope not a rat said that is a pity if they were dead onr country might send us men but our country is dead too and i am on a mud bank through your english treachery well it seems to me that firing on a little tub of our size without a word of warning when you knew that the were at peace is treachery enough in a small way if one of my guns had touched you you would have gone to the bottom all of you i would have taken the risk with my government by that time it would have been a republic so you really did mean fighting on your own hook you re rather a dangerous officer to cut loose in a navy like yours well what are you going to do now stay here go away in boats what does it matter that drunken cat he i d to the shadow in which the governor slept is here i must take him back to his hole very good ill tow you off at daylight if you get steam ready captain i warn you that as soon as she again i will fight you have lunch with me and then you ll take the governor up the river by ic	39
and the the captain was silent for some time then he said let us drink what must be must be and after all we have not forgotten the tou will admit captain that it is bad to be run upon a like a mud p oh well pull you off before you can say knife take care of his i shall try to get a little sleep now they slept on both ships till the morning and then the work of off the began with the help of her own engines and the and of the iron she slid off the sideways into the deep water the flat iron immediately under her stem and the big eye of the four inch gun almost peering through the window of the captain s cabin remorse in the shape of a violent headache had overtaken the governor he was uneasily conscious that he might perhaps have exceeded his powers and the captain of the in spite of all his patriotic sentiments remembered distinctly that no war had been declared between the two countries he did not need the governor s repeated that war serious war meant a republic at home i in his command and much shooting of living men against dead walls we have satisfied our honour said the governor in confidence our army is appeased and the that you take home will show that we were by ic s loyal and brave that other captain p i he li a boy he will call this a a of my how yon say this all this affairs which have between ns was watching the last slipping through the call it p oh i should call it rather a lark now your boat s all right captain when will you come to lunch i told you said the governor it would be a to him mother of the saints then what is his seriousness said the captain we shall be happy to come when you indeed we have no other choice he added bitterly not at all said and as he looked at the three or four shot on the bows of his boat a brilliant idea took him it is we who are at your mercy see how his s guns knocked us about captain said the governor that is very sad you are most injured and your deck too it is all shot over we shall not be too severe on a beat man shall we captain tou could t spare us a little paint could you p like to patch up a little after action said his upper lip to hide a smile our is i t your disposition said the captain of the and his eye brightened by ic k thb for a few lead on gray paint make a big show mr go aboard and see what they have to to si are remember their si ar with a little working up should be just our tint oh yes ill spare them said mr savagely i don t understand this how d you do and damn your eyes business coming one of the other in a manner o speaking by all rights they re our lawful prize the gk and the captain to lunch in the of mr jove had not much to offer but what he had was given as by a beaten to a generous conqueror when they were a little the genial and the captain almost he explained quite casually over the opening of a bottle that it would not be to his interest to report the affair seriously and it was in the highest degree improbable that the admiral would treat it in any grave fashion when my decks are cut up there was one across four and my plates there were five lead patches on three plates and i met such a boat as the and a mere accident me from being blown out of the water tes a mere accident captain the has been lost said the captain of the ah f i do not know this river that was very by ic sad but as i was sayings when an accident me from being what can i do but go away if that is possible f but i fear that i have no coal for the sea voyage it is very sad had on what he knew of the french tongue as a working language it is enough said the waving a generous hand of my soul the coal is your and you shall be yes repaired all over of your battle s wounds you shall go with all the honours of all the wars your flag shall fly your drum shall beat your ah t jolly boys shall spoke their is it not so captain as you say but the in the town what of them the governor looked puzzled for an instant he could not quite remember what had happened to those jovial men who had cheered him over night interrupted swiftly his has set them to forced works on and magazines and i think a custom house when that is done they will be released i hope yes they shall be released for your sake little of my heart then they drank the health of their respective sovereigns while mr the removal of the plank and the shot marks on the deck and the oh this is too bad said when they by ic n the on deck that idiot has exceeded his instructions but you must let me pay for this mr his legs in the water as he sat on a over the bows was conscious that he was being blamed in a foreign tongue he smiled uneasily and went on with his work what is it said the that thick head has thought that we needed some gold leaf and he has borrowed that from your but i must make it good then in	39
english stand up mr what the in do you mean by taking their gold leaf my are we a set of to scrape the out of a look you broad bottle eyed son of a you i my soul alive can t i maintain discipline in my own ship without a blacksmith of a putting me to shame before a yellow the mr and go to the engine room put down that leaf first though and leave the books where they are ill send for you in a minute go aft i now only the upper half of mr s round face was above the when this torrent of abuse descended upon him and it rose inch by as the shower continued blank amazement bewilderment rage and injured pride chasing each other across it till he saw his superior officer s left flutter on the cheek twice then he fled to the en by ic tn and wiping his brow with a handful of cotton waste sat down to overtake circumstances i am said to his companions but you see the material that you give us this leaves me more in your debt than before the stuff i can replace gold leaf is never carried on floating gun but for the insolence of that man how shall i mr s mind moved slowly but after a while he transferred the cotton waste from his forehead to his mouth and bit on it to prevent laughter he began a second dance on the engine room plates neat oh damned he chuckled served with a good few but there never was one so neat as him and i thought he was the new kind that don t know how to put a few words as it were i mr you can continue your work said down the engine room these officers have been good enough to speak in your favour make a thorough job of it while you are about it slap on every man you have where did you get hold of it their is a regular theatre sir you couldn t miss it there s enough for two first and i ve the best half of it look sharp then we shall be from her this afternoon have to cover it all neat oh damned neat i said mr under his breath as he gathered his by ic the together and set about the long deferred wish of s heart it was the martin the a great war boat when she was new in the days when men built for sail as well as for she could turn twelve knots under full sail and it was under that that she stood up the mouth of the river a of silver beneath the moon the admiral fearing that he had given a task beyond his strength was coming to look for him and incidentally to do a little work along the coast there was hardly wind enough to move the a couple of knots an hour and the silence of the land closed about her as she entered the her yards sighed a little from time to time and the ripple under her bows answered the sigh the full moon rose over the steaming and the admiral gazing upon it thought less of and more of the softer emotions in answer to the very mood of his mind there floated across the silver of the water by distance to a most sweetness the throb of a and the voice of one who called upon a genteel upon and upon love the song ceased and the sighing of the yards was all that broke the silence of the big ship again the began and the commander on the lee side of the quarter deck grinned a grin that was reflected in the face of the signal by ic many man not a word of the song was lost and the voice of the singer was the voice of last week down oar a nice old ge with a nasty sees my takes his off quite in a gentlemanly way and so on to the end of the verse the chorus was borne by several voices and the signal s foot began to tap the deck what cheer i all the neighbours cried oo are you going to meet bill t are you bought the street bill t laugh i thought i should ha died when i knocked em in the old road it was the softly that came into the midst of that merry little smoking concert it was the round his neck who received the admiral as he came up the side of the and it may or may not have been the admiral who stayed till two in the morning and delighted the hearts of the captain and the he had come as an guest and he departed as an honoured one but strictly throughout told his tale next day in the admiral s cabin as well as he could in the face of the admiral s of laughter but the most amazing tale was that told by mr to his friends in the at s town from the point of view of a second class engine room all in by ic and the s and if there be no truth either in my tale which is s tale or the tales of mr you will not find in harbour at s town to day a twin screw designed solely for the defence of rivers about two hundred and seventy tons and five feet draught wearing in open defiance of the rules of the service a gold line on her gray paint it follows also that you will be compelled to credit that version of the which signed by his the governor and despatched in the satisfied the self love of a great and glorious people and saved a from the ill	39
considered which is called a republic by ic the children op the though thou love her as as a self of purer day though her parting dim the stealing grace from all heartily know when half gods go the gods thousands of years ago when men were greater than they are to day the children of the lived in the world there were six children of the the the bull the lion the and the girl and they were afraid of the six which belonged to the the balance the the fishes the gk at and the even when they first stepped down upon the earth and knew that they were immortal they carried this fear with them and the fear grew as they became better acquainted with mankind and heard stories of the six houses men treated the children as gk ds and came to them with prayers and long stories of wrong while the children of the listened and could not understand t br by ic the of th a mother would fling herself before the feet of the or the bull crying my husband was at work in the fields and the shot him and he died and my son will also be killed by the help me i the bull would lower his huge head and answer what is that to me p or the would smile and continue their play for they could not understand why the water ran out of people s eyes at other times a man and a woman would come to or the girl crying we two are newly married and we are very happy take these flowers as they threw the flowers they would make mysterious sounds to show that they were happy and and the girl wondered even more than the why people shouted for no cause this continued for thousands of years by human reckoning till on a day met the girl walking across the hills and saw that she had changed entirely since he had last seen her the girl looking at saw that he too had changed altogether then they decided that it would be well never to separate again in case even more startling changes should occur when the one was not at hand to help the other kissed the girl and all earth felt that kiss and the girl sat down on a hill and the water ran out of her eyes and this had never happened before in the memory of the children of the by ic as they sat together a man and a woman came by and the man said to the woman what is the use of wasting flowers on those dull gk ds they will never understand darling the jumped up and put her arms round the woman crying i understand give me the flowers and i will give you a kiss said beneath his breath to the man what was the new name that i heard you give to your woman just now the man answered darling of course why of course said and if of what does it mean it means very dear and you have only to look at your wife to see why i see said you are quite right and when the man and the woman had gone on he called the girl darling wife and the girl wept again from sheer happiness i think she said at last wiping her eyes i think that we two have neglected men and women too much what did you do with the sacrifices they made to you i let them burn said i could not eat them what did you do with the flowers p i let them i could not wear i had bo many of my own said the girl and now i am sorry by ic tm of the there is nothing to grieve for said we belong to each other as they were talking the years of men s life slipped by unnoticed and presently the man and the woman came back both white headed the man carrying the woman we have come to the end of things said the man quietly this that was my wife as i am s wife said the quickly her eyes staring was my wife has been killed by one of your houses the man set down his burden and laughed which house f said angrily for he hated all the houses equally you are you should know said the man we have lived together and loved one another and i have left a good farm for my son what have i to complain of except that i still live as he was bending over his wife s body there came a whistling through the air and he started and tried to run away crying it is the arrow of the let me live a little only a little longer i the arrow struck him and he died looked at the and she looked at him and both were puzzled he wished to die said he said that he wished to die and when death came he tried to run way he is a coward by ic no he is not said the i think i feel what he felt we most learn more about this for their for their said very loudly because we are never going to die said the and together still more loudly now sit you still here darling wife said while i go to the houses whom we hate and learn how to make these men and women live as we do and love as we do f said the girl i do not think they need to be taught that said and he strode away very angry his lion skin swinging from his shoulder till he came to the house where the in the darkness his tail over his back why do you trouble the children of men	39
f said with his heart between his teeth are you so sure that i trouble the children of men alone said the speak to your brother the bull and see what he says i come on behalf of the children of men said i have learned to love as they do and i wish them to live as i as we do your wish was granted long ago speak to the bull he is my special care said the dropped back to the earth again and great star that is set in the forehead of the bull blazing very near to the earth when he by ic the of came up to it he saw that his brother the bull to a s plough was toiling through a wet rice field with his head bent down and the sweat streaming from his the was urging him forward with a that insolent to death cried and for the sake of our family honour come out of the mire i cannot said the bull the has told me that some day of which i cannot be sure he will sting me where my neck is set on my shoulders and that i shall die what has that to do with this disgraceful exhibition said standing on the that the wet field everything this man could not plough without my help he thinks that i am a stray but he is a mud with hair insisted we are not meant for his use you may not be i am i cannot tell when the may choose to sting me to perhaps before i have turned this the bull flung his bulk into the yoke and the plough tore through the wet ground behind him and the him till his were red do you like this p called down the dripping no said the bull over his shoulder as he lifted his hind legs from the clinging mud and cleared his nostrils by ic mast left him and passed to another where he found his brother the ram in the centre of a crowd of country people who were hanging wreaths round his neck and feeding him on plucked green com this is terrible said break up that crowd and come away my brother their hands are your i cannot said the ram the told me that on some day of which i had no knowledge he would send a dart through me and that i should die in very great pain what has that to do with this said but he did not speak as confidently as before everything in the world said the ram these people never saw a perfect sheep before they think that i am a stray and they will carry me from place to place as a model to all their flocks but they are greasy we are not intended to amuse them said you may not be i am said the ram i cannot tell when the may choose to send his arrow at me perhaps before the i a mile down the road have seen me the ram lowered his head that a newly arrived might throw a wreath of wild leaves over it and waited patiently while the farmers his do you like this cried over the shoulders of the crowd by ic the of the no said the bam as the dust of the feet made him and he at the piled before him turned back intending to his steps to the houses but as he was passing down a street he saw two small children very dusty rolling outside a cottage door and playing with a cat they were the what are you doing here p said indignant playing said the calmly cannot you play on the banks of the way said we did said they till the fishes swam down and told us that some day they would come for us and not hurt us at all and carry us away so now we are playing at being babies down the people like it do you like it p said no said the but there are no cats in the way and they pulled the cat s tail thoughtfully a woman came out of the doorway and stood behind them and saw in her face a look that he had sometimes seen in the girl s she thinks that we are said the and they trotted indoors to the evening meal then hurried as swiftly as possible to all the houses one after another for he could not understand the new trouble that had come to his brethren by ic he spoke to the and the assured him that so far as that house was concerned had nothing to fear the the fishes and the goat gave the same answer they knew nothing of and cared less they were the houses and they were busied in killing men at last he came to that very dark house where the lies so still that you might think he was asleep if you did not see the ceaseless play and motion of the branches round his mouth that movement never ceases it is like the eating of a smothered fire into rotten timber in that it is noiseless and without haste stood in front of the and the half darkness allowed him a glimpse of that vast blue black back and the motionless eyes now and again he thought that he heard some one sobbing but the noise was very faint why do you trouble the children of men said there was no answer and against his will cried why do you trouble us what have we done that you should trouble us this time replied what do i know or care tou were bom into my house and at the appointed time i shall come for you when is the appointed time said stepping back from the restless movement of the	39
ram s was dusty and torn and the were only babies fighting over the cat on the it was then that said let us stop singing and making jokes and it was then that th girl said no but she did not know why she said no so maintained that it was till she herself at the end of a dusty day made the same suggestion to him and he said most certainly not i and they quarrelled miserably between the forgetting the meaning of the stars above them other singers and other sprang up in the course of the years and forgetting that there could never be too many of these hated them for dividing the applause of the children of men which he thought should be all his own the would grow angry too and then the songs would be broken and the fall flat for weeks to come and the children of men would shout gk home you two gk home and learn worth singing i after one of these sorrowful shameful days the by ic inventions girl walking by s side through the fields saw the full moon coming up over the trees and she clutched s arm crying the time has come now oh forgive me i what is it p said he was thinking of the other singers my husband i she answered and she laid his hand upon her breast and the breast that he knew so well was hard as stone groaned remember ing what the had said surely we were gods once he cried surely we are gods still said the girl do you not remember when you and i went to the house of the and were not very much afraid and since then we have forgotten what we were singing we sang for the pence and oh we fought for them i we who are the children of the it was my fault said how can there be any fault of yours that is not mine too p said the girl my time has come but you will live longer and the look in her eyes said all she could not say yes i will remember that we are gk ds said it is very hard even for a child of the who has forgotten his to see his wife dying slowly and to know that he cannot help her the girl told in those last months of all that she had said and done among the wives and the babies at the by ic th back of the performances and was astonished that he knew so little of her who had been so much to when she was dying she told him never to fight for pence or quarrel with the other singers and above all to go on with his singing immediately after she was dead then she died and after he had buried her he went down the road to a village that he knew and the people hoped that he would begin quarrelling with a new singer that had up while he had been away but called him my brother the new singer was newly married and knew it and when he had finished singing straightened himself and sang the song of the girl which he had made coming down the road every man who was married or hoped to be married whatever his rank or colour understood that song even the bride leaning on the new husband s arm understood it too and presently when the song ended and s heart was bursting in him the men that was a sad tale they said at last now make us laugh because had known all the sorrow that a man could know including the full knowledge of his own fall who had once been a gk d he changing his song quickly made the people laugh till they could laugh no more they went away feeling ready for any trouble in reason and they gave more feathers and pence than he could count knowing that pence led to quarrels and that by ic feathers were hateful to the he pat them aside and went away to look for his brothers to remind them that they too were gk ds he found the bull the in a ditch for the had stung him and he was dying not slowly as the girl had died but quickly i know all the bull groaned as came up i had forgotten too but i remember now gk and look at the fields i the are straight i forgot that i was a but i drew the plough perfectly straight for all that and you brother i am not at the end of the said does death hurt no but dying does said the bull and he died the who then owned him was much annoyed for there was a field still it was after this that made the song of the bull who had been a and forgotten the fact and he sang it in such a manner that half the young men in the world conceived that they too might be ds without knowing it a half of that half grew conceited and died early a half of the remainder strove to be and failed but the other half accomplished four times more work they would have done under any other delusion later years later always wandering up and down and making the children of men laugh he found the sitting on the bank of a stream by ic thb of the waiting for the fishes to come and carry them away they were not in the least afraid and they told that the woman of the house had a real baby of her own and that when that baby grew old enough to be he would find a well educated cat waiting to have its tail pulled then the fishes came for	39
y see the mud and broad stretches of green marsh grass but when the tide is in it is a noble and dignified stream there are no and only a slow current where the river from among the inland mountains flows along finding its way to the sea which has come part way to welcome the company of springs and that have answered to its call a thousand men band themselves together and they are one regiment a thousand little streams flow together and are one river but one fancies that they do not lose themselves altogether while the individuality of a river must come mainly from the different characters of its the shape of its shores and the quality of the soil it passes over determine certain things about it but the life of it is something by itself as the life of a man is separate from the circumstances in which he is placed there must be the first spring which steadily and makes a which some second spring and the third the fourth and at last there is a great stream in which the later seem to make little difference i should like to find the very beginning and of my river i should be sorry if it were a river pond though somewhere in the ground underneath there would be a spring that kept the secret and was in command and under marching orders to the sea to as it went along here at the head of tide water it first meets the sea and then when the tide is in there is the presence of or at least its the river is a grand thing when it is river and sea together but how one the ocean when the tide is out for in the great place it filled the stream from the hills after all looks of little consequence the river is no longer the public highway it used to be years ago when the few roads were rough and were not even dreamed of the earliest chapter of its history that i know is that it was full of salmon and other fish and was a famous with the indians who were masters of its neighboring country to tell its whole story one would have to follow the fashion of the old spanish writers whom de la says he will not imitate in the first chapter of his of the that delightful composition of unconscious pathos and majestic lies when his in the field of literature wished to write on any whatever be solemnly tells us they always began with a history of the globe one cannot help i country by ways wishing that he had not to follow their ex ample and had given his theories which would have been wildly ahead of even the fancies of his time in general and full of most amusing little from the truth when he came down to details but the earliest history of the river can well be ignored it is but seldom as yet that people really care much for anything for its own sake until it is proved to have some connection with human kind i we are slow to take an interest in the personality of our neighbors who are not men or dogs or horses or at least some creature who can be made to understand a little of our own spoken language who is going to be the who the first word of an old crow s warning to his mate or how a little dog expresses himself when he asks a big one to come and his troublesome enemy how much we shall know when the teaches us how she makes her of the weather and how long we shall have to go to school when people are expected to talk to the trees and birds and beasts in their own language what tune could it have been that and played to which the beasts listened and even the trees and stones followed them to hear is it science that will give us back the or shall we owe it to the of those river friendly old saints who talked with the birds and fishes we could have schools for them if we once could understand them and could them into being more useful to us there would be intelligent sword fish for divers and we could send to carry messages and all the creatures that know how to in the earth would bring us the treasures out of it i should have a larger calling acquaintance than ever out of doors and my neighbors down river would present me to congenial friends whom as yet i have not discovered the gods are always drawing like toward like and making them acquainted if may be believed but we are apt to forget that this is true of any creatures but ourselves it is not necessary to tame them before they can be familiar and we can meet them on their own ground and be surprised to find how much we may have in common is only forcing them to learn some of our customs we should be wise if we let them tame us to make use of some of theirs they share other instincts and emotions with us beside surprise or suspicion or fear they are curiously thoughtful they act no more from unconscious instinct than we do at least they are called upon to decide as many questions of action tr direction and there are many of life country by ways when we are far more helpless and foolish than they it is easy to say that other orders of living creatures exist on a much lower plane than ourselves we know very little about it after all they are often gifted in some way that we are not they may even carry some virtue of ours to a greater height than we do but	40
the day will come for a more truly universal than we dream of now when the meaning of every living thing is understood and it is given its rights and accorded its true value for its life is from god s life and its limits were fixed by him its material shape is the of a thought and to each body there is given a spirit the great watch me float along the river curiously and sail in the air overhead who knows what they say of me when they talk together and what are they thinking about when they fly quickly out of sight perhaps they know something about me that i do not know of myself yet and so may the rat as he through the water with a little green branch in his mouth which will make a for his supper he watches me with his sharp eyes and into his hole in the sunny side of the island i have a respect for him he is a busy creature and he lives well you might be and ask me to supper rat i don t know river whether i should care much for you if i were another rat or you were a human being but i shall know you again when i see you by an odd mark in the fur on the top of your head and that is something i suppose the captive in your den are now at hearing you come in i have lost sight of you but i shall remember where your house is i do not think people are thankful enough who live out of the reach of beasts that would eat them when one thinks of whole races of small creatures like the which are the natural and proper food of others it seems an awful fact and necessity of nature perhaps however no more awful than our natural death appears to us but there is something distressing about being eaten and having one s substance minister to a superior existence it one s pride a death that preserves and our identity is much more and satisfactory but what can reconcile a bird to its future as part of the of a cat going stealthily and by nature treacherous who can say however that our death may not be simply a link in the chain one thing is made the prey of another in some way mr present state ministers to the higher condition to we are coming the grass is made somehow from the ground and presently that is turned into ft country by ways beef and that goes to make part of a human being we are not certain what an angel may be but the life in us now will be necessary to the making of one by and by there is a wise arrangement in this and it makes more room in the world we must eat our fellows and be eaten to keep things within a proper limit if all the orders of life were self existing and if all the springs that make up the river flowed down to the sea separately and there would be an awful confusion and chaos still but this leads one to think of the of souls and other subjects i shall have to end with an ignorant discourse about the globe instead of having begun with it my river as i said at first leads to the sea and from any port one can push off toward another sea of boundless speculation and curious about this world familiar and yet so great a mystery there are a thousand things to remember and to say about the river which seems to be of little use in the half dozen miles i know best after it has made itself of great consequence by serving to carry perhaps a dozen or twenty mills of one kind and another between its it has a civilized and subjected look but below the last falls at the landing i river apparently feels itself to be its own master and serves id no public capacity except to carry a boat now and then and give the chance for building some as it offers some good fishing when the and bass come up with bony and muddy that are about as good to eat as a rain soaked paper of pins i think its chief use is its beauty and that has never been as widely appreciated as it ought to be it is the eastern branch of the which the states of and new and i being a lawless beg you to follow for a on the shores not for the farms and but to see the trees and their shadows in the water the high steep banks where the great pines of on one hand and the gently sloping southern new fields fringed with and oaks on the other when you catch sight of a tall sail and a strange clumsy craft that looks heavy and low in the water you will like to know that its was copied from a boat from which a sensible old sea captain took a lesson in ship building many years ago the sail is fitted to catch the uncertain wind which is apt to come in and between the high irregular banks of the river and the boat is called a but sometimes one sees their country by ways often on the and on the and iti branches and the sight of them brings a curiously foreign element into the new england scenery for i never see the great sail coming round a point without a quick association with the east with the ports or the itself with its ruins and its desert and the bright blue sky overhead with and and the shepherd kings with the and that strange group so old one at the thought of it standing clear against the	40
horizon a hundred years ago the northern country was covered for the most part with heavy timber and the chief business at was receiving this from the and sending it to to be or direct to the west indies to be bar for rum and tobacco and which might be either brought home at once or sent to russia to be exchanged again for iron and sail cloth and not forty years ago there were still twenty sailing from the landing while now there are but two and long after that the packet boat went regularly every other day to until the days of the most of the freight came by water and the packet were important men i have always wished to know something river more of history of the quaint little packet store house which until within a year or two stood in the mill yard just below the falls it was built of heavy as if it might some day be called upon to resist a ram the stories were very low and the upper one projected over the water with a beam to which was fastened a tackle and fall to and lower the goods it was a little building but there was a great air of consequence about it it was painted a dark red which the weather had a good deal and it leaned to one side nobody knew how old it was it was like a little old woman who belonged to a good family now dead save herself and who could remember a great many valuable people and events which everybody else had forgotten it was the last of the that used to stand on the river banks and i was sorry when it was pulled down the old have almost disappeared too though their can still be seen here and there x it sometimes takes me a whole afternoon to go two miles down the river there are many reasons why i should stop every now and then under one bank or another to look up through the trees at the or at their pictures in the water or to let the boat lie still until one can watch the httle fish come country by ways back to their on the yellow sand and gravel or to see the that into the water at my approach their heads out a little way to indignantly or raise a loud note such as scotch drive out of the pipes before they start a tune the dart like along the surface of the water after insects and i see a drowned white butterfly float by and reach out for it it looks go frail and little in the river when the cardinal flowers are in bloom i go from place to place until i have gathered a and as i push off the boat it leaves the grass bent down and the water that was crushed sends a delicious after me and i catch at a piece and put a leaf in my mouth and row away lazily to get a branch of oak or leaves to keep the sun off my flowers are quick to wilt and hang their proud heads wearily they keep royal state in the shade and one that the other flowers and all the weeds at the water s edge take care to bow to them as often as the wind comes by and pay them honor they are like fine court ladies in their best gowns standing on the shore perhaps they are sending messages down the river and across the seas or waiting to hear some news they make one think of s high born and her sailor lover for they river seem like flowers from a palace garden that are away from home and ceremony and taking the country air i hey wear a color that is the sign of high rank and the temper of their minds would make them if they fought for church and state they are no they are and they belong to the old nobility among flowers it would be a pity if the rank marsh grass them or if the weed should ashore to them and humble their pride they are flowers that after all one should not try to put into together they have like many other flowers too marked an individuality and there is more pleasure to be taken from one tall and slender spire of blossoms by itself just as it is pleasanter to be alone with a person one and to crowd some flowers together you lose all delight in their shape and beauty yon only have the pleasure of the mass of color or of their perfume and there are enough bright flowers and fragrant flowers that are only beautiful in masses to look at some flowers huddled together and losing all their grace and charm is like trying to and com and sympathy by looking for a minute at crowd of people but there is a low trait of in human nature i pick cardinal flow country by ways ers by the and nothing less than a blue pot full of is much satisfaction but to most people one tree or flower or river is as good as another and trees and flowers and rivers are to be found without trouble while there are some who would never know who has lived beside my river unless it were told here n that says at once that their fame at best is provincial except for little captain john paul jones who gathered the ship s company of the from these neighboring farms old people who died not many years ago remembered him as he walked on the at with his sword point scratching the ground a little of a fellow with a temper like a blaze of the whose smoke he loved one can imagine him up the shore here to one of the old	40
farm houses as short as a boy but as tall as a in his pride and dignity and marching into the best room in all the and of his uniform to make sure of a good fellow whose looks he liked and whom he promised to send home a gallant hero with his sea chest full of prize money and afterward he would land again at one of the stately old that used to stand beside the river at the house by madam s or at the house and bt received with ceremony there fine houses in this region in old times but only one still this same house which seems to me for the beauty of its situation and for a certain grand air which i have found it hard to match in any house i have ever seen it is square and gray with four great chimneys and many windows in its high roof it stands on a point below which the river is at its the rows of and its garden have fallen and been spoiled by time but a company of great elms stand guard over it and the sunset its windows and the days of the past seem to have come back when one is near it its whole aspect is so remote from the spirit of the present i inside there are great halls and square rooms with carved wood work arched windows and mahogany window seats and fire places that are wide enough almost for a seat in the chimney corner in the country about i have heard many a tradition of the way this house was kept of the fine ladies and gentlemen and the great dinner parties and the guests who used to come up the river from and go home late in the moonlight evening at the turn of the tide in those days the that are fast being washed away were strong enough ud there were and and piles country by ways of timber all along the river the of the house was a successful man who made a great fortune in the lucky west india trade of his time he was poor to begin with but everything with his business interests and one owe him a debt of gratitude for leaving so fine a to delight our eyes a little way up the shore there was formerly a ship yard and i know of four ships that were built there much less than fifty years ago my grandfather was part owner of them and their names with those of other ships have been familiar to me from my it is amusing that the ships of a family concerned in seem to belong to it and to be part of it as if they were children who had grown up and gone wandering about the world long after borne familiar craft has changed owners even its fortunes are affectionately watched and to know that a ship has been spoken at sea gives a good deal of pleasure beside the assurance that the cargo is so far on its way to market at or i member wondering why the smooth green bank where the were so thick in spring should be called the ship yard by my family and even why any one should call that corner of the town the lower landing since nothing ever seemed to land river unless it were the that children built from and it is a lovely quiet place and i often think of an early summer morning when i was going down river in a row boat the were sprinkled all over the short green grass and high on the shore under a great elm were two wandering young they had evidently taken the wrong road and discovered that this was a long lane that led only to the great house on the point and to the water s edge they must have been entertained for they seemed very cheerful one played a and the other danced it was like a glimpse of idle italy the sparkling river and the blue sky the wide green shores and the trees and the great gray house with its two hall doors standing wide open the in bloom and no noise or hurry a quiet place that the destroying left hand of progress had failed to touch one day i was in one of the upper rooms of the house in a window and i was amused at reading the nonsense some young girl had written on the wall the view was beautiful and i thought she must have sat there with her work or have watched the road or the river for some one whom she wished to see coming there were sentimental verses written at different times she seemed country by ways to have made a sort of scrap book of the bit of wall and she had left me the date which was very kind of her so i knew that it was and in the summer that she used to sit there in her favorite perch this is one of her verses that i remember t may you be with all that heaven may end long life good health much pleasure in a friend may you in every mo t happy be and when far distant often think of me it was very pleasant to catch this glimpse of girl hood in the old house i wondered how she liked life as she grew older and if the lover if that were a lover did think often enough of her and come back to her at last from the distant she could have wished him nothing better than much pleasure in a friend i do not know the history of many members of the family colonel and his are buried under a heavy monument in the old fields burying ground and at the end of the	40
or they only together and thought it well to keep up the reverence in the rustic mind for the power of the nobody knows to this day there is still standing at the landing a house that has always been said to be haunted its ghost was laid properly but she seems to have risen again it formerly stood very near the shore of the little harbor if one may give that name to what was simply the head of on the river the family who built and owned it first all died long ago but i never go by the house without thinking of its early history in those days when the court end of the little town was next the river and the old elms shaded the men who were busy with their trading and shipping and the women who kept up a stately fashion of living in doors and walked proudly to and fro in the streets dressed in strange that had been brought home to them from across the seas there was a fine set of people in the little town and held its head very high and thought some of the neighboring towns of little consequence that have long since it and looked down upon it in their turn it even has given up its place as the head of the family of villages into which the original has been divided it is only south ber country by ways now bat i like to call it here as it has a right to be called for it was the oldest settlement and the points of the compass should have been given to the of civilization which were its the oldest houses are with one or two exceptions by far the finest ones and the one of which i have spoken still keeps up as well as it can the pride as well as the name of its first owner one cannot help being interested in this man who was one of the earlier of the town and also had a hand in the business that was connected with the river i have heard that he came from in and was a minister s son but if ever a man s heart in the good things of this life it was his and there was not a trace of in character his first house was the finest in town and stood at the head of some that still remain bordered with rows of elms and overlooked ihe river but that was burnt and afterward replaced by another which was for some mysterious reason built at the foot of the near the water the doctor was said to be a very handsome man and he pressed uncommonly well himself with fine with red and silk his visits to his admiring were paid river horseback as was the custom then but he always rode an excellent horse and dashed about the country in great splendor he made an elaborate will his property in english fashion he waited to see how much general lord or the other rich men of the town would pay toward any and then exceeded the most generous he even asked how much the richest man in the town was and paid of his own accord a larger sum than he and somehow contrived to keep up year after year this appearance of great wealth and expected and received great deference though those who knew him best were sure he must be poor the pride that went with it forbade familiarity and sympathy alike there has always been a tradition that his first wife came to her death by foul means and there is a dislike to the house which seems never to be occupied for any length of time even after all these years the people in the neighborhood believe as i have said that it is haunted and i have often heard stories of the strange cries and the footsteps that sometimes follow you if you go up the hall stairs in the dark the doctor himself died suddenly though he has often been seen since in a grand and close velvet cap his business affairs had naturally become a good deal tangled but no one country by ways knew how much so until after his death for several fears he bad been in the habit of carrying back and a little box when he went to which was supposed to hold money and valuable papers but when this was brought home from the bank and broken open it was found to contain only blank bits of paper his wife whom the old people in town still re member must have had a hard time of it in the house on the wharf after she was left a widow but she was still the dame and when she went into society her old and and her fine manners made her the queen of her company she gave no sigh of disappointment at her altered fortunes and as long as the doctor lived and after he died she was as serenely magnificent and as he the guard could die but it never surrendered and the old was kept up bravely she lived alone and might sometimes have needed many of the good things of life for all one knows but she was always well dressed and kept up all possible forms of state and was in observing all rules of etiquette by way of doing a great favor to one of her neighbors she allowed a stranger the use of one of her rooms for a short time and this person used to hear bell ring in the morning after which madam river would move about iu her room then she would go down stairs breakfast being apparently announced and so on through the day there was often a bell heard in the parlor she would for opening the outer door herself and	40
when the called the mistress of the house was always quite at liberty and seemed to have been awaiting guests in her parlor with a bit of lace to mend in her fingers or some silk knitting as if she occupied her leisure with such dainty trifles it was some time before the discovered to her amazement that there was not a servant under the roof to do my lady s bidding but that she still kept up the old customs of the house poor soul it was not all silly if i were to spend a night which the saints forbid in that beloved mansion where she lived in solitary majesty for so many years i should not expect to be the guest of the proud doctor s first companion whose death is in mystery who cries and walks to and fro in the night to beg for pity and help i should look over my shoulder for the lady in the high with a red india shawl around her shoulders who stood so straight and used to walk up the aisle to her seat in church ou sunday as tf she were a the cries and the steps behind me would be most but madam country by ways if she also haunts her house would receive me one can imagine her alone in her house at night with the jar of the river falls and the wind rattling her windows fearful of her future and of the poverty and misery old age held in its shaking hands for her but she carried a brave face in the daylight however troubled she may have been under the stars and she gave to the towns people the best of lessons in behavior for she was always gracious and courteous and fine in her own manners a lady who had been in her day a most apt scholar of the old school my down the river rarely reach beyond high point or pine point or the toll bridge but one is tempted to linger there late for the sake of the beautiful view the salt grass is a dazzling green if the time is early summer and the tide is partly out and from the bridge to the house the river is very wide the fine old house faces you and at its right there is a mountain which is a marked feature in the landscape on a clear day when it looks far away and blue in the distance the great tops of the elms look round and heavy against the sky and the shores of the river are somewhat irregular running out in points which arc the most part heavily wooded and form back river grounds of foliage for each other being at different angles the light and shade of each are distinct and make a much finer and outline than could be if the line of the shore were unbroken by so many and it is very pleasant to push the boat ashore in one of these for in the little that lead down to them there are crowds of and wild flowers and it is easy to find exactly the place for a little feast at supper time i know many a small harbor on the eastern shore where a willow or a stands out in front of the dark and at one place an oak reaches its long branches far out over the water and when you are once under its shade and watch the sunset grow bright and then fade away again or see the boats go round the point from the wide bay into the narrow reach of the river above it and listen to the bells ringing in the village or in some town farther away you hate to think you must take the oars again and go out into the twilight ir the bright sunshine of the summer afternoon i miss very much some which stood on the western shore opposite the great house and which were not long since cut down they were not flourishing but they were like a little procession of a father and mother and three or four children out an afternoon walk coming down through the field country by ways to the river as you rowed up or down they stood ap in bold relief against the sky for they were on high land i was deeply attached to them and in the spring when i went down river for the first time they always were covered with the first faint green mist of their leaves and it seemed as if they had been watching for me aud thinking that perhaps i might go by that afternoon on a spring day how the sing and the busy birds that live along the shores go flitting and and whistling about the world a great fish hawk drops through the air and you can see the glitter of the unlucky fish he seized as he goes off again the fields and trees have a tinge of green that they will keep only for a few days until the leaves and grass blades are larger and stronger and where the land has been its color is as beautiful as any color that can be found the world over and the long shining brown grow warm lying in the sun the farmers call to each other to their horses as they work the fresh breeze blows from the and the are cheerful and the grow more and more pleased with themselves every minute and sing their tunes which are meant to be sung slower and last longer as il the sweet notes all came hurrying out together river and in the summer when the days are hot and long there is nothing better than the glory of the nights when the shrill cries of the insects fill all the air and the are everywhere and a of comes np with the	40
tide in october the river is bright steel color and blue the ducks rise and fly away from the in the early morning and the oaks and dress themselves as they please as if they were tired of wearing plain green like everybody else and were going to be gay and set a new fashion in the cooler weather you no longer drift lazily with the current but pull your boat as fast as you can and are quick and strong with the oars and in the winter the river looks cold and dead the wind blows up and down between the hills and the black pines and stare at each other across the ice which cracks and loudly when the tide comes up and lifts it how many men have lived and died on its banks but the river is always young how sailors have gone down to the sea along its channel and what strange countries have the ships come in and brought them home again up this crooked highway a harbor even if it is a little harbor is a good thing since come into it as wet country by ways as go out and the life in it grows strong because it takes something from the world and has something to give in return not the shores of england but the low of africa and the dangerous islands of the seas are left one sees the likeness between a heart and a country where no go and come and since no treasure is carried away no treasure is brought in from this inland town of mine there is no sea any more and the are never heard now it is only a station on the and it has after all these years grown so little that it is hardly worth while for all the trains to stop it is busy and it its living and itself but it seems to me that its ld days were its better days it cheaper houses and is more like other places than it used to be the people of fifty years ago had some things that were better than ours even if they did not hear from england by telegraph or make journeys in a day or two that used to take a week the old elms and pines look strong yet though once in a while one blows over or is cut the by the river are and again the river itself never grows old though it rushes and river rises high in the spring it never up in the autumn the little white sails over it in pleasant weather like fluttering round the track of sunlight on the water one troop of children after another eagerly down to its forbidden shores to s fortune h s t wag a cold day early in december and al mb ready almost dark though the had just gone down leaving a tinge of light red the least beautiful of all the sunset colors on the low gray clouds in the the weather was forlorn and windy and there had already been a light fall of snow which partly covered the frozen ground and was lying in the hollows of the fields and pastures and alongside the stone walls where the wind had blown it to get it out of its way the country waa and heavily wooded he few houses in sight looked cold and as if the life iu them shared the sleep of the grass and trees and would not show itself again until spring yet winter is the leisure time of country people and it is then in spite of the frequent misery of the weather that their social pleasures come into bloom the young a fortune f people for a while but they soon it and each rising generation is looked upon with scorn by its elders and for thinking there is any pleasure in being out of doors in cold weather no wonder that a new england woman cheers herself by leaving her own sewing and going to the parish society to sit close to an air tight stove and for other people how should she dance and sing like an italian peasant under a blue and kindly sky there should have been another on some vast northern waste where it is forever cold weather and the great winds always blow and generations after generations of people have lived and died life is no surprise on the banks of the fertile old it could not help being but the spirit of the north seems destructive life exists in spite of it along the country road a short stout built woman well wrapped with was going from her own home a third of a mile back to the next house where there were already lights in one of the upper nd one of the lower rooms she said to herself he must be yet and stepped a little faster even climbing a low wall and going across a field to the distance she seemed to be in a great hurry and as she went she left behind her a track oi down golden rod and dry stems of grass country by ways which had been standing frozen and dry with the thin snow about their roots land how this field has run out said she not without contempt but i don know s i ever expect to see it she opened the side door of the house and went into the kitchen where several persons were sitting there was a great fire blazing in the fire place and a little row of and two each covered with a plate stood at one side of the hearth to keep warm as if there were somebody ill in the house and sure enough there i vas for old its master was nearly at the end of his short last sickness there were three women and two men in	40
the kitchen and they greeted the new comer with subdued cordiality as was it was a little like a funeral already and they did not care to be found cheerful though to tell the truth just before mrs came in they solemnly drank a of old mr s best urging each other to take some for there was no knowing that there might not be a good deal for them all to do before long with this end in view of keeping up their strength they had also shared a pie and a large quantity of cheese we d better eat while we can said old who was hostess having been housekeeper at the farm for a good many years fortune t feel s if i could lay the table said she with unaffected emotion and the in begged her not to think of it but they were hungry hard working men and women and were all glad to have something to eat when some were brought out they ate those also all trying in vain to think of some apology for such good at such a moment but since they had to be the feast was all the more solemn it was evident that the sickness was either sudden or had become serious within a very short time for the family affairs had gone on as usual it seemed as if the household had been taken unawares by the messenger of death and surprised in the midst of fancied security it was wednesday and the covered with the white folds of yesterday s stood in one corner of the kitchen while the smaller horse which always called the was nearer the fire with its burden of and blue stockings it was a comfortable old kitchen with a beam across its ceiling and two solid great tables and a settle at one side the fire where the two men sat who were going to watch the fire place took up nearly all one side of the room the wood work around it was painted black and at one side the iron door of the brick oven looked country by as if it might be the entrance to a very small there was a high and narrow shelf where a row of flat irons were perched like birds gone to also a match box and a turkey wing and a few very dry red while a yellow covered thomas s much worn it being december was hanging on its nail at one corner there was a tall in the room which so slowly that one fancied it must always make waiting seem very tiresome and that one of its hours must be as long as two one of the tables there was a which had been brought in to and martin sat on the settle while mrs and mrs and were at different distances from the fire in chairs they had seen mrs coming across the field it was still light enough out doors for that but they had not spoken of it to each other though they put the and the rest o the into the closet as quickly as possible i told em one day last week said that seemed to be all up sin sold weather come why here s mis take a cheer right close to the fire now won t ye it s a dreadful chilly night we ve just ben a hav in some ci fortune yes said his wife and interrupting him desperately we was just a we wondered where you was but i you was n t able to be out on account of your i went over to ann s this morning said mrs hay still a little out of breath from her walk a one o her children s took down with throat and she expects the rest get it joseph he brought in word after dinner that somebody goin by said mr had a shock this morning and wa n t likely to come out of it and i told em i must get right home i felt s if t was one o my own folks how does he seem to be laying in a said for the twentieth time that day the doctor says there ain t much he can do he had me make some and and he left three o medicine there s now in them u case he up he said we could feed him a little to a time if he come to any and if we could keep his strength up he might get out of it he b coming again about six he was took dreadful sudden i was up the dishes after breakfast and he said he was goin over to the corners there as a men s meeting he eat as good a breakfast as common but he seemed sort of heavy he country by ways went out and put the in and left him in the barn and come back to get his coat says he is there anything you re in need of from the it looks like foul weather and i says no i little thought it was the last time he d speak to me and she stopped to dry her eyes with her while the sympathetic audience was quiet in the and the tea kettle began to sing as if it had no idea of what had happened he always was the best o it was only one day last week he was a joking and saying he was going to keep me better this year than ever he did says he i m going to take my comfort and live well long s i do live there s everything in the house we killed early and there s the other he set for the first o january and he s put down a of excellent beef the	40
s got enough in it for a i told him only yesterday and says he i don t you know it s better to have some to spare than some to want i can see him laugh now there s plenty will need it if he don t said mrs who was a dismal grasping soul and at farthest from the fire mrs gathered herself up scornfully she lid not like her neighbor you were a ht as going to the men s meeting said she s fortune yes said he said he d got to get some papers and i offered to fetch em but he never wanted to be waited on and he went up stairs i s pose to that old o drawers overhead i heard a noise like something heavy a falling and my first thought was he d tipped the o drawers over for i know the lower drawers where the sheets and pillow cases is kept sticks sometimes and then something started me and come across me quick as a flash that there was something wrong and i got upstairs as quick as ever i could and found bim laying on the floor i s pose he did n t know asked mrs bless you no i tried to get him up and i found i could n t i thought he was dead but i see jim pierce a goin by he was some use for once in his life and i sent him for help mis x me right over bein so near and jim met the or up the road and we got him into bed and there lie lays it give me a dreadful start i ain t myself yet s here i s pose said mrs as if he thought it of very little consequence yes said he d walked over to tha mill right after breakfast to carry word about country by way borne boards his uncle wanted but he got back just as the doctor was he s been real faithful he ain t left the old gentleman a minute he s all broke down he feels so i never saw him so distressed he ain t one that shows his s much of any i think likely he be married right away now said mr martin told me in the summer that he d left him about everything he ain t no such a man as his uncle but i don t know no harm of a silence fell between the guests and the fire snapped once in a while and made such a light that the one little oil lamp might have blown out for all the good it did nobody would ha j missed it i told our folks last night there was going to be a death over this way said mrs i was a looking out o the window over this way last night just before i went to bed and i see a great bright light come down and i says there s a great blaze fallen over s way and my father always said it was a sure sign of a death he laughed and says my eyes was dazzled from setting before the fire i d like to know what he say when he hears o this triumphantly he went up to the wood ot before day fortune i did hear a death in the wall after i went to bed two or three nights ago said and then there was another pause u i s pose i might go up easy and look in bein a connection ventured mrs meekly and luckily nobody opposed her in fact they had all bad that satisfaction you might ask if he could n t rise his uncle s head by and by so i could give him a little o the he ain t eat the value o no thin since morning and he s a hearty man when he a about suggested you ought to help all you can said martin and armed with this sufficient excuse mrs went up stairs softly sat by the bedside looking as dismal as possible a thin dark young man with a pleasant sort of face yet you always felt at once that you could get on just as well without him perhaps we had better wait now until the doctor comes answered he when he heard the message from do sit down mrs i have been wishing somebody would come up it s since it got dark has n t sent any word has she i sent jim pierce over right after dinner bat i suppose he stopped in at every house country by ways not as i ve heard of said mrs i ve only just got here i was over to ann s to spend a day or so and i never got word about y r uncle till past two o clock how does he seem to be i don t know said the young man he s lost that red look but he seems to have failed all away and they both went close to the bed to look at the face on the pillow which showed at once that death had come very near the old man s eyes were shut and he looked pinched and sunken and as if he were ten years older than in the morning one hand that lay outside the bed moved a little and the fingers picked at the blanket he has n t stirred all day except his arm and that hand once in a while as you see it now mrs knew better than he what it meant and she gave a long look and turned away with a heavy sigh he s death struck she whispered but he may hold out for a good spell yet he	40
he ain t had to work for his and the old ail never was one that wanted to give up the reins he fortune expected the boy to live here after him and he never had it on his mind to pat him to a trade he make a farmer yet there s a sight o girls oat good that never had no care before they was married and s got a sight o book earn in book said mrs with a jerk of her head he s a book fool if ever there was one but i ain t goin to set in judgment she added in a different tone suddenly that the young man was likely to be her nearest and richest neighbor in a few hours i always set everything by his mother her and me was the same year s child n and was fetched up together don t ever hint i said anything that was n t pleasant i ain t one that wants to make trouble and he find me a good neighbor anybody has to speak out sometimes i ain t one to make trouble neither said m i ve wondered sometimes myself he did n t up and be somebody his uncle never would ha him but then he never give a sign he was n t satisfied and never give him a word i can answer for that the doctor came and went telling the women that he could not say how long the patient might last i s pose folks knows of it all town asked country by ways meekly conscious of the importance of the occasion and her own consequence yes yes said the doctor who stood warming his great fur coat before the fire having declined the offer of supper or something hot for he was in a hurry to get home his rattled away out of the yard and silence once more fell on the house came down stairs for a little while looking grieved and tired and said that he meant to watch at least until midnight the doctor thought that his uncle might be conscious before he died then mrs came down and after a while mrs and up the stairs and as they listened outside the door they heard some one speaking you don t suppose he s got his reason whispered one to the other and they waited a minute or two it was very cold in the little entry yes sir they heard say gently you ve had an ill turn and then all was silent again i must n t forget those town orders i can t seem to think where they are said a weak voice that was as unlike as possible the cheerful loud tone in which mr had usually spoken don t try to think uncle said don t you feel as if you could eat a little there was no answer fortune i sha n t stand for man another year it s a good deal o trouble said the weak voice after a minute or two he thinks it s this poor creator whispered i guess i step down and get that what do you think perhaps he would take a little but when she came back she found it was not wanted mrs had gone in and the master of the house lay dying they stood by the bedside watching with awe struck faces while the mortal part of him fought fiercely for a minute to keep its soul which had gently and surely taken itself away there was this minute of distress and agony and afterward the tired and useless body was still the old man s face took on a sweet and strange look of satisfaction a look of rest as if it found its sleep of death most welcome and pleasant so soon it was oyer the going away which the of us shudder at sometimes and dread but dying seem after all to those who watch it a simple and natural and blessed thing and one forgets the lifeless body in a sudden eagerness to follow the living soul into the new world the funeral was appointed for saturday and everybody was busy instinctively took command and the women who came to help her country by ways consulted him with unwonted deference the house had to be swept and and put in order and there were great preparations going on in the kitchen for old mr had been a hospitable man and it should not be said that any one went away from his house hungry i declare it don t seem more than yesterday it was and he made me make up double the i did last year i little thought what they was going to be for said whose heart was very sad the morning after mr had died a letter came for him from an old friend in boston who had left that part of the country in his boyhood and had made his fortune and become rich and prominent none of his own family were living there and he claimed mr s hospitality on the score of their early friendship and the occasional business letters which had passed between them since was a little afraid at first to tell of this additional care but she received the news graciously she said mournfully how pleased the old gentleman would have been but she thought also that she would show the city guest that they knew how to do things if they did live in the country and since her pride as a housekeeper was put to its utmost est she was no s fort one to have so worthy a spectator among her audience but a new interest quickly followed this for one of the women whispered to another that could not find the will he had supposed that it was safe in the keeping	40
of old mr who was the only lawyer in that region but mr had happened to say that two or three weeks before mr had taken it home with him was told that it was written on a sheet of blue letter paper and sealed with a i looked all through the papers in the desk upstairs said he to mrs and in my uncle s coat pockets but i can t seem to find it it was an evident relief to tell this and mrs was at once much interested it must have slipped between some of the other things or he may have tied it up with some old bills or something by mistake i suppose don t know but she did not and was deeply concerned for she had long indulged hopes of a she helped look all through the pigeon holes again and in every likely and unlikely place they could think of but it was no use and the fear took possession them that mr might have destroyed it meaning to make another will and never had done country by ways he told me only a week or two ago s id a n drew that everything was going to be mine and i might do as i chose i was speaking to him about the barn you know he had set his mind on it i don t know what to think and he went to the bedside and lifted the sheet from the dead man s face but he looked white and indifferent and kept his secrets the days crept by until saturday and each night two neighbors came to watch after the old custom and those who were lying awake in the house could hear them every little while tramp up the stairs and down again and the of their voices as they talked together in the kitchen trying td keep themselves awake on friday mr came and was shocked to find that the only person he really cared very much to see had so lately died but he accepted s invitation and made up his l to stay until the funeral discovering that it was expected of him and looked upon as desirable there was a strange contrast between him and his old friend the city man looked much younger in his well fitting clothes and his quick business like mail ner gave him an air of youth which was in great contrast to mr s slow farmer like ways as he had grown older he had found himself thinking fortune more aud more about the people he had known when he was a boy and the places where he had worked and played it seemed strange at first to see hardly any familiar faces and he had a sense of loneliness as he sat himself an object of great interest among the and the pomp and piety of the old fashioned country funeral interested him not a little the people gathered from far and near to pay respect to the good man who had died and they came in by and with solemn faces to look at him and many of them touched his face lest they might have bad dreams of him it was the first time his friends had come to his house and he had not welcomed them but he lay in his coffin of them all looking strange and priest like in the black robe in which they had him it was a bleak cold day and he would have looked more comfortable and certainly more familiar in his own old coat that was faded a little on the shoulders was dressed in proper black and was crying softly with a big pocket handkerchief held close to her face which she occasionally moved aside a little as the people came in to dart a glance at them looked worn and anxious every one told him that the will must be found but he was no means certain and if it did not come to light country by way he was left he was only the nephew of s wife and though he had been always treated as a son he had never been formally adopted several people noticed that he had a manly look that they never had seen before but for his part he felt helpless and adrift after a long and solemn silence the old minister rose to speak of the departed pillar of the church and town as he called mr and the old clock in the kitchen louder than ever in the hush that followed after the remarks were ended he lifted the great bible which was lying ready on the light stand and read slowly and reverently the short and solemn chapter of and though there were fewer young people to heed the preacher s warning than old people to regret their long delay it seemed to fit the occasion best or even the silver cord be or the golden bowl broken he read in his trembling voice for man to his long home and the go about the streets ha thought of his kind friend and generous and it was said afterward that though the old parson was an able preacher and gifted in prayer he never had spoken as he did that day he knew this chapter by heart he had read it at many a funeral before and ho repeated the last few verses lowering the fortune bible as he held it in his arms for it was heavy and out from between the leaves slid a thin folded paper which went wavering through the air to the floor it was sealed with a big red and one or two persons who sat close by and saw it knew by a instinct that it was the missing will turned very pale for a moment and then as suddenly flushed he started from his chair but his respect for	40
the time and place checked him and with great propriety he nodded to the old woman at whose feet it had fallen a distant connection of the family a feeble old creature who had made a great effort to be present she stooped over stiffly and picked it up she looked as if it were only a commonplace paper which must not litter the floor on such a day the minister had already begun his prayer but when he the lord that the memory of the departed might be a lesson and that the young man on whom his mantle was to fall might prove himself worthy of it prayed for himself still more heartily and before the coffin lid was down he bent over and kissed his uncle s forehead some of the women s eyes filled with tears he might not be a go ahead young man but his fondness for his uncle was unaffected and be his uncle s heir and standing in his place his feel country by way were much more to be respected than if he were still a dependent when the were called out he meant as he went by old mrs s chair to take the will he had tried to call her attention and make her understand that he wanted the paper but she was dull of sight and sat there watching the proceedings with intense interest was shy and he had a horror of seeming anxious about the property before all the people and when he and were called mr and family the only cousins not he went out into the yard a little uneasy at heart to take his place at the head of the procession they walked two by two across the wind blown field to the little family burying ground it was a long procession and the doctor was one of the he had pleaded in vain critical cases in the next town for his wife of the of society would not hear to any excuses he shivered and grumbled as he walked with her to the grave i shall be out every night for a week after this looking after said he i don t see why people must go through with just so much i and he hastily brushed away a cold tear that had started down his when he caught sight of the clumsy coffin as it fortune was carried along in the hands of the bear era he had been deeply attached to old mr but the people who walked before him he showed very little feeling when they were near the house again some one came running out and spoke to the doctor who followed him hurriedly the word was passed from one to another that old widow was in some kind of a fit and s first thought was of the will for it was she who had it in her pocket she had stayed behind to keep the house being so feeble and spent with a long walk in the cold foolish for old people to be out in such weather said the doctor to himself as he bent over her she s gone poor soul he told the startled people who were crowding round him she was lying near the fire place on the kitchen floor she had been putting on some wood i ve been expecting this she s had a heart complaint these twenty years said the doctor and the will had disappeared again they looked in her pocket but it was not there and there was no trace of it anywhere only at the side of the fire were some scraps of half burnt writing paper the order in which people had been called out to take their places in the procession i meant tc keep that said country by ways almost angrily whether the old w had been a little dazed and had burnt the will also nobody knew but it was certainly gone she had been trying to put the house in order a little some of the borrowed chairs were already standing outside the door for she was familiar with the contents of the house poor little she bad worked to the very end it was almost too great an excitement for the towns people most of them had just heard of the missing will for the first time and the crowd of disappeared slowly this sudden death was a great to the funeral feast but managed to muster those guests who were to stay for that was an important part of the rites poor old widow was comfortably disposed of and wrapped in some and carried away on the floor of a wagon to the desolate little black house where she bad lived alone for many years and then the tables were laid and the company gravely ate and drank their fill saw his lady love alone only for a minute after the funeral i wish i could stay and help you look for it said she but father says there s a storm coming and we d better get home it annoyed him to find that her only thought was of the will to be s fortune rare it was uppermost in his own mind but be too lately seen his oldest and kindest friend put into a frozen grave to be quite forgetful of him and he would have liked best for to with the better part of his thoughts it flashed through his mind that he had once heard some one say that had an eye to the but he held her hand the more affectionately for a moment as he helped her into her father s wagon and tucked in the skin with care by way of making amends for such injustice there had been times when it had seemed to him that could not understand his best thoughts and that she was a	40
little bored if he talked about subjects instead of people and he sighed a little and felt lonely as he went back to the house the higher you climb the fewer you have for company he said to himself and it struck him as being a very fine thought there was a good deal of conversation going on in the house and as he opened the kitchen door where the women were busy clearing away the supper there was a sudden to tell the truth they had been taking sides on the question of s being willing to marry him if the will could not be found u you need n t tell me said our friend mrs as she stood at the closet putting away some country by plates u never d had him in the world if it had n t been for the property i always thought she d a looked another way if the dollars had n t shone in her eyes i don t blame her i should n t pick out for his self alone d as soon live on b rice the year round i like to see a young fellow that s got some snap to him but there now he s got to be his own master he may start up suggested some one i always thought well of land so did said mrs with surprise i ain t saying nothing against him what do you guess old lady could a done with the will it don t seem like her to have burnt it but she need n t have burnt the paper o names for the procession they re usually kept i know we ve got em to our house for every funeral that s been since i can remember ther s and am s and old aunt s and all she had an awful sight o folks follow her you know she wa n t but half ter to grand ther and owned half the farm t was her right to have a good funeral and she had it they set out the best there was her own mother was a and she had over thirty own cousins on the side and they were a dreadful set i know we set the supper table over five fortune w mother always said it was a real pleasant occasion t was in september and a beautiful day for a funeral and all the family gathered together i don t more n just remember it myself aunt was in her ninety fourth year and of course her death was n t no calamity for she had n t had her mind for above two years i was small but i can see just how she looked she d get a word fixed in her mind iu the morning and she d keep it a going all day sometimes she d call grand ther by name and i one day she said till it seemed as if we could n t stand it no longer i do hope i sha n t out live my usefulness a thin little old woman in black i always had a dread o being a burden to others i say said mrs stoutly u that old folks has a right to be maintained and done for it ain t no favor to them it looks dreadful hard to me that after you ve toiled all your good years and laid up what you could and stood in your lot and place as long as you had strength the minute you get feeble you re the food you eat and the chair you set in what s the use of yourself and laying up a little something ami seeing other folks spend it some ain t got no s for the old but for my part i like to make em feel of consequence c country by ways poor old mis said a faced woman it keeps coming over me about her somehow it seems to me as if she had been dreadful all alone so she would do it many s the time we ve asked her to our house to stop through a cold spell or a storm but she never seemed inclined i thought when i see her coming in to day she d better be to home but she always was a great hand to go to when she could and then bein a connection too mis ash and mis said they d hurry home and be to her place by time they got her there i s pose likely she had a little something laid up asked enough to bury her it s likely i know of her having thirty eight dollars she got for some wood a spell ago you know she owned a little wood lot over in the tract she picked up a little now and then eggs but i guess she ain t anything this good while her eyes have been her so the will had not been mentioned since had come in and seated himself on the settle had been pushed back from its usual place it had grown dark and people had said it was no use to hunt any longer and he had not the courage to fortune on with the search beside he could only look in the same places over again he could not help feeling worried he was impatient for the morrow to come it seemed to him that all this suffering and loss was by himself alone it was like a that had blown through his life bat everybody else appeared to be on the whole enjoying it and to have a great deal to talk about he thought as he listened to the busy women how cheerless and an old age must be when there was no money in a man s pocket and for the first time in his	40
life he felt poor and fearful of the future which had always seemed secure until then he remembered how often his uncle had said it s a cold world when you ve nothing to give it and somehow there as a great difference in his own mind between his sitting there uncertain and almost unnoticed and his receiving the people earlier in the afternoon as the chief and his uncle s heir he was the master of the house for the time being to be sure the will was missing then but now it had disappeared almost before his face and eyes this sudden change in his fortune seemed very strange and sad to him and he wished had not gone home their love for each other was left at any rate and he was rich in the thought that she was his and then a b country by ways dreadful doubt came what if she had an eye to the but he crushed this serpent of a thought instantly later mr came in he had gone home with some old acquaintances who lived not far away and had spent part of the evening the snow had already begun to down as if there were a long storm coming the people had all gone away and and and their guest were left to themselves now tell me what this trouble is about the will said mr and went over the story briefly it looks dark for you said mr but it does n t seem as if anybody in their senses would burn such a thing without knowing what it was however she may not have been in her senses it is a pity you did not take it yourself before you left the house thought so too and could have mentioned that everybody said it was just like him it seems to me that she might have put it back in the bible again thinking it was a family record or something of that kind i thought of that and i looked there but i could dot find it said but he went into the best and brought out the bible and looked through t carefully leaf by leaf fortune who is the heir at law asked mr and he was told that it was a cousin of mr s old who lived seventeen or eighteen miles away it would have been a great sorrow to the old gentleman if he had thought of his property going in that direction he would have given what he had to the state sooner than have such a thing happen said excitedly i believe he d turn over in his grave ton know he was a very set man but he did have excellent judgment i wish i bad come a little sooner i should like to have seen again said mr and they were all silent for a time why don t you put your uncle s death in the bible now you ve got it right here asked and she brought the little stone bottle of ink and carefully wrote the name and date he was the last of them said mournfully and they was always respectable folks i suppose you remember the old people well as i do mr mr was not used to feeling sleepy at half past nine though that hour was unusually late for his and finding that he seemed disposed to linger put more wood on the fire country by ways and drew some and brought some apples from the cellar and the guest seemed very comfortable it was like old times he said he asked a great many questions about the old in the town what had become of the boys and girls he used to know and at last be asked the young man some questions about himself and suddenly said with a that was startling in case of the will s not turning up what do you mean to do i have hardly had time to think said flushing and then being sure of sympathy he opened his heart to the gray headed man who seemed to him to be finishing his life while he was just beginning i believe i have n t a very good reputation mr but i feel sure i could make something of myself if i had the chance i never have had anything to do that i liked to do i never took to farming my uncle never wanted to give up the reins and i did n t want him to he could n t bear the thought of my going away and leaving him and you know there is n t much business in a farming town like this for a young man i don t know which way to turn said poor a sense of the misery of the situation coming over him as it never had before i don t want to blame the best friend i ever had but i wish now be had put me to ome business or other fortune yes yes answered mr r it would have made it easier for you perhaps but if you did n t start of your own accord he probably did n t want to push you he was glad to have you here my boys are all scattered and then he said no mo e for a while felt half and half convinced that it had been right to stay at home he suspected that his guest was thinking of his own affairs and wished he had not told so long a story all night long turned and tossed in his bed and thought about his troubles until his head ached and it was a relief when it was time to get up in the early dark morning and go out to feed the cattle as soon as it was light and breakfast was over they	40
all hunted again for the will high and low up stairs and down but it was no use and later they went to meeting the neighbors came in and mr was the hero of the hour and was treated with great ceremony and honor he was a well known man and his coming was taken as a great favor mr s fame had been only provincial and s would wait to be considered later it was a very exciting time and the people me together in the farm hot se and had a great deal to say to one another one country by ways day had been much like another for a great while before that week and life had been like reading one page of a book over and over again early monday morning mr went away drove him over to the village to take the stage he used to dream in his boyhood that he would come back some day a rich man the dream had come true but there was after all a dreary pathos in it everybody had made a king of him and had seemed proud if he remembered them and yet he did not care as he used to think he should he said he meant to come back in the summer and he told that he hoped to find him master of the place and made a desperate effort to smile if i can do anything for you you must let me know my boy said he i thought a great deal of your uncle he did me some good turns when we were young together i have often heard him say that he wished he could see you again said the young man he would have been so pleased to have this visit he used to speak of your sitting together always at and he used to be so proud when he read our name in the papers mr a little and looked away and asked the name of one of the hills which he had s fortune forgotten yes i wish i could have seen him once more he said after a few minutes and then he was forced tc think of his own schemes and plans for he was on his way back to his e very day world again it was only two or three days before heard the sound of bells and looked out of the window to see mr coming in from the road driving a lame white horse in an old high backed had gone to see so she was all alone she told herself that mr might have waited a full week before he came round and she would not go to the door to welcome him so he was a long time putting bis horse under a shed and covering him with the robe which was worn until it looked fit for only a blacksmith s apron he stamped the snow ofl his boots and his arms to get the out for was very cold the sky looked as if there another storm coming he as long as possible hoping that somebody would come out but at last he summoned courage and crossed the yard to the house and knocked at the door had been watching him through the window with a grim chuckle but she kept him waiting a few minutes and then met him with affected surprise country by ways she was apparently hospitable but she placed a chair for him almost into the fire itself and entreated him to lay off his coat and stop it was so long since he had been over a cruel thrust at him for not having been at the funeral he never did come less it was after money mean spirited old thought she cousin was slow of speech he a long dingy from his throat and then he bent forward and rubbed his hands together before the fire he had a curious narrow face with a nose like a and thin straggling hair and whiskers with two great ears that stood out as if they were a s sails wing and wing drew her chair to the other side of the fire place and began to knit angrily we was dreadful concerned to hear o cousin s death said the poor man il he went very sudden did n t he t loss he is yes said he was very much looked np to and it was some time before the heir plucked up courage to speak again wife and me was on getting over to the but it s a t ways for her to ride and it was a day that day she s be n troubled more than common with her since fortune weather come i was all crippled up with the we wa n t neither of us fit to be out plain t was all i could do to get out to the barn to feed the stock and tim was gone my boys was over i s pose ye know i don know s they come to speak with ye they re backward with strangers but they re good fellows them was the that was hanging round the barn i guess said to herself they re the main stay now they re ahead of poor me a ready he s got a hundred dollars laid up and i believe tim s got something too he s younger ye know but gave her chair an angry at this mixture of humility and and then was a little ashamed of herself for the memory of old mr s kindness and patience her i ve always heard they was good boys she said mr was of em only last week he thought must be about out of his time li next june said taking heart i come just as near saying that he spoke of them something said	40
afterward but i did n t i thought he might as well tell right out what he come for country by wa s away i take it and answered yes but that he would be back early he went off before dinner he s got to be home to see some folks that s coming you d better stop now you re over she said and her tone was she was a tender hearted soul and she had made him uncomfortable until she was miserable herself i tell you i dread to see said the old man sincerely in almost a i thought i might as well come and have it over with but i tell you when i got into the yard i wished i was home again sometimes i don t feel as if i had a o right to what meant to give to somebody else but ain t got his proofs and my boys has had a hard chance somehow or it s always been up hill work to our place and i feel s if the law gives it to me it s the will o providence and i ain t got no right to set my will ag it but i want to make things pleasant with i thought if i come right over and we talked it over pleasant together we could x it for the best mean well i tell ye honest i do and if we find out what to do for you you shall have every cent if it has to come out o part s fortune i ain t thought so great about that said who was already considering what there was in the house to make a hearty supper for him he looked so starved and timid like an old white rabbit but i do feel for you know how he has been brought up there he is now i declare and he s fetched with him and she out to greet them leaving the visitor more unhappy and at a loss than ever he had thought that everything was getting on comfortably and he meant to lay his case before and then steal away lest he might encounter and the idea of meeting was particularly unpleasant but he reflected that it would all have to be gone through with some time or other and he sat up as straight as he could in his chair prepared to hold his own shut the kitchen door after her and went out a few steps to speak to them before they drove on into the shed s come and for the life of her she could not help a smile i was mad at first but when i come to see how he was i turned to and pitied him just as your uncle used tc he d dreadfully when he see him a coming but he always loaded up ms old wagon for him when he went home i guess you can have things pretty much as you want em country by way frowned he had to go through the same process of mind as but he achieved it in about the same of time and though he was very angry at first after he had put up his own horse he gave the lame white beast a big measure of corn and a of hay and put her in the warmest stall he still felt as if he would like to ill treat her master as he went into the house old looked more than ever as had expressed herself and sat near the fire looking cross and cold she was a pretty girl but not a very good tempered one and it had been a serious annoyance to her to find that there was some danger of her having to come down from the high perch she had taken as mistress in prospect of the farm had been laughed at for his sober ways and for his mind s habit of wool gathering some he had made were kept alive as great jokes and he had suffered from contrast with a smart young fellow who had come from the nearest large town and was clerk at the country store and post office he had a way with him and had not and s heart had been pulled in both directions shook hands cordially with the old man he looked a little like mr and it seemed at fortune if some thin and weather beaten likeness of him were there forlorn before hi own fire or as if he had come back unsuccessful from his adventure into the next world you stop all night of course said the young man it s rough and it s getting dark now you won t think of going home i put up your horse i suppose you want to have a little talk about business too it was hard work to say this and s eyes snapped and grew very black i wonder he don t ask him right off if he can t stop here himself she muttered and thought he was too free spoken altogether was evidently touched by this great civility he had expected to be treated dreadfully and to tell the truth though his wife had started him off early in the morning he had lingered all day at one place and another along the road it grew dark very soon and went out to bring in the wood for the night and to do his usual work and after a while he came in looking pleasanter than before which made she was an honest and just girl according to her lights and she would not have wished her lover to keep what was not his but it was her way to make everybody feel that it was injustice and that was somebody else an out and out present for hia country by ways conscience	40
sake she was treating poor ly s attempts at conversation with lofty disdain and he grew more and more humble and consequently disagreeable he felt that he was creeping into this good luck by a very crooked way and it did not him to put on airs and march in upon his possessions with his flying and though he to himself over and over that the law makes the best will after all that he was certainly s next of kin and always had had a hard time and that had been given many by somebody who was no blood relation yet he was very sorry for the young fellow and showed his sympathy as well as he knew how come over a purpose to say to ye that i mean to do what s right about this he said at last at the end of a long and awkward pause i ve asked advice and i find the property comes to me by the law but i know had it in his mind to give yon the best part of what he had and i want to do what s fair and right and so does my woman and the boys we leave it out to anybody you name or you may have your say or we share even i don t want to have no trouble the first thing j says when i got wind of it was i never d touch n cent by claim but when i come to think it over it j fortune come by law and our folks have n t laid op to speak of it s been so we could n t my are fellows and i d like to let the youngest one have some he always took to his book i don t want to be a drag on em when it gets so i can t work i want ye to think well about it and let me know i won t hurry ye and we ll make out the papers all square whenever you say old thing said to herself and left her chair and hurried to the closet impatiently for nothing whatever and gave the door a little when she shut it again moved a little in his chair no mr said he bravely i could n t touch a cent the will was found if i had ever seen it and knew for certain what was in it perhaps i should act different but as it is i should feel as if i was living on you and i should n t like that the law gives you the property as you say and i hope you and your folks will be comfortable here i want to speak about one thing my uncle told me he had left five hundred dollars he spoke to me about it several times and i promised i would see to it when anything happened to him he said he wanted to feel she would be comfortable when she got to be old i m much obliged to you for what you say and for coming right over and talking fair and kind country by ways told herself then that he talked like a fool bat she always insisted afterwards that he did speak ap like a man thought her lover was better looking than he used to be she really admired him at that moment but her heart sank within her lie is dreadful high flown she said to herself with an uneasy sense of what might be required of her as to noble ideas in years to come if he went ou in this way it was hard when she had been thinking they would be the two richest young people in town to find that had decided to make them almost the poorest she wished him to go to law she thought she was fond of him but people had always known he had no turn for business and she had trusted to her own wits to make the farm pay well had talked to her in a way that touched her heart only that afternoon as they drove over and had told her that he meant to be somebody for her sake and make her proud of him yet and she had smiled and kissed him with great affection but it had been almost too cold for love making and she was a sadly disappointed girl they spent a solemn evening old talked a great deal about the weather and the of there being more snow before morning and he fell asleep and and later s fortune over with to her aunt s where she was going to spend a day or two as often happened she was to meet her relatives but was on good terms with himself he told that she was everything to him and he did n t care about losing the farm so long as he had her and she said that she was n t half good enough for him and resolved that she would n t break his heart now for he was a well meaning fellow but before spring there would be some way she could get out of it the short winter days that followed were dreary enough to the hero of this story his comfortable life had always seemed a certainty to him and now new cares and had fallen heavily upon him he could not help noticing that there was a change in the manner of his neighbors and often mentioned that she could not imagine how her sister got on without her and was evidently in a hurry to settle herself in her new home the had asked them both to stay until spring at the farm when they meant to make a change and it seemed the best thing to do but kept himself than ever before in his life lest he	40
might le accused of and eating another man s bread country by he undertook to keep the district school near by and succeeded tolerably well and it was a great satisfaction to be earning something he hunted far and near for some employment until he was discouraged he knew that would despise his out on a farm for the summer and there seemed to be nothing else if there were even that he felt very forlorn and sometimes there was a chill in s sunshine which was the thing of all one day late in january he made up his mind to write to mr and ask him to find some work for him in boston though it was awful to think of going so far away brightened when he spoke of it and when a letter was received telling him to come as soon as possible he said good by to her and went and some one else finished the town school he often smiled in after years to think of the with which he left his home and the tremendous distance which seemed to lie between it and the city it was almost like going off into space the change to city life was a very great one and at first he felt as a small boy might who had fastened hit behind a railway train however he proved equal to the place for which mr had him his steady ways found fortune favor with his while he lost some natural from being with people who were always in a hurry he wrote long and letters to and confided to her his aims and hopes and his certainty that she would like the city as much as he did she replied from time to time but she had by no means the pen of a ready writer and when one day he had been thinking a great deal about her and wondering gratefully why she had fallen in love with him a letter came to say that had decided that they must part her father and mother would not consent to her settling so far away and she hoped they would always be friends she never had been good enough for him which was not honest since she thought herself much too good it was a heavy blow and was miserable for some time the loss of the will had involved this loss also and life seemed very dismal but he did not mourn all his days as at first he thought he should his business grew very interesting and he set his heart upon making a fortune since other people had done it without any more hard work than he was willing to do and after a while the news reached his old neighbors that his thought highly of him and would soon send him out to china they being n the tea business then b country by even mrs said she always knew there was a good deal to and now folks that had laughed at him were going to see and sure enough he did make his way steadily upward as many a country boy has done before and since he changed little in reality he dressed well and behaved himself in the approved fashion and gained a good knowledge of the world and his manner which had been thought awkward came to be considered good enough while in his boyhood he had been called stupid and slow among his business friends he passed for a reserved and discreet and cautious man he never was very attractive his associates found no fault with him for his life was honorable and just but he did not make many personal friends though he was so much respected you might have a strong feeling of attachment for him after you had known him long but that was all he was not a per bon whom one could be enthusiastic about his was not the character which enthusiasm but after his own fashion he made a success of life and that cannot always be said of men who are more popular with their fellows and more gifted by nature than he he married after a while an orphan niece of one of the firm of which in time he rose to be a partner himself and everybody thought it was a good match s fortune for both of them the fair was never thought of with a sigh it is oftener in love stories than in real life that such wounds of the heart take long to heal the world seems to come to an end and then is begun anew after people marry their earlier lovers are seldom thought of with regret however dear they were in their day s wife was a far better wife for him than ever would or could have been and he always said so to himself when he thought of the matter at all they had a pleasant house and a pleasant position in society and our hero often smiled to think of his misery when he found that his uncle s estates were not to be his after all it was a good while before it flashed through his mind one day that it had been a blessing in disguise there had been eight thousand dollars beside the farm there never had been a fortune equal to it in that neighborhood but his own possessions already it over and over again and it made him fairly wretched to think how small and narrow his life would have been if he had stayed at home on the farm how much he should have missed and how much less he could have done for himself and for other people he said more than once that it had been the making of him and that the hand of god aad plainly shaped his course country by ways a good many years	40
he went back to his native place he had been meaning to do it for a long time and he was somehow often reminded of mr s visit it was a pleasant week in late summer and the old town was little changed only there seemed to be very few old people and a great many younger ones he went to see every one whom he knew and his holidays were after all very pleasant he called upon and found her old and homely and complaining though she had married the smart young man at the store and had been as fond of him as it was her nature to be of any one it was odd that he was awkward and and slow now while was in her eyes a most distinguished and elegant looking man and she could not imagine how she ever had the courage to dismiss him u you know i always set a great deal by you mr she said with a look that made her a little like the of old he seemed a part of her triumphant youth and it brought back all her old pride and ambition she had meant to be somebody and had failed and perhaps she never exactly understood where her mistake had been until then it is likely that from that time forward she occasionally said that she might have been riding in her carriage stayed at the farm nothing had s fortune ever told him so plainly how different a man he was from what he might have been or how different a life he led like coming back to the old house it seemed very strange to wake up in the morning in his old room which with unwonted sentiment he had asked if he might occupy had not lived long to enjoy his good fortune but it had been a great blessing to his sons who were farmers by nature and now one lived in the old house and the other in a new one near by and they worked the farm together while they were by reason of their wealth two of the foremost citizens and one of them had even been sent to the the old place was not altered much was reminded of his uncle and of his own boyhood at every step and he offered to buy one or two old pieces of furniture which were gladly given to him when he was found to be attached to them and since they were brass mounted and footed his wife welcomed them with joy and thought his pilgrimage to his native place had not been in vain there was a son of s at the farm who reminded him of himself in his youth and he made friends in a grave way with the boy and said to himself that in a year or two he would give him a start in the world it happened the day before ne ended his visit wai by a rainy day and he was shut up in the house though between two showers in the morning he had gone over to pay a last call on mrs who was still living grown shorter and than ever until her little head and broad round shoulders made her look like a june she took great pride in mr who indeed had been kind to her in many ways as well as to who had died not long before after he had come back he was at his wits end what to do was away and the women were busy and at last he asked if there were not an old family bible somewhere in the house and was directed to the best room stiff and dismal as ever where it was taken down from the chimney cupboard as the bible belonging to the branch was occupying the post of honor on the little table in the corner caught sight of some other ancient looking volumes and he mounted the chair himself reaching in at arm s length and taking out one old brown book after another there was nothing very interesting they were mostly like law s serious call and the rise and progress and some volumes of old sermons by new england the last book was a great volume of s arrangement of the old testament it was b fortune as large as the bible itself and as he took it out it slipped from his hand and fell to the floor one ot the children who stood by stooped to pick it up and as came down from the chair dusty and disappointed in his search she gave it to him there was a paper half out between the leaves which the fall had and he pulled it out to replace it more carefully thinking of something else all the time but a strange feeling rushed over him at the sight of it and he sat down still holding the big book and the paper and to the little girl s surprise he grew very red in the face it was strange that after so many years he should have been the one to find the missing will it was carefully written in his uncle s stiff precise hand and the farm and all the money with the exception of s and one to the young and some smaller ones to the church and the old minister were left to his adopted son and now was the heir when he did not wish to be and he was anything but happy he remembered the book and that he looked in it himself it used to be on a table in that same room and poor old mrs had carefully replaced the paper in the bible as she thought for this book was not unlike it to her half blind eyes soon after the country by ways funeral had put the room severely to	40
to promise good weather on the morrow and over in the west where the wind was coming from they were packed close together and looked gray and wet it might be cold and cloudy later but that would not hinder my ride it is a capital way to keep warm to come along a smooth bit of road on the run and i id have time at any rate to go the way i wished trotted quickly through the gate and out e village there was a of color left on and and though it was not weather it was first cousin to it i took off an october ride m my cap to let the wind blow through my hair i had half a to go down to the sea but it was too late for that there was no moon to light me home took the strip of smooth turf just at the of the road for her own highway she tossed her head again and again until i had my hand full of her thin mane and she gave quick at her bit and hurried little ahead as if she expected me already to pull the reins tight and steady her for a hard gallop i patted her and whistled at her i was so glad to see her again and to be out riding and i gave her part of her reward to begin with because i knew she would earn it and then we were on better terms than ever she has such a pretty way of turning her head to take the square lump of sugar and she never bit my fingers or dropped the sugar in her life down in the lower part of the town on the edge of there is a long tract of covering what is called the rocky hills rough high land that stretches along from beyond near the sea to the upper part of near the river standing on the woods seem to cover nearly the whole of the country as far is one can see and is hardly a clearing to break long reach of forest of which i speak there h country by must be twenty miles of it in an almost line the roads cross it he e and there and one can sometimes see small and lonely farms hiding away in the heart of it the trees are for the most part young growth of oak or pine though i could show you yet many a noble company of great pines that once would have been marked with the king s arrow and many a royal old oak which has been overlooked in the search for ships knees and plank for the navy yard and piles for the always up hill and down pleasant old bridge the part of these woods which i know best lies on either side the already old new road to york on the rocky hills and here i often ride or even take perilous rough drives through the cart paths the wood roads which are busy in the winter and are silent and shady by green branches and with slender a id seldom over except by me all summer long it was a great surprise or a succession of surprises one summer when i found that every one of the old tracks led to or at least led by what had once been a clearing and in old days must have been the secluded home of some of the earliest adventurous farmers of this region it must have taken great courage i think to strike the blow of one s ax an october ride here in the woods and it must have been a brave certainty of one s perseverance that looked forward to the smooth field which was to succeed the wilderness the farms were far enough apart to be very lonely and i suppose at first the cry of fierce wild creatures m the forest was an every day sound and the indians stole like through the he and crept from tree to tree about the houses watch ing begging and over and over again there are some of these farms still occupied where the land seems to have become thoroughly civilized but most of them were deserted long ago the people gave up the fight with such a persistent and of nature and went away to the village or to find more soil and neighborhood i do not know why it is these silent forgotten places are so delightful to me there is one which i always call my farm and it was a long time after i knew it well before i could find out to whom it had once belonged in some strange way the place has become a part of ray world and to belong to my thoughts and my life i suppose every one can say i have a little kingdom where i give laws each of us has truly a kingdom in thought and a certain spiritual possession there are some gardens of where somebody country by ways plants the seeds and the weeds for me ever year without my ever taking a bit of trouble i have trees and fields and woods and seas and houses i own a great deal of the world to think and plan and dream about the picture belongs most to the man who loves it best and sees entirely its meaning we can always have just as much as we can take of things and we can lay up as much treasure as we please in the higher world of thought that can never be spoiled or by or as lower and wealth can be as for this farm of mine i found it one day when i was coming through the woods on horseback trying to strike a shorter way out into the main road i was pushing through some thick and	40
looking ahead i noticed a good deal of clear sky as if there were an open place just beyond and presently i found myself on the edge of a clearing there was a straggling orchard of old apple trees the grass about them was close and short like the wide of an old farm house and into this cleared space the little pines were growing on every side the pines stood a little way back watching their children march in upon their inheritance as if they were to interfere and protect and defend if any an october ride trouble came i could see that it would not be many years if they were left alone before the green grass would be covered and the old apple trees would grow and die for lack of room and sunlight in the midst of the young woods it was a perfect acre oi turf only here and there i could already see a cushion of or a of sweet or i walked the horse slowly picking a hard little yellow apple here and there from the boughs over my head and at last i found a cellar all grown over with grass with not even a bit of a crumbling brick to be seen in the hollow of it no doubt there were some it was a very large cellar twice as large as any i had ever found before in any of these deserted places in the woods or out and that told me at once that there had been a large house above it an unusual house for those old days the family was either a large one or it had made for itself more than a merely sufficient covering and shelter with no inch of unnecessary room i knew i was on very high but the trees were so tall and close that i could not see beyond them the wind blew over pleasantly and it was a curiously protected and hidden place sheltered and quiet its one small crop of apples dropping to the ground and there except by hurrying black little country by ways i suppose my feeling toward this place was like that about a ruin only this seemed older than a ruin i could not hear my horse s foot falls and an apple startled me when it fell with a soft and i watched it roll a foot or two and then stop as if it knew it never would have anything more to do in the world i remembered the enchanted palace and the sleeping beauty in the wood and it seemed as if i were on the way to it and this was a corner of that palace garden the horse listened and stood still without a bit of restlessness and when we heard the far cry of a bird she looked round at me as if she wished me to notice that we were not alone in the world after all it was strange to be sure that people had lived there and had had a home where they were busy and where the fortunes of life had found them that they had followed out the law of existence in its succession of growth and flourishing and failure and decay within that steadily circle of trees the relationship of nature to what is tamed and cultivated is a very curious and subtle thing to me do not know if every one feels it so intensely in the darkness of an early autumn even big t sometimes find myself whistling a queer that in with the and the an october ride of the little creatures around me in the garden i have no thought of the rest of the world i wonder what i am there is a strange self consciousness but i am only a part of one great existence which is called nature the life in me is a bit of all life and where i am happiest is where i find that which is next of kin to me in friends or trees or hills or seas or beside a flower when i turn back more than once to look into its face the world goes on year after year we can use its forces and shape and mould them and perfect this thing or that but cannot make new forces we only use the tools we find to the wood we find there is nothing new we discover and combine and use here is the wild fruit the same fruit at heart as that with which the gardener wins his prize the world is the same world you find a diamond but the diamond was there a thousand years ago you did not make it by finding it we grow until we grasp some new great truth of god but it was always true and waited for us until we came what is there new and strange in the world except ourselves our thoughts are our own god gives our life to us moment by moment but he gives it to be sur own ye on your must lean to hear a secret that mine will bear country by as i looked about me that day i saw the difference that men had made slowly fading out of sights it was like a dam in a river when it is once swept away the river goes on the same as before the old patient sublime forces were there at work in their appointed way but perhaps by and by when the apple trees are gone and the cellar is only a rough hollow in the woods some one will again set aside these forces that have worked and will bring this corner of the world into a new use and shape what if we could stop or change forever the working of these powers but nature herself surely of what we boldly claim the stand yet it happens	40
but where are all those cities that used also to stand in old egypt proud and strong and back beyond men s memories or traditions turned into sand again and dust that is like all the rest of the desert and blows about in the wind yet there cannot be such a thing as life that is lost the tree falls and in the of the woods and is part of the earth under foot but another tree is growing out of it perhaps it is part of its own life that is springing again from the part of it that died god must always be putting again to some use the life that is withdrawn it must live because it is life there can be no confusion tc an october ride j god in this wonderful world the new birth of the immortal the new forms of the life that is from ever lasting to everlasting or the new way in which it comes but it is only god who can plan and order it all who is a father to his children and cares for the least of us i thought of his unbroken promises the people who lived and died in that lonely place knew him and the chain of events was fitted their thoughts and lives for their development and education the world was made for them and god keeps them yet somewhere in his kingdom they are in their places they are not lost the trees they left grow older and the young spring up and the fields they cleared are being over and turned into wild land again i had visited this farm of mine many times that first day but since the last time i had there i had found out luckily something about last tenant an old lady whom i knew in the village had told me that when she was a child she remembered another very old woman who used to live here all alone far from any neighbors and that one afternoon she had come with her mother to see her she remembered the house very well it was larger better than most houses in the region its owner country by ways was the last of her family but why she lived alone or what became of her at last or of her money or her goods or who were her relatives in the town my friend did not know she was a well to do old i famous and and she used to come to the meeting house at the old fields every sunday and sit by herself in a square since i knew this the last owner of my farm has become very real to me and i thought of her that day a great deal and could almost see her as she sat alone on her in the twilight of a summer evening when the were calling in the woods or going down the hills to church dressed in quaint fashion with a little sadness in her face as she thought of her lost companions and how she did not use to go to church alone and i pictured her funeral to myself and watched her carried away at last by the narrow road that wound among the trees and there was nobody left in the house after the neighbors from the nearest farms had put it to rights and had looked over her treasures to their hearts content she must have been a fearless woman and one could not stay in such a place as this year in and year out through the long days of summer and the long nights of winter unless she found herself good con an october ride i do not think i could find a worse avenue than that which leads to my farm i think sometimes there must have been an easier way out which i have yet failed to discover but it has its advantages for the trees are beautiful and stand close together and i do not know such green anywhere as those which grow in the places i came into a track after a while which led into a small granite and then i could go faster and at last i reached a pasture wall which was quickly left behind and i was only a little way from the main road there were a few young cattle scattered about in the pasture aud some of them which were lying down got up in a hurry and stared at me suspiciously as i rode along it was very ground and i passed some stiff straight which stood apart together in a hollow as if they wished to be alone they always remind me of the rigid old scotch who used to gather themselves together in companies against the law to worship god in some secret hollow of the bleak hill side even the small est and of the was a at heart they had all put by their yellow flowers and they will stand there gray and through the fall rains and winter to keep their places and praise god in their own fashion and they take great country by to themselves for doing it i have no doubt and think it is far better to be a stern and respectable than a idle that and and cannot bear wet weather i saw members of the congregation scattered through the pasture and felt like telling them to hurry for the long sermon had already begun but one ancient worthy very late on his way to the meeting happened to stand in our way and bit his dry head off which was a great pity after i was once on the high road it was not long before i found myself in another part of the town altogether it is great fun to ride about the country one a great deal of interest there seems to	40
side and over the fire place itself two doors opened and there were shelves inside broader at the top as the chimney back i saw some writing on one of these doors and went nearer to read it there was a date at the top some time in p and his reverence had had a good pen and ink which bravely stood the test of time he must have been a tall man have written so high i thought it might be some record of a great storm or other notable event in his house or parish but i was amused to find that ht had written there on the wood some an october ride ill able for the medical treatment of horses u it is useful for a and for a cough take of and so on i hope he was not a hunting parson but one could hardly expect to find any reference to the early fathers or in adam on the cupboard door i thought of the stories i had heard of the old minister and felt very well acquainted with him though his books had been taken down and his fire was out and he himself had gone away i was glad to think what a good faithful man he was who spoke comfortable words to his people and lived pleasantly with them in this quiet country place so many years there are old people living who have told me that nobody nowadays as he used to preach and that he used to lift his hat to everybody that he liked a good dinner and always was kind to the poor i thought as i stood in the study how many times he must have looked out of the small western windows across the fields and how in his later days he must have had a treasure of memories of the people who had gone out of that room the better for his advice and consolation the people whom he had helped and taught and ruled i could not that he ever angrily took his to task for their errors of doctrine indeed it was not of his ao country by ways youth and middle age that i thought at all bat of the last of his life when he sat here in the sunshine of a winter afternoon and the fire and snapped on the hearth and he sat before it in his arm chair with a brown old book which he laid on his knee while he thought and and roused himself presently to greet somebody who came in a little awed at first to talk with him it was a great thing to be a country minister in those old days and to be such a minister as he was truly the priest and ruler of his people the times have changed and the power certainly is taken away the divine right of ministers is almost as little believed in as that of kings by many people it is not possible for the influence to be so great the office and the man are both looked at with less reverence it is a pity that it should be so but the people who like old fashioned ways cannot tell where to place all the blame and it is very odd to think that these and unpleasant new times of will a little later be called old times and that the children when they are elderly people will sigh to have them back again i was very glad to see the old house and i told myself a great many stories there as one can no help doing in such a place there most have an october ride to happen in so many long lives which were lived there people have come into the world and gone out of it again from those square rooms with their little windows and i believe if there are ghosts who walk about in daylight i was only half deaf to their voices and heard much of what they tried to tell me that day the rooms which had looked empty at first were filled again with the old who met together with important looks and complacent dignity and eager talk about some minor point in that is yet unsettled the awkward smiling couples who came to be married the mistress of the house who must have been a stately person in her day the little children who under all their shyness remembered the sugar in the old parson s pockets all these and even the tall cane that must have stood in the entry were visible to my mind s eye and i even heard a sermon from the old preacher who died so long ago on the beauty of a life well spent the rain fell steadily and there was no prospect of its stopping though could see that the clouds ere thinner and that it was only a shower in the kitchen i found an old chair which i pulled into the study which seemed more cheerful than the rest of the house and then i remembered that there were country by ways some bits of board in the kitchen also and the thought struck me that it would be good fun to make a fire in the old fire place everything seemed right about the chimney i even went up into the garret to look at it there for had no wish to set the par on fire aud i brought down a pile of old corn for which i found on the garret floor i built my fire carefully with two bricks for and when i lit it it blazed up i it and it and though i was very well contented there alone i wished for some friend to keep me company it was selfish to have so much pleasure with no one to share it the rain came	40
faster than ever against the windows and the room would have been dark if it had not been for my fire which threw out a magnificent yellow light over the old brown wood work i leaned back and watched the dry sticks fall apart in red coals and thought i might have to spend the night there for if it were a storm and not a shower was several miles from home and a late october rain is not like a warm one in june to fall upon one s shoulders i could hear the house when it rained less heavily and the dropped down the chimney and great drops of water came down too and in the fire thought what a merry thing it would be if a party oi an october ride young people ever had to take refuge there and i could almost see their faces and hear them laugh though until that minute they had been strangers to me but the shower was over at last and my fire out and the last pale shining of the sun came into the windows and looked out to see the distant fields and woods all clear again in the late afternoon light i must hurry to get home before dark so i up the ashes and left my chair beside the fire place and shut and fastened the front door after me and went out to see what had become of my shaking the dust and off my dress as i crossed the wet grass to the shed the rain had come through the broken roof and poor looked anxious and hungry as if she thought i might have meant to leave her there till morning in that dismal place i offered her my apologies but she made even a shorter turn than usual when i had mounted and we off down the road ourselves as we went i hope the ghosts who live in the watched me with friendly eyes and i looked back myself to see a thin blue of smoke still coming up from the great chimney i wondered who it was that had made the first fire there but i think i shall have made the last from a mournful a i have been thinking with much sorrow of the approaching of front yards and of the type of new england village character and civilization with which they are associated formerly because i lived in au new england village it would have been hard for me to imagine that there were parts of the country where the front yard as i knew it was not in fashion and that grounds however small had taken its place no matter how large a piece of land lay in front of a house in old times it was still a front yard in spite of noble and he kill of there are still a good many examples of the old manner of out of door life and customs as well as a good deal of the old fashioned provincial society left in the eastern parts of the new england states bid from a mournful put side by side with the society that is american rather than provincial it to be in a small the representative united states citizen will be or already is a and hi instincts and ways of looking at things have certain characteristics of their own which are steadily growing more noticeable for many years new england was simply a bit of old england we all can remember elderly people whose ideas were wholly under the influence of their english it is hardly more than a hundred years since we were english colonies and not independent united states and the customs and ideas of the mother country were followed from force of habit now one begins to see a difference the old traditions have had time to almost die out even in the most and least changed towns and a new element has come in the true characteristics of american society as i have said are showing themselves more and more distinctly to the westward of new england and come back to it in a tide that steadily sweeps away the old traditions it rises over the heads of the and stately before which our and bowed down and and which we ourselves were at least taught to walk of by as they on their country by ways one cannot help wondering what a lady of the old school will be like a hundred years from now but at any rate she will not be in heart and thought and fashion of good breeding as truly an as if she had never stepped out of great britain if one of our own elderly ladies were suddenly dropped into the midst of provincial english society she would be quite at home but west of her own river she is lucky if she does not find herself behind the times and almost a stranger and a foreigner and yet from the first there was a little difference and the colonies were new england and not old in some ways more radical yet in some ways more than the people across the water they showed a new sort of flower when they came into bloom in this new climate and soil in the old days there had not been time for the family ties to be broken and forgotten instead of the unknown english men and women who are our sixth and seventh cousins now they had first and second cousins then but there was little communication between one country and the other and the mutual interest in every day affairs had to fade out quickly a was a curiosity and here even between the village themselves there was far less in course than wc from a mournful z believe possible people stayed on their own ground their were of small and their whole	40
interest and thought were spent upon their own land their own neighbors their own affairs while they not only were contented with this state of things but encouraged it one has only to look at the high walled of the old churches at the high fences of the town gardens and at even the strong around some family lots in the burying grounds to be sure of this the was not and encouraged in those days he was defied in that quarter at least they had the advantage of us their interest was as real and in each other s affairs as ours let us hope but they never allowed idle curiosity to show itself in the world s market place and there is so much to be said in favor of our own day and the men and women of our own time that a plea for a recognition of the and of village life in the old days cannot seem unwelcome or without deference to all that has come with the later years of ease and comfort or of discovery in the of mind or matter we are beginning to cling to the elderly people who are so different from ourselves and for this reason we are paying country by ways them instinctively the honor that is due from us to our elders and they have that grand and dignity that only comes with age they are like old perhaps no better than many others when they were young but now after many years they have come to be worth nobody knows how many dollars a dozen and the make treasures of the few bottles of that which are left it was a and narrowly limited life in the old days religion or rather was apt to be simply a matter of inheritance and there was far more in every cause and question a and because there were fewer channels of activity and those into there was a whole of energy that was as efficient as it was sometimes row and short sighted people were more contented in the sphere of life to which it had pleased god to call them and they do not seem to have been so often sorely tempted by the devil with a sight of the of the world and the glory of them we are more likely to busy ourselves with finding things to do than in doing with our might the work that is in our hands already the disappearance of many of the village front yards may come to be typical of the altered position of woman and mark a oi from a mournful her way from the much talked of slavery and to a equality she used to be shut off from the wide acres of the farm and had no voice in the world s politics she must stay in the house or only hold sway out of doors in this corner of land where she was queen no wonder that women clung to their rights in their flower gardens then and no wonder that they have grown a little careless oi them now and that lawn find so ready sale the whole world is their front yard days there might be written a history of front yards in new england which would be very interesting to read it would end in a upon landscape and its possibilities and wild flights of imagination about the culture of plants under glass the application of artificial heat in forcing and the curious mingling and development of plant life but t begin in the simple time of the early it must have been hard when after being familiar with the gardens and of england and holland they found themselves to front yards by way of pleasure grounds perhaps they thought such were wrong and that having a pleasant place o walk about in out of doors would encourage idle v by ways and lawless ways in the young at any rate for years it was more necessary to raise corn and potatoes to keep themselves from starving than to lay out and plant flowers and box borders among the rocks and there is a great pathos in the fact that in so stern and hard a life there was time or place for any gardens at all i can picture to myself the little slips and that had been brought over in the ship and more carefully guarded than any of the household goods i can see the women look at them when they came into bloom because nothing else could be a better of their old home what fears there must have been lest the first winter s cold might kill them and with what love and care they must have been tended i know a rose bush and a little while ago i knew an apple tree that were brought over by the first the rose still and until it was cut down the old tree bore apples it is strange tc think that civilized new england is no older than the little red roses that bloom in june on that slope above the river in those earliest gardens were very pathetic in the contrast of their extent and their power of suggestion and association every seed that came up was thanked for its kindness and every flower that was the child of a beloved from a mournful it would be interesting to watch the growth of the gardens as life became easier and more comfortable in the colonies as the grew into villages and towns and the indians were less dreadful and the houses were better and more home like the busy people began to find a little time now and then when they could enjoy themselves beside the fruits of the earth they could have some flowers and a of sage and and or that had come from and could be dried to be	40
put among the linen as it used to be strewn through the and in the old country i like to think of the changes as they came slowly that after a while tender plants could be kept through the winter because the houses were better built and warmer and were no longer rough which were only meant to serve until there could be something better perhaps the parlor or best room and b special separate garden for the flowers were two luxuries of the same date and they made a noticeable change in the manner of living the best room being a formal recognition of the claims of society and the front yard an appeal for the existence of something that gave pleasure beside the merely useful and wholly necessary things of life when it was thought worth while to put a fence around the country by ways flower garden the respectability of art itself was and made secure whether the house was a fine one and its in spacious or whether it was a small house with only a narrow bit of ground in front this yard was kept with care and it was different from the rest of the land altogether the children were not often allowed to play there and the family did not use the front door except upon occasions of more or less ceremony i think that many of the old front yards could tell stories of the lovers who found it hard to part under the stars and lingered over the gate and who does not remember the solemn group of men who gather there at and stand with their heads uncovered as the go out and come in two by two i have always felt rich in the possession of an ancient york tradition of an old fellow who demanded as he lay dying that the grass in his front yard should be cut at once it was no use to have it trodden down and spoilt by the folks at the funeral i always hoped it was good hay weather but he must have been certain of that when he spoke let us hope he did not this world with the next being so close upon the borders of it it was not man like to think of the front yard since it was the special domain of the women the men of the family respected but ig from a mournful it they had to be in the spring to dig the flower beds but it was the time of the year one should remember that i think many people are sorry without knowing why to see the fences down and the disappearance of plain white causes almost as deep regret as that of the handsome ornamental fences and their high posts with or great white balls on top a stone does not make up for the loss of them it always looks a good deal like a lot in a for one thing and then in a small town the grass is not smooth and looks where the flower beds were not properly smoothed down the stray cows about where they never went before the bushes and little trees that were once protected grow ragged and and out at elbows and a few forlorn flowers come up of themselves and try hard to grow and to bloom the red that are perched on little posts have plants in them but the poor look as if they would rather be in the ground and as if they are held too near the fire of the sun if everything must be neglected and forlorn so much the more reason there be a fence if but to hide it americans are too fond of being stared at they apparently feel aa i it were one s duty to one s neighbor even if there country by ways is nothing really worth looking at about a house it ia still exposed to the gaze of the by foreigners are far more sensible than we and the out of door home life among them is something we might well try to copy they often have their meals served out of doors and one can enjoy an afternoon nap in a or can take one s work out into the shady garden with great satisfaction un watched and even a little piece of ground can be made if shut in and kept for the use and pleasure of the family alone a most charming and summer to the house in a large crowded town it would be selfish to conceal the rare bite of garden where the sight of anything green is a but where there is the whole wide country of fields and woods within easy reach i think there should be high walls around our gardens and that we lose a great deal in not making them entirely separate from the highway as much as we should lose in making the walls of our and dining rooms of glass and building the house as close to the street as possible but to go back to the little front yards we are sorry to miss them and their or of roses and and bells and london pride and these may all bloom better than ever in the new beds tha from a mournful ire cat in the turf but with the side fences that used to come from the corners of the house to the front fence other as i have said here over and over have been taken away and the old fashioned village life is becoming extinct people do not know what they lose when they make way with the reserve the the of the front yard of their it is like writing down the family secrets for any one to read it is like having everybody call you by your first name and sitting in any in church and	40
like having your house in the middle of a road to take away the fence which slight as it may be is a round your home more things than one may come in without being asked we americans had better build more fences than take any away from our lives there should be gates for charity to go out and n and kindness and sympathy too but his life and his house are together each man s and castle to be kept and defended i was much amused once at thinking that the fine old solid doors were being faster than ever nowadays since so many front gates have disappeared and the click of the latch can no longer give notice of the approach of a now the sounds or the bell without note o country by ways warning and the village housekeeper cannot see who is coming in until they have already reached the door once the guests could be seen on their way up the walk it must be a satisfaction to look through the clear spots of the figured ground glass in the new doors and i believe if there is a covering inside few doors will be found with a peep hole it was better to hear the gate open and shut and if it caught and dragged as front gates are very apt to do you could have time always for a good look out of the window at the approaching friend there are few of us who cannot remember a garden which seemed to us a very paradise in childhood it was like a miracle when the yellow and white came into bloom in the spring and there was a time when tiger lilies and the taller rose bushes were taller than we were and we could not look over their heads as we do now there were always a good many lady s delights that grew under the bushes and came up anywhere in the of the walk or the door step and there was a little green called that was a famous stray away outside the fence one was not unlikely to see a company oi french which were forbidden standing room inside as if they were tiresome poor relations of th flowers i always felt a sympathy for french from a mournful they have a fresh sweet look as if they resigned themselves to their lot in life and made the best of it and remembered that they had the sunshine and rain and could see what was going on in the world if they were i like to remember being sent on errands and being asked to wait while the mistress of the house picked some flowers to send back to my mother they were almost always flat in those days the larger flowers were picked first and stood at the back and looked over the heads of those that were shorter of stem and stature and the always sent a message that they had not stopped to arrange them i remember that i had even then a great dislike to and that i would have waited patiently outside a gate all the afternoon if i knew that some one would kindly give me a of in the evening and lilies did not seem to me but it was easy for me to believe that solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like a great yellow or even the dear little single ones that were yellow and brown and until the snow came i wish that i had lived for a little while in those days when were a new fashion and it was a great distinction to have some growing in a front country by ways yard it always seems as if and belonged to the same generation with a certain kind oi new english gentlemen and ladies who were and severe in some of their fashions while in others they were more given to and mild than either their ancestors or the people who have lived in their houses since fifty years ago there seems to have been a last wave of which swept over the country and drowned for a time the sober and dancing which before had been considered no in the larger villages playing was clung to only by the most worldly citizens and as for dancing it was made a sin in it self and a reproach as if every step was taken in seven boots toward a place which is to be the final destination of all the wicked a single may have a severe and look but a row of them suggests the antique and pleasing pomp and ceremony of their early days before the were only used to keep the boxes of strings and nails aud the the best were put on a high shelf while ones were used for in the kitchen c there is far less social visiting from house to than there used to be people in the s have more acquaintances who live at a distance from a mournful was the case before the days of and there are more guests who come a distance which has something to do with making tea parties and the entertainment of one s neighbors less frequent than in former times but most of the new england towns have changed their characters in the last twenty years since the have come in and brought together large numbers either of foreigners or of a different class of people from those who used to make the most of the population a certain class of families is rapidly becoming extinct there will be found in the older villages very few persons left who belong to this class which was once far more important and powerful the oldest churches are apt to be most attended simply because a different sort of ideas even of heavenly things attract the i suppose that elderly people	40
have said ever since the time of ham and s wives in the ark that society is nothing to what it used to be and we may expect to be always told what unworthy we are of our but the fact remains that a certain element of american society is fast dying out giving place to the new and with all our glory and pride in modern progress and success we cling to the old associations there is nothing to take th country by ways place of the pleasure we have in going to see our old friends in the which have changed little since our childhood no matter how advanced in years we seem to ourselves we are children still to the gracious hostess thank heaven for the friends who have always known us they may think us and young still they may not understand that we have become busy and more or less important people to ourselves and to the world we are pretty sure to be without honor in our own country but they will never forget us and we belong to each other and always shall i have received many at my friends hands but i do not know that i have ever felt myself to be a more fortunate or honored guest than i used years ago when i sometimes went to call upon an elderly friend of my mother who lived in most pleasant and stately fashion i used to put on my very best manner and i have no doubt that my thoughts were well ordered and my conversation as proper as i knew how to make it i can remember that i used to sit on a tall with nothing to against and my feet were off i was so high above the floor we used to discuss the weather and i said that i went to school sometimes or that it was then as the case might be and w from a mournful tried to make ourselves agreeable to each other presently my lady would take her keys out of he pocket and sometimes a maid would come to serve me or else she herself would bring me a silver tray with some pound cakes baked in hearts and rounds and a small glass of wine and i proudly felt that i was a guest though i was such a little thing an attention was being paid me and a thrill of satisfaction to go over me for my consequence and importance a handful of sugar would have seemed nothing beside this entertainment i used to be careful not to the cake and i used to eat it with my gloves on and a pleasant fragrance would cling for some time afterward to the ends of the short fingers i have no doubt that my manners as i took leave were almost as distinguished as those of my hostess though i might have been wild and shy all the rest of the week it was not many years ago that i went to my old friend s funeral and saw them carry her down the long wide walk between the tall box borders which were her pride and all the air was heavy and sweet with the perfume of the early summer blossoms the white and the were still in bloom and the rows of ber dear dutch stood dismayed in their colors and watched her go away country by my sketch of the already out of date or fast village fashions perhaps should be ended here but i cannot resist a wish to add another bit of biography of which i have been again and again reminded in writing these pages the front yard knew best belonged to my grandfather s house my grandmother was a proud and solemn woman and she hated my mischief and rightly thought my elder sister a much better child than i i used to be afraid of her when i was in the house but i shook off even her authority and forgot i was under anybody s rule when i was out of doors i was first cousin to a if they called me to come in and i was own sister to a giddy minded when i ran away across the fields as i used to do very often but when i was a very little child indeed my world was bounded by the fences that were around my home there were wide green yards and tall elm trees to shade them there was a long line of and sheds and one of these had a large room in its upper story with an old ship s spread over the floor and made a capital play room in wet weather here fruit was spread in the fall and there were some old and pieces of furniture that had been discarded i was like the garret only much pleasanter the in the village now cannot possibly be so from a mournful ib i was then i used to mount the fence next the street and watch the people go it and out of the quaint village shops that stood in a row on the other side and looked as if they belonged to a dutch or old english town they were burnt down long ago but they were picturesque the upper stories sometimes projected oyer the lower and the chimneys were sometimes clustered together and built of bright red bricks and i was too happy when i could my into the front yard with its four bushes and its white fences to shut it in from the rest of the world beside other that went from the porch down each side of the brick walk which was laid in a pattern and had h c cut deeply into one of the bricks near the door step the h c was for henry the who had signed this choice bit of	40
work as if it were a picture and he had been dead so many years that i used to think of his as if the corner brick were a little grave stone for him the used to be so bright that it shone at you and caught your eye as you came in from the street on a day there were very few flowers for my grandmother was old and feeble when i knew her and could not take of them but i remember that there were blush country by roses and white roses and roses all in a in one comer and i used to pick the of those to make myself a delicious with ground and damp brown sugar in the spring t used to find the first green grass there for it was warm and sunny and i used to pick the little french when they dared show their heads in the cracks of the flag stones that were laid around the house there were small shoots of too and their leaves were brown and had a faint sweet fragrance and a little later the came into bloom the largest ones i knew grew there and they have always been to this day my favorite flowers i had my trials and sorrows in this paradise however i lost a cent there which i never have found yet and one morning there suddenly appeared in one corner a beautiful dark blue de lis and i joyfully broke its neck and carried it into the house but everybody had seen it and wondered that i could not have left it alone besides this it me later to sin more gravely still my grandmother had kept some plants through the winter on a t stand built like a flight of steps and when the warm spring weather came this was put out of doors she had a cherished tea rose bush and what i find but a bud on it it was opened from a mournful enough to give a hint of its color i was pleased i snapped it off at once for i had heard so many times that it was hard to make roses bloom and i ran in through the hall and up the stairs where i met my grandmother on the square landing she sat down in the window seat and i showed her proudly what was in my warm little fist i can see it now it had no stem at all and for many days afterward i was bowed down with a sense of my guilt and shame for i was made to understand it was an awful thing to have and broken a flower like that it must have been the very next winter that my grandmother died she had a long illness which i do not remember much ab it but the night she died might have been yesterday night it is all so fresh and clear in my mind i did not live with her in the old house then but in a new house close by across the yard all the family were at the great house and i could see that lights were carried hurriedly from one room to another a servant came to fetch me but i would not go with her my grandmother was dying whatever that might be and she was taking leave of every one she was even then i did not dare to go with the rest i had an intense curiosity to see what dying might be like but i was afraid country by ways to be there with her and i was also afraid to stay at home alone i was only five years old it was in december and the sky seemed to grow darker and darker and i went oat at last to sit on a door step and cry softly to myself and while i was there some one came to another door next the street and rang the bell loudly again and again i suppose i was afraid to answer the summons indeed i do not know that i thought of it all the world had been still before and the bell sounded loud and awful through the empty house it seemed as if the messenger from an unknown world had come to the wrong house to call my poor grandmother away and that loud ringing is curiously linked in my mind with the knocking at the gate in i never can think of one without the other though there was no fierce lady to bid me not be lost so poorly in my thoughts for when they all came back awed and tearful and found me waiting in the cold alone and afraid more of this world than the next they were very good to me but as for the funeral it gave me vast entertainment it was the first grand public occasion in which i had taken any share an autumn holiday my h had started early in the afternoon for a pi l c g wa k it was just the weather for walk i and i went across the fields with a delighted heart the wind came straight in from the sea and the sky was bright blue there was a little tinge of red still lingering on the and my dress brushed over the late golden rods while my old dog who seemed to have taken a new lease of youth jumped about wildly and after the little birds that flew up out of the long brown grass the constant little that would soon sing before the coming of snow but this day brought no thought of winter it was one of the october days when to breathe the air is like drinking wine and every touch of the wind against one s face is a caress like a quick kiss that wind is you have a	40
sense of companionship it is a day that loves you country by ways i went strolling along with this dear idle day for company it was a pleasure to be alive and to go through the dry grass and to spring over the stone walls and the pasture fences i stopped by each of the stray apple trees that came in my way to make friends with it or to ask after its health if it were an old friend these old apple trees make very charming bits of the world in october the leaves cling to them later than to the other trees and the turf keeps short and green underneath and in this grass which was frosty in the morning and has not quite dried yet you can find some cold little apples with one side and one shiny bright red or yellow cheek they are wet with dew these little apples and a black ant runs anxiously over them when you turn them round and round to see where the best place is to bite there will almost always be a bird s nest in the tree and it is most likely to be a robin s nest the must have been cave for they still make their nests as much like as they can though they follow the new fashion and build them aloft one always has a thought of spring at the sight of a robin s nest i is so little while ago that it was spring and we so glad to have the birds come back and the life o the new year was just showing itself we were look an autumn forward to so much growth and to the and perfection of so many things i think the sadness of autumn or the pathos of it is like that of elderly people we have seen how the flowers looked when they and have eaten the fruit when it was ripe the questions have had their answer the days we waited for have come and gone everything has stopped growing and so the children have grown to be men and women their lives have been lived the autumn has come we have seen what our lives would be like when we were older success or disappointment it is all over at any rate yet it only makes one sad to think it is autumn with the flowers or with one s own life when one forgets that always and always there will be the spring again i am very fond of walking between the roads one grows so familiar with the themselves but once leap the fence and there are a hundred roads that you can take each with its own scenery and entertainment every walk of this kind proves itself a tour of and discovery and the fields of my own town which i think i know so well are always new fields i find new ways to go new sights to see new friends among the things that grow and treasures and pleasures every summer and later the have come and the have frozen i can go everywhere i like all over my world country bt that afternoon i found something i had never seen before a little grave alone in a wide pasture which had once been a field the nearest house was at least two miles away but by hunting for it i found a very old cellar where the child s home used to be very far off along the slope it must have been a great many years ago that the house had stood there and the small slate head stone was worn away by the rain and wind so there was nothing to be read if indeed there had ever been any letters on it it had looked many a storm in the face and many a red sunset i suppose the woods near by had grown and been cut and grown again since it was put there there an old sweet bush growing on the short little grave and in the grass underneath i found a ground s nest it was like a little neighborhood and i have felt ever since as if i belonged to it and i wondered then if one of the young ground was not always sent to take the nest when the old ones were done with it so they came back in the spring year after year to live there and were always the stone and the sweet d the birds to remember the child it was such a place in that wide field under the great sky d yet it was so comfortable too bnt the sight of e little grave at first touched me strangely and i an a y tried to picture to myself the procession that came out from the house the day of the funeral and i thought of the mother in the evening after all the people had gone home and how she missed the baby and kept seeing the new grave out here in the twilight as she went about her work i suppose the family moved away t and so all the rest were buried elsewhere i often think of this place and i link it in my thoughts with something i saw once in the water when i was out at sea a little boat that some child bad lost that had drifted down the river and out to sea too long a voyage for it was a sad little wreck with even its white sail of a hand breadth half under water and its trailing it was a silly little boat and no loss except to its owner to whom it had seemed as brave and proud a thing as any ship of the line to you and me it was a of his small hopes i suppose and i can see it now the toy of the	40
great winds and waves as it floated on its way while i sailed on mine out of sight of land the little grave is forgotten by everybody but me i think the mother must have found the child again in heaven a very long time ago but in the winter wonder if the snow has covered it well and country b wa s next year i shall go to see the sweet when it is in bloom god knows what use that life was the grave is such a short one and nobody knows whose little child it was but perhaps a thousand people in the world to day are better because it brought a little love into the world that was not there before i sat so long here in the sun that the dog after running after all the birds and even chasing and going through a great piece of affectation in barking before an empty s hole to kill time came to sit patiently in front of me as if he wished to ask when i would go on i had never been in this part of the pasture before it was at one side of the way i usually took so presently i went on to find a favorite track of mine half a mile to the right along the bank of a brook there had been heavy rains the week before and i found more water than usual running and the brook was apparently in a great hurry it was very quiet along the shore of it the had long ago gone into winter quarters and there was not one to splash into the water when he saw me coming i did not see a rat either though i knew where their holes were by the piles of fresh water shells that they had thrown out at their front i thought it might be well to hunt for and crack them in search of pearls but it was an autumn holiday too serene and beautiful a day i was not willing to disturb the comfort of even a it was one of the days when one does not think of being tired the scent of the dry everlasting flowers and the freshness of the wind and the of the all come to me as i think of it and i remember that i went a long way before i began to think of going home again i knew i could not be far from a cross road and when i climbed a low hill i saw a house which i was glad to make the end of my walk for a time at any rate it was some time since i had seen the old woman who lived there and i liked her dearly and was sure of a welcome i went down through the pasture lane and just then i saw my father drive away up the road just too far for me to make him hear when i called that seemed too bad at first until i remembered that he would come back again over the same road after a while and in the mean time i could make my call the house was low and long and with a great many frost bitten flowers about it some were bowed down and the morning glory vines were more miserable still some of the smaller plants had been covered to keep them from and were out a few more days but no shelter would avail much longer and already nobody minded country by ways whether the gate was shut or not and part of the great flock of were marching proudly about among the which they had stretched their necks wistfully through the fence for all summer i heard the noise of spinning in the house and my dog off after the cat as i went in the door i saw miss marsh and her sister mrs snow stepping back and forward together spinning at a pair of big wheels the wheels made such a noise with their and and my friends were talking so fast as they twisted and turned the that they did not hear my footstep and i stood in the doorway watching them it was such a quaint and pretty sight they went together like a pair of horses and kept step with each other to and fro they were about the same size and were cheerful old bodies looking a good deal alike with their checked handkerchiefs over their smooth gray hair their dark made short in the skirts and their broad little feet in gray stockings and low leather shoes without heels they stood straight and though they were quick at their work they moved stiffly they were talking busily about some one i could tell by the way the doctor looked that he did n t think there was much of anything the matter with her said miss marsh you an autumn holiday tell me says i the other day when i see him at miss martin s she d be up and about this minute if she only had a o resolution and says he aunt you re as near right as usual and the old lady stopped to laugh a little u i told him that wa n t saying much said she with an evident consciousness of the compliment and the doctor s good opinion i never knew one of that tribe that had n t a queer streak and was n t less but they re than roots and she gave the wheel an emphatic turn while mrs snow reached for more rolls of wool and happened to see me wherever did you come from said they iu great surprise why you was n t anywhere iu sight when i was out speaking to the doctor said mrs snow oh come over horseback i suppose well now we re pleased to see	40
ye no said i i walked across the fields it was too pleasant to stay in the house and i have n t had a long walk for some time before i begged them not to stop spinning but they insisted that they should not have turned the wheels a half dozen times even if i had not come and they pushed them back to the wall before they came to sit down to talk me over their knitting for neither of country by were ever known to be idle mrs snow was only there for a visit she was a widow and lived during most of the year with her son and aunt was at home but seldom herself as she was a famous nurse and was often in demand all through that part of the country i had known her all my days everybody was fond of the good soul and she had been one of the most useful women in the world one of my memories is of a long but not very painful illness one winter when she came to take care of me there was no end either to her stories or her kindness i was delighted to find her at home that afternoon and mrs snow also aunt brought me some of her which she knew i liked and a stout little of milk and we sat there together for a while and enjoying ourselves i told all the village news that i could think of and i was just tired enough to know it and to be contented to sit still for a while in the comfortable three chair by the little front window the october sunshine lay along the clean kitchen floor and aunt darted from her chair occasionally to catch stray little of wool which the breeze through the door blew along from the wheels there was a gay string ol ed hanging over the very high mantel an autumn holiday and the wood work in the room had never been painted and had grown dark brown with age and smoke and the clock solemnly as if it were a judge giving the laws of time and felt itself to be the only thing that did not waste it there was a of and some late of and white on the table underneath and a s lay on the county paper which was itself lying on the big bible of which aunt made a point of reading two chapters every day in course i remember her saying one night half to herself i don know but i may the next time but i have never to this day believed that she did they asked me at once to come into the best room but i liked the old kitchen best who was it that you were talking about as i came in said i you said you did n t believe there was much the matter with her and aunt her faster and told me that it was mary ash over by little creek they re dreadful nervous all them ashes said mrs snow you know young joe s wife over our way is a sister to her and she s forever poor fellow he s got a drag i m real for joe but land alive he might a country by ways known better they said she had an old green with a cover that was full o that she moved with the rest of her things when she was married besides some she car d in her hands i guess she ain t in no more hurry to go than any of the rest of us i ve lost every of patience with her i was over there last week one day and she d had a call from the new supply you know s folks is and he was took in by her she made out she d got the consumption and she told how many complaints she had and what a sight o medicine she took and she groaned and sighed and her voice was so weak you could n t more than just hear it i stepped right into the bedroom after he d been with her and was taking leave you d thought by what he said she was going right off then she was dreadful hard and i knew she had n t no more cough than i had so says i what s the matter i get ye a drink of water something in your throat i s pose i hope you won t go and get cold and have a cough she looked as if she could a bit me but was just as pleasant s could be land to see her laying there i suppose the poor young fellow thought she was all gone h meant well i wish he had seen her eating apple an autumn holiday for dinner she felt better long in the first o the afternoon before he come says to her r right before him that i guessed them did her good but she never made no answer she will have these i don t know s she can help it but she need n t act as if it was a credit to any body to be sick and laid up poor joe he come over for me last week another day and said she d been and asked me if there wa n t something i could think of yes says i you just take a o stone cold water and throw it square into her face that bring her out of it and he looked at me a minute and then he burst out a laughing he could n t help it he s too good to her that s the trouble you never said that to her about the said aunt well shouldn t ha dared and	40
she rocked and away faster than ever while we all laughed now with mary it s different i suppose she does have the and she s a poor broken down creature do fee for her more than i do for she was always a willing girl and she worked herself to death and she can t help these notions nor being an ash neither i m the last one to be hard on anybody that and in trouble said mrs snow country b y wa bless you she set up with ad herself three nights in one week to my knowledge it s more n i would do said aunt as if there were danger that i should think mrs snow s kind heart to be made of flint it ain t what i call watching said she we both off and then when the folks come in in the morning she tell what a night she s had she likes to have it said she has to have it s strange what a queer streak there is run ling through the whole of em said aunt presently it always was so far back s you can follow em did you ever hear about that of theirs that lived over to the other side o over to what they call the meadows we had a cousin o my father s that kept house for him he was a single man and i spent moat of a summer and fall with her once when i was growing up she seemed to want company it was a sort of a place there i don t know when i have thought o that said mrs snow looking much amused what you did use to tell after you come home ut the way he used to act dear she used keep us laughing till we was tired do tell her ut him she like to hear an autumn holiday well i ve forgot a good deal about it you see it was much as fifty years ago i was n t more than seventeen or eighteen years old he was a very respectable man old mr dan el was and a cap n in the in his day cap n they called him he was well off but he t sun struck and never was just right in his mind afterward when he was getting over his sickness after the stroke he was very wandering and at last he seemed to get it into his head that he was his own sister patience that died some five or six years before she was single too and she always lived with him they said when he got so s to sit up in his arm chair of an afternoon when he was getting better he fought em dreadfully because they fetched him his own clothes to put on he said they was brother dan el s clothes so sure enough they got out an old double gown and let him put it on and he was as as could be the doctor told em to humor him but they thought it was a fancy he took and he would forget it but the next day he made em get the double gown again and a cap too and there he used to set up alongside of his bed as as a dish when got round again so he could set up all day they thought he wanted the dress but no he seemed to be himself and had on his own clothes just as usual country by ways year i shall go to see the sweet when it is in bloom god knows what use that life was the grave is such a short one and nobody knows whose little child it was but perhaps a thousand people in the world to day are better because it brought a little love into the world that was not there before i sat so long here in the sun that the dog after running after all the birds and even chasing and going through a great piece of affectation in barking before an empty s hole to kill time came to sit patiently in front of me as if he wished to ask when i would go on i had never been in this part of the pasture before it was at one side of the way i usually took so presently i went on to find a favorite track of mine half a mile to the right along the bank of a brook there had been heavy rains the week before and i found more water than usual running and the brook was apparently in a great hurry it was very quiet along the shore of it the had long ago gone into winter quarters and there was not one to splash into the water when he saw me coming i did not see a rat either though i knew where their holes were by the piles of fresh water shells that they had thrown out at their front i thought it might be well to hunt for self and crack them in search of pearls but it wai country by ways in the morning but when he took his nap after dinner and np again he was in a dreadful frame o mind and had the trousers and coat off in no time and said he was patience he used to fuss with some knitting work he got hold of somehow he was good natured as could be and sometimes he would make em fetch him the cat because patience used to have a cat that set in her lap while she knit i was n t there then you know but they used to tell me about it folks used to call him miss dan el he d been that way some time when i went over i d heard about	40
he tc in a dreadful knowing way which of ua do you consider the come to see you see the was a bless you when i first come home i used to set everybody laughing but i forget most of the things now there was one day though here comes your father said mrs snow u now we must n t let him go by or you have to walk way home and aunt hurried out to speak to him while i took my great bunch of which already drooped a little and followed her with mrs snow who confided to me that the captain s nephew jacob had offered to that summer she was over there and she never could see why she didn t have him only love goes where it is sent and was n t one to marry for what she could get if she did n t like the man there was plenty that would have said yes and thank you too sir to jacob that was a pleasant afternoon i reached home when it was growing dark and chilly and the early autumn sunset had almost faded in the west it was much longer way home around by the road the way i had come across the fields a winter drive is very hard to find s way in winter a w ie has only driven once in t tl the change their appearance so much when the leaves are gone that unless the road is straight and certain and you have a good sense of locality you will be puzzled over and over again in summer a few small trees and a thicket of bushes at he side of the road will look like a bit of forest but in winter you look through them and over them and they i i j e ji c almost altogether hey are such thin gray twigs and take up so much less room in the world though yon may notice a s nest or some red or a few fluttering leaves which the wind has failed to blow away there is a bare thin aspect of nature which is to look at either before the snow or afterward you long for the poor earth to he country by ways able to warm herself again by the fire ol ihe an the white bark looks out of season as if they were still wearing their clothes and the wretched which stand on the edges of the look as if they had been intended for but had been somehow unlucky and were in destitute circumstances it seems as if the pines and ought to show christian charity to these ad and relations the world looks as if it were at the mercy of the wind and cold in winter and it would be useless to dream that such a time as spring would follow these apparently hopeless days if we had not history and experience to us what a sorrowful doom the first winter must have seemed to adam if he ever took a journey to the northward after he was sent from paradise it must have been to him a most solemn death and ending of all vegetable yet he might have taken a grim satisfaction in the thought that no more apples could ever get ripe to tempt or anybody else and that the mischief making fruits of the earth were cursed as well as he in winter there is to my mind a greater beauty in a tree than in the same tree covered with d weight and glory of summer leaves then it ii great mass of light and shadow against the land a winter drive cape or the sky but in winter the of the bare branches against a white cloud or a clear yellow sunset is a most exquisite thing to see it is the difference between a fine statue and a well painted picture and seems a higher art like that but it is always a puzzle to me why a dead tree in summer should be a painful thing to look at one instantly tells the difference between a dead and a live one close at hand such a tree cannot give the pleasure that it did in winter yet it looked almost the same in cold weather when it was alive is it our horror of death or is it that a bit of winter in the midst of summer is like a skeleton at the feast a drive in a town in winter should be taken for three reasons for the convenience of getting from place to place for the pleasure of motion in the fresh air or for the satisfaction of driving a horse but for the real delight of the thing it is necessary to go far out from even the villages across the country you can see the mountains like great of clear ice all along the horizon and the smaller hills covered with trees and snow together nearer at hand and the great expanse of snow lies north and south and west all across the fields in my own part of the country which is heavily v the pine for country by ways give the world a black and white look that is very dismal when the sun is not shining the farmers houses look lonely and it seems as if they had crept nearer together since the leaves fell and they are no longer hidden from each other the hills look larger and you can see deeper into the woods as you drive along nature brings out so many treasures for us to look at in summer and the world with such that after the frost comes it is like an empty house in which one all the pictures and and the familiar voices this was a drive that i liked it was a	40
day with a wind that one was glad to fall in with and not try to fight against and the great white horse ran before it like a boat the crooked country roads had been just enough smoothed and trodden by the wood to make good i met now and then a farmer on his way to market with a load of fire wood piled high and square on his and the oxen were and pushed at the yoke and together awkwardly as if they not walk with their crooked knees there was a bundle of corn on top the load and usually the driver s blue were on tha led with the out at right angles as if spirit of the were using them to a winter drive show the protesting hands he lifted at the of men it was many years before i ever felt very sorry when woods were cut down there were some acute at the loss of a few familiar trees but now i have a heart ache at the sight of a fresh clearing and i follow as sadly along the road behind a great pine log as if i were its next of kin and chief at its funeral there is a great difference between being a live tree that holds its head so high in the air that it can watch the country for miles around that has sheltered a thousand birds and families of and little wild creatures that has beaten all the storms it ever fought with such a difference between all this and being a pile of boards i believe that there are few persons who cannot remember some trees which are as much connected with their own lives as people are when they stand beside them there is at once a feeling of very great af it seems as if the tree remembered what we remember it is something more than the fact of its having been associated with our past almost everybody is very fond of at least one tree s appeal to the struck a in many an otherwise heart but happy is the man who has a acquaintance and who country by friends with a new tree now and then as he goes on through the world there was an old doctrine called which appeals to my far from pagan sympathies the theory of the soul of the world of a life in nature and that all matter lives the doctrine that life and matter are inseparable trees are to most people as and unconscious as rocks but it seems to me that there is a good deal to say about the strongly marked individual characters not only of the conspicuous trees that have been civilized and are identified with a home or a familiar bit of landscape or an event in history but of those that are crowded together in forests there is a strange likeness to the characteristics of human beings among these there is the same proportion of ignorant of poor creatures who are struggling for life in more ways than one and of self respecting well to do dignified citizens it is not wholly a tion of soil and of any more than it is with as some trees have a natural vitality and bravery which makes them push their roots into the ground and their branches toward the sky and although they started to grow on a rock or on the sand where we should be sure that a tree would have a hard struggle to keep alive and would be and at rate yet they grow tall and strong and in their a winter drive wealth of usefulness they are like some of the world s great men who rose from poverty to how easy it is to carry out the likeness the great tree is a protection to a thousand lesser interests a central force which keeps in motion and on a thousand it is common to praise a man more who has risen from obscurity to greatness than one who had money and friends at the start but there is after all little difference in the amount of personal exertion that must be brought to bear if a man or a tree has it in him to grow who can say what will hinder him many a tree looks starved and thin and is good for nothing that was planted in good soil and the pines may have struggled among the rocks until they find soil enough to feed them and when they are fully grown the that were in the way of their roots only serve to hold them fast and strengthen them against any chance of overthrow there is something in the constitution of character it is vigorous and will conquer or it is weak and anything will defeat it i believe that it is more than a likeness between the physical natures there is something deeper than that we are hardly willing yet to say that the higher animals are morally responsible but it is impossible for one who has been a great deal among a country by ways trees to resist the instinctive certainty that they have thought and purpose that they deliberately anticipate the future or that they show traits of character which one is forced to call good and evil how low down in the scale of existence we may find the first glimmer of self consciousness nobody can tell but it is as easy to be certain of it in the higher orders of vegetable life as in the lower orders of animals man was the latest comer into this world and he is just beginning to get acquainted with his neighbors that is the truth of it it is curious to read the old stories of the and see the ways in which the life of trees has been dimly recognized they mean more than	40
such a place and cold too is most miserable it makes one shudder the thought of a lost man hurrying through the forest at night fall the shadows startling him and chasing him the trees standing in his way and looking always the same as if he were walking in a the holding out of snow at the end of their branches as if they offered it for food the people who live in the region of the woods have a good deal of superstition about them they say it is easy to get lost there but they rt very vague in what they say of the dangers a winter drive that are to be feared it may be like an fear of the dark but sometimes there is a suggestion that the bears may not all be dead and almost every year there is a story told of a wild cat that has been seen of uncommon size and as for a supernatural population i think that passes for an fact i have often heard people say that there are parts of the woods where they would not dare to go alone and where nobody has ever been but j could never succeed in them the at the foot of the mountain are traversed in winter pretty thoroughly and the first and second and sometimes even the third growth of pines have been cut off from all that district so the land has all been walked over at one time and another since there are few trees of the older generation left in all that part of the town i dare say there is a little fear of the hill itself perhaps a of the old belief that the gods had their in mountains so high a hill as could not fail to be respected in this for the most part low lying country and in spite of its barely seven hundred feet of height it is as prominent a for fifteen or twenty miles inland as it is for sailors who are coming toward the coast r for the who go in and out daily from die neighboring shores i have often been asked s country by ways about the legend of an uncertain st whose funeral ceremonies on this mountain are represented having been most imposing but i never could trace this legend beyond a story in one of the county newspapers and i have never heard any tradition among the people that bears the least to it i caught now and then a glimpse of the top of as i drove through the woods that bright winter day and i wished it were possible for any one not a mountain to scramble up through the and over the icy i should like to see the winter landscape the the new mountains and the sea for one can follow the coast line from on cape add to with one s so well planted is this hill which might be called the on the western gates of in the woods there was the number of trees to be seen and they appealed to my as much as ever it is not pleasant to see an and twisted with its efforts to get to the and to hold its head above the white pines thai in a herd around it and seem to grudge rights and its living if you cannot be just like seem to say more s the pity for yon i to a winter drive should grow as we do and be like us if your nature is not the same as ours you ought to make it so these trees make one think of people who have had to grow in loneliness who have been and crowded and mistaken and suspected by their neighbors and have suffered terribly for the sin of being themselves and following their own natures yet i have often seen trees who seem to be and of their own accord not forced from their families apple trees in spite of their association with the conventional life of and the neighborhood of buildings do not seem unhappy at the edge of a piece of woods especially if they are near a road perhaps they like living alone as many people do they are glad to be freed from the of society and are very well off where they are though a lonely tree would seem naturally to be most forlorn an elm among pines or an oak among seems to draw attention to its sufferings far more eagerly an apple tree seems willing to make itself at home anywhere but it is sure to get and lawless as if it needed to be preached to as well as there are many trees however that always into each other s society and live in peace harmony with each other well ordered country by ways where there is a good chance for everybody to get his living i have remembered a great many times an old tree that i once saw in bloom by a deserted farm house it was in so secluded a place on a road that it could not be sure it was not the last of its race the earth was washed away from its roots and it was growing discouraged it was like a sick man s face at a window i do not believe that it will bloom many more springs but there is another solitary tree which is a great delight to me and i go to pay it an afternoon visit every now and then far away from the road across some fields and pastures it is an ancient pitch pine and it grows be bide a spring and has acres of room to lord it over it thinks everything of itself and although it is an housekeeper and its dry twigs and all around the short grass underneath i	40
have a great affection for it i like pitch pines better than any trees in the world at any rate and this is the dearest of its race i sit down in the shade ol it and the brook makes a good deal of noise as i starts out from the spring under the bank and there always is a wind blowing overhead among the stiff green branches the old tree is very wise it sees that much of the world s business is great foolishness a winter drive and yet when i have been a fool myself and wander away out of doors to think it over i always find a more cheerful atmosphere and a more sensible aspect to my folly under the shadow of this friend of mine v i think it is likely to live until the new houses of the town creep over to it past butler s hill and the march of improvement reaches it and it to be cut down because somebody thinks it would not look well in his yard or because a street would have to two or three feet from a straight line however there is no need to grow angry yet and the tree is not likely to die a natural death for at least a hundred years to come unless the lightning strikes it that fierce enemy of the great elms and pines that stand in high places there is something very sad about a dying tree i think in the progress of civilization there will by and by arise a need for the profession of tree doctors who will be quick at a in cases of yellow branches and apt at setting broken limbs and particularly successful in making the declining years of old trees as comfortable as possible these will not only war against the apple tree and the p black knots but a farmer will be taught to go through his woods now nd then to see that nothing id the matter just as he country by way his cattle and he will call the doctor for the elms that have not out as they ought and the oaks that are dying at the top and the that and split their hark and the orchard trees that fail to any fruit he will he told to drain this bit of ground and turn the channel of a brook through another time fails me to t ell the resources of a profession yet in its infancy it is a very short sighted person who looks at the slaughter of the american forests without dismay especially in the eastern states the fast drying springs and in the farming districts of certain parts of new england show that mischief has already been done and the clearing of is going to be regulated by law i believe at some not far distant period there ought to be tree laws as well as game laws i thought of this as i drove on deeper and deeper into the woods and could hear more and more plainly the noise of the at work first the ringing hack hack of the against the live hard wood and then i caught the sound of voices as the shouted to each other and to their oxen there seemed to be a great deal going on as if there were a crowd of and a great excitement bu when i could see the open space between the tree there proved to be in all five or six placid looking a winter drive farmers with one team drawn by two oxen and a shaggy unwilling old white horse for leader this was just ready to start being loaded with logs to be carried out to the pond and it was lucky that we had not met it for the snow was deep and soft outside the narrow track the snow was trampled and covered with and fallen boughs the woods looked torn to pieces as if there had been a battle this is the way it used to look down in virginia in war times said john the captain of horse who was driving me i tell you you had to when a big shell burst among the pine trees there would be a crashing and a among the old fellows we stopped and spoke to the and one or two of the who were near by came to the side of the and we asked and told the news i spoke of a fire that had been in the village the night before t but they had already found out all about it it is unaccountable how fast a bit of news will travel in the country it is a proof of the of communication between farming people you need only let it get a few minutes start of you in the morning and it will beat you by many miles on a day s drive it not that a man starts out ahead of you with a faster horse and tells everybody he sees along the road but country by ways this invisible telegraph has side lines and people who at the end of long lanes and on lonely cross roads are as well posted as those on the main it would be too slow work following the team so we were directed back to the pond by another succession of paths i noticed the bits of bright color against the dull green of the woods and the whiteness of the snow the wore red shirts and sometimes blue and there was a much worn brown fur cap with long ear pieces that a good deal as the energetic nodded his head in explaining our way to us and the length of different cart paths with one of his companions i watched a man creep carefully like a great insect along the trunk of a fallen tree and begin to off	40
its branches it seemed to me that the noise of the in the woods must be very to the trees and wake them from their quiet winter sleep like a in a house at night the scattered trees that were left standing had a shocked and fearful look as if some fatal had slain neighbors just at the edge of the clearing we crossed a little brook busy under the ice and snow and coming out to and splash around a rock with great as if it were a child play with its toy in the next room to a funeral a winter drive there were a great many pines with an axe to show that they were to he cat about a hundred and fifty pines in all the owner told us he was going to get out that season and they had so far been able to fell them without doing much damage to those they meant to leave standing some of the were unusually broad ones they last many years and so the tree leaves its own monument when it dies the inscription on many of the older in those woods might be lost at sea as it is on the stones of a sea port burying ground for great quantities of ship timber have gone from the woods to the ship yards at and the navy yard across the river on my way back to the pond and the road i found a place i remembered crossing in my childhood a bit of ground and a small pond in the heart of the woods it looked exactly as it had that early winter day so long ago and i remembered that i had seen witch in bloom there for the first time and had been filled with astonishment at the sight of flowers in the snow there used to be a farm house now destroyed at the side of the mountain to which his was a short road in winter when the ground was frozen i looked around for the witch but i was too late for it it was out of and country by ways many flowers beside else i might have thought it was only yesterday i was there before that bit of the world had been so and unchanged by time i had wondered for years where that little pond could be i had begun to think i needed a crooked of the witch itself to lead me back to it the wind seemed to be making a louder noise than usual when i came out from the stillness of the woods to the open country the horse was glad to be on a better road and struck out at a brave trot and indeed it was time to hurry for it was on the edge of the winter twilight and that had been the last load of logs to be sent that day from the clearing i looked up again and again at the mountain and i noticed a white place among the trees where there were cleared fields and remembered a story that always interested me that there was once a small farm there where an old lived alone many years ago no one knew from whence he came and there was no to his family or friends so after his death the property that he left fell to the state there is something very strange about such hidden away lives and one cannot help thinking that there are always people who have watched sadly for such stray tc come home even if they are from justice or banished with good cause a winter drive on the main road again i met a dismal looking little man driving back to the sea he and his horse both looked as if they would to death on the way i heard some slide and clash together in the box on his as we turned out for each other but it was nearly empty and i had seen it full in the morning so i suppose he was contented we said good day and he went on again he was a little bit of a man and his eyes looked like a fish s eyes from under the edge of a great rough fur cap he s very well off said john i know where he live at the so after all i pitied the horse the most for he never would have been so shaggy if he lived in a barn that the wind off the sea did not blow through every day from one end to the other the last sight i had of the mountain the top of it was bright where the last of the clear yellow sunset touched it but in the low lands where i was the light was out and the wind had gone down with the sun and the air was still and sharp the long cold winter night had begun the lamps were lit and the fires were blazing in all the houses as i hurried home good a girl s story h seems very odd now to remember that we ta over t windy walls for so many weeks before wo could make up our minds to it we thought of all imaginable reasons why we bad better and we all felt a good deal like when we were forced to decide at last that we had better spend the summer there it was miles from a railroad and four from a post office and the might be uncomfortable beside if my mother were to be ill nobody knew anything about the doctors the truth was we wished to spend the summer at the sea shore we had spent the part of the last four or five in town but in the old days when we were prosperous we lived in a house by the sea which we always had missed sadly	40
and now when we found we must leave the city the thought of three or four months at the shore good luck most but my elder brother who is the most sensible member of the family was the one who decided it for he convinced us that it would be much better for my mother to be inland at first it had been a question of boarding somewhere in the country but one day my brother park came home with the news that the people who had been living in an old house of ours in new were going to leave it and that it would be vacant the first of june it had belonged to a grand uncle of my father and we had known very little about it the tenants were elderly people and had been there so long that it seemed to belong to them more than to us my younger brother tom and i were dismayed at first but we took more kindly to the new plan when my mother proposed that we should go together to put the house in order a few days before the general flitting from town there are four of us my mother my two brothers who was then in the medical school and tom who was to enter college the next year and myself i do not know anything more unhappy than not having an elder and a younger brother it is a favorite joke of mine that standing between them one me up and the other me down and so my character and i ought not to country by ways be wanting in sympathy or experience when we were all younger we had lived entirely at our ease but of late years we have had of fortune and the boston fire served us as it did many of our friends it has been very close sailing with the three of us to send to school and to college and the frightful taxes on real estate to be paid my mother insisted that we should not part with our dear old home if we could possibly help it and indeed property had so much in value that it could have been sold only at a great sacrifice although it was so comfortable and stood in such a pleasant part of the town i have no doubt it was thought extravagant by some people that we should stay there though we managed to live on without getting in debt but now that tom was to enter college we knew we must rent the old house and so increase our income park had had money enough of his own to pay the expenses of his education and he hoped to go over to europe the next winter then my mother and i were to board somewhere and tom would be in cambridge we hated to think of breaking up it seemed very hard to us and we knew that we might never again be together in the dear old fashion even though my mother could ever take the house again which was to say the least doubtful she was often in ill health and good luck change would be very bad my brothers and i would have given anything if in any way we could have made it possible for her to stay if we could have made sure she might always have everything needed i do not think we should have minded being poor half as much if it had not been for her i can see now what a blessing these years were to us we know the worth of money a thousand times better and we are richer now in a great many ways because we were once poor my brothers and i while we have friends whose love for us nothing can make us doubt i am willing to say that we often used to but i find there are just as many things i want that i cannot buy now even though i have more money one does not naturally go into such as these but for the sake of my story i wished you to know something of its characters to begin with we grew more and more resigned to the thought of taking uncle kin lock house tom was seen over his fishing tackle in the hope of finding and i began to think more kindly of the summer in the country and to make little plans of my own tom and i thought it the best fun in the world to go to a week before the rest to put the in order indeed i think it was the country by way r t week of the whole summer i should like to tell you the whole story of it but i remember that we reached the village late one evening and in the morning tom came to the door of the country hotel with a weather beaten old horse and after we had collected some provision from the shops and had loaded part of our luggage into the back of the wagon we started off for the five miles drive feeling ourselves master and mistress of the house already it was a perfect day i had seen almost nothing of the country all the spring and i think i had never felt more pleasure at being alive than i did that morning the wind that blew about among the hills was so fresh and sweet and it was one of the june days which make you feel as one does in october weather the and were all in bloom i never saw so many birds together in all my life i began to long for my mother to come and i said over and over again how glad i was that she was going to spend the summer there i remembered what i had often forgotten before that she was so	40
fond of the country tom and i sang a good deal at the top of our voices there being no audience and we were sorry we had no farther to go though the horse was slow and the road was rough and up down all the way we watched the great whit good luck clouds blow over and caught sight of one or great hill after another far and near and sometimes we a little while to let the horse rest where it was so pleasant that we really could not go on tom saw some woods which gave fair promises of game and which he said were just the places for whole of and he thought it was the most delightful bit of country he ever had seen in his life some children whom we met on their way to school looked at us with great curiosity and interest and even the least of the shy sun knew that we were strangers and foreigners and they all stood still to look after us when we had passed we were in a great hurry to see the house and the last mile or two seemed long we had been told that it was on a hill and we looked for it in vain for some time and thought it must have burned down until we had come through some thick woods and the road had turned and then it was in full view half a mile beyond tt certainly was not charming at first sight it gray as if it had never been painted and there were a few tall sharp in a row at one side it was a square house with two great chimneys and it stood nearly at the top of a hill which would have looked higher anywhere else than there t the outskirts of the mountains the road wound country by along at the side of the hill and down below us we could hear the noise of a small river at the bottom of the valley the house looked and as we came nearer and we agreed it was ex ike uncle himself whom neither of us had ever seen within our recollection there were two or three other houses in sight within a third of a mile and it was like coming into a village at last the last three miles had been almost entirely through the woods the fields were very green and the slopes were most beautiful in the sunshine and all the wild roses were in bloom it was certainly a very pleasant country one could not find fault with anything out of doors and there must be room enough at any rate in the old square and that was a good thing i had almost been sure of a room under the roof too low for me to stand straight in we had to go to the nearest neighbor s for the key and had a hearty welcome from the mistress of the farm house who seemed as glad to see us and as kind as if we had belonged to her she begged us to come back to dinner and to supper and even us to sleep at her house until fairly hut since our chief pleasure in coming first been the prospect of keeping house ourselves w her and said no there could not be good j about our staying in the house from or anything like that for the people had not been long gone and it had been dry weather and mrs told us she had kept the windows open a good deal since she had known we were coming we hurried back and unlocked the door and tom said quickly with a little whistle it is n t bad but i confess that the first impression i had was of its being very dismal there was a narrow hall with an awful blue gray paper covered with fountains which looked as if they had frozen the winter before and had never out there was a mahogany table and some straight backed chairs along the wall and as for the parlor it was so dark that i rushed to open the shutters the furniture was not bad of its kind but it was not old enough to be picturesque or quaint it was an entirely dull and commonplace country house of the better class we went about from room to another everything was gray and brown and black so i longed for the bright we meant to bring and to put flowers in the rooms and for some of our own possessions to make it look a little home like it was a place to be in if one ever was so there was great need for us to do everything we could think of to it up it was country by ways with great wisdom that tom said how many people would go out of town that summer and spend no end of money in far less comfortable places i do not know whether my brave hearted young brother was trying to make the best of things at that moment or whether he really liked the place from the very first as he always now that he did there were four rooms on each floor two large ones and two somewhat smaller beside the kitchen and there was a garden which was beginning to show a royal crop of weeds though the flowers were blooming too all the early summer company of old fashioned flowers indeed one might grow strongly attached to this old place in time as i certainly did but i am willing to confess that i was dreadfully disappointed in it at first some friends of mine and had once spent a delightful summer at a fine old house by the sea and i had been with them for a week or two so i had foolishly framed my	40
expectations on the memory of that however there was no use in being dismal and our house might have been worse we named it windy walls before we finished our lunch which was the first thing to be thought of after we had opened the everywhere and tom had the horse and the wagon tom thought it wa good luck a very good name i had seen it in a novel once we had lunch very early there really was not a great deal to do until a load of goods could be brought up from the village however we were busy enough and the old place soon cheered up a little as if it had been a lonely old person who had felt the need of young company we found that there were fire places in almost every room but they were either closed up or had air tight before them and i told my brother that we must get those out of the way before my mother came and have the fire places open it would be so much pleasanter so we went to work at once in the room we had chosen for hers and if ever there were two forlorn looking creatures they were tom and i when we had finished for there was an amazing quantity of and ashes and we decided we would not try to do all in one day in the sitting room there was a great stove which we wisely left as it had a gallant array of brass ornaments and we brought in a quantity of dry wood and made fires everywhere in the parlor we had great trouble because the chimney seemed so choked and you cannot imagine our sorrow and dismay when clumsy half chimney swallow tumbled down luckily into the cold ashes at one side the fire and l country by ways lay there giving miserable now and then we put out that fire quickly enough and when we found that the poor bird was badly hurt by its fall tom killed it and we took a little in order to attend its funeral under a bush in the garden but we ought to have some said i as we went back to the house there must be some somewhere everybody used to have and tom said perhaps there were some in the garret so to the garret we went and here was a great satisfaction for the oldest furniture as was not long since the fashion had been stored under the and we found some fine old chairs which only needed a little brushing to be made again the chief pride and ornament of the house there were enough both iron and brass but the latter had become various shades of green and black and our first question to mrs our neighbor who just then came up the creaking was who could we get to rub them bright again she seemed much amused at our enthusiasm over our discoveries for one could make up a history of the household customs of the last years in that garret i did not know the use of half the things until mrs told me there were spinning wheels for wool and and foot and all the apparatus for cooking before ai good luck open fire and there were and wool cards and candle and various and and all the that had lighted the footsteps of successive generations we carried down the best of the chairs but we should have liked to stay in the garret and in the until dark if there had not been our own rooms to put in order mrs had taken such good care of the house since its tenants an old uncle and aunt of her own had gone away that we found little to do and we were very much obliged to her because she asked us to drink tea at her house where we had a very good time i made friends at once with her niece who was a dark haired girl who was just home from a where she was fitting herself to be a teacher she seemed all tired out and i was so sorry for her i felt as if she were really a great deal older than i though there was not much difference in our ages for she seemed to have lost every bit of her i think one advantage of city life is that there is much more to entertain and amuse people than in the country i never before had had the chance to know country girls intimately as i did that summer but the more thoughtful ones among them seem to me tc be much more thrown iu upon themselves and to be given to narrow routine and a certain formality country by ways of life than city girls are i found this new friend of mine knew a great deal more than about school books i only wish i were half so good a scholar bat the more i thought about her and talked tub her the more i wished she would read novels all hei summer good tempered well bred english society novels and no matter if some of were naughty for she could only see how much better it is to be good i wished her to know of people beside the teachers scholars she was always with and i wished to make her world a little larger i liked her so very much tom had found a in mrs s son who seemed a very good fellow and a by nature and i heard them already planning a long tramp in search of for though one could find some in almost any of the there was capital fishing in more remote streams among the hills and i could see tom s eyes flash as he talked in half whispers and i was no longer afraid of his growing	40
tired of and country e were very hungry at supper time as airs evidently expected us to be we were very y and afterward the niece and i d a while i found she was an orphan and if she did mind coming back there from good h r school for it was such a bare house so orderly and clean and in a way so comfortable but there was only a great yellow county map on the wall of the room where they lived and the few books saw were not at all in the line of her really fine i wondered if she did not find life uncomfortable her education had led her away from her family yet what she had got from her books was a dry and useless sort of learning unless for the sake of its being imparted to possible scholars by and by she was certainly no happier and her life did not reach out to other people s lives any more because of it it did not seem to me that she was meant for a teacher but i suppose she would not have been contented with any other employment it seems to me that nature designs very few people to be scholars but when so many make a failure of life we are greatly surprised but we are apt to say that they had a good education when in reality it was the worst education in the world for them since they were not fitted to do their work the result of education should be to one s uses but sometimes a student reminds one of the cheap wooden box in which his books are packed we certainly have different for of mental food and i think hat to be gifted with a memory and a brain by that is not and a little that al ways be poor and have nothing to give is a most me state of affairs there is a certain kind ot which if it tries lo be a scholar is a infer with its wealth because it does not know how to spend and make use of it i think wanted to get out of the rat she was in and that being with young people who took great pleasure in life was the best thing that could happen to her i found she had a great capacity for enjoyment and she added a great deal to our pleasure at windy walls i knew that my brother wished to go fishing that very nest day but he was very good and said nothing about it and we were busy until night putting things to rights for early in the morning our possessions came over from the village the few days we were alone went by very fast and at last i was waiting impatiently for my mother whom tom had gone to bring over from the train it was nearly tea time d they reached the house and i was delighted i i saw how pleased my mother was i had rs in a dozen places and some wild sweet i for which she had a great liking in her own i we had found the curtains that belonged he high posted beds and mrs and i bad good luck put them up and i had the books and placed them always with the bright red and blue ones on top the weather had luckily given sufficient excuse for a little fire on the hearth in the which was the most picturesque part of the house with its tall clock and slender legged and there was some pretty willow pattern to put on the table and you may be sure we had found somebody to rub the and had filled a with i think i never was so tired in my life as i was that night but it was all forgotten and i was more than paid for it an old servant who had lived with us and who came up with my mother praised tom and me to the skies and said she should think we had been at housekeeping for a year though i am afraid when she her own realm she did not have so much respect for us as at first i am afraid there were distinct traces of the means by which we had reached the results she had admired and we did not how to keep order in our kitchen we had bought some wild for tea from a little girl who came knocking at the door and kind mrs had brought us a of cream and another neighbor farther down the road had sent us ome fresh eggs and we felt already as if we be country by longed to the neighborhood it was pleasant weather day after day and we felt at first until the weather changed as if windy walls had been an ill deserved name for the bleak old house from which even the trees stood back in doors it grew more and more home like and we sent for some striped which we had had in the city and put them over the southern windows to keep out the glare of the sun and they made the house look as if it were a grave old lady in a young girl s gay i grew very fond of the hills and we were continually discovering new drives and walks there was one mountain which i always saw first when i in the morning and which at last seemed like a friend to me i think we all tried to live as entirely a country life as we could and not to be city people who had come to the country for a little while meaning to keep apart from its ways as much as possible of course there were and i confess that i was lonely sometimes but does not that feeling come	40
like the to a dove but at last i saw him reach and pull at something and he threw a bit ol on the floor and then another and pulled out a little way and kicked the back of the good luck closet which seemed to be loosened and i helped him push it along toward the chimney and saw a dark place behind it we could not get the door far back enough for any light to go in and it was close quarters at any rate to push through you may fall tom said i fearfully my courage failing me all of a sudden down into the china closet said my brother with a very scornful air as if he thought i ought to know the architecture of the house better than that u let s have a light though there s a candle over on the dressing table and i hurried across the room to get it that was a miserable moment for i looked out ox the window to see mamma and driving slowly toward home with the old clergyman following them unconscious of their being most unwelcome tom groaned when i told him we must be quick and shut it up said he and i was only too willing for we wanted all the glory for ourselves there are all park s clothes scattered over his floor said tom as he pushed and at tho and i flew to put them in their places as well as i could and had just succeeded when i heard mamma into the lower hall tom had gone to the country by ways for the iron and was just coming back with them serenely when he met her on her way to her room she laughed to see the plight we were in for we were gray with ashes and thanked us for opening the place it would be so much pleasanter for aunt you are very thoughtful children laid she in her tender way which always went straight to our hearts and she put one of her arms round each of us as we stood before her and kissed us tom s eyes filled with tears in a minute he was greatly excited i did not know what he would do but he kissed her again in his rough boyish fashion of two or three years ago when he had not himself on being and rushed off down stairs two or three steps at a time what has come over the boy said my mother as i followed her into her own room here are some letters for you and your aunt will be here day after to morrow i had a letter from mrs who is in and she tells me that m a your grandmother s old friend is very and will probably live only a few days i wish ould have seen her again dear old lady said sadly i was so sorry to refuse ing when she wished me to come to her but it not be helped good luck i knew why she had not gone i had something jf tom s certainty that we should find a fortune in the secret closet into which we had almost looked and i hoped that mamma might never have to give ap anything again i remembered that i had gone away for a visit just after she had quietly declined this invitation she was always very fond of me i think said my mother she always treated me as if i were still a child i suppose she could not realize the flight of time i have felt old most of the time these last ten years that it was pleasant to have somebody think i was young and it always carried me back to my to go to see her i wish you could have seen her again said i and mamma looked up at me as if she had been unconscious for a minute of my presence i could see she was much she always clung closely to her old friends the letter has been r two or three times i ought to have had it days ago said she and then i left her to go to dress and afterward hurried to find tom whom i found entertaining our guest with mamma for aid he was quite himself and gave me a careless and triumphant nod he whispered to me that we must go in hat night after the country by ways others were asleep and i was willing but mr was soon after persuaded to stay the night with us and occupy that room to tom s and my great discomfiture though perhaps it was just as well for park would certainly have heard us rattling in his wall and mamma was always a light it was misery to be obliged to wait until next day next morning i tried to make tom ready to meet his disappointment for i did not believe ve should find a fortune but at any rate we were both a good deal excited and were so persistent in sending my mother and park to the village for the letters and to do some up errands of ours that they at once suspected a plot we were given to little surprises as a family and mamma accepted the situation and though it was a hot morning she went away with my brother while tom and i could hardly wait until they were out of the yard don t be too sure old fellow said i for we had flown up stairs and i lit two candles while he was the he pushed his way in and quickly followed him it was a close little place and at first coming from bright daylight into candle light i could not sec it was like large closet and part of the space was in the side f	40
a housekeeper ii proved a most judicious arrangement for neither of them ever married and they were suited to each other having that difference of disposition and of tastes which make it possible for two people to live together without being too often reminded of the fact that we are in this world for the sake of discipline and not enjoyment it was always said that mr had been disappointed in love while he was pursuing his studies at the school and whether he took this for an indication that he would be more useful as a single man i do not know but at any rate in spite of frequent good chances and the way to seize them being made easy or him by members of his he never fell in country by ways love again and seemed to grow better satisfied with life year by year lie was a handsome man and miss was proud of him he was to her not only the best of and kindest of men but the most admirable of gentlemen she had a thoroughly english respect for the cloth and she had been born in the days when in her native new england town the league of church and state was powerful and prominent and the in the mode of worship and church government were able to look down upon other as she had left with great regret though she had not known how dear the old place was to her until she came to leave it she had never been very happy at her aunt s for she never had liked ber uncle very well and his wife was a tiresome sort of woman who made it so uncomfortable for every one when she was not pleased that her household became in never daring to take their own way or to oi their own about even their own affairs si i a bright future to miss to have e of her own as she knew her brother s house e for she was to have all the good fortune of s wife the glory and honor and pride with none of the responsibility of her the parish which in a country town is some no light weight to carry miss be pilgrimage it was a long journey to take for mr had been called to a church in western new york which seemed to miss like a foreign country it was known throughout that she was to start one monday morning and on sunday her departure was referred to in the long prayer before the morning sermon and in the evening meeting both and some other pillars of the church prayed devoutly that she might be kept from danger and peril on her journey and that she might help to scatter the good seed among the far away people with whom she was to make her home it was almost the same thing as if she were going to be a foreign missionary and she was very solemn about it but after she reached it seemed as civilized and as home like as itself and any sacrifice she had in making proved to have been only in her imagination twice since then mr had accepted calls to other farther west and for the last twenty seven or twenty eight years they had been in which had started to be a rival to new york city itself it had been disappointed and left at one side by the which presently put an end to the usefulness of a which had brought some business to the little own and it had grown very dull and a good deal country by ways less important in its own mind the minister and his sister had lived on year after year in comfortable fashion the salary was small but fortunately certain and miss had a little income which relieved her from any feeling of dependence or uncomfortable humility toward the her hand had been asked in marriage more than once but she never had thought it best to change her situation for in neither case had it appeared likely that she should better herself and she felt that there could be no reproach attached to single while she kept her brother s house and he was a minister of the gospel it gave her a position and duty for which one must have a but as i have said as years went on miss s heart and thoughts were oftener and oftener turned toward and the minister himself from hearing her say so much about it came to have as great a wish as she to go back to new england it is always home to all the people who go away from it to the westward as they grow older they love it better and better and it is a strong bond between the older if in their youth they had some knowledge of each other s the hearts of new england are often touched at being to visit some old people because they came miss pilgrimage from the eastern states and with all the s pride in his new country his thoughts often fondly toward the rising sun there is in this generation an instinctive that will probably be in the next to any subject of the queen england is always home and a or a new is first of all and last of all an englishman miss s brother for some months before his death had not seemed so strong as usual he was several years older than she and seemed very old in that part of the country where most of the people are young or at middle aged he had never been in the habit of taking stated in fact it had been a matter of pride and principle with him not to do so but early in the summer he had said he should take a rest of a	40
month when september came and then they would go to he wished to some dates and records and though there were few people he cared much to see there were a good many and the old town itself was dearer to him than he ever used to believe he had been hardly more than a boy when he left it and it was his long lost boyhood that he hoped to find again they would go to the for a little he should like to get a of salt air and country by ways on their way home they would stop in new york where there was to be a general meeting of the churches that was of great interest to him they talked about their plans like two children but they never carried them out for as i have said the minister died it was a great shock to miss who until the very last was sure that a change of air was all that her brother needed to make him well and strong again but he only went on a last short journey instead and all the clergy in that corner of the world assembled to follow him and they preached about him and wrote about him in the religious newspapers and said how sadly he would be missed and what a pillar had fallen and then the world went on very much the same as ever except to miss who felt as if it had come to an end she stayed on in for a while until she began to be very unhappy the parish was hearing with a view to settling a successor to mr and they seemed so unfit for his place as indeed they were being mostly young and puffed up with pride that she listened to them with great impatience and distress and she made up her mind by little and little that as soon as the spring opened she would go to and make a long visit til there were a good many people in that place and miss pilgrimage its neighboring towns whom she wished to and whom she thought would be glad to see her and if she did not care to she had it in her power to board for a while and the more she thought about it the more in a hurry she felt to be on the way she wa by no means a rich woman but if she lost nothing she would have enough to live on comfortably since she spent but little and had an uncommon faculty of making that little go a long way the journey to boston was bewildering and tiresome to her for the most part but when she was fairly started one morning to take the last half day s car ride she was much delighted and looked out of the window eagerly and examined the faces in the car to see if there might not possibly be one that was familiar the very names of the stations were delightful to her ears and after a while she felt as if she were in disguise and as if everybody would be if she only told them who she was i have n t been here for forty years she told the conductor after he had answered some question she had put to him and he looked at her curiously as if to see whether she was an old acquaintance she thought said that she must find things a good deal changed she heard a gentleman in front call him mr and if he had not hurried on she would have country by ways asked if he were not one of the of an old of hers who had married a and gone to live in she was sure he had a look of it was a great pleasure that at one of the station a new comer took a seat beside her the cars being full she was a woman of about her own age and evidently a journey was a matter of great importance to her so miss felt a sympathy for her and ventured to say that she had been in the cars for nearly two days and nights after her companion had asked he name of one of the stations which she had failed to hear i want to know if you have said she looking at miss with respect seems to me i could n t stand it but then it ain t come in my lot to be much of a was you ever this way before i was born and brought up down in answered miss but i have been away pretty near forty years i wonder if yon are acquainted there any i was raised in said the woman i ve got a brother and sister living there i m to now to stop with them i ht it was a great while since i was there bo miss pilgrimage beat me i was there nine years ago and i expect i shall find a good many changes and our two friends looked at each other and in a minute a glimmer of satisfaction miss s face i declare to my heart if you are n t robinson i thought you looked sort of natural when i see you come into the cars i s pose you must have forgot all about by this time but her friend had not and they grasped each other s hand and kissed each other at once and the sudden outburst of affection was most amusing to the neighboring passengers why i feel as if i had got home seeing you said miss thinking how dreadfully old her friend looked while the friend thought exactly the same thing of her and each flattered herself that in her case time had left but little trace of its flight i forget your married name inquired miss i did	40
when mrs remembered that she had spoken of her brother s preaching in the old meeting house and explained that it had been torn down to make place for a new one the year before it was really a great sorrow to our friend she felt that if it were not for visiting the burying ground it would not have been worth while to go at all u i did think it would be so pleasant to set in the old again where i used to set when i was a girl she said sadly i have thought just how it jl looked so many times as they brook country by ways field the country grew more and more familiar and miss looked out of the car window all the time and was again in high spirits she told the names of the hills and when she saw a farm house that she remembered not far from the railway she was perfectly and hurriedly collected her carpet bag and her basket and her big box that held some treasures which she had been afraid to trust to her trunk do tell me if i look all right she said quickly passing her hand in its loose glove over the front of her bonnet and her neat i don t s pose i am fit to look at i ve always had to keep myself looking nice on joseph s account being a minister and we were always subject to a good deal o company she remarked but widow said she looked as if she had only from the next town and in a few minutes more they were standing on the platform of the station there were only strangers waiting there and they were mostly little boys and miss felt a strange sense of desolation but presently some one greeted mrs who was much with great cordiality and she walked off without giving a thought to her fellow who stood still look ng anxiously at every face that passed as if she miss pilgrimage hoped to find it familiar she held the box and the bag and the basket and suddenly wondered if her trunk had come and looked down the platform the wrong way and distressed herself with the thought that it had not been put off the train since it was not in sight the little boys strolled away and the rest of the people began to disappear also and miss remembered her companion and wondered what could have become of mrs who had seemed so friendly and just then some one came driving up to the platform it was a young woman and she jumped out quickly and came toward our friend i wonder if you are miss asked the girl pleasantly why yes dear said poor miss who had been almost ready to cry grandmother said that i had better come round by the but the rest of us were certain you would n t be here until to morrow how do you do and she kissed the old lady as if she really cared something about her we are all so pleased because you are coming now let me see to your baggage we can take the trunk right into the back f the wagon i was just feeling afraid it had n t come said country by miss hut the station master asked if that were not the one which he was just going to drag into the and in a few minutes more they were in the wagon driving away i hope you won t be too tired said the girl we shall have to ride three or four miles but then it is nice and cool i always liked to ride said miss and it is so refreshing to get out of the cars there you don t know what a difference there is between the air here and out west but now i want you to tell me who you are i forgot you did n t know the girl laughing we have talked so much about you that i forgot you did u t know me just as well as i do you i m downs and my mother was i can t believe has got a as old as you exclaimed miss why i don t feel any older than ever i did but she was four or five older than i i have a brother and sister older i said lie but they re both married we lived at but i suppose you knew that father died ie years ago and grandmother was getting he wanted mother and me to break up aud come tc with her i have been keeping the town miss s pilgrimage for two years it s very near you know mother s brother carries on the farm uncle daniel he says he remembers you and your coming to say just before you went west but grandmother says he was too young i guess he does remember me said miss with a sudden affection for this relative of hers i now he was a dear little fellow running round the kitchen it was in cold weather i know i was going to kiss him and he hid under the table this was very pleasant and seemed to bring the strange relatives much nearer your mother was the oldest and was quite a girl then i remember hearing of your father s being taken away but i always thought of you all as little bits of children there i did feel so to day said miss to old mrs ann is and her daughter that evening but i feel now as if i had got back among my own folks i like out west but somehow i never have felt at home there as i do here and after jo s death i saw it was being with him that had me	40
she to think that while there life there s hope country by ways he seems to be an excellent christian man said miss flashing a little but it was too dark for anybody to notice it i m going to have him to oar house to tea said mrs ann is giving her daughter a suggestive he always likes to come in time downs had been much amused that evening at the evident interest which mr and miss took in each other it was a funny likeness of a mild between two young people they were of the respect due to their own advanced years and the of a but they found each other very attractive they were both fine looking mr would have been fairly imposing in even a gown and bands but in a he would have been magnificent one longed to see him in a ruffled shirt and instead of his plain black garments but his solemn countenance bore on it the stamp of dignity anybody would know he was a minister said miss decidedly and she had had vast experience among the western clergy the june days went by quickly and miss enjoyed her visit more and more and felt less and less inclination to go back to her life had not supposed that people would be so miss pilgrimage to see her but having once welcomed her they never were made sorry for our friend was really a good and pleasant person to know the young people found her full of sympathy and kind and she gave a great deal of pleasure wherever she went it was easy to see that she did not think only of how her friends greeted her and what they did for her for she was as anxious to help and to give in her turn and she could be as amusing as heart could wish there was an girlish ness about her yet in spite of the fallen of so many she was very happy in and there was a companionship to be had even in the burying ground which was dearer to her than she had dreamed it would be the people in church on sundays soon felt as if she were again their neighbor and friend and mr found himself looking often toward the ann is as he preached and he selected his best sermon the next sunday after he met miss and repeated it for her benefit and was rewarded by her telling him as he gravely shook hands with her on his way out of church that it reminded her of one of her dear brother s on the lame text but mr had expanded the subject much more fully you know how to make things very clear miss said with a n country by ways brightening of her eyes and a simple frankness that he thought extremely desirable it is something to be most grateful for if a word we speak reaches and helps another struggling soul he said and shook hands with a in the next did you see poor mary ann dean at church today some one asked as they drove home after meeting and mrs answered that she doubted if the poor soul ever got out to church again i have n t told you about her have i r she was a daughter of who used to be at your aunt s a good deal but it may have been after you went west she has had about the hardest time of anybody i know their house burnt down and they lost most everything and four of the family died within sixteen months mary ann was left all alone with one brother that drank like a fish and she had to earn what she could and bear the of everything she was a good deal younger than the rest of the children she has been failing this good while but she would n t give up she s always reminded me of a flower in the road that every wheel goes over there ain t a better young woman anywhere in i set everything by mary ann i do feel sorry said miss i had it ot miss pilgrimage my mind in meeting to ask you if any of s folks were about here and i noticed that poor girl i go to see her the first of the week if she don t live too far off on her mother s account if nothing else it is only a little way said downs u i go with you to morrow afternoon if you will come along to the school house after school cousin miss was very kind to this new friend who soon grew more ill and quite dependent upon the kindness of her neighbors and our heroine having no family cares was with her a good deal for the next fortnight had begun and it was lucky that so good a nurse was for the most of the time at leisure since the other women were all so busy and indeed at any time had their hands full with their own work it happened that two or three times mr came to visit his sick and it must be confessed that miss did not show her usual composure in the presence of the clergy and that she began to feel self conscious and to insist upon it to herself that she took no interest in the man whatever she openly said feeling all the that she might be sorry it that she did not country by ways consider him gifted in prayer but even this bold treason did not keep her heart from fluttering at the mention of his name the people quickly caught at the first hint which was given by a suspicious and one sunday noon miss was a little by the people who knew her best which was very one day late in the afternoon	40
perhaps of their joints were on bait out doors it was almost the scotch mist was coming in so thick from sea and the men were taking all the comfort they could in smoking such strong black tobacco in dingy clay pipes with no stem to speak of that the overhead thought it might be best to go out from their shelter and brave the of the weather i don t see no prospect of a change said captain joseph the man on the barrel the wind backed in and the clouds has been a looking greasy for a week past i told the mate of the daylight he was a blamed fool to go oat but they do set an awful sight by their own opinion what was he a saying asked one of the other men leaning toward his companion and putting his hand to his ear he looked very cross but he was really good natured it seemed as if he thought he ought to wear a look of at the behavior of men in general his clothes were made of thick cloth and his very skin was so by long exposure to the weather that it looked like the hide of a very fair or of some other creature that is covered with most material captain joseph s remarks were reported with some accuracy to captain and he nodded his head once or twice in approval that was all you wa n t it he asked in a grumbling rusty voice as if he thought his friend might have him in the repetition well folks is fools so they is it ain t what i call good and i like to see good aboard of a as well as aboard of a ton east so i do ef a man s good for anything whatever aboard a vessel he can turn his hand to one as well as another in my day young the mate of the daylight folks used to have ambition about em to rise but some o these goes out to the fishing year in and year out and never leaves off no better than they begun so they don t times ain t what they used to be mourned peter and as old looked at him he repeated his remark at the top of his voice which was somewhat feeble at best no more they ain t said with satisfaction and they all puffed silently at their pipes they were like some worn old at the and they bore a queer family likeness to the worm eaten pieces of ship timber and the small rusty anchor with a broken which were stored away near them the fish house on a narrow alley way which led from the main street of the town down to a wharf it was standing a little having been built at a time when perfectly straight streets were not thought necessary in fact the whole town had a strange look as if its buildings had been brought all at once and set down wherever there was room but the inhabitants had never thought it worth while to take the trouble to arrange them better it gave one a feeling of gratitude that some of the little houses had not been carelessly on their sides the mate of the daylight or down which would have made house keeping in them even more inconvenient than it was as one went along the streets some of the buildings stood and some had their back doors where the front should have been the whole little town was like a company of soldiers which had broken ranks and it was altogether picturesque and charming with its unexpected bushes and bits of garden and its roofs and narrow streets opposite the fish house was the gray and rough wall of a deserted and as the three captains sat looking solemnly at this and past the corner of it toward the water there suddenly appeared the figure of a young girl against the dull background she had been walking fast and her face was flushed with the damp fog and her eagerness i ve been hunting all round for you grandfather she said i suppose you forgot about that fish for the aunt said i had better come right out and look you up else we should n t get much of a dinner to day captain looked very sorry for this and got down quickly from his barrel while captain put his hand to his ear and demanded an explanation of the sudden summons he was a little the mate of the daylight disappointed at finding it was only that his had forgotten to buy a fish it seemed to him that an unexpected guest must have arrived or that some one was taken suddenly ill or had died for was in such a hurry but if he had stopped to think he might have been sufficiently surprised it was seldom that a retired in that port forgot to order his dinner it was too often the only business which interfered with his idleness all day long cap n joe as his friends called him hurried off by the way of the to himself as he went but lingered behind a moment do you know whether dan is out or not today she asked captain downs softly as if afraid of being overheard by her retreating grandfather and she was answered that the fishing had gone out in spite of repeated late the night before i m afraid dan l will get into mischief the old sailor said while s cheeks grew brighter than ever and old captain looked curiously from one face to the other and was fairly shaking with impatience had nothing more to say but turned quickly as if much disturbed and went away slipping a little on the wet round stones of the and when she had turned the	40
comer from the mate of the daylight the alley way into the main street she walked as fast as she could toward home when she reached the house she shut the door so angrily that the old brass and the hanging lamp which the captain had brought in his young days from over seas rattled its chains and and it was not the custom of the family to come in at the front door and miss downs appeared suddenly at the head of the crooked little staircase to see what the matter was she was not dressed for visitors and she looked relieved when she found it was her niece i was afraid you was an agent or somebody she said did you find father yes i did said who was very much excited her eyes were shining and she looked as if she could hardly keep from crying and what s more i found that dan has gone off fishing just as i supposed he would and heaven knows if anybody will ever see him again just like him and of course he found plenty of fools ready to go with him there s an awful storm coming and the was n t half ready for sea he told me so last night and they sailed before morning they can t have got far said miss not without some anxiety i guess you d find they was laying off here in the harbor if the fog lifted the mate of the daylight there ain t been a breath of wind all the morning it s dreadful close i dare say they put into some other port to fit themselves out if it s so they don t come right in here again just like dan s nonsense all fire and tow i s pose he thought t would sound smart i hope he split up a few s for his poor feeble old mother before he went i see her when i come by away in the wood house with a dull axe i should think he d be ashamed to go the way he does father went right off to see about the fish i s pose i don t know what time hell get his dinner i never knew him to before she added trying to change the subject for she saw how s eyes flashed i guess they ain t laying off in the harbor rejoined the younger woman stamping her foot with rage it s a mercy if they ain t gone to pieces on the rocks before now it blew dreadful hard along towards morning and i just tell you one thing i don t blame dan one for being mad and i ain t going to live here no longer like a under a i m just going to do as i m a mind to quick s ever i m out of my time and i m going to marry dan whether anybody says i can or not no fellow would stand what was said to him last night the mate of the daylight there there said aunt soothingly don t get so worked up your ther means to do well by you i m sure he always has and he s all for your good his bark s worse than his bite you know s well as i do nobody wants to hear him bark as i know on said scornfully and escaped with the excuse of the captain s coming in at the kitchen door fish in hand her alone whispered the elder woman to her father who had an anxious look as if he half expected a battle she s dreadful worked up about dan s going off but she get over it if you don t say nothing to set her going nothing was farther from the captain s mind than to wish for an encounter with she did not meet him until dinner was ready when she came down to take her seat at the table like a sulky and displeased guest she always helped to get dinner and that day she had told herself several times during the hour that she spent in her own room that she would not go down to share the meal but the s was up the stairs and proved irresistible for she was a young person of good appetite and she was for some reason or other than usual the captain the mate of the daylight made awkward attempts at keeping up a brisk and unconscious talk but s expression was that of grim she made herself look very ugly when it pleased her to feel so she was at other times a pretty girl with a fine color as we have already seen and bright black eyes that took quick sharp glances at the world she was generally good and merry but when a cloud went over her sky it was very bad weather indeed after dinner captain went to sl in his chair as usual and his injured clear away the table and wiped the dishes as if it ought not to have been expected of her under the circumstances then she withdrew again to her bedroom and her aunt who never took afternoon after a suitable interval put on her second best bonnet and shawl and went out closing the door gently after her the house was still and the captain slept later than usual when he it was half past three and he had promised to be on one of the tumble down at three to measure some his neck was and he had an uneasy sense of guilt as he wondered what had become of the and especially of after had left the fish house that morning the mate of the daylight the two captains had waited for a few minutes to be sure she was out of hearing and then captain had edged	40
his bait tub as close as possible to his companion s and asked to hear what had been said i guess they must ha had some trouble amongst em last night he said not without contempt i seen him a by the fore room window as i was a by near about eight o clock if i don t cap n joe he was out somewhere likely he went over to inquire for mis cap n i met him a in home and it may be he turned dan l out o the house and he s made off i could n t get no sight at what drove him out to sea this ble weather and did n t it bear on your mind that cap n joe was some out o acted like he d lost his so he did he wa n t out o s i on said captain peter i see him coming out o s shop just afore ten and i guess he had his aboard t ain t often he it but i did think he was than common to day p he d the hour but most like he wanted it to stay him t ain t never well to change hours so it ain t said captain after some reflection and ten s too you lose all the good on t by dinner time i don t blame joe he s been a saving man and it the mate of the daylight ain t his to want dan to make and of his property i suppose he must have as much as nine or ten thousand ain t he he s got that sure acknowledged downs but they had too often settled the amount of money which belonged to every man of their acquaintance to make the subject an absorbing one if there were any other at hand dan is a high strung fellow and i never set no great by him he went on but young folks will have their way and old folks has to stand back i should ha thought would ha looked her dan ain t got nothing to look to from his folks it s been all his mother could do to scratch along and to be sure he s got the berth o second mate o the daylight but with the plight s in now it s lucky if she goes out o her dock for a year to come his uncle only give him the place because poor old mis him so dan s lazy as a he never d a undertook to carry on fishing if he had n t wanted to stand well in cap n joe s books s distressed to get him ain t she s if he was an east loaded to the water s edge talk about love i should think a like her would have sense enough to look ahead and provide for herself to all the girls her the mate of the daylight father s sisters married cap ns and i sh d think she d have some but i s pose she s for ard to having means enough o her own when joe s done with it i d like to see who beat though her or joe they ain t neither one on em liable to change their minds s a lar o the old block captain was having an unusually pleasant morning he could hear the voice of this friend easily and captain peter downs was a good natured old fellow who was willing to gossip with this and of his neighbors rather than not gossip at all captain had heard this long discourse with great satisfaction he did not often find people willing to tell him secrets but there was a good opportunity in that secluded spot and voices could be raised to shouting pitch and subjects discussed without fear of outside listeners i s pose she s got the right to suit herself she s the one that s going to marry the fellow said captain downs in conclusion but this sentiment did not find favor with captain who himself on nothing more than his experience of life and his knowledge of human nature i don t agree with ye so i don t he remarked looking at a great silver watch and making the mate of the daylight ready to start for home whoever a out all her folks has to marry him as much as she does and a ought to consider whether her folks wants to take a man in for better and worse as a relation you re a sight more to relations by marriage than you be to your own folks i do know but what you re right meekly observed captain downs and the two old went stiffly away together in search of their dinners it happened that the story in some mysterious way found wings and flew about town that captain joe and dan had had some hard words and s frame of mind was indescribable in consequence captain s wife a person of great activity met him at the door at noon with the news and was very pleased to find that he had seen both and her grandfather and was wiser in the matter than she he had often failed in his duty of bringing home the news since he had grown deaf mrs treated him with unusual attention she even delayed dinner a little while she made a of which her partner for life was very fond and which he usually had served him only when there was company i do know but if you feel like it we u go round to joseph s to night the mate of the daylight after supper she ventured when dinner was nearly over and the captain was serene he s all the cousin you ve got and we ain t been there	40
of an evening all through the summer i ve got some things i want to consult about and like s not they be glad to have us drop in if they ain t comfortable among themselves captain was usually much averse to paying visits he was some years older than his wife and he was generally unable to join in the conversation to any satisfactory extent he liked to smoke his pipe and read the newspaper in peace at home but he consented to this plan with unwonted though he felt that he must at it a little at first i can t go to work a up just as i m getting off to bed he growled mildly but his wife took a good look at him and said that she did n t know as there would be any need of his putting on a clean shirt it was n t as if it was besides it was different just dropping in to see your own folks she should n t like to appear as if they much of it so after mrs had away the tea things and had brought the captain his coat and helped him into it they started out it was very late in the summer and the evenings were growing the mate of the daylight long the fog was coming in thicker than ever from sea and it was already dark the captain whose eyes were not much better than his ears always refused to go forth after night fall without his lantern the old couple slowly down the side walk toward their cousin s house the captain walked with a solemn rolling gait learned in his many long years at sea and his wife who was also short and stout had caught the habit from him if they kept step all went well but on this occasion as sometimes happened they did not take the first step out into the world together so they swayed apart and then against each other as they went along to see the lantern coming through the mist you might have thought it the light of a small craft at sea in heavy weather i m most sorry we come out it s such a bad night and your too said mrs in the captain s best ear which luckily happened to be next her and the captain rejoined that anybody would think they must be put to it but it was none b his doing i say to joseph that i want to look over some that h keeps and him and me s concerned that explain it and they won t think we come ix u d the mate of the daylight mrs s heart had begun to fail her she would have turned toward home again just before this if she could have courage she thought it was very handsome of the captain and said to herself that she would not forget it miss and the old captain her father had passed a very dull day and the evening had closed in with uncommon gloom had maintained a dignified silence at supper time and had returned to her room afterward and shut its door in such a manner that it was plain to see that she had not forgiven the sins of her family against her for some reason or other the captain had failed to receive his evening paper and he had nothing to do but look at the small unwilling fire which his daughter had lighted in the stove in the dining room the evening being chilly she had forgotten herself and before she stopped to think had lighted the sticks that the careful structure made ready for the fire they were nice looking round sticks of white and she regretted their loss very much she was much attached to them beside she had taken them off and laid them by a great many times everything seemed to be and neither she nor the captain would have grieved if they had been sure that dan had taken himself off with the determination never to their doors again the mate of the daylight the knock at the door which they heard presently was most startling and they could have confessed that they were afraid that the young man had come back and meant to have it out and decide his right to the guests however did not wait for an answer to their summons with the but opened the door at once and were pleased with the look of delight and relief on the faces of their host and hostess step up and speak to will you said captain joe to his daughter tell her who s here obeyed with much fear and trembling had forgotten to take a light up stairs with her she was not at all sleepy and she was very tired to tell the truth of sitting in the dark her manner had a little but she was very gracious and the rest of the company took heart and were cheerful captain explained the object of his visit to his cousin and the papers were at once brought out from a hiding place in the old secretary in the dining room which stood in the stead of an office and counting room to captain joe he was ship s husband to a small craft in which the cousins were part owners they talked for some time over the of the in language intelligible only at times to the listener and in the mean time the mate of the daylight the three women together softly at the other side of the room captain was in high spirits and made him self most agreeable he had always been called good company before his had isolated him in the midst of society in his young days he had been a good deal of a beau and gallant and his wife was	40
proud of him yet and always said that nobody knew so well as he how to carry things off well she refused on this ground to grant him permission to absent himself from her tea parties or sewing society which were the main features of the town he had grown very heavy and stupid of late at least it seemed so to most of his neighbors but this evening call had awakened much of his ancient vivacity it was an awful moment to all the rest when he turned with apparent innocence to and said cap n peter said you was inquiring about dan and them that was out fishing yes shouted with great bravery her cheeks growing scarlet i s pose you ve heard by this time that they ve got in i chanced to be down on sand s wharf when they come ashore and a more ble looking set o rats i never see but they was fools to have the mate of the daylight put oat in weather so they was and i told em so dan l he said that they got outside and set their in the night but there was an old sea a running and their parted and so they lost two thirds o one on em i don t see how they got in they said they never see no such a fog as there is outside they worked toward the shore somehow or and after a while they heard the town bell ringing at one o clock and they by that t was about four o clock when they come in dan l said if it had come on to blow t would a been all day with em he said he was a fool to go out the airs seemed to be took out o him a little for once glad of it said captain joe with delight while the three women grew more and more uneasy dan l al was all talk and no looked very black she had borne with captain patiently there was no knowing that he had heard the town gossip but deaf people hear more things that are worth listening to than people with better ears one likes to have something worth telling in talking to a person who most of the world s talk i m sorry you forget yourself so as to say such a thing as that said scornfully to her grand and she spoke loud enough for captain the mate of the daylight to hear i won t stand by and hear dan abused i may as well tell all of you now that i am going to marry him there there i don t be hasty whispered miss the girl looked for a minute as if she could hardly keep from crying she had been veiy anxious about her lover and she was glad enough to hear of his safety but she said after an awful pause of a few minutes that she could n t see why everybody made such a about his going out fishing any way it had happened times enough before that men had gone out in the night and been caught by the fog we won t talk no more about it now commanded captain joe with an air of offended dignity and feared that she had gone too far it was all very well to hold her own and she had taken pride all day in her ability to make her grandfather uncomfortable but it would not do to provoke him altogether since he might leave his money in a way that she would regret and he had always been very kind to her until lately when she had been calling him a tyrant and had pleased herself with considering him her enemy the proverb with which captain joe had roused this battle about his ears had left a suggestion in his the mate of the daylight mind and he rose from his chair while the rest of the company were trying to collect the stray bits of conversation which were left in their shocked minds and taking the small hand lamp from the secretary and a from the closet he went down cellar and drew some of the ale which the mention of talk and had made him remember it s out of a little that jones sent me for a present last week he explained as he came puffing up the stairs some glasses will you captain gravely and the ale proved very good and all seemed fair weather again looked up at her grandfather s face as he gave her a she was not fond of ale but she did not like to refuse this she could not help noticing that the old man s hand shook and that he looked hurt and tired he took no notice of her apparently he had grown very old this last year she thought and she was sorry she had been so angry with him but she would teach folks to let dan and herself alone captain and his wife set sail on their homeward voyage at an early hour they expressed a fear that the fog might turn to rain and the lantern went and swaying up the street what the mate of the daylight possessed you to get going about dan asked mrs reproachfully you spoilt everything and we was having such a pleasant talk all of us i wanted to stir her up answered the captain i never did like that girl over well i don t think she s got no sort o gratitude after all that s been done for her she got a o my mind about that fellow s going on so she did it don t do no good said his wife and you ve got no more sense than a boy why did n t you tell me they d come in	40
to which the captain made no answer taking refuge in his though he could always hear what his wife said being so well used to her voice captain joe came back to the dining room after and the fore door behind his visitors i guess i make for bed he said and i ve got one thing i want to say to you i ve treated you as well as i knew how and i ve done for your good ever since you was left a baby and if i don t want you to fling yourself away on a worthless fellow that can t call a dollar his own i don t know as i m to blame for it and i think you ve let yourself down speaking so smart to me afore folks it hurt my s the mate of the daylight began to cry i m sure you re always mine said i can t it if i do like him and s lots of fellows that start any means and get rich soon enough the captain turned back as he heard this he don t come of a good stock and i should rather he showed me five thousand dollars in his hand than have him promise he was going to make it i and my father before me lived single till we owned that much money and if you d seen as much of this world as i have you d think we done right you wait till you re as old as i be and you look at most things different from what you do now i always have on seeing you well married and settled afore i m laid away and i hope to yet but there s no sense in marrying a fellow just he s good and has a smart way with him and the captain shut his bedroom door behind him and said no more considered herself to be in a position of great misery and she sat by the window and cried as as she could after she went up stairs she pitied herself very much and yet she had a great respect for herself as the heroine of an unhappy love affair but in the morning affairs wore a different aspect the mate of the daylight dan came in soon after breakfast looking excited and pleased and as if he had something to say that would make him welcome captain joe spoke to him and the women bade him good morning and looked at him curiously for they were sure he had important news i came to tell you that i got a letter from my uncle last night sir he told the captain and he says that the daylight is going to sail as quick as they can fit her out and he wants me aboard right away i m going on to new york this afternoon oh dan cried with real distress can t you put it off until to morrow but dan went on talking to the captain my uncle says she s going to liverpool in but the owners are sure of getting a freight there for the east indies they re going to send her along anyhow for there s nothing doing in in new york and right they are too interrupted the captain i was reading the other day how were looking up on the other side and they was short of ships for a wonder it was hay and grass with em and bad head winds had delayed a good many vessels bound for english ports and you have a quick run across it s a first rate time o year the mate of the daylight well i wish you a good v y ge my boy and a safe return said the captain heartily feeling the of sailor with sailor and forgetting his dislike for the man himself dan took courage from the captain s cordiality and with a glance at who stood listening with her eyes full of tears he said if i do well i hope you ve no objections to my asking the old man s face looked black for a minute but he quickly recovered himself not if you do well i have n t dan but a second mate s berth ain t much of a business in the state s in now but if you show you mean to do well and i hear a good report of you i sha n t have anything to say against it if so be that you keep of the same mind both of you you ve got just as good a chance as the next one if you re willing to put right to and there s money to be yet the sea bad as times is you young folks thinks that love s the main p int and i don t say but what it is but there s a good deal more chance for it to hold out when there s means to make things comfortable and you ought to want to have a good home full as much as i do i do set everything by her said the young sailor but he looked at this announcement the mate of the daylight of what would be expected of him as to mi comforts i ve only got one thing more to say to you the captain added if i do hear good accounts of you and have reason to think you ve done well help you out any way i can i know you have n t got any folks of your own to look to it ain t as if your uncle had n t met with bad luck of late years he s doing very well this past year said dan with as much pride as he dared show and he says he means to push me ahead	40
as fast as he can better look to yourself for that said captain joe gravely talk s cheap and miss having been called to the door by some one who had come with an errand he went out to the garden which lay behind the house and left the lovers to themselves cried but the mate of the daylight was not moved to grief he consoled her as best he could and with great kindness and showed her that he carried her picture in his waistcoat pocket and told her that he should kiss it every day and then he kissed her several times and promised to write and to think of her and altogether they were very sad and affectionate being much in love and feeling that they were hardly used by fortune since if captain joe had ever said the word they would the mate of the daylight have been married and dan would have willingly taken up his residence in the home of s childhood he meant to settle down into the business and idleness of fishing and and of doing great things with captain joe s by and by when he had the opportunity and he certainly was the young man in town watched him proudly through her tears as he hurried away at last his mind was full of going down the street to tell his acquaintances of his prospects and his long voyage and afterward he must go home to toss his into his sea chest and say good by to his mother she was old and in ill health and the thought struck him sharply that he might not find her there to welcome him when the voyage was over and he came home again by noon of that day he had gone the people of the town were used to their neighbors going away to sea and so dan s departure did not make a great excitement the subject of his relations with the family was discussed for a while but it was decided that he was not engaged to and that affairs were left in the state they had been in for some time before many months afterward in the middle of a the mate of the daylight ant september afternoon miss took a solitary walk to the old burying on the hill as we have heard all her sisters had married captains and herself had been promised to a young man who was unfortunately drowned on his first voyage as master she had never replaced him in her affection her love and loyalty grew stronger and stronger instead of fading away she had been expecting to marry him in a few weeks when his homeward voyage should have ended and on high days and holidays ever since she had looked sadly through the old sea chest of her father s that held many of the treasures that her lover had given her and what was left of her now quaint and old fashioned wedding and once in a while through the summer weather she went to this where a stone had been raised in the family lot to his memory and felt herself at such times and in fact at many others to be a widow indeed it always seemed to her as if that were his grave at any rate she felt a greater to him in that spot than in any other his family with great consideration had asked her advice in the choice of the head stone and though she liked marble best she had chosen a tall broad of slate on which was cut the familiar figure of a beneath a the mate of the daylight low tree she identified this figure with herself always and it was a matter of great sorrow to her that it would be out of the question for her to be buried at the side of this grave she would have been glad if she could have been sure that she would be buried there but she never dared to express such a wish it would sound very strange she thought and yet it seemed to her to be her proper resting place on this day it was very pleasant in the the wind was blowing in from the sea and the tall for grass waved this way and that and she read the name of one old acquaintance after another as she went along a crooked path that wound among the graves miss was already an old woman and she was tired with her walk and was glad to stop to rest as she read for the time the name of captain joseph lost at sea there was no one in sight and she gently the slate head stone with her hand and picked o e a gray that had fastened its roots into the of one of the letters while the face of her sailor lover came clearly to ner mind she did not know why but she felt very lonely that day she and had never been very dear to each other it was an affection bred of the mate of the daylight attachment and and long association than an instinctive drawing together of their natures and she knew that s home was not likely to be hers and that in all probability her father not live many years longer at his death she would be left alone her married sisters were all dead and s father her only brother had died many years before it s the common lot of all she told herself and i ought to be thankful that it is likely father will leave me very comfortable had been anxious of late about her lover the letters had not come often at best for the mate of the daylight did not hold the pen of a ready writer and the long voyages from port to port had caused long that were nobody s	40
fault the last report from the ship had been that the next move was she might sail for the east indies again before coming back to the states there had been heavy at sea and miss had felt great sympathy for her niece when she asked the old captain so eagerly every day if there were any letters and was disappointed by his answer she never had pitied the girl so much as she did when the thought came to her that the ship might be lost and that would have to bear a sorrow like her own the mate of the daylight and miss seated herself on the grass and sat looking off to sea how many times she had sat there and how dark the world used to seem to her when she came there first to show respect for her lover and her tenderness for his memory yet the years had worn away one by one and this faithful soul had in later days wondered as much about the meeting at some not far distant time as she had dwelt in thought over the sad farewell of many years before miss made a call or two on her way home and it was almost tea time when she reached the house and heard an unusual noise of voices as she hurried in what a surprise it was to see young grown older and broad shouldered with his fa ce and by the sea winds was beaming with happiness and captain joe looked very pleased and interested and was listening to a long story of the voyage miss had not prepared her mind for being kissed but kissed she was and her father laughed and rubbed his hands together i she thought he looked older than ever as he sat by the s de of this eager young man why when did you get in she asked the sailor and he told his story again that the ship had reached new york only the day before and he the mate of the daylight wished to come home to surprise them and so had sent no message he is going back early in the morning said the captain he tells us he has been made master of the ship and if young had been the old man s only son he could not have looked happier or while tossed her head a little as if she were not surprised and had always been sure of this triumph from the beginning it proved that the captain of the daylight had been washed overboard in a gale the third day out and the first mate had been ill during the homeward voyage and had been forced to give up his position altogether so s lover had brought the ship across and had handled her well too he had taken the first mate s duties for several weeks be fore they had reached and had won great respect for his knowledge of this and his relationship to one of the owners had secured him the position of captain more than this he had carried away some money which his mother had given him from her little and he had with it and brought her home more than three hundred dollars while he had something of his own beside his pay in his pocket the elder captain was ready to hear of his future projects and a more cheerful company never sat down to drink tea together the mate of the daylight the first sunday he spent at home he and walked up the broad aisle of the church side by side to captain s and she wore triumphantly a wide red india folded about her shoulders and on week days she was proud to show the young women of her acquaintance other gifts from her handsome and promising lover so the mate of the daylight returned to his friends a and when he sailed on his next voyage having gained the owners permission to carry her he had his wife for company but old captain who had been made to hear all these things with difficulty on account of his increasing grumbled out one day as he sat on one of the in the sunshine like an old fly who had just crawled out of a crack in the spring it s the next y y ge that show what stuff he s made of you might say this was his luck but the next have to be his earning there s plenty of able lying idle i should think they d ha took afore they did him but i wish dan well so i do i m one that likes to see young folks prosper and have their day i ve had mine a lam less i it was late in a lovely day of early spring the first warm sunday of the year when people who had been all winter came out to church looking pale and as if they had been hidden or lost for months it seemed as if winter the stern old king had suddenly died and as if the successor to the throne were a tender hearted young princess and everybody felt a cheerful sense of comparative liberty and freedom the were lifting up their voices in all the having discovered all at once that they were out and that it was time to assert themselves a faint tinge of suddenly appeared on the much abused and weather beaten grass by the and the were covered with a mist of gold the air was fragrant and so warm that it was almost summer like but the elderly people shook their heads as they greeted a farmer other gravely in the meeting house yard and said it was fine weather overhead or perhaps spoke of the day reproachfully as a weather there seemed to be a general dislike to giving praise to this weather which was	40
to be like one of the sweet ring that surprise u e they bloom so early and grieve us because they are so quick to fade after church was over in the afternoon two or three men were spending an idle hour on a little bridge where the main highway of crossed brook a small stream enough in summer when it could only provide water sufficient for the refreshment of an occasional horse or dog belonging to some stray it was apt to dry up when it was needed most but now the swamp which it drained was running over with water and sent down a miniature flood that bit at the banks and clutched at the roots and of rushes as if it wished to hold itself back it had piled already a of leaves and sticks and yellow foam against the feeble fence that crossed it at the roadside and the posts which were almost away were leaning over and working to and fro as if they had hard work to stand the strain and might fall with a great splash and go down stream with the a farmer rails and the sticks and yellow foam any minute the water had risen to within a short distance of the floor of the bridge and the three men stood watching it with great interest two of them who had come from church had found the other standing there he owned the pasture through which the brook ran on its way to the river but on that side of the road the ground fell off so there was a small and his own stone walls which stopped at the edge of this were in no danger he wore his e very day clothes but the other men were in their sunday best warm for the time o year ain t it asked one of these taking off his hat and giving his forehead a rub with his coat sleeve i wore my overcoat that i have been wearing this winter to meeting this morning and the of it was more than a load of hay i come off without it this afternoon the folks said i should get my death o cold and i do know but they was right but i wa n t going to as i did in the for nobody t is warm said who was without his own waistcoat and who a smooth and soft bit of pine with a keen edged knife in ideal yankee fashion i ve been looking to see a farmer that old fence of uncle s over the stream s most as high as i ever see it i should n t wonder if it come over the bridge if this weather holds brook s b en over this bridge more times n you ve got fingers and toes said the third man scornfully guess you ve forgot when i was a boy t was customary for it to go over the bridge every spring and i do know but i ve seen it in the fall rains as well come near getting drowned here once you know you re thinking of the little old bridge that used to be over it when we was boys t was two or three foot lower than this the road used to be all under water in them days i know that well as anybody i wasn t referring to tho bridge i said the brook was high as i ever see it ef you had that little bridge that was here before they h up the road i guess you d find it well wet down don t seem to me as if the run so high as they used suggested henry mildly they say it s because the country s been stripped of its growth so cutting the pines all o e lets the sun get to the springs and the ground right up i can t say i understand it myself but they ve got an argument for everything nowadays a farmer there ain t so much snow as there used to be when we was boys said i never see no such anywhere about as used to be round the old school house we used to make in em that you could stand right up in and have lots o clear room overhead too you re considerable taller than you was in them days said that makes some difference and the three neighbors laughed together as if it were a great joke all through the parish were little groups of people like this together on their front steps or before the barn doors where happy fowls their feathers and scratched the wet ground or and to and fro there was a good deal of social visiting going on and as the three men stood together on the bridge which was a favorite abiding place in summer being not far from several they spoke to one neighbor after another as he or she went along in the mud possible as for the horses they were steaming as if they had come from the races and looked as if they wished like their masters to be relieved of their winter coats seems to me everybody was out to day said who was a rosy faced pleasant looking a farmer man of about forty i do know when i ve missed a before and he went on little white from his stick which was away slowly the other men waited for a few moments until they became certain that he would say no more of his own accord and then boldly inquired what had kept him at home from meeting and was told that he had watched the night before with old mr i want to know if you did said with much concern i d no idea that he was so bad off as to have and i should think	40
his own folks might take care of him amongst themselves he ain t been sick enough to them out seems to me i guess i m as near to being his own folks as anybody if setting by him counts for anything said with a good deal of feeling i always thought everything of uncle he s done me more kind turns than anybody else ever did and he s a good hearted man if ever there was one he s none of your but he s got the good will of everybody that knows him less it s his own children the three friends were leaning against the rail a farmer of the bridge all in a row fiercely for a minute the hands of his companions were plunged deep into their already pockets they looked at him eagerly for they knew instinctively that he was going to say something more he shut his jack knife with a loud snap and turned and threw the bit of white pine into the noisy rushing brook it was only a second before it had gone under the bridge to show itself white and light on the brown water and lift itself as if for a leap on the rounded edge of the little fall and disappear s forced discretion seemed to have been thrown away with it found out somehow or before i come away this morning that i about things and she come round wanting me not to tell but all i told her was that i would n t have done it if i was her if i was going to bo ashamed of it i don t know when anything has me up so says i right to her face and eyes i m to death to think i am any relation to such folks as you be and she shut the door right in my face and i cleared out i ve been sorry all day i said it not on account of her but now she s mad she won t let me go near the old gentleman if she can help it and i might have looked after him a good deal a farmer what s to pay asked and eagerly it was some time since anything had happened to them which promised to be of so much interest as this was not easily excited and was an uncommonly man under ordinary circumstances well if i must say it they ve prevailed upon that poor old man to sign away his property and i call it a burning shame how long ago and the hearers looked at with startled countenances yet there could be seen a of satisfaction at this beginning of his story some time in the winter answered the poor has been laid up you know a good deal of the time and there come a day when he was summoned to court on account of that trust money he s got for the child n you know he s for em and it s been a sight o trouble to him he might have sent word to the judge that he wa n t able to come and see to it and t would ha done just as well three months hence being a form of law he had to go through but what does them plants o grace do but work him all up and tell him a lot o stuff an nonsense until he was ready to do whatever they said he put the power into s hands to go over and tend to the matter a farmer and then they went at him again he told me all about it in the night though i have had an of it for some time past and they told him t t likely he d ever get about again and he was too old to look after business and go hither and yon about the country all he wanted was his they told him and he d better give them the care of things and save himself all he could and make himself comfortable the rest of his days is dreadful when she gives her mind to it and uncle he somehow or always had a great respect for her judgment and been kind of of her into the bargain and he was sick and weak and they him about to death till he signed off at last just to get a little peace mary was there at the time a and same as she always is won t have her about generally but she got her to help then and between em they won him over mary is always a on being left a widow with no means and a little family to fetch up and her father s always had to help her both of her boys is big enough to be doing for themselves and ought to be put on to farms or to some trades but they never do a stroke of work if they can help it did they draw up the papers just as they wanted a farmer em aud make the old sir sign em asked i should n t ha thought he d been fool enough nor i neither replied who was in the hood tide of successful but we know all of us that their father ain t what he used to be and he was a sick man at the time they put it to wm this way that he would have everything he wanted same s if t was his own and that he should have his say about everything just the same t was only to save him trouble of the care of things and the way fixed it was abominable she got him first of all to give mary her place to s mills where she lives out and out because says she it may	40
up the boys and give them some ambition if they feel it s their own mary always was kind of wanting and she never see through it that was getting double what she was she was so pleased about getting her place in her own right uncle he told me he did n t want to do anything about the bank stock and to tell the truth he always meant the farm for but the girls set to so about him that there wa n t no use said if ever her father wanted to change his mind he could do it and make out new papers after he d gone and give it to her it wa n t his to give growled did n t he know that a farmer well i can tell you he s been sick ever since he realized what he d done said he said last night that it had been at his conscience that it wa n t fair to or to mary neither i stuck up for but i told him mary would n t be any better off if she had a million and wa n t far from the truth when she said he d always been doing for her but as for he d done well enough if he had n t been to death i know he drank more n was good for him and hated farm work but there was sights o good things about him and he wa n t no common fool they ve it into the old man s ears that he must be dead they ain t heard from him for so long but never would write to him and the old man s s failed him of late he cried like a child as he lay there in bed last night he got hold of my hand and it and said he did n t know till he got mary to read him the paper all through once when was out to a neighbors that they d it so s to leave out it gives mary her place and a piece of beside that comes from her mother s folks and everything else this farm and the bank stock and everything to she s got as much as three thousand dollars more than her half grasping s both a farmer on em she and is and they ve got a young one that going to be worse n either of em i thought last night that the sooner poor old uncle was laid away down in the burying ground the better t would be for him like not they never trouble themselves to set up a stone for him but i see to it myself sure as the world if they don t show him respect taking away his rights kind as he s always been and a good neighbor his only fault has been that he was too lavish there ain t much the matter with him that i can see except he s distressed and seemed to feel he was broke in his mind and there was nothing to look forward to they ve moved him out of the room where he always slept into a back bed room where there ain t room to swing a cat and no chance for a fire i like to have to death i set up in my overcoat all night for t was than you d suppose before such a mild day he wa n t warm enough along towards morning and i round till i got some blankets for there wasn t nothing over him but old come in in the morning mad as fire any way because it seems she heard us talking in the night but when she see them blankets she like to have died and asked why i did n t come to her if i wanted more t was too bad to a farmer all over the best she had there ain t a spot on em nor a in em said i real pleasant though i could ha bit her head off i remember i was with your mother when she bought em t was one of the last times she was ever over to the mills i happened to be into s shop when she was selecting them she got them very cheap i told our folks what a bargain they was for the quality not that i pretend to be a judge of such things but the women thought they did n t need them i just spoke of it to so she d see i knew they were none of her buying and i said right before her the best ain t too good for you uncle well said henry i never thought i should like to take up with for better for worse but she may do well by her father after all old folks has been known to be difficult but she ain t done right so far as we can see done right exclaimed it s a burning shame and i hope she be met with that s what was going on one day last winter when saw that riding home with he s a lawyer what there is of him and i suppose they got him over to do the business i heard he d mary her place a farmer i don t nt to think of it said but it follows me about the whole time i suppose i have got out to meeting to day but it would have been more than i could stand to see and parade up the broad aisle i wasn t beat out that i could n t have gone one night s watching won t use me up the friends now separated for the air was growing cold and damp	40
mentioned that his overcoat would n t do him any harm if he had it then and he and went away together while turned toward the other direction suppose you be out to town meeting called after him it was fairly amazing that nobody should have spoken about the great day of which were in every man s mind to a greater or less degree had not been without his hopes of running for to tell the truth he had looked forward all the week before to his cause among his neighbors by a friendly word in season on sunday but his uncle s wrongs had driven his own political interests quite out of his head he walked slowly home in the fast gathering spring the noise of the brook growing fainter and fainter he a slight reaction from his enthusiasm and wished he had not spoken a farmer warmly against his cousins mary s a poor dragging he said to himself and as for she s near and set in her own way but she may treat the old gentleman well for shame s sake i don t know but i was hasty but i don t care if was it wa n t the right thing for her to do and then there s by way of any harm he might have done he held his peace in his own household and refrained from the of a sunday evening by introducing this most interesting subject of conversation he had a way of keeping things to himself at times which his wife found most provoking but he was possessed of that trait of many people of telling his secrets generously and even if he once was forced to break through the first barrier of reserve the next morning was clear and not cold but the warmth and influence of the day before was not to be felt it was commonplace new england spring weather and had a relationship to the melting of snow and the lingering of winter which was most a large number of persons had taken violent and the preserved a discreet silence wore not only his overcoat to town meeting but a round a farmer ms throat as well and he from time to tune angrily as if it were a note of and contempt there was a grand quarrel over the laying out of a new piece of road and it was at first found very difficult to choose the town officers there was a monotonous repetition of the house and when lost at last the position of he had become so angry with some of his and so tired with the noisy war that the glory of the occasion was very much it was over at four o clock and nobody had had any dinner except a slight refreshment of apples and very watery and sour which could be bought at abominable prices over the of one of the which were fastened in long rows to the fences near the old meeting house which had been given over to purposes was by no means a favorite among his he was very and had saved considerable money for which it was supposed had married him he was of the opposite party in politics to and he had been the opposing and successful candidate for the office which had lost s wagon was next but one and the two men their horses without looking at each other went home pre a farmer to believe any report of cruelty or on the part of his uncle s children and full of the intention to tell the story of their in his own household but he was not even to have this pleasure on that unlucky day his wife asked him reproachfully as he entered why he had said nothing of what everybody had been talking about who went by the house and which would have been no story at all without his own report already much of the meanness and of the next morning resumed his business of from which he had taken a two days but the excitement had been a good deal of a strain upon him and he worked without much enthusiasm for a few hours and about eleven o clock laid down his tools altogether the spoke was so dull that it needed grinding and there was nobody to turn the and his head ached a little he did not feel inclined to start out upon a new piece of work and taking a disgusted look around the shop at the limbs of various old and new he threw off his apron and went to the house which was only a few rods distant along the road outside the shop door were some of wheels in various stages of decay and and two or three old wagon bodies and chaise tops were rest a farmer ing on the ground in most forlorn condition as if they had been exposed to all the winter weather the wood work of one new farm cart was set up on and had received its first coat of paint but that was the only sign of any progress of the art that was carried on within one would think from the outward appearance of a s shop that it was also a of worn out carriages of every description the trade is apparently never carried on without much useless rubbish unless one may venture the suggestion that it is necessary to have a collection of specimens showing the advances and effects of various diseases of wheels as are furnished forth with on the seat of an old wagon there was perched a large rag doll and when saw it he smiled for the first time that morning he was very fond of his little girl to whom the doll belonged he pushed open the kitchen door with some faint of pleasure for a great of a well	40
known blew out through the half opened window which he had just passed his wife was and he did not notice at first for the smoke and steam obscured the atmosphere that some one was sitting at the other side of the room just in time ain t i said cheerfully a farmer then to his great disgust and confusion he saw that the guest was his cousin is that you he asked in quite another tone yes it is said mrs and i should think you d be ashamed to look me in the face you ve been and done the best you could to take away my good name and i don t see what harm i ever done you nor yours and she began to cry in a most fashion gave himself an angry and went over to the window where he stood with his back to the company and looked at the safe harbor of the shop which he had just left his wife who was a fearful soul and who hated a quarrel escaped with her full of to the recesses of the from whence she stole a glance now and then at the others like a distressed mouse which had doubts about venturing out of its hole mrs and sobbed and wiped her not very wet eyes with her handkerchief again and again but still did not speak and nothing could be more foster said this morning she remarked in a broken voice that he supposed you was put out about the election and s getting in ahead of you but i wa n t going to hear my own first a farmer cousin spoken of no such way and i said that you had n t nothing to do with it you was too ard a man i knew you was hasty to speak but there never was nothing mean about you with all your faults and i explained it as best i could for i m sure i don t know no other reason poor old father s mind is broke more than folks think who comes in and sees him for a visit and he s got set upon our having got away his property from him t was all his own set out to deed it to us now in his life time he got kind of worried and confused a spell ago and seemed to want to be rid of the care of it and we made the change to gratify him said he would n t have no such on and that he did n t want the farm he s been desiring for a long spell to move to s mills and go into the shoe factory he could have had a first rate chance any time in the room but we seemed to be pinned right down where we was on father s account you need n t have drove off then grumbled but though mrs heard him in the and shook for fear mrs went on complacently i m sure we ve always done the best we could by our folks and by the neighbors we ain t had the means to be free handed for we never knew what a farmer was our own and what was n t one day father d be real arbitrary and gather up whatever there was even the butter money that anybody d think i might have a right to aud next thing he would n t want to be consulted about anything went to him one day about a bunch o when he was going to alter the hen and father give it to him right an left because he him about it he refused him the money and said had made enough o e from the place and he should think he might attend to a job of that size himself gave a sympathetic chuckle and his cousin wished she had left out this illustration i only spoke of it because some days father would have grieved to death if he had n t been told something that was half the importance she explained in a higher key than ever if you had to summer and winter him i guess you d find out he ain t so easy going and pleasant as folks seem to think i know it ain t right to talk so about my own father that s failed from what he used to be but i ve got to stand up for myself if my own relations won t stand up for me and at this point she cried again more sorrowfully than before i do have a hard time she said in conclusion father to please and mary a on her trials and her a farmer complaints and to borrow everything i ve got and a and discontented and talking about going west and he spent about all the ready money he could out of father i wonder the place ain t all and i dare say we shall find it is some days i wish i was laid in my grave for i sha n t get no rest this side of it s wife in the was ready to cry also by the time she heard the end of this touching appeal and she did not see how her husband could be so stony hearted she wished he would say something and knocked two together for a signal and then was dreadfully shocked by what she had done she was not very fond of and could talk angrily about her behind her back at any time but being a weak little soul and anxious to avoid when there was any danger of getting a blow herself she was ready being also a woman to take her complaining visitor s part but shifted his weight from one foot to the other and a button which was at the	40
back of his collar and which at that moment came off and dropped on the floor i guess you have to set a in this if you will he said with well feigned indifference and came out from among the pots and very a farmer and meek the button had rolled almost to mrs s feet and when looked for it she stooped and picked it up and handed it to his wife with a heavy sigh and then rose to take leave i shall be ready any time to watch with the old gentleman if he needs it or even thinks he does remarked as if he had heard nothing of what his cousin had said and she did not know how to answer him though usually she was equal to the occasion she went away in doubt whether she had won a great victory or had been defeated and she took the plate of which humbly offered in the old gentleman s behalf hardly knowing what it was she felt so unlike herself all of a sudden but she came to before she was out of sight of the house and though l he hated worse than ever she ate one of the with uncommon relish and put another in her pocket the spring days lengthened and grew into summer and the excitement which attended the knowledge of the transfer of old mr s property died slowly away he looked so and changed by his illness of the winter that it was by no means difficult for the town s people to believe that his mind had become as much as his body as for a farmer his nearest neighbors they saw him rarely for he was too lame to make the short journey to their houses and in the early business of the farms nobody found much time to go visiting or her most husband he was a sly looking faded out little man of no attractions and a manner which disgusted the persons he sought most eagerly to please it had been thought that he would favor some projects about the new road which he frowned upon directly he was in office and that the parties who were most concerned and there grew steadily a feeling of shame and regret that he should have won so easily his prominent position in town affairs he paid the taxes on the farm with unusual and the took notice that he had crossed out mr s name from the tax bill and inserted his own in its place there was a good deal of sympathy felt for the old man because he had not deserved such a miserable son in law people hoped that he was treated well but it was taken for granted in those few weeks that the poor old farmer was fast breaking up and under the circumstances nobody could wish him to live long since it would only involve the greater of old age and a continued suffering of one sort and another as for his a farmer daughter she was making great bids friendship and was showing herself both generous and in a way that much surprised her acquaintances she spoke with great concern of her father s failing health and some persons began to say she was good hearted and what a pity it was that she should have thrown herself away on such a man as she drove old mr to church one hot sunday when was reported to be kept at home by the expected from a hive of bees and it was certainly very kind the way in which she helped him down out of the high wagon and along the broad aisle to his he looked round the church as pleased as a child and seemed to enjoy the unusual opportunity of being among his friends and neighbors f older people watched him affectionately he was younger than several who were there and many of the younger members of the congregation expected him to betray in some way his shattered wits but he seemed to be in full possession of his faculties as far as any one could decide at that time and when found his place in a hymn book and offered it to him he shook his head at her in great perplexity and proceeded to search for the right page in his own copy of and select hymns which was a farmer of large type and for years had been ready to his hand in the corner of the i m all right if it was n t for my he told a half dozen of the friends who crowded about him i can get about a good deal better than the folks think i can too but keeps right after me he added in a lower voice to who had been more pleased than anybody to see his uncle in his accustomed seat and who indulged a hope that now he was about again he would take things into his own hands but the poor man stumbled on the meeting house steps that very sunday and gave himself a bad strain and passed many a long and lonely day afterward in his dark close bedroom in that summer weather out the birds sang and the grass grew and grew until it waved in the wind and was like the sea the old farmer worried and fretted about the crops and could not imagine how the fields got on without his and care he was always calling or the man who had been engaged to help him and demanding strict account of the potatoes and corn and beans he had worked day in and day out on his land until that summer and he was sure everything must be going to wreck and ruin without him some of his questions he thought and treated him like a child if it had not a	40

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