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Title:  Eben Holden a Tale of the North Country

Author:  Irving Bacheller

September, 2001  [Etext #2799]
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Eben Holden a Tale of the North Country

by Irving Bacheller




PREFACE

Early in the last century the hardy wood-choppers began to come
west, out of Vermont. They founded their homes in the
Adirondack wildernesses and cleared their rough acres with the
axe and the charcoal pit. After years of toil in a rigorous climate
they left their sons little besides a stumpy farm and a coon-skin
overcoat. Far from the centres of life their amusements, their
humours, their religion, their folk lore, their views of things had in
them the flavour of the timber lands, the simplicity of childhood.
Every son was nurtured in the love of honour and of industry, and
the hope of sometime being president. It is to be feared this latter
thing and the love of right living, for its own sake, were more in
their thoughts than the immortal crown that had been the
inspiration of their fathers. Leaving the farm for the more
promising life of the big city they were as men born anew, and
their second infancy was like that of Hercules. They had the
strength of manhood, the tireless energy of children and some hope
of the highest things. The pageant of the big town - its novelty, its
promise, its art, its activity - quickened their highest powers, put
them to their best effort. And in all great enterprises they became
the pathfinders, like their fathers in the primeval forest.

This book has grown out of such enforced leisure as one may find
in a busy life. Chapters begun in the publicity of a Pullman car
have been finished in the cheerless solitude of a hotel chamber.
Some have had their beginning in a sleepless night and their end in
a day of bronchitis. A certain pious farmer in the north country
when, like Agricola, he was about to die, requested the doubtful
glory of this epitaph: 'He was a poor sinner, but he done his best'
Save for the fact that I am an excellent sinner, in a literary sense,
the words may stand for all the apology I have to make.

The characters were mostly men and women I have known and
who left with me a love of my kind that even a wide experience
with knavery and misfortune has never dissipated. For my
knowledge of Mr Greeley I am chiefly indebted to David P.
Rhoades, his publisher, to Philip Fitzpatrick, his pressman, to the
files of the Tribune and to many books.

IRVING BACHELLER
New York City, 7 April 1900




BOOK ONE



Chapter I


Of all the people that ever went west that expedition was the most
remarkable.

A small boy in a big basket on the back of a jolly old man, who
carried a cane in one hand, a rifle in the other; a black dog serving
as scout, skirmisher and rear guard - that was the size of it. They
were the survivors of a ruined home in the north of Vermont, and
were travelling far into the valley of the St Lawrence, but with no
particular destination.

Midsummer had passed them in their journey; their clothes were
covered with dust; their faces browning in the hot sun. It was a
very small boy that sat inside the basket and clung to the rim, his
tow head shaking as the old man walked. He saw wonderful
things, day after day, looking down at the green fields or peering
into the gloomy reaches of the wood; and he talked about them.

'Uncle Eb - is that where the swifts are?' he would ask often; and
the old man would answer, 'No; they ain't real sassy this time o'
year. They lay 'round in the deep dingles every day.'

Then the small voice would sing idly or prattle with an imaginary
being that had a habit of peeking over the edge of the basket or
would shout a greeting to some bird or butterfly and ask finally:
'Tired, Uncle Eb?'

Sometimes the old gentleman would say 'not very', and keep on,
looking thoughtfully at the ground. Then, again, he would stop and
mop his bald head with a big red handkerchief and say, a little
tremor of irritation in his voice: 'Tired! who wouldn't be tired with
a big elephant like you on his back all day? I'd be 'shamed o'
myself t' set there an' let an old man carry me from Dan to
Beersheba. Git out now an' shake yer legs.'

I was the small boy and I remember it was always a great relief to
get out of the basket, and having run ahead, to lie in the grass
among the wild flowers, and jump up at him as he came along.

Uncle Eb had been working for my father five years before I was
born. He was not a strong man and had never been able to carry
the wide swath of the other help in the fields, but we all loved him
for his kindness and his knack of story-telling. He was a bachelor
who came over the mountain from Pleasant Valley, a little bundle
of clothes on his shoulder, and bringing a name that enriched the
nomenclature of our neighbourhood. It was Eben Holden.

He had a cheerful temper and an imagination that was a very
wilderness of oddities. Bears and panthers growled and were very
terrible in that strange country. He had invented an animal more
treacherous than any in the woods, and he called it a swift.
'Sumthin' like a panther', he described the look of it a fearsome
creature that lay in the edge of the woods at sundown and made a
noise like a woman crying, to lure the unwary. It would light one's
eye with fear to hear Uncle Eb lift his voice in the cry of the swift.
Many a time in the twilight when the bay of a hound or some far
cry came faintly through the wooded hills, I have seen him lift his
hand and bid us hark. And when we had listened a moment, our
eyes wide with wonder, he would turn and say in a low,
half-whispered tone: ' 'S a swift' I suppose we needed more the fear
of God, but the young children of the pioneer needed also the fear
of the woods or they would have strayed to their death in them.

A big bass viol, taller than himself, had long been the solace of his
Sundays. After he had shaved - a ceremony so solemn that it
seemed a rite of his religion - that sacred viol was uncovered. He
carried it sometimes to the back piazza and sometimes to the barn,
where the horses shook and trembled at the roaring thunder of the
strings. When he began playing we children had to get well out of
the way, and keep our distance. I remember now the look of him,
then - his thin face, his soft black eyes, his long nose, the suit of
broadcloth, the stock and standing collar and, above all, the
solemnity in his manner when that big devil of a thing was leaning
on his breast

As to his playing I have never heard a more fearful sound in any
time of peace or one less creditable to a Christian. Weekdays he
was addicted to the milder sin of the flute and, after chores, if
there were no one to talk with him, he would sit long and pour his
soul into that magic bar of boxwood.

Uncle Eb had another great accomplishment. He was what they
call in the north country 'a natural cooner'. After nightfall, when
the corn was ripening, he spoke in a whisper and had his ear
cocked for coons. But he loved all kinds of good fun.

So this man had a boy in his heart and a boy in his basket that
evening we left the old house. My father and mother and older
brother had been drowned in the lake, where they had gone for a
day of pleasure. I had then a small understanding of my loss, hat I
have learned since that the farm was not worth the mortgage and
that everything had to be sold. Uncle Eb and I - a little lad, a very
little lad of six - were all that was left of what had been in that
home. Some were for sending me to the county house; but they
decided, finally, to turn me over to a dissolute uncle, with some
allowance for my keep. Therein Uncle Eb was to be reckoned
with. He had set his heart on keeping me, but he was a farm-hand
without any home or visible property and not, therefore, in the
mind of the authorities, a proper guardian. He had me with him in
the old house, and the very night he heard they were coming after
me in the morning, we started on our journey. I remember he was a
long time tying packages of bread and butter and tea and boiled
eggs to the rim of the basket, so that they hung on the outside.
Then he put a woollen shawl and an oilcloth blanket on the
bottom, pulled the straps over his shoulders and buckled them,
standing before the looking-glass, and, hang put on my cap and
coat, stood me on the table, and stooped so that I could climb into
the basket - a pack basket, that he had used in hunting, the top a
little smaller than the bottom. Once in, I could stand comfortably
or sit facing sideways, my back and knees wedged from port to
starboard. With me in my place he blew out the lantern and groped
his way to the road, his cane in one hand, his rifle in the other.
Fred, our old dog - a black shepherd, with tawny points - came
after us. Uncle Eb scolded him and tried to send him back, but I
pleaded for the poor creature and that settled it, he was one of our
party.

'Dunno how we'll feed him,' said Uncle Eb. 'Our own mouths are
big enough t' take all we can carry, but I hain' no heart t' leave 'im
all 'lone there.'

I was old for my age, they tell me, and had a serious look and a
wise way of talking, for a boy so young; but I had no notion of
what lay before or behind us.

'Now, boy, take a good look at the old house,' I remember he
whispered to me at the gate that night ''Tain't likely ye'll ever see it
ag'in. Keep quiet now,' he added, letting down the bars at the foot
of the lane. 'We're goin' west an' we mustn't let the grass grow
under us. Got t'be purty spry I can'tell ye.'

It was quite dark and he felt his way carefully down the cow-paths
into the broad pasture. With every step I kept a sharp lookout for
swifts, and the moon shone after a while, making my work easier.

I had to hold my head down, presently, when the tall brush began
to whip the basket and I heard the big boots of Uncle Eb ripping
the briars. Then we came into the blackness of the thick timber
and I could hear him feeling his way over the dead leaves with his
cane. I got down, shortly, and walked beside him, holding on to the
rifle with one hand. We stumbled, often, and were long in the trail
before we could see the moonlight through the tree columns. In the
clearing I climbed to my seat again and by and by we came to the
road where my companion sat down resting his load on a boulder.

'Pretty hot, Uncle Eb, pretty hot,' he said to himself, fanning his
brow with that old felt hat he wore everywhere. 'We've come three
mile er more without a stop an' I guess we'd better rest a jiffy.'

My legs ached too, and I was getting very sleepy. I remember the
jolt of the basket as he rose, and hearing him say, 'Well, Uncle Eb,
I guess we'd better be goin'.'

The elbow that held my head, lying on the rim of the basket, was
already numb; but the prickling could no longer rouse me, and
half-dead with weariness, I fell asleep. Uncle Eb has told me since,
that I tumbled out of the basket once, and that he had a time of it
getting me in again, but I remember nothing more of that day's
history.

When I woke in the morning, I could hear the crackling of fire, and
felt very warm and cosy wrapped in the big shawl. I got a cheery
greeting from Uncle Eb, who was feeding the fire with a big heap
of sticks that he had piled together. Old Fred was licking my hands
with his rough tongue, and I suppose that is what waked me. Tea
was steeping in the little pot that hung over the fire, and our
breakfast of boiled eggs and bread and butter lay on a paper beside
it. I remember well the scene of our little camp that morning. We
had come to a strange country, and there was no road in sight. A
wooded hill lay back of us, and, just before, ran a noisy little
brook, winding between smooth banks, through a long pasture into
a dense wood. Behind a wall on the opposite shore a great field of
rustling corn filled a broad valley and stood higher than a man's
head.

While I went to wash my face in the clear water Uncle Eb was
husking some ears of corn that he took out of his pocket, and had
them roasting over the fire in a moment. We ate heartily, giving
Fred two big slices of bread and butter, packing up with enough
remaining for another day. Breakfast over we doused the fire and
Uncle Eb put on his basket He made after a squirrel, presently,
with old Fred, and brought him down out of a tree by hurling
stones at him and then the faithful follower of our camp got a bit
of meat for his breakfast. We climbed the wall, as he ate, and
buried ourselves in the deep corn. The fragrant, silky tassels
brushed my face and the corn hissed at our intrusion, crossing its
green sabers in our path. Far in the field my companion heaped a
little of the soft earth for a pillow, spread the oil cloth between
rows and, as we lay down, drew the big shawl over us. Uncle Eb
was tired after the toil of that night and went asleep almost as soon
as he was down. Before I dropped off Fred came and licked my
face and stepped over me, his tail wagging for leave, and curled
upon the shawl at my feet. I could see no sky in that gloomy green
aisle of corn. This going to bed in the morning seemed a foolish
business to me that day and I lay a long time looking up at the
rustling canopy overhead. I remember listening to the waves that
came whispering out of the further field, nearer and nearer, until
they swept over us with a roaring swash of leaves, like that of
water flooding among rocks, as I have heard it often. A twinge of
homesick ness came to me and the snoring of Uncle Eb gave me
no comfort. I remember covering my head and crying softly as I
thought of those who had gone away and whom I was to meet in a
far country, called Heaven, whither we were going. I forgot my
sorrow, finally, in sleep. When I awoke it had grown dusk under
the corn. I felt for Uncle Eb and he was gone. Then I called to him.

'Hush, boy! lie low,' he whispered, bending over me, a sharp look
in his eye.' 'Fraid they're after us.'

He sat kneeling beside me, holding Fred by the collar and
listening. I could hear voices, the rustle of the corn and the tramp
of feet near by. It was thundering in the distance - that heavy,
shaking thunder that seems to take hold of the earth, and there
were sounds in the corn like the drawing of sabers and the rush of
many feet. The noisy thunder clouds came nearer and the voices
that had made us tremble were no longer heard. Uncle Eb began to
fasten the oil blanket to the stalks of corn for a shelter. The rain
came roaring over us. The sound of it was like that of a host of
cavalry coming at a gallop. We lay bracing the stalks, the blanket
tied above us and were quite dry for a time. The rain rattled in the
sounding sheaves and then came flooding down the steep gutters.
Above us beam and rafter creaked, swaying, and showing glimpses
of the dark sky. The rain passed - we could hear the last battalion
leaving the field - and then the tumult ended as suddenly as it
began. The corn trembled a few moments and hushed to a faint
whisper. Then we could hear only the drip of raindrops leaking
through the green roof. It was dark under the corn.

Chapter 2

We heard no more of the voices. Uncle Eb had brought an armful
of wood, and some water in the teapot, while I was sleeping. As
soon as the rain had passed he stood listening awhile and shortly
opened his knife and made a little clearing in the corn by cutting a
few hills.

'We've got to do it,' he said, 'er we can't take any comfort, an' the
man tol' me I could have all the corn I wanted.'

'Did you see him, Uncle Eb?' I remember asking.

'Yes,' he answered, whittling in the dark. 'I saw him when I went
out for the water an' it was he tol' me they were after us.'

He took a look at the sky after a while, and, remarking that he
guessed they couldn't see his smoke now, began to kindle the fire.
As it burned up he stuck two crotches and hung his teapot on a
stick' that lay in them, so it took the heat of the flame, as I had seen
him do in the morning. Our grotto, in the corn, was shortly as
cheerful as any room in a palace, and our fire sent its light into the
long aisles that opened opposite, and nobody could see the warm
glow of it but ourselves.

'We'll hev our supper,' said Uncle Eb, as he opened a paper and
spread out the eggs and bread and butter and crackers. 'We'll jest
hev our supper an' by 'n by when everyone's abed we'll make tracks
in the dirt, I can'tell ye.'

Our supper over, Uncle Eb let me look at his tobacco-box - a shiny
thing of German silver that always seemed to snap out a quick
farewell to me before it dove into his pocket. He was very cheerful
and communicative, and joked a good deal as we lay there waiting
in the firelight. I got some further acquaintance with the swift,
learning among other things that it had no appetite for the pure in
heart.

'Why not?' I enquired.

'Well,' said Uncle Eb, 'it's like this: the meaner the boy, the sweeter
the meat.'

He sang an old song as he sat by the fire, with a whistled interlude
between lines, and the swing of it, even now, carries me back to
that far day in the fields. I lay with my head in his lap while he was
singing.

Years after, when I could have carried him on my back' he wrote
down for me the words of the old song. Here they are, about as he
sang them, although there are evidences of repair, in certain lines,
to supply the loss of phrases that had dropped out of his memory:

I was goin' to Salem one bright summer day,
I met a young maiden a goin' my way;
O, my fallow, faddeling fallow, faddel away.

An' many a time I had seen her before, 
But I never dare tell 'er the love thet I bore. 
O, my fallow, etc.

'Oh, where are you goin' my purty fair maid?'
'O, sir, I am goin' t' Salem,' she said. 
O, my fallow, etc.

'O, why are ye goin' so far in a day? 
Fer warm is the weather and long is the way.' 
O, my fallow, etc.

'O, sir I've forgorten, I hev, I declare, 
But it's nothin' to eat an' its nothin' to wear.' 
O, my fallow, etc.

'Oho! then I hev it, ye purty young miss! 
I'll bet it is only three words an' a kiss.' 
O, my fallow, etc.

'Young woman, young woman, O how will it dew 
If I go see yer lover 'n bring 'em t' you?' 
O, my fallow, etc.

''S a very long journey,' says she, 'I am told, 
An' before ye got back, they would surely be cold.' 
O, my fallow, etc.

'I hev 'em right with me, I vum an' I vow, 
An' if you don't object I'll deliver 'em now.' 
O, my fallow, etc.

She laid her fair head all on to my breast, 
An' ye wouldn't know more if I tol' ye the rest 
O, my fallow, etc.

I went asleep after awhile in spite of all, right in the middle of a
story. The droning voice of Uncle Eb and the feel of his hand upon
my forehead called me back, blinking, once or twice, but not for
long. The fire was gone down to a few embers when Uncle Eb
woke me and the grotto was lit only by a sprinkle of moonlight
from above.

'Mos' twelve o'clock,' he whispered. 'Better be off.'

The basket was on his back and he was all ready. I followed him
through the long aisle of corn, clinging to the tall of his coat. The
golden lantern of the moon hung near the zenith and when we
came out in the open we could see into the far fields. I climbed
into my basket at the wall and as Uncle Eb carried me over the
brook, stopping on a flat rock midway to take a drink, I could see
the sky in the water, and it seemed as if a misstep would have
tumbled me into the moon.

'Hear the crickets holler,' said Uncle Eb, as he followed the bank
up into the open pasture.

'What makes 'em holler?' I asked.

'O, they're jes' filin' their saws an' thinktin'. Mebbe tellin' o' what's
happened 'em. Been a hard day fer them little folks. Terrible flood
in their country. Everyone on em hed t' git up a steeple quick 'she
could er be drownded. They hev their troubles an' they talk 'bout
'em, too.'

'What do they file their saws for?' I enquired.

'Well, ye know,' said he, 'where they live the timber's thick an' they
hev hard work clearin' t' mek a home.'

I was getting too sleepy for further talk. He made his way from
field to field, stopping sometimes to look off at the distant
mountains then at the sky or to whack the dry stalks of mullen with
his cane. I remember he let down some bars after a long walk and
stepped into a smooth roadway. He stood resting a little while, his
basket on the top bar, and then the moon that I had been watching
went down behind the broad rim of his hat and I fell into utter
forgetfulness. My eyes opened on a lovely scene at daylight Uncle
Eb had laid me on a mossy knoll in a bit of timber and through an
opening right in front of us I could see a broad level of shining
water, and the great green mountain on the further shore seemed to
be up to its belly in the sea.

'Hello there!' said Uncle Eb; 'here we are at Lake Champlain.'

I could hear the fire crackling and smell the odour of steeping tea.

'Ye flopped 'round like a fish in thet basket,' said Uncle Eb. ''Guess
ye must a been drearnin' O' bears. Jumped so ye scairt me. Didn't
know but I had a wil' cat on my shoulders.'

Uncle Eb had taken a fish-line out of his pocket and was tying it to
a rude pole that he had cut and trinmed with his jack-knife.

'I've found some crawfish here,' he said, 'an' I'm goin' t' try fer a bite
on the p'int O' rocks there.'

'Goin' t' git some fish, Uncle Eb?' I enquired.

'Wouldn't say't I was, er wouldn't say't I wasn't,' he answered. 'Jes
goin' t' try.'

Uncle Eb was always careful not to commit himself on a doubtful
point. He had fixed his hook and sinker in a moment and then we
went out on a rocky point nearby and threw off into the deep
water. Suddenly Uncle Eb gave a jerk that brought a groan out of
him and then let his hook go down again, his hands trembling, his
face severe.

'By mighty! Uncle Eb,' he murtered to himself, 'I thought we hed
him thet time.'

He jerked again presently, and then I could see a tug on the line
that made me jump. A big fish came thrashing into the air in a
minute. He tried to swing it ashore, but the pole bent and the fish
got a fresh hold of the water and took the end of the pole under.
Uncle Eb gave it a lift then that brought it ashore and a good bit of
water with it. I remember how the fish slapped me with its wet tail
and sprinkled my face shaking itself between my boots. It was a
big bass and in a little while we had three of them. Uncle Eb
dressed them and laid them over the fire on a gridiron of green
birch, salting them as they cooked. I remember they went with a
fine relish and the last of our eggs and bread and butter went with
them.

Our breakfast over, Uncle Eb made me promise to stay with Fred
and the basket while he went away to find a man who could row us
across. In about an hour I heard a boat coming and the dog and I
went out on the point of rocks where we saw Uncle Eb and another
man, heading for us, half over the cove. The bow bumped the
rocks beneath us in a minute. Then the stranger dropped his oars
and stood staring at me and the dog.

'Say, mister,' said he presently, 'can't go no further. There's a
reward offered fer you an' thet boy.'

Uncle Eb called him aside and was talking to him a long time.

I never knew what was said, but they came at last and took us into
the boat and the stranger was very friendly.

When we had come near the landing on the 'York State' side, I
remember he gave us our bearmgs.

'Keep t' the woods,' he said, 'till you're out o' harm's way. Don't go
near the stage road fer a while. Ye'll find a store a little way up the
mountain. Git yer provisions there an' about eighty rod farther ye'll
strike the trail. It'll take ye over the mountain north an' t' Paradise
Road. Then take the white church on yer right shoulder an' go
straight west'

I would not have remembered it so well but for the fact that Uncle
Eb wrote it all down in his account book and that has helped me
over many a slippery place in my memory of those events. At the
store we got some crackers and cheese, tea and coffee, dried beef
and herring, a bit of honey and a loaf of bread that was sliced and
buttered before it was done up. We were off in the woods by nine
o'clock, according to Uncle Eb's diary, and I remember the trail led
us into thick brush where I had to get out and walk a long way. It
was smooth under foot, however, and at noon we came to a slash
in the timber, full of briars that were all aglow with big
blackberries. We filled our hats with them and Uncle Eb found a
spring, beside which we built a fire and had a memorable meal
that made me glad of my hunger.

Then we spread the oilcloth and lay down for another sleep. We
could see the glow of the setting sun through the tree-tops when
we woke, and began our packing.

'We'll hev t' hurry,' said Uncle Eb, 'er we'll never git out o' the
woods t'night 'S 'bout six mile er more t' Paradise Road, es I mek it.
Come, yer slower 'n a toad in a tar barrel.'

We hurried off on the trail and I remember Fred looked very
crestfallen withtwo big packages tied to his collar. He delayed a bit
by trying to shake them off, but Uncle Eb gave him a sharp word
or two and then he walked along very thoughtfully. Uncle Eb was
a little out of patience that evening, and I thought he bore down
too harshly in his rebuke of the old dog.

'You shif'less cuss,' he said to him, 'ye'd jes' dew nothin' but chase
squirrels an' let me break my back t' carry yer dinner.'

It was glooming fast in the thick timber, and Uncle Eb almost ran
with me while the way was plain. The last ringing note of the
wood thrush had died away and in a little while it was so dark I
could distinguish nothing but the looming mass of tree tranks.

He stopped suddenly and strained his eyes in the dark. Then he
whistled a sharp, sliding note, and the sound of it gave me some
hint of his trouble.

'Git down, Willie,' said he, 'an' tek my hand. I'm 'fraid we're lost
here 'n the big woods.'

We groped about for a minute, trying to find the trail.

'No use,' he said presently, 'we'll hev t' stop right here. Oughter
known berter 'n t' come through s' near sundown. Guess it was
more 'n anybody could do.'


He built a fire and began to lay out a supper for us then, while Fred
sat down by me to be relieved of his bundles. Our supper was
rather dry, for we had no water, but it was only two hours since we
left the spring, so we were not suffering yet Uncle Eb took out of
the fire a burning brand of pine and went away into the gloomy
woods, holding it above his head, while Fred and I sat by the fire.

''S lucky we didn't go no further,' he said, as he came in after a few
-minutes. 'There's a big prec'pice over yender. Dunno how deep 't
is. Guess we'd a found out purty soon.'

He cut some boughs of hemlock, growing near us, and spread them
in a little hollow. That done, we covered them with the oilcloth,
and sat down comfortably by the fire. Uncle Eb had a serious look
and was not inclined to talk or story telling. Before turning in he
asked me to kneel and say my prayer as I had done every evening
at the feet of my mother. I remember, clearly, kneeling before my
old companion and hearing the echo of my small voice there in the
dark and lonely woods.

I remember too, and even more clearly, how he bent his head and
covered his eyes in that brief moment. I had a great dread of
darkness and imagined much evil of the forest, but somehow I had
no fear if he were near me. When we had fixed the fire and lain
down for the night on the fragrant hemlock and covered ourselves
with the shawl, Uncle Eb lay on one side of me and old Fred on the
other, so I felt secure indeed. The night had many voices there in
the deep wood. Away in the distance I could hear a strange, wild
cry, and I asked what it was and Uncle Eb whispered back,' 's a
loon.' Down the side of the mountain a shrill bark rang in the
timber and that was a fox, according to my patient oracle. Anon
we heard the crash and thunder of a falling tree and a murmur that
followed in the wake of the last echo.

'Big tree fallin'!' said Uncle Eb, as he lay gaping. 'It has t' break a
way t' the ground an' it must hurt. Did ye notice how the woods
tremble? If we was up above them we could see the hole thet tree
hed made. Jes' like an open grave till the others hev filed it with
their tops.'

My ears had gone deaf with drowsiness when a quick stir in the
body of Uncle Eb brought me back to my senses. He was up on his
elbow listening and the firelight had sunk to a glimmer. Fred lay
shivering and growling beside me. I could hear no other sound.

'Be still,' said Uncle Eb, as he boxed the dog's ears. Then he rose
and began to stir the fire and lay on more wood. As the flame
leaped and threw its light into the tree-tops a shrill cry, like the
scream of a frightened woman, only louder and more terrible to
hear brought me to my feet, crying. I knew the source of it was
near us and ran to Uncle Eb in a fearful panic.

'Hush, boy,' said he as it died away and went echoing in the far
forest. 'I'll take care o' you. Don't be scairt. He's more 'fraid uv us
than we are o' him. He's makin' off now.'

We heard then a great crackling of dead brush on the mountain
above us. It grew fainter as we listened. In a little while the woods
were silent.

'It's the ol' man o' the woods,' said Uncle Eb. 'E's out takin' a walk.'

'Will he hurt folks?' I enquired.

'Tow!' he answered, 'jest as harmless as a kitten.'

Chapter 3

Naturally there were a good many things I wanted to know about
'the ol' man o' the woods,' but Uncle Eb would take no part in any
further conversation.

So I had to lie down beside him again and think out the problem as
best I could. My mind was never more acutely conscious and it
gathered many strange impressions, wandering in the kingdom of
Fear, as I looked up at the tree-tops. Uncle Eb had built a furious
fire and the warmth of it made me sleepy at last. Both he and old
Fred had been snoring a long time when I ceased to hear them.
Uncle Eb woke me at daylight, in the morning, and said we must
be off to find the trail. He left me by the fire a little while and went
looking on all sides and came back no wiser. We were both thirsty
and started off on rough footing, without stopping to eat. We
climbed and crawled for hours, it seemed to me, and everywhere
the fallen tree trunks were heaped in our way. Uncle Eb sat down
on one of them awhile to rest.

'Like the bones o' the dead,' said he, as he took a chew of tobacco
and picked at the rotten skeleton of a fallen tree. We were both
pretty well out of breath and of hope also, if I remember rightly,
when we rested again under the low hanging boughs of a basswood
for a bite of luncheon. Uncle Eb opened the little box of honey and
spread some of it on our bread and butter. In a moment I noticed
that half a dozen bees had lit in the open box.

'Lord Harry! here's honey bees,' said he, as he covered the box so as
to keep them in, and tumbled everything else into the basket.
'Make haste now, Willie, and follow me with all yer might,' he
added.

In a minute he let out one of the bees, and started running in the
direction it flew. It went but a few feet and then rose into the
tree-top.

'He's goin' t' git up into the open air,' said Uncle Eb. 'But I've got
his bearins' an' I guess he knows the way all right.'

We took the direction indicated for a few minutes and then Uncle
Eb let out another prisoner. The bee flew off a little way and then
rose in a slanting course to the tree-tops. He showed us, however,
that we were looking the right way.

'Them little fellers hev got a good compass,' said Uncle Eb, as we
followed the line of the bees. 'It p'ints home ev'ry time, an' never
makes a mistake.'

We went further this time before releasing another. He showed us
that we had borne out of our course a little and as we turned to
follow there were half a dozen bees flying around the box, as if
begging for admission.

'Here they are back agin,' said Uncle Eb, 'an' they've told a lot o'
their cronies 'bout the man an' the boy with honey.'

At length one of them flew over our heads and back in the
direction we had come from.

'Ah, ha,' said Uncle Eb, 'it's a bee tree an' we've passed it, but I'm
goin' t' keep lettin' 'em in an' out. Never heard uv a swarm o' bees
goin' fur away an' so we mus' be near the clearin'.'

In a little while we let one go that took a road of its own. The
others had gone back over our heads; this one bore off to the right
in front of us, and we followed. I was riding in the basket and was
first to see the light of the open through the tree-tops. But I didn't
know what it meant until I heard the hearty 'hurrah' of Uncle Eb.

We had come to smooth footing in a grove of maples and the clean
trunks of the trees stood up as straight as a granite column.
Presently we came out upon wide fields of corn and clover, and as
we looked back upon the grove it had a rounded front and I think
of it now as the vestibule of the great forest

'It's a reg'lar big tomb,' said Uncle Eb, looking back over his
shoulder into the gloomy cavern of the woods.

We could see a log house in the clearing, and we made for it as
fast as our legs would carry us. We had amighty thirst and when
we came to a little brook in the meadow we laid down and drank
and drank until we were fairly grunting with fullness. Then we
filled our teapot and went on. Men were reaping with their cradles
in a field of grain and, as we neared the log house, a woman came
out in the dooryard and, lifting a shell to her lips, blew a blast that
rushed over the clearing and rang in the woods beyond it A loud
halloo came back from the men.

A small dog rushed out at Fred, barking, and, I suppose, with some
lack of respect, for the old dog laid hold of him in a violent temper
and sent him away yelping. We must have presented an evil aspect,
for our clothes were torn and we were both limping with fatigue.
The woman had a kindly face and, after looking at us a moment,
came and stooped before me and held my small face in her hands
turning it so she could look into my eyes.

'You poor little critter,' said she, 'where you goin'?'

Uncle Eb told her something about my father and mother being
dead and our going west Then she hugged and kissed me and made
me very miserable, I remember, wetting my face with her tears,
that were quite beyond my comprehension.

'Jethro,' said she, as the men came into the yard, 'I want ye t' look
at this boy. Did ye ever see such a cunnin' little critter? Jes' look at
them bright eyes!' and then she held me to her breast and nearly
smothered me and began to hum a bit of an old song.

'Yer full o' mother love,' said her husband, as he sat down on the
grass a moment 'Lost her only baby, an' the good Lord has sent no
other. I swan, he has got putty eyes. Jes' as blue as a May flower.
Ain't ye hungry? Come right in, both o' ye, an' set down t' the table
with us.'

They made room for us and we sat down between the bare elbows
of the hired men. I remember my eyes came only to the top of the
table. So the good woman brought the family Bible and sitting on
that firm foundation I ate my dinner of salt pork and potatoes and
milk gravy a diet as grateful as it was familiar to my taste.

'Orphan, eh?' said the man of the house, looking down at me.

'Orphan,' Uncle Eb answered, nodding his head.

'God-fearin' folks?'

'Best in the world,' said Uncle Eb.

Want t' bind 'im out?' the man asked.

'Couldn't spare 'im,' said Uncle Eb, decisively.

'Where ye goin'?'

Uncle Eb hesitated, groping for an answer, I suppose, that would
do no violence to our mutual understanding.

'Goin' t' heaven,' I ventured to say presently - an answer that gave
rise to conflicting emotions at the table.

'That's right,' said Uncle Eb, turning to me and patting my head.
'We're on the road t' heaven, I hope, an' ye'll see it someday, sartin
sure, if ye keep in the straight road and be a good boy.'

After dinner the good woman took off my clothes and put me in
bed while she mended them. I went asleep then and did not awake
for a long time. When I got up at last she brought a big basin of
water and washed me with such motherly tenderness in voice and
manner that I have never forgotten it. Uncle Eb lay sleeping on the
lounge and when she had finished dressing me, Fred and I went out
to play in the garden. It was supper time in a little while and then,
again, the woman winded the shell and the men came up from the
field. We sat down to eat with them, as we had done at noon, and
Uncle Eb consented to spend the night after some urging. He
helped them with the milking, and as I stood beside him shot a jet
of the warm white flood into my mouth, that tickled it so I ran
away laughing. The milking done, I sat on Uncle Eb's knee in the
door-yard with all the rest of that household, hearing many tales of
the wilderness, and of robbery and murder on Paradise Road. I got
the impression that it was a country of unexampled wickedness
and ferocity in men and animals. One man told about the ghost of
Burnt Bridge; how the bridge had burnt one afternoon and how a
certain traveller in the dark of the night driving down the hill
above it, fell to his death at the brink of the culvert.

'An' every night since then,' said the man, very positively, ye can
hear him drivin' down thet bill - jes' as plain as ye can hear me
talkin' -the rattle o' the wheels an' all. It stops sudden an' then ye
can hear 'im hit the rocks way down there at the bottom O' the
gulley an' groan an' groan. An' folks say it's a curse on the town for
leavin' thet hole open.'

'What's a ghost, Uncle Eb?' I whispered.

'Somethin' like a swift,' he answered, 'but not so powerful. We
heard a panther las' night,' he added, turning to our host. 'Hollered
like sin when he see the fire.'

'Scairt!' said the man o' the house gaping. 'That's what ailed him.
I've lived twenty year on Paradise Road an' it was all woods when I
put up the cabin. Seen deer on the doorstep an' bears in the garden,
an' panthers in the fields. But I tell ye there's no critter so terrible
as a man. All the animals know 'im - how he roars, an' spits fire an'
smoke an' lead so it goes through a body er bites off a leg, mebbe.
Guess they'd made friends with me but them I didn't kill went away
smarting with holes in 'em. An' I guess they told all their people
'bout me - the terrible critter that walked on its hind legs an' lied a
white face an' drew up an' spit 'is teeth into their vitals 'cross a
ten-acre lot. An' putty soon they concluded they didn't want t' hev
no truck with me. They thought thin clearin' was the valley o' death
an' they got very careful. But the deer they kep' peekin' in at me.
Sumthin' funny 'bout a deer - they're so cu'rus. Seem's though they
loved the look o' me an' the taste o' the tame grass. Mebbe God
meant em t' serve in the yoke some way an' be the friend o' man.
They're the outcasts o' the forest - the prey o' the other animals an'
men like 'em only when they're dead. An' they're the purtiest critter
alive an' the spryest an' the mos' graceful.'

'Men are the mos' terrible of all critters, an' the meanest,' said
Uncle Eb. 'They're the only critters that kill fer fun.'

'Bedtime,' said our host, rising presently. 'Got t' be up early 'n the
morning.'

We climbed a ladder to the top floor of the cabin with the hired
men, of whom there were two. The good lady of the house had
made a bed for us on the floor and I remember Fred came up the
ladder too, and lay down beside us. Uncle Eb was up with the men
in the morning and at breakfast time my hostess came and woke
me with kisses and helped me to dress. When we were about going
she brought a little wagon out of the cellar that had been a playing
of her dead boy, and said I could have it. This wonderful wagon
was just the thing for the journey we were making. When I held
the little tongue in my hand I was half-way to heaven already. It
had four stout wheels and a beautiful red box. Her brother had sent
it all the way from New York and it had stood so long in the cellar
it was now much in need of repair. Uncle Eb took it to the tool
shop in the stable and put it in shipshape order and made a little
pair of thills to go in place of the tongue. Then he made a big flat
collar and a back-pad out of the leather in old boot-legs, and rigged
a pair of tugs out of two pieces of rope. Old Fred was quite cast
down when he stood in harness between the shafts.

He had waited patiently to have his collar fitted; he had grinned
and panted and wagged his tail with no suspicion of the serious
and humiliating career he was entering upon. Now he stood with a
sober face and his aspect was full of meditation.

'You fightin' hound!' said Uncle Eb, 'I hope this'll improve yer
character.'

Fred tried to sit down when Uncle Eb tied a leading rope to his
collar. When he heard the wheels rattle and felt the pull of the
wagon he looked back at it and growled a little and started to run.
Uncle Eb shouted 'whoa', and held him back, and then the dog got
down on his belly and trembled until we patted his head and gave
him a kind word. He seemed to understand presently and came
along with a steady stride. Our hostess met us at the gate and the
look of her face when she bade us goodbye and tucked some
cookies into my pocket, has always lingered in my memory and
put in me a mighty respect for all women. The sound of her voice,
the tears, the waving of her handkerchief, as we went away, are
among the things that have made me what I am.

We stowed our packages in the wagon box and I walked a few
miles and then got into the empty basket. Fred tipped his load over
once or twice, but got a steady gait in the way of industry after a
while and a more cheerful look. We had our dinner by the roadside
on the bank of a brook, an hour or so after midday, and came to a
little village about sundown. As we were nearing it there was some
excitement among the dogs and one of them tackled Fred. He went
into battle very promptly, the wagon jumping and rattling until it
turned bottom up. Re-enforced by Uncle Eb's cane he soon saw the
heels of his aggressor and stood growling savagely. He was like
the goal in a puzzle maze all wound and tangled in his harness and
it took some time to get his face before him and his feet free.

At a small grocery where groups of men, just out of the fields,
were sitting, their arms bare to the elbows, we bought more bread
and butter. In paying for it Uncle Eb took a package out of his
trouser pocket to get his change. It was tied in a red handkerchief
and I remember it looked to be about the size of his fist. He was
putting it back when it fell from his hand, heavily, and I could hear
the chink of coin as it struck. One of the men, who sat near, picked
it up and gave it back to him. As I remember well, his kindness
had an evil flavour, for he winked at his companions, who nudged
each other as they smiled knowingly. Uncle Eb was a bit cross,
when I climbed into the basket, and walked along in silence so
rapidly it worried the dog to keep pace. The leading rope was tied
to the stock of the rifle and Fred's walking gait was too slow for
the comfort of his neck.

'You shifless cuss! I'll put a kink in your neck fer you if ye don't
walk up,' said Uncle Eb, as he looked back at the dog, in a temper
wholly unworthy of him.

We had crossed a deep valley and were climbing a long hill in the
dusky twilight

'Willie,' said Uncle Eb, 'your eyes are better'n mine - look back
and see if anyone's comin'.'

'Can't see anyone,' I answered.

'Look 'way back in the road as fur as ye can see.

I did so, but I could see no one. He slackened his pace a little after
that and before we had passed the hill it was getting dark. The road
ran into woods and a river cut through them a little way from the
clearing.

'Supper time, Uncle Eb,' I suggested, as we came to the bridge.

'Supper time, Uncle Eb,' he answered, turning down to the shore.

I got out of the basket then and followed him in the brush. Fred
found it hard travelling here and shortly we took off his harness
and left the wagon, transferring its load to the basket, while we
pushed on to find a camping place. Back in the thick timber a long
way from the road, we built a fire and had our supper. It was a dry
nook in the pines -'tight as a house,' Uncle Eb said - and carpeted
with the fragrant needles. When we lay on our backs in the
firelight I remember the weary, droning voice of Uncle Eb had an
impressive accompaniment of whispers. While he told stories 1
had a glowing cinder on the end of a stick and was weaving fiery
skeins in the gloom.

He had been telling me of a panther he had met in the woods, one
day, and how the creature ran away at the sight of him.

'Why's a panther 'fraid o' folks?' I enquired.

'Wall, ye see, they used t' be friendly, years 'n years ago - folks 'n
panthers - but they want eggszac'ly cal'lated t' git along t'gether
some way. An' ol' she panther gin 'em one uv her cubs, a great
while ago, jes t' make frien's. The cub he grew big 'n used t' play 'n
be very gentle. They wuz a boy he tuk to, an' both on 'em got very
friendly. The boy 'n the panther went off one day 'n the woods -
guess 'twas more 'n a hundred year ago - an' was lost. Walked all
over'n fin'ly got t' gom' round 'n round 'n a big circle 'til they was
both on 'em tired out. Come night they lay down es hungry es tew
bears. The boy he was kind o' 'fraid 'o the dark, so he got up clus t'
the panther 'n lay 'tween his paws. The boy he thought the panther
smelt funny an' the panther he didn't jes' like the smell o' the boy.
An' the boy he hed the legache 'n kicked the panther 'n the belly, so
't he kin' o' gagged 'n spit an' they want neither on 'em reel
comf'able. The sof paws o' the panther was jes' like pincushions.
He'd great hooks in 'em sharper 'n the p'int uv a needle. An' when
he was goin' t' sleep he'd run 'em out jes' like an ol' cat - kind o'
playflil - 'n purr 'n pull. All t' once the boy felt sumthin' like a lot o'
needles prickin' his back. Made him jump 'n holler like Sam Hill.
The panther he spit sassy 'n riz up 'n smelt o' the ground. Didn't
neither on 'em know what was the matter. Bime bye they lay down
ag'in. 'Twant only a little while 'fore the boy felt somethin' prickin'
uv him. He hollered 'n kicked ag'in. The panther he growled 'n spit
'n dumb a tree 'n sot on a limb 'n peeked over at thet queer little
critter. Couldn't neither on 'em understan' it. The boy c'u'd see the
eyes o' the panther 'n the dark. Shone like tew live coals eggszac'ly.
The panther 'd never sot 'n a tree when he was hungry, 'n see a boy
below him. Sumthin' tol' him t' jump. Tail went swish in the leaves
like thet. His whiskers quivered, his tongue come out. C'u'd think
o' nuthin' but his big empty belly. The boy was scairt. He up with
his gun quick es a flash. Aimed at his eyes 'n let 'er flicker. Blew a
lot o' smoke 'n bird shot 'n paper waddin' right up in t' his face. The
panther he lost his whiskers 'n one eye 'n got his hide fill' o' shot 'n
fell off the tree like a ripe apple 'n run fer his life. Thought he'd
never see nuthin' c'u'd growl 'n spits ' powerful es thet boy. Never
c'u'd bear the sight uv a man after thet. Allwus made him gag 'n
spit t' think o' the man critter. Went off tew his own folks 'n tol' o'
the boy 'at spit fire 'n smoke 'n growled so't almos' tore his ears off
An' now, whenever they hear a gun go off they allwus thank it's the
man critter growlin'. An' they gag 'n spit 'n look es if it made 'em
sick t' the stomach. An' the man folks they didn't hev no good
'pimon o' the panthers after thet. Haint never been frien's any more.
Fact is a man, he can be any kind uv a beast, but a panther he can't
be nuthin' but jest a panther.'

Then, too, as we lay there in the firelight, Uncle Eb told the
remarkable story of the gingerbread hear. He told it slowly, as if
his invention were severely taxed.

'Once they wuz a boy got lost. Was goin' cross lots t' play with
'nother boy 'n lied t' go through a strip o' woods. Went off the trail
t' chase a butterfly 'n got lost. Hed his kite 'n' cross-gun 'n' he
wandered all over 'til he was tired 'n hungry. Then he lay down t'
cry on a bed o' moss. Putty quick they was a big black bear come
along.

'"What's the matter?" said the bear.

'"Hungry," says the boy.

'"Tell ye what I'll dew," says the bear. "If ye'll scratch my back fer
me I'll let ye cut a piece o' my tail off t' eat."

'Bear's tail, ye know, hes a lot o' meat on it - heam tell it was gran'
good fare. So the boy he scratched the bear's back an' the bear he
grinned an' made his paw go patitty-pat on the ground - it did feel
so splendid. Then the boy tuk his jack-knife 'n begun t' cut off the
bear's tail. The bear he flew mad 'n growled 'n growled so the boy
he stopped 'n didn't dast cut no more.

'"Hurts awful," says the bear. "Couldn't never stan' it. Tell ye what
I'll dew. Ye scratched my back an' now I'll scratch your'n."

'Gee whiz!' said I.

'Yessir, that's what the bear said,' Uncle Eb went on. 'The boy he
up 'n run like a nailer. The bear he laughed hearty 'n scratched the
ground like Sam Hill, 'n flung the dirt higher'n his head.

'"Look here," says he, as the boy stopped, "I jes' swallered a piece o
mutton. Run yer hand int' my throat an I'll let ye hev it."

'The bear he opened his mouth an' showed his big teeth.'

'Whew!' I whistled.

'Thet's eggszac'ly what he done,' said Uncle Eb. 'He showed 'em
plain. The boy was scairter'n a weasel. The bear he jumped up 'an
down on his hind legs 'n laughed 'n' hollered 'n' shook himself

'"Only jes' foolin," says he, when he see the boy was goin' t' run
ag'in. "What ye 'fraid uv?"

'"Can't bear t' stay here," says the boy, 'less ye'll keep yer mouth
shet."

'An the bear he shet his mouth 'n pinted to the big pocket 'n his fur
coat 'n winked 'n motioned t' the boy.

'The bear he reely did hev a pocket on the side uv his big fur coat.
The boy slid his hand in up t' the elbow. Wha' d'ye s'pose he
found?'

'Durmo,' said I.

'Sumthin' t' eat,' he continued. 'Boy liked it best uv all things.'

I guessed everything I could think of, from cookies to beefsteak,
and gave up.

'Gingerbread,' said he, soberly, at lengrh.

'Thought ye said bears couldn't talk" I objected.

'Wall, the boy 'd fell asleep an' he'd only dreamed o' the bear,' said
Uncle Eb. 'Ye see, bears can'talk when boys are dreamin' uv 'em.
Come daylight, the boy got up 'n ketched a crow. Broke his wing
with the cross-gun. Then he tied the kite swing on t' the crow's leg,
an' the crow flopped along 'n the boy followed him 'n bime bye
they come out a cornfield, where the crow'd been used t' comin' fer
his dinner.'

'What 'come o' the boy?' said I.

'Went home,' said he, gaping, as he lay on his back and looked up
at the tree-tops. 'An' he allwus said a bear was good comp'ny if he'd
only keep his mouth shet - jes' like some folks I've hearn uv.' 

'An' what 'come o' the crow?'

'Went t' the ol' crow doctor 'n got his wing fixed,' he said, drowsily.
And in a moment I heard him snoring.

We had been asleep a long time when the barking of Fred woke us.
I could just see Uncle Eb in the dim light of the fire, kneeling
beside me, the rifle in his hand.

'I'll fill ye full o' lead if ye come any nearer,' he shouted.

Chapter 4

We listened awhile then but heard no sound in the thicket,
although Fred was growling ominously, his hair on end. As for
myself I never had a more fearful hour than that we suffered
before the light of morning came.

I made no outcry, but clung to my old companion, trembling. He
did not stir for a few minutes, and then we crept cautiously into the
small hemlocks on one side of the opening.

'Keep still,' he whispered, 'don't move er speak.'

Presently we heard a move in the brush and then quick as a flash
Uncle Eb lifted his rifle and fired in the direction of it Before the
loud echo had gone off in the woods we heard something break
through the brush at a run.

''S a man,' said Uncle Eb, as he listened. 'He ain't a losin' no time
nuther.'

We sat listening as the sound grew fainter, and when it ceased
entirely Uncle Eb said he must have got to the road. After a little
the light of the morning began sifting down through the tree-tops
and was greeted with innumerable songs.

'He done noble,' said Uncle Eb, patting the old dog as he rose to
poke the fire. 'Putty good chap I call 'im! He can hev half o' my
dinner any time he wants it.'

'Who do you suppose it was?' I enquired.

'Robbers, I guess,' he answered, 'an' they'll be layin' fer us when we
go out, mebbe; but, if they are, Fred'll frnd 'em an' I've got Ol'
Trusty here 'n' I guess thet'll take care uv us.'

His rifle was always flattered with that name of Ol' Trusty when it
had done him a good turn.

Soon as the light had come clear he went out in the near woods
with dog and rifle and beat around in the brush. He returned
shortly and said he had seen where they came and went.

'I'd a killed em deader 'n a door nail,' said he, laying down the old
rifle, 'if they'd a come any nearer.'

Then we brought water from the river and had our breakfast. Fred
went on ahead of us, when we started for the road, scurrying
through the brush on both sides of the trail, as if he knew what was
expected of him. He flushed a number of partridges and Uncle Eb
killed one of them on our way to the road. We resumed our
journey without any further adventure. It was so smooth and level
under foot that Uncle Eb let me get in the wagon after Fred was
hitched to it The old dog went along soberly and without much
effort, save when we came to hills or sandy places, when I always
got out and ran on behind. Uncle Eb showed me how to brake the
wheels with a long stick going downhill. I remember how it hit the
dog's heels at the first down grade, and how he ran to keep out of
the way of it We were going like mad in half a minute, Uncle Eb
coming after us calling to the dog. Fred only looked over his
shoulder, with a wild eye, at the rattling wagon and ran the harder.
He leaped aside at the bottom and then we went all in a heap.
Fortunately no harm was done.

'I declare!' said Uncle Eb as he came up to us, puffing like a spent
horse, and picked me up unhurt and began to untangle the harness
of old Fred, 'I guess he must a thought the devil was after him.'

The dog growled a little for a moment and bit at the harness, but
coaxing reassured him and he went along all right again on the
level. At a small settlement the children came out and ran along
beside my wagon, laughing and asking me questions. Some of
them tried to pet the dog, but old Fred kept to his labour at the
heels of Uncle Eb and looked neither to right nor left. We stopped
under a tree by the side of a narrow brook for our dinner, and one
incident of that meal I think of always when I think of Uncle Eb. It
shows the manner of man he was and with what understanding and
sympathy he regarded every living thing. In rinsing his teapot he
accidentally poured a bit of water on a big bumble-bee. The poor
creature struggled to lift hill, and then another downpour caught
him and still another until his wings fell drenched. Then his breast
began heaving violently, his legs stiffened behind him and he sank,
head downward, in the grass. Uncle Eb saw the death throes of the
bee and knelt down and lifted the dead body by one of its wings.

'Jes' look at his velvet coat,' he said, 'an' his wings all wet n' stiff.

They'll never carry him another journey. It's too bad a man has t'
kill every step he takes.'

The bee's tail was moving faintly and Uncle Eb laid him out in the
warm sunlight and fanned him awhile with his hat, trying to bring
back the breath of life.

'Guilty!' he said, presently, coming back with a sober face. 'Thet's a
dead bee. No tellin' how many was dependent on him er what
plans he bed. Must a gi'n him a lot o' pleasure t' fly round in the
sunlight, workin' every fair day. 'S all over now.'

He had a gloomy face for an hour after that and many a time, in
the days that followed, I heard him speak of the murdered bee.

We lay resting awhile after dinner and watching a big city of ants.
Uncle Eb told me how they tilled the soil of the mound every year
and sowed their own kind of grain - a small white seed like rice -
and reaped their harvest in the late surnmer, storing the crop in
their dry cellars under ground. He told me also the story of the ant
lion - a big beetle that lives in the jungles of the grain and the
grass - of which I remember only an outline, more or less
imperfect.

Here it is in my own rewording of his tale: On a bright day one of
the little black folks went off on a long road in a great field of
barley. He was going to another city of his own people to bring
helpers for the harvest. He came shortly to a sandy place where the
barley was thin and the hot sunlight lay near to the ground. In a
little valley close by the road of the ants he saw a deep pit, in the
sand, with steep sides sloping to a point in the middle and as big
around as a biscuit. Now the ants are a curious people and go
looking for things that are new and wonderful as they walk abroad,
so they have much to tell worth hearing after a journey. The little
traveller was young and had no fear, so he left the road and went
down to the pit and peeped over the side of it.

'What in the world is the meaning of this queer place?' he asked
himself as he ran around the rim. In a moment he had stepped over
and the soft sand began to cave and slide beneath him. Ouick as a
flash the big lion-beetle rose up in the centre of the pit and began
to reach for him. Then his legs flew in the caving sand and the
young ant struck his blades in it to hold the little he could gain.
Upward he struggled, leaping and floundering in the dust. He had
got near the rim and had stopped, clinging to get his breath, when
the lion began flinging the sand at him with his long feelers. It rose
in a cloud and fell on the back of the ant and pulled at him as it
swept down. He could feel the mighty cleavers of the lion striking
near his hind legs and pulling the sand from under them. He must
go down m a moment and he knew what that meant. He had heard
the old men of the tribe tell often - how they hold one helpless and
slash him into a dozen pieces. He was letting go, in despair, when
he felt a hand on his neck. Looking up he saw one of his own
people reaching over the rim, and in a jiffy they had shut their
fangs together. He moved little by little as the other tagged at him,
and in a moment was out of the trap and could feel the honest
earth under him. When they had got home and told their adventure,
some were for going to slay the beetle.

'There is never a pit in the path o' duty,' said the wise old chief of
the little black folks. 'See that you keep in the straight road.'

'If our brother had not left the straight road,' said one who stood
near, 'he that was in danger would have gone down into the pit.'

'It matters much,' he answered, 'whether it was kindness or
curiosity that led him out of the road. But he that follows a fool
hath much need of wisdom, for if he save the fool do ye not see
that he hath encouraged folly?'

Of course I had then no proper understanding of the chiefs
counsel, nor do I pretend even to remember it from that first
telling, but the tale was told frequently in the course of my long
acquaintance with Uncle Eb.

The diary of my good old friend lies before me as I write, the
leaves turned yellow and the entries dim. I remember how stern he
grew of an evening when he took out this sacred little record of our
wanderings and began to write in it with his stub of a pencil. He
wrote slowly and read and reread each entry with great care as I
held the torch for him. 'Be still, boy - be still,' he would say when
some pressing interrogatory passed my lips, and then he would
bend to his work while the point of his pencil bored further into
my patience. Beginning here I shall quote a few entries from the
diary as they cover, with sufficient detail, an uneventful period of
our journey.

AUGUST 20  Killed a partridge today. Biled it in the teapot for
dinner. Went good. 14 mild.

AUGUST 21 Seen a deer this morning. Fred fit ag'in. Come near
spilin' the wagon. Hed to stop and fix the ex. 10 mild.

AUGUST 22 Clumb a tree this morning after wild grapes. Come
near falling. Gin me a little crickin the back. Willie hes got a stun
bruze. 12 mild.

AUGUST 23 Went in swinmun. Ketched a few fish before
breaklus'. Got provisions an' two case knives an' one fork, also one
tin pie-plate. Used same to fry fish for dinner. 14 mild.

AUGUST 24 Got some spirits for Willie to rub on my back. Boots
wearing out. Terrible hot. Lay in the shade in the heat of the day.
Gypsies come an' camped by us tonight. 10 mild.

I remember well the coming of those gypsies. We were fishing in
sight of the road and our fire was crackling on the smooth cropped
shore. The big wagons of the gypsies - there were four of them as
red and beautiful as those of a circus caravan - halted about
sundown while the men came over a moment to scan'the field.
Presently they went back and turned their wagons into the siding
and began to unhitch. Then a lot of barefooted children, and
women under gay shawls, overran the field gathering wood and
making ready for night. Meanwhile swarthy drivers took the horses
to water and tethered them with long ropes so they could crop the
grass of the roadside.

One tall, bony man, with a face almost as black as that of an
Indian, brought a big iron pot and set it up near the water. A big
stew of beef bone, leeks and potatoes began to cook shortly, and I
remember it had such a goodly smell I was minded to ask them for
a taste of it. A little city of strange people had surrounded us of a
sudden. Uncle Eb thought of going on, but the night was coming
fast and there would be no moon and we were footsore and hungry.
Women and children came over to our fire, after supper, and made
more of me than I liked. I remember taking refuge between the
knees of Uncle Eb, and Fred sat close in front of us growling
fiercely when they came too near. They stood about, looking down
at us and whispered together, and one young miss of the tribe came
up and tried to kiss me in spite of Fred's warnings: She had
flashing black eyes and hair as dark as the night, that fell in a
curling mass upon her shoulders; but, somehow, I had a mighty
fear of her and fought with desperation to keep my face from the
touch of her red lips. Uncle Eb laughed and held Fred by the
collar, and I began to cry out in terror, presently, when, to my great
relief, she let go and ran away to her own people. They all went
away to their wagons, save one young man, who was tall with light
hair and a fair skin, and who looked like none of the other gypsies.

'Take care of yourself,' he whispered, as soon as the rest had gone.
'These are bad people. You'd better be off'

The young man left us and Uncle Eb began to pack up at once.
They were going to bed in their wagons when we came away. I
stood in the basket and Fred drew the wagon that had in it only a
few bundles. A mile or more finther on we came to a lonely,
deserted cabin close to the road. It had began to thunder in the
distance and the wind was blowing damp.

'Guess nobody lives here,' said Uncle Eb as he turned in at the
sagging gate and began to cross the little patch of weeds and
hollyhocks behind it 'Door's half down, but I guess it'll de beeter'n
no house. Goin' t' rain sartin.'

I was nodding a little about then, I remember; but I was wide
awake when he took me out of the basket The old house stood on a
high hill, and we could see the stars of heaven through the ruined
door and one of the back windows. Uncle Eb lifted the leaning
door a little and shoved it aside. We heard then a quick stir in the
old house - a loud and ghostly rattle it seems now as I think of it -
like that made by linen shaking on the line. Uncle Eb took a step
backward as if it had startled him.

'Guess it's nuthin' to be 'fraid of;' he said, feeling in the pet of his
coat He had struck a match in a moment. By its flickering light I
could see only a bit of rubbish on the floor.

'Full o' white owls,' said he, stepping inside, where the rustling was
now continuous. 'They'll do us no harm.'

I could see them now flying about under the low ceiling. Uncle Eb
gathered an gathered an armful of grass and clover, in the near
field, and spread it in a corner well away from the ruined door and
windows. Covered with our blanket it made a fairly comfortable
bed. Soon as we had lain down, the rain began to rattle on the
shaky roof and flashes of lightning lit every comer of the old room.

I have had, ever, a curious love of storms, and, from the time when
memory began its record in my brain, it has delighted me to hear at
night the roar of thunder and see the swift play of the lightning. I
lay between Uncle Eb and the old dog, who both went asleep
shortly. Less wearied I presume than either of them, for I had done
none of the carrying, and had slept along time that day in the shade
of a tree, I was awake an hour or more after they were snoring.
Every flash lit the old room like the full glare of the noonday sun. I
remember it showed me an old cradle, piled full of rubbish, a rusty
scythe hung in the rotting sash of a window, a few lengths of
stove-pipe and a plough in one comer, and three staring white owls
that sat on a beam above the doorway. The rain roared on the old
roof shortly, and came dripping down through the bare boards
above us. A big drop struck in my face and I moved a little. Then I
saw what made me hold my breath a moment and cover my head
with the shawl. A flash of lightning revealed a tall, ragged man
looking in at the doorway. I lay close to Uncle Eb imagining much
evil of that vision but made no outcry.

Snugged in between my two companions I felt reasonably secure
and soon fell asleep. The sun, streaming in at the open door,
roused me in the morning. At the beginning of each day of our
journey I woke to find Uncle Eb cooking at the fire. He was lying
beside me, this morning, his eyes open.

'Fraid I'm hard sick,' he said as I kissed him.

'What's the matter?' I enquired.

He struggled to a sitting posture, groaning soit went to my heart.

'Rheumatiz,' he answered presently.

He got to his feet, little by little, and every move he made gave
him great pain. With one hand on his cane and the other on my
shoulder he made his way slowly to the broken gate. Even now I
can see clearly the fair prospect of that high place - a valley
reaching to distant hills and a river winding through it, glimmering
in the sunlight; a long wooded ledge breaking into naked, grassy
slopes on one side of the valley and on the other a deep forest
rolling to the far horizon; between them big patches of yellow
grain and white buckwheat and green pasture land and greener
meadows and the straight road, with white houses on either side of
it, glorious in a double fringe of golden rod and purple aster and
yellow John's-wort and the deep blue of the Jacob's ladder.

'Looks a good deal like the promised land,' said Uncle Eb. 'Hain't
got much further t' go.'

He sat on the rotting threshold while I pulled some of the weeds in
front of the doorstep and brought kindlings out of the house and
built a fire. While we were eating I told Uncle Eb of the man that I
had seen in the night.

'Guess you was dreamin',' he said, and, while I stood firm for the
reality of that I had seen, it held our thought only for a brief
moment. My companion was unable to walk that day so we lay by,
in the shelter of the old house, eating as little of our scanty store as
we could do with. I went to a spring near by for water and picked a
good mess of blackberries that I hid away until supper time, so as
to surprise Uncle Eb. A longer day than that we spent in the old
house, after our coming, I have never known. I made the room a
bit tidier and gathered more grass for bedding. Uncle Eb felt better
as the day grew warm. I had a busy time of it that morning bathing
his back in the spirits and rubbing until my small arms ached. I
have heard him tell often how vigorously I worked that day and
how I would say: 'I'll take care o' you, Uncle Eb -won't I, Uncle
Eb?' as my little hands flew with redoubled energy on his bare
skin. That finished we lay down sleeping until the sun was low,
when I made ready the supper that took the last of everything we
had to eat. Uncle Eb was more like himself that evening and,
sitting up in the corner, as the darkness came, told me the story of
Squirreltown and Frog Ferry, which came to be so great a standby
in those days that, even now, I can recall much of the language in
which he told it 

'Once,' he said, 'there was a boy thet hed two grey squirrels in a
cage. They kep' thinkin' o' the time they used t' scamper in the
tree-tops an' make nests an' eat all the nuts they wanted an' play I
spy in the thick leaves. An they grew poor an' looked kind o'
ragged an' sickly an' downhearted. When he brought 'em outdoors
they used t' look up in the trees an' run in the wire wheel as if they
thought they could get there sometime if they kep' goin'. As the
boy grew older he see it was cruel to keep 'em shet in a cage, but
he'd hed em a long time an' couldn't bear t' give 'em up.

'One day he was out in the woods a little back o' the clearin'. All t'
once he heard a swift holler. 'Twas nearby an' echoed so he
couldn't tell which way it come from. He run fer home but the
critter ketched 'im before he got out o' the woods an' took 'im into a
cave, an' give 'im t' the little swifis t' play with. The boy cried
terrible. The swifts they laughed an' nudged each other.

'"O ain't he cute!" says one. "He's a beauty!" says another. "Cur'us
how he can git along without any fur," says the mother swift, as
she run er nose over 'is bare foot. He thought of 'is folks waitin' fer
him an' he begged em t' let 'im go. Then they come an' smelt 'im
over.

'"Yer sech a cunin' critter," says the mother swift, "we couldn't
spare ye."

'"Want to see my mother," says the boy sobbing.

'"Couldn't afford t' let ye go - yer so cute" says the swift. "Bring the
poor critter a bone an' a bit o' snake meat"

'The boy couldn't eat. They fixed a bed fer him, but 'twant clean.
The feel uv it made his back ache an' the smell uv it made him sick
to his stomach.

'"When the swifts hed comp'ny they 'd bring 'em overt' look at him
there 'n his dark comer. "'S a boy," said the mother swift pokin' him
with a long stick "Wouldn't ye like t' see 'im run?" Then she
punched him until he got up an' run 'round the cave fer his life.
Happened one day et a very benevolent swift come int' the cave.

'"'S a pity t' keep the boy here," said he; "he looks bad."

'"But he makes fun fer the children," said the swift.

"Fun that makes misery is only fit fer a fool," said the visitor.

'They let him go thet day. Soon as he got hum he thought o' the
squirrels an' was tickled t' find 'em alive. He tak 'em off to an
island, in the middle of a big lake, thet very day, an' set the cage on
the shore n' opened it He thought he would come back sometime
an' see how they was ginin' along. The cage was made of light wire
an' hed a tin bottom fastened to a big piece o' plank. At fust they
was 'fraid t' leave it an' peeked out o' the door an' scratched their
heads's if they thought it a resky business. After awhile one
stepped out careful an' then the other followed. They tried t' climb
a tree, but their nails was wore off an' they kep' fallin' back. Then
they went off 'n the brush t' find some nuts. There was only pines
an' poppies an' white birch an' a few berry bushes on the island.
They went t' the water's edge on every side, but there was nuthin
there a squirrel ud give a flirt uv his tail fer. 'Twas near dark when
they come back t' the cage hungry as tew bears. They found a few
crumbs o' bread in the cup an' divided 'em even. Then they went t'
bed 'n their ol' nest.

'It hed been rainin' a week in the mount'ins. Thet night the lake
rose a foot er more an' 'fore mornin' the cage begun t' rock a teenty
bit as the water lifted the plank. They slep' all the better fer thet an'
they dreamed they was up in a tree at the end uv a big bough. The
cage begun t' sway sideways and then it let go o' the shore an' spun
'round once er twice an' sailed out 'n the deep water. There was a
light breeze blowin' offshore an' purty soon it was pitchin' like a
ship in the sea. But the two squirrels was very tired an' never woke
up 'til sunrise. They got a terrible scare when they see the water
'round 'em an' felt the motion o' the ship. Both on 'em ran into the
wire wheel an' that bore down the stern o' the ship so the under
wires touched the water. They made it spin like a buzz saw an' got
their clothes all wet. The ship went faster when they worked the
wheel, an' bime bye they got tired an' come out on the main deck.
The water washed over it a little so they clim up the roof thet was
a kin' uv a hurricane deck. It made the ship sway an' rock fearful
but they hung on 'midships, an' clung t' the handle that stuck up
like a top mast. Their big tails was spreadover their shoulders, an'
the wind rose an' the ship went faster 'n faster. They could see the
main shore where the big woods come down t' the water 'n' all the
while it kep' a comin' nearer 'n' nearer. But they was so hungry
didn't seem possible they could live to git there.

'Ye know squirrels are a savin' people. In the day o' plenty they
think o' the day o' poverty an' lay by fer it. All at once one uv 'em
thought uv a few kernels o' corn, he hed pushed through a little
crack in the tin floor one day a long time ago. It happened there
was quite a hole under the crack an' each uv 'em bad stored some
kernels unbeknown t' the other. So they hed a good supper 'n' some
left fer a bite 'n the mornin'. 'Fore daylight the ship made her pott
'n' lay to, 'side liv a log in a little cove. The bullfrogs jumped on
her main deck an' begun t' holler soon as she hove to: "all ashore!
all ashore! all ashore!" The two squirrels woke up but lay quiet 'til
the sun rose. Then they come out on the log 'et looked like a long
dock an' run ashore 'n' foun' some o' their own folks in the bush.
An' when they bed tol' their story the ol' father o' the tribe got up 'n
a tree an' hollered himself hoarse preachin' 'bout how 't paid t' be
savin'.

'"An' we should learn t' save our wisdom es well es our nuts," said
a sassy brother; "fer each needs his own wisdom fer his own
affairs."

'An the little ship went back 'n' forth 'cross the cove as the win'
blew. The squirrels hed many a fine ride in her an' the frogs were
the ferrymen. An' all 'long thet shore 'twas known es Frog Ferry
'mong the squirrel folks.'

It was very dark when he finished the tale an' as we lay gaping a
few minutes after my last query about those funny people of the
lake margin I could hear nothing but the chirping of the crickets. I
was feeling a bit sleepy when I heard the boards creak above our
heads. Uncle Eli raised himself and lay braced upon his elbow
listening. In a few moments we heard a sound as of someone
coming softly down the ladder at the other end of the room. It was
so dark I could see nothing.

'Who's there?' Uncle Eb demanded.

'Don't p'int thet gun at me,' somebody whispered. 'This is my home
and I warn ye t' leave it er I'll do ye harm.'

Chapter 5

Here I shall quote you again from the diary of Uncle Eb. 'It was so
dark I couldn't see a han' before me. "Don't p'int yer gun at me," the
man whispered. Thought 'twas fimny he could see me when I
couldn't see him. Said 'twas his home an' we'd better leave. Tol
him I was sick (rumatiz) an' couldn't stir. Said he was sorry an'
come over near us. Tol' him I was an' ol' man goin' west with a
small boy. Stopped in the rain. Got sick. Out o' purvisions. 'Bout
ready t' die. Did'n know what t' do. Started t' stike a match an' the
man said don't make no light cos I don't want to hev ye see my
face. Never let nobody see my face. Said he never went out 'less
'twas a dark night until folks was abed. Said we looked like good
folks. Scairt me a little cos we couldn't see a thing. Also he said
don't be 'fraid of me. Do what I can fer ye.'

I remember the man crossed the creaking floor and sat down near
us after he had parleyed with Uncle Eb awhile in whispers. Young
as I was I keep a vivid impression of that night and, aided by the
diary of Uncle Eb, I have made a record of what was said that is, in
the main, accurate.

'Do you know where you are?' he enquired presently, whispering as
he had done before.

'I've no idee,' said Uncle Eb.

'Well, down the hill is Paradise Valley in the township o' Faraway,'
he continued. 'It's the end o' Paradise Road an' a purty country.
Been settled a long time an' the farms are big an' prosperous - kind
uv a land o' plenty. That big house at the foot o' the hill is Dave
Brower's. He's the richest man in the valley.'

'How do you happen t' be livin' here? - if ye don't min' tellin' me,'
Uncle Eb asked.

'Crazy,' said he; ''fraid uv everybody an' everybody's 'fraid o' me.
Lived a good long time in this way. Winters I go into the big
woods. Got a camp in a big cave an' when I'm there I see a little
daylight. Here 'n the clearin' I'm only up in the night-time. Thet's
how I've come to see so well in the dark. It's give me cat's eyes.'

'Don't ye git lonesome?' Uncle Eb asked.

'Awful - sometimes,' he answered with a sad sigh, 'an' it seems
good t' talk with somebody besides myself. I get enough to eat
generally. There are deer in the woods an' cows in the fields, ye
know, an' potatoes an' corn an' berries an' apples, an' all thet kind o'
thing. Then I've got my traps in the woods where I ketch
partridges, an' squirrels an' coons an' all the meat I need. I've got a
place in the thick timber t' do my cookin' - all I want t' do - in the
middle of the night Sometimes I come here an' spend a day in the
garret if I'm caught in a storm or if I happen to stay a little too late
in the valley. Once in a great while I meet a man somewhere in the
open but he always gits away quick as he can. Guess they think I'm
a ghost - dunno what I think o' them.'

Our host went on talking as if he were glad to tell the secrets of his
heart to some creature of his own kind. I have often wondered at
his frankness; but there was a fatherly tenderness, I remember in
the voice of Uncle Eb, and I judge it tempted his confidence.
Probably the love of companionship can never be so dead in a man
but that the voice of kindness may call it back to life again.

'I'll bring you a bite t' eat before morning,' he said, presently, as he
rose to go. 'leet me feel o' your han', mister.'

Uncle Eb gave him his hand and thanked him.

'Feels good. First I've hed hold of in a long time,' he whispered.

'What's the day o' the month?'

'The twenty-fifth.'

'I must remember. Where did you come from?'

Uncle Eb told him, briefly, the story of our going west

'Guess you'd never do me no harm - would ye?' the man asked. 'Not
a bit,' Uncle Eb answered.

Then he bade us goodbye, crossed the creaking floor and went
away in the darkness.

'Sing'lar character!' Uncle Eb muttered.

I was getting drowsy and that was the last I heard. In the morning
we found a small pail of milk sitting near us, a roasted partridge,
two fried fish and some boiled potatoes. It was more than enough
to carry us through the day with a fair allowance for Fred. Uncle
Eb was a bit better but very lame at that and kept to his bed the
greater part of the day. The time went slow with me I remember.
Uncle Eb was not cheerful and told me but one story and that had
no life in it. At dusk he let me go out in the road to play awhile
with Fred and the wagon, but came to the door and called us in
shortly. I went to bed in a rather unhappy flame of mind. The dog
roused me by barking in the middle of the right and I heard again
the familiar whisper of the stranger.

'Sh-h-h! be still, dog,' he whispered; but I was up to my ears in
sleep and went under shortly, so I have no knowledge of what
passed that night. Uncle Eb tells in his diary that he had a talk with
him lasting more than an hour, but goes no further and never
seemed willing to talk much about that interview or others that
followed it. 

I only know the man had brought more milk and fish and fowl for
us. We stayed another day in the old house, that went like the last,
and the night man came again to see Uncle Eb. The next morning
my companion was able to walk more freely, but Fred and I had to
stop and wait for him very often going down the big hill. I was
mighty glad when we were leaving the musty old house for good
and had the dog hitched with all our traps in the wagon. It was a
bright morning and the sunlight glimmered on the dew in the
broad valley. The men were just coming from breakfast when we
turned in at David Brower's. A barefooted little girl a bit older than
I, with red cheeks and blue eyes and long curly hair, that shone
like gold in the sunlight, came running out to meet us and led me
up to the doorstep, highly amused at the sight of Fred and the
wagon. I regarded her with curiosity and suspicion at first, while
Uncle Eb was talking with the men. I shall never forget that
moment when David Brower came and lifted me by the shoulders,
high above his head, and shook me as if to test my mettle. He led
me into the house then where his wife was working.

'What do you think of this small bit of a boy?' he asked.

She had already knelt on the floor and put her arms about my neck
and kissed me.

'Am' no home,' said he. 'Come all the way from Vermont with an
ol' man. They're worn out both uv 'em. Guess we'd better take 'em
in awhile.'

'O yes, mother - please, mother,' put in the little girl who was
holding my hand. 'He can sleep with me, mother. Please let him
stay.'

She knelt beside me and put her arms around my little shoulders
and drew me to her breast and spoke to me very tenderly.

'Please let him stay,' the girl pleaded again.

'David,' said the woman, 'I couldn't turn the little thing away. Won't
ye hand me those cookies.'

And so our life began in Paradise Valley. Ten minutes later I was
playing my first game of 'I spy' with little Hope Brower, among the
fragrant stooks of wheat in the field back of the garden.

Chapter 6

The lone pine stood in Brower's pasture, just clear of the woods.
When the sun rose, one could see its taper shadow stretching away
to the foot of Woody Ledge, and at sunset it lay like a fallen mast
athwart the cow-paths, its long top arm a flying pennant on the
side of Bowman's Hill. In summer this bar of shadow moved like a
clock-hand on the green dial of the pasture, and the help could tell
the time by the slant of it. Lone Pine had a mighty girth at the
bottom, and its bare body tapered into the sky as straight as an
arrow. Uncle Eb used to say that its one long, naked branch that
swung and creaked near the top of it, like a sign of hospitality on
the highway of the birds, was two hundred feet above ground.
There were a few stubs here and there upon its shaft -the roost of
crows and owls and hen-hawks. It must have passed for a low
resort in the feathered kingdom because it was only the robbers of
the sky that halted on Lone Pine.

This towering shaft of dead timber commemorated the ancient
forest through which the northern Yankees cut their trails in the
beginning of the century. They were a tall, big fisted, brawny lot of
men who came across the Adirondacks from Vermont, and began
to break the green canopy that for ages had covered the valley of
the St Lawrence. Generally they drove a cow with them, and such
game as they could kill on the journey supplemented their diet of
'pudding and milk'. Some settled where the wagon broke or where
they had buried a member of the family, and there they cleared the
forests that once covered the smooth acres of today. Gradually the
rough surface of the trail grew smoother until it became Paradise
Road - the well-worn thoroughfare of the stagecoach with its 'inns
and outs', as the drivers used to say - the inns where the 'men folks'
sat in the firelight of the blating logs after supper and told tales of
adventure until bedtime, while the women sat with their knitting in
the parlour, and the young men wrestled in the stableyard. The
men of middle age had stooped and massive shoulders, and
deep-furrowed brows: Tell one of them he was growing old and he
might answer you by holding his whip in front of him and leaping
over it between his hands.

There was a little clearing around that big pine tree when David
Brower settled in the valley. Its shadows shifting in the light of sun
and moon, like the arm of a compass, swept the spreading acres of
his farm, and he built his house some forty rods from the foot of it
on higher ground. David was the oldest of thirteen children. His
father had died the year before he came to St Lawrence county,
leaving him nothing but heavy responsibilities. Fortunately, his
great strength and his kindly nature were equal to the burden.
Mother and children were landed safely in their new home on
Bowman's Hill the day that David was eighteen. I have heard the
old folks of that country tell what a splendid figure of a man he
was those days - six feet one in his stockings and broad at the
shoulder. His eyes were grey and set under heavy brows. I have
never forgotten the big man that laid hold of me and the broad
clean-shaven serious face, that looked into mine the day I came to
Paradise Valley. As I write I can see plainly his dimpled chin, his
large nose, his firm mouth that was the key to his character. 'Open
or shet,' I have heard the old folks say, 'it showed he was no fool.'

After two years David took a wife and settled in Paradise Valley.
He prospered in a small way considered handsome thereabouts. In
a few years he had cleared the rich acres of his farm to the sugar
bush that was the north vestibule of the big forest; he had seen the
clearing widen until he could discern the bare summits of the
distant hills, and, far as he could see, were the neat white houses of
the settlers. Children had come, three of them - the eldest a son
who had left home and died in a far country long before we came
to Paradise Valley - the youngest a baby.

I could not have enjoyed my new home more if I had been born in
it. I had much need of a mother's tenderness, no doubt, for I
remember with what a sense of peace and comfort I lay on the lap
of Elizabeth Brower, that first evening, and heard her singing as
she rocked. The little daughter stood at her knees, looking down at
me and patting my bare toes or reaching over to feel my face.

'God sent him to us - didn't he, mother?' said she.

'Maybe,' Mrs Brower answered, 'we'll be good to him, anyway.'

Then that old query came into my mind. I asked them if it was
heaven where we were.

'No,' they answered.

''Tain't anywhere near here, is it?' I went on.

Then she told me about the gate of death, and began sowing in me
the seed of God's truth - as I know now the seed of many harvests.
I slept with Uncle Eb in the garret, that night, and for long after we
came to the Brower's. He continued to get better, and was shortly
able to give his hand to the work of the farm.

There was room for all of us in that ample wilderness of his
imagination, and the cry of the swift woke its echoes every
evening for a time. Bears and panthers prowled in the deep
thickets, but the swifts took a firmer grip on us, being bolder and
more terrible. Uncle Eb became a great favourite in the family, and
David Brower came to know soon that he was 'a good man to
work' and could be trusted 'to look after things'. We had not been
there long when I heard Elizabeth speak of Nehemiah - her lost
son - and his name was often on the lips of others. He was a boy of
sixteen when he went away, and I learned no more of him until
long afterwards.

A month or more after we came to Faraway, I remember we went
'cross lots in a big box wagon to the orchard on the hill and
gathered apples that fell in a shower when Uncle Eb went up to
shake them down. Then cane the raw days of late October, when
the crows went flying southward before the wind - a noisy pirate
fleet that filled the sky at times - and when we all put on our
mittens and went down the winding cow-paths to the grove of
butternuts in the pasture. The great roof of the wilderness had
turned red and faded into yellow. Soon its rafters began to show
through, and then, in a day or two, they were all bare but for some
patches of evergreen. Great, golden drifts of foliage lay higher than
a man's head in the timber land about the clearing. We had our
best fun then, playing 'I spy' in the groves.

In that fragrant deep of leaves one might lie undiscovered a long
time. He could hear roaring like that of water at every move of the
finder, wallowing nearer and nearer possibly, in his search. Old
Fred came generally rooting his way to us in the deep drift with
unerring accuracy.

And shortly winter came out of the north and, of a night, after
rapping at the windows and howling in the chimney and roaring in
the big woods, took possession of the earth. That was a time when
hard cider flowed freely and recollection found a ready tongue
among the older folk, and the young enjoyed many diversions,
including measles and whooping cough.

Chapter 7

I had a lot of fun that first winter, but none that I can remember
more gratefully than our trip in the sledgehouse - a tight little
house fitted and fastened to a big sledge. Uncle Eb had to go to
mill at Hillsborough, some twelve miles away, and Hope and I,
after much coaxing and many family counsels, got leave to go with
him. The sky was cloudless, and the frosty air was all aglow in the
sunlight that morning we started. There was a little sheet iron
stove in one comer of the sledgehouse, walled in with zinc and
anchored with wires; a layer of hay covered the floor and over that
we spread our furs and blankets. The house had an open front, and
Uncle Eb sat on the doorstep, as it were, to drive, while we sat
behind him on the blankets.

'I love you very much,' said Hope, embracing me, after we were
seated. Her affection embarrassed me, I remember. It seemed
unmanly to be petted like a doll.

'I hate to be kissed,' I said, pulling away from her, at which Uncle
Eb laughed heartily.

The day came when I would have given half my life for the words
I held so cheaply then.

'You'd better be good t' me,' she answered, 'for when mother dies
I'm goin' t' take care o' you. Uncle Eb and Gran'ma Bisnette an' you
an' everybody I love is goin' t' come an' live with me in a big, big
house. An' I'm goin' t' put you t' bed nights an' hear ye say yer
prayers an everything.'

'Who'll do the spankin?' Uncle Eb asked.

'My husban',' she answered, with a sigh at the thought of all the
trouble that lay before her.

'An' I'll make him rub your back, too, Uncle Eb,' she added.
'Wall, I rather guess he'll object to that,' said he.

'Then you can give 'ins five cents, an' I guess he'll be glad t' do it,'
she answered promptly.

'Poor man! He won't know whether he's runnin' a poorhouse er a
hospital, will he?' said Uncle Eb. 'Look here, children,' he added,
taking out his old leather wallet, as he held the reins between his
knees. 'Here's tew shillin' apiece for ye, an' I want ye t' spend it jest
eggsackly as ye please.' The last words were spoken slowly and
with emphasis.

We took the two silver pieces that he handed to us and looked
them all over and compared them.

'I know what I'll do,' said she, suddenly. 'I'm goin' t' buy my mother
a new dress, or mebbe a beautiful ring,' she added thoughtfully.

For my own part I did not know what I should buy. I wanted a real
gun most of all and my inclination oscillated between that and a
red rocking horse. My mind was very busy while I sat in silence.
Presently I rose and went to Uncle Eb and whispered in his ear.

'Do you think I could get a real rifle with two shilin'?' I enquired
anxiously.

'No,' he answered in a low tone that seemed to respect my
confidence. 'Bime by, when you're older, I'll buy ye a rifle - a real
rip snorter, too, with a shiny barrel 'n a silver lock. When ye get
down t, the village ye'll see lots o' things y'd rather hev, prob'ly. If I
was you, children,' he added, in a louder tone, 'I wouldn't buy a
thing but nuts 'n' raisins.'

'Nuts 'n' raisins!' Hope exclaimed, scornfully.

'Nuts 'n' raisins,' he repeated. 'They're cheap 'n' satisfyin'. If ye eat
enough uv 'em you'll never want anything else in this world.'

I failed to see the irony in Uncle Eb's remark and the suggestion
seemed to have a good deal of merit, the more I thought it over.

''T any rate,' said Uncle Eb, 'I'd git somethin' fer my own selves.'

'Well,' said Hope, 'You tell us a lot o' things we could buy.'

'Less see!' said Uncle Eb, looking very serious. 'There's bootjacks
an' there's warmin' pans 'n' mustard plasters 'n' liver pads 'n' all
them kind o' things.'

We both shook our heads very doubtfully.

'Then,' he added, 'there are jimmyjacks 'n' silver no nuthin's.'

There were many other suggestions but none of them were
decisive.

The snow lay deep on either side of the way and there was a
glimmer on every white hillside where Jack Frost had sown his
diamonds. Here and there a fox track crossed the smooth level of
the valley and dwindled on the distant hills like a seam in a great
white robe. It grew warmer as the sun rose, and we were a jolly
company behind the merry jingle of the sleigh bells. We had had a
long spell of quiet weather and the road lay in two furrows worn as
smooth as ice at the bottom.

'Consarn it!' said Uncle Eb looking up at the sky, after we had been
on the road an hour or so. 'There's a sun dog. Wouldn't wonder if
we got a snowstorm' fore night.

I was running behind the sledge and standing on the brake hooks
going downhill. He made me get in when he saw the sun dog, and
let our horse - a rat-tailed bay known as Old Doctor - go at a merry
pace.

We were awed to silence when we came in sight of Hillsborough,
with spires looming far into the sky, as it seemed to me then, and
buildings that bullied me with their big bulk, so that I had no heart
for the spending of the two shillings Uncle Eb had given me. Such
sublimity of proportion I have never seen since; and yet it was all
very small indeed. The stores had a smell about them that was like
chloroform in its effect upon me; for, once in them, I fell into a
kind of trance and had scarce sense enough to know my own mind.
The smart clerks, who generally came and asked, 'Well, young
man, what can I do for you?' I regarded with fear and suspicion. I
clung the tighter to my coin always, and said nothing, although I
saw many a trinket whose glitter went to my soul with a mighty
fascination. We both stood staring silently at the show cases, our
tongues helpless with awe and wonder. Finally, after a whispered
conference, Hope asked for a 'silver no nothing', and provoked so
much laughter that we both fled to the sidewalk. Uncle Eb had to
do our buying for us in the end.

'Wall, what'll ye hev?' he said to me at length.

I tried to think-it was no easy thing to do after all I had seen.

'Guess I'll take a jacknife,' I whispered.

'Give this boy a knife,' he demanded. 'Wants t' be good 'n sharp.
Might hev t' skin a swift with it sometime.'

'What ye want?' he asked, then turning to Hope.

'A doll,' she whispered.

'White or black?' said he.

'White,' said she, 'with dark eyes and hair.'

'Want a reel, splendid, firs'-class doll,' he said to the clerk. 'Thet
one'll do, there, with the sky-blue dress 'n the pink apron.'

We were worn out with excitement when we left for home under
lowering skies. We children lay side by side under the robes, the
doll between us, and were soon asleep. It was growing dark when
Uncle Eb woke us, and the snow was driving in at the doorway.
The air was full of snow, I remember, and Old Doctor was wading
to his knees in a drift. We were up in the hills and the wind
whistled in our little chimney. Uncle Eb had a serious look in his
face. The snow grew deeper and Old Doctor went slower every
moment.

'Six mild from home,' Uncle Eb muttered, as he held up to rest a
moment. 'Six mild from home. 'Fraid we're in fer a night uv it.'

We got to the top of Fadden's Hill about dark, and the snow lay so
deep in the cut we all got out for fear the house would tip over.
Old Doctor floundered along a bit further until he went down in
the drift and lay between the shafts half buried. We had a shovel
that always hung beside a small hatchet in the sledgehouse - for
one might need much beside the grace of God of a winter's day in
that country - and with it Uncle Eb began to uncover the horse. We
children stood in the sledgehouse door watching him and holding
the lantern. Old Doctor was on his feet in a few minutes.

''Tain' no use tryin',' said Uncle Eb, as he began to unhitch. 'Can't
go no further t'night'

Then he dug away the snow beside the sledgehouse, and hitched
Old Doctor to the horseshoe that was nailed to the rear end of it.
That done, he clambered up the side of the cut and took some rails
off the fence and shoved them over on the roof of the house, so
that one end rested there and the other on the high bank beside us.
Then he cut a lot of hemlock boughs with the hatchet, and
thatched the roof he had made over Old Doctor, binding them with
the reins. Bringing more rails, he leaned them to the others on the
windward side and nailed a big blanket over them, piecing it out
with hemlock thatching, so it made a fairly comfortable shelter.
We were under the wind in this deep cut on Fadden's Hill, and the
snow piled in upon us rapidly. We had a warm blanket for Old
Doctor and two big buffalo robes for our own use. We gave him a
good feed of hay and oats, and then Uncle Eb cut up a fence rail
with our hatchet and built a roaring fire in the stove. We had got a
bit chilly wading in the snow, and the fire gave us a mighty sense
of comfort.

'I thought somethin' might happen,' said Uncle Eb, as he hung his
lantern to the ridge pole and took a big paper parcel out of his
great coat pocket. 'I thought mebbe somethin' might happen, an' so
I brought along a bite o' luncheon.'

He gave us dried herring and bread and butter and cheese.

''S a little dry,' he remarked, while we were eating, 'but it's drier
where there's none.'

We had a pail of snow on top of the little stove and plenty of good
drinking water for ourselves and the Old Doctor in a few minutes.

After supper Uncle Eb went up the side of the cut and brought
back a lot of hemlock boughs and spread them under Old Doctor
for bedding.

Then we all sat around the stove on the warm robes and listened to
the wind howling above our little roof and the stories of Uncle Eb.
The hissing of the snow as it beat upon the sledgehouse grew
fainter by and by, and Uncle Eb said he guessed we were pretty
well covered up. We fell asleep soon. I remember he stopped in
the middle of a wolf story, and, seeing that our eyes were shut,
pulled us back from the fire a little and covered us with one of the
robes. It had been a mighty struggle between Sleep and Romance,
and Sleep had won. I roused myself and begged him to go on with
the story, but he only said, 'Hush, boy; it's bedtime,' and turned up
the lantern and went out of doors. I woke once or twice in the
night and saw him putting wood on the fire. He had put out the
light. The gleam of the fire shone on his face when he opened the
stove door.

'Gittin' a leetle cool here, Uncle Eb,' he was saying to himself.

We were up at daylight, and even then it was snowing and blowing
fiercely. There were two feet of snow on the sledgehouse roof, and
we were nearly buried in the bank. Uncle Eb had to do a lot of
shoveling to get out of doors and into the stable. Old Doctor was
quite out of the wind in a cave of snow and nickering for his
breakfast. There was plenty for him, but we were on short rations.
Uncle Eb put on the snow shoes, after we had eaten what there was
left, and, cautioning us to keep in, set out for Fadden's across lots.
He came back inside of an hour with a good supply of provisions

in a basket on his shoulder. The wind had gone down and the air
was milder. Big flakes of snow came fluttering slowly downward
out of a dark sky. After dinner we went up on top of the
sledgehouse and saw a big scraper coming in the valley below. Six
teams of oxen were drawing it, and we could see the flying
furrows on either side of the scraper as it ploughed in the deep
drifts. Uncle Eb put on the snow shoes again, and, with Hope on
his back and me clinging to his hand, he went down to meet them
and to tell of our plight. The front team had wallowed to their ears,
and the men were digging them out with shovels when we got to
the scraper. A score of men and boys clung to the sides of that big,
hollow wedge, and put their weight on it as the oxen pulled. We
got on with the others, I remember, and I was swept off as soon as
the scraper started by a roaring avalanche of snow that came down
upon our heads and buried me completely. I was up again and had
a fresh hold in a jiffy, and clung to my place until I was nearly
smothered by the flying snow. It was great fun for me, and they
were all shouting and hallooing as if it were a fine holiday. They
made slow progress, however, and we left them shortly on their
promise to try to reach us before night. If they failed to get
through, one of them said he would drive over to Paradise Valley,
if possible, and tell the Browers we were all right

On our return, Uncle Eb began shoveling a tunnel in the cut.
When we got through to the open late in the afternoon we saw the
scraper party going back with their teams.

'Guess they've gi'n up fer t'day,' said he. 'Snow's powerful deep
down there below the bridge. Mebbe we can get 'round to where
the road's clear by goin' 'cross lots. I've a good mind t' try it.'

Then he went over in the field and picked a winding way down the
hill toward the river, while we children stood watching him. He
came back soon and took down a bit of the fence and harnessed
Old Doctor and hitched him to the sledgehouse. The tunnel was
just wide enough to let us through with a tight pinch here and
there. The footing was rather soft' and the horse had hard pulling.
We went in the field, struggling on afoot - we little people - while
Uncle Eb led the horse. He had to stop frequently to tunnel through
a snowdrift, and at dusk we had only got half-way to the bridge
from our cave in the cat. Of a sudden Old Doctor went up to his
neck in a wall of deep snow that seemed to cut us off completely.
He struggled a moment, falling on his side and wrenching the
shafts from the runners. Uncle Eb went to work vigorously with
his shovel and had soon cut a narrow box stall in the deep snow
around Old Doctor. Just beyond the hill dipped sharply and down
the slope we could see the stubble sticking through the shallow
snow. 'We'll hev t' stop right where we are until mornin',' he said.
'It's mos' dark now.

Our little house stood tilting forward about half-way down the hill,
its runners buried in the snow. A few hundred yards below was a
cliff where the shore fell to the river some thirty feet It had
stopped snowing, and the air had grown warmer, but the sky was
dark We put nearly all the hay in the sledgehouse under Old
Doctor and gave him the last of the oats and a warm cover of
blankets. Then Uncle Eb went away to the fence for more wood,
while we spread the supper. He was very tired, I remember, and we
all turned in for the night a short time after we had eaten. The little
stove was roaring like a furnace when we spread our blankets on
the sloping floor and lay down, our feet to the front, and drew the
warm robes over us. Uncle Eb, who had had no sleep the night
before, began to snore heavily before we children had stopped
whispering. He was still snoring, and Hope sound asleep, when I
woke in the night and heard the rain falling on our little roof and
felt the warm breath of the south wind. The water dripping from
the eaves and falling far and near upon the yielding snow had
many voices. I was half-asleep when I heard a new noise under the
sledge. Something struck the front corner of the sledgehouse - a
heavy, muffled blow - and brushed the noisy boards. Then I heard
the timbers creak and felt the runners leaping over the soft snow. I
remember it was like a dream of falling. I raised myself and stared
about me. We were slipping down the steep floor. The lantern,
burning dimly under the roof, swung and rattled. Uncle Eb was up
on his elbow staring wildly. I could feel the jar and rush of the
runners and the rain that seemed to roar as it dashed into my face.
Then, suddenly, the sledgehouse gave a great leap into the air and
the grating of the runners ceased. The lantern went hard against the
roof; there was a mighty roar in my ears; then we heard a noise
like thunder and felt the shock of a blow that set my back aching,
and cracked the roof above our heads. It was all still for a second;
then we children began to cry, and Uncle Eb staggered to his feet
and lit the lantern that had gone out and that had no globe, I
remember, as he held it down to our faces.

'Hush! Are you hurt?' he said, as he knelt before us. 'Git up now,
see if ye can stand.'

We got to our feet, neither of us much the worse for what had
happened- My knuckles were cut a bit by a splinter, and Hope had
been hit on the shins by the lantern globe as it fell.

'By the Lord Harry!' said Uncle Eb, when he saw we were not hurt.
'Wonder what hit us.'

We followed him outside while he was speaking.

'We've slid downhill,' he said. 'Went over the cliff Went kerplunk
in the deep snow, er there'd have been nuthin' left uv us. Snow's
meltin' jest as if it was July.'

Uncle Eb helped us into our heavy coats, and then with a blanket
over his arm led us into the wet snow. We came out upon clear ice
in a moment and picked our way along the lowering shore. At
length Uncle Eb clambered up, pulling us up after him, one by
one. Then he whistled to Old Doctor, who whinnied a quick reply.
He left us standing together, the blanket over our heads, and went
away in the dark whistling as he had done before. We could hear
Old Doctor answer as he came near, and presently Uncle Eb
returned leading the horse by the halter. Then he put us both on
Old Doctor's back, threw the blanket over our heads, and started
slowly for the road. We clung to each other as the horse staggered
in the soft snow, and kept our places with some aid from Uncle
Eb. We crossed the fence presently, and then for a way it was hard
going. We found fair footing after we had passed the big scraper,
and, coming to a house a mile or so down the road called them out
of bed. It was growing light and they made us comfortable around
a big stove, and gave us breakfast. The good man of the house took
us home in a big sleigh after the chores were done. We met David
Brower coming after us, and if we'd been gone a year we couldn't
have received a warmer welcome.

Chapter 8

Of all that long season of snow, I remember most pleasantly the
days that were sweetened with the sugar-making. When the sun
was lifting his course in the clearing sky, and March had got the
temper of the lamb, and the frozen pulses of the forest had begun
to stir, the great kettle was mounted in the yard and all gave a hand
to the washing of spouts and buckets. Then came tapping time, in
which I helped carry the buckets and tasted the sweet flow that
followed the auger's wound. The woods were merry with our
shouts, and, shortly, one could hear the heart-beat of the maples in
the sounding bucket. It was the reveille of spring. Towering trees
shook down the gathered storms of snow and felt for the sunlight.
The arch and shanty were repaired, the great iron kettle was
scoured and lifted to its place, and then came the boiling. It was a
great, an inestimable privilege to sit on the robes of faded fur, in
the shanty, and hear the fire roaring under the kettle and smell the
sweet odour of the boiling sap. Uncle Eb minded the shanty and
the fire and the woods rang with his merry songs. When I think of
that phase of the sugaring, lam face to face with one of the greatest
perils of my life. My foster father had consented to let me spend a
night with Uncle Eb in the shanty, and I was to sleep on the robes,
where he would be beside me when he was not tending the fire. It
had been a mild, bright day, and David came up with our supper at
sunset. He sat talking with Uncle Eb for an hour or so, and the
woods were darkling when he went away.

When he started on the dark trail that led to the clearing, I
wondered at his courage - it was so black beyond the firelight.
While we sat alone I plead for a story, but the thoughts of Uncle
Eb had gone to roost early in a sort of gloomy meditation.

'Be still, my boy,' said he, 'an' go t' sleep. I ain't agoin' t' tell no
yams an, git ye all stirred up. Ye go t' sleep. Come mornin' we'll go
down t' the brook an' see if we can't find a mink or tew 'n the traps.'

I remember hearing a great crackling of twigs in the dark wood
before I slept. As I lifted my head, Uncle Eb whispered, 'Hark!' and
we both listened. A bent and aged figure came stalking into the
firelight His long white hair mingled with his beard and covered
his coat collar behind.

'Don't be scairt,' said Uncle Eb. ''Tain' no bear. It's nuthin' but a
poet.,

I knew him for a man who wandered much and had a rhyme for
everyone - a kindly man with a reputation for laziness and without
any home.

'Bilin', eh?' said the poet

'Bilin',' said Uncle Eb.

'I'm bilin' over 'n the next bush,' said the poet, sitting down.

'How's everything in Jingleville?' Uncle Eb enquired.

Then the newcomer answered:

'Well, neighbour dear, in Jingleville
We live by faith but we eat our fill;
An' what w'u'd we do if it wa'n't fer prayer?
Fer we can't raise a thing but whiskers an' hair.'

'Cur'us how you can'talk po'try,' said Uncle Eb. 'The only thing I've
got agin you is them whiskers an' thet hair. 'Tain't Christian.'

''Tain't what's on the head, but what's in it - thet's the important
thing,' said the poet. 'Did I ever tell ye what I wrote about the
birds?'

'Don' know's ye ever did,' said Uncle Eb, stirring his fire.

'The boy'll like it, mebbe,' said he, taking a dirty piece of paper out
of his pocket and holding it to the light.

The poem interested me, young as I was, not less than the strange
figure of the old poet who lived unknown in the backwoods, and
who died, I dare say, with many a finer song in his heart. I
remember how he stood in the firelight and chanted the words in a
sing-song tone. He gave us that rude copy of the poem, and here it
is:

THE ROBIN'S WEDDING

Young robin red breast hed a beautiful nest an' he says to his love
says he:
It's ready now on a rocking bough 
In the top of a maple tree.
I've lined it with down an' the velvet brown on the waist of a
bumble-bee.

They were married next day, in the land o' the hay, the lady bird an'
he.
The bobolink came an' the wife o' the same 
An' the lark an' the fiddle de dee.
An' the crow came down in a minister gown - there was nothing
that he didn't see.

He fluttered his wing as they ast him to sing an' he tried fer t' clear
out his throat;
He hemmed an' he hawed an' be hawked an' he cawed 
But he couldn't deliver a note.
The swallow was there an' he ushered each pair with his linsey an'
claw hammer coat.

The bobolink tried fer t' flirt with the bride in a way thet was sassy
an' bold.
An' the notes that he took as he shivered an' shook 
Hed a sound like the jingle of gold.
He sat on a briar an' laughed at the choir an' said thet the music
was old.

The sexton he came - Mr Spider by name - a citizen hairy and grey.
His rope in a steeple, he called the good people 
That live in the land o' the hay.
The ants an' the squgs an' the crickets an' bugs - came out in a
mighty array.

Some came down from Barleytown an' the neighbouring city o'
Rye.
An' the little black people they climbed every steeple
An' sat looking up at the sky.
They came fer t' see what a wedding might be an' they
furnished the cake an, the pie.

I remember he turned to me when he had finished and took one of
my small hands and held it in his hard palm and looked at it and
then into my face.

'Ah, boy!' he said, 'your way shall lead you far from here, and you
shall get learning and wealth and win  - victories.'

'What nonsense are you talking, Jed Ferry?' said Uncle Eb.
          
'O, you all think I'm a fool an' a humbug, 'cos I look it. Why, Eben
Holden, if you was what ye looked, ye'd be in the presidential
chair. Folks here 'n the valley think o' nuthin' but hard work - most
uv 'em, an' I tell ye now this boy ain't a goin' t' be wuth putty on a
farm. Look a' them slender hands.

'There was a man come to me the other day an' wanted t' hev a
poem 'bout his wife that hed jes' died. I ast him t' tell me all 'bout
her.

'"Wall," said he, after he had scratched his head an' thought a
minute, "she was a dretful good woman t' work."

'"Anything else?" I asked.

'He thought agin fer a minute.


'"Broke her leg once," he said, "an' was laid up fer more'n a year."

"Must o' suffered," said I.

'"Not then," he answered. "Ruther enjoyed it layin' abed an' readin'
an' bein' rubbed, but 'twas hard on the children."

'"S'pose ye loved her," I said.

'Then the tears come into his eyes an' he couldn't speak fer a
minute. Putty soon he whispered "Yes" kind o' confidential.
'Course he loved her, but these Yankees are ashamed o' their
feelin's. They hev tender thoughts, but they hide 'em as careful as
the wild goose hides her eggs. I wrote a poem t' please him, an'
goin' home I made up one fer myself, an 'it run 'bout like this:

O give me more than a life, I beg,
That finds real joy in a broken leg.
Whose only thought is t' work an' save
An' whose only rest is in the grave.
Saving an' scrimping from day to day
While its best it has squandered an' flung away
Fer a life like that of which I tell
Would rob me quite o' the dread o' hell.

'Toil an' slave an' scrimp an' save - thet's 'bout all we think uv 'n
this country. 'Tain't right, Holden.'

'No, 'tain't right,' said Uncle Eb.

'I know I'm a poor, mis'rable critter. Kind o' out o' tune with
everybody I know. Alwus quarrelled with my own folks, an' now I
ain't got any home. Someday I'm goin' t' die in the poorhouse er on
the ground under these woods. But I tell ye'- here he spoke in a
voice that grew loud with feeling - 'mebbe I've been lazy, as they
say, but I've got more out o' my life than any o' these fools. And
someday God'll honour me far above them. When my wife an' I
parted I wrote some lines that say well my meaning. It was only a
log house we had, but this will show what I got out of it.' Then he
spoke the lines, his voice trembling with emotion.

'O humble home! Thou hadst a secret door
Thro' which I looked, betimes, with wondering eye
On treasures that no palace ever wore
But now - goodbye!

In hallowed scenes what feet have trod thy stage!
The babe, the maiden, leaving home to wed
The young man going forth by duty led
And faltering age.

Thou hadst a magic window broad and high
The light and glory of the morning shone
Thro' it, however dark the day had grown,
Or bleak the sky.

'I know Dave Brower's folks hev got brains an' decency, but when
thet boy is old enough t' take care uv himself, let him git out o' this
country. I tell ye he'll never make a farmer, an' if he marries an,
settles down here he'll git t' be a poet, mebbe, er some such
shif'less cuss, an' die in the poorhouse. Guess I better git back t'
my bilin' now. Good-night,' he added, rising and buttoning his old
coat as he walked away.

'Sing'lar man!' Uncle Eli exclaimed, thoughtfully, 'but anyone thet
picks him up fer a fool'll find him a counterfeit.'

Young as I was, the rugged, elemental power of the old poet had
somehow got to my heart and stirred my imagination. It all came
not fully to my understanding until later. Little by little it grew
upon me, and what an effect it had upon my thought and life ever
after I should not dare to estimate. And soon I sought out the 'poet
of the hills,' as they called him, and got to know and even to
respect him in spite of his unlovely aspect.

Uncle Eb skimmed the boiling sap, put more wood on the fire and
came and pulled off his boots and lay down beside me under the
robe. And, hearing the boil of the sap and the crackle of the
burning logs in the arch, I soon went asleep.

I remember feeling Uncle Eb's hand upon my cheek, and how I
rose and stared about me in the fading shadows of a dream as he
shook me gently.

'Wake up, my boy,' said he. 'Come, we mus' put fer home.'

The fire was out. The old man held a lantern as he stood before
me, the blaze flickering. There was a fearsome darkness all
around.

'Come, Willy, make haste,' he whispered, as I rubbed my eyes. 'Put
on yer boots, an' here's yer little coat 'n' muffler.'

There was a mighty roar in the forest and icy puffs of snow came
whistling in upon as. We stored the robes and pails and buckets
and covered the big kettle.

The lofty tree-tops reeled and creaked above us, and a deep,
sonorous moan was sweeping through the woods, as if the fingers
of the wind had touched a mighty harp string in the timber. We
could hear the crash and thunder of falling trees.

'Make haste! Make haste! It's resky here,' said Uncle Eb, and he
held my hand and ran. We started through the brush and steered as
straight as we could for the clearing. The little box of light he
carried was soon sheathed in snow, and I remember how he
stopped, half out of breath, often, and brushed it with his mittens
to let out the light. We had made the scattering growth of little
timber at the edge of the woods when the globe of the lantern
snapped and fell. A moment later we stood in utter darkness. I
knew, for the first time, then that we were in a bad fix.

'I guess God'll take care of us, Willy,' said Uncle Eb. 'If he don't,
we'll never get there in this world never!'

It was a black and icy wall of night and storm on every side of us. I
never saw a time when the light of God's heaven was so utterly
extinguished; the cold never went to my bone as on that bitter
night. My hands and feet were numb with aching, as the roar of the
trees grew fainter in the open. I remember how I lagged, and how
the old man urged me on, and how we toiled in the wind and
darkness, straining our eyes for some familiar thing. Of a sudden
we stumbled upon a wall that we had passed an hour or so before.

'Oh!' he groaned, and made that funny, deprecating cluck with his
tongue, that I have heard so much from Yankee lips.

'God o' mercy!' said he, 'we've gone 'round in a half-circle. Now
we'll take the wall an' mebbe it'll bring us home.'

I thought I couldn't keep my feet any longer, for an irresistible
drowsiness had come over me. The voice of Uncle Eb seemed far
away, and when I sank in the snow and shut my eyes to sleep he
shook me as a terrier shakes a rat.

'Wake up, my boy,' said he, 'ye musn't sleep.'

Then he boxed my ears until I cried, and picked me up and ran
with me along the side of the wall. I was but dimly conscious when
he dropped me under a tree whose bare twigs lashed the air and
stung my cheeks. I heard him tearing the branches savagely and
muttering, 'Thanks to God, it's the blue beech.' I shall never forget
how he turned and held to my hand and put the whip on me as I lay
in the snow, and how the sting of it started my blood. Up I sprang
in a jiffy and howled and danced. The stout rod bent and circled on
me like a hoop of fire. Then I turned and tried to run while he
clung to my coat tails, and every step I felt the stinging grab of the
beech. There is a little seam across my cheek today that marks a
footfall of one of those whips. In a moment I was as wide awake as
Uncle Eb and needed no more stimulation.

The wall led us to the pasture lane, and there it was easy enough to
make our way to the barnyard and up to the door of the house,
which had a candle in every window, I remember. David was up
and dressed to come after us, and I recall how he took Uncle Eb in
his arms, when he fell fainting on the doorstep, and carried him to
the lounge. I saw the blood on my face as I passed the mirror, and
Elizabeth Brower came running and gave me one glance and
rushed out of doors with the dipper. It was full of snow when she
ran in and tore the wrappings off my neck and began to rub my
ears and cheeks with the cold snow, calling loudly for Grandma
Bisnette. She came in a moment and helped at the stripping of our
feet and legs. I remember that she slit my trousers with the shears
as I lay on the floor, while the others rubbed my feet with the
snow. Our hands and ears were badly frosted, but in an hour the
whiteness had gone out of them and the returning blood burnt like
a fire.

'How queer he stares!' I heard them say when Uncle Eb first came
to, and in a moment a roar of laughter broke from him.

'I'll never fergit,' said he presently, 'if I live a thousan' years, the
lickin' I gin thet boy; but it hurt me worse'n it hurt him.'

Then he told the story of the blue beech.

The next day was that 'cold Friday' long remembered by those who
felt its deadly chill - a day when water thrown in the magic air
came down in clinking crystals, and sheaths of frost lay thick upon
the windows. But that and the one before it were among the few
days in that early period that lie, like a rock, under my character.

Chapter 9

Grandma Bisnette came from Canada to work for the Browers. She
was a big, cheerful woman, with a dialect, an amiable disposition
and a swarthy, wrinkled face. She had a loose front tooth that
occupied all the leisure of her tongue. When she sat at her knitting
this big tooth clicked incessantly. On every stitch her tongue went
in and out across it' and I, standing often by her knees, regarded the
process with great curiosity.

The reader may gather much from these frank and informing
words of Grandma Bisnette. 'When I los' my man, Mon Dieu! I
have two son. An' when I come across I bring him with me. Abe he
rough; but den he no bad man.'

Abe was the butcher of the neighbourhood - that red-handed,
stony-hearted, necessary man whom the Yankee farmer in that
north country hires to do the cruel things that have to be done. He
wore ragged, dirty clothes and had a voice like a steam whistle.
His rough, black hair fell low and mingled with his scanty beard.
His hands were stained too often with the blood of some creature
we loved. I always crept under the bed in Mrs Brower's room
when Abe came - he was such a terror to me with his bloody work
and noisy oaths. Such men were the curse of the cleanly homes in
that country. There was much to shock the ears and eyes of
children in the life of the farm. It was a fashion among the help to
decorate their speech with profanity for the mere sound of it' and
the foul mouthings of low-minded men spread like a pestilence in
the fields.

Abe came always with an old bay horse and a rickety buckboard.
His one foot on the dash, as he rode, gave the picture a dare-devil
finish. The lash of his bull-whip sang around him, and his great
voice sent its blasts of noise ahead. When we heard a fearful yell
and rumble in the distance, we knew Abe was coming.

'Abe he come,' said Grandma Bisnette. 'Mon Dieu! he make de
leetle rock fly.'

It was like the coming of a locomotive with roar of wheel and
whistle. In my childhood, as soon as I saw the cloud of dust, I put
for the bed and from its friendly cover would peek out' often, but
never venture far until the man of blood had gone.

To us children he was a marvel of wickedness. There were those
who told how he had stood in the storm one night and dared the
Almighty to send the lightning upon him.

The dog Fred had grown so old and infirm that one day they sent
for Abe to come and put an end to his misery. Every man on the
farm loved the old dog and not one of them would raise a hand to
kill him. Hope and I heard what Abe was coming to do, and when
the men had gone to the fields, that summer morning, we lifted
Fred into the little wagon m which he had once drawn me and
starting back of the barn stole away with him through the deep
grass of the meadow until we came out upon the highroad far
below. We had planned to take him to school and make him a nest
in the woodshed where he could share our luncheon and be out of
the way of peril. After a good deal of difficulty and heavy pulling
we got to the road at last. The old dog, now blind and helpless, sat
contentedly in the wagon while its wheels creaked and groaned
beneath him. We had gone but a short way in the road when we
heard the red bridge roar under rushing wheels and the familiar
yell of Abe.

'We'd better run,' said Hope, ' 'er we'll git swore at.'

I looked about me in a panic for some place to hide the party, but
Abe was coming fast and there was only time to pick up clubs and
stand our ground.

'Here!' the man shouted as he pulled up along side of us, 'where ye
goin' with that dog?'

'Go 'way,' I answered, between anger and tears, lifting my club in a
threatening manner.

He laughed then - a loud guffaw that rang in the near woods.

'What'll ye give me,' he asked leaning forward, his elbows on his
knees, 'What'll ye give me if I don't kill him?'

I thought a moment. Then I put my hand in my pocket and
presently took out my jack-knife - that treasure Uncle Eb had
bought for me - and looked at it fondly.

Then I offered it to him.

Again he laughed loudly.

'Anything else?' he demanded while Hope sat hugging the old dog
that was licking her hands.

'Got forty cents that I saved for the fair,' said I promptly.

Abe backed his horse and turned in the road.

'Wall boy,' he said, 'Tell 'em I've gone home.'

Then his great voice shouted, 'g'lang' the lash of his whip sang in
the air and off he went.

We were first to arrive at the schoolhouse, that morning, and when
the other children came we had Fred on a comfortable bed of
grass in a corner of the woodshed. What with all the worry of that
day I said my lessons poorly and went home with a load on my
heart. Tomorrow would be Saturday; how were we to get food and
water to the dog? They asked at home if we had seen old Fred and
we both declared we had not - the first lie that ever laid its burden
on my conscience. We both saved all our bread and butter and
doughnuts next day, but we had so many chores to do it was
impossible to go to the schoolhouse with them. So we agreed to
steal away that night when all were asleep and take the food from
its hiding place.

In the excitement of the day neither of us had eaten much. They
thought we were ill and sent us to bed early. When Hope came into
my room above stairs late in the evening we were both desperately
hungry. We looked at our store of doughnuts and bread and butter
under my bed. We counted it over.

'Won't you try one o' the doughnuts,' I whispered hoping that she
would say yes so that I could try one also; for they did smell
mighty good.

''Twouldn't be right" said she regretfully. 'There ain't any more 'n
he'll want now.

''Twouldn't be right" I repeated with a sigh as I looked longingly at
one of the big doughnuts. 'Couldn't bear t' do it - could you?'

'Don't seem as if I could,' she whispered, thoughtfully, her chin
upon her hand.

Then she rose and went to the window.

'O my! how dark it is!' she whispered, looking out into the night.

'Purty dark!' I said, 'but you needn't be 'fraid. I'll take care o' you. If
we should meet a bear I'll growl right back at him - that's what
Uncle Eb tol' me t' do. I'm awful stout - most a man now! Can't
nuthin' scare me.'

We could hear them talking below stairs and we went back to bed,
intending to go forth later when the house was still. But'
unfortunately for our adventure I fell asleep.

It was morning when I opened my eyes again. We children looked
accusingly at each other while eating breakfast. Then we had to
be washed and dressed in our best clothes to go to meeting. When
the wagon was at the door and we were ready to start I had
doughnuts and bread and butter in every pocket of my coat and
trousers. I got in quickly and pulled the blanket over me so as to
conceal the fullness of my pockets. We arrived so late I had no
chance to go to the dog before we went into meeting. I was
wearing boots that were too small for me, and when I entered with
the others and sat down upon one of those straight backed seats of
plain, unpainted pine my feet felt as if I had been caught in a bear
trap. There was always such a silence in the room after the elder
had sat down and adjusted his spectacles that I could hear the
ticking of the watch he carried in the pocket of his broadcloth
waistcoat. For my own part I know I looked with too much longing
for the good of my soul on the great gold chain that spanned the
broad convexity of his stomach. Presently I observed that a couple
of young women were looking at me and whispering. Then
suddenly I became aware that there were sundry protuberances on
my person caused by bread and butter and doughnuts, and I felt
very miserable indeed. Now and then as the elder spoke the loud,
accusing neigh of some horse, tethered to the fence in the
schoolyard, mingled with his thunder. After the good elder had
been preaching an hour his big, fat body seemed to swim in my
tears. When he had finished the choir sang. Their singing was a
thing that appealed to the eye as well as the ear. Uncle Eb used to
say it was a great comfort to see Elkenah Samson sing bass. His
great mouth opened widely in this form of praise and his eyes had
a wild stare in them when he aimed at the low notes.

Ransom Walker, a man of great dignity, with a bristling
moustache, who had once been a schoolmaster, led the choir and
carried the tenor part. It was no small privilege after the elder had
announced the hymn, to see him rise and tap the desk with his
tuning fork and hold it to his ear solemnly. Then he would seem to
press his chin full hard upon his throat while he warbled a scale.
Immediately, soprano, alto, bass and tenor launched forth upon the
sea of song. The parts were like the treacherous and conflicting
currents of a tide that tossed them roughly and sometimes
overturned their craft. And Ransom Walker showed always a
proper sense of danger and responsibility. Generally they got to
port safely on these brief excursions, though exhausted. He had a
way of beating time with his head while singing and I have no
doubt it was a great help to him.

The elder came over to me after meeting, having taken my tears
for a sign of conviction.

'May the Lord bless and comfort you, my boy!' said he.

I got away shortly and made for the door. Uncle Eb stopped me.

'My stars, Willie!' said he putting his hand on my upper coat
pocket' 'what ye got in there?'

'Doughnuts,' I answered.

'An' what's this?' he asked touching one of my side pockets.

'Doughnuts,' I repeated.

'An' this,' touching another.

'That's doughnuts too,' I said.

'An' this,' he continued going down to my trousers pocket.

'Bread an' butter,' I answered, shamefacedly, and on the verge of
tears.

'Jerusalem!' he exclaimed, 'must a 'spected a purty long sermon.

'Brought 'em fer ol' Fred,' I replied.

'Ol' Fred!' he whispered, 'where's he?'

I told my secret then and we both went out with Hope to where we
had left him. He lay with his head between his paws on the bed of
grass just as I had seen him lie many a time when his legs were
weary with travel on Paradise Road, and when his days were yet
full of pleasure. We called to him and Uncle Eb knelt and touched
his head. Then he lifted the dog's nose, looked a moment into the
sightless eyes and let it fall again.

'Fred's gone,' said he in a low tone as he turned away. 'Got there
ahead uv us, Willy.'

Hope and I sat down by the old dog and wept bitterly.

Chapter 10

Uncle Eb was a born lover of fun. But he had a solemn way of
fishing that was no credit to a cheerful man. It was the same when
he played the bass viol, but that was also a kind of fishing at which
he tried his luck in a roaring torrent of sound. Both forms of
dissipation gave him a serious look and manner, that came near
severity. They brought on his face only the light of hope and
anticipation or the shadow of disappointment.

We had finished our stent early the day of which lam writing.
When we had dug our worms and were on our way to the brook
with pole and line a squint of elation had hold of Uncle Eb's face.
Long wrinkles deepened as he looked into the sky for a sign of the
weather, and then relaxed a bit as he turned his eyes upon the
smooth sward. It was no time for idle talk. We tiptoed over the
leafy carpet of the woods. Soon as I spoke he lifted his hand with a
warning 'Sh - h!' The murmur of the stream was in our ears.
Kneeling on a mossy knoll we baited the hooks; then Uncle Eb
beckoned to me.

I came to him on tiptoe.

'See thet there foam 'long side o' the big log?' he whispered,
pointing with his finger.

I nodded.

'Cre-e-ep up jest as ca-a-areful as ye can,' he went on whispering.
'Drop in a leetle above an' let 'er float down.'

Then he went on, below me, lifting his feet in slow and stealthy
strides.

He halted by a bit of driftwood and cautiously threw in, his arm
extended, his figure alert. The squint on his face took a firmer grip.
Suddenly his pole gave a leap, the water splashed, his line sang in
the air and a fish went up like a rocket. As we were looking into
the treetops it thumped the shore beside him, quivered a moment
and flopped down the bank He scrambled after it and went to his
knees in the brook coming up empty-handed. The water was
slopping out of his boot legs.

'Whew!' said he, panting with excitement, as I came over to him.
'Reg'lar ol' he one,' he added, looking down at his boots. 'Got away
from me - consarn him! Hed a leetle too much power in the arm.,

He emptied his boots, baited up and went back to his fishing. As I
looked up at him he stood leaning over the stream jiggling his
hook. In a moment I saw a tug at the line. The end of his pole
went under water like a flash. It bent double as Uncle Eb gave it a
lift. The fish began to dive and rush. The line cut the water in a
broad semicircle and then went far and near with long, quick
slashes. The pole nodded and writhed like a thing of life. Then
Uncle Eb had a look on him that is one of the treasures of my
memory. In a moment the fish went away with such a violent rush,
to save him, he had to throw his pole into the water.

'Heavens an' airth!' he shouted, 'the ol' settler!'

The pole turned quickly and went lengthwise into the rapids. He
ran down the bank and I after him. The pole was speeding through
the swift water. We scrambled over logs and through bushes, but
the pole went faster than we. Presently it stopped and swung
around. Uncle Eb went splashing into the brook. Almost within
reach of the pole he dashed his foot upon a stone, falling headlong
in the current. I was close upon his heels and gave him a hand. He
rose hatless, dripping from head to foot and pressed on. He lifted
his pole. The line clung to a snag and then gave way; the tackle
was missing. He looked at it silently, tilting his head. We walked
slowly to the shore. Neither spoke for a moment.

'Must have been a big fish,' I remarked.

'Powerful!' said he, chewing vigorously on his quid of tobacco as
he shook his head and looked down at his wet clothing. 'In a
desp'rit fix, ain't I?'

'Too bad!' I exclaimed.

'Seldom ever hed sech a disapp'intrnent" he said. 'Ruther counted
on ketchin' thet fish - he was s' well hooked.'

He looked longingly at the water a moment 'If I don't go hum,' said
he, 'an' keep my mouth shet I'll say sumthin' I'll be sorry fer.'

He was never quite the same after that. He told often of his
struggle with this unseen, mysterious fish and I imagined he was a
bit more given to reflection. He had had hold of the 'ol' settler of
Deep Hole' - a fish of great influence and renown there in Faraway.
Most of the local fishermen had felt him tug at the line one time or
another. No man had ever seen him for the water was black in
Deep Hole. No fish had ever exerted a greater influence on the
thought' the imagination, the manners or the moral character of his
contemporaries. Tip Taylor always took off his hat and sighed
when he spoke of the 'ol' settler'. Ransom Walker said he had once
seen his top fin and thought it longer than a razor. Ransom took to
idleness and chewing tobacco immediately after his encounter
with the big fish, and both vices stuck to him as long as he lived.
Everyone had his theory of the 'ol' settler'. Most agreed he was a
very heavy trout. Tip Taylor used to say that in his opinion ''twas
nuthin' more'n a plain, overgrown, common sucker,' but Tip came
from the Sucker Brook country where suckers lived in colder water
and were more entitled to respect.

Mose Tupper had never had his hook in the 'ol' settler' and would
believe none of the many stories of adventure at Deep Hole that
had thrilled the township.

'Thet fish hes made s' many liars 'round here ye dimno who t'
b'lieve,' he had said at the corners one day, after Uncle Eb had told
his story of the big fish. 'Somebody 't knows how t' fish hed
oughter go 'n ketch him fer the good o' the town - thet's what I
think.'

Now Mr Tupper was an excellent man but his incredulity was
always too bluntly put. It had even led to some ill feeling.

He came in at our place one evening with a big hook and line from
'down east' - the kind of tackle used in salt water.

'What ye goin' t' dew with it?' Uncle Eb enquired.

'Ketch thet fish ye talk 5' much about - goin' t' put him out o' the
way.'

''Tain't fair,' said Uncle Eb, 'its reedic'lous. Like leading a pup with
a log chain.'

'Don't care,' said Mose, 'I'm goin' t' go fishin t'morrer. If there reely
is any sech fish - which I don't believe there is - I'm goin' t' rassle
with him an' mebbe tek him out o' the river. Thet fish is sp'llin' the
moral character o' this town. He oughter be rode on a rail - thet fish
hed.'

How he would punish a trout in that manner Mr Tupper failed to
explain, but his metaphor was always a worse fit than his trousers
and that was bad enough.

It was just before haying and, there being little to do, we had also
planned to try our luck in the morning. When, at sunrise, we were
walking down the cow-path to the woods I saw Uncle Eb had a
coil of bed cord on his shoulder.

'What's that for?' I asked.

'Wall,' said he, 'goin' t' hev fun anyway. If we can't ketch one thing
we'll try another.'

We had great luck that morning and when our basket was near full
we came to Deep Hole and made ready for a swim in the water
above it. Uncle Eb had looped an end of the bed cord and tied a
few pebbles on it with bits of string.

'Now,' said he presently, 'I want t' sink this loop t' the bottom an'
pass the end o' the cord under the driftwood so 't we can fetch it
'crost under water.'

There was a big stump, just opposite, with roots running down the
bank into the stream. I shoved the line under the drift with a pole
and then hauled it across where Uncle Eb drew it up the bank
under the stump roots.

'In 'bout half an hour I cal'late Mose Tupper'll be 'long,' he
whispered. 'Wisht ye'd put on yer clo's an' lay here back o' the
stump an' hold on t' the cord. When ye feel a bite give a yank er
two an' haul in like Sam Hill - fifteen feet er more quicker'n scat.
Snatch his pole right away from him. Then lay still.'

Uncle Eb left me, shortly, going up stream. It was near an hour
before I heard them coming. Uncle Eb was talking in a low tone as
they came down the other bank.

'Drop right in there,' he was saying, 'an' let her drag down, through
the deep water, deliberate like. Git clus t' the bottom.'

Peering through a screen of bushes I could see an eager look on the
unlovely face of Moses. He stood leaning toward the water and
jiggling his hook along the bottom. Suddenly I saw Mose jerk and
felt the cord move. I gave it a double twitch and began to pull. He

held hard for a jiffy and then stumbled and let go yelling like mad.
The pole hit the water with a splash and went out of sight like a
diving frog. I brought it well under the foam and driftwood. Deep
Hole resumed its calm, unruffled aspect. Mose went running
toward Uncle Eb. 

''S a whale!' he shouted. 'Ripped the pole away quicker'n lightnin'.'

'Where is it?' Uncle Eb asked.

'Tuk it away fm me,' said Moses. 'Grabbed it jes' like thet" he
added with a violent jerk of his hand.

'What d' he dew with it?' Uncle Eb enquired.

Mose looked thoughtfully at the water and scratched his head, his
features all a tremble.

'Dunno,' said he. 'Swallered it mebbe.'

'Mean t' say ye lost hook, line, sinker 'n pole?'

'Hook, line, sinker 'n pole,' he answered mournfully. 'Come nigh
haulin' me in tew.'

''Tain't possible,' said Uncle Eb.

Mose expectorated, his hands upon his hips, looking down at the
water.

'Wouldn't eggzac'ly say 'twas possible,' he drawled, 'but 'twas a
fact.'

'Yer mistaken,' said Uncle Eb.

'No I hain't" was the answer, 'I tell ye I see it.'

'Then if ye see it the nex' thing ye orter see 's a doctor. There's
sumthin' wrong with you sumwheres.'

'Only one thing the matter o' me,' said Mose with a little twinge of
remorse. 'I'm jest a natural born perfec' dum fool. Never c'u'd
b'lieve there was any sech fish.'

'Nobody ever said there was any sech fish,' said Uncle Eb. 'He's
done more t' you 'n he ever done t' me. Never served me no sech
trick as thet. If I was you I'd never ask nobody t' b'lieve it 'S a leetle
tew much.'

Mose went slowly and picked up his hat. Then he returned to the
bank and looked regretfully at the water.

'Never see the beat o' thet,' he went on. 'Never see sech power 'n a
fish. Knocks the spots off any fish I ever hearn of.'

'Ye riled him with that big tackle o' yourn,' said Uncle Eb. 'He
wouldn't stan' it.'

'Feel jest as if I'd hed holt uv a wil' cat" said Mose. 'Tuk the hull
thing - pole an' all - quicker 'n lightnin'. Nice a bit o' hickory as a
man ever see. Gol' durned if I ever heem o' the like o' that, ever.'

He sat down a moment on the bank.

'Got t' rest a minute,' he remarked. 'Feel kind o' wopsy after thet
squabble.'

They soon went away. And when Mose told the story of 'the
swallered pole' he got the same sort of reputation he had given to
others. Only it was real and large and lasting.

'Wha' d' ye think uv it?' he asked, when he had finished.

'Wall,' said Ransom Walker, 'wouldn't want t' say right out plain t'
yer face.'

''Twouldn't he p'lite,' said Uncle Eb soberly.

'Sound a leetle ha'sh,' Tip Taylor added.

'Thet fish has jerked the fear o' God out o' ye - thet's the way it
looks t' me,' said Carlyle Barber.

'Yer up 'n the air, Mose,' said another. 'Need a sinker on ye.' They
bullied him - they talked him down, demurring mildly, but firmly.

'Tell ye what I'll do,' said Mose sheepishly, 'I'll b'lieve you fellers if
you'll b'lieve me.'

'What, swop even? Not much!' said one, with emphasis.' 'Twouldn't
be fair. Ye've ast us t' b'lieve a genuwine out 'n out impossibility.'

Mose lifted his hat and scratched his head thoughtfully. There was
a look of embarrassment in his face.

'Might a ben dreamin',' said he slowly. 'I swear it's gittin' so here 'n
this town a feller can't hardly b'lieve himself.'

'Fur '5 my experience goes,' said Ransom Walker, 'he'd be a fool 'f
he did.'

''Minds me o' the time I went fishin' with Ab Thomas,' said Uncle
Eb. 'He ketched an ol' socker the fast thing. I went off by myself 'n
got a good sized fish, but 'twant s' big 's hisn. So I tuk 'n opened his
mouth n poured in a lot o' fine shot. When I come back Ab he
looked at my fish 'n begun t' brag. When we weighed 'em mine was
a leetle heavier.

'"What!" says he. "'Tain't possible thet leetle cuss uv a trout 's
heavier 'n mine."

''Tis sarrin," I said.

''Dummed deceivin' business," said he as he hefted 'em both.
"Gittin' so ye can't hardly b'lieve the stillyards."'

Chapter 11

The fifth summer was passing since we came down Paradise Road
- the dog, Uncle Eb and I. Times innumerable I had heard my good
old friend tell the story of our coming west until its every incident
was familiar to me as the alphabet. Else I fear my youthful
memory would have served me poorly for a chronicle of my
childhood so exact and so extended as this I have written. Uncle
Eb's hair was white now and the voices of the swift and the panther
had grown mild and tremulous and unsatisfactory and even absurd.
Time had tamed the monsters of that imaginary wilderness and I
had begun to lose my respect for them. But one fear had remained
with me as I grew older - the fear of the night man. Every boy and
girl in the valley trembled at the mention of him. Many a time I
had held awake in the late evening to hear the men talk of him
before they went asleep - Uncle Eb and Tip Taylor. I remember a
night when Tip said, in a low awesome tone, that he was a ghost.
The word carried into my soul the first thought of its great and
fearful mystery.

'Years and years ago,' said he, 'there was a boy by the name of
Nehemiah Brower. An' he killed another boy, once, by accident an'
run away an' was drownded.'

'Drownded!' said Uncle Eb. 'How?'

'In the ocean,' the first answered gaping. 'Went away off 'round the
world an' they got a letter that said he was drownded on his way to
Van Dieman's Land.'

'To Van Dieman's Land!'

'Yes, an some say the night man is the ghost o' the one he killed.'

I remember waking that night and hearing excited whispers at the
window near my bed. It was very dark in the room and at first I
could not tell who was there.

'Don't you see him?' Tip whispered.

'Where?' I heard Uncle Be ask

'Under the pine trees - see him move.'

At that I was up at the window myself and could plainly see the
dark figure of a man standing under the little pine below us.

'The night man, I guess,' said Uncle Be, 'but he won't do no harm.
Let him alone; he's going' away now.'

We saw him disappear behind the trees and then we got back into
our beds again. I covered my head with the bedclothes and said a
small prayer for the poor night man.

And in this atmosphere of mystery and adventure, among the plain
folk of Faraway, whose care of me when I was in great need, and
whose love of me always, I count among the priceless treasures of
God's providence, my childhood passed. And the day came near
when I was to begin to play my poor part in the world.

BOOK TWO

Chapter 12

It was a time of new things - that winter when I saw the end of my
fifteenth year. Then I began to enjoy the finer humours of life in
Faraway - to see with understanding; and by God's grace - to feel.

The land of play and fear and fable was now far behind me and I
had begun to feel the infinite in the ancient forest' in the
everlasting hills, in the deep of heaven, in all the ways of men.
Hope Brower was now near woman grown. She had a beauty of
face and form that was the talk of the countryside. I have travelled
far and seen many a fair face hut never one more to my eye. I have
heard men say she was like a girl out of a story-book those days.

Late years something had come between us. Long ago we had
fallen out of each other's confidence, and ever since she had
seemed to shun me. It was the trip in the sledgehouse that' years
after, came up between us and broke our childish intimacy. Uncle
Be had told, before company, how she had kissed me that day and
bespoke me for a husband, and while the others laughed loudly she
had gone out of the room crying. She would have little to say to me
then. I began to play with boys and she with girls. And it made me
miserable to hear the boys a bit older than I gossip of her beauty
and accuse each other of the sweet disgrace of love.

But I must hasten to those events in Faraway that shaped our
destinies. And first comes that memorable night when I had the
privilege of escorting Hope to the school lyceum where the
argument of Jed Feary - poet of the hills - fired my soul with an
ambition that has remained with me always.

Uncle Be suggested that I ask Hope to go with me.

'Prance right up to her,' he said, 'an' say you'd be glad of the
pleasure of her company.

It seemed to me a very dubious thing to do. I looked thoughtful
and turned red in the face.

'Young man,' he continued, 'the boy thet's 'fraid o' women'll never
hev whiskers.'

'How's that?' I enquired.

'Be scairt t' death,' he answered,' 'fore they've hed time t' start Ye
want t' step right up t' the rack jes' if ye'd bought an' paid
fer yerself an' was proud o' yer bargain.'

I took his advice and when I found Hope alone in the parlour I
came and asked her, very awkwardly as I now remember, to go
with me.

She looked at me, blushing, and said she would ask her mother.

And she did, and we walked to the schoolhouse together that
evening, her hand holding my arm, timidly, the most serious pair
that ever struggled with the problem of deportment on such an
occasion. I was oppressed with a heavy sense of responsibility in
every word I uttered.

Ann Jane Foster, known as 'Scooter Jane', for her rapid walk and
stiff carriage, met us at the corners on her way to the schoolhouse.

'Big turn out I guess,' said she. 'Jed Feary 'n' Squire Town is comin'
over from Jingleville an' all the big guns'll be there. I love t' hear
Jed Feary speak, he's so techin'.'

Ann Jane was always looking around for some event likely to
touch her feelings. She went to every funeral in Faraway and, when
sorrow was scarce in her own vicinity, journeyed far in quest of it

'Wouldn't wonder 'f the fur flew when they git t' going',' she
remarked, and then hurried on, her head erect, her body
motionless, her legs flying. Such energy as she gave to the pursuit
of mourning I have never seen equalled in any other form of
dissipation.

The schoolhouse was nearly full of people when we came in. The
big boys were wrestling in the yard; men were lounging on the
rude seats, inside, idly discussing crops and cattle and lapsing into
silence, frequently, that bore the signs both of expectancy and
reflection. Young men and young women sat together on one side
of the house whispering and giggling. Alone among them was the
big and eccentric granddaughter of Mrs Bisnette, who was always
slapping some youngster for impertinence. Jed Feary and Squire
Town sat together behind a pile of books, both looking very
serious. The long hair and beard of the old poet were now white
and his form bent with age. He came over and spoke to us and took
a curl of Hope's hair in his stiffened fingers and held it to the
lamplight.

'What silky gold!' he whispered.' 'S a skein o' fate, my dear girl!'

Suddenly the schoolteacher rapped on the desk and bade us come
to order and Ransom Walker was called to the chair.

'Thet there is talent in Faraway township,' he said, having
reluctantly come to the platform, 'and talent of the very highest
order, no one can deny who has ever attended a lyceum at the
Howard schoolhouse. I see evidences of talent in every face before
me. And I wish to ask what are the two great talents of the Yankee
- talents that made our forefathers famous the world over? I pause
for an answer.'

He had once been a schoolmaster and that accounted for his
didactic style.

'What are the two great talents of the Yankee?' he repeated, his
hands clasped before him.

'Doughnuts an' pie,' said Uncle Be who sat in a far corner.

'No sir,' Mr Walker answered, 'there's some hev a talent fer sawin'
wood, but we don't count that. It's war an' speakin', they are the two
great talents of the Yankee. But his greatest talent is the gift o' gab.
Give him a chance t' talk it over with his enemy an' he'll lick 'im
without a fight. An' when his enemy is another Yankee - why, they
both git licked, jest as it was in the case of the man thet sold me
lightnin' rods. He was sorry he done it before I got through with
him. If we did not encourage this talent in our sons they would be
talked to death by our daughters. Ladies and gentlemen, it gives
me pleasure t' say that the best speakers in Faraway township have
come here t' discuss the important question:

'Resolved, that intemperance has caused more misery than war?

'I call upon Moses Tupper to open for the affirmative.'

Moses, as I have remarked, had a most unlovely face with a thin
and bristling growth of whiskers. In giving him features Nature
had been generous to a fault. He had a large red nose, and a mouth
vastly too big for any proper use. It was a mouth fashioned for odd
sayings. He was well to do and boasted often that he was a
self-made man. Uncle Be used to say that if Mose Tupper had had
the 'makin' uv himself he'd oughter done it more careful.'

I remember not much of the speech he made, but the picture of
him, as he rose on tiptoe and swung his arms like a man fighting
bees, and his drawling tones are as familiar as the things of
yesterday.

'Gentlemen an' ladies,' said he presently, 'let me show you a pictur'.
It is the drunkard's child. It is hungry an' there ain't no food in its
home. The child is poorer'n a straw-fed hoss. 'Tain't hed a thing t'
eat since day before yistiddy. Pictur' itto yourselves as it comes
cryin' to its mother an' says:

'"Ma! Gi' me a piece o' bread an' butter."

'She covers her face with her apron an' says she, "There am none
left, my child."

'An' bime bye the child comes agin' an' holds up its poor little han's
an' says: "Ma! please gi' me a piece O' cake."

'An' she goes an' looks out O' the winder, er mebbe pokes the fire,
an' says: "There am' none left, my child."

'An' bime bye it comes agin' an' it says: "Please gi' me a little piece
O' pie."

'An' she mebbe flops into a chair an' says, sobbin', "There ain' none
left, my child."

'No pie! Now, Mr Chairman!' exclaimed the orator, as he lifted
both hands high above his head, 'If this ain't misery, in God's name,
what is it?

'Years ago, when I was a young man, Mr President, I went to a
dance one night at the village of Migleyville. I got a toothache, an'
the Devil tempted me with whiskey, an' I tuk one glass an' then
another an' purty soon I began t' thank I was a mighty hefty sort of
a character, I did, an' I stud on a comer an' stumped everybody t'
fight with me, an' bime bye an accomanodatin' kind of a chap
come along, an' that's all I remember O' what happened. when I
come to, my coat tails had been tore off, I'd lost one leg O' my
trousers, a bran new silver watch, tew dollars in money, an a pair
O' spectacles. When I stud up an' tried t' realise what hed happened
I felt jes' like a blind rooster with only one leg an' no tail feathers.'

A roar of laughter followed these frank remarks of Mr Tupper and
broke into a storm of merriment when Uncle Eb rose and said:

'Mr President, I hope you see that the misfortunes of our friend was
due t' war, an' not to intemperance.'

Mr Tupper was unhorsed. For some minutes he stood helpless or
shaking with the emotion that possessed all. Then he finished
lamely and sat down.

The narrowness of the man that saw so much where there was so
little in his own experience and in the trivial events of his own
township was what I now recognise as most valuable to the
purpose of this history. It was a narrowness that covered a
multitude of people in St Lawrence county in those days.

Jed Feary was greeted with applause and then by respectfiil silence
when he rose to speak. The fame of his verse and his learning had
gone far beyond the narrow boundaries of the township in which
he lived. It was the biggest thing in the county. Many a poor sinner
who had gone out of Faraway to his long home got his first praise
in the obituary poem by Jed Feary. These tributes were generally
published in the county paper and paid for by the relatives of the
deceased at the rate of a dollar a day for the time spent on them, or
by a few days of board and lodging glory and consolation that was,
alas! too cheap, as one might see by a glance at his forlorn figure. I
shall never forget the courtly manner, so strangely in contrast with
the rude deportment of other men in that place, with which he
addressed the chairman and the people. The drawling dialect of the
vicinity that flavoured his conversation fell from him like a mantle
as he spoke and the light in his soul shone upon that little company
a great light, as I now remember, that filled me with burning
thoughts of the world and its mighty theatre of action. The way of
my life lay clear before me, as I listened, and its days of toil and
the sweet success my God has given me, although I take it humbly
and hold it infinitely above my merit. I was to get learning and
seek some way of expressing what was in me.

It would ill become me to try to repeat the words of this venerable
seer, but he showed that intemperance was an individual sin, while
war was a national evil. That one meant often the ruin of a race;
the other the ruin of a family; that one was as the ocean, the other
as a single drop in its waters. And he told us of the full of empires
and the millions that had suffered the oppression of the conqueror
and perished by the sword since Agamemnon.

After the debate a young lady read a literary paper full of clumsy
wit, rude chronicles of the countryside, essays on 'Spring', and like
topics -the work of the best talent of Faraway. Then came the
decision, after which the meeting adjourned.

At the door some other boys tried 'to cut me out'. I came through
the noisy crowd, however, with Hope on my arm and my heart flill
of a great happiness.

'Did you like it?' she asked. 

'Very much,' I answered.

'What did you enjoy most?'

'Your company,' I said, with a fine air of gallantry.

'Honestly?'

'Honestly. I want to take you to Rickard's sometime?' 

That was indeed a long cherished hope.

'Maybe I won't let you,' she said.

'Wouldn't you?'

'You'd better ask me sometime and see.'

'I shall. I wouldn't ask any other girl.'

'Well,' she added, with a sigh, 'if a boy likes one girl I don't think
he ought to have anything to do with other girls. I hate a flirt.'

I happened to hear a footfall in the snow behind us, and looking
back saw Ann Jane Foster going slow in easy hearing. She knew
all, as we soon found out.

'I dew jes love t' see young folks enjoy themselves,' said she, 'it's
entrancin".'

Coming in at our gate I saw a man going over the wall back of the
big stables. The house was dark

'Did you see the night man?' Elizabeth Brower whispered as I lit
the lamp. 'Went through the garden just now. I've been watching
him here at the window.'

Chapter 13

The love of labour was counted a great virtue there in Faraway. As
for myself I could never put my heart in a hoe handle or in any like
tool of toil. They made a blister upon my spirit as well as upon my
hands. I tried to find in the sweat of my brow that exalted pleasure
of which Mr Greeley had visions in his comfortable retreat on
Printing House Square. But unfortunately I had not his point of
view.

Hanging in my library, where I may see it as I write, is the old
sickle of Uncle Eb. The hard hickory of its handle is worn thin by
the grip of his hand. It becomes a melancholy symbol when I
remember how also the hickory had worn him thin and bent him
low, and how infinitely better than all the harvesting of the sickle
was the strength of that man, diminishing as it wore the wood. I
cannot help smiling when I look at the sickle and thank of the soft
hands and tender amplitude of Mr Greeley.

The great editor had been a playmate of David Brower when they
were boys, and his paper was read with much reverence in our
home.

'How quick ye can plough a ten-acre lot with a pen,' Uncle Eb used
to say when we had gone up to bed after father had been reading
aloud from his Tribune.

Such was the power of the press in that country one had but to say
of any doubtful thing, 'Seen it in print,' to stop all argument. If
there were any further doubt he had only to say that he had read it
either in the Tribune or the Bible, and couldn't remember which.
Then it was a mere question of veracity in the speaker. Books and
other reading were carefully put away for an improbable time of
leisure.

'I might break my leg sometime,' said David Brower, 'then they'll
come handy.' But the Tribune was read carefully every week.

I have seen David Brower stop and look at me while I have been
digging potatoes, with a sober grin such as came to him always
after he had swapped 'hosses' and got the worst of it. Then he
would show me again, with a little impatience in his manner, how
to hold the handle and straddle the row. He would watch me for a
moment, turn to Uncle Eb, laugh hopelessly and say: 'Thet boy'll
hev to be a minister. He can't work.'

But for Elizabeth Brower it might have gone hard with me those
days. My mind was always on my books or my last talk with Jed
Feary, and she shared my confidence and fed my hopes and
shielded me as much as possible from the heavy work. Hope had a
better head for mathematics than I, and had always helped me with
my sums, but I had a better memory and an aptitude in other things
that kept me at the head of most of my classes. Best of all at
school I enjoyed the 'compositions' - I had many thoughts, such as
they were, and some facility of expression, I doubt not, for a child.
Many chronicles of the countryside came off my pen - sketches of
odd events and characters there in Faraway. These were read to the
assembled household. Elizabeth Brower would sit looking gravely
down at me, as I stood by her knees reading, in those days of my
early boyhood. Uncle Eb listened with his head turned curiously,
as if his ear were cocked for coons. Sometimes he and David
Brower would slap their knees and laugh heartily, whereat my
foster mother would give them a quick glance and shake her head.
For she was always fearful of the day when she should see in her
children the birth of vanity, and sought to put it off as far as might
be. Sometimes she would cover her mouth to hide a smile, and,
when I had finished, look warningly at the rest, and say it was
good, for a little boy. Her praise never went further, and indeed all
those people hated flattery as they did the devil and frowned upon
conceit She said that when the love of flattery got hold of one he
would lie to gain it

I can see this slender, blue-eyed woman as I write. She is walking
up and down beside her spinning-wheel. I can hear the dreary
buz-z-z-z of the spindle as she feeds it with the fleecy ropes. That
loud crescendo echoes in the still house of memory. I can hear her
singing as she steps forward and slows the wheel and swings the
cradle with her foot:

'On the other side of Jordan, 
In the sweet fields of Eden, 
Where the tree of Life is blooming, 
There is rest for you.

She lays her hand to the spokes again and the roar of the spindle
drowns her voice.

All day, from the breakfast hour to supper time, I have heard the
dismal sound of the spirmng as she walked the floor, content to
sing of rest but never taking it.

Her home was almost a miracle of neatness. She could work with
no peace of mind until the house had been swept and dusted. A fly
speck on the window was enough to cloud her day. She went to
town with David now and then - not oftener than once a quarter -
and came back ill and exhausted. If she sat in a store waiting for
David, while he went to mill or smithy, her imagination gave her
no rest. That dirt abhorring mind of hers would begin to clean the
windows, and when that was finished it would sweep the floor and
dust the counters. In due course it would lower the big chandelier
and take out all the lamps and wash the chimneys with soap and
water and rub them till they shone. Then, if David had not come, it
would put in the rest of its time on the woodwork. With all her
cleaning I am sure the good woman kept her soul spotless.
Elizabeth Brower believed in goodness and the love of God, and
knew no fear. Uncle Eb used to say that wherever Elizabeth
Brower went hereafter it would have to be clean and comfortable.

Elder Whitmarsh came often to dinner of a Sunday, when he and
Mrs Brower talked volubly about the Scriptures, he taking a
sterner view of God than she would allow. He was an Englishman
by birth, who had settled in Faraway because there he had found
relief for a serious affliction of asthma.

He came over one noon in the early summer, that followed the
event of our last chapter, to tell us of a strawberry party that
evening at the White Church.

'I've had a wonderful experience,' said he as he took a seat on the
piazza, while Mrs Brower came and sat near him. 'I've discovered a
great genius - a wandering fiddler, and I shall try to bring him to
play for us.'

'A fiddler! why, Elder!' said she, 'you astonish me!'

'Nothing but sacred music,' he said, lifting his hand. 'I heard him
play all the grand things today - "Rock of Ages", "Nearer My God,
to Thee", "The Marseillaise" and "Home, Sweet Home". Lifted me
off my feet! I've heard the great masters in New York and London,
but no greater player than this man.'

'Where is he and where did he come from?'

'He's at my house now,' said the good man. 'I found him this
morning. He stood under a tree by the road side, above Nortlrup's.
As I came near I heard the strains of "The Marseillaise". For more
than an hour I sat there listening. It was wonderful, Mrs Brower,
wonderful! The poor fellow is eccentric. He never spoke to me.
His clothes were dusty and worn. But his music went to my heart
like a voice from Heaven. when he had finished I took him home
with me, gave him food and a new coat, and left him sleeping. I
want you to come over, and be sure to bring Hope. She must sing
for us.'

'Mr Brower will be tired out, but perhaps the young people may
go,' she said, looking at Hope and me.

My heart gave a leap as I saw in Hope's eyes a reflection of my
own joy. In a moment she came and gave her mother a sounding
kiss and asked her what she should wear.

'I must look my best, mother,' she said.

'My child,' said the elder, 'it's what you do and not what you wear
that's important.'

'They're both important, Elder,' said my foster mother. You should
teach your people the duty of comeliness. They honour their
Maker when they look their best.'

The spirit of liberalism was abroad in the sons of the Puritans. In
Elizabeth Brower the andent austerity of her race had been freely
diluted with humour and cheerfulness and human sympathy. It
used to be said of Deacon Hospur, a good but lazy man, that he
was given both to prayer and profanity. Uncle Eb, who had once
heard the deacon swear, when the latter had been bruised by a
kicking cow, said that, so far as he knew, the deacon never swore
except when 'twas necessary. Indeed, most of those men had, I
doubt not, too little of that fear of God in them that characterised
their fathers. And yet, as shall appear, there were in Faraway some
relics of a stern faith.

Hope came out in fine feather, and although I have seen many
grand ladles, gowned for the eyes of kings, I have never seen a
lovelier figure than when, that evening, she came tripping down to
the buggy. It was three miles to the white Church, and riding over
in the twilight I laid the plan of my life before her. She sat a
moment in silence after I had finished.

'I am going away, too,' she remarked, with a sigh.

'Going away!' I said with some surprise, for in all my plans I had
secretly counted on returning in grand style to take her back with
me.

'Going away,' said she decisively.

'It isn't nice for girls to go away from home,' I said.

'It isn't nice for boys, either,' said she.

We had come to the church, its open doors and windows all aglow
with light. I helped her out at the steps, and hitched my horse
under the long shed. We entered together and made our way
through the chattering crowd to the little cloakroom in one corner.
Elder Whitmarsh arrived in a moment and the fiddler, a short,
stout, stupid-looking man, his fiddle in a black box under his arm,
followed him to the platform that had been cleared of its pulpit
The stranger stood staring vacantly at the crowd until the elder
motioned him to a chair, when he obeyed with the hesitating, blind
obedience of a dog. Then the elder made a brief prayer, and after a
few remarks flavoured with puns, sacred and immemorial as the
pulpit itself, started a brief programme of entertainment. A broad
smile marked the beginning of his lighter mood. His manner
seemed to say: 'Now, ladies and gentlemen, if you will give good
heed, you shall see I can be witty on occasion.'

Then a young man came to the platform and recited, after which
Hope went forward and sang 'The Land o' the Leal' with such spirit
that I can feel my blood go faster even now as I thank of it, and of
that girlish figure crowned with a glory of fair curls that fell low
upon her waist and mingled with the wild pink roses at her bosom.
The fiddler sat quietly as if he heard nothing until she began to
sing, when he turned to look at her. The elder announced, after the
ballad, that he had brought with him a wonderful musician who
would favour them with some sacred music. He used the word
'sacred' because he had observed, I suppose, that certain of the
'hardshells' were looking askance at the fiddle. There was an
awkward moment in which the fiddler made no move or sign of
intelligence. The elder stepped near him and whispered. Getting no
response, he returned to the front of the platform and said: 'We
shall first resign ourselves to social intercourse and the good things
the ladies have provided.'

Mountains of frosted cake reared their snowy summits on a long
table, and the strawberries, heaped in saucers around them, were
like red foothills. I remember that while they were serving us Hope
and I were introduced to one Robert Livingstone - a young New
Yorker, stoppmg at the inn near by, on his way to the big woods.
He was a handsome fellow, with such a fine air of gallantry and so
trig in fashionable clothes that he made me feel awkward and
uncomfortable.

'I have never heard anything more delightful than that ballad,' he
said to Hope. 'You must have your voice trained - you really must.
It will make a great name for you.'

I wondered then why his words hurt me to the soul. The castle of
my dreams had fallen as he spoke. A new light came into her face -
I did not know then what it meant.

'Will you let me call upon you before I leave - may I?' He turned to
me while she stood silent. 'I wish to see your father,' he added.

'Certanly,' she answered, blushing, 'you may come - if you care to
come.

The musician had begun to thrum the strings of his violin. We
turned to look at him. He still sat in his chair, his ear bent to the
echoing chamber of the violin. Soon he laid his bow to the strings
and a great chord hushed every whisper and died into a sweet, low
melody, in which his thought seemed to be feeling its way through
sombre paths of sound. The music brightened, the bow went faster,
and suddenly 'The Girl I Left Behind Me' came rushing off the
strings. A look of amazement gathered on the elder's face and
deepened into horror. It went from one to another as if it had been
a dish of ipecac. Ann Jane Foster went directly for her things, and
with a most unchristian look hurried out into the night. Half a
dozen others followed her, while the unholy music went on, its
merry echoes rioting in that sacred room, hallowed with memories
of the hour of conviction, of the day of mourning, of the coming of
the bride in her beauty.

Deacon Hospur rose and began to drawl a sort of apology, when
the player stopped suddenly and shot an oath at him. The deacon
staggered under the shock of it. His whiskers seemed to lift a bit
like the hair of a cat under provocation. Then he tried to speak, but
only stuttered helplessly a moment as if his tongue were oscillating
between silence and profanity, and was finally pulled down by his
wife, who had laid hold of his coat tails. If  it had been any other
man than Deacon Hospur it would have gone badly with the
musician then and there, but we boys saw his discomfiture with
positive gratitude. In a moment all rose, the dishes were gathered
up, and many hurried away with indignant glances at the poor
elder, who was busy taking counsel with some of the brethren.

I have never seen a more pathetic figure than that of poor Nick
Goodall as he sat there thrumming the strings of which he was a
Heaven-born master. I saw him often after that night - a poor,
halfwitted creature, who wandered from inn to inn there in the
north country, trading music for hospitality. A thoroughly
intelligible sentence never passed his lips, but he had a great gift of
eloquence in music. Nobody knew whence he had come or any
particular of his birth or training or family. But for his sullen
temper, that broke into wild, unmeaning profanity at times, Nick
Goodall would have made fame and fortune.

He stared at the thinning crowd as if he had begun dimly to
comprehend the havoc he had wrought. Then he put on his hat,
came down off the platform, and shuffled out of the open door, his
violin in one hand, its box in the other. There were not more than a
dozen of us who followed him into the little churchyard. The moon
was rising, and the shadows of lilac and rose bush, of slab and
monument lay long across the green mounds. Standing there
between the graves of the dead he began to play. I shall never
forget that solemn calling of the silver string:

'Come ye disconsolate where'er ye languish.'

It was a new voice, a revelation, a light where darkness had been,
to Hope and to me. We stood listening far into the night, forgetful
of everything, even the swift flight of the hours.

Loud, impassioned chords rose into the moonlit sky and sank to a
faint whisper of melody, when we could hear the gossip of the
birds in the belfry and under the eaves; trembling tones of
supplication, wailing notes of longing and regret swept through the
silent avenues of the churchyard, thrilling us with their eloquence.
For the first time we heard the music of Handel, of Mendelssohn,
of Paganini, and felt its power, then knowing neither name nor
theme. Hour by hour he played on for the mere joy of it. When we
shook hands with the elder and tiptoed to the buggy he was still
playing. We drove slowly and listened a long way down the road. I
could hear the strains of that ballad, then new to me, but now
familiar, growing fainter in the distance:

O ye'll tak' the high road an' I'll tak' the low road
An' I'll be in Scotland afore ye;
But me an' me true love will never meet again
On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond.

what connection it may have had with the history of poor Nick
Goodall*1 I have often wondered.

As the last note died into silence I turned to Hope, and she was
crying.

'Why are you crying?' I asked, in as miserable a moment as I have
ever known.

'It's the music,' she said.

*1 Poor Nick Coodall died in the almshouse of Jefferson County
some thirty years ago. A better account of this incident was widely
printed at that time.

We both sat in silence, then, hearing only the creak of the buggy as
it sped over the sandy road. Well ahead of us I saw a man who
suddenly turned aside, vaulting over the fence and running into the
near woods.

'The night man!' I exclaimed, pulling up a moment to observe him.

Then a buggy came in sight, and presently we heard a loud 'hello'
from David Brower, who, worried by our long stay, had come out
in quest of us.

Chapter 14

Hope's love of music became a passion after that night. Young Mr
Livingstone, 'the city chap' we had met at the church, came over
next day. His enthusiasm for her voice gave us all great hope of it.
David Brower said he would take her away to the big city when
she was older. They soon decided to send her in September to the
big school in Hillsborough.

'She's got t' be a lady,' said David Brower, as he drew her into his
lap the day we had all discussed the matter. 'She's leamt everything
in the 'rithinetic an' geography an' speller. I want her t' learn
somethin' more scientific.'

'Now you're talkin',' said Uncle Eb. 'There's lots o' things ye can't
learn by cipherin'. Nuthin's too good fer Hope.'

'I'd like t' know what you men expect of her anyway,' said
Elizabeth Brower.

'A high stepper,' said Uncle Eb. 'We want a slick coat, a kind uv a
toppy head, an a lot O' ginger. So't when we hitch 'er t' the pole
bime bye we shan't be 'shamed o' her.'

'Eggzac'ly,' said David Brower, laughing. 'An' then she shall have
the best harness in the market.'

Hope did not seem to comprehend all the rustic metaphors that had
been applied to her. A look of puzzled amusement came over her
face, and then she ran away into the garden, her hair streaming
from under her white sun-bonnet.

'Never see sech a beauty! Beats the world,' said Uncle Eb in a
whisper, whereat both David and Elizabeth shook their heads.

'Lord o' mercy! Don't let her know it,' Elizabeth answered, in a low
tone. 'She's beginning to have-'

Just then Hope came by us leading her pet filly that had been born
within the month. Immediately Mrs Brower changed the subject.

'To have what?' David enquired as soon as the girl was out of
hearing.

'Suspicions,' said Elizabeth mournflllly. 'Spends a good deal of her
time at the looking-glass. I think the other girls tell her and then
that young Livingstone has been turning her head.'

'Turning her head!' he exclaimed.

'Turning her head,' she answered. 'He sat here the other day and
deliberately told her that he had never seen such a complexion and
such lovely hair.'

Elizabeth Brower mocked his accent with a show of contempt that
feebly echoed my own emotions.

'That's the way o' city folks, mother,' said David.

'It's a bad way,' she answered. 'I do not thank he ought to come
here. Hope's a child yet, and we mustn't let her get notions.'

'I'll tell him not t' come any more,' said David, as he and Uncle Eb
rose to go to their work

'I'm 'fraid she ought not to go away to school for a year yet,' said
Elizabeth, a troubled look in her face.

'Pshaw, mother! Ye can't keep her under yer wing alwus,' said he.
'Well, David, you know she is very young and uncommonly - ' she
hesitated.

'Han'some,' said he, 'we might as well own up if she is our child.'

'If she goes away,' continued Elizabeth, 'some of us ought t' go with
her.'

Then Uncle Eb and David went to their work in the fields and I to
my own task That very evening they began to talk of renting the
farm and going to town with the children.

I had a stent of cording wood that day and finished it before two
o'clock Then I got my pole of mountain ash, made hook and line
ready, dug some worms and went fishing. I cared not so much for
the fishing as for the solitude of the woods. I had a bit of thing to
do. In the thick timber there was a place where Tinkle brook began
to hurry and break into murmurs on a pebble bar, as if its feet were
tickled. A few more steps and it burst into a peal of laughter that
lasted half the year as it tumbled over narrow shelves of rock into
a foamy pool. Many a day I had sat fishing for hours at the little
fall under a birch tree, among the brakes and moss. No ray of
sunlight ever got to the dark water below me - the lair of many a
big fish that had yielded to the temptation of my bait. Here I lay in
the cool shade while a singular sort of heart sickness came over
me. A wild partridge was beating his gong in the near woods all
the afternoon. The sound of the water seemed to break in the
tree-tops and fall back upon me. I had lain there thinking an hour
or more when I caught the jar of approaching footsteps. Looking
up I saw Jed Feary coming through the bushes, pole in hand.

'Fishin'?' he asked.

'Only thinking,' I answered.

'Couldn't be in better business,' said he as he sat down beside me.

More than once he had been my father confessor and I was glad he
had come.

'In love?' he asked. 'No boy ever thinks unless he's in love.'

'In trouble,' said I.

'Same thing,' he answered, lighting his pipe. 'Love is trouble with a
bit of sugar in it - the sweetest trouble a man can have. what's the
matter?'

'It's a great secret,' I said, 'I have never told it. I am in love.'

'Knew it,' he said, puffing at his pipe and smiling in a kindly way.
'Now let's put in the trouble.'

'She does not love me,' I answered.

'Glad of it,' he remarked. 'I've got a secret t, tell you.'

'What's that?' I enquired.

'Wouldn't tell anybody else for the world, my boy,' he said, 'it's
between you an' me.'

'Between you an' me,' I repeated.

'Well,' he said, you're a fool.'

'That's no secret,' I answered much embarrassed.

'Yes it is,' he insisted, 'you're smart enough an' ye can have most
anything in this world if ye take the right road. Ye've grown t' be a
great big strapping fellow but you're only - sixteen?'

'That's all,' I said mournfully.

'Ye're as big a fool to go falling in love as I'd be. Ye're too young
an' I'm too old. I say to you, wait. Ye've got to go t' college.'

'College!' I exclaimed, incredulously.

'Yes! an' thet's another secret,' said he. I tol' David Brower what I
thought o' your writing thet essay on bugs in pertickier - an' I tol'
'im what people were sayin' o' your work in school.'

'What d' he say?' I asked.

'Said Hope had tol' him all about it - that she was as proud o' you as
she was uv her curls, an' I believe it. "Well," says I, "y' oughter sen'
that boy t' college." "Goin' to," says he. "He'll go t' the 'Cademy this
fall if he wants to. Then he can go t' college soon's he's ready."
Threw up my hat an' shouted I was that glad.'

As he spoke the old man's face kindled with enthusiasm. In me he
had one who understood him, who saw truth in his thought, music
in his verse, a noble simplicity in his soul. I took his hand in mine
and thanked him heartily. Then we rose and came away together.

'Remember,' he said, as we parted at the corner, 'there's a way laid
out fer you. In God's time it will lead to every good thing you
desire. Don't jump over the fence. Don't try t' pass any milestun
'fore ye've come to it. Don't mope. Keep yer head cool with
philosophy, yer feet warm with travel an' don't worry bout yer
heart. It won't turn t' stun if ye do keep it awhile. Allwus hev
enough of it about ye t' do business with. Goodbye!'

Chapter 15

Gerald Brower, who was a baby when I came to live at Faraway,
and was now eleven, had caught a cold in seed time, and he had
never quite recovered. His coughing had begun to keep him awake,
and one night it brought alarm to the whole household. Elizabeth
Brower was up early in the morning and called Uncle Eb, who
went away for the doctor as soon as light came. We ate our
breakfast in silence. Father and mother and Grandma Bisnette
spoke only in low tones and somehow the anxiety in their faces
went to my heart. Uncle Eb returned about eight o'clock and said
the doctor was coming. Old Doctor Bigsby was a very great man in
that country. Other physicians called him far and wide for
consultation. I had always regarded him with a kind of awe
intensified by the aroma of his drugs and the gleam of his lancet.
Once I had been his patient and then I had trembled at his
approach. when he took my little wrist in his big hand, I remember
with what reluctance I stuck out my quivering tongue, black, as I
feared with evidences of prevarication.

He was a picture for a painter man as he came that morning erect
in his gig. who could forget the hoary majesty of his head - his
'stovepipe' tilted back, his white locks flying about his ears? He
had a long nose, a smooth-shaven face and a left eye that was a
trifle turned. His thoughts were generally one day behind the
calendar. Today he seemed to be digesting the affairs of yesterday.
He was, therefore, absentminded, to a degree that made no end of
gossip. If he came out one day with shoe-strings flying, in his
remorse the next he would forget his collar; if one told him a good
joke today, he might not seem to hear it, but tomorrow he would
take it up in its turn and shake with laughter.

I remember how, that morning after noting the symptoms of his
patient, he sat a little in silent reflection. He knew that colour in
the cheek, that look in the eye - he had seen so much of it. His legs
were crossed and one elbow thrown carelessly over the back of his
chair. We all sat looking at him anxiously. In a moment he began
chewing hard on his quid of tobacco. Uncle Eb pushed the
cuspidor a bit nearer. The doctor expectorated freely and resumed
his attitude of reflection. The clock ticked loudly, the patient
sighed, our anxiety increased. Uncle Eb spoke to father, in a low
tone, whereupon the doctor turned suddenly, with a little grunt of
enquiry, and seeing he was not addressed, sank again into
thoughtful repose. I had begun to fear the worst when suddenly the
hand of the doctor swept the bald peak of benevolence at the top of
his head. Then a smile began to spread over his face. It was as if
some feather of thought had begun to tickle him. In a moment his
head was nodding with laughter that brought a great sense of relief
to all of us. In a slow, deliberate tone he began to speak:

'I was over t' Rat Tupper's t'other day,' said he, 'Rat was sitting with
me in the door yard. Purty soon a young chap came in, with a
scythe, and asked if he might use the grindstun. He was a new
hired man from somewhere near. He didn't know Rat, an' Rat
didn't know him. So Rat o' course had t' crack one o' his jokes.

'"May I use yer grindstun?" said the young feller.

'"Dunno," said Rat, "I'm only the hired man here. Go an' ask Mis'
Tupper."

'The ol' lady had overheard him an' so she says t' the young feller,
"Yes - ye can use the grindstun. The hired man out there'll turn it
fer ye."

'Rat see he was trapped, an' so he went out under the plum tree,
where the stun was, an' begun t' turn. The scythe was dull an' the
young feller bore on harder'n wuz reely decent fer a long time. Rat
begun t' git very sober lookin'.

'"Ain't ye 'bout done," said he.

'"Putty nigh," said the young feller bearin' down a leetle harder all
the time.

'Rat made the stun go faster. putty soon he asked agin, "Ain't ye
done yit?"

'"putty nigh!" says the other feeling o' the edge.

'"I'm done," said Rat, an' he let go o' the handle. "I dunno 'bout the
scythe but I'm a good deal sharper'n I wuz."

'"You're the hired man here ain't ye?" said the young feller.

'"No, I ain't," said Rat. "'D rather own up t' bein' a liar than turn that
stun another minnit."

As soon as he was fairly started with this droll narrative the strain
of the situation was relieved. We were all laughing as much at his
deliberate way of narration as at the story itself.

Suddenly he turned to Elizabeth Brower and said, very soberly,
'Will you bring me some water in a glass?'

Then he opened his chest of medicine, made some powders and
told us how to give them.

'In a few days I would take him into the big woods for a while,' he
said. 'See how it agrees with him.'

Then he gathered up his things and mother went with him to the
gig.

Humour was one of the specifics of Doctor Bigsby. He was always
a poor man. He had a way of lumping his bills, at about so much,
in settlement and probably never kept books. A side of pork paid
for many a long journey. He came to his death riding over the hills
one bitter day not long after the time of which I write, to reach a
patient.

The haying over, we made ready for our trip into the woods. Uncle
Eb and Tip Taylor, who knew the forest, and myself, were to go
with Gerald to Blueberry Lake. We loaded our wagon with
provisions one evening and made ready to be off at the break of
day.

Chapter 16

I remember how hopefully we started that morning with Elizabeth
Brower and Hope waving their handkerchiefs on the porch and
David near them whittling. They had told us what to do and what
not to do over and over again. I sat with Gerald on blankets that
were spread over a thick mat of hay. The morning air was sweet
with the odour of new hay and the music of the bobolink. Uncle
Eb and Tip Taylor sang merrily as we rode over the hills.

When we entered the shade of the big forest Uncle Eb got out his
rifle and loaded it. He sat a long time whispering and looking
eagerly for game to right and left. He was still a boy. One could
see evidences of age only in his white hair and beard and wrinkled
brow. He retained the little tufts in front of his ears, and lately had
grown a silver crescent of thin and silky hair that circled his throat
under a bare clhn. Young as I was I had no keener relish for a
holiday than he. At noon we halted beside a brook and unhitched
our horses. Then we caught some fish, built a fire and cooked
them, and brewed our tea. At sunset we halted at Tuley Pond,
looking along its reedy margin, under purple tamaracks, for deer.
There was a great silence, here in the deep of the woods, and Tip
Taylor's axe, while he peeled the bark for our camp, seemed to fill
the wilderness with echoes. It was after dark when the shanty was
covered and we lay on its fragrant mow of balsam and hemlock.
The great logs that we had rolled in front of our shanty were set
afire and shortly supper was cooking.

Gerald had stood the journey well. Uncle Eb and he stayed in
while Tip and I got our jack ready and went off in quest of a
dugout He said Bill Ellsworth had one hid in a thicket on the south
side of Tuley. We found it after an hour's tramp near by. It needed
a little repairing but we soon made it water worthy, and then took
our seats, he in the stern, with the paddle, and I in the bow with the
gun. Slowly and silently we clove a way through the star-sown
shadows. It was like the hushed and mystic movement of a dream.
We seemed to be above the deep of heaven, the stars below us.
The shadow of the forest in the still water looked like the wall of
some mighty castle with towers and battlements and myriads of
windows lighted for a fete. Once the groan of a nighthawk fell out
of the upper air with a sound like that of a stone striking in water. I
thought little of the deer Tip was after. His only aim in life was the
one he got with a gun barrel. I had forgotten all but the beauty of
the scene. Suddenly Tip roused me by laying his hand to the
gunwale and gently shaking the dugout. In the dark distance, ahead
of us, I could hear the faint tinkle of dripping water. Then I knew a
deer was feeding not far away and that the water was falling from
his muzzle. When I opened my jack we were close upon him. His
eyes gleamed. I shot high above the deer that went splashing
ashore before I had pulled my trigger. After the roar of the gun had
got away, in the distant timber, Tip mentioned a place abhorred of
all men, turned and paddled for the landing.

'Could 'a killed 'im with a club,' said he snickering. 'Guess he must
a looked putty tall didn't he?'

'Why?' I asked.

'Cos ye aimed into the sky,' said hc. 'Mebbe ye thought he was a
bird.'

'My hand trembled a little,' said I.

''Minds me of Bill Barber,' he said in a half-whisper, as he worked
his paddle, chuckling with amusement.

'How's that?' I asked.

'Nothin' safe but the thing he shoots at,' said he. 'Terrible bad shot.
Kills a cow every time he goes huntin'.'

Uncle Eb was stirring the fire when we came whispering into
camp, and Gerald lay asleep under the blankets.

'Willie couldn't hit the broadside of a bam,' said Tip. 'He don't take
to it nat'ral.'

'Killin' an' book learnin' don't often go together,' said Uncle Eb.

I turned in by the side of Gerald and Uncle Eb went off with Tip
for another trip in the dugout. The night was chilly but the fire
flooded our shanty with its warm glow. what with the light, and the
boughs under us, and the strangeness of the black forest we got
little sleep. I heard the gun roar late in the night, and when I woke
again Uncle Eb and Tip Taylor were standing over the fire in the
chilly grey of the morning. A dead deer hung on the limb of a tree
near by. They began dressing it while Gerald and I went to the
spring for water, peeled potatoes, and got the pots boiling. After a
hearty breakfast we packed up, and were soon on the road again,
reaching Blueberry Lake before noon. There we hired a boat of the
lonely keeper of the reservoir, found an abandoned camp with an
excellent bark shanty and made ourselves at home.

That evening in camp was one to be remembered. An Thomas, the
guide who tended the reservoir, came over and sat beside our fire
until bedtime. He had spent years in the wilderness going out for
nothing less important than an annual spree at circus time. He eyed
us over, each in turn, as if he thought us all very rare and
interesting.

'Many bears here?' Uncle Eb enquired.

'More plenty 'n human bein's,' he answered, puffing lazily at his
pipe with a dead calm in his voice and manner that I have never
seen equalled except in a tropic sea.

'See 'em often?' I asked.

He emptied his pipe, striking it on his palin until the bowl rang,
without answering. Then he blew into the stem with great
violence.

'Three or four 'n a summer, mebbe,' he said at length.

'Ever git sassy?' Uncle Eb asked.

He whipped a coal out of the ashes then and lifted it in his fingers
to the bowl of his pipe.

'Never real sassy,' he said between vigourous puffs. 'One stole a
ham off my pyazz las' summer; Al Fifield brought 't in fer me one
day -smelt good too! I kep' savin' uv it thinlan' I'd enjoy it all the
more when I did hev it. One day I went off cuttin' timber an' stayed
'til mos' night. Comin' home I got t' thinkin' o' thet ham, an' made
up my mind I'd hev some fer supper. The more I thought uv it the
faster I hurried an' when I got hum I was hungrier'n I'd been fer a
year. when I see the ol' bear's tracks an' the empty peg where the
ham had hung I went t' work an, got mad. Then I started after thet
bear. Tracked 'im over yender, up Cat Mountin'.'

Here Ab paused. He had a way of stopping always at the most
interesting point to puff at his pipe. It looked as if he were getting
up steam for another sentence and these delays had the effect of
'continued in our next'.

'Kill 'im?' Uncle Eb asked.

'Licked him,' he said.

'Huh!' we remarked incredulously.

'Licked 'im,' he repeated chucking. 'Went into his cave with a
sledge stake an' whaled 'im - whaled 'im 'til he run fer his life.'

Whether it was true or not I have never been sure, even to this day,
but Ab's manner was at once modest and convincing.

'Should 'a thought he'd 'a rassled with ye,' Uncle Eb remarked.

'Didn't give 'im time,' said Ab, as he took out his knife and began
slowly to sharpen a stick.

'Don't never wan' t' rassle with no bear,' he added, 'but hams is too
scurce here 'n the woods t' hev 'em tuk away 'fore ye know the taste
uv 'em. I ain't never been hard on bears. Don't seldom ever set no
traps an' I ain't shot a bear fer mor'n 'n ten year. But they've got t' be
decent. If any bear steals my vittles he's goin' t' git cuffed bard.'

Ab's tongue had limbered up at last. His pipe was going well and
he seemed to have struck an easy grade. There was a tone of injury
and aggrievement in his talk of the bear's ingratitude. He snailed
over his whittling as we laughed heartily at the droll effect of it all.

'D'ye ever hear o' the wild man 'at roams 'round'n these woods?' he
asked.

'Never did,' said Uncle Eb.

'I've seen 'im more times 'n ye could shake a stick at,' said Ab
crossing his legs comfortably and spitting into the fire. 'Kind o'
thank he's the same man folks tells uv down 'n Paradise Valley
there - 'at goes 'round 'n the clearin' after bedtime.'

'The night man!' I exclaimed.

'Guess thet's what they call 'im,' said Ab. 'Curus man! Sometimes
I've hed a good squint at 'im off 'n the woods. He's wilder 'n a deer
an' I've seen 'im jump over logs, half as high as this shanty, jest as
easy as ye 'd hop a twig. Tried t' foller 'im once er twice but tain' no
use. He's quicker 'n a wil' cat.' 

'What kind of a lookin' manis he?' Tip Taylor asked.

'Great, big, broad-shouldered feller,' said Ab. 'Six feet tall if he's an
inch. Hed a kind of a deerskin jacket on when I seen 'im an'
breeches an' moccasins made o' some kind o' hide. I recollec' one
day I was over on the ridge two mile er more from the Stillwater
goin' south. I seen 'im gittin' a drink at the spring there 'n the burnt
timber. An' if I ain't mistaken there was a real live panther playin'
'round 'im. If 't wa'n't a panther 'twas pesky nigh it I can'tell ye. The
critter see me fast an' drew up 'is back. Then the man got up
quickerin' a flash. Soon 'she see me -Jeemimey! didn't they move.
Never see no human critter run as he did! A big tree hed fell 'cross
a lot o' bush right 'n his path. I'll be gol dummed if 'twan't higher 'n
my head! But he cleared it - jest as easy as a grasshopper'd go over
a straw. I'd like t' know wher he comes from, gol dummed if I
wouldn't. He's the consamdest queerest animal 'n these woods.'

Ab emphasised this lucid view of the night man by an animated
movement of his fist that held the big hunting knife with which he
whittled. Then he emptied his pipe and began cutting more
tobacco.

'Some says 'e 's a ghost,' said Tip Taylor, splitting his sentence with
a yawn, as he lay on a buffalo robe in the shanty.

'Shucks an' shoestrings!' said An, 'he looks too nat'ral. Don't believe
no ghost ever wore whiskers an' long hair like his'n. Thet don't hol'
t' reason.'

This remark was followed by dead silence. Tip seemed to lack
both courage and information with which to prolong the argument.

Gerald had long been asleep and we were all worn out with uphill
travelling and the lack of rest. Uncle Eb went out to look after the
horses that were tethered near us. Ab rose, looked up through the
tree-tops, ventured a guess about the weather, and strode off into
the darkness.

We were five days in camp, hunting, fishing, fighting files and
picking blueberries. Gerald's cough had not improved at all - it
was, if anything, a bit worse than it had been and the worry of that
had clouded our holiday. We were not in high spirits when, finally
we decided to break camp the next afternoon.

The morning of our fourth day at Blueberry Uncle Eb and I crossed
the lake, at daylight, to fish awhile in Soda Brook and gather
orchids then abundant and beautiful in that part of the woods. We
headed for camp at noon and were well away from shore when a
wild yell rang in the dead timber that choked the wide inlet behind
us. I was rowing and stopped the oars while we both looked back
at the naked trees, belly deep in the water.

But for the dry limbs, here and there, they would have looked like
masts of sunken ships. In a moment another wild whoop came
rushing over the water. Thinking it might be somebody in trouble
we worked about and pulled for the mouth of the inlet. Suddenly I
saw a boat coming in the dead timber. There were three men in it,
two of whom were paddling. They yelled like mad men as they
caught sight of us, and one of them waved a bottle in the air.

'They're Indians,' said Uncle Eb. 'Drunk as lords. Guess we'd better
git out o' the way.'

I put about and with a hearty pull made for the other side of the
lake, three miles away. The Indians came after us, their yells
echoing in the far forest. Suddenly one of them lifted his rifle, as if
taking aim at us, and, bang it went the ball ricocheting across our
bows.

'Crazy drunk,' said Uncle Eb, 'an' they're in fer trouble. Pull with all
yer might'

I did that same putting my arms so stiffly to their task I feared the
oars would break

In a moment another ball came splintering the gunwales right
between us, but fortunately, wcll above the water line. Being half a
mile from shore I saw we were in great peril. Uncle Eb reached for
his rifle, his hand trembling.

'Sink 'em,' I shouted, 'an' do it quick or they'll sink us.'

My old companion took careful aim and his ball hit them right on
the starboard bow below the water line. A splash told where it had
landed. They stopped yelling. The man in the bow clapped his hat
against the side of the boat.

'Guess we've gin 'em a little business t' ten' to,' said Uncle Eb as he
made haste to load his rifle.

The Indian at the bow was lifting his rifle again. He seemed to reel
as he took aim. He was very slow about it. I kept pulling as I
watched him. I saw that their boat was slowly sInking. I had a
strange fear that he would hit me in the stomach. I dodged when I
saw the flash of his rifle. His ball struck the water, ten feet away
from us, and threw a spray into my face.

Uncle Eb had lifted his rifle to shoot again. Suddenly the Indian,
who had shot at us, went overboard. In a second they were all in
the water, their boat bottom up.

'Now take yer time,' said Uncle Eb coolly, a frown upon his face.

'They'll drown,' said I.

'Don't care if they do, consam 'em,' he answered. 'They're some o'
them St Regis devils, an' when they git whisky in 'em they'd jes'
soon kill ye as look at ye. They am' no better 'n rats.'

We kept on our way and by and by a wind came up that gave us
both some comfort, for we knew it would soon blow them ashore.
Ab Thomas had come to our camp and sat with Tip and Gerald
when we got there. We told of our adventure and then Ab gave us
a bad turn, and a proper appreciation of our luck, by telling us that
they were a gang of cut-throats - the worst in the wilderness.

'They'd a robbed ye sure,' he said. 'It's the same gang 'at killed a
man on Cat Mountain las' summer, an' I'll bet a dollar on it.'

Tip had everything ready for our journey home. Each day Gerald
had grown paler and thinner. As we wrapped him in a shawl and
tenderly helped him into the wagon I read his doom in his face.
We saw so much of that kind of thing in our stern climate we knew
what it meant. Our fun was over. We sat in silence, speeding down
the long hills in the fading light of the afternoon. Those few
solemn hours in which I heard oniy the wagon's rumble and the
sweet calls of the whip-poor-will-waves of music on a sea of
silence-started me in a way of thought which has led me high and
low these many years and still invites me. The day was near its end
when we got to the first big clearing. From the top of a high hill we
could see above the far forest, the red rim of the setting sun, big
with winding from the skein of day, that was now flying off the
tree-tops in the west.

We stopped to feed the horses and to take a bite of jerked venison,
wrapped ourselves warmer, for it was now dunk and chilly, and
went on again. The road went mostly downhill, going out of the
woods, and we could make good time. It was near midnight when
we drove in at our gate. There was a light in the sitting-room and
Uncle Eb and I went in with Gerald at once. Elizabeth Brower
knelt at the feet of her son, unbuttoned his coat and took off his
muffler. Then she put her arms about his neck while neither spoke
nor uttered any sound. Both mother and son felt and understood
and were silent. The ancient law of God, that rends asunder and
makes havoc of our plans, bore heavy on them in that moment, I
have no doubt, but neither murmured. Uncle Eb began to pump
vigorously at the cistern while David fussed with the fire. We were
all quaking inwardly but neither betrayed a sign of it. It is a way
the Puritan has of suffering. His emotions are like the deep
undercurrents of the sea.

Chapter 17

If I were writing a novel merely I should try to fill it with
merriment and good cheer. I should thrust no sorrow upon the
reader save that he might feel for having wasted his time. We have
small need of manufactured sorrow when, truly, there is so much
of the real thing on every side of us. But this book is nothing more
nor less than a history, and by the same token it cannot be all as I
would have wished it. In October following the events of the last
chapter, Gerald died of consumption, having borne a lingering
illness with great fortitude. I, who had come there a homeless
orphan in a basket, and who, with the God-given eloquence of
childhood had brought them to take me to their hearts and the old
man that was with me as well, was now the only son left to
Elizabeth and David Brower. There were those who called it folly
at the time they took us in, I have heard, but he who shall read this
history to the end shall see how that kind of folly may profit one or
even many here in this hard world.

It was a gloomy summer for all of us. The industry and patience
with which Hope bore her trial, night and day, is the sweetest
recollection of my youth. It brought to her young face a tender
soberness of womanhood - a subtle change of expression that
made her all the more dear to me. Every day, rain or shine, the old
doctor had come to visit his patient, sometimes sitting an hour and
gazing thoughtfully in his face, occasionally asking a question, or
telling a quaint anecdote. And then came the end.

The sky was cold and grey in the late autumn and the leaves were
drifted deep in the edge of the woodlands when Hope and I went
away to school together at HilIsborough. Uncle Eb drove us to our
boarding place in town. when we bade him goodbye and saw him
driving away, alone in the wagon, we hardly dared look at each
other for the tears in our eyes.

David Brower had taken board for us at the house of one Solomon
Rollin - universally known as 'Cooky' Rollin; that was one of the
first things I learned at the Academy. It seemed that many years
ago he had taken his girl to a dance and offered her, in lieu of
supper, cookies that he had thoughtfully brought with him. Thus
cheaply he had come to life-long distinction.

'You know Rollin's Ancient History, don't you?' the young man
asked who sat with me at school that first day.

'Have it at home,' I answered, 'It's in five volumes.'

'I mean the history of Sol Rollin, the man you are boarding with,'
said he smiling at me and then he told the story of the cookies.

The principal of the HilIsborough Academy was a big, brawny
bachelor of Scotch descent, with a stem face and cold, grey,
glaring eyes. when he stood towering above us on his platform in
the main room of the building where I sat, there was an alertness in
his figure, and a look of responsibility in his face, that reminded
me of the pictures of Napoleon at Waterloo. He always carried a
stout ruler that had blistered a shank of every mischievous boy in
school. As he stood by the line, that came marching into prayers
every morning he would frequently pull out a boy, administer a
loud whack or two, shake him violently and force him into a seat.
The day I began my studies at the Academy I saw him put two
dents in the wall with the heels of a young man who had failed in
his algebra. To a bashful and sensitive youth, just out of a country
home, the sight of such violence was appalling. My first talk with
him, however, renewed my courage. He had heard I was a good
scholar and talked with me in a friendly way about my plans. Both
Hope and I were under him in algebra and Latin. I well remember
my first error in his class. I had misconstrued a Latin sentence. He
looked at me, a smile and a sneer crowding each other for
possession of his face. In a loud, jeering tone he cried: 'Mirabile
dictu!'

I looked at him in doubt of his meaning.

'Mirabile dictu!' he shouted, his tongue trilling the r.

I corrected my error.

'Perfect!' he cried again. 'Puer pulchre! Next!'

He never went further than that with me in the way of correction.
My size and my skill as a wrestler, that shortly ensured for me the
respect of the boys, helped me to win the esteem of the master. I
leamed my lessons and kept out of mischief. But others of equal
proficiency were not so fortunate. He was apt to be hard on a light
man who could be handled without over-exertion.

Uncle Eb came in to see me one day and sat awhile with me in my
seat. While he was there the master took a boy by the collar and
almost literally wiped the blackboard with him. There was a great
clatter of heels for a moment. Uncle Eb went away shortly and was
at Sol Rollin's when I came to dinner.

'Powerful man ain't he?' said Uncle Eb.

'Rather,' I said.

'Turned that boy into a reg'lar horse fiddle,' he remarked. 'Must 'ave
unsot his reason.'

'Unnecessary!' I said.

'Reminded me o' the time 'at Tip Taylor got his tooth pulled,' said
he. 'Shook 'im up so 'at he thought he'd had his neck put out o' ji'nt.'

Sol Rollin was one of my studies that winter. He was a carpenter
by trade and his oddities were new and delightful. He whistled as
he worked, he whistled as he read, he whistled right merrily as he
walked up and down the streets - a short, slight figure with a round
boyish face and a fringe of iron-grey hair under his chin. The little
man had one big passion - that for getting and saving. The ancient
thrift of his race had pinched him small and narrow as a foot is
stunted by a tight shoe. His mind was a bit out of register as we say
in the printing business. His vocabulary was rich and vivid and
stimulating.

'Somebody broke into the arsenic today,' he announced, one
evening, at the supper table.

'The arsenic,' said somebody, 'what arsenic?'

'Why the place where they keep the powder,' he answered.

'Oh! the arsenal.'

'Yes, the arsenal,' he said, cackling with laughter at his error. Then
he grew serious.

'Stole all the ambition out of it,' he added.

'You mean ammunition, don't you, Solomon?' his wife enquired.

'Certainly,' said he, 'wasn't that what I said.'

When he had said a thing that met his own approval Sol Rollin
would cackle most cheerfully and then crack a knuckle by twisting
a finger. His laugh was mostly out of register also. It had a sad lack
of relevancy. He laughed on principle rather than provocation.
Some sort of secret comedy of which the world knew nothing, was
passing in his mind; it seemed to have its exits and its entrances,
its villain, its clown and its miser who got all the applause.

While working his joy was unconfined. Many a time I have sat and
watched him in his little shop, its window dim with cobwebs.
Sometimes he would stop whistling and cackle heartily as he
worked his plane or drew his pencil to the square. I have even seen
him drop his tools and give his undivided attention to laughter. He
did not like to be interrupted - he loved his own company the best
while he was 'doin' business'. I went one day when he was singing
the two lines and their quaint chorus which was all he ever sang in
my hearing; which gave him great relief, I have no doubt, when lip
weary with whistling:

Sez I 'Dan'l Skinner, I thank yer mighty mean 
To send me up the river, With a sev'n  dollar team'
Lul-ly,ul- ly,diddie ul- ly, diddleul - lydee, Oh,
lul-ly, ul - ly, diddle ul - ly, diddle  ul - ly dee.

'Mr Rollin!' I said.

Yes siree,' said he, pausing in the midst of his chorus to look up at
me.

'Where can I get a piece of yellow pine?'

'See 'n a minute,' he said. Then he continued his sawing and his
song, ' "Says I Dan SItinner, I thank yer mighty mean"- what d'
ye want it fer?' he asked stopping abruptly.

'Going to make a ruler,' I answered.

'"T' sen' me up the river with a seven dollar team,',' he went on,
picking out a piece of smooth planed lumber, and handing it to me.

'How much is it worth?' I enquired.

He whistled a moment as he surveyed it carefully.

''Bout one cent,' he answered seriously.

I handed him the money and sat down awhile to watch him as he
went on with his work. It was the cheapest amusement I have yet
enjoyed. Indeed Sol Rollin became a dissipation, a subtle and
seductive habit that grew upon me and on one pretext or another I
went every Saturday to the shop if I had not gone home.

'What ye goin' t' be?'

He stopped his saw, and looked at me, waiting for my answer.

At last the tirne had come when I must declare myself and I did.

'A journalist,' I replied.

'What's that?' he enquired curiously.

'An editor,' I said.

'A printer man?'

'A printer man.'

'Huh!' said he. 'Mebbe I'll give ye a job. Sairey tol' me I'd orter t'
'ave some cards printed. I'll want good plain print: Solomon Rollin,
Cappenter 'n J'iner, lilillsborough, NY - soun's putty good don't it.'

'Beautiful,' I answered.

'I'll git a big lot on 'em,' he said. 'I'll want one for Sister Susan 'at's
out in Minnesoty - no, I guess I'll send 'er tew, so she can give one
away - an' one fer my brother, Eliphalet, an' one apiece fer my
three cousins over 'n Vermont, an' one fer my Aunt Mirandy. Le's
see-tew an' one is three an' three is six an' one is seven. Then I'll git
a few struck off fer the folks here - guess they'll thank I'm gittin' up
'n the world.'

He shook and snickered with anticipation of the glory of it. Pure
vanity inspired him in the matter and it had in it no vulgar
consideration of business policy. He whistled a lively tune as he
bent to his work again.

'Yer sister says ye're a splendid scholar!' said he. 'Hear'n 'er braggin'
'bout ye t'other night; she thinks a good deal o' her brother, I can
tell ye. Guess I know what she's gain' t' give ye Crissmus.'

'What's that?' I asked, with a curiosity more youthll than becoming.

'Don't ye never let on,' said he.

'Never,' said I.

'Hear'n 'em tell,' he said,' 'twas a gol' lockup, with 'er pictur' in it'

'Oh, a locket!' I exclaimed.

'That's it,' he replied, 'an' pure gol', too.'

I turned to go.

'Hope she'll grow up a savin' woman,' he remarked. ''Fraid she
won't never be very good t' worlt'

'Why not?' I enquired.

'Han's are too little an' white,' he answered.

'She won't have to,' I said.

He cackled uproariously for a moment, then grew serious.

'Her father's rich,' he said, 'the richest man o' Faraway, an I guess
she won't never hev anything t' dew but set'n sing an' play the
melodium.'

'She can do as she likes,' I said.

He stood a moment looking down as if meditating on the delights
he had pictured.

'Gol!' he exclaimed suddenly.

My subject had begun to study me, and I came away to escape
further examination.

Chapter 18

I ought to say that I have had and shall have to chronicle herein
much that would seem to indicate a mighty conceit of myself.
Unfortunately the little word 'I' throws a big shadow in this history.
It looms up all too frequendy in every page for the sign of a modest
man. But, indeed, I cannot help it, for he was the only observer of
all there is to tell. Now there is much, for example, in the very
marrow of my history - things that never would have happened,
things that never would have been said, but for my fame as a
scholar. My learning was of small account, for, it must be
remembered, I am writing of a time when any degree of
scholarship was counted remarkable among the simple folk of
Faraway.

Hope took singing lessons and sang in church every Sunday. David
or Uncle Eb came down for us often of a Saturday and brought us
back before service m the morning. One may find in that town
today many who will love to tell him of the voice and beauty and
sweetness of Hope Brower those days, and of what they expected
regarding her and me. We went out a good deal evenings to
concerts, lectures at the churches or the college, or to visit some of
the many people who invited us to their homes.

We had a recess of two weeks at the winter holidays and David
Brower came after us the day the term ended. O, the great
happiness of that day before Christmas when we came flying home
in the sleigh behind a new team of greys and felt the intoxication
of the frosty air, and drove in at dusk after the lamps were lit and
we could see mother and Uncle Eb and Grandma Bisnette looking
out of the window, and a steaming dinner on the table! I declare! it
is long since then, but I cannot ever think of that time without
wiping my glasses and taking a moment off Tip Taylor took the
horses and we all came in where the kettle was singing on the
stove and loving hands helped us out of our wraps. The supper was
a merry feast, the like of which one may ftnd only by returning to
his boyhood. Mack! that is a long journey for some of us.

Supper over and the dishes out of the way we gathered about the
stove with cider and butternuts.

'Well,' said Hope, 'I've got some news to tell you - this boy is the
best scholar of his age in this county.'

'Thet so?' said David.

Uncle Eb stopped his hmnmer that was lifted to crack a butternut
and pulled his chair close to Hope's. Elizabeth looked at her
daughter and then at me, a smile and a protest in her face.

'True as you live,' said Hope. 'The master told me so. He's first in
everything, and in the Town Hall the other night he spelt
everybody down.'

'What! In HilIsborough?' Uncle Eb asked incredulously.

'Yes, in Hillsborough,' said Hope, 'and there were doctors and
lawyers and college students and I don't know who all in the
match.'

'Most  reemarkable!' said David Brower.

'Treemenjious!' exclaimed Uncle Eb.

'I heard about it over at the mllls t'day,' said Tip Taylor.

'Merd Dieu!' exclaimed Grandma Bisnette, crossing herself.

Elizabeth Brower was unable to stem this tide of enthusiasm. I had
tried to stop it, but, instantly, it had gone beyond my control. If I
could be hurt by praise the mischief had been done.

'It's very nice, indeed,' said she soberly. 'I do hope it won't make
him conceited. He should remember that people do not always
mean what they say.'

'He's too sensible for that, mother,' said David.

'Shucks!' said Uncle Eb, 'he ain' no fool if he is a good speller - not
by a dum sight!'

'Tip,' said David, 'you'll find a box in the sleigh 'at come by
express. I wish ye'd go'n git it.'

We all stood looking while Tip brought it in and pried off the top
boards with a hatchet.

'Careful, now!' Uncle Eb cautioned him. 'Might spile sumthin'.'

The top off, Uncle Eb removed a layer of pasteboard. Then he
pulled out a lot of coloured tissue paper, and under that was a
package, wrapped and tied. Something was written on it. He held it
up and tried to read the writing.

'Can't see without my spectacles,' he said, handing it to me.

'For Hope,' I read, as I passed it to her.

'Hooray!' said Uncle Eb, as he lifted another, and the last package,
from the box.

'For Mrs Brower,' were the words I read upon that one.

The strings were cut, the wrappers torn away, and two big rolls of
shiny silk loosened their coils on the table. Hope uttered a cry of
delight. A murmur of surprise and admiration passed from one to
another. Elizabeth lifted a rustling fold and held it to the lamplight
We passed our hands over the smooth sheen of the silk.

'Wall, I swan!' said Uncle Eb. 'Jes' like a kitten's ear!'

'Eggzac'ly!' said David Brower.

Elizabeth lifted the silk and let it flow to her feet Then for a little
she looked down, draping it to her skirt and moving her foot to
make the silk rustle. For the moment she was young again.

'David,' she said, still looking at the glory of glossy black that
covered her plain dress.

'Well, mother,' he answered.

'Was you fool enough t' go'n buy this stuff fer me?'


'No, mother - it come from New York City,' he said.

'From New York City?' was the exclamation of all.

Elizabeth Brower looked thoughtfullyy at her husband.

'Clear from New York City?' she repeated.

'From New York City,' said he.

'Wall, of all things!' said Uncle Eb, looking over his spectacles
from one to another.

'It's from the Livingstone boy,' said Mrs Brower. 'I've heard he's the
son of a rich man.'

''Fraid he took a great fancy t' Hope,' said David.

'Father,' said the girl, you've no right to say that. I'm sure he never
cared a straw for me.'

'I don't think we ought to keep it,' said Mrs Brower, looking up
thoughtfullyy.

'Shucks and shavin's!' said Uncle Eb. 'Ye don't know but what I had
it sent myself.'

Hope went over and put her arms around his neck.

'Did you, Uncle Eb?' she asked. 'Now you tell me the truth, Unde
Eb.'

'Wouldn't say 't I did,' he answered, 'but I don' want 'a see ye go
sendin' uv it back. Ye dunno who sent it.'

'What'll I do with it?' Mrs Brower asked, laughing in a way that
showed a sense of absurdity. 'I'd a been tickled with it thirty years
ago, but now-folks 'ud think I was crazy.'

'Never heard such fol de rol,' said Uncle Eb. 'If ye move t' the
village it'll come handy t' go t' meetin'in.'

That seemed to be unanswerable and conclusive, at least for the
time being, and the silk was laid away. We sat talking until late
bedtime, Hope and I, telling of our studies and of the many people
we had met in HilIsborough.

We hung up our stockings just as we had always done Christmas
Eve, and were up betimes in the morning to find them filled with
many simple but delightful things, and one which I treasure to this
day - the locket and its picrure of which I had been surreptitiously
informed.

At two o'clock we had a fine dinner of roast turkey and chicken
pie, with plenty of good cider, and the mince pie, of blessed
memory, such as only a daughter of New England may dare try to
make.

Uncle Eb went upstairs after dinner and presently we heard him
descending with a slow and heavy foot I opened the stair door and
there he stood with the old bass viol that had long lain neglected in
a dusty corner of the attic. Many a night I had heard it groan as the
strings loosened, in the years it had lain on its hack, helpless and
forgotten. It was like a dreamer, snoring in his sleep, and
murmuring of that he saw in his dreams. Uncle Eb had dusted and
strung it and glued its weaker joints. He sat down with it' the
severe look of old upon his face, and set the strings roaring as he
tuned them. Then he brought the sacred treasure to me and leaned
it against my shoulder.

'There that's a Crissmus present fer ye, Willie,' said he. 'It may help
ye t' pass away the time once in a while.'

I thanked him warmly.

''S a reel firs'-class instrument,' he said. 'Been a rip snorter 'n its
day.' He took from his bosom then the old heart pin of silver that
he had always worn of a Sunday.

'Goin' t' give ye thet, too,' he said. 'Dunno's ye'll ever care to wear
it, but I want ye should hev sumthin' ye can carry'n yer pocket t'
remember me by.'

I did not dare trust myself to speak, and I sat helplessly turning that
relic of a better day in my fingers.

'It's genuwine silver,' said he proudly.

I took his old hand in mine and raised it reverently to my lips.

'Hear'n 'em tell 'bout goin' t' the village, an' I says t' myself, "Uncle
Eb," says I, "we'll hev t' be goin'. 'Tain' no place fer you in the
village."'

'Holden,' said David Brower, 'don't ye never talk like that ag'in. Yer
just the same as married t' this family, an' ye can't ever git away
from us.'

And he never did until his help was needed in other and fairer
fields, I am sure, than those of Faraway - God knows where.

Chapter 19

Tip Taylor was, in the main, a serious-minded man. A cross eye
enhanced the natural solemnity of his countenance. He was little
given to talk or laughter unless he were on a hunt, and then he only
whispered his joy. He had seen a good bit of the world through the
peek sight of his rifle, and there was something always in the feel
of a gun that lifted him to higher moods. And yet one could reach a
tender spot in him without the aid of a gun. That winter vacation I
set myself to study things for declamation - specimens of the
eloquence of Daniel Webster and Henry Clay and James Otis and
Patrick Henry. I practiced them in the barn, often, in sight and
hearing of the assembled herd and some of those fiery passages
were rather too loud and threatening for the peace and comfort of
my audience. The oxen seemed always to be expecting the sting of
the bull whip; they stared at me timidly, tilting their ears every
moment, as if to empty them of a heavy load; while the horses
snorted with apprehension. This haranguing of the herd had been
going on a week or more when Uncle Eb and I, returning from a
distant part of the farm, heard a great uproar m the stable. Looking
in at a window we saw Tip Taylor, his back toward us,
extemporising a speech. He was pressing his argument with
gestures and the tone of thunder. We listened a moment, while a
worried look came over the face of Uncle Eb. Tip's words were
meaningless save for the secret aspiration they served to advertise.
My old companion thought Tip had gone crary, and immediately
swung the door and stepped in. The orator fell suddenly from his
lofry altitude and became a very sober looking hired man.

'What's the matter?' Uncle Eb enquired.

'Practicin',' said Tip soberly, as he turned slowly, his face damp
and red with exertion.

'Fer what?' Uncle Eb enquired.

'Fer the 'sylum, I guess,' he answered, with a faint smile.

'Ye don' need no more practice,' Uncle Eb answered. 'Looks t' me
as though ye was purty well prepared.'

To me there was a touch of pathos in this show of the deeper
things m Tip's nature that had been kindled to eruption by my
spouting. He would not come in to dinner that day, probably from
an unfounded fear that we would make fun of his flight - a thing
we should have been far from doing once we understood him.

It was a bitter day of one of the coldest winters we had ever
known. A shrieking wind came over the hills, driving a scud of
snow before it The stock in the stables, we all came in, soon after
dinner, and sat comfortably by the fire with cider, checkers and old
sledge. The dismal roar of the trees and the wind-wail in the
chinney served only to increase our pleasure. It was growing dusk
when mother, peering through the sheath of frost on a window
pane, uttered an exclamation of surprise.

'Why! who is this at the door?' said she. 'Why! It's a man in a
cutter.' Father was near the door and he swung it open quickly.
There stood a horse and cutter, a man sitting in it, heavily muffled.
The horse was shivering and the man sat motionless.

'Hello!' said David Brower in a loud voice.

He got no answer and ran bareheaded to the sleigh.

'Come, quick, Holden,' he called, 'it's Doctor Bigsby.'

We all ran out then, while David lifted the still figure in his arms.

'In here, quick!' said Elizabeth, opening the door to the parlour.
'Musn't take 'im near the stove.'

We carried him into the cold room and laid him down, and David
and I tore his wraps open while the others ran quickly after snow.

I rubbed it vigorously upon his iace and ears, the others meantime
applying it to his feet and arms, that had been quickly stripped.
The doctor stared at us curiously and tried to speak.

'Get ap, Dobbin!' he called presently, and ducked as if urging his
horse. 'Get ap, Dobbin! Man'll die 'fore ever we git there.'

We all worked upon him with might and main. The white went
slowly out of his face. We lifted him to a sitting posture. Mother
and Hope and Uncle Eb were rubbing his hands and feet.

'Where am I?' he enquired, his face now badly swollen.

'At David Brower's,' said I.

'Huh?' he asked, with that kindiy and familiar grunt of
interrogation.

'At David Brower's,' I repeated.

'Well, I'll have t' hurry,' said he, trying feebly to rise. 'Man's dyin'
over - ' he hesitated thoughtfully, 'on the Plains,' he added, looking
around at us.

Grandma Bisnette brought a lamp and held itso the light frll on his
face. He looked from one to another. He drew one of his hands
away and stared at it.

'Somebody froze?' he asked.

'Yes,' said I.

'Hm! Too bad. How'd it happen?' he asked. 'I don't know.'

'How's the pulse?' he enquired, feeling for my.wrist.

I let him hold it in his hand.

'Will you bring me some water in a glass?' he enquired, turning to
Mrs Brower, just as I had seen him do many a time in Gerald's
illness. Before she came with the water his head fell forward upon
his breast, while he muttered feebly. I thought then he was dead,
but presently he roused himself with a mighty effort.

'David Brower!' he called loudly, and trying hard to rise, 'bring the
horse! bring the horse! Mus' be goin', I tell ye. Man's dyin' over - on
the Plains.'

He went limp as a rag then. I could feel his heart leap and struggle
feebly.

'There's a man dyin' here,' said David Brower, in a low tone. 'Ye
needn't rub no more.

'He's dead,' Elizabeth whispered, holding his hand tenderly, and
looking into his half-closed eyes. Then for a moment she covered
her own with her handkerchief, while David, in a low, calm tone,
that showed the depth of his feeling, told us what to do.

Uncle Eb and I watched that night, while Tip Taylor drove away to
town. The body lay in the parlour and we sat by the stove in the
room adjoining. In a half-whisper we talked of the sad event of the
day.

'Never oughter gone out a day like this,' said Uncle Eb. 'Don' take
much t' freeze an ol' man.'

'Got to thinking of what happened yesterday and forgot the cold,' I
said.

'Bad day t' be absent-minded,' whispered Uncle Eb, as he rose and
tiptoed to the window and peered through the frosty panes. 'May o'
got faint er sumthin'. Ol' hoss brought 'im right here - been here s'
often with 'in'.'

He took the lantern and went out a moment. The door creaked
upon its frosty hinges when he opened it.

'Thirty below zero,' he whispered as he came in. 'Win's gone down
a leetle bit, mebbe.'

Uncanny noises broke in upon the stliness of the old house. Its
timbers, racked in the mighty grip of the cold, creaked and settled.
Sometimes there came a sbarp, breaking sound, like the crack of
bones.

'If any man oughter go t' Heaven, he had,' said Uncle Eb, as he
drew on his boots.

'Think he's in Heaven?' I asked.

'Hain't a doubt uv it,' said he, as he chewed a moment, preparing
for expectoration.

'What kind of a place do you think it is?' I asked.

'Fer one thing,' he said, deliberately, 'nobody'll die there, 'less he'd
ought to; don't believe there's goin' t' be any need o' swearin' er
quarrellin'. To my way o' thinkin' it'll be a good deal like Dave
Brower's flirm - nice, smooth land and no stun on it, an, hills an'
valleys an' white clover aplenty, an' wheat an' corn higher'n a man's
head. No bull thistles, no hard winters, no narrer contracted fools;
no long faces, an' plenty o' work. Folks sayin' "How d'y do" 'stid o'
"goodbye", all the while - comin' 'stid o' gain'. There's goin' t' be
some kind o' ftln there. I ain' no idee what 'tis. Folks like it an' I
kind o' believe 'at when God's gin a thing t', everybody he
thinks purty middlin' well uv it.'

'Anyhow, it seems a hard thing to die,' I remarked.

'Seems so,' he said thoughtfully. 'Jes' like ever'thing else - them 'at
knows much about it don' have a great deal t' say. Looks t' me like
this: I cal'ate a man hes on the everidge ten things his heart is sot
on - what is the word I want -?'

'Treasures?' I suggested.

'Thet's it,' said he. 'Ev'ry one hes about ten treasures. Some hev
more - some less. Say one's his strength, one's his plan, the rest is
them he loves, an' the more he loves the better 'tis fer him. Wall,
they begin t' go one by one. Some die, some turn agin' him. Fin's it
hard t' keep his allowance. When he's only nine he's lost eggzac'ly
one-tenth uv his dread o' dyin'. Bime bye he counts up -
one-two-three-four-five-an' thet's all ther is left. He figgers it up
carefial. His strength is gone, his plan's a fillure, mebbe, an' this
one's dead an' thet one's dead, an' t'other one better be. Then 's
'bout half-ways with him. If he lives till the ten treasures is all
gone, God gives him one more - thet's death. An' he can swop thet
off an' git back all he's lost. Then he begins t' think it's a purty dum
good thing, after all. Purty good thing, after all,' he repeated,
gaping as he spoke.

He began nodding shortly, and soon he went asleep in his chair.

Chapter 20

We went back to our work again shortly, the sweetness and the
bitterness of life fresh in our remembrance. When we came back,
'hook an' line', for another vacation, the fields were aglow with
colour, and the roads where Dr Bigsby had felt the sting of death
that winter day were now over drifted with meadow-music and the
smell of clover. I had creditably taken examination for college,
where I was to begin my course in the fall, with a scholarship.
Hope had made remarkable progress in music and was soon going
to Ogdensburg for instruction.

A year had gone, nearly, since Jed Feary had cautioned me about
falling in love. I had kept enough of my heart about me 'to do
business with', but I had continued to feel an uncomfortable
absence in the region of it. Young men at HilIsborough - many of
whom, I felt sure, had a smarter look than I - had bid stubbornly
for her favour. I wondered, often, it did not turn her head - this
tribute of rustic admiration. But she seemed to be all unconscious
of its cause and went about her work with small conceit of herself.
Many a time they had tried to take her from my arm at the church
door - a good-natured phase of youthful rivalry there in those days
- but she had always said, laughingly, 'No, thank you,' and clung all
the closer to me. Now Jed Feary had no knowledge of the worry it
gave me, or of the penl it suggested. I knew that, if I felt free to tell
him all, he would give me other counsel. I was now seventeen and
she a bit older, and had I not heard of many young men and
women who had been engaged - aye, even married - at that age?
Well, as it happened, a day before she left us, to go to her work in
Ogdensburg, where she was to live with her uncle, I made an end
of delay. I considered carefully what a man ought to say in the
circumstances, and I thought I had near an accurate notion. We
were in the garden - together - the playground of our childhood.

'Hope, I have a secret to tell you,' I said.

'A secret,' she exclaimed eagerly. 'I love secrets.'

'A great secret,' I repeated, as I felt my face burning.

'Why - it must be something awful!'

'Not very,' I stammered. Having missed my cue from the
beginning, I was now utterly confused.

'William!' she exclaimed, 'what is the matter of you.'

'I - I am in love,' said I, very awkwardiy.

'Is that all?' she answered, a trace of humour in her tone. 'I thought
it was bad news.'

I stooped to pick a rose and handed itto her.

'Well,' she remarked soberly, but smiling a little, as she lifted the
rose to her lips, 'is it anyone I know.'

I felt it was going badly with me, but caught a sudden inspiration.

'You have never seen her,' I said.

If she had suspected the truth I had turned the tables on her, and
now she was guessing. A quick change came into her face, and, for
a moment, it gave me confidence.

'Is she pretty?' she asked very seriously as she dropped the flower
and looked down crushing it beneath her foot.

'She is very beautifial - it is you I love, Hope.'

A flood of colour came into her cheeks then, as she stood a
moment looking down at the flower in silence.

'I shall keep your secret,' she said tenderly, and hesitating as she
spoke, 'and when you are through college - and you are older - and
I am older - and you love me as you do now - I hope - I shall love
you, too - as - I do now.'

Her lips were trembling as she gave me that sweet assurance -
dearer to me - far dearer than all else I remember of that golden
time - and tears were coursing down her cheeks. For myself I was
in a worse plight of emotion. I dare say she remembered also the
look of my face in that moment.

'Do not speak of it again,' she said, as we walked away together on
the shorn sod of the orchard meadow, now sown with apple
blossoms, 'until we are older, and, if you never speak again, I shall
know you - you do not love me any longer.'

The dinner horn sounded. We turned and walked slowly back

'Do I look all right?' she asked, turing her face to me and smiling
sweetly.

'All right,' I said. 'Nobody would know that anyone loved you -
except for your beauty and that one tear track on your cheek.'

She wiped it away as she laughed.

'Mother knows anyway,' she said, 'and she has given me good
advice. Wait!' she added, stopping and turning to me. 'Your eyes
are wet!'

I felt for my handkerchief.

'Take mine,' she said.

Elder Whitmarsh was at the house and they were all suring downto
dinner as we came in.

'Hello!' said Uncle Eb. 'Here's a good-lookin' couple. We've got a
chicken pie an' a Baptis' minister fer dinner an' both good. Take
yer pew nex' t' the minister,' he added as he held the chair for me.

Then we all bowed our heads and I felt a hearty amen for the
elder's words:

'O Lord, may all our doing and saying and eating and driniiing of
this day be done, as in Thy sight, for our eternal happiness - and
for Thy glory. Amen.'

Chapter 2 I

We have our secrets, but, guard them as we may, it is not long
before others have them also. We do much taling without words. I
once knew a man who did his drinking secretly and his reeling in
public, and thought he was fooling everybody. That shows how
much easier it is for one to fool himself than to fool another. What
is in a man's heart is on his face, and is shortly written all over
him. Therein is a mighty lesson.

Of all people I ever knew Elizabeth Brower had the surest eye for
looking into one's soul, and I, myself, have some gift of
penetration. I knew shortly that Mrs Brower - wise and prudent
woman that she was - had suspected my love for Hope and her
love for me, and had told her what she ought to say if I spoke of it

The maturity of judgement in Hope's answer must have been the
result of much thought and counsel, it seemed to me.

'If you do not speak again I shall know you do not love me any
longer,' she had said. They were brave words that stood for
something very deep in the character of those people - a
self-repression that was sublime, often, in their women. As I said
them to myself, those lonely summer days in Faraway, I saw in
their sweet significance no hint of the bitterness they were to
bring. But God knows I have had my share of pleasure and no
more bitterness than I deserved.

It was a lonely summer for me. I had letters from Hope - ten of
them - which I still keep and read, often with something of the old
pleasure - girlish letters that told of her work and friends, and gave
me some sweet counsel and much assurance between the lines.

I travelled in new roads that vacation time. Politics and religion, as
well as love, began to interest me. Slavery was looming into the

proportion of a great issue, and the stories of cruelty and outrage
on the plantations of the South stirred my young blood and made it
ready for the letting of battle, in God's time. The speeches in the
Senate were read aloud in our sitting-room after supper - the day
the Tnbune came - and all lent a tongue to their discussion.
Jed Feary was with us one evening, I remember, when our talk
turned into long ways, the end of which I have never found to this
day. Elizabeth had been reading of a slave, who, according to the
paper, had been whipped to death.

'If God knows 'at such things are bein' done, why don't he stop
'em?' David asked.

'Can't very well,' said Jed Feary.

'Can, if he's omnipotent,' said David.

'That's a bad word - a dangerous one,' said the old poet, dropping
his dialect as he spoke. 'It makes God responsible for evil as well
as good. The word carries us beyond our depth. It's too big for our
boots. I'd ruther think He can do what's doable an' know what's
knowable. In the beginning he gave laws to the world an' these
laws are unchangeable, or they are not wise an' perfect. If God
were to change them He would thereby acknowledge their
imperfection. By this law men and races suffer as they struggle
upward. But if the law is unchangeable, can it be changed for a
better cause even than the relief of a whipped slave? In good time.
the law shall punish and relieve. The groans of them that suffer
shall hasten it, but there shall be no change in the law. There can
be no change in the law.'

'Leetle hard t' tell jest how powerfiil God is,' said Uncle Eb. 'Good
deal like tryin' t' weigh Lake Champlain with a quart pail and a
pair o' steelyards.'

'If God's laws are unchangeable, what is the use of praying?' I
asked.

'He can give us the strength to bear, the will to obey him an' light
to guide us,' said the poet. 'I've written out a few lines t' read t' Bill
here 'fore he goes off t' college. They have suanthin' t' say on this
subject. The poem hints at things he'd ought 'o learn purty soon - if
he don't know 'em now.'

The old poet felt in his pockets as he spoke, and withdrew a folded
sheet of straw-coloured wrapping paper and opened it. I was 'Bill'
-plain 'Bill' - to everybody in that country, where, as you increased
your love of a man, you diminished his name. I had been called
Willie, William and Billy, and finally, when I threw the strong
man of the township in a wrestling match they gave me this fail
token of confidence. I bent over the shoulder of Jed Feary for a
view of the manuscript, closely written witha lead pencil, and
marked with many erasures.

'Le's hear it,' said David Brower.

Then I moved the lamp to his elbow and he began reading:

'A talk with William Brower on the occasion of his going
away to colkge and writ oat in rhyme for him by his friend
Jedediah Feary to be a token of respect.

The man that loses faith in God, ye'll find out every time,
Has found a faith in his own self that's mighty nigh sublime.
He knows as much as all the saints an' calls religion flighty,
An' in his narrow world assumes the place o' God Almighty.

But don't expect too much o' God, it wouldn't be quite fair
If fer everything ye wanted ye could only swap a prayer;
I'd pray fer yours an' you fer mine an' Deacon Henry Hospur
He wouldn't hev a thing t' do but lay a-bed an' prosper.

If all things come so easy, Bill, they'd hev but little worth, 
An' someone with a gift O' prayer 'ud mebbe own the earth. 
It's the toil ye give t' git a thing - the sweat an' blood an, trouble
We reckon by - an' every tear'll make its value double.

There's a money O' the soul, my boy, ye'll find in after years, 
Its pennies are the sweat drops an' its dollars are the tears; 
An' love is the redeemin' gold that measures what they're worth,
An' ye'll git as much in Heaven as ye've given out on earth.

Fer the record o' yer doin' - I believe the soul is planned
With an automatic register t, tell jest how ye stand,
An' it won't take any cipherin' t' show that fearful day,
If ye've multiplied yer talents well, er thrown 'em all away.

When yer feet are on the summit, an' the wide horizon clears, 
An' ye look back on yer pathway windin' thro' the vale o' tears;
When ye see how much ye've trespassed an' how fur ye've gone
astray,
Ye'll know the way o' Providence ain't apt t' be your way.

God knows as much as can be known, but I don't think it's true
He knows of all the dangers in the path o' me an' you.
If I shet my eyes an' hurl a stone that kills the King o' Siam, 
The chances are that God'll be as much surprised as I am.

If ye pray with faith believin', why, ye'll certnly receive,
But that God does what's impossible is more than I'll believe.
If it grieves Him when a sparrow falls, it's sure as anything,
He'd hev turned the arrow if He could, that broke the sparrow's
wing.

Ye can read old Nature's history thet's writ in rocks an' stones,
Ye can see her throbbin' vitals an' her mighty rack o' hones.
But the soul o' her - the livin' God, a little child may know
No lens er rule o' cipherin' can ever hope t' show.

There's a part o' Cod's creation very handy t' yer view,
Al' the truth o' life is in it an' remember, Bill, it's you.
An' after all yer science ye must look up in yer mind,
An' leam its own astronomy the star o' peace t' find.

There's good old Aunt Samanthy Jane thet all her journey long
Has led her heart to labour with a reveille of song. 
Her folks hev robbed an' left her but her faith in goodness grows,
She hasn't any larnin', but I tell ye Bill, she knows!

She's hed her share o' troubles; I remember well the day
We took her t' the poorhouse - she was singin' all the way;
Ye needn't be afraid t' come where stormy Jordan flows,
If all the larnin' ye can git has taught ye halfshe knows.'

I give this crude example of rustic philosophy, not because it has
my endorsement - God knows I have ever felt it far beyond me -
but because it is useful to those who may care to know the man
who wrote it. I give it the poor fame of these pages with keen
regret that my friend is now long passed the praise or blame of this
world.

Chapter 22

The horse played a part of no small importance in that country. He
was the coin of the realin, a medium of exchange, a standard of
value, an exponent of moral character. The man that travelled
without a horse was on his way to the poorhouse. Uncle Eb or
David Brower could tell a good horse by the sound of his
footsteps, and they brought into St Lawrence County the haughty
Morgans from Vermont. There was more pride in their high heads
than in any of the good people. A Northern Yankee who was not
carried away with a fine horse had excellent self-control. Politics
and the steed were the only things that ever woke him to
enthusiasm, and there a man was known as he traded. Uncle Eb
used to say that one ought always to underestimate his horse 'a
leetle fer the sake of a reputation'.

We needed another horse to help with the haying, and Bob Dean, a
tricky trader, who had heard of it, drove in after supper one
evening, and offered a rangy brown animal at a low figure. We
looked him over, tried him up and down the road, and then David,
with some shrewd suspicion, as I divined later, said I could do as I
pleased. I bought the horse and led him proudly to the stable. Next
morning an Irishman, the extra man for the haying, came in with a
worried look to breakfast.

'That new horse has a chittern' kind of a coff,' he said.

'A cough?' said I.

''Tain't jist a coff, nayther,' he said, 'but a kind of toom!'

With the last word he obligingly imitated the sound of the cough.
It threw me into perspiration.

'Sounds bad,' said Uncle Eb, as he looked at me and snickered.

''Fraid Bill ain't much of a jockey,' said David, smaling.

'Got a grand appetite - that hoss has,' said Tip Taylor.

After breakfast Uncle Eb and I hitched him to the light buggy and
touched him up for a short journey down the road. In five minutes
he had begun to heave and whistle. I felt sure one could have heard
him half a mile away. Uncle Eb stopped him and began to laugh.

'A whistler,' said he, 'sure's yer born. He ain't wuth a bag o' beans.
But don't ye never let on. When ye git licked ye musn't never fin'
fault. If anybody asks ye 'bout him tell 'em he's all ye expected.'

We stood waiting a moment for the horse to recover himself. A
team was nearing us.

'There's Bob Dean,' Uncle Eb whispered. 'The durn scalawag!
Don't ye say a word now.

'Good-mornin'!' said Dean, smiling as he pulled up beside us.

'Nice pleasant mornin'!' said Uncle Eb, as he cast a glance into the
sky.

'What ye standin' here for?' Dean asked.

Uncle Eb expectorated thoughtfullyy.

'Jest a 1ookin' at the scenery,' said he. 'Purty country, right here!
AIwus liked it.'

'Nice lookin' hoss ye got there,' said Dean.

'Grand hoss!' said Uncle Eb, surveymg him proudly. 'Most
reemarkable hoss.'

'Good stepper, too,' said Dean soberly.

'Splendid!' said Uncle Eb. 'Can go a mile without ketchin' his
breath.'

'Thet so?' said Dean.

'Good deal like Lucy Purvis,' Unde Eb added. 'She can say the hull
mul'plication table an' only breathe once. Ye can learn sumthin'
from a hoss like thet. He's good as a deestric' school - thet hoss is.'

Yes, sir, thet hoss is all right,' said Dean, as he drove away.

'Righter'n I expected,' Uncle Eb shouted, and then he covered his
mouth, shaking with suppressed laughter.

'Skunk!' he said, as we turned the animal and started to walk him
home. 'Don't min' bein' beat, but I don't like t' hev a man rub it in
on me. I'll git even with him mebbe.'

And he did. It came about in this way. We turned our new
purchase into the pasture, and Uncle Eb and I drove away to
Potsdam for a better nag. We examined all the horses in that part
of the country. At last we chanced upon one that looked like the
whistler, save that he had a white stocking on one hind foot

'Same age, too,' said Uncle Eb, as he looked into his mouth.

'Can pass anything on the road,' said his owner.

'Can he?' said Uncle Eb, who had no taste for slow going. 'Hitch
him up an' le's see what he can do.'

He carried us faster than we had ever ridden before at a trot, and
coming up behind another team the man pulled out, let the reins
loose on his back, and whistled. If anyone had hit him with a log
chain the horse could not have moved quicker. He took us by the
other team like a flash, on the dead run and three in the buggy.

'He'll do all right,' said Uncle Eb, and paid for the horse.

It was long after dark when we started home, leading him behind,
and near midnight when we arrived.

In the morning I found Uncle Eb in the stable showing him to the
other help. To my surprise the white stocking had disappeared.

'Didn't jes' like that white stockin',' he said, as I came in.
'Wondered how he'd look without it.'

They all agreed this horse and the whistler were as much alike as
two peas m appearance. Breakfast over Uncle Eb asked the
Irishman to hitch him up.

'Come Bill,' said he, 'le's take a ride. Dean'll be comm' 'long bym
bye on his way t' town with that trotter o' his'n. 'Druther like to
meet him.'

I had only a faint idea of his purpose. He let the horse step along at
top speed going up the road and when we turned about he was
breathing heavily. We jogged him back down the road a mile or so,
and when I saw the blazed face of Dean's mare, in the distance, we
pulled up and shortly stopped him. Dean came along in a moment.

'Nice mornin'!' said he.

'Grand!' said Uncle Eb.

'Lookin' at the lan'scape ag'in?'

'Yes; I've jes' begun t' see what a putty country this is,' said Uncle
Eb.

'How's the boss?'

'Splendid! Gives ye time t' think an' see what yer passin'. Like t' set
'n think once in a while. We don't do enough thinkin' here in this
part o' the country.'

'Yd orter buy this mare an leam how t' ride fast,' said Dean.

'Thet one,' said Uncle Eb, sqIii:fltig at the mare, 'why she can't go
fast 'nough.'

'She can't, hey?' said Dean, bridling with injured pride. 'I don't
think there's anything in this town can head her.'

'Thunder!' said Uncle Eb, 'I can go by her with this ol' plug easy
'twxt here an' our gate. Ye didn't know what ye was sellin'.'

'If ye pass her once I'll give her to ye,' said he.

'Mean it?' said Uncle Eb.

'Sartin,' said he, a little redder in the face.

'An' if I don't I'll give ye the whistler,' said Uncle Eb as he turned
about.

The mare went away, under the whip, before we had fairly started.
She was going a fifty shot but in a moment we were lapping upon
her hind wheel. Dean threw a startled glance over his shoulder.
Then he shouted to the mare. She quickened her pace a little but
we kept our position. Uncle Eb was leaning over the dasher his
white locks flying. He had something up his sleeve, as they say,
and was not yet ready to use it. Then Dean began to shear over to
cut us off- a nasty trick of the low horseman. I saw Uncle Eb
giance at the ditch ahead. I knew what was coining and took a firm
hold of the seat. The ditch was a bit rough, but Uncle Eb had no
lack of courage. He turned the horse's head, let up on the reins and
whistled. I have never felt such a thrill as then. Our horse leaped
into the deep grass running like a wild deer.

'Hi there! hi there!' Uncle Eb shouted, bouncing in his seat, as we
went over stones and hummocks going like the wind.

'Go, ye brown devil!' he yelled, his hat flying off as he shook the
reins.

The mare lost her stride; we flashed by and came up into the road.
Looking back I saw her jumping up and down a long way behind
us and Dean whipping her. Uncle Eb, his hands over the dasher,
had pulled down to a trot Ahead of us we could see our folks - men
and women - at the gate looking down the road at us waving hats
and handkerchieis. They had heard the noise of the battle. Uncle
Eb let up on the reins and looked back snorting with amusement.
In a moment we pulled up at our gate. Dean came along slowly.

'Thet's a putty good mare,' said Uncle Eb.

'Yer welcome to her,' said Dean sullenly.

'Wouldn't hev her,' said Uncle Eb.

'Why not?' said the trader a look of relief coming over his face.

'Can't go fast enough for my use,' Uncle Eb answered. 'Ye can jest
hitch her in here awhile an' the first day ye come over with a
hundred dollars ye can hev her 'n the whistler, both on 'em. Thet
whistler's a grand hoss! Can hold his breath longer'n any hoss I
ever knew!'

The sum named was that we had paid him for the highiy
accomplished animal. Dean had the manhood to pay up then and
there and said he would send for the other horse, which he never
did.

'Guess he won't bother us any more when we stop t' look at the
scenery,' said Uncle Eb, laughing as Dean drove away. 'Kind o'
resky business buyin' hosses,' he added. 'Got t' jedge the owner as
well as the hoss. If there's anything the matter with his conscience
it'll come out in the hoss somewhere every time. Never knew a
mean man t' own a good hoss. Remember, boy, 's a lame soul thet
drives a limpin' hoss.'

'No use talkin'; Bill ain' no jedge uv a hoss' said David Brower.
'He'll hev t' hev an education er he'll git t' the poorhouse someday
sartin.'

'Wall he's a good jedge o' gals anyway,' said Uncle Eb.

As for myself I was now hopelessly confirmed in my dislike of
farming and I never traded horses again.

Chapter 23

Late in August Uncle Eb and I took our Black Hawk stallion to the
fair in HilIsborough and showed him for a prize. He was fit for the
eye of a king when we had finished grooming him, that morning,
and led him out, rearing in play, his eyes flashing from under his
broad plume, so that all might have a last look at him. His arched
neck and slim barrel glowed like satin as the sunlight fell upon
him. His black mane flew, he shook the ground with his hoofs
playing at the halter's end. He hated a harness and once in it lost
half his conceit. But he was vainest of all things in Faraway when
we drove off with him that morning.

All roads led to HilIsborough fair time. Up and down the long hills
we went on a stiff jog passing lumber wagons with generations
enough in them to make a respectable genealogy, the old people in
chairs; light wagons that carried young men and their sweethearts,
baclswoodsmen coming out in ancient vehicles upon reeling,
creaking wheels to get food for a year's reflection - all thickening
the haze of the late summer with the dust of the roads. And
Hillsborough itself was black with people. The shouts of excited
men, the neighing of horses, the bellowing of cattle, the wailing of
infants, the howling of vendors, the pressing crowd, had begun to
sow the seed of misery in the minds of those accustomed only to
the peaceflil quietude of the farm. The staring eye, the palpitating
heart, the aching head, were successive stages in the doom of
many. The fair had its floral hall carpeted with sawdust and
redolent of cedar, its dairy house, its mechanics' hall sacred to
fiuming implements, its long sheds ftill of sheep and cattle, its
dining-hall, its temporary booths of rough lumber, its half-mile
track and grandstand. Here voices of beast and vendor mingied in a
chorus of cupidity and distress. In Floral Hall Sol Rollin was on
exhibition. He gave me a cold nod, his lips set for a tune as yet
inaudible. He was surveying sundry examples of rustic art that
hung on the circular railing of the gallery and tryingto preserve a
calm breast. He was looking at Susan Baker's painted cow that
hung near us.

'Very descriptive,' he said when I pressed him for his notion of it.
'Rod Baker's sister Susan made thet cow. Gits tew dollars an' fifty
cents every fair time - wish I was dewin 's well.'

'That's one of the most profitable cows in this country,' I said.

'Looks a good deal like a new breed.'

'Yes,' he answered soberly, then he set his lips, threw a sweeping
glance into the gallery, and passed on.

Susan Baker's cow was one of the permanent features of the
county fair, and was indeed a curiosity not less remarkable than
the sacred ox of Mr Bamum.

Here also I met a group of the pretty girls who had been my
schoolmates. They surrounded me, chattering like magpies.

'There's going to be a dance at our house tonight,' said one of them,
'and you must come.'

'I cannot, I must go home,' I said.

'Of course!' said a red-cheeked saucy miss. 'The stuck-up thing! He
wouldn't go anywhere unless he could have his sister with him.'

Then they went away laughing.

I found Ab Thomas at the rifle range. He was whittling as he
considered a challenge from Tip Taylor to shoot a match. He
turned and 'hefted' the rifle, silently, and then he squinted over the
barrel two or three times.

'Dunno but what I'll try ye once,' he said presently, 'jes t' see.' 

Once started they grew red in their faces and shot themselves
weary in a reckless contest of skiIl and endurance. A great hulking
fellow, half drunk and a bit quarrelsome, came up, presently, and
endeavoured to help Ab hold his rifle. The latter brushed him away
and said nothing for a moment. But every time he tried to take aim
the man jostled him.

An looked up slowly and calmly, his eyebrows tilted for his aim,
and said, 'Go off I tell ye.' Then he set himself and took aim again.

'Le'me hold it,' said the man, reaching for the barrel. 'Shoot better
if I do the ainin'.' A laugh greeted this remark. Ab looked up
again. There was a quick start in his great slouching figure.

'Take yer hand off o' thet,' he said a little louder than before. 

The man, aching for more applause, grew more impertinent Ab
quietly handed the rifle to its owner. Then something happened
suddenly. It was so quickly over I am not quite sure of the order of
business, but anyhow he seized the intruder by the shoulders
flinging him down so heavily it knocked the dust out of the grass.

'A fight!' somebody shouted and men and boys came runing from
all sides. We were locked in a pushing crowd before I could turn.
The intruder lay stunned a moment. Then he rose, bare headed, his
back covered with dust, pushed his way out and ran.

Ab turned quietly to the range.

'Hedn't orter t' come an' try t' dew my aimin',' he said mildly, by
way of protest, 'I won't hev it.'

Then he enquired about the score and calmly took aim again. The
stallion show came on that afternoon.

'They can't never beat thet hoss,' Uncle Eb had said to me.

''Fraid they will,' I answered. 'They're better hitched for one thing.'

'But they hain't got the ginger in 'em,' said he, 'er the git up 'n git. If
we can show what's in him the Hawk'll beat 'em easy.'

If we won I was to get the prize but I had small hope of winning.
When I saw one after another prance out, in sparkling silver
harness adorned with rosettes of ribbon - light stepping, beautiful
creatures all of them - I could see nothing but defeat for us. Indeed
I could see we had been too confident. I dreaded the moment when
Uncle Eb should drive down with Black Hawk in a plain leather
harness, drawing a plainer buggy. I had planned to spend the prize
money taking Hope to the harvest ball at Rickard's, and I had
worked hard to put the Hawk in good fettle. I began to feel the
bitterness of failure.

'Black Hawk! Where is Black Hawk?' said one of the judges
loudly.

'Owned by David Brower o' Faraway,' said another looking at his
card.

Where indeed was Uncle Eb? I got up on the fence and looked all
about me anxiously. Then I heard a great cheering up the track.
Somebody was coming down, at a rapid pace, riding a splendid
moving animal, a knee rising to the nose at each powerful stride.
His head and flying mane obscured the rider but I could see the
end of a rope swinging in his hand. There was something familiar
in the easy high stride of the horse. The cheers came on ahead of

him like foam before a breaker. Upon my eyes! it was Black
Hawk, with nothing but a plain rope halter on his head, and Uncle
Eb riding him.

'G'lang there!' he shouted, swinging the halter stale to the shining
flank. 'G'lang there!' and he went by, like a flash, the tail of Black
Hawk straight out behind him, its end feathering in the wind. It
was a splendid thing to see - that white-haired man, sitting erect on
the flying animal, with only a rope halter in his hand. Every man
about me was yelling. I swung my hat, shouting myself hoarse.
When Uncle Eb came back the Hawk was walking quietly in a
crowd of men and boys eager to feel his silken sides. I crowded
through and held the horse's nose while Uncle Eb got down.

'Thought I wouldn't put no luther on him,' said Uncle Eb, 'God's
gin' 'im a good 'nuff harness.'

The judges came and looked him over.

'Guess he'll win the prize all right,' said one of them.

And he did. When we came home that evening every horse on the
road thought himself a trotter and went speeding to try his pace
with everything that came up beside him. And many a man of
Faraway, that we passed, sent up a shout of praise for the Black
Hawk.

But I was thinking of Hope and the dance at Rickard's. I had plenty
of money now and my next letter urged her to come home at once.

Chapter 24

Hope returned for a few days late in August. Invitations were just
issued for the harvest dance at Rickard's.

'You mus' take 'er,' said Uncle Eb, the day she came. 'She's a purty
dancer as a man ever see. Prance right up an' tell 'er she mus' go.
Don' want 'O let anyone git ahead O' ye.'

'Of course I will go,' she said in answer to my invitation, 'I
shouldn't think you were a beau worth having if you did not ask
me.'

The yellow moon was peering over Woody Ledge when we went
away that evening. I knew it was our last pleasure seeking in
Faraway, and the crickets in the stubble filled the silence with a
kind of mourning.

She looked so fine in her big hat and new gown with its many
dainty accessories of lace and ribbon, adjusted with so much
patting and pulling, that as she sat beside me, I hardly dared touch
her for fear of spoiling something. When she shivered a little and
said it was growing cool I put my arm about her, and, as I drew her
closer to my side, she turned her hat, obligingly, and said it was a
great nuisance.

I tried to kiss her then, but she put her hand over my mouth and
said, sweetly, that I would spoil everything if I did that

'I must not let you kiss me, William,' she said, 'not - not for all in
the world. I'm sure you wouldn't have me do what I think is wrong
-would you?'

There was but one answer to such an appeal, and I made myself as
happy as possible feeling her head upon my shoulder and her soft
hair touching my cheek. As I think of it now the trust she put in me
was something sublime and holy.

'Then I shall talk about - about our love,' I said, 'I must do
something.'

'Promised I wouldn't let you,' she said. Then she added after a
moment of silence, 'I'll tell you what you may do - tell me what is
your ideal in a woman - the one you would love best of all. I don't
think that would be wicked - do you?'

'I think God would forgive that,' I said. 'She must be tall and slim,
with dainty feet and hands, and a pair of big eyes, blue as a violet,
shaded with long dark lashes. And her hair must be wavy and light
with a little tinge of gold in it. And her cheek must have the pink
of the rose and dimples that show in laughter. And her voice - that
must have music in it and the ring of kindness and good-natare.
And her lips - let them show the crimson of her blood and be ready
to give and receive a kiss when I meet her.'

She sighed and nestled closer to me.

'If I let you kiss me just once,' she whispered, 'you will not ask me
again - will you?'

'No, sweetheart, I will not,' I answered. Then we gave each other
such a kiss as may be known once and only once in a lifetime.

'What would you do for the love of a girl like that?' she whispered.

I thought a moment, sounding depths of undiscovered woe to see if
there were anything I should hesitate to suffer and there was
nothing.

'I'd lay me doun an' dee,' I said.

And I well remember how, when I lay dying, as I believed, in rain
and darkness on the bloody field of Bull Run, I thought of that
moment and of those words.

'I cannot say such beautiful things as you,' she answered, when I
asked her to describe her ideal. 'He must be good and he must be
tall and handsome and strong and brave.'

Then she sang a tender love ballad. I have often shared the
pleasure of thousands under the spell of her voice, but I have never
heard her sing as to that small audience on Faraway turnpike.

As we came near Rickard's Hall we could hear the fiddles and the
calling off.

The windows on the long sides of the big house were open. Long
shafts of light shot out upon the gloom. It had always reminded me
of a picture of Noah's ark that hung in my bedroom and now it
seemed to be floating, with resting oars of gold, in a deluge of
darkness. We were greeted with a noisy welcome, at the door.
Many of the boys and girls came, from all sides of the big hall, and
shook hands with us. Enos Brown, whose long forelocks had been
oiled for the occasion and combed down so they touched his right
eyebrow, was panting in a jig that jarred the house. His trouser legs
were caught on the tops of his fine boots. He nodded to me as I
came in, snapped his fingers and doubled his energy. It was an
exhibition both of power and endurance. He was damp and
apologetic when, at length, he stopped with a mighty bang of his
foot and sat down beside me. He said he was badly out of practice
when I offered congratulations. The first fiddler was a small man,
with a short leg, and a character that was minus one dimension. It
had length and breadth but no thickness. He sat with his fellow
player on a little platform at one end of the room. He was an odd
man who wandered all over the township with his fiddle. He
played by ear, and I have seen babies smile and old men dance
when his bow was swaying. I remember that when I heard it for the
first time, I determined that I should be a fiddler if I ever grew to
be a man. But David told me that fiddlers were a worthless lot, and
that no wise man should ever fool with a fiddle. One is lucky, I
have since leamed, if any dream of yesterday shall stand the better
light of today or the more searching rays of tomorrow.

'Choose yer partners fer Money Musk!' the caller shouted.

Hope and I got into line, the music started, the circles began to
sway. Darwin Powers, an old but frisky man, stood up beside the
fiddlers, whistling, with sobriety and vigour, as they played. It was
a pleasure to see some of the older men of the neighbourhood join
the dizzy riot by skipping playfully in the corners. They tried to
rally their unwilling wives, and generally a number of them were
dancing before the night was over. The life and colour of the
scene, the fresh, young faces of the girls some of them models of
rustic beauty - the playful antics of the young men, the
merrymaking of their fathers, the laughter, the airs of gallantry, the
glances of affection - there is a magic in the thought of it all that
makes me young again.

There were teams before and behind us when we came home, late
at night, so sleepy that the stars went reeling as we looked at them.

'This night is the end of many things,' I remarked.

'And the beginning of better ones, I hope,' was her answer.

'Yes, but they are so far away,' I said, 'you leave home to study and
I am to be four years in college-possibly I can finish in three.'

'Perfectly terrible!' she said, and then she added the favourite
phrase and tone of her mother: 'We must be patient.'

'I am very sorry of one thing,' I said. 'What's that?'

'I promised not to ask you for one more kiss.'

'Well then,' said she, 'you - you - needn't ask me.' And in a moment
I helped her out at the door.

Chapter 25


David Brower had prospered, as I have said before, and now he
was chiefly concerned in the welfare of his children. So, that he
might give us the advantages of the town, he decided either to
lease or sell his farm- by far the handsomest property in the
township. I was there when a buyer came, in the last days of that
summer. We took him over the smooth acres from Lone Pine to
Woody Ledge, from the top of Bowman's Hill to Tinkie Brook in
the far valley. He went with us through every tidy room of the
house. He looked over the stock and the stables.

'Wall! what's it wuth?' he said, at last, as we stood looking down
the fair green acres sloping to the sugar bush.

David picked up a stick, opened his knife, and began to whittle
thoughtfully, a familiar squint of reflection in his face. I suppose
he thought of all it had cost him - the toil of many years, the
strength of his young manhood, the youth and beauty of his wife, a
hundred things that were far better than money.

'Fifteen thousan' dollars,' he said slowly - 'not a cent less.' The man
parleyed a little over the price.

'Don' care t' take any less t'day,' said David calmly. 'No harm done.'

'How much down?'

David named the sum.

'An' possession?'

'Next week'

'Everything as it stan's?'

'Everything as it stan's 'cept the beds an' bedding.'

'Here's some money on account,' he said. 'We'll close t'morrer?'

'Close t'morrer,' said David, a little sadness in his tone, as he took
the money.

It was growing dusk as the man went away. The crickets sang with
a loud, accusing, clamour. Slowly we turned and went into the
dark house, David whistling under his breath. Elizabeth was
resting in her chair. She was humming an old hymn as she rocked.

'Sold the farm, mother,' said David.

She stopped singing but made no answer. In the dusk, as we sat
down, I saw her face leaning upon her hand. Over the hills and out
of the fields around us came many voices - the low chant in the
stubble, the baying of a hound in the far timber, the cry of the tree
toad - a tiny drift of odd things (like that one sees at sea) on the
deep eternal silence of the heavens. There was no sound in the
room save the low creaking of the rocker in which Elizabeth sat.
After all the going, and corning, and doing, and saying of many
years here was a little spell of silence and beyond lay the untried
things of the future. For me it was a time of reckoning.

'Been hard at work here all these years, mother,' said David.
'Oughter be glad t' git away.'

'Yes,' said she sadly, 'it's been hard work. Years ago I thought I
never could stan' it. But now I've got kind o' used t' it.'

'Time ye got used t' pleasure 'n comfort,' he said. 'Come kind o'
hard, at fast, but ye mus' try t' stan' it. If we're goin' t' hev sech flin
in Heaven as Deacon Hospur tells on we oughter begin t' practice
er we'll be 'shamed uv ourselves.'

The worst was over. Elizabeth began to laugh.

At length a strain of song came out of the distance.

'Maxwelton's braes are bonnie where early falls the dew.'

'It's Hope and Uncle Eb,' said David while I went for the lantern.
'Wonder what's kep' 'em s' late.'

When the lamps were lit the old house seemed suddenly to have
got a sense of what had been done. The familiar creak of the
stairway as I went to bed had an appeal and a protest. The rude
chromo of the voluptuous lady, with red lips and the name of
Spring, that had always hung in my chamber had a mournful,
accusing look. The stain upon her cheek that had come one day
from a little leak in the roof looked now like the path of a tear
drop. And when the wind came up in the night and I heard the
creaking of Lone Pine it spoke of the doom of that house and
itsown that was not far distant.

We rented a new home in town, that week, and were soon settled
in it. Hope went away to resume her studies the same day I began
work in college.

Chapter 26

Not much in my life at college is essential to this history - save the
training. The students came mostly from other and remote parts of
the north country - some even from other states. Coming largely
from towns and cities they were shorn of those simple and rugged
traits, that distinguished the men o' Faraway, and made them
worthy of what poor fame this book may afford. In the main they
were like other students the world over, I take it' and mostly, as
they have shown, capable of wiling their own fame. It all seemed
very high and mighty and grand to me especially the names of the
courses. I had my baptism of Sophomoric scorn and many a heated
argument over my title to life, liberty and the pursuit of learning. It
became necessary to establish it by force of arms, which I did
decisively and with as little delay as possible. I took much interest
in athletic sports and was soon a good ball player, a boxer of some
skill, and the best wrestler in college. Things were going on
comfortably when an upper classman met me and suggested that
on a corning holiday, the Freshmen ought to wear stove-pipe hats.
Those hats were the seed of great trouble.

'Stove-pipe hats!' I said thoughtfully.

'They're a good protection,' he assured me.

It seemed a very reasonable, not to say a necessary precaution. A
man has to be young and innocent sometime or what would
become of the Devil. I did not see that the stove-pipe hat was the
red rag of insurrection and, when I did see it' I was up to my neck
in the matter.

You see the Sophs are apt to be very nasty that day,' he continued.

I acknowledged they were quite capable of it.

'And they don't care where they hit,' he went on.

I felt of my head that was still sore, from a forceful argument of
the preceding day, and admitted there was good ground for the
assertion.

When I met my classmen, that afternoon, I was an advocate of the
'stove-pipe' as a means of protection. There were a number of
husky fellows, in my class, who saw its resisting power and
seconded my suggestion. We decided to leave it to the ladies of the
class and they greeted our plan with applause. So, that morning,
we arrayed ourselves mhigh hats, heavy canes and fine linen,
marching together up College Hill. We had hardly entered the gate
before we saw the Sophs forming in a thick rank outside the door
prepared, as we took it, to resist our entrance. They out-numbered
us and were, in the main, heavier but we had a foot or more of
good stiff material between each head and harm. Of just what
befell us, when we got to the enemy, I have never felt sure. Of the
total inefficiency of the stove-pipe hat as an article of armour, I
have never had the slightest doubt since then. There was a great
flash and rattle of canes. Then the air was full of us. In the heat of
it all prudence went to the winds. We hit out right and left, on both
sides, smashing hats and bruising heads and hands. The canes went
down in a jiffy and then we closed with each other hip and thigh.
Collars were ripped off, coats were torn, shirts were gory from the
blood of noses, and in this condition the most of us were rolling
and tumbling on the ground. I had flung a man, heavily, and broke
away and was tackling another when I heard a hush in the tumult
and then the voice of the president. He stood on the high steps, his
grey head bare, his right hand lifted. It must have looked like
carnage from where he stood.

'Young gentlemen!' he called. 'Cease, I command you. If we
cannot get along without this thing we will shut up shop.'

Well, that was the end of it and came near being the end of our
careers in college. We looked at each other, torn and panting and
bloody, and at the girls, who stood by, pale with alarm. Then we
picked up the shapeless hats and went away for repairs. I had heard
that the path of learning was long and beset with peril but I hoped,
not without reason, the worst was over. As I went off the campus
the top of my hat was hanging over my left ear, my collar and
cravat were turned awry, my trousers gaped over one knee. I was
talking with a fellow sufferer and patching the skin on my
knuckles, when suddenly I met Uncle Eb.

'By the Lord Harry!' he said, looking me over from top to toe,
'teacher up there mus' be purty ha'sh.'

'It wa'n't the teacher,' I said.

'Must have fit then.'

'Fit hard,' I answered, laughing.

'Try t' walk on ye?'

'Tried t' walk on me. Took several steps too,' I said stooping to
brush my trousers.

'Hm! guess he found it ruther bad walkin' didn't he?' my old friend
enquired. 'Leetle bit rough in spots?'

'Little bit rough, Uncle Eb - that's certain.'

'Better not go hum,' he said, a great relief in his face. 'Look 's if
ye'd been chopped down an' sawed - an' split - an' throwed in a
pile. I'll go an' bring over some things fer ye.'

I went with my friend, who had suffered less darnage, and Uncle
Eb brought me what I needed to look more respectable than I felt

The president, great and good man that he was, forgave us, finally,
after many interviews and such wholesome reproof as made us all
ashamed of our folly.

In my second year, at college, Hope went away to continue her
studies in New York She was to live in the family of John Fuller, a
friend of David, who had left Faraway years before and made his
fortune there in the big city. Her going filled my days with a
lingering and pervasive sadness. 1 saw in it sometimes the shadow
of a heavier loss than I dared to contemplate. She had come home
once a week from Ogdensburg and I had always had a letter
between times. She was ambitious and, I fancy, they let her go, so
that there should be no danger of any turning aside from the plan
of my life, or of hers; for they knew our hearts as well as we knew
them and possibly better.

We had the parlour to ourselves the evening before she went away,
and I read her a little love tale I had written especially for that
occasion. It gave us some chance to discuss the absorbing and
forbidden topic of our lives.

'He's too much afraid of her,' she said, 'he ought to put his arm
about her waist in that love scene.'

'Like that,' I said, suiting the action to the word.

'About like that,' she answered, laughing, 'and then he ought to say
something very, very, nice to her before he proposes - something
about his having loved her for so long - you know.'

'And how about her?' I asked, my arm still about her waist.

'If she really loves him,' Hope answered, 'she would put her arms
about his neck and lay her head upon his shoulder, so; and then he
might say what is in the story.' She was smiling now as she looked
up at me.

'And kiss her?'

'And kiss her,' she whispered; and, let me add, that part of the
scene was in nowise neglected.

'And when he says: "will you wait for me and keep me always in
your heart?" what should be her answer,' I continued.

'Always!' she said.

'Hope, this is our own story,' I whispered. 'Does it need any further
correction?'

'It's too short - that's all,' she answered, as our lips met again.

Just then Uncle Eb opened the door, suddenly.

'Tut tut!' he said tuning quickly about

'Come in, Uncle Eb,' said Hope, 'come right in, we want to see you.

In a moment she had caught him by the arm.

'Don' want 'o break up the meetin',' said he laughing.

'We don't care if you do know,' said Hope, 'we're not ashamed of it.'

'Hain't got no cause t' be,' he said. 'Go it while ye're young 'n full 'o
vinegar! That's what I say every time. It's the best fun there is. I
thought I'd like t' hev ye both come up t' my room, fer a minute,
'fore yer mother 'n father come back,' he said in a low tone that was
almost a whisper.

Then he shut one eye, suggestively, and beckoned with his head, as
we followed him up the stairway to the little room in which he
slept. He knelt by the bed and pulled out the old skin-covered
trunk that David Brower had given him soon after we came. He
felt a moment for the keyhole, his hand trembling, and then I
helped him open the trunk. From under that sacred suit of
broadcloth, worn only on the grandest occasions, he fetched a
bundle about the size of a man's head. It was tied in a big red
handkerchief. We were both sitting on the floor beside him.

'Heft it,' he whispered.

I did so and found it heavier than I expected.

'What is it?' I asked.

'Spondoolix,' he whispered.

Then he untied the bundle - a close packed hoard of bankbills with
some pieces of gold and silver at the bottom.

'Hain't never hed no use fer it,' he said as he drew out a layer of
greenbacks and spread them with trembling fingers. Then he began
counting them slowly and carefully.

'There!' he whispered, when at length he had counted a hundred
dollars. 'There Hope! take thet an' put it away in yer wallet. Might
come handy when ye're 'way fr'm hum.'

She kissed him tenderly.

'Put it 'n yer wallet an' say nothin' - not a word t' nobody,' he said.

Then he counted over a like amount for me.

'Say nothin',' he said, looking up at me over his spectacles. 'Ye'll
hev t' spile a suit o' clothes purty often if them fellers keep a
fightin' uv ye all the time.'

Father and mother were coming in below stairs and, hearing them,
we helped Uncle Eb tie up his bundle and stow it away. Then we
went down to meet them.

Next morning we bade Hope goodbye at the cars and returned to
our home with a sense of loss that, for long, lay heavy upon us all.

Chapter 27

Uncle Eb and David were away buying cattle, half the week, but
Elizabeth Brower was always at home to look after my comfort.
She was up betimes in the morning and singing at her work long
before I was out of bed. when the breakfast was near ready she
came to my door with a call so fall of cheerfulness and
good-nature it was the best thing in the day. And often, at night, I
have known her to come into my room when I was lying awake
with some hard problem, to see that I was properly covered or that
my window was not open too far. As we sat alone together, of an
evening, I have seen her listen for hours while I was committing
the Odes of Horace with a curiosity that finally gave way to
resignation. Sometimes she would look over my shoulder at the
printed page and try to discern some meaning in it when Uncle Eb
was with us he would often sit a long time his head turned
attentively as the lines came rattling off my tongue.

'Cur'us talk!' he said, one evening, as I paused a moment, while he
crossed the room for a drink of water. 'Don' seem t' make no kind
O' sense. I can make out a word here 'n there but fer good, sound,
common sense I call it a purtythin crop.'

Hope wrote me every week for a time. A church choir had offered
her a place soon after she went to the big city. She came home
intending to surprise us all, the first summer but unfortunately, I
had gone away in the woods with a party of surveyors and missed
her. We were a month in the wilderness and came out a little west
of Albany where I took a boat for New York to see Hope. I came
down the North River between the great smoky cities, on either
side of it, one damp and chilly morning. The noise, the crowds, the
immensity of the town appalled me. At John Fuller's I found that
Hope had gone home and while they tried to detain me longer I
came back on the night boat of the same day. Hope and I passed
each other in that journey and I did not see her until the summer
preceding my third and last year in college - the faculty having
allowed me to take two years in one. Her letters had come less
frequently and when she came I saw a grand young lady of fine
manners, her beauty shaping to an ampler mould, her form
straightening to the dignity of womanhood.

At the depot our hands were cold and trembling with excitement -
neither of us, I fancy, knowing quite how far to go in our greeting.
Our correspondence had been true to the promise made her mother
- there had not been a word of love in it - only now and then a
suggestion of our tender feeling. We hesitated only for the briefest
moment. Then I put my arm about her neck and kissed her.

'I am so glad to see you,' she said.

Well, she was charming and beautiful, but different, and probably
not more different than was I. She was no longer the laughing,
simple-mannered child of Faraway, whose heart was as one's hand
before him in the daylight. She had now a bit of the woman's
reserve - her prudence, her skill in hiding the things of the heart. I
loved her more than ever, but somehow I felt it hopeless - that she
had grown out of my life. She was much in request among the
people of Hillsborough, and we went about a good deal and had
many callers. But we had little time to ourselves. She seemed to
avoid that, and had much to say of the grand young men who came
to call on her in the great city. Anyhow it all hurt me to the soul
and even robbed me of my sleep. A better lover than I would have
made an end of dallying and got at the truth, come what might. But
I was of the Puritans, and not of the Cavaliers, and my way was
that which God had marked for me, albeit I must own no man had
ever a keener eye for a lovely woman or more heart to please her.
A mighty pride had come to me and I had rather have thrown my
heart to vultures than see it an unwelcome offering. And I was
quite out of courage with Hope; she, I dare say, was as much out of
patience with me.

She returned in the late summer and I went back to my work at
college in a hopeless fashion that gave way under the whip of a
strong will.

I made myself as contented as possible. I knew all the pretty girls
and went about with some of them to the entertainments of the
college season. At last came the long looked for day of my
graduation - the end of my student life.

The streets of the town were thronged, every student having the
college colours in his coat lapel. The little company of graduates
trembled with fright as the people crowded in to the church,
whispering and faring themselves, in eager anticipation. As the
former looked from the two side pews where they sat, many
familiar faces greeted them - the faces of fathers and mothers
aglow with the inner light of pride and pleasure; the faces of many
they loved come to claim a share in the glory of that day. I found
my own, I remember, but none of them gave me such help as that
of Uncle Eb. However I might fare, none would feel the pride or
disgrace of it more keenly than he. I shall never forget how he
turned his head to catch every word when I ascended the platform.
As I warmed to my argument I could see him nudging the arm of
David, who sat beside him, as if to say, 'There's the boy that came
over the hills with me in a pack basket.' when I stopped a moment,
groping for the next word, he leaned forward, embracing his knee,
firmly, as if intending to draw off a boot. It was all the assistance
he could give me. when the exercises were over I found Uncle Eb
by the front door of the church, waiting for me.

'Willie, ye done noble!' said he.

'Did my very best, Uncle Eb,' I replied.

'Liked it grand - I did, sartin.' 'Glad you liked it, Uncle Eb.'

'Showed great larnin'. who was the man 'at give out the pictur's?'

He meant the president who had conferred the degrees. I spoke the
name.

'Deceivin' lookin' man, ain't he? Seen him often, but never took no
pertick'lar notice of him before.'

'How deceiving?' I enquired.

'Talked so kind of plain,' he replied. 'I could understan' him as easy
as though he'd been swappin' hosses. But when you got up, Bill'.
why, you jes' riz right up in the air an, there couldn't no dum fool
tell what you was talkin' 'bout.'

Whereat I concluded that Uncle Eb's humour was as deep as it was
kindly, but I have never been quite sure whether the remark was a
compliment or a bit of satire.

Chapter 28

The folks of Faraway have been carefully if rudely pictured, but
the look of my own person, since I grew to the stature of manhood,
I have left wholly to the imagination of the reader. I will wager he
knew long since what manner of man I was and has measured me
to the fraction of an inch, and knows even the colour of my hair
and eyes from having been so long in my company. If not - well, I
shall have to write him a letter.

when Uncle Eb and I took the train for New York that summer day
in 1860, some fifteen years after we came down Paradise Road
with the dog and wagon and pack basket, my head, which, in that
far day, came only to the latitude of his trouser pocket, had now
mounted six inches above his own. That is all I can say here on
that branch of my subject. I was leaving to seek my fortune in the
big city; Uncle Eb was off for a holiday and to see Hope and bring
her home for a short visit. I remember with what sadness I looked
back that morning at mother and father as they stood by the gate
slowly waving their handkerchiefs. Our home at last was emptied
of its young, and even as they looked the shadow of old age must
have fallen suddenly before them. I knew how they would go back
into that lonely room and how, while the clock went on with its
ticking, Elizabeth would sit down and cover her face a moment,
while David would make haste to take up his chores.

We sat in silence a long time after the train was off, a mighty
sadness holding our tongues. Uncle Eb, who had never ridden a
long journey on the cars before, had put on his grand suit of
broadcloth. The day was hot and dusty, and before we had gone far
he was sadiy soiled. But a suit never gave him any worry, once it
was on. He sat calmly, holding his knee in his hands and looking
out of the open window, a squint in his eyes that stood for some
high degree of interest in the scenery.

'What do you think of this country?' I enquired.

'Looks purty fair,' said he, as he brushed his face with his
handkerchief and coughed to clear his throat of the dust, 'but 'tain't
quite so pleasant to the taste as some other parts o' the country. I
ruther liked the flavour of Saint Lawrence all through, but
Jefferson is a leetle gritty.'

He put down the window as he spoke.

'A leetle tobaccer'll improve it some,' he added, as his hand went
down for the old silver box. 'The way these cars dew rip along!
Consamed if it ain't like flyin'! Kind o' makes me feel like a bird.'

The railroad was then not the familiar thing it is now in the north
country. The bull in the fields had not yet come to an
understanding of its rights, and was frequently tempted into
argument with a locomotive. Bill Fountain, who came out of a
back township, one day had even tied his faithful hound to the rear
platform.

Our train came to a long stop for wood and water near midday, and
then we opened the lunch basket that mother had given us.

'Neighbour,' said a solemn-faced man, who sat in front of us, 'do
you think the cars are ag'in the Bible? D'you think a Christian orter
ride on 'em?'

'Sartin,' said Uncle Eb. 'Less the constable's after him - then I think
he orter be on a balky hoss.'

'Wife'n I hes talked it over a good deal,' said the man. 'Some says
it's ag'in the Bible. The minister 'at preaches over 'n our
neighbourhood says if God hed wanted men t' fly he'd g'in 'em
wings.'

'S'pose if he'd ever wanted 'm t' skate he'd hed 'em born with skates
on?' said Uncle Eb.

'Danno,' said the man. 'It behooves us all to be careful. The Bible
says "Go not after new things."'

'My friend,' said Uncle Eb, between bites of a doughnut, 'I don'
care what I ride in so long as 'tain't a hearse. I want sumthin' at's
comfortable an' purty middlin' spry. It'll do us good up here t' git
jerked a few hunderd miles an' back ev'ry leetle while. Keep our
j'ints limber. We'll live longer fer it, an' thet'll please God sure -
cuz I don't think he's hankerin' fer our society - not a bit. Don'
make no difference t' hirn whuther we ride 'n a spring wagon er on
the cars so long's we're right side up 'n movin'. We need more
steam; we're too dum slow. Kind o' think a leetle more steam in
our religion wouldn't hurt us a bit. It's purty fur behind.'

We got to Albany in the evening, just in time for the night boat.
Uncle Eb was a sight in his dusty broadcloth, when we got off the
cars, and I know my appearance could not have been
prepossessing. Once we were aboard the boat and had dusted our
clothes and bathed our hands and faces we were in better spirits.

'Consarn it!' said Uncle Eb, as we left the washroom, 'le's have a
dum good supper. I'll stan' treat'

'Comes a leetle bit high,' he said, as he paid the bill, 'but I don' care
if it does. 'Fore we left I says t' myself, "Uncle Eb," says I, "you go
right in fer a good time an' don' ye count the pennies. Everybody's
a right t' be reckless once in seventy-five year."'

We went to our stateroom a little after nine. I remember the berths
had not been made up, and removing our boots and coats we lay
down upon the bare mattresses. Even then I had a lurking fear that
we might be violating some rule of steamboat etiquette. when I
went to New York before I had dozed all night in the big cabin.

A dim light came through the shuttered door that opened upon the
dinning-saloon where the rattle of dishes for a time put away the
possibility of sleep.

'I'll be awful glad t' see Hope,' said Uncle Eb, as he lay gaping.

'Guess I'll be happier to see her than she will to see me,' I said.

'What put that in yer head?' Unde Eb enquired.

''Fraid we've got pretty far apart,' said I.

'Shame on ye, Bill,' said the old gentleman. 'If thet's so ye ain't
done right Hedn't orter let a girl like thet git away from ye - th' ain't
another like her in this world.'

'I know it' I said' 'but I can't help it Somebody's cut me out Uncle
Eb.'

''Tain't so,' said he emphatically. 'Ye want t' prance right up t' her.'

'I'm not afraid of any woman,' I said, with a great air of bravery,
'but if she don't care for me I ought not to throw myself at her.'

'Jerusalem!' said Uncle Eb, rising up suddenly, 'what hev I gone an'
done?'

He jumped out of his berth quickly and in the dim light I could see
him reaching for several big sheets of paper adhering to the back
of his shirt and trousers. I went quickly to his assistance and began
stripping off the broadsheets which, covered with some strongly
adhesive substance, had laid a firm hold upon him. I rang the bell
and ordered a light.

'Consam it all! what be they - plasters?' said Uncle Eb, quite out of
patience.

'Pieces of brown paper, covered with - West India molasses, I
should think,' said I.

'West Injy molasses!' he exclaimed. 'By mighty! That makes me
hotter'n a pancake. what's it on the bed fer?'

'To catch flies,' I answered.

'An' ketched me,' said Uncle Eb, as he flung the sheet he was
examimng into a corner. 'My extry good suit' too!'

He took off his trousers, then, holding them up to the light.

'They're sp'ilt,' said he mournfully. 'Hed 'em fer more'n ten year,
too.'

'That's long enough,' I suggested.

'Got kind o' 'tached to 'em,' he said, looking down at them and
rubbing his chin thoughtfully. Then we had a good laugh.

'You can put on the other suit,' I suggested, 'and when we get to the
city we'll have these fixed.'

'Leetle sorry, though,' said he, 'cuz that other suit don' look reel
grand. This here one has been purty - purty scrumptious in its day -
if I do say it.'

'You look good enough in anything that's respectable,' I said.

'Kind o' wanted to look a leetle extry good, as ye might say,' said
Uncle Eb, groping in his big carpet-bag. 'Hope, she's terrible proud,
an' if they should hev a leetle fiddlin' an' dancin' some night we'd
want t' be as stylish as any on em. B'lieve I'll go'n git me a spang,
bran' new suit, anyway, 'fore we go up t' Fuller's.'

As we neared the city we both began feeling a bit doubtful as to
whether we were quite ready for the ordeal.

'I ought to,' I said. 'Those I'm wearing aren't quite stylish enough,
I'm afraid.'

'They're han'some,' said Uncle Eb, looking up over his spectacles,
'but mebbe they ain't just as splendid as they'd orter be. How much
money did David give ye?'

'One hundred and fifty dollars,' I said, thinking it a very grand sum
indeed.

''Tain't enough,' said Uncle Eb, bolting up at me again. 'Leastways
not if ye're goin' t' hev a new suit. I want ye t' be spick an' span.'

He picked up his trousers then, and took out his fat leather wallet.

'Lock the door,' he whispered.

'Pop goes the weasel!' he exclaimed, good-naturedly, and then he
began counting the bills.

'I'm not going to take any more of your money, Uncle Eb,' I said.

'Tut, tut!' said he, 'don't ye try t' interfere. what d' ye think they'll
charge in the city fer a reel, splendid suit?'

He stopped and looked up at me.

'Probably as much as fifty dollars,' I answered.

'Whew-w-w!' he whistled. 'Patty steep! It is sartin.'

'Let me go as I am" said I. 'Time enough to have a new suit when
I've earned it.'

'Wall,' he said, as he continued counting, 'I guess you've earnt it
already. Ye've studied hard an' tuk first honours an' yer goin' where
folks are purty middlin' proud'n haughty. I want ye t' be a reg'lar
high stepper, with a nice, slick coat. There,' he whispered, as he
handed me the money, 'take thet! An' don't ye never tell 'at I g'in it
t' ye.'


I could not speak for a little while, as I took the money, for
thinking of the many, many things this grand old man had done
for me.

'Do ye think these boots'll do?' he asked, as he held up to the light
the pair he had taken off in the evening.

'They look all right,' I said.

'Ain't got no decent squeak to 'em now, an' they seem t' look kind
o' clumsy. How're your'n?' he asked.

I got them out from under the berth and we inspected them
carefully deciding in the end they would pass muster.

The steward had made up our berths, when he came, and lit our
room for us. Our feverish discussion of attire had carried us far
past midnight, when we decided to go to bed.

'S'pose we musm't talk t' no strangers there 'n New York,' said
Uncle Eb, as he lay down. 'I've read 'n the Triburne how they'll
purtend t' be friends an' then grab yer money an' run like Sam Hill.
If I meet any o' them fellers they're goin' t' find me purty middlin'
poor comp'ny.'

We were up and on deck at daylight, viewing the Palisades. The
lonely feeling of an alien hushed us into silence as we came to the
noisy and thickening river craft at the upper end of the city.
Countless window panes were shining in the morning sunlight.
This thought was in my mind that somewhere in the innumerable
host on either side was the one dearer to me than any other. We
enquired our way at the dock and walked to French's Hotel, on
Printing House Square. After breakfast we went and ordered all the
grand new things we had planned to get. They would not be ready
for two days, and after talking it over we decided to go and make a
short call. Hope, who had been up and looking for us a long time,
gave us a greeting so hearty we began to get the first feeling of
comfort since landing. She was put out about our having had
breakfast, I remember, and said we must have our things brought
there at once.

'I shall have to stay at the hotel awhile,' I said, thinking of the new
clothes.

'Why,' said Mrs Fuller, 'this girl has been busy a week fixing your
rooms and planning for you. We could not hear of your going
elsewhere. It would be downright ingratitude to her.'

A glow of red came into the cheeks of Hope that made me
ashamed of my remark. I thought she looked lovelier in her pretty
blue morning gown, covering a broad expanse of crinoline, than
ever before.

'And you've both got to come and hear me sing tonight at the
church,' said she. 'I wouldn't have agreed to sing if I had not
thought you were to be here.'

We made ourselves at home, as we were most happy to do, and
that afternoon I went down town to present to Mr Greeley the
letter that David Brower had given me.

Chapter 29

I came down Broadway that afternoon aboard a big white omnibus,
that drifted slowly in a tide of many vehicles. Those days there
were a goodly show of trees on either side of that thoroughfare -
elms, with here and there a willow, a sumach or a mountain ash.
The walks were thronged with handsome people - dandies with
high hats and flaunting necknes and swinging canes - beautiful
women, each covering a broad circumference of the pavement,
with a cone of crinoline that swayed over dainty feet.  From Grace
Church down it was much of the same thing we see now, with a
more ragged sky line. Many of the great buildings, of white and
red sandstone, had then appeared, but the street was largely in
the possession of small shops - oyster houses, bookstores and the
like. Not until I neared the sacred temple of the Tribune did I feel
a proper sense of my own littleness. There was the fountain of all
that wisdom which had been read aloud and heard with reverence
in our household since a time I could but dimly remember. There
sat the prophet who had given us so much - his genial views of life
and government, his hopes, his fears, his mighty wrath at the
prospering of cruelty and injustice.

'I would like to see Mr Horace Greeley,' I said, rather timidly, at
the counter.

'Walk right up those stairs and turn to the left,' said a clerk, as he
opened a gate for me.

Ascending, I met a big man coming down, hurriedly, and with
heavy steps. We stood dodging each other a moment with that
unfortunate co-ordination of purpose men sometimes encounter
when passing each other. Suddeniy the big man stopped in the
middle of the stairway and held both of his hands above his head.

'In God's name! young man,' said he, 'take your choice.'

He spoke in a high, squeaky voice that cut me with the sharpness
of its irritation. I went on past him and entered an open door near
the top of the stairway.

'Is Mr Horace Greeley in?' I enquired of a young man who sat
reading papers.

'Back soon,' said he, without looking up. 'Take a chair.'

In a little while I heard the same heavy feet ascending the stairway
two steps at a time. Then the man I had met came hurriedly into
the room.

'This is Mr Greeley,' said the yo'mg man who was reading.

The great editor turned and looked at me through gold-rimmed
spectacles. I gave him my letter out of a trembling hand. He
removed it from the envelope and held it close to his big, kindly,
smooth-shaven face. There was a fringe of silky, silver hair,
streaked with yellow, about the lower part of his head from temple
to temple. It also encircled his throat from under his collar. His
cheeks were fall and fair as a lady's, with rosy spots in them and a
few freckles about his nose. He laughed as he finished reading the
letter.

'Are you Dave Brower's boy?' he asked in a drawling falsetto,
looking at me out of grey eyes and smiling with good humour.

'By adoption,' I answered.'

'He was an almighty good rassler,' he said, deliberately, as he
looked again at the letter.'

'What do you want to do?' he asked abruptly.'

'Want to work on the Tribune,' I answered.'

'Good Lord!  he said. 'I can't hire everybody.'

I tried to think of some argument, but what with looking at the
great man before me, and answering his questions and maintaining
a decent show of dignity, I had enough to do.

'Do you read the Tribune?  he asked.'

'Read it ever since I can remember.'

'What do you think of the administration? 

'Lot of dough faces!  I answered, smiling, as I saw he recognised
his own phrase. He sat a moment tapping the desk with his
penholder.'

'There's so many liars here in New York,'  he said, 'there ought to
be room for an honest man. How are the crops?'

'Fair,  I answered. 'Big crop of boys every year.' 

'And now you re trying to find a market,  he remarked.'

'Want to have you try them,' I answered.

'Well,' said he, very seriously, turning to his desk that came up to
his chin as he sat beside it, 'go and write me an article about rats.'

'Would you advise-,' I started to say, when he interrupted me.

'The man that gives advice is a bigger fool than the man that takes
it,' he fleered impatiently. 'Go and do your best!' 

Before he had given me this injunction he had dipped his pen and
begun to write hurriedly. If I had known him longer I should have
known that, while he had been talking to me, that tireless mind of
his had summoned him to its service. I went out, in high spirits,
and sat down a moment on one of the benches in the little park
near by, to think it all over. He was going to measure my
judgement, my skill as a writer- my resources. 'Rats,' I said to
myself thoughtfully. 1 had read much about them. They infested
the ships, they overran the wharves, they traversed the sewers. An
inspiration came to me. I started for the waterfront, asking my way
every block or two. Near the East River I met a policeman - a big,
husky, good-hearted Irishman.

'Can you tell me,' I said, 'who can give me information about rats?' 

'Rats?' he repeated. 'What d' ye wan't' know about thim?'

'Everything,'I said. 'They ve just given me a job on the New York
Tribune,'I added proudly.

He smiled good-naturedly. He had looked through me at a glance.

'Just say "Tribune",'  he said. 'Ye don't have t  say "New York
Tribune" here. Come along wi  me.' 

He took me to a dozen or more of the dock masters.

'Give 'im a lift, my hearty,'he said to the first of them. 'He's a
green.'

I have never forgotten the kindness of that Irishman, whom I came
to know well in good time. Remembering that day and others I
always greeted him with a hearty 'God bless the Irish!' every time I
passed him, and he would answer, 'Amen, an' save yer riverince.'

He did not leave me until I was on my way home loaded with fact
and fable and good dialect with a savour of the sea in it.

Hope and Uncle Eb were sitting together in his room when I
returned.

'Guess I've got a job,'I said, trying to be very cool about it..

'A job!  said Hope eagerly, as she rose. 'Where? 

'With Mr Horace Greeley,'I answered, my voice betraying my
excitement.

'Jerusalem!  said Uncle Eb. 'Is it possible? '

'That's grand! said Hope. 'Tell us about it.' 

Then I told them of my interview with the great editor and of what
I had done since.

'Ye done wonderful!'  said Uncle Eb and Hope showed quite as
much pleasure in her own sweet way.

I was for going to my room and beginning to write at once, but
Hope said it was time to be getting ready for dinner.

When we came down at half-past six we were presented to our
host and the guests of the evening - handsome men and women in
full dress - and young Mr Livingstone was among them. I felt
rather cheap in my frock coat, although I had thought it grand
enough for anybody on the day of my graduation. Dinner
announced, the gentlemen rose and offered escort to the ladies,
and Hope and Mrs Fuller relieved our embarrassment by
conducting us to our seats - women are so deft in those little
difficulties. The dinner was not more formal than that of every
evening in the Fuller home - for its master was a rich man of some
refinement of taste - and not at all comparable to the splendid
hospitality one may see every day at the table of a modem
millionaire. But it did seem very wonderful to us, then, with its
fine-mannered servants, its flowers, its abundant silver. Hope had
written much to her mother of the details of deportment at John
Fuller's table, and Elizabeth had delicately imparted to us the
things we ought to know. We behaved well, I have since been told,
although we got credit for poorer appetites than we possessed.
Unde Eb took no chances and refused everything that had a look of
mystery and a suggestion of peril, dropping a droll remark,
betimes, that sent a ripple of amusement around the table.

John Trumbull sat opposite me, and even then I felt a curious
interest in him - a big, full bearded man, quite six feet tall, his skin
and eyes dark, his hair iron-grey, his voice deep like David s. I
could not get over the impression that I had seen him before - a
feeling I have had often, facing men I could never possibly have
met. No word came out of his firm mouth unless he were
addressed, and then all in hearing listened to the little he had to
say: it was never more than some very simple remark. In his face
and form and voice there was abundant heraldry of rugged power
and ox-like vitality. I have seen a bronze head of Daniel Webster
which, with a full blonde beard and an ample covering of grey hair
would have given one a fairly perfect idea of the look of John
Trumbull. Imagine it on a tall, and powerful body and let it speak
with a voice that has in it the deep and musical vibration one may
hear in the looing of an ox and you shall see, as perfectly as my
feeble words can hdp you to do, this remarkable man who, must,
hereafter, play before you his part - compared to which mine is as
the prattle of a child - in this drama of God's truth.

'You have not heard,'said Mrs Fuller addressing me, 'how Mr
Trumbull saved Hope's life.' 

'Saved Hope's life!'I exclaimed.

'Saved her life,'she repeated, 'there isn t a doubt of it. We never
sent word of it for fear it would give you all needless worry. It was
a day of last winter - fell crossing Broadway, a dangerous place'
he pulled her aside just in time - the horse's feet were raised above
her - she would have been crushed in a moment He lifted her in his
arms and carried her to the sidewalk not a bit the worse for it. 

'Seems as if it were fate,'said Hope. 'I had seen him so often and
wondered who he was. I recall a night when I had to come home
alone from rehearsal. I was horribly afraid. I remember passing
him under a street lamp. If he had spoken to me, then, I should
have dropped with fear and he would have had to carry me home
that time. 

'It's an odd thing a girl like you should ever have to walk home
alone,'said Mr Fuller. 'Doesn't speak well for our friend
Livingstone or Burnham there or Dobbs. 

'Mrs Fuller doesn't give us half a chance,'said Livingstone, 'she
guards her day and night. It's like the monks and the Holy Grail. 

'Hope is independent of the young men,'said Mrs Fuller as we rose
from the table. 'If I cannot go with her myself, in the carriase, I
always send a maid or a manservant to walk home with her. But
Mr Fuller and I were out of town that night and the young men
missed their great opportunity. 

'Had a differ nt way o'sparkin'years ago,'said Unde Eb. 'Didn t
never hey if please anybody but the girl then. If ye liked a girl ye
went an'sot up with her an'gin her a smack an'tol'her right out
plain an'square what ye wanted. An'thet settled it one way er t
other. An'her mother she step'in the next room with the door
half-open an'never paid no 'tention. Recollec'one col'night when I
was sparkin'the mother hollered out o'bed, "Lucy, hey ye got
anythin 'round ye?" an'she hollered back, "Yis, mother," an'she
hed too but 'twan't nothin'but my arm.'

They laughed merrily, over the quaint reminiscence of my old
friend and the quainter way he had of telling it. The rude dialect of
the backwoodsman might have seemed oddly out of place, there,
but for the quiet, unassuming manner and the fine old face of
Uncle Eb in which the dullest eye might see the soul of a
gentleman.

'What became of Lucy?'Mr Fuller enquired, laughingly. 'You
never married her.' 

'Lucy died,'he answered soberly; 'thet was long, long ago.' 

Then he went away with John Trumbull to the smoking-room
where I found them, talking earnestly in a corner, when it was time
to go to the church with Hope.

Chapter 30

Hope and Uncle Eb and I went away in a coach with Mrs Fuller.
There was a great crowd in the church that covered, with sweeping
arches, an interior more vast than any I had ever entered. Hope was
gowned in white silk, a crescent of diamonds in her hair - a
birthday gift from Mrs Fuller; her neck and a part of her full breast
unadorned by anything save the gifts of God - their snowy
whiteness, their lovely curves.

First Henry Cooper came on with his violin - a great master as I
now remember him. Then Hope ascended to the platform, her
dainty kid slippers showing under her gown, and the odious
Livingstone escorting her. I was never so madly in love or so
insanely jealous. I must confess it for I am trying to tell the whole
truth of myself'I was a fool. And it is the greater folly that one
says ever 'I was,'and never 'I am'in that plea. I could even see it
myself then and there, but I was so great a fool I smiled and spoke
fairly to the young man although I could have wrung his neck with
rage. There was a little stir and a passing whisper in the crowd as
she stood waiting for the prelude. Then she sang the ballad of Auld
Robin Grey - not better than I had heard her sing it before, but so
charmingly there were murmurs of delight going far and wide in
the audience when she had finished. Then she sang the fine
melody of 'Angels ever Bright and Fair , and again the old
ballad she and I had heard first from the violin of poor Nick
Goodall.

By yon bonnie bank an'by yon bonnie bonnie brae
The sun shines bright on Loch Lomond
Where me an'me true love were ever won't if gae
On the bonnie, bonnie bank o'Loch Lomond.

Great baskets of roses were handed to her as she came down from
the platform and my confusion was multiplied by their number for
I had not thought to bring any myself.

I turned to Uncle Eb who, now and then, had furtively wiped his
eyes. 'My stars!'he whispered, 'ain't itreemarkable grand! Never
heard ner seen nothin'like thet in all my born days. An't'think it's
my little Hope. 

He could go no further. His handkerchief was in his hand while he
took refuge in silence.

Going home the flowers were heaped upon our laps and I, with
Hope beside me, felt some restoration of comfort.

'Did you see Trumbull?'Mrs Fuller asked. 'He sat back of us and
did seem to enjoy it so much - your singing. He was almost
cheerful. 

'Tell me about Mr Trumbull,'I said. 'He is interesting. 

'Speculator,'said Mrs Fuller. 'A strange man, successful, silent,
unmarried and, I think, in love. Has beautiful rooms they say on
Gramercy Park. Lives alone with an old servant. We got to know
him through the accident. Mr Fuller and he have done business
together - a great deal of it since then. Operates in the stock
market. 


A supper was waiting for us at home and we sat a long time at the
table. I was burning for a talk with Hope but how was I to manage
it? We rose with the others and went and sat down together in a
corner of the great parlour. We talked of that night at the White
Church in Faraway when we heard Nick Goodall play and she had
felt the beginning of a new life.

'I've heard how well you did last year,'she said, 'and how nice you
were to the girls. A friend wrote me all about it. How attentive you
were to that little Miss Brown! 

'But decently polite,'I answered. 'One has to have somebody or - or 
 be a monk. 

'One has to have somebody!'she said, quickly, as she picked at thc
flower on her bosom and looked down at it soberly. 'That is true
one has to have somebody and, you know, I haven t had any lack
of company myself. By the way, I have news to tell you. 

She spoke slowly and in a low voice with a touch of sadness in it. I
felt the colour mounting to my face.

'News!'I repeated. 'What news, I-lope? 

'I am going away to England,'she said, 'with Mrs Fuller if - if
mother will let me. I wish you would write and ask her to let me
go. 

I was unhorsed. What to say I knew not, what it meant I could
vaguely imagine. There was a moment of awkward silence.

'Of course I will ask her if you wish to go,'I said. 'When do you
sail? 

'They haven t fixed the day yet. 

She sat looking down at her fan, a beautiful, filmy thing between
braces of ivory. Her knees were crossed, one dainty foot showing
under ruffles of lace. I looked at her a moment dumb with
admiration.

'What a big man you have grown to be Will,'she said presently. 'I
am almost afraid of you now. 

She was still looking down at the fan and that little foot was
moving nervously. Now was my time. I began framing an avowal.
I felt a wild impulse to throw my strong arms about her and draw
her close to me and feel the pink velvet of her fair face upon mine.
ff1 had only done it! But what with the strangeness and grandeur
of that big room, the voices of the others who were sitting in the
library, near by, the mystery of the spreading crinoline that was
pressing upon my knees, I had not half the courage of a lover.

'My friend writes me that you are in love,'she said, opening her
fan and moving it slowly, as she looked up at me.

'She is right I must confess it,'I said, 'I am madly, hopelessly in
love. It is time you knew it Hope and I want your counsel. 

She rose quickly and turned her face away.

'Do not tell me - do not speak of it again - I forbid you,'she
answered coldly.

Then she stood silent. I rose to take her hand and ask her to tell me
why, a pretty rankling in my heart, Soft footsteps and the swish of
a gown were approaching. Before I could speak Mrs Fuller had
come through the doorway.

'Come Hope,'she said, 'I cannot let you sit up late - you are worn
out, my dear. 

Then Hope bade us both good-night and went away to her room. If
I had known as much about women then, as now, I should have
had it out, with short delay, to some understanding between us. But
in that subject one loves and learns. And one thing I have learned
is this, that jealousy throws its illusions on every word and look
and act. I went to my room and sat down for a bit of reckoning.
Hope had ceased to love me, I felt sure, and how was I to win her
back?

After all my castle building what was I come to?

I heard my door open presently, and then I lifted my head. Uncle
Eb stood near me in his stocking feet and shirt-sleeves.

'In trouble,'he whispered.

'In trouble,'I said.

''Bout Hope? 

'It's about Hope. 

'Don't be hasty. Hope ll never go back on you,'he whispered. 'She
doesn't love me,'I said impulsively. 'She doesn't care the snap of
her finger for me. 

'Don't believe it,'he answered calmly. 'Not a single word of it.
Thet woman - she's tryin't'keep her away from ye - but 'twon't
make no differ nce. Not a bit. 

'I must try to win her back - someway - somehow,'I whispered.

'Gi n ye the mitten?'he asked.

'That's about it,'I answered, going possibly too far in the depth of
my feeling.

'Whew w!'he softly whistled. 'Wall, it takes two mittens t'make a
pair - ye ll hey t'ask her ag in. 

'Yes I cannot give her up,'I said decisively, 'I must try to win her
back. It isn t fair. I have no claim upon her. But I must do it. 

'Consarn it! women like t'be chased,'he said. 'It's their natur .
What do they fix up so fer - di mon's an'silks an'satins - if 'tain't
t'set men a chasm'uv 'em? You d otter enjoy it. Stick to her -
jes'like a puppy to a root. Thet's my advice. 'Hope has got too far
ahead of me,'I said. 'She can many a rich man if she wishes to, and
I don't see why she shouldn t. What am I, anyhow, but a poor devil
just out of college and everything to win? It makes me miserable
to think here in this great house how small I am. 

'There's things goin' if happen,'Uncle Eb whispered. 'I can't tell ye
what er when but they re goin' if happen an' they re goin' if
change everything. 

We sat thinking a while then. I knew what he meant - that I was to
conquer the world, somehow, and the idea seemed to me so absurd
I could hardly help laughing as melancholy as I felt.

'Now you go if bed,'he said, rising and gently touching my head
with his hand. 'There's things goin't'happen, boy - take my word
fer it. 

I got in bed late at night but there was no sleep for me. In the still
hours I lay quietly, planning my future, for now I must make
myself worth having and as soon as possible.

Some will say my determination was worthy of a better lover but,
bless you! I have my own way of doing things and it has not been
always so unsuccessful.

Chapter 31

Hope was not at breakfast with us.

'The child is worn out,'said Mrs Fuller. 'I shall keep her in bed a
day or two. 

'Couldn't I see her a moment?'I enquired.

'Dear! no!'said she. 'The poor thing is in bed with a headache.'If
Hope had been ill at home I should have felt free to go and sit by
her as I had done more than once. It seemed a little severe to be
shut away from her now but Mrs Fuller's manner had
fore-answered any appeal and I held my peace. Having no children
of her own she had assumed a sort of proprietorship over Hope that
was evident - that probably was why the girl had ceased to love me
and to write to me as of old. A troop of mysteries came clear to me
that morning. Through many gifts and favours she had got my
sweetheart in a sort of bondage and would make a marriage of her
own choosing if possible.

'Is there anything you would like particularly for your breakfast? 
Mrs Fuller enquired.

'Hain't no way pertic lar,'said Uncle Eb. 'I gen rally eat buckwheat
pancakes an'maple sugar with a good strong cup o'tea. 

Mrs Fuller left the room a moment.

'Dunno but I ll go out if the barn a minnit 'n take a look at the
hosses,'he said when she came back.

'The stable is a mile away,'she replied smiling.

'Gran'good team ye druv us out with las'night,'he said. 'Hed a
chance t'look 'em over a leetle there at the door. The off hoss is
puffed some for ard but if ye r husband ll put on a cold bandage ev
ry night it ll make them legs smoother n a hound's tooth. 

She thanked him and invited us to look in at the conservatory.

'Where's yer husband?'Uncle Eb enquired.

'He's not up yet,'said she, 'I fear he did not sleep well. 

'Now Mis Fuller,'said Uncle Eb, as we sat waiting, 'if there s
anything I can do t'help jes'le'me know what 'tis. 

She said there was nothing. Presently Uncle Eb sneezed so
powerfully that it rattled the crystals on the chandelier and rang in
the brass medallions.

The first and second butlers came running in with a frightened
look. There was also a startled movement from somebody above
stairs.

'I do sneeze powerful, sometimes,'said Uncle Eb from under his
red bandanna.''S enough if scare anybody. 

They brought in our breakfast then - a great array of tempting
dishes. 'Jest hey four pancakes 'n a biled egg,'said Uncle Eb as he
sipped his tea. 'Grand tea!'he added, 'strong enough if float a silver
dollar too. 

'Mrs Fuller,'I said rising, when we had finished, 'I thank you for
your hospitality, but as I shall have to work nights, probably, I
must find lodgings near the office. 

'You must come and see us again,'she answered cordially. 'On
Saturday I shall take Hope away for a bit of rest to Saratoga
probably - and from there I shall take her to Hillsborough myself
for a day or two. 

'Thought she was goin'home with me,'said Uncle Eb.

'O dear no!'said Mrs Fuller, 'she cannot go now. The girl is ill and
it's such a long journey. 

The postman came then with a letter for Uncle Eb.

It was from David Brower. He would have to be gone a week or so
buying cattle and thought Uncle Eb had better come home as soon
as convenient.

'They re lonesome,'he said, thoughtfully, after going over the
letter again. "Tain't no wonder - they re gittin'old. 

Uncle Eb was older than either of them but he had not thought of
that.

'Le's see; 's about eight o clock,'said he, presently. 'I've got t'go an 
ten'to some business o'my own. I ll be back here sometime if day
Mis Fuller an'I ll hey if see thet girl. Ye musm t never try if keep
me 'way from her. She's sot on my knee too many year fer that'
altogether too many. 

We arranged to meet there at four. Then a servant brought us our
hats. I heard Hope calling as we passed the stairway:

'Won't you come up a minute, Uncle Eb? I want to see you very
much. 

Then Uncle Eb hurried upstairs and I came away.

I read the advertisements of board and lodging - a perplexing task
for one so ignorant of the town. After many calls I found a place to
my liking on Monkey Hill, near Printing House Square. Monkey
Hill was the east end of William Street, and not in the least
fashionable. There were some neat and cleanly looking houses on
it of wood, and brick, and brown stone inhabited by small
tradesmen; a few shops, a big stable and the chalet sitting on a
broad, flat roof that covered a portion of the stableyard. The yard
itself was the summit of Monkey Hill. It lay between two brick
buildings and up the hill, from the walk, one looked into the
gloomy cavern of the stable and under the low roof, on one side7
there were dump carts and old coaches in varying stages of
infirmity. There was an old iron shop, that stood flush with the
sidewalk, flanking the stableyard. A lantern and a mammoth key
were suspended above the door and hanging upon the side of the
shop was a wooden stair ascending to the chalet The latter had a
sheathing of weather-worn clapboards. It stood on the rear end of
the brick building, communicating with the front rooms above the
shop. A little stair of five steps ascended from the landing to its red
door that overlooked an ample yard of roofing, adorned with
potted plants. The main room of the chalet where we ate our meals
and sat and talked, of an evening, had the look of a ship's cabin.
There were stationary seats along the wall covered with leathern
cushions. There were port and starboard lanterns and a big one of
polished brass that overhung the table. A ship's clock that had a
noisy and cheerful tick, was set in the wall. A narrow passage led
to the room in front and the latter had slanting sides. A big window
of little panes, in its further end, let in the light of William Street
Here I found a home for myself'humble but quaint and cleanly. A
thrifty German who, having long followed the sea, had married
and thrown out his anchor for good and all, now dwelt in the chalet
with his wife and two boarders - both newspaper men. The old
shopkeeper in front, once a sailor himself, had put the place in
shipshape and leased itto them.

Mine host bore the name of Opper and was widely known as 'All
Right'Opper, from his habit of cheery approval. Everything and
everybody were 'all right'to him so far as I could observe. If he
were blessed or damned he said 'all right . To be sure he took
exceptions, on occasions, but even then the affair ended with his
inevitable verdict of 'all right . Every suggestion I made as to terms
of payment and arrangement of furniture was promptly stamped
with this seal of approval.

I was comfortably settled and hard at work on my article by noon.
At four I went to meet Uncle Eb. Hope was still sick in bed and we
came away in a frame of mind that could hardly have been more
miserable. I tried to induce him to stay a night with me in my new
quarters.

'I mus n t,'he said cheerfully.''Fore long I m comin'down ag in
but I can't fool 'round no longer now. I ll jes'go n git my new
clothes and put fer the steamboat. Want ye t'go n see Hope
tomorrow. She's comm up with Mis Fuller next week. I m goin't 
find out what's the matter uv her then. Somethin's wrong
somewhere. Dunno what 'tis. She's all upsot. 

Poor girl! it had been almost as heavy a trial to her as to me'
cutting me off as she had done. Remembrances of my tender
devotion to her, in all the years between then and childhood, must
have made her sore with pity. I had already determined what I
should do, and after Uncle Eb had gone that evening I wrote her a
long letter and asked her if I might not still have some hope of her
loving me. I begged her to let me know when I might come and
talk with her alone. With what eloquence I could bring to bear I
told her how my love had grown and laid hold of my life.

I finished my article that night and, in the morning, took it to Mr
Greeley. He was at his desk writing and at the same time giving
orders in a querulous tone to some workman who sat beside him.
He did not look up as he spoke. He wrote rapidly, his nose down so
close to the straggling, wet lines that I felt a fear of its touching
them. I stood by, waiting my opportunity. A full-bearded man in
his shirt-sleeves came hurriedly out of another room.

'Mr Greeley,'he said, halting at the elbow of the great editor.

'Yes, what is it?'the editor demanded nervously, his hand
wobbling over the white page, as rapidly as before, his eyes upon
his work.

'Another man garrotted this morning on South Street. 

'Better write a paragraph,'he said, his voice snapping with
impatience as he brushed the full page aside and began sowing his
thoughts on another. 'Warn our readers. Tell 'em to wear brass
collars with spikes in 'em till we get a new mayor. 

The man went away laughing.

Mr Greeley threw down his pen, gathered his copy and handed itto
the workman who sat beside him.

'Proof ready at five!'he shouted as the man was going out of the
room.

'Hello! Brower,'he said bending to his work again. 'Thought you d
blown out the gas somewhere. 

'Waiting until you reject this article,'I said.

He sent a boy for Mr Ottarson, the city editor. Meanwhile he had
begun to drive his pen across the broadsheets with tremendous
energy.

Somehow it reminded me of a man ploughing black furrows
behind a fast walking team in a snow flurry. His mind was 'straddle
the furrow'when Mr Ottarson came in. There was a moment of
silence in which the latter stood scanning a page of the Herald he
had brought with him.

'Ottarson!'said Mr Greeley, never slacking the pace of his busy
hand, as he held my manuscript in the other, 'read this. Tell me
what you think of it. If good, give him a show. 

'The staff is full, Mr Greeley,'said the man of the city desk. His
words cut me with disappointment.

The editor of the Tribune halted his hand an instant, read the last
lines, scratching a word and underscoring another.

'Don't care!'he shrilled, as he went on writing. 'Used to slide
downhill with his father. If he's got brains we ll pay him eight
dollars a-week. 

The city editor beckoned to me and I followed him into another
room.

'If you will leave your address,'he said, 'I will let you hear from
me when we have read the article. 

With the hasty confidence of youth I began to discount my future
that very day'ordering a full dress suit, of the best tailor, hat and
shoes to match and a complement of neck wear that would have
done credit to Beau Brummel. It gave me a start when I saw the
bill would empty my pocket of more than half its cash. But I had a
stiff pace to fullow, and every reason to look my best.

Chapter 32

I took a walk in the long twilight of that evening. As it began to
grow dark I passed the Fuller house and looked up at its windows.
Standing under a tree on the opposite side of the avenue I saw a
man come out of the door and walk away hurriedly with long
strides. I met him at the next corner.

'Good-evening!'he said.

I recognised then the voice and figure ofJohn Trumbull. 'Been to
Fuller s,'said he.

'How is Hope?'I asked.

'Better,'said he. 'Walk with me? 

'With pleasure,'said I, and then he quickened his pace.

We walked awhile in silence, going so fast! had hardly time to
speak, and the darkness deepened into night. We hurried along
through streets and alleys that were but dimly lighted, coming out
at length on a wide avenue passing through open fields in the
upper part of the city. Lights in cabin windows glowed on the hills
around us. I made some remark about them but he did not hear me.
He slackened pace in a moment and began whispering to himself'
I could not hear what he said. I thought of bidding him good-night
and returning but where were we and how could I find my way?
We heard a horse coming presently at a gallop. At the first loud
whack of the hoofs he turned suddenly and laying hold of my arm
began to run. I followed him into the darkness of the open field. It
gave me a spell of rare excitement for I thought at once of
highwaymen - having read so much of them in the Tribune. He
stopped suddenly and stooped low his hands touching the grass
and neither spoke until the horse had gone well beyond us. Then
he rose, stealthily, and looked about him in silence, even turning
his face to the dark sky where only a few stars were visible.

Well!'said he with a sort of grunt. 'Beats the devil! I thought it was 
 A wonderful thing was happening in the sky. A great double moon
seemed to be flying over the city hooded in purple haze. A little
spray of silver light broke out of it, as we looked, and shot
backward and then floated after the two shining disks that were
falling eastward in a long curve. They seemed to be so near I
thought they were coming down upon the city. It occurred to me
they must have some connection with the odd experience I had
gone through. In a moment they had passed out of sight. We were
not aware that we had witnessed a spectacle the like of which had
not been seen in centuries, if ever, since God made the heavens'
the great meteor of i86o.

'Let's go back,'said Trumbull. 'We came too far. I forgot myself.'

'Dangerous here?'I enquired.

'Not at all,'said he, 'but a long way out of town - tired? 

'Rather,'I said, grateful for his evident desire to quiet my alarm.

'Come!'said he as we came back to the pavement, his hand upon
my shoulder. 'Talk to me. Tell me - what are you going to do? 

We walked slowly down the deserted avenue, I, meanwhile,
talking of my pians.

'You love. Hope,'he said presently. 'You will marry her? 

'If she will have me,'said I.

'You must wait,'he said, 'time enough! 

He quickened his pace again as we came in sight of the scattering
shops and houses of the upper city and no other word was spoken.
On the corners we saw men looking into the sky and talking of the
fallen moon. It was late bedtime when we turned into Gramercy
Park.

'Come in,'said he as he opened an iron gate.

I followed him up a marble stairway and a doddering old English
butler opened the door for us. We entered a fine hall, its floor of
beautiful parquetry muffled with silken rugs. High and spacious
rooms were all aglow with light.

He conducted me to a large smoking-room, its floor and walls
covered with trophies of the hunt - antlers and the skins of
carnivora. Here he threw off his coat and bade me be at home as
he lay down upon a wicker divan covered with the tawny skin of
some wild animal. He stroked the fur fondly with his hand.

'Hello Jock!'he said, a greeting that mystified me.

'Tried to eat me,'he added, turning to me.

Then he bared his great hairy arm and showed me a lot of ugly
scars, I besought him to tell the story.

'Killed him,'he answered. 'With a gun? 

'No - with my hands,'and that was all he would say of it.

He lay facing a black curtain that covered a corner. Now and then I
heard a singular sound in the room - like some faint, far, night cry
such as I have heard often in the deep woods. It was so weird I felt
some wonder of it. Presently I could tell it came from behind the
curtain where, also, I heard an odd rustle like that of wings.

I sat in a reverie, looking at the silent man before me, and in the
midst of it he pulled a cord that hung near him and a bell rang.

'Luncheon!'he said to the old butler who entered immediately.

Then he rose and showed me odd things, carved out of wood, by
his own hand as he told me, and with a delicate art. He looked at
one tiny thing and laid it aside quickly.

'Can't bear to look at it now,'he said.

'Gibbet?'I enquired.

'Gibbet,'he answered.

It was a little figure bound hand and foot and hanging from the
gallows tree.

'Burn it!'he said, turning to the old servant and putting it in his
hands. Luncheon had been set between us, the while, and as we
were eating it the butler opened a big couch and threw snowy
sheets of linen over it and silken covers that rustled as they fell.

'You will sleep there,'said my host as his servant laid the pillows,
'and well I hope. 

I thought I had better go to my own lodgings.

'Too late - too late,'said he, and I, leg-weary and half-asleep,
accepted his proffer of hospitality. Then, having eaten, he left me
and I got into bed after turning the lights out Something woke me
in the dark of the night. There was a rustling sound in the room. I
raised my head a bit and listened. It was the black curtain that
hung in the corner. I imagined somebody striking it violently. I saw
a white figure standing near me in the darkness. It moved away as
I looked at it. A cold wind was blowing upon my face. I lay a long
time listening and by and by I could hear the deep voice of
Trumbull as if he were groaning and muttering in his sleep. When
it began to come light I saw the breeze from an open window was
stirring the curtain of silk in the corner. I got out of bed and,
peering behind the curtain, saw only a great white owl, caged and
staring out of wide eyes that gleamed fiery in the dim light. I went
to bed again, sleeping until my host woke me in the late morning.

After breakfasting I went to the chalet. The postman had been
there but he had brought no letter from Hope. I waited about home,
expecting to hear from her, all that day, only to see it end in bitter
disappointment.

Chapter 33

That very night, Ilooked in at the little shop beneath us and met
Riggs. It was no small blessing, just as I was entering upon dark
and unknown ways of life, to meet this hoary headed man with all
his lanterns. He would sell you anchors and fathoms of chain and
rope enough to hang you to the moon but his 'lights'were the great
attraction of Riggs s. He had every kind of lantern that had ever
swung on land or sea. After dark, when light was streaming out of
its open door and broad window Riggs's looked like the side of an
old lantern itself. It was a door, low and wide, for a time when
men had big round bellies and nothing to do but fill them and
heads not too far above their business. It was a window gone blind
with dust and cobwebs so it resembled the dim eye of age. If the
door were closed its big brass knocker and massive iron latch
invited the passer. An old ship's anchor and a coil of chain lay
beside it. Blocks and heavy bolts, steering wheels, old brass
compasses, coils of rope and rusty chain lay on the floor and
benches, inside the shop. There were rows of lanterns, hanging on
the bare beams. And there was Riggs. He sat by a dusty desk and
gave orders in a sleepy, drawling tone to the lad who served him.
An old Dutch lantern, its light softened with green glass, sent a
silver bean across the gloomy upper air of the shop that evening.
Riggs held an old un lantern with little streams of light bursting
through its perforated walls. He was blind, one would know it at a
glance. Blindness is so easy to be seen. Riggs was showing it to a
stranger.

'Turn down the lights,'he said and the boy got his step-ladder and
obeyed him.

Then he held it aloft in the dusk and the little lantern was like a
castle tower with many windows lighted, and, when he set it down,
there was a golden sprinkle on the floor as if something had
plashed into a magic pool of light there in the darkness.

Riggs lifted the lantern, presently, and stood swinging it in his
hand. Then its rays were sown upon the darkness falling silently
into every nook and corner of the gloomy shop and breaking into
flowing dapples on the wall.

'See how quick it is!'said he as the rays flashed with the speed of
lightning. 'That is the only traveller from Heaven that travels fast
enough to ever get to earth. 

Then came the words that had a mighty fitness for his tongue.

'Hail, holy light! Offspring of Heaven first born. 

His voice rose and fell, riding the mighty rhythm of inspired song.
As he stood swinging the lantern, then, he reminded me of a
chanting priest behind the censer. In a moment he sat down, and,
holding the lantern between his knees, opened its door and felt the
candle. Then as the light streamed out upon his hands, he rubbed
them a time, silently, as if washing them in the bright flood.

'One dollar for this little box of daylight,'he said.

'Blind?'said the stranger as he paid him the money.

'No,'said Riggs, 'only dreaming as you are. 

I wondered what he meant by the words 'dreaming as you are .

'Went to bed on my way home to marry,'he continued, stroking his
long white beard, 'and saw the lights go out an'went asleep and it
hasn t come morning yet - that's what I believe. I went into a
dream. Think I m here in a shop talking but I m really in my bunk
on the good ship Arid coming home. Dreamed everything since
then - everything a man could think of. Dreamed I came home and
found Annie dead, dreamed of blindness, of old age, of poverty, of
eating and drinking and sleeping and of many people who pass like
dim shadows and speak to me - you are one of them. And
sometimes I forget I am dreaming and am miserable, and then I
remember and am happy. I know when the morning comes I shall
wake and laugh at all these phantoms. And I shall pack my things
and go up on deck, for we shall be in the harbour probably - ay!
maybe Annie and mother will be waving their hands on the dock! 

The old face had a merry smile as he spoke of the morning and all
it had for him.

'Seems as if it had lasted a thousand years,'he continued, yawning
and rubbing his eyes. 'But I've dreamed the like before, and, my
God! how glad I felt when I woke in the morning. 

It gave me an odd feeling - this remarkable theory of the old man. I
thought then it would be better for most of us if we could think all
our miserya dream and have his faithin the morning-thatitwould
bring back the things we have lost. I had come to buy a lock for my
door, but I forgot my errand and sat down by Riggs while the
stranger went away with his lantern.

'You see no reality in anything but happiness,'I said.

'It's all a means to that end,'he answered. 'It is good for me, this
dream. I shall be all the happier when I do wake, and I shall love
Annie all the better, I suppose. 

'I wish I could take my ifi luck as a dream and have faith only in
good things,'I said.

'All that is good shall abide,'said he, stroking his white beard, 'and
all evil shall vanish as the substance of a dream. In the end the
only realities are God and love and Heaven. To die is just like
waking up in the morning. 

'But I know I m awake,'I said.

'You think you are - that's a part of your dream. Sometimes I think
I m awake - it all seems so real to me. But I have thought it out,
and I am the only man I meet that knows he is dreaming. When
you do wake, in the morning, you may remember how you thought
you came to a certain shop and made some words with a man as to
whether you were both dreaming, and you will laugh and tell your
friends about it. Hold on! I can feel the ship lurching. I believe I
am going to wake. 

He sat a moment leaning back in his chair with closed eyes, and a
silence fell upon us in the which I could hear only the faint ticking
of a tall clock that lifted its face out of the gloom beyond me.

'You there?'he whispered presently.

'I am here,'I said.

'Odd!'he muttered. 'I know how it will be - I know how it has been
before. Generally come to some high place and a great fear seizes
me. I slip, I fall - fall - fall, and then I wake. 

After a little silence I heard him snoring heavily. He was still
leaning back in his chair. I walked on tiptoe to the door where the
boy stood looking out.

'Crazy?'I whispered.

'Dunno,'said he, smiling.

I went to my room above and wrote my first tale, which was
nothing more or less than some brief account of what I had heard
and seen down at the little shop that evening. I mailed it next day
to the Knickerbocker, with stamps for return if unavailable.

Chapter 34

New York was a crowded city, even then, but I never felt so lonely
anywhere outside a camp in the big woods, The last day of the first
week caine, but no letter from Hope. To make an end of suspense I
went that Saturday morning to the home of the Fullers. The
equation of my value had dwindled sadly that week. Now a small
fraction would have stood for it - nay, even the square of it.

Hope and Mrs Fuller had gone to Saratoga, the butler told me. I
came away with some sense of injury. I must try to be done with
Hope 'there was no help for it. I must go to work at something and
cease to worry and lie awake of nights. But I had nothing to do but
read and walk and wait. No word had come to me from the
Tribune' evidently it was not languishing for my aid. That day my
tale was returned to me 'with thanks with nothing but thanks
printed in black type on a slip of paper - cold, formal, prompt,
ready-made thanks. And I, myself, was in about the same fix -
rejected with thanks - politely, firmly, thankfully rejected. For a
moment I felt like a man falling. I began to see there was no very
clamourous demand for me in 'the great emporium , as Mr Greeley
called it. I began to see, or thought I did, why liope had shied at
my offer and was now shunning me. I went to the Tribune office.
Mr Greeley had gone to Washington; Mr Ottarson was too busy to
see me. I concluded that I would be willing to take a place on one
of the lesser journals. I spent the day going from one office to
another, but was rejected everywhere with thanks. I came home
and sat down to take account of stock. First, I counted my money,
of which there were about fifty dollars left. As to my talents, there
were none left. Like the pies at the Hillsborough tavern, if a man
came late to dinner - they were all out. I had some fine clothes, but
no more use for them than a goose for a peacock's feathers. I
decided to take anything honourable as an occupation,
even though it were not in one of the learned professions. I began
to answer advertisements and apply at business offices for
something to give me a living, but with no success. I began to feel
the selfishness of men. God pity the warm and tender heart of
youth when it begins to harden and grow chill, as mine did then; to
put away its cheery confidence forever; to make a new estimate of
itself and others. Look out for that time, O ye good people! that
have sons and daughters.

I must say for myself that I had a mighty cOurage and no small
capital of cheerfulness. I went to try my luck with the newspapers
of Philadelphia, and there one of them kept me in suspense a week
to no purpose. When I came back reduced in cash and courage
Hope had sailed.

There was a letter from Uncle Eb telling me when and by what
steamer they were to leave. 'She will reach there a Friday,'he
wrote, 'and would like to see you that evening at Fuller s. 

I had waited in Philadelphia, hoping I might have some word, to
give her a better thought of me, and, that night, after such a climax
of ill luck, well - I had need of prayer for a wayward tongue. I sent
home a good account of my prospects. I could not bring myself to
report failure or send for more money. I would sooner have gone to
work in a scullery.

Meanwhile my friends at the chalet were enough to keep me in
good cheer. Therc were William McClingan, a Scotchman of a
great gift of dignity and a nickname inseparably connected with his
fame. He wrote leaders for a big weekly and was known as Waxy 
MeClingan, to honour a pale ear of wax that took the place of a
member lost nobody could tell how. He drank deeply at times, but
never to the loss of his dignity or self possession. In his cups the
natural dignity of the man grew and expanded. One could tell the
extent of his indulgence by the degree of his dignity. Then his
mood became at once didactic and devotional. Indeed, I learned in
good time of the rumour that he had lost his ear in an argument
about the Scriptures over at Edinburgh.

I remember he came an evening, soon after my arrival at the
chalet, when dinner was late. His dignity was at the full. He sat
awhile in grim silence, while a sense of injury grew in his bosom.

'Mrs Opper,'said he, in a grandiose manner and voice that nicely
trilled the r s, 'in the fourth chapter and ninth verse of
Lamentations you will find these words - here he raised his voice a
bit and began to tap the palm of his left hand with the index finger
of his right, continuing: "They that be slain with the sword are
better than they that be slain with hunger. for these pine away
stricken through want of the fruits of the field." Upon my honour
as a gentleman, Mrs Opper, I was never so hungry in all my life. 

The other boarder was a rather frail man with an easy cough and a
confidential manner, lie wrote the 'Obituaries of Distinguished
Persons'for one of the daily papers. Somebody had told him once,
his head resembled that of Washington. He had never forgotten it,
as I have reason to remember. His mind lived ever among the
dead. His tongue was pickled in maxims; his heart sunk in the
brine of recollection; his humour not less unconscous and familiar
than that of an epitaph; his name was Lemuel Franidin Force. To
the public of his native city he had introduced Webster one fourth
ofJuly - a perennial topic of his lighter moments.

I fell an easy victim to the obituary editor that first evening in the
chalet. We had risen from the table and he came and held me a
moment by the coat lapel. He released my collar, when he felt sure
of me, and began tapping my chest with his forefinger to drive
home his point I stood for quite an hour out of sheer politeness. By
that time he had me forced to the wall - a God's mercy, for there I
got some sense of relief in the legs. His gestures, in imitation of
the great Webster, put my head in some peril. Meanwhile he
continued drumming upon my chest. I looked longingly at the
empty chairs. I tried to cut him off with applause that should be
condusive and satisfying, but with no success. It had only a
stimulating effect. I felt somehow like a cheap hired man badly
overworked. I had lost all connection. I looked, and smiled, and
nodded, and exclaimed, and heard nothing. I began to plan a
method of escape. McClingan - the great and good Waxy
McClingan - came out of his room presently and saw myplight.

'What is this?'he asked, interrupting, 'a serial stawry? 

Getting no answer he called my name, and when Force had paused
he came near.

'In the sixth chapter and fifth verse of Proverbs,'said he, 'it is
written:

"Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter and as a bird
from the hand of the fowler." Deliver thyself, Brower. 

I did so, ducking under Force's arm and hastening to my chamber.

'Ye have a brawling, busy tongue, man,'I heard McClingan saying.
'By the Lord! ye should know a dull tongue is sharper than a
serpent's tooth. 

'You are a meddlesome fellow,'said Force.

'If I were you,'said McClingan, 'I would go and get for myself the
long ear of an ass and empty my memory into it every day. Try it,
man. Give it your confidence exclusively. Believe me, my dear
Force, you would win golden opinions. 

'It would be better than addressing an ear of wax,'said Force,
hurriedly withdrawing to his own room.

This answer made McClingan angry.

'Better an ear of wax than a brain of putty,'he called after him.
'Blessed is he that hath no ears when a fool's tongue is busy,'and
then strode up and down the floor, muttering ominously.

I came out of my room shortly, and then he motioned me aside.

'Pull your own trigger first, man,'he said to me in a low tone.
'When ye see he's going to shoot pull your own trigger first. Go
right up if him and tap him on the chest quiddy and say, "My dear
Force, I have a glawrious stawry to tell you," and keep tapping
him- his own trick, you know, and he can't complain. Now he has
a weak chest, and when he begins to cough - man, you are saved. 

Our host, Opper, entered presently, and in removing the tabledoth
inadvertently came between us. McClingan resented it promptly.

'Mr Opper,'said he, leering at the poor German, 'as a matter of
personal obligement, will you cease to interrupt us? 

'All right! all right! gentlemens,'he replied, and then, fearingthat
he had not quite squared himself, turned back, at the kitchen door,
and added, 'Oxcuse me. 

McClingan looked at him with that leering superior smile of his,
and gave him just the slightest possible nod of his head.

McClingan came into my room with me awhile then. He had been
everywhere, it seemed to me, and knew everybody worth knowing.
I was much interested in his anecdotes of the great men of the
time. Unlike the obituary editor his ear was quite as ready as his
tongue, though I said little save now and then to answer a question
that showed a kindly interest in me.

I went with him to his room at last. where he besought me to join
him in drinking 'confusion to the enemies of peace and order . On
my refusing, he drank the toast alone and shortly proposed 'death
to slavery . This was followed in quick succession by 'death to the
arch traitor, Buchanan ; 'peace to the soul of John Brown ; 'success
to Honest Abe'and then came a hearty 'here's to the protuberant
abdomen of the Mayor .

I left him at midnight standing in the middle of his room and
singing 'The Land o'the Leal'in a low tone savoured with vast
dignity.

Chapter 35

I was soon near out of money and at my wit's end, but my will was
unconquered. In this plight I ran upon Fogarty, the policeman who
had been the good angel of my one hopeftil day in journalism. His
manner invited my confidence.

'What luck?'said he.

'Bad luck'I answered. 'Only ten dollars in my pocket and nothing
to do. 

He swung his stick thoughtfully.

'If I was you,'said he, 'I d take anything honest. Upon me wurred, I
d ruther pound rocks than lay idle. 

'So would I. 

'Wud ye?'said he with animation, as he took my measure from
head to foot.

'I ll do anything that's honest. 

'Ah ha!'said he, rubbing his sandy chin whiskers. 'Don't seem like
ye d been used if hard wurruk. 

'But I can do it,'I said.

He looked at me sternly and beckoned with his head.

'Come along,'said he.

He took me to a gang of Irishmen working in the street near by.

'Boss McCormick!'he shouted.

A hearty voice answered, 'Aye, aye, Counsellor,'and McCormick
came out of the crowd, using his shovel for a staff.

'A happy day if ye!'said Fogarty.

'Same if youse an'manny o'thim,'said McCormick.

'Ye ll gi'me one if ye do me a favour,'said Fogarty.

'An'what?'said the other.

'A job for this lad. Wull ye do it? 

'I wall,'said McCormick, and he did.

I went to work early the next morning, with nothing on but my
underclothing and trousers, save a pair of gloves, that excited the
ridicule of my fellows. With this livery and the righteous
determination of earning two dollars a day, I began the inelegant
task of 'pounding rocks no merry occupation, I assure you, for a
hot summer's day on Manhattan Island.

We were paving Park Place and we had to break stone and lay
them and shovel dirt and dig with a pick and crowbar.

My face and neck were burned crimson when we quit work at five,
and I went home with a feeling of having been run over by the
cars. I had a strong sense of soul and body, the latter dominated by
a mighty appetite. McClingan viewed me at first with suspicion in
which there was a faint flavour of envy. He invited me at once to
his room, and was amazed at seeing it was no lark. I told him
franldy what! was doing and why and where.

'I would not mind the loaning of a few dollars,'he said, 'as a matter
o'personal obligement I would be most happy to do it - most
happy, Brower, indeed I would. 

I thanked him cordially, but declined the favour, for at home they
had always taught me the danger of borrowing, and I was bound to
have it out with ill luck on my own resources.

'Greeley is back,'said he, 'and I shall see him tomorrow. I will put
him in mind o'you. 

I went away sore in the morning, but with no drooping spirit. In the
middle of the afternoon I straightened up a moment to ease my
back and look about me.

There at the edge of the gang stood the great Horace Greeley and
Waxy McClingan. The latter beckoned me as he caught my eye.
Iwent aside to greet them. Mr Greeley gave me his hand.

'Do you mean to tell me that you d rather work than beg or
borrow?'said he.

'That's about it,'I answered.

'And ain't ashamed of it? 

'Ashamed! Why?'said I, not quite sure of his meaning. It had never
occurred to me that one had any cause to be ashamed of working.

He turned to McClingan and laughed.

'I guess you ll do for the Tribune,'he said. 'Come and see me at
twelve tomorrow. 

And then they went away.

ff1 had been a knight of the garter I could not have been treated
with more distinguished courtesy by those hard-handed men the
rest of the day. I bade them goodbye at night and got my order for
four dollars. One Pat Devlin, a great-hearted Irishman, who had
shared my confidence and some of my doughnuts on the curb at
luncheon time, I remember best of all.

'Ye ll niver fergit the toime we wurruked together under Boss
McCormick,'said he.

And to this day, whenever I meet the good man, now bent and
grey, he says always, 'Good-day if ye, Mr Brower. D'ye mind the
toime we pounded the rock under Boss McCormick? 

Mr Greeley gave me a place at once on the local staff and invited
me to dine with him at his home that evening. Meanwhile he sent
me to the headquarters of the Republican Central Campaign
Committee, on Broadway, opposite the New York Hotel. Lincoln
had been nominated in May, and the great political fight of i86o
was shaking the city with its thunders.

I turned in my copy at the city desk in good season, and, although
the great editor had not yet left his room, I took a car at once to
keep my appointment. A servant showed me to a seat in the big
back parlour of Mr Greeley's home, where I spent a lonely hour
before I heard his heavy footsteps in the hail. He immediately
rushed upstairs, two steps at a time, and, in a moment, I heard his
high voice greeting the babies. He came down shortly with one of
them clinging to his hand.

'Thunder!'said he, 'I had forgotten all about you. Let's go right in
to dinner. 

He sat at the head of the table and I next to him. I remember how,
wearied by the day's burden, he sat, lounging heavily, in careless
attitudes. He stirred his dinner into a hash of eggs, potatoes, squash
and parsnips, and ate it leisurely with a spoon, his head braced
often with his left forearm, its elbow resting on the table. It was a
sort of letting go, after the immense activity of the day, and a
casual observer would have thought he affected the uncouth,
which was not true of him.

He asked me to tell him all about my father and his farm. At length
I saw an absent look in his eye, and stopped talking, because I
thought he had ceased to listen.

'Very well! very well!'said he.

I looked up at him, not knowing what he meant.

'Go on! Tell me all about it," 'he added.

'I like the country best,'said he, when I had finished, 'because there
I see more truth in things. Here the lie has many forms - unique,
varied, ingenious. The rouge and powder on the lady's cheek - they
are lies, both of them; the baronial and ducal crests are lies and the
fools who use them are liars; the people who soak themselves in
rum have nothing but lies in their heads; the multitude who live by
their wits and the lack of them in others - they are all liars; the
many who imagine a vain thing and pretend to be what they are
not'liars everyone of them. It is bound to be so in the great cities,
and it is a mark of decay. The skirts of Elegabalus, the wigs and
rouge pots of Madame Pompadour, the crucifix of Machiavelli and
the innocent smile of Fernando Wood stand for something horribly
and vastly false in the people about them. For truth you ve got to
get back into the woods. You can find men there a good deal as
God made them' genuine, strong and simple. When those men
cease to come here you ll see grass growing in Broadway. 

I made no answer and the great commoner stirred his coffee a
moment in silence.

'Vanity is the curse of cities,'he continued, 'and Flattery is its
handmaiden. Vanity, flattery and Deceit are the three disgraces. I
like a man to be what he is - out and out. If he's ashamed of
himself it won't be long before his friends ll be ashamed of him.
There's the trouble with this town. Many a fellow is pretending to
be what he isn t. A man cannot be strong unless he is genuine. 

One of his children - a little girl - came and stood close to him as
he spoke. He put his big arm around her and that gentle, permanent
smile of his broadened as he kissed her and patted her red cheek.

'Anything new in the South?'Mrs Greeley enquired.

'Worse and worse every day,'he said. 'Serious trouble comingl The
Charleston dinner yesterday was a feast of treason and a flow of
criminal rhetoric. The Union was the chief dish. Everybody
slashed it with his knife and jabbed it with his fork. It was
slaughtered, roasted, made into mincemeat and devoured. One
orator spoke of "rolling back the tide of fanaticism that finds its
root in the conscience of the people." Their metaphors are as bad
as their morals. 

He laughed heartily at this example of fervid eloquence, and then
we rose from the table. He had to go to the office that evening, and
I came away soon after dinner. I had nothing to do and went home
reflecting upon all the great man had said.

I began shortly to see the truth of what he had told me - men
licking the hand of riches with the tongue of flattery men so
stricken with the itch of vanity that they grovelled for the touch of
praise; men even who would do perjury for applause. I do not say
that most of the men I saw were of that ilk, but enough to show the
tendency of life in a great town.

1 was filled with wonder at first by meeting so many who had been
everywhere and seen everything, who had mastered all sciences
and all philosophies and endured many perils on land and sea. I
had met liars before - it was no Eden there in the north country -
and some of them had attained a good degree of efficiency, but
they lacked the candour and finish of the metropolitan school. I
confess they were all too much for me at first. They borrowed my
cash, they shared my confidence, they taxed my credulity, and I
saw the truth at last.

'Tom's breaking down,'said a co4abourer on the staff one day.
'How is that?'I enquired.

'Served me a mean irick. 

'Indeed! 

'Deceived me,'said he sorrowfully.

'Lied, I suppose? 

'No. He told the truth, as God's my witness. 

Tom had been absolutely reliable up to that time.

Chapter 36

Those were great days in mid autumn. The Republic was in grave
peril of dissolution. Liberty that had hymned her birth in the last
century now hymned her destiny in the voices of bard and orator.
Crowds of men gathered in public squares, at bulletin boards, on
street corners arguing, gesticulating, exclaiming and cursing.
Cheering multitudes went up and down the city by night, with
bands and torches, and there was such a howl of oratory and
applause on the lower half of Manhattan Island that it gave the
reporter no rest. William H. Seward, Charles Sumner, John A. Dix,
Henry Ward Beecher and Charles O Connor were the giants of the
stump. There was more violence and religious fervour in the
political feeling of that time than had been mingled since '76. A
sense of outrage was in the hearts of men. 'Honest Abe'Lincoln
stood, as they took it, for their homes and their country, for human
liberty and even for their God.

I remember coming into the counting-room late one evening. Loud
voices had halted me as I passed the door. Mr Greeley stood back
of the counter; a rather tall, wiry grey-headed man before it. Each
was shaking a right fist under the other's nose. They were shouting
loudly as they argued. The stranger was for war; Mr Greeley for
waiting. The publisher of the Tribune stood beside the latter,
smoking a pipe; a small man leaned over the counter at the
stranger's elbow, putting in a word here and there; half a dozen
people stood by, listening. Mr Greeley turned to his publisher in a
moment.

'Rhoades,'said he, 'I wish ye d put these men out. They holler 'n
yell, so I can't hear myself think. 

Then there was a general laugh.

I learned to my surprise, when they had gone, that the tall man was
William H. Seward, the other John A. DiL

Then one of those fevered days came the Prince of Wales - a
Godsend, to allay passion with curiosity.

It was my duty to handle some of 'the latest news by magnetic
telegraph , and help to get the plans and progress of the campaign
at headquarters. The Printer, as they called Mr Greeley, was at his
desk when I came in at noon, never leaving the office but for
dinner, until past midnight, those days. And he made the Tribune a
mighty power in the state. His faith in its efficacy was sublime,
and every line went under his eye before it went to his readers. I
remember a night when he called me to his office about twelve o
clock. He was up to his knees in the rubbish of the day-newspapers
that he had read and thrown upon the floor; his desk was littered
with proofs.

'Go an'see the Prince o'Wales,'he said. (That interesting young
man had arrived on the Harriet Lane that morning and ridden up
Broadway between cheering hosts.) 'I've got a sketch of him here
an'it's all twaddle. Tell us something new about him. If he's got a
hole in his sock we ought to know it. 

Mr Dana came in to see him while I was there.

'Look here, Dana,'said the Printer, in a rasping humour. 'By the
gods of war! here's two colunms about that perfonnance at the
Academy and only two sticks of the speech of Seward at St Paul. I
ll have to get someone if go an'burn that theatre an'send the bill
to me. 

In the morning Mayor Wood introduced me to the Duke of
Newcastle, who in turn presented me to the Prince of Wales - then
a slim, blue-yed youngster of nineteen, as gentle mannered as any I
have ever met. It was my unpleasant duty to keep as near as
possible to the royal party in all the festivities of that week.

The ball, in the Prince's honour, at the Academy of Music, was
one of the great social events of the century. No fair of vanity in
the western hemisphere ever quite equalled it. The fashions of the
French Court had taken the city, as had the Prince, by
unconditional surrender. Not in the palace of Versailles could one
have seen a more generous exposure of the charms of fair women.
None were admitted without a low-cut bodice, and many came that
had not the proper accessories. But it was the most brilliant

company New York had ever seen.

Too many tickets had been distributed and soon 'there was an
elbow on every rib and a heel on every toe , as Mr Greeley put it.
Every miss and her mamma tiptoed for a view of the Prince and
his party, who came in at ten, taking their seats on a dais at one
side of the crowded floor. The Prince sat with his hands folded
before him, like one in a reverie. Beside him were the Duke of
Newcastle, a big, stern man, with an aggressive red beard; the
blithe and sparkling Earl of St Germans, then Steward of the Royal
Household; the curly Major Teasdale; the gay Bruce, a
major-general, who behaved himself always like a lady. Suddenly
the floor sank beneath the crowd of people, who retired in some
disorder. Such a compression of crinoline was never seen as at that
moment, when periphery pressed upon periphery, and held many a
man captive in the cold embrace of steel and whalebone. The royal
party retired to its rooms again and carpenters came in with saws
and hammers. The floor repaired, an area was roped off for
dancing - as much as could be spared. The Prince opened the
dance with Mrs Governor Morgan, after which other ladies were
honoured with his gallantry.

I saw Mrs Fuller in one of the boxes and made haste to speak with
her. She had just landed, having left Hope to study a time in the
Conservatory of Leipzig.

'Mrs Livingstone is with her,'said she, 'and they will return
together inApril. 

'Mrs Fuller, did she send any word to me?'I enquired anxiously.
'Did she give you no message? 

'None,'she said coldly, 'except one to her mother and father, which
I have sent in a letter to them. 

I left her heavy hearted, went to the reporter's table and wrote my
story, very badly I must admit, for I was cut deep with sadness.
Then I came away and walked for hours, not caring whither. A
great homesickness had come over me. I felt as if a talk with Uncle
Eb or Elizabeth

 Brower would have given me the comfort I needed. I walked
rapidly through dark, deserted streets. A steeple clock was striking
two, when I heard someone coming hurriedly on the walk behind
me. I looked over my shoulder, but could not make him out in the
darkness, and yet there was something familiar in the step. As he
came near I felt his hand upon my shoulder.

'Better go home, Brower,'he said, as I recognised the voice of
Trumbull. 'You ve been out a long time. Passed you before tonight. 

'Why didn't you speak? 

'You were preoccupied. 

'Not keeping good hours yourself,'I said.

'Rather late,'he answered, 'but I am a walker, and I love the night.
It is so still in this part of the town. 

We were passing the Five Points.

'When do you sleep,'I enquired.

'Never sleep at night,'he said, 'unless uncommonly tired. Out every
night more or less. Sleep two hours in the morning and two in the
afternoon - that's all I require. Seen the hands o'that clock yonder
on every hour of the night. 

He pointed to a lighted dial in a near tower.

Stopping presently he looked down at a little waif asleep in a
doorway, a bundle of evening papers under his arm. He lifted him
tenderly.

'Here, boy,'he said, dropping corns in the pocket of the ragged
little coat, 'I ll take those papers - you go home now. 

We walked to the river, passing few save members of 'the force ,
who always gave Trumbull a cheery 'hello, Cap!'We passed
wharves where the great sea horses lay stalled, with harnesses
hung high above them, their noses nodding over our heads; we
stood awhile looking up at the looming masts, the lights of the
river craft.

'Guess I've done some good,'said he turning into Peck Slip. 'Saved
two young women. Took 'em off the streets. Fine women now both
of them - respectable, prosperous, and one is beautiful. Man who s
got a mother, or a sister, can't help feeling sorry for such people. 

We came up Frankfort to William Street where we shook hands
and parted and I turned up Monkey Hill. I had made unexpected
progress with Trumbull that night. He had never talked to me so
freely before and somehow he had let me come nearer to hun than
I had ever hoped to be. His company had lifted me out of the
slough a little and my mind was on a better footing as I neared the
chalet.

Riggs's shop was lighted - an unusual thing at so late an hour.
Peering through the window I saw Riggs sleeping at his desk An
old tin lantern sat near, its candle burning low, with a flaring
flame, that threw a spray of light upon him as it rose and fell. Far
back in the shop another light was burning dimly. I lifted the big
iron latch and pushed the door open. Riggs did not move. I closed
the door softly and went back into the gloom. The boy was also
sound asleep in his chair. The lantern light flared and fell again as
water leaps in a stopping fountain. As it dashed upon the face of
Riggs I saw his eyes half-open. I went close to his chair. As I did
so the light went out and smoke rose above the lantern with a rank
odour.

'Riggs!'I called but he sat motionless and made no answer.

The moonlight came through the dusty window lighting his face
and beard. I put my hand upon his brow and withdrew it quicidy. I
was in the presence of death. I opened the door and called the
sleeping boy. He rose out of his chair and came toward me rubbing
his eyes.

'Your master is dead,'I whispered, 'go and call an officer. 

Riggs's dream was over - he had waked at last. He was in port and
I doubt not Annie and his mother were hailing him on the shore,
for I knew now they had both died far back in that long dream of
the old sailor.

My story of Riggs was now complete. It soon found a publisher
because it was true.

'All good things are true in literature,'said the editor after he had
read it. 'Be a servant of Truth always and you will be successful.'

Chapter 37

As soon as Lincoln was elected the attitude of the South showed
clearly that 'the irrepressible conffict , of Mr Seward's naming, had
only just begun. The Herald gave columns every day to the news of
'the coming Revolution , as it was pleased to call it. There was
loud talk of war at and after the great Pine Street meeting of
December 15. South Carolina seceded, five days later, and then we
knew what was coming, albeit, we saw only the dim shadow of
that mighty struggle that was to shake the earth for nearly five
years. The Printer grew highly irritable those days and spoke of
Buchanan and Davis and Toombs in language so violent it could
never have been confined in type. But while a bitter foe none was
more generous than he and, when the war was over, his money
went to bail the very man he had most roundly damned.

I remember that one day, when he was sunk deep in composition, a
negro came and began with grand airs to make a request as
delegate from his campaign club. The Printer sat still, his eyes
close to the paper, his pen flying at high speed. The coloured
orator went on lifting his voice in a set petition. Mr Greeley bent to
his work as the man waxed eloquent. A nervous movement now
and then betrayed the Printer's irritation. He looked up, shortly, his
face kindling with anger.

'Help! For God's sake!'he shrilled impatiently, his hands flying in
the air. The Printer seemed to be gasping for breath.

'Go and stick your head out of the window and get through,'he
shouted hotly to the man.

He turned to his writing - a thing dearer to him than a new bone to
a hungry dog.

'Then you may come and tell me what you want,'he added in a
milder tone.

Those were days when men said what they meant and their
meaning had more fight in it than was really polite or necessary.
Fight was in the air and before I knew it there was a wild,
devastating spirit in my own bosom, insomuch that I made haste to
join a local regiment. It grew apace but not until I saw the first
troops on their way to the war was I fully determined to go and
give battle with my regiment.

The town was afire with patriotism. Sumter had fallen; Lincoln
had issued his first call. The sound of the fife and drum rang in the
streets. Men gave up work to talk and listen or go into the sterner
business of war. Then one night in April, a regiment came out of
New England, on its way to the front. It lodged at the Astor House
to leave at nine in the morning. Long before that hour the building
was flanked and fronted with tens of thousands, crowding
Broadway for three blocks, stuffing the wide mouth of Park Row
and braced into Vesey and Barday Streets. My editor assigned me
to this interesting event. I stood in the crowd, that morning, and
saw what was really the beginning of the war in New York. There
was no babble of voices, no impatient call, no sound of idle jeering
such as one is apt to hear in a waiting crowd. It stood silent, each
man busy with the rising current of his own emotions, solemnified
by the faces all around him. The soldiers ified out upon the
pavement, the police having kept a way clear for them, Still there
was silence in the crowd save that near me I could hear a man
sobbing. A trumpeter lifted his bugle and sounded a bar of the
reveille. The clear notes clove the silent air, flooding every street
about us with their silver sound. Suddenly the band began playing.
The tune was Yankee Doodle. A wild, dismal, tremulous cry came
out of a throat near me. It grew arid spread to a mighty roar and
then such a shout went up to Heaven, as I had never heard, and as I
know full well I shall never hear again. It was like the riving of
thunderbolts above the roar of floods - elemental, prophetic,
threatening, ungovernable. It did seem to me that the holy wrath of
God Almighty was in that cry of the people. It was a signal. It
declared that they were ready to give all that a man may give for
that he loves - his life and things far dearer to him than his life.
After that, they and their sons begged for a chance to throw
themselves into the hideous ruin of war.

I walked slowly back to the office and wrote my article. When. the
Printer came in at twelve I went to his room before he had had
time to begin work

'Mr Greeley,'I said, 'here is my resignation. I am going to the war. 

His habitual smile gave way to a sober look as he turned to me, his
big white coat on his arm. He pursed his lips and blew
thoughtfully. Then he threw his coat in a chair and wiped his eyes
with his handkerchief.

'Well! God bless you, my boy,'he said. 'I wish I could go, too. 

Chapter 38

I worked some weeks before my regiment was sent forward. I
planned to be at home for a day, but they needed me on the staff,
and I dreaded the pain of a parting, the gravity of which my return
would serve only to accentuate. So I wrote them a cheerful letter,
and kept at work. It was my duty to interview some of the great
men of that day as to the course of the government. I remember
Commodore Vanderbilt came down to see me in shirt-sleeves and
slippers that afternoon, with a handkerchief tied about his neck in
place of a collar - a blunt man, of simple manners and a big heart,
one who spoke his mind in good, plain talk, and, I suppose, he got
along with as little profanity as possible, considering his many
cares. He called me 'boy'and spoke of a certain public man as a
'big sucker . I soon learned that to him a 'sucker'was the lowest
and meanest thing in the world. He sent me away with nothing but
a great admiration of him. As a rule, the giants of that day were
plain men of the people, with no frills upon them, and with a way
of hitting from the shoulder. They said what they meant and meant
it hard. I have heard Lincoln talk when his words had the whiz of a
bullet and his arm the jerk of a piston.

John Trumbull invited McClingan, of whom I had told him much,
and myself to dine with him an evening that week. I went in my
new dress suit - that mark of sinful extravagance for which Fate
had brought me down to the pounding of rocks under Boss
McCormick. Trumbull's rooms were a feast for the eye - aglow
with red roses. He introduced me to Margaret Hull and her mother,
who were there to dine with us. She was a slight woman of thirty
then, with a face of no striking beauty, but of singular sweetness.
Her dark eyes had a mild and tender light in them; her voice a
plaintive, gentle tone, the like of  which one may hear rarely if
ever. For years she had been a night worker in the missions of the
lower city, and many an unfortunate had been turned from the way
of evil by her good offices. I sat beside her at the table, and she
told me of her work and how often she had met Trumbull in his
night walks.

'Found me a hopeless heathen,'he remarked.

'To save him I had to consent to marry him,'she said, laughing.

'"Who hath found love is already in Heaven,"'said McClingan. 'I
have not found it and I am in'' he hesitated, as if searching for a
synonym.

'A boarding house on William Street,'he added.

The remarkable thing about Margaret Hull was her simple faith. It
looked to no glittering generality for its reward, such as the soul s
'highest good much talked of in the philosophy of that time. She
believed that, for every soul she saved, one jewel would be added
to her crown in Heaven. And yet she wore no jewel upon her
person. Her black costume was beautifully fitted to her fine form,
but was almost severely plain. It occurred to me that she did not
quite understand her own heart, and, for that matter, who does?
But she had somewhat in her soul that passeth all understanding - I
shall not try to say what, with so little knowledge of those high
things, save that I know it was of God. To what patience and
unwearying effort she had schooled herself I was soon to know.

'Can you not find anyone to love you?'she said, turning to
McClingan. 'You know the Bible says it is not good for man to live
alone. 

'It does, Madame,'said he, 'but I have a mighty fear in me,
remembering the twenty-fourth verse of the twenty-fifth chapter of
Proverbs: "It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetops than
with a brawling woman in a wide house." We cannot all be so
fortunate as our friend Trumbull. But I have felt the great passion. 

He smiled at her faintly as he spoke in a quiet manner, his r s
coming off his tongue with a stately roll. His environment and the
company had given him a fair degree of stimulation. There was a
fine dignity in his deep voice, and his body bristled with it, from
his stiff and heavy shock of blonde hair parted carefully on the left
side, to his high-heeled boots. The few light hairs that stood in
lonely abandonment on his upper lip, the rest of his lean visage
always well shorn, had no small part in the grand effect of
McClingan.

'A love story!'said Miss Hull. 'I do wish I had your confidence. I
like a real, true love story. 

'A simple stawry it is,'said McClingan, 'and Jam proud of my part
in it. I shall be glad to tell the stawry if you are to hear it. 

We assured him of our interest.

'Well,'said he, 'there was one Tom Douglass at Edinburgh who
was my friend and dassmate. We were together a good bit of the
time, and when we had come to the end of our course we both
went to engage in journalism at Glasgow. We had a mighty conceit
of ourselves - you know how it is, Brower, with a green lad - but
we were a mind to be modest, with all our learning, so we made an
agreement: I would blaw his horn and he would blaw mine. We
were not to lack appreciation. He was on one paper and I on
another, and every time he wrote an article I went up and down the
office praising him for a man o'mighty skill, and he did the same
for me. If anyone spoke of him in my hearing I said every word of
flattery at my command. "What Tom Douglass?" I would say, "the
man o'the Herald that's written those wonderful articles from the
law court? A genius, sir! an absolute genius!" Well, we were
rapidly gaining reputation. One of those days I found myself in
love with as comely a lass as ever a man courted. Her mother had a
proper curiosity as to my character. I referred them to Tom
Douglass of the Herald - he was the only man there who had
known me well. The girl and her mother both went to him.

"Your friend was just here," said the young lady, when I called
again. "He is a very handsome man."

'"And a noble man!" I said.

"And didn t I hear you say that he was a very skilful man, too?"

'"A genius!" I answered, "an absolute genius!" 

McClingan stopped and laughed heartily as he took a sip of water.

'What happened then?'said Miss I-lull.

'She took him on my recommendation,'he answered. 'She said
that, while he had the handsomer face, I had the more eloquent
tongue. And they both won for him. And, upon me honour as a
gentleman, it was the luckiest thing that ever happened to me, for
she became a brawler and a scold. My mother says there is "no the
like o'her in Scotland". 

I shall never forget how fondly Margaret Hull patted the brown
cheek of Trumbull with her delicate white band, as we rose.

'We all have our love stawries,'said McClingan.

'Mine is better than yours,'she answered, 'but it shall never be told. 

'Except one little part if it,'said Trumbull, as he put his hands
upon her shoulders, and looked down into her face. 'It is the only
thing that has made my life worth living. 

Then she made us to know many odd things about her work for the
children of misfortune - inviting us to come and see it for
ourselves. We were to go the next evening.

I finished my work at nine that night and then we walked through
noisome streets and alleys - New York was then far from being so
clean a city as now - to the big mission house. As we came in at
the door we saw a group of women kneeling before the altar at the
far end of the room, and heard the voice of Margaret Hull praying'
a voice so sweet and tender that we bowed our heads at once, and
listened while it quickened the life in us. She plead for the poor
creatures about her, to whom Christ gave always the most
abundant pity, seeing they were more sinned against than sinning.
There was not a word of cant in her petition. It was full of a
simple, unconscious eloquence, a higher feeling than I dare try to
define. And when it was over she had won'their love and
confidence so that they clung to her hands and kissed them and
wet them with their tears. She came and spoke to us presently, in
the same sweet manner that had charmed us the night before'
there was no change in it We offered to walk home with her, but
she said Trumbull was coming at twelve.

'So that is "The Little Mother" of whom I have heard so often,'said
McClingan, as we came away.

'What do you think of her?'I enquired.

'Wonderful woman!'he said. 'I never heard such a voice. It gives
me visions. Every other is as the crackling of thorns under a pot 

I came back to the office and went into Mr Greeley's room to bid
him goodbye. He stood by the gas jet, in a fine new suit of clothes,
reading a paper, while a boy was blacking one of his boots. I sat
down, awaiting a more favourable moment. A very young man had
come into the room and stood timidly holding his hat.

'I wish to see Mr Greeley,'he said.

'There he is,'I answered, 'go and speak to him. 

'Mr Greeley,'said he, 'I have called to see if you can'take me on
the Tribune. 

The Printer continued reading as if he were the only man in the
room.

The young man looked at him and then at me - with an expression
that moved me to a fellow feeling. He was a country boy, more
green and timid even than I had been.

'He did not hear you - try again,'I said.

'Mr Greeley,'said he, louder than before, 'I have called to see if
you can'take me on the Tribune. 

The editor's eyes glanced off at the boy and returned to their
reading.

'No, boy, I can't,'he drawled, shifting his eyes to another article.
And the boy, who was called to the service of the paper in time,
but not until after his pen had made him famous, went away with a
look of bitter disappointment.

In his attire Mr Greeley wore always the best material, that soon
took on a friendless and dejected look. The famous white overcoat
had been bought for five dollars of a man who had come by chance
to the office of the New Yorker, years before, and who considered
its purchase a great favour. That was a time when the price of a
coat was a thing of no little importance to the Printer. Tonight
there was about him a great glow, such as comes of fine tailoring
and new linen.

He was so preoccupied with his paper that I went out into the big
room and sat down, awaiting a better time.

'The Printer's going to Washington to talk with the president,'said
an editor.

Just then Mr Greeley went running hurriedly up the spiral stair on
his way to the typeroom. Three or four compositors had gone up
ahead of him. He had risen out of sight when we heard a
tremendous uproar above stairs. I ran up, two steps at a time, while
the high voice of Mr Greeley came pouring down upon me like a
flood. It had a wild, fleering tone. He stood near the landing,
swinging his arms and swearing like a boy just learning how. In
the middle of the once immaculate shirt bosom was a big, yellow
splash. Something had fallen on him and spattered as it struck We
stood well out of range, looking at it, undeniably the stain of
nicotine. In a voice that was no encouragement to confession he
dared 'the drooling idiot'to declare himself. In a moment he
opened his waistcoat and surveyed the damage.

'Look at that!'he went on, complainingly. 'Ugh! The reeking,
filthy, slobbering idiot! I d rather be slain with the jaw bone of an
ass. 

'You ll have to get another shirt,'said the pressman, who stood
near. 'You can't go to Washington with such a breast pin. 

'I'd breast pin him if I knew who he was,'said the editor.'

A number of us followed him downstairs and a young man went
up the Bowery for a new shirt. When it came the Printer took off
the soiled gannent, flinging it into a corner, and I helped him to put
himself in proper fettle again. This finished, he ran away,
hurriedly, with his carpet-bag, and I missed the opportunity I
wanted for a brief talk with him.

Chapter 39

My regiment left New York by night in a flare of torch and rocket.
The streets were lined with crowds now hardened to the sound of
fife and drum and the pomp of military preparation. I had a very
high and mighty feeling in me that wore away in the discomfort of
travel. For hours after the train started we sang and told stories,
and ate peanuts and pulled and hauled at each other in a cloud of
tobacco smoke. The train was sidetracked here and there, and
dragged along at a slow pace.

Young men with no appreciation, as it seemed to me, of the sad
business we were off upon, went roistering up and down the aisles,
drinking out of bottles and chasing around the train as it halted.
These revellers grew quiet as the night wore on. The boys began to
dose their eyes and lie back for rest. Some lay in the aisle. their
heads upon their knapsacks. The air grew chilly and soon I could
hear them snoring all about me and the chatter of frogs in the near
marshes. I closed my eyes and vainly courted sleep. A great
sadness had lain hold of me. I had already given up my life for my
country - I was only going away now to get as dear a price for it as
possible in the hood of its enemies. When and where would it be
taken? I wondered. The fear had mostly gone out of me in days and
nights of solemn thinking. The feeling I had, with its flavour of
religion, is what has made the volunteer the mighty soldier he has
ever been, I take it, since Naseby and Marston Moor. The soul is
the great Captain, and with a just quarrel it will warm its sword in
the enemy, however he may be trained to thrust and parry. In my
sacrifice there was but one reservation - I hoped I should not be
horribly cut with a sword or a bayonet. I had written a long letter
to Hope, who was yet at Leipzig. I wondered if she would care
what became of me. I got a sense of comfort thinking I would
show her that I was no coward, with all my littleness. I had not
been able to write to Uncle Eb or to my father or mother in any
serious tone of my feeling in this enterprise. I had treated it as a
kind of holiday from which I should return shortly to visit them.

All about me seemed to be sleeping - some of them were talking in
their dreams. As it grew light, one after another rose and stretched
himself, rousing his seat companion. The train halted, a man shot
a musket voice in at the car door. It was loaded with the many
syllables of 'Annapolis Junction . We were pouring out of the train
shortly, to bivouac for breakfastin the depot yard. So I began the
life of a soldier, and how it ended with me many have read in
better books than this, but my story of it is here and only here.

We went into camp there on the lonely flats of east Maryland for a
day or two, as we supposed, but really for quite two weeks. In the
long delay that followed, my way traversed the dead levels of
routine. When Southern sympathy had ceased to wreak its wrath
upon the railroads about Baltimore we pushed on to Washington.
There I got letters from Uncle Eb and Elizabeth Brower. The
former I have now in my box of treasures - a torn and faded
remnant of that dark period.

DEAR SIR'pen in hand to hat you know that we are all wel. also
that we was sorry you could not come horn. They took on terribul.
Hope she wrote a letter. Said she had not herd from you. also that
somebody wrote to her you was goin to be married. You had
oughter write her a letter, Bill. Looks to me so you hain't used her
right. Shes a comm horn in July. Sowed corn to day in the gardin.
David is off byin catul. I hope God will take care uv you, boy, so
goodbye from yours truly
Atlanta Nightlife

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Atlanta Nightlife

Christmas WithSt. Nick

Electronics Recycling

FSBO Leads For Real Estate Agents

Real Estate Agent Coaching

Christmas With
St. Nick

Electronics
Recycling

FSBO Leads For
Real Estate Agents

Real Estate
Agent Coaching
