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GIFT OF 
 Harry East Miller 
 
 

I .AMY JIM. 
 
cc 
 
 GENTLEMAN JIM 
 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR OF 
 
 STEPPING HEAVENWARD. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY, 
 
 182 FIFTH AVENUE. 
 
v \ \ * 
 
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 COPYRIGHT, 1878. BY 
 
 TF. 
 
 

 G-ENTLEMAN JIM. 
 
 THERE S some things that ought to be 
 wrote down, I mean written down. Now let 
 me see ; it is nigh upon twenty years ago that 
 a young fellow worked in these here mines, 
 and handled his tools so ill that he got the 
 name of "Clumsy Joe." If anybody met 
 with an accident going down the shaft, it was 
 always him ; if anybody got blowed up and 
 singed, he always did. His face, it was never 
 handsome, but the red scars of his burns made 
 it ugly ; and his hands, rough enough before, 
 had got unshapely and inconvenient to use. 
 But ugly as he was, and clumsy as he was, 
 he d got a soft heart under his jacket, and the 
 
 (7) 
 
 M81812 
 
8 GENTLEMAN JIM. 
 
 school-master s daughter caught and held it 
 
 ^ this: 
 
 I * It ..Wasn t :tha -she^was the prettiest girl 
 anywhere round, though she was ; nor that 
 she had the prettiest ways of any of them, 
 though she had. It was the loving-kindness 
 she felt for everybody in shame or trouble. 
 If a fellow got chaffed for his awkwardness, 
 and was burning with shame, she d lay on a 
 soft word that cooled and soothed him. If one 
 was dismissed for some trifling fault, rest she 
 would not till she d plead him back again. If 
 there was an accident, and a fellow s face was 
 made horrible to look at she d work at it and 
 shape it, and bear with it, and say, over and 
 over again : 
 
 " It s the heart I look at, not the face ; and 
 the scars of burns are not half so marring as 
 seams of sin." 
 
 I wasn t the only one she was kind to ; it 
 
GENTLEMAN- JIM. 9 
 
 was all the same to every man, woman, and 
 child for miles round. I knowed it, and yet I 
 wouldn t know it. 
 
 All the same, I never had the least hope 
 that she would ever love me. I knowed she 
 never could love such a silly softy as I was ; 
 but it was some comfort that she did not care 
 any more for the other men than she did for 
 me. 
 
 But, blundering as usual, I have run on all 
 this time without a word about Gentleman 
 Jim. 
 
 When he first come among us, I remember 
 that, after one look at his face, I looked sharp 
 at his hands, thinking to see them soft and 
 white, with pink nails. But they were grimy 
 and used to hard work, so it was plain he was 
 made of clay, like the rest of us, only he was 
 made of a kind out of the common. He never 
 took airs upon himself, but mated with us all, 
 friendly and agreeable. For all that he hadn t 
 
10 GENTLEMAN JIM. 
 
 been in the mines a month before we all spoke 
 of him as Gentleman Jim. Nobody would 
 have dared to call him such a grand name to 
 his face, he wouldn t have stood it if they had. 
 And as I watched him from day to day, I said 
 to myself, " Here s a man fit for Rosemary " 
 there ! her name has slipped out at last ! 
 He ll go raving distracted about her, and 
 she ll do the same by him as soon as she 
 knows it, or my name aint Clumsy Joe. 
 
 But he hadn t been among us many days 
 before her father took to his bed and never 
 left it again. 
 
 Now, she had plenty of friends who would 
 have been glad to help her nurse him, but no, 
 nobody was to do for him but herself. She said 
 she had promised her mother, on her death 
 bed, not to let him miss her love and care, 
 and she never would, not she. 
 
 Well, the old man lived on and on, and she 
 began to flag. She get hardly any sleep, and 
 
GENTLEMAN JIM. 11 
 
 never went out to breathe the fresh air, and 
 it made my heart ache to see her young life 
 wasting away. For I could see her, plainly, 
 through the low cottage window. " If he 
 doesn t die soon, she will," says I to myself. 
 
 A NIGHT S ADVENTURE. 
 
 And I made up my mind to be on hand 
 when she broke down ; leastways, if it was not 
 when I was down in the mine. So I kept 
 watch of the house and of every step she took, 
 and one night she stepped to the door; dear 
 me ! she knowed I couldn t sleep when she 
 was awake, and 
 
 " Joe ? " says she. 
 
 " Yes," says I. 
 
 " If I could go to sleep for just five minutes 
 I should be all right," says she. "You just 
 watch father five minutes, and I ll wake up 
 bright and strong. And, Joe " 
 
 By this time we d got into the house, and 
 
12 GENTLEMAN JIM. 
 
 she had staggered to the bed where hei 
 father lay and was asleep ; asleep like one 
 dead. It was a cold, stormy night, and the 
 fire had got low. I took off my shoes and 
 crept, softly, to the grate and put on coals ; 
 then I looked for something to cover the poor 
 little lass with, but could not find either shawl 
 or blanket, so I took off my coat and spread 
 it over her shoulders. 
 
 The old man was asleep, too, and I hardly 
 dared to breathe, lest I should wake them. 
 After a while a great, noisy clock began to 
 strike one, two, three; I thought if I let it 
 go on to twelve they would certainly wake 
 up. So I stole along to stop it. 
 
 Now there was a little table setting near 
 
 o 
 
 the bed, with cups and bottles and what not 
 on it, and what should I do but upset it and 
 make noise enough to rouse the whole village. 
 The old man awoke with a start. 
 
 " Whatever are you about, child?" says he, 
 
GENTLEMAN JIM. 1& 
 
 * to make all this din just as I was going off 
 into a doze. I sha n t get a wink of sleep to 
 night. Is the kettle boiling ? Make me a 
 cup of tea, then." 
 
 Now here was a pretty mess I d made of it ! 
 I knowed no more n a baby where the tea was, 
 nor how to make it if I did. 
 
 But I crept round and opened boxes, and 
 felt of this bag and that, and at last lighted 
 on it. Now how much to boil ? If it was 
 coffee I should know ; but should a fellow put 
 down more or less tea to boil? At last I took 
 a couple of handfuls, poured in a tea-cup or 
 two of water, and set the tea-pot on the coals. 
 After a while I looked in, and if the water 
 hadn t boiled away ! I poured in more, and 
 again more ; and just as the clock struck one, 
 and the kettle had boiled nearly an hour, I 
 thought the tea must be done, so I poured 
 out a cup and carr ed it to the old man. 
 He took one swallrw and made such a 
 
14 GENTLEMAN JIM. 
 
 dreadful face that I saw I had made some 
 blunder. 
 
 "What devil s broth is this?" he cried out. 
 "Are you trying to poison your poor old 
 father?" 
 
 I knelt down on the floor and put my 
 mouth to his ear, and says I : 
 
 " It isn t HER. It s me ! " 
 
 Just then the fire flared up, and he saw that 
 the lass was not by his side. His fright was 
 a sight to see. He thought I had murdered 
 his daughter, and was now trying to poison 
 him, and being weak and low, he began to cry, 
 like a child, and beg for mercy. 
 
 " Hush, sir, hush ! " says I, ready to burst ; 
 " put out your hand and you ll feel her lying 
 asleep by you. And as for me, I m Clumsy 
 Joe, nursing of you, and letting that poor 
 soul get a wink of sleep." 
 
 " It s not like her to sleep when her poor 
 old father never closes his eyes. You Ve mur 
 
GENTLEMAN JIM. 15 
 
 dered her, I am sure of it," he said in a feeble 
 voice. 
 
 "Indeed, sir," says I, "you ve slept nearly 
 all night, and as to the poor lass, she s not 
 dead, but all wore out. Put your hand on 
 hers, and listen to her breathing." 
 
 At that he took her hand in his and was 
 comforted, and spoke kindly to me. 
 
 "I know you now," says he, "you re 
 Clumsy Joe. But how the child sleeps ! 
 Are you sure you haven t given her some 
 drug?" 
 
 " I ve give her an easy mind," says I, "and 
 nothing else. She knew I d do the best I 
 could for you. I humbly ask your pardon 
 about the tea. I thought if I boiled it an 
 hour it would be beautiful." 
 
 He tossed about a while, and, at last, fell 
 asleep again. 
 
 I had time now to think of my hand, which 
 I had scalded pouring out the tea, but would 
 
16 GENTLEMAN JIM. 
 
 not run the risk of waking them by trying to 
 do anything for it. 
 
 So the hours went on and on ; daylight be 
 gan to dawn, and I was growing giddy, for, of 
 course, this wasn t the first night I hadn t 
 been to bed ; no, nor the second, or the 
 third. 
 
 And it was getting toward time to go down 
 into the mine and set to work ! And sup 
 pose now she didn t wake, and I was miss 
 ing when my turn came? Well, I d out with 
 the truth, and say why I couldn t help it. 
 
 But who would believe that story? 
 
 Who would believe that the school-master s 
 daughter set Clumsy Joe to nurse her 
 father when she might have had Gentleman 
 Jim, with all his handy, noiseless ways? And 
 was her name to be mixed up with mine? I 
 had been shivering with cold for several hours, 
 but now 1 turned hot. 
 
 She must wake up, and I must go. 
 
GENTLEMAN- JIM. 17 
 
 " Rose ! " says I. 
 
 She never stirred. 
 
 I went round and touched her. 
 
 " Rose ! " says I. 
 
 She smiled, but did not open her eyes. 
 
 " Yes, I know he s awkward, but he s faith 
 ful, he s faithful, and I ll only sleep five min 
 utes," says she. 
 
 I grew wild with terror. At the risk of of 
 fending her forever I must go. What must 
 she think when she awoke ? The physic all 
 upset, the cups and vials broken, and all the 
 tea wasted ! No, she d never let me cross her 
 threshold again. 
 
 And I was no scholard, and couldn t leave a 
 bit of writing to explain my ill-luck, oh ! 
 
 I rushed out and rushed home, if home it 
 might be called, where there never was a wom 
 an set her foot, and we men did for ourselves. 
 
 "What s come over you, Joe?" says one. 
 
 " You re as near white as grime permits. 
 2 
 
18 GENTLEMAN JIM. 
 
 " It s nothing," says I, " but a scalded 
 hand." 
 
 ANOTHER VERSION OF THE NIGHT S AD- 
 VENTURE. 
 
 They passed out, one after another, at 
 that, only Gentleman Jim stayed behind. 
 
 " Let s look at your hand, mate," says he. 
 
 " But you ll catch it if you re behind-time," 
 says I. 
 
 " I don t suppose they ll murder a fellow/ 
 says he. " Whew ! No wonder you re white. 
 Sit down. Here s a cup of coffee. There, I 
 call that a scientific bandage, and you re all 
 right. Eat your breakfast, and then go to 
 bed." 
 
 " To bed ? " says I. " To work you mean." 
 
 He smiled to himself, lifted me up, chair 
 and all, and set me down at the table. 
 
 " Behave yourself, and eat your breakfast," 
 says he. "And Joe, lad, promise me that 
 
GENTLEMAN JIM. 19 
 
 you ll never go on another spree. Pick out 
 some good, modest girl and marry her. De- 
 pend on it, there s only one thing purifies a 
 man more than love for a good, modest girl, 
 be she dead or alive." 
 
 " Jim," says I, " don t I know that ? Don t 
 you ever talk sprees to me again. What have 
 I ever done to make you think I m a wild fel 
 low ?" 
 
 " I never will suspect you again, dear mate, 
 and there s my hand upon it. But you see, 
 when a young fellow is out night after night, 
 what wonder if one has his fears? I say fears, 
 Joe, because I ve always loved you, and took 
 an elder brother s right to look after you. 
 And now you really must go to bed. You re 
 as weak as a baby." 
 
 " But my work, Jim ! " 
 
 " What am I as strong as a giant for if not 
 to help a mate in trouble ? " 
 
 I looked up at him, and for once let him see 
 
20 GENTLEMAN JIM. 
 
 how I loved him. But 1 should be ashamed 
 to tell what I got for answer. 
 
 Oh, Gentleman Jim ! 
 
 As he went out I tried to follow him, but 
 fell back in my chair, weak and helpless, and 
 soon went to sleep, and never woke till the 
 men came home from their work, laughing 
 and talking, at night. 
 
 " Here s Joe, thinks it a broiling day in 
 July, and so sits in his shirt-sleeves," says one. 
 
 " And catches his death of cold," says an 
 other. " See how his teeth chatter." 
 
 " Come, Joe, you re best off in bed/ says 
 another. 
 
 I crawled away and into bed. I really 
 thought I should shake to pieces I was so 
 chilled through and through. At last I fell 
 into uneasy sleep, but was gradually roused 
 by the talk of two men ; I knew them by their 
 voices Tom Jinkins and Lazy Luke Hobbs 
 
 " He must have been drunk," says Luke. 
 
GENTLEMAN JIM. 21 
 
 "Drunk?" says Tom. " Why, he s as 
 drunk as a beast, still." 
 
 " They say he frightened the old man to 
 death with his antics. First he puts the girl 
 on the bed, and tries to smother her with his 
 jacket. She falls into a swoon, and that satis 
 fies him, for he thinks she s dead. Then he 
 takes bottle after bottle and breaks them on 
 the old man s head till the bed is a sight to 
 behold. Then he pours physic all over 
 the floor, till your feet stick to it. Then he 
 takes all the tea in the house, half a pound, if 
 not more, and sets it on to boil, and tries to 
 make the old man drink some of it." 
 
 " What was you skulking round there for, 
 anyhow ? " 
 
 " That s my business, not yours. I see Joe 
 pacing up and down, like a sentinel, and not 
 at all as if he d been drinking ; but when T 
 saw him go into the house, I thought I d see 
 what was up, that s all." 
 
2-2 GENTLEMAN JIM, 
 
 " I never knew him to drink," says the 
 other. "All the same, I m glad he s got 
 caught at it." 
 
 " Well, of course, the fool will be dismissed, 
 and if he gets off at that, he ll get off cheap. 
 You see, they have his coat ; there s no get 
 ting round that. And, for my part, I think 
 he ought to be tried for murder." 
 
 " If it comes to that I ll bolt," says Luke. 
 " Let the Lord blow him up in the mine if 
 He chooses, but I aint a-going to swear away 
 his life. I wouldn t swear away a toad s, for 
 that matter." 
 
 " No, you re too lazy. But here comes 
 Gentleman Jim. Let s see what he has to 
 say, now, for his dear Joe." 
 
 By this time I was sitting up in bed with 
 every hair standing on end. Was things as 
 they said? Had I been drunk? Was I drunk 
 now? Had I tried to smother the little lass? 
 Had I scared her father to death? Was he 
 
GENTLEMAN JIM. 23 
 
 really dead? Had I really killed him? I 
 tried to cry out, but my voice failed me. 
 Then I heard Gentleman Jim s, calm and clear 
 at first, then angry with righteous anger. 
 
 "What do I think of him, now? I think 
 of him as David thought of Jonathan. There 
 isn t one of you fit to pass him the salt. 
 There isn t one of you would sacrifice a night s 
 sleep for his best friend, and here s this Joe s 
 lost his reason by dint o watching night after 
 night over an old man that never had a kind 
 word for him." 
 
 Then everybody spoke at once, and I could 
 not make out a word till I heard Jim s voice 
 ring out, 
 
 " SILENCE ! " 
 
 and all became as still as the grave. Then 
 another voice, trembling, tearful, passionate 
 by turns, set my heart beating till I had to 
 hold on to it with my two hands. 
 
 " It is robodv s fault but mine," she said 
 
24 GENTLEMAN JIM. 
 
 " I went to sleep thinking to get strength fot 
 what was coming. For the doctor said my 
 poor father would only live a few days. And 
 I was jealous of letting any one else do for 
 him, and so kept up night after night, night 
 after night, till my head got confused, and I 
 could not remember the doctor s directions. 
 And all the time here was this poor lad you re 
 all abusing, pacing up and down in the cold 
 and the rain and the snow, never asking for, 
 never getting a kind word from me, watching 
 for the moment when I should give out. And 
 I only thought to sleep five minutes ! I did 
 not know I was used up. And when I woke, 
 rested and fresh, what do I find tucked about 
 my shoulders but this coat ! You all know it. 
 Yes, it s Clumsy Joe s. He deprived himself 
 of it through the coldest night ever known 
 here, that a poor, weary lass, with a great sor 
 row before her, might get rested against it 
 
GENTLEMAN JIM. 25 
 
 Here a rough called out that she was wel 
 come to make Clumsy Joe her young man 
 if she liked, and with one stride Jim was upon 
 him. 
 
 " Take back those words ! " 
 
 The man was as strong as a lion, but he 
 quailed before Jim s eye. 
 
 " I meant no harm," he said. 
 
 Then Jim offered the poor weeping girl his 
 arm, and walked away with her as if he was a 
 lord and she a lady. 
 
 Of course I did not see all that, but it was 
 told me afterward. 
 
 And later I found I had been very ill for 
 a week, and out of my head. During that 
 time the school-master died, and was buried. 
 I asked the surgeon if I had hastened his 
 death by my clumsiness, and he said no. You 
 see, we have so many accidents in the mines 
 we keep a surgeon, us miners. Single men 
 pay him so much a month, year in and year 
 
26 GENTLEMAN JIM. 
 
 out, and married men twice as miuh, and then 
 he is bound to see us through any illness or 
 hurt that comes to us. 
 
 COMPLICATIONS. 
 
 When I was strong enough to get out again, 
 I found that Rosemary s strength all gave out 
 as soon as her father s funeral was over. The 
 wives and the girls of the miners were too 
 rough to be fit to nurse her; in them days 
 women worked in the mines with the men, 
 and grew strong and coarse with the hard 
 work. So the surgeon got a nurse for her. 
 She didn t know, and I didn t know, that 
 Gentleman Jim paid that woman her wages. 
 I might have knowed it ; it was just like him. 
 
 I weaned the surgeon asking him how the 
 lass was, and he always made the same an 
 swer 
 
 " If it had not been for the sleep she had 
 the night before her father died, it would have 
 
GENTLEMAN JIM. 27 
 
 been useless to tr) to save her. As it is, it will 
 take time. She is completely worn out." 
 
 It did take time, but she battled through. 
 The first day she was up and dressed I made 
 bold to go and see her. 
 
 And I saw signs of Gentleman Jim s having 
 looked after her during her illness ; little bits 
 of fine carving, such as women like ; a bird 
 cage, such as he used to make ; a pretty table 
 for her work-basket. 
 
 But when I led the way for her to speak 
 of them, she said she understood they came 
 from me. And then again, she hadn t seen 
 Jim since the day he took her home after she 
 had brought my coat. 
 
 I couldn t make her out, nor him out. She 
 seemed so changed ; so happy, and as if she 
 expected something that was going to make 
 her happier yet. 
 
 " It must be Jim," I thought. 
 
 And why not ? There wasn t a worthy man 
 
28 GENTLEMAN JIM. 
 
 among us youngsters that wouldn t be glad tc 
 get her for his wife, and she knowed it. Then 
 why shouldn t Gentleman Jim be like the rest? 
 
 At first the thought tore me to pieces, self 
 ish dog in the manger that I was ! 
 
 " He sha n t have her ! he sha n t have her ! " 
 I kept crying out in my secret heart. And I 
 grew cold and sullen to him. Before that, if he 
 got out of wicks or powder, or anything else in 
 his chest, he was free to take what he would 
 from mine. But now I let him go to any in 
 convenience ; touch my tools he should not. 
 
 He never said a word beyond, " Why, Joe, 
 lad?" and that as kind as a woman. 
 
 It s hard on a young fellow in the midst of 
 such a battle not to have a mother, or a 
 woman he could make a mother of, to counsel 
 and strengthen him. As for me, it seemed as 
 if Satan had got hold of me, and never would 
 let me go. Oh, what a horrid thing to be 
 tempted of him ! 
 
GENTLEMAN JIM. 29 
 
 But there is One stronger than Satan, and 
 He condescended to whisper to me, a poor, 
 grimy miner, working underground. 
 
 " Joe," says He, " what have I done for 
 you? Anything?" 
 
 " Yes, Master," says I, " you ve saved my 
 soul." 
 
 " Then have you nothing to do for me ? " 
 says He. 
 
 At that my hard heart melted, and I had to 
 go and hide in a dusky corner, lest my mates 
 should see me a-crying. 
 
 I hadn t thought before that He cared how 
 I came out of this fight. But I knew now that 
 He did care, even for me, even me. And if 
 He would stand by me, and help me bear it, I 
 could let Jim have her. 
 
 But Jim was queer. He didn t see that she 
 loved him, and she wasn t any nearer to him 
 a year after her father s death than she was 
 the day after, when he took her home in such 
 
30 GENTLEMAN JIM. 
 
 a lordly way. The poor thing began to wilt 
 I wouldn t have you think she was love-sick 
 and silly ; there was too much to her for that ; 
 but ycu know how a plant droops that lacks 
 water. She had a smile and a pleasant word 
 for everybody, and was as reserved and 
 modest to Jim as a shy hare ; all the same, I 
 knowed her heart by mine. 
 
 It s wearing to see them you love suf 
 fer; and after a time, and another fight with 
 my evil heart, I got so as to stand the idea of 
 their getting married to each other. And yet, 
 further along, the notion of their having lads 
 and lasses of their own. 
 
 This put me up to saving my wages, for, of 
 course, Rosemary s children must have school 
 ing, so s to keep step with her. 
 
 A MIDNIGHT ASSAULT. 
 
 Now her cottage was in a lonesome place, 
 and she lived there all by herself. It did not 
 
GENTLEMAN JIM. 31 
 
 seem dangerous ; our men respected her too 
 much to molest her. But one night a fellow 
 I d had a chance to do a kind turn for, came 
 to me most mysterious, and winked at me to 
 go out of doors with him. I went out, and 
 says he : 
 
 " Rosemary s your sweetheart, isn t she?" 
 
 " Not she ! " says I. " Do you suppose she d 
 look at a fellow like me? " 
 
 " I don t see why not," says he. " Anyhow, 
 you care for her, don t you ? " 
 
 I owned I did. 
 
 " Well," says he, " Big Mike has been per 
 secuting her off and on, and to-day I over 
 heard him lay a wager that if he couldn t 
 have her one way he d have her another. Of 
 course he d been drinking, or he d have kept 
 his plans to himself. But he ll attack her as 
 soon as he thinks you are asleep. She s all 
 alone in her house, you know, with nobody ta 
 defend her, and though I d like the job my- 
 
32 GENTLEMAN JIM. 
 
 self, I ll let you have a hand in it, Joe, foi 
 what you ve done for me." 
 
 "What! two against one? "says I. "I ll 
 never consent to that. But I thank you, all 
 the same, for this warning." 
 
 " But suppose he gets the upper hand of 
 you ; she ll be in his power then." 
 
 " He ll not be in a state to hurt a fly," says 
 I, "when I ve done with him." 
 
 " But he wouldn t mind putting an end to 
 you. And he s as strong as a giant." 
 
 "Ay, but he doesn t love her, and I do." 
 
 " Well," says he, " you turn in and sleep till 
 near midnight, then I ll call you. A baby 
 might knock you down as you are now." 
 
 " Sleep ! " says I, " do you suppose I can go 
 to sleep?" 
 
 My blood boiled till I could almost hear it 
 hiss. To think of that white, innocent lamb 
 at the mercy of a wolf. And suppose he 
 killed me, what would become o" her then? 
 
GENTLEMAN JIM. 33 
 
 I went in and looked at the clock. Ic was 
 after ten, and the tired men had, mostly, 
 gone to bed. Only Big Mike sat pretending 
 to read a newspaper, and Gentleman Jim sat 
 carving a bit of wood. 
 
 I must make believe go to bed. 
 
 Jim and I had made up long ago, and as I 
 passed him on my way from the room, I gave 
 him a sign to follow. 
 
 " Jim," says I, " if you love me, go and get 
 into my bed with your clothes on, pulling the 
 coverlid close up, as I do. Then when you 
 feel a rough hand steal across your face you 
 may know it s Big Mike feeling if it s me. 
 And as soon as he is satisfied that I m there, 
 he ll be off in pursuit of your little girl." 
 
 " My little girl? " says he. 
 
 " Yes ; Rosemary. He mayn t mean to do 
 more than frighten her, but I won t risk it. 
 And don t you dare to interfere, only be there 
 to defend her if I m overcome." 
 3 
 
84 GENTLEMAN JIM. 
 
 Jim was quick at taking an idea. 
 
 "All right," says he, and in two minutes 1 
 was flying down the road to the cottage by a 
 cut across lots I thought Mike didn t know 
 But he did, and had the window partly open 
 when I reached and seized him with ono hand 
 and closed it with the other. 
 
 This gave him an advantage over me, and 
 his blows with both fists came down on my 
 face and eyes like rain. Then he shook me 
 till I felt as if every bone was dislocated, and 
 pulled at my ears till it s a wonder they didn t 
 fly out, and at last he got me by the throat. 
 
 But I did not lose heart. I had not been 
 drinking, as he had, and what strength I had 
 war natural, and seemed to grow instead of 
 failing. And the thought of what might hap. 
 pen to that dear one if I failed to protect her, 
 made me free myself from his grasp as by a 
 miracle, and we closed in. 
 
 And all of a sudden the monster fell heavilj 
 
GENTLEMAN JIM 35 
 
 to the ground, and lay motionless. I sank down, 
 too, utterly spent, but there were a-plenty 
 ready to look after me. Rosemary had 
 been awakened by the opening of the window, 
 and when she heard it closed again, she had 
 the wit to see that there was two in the busi 
 ness. She get up and dressed herself, and 
 listened to the blows that rained on me till 
 they ceased ; then she came out and tried to 
 find us, but it was so dark she could see noth 
 ing. But just then Gentleman Jim came 
 hurryLig up with his lantern, and when he 
 saw me he dropped it, caught me up in his 
 arms, and carried me into the house. And 
 before long some of Mike s mates got wind 
 of his condition, and brought an ambulance 
 and carried him off. 
 
 I was laid on the school-master s bed, and 
 Rosemary washed the blood off my face, and 
 felt of every bone till she found one broken, 
 and Gentleman Jim went f r the surgeon, 
 
36 GENTLEMAN JIM. 
 
 who set it, and told me my face looked fright 
 fully now, but would look far worse by to 
 morrow. 
 
 You can t suppose that after that I was go 
 ing to hang out my colors for her to see and 
 get disgusted at, and, as it was a broken arm, 
 and not a broken leg, I got away with Jim s 
 help, and had six idle weeks before I got to 
 work again. I was not uneasy about her, be 
 cause they all said Mike was in no state to 
 molest her at present. He had been a hard 
 drinker, and had other dissolute habits, and 
 it took him three months to get well. 
 
 JOE S SCHEME FOR ROSEMARY 
 
 After I was at work again, and as strong 
 and hearty as ever, I began to lay my plans for 
 Rosemary s safety against Mike was out again. 
 For he would have a double motive now to 
 assail her ; besides gratifying himself, to spite 
 me. 
 
GENTLEMAN JIM. 37 
 
 One night Jim and I sat up later than com- 
 mon, and says he: 
 
 " J oe > you re an odd stick." 
 
 " I ve been thinking the same of you," says I. 
 
 We both laughed in a silly, awkward way, 
 and at last Jim says : 
 
 " Don t you mean to get married, Joe, my 
 boy?" 
 
 " No, iiever," says I. 
 
 " And why not ? " 
 
 " I have my reasons. And you, Jim, don t 
 you mean to get married yourself?" 
 
 " No ! " quite short and stiff and hurt. 
 
 " Why not ? " 
 
 " I have my reasons." 
 
 We sat silent a good while after this. 
 
 Poor Rosemary! 
 
 " The fact is," says Jim, " the girls don t 
 take to me." 
 
 "Would you want mere than one to do 
 that?" 
 
38 GEl TLEMAN JIM. 
 
 " Why, no ; and not even one. I don t take 
 to girls." 
 
 " Then you re a cold-blooded, hard-hearted 
 booby," says I, not knowing what I said, and 
 thinking of Rosemary, " to let a girl wilt and 
 droop for love of you, and never so much as 
 see it ! " 
 
 "What do you mean, Joe? Who do you 
 mean?" he cried out. 
 
 " There aint but one girl round here worth 
 your looking at," says I, quite sulky. 
 
 He turned pale, and then red, and then pale 
 again. 
 
 " Have I been to blame? " says he. 
 
 " Why, if you ve got a heart as hard as n 
 millstone, and I begin to think you have, I 
 don t know as you re to blame." 
 
 " But I thought she liked you. The day 
 she brought your coat " 
 
 " Yes, she likes me, but she loves you. Oh, 
 Jim, couldn t you warm to such a good, sweet 
 
GENTLEMAN JIM. 39 
 
 girl ? Isn t there any gratitude in you ? Is 
 it nothing to be loved with such pure love as 
 hers?" 
 
 " Gratitude is one thing and love is an 
 other," says Jim. " She might be the Queen 
 of Sheba for all me. I like her, I admire her. 
 I ve hugged myself with the thought that 
 after you and she had got married I d have, 
 maybe, a home with you, and dance your 
 little lads and lasses on my knee. And I ve 
 saved here, and saved there, to give them a 
 schooling equal to their mother s. And I was 
 hoping to have one of the lads named for me, 
 and one of the lasses for well, no matter, 
 it s all a dream, and I ve waked up with an 
 awful heart-ache." 
 
 " What was your mother s name ? " says I. 
 
 " Hepzibah." 
 
 " And you was thinking of a-giving one 
 of Rosemary s lasses such a name as 
 that?" 
 
40 GENTLEMAN JIM. 
 
 " Who said anything about my mother ? 
 says he. 
 
 " Why, I thought you did. Anyhow, you 
 had her in your mind, hadn t you ?" 
 
 " No, Joe ; I ve a good mind to kill myself, 
 What a miserable mess it is, all round. You 
 love Rosemary, and she doesn t love you ; 1 
 don t love her, and she does love me ; at least 
 you say so. Why should she care for me ? I 
 never said twenty-five words to her, and she 
 doesn t know me at all. The next time there s 
 a blast in the mine, I ll go and get blowed up. 
 A fellow that s made a good girl unhappy 
 isn t fit to live." 
 
 " But, Jim, would you rather kill yourself 
 than marry that dear little girl?" 
 
 "Of course I would." 
 
 " But it is a sin to kill yourself." 
 
 " And not a sin to marry a girl you don t 
 love, I suppose ?" 
 
 " If you cheat a girl into believing you love 
 
GENTLEMAN JIM. \ 
 
 her, of course it is a sin ; but if you treat her 
 fair and square, tell her you ll be faithful and 
 kind to her, and she s a mind to run the risk, 
 it is her own fault if you don t satisfy her." 
 
 " And you think Rosemary the sort of girl 
 to run such a risk ? " 
 
 " I don t know," says I. 
 
 " Well, I am so sure she isn t that I m going 
 to propose to marry her. Will that suit you, 
 old boy?" 
 
 "And what if she says she ll have you ? " 
 
 " Why, she shall have all I offer her. And 
 now let s be off to bed." 
 
 " But, Jim, she s so unprotected, living 
 there all alone. She needs a man to look 
 after her. When Mike gets loose again, what s 
 to become of her? Think of that." 
 
 " I m thinking of sleep," said he. 
 
 But we neither of us closed an eye that 
 night. 
 
 The next day I saw by Jim s face that I 
 
42 GENTLEMAN JTM. 
 
 was not to bring up this matter again, and 1 
 went to my work with a heavy heart, and it 
 turned out, if there was any difference, his 
 was heavier than mine. 
 
 He washed and dressed himself in the even 
 ing and went out, I knew where. I sat up, 
 waiting for him, but it got to be midnight, 
 and he hadn t come. One minute I d think 
 she has accepted him, and I ve been the man 
 that sent her her happiness, and now Jim s got 
 near her he s happy, too. Then the next 
 minute I would feel uneasy, and afraid he 
 hadn t been nigh her, and there s no knowing 
 what desperate thing he d done. 
 
 At last I couldn t stand it another minute, 
 and rushed out and to her house. She came 
 to the door in a minute. 
 
 " Joe?" says she. 
 
 " Yes," says I, and went in. 
 
 " You are the best fellow in the world," 
 says she, " but clums) they call you, anc 
 
GENTLEMAN JIM. 43 
 
 clumsy you are. To think of your putting it 
 upon Gentleman Jim to come a-courting to 
 me, when he doesn t care two pins for 
 me. Come, now, you ve just got to confess. 
 Wasn t it you that put it into his head that I 
 loved him ?" 
 
 It wouldn t have been the least use to lie 
 about it ; and, anyhow, I m as clumsy at that 
 business as at better ones. 
 
 " Dear," says I, " don t be angry with me. 
 I did it for your good. I have often and often 
 said to myself, I d give her my two eyes if 
 she wanted them, and here was a chance to 
 give what I valued far above my eyes ; 
 yes, to give the girl I love to another man. 
 What more could I do? It would be some 
 thing to die for another, but it s more to live 
 for her, yet live without her." 
 
 " Dou you love me all that, Joe ? says she 
 " You never told me before." 
 
4 GENTLEMAN JIM. 
 
 * But you knowed it, Rosemary ; you 
 knowed it, all the same." 
 
 " No, no, no. These things has to be said 
 over and over to some girls before they get to 
 believe them. I thank you, humbly, for those 
 words. I sha n t forget them. If you ever get 
 hurt in the mine, and you re sure to get hurt, 
 I shall have you brought here, and shall nurse 
 you as I did father." 
 
 By this time we was both crying. I never 
 see her so humble before, and I had hard work 
 not to fall at her feet and kiss the floor she 
 stood on. 
 
 At last I said, " Dear, would you mind tell 
 ing me what passed between you and Jim ? " 
 
 She smiled and shook her head. 
 
 " No," says she, " I won t. I promised I 
 wouldn t. But, Joe, he s just splendid." 
 
 " Haven t I told you so a hundred times ? 
 says I. 
 
GENTLEMAN JIM. 45 
 
 " I will tell you part of what passed be 
 tween us," says she. " It isn t the part 1 
 promised not to tell. But I can t do it fac 
 ing you. I ll write it down." 
 
 I ve got that writing yet. She forgot that 
 I couldn t read writing, and I was ashamed to 
 remind her of it. I carried it round with me 
 till it nearly fell to pieces. Oh, how I wished I 
 had somebody I could trust to read it to me. 
 
 ROSEMARY S WRITING. 
 
 Gentleman Jim came into my house looking 
 so white that I thought he was in awful pain. 
 
 " Rosemary," says he, this is a lonely 
 place where you live." 
 
 " Yes, very lonely." 
 
 " And it s not safe for you to live here by 
 yourself." 
 
 " Joe never ll let anybody harm me/ 
 
 " But Joe can t spend his life pacing round 
 your house. He lost his reason once for want 
 
46 GENTLEMAN JIM. 
 
 of sleep ; and he has been pounded nearly to 
 death by Big Mike. Another such smashing 
 would kill him. But as your husband he could 
 protect you without danger to himself." 
 
 " Did he tell you to say that ? " 
 
 " No ; but you know he has risked his life 
 twice for you." 
 
 " Is that any reason why I should ask him 
 to marry me ? Ha, ha ! I think I see myself 
 doing that ! " 
 
 " Well, now, I m going to ask you a plain, 
 straightforward, blunt question. Will you 
 marry me ? " 
 
 " Then let me ask you a plain, straightfor 
 ward, blunt question. Do you love me, Jim? " 
 
 At that he turned all colors. 
 
 " I don t pretend to be sentimental," says he. 
 
 11 Well, I do pretend to be, and what s more, 
 I am. And marriage isn t a bargain made be 
 tween a man and a woman ; it s two hearts 
 melting into one, If you were the last man 
 
GENTLEMAN JIM. 4f 
 
 on the earth, I would sooner die than marry 
 you. What have I ever done that you should 
 fancy I would ? Have I ever followed after 
 you ? Have I so much as asked you to come 
 to see me ? When you h.id the ague did I go 
 and nurse you as I aid the others ? Then 
 what have I done that you should suppose I d 
 fling myself headlong into such an offer as 
 yours ; an offer without so much as a pinch of 
 love in it ? " 
 
 " It s plain I ve made an ass of myself/ 
 says he. 
 
 " No ; it s all along of that good, blunder 
 ing Joe," says I. " He put you up to this 
 nonsense, I know he did." 
 
 "Well, I won t deny or affirm it," said lie. 
 " I know I was a puppy, and thought that 
 you that you " 
 
 " Oh, out with it," says I. " He made you 
 Delieve I loved you. But I aint the sort 
 of girl that pines in secret after men that 
 
48 GENTLEMAN JIM. 
 
 never gives her a thought. It is true you re 
 the handsomest man I ever saw, and you 
 don t smoke or drink or chew; and every way 
 you re far above the other men ; almost a 
 gentleman they all say so. But if I d got to 
 choose between you and Joe, clumsy as he is 
 thank heaven I haven t I d take him with his 
 homely face and ill-shaped hands, and great, 
 big, warm, true, innocent heart ; indeed I 
 would ! But I ll have neither of you ! " 
 
 AN EVENT IN THE MINE. 
 
 So I didn t know what the upshot of Jim s 
 offer was, for all he would tell me was that she 
 wouldn t marry a man who didn t love her, 
 not she ! But from that night she held her 
 head up, and went on her way, strong and 
 brave, neither keeping out of Jim s way, of 
 getting into it, and to me humble and gentle as 
 a little child. 
 
 As for Jim, he never said a word. For two 
 
GENTLEMAN JIM. 49 
 
 or three days he was quieter than common, 
 and then everything fell into the old track. 
 
 Some months after that two of our men 
 was set to put in a shot for blasting, and Big 
 Mike, who was beginning to do light work, 
 was one, though only a shadow of what he had 
 been. They had finished their task, and were 
 about to give the signal to be hoisted up, 
 when Mike says : 
 
 " This match is too long." 
 
 "No, it aint," says the other. "You give 
 the signal and go up, and I ll light it, and 
 hurry after you." 
 
 Mike only gave a sort of grunt and tried 
 to break the match, but, finding he couldn t, 
 laid it on a flat stone and pounded it with a 
 sharp one. And K if you ll believe it, cut it 
 shorter, but kindled it at the same time ! 
 They rushed to the shaft like madmen, shout 
 ing to the coadjutor at the windlass, and each 
 got a foot in th ? bucket before they remem- 
 4 
 
50 vE 
 
 bered that only one could be hoisted at a 
 time. 
 
 " Go aloft, mate," says the other man, and 
 took his foot out of the bucket. And then 
 came a noise like seven thunders, and fire and 
 hot coals flew in his face, and he was caught up 
 and dashed a hundred feet away, and lay there 
 stunned. He d always hoped he should go 
 to heaven when he died, but when he came 
 to himself, he was certain sure he was in the 
 other place, suffering torments for his sins. 
 And he remembered all of them. He re 
 membered how, when he was a little lad, he 
 had robbed a bird s-nest ; how he lost one 
 of his mother s knitting-needles, poking for 
 something in a crack in the floor, and then 
 never owned it. And how he had had 
 turns of wishing it wasn t wrong to do bad 
 things, and neglecting to say his prayers till 
 he d got into bed, and then went rig.it to 
 sleep. 
 
GENTLEMAN yiM. 51 
 
 There was pain in his body, but worse pain 
 In his soul, when he thought he was lost. 
 
 Then he heard the sound of a pickaxe that 
 ever ceased, never ceased ; another lost man, 
 doomed to everlasting work in everlasting 
 mines. 
 
 Well, less a sinner than himself, he thought ; 
 permitted to work, though never so hard, 
 rather than lie, alone and weary, and in pain, 
 doing nothing. 
 
 So time went on, and the ceaseless sound 
 of the pickaxe went on and on, day and night, 
 if there was any day. The man wondered at 
 himself that he could not die ; wondered that 
 he felt no anger against the Almighty Being 
 who had disappointed his faith and hope and 
 plunged him down to hell. And yet was that 
 hell where, though hope was gone, faith held 
 on, as dogged as dogged, and kept on saying, 
 " Though He has shut me out of heaven, 
 and well-nigh broken my heart, I believe in 
 
52 GEN-1LEMAN JIM. 
 
 Him ! I believe in Him, and if I can, always 
 
 will?" 
 And he thought the ceaseless sounds were 
 
 coming nearer, and gave thanks that his awful 
 solitude was not going to last forever. 
 
 " God is just as well as good," he said to 
 himself. " If I deserved this torment He was 
 right to send me here. * 
 
 Then he felt a little whiff of cool air blow 
 ing on his burning face, and a familiar voice 
 full of tears. 
 
 " Here he is, poor fellow," and there was 
 Gentleman Jim, with his lantern, shouting, 
 " Mates, I ve found him ! " 
 
 And the next minute there came the sound 
 of distant voices drawing nearer; sad, solemn 
 voices, under the breath, and then anothei 
 shout that made the mine ring \gain : 
 
 " And he s alive I " 
 
GENTLEMAN JIM. 53 
 
 THE RESCUE. 
 
 Then, in his joy and surprise, the man 
 swooned away, and never knew how they got 
 him up the shaft, or saw the coffin that had 
 stood waiting for him, or heard the woman s 
 voice that defied them all to nurse him if they 
 dared. It all made talk for a year or more. 
 
 But the man came to his senses at last, and 
 if he had thought he was in hell before, he 
 believed he was in heaven now. He was lying 
 on a cool, soft bed, and there was somebody 
 always there, day and night, doing everything 
 mortal hands could do to soothe the pain and 
 the weariness that came and went ; and there 
 was the sound of a girl flitting in and out, 
 with hands whose touch healed every fiery 
 burn it rested so lightly on. 
 
 He never knowed whether the time was long 
 or short. He lay dreaming, as helpless and 
 weak as a child ; two angels taking care of 
 him, speaking words that were sweeter than 
 
54 GENTLEMAN JIM. 
 
 any music, handling him as tenderly as they 
 would a baby just born. 
 
 One night he dreamed that he was woke 
 out of his sleep by their voices, though they 
 spoke low. 
 
 a He ll never want to go down into the 
 mine again," says one. 
 
 " He never shall go down again," says the 
 other. 
 
 " But what will the poor fellow be fit for?" 
 
 "To be my husband ! " says the other. 
 
 "You don t mean it ! " 
 
 " You will see." 
 
 " God bless you, Rosemary," says he. 
 
 " He has blessed me. He has brought me 
 to my senses. He has let me see this dear 
 lad s soul. And I see it so plain that when 1 
 look at him, all scarred and seamed and 
 marred as he is, I can t see anything else." 
 
 " God bless you, Rosemary ! What a mercy 
 that you didr t marry me." 
 
GENTLEMAN JIM. 55 
 
 " If you had loved me, there s no knowing 
 how I might have slighted this poor lad, Jim. 
 I ll confess now why I pined and wilted at 
 one time. Joe had told me that he loved me, 
 and I knew I loved him, but he stopped there, 
 and never asked me to be his wife." 
 
 " The lad dared not look so high ; besides, 
 he thought you were pining for me." 
 
 " Are you sure ? Well, then, I shall 
 have to ask him to marry me. I never thought 
 to come to it, but now I must. Too high ! 
 Oh, Jim, how could he think that ? Why, I 
 could go on my knees for him ! It was some 
 thing to risk his life for me, but to think of 
 his giving it to his enemy ! " 
 
 When the man did really wake up he was 
 thankful he had had one good dream. All the 
 others had been dreadful, and frightened him 
 so that cold drops stood on his forehead, and 
 sometimes, without thinking, he would cry 
 out. Then, just as a mother runs when her 
 
56 GENTLEMAN JIM. 
 
 baby cries, two little feet would come hurry 
 ing to the side of the bed, and a sweet voice 
 begin to sing, 
 
 " Hush, my dear, lie still and slumber," 
 
 till he fell off again. 
 
 And after many and many a long week, she 
 knelt down by his side one night and says, 
 " You are well enough now to say your 
 prayers. Do you know Now I lay me down 
 to sleep ?" 
 
 Of course he did, but he liked best to say 
 it line by line after her; it carried him back 
 to the time when he was a little lad, and knelt 
 at his mother 3 knee. 
 
 "There, that will do. Don t weary your 
 poor head trying to think out something else 
 to say." 
 
 Later on she would sit by the side of the 
 bed, mending his clothes and telling him 
 stories. Her head was as full of stories as an 
 
GENTLEMAN JIM. 57 
 
 egg is of meat. At last Jim, if it was Jim, 
 could go back to his work, and she could take 
 the whole care of the man. Very often she 
 fell asleep in her chair, being easy in her mind 
 now, and then he would try to slip the band 
 age off his eyes, so as to get a little peep at 
 her. This was hard work, for every ringer 
 was bandaged separate; but he managed it, 
 with patience, took one look, and hurried 
 everything back like a boy who been stealing 
 apples or pears. 
 
 She was given to talking in her sleep, and 
 sometimes would say things that made the 
 man s heart leap up in his breast for a minute. 
 But only for a minute. He knew dreams 
 went by contraries, and that she spoke just 
 opposite to what she felt. 
 
 One day she slept longer than common, and 
 laughed, and laughed at something on her 
 rnind, till the man lay and laughed too, a silly 
 softy ! 
 
58 GENTLEMAN JIM. 
 
 "You needn t be afraid, Jim," says she. " 1 
 always know my own mind, and never knew it 
 better than I do now. If I wait till he s seen 
 his face, wild horses couldn t persuade him to 
 do it. No, no ; there s no time to lose, and next 
 Sunday shall be the day. It s the greatest 
 joke in the world ! And the best joke ! I 
 believe I shall laugh in the parson s face ! " 
 
 Bless her, how she laughed ! The man had 
 no bandage on his eyes now ; his eyes was 
 saved as by a miracle, and he loved to see her 
 so happy in her sleep. And surely such inno 
 cent mirth came out of an innocent heart that 
 has nothing in it but the fancies of a little 
 child. And yet what a woman she was, and 
 how willful when she pleased ! 
 
 Now it was in the month of December that 
 the accident happened, and one Sunday Jim 
 says to the man, " I m going to get you up 
 to-day and dress you. Mike has spoke for 
 the privilege of helping me. He s a changed 
 
GENTLEMAN- JIM. 59 
 
 man, Mike is. You wouldn t know him. He 
 got such a scare that day that he s mended 
 all his ways ; and see here ! he s been round 
 among the fellows, and they ve made up this 
 purse for you ! You needn t look so dazed, 
 man. It was the least he could do after what 
 you did for him." 
 
 Mike came in upon that, and when he saw 
 the man, he began to cry like a baby. 
 
 " Does he know? " he whispered to Jim. 
 
 " How he looks, do you mean ? Hush ! Of 
 course he doesn t." 
 
 WAS IT A DREAM ? 
 
 Then they took him and put clothes on 
 him, everything new and clean and whole 
 some ; he never was dressed so in his life, not 
 even on Sundays ; and Mike cut his hair and 
 shaved him, and then they set him in a chair, 
 and caught him up and carried him to the 
 window. And instead of bare trees and snow 
 
60 GEXTLEMAX JIM. 
 
 as he expected to see, not realizing how long 
 he had been ill, lo and behold there was the 
 world looking like a picture-book. How bliie 
 the sky was ! It seemed to him he d nevei 
 seen it before. And the green grass, full of 
 flowers, that he used to call weeds ; butter 
 cups, daisies, clover-blossoms ; was there evei 
 anything equal to them ? 
 
 " Well," says he, at last, " heaven can t be 
 equal to this. I hope there s a snug little 
 corner in it where the streets are not covered 
 with gold, but grass grows and flowers blow, 
 like this, and my mansion, be it ever so small, 
 located there." 
 
 Then Mike and Jim went out, and the 
 man s heart felt ready to burst, and he vvarted 
 to thank God for sparing him to see the beau 
 tiful world once more. But his head was 
 weak, and all he could think of was, " Now I 
 lay me," and so he folded his hands and <raid 
 that. 
 
GENTLEMAN JIM. 61 
 
 Then in came Rosemary, dressed in white, 
 with a sprig of apple-blossoms in her hair, and 
 another in her belt, and she knelt down by his 
 side, and smiled and said, " Wilt thou have 
 this woman to be thy wedded wife ? " 
 
 And when he could not answer for amaze 
 ment and bewilderment, and an awful delight 
 that weighed him down, she rose to her feet. 
 Gentleman Jim came softly in and placed him 
 en his, and holding him so that he would not 
 fall, and the next thing he knew he and Rose 
 mary were joining hands, and the parson 
 making them two one. 
 
 As soon as it was over Jim caught him up 
 and ran and laid him on the bed, and opened 
 another window, and poured some brandy into 
 his mouth. 
 
 " Don t you go to dying of joy, old fellow," 
 says he. " Now, now, don t be a fool ; behave 
 like a man on your wedding-day ! " 
 
 I never heat i of anybody s dying of sur- 
 
62 GENTLEMAN JIM. 
 
 prise and joy; if such a thing ever happened 
 it would have happened then. 
 
 Before long they all went away, and Rose 
 mary came into the room in her every-day 
 clothes, and they was just as they was before ; 
 and he began to be afraid he had been dream 
 ing. He looked at her wistfully, as much as 
 to ask her, but she took no notice, and day 
 after day went by, leaving him in a mist. 
 
 At last he says to her : 
 
 " Will you bring me a glass, and let me look 
 at myself?" 
 
 " Indeed, and I won t, then," says she, 
 laughing, and looking saucy. 
 
 Then he begged and beseeched her, and fret 
 ted till he made himself ill. You see, he 
 thought if he looked awful he should know 
 she hadn t married him. 
 
 So she brought the glass, and when he saw 
 his face he cried out with a bitter cry, and it 
 fell from his hands and bi oke to pieces. 
 
GENTLEMAN JIM. 63 
 
 "Yes, it was a dream, a dream, a cruel 
 dream ! " says he. 
 
 " Look here, dear love," says she, all in a 
 tremble, " what is this on the third finger of 
 my left hand ? " 
 
 " A gold ring," says he. 
 
 "And who put it there?" 
 
 " I don t know," says he. 
 
 " Well, / know, and that s enough." And 
 she kissed him on the face, that hideous, red, 
 scarred face, never handsome, but frightful 
 now. 
 
 " Rosemary," says he, solemn as death, " are 
 you married to me?" 
 
 "Yes," says she. 
 
 " And they let you fling yourself away on a 
 fellow fit for nothing but to hire out as a 
 scarecrow? Where s Jim? I ll knock him 
 down ! Where s the parson ? I ll kill him . 
 
 "They let me, did they?" says she, 
 "Which of them had a right to let or to 
 
64 GENTLEMAN JIM. 
 
 hinder? I m my own mistress, and I know 
 my own mind. And Jim said, God bless you, 
 Rosemary, when I told him what I was going 
 to do, and the parson said the same, and Big 
 Mike said, I never ! which was as near to 
 saying grace before meat as he could get." 
 
 " It s Beauty and the Beast, Beauty and the 
 Beast ! " says he. " I ll murder everybody ! " 
 " What a nice, pious, heavenly frame you re 
 in ! " says she. " Is this all the thanks I get ? 
 You ll murder everybody because you ve won 
 a pretty, saucy, loving little wife, who cares 
 everything for a man s looks, and nothing for 
 his heart ? For shame, you dear, old, clumsy 
 wretch, you ve jammed the pin of my ker 
 chief into my neck. I m glad I married you 
 when you hadn t the strength of a baby ! 
 
 And now Jim came smiling in, looking so 
 pleased that the man hadn t the heart to up- 
 biaid him, though he did remonstrate. 
 
 " Oh, it was none of my doings," says he 
 
GENTLEMAN JIM. fit 
 
 4 1 wanted her to wait till you had seen your 
 self in the glass, but she wouldn t. Such a 
 self-willed, generous little piece, as she is ! 
 She said she never could persuade you to 
 marry her after you d once seen how disfigured 
 you were, and so she had you taken up and 
 dressed, like a big baby as you were, when 
 you hadn t strength to stand, and were too 
 bewildered to know whether you were asleep 
 or awake. And you deserve it, old fellow, 
 and there aint a man in the mines begrudges 
 you your bliss." 
 
 So, little by little, not from day to day, but 
 from week to week, the man s strength came 
 back, and love flowed round him like a river. 
 
 Rosemary got the school-master s place and 
 earned her honest penny, and she taught her 
 husband his a-b-abs, ana set him copies, and 
 scolded him, and laughed at him, and hugged 
 him, and kissed him, and he minded her like 
 a great, big school-boy; for the thought of 
 5 
 
G6 GENTLE MAX JIM. 
 
 his looks kept him down. He never got to 
 be much of a scholar, but he learned enough 
 to help get his living by writing letters for the 
 miners. Some of them had mothers, and 
 some sisters, and many more had sweethearts 
 to write to. 
 
 HOW GENTLEMAN JIM BECAME AN UNCLE. 
 
 Meanwhile, Jim says to me, " Joe," says he, 
 you re to let me have a corner in vour home, 
 you know." 
 
 Says I, "Ay, ay, Jim, if Rosemary s agreed. 
 
 Jim burst out laughing. 
 
 " Just as if I didn t know enough to speak 
 to her first," says he. 
 
 So he came, and we both said we had a 
 brother, nothing less, and we never had any 
 fallings out, but lived together in great love 
 and peace, till a little lad came and abode 
 with us, and we named him Jim. And after 
 that the other one was always Uncle Jim 
 
GENTLEMAN- JIM. 67 
 
 There were times when Rosemary would 
 whisper to me that Uncle Jim had known a 
 sorrow sometime in his life. But after the 
 lad came she never spoke of it. If there had 
 been a lonely spot in his heart the child filled 
 it up. And he d been lavish with his wages, 
 and almost provoked Rosemary by buying 
 things for her that she did not need, such as 
 flowers in the winter-time, if anybody ever 
 heard of such waste, and to pay for their 
 transportation besides, for, of course, none 
 grew in our rough neighborhood. But now 
 all was changed ; he was hardly willing to 
 spend a penny, but saved for little Jim. 
 
 For a young fellow that had never had any 
 thing to do with babies, he was the handiest ; 
 and little Jim would cry to go to him, even 
 when his mother was holding him. And she 
 never begrudged him the comfort he got out 
 of the child ; and I don t think an own sister 
 could have made him happ er than she did, 
 
f]3 GENTLEMAN JIM. 
 
 And women are quick to see things we men 
 don t notice ; she always had flowers at his 
 plate, moping, noon, and night, summer and 
 winter ; or, if she couldn t get flowers, a sprig 
 of evergreen or geranium. I can see the smile 
 he always gave her when he came to the table ; 
 it was just like a girl s. 
 
 IN THE MINE YET ONCE MORE. 
 
 Now, one day Rosemary and me were at our 
 dinner, the child tied into his high-chair be 
 tween us, and all talking and laughing together, 
 when Mike came tearing in like a whirlwind. 
 
 "The mine s fallen in, and Gentleman Jim 
 is in it ! " says he. " And you won t forget, 
 Joe, how he worked day and night to get you 
 out ! " 
 
 And with that he was gone. 
 
 And in the twinkling of an eye I was after 
 him, and Rosemary crying, bitterly, after me. 
 
 When we got to the mine there was a great 
 
GENTLEMAN JIM. 69 
 
 crowd of men, women, and children, all in 
 confusion together ; the chief engineer miles 
 away, his assistants too horror-stiicken to give 
 orders, nothing being done, and every minute 
 worth an hour. 
 
 " Give me your hand, Joe," says a voice at 
 my ear. " I want to climb up where I can 
 be seen ; " and in a minute she was on an old 
 pump that stood near. 
 
 " Men ! " she said, and she said it thrice be 
 fore the hubbub ceased ; and then every eye 
 was turned to her and the baby in her arms, 
 and every ear attentive, and the chief engi 
 neer himself couldn t have given plainer direc 
 tions. I hadn t time to marvel at her then, 
 but afterwards I asked her how she knew, and 
 had she ever been down in the mine. She 
 said she never had, but that she had seen pic 
 tures and studied books ; and then her father 
 had explained what she did not understand. 
 
 Now when she had set us all to work with 
 
70 GENTLEMAN JIM. 
 
 a will, she turned girl again and sat down and 
 cried with the rest. 
 
 The first thing was to get down into the mine, 
 but the tubes and all the masonry around 
 the shaft had been blown a hundred feet 
 away, and it was long before they could be ad 
 justed. Then when we got down, the lamps 
 went out, and two men fell dead at my side. 
 
 Rosemary stopped crying when she heard 
 this, and sent men off for an ambulance, and 
 we tried, once more, to descend. I never 
 thought to ever entei a mine again, but Rose 
 mary cheered me on, and we reached the bot 
 tom safely, and felt about in the dark, for the 
 lamps would not burn. 
 
 So we worked all night, sending up one 
 body after another, and to each of them, not 
 knowing which was dead or which was alive, 
 I says, loving and tender, and ready to burst 
 with grief, " Is this you, Jim ? Is this you ? " 
 
 But none made answer. 
 
GENTLEMAN JIM. 71 
 
 By tn next morning the ambulance waa 
 full of the dead and the dying. 
 
 Again we went down, and among huge 
 blocks of coal we found six young lads, nearly 
 vvorn out. They had not dared to move for 
 fifteen hours, but lay huddled together, ex 
 pecting to die every minute. After we got 
 them up, and my wife had fed them, carefully, 
 with hei own hands, they revived so far as to 
 tell us how they had escaped. 
 
 Like all the lads in the mine, they loved 
 Gentleman Jim, they said, and kept to work 
 near him whenever they could. When the 
 mine fell m, they were hemmed in with him , 
 but before the lamps went out, he discovered 
 a crevice a lad could be forced through, but 
 a man could not. He made them each take a 
 little coffee from his can, spoke cheerily to 
 trhem, sent his dear love to Rosemary and me, 
 and little Jim, then he kissed them, and they 
 clung to him and kissed him, and some saia 
 
72 GENTLEMAN JIM. 
 
 they wouldn t go; but he said they musi 
 think of their mothers crying up yonder, and 
 made them promise never to tell a lie, or utter 
 a wicked word, or go a day without praying 
 to God. That made them love him all the 
 more, and they clung to him again, and cried 
 aloud. But, one by one, he put them through 
 the crevice. It did not take long to hear this 
 story, and in no time some of us were down 
 in the mine, shouting to him to call out to us 
 through the crevice. But no answer came. 
 
 And the next I knew, there were my wife 
 and the little lad. 
 
 " He ll answer the lad if he s alive ! " she said. 
 
 And then she looked the child in the eye 
 as she always did when fain to make him 
 mind, and says she, " Call Uncle Jim ! " and 
 the little one called out, shrill and clear : 
 
 " Uncle Dim ! Uncle Dim ! " 
 
 And there came a faint, faint, faint sound 
 in answer, and then all was still again. 
 
GENTLEMAN JIM. 73 
 
 We rushed about in the darkness, striking 
 our pickaxes at random. Rosemary, trembling 
 for the child in the bad air, went up sobbing, 
 and the men began to whisper that nothing 
 could be done in the darkness. And at last 
 Mike and me toiled on alone, and almost 
 hopeless, when somebody came down with a 
 lamp, and it burned ! 
 
 It was my wife with hot coffee, and after 
 we had taken it, we moved about with fresh 
 courage till, at last, we saw a crevice that 
 might be the one Jim passed the lads through. 
 It did not take long to enlarge it, and soon 
 we three stepped over the barrier, and the 
 light of the lamp fell on his beautiful face. 
 He lay on his back, like one peacefully asleep, 
 with something folded in the hands that lay 
 upon his breast. 
 
 No one spoke a word, and in half an hour 
 we had him home, we three, and we knelt 
 round the bed and chafed his hands, and put 
 
74 GENTLEMAN JIM. 
 
 brandy tx his lips, but he never moved, and 
 heeded neither our tears or our cries. 
 
 Then Rosemary unclasped the hands that 
 were not yet stiffened in death, beneath which 
 lay a paper, on which was written in his own 
 hand, Jessie!" 
 
 Rosemary opened it as she opened God s 
 book, reverently, and there we saw a shining 
 tress of a woman s hair, and a golden ring 
 from a baby s head, with one faded flower. 
 
 We folded them away with him in his coffin, 
 and we knew now what had made him so un 
 like the rest of us; so gentle, so kindly, so un 
 able to care for even such a girl as Rosemary. 
 It was a pure love in his heart for wife and 
 child gone from him ; for their sake he 
 eschewed evil and loved goodness ; for their 
 sake he gathered little children about him and 
 held them to his breast as he should nevel 
 hold mortal maid. 
 
 " He told me about it," Rosemary said, 
 
GENTLEMAN JIM. 75 
 
 " the day you made him come to make love 
 to one he couldn t love, and made me promise 
 to bury him with the hair and the flower on 
 his breast, under his folded hands, just as we 
 found him. Oh, how he loved her! " 
 
 And then she fell into my arms and cried 
 her heart out. 
 
 And I told Rosemary what he said to me 
 that morning long ago : 
 
 " Depend on it, there s only one thing puri 
 fies a man more than love to a good, modest 
 girl, be she dead or alive." 
 
 We made a green grave for him just under 
 the window where Rosemary sat at her work, 
 and planted flowers on it ; we knew now why 
 he loved to deck her with them. And every 
 spring the apple-blossoms lighted down upon 
 it, and reminded us of our wedding-day, and 
 what flowers he bade her wear then. 
 
 And over and over and over again I made 
 her tell me whose pickaxe it was that the 
 
76 GENTLEMAN JIM. 
 
 man half dead in the mine heard day and 
 night, day and night, after everybody else had 
 given him up, and at last found and saved 
 him. Oh, Gentleman Jim ! 
 
 Our wee lassie was not long in coming after 
 this, and amid tears and smiles we named her 
 
 JESSIE. 
 
 And now good-bye, Gentleman Jim ! Gentle- 
 nan Jim good-bye. 
 
M81812 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY